(building a rolly-polly house)

“Hey Logan, today is going to be a ‘Jonah day’ for you. You know why? ‘Cause I’m going to play with you all day long and be nice to you and make you breakfast and get you your me-me if you get sad.”

“I love you, Jonah…”

(spring hike at Charleston Falls)

There’s been some awesome photo projects finding beauty in everyday life out in blog land. Today I’m summing up our school week with these photos and joining in with the mamas at six one way.

Here’s some more lovely finds of art in the ordinary.

Soule Mama is posting a photo a day for 30 days. (This is my very, very favorite. I just can’t get over all the emotions it floods me with.)

the noticing project

3191

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. Try looking at the gray skies with new eyes. There is beauty all around…

Barry is in Reno this week doing academic engineery things. (Oh, and skiing. A nearby mountain is giving free lift tickets to active duty military members.) Miracle of all miracles is that I got to 9 o’clock church, with 3 children dressed in clean clothes, on time! Though I tried to get the boys’ hairs into acceptable postition, it was in vain. But– not one of them had dried milk or snot anywhere on their faces!! Logan only ran up the aisle of the chapel once during Sacrament meeting, and though he is not officially 18 months until next Sunday, I got to leave him in the nursery while I sat through all of Sunday school. Ahhh… it was nice to sit and breathe.

Conducting Relief Society was like herding honking geese. The room was packed. The women were chatty. What do I do, shhhhhush them? 99.9% of them are 10 years older than me!! It was nice to feel the fellowship and friendship, but our poor teacher had a hard time keeping everyone’s attention. It was all very nice in the end. Church was good. Testimonies were shared, Sunday school was very inspiring and thought provoking, I left feeling good.

And all was well until bedtime. Barry does bedtime (except on Wednesdays). But he’s fresh and not quite as tired as I am by that time. He’s fun, but authoritative. Me– I just get bugged and mad because I am tired and I want everyone to go away already! In family prayer I even pleaded, “Heavenly Father, please help the kids to be nice and obey and help me to be patient and not cry or yell while we are getting ready for bed.” Well, I didn’t cry or yell. Nothing of note really happened or went wrong. But for some reason bed time just stresses me out with the undressing and the dressing and the teeth brushing and the VERY HYPER BABY and the one-last-drink of water and the going potty and the VERY HYPER BABY and the stories and the picking of stuffed animals to sleep with and making sure we have me-me’s (blankets) and the VERY HYPER BABY climbing on me while I’m reading the next story…

But Logan’s cute. He gets very hyper when he’s tired. Silly hyper, laughing and running and pulling the dog’s tail and climbing on siblings and on Mom’s head and pulling all toys out of their proper places hyper. He makes me tired. But when I put him to bed he tries to sing along as I rock him and “bap up” (wrap up). He lays his head on my left shoulder and sings in my ear.

So, I like that part.

Dish towel aprons–I just couldn’t resist. My kids needed some art aprons, I needed something to keep dinner off my pants (even though my shirt is usually covered in baby snot), and Martha dish towels were on super clearance at K-mart, so the price was right. Aprons for all! (Well, 3 aprons and a bib.)

Amy has a monthly party at her blog dedicated to aprons

and this month’s assignment was so easy I had to join.

It has been a busy week. Well, it has seemed busy, I guess, but come to think of it, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary to do. I just felt busy. I think because I was sick. I had a fever on Wednesday, felt yucky all day yesterday and had to go grocery shopping anyway, didn’t sleep a wink until about 4:00 this morning, and I’m trying to wean Logan–once a day would be good. That’s why I didn’t sleep last night. My teeth hurt, my nose was stuffy (so I had to breath with my mouth open which made the metal/ rubberband contraptions in my mouth that much more uncomfortable), my throat hurt, my ears ached, I had horrible menstrual cramps, AND I hadn’t nursed a baby since nap time early that afternoon and consequently couldn’t lay on either side or move my arms. Blissful? 800 mg of ibuprofen helped once I reached the point of desperation.

