Remember this???

So, if you've been reading this blog for some time, or if you happen to be friends with me in real life and therefore got obnoxious e-mails from me, crowing about how I MADE SOMETHING FROM SCRATCH, you may remember that I wrote about this dress:

I still swoon just looking at it. Those blues get me every time. 

I made the dress with the intent of it being C's Easter dress. And... it was! Here's sweet C hunting for eggs:

No, this isn't at our home. It would be rocky it it were our yard. Our home and land essentially consists of 95% of the limestone God created on earth. We spent Easter at the ranch and hunted eggs at a cousin's new home. This photo is definitely a "West Texas Easter" image!

My MIL gave me one of her old sewing machines for Christmas, and I can't wait to get it up-and-running in the next few months. I need to find a good place for it where I can sit and sew during the (alleged) quiet times my kids take. For some reason my hubby wasn't keen on the sewing machine taking up permanent residence on the kitchen table-- go figure.

Waking up early...

Oh yes, I'll be watching the wedding. In the tiara I wore at my wedding. And my pjs, so I don't look too pretentious.

I can't decide what I think of the monarchy itself, but Prince William is only a few years younger than me-- he's part of my generation. And Diana was killed the same night as my first college party. It's one of those things that sticks in your mind.

So, pass me another scone and pour me a spot of tea, please. And keep it down so I can hear what's going on. :-)

Prayer Buddy revelation!

So... just got back in town after having no internet service all weekend! I think I should have written and scheduled this post before I left.

This Lent, I was so honored to pray for a woman who I'm convinced that if we met in real life, even without "knowing" each other from the blogging world, we'd be instant friends. I've been reading her blog ever since Leila introduced me to it, and even have read nearly every one of her older posts. She inspired me when I read some of her exercise and Weight Watchers posts, and though I don't always comment, I definitely read every word she writes.

I was THRILLED last week when a blogger/real life friend called me and told me that this woman is PREGNANT with... wait for it... TWINS! It gave me something even more concrete to pray for, as I begged God for the health and safety of these precious and much-long-for children, and for their fortunate big brother, whose prayer for siblings was just answered twice over.

I'm sure you know by now, but I spent Lent praying for NICOLE from Mom and Then Some.

Nicole, as you know, having a 3 year old is a trying thing. Every tantrum and non-stop chatter that made me want to pull out my hair, I offered up for you-- that you could experience that "joy" all over again--ha!! :-) And having a running toddler who wore me out reminded me to offer up my exhaustion for your strength. I am so honored that I was able to pray for you this season!!


With love,
Lisa

Getting crafty: Baby gift

I wasn't able to attend the baptism of one of my best friend's (Hi, Lauren!) daughter (Hi, Abigail!), but wanted to give her a special, meaningful gift. Lauren is my daughter's Godmother, and I wanted my gift to Abigail to reflect how highly I regard that special relationship. Additionally, I wanted to commemorate the fact that Abigail is, forever and ever, in the eyes of God AND the law, Lauren and J's daughter.

I knew that I wanted to make something that would be very personal, and I started thinking about the different kinds of things I could do with photos. I thought about making a photo mobile for her crib, but she's too old for that now-- too dangerous past around 5 months. Then, I thought about making a photo album, but thought that Lauren and her husband might want to do that sort of thing. Finally, I decided that I wanted to make something that she could play with everyday, and see the people who love her so much.

I thought about decoupaging wooden blocks with family members' photos, but I wasn't 100% sold on the idea. Finally, I decided to make some sort of puzzle, and started looking at the shape-puzzle templates online. When I searched for a Melissa and Doug shape puzzle (I heart Melissa and Doug products!), I came across a website that had nearly the exact project I was imagining, with all of the steps included! (Update: I just fixed the broken link-- sorry!)

Here's MY take on the project!

 

I bought the above puzzle from ChristianBook.com. Not only did they have the best price, but it happened to be on sale for a tiny bit more, and I got free shipping because I had some other (sale!) items that I had already wanted to purchase.

 I glued and then decoupaged the shapes with 5 different patterns of coordinating scrapbooking paper. I thought about painting the rest of the puzzle (white? green? pink?) or writing a message on it (I ended up doing that on the back), but decided to make it really girly and cover it with the paisley paper.

