Beginning the Countdown.

So, plans are still in place for traveling to Utah Friday afternoon. I have my lists in place: one is titled "DO" and the other is "TAKE." It does help a little, but we'll see how much frantic running around there is on Friday.

All of the fam out there who wonder if Damsel In This Dress can possibly support more than one family: OH, MY, GOSH. We are so unbelievably busy. I know we're not nearly as productive as Michelle, but we just about have all the work we can handle. We're working hard to get out of debt and start saving for a piece of property where we can build a nice house that will accommodate both our growing business and our growing family.

We're trying hard to teach our kids money smarts (whilst learning them ourselves!) They work for a small amount of money per chore, and we try to be organized about paying them and making sure they take out for tithing and savings. Tonight, we're planning to have a budgeting Family Home Evening. Kind of kill two birds with one stone, you know. We can show them where our money goes out every month, and at the same time, remind ourselves (the grownups) how much better our spending stays under control when we have a plan. We really haven't done up a new budget since Toby was working construction, so it's time. Our income and some of our expenditures are different.

I think it all boils down to teaching by example. I hope we can be good examples of both frugality and generosity, so that the kids can see these things in action. Speaking of thrift, we're looking for dresses for the little girls, who have both decided that princesses don't wear pants. This is no surprise for Maggie, who is a very girly girl. I didn't expect Ivy to be quite so into dresses. She is a rough little punk with an elf haircut, so it tickles everyone to see her in a frilly little dress. Maggie skips around and sings Ariel songs from "The Little Mermaid," while Ivy demands in a gruff voice: "SAY ME PRINCESS!" They're like the force and dark side of girldom.

We are looking a thrift stores because I just can't bring myself to spend thirty dollars for a dress that I'm not even crazy about, that will be worn and dribbled on every day. There are some very specific guidlines in place, mostly about how a skirt must flare out properly when a little girl spins around. We haven't had much luck, or really much time to look out here lately. Hello Utah, Land Of Deseret Industries! I'm guessing little girls' dresses are pretty plentiful. Hopefully they're also cheap and cute.

Now for a Loch picture. Liv loves to take pictures of him, and this is hers.

Bless the Bus Driver....

...for waiting an extra minute this morning for Hollis to PUT ON HIS SHOES and run out to get on the bus. I thought shoes were part of being dressed.

A Quite Random Pile of the Things We're Up To.

Well, the kids are back in school. We've had to drive them three times already for missing the bus because we (the responsible parents) slept in past bus time. If we're late enough, we have to accompany them into the building in shame and sign them in. We have to fill out a paper for each kid with slots for name, time, and reason for being late. By the end of the quarter, we have a neat blackmail paper filled out with each time we've been crappy parents in the past.

My favorite part is the "reason for lateness" column. I usually just put "late," because it's none of their business. I would like to write:

New Baby
Bad Choices
Hangover
Sex
Laziness
Meth Lab Blew Up
Voices
Mormons Don't Adhere to Your Schedule
We've Decided to Homeschool for the First Twenty Minutes Only
Issues With Authority

Oh, the fun we'd have, until they sicced Child Protective Services on us. By the way, in case you were wondering: yes, yes, no, yes, yes, no, no, yes, no, and yes.

Where was I? Olivia has become obsessed with audio books, and she doesn't want to lie on her bed and stare at the ceiling. Instead, she ambles about the house cleaning it. I said CLEANING IT. Like, spontaneously. Um, without being asked. WHAT THE CRISPY CRAP? I think it's awesome and a little freaky at the same time. But on the other hand, my bathroom is spotless, and I have proof of mirror-polishing. (See above.)

We've committed to a Utah trip, leaving in two weeks. Mostly, we want to see family and show off our sweet little boy.


I just like the way he looks with a bunch of bananas....

BREAD! I managed to bake for the second time since Lochlan was born. I'd like to get back to regular baking because store bread is what it is.

I just heard of literal music videos. Basically, someone rewrites the lyrics of a song to describe what's happening in the music video, scene by scene, then overdubs it and posts it on You Tube. Most really suck. I think "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (by Bonnnie Tyler) and "Anything for Love" (by Mr. Loaf) are painfully funny: "Emo Kid is throwing Slo-Mo dove in my face, I guess that means that he just flipped me the bird." Humor me and watch the first one at least. Oh, and also watch David Hasselhoff singing "Hooked On A Feeling."

