Sewing Halloween

Halloween costumes this year are pretty easy for me. The kids have all picked something that requires minimal help from me, very little sewing, and very little store-bought accessories. Win-win if you ask me!

Though I like to sew, sewing for the kids is not always easy, especially when they breathe down my neck, ready to snatch away finished product as soon as I clip the last thread. Or I can barely get them to stand still while I measure and check, double-check and triple-check the fit. 

This Halloween, Evelyn wanted to be a ghost, then a zombie, and as of today, with her looking like she's coming down with a cold and possibly not going trick-or-treating tomorrow, we've decided she'll use her warmest pajamas (with something even warmer underneath), dot her face with freckles, put her hair into pigtails, and she'll carry around a teddy bear, as if she is a little girl ready for bed. Much easier and less complicated than a zombie. Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Gretchen is going to be a witch, using an old costume we already have. The only thing we needed was a witch hat, which we found in the dollar aisle at Target. I'm making her wear tights and a heavy black skirt underneath the costume for warmth, which she is protesting, but as soon as I mentioned, "no tights, no trick-or-treating," she quickly agreed.

Sylvia is a cat. While yard sale-ing one day, I jokingly held up leopard-print pants and shirts and asked if anyone wanted them and Sylvia immediately grabbed for them! Shocked me, for sure. She's been wearing them non-stop and all I needed to do was make a black tail for her and the Target dollar aisle gave us leopard-print cat ears headband. Make-up on her face for whiskers and a kitty nose and we are done!

Peter wants to be a shark. He loves anything fish and for months he has been talking about being a shark.

Easy enough-- dress him all in grey and I'd make a grey skull cap from a grey shirt and a shark fin to attach to the back of his shirt. But it's cold now, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, and I realized the fin won't be visible underneath his coat. Thinking, thinking.. light bulb!

Using an old grey shirt, I cut the long sleeve off and used the wider top part as a skull cap. Cut a thick card board fin and fitted it inside the cap and traced the shape, sewed along the shape and a shark fin cap was born! He loved it! Ran off as soon as I slipped it on his head! 

My sister mentioned seeing a teeth-y mask made with a paper plate, but I thought I could do one better using thick white felt and a bit of the old shirt. I measured around his head and cut a slit into a rectangle piece of fabric, sewed a length of felt on both sides of the slit, turned and stitched a top-stitch to keep the teeth from flopping once on. Added some snaps to the ends to attach in the back and it's pretty cute.

I tried to make the top teeth sit on his upper lip- done; and the bottom teeth sit on his chin, but the bottom isn't cooperating with me. In the end, we all agree that the teeth hanging wide open look pretty good.

Of course, now that I've finished the sewing bit for Shark boy, he declares he doesn't like it and won't wear it. -sigh- Andrew said he won't go trick-or-treating if he won't wear it, so Peter has changed his tune and loves it again. Fickle kid!

More costume pictures later! Happy Halloween!

::30 Days:: 8

What I saw when I woke up this morning: Peter's black eye. The skin glue did it's job, and at bath time, it came off and I could see I didn't need to add any more. As of bedtime, the colors of the bruise deepened to a pale dark blue/purple.

Today was a long, long, long day.

I went back to the booth and added more stuff, looks better, don't it?

I was pleased to see a few items sold! Yay!!

After finding homes in the booth for everything, I went all the way to the big town in the opposite direction and ran errands with my Mom. It was a grand effort, but it was just too much to do all in one day.  By the time we got home past 5 pm, I was exhausted. Won't be doing that again!

I'm glad I had the sense to pick up frozen pizza and then Andrew cooked 'em on the grill. Fast, easy, and delicious! Bonus points for not heating up the house with a hot oven!

I've been busy setting up a facebook page for our new booth, while eating leftover chinese from my lunch out today. Find my booth on Facebook: 516 Antiques.  Like it, too! :o)

Catching Up- July Edition

So much going on these days.  A birthday, loose teeth, stormy nights, canning, fireworks..  And that's just the beginning of July!!  Oh my! What does the rest of this month hold for us?!

Peter had a birthday. 4 years old now! What a big boy!

Since we had a double birthday party for him and Evelyn last month, his actual birthday was pretty low-key. I made him his favorite meals: pancakes for breakfast, hot dogs for lunch, cake and ice cream, and spaghetti for dinner. He seemed to have a pretty good day and liked all the presents he got from us and Grandma.

Fireworks!

The small town down the road from us had delayed fireworks, which turned out to be a good thing, since we had a thunderstorm the night of July 4th. They held the fireworks on Friday, July 6th, and we decided to go.  It wasn't so hot then, and we knew that it would get cooler once the sun went down. The kids had a great time, making friends with other kids there and running and playing in the field next to where we parked. As soon as the first boom! went off, the kids scattered back to their families and we settled down to watch the show.

