summer to-do 2013

We missed Winter and Spring in there somewhere… on to Summer!

Short and sweet this time, not a ton of things, but hopefully that makes it do-able.

If you wanna join us for any of them, let me know!

craft: t-shirt skirt

I’ve made a couple of t-shirt quilts over the years, and was left with random pieces of cut-up shirts: the sleeves, the bottoms, and other strips.

Finally decided to do something with the leftovers.  They looked perfect for a layered girls’ skirt, like you’d get at Walmart or Target, and I could combine colors and layer them how I wanted.

Sorry I don’t have a full tutorial here, but it really was easy enough to just eyeball it and do it.  I used the bottom strip of 3 t-shirts for each skirt – I had about a 6-8″ strip from the bottom of each shirt.  I layered them with the colors stacked like I wanted, then machine-sewed each piece to the piece above it, putting my stitch along the original hem of the shirt so it didn’t show very much.

It was fine that the circumference of each shirt strip wasn’t the same, I just stretched the  the shorter strip as I sewed, so it would pucker and accommodate the longer strip.  It added some nice ruffle to the edge.

Then I sewed a band of elastic into the waist, folding the top over the elastic.

Voila!  Easy… and free.  I took the leftover t-shirt fabric and made flowers to put on the skirt, and a few extra for hair clips to match. 

They may not last through the summer, but hey… I had fun, and again, they were FREE!

livin’ the dream

The weather is beautiful.
We’ve played outside every afternoon this week.

Today, I sat on our retaining wall, watching the kids play.
She says, “Can I lay down in the grass and look at the moon?”
(she’s already dirty)  ”Sure, sweetie.”

I sit watching her, hands behind her head, looking up at the sky.  Little Guy comes by with his baby push mower and walks back and forth between us.  I think, “Don’t forget this moment. Take a mental picture. Remember what they look like, what they’re doing at this age…”

Surprisingly, she says, “Do you want to take a picture, mom?”
“I sure do.  I don’t have my camera with me… but I sure wish I did.”
“You just have to use your imagination and pretend to take a picture, mom.”

I’m trying, sweetie.  I’m trying.

cousin camp: part 2

Just catching up from the end of the week…

cousin camp: part 1

In no particular order…
We’ve done:
bikes… kites… colored a box castle… matching jammies… Walmart trip… my birthday… picnic breakfast… and it’s only the third day!
.

noodle dogs

These little guys are all over Pinterest, CraftGawker and everywhere else.  If you haven’t seen ‘em, they are SOOO easy and fun.

Step 1: Stick noodles through some cut up hot dog pieces.
Step 2: Boil in a pot for about 10 minutes, until dogs are hot and noodles are cooked.
Step 3: Eat!

“moving” on

Our bestie friends and next door neighbors moved away yesterday.  We’ll still see them – they’re going to work at our other camp location near Columbus, TX,  so we’re not really losing them as friends…

But friends, and next-door-neighbor-friends are two different things.

I was in denial about the whole thing until after they pulled away in the UHaul. Then 2 hours later, I wanted to borrow some spices, and see what they were up to for dinner, and if they wanted to play with all the kids in the backyard and… that’s when it became real.  Their house is empty.  They’re not in their backyard grilling out, where we can look over our fence and say hi.  Or, can I borrow a cup of sugar?  Or, can you watch my kids for 20 minutes while I run an errand?  Or, do you guys wanna order pizza – I don’t feel like cooking either?

You see, cause they were these neighbors.  And these neighbors.  Our kids literally grew up together (well, until ages 4 and 1 1/2) – they’ve never known life without each other.
We babysat each others kids.  They borrowed our riding lawnmower, in return for doing the maintenance on it.  They offered their hot grill for us to throw meat on whenever they were grilling.  Charis and I made it through many evenings of whiny kids together, while waiting for our men to get home from work. We dog-sat for each other countless times.  We cooked with each other, swam with each other, picnicked in the front yard with each other, had bonfires with each other, put up Christmas trees with each other, cleaned house with each other.

We shared our struggles and triumphs and heartaches and worries and cookies with each other.
We did life together.

Jeff – Charis – we miss you dearly already.
I wanted to plan another meal swap today, and realized that chapter is closed.  But the new chapter for you is going to be a good one.  They are SO blessed to have both of you… if they don’t know it already, they’ll learn it first thing tomorrow!

