I am so excited about making dinner for Christmas Eve this year. I am making Danish rice pudding (risengrod) to start, followed by bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin, with caramelized shallots, lemony swiss chard, roasted potatoes and red cabbage. We are having a christmas pudding for dessert. I hope to take photos of my cooking. So far I've prepped the potatoes and onions.

We are going out for a short visit, and will be back to cook up a storm!

Hope everyone has a hot meal tonight. Have a blessed evening.

Sleepovers

We've had Ellie on bipap for just over three weeks, and it's safe to say I haven't slept more than four hours at a time, often much less, since then. The mask moves in the night, and she fusses, and I need to readjust it. When I ignore it, her alarms ring off. Fun times. Or not...
Lucky for me, her respiratory doctors actually care about the well being of our family unit, not just about Ellie, and know that I cannot function properly, let alone care for everyone if I am sleep deprived.
Until we are accepted into the At Home program, and get funding for a night nurse, Ellie is going to be having regular sleepovers at what we're now going to call Hotel Children's Hospital. She's in the TCU (transitional care unit of the ICU), but just there overnight, where someone trained in respiratory therapy can watch her, while I sleep, in my bed at home.
Last night was our first night, and I must admit it was hard to leave her so close to Christmas. She knew I was leaving, which made it worse. But, I slept like the dead, and woke up this morning completely ready to face the day, to cook dinner, to prep for Santa's arrival. It was so good. And, my parents picked her up this morning, and will bring her out this afternoon.
Until she grows (which she won't do much of until she starts GH therapy), she will need the bipap machine, and will also need close observation at night, because her face is so small. If her face grows, she can fit better masks (not this one that they don't like to use because of safety issues). I have no issue leaving her there overnight on days where Jason is working, and where I'm worn out. I am so grateful to have the complete support of our medical team. It really is a great feeling.

There's nothing quite like being housebound with sick kids, alone. I had plans to go to the fabric shop in town today (which closes at 5), as soon as Jason came home from work. Because he hadn't called yet, at his normal quitting time, I called him. He is usually home at 3pm on this shift, tonight he won't be home until at least six. Sigh.
Jakob was up in the middle of the night with a high fever, woke up at 11am this morning, and has been in my room  all day watching movies. He didn't want to go for a walk, and he never, ever says no to a walk! Ellie must also not be feeling well, she's been especially whiny, and sleepy.
I am dying to leave the house, or even to go downstairs, but Jakob freaks out when I ask to leave, even just to get a cup of coffee.
I was going to make these:

They're super cute, fancy cloth napkins. I wanted to do a whole bunch of Christmas themed ones for our Christmas Eve dinner. Out of the yards, and yards of fabric I have stashed away, I have nothing remotely Christmassy. Oh well.

I have a few other little sewing projects I wanted to do before Christmas Day.

Appliqued, and painted onesies for my niece, Linnea:

A coffee sleeve for my sister-in-law:

 

A few of these (mom, mother-in-law, sister-in-law)

A couple of these:

I might be able to get a few things done. I have the jersey for the bracelets, cute, no? I also have the fabric for the eye shades, the coffee sleeve, and the applique, but I can't get any of it done if I don't have Jason home to watch the kids. I guess they don't have to get done, I just wanted to beef up our Christmas gifts this year with a little homemade love.

Right, I meant to post last night after my shower, but I got sidetracked with writing. So, I washed my hair with baking soda. To be honest, I love the smell of baking soda, I'm not sure why, so while I was showering, that part was fun. My skin felt very soft, too, which I guess is a nice side effect to natural hair cleansing.
My hair felt squeaky clean, coming out of the shower, and I had no problem brushing it out. This morning, it was staticky, which is unusual for me, and I'm not sure if it's because the air in our house is dry, or if it's because of the baking soda. My hair looks very clean, it's light and bouncy. So far, it's pretty cool.
I'll see if my scalp can handle the lack of H&S, if it can, I might be willing to give it up!

Today Jakob and I did some more crafting. Yesterday we didn't actually get all that much done, as he had a short attention span. We got the Santa napkin holders done, a red and green wreath-type thing, a couple paper trees, the melted snowman ornament (which goes through way too much hot glue to be fun for me).

Here's a sampling of what we did today:

A pretty paper star for my front door. I intended to get a proper wreath this year, but because I am so late in getting everything, I haven't been able to find any that I like! This was a lot of fun to make, super easy, all you need is paper, scissors, and hot glue! It took maybe half an hour.


Jakob LOVED making these. Then again, the boy loves getting covered in paint, so it's hard to go wrong when painting body parts is involved. We recently were gifted a set of fantastic finger paints. I painted his feet green, and his toes red. The paints came with foam stamps, so we used the star to make the tree topper. We made several of these.

Every year, I've made a point of making an ornament of Jakob's hand print. It serves to remind me how quickly children grow. This year, I decided to paint the ornaments, and we made enough for our house, my parents, and the in-laws. My salt dough is easy to make. You need:
4 cups of flour
1 cup of salt
2 cups of water.

Mix them all together (adding water slowly, because you might not need the full 2 cups). Knead forever, roll out, and press in your hands, feet, who knows what, then cut around the shape. Use a straw to poke in hanging holes. Bake on parchment paper, at 300F for 25 minutes.

When cool, paint! Or don't...


Better get back to decorating our monster tree, before the hubby loses his mind. Happy Holidays!

One of my friends recently blogged (here) about using Baking Soda in place of shampoo. I love my shampoo (I'm a Head&Shoulders addict), but I am open to the idea of using something completely natural to clean my hair with. So, I'm going to give it a shot.

I don't have a before picture, because it's late, my husband is sleeping, Ellie has about half an hour before she needs to be hooked up to her bipap machine, and Jakob refuses to sleep. I don't have time to make myself photo worthy, just to wash it all away :)

But, I thought I would say that I'm trying it, and I will let you know how it goes. I honestly don't think I want to completely abandon my shampoo and conditioner routine, but you never know!

I feel a craft storm brewing!!

Jakob and I haven't crafted in far too long. I've been so busy with birthdays, baptisms, and prepping for the holidays, that I haven't had time to sit down and really get busy making things with him.

Today, we've got a lot in the works!!






We'll see how much we get done!!