Quilt of Many Colors

I have a bit of a yarn problem. Every time I walk into a craft store, I buy yarn. Sometimes I need yarn for a project or special order, but a lot of times I don't need any yarn, I just like buying it. My stash is pretty substantial. I have every color, in multiple shades and textures. I don't need anymore yarn, but I can't seem to stop buying it.

So, obviously, one of my New Year's resolutions was to not buy any new yarn for a year, unless I needed something for a special order. In addition to not buying anymore yarn, I also challenged myself to use up some of my stash on as many projects as I could.

It's mid-May and I have only bought 3 or 4 skeins of yarn all year (this is huge for me). I needed this yarn to complete a baby blanket for our newest baby niece. I am so proud! When I feel a creative surge, I shop my stash instead. It feels good to save my cash and use up what I already own.

One of my favorite things I've ever made is this quilt of many colors. I started it back in February and worked on it a little every night. I ran out of yarn on a few rows and had to go searching through the girls' accessories to disassemble hats and baby sweaters to complete it. I really wanted to finish this quilt without purchasing any new yarn and except for buying new green, I did!

I love how it turned out. It's colorful, soft, and a great kid-sized blanket. You can check it out here.

In This Season

In this season of my life, conversations like this occur a lot:

"Mama, can you help me smell this?"
"Well baby, you just have to use your nose and smell it yourself."
"Can you just do it for me? I don't want to smell that."

I am in an endless cycle of cleaning up dollhouse furniture, washing dress up clothes, and picking glitter off of the couch. The messes are constant, the laundry multiplies, and emotions run high among my little girls.

The needs of my children are great and require all that I have. Some days I am awesome at meeting each one, other days I fail miserably before I've had my morning coffee.

Motherhood is hard. It's a daily reminder of my shortcomings and areas where I need grace in my life. I struggle with patience the most. But it's also mostly joy. Watching my children's bodies grow strong and their brilliant brains expand each day is amazing. These little babies that came from my body are turning into little people! Sassy little people... They say the best, most hilarious things and have giant, compassionate hearts.

I know it's cliche to say that I can't remember life before having my kids, but I can't remember life before having my kids. In this season, they consume me. They need me for everything and touch me so often, it's like they are still apart of my body. It's overwhelming sometimes. But I know it's just a season. Soon enough they will be grown up with their own little ones to raise.

Sometimes I try to burn an image into my mind to recall on their wedding days, like when Penelope struggles with pulling up her pants and after giving up, waddles around like a streaking penguin until someone helps her. Or when Beatrice begs me to save all of my bras and underwear for her to wear when she's a teenager. Amid all of the chaos of mothering young children, these really are the best days.

I never wanted to find my identity in being a mother. I imagined myself to be so much more than that: friend, wife, lover of Jesus. Then I grew people in my womb and something changed. I never knew the honor of being a mother until I became one. There's no greater calling in a woman's life than to raise babies. I may have many roles in my life, but in this season, I am a mother. And I love it.

Happy Mother's Day! All photos by my friend, Sara Rose Photography.

Sprouts

For Easter I gave the girls seed packets in their baskets. They were so excited to plant strawberries and tomatoes. That made my mama heart so happy since I love gardening and growing, tending and harvesting. I was so excited to start our seedlings with my little sprouts.

We carefully planted seeds in tiny plastic pots, covering them with just enough soil, and watering them ever so gently. We waited. And waited. We didn't think we would ever see growth, especially after an unfortunate accidental dumping of the strawberry pot.

But alas, sprouts!

I'm always so astounded at the seedling process. How something so tiny can be buried in dirt, watered for 10 days, and then sprout and grow into a plant that bears fruit my family can eat is amazing to me. What a good God we serve!

I dumped the extra tomato seeds into a big pot on my porch with my basil plant and holy moly, did they ever sprout! Look at those tiny tomato plants!

I think I'm going to have to transplant some of those! We also planted a few squash, zucchini, and mature tomato plants. We have a small bed in the back of our yard that is shielded from the harsh winds we have every afternoon that was perfect for a small garden. The soil is so rich and full of earthworms, I'm hopeful my harvest will be great this summer.

The girls are loving their daily watering duties. I'm loving teaching them about growing our food. We talk a lot about how God is the Initiator of all life and how He makes big plants grow from tiny seeds. We also talk about how worms, sunshine, and water are good for plants like food, exercise, and water are good for our bodies to grow. Gardens can teach us so much!

I'm loving this time of tending to young, delicate plants. I hope my girls cultivate a lifetime love of this process too!

One Piece

I turned 32 last month. Of the few goals I set for myself this year, wearing a one piece swimsuit was at the top of the list. My 2 pieces aren't super skimpy, but I just felt like 32 was a good time to throw a one piece into the mix. I didn't want just any ol' suit though, I wanted something that was really cute and flirty, but not too revealing because I have to chase my kids at the beach. My goal was to be a bit more modest, but still look young and fresh.

So I shopped. Mostly online. Do you know how difficult it is to bathing suit shop online? Whoa, it's hard. Really, really hard. I found tons of cute suits, but the models' bodies aren't like mine. I'm as tall as most of the women in the photos, but nowhere near as thin and curve-less.

