My Messy Nest

Have you seen these on Pinterest? Aren't they lovely?

 I wanted to make one. I had all the stuff to do it...everything except a talent for jewelry making. Still, why should I let a little trifle like that stand in my way? Needless to say, mine doesn't look as lovely at the original...

 

Also, needless to say, I don't really care. I love it. It's something I made, and it is a sweet reminder of my own little brood, whose nest I keep. It's often a bit messy, but it's mine, and I love the little eggs it holds.

 

I may well try again another time, and maybe my wire-bending skills will improve with practice. Until then, I'm going to enjoy my little slice of creativity and the wonderful meaning it has for me.
Visit the artisan's blog and have a go yourself - and don't worry if it doesn't come out perfectly. Sometimes just giving it a try is the most important part.

Made from Scraps - Water Bottle Sleeve

I have this water bottle. I use it a lot, but it's ugly. I like cold drinks with a lot of ice, but they tend to leave puddles on tables and counters. This makes my husband growl.

None of these are a problem any longer, though. The answer to my problems were just in my sewing closet, awaiting a moment of inspiration - the Sleeve:

The tutorial I used referred to the slightly odd shape of a fountain drink cup, but I modified mine to fit my straight-sided bottle. It was also easier because I used some scrap felt inside, rather than quilt batting that needs to come between two layers. I like me some shortcuts.
I'm thinking this would work not only as an absorbing tool for cold drinks, but an insulating one for hot drinks as well. I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to modify further for to-go mugs or even a large thermos. The possibilities are...quite a few!

Made from Scraps - Bookmarks

This family is made of readers. As book-lovers, we need bookmarks. And in my quest for near-instant gratification and less scrap material in my closet, I met a need: more bookmarks!

 The tutorial I used for inspiration called for several small pieces stitched together, but I went for single pieces with fusible interfacing in between. Some I made according to the instructions (turning right side out and top stitching) and adding a ribbon, but a couple I made by just sewing the wrong sides (fused) together and trimming the raw edges with pinking shears. Both were fun and easy.

I have no idea why the photos came out upside down (camera phone!), nor why I couldn't seem to turn them around in my picture file. Whatever - I think you get the point. :)
For the record, I did make a couple of non-girly bookmarks for the boys, but they never made it to the camera stage - they were run off with too quickly. I think that's a good thing.

Made from Scraps - Preemie Hats

Every Monday morning this summer, several young girls and their moms would come on over to my house to visit, play and knit. Some had an idea of what to do with needles and yarn, some were totally new to the process. Regardless, everyone learned, which was the point of our little endeavor, and I think (hope!) everyone had fun in the process. A couple of my knitters were ready, by the summer's end, to have a go at doing some small hats. In light of the fact that I should soon be visiting the maternity ward myself, we decided to make a few hats to donate to the NICU there. Aren't they cute?!

 

 All the hats pictured were made from yarn I already had leftover from other projects, and all but one were made by casting on 60 stitches onto double pointed needles and knit for about 2 inches. To decrease, k8, k2tog until the end of the row. Next row, knit. Another decrease row: k7, k2tog to end. Knit row. Continue decreasing every other row until there are about 4 stitches left, then tie it off and weave in the ends.

Lovely soft yarns for lovely little heads, and I have a little more room for a little more yarn. Everyone wins.

Made from Scraps - Coasters

I've been on a mission to use up some scrap material. Some I have been able to re home, and some I've used to good effect. Like in this little project - aren't they cute?

Using 2 contrasting materials, some quilt batting and this tutorial, I've got some new coasters that aren't totally dog-eared and do a good job of soaking up the condensation, rather than allowing liquid to pool until you lift your glass and dribble it everywhere.

It would also seem I have issues with run-on sentences. Who knew?

Summer School Sum Up

This week has seen the end of our summer school and the beginning of "proper" full-time homeschool. Overall, I'd say that summer school was a success, though it didn't exactly go to plan... (for an overview of "the plan", visit here)
We moved our school room from the dining room to the "study" - a large, unused bedroom in the subterranean level of our split-level home. It has plenty of room, a computer in a closet, and its own bathroom. It also has windows, which can make or break a basement-type school room. So far, being downstairs has worked well for us - it was cooler in the hotter parts of the day, no one would disappear for 20 min for a "bathroom break", the rest of the house wasn't awash in school supplies, and I could keep a better eye on the little people playing in the family room down the hall. The plan is to continue down there, though it might be a little different in the winter months - it can get pretty cold down there! I may need to step up my persuasive arguments on why we need a pellet stove downstairs. :)
Doing work in the afternoon also worked well for the limited summer requirements, but now that we are back to full time, that simply won't work. The afternoon's work, though, consisted of :

