Precious Quilt for a Precious Girl

I made my first quilt in a very long time. And it was fun. I must admit I have become addicted. Grace is now asking for one and I must oblige.

Anyway, I decided a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to make a quilt and I had my girls with me at Hobby Lobby. I asked Lydia what she liked and she picked out a fabric that became my inspiration. She had no idea that I decided to make the quilt for her. So I have been making the quilt in "secret" (she knew I was making one, but had no idea it was for her). I finished it last night. I am so pleased with how it turned out. And I wanted to share it with you …

I decided to make a simple quilt since it had been a while. Here are all the squares ready to be laid out and sewn together with ♥ …

The strips laid out …

The quilt top finished and laid out on my bed …

And 2 more close ups of the quilt top, just for fun …

Here is the quilt sandwich, just before basting …

And the quilting is done and ready for binding …

Look at all that binding … this fabric was the inspiration for the quilt …

Sewing on the binding …

And after machine sewing the binding to the front, I finished the binding by hand (may favorite part).

And here is the finished quilt …

It's hanging on my fence, so you can't see the top, but it's exactly the same as the bottom. Except that the bottom has this cute applique …

And I embroidered this on the back …

And here it is, all folded pretty and tied up with extra binding …

The note that I wrote to go with it tells her that this quilt was made with so much love and anytime she is feeling alone or unloved she can wrap herself up in it and remind herself that she is loved beyond measure. She may not fully understand today the love with which it was made, but one day she will! I cannot wait to give it to her!! ♥ I am getting teary just thinking of giving it to her and what it means to me and what it will one day mean to her ♥ …

"You always tell me that I have to dress in thing that match. It's not fair and it makes me mad." ~ my sweet 5-year-old

And there you go … she likes the shirt, she likes the shorts. Why not wear them together? Well?

Happy Friday! I'm off to prepare for our spring break camping trip …

Absentmindedness

Today I received an email from Lydia's teacher kindly explaining to me all the assignments that she has failed to turn in. Has she been absent from school? Nope. Is she absent … minded? Yep!

And this isn't the first time I have received this message from one of her teachers. A few weeks ago I learned that she hadn't turned in several math assignments. And get this … two of them she had completed, but just "forgot" to turn in. How does that happen?

Much of the time when I lose my temper with her it's over being absentminded. {sigh} Poor thing. I just realized that she gets it honestly. I think I have forgotten what it's like to be a kid. Once, when I was in middle school I worked on a project, interviewed someone for it and everything, and then I just didn't turn it in. I don't know why. To this day my parents are baffled over that one.

I Googled absentmindedness in kids. Guess what? It's very common for gifted children to be absentminded & messy. Aha!! There is my excuse! I'm just too brilliant to be thinking about such mundane things as getting the laundry done or not throwing away Brandon's business checks (sorry honey!).

So here I sit … coming up with organizational strategies for Lydia. I know she'll be so thrilled to come home and discuss these with me. Or maybe she really will be. She thrives in structure, which is one of the reasons we are no longer homeschooling her.

Now if only Mama can keep herself organized, maybe, just maybe, Lydia's room (and life) will stop looking like this:

Yes, that's the current state of her room. And, I'm afraid, her life tends to look a lot like this … such chaos! Wow. Just thinking about it like this motivates me to want to help her organize her life (and mine). I'll let you know what we come up with!

I never thought we'd be here!

I wonder how many mamas have said that before?  It's Wednesday … 2 days removed from the event now and I finally feel a little bit settled again.  So here's where we are and where I never thought we would be …

Monday morning was like any other morning (except that Brandon wasn't here - he was out of town for a few days for business).  After getting Lydia to school I had a little bit of time before our monthly PTA board meeting.  After spending too much time on the computer I hurriedly prepared Grace's snacks and activities to keep her occupied during the meeting … a granola bar, yogurt raisins and … trail mix.  I had never given her the trail mix before, but I thought she might like it.  She's not like Mikey - she likes everything.  And off we went.

