Real Life with Real Children

Just had to share some adorable photos of my little girls in their nightgowns.  A sweet mama, Kate, from Katydid Creations made these nightgowns for the girls for Christmas and some matching dolly nightgowns too.  The girls love them and wear them every night that they aren’t in the laundry.  She does beautiful work inside and out and every stitch is perfect, along with size tags, which is very handy. 

Just wanted to share with you the girls’ favorite gift this year.  You’ve seen the plastic alternative… Let me introduce you to something truly lovely.  Jessica from Crochet Funtime made these for our girls.  She does do custom work and she just really does extraordinary work!  The apples have leaves, the avocado has its’ nut, the grapefruit has pith, and the radishes even have roots!!  These are fantastic, to be collected slowly and appreciated.  Our girls absolutely love them!

The playsilks were dyed by Lori at Beneath the Rowan Tree and the mini waldorf doll made by Barbara at Aunt Boo’s Babies!

I’ve fallen in love with handmade.  There is nothing so beautiful, so natural, so nurturing, as giving handmade.

So, for your viewing pleasure… Handmade favorites.

Tomorrow, if I can find my little gadget to retrieve pictures off of my camera, Handmade Christmas!

Handmade Longies:

Handmade Soap:  (Okay, I cheat, I made these!)

My very favorite Waldorf doll maker in the world! (Wait til you see what she made the little girls this Christmas!)  Aunt Boo’s Babies off of Etsy

My very favorite handmade mama is Lori from Beneath The Rowan Tree.  Lori dyed and painted this dress.  I love this picture of Abigail and Christian.

She’s made the girls tops, dresses, playsilks.  I love her.  And she’s a wonderful person to boot. 

As far as clothing for children, Kate from Katydid Creations is an amazing seamstress.  Her designs are fabulous and unique.  My favorite outfit for Rebecca EVER is pictured below and was made especially for her!

These have adorable little capris beneath the long shirt… hard to see in this picture, but better in the picture below. 

Somehow, Kate manages to not only make fabulous clothing, but to truly capture the personality of each of my girls.  She made them matching nightgowns and dolly nightgowns for Christmas.  I’ll be posting them tomorrow as well.

Handmade doesn’t have to be hard!  You don’t have to be able to sew!  Just think of what each person truly loves and you can create something special for them!

I made this for a daughter who just wants to be a mama!  And it was SUPER easy!

Dolly Mei Tai:

They don’t need to be expensive!  These are longies made from a recycle sweater!  This is a 20 minute project!

It doesn’t need to be sewn!  Here is a mixed herbal tea, by True Vine Herbs.  (Me!)

It can be very simple and very cute!  A hippie skirt for my oldest daughter, Ana, made from pre-patched fabric!  We also made the skirt for Elizabeth and the top is just a tee from Target with a premade patch attached!

A very talented mama made this for me in a trade.  I adore this apron and she did a beautiful job!  Punky’s Mom!

Another trade, by CuppieCake Carriers!

That’s right!  I’m resisting.  I’m making absolutely NO New Year’s Resolutions!  None!  I won’t hear of it!  For goodness’ sakes, we all know they’ll be broken by January 10th anyway!

Since I’ve not blogged since July I can honestly say life has CHANGED around here!

First off…. We moved to the country!  I also haven’t had internet since the first week of October.  That was a life altering experience, let me tell you!  We’re now plopped down on an acreage in Iowa, and loving this new found freedom.  Thanks in generous part to my husband, we’re also no longer testing the children and have found a supervising teacher instead for our family.  This is a good fit for us. While we are fairly rigorous academically, I have always wanted to have the freedom to truly allow so much more interest based education for each individual child rather than just a nibble here and there.

We’ve had SEVERAL new additions to our family in the past few weeks…. two rat terriers, 26 (now 25 thanks to said rat terriers) laying hens, three rabbits, a cat, and we visited a goat farm this past week!  Since July, Abigail has turned 2, we’ve moved past the terrible three’s (Timothy turned 4 last week), our six year old is 7, and the four year old is about to turn 5 on Sunday!   And after reading the last couple of posts about trying out a completely laid out curriculum, I can tell you it failed miserably.

Sonlight was NOT for us.   It turns out that while I was quite sure I wanted someone else to lay out all of my lesson plans, that I’m actually too much of a homeschool control freak to stick to someone else’s schedule.  And so we’re back to our classically eclection hodge podge that has worked so well for us for the past eight years.

