an unexpected day off

So we worked our patooties off yesterday getting reading for the movers to come at 8 a.m. this morning (we moved to my mom's last night and will be staying here until we leave on the 3rd.) We went to the house this morning, waited until 9:30 to call and see why they weren't there yet and ... surprise! The movers decided they didn't need four days to pack our stuff so they are starting tomorrow. Nobody told us, they weren't really sure who to blame for that, ha!

So, we get a day off! It's kind of perfect because we are wiped out and my back hurts and the kids deserve to have some fun with us today :) We are going to take them to see Despicable Me 2!! And to the pool!! Before then, though, some great "unschooling" is going on. Layla enjoyed some fun science games on BrainPop.com, Casey helped our little engineer build a model airplane and now he and Natalie are rolling coins--while practicing money math with her and counting by fives, tens, etc...

It's been a good day. Whew, we needed a rest!!

This is the guest room Casey and I are in at my Mom's house. Isn't it pretty?? It's in her basement, so it's nice and cool down here. I like how she off centered the art above the bed to balance the window. Pretty clever!

One last thing, this picture makes me smile. Natalie wrote the top note to me while I was typing away the other day and I wrote the bottom one back to her while she was standing there. Then, just now, I noticed she wrote a similar I love you note with an arrow on her Daddy's school notebook sitting on the desk next to me as I type this. Aw :)

current reads

Despite my mile long to-do list, after a visit from the UPS man, yesterday found me doing what could be considered an irresponsible amount of this...

I got some new books in the mail! Ones I've been anxious to order and waiting impatiently for for the entire 24 hours it took Amazon to get them to me (Amazon Prime is the way to go, I'm tellin' ya.)

The first one is this one:

 I ordered this because I need for the way I am eating to become more convenient. No offense to the more prominent Paleo bloggers, but most of them aren't trying to feed a family and homeschool and have absolutely anything else they like to do other than spend all their free time in the kitchen making burger buns and fruit snacks. Ahem. This book seemed less an intense recipe book and more an idea book. It awesome, I can't wait to try some of the wraps and soups and breakfasts. Yum!

The other book is this one!

A Beautiful Mess is the absolute first blog I ever started reading and the one that inspired me to become a blogger in the first place, almost 7 years ago now! These girls are nothing if not visually inspirational! Their photos are always so fun to look at so I knew this book would have some good ideas. I so love taking pictures, but sometimes new ideas and inspiration is needed to get better and this book fits the bill perfectly. I read it cover to cover yesterday and couldn't wait to pick up my camera and try some new things, which I promptly did. So fun.

I also decided to take the 30 day self-portrait challenge! It will certainly push me to get creative and also learn more about my camera as far as focus and settings. I plan to try some new things, many of them ideas from the book. I will not be sharing these pictures here daily because that seems, well, um, vain. But, let's face it, this blog is half sewing and thus, self portaits are a big part of that so I'd like to branch out. I will put together a mosaic every several days :)  For now, I did snap a couple fun ones yesterday and today...

I wanted to document the Starbucks because right now, a daily iced coffee is how I'm coping, ha! And lately, I've been so thankful I've been blogging for so long because it is the absolute best documentation I have of our lives together. And the little things matter--like the daily Starbucks right before our move to VA. And our hardwood floors, which are so beautiful, but make it so I have to wear shoes always so my feet don't freeze off. These are memories :)

Yesterday, since I had posted Kelby's birthday pics from all five years, the girls wanted to see their birthday posts from over the years. So we looked at those and then they spent a good hour looking through my blog archives and giggling and remembering. It was amazing and made me even happier to have started this blog so long ago!!

But, ANYWAY, I had intended to write about our current reads, ha!

I'll keep it short.

