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One of the few things I remembered from my sewing class was that, often, with children’s patterns, there are multiple sizes in a single pattern. You purchase one pattern, choose the size you need and cut accordingly. While I was laying it all out and pinning to the fabric, I did notice that there was only one marking line on the pattern. I thought that was strange but I kept going. Remember, I took 1 sewing class 8 years ago…and I got all this stuff for $12. How wrong could I be?
Well, I could be an ADULT-MEDIUM wrong! Yes, when I was finished pinning and cutting, it was painfully obvious that I had the makings of a body suit that would fit ME. Yes, I had bought a pattern on sale but I had bought it in the WRONG SIZE.
My neighbor, through her laughter, helped me get it cut down to the correct size and we put it together. My daughter, after seeing how HUGE the first try was, was thrilled and relieved to know that “Mrs. K really sews good” (her words).
The next weekend, I gathered my sewing box and my iced tea and settled in front of the TV to watch football and sew “icing” on a gingerbread costume. Several times during the day, my husband came through the room and found me dutifully working. “You look like my wife,” he said, “but you certainly don’t act like my wife. My wife doesn’t sew.”
CORRECTION: Your wife DIDN’T sew. Not until R decided that she wanted a Halloween costume that couldn’t be bought.
I’m sure that plenty of ghosts will roam neighborhoods tonight wearing old white sheets. But you won’t find any ghosts here. All we have is a handmade Gingerbread Man, an Auburn Football player and a mom who, this year, likes Halloween a little bit better than ever before!
When my friends find out that I don’t love Halloween and I REALLY don’t love dressing up in costumes, there is an unspoken pity that creeps across their faces. I know what they are thinking, even if they don’t say it…“Poor kids. They have to live with a Halloween SCROOGE. I guess they are lucky if they throw a sheet over their heads and call themselves ghosts every year.”
When I was growing up, there were plenty of Halloweens (and Easters and Christmases) where my brother, sister and I headed out the door in original costumes (and/or matching outfits) lovingly handmade by my mother. Some of those handmade costumes are still in the closet! If I am completely honest, I have to admit that, one of my greatest fears about becoming a mother was that my children would either 1) never have a handmade costume or 2) that they would be forced to wear something that I had managed to put together myself. In my mind, it was hard to know which would be worse! This year, I had to face that fear when my daughter announced that she wanted to be a Gingerbread Man for Halloween. Let’s face it, that’s not the kind of costume you can find at Target!
I have a neighbor that sews and I took a 6 week sewing class 8 years ago so I figured that, maybe, making this costume wouldn’t be so bad. My neighbor said we could just lay R. down on the fleece and trace her outline. Cut it out and, voila, a Gingerbread Man. So, off I went to Hancock Fabrics to find fleece.
While there, I decided to look at costume patterns. I figured I might be able to get some ideas and I thought I might be able to actually do all the prep work if I had a pattern. I found a pattern that could be used to make lots of different costumes (rabbits, bears, kangaroos, cats, etc.) depending on which tail and/or headpiece. I admit that I was already feeling pretty good about myself for seeing how I could use the basic bodysuit from this costume to make a Gingerbread Man. I got downright cocky when I checked out and realized that all the Halloween stuff was on sale and I had managed to get out the door for about $12!
The next weekend, I spread all my costume materials on the dining room table and proceeded to lay the pattern out, pin it, measure it twice and then cut. When my husband who knows I don’t sew asked, “Remind me what it is that makes you think you know how to sew?”, I answered confidently, “Don’t you remember, I took that sewing class when I was pregnant with G?”
You know where this is going, right? Let’s just say that 1 sewing class 8 years ago and some Halloween costume makings on sale don’t mean anything in the world of handmade costumes.
Halloween is just not my thing! I love fall and the changing weather and pumpkins and colored leaves and scarecrows and football and all the things associated with this time of year, but I don’t care for Halloween. I don’t like to dress up in costumes and I don’t like to be scared. The candy is OK but having to go through all the preparation and the dressing up in a costume to get it seems like too much trouble to me.
My husband, on the other hand, LOVES Halloween. He’s the kind of guy that would dress up as a gourmet entree (complete with his head laying on a platter with a table built around him) and build a pair of “fly glasses” from kitchen strainers to make his face look like a real insect when he decides to be a housefly. It’s really a shame he didn’t fall in love with one of those women who loves to dress up and who loves to think about what great couples costume would be. You know, the kind of woman who starts thinking about next year’s costume on November 1 of THIS year.
Alas, he did not marry a woman like that. BUT, because I love him and I want him to be happy, I make this offer…
AVAILABLE: 1 NIGHT ONLY, A “HALLOWEEN HUSBAND”
Dress him up and scare him and feed him all the candy he can eat. Just have him home before midnight. That’s when he turns in to a pumpkin!
Thursdays are busy days at our house. In addition to the regular chores and getting ready for school and carpool, I go to Community Bible Study on Thursday mornings and my daughter has ballet in the afternoon. Today, there is a teacher conference and 2 events I am supposed to attend, bearing food no less! If all goes well, it will be a busy day. But if nothing else gets accomplished, this good morning will have made the day a success…
Just a little while ago, as I was stumbling around the kitchen making lunches, the kids were at the table eating breakfast. They were engaged in their normal conversation about Star Wars characters and halloween and the next birthday party they have been invited to. They talk alot so there are not many silences in our mealtimes (or any other time, for that matter). After just a minute, the room got very quiet and R (my youngest child) asked, “Mom, can we go see the sunrise?”
