cici at home

joy

There's a lot of it around here right now.

Barbara at Mommy Life posted a question from one of her readers. A mother, struggling to find the balance between political involvement and...motherhood.  Sometimes, it really does feel like ignorance is bliss. And then we take the blinders off and see - really see - and it may not be as pretty as we thought. Or as easy to iron out as we previously assumed. It's too late to not get involved. It's too late to put the blinders back on, and yet, while we try to focus on the holiness of the season we've got to keep our eyes on Washington, too. It's enough to zap the joy right out of you.

But we mustn't forget the joy. Around here, the joy takes place in the little bits.  Right now, its the "make" of it all. We're in high gear: crackers, christmas presents, clothing, [can i squeeze in a purse?], cookies, cinnamon rolls, and...joy.

There is joy in learning about the Foundation of our country. It's laws. God's laws. And there is joy in a snowball.

There is joy in the discovery of work.

There is joy in the humor of a fall.

And after the initial, but repeated, failures,

There is joy in a snowman. No matter the size.

And so, with an ear toward the radio and an eye toward the future, I've got both arms wrapped around my kids. Gathering the joy, squeezing it.

makity make make make

if you haven't figured it out by now, i'm a procrastinator. it makes for a busy week before (insert whatever the occasion is here). But fun. For all of us. Isn't that what homeschooling is for? To teach your kids how to be procrastinators, too?

So, we have the super secret mattress being sewn by the girl for the middle boy's clementine-crate-bed for his elephant.

Okay fine. That picture was staged. She finished it up and then left the machine to join the boys in the bead and pipecleaner ornament making extravaganza.

She made the angel.

Boy 1 made a tree.

And boy 2 made...squint your eyes and just call it whatever it looks like to you. A wreath? An ornanment ball?

We all like how the sparkly pony beads reflect the christmas tree lights. My daughter liked me telling her how, when i'm old and she's more than 7, I'll sit and stare at the ornaments and remember the christmas they made them. My 5 year old son enjoyed hearing about how I made ornaments, too. And then asked me if I was 77? His Christmas present was sent back while he took a nap.

Kidding. Suddenly, we have an interest in making carrot curls. Molly's cook book is the source of this culinary genious. I don't want you thinking its all radish roses and carrot curls around here.

There's a shadow in the kitchen (even when the shadow is blurry) that is always ready to catch those bits of dropped whatever. Or peeled carrot that's too thin. Or too thick. Or the rest of the carrot that's just too awkward to peel anymore. Or, the carrot you started to peel but now realize how lonnnng it takes to make these and so you're pretty much done but aren't ready to admit it. Yes, the shadow eats those scraps, too.

And then we opened the other half of my early christmas present and delved into making homemade wheat thins. This batch was not a success. I think it was red wheat. That, and I used the entire batch of dough instead of dividing in two - too thick.

The second batch tasted good. At least the 10 that didn't burn were good.

But finally, the third set out of the oven (the second half of the second batch, really. I do learn sometimes) was so tasty and was proclaimed to taste just like the box kind. I forgot to score them before I threw them in the oven - so they're odd shaped. But does that really matter when you shove them into your mouth and crunch down?

I thought not.

make make make make make....

banana bread, with my early christmas present...

pj pants, for the christmas eve tradition...

saltine cracker candy thingies, because they're easy and taste good, too...

gingerbread house, because...

and trouble...

kid rolled, mother approved

PSR teacher gifts. Plus an extra set of three because the littlest one wants to be involved, too. I tried something different this year - I actually allowed the oldest two to roll their own candles.  One of the candles turned out to be more triangle shaped - but the others turned out well. And a slightly triangular candle will burn just as well as a round one, i think. i'm pretty sure. i hope.

Then we brought out the thin decorating wax and little cutters (you can find them at nova naturals but i bought mine on ebay for half the cost, shipped) and went to town! so much fun to cut itty bitty shapes and mash them into the candle.

this is the fun little hand rolled beeswax candle family picture. i tried to take artsy pictures, but the candles wouldn't cooperate and the pictures didn't turn out (i forgot to adjust the depth of field accordingly if you want to know). it reminds me of a family picture - you know, not really a good picture of anyone in particular and slightly off kilter - but everyone is there and represented.

i bought the beeswax last year, we're wrapping these in a bit of tissue paper found in the wrapping paper bin, and putting them in little gift bags (i did buy these) along with a few food items from world market. not a lot of cash outlay this year, but a pretty nice gift, i think.

quilt blocks

I'm excited. My blocks from the "Crooked Seams" quilting bee continue to trickle in. I gave out a gray.  Alicia's lemoncello quilt is the inspiration, and the quilting bee seems (seams? ha ha! *groan*) to be a great shortcut to finishing my daughter's quilt.  And it is!

These are the latest two. From Mary Ellen.

And from Lissa.

You can check out the rest of the blocks here.

Did I mention to you that I'm excited? But no more quilt squares until some other projects are completed.

