October 2014
I started out this month posting about Henry’s Pumpkin, click here to see that post.
Henry’s teacher had this note attached to a new pumpkin for him to take home two days later…
Robbie turned 11 years old this month. I decided to do a birthday post for him this year because I haven’t been mentioning him very often in my blog. Robbie’s Birthday
We don’t give many gifts or big gifts or have a huge party. During the last year I have been not planning parties where we have many friends over. Since our family grew to four kids, birthdays needed to be simplified. Our family celebrates birthdays in a very simple way…we do special things – you pick your favorite dinner meal and dessert, you invite a friend to do something fun with us around your birthday time and we do something fun as a family.
I dyed a sheet for Robbie this summer with the intentions of having it made into a quilt. Robbie helped me pick out the colors of the rainbow to use. I loved that idea! He doesn’t know that he is my “rainbow baby”. I hired to have it machine quilted and it was finished just a few days before his birthday.
I started this quilt in February after learning that my cousin would be having her “rainbow baby” in September. I finished it the last week of October and gave it to her on October 31st!
Homecoming week at Iola means the school has an Orange and Black day. I dyed their bandanas for this occasion and I expect they will get a lot of use out of them.
My sister Emily had her liver transplant in September. I posted two posts around the time of her transplant. A Prayer for Emily and A Sister’s Emotions. She came home in October. I have saved these before pictures to share an after picture at the same time.
This is the week she was in the hospital before her transplant. She was very jaundice, I believe her bilirubin levels hit and all time high of 40 the week this picture was taken.
I went to visit her and was pleased to see a smile on her face and she her in good spirits. What else can you do when the doctor says, “You are not going home until you have a transplant.” When I sat down next to her bed with the hospital window at my back I was shocked to see how yellow the whites of her eyes were and her skin color compared to John’s was also shocking.
Four days before her liver transplant:
Almost three weeks after her transplant:
Emily is home, recovering and getting stronger every day. She told me she has lost a lot of weight since her transplant and looks very healthy.
Drinks! I have a few favorite drinks. I love coffee the most. All kinds of coffee! I also love beer, but don’t get to drink that very often. Jack’s mom went to Finland, over a year ago (?), and brought a pair of Kuksa (Finnish drinking cups) for us. We finally sat down next to each other on the couch and broke in our cups drinking Four Roses Single Barrel.
I also have to share a new find for me – a local coffee roaster is here in my area. I had no idea! Here is the link to the article where I learned of them, “Ruby Coffee Roasters sees business perk up”.
I also like to make and drink smoothies. My best friend in college, Bethany, first introduced me to smoothies. One day I made the mistake of prepping the blender with the smoothie ingredients and not blending it until after the boys got home. When Robbie saw the blender before the blending happened he scrunched up his nose and said, “what is that going to be?”. He didn’t drink my smoothie that day.
If he only knew that every day the before blending looks the same, he probably wouldn’t drink my smoothies.
Charlie has begged me for jobs that he could get paid for around the house. It was hard to come up with something since everyone does jobs around here for no pay, like emptying the dishwasher, feeding the dogs, taking care of chickens, sweeping and vacuuming, cleaning up rooms, making firewood, stacking and bringing in firewood. I only fold clothes when they come off the clothes line, if they come out of the dryer they get separated into each person’s own laundry basket. That is as good as it gets around here and sometimes I wonder why we have dressers. I decided folding laundry was a job I would pay to have done for the sake of it getting done and Charlie earning money. Nola Mae isn’t very helpful when it comes to folding clothes.
Nola Mae loves to be measured, we’ll see if all our body measuring pays off when we go in for her well-child appointment this week and if she lets the nurse measure her. When ever she finds one of my tape measures I measure her head circumference, arms, feet, toes, legs, nose, and ears. It is a fun little game for us. After her bath she stood there for a long time so Henry could count every inch.
I have worked really hard to exercise 5-6 days a week. Doesn’t always happen that many times in a week, but is my goal! I had recently organized our basement and got my Nordic Track out in the open for when there was a day I had time to get on it and do it.
One day it was windy and too yucky to run outside and I was too lazy to drive to the ski hill to hike on the trails. I was wishing it was winter because skiing on a day like that would have been fine. So I climbed on the Nordic Track and skied for an hour. I had a great workout and imagined I was skiing. I thought it was funny that our box of ski boots just happened to be right there in my face. I couldn’t decide if that made it helpful to imagine skiing or painful because I wasn’t skiing on real snow.
Our school had a day off on a Friday this month. I figured going to the skate board park in Waupaca would be a good idea because we would have the park all to ourselves.
Charlie had fun riding his bike.
And everyone had fun sliding.
Nola Mae ran all over the place and tired herself out!
Swan Park also has a very nice hiking trail. We went on the trail through the woods and Nola Mae got a little nap.
Robbie was in charge of the camera.
Instead of trick or treating I bought each boy a bag of their favorite candy and we stayed home. We had a good time in the woods making improvements to their forts.
And they had a fun game of 500.
A few babywearing photos:
I slingafied the other half of my friend’s woven wrap Winter Lilies.
I made these linen wraps for my cousin a matching one for her daughter. (Rucksack Carry with Tibetan Tie)
I took the boys and Jack to the ski hill to show them the new trail and Jack took this cool picture of Nola Mae waiting to be wrapped.
And this one when we were done wrapping.
Double Hammock Carry with my Ellevill Norwegian Jack wool woven wrap.
Wool wraps are tricky to wash. I wanted to wash it to soften it up a little more, and it worked! I had to take a photo of how pretty it looked on the drying rack. It is a beautiful wrap!
Swan Park nap in my woven wrap Ellevill Zara Velvet.
I was hoping to share my dyeing projects from September and October before this post, maybe that will be next?
For now you can see some of my dyed items in my etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/skiingmama
life with three boys and a splash of purple! 