I Apologize.

I apologize to any faithful readers I might have that you haven’t had anything new from me in a while. It was finals week for The Pastor last week. So, not only did I not have time since it was a one woman show around here, he was a complete and total Mac hog. I am very, very glad that this semester is finally over. Now, about 18 more hours to go and he’ll be done with seminary forever! The beautiful children are doing well. They are growing so big, so fast! Miss Imogene is going to be two years old tomorrow! Can you believe it? I feel like she was just born! She is so big now. I laughed so hard I cried the other day. I have been working with her on saying “please” and “thank you.” The other day, she asks for milk, well she asked for “mulk” which is milk in her world. I gave her a cup of milk and she looks up at me and says “Sanks…. MA!” Her little emphasis was on the “MA” part. I said, “You’re welcome… IMOGENE!” I thought it was funny. New blogs this week, I promise!

The blog star today is The Ghetto Quilter.  You should check out her blog. I got a great tutorial on making pajama pants from her blog. And of course, I like her for the Bonhoeffer quote in her header. So blog-stalk away!

For Jesse, Jr.

Since I have now given this gift, I can post pictures of it. I made this baby set for my cousin Melissa’s baby, Jesse Jr. He will be here in about a month (maybe less). Melissa loves western and cowboy things, so when I saw this Michael Miller cowpoke fabric, I had to have it for her! The set includes a hooter hider, a buttie, a burpie, and a diaper clutch. I designed the diaper clutch myself, although I am not thinking it really takes a genius to do it. I put this set in a basket with a pack of diapers, a pack of wipes, and a few little toys and things that were western! I think JJ will be the cutest little cowboy around!

Want to know how to make this simple diaper clutch? It is very easy! I took a plastic travel wipes container and measured it. They are about 8″ by 5.25″. I cut a strip of fabric 18″ by 6.5″ (making sure my fabric was going the correct way- no sideways cowboys). I hemmed each small end first (the parts the become the top and bottom.). (Just fold, press, fold, press, and sew!) Fold the strip in half (into the shape of the clutch) with right sides together. Sew the long edges together. Flip it inside out and you have your clutch. To close your clutch you can do whatever you like. I sewed ribbon ties in so it would match my ribbon tied buttie. You can also do snaps, velcro, buttons, or leave it without a closure. This super simple way to make a diaper clutch will make the reverse side upside down. That didn’t really bother me. If it bothers you, you can cut two 9.25″ by 6.5″ rectangles and sew the bottoms together so each side is right side up. This clutch is big enough for travel wipes, a couple diapers, and a tube of diaper ointment.

My Time In The City

The beautiful children and I took The Pastor to New Orleans for his birthday. I had never been to The Big Easy. The Pastor has been several times. (He’s a Saint’s fan.) I was a little nervous about going to New Orleans. I just wasn’t sure what to expect. I wasn’t sure if we would find a ruined city or what. I was nervous that maybe the family things weren’t “back together” after the storm. I am happy to say, New Orleans is back! We visited the aquarium, it was great. We stayed in the French Quarter, it was great. If you’ve been thinking about going and hesitating, like I was, because you don’t want to vacation in a city destroyed by a hurricane, I’d suggest you go ahead and go. The city looks great!

The people of New Orleans are so nice. I’m telling you, they have the nicest homeless people I’ve ever met. Imogene is very friendly, so we talked to a lot of homeless people. She’d wave at them and say “hey!” They, of course, would then talk to her. They were super nice. I think Aidan is going to be as friendly as his sister. He brightened a few people with his smile. They loved the street performers. They loved the pigeons and finches. They loved seeing the horse drawn carriages (although, I think they were actually mules, not horses, for the most part). The homeless people were so nice it really made me want to make them some quillows or something. Instead, we donated money to the city’s Meals on Wheels program.

I am glad we went. We stayed at the beautiful Hotel St. Marie in the French Quarter. We were able to walk everywhere we went. Which is really a bonus in a city where the food is the main attraction. Plus, it was very nice to not have to load & unload the kids constantly.

