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July is Here!

And my beautiful first born turned 11 on July first! Is seems like she was born just yesterday so it’s kind of blowing my mind that she will be in middle school next year. It’s also kind of blowing my mind that we will be doing 6th grade and kindergarten x2 at home next year! ::sigh:: Homeschool tips welcome?

Let’s take a look at the June goals.

  1. Glow forge. I didn’t get the name puzzles cut out, but I did cut out lots of other fun things! Lots of fun acrylic keychains! I’m kind of addicted to the acrylic. <3

2. Keep current on Project Life. Well, I still need to do last week, but this week isn’t over yet so I’m still calling this a win!

3. September/ October Project Life. Nope.

4. EPP Diamonds. I got one border sewn on so that’s something. Then I got bored with that so I sorted my hexies into blocks for round 3!

5. Scrap May 2020 and June 2020. May is done! And all I have left to do for June is the calendar. Hoping to get that done by the end of the weekend. 🙂

6. Homeschool plans. This has been going surprisingly well! We’ve had a few times where we’ve skipped a day, but overall it’s going really well. The past 2 weeks, I’ve even added in 4 Montessori trays a week. The first week the twins weren’t too sure what to make of it, but this week they’ve been a huge hit! Especially with Mia. Might need a whole blog post for this one. 🙂

7. Caterpillar Quilt. I didn’t get the olives done, but I did get the limes done!

8. Low volume quilt. I got 3 more blocks done bringing the total to 6! I think I probably need 24? Unsure.

9. Track food each day. I did really good for the first half of the month and then I fell off the wagon hard. Between my anniversary, Kate’s birthday, and RaptorDad breaking his finger, there’s been a lot of special occasion treats and comfort foods. Need to try to find the motivation to get back on track.

10. Maintain sanity. Hmm.. I’d give myself about a 6.5 out of 10? I wouldn’t say that I’m looking forward to virtual school next year, but I think it is 100% the right decision for our family and I’m incredibly grateful that we are in a position to be able to do it with minimal disruptions to our lives. And I’m just glad that we’ve made a decision.

Other fun things I got done: 2 1/2 hexie blocks and 1 1/2 windchime blocks! Also, 8 Montessori trays! And a giant bag of trash out of the art room to clear space for Kate to have a desk in here. She has her own desk in her room, but this way we can work on projects together.

Goals for July?

  1. Windchime Block number 8. I’m toying with the idea of making this a smaller wall hanging that is only 4×4 instead of the larger 5×5. That would mean that I’m almost halfway done!
  2. Hexagons. I’d like to finish 4 more blocks. One is almost done, and then 3 more. I think it’s possible? Maybe?
  3. Keep current on Project Life. This is my favorite goal. 🙂 I’d also like to do at least 2 catch up layouts?
  4. Keep current on Scrapbook. This is working so well! I love working on this each weekend.
  5. Edit prints for scrapbook catch up. I’m pretty sure that my favorite print shop will be having a 4th of July sale, so I’d like to have 200 prints ready to order. I’m not sure how many months that translates into, but I currently have 65 prints ready to go which represent November and December of 2018 and January 2019. I’m not going to try to print pics for the whole gap because that would be 1. super intimidating 2. super expensive, but their print packages come in sets of 200 and I think I can probably do that. I’m hoping so slowly chip away at this so that by the time quarantine is over and our lives go back to normal I’ll have the gaps closed and have good systems in place to avoid getting overwhelmed and behind again. Current systems are working perfectly, so I just need to close that gap!
  6. Get rid of more crap! I am so overwhelmed by the amount of crap that I have! I think I need to be realistic about letting some projects go so that I have more space for the things I actually want to work on. Also, I need to let go of so many of the twins’ toys! They have tons of toys that they don’t play with anymore, but I don’t want to let them go because *I* think they are cool toys. Newsflash! Just because I think the wooden doll house is awesome does not mean that they do!
  7. Homeschool plans. We did G is for Giraffe, H is for Heart, I is for Island, and J is for Jalapeno! We didn’t do much of anything for H is for Heart which is ironic because I actually have a ton of Valentine’s Day Montessori stuff already made up! But the other weeks were great. Now trying to decide on K. Koala? Kangaroo? Kabob?
  8. Order school stuff. I think Kate needs a monogramed uniform shirt even though we’re doing distance learning? Not sure. Probably need to get a few polos for Xander too if they have kinder zoom calls?
  9. Backyard swim at least once a week!
  10. Maintain sanity.

