I sat down to write thirty things about myself this morning, in honor of my thirtieth birthday. That is a hard task. I felt confronted with how boring I am....but nonetheless, I managed to think of thirty things, thrilling or not.  Enjoy them and then we'll get to the good stuff:

1.    there is a crown and sash in my history
2.    I played the clarinet in middle school and high school and never sat lower than first chair…I’ve only played it twice since emma was born
3.    I cannot draw
4.    If I chose my favorite singer today it would be patty griffin
5.    I have a sweet tooth—actually it would probably be more like a molar
6.    I grew up on a farm
7.    I used to be an elementary school teacher
8.    I am not a morning person
9.    I’ve inherited my mother’s high standards for bed-making: smoothed out bed, hospital corners, folded down flat sheet, sides tucked in…etc.
10.    For the life I me, I can not get my legs from knee to ankle to get anything tanner than pasty white
11.    I’m a procrastinator
12.    I hate talking on the phone
13.    I shave my legs every time I shower (I guess my pasty white legs need all the help they can get)
14.    I have showed sheep, pigs, a steer, chickens, dogs, sewing projects, cakes and hard candy in my county fair. (hint, hint for no. 1)
15.    I always like to have something to drink with me in the car
16.    I could do bagels and diet coke every day for lunch.
17.    I had a great college experience
18.    I just started drinking coffee—but I have to put some hot chocolate mix in it to get it down.
19.     As I type this my four year old is drawing on a cucumber, and I walked in on my two year old squirting expensive conditioner all over the bathroom sink
20.    I can get frazzled easily….breathe…in…out….calmly address no. 19…..
21.    I still get a few blemishes , but I’m thinking I should start putting cream around my eyes…
22.    I have one grey hair (that I know of)
23.    I have two children and hope for more.
24.    I can’t fathom that I look different or older than I did in college.
25.    I hate being hot
26.    I love a little bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream in front of the TV at night, after my children are in bed—and I can really enjoy it.
27.    My husband and I are obsessed with getting BBC/PBS shows from netflix—formerly “monarch of the glen” currently: “Ballykissangel” next: “miss marple?”
28.    I love reading children’s books
29.    I always have music on
30.    I hope my next thirty years will be marked by growth: spiritual, emotional, familial, marital…(oh—and some loss—in the weight department)

**maybe I should clarify marital growth: I'm not planning on acquiring more husbands, just a deeper, richer relationship with the wonderful one I have now.**

Now as a sort of birthday in reverse, I thought I'd give the gifts today and share some of my thrift store scores with a few of you. I think we'll go with the old name drawing method. If you would like your name in the hat for some of the fabrics below, please leave me a comment, and be sure to say you are interested. Last time I did this, I had a hard time telling which people wanted to be in the drawing, and which were just leaving a comment.

Gift# 1 and 2: (about 2 yards each panel)

close up:

gifts 3 and 4: (also about two yards, I think)

Gifts 5 and 6: (these curtain panels have tucks at the top, but they could easily be taken out with a seam ripper...about a yard to a yard and a half each)
obviously no ironing involved here, but I washed my set yesterday and they cleaned up nicely:

So there's the stash for sharing. Remember, if you're interested in having your name in the hat for one of these 6 pieces of fabric, please make it clear in your comment. And one small disclaimer--if you are an international reader, I'd be happy to send fabric to you, I only ask for a little donation towards shipping...fair enough?

So, I'm 30...wow. feels just like 29. I'm planning on spending my day poolside with my two favorite girls and then a small dinner celebration with the girls, Dan and some close college friends. A nice, simple, quiet day. Happy July26th to all of you! Have a wonderful day--for me!

I sat down almost a week ago now to start sewing the buttons on these cuffs. And the first push of the needle through the thick strap sent the needle deep into the tip of my finger. I'm not saying it went all the way to my nail, but it really, really hurt under there. So, I put them down for a little while. 
Last night I got them all finished and the appropriate old button selected from my stash, for each one. I have to say I really like them and I'm going to have to make one for myself now. I'll slowly (dialup, remember?) be putting them in my etsy shop this afternoon.
We had a wonderful weekend filled good portions of work and play. Well, Dan really did most of the working...On Sunday, we celebrated Father's Day and gave Dan his gift--a CD of bird songs and calls so that we can begin to identify birds by ear. When I was in college, I spent one summer at an environmental science school taking a natural history course. It was probably my favorite college course. We learned to identify birds by their appearance and song, trees, flowers, animals, tracks, etc. When you are able to know the names of some of the plants and animals you see and hear around you, it really gives you a deeper appreciation for nature. You'd never know if you were catching a glimpse of something rare or amazing, if you didn't know what  you were looking at in the first place. So, I'm excited to refresh my knowledge with this CD, and I know that Dan is excited to learn them with me, too.
Hmmm....does it sound like this gift was more for me, than my husband? no. never!!

