My Christmas Gift for Mom

This was one of the items I made for the Thrifty Fifty challenge. I made it for my mother for Christmas. It is a bird nest necklace made from sterling silver wire and 3 blue Swarovski crystal pearls. It was my first bird's nest I have made. I did end up ruffling up the wire nest a bit after I took this picture. I decided it looked too uniform and unnatural when I saw the pictures. The ruffling definitely makes it look more like a real nest. I am going to play around with oxidizing the silver before I make the next nest so the color is more natural looking too. And I am going to work at giving the next nest more of a bottom for the pearls to sit in. It was really fun though and I see a lot more of these in my future.

Baby Number Six

We decided that Reilly (almost 17 months now) is going to be our last baby. With my high risk pregnancies and Sveinn’s advanced age (he’ll be 46 on Jan 1!) we finally decided that after 5 beautiful blessings we are finally through having children. I resigned myself to the fact that I was to never again feel the flutter of a baby's kick within my womb, was no longer going to experience that amazing first deep look into my "just seconds old" baby's eyes, nor never again would I nurse a suckling infant. This saddened me deeply, for these are some of the most incredible parts of motherhood that God has created. But... I have accepted that it is the end of this season in my life. Kind of. ;) Does one ever really stop longing to experience these things? Just one more time I always say. Just one more baby. But there comes a time when it must end and we must move on the next season God has waiting for us.

How do you type the sound of tires screeching in the background?

Wait a minute! Hold on! I'm what? Is that really a plus sign? Quick, grab the other test stick. Yes I can pee some more. Just give it to me! Tick... tick... tick... as the seconds tick away. What does it say? What does it say? Is it positive too? It is? Are you kidding me? How did this happen? Oh my! We are having another baby? I'm pregnant?

We are expecting baby number 6. Woo hoo! We found out the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We were shocked to put it lightly. LOL Tears of joy, sadness, disbelief, excitement, shock, fear, happiness, confusion, did I mention joy, flowed freely for awhile. We haven't told too many people and I haven't posted on here because I wanted to wait until my parents were told. Well, they don't know yet, but will before this weekend is over. More on that later. Oh, and now I know why I kept falling asleep at my desk while home schooling the kids. I have taken many a "naps" at my desk that month before we found out. Picture my face planted against my correcting book, drool flowing onto the page, spiral binding leaving a deep mark on my cheek. I was wondering why I was so tired all of a sudden and the thought of some chronic disease kept crossing my mind and filling me for brief moments with worry. I guess it was just because I was pregnant. What a relief.

I have my first ultrasound to date the pregnancy January 5th. The doctor thinks I am around 11 weeks. I am guessing somewhere between 11 and 13 weeks. The all day morning sickness has been debilitating. Thus the reason why I haven't posted here. It's been hard to carry on taking care of 5 kids, a husband, a cat, a dog, our house, getting ready for Christmas, having a husband starting up a new ethanol plant and working 12-16 hours a day 7 days a week for the past 3 weeks. I'm not complaining. Well, maybe a little bit. ;) But needless to say, it's been a rough month for me. Hopefully the morning...umm, let's just call it "all day" sickness will leave as I move into my second trimester. Which should be happening really soon! Yippee!

Please keep me in your prayers. My gestational diabetes is already back and I have a feeling we will be starting the insulin injections at my visit Jan 5th. I am okay with that. The thought of 4 or more needle sticks in my belly every day for the next 6 months or so doesn't sound inviting, but I guess I am used to it. It's all worth it. I can't keep myself from daydreaming of that day when I can look deeply into the beautiful eyes of my "just seconds old" new baby again. Those are my most favorite life moments. Oh, God is so so so good!

Love to all,
Danielle

My First YCMT Challenge Share

I have had these done since before Thanksgiving but am finally sharing them.

They are a set of photo frames. I made one for my husband and one for my MIL. They have three sides so look great on any type of table.



The pictures are on vellum so when you place a candle in the center the pictures glow.




Look how cool they look with the lights turned down! I am very happy with how they turned out and I only spent $0.55 because I already had all the supplies and only needed to buy some extra vellum. Thanks for letting me share.

I'm One of the Thrifty Fifty!!

Oh, I almost forgot what put the fire under me to finally get this blog up and running. I was chosen as one of the "Thrifty Fifty" for the www.youcanmakethis.com challenge. Yippee! I have a few things made already and lots more to go. Oh, the stress!! LOL This challenge has really made me rethink my gift giving strategies. I have spent the last few weeks sorting through my piles and piles and piles of fabrics, ribbons, beads, buttons and more. It's amazing the number of things I have already that I just need to create with. This challenge has been so good for me. And DH is happy that I finally cleaned my office I think. ;)

My First Post

Wow, my first blog and my first blog post. Woo hoo! I finally figured it out. I guess you can teach this old dog new tricks. I don't have time to say much as I need to go get the kids ready to go out to dinner. It's Friday night, "Pizza Night", and we have our Pizza Hut Reading Program coupons to use. I plan on spending some time this weekend figuring out how to post pictures. Hopefully it won't be too hard. Talk later.