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F is for Frog Take Two

We are finally figuring out this homeschooling thing! I’ve decided that since we’re stuck at home anyway, we might as well continue the schooling this summer. The twins actually need to work on some stuff before kindergarten, and Kate would be bored to tears if she didn’t have any kind of structure this summer. So homeschool it is!

I’m running two different themes concurrently: a letter a week theme for the twins and a Harry Potter theme for Kate. They are all 3 working out of workbooks. (They each have a summer bridge book. Additionally, Kate has a math workbook since she’s hoping to test into advanced math, and the twins have a kindergarten workbook since I figured it would be good for them to preview some things for next year.) I won’t bore you with the details of that, although if there is interest in our daily routine/ schedule, I’m happy to post more about it.

Let’s focus on the frogs first. I dug out my old F is for Frog Montessori trays. I’m also trying to have a sensory activity for them each week. This week is was water beads in the water table along with some frogs and lili pads to make a little pond. They loved it!

We also painted with our frogs one day. I put out a rainbow of paint (since we had been talking about the color wheel) and a couple of frogs.

My thought was that they would stamp the frog feet through the paint, but they ended up asking for brushes. Still, super fun!

Even Kate joined in!

And, of course, how could we have a frog theme without looking for tadpoles! We can’t go to the pools right now, so this was a fun treat. I’m even thinking of making it a weekly field trip!

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June is Here!

Anyone else feel like May was 2 years long? Just me? Let’s check in on those goals.

  1. End of year pics/ Interviews. Done! The pics may still be on my camera, but I took them. lol. This remains my favorite scrapbook.
  2. Keep current on Project Life. Amazingly, yes! I almost can’t believe it. It makes me want to catch up even more because doing Project Life in real time is so amazing.I think I have low level stress/ guilt over how behind I am.
  3. Edit/ order prints for Project Life gap. Big fat nope on that front.
  4. Finish EPP quilt top. Well, I finished the diamonds. I still need to add the border and then I think I’m going to applique some bees overtop since some of my seems are crap. lol.
  5. Scrap April 2020. Yes! And it feels so good to be doing current things! I don’t even want to think about my scrapping gap…
  6. Homeschool schedule. Yes! So much yes! I’ve even made some printables for myself. lol. I’m going to try to share some more on the blog later, but short version is that (after much trial and error) I think I finally have a good system worked out. It went well today anyway. lol.
  7. Letter a week crafts. We’ve done one every week! And they are so cute. Even Kate makes one with us which is super fun.
  8. Add in sensory activity. Didn’t do awesome on this in May, but we’ve already done one for this week! And now that I have a better schedule, I think I’ll be able to keep up with it going forward.
  9. Low volume quilt. I only got one additional block done, but hey! It’s one more than I had in April. lol.
  10. Maintain sanity. I’m about a 5/10 currently. lol.

June goals!

  1. Glow Forge. Y’all! We got a glow forge! And it is super awesome!!! I need to make some name puzzles that my grandmother wants to give as baby presents.
  2. Keep current on Project Life. Love doing this in real time! My ultimate quarantine goal is to bridge my Project Life gap so that going forward I can do it in real time. Stretch goal is to close the scrapbook gap! lol.
  3. September/ October 2019 Project Life. I finished September today so I have faith that it can be done!
  4. EPP Quilt. Get the borders sewn on and design something for the bees.
  5. Scrap May 2020 and June 2020. I loved doing Project Life in real time so much that I’ve started doing the same with the scrapbooks. I only have 4 more layouts to go for May! And I’d like to do June weekly.
  6. Homeschool. Keep up with the homeschool plans!
  7. Caterpillar Quilt. Must dig this back out! I’ve just about convinced RaptorDad to redo the babies’ room into a big kid room so I have to finish their quilts! At bare minimum I need to design the olives for applique.
  8. Low Volume quilt. Maybe one more block?
  9. Track food each day. Um, the Covid Quarantine has not been kind to my waist line. I started today. Wish me luck.
  10. Maintain sanity.
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It’s May!

