Scotland Bound!

This blog seems to be a little bit all over the place....but so is life around here....so for your reading pleasure.  WE'RE GOING TO SCOTLAND! 

Shane and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary in 2020!  And since we've been dreaming of going to Scotland for a few years, we've decided that 2020 is the year to do it.  Of course, we got married in December and December isn't a great time to go to Scotland....so we're going in May.

This is how its gonna go....roughly...

We will land in Glasgow and spend 2 nights there.  After picking up a rental car we'll drive to Stirling on our way to stay in Glencoe for 2 nights to do some "munroe bagging." (or not quite munroe bagging depending on our training till then and the weather)  Then another drive to the Isle of Skye for a 2 night stay.  When we leave Skye, we'll visit Loch Ness (and take the next infamous picture of Nessie I'm sure) and Urquhart Castle on our way to 3 nights in Inverness.  We're making a quick overnight stop in Pitlochry on our way to Edinburgh where we'll have 2 nights before we fly out.

Yes is a whirlwind trip.  But its also important to remember that Scotland is just a little smaller than Maine.

Why Scotland?  Well first "Why not?"  We love 17th-19th century history.  I particularly enjoy British history.  Shane likes castles and swords and all that goes with them.  We love Outlander and Harry Potter and can visit scenes from the movies and tv show.  There are cities to explore and countryside to hike.  And views to get lost in.  There is good food, whiskey, tea shops and music. They speak a version of English we hope to be able to understand.  I think it will be an amazing place to see and a great place to make new friends.

We have a countdown....and as of today we have just under 9  months.  I think this is going to feel just as long as 9 months of pregnancy!  :D

Yarn Crawl 2019 and Knitting Bags

Last week, my mom and I took Lyrick, Abby (Lyrick's friend), and Delaney and Dannae (my neices) to an overnight yarn crawl.  Whats a yarn crawl you say?  Well, its like a bar crawl, but with more yarn and no beer (seriously, not one drink even outnumbered 2 to 1 by little girls).  It was not supposed to be that way but life happens and we decided 1) we could help dear friends and family out AND 2) have a good time AND 3) take our little beginner knitters to check out some yarn shops.  And you know what...we did all those things.  And it was awesome! 

Its our yarn crawl crew at breakfast on the second day.  :D  Still smiling!

We went on a walk along the Ohio River....but it was HOT so the walk was short and we found an ice cream shop instead.  (No photos of ice cream-we had to eat fast)

Supper time after a day of yarn shopping.  :D

Because I knew we were going to several shops.  And the girls were on a limited budget and I wasn't buying them all.  the.  things, I made them a scavenger hunt.  They had things to find at each shop.  This is the photo from when they found "Sheep" and could check it off the list.  They also found extra soft yarn.  Knitting needles. Crochet Hooks, yarn that matched thier outfit....and so much more.  It was so much fun!  In 3 of the 4 shops the owners/employees/other knitters were encouraging and helpful.  It made for a great experience.

I made each of the girls a knitting bag....but for the trip I filled it with snacks.  Cause snacks make every roadtrip better.
I made all 4 bags with a yard of the floral fabric and a 5 pack of fat quarters.  And I have enough floral for another-but I"m out of fat quarters.  Wait for it and I'll do a tutorial...gotta find one more fat quarter.  :

Sewing Studio!

This summer I decided to take over the bonus room above our detached garage.  I cleaned, we got a window air conditioner, and I painted the subfloor.  I wanted a usable space on the cheap! And now I have a sewing studio.

It has made all the difference and I'm sewing more.  INstead of having to spread everything all over my kitchen and dining room....and quit and clean up even if a project is unfinished. I can go out, listen to an audiobook, and sew while I have time.  And either finish or not finish. 

"Sew-phia" is my bust.  Unfortunately, we are not the same size but I can at least use her for hemming and displaying.  I also am excited to use the mood board to plan out possible projects and plans.  

My sewing desk is HUGE.  12 feet long.  and I love every inch of it!  :D

This cabinet came out of an old house....and then out of the boys bathroom where it just collected crap.  It is perfect for notions and random things.  And it matches.  I want to make the sewing machine in the corner for twin needles but I can't find the power cord so its in time out for the moment.  

My cutting mat is sad but I'm saving up for a big one....or 2 big ones to put together.  :D

Since my room is finished, I've sorted through all my fabric and am working on finding the perfect "t-shirt."  I have some "Outlander" fabric that I plan to do shirts with but am totally stressed about cutting into....it NEEEEEEDS to be perfect.  I think I have enough for 2 tshirts, a skirt/bottoms, and a cardigan. (tshirt panels, coordinates, and a "Jamie's tartan).I'm probably going to be running a lot of "muslins" through to find the perfect thing for all of them. Cause seriously PERFECTION is my goal!  HA!  But first narrowing down to the perfect t-shirt.  I've got at least one more to try.  I'm getting closer every time. 

