Super Easy Link Costume

I was walking my cute 3rd grader home from school on Tuesday and he told me they were going to have a superhero day and he needed a costume.  I said that sounded like fun.  When was the day? Turns out it was that Friday and he needed me to sew an entire Link costume. (I agreed only because he's going to use the same costume for Halloween.) Link is the hero in the Zelda video games.  There are also *graphic novels available. 

I've come to smash your pots and take all your rupees!

On Wednesday, I went to the store and bought the green undershirt and an XL men's shirt.  I put the XL shirt on my son and marked the places to cut and sew with chalk. (I was short on time and my camera is broken, so I made a lovely drawing to show what I did.)

I took the sides in and used a sleeve to make his hat.  I didn't hem anything. It gives it a rough look.  Also, I don't have any green thread.  It wouldn't have been pretty.

 I cut and sewed while my son was at scouts.  He tried it on on Thursday.  We added the belt and boots.  My husband took the picture so you can't see the boots. And he's wearing the whole outfit today.  Whew!

He couldn't have his sword or shield at school. They will be part of his costume for Halloween.  The light and dark green are swapped, but we weren't going for accurate on this costume.  We were going for fast. 

* A quick note on graphic novels.  They are more than just comic books.  Many of them are on a 5th - 6th grade reading level.  They are perfect for kids who read on a higher level, but have a shorter attention span.  They are also perfect for older kids who struggle with reading or kids that just enjoy reading them. My 9th grader still likes them. (He lets his little brother and sister check them out, though.)

You may be addicted to the internet if . . .

1. You go through withdrawals every time your WiFi light blinks.
2. You posted pictures of your child sitting on the potty (for the first time!) on Facebook.
3. You've forgotten how to use a phone book.
4. You are seriously considering getting a waterproof phone so you can take it in the shower and not miss any new tweets.
5. Your children set the house on fire while you were checking Pinterest.
6. Your first impulse, upon seeing a massive zit somewhere on your body, is to take a picture and post it on Instagram.
7. Fresh air hurts your lungs.
8. You get tired while walking from your computer to the bathroom.
9. You constantly compare real life with a video game.
10. You turn every occasion into a tweet.

Back to school blues.

Just to be clear, I'm not feeling blue. This is my happy day.  I even wrote a song for the occasion. (Sung to the tune of The Sound of Music's Favorite Things.)

Alarm clocks that beep in the wee morning hours,

Kids that forgot to take their nightly showers,

What do you mean, your backpack is gone?

Why won’t you just put your new pants on?

Cute lacy skirts with no matching shirt,

Leggings that somehow got covered with dirt,

Someone is searching for their new shoes,

They are all dealing with back to school blues!

Eat some breakfast, put your shoes on,

You shouldn’t look so sad.

As soon as you’re all out the front door and gone,

Then I won’t feeeeeel soooooooooo bad!

Okay, I admit that I'll miss having them around all day, but I'm also excited for them to get out and grow. They're pretty good at growing.  They do it the moment I buy new clothes for them.  Happy back to school everyone!

Dear Pissed Off Mom...

There has been a letter going around the internet that a woman sent to a mother with an autistic child.  It is rude and cruel.  If you haven't read it, the link is here. I know the woman in question will never see this, but I'm going to post it anyway.

Dear Pissed Off Mom,

I do not have an autistic child.  My kids are, as you put it, normal.  In fact, my kids are very bright.  All three read well above their grade level.  My oldest son even skipped 7th grade math and went straight to 8th grade honors math.

When we first moved into the house we live in now, there was a little boy in our neighborhood that scared my son. This was about nine years ago so my son would have been five.  This little boy often hit him and my tender hearted son couldn't understand why someone would be so mean.  I didn't understand either, but didn't do anything since he wasn't hurting anything but my son's feelings. After a while, we learned this boy was autistic.

I sat my son down and explained to him that this boy's brain was wired differently.  He had a hard time telling what was right and what was wrong.  I told him that the boy was still loved by Heavenly Father, even though he was different.  My son looked doubtful and opted to avoid the kid. I didn't blame him. No one likes to be hit.

Cub Scouts unite!

I was lucky enough to be put in charge of the wolf scouts (8 yr old scouts) a few years later.  I was nervous when the autistic boy joined our little group, but hoped we could find a way to include him. Autism wasn't something I was familiar with, but I read what I could and asked to his mom for advice. I also insisted he have an adult helper of his very own.

