Family Musings

Last night was not a good night in the Sabin home. About 4:30 pm, Mary started acting up. She was fussy and crying. She wouldn't let you hold her or put her down. Her hands, arms, and legs were jerking around a lot (but not in a seizure sort of way). Mary was pulling on her hands and feet. Even though she slept through her lunch, she wouldn't really eat either. In other words, nothing seemed to make her happy or comfortable. We described her behavior as manic, like she was having an episode. Around 8 pm, after trying to put her to bed without luck, I took her for a drive. She always falls asleep in the van. 30 minutes later, she was still screaming. While driving, I remembered that a bottle of shoe cleaner had broke while I was cleaning earlier and I began to worry that she had gotten into it. So to google we went. Eventually, we ended up at the emergency room. (Side note: If you live in Lakeland, drive to the ER in Orlando. It will be quicker.) They drew blood. They put ...

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I have a great jogging stroller . I worked hard to find the money to pay for it. As much as I love it though, sometimes when we are out, Charlotte doesn't need to be strapped in. She is so much better at obeying us in public places that I decided we were ready for a single city-style stroller for short walks or trips to the mall and farmer's market. So, I was waiting patiently to find the money to buy one because a simple, $15 umbrella stroller didn't quite meet my needs. Then, my friends at Mom Central asked me to review the new Inglesina AVIO stroller . They even let me pick the color! I wanted to pick purple, but that color wasn't available so I settled on the fuschia stroller . When it arrived, both girls happened to be napping so I happily opened the box to assemble my new "toy." About 10 minutes into assembly, Mary woke up. Despite that, it took me about 30 minutes to put it together, which is less time than I spent putting together my Graco before ...

Today is important. The main reason today is important to our family is because it is the day in our faith that we go to church and honor "Lottie" Diggs Moon by giving an offering to support international mission work. Who was she you ask? Read my husband's essay about her and why we chose to name our first daughter after her. Why We Honor The Name of Charlotte Moon And while there is no special offering associated with the namesake of our second daughter, you can also read Bruce's essay about why we named her after another international missionary. Continuing our tradition of giving our daughter's strong namesakes and legacies. Why We Honor The Name of Mary Mitchell Slessor

My kids love Christmas. It means our daily Advent calendar activities, special parties, extra time with Dad, and presents. One of the ways I am trying to instill the joy of giving into Charlotte is by allowing her to help wrap and then decorate the gifts she is giving. (I find no need to help her find the joy in receiving... its built in!) So, I bought some plain rolled paper and set out stickers and markers and let her go to work. This makes the gift extra special for the grandparent receiving it, keeps her involved in the entire gift giving process, and occupies her time while I am on my endless chore of cleaning. The Christmas rainbow paper is for her gift to Mary. She wanted to put stickers on it, but I was afraid Mary would try to pull them off and eat them. I don't usually, but I did limit her to 2 colors so it would like neater. Here is the gift she prepared for G-ma. Inside is something she made almost all by herself. And the decorated paper was done AFTER we wrappe...

First some photos of Mary going for a walk... using her special arms in the back flying technique. Now Charlotte rolling in on her scooter...   Stopping to pose for the camera. She's been doing that a lot lately. I am not quite sure where its coming from, but am glad because it gets annoying to have her hide every time the camera comes out. And she suggested we stop and smell the flowers. More so, she wouldn't let me keep going until I stopped and smelled too.

My friend Ida is going to Haiti in less than two weeks. I can't go and am living vicariously through her because I think what she is doing is great! Since she has shared her story at her blog, eat drink and be jesus , I won't repeat it here. Go read it in her words. But before you do that, would you consider buying one of these two canvases that she inspired me to paint? They are acrylic and mixed media on canvas. The top one is about 10x12 and the bottom one is about 8x10. They are $15 a piece, plus shipping, unless you live locally and can pick it up. These are the first two pieces of "art" I have ever created. I am pretty happy with how they turned out, but keep in mind that an amateur hand created them. She leaves soon and lacking the funds to give her myself, I am offering these pieces of folk art to raise some money for her. Leave a comment with your email address is you are interested.

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Our Advent activity for the day was to choose and donate 5 toys. Here is the story of that donation, mostly through pictures. One step at a time, she wanted to carry it up herself. Knocking on the door... Saying good bye to her toys and letting them know where they were going, "to boys and girls who don't have a home of their own." (We took the toys to the Florida Baptist Children's Home.) Praying for the boys and girls who would get these toys. I was praying too, but she looked so earnest I had to snap a picture!

This post is to indulge the grandparents... but the rest of you should feel free to stick around to look at the pictures and watch the video. You can ohhh and ahhhh over them all you like as well.  Waiting for instructions from her teacher... Making sure her hair is neatly tucked behind her ear. Waiting for church to start so they can sing... seems to be a fairly relaxed group.  There's a good message in the song and some cute facial gymnastics around 3 minutes.

I love my purple hair. It makes me happy. It is an ice breaker with strangers. It keeps me from being pigeon-holed as a typical suburban, conservative stay at home mom. But I miss my no 'poo routine . I liked using baking soda and apple cider vinegar to clean my hair. It felt a little softer and was cleaner. However, the purple highlights mean no baking soda in the hair. It would strip all the color I just spent money putting in. So what to do... how should I keep my curly hair soft, manageable, and lovely? I only wash it on average twice a week right now because otherwise it gets dried out. I was doing some random blog hopping tonight and found this book called Curly Girl: The Handbook . And it sounds like exactly what I need. What really got me is that one of the bullet points on the cover is the "No Shampoo Epiphany." So mom, you wanted to know what was on my Christmas list. Well, now you know at least one thing. And you can just print the order confirmation fo...

For Charlotte's 3rd birthday party, I included some really cool wind up toys. These are not the windups you remember from your childhood either. Not only can they go forward or backward, but they can spin, dance, sway, and some of them can even swim! These are way cooler! Of the dozen or so I received to review, I did keep one Z Windups for Charlotte to play with in the bathtub and it is a regular favorite to wind up the little swimming alligator and chase him around the tub. I've thought about getting her some more but hadn't gotten around to it when I found them at Michael's craft store. Yay! I think I know what she'll be getting in her stocking this year. One thing to note though, due to small parts, these are children 3 and older. The selection of Z Windups available appeals to all ages. I am pretty certain the adults in our house had much fun playing with them before we put them in the goody bags as the kids who received them did. You can either pur...