LIke this top secret project sitting on my ironing board. Begging to be ironed. Pestering me.

make a kids belt

i know this isn't rocket science. but its almost rocket science finding the supplies. for fear of strangulation they don't sell kids belts. and, indeed, i don't recommend wrapping these belts around your child's necks.  even my more adventurous youngest son doesn't do that, though, so in our house this is a safe thing to make. if you have kids who wrap belts around their neck - i wouldn't recommend making this.

i know i know they make those little elatic waisted adjustable pants - but those aren't always available in the style my fashionista wants. nor are they always available at the thrift store where i frequently shop.

we had this belt laying around. i hate those kinds of buckles - they never work for me. nor did they ever work for my daughter. they work loose.

so, after months and hours of searching i found the military style buckle in a kids size, here. (no affiliation just good service fast shipping). kids size buckles are the narrow buckles (1") - you can find the wide buckles (1 1/4") nearly anywhere, including my husband's buckets and buckets of old military stuff, but those are too wide for those little tiny kids belt loops.  narrow will even work on my toddler's pants.

i ordered the belt tips, too - keeps that webbing from fraying.

mash the belt tip on one end of the webbing (or your old worthless belt) and the stick the other end into the back of the buckle. voila - a useable workable belt.

i know you didn't need a tutorial for this. anyone can do it.  but i didn't have much to write about and i am really ecstatic about my 5 year old (i made a belt from him with some 1" cotton webbing) being able to wear pants without showing the moon to everyone. if you know what i mean.

want to see that scarey christmas ornament?

I told you. He's pretty bad. But he came from my mother in law - who says that it was my husband's when he was a wee one? I don't know - I can't get the story. But, I can't get rid of it.

I'm a little spooked by it.  My kids don't seem to mind him - they call it the heat miser ornament.

So, do you have any spooky christmas ornaments?

christmas hustle?

This year our Christmas is a bit different - as in I'm going solo until - well, until Christmas (although - the new rumor is that he will be home sooner. but its just a rumor and that's all that will be said (or hoped) about that!). Anyway, this time of the year is always so busy and blah blah blah - because I know its like that for everyone and I'm not complaining. At all.

I decided I was not going to stress out and that we would just cut back on some of the stuff we do and even some of the decorations.  So tell me, how is that a few days ago everything was up and out? Not that we have a lot to put up and out - less is always more around here.

I'm not sure how it happened. A little bit at a time? One concentrated goal for the day? You know: today I will bring the tree up. Tomorrow I will put the lights on the tree (which gave my oldest the privilege of making the pizza dough) and then the day after we'll hang the ornaments.

And voila! The tree is up.

Our Jesse Tree is up. Although I'm stuck where I'm always stuck on that one - a little tree, the readings ready to go - but no ornaments. I know I can print them out - and I know that's fine. But I don't want paper hanging from the little tree. I just can't bring myself to do it.

So our conversations go like this. "Today's ornament - if we had an ornament to hang - is a bag of wheat." But I'm okay with that. And I hope you are too.

The big tree. This is a picture of the mid to lower extremities of our tree. You aren't seeing the lower branch but trust when I tell you there is nothing to see on the upper branches.  We tend to have a concentration of ornaments about 4 feet up from the ground and lower. And this year the tree is in a corner. So only about 1/3 of the tree is accessible to little arms.  Guess where all the ornaments are?

But I love that (I don't love that hand-me-down country goose ornament and it will disappear this year as the tree gets puts away. Sorry MIL). I'm not a ornament re-organizer. Are you?

ready, set, decorate

Growing up, my parents always set the Christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  My mother-in-law, however, always sets hers up before Thanksgiving. Hers is ready for the Thanksgiving guests.

For the past several years, she's let my kids decorate it - at least hang the bulbs.

She gave the ornaments my husband made/was given to me several years ago (including a simply awful, scary looking thing that I can't bring myself to get rid of).  Now, her tree is a "perfect" one.

Green and red and white.

Until I bought a pack of christmas colored pom poms, a package of christmas colored pipe cleaners, a few googly eyes, and some glue - the kids were getting antsy and needed something to do.

She made sure I brought these home with me.

thanksgiving monsters

Close anyway. It wasn't actually on Thanksgiving Day, but we did make the trek to Cleveland for the holiday and were treated to a Lake Erie Monsters game. You may remember I have a few ice skaters. And the youngest amoung us seems to love sports. Hockey is not an exception.  Little A will spontaneously break out in "ole, ole, ole, ole..." this, of course, is much harder to type.  But its the song they sang last year when they scored. We were able to sing this a lot last year.  This year, not so much.  Apparently, all the good players have left us and have moved up to the NHL - the Avanlanche.

Near the end of the game, when the score was 4-0 my little 2 1/2 year old stood up and with all the determination of the world shouted, "come on hockey pwayewrs. hit the bawwll." (yes, i explained to him that its a puck).  And then turned to ask me when we could sing ole.  It doesn't look like its going to be any time soon.

All this to say that its a good thing the boys were able to slap the players hands before the game. Or there may not have been much excitement.

The girl in the purple? That's my daughter. She wasn't thrilled at first with the thought of riding the zomboni - I guess she thought she would have to drive it around the rink.  No worries, though, she didn't drive. She just sat there while the thing hummed around the ice. Now she's a star, of course, as a complete stranger (lady) came up to her and asked if she wasn't the little girl who rode the zamboni?

Good times this past weekend, and much to be thankful for.  Hockey games are just the icing.