Thankful [Part 2]

As I mentioned in my post, Thankful [Part 1], I was glad to see that people actually take the time to celebrate Thanksgiving and don't ignore it in light of the Christmas craze.  Just today, when I went to our bank to deposit a check, I was pleasantly surprised to see that each bank teller's counter was decorated with gourds of different colors and sizes.  And as I was leaving, I noticed that strings of orange and purple lights were hanging from the front desk, intertwined with a tinsel fall leaf garland.  Now that's what I'm talkin' about!  And it was so refreshing on Monday night, when I went to the house that hosts our Mom Heart Group (inspired by Sally Clarkson), to see fall leaf decorations up on the kitchen wall and a homemade sewn "Give Thanks" fabric garland hanging from the fireplace mantel.

Check out these great Thanksgiving garland ideas (and a kindred spirit who has found creative ways to not overlook this important holiday)!

I've discovered that this bulletin board has been an inexpensive, interchangeable way to decorate!  I love looking at this Fall collage from the dining room table when I sit down with my family for our meals.  It's made up of old greeting cards that I keep in a box, favorite verses I've jotted down on index cards over the years, and freshly picked Fall leaves from outside.

One of the cards in the collage is actually a new one we received in the mail this month from the sweet Seniors group from our church.  I really liked this quote in it: 

"The most important ingredient for happiness is not fortunate circumstances or great possessions, but a heart that knows how to be grateful.  Gratefulness is the root of contentment and peace."

{Scott Walker}

It reminds me of the "Happiness vs. Joy" sermon our pastor just taught on Sunday from his "Key to Unlocking Joy" series.

Alright, so here are more things I'm thankful for for each day of November from the last list I posted on the 11th.

12. 75 FREE prints from Shutterfly!

13. This Advent calender idea.  I seriously was just thinking yesterday about what I could do with old toilet paper and paper towel rolls.  I want to implement this idea for making a Thanksgiving Advent calendar for next year.  I think it would be cool for my family to write down what we're each thankful for every day, put those scraps of paper in the numbered pocket for that day, and then on Thanksgiving, take all the pieces of paper out and read them.  Maybe to make it more fun, we could put quotes we find about being thankful in the pockets too!

14. FINALLY getting to check out this book!  A lady from my Bible study group earlier this year mentioned it and said the pastor from the church my family used to go to, highly recommended it.  The subject of Heaven has always made me curious.  And I figure since I'm going to spend an infinite amount of my existence there compared to Earth, why wouldn't I learn as much as I could about it?  So anyway, I've tried checking this book out from the library since the summer, but apparently it's a hot item!  Well, my patience paid off (and particularly since I made myself not buy a copy and waited until it was available to borrow)!  By the way, this video about Colton Burpo brought tears to my eyes (the good kind). 

15. Getting a Ribbon gift card from Gregg's work!  We get to pick a gift from the Ribbon gift catalog and this Safety 1st Sounds 'n' Lights Activity Walker is what I think Gregg and I agreed upon.  Adella seems like she is going to be quite an active one when she's able to start walking, so we think this will be a great way for her to get around and yet contain her enough so that I'll be free to get things done around the house.

16. Getting the idea to make a "Sleepy Sounds" CD.  So one of my top picks from the Ribbon gift catalog was a First Years Sounds for Silence machine.  What I liked about this Premium one was that it included a MP3 player connection cable.  Talking it over with Gregg, he suggested that I just find some white noise audio I could download online and make my own CD to play in Leala's room on our CD player.  So I went on iTunes and was surprised that there are whole CD's of just white noise and nature sounds.  So I purchased one of rain and then got some cool lullaby renditions of some of my favorite songs from artists like Johnny Cash, Third Day, Jars of Clay, and Chris Tomlin! 

17. Finding a couple recipes online so I can start making my own blended frappes (I'll tell you how that goes in a future post with links to the recipes if I end up liking them).

18. My dad being available and willing to watch Leala for me the past few weeks so it was easier to go to each of the girl's doctor's appointments and mine.

How I Felt!

I have discovered the wonderful world of felt food!  I mean, look how cute and delicious it looks!  I found the pumpkin pie here.  

