My Overthinking

Philly Area mom, Life forever changed by adoption

Archives for 2012

One way to make Christmas spending money

They were playing mall. Drew put on his Halloween costume from last year and the other 3 lined up to sit on his lap and tell him all sorts of goodies they might want. Then, they’d get back in line and do it again.

A few minutes later, they were making signs and gathering supplies like a clipboard with paper and pen to take it on the road. I confess, the idea made me proud (given the fact that I tried to start my own karaoke business at age 9).

$1 for a picture with Santa. Not a bad deal given that I would have to download the pics, edit them, and then email them off to each parent.

Given the fact that it was a busy day at the park across the street but most folks there walked there like us, it took about 5 minutes for them to drop the price to $.50 a pop.



But, somehow, with the freebies they gave away (all in the name of marketing, perhaps?) and the lack of wallets among parents there, they made a whole $1 total which they judicially decided to split with Drew getting $.50 and Evan and Ashlyn getting $.25 each.

Several children insisted on telling this 3 1/2 ft. Santa what they wanted for Christmas, and a few folks asked if they’d be back again so they’d bring their money this time.

Would it be totally wrong for me to encourage them to do just that given that they’ve got some debt to repay for some Christmas shopping they’ve each done?

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The year of the horse {Lydia’s playmat}

Since horsies are pretty much the pies de resistance for our girlie this year, I’m super excited about Lydia’s gold gift. I had so much fun putting this gift together that I’m tempted every afternoon to play with it myself.

I’m seriously wanting to rip that plastic wrapper right off that Melissa & Doug’s Fold & Go Stable and start playing. Would that be weird?

It was so easy and fun to make. Wanna make your own farm playmat?

I started by scouting out some fun blue, green, and brown fabrics from the fabric store with some help from Ashlyn. She found some very cool material for the backing of the mat that looked very field and fairyish, so I splurged on a full yard of that one. All the other pieces we liked, I got 3/8 yard of. I also picked up 4 yards of Wonder Under, an iron-on paper-back adhesive for fabric so that we could place the fabric on the mat like puzzle pieces and iron them on.

I found an old fitted sheet at home to use to secure the fabric to. I just cut off the elastic and cut it down to be the same size as our fairyish backing piece.

I sorta sketched out what I envisioned for the mat–as you can tell, the final mat turned out slightly different. But, I wanted to have some sort of drawing to follow since I wasn’t working from a pattern (and I’m more of a pattern type of girl than a freethinker).

I ironed the Wonder Under onto the fabric pieces we were using and then cut them out (in that order so that the material wouldn’t fray when I cut curves and all), laying them out on the sheet and playing around with where I wanted them to overlap. I started with the brown because I wanted the stable to be able to open up fully on the brown to look like dirt.

I just layered the fabric on fabric until I got the look I wanted, ironing as I went to secure each piece.

I went back to that fun backing we had and laid it out again right side to right side of the playmat to trim them down to be the same exact size. It was off a little here and there.

Grabbing a scrap, I played around with the zig zag stitching of my machine until I found one that I liked. Then, I started stitching around every seam, everywhere the fabrics lined up, using colors that coordinated (green to edge all the grassy areas, brown to edge the dirt, and blue to edge the water), going in order so that the “top” pieces would be outlined last (like the rocks outlined in grey rather than blue). I did make the zig zag stitch closer together for the rocks just to give a different look–I was shooting for the look of the water washing up onto the rocks. Don’t know if it really looks like that or not. But, I liked the look regardless.


Using a normal straight stitch, I then sewed the backing to the playmat, right side to right side, leaving a corner open to turn it inside out again. Then, I ironed it really well to get a crisp edge. I decided I wanted to give it a bit of a more finished edge. So, using green thread, I did a straight stitch all around the edge about 1/4″ in (just the width of the foot on the machine). I didn’t even bother to handstitch that opening I left since I ironed it really well and did that finishing stitch. Why bother handstitching it? No need for more work.

And, then I set it all up complete with some horsies and clapped my hands all my myself. (Okay, I may have texted my husband with some pictures in an effort to get some applause from him too.)

