MommyCoddle

a few good reads for you, for me

A good family friend, Sarah, has just started blogging in the last few months as she courageously (and with a lot of spunk and style) battles breast cancer. Yesterday, I was catching up on her blog and I read a post about how good it felt for her to do "normal" things. She was just starting to feel better after a recent treatment and was so excited to be able to vacuum and change sheets on the bed. Reading that post was the reminder I needed this week. Here I am dragging my feet and grumbling through my "normal" day's activities but reading Sarah's blog entry quickly brought everything into perspective for me. It was a much needed little kick in the pants, slap in the face. Thank you, Sarah.
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When Dan and I moved from Wisconsin to the farm apartment, we only brought the necessities. We were putting our house on the market weeks before everything fell apart and we blindly thought we would be reunited with our stuff in just a matter of months after the house sold. Hahaha!!! So here we are, two years later and the reunion has just begun. (though not because we've sold the house!) But one of the things we didn't intend on leaving behind were several large boxes of children's books. It wasn't until we started unpacking and saying, "Where are all the girls' books???" that we realized we'd forgotten them. So this week, Dan has been bringing over a box or two in the evenings for the girls to dig through. Oh, it's so much fun!

Since my pre-mommy days were spent as an elementary school teacher, I have quite the collection of books and I'm finding many multiple copies as I dig through boxes. So, as I come across them, I figure I'll share some of those extra copies here with all of you. The two I found in the first box, ironically, are about the same topic--Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition whose goal was to cross the Antarctic continent on foot. If you don't know this story, you must read a book on it. It is an amazing story of willpower and strength and courage and leadership and adventure. Dan and I have this book which you should definitely check out, if only for the amazing photography.

But moving on, I have two children's books about this story to share today. The first is called, "Trapped in the Ice", which you can read about here. It is an easier read, soft cover picture book.

The second is called, "Shipwreck At The Bottom of The World". It is also a soft cover book, but definitely more in the young adult category or maybe a read aloud. Read about it here. It has some of the amazing photography that you'll find in the book Dan and I have.

So if  you're interested in one of these books let me know in the comments. If there are more than one or two of you, I'll just draw a name again.

Now do me a favor...I looking for a good book to read. What are you reading these days? Any suggestions?

to give :: to receive

So they say that it's better to give than receive, but after some of the things that have been coming to my mailbox lately, I'm not so sure. I'll have to get back to you. I'm going to "give" at the end of this post, so I'll let you know which feels better!

First of all my dear long-time blogging friend Kristen, sent me a nice little package a few weeks ago. In it were some of her fabulous fabrics, which are the nicest fabrics that have ever graced my fabric shelves, along with a MollyBirds print, in a new (my favorite so far) colorway.  Who knew a little woodworking project could inspire something so great? Kristen also sent along two pads of her new line of papers. I love them and I'm beating my children off with a stick to keep them away from them. They've got sticky fingers those girls so I've taken to hiding them in different places around my desk.

And Kristen, for the record, Happy Belated Birthday! I made you a video message to send as a little "gift", but I chickened out. I'm working on "take 2". Thank you, friend! You know what I love.

As if that wasn't enough, Molly,(whose new banner I love), my dear blogging friend and new penpal sent an extra large "letter" in the mail for our last exchange. In it she included this cute little puzzle wreath, these books that she scores at her "friends of the library" sales (I'm jealous), and some homemade marshmallows. Molly, the books were key--especially the horse-drawing one. I'm not turning it over to Emma quite yet because apparently my horses aren't "real-ish enough" these days. I need some lessons.

Now about the marshmallows...I'm not sure if I should admit this openly, but I've never had homemade marshmallows. Whoa. Is there any ounce of comparison between powdery puffy store-bought nothingness and fluffy, sweet, perfect homemade? The bag was gone the next day--probably another thing I shouldn't admit openly--but I did have lots of help with the finishing...

And last of all, one night when Dan was well into dreamland, I was up late on the computer and somehow stumbled upon the etsy shop DoggiePiggie. I'm not one for impulse buys, but as soon as I saw these animal tracks alphabet cards, I knew I needed a set for me, (I mean, the girls.) I love them. I'll probably somehow use them to decorate in their new room. And tonight I see that the shop owner at doggiepiggie was holding out on me!! She now has a Memory Card Game, Counting Flash Cards, and great sets of flat and folded cards. Her profile says she's combining her love of science and art. I think they've come together beautifully.

