MommyCoddle

Wait! how could that be? answering the phone with a dial-up connection??!! unheard of….
Well, the day has finally come and I’ve joined the ranks of high speed internet users once again. Ahhhh…this feels good. Things are continuing to come together around here. It feels like I’m getting my birthday presents a few days early–cable internet, a few "lifeline" channels on the TV, and today we traded in the chronically broken car for a new (used) one. And to top it off, my little sewing machine is oiled and adjusted and ready to come home from her little spa visit to the shop. I hope she’s relaxed, rested and ready to get back to work!

For WIP friday–a stack of buttons and small pendants waiting to be sorted and put on cards for my etsy shop very soon. If you’re on my mailing list, I’ll give you the heads up first.

I’ve been forced to do some hand crafting since my sewing machine has been in the shop, and I’ve been meaning to do some of Emma’s drawings that I tuck away, for quite some time. This is one of my favorites of hers. When I was working on this, she said to me, "you know mom, I can draw you some more birds if you want." She must be picking up on my obsession with this little sketch.

After I worked on it, I wished I had enlarged the drawing a bit and used a few less strands of floss, but the feel is still definitely still there. She’s been asking me to make her a pillow for her bed, so I think this will be on there somewhere.

  We just refreshed our stash of library books this week. ( I can’t believe the new group is due on July 31st! This summer is going by so quickly!) Anyway, our latest "study" with the girls is birds. Emma seems to have her field guide by her side at all times.

She does the best impression of a mourning dove–well enough that one outside our door "talks" back to her. We have some great books, that I’ll post in the sidebar this weekend. One  I especially love is about how different birds build their nests. It really is amazing what birds can build using natural materials and their ingenuity. I think we might give it a try ourselves and see if we can build anything close.

And lastly, another mysterious picture that showed up when I downloaded my camera. Must be the work of the camera in Emma’s hands. Mary seems to really light up for her sister:

Next week, I’ll have some amazing mail to share, I’m planning another trip to the ribbon outlet (wednesday? mom? mary?), and I’m hoping to give a few things away…stay tuned….Happy Weekend!

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.

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.

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.