the tale of three heart pillows

First of all, when I told Elsie we were going to make a heart pillow she said, "For my collection!!!" I said, "do you collect pillows?" And she replied a very enthused, "Yes!" So now we know. I commented that she probably loved pillows because she's a lady, and ladies love pillows. I always get swept into the pillow aisle at HomeGoods...

Second of all, I have a story to tell, but Hattie wanted to be sure you knew she understands how to use a pillow. She got in nearly every one of my pictures while I tried to take pics of my pillows. And I think we would all agree that her presence, fake sleeping on these pillows, makes this blog post a billion trillion times better.

So here's the tale. Once upon a time there was a lady who saw a cute pillow on pinterest. She thought she'd give it a go. But it was way trickier than she had imagined. She had to recut her fringe to make the ends longer so she could tie them. And in the end, her heart had a very wonky shape. In fact, it was reshaped for this photo to make it look a bit more like a heart and less like a pink lion's head. But she didn't give up.

Yes, dear children, (literally, my own dear children) I want to you take note right here. When her project didn't turn out as she thought it would she didn't cry or roll around on the floor or go kick her foot at something hard and tell her husband she never, ever wanted to make a pillow again in her life! No, she didn't do that. Instead, she started thinking about how else she might make a heart pillow. That's when she found more felt and decided to try again.

And this heart was way better. She loved the white stitching. The shape was a little crazy once it was filled with fiberfill, so she took note how to cut her next heart. She also thought about how cute it would be to do some stitching on the felt before she sewed it to the back side. And with all these fun ideas in her head, she tried again.

And that was the ticket. Her third heart was darling. She loves it. Wants to make a ton of them. Not sure what for, but she'll figure something clever out.

Now think how sad it would have been if she would have cried and kicked her foot into the cupboard only to make her cry harder because now her toes were hurt, and stopped making that first pillow! What a shame that would have been. So let's learn from this lady with her three heart pillows for her daughter's growing pillow collection and not panic when our art doesn't turn out quite right. Let's keep trying, painting over mistakes, redoing our creations until we think we've made something awesome.

Don't you agree, Hattie?

Oh, look, she dozed off again with her head on that soft heart pillow...

to the moon!

I suppose one perk of this crafty month is recognizing how much of my life is creative, even when I don't always do something with fabric or paint. I didn't craft today, but I did a whole lot of organizing while Elsie and Hattie made spaceships out of boxes. It was fun to have the sisters pair off and play and work so hard together. Hattie wasn't around for the photo, but Alden was as photogenic as always. And then the two of them sat in this box for a long time while playing pretend. Alden loved hitting all the buttons. :)

it's not okay.

We left our super bowl party before half time so we could get the kids home and in bed for a good start to this new week. I got on my computer to check the score and then saw a headline about Justin Timberlake's half time show. So I clicked to youtube to watch it.

I will say this, thirteen of the fourteen minutes were fun. Full of set changes, dancing and props, it was like a little olympic opening ceremonies. 

But there was a scene right at the beginning, after the lasers, when Justin was walking up a set of stairs. It seemed to be sort of a night club scene, with women along the stairwell as he walked up to each one. And he visited each one and everything was sexual. He was dominant. In the name of dancing, he had his way with each one.

I was so stunned. I felt sick to my stomach. I felt so sad for all of the kids in our country who saw that and then took note of how no one reacted.

In the day of #metoo, where men are finally being held to account of their sinful, despicable and forced behavior, I could not believe what I was seeing. 

I think I am most overwhelmed that in this day when these horrendous behaviors are finally being brought into the light that there wasn't someone along the way who said, "let's do it clean." Maybe a choreographer, a dancer, Justin himself, someone on the Superbowl committee... In the name of national sensitivity, wouldn't you think?

And I can hear the rebuttals, "sex sells." "It's what makes money." But if you downplay the whole thing like that, then we'll just continue to have the same immoral storylines. The same heartbreaking stories of innocent, trusting young girls being taken advantage of, and harmed by the wolves.

If I had the ear of young women, this is what I would say: This sort of behavior in the name of entertainment and dancing is not okay. It's demeaning. If it made you feel uncomfortable, or awkward, then you should be glad. That's your ability to sense that something is wrong. Because that sort of public objectification is awkward. It is not beautiful. It is not honoring to their bodies. It is not honoring to the God who made them. It's just gross. 