I was first introduced to its existence on Money Saving Mom's blog post about The Felted Pear.  

From there I browsed other Etsy shops that created felt food and found cute creations like these cups of hot cocoa.

And how fun are these ice cream cones?!

How yummy are these brownies?!

How cute are these strawberries?!

Mmmm... and these donuts?!

I mean, this is too cute!

I would love to be able to make play felt food like this for Leala!  Maybe someday...  =)

Privation is the Mother of Creation

The last few days, the creative wheels in my head have been spinnin'! You know the saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention?"  Well I have one:  "Privation is the mother of creation."  I have this list in my head that keeps growing of the things I notice Leala likes (Christmas gift ideas) and of the ways I want to decorate and organize her room so it's more inviting and functional (I started before Adella was born but didn't get a chance to finish).  I automatically think these things require spending money, which we don't have the budget for, but then I remember that I have a sewing machine and lots of material that was given to me.

Here's the Internet inspiration I found:

[ BRACELETS ]

:{ tutorial here }:

:{ tutorial here }:

:{ tutorial here }:

--:--

[ NECKLACES]

:{ tutorial here }:

:{ tutorial here }:

--:--

[PURSE]

:{ from Polka Dot Market }:

--:--

[FELT BOARD]

:{ tutorial here }:

:{ from Better Homes and Gardens }:

:{ from NodinsNest Etsy shop }:

--:--

[STORAGE]

:{ tutorial here }:

Learning Their Likes

As she's grown older, learning what Leala likes has been fun.  Today I was reminded that she likes lollipops.  I think she started liking them when she first associated them with the letter "L" in her Dr. Seuss's ABC book:

"BIG L
little l

Little Lola Lopp.
Left leg.
Lazy lion licks a lollipop."

Hey, look at what I found on YouTube - Dr. Seuss's ABC!  How fun!  I'll have to show this to Leala.  In my opinion though, I read it better... plus I make it interactive [laughs] including buzzing, counting, itching, sneezing, and tickling!  By the way, "L" is at 4:20 into the video.

Adella, we've learned, likes to be free (as a bird?).  She doesn't like to be swaddled.  She likes to be able to stretch her legs (which I definitely had felt in the womb!), [laughs] and as we captured last night, her arms in this case.

Now that nursing a newborn and changing her diapers every couple of hours has become routine and my husband and I have been able to catch up on more sleep, I've been able to have my special snuggling moments with just Leala again, and despite my previous concerns, Adella has gotten my special one-on-one attention too.  I think it's because of these cherished moments that I've gotten to have with my girls both together and individually, that I've been able to observe how uniquely God has created each one of them to be.

Cultivating Our Children

Rainy days make me want to ONE, bake and TWO, read.  I haven't really done either on this rainy day, but I guess you could count sifting through the email in my Gmail Inbox and checking out a few blog entries as reading.  Some pleasure reading through a novel was more what I had in mind though.

See Cookie Recipe Below

Anyway, one of my emails was one of Sally Clarkson's recent blog posts and it captured my attention.  [laughs] Just check out the title:  If you really love your children, turn off your computer, cell phone and tv and read!  I've read the articles in Parents magazine about the consequences of children watching TV at a young age.  I've even read Sally's thoughts in older posts about not having the TV babysit your kids and being intentional about reading more with them.  I've read it, I know it, and I agree.  But the reality is Leala has been tech savvy since probably about the time she turned 1.  I don't know whether to be embarrassed or proud of her ability to turn on a TV, turn on a DVD player and insert a DVD.  It wasn't until one day that she couldn't turn on the TV when she pressed the Power button that I discovered somewhat of a solution.  My husband must have recently installed our surround sound system and forgot to plug the power cord to the TV back into the outlet.  So now if we don't want her to watch anymore TV, we unplug it.  I would much rather have the TV and media players hidden behind the doors of an armoire, but that's not currently in our budget.  So we can only really limit her TV watching time by unplugging.  The other thing is I'm on the couch about 8 times a day nursing Adella and I don't have the freedom or ability to sit down with Leala during those times and encourage her to use her free time in more creative, interactive ways.  I would love to sit down with her and inspire her to play with her toys or to open a book, but when I'm stuck on the couch with her baby sister, having the TV on is the best way I've found to keep her in one place.  Left on her own, she usually ends up wandering somewhere in the house where I can't keep her from getting into trouble.  And "blanket time," as shared in the Duggar's book 20 and Counting!, only really works at least once a day (but is still an awesome training tool!).

