Archive for January, 2013

I’m a little late on the New Years bandwagon. (I’ve been going through some stuff and more stuff)

You may have noticed I’m slowly changing things here on the Eli’s Lids Blog. We are rebranding the business name (to Every Moment Clothing) and I’m starting to write from the heart here. This has always been more of a personal blog for me, so it just feels right. I wanted to share my New Years Resolutions and let you know what’s coming up around here in the new year.

I usually don’t make New Years Resolutions. It seems too broad to say, “this year I’m going to lose 20 pounds” or “I’m going to save more money.” It’s most effective for me to make daily resolutions. I can do anything for a day. When I gave up soda, I did it for a day. Then I did it for a day again, and again and again and again… before I knew it, it had been over a year without soda. Crazy.

I made 3 resolutions this year and it just so happened that one is financial, one is physical and one is spiritual… (my brain likes that there are categories)

1. Cloth Diaper. This year I’m going to cloth diaper at home, one day at a time. I’ve started doing it and I actually love it. I have 6 diapers and at .25 cents a pop, I’ll be saving $547.50 by the end of the year.  It feels great to be saving some money, not to mention my crazy environmental guilt for all the diapers we have put in land fills.
2. Run in 3 5Ks. Since running the Chapman 5K in October, I’m a total runner. I would also love to run in three 5Ks this year. This one is a broad resolution, and it’s already stressing me out. So I think I need to be more specific and pick three to sign up for asap.
3. Fast. I’ve fasted out of obedience before and it was always kind of a burden. But recently I’ve fasted with passion for a prayer. It’s rad. Like REALLY rad! Brad and I have wanted to try doing it once a week and I think this is the time to do it. (This one is worthy of a full post in the near future.)

Simple, right? We’ll find out!

On the blog…

1. Pretty. I’ll continue to transition to a personal blog… with pretty colors and maybe a fancy sidebar.
2. House DIYs. I’m going to start sharing all the projects we’ve done in the house. I keep waiting till a room is done to share, but I’m realizing that I will probably never have a “done” room. So I took pictures of every room in my house, in various states of messiness (I always keep things real here!) and I’ll start going room by room. Then by the time I’m done I’m sure I will have added so much I can start right back at the beginning again.
3. Cooking. I’m learning to cook. I suck, so I’m going to share the journey. For accountability and because I’ve stumbled across lots of easy recipes that might help other gals out.

For the biz…

1. Rebranding to Every Moment Clothing.
2. Debuting the Bohemian Lid! (Would have happened if things weren’t crazy right now) And so much more!
3. New visions for the charities we work with. Not sure what it is yet. As we grow, I want to be sure what we give makes a difference.

So that’s the New Year in a nutshell. I’ll be taking it one day at a time! Thank you for your support with the biz and with life.

It’s a brand new day.

What are you going to do?

(I love this song right now. The video is silly, but listen to the words. Totally motivating.)

“I’m so sorry I didn’t RSVP sooner for the party, it’s been a crazy week… we thought we would have to pull the plug on my mom… (awkward science on the other end of the phone line)… but we didn’t have to. Sooooo that’s super good. See you at the party…”

Then I hung up the phone and thought, why in the hay did I say that!?!? I don’t even know this mom from Eli’s school. Now I’ll be labeled “the crazy drama mom.”

But I haven’t been through this before and I’ve never been one to hide my feelings. I’m transparent toward friends (and strangers) and I like to think that makes me enduring… but I’m probably accurately labeled “the mom who shares too much, too soon” among my acquaintances.

I shared about my mom’s broken leg after Christmas and she was getting better. Then she wasn’t. She was getting worse. Much worse.

Her liver started to fail and she started to have living nightmares. Then hallucinations as she was falling in and out of consciousness.

Then she coded.

And I got a call from my dad who was weeping. He told me to come to the hospital because we were going to have to meet with the doctors and make some “decisions” about my mom’s healthcare.