Now for the giving....I've somehow managed to have an extra copy of Amanda's Creative Family book. And I would love to give it away to someone who doesn't have a copy. If you are a mother, auntie (uncle? anyone?), grandmother....you should be reading this book. I can't tell you how many times Amanda's words come back to me throughout my day. Leave a comment indicating that you'd like your name in the hat. I'll pick a name later in the week. You can read my review of her book here.

I actually have two other books to give away, but I'll save them for another post soon. This turned into a longer post than I anticipated.

I gave the bloggity-blog a facelift today. I just needed something new. This was different. The seasons are changing and I get blog-design-ants-in-my-pants. I feel much better now.

dinner, revisited

Hello, I'm still here. I owe my disappearance from this blog to a writing deadline that was using up my brainpower, another round of (milder) sickness hitting the youngest two, and just too many sunny days. Although Elizabeth seems to have the worst of it now, but she had a milder case of the flu when we were all suffering with it the first time around. I see sick eyes in this picture....

I finally finished my mobile for meg's mobile swap last week. It is a variation of the one hanging over elizabeth's changing table, which she is demonstrating in this picture, needs to be raised a wee bit! And instead of hanging it on an embroidery hoop, I attached a few fabric leaves to a willow branch and hung the swallows from there. If you haven't seen the mobile swap flickr group, you must check it out. There is some amazing work floating around--(one of my favorites being the one meg made...)

So this week I planned my menus again, just dinner--and spent a little more than last week--$131. But last week I think I did a better job of using some of the things I already had in my pantry and made some old standby meals. This week I tried two new recipes. Several people have asked me to share what I made, but let me warn you, we are a very meat and potatoes type of family. Well-balanced and colorful, yes, but meat and potatoes. This is nothing fancy, all very simple menu items....

Monday (b/c the planned roast didn't defrost):
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Baked potatoes
salad

Tuesday:
Marinated chicken
Couscous
Broccoli
Tomato/Bocconcini cheese/Basil tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Wednesday:
Meat Loaf
baked sweet potatoes
homemade corn bread
salad

Thursday:
Spaghetti with turkey meatballs
homemade bread
salad

Friday:
homemade pizza--
"white" pizza--chicken, artichoke hearts, spinach, a bit of bacon, mozzarella cheese.

tabouli over mixed greens--
this was a first try for me, the tabouli. I made it from a mix out of a box and it was no good. But I want to find more grains to include in my menus besides rice and couscous, so if anyone has any suggestions?)

(and I think we had some applesauce in there somewhere...)

So there it is. In all it's (lack of) glory.
Now I'm hungry....

whoooo will be my valentine?

The girls and I sat at the kitchen table this morning and made these valentine owls. I did all the cutting earlier from a pattern I sketched out a few days ago. See their heart shape faces? I'm hoping people will get that part of it. And their bodies are black--not very valentine-ish. But who knew my brand new pack of construction paper would have no brown?? If I'd thought of it before this very second, we would have done them on some brown craft paper instead.

So we delivered them door to door to a few special valentines in our valley--along with a few shy kisses and hugs.

Mary painstakingly signed her name on a small square of paper that I cut out and glued to the back of each one. It was fascinating to watch her write out each letter--any direction, any place on the little small square of paper. I have to give it to her, she stuck it out for five whole valentines.

We also got two lovely valentine gifts through the mail. Steph sent me (and the girls) this awesome print of her stitched art. Can you guess which person in our house claimed it as hers? Thank you so much Steph. I love having a little piece of your work to look at. You know I'm a big fan. (and check out what her husband did for valentine's day...)

And yesterday our miniswap package arrived in the mail. Wow, were we spoiled. I'll show pictures as soon as I gather it all up again from every corner of the house. Jesica, my girls are walking around with some pretty little felt bead bracelets today. They worked on them quietly and with such determination first thing this morning.

Happy Valentine's day everyone. Have something sweet. Do something sweet.

don't stand on my right...

because I won't be able to look at you. I slept funny on my neck last night and now it's killing me to turn my head to the right. I'm trying to slowly stretch it out, but man oh man, it hurts!

We've had another one of those lovely stay home all day kinds of days. The sun finally showed its face today and I keep finding Elizabeth in this square of sunshine on the floor. She crawls away from it, picks something up, and somehow manages to always plop back down right in the middle of it. Must feel warm on her back.