Funny things:

We had a “Girl’s Night Out” craft night at church last night–just bring something to do and sit and gab. I got home a little after ten and as I was heaping my load onto the counter I looked in Ellie’s food bowl right there under the counter. It was FULL of rabbit food. Was there a reason for this? I went and nudge Barry to ask about it and he just grunted. I was grinning so hard that I just broke out laughing. Silly, silly.

Barry did the obstacle course with his group yesterday for PT–you know, climbing walls, jumping logs, balance beams and ropes. Well, he was very proud of his monkey bar performance. I guess he was the only one to make it all the way across–and he even did a “skin the cat” to get off at the end. Now, you know who’s been practicing at the playground!

New site design!!! I’m so thankful I have a computer genius husband, because it would take me a long time to figure all the programming jargon out. All I have to do is show him how I want it to look, make a graphic or two, and WALA! It’s on the internet. Well, maybe not quite as fast as WALA, but close.

I even made an “about me” blurb, but we’re having a hard time figuring out static pages in Word Press.

Also coming soon– shop seedpod! I have “learn to spin” drop spindle kits ready to post, and also some niddy-noddy-nostepinnes for anyone out there that wants to learn how to spin their own yarn. I’ve got some good journal ideas rolling around in my brain too, so hopefully this fall I’ll have some up for your Christmas shopping pleasure.

Also, I’m venturing into flickr. There are lots of cool things it can do. I just need to sit down and figure them out. I want to have a handspun yarn gallery. If anyone out there has bought a spindle from me and made some yarn, e-mail me (jessica AT seedpodbooksandart DOT com) a picture of it and I’ll post it. I just think it would be cool to amass a bunch of pictures of handspun yarn, you know, because pictures are cool.

On a totally unrelated note, but noteworthy nonetheless:
It is a good thing that my boys have nicely shaped heads. Because you can see them very well now. Because they have no hair–well, next to no hair. They were pretty shaggy and I just never got around to giving them haircuts, so, when I went to a meeting Tuesday night, Barry gave them haircuts. Logan’s blond wispy softeness is now about 3 mm long. I had quite a shock, but today I think he is the cutest thing ever again and I love his fuzzy head. I am very thankful to have a husband to helps so much–even if he doesn’t do things quite the way I would. (Stay tuned to Barry’s site for pictures.)

*UPDATE*
There are some glitches with the categories over on the left. If you’d like to look at the posts in a category and get a file not found error, try clicking on “home” first, then going to the category you’re interested in. Not that anyone really cares that much, but I’m just trying to figure out this new layout

Did you know that if your mom takes the jam out of the fridge and sets it on the counter while waiting for a bagel to pop out of the toaster, but you wanted to get the jam out yourself, the world may come to an end and you must scream “Mom you don’t do very nice fings” and “You make me feel really, really mad.” and “DON’T SAY THE WORD!!” over and over again?

Did you know that the prospect of making your bed all by yourself while the rest of the family goes downstairs can cause your stomach to ache, your legs to shrivel up in pain, your fingers to tingle too much to move, and your back to itch, all while you melt into a heap and wail like the boogey-man is after you?

Did you know that if you’re ten months old your high chair is a torture chamber that causes ear splitting screaming?

Well, I discovered all of these things at once this morning and had three kids screaming hysterically for a good solid 45 minutes while I begged and pleaded for them to just let me eat half a bowl of Cheerios so that I could see straight and maybe even think a little bit.

Barry has decided he wants to go into work earlier so that he can come home earlier, so i get mornings to myself again. And my mom was also here visiting for the past week and a half and has sadly returned to her regular life. And we stayed up late last night and watched the BYU-idaho dance teams perform… anyway, it was a crazy morning I momentarily thought I might not survive.

And, there’s more i have to process. A family in our ward lost most of their worldly possesions in a house fire last night. So, I spent the day on the phone tracking them down, finding what they need, answering phone call after phone call of questions and offers for help…

It feels good to be busy serving and knowing that my efforts are really needed…

Anyway, so much to do… so little time. Imagine not having underwear or shoes, or even a toothbrush.

