Early February brought excitement and exultation when Adam was sent an invitation to interview at the University of Calgary…and disappointment when the University of Alberta rejected his application pre-interview. The last few weeks have been a storm of emotion (mostly stress) as our family as struggled with being carless and preparing for Adam to get to Calgary for his interview this coming Saturday. He had no suit that fit, no dress shoes, and no transportation. So he bought a nice grey suit at a good price (much less than we expected), graphite-colored shirt, dress shoes, and a pink tie (and he looks fantastic). He reserved a rental car. He’s going to have to stay in a hotel Friday night because his interview is first thing Saturday morning. Lucy and I will be staying behind so the weekend is as complication and stress-free as possible for him. He tried to get a copy of Doing Right from the school library but it was on hold until May! So he got something similar…but it was a medical ethics book written from a US perspective. So I convinced him to shell out the $70 bucks for a copy of Doing Right and have it rushed. It’s reading week and Adam will spend his time off from class preparing for his interview (and attempting to potty train Lucy, oh joy). It may or may not arrive before the interviews (fingers crossed).

The pressure is high. All our proverbial eggs are in a University of Calgary basket. Only 33% percent of prospective students interviewed will be accepted. If Adam isn’t in that 33% that means no med school for us, at least not this year. It’s not at all uncommon for students not to make it the first time they apply. But being a somewhat “non-traditional” applicant, and being a bit older than many of his fellow applicants the longer it takes the harder it will be on our family. In other words…we’re really stressed.

We know we have to move this summer one way or the other, because there are no more classes Adam can take in Medicine Hat and he needs to transfer to a BA program. It’s so frustrating to look for affordable housing and have to eliminate choices because of family discrimination. Technically Canadians are supposed to be protected from landlords refusing to rent to families with children (except in buildings for the 65+ crowd). But the discrimination policies aren’t always laid out clearly and are not universally enforced.

Basically it sucks.

You know what else sucks?

Having to wait until MAY to find out if Adam is accepted or not.

Everyone knows medical school is hard and stressful. But very few people warn you how stressful the application process can be. Prospective students: consider yourself warned.

Last time I posted I showed you the digital versions of the artwork I made for Lucy’s room. Well, here’s the final product {yay for Dollar Tree picture frames}!

I dunno, I feel pretty “meh” about them. The colors just did not print the same as they looked on my screen {which is my fault for a: printing at Walmart and B: not bothering to try calibrating my screen}. When we move this year I will probably have them reprinted so the colors are brighter and more saturated. The blue is supposed to look a little more like my blog background and a little less baby blue. C’est la vie.

If you want to see more sneak peeks of Lucy’s room you should check out my other blog, The Year of Sewing.  I will be posting about most of the sewing projects as I go {including some tutorials}. If that doesn’t interest you then just hang in there until I’m done and I do my big reveal post.

Does your child’s room have a theme {colors can be a theme}? I love hearing about children’s decor so tell me about it in the comments, or tell me about your dream room when you were a kid {or for your future kids}.

Lucy’s vocabulary has exploded lately. We’re often the only ones who can tell what she’s saying, but she is trying. And one of her new words is “bug.”
This morning, lying in bed, she looks up and says, pointing, “Bug! Bug! Bug! Bug!”
I look up.
“Oh my god!” There’s a spider.
A big, ugly, nasty {and did I mention big?} spider. *shudder*
Adam promptly takes care of it {if you know what I mean}, to which Lucy simply replies:
“Bye-bye!”

As promised, here are a few of the pictures Jenn took today {none of which have Ms. Harassment in them}.

 

This recipe came from an issue of Wild Animal Baby. It’s a fantastic magazine for toddlers.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 Cup all purpose flour
• 1 Cup water
• 1/2 Cup salt
• 1 Tbl oil
• 3 tsp Cream of Tartar
• food coloring {I used Wilton Teal}

Stir all together in a pot and cook on low heat {stirring occasionally} until dough pulls away from the sides of the pot. Let it cool so it’s safe to handle and then play to your heart’s content!

