A few of things I've made lately

So, I guess the only thing I've worked on lately is crochet. Both of my beautiful girls wanted rainbow blankets. So this is what I made them...

This is Nia's 'rainbow blanket'. Not really a rainbow, just has a lot of colors. The colors are much brighter in person. Nia wanted her blanket to be for the living room and was very specific on it's size.

I took this pic while I was working on Ann's in the park. It looks kind of like a confetti pattern. she really likes it and has slept with it every night since I finished it over a month ago. It is a good size for a twin bed. 

This is the blanket that made my girls demand to have blankets made. This blanket is for little Cameron. I started on it the day I found out he is a boy. I can't wait to see him snuggle up with it. It of course is crib size.

Youth Space

God has called my husband and me to start a youth ministry at Vineyard Reynoldsburg. The church has  been blessed with a space to use for free as long as we renovate it. Here are some before pics. It is in really rough shape.

These first few pics are of the room in the worst shape. It was once the home of a beauty parlor!

Below are hook ups for sinks in the beauty shop.

Another room in bad shape.

This room is good, we probably won't have to do any work in here. Well, maybe paint.

This room also in good shape, I think it needed some dry wall repair and the curtains are all torn up.

Men's restroom. Minimal plumbing needs replaced in toilet and more drywall repair.

Utility closet, just needs a volunteer to clean it out!

Hallway outside women's restroom.

Women's restroom. Just needs the same plumbing repairs as the men's.

hallway

This light is in the hall, I thought is was kinda retro funky cool.

Main worship area. Complete with a stage! This pic doesn't do it justice as far as it's size. It seems much bigger in person.

Off the worship area. Behind John and Richard there is an entrance to a little 'cottage' area. John kept hitting his head on the decorative pieces you see in this pic so it (the decorative pieces) were ripped out this weekend when they started renovations. We want to turn the cottage itself in a little coffee shop area, but we don't know if running water to the space is financially a good idea.

The next two pics show the top of this blue wall. The owners have asked us to restore it in some way. It was once the lane of a bowling alley that was in this space! How cool is that?

Entrance to cottage area that was removed.

The Stage

The plan here is to remove the back and left false walls along with the awning part that is over the stage. That will give us about 3 more feet front to back and more space side to side. The ceiling in this space is wood painted silver. We are going to leave it silver and the wood is great for sound.

Behind the stage. We know we will have to find a way to block the light from window. I am thinking a thick curtain to cover the entire back wall.

One of the rooms inside cottage. 

John and a group of his friends did some renovations this week end and I will ad those pics later. I don't have before pics of the area they worked on though. They worked on the floor in a room next to the stage and removed plaster from a wall that is in a large space next to the worship area. We are planning on using that large space as a rec area with pool and ping pong tables and other game type stuff.

Cute kid things

A few cute things the kids have done lately....

Nia has become a very good cook lately and she really likes doing it. The other night she repeated asked me what I was making for dinner. I wasn't realizing this was her way of say she was really hungry. After a couple of hours of me say I wasn't sure yet she just went into the kitchen and made dinner. Complete with desert of her own recipe. It was a not to sweet chocolate cake made from bisquick and oats and was very yummy.

Nia made a pretend paper phone for her little sister with the cool features of a fancy phone.

me: Ann go pick out 1 toy to take to the doctor's office with you
Ann thinks a minute and runs into the living grabbing my laptop.

Nia enters the the room wearing John's hat and states, "I look totally cute in this! Mom, do I look totally cute in this or what?"
me, "You do look totally cute in dad's hat."
Nia, "I'm totally steeling it for the day!"
This was the day, the hat at this point was actually on the dog on the back of the couch, which she also carried around all day. I think she just wanted to feel closer to daddy that day.

Ann was playing a computer game and picked up my phone and started playing another game on it. They are both educational. My dilemmas 1) am I proud of her for multi tasking or tell her to unplug? 2) She gets 2 hours of tv/game time, does this count as double time since she is doing 2 at once?


Took kids to the park for a picnic
As we are driving through the wooded area of the park Ann says. "Mom, this isn't a play park, it's a tree factory."


Ann, "mom, I don't NEED to learn how to read, you already read everything for me."


Ann. "Why do I need to learn my address? I don't want to."
Me, "So if you get lost someone can help you find your way home."
Ann, "Don't worry mom, if I get lost, you will just come find me."

Black Widow

Today the girls came running down stairs to report they saw a spider in their room. I didn't think much of it, we see little spiders all of the time. Then Nia drew a picture of it. I immediately knew it was a black widow, but I googled some images of different types of spiders to show the girls to make sure I wasn't jumping to conclusions from my 11 year old's drawing.

They picked out the black widow and said that was it. Being pregnant I thought it would probably be bad news to be bitten by a black widow and I know a bite can kill small small children, so I explained to Nia the situation and she wanted to go hunt it down and kill it. My instinct was to leave for the day and wait for my hubby to get home to kill the ferocious beast, but I decided to not to squash the bravery of sweet daughter and explained to her how careful she should be. I have to say I was really nervous while she was upstairs, but it only took her a few minutes to find it and kill it. GO NIA!!!!! You are my hero.

update: Killing the spider has really given Nia a new found bravery. She is now the official spider and bug killer in our family. This is really awesome considering just months ago seeing either generally sent her screaming and sometimes crying out of a room.

A/C

Our A/C unit is out. we thought it just might be frozen. So we left it off for a long while so it could defrost. Now I'm thinking it's just broke. Our office is closed so there is no one to report it to right now. So, I am just pregnant and HOT!