A friend encouraged me to blog about my projects and travel plans and things.  So I'm gonna try.  I am not a photographer.  I am awkward in pictures.  And sometimes its hard to write well.  I feel like what I do isn't all that special but apparently, at least one person is interested.  (I'm not asking for compliments or followers or whatever but it just feels weird to write about things that are just what I do). 

So, that's my studio.  I love the quiet space to create that it gives me.  I hope to spend an afternoon or two out there each week during the school year....I have so many plans.  So.  many.  plans. 

Feeding the little monsters

So when I look at our schedule, my head spins.  And then I remember, the people around me, that I am responsible for, want to eat...more than once a day.  And I have to have food here and feed them. 

This is how I do it - for now.

Breakfast

Each week I buy ONE kind of specialty breakfast (specialty does not mean special in this case).  We either have a few different bags of cereal, some bagels, maybe we make bulk pancakes on Monday).  They can eat that every day till its gone and I don't even care....as long as they clean it up.  We also always have oatmeal, rice, cream of wheat, toast, eggs, fruit and yogurt.  They are not without choices. 

I try to make ahead either an egg casserole or something healthy for shane and I to reheat and share all week.  Some weeks that goes better than others.  HA

Lunch:

My plan here is to K.I.S.S.  (Keep it simple stupid).  I buy things for sandwiches, fruity lunches (which is what we call homemade lunchables).  And I buy ONE frozen convenience something  (chick nuggets/fries,  frozen ravioli,  fish stick/mac n cheese, hot dogs) each week.  I don't assign things on certain days....we (I) decide which we'll do in the morning when I see how well the day is going.  I also usually have things for tuna or chicken patties, nachos, Quesadillas, as well.  There are bags of chips, veggies, salad fixins, fruit, etc etc etc to fill things out.

Shane and I eat leftovers or we prep something.  Like breakfast, sometimes this works better than others.

Dinner: 

I pick 5 meals each week.  Then I make them on the night they sound good to me....or easy.  ONce a month (we are starting a cycle) a kid picks a meal to make....and they cook it on Thursday night.  Griffin is going first this week.  I was surprised when he chose porkburgers, homemade mac n cheese, and roasted veggies.  I'm excited about how this is going to work.  :)

Snacks.
 I like to bake.  I would like to bake cookies for the cookie jar each week for the kids....but so far that isn't go well recently.  I also enjoy scones and biscuits.  I am going to try to figure out how to fit that in again.  But we always have things like cheese sticks, crackers, stuff for smoothies, sometimes trail mix.

I have to meal plan.  A fridge full of random food stresses me out.  Living 40 minutes from my favorite grocery store means a quick trip to grab that one thing just isn't gonna happen.

This is what is working right now.  We'll see how long it works

Homeschool Week #1

We started school last monday.  So we've done 1 full week of classes. 

On Monday I was afraid that it was going to be a nightmare.  Starting all three boys on a new online program (Monarch from Alpha Omega Publishing) was daunting.  Things didn't go great. 

Tuesday got worse because we discovered we didn't actually complete all of Monday's assignments.  And Lyrick had a total meltdown.  She got to do school with Shane Tuesday night.  It took till and hour passed bedtime to actually finish those 10 spelling words. 

Wednesday, two kids were under the weather.  And yet we plugged along.  And it went better.

But by today, I feel like this could actually really work for us.  The 3 boys may not like school but they are doing well.  They get on it on their own to get their work done.  I learned how to return poorly done assignments and reassign them within the system.  I can even just have them redo the problems they did wrong. 

Lyrick and I have time to do school.  She loves the biography about Helen Keller that we are reading.  And Griffin listens too, by choice.  She is actually learning those spelling words that gave her such fits on tuesday.  And she read THREE books to me today.  She asked why we weren't reading in that big book about ships (the history reader in our curriculum) today....and it was because it wasn't assigned.  I feel like she is going to leap ahead this year.  And all my worry and fretting will be for nothing.  I sure hope it was for nothing. 

Last year I really felt at a loss for school.  I felt like we were all failing in some way or another.  But this year I feel like we could actually get this. 

Its only week one but I feel successful.  And that is a good feeling!

1 Corinthians 16:9

A wide door for effective work has opened to me, AND there are many adversaries. (emphasis mine)

This verse covered in yesterday's sermon is stuck in my head as we get ready for the next homeschool year.   Paul does not make a great opportunity mutually exclusive from roadblocks.  Just because a path is good, doesn't mean its easy.  (That's a quote from Tyler not from Paul)

I love that we have chosen homeschooling for our kids.  It is good for our family in the "big picture" way.  But I'll tell you, sometimes it is hard to remember that in the mundane details and arguments of every.  single.  day.    Our adversaries aren't necessarily people...although all our attitudes get in the way sometimes, more often than I'd like to admit.

My adversaries look like doubt - frustration - a messy house - bad attitudes - teenagers - high school level classes - doubt - frustration - phonics - desire for "me time" - piles of laundry - more messes.  Is this what Paul is talking about?  Likely not - he wasn't a mom with 4 kids home all day every day.  He faced much more dire risks in his life.  And yet these are the roadblocks that make me want to throw in the towel some days.

