Trying to decide

I desperately need a new hairstyle. I've been putting it off for a while because I just didn't know what I wanted. Since I've pulled my hair back in a pony tail everyday this week I decided now is the time to do it, only I can't decide. I don't want to spend a lot of time on it and my hair is extremely thick and a tad wavy. Here's what I'm thinking:

Style #1

I love this. I'm not sure I have it in me to go this short. But it's super cute

Style #2

I like this, just not sure my wavy hair will comply.

Style #3

Not as short but cute. I love the sweep bangs.

Seriously I need your input. Your comments are appreciated.

Thoughts on Homeschooling

I recently attended an evening session about Homeschooling where they shared this message by Voddie Bauchan. It has been something both Marvin and I have talked considerably about recently. To be quite honest I'm really excited about it, but also a little nervous, thankfully we'll have a few years before Calvin is surpassing my knowledge.

I'll always remember when I went into labor early and we called another expat nurse to get some counsel on what to do. She told me that God entrusted this baby to us and even if it was nothing it's our responsibility to protect it and He'll be with us the entire way. Those words have stuck with me, she's such a wise lady.

I do think that it is our responsibility as parents to protect and guide our children the Lord has entrusted to us. Something that stuck with me through Voddie's message was this concept, "when we send our children to Caesar, don't be surprised when they come back Roman soldiers." Wow I had never thought about education that way. I feel I was reminded once again the importance of training up our children in righteousness. It's such a big job, but I long for Calvin to develop a Biblical worldview and to be able to make his own decisions based on this.

I have no desire to enclose him in a little bubble because I feel that is very unbiblical. But how is he to be salt if he never learns how to be salt? There is still so much I'm trying to process in regards to homeschooling. It's been challenging for me to view my chosen profession, the one I spent several years studying for to be seen in a different light. I haven't really come to any clear decisions other than this is what God is asking our family to do. It's been good to process this before the Throne, just like our sweet friend told us He'll be with us the entire way. What a great God.

I'd love to hear from you guys and your thoughts. I highly encourage you to listen to Voddie's message. It will make you think.

Maybe one more

Calvin loves to play with stickers. We have a couple rules with stickers in our house that Calvin sort of understands, they go on paper or shirts, which Calvin translates to any part of your body. He kept these stickers on his face until he went to bed. He also likes to put stickers on my legs. I'm pretty sure I've gone to the store with something stuck to my backside and not even realized it. Oh the joys of motherhood.


I love this picture because he's showing me his belly. To do this he sticks it out. We had finished breakfast one morning and he was a sticky mess so I took his clothes off and threw them in the wash and all of a sudden he came back into the kitchen looking like this.

Priceless! You better believe I'm keeping my eye out for cheap stickers.

Sewing Calvin's Naps away

Since I prepared all of our meals ahead of time this week I've had extra time to sew. Here's a peek at what I've been working on.

I've been needing to make a few plastic bag holders for a long time. I was able to clear out all the plastic bags in a container today and I've already put that container to good use. I also made one for Calvin's Room only in a monkey Fabric. Had I known how easy this would have been I would have done it a long time ago. Seriously I think I had both of these done in 10 minutes.

My first little girl's apron. I love how it turned out. I hope to sell this one in my Etsy shop. Let me know if you want it and I'll give it to you my friend's and family discount.

I love this flower and I've fallen in love with making fabric flowers recently.

This apron I made per the request of a friend. Jamie, it turned out great and I can't wait to give it to you. You're going to be the cutest stay at home mom in this.

I also tried a little applique. I loved how this turned out and of course I made Calvin wear it today because I was so excited.

This was a project I did a couple of weeks ago but I thought I'd throw it in here. My mom requested embellished tea towels for a wedding gift. I checked the bride's registry for her kitchen colors and tried to match fabric with her tastes. I hope she likes them.

I have several other unfinished projects going on right now, but I'm out of the color of thread I need for both projects. I don' t know how that happened. I'll keep you updated on how it goes. Keep me posted on your creative projects. Ideas really motivate me.

More Uppercase Living Fun

Okay if you don't know about this stuff yet, you need to. I've had a blast decorating using this lately. It's funny I'm finally decorating now that we will hopefully be moving in September, but it's all coming with us. I love how easy these vinyl expressions are to apply, that they come in a variety of colors and my favorite thing is that they are very affordable. I'm looking forward to seeing these in our homes through the years. (I say homes because in the almost 7 years Marvin and I have been married we have lived in 9 different places not including all the hotels we've dragged all our stuff in and out of, and when I say all our stuff I literally mean all our stuff.)