Pretty good show for a small town. A lot less crowded than Washington D.C. would have been, that's for sure! I think the fireworks lasted about 20 minutes and there were some really spectacular ones, too! I liked hearing the kids ohh and ahh in awe and jump when there was a really loud boom!

I remembered to break out the glow necklaces before we left, which turned out really handy in spotting the kids when they were playing off in the distance! Just look for the glowing arms and hands!

We got a scare on the way home when the hood of the truck popped open on us while we were driving! Talk about heart stopping! And in the dark, on a pitch-black mountain road! I'm glad Andrew was driving because I think I would have crashed! Luckily for us, he kept his cool and turned into someones driveway to see what happened.  Nice people stopped to help, armed with a super bright spotlight which was so much better than the little, puny, kid's flashlight we were using! The hinge of the hood got over-extended and we had to get it back into normal position before we could get the hood shut again. About 15 minutes of fiddling with it and we were back on the road to home again.

Before:

Peter got into the clippers and shaved a few bald spots on his head. Time for a haircut then.

After:

He's so cute, after we cut his hair he gave me a big smile and said:

"I so handsome!"

Why, yes you are, little guy! Very handsome!

Random Tidbits: Post-Easter

No new pictures to post. I've misplaced my camera and can't remember where I put it. I have 4 children that like to take pictures too, and if I don't keep it hidden, they'll run the battery down and I end up with 232 pictures of blurry close-ups of various toys, faces, and walls. Maybe 10 of those 232 pictures are absolutely priceless!

So Easter has come and gone.  We made the bunny teeth picture on the recent post into cards and sent them out to close family. They were a hit! It's fun to send out traditional stuff with a quirky twist.

Drowning in Easter candy. Oh my! I usually make a stop at the stores after Easter for clearance sales on candy, but I am passing on that this year.  We have lots and lots of candy and one very sneaky boy that loves candy! I'll find wrappers hidden behind dressers, under the couch, beneath the cabinets and on the floor in the pantry. tsk tsk! When I find Peter, he has a ring of chocolate around his mouth.  I'm not surprised-- when I was pregnant with him, I had a mad craving for chocolate and even dark chocolate made it's way past my lips!

Any chocolate that survives into the Fall will be transformed into Fudge.  I buy the clearance chocolate bunnies and total up the ounces and turn what was so-so chocolate into delicious fudge or bark candies. It's a good way to save money when it comes to buying ingredients needed for holiday baking. Just remember to keep the chocolate in a cool dark place and not in a room that becomes hot during the summers.

I need to re-locate the candy-- Stat! I think today alone, he snuck 8 lollipops! And of course, when the sisters see him with a lollipop, they want another, too!

Would you believe we had snow flurries on and off all day today?  It's not unusual to see snow in April where we are, but after several weeks of warm-almost-feels-like-summer weather, 50 degrees is COLD! Coming out of winter, 50 degrees is downright balmy! But we've gotten spoiled and it's just miserable around here!  The wood stove is roaring with a fire, sweaters and flannel sheets have come back out and thank goodness I didn't plant the garden yet! We had a freeze a while ago and a lot of the orchards around here lost a big majority of their apple crops. I sure feel bad for them. Calling for another freeze this week. Oh boy!

Local schools are letting out May 25th because they used zero snow days this year! Some other counties are choosing to close every Friday to keep the last day of school the same date, but this county is choosing to let out early instead.  May 25th! Wow!

Gretchen is working hard to earn money. She doesn't know what she is saving for, but she wants money! She's been helping me with the laundry and the dishes and general cleaning up.  They all have chores, but she's doing more than usual. It's been really nice to have an assistant helping to fold laundry and it sure made the work go faster!  I hope I can talk her into putting some of it into savings instead of spending it on toys. We were at Goodwill the other day and she offered to buy a toy for Peter, which was really sweet of her.

Evelyn wants to cook dinners with me more often.  She says she needs to learn how to make more dishes or else her husband will have to do all the cooking. I don't know where that came from, but we shared cooking duties and she was proud to have made the whole main dish all by herself and set the table and served up the dishes. They can all cook minor side dishes and simple meals like eggs and toast, but I've never let them do a main dish all by themselves. Peter is showing an interest in cooking and it's nearly impossible to keep him out of the kitchen! He drags a dining chair in and parks it right next to me so he can help, too! Sure makes me wish I had a bigger kitchen because it gets crowded in there with a kid on either side of me.

I have errands to run in the morning, so off to bed with me. Hope your Easter was filled with love and fun and Blessings!