The boy was still randomly violent. (He bit another boy and I once had to physically remove him from my cat.) His attention span was short.  He wasn't able to do what most of the other boys could do, but the other boys didn't seem to mind.  They took him in like a little brother.  Even my own son got over his fear and helped out.  They made sure this autistic kid finished every project and completed every requirement we did together. It was an amazing thing to experience.  I expected the other boys to tease or make fun of this autistic kid.  I never heard one negative word toward him.  Not even from the boy he bit.

The boys are teenagers now.  The same age as Max.  My son has learned compassion from this boy. He has learned to look beyond the obvious and see the worth of someone who is different.  My son, who is reading on a college level and skipped a year of math, has learned from a boy who will probably never read. My son no longer fears this boy.  He likes him.  He considers him a friend.  He says the other boy is funny and he likes spending time with him.

So now I am going to do for you what I did for my son years ago.  Max's brain is wired differently from other boys.  He still has feelings.  He matters. He might make strange noises, but all kids do that.  Kids like making weird noises.  Max has so much to offer the world, if you only stop and take the time to see it.  I think if my son can learn compassion and kindness from someone so different, you can too.  Then once you understand, you can explain it to your own children.  They don't need to be afraid.  They can learn to see the worth of someone who is different. Maybe Max could even put a smile on their faces.

Sincerely,
A Loving Mom

Updating the old swing set

The swings broke on our swing set.  I looked up the cost for new swings (yikes! they're expensive). Our youngest is 8 and doesn't swing a lot. I thought about taking the whole thing down, but then we would lose the water slide.  (As noted before, my children are anti-water. They've seen The Wizard of Oz a few too many times. The water slide is for their friends and cousins who appreciate my brilliance.)

Incidentally, we found a way to get the slide in the pool.  The slide doesn't lift so we slid the pool under it before inflating.  It was one of those duh moments. If you want to check the original water slide post, go here.

Anyway, back to the swing part.  I decided to get rid of the swings and put in something that we can all enjoy - a hammock!

First, we rearranged the chains. We had one of those teeter totter things at the end so we left one side in place and moved the other as far to the other end as possible. My original plan involved canvas and a lot of wasted time.  As I said, that was my original plan.  We don't need to dwell on that.

Then we discarded the original plan and got a simple rope hammock from Amazon.  (My bamboo had quite the growth spurt, didn't it.  One day it will cover the neighbor's weird addition. I call it my bamboo jungle.  My husband calls it a weed bush.)

I used a knife to cut the plastic covering the chains and slid a hook inside, then I used the rope that came with the hammock to secure it.  Here's what it looks like.

 And some detailed shots of the set up.  You probably could just skip the chain but I wanted to be sure that it was secure (because falling isn't fun). I also hung the foot end a little lower than the head end so we wouldn't have our feet as high up as our heads.

The hammock would have been crooked if I hadn't used the chains.  The blue rope just keeps it from folding weird.

Here's a better shot of the hook I used.  I got them from Walmart.  They can support about 200 lbs each.

One more shot of the finished project.  My daughter is looking forward to curling up with a book outside.

Castle on the wall

When my daughter was little, I painted a castle on her wall.  She loved fairies and dragons and pink.

Her dragon pictures are crooked.  I'd get a picture of the entire wall, but then I'd have to include her desk, shelf, and dresser.  No one needs to see those disasters.

Over the years, she's added her own touch.  I think the butterflies are kind of cute.  We also put glow in the dark stars around the castle so it lights up the night sky in the background.  You can see one of the stars between the windows.

Some stickers have been there longer than others.

Now she's growing out of her castle on the wall.  Some of the stickers she added are peeling off.  Some of the fairies she put in the windows are gone completely. She's almost twelve.  She's almost in middle school (for us middle school starts in 7th grade).  She's almost grown up.  (Sniff.  This blog is seriously making me weepy) I've come to accept the fact that she's no longer a baby.  We've had THE talk, and she was horrified. (Keep thinking that way, kiddo - at least for another ten years.)

