Hollis Quote of the Day

"Dad, when Livvie is mean to me, Jesus needs to talk to her."

Two Birthdays

We have two little girls who are a year older now. Olivia turned eight on December first. She is such a bright, helpful girl, and so full of energy. I always tell people that I've talked more in the years since she was born than all the rest of my life put together!
This is her cake: Trogdor, the Cakeinator. Seriously, check out Homestar Runner sometime. It's inane but fun and clean.



I am still grateful to my excellent midwife, Diane Barnes. We had a long, rough labor, but an easy delivery. Everyone was expecting a bigger baby, so when she was a tiny little thing shy of seven pounds, we were all shocked. We have a picture of her lying between her dad's Converse All-Stars, and the shoes look bigger than she does.


This is what she looks like now:


Liv has wanted to eat at Lambert's since her last birthday, but what with ice storms and Ivy's birth, we didn't get around to it. So last night, we all went along with my Mom and Dad and sister Laural. Our waitress Ashley, was super nice and accomodating. She procured a special birthday treat for Livvie, and even exchanged some balloon colors for my uber-picky children.














Ivy turned one year old on December 2. She has a great birth story. We had an ice storm about two days before, such a bad one that Toby was home from work those two days. We did not want to perform a "homestyle induction, " so I slept a lot and he played computer with the kids and kept them out of my hair.

Anyway, it was Livvie's birthday and I think I dragged my large self into the kitchen long enough to bake a cake for her. Then Toby took over to make frosting and sprinkles. I remember singing Happy Birthday from bed and falling back asleep, only to wake up as my water broke. While Toby called family, we realized that Liv was busy with my cell phone, calling the midwife. She had it all under control!

Soo....we all packed into the minivan and joined a caravan of: Vea and Emma, Mom and Dad, Laural and Shannon. Did I mention that Missouri is the worst state in the nation for midwives? It is a felony to practice here unless you're a CNM with very specific guidelines met. It all boils down to being illegal to have a home birth in my state. I have an excellent midwife in Harrison, Candy Clarke, (since Diane retired between Hollis and Margaret). So off to Arkansas for us, a two hour drive on icy roads. In labor. We did have a prayer before leaving, and all made it safely there.

A few hours later, we had little Ivy. Another successful home birth, just not at my home. Her middle name is Mabel, after Toby's Great-Grandma Mabel A. She was a lovely person, and we miss her. Ivy is kind of a joke name, like Roman numeral four is IV, and she's our fourth child. But it's also beautiful and old-fashioned. Ivy is a sweet little girl and if her needs are met, she is so happy and playful. She has gone from this little mite....












...to this petite crawler.




I love my girls, and my boy, and my man...I should remember to be more grateful.

Ivy's First Word

Can you guess it? Not Mama, the woman who has whipped out a boob for her every time she's wanted it for the last eleven months or so. Not Dada, the guy who caters to her every tyrannical whim. The word of the day is "Uh-Oh." As in, "I just threw my cup onto the floor, and now I'm pretending chagrin so you'll pick it up, give it to me, and repeat infinitely." It did work, though. I'm easy.

In other news, we did get some new camera bats, so here are the pics of Halloween. Hollis walked in the parade at school for the first time, with Liv's class instead of the preschoolers. Ivy slept most of the time in her little pumpkin jumpsuit. Maggie must be responsible for the soft light look of these pics. I've since wiped the lens free of any smudgy fingerprints.

Later that night, we went to the "Trunk or Treat" that our church has every year. We made out like bandits. After about two days of sugar highs, I confiscated the remainder of the "swag" and am doling it out for rewards and such.

Now Begins the Slide to Christmas

Ahhh, Halloween. Another year gone. I did get some additional costume parts made for the children: a new shirt for each, and a nice vest for Hollis. I'll post pics when I remember to buy new batteries for our camera.

We're starting this month looking forward to Toby's Grandma McDonald coming out for a short visit next week. It will be the first time in the nearly ten years of our marriage that my family will have a chance to meet her. We will all be going to Silver Dollar City next Friday together. Sounds like fun!

I am realizing that I have to make my time really count before the holidays. I want to make much of the kid's gifts this year (I'll post after they get 'em, I do have one smart girl who can read and is not to be trusted!) In addition, my cousin Shannon is being married to Greg on December 22nd. They have asked me to sew some little girls' bodices and little boys' vests for the occasion. I have the fabric, just need to make sure what size everyone is and get to work. I'd also like to make a nice, well-fitting dress for myself for the wedding, so no one asks me if I'm expecting again.

