Kiddos

Celine has been sewing up a storm these days.  To hear the sewing machine humming, to provide feedback for her design ideas and to see the quality work she's producing is such a blessing to this mama's heart. I feel a sense of deep satisfaction as she makes this learning her own, knowing that the way we've chosen to homeschool has given her the time she needs to pursue her own goals and dreams.

Sigh... I am a happy homeschooling parent.

One of Celine's recent projects was to sew a sock monkey for her cousin, who turns two years old the beginning of next month.  This was a paid commission from her aunt to create a handmade toy that the parents (Celine's aunt and uncle) could give to their son as a gift.  

I am so proud of Celine for accepting this project and following through.  Damien and I encouraged her to take on the project and offered whatever help she needed. But ultimately the choice to make it and the work was done by her.

We took her shopping to buy an appropriate pair of socks, helped her find a pattern, read through the instructions with her and at the very end helped her sew on the eyes and mail the finished product. But that was it, the rest was her doing. 

In case you are interested in doing a similar project this is the pattern Celine used, found at Craftbits.com. The instructions are very straightforward and Celine was very pleased with the end result.

But more importantly Celine was pleased with the process. This girl loves to sew and I couldn't be happier for her. These are Celine's own words for how she feels when she's sewing, "I'm in my element!"  Music to a mother's ears. 

We celebrated Laurent's birthday last Friday in a cozy, family-focused, take the day easy kind of way. Much needed after the busy pace of the last week and month. Waffles for breakfast, some time spent with Nana & Papa (on the last day of their visit), a few gifts, pizza and card games and cakes baked by Nana.

Laurent is a real social kid and when we asked him if we could host another pizza and beer night on the day of his birthday he loved the idea. Laurent loves people. Period. Their age is irrelevant to him. So we hosted Damien's co-workers (which include some family friends), my parents and of course our own crew of five. The kids drank too much soda, ate too much cake and stayed up far too late finally hitting their pillows at 11 pm. What's a birthday without a bit of excess?

There is a story behind this waffle maker. Waffles are our kid's birthday breakfast tradition. In choosing their special foods for the day they always ask for waffles topped with whipped cream, berry sauce and maple syrup for breakfast. (Remember, birthday's are definitely not vegan around here, we consider these treat days in our normally plant based diet).

Problem with waffles for breakfast is that we don't own a waffle maker, and I don't intend to buy one. Instead we borrow one from various folks as necessary. I like borrowing tools. I like sharing tools. I firmly believe that we don't all need to own lawnmowers, waffle irons and clothes dryers. We just need to be willing to share what we do have and be willing to ask for what we need.

So we borrow a waffle iron three times a year for kiddo's birthday breakfasts. This time around I got an appliance that is probably fifty years old, and is still going strong. The buzzing sound it made as the element heated up gave me a little scare and the first 2 waffles I scraped out had me muttering under my breath but after that it worked like a charm. Many thanks to one of Damien's co-workers for lending it to us.

One of the sweetest gifts Laurent received was a doggy care set made by Celine. The day before she was designing and stitching; locked away in our sewing/guest room and then up till 10pm the night before busy on the sewing machine. She created a dog bed, collar, leash and food bowl all out of scraps from our fabric and notion supply. The little sweater you see on the dog was sewn by Laurent for his special dog, Gray Fur.

Overall it was a very sweet day. Both literally and figuratively. Happy 9th Birthday to my sunshine boy.

One of my strategies for enjoying the rest of winter and getting more weekly exercise is to go for a walk with the kids 2 days a week. This is working with mixed success. We are getting more exercise and I am definitely feeling better. But the kids don't particularly enjoy these outings. Walking on sidewalks is not really their thing. Hiking for hours in the mountains is more their style. I don't blame them. I like that better also. So to motivate ourselves to get out the door we are walking places we need or want to go (I am driving less errands). One of the huge benefits of living in a urban neighborhood.

Recently I had to take Celine to an orthodontist consultation (trust me you don't want to know the estimate of services) which we couldn't walk to. But instead we took a walk from the orthodontist to the library and around the downtown neighborhood of our twin city across the river. Our last and unexpected stop, "can we go in mom, please??", on this walk was Orphan Annies, a well known local antique store.

We ventured in and after reminding the kids to walk carefully and not to touch we lost ourself in glass for the next 1/2 hour.

My art appreciative kids ohhed and ahhed over, well, everything. I was constantly coming to see all the treasures they found.

We hadn't intended to buy anything and certainly most items in that store are priced way out of our reach. But shortly before we left the kiddos found the marble jar, 5 for $1.00. So they each bought a few marbles, one of their favorite toys.

That day's walk had been very pleasant. If only all of our urban walks could be so mutually enjoyable.

*You might notice on some of my recent posts and in future ones that I am experimenting with a processed photo look, like the last photo in this set. No worries, I still like most of my photos to look true to life but I am having fun with the cross processing preset in the new version of Bibble 5, the photo software I use.