We still spend a lot of time together, but we no longer talk about fairies and magic.  (Unless we're talking Harry Potter, in which case she will go on and on.) She likes to talk about boys and how weird they are. We talk about her friends and how awesome they are. I've been teaching her to cook and use a curling iron. There are days when I miss the glitter and fluffy pinkness.  I've thought about painting over the castle on her wall, but we plan to build a room for her downstairs, so I don't want to tear her room apart just to have her move downstairs in another year.

This morning I was telling the kids goodbye as they headed off to school.  My youngest was already on across the yard and my daughter's friend was across the street.  I yelled goodbye to them all and then said to my daughter, "Have fun storming the castle." We're pretty big Princess Bride fans.  I used to yell this to them all the time, but she sort of grew out of it.

My daughter looked around and a little half smile appeared on her lips.

Then she said in a voice loud enough for me to hear, but no one else, "Think it will woik?"
"It'll take a miracle," I said.
She grinned, waved, and yelled, "Goodbye!"

It was just a little bit of magic, a tiny spark of glitter, but it was enough.  My daughter is growing up, but is still my little girl. She will always be my little girl. I think the castle on her wall can stay for a bit longer.

How to lower cholesterol without medication

I haven't blogged for a while. (Hides head in shame.) I've had this blog for a little over a year and I've gone in all sorts of directions with it.  I've posted recipes, crafts, drawings, random stuff... My son asked me why I haven't posted for a while and I said it was because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the blog.  I don't have a lot of followers and I was worried that it was too random. He said it was a blog about me being a mom.  Ha.  He's absolutely right.  Being a mom is pretty random and no one listens to me in that aspect either.  So, I'm back with all my randomness. Hi.

Here's a follow up on my cholesterol thing.  I went back to the doctor at the beginning of the year and my cholesterol was back in the normal range (woot!). I thought other people who are avoiding weird medications would like to know how I did it.

My youngest actually said that one day when we sat down to a nice healthy meal of mostly vegetables. His tongue might miss cholesterol, but his heart won't. :)

1- Exercise.  Ugh.  It's one of those necessary evils.  The key to actually exercising is to find stuff you enjoy. Try: video games that require movement, hula hooping, walking, running, hiking, a variety of exercise videos, exercise balls, playing with your kids, grocery shopping (not kidding), intense house cleaning, or elliptical machines. Don't do the same thing over and over again.  Switch it up and have fun with it. (Yes, I just put fun and exercise in the same paragraph.) Just get moving for at least 30 min a day.

2- Cut back on red meat. I still had the occasional nitrate free hotdog, but that was it.  Now that I'm just maintaining my cholesterol levels, I'll eat the occasional steak or burger.

3- More leafy green vegies.  I ate a lot of green salads.  Spinach, grated cheese, croutons, and pineapple salad with a small amount of ranch dressing. Don't do the low fat ranch.  The cholesterol in ranch is the good cholesterol.  Just don't go overboard with it.

4- Smoothies in the morning. I tried green smoothies, but couldn't get over the fact that I was drinking something that looked like alien ooze.  My smoothies consist of fruit, lowfat yogurt, and water.  Berries in the morning are really good for you. I actually lost about 8 lbs just from the smoothie breakfast alone.

5- Cut back on all animal products. I went easy on the cheese, meat, and milk.  I used only egg whites while I was lowering my cholesterol.  I've heard that eggs are good cholesterol, but I cut back any way just in case.

6- More beans! Black beans and pinto beans are a good meat substitute.

7- Lemongrass essential oil.  I have no idea if the lemongrass helped or not since I was doing so many other things.  I actually use it for my knees and carpal tunnel, but it is supposed to also help lower cholesterol so I'm including it on my list.

8- Cut back on sugar.

9- No fried foods. (I admit that I snitched an occasional french fry, but fried foods are the worst for cholesterol.)

10- Use olive oil instead of butter for cooking and keep the heat low.

11- Substitute sugar free (no weird sweeteners) applesauce for oil in cooking.  It changes the texture, so you can do half apple sauce/half oil.

12- Read labels.  Get to know what you're actually eating.  If the ingredients list requires a chemistry degree to understand, you probably don't want to eat it. Fresh is best.

13- Drink more water.

Basically, you have to do all the stuff your mother has been telling you all your life if you want to lower your cholesterol without medication. I was willing to go for the medicine if I had to, but they always come with side effects. These few changes in my diet and lifestyle have given me more energy and helped me lose those last few baby pounds. (My baby is 8 O_o)