katielovesjoel

Just thought I'd take a minute to post some pictures of what I've been
up to. There was a bit of a time crunch between the time I finished the
pictures and the time I had to give them away ... so once again,
pictures are pretty low quality.

Here's another purse I made for the Lovely Sarah. It's such a great
pattern. If you know me, you might want to mention if you don't like
the style of this purse ... because it just might turn into a present
for you.

Her son somehow went from being a brand new baby to his 1st birthday. I
have no clue where that year went! I can hardly believe it. Anyway,
Rosemary and I made him a little monster toy.

So, there you have it.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Hi all - I'm hosting a giveaway right here for a $55 gift certificate to any of the stores at csnstores.com. Head on over to my blog to enter.

I hope you win!

Miri over at Make It, Give it made these stinkin' adorable felt
brooches. I was the lucky one who won them.


I've been putting the little birdy one on my t-shirts and tank tops,
and I sort of feel like it's now my little pet. He's a good pet. I
haven't taken any pictures of it on me because, to be honest, I'm
extremely frustrated with my hair and just don't want to be in any
pictures right now.

Fortunately for you, Rosemary had the excellent idea of wearing the
other one on her dress today.

I think I have a little fashionista on my hands.



p.s. Check out Miri's blog! She has a ton of great ideas. I wish she
was on blogger so I could "follow" her.

I am non-committal.

I have been up 4 times tonight to help Rosemary go to the bathroom. 4 times. And it has taken me at least an hour to get back to sleep every time. That I know of, she did not have a drop to drink after dinner. Sometimes, life is hard (I know ... woe is me, right?).

CRAZY dream:

I was driving home from Joel's house. Apparently we were not married but still dating. He was really frustrated with me and told me it was time for me to go home (I actually have a lot of dreams that we're dating and he's really frustrated with me ... weird, eh?). I was really scared to drive home because there was severe weather and tornadoes in the forecast, but he insisted I go home.

So I'm driving home and Owen (our dog) is with me. All of a sudden, out of the cloudy gray sky, about a hundred cars start falling. First the headlights appear and then the rest of the car, and they crash into the ground. It's almost like they're trying to attack, and I have to drive in such a way as to dodge the cars. I thought perhaps it was a terrorist attack.

You would think that would be the worst part, but the worst part follows. Once the cars crash and hit the ground, a woman - either a dead woman or a mannequin (she doesn't look very real, doesn't have any blood or accident scars, just a completely blank look on her face) - bounces out of it. So not only am I dodging falling cars, but I'm also dodging bouncing, blank women.

What do you think about that?

I did really think The Whirlwind would slow down when I moved up here, but I guess it's something that follows me wherever I go. Seems it has more to do with my choices than my situation. I really thought it had more to do with my situation.

This past week, my good friend Summer came up to spend time with us. It was so good to spend some quality time with her.

The week/weekend before, we spent in the cities. We slept at Joel's parents and we visited almost everyone in the world. Or at least a good chunk of our friends in the cities.

Tomorrow I am helping a friend with her garage sale ... and hoping to sell a good chunk of stuff. I sort of wish I could sell anything and start over with the bare minimum. WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF! I did do a resweep (remember I had my own garage sale less than a month ago) of Rosemary's toys and am getting rid of a large bin full of stuff.

We took advice from some of you and started trying to get Rosemary to poop in the baby potty. She was super excited about it and would sit on it for a half an hour or more. She never pooped, but at least she was trying.  But we forgot the baby potty at Joel's parents. Note to self: ask my mom to pick it up and bring it up here next week.

Next week Thursday - Saturday my mom and her friend are coming up here to stay. They want to spend Friday kayaking somewhere. Then they want to watch Rosemary so we can go out and do something fun. My birthday is coming up and our anniversary is the day after ... so I'm excited to do something in the name of those events. It has honestly been over a year since we have had a real, live date. That's just not right.

Rosemary is full-swing into being a 3-year-old. I was not prepared for this. I kept saying we skipped the terrible twos since the first 2 years of her life were so incredibly difficult. I figured maybe a collicky, sleepless baby just skipped the toddler tantrum/completely unreasonable stage. She is testing me on absolutely every level. When I put her in time-out she laughs at me. On the one hand, it's maddening and on the other hand, it's difficult not to laugh in return.

Have any of you read love and logic? The idea of reading another parenting book burns me out. I feel so tired of them. Some have been really helpful, but they just get tiring after awhile. The local ECFE teaches a class on Love and Logic and I'm considering it. At least I could read it over a 5-week structured setting in which I'm interacting with other adults.

Our vegetable garden is coming along. Things are really growing, but not a lot is ready to harvest yet. We harvested some absolutely delicious broccoli (I didn't even take 1 picture, it was just too mouthwatering to think about blogging about it) and some nasturtium, but the rest is sprouting/still growing. It's crazy. This Minnesota summer has been very stereo-typical Minnesota. Cold. Normally the stereo-type isn't so much the reality.

Ah well, I'm still hoping for a good harvest.

That's my sleepless-night random update of my life. How are you?

My friend Cristi posted this at her blog, hazel daisies. A blog she started up to raise awareness and track her own journey as she follows God's call on her life to fight sex trafficking.

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen.

It is something I would like to read and pray every day.