And we're off...

Later today I'll be flying the friendly skies with my sister and Baby T. We'll be back on Monday and WH will be here with the older two until then. I think they have big plans to eat all kinds of fun foods and watch Pink Panther cartoons on Netflix. Sounds wild and crazy. I hate to miss it but I'm sure Baby T and I will have some fun of our own. Here are a few highlights from the last weeks...

Some general craziness- this just about sums up our days:

Playing with Aunt Molly

Molly instigating all kinds of new games with the family (sorry dear):

Coop took a turn doing Sweet A's hair:

General trouble-making by a fast crawling, climbing 8-month old:

Molly's prize possession- her embroidered quilt:

An inexpensive gift bag turned embossed bridal shower gift (finding new uses for stamps every day!):

Have a great weekend!

My new favorite thing

I think I'm going to have to change my sidebar. Have you ever discovered something you didn't even know you were missing? I have the world's best mattress and my husband serves me great coffee every morning, what else is left? Let me give you a hint: It's a four-letter word.

Soap. I have just discovered the world of natural, hand-made soap, and I'm never going back to the bleach-white detergent stuff I used to use. I would have been in the dark much longer if my sister-in-law hadn't ventured out and starting making this delightful product. I've tried three or four different kinds she makes and I love them all. My favorite is the Chamomile Bergamot soap; I use it in the shower every day and it makes me want to brew a cup of tea and grab my favorite book. Very relaxing.

If you're not familiar with the difference between natural soaps and detergent soaps, here's a quick explanation from her Etsy shop:

When was the last time you read the ingredients contained in your over-the-counter soap? Many people do not realize that what they are using to clean themselves with is really not soap at all, but detergent (a petroleum-based product). Because of this even the soap that strives to be conditioning leaves your skin feeling dry and itchy. We then accept the line that we have "dry skin" and continue in this cycle. Thankfully you do have an alternative. My all-natural handmade soap has no chemical additives or detergents. It is made purely with oils such as Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter and many more. These oils give back to your skin what your detergent based soap has stripped away. They can remedy such conditions as dry skin, eczema, acne and more. I also only use 100% pure essential oils to scent my soap, along with flower petals and other all natural ingredients to add character and quality to the soap. If you still aren't convinced I challenge you to try just one bar and see how much better your skin feels and looks. Your skin will thank you.

So check out OIL AND SPICE on Etsy, and you might just have to change your sidebar, too.
Edited to add: Check out the price- it's a steal!

Faithful man

My husband has been working hard lately to establish a morning routine for us. Partly to help with consistency in our private worship, and also to wake the kids up at an earlier time so they will go to bed at a decent time. (This isn't working out perfectly since they always wake up at a good time but bedtimes still require a fair amount of discipline to actually keep the kids IN their beds, but that's another story.) So WH wakes the children up and keeps them away from me for about 30 minutes so I can read my Bible and drink my coffee in solitude. I think he knows that most days it's the only quiet I have. We stayed up late last night doing a puzzle for our date night (also another story) so I was still in bed and got to watch their morning ritual.

He wakes the kids up after he gets out of the shower, and then he lets them cozy down in our bed and one of them chooses his shirt, and the other picks out his tie. They were surprisingly decisive, as if they do this every day. Sweet A has fairly definitive tastes in fashion. Most days, after he is dressed and ready to go he pours them their juice (a kid's coffee equivalent) so that he can leave me with the kids sitting at the table. All these little things seem to improve the moods of the entire household. When all goes as planned, the children aren't ravenously waiting for me to make their breakfast and I have had a chance to pray through the day and greet them with a genuine smile.

And just so you know that it does not always work out this way, on Tuesday- when the kids woke up just after 6:30am and I was having a particularly grumpy day- I almost started crying when I saw them. Bad mommy. No one wants to start their day looking at a hormonal and sour mother. Although, they aren't supposed to come out until WH comes. Bad children.




Today, WH (who used to manage- and occasionally bake for- a coffee shop) greeted us with these. He made them for his co-workers:


I would ask "what other man makes scones for his wife and children before they wake up"? but I'm sure there are others. My dad would do something like that...maybe biscuits, not scones. But he is a great cook (and an early riser). And other husbands minister in wonderful ways that don't involve scones but are just as appreciated.

So, this is just a little tribute to my husband, who not only makes me do the things I want to do (get out of bed early, spend time alone in the Word), but facilitates it and makes it easy(er).

Proverbs 20:6 "Who can find a faithful man?"

My protege

Molly has been embroidering up a storm here. Wait until I show you the quilt she's working on! I made this little pillow but we both agreed it was too plain, so she absconded with it and added her own special touch. She doesn't have her own blog (being all of 11 yrs, that makes sense), so she's been begging me to showcase it here. :) This is the finished product:

I'm recovering from a weekend of strep. Thankfully we caught it early so the downtime was shortened and it looks like no one else caught it. Being sick all weekend left me in the wake of no housework for several days, so today will be a true catch-up day. There is a lot going on in our little family, even more in the church at large, and all of it needs prayer and proactivity on my part. I did make it to the evening service last night and the sermon was on the danger of doing nothing. Very inspiring...I'm off to do something.

Not exactly teaching them to work

A new twist on working "with" Daddy...