That’s it! That’s all there is to it. Super easy! And it’s safe for little ones like Lucy because it’s edible {tastes terrible, but it won’t hurt ya}. Lucy got a kick out of watching me use a cookie cutter on it but isn’t quite capable of handling it herself. But older kids will have fun using tools like cookie cutters, rolling pins, straws, anything of which you can think! So enjoy!

PS: I know I’ve been absent for over two weeks. I’ve been {and still am} busy working on various projects. But I am alive. We’re all OK. And I’ll be back in full force soon.

I got my sewing machine set back up the other day {it’s been faaaar too long since last I sewed – my machine is broken so it’s a frustrating experience}. But I wanted to make something, anything really. So I decided to whip up a simple baby doll pouch sling for Lucy. I checked online and did find some how-to guides for making pouch slings. But I was feeling lazy and wanted something really easy. I didn’t want to have to adjust the measurements or do quite so many steps {even if it would make a nicer sling}. So I improvised.

At some point in the future I’ll probably make a nicer one {maybe once I have a working machine}. But in the meantime this gets the job done. And just in case you’re a lazy sewer too I present:


See? Easy peasy! Just a few cuts, and a few lines of simple stitching. Enjoy! And if you make one of your own I’d love to see pictures so link ‘em in the comments!
By the way, these instructions are NOT suitable for a real baby carrier. Dolls only!

Hmmm…what’s this? Envelopes? A marker?

Not just any envelopes, not just any marker…
Dear readers, THESE are special play letters! That marker is a wet erase marker. And those envelopes are laminated. That means hours of fun imaginary play and, someday, practice for printing and addressing letters!
How did I make them? It was easy-peasy. I took some small, colorful note cards and envelopes I had lying around, added a few US stamps leftover from before we moved to Canada {and a few 2 cent Canadian stamps} then took ‘em over to Staples and asked for their sturdiest laminating job. While I was there I picked up some wet erase markers. And that’s all it took. Now, I’ve seen some pretty adorable felt play mail. But I like my way for two reasons:

1. This mail can be addressed, cleaned off, and addressed again and again and again and again. How fun is that?
2. My way was eeeeeeeaaaaaasy {no sewing}!

Why did I make them? Well, besides the obvious {hello! they’re adorable!} I made them because of this:

How cute is this play mailbox? I’ll tell you. WAAAAAY cute!
It’s the perfect size for Lucy. And while it is pretty dang cute that she hides her toy chickens inside it I thought it was high time she had some proper mail to go in it.
It’s got a working door, and a working flag {that way the mail carrier won’t miss your outgoing mail – too bad Canadian mail carriers don’t seem to pick up outgoing mail. We have to drop it off at the Post Office, but I digress}.
I loaded all the letters in the box and closed it up. Lucy was immediately curious.
 
I think she digs it. Were I to do it again I’d use slightly smaller envelopes. These just barely fit inside the mailbox. But it’s all good. I love them. And I love the mailbox. It even came with a few white stickers for writing an address or name. See Lucy’s name there on the side? I’m pretty much in love with how cute this toy is. I’m considering making a play house for Lucy just to go with it. Admit it. You love it too. You’re jealous…on behalf of your kid of course. ;)
Well, guess what.
One of you is getting one.
For free.
That’s right folks. I’m doing a giveaway, this week, compliments of CSN Stores*. So don’t miss it {it will be a separate post}! Closed.


*CSN stores provided me with the toy mailbox for the purposes of reviewing it. However  I had a wide variety of choices in toy to review and I personally wanted the mailbox for Lucy. Just FYI.

I like easy crafts ya’ll. And this was easy.

