Me? A Mom?

a.k.a.

2012-05-19T11:03:00.001-05:00

The children are now known as such:

Lila is RosalieVioletLila
Rosalie is VioletLilaRosalie
Violet is LilaRosalieViolet

I guess it happens to the best of us.

Rosalie vs. Chocolate

2012-04-12T07:44:00.002-05:00

This pretty much sums up our Easter. How was yours?

I have been warned

2012-03-14T07:02:00.003-05:00

Lila's really into having her own room lately. She comes up with all sorts of ways to organize and sort her toys, like her triceratops Britney and Bridget.

Last night as we were playing in her room she looked over to me and said, "Mom, my bed is so comfy. I love my bed."

Me: Yeah, you know, I should make a quilt for your bed. Would you like that?
Lila: (noses scrunches)
Me: No?
Lila: Well, I've got my Tinkerbell blanket. Maybe after I've outgrown Tinkerbell, you can make me a quilt.
Me: Okay.
Lila: And, Mom, you should know that when I outgrow Tinkerbell, I might want to get into Barbies.

And so it begins.

Things that go bump in the night

2012-03-09T23:24:00.001-06:00

Two nights ago, Violet accidentally fell backwards down a flight of stairs in our house after being startled by one of the other girls. Down 12 steps she tumbled, I'm told, head over toe until she finally landed at the bottom, hitting her head on an entry table. Besides a bump on her head with a little cut, she seemed fine. I was working late that night - insert mother's guilt here - and came home hours after the incident when Violet was already in bed.

By morning, her little cut had busted open to a cringe-worthy gaping cut. Off to the ER she went. Again. In the last month, we'd been there twice already for Violet's asthma. At $150 a visit, there really should be a loyalty card that gets you a free ice cream cone from the cafeteria or something.

She ended up needing four stitches -- just one stitch more than the number of people required to hold her down. Though she's only 20 pounds and 31 inches tall, she's a force to be reckoned with. (She's doing just fine now, by the way.)

Broken arms, stitches, asthma attacks. I'm starting to realize this is the new normal in our house. Some days, it feels very Lord of the Flies at our house. There's a lot of commotion and vying for leadership and someone is always attempting something dangerous. Friends will call and say, "Man, it sounds like a lot more than three kids over there." Yep, sure does.

Needless to say, my hobbies have slipped a bit. Dare I say that I have been even more neglectful of my sewing than I have of this blog? Tonight I powered through the exhaustion and managed to whip up a framed purse for our guild's pouch swap tomorrow -- with about 11 hours to spare. Booyah! My secret partner, I'm told, likes stripes, polka dots and pink. Hopefully this makes her smile.

Is it ironic or appropriate that it's Fat Tuesday?

2012-02-21T17:32:00.001-06:00

One thing I'm learning about myself as I'm getting back into shape is that I need someone to help me keep myself accountable. Jillian Michaels does a pretty good job, what with all her yelling and telling me that fear is leaving my body. Even Lila keeps me accountable, willing herself up early every morning so she can join me with my exercising. But sometimes I need more than that.

So I've been taking my workout to Facebook and posting status updates on the mornings I shred. And the comments and "likes" I get keep me going.

Today marked 30 days from when I first started the 30-Day Shred. And though a nasty cold kept me from working out for about a week, I'm pretty impressed with the results I'm seeing in my body after only 21 workouts. That's only SEVEN hours of working out, people. So I've lost about a pound for every hour I've worked out so far.

Don't believe me? Look:

I'm proud to say that I'm not holding my stomach in at all in that "after shot." All that flabby flab flab on my belly is slowly tightening up and I'm so excited.

Edited to add: I'm not dieting though after doing one of those workouts, I do think twice before hitting the vending machine.

So I'm posting this to keep myself motivated and to motivate others. Who's with me?

This and that.

2012-02-11T06:38:00.000-06:00

Just a handful of sewing things from the past few months... Not nearly enough sewing happening over here right now for my liking.

Itty Bitty

2012-02-05T22:46:00.000-06:00

Did you see these adorable magnets on flickr?

Well, our St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild leadership did and decided we needed an itty bitty quilt block magnet swap. The rules are simple: make a quilt block 1.5 inches or smaller and turn it into a magnet.

I got a crazy hair to shrink the free Circle of Geese pattern Beth offers on her site.

Believe it or not, it wasn't too hard to paper piece on this scale. Once I completed the block piece, I cut a piece of batting and some fabric for the backing. I stitched the fabric together on three sides with right sides facing and "birthed" it out the unstitched side. I then slipped a magnet in and hand stitched the fourth side.

