If You Give a Homeschooler a Computer…….

We are doing school a bit differently this year, and we got Nora, our 12-year-old Colombian princess, her own computer for her work. She was SOOOOO excited! Like she’s a big kid now, or something. The other kids never got their own computers! FINALLY! Something that she was FIRST for! Because in her world “that last shall be worst!”

Okay, so a new computer means that she needs a desk to work on, because this mama ain’t sharing. I am the sharing type, but not work space at a computer desk. I do have my limits. Up in the loft, that is only used for book storage and sewing, there sits a perfectly good desk that was holding junk that never found its true home. I decided THAT could be Nora’s desk. But then, I need a desk in the loft too, to work along side her [so I don’t lose my ever-lovin’-mind while she takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to sound out moss-quit-toe (mosquito) and mett-hodd (method) repeatedly incorrectly while my eyeballs cramp from trying not to roll into my brain.] I love that kid!

My son has a desk in his room that matches Nora’s new desk. They should be twinsie desks in the loft, I decide. One quick trip on Swip-Swap (a facebook garage sale group) and I find a new IKEA desk for my son for $10. Perfect. An hour later there is a blonde desk sitting in my dining room. BAM. (Too many things have to move before it can go up the stairs.)

Then I realize I must put away all the fairy garden paraphernalia from Nora’s birthday party that is on her new desk, but the craft closet door is dragging across items hanging out of their designated boxes. I must organize the craft closet FIRST.

Then I notice the horizontal blinds have somehow been missed on the spring cleaning list …. possibly for the past six years. That is sadly not an exaggeration. Sorry, Mom. Don’t judge me. My kids are fed and one chicken is still alive. And the windows in the loft…. have they ever been washed on the outside? We’ve lived here for 10 years. So the windows and blinds are all sparkly and shining and clean now. DOUBLE BAM!

But as I washed the blinds (and had to rinse the rag after only four slats each time….ewwwww) I noticed the walls are sorely in need of paint. They WERE white……. ten years ago. So I need to paint the walls before we set up the desk for the computer.

There was a day-bed in the loft…. it got posted on Swip-Swap and left my house within 24 hours. CASH in my hand for wall paint! But with the day-bed missing, we need something cozy to sit on. Back on Swip-Swap I find a red loveseat and within 24 hours it is sitting in my living room next to the blonde IKEA desk…. with cash to spare STILL! (Does anyone else hear angels singing or is it just me?)

Then I notice the drab, tired-looking tan/pinkish color of my curriculum bookshelf and remember the can of darling light turquoise mis-matched $9 can of paint in the garage. A homeschool-room-vision-of-lovliness is materializing in my head. An oasis of higher learning. (“Higher” = upstairs.)

After 27 hours on Pinterest, (just KIDDING!)(kinda) I found homeschool rooms to die for. Seriously… death by darlingness. So adorable… makes me WANT to teach my kids for HOURS if I could just sit in THOSE rooms. The vision is ALIVE!

Turns out my red loveseat is really a brick-rust color. Shoot. Red and turquoise are so cute together. But after a redeeming trip to JoAnn’s Fabrics (my mother ship) all is well and curtains and pillows will now tie together the rust mini-sofa and the soon-to-be-painted light sea-mist turquoise shelf in the loft that will be painted off-white tomorrow.

Tomorrow is homeschool day #5. We are SOOOOO close to setting up the computer!

Smarty Pants…. not really.

Thinking I had scored a major victory at my favorite thrift store with a pair of chocolate brown capri pants, I sauntered to the sewing machine for a minor quick fix.  These were TOTALLY cute capris with little buttons and tabs on the pockets and cute twill tape ties at the bottom of each leg.  One glance and I figured out why the previous owner had sadly parted with these adorable pants.  The wide elastic in the back of the waist band had flipped and to the untrained eye appeared to be stuck in that position. But no.

Having taken self-taught home-ec sewing for 13 years before leaving home (Okay, my mom did initially show me how to sew forward, backwards and zig zag on the ancient Sears machine), the necessary remedy for the brown capris took a few straight pins and some determination.  Seriously, even with the thread change on the machine to a delicious chocolate color, the entire process took fifteen minutes.

