This and That

Hi there.  My name is CMerie and I used to blog here.  I made a New Years Resolution to blog twice a week.  I failed before I even started.  You know how it is, you don't blog, and don't blog and pretty soon it's hard to blog.  You feel as if you have to update every little thing that happened, (because it's important!) and then you get so far behind you feel you'll never catch up.  So consider this a catch up post and an attempt to get back in the blogging saddle.  Skip it if you want.  Or don't. 

  

 

 So first how about some crafting?  I have been working on a particular cross stitch project for my husband for years.  I started it when we first moved here to Arizona, which was back in 2007.  It's a doozy, which means it's hard to see progress.  Which in turn means I continue to put off working on it.

I had a little inspiration (driven largely by a Joann's gift card) to create a case of some sort to house this particular project and all the tools needed for it.  My thought was this would inspire me to work on the project itself.  And that reasoning (while a little....strange) has actually seemed to help.

One side holds all the floss I need at any particular time, along with a needle case, scissors, a seam ripper (for ALL those times I mess up), and those rubbery thimble things.  Behind all of these things is a spot for the pattern.  (The pattern actually slides all the way to the bottom, I just pulled it out a little so you could see it was there.)



The other side holds the embroidery hooped project, along with one small pocket for the current floss-in-progress.  Again, the hoop is pulled out just so you can see.

The entire thing lays flat when open and is stiffened inside by cardboard so it's nice and sturdy.  You can fold the embroidery hoop side under while working on the project and the whole thing fits nicely on my lap with everything I need easily accessible.

And when I'm not working on the project, it folds up and velcros shut to keep out curious little hands.

 Because of this little case, I've worked on my project more in the past few weeks than I have in the past few months.  Success!

 

On to other bits of randomness.

 

Recently we signed Fritter up for karate, and he has really been doing well.  This week he tested for his orange belt.  Hi-ya!

 

 

 

Ladybug and Sunflower are taking a ballet/tap class together.  It is my biased opinion that nothing is cuter than little girls in tutus.

Fritter's Blue Knight's Club has been making a Mass kit this year, and so my children had the inspiration to play Mass.  He used the past week's Magnifikid as his missal.  I love it when this kind of stuff happens without my bidding.

 Winter in Arizona is a time to get out and hike and explore, and so we've been trying to take advantage of that (sorry all you northerners!).  A few weeks ago, we loaded our GPS with a geocache and headed out into the desert.  We never did find it, and so ended up hiking about three miles total with nothing to show for it in the end (except the fun of it, of course).  Dan carried Sunflower on his back, and I carried Froggy in the front carrier.  We were exhausted by the end of it and both of us required afternoon naps (thankfully the two big kids were tired and slept as well).




Showing Arizona winter fashion.  A USA t-shirt on one, and a long sleeve shirt and snow hat on the other.

 And then, just to mix things up a bit, we decided to head to the snowy north for a little sledding trip.

Loving the finger in front of the camera.

Unfortunately we only manage to stay for a very short time.  My poor dear husband had succumbed to the flu and then Fritter came down with it too.  They were dropping like flies all around me and we needed to rush to get home so we could hunker down for the duration.

And boy was it a tough one.  Every single person in my home came down with the flu (with one also getting the stomach flu on top of it all) except for me.  I felt like I needed a vacation once everyone was healthy.  Taking care of sick people is exhausting.  Besides all the above medicine, we had to do twice daily breathing treatments for all four children.

 There.  I'm caught up.  Now on to more regular blogging adventures!

I Want To Wish You A Merry Christmas

 I did not want to blog about the flu from you-know-where that has hit our family.  I'm not going to tell you about all the coughing and hacking and fevers going on in our house.  I wanted to blog about our Christmas.  I wanted to tell you all about what a great Christmas we had, and about the surprise visit from my brother-in-law.

I wanted to tell you how we crazily decided that going to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve was a good idea, including waking four sleeping children and putting them into uncomfortable clothes. 

I wanted to tell you about Christmas morning, and how so very tired I was after doing the Christmas thing parents must do AFTER midnight Mass and BEFORE going to bed.  How very tired, but also how very happy.  I wanted to tell you how grateful my children were to received their gifts and how there were no "gimmies" in our house that day.  How Froggy received his giraffe pillow pet and how not only did he lay down on the floor to snuggle with it, he also went into his room to get his lovey giraffe to snuggle.  How I heard him say "piwow" for the first time and how it made my heart melt.

 How my girls both got jumper balls and how much they adored them, and how much I adore them because they tire them out so quickly and make them stay OUTSIDE!

 How my sweet Ladybug got a Twilight Turtle and how much she loves it...

 ...and how the biggest Daniel Tiger fan in the world was overjoyed to receive her very own Daniel Tiger.

 

How Fritter received his light saber and became a Padawan learner.

 I wanted to tell you less about the things my children received as gifts this year, and more about the things that they made for us and for each other.  So much time and effort (and love!) went into the making of gifts this year.  I probably will tell you more about these another time, because they really deserve a post of their own.

More than all that, I wanted to tell you Merry Christmas!  I hope yours was full of many blessings.