kendra mccracken

Bad Day Gone Good

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:31:00 +0000

Rotten day today. Totally caught off guard this morning by a phone call that didn't really bother me too much while it was happening. But as the day went on, I got more and more upset and angry. Not angry at the person but angry at the situation. By the time the boys got home from school I had red, puffy eyes. Shawn wasn't here. I don't get like that very often but when I do, he's my sounding board and helps me put things back in perspective. Caelan stepped up. After a hug and listening, he said, "Quit worrying about it. It's done and there's nothing you can do about it now." And he was right. Sometimes there really isn't a fix. He didn't join in my pity party or, worse, "support" me with comments of indignation. He's made me so proud (the good kind, not the arrogant kind) lately with some of our discussions. He's breaking free from us, solving his own problems and making his own decisions so wisely. He's becoming a man. Bittersweet but I'm at ease with the direction he's taking. So after our talk, we ate the Panera Potato Soup I made with LOTS of bacon and cheese. I spent time with my sewing machine (even though its bulb is burned out). And we listened to music all night. A few of my favorites from the night.

(Embedding is disabled on the official video. Boo.)

(My favorite right now. I'd be embarrassed if anyone saw iTunes library and how many times I've listened to the songs on this CD!)

(And the last one led to this one. Will and I watch this one a lot. We wish we were in the video. He wishes he could wear the mustache. I wish I was coordinated enough to even do this little bit of dancing.)

(Unfortunately, this is a little more similar to how I dance.)

(Even more unfortunate is that this is an even better representation.)

Putting will to bed and then I have a little more time to run that Switchfoot song count up higher!

Fabric Covered Letters

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:02:00 +0000

I have a new project, these fabric covered letters, up on the Fiskars site. It didn't turn out quite the way I envisioned. When I went to Hobby Lobby to buy letters, I didn't realize just how popular they were going to be.

After visiting 4 different Hobby Lobby stores, and one of them two different weekends, DAD was the only word I was able to spell with the letters that were still available! Not that DAD doesn't work out just fine. If you like to do handmade Father's Day gifts, this is definitely one to file away for later. Dad, his name, a nickname your kids have for him. I just had a more feminine project in mind when I planned this out in January. An inspiring word. Maybe if you are doing Ali's One Little Word you could incorporate it with this idea. Might I suggest that you look for your letters online instead of banking on your local Hobby Lobby having what you need? You can find a step-by-step tutorial for making fabric covered letters like these on the Fiskars website.

Margie Pearls

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:26:00 +0000

I got out of the house again yesterday. That was two days in a row! I thought I could do my next Fiskars project (which I'm so excited about!!!) using fabrics I already have on hand but since someone decided that Tango Tangerine is THE color for 2012, I "had" to go to Margie Pearls. I can't say that I complained too much. Or at all.

I love fabric shopping and the good thing about going to Margie Pearls is Will gets just as excited as I do about going. They have giant tubs of buttons set out around the store and Will spends his time searching through them. He looks for wood buttons for me (there aren't very many so I'm always surprised when he finds a couple) and funky buttons for him. They're only a nickle apiece so for $1 or less, I keep him happy while I shop.

I was all smug when I went to the counter because I was going to be able to go home with proof that Shawn is wrong. He says I can't buy fabric without buying at least one that is turquoise. I had one yard of orange fabric in my hands when I got to the counter. Then I saw the huge table of fat quarters that were on sale for $1.50 each.

I couldn't pass these up. So I had to pass on my smugness this trip. Something funny to note about my fabric choices when I'm working on projects that aren't for our home. I always buy all these happy colors and fun patterns. They are nothing like what I buy to sew for our home. If I believed in astrology I'd be the perfect fit for my Gemini sign. I equally love both these happy fun fabrics and all the neutrals I use in our home. I make up for the missing patterns with textures. It has me curious to know if most people craft with different colors than they decorate with or if that's just one of my idiosyncracies.

When I finally made it to the cash register, Will found these pens and started begging for one. He has an affinity for pens. I still think he has a supressed artist inside him. I'm anxiously waiting for it to take over his military/video game phase. Anyway, I was going to buy him one and the owner of Margie Pearls showed me how they work. They have an "eraser" on the end. You can use these as a marking pen on fabric and then either erase the marks when you're done or iron them away. I hate marking with chalk because it always does one of 2 things. It doesn't show up or it rubs off before you're ready for it to. Not a fan of disappearing ink pens either. I usually just use a pencil. I'm sure that's considered sacreligious to some! I do always wish I could remove the marks but my laziness and impatience wins out every time. I bought myself one of these pens and I'm hoping it really works. I'll let you know in the next few days.

Off to sew some chevron!

Love and Respect

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:47:00 +0000

I'm still working the adjustment to working full-time. It's been a smooth transition overall. It hasn't disrupted our lives like I thought it would. Shawn and the boys do a lot to help around the house and with meals. There are a few things that are new. Making sure Will has a ride home from school every day. Getting to bed at a decent time. No more nights past 11 or I'm in big trouble the next day. This one has been hard. The worst adjustment has been how much time I spend at home now. I work from home so I'm automatically here 8.5 hours a day. Dinner starts when I finish. Caelan runs errands for me before he comes home from baseball practice and then drives home to our house out in the boonies. Unless he had plans that take him back to town after dinner and I can tag along and get dropped off somewhere, I'm still here! I tried to go with him Wednesday night this week but didn't get everything finished before he had to leave. So yesterday, Friday, was the first time I left the house since last Friday. And let me tell you, I couldn't wait to get out of here!

I started out at McDonalds to read for a while and drink a really bad hot chocolate. Everyone should read this book before getting married. And if you didn't, you still should read it. I might change my mind when I finish it but for now, judging just from what I've read so far, I believe that I'll still feel this way. In a nutshell, it's about how we all know, because of countless books and marriage seminars, that women want (need) unconditional love from their husband. What is never addressed is that men want (need) unconditional respect from their wife. The two pieces go together to make a marriage work. If you're like I was, a red flag just went up that maybe that means the author believes we're supposed to tolerate an abusive husband. He doesn't. There is plenty of material covering the husband's responsibility. Everything is backed by supporting scripture which clearly states a husband is to honor his wife and treat her as an equal or as more. That doesn't mesh with abuse of any kind! And there is even a chapter titled She Fears Being a Doormat.

The concept of this book is why our marriage works. As I was learning to live married life this way, I didn't know that there was a concept to be lived out. All I knew is that I loved my husband and when he told me that he needed to feel like I respected him (over and over again) I began trying to give it to him. I haven't been perfect at it, or even close. I've messed up a lot along the way. After almost 25 years together I still do. But I know the more I work at it, the more natural it becomes to just be a wife that gives my husband respect. I don't really even need to think much about it unless I'm mad at him and even then, the more I practice it, the easier marriage becomes. The arguments are fewer. They are shorter. The recovery time after them is nil because there aren't things said that sting unless they should sting (you really do need to work on something). The best part, the more he feels respected, the more I feel his love for me and feel secure in it. And it's not in flowers and cards and gifts. Those aren't always available. I don't have to wait on them. My security is in that he is open with me. He talks to me. He doesn't shut me out and act distant. He's secure coming to me and telling me when he's struggling with something rather than holding it in, fearing that my comments will be harsh, acusatory, unloving. It wasn't always that way. When I was harsh, acusatory, unloving, he sometimes would go for as long as a week without saying anything to me outside of yes or no. He didn't fully trust that I would respond in a way that would make him feel I respected him even if what he was struggling with had nothing to do with me. Over the years, through feeling respected by me, he's grown to know he can tell me honestly what he thinks about anything, even if he knows before he tells me that I won't agree, and it won't evolve into a battle full of dredged up past and lists of shortcomings. Reading this book is making me have even more respect for him because he saw nearly 25 years ago, before we were even married, what it took to make marriage work. He has guided us through some rough times, always leading in a way so that I feel even more loved now than I did back then.