1. Laying Down the Rails 
2. Molly Murphy Mysteries
3. Meet Filicity
4. The Three R's
5. The Magician's Nephew

I highly recommend them all :)

On making birthdays special when life is crazy

I am excited to share this post, no only because yesterday was so lovely, but because I think I've hit on some ways to make sure a birthday is special, even when life surrounding it is crazy. Even though we have movers coming in a few days, I set yesterday aside to enjoy Kelby and make sure he felt loved and had a great birthday. And he did :)

Instead of attempting a party here at our house, I decided we'd have a little play-group party at the park in our neighborhood at 10:30 yesterday. This way, the kids could play, but I wasn't in charge of cleaning (before or after) or feeding everyone. Each mom brought snacks or lunch for her own family . I ordered cake pops from my talented friend Melissa and brought Capri Suns to share.

Melissa also made just one cupcake so he could blow out a candle :) Cake pops are an awesome idea for kids' parties--the portions are automatically small, they don't require plates and forks and they're no-mess (for most kids, ha!)

 Since we were not looking to acquire a lot of new toys right before a move, I asked the moms, instead of bringing a gift, to just give him a dollar or two in a card. That way, he'd have enough to pick out a Lego set for himself. This idea came from another mom friend a couple years ago. Kelby has some really generous friends because no one stuck to the "dollar or two" suggestion and he ended up with enough money to pick out two Lego sets at Target after his party! And the moms all seemed happy not to have had to shop for a gift.

 I love this pic of Natalie and Kelby. Aw.

 For party favors, we made green slime, which I pinned a long time ago from this site. It turned out so awesome!!!!! You should try it because it was super fun. We quadrupled the recipe to make enough for 12 little containers.

After spending a few hours at home enjoying the new Legos, we had a little family get together at McAlister's Deli. It was the perfect end to his day :)

I made these Paleo Samoa cupcakes and they were a huge hit. I've made them once before and the caramel sauce makes enough for two batches, so this time they were faster.

More Legos. Just the ones he wanted :)

Kelby and Granny

He even got to Skype with Papa in Mongolia while we were there :)

Happy Birthday, Kelby!!! Now, no more growing up! Okay?? ;)

The Little Dude is 5!

Today is Kelby's 5th birthday!! My baby boy!! He promises every day he'll stay my baby boy, but I don't think it's working ;)

I will post pics of his special day tomorrow when the festivities are all over, but today I thought I'd get a little nostalgic and take us back in time :)

A couple weeks old:

First Birthday:

Second Birthday:

Third Birthday:

He still loves that dinosaur I made him :)

Fourth Birthday:

And just one for now of Kelby on his 5th birthday:

What a guy! 

I am sooooo glad right now that I have been keeping this blog for so long! It would have taken me an eternity to locate those pictures over the years on my hard drive. Point for blogging ;) 

Cheers! 

portable homeschooling

I'm overwhelmed, y'all. Moving is no joke. Trying to keep a house "show" ready for prospective renters while moving and with kids undoing things you've done along the way is even less of a joke. I have a long, long list of things that need done, but I still seem to be wandering around not knowing what to do or where to start. Kelby's birthday is tomorrow and that will be an awesome distraction because we have a little party at the park planned and a dinner with family planned and that will keep us busy and provide my son with some new Legos that are sure to keep him busy through the weekend while the real work for Casey and I begins. Movers come on Monday and we will be staying with my Mom during the cleaning/repairing of the house process. Needless to say, we are anxious for all this to be over.

In the mean time, I tried today to get an on-the-go school bin together. We applied for on post housing, but are on a waiting list. It is entirely possible we will get there and have to begin the hunt for a rental, in which case we could be spending quite a few days in a hotel. I don't even want to think about how much per day it could cost to feed us all if we do not have a kitchen! But, the Lord always provides, this we know :)

This is our homeschool, reduced to the bare necessities:

It is fascinating to me how little I actually need to homeschool three kids. We are not a textbook type of family, which may make it easier for me to pack lightly. The past couple weeks have been pretty unstructured due to the current circumstances and my frame of mind, but we have discovered the beauty of lap books and are really having fun with them! Kelby is making a letter of the week lap book with these printables from homeschoolshare.com. It's been really fun for him and he is proud of his little  file folder books when he's done. I usually have related stickers for him to decorate it with too.