Memorial Day Weekend

Today was a great day. The kids behaved really well all day. John was mostly in a good mood. And I felt well most of the day. I slept in. Nia brought breakfast upstairs to me. We went to the park for a picnic and they were having a special nature exhibit for the holiday. We played a little xbox connect and then we went to Grater's for ice cream. At Greater's they were having a buy one scoop get one free special and after flirting with Nia the teenage boy at the register gave us some kind of additional discount.  John didn't realize exactly what had happened with our bill until I explained it to him later. His face showed a look of confusion, hurt, dismay, and general uneasiness. After coming home, John and I finished up our school work for the quarter and Nia volunteered to make dinner. She did an awesome job and even surprised us with a desert of her own recipe. It was kind of like cake. There wasn't even a slight argument at bath time or bed time and Nia asked me to hold her before she went to bed. Ahhh, if only everyday could go this well, mmm without the teenage boy flirting with daughter.

Grocery Store

I shop at Kroger usually for groceries. Today everything seemed to be just a little more expensive than last week. Many things by about 50 or 75 cents and a few by a dollar or more. I am on a budget so I walk around the store with a calculator. According to my calculations I had spent just under $120, but when I got to the register the totals were not adding up the same. I had only brought $127 with me and I had planned on spending less than $100. It wasn't until I hit total that the 'store card' discount was calculated on some items. I find this very annoying. Why bother allowing me to see a running total if some 'discounts' are not factored in. When I first hit total there were several items in my cart that I had decided not to get because I didn't think I had enough money. After my total went down I ultimately bought them, but I wonder how many sales they loss because of this. My total was $119.36. Thats only 5 days of food. Our grocery bill has just about doubled in the last few weeks due to my newly diagnosed gestational diabetes and the already known wheat allergy. At the very end of our trip I really think I almost had a heart attack when I realized one of our bags was left in the store. So maybe thats a bit of an exaggeration, but  I quickly sent Nia back into the store, grabbed Ann and headed in after her. By the Grace of God it was still there. The stress of it all sent me into a fairly painful contraction, but all is well.

Great Day!

Today was Serve Columbus. My hubby and I helped out a friend with his ministry project for VLI for this by passing out Tim Horton's gifts cards and cookies with invites to a branch of our church downtown. I actually had a lot of fun hanging out downtown with my husband and our friends doing this. After, we picked up our youngest and made a quick trip to North Market to pick up some local raw honey from HoneyRun Farm, we whisked off to a little friends' birthday party. A little later it was Church time then off to dinner with friends. We were busy, I am tired, but it was so much fun. This is by far the most I have done in one day in months, at least since being on, then coming off of bed rest.

little sister

My oldest has never been much of a social butterfly. In fact, since her little sister was born almost 5 years ago, she has often preferred to spend time with her rather than with friends when they ask her to play. The two of them are usually joined at the hip and do everything together. This week however a new family moved in around the corner, and Nia has left little Annie in the dust. I'm thrilled that Nia has a new friend, they have spent every moment possible together the last few days. However, I don't like that it is at the expense of Ann's feelings. What is a mom to do?

leg pain

I have been really bummed the last few days. I am off bedrest. It has been really nice outside. I am supposed to be out getting exercise, which I want to do. However, my leg is killing me! I have had 17 breaks in my left leg and a moray of other incidences that cause that leg to give me grief. Bedrest made it weak and as soon as I got off bedrest I started doing more exercise. So, now it is in fairly bad shape. I would really like to see a doctor that can 'fix' it, but I just don't think there is one out there that can rewind the woes of time and the abuse it's seen.

update: I saw a chiropractor that told me I had a pinched nerve that ran down my leg. He said this is fairly common in pregnancy. I've had a few adjustments, lots of ice on my hips to relax the mussels that pinch the nerves, and have gotten several hip and leg massages from my wonderful John. My leg is feeling much better now and my other leg, which I didn't even realize was hurting, is feeling better also.

gestational diabetes

First with the good news, I am off bed rest!!
However, it turns out that test that I really wasn't worried about, maybe I should have been a little more worried about it. I have gestational diabetes. I really didn't realize how much sugar I was consuming in one day. 2 glasses of juice a day, lots of fruit, a frappe 2 or 3 times a week, fruit smoothies 2 or 3 times a week, and ice cream and yogurt on a regular basis.
I meet with a nutritionalist in the morning, and I'm sure we can get a handle on this. In the mean time, I have cut all the sugar. Well, I still have fruit, but much less of it. My body is NOT liking the adjustment. I feel fuzzy headed and I've been falling asleep about an hour after every meal. I am supposed to check my sugar levels 4 times a day. I started doing this yesterday and so far the levels have been high each time.
Something I'm nervous about is the cost of a gluten free diet combined with the cost of a sugar free diet.

Something sweet that's good for me:
Ann did the sweetest thing the other day, I was having a contraction and she told me she wanted to pray for me. It was so much deeper than I expected from her. I was amazed and blessed by her prayer.

6th day

So, it's the 6th day I am on bedrest, and I just want to go somewhere. Get out of the house. LEAVE. I was bit a afraid this would happen, and really I'm glad I have gotten to stay on my feet this long. So my due date is July 26th, but with this pregnancy I have been given a 'goal date' also. July 5th is the date that we want the baby to stay in until. So, only 9 weeks and 1 1/2 days left.