Negativity Averted

Sometimes Sunday is extra hard, I have a child that makes sure of it- almost on a weekly basis.  I've been feeling a little down in the dumps because of some of the things that child said to me as I put said child to bed...  So I went on a little walk to clear my mind.  I didn't want to stay in grouchy/grumpy/sad mode so I prayed on my walked.  That helps a lot.  What mostly came to mind as I prayed was other people in my life who are suffering in some way right now.  So I tried to think of ways to help them and prayed for them in their time of need.  That helps a lot too- cause it makes me realize that it isn't really all about me.  Hopefully my child will forget the awful things they said, and will only remember that their mommy loves them, was patient, and didn't get angry (that was hard).  That being said, I also prayed about things I was thankful for- that helps a ton!
Here are five:
1.  My safe neighborhood - I was on a walk by myself at dusk, and not once did I feel scared or threatened.
2.  My mom - she is the best example of patience and calmness I've ever known
3.  My health - In recent (some very recent!) times I've had major health scares, right now things are really great.
4.  My husband - he made dinner tonight, did the dishes, didn't mind that I needed to leave to go on a walk, works hard for our family, supports my crazy hobbies, loves me despite my weaknesses....etc....
5.  My kids - the more I considered them, the more I thought of loving tender moments I have with them, EVERY day!  When they hold my hand, kiss my cheek for no reason, run by and say "I love you mama!", sit in my lap while I read to them, and today my favorite was when they played pretend Nora wanted to be 'Kendra'.  :)

Life is pretty awesome.  There are ups and downs, but how much would I appreciate all the wonderful moments if I never knew the hard ones?  Someday I have a feeling Sunday is going to be my favorite day of the week!

A new Caribbean instrument?

At 7:00 am...
Me: sleeping peacefully
Nora:  MOM!
Me: (not sleeping)  huh-wha?
Nora:  Ethan won't let me watch TV, he's been playing the Mimtembo all morning!

Beach Vacation

We just got home from a very excellent vacation.  2 days driving, 4 days camping on the beach, 1 day at Disneyland and 2 more days driving home.  We are oh-so tired- but it was worth every minute of driving and preparation.  Hopefully the kids made some memories that will last them a life time.

Summer Boredom Busters

This is one of the coolest blog posts I've seen out there for summer boredom busters:
Summer Fun!
Check it out - and then go have some fun.

I make stuff up.

My best friend Mollie wrote an ode to her father for father's day.  One of the points she made rang so true to me that I am copying and pasting it onto my blog (hope you don't mind Mollie)

• He makes stuff up. This one is self-explanatory, and I don’t have a particular memory of it, mostly because I live it every day. Yes, this unfortunate trait was passed right along to me, full force. If I don’t know the answer to a question, I find myself answering anyway, confidently delivering guesses as if reading out of an encyclopedia, even though my brain is telling me the whole time, “Stop, stop, you don’t know what you’re saying. You’re making this up. You know this is all fiction you are saying in a convincing way, with an authority your loose facts and often wrong intuition don’t deserve. Lies, lies!” But alas, I can’t help it. It’s genetic.
 
Ha Ha ha!  That is me and my dad to a T.  Brian is so going to appreciate this post.  And Mollie, you explained it perfectly in a way I never could.  Thanks!  It's good to have a good laugh at your self ever now and then.

Yogurt

Well, I finally did it!  I made yogurt, and it was goo-ood.  I used the method from this blog (one of my favorite food blogs).

She breaks it down and really once you have a strainer and a food thermometer, you are good to go.
To keep my yogurt at the right temp, I stuck the thermometer in, when it reached 120 degrees F, I wrapped it in towels and put it in my preheated (but turn the heat off before putting the yogurt in) oven with the oven light on.  The yellow stuff on the yogurt is the Whey - here is a link to some cool way to use the whey.

I ate it way too fast to take pictures- so next batch I'll post a pretty picture of the tasty results.

New Blog- for all the random stuff I make

I don't mind posting all the stuff I make on this blog, but I post a lot of personal stuff too.  Some people don't really care about my personal life.  So I made a blog that is only going to house my creative junk.
It's called Kendra Made and the link is Kendra Made It.
I have a lot of WIPs (works in progress) in my craft room that really need to get finished.  I have put myself on a time line to finish them.  So each week during the summer will feature the current project I'm trying to finish.

