:: have been cutting mountains of sheets for new skirts to put in the shop
:: little miss waiting patiently for her bath after a certain foot powder incident
:: {and} fah-REAK!! new fabric from AMH… I could kiss that lady on the mouth for being such a prolific designer
:: really — on the mouth
As I was bringing up wood from the basement this morning, my heart just about melted when I looked up and saw those little girls sitting shoulder to shoulder in their jammies, “reading” their scriptures. Of course they squabble (frequently), but when it boils down to it, those two are best buddies. They love each other so much. And it makes me so happy that they are beginning to love the scriptures, too.
I feel like I did a lot of wheel-spinning today. I took both those pictures before nine o’clock this morning, and it was reassuring — after a long, wheel-spinning kind of day — to sit down to blog those photos and remember that at least I did two things right today — and maybe a few more, besides. What did you do right today?
So, if you’re just tuning in, I just drove myself, my two girls (aged 1 and 3), and a car crammed with crap from Georgia to upstate New York. And we made it here in one piece. And we still like each other. And in case you find yourself in a similar pickle sometime, I’d like to present my vast store of accumulated knowledge and wisdom on the subject…
(See? This is me. On day three. With my vast knowledge and wisdom. And I’d like to add that the only reason I’m wearing eye makeup and have my hair done is because I got to see my husband for the first time in a month that day. The other two days = not so pleasant.)
Keep a schedule. For us, that meant books (physical and audio) in the morning, snack and movie time around 10 and 3, lunch at 12, quiet time at 1, dinner at 5:30, and toys, music, and meals in between. It provided a semblance of normalcy, and I felt calmer just knowing that this trip was not going to be one eternal, empty, endless scream-fest stretching out before us.
Define time. My kids don’t understand clock time yet, let alone the concept of “we’ll be there in ten minutes.” And I read this somewhere else — I wish I could remember where — but the idea was to mark time in a way they can understand — e.g. “You can watch a movie after lunch,” or “We’ll get to the hotel when it gets dark.” For us, it helps immensely if I can get Lizzy to parrot back the answer (“So when will we get to the hotel?”) — that way, she knows that I know that she knows, and she’s less likely to pester me ask about it again — at least for few minutes.
No go-go-gadget arms. It has long been a hard and fast rule that I don’t give the kids toys or food while the car is on. If they drop their toy or get thirsty, they know they’ll have to wait until Mommy stops the car. This was totally key to everyone’s sanity.
Limit snacks. On previous road trips, I’ve thrown exciting snacks at my kids nonstop, which always went poorly (it made them cranky and turned me into an all-day vending machine, which is my most-hated aspect of family road trips). This time, they got two snacks a day and three meals a day. That was it. And everyone was happy.
Surprises. A couple of books, a couple of small toys, and one bigger toy went a long way for us. Then at lunch on day 2, I let them each pick out a small toy at the Cracker Barrel (yeah, the vegetables are overcooked, but it’s one step closer to real food than Mickey D’s), which completely made their day (cute story: Maren went off like a shot for the baby dolls, adopted one, and would. not. let. go. She mommied that thing gleefully for the rest of the trip — you can see its leg in the picture below). Anyway — Lizzy knows that surprises = awesome, so I played it up — “If you eat a good lunch, I have a surprise for you when we get back to the car!”
(Two happy chickies with a $1 surprise. Thank you, Target.)
Pray. Morning, noon, night. In your heart. With your kids. Over every meal. Each time you start the car. Pray for safety. Pray for sanity. Pray for love. And darnit — pray for fun. I think God knows we need some fun to get by.
Any more tips? Let’s have ‘em!
Really, this is a post about books, but I had to throw this in here:
Those girls love them some playin’ on mama’s bed.
And I have been lovin’ me some good books lately –
The Worst Hard Time, adult nonfiction about the Dust Bowl disaster in the Plains States during the 1930s. What a time those folks had of it. Egan does a fantastic job of tying individuals, science, geography, and politics together in a way that’s completely non-boring. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s one of those books that I take to the playground in hopes of sneaking in an extra paragraph or two while the girls play.
