What could be more perfect...

than a three-year-old girl...

...wearing fuzzy fairy princess jammies?

FINALLY finished these today, after the fabric sat around waiting for 2 months! Now I can get started on my new obsession with a clean conscience!

Unbelievable

As Mr. Pickles said, "That guy's making a mint off that moronic personality!" We love him though.

And of course you know that he got his portrait into the National Portrait Gallery, right?

He will always be dear to my heart after I saw his version of "The King of Glory" which exactly corresponds with my opinion of that treasured Advent hymn.

I was born in the wrong Millennium

So I recently purchased this pattern that I've had my eye on for a couple years. It was only $2. So how could I NOT get it?


Now can someone help me justify purchasing the fabric for it by telling me where I could wear a dress like this more often than once a year at a Medieval festival?

Please?

Speaking of atheists...

from an atheist-turned-Christian explaining phenomenons like Dawkins and Pullman
(via Mark Shea's blog)

Updates!

I just wanted to draw your attention to the newly revised and updated "What We're Reading" section in the sidebar -- I know this list has always been so blah. So I've finally made the switch to pictures of the book covers to make it more interesting. I plan to add links too (so you can see larger versions of the covers) -- just not this time b/c we're going to bring them all back to the library on Friday anyway! (and I'm tired and want to go to bed!) So enjoy our sidebar's fancy schmancy new look! Hmm, maybe I'll revamp the whole blog's look, with more pretty colors and... wait, is this a manifestation of the nesting instinct?

The rumors of our demise... etc. etc.

Only slightly exaggerated. I'll spare you all the gruesome details, so to sum up: Katie had a stomach bug, followed by a fever. Mr. Pickles had a severely sore throat that merited a trip to an emergency clinic -- but Codeine and antibiotics finally kicked in and allowed him to function again. Now I'm sick -- or maybe plain exhausted. All in all, it's been a long week.

Why, even Katie's bear was sick.

Miriam, miraculously, remained untouched (knock on wood!). Poor kid had to keep herself amused for several days while I tried to get our life back into some semblance of order. She spent lots of time coloring. A benefactor had just given us a stack of colored paper and some princess stencils, so she was pretty happy with those. This is one of my favorites from the week.

a representation of the fall & the promise of redemption. (I love God's frowny face!)

an activity I suggested: marker target practice (the green elastic thingy is about to knock over the black marker)

And THIS is what happens when Mom is left out of the fashion choices for the day. Note everyone's shoes.

Sigh, I WILL get better again, I know I will!

The Good News Is...

-We aren't dead.
-Mr. Pickles does NOT have strep.
-Technically we weren't up ALL night Sunday, since we finally got to sleep before sunrise.
-Our couch cushions are easily washable.
-Mr. Pickles does NOT have mono.
-Baking soda really IS a great deodorizer.
-Either the antibiotics or gargling with salt water or the Codeine worked, but Mr. Pickles can swallow again.
-Miriam did not get sick.
-Katie slept 16 hours in a 24-hour period yesterday, and has drunk about twice her body volume today.
-Resolve Spot & Stain Remover is MAGIC.
-Katie is whining and throwing tantrums again today (which we take as a good sign).
-I needed to mop the foyer and clean the bathrooms ANYWAY.
-We all got dressed today.
-and most notably, I'm still standing! (but I could use a vacation....)

When I Am an Old Ex-Home Schooling Mom

I am going to wear bright orange with lime green accessories, and a baseball hat backwards.

I am going to do a "joy dance" in my kitchen, and maybe on the front lawn just to embarrass my grown children.

I am going to lie in bed until noon one day a week and think about not needing to get started with school.

I am going to go out and have coffee with my friends in the middle of the morning, and I am not going to feel guilty one little bit.

When I have finished home schooling, I am going to read all the books that aren't worth wasting my time over, just to waste a little time.

I am going to join every club I think is interesting, and I will read absolutely nothing pertaining to education for one whole year.

I will go out in public at any time of the day or night and not be representing all home schoolers everywhere.

If my husband gets angry and threatens to put one of our grown, ex-home schooled children into the trunk of the car for being obnoxious during a family outing, I will not say, "This will not look good for home schoolers if we have an accident and are stopped by the police, and they hear yelling and pounding from the trunk."

Instead, I will say, "Just do it!"
And I will not feel guilty.

Not even a tiny bit.

But for this year, while I am still home schooling, I will behave myself and be sensible, and responsible, and disciplined, and dream about the day I do a "joy dance" while wearing bright orange with lime green accessories, and a baseball hat backwards.

-Terry Rust

(Thanks, Mom B.!)

Happy Epiphany!

Forgot to post this earlier. See the fluffy nest of good deeds for baby Jesus? Once again, the girls loved adding straws to the manger for being good and helpful. My question this year was: does it still count if they're fighting over who gets to do the good deed to add a straw?


yay! The Three Kings came on Sunday!

I'll bet you didn't know that an orange left by the Three Kings tastes much yummier than the kind Mommy gets from the store (even though they're from the same bag)....

We're old-fashioned so, unlike most of the rest of the world it seems, we celebrate the actual Christmas liturgical season, not the Christmas shopping season. We decorated our tree on Christmas Eve, and... well, it's still up. (Until the bitter end this Saturday!) So basically we're not sick of Christmas by the time Epiphany rolls around. We still turn our lights on and listen to Christmas music. And we're still ready to celebrate! Mr. Pickles was feeling under the weather (aka sick as a dog) so we had to cancel one party we had planned to attend, but on Sunday we were able to host a little one for a couple families we know. I tried my hand at making a King Cake. It wasn't squashy like I remembered from friends at college who got King Cakes fed-exed to them from Louisiana -- it was more like a rich, sweet bread -- like Pulla but with cinnamon instead of cardamom. I drizzled it with lemon icing and of course decorated it like a crown. I didn't have a tiny plastic baby on hand, so I used a quarter to hide in the cake (thinking that would be the coin least likely to be swallowed). We ate 9/10 of it at the party, so I guess it was good!

King Cake in all its glory. Mmmmmmmmm.

Enjoy these last days of Christmas! Lent is right around the corner....

Can you guess...

What Miriam's FAVORITEST Christmas present was?