Wouldn't it be adorable to make a set of four that when put together make the full circle of geese?

Mind, Body, Soul

2012-02-02T06:22:00.004-06:00

When 2012 rolled around, I told myself this would be the year of mind, body, and soul. In other words, I would work on becoming more mentally balanced (sane), more fit, and work on my relationship with God.

I'm not doing so well on the mind part right now. Work has become all consuming of late. And by all-consuming, I mean lots of hours. Seventy, eighty hour weeks which means not a lot of time with my girls, virtually no time with my husband, and very little sleep. It has me feeling a bit unstable mentally and, naturally, exhausted. But this too shall pass.

Body-wise, Jillian Michaels continues to kick my ass for 20 minutes every morning -- which is actually helping with my exhaustion. Twelve days in and I've already lost five pounds. I'm not dieting, but I did stop drinking soda after I realized it was my "gateway" food to really bad food choices. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I now have Jillianisms in my head every time I think about making a not-so-great food choice. You want to workout for 20 minutes and take a break? It doesn't work that way. Jillian's isms themselves are probably worth the price of the DVD alone. You feel that pain? That's fear leaving the body.

My soul is probably in the best shape of the three. Since I last talked about my spiritual journey, I've found a really great church that I love attending. It's youthful and full of energy. I find myself looking forward to Sundays now.

But enough navel gazing. How about some pictures of the girls? They are growing and changing at lightening speed. Sometimes I come home from work and swear they have grown taller since I had last seen them that morning.

Recent growth spurt = too short of clothes all around

Lila, who just turned five, is reading and making inventions and basically blowing our minds on a daily basis.

Violet, who recently turned two, is a total wild woman. And though you can't really tell in this picture, her hair has suddenly exploded into curls -- mostly in the back but also a few random ones on the top of her head. It's precious. So is she. She's talking more and more every day which makes her 20 lb, 31 inch tall stature that more cute.

Rosalie continues to be impossible to capture on film smiling and standing still. This picture above is one of the better shots of late. She has been missing me a lot lately and has found herself in our bed most nights. When Ted seems upset about it, I try to remind him that some day these girls will be embarrassed by us and probably won't even want to sit next to us, much less cuddle in bed with us. So I'm soaking it all up while I can.

Jillian Michaels is out to get me

2012-01-21T06:36:00.000-06:00

It's been almost a year since I went back to work and lots of things have changed in our life, including my waist size. Nothing drastic but enough to make me feel bad about my appearance. A little too much jiggle-jiggle and poochy pooch if you know what I mean.

Last week I met up with a friend who has been doing Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred DVD and she looked fantastic. Of course, I was completely inspired and ran out to buy the DVD. The workouts are only 20 minutes long. I figure if I can't find 20 minutes a day to do something for myself, I have bigger problems than a little waist fat.

This morning was my maiden voyage with Jillian. Is it a bad sign if I'm out of breath two minutes into the warm up? The comments from the peanut gallery didn't help. "Mom, you're looking really tired."

Despite the mess of panting and edge-of-death that was me on my basement floor this morning, I finished the 20 minute workout. Now I sit her nauseous from what I can only imagine is my body being in total and utter shock. But I feel so good. Really, I do. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

Wise beyond her years

2012-01-16T18:20:00.000-06:00

Rosalie: Mom, I want to be a veterinarian when I grow up.

Me: That's what I wanted to be when I was your age too!

Rosalie: Really? What do you do now?

Me: Public Relations

Rosalie: Oh, so you're a mommy.

Don't shoot the messenger

2012-01-12T03:49:00.000-06:00

Tonight as I was attempting to get the girls to bed...

Rosalie (said very seriously): "Mom, I have some very bad news for you."

Me: "What's that, Ro?"

Rosalie: "I'm not sleepy."

Crossroads

2012-01-02T00:24:00.002-06:00

Life has continued on in my neck of the woods even though I haven't taken the time to capture it here. Lila graduated to a twin-size bed and, in the process, got her own room while Rosalie got a new roommate. Rosalie has a boyfriend (Sonny). Violet turned two and is a short-sentence talking wild woman. I'm working more, sewing less, and sleeping not so great. But I'm trying to live in the moment and that's primarily why I haven't been here.

I'm also wrestling with a tug I've been having in my heart to return to my faith. Wresting because it's in direct conflict with how my husband and I had originally agreed to raise our children. Now we stand looking at life from different points of view and it is very difficult to say the least. I don't know what will happen but I can't ignore the once quiet voice in my head that has grown into a roar. I'm on a journey.

