Early Riser

I have a 27 pound alarm clock. This clock of mine is sometimes moody, sometimes giggly, sometimes playful, usually cuddly and always hungry.

Lucky for me, I’ve pretty much always been a morning person. I say “lucky” because it just so happens, that our little guy doesn’t like to sleep. At all. This is especially evident in the wee small hours of the morning. Without fail Willie wakes up between 4 and 4:30 am, raring to go. (In case you are wondering – it doesn’t matter when we put him to sleep. He always wakes up at the same time. Believe me, we’ve tried.)

So, when I hear that tell-tale “MOMMY! MOMMY!”, I go to his room. He is always standing at the side of his crib, blankie clutched in one hand. He always looks up at me smiling and says, “Hi”. It’s a simple little moment, but it melts my heart a little each day.

We head to the kitchen, with only the glow of the nightlights showing us the way. He has a snack (also referred to in our house as “first breakfast”) pretty much as soon as he gets up. This is usually something like crackers and juice. He then plays with his toys, looks at books, colors or builds with his blocks while I watch on, tiredly clutching some morning caffeine.

Shortly after we wave ‘bye bye’ to Daddy; it is time for “second breakfast”. This tends to be a more typical morning meal. Hot cereal, muffins, sausage and eggs – that sort of thing.

I’m not going to lie to you. Sometimes I don’t want to get up at 4am. Sometimes I wish my little man understood how good it feels to roll over and go back to sleep. Sometimes I wish he’d let my husband entertain him in the mornings (Dan has tried – Will must have his Mommy in the mornings – and won’t settle for anything else). Sometimes I just wish that my little alarm clock had a snooze button.

But, no matter how tired I feel; I treasure those mornings spent with my little sweetie. It’s like we have our own quiet little world. The night is still dark. We snuggle and sometimes we quietly sing songs. We watch cartoons, cuddled on the sofa; or listen to the radio over graham crackers and milk.

I know that at some point when he’s older, Will is going to start sleeping later. Maybe someday I’ll have to beg and pester him to get out of bed.

But it didn’t happen today, and it probably won’t happen tomorrow. For now, I’ll just enjoy my early morning wake up calls, and all of the wonderful times they bring.

The Superman Quilt

I was recently going through some old snapshots and found some of this early quilting project. This twin size quilt was my second attempt at quilting, and my first that was of a "standard" size. (Quilt number one was a lap quilt, which sadly I never took pictures of).

I made this particular one for my little brother back in 2001 (hard to believe it's been that long) but I really enjoyed this project. At the time, our local Wal Mart was selling a series of Superman fabric patterns, and it just so happened that both my brother and I have an affinity for that particular superhero, so the idea was born.

I wanted something simple, so I stuck with a very standard block pattern. My Dad crafted a template for me using plexi-glass, and I bought an inexpensive rotary cutter to cut out the blocks. I then proceeded to drive my then roommate crazy by laying the squares all over our living room floor, trying to find just the right pattern for the overall design. She humored me though, and eventually the sewing began. I quilted it using my trusty Singer (it's just a standard sewing machine, but did the job well). For backing, I used a plaid flannel because I wanted something manly to offset the juvenile fabric patterns.

I gave the finished product to David for Christmas that year, and I do think he liked it a lot. In fact, as far as I know he still uses it (though maybe just when he's watching movies on the sofa these days).

When I came across these photos, I also found some others of projects past that I'll share someday. For now, I hope that each of you have a truly SUPER weekend!

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama to share one moment.... via a single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember…”

Old Friends

A long (LONG) time ago… this photo was taken of my friend Sherri and I. We were in high school, and of course thought the world revolved around us. We were on a church youth trip when this particular picture was taken, but in those days you might have also found us cruising around town in her Ford Ranger, or my trusty Escort….going swimming at the lake or chasing boys.

Many years have passed, but we are still friends. This week we were able to get together briefly, which was a lovely surprise. She lives many hours away now, and we hadn’t gotten together in a couple of years.

We’re older now. We are both married. We both have little ones. She has another sweetie on the way. We aren’t chasing boys or swimming at the lake these days, but still we can find things to talk about. Isn’t it just lovely when that happens?

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was also able to meet up with a different high school friend Lori. Here’s a photo of us from long ago. I’m the one with the enormous bangs (geesh, what was I thinking?). Lori is standing in front of her New Kids on the Block poster. How cool were we?

Lori and I had lost touch after high school graduation, but have reconnected recently thanks to Facebook. We discovered we lived quite close to one another these days, and agreed we should meet. I’m so glad we did. Though our lives have certainly changed since high school, our personalities still gelled nicely; and we’ve made tentative plans to meet up (along with our hubbies) for a couples night of board games or some other fun thing.

Sometimes attempting to reconnect with someone from long ago can be a real challenge. Too much time has passed. Too many things have changed. Conversations don’t flow. Awkward pauses stretch for far too long.

I’m happy to report that this was not at all the case when I spent time with these old friends.

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart."

~Elisabeth Foley

Weekend Recap

I apologize in advance for the brevity of this post. The last few days have been crazy here in the Wicked Happy House….

Saturday morning, we three went to some Garage Sales. It was a very successful morning. Among our many treasures of the day, we came home with a stack of vintage children’s books for my collection. My favorite being a mint copy of “Good Little Bad Little Girl” for a quarter. I collect Little Golden books illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, and was super excited by this find.

We also found several gently used pieces of clothing for our little man (mostly in the size he’ll be wearing next year). I even found a couple of dresses for myself. I don’t wear dresses often except for church, but always like having new ones to choose from. There were several other goodies too, but these are the highlights.

Sunday morning started off with Willie getting sick at the breakfast table. Poor little guy has really had some bad luck with stomach viruses this year. He was sick off and on all Sunday and Monday. I stayed home with him yesterday, and Dan took today off to be with him. He’s doing much better, thankfully and will be back to daycare tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll have something new to post by then as well. Hoping you all had a lovely weekend.

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama to share one moment.... via a single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember…”

Sleeping Dandelions

Had she not passed away in 1989, today would have been my Grandma H’s 99th birthday. She was a sweetheart of a lady, and even though all these years have slipped by – I still think of her often, and fondly.

The photo on the left is of Grandma and I in the summer of 1975.

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She was on my mind anyway, but I couldn't help but think of her tonight as I was pulling some weeds (mostly dandelions) from our lawn.

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Once when I was very little (maybe four) we went for a walk. She and I wandered through her yard picking dandelions. We put our "flowers" in a little plastic cup of water, and sat them on the kitchen counter. We then went on to do other things (probably to sing songs or play "Cootie" or maybe examine her pencil collection). Later, when we came back to the dandelions, they had closed up tight.

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I was very upset. After all, they looked ruined and dead as far as I could tell. Grandma smiled reassuringly and told me the dandelions were only "sleeping" and would be lovely again the next morning. She was right (as Grandmas tend to be) and our little bouquet was thriving once again when we woke to greet a new day.

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Sometimes when things happen that I didn't want, or didn't expect... when things look ruined beyond repair -I remember those dandelions. I remind myself that appearances can be deceiving. What might look like a total loss today, may be full of promise tomorrow. Sometimes we just have to be patient to see what the morning will bring.

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I didn't pick all the dandelions from our yard tonight. I left a patch just big enough for a little boy I know to pick a lovely little bouquet of his own. We'll put them in a little plastic cup full of water and sit them on the kitchen counter. I'll show him how the flowers sleep, and how they wake up refreshed and beautiful.