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the stuff of life

I feel like I’ve been moving a bit in slow-motion this last week. Not sure why. Lots of ups and downs of life…
Yesterday, one of the two kittens that Emma has been mollycoddling since they were born was killed somewhat traumatically by an overly playful dog. Emma, unfortunately was the one who found it dead outside and was terribly upset. It was horrible. They are outside barn cats (although they "accidentally" come inside our house more frequently than I should admit on here), so there wasn’t much sympathy around here from others, which is fine, I guess. Sort of a "that’s what happens in life; live and learn; life on the farm is tough" response. I wasn’t very sad about the kitten, because I haven’t been as attached to them as Emma has but seeing her tears brought tears for me as well. And more tears once Emma had gone to bed for the night and I was retelling the story to Dan. It just plain sucks seeing your children heartbroken. Emma seems better today but she keeps asking me to go outside and check if Flower, the other kitten, is still alive. And she’s asked me to pray for her a few times to ‘stop thinking about Spring being dead.’ ugh.
And of course this all happened as we were rushing out the door to a doctor’s appointment. Emma has a painful case swimmer’s ear. Although I think she’s kind of proud to call it that. It has been keeping her up  and bringing her to our bedside nightly.  Perhaps adding to my tiredness.  Thankfully she’s being a champ about the eardrops.
So, life has dealt a little blow to sweet Emma this week. But we are managing.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes Dan and I are dealing with the most annoying case of car troubles. At this point, its either becoming comical or completely ridiculous and unbelievable, I’m not sure. For the last four months, we’ve been literally taking turns as to whose car is broken down. And for the last three weeks, we’ve both been broken down. On tuesday we picked up Dan’s "fixed" car from the shop and it promptly broke down again the next day with a new problem when he drove it to work. Now, my car is driveable, but shaky….so there’s lots of decisions to be made surrounding all that in the next few weeks/days/month. who knows…say it with me now, "ugh."
But, BUT–the weather is beautiful here. My perfect kind of weather–no humidity, cool breeze, temps in the upper 70s. I could live in this temperature all summer.
And my dear little two year old is demanding to be potty-trained. I just let her walk around bare-bummed or in a pair of em’s undies and she gives me a little, "ow!" and then "i need to go peepee." and off we go to the bathroom. She doesn’t waste any time, I don’t have to check in with her every twenty minutes, she doesn’t hang out on the potty for endless hours with a book like her older sibling, it just seems to be happening. What a girl.
And I got these lovely gingham checks in the mail from fashionfabricsclub.

Img_4590

I’ve never heard of them, but found them when looking for brown and white checked gingham. I thought their prices were great, too. I’ve had brown and white gingham on the brain lately. I just love it. And I’m hopin

g it will become one of the smocks from my new craft book, if I can just figure out those crazy japanese patterns. I was a bit disappointed that the orange was so peachy, but still think it will be cute.

But, oh, did I tell you my sewing machine is broken. Say it again, "ugh!" One of those stitch-stitch-jam– stitch-stitch-jam problems. I’m hoping it only needs a little tune-up. I just have to figure out where to take it.
So we’ve been happily kid-crafting around here which resulted in a new family of peg dolls moving in to our dollhouse. Three have already been fostered out to new homes, but this is who remains in residence with us.
Img_4586

Emma really got into it and exclaimed that she was going to keep making dolls until bedtime. (this was at 11a.m.) But just forty-five minutes later I looked up from a pleated skirt I was carefully gluing on MY doll and realized I was alone and the "party" had moved on to crayons and coloring books.

I’m hoping to list some buttons and small pendants in my shop next weekend. And guess what–next thursday, my trusty cable guy will be arriving to install my cable internet. Goodbye mr. dial-up. Pleased to meet you highspeed cable. I will be back in the ranks of highspeed technology. I look forward to not having to fold laundry while waiting for pictures to load, or blogs to appear on my screen. And I’ll be glad to no longer neglect my flickr account. mmmm…that will be sweet.

I’ve spent emma’s whole nap writing this post, waiting for pictures to load, and updating my college directory online. Not much accomplished with my free time. Now she’s hanging on my arm begging to go outside with me and check on the kitten. of course I’ll go.

I feel like I’ve been moving a bit in slow-motion this last week. Not sure why. Lots of ups and downs of life…
Yesterday, one of the two kittens that Emma has been mollycoddling since they were born was killed somewhat traumatically by an overly playful dog. Emma, unfortunately was the one who found it dead outside and was terribly upset. It was horrible. They are outside barn cats (although they "accidentally" come inside our house more frequently than I should admit on here), so there wasn’t much sympathy around here from others, which is fine, I guess. Sort of a "that’s what happens in life; live and learn; life on the farm is tough" response. I wasn’t very sad about the kitten, because I haven’t been as attached to them as Emma has but seeing her tears brought tears for me as well. And more tears once Emma had gone to bed for the night and I was retelling the story to Dan. It just plain sucks seeing your children heartbroken. Emma seems better today but she keeps asking me to go outside and check if Flower, the other kitten, is still alive. And she’s asked me to pray for her a few times to ‘stop thinking about Spring being dead.’ ugh.
And of course this all happened as we were rushing out the door to a doctor’s appointment. Emma has a painful case swimmer’s ear. Although I think she’s kind of proud to call it that. It has been keeping her up  and bringing her to our bedside nightly.  Perhaps adding to my tiredness.  Thankfully she’s being a champ about the eardrops.
So, life has dealt a little blow to sweet Emma this week. But we are managing.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes Dan and I are dealing with the most annoying case of car troubles. At this point, its either becoming comical or completely ridiculous and unbelievable, I’m not sure. For the last four months, we’ve been literally taking turns as to whose car is broken down. And for the last three weeks, we’ve both been broken down. On tuesday we picked up Dan’s "fixed" car from the shop and it promptly broke down again the next day with a new problem when he drove it to work. Now, my car is driveable, but shaky….so there’s lots of decisions to be made surrounding all that in the next few weeks/days/month. who knows…say it with me now, "ugh."
But, BUT–the weather is beautiful here. My perfect kind of weather–no humidity, cool breeze, temps in the upper 70s. I could live in this temperature all summer.
And my dear little two year old is demanding to be potty-trained. I just let her walk around bare-bummed or in a pair of em’s undies and she gives me a little, "ow!" and then "i need to go peepee." and off we go to the bathroom. She doesn’t waste any time, I don’t have to check in with her every twenty minutes, she doesn’t hang out on the potty for endless hours with a book like her older sibling, it just seems to be happening. What a girl.
And I got these lovely gingham checks in the mail from fashionfabricsclub.