Old Blanket = New Pillow

My mother-in-law pulled out on of her knitted afghans that she had worked on for years...  Some moths and one of her cats had decided to make it home.  It was in terrible shape.  But she loved it, her aunt had started it and then she lovingly had finished it.  So she had it dry cleaned hoping maybe it could be salvaged.
When she realized it couldn't be saved, she was going to throw it away.  Enter crazy daughter in law (me).

MIL:  Kendra, do you think you could use this, maybe do something with it?
Me: That's so cool!  Did you know Chevrons are totally in right now?
MIL:  I know, I love it, it's just full of holes and cat hair, but I hate to throw it away.  My aunt started it and then I spent years working on it to finish it!
Me:  You can't throw it away- it's awsome!  I'll make a pillow out of it!
MIL:  OH!  I knew you'd be able to do something with it.  :)

Guess I have a reputation.

So I took it home and washed it.  Hoping to get more of the cat hair out- I could have recreated a cat from all the hair that came off.  It was pretty funny.  Then I looked through my fabric stash to see if I had something that would work with the colors of the blanket.  Nope.  BUT  I did have some fabric dye and some old painter's drop cloth.  Bingo.  Plus I had this great yellow ribbon that my sister-in-law Kristy had given me because- as she put- she was sure I could do something with it.  Ha!
I measured the extra pillow form I had and cut the drop cloth into a pillow cover.  I dyed the fabric and dipped the ribbon in the dye as well.  The colors were lovely!

I laid out the blanket and found a spot that didn't have damage on it, I pinned the dyed fabric to the blanket, and cut out a square about 3 inches larger than the pillow size.

I sewed first a straight line around the edge and then followed up with a zigzag stitch to make sure that none of the knitting unraveled.

I covered some cotton cord with the ribbon to make some cording for the edge of the pillow.

Then I sewed the three pieces together leaving one end open so I could stuff the pillow in.

I snipped the corners and resewed them for stability.  Then turned the cover inside out.

I ironed the edge and hand sewed the last side together.
I think it turned out beautiful!  Did I mention that chevrons are SO in right now?!

Cheap and easy PJ's (with a huge impact)

 Ethan needed new pj's, like yesterday man.
BUT (and that's a big but)- I didn't have the money to go out and purchase a bunch of expensive pajamas.  On a side note- why the heck are pajamas so expensive?
Ethan's been wearing mostly my old t-shirts, which there's nothing wrong with, I just wanted him to have some jammies that fit him.

So- it's time to get creative (but not really- this solution basically slapped me in the face at the store).  I was walking down the center aisle at Wally World and I glanced over at the boy's undershirts and I saw a 4-pack of cute little t-shirts...and right next to them a 3-pack of boxer shorts.  I didn't love the colors of the boxers so I dug to the back and- woo-hoo - there was a package with the perfect colors AND an extra pair of boxers for free!

So enter creative, personalization.  Ethan has been begging me to make him a pj shirt with a baby Yoshi on it.  Here's the how-to.

You'll need:
a t-shirt
Fabric Paint (I use Tulip brand, and the colors I don't have in fabric paint I just use my craft paints)
a paint brush
a picture of the character you want to paint
a black fabric marker
That's it!

If you want to trace the character, tape the t-shirt on a sunny window and slide the picture into the shirt and tape it inside where you want the picture to be.  Use a pen, chalk, or a disappearing fabric marker to trace the image onto the front of the shirt.  Pull the shirt down, take the image out and put some cardboard in the center of the shirt.  Then, paint!  Be creative, do something that will match your child's personality.  I use the black fabric paint pen to add definition and detail to my pictures.  The baby Yoshi I chose for Ethan's jams is going to blow him away- I'm scoring some major cool mommy points today.  I can't wait for him to get home from school!