As for the girls, I spent a whopping $5 on the American Girl Felicity lap book from Currclick.com. We have collected a ton of American Girl books from thrift stores and happened upon the entire Felicity boxed set at a Goodwill quite awhile ago. Since she is from Colonial Williamsburg and we will get to visit there when we move to Virginia, I decided to start with this one. The books are not long, so I think we will probably get through several of them over the next month. Natalie especially is really enjoying the lap book activities! She loves art and drawing and there is a lot of opportunity for that, so it's right up her alley.

Other things in my portable homeschool bin:

• Alice in Numberland. This book is part of the I Love Math series. It's older, but readily available used on Amazon. I stumbled on one of these books at a thrift store (Pizza Math) and after finishing it with the girls, I promptly ordered more for this school year. These books teach all aspects of math through stories and silly adventures. Living math at it's finest! 
• Math Mart. This is a math game for many grade levels. We haven't played it yet, but it's small and will be fun to play on the road. 
• Linkology Animals card game. 
• Passport to the World. We are really enjoying this one! The kids look through it just for fun and try to say hello and other phrases in the different languages, it's super fun. 
• A Girl of Beauty, a devotional I'd like to start with the girls and Devotions for Preschoolers, which I used when the girls were younger and am now starting to read with Kelby. 
• Pattern blocks and cards. These keep Kelby busy longer than almost anything else. You can get these in several places so I won't bother linking. I also have his little magazine holder of extra practice workbooks and wipe-off activity books. He is pretty good at occupying himself while I work with the girls, although I give him special attention to work on his lap book each day. 
• Other than those things, I have a primary journal for each of the girls, one of our favorite art books, a drawing pad, white board tablets and a pencil box with pencils, glue sticks and scissors. And it all fits quite nicely in one bin, which I'm sure you recognize if you've ever attended a thirty-one party ;)

And there ya go! Hopefully by the time this move and our next move in March is done, I will be an expert and will be able to write a post called "how to homeschool and move across the country twice in one school year." Or maybe it will be called, "how to lose your mind trying to homeschool and move across the country twice in one school year." Ha!

still sewing

With our move coming at me like a freight train, I am still sewing. I have found I need it to keep my sanity. I will sew until they take my pins and scissors from my hands and put them on that moving truck ;)

I love cardigans and other ways to transform my Summer clothes into Winter clothes, but I was wanting a more structured option and having seen so many cute blazer style fitted jackets out there recently, I decided to make my own. I used McCall's 6711 and just love how it turned out!

 The best part: I had this awesome black and white camera cotton in my stash. I got it at JoAnn because it just made me grin and I could not resist it! The jacket lining was the perfect use for it, don't you agree? I wanted to keep it neutral for when it does peek out, but more than that, I wanted to know there was a cute print inside my jacket :)

 The outside fabric is a cotton twill from Denver Fabrics with a little bit of stretch. I'd made this pattern once before in a suiting from a thrift store with zero stretch and the sleeves were just too uncomfortable when I bent my arms. So in this version, besides using a fabric with some give, which helped, I cut the sleeves a size bigger, lowering the arm syncs a half an inch. This version accommodates my buff arms quite nicely, hehe.

I love it and it's super comfortable!! It will fit nicely over long sleeved shirts too so it will be very versatile.

More and more of my wardrobe is hand made these days, which I'm thrilled about. The two things I refuse to sew, however, are undergarments and jeans, ha! Where do you buy jeans? I could use a new pair, but I find myself to be between sizes in many brands. I like the washes of juniors jeans, but hate the low rise. I have a muscular build so it's hard, but not impossible to find skinny jeans, which I love. We were in Gap the other day and were laughing because the thighs on the mannequin wearing their skinny jeans were literally the size of my bicep, haha! The jeans I'm wearing in these pics are from Target and I love them, but unfortunately I have slimmed down ever so slightly this year and they feel too big--I don't have to unbutton them to get them off, lol, but I'm between sizes now in Target jeans too. I'm willing to spend up to $40 or $50 on a good pair of jeans, so give me your best shopping advice!!

how to work out at home for free!

