Early Fall Ramblings

I still can't quite believe summer is over and we're well into fall. How does time seem to fly by faster and faster with each passing year? I can honestly say I feel like we packed about as much as we possibly could into summer, though, so I don't have any regrets. Just trying to keep up, though, kept us hopping. I think we both lost weight over the summer, because we just didn't have time to eat a regular meal on some of those busy days. I love looking back at the photos, and thinking about the treasured family time we had.

And it seems we're just as busy now that it's fall!

How can you not smile with so many babies around. This photo was taken after our family pics a few weeks ago, so the kiddos were tired out, but still as sweet as can be. We can't get enough of them. Arms full of babies... what can be better?

The surroundings up at the cabin are gorgeous and fall-ish. We did our annual maple leaf cuttings, and brought them home to decorate with. (By "we", I mean Bob, with me pointing out just the perfect colored leaves to cut).

There is always wildlife to be seen at or around the cabin. This porcupine was just a few feet away from us, and didn't seem to mind that we were there at all.

Lots of family dinners. This picture is totally representative of what they're like. Babies everywhere in high chairs and walkers and laps.

What you don't see in the photo above, is to the left of that picture is the kid's table, which Grandpa was at, helping to get food down the older grands.

We had the perfect amount of apple-pears this year. There was a bit of a freeze in the late spring, which thinned out the harvest quite a bit. Towards the end, we just picked all of the remaining apple-pears and boxed them. We delivered them all around, and ate plenty!

A perfect specimen. (That goes for the hand holding the apple-pear as well as the apple-pear itself)

Of course pumpkin harvesting had to happen so that we could set the pumpkins out on the porch to decorate. The grand kids helped harvest the small crop that we had this year.

Such perfect times. I can't imagine not having photos to remind us of the sweet, happy moments in life. They have a way of slipping away from the forefront of our memory if we don't have the photos to look back on. Or is that just me?

Reunions X 5 -- You Gotta Love 'Em All!

Busy, busy, worky, worky. That sums up our summer. It is unmatched by any other of our summers, for sure. We both feel like we've been running from one thing to the next, and that our schedule or plans are just a running joke between the two of us. And yet, it has been full of some of the best experiences ever, with family especially.

It was the year of five reunions. Including one weekend that we affectionately referred to as the trifecta (because of the THREE reunions held on four days). So. Reunions. You've gotta love them. We grew up on reunions, traveling from California to Utah once a year to spend a day catching up with grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. And we loved those reunions. I remember running around all day with my cousins, stopping only for a picnic lunch or homemade treats made by my aunts, and lazing around the grass listening to my parents and their siblings talk about the old days, growing up together in another time. Oh how I loved those reunions! And I'm certain that we heard the same stories year after year, with a few new ones thrown in for good measure. But we still loved hearing them, and hearing the grownups laugh and reminisce.

Fast forward to today's harried pace. We run from one thing to the next, and reunions and family gatherings come up, and we wonder if we really have time to fit that into the schedule. We had a reunion for my husband's cousins and aunt and uncle on his dad's side. We had the two more reunions for my cousins on my mom's and also on my dad's side. And we had a reunion for all of the family members from my parents on down. Last, but not least, we had the second annual reunion for me and my husband and our kids and grandkids. Now, let me stop right there. Anyone who knows us knows that our kids all live within 7 miles of us. Most of them are much closer than that. And knowing that, you might say, "Why a reunion? What is the purpose of 'reuniting' when you already see each other quite often?" And I would say to that, "We have a reunion so that we can spend a couple of days focusing just on our family, on our relationships. To play and laugh together without any interruptions. To reminisce and love and appreciate each other. To give our grandchildren (and each of us, for that matter) the opportunity to learn about their ancestors -- all of those who have paved the way for us today." That is why we have our little reunion, and that is why we might find ourselves going to five reunions in a given year.

My most favorite people in all the world
(Numbers represent order of grandkiddos)

And speaking of our reunion, we had a wonderful time together. It never gets any better than all of us being together. It feels so right, so complete. I love it! We started out with a trip to Hogle Zoo on a Thursday. It ended up being all of the mommies and kiddos, along with Bob and I. It also ended up being a scorching hot day, but we carried on and those mommies were real troupers!