But I have a "wide door for effective work open to me."  With God, we CAN do this thing.  It is not time to run to another thing....even another good thing.  Like Paul needed to stay put, we also need to stay put and just adventure down the path put before us.  It is time to pull strength from God, who never runs out and never feels doubt.  And tackle high school math and phonics at the same time (obviously with different kids-HA!)

Bullet Journal- Busy Mom Style.

So Bullet Journals are a thing now.  It's basically a planner that you create yourself.  I have never been able to make a planner work.  But with 6 schedules to manage a calendar didn't cut it either....Although I have an OUtlander one cause of the pictures  :)  Anyway....enter Bullet Journal.  

You can get a plethora of ideas on Pinterest or Instagram....but if you are like me you don't give 2 hoots if your "bujo" (that's what the cool kids call them) is pretty or has art.  I need to know where my people are,  where they are going, and make sure I can feed them.  I also LOVE making (and checking things off of) lists...to-do lists, goal lists,  packing lists, lists of daydreams,  Lists of blessings, lists of lists, and the list goes on.  (I'm so clever).  So if you don't care if April is decorated with an "april showers" theme so you can have "May flowers" in may I would recommend searching for "Men's bullet journal" or "minimalist bullet journal" on pinterest.  Otherwise the cute-ness may overwhelm and sicken you.  If you like art and drawing things....then by all means have at it.  That is not my style.  

These are my high tech tools.  This is my favorite ruler for my bujo because it is thin enough to be a bookmark  and it has centimeters.  The grid book I got has 1/2 cm boxes and it helps me to measure them with metric.  pencil, white out and whatever pens I have handy.  

BASIC PAGES

Page 1!  Year at a glance....just like you get in a checkbook register.
 Except I like my weeks to start on Monday....so they do!  :D 
Look at my pretty block letters at the start of the year.  Such a high achiever!  HA

Future Log-  this faces the year at a glance page....it is essentially a box for each month.  So when the dentist schedules appts 6 months in advance or we register for church camp or whatever, I just stick the date in the correct month box with a short description of that event.

This is the June box on that page...it was busy.  :)  

At the start of the year I set some goals....these are reading and crafty goals.  I didn't take a picture of the exercise and BIble Study goal page cause they are embarrassing.  :(    I need to fill in several books here and some knitting projects....

Each month I take time to make a monthly calendar.  Again my weeks run monday -sunday so my calendar reflects that.  I move things from the "Future Log" to this page.  I have space on one side each month so I try to list blessings.  I'm not as regular about that as I wish I was.  

This was my first weekly spread.  it lasted one week.  I did not like it much.  So I tried some others....

This is this weeks pages.  I've been using this weekly spread for a while.  At the top of each day in Orange I put the classes I teach for VIPkid  then I have space for appts or to-do lists on that day.  At the bottom is what  I plan to make for supper in its own box.  On the left/bottom I plan breakfast and lunches both for the kids and I and for shane to take to work.  The ideas are very flexible but its where I start my grocery list (the ONLY list I don't put in this notebook)  On the bottom, right I list weekly goals....or break down to-do lists from.  For example, today I needed to clean my kitchen.  Its on wednesday in red.  But in red on the bottom right are all the things that entailed for me today.  I got to check them all off as I went.  

EXTRA PAGES

So the deal is, I always have this notebook.  I know where it is as much as I know where anything is.  So if I want to keep track of something it goes IN THIS NOTEBOOK.  I don't use post-its or scratch bits of paper.  I know a lot of people use their phone.  tried that.  didn't like it.  

I've been in the middle of multiple book series this year.  Its part of a goal to read only books I've never read before this year.  I was losing track of which book I was ready for in each series....so I made myself a "library" page of all the series I was going on.  I highlight the book when I finish it. 

Im starting to brainstorm breakfast/lunch/snack ideas for as we roll into school time.  So I grabbed my notebook and the closest pen and started writing things down.  

So this is the "map" of my garden.  We tried some new varieties this year and I wanted to know where each was.  Also, in the upper corner is some sparkly tape that I got at dollar tree.  I wrap it around the corner of pages I want to find again easily, weeks or months after I made them-also found on the library page..  

My notebook went to homeschool convention with me (of course)....and I used it for notes in session.  If I took these elsewhere I'd never find them again.  :D  (If I were good at this blogging thing I would turn this picture right side up but I'm not and you likely couldn't read my handwriting anyway). 

The thing I like about a bullet journal is that it can be whatever I want it to be.  And that can change week to week or month to month. 

Two things I do not use my bullet journal for.  grocery lists.  And school planning (no lesson plans or record keeping in it)....just calendar planning of school activities and events like any other activities and events. 

Plain.  Simple.  Even a little ugly.  Or  Color coded (I tried that at first but I could never find the right pen).  Artsy.  And a beautiful keepsake.  It can easily go either way.  But that's the cool thing.....its all just how you want to make it!  :D