So it feels very much like I'm at a crossroads. With this blog. With my faith. With my life in general. Here's to choosing the right path.

image found via pinterest

5:17 a.m. with Lila

2011-12-24T08:11:00.005-06:00

"Mom! Wake up! Santa's coming tonight!!!!"

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Our wild flowers

2011-12-07T08:04:00.000-06:00

A few months ago, it occurred to me that we had no family pictures of the five of us. None. And I'm not talking professional photo. I mean we had no photos of all of us together. Shame.

So we pulled together a quick photo session with JJ and she pulled off the seemingly impossible job of capturing everyone. I can't show you all the great photos because I have to be respectful of my husband's desire not to be all over the internet, but we got some beautiful shots. Here are just a few of the many I love.

I love that all three of our girls have different hair color and different eye color, yet they clearly are sisters.

Violet was quite the ham but she did eventually melt down.

Two minutes

2011-11-17T05:50:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I dropped my car seats and the back popped off exposing the button battery inside. Button batteries are those flat batteries that look like buttons or coins. To kids, they are pretty and shiny. And, unfortunately, if swallowed, the consequences are far greater than a choking hazard.

When a battery like this gets stuck in a child’s throat, the saliva triggers an electrical current which causes a chemical reaction that can severely burn the esophagus in as little as two hours. If that's not scary enough, symptoms your child may exhibit after swallowing a button battery -- coughing, drooling, discomfort -- could be mistakenly attributed to a cold or teething.

You probably don't even realize how many of these button batteries are in your house. I didn't. They are often found in remotes, key fobs, and calculators as well as singing greeting cards and those kid books that make sounds.

If you have small kiddos like me, you know how quickly they can move. I mean, just the other night as I was getting everyone in their pajamas following a bath, I turned to find Violet -- fully clothed -- back in the bath tub pouring a bucket of water over her head. How did she get in the tub without my knowledge? I had been right there.

That's why it's so important to secure anything with a button battery in it. Put up those keys and remotes. Don't take the chance. They could be deadly.

I urge you to invest the two minutes it takes to watch this video. This was produced by colleagues at my agency and I'm proud to say my company is part of the effort to get the word out about this issue. (And, yes, that is Rosalie and Violet in the video.) I also encourage you to visit the campaign site, The Battery Controlled, for more information. The injury rates from these batteries are on the rise. Let's change that.

Can you relate?

2011-11-15T23:47:00.002-06:00

"I'm so busy, I don't know who to disappoint first." That's what I told a friend today in a rare moment of clarity about how I have been feeling.

Lately, most of my sentences begin with "I'm sorry I..." and "No, I haven't read that yet..." and "When did you say you needed that again?". Once upon a time, I was organized. Truly.

After four years at home with our girls, learning how to balance work into what was an already very full life has been challenging to say the least. I feel divided up into these little slivers -- work Cara, wife Cara, mommy Cara, quilter Cara, blogger Cara, friend Cara -- and unable to keep up despite all my best efforts. I swear, there are only so many hours in the day and I'm already awake for too many of them. Someone or something is always being neglected or forgotten it seems. I can't bear the looks of disappointment (real or self-imposed via my Catholic-guilt wired brain).

So it took about nine months of being back to work to reach this point. How long does it take to balance out again? Someone please tell me soon.

Before you carve the turkey

2011-11-13T23:26:00.001-06:00

I almost didn't post these pictures because -- hello -- Halloween was weeks ago and doing so only further illustrates and documents my complete and utter inability to keep up with things in my life lately.

I'm trying to learn how to cut myself some slack but it's slow going.

This year Rosalie was a witch, Lila was Tinkerbell, and Violet was Violet. My rule? They don't get a costume until they have some understanding of what's going on.

Encouraged by the Garment Sewing 101 class I took at the Sewing Summit, I made the girls their costumes. Rosalie's was more of a cheat because when I couldn't find a witch pattern in her size range at the JoAnn's $1 pattern sale, I improvised and basically cut a hole in the center of two yards of fabric, stitched up the sides and belted it. It looked pretty good unless she moved her arms any higher than 45 degrees.

But she loved it and that's all that matters.

Rosalie was very fixated on her hat. She couldn't seem to understand it would stay on her head if she let go of it.

Lila's costume was a real challenge. Not only did it call for casings along the back for elastic, but it was a bubble skirt with tulle "petals" all around the waist. I honestly don't know how I managed it given how poor the illustrations and directions were -- or maybe it was my inexperience? Either way, it fit! (Wings from Target -- can't take credit for those.)

Lila originally wanted me to make her some Tinkerbell hair. Her idea? I could glue yellow yarn to a helmet. We opted for a ponytail instead.

