Keeping at it

I am still at it with my 40 days until baby!  I am not gonna lie, it's a little bit crazy here with my incessant folding and refolding to make everything look nice.  F just smiles and looks the other way.  He can not comprehend why I would want to organize closets that no one sees.  Hello....I see them!  :) 

FAIL

For Christmas this year we bought exactly one gift.

Our little family got an iPad to share, and the hubs made an awesome little video to recap our crazy hectic full year.  

Since I love to be crafty, I thought I would make a cute little case for the iPad for when we tote it around in bags.  You know, just a little extra protection.  Sew Mama Sew had a cute tutorial, so I followed her directions.  Now, I knew we were putting a case on it (it's called the Survivor or something like that.  Super bulky, super protective, should hold up to a 5 year old) so I added an inch to all of her dimensions.  I also used felt rather than her suggested flannel for the inside to be super soft.

I made it.  I loved it.

I went to put the iPad in it.

It doesn't fit.

It is probably 1/2 inch too small to fit the bulky case.

Ugh...FAIL.

So, if anyone has an iPad Air and wants a cute little case just let me know, cause this one is just chilling on a shelf in my house with no use.  I am certain it will fit without a bulky case on the the iPad.

Laundry Detergent

The very first step we took when we were making the switch to more natural cleaning products, and watching what we were putting on/in our bodies was Laundry Detergent.  It was super easy, and I loved it.  I have told countless people the simple recipe...

You can imagine my dismay when I realized the detergent isn't so great for you.

I read this article, and immediately freaked out.  Ugh, great.  Borax may be linked to reproductive issues.  It's also not so great on your septic tank (if you have one).  Great....

Here is my newest find for making my own detergent.  I have made it, but I have not tested it out for very long so I don't know how well it will wash.

I am also on the search for a better detergent alternative for washing diapers.  Apparently homemade detergents cause the yucky build up that needs stripped off?  Who knew?  Not me.

So, with that I say,

"When you know better, you do better."  (Maya Angelou).

I am not going to dwell on it.  Just time to change and move on.

This Week (In Photos)

We played dress up a lot.

Which meant tea parties often.

We did school more in PJ's than in regular clothes.  Really now, it is so cold out, I am getting bigger by the second and fit into exactly 1 pair of jeans, so jammies it is!

The times we did venture out we didn't stray too far from home.  Hello Library.  And 2 1/12 hours later we finally left.

There were naps had by all (in a tent no less).

More school.  This time we are actually dressed, but not matching.  Polka dots with leopard print pants anyone?  

O got seriously frustrated with me this week, because I wanted her to work on her penmanship.  She could not fathom why I made her write the same numbers over and over and over.  She kept telling me she knows her numbers, therefore she doesn't need to write them.  Yes, little one there is a reason for the madness.  When your 2's look more like Z's and your 3's look like squiggles we need to practice form.  Yes it is boring.  Yes, you will have good handwriting if it kills us both!

O went crazy with the drawing/doodling/writing and took up the whole kitchen counter yesterday afternoon.  Before I knew it, I looked at the clock and it said 4:15.  Whoa!  Where did the afternoon go?!  I looked around the house, and there were my sewing projects I was working on, yarn on the sofa, material laid out all over our bed, dishes from lunch still in the sink, Legos all over the living room floor.  No dinner ideas.  Yikes.

So, I sent my hubs this message, and frantically tried cleaning up so there was at least a place to walk into when he got home.  

O couldn't believe it was dinner time either.  She was super engrossed in her stickers and asked why God made the fun days shorter than the boring days :)

Nesting

I would say the nesting bug has hit in our household.  It all started at my 32 week check up.  The midwife was chatting with me, and asked if we had anything ready for baby.  

My response, 'Uhh no, and truth be told it just dawned on me that I am 32 weeks, and baby will be here soon.  I should get on that.'

So, my New Years Resolution was to plan it (not panic) and make a list of things I wanted done before baby arrives.

Jan 1-Feb 16 is 47 days, so factoring in that we really have no idea when baby will arrive, and not wanting to stress myself out I stopped my list at 32.

One project a day until I get it all done.

So far, as I write this I am 13 days into the new year, and 13 projects down.  Now that's not to say that I have done 1 a day.  It's more like accomplish several in one day and then take a break.

