He was in our garden.
Quotation
Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16Compartments
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Monthly Archives: August 2009
Meet Mary Fairy . . .
August 27, 2009 – 1:23 pm
How did Ave talk me into this? I was supposed to be starting dinner, but the little gal got a hankering for a fairy doll. My mind started reeling figuring out how to execute it, but I was set on starting dinner. Then I thought, “Jennifer, you know the kind of mom you want to be is the kind that would chuck everything, once in a while, to grant the whim-wish of one your precious children (especially your middle child).” And so Mary Fairy was born.
Ave got to pick the eye-buttons and lip floss color.
Her pink hair is made of fabric strips hand-sewn to her head.
Chub!
August 25, 2009 – 10:14 am
Remember when I mentioned we’ve been cutting down on DVDs, video games and computer time? Well here’s another activity the kids entertained themselves with one day. All they needed was Poly-fil. I think I would seriously consider giving a bag of it to child as a birthday present (although I’m sure I should look into a natural material instead)!
First Jonny came to me. “Look Mom, I’m buffed.”
Then I asked him to flex.
Next, Aveline came to me saying, “Look, I have giant nums!”
She returned even more chubbed.
Soon, stuffed pants were added to the fun.
All the while June followed them around laughing when they laughed and posing in the pictures beside them (but she was nakey so I cropped her out).
We shared our craft!
August 21, 2009 – 5:21 pm
Yesterday we had the fun experience of sharing the Freezer-paper Stencil craft with our friends Elijah, Luke and Salina. Elijah chose the number one for his t-shirt, and we had an interesting discussion during its creation about what numbers on sports jerseys represent. I suggested Elijah claim the number one on his shirt is there because he’s 1st place in everything. Luke chose the Super Mario Brothers villain, Count Bleck, for his design. And I enjoyed learning a little bit about Count Bleck and how he got to be bad as we created that one. I thought Salina’s and my bird design idea would go great on a bag, so I used some fabric I inherited from my maternal grandmother, Mary White, and sewed Amanda Soule’s Broadturn Bag, another one of the awesome projects in Handmade Home, to apply the bird stencil to. Here are some photos Salina shared with me of the projects we made together yesterday. Thank you so much Salina, for your friendship, for a fun day and for taking and sending me these photos. I love them!
Aren't they handsome!?
Cutting down
August 19, 2009 – 12:06 pm
We recently passed a pretty bad cold around to one another for about two weeks, during which time we didn’t do much more than keep DVDs playing, interrupted periodically by Jonny’s Nazi Zombies stints, so that the sickies would rest. As soon as we were on the mend I knew we were looking toward a tricky transition to very limited video game playing and DVD viewing.
A tricky transition it was, the kids kinda went nuts for a while, Jonny even said he’d rather live in the wild than live with the new rules! I was at a loss as to what to do with our days, and obviously, we needed something. After having gotten to know Aveline’s Little House in the Big Woods Paper Dolls set (which is so great if you have Little House fans, or happen to be one yourself, as I myself am!), I thought it might be fun to design our own dolls and clothing, using heavy paper and some of my special and beautiful Japanese origami papers. As I worked on Aveline’s doll, Jonny was making plans for what he wanted his to be like. I thought I’d snap some pics of our new friends since their delicate condition puts them at risk of not living very long!
Meet Annemarie (Aveline allowed me to name her) and Jon the alter ego of the marvelous superhero known as Super Cool Dude (entirely Jonny’s idea, he said he wanted him “buffed”).
In their undergarments . . .
. . . And clothed.
I wanted to make S.C.D. a cape, but hesitated in rememberance of the wise words of Edna Mode. To sum up, “No Capes!” After all she is the authority on supersuits! Aveline chose the polka dot printed paper for Annemarie’s dress over all of my fancy origami papers!
Jonny and Aveline have since arranged the marriage of Annemarie and Jon and they want me to do the honors of making the bridal trousseau and the groom’s tuxedo! I’m sorta hoping that the wonder of the Spongebob Legos distract them sufficiently so that I am not obliged to follow through! Unless of course I can manage to find tuxedo printed paper!! That would sure help. Making paper dolls turned out to be much more intense and time-consuming than I thought it would be! But it really is fun, and truthfully, as I imagine drawing the tuxedo and placing it on Jon . . . . . No, I don’t choke up! That would be silly! But I am looking forward to it. Maybe I’ll hint around about it later and see if I can get the kids to beg me to do it! Then when I give in, I might even get a, “You’re such a nice mom!” to counteract all the contrariwise statements they’ve made about me since the implementing of the “new rules.” Hee hee.
And Annemarie of the sea.
GO SEE . . .
August 18, 2009 – 11:05 am
. . . Ponyo!!!!! You must! I’ve never seen a Miyazaki movie in the theaters before, and it was a wonderful experience. All five of us were delighted and enchanted, inspired and entertained, heartened and humbled (okay some of those might only have applied to me). Go see it, go see it, go see it!
Here’s a link to the Japanese trailer, if you go see it in America, it will be in English, I just like the Japanese trailer better than the American, Disney-ized one.
Ponyo trailer (Japanese)
Our trip to CO, day 11
August 18, 2009 – 9:55 am
July 18th – Saturday
Junie woke me up to nurse around 6 am. Since I could see that the sun was up, and I knew that everyone (except me) wanted to get home, I decided that when June drifted off to sleep again, I’d begin the preparations for our embarkation. Sid got up and joined me in the bit of work left and when everything was in order, we pulled out onto the 70, with a very, very, very long road ahead of us.
I drove for 9 1/2 hours with only a couple of quick stops. One when we stopped at Del Taco, and the next when our fuel gauge *suddenly* read empty and I pulled off at the nearest gas station sign. When we found that sign was going to lead us 15 miles off the highway, we had to risk getting back on the 70 and waiting for the next gas station. My theory was that the gas light comes on way before the threat of running out of gas should be a realistic concern, so that you’ll get frickin’ gas and not run out on the road. Despite my theory, I was concerned, Sid was concerned, it’s only a little bit funny now because, well, if you’re married to a very vehicularly conscientious person, you’ll understand. To say that I was berated would be an overstatement, so it wasn’t too bad, not as bad as when I crashed us into a cement pole at a gas station on our first long motorhome trip. Anyway, we drove quite a way (I’d say 20 miles minimum) with that empty fuel light on, so I’d say my theory holds water.
Entering the Las Vegas area the outside temperature was 121˚!! I had not ever been in that degree of heat before. The A/C had our motorhome probably around 100˚, so that was nice, but not really.
When I thought I was going to freak out and die of driving, Sid took the wheel and got us home around 7:30. It was unspeakably nice to take a “real” shower and just relax in stillness. But I still miss the nowhereness, a lot. I want to live nowhere.
Thanks for taking this trip with us!
