Reset

Life get chaotic sometimes, even agonizingly horrific as loved ones betray, and friends fade away. 
Since I've last blogged:

• divorce  (not my idea)  traumatic for my 3 kids
• full time job 
• dating
• new job
• move to a new city
• ex-spouse moves cross country, leaving kids again
• remarriage
• left church of 35+ years attendance 
• pregnancy
• had to leave job
• summer visitation, aka no kids for several weeks
• finding new places to worship
• new baby

Life has been way too crazy, difficult and painful to blog about. And all the lovely exciting wonderful hopeful things have been happening are keeping me too present in the moment to stop and reflect much.   

Today is our 1st anniversary, and I am so very very thankful for my husband Mark. He is a loving, kind, God follower, and we are battling the enemy together, as well as reveling in the everyday gifts that our good Father sends to us.  

Evie is a sweet addition to our family as well.  It is such fun to have a baby again!   Things are really different since the last baby around here.   :) 

Spring Cleaning, Part 1 School space clutter

I've been bitten by the spring cleaning bug!   Actually, for me it's more of a spring ORGANIZING bug.  I rearranged my living/school area.


Before :

I had problems to solve: No home for the backpacks, school items in separate areas of the house, no boxes for Mark, office supplies spread out, bulletin board too hard to see or get to, and no space to get around the table easily.

I had also decided that I need to SEE where things are easily, so I placed the other 2 bookshelves within view of the workspace.  I also reorganized the small kidlet supplies and activities into boxes. 

After:

See the pink backpack box?   LOVE this.  Our home is old, and has no coatcloset, and the coat hooks in the narrow entryway are FULL.  We co-op once a week, and love to dash out the door with books sometimes, so backpacks are a necessity for us.

Sterilite boxes are great!  I like to organize my activities with lots of bits in those.  I had done Activities in a Bag, and I really like to concept, but was getting irritated by the ziplock bags in plain sight.  So, I tried shoebox size boxes from Walmart.   That worked really well for the few sets I tried, so I went back to get more.   It turns out that you need to BUY MORE than you need right now,  since if you like the boxes, finding the same boxes later is almost impossible, they change the lines far too frequently. 


I also was able to finish getting my workboxes up.   It's too expensive to buy these all at once, so I've been doing it slowly, over several months.   The drawers hold 12x12 x3 items, so almost all their schoolwork goes right in. On days that I know will be rough, like Mondays, I like to prefill the boxes and just let the kids go for it, so I don't have so many questions or arguments to deal with.
I have my printer, laminator, and their accessories here as well.  

While doing all this I discovered that great way to keep a board from falling down behind the shelves is to put something behind it, like a chunk of marble.. or a brick.  Yes, it took me years to realize this... :-P

Baking Mat Givaway!

So, Y'all know that I love to bake right?  No, these haven't been actually cooked yet, but I offer them as proof that I do, indeed love to bake.  :-)  When they  emerged from the oven, full of numminess, I was too busy eating them to take another picture.

   If you too, are addicted to bread and cookies, you might be interested in Kristen's blog, Sage & Chocolate.  She's giving away a professional silicone baking mat. (aka silpat type thingy)  Hop on over there for a chance to win!

Summertime Amid the Storms

I was going about my daily toil last week, and it hit me all of a sudden,    .......I'm happy...  WHat???

Yes, I was surprised by joy.   The funny thing is, I thought that I was doing fine before last week.   I guess when the storms of life become almost constant, you turn off your expectations for a while.

We have had a lovely month or two.  We have gotten work done, and handled stresses that have happened with love and peaceful responses. (Yes, even the attempted break-in at our home)  I feel a bit more comfortable in our daily routine, and I am finally getting a grip on teaching Shurley English.   The kids are doing a bit better, and Mark is starting to play funny little pranks.  When he climbed on the changing table facing left hand instead of right, he laughs "Look Mom, I'm the wrong way!"  HAHAHAHhahahhaaha!  

Levi is starting to take interest in his history reading, and I caught him reading the Book of Presidents for fun last night.   Miss Charlotte is a delight,  has loved learning to cook ala Anika, and she is burning through her history reading with speed and comprehension.  My wonderful super-hubby has been so patient with our school messes, and has been happy to help pile the half finished school grading off the table for dinnertime. 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."


But look what's in front of that verse!

"This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. "

This is written to a people in captivity, not in their own place, not at home, torn between what they wanted, and what God in his merciful providence had given them. They weren't going back, nope, not for 70 years.  Their kids might go back, but not them. 
 
Sinning spouses, bratty kids, disease, birth defects, robbery, poverty, house fires, friends who turn out to be enemies in disguise, injuries, unidentifiable long term pain, church tearing wolves, a nation in unrepentant sin, death of those we love

EVEN THEN........  "I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not evil."    

