The Girls' Special Project

Before I started this school year, I decided that I wanted to incorporate a HomeEc-type course for the girls. They already love to help out with cooking, and Alyx and Larissa have already started crocheting. My idea was to start teaching them some quilting and other basic patternless sewing projects. After thinking it through, I decided to also use my mom to teach the kids how to sew using patterns. I could do it, but Mom is so much better than I am and it gives me an "excuse" to make a trip up there for a week at a time every now and then. =)

Before we started school, Alyx had made the comment that she needed an apron to wear while she was cooking, so I decided to make that the first project. She was thrilled at the idea, and Mom was very excited to be able to teach them. As I said in the post about our Labor Day holiday, I took A LOT of pictures, so please forgive me for the abundance of photos. =) (In case you don't already know this, you can click on any picture to get a larger view, if you so desire.)

Mom gave each of the girls some special notebooks to take notes in during "class time."

She explained all the details of how to get the pattern, choose the fabric, get the notions, choose the size, decide how much fabric you need, etc...

After all the measurements were taken, Mom brought out the fabric choices. She had planned to make the aprons reversible, so she had bought 3 sets of coordinating prints. The girls are usually pretty good about sharing and doing things fairly, so we decided to let them choose their favorites. If there was a duplicate "favorite," then we would have to draw names or something, but they chose them without any trouble. I was so glad! =)

Mom pulled out the directions and pattern pieces and explained it all to the girls.

They each got to take a turn at cutting out the pattern pieces. And yes, Larissa concentrates so much better if she sticks out her tongue. =)

Before going any further, Mom sat the girls down and reviewed with them so that they could take notes in their notebooks.

They each took turns ironing pattern pieces.

Alyx ironed her fabric.

They all enjoyed using Granny's cool rotary cutter! =)

Alyx was so excited, she could not contain herself. She kept jumping up and down and giggling with delight. She would say, "Oh, I can't wait to see it done!" and "Thank you, Granny for teaching me!" She's so sweet! =)

Time to sew...Mom begins by showing Alyx how to thread the machine.

Mom used a scrap piece of fabric to let them practice sewing. Alyx thought it was a lot of fun. =)

Alyx started by sewing the first pocket.

She clipped the excess fabric outside of the stitches...

Pressed it...

And Voila! Her first pocket was complete!

Here she's sewing the pockets to one side of the apron and then shows the completed side.

She pins on the pockets for the other side....

Trims the excess fabric after having sewn it all together...

Turns it right side out...

And is all done!

Thank you, Granny!

Alyx immediately put her apron to work in the kitchen. She's putting some olive oil on some buns to be toasted under the broiler, measuring raisins, oats and walnuts for some oatmeal raisin cookies and has the cookie scoop ready to form the cookies. =)

Larissa was next. She ironed her fabric...

Loved cutting with the rotary cutter.... (and was quite the wild woman with that tool. Granny had to try to keep her under control.) =)

And was just as excited as Alyx was.

She had a chance to practice as well.

She began with her first pocket.

She learned to backstitch.

Here she was clipping the excess fabric and turning the pocket right side out. She is left-handed, but refuses to cut with her left hand. She's an interesting little girl. =) Note the tongue again aiding in her concentration.

She worked on sewing one of the straps.

Here she was showing the pockets she had pinned on.

She sewed on some pockets.

She put it all together to sew up.

It's all done!

Thank you, Granny!

Sydney was so patient to wait for her sisters to finish. Here she is ironing some of her fabric.

Here she was helping Granny with some measurements for a pattern piece.

She wasn't quite strong enough to cut by herself, so Granny helped out. She loved seeing that it actually cut the fabric, though.

Time to sew! Isn't she cute? =)

She got to practice, too, and she really enjoyed operating the presser foot lever.

She was the only one of the three that couldn't reach the pedal on the ground, so we had to set it on top of a dictionary. The pedal kept slipping off, so we had to wrap a towel around it to keep it steady. =)

Here she is working on her first pocket and trimming the excess fabric.

She helped sew on the pockets to one side.

Here she is sewing it all together. She really enjoyed pulling out the pins as they neared the presser foot. =)

All done!

Thank you, Granny!

Mom said that they did a fantastic job, and she's looking forward to teaching them another project. =) All I have to say is, I fear for the day that they each turn 16, because they have lead feet! They all had a "need for speed." =) No, really, they did very good after they got the hang of how much pressure to apply to the pedal and got more comfortable with the machine. I'm very proud of them! =)

I guess it's my turn now...

For the last two days, I've had a migraine, and today I started running fever. That is exactly how Sydney's sickness started. She ended up with cold-type symptoms after several days of running high fevers. Praise the Lord she is better now! We were beginning to wonder if she was going to make it. None of us got any sleep for about 3 nights straight, because she was crying and moaning all night long. We felt so bad for her, but there wasn't much we could do. It just had to run it's course.

Please pray that I don't get it that bad. We missed school last week, since Sydney was sick and the rest of us were exhausted from the rough nights. We really can't afford to miss another week...I don't want to get behind.