I’m a bit behind on ye old blog, but a late update is better than no update, right?

So April…

  1. Butterflies and Caterpillars. Y’all. I didn’t do squat on these. Oh well. I’m sure that the motivation to work on this project will return eventually.
  2. Start EPP diamonds. Not only did I start, but I’m close to finishing! I only need to make 2 more hexagons! And then finish stitching the rows together. And add a border. And quilt it… Ok, so maybe I’m not close to finishing it, but I did make loads of progress and I’m really happy with how it’s turning out!
  3. Journal. Not so much with this, but I’m going to try to do better next month.
  4. Project Life. I actually managed to keep up with this! And I finished the scrapbook pages for March 2020!
  5. Windchime Quilt. Not much progress to report here, but I did prep another center ring.
  6. Birthday Party Prep. Well, quarantine is not how I imagined spending their 5th birthdays, but it went as well as it possibly could.
  7. Mixed Media. I did the whole back of 20! So much fun. I think I’m going to order another pack!
  8. Scrapbooking. I got a whopping 27 total pages done in April! 13 Project Life layouts, 2 old layouts from 2018, and 12 current layouts from March! I’m so pleased. Fingers crossed I can keep this momentum going. If I could be at least somewhat caught up by the time quarantine was lifted, maybe I could actually stay somewhat current.
  9. Montessori Trays. Not so much, but I did add in a letter-a-week craft and they’re really enjoying that. I’ve also watched a lot of Montessori at home YouTube videos so there’s that. lol.
  10. Maintain Sanity. The jury is still out of this one! lol.

It’s already the 6th of May, but let’s make some goals anyway.

  1. End of year pics/ interviews. I’m also going to stage a “class pic” of the 3 of them since school was cancelled before any of the class pics.
  2. Keep current on Project Life.
  3. Edit/ order prints to fill in the Project Life gap. This is going to be a huge undertaking, but I really really really want to be able to do Project Life in real time. I think I need to do 23 week though… Not sure I’ll actually be able to get that done, but it sure would be awesome! No lie, I was feeling better about this plan before I counted the layouts.
  4. Finish EPP Diamond quilt top.
  5. Scrap April 2020. No sense in getting further behind. lol. Once I close the gap on Project Life, I’ll start thinking about doing the same with the scrapbook. It will be a much larger undertaking. lol. I’m currently working on October 2018.
  6. Create a homeschool schedule. One that we can actually stick to for the summer. I think the kids are all going to need varying degrees of structure from me since there will be no actual school work or zoom meetings from their schools.
  7. Continue with Letter a Week Crafts.
  8. Add in a related sensory activity at least once a week.
  9. Work on Low Volume Log Cabin Quilt. Did I mention that I started a new quilt? lol.
  10. Maintain Sanity.

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Scrapbooking!

Man, it has been a long time since I have had any real scrapbooking mojo, but I think it’s back! It started when we went into lockdown and I decided that I needed to work on Project Life in real time. So now I have a system and it’s actually working! Each Sunday night, I go through my phone and choose photos from the week and email them to myself. Then on Monday, I squeeze in little pockets of time to print the photos and get them in the album. They are not the most creative layouts that I’ve ever done, but I think it’s way more important to get the stories captured in real time than to agonize about which embellishments to use. Week 11 was our last week “in the wild” so during week 12 I completed the week 11 layout. And it was like a dam broke! I’ve now completed weeks 11-16 in real time, and then I got inspired to try to fill in the gap. So I went back and did weeks 1 and 10. AND weeks 32-37 in the 2019 album! I think this is actually a doable way to stay current and catch up. Fingers crossed! I have 8 layouts in 2020 to do and 16 in 2019.

Then I decided, what the hell, maybe I should give scrapbooking another go. lol. And it was super fun! I ignored my huge backlog of layouts in favor of scrapping some pics from March. I’m enjoying doing Project Life in real time so much that I think I’m going to keep focusing on current layouts. It would be amazing if I could actually finish the previous month’s layouts in real time!

