Jadon's Room Makeover

So, Jadon has been sleeping in his room (mostly!) for about a month now, but I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures of it. I think it's pretty cute, but of course, there are always things to do/fix/rearrange...(for example, I don't love how the floating wall shelves are arranged, but oh well...). So today, Jim hung out with the kiddo (who is currently going through a phase where he isn't a big fan of long naps--we're talking 20-30 minutes 2 to 3 times a day!...And he doesn't sleep through the night, yet, either...Ay ay ay, we're tired!) while I finally captured the "nursery" on camera.

Oh, important to note, all the furniture except the crib was pre-existing, I just stained it with this really great Minwax Polyshades--you don't have to sand the old finish off. The changer/dresser were Jim's childhood furniture (identical to mine, ironically!), and the shelves were old, cheapo, mismatched units I used in my classroom, but obviously don't need there anymore. I trimmed one down, adjusted the shelf levels to match, added a scrap of molding to the top of the smaller one, and stained the fake wood laminate, and shockingly they turned out pretty nice! Yay!

So, here it is, before and after:

Trust

Jadon is now 4 months old. Time is flying and he is growing like a weed (against my wishes!). One of the ways I can tell is that he has started hanging out of his bath tub with the sling. It seems like just the other day we brought him home and I was petrified of giving him a bath because he was so tiny it seemed he would just slip right into the water. Now, he is barely getting wet.

So, I finally took off the sling. But I wasn't really thinking. Because Jim wasn't home. What if the bathtub was now too deep, and he slipped?

But Jadon was already undressed, and he really needed a soak...so I gingerly dipped his feet into the water. He jerked back and looked at me. Dang it. The water was a little warmer than usual. I was not doing so well, so far!

I kept lowering him, hoping he wouldn't start crying, and he complied. Before I knew it, his cute little bum was resting on the little butt-bump on the bottom of the tub, and he looked up at me. Oh that look. His big brown eyes showed uncertainty at his surroundings, but complete and utter trust that I would not let him down. It was a surreal moment, and oh-so-precious.

Such unwavering trust is somewhat overwhelming. It reminded me of my first year of teaching (and many times since) when I would stand in front of a classroom full of eyes staring at me and writing down my words, believing that I knew what I was talking about. (ha!) What a responsibility. And what a great reminder of how I'd like to be before God: in spite of uncertain circumstances, being fully confident that He loves me and will take care of me (and unlike myself, God is all powerful, and really cannot mess up!).

Sentimentality

My mom is an amazing mother! She grew up without one, but somehow figured out how to be everything she missed out on and more. While my sister and I were growing up, she put everything in her life on hold, and we became her life. She loved (and still loves) us more than anything except God. I have such good memories from my childhood. She played with us, did craft projects with us, allowed us to destroy the house in the name of setting up forts or orphanages or Barbie mansions or racetracks or...She took us to the library and then out to lunch every week. She spent hours cleaning up horse poop (and conquering her fear of horses) so that we could have free riding lessons. And she cuddled with us...

One of our favorite spots to sit in her lap and cuddle was this rocking chair:

So when she told me this summer that she was finally going to get rid of it, I was shocked. And then, when we got Jadon, I devised a rescue plan. I talked my dad into hauling it all the way down here, and then I got to work on giving it a face lift of sorts. (Not that 70's gold isn't my favorite color, but y'know...)

This was my first serious slipcovering project, and so I first decided to create a pattern out of scrap packing paper:

Then I got to sewing, even making my own piping for the edges. I discovered that my two favorite new tools are my zipper foot for my sewing machine (it's so much easier to use than I thought!!!) and my $2 seam ripper from Walmart (oh how many times I used that life saver!!!).

And here is the final product:
It may not win any design prizes, but I'm happy with it.
And I hope Jadon gets as many happy memories here as I did...and that I can come close to being as good of a mom as mine is!

Creativity, to-do lists, and moving out...

Well, having a baby around sure changes my normal routines and habits! (duh)

I'm lucky if I even think of this blog these days...

Oh well...

I've had a pretty productive week, all things considered: hung out with some girls from the youth group, started MOPS, finally scrubbed out my sink, had people over for dinner twice, finally framed some pictures of Jadon, finished thank you notes (finally!), went running [only]twice, bought diapers at Costco, backed up my computer hard drive, and...my elements of creativity for the week...duh, duh, duh...I FINALLY finished my Haiti album this morning, thanks to Costco.com and a long nap by the J-ster. AND I made these really cute ice cream balls for dessert for both dinners we hosted:

When we bought our house 8 years ago, they gave us a $5,000 carpeting allowance because the carpet was so nasty. Being struggling newlyweds, we just appreciated that the mortgage was $5,ooo less and forgot about the carpet. But now 8 years later, we figured it was finally time, especially before Jadon starts crawling around...sooooo, we get our new carpet installed on Monday! YAY!!! Which means that this weekend consists of essentially packing up the entire upstairs, and next week will consist of re-setting everything up, hopefully in an even more orderly, clean manner (we'll see how that goes!). And since we'll finally be setting up Jadon's crib, that means (sniff, sniff) that we're going to be moving him to sleeping in his own room. I know he'll be fine, but I'm a little sad about the distance...

52 Weeks of Creative WEEK 1

Holiday weekends always throw me off a bit. So I'm a day late on my submission, but who's counting. I started a few "creative" projects this week, but none are yet picture worthy, so here's the least creative but most finished endeavor:

We had some new neighbors move in down the street, so I thought a giant cookie might welcome them into the neighborhood properly. And we had three students from our youth group head away to college, and I thought a giant cookie waiting in their mailboxes may be fun for them. Of course 2 of them only went down to Point Loma, and have been back every weekend, so it's not exactly like they could be homesick yet. The other one went to Biola (woo woo!). Notice the appropriately colored writing on the cookies. Oh yeah, I'm good! :o)

Let's see what I can finish this coming week! By the way, if any of you want to exercise your creative muscle at all, join our Flickr group and show off what you do!

52 Weeks of Creativity!

One of my fellow teacher friends turned stay-at-home-mommy due to layoffs has issued a challenge: once a week, do something creative (whether sewing, photography, baking, scrapbooking, building something, crafts with the kids, etc...), take a picture, and post it. I'm not sure if I'll be able to hang, but it sounds like a fun challenge! Anybody want to come with me?
She's started a Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/52weeksofcreative/
Join with us!

Showered with Blessings!

OK, I'm a little slow here, but two weeks ago, some ladies from my church hosted a baby shower for Jadon. He is the answer to so many people's prayers, so it turned out that a ton of people wanted to come and support him...which was a wee bit overwhelming...and humbling! The ladies planned a few games and normal baby shower activities, but after a brief opening ice-breaker, we got started on presents, and that took the entire rest of the time...which was a little awkward, to say the least! But I/we totally felt loved! Thanks to all the women who planned and organized it, to everyone who came and gave so generously, to Jadon's "extended" family whose support means so much, to my teacher buddies who stepped into my "other" world, to friends who drove long ways to get here, and to everyone for enduring so graciously watching me open presents!