 A psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple.^[b] Of David.
 ¹ I will exalt you, LORD,
   for you lifted me out of the depths
   and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
² LORD my God, I called to you for help,
   and you healed me.
³ You, LORD, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
   you spared me from going down to the pit.
 ⁴ Sing the praises of the LORD, you his faithful people;
   praise his holy name.
⁵ For his anger lasts only a moment,
   but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
   but rejoicing comes in the morning.
 ⁶ When I felt secure, I said,
   “I will never be shaken.”
⁷ LORD, when you favored me,
   you made my royal mountain^[c] stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
   I was dismayed.
 ⁸ To you, LORD, I called;
   to the Lord I cried for mercy:
⁹ “What is gained if I am silenced,
   if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
   Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
¹⁰ Hear, LORD, and be merciful to me;
   LORD, be my help.”
 ¹¹ You turned my wailing into dancing;
   you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
¹² that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
   LORD my God, I will praise you forever.

Food Fun with the Preschooler

My Hubby has his own business, so if things are busy, he must stay late, and lately he has been stuck at work till around 10-11 every night but Sunday. Dinner with just the kids & I has become much less formal. I had the bright idea to involve the kids in the dinner choices a couple nights ago. Mark usually gets to decide between square or triangle sandwiches at lunch.   So I asked Mark what he wanted for dinner, and he promptly piped up "Need soccle sanish!"  (circle sandwich)

Mark has begin using NEED in the morning quite  a bit lately.  He usually upon waking, shouts with emphasis from his room, "Need Up Mom! Need up!"  Sometimes this changes to "Need cracker", or "Need breakfast Mom!"   On one memorable morning though, we heard with much amusement, cries of " NEED APPLE PIE!!!!  Need Apple Pie Mom!"

School Setup #2- Curriculum Choices

Bible 

• Our church, Reformation Covenant Church, has a great Sunday school program that goes through the whole bible if you start at the beginning.   I have the kids do their bible reading for Sunday school first thing every day, and we work on the memory verses during school time as well. 
• WSC-A friend found this study, Catechism for Kids going through the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and I plan on working through it with the kids beginning this fall.

Language Arts
I have had quite a rough time of it with teaching language arts.  I am not a writer, nor do I know why things are spelled the way they are. I just know when they look "right" to me.   Because of this I didn't realize that my son needed MUCH MORE instruction in spelling until about 3rd grade.
Here's what I have tried that didn't work for us in grammar:

• Waiting till 3rd grade for formal grammar( very bad idea if you ever MIGHT use a private school) 
• Abeka 
• Misc. free online grammar workbook that we were doing for a while, then realized that there was no answer key!

I finally Settled on First Language Lessons for elementary grammar.   This was just the right approach for kiddo & myself. Sadly, I realized that this was the best fit for him just before we decided to put the kids in a private school for last year.  My son was placed a grade lower than I had thought mainly because of the weakness in the LA areas.  They were using Shurley English, so this was completely the right decision for us. So, here we are again, homeschooling.  I am going to use Shurley English.  If I were starting again from the beginning I would definitely use FLL again, but he has now had a whole year of Shurley, and he is doing well in it.

Spelling... GACK!   I used TATRAS for reading instruction/phonics.  However, I stopped when DS#1 was reading well.   I didn't even think about the impact this might have on his spelling.

I don't know how to spell. I just do it.
Remember, I just use my very accurate visual memory combined with my reading addiction love for reading.  This means that most of my spelling issues are things like "Which version of the word colour/color should I  use?   Grey or gray?  This meant that I had no idea of how to TEACH spelling. I was surprised that although DS could read well, he couldn't spell very well.
    
Sequential Spelling did nothing for him.  He could only spell the words by figuring out the pattern, and the base words were often completely wrong.   A couple friends had been talking to me about Spell to Write & Read.   I was semi interested, but the teachers manual is very hard to work through. It is NOT open & go, so flipping through the book was a turn off.   I was surprised when Levi came home from private school with a spelling rule chart from the SWR program. Charlotte was in 1st grade there, and was doing very well with her spelling.   Levi was ok with the newer rules that were introduced, but the spelling lists that the school used were designed for those students who had already done 3 years of SWR.


I was able to hear Ms. Sanseri speak at the OCEAN homeschool conference in June. This was very helpful with the reasoning why she taught what she does and when.  The book is still hard to figure out, but hearing a few of the spelling rules explained in the lecture on how English is a logical language was just amazing.  Starting SWR at the beginning with an older reader is just fine, and he will move upward at the rate he learns, not based on grade level/age. So, I am now using the Spell to Write and Read core kit for phonics and spelling.

