What a difference a heartbeat makes

We heard the heartbeat and everything just melted away. All the stress, the uncertainty, the angst about everything - gone. It's there and it's real and God willing, in May we'll have another beautiful baby to enjoy.
It's unexpected but not unwelcome. I had my surgery at my age so that I could get pregnant again. We had several years of not getting pregnant, then we had to wait 18 months - so no guarantees. We weren't expecting it so soon, either. But here it is. No period since August. Crazy dreams, sore boobs, cranky, hungry. I haven't gained any weight, but boy have I been eating. I had to find a new doctor because I'm considered high risk because of the surgery and God led me to a good practice with people who have had patients with gastric bypass before. So we're waiting. Next month there will probably be another heartbeat. In 2 visits we'll start the ultrasounds. We're still cautious and optimistic. And happy! Gracie knows; our parents know; some friends know. How to announce? When to announce? Facebook? I thought that once Gracie knew everyone would know, but she's been keeping it under her hat. We'll see. So we're praying about the baby's health. We're praying about the money thing, because God knows we need some more of that.

Parent-teacher conference

We had Gracie's first p-t conference. It went well. We had concerns about her behavior - she never has any comments on her behavior chart, and we wanted to make sure she was being good in class. But her teacher said she knows when to be quiet and when she can talk. She said she obviously loves school, which she does. Another concern we had was that she was bored in class because she had covered this same curriculum in pre-school. But her teacher said that she doesn't finish early and takes her time. We forget that she has a summer birthday and is younger than the rest of her peer group. She needs that time to develop more fine-motor skills, like writing her name, etc. She counted to 59 without messing up. Her only S- was for writing her name, which she does pretty well now. We got a math program for the computer that they're going to start soon. So overall, good. We're proud of her for doing so well!  

Goofing around

A funny!

Bedtime Prayers

I read a prompt tonight at midweek asking about who taught you to pray. I think most of us just pick it up as we go along, but I've made an effort to pray with Gracie at bedtimes. At first I taught her a simple prayer "Dear Jesus, be with  . . . .. . . and be with me. I love you, Jesus, Amen." She repeated it after me until she got it down, then she said it. Then she wanted me to repeat after her, which I didn't want to do, so I prayed silently while she prayed out loud. Then she wanted to know what I was praying about, which was her, so she made me pray out loud. So I laid hands on her and prayed out loud,"Dear Lord, Thank you so much for this wonderful blessing you've given to us. Please help Scott and I be the best parents we can for her. Be with her this week at school. Help her to be humble and strong. Lead her to be your servant. Be with her teacher and friends at school. Be with her future spouse and his parents. Help them to raise him to be a wonderful, Godly man for her. Be with her future teachers and help her to have a great week." Of course, she loves that. Now she prays for me in a similar fashion. She'll latch onto me and ask God to be with her "wonderful, wonderful, mommy." And she's really ad-libbing some good stuff in there. Such a sweet girl. Then we pray about her daddy and whoever else is on her list.

Solutions

I finally found a solution to my issue of not being able to do the corners of a wrapped binding. For my quilt, I really fudged it, but I knew for my placemats I couldn't do that, so I've been trying to find a solution. I asked a friend at school and she gave me a very complicated way to do it, but of all places, I found the solution in a quilting book I picked up at the library. I was reading it at the beach and flipped to the back and there it was.   After I already ruined the fourth of a set. Those will be a decoration for myself, but I have started on the gifts and of course, my sewing machine isn't working. I'm going to replace the needle and get new thread and see how it works. The thread is breaking at the top, then breaking at the bobbin. My mom came over and futzed with it, but it's still not working. It would be more efficient to hand-sew at this point, but I'm not patient enough for that. I am hand quilting around the leaves and hand sewing the corners (which look great - yah), but hand sewing the whole binding? I will if I have to, but machines are so nice and convenient for those long, tedious jobs. Again, it's not like it's a quilt; they're relatively small, but still. Machines.        

These are the ones I ruined. Pretty though!

This is not the good way. This is one way I tried that ruined the project. Do not try this at home. :( The good way is more of a foldover, then trim, then fold the sides in. Easy to wrap my 2-D brain around. 

Giveaway wins

I won this package from Sarah, all the way from England. She is a self-described flosstitute and fabric floozy. Her blog is http://craftymoo-sarah.blogspot.com/. 

Here is the whole kit and caboodle - minus the chocolate bar that is in the freezer. 

Close up of a buffalo? pencil and key chain, a handmade, handwoven tweed card from the Outer Hebrides?, some Harris tweed handmade in the Western Isles by Violet and some gingham ribbon.

Some hand dyed fabric - Silkweaver Rock Quarry 28 ct Lugana and 28 ct Jobelan, some Lavendar Castile Soap, a stitch-n-mark bookmark and some Western isles notecards. So generous!

I also won Meljean Brook's new book called Demon Marked. I read her Guardian series and this is the next one. It's not the absolute one everyone is waiting for, but I can't wait to read and see how the plot progresses.