Brad came home from work and we arranged babysitting for the kids. I slowly got ready for the day. I put on my clothes thinking, this is the outfit I’ll be wearing when my mom dies. Today, I’m going to have to make the decision to kill my mom. I thought of all my friends who have lost a parent already. I was about to join their ranks and I hated it. It was raining and I felt like the earth was weeping with me. I cried out to God in ways I never had before. Didn’t he hear my prayers and the prayers of literally hundreds of others? Wasn’t I being faithful to fast and pray without ceasing?

We got to the hospital and it was like a bad dream. We waited with about a dozen family/friends and the Dr called my dad and I aside. He said, “Things are looking serious with Suzan and I think it’s time we think about a transplant because a bed has opened up at Cedars Sinai.”

WHAT!?!

Before all this, my mom had been working through Cedars Sinai to get a liver transplant in the next 5-10ish years and we had been begging pleading trying to get her transferred there for the past week. Now she was being transferred!

A close family friend (a second mom to me and Yaya to my kiddos) was standing next to me and we collapsed into a hug and cried and praised the LORD. That hysterical relief cry when you can’t breath or talk or see or think. I didn’t have to say goodbye to my mom today. God, you heard me! Little-nothing-me. You listened! You chose to answer my prayer. My mom was being transferred. It’s not over. There is hope. Hope.

(our feet in the ICU waiting for the transfer)

She was transferred that afternoon (Thursday) and within an hour of being at Cedars they had done a procedure to train 3.3 liters of fluid from her tummy and had a dialysis plan. We get to visit every 2-3 days and it’s hard to see my mom like that. We tell her stories about what the kids are doing and are blessed with slight fluttering of her eyes after each one. We play her favorite song (100,000 Reasons by Matt Redman… video below… watch it.) and can see her lips trying to sing the words. Daily she is going through tests to officially get her a spot on the liver transplant list. The liver is a crazy organ – a pill or machine can’t replicate it’s function, but it can regenerate.

Pray boldly, dear friends, that my mom’s liver would heal itself. That we can baffle the doctors with God’s GLORY!! Pray that while she is in the coma she has peace, rest and healing. That her body can heal properly from the five surgeries weeks prior (and specifically a yeast infection in her blood). That if she needs a transplant her body will be well enough to handle the operation and that the perfect liver will come up at just the right moment. I’m so thankful this isn’t over and I get the privilege to intercede on my mom’s behalf and I’m so thankful you get to too.

We will pray. We will wait. We will hope.

It’s that time of year again! Time to purge and organize all the crap sweet gifts from family and friends!

We have an entry table that doubles as toy storage. It’s part of the expedit series from IKEA and I love it because it deceptively holds a lot of stuff without being obnoxious. We had the plastic bins which were super pricey and fell apart after a month. (UG) Then we got the baskets (seen below) and while I think they are very pretty, they are $17 each!! Then I discovered standard .99 cent bankers boxes fit perfectly. AND they don’t go up to the top so you are able to fill it up with more oddly shaped items. But they are boxes, so it looks like you still have some unpacking to do. Nothing a little paper can’t fix…

You’ll need: Bankers box, 12×12 pretty paper, spray adhesive, razor blade, glue, craft letters (optional)

1. Spray the heck out of the front of the box with the spray adhesive and adhere the paper to the front. Standard 12×12 scrapbooking paper just fits the width of the box and overlaps a bit on one end of the length. Since I lined my paper to the bottom I had to cut a few inches off the top. OPTION: fold the excess paper over and glue.

2. From the inside, cut lines (as seen below) on the paper inside the handle. You can use scissors but a sharp razor blade works best!

3. Fold and glue inside the box.

4. Finish by labeling each box with the child’s name or with the contents of the box. I did a bin for each child, one for blocks, and one labeled “lost & found” for all the crap items left at our place after parties and playdates.

This is so versatile! Cover the front of any cheapie box and make it look rad. For more narrow shelving turn the box sideways. You can even use fabric! I think all the boxes covered in the same fabric would be great! Or even using coordinating scrapbook paper and no letters for a neat art piece effect. I plan on doing something like that since this table is basically in our living room and eventually moving these boxes to the play room.

As you can see, my children are doing a great job of keeping organized with their “new” bins…