History
I prefer to keep on the same time period with all my kids, and I only have 2 in school.   I imagine that teaching more kids in several different time periods would be frustrating.  My parents used Bob Jones,  Abeka, Rushdoony's World History Notes, and America, the First 350 years, along with lectures from Dad.   A few of my siblings used Sonlight.  I was and am an avid reader.   I remember much of what I read from actual books, and the lectures Dad used. However, I don't remember a lick of the textbooks.  A few pictures from the textbooks stick in my brain, and I could pick out the book we used by its cover, but not what they were about.


All this led me toward Tapestry Of Grace.  I couldn't afford it new when I found it.  Thankfully, Exodus Books had the last 2 units of year 1 classic. I was able to get a good taste of the way TOG worked without spending a ton.  I love it.  I then bought year 2 used from homeschool classifieds, and I was happily working along through it, and then disaster struck! I was missing a week. (it's a 3ring binder product,so the seller lost some of it)  I really didn't want to skip that week, it was the week comparing and contrasting Islam and Christianity. I decided to buy the redesigned unit to compare the two, since I was missing a whole week, and I could get the digital version that day.    It was so spiffy that I have been saving up for the redesigned ever since then.  I am currently finishing up our first pass through Year 2, (it's summer, we're reading only)  and will start year 3 in LG & UG in September.

Fine Arts

• Charlotte Mason style Picture Study  I have great hope of spreading this out to match our TOG weekplans. 
• Meet the Masters   This is artist study & hands on art projects-Homeschool buyers co-op had a 3 year subscription for about 1/2 price, so I bit.    
• Composer study - Again, I am weaving this in with Tapestry.  There are composer & artist listed in the TOG teachers notes, but no comprehensive listing of artist or composer by week plan.   I want that so I can file my prints by the week we will use them.  This means more work for me, but I'll only have to do it once for each year plan.
•  Music Lessons- I would love to pay for piano lesson for DD, and something else for DS, but the $ just isn't here right now.  I am toying with the idea of buying the Alfred piano kit & teaching them at home, but that too requires money not currently available. 

Writing  

I need to figure this out more, so I am currently doing Writing With Ease for 2nd grade DD, and I am a bit in flux with DS.  I am currently having him do a report using a cluster diagram on  Killer Bunnies, a silly and fun game he loves.   We are going to do Imitation In Writing  this fall, and while we work through that, I need to get in depth with the IEW teacher training. 


Languages
DS started Latin for Children  last year in school, and we will continue that.  DD wants to learn Latin too, so she is doing Songschool Latin.

Mathematics

• Saxon older grades are the best for us, but k-3rd is way too scripted for me.  DS is a math kiddo, he likes to read the chapter, work the problems and go. He is currently in 5/4 and will be starting 6/5 in the early spring.
• I prefer Horizons for the younger grades of Math.

 Links for help:

Some of my favorite places for information on curriculum choice are Exodus Books, a lovely LOCAL homeschool bookstore with great service, the Well Trained Mind Forum, and curriculum fairs.  Of course, if you know other homeschoolers, (I do, almost a whole church full :-D )  then they can be of great assistance in evaluating different choices.   Just don't get swept up in a large wave of "Everyone likes it so you should try it" if what you have is working.    The hs curriculum fairs are worth going to just to be able to look at particular things you may not have access to in real life.   The OCEAN conference allows you to buy an exhibit hall only pass so you can browse & research without going to the expense of doing all the lectures.  This can be a great option for a more seasoned homeschooler, or a non christian. 

Anyhow, sorry for the lengthy post, but it's nice to get all my thoughts down in one spot.  :-)

School Setup #1- the plan

OK, I've been BUSY.... very, very, busy.

We are homeschooling again this year, and that means lots of preparation for me.

I spent the last couple months working on planning, and getting everything set up for the current year.  Hopefully this will provide a framework for all the home school years to come.   I hate reinventing the wheel each time I set up a year plan.

I had several steps to my planning this year, and hopefully I won't have to be redoing it all the time. If I don't have a well thought out and on paper plan, I get distracted and can't remember which step I was on.
In the middle of the process I realized that my gazillions of post it notes stuck all over the kitchen weren't very helpful, so I wrote all that I still had to finish on the white board.


 Here's the rough outline of my planning process.  

1. Deciding on subjects & curriculum
2. Buying Books
3. Book storage
4. Library tracking/setup
5. Lesson planning
6. File set up
7. HST setup for all non TOG subjects
8. HST setup for TOG  by unit
9.Print/Copy/File all that paper (I hate trying to remember to print things out the day I want them)
10. Prep the working environment  both static and on the go!

I didn't exactly do these in this order, but I wish that I had, it would have been much simpler. Next year I will have to look back at this post to see what I wanted to do differently.

Cloth Toddler diapers #2... Big Kid, long waist.

My son is a solid boy.  He has a long waist and is a nighttime supersoaker.  Huggies size 6 good nights are not up to the challenge.

