Handmade with Last Minute Stress

Since my husband and I start giving each other handmade presents for Christmas last year and we loved it, we're doing it again this year. What does that mean for the time right now? Stress. Stress because I'm just now starting his knitted hat which matches his scarf. On top of just starting it, it looks awful. I mean like it's knitted by a first grader who was given no instructions. Seriously.

On top of just starting his present, we've got to make Wombat's too. And guess what? We haven't even started working on that one either. Not one bit, but we do know what we're making: a quiet book. I don't know what it'll be about, but I know that it'll be a quiet book. Maybe I should do some Googling.

Anyway, I'll totally show the final products when we're done. Oh, I forgot. I have Wombat's stocking and tutu to make too.

Holidays. Must start working on homemade projects sooner.

Why Did I Look at the Calendar?

Last year I stood out in the snow and cried.

The first snow happened the year before. Cold swept in. It felt just like my soul. Hubs, then boyfriend, and I held each other and wondered "why?"

It was the second worse day of my life; second only to the day before when the doctor said "sorry..." and my screamed filled the air.

I can close my eyes and see the room, feel the moments slowly tick by, feel Moose's body leave mine.

feet..head...arms...

Moose left me upside-down. Feet first, like he/she was trying to stop everything just like I was trying to stop everything.

Moose...my baby...my sweet baby...our sweet baby

I made a choice to not look at the calendar. I didn't want to know the date. I didn't want to have an anniversary of the day. I just wanted to miss my baby because having a date would mean every year there would be a day like this. Stupid hospital. Made me know the date.

Now, I sit here. Knowing the weather still reflects my pain.

It's supposed to be snowing at home. I just want to go home and feel the snow. It feels like Moose letting me know that Wombat doesn't change anything. That Moose is hugging me with cold, snowy arms.

Christmas from the Batters

Everyone loves some cute little baby feet, so what better gift to give to grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and really good friends than a cute footprint ornament? Or at least that's my thought...

If it's yours too, here's how I made mine.

Supplies:

Paint
Scissors
Rolling Pin (mine is a metal tube from a home improvement store)
Air dry clay (you can actually make this if you want)
Sponge
Wax Paper

Step One
Lay the air dry clay between the wax paper and roll it out. As you can see on my rolling pin, before I used the wax paper, it got all over the rolling pin and wasn't pretty at all.

Step Two

Inspect your clay to see if it's the thickness you want. Mine is maybe 1/4" thick, but just use your own judgement on it.

Step Three
Squirt out your paint and dab your sponge into it. Make sure it doesn't have a lot of paint on the sponge because too much paint means you won't see the little lines in the foot.

I have no idea why this picture is uploading upside down. The fuzziness is trying to hold Wombat and take a picture of her foot.



Once you get the paint on, it should look like the above picture. Well, that's if it's not too blurry for you. Also, bright red is a Christmas color, but it kind of looks like a bloody baby foot, which is not cute.

Step Four

Stamp the foot. Try to have them not overlap like I did, but I salvaged two feet prints from the three.

Step Five
Cut out the cute little feet and add holes.

Step Six
Put them somewhere safe so they can dry. I'm also going to sand the edges to make them a little nicer looking. Since the red feet look like bloody foot prints, I'm going to outline them in green and tie a green ribbon on the top.

Oh, and don't forget to add the date to them with the baby's name so you're not sitting around once they're grown wondering which kid belongs to the footprint.

Changin Myself

Before I gave birth to Wombat, Hubs and I wondered into our favorite bar while the 2011 Women's World Cup was playing. We found a little corner to sit, eat our buffalo burgers, and watch. It was absolutely the only non-cycling, non-Olympic sporting event I've ever enjoyed watching.

Why?

I sat there watching these women being so bad-as (I'm a mom and must watch my language now, so it's bad-as) that it truly inspired me. All I could think watching them: I NEED to be this bad-as if I have a daughter; I must show her every day that she can be bad-as.

Pic from here.

It was so touching to me that I was in tears. Seriously. It wasn't the pregnancy hormones; it was that I've always been a wuss. I've always allowed myself to be a doormat. I let boyfriends cheat on me, get me to pay for everything, treat me like I was only good for one thing, and then I'd beg them to stay with me. Oh, and I'd bail on good friends to be with them. I've also let so-called friends get drunk every time I hung out with them so they could use me as their designated driver. I never stood up for myself and this game really hit home that I couldn't be that woman any more. I needed to be bad-as because my child needed a bad-as mom who sees the imposed boundaries of every day life and blows right through them. And if Wombat turned out to be a girl (we were Team Green after all), I wanted her to see me as a strong female role model. I wanted to be her Hope Solo (or any of the women of the American or Japanese teams*).

So what am I planning to do?

Well, here's my list:

1. Learn some new words to spruce up my conversation. Using "awesome" and "dude" is really cool, but what about "flabbergast" or "compadre?"
2. Teach myself to sew (not really bad-as in a traditional way, but I think it's bad-as mommery)
3. Constantly work to strengthen and improve my relationship with Hubs while being affectionate in a way that shows what a good relationship looks like (we have a great relationship, but great relationships are constantly working to stay that way)
4. Stop watching television so much
5. Get outside more, even in the winter
Stop being so shy
6. Start my own business
7. Ride 100 miles on my bicycle

Pic found here.

So there you go. I'm working on the first 3 (thank you Being Human for ruining #4 and 5 for me). #6 and 7, they pretty much go hand in hand. #8 is hard when I'm commuting an hour one way, Hubs is spending really long hours on campus, and Wombat can't ride in the Moose Caboose quite yet.

Pic found here.

When I can get on my bike, I do, but I'm no where near 100 miles yet.

Anyway, I know my list isn't revolutionary, but it's a start. Maybe, once I accomplish these, I'll add something a little farther out there and a little more like the women of the World Cup.

*Thank you! Watching you play really made something click inside my head about how strong a woman can be.