You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2009.
I wanted to draw attention to the Compassion button in my sidebar. I’ve sponsored a child through their organization since college and it has been such a great thing. Especially now that I’m married and have little ones myself. It’s great to be able to write and get to know the child and their family and it’s great for my children to be able to see that there are needy people in the world and to start looking for ways to reach out. Robin is in India right now, blogging for compassion and I would encourage you to head over there and check it out (Shannon has a list of some other’s that are there too). Even better, if you’ve ever considered sponsoring a child, do it now! There are children who have been waiting a long time for someone to sponsor them. You could help change a life and be blessed in the process.
Well, so much for my intention to post almost every day! I have to admit, I’ve not been getting up at 3:30 every morning! And the mornings I do, I’m pretty lazy about doing things I need to do. I have got some sewing done, though. By far, the thing that I’ve had the hardest thing thing with is exercise. It seems like I can always come up with a good excuse not to do it. But I guess one thing at a time. I’ll be happy just to get my house cleaner and get things more orderly here…then I’ll deal with the exercise! I still need to tackle a chore list for the kiddos (and me too). Right now it’s just kind of haphazard, assigning chores day-to-day. A little more structure would be good.
See, I said I’d been sewing. I made this top from Otto Woman 2/2008. I really like it and will be making it again. I did make several mistakes. The first was choosing a fabric that wasn’t as stretchy as the pattern called for. I didn’t want to use good fabric for a trial run, so I used this knit that I had picked up at Walmart. It doesn’t stretch much, so the arms are a bit tight and the bottom band wasn’t stretchy enough to fit the bottom of the shirt. I ended up gathering the bottom of the shirt a bit to fit the band. My main problem was getting the gathers to stay put. Do people typically baste knit gathers? My slid around a lot and I ended up having so many when I came to the end up the yoke seam that one side of the shirt is much more gathered than the other! Oh well…..it’s still wearable, which is more than I can say about some previous shirt atempts. Please excuse the untrimmed serging that is hanging out from the sleeve. Did I say serging?….um, yeah…did I forget to mention that I bought a serger? I think I did! I bought this and I LOVE it. So easy to thread and use. I have nothing to compare it to, but I’m sure enjoying using it. I just need to get more thread….right now I only have white.
I also atempted a real pants waistband. I think I did it wrong because the waistband ended up being too short. I had a terrible time understanding the fly directions and never did come up with a tutorial that made sense to me. I don’t do too well with written directions, I think. I used Ottobre 4/04, number 15 (cargo pants) for these. I’m so used to making elastic waist pants that I forgot to check the waist measurement first and they ended up way too big. So I ended up having to add elastic to the back. And no, the pockets don’t just look crooked because of the elastic. They really are crooked! I didn’t do those right either. But they are real pants. J said they are like store pants, because I was able to use my new snap pliars and put a snap to close the waist (Love those!). All this complaing, but really, I’m pretty happy with them. I think I will making another pair if I can get the waistband and fly ironed out. With less pockets though! I love the look, but it takes way too much time.
Well, I’ve been kind of absent posting lately. I have to confess, my scheduling the last few days have been rather pathetic. And I can see it in the way my house looks! And how grumpy I am by the end of the day *blush*. I guess at least that tells me that having a schedule for my day is helping at least a little bit. My favorite part of it…just jumping in where we left off and not trying to play catch up. On my lazy days, I don’t try and go back and exercise, though I must confess I always squeeze computer time in there somewhere and while I plan on catching up on my time in the Bible, when I get up late it doesn’t always happen. I’m trying to get better at that, though.
The next part of my schedule I need to tackle is my house cleaning/chores. I have yet to come up with something that works for me. I also need to incorporate some sort of chore schedule for the kiddos. I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions! I feel very in need of them!
Loved this post from mr.monkeysuit….it is so much of what I was feeling about my little Etsy shop. I almost came on here and announced my shop closing a couple months back. But I got busy and never got around to it. The funny thing is, I sold several things right after I made that decision! And I’ve had a great month (for me, anyway). I still am planning on continuing with the no-pressure Etsy shop. No promoting, no sewing unless I feel like it, etc. It feels much better and it’s not like I was supporting our family or something anyway! It’s nice to be able to sew things I WANT to sew and I know I’ll just be getting busier with summer coming, gardening, etc. Not only that, but I am sooo behind with my scrapbooking, it’s sad. So hopefully I’ll be able to do some catching up with that.
If you’re here from Sew Mama Sew, welcome! Glad to have you! You might want to come back in the next week or two, because I’ll be having a round of giveaways, including fabric scraps (good ones!) and some other things.