On Monday my girls and I had the pleasure of having Mama Urchin and her cutie pie kids come to our house to visit. As we sat together in my living room--both our (cow)girls off together somewhere outside, Mary nestled in beside her on the sofa and T mesmerized by the "penguin game"--I was amazed at how quickly we fell into a 'groove' of friendship. It was absolutely wonderful and comfortable. I felt like we'd been friends for a long time. We went for a walk around the farm, ate her yummy soup, and sat and talked until our children melted. Come back soon, friend. **edited to add: if you want to see what we sent one of the urchins home with, go here**

I've also been meaning to show you this lovely piece of pottery I received in the mail from my friend Melissa. I've admired her pottery on flickr for awhile and she's FINALLY opened up an etsy shop (I'm digging this honey pot!) and started her own blog. This sea urchin vase was one that I admired for awhile and she was so kind to send me one of my own. I love it because it will be perfect for those tiny bouquets that little hands bring me all summer long. And for now, it's helping my baby fern take root.  Thank you, Melissa. I really love it.

Miniswap partners went out today. So if you didn't get an email from me, please let me know.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

december 6

Goodness! Where have I been? Actually, I wrote a post this week, but it stayed in the draft stages of my blog. It was one of those unloading posts, one of those, "I think I need a small break from blogging posts"...but I've fully recovered. I need to remind myself not to write posts when the laundry pile is taller than my oldest child, the breakfast dishes are being washed with the lunch dishes and both of my girls are roller skating in the kitchen! phew.

Anyway this week we welcomed our first day of snow. A beautiful, fluffy, all-day snow. "The whole WORLD is white!" was what I heard over and over. Mary barely made it over the threshold of the front door before assuming the angel position. Winter is finally here. Bring it on.

I've updated my sidebar with a direct link to all my posts at the babycenter blog. I couldn't keep up with the daily updates, so I just made a generic link to the posts by me. I just reviewed a book over there, which I think many of you would really love--because I know so many of us share a passion for teaching our children about good food, eating locally, and our food sources.

I also have a few thank-you's that are long overdue.

• First of all, thank you to Erin for sending Elizabeth a pair of these. She wears them every day except the day they're in the laundry!  You're a dear friend.

• Thank you to Tiffany, my local blogging buddy who gave the girls a cute handmade bag full of her limber letters. The girls play with them all the time. All the time. You can find them in her etsy shop with a whole load of other cute things.

• And another big thank you to Michelle, who quickly jumped on board to make my bare-headed baby a winter cap. I love it. And the extra goodies in the bag were snatched up and carried away quickly, too--let's just say they involved horses and crowns. Good stuff.

thank you erin.

and one for elizabeth of course, too.

thank you, thank you erin. and don't worry about adding fuel to the fire.
We're embracing it.

happy weekend.

allow me to gush a bit

there are two things that continue to inspire and astonish me in this blogging community: the encouragement and giving spirit of so many of you.

Your comments and emails lately have been so warm and helpful when I needed it most and was suffering from quite a little funk.

I'm happy to report that I think I'm emerging a bit from the first trimester blues. The nausea is definitely still there. Even today at lunch, I just sipped a little iced tea because nothing really seemed appealing. But the last few days, I've felt some energy returning and that feels good! I have been feeling trapped in a fog (like those goofy claritin commercials) that is now slowly rising and clearing away. But ahhh, normalcy feels so good!

Meanwhile, this week I received two wonderfully unexpected packages from Sally and Alina.

First of all, my dear friend Sally sure knows how to put together a parcel. Of course, I have no pictures to prove it because the package didn't even make it inside before being opened. The girls and I sat on a bench outside and tore into it....but from the cute address labels, to the orange tissue paper, drawstring paper bags and labelled gifts...just the packaging alone took so much care and time.

my part of the parcel included her amazing gift tags, the sweetest card, these fantastic erasers(that I've searched everywhere for to no avail) and this fantastic japanese craft magazine/book:

as they all are, it is full of inspiration...a few inside shots here....

Sally even included two golden books for the girls. Don't you love the old golden books? Lots of memories from growing up....Mary got a little Richard Scary word book, currently tucked in a tangle of blankets inside her crib for naps, and Emma got this book which has prompted the purchase of a nurse's kit, little "red and green pills (smarties)", and lots of pressure for me to stitch up a nurses cap. (who knew you needed so much heavy duty starch for one of these babies?).

Between visiting me in the hospital, the purple doctor's gloves, and holding my hand and rubbing my forehead during shots, these girls can't get emergency medical play off the brain. So this book just added more fuel to the fire.

