Christmas outsourcing

I really enjoy making gifts for my family.  People have advised to keep things simpler.  People like my husband who made me promise to never again knit scarves for all the girls in the family right before Christmas...apparently I was a little distracted.  But this is tricky.  Making and giving gifts is how I express care.  I am not good at doing it with words. It is how I am able to spend time thinking about (and when I am able to work undistracted, actually praying for) the people that I love.  Our days (and nights) are so full right now, lots of time can slip by and I do not even stop and really think about, much less actually call the people I am closest to.  Making things for people gives me the opportunity to show intentional thought about who they are and what they might like.  Granted, not all these endeavors have been home runs.  I am pretty sure some things may be on display (or not) only because I am someone's daughter or grand daughter.  Nevertheless, I hope they know that making things is my way of purposefully slowing the rest of my life to intentionally focus on someone else.  

So, this year, because I did not want to give up on making some gifts, but knew I could not make for everyone, I out sourced the kids gift to their extremely talented father!  Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to present him with a couple of pictures and, just like the Halloween costumes, he made it happen.

The first was a doll house for the girls.  

A plan drawn from a picture.

 She had no idea she was helping with her own present.

Finished project to come!

A busy board.  

Knights and tigers and bees, oh my!

I survived another McBride Halloween costume dash.  I have actually started to look forward to our tradition of putting the kids' costumes together the day of...or the night before this year.  The first year we did it because Olivia asked to be a zebra and we kept thinking that she would surely change her mind and want to be a princess...but she never did, so we found ourselves buying a white leisure suit and black paint at Wal-Mart the day of Halloween.  Each year, Mike becomes more and more the mastermind, which I love because even though I have started to enjoy our tradition, the truth is last minute stuff still stresses me out.

So, this year we had a request for a tiger and a knight.  We didn't give Greta a choice - she was the bumble bee...everyone has been the bumble bee (including her cousin).  The knight began with a youtube tutorial...

Success!

Then the tiger began with a body tracing on a pair of old sheets...

Then the sewing machine...yes, the man can sew.  But please don't make a big deal about it, otherwise he may quit and I will have to do it next year.

It is a full family effort...Olivia working on the handle for Joe's shield.

Greta "sharing" her antenae with Henry.

And giving him a push...probably yelling something like, "Fly bumble bee!  Fly!"

The face paint

Ta da!  (Joseph's armor is a sun shield for a car.)

First stop, Irma's!  She always has a special zip-lock bag loaded with candy for the kids on our block.

buzzzzz

Desiree and her little fairy princess.

When asked about his costume, August said "I am your worst nightmare."  A knight/devil/worker man.

Posted this for you, Mom - Anthony's.

The other Olivia - a humming bird.

Tiger, tail in hand...kept getting stepped on.

Block bumble bees.

Guess we'll have four costumes to figure out next year...we may need to start a little earlier.  I'm already getting a little stressed out.

The man can sew!! (and the one when the kids went trick or treating)

He might deny it, but it was witnessed by me and my mother! Mike was certainly the Halloween hero this year. Olivia's request about a month ago was to be a frog for Halloween. Not sure where the idea struck...but then her request last year was to be a macaw and the year before, a zebra. So, we were not surprised. Naively we waited for the change of mind. The preference for a princess. But, like previous years, it never came and we were, once again, in Wal-Mart on Halloween afternoon. One of only about two or three times in the year that we patron Wal-Mart.A willing model.
The feet
The eyes
The lily pad. Granted, tree frogs aren't typically found on lily pads, but we started with the lily pad idea but ended up with tree frog legs...so there you are...a tree frog on a lily pad.
A bee
You can see the lily pad had a special feature of folding up on the sides to allow for tight spaces on porches. Unfortunately, at one house it did not fold up slim enough and an entire stair case of children had to be evacuated in order to allow the frog down from the porch. Children were crying, "But I haven't gotten my candy yet." Parents were responding, "Calm down! We just have to let the frog out."
Joseph was supposed to be the hand-me-down macaw, but last minute said he wanted to be a ghost (probably because he heard August was going to be a ghost). I was the genius of that costume. Two carefully placed holes and a TN hat on backwards to hold the sheet in place. Mike says he looks like it ought to be in a Charlie Brown cartoon.
Sweet Irma. Everybody else who came to her house got one piece of candy. Our kids (even Greta) and August got a whole zip lock full of the good stuff...with their names on it so Olivia didn't get one with nuts. LOVE our neighbors.
Receiving the masses. Irma counted over 500!
And thus closes another home-made Halloween. It will be a sad day when our kids refuse to wear our creations...well, I guess by then they will be too old to trick-or-treat anyway.

Second Annual Last Minute Costume Mayhem

Well, we did it again. Last year was such a "success" (see Joseph below: the hand-me-down zebra), we decided to come up with Olivia's costume the day of. Don't get me wrong (those of you who know us won't), we had plenty of time. Olivia said months ago that she wanted to be a macaw. In fact a pattern has emerged - whatever major theme we are using for school influences her costume choice. Last year it was zoo - thus the zebra. This year we are studying birds. So, as much as I do not enjoy going to Wal-Mart (despite my southern roots where Wal-Mart is the Sax of the South), here I was again armed with a request and a...oops, no credit card. On the way to Wal-Mart I have to admit I had a skip in my step, energized by last year's success. But as I drove all the way back home to get my credit card I was murmuring something like, "Whose dumb idea was this? Why in the world would we wait until the last minute?! Why does this always happen?!" Always? I am such an exaggerater when I am frustrated.