On a darker note, we think our patchwork Dodge Caravan is on its last wheels. I love my minivan. It does what we need it to do: move lots of little bodies safely from A to B. It is silver mostly, but the front passenger fender is white, the bumper and grille are green, and the hood is purple. We seem to be in wrecks that aren't our fault frequently, and the other party never seems to have insurance. Especially the deer that I hit with the van. It was the day I found out that I was pregnant with Ivy, coincidentally. Emma says that since I was bringing a new life into the world, I had to take one out for balance.

So anyway, now we have the debate: another minivan, or move up to a full-size? We have four kids, and can technically fit one more into a mini. But we want to get into doing some Renaissance Faires next year and will need to pull a trailer, and have more stuff. Should I run screaming away from the chance to drive a Hansen van until I HAVE to? Hmmm....any suggestions, bloggies?

Preparing for Pirate Day, Arrrrrr!

The countdown to Halloween has begun. In the next week I have to make pirate costumes for all my offpring and try to sell some bodice outfits on Ebay. Yeah, I did put it all off until the last minute.

Last Saturday, we went to BAWb's house, and dressed up a bit for it. The kids look pretty good already, I think. It's amazing that putting a "do-rag" on screams "pirate!"

I also made my first Tarte Tatin. It's a French caramelized apple tart. Pretty easy, really. Peel, core and quarter about three pounds of apples, melt a stick of butter and a cup of sugar in a 10' cast-iron skillet, and arrange the apples neatly in concentric circles. Cook about ten minutes so that the butter and suger cook into a lovely caramel. Turn the apples over so that the other side is bathed in the buttery sugary goodness and cook five more minutes. Top with pie crust (homemade, of course) or phyllo dough. Then bake for about 35 minutes in a 350-ish oven. Swoon! (I used my Joy of Cooking cookbook's recipe.)

My Hen Day

Today was my turn for everyone to come for Hen Day. Usually, I have the house fairly clean, but either I've lost whatever shame I had for the Hens to see my house as is, or I figure it's being worked on, so why kill myself?

The project of the day was sewing me some more Chloe Toes snap diapers. I have a motley collection of diapers I've made for myself with assorted free patterns, but most of them are velcro closing, and I love the snap ones. Here is a picture of the ones we completed.

My ultimate favorite new one is the lavender with acid-green snaps and black edges. I call it my "Maleficent" diaper because it reminds me of the outifts she wears in Sleeping Beauty. However, they all just make me wring my hands with joy every time I see them. Thanks, Hens!

The children also had a stellar day. While we Hens were busily cutting, sewing, snapping and clucking, the children played outside. This is the result:

No, that's not blood, it is paint. Left over from one of my last Hen day projects, might I add.

Then later, my own precious offspring decided to undo some of their father's hard work on the upstairs walls:

"Someone" took a crowbar left lying around and smashed holes in a piece of sheetrock....punishment was applied.

Anyway, we all had a great time and ate some lovely pizza made by Rebecca:

And the new dipes got the Ivy seal of approval.

We've Finally Begun to Finish!

After living in our house for going on eight years, we've finally decided to finish it. Let me explain. My husband is a contractor. He is so busy building other people's houses that he rarely has time to work on ours. So...eight years later, I still don't have doors except on my bedroom and the bathroom (the non-negotiable doors). You know the old saying, "The cobbler's children go barefoot."

There may be other factors at work. I think there has got to be an Article of Faith concerning the amount of time a LDS family must keep Tyvek exposed to the elements on the outside of the home. Tyvek is the sturdy paperish stuff most people wrap their homes with just before siding installation. Surely, brethren, we have done our part, but now it is time for the siding, please.

But enough sarcasm. For now. We started with upstairs, where a goofy little gable room will become a play room for the kids and all the toys they have collected. It is small and claustrophobic, all slanty ceiling. But if you're three feet tall, there is a lot of useable floor area. We decided to put a window seat in under the little octagonal window.

Hollis loves to be involved in construction work. He later set up an elaborate track under the sawdust port of the miter saw visible in the lower right, so that it "snowed" sawdust when a board was cut. You can see behind him the frame of our new window seat. W'Hoo!