Ha-ha! Did I break your scroll wheel? Sorry ‘bout that.
Anyhow, this is an easy-peasy project. You can get all the supplies at your local craft store. You’ll need:

• a wooden letter or plaque or a picture frame!
• acrylic paint {it doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just pick whatever color(s) you like} and a paintbrush
• ribbon
• a wooden shape {like these- your craft store probably has a whole aisle of shapes to choose from, some unfinished and some painted}
• felt {optional}
• hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

Once you’ve gathered your supplies here’s what you need to do:

1. Cut your ribbon to your desired length. I chose a rainbow ribbon because when Lucy has her own room it’s going to be a “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” theme and I wanted to carry the sky motif over to her hair clip organizer.
2. Paint your wooden letter your desired color. Alternatively you could decoupage it with pretty scrapbook paper or fabric. Let it dry.
3. Prepare your wooden shape. This will serve as the weight for the ribbon. If it’s unfinished, paint it. If you’d like to cover it with felt, like I did you’ll need to follow the extra steps listed below.
4. Attach the ribbon to both the letter and the wood weight with hot glue.
5. Hang and enjoy! :)

Extra Instructions for Using Felt:

• cut two rectangles of felt in your desired color that are big enough to cover the wooden weight with room to spare
• attach the ribbon the the weight with hot glue
• place the weight in between the two felt pieces and neatly hand stitch them together following the outline of your wood shape
• trim the excess so it matches the outline you have stitched
• continue to step 4 as listed above

That’s all there is to it. Like I said, easy-peasy!
It’s pretty easy to make your own hair clips too! I made the Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St. Patty’s Day, and “hello” clippies in the picture. The rest were purchased at the dollar store, the local farmers’ market, or on Etsy {the top four flower clips were made by one of my sisters-in-law and her oldest daughter}. You can use grippy shelf liner on clips to help them stay in. And, just a hint, if your kiddo has fine, thin hair like Lucy you can use a thin, stretchy, fabric headband {like these or check the dollar store for something that’ll work}. You can clip alligator style hair clips to the headband {or the stretchy crochet hats} instead of to hair.
Lucy’s still not great at wearing hair clips or headbands. She’s so interested in looking at what I’ve just put on her head that she reaches right up and pulls them off. But at least she’s past the “you-are-a-horrible-mother-how-could-you-do-this-to-me-I-hate-headbands-waaaaaaaaaaah! stage.”
Does your daughter wear hear clips? Have you amassed a massive collection of them? Have you made your own organizer? Tell me about it in the comments.

Hope you had a hoppy day. ;)

“Ohio, the heart of it all” is a state slogan. Ohio is often called the heart of the midwest {it is rather heart-shaped}. Well, it’s definitely where my heart is because it’s where my family lives. Earlier this month Lucy and I took a little trip to surprise my mom for her birthday.
Boy, was she surprised!
My step-dad told her he had to drop a friend off at the airport so he could come pick us up. When he got home he told her “you’ll never guess who I ran into at the airport!” Then he called out “come on in!” And in I walked, Lucy in my arms. I think it took my mom a minute to register what she was seeing. But she seemed thrilled. It was awesome! Best. surprise. ever.
It took Lucy a while to warm up to Grandma {and she never quite fully got over her fear of Grandpa} but I think she enjoyed herself. She certainly enjoyed harassing the dogs and cat.

Lucy is sick.
Tissues everywhere; they are her arch nemesis. Nose wiping is the new water boarding. She’s never been a naughty child, but boy, is she a snotty child.
Night time is no longer for sleeping. It’s for tossing, turning, whining and snoring. It’s also for keeping Mama awake.
A trip to the store is in order…vapor-rub, special nose-friendly wipes, anything that might make her feel better.
Nothing is getting done today. Why not? It’s not like I have things to do…oh, wait. I do.
*sigh*
Oh, well. I just hope she gets well soon.
Sick babies = heartsick mamas.

 

Santa’s on his way! May you and your kiddos sleep well {and not get up at five in the morning} and may you have a Merry Christmas tomorrow!

When I turned one year old my mom filled our place with balloons. I liked that idea and decided to replicate it for Lucy.
 
Come back tomorrow for another photo{s} for the December Photo Challenge.