Making Christmas Happen

Drip. Drip. Drip.

It is raining here. And leaking here.  And so much not feeling the Christmas season here.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about Christmas.  "It's up to moms to make Christmas happen," she said.  She's right.  Who shops, wraps, bakes, addresses, crafts, decorates, and remembers the hard-to-give-to people?  The Mom.

This Mom needs some help.
I feel overwhelmed, and I picture my brain as one of those grabbing booths with little slips of paper swirling out of control.



 On each slip of paper is a task that I must complete to make Christmas happen for our family.  Christmas Card Pictures. Wrap Teacher Gifts. Sew Children's Stockings. Decorate House. Shop for Gifts. Bake Cookies. Pick out "Christmas Outfits" for children.  Am I missing something?  Oh yes. Jesus.  What do all these Christmas things have to do with Him?  I usually love this time of year, but right now I'm beginning to feel grinchy... and what kind of attitude is that for celebrating Emmanuel, the most amazing event in all of history? 



These are my children, watching a Christmas movie last December. In the matching pajamas their Super {Christmas} Mommy made for them.  Super Mommy has temporarily moved away; we're hoping she'll return when the baby is weaned.  She didn't leave a note, so we're not sure.



My prayer this morning (and yes, for the rest of my life, but let's get through this morning first, OK people?) is that I will have wisdom and courage to discern what really needs to be done, and what can be done away with.

Maybe I can get it all done.

Maybe I don't need to. 

I cannot allow "making" Christmas to ruin Christmas for my family.



And Now... I need to figure out what to do about the leaky window and the flooded basement.  Oh yes, the basement: where all my sewing stuff lives.



Perfectly Thankful

Through various conversations & readings lately, I've been reminded of the pressure we women place upon ourselves to achieve perfection.
Perfect marriage.
Perfect children.
Perfect home.
Perfect meals.
Perfect body.
Perfect job/hobby/creations...
Perfect spelling.

Perfection is the four-lane highway on the guilt trip of motherhood. 
Anyone who's read my stuff before knows that I am not perfect in any of these aspects.  Really not perfect. Some days, I'm determined that my imperfections will not keep me from joy.  Some days I do allow my imperfections (and those of people around me) to keep me from joy.  Some days I forget I'm not perfect, and I actually do something that impresses myself.  And then my camera reminds me. 

See, I made this perfectly cute turkey shirt for GBaby.  Everything about it impressed me: I made it without a real pattern, loosely following an adaptation from one of my mom's sewing patterns from the 70's.  I used only scrap materials, left over from other projects.  I hand-embroidered parts. I even finished the seams and top-stitched it, people! 
It fits perfectly. 
"Gee, I'm so pleased with myself.  I must be perfect.  I'll take a picture to show everyone that sometimes I do things right. I can almost be a craft blogger (except for that whole I'm-not-a-Mormon part)."

Then.
I realized.
I dropped my camera two weeks ago.  And now it doesn't like to focus. (Anyone want to sell me a lens for cheap?)

Durn.
I was this close to being perfect. 

Now I have to pretend my picture is from the 1960's when I was perfect (except for that whole not-being-born-yet part).

Don't tell me that it's all The Awful Worldly World's fault, because it only has as much influence over me as I allow.  So, what drives my (ugly) desire for perfection? Insecurity? Pride? Control? Painful Memories? 
God sees every part of me, the perfect and imperfect.  And still, He loves me.  Amen.  That's enough to be Thankful.  With or without a turkey shirt.

Now, as a bonus reminder, go give a good listen to these two songs from a really great artist.  And be thankful for your imperfections, because they can showcase the enormity of God's love.

Just so you know that I'm not making this imperfect stuff up: I had a really crappy attitude for about 36 hours. You can pray for me (and my poor little family). Thanks.

Happy Excuse-to-Dress-Up Day!

I don't do Halloween.  Neither my husband nor I grew up celebrating Halloween, so it's just not a big deal to us.  Honestly, not much really appeals to me about the witchy festivities, and I really dislike all the ghoulish decorations.  I'm not being a hater here; if you love Halloween and want to throw your energy into making it a big day, go for it. It is just not for me.

Except.

Who doesn't love candy?  I mean, besides dentists and my Sammy?

And.

Pumpkins are so cheerful (and, uncarved, they make great decorations right up till Thanksgiving).

And.

I love love love playing dress up.  Yep, I'm a grown-up mom lady person and I still play dress up.  Only my kids don't know it yet.  They must think everyone dons a polka-dot dress and vibrant red lipstick to perform domestic chores.

I happen to have a lot of candy and pumpkins around, but one can never have too many dress-up clothes.  The happy, cute, creative costumes and the chance to show off my happy, cute, creative children are the only reasons that make me wish we did Halloween. Especially when I see something like this lovely little concoction from one of my favorite blogging crafters.  What kind of dress-up loving mama would I be to deny my lovely little girls something like that?

When I saw The Cottage Home's duds, I started thinking through my stash of fabric, creating a similar ensemble in my mind... Let's see, I have shiny red satin, sheer sparkly organza, happy striped and dotted ribbon, and absolutely zero extra time.  Bummer.  Because my girls need some new dress-up stuff.  Really.  What they have only fills a small laundry basket and it is all Disney Princess garb (which I hate and they love.)

The next day a friend and I hit Old Navy for a massive sale they were having (a situation that deserves an entire post of it's own: 2 mommas + 2 nursing infants + 2 two-year-olds = absolutely hysterical chaos!) and I saw a rack of costumes marked down to $5.00.  Plus, I had a "40% OFF" coupon.  So, instead of the original price of $29.94 I paid a whopping $3.00 for each outfit!  That's less than a happy meal, folks - and guaranteed to last a lot longer! 

 Is the construction of the garments solid? No, I've had to repair the queen bee dress twice already.  Does anyone care? No!  It was $3.00 people!

We are very happy on this last day of October, (despite the rush-to-school yelling) and we hope you all are too.

Boys dress up too! My sons had outfits (homemade, so take that!) for the school costume parade on Friday. Weston was a Christmas clown (say what?) and Sammy was a laptop computer (because his dad thought it would be cool).  But OF COURSE, I did not get any pictures snapped. Maybe I'll make encourage them to become their clowny computery selves again today.  We could hit up Great Grandma's house during the town's trick-or-treat hours.  She always has lots of candy around. 

Picking and Choosing.

It is a beautiful Saturday, with a clean kitchen. Our typical Big Breakfast was exchanged for a visit to the bakery. So without my usual clean-up to do, shall I craft or garden? Both tasks sound gratifying, and both promise to be oft-interrupted!

Flexible Endeavors

Today I purposed to make some progress on my lengthy "Sew Before Baby" list.
My sewing machine had some other ideas. Like going on vacation, for example, while amidst a pile of specially-purchased but unused fabric and patterns. Or staging a protest for unfair treatment of broken needles and bent pins. Or suing for damages due to emotional distress ("You leave me down here in the basement, and only come see me when you need something! Well, I have needs too!")

So I changed my plans.
Fixed a large dinner with my five-year-old. (And froze half! Yay The Kylie project!)
Ironed and hung clean curtains in the freshly-painted living room.
Withstood (and withsat) some very painful pains.
And pretended that I didn't care.
No pictures.

I think I need to have a Musicals of the Decades Marathon party, because it's been awhile since I enjoyed the movies and songs that I love the most. And because I keep finding reasons to sit down, just not in front of the rebellious sewing machine. Who wants to join me?