Helen Jane

(A collection of moments, pretty/happy/funny/real, for Leila and Rosie's round up)

Helen Jane is pretty. 

Genevieve chose her, under the direction of my mother-in-law, as a birthday present.  Genevieve chose her name because she's deeply interested in Helen Keller just now.  For a week before Helen Jane was officially adopted on her birthday, Genevieve talked non-stop dolly and names and happy plans.

Genevieve is very happy with her doll.  Almost everyone who meets Helen Jane for the first time asks if she's an American Girl doll.  She's not.  Apparently there is a whole world here, much bigger than my sister's doll Molly, that I'm clueless about.

The funny part of Genevieve's birthday are the cupcakes.  I made 22 chocolate cupcakes to take to school.  I thought Pinterest might help me transport them with ease.  Yes:  I made a grid of masking tape on my biggest pan that also has a lid (my policy is to only buy bakeware with lids).

 

It worked well, but as I described the whole episode to Rebecca, she informed me that she has dedicated cupcake carriers!  So, next birthday, I will borrow the special boxes.

The real part is the cupcakes and napkins themselves themselves.  I filled the cupcake papers too full like a novice and the cupcakes rose up and overflowed into a big mess.  I cut them out of the mess while Genevieve watched dubiously.  They looked better with a simple buttercream and the sky-blue crystal sprinkles that Genevieve had chosen.

For her at-home birthday, I used the same cupcakes and frosted them with peanut butter icing (from homemade peanut butter - not totally smooth, but delicious) which I attempted to make pink with red food coloring.  It was salmon colored.

a leftover iced cupcake on the glass cake plate

And those dumb napkins.  The morning before we carried the cupcakes to school, I realized I had no paper napkins to send with the cupcakes.  We stopped at the nearest drugstore on the way to school and I shelled out $7 for birthday paper napkins.  I was not pleased, but hey, it was poor planning on my part.  So my plan is to find birthday fabric, cut it into napkins with a pinking shears, and have a class set of cloth napkins to offer with our cupcakes or to anyone else who wants to borrow them (free laundering by me!).

Everyday Details

Here is a collection of details from my life, organized after Leila and Rosie's method of pretty/happy/funny/real. 

These old fabric patches are pretty.  They came to me from my cousin via my aunt.  My cousin and his household started a quilt and then gave it up.  I am thrilled to get the patches - beautiful calicos, feedsack, and seventies prints.  My plan is to make a patchwork picnic quilt, but I'm already chewing on the idea that I might like this fabric too much to allow it to be slung on the ground or tossed in the trunk. . .

Here are my happy children, washing the front porch.  If a chore involves water, my children are all over it.  Our porch gets incredibly grimy from the traffic and, this summer, road construction.  That does not mean we wash it more often (this was the first time this summer), just that the water is blacker when we do.

We used about 20 minutes before bedtime one night - I was so pleased at how fast it went and then they washed their feet, put their dirty clothes in the hamper, and put on their pajamas.

I thought it was funny when I blazed around the house making the cord tacos that my children came along in my wake, crafting and creating, too.  Genevieve's crafting spurt also happened after I allowed her to hang over my shoulder as I looked at my Pinterest feed.  She put a flashlight in a mason jar that she covered with fabric.  I don't know what Ben is making - probably some paper food for the dollies.

Here is my real confession:  I made adorable little yogurt panna cotta cups for packed lunches.  I had made them once before and thought them a little flavorless, but this time, they really were, despite the extra honey and nutmeg I added and the pretty blackberries on top.  Furthermore, the panna cotta separated into odd layers after a few days and the children refused to eat them.  Not to be outdone by them and the compost pile, I blendered the panna cotta into breakfast smoothies one morning. 

 

 

Vacation in the Boonies

Following is a re-cap of our vacation last week when my side of the family stayed at a cabin in the woods.  I'm feeding it through Like Mother, Like Daughter's Thursday collection of links.   

 

 

Pretty:

 

We were in driving distance of Chautauqua, NY, so we went.  It was a perfect day, a perfect tiny town.  My husband wants to live there.

 



I snapped these photos to study those canvas porch hangings.  I think my Victorian porch could benefit from them.