Proud did not even begin to explain my feelings of accomplishment.  Waltzing into my closet, I pulled on my new favorite pants, buttoned the waist, slid the zipper in place and unsuccessfully tugged on the brown twill tape that circled the waist.  It seemed to be stuck.  There was five inches sticking out on the right side and 14 inches sticking out on the left side.  What in the world?  Tug tug.  No go.  Then I realized, in all of my smarty-pants-ness I had flipped the elastic and stitched not only the elastic in place but also the draw string for the waist.  Bummer dude.

I have yet to remedy the situation.  I simply tie them really far to the right in a teeny bow and tuck ten inches of twill tape inside the waistband of the pants.  Honestly, it would only take five minutes to pull out my stitches but I simply haven’t done it.  I keep tying the miniature bow and hiding the leftovers, hoping no one will see what a mess I made of my new almost favorite pants.

Looky Here….

Two blogs in a row.  Remarkable, I know.

Wee morning hour reading is brought on by…

My lack of tiredness and inability to get shut eye.

The snoring giant yonder lies…

I climb out of bed with heartfelt sighs.

Not because of the noise am I still awake.

Too many thoughts in this brain to take.

There’s a sleeping bag zipper to be repaired,

Highlights needed to not be gray haired.

Pounds to be lost, and scriptures studied.

Meals to be thought up from a mind too muddied.

Stories in my soul crying out to be written.

Waiting hands, orphans and hearts to be smitten.

The darkness prevents watercolor escape.

Gresham ended tonight closing the drape.

Not often is my night’s journey cut short.

Even lesser is poetry used for sport.

Prayers for all my readers near and afar.

May God bless you and free you from this memoir.

Christmas Creativity

My sister asked me to make an apron for her in April or May.  She sent me a picture of what she wanted…. black with tiny polka-dots and a few faint ruffles on the bottom edge.  Black didn’t seem practical for baking…. flour, butter and sugar will show up like a fly in the milk.  But black and pink are so cute together! I’ve been wanting an apron myself for quite some time, so the idea appealed to me.  My sister-in-law, Jennie, came for a visit in March and brought me beautiful Beatrix Potter Benjamin Bunny fabric…. perfect for an apron for a Miss Potter super-fan!

June rolled around and we were off to a cabin for vacation.  Before we left I gathered fabric, ric-rac, ribbon, thread and I found a pattern that looked fairly straight forward.  The creative juices were flowing…. but sewing time didn’t present itself at the cabin.  Bummer. 

December rolled around and my sister was coming for Christmas!  I had great expectations, but I didn’t actually get the apron sewn before gift giving commenced.  It was more of a last day of December gift.  She loved it and so did I.  I just had to share how cute it turned out.  Now hopefully I’ll get mine done before next Christmas baking season!

VBS = Very Busy Sistah!

Last week I only had 50% of my kids in the house.  One is still in Africa and one was at camp in California.  So the two that were here participated in a Vacation Bible School program that lasted from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm.  I love summertime!  It was a little slice of heaven for this sistah!  I felt like a mother who sends her kids away to school…. but just for five half days.  I didn’t quite know what to do with myself…. so I went shopping, out to lunch, bookstore browsing, shopping, out to lunch….etc.  And then the last day I just came home and did nothing.  Nada.  I didn’t even blog.  Seriously, I sat and looked through a few magazines… stared out the window enjoying the silence… nothing.

Nora has not really been away from me in a setting with other kids, other than Sunday School…. and that only lasts one hour!  So this was a stretch for her!  She told me on the second day that she had no friends.  I asked if there were other girls her age and she said there were.  So I explained that she needed to go up to them and say, “Do you want to be my friend?”  And she did.  She got in the van that afternoon and said, “Now I have lots of friends!”  If you want to have friends, show yourself friendly.  It works!

