Quarantined

We spent a good chunk of Little L's birthday week under a bit of a self-imposed quarantine. K had the chickenpox. It's been going around school so I had a feeling it would be coming our way. I admit it was somewhat welcome. I mean as welcome as something like this can be.  I was just looking forward to getting past this particular rite of childhood so that we didn't have to worry about it in the future.

We are thankful that K had a  mild case and was her usual self minus some itchiness here and there. Oat baths and neem oil really seemed to help. I believe I was older than she is when I got them but I had an easy case, too. In fact the only thing I remember about it is that I gave them to my brother (who is about nine years older than me) and he had a pretty rough time. I mentioned my experience to K and every time she wanted to itch a spot I told her to give her uncle a call and he would  tell her why she shouldn't itch them. That little rascal never called him, though.

Now I am just waiting for C and Little L's chickenpox to appear. It's inevitable. I was told they appear in two weeks after the initial case just like clockwork. We are soon to find out! I pray that they have as mild of a case as K did.

p.s - Somehow a picture of K's latest knitting project just seemed absolutely appropriate for this post (that very loved horse is from The Puppenstube). And those tiny flowers you see above? Those are our first sign that spring is near! Little L and I spotted them outside our window the other day. There was much rejoicing!

p.p.s - I really contemplated posting this but in the end I decided go with it and stay true to myself.  I am always open and honest (but also vulnerable!) in this space of mine and to skip over this particular event in our lives just wouldn't feel right. On that note, I do ask that we please refrain from any possible vaccination debates. They would only bring us the exact opposite of love and encouragement. Thank you for understanding!

Quarantined

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


What a hubbub is going on here! My oldest child is apparently receiving a visit from the tooth fairy soon so I am making her a cute little tooth fairy "pillow". It is really more of an angel doll with a pocket than a pillow, though. I am not so sure about the tooth fairy coming - her visit would involve K's teeth being pulled out. You see she hasn't lost any teeth yet, nor does she have any that are wiggly but she does have adult teeth coming in behind two of her baby teeth. We had a dentist visit on Monday and he wanted to pull the baby teeth. K even wants them pulled but we are holding off, for the moment. K got her teeth in a bit later than most and her kindergarten teacher told me not to be surprised if she didn't lose her first tooth until 2nd grade. She is following in my footsteps with teeth. Mine fell out later, too. Actually, a good number were pulled. Our dentist is great but I find myself second guessing his decision. Have any of you dealt with your child's teeth doing this? Did you get them pulled or wait it out? I would love to hear your thoughts!

My other project involves sewing with Betty (ahem, for those of you that might not know - that is my sewing machine). Remember the pants I wanted to sew Little L last year (like these ones)? Well, I am finally getting around to actually doing it! They were going to be for his birthday but now I am thinking Easter.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

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Last chance to enter the Moon Roots Soaps giveaway!

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If you would like to link up and share your current works in progress (or finished works) please leave your link below. It can now be either to your specific blog post or Flickr photo. There are no rules, only that your link is current and something about a craft project (of any kind) you are working on. Don't forget that there is now a KCCO Flickr group for you to share your crafting photos at anytime.

Please remember to link back here so that others who may want to join KCCO can find us.

It's as simple as that. Remember your post can be from any day of the week, it doesn't have to be today. We all love feedback so if you have a moment please leave a comment on some of the KCCO posts you may visit. I know from my own experience just how much your comments really motivate me! Now please share and inspire us all!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

Paw Paw (Old Blue Eyes)

Our husky Paw Paw underwent surgery last week to remove a broken tooth. It probably sounds minor but it was actually a pretty big deal. It was a tooth with large, deep roots and it took the vet many hours to get it out. Thankfully Paw Paw was knocked out for the ordeal. This whole thing really caught us off guard. We feed our dogs raw food and they have the cleanest, whitest teeth I have ever seen so I would have never expected anything like this.

This transpired a couple of weeks back we noticed that Paw Paw's breath was pretty strong. Kevin checked his mouth out and saw that one of his back teeth was broken in half. Ouch! Why, oh why, didn't Paw Paw ever show any signs of being in pain? He did nip at me one day when I went to give him a kiss which is not like him at all. I think that was his one and only clue. When people mention that huskies work through pain - they aren't kidding!

When we picked Paw Paw up after his surgery, he looked so very small and frail to me. We got him home and all set up on his warm bed in the dog room (What? Don't your dogs have their own room?! Hee,hee) with a gate to keep the other dogs away (as I could totally see Beowulf tormenting Paw Paw in his vulnerable state). My poor guy was still coming off the meds and his eyes kept going crossed. He slept it off and was back to his normal self a couple of days later, although we are still somewhat keeping Beowulf away- those two really like to wrestle together.