The Chatauqua library was having a $5 bag sale.  I kid you not.  I am lugging a sack of gorgeous old books.

 

 

Happy:

 

My children were so thrilled with this vacation.  So much water!  So many creatures (too many in the lodge for the adults' liking).  So much dirt!  So many sweets and eating all the time!

 

 

 

 

Funny:

 

Can you guess what she's doing?  My poor little deprived city kid is fishing. She is the daughter of non-fishers and apparently, non-borrowers because I'm sure we know somebody who would have loaned us a fishing rod.

 

 

 

She did eventually catch a wiggly little salamander. Which my husband helped her google later (no cell service in the boonies) and discovered it was a newt.

Real:

This was a hunting camp cabin down the road.  Apparently I fit right in.  (In fairness, I think I was pretty even-keel on this vacation).

Ordinary Days

Here are some ordinary moments, made special because we noticed them.  This collection is for Leila and Rosie's weekly round-up, pretty/happy/funny/real.

Pretty porch pots:


summer savory with begonias






geraniums and begonias and the rest is edible:  2 thymes, basil, rosemary, lovage

 

 

There was a happy weekend at the cabin with my husband and my uncles' biking club, wherein I biked 23 miles (more than ever before!) and had a ball and renewed my dislike of sleeping on the ground. Next time I am buying or borrowing a cushy mat; my bones are too old.

These are the funny signs that Genevieve made and hung on her bedroom door:

Free! Masashase! [massages] Pleas knok all day long!

A art show and mazeum [museum] for Ben! and crafs [crafts]! Thank you!

And here she is showing me her new freckles.

My girl. Who is almost done with first grade.

And the real part of my week that I have a photo for is that I made this shaved asparagus pizza and wasn't wowed. It was supposed to be wow-y, but I got off on the wrong foot with this pizza when I discovered that my peeler has a metal piece that prevented me from shaving the asparagus down as far as I wanted to. Plus, I didn't used smoked cheddar the way Rebecca's Clara did when it wowed them, so there's that.

I think I'm going to try again.

Maundy Thursday and Getting Ready

The pretty flowers are ready.  Our church takes flowers to the meetinghouse on Easter morning to decorate it.

 

I'm so happy I found two boxes of my childhood things, just in time to wash up the Holly Hobbie dress Grandma made me for Genevieve to wear on Easter.  It looks to be chilly for short sleeves and sandals and the dress reeks of mothballs, but Genevieve and I are both excited to link our girlhoods. (And stay tuned for the Fashion Plates!)

 

Today is my birthday, and I am wearing a necklace that Genevieve made me with the guidance of Aunt Mel (thank goodness, because the funny necklace G made for herself is eye-popping in its ingenuity).  At the bus stop this morning, I told Genevieve she may wear my necklace sometimes if she likes because she simply adores doo-dads, and she said quite kindly, "No, Mom, that's okay, I have my own diamond."  She does, indeed, have a Chinese diamond as the centerpiece in her necklace.

The real part of my day:  making my own birthday tart and concealing it from family and guests until late tonight.  You see, our church is having Agape meals in homes tonight.  We are hosting a meal.  We will have a simple soup supper with our brothers and sisters, while reading Scripture through The Last Supper.  There will be foot-washing and communion.  We will end quite soberly and leave quietly.  And then (don't tell!) I will whisk my family back to the dining room for lemon tart and a little birthday fun!  I'm pretty sure Jesus will like that, too.

 

We are getting ready for Easter!

 

(And this post is a collection of moments that are pretty, happy, funny, and real - linking up with Leila and Rosie)

A Day at the Free Museum

It's so worthwhile to sleuth around and find out if you can get into regional museums for free.  Our library actually has free passes to 6 local museums that you can check out!

Recently, we took a day trip to a local museum for free - normally, tickets for our family would have been close to $30.  We packed a picnic lunch of bread, jarred salmon spread, cheese, salami, apples, cookies, and water; gas in the car was our only expense (although I almost bought a straw broom for the children).


Pretty:  Genevieve put a dried weed in her hair and posed in the sunshine.

 

And the lichens on the old rail fence were pretty.

 

 

Happy:  I am in a photo with my babies!  Thank you, Mr.Thrift.  It was a good family day.