I think The Pastor had a good time. So, mission accomplished. He got to eat at some of his favorite New Orleans places. I think he had fun!

CashCrate

So, I sometimes have people ask me about CashCrate. For those not in the know, CashCrate is a website that pays you for taking surveys and completing online offers. How does CashCrate work? Well, they pay you to do “surveys.” The surveys on CashCrate are not really surveys at all. They are ads. You get paid to look at pages and pages of ads. I know it doesn’t sound fun, it isn’t really. But you get paid. CashCrate also pays you to complete online offers like signing up for e-Bay, getting free business cards from VistaPrint, signing up for a trial for Netflix, you get the point. They also have a system for paying you for referrals. (So, please use my link!)

How do I get paid? You complete the offers on the list. The month after you reach $10, CashCrate sends you a check. (Say I make $10 in April, in May they’ll send me a check.) Free offers (those that don’t require a credit card) usually pay around $0.40 to $0.65 per offer. Each offer will take 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Big offers pay more. You’ll get paid $8.00 to make an account with e-Bay and make a bid (requires a credit card). I don’t personally do anything requiring a credit card unless I’m already doing it anyway (like signing up for Netflix).

What kind of information do I have to give? You will have to give advertisers your e-mail address, home address, and telephone number. For this reason, I suggest creating an e-mail account just for CashCrate. I call it my junk e-mail. You’ll get a ton of spam & useless e-mails. That isn’t really a problem if you don’t give them the e-mail address you use for other business. (Your e-mail address will have to match what you give CashCrate, so do this before starting your CashCrate account.) I occasionally get phone calls from advertisers. When they call, I tell them to remove my name from their list. Its very simple. Rarely do they send something to my house. I might get an extra catalog or magazine every month, that’s it. You have to supply valid information to get paid.

Is it worth it? Well, there are some that claim they make $300 to $400 every month. I imagine they do it all day and get a bazillion referrals. They say it can be done. I make maybe $10 to $15 a month. I might do it one or two days a month, if that. If you commit more to it, you make more. It could be worth it. I don’t think I’d count on it being an extra income, but it is extra cash.

What are the downfalls? It can’t all be great, right? You are right. You have to complete each offer to the end to get paid. Going into each offer, you don’t know if it is a 5 minute offer or a 30 minute offer. If you don’t finish, you won’t get paid. You only get paid when CashCrate gets paid. If the company stiffs CashCrate, you get stiffed. This is why it is important to pay attention to offer ratings. I had one day when it seemed like every offer I did got rejected. It was infuriating. The next day, all my offers went through. This kind of aggravation is common with CashCrate. You really just have to take it, or quit. It really does no goof to send CashCrate messages about offers you feel you completed not going through. The response you’ll get is if they don’t get paid, you don’t get paid. I deal with the aggravation.

Should I do it? That is really up to you. If you want to give it a whirl, go for it. Please use me as a referral! I am 379764.

Coming Clean

Sorry to anyone anticipated a post about laundry. You’ll find no laundry tips here. In fact, it is probably best that you not ask me about laundry. I’m really not a laundry pro, although the Pastor thinks I am. (I am amazing at blood stains- of course!) But generally I just throw clothes in the machine and they come out cleaner than they went in. 

I have a confession. I am a bit of a stalker. I tend to eavesdrop, as most of you probably know. I cannot be out and not listen to the conversations going on around me. I know it’s strange. I sometimes find myself mocking people. That isn’t what makes me a stalker. That just makes me no fun to be with at a restaurant. I blog-stalk. Yep. I am an avid reader of blogs of people I don’t know. Some people are just so much more interesting than I am. The Pastor finds this behavior odd. I find myself thinking I am friends with people I have never met or ever talked to. They come up in my everyday conversation. I mean, I don’t guess they should be surprised. Bloggers expect some sort of audience. (Even my blog has a meager audience of 18 readers- and that’s on a good day.) So, I don’t guess big-time blog stars are surprised to find they have stalkers, right? I mean, blog stars are like a version of reality television, only better- it really is real! (As far as one can tell.) 

