MIA

I've been MIA this weekend because I went to Chicago to watch my dad and my sister run the Chicago Marathon. Brad couldn't come this time, so I had to go by myself, and I packed light- no computer, no SLR- so no blogging and no super awesome pictures... but a good time, and now a tired time! I've been up since 3am, and I'm ready to be done now! So I'll have to catch up tomorrow...

Friends

We had some friends over today. Garrett (who I used to babysit when he was a baby) came over with his sister Ellison. It was a bit of a crazy day for me, but we had a good time and- victory! All 4 took a nap at the same time this afternoon! :)

After rest time we all went across the street to our neighbors' trampoline. It was a big hit with all the kids.

Here is Garrett with Carolyn.

And my Nora Bean looking pretty as always. :)

And a cool freeze motion picture of Garrett. :) I'm getting better at it!

Hair and Apples

I've been trying to "freeze" motion by changing the shutter speed on my camera.

I practiced today with Carolyn shaking her hair.

I think she's kind of *a lot* cute.

This is a strange game we sometimes play at the dinner table, called "My Head Fell Off." Not sure exactly how it evolved, but to play, a person takes an apple slice, bites off a small part of it, leaving the skin hanging, and then animates the severed apple like a mouth, open and closed... saying "blub blub blub..." and then, at the climax... bites the little piece off and says "AAAA! My head fell off!" [hence, the name of the game.]

I didn't blog yesterday because I (gasp!) didn't take any pictures, not even for my Picture of the Day blog... and I'm starting to get busy again getting ready for my next show on the 16th. It's supposed to be a really big one at a local elementary school, where there are likely to be more shoppers of the right clientele.... so I'm trying to get prepared... but it seems like the harder I try to find time, the less of it there seems to be!

In other exciting news, Nora is making progress toward potty training- bit surprise because she is so young yet, but we'll take whatever progress we can get! She has pooped on the potty twice this week, and tonight she went #1 two separate times! She is so thrilled with herself when she can make it happen- and she loves to sit on the potty and read stories. Brings  me back a few years to when I was pregnant with Nora and potty training Carolyn and all the time I spent in public restrooms. I'm not at all in a hurry for Nora to train- frankly, diapers are easier- but in parenting it seems like there are sometimes "windows" of opportunity- if you miss one, another will come, but you sometimes have to wait awhile- so if this is one of those potty windows, I don't want to miss it. :) It will be different potty training one as young as Nora- Carolyn was very physically ready by the time she decided she was emotionally ready- so it was really quite easy training her. Nora is very interested, but probably not nearly as physically ready, so I would expect progress to be significantly slower. But I'm proud of her, and excited that she's taking a new step toward becoming a big girl. Of course... if she DOES potty train around the age of two... I'm not sure where we will find pants small enough for her without the bulk of the diaper! She's so tiny as it is!

Farm Girls (again)

We went to Post Family Farms again today, as a family. I cannot believe how "old" Nora looks in htis picture!! She is growing up SO fast- tonight she even went #2 on the potty!

Carolyn's favorite part was playing in the hay again.

Nora was especially taken with the chicken house. She thought it was hilarious that I started singing the Chicken Dance- and she started dancing and the chickens started squawking along.

She was so interested in the participation of the chickens. :)

We all met these pigs that looked a lot cuter than they behaved. Their snouts were a lot more adorable before I saw what they were nosing around in. Thankfully we got some hand sanitizer immediately afterward.

Carolyn picked out a little pumpkin and we brought it home. The end. :)

Pie

This afternoon, Carolyn and I made the first apple pie of the fall season. :)

Boy was it good!!

We make an atypical, and probably even more unhealthy than average pie crust- tastes kind of like sugar cookies. Nora, coming in from outside with her cute little red nose, could tell that the dough was something tasty. :) I love the eager look on her face as she's getting ready to implore her sister to share with her. :)

Long Day, Fun Ending

It was a long, busy day today, but the end was fun. :) Today was the annual Growing Kids hayride with our church community of "like-minded parents." It's a really fun time! We had to come late because of my craft show this morning, but we still had fun..

