Technology, Anyone?

The youth in our ward went on Trek - which is where the youth go dressed up as Mormon pioneers and push handcarts several miles along an actual route taken by the pioneers. They spend a week there and this year they came back with some fantastic stories and uplifting insights about the lives of the pioneers. I really enjoyed testimony meeting where practically all the youth shared their experiences. I hope I never go on Trek.

Anyways it got me thinking about the pioneers and how people used to live a mere 170 years ago.

What do you think a pioneer woman would say if she were to see this picture?

"Is this outer space?"

I decided to snap this picture and find all the things that pioneers lived without. This list does not contains thing not shown in the picture… such as the fridge or the dishes inside the dishwasher.

1. Clean water

2. White mass- manufactured (porcelain?) sink

3. Reverse osmosis drinking water

4. Dishwasher

5. LED indicator lights (on the dishwasher)

6. Laminate floors

7. Upstanding fan

8. Machine-made cabinets with identical doors

9. Air conditioning (the blinds are closed to keep the sun out)

10. JoAnn Fabric red fabric. - okay they had fabric. And they sewed. But not on a plastic Singer Simple Sewing Machine. And their curtains weren't hanging on a magnetic curtain rod from Walmart.

11. Cherry laminate desk

12. 3 computers

13. 5 monitors (including 2 closed laptops)

14. Plastic collapsable high chair

15. Machine washable high chair cover

16. Movies (Lizzy is watching a movie next to Morgan who is working)

17. Blinds

18. Plastic water bottle

19. Printer/scanner

20. Wireless internet (you can see cords)

21. Lawn. Mowed. (You can see a sliver of green grass through the door)

22. Microfiber store-bought men's shirt.

23. Mass-produced lightweight Laundry basket

24. Pre-packaged serving size of yogurt.

25. Disposable spoon.

26. File cabinet.

27. Digital music (that is most likely playing from one of the computers)

And then there are ridiculously so many other things that I could list that are not shown in the picture.

Life must have been very different. It seems like a woman would be quite busy simply feeding and keeping her family clothed. Those are hardly the things I worry about. Cooking is not a major part of my day like it must have been for them. Making bread… every day…

So what am I doing in my life to fill up that space of time freed up by technology?

Ocho

Here's a very rare moment where I got to hold Jordan like a baby! He is holding his little dog that he LOVES. He cuddles with it every night.

Morgan accidentally bought plain yogurt (yuck). But he found a good use for it:

Last night Lizzy says to me: "Mommy pretty forehead."

We were writing out letters and numbers to see which ones Lizzy knew how to identify. She knows A,B,C,W, "number 1", 4, and a few more that have been highlighted on Sesame Street. Trying to be discrete and not give away the answer, I told Morgan, "Do ocho!" So Morgan writes an "8" and says, "what's this?" Lizzy responds: "Ocho."

Pretty Notebook

My rule of purchasing is that I must "fall in love" before buying something. Otherwise I get home and I'm not too excited about the thing that I bought. And I'm a little picky on what I fall in love with… haha =) I'm only allowed to fall in love with as many items as I have half-off coupons. =)

So my latest trip to JoAnn's I walked around for a bit trying to fall in love with one thing. I tend to fall in love in the "home decor" or "outdoor canvas" area a lot. I found this gorgeous fabric in the "home decor" area. Lately I've been really drawn toward the brown and creme colored fabrics.

I'm starting to be on a name-to-name basis with the ladies that work at JoAnn's. Haha!!

I've been wanting to try to make one of these notebooks with an elastic closure. So I made one for my notebook. This is a thick notebook that I first used for my graphic design classes. Now it has turned into my idea book and pattern book for bananabunch.etsy.com.

I'm so excited about this notebook cover that I wanted to share it with you. Don't you love it? I like to stare at it. =)

I think it's quite appropriate to have a gorgeous notebook for my artsy Etsy shop. =)

I'm excited to make some new things for my shop - new items coming up soon! And some of those will be made with my beautiful new home decor fabric. =)

BananaBunch Highlight!

My store was highlighted at this blog:

http://www.onelittleindianblog.com/2011/08/sponsor-spotlight-banana-bunch.html?showComment=1312640396521#c5839027707449484694

Nice post. =)

Harold and the Purple Crayon

It was Morgan's birthday on Monday. My parents gave him some very nice books and I gave him a "Harold and the Purple Crayon" DVD. That was his favorite book as a kid. He was excited about the DVD. You can tell by his tired face. haha!

