A matter of Perspective

A long, long time ago, 

I lived in Texas.

In Texas, it snows um, NEVER.

That is until the Great Blizzard of 2004. 

Well after my days in my hometown were done with. In fact, at the time, my parents had even moved away from the state.

My current hometown has a little bit better track record on snow. It is typical in my area of Georgia to get perhaps one or two snow showers per winter. Most of the time, the accumulation is pretty chinsy -- 1 to 2 inches. And playing in it is comprised mostly of ruining any snow you had by walking through it. In fact, you had better get out of doors while it's falling, because it just might now stick around. Anytime the weather man says SNOW you say I DON'T BELIEVE IT. But, anytime you actually see snow, you run outside and spin around and delight in the 1 or 2 flakes you can see falling from the sky.  It's main function, at least with our younger kids, was a photo op!

2008

2009

2010

You may notice the longevity of a certain brown coat, which she now has passed on to sister. Well, fast forward to the winter of 2011. Not only has it snowed three times, including on early snow ON CHRISTMAS DAY (can it get any better than that, I ask?), but we even had a real blizzard in January. Six inches, icy roads, and four days later, we crazy Georgians knew a little more about snow.  

2011

So, the light sprinkling we got a few days before my birthday? Back to the good old days of 1 inch accumulation. Somehow, though, my perspective had changed. Now, the definition of a SNOWFALL is changed. This beautiful dusting of snow is just that -- a mere dusting, a photo op, not a playground. 

                                                  2010                                                2011

Hmm, should I?

Why  yes, I think I shall.

                                 2011 Snow Monster                                 2011 Snack-size Snowman

A Few Things I Made

Felt flower clip -- presents for the girls at Kate's Tea Party. These were sort of easy to make, and would have been much easier if I had printed out any sort of template for cutting out the petals. Next time I will use hot glue as well as thread to make the piece more secure.

Nightgowns from this pattern. Unfortunately, I made one error -- I sewed the bodices with a 1/2 in. seam instead of 5/8 inches; consequently, they are a bit gappier than they would have been. But hey, I like clothes from The Gap. :-)

And, this cute dress & pinafore. (not the bonnet). Kate and her cousins are, among many other things, really into pretending Laura & Mary & Carrie. That was my inspiration. I chose the simplest little dress pattern I could find because I was really running out of time. Then I found a tutorial (which I can't find again to save my life) for the pinafore & was able to whip that up, too. I am so pleased by the results. Hopefully this will mean I'm one step ahead for next year's Fall Festival, too. 

I had one more sewing project that somehow I don't have a picture of yet. . . I made some a felt cookie set for Rachel. That was definitely the easiest of the projects, and it came out so well!

I did not accomplish my desire to sew a coordinating little nightgown for Kate's doll. I couldn't design the pattern correctly and/or sew the tiny little armholes to save my life. I guess I needed to pull out my hand sewing skills, which I do not actually have. I don't have HomeMadeChristmasOverkill this time, so maybe I'll be able to do some spring and summer projects, too. I have discovered that my little girl LOVES to wear a nightgown & most every evening chooses either her long sleeve nightgown with pants or a long sleeve shirt/pants/with short sleeve nightgown on top. Have I mentioned she has this funny predilection for layering? I've caught her going to bed with at least three or four layers on. (WEIRD!)

Haircuts

I think parenting is like this a lot. . . you let something keep on going simply because you can't imagine the change or you just don't really "see" it because it's the norm. Then, one day, you wake up and all of a sudden it is D-Day and whatever it is MUST change...IMMEDIATELY! Thankfully, this time it wasn't some creeping disobedience or something that might have been a trifle more difficult to correct quickly -- it was my little girl's hair. Thanks to some funny joking (although probably serious) comments from friends and relations about her mullet, I still kept back from cutting off the only part of Rachel's hair that was growing. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Then, I woke up this weekend and finally saw that it must be done! And I'm so pleased with the results. I got my little pixie girl back from the ragamuffin look she's been sporting for awhile. Good thing she looks cute as either the ragamuffin or the pixie. 

This picture could be showing you her hair. . or the fact that Kate put on little sis' tutu on backwards, or the fact that her chubby little legs look really adorable poking out of a tutu--you choose.

This is what I get when I tell I'm taking a picture -- she's starting to pose instead of running away or reaching for the camera.

Snow Week

Have you missed me?

This week, as you may have noticed ALL over facebook, and perhaps in your own backyard, the ATL got a whole lot of snow. We didn't exactly measure it in our yard. . .but I heard people saying 6 inches.

Amazing in this picture you can't even tell where the driveway starts & stops. The roads were covered, although you can see that some people did try to get out on Monday. The truck parked on the street by our house is a new acquisition (like. . the Friday before it snowed).

Day 1 of snow was spent exploring our wintry wonderland & trying to help Kate do some sledding, which she did accomplish! We tried various things, including a large patio table top w/ legs detached, a thingamajig that rolls under a car when you are working on it, and I did even take a lid off of a trashcan to work on an adult sled. Unfortunately, our trashcan lid wasn't smooth. :-( However, we finally struck gold with the kiddie pool. The key was making a path down the hill with the kiddie pool, and each run made the track more compact and a bit better. By the end of the afternoon, I was able to sled down myself, unfortunately caught neither on still or moving picture. There was one observer, a neighbor kid walking past and for once in my life I was glad that I mostly look like a kid! Especially since I was outside all by myself by that point. I got one great run, and a few runs that had multiple slow spots, some arm pushing, with a few moments of "I'm flying" mixed in. It was amazing that I wanted to trudge back up the hill to try again for as few jollies as I got out of it, but it felt a bit addictive. As you can see by the second pic, a crust of icy snow was beginning to form, easy to pick up in largish chunks, too. Not exactly snowball weather, but you do what you have to do!

Day 2 Kate made it out to do more sledding and snow monster making. Since the first day, Kate had wanted to make a Snowman, a snow monster, and a snow princess. I think they settled on the snowmonster because the snow wasn't rolling very well and the snowperson had a monsterish shape, I guess. My favorite is the attention to detail. They used untraditional items like sweet gum balls for eyes because they, too, are monsterish. Also, Kate insisted that the monster's face be a "mad" face. 

The entire time, Rachel has been unwell, and by Day 3, Kate had joined her. The last pic is the two of them convalescing on the couch for 15 seconds. It's been so cute to see them together these last few days, as though Rachel is all of a sudden growing up some more. Today Kate was teaching her the lyrics to Do Re Mi (Sound of Music) & the Cuckoo song. Super cute!

-"Say 'do'"

-"Do" 

-"Say 're'"

-"Re"

-"Mom, Rachel sang Do, Re, Mi. I taught her."

Nevermind that she was just parroting.

And, the cream on this fun week has been that my sister was snowed in a long with us! 

December 30th

Talking to Aunt Susie on Skype. 

December 26th