This Time Last Year...

The pond out front...

And the chubby brother.

Willa's First Sewing Project

Last night, Willa completed her first sewing project-- a tiered skirt! She did ALL of the sewing by herself. Didn't she do a wonderful job? (Oh, and by the way, the nine year old is over her sickness. )

You Know You're Not A Normal Family When...

• The two year old walks around saying, "I wanna make ice cream!"
  
• The eleven year old reads 336 pages of Brian Jaques in almost a day.
  
• The eight month old's favorite spot is underneath the computer chair.
  
• The nine year old's been sick for 3 weeks.
  
• The fifteen year old requests to be dropped off at Jo-Ann's for a few hours instead of the mall.

Vision Forum Give-Away

Crystal at Biblical Womanhood is having a contest to give away a Vision Forum $100 gift certificate. If you want to enter go here http://www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com/blog.htm and scroll down to the post about the give away. Leave a comment on that post by Monday, January 28th and you'll be entered to win. There is a link to Vision Forum on our side bar if you want to look and see what they have.

The End of The Epic Series

Grandma caught the squirrel! Yahoo! She just called to tell us. Stay tuned for up dates!

Emma

Grandma's Got a Squirrel in Her Drawers

Today we begin a new series. We call it "Grandma's Got a Squirrel in Her Drawers". Well, okay, we are purposely misleading you. The squirrel's not exactly in her drawers, but I suspect that while she's at work each day, the squirrel comes out and jumps into her sock drawer and lays there for long periods each day (probably with the remote in one hand and some leftover Christmas candy in the other) because... well, ... because he just CAN. Here's the story. Approximately one week ago, a squirrel decided that 13800 Florida Ave was a cozier home than 123 Maple (top floor) and moved in. Not that there's been an actual sighting, mind you, but because in the middle of the night one can hear the squirrel running, now get this, and I quote: "through the walls."

Okay, now I know for a fact that Grandma does not have any cooking sherry, so I am prone to suspect at least the theory that some critter with a magical ability to disapparate through walls is making a nightly ruckus. Is it a squirrel? Well, let's consider the options. In the places I've lived, we have a critter we call a "rat" This critter, I can tell you, does actually have the ability to chew through concrete. I once saw a rat hole that was dug from under the back yard concrete stairs over ten feet away through the foundation of a house into the floor of a basement. And both holes were well concealed. Hmmm... mighty rodents will one day rule the world (if they can take it away from Seth). Here in Wheeling we have a chipmunk (Chippy we call him) that lives under our back porch. We like him. For several weeks last summer I saw him darting across the road at about the same time each day. Creature of habit. Chipmunks are smaller and can squeeze into most anything. I'm inclined to think one of these has moved in. What's your opinion? Please reply.

Posted by Bruce

Once Again... Sewing

Yes, I've been sewing again-- this is the reason for the lack of posts. The past few days I've really enjoyed making skirts. I've used the same pattern for all three. It's a circle skirt with optional ruffle around the hem. This one doesn't have the ruffle, I just added lace instead. I made it for me to match a dress Emma has.

This is the first one I did, and I actually completed it before the new year. This picture isn't very good, because it washes out the dark brown and doesn't show the turquoise sequins on the flowers. It's sooo pretty. This one does have the ruffle.

This is another. I made it for a Christmas present for a friend (I haven't given it to her yet, though.) And, again, this isn't a very good picture. It's mint green and dark brown, not grey and black. This too has the ruffle.

I've really enjoyed being able to make these and I'm hoping to make more in the future.

The Happenings Of The Last Three Days

We've had many events in the last few days. The recurring theme, however, has probably been sickness. Willa's not felt well the last 3 days, Mommy's first day down is today, and I was down yesterday. But the good news is that I am completely recovered and I even organized our dining room, cleaned the basement (those who've seen our house know that this is no easy task), and got out of bed before 9!
Seth, right after he had fallen down almost an entire flight of stairs with a helmet, the above "sword" and sunglasses. All he said was, "I want my sunglasses." :) This kid's gonna rule the world someday.

Yesterday, since I wasn't feeling well, I was excused from regular chores. I practically locked myself in my sewing room. It was a slow day, though. All I did was make Emma a petticoat, Willa a pair of bloomers, and myself a pillowcase (above) that I actually decided to bead while Daddy and I discussed a website we are designing. Oh, and all of that was made out of a flat twin sheet. Plus, I have some left over which I'm planning on using one of these days... :)

Wanna hear the main subject of our dinner conversation? It started when Emma made the comment, "By the way, nobody eat the raw brownies I made today. They taste like dryer sheets." :) I guess what happened is that right before Emma put it into the dish, she washed it out and failed to lick it to make sure she had gotten all of the lavender dish soap off, before putting the dessert in the dish. I noted that lavender was edible and that sent us on a string of "wouldn't ___ dryer sheets taste good?" Yes, we were talking dryer sheets again, not dish soap. Here are some of our "blanks:"

chocolate dryer sheets
strawberrry "
cherry "
apple pie "
cream cheese danish "
roasted salmon "

I laughed the hardest at "roasted salmon dryer sheets" when Daddy said it! :)
After that when everybody else was up from the table, Daddy and I were talking about funny things Seth did. He related the following story:

"The other day, Seth was running through the living room and stopped suddenly. He put his arms straight out at his sides and then just fell straight forward to the floor. He didn't even put his hands out to catch himself." :)

I'm tellin' ya, he's gonna rule the world. Well, I better go now. All of dinner needs cleaned up and then I have to edit a couple videos, make Elsie a pair of bloomers, and practice piano. Tootle-loo!