Labor Day

You will have to forgive all the pictures that I will be posting in the next couple of days. I took 420 pictures while I was up at my parents' house, and it's very difficult to pick and choose. So, I guess, if you don't want to see them, you don't have to look. =)

Monday morning, Sept. 1, we set off to spend the holiday with my family. Jason decided to commute to work during the week, so we took his truck and were crammed in like a bunch of cozy sardines. =)


My brother-in-law, Richard, was "Master of the Grill" with his fantastic marinated chicken and stir-fry vegetables! Yes, that is a flower behind his ear. I took a tour of Mom's yard and picked a flower. I couldn't resist sticking it behind his ear, and he's such a good sport about it. Ain't he purty? =)


As I said, I toured Mom's yard and, of course, had to take some pictures. Mom loves gardening and has a wide variety of flowers and plants. I can't possibly remember all the names of them, but I think they are beautiful and have to share them.

This is rosemary-one of my favorite herbs. It smells so good, especially when you water it.

This is a pepper plant, and let me tell you, they are HOT!!! I've made some salsa with these before, and it will light you up!

Here are some shots of Mom's Morning Glories and a pink flower that I can't remember the name of. =)

This is called "Hen and Chick" and loves to grow near rocks.

Here are some more beautiful and interesting flowers that I can't remember the names of.

Here is a Bird of Paradise.

Here are some roses.

Mom has a wonderful rustic-country feel to her yard. Here are some items that lend to that feeling. I love the ladder up against the tree. She normally has potted plants sitting on each rung, but she doesn't right now. The arbors on either side of the garden bench usually have roses vining all over them. (The lack of rain, watering restrictions and extreme heat contribute to that.) Mom loves birdhouses and has many of them inside and outside. Only about 3 or 4 of them are actually functioning as bird feeders, so many of them are just for decoration. She has a distressed-looking wooden bench on her front porch that holds some of those birdhouses and some potted plants and other decorations.



Here are a few shots of the kids and Mom in the yard. The girls love running down the big hill in the front yard and then racing back up to the top. Oh, to have that kind of energy... =)



Wow! That was harder than I thought it would be. I didn't want to post every picture and bore you half to death, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of our experience. My next post is going to be even harder to compose and choose pictures for, because that's where the majority of the pictures were taken. It will contain pictures of the girls' special project with their granny. =) Check back during this next week to find out what it was...

Mexican Cornbread

This recipe was stumbled upon unplanned and was really good! The meal I had planned to fix required a certain ingredient that I didn't have enough of, so I had to change plans at the last minute. We call that a "happy accident." =)

For a while, I had been craving cornbread and just kept forgetting to work it into my menu plan. When I had to come up with a meal at the last minute, I looked in the refrigerator and saw some chopped onions and bell peppers, some jalapenos and our homemade turkey sausage. I also knew that I had some corn in the freezer. We found a cornbread recipe in our recipe book and decided to just throw it all together in a casserole dish to see what would happen. We enjoyed it so much last week, that we decided to make it again this week with a crock pot of beans. We just had it Tuesday night, and it was delicious! (FYI: We cooked a 1 pound bag of dried navy beans [soaked the night before] with some chopped onion, minced garlic and some salt in the crock pot on high for about 6 hours.)


Here's the recipe...Enjoy! Let me know if you try some variations and whether or not you like them.

Cornbread
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
2 Tbsp. double-acting baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups milk (we use plain soy milk)
4-8 Tbsp. agave nectar (This depends on how sweet you like your cornbread...I used 6 Tbsp.)
2/3 cup oil (We used coconut oil the first time and grapeseed oil the second time. Both worked just fine.)

Ingredients to add to cornbread mixture:
1 1/2 cups turkey sausage
1/2 cup corn
1/2 cup bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/3 cup canned or fresh jalapenos, chopped (obviously, less if you don't want it too spicy, more if you want it more spicy.)

This is all we used because that's all we had on hand at the time, but feel free to experiment with additional ingredients. I imagine this would be a good mixture to "sneak" in some veggies that your kids might not eat alone (ie. chopped spinach, diced zucchini or squash, diced mushroom, etc.).

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F. Grease 9" X 13" baking dish (We use grapeseed oil).

Dice and chop pepper, onion and jalapenos and combine with corn and sausage. Set aside.

In medium bowl with fork, mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. In small bowl with fork, beat together egg, milk, agave nectar and oil. Pour egg mixture all at once into flour mixture. Stir just until flour is moistened. Do not overstir--It should be slightly lumpy. Add vegetable and sausage mixture to batter and gently combine. Pour batter into the prepared baking dish and spread evenly. Bake 30 minutes or until golden.

Sydney

The doctor really doesn't know what's causing her fever. He tested her for meningitis, ear infections and several other things, and couldn't come up with anything. She doesn't have swollen glands, her heart and lungs sound good and her stomach seems fine too. He gave us a few things to give her and said to continue giving her ibuprofen as needed to keep the fever from spiking so high.

Please continue to pray for her that she will heal quickly.

Update

This is just a quick post to let you know that we are back and had a great time at my parents' house! I can't wait to share some pictures. Right now, though, my hands are a little full with taking care of a sick little girl. =( Towards the end of our trip, Sydney started running a fever. I'm still not sure what is causing it, because she's not having any other usual symptoms that go along with a "bug" (ie. vomiting, diarrhea, etc.). I wouldn't be that concerned, except her fever has reached the high 105's, and today her blood pressure must have spiked, because she got a pretty bad nose bleed. I'm going to be taking her to the doctor tomorrow, so just pray that she will get better very soon. She's so miserable. =(