Tinkerbell insisted on some tights that evening due to the chilly weather. The white tights I picked out would not do. Rosalie is saying here "see my big and scary eyes...watch out for a big surprise...Boo!"

Impromptu singing

2011-10-24T06:39:00.000-05:00

I love the age Rosalie is at. I know everyone always talks about age three being hair pulling and patience trying, but Rosalie has been an absolute doll. It's just her nature. She's sweet and kind and thoughtful. Oh, and she loves to make up songs. Last night when we were driving home from visiting a relative, you could hear her in the back seat singing "I love my family. I love my family." Man, I love that kid.

Our Three Pumpkins

2011-10-22T16:42:00.000-05:00

Lila (4 yrs), Violet (22 months), Rosalie (3 yrs)

Randoms

2011-10-19T22:29:00.000-05:00

Rosalie has developed an alter ego named "Rose the Dog." When she's Rose, she calls everyone else "customer." It's all very odd and yet amusing, except when Rose the Dog is face down in her dinner plate.

I found a bag of popcorn in our shower this week.

I left a voicemail for a client this week and said "bye bye" at the end of my message as if I were saying goodbye to our toddler. Talk about a rookie working mom mistake.

Our winter blanket for our bed spent all spring and summer folded on the floor next to the bed, making it a total poster child for Inability to Get Ahead. Striving for just keeping up these days but most of the time, I'm settling for being realistic.

Modern God's Eye Revealed

2011-10-15T12:52:00.000-05:00

Remember this Modern God's Eye pattern I came up with for my Habitat quilt challenge? It made me chuckle how many people complimented me on what a great back it was. Um, yeah, it's the front but whatever.

Two months later...

Okay so the wind wasn't entirely cooperating while we photographed the quilt, but do you see my two little helpers?

Hello, Autumn

2011-10-13T08:37:00.000-05:00

100 hours

2011-10-10T11:59:00.003-05:00

As I type this I'm lounging on a settee looking out at the mountains in Salt Lake City. For a Midwestern girl like me, it's pretty spectacular.

I've learned a lot this trip.

After years of sleep training (me, not the kids), it's nearly impossible to sleep past 7 a.m.
Any sort of healthy eating is put on hold. Instead of the fresh fruit that comes with this, can I have some bacon?
Your spouse will suddenly see his chance and make a case for getting ~~the family~~ himself an iPad. And you'll be glad. FaceTime is an amazing invention.
Being surrounded by incredibly crafty and talented people is simultaneously inspiring and intimidating, but mostly inspiring.
Forgetting to pack shoes can work for you if you happen to wear the right pair to the airport. These suckers were a dream and I could dress them up or down.
Eat where the locals eat. Even if it looks like it there could be a raid from the Department of Health at any moment. Bonus points if it has a name like Pie Hole.
No one cares if, in your haste to get to the Sewing Summit, you only shaved one armpit and forgot your razor.
You will pay $4.99 for a bag of candy corn.
Being surrounded by people who love fabric as much as you do makes it very hard to show restraint during a shop hop.

If you aren't laughing so hard that you go into silent laughter mode, you aren't letting loose enough. (I didn't have this problem.)
The homeless people in Salt Lake City are very entertaining. I'll never hear the song "We Built This City" or think about leprechauns the same way again.
A Kindle is much more enjoyable if you fill it with chick lit instead of business books.

If you make a run for the light rail train, you might feel like you're in the Bourne Identity. Or just a dork.
Having three kids in Utah is like having one kid in the Midwest.
When your husband calls and asks what you are doing, don't tell him you're managing your Google Reader subscriptions. He won't understand how awesome it is to do something like that without kids underfoot or schedules to adhere to.
Sometimes things are only a good idea in theory. Like trying to ride a bike sculpture.

Apparently, I'm a very tall person online. If I had a dollar for everyone who said they thought I'd be taller in real life. :)
It doesn't matter if you're in school or at the Sewing Summit -- skipping class feels very Ferris Bueller to me.
Trips like these are good for the soul. I will find a way to do this trip (or something similar) again.

Thanks for the memories, my dear Sewing Summit friends!

i spy Rapunzel...

Where I'm at

2011-10-05T08:36:00.000-05:00

I'm over on Bec's blog today with a tutorial for the circle of geese block. Come visit me!

I've also been busy getting ready for the Sewing Summit. I pack my bags and fly out tomorrow! This will be the first kid-free fun trip I've taken since having kids. It's way overdue and I'm absolutely giddy with anticipation.

This is why we can't have nice things

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-05:00