Fidget Quilts

There is a group of ladies at church that get together once a week to create and sew.  They make fidget quilts for young autistic children, children with severe illness, and also for the elderly in the dementia wards.  Sometimes they put it together based on a theme and sometimes it's based on a specific person they want to give it to.  I joined the group at the beginning of the year and it's been a lot of fun.  These ladies are seriously so creative.  I can't believe some of the crazy things they come up with to put on quilts for people to play with.  It's so cool!  Here are a couple of the most recent quilts we've finished.

Up until this week I was labor - they told me what to do and I sewed it for them.  This week they set me to work trying to create one.  They wanted a fidget quilt inspired by Spring.  This is what I came up with so far.  It was so fun trying to come up with ideas.  I'm excited to put together the final product.

Quilt Squared

I had enough fabric left over from the quilt made this Fall to make a second one.  A friend is having a baby boy and her baby shower is tonight!  Life is so busy!  I need another 2 hours in the day.  With two days to go I had only cut out the fabric.  I put some of my other projects on hold and quickly started working on the quilt.  I finished it late last night!  Phew!  Little Guy was my model before we quickly ran everyone to school this morning.  He wanted his Blankie in the picture with the quilt. 

Special Weekend

While we lived in Columbus, Ohio we became good friends with a young man who was investigating the Church.  Joel and I both taught the discussions with the sister missionaries.  Joel is actually the person who baptized Jaron.  We moved, but exchanged Christmas cards.  Out of the blue, Jaron called Joel 2 weeks ago.  He told us he was going through the temple for the first time and wanted us to come out to be with him.  He had moved to Utah and was going through the Provo City Center temple.  He asked Joel to be his escort through the temple.  We couldn't get the whole family out there on such short notice, so Joel flew out for the weekend to be there.  I was sad to miss it, but I was thrilled for Jaron.  While Joel was there he also visited 2 temples that we still hadn't been to: Brigham City and Payson.  That brings us to 65 temples!

 While Joel was in Brigham City, he crossed the street to the Brigham City tabernacle.  He went to the cemetery and he was excited that he found the gravestones of his grandparents and great uncle.

Continuing the Craze

Little Man was obsessed with Harry Potter when he was younger.  He still really loves it, but now he's not the only one excited about the books.  Little Lady finally sat down and started reading them.  She flew through the first three books in under a week.  She talked them up so much that BB decided he wanted to read them, too.  It's the longest book he's ever read, so I wasn't sure if he would actually do it, but he quickly fell in love with Harry Potter as well.  I promised the kiddos that when BB finished the first book we'd all watch the movie together.  They absolutely loved it!  Now they're anxiously awaiting BB's reading of the second book, so they can have another movie night.

Stephen Hawking

Little Man became Stephen Hawking for his Wax Museum project.  Today was the day we all got to see everyone at school.  It was a lot of fun.  Little Guy was thrilled to be there!  We even got to see Little Lady, because 3rd grade came to take notes on some of the presentations.

 His whole class did a great job.

January Stitches

It's a brand new year, so it's time for another round of do.Good Stitches.  This month we're all making one improv block for a "Nest" quilt.  You basically use strips in any way you want (log cabin, wonky, courthouse step).  The first fabric is red and the rest are blue and green.  It just has to finish between 10-15."  The genius in this quilt is that the sashing is what brings it all together, so I'll be anxiously waiting to see the end result.

I never did get my September Stitches quilt done last month, but it is finally layered and ready to be quilted.  Hopefully, I'll get that done soon. 

More Good News

I met with the school psychologist the very first day back from break.  It was BB's turn to have an IEP Gifted eval.  My crazy, fun-loving boy with more energy than I know what to do with scored in the 99.7th percentile for his age!  The physiologist said she's never seen such a flat score.  Every category was within one point of each other in the extremely advanced zone.  He doesn't have any areas of obvious weakness.  He qualifies for gifted and we're really excited for him.

His teacher told me he's one of the most organized students she's ever seen, so I'm hoping this means there's hope for his bedroom one of these days!  All of the adults kept telling me how focused and serious he is in school.  It makes me laugh, because he's a total goofball at home.  I'm excited for him to be stretched and grow even more at school. 

One With Nature

A swamp boat tour and walking along the beach is probably about as one with nature as our family gets.  Before heading home we actually turned South, so we could spend a little time in the Everglades.  It's not every day you get see alligators in their natural habitat.  The kids loved the boat ride almost as much as seeing the wildlife.  Little Guy was trying to "catch the air" as we sped along the water.

 The water was only about 18"deep.  One interesting fact we learned: the Everglades is actually a river, because it moves at 1 mile a day.  It's so slow you can't see it moving, but it makes very different from the stagnant bayou of Louisiana.  

 We saw several types of birds, turtles, and quite a few alligators.  One was 9 feet long!

The boat ride took us down natural trails and also man-made canals.  This one even has a levy on both sides. 

People actually camp and live on the water, so I think they get the true commendation of being one with nature.  There was an alligator right below that tent, and I can tell you that's not my idea of a good time.  I wouldn't sleep at all.

We decided to take a walk along Dania Beach just North of Ft. Lauderdale before officially heading North, because you can't go to Florida and not at least see the ocean.  It really was a beautiful beach.

The last time we were at the beach was almost 18 months ago, and Little Guy had been too scared to go anywhere near the water.  My plans for a leisurely walk were quickly upended by the fact that not only was Little Guy not afraid of the water, but he decided he was an excellent swimmer.  He jumped straight into the water.  We had to hose him off and change him before getting back into the car.

We had some yummy Mexican food for dinner then we turned North.  Our vacation officially ended and it was time to take the long trek home.  

 The vacation itself was wonderful, but the trip home was awful.  It was a downpour in Atlanta and the heavy traffic added four hours to our drive the first day.  On top of that, BB shared a little too much with his cousins.  He got their illness.  The poor boy had a fever and chills all day in the car.  Little Lady fell ill the second day of the trip, so the two of them sat in the back of the van sleeping most of the way home.   The rain continued on the second day of travels.  I'm so grateful it was warm enough that it wasn't snow!  It could have been so much worse!  There was an accident in St. Louis, so we did get hit with another round of traffic, but the kids were such troopers and didn't complain.  The following day Joel and Little Guy fell ill.  It's a particularly nasty strain of a virus, so all of them have had fevers and chills with their colds.  Joel and Little Guy have also been unlucky enough to have it go straight to their lungs.  They all missed church on Sunday.  Little Man and I keep waiting, but so far neither of us have gotten sick.  BB and Little Lady were well enough to go back to school, but Joel came home early from work, and Little Guy won't be going to preschool quite yet.  Despite the illness everyone had a wonderful Christmas break, and we're grateful that we made it home safe and sound.