Hurricane Gustav

Well, tomorrow we will be leaving for Texas. Dh has decided it is just too dangerous to stay for Hurricane Gustav.We have never left for a hurricane before, and I really don't want to leave this time. The reason he is so worried is because we have several very large trees around our house, and the storm is predicted to hit at a Cat 3 at least, if not a Cat 4. This is like 120+ mph winds. Also, if the course stays the same, we will take a direct hit. Dh said it is too risky to stay with the chance of these trees falling on our house. Our best friends live in Katy, Texas, which is west of Houston. So, we will be staying at their house. It will probably be an enjoyable trip. I am just praying that when it is all over, there isn't an oak tree through the center of my house : ( Pray for the people in the coastal parishes of Louisiana, this thing is a monster, and it really doesn't look good. I will be able to get online. So, I will keep everyone updated.

Samuel and Zoey (a boy and his cat)

My dh told me of this recent conversation he had with Samuel.

Sam: Daddy, do we have to give my kitty away?

Dad: Yes, we already have two cats and a dog, 3 cats is too many. Don't worry, we will find her a good home.

Sam: Ok, Daddy. Will I get to see Zoey again one day in heaven?

Dad: (feeling VERY guilty) Yes, Sam, you can see her again one day in heaven.

Sam: (holding Zoey in his arms) It's ok Zoey, don't cry, one day we will get to see each other again in heaven.



I swear, I had NOTHING to do with this, but guess who gets to keep the kitten! LOLOLOL Samuel walks around holding this kitten constantly, and she is so mild mannered that she lets him pretty much do what he wants with her. Of course, he is very gentle. I explained early on that we cannot hold the cat off the ground by her neck! I guess Chad has noticed how much Samuel loves her, and even though he really didn't want to keep her, he's a good Daddy. I DID try to find her a home, but all of the calls I got either wanted a short haired cat, or an outside cat. I can't just give her away to anyone. I am sure he is gonna be upset again when the time comes to neuter her, he HATES spending large amounts of money on the animals. Lord, please don't let her start tearing up the furniture or peeing in places other than the litterbox?! I don't want any more reasons for dh to regret his decision. So, Miss Zoey gets to stay : D



The pictures were taken the other night. Dh said after Samuel got out of his bath. He grabbed the sleeping kitty off the bed, put her on his chest and passed out. How cute is this?! He lays with her like this all the time while watching tv.


Here is Zoey being mildly naughty, she decided she wanted to sleep in the cabinet where the toilet paper is stored. She had a little fun with it before she took her nap.



Oh, and my little orange elephant now has eyes and his ears where they belong : )

Lilybeth Bag

I was blessed with a copy of the Lily Beth Pattern from Beki, at Artsy Crafty Babe. When I saw it, I knew it would make a great ballet bag. Savannah has been asking me to make her one since last year. Since ballet starts in a few weeks, I figured I would be a good momma. She was sleeping over at a friend's house when I started it, so she got a surprise when she got home : ) She had already picked out this fabric, and I knew it would look great with this pattern. This is actually my first purse/bag ever. I really enjoyed putting it together. Beki's pattern was very straightforward and easy to understand. Of course, Sydney and Isabella both want one now as well : D Sydney has already picked her fabric out and I have it cut and ready to sew. I just need to buy some more fusible fleece. So, I should have another bag to show you in a few days. Isabella is deciding on her fabric, and then Momma is going to have to make one for herself! I am thinking some Pop Garden fabric would be nice. Oh, and I used an antique button I bought on our St. Francisville trip in April. A covered button would have been really cute, too.



I also sort of finished the Elephant from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. He still needs eyes, but I can't decide if I want to satin stitch them on or use buttons. Also, I need to redo his ears, I put them on too low on his head. Here is a picture anyway, I will show another one when I redo him.

