A Thread Through Time

My mom came over on Saturday for a few hours and brought her sewing machine with her. She had come to help me make part of the Halloween costumes for Nina and Lyla, and since I don't own a sewing machine and probably wouldn't know how to make what I needed if I did have one, I was very thankful for her help. After we finished our creations, Nina asked my mom to teach her how to sew. She got a single square of material, and out of it, she created three things for Nina's animals while teaching Nina how to sew. After some instruction, Nina was doing it all by herself. She was moving the bobbin up and down as need be, stitching and backing up her stitches, guiding the material, etc. I couldn't believe it. Being able to create things by sewing is a skill I am pretty much devoid of. When I was a kid, I remember my mom sewing us everything. She made dolls for us and clothes for our dolls, she made bags for us, clothes for us, quilts, curtains, etc. She even made our house a huge rug once. I remember going to the fabric store to pick out patterns of stuff we wanted her to make for us, and she made it.

I watched Nina get so excited while making the little outfits for her animals, and I thought it was something really special she was sharing with my mom. I think the craft of sewing is still mastered by some people in my generation, but it certainly isn't something I think most girls in my generation know how to do well, but I think it's something in my mom's generation that they all knew how to do very well. Judging from the things my mom made when we were kids, and judging from the beautiful hand made quilts and blankets Mark's mom made both of our girls when they were born, and other things that I remember my mom's friends making, or things that my sister's mother-in-law makes now, I know those women had a lot of skills that my friends and I don't have now. However, thankfully, in my case, my mom and her sewing machine are just a call away, so I got help with my girls' costumes, and Nina got a great sewing lessen and three items for her little friends.

Her first item of business was making a dress for Froggy.
Then they made a cape for Itsy, her spider (and a matching cape for Lyla's spider).
Then they made a hysterical evening gown style dress for Lizard (the picture didn't load, so I'll have to go back and try again), and then they added some embellishments for each and a bow for Froggy's dress. It was very cute!

Girl's Night

Last night was a little girls' night with girls I've been friends with for 18 years. I met Sallie, Becky, Jill, and Cassie (and Jess who we wished was there but was in GA instead) when I transferred to Stonewall Jackson my sophomore year of high school. We all still keep in touch and get together whenever we can, and last night we got together at Jill's house since Becky and Cassie were in town.
Jill was running a test kitchen of sorts on us, but it was more like we got served awesome food for doing nothing but talk, laugh, and have fun. Jill is going to start teaching cooking classes in the near future for a friend's new business venture, so she was trying out recipes on us to get our feedback. She (and her husband, Mark, who did all the clean-up) did an awesome job, and we tasted great dishes that she prepared and then is going to give us the recipes for.
Since Mark is in Chicago, my girls' night had to include bringing two little girls with me. Nina was so excited to see Jonathan. It was cute because when we first walked in the door, her comment to Jonathan was, "Wow, you look so grown up." They played hard all night.

I had to include this picture of Nina and her "new" smile. She's always smiled the same way - eyes barely open, big smile, and head turned to the side. You guys see the blog, you know what I'm talking about. However, when she actually knows she's getting her picture taken lately, this is how she's been "smiling". Too funny. It ended up being ok that my little girls were there because Jill's kids were there, Becky brought her oldest and Sallie brought her youngest, and Cassie's two boys came with her husband for awhile, so there was plenty of kids to play with. We were laughing at one point how it seems a little weird, but cute, that we now have kids who have their own little relationships and friendships with the other kids of our friends.

Becky's daughter turned three yesterday, so we had a little cake and sang Happy Birthday.

By the end of the night, we were sufficiently full, the kids were up late and playing in their PJs, and Jill's house, which started out so clean and calm, was now covered with dishes and toys, but we had so much fun, and it's awesome to still have good friends from so long ago.

First Field Trip

Today was Nina's first field trip. Her class (the Dinos) met up at Pumpkinville today for an afternoon of fun. Each child brought a chaperone, and siblings were invited, so both Lyla and I went on the field trip with her. We had a really fun time! Check out the slideshow of our time at Pumpkinville to see all the pictures and read the captions.

Fall Festival

Today was our community fall festival. It was a gorgeous day to be outside enjoying the festival, so we made the most of it. The girls got to take pony rides, pet some farm animals, ride on some cool rides, climb a rock wall, listen to a band, and eat pizza and cotton candy. Nina is our amusement park riding fanatic, so she wanted to go on all the rides. Lyla sat a few out, but she still had a good time and rode most of rides with her sister. The festivities ended at 7pm, so after closing down the last of the rides, we walked our tired selves home. We had a good time!

