sewing for 'lil

So 'Lil has decided that dresses are the only thing she's willing to wear.

Which is weird to me.  First of all, because I HATED dresses as a kid.  Second of all, because Girly-Lou couldn't care less about what she wears, so it's very different to have a girl that's picky. 

And of course, I don't have 8+ dresses I'm willing to let her wear every day either.

Because of all this, I'm in the process of buying/thrifting/sewing a whole wardrobe for her.  Pintrest, of course helps with the ideas.

A couple of days ago I found a pin to THIS page, and she was asking for pattern testers for a cute dress. I've always thought it would be fun to be a pattern tester, so I filled out the form.  The next morning I woke up to FOUR emails from the blogger with all the info and asking to have the dress ready 48 hours later.  (cue panic attack!)

It was a VERY crazy day, but in 24 hours, I did this:

she was mad I was taking pictures, but she really loves the dress

Isn't it adorable! 

Now, the pattern wasn't perfect (yet!), but it's a great basic dress that I could do a dozen different variations with.  I'm super excited to play around with it some more!

find the joy

Yesterday I was talking with my sister, and (along with a million other subjects), one thing we talked about was the importance of doing what is best.  I've heard it said before that you can tell what is most important to our Heavenly Father by looking at what the world and the devil attack the most.  


Today I read THIS post on another blog.
I love things like this. I love it when parents learn something about themselves, something they didn't realize they were doing, or needed to do, or wanted to to. 


I needed to comment on this, and thought I'd copy it here (with a little expanding too)


Wonderfully written.
Along with this idea . . . I grew up KNOWING that my parents enjoyed me more and more each year. I constantly heard them saying things like “I hate it when people call it ‘terrible twos’. It’s TERRIFIC TWOS”, or “having 4 teenage girls is a joy, not a burden. I love having such great conversations with my daughters now.”

Think of the difference of that and what you usually hear. I knew my parents wanted to be around me. I knew they expected me to act appropriately so everyone ELSE would also want to be around me. We didn’t have moody teenagers because we were expected to be pleasant. (and had consequences too!)

I don’t expect my kids to be perfect, but I do expect them to grow and change. And yes, my three year old screams with the best of them (constantly too!). But I look and that sparkle in her eyes, and celebrate the little things – like the fact that she is finally understanding us (she has a severe communication delay)

Or the inventiveness of my 8 year old. Yes, today she started acting like a moody teenager. But look at just how much she’s grown.

Or listening to my 7 year old giggle as he plays with his 1 year old brother.

Every day, all 4 of my kids are a joy. Sometimes you have to dig under the unpleasantness to see it, but it IS there!  And what an exciting thing it is to be able to discover that joy in each of them as they grow too.