With the kids getting out of school, I am cloth diapering again.  This is tricky since the regular Gerber prefolds are too small to pin on, and they need to be doubled for DAYTIME.  :-P   The rise is the most important fit issue for us.   Mark is a boy, and needs lots of absorbency up front.  If he has a leak,  it is always at the waist.   The low rise style diapers just don't work for him. 

Here's what we are trying for more absorbency currently:

Peanut Butter and Ellie Larges
RISE: 19"
SOAKER: Rectangular Lay in
SUPER ABSORBENT!   When you stack these next to the regular Gerber prefolds they are much thicker! I can get away with 19" rise because the waist is super stretchy, the legs aren't elasticized, and the COVER rise (L thirsties) is long enough.  I can still pin/snappi these, but I usually just lay them in the cover.
Amy is no longer sewing diapers, but you can still snag them off DS used sometimes.  I loved the set she gave me when Mark was born, but I need more larges, so I'm looking pretty regularly on DS for them.
See how thick they are? Here are 5 pbes and 5 gerber prefolds side by side. 

Meg A Roo's L Extrended Tab Prefolds
 RISE: 19"  after washing ( bought them used)
SOAKER: none
These are bamboo fleece, so I would expect pretty good absorbency.  :-)   These pin on well.


 
Piddle Poddles TODDLER size OBV/ AI2 Cadillac (ai2 and obv fitted =same rise. )
RISE:21.5 Stretched  YIPPIE!   this is the best rise for Mark
SOAKER:  shaped,  1" below waist snap in
Might need a doubler for car trips/etc.  The AI2 performed well the first time we used it without a doubler or washing a ton to prep.

  
Holden's Landing Toddler size AI2
RISE : 19" Stretched

SOAKER:  2 layer shaped, snaps in about 1/2 below the back waist, so too close.. might stick out when on... :-P  Great absorbency though!   There are 2 layers to the soaker, and a lay in doubler. 
I missed the fact that they are coming out in a larger size, the junior.  This would probably fit Mark a tad better. Oddly enough, the rise is listed as 20", but I could only get it to 19" before washing.   The JR size will be around 23"



Here is the HL laid out on top of the PP.  See the size difference without stretching?

HL snap placement for the soaker.. too close to the edge!  The best placement I have seen is on Little Boppers , they have snaps about 2" down from the top edge.. perfect.   I would prefer a snap in the front.  If you did that, when you are using with a boy, the absorbency is where you want it.

Fun with bread dough

There is something about shaping dough that I like. I remember well how much fun it was to get up early and make bread art. I did a giant shaped turkey for thanksgiving one year when I was growing up.  Whimsy Bread was the recipe I used then.  I believe it is from a 1970s sunset magazine issue...


I wish I had a picture of that giant Turkey bread loaf! This is a bear along the same lines, but not as cool...

Whimsy Bread


Source: Ask .com

Ingredients:

1 pkg yeast
1/3 c milk
¼ c warm water
¾ c soft butter
½ c sugar
½ tsp salt
5 eggs
About 4 ¾ c flour

In a mixer, blend yeast and water. Let stand 5 min. Add butter, sugar, milk, salt, and eggs. Add 2 c. flour and beat on medium for 10 minutes. Mix in 1 c. flour on low until thoroughly moistened. Stir in 1 ¾ c flour (do not knead). Cover air tight and let rise 1 ½ hours. Beat to expel air, turn out onto a floured board.

Overlap two baking sheets, cover with foil and butter.

Tips on shaping: The dough will expand, so make the shape skinnier. Butt pieces close together if joined, leave 2 inches if separate. Snip dough for surface detail. For attached stuff, set into holes in punched dough.
Cover shaped dough, let rise 30 min. Brush w/1 egg + 1 tsp water mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. Let cool on pan 10 min. Slide onto wire rack to cool or tray to serve warm. Cool completely before wrapping. To warm: 325 degrees for 20 minutes.

Dinner Rolls... the easy way

In an attempt to fill my family's bellies with less expense, I have been messing around with breads... This was the best success yet.

I stumbled across the recipe on Nancy's Recipes and had to try it.... EL YUMMO!

Awesome Bread Machine Rolls

1 cup water
2 Tbs butter, softened
1 egg
3 1/4 cups bread flour (start with 3 cups and see if you need the extra 1/4 cup ~ I always need it)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp yeast

Put all ingredients on the pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Use the dough cycle.

When finished, pull apart into 15 (or more) balls. Place on greased cookie sheet 2″ apart and brush with melted butter. Cover and set in slightly warm place to rise for about 30-40 minutes or until nearly doubled in size.

Bake at 375º for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove and brush with butter again.

Makes 15 or more depending on size.

This dough was LOVELY straight from the machine... All I did was shape it in to a strange version of Parker rolls, rise again, and bake. They were fabulous.