Full days

You know it's been a busy week when I show up one lonely time each week on this little blog. Life with an extra child (albeit a helpful, 11 year-old sister) has brought a different dynamic to our days. It makes me glad that my children are close together so they always have a playmate, and that the Lord allows parents to grow up along with their children; even and 11 year-old requires an entirely different set of parenting skills than I now possess. Thankfully, my sister is easy to have around and the kids love having an older child to play with. She is teaching them how to play with their toys from a new perspective; the dollhouse hasn't been left alone since she got here! She also wants to stay busy (with none of her brothers here it's not as fun) and I can't always entertain her so I've been trying to set her up with some projects. My sister-in-law came over last Thursday to start her knitting a purse (I know nothing about knitting, except that nice wooden knitting needles- are they called needles?- are about $7). Another friend came over Saturday to help her learn more about her beading supplies, which she got for her birthday. She's been embroidering, too, so it's been craft week for her.

Speaking of embroidery, here are a few of my completed projects. I expected last week to be a big sewing week, but that was crazy considering the fact that we'd just returned from a 9-day trip and life never settles down quickly after being out of town. Maybe this week. :) I have to keep reminding myself that as much as I love my creative outlets, they are the icing. My family is the cake.

I've been wanting to get this pillow monogrammed for a year, but I'm too cheap to shell out the $15. I knew it would be THE finishing touch on my bed and I knew I could do it myself. I had someone teach me a few basic embroidery stitches, stamped the "T" on my pillow with a large monogram stamp (another great use for stamps) and then got to work. Here's the finished product:

Here's a project I did for my Mom's birthday. I was hoping to have them framed by her birthday but couldn't find wooden embroidery hoops anywhere. When I do, they will most likely be painted red, or we will just use distressed frames.

This is a baby gift for a friend (sorry it's so late, Tiffany). A baby-sized girly pillow to welcome the first girl in a family of little men:


And a coordinating pillow that will end up in my Etsy shop. The floral fabric is from a thrifted Laura Ashley dress, and the white fabric used to be a high-quality sheet:



I've also been making a few bibs...here's the front of one:

We are trying out the local pool for some toddler swimming fun with the cousins. Hope your week is a delight! (Just in case I don't make it back for another 7 days.)

De-grandmafication

We are back- my silence here is due to loads of laundry, restocking the house with produce, settling in my little sister in the spare room (and moving the tons of fabric filling up every space in that room), and de-grandmafication (as my friend Laura so wisely termed it). After a week of having 11 aunts and uncles plus grandparents to respond to their every whim and request for a snack, my children are suffering some serious withdrawal. Baby T started crawling in Florida so that has also provided some new challenges upon coming back to our house. Clean floors are a little more important, and all of a sudden we are in high-gear for training the little guy.

Our time in Florida seemed to fly by towards the end. On our last night we let the kids stay up for a night-swim, just so we could get one last dip in the pool. We went swimming twice a day and I'm already missing that! I gave Coop two swimming lessons a day to try to recapture what he'd learned last year, and by the last day he was swimming and actually enjoying it.

When we descended from our car in Florida and felt the oppressive heat my first thought was, "Why does anyone live here???" (This coming from a 25-year resident of FL.) But the swimming is great, and I could live in the water. That said, on our way to church on Sunday we passed a sign that stated it was 66 degrees at 5pm in July...that's pretty sweet, too. WH just left for work and said it was chilly outside. Yes, I am in love with my new state.

I've promised to share my pictures with my Mom, but haven't uploaded anything yet. Maybe the camera will see the light of day by tomorrow. My other goal for the week (in addition to the aforementioned child-related tasks) is to share a little Etsy excitement with you. Twenty-four plus hours in the car provided all kinds of time for embroidery projects.

FL Stay-cation

We're in Florida to spend a week with my family at my parent's house. They are calling it a Stay-cation. We traveled over 12 hours to be here, so it's hard to think of it as a genuine stay-cation, but we're having a good time so who cares what we call it. (As a side note, is stay-cation going to be another one of those weird words that ends up in Webster's dictionary in a few years because it has become part of the everyday vernacular? Clever, but I hope not.)

Back to our trip...we're all here: my parents and the 7 kids who still live at home, both my adult brothers, and my married sister and her husband and baby. It makes 19 of us in all (plus 2 dogs). We have taken thousands of pictures between all the cameras in the group, but I didn't think to bring my camera cord, so if you want to see a few more pictures of the most adorable beach babies you'll have to check out my Mom's blog.

Sunday was a restful day of worship, including a 2-hour nap for me. A great way to start out any vacation. That night my parents (who are becoming quite the spontaneous entertainers) told all of us to feel free to invite a few people over after church. There are 19 of us and most of us have friends. A "few" turned out to be about 50, which was no sweat for my parent's house or their pantry. It was a good chance to see who were our true friends since everyone who came had to brave hurricane-force winds and lightening. But a fun time was had by all and the power never went out.

Monday was my Mom's birthday so we packed up and went to the beach. A generous friend let us use her beach house for the day, which really made the day since, A) we had babies who needed naps and B) there were intermittent thunderstorms all day. It was such a comfortable place to hang out and no one seemed to mind when it was raining. We celebrated my Mom's special day with a Shrimp Salad and Lemon Basil Chicken Salad and a Double Caramel Turtle cake. I used a dark chocolate cocoa powder and if you haven't tried that product than you haven't lived.

Yesterday was Project Day, because it wouldn't be a vacation for the Pittman's if we didn't have at least a little productivity going on. And Project Day is bleeding over to today because we all got tired of working and distracted by the little kids and the pool, and decided to finish our mending/sewing projects (for the ladies) and construction/bathroom reconstruction (for the men) later. We spent hours in the pool yesterday, just as I had envisioned, and the adults even had a little diving board contest...can't say I've attempted a front flip in years (pregnancy is limiting) and it showed. The projects will have to finish up by lunch time because the ladies (including MF) have a pedicure appointment at 1pm.

There's lots more to report, and pictures to show, but it will have to wait until the end of the week. I'm missing the morning yoga class as it is (lead by my very own husband) so I'd better run.