• Bible study - this went very well and I'm so glad we did it, even though we didn't finish
• finishing the year's math - we were able to finish at an unhurried pace and I think it served the girls well, overall
• writing exercises - this happened very little. I think I was often too tired in the afternoon to keep on top of it, but it did serve to reintroduce the concept for when we do it this year.
• reading list - this did help to direct their reading a little but we didn't stick to it the way I thought we would. We also didn't use the reading log very much, but they did read some books that they wouldn't normally have chosen and got into them, so I'm pleased with that.
• Hymn writers - we did spend some time learning about Isaac Watts (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross) and John Newton (Amazing Grace), but we didn't do as much as I would have liked. This was, in part, because there is a shocking lack of juvenile works on these people - there's not even very much in the way of picture books. Book publishers, note the gap! The upshot is that we missed a few people that I wanted to cover (I really wanted to look at Horatio Spoffard, the writer of It Is Well), but there's nothing stopping me from doing it another time, and the girls did learn two new songs this summer that they are still playing.

Now, we're back to the real deal. I'm certainly glad we were able to dabble a little in some gentle summer school, but I'm even more glad to be back to a normal school schedule. I guess that means that the summer was a sufficient break for us, since even the kids have been looking forward to doing some new school work.

What were some of the things you particularly enjoyed about your summer, school-related or otherwise?

Baby Gift

A couple weeks ago, a sweet friend of mine (and talented seamstress) made my new little boy a gift:

A smooshably soft name pillow and a couple of monogrammed burp cloths!

They are so lovely, and I am so looking forward to using them! They also lay atop a very handsome blanket that another friend crocheted for me. I know the best people...:)

Birthday Anniversary

August 16th is (was) a big day around here. It marks both my wedding anniversary (15 years) and Noah's birthday (6 years old!). Photos will come soon (I hope), but what I would really like to share is the surprise anniversary gift I received.
When Toby and I got engaged, we spend 9 months of the year before our weddding separated by several thousand miles and 5 time zones. He was finishing his last year at college, and I was on my second year. We spent that year calling (the phone companies loved us!), emailing (still fairly new then), and writing letters. Oh my, did we write letters! We've always saved all those letters, but I don't think we'd ever looked at them since we've been married - for the past 15 years they've sat in a box in the attic. But they are there no longer...
As an anniversary gift, Toby organized all those letters by date and inserted them into a scrapbook for ease of reading and preservation. He's also taken all the tapes we sent each other - tapes of music, us reading stories to each other, banal chatter (from me, mainly) - and converted them to MP3 files so that we can listen to them on the computer or our phones. He presented these to me on the morning of our anniversary, and of course I immediately got weepy. It's one of the most romantic gifts he's ever given me, and I love it.
I've been steadily reading through these letters over the past few days, and I'm about a third of the way through. It's amazing how I'm freshly reminded of that time and just the simple desire we had to be together, and how difficult it was being so far apart. I'm also blessed to remember God's grace in our lives and how He kept us during that time, and also for the grace that He's shown us since then. Fifteen years and almost 6 children later, our desire is essentially the same: to serve the Lord, together. Toby is still the person I most want to be with, and I am so thankful that feeling hasn't changed over time. I am grateful that I can not only look back over the last 15 years with joy over God's faithfulness in our lives, but also look forward in anticipation of all the adventures He still has for us, knowing that He will continue to keep us, just as He has done.

Link Love - All About Baby...

Stuff you totally don't need for a baby...

...and a few things you do.

I've started using these homemade wipes, and they are so good! Cut up an old t-shirt, and away you go!

This is how we started introducing solids to Dan, and it was totally the way to go for us.

I'm thankful for my doctors and all their advice, but there are some things you can opt out of, if you want to.

The recipe share

Chicken Enchilada Soup - this was surprisingly good, and really easy. Not at all spicy, which suits the little ones, it's easily spiced up with some Frank's Hot Sauce in individual bowls. We're all about being flexible.

Spaghetti Casserole - I'd been meaning to make this for ages. It's really easy to make a double batch and freeze one, and worth it - so. good. The cream cheese layer is masterful, and who doesn't like french fried onions (everyone here does, not that I'm judging).