One of my FREE mornings, my mother and I went to a fabric store…. and my sewing creativity that had been dormant for over eight months burst forth into life.  I purchased two dress patterns for Nora and came home to check my fabric stash.  I had ample pieces for little dresses, but needed some zippers, some rick-rack, some sequin trim and a few extra pieces of material.  I finished two of the dresses and I’m onto number three.  They all have lime green, turquoise and dark brown in them, so I’m also working on a corresponding purse that works with all three!  Matching is SO important! 

Did I mention that I love summertime?

Monday’s Smorgasbord

My favorite words by Nora and the definitions by yours truly:

1. Teddy Burr (teddy bear):  when a stuffed animal gets under your saddle.
2. Unnerwhere (undies): what’s that unner there?… unnerwhere?
3. Peaksa (pizza): when you take a little looksie in the oven door to see if the cheese is indeed melted.
4. Enbalope (envelope): when you quit eloping earlier than planned.
5. Austeen (Austin): the new teenage version of her older brother.
6. Chickenout (check it out): what you do when you are too scared to jump into the cold water.
7. Heronimo (Geronimo): an old Indian hero – Nora yells this when she jumps into the swimming pool.

Other tidbits of information from today’s saga:  VBS has begun… hip hip hooray!  My mother and I went shopping and out to lunch!  Boooyah!  The colorful fabrics at JoAnn’s caused me to be deeply inspired to CREATE!  I bought a pattern to sew a dress for Nora!  Ohhhhyeah!  I was dismissed from jury duty before they even saw my outfit!  Rockonnnnn! And I got a ticket from a nice officer of the law.  Booo-hisssss!  Traffic school, here I come! No, I wasn’t speeding… the city closed the road that is the closest entrance onto the freeway… and I took it anyway… for the last time.

Adoption News! Yeah!

We are now #10 on the wait list.  For details, please see www.ZazasMama.wordpress.com. 

This was interesting news for me, bringing mixed emotions to the surface.  I was thinking (read: hoping and praying) that we would be about #7 by now, so it is sad news in a way.  But good news in that we have more time to finish raising our adoption funds and more time to improve my Spanish!  I was second guessing our two-week trip to Lake Tahoe which commences next week, wondering if we should be using vacation days so close to when we could travel.  But now, it looks like we won’t travel until Fall.  Which is good and bad.  Bad for Larisa signing up for classes in the Fall, but good because OUR GIRL WILL BE HOME!

I just had a flashback to when we were number 185!  THAT was a long time ago!  We’ve come a long way, baby.

That’s all for now…. going to go upstairs and finish sewing Zaza’s dolly’s outfit #4.  :o)

Zaza’s Dolly

I finally finished sewing Zaza’s dolly two days ago.  I plan to let Zaza name her, but if she asks for suggestions, I might say Amelia or Eliana or Christina.  I already used the iron-on face included in the pattern, and besides, it had blue eyes.  So I found an embroidered pattern on-line.  That took one whole day.  They even embroidered the pink cheeks, but I didn’t think that would look too good. I used real make-up.

The body is made from vintage muslin that was in the quilting scraps from my grandmother.  I tea-dyed it so as not to have pasty-white skin, like mine.  I think Grandma would be happy that I made Zaza’s dolly from her stash.  For the hair, I didn’t want to use regular twisted yarn because it can unravel and become a mess.  So I searched and searched and found this beautiful black non-twisted yarn made of bamboo.  Yes, it surprised me too.  It is super soft and combs out perfectly. 

I picked up the four purples on a sale day, so the entire outfit including bloomers was $5.  Yes, $5.  You don’t need much fabric for an 18″ doll.  I didn’t follow the pattern for the apron because I wanted the fabric on the bodice to show.  So I made up an apron, complete with a pocket for her tissue… or little treasure.  I’m starting outfit #2 now out of teeny red and blue floral fabric and I plan to make it short-sleeved (for summer) with the white eyelet pinafore following the pattern.  I’ll show you later.

Yes, she needs shoes.  There is no pattern for shoes…. except for slippers to match her jammies.  That won’t do for her Sunday dress.  I had a handmade doll when I was young and she had black felt shoes with a strap and a tiny white button.  I’m going to make those…. pray for me… I’m going off 35-year-old memories!