Crazy Busy

It's been crazy busy around here lately. But it's also been kind of boring. One day it's all outside work, tilling the garden, working in a truck load of composted manure, playing in the dirt. The next it's indoors and the kids are whining "there's nothing to do!" Boy that sounds familiar! I used to drive my mom up the wall when I said that! Then Dad would pipe up and say, "I'll give you something to do!" Which usually meant chores so I'd scoot outside and go find me something to do that didn't involve cleaning the litter box, or doing dishes, or vacuuming.

Spring is in the air and I've got all my seeds and potatoes and strawberries on stand-by, waiting to be planted. We tilled the garden twice and it looks so good! I love freshly-tilled soil, when it's soft and you just want to take off your shoes and sink your toes in there, but wait, we just tilled in cow poo-- eww! The kids ball up the dirt and throw dirt balls at each other and when I catch 'em, I holler, "cow poop!" which makes them drop whatever they got quick. But I guess soft soil is just irresistible and they soon start their dirt ball fights again. Bath night!

I lost a Buff Orpington hen the other day. She was acting funny the evening before and I carried her into the coop. She seemed alright, shook her feathers and hopped into a nesting box.  In the morning, when I opened the coop, she was dead on the floor. She was one of the original 12 chickens I got 3 years ago. Out of 12, I still have 4 left.

I had to play Doctor to Peter last night.  He was jumping from bed to bed and I guess he slipped and landed on the floor on his chin. Split his chin open, but it wasn't obvious at first when he came to me crying. I thought maybe he hurt his chest or something, so I held him and consoled him, scolded him a little bit for jumping on the beds and "see what happens when you do what you're not supposed to do?"  When he pulled away, there was blood on my shirt. Wha..??   So I looked him over and when he lifted his chin up, the cut was wide open and I could see bone. If I didn't have to be doctor I would have played the fainting patient. Cleaned it, used those special bandages that hold wounds shut, swabbed ointment on it, then slapped a big, honking bandage on top of everything to keep him from picking at it. Gave the boy some pain meds and typical kid, he was back to jumping from bed to bed again.

Trying to take it easy today, keeping him occupied with little projects. I changed bandages this morning and it's closed up and healing nicely. I'm surprised he isn't picking at the bandages yet, but I'm glad he's not. I probably jinxed it by saying that and the next time I see him, the bandage is going to be hanging off his chin or something.

We've been doing the Spring Cleaning thing. It's so true, after being cooped up all winter, that as soon as you can open windows and freshen everything up, you get bit by the cleaning bug. Trying to de-clutter and toss out old stuff. I got the kitchen counter cleared and my side of the closet is organized. Papers sorted and put where they belong. Made new curtains for the living room. The yard is picked up of little bits and pieces. Andrew has been burning away old leaves and overgrowth. It's feeling pretty good around here!

Looking forward to Easter. We've invited Andrew's parents to come down, so I'll make dinner and we'll hide eggs for the kids. I don't dye eggs usually, but I think I'll do that this year as part of a science project with the kids-- using food for dyes.  Red cabbage for pink colors, Tea for brown, curry powder for yellow... It'll be fun. Peter got into the plastic eggs a couple weeks ago, and there were colorful eggs all over the house! Waited until after the kids went to bed to pick them up and put them away (read: HIDING THEM!) and the next morning, Peter pitched a fit when he couldn't find the eggs.  He went from room to room, crying "Eggs! My eggs!" over and over before he got distracted with something else.

The Easter Bunny is well-stocked with candy and goodies thanks to couponing. The girls used to ask why I saved the plastic eggs, didn't the Easter Bunny bring new ones every year??  I told them the Bunny couldn't afford to buy new ones every year, so we leave out the basket and the empty eggs at night and while we sleep, he fills them and leaves a little surprise in the baskets.

Evelyn asked me this year if I believed in the Easter Bunny. "Absolutely!" I told her. I remember making little paper baskets and filling them with candy and eggs, leaving them at the door, ringing the doorbell then hiding in the bushes waiting, watching for my friend Mark to discover the basket! I signed the note, 'To Mark, From the Easter Bunny'.   I asked if she thought the Easter Bunny was real and she thought for awhile and replied, "I think so."  I told her if she didn't believe in the Easter Bunny, he wouldn't leave anything for her. Her eyes got wide and she said she did believe! Made me smile.

I can expect another crazy busy week.. Lots going on this weekend and next. I'll try for pictures next post! Til then.. Happy Spring!

Blur

Fifty percent of the time, Peter is clothed.

The other half, he's 'nakey' and running around the house whooping it up.

Even when it's cold.

There have been too many times to count, when he has gone outside with no shoes on, or no coat, or he starts out with boots and coat on and ends up naked in the little duck pool, boots discarded and coat lost in the yard somewhere. We had a nice day recently, and dragged all the kids outside for fresh air and a walk in the woods. Like clock-work, Peter was soon naked and romping in a puddle in the garden, then in a small pool of water in the canoe before he ended up splashing in the duck pool. By "nice day", I mean it was in the 50s and sunny, and still needing to wear a light coat or jacket, so that water was pretty cold.