I found a nice place ( Bread Machine Digest ) with all those spiffy "how to form rolls" instructions. I have been fascinated by these diagrams since I was a kiddo leafing through my mom's Betty Crocker & Tassajara Bread cookbooks.

After school snacks.... Pretzels!

I was shocked by how much more food my children need now that they are not being taught at home. Since they have PE (hockey, volleyball, tumbling, dodge ball) twice each week, and twice per day field recess, they come home each day from school ravenous.

My car just after pickup sounds like this:

Mom: Hi kiddos! How was your day?
L & C overlapping: , Mom! I'm hungry! Can we go to McDonalds?
Mom: NO!!
L&C I am thirsty! Can we have a snack?
Mom: YES, but only when we get home.
L&C: But we're STARVING!!!
Mom:I think you'll make it home before dying...
L& C: I did good on my quiz, so can I have a candy bar?
( I did this for the first month if they did well on their Bible verse test, and now it is coming back to haunt me)
Mom: NO FOOD TILL WE GET HOME!!! You may have a healthy snack then...
L& C: We're/I'm soooooooooo huuuuunnnnnggggrrryyyyyy...!!!!!!!!!

I inform them of the punishment that will occur if they speak about it again until we get home, and after chatting briefly about school, I turn up the radio and enjoy the clouds & birds on the way home.

We didn't really eat many snacks until school started. For C's first grade class, they asked me to send 2 snacks per day for her. I began packing lunches that included a juice drink, sandwiches, and 2 other snacks. The class policy was no sweet snacks, so the oatmeal cookies I had planned were out. We then switched to store bought snacks which although SUPER yummy, were a bit more than I would like to spend... 2 bags of chips, per kid per day = way too much money on chips.

Lately I have been sending maybe an apple, and a slice of homemade bread. Today I began learning a new addition to the snack arsenal... Homemade pretzels...! I prefer to buy snacks, but this is MUCH cheaper (about $1.54 total) and not that hard. The most time consuming part is the kneading and rolling of the pretzel dough into ropes that makeup the pretzel shape... plech!

We'll see how the starving students like them....

Soft Pretzels
2 1/4 tsp Yeast
1 1/2 C. Warm water
1 Tbs. Sugar
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
4 1/2 C. Flour
1 egg (lightly beaten for glaze)
Coarse salt

1. Mix yeast, water & sugar in bowl. Allow to stand till foaming (about 5 minutes)
2. Stir in flour & salt. ( I think slowly is better)
3. Turn out onto lightly floured board or counter and knead about 8-10 minutes till smooth and elastic
4. Divide into 16 pieces (cover & keep the ones you aren't working with yet from getting all dried out... )
5. Roll each bit in to a 20" rope , and form into a pretzel shape ( or letters, etc.)
6. Place each as you make them onto a lightly greased baking sheet, cover and let them rise for 20 minutes.
7.Preheat the oven to 425 and brush the egg onto the pretzels, sprinkle with salt (or something else, like cheese, etc)
8. Bake for 15 minutes or till lightly brown. Cool on rack


OK, I messed this up and they still came out yummy, I just dumped all the flour in the bowl at once. This meant I couldn't mix it all into the dough properly, and it was REALLY hard to knead. Sometimes the amount of flour in bread recipes needs to be tweaked. I have a dry cold house, and I usually need less flour than called for.

Anyhow, this made kneading a nightmare.... I did it though, and then when I was doing the rolling out, I forgot to keep the balls of dough moist... I had to use water on my hands to roll them out, and used the counter with a bit of moisture on it.

Then to get the dough to rise well in our icebox house, I heated the oven to 170, left it on for 5 minutes, turned it off, let it cool a bit, and popped in the rising dough. I am not sure how long to hold the door open for, but this is the only way to get the dough to rise here. Well, the only Mark proof way.. (Our radiators are too close to the ground for safe dough rising) I have also heard of using a heating pad, and a couple towels under the pan, but we don't have one.

So you can flub it up a bit, but the pretzels still are yummy!

Just before baking:

My cost per batch is about $1.54, or about 10 cents per pretzel. (40 cents per day) The cost of the single serving chips is about .36 per bag, or 1.44 per school day

You could lower this by using different toppings. I figured the cost using roughly 2TBS coarse sea salt, but you could use regular salt, or just use cinnamon sugar, Parmesan, etc

Stay on target .... stay on target.....

I get sidetracked easily.. When we started school in September,. I had resolved to iron out the kinks in the household maintenance system, and to have a routine that I was able to keep up with. I had a partial home cleaning schedule, and was working out the tweaks, then illness hit our home.

Asthma attack, chest congestion, fever, sore throat, eye growth issues and a bout of painful planar fascitus made for a very confusing and long Oct/Nov chaos. Then, to top it off, the almost 2 year old spilled coffee on my laptop, making it difficult at best to work with, (keyboard/mouse weird start up issues.) We had recently had to have a friend install a new hardrive on the desktop that died last may, and we hadn't transferred all the financial info over from the lap top yet.