What’s super cool is that it can be used for other stuff too. The back can be used for fairy play maybe. And, it even looks really cute with the handmade fabric nativity I picked up at a yard sale last summer for $1.

I can’t wait until Christmas morning. 
Hmmm…I wonder what other kinds of playmats I could make. Now that I made one, I’m itching to make some more.

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The advent story {Our advent stories}

I remember going to bed with anticipation every night from November 30th until Christmas. Sometimes, the anticipation was just too much to handle, and I’d cheat a bit. A big felt calendar covered the back of my bedroom door with numbered pockets. And, every morning before school, I’d get to unwrap a little treat that was stuffed into those pockets by my grandmother. Pretty pencils, stickers, a fun toothbrush, hairbands, just little things leading up to gift 24 which would be a handmade Christmas ornament.

That’s what advent is about–not dollar store treats and ornaments, chocolates behind cardstock doors, or even wreaths with lit candles. Advent is about anticipation. 

My kids have pocket-filled felt calendars in their rooms now. Based on the conversations today, they get the anticipation thing. I wouldn’t be surprised to find some tissue paper shreds on the floor as the anticipation overwhelms one little girlie who can’t stop herself from cheating a bit. But, what are they anticipating?

from The Jesus Storybook Bible

I want them to anticipate Jesus, the story of the incarnation. I want to anticipate Him.

I searched. I pinterested. I blog surfed. And, I found some really neat family advent stuff.

Enter feeling of being overwhelmed.

Too many crafts. Too many requirements. Too many supplies. Too much for me.

I don’t want crafts and more things to fill my to-do list. I want Jesus. 

Late last night, I found something I can do. One reading a day from The Jesus Storybook Bible. That’s it. No glue, no homemade dough ornaments, no sequins, no stress. Just a story.

There are a lot of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle–the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

The anticipation is overwhelming. I can’t to unwrap this story.

Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Reading Plan
Jesus Storybook Bible 10 day Advent reading plan

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Last Train Home {Giveaway}

I’m quiet tonight as a few scenes from Last Train Home continue in my mind.

Every year, as Chinese New Year approaches, 130 million people in China who have left their homes to work in cities return home, creating the single largest migration in the world every single year. Last Train Home, created by Chinese Canadian Lixin Fan, focuses on two of those 130 million people–Zhang Changhua and Chen Suqin. They left their two children as infants in their rural village in Sichuan Province to be cared for by an elderly grandmother and set out for Guangzhou with the hope of giving their son and daughter a better life than they had experienced themselves.

The stunning contrast between the crowded, riotous train station as they and many others literally push their way through to leave their factory work and dormitory living to journey home and the peaceful, magnificent landscapes they can see from their train window left me stunned. Chaos and beauty–true of the physical world as well as their relationships.

Though these parents gave all they literally could for the sake of their children, their relationships are critically broken with a wall between the father and daughter in particular that you can nearly reach out and touch as you watch them on the screen in front of you on the other side of the world captured in time. Their pain is intense. Somehow, it became even more real to me with the English subtitles as I was forced to focus on expressions and tones rather than simply words.

As their 15-year-old daughter wrestles with her own desire for independence and the hole left in her heart from absent parents, I realized I was literally holding my breath while I watched, wanting to see something happen that wasn’t going to happen while feeling somewhat embarrassed that I was getting such an intimate view of their brokenness. It isn’t fair. Her mother told her daughter she had not yet tasted the bitterness of life; I think she’s known it all along.

This is one family’s story, one intimate and intense enough to leave you holding your breath. Multiply their story by the 130 million who share similar journeys as migrant workers and this movie becomes epic in impact, no less necessary that Schindler’s List or Hotel Rwanda as we consider the reality of the world outside our own small borders.

I want you to see this. I want you to own it and share it with others. I want more people to understand the lives of Zhang Changhua, Chen Suqin, and Zhang Qin and the 129,999,997 others their lives represent. So, I’m giving away a copy of the DVD here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*note* this movie is not appropriate for young audiences. There is one particular scene with language and domestic violence. 
Giveaway is for the DVD and shipping to the Continental United States. If winner cannot provide a mailing address within the Continental United States, he/she will have the option of paying for shipping for the DVD.

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