On the back, I wrote the verse that Lauren and J chose for Abigail (my daughter "helpfully" bumped my arm when I was writing. Agh! I had to remind myself that Abigail won't notice and even if she did, she wouldn't care). :-)  The "Look at how many people love you!" was the theme that I was aiming for with whatever project I ended up doing. The hearts were added as an afterthought, because the HUGE Melissa and Doug sticker left that side of the board sticky when I peeled it off. The "Isn't that amazing?" was for my daughter, who, whenever I tell her that God loves her even more than Mommy and Daddy do, says, "Wow! That's a-ma-zing!" Again, I decoupaged the back.
And yes, I edited the photo to remove our names.

What it will look like when Abigail plays with it! I included Godparents, both sides of grandparents, aunt and uncles, Lauren and J, and Baby Abigail in the middle. I traced the photos from the shapes, then cut them out, glued them over the pictures of the shapes (stop sign, bus, etc), and then covered the photos with the matte Mod Podge (what I used for the entire thing).

What I would do differently: I wish I had used an x-acto knife (by the way-- I always have spelled that "exacto" until I just looked it up. Who knew?) and cut on a self-healing cutting mat. I used scissors for the most part and wasn't able to get it as precisely cut as I would have liked. Getting the paper around the knobs was a pain, too. If I could go back in time, I might have purchased the puzzle with the wooden knobs and then tried to remove them and then add them back at the end. Using the Mod Podge on the paper for the "frame" of the puzzle was also challenging-- I don't know if it was the paper or the fact that the glue underneath wasn't completely dry, but the paper "smeared" a bit, in that some of the print came off. I would have let it dry completely before attempting to cover the top, because I think the bottom was still a bit wet, so it moved as I brushed over it, making the paper too fragile to work with just then. Finally, I think that if I did this again I would paint the back of the puzzle white. My paint pens ran a bit because of the wood grain, and that annoyed me at first.

Overall, I love it! Both of my kids played with it to "test it out," and it got 2 thumbs (4 thumbs?) up. And, even more importantly, Lauren and Abigail love it!

So... what do you think?? I can see this being a great baptism, adoption, or 1-year-old gift. You could include family or just 9 different photos of the baby! You could do pets or photos of the baby's favorite toys/foods/places. You could give it as a shower gift, with a sonogram photo in the middle, or an "insert baby photo here" note. So many possibilities. :-)

So in love

3-year-old C, noticing that my cut flowers in a vase were starting to wilt:

C: Mommy, God made flowers, and flowers die.

Me: Yes, honey, they do. Everything that is alive has to die at some point. (Note: this has been a regular part of conversations ever since our German Shepherd passed away in November. I'm not just throwing the concept of death at my daughter randomly)

C: Jesus died, Mommy. He died for our sins. He died on a cross.

Me: You're right! That's what He did.

C: Jesus was a lovely boy.

Agh-- I love this girl so much that it overwhelms me sometimes.

 

Prayer Buddy-- I need you

I need some serious prayers now, if you could spare some, prayer buddy. I need my guardian angel now to do a bit of battle for me.

And I'm a Weight Watcher, I'm a Weight Watcher...

Watching my weight go BYE... bye, bye, bye!

After saying for a verrrrrryyyy long time that I needed to get back to Weight Watchers in order to shed these (nearly!) 1-1/2 year old pregnancy pounds, I headed to a meeting on Saturday to learn all about the new Points Plus system.

And to step on the evil scale.

While I would like to believe that the WW scale was broken (by say, 30 lbs...), I know how much more impressive it will be when I start shedding pounds.

Now, I need to preface the rest of the post by noting that I very rarely share many (any?) truly personal details about myself on this blog. See my Blogging Manifesto if you need a reminder about my thoughts on this issue. The funny part is that I'm much more open on several different topics that I would NEVER touch on my blog when I'm commenting on other blogs I regularly read. I have a feeling that my poor prayer buddy (Hi, prayer buddy!!) must be feeling frustrated about what she should pray about for me. In fact, I have a feeling her prayers, based on what she reads in my blog, might sound something like this:

Dear God, please help Lisa... umm... umm... not staple her finger when she recovers her chairs. Yeah, that would be good. And, umm... help her to save money by not ordering any more cute diaper bags. And could you please remind her to post some more Lenten recipes? I've noticed she's fallen behind. Ok, that's all I know to pray about for her. Thanks, God!