I am a Fall girl. I love stew. Woodsmoke, crunchy leaves, hot chocolate, gray rainy days, putting on a jacket for the first time. These are some of the things that I like about the season. Maybe I'm a hobbit.

I am as excited about Halloween as any of my children. People here in the BB (that's Bible Belt, to you who aren't in it!) are divided about fifty-fifty as to whether it's the Devil's Day or not. Don't we have better things to worry about? Things are often what one makes of them. I think a little innocent dress-up and candy won't hurt the kiddies. By the way, most of mine want to be pirates this year. I know that EVERYONE else will also be pirates, due to the big hype still left from Pirates of the Carribbean 1, 2, and 3. But I will be a big girl and let them do it, because I just keep telling myself,"My child's Halloween costume is not about me."

I have been busy at work sewing some corsets for Damsel in This Dress custom orders. As I was boxing the last one up, I realized it was pretty close to my size, so I strapped it on. Man, my arms are ginormous.

Hollis Turns 5

Friday was Hollis' fifth birthday. What with his Thomas obsession, he's a pretty easy boy to shop for. He has checked out a book from the library that has a Thomas the Tank Engine shaped birthday cake, and has been talking about one for months. So I thought I'd give it a try. We took pictures so I can use them for leverage when he gets older.

For the cake, I used a recipe from my Joy of Cooking book. It's a quick cake called "Lightning Cake." They say it's a German recipe originally named "Blitztorte," which I actually like better. It's a lemon-flavored yellow cake, but since I forgot to buy lemons, mine was orange instead. I baked a quadruple batch, then put half in a regular sheet-cake pan, and divided the other half between two smaller ones. When they were cool, I just sort of sliced, stacked and carved them, using a ubiquitous Thomas as a model. I used Joy's "Italian Cream Icing" to frost it--at this point, I had to leave to take my first completed quilt to Newtonia to be displayed at the Fall Festival. Laural was here early for the party, so she volunteered to watch kids and mix frosting colors for me.

When I got back, we did a crumb coat in each color (blue, red, black, and a bit of yellow and gray), then slapped the rest on. We call it an "Impressionist Thomas."

Life Again...

Well, another school has started. Liv is in second grade, and next year, Hollis will go to Kindergarten. That's taken up a lot of time and brainpower. Now we have to try to get the kids to bed and up at a reasonable time. Some days we do better than others.

I had the idea to start a group of mostly at-home moms to get together every Wednesday. As a stay-at-home mom with four small kids, I realized that while we may be on top of the things that need to get done every day (or not on top of them), it is really nice to also get a bigger project done occasionally. We recently named ourselved the Prairie Hens, and we've been meeting every week for eight weeks now. I'm very proud of that. We have upholstered, painted, sewed, cleaned and cooked together, and had a great time doing it. Meetings have been much calmer since kids went to school. We went from fourteen kids present to more like six or seven.

I have been able to do some sewing. Yesterday, I fixed up some diapers Lucy gave me that had the FOE (Fold Over Elastic) loose. It took about ten minutes to repair the three diapers. Now I have thirty diapers for two little girls and it is awesome. I no longer wash only when we have the last clean diaper on each bum.

Today I mended some work shorts for Toby. He is really hard on a wardrobe. His shorts always follow a predictable pattern of disintegration: the back pocket where he puts his wallet tears through, the right front pocket edge where he puts his tape measure frays madly, and the back pockets tear through at each top corner, exposing his unders. So, instead of tossing a couple pairs, I did some damage control and hopefully prevention. I made a new pocket for each pair of shorts from a cut-off leg of another pair of jeans. Then I topstitched them into place, putting reinforcement behind the corners where the bartacks are. I also put a small strip on the front pocket edge where the tape measure goes. Oh, and I also hemmed the pair of jeans that were cut off into shorts. I know it's not pretty, but I like the fact that we might get another season or four out of these clothes. It is hard, for some reason, to find shorts or jeans in Toby's size at junk stores, and new is so expensive.

Published Again!

The Joplin Globe finally ran a revised letter. They called me over a week ago to ask if they could use it, but that it was too long. They asked if I wanted to cut it shorter or let them, and I decided to do it myself, to make sure all my important points were intact.

I'm hoping Toby and I have turned a corner. We have been pretty bad for a couple of years and really terrible for the last few months. We finally went to talk to the bishop last night, and it helped. For the first time in all this, Toby is not just blaming me. I've been willing to share the blame, but not just take it all. Call me unselfish.

