The Papa Bear's day

Today we celebrate the Papa Bear. No words can tell you how grateful I am for this man and how he loves his baby girl, so I'll just say it in photos.
Honey, you are the best Papa Bear ever. Happy Father's Day!

And now for your secret present. Go and look in the Baby Bear's room, where all of her blankets live. Love you!!

We love to fly and it..zzzzzzzzz

So the baby bear and I are on a whirl wind adventure to visit family in TX and for me to be the music director at a camp. The squidoot has yet to meet all of her cousins, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, great-uncles, grampa, great-grampa etc, etc on my side. The only one she met was my mama (her gramma) when she came to help me right after the baby was born. Brace yourself baby! It's a hoard!

I spent weeks thinking about what to pack, wrote a list, packed and re-packed several times, trying to cut things out, and add in what I'd forgotten. It had to all fit in my rolling suitcase 'cause there was NO WAY I was going to drag a duffel back behind me and the stroller. I planned it all so perfectly...And still I had too much stuff! Now I know. A small bag for her with diaper accouterments, a blankie, baby food and milk, and my phone and ID are perfect. What I had was a big honkin' monster bag to hold all of the stuff that wouldn't fit in my rolling suitcase. While that was fine for foot loose and fancy free, no kid me, it did not work for me and the baby bear. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers who understand a mama traveling with a baby alone! They helped us put the bag in the overhead storage bin, folded up my stroller when I had my hands full and were very kind. The airport even has a new policy where a 'helper' can help a mama traveling with children all the way to the gate! That was a very nice treat. It has been years since the Geek has been able to walk me to my gate. I like it!

Apart from the over-packing we only had one tiny melt-down on the first BNA to DFW leg and the kind flight attendant directed us to our own ROW, near the engines. For once I was glad of the loud roar of the plane. Think white noise! The DFW to GGG leg got a whole lot shorter now that they have jets. We were barely up before we began our descent! We are now safe and sound in Texas. Let the family fest begin!

The dress...part 2

I think this deserves it's own post. Finally, the baptism gown. Go ahead...oooo and ahhh. I still do! I can't believe it came together so well! It just turned out perfect.

Perfect shoes - a gift from our friend Desire'!

Some details...

Nope, I didn't finish the buttonholes. I didn't have a buttonhole foot and couldn't bear to have them be crooked. If I did them by hand they would have been. She went to church pinned in! :) I'll finish it when my buttonhole foot comes in.

Two months worth of planning and sewing for one little 10 minute event! It was worth it. In fact...that sounds like the other time this fabric was worn!

The dress...part 1

I've been showing you bits and pieces of this as I created it, but the final product is now on it's way. And since most of you are smart, I know you knew already that it was the Baby Bear's baptism gown!

For once I was glad that I am a pack-rat when I found a stash of material leftover from when I made my wedding gown and veil.

My wedding dress (more photos here)

The scraps (even thread!)

Then there was the process of matching the creamy (winter white) shade that my dress had been with the batiste I bought, which would become the actual baptism gown. Then there was the practicing of my tiny little embroidery stitches so they would be perfect.

Then I had to take the pattern that my friend Beth loaned me and make it...well...girly! She sewed hers for her son and it was so handsome, with generations of trim and tatting to make it perfect. But it was still very boyish. Honestly, I spent more time thinking about this gown than actually sewing it! I had a limited amount of lace, so I couldn't follow the pattern exactly and that meant a lot of planning BEFORE I cut. I've learned that lesson (more than once) the hard way. Then I found a cute little pink dress that had all the right details and was in the size I needed, so I measured the heck out of it, measured again, wrote notes all over the place. I found an amazing site called Vintage Sewing, which told me how to change the sleeves (scroll down until you see 'Various types of short puffed sleeves')from straight to puffed (my little tribute to Anne - everyone needs puffed sleeves sometimes!) Once all of that thinking and preparation was done, I dove right in!

Bless-ed

I'm writing a theme song for a camp this summer and I am a little stuck. The theme for the camp is the Beatitudes, specifically from Matthew 5, but how to distill them? I've read a lot of lesson plans on how to teach them to children, but most of them come across as a list of rules or good works that you can do to get close to God. I know there is nothing I can do that is 'good enough' to bring me to God, so it isn't a list of 'do this and you'll be blessed'.

So how to break it down for children ages 3-11 without making it sound like a list of rules? Here's a version from The Message. I like it much better. So I've been rolling this over and over in my mind. The message, though they may not get it now, is important. I want it to stick with them.