Through all of the shopping I realized that you almost need to be in better shape to wear a one piece suit than you do when you wear a bikini. Most of the suits I tried on had cutouts or plunging necklines and other features that required sitting up really straight, sucking my stomach in, and not bending over or moving at all. I need a suit that I can slouch in and let it all hang out, without letting it all hang out!

After trying on many duds, I finally found a keeper. Today was my first time wearing a one piece bathing suit since I was 12 and I gotta say, it was awesome! I felt so cute!! My suit stayed put during wave jumping, shell hunting, and sand castle building. I slouched to my heart's content and never once sucked anything in. It was glorious. I felt modest but not at all frumpy or like I was trying to hide a problem body part. I actually didn't feel self-conscious at all. 


I am so down with the one piece now, I ordered another one just a little bit ago. I can't believe I waited so long to make the switch, but I'm so glad I did. Here's to a summer of slouching and not sucking in!!

Spiders

Do you want to know a fun fact about California? It's overrun by spiders!! How awesome is that?!?!

It's actually not very awesome. There are spiders in our bushes, spiders in the railing on our porch, spiders in our grass, and spiders in our house. Webs cover the landscaping and porch corners. We clean them off, but California spiders are ambitious arachnids and re-web everything by morning. Awesome, right?!

The worst spiders of course, are the ones found in the house. I find them behind toilets, under furniture, on walls, in the bath towels, and on window sills. Most of them are harmless, but I have found several brown widows on our outdoor toys and 1 in our laundry room. Brown widows are poisonous, just like the black variety, so... EEK! 

We go through spells where there are more spiders in the house than not, but there are always spiders in the house. And that has me a bit on edge, as you can imagine. I'm always on the lookout for 8-legged terrorists. After 2.5 years of being surprised by them, I now walk into rooms scanning the walls, floorboards, and ceilings knowing they are there, waiting to be discovered.

And sometimes they are there. I am brave now and can make a weapon out of most anything. Shoes, books, toilet paper, trash cans, and the mail are some favorites! I don't enjoy killing, but these spiders are out of control. I'm just doing my part for population control. Plus, there is a huge spider problem outside of our house, so releasing them just contributes to that issue. Murder is the only way!

I wasn't always this lethal though. Some of these rascally spiders JUMP, so instead of quickly squashing them, I would scream, cry, call JD, call the neighbors, and call the police. The threat of a spider crawling on me is bad enough, but imagine one lunging off of the wall in my direction... you would become murderous too.

I've grown so accustomed to looking for spiders that I see them when they're not really there at all. A wad of thread on the floor in my sewing room? Spider legs. A discarded candy wrapper in the corner? Spider abdomen. Texture on the basement wall? Spider. Naturally, I go into full annihilate mode, for nothing. Basically, the spiders have made me crazy.

The pest control guy tells me there is no way to completely de-spider our house. We have a basement and spiders like cool, dark lower levels, so it's likely we will have unwanted housemates for all of our days here. Our best bet is to sweep away webs, kill the live ones, and make sure other bugs don't make it into our house. Other bugs = spider food. He says lots of Californians have spider problems in their houses, it's just a California thing.

Super awesome, right?!

Jesus Lives

Easter weekend was such a joyful time. It is my absolute favorite holiday and I love everything about this season. It warms my heart to know the name of Jesus is lifted high all over the world this weekend. He is risen and lives forevermore! Amen and amen!

Friday was spent shopping for new shoes, preparing Easter baskets, and crafting. I love teaching the girls about our faith and I take every opportunity to teach them about God. Penelope can tell you the Easter story like she is behind a pulpit. Watching my girls celebrate our risen Lord is the best.

Saturday was our neighborhood Easter party complete with egg hunt and petting zoo. It was freezing and windy with the scent of pony poop filling the air. I did not enjoy it. Thankfully we had church later that night. Church was awesome. It was a raucous party. The Saviour of the world conquering sin and death is no ordinary thing, you know! There ought to be some celebrating!

Saturday was also our 6 year anniversary. With all of the other festivities underway, we didn't have anything special planned. It was fine though, we smooched a lot and told the girls about our wedding day. I love being married to JD. He's a keeper.

Today we had Easter baskets, more egg hunting, and lunch/party with friends. We had a blast. We came home with full bellies and sunburns. Also, candy.

We had a blessed weekend! I hope you all did too. Happy Easter!! I hope with all my heart you know Jesus. He makes all the difference in the world.

This Year's Easter Dresses

I made the girls' Easter dresses again this year. I didn't really intend to, but my sister in law begged me to make this dress for my niece to wear, so I bought the pattern and fell in love with it. For awhile last month, I was a one woman dress making machine. I churned out 3 little heart cut-out dresses for my favorite little people. I couldn't be happier with the outcome!

The dresses were fairly simple to make. The pattern was very detailed and easy to understand. I was really proud of myself for making a successful garment after so many failures.

The girls love their dresses too. It's so rewarding to make something that they actually want to wear. We bought some new glitter shoes today to complete their outfits. They look lovely, dontcha think?!

Penelope says Happy Easter! And make sure to wear your panties under whatever you're wearing this weekend!