Putzing around....

I've been kind of puttering today. Actually, I've been puttering all week, really. I've been so tired this week that I'm not doing much in the evenings except watching Vampire Diaries (I know, I have a serious problem...) while my husband beavers away on his court briefs.

Today was the first day I had some motivation to get some work done. I worked on some scrapbook pages that are part of a client order, putzed around with Christmas thank you notes, and ran up and down the stairs to deal with the baby's continual neediness during nap time. C'est la vie, I suppose.


One of my last-minute Christmas gifts for one of my husband's relatives was a multipurpose pack of greeting cards. Each card was different and I made baby cards, birthday cards, sympathy cards and thank yous. I think 10 or 11 in all. She really liked the gift (and is impossible to shop for generally speaking), so I'm happy that it worked out, even if I was working on it the night before we traveled! (For the record, I am generally not a procrastinator, but I had forgotten to buy for this particular person and didn't remember until a day or two before we were supposed to leave, and then thought, aha! and got to work)

So today's cards are from that batch. The birthday card is CASEd from Mary Jo Price, but I changed the color scheme. The thank you card is a design I made for a swap in December, and also included in the pack. (I also made 10 of them for my own Christmas thank you cards). I love the simplicity of this card, and the clean lines of the Studio Sketches set. (Thanks for the loaner, Ilina!)

Dear Philip

Four years ago today, we said good bye to you before we had a chance to know you, to cuddle you, to rock you to sleep. We miss you every day and love you so so much. Rest easy upon the bosom of Abraham and pray for us.

Love always,
Mama and Papa

Memory eternal!

What do you do with a General?

When he stops being a general? Okay, I admit, I'm kind of a sucker for musicals. Especially ones that involve Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney. White Christmas (the Broadway show) actually came to Philly this year, and I wanted to go see it on the big stage, but the tickets were absolutely outrageous, and my friend and I decided that we could save all that money and just watch it on DVD at home and get good chocolate instead. Ha!


I got this little digi from the Operation Write Home blog a while back, and saw two very funny cards made with it that I wanted to give a whirl. I loved the sentiments paired with the image, and thought I'd have some fun with My Digital Studio (MDS) tonight. I saw the Stampin' 411 sketch for this week and decided it would be perfect for the first one, and then just messed around until I made the second one. I hope these make you smile! I know I did. I think the first one is my favorite.

Happy Christmas to All!

I'm sitting here pleasantly full after a lovely Christmas dinner of meatloaf, roasted potatoes, salad, chocolate milk, and fudge (a surprise from my mother in our Christmas box!), feeling quite content. My husband is reading a Sandra Boynton book to my toddler and the baby is in bed already, having tired himself out from the excitement of the day. (For those of you who are scratching your heads and saying, wait a minute, wasn't Christmas two weeks ago?, we are Orthodox Christians and celebrate Christmas on the Julian Calendar, which falls on January 7 every year). We have a white Christmas this year, having received a light dusting today, and we've had a great time together as a family. The next 12 days are a time of feasting, rejoicing, and presents! We have our annual family party on Sunday, to celebrate my toddler's third birthday, my husband's and my namesdays, and the baby's namesday. It should be a good time if the weather holds! We are expecting close to 50 people, so I'm hoping we can fit everyone in our small house.


My card today is a simple share that I CASEd from Claire Lawrence, who in turn CASEd it from Megan Bastow. Sometimes a good idea is a great one, right? I made 10 of these at the end of my Christmas card making season and overshot on the number I actually needed, so now I have a head start for next year!

Supplies:
Whisper White, Night of Navy cs
Northern Flurries EF
Four the Holidays stamp set
Rhinestones
Night of Navy ink

Digging out

Greetings, friends! I know my blogging has been sporadic this fall; I've decided that I'm not going to stress about it any more. Life gets in the way sometimes, and I'm finding that while I have time to create, I don't always have time to get the photos taken, edited and posted in a timely manner. So I'll post when I can. I know these years of little ones are fleeting and I'll have more time for blogging when my children are a bit older, so for now, I'll just keep on truckin'.

