Month: November 2011

Water for Christmas Etsy Shop…..

For the second year in a row, I am helping out a great cause…One Billion Thirsty.  One Billion Thirsty “connects passionate donors, activists and innovators, enabling the best solutions to impact those most in need of clean water.”  They are currently having a Water for Christmas Etsy sale where all proceeds from items sold through their shop go directly to clean water projects in Sierra Leone, West Africa.  Over the past two years, the Water for Christmas Etsy shop has raised more than $10,000 for clean water projects around the world.

I have donated a woolie to their Etsy shop…check it out HERE:

Embrace the Camera….

The other day, while in the bathroom…I noticed this shadow.  So, while changing a diaper…I do that often..I had Quinn snap a picture for me!  Things have been a bit exhausting around here.  It seems like the babies take turns being the cranky one.  I just get one quiet and calmed down and then the next one starts.  Getting them both to sleep at the same time is difficult.  I think it would be easier if I knew I’d be getting a good night sleep at the end of the day..but that doesn’t happen.  Grey is getting better at sleeping during the night, but Escher still wakes up about every hour or so.  I’m looking forward to the day when they both sleep for three hours during the night!

I am lucky….

Last week, I took the babies to their 8 week checkup.  River came along and was such a big helper.  Everything was perfect.  They are perfect.  And I am lucky!  I am lucky that things are so good.  I am lucky that my two newborn babies are so healthy and happy and growing! I am lucky that all my other children are healthy and happy.  It sounds so cliche, but it is so true.

The other day I went out with my friend for lunch.  I couldn’t wait to talk to a friend.  For some reason, I told her I wasn’t lucky…..that things hadn’t been going my way lately.  I was thinking about the little things……all the little, silly, insignificant things…that seemed to be piling up and turning into big things.  She reminded me how wrong I was..how lucky I am……how INCREDIBLY lucky I am.  And she is right.  I am lucky.  very lucky.

Sewing Again….

I can’t believe my little babies are already 9 weeks old!!  And for the first time, I’m sewing again!  My custom orders are piling up….and I must start sewing.  But it is so hard to find a bit of time.  So, this morning, after dropping River off at pre-school…the little babies cooperated.  They fell asleep in their car seats and slept while I sewed!  They don’t seem to like the sound of the sewing machine..it kept bothering their sleep.   You’d think it would be comforting to them..considering how much time I spent sewing with them inside of me!  Well, I’m off to continue sewing…..

Embrace the Camera…Halloween

So, every Halloween we go pick pumpkins.  But this Halloween, it never happened.  Sadly, the night before Halloween we went to the grocery food store and picked pumpkins!  But there were no plain pumpkins left..only pumpkins that were painted!  Tuesday insisted that we take pictures as we picked out the pumpkins, since we weren’t going to the pumpkin patch!  Then, we had to go home and scrub the paint faces off of the pumpkins! Then, the pumpkin carving began…along with pretending to vomit up the pumpkin guts and pretending to throw it at each other…..(it was all pretend!)  Then Tuesday took my glasses and pretended to be a ghost while Quinn grabbed the camera and took a million photos!  It was a fun family night!

Sweet Potato Bread for the bread machine….

I had a left over sweet potato, and I decided to make a loaf of bread out of it.  I have never made sweet potato bread before, so I needed to look up a recipe…..so, off to the internet I went.  I also knew I wanted to use my bread machine.  I found a recipe and adapted it.  I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out…but it was delicious….especially slathered in butter.  It reminded me of a pumpkin bread.

Sweet Potato Bread for bread machine

Adapted from a recipe by Mary E. Crain from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sweet-potato-bread-i/detail.aspx

Ingredients

  • ½ cup water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 3-4 cups sifted all-purpose flour (depending on how much your bread machine prefers!)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
  • 2 teaspoons yeast

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients into your bread machine in the order listed.  Set for sweet, dough cycle.
  2. When finished, bake at approximately 350° – 375° in your oven for approximately 20 minutes.

Halloween…

We had a wonderful Halloween.   Every year, the first place we trick or treat is my dad’s house.  Then we go next door to my in-laws house..then the real trick or treating can start!  Of course, I made River pose for many photos before she could start to trick or treat.  She wasn’t happy about this…….but finally she started doing some “fairy” poses….there was a large puddle of mud and I told her to be careful…but as she twirled…she got a little excited…and, of course, twirled into the mud and fell….after only going to two houses!!  But, she was a trooper, and continued on trick or treating!!