We made it y’all! There were points this spring when I wasn’t sure I would survive my time as a learning coach, but I am pleased to report that all 3 of my children made it through. With good grades even! It’s been less than a week and I’m already starting to forget the hards parts in favor of remembering the sweet moments. Stockholm syndrome? Perhaps. But I’ll take it. lol.
That said, I did get into a bit of a funk last month and ended up reading a bunch of junky romance novels instead of doing anything crafty. I love reading, but I have noticed that my overall mood is better when I spend at least some time being creative each day. I’m experimenting with a habit tracker this month and one of the things I’m tracking is if I do anything creative. I think it will be interesting to look at at the end of the month.
We also made the huge decision to let the twins go to a 3 week *in person* camp at their school. The school is offering it to help get the kids catch up on their academics since so many of them were distance learning this year. I’m nervous about letting them go, but the covid levels in our part of Texas are actually super low right now and I’m fairly certain that most, if not all, of the adults involved will be vaccinated. Also, their school did a great job with their covid protocols this past year. There were very few cases at the school and there did not appear to be any community spread within the school. That said, we will be watching the numbers closely!
Since the kids will be spending 3 weeks at camp, and then another week at Mobile Loaves and Fishes camp (more on that later I’m sure) I’m going to set some more ambitious goals for this month. Honestly, I’m giddy at the thought of having so much free time! I think RaptorDad and I might even go on a lunch date! But first, let’s look at my pitiful progress last month.
- Hexie Block. I worked on this, but did not finish.
- Butterfly Effect Quilt. I got all of the papers cut and organized and even made the first butterfly. But y’all, this pattern is so teeny tiny and the pieces are super fiddly. I put it away for a bit because I was unhappy with how the first butterfly ended up. I’ve since learned a new method for EPP, the flat backstitch, and I’m cautiously optimistic that it will work better.
- Pinwheels. I made some progress on this one, but not as much as I would have liked. I’m up to a grand total of 74 pinwheels out of 120. And I’ve got the next batch of 26 to the 1/2 square triangle stage.
- Low Volume Log Cabin. No progress, but I’ve been thinking about how I want to piece the back. Need to decide on that.
- Bee Yourself Quilt. This was my one win. I designed a new hexie flower petal block and made 4 of them. I love it so much that I’m considering making a whole quilt out of them. lol.
- Ice Cream Soda. Well, I did manage to get round 4 finished, but very little else got done.
- Windchime Quilt. Same here. Part of the problem is that we’ve had a ridiculously rainy May. Usually I work on my EPP while the kids are playing at various parks, but we’ve been stuck at home lately.
- Scrapping. I got a single layout done.
- Project Life. Nada.
- Summer Homeschool Schedule. Not so much a schedule since we’ve got a single week before camp, but I did order our workbooks and we’re doing a page or 2 a day. Mia does more because she loves workbooks so much. Xander begrudgingly does a page a day, but once he sits down he has fun. Kate’s working on some math, which she doesn’t love, but which I think will help her a lot when it comes time for Algebra next year.
June Goals!
- Hexie Block. I would like to finish 2 blocks this month.
- Pinwheels. I’d love to finish these this month! And I think it’s possible.
- Scrapping. This is going to be one of my big goals for the month. Honestly, I’d love to edit, print, and scrap all of 2021 so far. It’s a big goal, but I think with my new plan of doing fewer layouts it’s possible.
- Project Life. I’d also love to get March 2021 and April 2021 done.
- Bee Yourself. I’d like to design and prep another block. Maybe the clamshell block? Or the bookshelf block? Sushi block? Not sure yet, but I think getting one more done is doable.
- Habit Tracker. I’m interested to track my habits and see how it correlates to my mood. I suspect that spending more time being creative will lead to a boost in mood, but we’ll see?
- Windchime Quilt. I’d like to finish block number 12 and get that row added to the quilt.
- Clean Art Room. I would like to do a big clean out of the art room. I feel like it’s time to clear out the ghosts of projects past. lol. There are some old projects that I’m just never going to finish and I think it’s time to let them go. It would also be super nice to have the stuff that I actually do use more organized!
- Field Trip Time! We didn’t manage to make it to a state park in May. We did discover some cool new play grounds though! Still, I’d like to plan a few day trips for the summer. These will likely be happening in July just because of camp, but I want to get them on the books so to speak.
- Advent Calendar. I’d love to spend some time on this this month!