I'm sure most of you know that the Northeast received an incredible amount of snow last weekend; we were in Connecticut with my in-laws for the weekend, where we got 20" in about 12 hours--craziness!! (Let me tell you, 20" of snow+totally unchildproofed house+two small children, one of whom has more energy than sense=marginally controlled chaos). We did get home on Monday as planned, but our trip took a bit longer than it would normally because of the high winds and snow conditions on the highways. But we were safe and warm and we returned home to find our neighbor had kindly shoveled our sidewalk for us, and we even found a parking spot within half a block of the house that required only minimal shoveling! Yay for that!

But the snow has been melting steadily ever since. And now we are on to planning our own Christmas celebration on January 7--Russian Christmas. I put up the Christmas decorations for the first time in two years this week; it was so fun to pull out all my ornaments and put them up. I got rid of our tree this year because I can't see my three-year-old leaving a tree alone for 3 weeks, and instead, hung artificial garland from our bookcases and stairs, and hung the ornaments on that instead. It worked great! It is high enough to be out of reach, but really dresses up the living room.

I know it is December 31, but being the boring parents that we are, we have nothing planned, and will probably go to bed early! Best wishes for the New Year--I'm sure there will be a lot of exciting things in store!

I have two cards to share today. The first is one my favorite Christmas cards from this year's batch. I got this set late in the season, and made these cards sort of last minute, but I love them!The second card I mentioned a while back--these are the MDS baby thank you cards I made for a friend who had a baby boy at the beginning of December. I'm quite pleased with how they came out, and given that my hands are a chapped and cracked mess, My Digital Studio has been very helpful lately!

The inside--it is so easy to decorate the insides with MDS!

Day is Done

Forgive another foray into Deep Thoughts. As I sit here now, at the end of this terrible day, mentally and physically exhausted, I'm trying to make sense of what it all means. Motherhood, that is. I've found myself in a perpetual existential crisis ever since I became a mother, and I don't expect the crisis to resolve itself any time soon. I think it is a crisis of the post-modern world, of urban living, and of our fallen nature. Although I do think in the pre-industrial era, women's roles were more clearly defined and communities were more tightly knit, which shared the burden of mothering and housekeeping around a bit more.

I sent my toddler to bed with minimal supper because he had a complete meltdown at 5:30, shortly after my husband came home. While my husband normally does bedtime duty with the boy, I took the job tonight, hoping to restore some peace in myself and my son. He screamed and kicked and fought me all the way upstairs, but once I started the familiar routine of potty time, night time diapering, pajamas and evening prayers, he settled considerably. He sat on my lap in the dark while I sang him Advent carols and a few other liturgical hymns I know and was still. It reminded me of the many night time vigils I kept with him as a baby. The baby who is now a little boy, yet sometimes wants to be a baby still. I sat in the dark and tried to think about the Mother of God, whose conception we celebrate tonight and tomorrow. We had planned to attend the Vigil service tonight as a family, but are attending in shifts instead. All I can think about is the numerous women my mother's age who meditate fondly on the toddler years, and I wonder if I will feel that way some day. I know that these years go by so quickly, and there are definitely moments of intense joy as the role of mother, but there are many more moments filled with drudge work and frustration. And yet, I wouldn't trade my children for anything, and even long to have more. Parenthood is a strange paradox, I think.

So in this quiet moment of reflection, let me just say I hope for peace in myself, and pray for stillness of mind and heart, but I fall woefully short every minute of every day. Mothering is an exercise in humility and a constant reminder of the soul's need for God's grace on the journey of salvation. Maybe some day I can remember that in the chaos of the day instead of in the quiet after the storm.