As if that wasn't enough for one girl, the next day, I got a surprise package from Alina. Alina bought some buttons from me, which led me to her blog where she shows some of her beautiful jewelry. I love the colors she chooses and all the wooden beads that are in her work. I've really been digging wooden beaded jewelry lately....I even think she's opening an etsy shop soon, right alina??
I was the first person to comment on her blog and after my rough go of things last week, she decided to send me a little care package. It contained one of my favorite necklaces of hers, and a few vintage buttons...

Thank you so much ladies for your sweet gifts. You are too good to me.

And thanks again to all of you for sweet comments and emails. You are good to me, too.

More crafting coming soon, I can feel it....

Mail Call Monday

The mailman has been good to me lately...the mailman who lets me put envelopes in the mailbox without postage and never gives me that little brown envelope for postage due, the mailman who wants to buy tomatoes from me for his brother's restaurant but doesn't know I have ONE little tomato plant in my garden...

Anway, the first was an early birthday present from one of my dearest blogging friends. When Blair asked me if I would mind one of her quilted bags instead of the tea cosy that we had been talking about, I about spewed my cup of coffe on the computer screen. Did she even have to ask?? I told her I wanted to be surprised and that she could do the picking for me as far as colors and fabrics (I love a little surprise now and then), and man, did she pick the perfect bag for me!

I love every yummy slice of fabric on this bag--from the green cursive alphabet to the tea cups and saucer fabric, to the vintage prints and polka dots. Its wonderful and so exciting to actually have a true blair bag in my posession. And the small details hidden inside make it so unique and special, too.

And to top it off, she sent along some other goodies from the daiso store near her house, including the cutest little "roly-polies"-- as we call them in our home-- wooden toys for the girls...Thank you Blair. Really-- a big thank you.
Awhile back, I  came across alicia's wonderful blog after scrolling through the tie one on smock entries. Her simple little linen smock was one of my favorites and when I commented on how much I loved it she offered to make me my very own in exchange for one of my pendants.

I obviously got the better end of the deal, in my opinion. The smock is wonderful! Fits perfectly, even though I'm not wearing it in the picture--I'm too hot, sticky and nasty to pose for a photo right now. I absolutely love it and can't wait to wear it with a little tee and a pair of jeans. Thank you so much alicia!!

And last but certainly not least-- this wonderful CD came from Courtney at two straight lines.

When I saw the list of songs she put together for her kid's music swap CD, I knew we must be something like musical soulmates...so she offered to send me a copy. And we love it. Just today, I put it on again in the car and Emma said, "mom, you really like this CD don't you?" That says it all. If I didn't have a crafty/family blog, I'd probably have a music blog. I love music and even more than that, I love discovering new music. So this one is a big score for me.
Thank you so much Courtney. Once I get my act together, I'm going to send you a CD in return. I think you'll enjoy it.

Holy Mo-ley!

I wish you could see what I see right now. In fact, I've taken pictures of it, but they're not the type you share on a public website--definitely family only pictures.
I'm sitting under the picnic table umbrella in Pa's back yard, enjoying his wireless connection, while my two naked babes enjoy some time in the wading pool. By now however, they've migrated from the pool to the chinese elm and those naked bums are climbing and crawling all over the twisted tree limbs. This is their 'house' where they've returned for swimming supplies, most importantly towels. They are having a very serious conversation about what they'll need for the pool and Mary is calling Emma, "Sammy". I have no idea on that one.
Anyway, back to the title of this post. Can you say, "holy MO-ley!!"? I'm sure saying that after the goodness that spilled from my mailbox yesterday. I admired some wonderful fabric that she scored at a garage sale--the white with red children's silhouettes at the bottom. Isn't it lovely? She offered to share some with me. Um...yes!! thank you! and look what else she sent along. You truly spoiled me Mo. Really
spoiled me.
She listed where each piece of fabric was from... 

The yellow fabric is actually a lovely linen, and the pillowcase is soon to become a summery dress...

and I'm gasping over this horse fabric. reminds me of the horses from the misty of chincoteague books.

and finally a bag filled with lovely gifts tags and cards. i love them.

She also sent a CD of summery songs, that I can't wait to listen to, but 'pooh!' won't play on my mac. So I'm sending it over to my Dad to hopefully convert for me? (can you do that daddy?) Thank you, Mo. You are too sweet and too generous. One of these days, I'm sure, a little thank you will arrive at your door.

This big stack of stuff went to the post office today. It was quite a production. Thank goodness it is a small local post office because by the end one of my children had cleared the shelf of priority mail envelopes, and the other was laying on the floor, no shoes, dress up, diaper showing singing "shrinkle, shrinkle little star" at the top of her lungs. 
Praise the Lord for my patient postal clerk and an empty post office at 11:00 am!