Party People in the House

Reese and Ryan's birthday party was awesome. I don't know if you're allowed to say a party was awesome when you are the host, but it really was. Awesome. We had 60 people here of all ages and everyone had fun. No major meltdowns from the wee ones, all of the kids got along and played nicely with each other. The adults got to eat, talk, laugh, hang out and catch up. My kids were over the moon happy to have so many people here celebrating them. My in-laws came in early to help out and they were SO very helpful.

{ watching me light the candles, she yells "pop" when candles get blown out LOVE }

{ we sang to "baby A" first, he was so confused }

{ singing to Puff, the look on her face says it all }

It was a super fun (dare I say, the funnest?) way to break in the new house. What a party space we built. Everyone fit comfortably, the house was full without feeling stuffed. That made me happy too.

{ blowing out the candles }

{ we survived two years!! }

{ the birthday boy leveling his cake }

I managed to get the cake baked, decorations up and food here and still had time to shower and dress myself (no small feat!) it was really, truly a great day. I'm working on a few posts with some fun pictures of the party and my piece de resistance...THE CAKE. It's taken me a few days to recover from our soiree. I hope every party from here on out is as fun as the last one. I'm still smiling three days later.

{ cousins meeting for the first time, 

my nephew is exactly 2 months younger than Lola }

{ grandma on baby duty! }

{ happy two years love bugs, you are amazing little people! }

a thrifted frock with potential...

today i have been greatly distracted from my list of 'to~dos' by a frock. this particular frock found me last night hanging on the racks of despair at my local thrift store. reasons why it caught my beady little eye and thus resulted in my distracted ways of today are as follows

reason 1: a mandarin collar

reason 2: black fabric with an itty bitty flora

reason 3: teeny tiny open work down the front

reason 4: minute button after button

(could result in time consuming fiddly business of getting dressed every day but banished this thought so as not to be put off)

reason 5: rather peachy cuffs with more minute buttons

reason 6: and the most important thing of all when coming across a thrifty find, it had potential

tres tricky to get good pics but these go someway to showing the frock and its potential

since my distracted ways came into play i have devised in my head a cunning plan on how to make my newly found frock into something wearable

plan 1: lop off at least 8 inches from the bottom to make it knee length

plan 2: darts at back of frock, just above waist band to make it fit a little better

plan 3: rustle around (quite gently and with care so as not to distress them) in my woven ribbon collection and add some detailing around the waist area to give it an illusion of a 'high waist' and less 'waist waist' band. this in turn will add a pretty detail and gives me an excuse to wear my ribbons (brilliantly cunning i feel!)

plan 4: don newly customized frock over a slip, leaving some of the buttons most risque~ly undone near the knee, to show slip peeking out. 

plan 5: add a jolly pretty vintage pin near mandarin collar 

all of this is in the hope of making the frock look less severe and matronly, for it is frighteningly so when worn just as i found it...

  

obviously having done all 5 plans it does look most brilliantly fabby in my head, however what is in my head and what usually eventually lies in my hands are quite often 2 different things. i have put that trifling thought out of my head though, for i will not let a small detail of it all going pair shaped and looking pants, put me off! no sirree! 

i see a whole wonderful world appearing before me, when i wear my newly customized frock. i see us becoming the best of friends, i see us with woolly tights, clogs and cardis to keep the chill off and in warmer climes i see us with clog sandals and a headscarf looking effortlessly bohemian and eclectic. i see us sight~seeing together in europe this spring, and before then, i see us testing out the waters together by wafting around the local grocery store, folks glancing and questioning who this mysterious and most peachily dressed woman could possibly be and not one person, no not one single soul, realizing the frock upon her bod once hung on the shelves of despair with very little hope... 

40th Anniversary of State-Sponsored Murder

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the culturally, socially and economically catastrophic United States Supreme Court decision that until the child in the womb is capable of surviving alone outside of the womb (i.e. it is “viable”) it is not a person, thus stripping the helpless innocent child of its human rights, including its right to life, and its right to State protection, and allowing its own mother the right to have it barbarically slaughtered.

In the 40 years since Roe v Wade, somewhere in the region of 53 million children have been put to death in America alone – this is only 10 million short of the entire population of the United Kingdom.  Who will ever know the talent that has been wasted over these 40 years?  Perhaps the doctor who would discover a cure for cancer is among those  53 million, or the scientist who would make breakthrough discoveries in the reduction of pollution?  Which great artist will never see the light of day, or which writer or politician will now never inspire the world?  

The damage we have done is incalculable.  Is God pleased with our stewardship?

On Saturday 19th January I attended the March for Life in Lincoln, Nebraska, joining between three and five thousand other supporters of life to march in protest of all violations of human life.  Here are some photos:

Everyone gathered outside the State Capitol building, where speakers included the Nebraska State Governor  the Lieutenant Governor and two Congressmen.

 The pro-death people were also present, but they didn't make any trouble.

 Seminarians from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary.

 All generations were represented.

Marching from the Capitol building to the university.

The pro-death protesters followed us to the university, but on arriving, they found nine pro-life students waiting to stand in front of them!  God bless these young pro-life men!

In addition, here are some photos from the Lincoln abortion clinic taken today, as we prayed outside for the poor women and children who the victims of abortion, and for the end of this genocide.

a vignette of a life...

dearest reader, i must tell you, last week as we sat in the evening, Our #3 required testing for his homework. as is usually the way, i volunteered my man for such an important task and continued on my merry crafting way in the corner. it soon became apparent he had a list of words, the words required learning, along with their meaning and then finally to be placed within a sentence so the reader of the said sentence would know and understand the meaning of the word. i was thinking, well that would make any word feel most special if it were to know a whole sentence had been devised for it to shine brightly.

suddenly my man exclaimed "well here is one your mother will know!" and proceeded to say the word 'vignette' with great glee. Our #3 said it was not a word he was familiar with, to which his father responded "well it might come as a surprise then to know you have lived your whole life in a vignette, from the moment you were born, and throughout your 17 years, a constantly changing vignette". (this was followed by quite a lot of chuckling from my man). our lad looked rather puzzled and so i took it from there...

now not one to actually do my child's homework for them, and lets be honest, even if i wanted to, i would not be able to, i think from around the age of 7 they surpassed much of my knowledge on things such as math and history. but here, here was a moment where along with the chosen words on his list, i could perhaps shine a little with my knowledge. 

so i continued where my man finished off, i enlightened my third child, as i pointed to 'here, there and everywhere' within the room we loitered and beyond. after which i gave him the sentence, i told him it really was not the sentence for a reader to understand what the meaning of 'vignette' was, however it was a sentence which made me smile

'it would appear, unbeknownst to me, for 17 years i believed i lived in a house but apparently not, apparently i have lived in a vignette all along, created by my mother'