I've heard of other people talking about their own toddlers doing the same thing, running about naked in the cold, seemingly not feeling the effects of frostbite nipping at their toes. I swear, if I didn't keep an eye on him, Peter would happily lounge about without clothes on everyday, all day long! He'd fit in nicely at the nude beaches!

Halloween 2011

The thing about living in the country is that we're so spread out from neighbors that children can't trick or treat around here. People look for other ways to go trick or treating, like the mall or other venues. A local church in town hosts a 'Trunk or Treat' in the parking lot out of the trunks of their cars. It works well, the kids yell "trick or treat" and a little something-something gets dropped in their open bags. We thought we'd try going to one of the little neighborhoods as well and I was quite surprised, though I really shouldn't have been, at how many people were parking their cars and walking around the neighborhood.  There must have been hundreds of costumed kids! I hope those houses stocked up on candies! We went to a couple of houses and then decided to head back to the car, there were just too many people and cars and I didn't think it was safe anymore. Plus, it was cold and started to mist so after a quick walk through the small shopping strip where each store was also giving out candy, we came home.

I made Peter a Transformers costume!

He loves Transformers and has several cars he goes to bed with. I found an image of Optimus Prime from the original Transformers cartoons and used that as my inspiration. I purposely made the outfit a little bigger so he could wear it longer and while I was sewing it he was so excited, trying on unfinished pants and sleeves and shouting in his little 3-year old voice: "Transformers! Transformers!" It's made from warm fleece, which could also be used as jammies or a regular outfit.  I also made a mask from the Transformers autobots logo but he refused to put it on for the picture. I could barely get him to stand still long enough for a picture.

So, time for trick or treating and what does Peter do? Absolutely will not put on the costume. Fine. He can use the Popeye shirt. Nope, won't use that either. I know! We'll put him in camo pants and he can use his camo jacket and he'll be hunter boy, except his camo pants were in the dirty clothes basket and after a sniff-test, determined to be too stinky to wear. We finally managed to get him dressed in regular clothes and after much screaming and whining, got him buckled in the car to go. He perked up once we got out of the car and went trick or treating.

Miss Gretchen as a pink princess.

Someone tell my girls to stop growing up! They were so excited for make-up! I never use make-up myself, but I had coupons to get free make-up, luckily, and bought some eye shadow, blush and lipstick just for Halloween.

Evelyn started out as Frankenstein's bride, but morphed into a black princess bride. I wasn't able to get to the store and buy hair stuff to make her hair black and add white stripes to her hair, but she was ok with that. She was just as excited to wear make-up and I tried to make hers a little more dramatic and boy, did she look like a different girl with all that make-up on! She made Piggy a costume, too!

Miss Sylvia wanted to be a princess, too, and while looking for a fancy dress to wear, she spotted this old Cinderella costume we had that was down in the basement for a couple years. It just fit her and she opted to wear this. Flimsy and poorly made, but she was happy and that's what matters.  I made her wear a shirt and tights underneath since it's see-through and it was cold.

Happy Children make for a Happy Mama.

I'm disappointed Peter didn't wear his costume, but I know he'll wear it later. I enjoyed making it anyway.

Hope Halloween was good for you, too!

Like Mother, Like Son

Poor Peter.  He's allergic to poison ivy, too!  

I couldn't tell at first, because I thought maybe his belly and legs were scratched up from climbing the fallen trees, but checking a couple of days later, it was definitely spreading, definitely a rash.  So we made an appointment for him with the same Doctor I went to, and sure enough, he has the same diagnosis. Poison Ivy allergy, just like his mama.

For the next 13 days, we'll be taking our medicines in the morning and lucky for me, he has no trouble with taking his in liquid form.

Looks like we both will have to be more careful when we play outside in the woods.  Hopefully, since he's only 3, he'll grow out of it, maybe, if he's lucky. Until then, I'll do my best to keep him away from poison ivy.

Sorry, kiddo. I know you can't understand just why mama won't let you run free and wild in the woods, but trust me when I say you can't.  We'll stay on the trails or we'll find some other thing to do, ok?

Peter and The Strawberries

Peter thinks he's so sneaky.

He swiped a box of strawberries from the fridge after I told him, "no, we're eating lunch soon."

He knows I cannot hear him sneak behind me and open the fridge.

He thinks if he grabs it and runs away quick enough and I don't see him, he's in the clear.

Good thing he doesn't know I can feel the vibrations of his feet and recognize the difference between walking steps and running steps.

I go and investigate.

He's watching for me, expecting me to come from the other entrance.

He doesn't hear me sneaking up on him!

 "There you are!" I say.

"Ahhh!" he screams and jumps, startled that I was behind him!