DH is now much closer to work and we’re enjoying having him home so much more.  And he’s been so VERY busy since we’ve moved to the farm.  Building, chopping, sawing, repairing, and more!  It seems that as we see the end of one project, another takes its’ place.  But it’s a pleasant busy-ness.  I got to play Lumber Jill yesterday, hauling wood to the truck as DH cut it.  

I’ve not made a batch of soap since we’ve moved here and I’m itching to get to it.  Our first two goats will be here in February and honestly, I’m a bit tempted to not make any until I have fresh goatmilk.  But we’ve decided on a doeling (for Christian’s 4H project) and a bred doe and so we’ll have to wait until she’s had her little ones for fresh milk!  I’m feeling so terribly impatient for it all.  The boys just ran for lumber so we can work on the laying hen building.  They’re getting their own little Egg Shack, aren’t they spoiled? 

I know!  I know!  Where are the pictures?  Sorry!  DSL will be hooked up on Tuesday and we’ll chat then…  I can’t dream of uploading photos on dial-up.  Yipes! I had completely forgotten how painfully slow that can be.  But, I promise, I have a ton for you all….  Lots of "HandMade" mamas to applaud for Christmas gifts, pictures of chickens, a few of bunnies and puppies, and lots of Baby Sarah who is growing so very fast! 

Stay tuned…. this next year is going to be a doozy!

Blessings,

Kelly 

Yesterday was a bit of a… hmmm?  What’s that word?  Revelation!  That’s it. That’s the word I’m looking for!

Yesterday was our first day of school.  July in Iowa is sticky, hot, and sticky… Did I mention sticky?  So, we started school and we’ll take a break in late fall when the weather is gorgeous again.  So, new curriculum, new schedule, and new kids.  Well, okay, same kids, but I was hoping for at least the magical transformation of my three year old into this lovely, obedient preschooler.  Didn’t quite happen….

So here I am on Day 2.  I’m behind, lol, and I wonder, "How can that be?  How can I be behind on the SECOND day of school?"

See this year we are taking a new approach.  I’ve always made our own lesson plans, pulling eclectically from a hodge podge of materials that I’ve chosen based on merit.  This year, in a state of utter exhaustion, and admitting I’m not SuperWoman (who knew?!) I went with Sonlight.  Whew boy!  Didn’t QUITE realize *I* would be reading aloud two hours a day at a bare minimum….

Yesterday was absolutely filled with revelations… Just one after another.

I sat here today sorting books and we’ve just recently picked up several of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s books.  And I found myself a bit resentful to be honest.  When we started reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle I was reading rather intently, with the wild idea that I’d get something useful out of it.  You know you must be over your head a bit when you have a child’s book in front of you with a funny little woman on the front and you’re hoping beyond hope that SHE will have the secret to heeling your three year old.  Wrong.  Just wrong.  So as I put away these books this morning I really thought she was mocking me a bit from the cover.  She should be grateful she didn’t find herself in the trash can as I couldn’t find much use for her…  powders and candy.  If only.

My second thought came as I RE-sorted all the math manipulatives.  Our three year old (noticing a trend) came up with the delightful idea of playing with the lacing beads, attribute blocks, dominoes, stamps, pencils, paint brushes, and lacing animals… all at one time, in one big pile. 

And the thought occurs to me that "Quiverfull" is kind of like buying a timeshare.  Oh, it looks good on the brochure.  The cuddly, big family, curled in front of the fire… I think they use the SAME brochure.  But about ten years down the line……..  It just takes on a bit of a different look and you’re thinking, "Hmmm… would I have bought into this if I had known what I know now?"

Ahhhh…  In all seriousness I adore my children, with the exception of above mentioned three year old.  But I will be the first to admit there are days, lately, of utter exhaustion.  Those lovely moms of many know just what I mean!   Apparently, simply based on the fact that I get pregnant easily, this does indeed qualify me for Mom of the Year.  We have two olders (planned) 12 and 9.  Then, with Quiverfull conviction securely in hand, we’ve had the last six in seven years.   So now, they are trained well enough that I can take all of them in public with me.  And people are fairly certain that because they are all dressed, wearing shoes, and I look reasonably sane, that I really must be this amazing, fantastical mama, with a heart of gold and unlimited patience.  As I am not terribly fond of hypocrisy, I try to explain to them that this is simply not so and that I am a mama just like everyone else who does indeed occasionally lose her marbles.  This is of course then hurrahed as humbleness and I’m even more wonderful than before.

