Sunday Lately 109

I'm joining in with Blogger Tribe's Sunday lately today! I actually have some quiet time to sit at the computer! Sure, it's late, but it is quiet time! Yay! It's still Sunday, so I feel super on schedule! Even if there only is 1.5 hours left as I write this! Yay #momlife

Writing: I've been working on getting some "lesson plans" written up for Virtual Book Club for Kids and Kindergarten prep for little S. I did one with her already and she loved it! After all, it involved three of her favorite things: Penguin (from the series by Salina Yoon), rocks, and paint! Check it out here it was fun and I even felt excited by my painted rocks, and I don't paint!

Quitting: I am trying super hard not to sit on my behind while N is in school and/or when baby K is napping. I need to get this house in order, purge a ton of unwanted items, and organize like crazy. I miss sewing, and really I need the house in order so it' not in complete disarray after a mini sewing session. Not to mention I have no place to put my machine! I guess it boils down to: I need to quit saving stuff

Fixing: My organizational skills and hoarding tendencies. I boxed up baby boy clothes about a month ago and need to actually get them out of the house. Small steps, right? Ha! It'll free up so much space! I just need to actually go take them somewhere. My usual line up is consignment, consignment then donate. I should just donate. get it out. But I use the money from consignment to buy the kids the next size in clothes, so... Then it just comes down to having the time to drive to the consignment and hope they aren't too busy. After all I only have less than 3 hours while N is in Kindergarten!

Celebrating: The kids celebrated their 100th day at school! They were to dress up as if they were 100 years old. N wore a button up, with some momma made pants and hat! Loved it! He did not want to wear make up to look wrinkly and had no desire for baby powder in the hair to make it look gray. But her is just too darn cute!

We will be celebrating baby K's first birthday next week! I cannot believe she will be 1 already! She's a little daredevil, spitfire girl and I love her to pieces!

Updating: My bag. I'm weaning myself from the massive diaper bag and trying to work my way back to some form of mom purse where I can carry my planner, wallet, a diaper and wipes and call it good. I usually keep a spare change of clothes in the car for the kids so I don't feel it's necessary in the diaper bag. But, my wallet is falling apart, and I have the envelopes stashed in many pockets in the bag. I need it all in one place. I don't know when I will be able to sew up one but I have a few patterns and tutorials I have gathered. I can't wait to pick one that will work for the system and I can *sniff* throw my falling apart wallet away.
I also need to update my wardrobe horribly. It was a goal last year, but with post-partum everything, it hasn't happened yet. Back to a goal for this year!

Happy Sunday!

Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon: Using Your Senses {Read and Play}

We jumped in with Virtual Book Club for Kids and their weekly book selections this past week. Since S has only a year and a half until she starts Kindergarten, I figure it might be a good idea to start doing more to get her ready. It was so fun when we followed along while N was a preschooler... This week's theme is penguins, and the main book is Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon. We love her Penguin series and S was super excited when this one came in at the library! (seriously, holds are awesome!)

There are so many directions you can take this book, one of the reasons we love the series! We went the science route and combined it with art!
**Check out my inspiration of the painting activity over at Inspirational Laboratories**

What you need:

• Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon
• objects from around the house to practice using the senses (Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, Taste)
• Rocks (we searched for ours outside. Yay, Desert Nature!)
• Black, white and orange paint
• paintbrush
• newspaper (I'm just glad I had the wipes available! oops!)
• wipes for quick and easy surface clean-up

We've read the book several times by this point. I opened this "lesson" by feeling, sniffing, and looking at the book.

When I get to the point where Penguin is using his senses to discover that pinecone is not a snowball and cold we pause and talk about what Penguin is doing in each of the images (using sight/eyes, taste/mouth/tongue, touch/hands/feel).

Discuss the senses and how we use them to observe and make sense of the world which surrounds us. Practice on objects from around the house and what senses we use for those particular objects. We used a koosh pool ball, a soft rattle, a foam number, and a lolipop!

Using sight, touch, (and maybe smell) search for the perfect rock on which to paint your own penguin. We talked about not always using all our senses (we don't want to lick rocks, Yuck!)

If you decide to wash off your rocks, give them time to dry. We just dry brushed off the dirt before starting.

While we painted we talked about P being for Penguin and Pinecone too! And I think these turned out great!

I ended our activity with a quick recap of our senses!

The possibilities are endless!

These little rock penguins were super fun! We did some role play after they dried. Paint some more and use them for counting, one-to-one correspondence practice, non-standard units of measure, Paint some pinecones and use them in combination with penguins for adding/subtracting, create a tic-tac-toe set

My Motherhood is {not} Defined by a Pair of Toddler Jeggings

My life seems to revolve around the kids' clothes. I buy their clothes as they grow bigger. I make their clothes for special events. I wash, dry, fold and put away their clothes as they get dirty. Doesn't it seem like a never ending flow of laundry?! It only gets bigger and bigger and bigger by the day, no matter how many loads are done. Oh yeah, right... I keep buying more... And. cannot forget those outfits and clothes I favor! You know. The ones I feel I need want to take a picture of every. single. time they wear it? Yeah. those ones. They are so gosh darn cute! They should wear it Every Day!! (too much? yeah, too much..) But they are so cute! 

