sewing again

I used to sew a little as a teenager, but haven't used a machine in close to 10 years. My Christmas present to myself was a new Singer sewing machine and this week I finally tried it out.

To try the machine out I made myself a little pin cushion :)

And this is what the girls did while I was sewing.

my models

alone

Let me start by saying I adore my children. I want to be with them almost all the time. I love teaching them new things, applauding their accomplishments, and kissing their owies. Today I had 6 hours to myself. An hour in the car each way with whatever I wanted on the radio and sometimes silence. I walked down every aisle at Hobby Lobby without once having to say "don't touch that!" and I sat and looked through pattern books without interruption. I ate lunch at De La Vega's and read a book without picking up crayons from beneath the table or mopping up spilled juice. I tried on a dozen things at Target without rushing and without comments about the size of my backside or the amount of stretchmarks on my tummy. And while I was in the "big city" I got an iced coffee at Starbucks. It was heaven. The best part is I got to come home to big smiles, little voices shouting "mama's home!", and beautiful sticker filled anniversary cards.

5 years

5 years ago today, I married my best friend.  

In the last 5 years we have had 2 wonderful daughters, traveled to many beautiful places, bought our first house and turned it into a home, survived separations due to deployments, and I can't wait to have him home at the end of this one.

snow!

We had quite the snow storm here a couple weeks ago. It was fun the first day when we thought it wouldn't last.

It was fun the second day when we had 6 inches to go play in and came in to hot cocoa.

When we woke up on the third day and had now electricity or natural gas and it was about -12F outside it became a lot less fun. 

But we survived and none of the pipes even froze, much less burst. Praise God!