Let it be said here and now…  I am not SuperMama.  My kids would laugh at the very idea!

So, now that I’ve set the situation up for you, here’s the rest of the background.  We have really great older kids.  They’re wonderful. We adore them.  They are the kind of kids you LIKE to spend time with.  To about age 4.  We love our resident four year old VERY much.  She’s an absolute delight.  But, age three NEVER fails to disappoint…  We pretty much hate age three.  Bring on the two year olds, but I don’t like three.  It is inevitably at age three they discover they have opinions.  Generally, contrary to my own.  And at about age three, I always have a new baby…  (When don’t I have a new baby, my mom would say.)   So, despite the fact that I’ve gone through this several times, I see my sweet, adorable two year olds and assume that THIS child will not go through this willfull, naughty stage, and we spoil them to death.  Only to pay for this six months later. 

We’re at that stage.  Add in one potty training 22 month old, and one needy infant and mama NEEDED to get out of the house last week.

So, we get dressed and we head to the park.  We’re all in high spirits, congratulating ourselves on being dressed and out of the house by about 9:00 when the weather is still cool.  And as we walk we bump into an older mom, pushing her three year old in a stroller.   Now, I’m in a great mood, but I’m wiped out and you know, you just know you’re having one of those days when….

Other Mom:  "How many of them are yours?"

Me: "All of them!"  Big smile

Other Mom: "Wow! I don’t know how you do it."

Me: "Oh, it’s not so bad.  They’re good kids."

Other Mom: "You must be Mom of the Year."

Me: "Why?"  And realize this is said in genuine shock. 

It never ceases to surprise me why people think we just have it all figured out because we’ve had LOTS of kids.  Like because I’ve been bestowed with children, I’ve also been bestowed with endless wisdom… Don’t I wish it? 

Truth is, the more children I have, the more sure I am that I don’t know it all.  I always joke that when we had our first, I was pretty sure I knew it all about parenting.  After all, I had read all the books and we were doing everything right.   With the birth of number two, I KNEW I knew it all about kids.  I had two, both of them keepers.  With the birth of our fourth, who was a very high needs baby, I began to suspect that we might not know as much as we thought we did.   Then came number five… a baby who had constant diahhrea until I stopped breastfeeding, a baby who turned into a toddler who was VERY behaviourally challenged until we stopped giving her soymilk.  (WHO KNEW?!)  It was then and there I admitted I didn’t know much at all.

Okay, okay, so the quiverfull brochure has lost some of it’s charm.  I did about seven loads of laundry yesterday and I’m ALMOST caught up.  I am using THREE, count ‘em, THREE Cores in Sonlight this year.  I have a 7th grader, a 4th grader, a 1st grader, a K, a Pre-K, a potty training almost two year old, and one seriously high needs newborn that lives in her Moby…  THIS was NEVER on the brochure. 

But, I also have one really neat daughter who is almost a teenager and I love her more than I ever did as a baby because she is absolutely fascinating to me.  I have a 9 yo boy who loves to take care of his Mama and loves God.  I have a 6yo who is a delight and makes me smile every single day.   I have a 4yo who is just never upset, always happy, and smiles the biggest smiles.  My three year old, while not well behaved lol, is very umm… creative.  The two year old makes me think every day, "Thank you God that we didn’t stop having children.  How would I live without her?"  She brings me joy every minute of the day… even cleaning up puddles.  And this high needs newborn…  Sometimes I think maybe she is an amazing blessing as well.  If she wasn’t so fussy how would I have an excuse to hold her all day in a family this size?  She’s in her Moby now, snuggled tight into me, snoring soft baby snores, and blissfully asleep.  She has soft woolly newborn hair, and soft, sweet smelling, newborn skin.   And while this may not be what I THOUGHT I was signing up for…  While it is SO much more work than I ever would have wanted…  While I go to bed every night wiped out and wake up in the morning with a long list of "To Do" options, it is so much better than I could have ever dreamed.

How does that quote go?

I’m not what I should be, but by the Grace of God, I’m not what I was.

"