In Like a Lion, Out Like a ?

Well I'm sure there are more exciting things to blog about than the weather, but I just can't get over it.  Try as I might to be grumpy about the cold and lack of spring flowers, I just can't.  Tons of snow (I don't know the exact amount, well over 6 inches probably more and it's still coming down) on March 25th is just so surprising that I can't help but laugh and of course the girls are loving it.  March only has a few days left to turn into a lamb!

Saturday it looked like this...

Today....

Yesterday was Palm Sunday.  Kate and I had to stay home as she has been sick again, but Callie brought her a "palm" branch.  I found it like this on the table this morning by the stack of Easter books.

I tried to treat this morning like any other morning, but it was no good.  We will do some school work, but who can concentrate with all this snow.  We let the girls sleep downstairs last night and all those blankets were just begging to made into a "house".  Callie has quite a stack of books to read to Kate.  We'll see how long Kate lasts. :)

Cameron was hoping for a snow emergency in Boone County, but no such luck.  He has been working up at Purdue a lot and they are open today too, so off he goes.  With no coat, as usual!  He's crazy.

The way it blows and drifts out here, some spots look bare while others can be up to your knees.

Laughter Is the Best Medicine

Especially when it is delivered by your best friend.

You know the saying, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."?  Well lets just say that yesterday, if that rule had been followed, I would have been in a very quiet house.  But it wasn't, and I was oh so weary.

In the car it wasn't much different and I told Cameron I was all out of words.  Meaning that I had corrected, I had fussed, I had prayed, I had pointed out scripture to the offenders, and nothing seemed to be helping.

My dear husband, who knows the words to every song written before 1990, started singing the Air Supply song, "I'm All Out of Love", except with his own lyrics. 

"I'm all out of words, I'm so tired of your sass....."  I was laughing hysterically!!  I had tears flowing down my cheeks and I was laughing so hard I couldn't even breath.  Even now, I'm laughing.

The girls will really think it strange the next time they are fussing at each other and I start cracking up.  It will be because Cameron's song pops in my head.

{This Moment}

{This Moment} A Friday ritual.  A single photo, no words, capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

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needle & thREAD

Sometimes my sentimentality and frugality (the frugality comes and goes) come together and produce a nice pay off. 

Since Kate became part of our family at 11 months old, she didn't spend a whole lot of time in her crib.  Her crib sheet and dust ruffle were hardly used, especially since sleeping alone in her crib was not something she did very willingly!  When it came time to take down the crib, I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of the pretty pink sheet set.  I decided to put it in with my fabric stash and maybe someday I could use it.

The recipient isn't feeling well today, but I talked her into standing for a few seconds

How appropriate then, to make Kate a summer night gown with it.  If I had waited much longer, I probably would not have had enough fabric.  Since I had saved the dust ruffle, I didn't even have to gather the fabric for the ruffle on the bottom!  This came together pretty quickly and I think it will be nice and cool for the summer. 

If summer ever gets here! It was 18 degrees this morning!!

As for reading, I recently picked up The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott at the library.  It is supposedly her first novel that was not published until 1997.  The publishers are calling it "the book that Jo wrote."  I'm only a few pages into it, so I don't really have an opinion yet.  I'm sure it will be good.

Gratitude

I am so excited I can hardly stand it!  "Windows" are the key word on the trailer. :)

Dress Up With Callie

When Callie was little she played dress up of some sort almost all the time.  Kate usually plays with Barbies, stuffed animals or is pretending to be an animal.   When they play together, Callie usually ends up dressing Kate and you never know what you will see.  I was unaware of what they were playing this time until Princess Kate came to sit on her throne, but thankfully, Callie had taken these pictures.

Princess Kate with her bubbles

Kate the African girl

Kate the pioneer

Kate the Chinese girl 

Kate the Indian girl

I love it when they play creatively like this.  I wish blogs had been around when I walked in on Callie lying on the living room floor, arms outstretched, nothing on but her underwear.  When I asked what in the world she was doing she said, "I'm pretending I'm Jesus on the Cross" in the most matter of fact voice.  She was probably about 5 or 6 years old.  Oh, she kept us in stitches!!

March 13 Daybook

My other thought for a title was "Puxatony Phil Doesn't Know Anything"

{Outside My Window}  Snow!  Enough to cover the grass and it's still blowing and falling like crazy.  If the old saying about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb is true then Easter weekend should be beautiful!

{I Am Thankful For}  The return of good health.  No one else came down with whatever I had except Kate was under the weather for just a couple of days and nothing too bad.  She wasn't whiny at all, just wanted me to read to her a lot which of course I was happy to do.

{I Am Thinking About}  This will be my last weekend to work at the antique mall.  Cameron is pretty excited, while I am a little bummed.  I think Callie is bummed too.  She knows her lazy Saturdays are over!  It is necessary though if we are going to get anything done around here. I will miss it.  Maybe someday I can go back.  It will be nice to get some of these long over due, two adults needed projects finished.

On a happier note....Easter menus and Easter weather.  Hoping and praying for a DRY Easter weekend to enjoy our family here.

{In the Schoolroom}  Since the schoolroom is also the sewing room, I'll go that direction.  It's been a productive month in the sewing room.  The girls both wanted red capes.  Callie wanted velvet or something similar and Kate, thankfully, didn't care so I went with fleece for hers.  I really underestimated the amount of fabric that Callie's would require so hers is not at long as she first wanted, but she said she is happy with it.