This is our entourage... with 5 babies in strollers
and two walking kiddos.
LOVE those mommies and sweet kiddos.
And that man behind them all? Be still my heart!

After the zoo, everyone went to their homes, and then the next day we met up at the cabin to spend a night together. It turned out that Bob had to wake up early on Saturday and drive home for a funeral, and then hurry back up. It wasn't in the plan (remember that our "plans" are our running joke this year), but we adjusted and made do. And that is a whole other story which I won't go into right now. Suffice it to say, we were happy to have him back so that we could carry on with the fun. While up at the cabin we had a treasure hunt for the kids...

a pinata...

an ancestor game where they all got a stack of photos and had to put them in pedigree order...

Hmmmm. Mostly right, anyway.

a puzzle game, where they got a little packet and didn't know what the puzzle was, but had to try to be the first to put it together...

The box the puzzles came in (which they didn't
get to see til after the game was over)

and because it's not a reunion unless you do this, we had every couple bring a jar with treats in it for everyone to guess the number of...

We tried to fit in as much as we could to make it special for everyone there.

We also spent some time after most of the kids were in bed on Friday night, talking about how grateful we are for each member of our family, and also for our ancestors. We tried to punctuate the fact that it is so important to get to know each of their stories and understand them a bit so that we know who we have come from, and what kind of stock we are made of.

'Can't get enough of these photos of amazing, wonderful people that make up our family. These three bottom photos are from the trifecta weekend. Three different reunions in four days.  Makes me very tired... and happy that I have those sweet memories!

It Is Well With My Soul

This is what we woke up to this morning.

A beautiful, cold spring storm. We need the moisture, so we can't really complain much.

And somehow there is something so lovely, peaceful and quiet about this storm. Especially after yesterday's wind that brought the storm in.

It means that the outside chores will have to wait for today. And that I can get a few things done in my house, all while enjoying the quietly falling snow through every window I pass.

The only downside to the day is that my babysitting gig for the afternoon had to be cancelled because of the weather. For those of you who are keeping count, the last of our grands was born on March 19, and now all seven are here safe and sound. The last five all came within 2-1/2 months of each other, so we've got a lot of new wee babes around here. We're lucky enough to live fairly close to all of them, so we get to see them often. And whenever I can, I get to tend them here and there throughout my week. This afternoon was my time to spend with the twins, but with the weather being so bad, and the roads to their house slippery and icy, we had to postpone. 

That photo makes my heart happy. It reminds me of when I was little, and would line up my dolls along my bed. Oh, how I love those sweet seven! And we find our lives rotating around them. Thinking about them. Talking about them. Hoping and planning for them. Wanting to spend time with them so that they will always know how much we love them. We are slightly obsessed with them. Okay.... more than slightly. But can you blame us?  It is well, it is well with my soul.

Two More Jelly Roll Quilts Delivered

I've delivered the first of our grand baby quilts for the year. It was so much fun to do the quilts for the twins. They're very similar, but have a few subtle differences. 

The backs are slightly different, along with one of the border fabrics.

Gotta love those jelly roll quilts. (To read more about how to make jelly roll quilts, click here) It was a good way for me to go so that all of my grandkids have the same basic quilt design, but very different with the use of different fabrics. And there are such cute jelly roll fabrics out there. I've got several rolls on my shelf just waiting to be made. The first ones to be finished though, will be the three for our other three new grandbabies. 

For those who are wondering what the count is to date, we have 5 here, with one due any day and another due in a couple of months. We are beyond thrilled to have so many new ones so close together (five in three months time!). Our family is growing so quickly. Bob and I spent most of January visiting or babysitting grand kids. And I've gotta say, we couldn't think of anything that would bring us any more pure joy. It has been like a slice of heaven around here.

Cutting a Window in the Playroom Wall

I know many of you may wince when you think of cutting holes in perfectly good walls. But this was one of those times when it was needed.

We've been working on our playroom, which is specifically for our grand babies (5 here, two more on the way!). It is a slow work in progress, but at least we keep progressing. Our most recent improvement was to make our window in the wall of the little closet. This room used to be our oldest son's room, and he had a regular clothes closet, but then also had a little closet that was framed in under the roof line. We used it for storage of all kinds of odds and ends through the years, and when it was emptied out, it felt like the perfect place for a little playhouse!