Baked French Toast - I've put this together twice, and the second time Toby helped, he was so supportive of having this for breakfast. It's pretty easy, uses up your leftover bread that you keep stashed in the freezer (or am I the only one who does that?), and even though the recipe calls for sourdough bread, I have yet to use that - it's been honey wheat ends and hot dog rolls here. Still excellent. Oh, this was funny - Toby happened to see the website the recipe is on and asked, "Is this Mormon food?" No dear, a Mormon website with Pioneer Woman food. It's all good.

Chocolate-Coconut Bars - these were so good. Makes plenty, good stand-in for packed-lunch granola bars and you can keep 'em in the fridge. Just a little bit of dessert at lunch, and you don't even need to wait for the Girls Scouts to come a-knockin'.

Post a link to your recipe to share in the comments!

The School Schedule

I know that everyone does it differently, that most do it differently each year, that some are uber-schedulers and others are schedule-phobic, but I'm going to share what the plan for this year is. I will say that this is different to how we've done it in past years, but each year that brings a new student into the fold requires some rejigging.
This year, I have a fifth-grader, a fourth-grader, a first-grader, a pre-k, a nursery/toddler and a nursing infant. You'll notice I've got nothing much planned for the babe-in-arms - I figured he'd be eating or sleeping most of the time...
This schedule is by no means set in stone, but it's nice to have a framework to start with, and I'm happy to make changes along the way as the need arises. I'm basically planning to work on a 45-min-on, 15-min-off plan. The 45 min should give the big kids sufficient time to get the bulk of their work done and the 15 min will give everyone a chance to relax, use the bathroom, change a diaper, etc. I've had to plan in more rest time than I would normally do, considering the broken sleep I'm anticipating, but hoping that will eventually give way to time to exercise or be creative. The schedule has also reflected the opportunity to train my big girls in helping to prepare meals and oversee clean up. I'm thinking that will serve everyone. :)

	Mom	Abi	Anna	Noah	Ellie	Dan	Caleb
8 – 8:45	Bible with Noah & Littles	Chores, inc piano/ Read	Chores, inc. piano/ Read	Bible with Mom & Littles	Bible with Mom & Littles	Bible with Mom & Littles
8:45 – 9	Check chores	Free	Free	Free	Free	Free
9 – 9:45	Read & Geography with Littles	Literature	Literature	Read & Geography with Mom	Read & Geography with Mom	Read & Geography with Mom
9:45 – 10	Check work/ diapers	Make Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack/Diaper
10 – 10:45	Watch over Math	Math	Math	Math	Play	Play
10:45 – 11	Break	Break	Break	Break	Break	Break
11 – 11:45	Bible with Girls	Bible with Mom	Bible with Mom	Play	Play	Play
11:45 – 12	Prepare lunch	Prepare lunch	Prepare lunch	Clean up	Clean up	Clean up
12 – 12:30	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
12:30 – 1	Rest	Clean up & Read	Clean up & Read	Read	Read	Nap
1 – 1:45	History with Girls	History with Mom	History with Mom	Lego	Nap	Nap
1:45 – 2	Break	Break	Break	Clean up	Nap	Nap
2 – 2:45	Grammar	Grammar	Grammar	Grammar	Nap	Nap
2:45 - 3	Clean up	Clean up	Clean up	Clean up	Wake up	Wake up
3 - 3:15	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack	Snack
3:15 – 4	Rest/ Exercise	Play with Littles	Play with Littles	Play	Play	Play
4 – 4:45	Special	Special	Special	Special	Special	Special
4:45 – 5	Clean up	Clean up	Clean up	Clean up	Clean up	Clean up
5 – 5:30	Dinner prep	Buddy wash	Help out	Help out	Help out	Buddy wash
5:30 – 6	Dinner prep	Help out	Buddy wash	Help out	Buddy wash	Help out

                  Specials: crafts,

                   computer, movie

The grammar and history slots may end up flip-flopping if I am too tired to do history at 1pm, we'll see. I've planned it so that whatever the girls don't finish during their allotted time, they'll have to do either during playtime or in the evening, under the watchful gaze of their father - they're less inclined to mess around with him.
Since we're doing co-op this year, I'm not sure that the schedule will apply at all for that day, if we'll just try to pick up where the schedule has us when we get home, or if it'll be a make up day/afternoon for things we're behind on. Again, we'll have to just see how it goes...
Homeschool moms, what's your plan (or are you planning not to plan)? Feel free to share in the comments, ask a question or post a link!