First, here’s Super Fluff

What can I say more? Logan’s hair is awesome; especially right after a tubby! And look at those hands. Their huge!! This kid is a monster. He has no fear. Oh, and I must mention, razor sharp claws.

And now for my crowning achievement of the last few weeks. Meet Rupert (or Ruby if it ends up being a girl when I get it dressed).

He’s a “rug bear.” I hooked his body pieces with ramboulet (some kind of sheep) and angora yarn I spun on one of my drop spindles on a linen foundation. He’s fully jointed with glass eyes, regular DMC floss nose and stuffed with poly fill. His paws are made of merino wool felt I made all by myself.

Anyway, I’m super-duper excited about him. I’m working on a little friend, so stay tuned…

Easter Greetings! (a little late)

SIX!!! His first two came while we were in Boise for Christmas. He was drooling and drenching and chewing on everything. Both of my grandmas went on about how he must be teething. “No,” I said, “my kids don’t get teeth until they’re older. Brenna didn’t get teeth until she was almost one.” Well, Logan is not Brenna. Two days after Christmas my mom was holding Logan on her lap reading stories and called, “Jess!! He has teeth!! There are two teeth here on the bottom!” Oh, so that explained the uncharacteristic sleepless night of ear-splitting screaming. I was just in denial. Logan is not Brenna. He got teeth at 5 1/2 months.

Well, last week his two top teeth broke through–after weeks of agonizing swollen gums and snotty nose and moans of pain. (I totally empathize with the mouth pain, since my mouth is full of metal “appliances” to straighten out my jaw.) Then today, while Logan was squirming around on Barry’s lap hanging partially upside down, Barry discovered two tiny points breaking through on either side of the middle ones. Poor baby. I hope he gets a bit of a break before more sharp pointy white things try to cut through his tender baby gums. Barry and Brenna decided growing teeth must feel like Skele-grow. You know, the stuff Madame Pomfrey gives Harry Potter when Gilderoy Lockhart makes the bones in his arm disappear.

Logan has also become mobile. On Thursday he actually started getting somewhere when he tried to scoot on his tummy–instead of just going in circles. Today he is a pro. He’s my first commando crawler. Every once in a while he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks a little, but just ends up face planting. He’ll do it over and over sometimes and scoot along like a little inch worm. Oh, he is so cute I can hardly stand it.

He’s fluffy. His hair is almost an inch long and just stands straight up all over. Even if we get it wet and try to get it to lay down, as soon as it’s dry–poof–it’s straight up again. He’s like a little downy chick. And with the toothy grin and the wiggle crawling. HE IS SO CUTE I CAN HARDLY STAND IT!

Oh, and before I completely forget, here’s his stats. At 7 months old he’s 21 lbs. and 29 1/2 inches long. Lighter than Jonah, but longer. Babies grow way too fast.

Back from my trip. Tons to do. Wish I had a couple hours to write all about it. Check out Barry’s blog for details.

Here are a couple things I don’t want to forget to write:

Logan has his two bottom teeth. They sprouted up on Tuesday, December 28th. He’s only 5 months old! My other kids got teeth later. Brenna at about 10 months and Jonah at 8. So, I was in denial that his drooling and screaming meant he was getting teeth. My mom discovered them.

One night while we were in Idaho Brenna was feeling a little under the weather and kept complaining. She said things like, “The white blood cells in my body are just battling and fighting with the germs all around my body and I’m bursting with pain.” And, “Oh, I’m so tired (fake yawn) and my ears just don’t work anymore, and I think my brain is going to break!!” Fortunately the white blood cells won their battle and she feels fine now.

I have many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend. Barry was tired of having my rabbits in the garage, so he built them a two story condo with a built in fort. They are now winterized, even though Lizzie still wasn’t smart enough to take shelter in the rain.

Here’s what else is new in no particular order:

So, not super exciting, but good for me. It is really cold and rainy. It’s winter in Ohio. The sun will come out…

in May.