Alright, so enough rambling about what I can't do (partially with the intent of getting good advice from other mothers or caretakers of children out there).  How about what I was inspired to do?  This blog entry from Sally coupled with the chapter I just read and studied, Gardener of Souls, from her book, The Mission of Motherhood, inspired me to ONE, start making it a daily routine to read a book with Leala, like the 2 times a day that she runs to her special spot on the couch to drink her warm milk, and TWO, to purchase Baby Colors by the photographer Rachael Hale.  In her book, Sally shared how she, "was always on the lookout for beautifully written and illustrated children's books that reflected moral excellence, family values, and a reverence for nature or God and that delighted the mind and heart," and when I was browsing online, trying to decide how to spend the last $8 of some birthday money I was given, the beautiful board book from Rachael Hale came to mind.  I remember seeing it in the book section of a store once and hadn't seen it again when I looked for it.  This book I think will be a great way to share my love for photography with my daughters and will maybe spark in them their own sense of creativity when they're older.  And hopefully it'll be the first one in a collection of picture books I'll be able to get from Rachael Hale for Leala and Adella in the future because browsing through her other books online, I've decided she's one of my favorite photographers.

I love this whole concept of "cultivating" things in our children from Sally's writings.  Looking up the definition to "cultivation" added more to the idea:

"cultivation, n 2. development, especially through education, training, etc.  3. culture or sophistication, especially social refinement."

And introducing our children to good books is just one of the ways we can cultivate them!  In closing, I really like this analogy from Sally:

"As a garden cannot flourish without a gardener, neither can a child reach his or her potential without someone committed to careful cultivation.  Just as a garden without a gardener will eventually go to seed and be covered over with weeds and debris, a child whose growth is unsupervised or left to chance will likely grow wild and undisciplined or stunted and unfruitful." 

{Sally Clarkson, The Mission of Motherhood, 142}

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Maple Syrup Cookies

Amish Friends Cookbook

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon milk

1 egg

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening

1 cup maple syrup

3 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 (8 oz.) package semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In small cup, dissolve baking soda in milk and set aside.  Cream egg, shortening, and syrup.  Add flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and baking soda mixture; blend well.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. 

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Thankful [Part 1]

Okay, I thought doing a Thanksgiving Advent was an original idea until I just Googled it!  However, I am glad to see that there are people out there who actually celebrate Thanksgiving and don't go from Halloween straight to Christmas.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but this year, more than ever before, it's really bugged me how overlooked Thanksgiving really is.  As I walked toward a store the other day, it actually made me sad to see a big Christmas tree set up in it's entrance.  To me it said, "'Tis the season to start coveting and consuming!" Where are the reminders that it's really the season to focus on being thankful for what we already have?

Well, I came across one the other day when I found this quote I highlighted in a book I'm reading:

"A thankful heart galvanizes the connection between my God and me."
{Sally Clarkson, Dancing With My Father, 92}

You know, back in May I was feeling bad about how easy it was to be thankful when all was going well in my life - for the blessings I felt God was giving me - in my post, Project Thankful.  And though it was good to evaluate whether or not I was loving the gifts more than the Giver who was giving them, I was reminded recently of the Scripture that says:

"Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17).

I don't need to feel guilty for enjoying the things God has given.  In fact, I think it glorifies God when I'm giving Him the credit for the blessings in my life.  I do need to be careful that I'm not trusting in possessions to make me happy.  God is the one I need to put my trust in because everything else is temporary.  Putting my trust in Him will give me that strong foundation to stand on whether life gives or takes.

With that being said, I would like to start my Thanksgiving Advent and list at least 11 things I'm thankful for:

1. Though my neighbors can get loud past curfew, disrupting our sleep, yell at and verbally abuse their children throughout the week, make periodic mysterious screaming noises like the strange sounds heard in Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre, or right as I'm typing this, boom their bass so loud it can be felt through our walls while both my children are napping, I am thankful for a roof over our head and a home I have the privilege of making our haven.