I cut down this gigantic rose bush earlier this year. I was worried that it might not recover! It didn't bloom when other rose bushes bloomed. But a month ago there came a beautiful harvest of roses!

When we moved here I took down the "No Soliciting" sticker that was on our window. After all the fundraising I did as a kid, it is time for me to start contributing to other kids. But I didn't realize that that sign refers mostly to the GROWN adults that come around selling outrageous things, like a bottle of super all purpose cleaner for $40. Or very colorful super kids books for $20 a book. Or pesticide service. The worse was right after we put both of the kids to bed, these people came to door at 9:30, banged several times and rang the door bell. Oh my goodness. So Morgan put up this sign: It says "NO SOLICITING (THAT MEANS YOU!)"

Well, that was my cue to get something else up. I made this sign. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but it says "Welcome No Soliciting Please" I thought it was a bit more polite. It's nice to have some color on the outside of our house too.

I found this beautiful fabric at Walmart on sale and I finally got around to making some curtains for Lizzy. I sewed on black out fabric as a liner so the window will be quite dark and keep the room cool when it is hot outside.

I decided I don't enjoy sewing gigantic things. I get frustrated with so much fabric and it's not fun for me.

This little card holder was fun to make. It is a new item in my shop. bananabunch.etsy.com. I made myself one of these 2 months ago and I've LOVED it! It holds all my extra cards.

Where's Baby?

Here is our little slim baby Jordan. He likes to play with the dishwasher. He will take a clean bowl from the top rack and put it on the bottom rack. Then he will take a clean bowl from the bottom rack and put it on the top rack. Hours of fun. =)

I love it when Lizzy falls asleep. She's impossible to put down for a nap now. But she will fall asleep on her own. This one is a great picture!

Jordan has been so affectionate lately! I love it! He will give me hugs! Today he climbed on me, put his head down on me for about a half a second, then got up and left again. Haha! He cuddles with his little dog stuffed animal and this white bear when it's time for bed.

At church a couple weeks ago Jordan decided to give Lizzy a hug. Lizzy responded very nicely and hugged him back. They were hugging for quite a while - enough time for Morgan to pull out his new cell phone and take pictures of the kids during Sacrament Meeting. =)

Jordan LOVES cars. There was this fire engine truck in the lost and found at church. He found it and scooted around the whole building with it for a long time. So I got him a truck. This one is very fun because it has pegs on the top that will play music if you push them. Crawling with one hand holding a car seems second nature to our Baby Jordan!

Lizzy has also added a couple songs to her repertoire. Twinkle Twinkle and Itsy Bitsy Spider are regulars at bed time now. Sometimes she'll sing the songs on her own. Especially when her dolls are going to sleep. "Itsy Bitsy spider went up the water SPOUT." "Out came the sun and WASHED the spider out."

I'm amazed at what she will say. "Where's Baby?" "I want to go in the blue car." "Daddy go away." "Lizzy do it." "I got it." She'll repeat things that she hears and she sounds just like me sometimes. "Good job baby." "Come on Jordan." "Don't touch!" "It's hot in here." Whenever there are 4 of ANYTHING she'll say: "Daddy Mommy Sissy Baby Jordan." She'll do this with crackers, flowers, pieces of dirt, crayons, socks, etc.

Morgan gave Lizzy a bagel today and Lizzy said, "Very NICE booger." Morgan: "You mean a bagel?" Lizzy: "Very very NICE booger."

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

I want to show some of the AWESOME things that I have found on Etsy. Here is a list of my favorites:

http://www.etsy.com/people/bananabunch/favorites?ref=si_fav

I'm starting this post over now, I got carried away putting up pictures of my favorite things. So, here's just a few pictures for a taste of what you will find at the link above. =)

I bought some soap from this girl. Our bathroom smells so good just from that one bar of soap!

This girl is from Australia! This is resin. RESIN? Wow. so pretty.

This girl is from Monterry, close to my home in Cali!

This is such a cool idea. I wonder what my kids would think of these?

This one was made by Sister Goodrich… or Kendra White! Her stuff is all personalized. I like the ones that look like your kid's names with little stones that can be their birth stones.

I love how this is so colorful. This is one of my favorite shops and I just found it today! All her things have that cool flower.

Make you want to spend money? Yeah. Me too.