"Show mama what you got!" I ask him.

And there are the quickly disappearing strawberries!

Must.Not.Scratch.

Absolutely the worst case of poison ivy I've ever had, period! Cripes! I've never, ever had it so bad before and spread over so much of my body. Usually just a little spot and then after a couple days of anti-itch cream, it's gone. Not so this time. I must have not caught it fast enough or I've gotten sensitive or what, but holy cow, this stuff itches!!

It's spread all up and down my left arm, the worst of it on the inside of my wrist, though it is spreading to my fingers fast and that's starting to bother me. It's gone from my upper arm and hopped over to my chest and up my neck, chin and sides of my face. A little spot on my left eye-lid. Because when I go to the bathroom and wipe with my left hand, I now have a bit of poison ivy rash very near my crotch and a little on my bum. A small bit jumped to my right arm, but not much-- knock on wood!

My legs were really itchy a few days ago, but that's mostly stopped now. Just a little bit left on my left thigh, not too far from that spot near my crotch.

I've learned much about poison ivy lately, doing my search online for itching remedies and double checking my symptoms. Did you know that just a quarter of an ounce can make the entire population itch?? Just a little tiny dab of urushiol, the oil in poison ivy, oak and sumac plants, the size of a pin-head, can make 500 people itch?? Ancient chinese people built a golden temple and painted the gold with lacquer tainted with urushiol, so if anyone stole any, they'd look for someone with a rash!

I am finding relief with a paste made from baking soda and vinegar, benadryl, and anti-itch cream for when I go to bed. I use rubbing alcohol, too, which helps to dry out the rash.

I have accidentally passed on the rash to Peter and Sylvia, which makes sense-- I usually pick up and carry Peter and Sylvia still comes to me for soothing hugs and affection. Evelyn, Gretchen, and Andrew are rash-free, for now. I tell them to steer clear of me and I pray I don't pass it on to them.

For now, I am fighting every urge not to scratch the itch and getting after Peter, whose rash is starting to get worse because he doesn't understand why he shouldn't scratch. I see him scratch his butt, where the worst rash is, then scratch his face. Pretty soon he'll look like me if I don't stop him somehow.

Excuse me while I run a bath for Peter and soak him in baking soda.

~

More Milestones

We've had lots of milestones lately. As the family grows, the milestones come more frequent and I am constantly reminding myself to take photo evidence of each event. When Evelyn was born, we easily filled several photo albums of pictures with nothing but Evelyn. Along came Gretchen and we barely filled one album of photos. Then the digital camera entered our lives and along came Sylvia, then Peter, and I have yet to even put one photo into an album since. I'm so grateful to this blog, or else the kids will grow up and wonder if perhaps they were adopted, as there are barely any pictures of them to show otherwise!

Sylvia lost a second tooth recently. Another easy pull and pop! it was out. She still has the remnants of sun blisters on her cheeks from the sunburn we all got while in Florida. Evelyn has a bunch of loose teeth and Gretchen has been wiggling one... We may have to start a fund for the Tooth Fairy!! :o)

Gretchen got her ears pierced! I always told the girls that when they felt ready, they could get their ears pierced. She's been fretting over whether it will hurt much and here's what Evelyn told her: "First, Sharon will numb your ears, then you'll feel a pinch, and the next thing you know, you got a hole in your head!" It was a little more complicated than that. :o) She burst into tears after the first earring was in, wailed that it hurt and tensed up. I could see that if it had been me doing the piercing, she would be pushing my hands away by now. Sharon, the piercer, was wonderfully patient with Gretchen and offered soothing words of comfort. Plenty of experience guided her to know she needed to move quickly and while I was bribing Gretchen with a milkshake afterwards, she deftly pierced the second ear and it was done! Four days later, she is happy with her decision and following orders to keep turning the earring and keeping it clean. She is eyeing the pink dangly earrings I am wearing and I promised her she could have them at the end of her 6-week healing period.

We had our first corn-on-the-cob this year, here. We had cobbed corn in Florida, but this is our first at home. Not grown by us, obviously, but we couldn't resist and boy, was it ever tasty! A common summer meal for us is BLTs and corn-on-the-cob and we had an early start on it this year.

Just seeing Peter enjoying that corn so much makes me want to eat one, too! I'll try and refrain from buying any more corn unless it was grown locally, but just this one time... :o)

Monkey Boy Goes Aerial

Not that we condone jumping off the furniture or anything like that, but here we were, Andrew and I, having a conversation in Peter and Sylvia's room and Peter is playing around, then suddenly starts leaping off the dresser and landing on Sylvia's bed. He was having such fun and we were right there watching. I love the following photos. He truly is fearless!

