Goodbye Puzzle

It’s always difficult when a family member dies.

No less difficult, when an animal member of the family dies.

I went out to feed my girls today and found Puzzle, the lone Rhode Island White in my clan, dead in the coop. I don’t know how long she had been dead, I don’t know why she died. They had water and no food, but not so low on food that she would have starved to death in one day.
I went over and over in my head, trying to think of what she could have gotten into that might have not agreed with her little chicken system. Trying to think of a treat that I might have given her that wasn’t meant for chickens.

Nothing.

I guess sometimes, animals die and I suppose I could take her to the vet and have an autopsy done on her. If I had more that died or if I find another one dead in the next few days, then I will. There may be something going through my flock and I need to know about it.

So …. goodbye Puzzle. We will miss you.

Change is good

So yeah, I changed my blog's name.

When I started this thing, it was sort of under the encouragement of the big kids; they were doing one and thought I might like to join.

They were right; it's been fun and it really HAS helped me remember what has happened in the past. I have such a horrible memory for some things (and not for others which can be frustrating) and this has been great to go back and read. What I'd really like to do is to take each year and make it into a photo/scrapbook of sorts. I don't scrapbook (if God had wanted me to scrapbook, he wouldn't have invented shoe boxes) so this is a great help for those of us who are craftily-challenged.

However, I've always hated my blog title. I wasn't really sure what to call it when I first created it; other's I've read have these clever little titles (some nice, some a little too cutesy for me) and mine just said "Kristi's Blog" ... all in caps no less. Ugh. Blech. Poo.

So I changed it. Not that it's a WHOLE lot more creative, but I feel better about it and that's what counts anyway. If I had wanted suggestions, I would have asked. Perhaps I should have a contest?? :-)

Maybe not.

Anyway, so here's to the first post of the new name.

My Hero, My Dad

My dad, standing in front of the plane he flew during the Vietnam War (F-111) with Robee.
If I said anymore, it would ruin the picture.

Love you Daddy. Love you Robee.

When are you too old?

This statement was considered in my head when a woman commented on my thought bubble that I had to find a night with the kids to dye Easter eggs. She mentioned she has kids around the same age (and some older) and said "Oh, my kids are way too old to do that now. That's one of those things that is nice to not have to worry about as the kids get older."

Hmmmm ............. when ARE you too old to dye Easter Eggs? How about dressing up and Trick-r-Treating? Watching fireworks? Riding scooters? Swinging on the swing set? Skipping?

Someone out there is trying to make our kids grow up way too fast.


As for me and my home, we STILL dye Easter Eggs. Yes, it may be at the daunting hour of 10:30 pm (as I mentioned, trying to find a night). It may be with store bought eggs (ugh! but they dye better than brown ones). But we are going to keep this up as long as possible.

Still sewing

My second .. no wait ... third attempt at sewing skirts. This one is also for Ivy since Lyla is still crawling and dresses are a little difficult for babies to crawl in. I never put Felix in a dress until she could walk; same with shoes.

This is another "super easy" pattern I found for a little girl's skirt which I can actually modify to any size I need or want. This was easier than Felix's skirt due to the fact that it only had three tiers instead of five .... which was tiring.

I'm color-blind to matching colors; I have THE hardest time matching or contrasting colors. I must have missed that talent when it was being passed out. Which is why the two major colors in my closet are either black or white because I can match those colors with anything. Thomas is much better at that than I and so I leave the decorating to him.

I was nervous about picking out these colors but luckily, fabric shops are very helpful to those of us that are color-matching challenged. Colors that can go together or that can contrast each other are placed in a very helpful way, so I don't have to depend on my own judgement. And if that doesn't work, I can always ask one of the clerks who will always offer their help. Even total strangers sometimes will chime in. Thank goodness.

As a side note: I guess my sewing bug has latched on to Felix because after she arrived home from Wash DC (had a GREAT time by the way but it was SO wonderful to see her again), she wanted to sew something.

I think that's great; I think it very important to have some sort of sewing skill even if it's just the basics. It's cool to create something from a piece of material.

HOWEVER, Felix's brain works different. It works like Thomas'. She doesn't just want to sew something; she wants to make a cat. A stuffed cat. Right now. This minute. I can hear Thomas now as a child, "Ethel dear, I need two turtle doves for our Christmas pageant. Let's go."

So we race to the fabric store and she finds fur, eyes, noses, wire for the legs and extra thread. Back home we go and she THEN searches for a pattern for a cat. She finds one, but can't really figure it out for layout. I help her do that. She cuts it out (white fur is flying everywhere) but can't really figure out how to put the head together because in her excitement about sewing, she decides to pull a body pattern from one site and a head pattern from another site. So we have to figure out how to put the two together. And when I say "we" I really mean me. It is rather complicated for a person who has no lessons whatsoever so I drop my skirt project and focus on the cat.

Two days later, we finally finish this cat.

So the question is: Does my daughter, who has a vast collection of stuffed animals including several hundred cats, really NEED another stuffed cat in her room?

I guess the answer is yes, especially if she made it. And we had fun making it together ... well not at first since I was a bit exasperated with the whole Franken-kitty pattern issue but as we progressed and it started taking shape, it became an interesting project.

Wouldn't do it again, but once was an adventure. Twice is insanity.

Whoot! Honor Badge of Courage!!

I did it! I got TWO babies to sleep at the SAME TIME!!

No small feat when considering both babies wanted my lap all to themselves. There was a little bit pushing at the first, making sure one wasn't taking more room than the other; as though I had an imaginary line running down the middle of my body. Then the sound of rhythmic breathing, baby-body twitches and long lashes closing together and I realized that I finally got them both to sleep at the same time.

I don't know that I can duplicate that moment, but it was fun.

Of course, then I realized I was stuck there with two babies in my arms, not able to move. Luckily I didn't have to pee ...... so I cat-napped with them since I'm an old woman and need my sleep too!

Felix's skirt

Here is the pic of the finished skirt. It is now .... 11:35 PM ... I don't have to get up until 2:50 AM so I'm way ahead of where I thought I would be with this thing.It actually turned out rather cute. I'm very surprised. The first couple of sections were pretty easy. Then as I got down towards the bottom tiers, things got a little tricky. Matching up the sides and making sure that the panels were all gathered evenly -- I am NOT a perfectionist which is bad when creating something because one tends to slide on the details.

BUT I finished. And she can take it with her to her field trip to Washington DC. Just as I promised.

I think of Mom and know there is no possible way she would have let me go on something like this and I'm so proud that I'm able to think about her and how much she will love this trip.

Because I love her more than my life. Because when she steps on that plane, a part of my heart is going to go with her. Even if she is going to have one of the greatest adventures of her young life, I'm still going to hold my breath until I can hug her on Thursday night. Because that's what moms do.

And I will cry as I leave the airport, driving my car home when she can't see me because I will not spoil this wonderful moment for her.