Would you do me just a quick little favor? Would you mind just filling out this quick little form? I’m contemplating some changes in the future for this little blog of mine, and I’d love your input.

Since my blog “niche” is just a wee bit scattered (uh, ADHD anyone??), I want to know why you are here reading this blog. Are you skipping every few posts, just waiting for the posts you’re most interested in? Or are you loving every single word I write? (Ha ha.)

Filling this out should take you two minutes, max. Unless your kids interrupt you every twenty seven seconds while reading it, then I can’t guarantee anything!

Source: Noricum via Flickr.

Over the last 30+ days, I’ve somehow developed the habit–a real live actual habit–of keeping my dishes washed. This is nothing short of a miracle in my book. In the course of my entire married life, I have almost always had a sink full of dirty dishes and a dishwasher full of dishes needing to be put away.

The routine was this: my son loads the dishes after dinner (with his sisters helping to clear the table and bring him the dishes). If not full after dinner, I would continue to load the dishes throughout the following day. Sometime in the early afternoon, I would wash and unload the dishes. Something about knowing someone else would load the dishes if I got the previous load washed and unloaded was really motivating.

Something else that helped? Enforcing the rule: no dirty dishes in the sink! It is utterly depressing facing a sink so full of dishes that it’s next to impossible to rinse and load.

Notice I’ve been using the past tense here? Well, naturally, this week my dishwasher stopped working.

Crap. Crap crap crappity crap.

To avoid a full blown panic, I did two things. First, I went into Frugal Dish Mode. Dishes were only used as a last resort. Everything was rinsed and stacked neatly beside the sink immediately. (I’m not handwashing crusty nasty dishes here people.) Lunch was on paper towels, and dinner used only the bare minimum of dishes, and only after foraging for a few paper plates I had stuffed in the back of my pantry.

Second: I looked on the bright side.

After all, at least it wasn’t my sink that stopped working. That would have been a disaster.
At least my sink wasn’t already overflowing with dirty dishes–I could have been a full load behind.
At least I had those two paper plates leftover.
At least my husband can fix most dishwasher issues, so we don’t have to pay a repairman.
At least I have a dishwasher!
Hey, at least I have a husband.
At least half of my kids are old enough they can wash a few dishes themselves.
At least I wasn’t out of dish soap.
At least I was kindasorta caught up on laundry so I had clean dishrags.
At least it wasn’t my washer that was broken.
At least we’re all healthy.
At least I have all of my appendages, all the better to hand wash dishes!

My husband didn’t have time to fix the dishwasher within the first 24 hours, but the following night he looked at it. He pulled it out, looked at some switches or something, figured out which switch wasn’t allowing water to run, and switched it.

Dishwasher = fixed.

All without my habit falling apart completely.

Have you ever had a vital appliance go down? How did you handle it?

{I know many of you are out the door by 9 a.m. and are rolling your eyes. However, I think most would agree when you have no place to go (as I usually don’t in the morning), it can be difficult to get up and get going without an established routine.}

I’ve been doing very well in my super simple “routine” and have gotten dressed by 9 a.m each day. This routine is so simple it doesn’t include hair, makeup, shoes, or dressing my children. Even as simple as it has been, I’ve noticed a small change in my daily productivity. I’m less likely to lounge around in bed for hours when I’m wearing pants with a waistband!

I’ve been mulling over what to add next to my incredibly easy routine. If I jump in with too much, the whole thing is shot, I promise you that. I need to decide the next baby step to keep up my momentum without overwhelming myself. I’ve thought about adding hair (and or makeup), reading scriptures before dressing (if you’re following along, this could be your personal meditation/journaling time as well), making my bed, or perhaps something else?

