I get a few questions on the baby sling, so I figured I would take some pictures.
#1 here is the sling
#2 Reach into the sling, to fold in half.
Here it is in half.
#3 Bring it over one arm and your head and let it rest on your shoulder.
almost, like you are wearing a sash.
#4 At the seam, you want to open the “pocket”. this is the 2 edges.
#5 Slip the baby in, for demonstration purposes I used a bunny,
Not to worry my friends, no bunnies were hurt in the making of this how to post.
~trish
This is another set from the Pine Cone Press of Not your ordinary Book Club. This is a really cool technique book using ink. The packet gives you the tools to duplicate one of their page layouts.
So you can win all of this, like Jackie did for the last 2 give-aways, by doing the following!
1. Make sure you are a follower. To do so, you need to hit the subscribe button on the right. Once you subscribe, a little picture box will show up under followers. I love this. I can begin to see what you look like and the other blogs you read, thanks to Google.
2. Post a comment to this post. Make sure you are a follower, so it will show up as your follower name. You have to post to this posting, not to facebook.
***So the big thing here is that, at the end of the week, I am going to look at the comments and then check it against the followers list. If the names match, I put you in the drawling tub.
Want a second chance, facebook this post.
Hit the “f” button under the post to link it to your facebook page. If you do this, please leave a comment at the posting that you did it. Not my facebook page, because I won’t be looking all over to find if you did.
To be my friend on facebook, send me your email!
That’s the rules, if you don’t like them, then just complain about it. I won’t care.
I will pick the names out on Sunday. Really, I will try to make it this Sunday!
~trish
Well friends, the last 2 weeks have been rough in so many ways. As a mom that wants to succeed at the task, I had to take inventory or my strengths and weaknesses and had to come to reality about my personal limits. Like I said, it has been rough, a few personal meltdowns and finally coming to grips with the decisions we made.
I can imagine the “dun, dun, dun” loud eerie music playing.
Okay, no one died! But, my husband has been working some crazy hours with his second job. I feel so blessed that he is willing to work so hard. These crazy hours are about15-17 hours each day on the weekend and 2-3 nights during the week, him working until 9 pm. I had no idea how fragile our home is without him. Let’s just say in no way, can this momma go it alone. We were getting the kids fed, educated, and dressed, but this momma wasn’t getting to be the momma I want to be.
Now this side job will last like this for about 2 months. I know we could put our school aside for that time and just focus on being mom, but then there is always another side job that will put the same schedule on him. On top of this, I have a little test I have to study for that is a major deal. (This goes back to that professional degree I have.)
So momma is off having day in and out with all 4, with pure exhaustion making me just want to cry when the voices are echoing off the walls to sound like I have an entire herd of hyenas in here. So I was getting snappy with my precious babies and losing all joy in every moment and realized something needed to change.
I heard a while back on a podcast, that it is the attributes of the stay at home mom that will change the world. It lingered in my mind as I was facing the stresses in my life at the moment. What echoed is that it was not the homeschool mom that is changing the world, it is the stay at home mom. SO it shook me that it is more important for me to be mom, than it is for me to school teacher. I never thought that I would have to choose between the 2, but this is where my world is fragile without my husband being readily available in my day.
So I made the decision painfully and heartbreakingly. And once I mourned at the loss this year of being able to school my own children, I put my big girl panties on and got to the business of enrolling my kids. I made the decision Tuesday, enrolled them on Wednesday, and they started on Thursday!
Here they are on their first day. Now #1 started kindergarten. #2 is going to VPK. #3 just wants to go to school, so she totes a backpack with her all day long. Every time we stop somewhere, she ask if this is her school. I am using this opportunity to tell her she needs to go pee pee in a potty, so she can go to school one day.
Now we are on day 3 of them going to school and wow! I feel like I am coming back to my old self again. So I am embracing the change. I am also changing things with the baby!
She has been evicted from my bed. She is thrashing around through the night and I am not getting any sleep. I am almost dried up and have lost all desire to nurse. SO now I am trying to get her on a schedule to take her bottle and sleep through the night. I had to get on the phone today and find a crib that would fit in our bedroom, because she has outgrown the bassinet. Thankfully a friend came through with the coolest port-a-crib.
It is low to the grown, so it is not overwhelming in a small room. Against better judgement, I will show you what my room looks like. We do not have anything fancy, it is just the nuts and bolts of real life.
So all this craziness and meltdowns is the reason I have been lacking any real thought to my postings and why I was late on my give-away.
I do want to share my excitement for the plans to my new family order. I am giving myself this week to catch back up on my house. But hopefully next week, we will start back up on the unit study side of the MFW kindergarten program. I want to continue to show them God in everything around us and the one week unit studies are perfect for that. The nice part is, the unit studies have so many activities, I doubt they will feel like “work”.
