Big Daddy and I put in some more work this weekend.  We’ll still not done.

Dear GOD WILL WE EVER BE DONE?

Have I mentioned my great dislike for weeding?  If not, let it be now mentioned that I think weeding is a terrible job.  The landscaping in front of our house is weeding intense.

Our honeysuckle was much pretty a few days earlier...and it smells divine.

Thankfully, 3/4 of the main landscaping has been cleaned up and I think we’ll need two to three more bags of mulch to finish up that section.  It looks good and I’m glad the effort is turning into something pretty but sheesh.  I hate this.

Big Daddy also powerwashed the house and porch this past weekend, so things are clean, just like i like them.

We have company coming this weekend and it’s supposed to be VERY hot (for May.  In Ohio).  I’m also going to be out of flagstone very soon, and we’ll probably order a load after our company goes home.

Big Daddy, Littlebit, Baby Bee and I also got to use one of last year’s projects, our backyard fire pit, this past weekend.  The weather was perfect and after a long day of playing in the sun, the little girls were exhausted.

Littlebit is actually, 100% passed out, drooling everywhere sleeping in this picture.  I tried to prop her up on the chair next to her, but it wasn’t happening.  I can’t imagine what it must be like to be able to fall asleep that deeply while sitting like this.

Yesterday, a friend posted on Facebook that three of the four original Wiggles wouldn’t be performing as part of the group any more. Admittedly, I was surprised that it had taken the group so long to be over playing the Wiggles. Between the extensive touring and the television shows, I’m surprised they staved off exhaustion for so long.

The Princess liked the Wiggles. Littlebit LOVED them. Her toddlerhood, in my memory, is punctuated by Wiggles songs. Because Littlebit was speech delayed, she couldn’t sing the lyrics along with them, but acting out the motions (rocking her bear, wiggling her fingers like cold spaghetti) was one way that Littlebit could do the same thing as the outside world. She loved the Wiggles.

Watching the Wiggles allows me to momentarily time travel back to Littlebit’s baby and toddler days. When she was little and looked a lot like this.

The Princess?  She watched Blue’s Clues and Bear in the Big Blue House and Calliou.  I remember singing the opening theme to Calliou when the Princess was two and wondering what she’d be like at four.  Now, she’s twelve and four was so long ago.  It won’t be too long (just two short years!) before we’ll never ever do four again, but every time I watch Calliou with my little two, I remember the Princess when she was like this.

Long after my kids have outgrown the shows, I’ll happen past a favorite of theirs from the past.  Perhaps browsing netflix or when I’m looking for something to keep me company when they’re off at school, because Mickey Mouse Clubhouse will always remind me of Baby Bee when she was like this

I really don't have a bad combover.

For just a second, for just a glimpse I’ll remember so clearly the feel of their little bodies in my arms and the sound of their little voices lisping along to songs we’ve sung a million times or their little hands moving along as if in a dance. I’ll remember the smiles and the pearly little brand new teeth. I remember the Princess’s first Christmas every time I hear the theme song from Little Bill. I remember Littlebit jumping on her trampoline in time to the songs from Hi-5. I’ll remember Baby Bee folded up next to me on the couch, asking quietly for “Max and Wooby Pease! Max and Wooby!”

I feel summer afternoons at home with my Mom during “I Love Lucy”. I think they played it at lunch time and my Mom watched every day she was home. I feel evenings with her, as well, as we watched The Honeymooners after the nightly news. When she was ill and I was in Illinois and she was in Michigan, we watched the Price is Right, playing the game together, guessing on the showcases. Movies I watched with my brother and sister or friends can take me racing instantly back to those moments in time when things were different and we were all younger.

Of course, television isn’t the only thing that triggers my memory, but there was a fleeting sadness when I read about the Wiggles and how they and Littlebit are linked in my mind and memory.

I love to sew.  Like a lot of parents, I find it hard to find time to fit in the things that I love most to do.  When I do have time it’s usually at the end of the day and I’m tired.  That means, to get the most bang for my buck, I try to sew patterns that are not only fairly easy, but versatile.

Last  fall, I ran across this darling little pattern from The Mother Huddle

I loved how it used such small amounts of fabric and looked easy to make. I also loved that there was no pattern. I hate dealing with patterns. If not for patterns, I’d sew mostly everything. On a cold day in January, I adapted the pattern into a nightgown and sized it to fit all three of my girls.

Doesn't she look pathetic? Poor sick baby and the playroom? Gross!

I even was able to size one for the Princess, though I won’t include a picture. At 12, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to be seen on-line in her nightie (which is SMART, Princess! Things you do on-line stay FOREVER and when you run for office, you don’t want people dredging up a thirty year old photo of your in your jammies!)