The clouds lifted, we were mostly better, then the baby had a fever again, and I totally forgot all about resetting the Celmer house. I was talking to Mike about school the other day, and I decided to draw up a comparison chart of all the different methods available to us in the year to come along with a detailed cost and effectiveness analysis. As I finished that, I realized that I hadn't even updated my housework notebook yet... It's been 3 months.

FOCUS!!!!!!!!! This is easier said than done.

Craft organizer givaway...

I love crafting... knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, cardmaking, quilting, beading, etc. This is just part of who I am, I create things to bless my family and friends.

There is a downside to this though, where to keep it all.... Each of these lovely & fun hobbies has assorted tools, books, consumable items associated with it. I have only run across one item that would actually get it all organized, the Workbox. (play the video, you will like it!)

The company makes several versions, and they are currently having a giveaway of the slimmer, lighter version, The Paper Tower. This would enable the lucky owner to have all her scrapbook/cardmaking items stored neatly in the living space while looking neat & clean.

To enter the giveaway, you need to go to Rachelle's Writing Spot and follow the instructions. Happy Crafting!

Toddler diaper reviews....

I have a toddler. It's hard to find cloth diapers that fit him well, and he is only 18 months old. We use pampers size 5 overnights for Sunday because he is a heavy wetter. We'll need to switch up to 6s next because he is wide of hip, and 5s seem to be too skimpy in the rear lately.

Here are a few of the latest styles we have tried. I left off prefolds and fitteds, because Mark is a wiggler, and Mike isn't really into anything too complicated.

Bum Genius 3.0 -- ONE SIZE.... pockets
I bought these as seconds from cotton Babies, and I liked them for a long time, then I realized that something was wrong. The PUL (waterproof layer) had bubbled and peeled away from the fabric it was supposed to be backing.. This only happened with certain colors, and I am pretty sure that the PUL fabric was a bad batch. However, since these were seconds they were not under warranty. I had used them 6-7 months before I realized what was happening to them.
Quality- poor in the long run
Fit - these stopped working well before we hit the 35 lb mark. We needed a longer rise.
Closure- Velcro, I loved this at first because of the adjust-ability, but after they started falling off because the velcro would randomly come undone, I am less enthusiastic about aplix or velcro.
Reliability- Eh, ok I guess, not great, we had wicking (leaking) at the tabs from day one, and then with the pul issue, all the green ones are pretty much dead. The wicking isn't a problem if you stuff with the right amount of insert.
Sensitivity - The suede cloth was great for a while, but irritated him when he got bigger.
UPDATE: MArk has thinned out a wee bit, so we can get these on again, but without a pant to hold them on, they come undone when he runs...now I understand the snap only people :-)

Fishnoodles - OS all in 2 -Seems thinner and less sturdy than the other diapers. I am afraid to rip it by stretching the tabs.
Quality -OK, not as sturdy as I would like.
Fit- ok for now, not sure about later. (small range of waist size)
Closure- Snap
Reliability- good, but works best with the snap in layers that came with it. Not so hot over other thicker inserts.
Sensitivity-No issues here! :-)

Bumkins -- lots of cute prints
Quality-- OK the waterproof layer in these is NOT pul, but some sort of water resistant stuff taffeta???.... ALWAYS leaked for us.
Fit- Fine, they have larger sizes, and we used these when Charlotte was potty training.
Closure- velcro, but held together really well
Reliability- Poor, these leaked each time we used them, not around the legs, but straight through the fabric.
Sensitivity- This was the first cloth that we ever tried with Charlotte, and when she realized that she was WET, her eyes got big as saucers... the inner is cotton, like a prefold.

Rump-ar-ooz OS pocket Cute,
Quality- Held up well so far, of course the fleece inside pills a little bit.
Fit- ok for now, not sure about later... these are getting small, mostly from double stuffing the front. (hey, I have a superwetter BOY)
Closure- Snap
Reliability- The inner gusset is great!
Sensitivity- no issues

Little Boppers - OS AI2-
Anne at Little Boppers is the fastest ship in the west! She was so prompt with shipping, that I would get her packages first even if I had ordered something a couple days before buying her dipes. The fit it great, and I LOVED these as soon as I opened the package. The fleece is now pilling a bit, but that happens to all fleece that is machine washed, at least all the fleece I've ever tried.
Quality- Great so far.
Fit- great! --
Closure- Snaps, and there is a cover for the snaps that are inside the diaper
Reliability- work very well
Sensitivity- No issues, the inner snaps have a cover, so nothing is rubbing against baby's skin.
The soakers that she makes are the best I've seen for a snap in multi layer. There are 3 sets of snaps to attach it to the shell, which gets great coverage where you want it. It also has multiple layers that all snap together, and you can get extra layers up front, or in the middle area. Because of the multiple layers it dries in one cycle, but is super absorbent.