Motherhood Zen

As any parent knows, life with children, especially multiple children, is a very up and down kind of thing and it all turns on a dime. This morning was such a morning. I woke up exhausted as usual from the baby's numerous night time wakings to find my older son was pitching a fit about the color of his pants. You wouldn't think pants color would matter to an almost three-year-old boy, but I think I've mentioned before that I have a budding fashionista on my hands. He wanted to wear blue pants. Unfortunately, because of various potty accidents, the only pants that were clean, dry and hanging in his closet were khaki cords with airplanes embroidered on them. These pants, apparently, just would not do, and so he proceeded to pitch an epic fit about the whole thing. So I awoke to screeching and crying, and came down to breakfast to find my toddler sitting at the table in only his tights, shirt and ever-present blue hooded sweatshirt. He ate his breakfast without too much incident and then asked to go play with his toys in his room. I put him in his room and locked the gate while I went up to get Boo, who had woken by this point. I should add that I was still in my pajamas, the bed was unmade, the clean laundry still in a bag on the floor of our bedroom, and we needed to leave by 9:30 to go see the holiday shows at the Comcast Center and at Macy's. It was 9:00 a.m. by the time I got everyone settled enough to get in the shower. While I was in the shower, Piglet managed to pull every toy out of his toy box, remove all the icons off the wall in the corner of his room, and move the bookcase in front of the doorway. Basically it looked like a hurricane had gone through his room. After the usual scuffle to get everyone in coats and shoes and get out the door, we waited at the bus stop and I reminded myself to just breathe. The bus was late and overcrowded, but some kind-minded souls gave us seats and a few older ladies made sure Piglet didn't go flying off the seat into the aisle. The cold air cleared my head, so by the time we arrived at the Comcast Center for the 10:00 a.m. show, I was feeling pretty positive about the world. The baby was content in the stroller, Piglet had consented to walk at a good pace from the bus stop and sat quietly on my lap for the 15 minute holiday media blitz. He was cheerful and helpful as we went downstairs to get a pretzel and then the chilly walk to Macy's 4 blocks away was uneventful. We saw the light show at Macy's and I felt peaceful and happy about living here and about parenthood. This is what it is about, I thought, watching my son's face as he took in the bright lights and the organ music. We caught a bus home and as Piglet entertained me and the rest of the bus with his stories and songs, I remembered all the things I love about my son's high intensity personality. As we neared our bus stop, he sang Ring Around the Rosie in the sweetest voice and my heart was full.

We walked in the door and things began to fall apart rather quickly. What should have been a quick trip to the potty (Piglet had stayed dry all morning, so I knew he had to go), turned into an hour-long sit, during which time Boo spit up almost constantly. Like the parent of a colicky baby (and I have had two colicky babies), it is hard for most people to relate to the trials that accompany the spitty baby. There are the ever-present pools of spit up on the floor and on his sheets, constantly wet clothing (his and mine), the need to bring a spare pair of everything where ever we go, and the faint odor of sour milk and bile that hangs about the house. My peaceful happy feeling quickly evaporated as I cleaned up spit up after spit up, made sure Piglet didn't get off the potty too soon and go all over his pants or the floor, took an ill-timed telephone call from tech support at Stampin' Up!, and watched as the time to get lunch into the boy slipped away. I made him eat two bananas while sitting on the potty and then as soon as he went, rediapered him and put him in bed, where he has been singing to himself and getting in trouble ever since. The baby slept for about 20 minutes and woke a little while ago screaming, and is having trouble settling back down despite a bottle and clean diaper, being the baby that doesn't sleep well during the day.

So now I'm sitting here, writing about this episode, and feeling morose about my role as a mother, all my peaceful happy feelings a distant memory. I'm hoping to find a little sanity before nap time is officially over and we have to start everything again. For now I'll just settle for children who will sleep in the afternoon when they are supposed to.


But I will share a bright and fun card. I made this earlier in the fall using a color combination I've grown fond of--Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, plus my go-to single stamp, Tiny Teacup. I think it is the perfect "Thinking of You" kind of card.