Busy Busy Me

Well, it seems that the busy time of life is on me now. With a 3rd grader and a 1st grader, and a getter-into-all-things crawling around, I am just plain old busy. I am attempting to organize a bit better, up until now homeschooling has been a breeze, with only one that was really needing Mommy help. But now they both need help and a person who keeps them on track.

I need to get organized or I will drown in a sea of BUSY!!

So, I am attempting to streamline the whole homeschool process.

For us a major time eater was the I-can't-find-it syndrome. My children are HORRIBLE at looking. They are constantly losing their books/pencils/own head. Workboxing worked well for that, BUT it required me to prep it each night. This was too much to do in the evening. I have switched over to a notebook system. (not to be confused with notebooking) My kids each now have their own binder that has a awesome checklist (thank you Homeschool Tracker) for each days work in it, and the workpages/writing paper for the day right behind the checklist. MUCH BETTER!!!!! I am still keeping the workboxes, so we can use them occasionally. The kids LOVED finding a box with "play set with mommy" in in it.

I needed a place to see at a glance what we were doing each day. I already had a big binder (letter size and a 3" spine) but I never opened it. I couldn't even carry it in one hand while schlepping a baby about the house. I realized that I wanted a tiny binder with my info in it. Sooo.... I bought a cheapo Plan Ahead binder and figured out how to print out Tapestry of Grace and HStracker in teeny tiny pages.. :-D

Ta da! Binder goodness for me! If only it were prettier, maybe covered in Amy Butler fabric, and with a zipper around the whole thing it would be perfect. As it is, it keeps me on track.

Bad Blogger!

No, I haven't been keeping up with blogging.... But I am keeping up with homeschooling 2 kids, keeping the floor clean for Baby, and 3 meals on the table each day.

It seems like life has been a whirlwind lately, with barely time to breath in between, let alone gab with all of you lovely people! I've been a bit lax in the joyful home improvement items as well. I did finally get down to business about a month ago, and painted the back splash in my kitchen.

Mark is now 9 months old, and he is crawling all over and getting into everything. I set him down a few a days ago, and when I came back to the room, he had escaped to his sister's room, and was happily engaged in emptying her dresser drawer. :-) It was pretty weird to see a tiny 9 month old performing what looked like a chore. He was standing up with one hand on the middle drawer, busily putting and taking. Too bad he took ALL her clothes out, but only put ONE item back in.

I get the feeling that school will soon be a happy routine, and we will get our work done fast enough to get back to enjoying life a bit more... I know that I need it, and the kiddos must too.

What do you do at 3 am??

**Yawn**

Well, after waking at 1am to feed the baby, it became obvious that I wouldn't be sleeping again for awhile. I usually sleep quite well, but the combo of the heat and various worries kept me up. The silly thing is, there is nothing I can do about the worry part. I cannot change other people, nor can I by worrying help them be happy and holy. But alas, once sleep has fled it seems to stay away till I have worn myself out by reading, or as is the case tonight, working. So far I have done 2 loads of laundry, paid the bills, and prepped the household budget for the next month. FUN! :-D

I decided that laundry would be good, because the AC and laundry combo seems to be flipping the circuit breaker too often, and I need the AC tomorrow.

Sleep well, and may the silly worries stay away!

Frugality and the cloth diaper bag

OK folks, lets face it, there aren't many BIG diaper bags out there. Way back in February, I was facing weekly hospital trips (all day out & about) combined with a newborn in cloth diapers.... cloth diapers are MUCH bigger in a diaper bag than paper ones. I was also dragging along 2 changes of clothing, 1 for a spare and 1 for the inevitable plaster casting mess that would be all over the original outfit, at least 1 blanket, a nursing cape, insurance paperwork, wallet etc.

In my soul I wanted nothing more than to spend about $150 on this...Fleurville bag... please note the botanical azure pattern.. DROOL.


BUT... She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. Proverbs 31:12

Yes, I needed a bigger bag, but we didn't have that kind of money. So, I resolved to find something cheaper. Alas, all else cheaper was too small, or just plain old black. Now I like black, but I had been wearing it for about 9 months, and the idea of adding another piece of black to my wardrobe was just horrifying at the time.

On craftster I ran across a review of the Modern Diaper Bag from The Amy Butler Little Stitches book, so I decided to make it. I thriftily borrowed the book from the library, bought the spendy interfacing with a 40% off coupon, and was off to the races!


I wanted big and less than 50, so here she is about 45ish for total cost. It was really tight to get all the pieces out of the yardage though, so if you are doing the same pattern I would buy extra fabric. Nice pattern, but there is no cutting layout, and most of the pieces are just dimensions, ie. "cut a 12x18.75 rectangle."

Here's the fabric I used...Thank you Joann's....

I didn't read all the directions well, so I cut the long pockets a bit short. To compensate for this, I just eliminated the bottle pockets and replaced them with my own Super-dee-duper wallet pocket, and a pen/lipstick pocket...I am SOO glad I did that! I can reach by my seat while driving and grab a pen or my credit card with no trouble at all... Just be sure to add your own special pockets at the top of the bag. You don't want to be reaching down into the abyss to get the pen or money.

I also added a key fob thingy, so I won't have to dig for the keys anymore.


This baby is big! I've got in it: 4 BumGenius One Size diapers, A wetbag, 1 prefold, Nursing cape, swaddling blanket, extra outfit, wallet, keys, inhaler, phone, coupon folder, sanitizing wipes, etc. and its not even full.... It would be better a bit wider though, about 6-8 instead of the 4-5 it is..... OH the first pic has my Xl carhart sweatshirt hoodie in it too... :-D


Heehee I'm so proud of finally getting the guts to sew this up. My bag is useful and I still love seeing it.... Good thing it's not black. All in all I feel that I did well, yes I could have toted it all around in a giant plastic bag, or 2 bags, but then I would have been sorely tempted to buy that spendy mothership. I probably would have been struggling with a bad attitude as well, but that's a different post. :-D