Mike was the hero this year. The wings made the outfit. And Joseph wore the zebra well. And Baby G...well you'll see. Below is sweet Lou from across the street. Proud to say his dad made his costume too! An airplane. Looked awesome. Only problem was it weighed about 50 pounds and Lou only made a couple of houses before they had to carry it for him. Very cute. We love Lou...and his parents. They are subleasing August's house while they are in Germany. They are from South Carolina. It is nice to have a shared accent on the street.
Lou being stalked by a macaw. (You would never know it from the back, but Leigh Ann was pregnant. Now Lou has a baby brother Bert. Cute.)

The best part of trick or treating this year was Joseph running back after every house yelling, "Ta da!" and holding up the loot from that house. Every house he did that.
This is Lu Lu. (Lot a Lou's around here). Her full name is Lunette. She is Frank and Irma's (next door) great granddaughter (one of them anyway, they have a million). She is the cutest chunky monkey you ever saw...especially with that pencil thin.
We had the best time this year. We went with Frank and Irma's grand kids and their kids. Lana (below) is Olivia's age and they have become fast friends. Lana lives in Palmdale and only visits every few months, but they are joined at the hip when she is here.


You can blow this up and see the pumpkin O and Joe created with Mike.
You can blow this up too - this line of people went down our walk to the side walk and down to Frank and Irma's. It was crazy. Once, when walking back from taking a few pictures, I passed two old ladies coming down the steps with trick or treat bags! No lie. I don't even think they were dressed up. I don't remember now. But one of them was holding on the railing and I thought I might need to help her. No shame for candy around here.
So there it is. We'll see what happens next year...

The Homemades Post (plus the pie Linda wanted)

So, back before "Bay Greta" was born I mentioned I was going to start trying to make some homemade around the house products. Here is the follow up on the good, the bad, and the "my husband said we can't use that anymore" of it.

Laundry Detergent - WINNER

1 cup Sals Suds

2 cup hot water

1/3 cup salt

1 cup baking soda

Mix until dissolved. Pour in 1 gallon container and top off with water. 1/4 to 1/2 cup per load.

Test: It gets our nasty dinner napkins clean and Joseph's underwear doesn't smell like pee.

Dishwasher Soap - MY HUSBAND SAID WE CAN'T USE THIS ANYMORE

Actually I think his exact words were, "We have too many people over for meals to serve them on dirty dishes." He was right. Even the Seventh Generation stuff doesn't really do the job. Some things you just need chemicals for. I actually us the SG and then every 3rd time or so I buy Cascade to get things good and clean for a while (and open up the kitchen window and close the doors to the kitchen...because once you have taken a break from using that stuff, you really smell how horribly strong it is.

Dish soap - WINNER

This is what the dishwasher soap became and it works great as a kitchen sink hand and dish soap.

1/2 cup Sals Suds

1/c cup water

1 tsp lemon juice

3 drops tea tree oil

1/2 cup white vinegar

Mix all and then dilute about 1/4 cup with water and save the rest for refill. I've also been adding some drops of grapefruit seed extract to it since I read what a great anti-bacterial it was - for kitchen counters, raw meat, etc. (And you know if I read it, it had to be true.)

Diaper wipe spray - WINNER

Baby mild castille soap (Dr. Bronners)

water

few drops each of tea tree oil and lavender oil

I spray this on a cotton ball because let's face it, unless she poops, using a wipe EVERY time I change a diaper is totally a waste. I still use wipes for the big jobs and in my purse. I've cut up some old flannel baby blankets (thank you Northside Hospital) to use as wipes in the future...we'll see how that goes.

Once our kids soap is out, I will start using this in the bath tub on them as well.

Shampoo - LOSER

I just can't do it. My hair felt too nasty. However, my scalp (which has itched since I hit puberty I think) quit itching. So I don't know what to do. Plus, my hair is so stinkin' thick...I couldn't get a brush or my fingers or anything through it. I might revisit this...

Hand soap - WINNER

Castille soap (baby mild)

few drops of tea tree oil (it is an anti-bacterial...I read that)

few drops of lavender

dilute with water (so it is about 1/3 mixture, 2/3 water)

NEXT:

This week I am going to make my own chapstick...or lip lips as we call it.

And, diaper cream that will also double as a hand lotion...because if you can't put it on your bum why not rub it into your hands?!

Now for the pie. Linda, I am almost embarrassed at how easy this is.

Make or buy your crust.

Mix: 3 cups copped apples (green or red, I used both and threw in a pear when I ran short)

2 cups cranberries (I just threw in the whole bag because I really like them.)

1 cup sugar (I use less if not using green apples.)

2 T flour

3/4 t ground cloves

Throw it in your crust and back at 400 for 40 to 45.