Projects

This summer and now into the fall I've managed to get a little crafting in.  It's a lot different now with a baby especially now that she can crawl and get into everything!  Sewing is especially dangerous.  I try to keep most of my stuff in our room where I can close the door if something is left out.  Which often means a very messy bedroom.  Crochet and knitting are better because the basic materials needed for that are not as easily swallowed.   I did lose a button the other day that was going on a crocheted vest and worried Joan had eaten it...  Thankfully Dan found it when he got home and we didn't have to look for it in her diapers.

Here's a pretty simple project.  I re-purposed a vinyl tablecloth and old fleece blanket into a picnic blanket.  It rolls up and stays in our stroller for park outings.  It has also been useful as a rain cover for the stroller in a pinch as well.

  

Last weekend I had two baby showers to attend for baby boys.  They were both beautiful showers and very creative!  For the first little man I crocheted this blue and green sweater vest.  It was fun to try as the stitch was pretty new to me and I've never made a vest before.  

For the second little guy I made a tiny little puppy hat.  His family has a friendly fluffy cream-colored dog and I wanted him to match!  This was also a new pattern for me and I'm excited to add animal hats to my repertoire. 

For our anniversary Dan surprised me with an iPad.  Of course one of the first things I thought about was what kind of case I was going to make for it!  A friend of mine stopped here for a night before flying out of O'hare and she had just won an iPad herself.  So I whipped together a little sleeve for it out of felted wool.  I learned a few things from making hers and made my own a few weeks later.  Actually it was just a day or so before I was leaving on a trip also.  I guess I need the last minute deadline to motivate me!  This is mine.  I added a cotton liner because the sweater can leave a lot of fuzz on the screen otherwise.

But a sleeve only offers so much protection if I want to stick my iPad into a bag when out and about.  I really like the cases I've seen that were made out of an old book.  I decided to try making one myself. 

This is the inside of it without the iPad.  Notice the left side is covered in a soft velvet.  Luxurious, no?

The book was originally a children's book titled, "Rain in the Winds."  I liked the cover with the boy riding an elephant.  I used one piece of elastic for the whole thing.  I found buttons that had big enough holes that I could thread it through them but they offer enough hold to keep the elastic tight on the inside even when it's not wrapped around the outside of the book.  I also used the buttons to secure the ends.  I weaved the elastic through the buttons and then sewed it to itself with a little bit of glue as extra reinforcement.  The back looks a little beat up from the holes I screwed through it.  I'd like to figure out something to put around the large hole which is there for the camera.  The book got pretty torn up around that spot.

And there it is holding the iPad with a picture of a little cutie on it.  If you look closely you can also see the reflection of her hand.  I had to fight her off while I took these pictures.  She wants to be involved in everything I do.  Who can blame her?  I should enjoy the days when she thinks I'm super cool while they last, right?

The Months of Summer

How would I summarize our summer?

Hot.  Dry.  Full of family, friends, and a growing baby.

I cannot believe how much Joanie has changed in 6 weeks!  Wow.  She started scooting one week, then the next crawling, then pulling herself up on stuff and now she's getting around and into everything!  It is a lot of fun to see her full of curiosity and spunk.  She was starting to get so frustrated when she couldn't get around and seems a lot happier now with her new abilities.  She has lots of interest in walking, but doesn't stand on her own yet or show any definite signs of that happening soon.  Her newest babbling involves clicking her tongue.  So funny!

Here are a few highlights from the last couple months:

Cousin Gwen and Joan playing in Michigan.  They are adorable together!

Taking Joan Downtown for the first time for Spygame.  The Bean.

 Our first Cubs game.  Joan is a huge fan apparently.

My favorite picture of Joan with another kiddo.  Joan likes other little people and we are blessed to have quite a few who are older than her but so good with younger babies!  Cousin Lewis even got her to giggle while we were visiting.

Newlymom

There are quite a few ways I can tell I'm still in the "newlywed" phase of motherhood.  It's a mental and emotional place that all new mothers inevitably find themselves.  Being a new mom doesn't just mean you don't have a clue what you're doing and will have many stories to tell your oldest child about how she or he was your experimental kid.  It also means you've had a Grinch experience and you're adjusting to the new size of your heart.  Each mom probably exhibits different symptoms.  Here are some of the ways I know I'm still a "Newlymom."

• After Joan is in bed for the night Dan and I always end up looking at pictures of her, watching videos of her, or both.  Never fails.

• At 5 months I finally left her in nursery for some of the church service.  While I was sitting in the service all I was thinking about was how she was doing, if she was sleeping or eating or crying or what.  I kept looking for a good time to go back and check on her and had to use all my willpower to keep me from doing that.  When we reached the end there was a 5 verse hymn!  I leaned over to Dan and asked if we were really going to sing all 5 verses, he didn't think so.  I was happy that he was right and immediately when the song ended I was out of my seat and pushing my way past people to fly to the nursery. 