Okay so here's a little tour of my latest Uppercase Living Creations:

This one is in Calvin's room. It's a scrapbook frame that I added this expression that I custom created to the glass. I love how the look of this can change by a simple piece of paper, which I've already done. I'm a girl who loves change.
I ordered the tin and expression. I loved this one and it turned out pretty fun. I think I'm going to add a messy fabric flower to the top of the ribbon.

This was what I created during the make and take at my party. It's been nice to have a place to hang my to do list.

When I saw this I wanted to put it in the guest bathroom/Calvin's bathroom. Since I hosted a party I got lots of perks and was able to order this frame and expression at a great price. It came with 3 other inserts so I can change it out.

I love how this turned out and it is so light weight, which makes Marvin very happy. It's crazy but we often decide on whether to buy things or not now by how much it weighs. You'll be surprised at how quickly those pounds add up. I've been looking for cute decor to bring back overseas and this was the perfect fit. I created this by covering wood circles with scrapbook paper, gluing them together, adding a few flowers as well as the word Family.

After my last order I thought I was going a little overboard but as I look around nothing looks overdone, just classy. If you want to know more I'd be happy to give you the contact of my favorite UL Demonstrator Janae. (Happy Birthday Janae. I hope you had a great day.)

What a Boy!

Calvin is such a little boy. He LOVES mud, bugs and being outdoors. Yesterday he finished he snack and I went to grab a wash cloth to clean him up and this is what happened. Of course I grabbed the camera instead.

Let the humor of bodily functions begin.

River Run Fun

We had so much fun Saturday morning at the River Run. I really didn't know how things would go. My jogs last week went well and I was feeling good, but since I haven't been in a race since field day in grade school I didn't know what to expect. It was fun to be around other families and be motivated by all the joggers out there to keep it up. I was able to keep a nice pace the entire race and finished in 23:12, but we had to walk the first couple minutes because there were so many people. I had aimed to finish under 25 minutes. Next up a 10K in July. I'm a bit nervous about this one because it's July and it's hot in July. We'll see how the training goes the next month and a half. It seems I'm going to have to drag myself out of bed in the mornings to run before it gets too hot if I am really serious about this.

Pre-Race

Post Race, Even Calvin got a Medal (Marvin humored me and put it on for a picture)

Other News!

My dad is in the hospital again. He went to KU med in KC Friday for heart surgery and they discovered other problems during surgery. His heart stopped, they had to give him compressions and shocked him once before his heart started again. Now he has to wear an external pump until after he gets his transplant to help normalize the pressure in his lungs. Right now he has some issues with this pressure being too high and his heart is working overtime because of it. Calvin and I had planned on being there for the surgery but thankfully my mom called and told me to stay put because of flooding. Sure enough I turned on the news and parts of the turnpike were closed as well as 254 that takes us to ElDorado. We certainly wouldn't have gotten very far. So we went up in the afternoon on Saturday. It was a long day but good to see my dad.

Here are a few pictures of Calvin enjoying the bouncing thing in the Kid's area.

He Loved it!

A Cowboy Wandered My Way Today

I finished Calvin's apron today and we both love it. He insisted on wearing it while we were inside this morning. I lined it with a vinyl so it's waterproof too and I already know we are going to use this thing a ton. I hope to make 3 more of these and sell them, so let me know if you want one. I'm give friends good discounts!!! I really haven't given much thought to how much to sell them for.

I'm excited to work on the next apron that has been rolling through my head, but first I have a couple of orders I must finish. I just love being creative.

I also love this little guy. Even cowboys need to accessorize! Marvin suggested we go splashing today in the parking lot next to our house, since it would be a nice clean puddle due to the rain last night. Ummm not much luck with the clean part but Calvin loved splashing and his green boots were prefect splashing boots.

I'm looking forward to this summer. There are so many fun things to do now that he loves to play outside. Last summer was fun, but he's exploring and interested in his environment now. I'm sure we'll have a bleach blonde boy by the end of the summer.

Make sure you guys enter my giveaway, I haven't had too many sign up, so your chances are good. All you need to do is comment on this post.

From Head 2 Toe is now OPEN!

Well this afternoon I finally got the bulk of things uploaded. Hooray, From Head to Toe is officially open! I feel a little silly because after all my frustrations I finally figured out a way to use the pictures from flickr.

Make sure you check out Effortless Savings and enter my giveaway for a cute pair of topichkiis, Russian for slippers! I also am willing to do custom sewing, let me know what you're wanting and I'll try to do it for you. Right now I have an order for some tea towels and a couple weeks ago I made some hooded towels.