Monster Bag For Peter

Having 3 older sisters means there's lots of pink girly stuff around here. Poor Peter. He doesn't seem to mind too much, as he plays with a little bit of everything, and the girls don't have all girly toys. There's plenty of gender-neutral toys to play with around here. Plus it helps to have a papa that likes toy cars, so there's definitely lots of those for Peter to claim as his own.

Peter likes a certain set of cars, always playing with those and screaming his little head off when one of his sisters take one away. He is using the front of his shirt as a carryall and that just won't do! I gave him a basket, but that gets turned into a hat or thrown at one of his sisters. I tried a small plastic bin which gets turned into a step for reaching higher-up stuff he isn't supposed to get into. Plastic bags are out-- suffocation risks. So I had to come up with something-- his sisters all have bags made by me, in flowery or satin-y fabrics, so why not make something for him?

I came up with:

A monster bag!! He loves monsters and dinosaurs so it seemed natural to make something with scales and pointy teeth!

In go the cars...

All buttoned up!


A cute bag for a cute little boy! He refused to pose for me, so I asked big sister Evelyn to model the bag for me. I am thinking of making a few more for other little boys I know!

Peter

Let me tell you something about my boy, Peter. He is the cutest, sweetest, most lovable little boy! He is also the most hard-headed, stubborn, and mischievous little guy! Of all my children, he is the one that keeps me on my toes. If he had been first, I'm pretty sure he'd be an only child! Then again, he was the sweetest baby and I got pregnant with #2 before #1 turned a year old, so maybe not.

~in the display tub andrew uses for his work~

He can give the most wonderful hugs, his little arms stretch around my neck and he squeezes as hard as he can. When he wants to give a kiss, he puckers like a little fish with his cheeks sunk in. He'll grab my hand and put it on his back when he wants me to pat him and he'll hold onto my legs when he isn't too sure of the chickens outside. On the other hand, when he wants something and knows he isn't going to get it, he screams and falls to the floor "dead", his version of a tantrum (I much prefer this over one of those screaming and hitting the floor tantrums). As soon as I put him down at the store, he takes off like a rocket and I must drop what I am doing to chase him down. I've tried to stay and see if he'll come back, but he does not, and my heart cannot take the stress of where he would end up if I didn't get him. He won't stay in the cart and I end up having to carry him because it's far easier to do that than drag him by his hand, since he decides he doesn't want to stay close and if he cannot run, he lets himself get as heavy as a sack of potatoes and I must drag him. I really like going to the grocery store when I can leave Peter at home with Andrew.

Even at home, we must constantly keep an eye on him. Our backyard is plenty big for running free, with swings in the trees, chickens to chase, the pole barn for playing house, but his idea of fun is to run down the driveway to the road down below. The minute he gets out of sight, the first place we check is the driveway and sure enough, there he is, his little legs carrying him as fast as he can go. Good thing Andrew and I can run faster than he can and we have been lucky to grab him before he even gets close to the road. He is the most amazing climber for a two-year old. I suspect it has a lot to do with his lack of fear and the consequences of falling.

He will scamper up the cars whenever he gets the chance, proud as can be when he gets to the top and stands, and I'm pretty sure if he had a flag, it would be staked to the roof of the van! I am grateful for the carseat, it is the one place I know he cannot escape and I can let out a breath of relief when he is buckled in and safe. The kid cart at Target is wonderful, since he cannot get out of that one, but he certainly knows how to express his displeasure at being stuck in there while his sisters get to walk free. I get a lot of sympathy looks from other customers when he screams and kicks in protest and I'm sure more than a few wonder what kind of mother am I that he screams so. If he doesn't calm down in a reasonable amount of time, I carry him, but usually, he quiets and is content to sit and watch the scenery go by.

He has broken the most dishes of all the kids, spilled the most liquids, gets into the biggest messes and then when scolded, gets the saddest little blue eyes, and he signs 'sorry' and gives a hug. Then he turns around and scampers off. I can relax a little bit when we are at home, I know which room he can usually be found in and I am not so uptight or the house is not so spotless than I don't mind when he gets into some things-- like when he gets into the pots and pans or when he dumps the toy box onto the floor. When we go to someone else's house, I can never fully relax, always keeping an eye on him: where'd he go? what is he getting into?

He is on the verge of talking, he can say a few words quite clearly-- book, cat, dog, egg, off, on, eat, shoe. Frankly, I can't wait for him to talk. He may end up being a chatterbox and that's just fine with me! It would be better than the screech of happiness or the exact same screech for anger, the same screech for frustration and the screech for delight. It especially grates on me when we are in the car and he is seated right behind my hearing aid and it amplifies his screeching and I think the girls are teasing him making him screech with anger, but when I look back, he's laughing. I don't turn off my hearing aid, though I am tempted, because I cannot bear to think there was an emergency and I purposely ignored it. Yes, talking would most definitely be better than the screeching.

