I got a little sewing done over the past few days. I know I said this would not be a sewing blog, but I'm not doing tutorials or anything.
M got a rainbow and O got a penguin...
with a Christmas hat
Another t-shirt and some flower corduroy pants
If the shirt fits... our little monster. I loved this little monster because that's how O would walk when he first started. Arms in the air and mouth open yelling for joy.
I know I said this would not be a sewing blog, not that there is anything wrong with sewing blogs, there are lots of good ones out there. But I know that's not the purpose of this blog. But I sew sometimes because its something that I like to do and its soothing, except when I have to use the seam ripper. Either way, when I was not even a mom, on of my friends once told me a story about how one evening when her husband got home she loaded up all the laundry and took it to the laundromat. This is a mother of four young (at the time) children who had been trying to get the laundry done all day, along with a million other things. When her husband got home she had reached the point of needing to accomplish something from start to finish. So she loaded up the laundry and did every ounce of it, washed, dried and folded.
Sometimes it takes me days to get the laundry put away, so long M and I start dressing in which ever room the basket of clean laundry is waiting. "Mom I need some socks!" "Go check the clean basket in the living room." "Mom do you know where that one pink shirt is?" (This is always a hard question when you have a five year old girl because most shirts are pink) "Check the clean laundry dumped on my bed, or the pile on the couch."
I didn't understand my friends need to pack up her laundry and get it done somewhere away from the house, when her washer and dryer were working fine. But now I do understand the need to get something done from start to finish. When I sew I get a lot of interruptions and that means I make a lot of mistakes. Sometimes I stay up really really late, even through I know I'm going to regret it later (like around 3pm the next afternoon when I hit the wall and go comatose and only dark chocolate will bring me back) just to be able to sit and concentrate on a project and get it finished.
Distraction is a part of being a mom, sometimes its frustrating. Sometimes it will drive you mad. Sometimes you might yell "I'm loosing my mind!" But here is what I am learning about the distraction of a child, a child does not set out to frustrate you. They might want or need attention, but their thought is not, "hmmmm how can I frustrate my mommy today?" Their thought is more along the lines of "I just really need some juice right now." or "I'm going to dump all the blocks on the floor because I love the sound of them hitting the hard wood." Frustration is my problem, frustration is not with the child, its with me not getting MY things done when I want them done. Everyday I have to remind myself that if I let it something will frustrate me that day. But the frustration is my deal, and its my issue to work through, its not the fault of the child. The child who is interrupting me is not intentionally bringing about the frustration. While the laundry needs to be done, and while the dishes needs to be cleaned, if I get interrupted while dealing with either of them, I can always come back, they are not going anywhere. But the needs of the young child often cannot wait. Or their needs can wait, but more importantly a young child needs to know that you can be trusted to respond and they can trust that when they call, you are listening.
Have your kiddies been getting the sneezles and wheezles these days? I came across this little treasure at our library book sale. It was written my A.A. Milne himself. 
Milne decided to write a book for kids stuck in bed. He wrote it back when kids used to get measles and other such illnesses that left them in bed for days and days on end. 
The first part of the book has poems and riddles. The middle portion has "healing" recipes, such as Honey and Lemon Juice for a Squeaky Voice, Issue-A-Reward Lemon-Honey Jellies, and Honeycomb Chewing Gum. The third section of the book includes games and other fun things you can do looking out the window. This includes how to spot insect eating birds and seed eating birds. The final section of the book has enlarged pictures of all the different Hundred-Acre characters for tracing.
