give

a mother and her son at Lua Nova by Renato Stockler

Raise your hand if you have extra scrapbooking supplies laying around your house. Me, too!

I have just the project for you, which I will tell you about it in a second, but first, do you read my sister, Julianne's blog? She leads a very exciting life. In the past year she has worked for UNICEF and lived in Brooklyn, moved to Berlin, spent the summer with her beloved in Africa, attended a world conference on maternal health in India, and survived a drive through the desert to Utah with me and my kids. :) Now she's living in Brazil, working for an organization that helps young mothers.

I know. Most of the time I have a hard time believing that we share DNA. She's amazing.

In her own words, this is what she is doing in Brazil:

"Lua Nova is a non-profit organization based outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil that houses and rehabilitates adolescent mothers in recovery from drug use, prostitution, homelessness, abuse, and abandonment. Many all of the above. The process of recovering from a drug addiction, forced prostitution or domestic abuse is already a challenge of Everest proportions, but couple such events with the fact that you are only 16, your family is almost entirely absent and abusive, and on top of everything you are now a mother.

How can you begin to heal from such a convolution of circumstances? How does one cope with forced motherhood borne out of trauma and violence? At such a young age? With the emotional health and stability of these mothers teetering in such precarious realms, the potential to be a fully engaged mother is muted or even non-existent. In most cases, the girls come to Lua Nova with no connection whatsoever to their children, as they themselves are in the process of recovering from horrific personal experiences of pain and suffering. Neglect is a huge issue: not only were the girls themselves neglected by their own families and impoverished communities, but now their own fragile psychological health renders it nearly impossible for them to care for their children in a meaningful way.

My role in the organization is to design a  systematic therapy program to help the girls form a stronger bond with their kids. Help them break through their emotional trauma and bolster their capacity as mothers. Intimidating? Heavens yes. I do this by holding group support sessions with the girls to start building up their self-esteem and confidence as individuals and as mothers. The sessions I’m designing rely a great deal on art therapy and playful activities in order to help the girls connect and engage with the objectives of the project in an active way. I’m fighting apathy, shyness, anger, peer pressure and general mental instability in trying to steer the girls into caring for and engaging with this new life [and child] of theirs. A life without the crutch of drugs or violence. And one in which love and connection with a sweet new child is the new centerpiece. This is an opportunity for the girls to break out of the poverty cycle of drugs and abuse and begin life with a strong sense of purpose... It is not only the beginning of their childrens' lives, but also their own."

Totally heavy, right?

Well, she needs our help. 

Here's where you and your extra scrapbooking supplies come in: Julianne would like to give each of the girls she is working with a scrapbook so that they can document their new lives with their children.  Just something simple that the girls could put photos of their kids in or write about their experiences. What do you think? Can you help?

I made two this afternoon. It was fun and easy! I used two 1/2 inch binders from OfficeMax, a pack of scrapbook paper that I got on clearance at Joann's, and a pack of white cardstock (I spent about $12 and had lots of paper left over).

I would love the scrapbooks to be unique, but they should each include:

• one 1/2 inch 3-ring binder
• 25 pages, made up of any combination of the following:

1. scrapbook paper

2. pages to hold photos (I glued rectangles on scrapbook paper so the girls can highlight some photos)

3. blank cardstock (on a few pages of the plain cardstock, I glued bits of leftover scrapbook paper)

Scrapbooking isn't really my thing, so I kept my books simple. But you wouldn't have to.

Here are some other tips from Julianne:

1. The girls love pink, purple, sort of girly looking things like butterflies, and bright colors.

2. Since they don't speak any English, nothing with writing would work (unless it's in Portuguese:).

Being a mother is hard, and I can't even begin to imagine the lives these young mothers have already led. The least I can do is give them a cute place to put pictures of their babies, right? Who's with me? 


Leave a comment if you have a question. Email me if you would like to help (barefootstephanie@gmail). I need at least 25 scrapbooks by November 1 so I can ship them off to Julianne. 

Thank you! Thank you!

a little bit of fall

the leaves in my parents' yard after a quick storm

Stella and my mom en route to the stream and Oliver with his walking stick

Mabel leading the way down the mountain and a very smooshable baby Elliot

I love Sundance in September. We admired the leaves and even got to wear sweaters once or twice. It was so nice.

As I was herding all of the children and luggage through the airport alone yesterday (Mike is still in Utah for a work thing), I kept chanting to myself: I can do hard things. Actually, I needn't have worried. The kids were perfect, and fellow passengers very kind.

And now we are home and Yodipity has pumpkin yogurt. Yum.

Happy Fall.

It's still too hot here.

So we're off to Sundance to see the pretty fall colors.
See you soon!

This is what I'm talking about.

This is my perfect muffin. It is soft, light, fluffy, moist, and not too sweet.

Blueberry Cream Muffins

4 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sour cream
2 cups blueberries 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 24 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. 

2. In large bowl beat eggs, gradually add sugar while beating. Continue beating while slowly pouring in oil. Stir in vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda. 

3. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream. Gently fold in blueberries. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups. 

4. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. 

from allrecipes.com


I halved the recipe, filled each cup to the brim, and still had a little extra batter. (Now that I know how yummy they are, I wish I had used that extra to bake a few more.) I also sprinkled a little white sugar on top before baking to give them a sweet crunch.

I really like this recipe because it uses things I always have on hand. But if I ever have lemon curd, I am totally trying these. These were yummy, too, but I thought they were more like a dessert, less like a muffin.


p.s. I am so proud of my little sister!

a blouse

One of my weekend projects was this blouse. I copied another blouse I had in my closet but never wore because it was silver. (Yes, I said silver. It was shiny and silver. Eeek!) It was saved from my closet purge because I loved the style and fit. I took it apart and copied it in a pale pink handkerchief linen. (Much classier, don't you think?) This is easy to do. Do you have something hanging in your closet that you love, but maybe the color isn't flattering, or the fabric is cheap? Copy it!

I'm glad I did. And now I think I need it in at least 6 other colors.

an afternoon, in pictures

Elliot and I were sitting on the couch waiting for Mabel and Oliver to get home from school. Stella was napping. This is what it looked like:

Yes, Elliot is as juicy as he looks.

Do you like Mabel's skirt? It was her first attempt on the Bernina, and I think it was a great success. Sometimes she guided the fabric, sometimes she pushed the pedal. She's into skirts this year, so the lazy days skirt was a perfect first sewing project for us to do together.

five thoughts I had this weekend

1. Oliver is 6! That means we've lived in Arizona for almost five years. How is this possible? Time sure does fly. We celebrated his day with a family bbq and swimming. That's my kind of party.

2. My post baby hair loss is showing no signs of stopping. I'm pretty sure I'll be bald by Christmas. I'm trying really hard not to freak out about it, but I have almost no bangs left.

3. They key to my happiness is an early bedtime. A few months ago, Mike and I stopped watching tv, which means we go to bed a whole lot earlier. It's the best thing we've ever done for ourselves.

4. I love sewing. I spent some time at my machine this weekend and have a few projects to share. Mabel and I even worked on one together. It was fun!

5. Ok, we are officially into September now. My whites are put away. Please tell me we are done with 110 degree days.

Some of you just want to see pictures of Elliot.

(Hi Mom!)

Here he is, in all of his smiley adorableness.

He can now roll from back to tummy. We're so proud.


p.s. Thank you for the muffin recipes! I am going to bake them all. I have a giant bag of blueberries just waiting in my freezer.

I like blueberry muffins.

Yesterday, I tried this recipe. It was good (the muffins were much better not warm from the oven), but I'm looking for the best. Do you have a favorite recipe that I can try?