After McDonalds, I ran a few boring errands and then left my car at Caelan's school so he could get home. I had my friend Jen come pick me up. We made a quick run to a thrift store where I easily talked her into 5 pairs of new shoes, including a pair of $3 Borns that looked like they'd never been worn. We ran to Taco Bell to grab lunch and then headed to Will's school because the purpose of our meeting was she wanted to treat him to lunch for his birthday. He was so excited and had given me instructions to get there plenty early so we could sit by him before everyone else crowded around. As we sat at the table in the lunch room (I was amazed at how LOUD an elementry school lunch room is when you aren't 10 years old), we listened with voracious laughter in our heads to 2 little girls telling us about their families and innocently sharing details I'm sure weren't supposed to go past the front door.

When our time together was almost up, I started telling Jen about this book I'm reading. She said, "I have that book! I've had it for a while but I haven't read it." The rest of our conversation was full of my encouragement for her to read it. She texted me today to tell me she's going to start reading it tonight. I already know she's going to love it because she's going to understand that this is exactly why her marriage, which is longer than mine, also works.

The Princess and The Pea (Brain)

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:34:00 +0000

Just popping in with a quick entry tonight to share a new article I have up on the Fiskars website. Follow the link below the photos and you'll find a tutorial for making these incredibly simple dog beds. They are waterproof so you only have to wash the covers. Never the pillow. And there are no zippers. They are held closed with Velcro.

This is a really great beginner project. And if you don't want to make them waterproof, it's even easier. I used a shower curtain as the cover for the pillow part of the bed and it's a little tricky to sew because it's slick. But, since the liner gets turned right-side out before you stuff it, no one will ever see if the layers shift and you're a little off on your sewing. Guess how I know that?

The tutorial for making these dog beds, as well as the story behind why I decided we needed waterproof dog beds, can be found on the Fiskars website.

Happy Birthday Will!

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:23:00 +0000

If you've been around a while, you've seen this one before. I first posted it on his 5th birthday. And I've posted it a few years since. He turned 10 today and this means just as much to me as I did when I wrote it. I never want to forget even the tiniest bit how powerful the whole experience of my pregnancy with him was in my life and for my faith.

To the boy about whom I was asked, "Is that a good thing?" when I announced I was pregnant,

To the boy whom my body tried to deliver at 19 weeks gestation,

To the boy whom the doctors said my body would abort that night,

To the boy who was with me when I prayed that night,

To the boy who stayed tucked safely away that night,

To the boy who was with me when my cervix was stitched closed,

To the boy who was with me when the perinatologist said, "Someone was with both of us because I should not have caught this and you should have aborted,"

To the boy who was with me when the anesthesiologist said, "You need to always remember that this baby is still with you, not because of anything we have done medically. He is with you because God wants him here. You must never forget that."

To the boy who the doctors said had to stay inside me for 6 more weeks for an attempt to be made to save him and for me not to have hope,

To the boy who was with me when I ignored them and prayed those next 6 weeks,

To the boy who the doctors told me would never make it full term and would likely have physical and/or mental disabilities,

To the boy whose movements kept my hope alive as I lived on the couch for 4-and-a-half months,

To the boy who was with me for the holter monitor and the insulin injections,

To the boy who stumbled to the refrigerator with me during the late-night blood sugar crashes,

To the boy who we fought to keep inside me until week 37,

To the boy whose heart rate plummeted during delivery and caused chaos in the delivery room,

To the boy, the same boy whom we fought to keep inside me, whose shoulders got stuck during delivery and who couldn't get out,

To the boy who finally entered this world with the help of pushes on my abdomen from 3 nurses and Dad,

To the boy who came out 9 lbs, 2 oz, with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, but perfectly healthy,

To the boy who reinforced my faith, who proved to me God is always with me, who showed the sovereign power of God to doctors, family, and friends,

Happy 5th birthday, Baby. Thank you for the important lessons. I'll never give up on you.

P.S. Happy Birthday to Doggy, too. Thank you for comforting Will for the last 5 10 years.

What a Hat! I Like it! I Like That Party Hat!

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:58:00 +0000

Yesterday, Shawn and I had a busy day. His grandma died about a year ago and we've (99% he, 1% me) have been cleaning her house out. We worked on it for a few hours before going to pick Will up from school. It was a rushed afternoon and he was a little on the irritable side. We pulled into the gas station and as we pulled up to the pump, a lady standing at the pump next to us started grinning to the point where she was nearly laughing. He said, "What is she grinning at? Who stands at the gas pump and grins that big when they're all alone?" *Insert dramatic mocking of grinning woman.* I began making excuses for her. I stand at the gas pump alone and grin! I said, "Maybe she can hear her radio through the car window. I turn the radio up so I can her when I'm pumping gas."

And then he got out of the car, turned toward it, and saw his reflection. And he started laughing. *Insert dramatic pointing-at-own-head with tongue stuck out to the side.*

Gee, Honey. I wonder what she was grinning at. And never mind the fact that I sat there and looked at him with this hat on his head making excuses for her. *Insert dramatic smack-myself-in-the-head "DUH!"*

Kids' Art Display Board

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:18:00 +0000

Today marks the midpoint of my 3rd week of my new journey as a full-time working mom. My schedule runs Sunday to Thursday so today, Tuesday, is my Wednesday. Lots of change in my life. It's been almost 17 years since I had a full-time job and it's been never since I did it as a mom. Even though I'm working from home I still find the whole balance thing to be tough. Makes me have mad respect for those of you who do it away from home. The time you spend commuting in the morning I spend doing laundry and sweeping my floors. And your evening commute is my time to start warming the stove up for dinner. Other benefits:

If I forget to turn off the iron I can just run into the other room instead of worrying about it all day. Of course, that would require that I actually ironed my clothes.

I can run in and stick homemade bread dough in the oven. I just have to prepare it the night before.

I get to talk to my husband in person because he's here, too.

I can wear my pjs; However, I don't. I've been making myself get dressed, although it be in holey jeans and hoodies, and put on my make up every morning before I start work.
And that's about all I've come up with so far. I know there are more.

There are not-so-good things, too.

I can no longer check in on Facebook at my leisure.

I haven't figured out how I'm going to do the whole gardening/canning thing this summer. Big problem. Mainly because it means I'm going to have to bribe my kids who both loathe gardening.

I really never leave the house anymore. I've always been a homebody but now I can't just leave when I want. And since we live so far out of town, it makes sense gas-wise and time-wise to just have Caelan do the grocery shopping after school.

I can't go back to KC to see my family as easily.