My thoughts so far:
Merriam Webster defines blessed as this:
1 held in reverence, venerated, honored in worship, hallowed ex: the blessed Trinity
2.beatific, blessed visitation, of or enjoying happiness, enjoying the bliss of heaven —used as a title for a beatified person
3.bringing pleasure, contentment, or good fortune

Enjoying the bliss of heaven or the 'complete happiness' of heaven...

This is more like a list of things that show how much I am loved and how every place I may be in, He is there with me, and in that is joy.

For example:
When I've reached the end of myself, He is there waiting for me.
When I grieve and am sad, I am held so close.
When I understand that I am his joy, his creation, just as I am, then I'll see how He delights in me.
When I am hungry for God, I'll be filled with the best food I've ever had.

And so on.

I'm going to continue rolling this around until it's a song. I'd like to remove all the Christian-ese until it's just a simple thought, a prayer, a praise, a joy, a song.

Thoughts on the Beatitudes?

Hi-larry-us

We interrupt these bananas for...giggles. No one brings the giggles on like Papa. I give you proof.

At the Drive-In

The Geek and I have a regular date night. Tuesdays. It's the perfect night, with no meetings, no church, no Friday night partaaaays (or get togethers to watch Sci-Fi with friends - yes, we do that. Let the Nerd comments ROLL!) or any of the other stuff that tends to fill up the week. Sometimes, our date night consists of the latest episode of 'The Seeker' (which at this point neither of us are exuberant about, but is an OK show, if not a bit predictable. It's something to do after we've gotten the baby bear to sleep that does not require a babysitter - ie, FREE!)

So after several thwarted attempts to do something a little more fun than watching a computer screen, we opted to watch...well, a bigger screen.

Now, I grew up on drive-in movies. It was the cheapest way to entertain a family of 9. Yes, I said 9 (nine!). Great children's night double features included some Disney flick like Benji followed by something for the grownups like The Incredible Shrinking Woman. After the first flick, Mama and Papa would have us all go to sleep on the mattress that was in the back of the Suburban (before seat belt laws, folks) while they watched the second feature. The never knew we could see it in reverse on the back window of the suburban!! We kids decided not to tell them. :)

In this fine tradition of taking ones kids to the movies, but making them sleep through the actual film, we took the baby to see Star Trek (which was awesome, by the way!) We drove out to the Stardust Drive-In, fed the baby and put her to sleep just in time for the dancing hot dog! (We totally stole this idea from other friends who post their goings on on Twitter) Great movie, great company, great Date!!

Thanks Uncle Sam!

Did I mention that the Geek got a job? I think I twittered it, but didn't write about it. So, yeah. He got a job and so far, it's awesome. I'm talking Wii in the conference room, allowed to go barefoot and wear shorts, nerf guns on the wall kind of awesome. Yeah. That kind of awesome! It was a long wait, but it was worth it for him to find this kind of work environment.

During the Geek's unemployed months, we went to the government for assistance. And as we wait for his first paycheck to arrive so we can begin to climb out from under the pile of late fees that have accumulated, I have been using up our food stamps. I wrote out a list of all our staples and just bought the heck out of it. I mean, we FILLED the cart to the top! And we only managed to spend half of what they'd given us. I used to think that to live on food stamps, you had to be REALLY frugal and only eat, well, food that wasn't very good for you. I was wrong! I just got back from a trip to the local grocery store and without coupons, I bought enough food to last us about 6 months. Not including perishables like milk, cheese, eggs, fresh veg and fruit etc. Seriously! And this was half of what they'd given us to live on.

So I have to ask myself this question...WHAT HAVE I BEEN SPENDING OUR GROCERY MONEY ON??????

OK, besides the obvious things that end up costing us a pretty penny (pet food, formula, toilet paper and other misc toiletries) We can really live on very little if I shop right, and plan. Planning is, of course, where I fall down since I get very overwhelmed when I think about going to the store. I can't just make a quick run! When I go for a few things I remember what we still need and end up making impulse purchases as well. So in light of how well we did when we had to use Uncle Sam's dough, I'll be sitting down to do some planning before the next trip and perhaps sending the Geek to the store for milk. It's not as if I'll need to go in the next few weeks for anything else anyway!!!

The point of this was to give thanks for the provision we have seen over the last 6 months, so to all who helped, prayed, bought me glasses, sent us money (even strangers did this!) and so much more, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.