Peter is a character, one that surprises me and delights me and drives me nutty. He gives me chase when he has something he isn't supposed to have, like a knife or the printer ink, takes a bite from an apple, puts it back and takes a bite from another apple until at least 10 apples have little bites taken from them. When I unlock the pantry, the first thing he points to is the candy jar, when I unlock the utility closet, the first thing he grabs is the big broom and off he goes, until he gets caught in the doorway by the handle of the broom, just like one of those old Tom & Jerry cartoons.

I never imagined I would have a son, and now that I have him, I love him dearly, but excuse me while I go and rescue Percy the kitten from his loving but choking arms as if he is saying: "I wanna hug 'im and squeeze 'im and eat 'im all up!" I know what you mean kid, I want to do the same thing to you: I wanna hug ya and squeeze ya and eat ya all up!
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Walking in the Woods

We've been spending a lot of time outdoors lately. We're loving the cooler weather that brings us out of the house and doing more activities outside. I managed to get out with just Peter a couple of days ago, while the girls were busy inside doing something else, and the two of us went for a walk on the other side of our property. I'll leave you with some images of our walk.

Happy Fall!

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Highs and Lows

High:

All summer long, the yardsales have either been slim pickings or we haven't been hitting them with our usual ferocity. But the last couple of weekends, when we happen to go out and spot a yard sale on the way, have more than made up for the summer's misses.


On our way to the next big town over, we spotted a yard sale at a house that has not had a yard sale in the entire 5 years we lived here. It's a round-ish style house so I always look at it as we go by. Anyway, it wasn't a whole lot of stuff, but I saw this basket with yarn and other goodies and when I asked, the lady said it was $4 for the whole thing. Good deal! A lot of the yarn is new and it had 3 sets of knitting needles, a couple of knitting pattern books, a teach yourself to knit booklet, and some crochet thread. Evelyn has been learning to knit on those knitting looms and so getting cheap yarn for her to practice with is great!

There was one skein of this wool yarn and I claimed it for myself. Evelyn asked me to show her how to knit with the needles but I only know how to do one basic stitch. I used to make those little washcloths from cotton yarn and that was quite a while back-- at least 15 years or so. I had to really struggle to remember how to do that and the little teach yourself to knit booklet wasn't too clear with the instructions, or at least, not how I remembered it. I finally figured out the basic stitching and I have been knitting a little here and there. I'm thinking gift for Christmas, if I can keep it up.

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Low:

I need to find a good, used fabric cleaner machine. I've been hoping to spot one, but no luck so far. They cost about $100 new and we don't have carpet except for in the apartment, so we'd only really use it on the couch. Either that, or we need to keep an eye out for a good, used couch. While Andrew was busy doing one thing, and I was busy doing another, Peter got into the fridge and dumped a nearly full gallon of milk on the couch. -sigh- It's still dripping milk an hour later. Even if we get a cleaning machine, it won't get into the insides of the couch, so it looks like our best bet would be to get a couch. Or else we put up with a stinky couch. -sigh- My plan was to wait until all the kids were over the age of 5 and then get a new couch, but this puts a little wrinkle into my plan. Not too sure what we are going to do about the couch. If money was no object, I'd get the couch reupholstered, but it's an issue, so what to do, what to do?

Maybe we'll get lucky again and score a couch at the thrift shop. There was a nice one there at the same time I saw the table and they were only asking $50 for it. It's gone now, but we could afford $50. Well. I guess we'll just clean up the couch as best as we can and see if it starts to smell in the next few days. It's not as hot now, so that helps. Rancid milk is not a pleasant smell.

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Andrew is busy outside and I'm busy on the computer, so I better go and make sure Peter isn't busy getting into mischief.

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Catching up

* None of the fallen feathers from the chickens go to waste around here. The kids like to gather them up and make things with them. Cat toys are the main project, but Evelyn crafted this indian hat and was so proud of it. With all the sales on school supplies going on, I am stocking up on plenty of markers, crayons, pens, construction paper, and glue. Glue goes fast around here and we have already used up one bottle within a week of purchasing it!!

*Sylvia's 'attachment' preference is tape. Lots of it!! She uses so much of my tape that I have to hide it or else it will be gone. On one of our little visits into town, we decided to let the kids have fun in the dollar store and pick one item each to get since they had behaved well that day. Sylvia picked tape! 8 rolls of tape for $1! I tell ya, that was the best thing she could have ever picked! She likes to wrap little toys in construction paper ( trying to get her to switch to newspaper) and lots of tape to seal it up, then she leaves her "presents" around the house for us to find and unwrap. I swear she uses half a roll of tape just to tape one present! But it's her tape and her dollar, so I'm not saying a word. I try to show her she can use less tape, but she pushes my hands away and keeps at it.