Some random tips for you:
- If you’re trying to get up at 3:30, don’t decide to work on reorganizing your fabric while sitting on your bed. You’ll eventually find yourself asleep while “The Thin Man” plays in the background.
- Child proof does not mean that a child can’t open it. And just because your six year old is sitting next to your 2 year old does not guarantee anything. And there is nothing more humbling than having to call Poison Control. Thankfully, he was totally fine!
Hope you have a great Easter!
How lame am I?! I have a coupon offer for ya’ll and I don’t even remember to post it! Fabric.com has graciously offered my readers $5 off any purchase, through April 15th. Just use the coupon code blogseemommy. And there’s no minimum purchase to use this coupon. Enjoy!
Finally got pics taken of the birthday sewing I did. Like I said, I was disapointed in how the faces on the bunnies turned out (Bunnies here….Ball here). I was going for this. I ended up changing them a bit, because mine just looked weird. I used this backpack tutorial, but added the backpack straps instead. It’s pretty cute, but I can’t get him to actually wear it! This tutorial was very, very long so I omited some of the pictures when I printed it. I suppose that’s why I got confused in a few spots. I’m still not sure I did it “right”! This tutorial looks very much the same as the one I used, but maybe a bit simpler?
Yesterday, DH was home sick so we got a late start. We have enough wiggle room in our schedule that we were still able to get the important things done. I even got to do a little sewing. I think that’s the main thing to make sure of if you want your schedule to work for you. If you cram it too tight and have it scheduled to the second, it’s only going to drive you crazy and you’ll always be behind!
Several of you have commented on how early I get up. Really, if I don’t get up then, I won’t be up until 7 (or whenever my kid’s get up). I am then so groggy and sleepy, with no shower and no time reading the Bible, it’s a terrible start to the day. If I was more disciplined, I might sleep another hour or so, but I’m not. That and it takes me quite a while to fall back asleep and I always wake up when DH does anyway. So it’s just what works for me right now.
What’s not working right now is how crazy early the kid’s are getting up. This morning my littlest woke up at 5:30. I cuddled with him for a bit and then tried to get him to go back to sleep. His crying woke all three up and then they were up for good. I have a hard time not being cranky about losing my quiet morning! I’m thinking we might have to go back to 7:00 bedtime. Though, since it took a good hour and a half for the two littlest to go to sleep last night, I’m not sure it will make much difference!
Some food sites I use for recipes and inspiration…..planning your meals ahead really helps, especially if you’re indecisive like me. You don’t have to make it on the day you’ve scheduled, but at least you have something planned!
-Simply Recipes….always a fun read and great recipes too
-Smitten Kitchen….a new one for me….yummy, yummy!
-A Year of Crockpotting….I can always use more crockpot recipes!
-Mennonite Girls Can Cook….the recipes on here just sound do good!
-Cooking During Stolen Moments….good simple recipes and great ideas to plan ahead
-All Recipes…I’m assuming this isn’t new, but just in case
-Recipe Zaar….same as above.
-Once a Month Cooking….I don’t actually do this, so I don’t really know of good sites…any ideas?
Love to hear some of your favorites….recipes, cooking sites, coupon sites, etc. Or just things you do to speed up your time in the kitchen or save money on food.
Ok…..I don’t know what made me think I could post without at least one day delay! So here is the post for Friday. We don’t do a schedule on the weekends. There are still naps and church on Sunday, but other than that it is open to have fun, work on projects, etc.
We got off to a later start on Friday. We have Awana (a kid’s Bible club) on Thursday nights, which puts us to bed late and I was feeling lazy. I really felt like the schedule helped us to get back on track, though. You just have to make sure and be flexible. I think that is the main difference between this attempt and past ones. I don’t feel like our schedule is our master. That and making sure it is realistic and planning in lots of cushion time.
I thought I would share a couple helpful resources with you. One that has helped me a lot in the past is Flylady. I don’t really follow her program at all anymore, but she helped me to get a better handle on my housework. I tend to want to wait to clean until I can clean everything….which of course rarely comes. I’ve gotten better about just doing a quick sweep, throwing a load of laundry in, or other things you can do quickly as opposed to waiting to do a big cleaning. She has a lot of helpful advice and tips.
Another site that was recommended to me was Donna Young. She has lots of printable schedules, forms, grocery list, checklists, etc. And it’s all free!
Someone asked how old my kids are. They are 6, 3, and 2. And yes, they are not always easy to get to bed that early. Our oldest is a great sleeper and usually is asleep first. Our other two have been more difficult to get to sleep. I don’t think it is so much the time as just a thing we’re going through right now.
