Our House in the Middle of Our Street

" Wealth is certainly a most desirable thing, but poverty has its sunny side, and one of the sweet uses of adversity is the genuine satisfaction which comes from hearty work of head or hand; and to the inspiration of necessity, we owe half the wise, beautiful, and useful blessings of the world".  Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, 1868

(remember that post when I told you I'm making most items for the baby instead of getting Christmas presents done?) Here's another example. Her first purple baby booties! Socks are (to me, anyway) one of the scariest things to knit because they are so small, so why not try to downsize it more and do baby booties for my first pair? Sure! Why not! I'm almost done with them, then I can start on a cap....or maybe I should wait until January.

So...Christmas is 1 month away, this new baby is 3...which takes priority? Apparently, the baby, as most of the things I've done have had to do with her. Here are some of Lukka's old, stained onesies turned cutsie-girlie by leftover fabric scraps I had lying around. This one is my fav. I also made some lino-stamps in a nautical theme (couldn't leave Lu out!) and stamped some of his old onesies, too. The only one I didn't get a picture of was of course, the best one, which was an anchor! Here we have fish, a wheel, bubbles/pearls, and a seashell (ugh. The seashell turned out so poorly! Oh well!) Here is a small glimpse of a few of my Christmas presents this year. I am doing mostly handmade presents and so far on supplies we've been able to save over 50% than last year! A few gifts will be bought, but mostly, they will be handmade with love by me for each person! Can't wait to show you some sneak peeks!

With this little curl on the top of his head, doesn't he look just like a little Who from Who-Ville? More craft updates to come later.

I've always loved Ben Stein. His "Clear Eyes" commercials are some of the only ones I actually remember watching, and mention to anyone in my generation, "Beuler...Beuler...Beuler..." and they remember him right away. This is a short documentary about the tension in the scientific/academic world involving the two conflicting theories, Darwin's evolution and Intelligent Design. Stein holds interviews all over the world with men and women who are professors, politicians, authors, conservatives and liberals. It is so sad that top scientists and educators are loosing their tenure over mentioning the fact that ID may be a possibility. Another very small portion of the movie relates to how the cycle of evolution eventually ends: eugenics. The woman who started Planned Parenthood was originally out to start a superior breed by sterilizing certain types of women in her clinics (think poor, uneducated, etc.)! Also, it references how Nazi Germany took Darwin's ...

Surprise! Stefan's Birthday Surprise I kept mentioning for months came! We went to Vancouver, British Columbia, for a 5 day baby-free getaway! It was really just to hang out with his old friends that he hasn't seen in over 2 years, but we did get to do some 'sightseeing' one day while everyone was at work, and it's always awesome just to see the mountains and ocean. It was a lot of eating out, good conversation , and minimal sleep and totally worth it. He has wanted a canoe for over a year and I kept telling him, "No! This is better than a canoe!" and I think he finally believed me. On Friday morning we left for the Omaha airport and flew into Seattle at 10:30AM and had his best friend, L, pick us up from the airport. On the two-hour drive back to White Rock, where L lives, they caught up, and I caught some zzzz's . That night we headed out for dinner, for Stefan's second surprise , all of his friends and their wives to visit in one night. We hu...

Whoa. Stop right there. Yes, YOU! You need to seriously consider watching this movie, a documentary called Maxed Out if you are not familiar with Dave Ramsey and his seven steps to getting out of debt. The average family's credit card debt is over $9,000. Credit card debt alone . That is a scary thought. A few years ago, when we bought our two-story, too-big house, we were doing just fine as both Stefan and I had great jobs that paid well. We decided to buy a house instead of "throwing money away on rent". We got some bad advice, and we took it. Wells Fargo was more than insistent that we could easily make our mortgage payments every month. Sign. Sealed. Delivered. We were theirs. Fast forward one year and our property taxes go up, making our mortgage go up $80+/month and I was staying at home raising our little guy. Stefan changes his job (long story, he had to switch jobs because he thought he would loose it, and henceforth had to take a pay cut) and we get stacked up w...

And so should you!

Here's the Bug fillin' up his Trick-or-Treat bag at Grandma's house. Mom and dad sure loved that candy after the Bug went to bed!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch is the epitome of Halloween here in Nebraska. It is a number of acres of fun stuff to do with kids around Harvest Time. This year we waited until October 30th to go, and with some friends, it was a beautiful day and there was hardly anyone there! (however, we did go in the morning!) Here's Lukka watching the Old Scarecrow Gang perform. Here's our friends! M and M checking out the sights! Lukka loved the John Deer tractor! He could hardly fit his little bum on the seat and reach the wheel at the same time, but he didn't care! A farm boy for sure, we'll have to get him together with his cousins who live on a farm, they could show him a thing or two on that tractor! They have a small area where there are goats, mules, and even a camel to feed! Although we didn't have any change with us, they still stuck out their noses to be rubbed! A hayrack ride, a 'haunted mine' and some great harvest food made this one fun fieldtrip!