Our Adoption of Zaza

I realize that this blog, my every day life blog, is the one listed with our adoption agency, Gladney, as our adoption blog.  It is not, but I do occassionaly put adoption news and tidbits on here.  For those who have never looked to the right —–> there is a counter that is unbelievably at 3 years and almost 6 months that we have been waiting for our little girl, Zaza.  Our adoption blog doesn’t get as many entries as this one, but it can be found at:  www.ZazasMama.wordpress.com.  Our timeline is there as well as the worse-than- snail-slow process and progress.

Yes, I think about our little girl every day.  Yes, I miss her and I haven’t even met her yet.  We do not know her age, her name, her location (other than Colombia), her background…. nothing.  But she is our little girl… who is not home yet.  Our 11-year-old son prays faithfully for Zaza each night that she has a home and a bed and food and people who love her.  I pray they same prayer each night and that she will know God’s love at an early age.

Yes, we call her Zaza.  My sister-in-law came up with that nickname because we kept saying “our little girl from Colombia”… which is a bit long.  No, we will not change her name to Zaza.  We won’t change her first name at all because she will be 5 or 6-years-old and her name will be one of the only things she brings home with her from her mother country. 

Yes, waiting is hard.  I hate waiting.  I’m SOOO a right now girl!  This has taught me patience beyond what I thought was humanly possible.  We know some day she will be here and our family will be complete, but we don’t know when…… like I said, it’s hard.

This week I’ve been sewing a dolly, her clothes and a sleeping bag for the dolly…. all for Zaza to play with.  It keeps my mind on her and prayers sent heavenward on her behalf.  It also makes me feel like I’m doing SOMETHING!

My Girl’s Pink Dress

My 16-year-old found out about a contest called Own Your Look put on by JoAnn’s craft stores where girls ages 14-18 make their prom dress!  She asked if she could enter…. and showed me the prize list…. unbelievably, first prize is $50,000 for college.  I said, “Of course you’re entering!”     Duh!

Larisa has sewn before… but not a prom dress.  She’s made quilts, purses, funky skirts, groovy t-shirt modifications, pillows, etc.  This was one small step for man and one giant step for mankind.  So……. Day #1….a day of prom dress shopping commenced, including lunch at the mall, of course.  She tried on all sorts of dresses and she fell in love with one.  A simple gray number with one rose-covered shoulder and a high waistband.  It fit her perfectly. 

Day #2… shopping for a pattern.  This sounds all easy and fun, and it kind of was.  It was just long and drawn out and we should have gotten ice cream first… or at least some chocolate.  We did locate and purchase a pattern however many alterations would be necessary to build the gray dress.

Day #3…. shopping for fabric, zipper, thread, mask, feathers, etc. etc.  We took Grandma along that time because she took home ec for 14 years.  (haha) As soon as we picked her up, she said we should start with Starbucks!  (See why we brought her!)  We wandered around and around JoAnn’s looking for fabric in the right color and right texture.  We wandered so long that Grandma had to go sit in the pattern book section while Larisa and I wandered some more.  THEN, with the cart full of goodies, Larisa casually commented, “Mom, you know I don’t have a date for prom and I’m not old enough to go alone.”  WHAT?!?  Maybe we should have talked through this little blip before Day #3!  All was finally settled.  She needed the money for college.  We would find a date.  Turns out the homeschool prom allows girls to invite girls.  Good!  (Good grief!)

Days #4-23 were spent praying on our knees before the sewing machine.  (I’m kind of kidding.)  Larisa did a marvelous job sewing this dress!  I did not sew one blinkin’ pink thing on the gown.  All her!  And her hand beading is meticulous and gorgeous. She designed fuchsia flowers, instead of the common roses, with beads hanging out of each one.  Beautiful.  She found a fuchsia drawing online and reworked it to fit the waist band…. I am so proud of her.  She also made a mask, as an accessory for the contest.  Enjoy the photos!

The contest isn’t until summer, but believe me, I’ll keep you posted!  Did I mention that I’m so proud of her!?!