Crown fit for a baby princess

After having two boys, I was so excited to have a girl baby! Frilly pink dresses and lace and hair ribbons...well, the first two fantasies have come true. I have one of those girl babies with the hair (or lack thereof) that causes everyone to say "oh he - she? - is so cute!" I have tried all kinds of hair bows and clips, but those stretchy infant headbands are too tight for her head, and the clips won't stay. I had pretty much given up until I saw this picture:

I just about died. This "crown" is SO cute and pretty and dainty, and it would be so easy to make. A little tulle, some baby silk roses...I bet I could get all the materials from JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby for a couple dollars. I am going to make her one for Easter...to match her dress, which is cream satin with little pink roses on it. Sigh. Just saying that fulfills some deep-seated girliness within me!

The only question now is if she'll leave it on long enough for me to take pictures? If I succeed, I'll post them.

This is why I keep everything...

Last summer when I was pregnant with Gabriella, I had a really nice knee-length maternity jean skirt that went with all my tops. After she was born, I wanted a similar skirt that wasn't maternity. And then I saw a really cute jean on sale at Wal-Mart. (This picture is not my skirt, but one that looks fairly similar from this website.) Of course they had every size except mine. I combed through the entire clearence section to no avail. Came back a few days later and presto! There was my skirt, hanging by itself, in my size, for $5! I was so excited; I bought it, rushed home, and tried it on and... :-( well, let's just say I could zip it up, but breathing was optional. (hey, I had just had a baby!) Depressed, I put it in closet and forgot about it, especially since it was soon winter and I was in jeans mode.

Fast forward to yesterday, when both pairs of jeans were dirty and I was rifling through my closet looking for something to wear. I pulled out the jean skirt and figured, "what the heck, I may as well try it." Success! Zippage and breathing and it looks quite good on me, I might add! I now have a cute jean skirt that goes with everything and I can wear all summer.

And that, my friends, is why I never get rid of anything.

Happy displaced-British-shepherd-turned-Irish-bishop's Day!

I love everything to do with Ireland (hmmm....except maybe the drinking) so I couldn't let St. Patrick's Day pass without posting my thoughts about it. (And yes, I attempted to post this yesterday, but technical difficulties both with my computer and my life interfered, so I am posting it today anyway. Take that, punctuality Nazis!)

St. Patrick's Day is a fun day to drink green beer (or green root beer, as your preferences run), wear green clothing to avoid getting pinched, watch parades, and eat corned beef and cabbage (which I did!). But, like most holidays, the original story behind the day and the man for whom we celebrate it are very important - and very unknown to your average St. Paddy's day-er. In fact, I can safely say that without St. Patrick's contributions to the world, we, as in America, western civilization, Christianity, would not be here. Literally.

Long story short: Patrick was a British Celt who was kidnapped and carried off to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He worked there as a shepherd for 6 years, and during this time of solitutude and loneliness he became very close to God. Eventually he was able to escape and return to his family, and he decided to enter the church and become a priest. One night he had a dream of an Irish man who said to him "O holy youth, come back to Erin {Ireland} and walk once more among us." Patrick returned to Ireland and began to convert the Irish people to Christianity, combatting the pagan Druids who had long held all the power in Ireland.

Patrick used the shamrock to teach the Irish about the Trinity. "See? The shamrock has 3 leaves, yet they are all part of the same clover. God exists in 3 persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet they are all one God."

Patrick died on March 17, 493, having converted the majority of the Irish nation to Christianity and (Daniella will love this) banished all snakes from Ireland! Why is this important? Well, following the fall of the Roman Empire, and the subsequent Dark Ages (early Middle Ages period) when classical learning essentially hit rock bottom, there was one group of people who still kept literature, history, and most importantly, the Bible still intact: the Irish monks. In their monestaries, the Irish monks essentially preserved what we would consider "civilization" in the from of writing. And who founded those monestaries? That would St. Patrick and his converts to Christianity.

So next time you open your Bible, thank St. Patrick and his determination to bring the gospel to the Irish people! It gives a whole new meaning to St. Patrick's Day!

And your title is...?

So there is a church right by our house (which is not where we attend church, and never having been there, I don't know anything about it) but it always has a cutesy, clever saying on its billboard sign, or whatever it's called in churchdom. This week it says "Heaven - don't miss it for the world!" Catchy? check. Clever double-meaning? check. Godly message? check. Sticks in your brain? well, I'm writing a blog about it, aren't I?

Still, it got me wondering about the guy who writes this stuff. Do they have an official position - you know, some guy whose sole job it is to sit around and think up "what do we post on our billboard this week?" And if so, what is his title? "Senior Billboard pastor?" "Head of the billboard sub-committee?" (We go to a Baptist church and I would TOTALLY believe there is a billboard sub-comittee - they have committees for everything! ;-) PS I am not knocking Baptist churches - or any churches. I just think its funny.) Is there some secret cache of church billboard sayings that your church subscribes to and you get to pick whatever fits your topic best this week? "For the low fee of $10 a month, pick from our catalogue of 1,000,000 clever billboard sayings - guaranteed to get 'em in the pews or your money back!" Does the pastor have to spend his time writing one to match his sermon - or is that job delegated to the secretary, or the associate pastor, or the guys who puts together the bulletins? And who approves it? Hmmmm...those pesky details that Sir Christopher Wren never thought about while building St. Paul's. However did those cathedrals exist before the advent of the church billboard?

