Where You Been?

Why thank you for asking!
I've spent the last 2 weeks galavanting across the midwest, something like this:
Maryland to Marion, Indiana, to South Bend, Indiana, to Davenport, Iowa, to South Bend, Indiana, to Vermillion, Ohio, and back home again.
This amounted to 30 hours of driving time, 11 of which was just myself + 3 kiddos.
I give full credit to God for how well behaved the children were in the car for all of that.  Really--- SO good.
I loved seeing (here we go!) Cindy, Amy, Jace & Will, (and Greg too), Cindy (aka Nina), Mike, Nick, Jason, Katie, Ron, Jill, Evan, Tiffany, Rachel & Anna, Betsy & kids, Beth, Wendy, Keith & Brit, IWU Admissions Staff, Integrity Automotive workers, Mom, Dad, Ericka (and baby!), Josh, Joel, Beth Ann, and finally SIMON!
(eek, hope I didn't miss someone).

Our trip included things like a dead van battery, which needed replaced and in the process of trying to jump it Christian locked the doors and the keys got stuck inside.  Most of the strange stories present themselves at the end of my trip when I was driving home with the kids... I think that may just be a post all its' own.

Of course I had a super time catching up with friends.  I was especially blessed by the wisdom and insight of several mentor-type friendships.  Those are priceless.
Christian and Jace were especially buddy-buddy.  I don't think either of them listened to their mamas the entire time they were together.

And getting all 5 of them to sit still in a picture was useless...

Thank you so much to Amy Tonagel for letting me bombard her home.  And thanks to her mom for helping me make the drive out there!

I enjoyed every moment spent at my parents house.  Confession: I didn't help wash a single dish or do any house cleaning while I was there-----sorry Mom!  I was a little bit lazy, and also busy working on a fun design project.  Check back in a few days to see what I did with this space:

It was great to watch the girls interact with my parents, as this is the first time they've really been old enough to be really playful.

We visited Notre Dame to see the cathedral.  It had to be 200 degrees out.

We also trekked out to Iowa to visit my sister and her husband, who are expecting a baby boy in October!  We had fun taking some maternity pictures (I'll share those soon too)(oh, okay, just one, not edited).  This is Ericka.  She's fun.  And a great writer too.

Over the next week I want to share with you
- Children's Nook Design (I think you'll like this!)
- The Figge Art Museum
- Ericka's Maternity Pictures
- Journals of a Crazy Traveling Mama

Check back soon!

Over on Lemon Tree

I am absolutely thrilled to be a guest blogger at lemon tree creations TODAY!  Check it out here to see a fun idea for modern family art.  Yay!

"Becoming Minimalist"

Don't worry, the mower is off.

I just recommended the blog Becoming Minimalist to Simon, asking him to start reading it along with me.  I don't know why I waited so long.  It is probably one of the most thought-provoking blogs I read, and has honestly changed my view on life over the last few months.  I am constantly amazed at how much minimalism and the teachings of Jesus seem to coincide.  I'd highly recommend it to you as well:  Becoming Minimalist.

PS-- what are your thoughts on having an online garage sale?

Knit Bibs

Every time my daughters wear these bibs, people give them compliments (and ask if I made them).  I wish I had!--- but I do not knit.  My lovely friend Katie made them as a gift (umm, yes, the same Katie that brought me granola bars, I aspire to be such a kind and thoughtful person like her)! 
She said she made a basic washcloth pattern, but added the 2 longer sections to go around the neck.  Then make a button hole and add the button.  Since I know nothing about knitting, this sounds difficult to me, but she said it's easy.   If you knit, give it a try!  They're sure to be a big hit and get many "oohs" and "aawwhs."

Thank you Katie!

Do You Love Granola Bars?

Then you will want to make these.  From Smitten Kitchen.  LOVE.

This is picture from the Smitten's site, but mine look the same... so why bother taking my own picture?

I made a batch this morning.  There are 2-3 cups of "whatever you want" ingredients (you can make them as healthy or junky as you want).  This was my combination today:
2/3 cup sliced almonds
2/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup each of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds

I also added some honey while mixing it to make sure they were moist enough.   And then I accidentally left them in the oven 10-15 minutes longer than I was supposed to.... still turned out perfectly.  I always put them in the fridge to finish cooling so that they are easier to cut.  Oh one more ingredient note!  It calls for "oat flour"... which you can make by blending oats finely.  But I still have leftover baby cereal that I use (any kind works, rice cereal, oatmeal, whole wheat, whatever).

Thanks to Katie Rudy for bringing these to me shortly after I had the girls: I thought they were amazing!

Simon really likes it when I have these around so that he can take one for breakfast in the morning.  It makes me happy when my husband likes something I make.  Sigh.

Give these a try!

Key Fob

Saw these wrist key chains a few weeks ago on Infarrantly Creative, originally from the Idea Room.  Her fabric choice and perfect sewing construction created instant desire to make one for myself.  Enter: my so-so fabric choice and far-from-perfect sewing "science" (I guess that's what I'll call it) = a different version that actually turned out quite handy.
I didn't feel like waiting to buy a clip, so I repurposed my current (annoying) key strap.  Go Kats!

In hindsight, I should have left more length on the right side of the strap... I didn't leave myself much sewing room.  I also chose some really thick fabric, so I didn't add lining.  Since my fabric was so thick, I could hardly sew through all of it to attach it to the clip!  So I decided to use embroidery thread to secure the attachment.  I actually really like it...

Do I just like it because I'm the one who spent all the time sewing it?  Who knows.  Either way, it is MUCH more functional than that freakishly long IWU string that always tickled my leg while driving.  It's also the perfect size to throw around my wrist, or just let it hang out of my purse pocket (easy to grab before getting into the car...ehh, van).
So I highly recommend them.  To everyone.  And if you don't want to make one, hire me to do it so I can get more practice.  Thinner fabric would offer the look of the original one that I linked above.
Well there you have it.  Happy Wednesday!

Baseball Party

Christian turned 3!  I was planning on doing a soccer party, but Daddy Henry won out for baseball (and I'm glad he did!).
In addition to adults, we were only going to have 7 kids at the party (and that's including kids under the age of 2), so it was primarily aimed at pleasing the grown up bunch.  I am looking forward to parties that involve a whole slew of kids!  Anyway, we did the typical baseball invite, ball park food and decor.  It was a lot of work and I started way too late, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!  Oh yeah, and I realized the Dollar Tree is totally the place to go if you're throwing a party.

Decorations:  Yep, good ol' pinata (before and after)! I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  A scoreboard just for fun.  Streamers and balloons.

Food!  Hotdogs and hamburgers, cracker jacks, watermelon, IBC(!), and Emeril's fresh Strawberry Lemonade (I could drink this all summer!).

Cake and presents (thank you everyone!).  Great baseball cake from Mammaw Henry.

Oh yeah, and Christian sang the National Anthem into his lovely red horn.

PLAY BALL!  We made our own baseball field.  Fun for kids and adults!

(and see that wee-little person in the red shirt at the top right?  Yep, that's me.  And it's the ONLY proof that I was in attendance at my son's 3rd birthday party.  At least he'll know I was playing ball).

And the kids loved playing in the pool and sprinkler...

I thought that Christian would love hitting the pinata.  To my surprise, he refused to hit it (this may be a first he's ever refused to hit anything!), and he would not let Simon help him hit it.  So it was left to his cousins and the help of adult strength.  Once the candy came out, everyone was happy again.

And this little Orioles guy was lovin' life...