Making a Baby Shower Gift with my Daughter

Making a Baby Shower Gift with my Daughter!

We have a shower to go to this weekend and I wanted to give a personal gift, not just buy something from the  registry.  I stumbled on the 20 minute baby blanket video on youtube and thought that would be perfect.  It's just two pieces of flannel sewn together and tied with yarn to make a large pretty blanket.  Perfect for tummy time on the floor or just swaddling the little one.

It took more than 20 minutes to put it together, but it was under an hour from start to finish.  I chose two pretty flannels, one pink patchwork one since "It's A Girl" and one Christmas pattern because it was colorful and pictures of cute happy children all over it.  Babies love staring at faces so I thought that would be perfect.  You put them right sides together, stitch and turn.  (I chose to topstitch it at this point so the edges would be neat which is why it took me longer to finish.)  Add some yarn ties to keep the blanket from shifting around when you launder it and it's all done.  I like the finished blanket and will keep it in mind for future baby shower gifts.

Princess School

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that you can be creative and mix things up.  My girls are enjoying Princess School this morning.  They are dressed up in last year's Easter dresses as we do our work.

Time's Change

This was a different kind of week in our homeschool.  Our oldest child really wanted to give public school a go, so we enrolled him in the local middle school as a 6th grader.  The house seems less full with him gone all day.  I am still homeschooling with my 9 year old daughter but I miss my son while he is gone.  I am excited for him!  His first week seemed to go very well.  My hope is that he is happy and successful at school and that he makes many new friends.

My 9yo completed Unit 9 in Bigger Hearts this week.  She is really starting to shine in her schoolwork this year. I am looking forward to the rest of the schoolyear with her and getting some more projects for the toddler going.

Short blog today but just wanted to get some thoughts down....

LIFE Girl's Club

Today is the monthly Girl's Club meeting for our homeschool group.  All girls from 9-12 are invited to join in the fun.  We get together to make a craft and play.  Today we had three girls who made fleece hats.

In December we will be decorating gingerbread houses.  That's my Joanie on the right!

Native American Crafts

Joanie is finishing Unit 5 of Bigger Hearts for His Glory this week and starting Unit 6.  I think these crafts may have been from Unit 4 though.

She really enjoyed the Native American "sand painting" project.  We took salt and added food coloring to it to make 6 different colors.  She sketched a design and painted over it with thinned out glue then sprinkled the salt on top to make the painting.  If we were doing the craft again, we would color the salt the day before to give it plenty of time to dry.  It was still damp and clumpy when she tried to use it.  It worked but not as neatly as she would have liked.

The other craft was to make an "indian blanket".   She drew a center line on the "blanket" then drew her designs on the top half and mirrored them on the bottom half to make a symmetrical "blanket".

Lunch from scratch

In between grocery runs and looking for something to make for lunch today so I created a Blackeyed Pea soup. The kids only complaint, it didn't go far enough.  Everyone got one bowlful and it was gone.

My Blackeyed Pea Soup:

1 cup dried Blackeyed Peas, soaked overnight then drained and rinsed.

3 cups water

2 celery stalks with leaves chopped

1 carrot thinly sliced

1/4 cup diced ham

3/8 teaspoon ground thyme

1 tablespoon dried chopped onion

2 chicken bullion cubes

1/2 cup Israeli Couscous (from Costco)

Mix everything but the cous cous and simmer for one hour.  Add the cous cous and simmer for 10 minutes.

Confessions of an Organizationally Challenged Woman

If you drop by my home unannounced and the van is in the driveway but noone answers the door, I'm probably hiding upstairs.  Just kidding of course, but seriously I am often embarrassed by the state of my home.  I am an organizational junkie.  I have cleaned and organized only to let entropy take its course and the house fall back into chaos.  I've missed appointments because reminder cards got misplaced or I didn't check my calendar.

Even as a kid I fondly looked forward to a new school year, with fresh pencils, notebooks, and a planner.  I loved organizing everything and dreamed of everything staying neat and tidy all year long.  In the same fashion,  I start our homeschool year organized with a fresh outlook each year.  I take the manuals and use Post-It ready tabs to divide it into sections: 

I organize things with boxes, baskets, tubs, and drawers.  But no matter how hard I try, it's always been difficult to keep up with my organizational systems.  This summer I am hoping to thin out our school resources and sell off what we no longer use.  I am considering boxing up books we won't need this year and storing them in the basement, while only keeping out this years books.  I need to consolidate the art supplies and restock them.  I also need to toddler proof the room and get the pencils, markers, etc... put where Lilypie can't get them.  She draws on everything!

A new year always brings new hope of being organized, one of these years I might even achieve it.