O being the ever helpful one, decided she would help mama out by doing her dishes.  She left more of a mess than we had to begin with, but I appreciate the thought and how hard she was trying :)

The type of projects on my list ranged in how time consuming they were.  Some are simple like reorganize the spice cabinet.  That I can do in 5-10 minutes.  Some took an entire weekend (or an entire snowstorm).  Like my project to clean out the school closet and sort/organize the baby toys.  For some reason, I chose to do these two big projects simultaneously.  My poor family, climbed over, walked around, and pretty much avoided the kitchen/dining/living areas of the house for 3 straight days.  After a day and a half of take out, the kitchen was finally in working order again, and I could resume cooking.

Look at that closet :)  Every subject has a tote, and everything fits in the tote.  I will have worksheets printed before baby arrives (ok, realistically I should go buy a 1st grade workbook, and leave it at that but we will see what actually happens).  O will have x amount of worksheets to do each day, and then she will need to pull out a tote with a red label (math), blue label (language), and an orange label (Science/Geography/Extras).  I color coded each subject too, how OCD clever am I?

While the hubs was home he rocked out my honey-do list and put up all those photos in our living room.  Much nicer to walk into, instead of seeing stark walls.  Yes, we know there is a blank spot.  We have a plan for it, I just haven't got around to finishing it.

Oh, and all those frames....they are hung up with Command strips.  Perfect for us renters who don't want to fill in 100 nail holes.  Seriously, those things are worth the price.  

Did you set New Year Goals? Are you sticking to them?

Happy Birthday To ME!

My birthday happens to fall in between Christmas and New Years, and since F had two whole weeks off, he got to hang out with me all day on my birthday.  

He did a spectacular job planning.  

To bring in my last year in my 20s I got a haircut.

We went out to eat at the same place we celebrated our anniversary.  What can I say, I like the food, even if we were surrounded by old people :) 

O and I posing on the train car out front.

The whole family got adjusted at the chiropractor.

'The boy' and I both received several hundred hugs from a snuggly girl, who proclaimed every 2 minutes, 'HAPPY Birthday Mama' in the strangest accent I have ever heard.  It must be leftover from all those good ole southern folks we met in Virginia ;)

While I was getting my haircut F snuck off and picked me up a Dairy Queen cake.  Not just any DQ Cake, an extreme chocolate blizzard DQ cake.  Oh. My.  It was delicious.  

I am a bit of a diva every year and complain because everyone else in my family has the option of getting a DQ cake for their birthdays except me because the restaurant is normally closed.  Well, F found one that was open.  I was elated.

We also spent several hours playing Legos on my birthday.  I was showered with love and it was a great day.

It was a perfect day.

Snowed In

It's been a while....again.

Since the last time I posted the hubs came home and said, 'Surprise!  I have the next two weeks off work.  I had vacation days I didn't know about, and if I don't use them I lose them.  I will be home through the new year.'  Whoa.  Ok then.

I am not going to lie, at first I thought this is going to be a very long two weeks.  I love my husband, but when he is home O thinks it is time to run around the house like a wild hyena and jump on daddy every.single. minute.  Her volume level also doubles when he is around.  This mama likes quiet and calm.  It was not going to be a great combination.  

Surprisingly, we adapted fairly quickly (this mama set some strict guidelines).  We survived, and rather enjoyed the extra time with F.  

Then he went back to work last Thursday, and we had school.  Longest Day Ever.  It took us 6 hours to get through what should have been an hour of work.  O just wanted to take her time, and had a serious case of ADHD.  Highly distractible.  Ugh, by the time we get back into our routine baby will be here and it will be all messed up again.  Boo!

Then the Snowmagdon happened.  

And guess who had more days off work?

Yep.  4 day weekend after going back to work 2 days.

Well, amidst the power outage and the freezing temperatures we did a little school. 

I made a 'button' on O's hand that said 'at' and she went around and put her hand behind a list of consonants and read the words.  She loved that I wrote on her hand.  Markers on our skin is usually pretty frowned upon, so this was a big deal.  She asked if I would draw a ballerina on the other hand.   

Honestly, I am pretty surprised at how well this activity worked.  She would say the letter sound on the wall, then the name of the letter, then pushed the button on her hand, and then said the word.  I thought she was doing it backwards, because if she was going to say the letter name, I thought it should be first, but she had no problems reading the word so I let her be. 

After asking 8,000 times if she could go play in the snow, or go help daddy shovel, I scooped up a dishpan of snow and brought it in for her to play in.  It seemed to work.  She used the dropper and colored water on the snow for a solid 45 minutes.  She made a cave with two entrances, and all kinds of things.  

  I love days like this, where she is focused and gets her school work done and everything just seems to go smoothly.  However, I am starting to appreciate the harder days as well.  Those are usually days where we are learning heart lessons and not so much textbook lessons.