As I’m deciding to do what’s next, I’ve found a few helpful blog posts on establishing morning routines. Here are a few that I enjoyed:

From the Modern Alternative Mama, I found a post on creating a routine that works. Hers includes writing up a “Not To Do” list, which she explains:

The purpose of this quick little assessment is not to create a ‘TO DO’ list. Its sole purpose is to create a ‘NOT TO DO’ list. If I need to wash the diapers I will not try to wash the bedding. If my husband needs clean work clothes I will not wash towels. If I need to make phone calls or write emails I will not spend the morning on facebook or pinterest. If I have plans to do school lessons with the children I will not take the morning to start a sewing project.

In Get Simplifized, she mentions specific concepts to consider while brainstorming your routine, as well as offers some ideas for getting started.

I also really liked The Inspired Room’s 5 Minute Morning Routine. 5 minutes? I can do 5 minutes! She breaks it down short and sweet, and it seems like a great approach to creating a non-overwhelming routine for yourself. (She also links to a post in which she explains how she keeps her house “clean enough” that I absolutely love.)

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about FlyLady while sharing blog posts about morning routines! FlyLady is the Queen of Routine (a title I just made up but I’m sure she would gladly accept). I’ve done FlyLady consistently for about 6 weeks. I understand that I failed because while she cautions over and over to baby step your way to clean, I’m not generally a baby step kind of person. There were a few things that confused me about her system, but while I used it, my house stayed cleaner than it has ever been–before, or since! I’m hoping that creating my morning routine baby baby step at a time, I’ll be closer to being able to “FLY” and successfully follow along some variation of her system.

If you’re following along–or if you’re a master of routine yourself–what’s the next baby step I should add into my day?

Weeeellll…..
You were wrong.

My plans are grand and typically well thought out but my brain is just a teensy bit defective, so all that energy kinda sputters and dies.

At the beginning of the year, my commitment to homeschool was really wavering, honestly. Everyone in my world was discussing kindergarten and teachers and testing and assessing and… I was just so bored at home. I went from full homeschool obsession to full quilt obsession and looking at curriculum was boo-oring and our current curriclum wasn’t working the way I imagined so I prayed about this upcoming year in a whiny kind of, “am I reeeally supposed to homeschool” sort of way and the answer was
Yes.

Well, okay then. Fine. I can at least start online shopping for new and improved curriculum. I do like to shop.

My pessimism shouts, “sure, spend more money on more curriculum that you’ll be bored of by January and you’ll decide isn’t working for you and then your husband will shoot evil eye daggers at you when you suggest purchasing more curriculum so then you don’t and you just kinda ‘make it work’ but we all know that means lay on the couch and not do anything.”

My pessimism would like to add that anyone capable of writing such run-on sentences might not be the best candidate for teaching reading and writing.

Here’s what’s changed in our “kindergarten lite” curriculum, bullet point style.

• “Lite?” More like ridiculous overkill. Seriously. Let’s play number games and read some Bob Books.
• I more or less ditched the math curriculum in the last few weeks. Pretty dry, repetitive, and just too MUCH. Hard to explain with a bullet point, lol.
• Five in a Row changed quite a bit and could also use a post of its own. {*Snort* Don’t wait around for that.} Basically… we read the suggested books for three to five days and that is it.
• I stopped taking pictures because it unintentionally pressured my perfectionist daughter.
• Calendar time got nixed due to lack of consistency and fun.
• I really failed on teaching the Gospel the way I had hoped this year, but since I never pre-planned it, it never happened. :/
• We still do UPSTART with Waterford’s Rusty and Rosy program but cut way back, just doing the minimum to remain in the program. (Anyone Utahns interested in knowing more about this program? Leave a comment.)
• I GOT SMART and started using the system I had mastered for my Walk Beside Me LDS curriculum: one file folder with everything in it. I even brought back the old preschool cutting/tracing/pasting workbooks mentioned here. Every page is ready to go, organized by the week, for the remainder of the school year.
• We still do chapter book read alouds, but we read them at bedtime, with her public schooled sister. I want them to both love books, and it’s our favorite time of the day.

Are you sensing a theme? It’s a theme I’m calling SIMPLIFICATION. Maybe I’m just too lazy to homeschool the way some of my homeschool blogger heroes do. Maybe I’m just more honest. It came down to doing the least school–and enjoying it!–or not doing it at all because it was all too much.

