Last night I went to the grocery store by myself. Isabella was devastated and wrapped around my leg screaming...this is a new phase, usually she's pretty happy to get away from me.

 

But I went, and it was glorious.

 

While I was there I picked up the three ingredients I needed to make my own laundry detergent, I got my recipe here  and I found that recipe on Pinterest. Of course.

 

I'm addicted to Pinterest.

 

I find it very...pinteresting.

 

I'm pinterested in many things.

 

Yuk Yuk Yuk.

 

Sorry, I'll stop.

 

 

When I got home and declared to my husband that I shall make my own detergent and it shall cost pennies. He gave me his skeptical-math-professor-I'm-calculating-the-odds-in-my-head face.

 

I hate that face. I'm usually proven wrong pretty swiftly after I see that face.

 

I was never a math girl. I doodled on my tests.



So anyway, I came home and I declared: "tomorrow I shall make my own laundry detergent for mere pennies thus saving this family money with my keen sense of thrift!"
 

 

 

The Face

 

We began making laundry detergent at 10:30 at night.

 

That's him up there grating soap. Actually it's his hand, but he's attached to it.

 We made 2 gallons of laundry detergent, used about 1/8'th of our ingredients and my math professor calculated that 2 gallons of home made laundry detergent cost us 1.50 per gallon.

 

Sure, but does it wash well? He says.

 

 

Always gotta be doubtin' me, man!

 

 

We did a load of Isabella's dirtiest school jeans at 11:00 at night.



 



 

Smug Face.*

 

I will be making a batch of this domestic gold once a month.

 

*This detergent has been Skeptical-Statistician-Husband Approved.



Wanted to share a few things that are making me happy on this gloomy December afternoon.

 

 This is what our kitchen table look like these days...Isabella and I have been doing a little Christmas crafting.

 

We listen to Bing Crosby and Eartha Kitt. She loves to sing along and I love to listen.

 

She begs to use to the hot glue gun and steals all of my favorite embellishments out of my embellishment boxes. David found a mason jar of my snowman ice cubes hidden on the floor by the couch.

 

 



 

I let her have this little paper mache house to decorate. I love it and it will be a staple decoration in this house every year from now on. 

Our Elf On The Shelf, Sparkle, made snow angles out of powdered sugar on the kitchen island this morning. Isabella is crazy about Elf On The Shelf...this is my first year doing it, I always thought it was creepy until Pinterest...and now there are so many cute ideas that David and I have to take turns hiding the elf every night :)

 



 

By far my favorite ornament she has made this year! A gingerbread man covered in pom-poms...that girl shares my love of pom-poms.

 

We have had such a good time crafting together this year...it's a magical year. Our last year together with her as the only child. She is so excited about the babies and is going to make the sweetest big sister. But even still, I am trying to drink in the moments of just the two of us...I hope that when times are hectic next year, and needs surpass my ability, she will remember sitting at the kitchen table with mommy, eating candy and gomming her hands up with glue and paint.

 

Happy, special times these are!



 

I spent the day yesterday canning the remainder of my apples...24 half pints of apple butter oughtta do us for the winter. I only purchased half a bushel because I was unsure of the yield it would bring...but now I regret not getting a whole bushel, I would really like to can some quarts of apple pie filling. So perhaps I shall.

 

I love lining my pantry shelves with my home canned items. Scarcely few things feel more rewarding! Seeing my glittering jars of preserves, jams, fruits, vegetables and meats makes me feel like an industrious pioneer woman. Besides sewing, this is definitely one of the most valuable skills my mother has taught me.

 

Yesterday I felt unwell and was unable to do my usual volunteering in Isabella's classroom, but my heart threatened implosion when I picked her up. Yesterday was library day...the children listen to a story, and then are allowed to choose one book to keep for two weeks. Isabella was overjoyed to find a classic edition of Little Bear...our most favorite book to read since she was a baby...and also our favorite show to watch together. She was sitting at her desk very intently studying each page and reciting the stories from memory.

 

After homework, we listened/read our book on tape that Lovie got for her last year...somehow the cd had been lost in our move, but we were pretty excited to find it the other night tucked away in a box of...socks?! (I'm sure I had my reasons) Isabella adores read-along books...but they are hard to find these days! Definitely going to be scoping out Amazon for some more of these.



 

Before bed, she put her Grow-A-Spooky-Witch in a glass of water...The witch is still on the counter and hasn't grown a single centimeter :(

 

10 things that I love, love, LOVE!

1. I love watching my little girl's bakpack bouncing up and down while she's trotting merrily into school in the morning.

 

 

2. I love that she is already an accelerated reader (the only one in Kindergarten so far!) and has an insatiable need to read, just like her momma! I'm so proud.

 

 

3. I love that she has started calling David 'Papa-Dave' Kind of like the pizza...but better and much sweeter :)

 

 

4. I love that David has started hinting around about babies...and how it sure would be nice to have one around...

 

 

5. I love making and canning apple butter out of the apples that David and I procured on our romantic date this weekend at the apple orchard we found whilst out aimlessly driving around together...That was a serious run-on sentence.

 

6. I love the sweet little things David does for "his girls" as he calls Isabella and me :)

 

7. I love being called "his girls"

 

8. I love our silly hound dog, Polly-Nomial, and how she follows me everywhere I go, stays at my heels in the kitchen and sleeps at my feet while I'm at the sewing machine.