I have to schedule my time to complete my projects for Fiskars. No more 9 a.m. to 3 a.m. crafting days the night before. This one I should actually add to the good list. If I do that, my good list will be longer than my bad list. So we'll do that and end my list making right here. I'll stay true to my goal in my last entry of not making bad lists!

And I'll close out today by sharing a new project I have up on the Fiskars website.

I'll start with full disclosure. This is a cleaned up version of what my fridge normally looks like. On my blog I could frighten people by sharing a photo of what it really looked like. When you're taking photos for the website of a business you can't do the I-should-be-on-an-episode-of-Hoarders photos. Imagine this with about 50 more pieces of paper piled on. Drove me absolutely batty. Love my kid's artwork. Love the excitement on his face when he brings something new to me. Don't love the clutter on the fridge.

So I made this. Is it ironic that I hated all the random layering on the fridge so my solution was to make a board with a cover that has random layering on it? I read one a rant from someone one time on the internet that the word ironic is most often used incorrectly so I'm always timid about using it. And then there's the whole Alanis Morissette thing. I think she now owns the rights to the word ironic. I still start singing the song in my head when I hear the word. And that leads to thinking about when we lived in KC and my favorite DJ there, Kelly Urich, played it one time and said something about dancing around naked in our radios afterward so it leads to massive internal giggles when I hear the song now. I'm sure you're getting a better mental image of what my fridge really looked like. Much like the thoughts in my head, it was a cluttered mess of randomness.

More full disclosure, I made this awesome (most overused word but still my favorite happy adjective) board and I still haven't hung it. We're wall-hanging challenged. Shawn wants things to be hung one time forever and ever. In a stud with a screw or, if it meets a certain weight requirement, it can be hung in the drywall with a plastic anchor. I want to buy and move things around all the time. You know, lots of holes and buy a giant tub of wall putty. See the texture of the wall? It only looks this funky and overpowering when you bounce flash off your ceiling onto it. But it's still texture and I'd send him over the deep end if I was constantly making random smooth spots on it with wall putty, so I try to choose my hanging spots carefully, which I haven't done with this board yet.

But I can still start filling it. If you'd like to make an art display board for your kids (or your lists or whatever your choice of paper piles happens to be), you can find a tutorial for making one on the Fiskars website.

Crossing List Making Off My List

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:53:00 +0000

I was list making earlier this morning. It wasn't the good kind. It was the kind where everything on it was something someone had done to irritate me, inconvenience me, take advantage of me, broken a promise they made to me, things like that.

I hate list days. The whole time I'm list making, I tell myself I'm being ridiculous. I irritate people. I inconvenience them. I take advantage of them. And I know the things that are so terrible that they land on the list, if I shared them, everyone would say, "Really? What a princess." And yet, the list keeps growing. When broken promises and dog begin populating the list, I start getting embarrassed at the level of crazy going on in my head. I'm glad I've learned over time to keep my mouth shut when I'm doing crazy. Eventually, but not soon enough, I think of Someone who is entitled to a list longer than any of us could even begin to fathom, a list thousands and thousands of years in the making, a list that I contribute to daily, and how, instead, He forgives. Not only does He forgive, He sacrificed for those whom He could put on the list. And, I've been called to sacrifice, not make lists. Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice . . . be transformed by the renewing of your mind . . . do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement. And then . . . whoa. There is a list. Serve. Give generously. Lead diligently. Show mercy cheerfully. Love sincerely. Cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another. Honor one another above yourselves. Serve the Lord. Be joyful, patient, faithful. Share with those in need. Practice hospitality. And lest I be tempted to think, "Yes, but the people on my list . . ." it wraps up with bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. The people on my list weren't persecuting me. They were irritating me. Inconveniencing me. Taking advantage of me (and this one is a big stretch). Surely that means I'm not supposed to be cursing them either.

Now that I've erased my silly list from my mind, I'm thinking of Will. He came to me yesterday morning and said, "Ethan broke his lunch bag and had to bring his lunch in a brown paper sack today. He was embarrassed. I would like to take my lunch in a brown paper sack tomorrow so he won't have to be alone." That story is what I planned to share here this morning. It was a last minute request so I didn't have time to take a sweet photo of him looking at me while holding his brown lunch sack yesterday. I thought I would just grab a quick one of him this morning while he was packing his lunch. My flash wouldn't cooperate (operator error), and he left before I could figure it out. I was irritated that my blog post wasn't going to be the same without that photo.

I started looking through old photos of Will, trying to find one of him looking at the camera with his sweet, full-of-joy smile. Instead, I started by opening a folder containing these photos. They are over 3 years old but they illustrate what is most beautiful about him better than what I had in mind. His sweet heart. His concern for others.

We used to have this rooster. His name was Fuzzy. Fuzzy's dad was Cogburn and Cogburn was driven more by his king-of-the-cock (as my mother-in-law describes him) instincts than his fatherly-love instincts. He terrorized Fuzzy so much that Fuzzy left the flock. He wouldn't even go into the chicken coop at night. He felt safer in the woods with the coyotes than in the confined quarters of the coop with his father. Will was only 6 at the time, but it made him sad and angry that Cogburn treated Fuzzy the way he did.

Will discovered that Fuzzy liked to hang out under the hickory nut tree and pick up little pieces of nut that he could get through the shells that had been broken when run over by the tractor. So he started going out, every afternoon, and breaking open hickory nuts for Fuzzy to eat. When Fuzzy saw Will walking toward the tree, he would come running across the pasture.

I felt sorry for Fuzzy, too. Maybe my child heart would have made me do differently when I was 6 years old. I don't know. I'd like to think so. But at almost 40, even though I felt sorry for Fuzzy, my reasoning told me it was just instinct and I walked away. Will served. He gave generously. He showed mercy cheerfully. He loved sincerely. He clung to what was good. He honored another above himself. He shared with one in need. He practiced hospitality. He didn't need a list to drive him to do those things beforehand and he didn't make a list to think more highly of himself than he ought to afterwards.

I don't want my love your neighbor as yourself to be as simple as feeding a bullied rooster hickory nuts. Compassion for animals is a wonderful thing, and Shawn says you can tell a lot about people by the way they treat animals. But I want my love to mature, much like Will's has, to looking at everyone around me, to do things in the name of making them feel loved that may put me outside of the circle of comfort and conformity. I want to love better. And I want it to be a part of me, not something that I can't remember to do without a list.

And for the record, one of Will with his full-of-joy smile. That dimple slays me.

Quilting Goals Album

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:16:00 +0000

I have a new project up on the Fiskars website. I have, for a very long time, wished to be a quilter. I think it's fascinating how many different ways fabric and thread have been combined into works of beautifully textured art generation after generation. And the fact that someone invests so much of their time into making one and then hands it over to others to lie on while wearing their everyday grubby clothes, to picnic on,to make tents from, to pull one other around on the hardwood floors while giggling, to downright use and abuse, that is a labor of love. I want to be like that, to look at my time as an investment in something bigger and more important. But I over think things, including quilting. Expensive. Tedious. I don't have a free-motion stitching foot. I don't have crazy-clever design skills. What if the fabrics I order don't look good together. On and on. And I never learn more about quilting.