• It is difficult for me to talk about much beyond babies.  I realize that some people don't just want to hear about sleeping, eating, pooping, bathing, playing and whatever else my baby has been doing lately.  It takes a certain amount of concentrated effort to think outside that box and ask questions that would pertain to another person's life.  And just when I think I've got something, I'll be distracted by a funny face, silly sound, or fuss from the baby in my arms and have to start all over in thinking of the right thing to say.

• I can't imagine my sweet little baby ever being manipulative or disobedient.  I know she will, I just can't imagine it.

• I take pictures and/or videos almost everyday.  

• Many of the cards or e-mails I send contain pictures of Joan.  In fact, she's getting close to having her own greeting card line with my growing Photoshop skills (read: putting text on a picture).

I'm sure there are many other ways to tell that I'm a "Newlymom," but as I said in my fourth bullet I try to think of things that don't just pertain to me and my baby.  So here's my pertinent question...  hmm...  oops.  I don't have one.

To blog or not to blog

I have half a mind to start writing on this blog again.  Well, most of the time I have half a mind these days so why not go for it, right?  One of the ways I can tell I'm not fully with it is my lack of observation about my surroundings.  Here are some examples:

1. When my brother-in-law was here to visit Joan for the first time he moved the birth announcement of his daughter from the side of the fridge where we have all our pictures to the front.  It wasn't until he was back visiting in March and pointed out that he was the one that moved it that I noticed it was on the front of the fridge and used to be with the rest of them.

2. When my friend was visiting at the end of January she put a little mini rug looking coaster on a nail left in our living room wall from the last tenant.  It was in this awkward place that nothing should have been hung, but I left that coaster there until I noticed it when I had all of my small group girls over here in March.  I had forgotten it was hanging there even though I saw it all the time.

3.  Joan was given this great toy owl from my aunt for Christmas and it was so cute so we put it as decoration in her nursery since she wasn't playing with toys yet.  Just the other night I was in the nursery and saw it and realized it was a toy and not a decoration and I should get it down for her to play with.  Duh!  The advantage of my absentmindedness is that it was a new toy for her now and she's just reaching the age where the old toys don't always keep her interest for long.  She's been really enjoying the owl the last couple of days so I'm glad I realized it was meant to be played with.  haha

As for cooking, it's a lot easier for fewer people.  That about sums up the difference between cooking now and cooking in Jerusalem.  :) 

Questions from Mandii

Well...  once again it has been too long.  I think of all sorts of things to blog about but then I take too much time worrying about not having pictures or making sure it's interesting and then I just end up writing nothing.  Plus I feel so far behind on everything my post would be way to long if I blogged about it all!  So I'll just start with answering a few questions from my friend Mandii about our January experience of cooking for 100 that I thought were perfect to answer on here:

1. "I can't imagine cooking for 100 people. How do you ever know how much stuff to make?"

We've pretty much learned how much to make from trial and error.  We start with a recipe, convert it to the right amount based on what is given and then take note if that was too much or not enough for next time.  For example, we make the Mac n' Cheese recipe for 50, but it really ends up to be enough for 100!  So we've always just used the extra pan to make chicken casserole later that week.  When we had the large group here we knew we'd have the perfect amount just by making the recipe as we normally did.  I also have a good idea based on our serving dishes how much we need -  ex. one buffet pan of meat and one of rice for a group of 50.  That helps me a lot but wouldn't be much help if I was cooking elsewhere with different pans.  I've also Googled for things like "how much rice to make per person" to learn our original amounts for 50 and then I can just double that.  There's a lot of helpful information out there!

2. "I cant imagine knowing the right amount of stuff to get."

Thankfully we don't usually have to figure out how much stuff to get.  We have shelves, a freezer and a refrigeration stocked with our basic supplies to pull from.  So when it looks like we don't have enough we can just go and grab more.  But we do need to know how much meat to defrost a day or two before we plan to use it.  For that we've learned how many bags of chicken legs we need for 50 or how many bags of beef based originally on the weight or just a wild guess.  Professional, right?  ;) 

3."What kind of stuff do you make?"

The kinds of stuff we makes can be found in my last blog where I listed almost every meal we made last semester.  Along with that we always offer a salad and sometimes a hot vegetable and a starch if there isn't one in the entree (noodles, rice, pita, garlic bread etc).  We try a new dish here and there or other new things to go with our meals - making ranch dressing for example.  Friday night we always make dessert.  The other nights fresh fruit is put out for the after dinner sweet.

4. "Do you feel like you've refined your cooking skills?"

I suppose cooking for hours every day does refine my skills in ways I probably don't even know right now.  We chop so much I must be faster at it by now!  I've also learned to make things I never did before - like a roux base for the Mac N' Cheese or other cream sauces.  I've also really noticed what ingredients I care about having fresh and the ones that I don't notice as much if I have them canned/bottled/dried.  Like lemons - they are so much better squeezed fresh than what you get in the bottle.  But this country has good citrus, so maybe the grocery store ones back home in the midwest wouldn't be as superb in comparison as they are here.  It will be interesting to get home and see what things I make more often or how my cooking has changed after this experience.  Dan and I have definitely learned a lot about sharing the kitchen tasks and being more efficient in working together.  I think that will always be a beneficial thing for us.

Thanks for your questions, Mandii