 

9. I love the autumn themed quilt I am finishing right now...I love that my little family will use this quilt for years to come...to cover up with while watching tv, drag with us on hay-rides...perhaps I'll even lay a gurgling little baby on it some day.

 

10. I love daydreaming about my growing family, and what my children will become, and how David and I will someday sit and reminisce about how when they were young, shed a tear or two and hold hands....I just said 'and' a lot.

 

I love more than ten things.

 

I love having the opportunity to volunteer at Isabella's school, to give back, and to watch her interacting with her peers. I treasure these years!

 

And lastly, I love these random photos from my cell phone. Polly-Nomial waking me up in the morning with her cold, wet snout...Poll-Nomial's dangly dog jowels that I love to play with...Isabella doing her homework...Isabella and I mugging for the camera...and apparently Isabella using my phone to take pictures of herself.

 

 

Sometimes I wish I could press pause for a moment...



First day of Kindergarten was a success! Isabella just adores her teacher, and on her first day, my silly little girl marched right in, sat right down and made herself a friend. I annoyed her by taking too many pictures, and getting just one more smooch...I was cramping her style, man! When I went to pick her up later that afternoon, she was deeply enthralled in her reading circle and had a LOT to tell me about her first day.

I have never been more proud.

 Pretty proud of myself, too actually. I didn't even cry! Instead, I came home, wrung my hands for a bit, bugged David for a baby to fill my empty nest, changed my mind about a baby, and decided to craft instead.

My heart! It hurts! When did my dimpled red-haired baby turn into a gangly school-kid?!

Been busy sewing all weekend and getting myself into the autumn mood (it's never too early to feel fall-ish)

I recently put some of these hand-made pumpkins in my Etsy Shop and had quite a few orders to fill, so I lit some spicy candles, perused all of my autmn printed fabrics and wallowed around in my craft room.

It was spectacular.

But now my fingers are sore.   

The weather has been decidedly autumnal, which is weird because August is usually the most miserable month of the year in my opinion. I've been flipping through my cookbooks and my recipe files...book-marking and dog-earing all of my favorite Autumn meals! This week I'm definitely putting a pot of homemade chili and an apple crisp on the menu. I don't care how hot it decides to be outside that day. We're having that chili dag-nabbit!

Oh, but I do love me some fall.

See this little vignette? Two of my favorite things...hoot-owls and big earrings.

All week long Isabella had been talking about buying me a birthday present. So yesterday morning, she and David went out on a "date" He asked her where she wanted to go, and she replied that she wanted to buy her mommy some earrings.

Oh, my sweet little thing! How I love that girl.

Well, David took her to the closest jewelry store, and let her pick some things out. He said she immediately chose the hoot owls. (she also got one for herself because she liked them so much. That just tickled me!)

She very proudly crumpled them up into a pink paper bag and presented them to me. When I opened the bag my heart just swelled up as big as a balloon. My little girl has been paying attention to me more than I knew. She chose the owls because she "knows that I love hoot owls" and she chose the silver earrings because "they match the black ones that you have already-now you have TWO pairs!"

When your children notice what you love, remember it then show you that they care with little gestures like these...it is the most special feeling. I can't even describe.

So, I just grin all over and kiss and hug her 'til she makes me stop. 

 

My little baby chick starts kindergarten next week. It's weird for me to even comprehend, I feel like our golden years have flown by all too quickly. It hit me the other evening, from now on it's over...my baby is a school-child, no longer will I have her home every day to snuggle at will. Next thing I know, I will be packing her up for college.

I'm being a little melodramatic.

But I am sad that these years have passed by so quickly, however I'm deeply grateful that I was lucky enough to be home with her (for the most part) throughout them all.  I cannot imagine anything more heartbreaking than missing a milestone. Children really are such messy, annoying little things sometimes...but oh man, every little thing they do can be so amazing! And at the end of the day, nothing is sweeter than those little cheeks when they are deep in sleep.

Speaking of chicks...

My mom (Lovie) got some chicks for her farm. Each grandchild got to have a chicken of their own and Isabella's chicken (Princess John-Boy) laid an egg the other day! Bella just loves going to Lovie's house to gather eggs and feed the chickens.

Isabella inspecting Princess John-Boy

Princess John-Boy about 7 months ago

We think it is just too neat that those little balls of fluff that Lovie has to diligently nurtured, have turned into big ole ugly peck-happy birds!

Eggs!

Good job Lovie!!!

It's been nearly an entire year since my last post-a good year. A busy year.

Isabella and I have been courted by a very fine, southeren gentleman for 16 months. (That's one year and three months just in case you were wondering) and guess what? He must have liked us a little bit, because he asked us to marry him.

So we did.

My nerves got the better of me...so very peacefully we skittered off to Charleston, left The Bella with my parents, and together he and I walked the seashore hand-in-hand, talked about our hopes and dreams, and crossed the momentous thresh-hold of matrimony. We never stopped smiling and he held my hands so tightly that my knuckles hurt.

I wore pearls, a vintage blue lace dress and no shoes to speak of.

Blessings abound and I am humbled.

Lately, we three-that is Isabella, myself...and my husband (tee-hee!) are busy nesting our home, settling into routines and very merrily getting used to living with one another. It is sweet, natural and and at times, very curious...but I think we are getting the hang of it.

Sometimes, I miss my mom. That's probably weird. Oh well.

I should also add that my mom recently taught me how to can.

I love canning. With my entire being.

The end.

My wedding dress...ordered it from ShabbyApple.com, they have tons of vintage reproductions that make me swoon.

My peaches! They float, which is weird to me.