A Dress to Love Life In

So, I pretty much love this dress (see it here with more info about construction, casinos, and the dangers of floaty sheer fabrics on windy days). Pics are from our walk in downtown Lansing after lunch on Sunday before the dark clouds rolled in (the day before my little boy turned four).

My hair is getting more gray in it and my eyes are home to some wrinkles that didn't used to be there. My upper arms may never be toned, my stomach may never be flat. But my life is good. My family is precious. My husband adores me. My son is still so sweet. My God is so generous with His grace.

I love my life.

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Four and Ready to Rock

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Almost Four

The little one is going to be four years old tomorrow.

The big one got him a drum set for his birthday.

Yeah.

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Simple Striped Shirtdress

A late fulfillment of a Sew Weekly challenge (this is becoming all too common). For the great picture of the woman who inspired it, click through here.

The next challenge I'm working on is something Vegas inspired. My first choice for fabric didn't work out as the secondhand red fabric I chose was badly faded from the sun along the folds. So I'll save it and possibly dye it red again and use for something else (would I need to bleach the whole thing first, I wonder?) and in its place I'm using a sheer print that's perfect for the desert. But I will have to finally break my no-fabric-purchases streak to buy a lining fabric. (I did allow for that in my ban, though, so I'm not cheating.)

Looking forward to seeing this one come together

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The Grandparents

Schedules being what they are, Calvin is having three separate celebrations for his fourth birthday, the first of which happened on Sunday with his grandparents and great-grandma.

Daddy got presents too, because his birthday was a couple weeks ago.

It was really nice having everyone there. We had a simple meal of hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, a bunch of chips, salsa, and other assorted munchies, and a giant Asian cabbage salad.

I think it's pretty funny that both of Calvin's grandmas wore essentially the same thing. In the picture above they are calling Zach's dad who was out to buy batteries for a couple toys (one Zach's, one Calvin's). And in the picture below they are watching him walk up the drive and waiting to see if he'll answer his phone. He didn't. Classic.

I'm so happy to have these photos, first of all because my mother-in-law does not care to have her picture taken and so doesn't usually smile in them (caught her!). And second because I realize these may be the first pictures I have of these two women together as our family lives in two different cities and we don't all get together much at the same time.

Though, once more, the only record that I was at this event is the fact that there are pictures and someone had to be behind the camera taking them!

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Feminizing the Necktie

The 1957 pattern tells me to make a bow, but I'm all thumbs when it comes to bows and I don't want to feel like a present or a five-year-old. So I make it into a necktie.

This is (finally) my fulfillment of the January 23 "Make This Look" challenge on The Sew Weekly. Check out my inspiration and my construction triumph here.

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A Sweet and Creepy Nursery

In a shrub in the front garden is the sweetest little bunch of baby spiders you'll ever see. This is how they hang out most of the time.

And this is what they do if you blow ever so gently on them.

The boy has been observing them and taking pictures (not these) and talking about how sweet they are. I'm so proud that he sees the beauty in them and that we can pass on our love and care for all God's creatures (except mosquitoes). As a kid little angered me more than when a classmate killed a spider or insect for no reason at all. I hope as he gets older that Calvin will take upon himself the venerated mantle of "bug defender" on the playground.

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A Little School Spirit Dress

A friend commissioned me earlier this spring to make a special dress for her daughter on the occasion of her daddy's graduation from Central Michigan University. I think it turned out pretty cute. It doesn't hurt that the little girl wearing it is adorable.

Congratulations, Bryan! We will miss you all so much as you start your new job in Florida!

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Mom

She is beautiful, loving, principled, petite, funny, giving, and just a little bit crazy.

She justifies small expenditures by saying, "Well, you'd pay that much for a pizza and then you'd eat it and it would be gone."

She once came into my bedroom with her arms full of clean socks and yelled, "Exploding socks!" as she threw them all into the air.

She was an NRA sharpshooter in her youth and made her own Barbie clothes.

She was always there for me at softball games, synchronized swimming recitals, and theatre productions.

She always gets the best parking spaces.

She taught me that I could do anything I tried if I wanted it enough.