2. The dashboard may be cracking, tires needing replacing, cosmetic damage increasing, and with a family of four, space now limiting, I'm thankful for our 2-door, 10-year-old Chevy Cavalier that gets us to the places that would be very inconvenient and time-consuming to get to if we didn't have a car that still works.

3. She may wake me up a couple times at night, have had two explosive diapers that soiled her clothes the past couple days (probably related to the broccoli that I gave in to and ate) and sometimes hysterically cry when we've tried everything we know to do to try and console her, but I'm reminded that Adella really is a precious gift from God (Psalm 127:3) and I'm thankful that He chose for her to exist (plus He made her really cute and adorable).

4. She can throw her fits, but they're really few and far between compared to all the sweet, snuggly, entertaining, proud moments I get to share with my first gift from God, Leala, who I am truly thankful for.

5. When I realize how like-minded we are, how patient he is, how hard and faithful he works, how devoted to God he is, how Christ-like he loves... I am really thankful for the husband God picked out for me!

6. It may be limiting our family time and wearing my poor husband out (and me when I don't have the extra help in taking care of the kids), but I'm thankful for the grants he's gotten to pay for enrollment at CSUSM and aid him in finishing his BA in English Literature which then may take him on to a Ph.D program.

7. I am very thankful for Gregg's employer, RCP Block and Brick, with how flexible they've been with his school schedule, how supportive they've been to our family and the awesome medical coverage they provide!

8. There is not a day that goes by that I don't genuinely thank God in prayer for the meals He provides for our family, especially after reading through one of Gregg's school books, Women's Indian Captivity Narratives, and learning how some people have had to survive (and being reminded that some people currently have to live) days without food.

9. I am very thankful for another cool, rainy fall season that has protected us southern Californians from wildfire-causing Santa Anas.

10. I am truly blessed and thankful for our church, Calvary Chapel of Escondido, where we enjoy fellowship, have opportunities to serve, and that provides good Bible teaching that refreshes and encourages us.

11. As said in a worship song that's one of the dearest to my heart (which I just learned by Googling, is actually the refrain from a hymn), "I thank You, Lord, for saving my soul.  I thank You, Lord, for making me whole.  I thank You, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free."

Speaking of songs, wouldn't that be great if you could do a word search, like "thankful" in iTunes that would provide a list of songs that contained that word?  It would make it easier to put together playlists, I think.  I want to put together a "Thankful" one, but I'm afraid it would be too time-consuming.  The only songs that come to mind are "Thank You" by Rebecca St. James and "Thank You" by Dido.  Hey look - someone else had the same idea too!

Q.  Which songs would be in your "Thankful" playlist?

Coincidence?

I think it started when the "University of Pittsburgh" showed up on our phone's caller ID last month.  Actually, maybe it was at the end of September when a guest speaker at our church mentioned he had spoken in Quakertown, Pennyslvania (a message worth listening to by the way!).  Then Gregg and I were reading through Edgar Huntly for his US Literature I class, a story that happens to take place in Pennsylvania.  I can't recall all the other times "Pennsylvania" has just come up somewhere, in some way, to both Gregg and I together, or in separate incidences, but after seeing it again while reading one of Sally Clarkson's recent blog posts, I Miss My Best Friends, this morning, I finally had to say something.  I mean, Sally just happened to be in Pennsylvania recently?! 

So what's the big deal about "Pennsylvania" coming up, it seems, everywhere?  Well, for some time now my husband and I have been praying for God's direction.  With the end of the year coming right around the corner, Gregg has had to make some decisions about what to do after he graduates with a BA in English Literature from CSUSM next semester.  Sometimes God gives you confirmation about what He has planned for your life before you even make a move.  In this case, we've had to start moving in a particular direction hoping at the right time God would make His direction clear (are we staying in California, or are we moving out of state by next summer?).  So Gregg has been faithfully looking up Ph.D. programs to apply for and gathering all the things he needs to submit to universities in Arizona, Texas and Pennsylvania.  We won't know if Gregg will be accepted to any of these universities until the beginning of next year.  But if one of the universities in Pennsylvania does end up being the answer we've been praying and waiting for, wouldn't that be fun to look back and recall the little clues God left, to give us a sneak peak into what He had planned for our family?