Our “last night together” pizza party

I think Scripture is just right when it says that we need one another.  I don’t know if we’ll ever have that neighborly bond again with another family.
But we’ll sure try.
It was certainly worth it.

date night, forge style

Thursday nights are date nights.  Matt’s students come over and babysit for us, 3 at a time, and let us go enjoy some adult conversation… which more often than not means sitting in silence at a restaurant for a while – and enjoying the QUIET.

Two weeks ago, our students told us that they were planning our date for us.  Cool.  Except that there was the lingering thought… “This could be really cool… or really lame.”

Three students came over to babysit, then a few minutes later, two students arrived to pick us up and drive us to the date, dressed very nicely, opened the car doors for us, and even had a car playlist of music for us. (Okay, this could be really cool…)

We arrived at the dining hall at camp and found this… This could be REALLY cool…

Two “waiters” greeted us and seated us at our table (“Hidalgo” and “Priscilla”… apparently it was an international restaurant), while some live music entertained us, compliments of 4 of the other students. (good too!)  They had is set up perfectly – close enough for us to hear them, far enough that we could enjoy good conversation without feeling like they were eavesdropping. The dinner was fabulous – chicken and shrimp alfredo, in a bowl as big as my head.  Sooo good.  Then, the biggest pazookie (ice cream on top of a hot gooey chocolate chip cookie) I’ve ever seen came out of the kitchen.  Also, soooo good.  We said we couldn’t eat it all.
We did.

While we ate dessert, 2 things happened: first, one of the girls came out and read love poems and quotes to us, THEN the cooks and a few of the other students came out of the kitchen and performed an interpretive dance to “I Want it That Way,” completing the entertainment for the night.   Then the musicians invited us to the dance floor and we enjoyed a couple of slow dances together.

I just want to brag on how awesome they were, from beginning to end.  No other class of students has done anything like this – we felt so honored, and commented on what a cool job my husband has, that his students would think to, plan and execute such a night with excellence (and humor!).  It was the perfect evening.  We love you guys!  Thanks for blessing us with an unforgettable date night!

craft: toy organizing

My kids have a lot of toys.
And their toys have a lot of pieces.
And I like organization.
Those don’t go together very well, so we had to come up with a system.

Here’s what we have so far, and it’s working pretty well.

I had these wooden squares leftover from a project a LONG time ago.  Repainted them with chalkboard paint, drilled holes for ties, and tied them on baskets from the Dollar Tree. One dollar each.  I love that.  And so far they’ve lasted a year or two and only one has a crack in it.

Cheap, easy, and I love it because my daughter gets to pick what basket she wants to play with, then to get another one down, she has to clean up the first one.  Thank you, mom, for that tip from growing up!  You’re helping me keep my sanity.

seatbelt cowboy

It was our last day of Bible study for the semester, so of course… I got pulled over for speeding on my way home.  Explain that one to the cop. “Sir, I was just leaving Bible study, and…”

But I didn’t have to, because my four-year old daughter saved me – unprompted.
(pulled over by East Texas cop, wearing a cowboy hat)

Cop:  Howdy ma’am.  How are you today?
Me:  I’m fine, thanks.
Cop: Where are you trying to get to?
Me:  We’re just driving home.  Sorry, I didn’t realize how fast I was going.

(Insert daughter who rolls down her back window)

Daughter: I’m wearing my seatbelt!

(Insert sigh of relief as I realize that there’s NO WAY this guy can give me a ticket after that)

Cop: I see that you’re wearing your seatbelt. That’s very good.  Have you been good?  Did you write a letter to Santa?

(oh yeah, no ticket)

Daughter: No.

Cop: What do you want for Christmas?
Daughter: The puzzle guys that look like animals and you put them together like a puzzle.
Cop:  Uh huh.  And what do you think Bubba wants?
Daughter: Um, a stick horse.
Cop:  That sounds like fun. (holding my license)  So, there’s nothing wrong with your license?
Me: Uh, no?
Cop:  I mean, I won’t go run it and find that you’ve been stopped on this road 15 times for speeding?
Me: No sir.
Cop:  K, I’ll be right back.  (comes back with license)  Here you go.  It’s just a warning.  Have a nice day.

(pulling away)

Daughter: Mom, that wasn’t a policeman.  That was a cowboy.

So, thank you, cowboy, for not giving me a ticket, and thank you, awesome daughter who totally got me off the hook.