....Because I'm too lazy to write for my own blog.

Read this. But go and pee first.

Happy Birthday, Julia!

I just realized it's Julia Child's birthday. She started it all, way before cooking on TV was a multimillion dollar business. I have her original book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and her autobiographical one, "My Life In France." Both are great reads (and one has great recipes!)

Yeah, there's a movie coming out...whatever. We got the old TV series on Netflix, and they are fun to watch, even if the first few are in black and white. Julia had such a joyful attitude about making good food, combined with a wry humor and practicality.

She lived be more than 90 years old and attributed her longevity to "red meat and gin."

My Afters Look Like Befores.

We've (Okay, I've) been feeling very overwhelmed by orders and the constant demands of our new son lately. Our whole business is run out of our home, and the bulk of the magic happens in the upstairs bedroom, which is about 13 by 15 feet. Evey day is a struggle to keep minimally organized and productive in the windows of time left to me while keeping Loch content and well-fed.

We discussed building a shed in the corner of our backyard, big enough to hold Toby's tools and our business. We even added up what it would cost and how long it might take to complete. We drew up a floor plan, fitting in areas for cutting, sewing, grommeting, computer, boxes, and kids' play. At one point, I looked at it and thought it was very similar in layout to the room we use now, just bigger. So I asked why we couldn't just revamp our current room to fit a better plan. Or any plan at all, really.

Long story short, we spent less than a tenth the shed amount, in both time and money terms. We bought tons of shelf-track, brackets, and shelving at Lowes, gutted the room, and installed all of it. I know it doesn't look organized or cute, but it is impressive considering what it was like before.
THE WALL OF FABRIC. It doesn't look like much, now that we're not stepping over piles of it to get around in here. Maybe it does look like much to you, but I promise Michelle's stash puts ours to shame. She doesn't think in terms of yards, but rolls of fabric.

We are seriously short of lining fabric. There should be a yard of lining for each yard of outer fabric. But lining fabric isn't nearly as fun to buy... We do plan to take the shop-vac out eventually. And the placement of the mannequin and the lights is someone's idea of a joke.MY SEWING AREA. I have ordered a swivel chair with no back to fit between these tables, so that I can just spin around and use the serger when I need to. Notice the dust cover? It is not there because I'm a neat freak, but because when I don't cover it up, someone-who-is-two messes with the tensions. I am a bit proud of the rainbow of topstitching thread on the shelf above, the only aesthetically pleasing part of this whole post.
COMPUTER CORNER. This is where we will keep track of orders, do customer service, and weigh packages to print shipping labels (we've been doing it downstairs, and getting too much exercise running up and down.) I have two monitors because I married a techie. Okay, and also because it is easier to copy orders onto our master order sheet without clicking back and forth six times for each order.BREASTFEEDING CHAIR/GROMMET AREA. It is a huge and monstrous orange chair, but trying to feed a baby balanced across your knees in an armless chair is NOT COOL. We've not had table room until now to have the grommet press (blue thing on table) set up full time.CUTTING TABLE. Where the magic begins. Unless you count the internet, which is the source of all magic. We have drawers underneath for all the larger pattern pieces and the WALL OF FABRIC is just to the right.

The real winners here are the customers, who might get bodices before they expect them. And Lowe's, because they got a good bit of money from us this week.

Losers? Four of our kids still sleep in a 6 by 8 room on one set of bunk beds. But they do have sloped-ceiling gable room upstairs full of toys, so don't feel too sorry for them.

Cool Links for Mom Clothes.

Not Mom Jeans. I do like both these sites, and have used the Sense and Sensibility girls' pattern to make a dress for Liv. I appreciate the Baker Lane designs especially because of the reasons detailed in my previous post. They're both a little too sugar-cookie sweet for me.

Sense and Sensibility Patterns
Baker Lane Dressmaking & Design

I now need to think of a way to make it more my style: Victori-Gothic-Retro-Geeky-Bohemian-Fairy Tale-Punky-Naughty Secretary.
I think I have multiple personalities.

Critical Point.