Gleaning

Today the girls and I had the chance to participate in a pretty cool project with some people from our church. We all met at an apple orchard where our pastor, Jim, talked to us about the concept of gleaning. In ancient cultures, and particularly in the Bible, gleaning was the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they had been harvested, and it was an act done by the poor. In our case, the church had gotten permission to go through a large section of an apple orchard and glean the good apples that had fallen to the ground. The apples were collected, then they were taken to two Loudoun County facilities that distribute food to the needy. Nina listened pretty intently while Pastor Jim talked to us about gleaning.
Then we were off to comb the orchard floor for as many good apples as we could carry in our bags.
I was really surprised how many perfectly good apples were on the ground. The girls learned quickly how to determine which ones were good.

In the end, our group finished with a ton of apples. It was a lot of fun as well as a good experience for us to take part in an ancient custom that really was able to help out some of the people in our community.

First Soccer Game

Nina had her first soccer game today. After three practices (yes, they are VERY well prepared), her team, the Sun Rays, had their first game. With their competing teams named things like the Bulldogs and having coaches that come out in full soccer gear, the Sun Rays team kind of fit their name. Their coach looks more like he's headed to a Jimmy Buffet concert than a soccer game, they're all happy to run to a goal (any goal - not necessarily theirs), they allow the other team plenty of chances to score (at the point the game got to 3-0, the other team went down a man to give the Sun Rays a chance), and when directly in front of the goal, they often miss it.

Nina did well in the first part of the game. She seemed like she was having a great time and almost scored. However, things turned a bit south in the second half. She didn't really want to get involved in the game and started to look a bit weepy, then there were tears. I tried to get out of her what the problem was and came away with it maybe having something to do with the other team's coach who was doing a lot of yelling, or the fact that the Bulldogs were scoring goals and the Sun Rays weren't. Either way, I tried to supress my inner Tom Hanks, which worked for the most part, and clapped and smilied with the other Sun Ray parents. It may be a long season!

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

The rain just didn't stop falling yesterday. We got some serious rain to make up for the lack of it that we've had this summer. Anyway, after spending the day inside, we all needed to get out a bit, so Nina and Lyla got big umbrellas and played in the rain. I remember liking to take walks in the rain also (when I was young), so I understand the need to get out even if it's raining.

Gone Fishin' - Posted by Mark

Nina and I decided to go out fishing on Sunday before the Skins game. Lyla was down for a nap and I was sensing conditions might be right for Nina to catch some fish. Our local community pond of 7 acres is wonderfully maintained and full of quality bass, bluegill and crappie. So after a slow beginning I was able to pick up on a pattern that yielded about a dozen bass in a little more than an hour. That seems to be the attention span of one 4 yr. old that I was with. I would cast my rattletrap as far as possible and start reeling. Once hooked I would immediately give Nina the pole and she would fight the fish all the way to the bank, pose for a photo, then toss it back into the water to catch another day. She is really getting the hang of it and seems to enjoy it. Watching her reminds me of fishing with Dad way back in the day. Our next adventure will be camping so stay tuned.

No Editing Required

The view of the moon from my back deck last night - no editing required.

This is the moon - just as it is...

One of my favorite movies is Bridget Jones's Diary. I laugh every time even though I've probably seen it 20 times. Mark and I's first dance song at our wedding was the song at the end of the movie - Van Morrison's Someone Like You. One of the sweet and sentimental moments of the movie is when the very aloof Mark Darcy tells his polar opposite, Bridget, that he likes her very much. She goes on to sarcastically say, "Sure, apart from the drinking, the smoking, the vulgur mother, etc..." and he says, "No. I like you very much. Just as you are."

I think it's really hard to to always look at the people in your life "just as they are" without occasionally wanting to putting them on the edit screen. Family members, spouses, children, friends, etc...there are times I think we all wish we could just edit them a bit to make it easier on ourselves to love them. After all, God is the only one capable of loving us just as we are all the time. He doesn't turn a blind eye to our bad behavior, but He loves us the same despite of it. Since He was the one that hung that beautiful display in the sky last night, maybe it was a little reminder to us that it's ok to disable our edit application too.

Giddey Up

Nina and Lyla had a blast this morning playing horse and rider. Of course, Lyla was the horse. No big surprise there. Anyway, our little ingenious rider came up with a way to tie one lace around her sister, and tie the other two laces into her reins for each hand. They were having so much fun. Nina was shouting, "Giddy up" and Lyla was shouting, "Nay" and they ran all over the house.

I can't believe fall is starting tomorrow. Last night was cool, and Mark and the girls had gone to the park to collect fire wood, so we enjoyed a nice little fire on the deck. Speaking of enjoying things, this girl does love her ice cream!

This Made Me Laugh

This morning Nina really made me laugh. I was half paying attention to what she was doing, but I was mostly trying to come up with meals for the week and thinking that it shouldn't be that hard to just come up with five meals. Anyway, I noticed that she has scissors, paper, some tape, and crayons, but I didn't know what she was doing until she asked me how to spell, "Love Jesus, Eat Vegetables," and I started to laugh. This sounds like a pretty good philosophy on life... I'm glad she loves Jesus, but I'd be happy too if she would take her own advice and eat vegetables!