The meeting had been going on for about 15 minutes when Grace came to me and told me that her throat hurt.   I thought maybe something got caught in her throat or something, so we went and had some juice.  Then she began complaining that her tummy hurt.  If you know Grace then you know that she has a high pain tolerance.  She has to be hurting seriously to say anything about it, so I knew we needed to at least get to the bathroom in case she was getting sick.  We quickly made it to the bathroom and that's when I noticed it.  Her face was round and red and her lips were twice their size.  At this point I *STILL* hadn't put 2 and 2 together and I asked her if she had smacked her face.  She said no and looked at me with a funny, inquisitive look.

Suddenly it hit me … is she having an allergic reaction to something?  My first thought was to get her some Benadryl.  So we went back to the meeting room and I left her out in the hall (in case she threw up) while I packed up our things.  Later a PTA friend told me she saw her standing there and thought that she looked terrible.  I don't know why I didn't stop by the school clinic, but I didn't.

We drove home (about 2 minutes away) quickly and I gave her some Benadryl, but she immediately threw that up.  Uh oh!  At this point I knew she was in trouble.  I called the Children's Healthcare's Nurse Call line.  While I waited for them to call me back (… to call me back … I am now wondering why the person who answered the phone was not trained to put me through immediately!) Grace began to say that her boobies hurt (hahaha … she was talking about her chest).  I tried to give her more Benadryl, but she said she couldn't swallow it.  FORGET waiting … we're going to the ER right now!  Looking back I probably should have called 911, but I didn't because she wasn't having trouble breathing (or so I thought).  She threw up again on the way to the hospital.

At the ER they took us back immediately and gave her 2 doses of Benadryl, 2 doses of prednisone and a shot of adrenaline.  And then we waited for 4 hours to be sure that she had no further reactions.  Those were fun times … a hyper-tired-cranky 4-year-old cooped up in a hospital room!

In the meantime Grace told me that when she "ate the nut that looked like a banana my throat started to hurt!"  A-ha!  The cashews in the trail mix!

Here she is in the ER after her body started calming down:

Her face is still a little red and her lips are still a little swollen, but she's such a cutie pie, isn't she?  

She was soon cleared to come home with a prescription for more Benadryl & prednisone over the next 36 hours, as well as 2 epipens … and a date with the allergist.  My head was swimming.

And poor Brandon.  All this time he was in another state, taking a class and I couldn't call him, only text him.  He wasn't sure at all what was going on.

I held it all together until the drive home when I saw her in the rearview mirror and she was peacefully sleeping in her seat.  "What would I do without my Gracie??" I cried … she brings me so much joy!

So yesterday we went to the allergist and he confirmed that it is most definitely tree nuts and she had an anaphylactic reaction.  He gave me some information that I needed and was very kind and calming.   He did tell me that the pain in her chest was from her lungs.  Oy vey!  She was having a hard time breathing, it just didn't seem like it at the time!  We'll do allergy tests in 2 weeks when her body has calmed down back to normal just to 100% confirm what we already know.

So that is where we are … severe allergy to tree nuts.  Who knew?  Oh yeah … GOD knew!  And I am so thankful to Him for allowing this to happen in my presence.  It could have been a lot worse.

Chore "Chart" ♥

I'm finally finished with it.  It was really simple, it just took me a while to get it done.  Here is our latest (and last I tell you … LAST!) chore "chart".  I do ♥ it.

It's cute and simple.  Each girl has a block with corresponding chore sticks - Lydia's is orange and Grace's is green.  Each morning the girls' chore sticks are in their blocks on the left.  As they complete a chore they move the chore stick to the big block on the right.

I can see right away if their chores are done.  Simple, right?  ♥  I got the idea from the How Does She? blog :) and I think it turned out great!

Kids and Money and Budgets … Oh My!

Brandon and I have tried various things with the girls for chores and allowances. None of them have really worked well. So we've scrapped it all and started over. And here's what we came up with:
CHORES
Chore Jars - very similar to these, the girls each have a jar with tongue depressor/popsicle sticks with the chore written (or drawn for Grace) on one side and the other side colored. They love to use this system and I love that! It's right there on the kitchen counter and they simply flip the stick when they're done. Easy as pie and they own it. All the sticks have to be flipped for free time. Any sticks that I see have not been consistently flipped during the week mean that for that chore they get fined.