I'm really excited about doing a line of aprons, these have become my newest love. I seem to have new ideas daily about what I can do. I'm focusing more on items for little boys right now because I seem to have more little boy ideas and there really are limited cute things you can buy for little guys compared to the plethora of little girl items out there. If I have time this week I'll sew some little girl's aprons too.

Thanks for sharing this journey with me. It's been fun showing my friends what I am up to.

Creative Fun

I had so much fun today. I love creating with friends and I love Uppercase Living. I have so many ideas every time I look at the catalog. Thanks Janae, I had a great time. I added some pictures below, I have a couple more Uppercase Living things to post but they aren't quite finished. If you want to order something let me know, I'm closing my party next week and would like to have all orders by Sunday May 10th.

My Etsy shop is going slow. I have my nursing covers posted but it took forever because I had some trouble loading pictures. It wouldn't let me upload the pictures I spent hours editing on Flickr. So I moved the pictures from Flickr to our computer and tried to upload them but they were too grainy, grrr. To make things worse when I tried to add the pictures from our computer they were too big. I took a few days break from it so I wouldn't be too frustrated. So I hope to spend some time tomorrow to get things up and going. I'm really hoping to have a giveaway and free shipping this week in honor of Mother's Day.

Here's a few pictures of the day.

Yummy Food

Calvin's Artwork Displayed

I spray painted a cookie sheet, added an UL custom designed 'create', and hot glued a ribbon. It makes the perfect place to hang Calvin's art work. This is his first water color picture. He loved it once he got the hang of it. You'll notice he favored the red.

Our celebration plate! I've always wanted a "You're Special Plate" to use for birthdays and special occasions. When I saw this expression I knew it was perfect! I love it. I added it to the back of the plate, so we could use it for food.

These are some of the cute creations that the ladies made. Our make and take was a lot of fun. I love seeing how others use things.

I'm inspired to do something creative how about you?

Why didn't I think of this Earlier?

I finally got our pantry organized the way I like it. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this earlier but before I had some strange things taking up our cupboards in the kitchen, like a fondue pot we never use and a bunch of dishes that came with the house. Yet I had kept our Tupperware in the pantry as well as toaster and hot pot. It was always a pain to get in and out of the pantry without Calvin following me in. I'm much happier with this new system and it's amazing how I infrequently I opened this door today. Hooray for efficiency.

Cleaning Break

I'm taking a little break from cleaning the kitchen so I thought I'd blog. I'm procrastinating a bit because it's a mess and I also want to reorganize a few things, but just not up to it yet.

Speaking of cleaning up things. I let Calvin play with his plastic eggs outside and he loves to throw them. Well last week I was making dinner and I had a recipe that called for eggs. I left the carton on the counter and all of a sudden I hear, Oh Oh. Calvin was throwing the raw eggs, yep that was a mess, I guess that is what I get for leaving them out. Well I get them all cleaned up, and one unbroken egg had rolled where I couldn't see it and again I hear Oh Oh. Another one bit the dust, 8 to be exact. Silly boy.

On the sewing front I'm so so excited to make a few children's aprons. Here is some of the fabric I bought on Friday. I need to make a trip to the store before I begin this project to get a few more supplies. I haven't exactly figured out how I am going to make them but they will come around. I'm feeling the need to get a little more organized before I begin this project, so it might be a week but I hope to post pictures when I'm finished.

Calvin's weighing in these days at 24lbs and is 31 1/2 inches long. He's still around about 20% for his age, here we thought he was really growing. His doctor found a slight heart murmor so we go to a cardiologist nextweek to get that check out. He hasn't noticed it before so he checked his iron levels and it came back that he was a little anemic. The lucky little boy gets flintstone vitamins, they are the closest thing to candy that he has had and he loves them.

Here's a video of our little guy at the park. He loves the slide and did very well on his own. It was so windy, he was running at one point and couldn't stop, it was a cute. He's still a busy guy.

Beautiful Day

Friday was one of those beautiful days you never want to forget. It was beautiful in so many ways, and the funny thing is I was dreading it. It was day 2 of Marvin doing a prison outreach which meant there would be no break from the caring for Calvin duties (I don't know how single moms or military moms do it, they must be super moms!) The day started off great because Calvin woke up happy and full of hugs, he even gave me kiss on the way to breakfast. He has started eating at the big table in his booster seat instead of his high chair so it's fun to eat breakfast together now, and he's started to eat cereal with a tad of milk. I'm so not a morning person, and even if I do get myself out of bed to make breakfast Calvin always wakes up, and when he is awake it means he is HUNGRY. He doesn't want to wait for breakfast to be finished and he most certainly doesn't want to wait until it cools off.

