get

Maisy's new favorite word is appropriate this time of year. She walks around with catalogs and points at the things she wants for Christmas and says, "get, get."

Get scooter, get Leapfrog Leapster, get guitar, get Tangled doll, get Leapfrog Tag, get markers. She knows what she wants.

Halloween

The other morning, as I was getting Maisy ready for school, she wouldn't put on her sweater. I went to her closet and got out another sweater, she didn't want that one either. After a few more tries I finally brought her over to her closet. She pointed to the top shelf where her Super Why costume sat. Which then reminded me I hadn't posted Halloween pictures.

This year Sadie was the queen of the owls. Her headpiece was my attempt at deciphering her vision. I was thinking something more Great Horned owl, she was thinking more elegant and queenly.

Her wings were wonderful. She was against wings because she didn't want to be fairy-like, but I reminded her she was an owl. The wings were nothing like a fairies wings. The "feathers" were just sewn at the top so they had movement.
She added her pettiskirt, some tights, and layered t-shirts.
Ella was a midnight fairy. I wish I had a better picture of the skirt. It was sixteen layers of tulle in shades of black and silver, so pretty. Ella made the mask and the wand.
I made the headpiece. It started out a dollar store crown, but with a little spray paint, some feathers, and sequins it became beautiful. Makeup and mom's jewelry added to the specialness.
Maisy was Super Why and for the first time ever she loved everything about her costume and never wanted to take it off. With the exception of the mask which she decided was a headband, she wanted to sleep in the costume. When she got home from school and I showed her the costume she started jumping up and down. Once we put it on her, she twirled around and around. It was wonderful!
Here she is with her best friend (the paper doll) waiting for the costume parade.
Jack was Yoda. He loves Yoda.
He too, wanted to sleep in his costume. When people come over he has to run and put on his Jedi robe so he can display his Force. The black finger tips are not part of his costume, I just can't stop him from drawing. He always has markers in his hands and no paper is safe. His school work comes home with drawings on the back. Our kitchen table is covered in markers, crayons, and paper as soon as he gets home from school. We try to remind him that a Jedi must have order in his surroundings to have order in his mind, but so far it isn't working.
So, there is our Halloween. We went to a trunk-or-treat, and a harvest festival, but Halloween is a little scarier here, so Halloween night was mostly scary movies and popcorn. And not one trick-or-treater.

Good Decisions

"Jack you need to take a bath."

"I don't want to take a bath. You shouldn't make me take a bath."

"I'm sorry if I'm the meanest mom ever, but get in the bath. Now!"

"Your not the meanest mom, I love you, but I want you to make good decisions."

This is difficult for me to write, because I don't want to be negative. I don't want to be the kind of person who dwells on the bad or feels that grass is always greener elsewhere. I want to believe I can find happiness anywhere. I don't want to be the kind of person who thinks life will be better when... I don't want to live hoping for a future or clinging to a past.

However, I am so homesick. I miss my friends and my family. I miss walking my kids to school and sitting on the porch waiting for them to come home. I miss the some what calm life we used to have, that somehow in my memories has this soft cast to it like an instagram pic. I miss cool evenings and water filtration. I miss grass and rain, flower and vegetable gardens. I miss planting bulbs & mums and canning tomatoes. I miss kids jumping on the trampoline and swinging in the swings, and playing outside without heat stroke or swollen limbs from mosquito bites the size of golf balls.

Its difficult to leave the things you love behind and whether it was last week or coming up on a year it doesn't seem to get easier. Sadie is struggling too. She is living in a future time, a time when we will be back in our old house and she will have her own room and it will look the way she wants it to. She tells anyone who will listen about this future. I feel like I have done this to her, that I have supported this discontent and I watch her close off a little. I know that some of that is her age. The quiet, withdrawn, occasionally moody child is just a sign of things to come, but it is still tough to see.

I worry about Maisy. Her stamina seems to be decreasing. She seems tired more than she used to and her reluctance to leave the computer concerns me. She has been acting out as well. All behaviors that are uncharacteristic.

I worry about Evan, Jack, and Ella. I worry about what is yet to come and how to get to where we want to be. And I worry that the days are drifting by faster and faster and part of me is grateful for that.

boy blanket

I finished the blanket I've been working on for the last couple of weeks.

It might be my favorite. The colors are so nice. Sadie is a little partial to it as well.
I felt a little bad telling her it had to go to a new home.
The baby was born on Tuesday, so it was finished just in time.