The rest of the playroom is mostly done, so we've been turning our sights on the playhouse now. We put in a wood floor, and have plans to make a little kitchen in there, too. It gets a little cavernous in there, so we decided a window would be just the ticket.

We had to decide on the perfect height for our little ones, and then drew the outline of our window on the wall.

There was some electrical going on in that space, and also a probable load-bearing wall, so we took all of that into consideration. And remember, when I say "we", I really mean  Bob, with me on the sidelines cheering. 

After he had both sides of the sheet rock removed, he was left with what was in the photo below.

He carefully cut the boards out, moved the electrical to below the window sill...

... and then framed in a header for support, and re-framed the window all the way around.

After that, it was my turn. I taped and patched the sheet rock to cover the screw holes and the areas that we had to add sheet rock to.

A new coat of paint, and no one's the wiser.

After painting, Bob put in the finishing MDF boards to frame the window.

And there is always patching to be done after that. So, I got our paintable caulk out, and went to work.

This is the same corner, after caulk.

A few coats of paint on the window frame, and then some curtains, and we can check that project off the list! 

I envision puppet shows happening from inside this window, in addition to hours and hours of playing house. Can't wait!

Grout cleaning, Christmas organizing, and 72-hour kits

First of all, a big reminder that we'll be working on the next task for our 72-hour kits next week. Click the 72-hour kit tab above, and get caught up, and on the 15th, we'll move on.

Second of all, last night I achieved something great. All of the Christmas decor is gone from our main floor, and that same main floor is vacuumed and dusted. Ahhhhhh. I mentioned how it makes me feel like I can breathe deeply, and indeed I now can. That isn't to say that the basement makes me feel like I can breathe deeply. All of the decor that was on the main floor is sitting in piles, waiting to be gone through, and then awaiting it's new place in my cleaned-out spacious holiday closet. Since my holiday closet isn't spaciously cleaned out yet, I can't put everything back in it, so it sits and waits. This has been the weirdest year as far as getting things back into place. I'm VERY motivated to get it done the right way: to purge the old decor that I don't use, and donate it (either to my kids or to the thrift store). My "grandmother nesting" is in full swing, which helps the cause. BUT, more important things seem to keep coming up. Things like holding our new baby granddaugther, playing "McDonalds" with her sweet two-year-old brother, visiting our twin grandbabies in NICU as often as we possible can (because they are changing before our very eyes), catching up with a friend who has been serving with her husband in Florida but is home for her father's funeral (how do you say, "Darn. Don't have time to talk. I've got old Christmas decor to purge.") Christmas decor can wait. As luck would have it, we don't have a function that we need our basement for until Easter. ;)

And thirdly, I have made a miraculous, astounding, spring-in-my-step discovery. It began before Christmas as I was readying guest rooms and bathrooms for our kids to come and stay. In the bathroom that used to be our girls' bathroom as they were growing up, I was going for the vintage look and wanted white tiles with white grout.  Really? What in the world was I thinking? What happened to my rule of always using the grout that was already the color of dirt so that it would never look dingy? I think I thought that in this one little space, I'd be able to maintain control. But sadly that wasn't the case.

Sorry for the yellow-ish photos. That bathroom has no natural light, so photos are rough. But, yellow-ish or not, the ugly groutlines still show up loud and clear.

Ick.

And recently I have tried every single grout bleaching and brightening technique known to the Pinterest world. And every single time, it ended up looking the very same. How can bleach be so selective as to ruin articles of clothing, but won't make a dent in tiny dirty grout lines. Go figure.

One day as I was wandering through Home Depot, I thought I'd check once again for some sort of product that I hadn't already tried. And voila. I happened upon the answer.

The Miracle Grout Pen. I figured it couldn't hurt. I bought two pens (so that I for sure wouldn't run out), and took them home and went to town.

Can I tell you how much I love this product? Even if I have to do it once a year, I will love it til the day I die. It transformed an embarrassing countertop into one where the grout is the last thing you notice. I love it, I tell ya.

I used about a pen and a half on a two-sink countertop and back splash. I love the results and I'll let you know if it starts fading with cleaning. So far, so good.