Speedy the Frog

Ethan has this way of getting me to do things. 
He owns probably close to 50 stuffed animals.  And he loves them all, individually.  I'm not kidding.  They all have names, likes, dislikes, personalities and they are occasionally referred to as my "other" children (by Ethan- not me!).  So when he asks me to make him a stuffed animal I say no- right?  Wrong.
I've blogged about how Ethan's super power is manipulation before.
Somehow I was duped into making Ethan a stuffed frog- did I mention he already has like 3 stuffed frogs.  I came into his room to help him get ready for school and he was in his closet crying.  I found out that the problem was that he couldn't find one of his stuffed frogs.  This was a problem because he wanted to take this particular stuffed frog to school because he'd earned a "bring a stuffed animal to school" pass.  I of course said he should take one of his other frogs with him.  This was no good.  No good because all his other frogs had already been to school.  Long story short- he convinced me to make him a new one so he could take it to school the next day.  AND he wanted it green, soft, fuzzy and ready by 3pm that very day. 
So, I hugged him, said "OK honey", took him to school, came home and created a pattern, cut, sewed, stuffed, and finished the frog by 3pm.
Geez, I'm such a push-over!

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned seven.  Sometimes I can't believe how fast time goes.  It makes me think- Am I teaching him how to be a good person, is he learning how to serve others, do I give him enough responsibility around the house, have I taught him how to know right from wrong and to make his own choices?  I can only hope the smallest part of what I'm trying to teach him is making it into his big intelligent brain. 
Ethan is my first child, so I don't have a point of reference for all of this.  He is my learning curve.  I want him to be a happy child and a successful adult- those two desires can really be hard to achieve together (especially if you ask Ethan). 
Some things I've learned:  Almost everything that is hard about your child at a certain age- they will grow out of it!;  New hard things come with every age; Don't make mountains out of mole hills; Decide ahead of time what is going to be a mountain;  Talk with you child- but more importantly LISTEN! (don't interrupt);  Routine saves you from a lot of headaches;  Lots of sugar and not enough sleep makes kids turn into monsters;  Children are always watching and they learn WAY more from your example then from what you say;  Give them chances to prove themselves;  Praise early- and often;  Be united with your spouse;  AND charity never faileth...
I don't claim to know much about parenting at all.  I get lessons everyday about how inept I am at it.  But I'm determined to be successful at doing my best and loving my kids. 
Geez- guess Ethan's birthday made me a bit introspective.  Enough about me, here is some things about Ethan:
He is super smart, funny, he likes to win, he will rise to the challenge if you let him, he can argue like a lawyer, he is so very handsome :) , he is sensitive, he LOVES to read (especially comics), he and his daddy like to share inside jokes and have similar senses of humor, he understands and applies things most adults would have a hard time getting, he is creative, he never forgets (that sounds ominous, ha ha), he is an early riser, he loves to swim, he loves video games, his favorite color is green and he likes frogs.
I'm grateful I get to be the mother of such an amazing human being.

Ode to a Mom

What is it about a mom that is so profound?
Is it their unspeakable beauty, their voice?
Or perhaps the way they look soft and round-
when they are carrying life inside them, by choice.
My mother is more special than any words could capture.
She loves, unconditionally,
easily,  her love endures
She is strong, wise, and sure-
Without a word she serves me happily,
I am in awe that God let me be hers.

Publishing a children's book

Ok, so I've never published a children's book- BUT I took a class on it, and it afforded me a chance to talk with a lot of first time published author's of children's books. 
I actually wrote this in response to a blog post on Pioneer Woman's site, because I felt her post was a bit misleading about how easy it is to be published...  So here was my comment on her blog:
(Comment on a blog post on Pioneer Woman's site)
This is a great post on the process of writing a children’s book- when you already have a publisher, a fan base, and #1 bestsellers under your belt.
SO just for information sake- here is all the basics I learned from some first time published children’s book authors:
The process is much different when you don’t have these things. Usually you don’t get to pick your illustrator, you don’t get to have quite as much input with the illustrations, you are limited to 32 pages- and need at least 18-25 art possibilities in your text.
Once you have a story you think is worthy of being published you send your manuscript to as many agents as you can. You have to make sure that your manuscript and cover letter are written in a certain format- industry standards…
Double spaced, one-sided only, indented at each paragraph, 12 pt times new roman or courier font, don’t use bold or italicized, any notes that you have for the illustrator should be in brackets. The title page should have the title centered on the page and underlined, at the top should have your name, address, email and phone on the top left corner single spaced, and the on the top right should be your last name/one word to recognize the book with (this header should be on every page of the manuscript to identify it).
The current trend in Children’s books is 2nd person and 200-500 words, with the protagonist being 5-7 years old.
(Follow-up comment, after some questions concerning my first comment)
I should have mentioned that the notes to the illustrator in brackets should only be included in the manuscript when they are absolutely necessary for the story to make sense. Otherwise don’t make ANY suggestions to the illustrator. I got this info from a publisher. And never, ever submit your manuscript with illustrations. That is totally taboo for some reason (I don’t know why).
Also, the 2nd person voice is just a current trend- I actually tried writing something in 2nd person for a writing class, and it pretty much stunk. So any voice that makes your story the best possible story it can be is the best voice to use. If you want an example of 2nd person voice think of all the “If you give a mouse/pig/moose a ______” books.
Also, there are publisher directory books that can be checked out from the library (Children’s and Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market book)- with addresses and the type of books they publish. You can also find this info online, but having a comprehensive book can save time. But once you pick publishers from the book, look them up online and see what they are really currently accepting. BUT most authors I’ve met suggest finding an agent to promote your work for you. They take a cut of the profits, but they also protect you from having the publisher “steal” from you. Find agents online at AARonline.org .
Let’s see, is there anything else I’ve learned that would be useful… Write, write and rewrite. I like this quote “A writer wrestles with their writing so the reader doesn’t have to” -Zinzell.
Also, publisher’s like levels. Levels are things like ABC, Numbers, humor, educational, colors, bed time book, funny for the parent- stuff like that. Think “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” , it has days of the week, fruit, numbers, education of the life cycle, lots of levels.
Anyway, it took me forever to figure all this stuff out, so if any of the info helps someone out there to get started, then I’m thrilled!