I guess I could feature a blog star here on my blog! I think I’ll do that from time to time. Today’s blog star is one of my favorites: Mavis.  The Pastor finds me talking about Mavis quite regularly. (”You know, Mavis uses magazines to wrap gifts. Maybe I should do that.”) So, go check out Mavis. If you must, tell her The Pastor’s Wife sent you. She won’t have a clue who you are talking about, but it might make you feel better about being a blog-stalker!

Ripping Stitches

There are a few parts of sewing that I do not like. My least favorite part is all the prep work. I really don’t like to iron, but sewing requires a lot of ironing. My iron and I have become friends, so this part doesn’t seem so horrible any longer. Plus, we got this great new iron not too long ago. It is amazing! If I was using my old iron, I think there would be an iron shaped hole in my laundry room window. I don’t like measuring and cutting. Anything without a pattern, I have to measure (two or three or four times) and cut. Anything with a pattern I have to cut a pattern, pin it to the fabric, cut the fabric, and mark the fabric before I can get started on the fun parts! I have also come to hate messing up. I hate ripping out stitches. It is inevitable that on just about every project, I have to rip stitches. It is seriously exasperating. It is at those times that I question why I sew for fun. “Sewing for fun?! This is torture!!” But I really do enjoy it. I am building up my stash of fabrics and scraps. (Hey! I may take up quilting with all those scraps sitting around!)

Yesterday, I finished my butterfly shirt. Well, I almost finished it. It needs a hem and I am undecided on the length at the moment. And at the moment I hate the shirt. I love, love, love everything about it … except the sleeves. I hate the sleeves and I am not sure what I am going to do about it. It has flutter sleeves. The sleeves are perfect. They are put on properly and look exactly like they are supposed to. They just look ridiculous on me. Why wouldn’t I consider that before making the shirt? I have never worn flutter sleeves. They make me look even bigger on top, which is not exactly what I need. I’m not trying to look big and touch. I’m trying to look pretty and girly. I may try to remove the sleeves. (Ahhh! More stitch ripping!) I may try to make new sleeves. (Ahhh! More stitch ripping!) I may just leave them and hope they grow on me. (The only option that doesn’t include stitch ripping.) I just really want to love this shirt- the whole shirt. We’ll see. I still haven’t finished the dress I am making for myself. The sleeves are giving me some problems. I can’t decide what sleeves to do! So far, I have tried a cuff sleeve, a flutter sleeve (no! no!), and a gathered sleeve. I’m really torn between the cuff sleeve and the gathered sleeve. I could always go sleeveless. I’m really bad at bias tapes, though. I really need practice working with them, so maybe I should go that route.

I created my own version of a diaper clutch the other day. It is super easy and fabulous! I’ll do a tutorial on it soon. It goes well with my buttie, burpie, and hooty set. I also made a market bag. I am very intrigued with the whole reusable grocery bag thing. Although, I do wonder if I’ll look like a lunatic taking a bag full of cloth bags into my neighborhood Kroger. They already look at me like I’m a little loony when I ask for paper bags. (I use paper because I have more uses for paper bags around my house than plastic ones.) I’ll put up a tutorial on how to make these market bags some time. Maybe when I can get my pictures to post. (I currently cannot get my pictures to post because wordpress changed some stuff around.)

My first crocheting project is coming along nicely. I am getting toward the end of my first 3 skeins, so I’m almost 1/4 of the way done! Yipee! It really does take a long time. I did the math and this whole afgan should take about 30 hours of actual work from beginning to end. I guess that is relatively quick, but I can usually only do 15 minutes or so of work on it before having to stop. (That’s life with little ones. And they are both mobile now! Aidan can now get around the house very quickly. He isn’t crawling, he rolls and scoots around.)

All in all, I am pleased with my projects right now. I am having a good time doing them. Perhaps you shall see some of them soon. If anyone wants to donate fabric to me, feel free (scraps are welcome!). If anyone needs something I make made for them (hooty, burpie, buttie, clutchie, market bag, toddler dressed, etc.) let me know. I love having things to make!

