While mom's away the girls will fundraise

Yesterday while I was out the girls took matters into their own hands and had their Take a Stand lemonade sale. I was sorry they did it while I wasn't home (no pictures) but it's probably a good thing they went ahead, because realistically it might not have happened if they'd waited for me. So here's what I came home to:

The lemonade stand all put away in the garage.

A pitcher with a wedge of lemon sitting in the bottom. (Thanks for the clean up, Jaclyn)

And $6.50 waiting to be donated to The Calgary Humane Society. When we filled out our online request for a Sunkist lemonade stand we committed to put the proceeds of our first sale towards a charity, and the kids had recently visited the Humane Society so that was the charity we chose.

Today we went back to the Humane Society and dropped our coins into the donation box in the lobby. An employee saw us and came over and thanked the girls and gave them each a coloring book.

But for Carmen and Chloe the real reward was getting to visit the animals while we were there.

They want to do it again, and next time donate the money to the children's hospital. I guess I'll have to go out for lunch again and get out of their way so that they can go ahead with their plan.

She swims with the fishes

The best way I know to cool down in the summer heat is WATER!

On Monday it was 31 degrees Celsius, which is about 88 F. Jaclyn and Steven had to bear the heat on the golf course during their golf camp today and Chloe had a play date, which left just Carmen and I to find a way to cool down together. It seems like Carmen is craving one-on-one mom time these days, and what's great is that she's getting it!

So Carmen and I hit the old swimming hole that's about a 10 minute walk away from our house. Today Carmen was a crocodile.

She tried to catch some tadpoles, but that's tough to do with bare hands. We'll try again soon with a bucket and a net.

I am a much more outdoorsy person than I would be if I weren't a mother. If I weren't a mother I'd fight the heat in an air conditioned office and an air conditioned mall and an air conditioned movie theatre.

It is really a different feeling to swim in a creek with tadpoles bumping into your legs the whole time. Nothing like the chlorinated YMCA swim we all had later Monday evening.

~

I guess swimming with the fishes is better than sleeping with the fishes.

Divide and Conquer

Yesterday Jaclyn got a job babysitting one of Chloe's friends for the day, so she brought Chloe along - fun for Chloe, easier for Jaclyn. That left me with just 2 kids at home, which felt like a real opportunity for me to parent on a smaller scale. I spent a little bit of time with both Carmen and Steven going through their Faith in God booklets. Carmen set a goal in Living and Learning the Gospel to read the entire August issue of the Friend Magazine. Steven is done working on all the goals he can until after he turns 11 and can begin the last goal section of the booklet so he and I worked on memorizing The Articles of Faith. I showed Steven the scripture memorization tool on Jill's blog, and I think it will be a good help to finish off the memorizing requirement for the Faith in God Award.

Later in the afternoon the three of us headed out to The Saskatoon Farm. I've always been curious to check it out, and then I missed out on a chance to go there with some ladies in June which made me want to see it all the more.

I cracked up when I saw the sign at the entrance to the farm. Why would they want a berry farm to look like it's in the badlands?

We grabbed our buckets and started picking. Carmen gave a running monologue of her observations on the berries as she picked them.

Steven was a very picky picker. He wanted only the best, most juicy, and perfectly ripe berries possible.

Have you ever tasted a Saskatoon berry? They're just a little smaller and firmer than a blueberry and not quite as sweet.

But they turn your hands purple just like blueberries!

I now know that my arms aren't long enough for a 3 person self portrait. I kind of wish I'd caught Carmen's full facial expression on this one, though. The sunlight was distressingly bright.

Carmen and I did another SPT for just the 2 of us.

The kids were DONE at just a half a bucket, but luckily the farm only charged us half instead of making us pay for a full bucket. I think this is enough berries for a pie.

We headed in to the Saskatoon Saloon to find something to cool us off.

We totally scored with the Saskatoon ripple ice cream - it was as good as Carmen was trying to make it look.

Mother-daughter date

Carmen and I took the train downtown after school yesterday to go to an opening reception at an art gallery for a friend of mine who is enjoying some amazing success. Actually, my mirror image SPT has a painting by my friend, Rachelle, in the background. Carmen loves getting creative and messy, therefore she loves art - she was the perfect date for this event.

Taking the train was also a draw for Carmen to come along - it's a real novelty for her.





Gotta get a picture of us together - I have lost all self conciousness when it comes to taking self portraits in public places.


Our destination - a building downtown that houses many galleries.

Rachelle's sister in law, and a closer friend of mine, had told me how much better Rachelle has become in the last few years (since she did the painting that hangs in my house) but I was still so impressed. To see more of her art go here: Rachelle Kearl, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on artworks.

