One of those days

It’s been one of those days where…

…the kids are still in their pajamas at 3:30 pm

…the sink is full of dirty dishes and the house is littered with half finished games and projects

…there’s baskets full of clothes to be put away everywhere i look

…it took me over an hour to get the baby to take a nap

…and I had to put her in the shower with me to get a shower

…the stack of overdue library books is staring at me from their place by the door

…I broke out the ice cream in the afternoon

…I’m finding it hard to get the motivation to do anything

…the kids are taking their naps so late i know they’ll never go to bed

Hope your day is better.

 

{this moment}

{this moment}

{this moment}

nature walk

In addition to a wide selection of playgrounds and city and county parks, Kalamazoo and the surrounding area offers several recreation areas and nature preserves for families to enjoy the outdoors. We headed to Al Sabo recently to enjoy the cooler weather and check out the changes taking place as the seasons change. 

Day in the life

Inspired by Sarah Davis’ daily jot, I thought I’d offer a peek inside what my days look like:

5:00 am – Wake up to Bronte telling me, “my throat is so thirsty,” over and over. Get her a drink of water. She demands chocolate milk with syrup. Tell her she’s getting water. Listen to her whine. Still offer her water. She finally drinks it. Try to go back to bed.

5:10 – 6:00 – Try to ignore Bronte talking to me and go back to sleep. Repeatedly tell her to go back to sleep.

6:15 – Alarm goes off. Feed baby. Get up. Take shower. Simultaneously get stuff together for diaper bag, find clothes for kids, and get dressed.

7:00 – Children awake. Chase them around trying to change diapers/dress them. Put laundry away. Try to dodge minefield of toys, crawling baby, hungry dog, and messy kitchen and make breakfast. Pack lunch for work.

8:00 – Feed baby, carry everything to the car while carrying baby, get children secured in carseats.

8:15 – Go back for Bronte’s shoes.

8:30 – Drop children off a sitter. Drive in silence to work. Realize coffee is still in microwave at home.

9:00 -work

1:00 – pick up children from sitter. Emerson is asleep when I get there, which means no nap this afternoon. drop phone in toilet while helping bronte in the bathroom.

1:15 – drag everything back in the house while carrying baby. feed baby. change clothes. start laundry. refill chocolate milk. wipe bottoms.

2:00 – mow lawn while carrying baby. put away laundry while carrying baby. vacuum while carrying baby. play imagination games. chase Bronte around. stop Bronte from throwing dirt out of garden beds. listen to tantrum.

4:00 – bathe children. wreck all their fun by stopping them from drowning each other in bathtub. try to dress children. put away laundry. clean up bathroom.

5:00 – empty dishwasher. start dinner. start peeling and seeding tomatoes for salsa. take out compost. tiptoe through minefield of toys, toddler banging on pots and pans, baby crawling, and mess. stop baby from eating yuckies on the floor.

6:00 – serve dinner. listen to baby scream in high chair and Bronte tell me she’s not hungry, doesn’t like what we’re serving, etc. try to shove food in mouth while baby sits on lap and bronte runs around the table. clean up glass of water bronte spills on table. comfort bronte because she stubs her toe.

7:00 – put children to bed.

8:00 – clean up dinner mess, clean up kitchen, sweep floor, finish canning salsa, take out garbage, sort recycling, feed baby, do laundry. feed baby. feed baby. download pictures off of camera. attempt to pick up house.

feed baby. feed baby.

11:00 – bed.

 

 

{this moment}

ode to summer

We complain when you’re hot, we complain when you’re cold.

We curse when you’re dry, we curse when you’re wet.

We moan when you’re sunny, we moan when you’re cloudy.

We call you too long, we call you too short.

Oh summer, what a tricky, ever changing, mischevious one you are.

 

 

 

t-shirt refashion

Recently I wrapped up an easy and inexpensive crafty project – for myself for once! My inspiration for this project came from a sweet blog I follow – Tea Rose Home. Sachiko is extremely generous with her tutorials and has shared a number of t-shirt refashions on her blog. After seeing this post I decided to create a ruffle shirt of my very own.

 

I found the two shirts on sale for about $5 each at Meijer and picked up coordinating thread at Jo-Ann’s. Cutting up the shirt went pretty quickly with my rotary cutter/mat, though sadly I did cut through a tablecloth by running off the mat. It was a bit time consuming to make all the ruffles – sewing them went quickly but they have to be gathered by hand – a slow process as you have to be careful not to break the thread when pulling it to gather the fabric.

One lesson learned from this project – be careful not to pin through the back of the shirt when tacking down the ruffles. The first time I pinned the ruffles on I pinned through both the back which meant I had to sew the ruffles on by hand. After sewing a few of the ruffles on this way I ended up repinning the rest of the ruffles so I could sew them on by machine, which allowed me to finish the project much more quickly.

INow that I’ve seen how easy it is to make ruffles I’m definitely planning on using them on more projects. I’d like to make similar shirts for the girls, and make myself another shirt (or two) using bib or verticle ruffles.

under the sea

Whale curtain

This week I finished up an easy peazy project for my niece’s new bathroom. My sister and her family just moved into town and are beginning to decorate their new house.  My sis found a wonderful children’s bathroom set at Target complete with shower curtain, towels, and toothbrush holders, the works. The only thing missing – window dressings. (Enter my contribution) Using an extra shower curtain, a bit of drapery lining fabric, and more than a little patience, (shower curtain fabric is slippery) I stitched up this cute little curtain for the naked window.

I just love the simple dot print and the mix of brown and blue.

Detail of whale curtain