There is definitely no shortage of Momma losing her cool around here. I have to consistently tell myself that she won’t always be this little. One day, I’ll look back on all these things that drive me crazy now and I’ll remember. On the days I was annoyed when her Lego creations were taking over the house, I’ll remember how she always demanded they be put way up high to keep them safe. On the days I was annoyed when she never picked up her craft supplies, I’ll remember how proudly she showed off her work. On the days I was annoyed how she dropped pieces of coconut all over the house, I’ll remember how she kept her little bunny clips in the leftover coconut shell. On the days I was annoyed how she squirmed when I did her hair, I’ll remember how sweet she looked in our handmade pom pom ponytail holders. On the days I was annoyed that she always lost her fishy sunglasses, I’ll remember they were her favorites. On the days I was annoyed when she takes off all the book jackets, I’ll remember how she loved it when I read Tikki Tikki Tembo. One day, I’ll remember these things and it won’t drive me crazy.
We Made: Pom Pom Ponytail Holders…
I’ve been slowly building up a small arsenal of yarn. I’ve got this crazy idea, that I’m going to learn how to crochet. Oh how I wish I could go back in time and accept my mother’s offer to teach me. But no, I had to think it was lame. I can spend hours perusing Etsy, just pouring over pages of vintage afghans. I’m especially drawn to the bright and colorful ones. Which is funny, because my favorite color is white. My kids absolutely can’t stand that white is my favorite color. They scoff and tell me it can’t be my favorite, because it’s not really a color. Wait until they find out my second favorite color…grey.
So while I’m waiting to learn crochet, I have to find fun ways to use my yarn. Because, despite my love affair with white, I’m addicted to all the fun colors. A few weeks ago, we made these pencil pouches. Then, the other day I saw this tutorial on making pom poms with a fork. I made a few and they were really easy. I knew Savannah, my 24/7 crafter, would love making these. I showed her how to wrap the yarn around the fork. I did most of the initial cutting, because you have to use pretty sharp scissors to cut through all that yarn. She shaped them with her scissors, which made for some wonky pom poms. I polished them up a bit and they turned out great. A word of warning though, you can’t just make one pom pom. We added ponytail holders to ours and because we made so many, we set aside a few for friends.
Catching A Katydid…
It was back to school in our area yesterday. Honestly, I get a little bit sad on the first day of school. I did last year, also. Not because, I’m sending my kids off, but because I’m keeping them home. If you know me or have read my blog for a while, then you know I homeschool my 3 babes. I agonized for a good year before I finally took the plunge. It’s not something I ever saw myself doing. I especially didn’t expect to love it as much as I do. And I do. Still, there are moments when I feel the tiniest twinge of “missing out.”
When I first started researching homeschooling, one of the biggest things holding me back, was the fear of my kids missing out. I kept thinking how they would miss out on school plays, musicals, art shows, parties, sports, dances, clubs, and all sorts of other things. I know it seems trivial, but it really made me stop and question if I should move forward with homeschooling. I went back and forth for about a year. I finally realized that it wasn’t that I was sad about them missing out, because they haven’t. Their lives are very full. I was sad, because I would be missing out seeing them do all of these things.
So yesterday, when my Facebook feed lit up with pictures of first day of school excitement, I got a little teary eyed. I didn’t excitedly send Jacks off for his first day of 2nd grade or Savannah for her first day of Kindergarten. But, I did get to sleep in until 9:30. I got to spend the day watching them, watch Roseate Spoonbills and Reddish Egrets fly across the waters on Sanibel Island. I watched them release a Katydid in our backyard, then hurriedly scamper off to sketch in their nature journals. Of course, there was fighting and whining today. My patience was plenty tested and often pushed to the brim. But, there was also these precious moments. Turns out, I didn’t miss out on anything.
Family Favorite Snacks: Chocolate Strawberry Sorbet Bars
A while back, I stumbled onto a recipe for making chocolate ice cream out of frozen bananas. It’s awesome and I make it quite often here. It’s still a giant mystery to me how frozen bananas can turn into ice cream, but it does. After making it for a while, I thought if I could make ice cream out of frozen bananas, then maybe I could make sorbet out of frozen strawberries. Turns out, you can. You can actually make sorbet out of several different fruits. We’ve made them all, but today I’m talking about strawberry sorbet bars. I’m talking about chocolate covered, strawberry sorbet bars. Oh yeah!