The girls and I are alone on valentine's this year while Dan is away doing some carpentry work. (Before he left this morning, he did leave us each a little treat on the kitchen table when we came downstairs this morning). The girls and I are still celebrating the day in our own way. This morning I made these supposed-to-be-pink-turned-out-purple heart pancakes. I am definitely following in the footsteps of my mother who always made us green breakfasts on St Patty's day.  The pancakes were very yummy, even though Dan was missing...

We also have two new friends in our home,who in this picture seem to really be in love as well. I got the pattern from a book I found at an estate/tag sale this summer. It was a little lady who was moving from her home into a nursing home and selling many of her posessions. She was so crafty and the sale was full of patterns, yarn, thread, books, needles. Tucked inside this book was a little notecard with her shaky handwriting that listed all of her grandchildren's names. Beside each name was the toy she had picked out from the book to make for each of them. Very sweet.
The turtles are filled with lentils which makes them so floppy and fun. The girls love tossing them around to each other and Emma carries hers around in a big green bucket.
***
*Happy Valentine's Day to all!!*

We spent our Christmas Eve in the emergency room. As my Dad said, "these things always happen at the worst time."

Mary slipped on the rug in the kitchen and fell, hitting her cheek on the round drawer pull. The force of the fall caused her cheek to split open under her eye.
The doctor considered stitches because they cut was so wide but thankfully decided to glue the cut closed, instead. (Emma found this quite comical and interesting. I'm going to have to hide the Elmer's next time she get hurt.) Gluing the cut closed means wrapping them up tightly in a blanket, arms pinned beside them, while they apply the glue ("which might sting") to the cut. Then after they are finished applying the glue, she has to stay wrapped until it dries. It was horrible. Thankfully, Dan was at her head, and I was holding her legs, where I had the freedom to cry in shared agony over my daughter's distress.
But, she (we) made it through. She came home, took a three hour nap and we skipped the Christmas Eve service at church, opting for a dress-up dinner instead. (not sure why Mary was sporting a hat at dinner. But I'm sure Emma had something to do with it...)

Now, four days later, she's already picked the glue off her cheek to reveal a tender scar underneath that we are babying with polysporin and vitamin E oil.

More Christmas recap to come later, where I relish in all the wonderful gifts-- given and received, and the good times had by all....

This post is something written by Dan.  I swiped it from some of the writing he's been doing lately. Enjoy.
Merry Christmas.

‘Bah! Hum-bug!’
The world needs more Scrooges. I would say it again, but you can simply glance to the left if the statement takes you by surprise, and surprise it probably does. Scrooge has become such a part of our Christmas lore and indeed a solid part of our vernacular that ‘Don’t be such a Scrooge’ is understood by just about everyone above the age of five. Scrooge is connected with all that is negative: selfishness, hoarding, greed, and a tight-fisted malevolence and indifference to the world and those who are in need. Dicken’s character is permanently etched in our minds as the archetypal ‘bad guy’ and the forerunner of the Grinch who stole Christmas. However, I think that Dickens had solid hopes that we would read his little book from cover to cover. In doing so, we come away with a very different picture of Ebenezer Scrooge. It is the changed man at the end of the story that Dickens wants to leave us with, not the cold as stone miser.

 Cold indeed. The story is a constant feeling of temperature, from the cold house and cold shoulder of Scrooge, to the warmth of hearth and home and the warmth of jolly Fezziwig. Undoubtedly Scrooge leaves us with a shiver, but also with a hope and a small flame like Cratchit’s by which to barely dream of warmth. This hope is seen early in his visit with the first ghost where Scrooge produces a tiny tear, but says instead that it is a pimple – even a blemish is better than a tear to Scrooge. The other glimpse of hope comes when we learn Scrooge’s first name. In thinking on this I felt that Dicken’s should have named him something like Ichabod, a more ghastly, picturesque, and fitting name meaning ‘the glory has departed’. What better fit for such a negative last name than such a negative first name. But then, Dickens knowing better than me, named him Ebenezer, and in this we see that Dickens did indeed want to leave us with a more positive memory of old Scrooge. Ebenezer means ‘Stone of Help’. Interestingly, when we first see his full name in print, we see it on his death stone, which finally breaks Scrooge to the horrors of his wicked and miserly life. A stone he was indeed, a grave stone, even a pillar of stone. But this pillar became a stone of help, a warm hearted and open handed man who because of his wealth was able to help so many people. Dickens, saw a world of suffering and desperate poverty yet he remained hopeful, for he also saw people like pillars, stones who if they could be made to cry out could become stones of help.