So what does this mean for actual goals? Well, first priority is to keep doing the previous week’s Project Life layout on Monday. Then work on both the previous month’s scrapbook layouts and filling in the gaps on Project Life. Once Project Life is up to date, I’ll think about a plan to catch up the actual scrapbooks which is going to a huge undertaking. I think I’m currently on August of 2018. ::sigh:: But, I made a scrap list for March 2020 and I’ve started working through it. I also got out all of my mixed media goodies yesterday and made 9 background so that should speed up the process. 🙂

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My CoronaCraft

Despite having multiple ongoing projects that I need to work on, I decided that this would be a great time to start a whole new project! And you know what? I have no regrets. lol. That’s right y’all, I finally started on my 60* diamonds!

With my hexagons, I didn’t know any better so I just cut out all of my papers on my Silhouette. It worked just fine, but I was bummed that I wasn’t using a standard size and so I couldn’t get an acrylic template to use for fussy cutting. This time I ordered my papers and acrylic template from Paper Pieces and they are awesome! So much easier than cutting them myself. 🙂

I’m not sure what the final quilt will look like, but obviously it’s going to be scrappy!

Specifically, a scrappy center with a coordinating low volume outer.

And naturally, there are plenty of fussy cuts!

And it should come as no surprise that I’m going with a full on rainbow theme. 🙂

I’m trying to decide how big to make this, but I know that, at minimum, there will be 2 hexies of each color. That could make a pretty cute wall hanging. But maybe I should go all in and plan on a lap quilt? Thoughts?

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April Goals

This is a bizarre new normal we’re living in. :/ But I still love goals and I still love crafty things so lets see how March went.

  1. Butterflies and Caterpillars. I did almost nothing on this. But, I did decide on one of the green fruits! I’m going to do olives. 🙂 So maybe I’ll make some more progress on it this month?
  2. Scrapbooking. Well, I did order some cardstock so that’s something. lol. Still need to set aside an evening and make the backgrounds.
  3. Project Life. I didn’t make any progress on the older layouts, but I did decide that, with everything going on in the world right now, I needed to document more “in the moment.” So I ordered my binder nad page protectors for 2020 and decided that I would do the previous week each Monday. And I’m happy to report that I have weeks 11, 12, and 13 done! At minimum, I’m going to continue with this plan, and eventually I’d like to get to where I can slowly fill in the gap. Of course, I’m now sharing my office with my first born, lol, so we’ll see.
  4. Road trip prep. Obviously we cancelled our spring break trip so I never made a book.
  5. Hexies. I am happy to report that I surpassed this goal! I got the first half of the hexie quilt finished!
  6. Pixilated Heart Quilt. This has been put on hold for now since, obviously, I’m not currently having sewing class. At least not in person.
  7. Bluebonnet Pics. Done!
  8. Tomatoes. We actually planted them! And now that we’re home all the time it’s actually getting watered. lol. Kind of wishing I’d put in a more substantial garden now.
  9. Blog. hahahahahaha.
  10. Move more. hahahahahaha.

I was going to add a pic of our bluebonnet pics, but Kate’s doing school on my big computer right now. lol. Maybe I’ll make it a post all its own!

So, April goals.

  1. Butterfly and Caterpillar Quilt. Finish butterfly and caterpillar applique. I think I only have half of a caterpillar and 3 or 4 butterflies left to do. I’d also like to prep the olive applique.
  2. Start on EPP diamonds. Since I lack all self control, I went ahead and ordered some papers and a template to start a EPP diamond quilt. lol. It should be arriving today!
  3. Journal every day. I ordered journals for Kate and myself and we’re attempting to journal every day. So far so good!
  4. Project Life. Keep up with current layouts.
  5. Windchime Quilt. I finished my 6th block yesterday! Only 19 to go. lol.
  6. Birthday Party Prep. The babies are turning 5 and I need to figure out how to have some kind of virtual birthday party for them…
  7. Mixed Media. I want to go ahead and make those mixed media backgrounds.
  8. Scrapbooking. I’d really love to get a few traditional layouts done this month. Maybe 5?
  9. Montessori Trays. I made the babies some last month and they seemed to enjoy them for a day or 2. We’ve been working in a workbook for their “homeschool” which they actually love, but I’d like to change it up a bit and have some other activities for them to do.
  10. Maintain Sanity.
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Hexagon Update

You guys! I did a thing!