Freakonomics, another piece of adult nonfiction. The author uses principles from economics to explore social questions and problems — some of which you probably didn’t know were social questions and problems. Take, for example, the first three chapter titles: “What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?”; “How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real Estate Agents?”; and “Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?”. It’s such a rad book. I dare you to not swallow it whole.
Anybody else have some good book lovin’ to spread around?
I’ve been meaning to introduce you to these sweet little sisters.
Lizzy and Maren play/sleep/snuggle with their dolls just about every day (although Lizzy is much clearer on whose doll is whose). My dear friend Janie made them, reversible dresses and all, and I can’t tell you how thrilled we are with them. What I can tell you is that these are going to be toys that last.
And look — if you peek underneath –
Hee hee!
Janie is also an Etsy seller, and she’s happy to take custom orders for your very own doll. She follows the Waldorf method, though she uses synthetic materials (hence the term “Fauxdorf”) — which I think is fantastic, because it is still a quality handmade toy, but you don’t have to spend upwards of a hundred smackers on it. Contact Janie via her Etsy shop for more info.
The yarn for their hair came from Jess’s Etsy shop — she even custom-spun it for me, using all the colors I asked for. It is absolutely gorgeous yarn! I would so love to try spinning one of these days. I just worry that bringing up yet another crafty hobby might send my sweet husband into cardiac arrest.
A new stack of pretties, all ready to be packaged up for some very special little girls.
A vintage rainbow for Evelyn (more on that soon!).
Ready to pounce the moment the chicklets are in bed tonight (I like to cut by day and sew by night).
And I forgot to put this in yesterday’s post — remember the Little People likenesses from last year? Lizzy gave her baby sister an update — no longer the baby, Maren is now a little girl with brown hair. I came upon Lizzy one day at my parents’ house, with her Lizzy/Maren likenesses sitting together in chairs, having a very civilized conversation.
I love those girls.
Nothing much crafty to show for today — I just finished a custom job for a teacher friend — 30 classroom chair covers, all in black canvas. They look sharp, but not terribly exciting (love you, K!). Instead, I wanted to direct you to some photos — along with some thoughts on skirt-wearing — that Courtney just posted of her three chickies wearing Modern Marigold skirts. I love it! There isn’t much in the shop right now, but I’m hoping to finish up some customs this week, then get rockin’ again on shop stuff.
Also, something that made my heart go pitter-patter the other day — my girls reading together. Every once in a while, L would call M’s attention to something interesting, like a bunch of pandas.
In case you’re looking for a good book, right now I am ripping through In the Heart of the Sea, a true story about a 19th century whaling disaster at sea (written, incidentally, by the author of Mayflower, which is also fantastic). If you like maritime survival nonfiction, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea is another really, really good one.
Happy Thursday!
We love the way you do Spring here.
love,
the girls & me.
Remember how I was going to make that dress into a shirt? Well, dear Avery had the brilliant idea of adding some gores to the darn thing.
It totally worked! (Incidentally, I’d forgotten that it works with big girl skirts, too.) I am sure there is a much more scientific explanation of how to do it out there somewhere, but the basic idea is that you cut a couple of slits into the sides of the dress and sew in some triangles of fabric to make the whole thing wider in a gradual, pretty sort of way.
Happy President’s Day! Daddy has work off, so we are off to the (indoor) pool for some swimmy time. Lizzy’s been dying to go swimming lately, so we finally told her that we’d go on Monday. Hence, she’s been saying all week, “Go swimming Monday!” (as if she has any idea what “Monday” means).
Check out the sweet little boy’s President’s Day Shirt tutorial at Dana-Made-It! She’s also hosting a month-long Celebrate the Boy extravaganza with tons of crafty tutorials for the little men in our lives. So many of the tutorials available are for little girls, so it’s fun to see some cool boy tutorials coming out, too!
They both loved it. And Lizzy is all over the Very Big Girl Responsibility of Pushing Little Sister’s Swing.