I made this little book hoping it will keep me encouraged to experiment more with quilting this year. The goal seemed more authentic and convincing when I began piecing together fabric remenants and buttons and lace and burlap to create the cover. Not that I would ever use burlap in a quilt! But all those pieces of random texture, visual and tactile, pulling together to create something that is both scattered and harmonious. I'm excited about filling it with samples of my journey into the world of learning how to connect them in more intricate, interesting ways than the simple blocks I've worked with to this point.

The tutorial for making this quilted book cover can be found on the Fiskars website.

New Year, Renewed Spirit

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:27:00 +0000

We're 7 days into the new year and each day that's passed since it started, I've sat here tweaking a blog entry. The same one for 7 days and I can't seem to get my thoughts hashed out clearly enough to make it flow right. So I decided it was time to set it aside and move on. Maybe I'll come back to it later. It a nutshell, it explains why I, who, much to the chagrin of my poor family, am normally the bearer of all things personal and embarrassing, was such an aimless blogger for most of last year. Very difficult year. From start to finish. But as the year wrapped up, I found myself feeling good about where I am in life. As I mentioned, I tried to put it into words, but some of what I'm feeling good about is new revelation and I haven't been able to fully process it all, to figure out where I go with it. I do know I've found the desire to write again. Apparently not enough to be able to make a blog entry cohesive enough to publish. But enough that I found myself writing a sappy, sentimental article about canned tomatoes for my latest assignnment for Fiskars. I think I toed the line on crazy, but I was pleased with it when I finished and it works.

A few things from the past few weeks.

I finally got a job! Such a frustrating, discouraging, icky process. The whole resume, sell-yourself-as-more-capable-than-Jesus-himself thing just feels dishonest to me. Everyone knows all the applicants are plumping up their resumes with important-sounding adjectives and deception about how irreplaceable we were at our last job. And yet we still have to do it. Shawn went through this midway through last year and I was getting irritated with him not selling himself better, but I had to eat crow when it came time for me to do it myself. I spent an hour filling out an online application for one company and I got to the last question. "If we met your former boss at a picnic, what would he say about you?" Really. I typed one sentence, looked at it, and wondered if I really wanted to work for a company that made me answer such a ridiculous question, especially for an entry level job. I just closed out the application without submitting it. You can call it pride but it felt more like preserving dignity.

The company I eventually got a job with has been awesome to this point. I don't actually start work until Monday, but I've been treated very professionally so far through phone interviews and paperwork signing and such. No silly questions. I didn't even have to test with them. For those of you who don't know what I'll be doing, it's medical transcription. Every other company I applied with requires you to test, and I have no opposition to that. But this company accepts that I just finished training through one of their preferred schools and trusts, based on past experience with others, that I am worth investing time and resources in. And I'm assuming that there was the most important element, common sense. I just graduated so I have the experience of a new graduate. No humiliating hoop jumping required for explaining why I'm qualified when I have no experience yet. The pay and benefits are more than I hoped for. And I got a sweet schedule! I expected to have to work nights for at least a year. I was literally depressed about it. Instead, I got an 8 a.m. to 4:30 shift. Unbelievable. The whole package is such a blessing I'm still pinching myself. The only thing that didn't work out in my favor is my schedule is Sunday through Thursday. And that means my church services will be experienced through podcasts. I'm hoping that, after working there for a while, my Sunday schedule can be adjusted. I've heard a lot of good things about their flexibility with scheduling.

Moving on. A few months back, the David Crowder Band announced they were dissolving. I don't think that was the word they used, but I know I read somewhere that they clarified they were not "breaking up." I guess (hope) that means they are keeping their options open for future albums together! So, knowing that their touring would cease, I started looking online to see if they would be touring in our area. I found they were going to be in Branson 3 days after Christmas. Even better, they were performing at a youth conference with other bands. Caelan was excited because one of his favorite bands, Switchfoot, was going to be performing as well. There were several other bands, including Toby Mac, but we were both anxious about our 2 favorites being there. I knew a few of Switchfoot's songs (more than I actually realized) but I didn't have their music on continuous repeat like I did David Crowder. I came away from their concert a big fan. I've been to a lot of concerts and they put on one of the best performances I've ever seen. But that isn't what most impressed me, as much as it did.

This did. Crummy photo but worth sharing. Jon Foreman walking through the crowd of teenage kids shaking their hands, touching them, and looking them in the eye as he sang Restless. We're talking about a man in his mid-30s and teenagers, so if you don't know anything about him, I should mention it wasn't creepy or seductive-like! It was moving. He could have stood on the stage, looking out over the crowd singing, and they would have been screaming and cheering for him. He could have taken it a bit farther by reaching down and slapping a few hands. Instead, he connected with them. He made them feel like they matter. I can't share all the photos I took of him working his way through the crowd here on my blog. But if you're interested, you can see them on my Facebook or Flickr accounts.

Caelan bought their newest CD while we were at the concert because it was autographed. In addition to countless You Tube videos, we've listened to the CD nonstop since we got home. Curious to know more about them, I looked up their website and found a link to articles Jon Foreman has written for The Huffington Post. Amazing writing. Rich and deep and though provoking. Don't those 3 descriptives together read like a cliche book review??? It's the best I can do right now. It's nearly 2 a.m. and I'm too tired to be creative or even search a thesaurus. I'm being a bad work geek! Go read some of the articles and you'll understand what I mean. I'll be cliche again and continue with, but I digress.

I finished reading through all the articles Thursday and found the consistent theme of loving others, especially the unloved. He seems to have found the delicate balance between not just being able to speak to Christians and non-Christians through his obviously God-centered music, but also being a unifying advocate for the need to help others (and exmplifying it, not just preaching it) without expecting that it has to be or can be mandated. I understood it to all stem from caring for everyone he comes in contact with, appreciating every audience, doing free acoustic aftershows in the parking lot for teens, in general, from having the kind of heart for other human beings that the bible tells us we should. The whole idea that someone seems to be genuinely fleshing that out is part of what my typically skeptical mind is processing. I struggled so much over the last year with what it means to truly love others and how often I fail at it. More accurately, with people who have character traits that make them hard to love. Really struggled. I even asked Shawn early in the week if he thinks that being intolerant with people who annoy you, for whatever reason, is something you ever overcome in your character and he said no. He thinks it only gets worse as you get older. Not what I wanted to hear. And not how I want to be. It just seems the older I get, more I feel I don't belong in this world. Or at least I don't want to belong in this world. That probably sounds really gloomy and may even concern someone. I don't mean I don't love life. I actually fit in quite well here, in ways other than my struggle to love the way we're supposed to. I love my peeps, my dogs, my hobbies, I love the miracles and the awe of things that cannot be explained. I love the beauty of knowing that there is Grace in spite of our ugliness. I love all the little details of my life. It's just disheartening feeling there's no hope that humanity as a whole will ever get love your neighbor as yourself right, even if we were challenged to try it just for 5 minutes. And it's oddly liberating to know that, even though I fail at this miserably on my own every single day, I no longer revel in the moments of, "I showed her." They make me regretful and sad and longing for the day when it won't be like this.

