The Manifesto of the Idle Parent

Thanks to the awesome folks over at Ohdeedoh I now have a very fitting manifesto to verbalize my current parenting and schooling style!

Happy Birthday to Me...

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday, dear Adrienne. Happy birthday to me!

So another birthday has come and gone and as usual, I really don't feel any different. I'm sure some changes have occurred over the past 31 years of life, but change can be such a subtle thing. Do I feel different than I did on Tuesday? No. Do I feel different than I did in 1994? Well, yeah, i guess so. I have no real complaints about the last year. Yes, I've gained some weight, but I gained a baby with it, so definitely no complaint there. And last year's birthday wish of being independently wealthy didn't come true this year, but I guess I didn't get all 30 of the candles blown out in one breath.

But I look forward to seeing what 31 brings. I've decided that I need to take control of my health and well being this year. I'd been vegetarian for almost 10 years before getting pregnant with Zion. During her pregnancy all I ever wanted was meat - for every meal! The things that I normally ate made me sick every time I ate them. So it has been, for the last (almost) 2 years I've eaten meat quite regularly throughout the week. Opening the door to eating meat again has been an open door, also, to eating fast food, massive amounts of dairy and prepackaged food. These are all things that I stopped ages ago and the reintroduction has taken it's toll on how I feel (health-wise and my body image). I am optimistic about returning to my regular diet. I look forward to losing all of this extra weight (or extra waste, as an old friend would refer to it) and feeling healthy. That's my goal for 31. Healthy.

Bijou the Birthday Girl

Bijou turned three today. Although I decided that we would only do big birthday parties for the girls between the ages of four and ten, I still feel like I put a lot of work into today (but that's just because of my procrastination). Bijou had a great day. The birthday crown was worn all day, there were cinnamon biscuits and vegetarian bacon for breakfast, a friend came over and had cake with us, she got a handmade bunny from mommy, a T-Rex and stegosaurus from daddy, play food for the kitchen and some dress up clothes. All in all, a great third birthday!

Progress and Portraits

It has been a busy couple of weeks here. I finally finished the boots and hats for the shop on the Square. They all turned out pretty cute AND I managed to print some tags for them on fabric before my printer ran out of ink. As I am still mastering the sewing machine, they are all pretty much hand sewn, but it's progress. I really wanted to get them to her before Christmas, but there were lots of other things going on around here. While I was in sewing mode, I decided to make a new pair of shoes for Zion. I had a nice wine colored wool sweater that I made into a pair of cute, warm winter Mary Janes. I also used my new hole punch (that I found for $5 at Walmart) to add some nice detail to them.


My shoe making was slowed a bit by a large family portrait that I was painting. My friend offered to trade me a washer and dryer for a portrait of her family. Can you ask for a better barter?! We have been in need of a washer since we moved into this house (a year ago). This is by far the largest family I've done, but it was good practice. I usually pride myself on being able to complete a portrait in a day or so, but this time I had to paint seven people. That stretched my work time, well, seven times (at least). I signed it and scraped my palette today so that I will not be compelled to keep touching it up (I'm prone to doing things like that). Hopefully she likes it.

Future Clothing Line for Girls?

I've decided that I have issues with little girls' clothes. Well, I decided I has an issue with them long ago, but I've recently discovered what the issue is. It's not the the pink and sparkles that bother me (although I could do without having to wade through all of that too), it's the content. Boys clothes tend to reflect their interests - planes, robots, dinosaurs, sports, trucks, etc. Girls clothes have flowers, princesses, butterflies. My girls have interests and their interests go well beyond ballerinas and princesses! Bijou loves robots and dinosaurs and airplanes and large farm equipment. Where are her clothes to display her interests. Ashni likes rocks and fossils. Where are her future geologist t-shirts? Well, I am taking a stance! I am going to make sure that my girls have clothes that reflect who they are and what they love. Four Bad Apples - clothes for real girls - has a nice ring don't you think? I can see it on the horizon...

Snowflake Project Completed

Our snowflake window clings that we started yesterday were dry and ready to peel this morning. We used silver fabric paint because I didn't have white. I had red and black, but I figured silver was a little more realistic than red. Fortunately I was awake before any of the children, so no snowflakes were destroyed while I snoozed. Now, the peeling and sticking to the window was a project all in itself. But I think they turned out great

Snowmen and Snowflakes

The drop in temperature says it's time to switch out our seasonal crafts. It is time to put away our fall leaf "stained glass" and put up some winter inspired decor. Although, generally I despise Disney and all that Disney produces, I love familyfun.go.com (shh, don't tell anyone). There are always project ideas there that the girls enjoy.

Today we made the corn starch clay that I found here http://http//familyfun.go.com/winter/winter-crafts/more-winter-crafts/cornstarch-clay-802347/ and the girls put together some incredibly creative snowmen. Their snow man building is extra impressive seeing as they have never seen more than a half inch of real snow in their lives. They really had fun. Unfortunately, the longer their snowmen sit, the more they "melt" into schlumpy snowmen. I'm not sure if I mixed my ingredients wrong or what, but I guess that makes them extra realistic!

Bijou's has the big rock star sunglasses on. She did really well putting most of this together herself. I cut the scarf for her though.

Jena's and his fancy black eyed pea belt.

Ashni's looks like a rapper to me. HA, he's all "blinged" out!

We also made sparkly silver snowflake window clings, also found here http://familyfun.go.com/winter/winter-crafts/snowflake-crafts/glittery-window-clings-674868/ We won't know until tomorrow how they turned out, but I think the excitement is killing the girls. I'm sure they will be up bright and early ready to peel them from the paper. Hopefully, they don't get to them before I wake up or they may have disjointed snowflakes.