Two Hours and Two Dollars

In two hours this morning I made 2 dresses and 2 ties, all for $2.

I'm sort of proud of myself.

I was browsing around etsy sites last week and came across the pillowcase dress pattern (which you can find for free by googling it) as well as a few really cute ties for boys and I thought, "I could make those."

Now, sometimes I can and sometimes I can't but that doesn't stop me from trying.

So when I took recycling to Cart'm last weekend I looked through their resale shop and found a couple clean great pillowcases for 50 cents each. I grabbed three striped yellow ones and a striped blue one.

The striped yellow ones where turned into matching dresses for Hannah and Marilyn:
Notice how sweet and sisterly they are:

And then the blue striped pillowcase was cut up and used for ties for the boys. These are just fabric cut in the shapes of ties, layered with warm and natural batting and sewn with the raw edge showing. The neckband is elastic. Brilliant and funky. And no matter how the boys rough house or pull on the ties they can't really harm them or "un-tie" them.

I used to think that Hannah was the poser I had to worry about...but I turned the camera on Ivan today and something happened...Oh my how I love my kiddos.

Checking In...

This Sunday night I am performing "The Story of Gomer" at Calvary Bible Church at 7pm. I mentioned it a few weeks back, but performance time is drawing nigh. There's a little bit more about the story and a few pictures up over at Cowgirl Clippings today.

SNOW!

YAY!
I love snow.
I think I might love it more though if we had proper snow clothes. With as fast as my children grow and as infrequently as we have snow or visit places that have snow I have a hard time shelling out the money for proper snow clothes.
We attempted to play in the snow this morning. We piled on the clothes and went out in spite of our lack of proper hand wear. It lasted five minutes.
Then there was much "grump"ing and screaming.
The kids even joined in too.
Just kidding.
I would have gladly stayed a little while longer but I couldn't handle the drama.
So I made them all come in.
I even threatened to send them all back to bed.
But I was lucky enough to catch a couple photos before the mayhem ensued.
Then this afternoon the neighbor girls came over and they all (minus Miss Moddy who was napping) built a snowman. The only help they received from me was when I handed them a carrot from the veggie drawer of the fridge.

Hannah Art

Hannah's art continues to amaze me. I posted this one on facebook a few days ago. Her new favorite movie is The Swan Princess.


This one I found lying on the floor amongst the scrap paper.

And this one is one of my new favorites. It's hanging on one of my cupboards.

Answering in Love

Today I'm up to something new.
Today I have a post titled "Answering in Love" up over at Cowgirl Clippings.
It's not Breakfast at Emily's, I ran out of breakfast ideas. I hit a wall and in the scramble of trying to find new breakfast ideas I forgot to make the old ones for my family. Silly, I know.
So now, every once in awhile I will be guest posting over at Cowgirl Clippings on a variety of things.
I hope you stop by.

Rain Gutter Shelves and Maps

A friend walked into our house the other day and was admiring our "remodel" when she remarked, "There are too many white walls for an Emily house."

And I would tend to agree, I like color and the warmth that color can bring but when we had everything redone because of the flooding I wanted a blank slate for the living/dining room areas, because we have a lot of color we apply to the walls in the forms of art and maps and things.

A few weeks ago I found the idea for Rain Gutter bookshelves on a blog called Raising Olives.
I fell in love immediately.
It was the answer to my book storage problem.
Namely, my kid-book storage problem.
Kid books come in all shapes and sizes and they don't "shelve" well so they end up stacked on a shelf and I end up reading the same few stories over and over again because the kids always grab the books on top.

BUT...

Now all the books are visible and they look nice and the kids can easily put them away!


Yes, those are rain gutters. Real, regular rain gutters hung on the wall.


And not only do I have those really cool book shelves but my husband also trimmed my wall maps with the extra trim we had lying around. (He also got our new shower rod put up yesterday, which makes three projects finished in one day after he passed his First Responder test yesterday morning! Yep, he's pretty much amazing.)