She's my model for mothering (hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

She's my mom. And I wouldn't trade her for the world.

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Life's Race

So in the wee hours of the morning last night we were awakened by the phone. Never good. A beloved church family member passed away of cardiac arrest and my husband was called to the hospital to be with the family (for those of you who don't know, he is a pastor). After making him some coffee, turning off the lights, and locking the door behind him, I went back upstairs and laid awake in bed for about an hour, praying for this man's family, for my husband as he ministered to them, and whatever else came into my mind.

I fell asleep sometime in the five o'clock hour then woke again briefly when Zach came back from the hospital. In my morning dreams after I fell asleep one more, I dreamt I was running in a race. The end point was hazy. There were lots of people, but we weren't ever all in the same place at the same time. The race ran through cities, over rivers, past construction projects and outdoor theatre productions, through a prison, into a church, and many other places. There were pauses here and there during which I was frustrated that the others might be getting ahead of me. I was awakened by my little son before the race ended, but I imagine if I had stayed asleep, it would have continued indefinitely, the end point moving further away or the dream transforming into something else as dreams tend to do.

And here I sit in the family room with Calvin, him watching a movie as I contemplate and listen to the thunder and rain outside. My muscles are sore from much weeding and gardening yesterday. My coffee this morning turned out to be hot chocolate. (Doesn't Cafe Mocha say chocolatey coffee to you? Oh, well.) My house is awaiting cleaning as we prepare for dinner guests. And my mind is muddled with thoughts of grieving friends, laundry that must be sorted, a toilet that's flushing too slowly, a Sunday school lesson to prepare, and a husband who is undoubtedly weary after a week of fighting his recurring insomnia.

Life goes on like my dream race, frantic, then pausing for some while others rush on. The family of our friend who died last night is in a pause. Others move on, but they will remain where they are for some time. At some point they will rejoin the race. But the endpoint for each of us is different. It is always the same in its essentials—we will all one day reach the end—but we will reach it at different times and in different manners. And we never know when the finish line will come into view. Sometimes we reach it suddenly through cardiac arrest or a terrible accident. Sometimes we have the finish line in view for a long time as we suffer from cancer. But we will all reach it.

But just as after a race there is more, either the thrill of victory with a cheering crowd or the disappointment of loss, death is not truly the end. There is existence afterward. And the way we run the race is what determines what happens to us after we cross the finish line. I'm not talking about the things we do during life. It's not about good works outweighing the bad in our lives. It's about which team we run for.

May the death of a loved one or friend always remind us of our own eventual end and make us ask the question—what will happen to me when I cross the finish line?

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Now and Then - Living Room

This is the lovely sight that greeted me when I came home from the office today:

And this is what the room basically looked like (with a few differences, like the rug and the drapes, as this was taken before our son was born) last week:

We've come a long way. And considering we basically stumbled upon the new couch and loveseat when we were about to give up looking for the perfect set and settle for something about which we were feeling a bit blah, and then bought them after seeing a small graphic on a computer screen with the blue color, hoping it would match the rug and other decor, I think we did pretty darn good.

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Pink

Finished this week, a simple and sweet button-up cotton shirt for summer.

The only pink fabric in the stash, now used up to fulfill this Sew Weekly challenge. I'm skipping the challenge for next week because this week I was sewing a little dress for a friend's toddler (pics to come, hopefully) and my calendar is full of commitments, including work, meetings, two rather long zoo docent gigs (both the same day, the morning at the juvenile home and the evening at a posh fundraiser), a graduation party out of town, and the Miguel Cotto vs. Floyd Mayweather fight on pay per view at a friend's house Saturday night.

It's too bad I'll be missing this next challenge, because it's one where we get inspiration from a family photo and tie it to Mother's Day. I was thinking this picture of my mother in the early 1970s (I think) would be some seriously fun inspiration:

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For Your Sitting Pleasure

On Thursday, these little beauties will be delivered to our house.

And I couldn't be happier with the style, the color, or the price. I can't wait to curl up on the love seat with the sun streaming in that south window and read a book. Happy, happy me!

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