For anyone who thinks they couldn’t homeschool because it’s “too hard,” I want you to know that what this comes down to is that each day; we play a math game or two (more if I can maintain her attention with some apps), we read a Bob Book or other early reader, we read a picture book, a poem, and perhaps a workpage or two.

It’s bugging me that I don’t have a good paragraph to neatly tie this all together, and I’m also tempted to open Photoshop and create a little graphic to hide the fact that I have no pictures to go with this post (blame the perfectionist!), but I’m just going to hit publish or it will be the hundredth homeschool post saved in my drafts to date.

The End.

That is to say, I am the worst at routines. Our only real routine is not having a routine. That’s pretty routine around here.

I’m trying to mix it up though. I fell off the homeschool horse (doing better now but not great) and really… we’re just lazy all day here. That’s not exactly the enlightening educational scenario I imagine for my kiddos. Even if I don’t homeschool? Well gosh, I could still get dressed for the day before noon, right? RIGHT?

I’ve noticed too that when I get dressed earlier on–the day goes better. I’m less likely to doze off or pretend I’m not home if someone knocks on the door. It’s not just about getting dressed though. I have a whole list of things I’d like to accomplish in the mornings; house tidying, school work, making my bed, doing the dishes, and even posting something on this here blog once in awhile.

When I’m up and going, my kids are not as likely to be spending the day watching TV. We are all less likely to munch on random snacks and delay lunch until 2 p.m. I’m less crabby because I’m not hiding under blankets and telling the kids to watch just one more show while I sleep and they jump on my head.

I asked on Facebook for some tips and advice on creating routines. I’m still trying to figure out what I want my routine to be, and these ladies had some awesome ideas. For now, I’m going the BABY baby steps route. I’m beginning minuscule slivers of order that will absolutely not overwhelm me. (For the record: FlyLady is a great resource for starting routines and baby stepping, but I tended to take gigantic leaps into her program and burn out. Go figure.)

If you’re skimming this, here’s the important part:

My first step will to be dressing each day by 9:00 a.m.

That’s it. No makeup or shoes, just getting out of the pajamas and putting the clothes on. 

Ideally, I’ll be adding more once I get comfortable in this goal. Wanna join me in creating a SAHM Mom Morning Routine? (or Dad! That’s cool too!)  Leave a comment here or on Facebook so I know I’m not alone–and I’ll be held accountable! One thing: this is super chill. So if I wake up tomorrow with the flu, then you can forget about it, okay?

Recently I was made aware that my blog was acting truly funky (thanks to a Facebook follower!). I’ve gotten it back to normal on my web browser, but last reports were mixed from my testing sources (a friend, and my mom.)

If you can see this, would you tell me if things look okay? If you can’t see this, you will know things are not okay but are unlikely to report that. But if things do go well–and really, you would know if not because you wouldn’t be reading this!)–will you leave a little comment, and let me know?

Perhaps you could tell me what browser you’re using too? (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Android/iOS device, etc.)

Also, if you can see this… hi. It’s nice to see you around!

This toothbrush rocks - literally! The toothbrush we were sent to review plays its own song as your child brushes. To hear the whole song, they need to brush for exactly two minutes. (Hmm, isn’t that convenient?) My daughter loved rocking out to one of her favorite songs, One Thing by One Direction, as she brushed her teeth. Standing next to her, the music is fairly quiet but the sound actually travels through her teeth to her head. Like me, she can’t hear the music well unless she’s brushing her teeth. The Tooth Tunes website offers this explanation:

From the makers of the #1 kids battery toothbrushes, ARM & HAMMER™ Tooth Tunes™ features one of a kind Music in Your Mouth™ technology. This proprietary technology streams sound vibrations from the bristles of the toothbrush through the teeth, allowing kids to hear the music while they brush.