BAWb called Toby last night, by coincidence, and asked him if we were having problems. They talked for about an hour. I think that helped also.

I Am Published!

Last week, I sent a somewhat revised copy of my midwifery rant (see below), to some of the local newspapers and stations. The Springfield News-Leader ran it today, right in the middle of the editorial page, with a nice picture of a woman's hand holding a newborn's. Awesome!

That makes me a third generation politcal pot-stirrer. I feel as if I've joined the club. I pray that some hearts will be touched by what I wrote (and what Mary helped me revise).

ARGH!

I shouldn't be surprised that the Missouri State Medical Association is fighting midwifery legislation tooth and nail. I really shouldn't. I just find it hard to believe that a bunch of doctors can tell me that I don't have the right to choose who will attend me at the birth of my babies.

Oh, I have the right to a home birth, I just don't have the right to choose a midwife who has trained to know how to handle a normal birth and when to transfer the situation to a doctor. I can have the mechanic who lives down the street from me deliver my babies at home. I can decide to "go it alone" and hope for the best. As long as I don't find a person who represents herself as a trained professional, or (and I think this is the real crux of the matter) PAY HER.

That's right MSMA. I think for all your pandering to people's fears about birth gone wrong and the safety of mothers and babies, you are really worried about one thing: PROFIT. Explain to me how the USA is twenty-something in the rankings for birth outcomes when all the world's developed nations are compared? Don't we have the best obstetrical technology in the world? What does that say about our current system?

This is a matter of personal freedom. A powerful group is protecting their own interests at the cost of my freedom to choose. I don't feel I have the right to decide what is acceptable for others, but who is more qualified to choose what is right for me--myself or a lobby group? Other states have passed laws legalizing midwifery which allow pregnant moms a range of options. Missouri women want this freedom, and they have been denied for too long.

Look at my last post. Do you see these four happy, healthy kids? They were all born outside a hospital with the expert and attentive care of a midwife. We had a couple of minor mishaps like a cord wrapped around the baby's neck and a stuck set of shoulders. In both instances, these ladies knew exactly what to do. These occurrences are normal, and a midwife is trained to deal with normal birth. It's what midwives do. Doctors provide excellent care for at high-risk birth. I believe high-risk birth is what doctors should do. I want a choice.

Please, if anyone is reading this, think about it. I don't want to make you have babies with a midwife. I just want to be able to choose it for myself I want my three daughters free to choose when that time comes. There are many other women out there who feel the way I do. If you think we should have this right in our state, call your representatives in Jefferson City. Call the Governor. Write to your local newspaper editor. Missouri families are grateful.

Thank You, Jill

July Already?

Yeah, those are my kids. All four of 'em. In a box. It's okay, the cuteness makes me weak also.

I know...everyone says that time seems to go so fast, and I usuallly disagree with them. In this stage of my life, with little kids and pregnancies, time seems to just molasses by. I am grateful to Kim at Large Family Logistics. She said that when all your kids are little ones, with no bigger ones to help, that is the most difficult time in having a large family. I hope so.

Actually, I may see some light at the end of that tunnel. Livvy is being such a help to me. She likes to vacuum the living room, and does it without being asked after a pick-up. Also, on Friday, she loaded and washed and dried two loads of kids clothes all by herself. No, I am not raising her to take over all my work, but just to know how to do the things necessary to care for a house. I expect Hollis, Maggie, and Ivy to learn in their own good time, and whomever else may come to our home. Then their own homes and families will be blessed by my hard work.

Right now we are working on establishing routines. I hope that it will pay off later, but at the moment, I do a lot of drill-seargenting. I would like to see that someday all my kids (and my husband) know how to take care of their own clothes, toys, and dishes. Let's be honest, I need to do that, too. I'm trying to remember to be fair, as in "Eat only in the kitchen," applies to adults as well as kids. It makes doing the dishes easier and it keeps the rest of the house cleaner.

All that aside, don't get the idea that we have this regimentally organized household. Not even remotely. It is summertime, after all, and I think that summer is a time to just be a kid. I want the kids to know how to work, but I also want time for reading, and playing, and being creative. Hopefully much less TV. On the days when we are home, we have been very good at sticking with naptime, which is an hour of quiet after lunch. Sometimes we nap, sometimes not, but we all have to lie down and relax with a book (and a baby, in my case), or some Tolkien on tape.