The walls are still white but I don't think we're lacking for color by any means.

Find a Tree

Clayton is potty trained!
Marilyn is reverting, but she's not yet two.
I'm not worried.

Clayton's only accidents lately are when he's playing outside in the backyard and tries to make it into the house and take his boots off...he usually doesn't make it.

So we told him it was okay to pee on a tree when he's out in the backyard.

The other day he came running in full of excitement, "I didn't go potty in my pants, I went on a tree! I didn't go in my pants!"

I told him good job and he went out to play and the older two kiddos and I went back to schoolwork.

About 5 minutes later Clayton comes running in again, "Marilyn took off her clothes!"

And I stepped outside to find one slightly nekkid and very disappointed little girl.


It's doesn't quite work the same with little girls.

The Story of Gomer

"The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "Jealous" "play-acting", "acting out", "coward" or "dissembling".^[2] The word hypocrite is from the Greek word ὑποκρίτης (hypokrites), the agentive noun associated with υποκρίνομαι (hypokrinomaiκρίση, "judgement" »κριτική (kritiki), "critics") presumably because the performance of a dramatic text by an actor was to involve a degree of interpretation, or assessment, of that text.

Whereas hypokrisis applied to any sort of public performance (including the art of rhetoric), hypokrites was a technical term for a stage actor and was not considered an appropriate role for a public figure. In Athens in the 4th century BC, for example, the great orator Demosthenes ridiculed his rival Aeschines, who had been a successful actor before taking up politics, as a hypokrites whose skill at impersonating characters on stage made him an untrustworthy politician. This negative view of the hypokrites, perhaps combined with the Roman disdain for actors, later shaded into the originally neutral hypokrisis. It is this later sense of hypokrisis as "play-acting", i.e., the assumption of a counterfeit persona, that gives the modern word hypocrisy its negative connotation."

- Wikipedia

Why did I start with a really long quote from wikipedia on hypocrisy?

There have been many times in my life, none that I am proud of, that I have played the hypocrite. I have said one thing and done another. And in my hatred of all things hypocritical I have questioned many times my love of acting, of being on stage; struggling to find the reasons I love it so much since the word hypocrisy is rooted in "play-acting". Why is it that I love pretending to be something I'm not?

Is it the glory of performance, the applause afterward?
I have cried out often, Lord, why this? What am I suppose to do with it?!

And then one day in passing someone mentioned, "You know, Jesus loved to tell stories."

And it hit me. I love acting because I love to tell stories. I love to tell stories that are worth telling.

So I've been praying that God would lead me to stories that are worth telling. Two years ago I saw a story written and performed by Geri Campbell called "The Story of Gomer." I e-mailed her at that time wondering if I could perform it. At that time she wasn't ready to let anyone else perform it but I kept the e-mail.

I think God was waiting for my heart to be right with him. He was waiting for me to say, "Lord, I want to tell this story because it's important to you and not because I think I could do a good job. I want to tell it because people need to hear it, not because I have a need to perform."

And a few months ago I e-mailed again.

On the evening of Sunday, February 27, 2011 at Calvary Bible Church I will perform "The Story of Gomer" and I am so excited.

Well, nervous excited. I still have a bit to get ready before that time.

The Story of Gomer is based out of the book of Hosea, when God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. And Hosea did; living out painfully and dramatically how God loves Israel even when Israel turned their backs on Him and chased after other gods. Time and time again God takes his people back just as time and time again Hosea took Gomer back, forgiving and loving her. But it's not just the story of Hosea and Gomer, or God and Israel, but also the story of God and each of us. God loves us with an incredible, redeeming, transforming love. He has bought us with the blood of his son Jesus and there is nothing we can do to earn it or lose it.

It is a story worth telling over and over again because so many need to hear it. Please pray with me that God would use the performing of this story and that he would prepare the hearts of those who see it. ... And that my memory wouldn't fail me and that I would perform it well.