It took me a minute to realize that they wanted to get up from the table and go to the other room but I answered, “Sure” and went back to putting peanut butter and jelly on a piece of bread.
“Because its just so beautiful,” R said. “Mom, you have to see it too.”
“I’ll be right there,” I answered as I zipped the lunch bag and went to find the backpack it belonged to. I expected to make a passing comment on the sun and move on to my next task.
When I rounded the corner of the kitchen door, there was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNRISE and I couldn’t help but stop and be amazed. The reflection of the sun on the rows and rows of puffy clouds was the most gorgeous pink with orange accents. The rows of clouds just met the top of the treeline. It would be impossible to capture the exact color and placement of what we saw. You just had to be there to know how beautiful it was!
The three of us stood silent for a moment…I was remembering the verse in Job we have just studied (in CBS) where God asks Job “Have you ever in your life commanded the morning and caused the dawn to know its place?” (Job 38:12) I don’t know what the kids were thinking but, in that moment, I know that noone was concerned about the economy or gas prices or the election or our busy schedule for today. We were still and quiet and focused on a beautiful sunrise. In just a moment more, just as quickly as we had stopped to watch, the silence was broken and we were back to our routine.
Good morning, Lord. Thank you for the sunrise!
In my 40+ years of life, I have rarely been without a pet. More specifically, I (and, thus, my family) have rarely been without a cat of some sort. The one time I have had a dog, I had a black poodle that was the sweetest, smartest, most personable animal I have ever seen. I asked for a dog and my parents gave her to me for my 5th birthday. We had her for about 5 years before she disappeared and we never have known what happened to her. She was just gone.
After that, I have always been a cat person. I love that they are always just as interested and close to their humans as THEY decide they want to be. Cats can be very loving and good companions. They can also be moody and aloof and snarky, when and if they want to be!
In 1994, I brought home a stray cat and she has been with me (and now us) ever since. The older she gets, the more aloof and skittish she becomes. I can’t explain it…with the exception of making her move outside full-time after she started using the playroom carpet for a litter box, she has been treated exceptionally well for 14 years! A couple of years ago, a neighborhood cat adopted US, of all people.
He sleeps on the top step of the stoop just outside the back door.
He comes running whenever either car pulls into the driveway.
He “talks” to us when we are outside.
He lets the children pet him and play with him. He tries to catch leaves and limbs and ropes and toys that they dangle in front of him.
He eats anything and everything he finds in the food bowl. Consequently, he is HUGE!
He tries to be nice to the cat that REALLY lives here but she will have NONE of that.
He offers to come inside to visit every time we open the door.
He is always on the lookout for small birds and chipmunks that we might consider a bother and he makes them disappear. Only some of the time does he bring them to the back door for “show and tell”.
Maybe I should re-consider my position as a “cat person”. This last one has turned out to be the best dog we ever had!
Between the economy and the election and my closet re-organization project, I am in the mood to pitch everything (including incumbent politicians) and start over! I am involved and informed (maybe too much so) with the upcoming election and, no matter who wins, I don’t have much hope of anything in Washington being dramatically different with the next administration than it is with this one. Sure, the priorities will change but the politics and the processes of our government won’t.
With that leaning toward negativity, I visited Mr. Massage last week. It was a couple of hours before the VP debate on Thursday night. We don’t always chat during our session but he asked if I was watching the debate and, when I said yes, he started talking (and didn’t stop until our time was up).
It might interest you to know a little something about Mr. Massage…
- He was born and raised in communist China and his family still lives there.
- He is an American citizen and he votes.
- He owns his own business, has a real estate license, has taught himself to use computers and he owns and maintains several rental properties.
- He works 10 hours a day, 6 days a week.
- When he first came to America, he started out as a member of one party. Over time, he has changed to the other party after learning more about what both of them stood for.
- He has paid to attend political fund raisers to educate himself about parties, candidates and the U.S. political process.
During our conversation the other night, he was adamant about support of HIS candidate. In his mind, there is an obvious choice with well thought reasoning behind it. While listening to him, I was struck by several things…
First, he has committed his time, energy and money to learning about the political system in this country (not his home country) and he has embraced what he has learned. He knows what it’s like to NOT have the freedom to choose leaders and he is unwilling to stand by in his adopted country while others choose leaders that will make decisions that affect him.
Second, he loves America. He told me that America has given him the chance to succeed. “I am proud when I visit China,” he said, “because I am somebody here (in America).”
Third, he knows more about American politics and the philosophies of the parties than most Americans that have spent their whole lives here. What a shame that we take our democracy, its leaders and our duty as citizens for granted.
Mr. Massage and I both left to head home and watch the debate. I can’t say that what I saw did much to change my opinion about Washington, but I can definitely say that Mr. Massage changed a LOT of my opinion about my right, PRIVILEGE and HONOR to vote, not to mention my responsibility to do so!
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