Well, I did half of a thing. lol. Still! I’m super impressed with myself! This represents 1/2 of the final king size quilt, or 1962 7/8 inch hexagons. All thread basted and hand sewn. Plus, I have almost all of the hexies basted! All of them are cut out, but I ran out of papers so I have about 150 more to baste.

I’m setting this aside for a while to work on some other projects, but I am so glad that I did a big push on it this month! Now I’m going to reward myself and have some quality time with my windchime quilt. Then who knows? 🙂

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Self-Isolation

Warning: disjointed stream of consciousness ahead.

Anyone else feel like this is a bad dream that they’re ready to wake up from? I feel like the world has gone crazy in the past week. But as I’m encouraging Kate to focus on the positives, I thought I would try to force myself to list some of the positives as well. So in no particular order:

  1. We have a back yard! And it’s nice outside! Seriously, this is huge. My kids are spending hours outside every day and I love it. Note to self: might need to put some sunscreen on Xander…
  2. We are all safe and at home together. So glad that we have each other. So glad that RaptorDad has the ability to work from home. So glad that the kids have each other.
  3. Siblings. This one is so huge that I have to make it its own line. I struggled so much with the worry that Kate would be an only child while we were dealing with infertility. I am so incredibly thankful that they have each other.
  4. Cloth wipes. I so much don’t want to go there, but if we run out of toilet paper we do have cloth wipes from when we were cloth diapering the kiddos. At least we won’t be reduced to using leaves. lol.
  5. English Paper Piecing. It’s so slow going that I’ve got plenty to work on for a loooooong time. lol. And I’m making some serious progress on my hexies! I’m hoping to have fully half of it assembled by the end of the week.
  6. Video chats. I’ so glad that Kate can talk with her friends so she doesn’t feel too socially isolated. And I can talk to my family! My mom, sister, grandmother, and I all had virtual happy hour last night!
  7. Bluebonnets are popping up! And we can take bluebonnet pics while continuing to practice social distancing! We won’t get a cousin pic, but I can still take pics of my niece and nephew by themselves.
  8. Home schooling. We’re still technically on spring break this week, but I’m expecting Kate’s teacher will be sending home work for her to do next week. I’m not cut out for homeschooling permanently, but it’s been eye opening to just be able to spend some time with my kids. Usually our days are taken up by drop off and pick up at 3 different schools, therapy, after school sports and activities… I do really miss those things, but this forced slow down has actually been kind of nice.

I’ve had Montessori trays on my to do list for months, but I’m actually making some now. lol. Maybe I’ll start posting some of them on my blog. This week the littles are doing some St. Patrick’s Day themed activities.

I keep seeing people recommend keeping a journal because this is such an unprecedented event. Not sure if I’ll do that online or not. Maybe?

For now, I’m just trying to focus on the positives. I’m also trying to relax and just go with the flow. Those of you who know me personally know that’s not my natural state. lol. For example, I generally have a pretty strict “no screens during the week” rule and I’ve thrown that out the window. But I am trying to set some limits so that Kate doesn’t just stare at a screen all day. Current policy is that she can video chat with her friends before 9 or after 2:30. It seems to be working? The kids are outside running around and they’ve created some kind of elaborate game. I’m going to consider that PE. lol.

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March Goals

How is it already March?!? February just flew by. Since I didn’t manage to blog at all last month, I’ll try to make this a juicier recap with some pics. 🙂

February Goals:

  1. Butterflies and Caterpillars. I did pretty good on this one! I now have all of the red, orange, and yellow blocks done, plus I finished all of the 9 patches! Here’s a pic showing the caterpillars all laid out on my grandmother’s bed. I was going to do the butterflies as well, but Mia’s school nurse called so we had to cut sewing day short so I could go pick her up. I’m feeling decently well about my progress, I just need to make some decisions about the green and blue fruit. Why are decisions always the hardest part?!?