Tooth Tunes removes any battle associated with brushing their teeth. Whether you struggle with getting your child to brush her teeth at all, or simply can’t get her to brush for two entire minutes, this toothbrush takes those issues away. If your child isn’t a fan of One Direction, there are tons of other songs to choose from, including artists like Hot Chelle Ray and Queen.

Good news for your kid if he or she is a fan of One Direction (and really, who isn’t??): Arm & Hammer Tooth Tunes is giving away 4 tickets to a One Direction Concert! Here are the details from Arm & Hammer:

• Church & Dwight Co., Inc., is excited to announce the Brush with Tooth Tunes™, Rock with One Direction Sweepstakes! Enter for a chance to win the Grand Prize, four tickets to a One Direction concert in August 2013.
•  100 First Prize Winners will receive One Direction prize packs, with One Direction merchandise.

• To enter, follow the below steps:
  • Create an optional video of yourself or your kids brushing with One
    • Direction ARM & HAMMER™ Tooth Tunes™ for your chance to be
    • featured on ToothTunes.com! (A video is not required for entry.)
• Visit ToothTunes.com, complete the registration form and click submit to be entered for your chance to win.
• Enter up to once per week now through 6/30/13

• Winners will be chosen July 201

Brush with Tooth Tunes™, Rock with One Direction Sweepstakes Rules:

• No purchase necessary
• The sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, who are 13 years of age or older

For official rules, visit ToothTunes.com

And finally, my 9-almost-10-year-old gives her review: “It’s AWESOME!” For further motivation and inspiration for toothbrush battles, check out my free “Brush Your Teeth” printable!

Early this month, my little baby celebrated her third birthday. Three! What’s up with that? Anyway, my February-due-but-born-in-March-thank-you-very-much born at home baby was the recipient of one of my very first quilts, so it seemed time to update her with a big girl quilt. This is a tutorial “of sorts” because while I won’t be giving you step by step photos or instructions, I will tell you what I did so if you have any sort of quilt experience, you can easily replicate it on your own. You’re welcome. ;)

The fabric in the Sweet Sunshine Quilt comes from the “Hello Sunshine” line by Lori Whitlock (for Riley Blake). It’s a pretty simple sixteen patch quilt using a strip-piecing method. The sixteen patches might look hard, but were seriously the easiest part of this quilt. This quilt used 2 Hello Sunshine rolie polies (aka half jelly rolls), and I used a total of 47 2.5″ strips in this quilt. It yielded exactly enough blocks with one leftover.

Here’s a sixteen patch tutorial using the strip piecing method that I used. (Note that her strips were 2×7, I used 2.5″ jellyroll strips and sewed the strips together by the width of the whole strip. I also cut my rows of four into 2.5″ rows, leave a comment if I just confused you!)

One of the things that absolutely boggled my mind on this quilt was how to put the quilt on point, which means setting the squares on the diagonal. It’s actually really easy, but figuring out the finished size of the quilt beforehand was pretty much impossible for me. I’m not mathematically inclined, however. :)

Here’s a tutorial for setting quilts on point. I also found this pdf tutorial useful!

The quilt was going to feature plain white sashing, (I used a white Moda jelly roll and had tons of excess) but the mathematically disinclined did something really stupid (um, don’t cut all your white fabric into 8.5″ strips if you want to use white sashing for your entire quilt). I decided on pink cornerstones, so I cut some yardage (approx. 1/4  yard of this pink fabric) into 2.5×2.5 squares.

Here’s the sashing with cornerstones tutorial using the method I used.

I then decided to do something really crazy, and planned a bit of applique with some pretty intense embroidery. I enjoyed the process, but I fretted about every step. Clearly, it’s not perfect, but it’s good enough for me. I used a high tech process of enlarging the bird fabric image on my tablet, laying the tracing paper on top of my tablet, and gently tracing.