Of course I don't have a picture of this billboard (that would have required the foresight for me to take a camera as I drove past the church) but he are some other funny ones I've found:

Here's a few examples of the connecting-Christ-to-your-modern-world approach:

This one is just scary (if you know me, you know how I feel about clowns. I will never ever attend this church!):

I'm not entirely sure what this one is getting at but I'm guessing attendence had been low recently:

And finally, the "you really should have proofread that" sign:

What does your church's billboard say? Check it out this week. I'm ashamed to say I have to check mine out too, because I actually have no idea what it says!

Beautiful Bedspreads

I didn't mean to copy Daniella's post, but I have been saving pics of beautiful bedspreads for a while now, so consider this a companion piece to her post on bedrooms.


all pictures from Bed Bath & Beyond

I love silver (which is ironic because my current bedspread is gold), and this set is so elegant and formal looking.


Very pretty but slightly less fancy - better for everyday. Not crazy about the leopard print pillows, but you wouldn't need them.



Once again, my adoration for black and white...




I want this set for my guest bedroom - it's green with pink accents.





Another pretty black and white...if you just got rid of the pillow with the peace symbol on it. Not a big fan. But the rest is lovely. Why do stripes and polka dots work together when they're black and white? Usually I would never mix the two. But somehow, this works.

Now all I need is about a thousand dollars to buy all these sets...

Life on a new planet...

Ok, so I should have called this "how I'm doing on my goals" but the other title was catchier...

So day 2 of trying to live up to some of my own goals. And here's how that going...

Yesterday I took the boys the park. It was pretty cold, but bearable, and we were all having so much fun, and getting fresh air, and the kids were playing...then James decided to climb on the big playground (there are 2, one for little kids and one for older kids) and he almost fell off, so I grabbed him and took him over the the little playground where he would be safe. Only problem is, the moment he got there he tripped on the steps and fell and bit his lip really badly. So here I am with James bleeding and crying, and me not even able to examine how bad the damage was because the baby is in the frontpack and Joseph is running around...so I carried James home in one arm, holding Joseph's hand with the other and carrying the baby on my front (and OW how my back hurt). We got inside and I examined him; his tooth had pierced all the way through his lip, but the bleeding slowed quickly, he stopped crying after a while, and we decided he didn't need stitches. So one disaster averted...but I felt very disheartened after trying to take them outside!

We survived outside, a little the worse for wear, so I decided to exercise. My mom gave me a 10-minute pilates tape, and my back was hurting really badly (from carrying all that weight) so I decided to do the stretching exercise. That went so well that I was inspired, and decided to do the abs one as well. Well, that was great...except I woke up this morning and EVERY muscle in body was killing me!! I stood in the shower for 45 minutes before I could even move. I guess that's what a month of illness/inactivity coupled with overdoing it will do to you...blech. I really need to do it again today, so my muscles will loosen up...but...but...I don't wanna..

I did NOT eat any dessert last night. So put that in the "success" category...at least for one day!

As for today...well, let's see. I was almost done with Perelandra, CS Lewis's 2nd book in the Space Trilogy, so I just had to finish it. I know - that was a mistake. But I just can't put him down. So around 11, we finally managed to start Bible. At the end, there was a word I wanted to look up in Robert Greek/English Bible, so I came into the office to get it. And then he showed me this program on how to map your family tree and geneology - it's totally cool. It's called Geni. I got sucked in - it's way more addictive than any video game I've ever seen! - and now it's almost 1. I've ignored the kids for the last 2 hours...I'm afraid to think what they've done to the house. (I know for a fact that they have sprinkled an entire box of Raisin Bran over the living room...beyond that I'm afraid to look.) And now, instead of cleaning it up, I am hiding in the office posting my blog. Sigh. Today has pretty much been a failure on all fronts. I guess all I can do is work on my last goal: "Be thankful for what I have and complain less."

Or however I phrased it. Ok, off to remind myself that children are most important than carpets...

My goals

So I've been challenged by my sister's last post to come up with some goals of my own. Yes, I am a mom, but I am still a person if my own right (even though I often don't feel like it!) and I think some goals, both personal and for my family, will help me to focus and see more "big picture" accomplishments than laundry or dishes.

Here are some of my goals:

- exercise at least 3 times a week (if I accomplish this I'll bump it up to every day!)
- go outside every day
- watch less TV - me and my kids!
- eat less sugar
- take a class from Noah Webster College
- read one classic work of literature every month
- work at decorating my house in child-proof ways that also make it beautiful
- remind myself how thankful I am for my children every time I look at the stains on my carpet and the crayon on my walls
- be braver about encountering and even seeking out new experiences: try wearing different clothes, eating new foods, talking to people, and going places I haven't before
- join a book club (or start a book club!)
- finish one of the many books I've started writing
- do Bible study and schoolwork with my kids every day
- spend some individual time with each of my children every day
- do Bible study with my husband
- sew clothes for my children
- clean out all our stuff and donate the things we don't need to someone who does
- talk less and listen more
- have a thankful heart instead of complaining!

Some of these goals are things I need to work on every day, while others may take me months or even years to accomplish! But these are some things I would like to do. I'll add to it as I think of more goals. Or I'm open to suggestions!