Spring Is Here #3 - 2007

acrylic on canvas, 14 in x 11 in

[part of tripytch]

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Funky Flowers - 2006

acrylic on canvas, 28 in x 22 in

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New Mother - 2007

acrylic on canvas, 36 in x 24 in

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Carmen and I also had fun looking around at the other galleries - we saw paintings, sculptures, fabrics, and glass beads. I learned I had to take a quick evaluating glance at the door of a gallery before I walked in with Carmen. Why is so much art not suitable for younger audiences? I think I did a good job sheilding her without freaking out - I didn't want to arouse her curiosity about why we went in some galleries and not others.

Sewing up a storm

(Well, maybe not a storm - maybe more like light showers)

This picture makes sewing look like such a lovely pass time, which it can be as long as it's not mending. I read somewhere that asking a seamstress to do mending is like asking da Vinci to paint your fence. I'm not that talented of a seamstress, but the da Vinci painting a fence reference reflects how I feel about mending. This week I got to sew for pleasure.

___________________________________________________Carmen is playing the role of raggedy Cinderella in a classroom skit coming up. Another girl is playing ballgown Cinderella, because she has a Disney Store dress. Carmen took total responsibility for her costume. She cut up patches of fabric and sewed them on to her brown dress by hand. She thought sewing by hand would look more authentic for raggedy Cinderella.

I maybe need to work on finding a pail and scrub brush that are more authentic looking.

I also took on a sewing project of my own this week. It took me a day and a half, which makes me wonder how my mom got all the sewing done that she used to do. She sewed all of my clothes and all of the clothes for my two brothers closest in age to me (except their jeans, I think) until I was in 4th grade, when I got my first pair of store bought brown twill pants. Clearly with that much sewing to do, she developed some efficiency I lack in the sewing department.

I bought this origami fabric quite a few years ago, just before a local fabric store (Fanny's Fabrics) went out of business. I loved this print, but I wanted to use it for something special, so I stored it. I finally found the perfect pattern for this fabric - a kimono dress! Then began the search for the just right contrast fabric - I finally found the perfect japanese sandals fabric at Cias Palette (on my side bar).

I can't help myself with the self portraits these days, and look at all those pins! Using a solid mass of pins is the only way I know to get perfectly even gathers.

It took me half a day to cut out the dress, which sounds long to me and I was there. Then it took me a full day to sew it up. Ken wanted to calculate how much the dress is worth at my working hourly wage, but I wouldn't let him. I can't put a price on the satisfaction I got from completing this project I've been dreaming of for so long.

Carmen wore her new dress today (not with these shoes - we dug them out of the dress up box just for the picture). She looked so cute with her hair up in a knot held by a hair stick. I might try a chopstick next time, if she'll let me.

Carmen was baptized today. She was so well prepared and so excited for her special day. It was truly a beautiful meeting - I'm still carrying the spirit of it with me. Carmen's sweet spirit and testimony were shining through the baptism and I felt a witness of the gospel in a way that will be a touchstone for me in the future.

I had my sister snap a quick family photo before we left for the baptism. I think we have 2 other family pictures similar to this on the front steps of our home: it's becoming a family classic.

We baptized Carmen on a stake baptism date, and could have been with other families in the stake, but we were the only family that booked March 10th. We had a nice, personal, family baptism.

Carmen: clean and perfect.

Carmalita

Today is Carmen's 8th birthday. What can I tell you about Carmen? She is what my oldest daughter calls, 'socially gifted'. She goes to all the birthday parties in her school class (which means half the time she's the only girl at the party). The best story I have about Carmen's outgoing nature happened when she was in kindergarten. My kids go to a small country school with grades k-9. One day when I picked up my kids after school Carmen was the one to get the seat next to the sliding passenger door of the van. Just as she was about to pull the door closed a jr. high girl called out, "Carmen! You rock!" How did this much older girl know Carmen's name, let along that she rocks? That's just Carmen. By the end of her kindergarten year she had pet nick names for many of the students in many different grades that they all answered to.

Carmen likes to get dirty. She was our last kid to get the hang of the idea that food belongs on her plate, on her fork, or in her mouth (even after her younger sister). There are suitable hobbies for this type of kid: she likes cooking, gardening, painting, and pottery.

Carmen is super girly. She likes any sport that involves hair and makeup, which for her right now is figure skating (minus the hair and makeup - I'm a mean mom) She likes flashy clothes, which is hard on her tshirt and jeans mom. We usually find happy middle ground.

Carmen is dramatic. She's up or down. When she was 3 years old I was curling her hair one day, and her bangs came out of the curling iron in a ringlet. I laughed and told her there was a poem about a little girl with hair like that. I recited it for her:

There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good she was very, very good.

And when she was bad she was horrid.

Carmen asked me what horrid means, and I told her. She then laughed and said, "That girl is just like me!"

Carmen can hardly wait to start activity days on Tuesday and to get baptized in 2 weeks. Her best friend in her primary class has a January birthday, so Carmen feels like she's been waiting forever to be eight.

Happy Birthday, Carmen!