Eli Monster AIO- these are uber cute, but they seem to always need a doubler for us, I just wish she also had a style with a snap in soaker... Or maybe I need some new doublers, I have old cotton babies rectangular ones that are a tad too wide thorough the crotch to fit most diapers well.
Quality- good
Fit- OK for now.
Closure- snap.
Reliability -OK with proper doubling. Not really nighttime worthy, but her new pocket styles might be. :-)
Sensitivity-No issues at all

Tweedlebum- XL I bought a few used L ai2, and they need to be used with a doubler now. I also bought one lonely used XL, with a custom prefold soaker & booster. It is great, and I would love to buy more. They offer custom embroidery... SO COOL! we have a pirate ship, two musclecars, and a monster.
Quality- good
Fit- fine, but we need the Extra Larges now at 18 months, but it is really hard to find XL dipes at all, so no complaining here!
Closure- snap.
Reliabilty - Great with proper doubling, and great on the hard to find prefold soaker! not really nighttime worthy
Sensitivity- Suede cloth irritates Mark, so we had to pay extra for velour. :-)
UPDATE: I saved up enough to buy a custom from her, and the older style seems to work better for us, the new soakers are long & thin, but they seem to have twisted up inside, making them very non flat.; Also, the new one I bought just isn't as nice as the used ones. So, I probably wouldn't buy again.

Green Bottoms Knit & pul cover with snap in minky topped soaker (a12) - L
I was surprised by this one. I was trying to get the largest Ai2 diapers that I could, and this didn't seem like it would work that well, but it is quickly becoming a favorite.
Quality- seems fine, time will tell... :-)
Fit- Surprisingly good, the snap attachment is far enough down in the back that it provides enough coverage in the front for a boy. Many other diapers that I tried with a snap in soaker had to be unsnapped to cover the front wet zone.
Closure - snaps or aplix, your choice
Reliability - good! The huge amount of absorption means that sometimes I can get away with just switching out the soaker and reusing the shell. However, you need to check the soaker after drying to make sure that it is all dry. We usually need 2 cycles to dry ours. Also, since the outer is knit, you need to have enough absorbency or it will wick a little bit.
Sensitivity- The minky is very nice, cushy, and non irritating.


Why do I bother with cloth? When I was potty training Charlotte, I realized that we were spending about $35 a month just for nighttime only diapers (Levi had enuresis for a while)
I bought 2 cloth diapers for each kiddo (Happy Heiny Trainers) and just washed them each day. We only used them at night with the big kids for about 6 months, but I still have them ready and waiting for Mark to grow into them. Anyhow, this experience opened my eyes to the fact that cloth was not as gross as it used to be! NO HORRID WETPAIL or dunking in the toilet! Cloth can be leakproof and easy.

The eeeeeewwww factor is reduced by using flushable liners to flush away the ick, or just use a regular paper wipe to toss any ukko stuff...

If you like paper, go for it! But, if like me you find the paper diaper expense too great, consider trying cloth. If I know you in real life, I'll spot you a diaper or two, so you don't have to spend a lot to try it out. :-)

Semi-permanent Project Time!

I need to do something each week that lasts a little longer than the average floor sweeping does (about 5 minutes)

Here is what I did Friday.


I think I will eventually get around to hand embroidering some details on the Guitar, but for now, he has another long sleeve shirt to wear. That is, he will, as soon as I wash the coffee out of it. Yes, he got my mug after about 1 hour of new shirt joy. :-)

The back


The boy... my favorite part!

Back to school time...

My kids are attending a private christian school this year. There, I've said it. I've been a bit nervous about telling people, because I know there are wonderful lovely folks who I love and respect who will be unhappy about this.

Some have deep convictions that they should ONLY homeschool their children and that no-one outside of their family should teach them. Some just can't afford a good christian school, but are OK with using them.

Even if you are in the latter category, it can feel very strange to have a friend not homeschooling. I was in that place myself a few times. I couldn't imagine sending my sweet kiddos away, to a place of strangers. I remember crying because a very good friend who had kids close in age wasn't going to homeschool, as I had assumed. I had visions of co-oping with them, and joint field trips to the zoo, farms, etc.

Then I had 2 in school and a very busy toddler, combined with an increasing need to have a welcoming environment for my husband to come home to. (He had become a small business owner and was SUPER busy) I wasn't pulling it off. We were swimming in a sea of stress, chaos, and unhappiness daily, or just not getting the schoolwork done. I was having to choose, keeping on track with teaching, or keeping on track with my wifely duties.