Fair warning, this is wordy :)
I am a bit of a fitness lover. It didn't happen over night! But, sometime about a year and a half ago, after many years of getting bored after using the same video for a few days and quitting, I figured out how to stay motivated and add variety and intensity to at-home workouts and it's too good not to share. My main motivation these days is the simple fact that I feel better when I exercise (and by exercise, I mean hard enough to sweat). My entire perspective on myself, my life and my circumstances becomes brighter when I work out!! It's true. It's scientific too, I promise, it's not just in my head ;) I love a quote I saw once that said, "You're only a workout away from a good mood." I agree :)

First up, I LOVE the site, FitnessBlender.com.  The married couple that runs the site have hundreds of high quality FREE workout videos, varying in length and fitness level. They have fitness plans you can download for a small price if you aren't sure where to start or how to progress. Plus, they don't include music, which is nice when you'd just rather listen to your own :) You can easily search their site for what you're wanting to tackle. Today I was doing a Crossfit workout and just went to Fitness Blender to do a 6 minute cardio warmup.

Making them even more fun, they have a really fun video for kids. My kids love it. They love to workout with me anyway, especially Layla, so having a video just for them is a fun resource.

Me and my workout buddy:

Next up, can we talk for a minute about the awesomeness of YouTube??? It's almost embarrassing how many different things we use YouTube for. Fitness just adds to the list (I first discovered Fitness Blender on YouTube, actually, by searching for "30 minute HIIT workout". You can specify any type of workout and find it on YouTube. The PopSugar Fitness channel is a fun one and has tons of ten minute workouts. Combine two or three and you can get a really great routine in. Also, if you're new to fitness, you'll want to make sure you are using correct form on certain exercises and YouTube is a great way to do this.

Right now, I am using Clean Eats in the Zoo's (awesome site, btw) 30 Day at Home Crossfit Challenge.  I've been intrigued by Crossfit and there are plenty of gyms close to me, but as a homeschooling mama, I don't get out alone more than one evening a week usually (more on weekends) so it doesn't make sense for me to join a gym. Not to mention, my thoughts on gym memberships: If you're not motivated enough to work out at home, what makes you think you will drive to a gym to work out on a daily basis?? Just food for thought. Start at home, then see if you think a gym would fit into your life. The classes sure would be fun! There are a few fitness centers on the Army post we are moving to, so I'm hoping that taking a Zumba class or something will be more feasible for me there.

I also really like an app called Sworkit Pro (find it in the app store). I have it on my phone and my ipad and sometimes I just  like to put on a Podcast and tell the app I want a 30 minute cardio circuit workout. It has yoga, upper body, lower body, cardio, or a little bit of everything. And if you're not sure of an exercise, you can pause to watch the quick how-to video. And if you aren't comfortable with an exercise, you can go to the next one (there are a few things I don't like to do because I have scoliosis, although I have had fewer problems with my back than ever since I started doing tough workouts last Spring!)

If you are willing to spend a little money, I have used and still use certain workout videos. I highly recommend Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred if you're wanting a good place to start. Her workout is tough for beginners, but builds stamina and muscle tone very quickly. I have also done Insanity and TurboFire. (I bought both used, which is the only way to go for crazy pricey workout programs like that!)  I like both, but just do not like how long the workouts get in the second half of the program. They are really fun and highly motivational, though and come with variety built right in since they come with so many discs, which is why I'm saving my pennies for Shaun T's new T25 workout--only 25 minutes, yay!