She is like Jekyll & Hyde when it comes to clothes.  She loves old fashioned things and ideas, but she would gladly walk around in an outfit straight out of Vogue if she could.  Spiked heels and all.

Kate has a new skirt for spring out of some fabric that I've had for years.  My aunt gave it to me when Callie was little.  It has been made into Callie's first Easter dress, a nightgown they have both worn around the age of 5 and 6 and now a skirt.  Not bad for a pile of free fabric.

I was going to make Callie a skirt she had requested out of Sew What You Love, but realized there wasn't enough fabric.  So I am focusing on some more things for Kate to use up more of what we already have in there, then we'll do some fabric shopping and maybe Callie and I both will get some new skirts.

{From the Kitchen}  America's Test Kitchen has taken this house by storm.  Cameron made steak fries to go with our hamburgers on Monday night for dinner.  Not just any steak fries, he actually followed the recipe and fried them twice which I am much too lazy to do.  This morning Callie, mostly by herself, made Dutch apple pancakes for breakfast.  I don't enjoy the show near as much as Cameron, but I am enjoying the fruits of his obsession!  I'm getting some kitchen shears out of the deal too.

{I am Reading}  Nothing new.  I ordered Give Them Grace and have been reading that again and highlighting things through out.  I need to find something new to read, but between watching America's Test Kitchen and season 1 of Downton Abbey (now I know what all the fuss is about!  I haven't been to bed at a decent hour all week thanks to that show!) I haven't had any time to read.  We finished Downton Abbey last night though and I'm not staying up to be tortured by delicious food on TV anymore! LOL

{Around the House}  I'm working on new curtains for the living room.  Using drop cloth seems to be all the rage right now, and economical for large windows, so that's what I did.  Compared to the floral fabric that was up there, it's quite boring, but I think I'm going to put a border around the edges or just at the top maybe.  I just have to find the right fabric.

{One of My Favorite Things}  Seeing the daffodils start to peek through the ground.  Spring will be here soon even if it doesn't look or feel like it right now.

Phone calls with old friends.  I called my college room mate last night.   I'm so glad I did!

{Plans For the Week}  Dinner with a friend, more sewing and some earlier bed times!

Even In March

It's still beautiful.

February 28 Daybook

{Outside My Window}  Cold!  A winter storm is on it's way.  As much as I love snow, I'll admit it loses a bit of its luster when the calendar says March.  Plus, this may be more ice than snow.  We will see.

{I Am Thankful For}  That we made it through January and Cameron's absence without anyone being sick.  Huge answer to prayer since it seemed everyone around us was sick.  February?  Well, we almost made it.  Thankfully, it was short lived and so far, no one else has what I had last week.

{I Am Thinking About}  Kate.  I read several books on adoption while we were waiting for Kate.  A couple of them were terrifying and if I had read them before we took the leap, one book in particular would have possibly stopped me. Not only did it include all the horror stories out there, they even questioned whether people should adopt at all.  Like life in an orphanage would be better?  Not to mention that the Bible says it is pure religion to care for orphans and widows.  I wish I could remember the title because I thought, even though there are some heartbreaking situations out there, it was terrible and I would never recommend it.  Anyway, I pretty much convinced myself that our daughter wouldn't have any "issues" because we wouldn't act like adoption was a handicap and we wouldn't go on and on about it all the time or tell her too much too soon (which is what it seemed like a lot of the authors in those books were doing).  She does not have "issues".  I am learning though, that she must think about it much more than I realized.  There have been a lot of questions lately about what her Chinese Mom looks like or where she is and what she is doing.  A few nights ago Kate was really wishing she knew what her Chinese mom looked like.  I told her, "She must be pretty because you are so pretty."  She liked that answer. :)  I remember some picture books that we saw early on that were very good for girls adopted from China.  I thought that when the time was right, we might get one or two of them.  I can't remember the exact titles, but I remember enough to find them at the library.  I'll let you know about them if/when we get them in case anyone is interested.

{In the School Room}  Extremely little last week.  Thursday, Callie played teacher with Kate and she did a few of her own things yesterday and Friday ("few" is the keyword here).  I'm not sure which is more frustrating, the flu like symptoms or nothing much getting done.  Today we started fresh and things went well.

We started a new read aloud together in the mornings, Kisses from Katie.  Somehow, that book had gotten shoved aside and never finished.  I read it while I was sick and it is wonderful!   So, I decided to ditch a book that they have both hated the whole year and trade the time spent on that one with this one.  They will be thrilled when they figure out we won't be "doing birds" anymore.

Callie's photo--I guess a bowl of spaghetti helps with the math

{From the Kitchen}  Coconut flour pancakes.  Callie is always saying how she doesn't like coconut and every time I use either coconut flour or finely chopped coconut in something, she gobbles it up.  I used 3/4 c. coconut flour, 3/4 c. rice/sorghum flour blend and 1/2 c. potato starch.  Best GF pancakes yet!

Cameron made crab cakes for us Sunday night.  They were delicious!  He's now addicted to America's Test Kitchen that comes on PBS.  We got some of the DVD's from the library.  I think I can look forward to more yummy things cooked by Cameron because he loves it!

{Around the House}  I had gotten all the laundry caught up.  Then I got the flu.  Cameron and Callie kept everything else pretty decent.

So this week is mostly about catching up, which may be pretty easy to do if we get some nasty weather to keep us home.