We spent all day today outside in our backyard finishing up all the work Kevin and Little L had been doing. Paw Paw helped us by keeping guard in between cat naps. We love our backyard, it's literally the forest, and we like letting nature do it's thing. But when it became too hard to clean up after our dogs, we realized we needed to rake a bit. Now both our animals and children are happy to be back there again, never wanting to come back inside. This warms my heart. It's so important to get outside every.single.day no matter what the weather. That's a huge part of Waldorf philosophy. We need that connection with the beauty of nature. Now I think we'll be enjoying it more in our own yard.

On a side note - Did I ever mention that I named my beloved Paw Paw after Martha Stewart's dog? Well, I did! The name ended up fitting him really well, too. He is also known as "Old Blue Eyes" in tribute to Sinatra, of course.

p.s - Please forgive my poor transitions and overall writing tonight. All that work outside made me more tired than I realized!
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Don't forget to enter for a chance to win some handmade goodies from Moon Root Soaps here.

Paw Paw (Old Blue Eyes)

Amidst a birthday week

Sweet gift from a new found friend with love bugs  for the girls, too!


Oh, my sweet birthday boy, we love him so very much. I can't believe he is already two! We are amidst a birthday week in our home. That is something that my Mom and nieces do to celebrate their birthdays but we hadn't. This birthday week was unintentional but really enjoyable! You see Little L's birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, which meant that Kevin wouldn't be able to be with us. So it only made sense to have his party on Monday instead since Kevin had that day off from work. Little L didn't know the difference but the girls sure did. They were quite upset over not doing anything on his actual birthday so the four of us celebrated again on Tuesday. The celebration is continuing and  I have far too many pictures to share so for now I'll just begin with Monday...

Monday morning the girls and I asked Kevin if he could distract Little L while we made his cake and finished up gifts. He took him out in the backyard to clean up after our dogs (and trust me cleaning up after three dogs takes awhile!). Little L loves doing "work" with Daddy so that was a gift in itself.

Once they were outside we got to work making his birthday cake. We adapted a recipe from The Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book, and poured it into a train shaped cake pan (thanks to my friend, Amy!). As it baked the girls finished up their present. They chose to sew him an owl from this book that my  Aunt got them for Christmas. I love that they collaborated on this and they only used items we had on hand. It seems like its filled with even more love being made from accidentally felted sweaters, wool felt scraps from past projects, left over fabric from our throw blanket and a pair of pants for him that are still in progress. They spent all weekend on the owl but it just needed a few finishing touches. Then they wrapped everything up in play silks.

Kevin and Little L finished up at the same time the cake was done baking so they came in and we made some lunch to eat before the cake. All of that hard work with Daddy really tired Little L out and he fell asleep in Kevin's arms as I was getting the cake out of the pan. He doesn't take naps anymore (gave those up at almost a year old) so that was a bit of a surprise. Kevin placed him in C's bed to nap and we made lunch. Once everything was ready the girls went in and woke him up by softly singing "Happy Birthday" to him. It was such an endearing moment to witness but as I am sure you can tell he was less than thrilled. Food quickly changed his mood.

We ate our lunch and moved on to the cake. The recipe I used was pretty dense and had apple chunks in it so it didn't come out of the mold as pretty as a traditional cake recipe would have. We nonchalantly said a few "Choo-choos" here and there  until he caught on, then he understood and got excited over it. I put candles in the engine and placed it on a plate with fresh fruit and a scoop of some agave sweetened vegan coconut "ice cream". We lit the candles and sang to him but he blew them out before we could even finish. Everyone dug in and the three little ones (who's chair were all pulled so very snug to each other so they could be as close as possible to the birthday boy) soon started stealing food from each other's plates. It was all in jest, though. They were having so much fun!

After the cake was present time. My little guy is a bookworm so I requested books as gifts. He could spend half the morning just looking at books and I love it. We have too many toys for us (okay, really me) to handle already so I wanted it all to be kept simple. Nana and Grandpa got him The Happy Man and His Dump Truck (farm animals and a truck all in one book?! This was the biggest hit by far), Hannah on the Farm, 1 is one, and Baby Angels.  Little L didn't have a growth chart yet so they also got him this one (which isn't so pink in person).

The girls gave him his owl and you could see the pride in their eyes when he said"Hoot hoot".  C also finger knit him a necklace to go along with it. I finished up his birthday sweater in just the nick of time but the pants will  hopefully be finished tonight. Pictures of those gifts soon to follow (unless we have another Christmas sweater incident).

Okay, that was a lot to say. I don't want to bore you so I will end here...for now. But first let me share our cake recipe. It's quite yummy!

Little L's Birthday Cake

1/2 cup (or 1 stick) of margarine (we use earth balance soy free margarine)
1 cup maple syrup
2 cups chunky applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1  tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream together margarine and maple syrup. Stir in applesauce and vanilla. Sift flour, cinnamon,nutmeg, and baking soda over the applesauce mixture and mix well.
Pour batter (it will be thick) in a cake pan of your choice and  bake for 70 - 75 minutes or until cake tester  comes out clean.Cool in pan for about 20 minutes.