Funny:  the children dipped some candles.  However, the colonial chickie did not explain anything to the kids, not even "dip the string down in the stuff that looks like water but is melted wax," so there was great confusion and timidity.  She acted annoyed with them, as if they had been colonial children who were responsible for making candles for the household every fall and why could they not form a line?  We didn't finish the candles and I didn't mind because they weren't beeswax.

Real:  I was reminded again how many labor-saving devices I have and how little time I actually spend on basic human necessities such as food and shelter.  The process for creating fabric to make clothes from was incredibly involved - no wonder people only had 2 sets of clothes and mending was an art.

I got to show the children this trundle bed, something we had read about in the Little House books.

 

Those are straw ticks, too, which sound so charming in books but in reality, when I touched it, I couldn't imagine sleeping on that scratchy, lumpy thing.  It's good to contrast my modern life with the olden days - I learn that I like my comforts and modern conveniences and I'm not as hardy as I think I am!

I'm linking up with Leila and Rosie's collection of pretty happy funny real.

Pretty Happy Funny Real

Here's a slice of our life, organized in Leila and Rosie's categories for their Thursday roundup (pretty happy funny real).

 

These burpcloths are pretty.  I made them for a new baby sweetie girl and delivered them along with a meal.  To the right is some plaid (left from this shirt) that I used to make Ben a bowtie for my grandma's funeral.  I do love those bowties: so easy to whip up and instant cuteness for Ben.

 

 

My mending pile is happy to me.  Usually the fixes are fast and it's so satisfying to get the items back in circulation.  Here I have a flowered shoe bag whose seam I made too shallow so it frayed loose.  A pair of oxblood tights that I wore so much they lost their tightness at the top, so I put some elastic in there to help.  A blue sweater with a small hole on a seam that I handstitched closed.  Poof!  Back on the job!

Last Thursday was a funny day.  Ben was requested to dress as a favorite book character for school, and Genevieve was requested to dress crazy in support of anti-bullying school spirit.  Yes, on the same day.  Trying to coordinate this, plus get me out the door for my job was not funny.

Ben was Bananas Gorilla from Richard Scarry.  His daddy helped him make four watches in addition to the two he already had, so he could wear three on each arm like Bananas Gorilla.  Ben dressed in similar clothes to Bananas Gorilla and carried a bunch of bananas.

 

We had to explain the concept of "clash day" to Genevieve, which is kind of hilarious because she already wears the top-of-the-pile shirt with her red plaid skirt to madcap effect.  Sometimes I make her change before I take her out in public.  She totally owned this school spirit day!

 

 

 

Here is a real Lego creation from the Genevieve.  Those people are standing in line at an ATM.  Which niggles at me, because my husband and I rarely use ATMs and I can't imagine where she sees people standing in line for one.  But there you have it:  a 7-year-old's social observation.

 

 

Happy Thursday to you!

 

Christmas with My People

I made one Christmas gift this year.  One.  I will show it to you in another post. 

 

As I scrolled through the photos I took very randomly at Christmas-time, I realized that they were all of my people.  I'm so glad.  Maybe I do have my heart in the right place, focusing on what matters, living in the moment. 

 

Honestly, this Christmas has stressed me out with work deadlines combined with more socializing than we've had at other Christmases.  But tonight as I post my favorite Christmas photos, I am grateful and peaceful. (linking up with Leila and Rosie's pretty/happy/funny/real)

 

school Christmas party

Daddy tries to explain how to tell time to Ben; Ben was much more interested in the backlit face on his new watch.



New headlamps for the children and the husband - everybody needs more light in the winter!  Actually, a few days after Christmas, my husband's best friend told me that guys always want lights and knives.  And sure enough, my husband is wanting a new pocketknife and I didn't know it!  Next year.



ohhhhh, we had FUN with the deluxe English crackers and their paper crowns that Aunt Mel brought.

 

A treat:  ice cream with dear friends who moved to Kansas this summer and came back to visit.

 

A cousin spontaneously gives Great-Grandma a hug, a sweet moment in a boisterous, joyful gathering.

 

And you, dear readers, are my people, too.  I hope your Christmas was merry and full of wonder and all your favorite people.  You're one of the big reasons I enjoy this bloggy business. xoxoxo