Author: Patchwork Reality

Turkey Trot Appliqued T-Shirt

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I do not want to prematurely claim this project to be awesome since at this very moment I have it in the washing machine with my fingers crossed that is will not crumble 🙂

My family is participating in a local Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving with some friends and when I saw this shirt on Pinterest, I though how cute it would be for the kids to have a Turkey shirt:

The tutorial for this shirt can be found  at  cookinwiththejohnstons.com

Super cute right, it got my mind turning, then I remembered all that fabric I had thrifted last year and posted about here, and thought, ooh I can make one of those.

Lets segway for a second; I think there are two kinds of people, those that go to craft shows and buy cute things and artfully decorate their home, then there people like me that go to shows, and scour Pinterest and think, I can do that….. although this is not always true, and it is in no way is a discredit to original ideas and artists, I think we just really think we can do it. We are literally in the mindset that if you can do it so can I.

Ok back to the shirt, I can make one of those……with my 5 previous hours of experience on my sewing machine, of course I can make a Turkey appliqué shirt, hellooooo I have a Pinterest account….geeez.

Well, I did it, and I love it, however, it was not as easy I thought and I definitely had to separate myself and the sewing machine (she is going to need a name) me to reassess my strategy and the machine for poor behavior.

I will post the steps as to how I made my shirts once I have pulled it out of teh dryer and I am certain that it survived.:)

Repurposed Puzzle Snail Mail Letters

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It seems to me like all we ever get in the mail are bills, magazines, political propaganda (which I think is over now, thank goodness), and an occasional party invite.

In my sometimes old fashioned nostalgia I encourage our kids to send letters to friends or family.  Santanna is especially fond of making letters and pictures for her little friends.  Who does not like to receive a fun piece of mail personally addressed to them in ink??

Our friends daughter,  who I wrote about previously  who is battling brain cancer, is getting an overwhelming amount of mail, letters and packages, guess who feels a little left out/angry about not getting any mail?  Little sister Elsa.  So, her mom grudgingly asked if we could help a girl out and send some snail mail Elsa’s way.  I think we all know how hard it can be to actually ask for help when you need it right?!

This got me thinking, we needed to blow up this girls snail mail box, how many pictures was Tanna willing to color?

Then it came to me, a puzzle letter:

Here is what we did:

  1.  Went to savers (you might have one of these not being used at home as well, we recycled this one, you might be able to repurpose your own),  bought this puzzle.

2.  We put the puzzle together upside down. This is harder then you think wihtout picture clues.

3. I helped Santanna write a letter and she drew whatever and decotared whatever she wanted in Sharpie and Crayola markers.

       4.     I included instructions with the first envelope.

       5. Then we took the puzzle about, mixed it all up and I got out my postal scale for mailing packages and we weighed each one equal to/less than an ounce.  For this puzzle it was about 5 pieces per envelope.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 I am so excited for her friend to get this, she is going to be thrilled, plus it gives her something to look forward too.

I think I am also going to do this when the big kids are at camp for the summer.

VOTING NO C’mon Minnesota Join me!

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I can say with most certainty that I will probably never have a wife, as much as I could use another wife around the house, and I am also certain Jon will never have a husband. However, in our house we value and teach acceptance and differences.  Our children are taught not to judge and to do what makes them happy in life, regardless of mainstream propaganda and insinuations on what will make you happy.

This being said, both Jon and I will Vote NO on the marriage amendment, because we know that this vote will support any future choices in happiness that a friend, daughter, neighbor, brother, coworker, sister, cousin, classmate, son etc. will want to make.

When you get  your ballot and step into a booth you have a choice, and isn’t that an awesome feeling??!!  Don’t use your power of vote to negate someone else’s choices in life.

26.58??

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Running 26.2 sounds crazy right? But what about 26.58??? That is what my Garmin rolled over in mileage at the Mankato Marathon Sunday October 21, 2012. (Watch says 26.6 because I didn’t stop it right away). But how about that calorie count???

In order for a marathon to be a Boston Marathon qualifying race it has to exceed the 26.2 mark to ensure that runners have gone the distance, if you will, because 26.1 might not be enough??!!

Anyway, this was Mankato’ 3rd marathon, they have re-marketed it as the BOLD RACE, starting this year. My friend Kim and I have run all 3, Mankato’s first marathon was also my first Marathon. To be honest I was just not feeling this marathon, it is truly a full time job training for this distance; the energy drain, the time way from family, and getting nothing done around the house can creep up on even the sanest person, which I do not claim to be.

However, there is something about lining up and getting involved in races that really gets me excited. By mile 3 I was definitely glad I had trained to run this race, and as many times prior to the race that I may be qutoed as saying “this will probably be my last for a while” or “I am just not feeling it this time”, my head was in the race. Kim and I were on pace for a 4:12 marathon time until about mile 22, my chest started to hurt, and my pulse was really weak, I has a cramp in my right calf (which does not ever happen to me),  my GU chomps made me a little nauseous; I needed fluids, so we slowed to a walk while I took on water as quickly and safely as I could, and we started running again.

We crossed the finish line just over 4:22 about 3 minutes slower that last year, however, I knew already that there would be next year.

Total we have both run 4 full marathons….This is your brain on running;)

As a bonus I explained to the lady with the medals I was running for a cause, and she gave me a medal for Ana …I think it is so fitting, because she will also have to be BOLD this year.