Littlebit is only five, so I'll post a picture of her in her nightie. No problem!

This pattern was so fast to make up (from cutting to done in about 90 minutes) that I knew I wanted to use it other ways. It was more than a shirt or a dress or a nightie, it was perfectly adaptable to all of those things and nearly any fabric so…

I sewed Baby Bee a sundress.

That stripe? Doesn’t it KILL you.

AND made Littlebit a top. In a knit. A very stretchy knit. The stretched unevenly while I was sewing and hopefully, after being washed and dried, will be more symmetrical.

I’ll be making Littlebit a matching stripey dress, but I may skip making Baby Bee a matching cherry top, depending on how LIttlebit’s looks after drying.  I think I’ll be calling on this pattern one more time this summer and making the Princess a swimsuit cover up out of some terry cloth I have.  She’s outgrown her own cover up and I think this pattern would lend itself perfectly to that, too.

Projects like this are a good use of my crafty time. It allows me to use one pattern/tutorial to make multiple, different garments and you can work on them in an assembly line fashion (now you cut, now you make straps, now you sew the bodice, etc) That allows me to memorize the process so I’m not referring back to instructions so many times (which, let’s admit, makes your project take longer!). The tiny amount of material the bodice needs makes this a nice scrap busting project (the bodice panels for Baby Bee’s dress are only 2 by 11 and 5 by 11. The straps are 1.5×7. Seriously? Tiny amounts of material).

Do you have some tried and true patterns you turn to again and again?  I’d love to see them.

On Sunday mornings, three sets of feet make their way into our bedroom.  I can’t say three little sets because The Princess’s feet are bigger than mine now.  Baby Bee stumbles in during the night and fusses at my side until I haul her in over top of me and into the snug middle.  Littlebit finds her way in later, usually not long before the sun is up.  Sometimes she takes the iPad and disappears into her room or sometimes she lays at the foot of the bed, laying on top of my legs and watching whatever is on the t.v.  The Princess stumbles in later, usually inquiring about the days activities and what’s for breakfast?

I linger in bed as long as I can.  Big Daddy reaches over Baby Bee to drape an arm across me.  I snuggle Baby Bee into my chest.  I’m crowded and usually up earlier than I want to be, but I know so many others would love to be in my position, waking up too early with a kink in my neck and little fit jamming into my rib cage.

I ask the Princess to dress Baby Bee. The Princess changes clothes twice before dressing Baby Bee in her Easter dress.  Littlebit, who has no regard for the outside temperature opts to wear a long sleeved shirt and thick leggings.  It’s going to be too warm for that, Big Daddy and I take turns telling her.  She says she knows.  I don’t fight any battles over clothes.  Wear what you want.  Baby Bee accessorizes with a play stethoscope and pink sunglasses.  She wears purple shoes. I learned a long time ago not to care much about what the children wore.  It’s a place where I can nearly always say yes.

The Princess pushes the cart at the home center while I pick out the plants that are on my list.  Baby Bee struts around like a dive in her sunglasses and Littlebit half walks/half dances.  Little hands pointing out plants take a long time and Baby Bee is enamored with “rosies!”  as dancing rings around them is her favorite game.  I know it won’t be long until I have a surly teenager or two who can’t be bothered with little things like picking out evergreen shrubs.  Finding my patience isn’t so hard.

At brunch, the girls exhibit model behavior in the tiny, crowded restaurant.  Littlebit fidgets a little and Baby Bee let out one, piercing unhappy wail that was quickly quieted with an iPod.  Our waitress has children, but she’s working Mother’s Day morning.  Big Daddy givers her an extra big tip and I’m thankful that I don’t have to do anything else than stay at home with the girls.

Big Daddy crawls around, pulling the weeds gone wild.  The little girls are playing in the empty lot next door.  The Princess shovels load after load of heavy rocks into the wheel barrel. Big Daddy and the Princess give me the best present; a day of slave labor, but I help too as we work on making the front of the house as pretty as it is in my imagination.  I watch the little girls run and run and run and am overwhelmed at how thankful I am for their ability to run and play and roll in the grass.  Not every child has a safe, green place to play and I’m glad that my girls get to engage in a simple childhood pleasure.  Littlebit will be rashy after all of the grass rolling, but she doesn’t mind.  It’s too fun to stop.

Big Daddy cooks dinner.  He plates the food. I’m eternally grateful for a partner who wants to be my partner.

Our bellies are full.  The Princess is off to her room for tween decompression time.  The little girls and I tuck into the big bed.  The day has gotten colder and Littlebit’s outfit of warm leggings and a long sleeved shirt now make perfect sense.  It’s raining a little.  Eyelids are heavy.

I am so thankful.

I am so lucky.

All of this?  Is mine.