It’s back to school time and I think this would make a great after school snack to chase away those back to school blues. Make them the night before and they’ll be ready the next day. A perfect refresher after hitting the books all day!
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Also, in honor of back to school, I’m teaming up with a few of my blog friends to bring you an amazing giveaway for $500 in paypal cash!
$500 PayPal Cash Giveaway
If you’ve got kids, either they’ve already gone back to school or they will be going back any day now. Considering all the school supplies, new clothes, shoes, and activity fees, we bet you could use $500 IN CASH right about now. Well, we pulled together a group of 10 bloggers for an AMAZING GIVEAWAY to help you out not only with the CASH, but also with a whole bunch of back to school resources on everything from school lunches, printables, quick weeknight meals, fun back to school projects and even some much needed parenting inspiration. So, go ahead and take a little blog tour checking out all our creative, clever and useful ideas for back to school and gain entries to WIN along the way! We’re all looking forward to meeting you and welcoming you into our online communities.
Sunshine and Hurricanes
A Little Claireification
Moritz Fine Designs
Krystal’s Kitsch
Creative Savings
Unexpected Elegance
Mothering From Scratch
Sports Mom Survival Guide
Jacks and Kate
Be Sure To Stop By the Blogs Often This Week For New Posts About Back To School And To Collect As Many Entries As Possible So You Increase Your Chances Of Winning!!!!
Happy 7th Birthday Jacks…
Hello there, I know I’ve been away for a while. We just got back from vacation last week and then I needed a vacation from my vacation! I took some time off to get things in order and relax before we jump back into our school year next month. Today, we celebrated Jackson’s 7th birthday. I keep saying 7, and soon I will believe it. But, for now, I’m just in awe that 7 years has come and gone.
I didn’t have much time to plan for his birthday this year, so we kept it low key. We went into his room early this morning and set up his birthday morning surprise. He slept through it all!
Chris hung a balloon drop and I whipped up a donut cake. The girls made him a birthday banner and a slew of drawings and presents (drawings wrapped up as presents.) After singing Happy Birthday about 3 times, he finally woke up. The look on his face was total happiness! We gave him his presents and his cards in the family card journal. This year he got a new Lego set, some Hot Wheels, binoculars, and bird field guides for Florida. He pulled the string on the balloon drop and we sang Happy Birthday again, while he blew out his candle. Later in the evening, we had a more formal birthday celebration with his favorite meal of chicken and rice with squishy (steamed) carrots and a gooey caramel birthday cake.
This was the best birthday party I’ve thrown in a while. Happy 7th birthday Jacks, you make us so incredibly proud!
Another Monarch Release…
The other day I heard the word I detest most hearing within the 4 walls of my house. Roach! Seems my kids left out a few minor details. When I arrived on the scene, I quickly accessed the situation. Sucker was big. Heebie jeebie! He was crawling high up on the wall. Gah…why me…why???? I armed myself with 2 shoes. One for throwing to knock him off the wall and the other for, well, smashing him. It would have worked perfectly too, if it weren’t for one little thing. His wings. As soon as I threw the shoe, he flew off the wall. He had me in his crosshairs and was headed straight for me. All I could think was, he’s going to land in my hair! After dying a thousand deaths, I rallied quickly and trampled my three old, as I ran screaming my way out of the room. Listen, it makes no difference to me if I grew you from scratch for 9 months. I relished every kick you made inside of me. I will kiss every boo boo from now until forever. I love you all numbers my sweet baby girl. But, when a roach sprouts wings, it’s every toddler for themselves!
There is one winged creature I never tired of seeing. The Monarch. After our first Monarch release, we planted a ton of milkweed. We have momma Monarchs here just about everyday looking to lay their eggs. A lot of the caterpillars don’t make it, but this one did. We had fun letting him crawl up and down our arms yesterday. After about 2 hours, he finally took flight. No toddler throw down needed.