And I have one final tidbit of my life to share, one that I am both terrified about and completely honored to be a part of; I've been asked to co-author a book. That's as far as it progressed to this point. I'm praying that it's something that grows wings and takes flight. I suppose I could make some little mechanical wings, How To Train Your Dragon style, and force it off the ground. But it's not my story to share. I'm simply there to pull it all together and dress it in words that help people feel as much of the raw emotions my friend has had to work through as possible. Her story is so full of pain, but it is also full of her love for God and her patience with Him and her acceptance of the life He has allowed for her.

So, like I said, that's it in nutshell. It may not seem very pithy to you, but if I fully explained all that was going on in my mind right now, you'd agree this was the abridged version.

Pinterest Inspired Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:32:00 +0000

Whew! This one was hard to photograph! It didn't matter whether I used natural light or bounced flash, because the surfaces are mirrored, I got reflections from the light. Natural light seemed to work better so here it is. DIY mercury glass. I found this months ago on Pinterest and it was linked to Martha's website so I used that tutorial. Here is a link to my pin.

It's really easy. Clean your glass well, protect the outer surfaces with newspaper (don't try to skip this step!), spritz the inside of the container with water, apply light coats of Krylon's Looking Glass paint. Paint that you, of course, buy with a 40% off coupon because it is expensive! I didn't take a photo of the can but it's smaller than the average can and has a silver mirrored cap.

I paid $4 for all of my glass at thrift stores. I was lucky to find these glass trees on the same day at 2 different stores in town. Sad that they are always sterotyped as vessels for red and green Hershey's Kisses or M&Ms, I decided to show they can be dressed up fancy for the holidays, too.

I have to admit that as I was waiting for the paint to dry, I was disappointed in how drippy the paint was. You dry the containers upside down which means when you turn them right-side up, the runs travel in the wrong direction. Not that I prefer runs to begin with! But I'm not sure you can prevent them if you're spritzing with water initially, which prevents the paint from sticking to the glass in spots and gives the mercury glass look.

I did find another tutorial that, if I do this again, I would probably try instead. Instead of spritzing with water, you paint the inside of the container first using 4-5 light coats, allowing them to dry for a minute or so between. I do recommend using several light coats regardless of what method of distressing you use. After you're finished painting but before it is completely dry, you spritz the paint with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water. The full tutorial can be found through this pin.

And I'll close with a photo that shows even though they have a mirrored finish, they also have some opacity when strong light passes through. Here it's window light but you get this same appearance with a votive (battery operated for safety reasons since they have lids!) inside them.

If you have a Pinterest inspired project you'd like to share, feel free to add it to the gallery below.

Currently Recovering From Techinical Difficulties

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:59:00 +0000

I've had a morning of technical difficulties. Power was out for a while and the battery operated tea lights I bought at Target to go with my Pinterest inspired project for today are junk so I don't have my project photographed yet, but I should have it up later today.

I have a couple of my December Daily pages to share. Days 1 and 2 are complete with photos. Not at all happy with my photos so I may just wait until the end of the month and order all my photos at one time online. We'll see how patient I am with having completed pages and no photos on them before I vow to never use Walmart photo lab again. I do that every once in a while but honestly, our Walmart normally does a pretty good job and it's so convenient. I'll probably do like I normally do and pout for a few days, get my monitor calibrated, and make adjustments to accomodate for the way their machines are developing right now.

Here's day 1. This is actually Pinterest inspired. The daily scripture reading is from Tip Junkie, plus a few verses I added for Christmas Day. I put a tag with the day's verse in each ornament on our Advent calendar. In past years I've done the names of Jesus and a craft activity with the boys (not for several years with Caelan) and I have a tendency to over-do it and make it a lot of work which eventually becomes no fun! Will was even talking about how not fun making a new ornament every day last year was. This year it's just the verse and the calendar and a quick review each night of the characteristics we've already read about. I have a much happier boy who is remembering what I want him to remember. That is my goal!

And this is day 2. Hot cocoa and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

December Daily

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:42:00 +0000

I decided Monday evening that I was going to do December Daily. I've never done it before but earlier this year I participated in Week In the Life and I discovered something through the process. I used to scrapbook nearly every day. Through the years, I've gotten more involved in other crafts. The time to to do those other things has to come from somewhere and since I don't think my family will go for never having clean laundry or meals, it came from my scrapbooking time. I'm to the point where I'm lucky to scrapbook once a month. I really enjoyed spending a whole week focusing on taking lots of photos and recording the stories when I did Week In the Life and I realized if I do it and December Daily, I'm getting a good record of what goes on in our family twice a year. At this point, that's good enough for me!

So I started on my December Daily book Tuesday. I'm sure Shawn rolled his eyes when he saw the turquoise, red, and cream. He teases me about using that combination so frequently but getting started late, I didn't want to even try fighting it so I went with it. I decided I'm going to limit myself to spending no more than $5, not counting photo developing, and try to use some of the stuff I've accumulated over the years. I've been looking at the books of others and when I see some of the cool things being used, I realize now it's going to be harder than it seemed when I made that rule for myself! However, going through my stuff, I've discovered tons of stuff I'd forgotten about, so it's a fun challenge.

This is what I came up with for my base. I used an old damaged book. I ripped the guts out and just used the covers. Our local office supply store was out of 2 inch rings so it's held together with one defective one for now, and I'll see what it looks like to tie a couple of cheesecloth strips to both rings when I get them.

My inside front cover.

And my intro page.

I've cut pages from a variety of patterned papers for my base pages in the book, but that's it. I have a basket of embellishments and a basket of tools in my dining room to make things go a little faster each day, and I have a list of things I'd like to document. I started yesterday with our Advent calendar and today's page will be about us watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas as a family while we drink hot cocoa and eat popcorn. One of our traditions!

I know some people think a project like this only adds to the craziness of the holidays. I thought that would be the case with A Week In the Life but I found that it actually helped me keep things more organized. I had a list of things I wanted to document and was better about scheduling plenty of time for them. I'm hoping for the same with December Daily.

Hope those of you who are participating it are enjoying it as much as I am! I'll share more pages when I get photos printed and in the book.

ETA: I'm doing new blog enteries as I complete pages but I thought I'd add photos of them to this entry, as well, so they will be all together in one place.

Day 1.

Day 2.

Pinterest Inspired

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:20:00 +0000

Have I mentioned before that I love Pinterest? My friend Sue loves Pinterest, too. She wrote one week that she loves it so much she thinks she needs Pintervention! She's always posting projects she's made that were inspired by things she saw there. I make things I see on Pinterest, too. But not like Sue does. She's always working on something she saw there. She's always so excited when she posts about it on her blog. And I always get excited when I read about the things she posts on her blog! So I decided to set a goal of making and sharing at least one thing a week, through the end of December, that is inspired by something I saw on Pinterest. If you want to join me and share a Pinterest inspired project you made, I'll have a gallery with a link at the end of each entry where you can share what you made for the week. I'll close it when a new week's gallery opens. You can use my weekly project as your inspiration or your own. And you can post a tutorial or not post a tutorial. The idea is just to put some of those things that inspire you into action.

This week's project was inspired by these canvases.

ETA: I originally had a photo here that was linked to the website where it originated but since it's been pinned on Pinterest as though it was something I created, I've deleted the photo. Please click the above link to see a photo of the beautiful piece that inspired me to make the one you see below.

