Today I choose....

To be a bad mom.
Last night our Motherhood group at church hung out & made attempted to make tank top dresses. We all had cute fabric, almost all had sewing machines, & a few knew how to sew. We had pizza, brownies, salads, sweet tea & got to work. Some dresses were finished, some were left to be finished, & I somehow cut my fabric 2" too wide (4" total), and had to cut it apart to start over. Well, one seam is still in tact! At that point I had been gone for 4+ hours. This is the longest I've been away from Ella, the longest the hubs has had all 3. From the texts I received I decided I needed to leave :/

 I didn't know that the 3 month old had cried the entire time--apparently that's all she does when I'm gone. Remember in baby class at the hospital where they say to never shake your baby? Well Luke didn't get overcome with the desire to shake her, just punt her into the swimming pool! I didn't know the valve would drop down into my 2 year old's sippy of milk, and apparently being out of the room 2 minutes can result in a room and toddler covered in said milk. I didn't know I'd come home at 10:30 to 2 children awake, toys out, a half nasty floor, a bottle sitting out, laundry untouched,a diaper out and laying open from post-milk bath bath, I didn't know I'd lose my mind because I can't leave the house for 4 hours because ," I'm just not as good at this stuff". So we're up until midnight, I got puked on as soon as I fed the baby, Luke has to wake at 3am ( his alarm went off 3 times,& I swear it talks and was talking about Rosa Parks), Lucy cried on & off until after 2( I attempted to let her sleep with us for the first time and she crawled all over me), and sleep didn't happen, and my dress was not done. Have I mentioned I haven't taken a shower in quite a few days?

So, when I'm in bed after feeding the baby at 6, I really should shower. But I can't keep my eyes open. My oldest comes in at 9, and I guess I typed the iPad password for him after telling him we were NOT TURNING on my tv because the baby was sleeping still. Eventually Luce woke up and Ella was cooing. So what does a good mom do? Probably she wouldn't put the oldest 2 in the crib watching Sophia the 1st, leave the youngest in the bouncy (unbuckled), and hop into the shower. She wouldn't get two cherry pop tarts out & turn on Oogieloves (who made this movie up?!?!) so she could feed the baby. A good mom has probably stopped at the grocery and gotten real food. A good mom would finish mopping the floor first thing. A good mom might finally make the middle child's bed who randomly threw up undigested grapes & red farmstand juice earlier in the week, and take the towels out that she's been sleeping on. A good mom might fold the small load (from grape vomit night) of laundry on the couch....and the load in the basket....and the load in the dryer....and move the towels over TO the dryer :) A good mom would have already been to the Y, had snack time,& would be making lunch. A great mom would remember Spider-Man was at Monkey's tree house today & we had planned on going. Whoops, he leaves in 5 minutes. A great mom might get coupons together & hit up the grocery with all 3.
But today, I'm going to be a bad mom. The floor is gross. My kids are sitting in a laundry basket with toys watching Hop, & sliding all over the floor ( the clean part!). I've already been spit up on, and it missed the burp cloth, dripped down her sleeper, my leg,& onto the couch. She's got talent. I warmed up the coffee pot from yesterday, we barely have enough milk for ONE CUP OF COFFEE ( there is some in the freezer if I get desperate. JOKING!!!), and I am going to finish my dress!

But first I'm having to take breaks to eat Lucy's picnic food & put the baby down for a nap...
I will post the dress picture later & some of the other girls' dresses. You know, the girls who got to post theirs on Facebook at midnight because theirs was done ;) It might be awhile as the kids have moved upstairs to the bonus/playroom & that requires a lot of cleanup help. Oh, and our computer crashed & I'm not sure about how to load pictures on here from IPad or IPhone.

In all this craziness and my long to-do lists , I'm so thankful for these three mess-makers & my other half. I'm so thankful to hear playing voices, Lucy's voice might be LOUD, but I am forever grateful she has one! I'm amazed at how my children love me again and again after I lose my temper with them. I'm so thankful for grace & mercy after a long night.

