Toddlers, Tantrums and Quilts

This week was a frustrating one for me. My three year old is going through a pretty challenging phase and it seems like every day is a new opportunity for him to get into trouble, pick on his brother, throw things, destroy his toys or other objects around the house, defy me or my husband, and generally be a pain about everything. He does all these things at some point in every day, throws tantrums that I can't always physically contain, and pushes all my buttons, and by the end of the week, I'm mentally and physically exhausted from it all. I don't know what I'd do without the relief of my regular babysitter! This week was particularly challenging because in addition to all of the above, Piglet refused to nap all week as well, which meant that by 4:30 in the afternoon, he was beyond tired, and unable to be reasonable At. All. It wasn't that I don't make him go into his bed and lie down for several hours, but he just didn't sleep! Mostly he used the time to fill up his pull up, as we are having major bowel training issues these days.

So when I got up this morning, I mentally geared myself for another awful day. And then I remembered. Oh wait. It is Saturday, and my husband is done with his cases! He doesn't have to work today for the first time in months!! Yippie! He had decided to take Piglet to the zoo, and I would keep Boo with me, but Boo is so easy to have around at this stage that it was no big deal! Boo and I walked to Whole Foods to make a big grocery run, and then he puttered around in the living room playing with toys while I cooked almost a week's worth of meals. I don't usually do that, but I was feeling so mentally light and free from the burden of dealing with Piglet for several hours that I was energized to do so. Plus it means I'm going to have more free time around dinner times this week, which is generally when my children misbehave the worst. (The witching hour, as anyone with small children knows...) I made beef vegetable soup, raspberry muffins, turkey noodle soup, the meat base for a taco pie, and cooked up a bunch of turkey for a turkey salad with peppercorn ranch dressing that I'm going to have for lunches this week (I'm allergic to chicken, for those who don't know). It felt great to get all that made today, even though I was pretty tired by the time I finished! We ate the beef soup with the muffins for lunch and dinner today (my husband was thrilled to have two hot meals in one day!) and there was still enough left over to freeze for a rainy day.

Now that we are past Mother's Day a bit, and my mom has received her card, I can show it to you. It took a lot of restraint not to show it the night I made it, but I stayed strong and held back. I used a great tutorial from splitcoast, but this card took a LONG time. Not because it is difficult to make (it isn't) but because I made some stupid mistakes on the first couple of tries and had to start over. Plus I lacked a 3/4" square punch and cutting all those bitty squares with my paper cutter was a bit pesky. But I'm very pleased with the final result and would like to try my hand at another quilted card soon! I have in mind to try the wedding ring design somehow.


Supplies:
Rose Red, Pear Pizzazz cs, Springtime Vintage dp
Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
Rose Red Ink
Decorative label punch
pearls
rosettes
pear pizzazz seam binding
petals a plenty EF
sanding block