*Andrew has the day off on Sunday, so I am going to butcher a rooster or two for dinner that day. It cannot be put off any longer! Just this afternoon, looking through the window, I caught 4 roosters, taking turns, mounting one poor little hen! Poor girl! I rushed outside and scattered them, but told myself it's time for them to go. The young ones are almost as big as the older ones, and if it wasn't for their non-existent spurs, I'd never be able to tell which is which! Only the two older roos have long spurs.

*Working on a wet walnut how-to post. I should have that up next week. I popped open one of the jars I canned last week, poured some on ice cream and it's so good! I'd like to try it with pecans one day, just substitute the walnuts with pecans. Maybe over the holidays when the nuts go on sale... This is when I miss living in Louisiana where we could pick fallen pecans and fill paper bags full of them for free!

*I think Peter is ready to be potty trained. He keeps taking off the diapers or he sticks his hand down the front of the diapers to play with his willy and then the fit gets messed up and the pee trickles down his legs. After the supply of diapers I have runs out, I'll be switching to training pants and then start potty training. I can see the light at the end of the diaper tunnel!! hooray!! more than 8 years of constant diaper changing and I'll soon be done!

*One of the young hens laid their first egg today! Pretty soon, the other ones will start laying and I should be getting at least 8-10 daily. When I have several dozen, I'd like to try and sell some. Make a sign and hang it out front. I might be able to avoid doing that and sell to friends and family only. Did you see that massive recall on eggs the other day??? Good grief! Makes me happy I have my own chickens.

*My mom feel down twice this week. Makes 3 times this year. Nothing broken or sprained, but she gets sore and hurts a few days afterwards. I need to keep a closer eye on her and get her in for a check-up. I want her to live a good long time, watch her grandchildren grow up and hopefully, she'll live long enough to see her great-grandchildren, too.

*Good news/Bad news:: I got my period/I'm not pregnant! It's never fun or easy when Aunt Flo comes to visit me every month, but when she is here, it's a relief to know I have dodged the pregnancy bullet once again. Andrew has an appointment for a consultation for getting snip-snipped! I can't wait! No more worrying when Aunt Flo is late or having to deal with raincoats anymore! Was that TMI??? :o) It's my blog, I can write what I want!

*It's almost time for that children's consignment place to start up again. I think I'll be selling the kids' out-grown clothes there for sure. The foyer has boxes and boxes of too small clothing they don't wear anymore and it looks like a yard sale is not going to happen this year. I am considering volunteering one day a week with the sale, because she added a new bonus to volunteers this year:: for every hour past the required 4 hours you volunteer, 1% will be added to your percentage of the sale. If you just consign, the percentage you earn from the sale of your goods is 50%; with the volunteer hours, if I worked 2 8-hour shifts, that would net me 12 (16 hours minus the required 4) extra percent to my sales making my total 62%! So if I sold $100 worth of items, I'd get back $62 instead of $50. Makes a difference.

Andrew usually gets 2 days off per week, so if I can leave the kids home with him, get there early and stay most of the day, I could handle a day or two per week and try to volunteer at least 4 days which would give me, hopefully, 48 hours of volunteer time. That would be equal to 44 percent added to my 50 which makes 94%! In the past, money earned from the sale of our items went to pay for car insurance. It sure would be nice to have that extra money again. The sale starts Sept 13th, so that gives me a month to get ready for it.

*It's the weekend! Andrew is working Saturday, so I'll be canning tomatoes in the cool of the morning before it gets too hot. Off to bed for me!

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Two

Peter turned 2 last week. Everyone says this, but it's true, I can't believe how quickly time has flown since I gave birth to Peter. We had a double birthday party for both Peter and Evelyn, so on his actual birthday, we just had cake and ice cream for him.

Blowing out the candles!

A close up of the butterfly cake I made. It was supposed to be for Evelyn on the double birthday party, and the caterpillar cake for Peter, but as I said, the butterfly cake was not co-operating with me, so I shoved it in the freezer. I made my own frosting this time and frosted it while it was still frozen-- ah, much easier to frost! Good cake! The kids liked it!

Peter is such a wild thing compared to the girls. He definitely knows what he wants and he's going to get it no matter what he has to do! He's a fun little guy and always putting something on his head, whether it be this lampshade or dirt from the garden.

I love when he hugs and kisses me, he gives good hugs! He likes to snuggle on my lap and every now and then, he climbs into bed with me in the mornings and curls into me.

He hasn't mastered the spoken word yet, but he knows how to make himself understood! He'll sign, or pull me over and point, or even in his gibberish he can make himself clear. Evelyn once asked me if I could talk 'baby' since I seemed to understand everything Peter was gibbering about. I think I just know my children well.

He seems much older than 2 in this shot, but it's one of my favorites.

He's such a cutie pie!

Happy Birthday Peter!!

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