I used the “starch and cereal box” method described here, except I used a Ritz Cracker box. ;) I found the Faultless starch at Walmart for $.98. I’ve done a bit of embroidery though obviously, I’m no professional, but I found this website helpful for various techniques. The stitches I used were a stem stitch, back stitch, satin stitch, and the french knot. (These are all very basic stitches so don’t be intimidated.) I hope the real embroiderers in the world won’t judge me too much on my less than perfect attempt!

For the binding, I used a machine binding tutorial because I was super short on time–as in, staying up till 2 or 3 a.m. several nights in a row before her birthday. I used this one and unfortunately, it didn’t work well for me at all. Like, at all.  But being short on time as I was, it is what it is. (I should have tried it on a simpler project first!) I have since used this machine binding tutorial on another quilt and it worked much, much, much better. It might be my new binding method!

During one of my late night sew sessions, it entered into my sleep deprived brain that I should embroider a tag for the back. Of course! Why not! This was the last thing I finished, and I finished it on her birthday, at 2 pm, which unfortunately meant a lot of her birthday was spent with her siblings while I called “I’m almost done!” from the other room.

I started this quilt about a month in advance but obsessed over every step. I spent a good week designing the quilt, then redesigned and reconfigured pretty much every step of the way. Attempting to figure out what the finished size would be put me in tears and reminded me of 8th grade math–it wasn’t pretty. The embroidery took about one million hours longer than I thought and I was so frustrated it didn’t work out perfectly. In the end, I haven’t been that fuzzy brain tired since I had a newborn and a toddler!

Was it worth it? Absolutely. I spent way too much time dithering around indecisively  but my fun, bright, spunky, hilarious, darling little three year old drags around this quilt and calls it “my Favorite Quilt.” Which is perfect, because she is my favorite three year old!

1. My baby girl turned three. I’m not a fan of her getting big (she was the best two year old ever, I kinda just want to squish all that cuteness down and stay all squishy and hilarious and little forever). If she gets big, I have no baby. Then I might want a baby. I DO NOT WANT A BABY. I DO NOT WANT A BABY.
2. I mopped my floor today. Serious sanitizing style. We have been sick, sick, sick. By the time everyone has been sick, we all get sick with something else. Much more sanitizing to be done. Maybe.
3. I made a quilt. I finished it on my daughter’s birthday. Tutorial coming soon, probably, perhaps, because I’m so stinking proud of this quilt. It’s ridiculous in its cuteness, much like its intended recipient.
4. Playdates. Not a fan. I feel like once the friend is six or older, I have to totally clean my house because obviously everyone has a cleaner house than I do. Heaven forbid those six year olds find out.
5. Still quilting! In fact, it’s way more fun to look on flickr at all the amazingly gorgeous quilts than… well, pretty much anything. Like cleaning. Parenting. Blogging. It can’t be helped, there are thousands of them and I must see them all!
6. There’s a fine line between dirty and disgusting. My bedroom has offically crossed that line and my husband is pleading with me to clean it while he works 60 hours a day. Doesn’t he know I have quilts to look at and create?!
7. Did you really think I was going to post a picture of my bedroom in its disgusting state? No way. That would be too too too embarrassing.
8. I think I broke my tablet. Apparently it’s not meant to be used for fanning my face after a mopping spree. Crap.

Huh. There are seven eight things on that list. That’s pretty random.

The end.

One of my first quilts. Imperfect, and I love it. :)

You know those little things in life that shouldn’t be special, but are? For example: clean sheet day. This is an unofficial holiday my husband and I celebrate rather infrequently. Don’t judge me, but rather than a weekly clean sheet day, we rejoice during my *ahem* bimonthly changing of sheets.

An even bigger holiday? Clean quilt day. As I’ve been on a quilting kick, I decided it was time to soak our bedroom quilt in Oxiclean and restore it to it’s beautiful white, blue, and green condition. The dingy gray, blue and green combo just wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

Oxiclean in the tub full of warm water for a few hours yield one nasty tub full of nasty nasty water.

Nasty.

Several hours later, all my bedding was dry, the bed was made, and my room smells lovely. Clean Quilt Day: a very special occasion indeed!