“My Grace is sufficient for you, for MY power is made perfect in weakness” 2 Cor 12:9

Martha Stewart came over today. { changing pad cover tutorial}

Have you ever wanted to make a changing pad cover for your baby's room? Yeah, me neither. I bought fabric to make the bed skirt the other day, and I realized the flannel fabric I got 2 yards of just wasn't going to work. The sheet and bumper are both pink, and I got the striped flannel ( that is on the quilt) to go on the top and bottom tier, and just wouldn't look right. 

This is the tutorial for the skirt I had been planning on doing:

http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2012/01/ruffled-crib-skirt-tutorial-nursery-bedding-reveal.html

So I looked up DIY tutorials last night, and found one for a changing pad cover, and knew I had enough to try it out. It was THE EASIEST thing I have ever sewn. I only made one. I might be weird , but I can't really handle when all the bedding and accessories don't  match. If my baby explodes on the changing cover, I usually wash it right away anyways. So I do have some spares from Landon ( that Lucy used too), but will primarily use this one that matches. BUT if you want to make one to match her room, feel free =) It won't take you long, and I'll gladly accept them. The one I saw at target that I like was $9.99. I got 2 yards of fabric on sale at Joanne's Sunday ( THAT PLACE IS PACKED ON SUNDAYS. I WAITED OVER 5 MINUTES TO GET FABRIC CUT, and there were 5 people cutting!) for $1.99/yard, and have plenty leftover for other crafts. So this changing pad cover matches her quilt perfectly , and cost under $4.00 to make.

I used the free tutorial from The Prudent Baby. If you want to try this out you can follow theirs, or try to follow along with my pictures. It suggests that it will fit a standard changing pad. I didn't measure mine before, but the measurements they give for standard are : 32″L X 16″W X 3-4″H
 They also give instructions to use 2 fabrics--very cute. But I only messed up and had 1 fabric that wasn't going to work with the other project.

1) You need to cut a 48"x32" piece.
2) fold the piece in half in length.

3)Then fold the width in half:

4)Draw an 8" square on the top corner. This corner has no folds on it.

5) Cut the square out.

6) Your piece should look like the photo below.

7) On each of the 4 cut corners, match them right sides facing & sew together. You're making 4 rounded sides. Each of those will look like this:

8) Now you are going to make a casing for the elastic. First, fold under the entire raw edge about 1/2 " and iron down. Next, fold all the way around about 1" and pin & iron in place. You will then stitch all the way around the 1" casing you just made. Keep your seam on the inside, starting at a corner seam, and leaving a small gap that you will be able to pull the elastic through.

My beginning and end of the casing being sewn. with a gap to feed elastic.

9) Feed your elastic ( 36" of it was what the tutorial called for. This is WAY too tight for my changing pad. Hopefully it will fit better when we replace it with a newer one.) I think I used 1/2" elastic? Pin one side of the elastic to the fabric so it doesn't slip in through the casing. Use a safety pin on the end of the elastic you will be feeding through the casing. This makes the elastic feeding VERY QUICK! Pull that safety pin and elastic all the way through the casing until you get back to the opening.

My elastic is all the way through my casing!

10) Sew your 2 ends of elastic together. I 've read the best way is to make a box with an x inside to keep that elastic good and secure. Once your elastic is in 1 piece, let it slip into the casing, and finish stitching up that little gap you left open.

ALL DONE!

It's fitting a little oddly, but hopefully it will fit better on a newer changing pad.

You can tell the bottom 'foam stuff' is starting to completely come off, and this baby needs a different changing pad. You can also see how TIGHT the elastic is at 36" long. It still works!

I also made some letters to go onto her wall.

 The last 3 letters were just spray painted the same color that the pulls on her dresser are painted. All letters were bought at Hobby Lobby. The larger E I decided to cover with the chevron. I looked up a ton of different sites to see the best way to cover it. Of course we can't find the Mod Podge ANYWHERE in the new rental or in any box it should be in. So I just used hot glue.

I cut out an E slightly larger than the actual E. I then just pulled tightly, tucked, and hot glued all around the edges to the back of the E.

Tomorrow will be 35 weeks!!!!! More projects to get finished this week! More pictures to come!