Pope Pius XII - On Breastfeeding

I got the following article from ccli.org. The following is taken from Pope Pius XII’s address to the Women of Italian Catholic Action, a group of midwives, October 26, 1941.

Mothers, your sensibility is greater and your love more tender. Therefore, you will keep a vigilant eye upon your babies throughout their infancy, watching over their growth and over the health of their little bodies, for this is flesh of your flesh and the fruit of your womb.

Remember that your children are the adopted sons of God and especially beloved of Christ. Remember that their angels look forever on the face of the heavenly Father; and so you too, as you rear them, must be angels in a like manner, in all your care and vigilance keeping your eyes fixed upon heavenly. It is your task form the cradle to begin their education in soul as well as in body; for if you do not educate them they will begin, for good or ill, to educate themselves.

Many of the moral characteristics which you see in the youth or the man owe their origin to the manner and circumstances of his first upbringing in infancy. Purely organic habits contracted at that time may later prove a serious obstacle to the spiritual life of the soul. And so you will make it your special care in the treatment of your child to observe the prescriptions of a perfect hygiene, so that when it comes to the use of reason its bodily organs and faculties will be healthy and robust and free from distorted tendencies.

This is the reason why, except where quite impossible, it is more desirable that the mother should feed her child at her own breast. Who shall say what mysterious influences are exerted upon the growth of that little creature by the mother upon whom it depends entirely for its development.

Out Of Towners

At this moment, I am siting in a Holiday Inn in the greater Atlanta area. I always feel like I am coming home when we visit here. It seems odd that we have now lived away from Atlanta longer than we lived in Atlanta, but I still feel like this is our “home.” I know it seems weird. This time in, I tried to fight that feeling by crocheting. (More on that later.) But it is something I cannot avoid. Why are we here? Well, friends of ours are getting married today and The Pastor is performing the ceremony. I think it is fun for him to be able to be of use to family & friends this way. He did a wedding last weekend as well. It was in big ole’ Jackson, Mississippi. The Pastor is good at the wedding thing, and funerals. He just seems so natural doing it. Plus he’s handsome. I mean, people like good wedding pictures, so it helps to have such a good looking preacher.

I think I got a crafty gene or something. My mom is a craftsy person. She can make the simplest thing into something beautiful. I must get my crafty gene from her. When I was a kid she used to do this rag crocheting thing. She made baskets and rugs. I would love to know how to do that. I learned then how to crochet. However, since then I had forgotten all except how to make the initial chain. Sad, I know. So, last week I picked up my copy of The Complete Idiots Guide to Knitting and Crocheting and learned to crochet. I am currently working on an afgan. It is a little country looking, but that is what pastor’s wives are supposed to be, right? Maybe if it isn’t a complete failure I’ll post pictures of it when I’m done. (a long, long time from now.)

Spider Monkey Bread

“Chip, I’m gonna come at you like a spider monkey!” For those that don’t get the reference, that is a quote from the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. In my attempt to make mini monkey bread, I have created a dessert/breakfast The Pastor loves. I call it Spider Monkey Bread. It is just as simple to make as Monkey Bread, you just don’t end up with half a bundt pan of bread left over.

Ingredients:

2 cans of biscuits (10 biscuits per can)