Our day was so much fun. Calvin and I had a good run to the library and then we made a stop at Hobby Lobby and then the park on our way home. We had so much fun playing together, enjoying the gorgeous weather. He was pretty exhausted by the time we got home. I had to actually wake him up from his nap. It was 4:00 and he was still sleeping and I wanted him to be tired for bedtime. I could barely do it, isn't this too sweet!

But we got the best news after Calvin woke up. Marvin called and some eternal chains were broken while he was doing the prison outreach. He was able to see some fruit! Isn't that awesome on so many levels. We we are one step closer to going back home!

This is why I love garage sales

I love garage sales, I can't believe I used to hate them. I've been hoping to give cloth diapers a try. In fact I already bought the material I needed to make them, I just haven't gotten around to sewing them. But today I hit the jackpot. 19 Mother Ease diapers w/ 10 inserts & 6 covers for ....you won't believe it.............. $50! What an amazing deal, since I had been researching cloth diapers I know how expensive they are and the best part about the Mother-Ease Diapers is that they fit from birth until you don't need diapers anymore, you do have to order different size covers. I'm so excited. Half of the covers are too small, so I'll need to order a couple more covers Calvin's size. I looked online today and each of the diapers are $12 and the covers are $12.25. I have several packages of size 3 diapers to use up before we make the big switch, but this will give us time to get a diaper sprayer and to order a few more covers. I haven't decided between ordering the snappy covers or the Velcro kind. It's a wrestling match already changing Calvin's diaper, so I think the Velcro kind will be a bit better, even if they won't last as long as the snappy kinds.

So I guess I will need to find something to do with the fabric I bought to make these diapers. It looks like I'll be busy this weekend.

Sewing the days away

I've had a blast creating recently, and by the looks of my house I need to do a bit less creating and a little more cleaning. Oh well that's what tomorrow is for.

These fuzzy towels are on their way to their new home.

I had a request for an apron so I whipped this baby out yesterday. I also discovered I love aprons and now have so many ideas swirling through my brain, but I need to get my Etsy shop going first. I'm almost done taking pictures, now I just need to spend some time editing them, and then I can post them. It's a lot of work.

And if I didn't already have enough to do I spotted the perfect fabric to make a new bag this weekend, I've been wanting to make one for a while. It has several pockets, practical and cute. I'm excited to have a cute bag again. I'm sure our backpack will enjoy a little rest.

My favorite part of my new bag is the covered button. I saw this idea several months ago and tucked the idea away and during Calvin's 3 hour nap today I had the brilliant idea to add a button. I am so glad he took a long nap because it gave me time to finish my bag.

I'm working on a tutorial on how to make this bag. I hope to have it up next week at Effortless Savings.

Boots fit for a Boy

These are my new 'must haves' for little boys who love mud & puddles, rubber boots! I love them and so does Calvin. We've had his boots for less than a week, but he certainly understands what wearing them means, fun in the mud. He's gotten better at walking in them and has even picked up the pace. I finally gave up on avoiding the mud because there must be a magnetic pull that just pulls my son in.

Calvin got to wear these quite a bit this week because Marvin would drive to work and then we would jog over and get the car(it's just over 2 miles). It was a great system because it forced me to run rather than put it off and then there is no time.

I decided a while ago that I wanted to run a couple of races while we were in the states (Carrie what can I say, you inspired me). I figured it would motivate me to get into shape and since my mother-in-law gave us a jogging stroller I could work out with Calvin and kill two birds with one stone. Since we had some crazy snowy weather a couple weeks ago it set my training back a bit.

When it was cold I didn't want to get out with Calvin and well my body has felt the effect. This week was rough at the start but by the end of this week I felt I was in a good groove. I'm going to run a 2 mile at Riverfest on May 9th and hopefully by the end of the summer a 5 or 10K. My goal is to run the entire 2 miles without stopping. Right now I am at the point where I can run 1 mile, but then I have to walk, so I have a ways to go and I only have 3 more weeks to train, yikes! Any tips for this novice jogger? I'm trying to have rest days so I'm aiming for 4-5 runs a week, should I step it up?

Oh and my shop is very close to opening. I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I want things to be just right, I can't wait.

A Wonderful Weekend to Celebrate

We had a short week last week, I think I barely got all our laundry finished before it was time to pack again. I was trying to get sewing projects done for my Etsy shop that is now officially named From Head 2 Toe. I even have a cute logo. This week I need to get some good pictures taken and hopefully everything will be ready for my shop to open next week. (I know I've been saying that forever but I'm getting close.)