Can a homeschooling Mom do all the school and house managing well? YES!
Can everyone do this in all seasons? Maybe not.
For our family, it became best for all parties for the kids to be in a classroom setting for at least a year. And of course, for me to focus more of my time on the other duties that had pretty much slid away in the chaos of trying to teach 2 grade levels simultaneously and clean up the baby's 3rd giant mess of the day. I want to able to do well, not just stay afloat.

So, having identified the issue, we brainstormed. We looked into help from both angles. Housecleaning, Christian school, laundry help, etc. We live in a fairly support group poor community... our church family has a few people who co-op together privately, but no formal homeschooling support group. I know of a single christian family that homeschools in our town. Beside, we live 30 minutes or more from most of the people at church with school age children. Merry maids was pretty expensive, and not all that we needed. A "Mother's helper" would have been useful, but I don't know anyone close by who could do that. We don't even have a local babysitter. (THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM!)

We had been talking about it a little bit, and were leaning toward school, and then we had an unexpected tax refund. It was the perfect timing of need and provision of funds.

So, here I am, rising early, packing lunch, driving, cleaning, driving, cooking and sleeping. It has been a whirlwind of a week, but I think after we adjust to the schedule, it should work quite well. The kids are doing very well, and their teachers are great.

Does this mean we will never homeschool again? Probably not.

Does this mean we will no longer be involved in the church homeschool community? NO WAY! I would love to get a group going to support other moms in the same position. Crashing and burning is no fun, and we should be involved in "one another-ing" one another. Maybe we don't all have to be the does-it-all-by-herself-super-mom all the time. :-)

The Shabby Nest: A Super Fantabulous Product Giveaway

The Shabby Nest: A Super Fantabulous Product Giveaway

My dream givaway....

I am a craftaholic, I admit it. I get all happy and must tighten the purse strings when a new craft gizmo is released. However, there are a few things that I think I would actually use, and the giveaway at The Shabby Nest has what I want, the Silhouette digital cutting tool. (think printer, but with a knife instead of ink)


I know, you are too busy to scrapbook, but this cool thing can do vinyl too... Yes, those awesome birds on Amy's dryer can now be yours. :-) You can use it to cut stencils and then etch glassware with them, and they also have temporary tattoo paper to cut out! My kids think that this is fun, but we view them more like stickers that last for days than "tattoos." There are no cartridges, it just cuts what you want to give it from your computer.

Wishful thinking is fun sometimes isn't it?

Car trip fun

It all started 12-13 years ago, when my family was looking for a home to buy. We looked at every house in Oregon city that was close to ideal. For those who know it not, Oregon City is all hills. My little sister was 6ish at the time, and she got bored in the car on the way sometimes. Sooooo the faux-roller-coaster-car-entertainment was born. When driving up a hill, you make clacking sounds like a roller coaster heading up to the top, and then, when you rush down the hill on the other side you say (quietly in an inside voice) "Wheeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Arm raising, waving, and grinning ear to ear adds to the fun.
I still occasionally do this myself.


To my surprise, the last time were out & about, Mark started doing this to... He isn't very good at the "w" yet, so it was this in a sweet happy baby voice, "Eeeeeeeeeee!!!"

If you don't mind a bit of noise in the car, you might show your kidlets the joy of roller coasters too....

Loving Laundry tips...

If you are tired of sorting & folding the giant mountain, here are some things that may help.

1. Don't have 15 outfits per child over 2... this means you won't have as much to do when people run out of clothes. Maybe simple, mix & match around 6 playoutfits, and 2 church ones will suffice... main pont, PARE DOWN on excess laundry.

2. Pack up non current clothing... no, I don't mean style silly! Just size, season, etc... You don't want to keep washing that maternity sweater that ends up on the floor for a year after your youngest turns 2.

3. Use laundry bags, or baskets, but I recommend BAGS, they can be washed right along with the clothes, and they can hang on the back of the door, as long as you wash whats in them regularly. I still haven't found a great source for these... The nylon ones are plecchy feeling, and seem to be too big or too small. You can sew some pretty ones out of a heavier weight home dec stuff, or do a lined cotton version. You just want to be sure to add a strap to hang them up by.

4. Make a schedule of laundry for your home, organized by the bag. Here's mine.

Monday-Diapers, Mike's Jeans, Charlotte's
--Jeans are Mikes work uniform, and being a mechanic, they get REALLY dirty (resolve, formerly Spray n Wash will remove grease if you use enough) --

Tuesday - Levis, Towels, Sheets
Wednesday- Mark, Diapers, Lanas
Thursday--Kitchen Towels(yes, they have their own pretty bag...see below) Levi, Charlotte's
Friday- Towels, Lana, Mikes non jeans
Sat- Diapers, Levi , Charlotte


5. PUT the clothes right back into their bag out of they dryer, and put them away AS SOON AS THEY ARE DRY!

No, I don't love laundry, but I am loving my family by getting them their clothes done BEFORE they need them.