Grands #3, #4, #5 and Christmas DeJunking

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it here again: I love this time of year. I do love the holidays and all that go with them. And I hate to wish them away, but by the time January 1 rolls around, I am more than ready to get all the Christmas decor put away and my house back to a nice fresh, blank slate. It makes me feel like I can take a big deep breath for the first time in a couple of months. Again, don't for a minute think I dislike the holidays. I LOVE Christmas and everything that goes with the celebrating of it. But, I also love January.

Having said that, I made up my mind that this would be the year that I truly would purge old decorations as I was putting things away. My holiday closet was getting far too crowded and hard to maneuver. There are shelves built in it, but way too much to fit on those shelves. And so much of the boxes are full of things that I haven't used in years. I bet I decorate with about a tenth of what is in that closet. Ugh. Something has to go.

And part of the closet goes back under the stairs. We have Christmas trees of all shapes and sizes stowed away in there, and I haven't used or looked at them literally in years. I think it's time I roll up my sleeves and empty that cavern. It's kindof frightening, honestly, but someone has to do it. It seems like it's some sort of a combustible fire hazard.

Every year I say I'll go through everything, and every year I end up just stuffing the same things back into boxes and stacking and positioning everything just so, so that it all fits (somewhat), and then closing the door until the next time. Not this year. No sir. And this quest of mine happens to coincide with some really great "grandma-nesting" time, so I really am slowly accomplishing this Herculean task. As I take boxes out to put things back in to, I look through the contents of the box, and set things aside that I haven't used in years. When I'm done, we'll have a Christmas Decor Giveaway with my kids. They can take whatever suits their fancy from the piles, and then I'll give the rest to Deseret Industries. Sounds like a perfect plan. Trouble is, as I was beginning to go through the painstakingly long process of going through each box (I'm not going to divulge here how many boxes I actually have, but it's wayyyyyy too many), Grandbaby #3 was getting ready to come! So of course I left my boxes and bags in the basement, and readied the house for the older, two-year-old sibling of Grandbaby #3, so that he could have a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa whilst his baby sister was coming in to the world. And in case you haven't had the experience yet, I will tell you that when you're watching grandbabies, that's pretty much all you want to do. No work gets done, and that's as it should be. In fact, I didn't even think once about the mounds of Christmas decor strewn about my basement as I happily played with Grand #1

And then Grandbaby #3 made her arrival, and it became even more apparent that nothing else in the world mattered. Just our three beautiful grands. It doesn't get much better than that.

New Year's Day came and went with a slight celebration. We were happy and tired, and just curled up on the couch together with one of my other daughters, her husband and her sweet baby (Grand #2). We shuffled around in our sweats and slippers and enjoyed every lazy bit of it, holding and playing with Grand #2.

The next day, after our house guests had gone, my grandma-nesting kicked in again, and I carved out an hour to get down there and do just a bit more. But then Grand #1 and Grand #3 were calling to us, and we went over and made a visit and soaked up their sweetness.

That night I promised myself that I would work on my Christmas decor project the next day, and would accomplish great things with the heap. And I did get a couple of hours in before we zipped off to the temple for some much needed peace, perspective and renewal. When we got out of the temple, we got word from our son that his wife was in labor with their twins who were expected on February 18. We zipped down to the hospital, and a few minutes after we got there, two beautiful, perfect, healthy baby girls were born! Talk about our cup running over! We were (and are) so full of joy that we can hardly contain it. Grand #4 and Grand#5! And we still have two more to come, in February and March. We go through the motions of our days with such a big smile in our hearts and on our faces!

Yesterday, as we made visits to the various families, we thought how lucky we are to be able to see and visit all 5 (what?????) grandbabies in one day. They all live pretty close by, so we can get our baby fixes often.

And now back to reality. The basement. Today will be another day where I can get only a couple of hours in, but I'll plug away at it -- all the while watching my Christmas Decor Giveaway pile growing bigger and taller, and enjoying the luxurious space (one can only hope) of my holiday closet. And I'll have the 5 (+2) best reasons to have a huge smile while doing it. Wish me luck!

Grandchild Version of Our Christmas Stocking

Last year I posted the directions for making scrappy Christmas stockings. I made all of our in-law kids stockings like the ones below. And this year, I needed to come up with a simple grand kids version. Simple because I know that I'll need to make several in the coming years, and I wanted it to be a do-able thing. You'd hate to have any of them have to wait three years for their matching stocking! I know there are darling stockings that crop up every year, but I'm too nostalgic to oust the old for the new. I made our original two stockings just after we were married (30 years ago), and I'm sure they'll be hanging on the mantel for the next 30 years. And these grandkids' stockings will be fun, because they're basic enough that they'll never go out of style, and I can use fun, different fabrics for the cuffs.

