Headbands in Africa

Remember this post a few months ago?

What a blessing to watch this video of some of the beautiful orphans in Uganda who received the 4000 donated headbands and be able to identify for sure 4 precious kids wearing ones I made! One child is even pictured wearing the huge orange flower Teagan has on while we packed the box. Out of 4000 donated I got to see children wearing 4 of the 110 I made and donated. There are 3 more pictured I possibly made, but they are not as one of a kind as the ones I can identify as my creations for sure.

Pretty cool!

Crowning Princesses in Uganda 2011 from Kari Gibson on Vimeo.

Really?

Something's just wrong when it's 96 degrees when we came out of the Target at 9:30 PM tonight!!

My friend who has a house cleaning business came over today on her day off and helped me do some serious scrubbing and mopping and dusting and vacuuming in a lovely barter exchange (I'll be transporting her daughter to and from VBS and watching her for a few hours afterwards next week- I think I got the better end of the deal). We stayed inside working hard all day while her daughter and my girlies played. I was worn out, so decided it was the perfect night to use the restaurant gift card my mother in law gifted me for my birthday. We left for dinner around 7 PM. I wanted to pick up a few things at Target after dinner. When we came out of the store both girls remarked that it was impossible to believe that it was so late since it was still so hot outside.

Agreed!

It's 90 degrees at 11:49 PM. Expecting 102 tomorrow.

Really?

Blueberries!

We went blueberry picking (forgot the camera, darn!) with my parents last week and managed to pick 11 pounds in about 30 minutes between the 5 of us. I was responsible for 4 pounds myself. It was fun! My dad's rule is "pick one, eat one." Teagan had no trouble following the rule! Piper, who eats no fruit (don't ask- we are working on her- have been for years), just picked.

We washed them in a solution of 1 tsp of bleach to 1 gallon water. Mom read that that helps kill some germs and prolong their freshness. She had tried it with some other fruits, vegetables and green with great success. Also, her last round of blueberries lasted much longer with the bleach wash.

We have eaten our share by the handful, put them on our cereal, made a pie, and today Teagan and I made my favorite... Blueberry Pound Cake. This travels well, is great for a pot luck and frozen blueberries also work wonderfully.







The recipe comes from my college cookbook. It's easy and so yummy!!

2 pints blueberries
2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour, divided (I use cake flour when I have it around)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Use mixer to cream sugar and butter; add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until fluffy. Dredge berries with 1/2 cup flour and set aside. Sift remaining flour with baking powder and salt; fold into cake batter until well blended. Gently stir in berries. Pour into pan and bake for approximately 1 hour 1o minutes, or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Place pan on rack and cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Saturday happenings

Can you see the crack?



My windshield has cracked, and it's growing. I noticed the "L" crack behind the rear view mirror a few days ago. Seems the crack started way up high behind the mirror where I had no way of seeing it while it was still small. Now it's huge. When we went to run errands this afternoon, it was at least 10 inches longer. Ugh. It's called in and they'll let me know when the new glass is in and can be installed. To the tune of $100.

But on to the fun stuff.



We went school supply shopping. Yes, we have until September to worry about back to school stuff, but the girls are excited and it's better for me to do it in small doses. Piper got a post card yesterday from the county center for Gifted Education with a website link to her school supply list. The general ed lists came home with report cards in May. Target had a few things on sale that were on the list, and I wanted to check on beach/pool stuff that was 50% off.

I printed two copies of the lists. One went in my purse and one was taped onto the paper grocery bags that we will store the supplies in. They highlight the items as they go into the bag. Piper also hand wrote her list.








Used items from last year, ready for 2nd grade.


Piper was thrilled that she finally gets a binder, and could pick lime green!

Spent less than $30 total and each girly crossed quite a few things off her list.


Also found a big soft frisbee for $2.50. Most of the other clearance was, well, cleared out. The girls had fun trying the frisbee in the cul de sac. Works great! We'd have stayed out longer, but the mosquitoes are insane.





See their shiny hair clips? I just got the appliques in today in a handful of colors. Thrilled I finally have a new product that they deem "big kid" enough to wear.







I have to have girls who will wear some of my accessories.
After all, I am the "Bow Girl."

Progress?

So why is it that I am working hours every day, cleaning, organizing, sorting- yet when you look around it is almost impossible to tell that there has been progress?

Depressing.

I've done major work in both girls rooms, bathrooms, cabinets and closets, the office and all my hair bow business stuff (a MAJOR undertaking my friend Kirsten came over and graciously helped me with for hours last Friday). I've pitched at least a dozen full garbage bags and I have two large boxes ready for Goodwill and the guest bed is loaded with clothes sorted and ready to be photographed for ebay.

Still, stuff is everywhere and I don't feel relaxed and clam and clutter free like I desired. Guess that's because I had to pull so much out to go through it and sort/store/toss before placing it back in it's home. And a lot is still 'out'.

There has to be an end in sight, right?

It's my B-day

Long, hot day!!

I'm at my parents house. SO fun to celebrate all together.

I had a craft show in Colonial Williamsburg today. It was very hot, but a lot of tourists were out and about- so a worthwhile event, despite the heat.

We left at 12:30 to set up and just got back to the house after 7:30. Long day!

The girlies insisted on cooking me dinner, so a gourmet meal of pancakes, eggs and bacon was prepared in my honor (with help from Grandpa).

We did the official cake last night since Paul had to drive home tonight for an early work appointment in the morning. The girlies and I will stay the night and go home tomorrow afternoon. They got me a birthday pound cake from my favorite store bakery and a jar of lemon curd on the side. If you like lemon (yum!) try lemon curd with birthday cake. The combination of cake, lemon curd and butter cream frosting is divine!

Time to relax.

I'm quite worn out from the heat, loading and unloading, standing all day.

Or maybe it's because I'm now 37.

Just posted this over at my key fob blog

One of the truly best things that has happened since becoming involved in the adoption community has been meeting such wonderful people. I feel blessed to have made some amazing friends. I can't wait to get to know one of my newest online adoption-brought-us-together friends better. Her name is Casey and she is in the process of adoption two little ones from Congo.

We "met" last month when she contacted me about my key fobs. She is doing one of the neatest fundraisers I have come across. She puts together these amazing themed 'baskets' of her favorite items and donations to their adoption fund get a number assigned toward the drawing for the winner of the basket. Casey is an amazing photographer, so not only are the baskets stunning with amazing products, but her images make me crave what she has assembled even more!

Anyway, Casey told me that she was going to do baby boy and baby girl themed baskets in July and wanted to include key fobs. Every mom needs a handy way to carry (and easily find) her keys. She was at her Bible study and noticed the key fob of a friend. Her friend had purchased the fob here, from me, and told Casey about my own adoption fundraiser selling my hand-crafted key fobs. How cool! She sent me the color themes for each basket and I found fabrics to coordinate and made fobs to donate to her baskets. She also purchased a slew for her family!!

Today Casey unveiled her Baby Boy Basket.

WOW!

She has some amazing products any new mom would be thrilled to have. I'm tickled to see one of my fobs included.

You can visit Casey here

Free kids worship music

My little brother, who is working as an intern working with music, video production and youth at a mega church in South Carolina this summer just tweeted this...

Like music? Like kids? Then get the new @elevation_wrshp eKidz Worship EP for FREE here: http://elevat.io/n/ekidzep

You just send a tweet (it does it all for you) and then you can download the EP ablum with 5 songs.


Cool!

We just stared listening :)