Come back tomorrow for a fun giveaway!

Amidst a birthday week

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


I know, I know. You are probably sick of seeing this project. I know I am a bit tired of photographing it (although not tired of knitting with this fun cranberry yarn!) but only because I am excited to see it on Little L! I am hoping by the time you read this I have it mostly finished. *fingers crossed*

Here is a sneak peak at what the girls are making for L's birthday...

What are you working on? Happy creating!

If you would like to link up and share your current works in progress (or finished works) please leave your link below. It can now be either to your specific blog post or Flickr photo. There are no rules, only that your link is current and something about a craft project (of any kind) you are working on. Don't forget that there is now a KCCO Flickr group for you to share your crafting photos at anytime.

Please remember to link back here so that others who may want to join KCCO can find us.

It's as simple as that. Remember your post can be from any day of the week, it doesn't have to be today. We all love feedback so if you have a moment please leave a comment on some of the KCCO posts you may visit. I know from my own experience just how much your comments really motivate me! Now please share and inspire us all!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

One fine February day

Have you ever had one of those homeschooling days when your child (or even yourself!) just isn't that interested in the lesson? It happens in our home, for sure! One fine February day C and I found ourselves desiring something new and different. I scoured one of my Pinterest boards for a project we could do with what we already had on hand. I came across salt painting and it seemed like just the thing to clear away our homeschooling blahs.

C drew designs on paper with glue and then we covered the wet glue in salt. I didn't want salt in every nook and cranny of my kitchen so I had her do this on an old cookie tray to contain the mess a bit. Then she dipped her eye dropper in water dyed with food coloring and dropped a small droplet of colored water onto a spot of her glue covered salt. She watched the color expand and run the length of her design, just like magic! She didn't seem to tire of doing this. Each time the color expanded she would squeal and do some more. We ended up going through quite a few pieces of paper that day. *On a side note - I made the mistake of trying to use the cheaper quality newspaper-type paper again (you would think that I learned my lesson last time). It made the glue drawings have a ring of liquid around them. This went away when we switched over to different paper.*

I do have to say that this project is all about the process, though. As soon as the glue dried the salt started falling off the paper. That's okay though, I think a lot of children would agree that the process is the fun part!

Off to frantically knit some more. One more day until his birthday!!

One fine February day

Math gnomes on Ash Wednesday

Our day in pictures.
We started our day attending Mass for Ash Wednesday.
Perhaps I should back up here for a moment to finally officially come out and say that since last September I have been attending RCIA classes to join the Roman Catholic church. I would love to go more into the how and why of my decision but just at another time as that is something quite serious and close to my heart. Okay, back to what I was saying...
Normally Little L stays home with Kevin for Mass (something else to explain another day) but he came with us this time. I was anxious about how my crazy little boy would be but he made it through almost to the end. I felt a little defeated when we eventually had to retreat to the cry room. I honestly don't know why I felt that way, he was amazing for lasting as long as he did, but for some reason or other I was a bit saddened. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I was for the strangers that came up to me afterwards as I was snapping some pictures outside (I don't have any pictures of Little L's ashes because he decided to rub his head all over my sweater before we even left the building). One after another came to say how kind my children were and how wonderful they were during the extended Mass. I was so upset with myself and in such need of encouragement at that very moment - I don't think it was a coincidence that they appeared to help me. Their act of kindness reminded me again of how much we all need more love and support in our lives.

After that we dropped K off at school. Her class was outside playing when we arrived, so we walked her over to her teacher. As soon as her classmates saw her they started excitedly calling her name and running up to her. They circled around her exclaiming, " You do have ashes!!" How they knew about her having ashes ahead of time - I don't know, but I think the attention made her feel a bit uncomfortable because when I saw her for a school assembly an hour later, the ashes were gone. She is her mother's daughter. I prefer to be a wallflower and far away from the spotlight.

Little L and I had to step out of the assembly after K's class performed. He sat still for so long at Mass he just couldn't take it any more. I can't say I blame him! So we went out in the hallway with nothing to do. I checked K's locker and when I saw that it was in complete and utter shambles (similar to her bedroom and most of our house) something came over me and I had to clean and organize it at once. But I didn't stop there, oh no, I went and organized her desk, too. My mind felt much better afterwards. I know she gets overwhelmed so easily (like me) and seeing everything that way must have been been like a dark cloud over her. She's much happier when things are clean, then again, aren't we all?! Now if only we could keep our home more organized...

In other news, the math gnomes have now appeared in K's main lessons at school. I have been anticipating this moment ever since I first learned about them so many years ago. It thrills me to see her doing multiplication in first grade and making it all seem so easy. I'm so proud of her, and so very thankful for her education.

Math gnomes on Ash Wednesday