Aren't they gorgeous? If you want to buy one of these canvases, you can go to the Women Before Us website and do just that! I can tell you after making my own project that these aren't made by grabbing a bunch of doilies from a basket and slapping them on a canvas with some spray adhesive like I did. The doilies look too crisp and perfect for these to be quick projects like mine. You can even send your own doilies (or your mom's or grandma's) and have them made into one of these gorgeous creations. I don't have family heirloom doilies so I made my own.

When I started, I planned to keep it simple and make my canvas just like those on the Women Before Us site. However, my base doilies came from The Dollar Tree. They were all the same and nowhere near as pretty as the doilies used on the Women Before Us canvases. They couldn't stand on their own and so I had to do my canvas a little differently. But I still made myself keep it simple, which is not in my genes. I had to force myself to stop adding stuff. This project only took me about 30 minutes to complete. Success!

I started by painting an 11" x 14" canvas off white.

When the paint was dry, I used a spray adhesive to adhere the doilies to the canvas.

When the adhesive was dry, I trimmed the excess doily off. You could paint over the whole project at this point with more acrylic paint if you like a more thick, textured look or with spray paint if you just want the color without the texture.

I embellished with some smaller doilies and wood buttons I had in my stash.

I layered some fabric scraps (2" squares that I folded), stamped on the muslin scrap, and stitched them all to the canvas.

And in 30 minutes I had this.

I'll be back tomorrow to post my Pinterest inspiration for the week!

What I'm Doing Instead of Fixing Thanksgiving Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:49:00 +0000

It's just a couple of days before Thanksgiving and, since I get to tally another year in the column of I've-never-made-a-Thanksgiving-dinner-because-my-mother-in-law-is-so-awesome, I get to peruse Pinterest instead of preparing food! I've accumulated a ridiculous number of pins. So much greatness on Pinterest. I thought it would be fun to set a goal of trying to make something Pinterest inspired once a week at least through December.

I'm going to start with this.

ETA: I originally had a photo here that was linked to the website where it originated but since it's been pinned on Pinterest as though it was something I created, I've deleted the photo. Please click the above link to see a photo of the beautiful piece that inspired me to make the one you see in my next post.

I'll be posting my project on Monday. If you want to play along, I'd love to have company! It doesn't have to be a canvas with a doily on it. Just something you created (even if it's a recipe or an organization project) that was inspired by a something you saw on Pinterest. I'll include a gallery where you can share a thumbnail of your project and a link to your blog post about it. If you participate, please include a link on your blog to the project that inspired you. Hope to see you back on Monday!

Thanksgiving Tablecloth

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:56:00 +0000

It's Fiskars deadline day and I'm excited to report I am NOT going to be up until midnight finishing. My family will have a nice, unburned dinner. I will not be stressed and short with anyone. I feel like June Cleaver today. Heck. I feel superior to June. She had 2 sons that pretended to bathe. I only have one.

I also have time to blog! So I thought I'd share my latest . . . Fiskars project! If you want to learn how to make this interchangeable tablecloth from a $5 bed sheet, a yard of your favorite fabric, and 4 buttons, you can find the tutorial on the Fiskars website.

And if you have some extra time when you're finished, you can follow my tutorial for making a set of matching napkins with the left over material.

Fall Collage

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:33:00 +0000

I have a new project up on the Fiskars website, a framed fall collage. I love these little collages. Everything is so neatly organized in nice little rows yet the colors and the patterns are totally random and mismatched. Perfect for those of us who can't figure out how to do the mixed media thing in a way that doesn't look like a you set a 5 year old loose in the school art room. I wish my mind worked like a mixed media artist's, but it doesn't. So obvious structure it is.

I framed it with this ugly old frame my mother-in-law got for free at a garage sale. I love it! I look at stuff like this frame and feel sad for the person who couldn't see the awesomeness of all that texture and was so afraid of having it still sitting on the table at the end of the weekend that they couldn't even put $1 sticker on it.

The scale came home with me a few months ago when I was visiting my grandma. She had me looking in my grandpa's tool closet in the garage for something and I spied it stuck way up high on a shelf. It's one of those things that I'm sure would have been destined for the free box or worse, the trash. I spent many hours outside with my grandpa working on his cars when I was little. I helped him change oil and brake pads and headlights. He talked to me about timing chains and pistons and spark plug gaps. I helped him mix up smelly epoxy resins and use it with fiberglass cloth to do body repair. I'm sure he realized I didn't understand most of what he was explaining to me! But he made me feel so special because he used all those big words around me and took the time to explain what he was doing as if he thought I could remember it all. Good times. And that scale with the army green chipped paint and grease on it takes me back to those days when I was so in love with my Grampy and I knew he had to be one of the smartest, most important men in the whole world.

One of Life's Big Mysteries

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:05:00 +0000

He has fleas that flea shampoo and Frontline can't kill.

He gave the cat fleas.

He always stinks. Even after a bath.

He peed on my slippers.

He peed on my shirt hanging on my closet doorknob the other day.

He pulled my suede coat off the couch last night and peed on it.

Today he scratched up the paint on the front door that I painted yesterday.

He prefers to crap on the driveway instead of the grass.

He barks all night if I put him in his kennel.

I have to keep him on a leash in the house when I can't watch him 100%.

He won't stop jumping on our old dog and "flexing his abs" as Will says.

He tears out the trash.

He eats his own poop.

He chases the chickens off and eats their food.

He chases the chickens off and eats their bread.

He chews holes in the handles of jugs of oil. Vegetable oil, motor oil. He's not picky as long as it's messy.

Would someone please explain to me why I like this dog? Because I do.

Cinnamon Cucumbers and the McCracken Household Job Hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:04:00 +0000

My latest article for Fiskars is up on the website now. If you have an abundance of cucumbers (even if they are yellow!) you can find a recipe for turning them in to a yummy apple-like treat, Cinnamon Cucumbers, here on the website.

I've had a week, since submitting my final exam, to relax and unwind and do things at my own pace without anything rushing me. I cleaned ceiling fans and light fixtures. I cleaned out the frightening mess of clothes in our closet. The size of the pile donations is quite humorous for someone who is a walking fashion disaster. I wiped down doors. I got my computer worked on so I can open Photoshop without my computer coming to a virtual stop. That means I can finally download the Totally Rad actions I bought last December! And I can print photos for all the long-distance relatives so they see what my kids look like. I got to go to KC and see my little sister's new house and help my grandma clean. I spent a lot of time visiting with my mom. I got to spend 2 1/2 hours in my favorite thrift store and came home with a big Kohl's bag packed full of "new" clothes. A pair of jeans (the waistband doesn't gap which is a big deal for me!!!), a pair of cords, 2 jackets (1 American Eagle), 3 sweaters (1 American Eagle), 2 shirts (including the most awesome embroidered Lucky Brand shirt that I can't wait to wear), a jean jacket (that looks fantastic with the Lucky shirt), and a vintage suede coat. All for $46. Shawn was folding clothes yesterday and just shook his head when he saw I'd bought more jackets. Frequent possession of black bananas and my affinity for coats are just 2 of my flaws! I'm eager for the end of October to get here. We have a girls' thrift store day in KC planned and I can't wait to show them my favorite places!