Breaking Dawn

I finished Breaking Dawn a few hours ago, and I am so so sad : ( I can't believe I am done reading the series. After all of the other books, I knew I had another one waiting for me, but now there are no more. I can't remember the last time I got so emotionally involved in a book. Unlike alot of the reviews I am reading, I LOVED the book! Maybe it is because I am a mom with similar moral beliefs as Miss Meyer, but I don't see what people are getting so freaked out about. I love how descriptive Stephenie Meyer is and IMO the book and series ended just right. I am gonna miss Bella and Edward and the rest of the Cullen's and werewolves. This was such a great love story. I have always found the myth of vampires fascinating. Like I was telling Amber, I think I need to be a vampire, they don't need sleep! Can you imagine all you could get done?! I thought about this way too much while reading these books LOL I was SO thinking from a busy mom's (woman's) perspective ; ) Of course, drinking blood would be very distasteful, but I could possibly deal with it if I never got tired! Only animal blood, of course >: ] If you havn't read these books, I apologize, I am sure this post makes no sense to you.

Anyway, now that I have finished the series, I will have time for other things like sewing. I did get some sewing done this week between books 3 and 4. My mother heard the desperation in my voice Tuesday and offered to take Samuel and Ava for the day on Wednesday. Austin was at work all day and thankfully the other 4 were calm and didn't fight. It was also my only day where I didn't have anywhere to be. So instead of catching up on housework, I sewed : ) I still have to take pictures, but I finished the elephant from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts (I always have the hardest time remembering this title!) and a great new bag from Artsy Crafty Babe. I will take pictures tomorrow and post them.

Also, thanks everyone for all of the encouraging comments from my Exhausted post. You can't imagine how much better it made me feel to read that y'all have been there too with bickering children. Like everyone said, things always get better and I realize that not feeling well with the allergies was making dealing with the kids a whole lot harder. Also, my *friend* showed up Tuesday evening, which helps explains why I felt *this* close to exploding! I am feeling so much better now : ) My allergies are still bad, but I don't feel like I want to kill everyone anymore. I really need to get to the health food store and buy some Nettle tea.

Exhausted

Let me start this off with a disclaimer. I love my children and I am still happy that I decided to have a large family, I wouldn't want my life to be any other way. With that out of the way, on to the reason for this post : )

I am so tired! I mean physically and emotionally wiped out. As for the physical part, my allergies have been horrible for the last 3 weeks. My body is so strange, I had years of terrible allergies and then nothing. Every once in a while I would have a day of sneezing and watery eyes, but nothing to really bother me. I have been great for at least 12 or 13 years! Well, now they are back with a vengeance. I have to take Claritin everyday and even that doesn't stop the sneezing completely. Anytime I have to clean anything I start sneezing and can't stop. I can't mess in my garden and even my sewing machine can start it because my cat, Zsa Zsa, loves to nap right in front of it. I am always tired and very grouchy. I keep hoping and praying that it will eventually stop. That it is just something in the air right now, and once it is gone, I will feel better.

The emotional exhaustion is because of my children. Lately, they fight constantly!!! I mean, from the minute they wake up to the time they go to sleep, at least two of them are arguing about something! Usually something VERY stupid! I just listened to an argument between Isabella and Savannah over the fact that Bella missed a crumb on the kitchen floor when she swept. Savannah just HAD to point this out, and of course Bella had to tell her how stupid it was to say anything and on and on and on. Seriously, this fight lasted for a good 5 minutes! I know it is partly because they are with each other all of the time and partly because this is what siblings do, but for some reason I just can't stand it anymore! I think I might start homeschooling before I planned on it, just to give them something to do besides fight. This has always been a very difficult part of parenting for me. I grew up in a very quiet family that never fought, at least rarely. I only have one brother and while we would have arguments they were few and far between. Definitely not everyday. Dh and I rarely argue, so they aren't seeing this modeled for them. And they get along great with other people besides their brothers and sisters, so I am assuming this is just part of having a large family. Lots of kids=lots of different personalities to get on each others' nerves. I keep thinking if I mothered them properly they wouldn't do this, but nothing I do makes them stop completely. The last few days, I have been pretty much just trying to ignore it because I want to just scream with them. I truly love almost every aspect of parenting, even a newborn waking up in the night is doable because you know it will eventually end and waking up with a sweet newborn isn't so bad anyway. I feel like this is never going to end and they are big and stinky, not cute and cuddly lol

And Samuel has started screaming everything instead of talking in a normal tone of voice. I guess he is just mimicking what he hears. I have been disciplining him for this, but I have to be very consistent or he starts doing it again. I just had to stop writing this post to deal with him. My lack of sewing time lately doesn't help either. Sewing and creativity is my outlet, when I don't get it, I have a harder time coping with daily stress.