Kid Embroidered Pencil Pouch…
The last few days I’ve been cleaning and purging my craft hoard. I started this the beginning of the year and I’m still pushing through. It’s just not easy letting go of crafts that might of been. While emptying a storage bin yesterday, I came across these burlap zipper pouches. I bought like 20 from the dollar section at Target…2 years ago. I was all set to toss them in the donate pile, when I had a craft vision. We are headed out on a road trip this month and I’ve been gathering supplies to keep the kids occupied. I knew these pouches would be perfect for their coloring pencils and some crayons, but they just needed that special something.
Supplies I used:
Burlap zipper pouches
Variegated yarn
Plastic needle
Sewing marker
I’ve been wanting to teach them some basic embroidery skills for a while and these pouches were a good starter project. Burlap is great for kid embroidery. The larger holes are easy for them to navigate. Also, you can use yarn, versus thread, which is a little more kid friendly. To start, I had each of them write their name with the sewing marker. Savannah and Annie wrote their names and I did all the stitching for them. I showed Jacks how to thread the needle, then I knotted it for him. I did the first couple of stitches for him, then he finished the rest of his name on his own. I had him stop after each letter and I secured the yarn with a knot on the inside. Just repeat the same steps for each letter.
Now, I only have 17 more of these things. I love a handmade gift, so I think I’ll have them personalize the remaining for friends and family.
Family Favorite Snacks: No Guilt Almond Joy Bites…
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. I suck at taking pictures of food. I so totally do. It’s probably why I post such few recipes. I need to get over that. See how I took a bite out of one and placed it on top of all the others? That’s my go to dramatic effect to entice you into make this recipe. Now that I’m looking at the picture, I can see that I actually missed biting the almond. I was so sure I got it. Well, that probably takes away from some of the dramatic flair I was after. Oh well.
I came across a recipe the other day for a sugar free, chocolate covered coconut bar. It lost me at sugar free, but it pulled me back in with the promise of chocolate and coconut. Listen, I give mad props to anyone that can do a Paleo or sugar free diet. I cannot. I come from a long line of sweet toothed people. We have to end our day with something sweet, that is not fruit, that is not Stevia laced. It is law with my people. I am law abiding.
Even though I love my sweets, I have adopted a healthier eating lifestyle over the last two years. This is not to say, I don’t occasionally partake from the refined sugar food group. I do. But, I have learned what I bring into my house, my kids want to eat. And as they have gotten older, it’s become increasingly hard to eat a candy bar on the sly. The cough/unwrap trick works no more. Clever little souls! So yes, we do consume refined sugar, but I try to keep it to a minimum.
Almond Joy happens to be one of my favorite candy bars of all time. What’s not to love? The almond? The joy? I knew I had to attempt this with a little revamp using maple syrup and chocolate chips. Y’all, they are so delish! I’m not exactly fooling myself that I’m eating an Almond Joy. No, but it’s dern close enough for me and I have zero guilt consuming one or three, because they are made with healthier ingredients. If you can get beyond my ugly food pictures, make these.
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Personalized Watercolor Postcards…
I’ve been stocking up on art supplies for the kids and I found these Water Brushes
Today, we made personalized postcards for friends. I know my kids love to send mail, but more than that, they get such a kick out of getting mail. I know their friends will love it just as much. Also, it’s a good way to keep in touch over the summer break.
For this project I used:
Watercolor Postcards
Water Brushes
Watercolor Crayons
Waterproof Pens
I gave Jacks some postcards and had him add the names of some friends. He does my creative heart proud with his fancy, schmancy lettering skills. He even names them. The puffy looking “J” in the picture above is called the, Pinecone letter. After he had all the names done, he went back and colored them in with the watercolor crayons. I love these crayons! We use them a lot. Next to liquid watercolors, they are my favorite. They are bright and they blend beautifully. Once dry, they are ready to write on and pop in the mail.
I think postcards are my new favorite form of kid mail. We already sent a handful of these out last month. I think next time, we will do a bunch of thank you postcards.
Published In Mingle…
If you have been following me for a while, you might remember this post about my sprinkled party hats. Well, it just so happens that it has been published in the summer edition of Mingle magazine. I’m in print! When I first started this blog, I never would have imagined being published. I still get giddy when I see my posts being pinned on Pinterest. So this for me, was super exciting! I truly love sharing my ideas with all of you. I hope it’s something I can continue to do for a long time. Thank you so much for supporting my little corner of the internet!