I'm afraid that by watching a scene like that it will normalize this sort of behavior. That you might think that guys can just behave that way because they can during the half time show while the entire nation is watching and no one bats an eye. But they can't behave that way. It's not honoring of women. And there are so many women out there who are working through so much pain and hurt because they thought a man could behave that way (or more often, because a man thought he could behave that way.)

Let me tell you this, young women. You are worth so much. Do not sell yourself short. You deserve a great guy who loves you well. Don't settle for less. Know the kind of guy you deserve and keep your bar high.

Because there are good guys out there and there are bad guys. You must be aware of this. Last night a the super bowl party I was changing Alden's diaper and Rory came over and started changing Hattie's diaper right in front of me. We were face to face, changing dirty diapers and I thought to myself, "I got a good one."

I want you to have a good one too.

So keep your standards high. Remember you are strong and amazing and worth so, so much. Remember that your clothing has consequences. You might feel like you should be free to wear what you want but guys are visual, and your clothing choices can attract the wrong kind of guy. And recognize that the people you hang out with have a HUGE impact on the situations you will be placed in. You only need one good friend. If you don't have a good friend, pray for one. That's how I found my best friend in high school.

And then hear this. I didn't date at all in high school. And barely in college. I kept looking for the wart on my face. What in the world was wrong with me? Why didn't anyone want to date me? I worried about it so much. But you know, looking back, I am so grateful for those years. I had the best girl friends. I had lots of really great guy friends too. But to this day I believe I was being protected and spared a lot of things by simply hanging out and enjoying my good friends. Life was full and fun.

And now, married to a great man, raising four kids, living on this farm, I just feel so grateful. I kept my standards high. I hung out with good friends who helped me make good decisions. I did make some bad choices and praise God for forgiveness and second chances. But by and large, I valued myself, honored myself and trusted that God had a future for me that was good. And he did. He does for you, too. He knows the desires of your heart. He put them there. Pray to him for strength to go against the current, for patience when you have to wait, for more faith when it's hard to believe he has good for you. Learn to listen for his voice. He will speak to you. And he will always tell you your value and worth. He made you. He loves you most of all. And he wants good things for all who call on his name. 

homemade peanut butter cups

Hold on to your love handles, because I've got a winner here and you're going to love it.

Actually, not much needs to be said except: homemade peanut butter cups. Those four words together trump most things. I imagine any conversation:

So what are you doing this weekend?
Watching the super bowl. Going skiing. Flying to Hawaii.
How about you?
Making homemade peanut butter cups.
Lucky.

And they are as good as you think they would be. I followed this recipe, and used melted chocolate almond bark to dip them in at the end. They're no bake. They're easy peasy. And they're my new go to. Also, I keep mine in the freezer because I like a frozen pb cup. My mom taught me that and she is a wise woman.

Here's the recipe:
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup softened butter
2 T. brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Mix all of that together in the mixer.

Then add 2 cups of powdered sugar.

Dump the pb mixture into an 8x8 or 11x7 casserole pan that has been lined with parchment (important!) for easy removal later. Put the pan in the freezer (cover with saran wrap) for an hour until hardened.

Use a cookie cutter to cut your hearts or stars or eggs or even just squares. It doesn't matter. No one is actually going to care the shape once they've eaten one.

Then put the cut outs back on a cookie sheet lined in parchment back into the freezer until hard again (maybe an hour? less?)

Melt your chocolate almond bark in the microwave until nice and smooth. Dip your shapes into the chocolate and lay back down on the parchment paper. (I used a cookie rack and regretted it!) Then I stuck mine back in the freezer once more. But you could also just start eating at this point.

So good.

And! I'm going to make little footballs for Sunday. You should too!

Nancy, come on by any time! I've got one here with your name on it. :)

playdates and possoms

For today's creative project I took a nap. I got Hattie down for her nap, lay my head on my pillow and the very, exact second I did, Alden woke up. So I brought him downstairs, fed him rice cereal and asked Elsie if she would set up a playdate for Alden so that I could sleep.

When I came back up with Alden she had the room all set for fun. So they played and I slept. It was a 20 minute power nap and I woke totally rested. It was awesome. And very creative.

In other news, we caught a possum in our garage this morning in a live trap. So Rory took the trap to a county park a few miles from here. When he got there, he found a friend of ours from church who was sitting in his car having just watched the sunrise. They were so surprised to see each other and chatted a bit asking what are you doing here? "Spending some time with the Lord in prayer." And you? "Oh you know. Just dropping off a possum."