my crafting space

I'd thought I'd write more about this, but time doesn't permit me to type out the long rambling entries about my crafting life that I compose laying in bed (probably a good thing).

Below is a picture of our "laundry room" before we really started work on the house. The previous owners used it as a bedroom (ick) because of it's size, but it houses our laundry machine so... our laundry room. When we started, it was just a cement floored cave with a leak in the wall.
And here it is after we moved in... laundry room, hence all the laundry, but oh so nice walls and a beautifully tiled floor (under all my stuff, I have much better control over my laundry now, don't judge me).
And here is what happened when we discovered the "wall" was still leaking. Ben had already fixed it once and run a hose down the roof, but this night the wind was blowing rain sideways. Since it seldom rains here, we took advantage of the night and started pulling down drywall until we found the leak. Done over again we might have thought it out better, but everything you do the first time is a learning process.

So, with the new hole, I started to have a vision for the room. It involved a window I'd always dreamed of putting in. I casually told a friend about the hole in my wall and my hope for a window. Would you believe she just had an addition put on her house and they had to take out a perfectly good window. She dropped it by the next day and Ben had no reason not to put it in, the hole was already there.
Ta-daa, here is the dungeon transformed into a bright sunny space. (We saved the best of the mismatched cabinets from the kitchen, painted them, and I put one set here and the other over the washer dryer along another wall.) We also got the large drafting desk Ben and his dad built years ago.

When I moved my stuff in I was really inspired and wrote out nice labels for all the boxes in the cabinets. It's been so nice to look for something and find it right away. Safety pins? I know exactly where they are. Not quite Better Homes and Gardens, (which I confess I by from the library, 10 cents a pop, and hoard), but I like it.
Unfortunately, we discovered the roof is still leaking, something to do with the water freezing and expanding through our patch job, so I live with a hole until spring, I GOT A WINDOW AND A CRAFT SPOT. For the first time in my life I don't have to clean up my projects so people can eat dinner.

And then what happened? Ben took over a business for a friend who's out of the country for a couple of years and he set up her computer on MY desk and my sewing machine went to the repair shop because Joachim had been "sewing" with it. That's OK, Ben's getting his own desk and because of his new responsibilities we'll be getting internet in our very own home! Hooray modern world, here I come!

woe-is-me

This is to clarify an earlier post that led one friend to think Anna sleeps 12 hours a night, which is far far... far from reality. Our rosie life is once again colored by sleep issues. With Joachim it was the eczema that gave him trouble falling asleep and caused him to wake up scratching all night until he was two. With Anna the cause has been less clear, but it started with a round of antibiotics I took in August which led to 6 weeks of diarrhea and changing 3-4 diapers a night. So the habitual waking was established along with a mysteriously constant running nose and several colds over the next three months.

By Christmas I was toasted, so we tried the various sleep solutions from baby-wise to ferberize to Dr. Sears-wise. And that brings us to today. Each time we'd gain ground she'd get a tooth or two, (she's making up for lost time). Or most recently, she had a bad cold. She wakes up several times in the night and then from 3:00am on she never really goes back to sleep. We didn't let her cry long enough you might think, but after a week of listening to her cry for hours we gave up, when she did fall asleep she'd wake right up in 30 minutes and start all over, not to mention we needed Joachim to sleep and stay asleep because two tired kids is twice as bad as one.

What makes this difficult for are the friends whose babies cried 40 minutes one night, 20 the next and 5 the last and they've slept peacefully since. Or worse the ones who never had sleep problems, and whose babies slept peacefully from the first month. I would've doubted the plausibility of this last claim except I've noted there's a definitive difference between a well rested at peace parent and... well... me.

So, at her 1 year well baby appointment I regaled the Dr with our sleeping struggles. He listened patiently and nodded in his very mild way and reassured me that what works for one baby doesn't work for all babies. A parent whose baby sleeps easily or follows the books can't imagine just how different babies can be. It was a relief to realize it might not be anything I'm doing wrong, she's just her own person, that said I still feel guilty. He also said Anna must have an iron will.

Which leads me to another slightly alarming discovery that Anna is in the 15th percentile for size. Through Dr. Sears philosophy I've mostly ignored the charts, but Anna did start in the 70th and she's really plateaued in the last 4 months. I would have doubted the measurements had I not been right there holding her down, if anything, stretching her a bit.

Which brings me to our ongoing battle with food. It's not only bananas that Anna won't eat, it's just about all food. We went through baby food jars that she only ate 3 bites of (or none). I'd grind up food in the baby mill only for her to scream and push it away. The other night Ben (being a competitive type) declared he would get her to eat 8 bites... he threw in the towel at 5. The next night I made it to 8 with guacamole, and I had to rub it in a little, but she wouldn't give in to a 9th bite.

This morning Ben was trying to feed her cheerios and she was actually sticking out her tongue, picking them off with her fingers and throwing them on the ground.

