Mad Hatter

I've been trying my hands at hat making lately. Nothing fancy - just wool beanies lined with fleece. Of course, since I'm making them, they're made from recycled sweaters. The best part is I've finally found a use for the sweaters that don't felt well. When you go through as many wool sweaters as I do, you always end up with a few that don't come out quite right.

The more sweaters I felt the more I learn that all wool is not created equal, even all 100% wool isn't the same. Merino wool - too thin - I rarely buy it, all new wool - half the time doesn't do much, and of course, washable wool does nothing because it's been treated so that it won't felt. (Though I'm told if you dry clean it you can remove the coating, but with the cost of dry cleaning these days, I have yet to try it.)

These little beanies are super simple to make and I think I did all three in just a couple of hours. The felt pins were a snap, too. I just love how they dress up the hats just a little bit.

Again

Photo via

When my daughter was nine months old she spent three days in the hospital on IV antibiotics for a really bad urinary tract infection. That began our year and a half long battle with recurrent UTIs that included catheters, kidney ultrasounds, time at DeVoss Children's Hospital with a pediatric nephrologist, and finally daily doses of antibiotics. We were assured that these things usually clear up when a child was potty trained and three months after my daughter's second birthday, when she was only wearing diapers at night, she stopped taking the medication. We held our breath and hoped she wouldn't get another UTI. Thankfully she was fine.

And she stayed fine. We had to revisit the hospital each summer for an annual kidney ultrasound just to make sure her kidneys we growing normally. Which they were, so this past summer she didn't need to be checked. Which was nice, because it was the first summer of her life that she didn't set foot in a hospital. (Some of you may remember our hospital visit of 2009.)

Yesterday, after peeing four times in three hours and complaining that it hurt and the subsequent visit to Medical Center that afternoon, she has been diagnosed with another urinary tract infection.

Ugh.

So now it is back on antibiotics, the pediatric nephrologist's office gets a call and we go from there...

2010 Teacher Gifts

I love homemade Christmas presents; especially when children are involved. Every year I have my students make a present, usually a Christmas tree ornament, for their parents. My own children also make their gifts. This year the kids gave the important adults in their lives (teachers and babysitters) hot cocoa. I shamelessly stole the idea but tweaked it to make it work for our situation. In addition to the wordle-wrapped cocoa, we made stirring spoons.

Milk-chocolate-dipped-and-coated-in-candy-cane-pieces stirring spoons. Let me tell you how incredibly yummy the house smelled the night we made those. It was all I could do to not eat the melted chocolate while we were making them. They were super easy to make, though since they involved the stove and a double boiler, close adult supervision was a must.

First we got out all of our frustrations by using rolling pins to smash a box of candy canes. (Putting them in zip-lock bags kept the pieces from flying all over the kitchen.) I heated milk chocolate chips in a double boiler and then I helped the kids dip plastic spoons into the melted chocolate. After each spoon was nicely coated, we just sprinkled on the broken peppermint pieces and then set the spoons onto wax paper to cool. They loved it., and took it quite seriously. It was fun to hear them say things like, "This one is for Mrs. W, " and "This one is for Louann," despite the fact that they were all exactly the same.

We packaged the spoons in little goody bags, tied them with some pretty ribbon, and finished each one with a candy cane.

Finally, the kids put several baggies of spoons into a lunch bag. Not the fanciest wrapping, I know, but it was something the kids could do so they could really feel like it was "their" gift. My son did an excellent job threading the ribbon through the holes. He was especially proud when he wrote his teacher's name on her bag.

Next year, I think we might make these. All I can say is, yum!

Better Late Than Never

OK, perhaps a better title would be: Better Really Late Than Never. Life has been busy and hectic lately. (Kids, school, mittens, grandma, etc.) So much so that I missed out on some important posts. So, now it's time to play catch-up:

Somehow I never got around to posting about the kids Halloween costumes. So, being that Halloween was ages ago, I thought I'd better get to it. My husband and son decided to be Stick Men this year, and man did they look cool after it got dark! Once the sun set, their black clothes disappeared into the night and they really looked like stick people walking down the street. (That night they both had black face paint and black shoes.)

My husband created the EL wire part of the project, Meijer supplied the black sweat suits, and I hand stitched the wire to the fabric. It needs to be done by hand because piercing the wire with a needle will ruin it - or so I am told.