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons of cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350. I always forget this part. It occurs to me when I am placing my ramekins in the oven that the oven isn’t hot. I then have to turn the oven on, wait for it to preheat, and stand around feeling like a doofus. Mix your granulated sugar with your cinnamon in a bowl. Hey! Hey! You’ve made cinnamon sugar! Look how talented you are. Take your canned biscuits out of the cans. This always proves to be the most difficult part for me because I, inevitably, mess up the “tear here” line and end up prying the can open. Cut each biscuit into 4 (or 6) pieces. (You can tear ‘em or cut ‘em. The size of the pieces is up to you. Just try to make all of them similar so they will all cook in the same amount of time.) Roll your dough pieces in the cinnamon sugar you made. Plop the sugared dough into ramekins. (I guess you could try other small things that you can bake. Muffin tins, maybe. I haven’t tried it because I have ramekins.) I usually make 4 ramekins. You don’t want to fill them to the absolute top because the dough will rise while baking. But you do want it to rise above the top of the ramekins. That is what makes it spider monkey looking. (Leave a space above the dough about the size of the end of my thumb. I’m really bad at guessing inches and such. So, I measured the end of my thumb with my yard stick and that would be about an inch.) I sprinkle in a little of the cinnamon sugar that is left over the top of the sugared dough, not too much, just a little. (About a teaspoon of cinnamon sugar per ramekin.)Place your ramekins on a cookie sheet. Believe me, this makes it easier to handle the hot little ramekins an it catches any glaze that creeps out during cooking. Now you make your fabulous glaze! In a saucepan, melt your butter. (You can use margarine if you want. I just usually use butter.) Once your butter is all melty, add half a cup of brown sugar. (I think mine is light brown.) You can add a little more than half a cup. I usually do. (I’ll remind you that I don’t measure things while I am cooking.) Stir and stir and stir and do not stop stirring the brown sugar. Your brown sugar and butter will begin to become caramel! Yeah! You’ve made caramel! Your talent continues to amaze me! Once your caramel is, well, caramel, pour it over the sugared dough in the ramekins. Just eyeball it and try to keep it evenly divided between the four. Put them in the oven. (Hopefully you preheated it and are not now standing there in front of a cold oven feeling like a doofus.) In 10 to 15 minutes, you’ll have spider monkey bread!!! (You will know it is done when it has not yet burned and no longer looks like raw dough.)

I will warn you about spider monkey bread. Once you start making this for those you love, they will ask for it often. Don’t make the first batch if you aren’t ready to make the second! (The Pastor should be proud. That was almost a Wesley quote.) The end.

My New Vacuum

We bought a new vacuum yesterday. (Vacuum is such a weird word. Every time I think of the word ‘vacuum’ I think of the little girl on Corina, Carina spelling ‘vacuum’ ‘h-o-o-v-e-r.’)

Aidan had an allergic reaction yesterday, poor guy. He had little whelps all over his little body. At first I thought it was bug bites. My initial reaction was to kick poor Lucas Joe out, accusing him of bringing fleas into my house. Lucas did not have fleas. Aidan was the only one with spots. I attempted to vacuum my carpet to get up anything that might be irritating my baby’s delicate skin. It was then that I realized that although my vacuum was noisy and picked up the big stuff (fuzz, tracked in leaves, little foam pellets from The Pastor’s lap desk, etc) it did nothing with the pet hair and much smaller things (dust, pollen, etc).

Aidan’s allergic reaction (we now know that is what it is) is most likely from plums. Yep. Plums. So, no more plums for Aidan. The Pastor came to the rescue with liquid Benadryl. Poor little Aidan. No more plums for Aidan. At least not for the next 6 months or so.

After we got Aidan all fixed up (I guess I should say dope up or de-whelped.), we went and bought a new vacuum. Our price limit was $200. But after reading product reviews and description online, we realized that when it comes to vacuums, there isn’t much difference between a $70 vacuum and a $170 vacuum. The only real differences enter in when you hit the $350 mark or so. So, we went with the cheaper vacuum. Let me tell you, this vacuum is great! We got the Dirt Devil Purpose for Pets (it has a couple attachments specifically for pet hair). I re-vacuumed my house and was astonished at all the junk my old vacuum had left behind. It was amazing! I had to empty the thing 3 times before I finished all the carpets. It says it will work on my hard floors, but I have not yet tried that. My floors are mighty clean now though.

All in all, I am happy about my new vacuum. I feel bad for little whelpy Aidan (his whelps return just about every time the Benadryl wears off, and this will continue until those plums are completely out of his system). And I am glad The Pastor came home so quickly on his valiant steed to save the day.