So here we are. Loch is six weeks old, plus a day, if you're being picky. Things around here are back to as normal as they ever get. And I'm feeling obsessed with finding clothes that fit me. Let me lay out for you the joys of having five kids in ten years. The time can be divided into three or four major phases:

Pregnancy: Regular clothes fit for the first few months (less if it's not the first baby). Maternity clothes are hard to find, expensive, and universally unflattering. Plus, they never seem to take into account that pregnant women might gain weight in their boobs and arms, not just get a mondo-belly. I've pretty well gotten through this phase by amassing a collection of very long, stretchy t-shirts. Pants are another problem, since I hate the claustrophobia-inducing ones with a big kangaroo-pocket in the front that comes up over the belly. I'm so short-waisted they tuck under my bra. Underbelly ones look better and feel better, but slide right off my bumless body, so I'm constantly hitching them up.

Postpartum: Hey, it's Nature's cruel joke that women still look all wodgy and pregnant for a few weeks after the baby comes. The best bet is to hold the baby in front of the Santa-belly. Maybe it's like a built-in nursing pillow. Who wants to wear maternity clothes for another two or three months? NO ONE! My regular pants are still just too tight through the abdomen for comfort or appeal. Clingy shirts are not cool, since they hug the unfortunate areas and are too tight to pull up easily to feed the ravenous baby without baring my wobbly midsection. This is a very sensitive time, hormonally. Not the best time to sit around all day in shirts that are big enough to fit the whole rest of the family into. It's hard wearing things that I feel frumpy in, but I'm too cheap to spring for a wardrobe I hope will be too big in another month.

Nursing: Postpartum is included in the nursing phase, but babies need to be breastfed for at least a year. Most of the rest of the body is back to normal by then. Hopefully. Nursing is easy, if you don't wear a bra and wear a men's t-shirt big enough for a trucker. The baby could be tucked up under and just look like one more lump on a misshapen body. Okay, that's not what I'm going for. There are cute nursing clothes out there. I just have a hard time paying 25 dollars for an ugly shirt or 75 for a cute one. I need something that looks like a cute and flattering regular shirt, that discreetly offers access to a hungry baby. I'm probably going to have to make my own. In all my sewing free time, that is.

Not Pregnant, Not Breastfeeding: I'm not sure this phase has lasted for longer than about two weeks for me. It sounds nice.

Now, just add my preference for clothes that are practical, affordable, a bit sexy (I'm not a slutty teenager, but I'm not Mother of the Bride, either), and a little bit funky. Um. I get it. I'm asking too much. I'll give up and go buy an XXL Hanes T-shirt. And wallow in my misery.

Dimples

I Wish I Wrote This, But I Didn't, So Visit Here to Read It.

This lady is cool. She makes stuff out of vintage polyester (a much underloved resource). And she wrote this post about how she'd like to be Caroline Ingalls. Awesome.

Welcome to Lake McDonald

Here's another cute picture of Loch. We realized that since a loch is a Scottish lake, maybe that's why we wake up soaking wet almost every morning. We're sleeping with a little lake!

Most of these pictures are from our mini-vacation to Grand Rivers, Kentucky to have a reunion/25th anniversary celebration with Jill's family. It's the first time I've seen most of my cousins in about 11 years. Mom and Dad would win the prize for most grandkids!
Ivy made it into the lake and we didn't have any dry clothes for her. We've only been responsible to take a diaper bag EVERYWHERE for the last nine and a half years, but we still forget on a regular basis. We did have an extra blanket for Lochlan, so Toby tied Ivy a nifty sarong. I think she looks like a film star!
We found tons of cool shells on the beach.
The water was always a perfect temperature after we walked around the marina full of tall sailboats.

The rest of the family stayed in sweet and expensive cottages right on the lake, but we stayed in a cute little rock house about three blocks away. It was MUCH cheaper, and we had plenty of room. This is a picture of Maggie and her balloon on the deck of one of the cottages.
About two hours ago, Livvie asked if she could take a picture of Ivy, and this is where she was sleeping. Later, she awakened and rolled grumpily down the last two stairs.

We're spending most of our time catching up on orders and trying to do some last-minute quality time activities with the kids before school begins. I bought this girl some new grown-up underpinnings for the school year. What the CRAP!?!