Anyway, sorry this post is such a downer, but it feels good to talk about it. And dh is tired of hearing it, so y'all have to LOL : D Being a mother is such a huge job, sometimes I can feel very overwhelmed. I just remind myself that the joy it brings me far outweighs the hard times, even if it is hard to see that at this moment : )

I finished something!

I finally finished the Puppet Show Tunic and Shorts for my niece, Stella. Just a little late, her birthday was at the end of July lol Ok, I am kind of a bad mom, but I made Samuel model the outfit ::::ducking:::: He is the same size and age as Stella, so I am always having him try her stuff on as I sew it, I figure why not let him model it for the pictures. I left his face out of the pictures, poor baby, I told him to look up at the sky so his face wouldn't show. Anyway, besides the fact that he is stout, you can't really tell it's a boy in a dress. I just hope he doesn't need therapy for this in the future : O His big brothers were mortified, but he didn't seem to see the big deal, must be because he is in the middle of all those sisters : )

I really love this pattern. It looks vintage to me, which I love. I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner, but I wouldn't say it was difficult. Just somewhat time consuming. I spent yesterday and some of today doing the handstitching (buttons, hem, tacking down the collar). I used Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabrics. For the shorts, I used a pink linen and made the pockets in the tunic fabrics. I love how they came out, but wish I had used a heavier weight linen. This was tissue weight. I already had it in my stash though, so I used it.

I love the details on the sleeves.

A view of the back


Sorry, the shorts are wrinkled.

elephants and skirts and finding time to sew

Several weeks ago, I finally bought the book Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. I have been wanting this book for months, but for some reason never got it. I mainly wanted it for this stuffed elephant pattern, but of course there are tons of other beautiful projects to do! I think the little elephants will be adorable for giving to new moms and babies when you visit them in the hospital or at home right after birth. I think I will be making some for my girls as well : ) I just love the look of this whole book and there are lots of great tips on general piecing and quilting for whenever I finally getting around to that quilt I keep talking about lol

Even though I have had this book for a little while, I still havn't done anything besides read it! Yesterday, I decided that I was going to take sewing time when I could get it. I am not going to have a whole block of time to sew, so I took 5 or 10 minutes at a time and actually got quite a bit accomplished. I almost finished the little shorts for the Puppet Show tunic. Hopefully I will have a picture of the finished outfit today or tomorrow! I really enjoyed doing this, I felt like I had a fun little break several times throughout the day. I may just have to adopt this way of sewing for awhile, my life is only going to get crazier once ballet and homeschooling starts. I hope my kids realize how much I love them to do this, I am so not a goer, I can stay in my house for days at a time and be perfectly content. With this schedule, I will rarely have a day when I don't have somewhere to go. I know, I sound like a baby, but I am such an introvert. I guess you can't be much of an introvert with a husband and 7 kids LOL



I also have Jona's new pattern I am dying to try out! Isn't this skirt adorable? I think all of my little nieces may be getting this skirt for Christmas. I would have been in heaven to have a skirt like this when I was about 5 or 6! It is a PDF file, so once you buy it, you have it in your inbox immediately. I tell you, Jona is one talented lady. I think I need to ask her how she gets it all done! Her life is very similar to mine, she has 5 kids and homeschools too, but she also manages to get tons of sewing done, plus run a fabric store! Teach me, Jona, teach me! LOL

So much going on

Last night we had our first *ever* homeschool football game. Everyone is so excited, this is a new thing in our area and so far everything is working out great. Isabella is on the pep squad, she is having to put ballet on the back burner until football season is over. I am not thrilled about this, I think her dance is very important and she is really talented. But I gave in, and she is having a blast. Our team actually won, which is impressive since most of these boys have never really played football. The homeschooling association is also going to do other sports including golf, which has Austin very excited. I am a little exhausted with all of the practices and now dance is getting ready to start for the other 2 girls, not to mention homeschooling. I am in my vehicle way too much for my liking.