Img_4590

I’ve never heard of them, but found them when looking for brown and white checked gingham. I thought their prices were great, too. I’ve had brown and white gingham on the brain lately. I just love it. And I’m hopin

g it will become one of the smocks from my new craft book, if I can just figure out those crazy japanese patterns. I was a bit disappointed that the orange was so peachy, but still think it will be cute.

But, oh, did I tell you my sewing machine is broken. Say it again, "ugh!" One of those stitch-stitch-jam– stitch-stitch-jam problems. I’m hoping it only needs a little tune-up. I just have to figure out where to take it.
So we’ve been happily kid-crafting around here which resulted in a new family of peg dolls moving in to our dollhouse. Three have already been fostered out to new homes, but this is who remains in residence with us.
Img_4586

Emma really got into it and exclaimed that she was going to keep making dolls until bedtime. (this was at 11a.m.) But just forty-five minutes later I looked up from a pleated skirt I was carefully gluing on MY doll and realized I was alone and the "party" had moved on to crayons and coloring books.

I’m hoping to list some buttons and small pendants in my shop next weekend. And guess what–next thursday, my trusty cable guy will be arriving to install my cable internet. Goodbye mr. dial-up. Pleased to meet you highspeed cable. I will be back in the ranks of highspeed technology. I look forward to not having to fold laundry while waiting for pictures to load, or blogs to appear on my screen. And I’ll be glad to no longer neglect my flickr account. mmmm…that will be sweet.

I’ve spent emma’s whole nap writing this post, waiting for pictures to load, and updating my college directory online. Not much accomplished with my free time. Now she’s hanging on my arm begging to go outside with me and check on the kitten. of course I’ll go.

17 comments on “the stuff of life”

  1. oh poor emma. i know the feeling, my dad is definitely of the school that animals are animals, and outdoors all the time. not much sympathy when one of our barn cats quit coming round or worse. sorry for all the “ughing” going on at your house, car troubles are the worst. bleh. go outside and enjoy some good weather missy!

  2. i’ll say some prayers for little emma too… it is so tough to see them sad, isn’t it?

    the gingham is lovely. funny – i have been dreaming of brown and white gingham too! must be in the air…

  3. Aww…poor Spring…poor Emma!

    We must be on the same wavelength, I just bought some brown + white gingham a few weeks ago…just LOVE it.

    Hope your car + sewing machine troubles get fixed quickly!

  4. Oh man, poor Emma. We lived on a farm for 3 years and had to deal with a couple of “freinds” suddenly dying. The kids crafts are so great,I love it. No, not the sewing machine and the cars!! We just went through a car thing like that too, very interesting. Here’s to hoping that all of your machinery is in good working order very SOON! xo.

  5. Oh Molly, so sad to hear everything seems to be misaligned at the moment. But remember, things can only get better now.

    Best wishes,

  6. ugh! on the (potentially) bright side, these unfortunate things are said to come in 3’s, right? i bet things are looking up before you know it…

  7. Oh, I’m sorry about the kitty. We lost our Kitty (that was her name) last fall and it was really hard for all of us. Tell Emma I’ll pray for Flower to be safe too 🙂

  8. I empathise with you Molly. As I write, my husband is going to get truck parts. This week, I just can’t recoop and I feel like I’m walking around with a cloud around my head.I also agree, kids on a farm learn about life and death a little more than others. But none the less, it breaks out hearts to see there hearts broken.

  9. Sorry for the rough patches this week. Wow, that was some post. Long, not in a bad way, but boy you said a lot. I feel like we had coffee!

  10. gosh, Molly, that really sucks about the kitten. There is nothing worse than watching your child’s heart break. It is the worst part about being a parent! I really hope things start to come back together for you super quick! Just hang in there, girl, good things are on the way! 😉

  11. oh my. this sounds vaguely familiar. pet…car…life…i suppose these sort of moments remind us when a day is uneventful, it should be celebrated!

    hope this next week will be better.

  12. poor little Emma! what a gruesome discovery! i hope she is okay.

    i wanted to let you know that we made it to the coveted ribbon outlet this weekend (and the wonder bread/hostess outlet). we loved the ribbon outlet! thanks for letting me know of its existence!

  13. Poor Emma! Hope her ear is at least better. We’ve had a double ear infection at our house, and dueling car problems, so I feel your pain. My car FINALLY (fingers crossed) is fixed after a repair of the head gasket, ($$$$)which appears to have been the real cause of all the other things that have gone wrong with it since FEBRUARY! I hope your car ailments are of the less costly variety!

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