Author Archives: Elisabeth

About Elisabeth

The joyous and sometimes odd adventures of a former English teacher and her trusty sidekicks, Jared the Hottie Husband and her two Italian Greyhounds, Stinky Stevie and Bonnie Boo. Recently the adorable baby, Princess Evelyn, has joined the clan to shake things up!

Baby Boy Gift projects

Baby Boy Gift projects
Baby Boy Gift projects

I’ll admit it.

Staying at home with Evelyn is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

Every day I am grateful that I get to stay home with this little girl and focus more on my family, home, and things that I never seemed to be able to do when I was teaching full time and constantly stressed out.

After we had Evelyn, it seemed like everyone else started to be expecting. We sort of came between waves. Example: At church, about a year before we got knocked up, it seemed like half of the ladies were expecting/having babies! Then, Friday, I went to a baby shower and in a room of twenty people, I’d say 7 of them were expecting. Evelyn doesn’t have too many buddies her age yet, but I’m not too worried about it.

Anyways, for the latest round of babies, and on our tightened budget, I’ve been experimenting with my new-found love of yarn to give our friends meaningful and thoughtful gifts that don’t break the bank.

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First up: more converse shoes for a little boy who should be arriving near the end of April in his parents’ school colors!

SAMSUNGOld gold and blue for this little one. His mom seemed pretty happy with them at the shower, and I think they turned out even better than the cyan blue ones that I made for Evelyn.

Next, for the other mom who was at the joint shower the other night, I didn’t want to make two of the exact same thing. So I tried another pattern I found online for a baby cocoon that looks like a little football.

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I will admit, I am not crazy with how this one turned out. I don’t know if it was the instructions or what, but I just wasn’t madly in love with the final product. And it’s a LOT of long, boring rows. I did add my own flare by adding a rim of dark red/maroon for the parents’ school colors as well, but there is definitely a lot I would change if I were to do it again. In fact, who wants me to make them one so I have motivation to improve? (just kidding.)

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Last, but not least, for a little one that was born earlier this week, I made the boy version of the I’m Topsy Turvy Crochet Infant boot. I really like how they turned out… but they are so tiny! Was my sweet Evelyn ever really that tiny to fit into this size of little boot? Good heavens.

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Again, we have school colors on display with my own little addition of the burnt orange stripe.

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How cute are they? I love making this baby stuff, and it’s getting easier every time I do a pattern.

Y’all, I have some other EVEN BETTER projects in the works. Since they are gifts that I haven’t been able to give to the recipients yet, and those recipients MIGHT chance upon my blog, I can’t share them yet. But I am REALLY excited about them and can’t wait to show them off to you all!

9 months, Easter, and Evie

9 months, Easter, and Evie

It’s a sobering thought when your first little person has now spent more time OUTSIDE of you than in you!  But our sweet Evelyn turned 9 months old last Thursday.

I know. She was not a fan of her pictures. But she has three more months of these photoshoots before I stop, so she’ll just have to deal accordingly.

(Sorry for the lateness of the pics, btw. Between me being sick -AGAIN- and family in town, I was taking life day by day!)

The past month or two, she’s developed this intense/excited look. It’s kind of like she really wants to say something and is super excited, but she just can’t get the words out. Here’s an example of it in photo- it’s cuter in person, though.

Grandma K. was here while the hubster was away being a judge at a FIRST Robotics regional competition, and Grandma K. made sure that Evelyn was a spoiled little girl and helped us splurge to get her some lovely things. I don’t think I’ve gotten myself new clothes since Evelyn was born, but I can’t stop myself finding cute things for her! (Grandma also helped us with getting our yard and garden back on track, but that can be a later post!)

We also got to celebrate Easter with Evie, and the best part was seeing my little girl look like a perfect angel in her Easter dress.

Straight from heaven, right? I cannot believe how lucky I am to live this wonderful life. Evelyn brings us all so much joy! I feel like my heart must have grown three sizes or more when she was born, and I wasn’t even that “Grinchy” to begin with!

Okay, before I get too sappy, I wanted to share Jared’s Easter basket. Since he loves zombie flicks and lately has been all about “The Walking Dead” and the zombie apocalypse, I saw these and had to special order them for his Easter basket.

Review: We Choose Virtues

Review: We Choose Virtues
Review: We Choose Virtues

Update: Want more opinions and get more information about the different versions available for this product? Please check out all the Mosaic reviews published!

Do you have problems with your kids not listening to you? Do you wish you had a simple way to review basic life-skills that help create a well rounded person, along with a happier family and home?

This product might be for you.

When something arrives in cute packaging, it’s always a good sign that the product inside is going to be cute and fun, too!

A small but cute touch to what normally would be a boring envelope.

Inside were these little goodies:

How cute are these flashcards from We Choose Virtues?

I love these cards. They are simple, bright, and colorful: perfect for younger children. Evelyn, even though she isn’t quite old enough to understand these cards, liked looking at the pictures.

Each card has a character (Oboe Joe), virtue (like obedience)  on one side.