I think it's even harder when those favorite outfits, those favorite pairs of clothes, are hand-me-downs from older siblings. It's as much a favorite then as it is now! And you get to experience all the glorious cuteness again! Like a pair of girl's toddler jeggings. The kind that actually looks like jeans, but isn't. It even had pockets, real pockets, on the back with the word "love" embroidered on them. I swear, it was my go to pair of pants for my middle when she wore that size and by golly, it's my go to pair now for my munchkin too. But gee whiz if I never got a picture of those darn cute pants with 'love' on their little bottoms! Gah, I love them even now!

What happened to those favorite pair of pants? Gone. Vanished! Off the face of the earth! (ok, maybe not off the face of the earth, but it sure felt like it!) I was in a state, looking everywhere. Literally turned the diaper bag inside out, looking for those pants. Could. Not. Find. Them. I was devastated. Seriously, ugly cried about a silly pair of toddler jeggings with the word 'love' embroidered on the back pockets. I try to justify my feelings by saying they are one of the few pairs we have which actually fit. They are one of the few pairs she can wear with everything. But, all that does is make it worse. I become more of a basket case.

How in the world did I end up in such a state over a pair of pants? It's not just the pants! It was a blanket, a pair of shoes, a stuffed animal, a toy car. Something. Something hard to replace. I felt like such a bad mom because there I was yelling, crying, so distraught over a pair of pants. I asked myself how, how could I keep my kids safe and healthy and happy if I cannot even keep track of a simple pair of pants?!?

As I sat on the floor, the contents of the diaper bag surrounding me in the entryway, I realized the absurdity of the statement. My motherhood is not defined by whether or not I've kept track of a pair of pants! How many other items have I lost my cool trying to find? How many other items have I let get to me so much to the point where I feel like a failure because I cannot find them in a moments notice? Why am I letting objects dictate my worth as a parent?

I looked up from my weeping mess on the floor (the Kleenex' adding to the pile surrounding me) and look at my kids. Do they care the pants are gone? no, they care about their mommy weeping on the ground. The baby would rather go naked than wear clothes anyway! They smile at me and ask if I am ok. I'm alright because they are safe and healthy and happy. After all, it was just a pair of pants, right!?!

My house is a mess. Chock full of stuff that doesn't matter, stuff we really don't need. The laundry, be it dirty or clean, scatters it's way across the floor from bedroom to laundry room. I might loose a pair of socks here or there, accidentally leave a spare pair of underwear in the bathroom at the grocery store. Have a shirt fall out of the diaper as I search for my wallet at the gas station. But I can always replace those things. Even if I never got them in a cute dressed up picture I still have the precious moments and memories. I cannot replace my kids. Their smiles are what define my worth as a mom.  They are happy and healthy and safe and they have stayed that way because I focus on them and not the contents of the diaper bag .(hence those lost items!)

You know what happened with the pair of jeggings? I kid you not, it showed up 2 days later. In my son's room. It disappeared long enough for me to have a revelation. I was so upset; I'm surrounded by junk and can't even hold on to a special pair of pants. I needed those special pair of pants to disappear for me to realize where the imposed importance came from.

The pants aren't what was special. My kids made those pants special. 

There will be more things made special because they will make it so. Their smiles, their laughter, their beaming little faces is what will add sentiment to whatever comes next. And, regardless of the endless flow of laundry, I will do my best to remember...

My life is not defined by a pair of toddler pants!

2017 Finish A Long: Quarter 1: Goals {2017 FAL Q3}

I sat and contemplated up until the last minute whether or not to try the finish a long at all this year. I did not complete anything from this list last year and I have since just removed items because I am never going to get to them! Ha at this point those things I had planned are no longer going to work for the recipient! Too much time has passed! I need to get my sewing space in order first! Nothing has happened since moving everything out to create the baby's space about 6 months ago... Goodness me...

Here are my goals for this quarter!

1. Labyrinth Lap Quilt... 

Coming along... #quilting #sewing #isew #fmq #freemotionquilting #2016fal #finishalong

A photo posted by JessiBerry (@jessiberry09) on Jul 6, 2016 at 2:02pm PDT

2.  My band shirt memory quilt... 

Another on the #2016fal #finishalong list that probably won't get done for a while... but I finally got a picture of the backing! #memoryquilt #isew #tshirtquilt

A photo posted by JessiBerry (@jessiberry09) on Jul 6, 2016 at 2:32pm PDT

3. This is little lady's baby shower quilt. From 2013...

4. This circle quilt. 

5. Peasant Tops pattern by Tie Dye Diva Patterns they are a 12 month and 18 month size, half sewn up

Wish me good luck! ;) It's so hard to sew with the toddler who gets into EVERYTHING and a DEMANDING preschooler. I'm lucky to get anything done during the day!

Linking up!