Make sure you check out my new blog Effortless Savings because I'm going to give away a pair of baby shoes, to kick off the opening of my Etsy shop (I hope you saw the pun in that).

This weekend we headed to my grandparents' farm. Marvin helped the guys pour a new side walk, but it wouldn't have looked so professional if my cousin's husband wasn't overseeing the project. It looks great. After it had dried a bit all the little ones and my grandparents put their hands in the cement. I am thankful that they now have a good side walk to get to their garage. Since they are getting older falls are more of a risk now, I'm glad the broken path is a thing of the past.

Here we are waiting on our instructions:

Calvin's turn

Calvin had a blast playing with his cousins. I'm always thankful when he has other kids to pal around with. He needs to work on his social skills and can gain so much from older kids. He followed his cousin Susie around everywhere. If he wasn't following her, she was following him.

This weekend was the first weekend I had helped work on my grandparents rental house. The woman who had lived in it for several years was evicted since she hadn't paid rent for over a year and the place was NASTY. I'm kind of glad I didn't see it before, apparently it stunk like you would not believe and was so filthy, they found rodent nests all over the place. The sad thing is this lady had a daughter living with her, poor thing.

It still smelled a bit but they got new carpeting and new tile laid in the kitchen and bathroom and after we cleaned the walls of the back porch it smelled much better. Hopefully they can get it rented to people who won't destroy the place. My family has put a lot of work into it.

Calvin loved hunting for eggs, he got the hang of it pretty fast after he saw the other kids hunting. Only grand kids unmarried get to participate in the hunt, but we have a running joke with my brother because we always hide his eggs in places he has already looked, so he's always the last one finished. Well this year my grandma forgot to put his eggs out so he was searching for nothing. He did get his prize after it was all over. You don't want to miss out on grandma's hunt because it's very profitable. Today I bought Calvin a pair of goulashes and some color wonder markers with some of his money from the hunt. He even got to test out his new shoes while we waited for Marvin to finish up with work. There were some pretty good splashing puddles out today. I have a feeling those shoes are going to be well loved. Here are some pictures of the great hunt 0f '09.

Trying to figure out what was inside the egg.

Easter didn't start off so well. Calvin woke up at 6:30 in the morning begging for his milk and he was up for good. I was hoping he would sleep in because he didn't nap well and didn't get to bed till late. Thankfully Grandpa was willing to entertain him while we slept another hour. When I woke up I asked Marvin what he did with our Easter clothes. He said, "I haven't seen them since they were on our bed at home." Oops I put them on the coat rack and forgot to load them and all I had were scrubby clothes. So I rushed off to Wally world, and found a few things. I was there and back at my parents in about 40 minutes. It was some fast shopping. So this cute little outfit will just have to be worn next week. I do hope to get some pictures of him in it. I'm debating about getting some professional pictures taken again or taking them ourselves. I'd rather not deal with high pressure sales but they do take great pictures and the price is hard to beat. What do you guys do?

When Brilliant Ideas...Aren't so Brilliant

Do you even have those BRILLIANT ideas, but don't think them through completely. Well here's what happened when I had the brilliant idea of letting Calvin play in some flour while I baked this afternoon.

It's all fun and games until your toddler puts the pan of flour on the floor.

The next thing I knew this is what happened.

Apparently he's not ready for unregulated sensory play. But to be fair, he did "help" clean up.

Make sure you vote for the name of my Etsy shop. I'd love your opinions.

Good Times

We had a great weekend and I had an even better computer fast this weekend. It was beautiful and a much needed break. It was great to see Marvin's family and we sure wished we lived closer.

Calvin's been having a rough time falling asleep these days so Friday night was a little rough. We finally gave up trying to make him sleep in the crib around 1:00, the rest of night was filled with lots of him rolling over on my face and plenty elbows, knees and legs in our sides. We love that he sleeps in his own bed, I don't think we'd get any sleep if we hadn't encouraged him to sleep in his own bed.

Calvin went on his first tractor ride this weekend and loved it. He didn't want to get out. He was so busy playing with all the toys at Grandma's house and enjoyed some time with his aunts and uncles and cousins. He tired himself out and thankfull slept through the night, it's the first time in a while since that has happened. Teething is no fun for anyone involved!

I think I've set some unrealistic expectations of myself with this Etsy shop. Doing things during Calvin's naps and after he goes to bed really limits me. So I'll have those ideas up tonight after I make sure none of the names I've thought of violate any tradmarks or copyrights. I know you all can't wait to vote.

Here are some favorite pictures we've taken of Calvin recently.