Now that my week of relaxation is over it's time to buckle down again. I got my results on my final yesterday and I passed "with honors!" That means I got an A-. So it's time to get a job! Will is in school now and the big garden season is over. Those two changes in my life mean I have until next spring to get my days routined. My biggest desire in that regard is to get my work day set in stone. One of the "benefits" of being a medical transcriptionist from home is that your schedule is flexible. You work when you can. That may work for some people but I learned by doing the course that way that it's stressful for me. I need set hours. When I started the program the idea was when I finished I would work part time. Now that I'm finished the plan has changed. I'm looking for full time hours.

Shawn's been out of work since May. The economy being in the state it's in hasn't left the veterinary industry unaffected. It's so crazy to us that he's gone from regularly turning away work to being unable to find any prospects in the 2-hour drive area he's established as reasonable. This year has been a really tough one for us in a lot of ways. There's so much that's happened with us that we don't share, situations we've faced and decisions we've had to make that people in our lives know nothing about. It's made me realize how unfair I've been in the past about my opinions of decisions other people have made during challenging times in their lives. Most people, even if they make what turn out to be bad decisions, are simply doing the best they can at the time and you never know what factors they don't share that affect those decisions.

We're not through the decision making yet. We're actually approaching the roughest part, deciding whether Shawn moves to Florida or Las Vegas for jobs that are available and leaves us behind until Caelan graduates and we sell everything to join him or whether he starts a clinic from nothing here. Other practices aren't hiring because the clients just aren't coming in unless they have to and we're faced with competing for that dwindling client base. Veterinary Economics magazine isn't offering much moral support. So we're going through all this uncertainty that looks to have no solution that offers any sense of security! Nothing jumps out and says this is the obvious answer. I'm so grateful for all the prayers being said for us. We're definitely going through this humbled and relying completely on faith. I think I have a little more going for me in the faith department because I believe God has given Shawn such exceptional skill at what he does that building up his clientelle won't be as difficult as he is anticipating. Word of mouth is powerful advertising. He doesn't have the luxury of thinking that way. It's all economics for him with no room for pride!

Enough Debbie Downer! No matter what happens, we've come through this with our marriage not only intact but strong. My husband is such an amazing person. Through all the stress I know he's feeling, he's never let it affect his relationship with any of us. He's here physically but also mentally and emotionally. And that is one thing that does give us a sense of security, that our family is going to be OK no matter where we end up. And that is far more important than anything else he could give us.

Christmas Organizer

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:48:00 +0000

I missed posting this when it went live on the Fiskars website. We teamed up with Graphic 45 a couple of weeks ago and I made this Christmas organizer. I think I'm the only grown up I know who doesn't have a grown up cell phone or any electronic devices to help keep me organized.

My lists are still on paper and I have magazine clippings and print recipes off on my printer. I love how technology has made sharing inspiration so much more accessible but for me, the portability of it all just isn't there yet.

So to keep all my lists and clippings and fabric and color swatches organized for Christmas preparation this year, I used Fiskars tools and Graphic 45 supplies to make this book. Everything I used, other than the red letter stickers on the front cover, was generously provided by Graphic 45.

I was so happy with how pretty and functional the project was when I finished it. The book is a bunch of heavy-weight envelopes bound together.

My purse is "shabby" inside just like the book is so things tend to get get a little battered in it.

So I also made this bag to store it in to prevent it from getting mangled in my purse. The bag quickly pulls closed with a drawstring so while it protects the book, it's easy to use and won't leave you with a line of impatient-turned-angry shoppers in line behind you.

A tutorial and list of tools used to create this Christmas Organizer and drawstring bag can be found on the Fiskars website.

Woot! Woot!

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Woot! Woot! That's my friend Jen's celebration call and I am excited to be using it today. It took me a year and 4 months but I've finally finished!!! After countelss quizzes over anatomy, drugs, diseases, Latin roots, grammar, medical record integrity, keyboard shortcuts, etc., and typing or editing over 1325 sample medical records, nearly 75 AAA batteries, and wearing nearly all of the letters off my keyboard, I clicked that submit button and put an end to it all today. I know it says there are 122 days left to complete the program down there in the lower left-hand corner. Not sure what that's all about. The truth is today was my deadline. I've had a daily countdown in bright red letters there for the past week and it's been on "0" since yesterday afternoon. Since June it's been my full-time focus every day but that wasn't enough. I've worked my tushy off the past few weeks trying to finish in time. For the past 2 weeks I've sat in this chair typing away for 17 hours a day so actually, I'll be surprised if I didn't work my tushy bigger rather than off. I barely squeaked my final in before having to pay for another extension. And extensions just aren't in our budget right now.

For the next two weeks I wait to see if I passed my final. I have no kids at home school. I have no coursework to complete. My garden is dead. I'll be playing catch-up and mending bridges. So if I've ignored your email, not mailed your punch, not met you for lunch, not exercised you, not dusted you, not disinfected you, not read a book to you, not had a girls' night with you, not helped you in your concession stand, not texted you back, not made sure you had decent food in your lunchbag, not baked you cookies, not done that project I promised you, or in some way made you feel like you're needs aren't important because I've not pulled my weight in our relationship, I'm excited to get back to life and having the time to reconnect with you! But first things first. I have to get reacquainted with my tweezers. I'd forgotten just how huge my eyebrows are. It's made me realize I need to add something to my to-do-in-the-future list. Electrolysis. The fact that no one has mentioned my eyebrows has made me realize I'll be left to fend for myself when my eyesight and finger dexterity are gone and I'm sitting in that rocking chair waiting for my grandchildren to come visit. From the way things look now, they'll run away screaming thinking the big, bad wolf is sitting there in my pjs.

Kendra McCracken Picked A Peck of Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:16:00 +0000

So that failed. It doesn't have anywhere close to the endearing charm that the alliteration of Peter Piper does. This is my latest project. I had 2 of these. Our spring was so cold this year that all of our plants struggled to get going. So, to make sure some plants survived, we kept planting more. That's how I also ended up with 21 tomato plants. I've frozen the 2 quarts of jalapenos we'll need for winter. This is what was left over.

I did a lot of slicing. I canned 5 pints for sandwiches and nachos and such. I diced more of them and made jalapeno jelly and raspberry jalapeno jelly. I'd never heard of raspberry jalapeno jelly until one of my Facebook friends mentioned it. So very, very good! My plants are still producing so I need to come up with some more ways to preserve them. I found a recipe for Bread and Butter Jalapenos that I want to try. I love the contrast of sweet and spicy. Do you have any favorite ways to preserve jalapenos?

I have a new article up on the Fiskars website. This is one of my favorite articles I've done. It may be my very favorite. It's an article on beginning sewing and how I think it should be done. My first experience behind a sewing machine was not a good one and it left me with zero interst in ever using one again. It was in Home Economics (do any of you remember when that's what cooking and sewing class at school was called) and I remember thinking our teacher made Barbara Billingsly look like a slouch. She was a very kind lady but she had no connection with the kids. At least not with one that was a tomboy misfit trying to figure out how her love of burping contests and utter hatred of dresses was ever going to allow her to find a boy who liked her as a girl, not as a pal. It all worked out in the end when I found the boy who swept me off my feet by one day asking me as we ate lunch, "How many potatoes do you think are in a bag of chips? There can't be more than 2. Potato chips are such a rip off." And then he taught me how to fish and how to walk waist-deep in a creek in the pitch black country night catching giant frogs with my bare hands. And how to grow a 7 foot tall tomato plant. And he loved me more with my hair wind-whipped (that's a frightening sight on a curly-headed girl) and my nose (sans make-up) sunburned than he did when I tried to pretend like I cared about having painted finger nails and keeping my clothes from getting wrinkled by the seat belt.

