Molly Piper

You all know this is not a fashion blog. Some of you know that I can barely dress myself, especially if it means that the clothes have to be free of peanut butter handprints. But this is a blog where I write about whatever I want, so here goes.

I’d really like some non-dress pants that aren’t jeans (maybe some corduroys or something?) so I started bopping around on the old internet to see what’s out there post-Christmas.

I literally laughed out loud when I read the description for this one. This, my friends, is the person chosen to model Gap’s “curvy” jeans.

[break here for general laughter and guffawing]

Even granting the fact that there may have even been some airbrushing to the picture…still not curvy!

And while this woman may be a very nice person, she is definitely not (by any definition) curvy. I suppose she’s curvy in the sense that she’s not completely angular…

I have no problem with a woman who is healthy and skinny. I have a couple friends who are naturally skinny people. And I think they’re beautiful! But if any of them were chosen to model something curvy it would be the funniest thing ever!

So I’m guessing these “curvy” jeans are probably a non-option for me, since I look nothing like the person in this picture.

What brands sell actually curvy jeans? Especially for women who are about 5’4? (that’d be me!)

Super cute bracelet, right?

My friend Tiffany makes these! She co-operates a wonderful company called Legacy Bracelets. When Felicity died, she offered to make me one to honor the family God had given to me.

At first glance you’re probably thinking, “How does that bracelet represent your family?”

Oh, just wait…

The bracelet actually flips inside-out to display whatever images you select! It’s a portable brag book. Or a portable honorarium. Or maybe both.

You can visit their website and read their FAQs, but the basic concept is:

• You browse the pattern selection and choose the design you want for the outside of the bracelet.
• You submit your photos and/or text you want included to Legacy and give them any special instructions (there are 7 tiles in all).
• They do all the cropping and color treating.
• You get your bracelet shipped to you!

I seriously love mine. If you’re trying to think of a creative, heartfelt Christmas gift, this might be the one. Their order deadline for Christmas is 12/10, so order one SOON!

PS-I have the classic design, the Tiffany.

PPS-They didn’t ask me to blog about them. I just wanted to. That’s kinda how I roll on this blog anyway. And I really love this product (“I love your product, man,” in my best Melissa McCarthy voice).

So obviously we’re gonna need some sort of packing solution for our minivan for our upcoming trips. 7 people and all our gear is not going to fit, no matter how much swagger is in our wagon.

We bought one of those old boxy car toppers at a thrift store (we even got it half-off), but I’m a little doubtful that we’ll have all the pieces and/or be able to figure out how they all go together without the manual. I’ve scoured the internet for any instructions for the darn thing, but can’t find anything.

In the course of researching that, I found this:

It’s called a saddlebag, but I prefer to think of it as a backpack for our van! So cute!

Why I think I might get it:

• better gas mileage without something on the top of the car.
• Stores in a very small space when you’re done with it because it’s collapsible.
• It’s much cheaper than most car toppers.

Do any of you have one of these? Do you think it’s a good purchase? HELP!

I like gardening and playing in dirt. There are still mounds of icy snow all over the place here in The Frozen North, but Abraham and I are already dreaming of trips to our favorite garden store, even with four children in tow.

And one thing you should know about Abraham, is that he’s now offering t-shirts through his blog. I like this one:

There are a few gardeners out there I’d like to buy this for. Dreams of gardening are dancing in my head.

Buy one for your favorite gardener too!

For Christmas, my awesome BFF got the babies an amazing contraption that I’m convinced will make my life easier with twins:

This, my friends, is the Boon Squirt Baby Food Dispensing Spoon!

So, here’s how it works:

1. Unscrew the colored soft plastic portion (it’s squeezy).
2. Fill that with baby food or cereal.
3. Screw it back onto the clear plastic spoon.
4. Squeeze the desired amount onto the spoon (there’s a small hole at the base of the spoon).

We have two of them, one for each baby. Here’s why I think I’m gonna love these (and you might, too):

• You can throw them in the dishwasher.
• There’s a little cap (not pictured) that fits on the spoon portion for travel.
• When you’re feeding two, things get kinda crazy, especially if you have to mix one baby’s cereal with soy formula and one baby’s with regular (like me). If you get two different colors, you can keep them separated easily.
• Less chance of spilling (if you’re anything like me).

And here’s a short video presentation, brought to you by Whitsun & Cadence:

I’m still having trouble wrapping my brain around having the time to give them solid foods. Right now we’re only doing it once a day, around dinner time. If you have any tips on this topic, please share how you did it with twins!

Bon appetit!

I’m very excited to announce that, starting tonight, we will have live-in help with the kids! One of the best babysitters we’ve ever used will be moving in with us and helping with childcare a couple hours a day.

And not only is she great with our kids, she also loves to knit and watch the Pride & Prejudice miniseries. I’m expecting this arrangement to work out pretty great.

On a practical note, one of the ways that Abraham and I are affording a nanny is by putting a bit more effort into making a little money from our sites.

A really easy and free way you could help, if you want to, is to do your Amazon shopping through links at this blog. We’re a part of their affiliate program so that whenever you click through to Amazon and buy something, we make a small percentage of what you spend.

I’ve put a link on the sidebar to make it easy to find, if you’re ever interested.

I’m not going to make this site about making money, of course, but I know some of you love shopping and love me, so this is a good way to combine those two things. :)

Thanks a lot for supporting this site! You all are the best.

A couple months ago I met a mother of twins that has two sets of twins! And she was not insane, I’m happy to report.

She told me, “Molly, I have two words for you: Dry Shampoo.”