My daughter decided she didn't want to be a Stick Person but a pink dinosaur instead. She absolutely loves dinosaurs right now so it was very fitting. Please excuse my editing job on the photo below. Since I don't show their faces on-line, I tried my hand at editing out everything but her costume. Certainly not a professional job, but you've got to start somewhere, right?

I made the costume using this pattern, which was a snap. The shoe covers I did on my own, tracing around her tennis shoes to create a pattern. The bodysuit pattern called for interfacing to stiffen the scales, but I used peltex instead. She loves it so much, she won't met me take it out of her closet. And, occasionally, she puts it on and wears it around the house on the weekends. Good think I made it quite big. I had intended for her winter coat to fit under it (it can be cold here at the end of October, or in the case of last year the kids wore their rain coats under them) so it's going to fit for a long time...

Grandma Mary

Mary McNair
1920 - 2010
(I took this photo at her 90th birthday party in November.)

You may remember when, back in June, I wrote about my grandma going into hospice. Well, yesterday morning at about 6:30 she passed quietly in her sleep. And while I my logical side knows it's what she's wished for each and every day for the past seven months, I'm still deeply saddened by her death. I'm trying hard to be strong - for my little ones; I must remember they've lost a grandma, too.

That was the hardest part about it - telling my own children. My daughter began to cry immediately. "Grandma can't die," she got out between sniffles, "I love her." It took longer to sink into my son; he didn't start crying for a minute or two, but then sobbed, and I mean sobbed, for 45 minutes. Then the questions began:

"How did she die?"

"Did she what to be cremated?"

"Where is she right now?"

"Where will they put her?"

These all stem from the loss of our good friend last winter. Somehow I know that losing Karen helped prepare them for this loss, not that you can really be prepared to lose someone you love. But they, my son (who is six) at least, understands that dying means that person is gone and we'll not see them again. The book When Dinosaurs Die has been a big help as well. If you have children and you don't own this book, you should get it.

So we've been talking a lot about keeping Grandma Mary alive in our hearts and remembering all the special things about her:

How she let them ride on her scooter and how they loved to race up and down the hallway where she lived. How she always seemed to have a sweet treat for them when they visited, and most importantly, how her face lit up when they walked into her room. They brought great joy into her life and she loved them so very much.

I am trying to remember that despite how much my heart aches today, my children and I are the luckiest of all Mary's grandchildren. Of her 16 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, (who are spread out over six states and three continents,) my children and I were the only ones who got to see her on a regular basis. We were a part of her life and she a part of ours and the memories we have make the tears bearable.

Good-bye Grandma Mary. We love you. And while I know you were a staunch atheist and did not believe in an afterlife of any kind, if you happen to discover that you were incorrect I hope you have a comfortable chair, a very sharp pencil, and an unending supply of crossword puzzles from the New York Times...

Lucky

Some days I just have to pinch myself.

How lucky I am to live on Mackinac.

I hope all your holiday wishes
come true this year...

He Sees You When You're Sleeping

As I was culling the catalogue pile the other day, I came across these; two catalogues in which virtually every item had been circled. When I asked my son about it he told me, "It's so Santa will know what to bring me."

Apparently he thinks he's been really really good this year...

Handed Down

I love hand-me-downs. Love them; and this one has been quite popular lately. My cousin sent this beautiful doll house home with us last summer (along with a giant tub of trains.) The trains were an immediate hit, but the doll house has languished in my daughter's closet. She was so completely uninterested in it that I actually considered returning it.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but something changed. Over the past two weeks or so the doll house has been incredibly popular - with both of the kids. Which totally makes me smile. I love toys like this; the ones that just beg the kids to use their imaginations; one minute it is a hamster habitat, the next it is home to a horse family. I wonder what they'll think of next?

Thank You

Dearest Santa,
Thank you,

thank you,

thank you!
Thanks to all this wonderful snow, Mackinac
is sure to have a white Christmas this year.

Sincerely,

Liz

An Open Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Please send Mackinac Island some snow. I'm certain you can imagine just how cold it is riding a bicycle in nine degrees weather. Not to mention the challenge of keeping a bicycle upright on icy patches. I tried asking Mother Nature to drop a few inches, but as of yet she has been unwilling to cooperate. I thought dressing up as Frosty the Snowman for the Boyne City Santa parade this year might help, and it did; the Boyne / Petoskey area got quite a bit. Unfortunately, Mackinac didn't get more than a dusting. Santa, anything you could do to get some snow to Mackinac Island would be much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Liz