See You Later!

We're packed and ready to go. The boys are off to their grandparents and Superman and I will soon be on a plane.

We'll see you next week!

Christmas Trees

I finished the stackable Christmas trees last night while watching Twilight. (Yes, yes, I know- just finished the book, so had to see the movie. The book is much better, just like usual.)














I went with reds and greens since these are for the boys and they are still learning all the Christmas tradition stuff. I zig-zagged the edges with the opposite color and hand stitched the edges closed.

About Last Night . . .

 

:: I finished everything on my list except hemming Superman's pants.

 

:: I also made extra stuff and stayed up way too late.

 

I'm a rule breaker.

 

:: I actually took pictures. My apologies that they're dark, but it's a lovely shade of gray outside and looking to be that way until at least March.

 

Gigantic pile of stuff to do:

 

The red skirt with a million pleats:

 

And another skirt I made in late summer, but never photographed:

 

:: I also read about 300 gazillion pages of Twilight. Well, maybe not that much- I'll just put it this way- I started the book (yet again) on Sunday and finished it last night. I've tried to get into that book  no less than four times and this time I had nothing waiting in my to-be-read pile and it was either keep reading that or don't read anything. So I kept reading and didn't stop. The writing itself isn't anything amazing, but the story was certainly compelling. I've got the others on order now. So all you Twilight people that have been harassing me every time I've started the book and put it down again can just stop it. I'll read them as soon as I get back from my trip!

UFO Week

Okay- it's Un-Finished Object week here. There's a point every few months where I realize that I'll never find my desk again if I don't finish off all the little projects hanging out. The rules?

 

1. Don't start anything new until the list is done. *Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But when I'm working on something it's so easy to get distracted with ideas for new things or have the temptation to "just cut this out real quick . . ."

 

2. After the list is done, finish cleaning off the desk! *Somehow my desk becomes the collection site for everyone else's spare parts. Off to their homes they go!

 

THE LIST

1. Hem Superman's pants.

2. Take the hem of Ender's pajama's down.

3. Finish the blue linen wrap skirt.

4. Fix the red skirt and topstitch.

5. Zigzag the Christmas trees.

 

Most of these things are really fast finishes that just involve changing thread color. The blue linen skirt is only cut, so that will take a few hours. I'm going to try to get it all done today except that linen skirt. Think I can?

7 Quick Takes

 

If you'd like to read more quick takes, go visit Jen. She's cool like that.

 

~1~

Superman and I are going on a trip sans children. For more than a night or two.

Color me nervous.

The panic attacks started exactly 2 nights ago when I woke up at about 2 a.m. completely convinced that Ender had broken his arm while we were gone and we weren't there for him. Never mind the fact that he'll be with grandparents who love him very much and take amazing care of him when we're not around, but you know. Maternal paranoia. 

 

~2~

I finished Kushiel's Mercy yesterday morning. It was so good that I stayed up late reading and actually woke up earlier than usual to have extra time to read and finish it up. I could not put it down and now I'm sad that the serious is over. I need to find something in the same vein while I'm on such a big fantasy kick in my fiction reading.

 

~3~

I've been addressing envelopes for our Christmas cards this week and Ender was inspired to make his own. He's been stamping and writing cards to everyone in the family to hand out on Thanksgiving.

They're on old "Thank You" cards with monkeys on them, but if you call them Thanksgiving monkeys it's all good.

 

~4~

I spent a ridiculous amount of time pleating last night. What a lesson in patience! Superman and I were catching up on a few of the shows on our DVR and after awhile he looked at me and said, "what exactly are you doing?"

I tried to explain but he waved me off and asked, "If it's that much trouble why would you do that to yourself?"

I wondered too! It's worth it- the skirt is going to look great, but I don't want to mess with pleats for a long, long time. Or ruffles either. Good thing I have boys, I suppose!

 

~5~

The boys helped decorate for Thanksgiving this week:

The "countdown to Thanksgiving" chain belongs to Ender. We started making countdown chains quite awhile ago, and it has really helped him with teen counting. The wreaths were a spontaneous kind of thing. I don't know how we got on the topic of wreaths, but Ender asked me why we had a Christmas wreath but not a thanksgiving wreath, so he decided to make one. We cut some leafy shapes and used cardboard from an empty cereal box to cut the wreath shape. Ezra even got in on the wreath making and did a pretty good job with the glue stick.

 

~6~

 I continue to be amazed at how personality comes out in kids so young. Ezra has always been very opinionated, and especially so in his art. He is a "maker" like me and at the very least draws every day. His new adventure into collages has been very fun to watch. It's still a very physical process for him, but this week he placed pieces very specifically on the page and named the work when it was complete. I've tried to stay away from the naming thing, but Ezra insists on it. Most often he calls his work a "duck".

I'm going to switch up the collage supplies this week and add a little bit of fabric and felt to see what he does with that.

 

~7~

I'm spending the weekend trying to avoid getting the gunky nose stuff the boys have. I'm imagining there will probably be abundant time on the couch, warm blankies and favorite movies. Hopefully some good napping from the boys to help them get over this stuff.