I had no idea what it was, but she eagerly explained it for me. So when your hair is greasy (which it will be if you’re the mother of multiples), you just spray this hairspray-like product onto the roots of the hair, let it dry a bit, and then comb it out.

It absorbs the oil and even volumizes the hair. Volume is such a luxury at this stage of the game, but it’s easy with dry shampoo!

I just went to Ulta and bought whatever one was on the shelf (about 8 bucks). But my friend who’s in the beauty industry told me that there are nicer dry shampoos out there. You can ask your hair stylist what brand they’d recommend if you’re into that.

Be aware that it comes out a little white-ish, so you need to comb it out, otherwise you look like you’ve gone gray in one day (which you might, if you have multiples). There are also colored ones out there, but the colored one I tried out seemed a little too dark for my hair color so I decided to just get the plain kind.

Do any of you use dry shampoo? What brands do you recommend?

I came across a post this week that explains how to make your own dishwasher detergent. It’s a pretty simple mixture.

I might try this for a couple reasons:

1. I hate buying dishwasher detergent.
2. I don’t get out much anymore, so this might last longer.

I have my hesitations for a couple reasons:

1. I don’t want to put money and time into making it if it’s not going to work well.
2. I’ve never used powdered dishwasher detergent (always liquid).

So, what do you think? I figure Friday’s a good day to post something like this, since you might be out on errands this weekend and decide to pick up the materials, and it’ll be fresh in your mind. So, I ask you:

• Have any of you ever tried this? or something similar?
• Have you had good results with this kind of concoction?
• Do you plan to give it a try?

I’m thinking about doing it. If I do, I’ll try to remember to let you know how I like it! The one trick she talks about that I definitely intend to try is using white vinegar for a rinse agent instead of the chemical one.

Happy weekend, all! It’s supposed to be a fantastically gorgeous weekend here in Minneapolis. I hope it’s lovely where you are as well.

Christmas 2007 was a dark one. I had buried my daughter 3 months before, almost to the day. We took off on a wild 6-week road trip all over the East Coast to get away, to escape.

But there was a little beam of light in the Advent season of 2007. That was the year I received an Advent basket.

What’s an Advent basket?

An Advent basket is a gift-a-day walk through the Advent season (December 1-25).

How do you do one?

1. Collect little knick-knack gifts for each day of Advent (so, 25 gifts altogether).

Now’s the time to start gathering fun little things for your basket! Start watching the dollar bins at Target, Michaels, etc. The items don’t have to be Christmas-related. When I did an Advent basket for a friend last year (pictured above), I tried to do a variety: Christmas-related stuff, snacks, bath & body stuff, a bottle of wine, a CD. The little pocket Advent chart was from Target, and I stuck a little sheet in each pocket with one of the names of God inside and a verse.

2. Wrap them up, and label them 1-25.

3. Include instructions for the person to open a gift a day, starting with Day 1. (On December 1st, open gift #1, on December 2nd, gift #2, etc.).

4. Reveal your identity somehow in gift #25 (on Christmas day).

5. Arrange for someone secret to deliver the Advent basket to the person before December 1. This was a really fun part for me! When I did mine, I found someone a few steps removed to do the delivery so it really threw my friend off! She had no idea it was from me.

6. Pray for that person especially during Advent!

Who should I give one to?

Only you can decide who your Advent basket is going to be for. The one I gave last year was for my friend Christy, who lost her mother unexpectedly a few months before. She was in the beginning stages of her grief journey, just like I was in 2007. And I remember so well how much joy that little basket brought me during Christmas of 2007. It was like each day I had a little something to wake up for. And the excitement and guess-work of wondering who it was from made it all the more exciting.

So, I won’t tell you who to give a basket to, but I’d encourage you to think of someone who’s had a particularly hard year, or someone who’s not looking forward to Christmas for any number of reasons. This is your chance to share the joy of Christmas with them this year and lift their eyes to see Jesus.

When I got my basket in 2007, it was from a family I know and love. When I opened their final gift on Christmas day, I just wept. I was so touched and humbled by their love.

Go ahead, try it!

I’m not one of those people who particularly likes to shop for Christmas stuff in October, but it’s a good idea to start looking for fun things now! And even if you don’t start the actual shopping now, you can be doing some brainstorming and praying about who you’d like to give an Advent basket to.

I’d love to know if any of you:

• have received an Advent basket in the past.
• have ever given an Advent basket to a friend.
• have never heard of this idea.

What did people do before the internet?!?!

I know some of the smug answers:

They spent time with their families.

They connected with “real” people.

But seriously, I see the internet as a tool, a common grace. Here’s why I think so, just from my life today:

• My dear friend Kate calls me at lunchtime to say her flight through Minneapolis is going to now have a longer layover, so can I meet her for dinner at the airport?

  Pre-internet, I would have been calling Northwest Airlines 4-5 times this afternoon and would have spent half my day on hold, just trying to follow her flight’s status. With the internet, it’s done in a matter of minutes, thus leaving me more time with my family!

  Also it took me 2 minutes to map out our route to Potbelly’s 3.9 miles away.

• I have a wedding shower to go to on Saturday. But the next two days are going to be really busy for me, so I’m not going to have a lot of shopping time.

  What does the internet allow me to do? I go to target.com, browse the registry, pick the gift I want to give, and I can either order it right then or find out if it’s available at my closest store.

  Since I didn’t give myself enough time to ship it, I’ll just run over and get it on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Without the internet, it would take me until Saturday morning just to choose a present!

It’s such a time-saver. I know the reverse could be said, that it’s a time-waster, and that’s often true. But when I think about how much time and effort the internet saves me, it makes me want to blog about it!!!

Also, how many of you have already used the internet to find out what the word encomium means? That’s what I did!