2. EPP Workshop. You guys! I was so nervous about this and it ended up being amazing! RaptorDad helped me to make a powerpoint (read: RaptorDad made me a powerpoint as I quietly panicked the night before the presentation. lol)

3. August Project Life. Well, I managed to do one week so that’s something? I need to commit some serious time to this.

4. Scrap 10 current pages. Nope. But I think this week I’m going to have a mixed media playdate with Kate and then I’ll have some backgrounds to work with.

5. Montessori Trays. Sensing a theme? Although I did find some Leap Day printables that were fun so that’s something at least. I went ahead and printed off some St Patrick’s Day printables while I was there.

6. Girl Scouts. Finally a success! (of sorts. lol.) This probably needs to be it’s own blog post, but let’s just say that all of the paperwork is finished. And we all really enjoyed our unscheduled trip to the beach. lol.

7. Hexies. I’ve actually gotten some stuff done with these! I’m actually almost done with my last super hexie; I should be able to finish it this week. Of course, I ran out of papers and I can’t cut anymore since I’ve switched computers, but I have enough to finish the main block and I’ll just baste the extra 3 of each hexie as I take the other papers out. Feels good to be making some progress!

8. Blog. hahahahahahaha.

9. Date nights. None. Whomp whomp. BUT! I have a plan! My friend and I are going to start swapping babysitting so that we each get one date night a month. And RaptorDad surprised me with an at home murder mystery kit and I’m super excited about it! I think we’re going to do it this week! <3

10. 10 k steps a day. This was a pretty epic fail. In fact, I’m not even going to look up the data.

To be honest, February kind of kicked my butt. I had 2 huge girl scout events (horseback riding and NASA), which were super fun, but involved a ton of paperwork and organization. I had to deal with not only Kate’s cookies, but the troop cookies as well (although I have the most awesome cookie mom ever! Without her, I would be in a loony bin.) Mia and Kate both got sick. And I had to plan for the EPP workshop. But that’s all in the past! It’s March now and I have a feeling that it’s going to be awesome. 🙂

So let’s set some March goals!

  1. Butterflies and Caterpillars. I need to decide on the embroidery (why am I having such a hard time committing?!?) and actually start doing it. Now that all of the 9 patches are done, I can start assembly of the rows that are finished once the embroidery is finished. I also need to make some decisions about the green and teal fruit. If I could figure that out, I could prep it and take it to camp this month when I go with my girl scouts.
  2. Scrapbooking. I want to get some more white cardstock and do a big batch of mixed media backgrounds. Then hopefully I can get some pages done.
  3. Project Life. ::sigh:: I love this project so much, but I just can’t seem to get any momentum! Maybe I should try to order a bunch of prints. Editing the pics is always what slows me down… So yes, I think my March goal will be to order prints for August through the end of 2019. Spoiler alert: there’s no way I’m getting this done. lol.
  4. Road Trip Prep. We decided to go to Houston for a few days over spring break and Kate is requesting a road trip activity book. Ask and you shall receive! What kind of theme… Maybe I should look up a badge she can earn? Decisions, decisions.
  5. Hexies. Finish the 12th super hexie! And sort the prebasted hexies for the last 3 blocks of the second set.
  6. Pixelated Heart Quilt. I found the perfect backing fabric! I’d love to go ahead and making this into a quilt sandwich and start quilting it!
  7. Bluebonnet Pics! Y’all! The bluebonnets are starting to come up! Time to find some sundresses and plop my kids down in the weeds!
  8. Tomatoes. Speaking of plants, I bought 2 tomato plants. I’m sure they’ll be dead soon, but for now they look ok! Probably because they’re sitting on the windowsill in my kitchen so RaptorDad has been watering them. lol.
  9. Blog. Maybe I’ll do better this month? lol.
  10. Move more. I didn’t start until today, but I’d like to move my body for 30 minutes a day. This can be as simple as going for a walk. (Which I did this morning with Xander!)