On the back, you have an easy-to-remember saying on what the trait is, another statement saying what it is NOT, and a scripture to match. (I chose to have KJV, as that what I use and am familiar with, but they have NIV and Secular cards if that’s how you roll!)

Now, as a former English teacher who used to try to do meaningful vocabulary activities with my students, this is a perfect flashcard because of the multiple ways each trait is is explained. There is actual research backing up the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary in this way- or helping your children understand what these virtues are/mean. (You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but can’t take the teacher out of the girl!)

Now, there are several traits, and to meaningfully incorporate them into your family’s lifestyle, there are different ways to jump in. The cards and lessons are designed in a way that if your family is struggling as a whole on a particular virtue, you could focus on that for a week as a family group. When I was able to participate in a conference call with Heather, the creator of We Choose Virtues, she suggested that as a family, you start with the foundation traits: Obedient, Kind, and Helpful. If you have these traits down, the ability to work together as a family for the remaining traits should be easier. (These are also three great ones to focus on for younger children who would be overwhelmed with all the other traits.)

Another “plan of attack” is to let each family member sit down and decide what trait they need to work on first, after focusing on a family one the “first” three traits. (Personally, this mommy could use some more “self control” when it comes to sugary treats… hmmm.) This could work especially well with older children who could reason out their different strengths and weaknesses.

For older children, there are some ways to turn the flashcards into a family game, along with activities like coloring pages and lessons that you can use when you get the flashcards. I didn’t utilize those as much as I would like, as Evelyn is only 9 months old now, but I can imagine that for Pre-K and Elementary aged children, these could be a lot of fun!

Now, are you worried about your older, teenager kids scoffing at these kiddy cards? Don’t worry- Heather informed us that they have been working hard on releasing a Virtues curriculum aimed directly for teenagers! Many of us here at Mosaic Reviews were excited to learn more about that product when it is closer to a completed state. Check out the We Choose Virtue Blog for more updates on when that should be released.

Now, here’s the best news yet: I have discounts for you if you decide to look into these cards for you! (And who doesn’t love a deal? Seriously, who?)

For those of you who home school, there is this fabulous code for 20% off that is good through the end of April: home20 

Not into home schooling, but still like a good deal? Try the code virtue15 -Best yet, this coupon DOES NOT EXPIRE. So there’s no rush if you need a little more time to make up your mind on what you want.

Chicken Adventures Begin

Chicken Adventures Begin

For a little while now, Jared and I have been talking about getting chickens. I never thought I’d want to have chickens, but after hearing that one of our neighbors has them, I became curious and did some more research on getting chickens.

After a few attempts where I thought that things weren’t going to work out, but today we went on a little drive and picked up four chicks that are certified pullets (females), meaning that if they turn out to be roosters we can do an exchange. While I know we are allowed chickens, we may not be allowed roosters (the law was a bit confusing- plus I don’t really want to deal with the noise).

We have two Ameracaunas (sometimes called Easter Eggers for their blue/green eggs) and two Plymouth Rocks- Buff and Partridge.

Meet the chickens:

 

Jared is really fond of the coloration of the Plymouth Rock that I have labeled “his”, so he is in charge of naming her in the next week or two. I named the other Plymouth “Fliza Minnelli.” I couldn’t help it.

Now we need two good names for “The Twins”- our two Ameracaunas. I jokingly suggested “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum” but Jared thought that was degrading to the chickens. (Because the insult “bird brain” came from nowhere, right?)

Any good ideas of literary heroines, particularly twins, that we could give them? We’re open to ideas! 🙂

“Snow” Storm

“Snow” Storm

Everything is bigger in Texas. Especially when it storms.

A few nights ago, Jared and I woke up around 2:30am to a pounding sound. A thunderstorm was moving through, and with it, about 5-10 minutes of intense, bigger sized hail. The noise was deafening. It sounded like there were people outside shooting rocks at our windows.

I immediately went to check on Evelyn to see if the noise had bothered her. She was out. I then went to check on our dogs, since the majority of the noise was coming from the hail hitting the windows right above their crates where they sleep at night. They, too, were just fine. Even Jared was pretty blah about the whole thing.

Guess I was the only one excited about a hail storm at 2:30 in the morning. :-p

I went to the front door and peaked out, and this is what I saw:

(Sorry about the poor quality, but my phone camera doesn’t do that well in anything darker than the light of the sun.)

After the worst of the storm passed us by and I could tell the hail had stopped, I went out to see the size of the “Texas Snow”.

There were some pieces here and there that were a little larger, and it was still raining pretty heavily at the time which was melting away much of the hail, but it was still a decent size!

And some of it still lingered in the morning as I was taking all three dogs out to do their business in the back yard. They looked at me as if I were crazy to force their little precious feet on the icy patio and grass in the backyard. Poor babies.

(See Mom? I knew there was a reason we hadn’t gotten around to planting anything yet in the garden. A sixth sense was telling us to hold off!)

Fun times for us and our Texas Snow storm.

So yay and all that jazz, but answer me this. How is it that my 8 1/2 month old could sleep through the racket of a hail storm, but if I step on the wrong part of the carpet and get a creaky floorboard, she zeroes in on me and all bets for a nap time are off????