Anyway, back to my WW journey. I first joined in January 2004 after going through a very traumatic and unexpected break-up with a man I had envisioned marrying. I had put on some weight in the Fall before we ended our relationship (ok, before HE ended it...) and was unhappy with the way I looked in photos and how my clothes fit. The day we broke-up, I went to the gym at my apartment complex and started running on the elliptical as a way to deal with my heartache. I couldn't stop sobbing, and the one other person in the gym couldn't help but notice my tears. When I moved to the free weights, he stopped me and asked me if I was alright. Of course, I completely broke down at that point and choked out my sad little story to him. Dumped it on him might be more accurate. I told him how I was so sad and mad and hurt and confused and angry, and how to top it all off, I felt faaaaaaaaat (sobbing once more).

This guy (who later on went on to do missionary work... I think he realized if he could help me in that state, he could help anyone) told me that, someday, I wasn't going to ache anymore about the ex, and that when that day came, if I wanted to have changed myself, I might as well start then and channel all of my feelings into something constructive.

Truth be told, for the first several months of exercising and doing WW, I was really doing it with the idea of seeing my ex again someday and showing him what a hottie he was missing. Somewhere along the way, my attitude changed and I started doing it for me, for how good I felt and how good the new-me looked in comparison with the old-me. I'd come home from teaching and strap on my sneakers and hit the road for a few miles of good walking, then jogging as time went on. I started running at least one 5K per month, and even threw in a 10K for good measure.

Weight Watchers was transformative for me-- it helped me have the willpower to resist so many temptations when it came to eating, because each week I had to face the scale (blessed or evil, depending on what it told me). It kept me honest about what I was eating and how I was (or wasn't) moving throughout the day. The meetings gave me a place where EVERYONE in the room was cheering me on, either having been where I was, or currently where I was, wanting to be where I was, depending upon where I was in my weight-loss journey. My Dad even joined (and lost more than 30 lbs!) and it brought out the competitive spirit in me as we jostled over the pride of losing a greater number of pounds each week or a higher percentage of our original weights.

All in all, I lost 27 lbs and kept most of it off for years. While dating M, I developed anemia and got too tired to exercise, or even really care about tracking what I was eating (hey-- I was in love! And since we were engaged in fewer than five months, clearly the whole thing was very whirlwind and distracting).  :-)  I joined WW again in 2006 before our wedding and shed enough pounds to go down TWO dress sizes in my wedding gown. Instead of altering it as much as they would need to do, the bridal shop exchanged it for a (much!) smaller gown.

Nine months into our marriage, I got pregnant with C. I lost the pregnancy weight, but was never as toned again. When C was 15 months, I got pregnant with H. After his birth, I lost a lot of the weight... until I went on Prednisone for several months and gained around 20 pounds. That was nearly a year ago, and the extra weight is still there. While we're ready to try for another baby, I know that I have to lose this weight first, and I have to do it for ME, not just so I can have a baby. That motivation just wasn't working for me, because in the back of my mind I knew that no matter how much weight I lost, I'd just be gaining it back with the next pregnancy.

Thus, my WW meeting on Saturday! I need the inner motivation and the external motivation to whip my you-know-what into shape!

More to come later about this journey...  


And Prayer Buddy, could you please pray that I develop greater discipline in many areas of my life in which I'm currently lacking it? I've fallen away from my daily Rosary and need a nudge to get back to that (because I'm supposed to be doing it for MY Prayer Buddy!!!) and need some more fortitude in a few other areas. Thanks!

And, Prayer Buddy, if it's not too much, could you PLEASE beg Him to do something about the oak pollen in the Texas Hill Country? I'm dying here. It'll be the elliptical instead of a stroller jog today, because that's the only way I can breathe. Thanks again.