Yes, Tolkien. I am very proud to have cultured kids (not unlike cultured yogurt). We are trying to immerse them in good things before they learn they're not cool. This means a lot of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (the old ones), and Beatles music galore. The Yellow Submarine soundtrack is very kid-friendly. I get all warm and fuzzy when I hear my four-year-old singing "Nowhere Man."

Sunday Evening

Here we are at Mom and Dad's house on a Sunday Evening. We made it to church for the first time as a family in about two months, and it felt good to be back.

Toby and Dad are out trying to replace the lug bolt on Laural's car that has been broken for about a year. She can't get new tires until it's fixed. We're hoping to get home and pick up our house some for tomorrow. An appraiser will come, supposedly by nine o'clock, to take a look at our house. They're trying to decide how much it's worth to give us a loan to finish it. So we're trying not to look like white trash. At least not as much like white trash as usual.

I am trying to make sure that we follow somewhat of a schedule this summer, and later when Liv's back in school. Tomorrow we begin that. And I'm trying to get some inventory produced by late this month for a small Renaissance festival in Jefferson City. So busy!

Alas, I was trying to post some cute pictures of the dresses I made for the Littles (little girls) today. We have been barely getting by with two or so old white muslin peasant dresses for two little girls for two days each week at the renaissance festival. Needless to say, white is not an acceptable color to wear to one, let alone if you're still a babe in arms, much less a roll-in-the-dirt-all-day two year old. This has been itching at the back of my mind for a few weeks, and today I did something about it.

I made Ivy a dress out of a fat quarter. Listen up, quilters! I did say a fat quarter. She's a little girl all right, but how did I manage that? I folded the fabric in half, then chopped off about four inches for sleeves (cut that strip in half). Then I cut the larger piece into four equal rectangles (about 12 inches by four inches). I picked out some coordinating fabric from the stash and sewed a three-inch strip between two of each of the fat quarter ones. Then I stacked them all with tops aligning and cut out an armhole for a peasant blouse--kind of a quarter circle shape. When I sewed it all up and elasticized the arm and neck holes and hemmed, Ivy had a cute little dress with red geometric bunny Japanese print with a cool yellow-orange racing stripe down the front and back.

I finished a similar dress for Maggie, but for hers, I sewed a contrast flounce and sleeves instead of the racing stripe. And of course, hers took more than a fat quarter to make. Maggie's dress has a soft green 40's dot print with black paisley sleeves and flounce around the hem. I'll try one more time to post them, before I have to go pack and leave for Muskogee for the weekend. We're hoping to make church for an hour on Sunday, so I need to pack non-ren clothes for that.

No, it's just not going to work--I'll have to try at Mom and Dad's house.

It's Tuesday again...not that it means anything. I was amused to see the reference to the game "Burning Crusades" on the Blogger front page. Our family jokes that "burning crusades" sounds like something viral you'd pick up at a Renaissance Festival Port-a-Potty.

But I seriously digress. This week the guys are all working on Brent and Vea's house, so the whole gang's here. Hollis is having the time of his life, considering all the help he's being, but Maggie just doesn't understand why her dad can't carry her around all day.

I'm trying to help Michelle sew some bodices to restock our booth at Muskogee Renfest. We are all sold out of any "women's" sizes. Anything larger than about a 33 inch waist is in short supply. Chelle and Tyler went to Springfield yesterday and got some new fabric to use, and I finally got my serger verbally abused into submission. It is making the most beautiful rolled hem now.

Today I'm trying to cook enough to make up for the massive amounts of food our family has eaten here lately. I made two batches of bread: a foccacia and some Flaxseed sandwich bread. Both are from Rose Levy Berenbaum's Bread Bible that Lucy let me borrow (with thanks). She has good recipes and I haven't made anything of hers I didn't like yet. Supper tonight will be green chili pork with homemade corn tortillas and refried beans. Hopefully it will be good.

Starting Over

Wow, a month ago I didn't see any need for a blog, and now I have two. I'm not the techie type, and I don't have much interest in a bunch of strange people seeing the intimate details of our everyday lives, but I am hoping to use this as a diary of sorts, to keep track of my days and my progress. I started this one because I was having no luck on Yahoo 360 displaying a list of some wonderful sites I have found.

I guess this will be a way for friends to see pics of our kids, and a way for me to share recipes and projects that I'm working on.