She usually will eat cheerios and occasionally oatmeal, crackers, carrot from stew, a few peas, brown rice in broth, and most recently a little scrambled egg, but never much. I've heard parents complain their kids don't eat, but always it's been a picky toddler, Anna has never been an eater. She doesn't even nurse much anymore. I know one parent whose one year old did start eating and growing when he had his enlarged adenoids removed, but there's nothing obvious like that with Anna.

The Dr thinks a lot of her difficulty staying asleep is related to not eating, which is the obvious possibility that never occurred to me. So he offered a vitamin prescription and encouragement in my feeding endeavors. We're trying to make a game of it, but it's challenging to feed an unwilling baby and demoralizing to watch other babies gobble down jars of food. That said, today she added some black beans and blueberries to her acceptable food list, so we are making headway. On the other hand, I had to lock her head in my crux of my elbow to get her to even try the eggs.

I didn't know she was small for her age, but that explains why people think she's younger than she is, I always thought it was the bald head and toothless grin. At least in every other way she's developing normally.

To be fair, Ben did point out that she's sleeping better now than she was in January when she woke up every hour. Sorry for all the venting.She's still cute, though. She loves this dolly, it always makes her light up and she gives it lots of hugs and love. Actually, she goes nuts anytime we go down the dolly aisle in the store. Girls are so different.

doing dishes

Anna loves to do the dishes, I mean looooves. This video is a couple months old, but her interest and skills have only increased. We now have to covertly load dirty dishes because she's not discerning between dirty and clean. She will, however, try to wipe off dirty dishes before handing them to you.

Anna's birthday

Anna shared her birthday celebration with her cousin whose Birthday is a week earlier, and I'm embarrassed to admit I don't have a single picture of Elena and her pie or presents. I was selfishly engrossed with my baby.
Anna usually goes to bed between 5:30 and 6:00pm so I wasn't sure how the "late" evening would go (she gets up, wide awake and yelling at us, between 5:oo and 5:30am, sick, I know, we've tried everything, yes, the obvious later bedtime and not going to her until 6:00am, but she has a very strong will and she's broken me).

But, I under-estimated her extroverted personality and she thrived on the attention. You can see in the cake pictures she's beginning to fade, but then she got her second wind with the presents and was glowing by the end of the night.Anna's Godmama made her a banana pie because as much, as I fought it, Anna has become Anna banana or, just "the banana". It's ironic because she hates bananas. She has banana radar and if you offer banana on a spoon, no matter how disguised it is, she'll reject it every time until you remove the offending banana piece. I thought every baby loved bananas.
So, she may not have eaten any of the bananas, but she really dug the vanilla pudding on top.
And Elena's blueberry pie.
Grandma put together this "church box" for her. It has some neat treasures that she loves taking in and out of the box. She really likes the necklaces. She's such a girl in that she loves "dressing up." Her favorite is the Theotokos/Jesus icon. She sits in church opening and closing it. (I'm missing a couple items in the picture below).
This one was the the most fun to watch her open an when it was pulled out of the box she knew exactly what to do with it. Her Godpapa made it for her and she knows it's hers. It's in our living room right now and if Joachim touches it she shrieks at him (which makes him do it more and thus goes my induction into sibling rivalry).
Anna "dressed up" in the ribbons and necklace she put on all by herself.

Anna's actual birthday

I had no plans for Anna's actual birthday so I was glad to get an invitation to Willon and Rhetta's birthday celebration. Joachim and I missed it last year because... well, I was birthing. This year they had the celebration at the Climbing Tree Children's Museum in Montrose, which was fun for all ages. We haven't been there since Anna started crawling and she had a blast cruising around with the toddler toys. She loved the kitchen house because it's loaded with cabinets and accessories. After this I set out again to find a kitchen set for her and Joachim (which I'll picture another time).One of the little girls dressed Anna in this hat. I should add, in addition to necklaces, Anna also likes wearing hats, but not winter hats, she's very discerning and will wear, straw hats, top hats, pirate hats, but generally not knit hats, (although, she seems to make a concession for Tary's hat, I think she knows it has a glamor flower on it).
Here the kiddos are decorating their cupcakes, a favorite activity for Joachim. In fact, I was worried I would never get him away to play with the other cool things. He decorated while all the other kids did. He continued to decorate while the other kids gobbled their's down and he was still decorating and admiring his work after all the kids had gone to play.Finally, the kids came back for present opening and Joachim began to eat his cupcake. That's my boy, not a crowd follower in the least.Thank you Corey for an awesome day, here's to another great year for our kids.

Joa sings for Anna

Even though it was Willon and Rhetta's party, Joachim stole a few moments to covertly sing for Anna before eating his cupcake. He honestly didn't want her to feel left out.

Anna rides the elephant

Anna, in the toddler room on the rockin' elephant.