Post Op

I'm so grateful!
The tumor is gone.
My mother is here helping care for my children while I'm away.
My husband's job is being very flexible, letting him work from home and spend time with me at the hospital.
The tumor was benign.
My friends have brought my family dinner while I'm away
I'm not in very much pain.
I got to watch HGTV for 3 days straight. ha ha ha.
My kids have been very well-behaved.
I already met my out of pocket max and my deductible.
My hospital bed is super comfy.
My nurses have been so so nice.
I can have hot chocolate anytime I want.
I was comforted by all the prayers of my loved ones.
And now I need to go to bed...
Love -Kendra

Sisters

I feel so lucky to have three incredible sisters.  They are funny, smart, beautiful, and my best friends! 

I love my sisters.

One of my all time favorite pictures of my sisters and I.

My dad loves this picture (NOT!)

  

We work nicely together.

Surgery Date

I was able to find a great thoracic surgeon.  His name is Richard Bowman.  He squeezed me in for a consultation between heart surgeries yesterday.  After looking at my CT scan and my MRI he said they should be able to do a minimally invasive procedure where they make three, one inch incisions between my ribs under my right arm.  They will use scopes and remove the entire tumor.  It will be biopsied, but he strongly believes it is not cancer and that it won't grow back.  (sigh of relief)  My surgery will be on April 11th.  It's during my mother's spring break (she is a teacher) so she'll fly out and stay with my kids while I'm in the hospital.  If everything goes right during the surgery, I should only be in the hospital for 3 days.
I feel really good now that I have so many questions answered and a plan to get the mass out of my body.

Tumor update

So I had my MRI this morning.  Not the most comfortable thing I've ever done.  An hour with my hands stretched up over my head- ugh.  If it weren't for the stinging pain in my arms I could've had a nice 1 hour nap.  Oh well.
After all the tests I am feeling more confident that the tumor isn't cancer.  Really the only major problem with this tumor is where it's located.  It's kind of sandwiched deep in my chest between my spine and heart, sitting on top of my lungs.  Heart, spine, lungs- hmm- all pretty important organs.  So after the MRI they determined that there weren't nerves from my spinal cord that were mixed up in the tumor.  That means I most likely don't need a neurosurgeon- I'll need a thoracic surgeon. 
What is a Thoracic Surgeon?
A thoracic surgeon is a medical doctor who performs operations on the heart, lungs, esophagus, and other organs in the chest. This also includes surgeons who can be called cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons, general thoracic surgeons, and congenital heart surgeons.
(I had to look that up )
Next step- find a good thoracic surgeon.

Tissue Mass

I had my follow up appointment after my CT scan of my chest.  I have a tumor, just bigger than a golf ball in my upper chest.  The doctor said that it doesn't appear to be cancer- but I am going to have to have surgery to have it removed and biopsied.  Next week I'm going to have a MRI to see some more details and see how it is interacting or entangled with surrounding nerves (since it is close to my spine).  Then I will find a neurosurgeon and get it removed.