Think this collection needs a 4th Mankato Marathon medal????  It just might get one!

Perspective

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Santanna has a dear friend, Elsa; Elsa has a big sister Ana.  Tomorrow I am running the Mankato Marathon and I am wearing a shirt for Team Ana; she is 7 years old and is starting her second round of Chemo for brain Cancer on Friday.

People always say to me “I don’t know how you do it…whatever “it” is, sometimes I think it is the training or the racing, sometimes I think just being a momma to 4 kids is beyond peoples realm of capability.  I always humbly laugh this off, for real, because I choose what spoons I put into the kettle of life, if you will, and that I have goals that I set and achieve.  These are for me and I hold no one else to my goals.  So I appreciate when people are in awe, but I do not do it to impress, I do it to better my life, or my family’s life.

Just like parents of ill children’s do, there sense or normal takes on such a drastically different perspective, yet their lives become directed by appointments, meds, turns, coughs, etc.  So the truth is that whatever “it” is is so much smaller than the battle Ana, her family are fighting, and so many other families have to fight.  I can do 26.2 because I can’t imagine how Ana’s parents do “it”.

Ana will be the wind at my back tomorrow.

Why is turning 5 so bittersweet?

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There are just some birthdays that seem like such milestones in our child’s life.   First you count the days, then the weeks, months and the BIG ONE!  Your baby turns one, they smash the cake, they are on the verge or are walking, and soon words are going to start falling out of that cute mouth that is constantly growing new teeth.

A few years pass, the twos, the threes, the fourth, all arguable divine and frustrating simultaneously, but how sweet to watch your child grow and learn.

Then they turn 5, this is such a milestone to me, included on my list are 10, 13, 16, 18 and 21 but thankfully I am not to those yet…stay tuned.  Five years old, kindergarten, watching the excitement and apprehension as they get on that yellow bus you are certain they will look back and wave..blow a kiss, or maybe they just march right on and wave from their seat to you on the other side of the window with a big grin on their face.

And there we are mommas & poppas, moms and dads, teary eyed, proud, our hearts in our throats and then it clears, they are ok, we are ok, oh my gosh we did it!

Then one morning they wake up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their smile has changed, our baby is changing and growing and getting on a big bus, baby teeth know it is time to leave, big teeth are moving in, changing that little kid grin, into a beautiful/handsome smile.

We have a new smile at our house tonight….it is bittersweet, they all grow up so fast.  It is exciting for them, and us, but also for me a little heartbreaking, the world is so easy and fun for them now, I want it to stay that way, that dollar under her pillow tomorrow is going to pure joy that will not be whisked away by bills, or deadlines, that means little things mean more and touch her heart in a way that I hope molds her beauty on the inside as much as it is growing on the outside.

Oozing into the Season.

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Truth:  I really intended to blog more than I do.

Reality: Days go by so fast that it seems like just last week I was on here writing about back to school, now it is conference time.

Shamless Truth:  I do love to share:)

Today a photo, because it seems to have worked out well, which is not always the case, a friend of mine says this oozes all of their personilities and that seems to be the perfect term for the season.

Back to School

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Yes school stared last week, but it feels more real today.  After all the orientations and meet the teacher and back to school happenings, last week felt more like an intro into back to school.

I am actually very sad that summer is over, we had such a fun summer, evident from my lack of blog posts ;), that it was very hard to send everyone back to school.

Today it was just Avalon and me at home for the morning, and we spent the whole morning outside, she played in her water table and the sandbox, and I cleaned out 2 flowerbeds, the garden, picked up after Farley and have the tractor sprinkler watering the almost completely dead grass.

Truth: I still miss the kids but I am LOVING being productive when they are not here.

My goal, I am sure I have posted before; for the blog is to post the completed photos of some of the projects we have introduced the beginnings of on here.  For sure the corner fireplace, and some bedrooms that we have been redecorating, also we have what I hope is going to be an awesome project for the garage to post about.

Here are the charmers that I am missing while they are at school:

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*sigh*….off to be domestically productive.

Golden 3

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Here it is the big 3, Avalon turned 3 today marking her Golden birthday.  I really have no idea what the history is for Golden Birthdays, making me think I should do a little research for my knowledge bank.

Back to the birthday girl, she is the youngest, I can’t say last it hurts to much, I would love another, our own or maybe even an adopted,  and I can’t coin her “the baby” because I have expectations for her that are the same as all the other 3.

We went for her 3 year check up today, since she has had some minor growth delays and health issues, I like to keep a record of her growth should it stall/stop again.  Great new for Avalon she is now in the 5% percentile for height and 13%!!! for weight,  considering she was totally of the charts for most of her 2nd year this is awesome!!

It was another day packed full of normal day activities , but I snuck in a city bus ride to downtown with the kids, Avalon really wanted to ride a bus, such an easy wish to grant on a birthday.

After dinner and cupcakes Solomon, Raiven and Santanna gave Avalon their gifts, it juts warms my heart how much our kids love to give to each other and the time and thought they put into their gifts.  The girls each made cards, Raiven’s was a pop out card that I know she spent a lot of time on.

So thankful to celebrate another candle on the cake for our little sprite!  You grow girl!!!