Canning Jar Lids for Gifts

While on pinterest, I found a cute picture of canning jar tops for gifts.  I've never been able to make the cloth across the top look good.  This, I could do, and I made a tutorial of it, so I could pin it on pinterest!
So, away we go!

First, take a lid the size you need, and trace it.  Easy Peasy.

You need piece of cardstock under your paper, or the paper will rip.  You can use regular paper and cardstock or two piece of cardstock.

Sew through the paper, using whatever creative stitches you want.  I did zigzag and straight stitch on these because they are on every sewing machine, but my sewing machine does some fancy stitches too. :)

Cut out circles, and voila!  Instant canning lids for giving gifts.  Something like this would also make cute gift tags, because they look so much like ornaments.  Love it!

A Dinner to Die For

I was making a new recipe today, and I was trying some Italian sausage that was hard like a pepperoni stick instead of crumbly like ground beef. After I had cooked it, I wanted to taste it to see if it was any good. The sausage had dots of peppercorns all over it, so I was afraid it was going to be too spicy.

I've had a bit of a cough for a while, just an irritation in the back of my throat, so I cough a little bit all day long. Well, that peppercorn hit me just right, and I started coughing my lungs out. One of those horrible hacking coughs where you just can't catch your breath, you can't talk, and you can't get any water down to stop it. My eyes were watering, and I was keeled over the sink just trying to get over it.

Meanwhile, the veggies are in the pan sauteing (I don't know how to spell that!), and all I could barely get out is "Get Dad!" Not that I'm worried about me - it was awful, but I knew I'd be fine - but I was worried that dinner was going to burn. So the kids go running around the house trying to find him, and they can't. They finally find him in the bathroom and tell him to hurry, it's an emergency. Then I realize that he's gonna get all worried, when there's nothing to be worried about, I just don't want dinner to stick and burn. So I get Eldon and motion to him to stir the veggies. He looks at me incredulously and says "Stir?" "Stir!", I choked out. And James all this time isn't coming. Why? Because our kids ALWAYS scream "Emergency!" when we're in the bathroom and they want to talk to us. Zachary's jumping on the bed? Emergency! Eldon stuck his tongue out at Jessie? Emergency! Erica's coloring on someone's paper? Emergency! So, naturally, James completely ignores them and takes his sweet time.

When he does come out, he sees what's going on and asks if I'm ok. I nod my head, thrust the recipe in his hand and point to the stove. I really was worried that dinner was going to burn. Oh, and while I'm hacking up my lungs trying to breathe, Zachary is pulling on my legs screaming "Up! Up!" I told James I could just envision me choking to death while some child pulled on my legs and screamed for me to pick them up. He said he was glad I wasn't really dying, because he wasn't listening to the kids. If it had been me, I wouldn't have listened to them either.

James did have to finish dinner. It took a good 20 minutes before I finally caught my breath and cleared everything out well enough that I could talk. I think I'll go back to the regular Italian sausage. Dinner was pretty good, but definitely not good enough to die for.

Blue and Gold

Eldon's cub scout troop held their annual Blue and Gold dinner last night. It was great! Eldon has progressed to Webelos. He also earned a gold arrow point, several silver arrow points, and his disability awareness, bowling, and collecting belt loops.

Here's James giving Eldon his Bear badge.

Eldon's best friend is about a head taller than Eldon, so James lifted him up to make it a bit more equal. We're proud of our boy!

Home Renovations

Our kitchen is starting to come together. This is our old counter. It used to have laminate behind it as well.

And this is our old floor. James is currently making a new cabinet for the dishwasher. He built a quick one with 2x4s when we moved in 6 years ago.

Everything got moved out of the cabinets and into boxes, which were moved into my office.

The appliances came out of the kitchen. I didn't get a shot of all the cabinets in here as well. With all the chaos, I stayed downstairs all day and watched movie after movie with the kids. They loved it! I got a bit bored, and can't get the SuperWhy theme song out of my head.

Some friends and the boy scouts showed up to help in the morning. About 11 people were working, including James and Eldon. 11 people hammering nails makes quite a bit of noise!

They tore out the old flooring. Then they put down new plywood and the floor on top of that.

And this is the new floor. You can also see that we painted the walls brown (they used to be white) and the chair rail, which was a dark wood.

I took a lot more pictures, but the battery on my camera was close to dead, so apparently it didn't save many of the pictures I took. Baseboards still need to be put up, the cabinet finished, and the countertop put on, and then we should be done!

Catch 22

I've had so much to write about since Katherine was born. Yet there is no time to write about it. I've pondered whether I should put it all in one big long post, or many separate posts. I'm opting for the separate posts, and we'll see how long it takes to catch up. We'll see how long it takes.

Introducing...

Katherine Alice Perkins





And now, for the rest of the story:
(For those who aren't interested, a warning - this is the story about the labor and delivery part - Read at your own risk! No, it's not yucky or scary. Some people just don't care! :))

For about a week or so, I'd been having labor pains off and on. When I went in for my 39 week checkup, the baby was way low. The doctor said, "It'll probably come fast, call when you have your first painful contraction." I laughed, because the contractions were already painful. All throughout the week, I went to bed with contractions and was surprised each morning when I woke up with no contractions. A bit frustrating, really. But it was ok, because my mother-in-law wasn't in town yet, so we were hoping the baby would wait. It did. My mother-in-law got in safely, and I kept waiting. On my due date, I had a doctor appointment, still nothing. I was hoping the baby would be born that day because it was my sister's birthday, but again, the contractions never got regular.