I know many mamas like me wonder how in the world they can fit a daily workout in (20 minutes is all it takes!) and believe me, I do understand. Life with kids gets crazy!! I am not a morning workout person. It takes me awhile to get going in the mornings and my kids are generally less needy in the afternoons. So I always work out sometime after lunch. It helps to make your mind up on a time too--at 3:00, I work out. Put it on the agenda. When my kids were smaller, it was much more difficult to work out every day. I have whacked toddlers in the head with weights more than once. They get under foot, I know that. Sometimes after Casey got home, I'd go into our room with my laptop and a DVD and work out then. It was a nice break for me!

I am always looking for more online workout ideas, so if you have some, please share in the comments! And if you're wanting to get started working out, YOU CAN DO IT! Exercise as unto the Lord :)

One more thing, there is a LOT of "fitness motivation" out there, particularly on Pinterest. When I decide to follow someone on Pinterest, I immediately unsubscribe to their Fitness board if they have one. Those pictures of perfection are not healthy for me to dwell on and not motivating in the right ways. I strongly encourage you not to buy into those links and pictures!

I quit shampoo

If you haven't heard of the "no-poo" method of hair care, it's quite a sweeping movement these days ... if you don't believe me, just ask Pinterest. I've been growing my hair out for a few years. I have naturally curly hair and the longer it got, the more unmanageable it became. I felt like it just looked frizzy, whether I was wearing it curly, wavy or straight. I hate products for curly hair that make it crunchy and products for straightening just didn't seem effective--don't even get me started on the cost of the "good" products! I wasn't happy. So I decided to see what would happen if I left my hair to do it's thing. It's been a couple weeks and today was a turning point. Finally!! This is my hair today with no product and air dried. I gave it a trim this morning, both the length and the bangs.

I started out using the honey wash method every other day. I added a lemon juice rinse after the first week. But, my hair was just not getting any less oily (the adjustment period after quitting your shampoo will not be awesome). No one but me noticed, but still... So this morning I tried what most no-pooers do and made the baking soda wash with the apple cider vinegar rinse. And WOW, for the first time in two weeks, my hair is SO soft and smooth and not oily at all!! 

I do not like blow drying my hair--I just don't have the time to mess with that. So to style it wavy like this and relax the curls, I wait til it's almost dry, then gather it up, twist it and wrap it in a loose bun, sticking some pins or a pony tail holder over it. After about 30 minutes, I take it down and ta-da. Done. I do style my bangs with a flat iron and sometimes fix some curls with my curling iron if some pieces are going crazy. But, no product at all. 

This picture was about one week in. I wore it curly that first week because it hid the grease, haha! I always thought my hair was way curlier underneath and just a mix of curl/straight/frizz on the top layers. Now it is all as curly as those bottom layers!! It's insanely curly without the frizz, it's awesome. It occurs to me that the shampoo was more damaging to my top layers because those were the parts that were getting more of it when I washed! I also started using a large piece of cotton knit fabric to wrap my hair in instead of a towel. I have known for years that this is better for curly hair to diminish frizz, but I just now implemented it.

So my recommendations so far:

• Take the plunge!! Give it 30 days. Just see what happens. 
• The honey did not work for me. It was actually more oily on the days I used the honey, so I guess there's a reason that method isn't as prevalent as the baking soda/vinegar method. 
• My adjustment period was a couple weeks, but some people say it took up to 6 weeks for their natural oils to figure things out. So don't give up. 
• I'm not going to bother writing the step-by-step because you can already find that alllll over the Internet. If you do have questions, leave them in the comments and I will absolutely answer them! 
• You might find a couple posts that claim baking soda and vinegar will ruin your hair--that's because this method is NOT meant to be used every day. It might possibly damage your hair and scalp if you do that. You may need to use it more in those first couple weeks while your scalp adjusts, then you will be able to go 3 or 4 days or even up to a week without washing or just using water to rinse. Time for me to buy a shower cap ;) 

That's all! If you've also quit shampoo, please share in the comments! I have read tons of stories of how people changed their hair with this method, so let's swap stories!