If you know of any of websites that you think would be helpful, please share! I plan to set up a LINKY (if I can figure out how) so those who are wanting to improve your organization can help each other out! I think I’ll focus on ways to improve your food/cooking/grocery shopping, so sites, ideas, ect. related to that would be great.
I’ll leave you with a family funny, since I don’t talk about my kid’s too much here….adapted somewhat. 
J: What animal are you bringing to Safari Animal night at Awana?
JJ: I’m bringing my bear!
J: You can’t bring a bear! That’s not a safari animal.
JJ: Yes it is! Bears live So Far away. So they are So-Fari animals!
Can’t argue with logic like that!
Umm…lets just say that this day was a little more caotic! I decided to organize the boy’s room. It’s a small room with too many toys and it had gotten out of hand. It’s much better now, but I still need to finish up a bit. I think I’m still liking the schedule, though. Instead of time just getting away with me, I fit the cleaning into some different time blocks. All the boys got up early this morning (again!), so that helped too. I’ve been so lazy about sewing, though. I’ve been too tired when it comes time to do it! Several of you have commented about how early I get up, but if I don’t stay up then, I won’t be up until my kid’s are up. I just don’t do it! And that makes for a grumpy start to the day. So I’m giving it a try. If my husband can do it, I can, right?! And we do go to bed very early.
I’m trying a new recipe for whole wheat bread. It’s from this book. I’m letting it rest overnight in the fridge, so I’ll see tomorrow how it compares to my regular recipe.
There’s a giveaway here and here. I love Bit of Whimsy Prim’s patterns…and of course fabric’s always good!
And a couple things I’ve made recently. They haven’t quite made it to my Etsy shop yet, but they will soon. I’m just tired of posts without pics!
I tried to post this yesterday, but my card reader wouldn’t work!
Well, technically, this is day two! Today, I’ll start by telling you what my schedule looks like. Mine is a bit different than most, because my husband gets up very early to go to work. I’m using a copy of Managers of Their Homes, borrowed from my mom. This book has been highly reccomended to me by several ladies. I like that the way you do the schedule, it’s very easy to change it around. Instead of writing things in, they are attatched with sticky tack, so they can be rearranged easily. She also has lots of sample schedules in the back, which I found very helpful.
I’ve been very hesitant to do a schedule. We have certain routines, of course, like nap times, but one of things I like about staying at home is my freedom to plan my day. I was afraid if I had a written schedule in place, it would feel too regimented. But a combination of feeling like I’m always behind with housework, a long to-do list and too much computer time have made me decide that now would be a good time to give it a shot. Managers of Their Homes (some people call it MOTH, which is much shorter to type!) also has you schedule your kids day. So far, my kids have loved that idea. They enjoy seeing the little colored squares under their name. Of course, some are looked forward to with a little more excitement!
Anyway, here is my schedule, for now. I already see things I will change, but I’m not sure how I’ll tweak it yet. We’ll see how different it is by the end of the month!
3:30AM-Get up, Make DH’s lunch
4- Read the Bible, Pray
4:30-Exercise
5-Shower
5:30-Computer Time
6:30- Make Breakfast
7- Help kid’s get dressed
7:30- Breakfast
8:00- Breakfast Cleanup
8:30-Chores
9-School
10-Time with Happy Boy
10:30- Make Lunch
11- Lunch
11:30- Lunch Cleanup
12-Time with JJ
12:30- Story and put little ones to nap
1- Mama Time
1:30- Time with J
2- Dinner Prep
2:30- Sewing/Scrapbooking
3:30- Pick up/Finish Dinner
4- Dinner
4:30- Dinner Cleanup
5- Baths
5:30- Family Bible Time
6- Story, Bedtime stuff
6:30- Kiddos to bed
8- Bedtime
Anyone want to join me? Or have any tips you want to share? If you do, please comment or email me (same name, it’s a Gmail account) and I’ll share them in a future post. Hopefully we can help each other become more organized and less stressed! Oh…and in case you’re wondering, this isn’t my computer time (oops!), but we’re actually running ahead this morning. That and my kids are taking FOREVER to clean their room.
or else I’ll never find them again! Hopefully some of them will be new to you too.
-Free (and gorgeous!) Art…including one of my favorites!
-Beautiful refashion of a men’s shirt….make sure and check out this site she linked to also!
-These bunnies are just too cute! I made some for Happy Boy’s birthday…for some reason, my aren’t nearly as cute. I’ll post pics, though, when I get around to taking some.