For the instructions on how to make my scrappy patchwork stockings, click here. My grandkids' version is basically the same stocking, but skipping the patchwork part. 

To make these Christmas stockings, I followed a pattern from Moda Bakeshop. The pattern is "His and Her Scrappy Christmas Stockings" by Nicole Willmore. Click here to see the original free pattern.

So, to do the grand kids stockings, the directions are as follows:

I wanted the stockings to be the exact same shape as the others that I already have, so I used my others as a template to draw up my own pattern. Years ago, I made six stockings for my family. As my kids have married, I knew that I wasn't going to go back and cross-stitch stockings for their spouses, so I wanted to come up with something else, and these scrappy stockings fit the bill. I like the idea of having the stockings being a little mix-and-match, so the fact that they are different designs from the originals doesn't bother me a bit. In fact I sort of like it... it seems to represent the phases our family has gone through (first our little family of six, then the four marriages of our kids, and finally, the additions of grand babies to the family).

You may notice the sad shape that my cutting board is in. It has some battle scars from previous projects (which may or may not have involved kids with markers). I have a newer one, but I love this little one that fits in the corner of my counter so well. So, ignore the scars and the marks. 

The Moda pattern is great to follow along with. I'll just add a few of my own photos here and some of the changes or adjustments I made. The original pattern makes two stockings. My stockings each measure about 16" long and 9-1/2" wide at the foot of the stocking.

On the Moda ingredient list, you'll notice that it uses a jelly roll. You won't need a jelly roll for my more basic version of the stocking. You will need about 1/2 yard (depending on the size and shape of your stockings) of whatever fabric you'd like the stocking to be made out of. I want all of my grand kids stockings to match, as far as the stocking part. And then, they'll each have a different fabric for the cuff. I chose a nice mid-weight cotton muslin for my stockings.

You will also need a piece of warm and natural that you will cut to just one piece that is exactly the size and shape of your stockings.

Cut four stockings out of the muslin, and one stocking out of the warm and natural batting.

And with any patterned fabric that you choose, cut the following:

-7 x 13-1/2 (cuff)

-2-1/2 x 6 (hanging loop)

The larger of the two, the cuff piece, may change depending on the size of your stocking. I changed mine from the original pattern.

Stack three of the stocking shapes as follows: 

1-warm and natural piece

2-stocking front (one of the four stocking shapes already cut out), with the right side away from the warm and natural

3-stocking back (right side facing the right side of the stocking front)

Pin these three together and sew them together, right sides facing each other.

Sew the other two stocking pieces together (they'll end up being the lining). Be sure to leave about a 2" opening on the long, straight edge of the stocking for turning later. Trim and clip the curves so that the stocking will turn easily, being really careful not to clip the seams.

To make the loop, I used the 2-1/2" x 6" piece of fabric. I folded it in half length-wise, and pressed. Then I unfolded it and folded the outside edges into the middle, and pressed again. I sewed along the entire long edge, using about 1/8" seam allowance.

Then, I took the large cuff piece and folded it in half and sewed the 7" edge, right sides together.

I turned half of it so that I had a cuff folded in half... like the picture below.

this cuff is for a different stocking, but you get the idea...

I placed the raw edge along the raw edge of the stocking at the top.

Then, I pinned it with the seam in the back, or along the seam of the stocking. To add the loop, I folded the loop fabric in half, centered it over the side seam, and then pinned.

Then, I placed the quilted stocking inside of the lining stocking and pinned all along the top, being careful to pin the loop exactly where it should be.

I sewed carefully along the top, and then pulled the quilted stocking through the opening of the lining stocking.

Sew along the lining opening to close the hole.

Push the lining stocking down into the quilted stocking, and iron flat.

And my sweet husband engraved the name tags that I attached to the stockings. You could also embroider the names, or whatever suits your fancy. Again, I wanted to do something that wouldn't take me too long, or I knew it might not get done very quickly. And remember, next Christmas I'll have five more grand baby stockings to do.