Family Update: Joshua (child #3) had a lot of difficulty breathing when he woke up yesterday morning. After two nebulizer treatments and a steamy bathroom did nothing to help, and the fact that his chest was retracting and he was wheezing, I took him to the ER. After spending 4 hours there, having chest and esophagus x-rays, an oral steroid, a special breathing treatment with epinephrine, and a shot of Rosefin he was good enough to come home with a diagnosis of croup. We are no strangers to this diagnosis for our older two sons. James was hospitalized for 2 days at 13 months with severe croup. While I am usually a naturally-minded person, when it comes to a situation where my child is unable to breath without gasping I am thankful for conventional medicine. Today, Joshua has a cough, but it is manageable. I am praising God that he is better. He has even been using a stethoscope to listen to my heart and talking a lot about what happened yesterday.
I am concerned today about my oldest son James (child #2). He had some pain in his upper right thigh last night, but didn’t complain too much. Today he has been limping and complaining of pain. I am hopeful it is just a sore muscle that will heal in the next day or two. He doesn’t have a very high pain threshold, so I would imagine if I asked him what his pain level was out of 10 he would say 11. It is hard to see my children hurt or sick. I am praying everyone can be healthy and feel good for next week.
Today I am once again joining Sarah of The Fifth Street Palace and Abbi of Proverbs 31 Living for another Thursday of sharing a homemade Christmas project.
I recently made these felt sword/knife and shield sets for my oldest two boys. They were fairly quick to sew and were made using felt I have had for a long time and some plastic canvas (needlepoint) that I had been given. I thought about making capes as well, but I don’t know that I will have time to make them. I will see. My “knights” might just have to defend our “castle” without capes. 
To make the sword I drew a knife-like shape on a piece of paper. Then I traced it onto felt and cut two pieces. I also cut a piece of plastic canvas in the same shape, but made it about 1/4″ smaller all the way around. I made a sandwich of felt, canvas and felt and then used a zig-zag stitch to sew everything together. I also cut a rectangle of plastic canvas and 2 from a contrasting color of felt that were 1/4″ larger all the way around. To sew these pieces to the knife I put one felt rectangle down, placed the knife on top, the plastic canvas on top of the knife and then the other felt rectangle on top of it and stitched around with a zig-zag stitch.
For the shield I cut two circles of felt and one a 1/4″ smaller from plastic canvas. I also cut a rectangle of felt to act as the handle and a felt letter for the front. (Obviously, “J” is the first letter of my boys’ names.) I first stitched the handle to the back of one felt circle, and stitched the letter to the middle of the other felt circle. Then I again made a sandwich of felt, plastic canvas and felt and used a zig-zag stitch to sew everything together.
The sword and shield will not be able to hurt anyone because the plastic canvas will bend easily. It is mainly to hold the shape and give a little stability, but not cause any harm. I definitely don’t want my little “knights” to have any bloody battles while they are rescuing damsels or defending their family.
I have several really neat gifts that I have made that I would love to share, but there are a few people who read this blog that might be receiving these gifts. I want them to be surprised. So, sometime after Christmas I will have some cool ideas to post.