At our friends' property about an hour north of town, they have a trailer and lots of open space. They have an antique car that still runs and they let the kids bounce around in the back seat.

There's a swingset- no baby swings (a.k.a. "whee"'s), so Nora tried out the big girl swing- though she's far from a "big" girl herself! The swing dwarfs her!!

And a cool merry-go-round that Carolyn enjoyed riding. :)

The evening came complete with S'mores, popcorn, cider, and a tantrum when we knew it was time to go home! Miss Nora is increasingly asserting herself... we're in for it as she's on the downside to "two" now!

I had a really educational experience this morning at the craft show. As far as making money... not really much... I broke even and sold a little bit, but overall, I gained more in experience and understanding than anything else. I discovered that while I LOVE making hair bows and selling them online... I really didn't love the craft show. I poured my sweat and blood into developing a larger inventory over the past few weeks and though it really did look good- I still didn't sell even a fraction of what I worked so hard to make. I like making things for specific people and specific orders- or just even for the love of it- much better. I'm scheduled for 3 more craft shows this season, and I'm going to keep my upcoming one on the 16th, but if I don't like doing it, I think I will just back out of the others and focus on the online business. I'm starting to gain more of a following and beginning to get busier there and that is what I truly enjoy. So we'll see how this next one goes. This one I did today was really not geared for the clientele I need for my business- and really everyone around me said this was one of the slowest ones they've done.

Most important thing I learned: have EVERYTHING priced, punched, and mounted on the RIGHT cards before the show! I discovered too late that I'd put a ton of things on the wrong kinds of cards and had to backtrack and redo a bunch of it- and as a result I had the world's worst headache from last night through most of the day today until the Excedrin from my neighbor finally kicked in! Other lessons learned- bring a trash bag along, pick up a shower caddy for carrying extra cards, pens, punchers and all the little things that I couldn't find when I needed them! And I need to come up with some space-saving options because my display strategy could definitely have been better. But overall, still a good experience and hopefully I will gain some more happy customers and go from there. :)

Overwhelmed!!

I feel like my life is as blurry as this picture... but at the moment I'm not having nearly as much fun as these girls were having today! I'm feverishly preparing for my first-ever craft show on Saturday. I have no idea what to expect- but I don't know any other way to work on something- last minute stress has always been my M.O. I tend to do my best work under some pressure... but today I was feeling it a bit more extremely than is very good for me. It didn't help that I woke up (later than I'd hoped to) on the wrong side of the bed to begin with and that my day started out with criticism from one person (not my husband thankfully) and jealous feelings toward someone else. It also didn't help that something of my negative attitude translated into my children and between the temper tantrums, excessive screaming, outright defiance, and food throwing that were part of my day today- I was just about to run shrieking from the house when my husband came home tonight! [there are moments when it is totally irrational how much I want a third child- I guess it's probably a good thing that we don't always get the immediately affirmative answers we're looking for when we pray for more children- God knows the best time for us to really "need" to upgrade to a vehicle with more seats- but even after a day like today, I still pray that that time would be soon! Crazy, huh? Does God still give babies to crazy people...? Don't answer that...]

But of course I had too many bows halfway started in the basement for running shrieking out to do any good... so instead I hunkered down there and met my goal for the day and I can now go to bed tired but feeling like I at least made some accomplishment today. It may seriously kill me, but it is going to be as awesome of a craft show booth as I have it in my power to create. :) I made some very beautiful butterflies today and some other very lovely things yesterday and the day before and earlier in the week. And tomorrow I just have to add the finishing touches to several things and price it all out (no doubt a much bigger proposition than I'm planning on it being right now), and then go set it up tomorrow night. I'm really excited for this next step into this world. If you are in the area, you should stop by Princeton Reformed Church in Kentwood sometime between 9 and 2 on Saturday. I'll be there. :) And so will the flock of butterflies I made today. :)