By the way, Gregg's application to the University of Pittsburgh is the first one due, next month, so please keep that in your prayers if you so desire.  And on a side note, I had a hard time finding images for Pennsylvania online!  I had to create my own image by taking a picture of my atlas.  I would much rather have posted up a beautiful scenic picture, like a symbolic road running right through a thick forest of trees.  So, if God ends up sending our family to Pennsylvania, I'm going to make sure to take lots of good pictures!

Harvest Fun

So this year for Halloween, I was inspired to do my girls' costumes the old school way; hand make them.  The hand-me-down overall dress Leala got recently sparked the first idea.  It reminded me of the little outfit the character, Agnes, wears in the movie Despicable Me, so I decided it would be easiest to dress Leala up as her.  Plus, Despicable Me, has been our family's movie of the year.  Ever since we saw it with friends for New Year's, Leala has wanted to watch our copy of it over and over and over again.  Before she turned 2, Leala's first full sentence was, "Woah, woah, woah - what is that?!," from one of Gru's lines.  Then our friends who introduced us to the movie in the first place, got Leala a "Fluffy" unicorn from Universal Studios for her 2nd birthday.  So it seemed like fun to go with the reoccurring Despicable Me theme of the year.  From there, somehow I got the idea to dress Adella up as a unicorn to match Leala.  

For Leala's dress, I got a couple pieces of scrap fabric and stamped a part of the song Agnes sings when her and her sisters wander into Gru's "secret lab".  I cut the heart out of a piece of red felt and hand sewed it on the patch.  The patches I machine sewed on to the dress with a zig zag stitch to keep the fabric from fraying.  The little unicorn came from a McDonald's Happy Meal.  The two front hooves have a velcrow closure, but I hand sewed them together with a little stitch for reinforcement.  If Leala ever got annoyed with the unicorn, I could just slide it off the overall strap, but she never did.

I Googled "baby beanie" and came across this tutorial for a DIY reversible baby bonnet.  I shrunk the pattern to fit an 8"x11" size page with a 0.5" margin all the way around and it just so happened to print out as the right size for my 3-week-old baby.  I took the ruffle concept that was used on Quinn's bonnet on the front to make my pink unicorn hair.  I Googled how to sew a unicorn horn and found out it was a half circle, so I used the pattern part for the back of the bonnet for my horn.  To get the horn to stick straight up, I had to pack it as full as I could with stuffing and then hand sew it to the bonnet because the base of the horn was too big for the foot of my sewing machine to sew over.  I used an animal child's hat pattern online to figure out how to draw a pattern for my own ears and a horse stuffed animal we have.  It wasn't until I sewed the pink lining to one of my ears that I discovered they were too small, so I drew a bigger ear pattern that ended up working.  I totally chanced it when I cut a couple slits in the top of the bonnet to attach my ears, but it worked!  And I ended up saving time on the chin strap by finding a piece of ribbon that was already finished on the edges.  It was so great finding the right scraps of fabric and the buttons I needed in my sewing stash.

What was wonderful about these costumes was that they were warm.  I noticed last year, when we were out at our church's Harvest Celebration, that it was cold outside.  Leala wore a cute Snow White dress, but it ended up having to be covered up with a jacket.  So I kept that in mind this year.

Leala was such an excited ball of energy, it was hard to get a good picture of her in her costume.  The one I was able to take in the house before we left was the best one I could get.  If you've never seen Despicable Me, then you have to at least watch this video of the "Best of Agnes."

Leala was still a little too young to understand how to play the games our church had at our annual Harvest Celebration, but I think she was good with just the balloon she got.  She did also enjoy a couple pieces of chocolate, a little lollipop, a glow-in-the-dark bracelet she won, some popcorn, a few bites of a BBQ hot dog, and a visit with a black lab. 

I was so proud of Gregg for working hard all weekend to get his school work done so we could spend this time together as a family.  Not only that, but he was running on about 4 hours of sleep.  And I thought it was so cute how proud Gregg was of me for making Adella's unicorn hat.  He kept telling everyone that I handmade it.  We all had a good time and I think special memories were created.