This is my original post after finding about about the tumor in my chest:

 I probably won't post this blog post...  On Wednesday I got a call from the doctor saying that there is a small tissue mass that showed up on my chest x-ray.  My next step is to get a CT scan.
I don't know what to think.  I'm calm knowing God is in charge.  I'm relieved knowing that 9 times out of ten it is nothing to worry about.  I'm thankful I have so much love and support from my family.  I am so glad we put money away in our flexible spending account.  But I'm also sad.  Sad that there is a possibility it could be bad news- that I could need surgery or worse that I might have cancer.
There is so many things running through my head.  What if I die?  What if I get really sick?  Who will help take care of the children?  Do I ask someone to move in with us?  If I loose all my hair- I'll have to get some cool hats, maybe a wig cause I have a HUGE scar on the top of my head (this thought makes me laugh).  Why didn't I schedule the CT scan for an earlier date!?  Why don't I live closer to my mom?  I miss my sisters.  I wish someone was home to hold me while I cry.  And worst of all- WHY the heck am I even worrying!  I literally don't know if anything is even wrong!  Ha- I'm such a worry wart.  I inherited that from my mother ;) .
I know I have more to do.  Here in this life.  I know God has more he needs me to accomplish to help his Kingdom grow here on earth.  I don't know, however, if that means I'll be completely healthy doing it.  Maybe something I have to endure is cancer.  If so, then ok, God knows what is best.  I trust him.  All my other worries will be addressed and everything will work out.  Trusting in the Lord brings unimaginable peace.

Garden 2011

This is our cute little garden!  I'm so excited about our garden this year, I can just feel that it's going to be a productive garden.
I tried out a new method this year- Square Foot Gardening.
So my 4x4 garden is going to have 16 different plots to plant whatever my heart desires.
So far I've planted tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, onions, spinach, cilantro, parsley, carrots, cucumbers and zucchini.  Yummy.  (and yes, I love to make homemade salsa, why do you ask?)
The smaller 3x3 bed is for the kiddos.  The each have 3 square feet to plant in.  I need to get their plants in the ground by the weekend!  So far they've said they want to plant strawberries and watermelon.  O.K.  We'll see how that goes. ;)
Whatever the result, I'm looking forward to teaching, tending, and learning about gardens this summer- oh yeah, and eating!

My friend is growing a square foot garden too- check it out! 

Decorating a Cranial Orthotic (Baby Helmet)

My niece has torticollis and plagiocephaly (stiff neck muscles and a flat head)...  So for a couple months she is going to wear a helmet made specifically for shaping her head, preventing further flattening and helping to strengthen the correct muscles.

I think she looks absolutely adorable in it.  Her mama wanted to dress it up a bit- give it a little love (and decoration!).  So she called me, because she knows I will try anything.  Even when I have no idea what I'm doing!  So after shooting off my mouth about- "Oh!  We could decoupage some fabric on it, add some crystals!  It would be so cute!"  She went out and bought some fabric and came over.  About an hour before she showed up I realized that I in fact did not know what I was talking about.  So I did what you would've done, I googled it.  NO ONE- at least that I could find- had used fabric to decorate the helmet.  There were plenty of people who used paint, stickers and even decoupaged paper onto the helmets.  But I couldn't find one example of fabric.  So I did what I always do- I did it anyway.

You will need:
Mod Podge
Fabric- 5 coordinating types
a paint brush
a sharp small pair of scissors
Fray Check
(and if you want, some crystals!)

 We cut little squares of each type of fabric about 1" or 2" squares (not exact).  Coated the cleaned outside of the helmet with Mod Podge.  Placed the squares of fabric randomly so the entire outside was covered.  I used sharp little scissors to trim around the edges and then finished the edges of the fabric with Fray check around the outside of the helmet.

They left while it was still drying, so we didn't get to put the crystals on yet.  BUT  I think it turned out great- like a girlie patchwork quilt.  Only time will tell if this will hold up or be a complete disaster- I'm hoping for success!

I promise to add updates.

UPDATE 3/8/2011

Isn't she cute!
Crystals and last layer of Shiny Mod Podge added
(Schwarsky Crystals glued on with Elmer's craft glue)

After a month, it is holding up perfectly.  Her parents only have to touch up the edges occasionally with Mod Podge after a thorough cleaning of the inside with rubbing alcohol.