Merry Christmas

I've been planning this post for, well, weeks now, and I haven't given up. I wanted to include some of our Christmas frenzy. It was the first year Joachim was old enough to be really fun opening presents (and with grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, and Cousins there was no shortage of gifts).
In the background you can see the stocking I tried to make with Joachim (on left), I wouldn't call it a success, but it was a start. I had these visions of my kids having special felt stockings that they would cherish for years and the very sight of would evoke warm memories... it needs a little more work... next year. I don't want them to end up with the tacky cookie monster stocking my brother has... but to be honest, I think both of us are sort of sentimental about that stocking.
Do you see my new dangly earrings! Ooooh, I love it.Joachim's first remote control car. We're really enjoying this toy... I mean Ben and I, I think it's a throw back for us. Joachim's getting pretty good at the controls, but he does best when the batteries are a bit worn down (and it's slower).
Anna's absolutely adorable hat knit and adorned by my eleven year old niece with some creative guidance from her Godmama. I've actually stopped having Anna wear it in the store because we SO much attention, I mean it was hard to get shopping done, but flattering at the same time.
Anna and the bead chain Elena made for her.Joa working intently on new dino stamps.
Anna pestering the two cousins at grandma's house. Katerina informed Anna in no uncertain terms that she was too little to play with them.

handmade nativity

I see all the neat handmade things on other people's blogs, I wanted to be sure to spotlight all the neat creations we received (it helps to have lots of nieces and nephews). I think I pictured everything except a hat Elena knit Ben. Below is the hat I knit Ben (he'll not be hurting for hats for years to come). I did it using the mistake stitch which is generally for scarves but I thought I'd try it out on a hat.
After I finished it, my friend's husband revealed the very cool hat he'd knit and I wished I'd used that pattern, I've tucked it away for future reference. I still don't have a hat so I think for next winter I'll tackle these two. She whipped them up in a week (with four kids!), but I never get that kind of consecutive knitting so we'll see. I'm still working on a sweater I started for Anna in August, I hope I can finish it before Easter (lesson learned- use thicker yarn, save time).
This is one was Ben's project. When he first told me about it I didn't really understand what he was describing, but as you can see it turned out really nice. It fits perfectly on Joachim's card table and has a ledge going all the way around to keep it from siding off. Ben also scored five pounds of legos on ebay to go with it.
Here's the felt basket Tary knit for Ben last year. When he opened it, we weren't sure if it was supposed to be a hat for the new baby or what. Now that we've figured out what it is, it's become a favorite accent in our living room. Ben empties his pockets into it every evening (keys, notes, chapstick, thumbdrive, and coins - Joachim always pilfers the quarters to buy tatoos from the vending machine at the grocery store, it's endearing).Here's this year's basket. It's on our bedside table, but nothing lives in it yet. We're still waiting for it's purpose to be revealed.
Here's a close up of Anna's flapper hat, complete with blingy vintage button.
And here's the perfect hat Jess knit for Joachim. This is a unique hat because in certain situations it brings out the brown in his eyes and in others, it brings out the hazel. It's a great muted green that doesn't shoe up in the picture.
And the very neat printed/sewn bird shirt for Anna. She's still growing into it, so she'll have to model it in another couple of months. I've seen Jess's various works show up on her blog and I'm thrilled to have one of my very own.
Here's the shooting star shirt Benny and Corbin stenciled for Joachim. Kassia explained they picked out the stencil and then added every color until it became a bit muddy. Actually, I think it turned out pretty cool and Joachim wears it proudly. I like seeing how kids create things we as adults wouldn't, and somehow it works.
Earrings Tary made me.
The necklace peg board Elena made. Another one of those gifts I wasn't sure what to use it for when I got it, (but I knew I loved it) and it has been perfect for organizing my jewelry. It's actually rather loaded right now and I'm thinking about expanding on the idea because it works so well. It's helped me wear more of my beads that often just become knotted in the back of a drawer.
This one is my pride and joy. It was my nephew's premiere knitting project. As he pointed out, one end is wider than the other, but it shows the astounding improvement in his stitches and I love the colors. It's 100% wool in purple, green and burnt orange. The colors don't show up in the picture as richly as in life. I feel so sophisticated around town in my new scarf.
This is another interesting one. Nectaria carved it from a very sweet smelling branch on their property and Joachim has really loved it. He left it at their house once and asked about it for weeks until I finally got it back. It's surprising he liked this one so much because he also got a very real looking revolver from them for Christmas. I think the revolver is a little big and heavy and this one is easier to wield and tuck in his pants.

My friends' positions on guns range from no guns for play to rifles kept in a doorless gun cabinet in the living room. I think because we live in a rural town we have a different relationship to guns than in the city where they represent gangs and violence.

Last year Ben had to shoot a sick skunk stumbling around his parent's property. Hunting is very common here (although we're not much into it). We've had it all from elk to rabbit to bear. Just a few weeks ago the butcher came out to get one of my sister-in-law's cows. Talk about grass-finished, he just walked out in the pasture, lifted his rifle and the cow went down. Beckah said her stomach still flipped a little, but I guess that's a cow's life. It was far more humane than where most meat comes from, (and we're now the happy recipients of some hormone/antibiotic free grass-fed ground beef).

Joachim is allowed guns, but he's only allowed to shoot plants, furniture and stuffed animals in the house. I know he plays good guys-bad guys with the boys after church and I'm pretty sure they shoot each other, so, so much for not shooting people.