Oh, and Austin got a job at the Country Club he plays golf at. This is wonderful for him and for us. Employees get a free membership, plus free food. This is going to save us a ton of money! Also, the club is only 5 minutes from my house. Even though Austin is 16, I still havn't let him get his license. I guess I need to cut the umbilical cord, as dh says, but the thought of him driving makes me sick. Not because he isn't responsible, just that there are so many crazy drivers out there and he is inexperienced. I guess you have to let them actually drive to get experience though, huh lol

All of this going is seriously cutting into my sewing time. I am *still* working on the Oliver + S Puppet Show pattern. I need to finish it, I have so many projects that I want to do.

I have finished the second book in the Twilight saga, New Moon. I need to get the next one. I told dh to pick it up for me when he took a trip to Walmart yesterday. He *conveniently* forgot. I think he is getting jealous, even though I have been very good about not spending every waking moment reading LOL I am going to go and pick it up myself tomorrow, he is just gonna have to deal : D I guess I will just have to look through my new Country Living and Southern Living magazines tonight instead of reading about vampires and werewolves ; )

Twilight

I have been sucked in by the Twilight saga LOL I had never heard of these books before last week, and honestly wouldn't have thought I would be interested at all. I mean, a clumsy teenager that falls in love with a vampire, can you say cheesy?! lol Somehow Stephenie Meyer, the author, makes it anything but cheesy. I think this is the most romantic book I have ever read. I read the first book Twilight in less than a day! I am a fast reader, and I could not put this book down. I am already a fourth of the way into the second book, New Moon. Needless to say, nothing is getting done but the bare minimum lol I am just glad I don't have to wait to see how it ends, the 4th and final book in the saga was just released. Funny thing, dh and I went on a date Friday night and ended up at Barnes and Noble. The place was packed with teenagers for the release of Breaking Dawn. I can't believe that I am so enamored with a book series written for kids my son's age. Oh well, I don't think I am the only one lol I am going to *try* and be a good girl today and actually cook dinner, sew, and answer my kids' questions with more than just "uh huh, whatever" instead of reading New Moon, wish me luck! LOL

Savannah is 9!!!!!

Savannah Rose turned 9 years old at 7:45 am today. If I could pick a labor to repeat, hers would be it. My water broke with her, after 5 babies, this is the first time that ever happened. I was laying in bed, not quite asleep and I heard an audible pop and then felt like I wet my pants. Chad was sound asleep, so I pushed him and said "my water broke, go get me a towel." He jumps up half out of it and starts going towards the bathroom, he thought I had said the toilet had overflowed LOL After a few minutes he realized what I was saying. Her labor was very gradual, and while painful, I never felt like I was going to lose it like with some of the others. She weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz.

She was the sweetest baby, very happy and easygoing. At 7 weeks, she started sleeping 7 or 8 hours in a row all by herself. She never woke up in the middle of the night again, not even when she was sick. She still loves her sleep : ) Savannah was my *baby* for the longest. She was 4 1/2 when Samuel was born. She had been wanting a brother or sister so badly, and she was so happy when he finally arrived. She used to have this thing where she would suck her thumb while playing with the strap of my bra. She even had certain bras that she preferred lol After Sam came, she never did it again. I used to ask her to do it and she just wouldn't. I was so sad, that was her special little thing, and I missed it : ( I guess she was growing up, but to me she was still my baby.

She is very helpful (when she feels like it ; ) and she loves to be around me. Whenever I turn around she is there, she is very attached to her mama : ) She is always playing with Samuel and Ava, she is very helpful when I need someone to occupy them.

I can't believe she is already 9 years old! Just yesterday she was my happy, smiling baby girl.

Happy Birthday, Savannah, I love you very much!