Always Happy to Amuse People in the Grocery Store.

Somehow, when the kids and I go out, we bring a few smiles to the faces of the people around us.  You never know what kind of conversation will come up with kids.  Like tonight, when we were at the grocery store.  We were in the checkout lane, all ready to pay and be on the way home for dinner.  

A:  Mom, will you buy me some hand sanitizer?
Mom:  Hand sanitizer!?  What do you want hand sanitizer for? 
A:  I could take it to school.
Tired mom:  We’re in line, I’m not going back for hand sanitizer.
A:  There’s some right here.  (points at the display of stuff your kids try to talk you into buying as you leave the store)
Practical mom:  Do you have $2.99 to give me when we get home?
A:  I could save my money.
Exasperated mom:  When you have saved $2.99 I will bring you to the store to buy hand sanitizer.  Is that what you want to spend your money on?
A:  I hope that I get a gift card for my birthday so that I can buy hand sanitizer.

The cashier was kind enough to hide her laughter until after we left the store.  Maybe she’s a mom and she totally understands the logic of a seven-and-a-half-year-old girl.

I Never Would Have Done This For My First Child.

Or my second.  But E-boy is the third (and last) and admittedly is a little spoiled by mama.  Yes, that’s my little guy drinking hot chocolate milk from a sippy cup.  Or, as he calls it, “ha cha-cha mi-mi.”

In my defense (you can tell I feel guilty about this, can’t you), I make hot chocolate for the girls when they come in from outside on these cold winter days, and it just didn’t seem right to leave out the baby.  And he loves it.  And he’s a mama’s boy.

My Mommy Immunity is Failing.

Mommies aren’t supposed to get sick, are they?

A. brought a cold home from school last week and managed to pass it on to both her brother, her sister and me.

Today in the house, there will be a lot of lounging on the couch and Noggin on the TV, and not much of anything else.  Oh, and we’ll ALL be taking a nap, seeing as I was up most of the night with one or the other of my younger two children.

Everybody Loves a Sale!

I just marked down some of the purses in my Etsy shop, hop on over and take a look!

  

Just Another Mommy-Post.

With more pictures of my kids.  Here is E. at her ski lesson this week, she had SO much fun, and went on the chair lift with daddy for the first (and second) time.

And a picture of E-boy, the obligatory messy baby shot.  We had chocolate chip pancakes for dinner last night, and they were definitely a hit.  Up until last summer, my kids were blissfully unaware that pancakes could be made with chocolate chips.  Last summer when we were visiting with Abuelita, “Uncle” Roy made pancakes for breakfast with chocolate chips in them, and quickly became a superhero in the eyes of my children.  Now when I make pancakes, the children (including hubby) insist on chocolate chips.

Note To Self

Do not buy any ketchup or ranch dressing.  Even though the children insist on having one or both sauces available at every meal for dipping, the three (3!) bottles of each in the pantry will last for quite a while.

Yes, I cleaned out my pantry today, flylady would be proud.  Yesterday, hubby opened the pantry door and was bombarded with falling dry goods (he’s lucky it wasn’t the cans, that could have been dangerous!).  It really was time to get organized.  In doing so, I found some things I didn’t know I had, like triplet ketchups and ranch dressings.  Yes, we use them a lot.  NO, not three-bottles-at-a-time worth. 

Caution: Children Cooking.

I’m all for child labor when it comes to household chores.  Cooking is one of the kids favorite things to be involved in, and it’s even more fun when the outcome is pizza.  Tonight, the kids helped make dinner.  A. was in charge of the pepperoni, and E. put on the canadian bacon.  Both girls grated cheese, and mama put them in the oven.  That’s what we call teamwork.

As Promised…

Here are the pictures of the first actual project sewn on my Rocketeer.  Actually, there are a lot of firsts here:  first project on the Rocketeer, first zippered pocket in the lining, first try at this new pattern I drafted.  It gave me a few fits while I was sewing, partly getting used to the machine (I adjusted the presser foor pressure three times) and partly because the pattern needed some tweaking along the way.  However, I’m glad I didn’t throw it in the trash midway, because the end product is nice.  Not perfect, but nice.

Here are some close-ups, and a view of the imperfect zippered pocket:

Gizmos and Gadgets Galore

Along with the Singer 500A I just bought came a whole box of delicious attachments.  So, when the little man lay down to take a nap today, I took out the sewing machine manual and some scraps of fabric to see what they all do.

One of the features of this machine that intrigued me is the ability to double needle with two single needles, so that was the first feature I tried out.  I threaded up with two spools of thread and practiced straight stitches, zig-zags and patterned stitches.  I even tried out one of the special top-hat cam stitches here.  I think I’m going to like double needle hems on knits!  And they will make beautiful topstitching when I’m sewing garments.

The next attachment I practiced was the ruffler, and I think there are going to be way more ruffles in my future.  I’ve been making ruffles using a long stitch length setting and then pulling the thread to gather while pinning it evenly around the garment, and finally stitching it on.  This attachment makes beautifully even gathers and pleats so easily! 

I did a little practice with the narrow hem foot, but need to practice that a bit more to get the fabric to feed consistently, as some parts of the hem I made had only one fold in them rather than the two that are supposed to be there.

The last attachment I tried out was the multi-slotted binder.  I was a bit skeptical when I cut my 15/16″ strip that it would bind evenly so narrow, but sure enough, after feeding it through the scroll and fitting my fabric in the middle, I came out with a perfectly bound edge.

I’m still working up the courage to try an actual sewing project on this machine, but when I do, I’m sure you will be the first to see what I make!

An Ocean Getaway

Before we had kids, hubby and I used to be spontaneous.  We’d just up and go somewhere fun on the spur of the moment.  After kids, it’s harder to do.  On Wednesday, we decided to up and take off for the ocean.  Luckily, grandma and grandpa were game to watch the kids for a few days.

Here’s the weather we left behind:

And here’s where we ended up:
 

Isn’t my Acadia pretty sitting out on the beach?  I did have to remind Hubby not to drive it like it was a pick-up truck.  The weather was a bit stormy out at the coast, but we had a good time, and it didn’t rain the whole time.  We had the privilege of seeing this bald eagle while we were on the beach, too.  He was perched on this log that washed up on shore, but when we approached he took off.  The pictures aren’t great, but you get the idea:
  

We came home with some shells for the kids, and also picked up this beauty:

She’s a Singer 500A, and she came with a cabinet and all sorts of attatchments and goodies in the drawers.  I can’t wait to get used to sewing with her!