So that's where this article comes from! But, even if you have a young person in your life who wants to learn how to sew yet loves dresses and Barbies and tiaras (or is a boy who doesn't have to explain why he likes burping contests and has an utter hatred of wearing dresses), I feel this is the best way to teach them as well. It's all about fostering a love of learning to sew, not about expecting perfection from the very first stitch. You can find the article on beginning sewing with a tutorial for making this journal cover on the Fiskars website.

Handling The Situation With Kid Gloves

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:02:00 +0000

I'm happy to report day 1 was wildly successful! I've always loved when Caelan shares stories about his day and now I have 2 of them to listen to. This may make me sound shallow to some people but I want to hear the interpersonal stuff first. First and foremost, what happened that was funny. It may come from my own days in school of being a clown. I'm selective about which of those stories I share with my kids. They definitely have not heard of the day I made farm animal noises every time the band teacher turned his back until the chaos from the laughing in the classroom left him marching out of the room wiping his eyes. (I'm so sorry Mr. VanHorn. I was an obnoxious brat that day.) So I don't know if it just comes naturally to me to be curious about the silly stuff or if it's because I'm a happy person and I want the "good" stuff first.

Getting the silly stuff out of the way seems to help with distractions, too. Get it all out there and when it's time to talk about school work there are fewer, "Oh! Guess what ____ did!" And if you're reviewing spelling errors, requiring corrections to be made, and all of a sudden the conversation turns to, "No one likes me. I'm the new kid and life is hard at school," you have ammo. You have happy stories from their own mouth to pitch right back at them. Will got introduced to that one last night. The spelling words were corrected in less than 5 minutes.

So some things about parenting just seem easy to me. Getting them focused on the task at hand, preventing manipulation, training them to show respect. Everyone should focus on what they are doing and give their best effort. No one should be allowed to get away with manipulation. Everyone should show respect. Period. My struggles come with the things where there are no hard and fast rules. The part of life where you have to deal with diversity. Diversity in music. Diversity in clothing styles. Diversity in values. Diversity in home life that shape those values. The emotions that these things bring out are my struggle.

I am so not a politically correct person. If you choose to share a piece of yourself with the world, you better be prepared and willing to deal with the consequences, good or bad. Especially if you're in-your-face about it. We've always tried to make our kids understand that not everyone in your life is going to like you. Some people are just ugly inside and they don't like anyone. But most people are "normal" yet something about your personality rubs them the wrong way and they just plain don't care for you. And more importantly, we try to help them accept that that is ok. We remind them that there are people who they don't care for as well. You're to be nice but how you really feel is typically obvious. It's one of the ugly truths about human nature. That all being said, be who you are and as long as who you are is in line with God's will according to what we find in His word, don't spend too much time on those who don't get you.

Every once in a while I run into a situation where I have to say, "Ignore what I said! This one is NOT worth it!" Those are hard. Maybe I'm wrong but I give in to the part of me that is protective mother. The shirt Will is wearing in this photo brought me face-to-face with one of those situations. Will knew he wanted it before we even set foot in Walmart on school shopping day. We went straight back to the boys department in search of it, distracted only for a few minutes by the scratch-and-sniff t-shirts. Will picked up the shirt with a banana on it, a shirt that was too big and left part of the banana sitting below his waist and started saying in an innocent but alluring way, "Smell my banana. You know you want to smell my banana." The crude teenage tomboy of my past that I try in vain sometimes to suppress escaped, and I found myself uncontrollably laughing with my teenage boy whom I'm supposed to be training not to be a crude teenage boy.

We found the M&M shirts on the clearance rack, threw the orange one into the shopping cart, and went on our way. It wasn't until a few days later that dissension began brewing. Will came in and said he needed a few more things for school. Long white pants and white gloves to wear with his M&M t-shirt. My memories of my Mr. Bill t-shirt that I wore every day for an entire month in 6th grade and the horror I felt when a schoolmate whom I ran into 20 years later said, "Hey! Remember your Mr. Bill shirt? You wore that every day for like a month. We always wondered if you washed it." And in Kindergarten the day I decided to wear perfume. Christina, who was one of those plain ugly-inside people, drew the attention of everyone in the coat closet when she yelled, "WHAT is that smell?!!" followed by standing nose to nose with me and laying down the law that I was NEVER to wear that perfume again. Ever. White pants and gloves with an M&M t-shirt, that's an outfit that's grounds for a life-long memory. It may build character but I'd rather he continue learning that by wearing his tennis shoes that have been labeled "grandpa shoes", not by wearing white gloves to school! He doesn't understand there are degrees of consequences for being different. Wearing white gloves to school when you're 9 is off the chart and a battle probably not worth heading into.

We argued for a good while over the gloves. Caelan came into the room and heard white gloves. His eyes got huge and he said, "NO! You CANNOT wear white gloves to school!" It was 2 against one and it ended with Will, tears streaming down his face, saying, "I don't care what people think of me." Fortunately (and unfortunately), I had stories from his experience last year with a boy that's just plain ugly on the inside and all the days he sent Will home from art and music class in tears. Generally Will doesn't care what people think. The ridicule that would follow going to school (with hundreds of kids you don't know yet) on an ordinary day dressed like an M&M, he'd care. So the answer was no.

When I later shared the story with Shawn, I saw one of those moments I love where he laughs until he can't talk. When he regained his composure he said, "Just call me Michael Snackson." Point proven. Kids are keen on finding a label that sticks for life. Just ask Dopey Piper, a local man in his 70s who played Dopey in a grade school Snow White play. I'm not sure anyone knows his real name anymore. I'd done my job and done it well. I saved Will from a life of difficulty finding a wife, a job, and deep, meaningful friendships. I saved him from a life of being known as Michael Snackson.

And He's Off!

noreply@blogger.com (Kendra) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:12:00 +0000

My happy boy on his first day of school away from home.

In case you're wondering if he was REALLY that excited.

I also too this one. He's donning his Joker smile. He means business when the Joker smile comes out.

He kept running into the kitchen singing, ♪♫"I'm so excited!"♫♪ last night. All evening. When I put him to bed he said he didn't think he was going to be able to fall asleep. And when I woke him up this morning, his eyes were still closed but he had the biggest smile.

Caelan was slightly less enthusiastic.

They'll be home in about half an hour and there's a plate of Coconut Oatmeal cookies on the table waiting for them. Can't wait to hear about Will's first day. And hopefully get both corners of Caelan's mouth to turn up.

Unrelated, Will's hair looks like it needs to be cut because, well, it does. He's growing it out for his Halloween costume. School pictures should be interesting! I don't have the heart to dash his dreams of the perfect Halloween costume over a 2 minutes session in front of a camera and a bad blue background.

Congratuations to Cindy deRosier whose name I drew for the Butterfly Border Punch. Email me your shipping info, Cindy!