ALLOWANCES
They get paid monthly. I just couldn't keep up with weekly payments consistently. Right now Lydia's is $20. It will increase each year so that by the time Lydia gets in high school she will be getting $100 a month. Pick yourself up off the floor and listen to me for a sec. Think about all that goes on and all that needs to paid for … clothes, music, going shopping or to movies, gasoline in that car that I'm not buying on my own without her having saved her own money for it, etc. Rather than doling out money here and there, they will each get a monthly allowance. Out of that allowance they will save for the short-term things they want (like a CD Lydia wants), long-term savings (like a car that Lydia wants when she can drive), spending money (including clothes, birthday gifts, and "Mama-Can-I-Have-Its", etc.) and giving money.

I'm using these to help the girls with their budgeting and planning: Kid's Budget Printables.

It seems to be working well and it's something we can keep up with and keep track of. Not everything works for everyone, but if this helps you it makes me smile. :)

Thanks, Denise, for taking 5 minutes to help me understand this concept :)

It is Finished!

I know I haven't been posting my daily photos for the project 365, but I have been taking them! Maybe later, but right now I wanted to introduce you to:

She is finished! Remember what she looked like when I first brought her home?


She is so lovely. I couldn't wait to take pictures, so I took them even though the kitchen hasn't been carried up to the bonus room yet. Here are some more shots :)

I ♥ faces week 11 - Bundled up!

When I saw the theme for this week I knew immediately which photo I was going to enter:

♥

See more bundled up photos at

48/365 … watching

Grace watching Nick Lr ♥

47/365 Treats!

It's raining today … again. I'm trying really hard to not be bummed and to be happy that the Lord is feeding His creation. I am trying to imagine the lush plants that will explode in the spring from all the water they have had. So today's photo is another one that I snapped while in the kitchen making lunch.

That's our treats jar (obviously) that sits on our counter with Hershey's Kisses and such inside waiting for Grace to take one (or 2) when she's had a successful potty experience. She's taking more and more from this jar these days!! :)

46/365 Laughter & Joy

I ♥ watching my kids just being kids and having fun. This weekend has been so lovely. Last weekend was lovely too, in its own sort of way with the snow - completely opposite of this weekend. We used pizza pans last weekend to sled on the snow and they were still outside, so the girls decided to try them on the grass. Lo and behold they worked great. The girls spent hours sledding on the hills today:

and yesterday:

Ahhhh youth!

41/365 Longing

So far I am really enjoying this project. It is forcing me to pick up my camera EVERY day and be creative in some way. Brandon gave me a funny look the other day when I exclaimed, "My picture! I haven't taken my picture of the day! I need my camera!"

I took this photo this afternoon. I liked how the light was coming in, so I asked Grace to hop up and stare out the window, which she promptly did (she likes when I take pictures of her!). You'd never know that I didn't just snap this of her staring out the window, longing for warmer weather so she can be outside playing :)

38/365 Snow Angel

We had fabulous snow yesterday evening!

37/365 Bundled in a Basket

A laundry basket that is!

Grace is snuggled inside a laundry basket watching TV ♥

36/365 … messiness!!!

I have been cleaning out my closet (yikes did it ever need it - I found pleated pants!! And no, they weren't Z-Cavaricci's Paige!!). I peeked into the bonus room and saw this:

If you click on the picture, it will take you to my Flickr and you can see all the notes I made on it :)

33/365 Perler Beads

I have a love/hate relationship with these things!

26/365 ... mad coloring skillz!

If there was only one thing that Grace could choose to take with her to a desert island it would be a box of crayons. This girls ♥ ♥ ♥ to color! And she's pretty good at it, too, for having just turned 4-years-old:

She told me to close my eyes this morning because she had a surprise for me. When I opened them this is what I saw. I had to take a photo of that face!

22/365 ... one little monkey ...

one little monkey jumping on the bed

ok OK ... I'm gonna try it ...

But I'm usually not one to stick with it. Project 365. 365 days of photographs. I really wanted to start on January 1, but here I am a week late. I'm not getting off to good start. Oh well. So here's my photo for today:

It snowed here today. This is an unusual occurrence, unfortunately. When we were kids it snowed here a lot more than it does now. Even the brief dusting that we received today was extremely exciting. It's supposed to snow more overnight ... I hope it does!