Saturday morning (the next day), they started to get regular, about 10 minutes apart, but after 2 hours, they went away. I spent the whole day wondering if I should eat. When I had Erica, I wasn't sure if I was in labor, so I ate dinner. That was a mistake I didn't want to repeat. So I ate lightly. The contractions started up again about 2:30, again 10 minutes apart. But this time they didn't go away. At about 4:30, they were still 10 minutes apart, but they started getting stronger. So we called the doctor, got some things ready, and left.

We got to the hospital and instead of admitting me, they took me to triage to make sure I was in labor. That had never happened to me before - I'd always been taken straight to a room. In fact, when I came in for Zachary, before I'd even really settled in, the nurse started talking about calling the anesthesiologist for my epidural. Ok, fine, they checked, said I was likely in early labor, but I needed to walk around for 2 hours to make sure. WHAT?!?!?! That had definitely never happened before. I assured her that I was in labor, this was my 5th child, and I knew what I was talking about. I had left home because the contractions were getting stronger than I could bear, and there was no way I had it in me to walk for 2 hours. The nurse was unsympathetic, and that was the end of that. So she left, I cried, and since there was nothing else to do, bucked up and started walking the halls.

Shift change occurred at 7:00pm, and soon after I got a new nurse, I asked her to check me again. She did, declaring I was at a 7, and proceeded to admit me. Now I was nervous that the baby would come before I could get an epidural. I know many women get through birth without one, I knew I could if I had no other option, but I didn't want to. In. the. least. I don't deal well with pain.

So the nurse set up the IV, got the liter of fluid in me that she had to, and called the anesthesiologist. He came in and told me to lay on my side. All other epidurals I had received had been sitting up. He said he'd been trained different. So I laid on my side curled up in the fetal position. Let me tell you, that was the best epidural experience I'd ever had. Fast, easy, the contractions didn't hurt as bad curled up like that, so I was able to relax more and get it done. I asked him why all epidurals weren't administered that way, and he said that they just don't teach it that way anymore. It's a shame, it was great!

So the medicine took effect, and I relaxed. After an hour wait, it was time to push. Ten minutes later, there was Katherine! After she was born, the doctor commented that the contractions never got very close together - about 2 or 3 minutes apart at the end. I wish that first nurse had been there to hear that - even though my contractions were far apart initially, it didn't mean I wasn't in painful labor!

Katherine was 6lbs, 9oz, and 20", my smallest baby yet. Hooray - I like small babies! She was born at 10:07pm on August 28th, my sister-in-law's birthday. She is named after 2 of her great-grandmothers - Victoria Katherine Zaugg and Barbara Alice Black. James wants to call her Katie, I want to call her Katherine. We shall see who wins the war. :) But it's the first time we've ever agreed on a name from the beginning.

And we're doing great. Recovery has been fast, Katherine sleeps all the time and eats like a champ. Nursing is actually going well. It seems like after 5 kids I've finally figured it out. We're happy and the kids adore her. Even Zachary has been gentle with her and doesn't seem jealous at all.

Summer update

Long time, no write. Because we have done NOTHING this summer. No trips to the pool, beaches, or museums. We did make it to the movies once and to the playground once, but that's it. My kids have done their chores, played together, and played the Wii a lot. Did I mention that it's hard to be pregnant during the summer?


We did buy bunk beds for the girls. We bought them unstained and James modified them a bit and stained them. They turned out beautiful. Unfortunately, we don't have a beautiful still camera, so the picture's not all that great. We looked for a camera once, but that's been about it. Did I mention that we've done NOTHING this summer?

Since the girls had the bunk beds, the toddler bed went to Zachary, in preparation for the baby. He got right in it, no problem. Then he got right back out of it, no problem. He's finally starting to stay in it, although he does usually get out once or twice a night. He zoomed right up the bunk bed ladder, too, which made me nervous. He did ok, but Jessie pushed him out of the top bunk one day (it's amazing the falls that kid survives), so the ladder came off. We keep it on the top bunk and then put it down at night for Jess to get up.

Speaking of doing nothing, I guess I did do something. I made a baby blanket, and if we have a girl, I'll keep it. :) I started on it while watching the Olympics, then finished it this summer while Erica was in therapy - about 3 hours every week.

A friend of mine told me about a corner-to-corner blanket, and I wanted to try it. You start at one corner with one square, then add on two squares, so it looks like stairs. Keep going until you reach the middle, then decrease in the squares until you get back down to one. I really liked doing it. I like the diagonal stripes. Also, when you go diagonally, about the time you get tired of doing it, you start decreasing so it doesn't take as long and you feel like you're making fast progress.

The kids have chores they have to do everyday, one of which is cleaning their rooms. One day, instead of picking up the toys, Jessie decided to dump everything out, including 3 of her drawers.

She's on day 2 of getting it all cleaned up. This picture was taken after she had picked up some of the things already. I haven't yet figured out what motivates her to get work done. She mostly sits there and does nothing. Oh well, she'll get it done eventually, right? We shall see.

And that's all that's happening for now. We're anxiously awaiting the baby, hoping and praying that it will wait 1 more week for reinforcements to come, but I'm not sure I'm going to last that long. Again, we shall see!