I am also excited to have more time to devote to making my home more stream lined. Yeah! I hope that by the end of the school year, I will be more at a maintenance level than a purge and organize level. SO I plan to keep FLYING with the flylady!
I better post my next giveaway, toodles!
~trish
Welp, Sky2cu4 is a winner again! she is taking advantage of double entries. Want to be my friend on facebook, just ask and I will give you my info to friend me or send me your log in email.
I will post giveaway #3 tonight.
~trish
See, I told you I would come back to talk on MONDAY! I can’t wait to gush about all that is going on in the Howard House.
I am feeling back to normal, now that I have enrolled my kids into the public school system. I can melt away telling you how my heart broke and the reasons we came to this decision, but I will leave it to another time. I really want to share with you something I have been wanting to do and today, I did it. I made over a highchair that was given to me.
AFTER
BEFORE
I do want to say, by Monday, I plan to start back where I left off in conversation, as if the last 2 weeks we were on pause. So, Saturday night I will be pulling the name for the #2 giveaway. So you still have a chance to win. I will show giveaway #3 on Monday.
~trish
This past weekend I was at a scrapbook retreat and was introduced to this site. It is amazing. It has a ton of free stuff for the Creative Memories Storybook Creator. It has video tutorials, free page templates and books, and free images. They do a wonderful job training you to be more productive in the program. Also, they have 2 great blueprint books that motivate you to complete a themed book in just about 3 hours, with or without pictures.
Please, if you scrapbook digitally or ever thought about it, please check it out. It is a wonderful site.
~trish
I will get to that drawing and the next giveaway soon.
I want to give you a link to Homemade by Jill who made these awesome flashcards. You can get the entire set for free at her blog!
Alright, maybe just have 4 small children makes you too busy! Or it could be coming off the most amazing scrapbook weekend ever. I have lots to share with you, but I am not ready to do it.
I still have my give-away winner to announce, but I will do that tomorrow.
I have a summary to finish about last week’s home school lesson.
And about a few other thoughts. And my next give away.
But until then, I will leave you with this little parody that I wrote and sang about scrapbooking. I will warn you, I am not the best singer, but I make up for it with wit.
I hope you love it. I promise, this is at a scrapbook weekend. It was a 48 hour party really, under the cover of scrapbooking. As a mom, this is the best kind of get away. This is my first away from home scrapbook event. I am thankful to be able to get the much needed adult time with other moms. And this scrapbook weekend, happened to have a DJ playing old school MTV videos and did Karaoke in the evening. How cool is that?
~trish
I stumbled across the podcast and then found her site. AMAZING! This is another source for doing your once a month cooking. She has it all very professional with printable recipe cards!
She puts out a monthly podcast about the meals. You can get all the information you need at her site.
I am excited about the pop-tart recipe. My kids love pop-tarts and so does my husband. So I look forward to making these. I am going to plan to use her plan for my next cooking session. find her here!
~trish
Here is the next give away! Yes, all of these awesome give-away items are coming from my scrapbook treasures.
This is a set from the Pine Cone Press of Not your ordinary Book Club. There is a supplement packet that goes with the book that teaches you how to create with blanks. The other packet was going to be part of another giveaway, but the book got ruined, so now I need to find another thing to give-away for week #4.
So you can win all of this, like Jackie did with last weeks give-away, by doing the following!
1. Make sure you are a follower. To do so, you need to hit the subscribe button on the right. Once you subscribe, a little picture box will show up under followers. I love this. I can begin to see what you look like and the other blogs you read, thanks to Google.
2. Post a comment to this post. Make sure you are a follower, so it will show up as your follower name. You have to post to this posting, not to facebook.
***So the big thing here is that, at the end of the week, I am going to look at the comments and then check it against the followers list. If the names match, I put you in the drawling tub.
Want a second chance, facebook this post.
Hit the “f” button under the post to link it to your facebook page. If you do this, please leave a comment at the posting that you did it. Not my facebook page, because I won’t be looking all over to find if you did.
That’s the rules, if you don’t like them, then just complain about it. I won’t care.
I will pick the names out on Sunday.
I want to start sharing my mom’s amazing bags! I can’t wait to describe them. These bags are heavy duty bags, with some sturdiness. The front side has 2 pockets, one with a zipper.
The other side has one large pocket perfect for papers and file folders.
On each end she put these amazing drink pockets. She used string doo-dads to keep your drink secure.
Check out the inside! I love the stripes inside. One side has a dual pockets and a strap for your keys!
On the other side has 3 pockets. The middle one has a Velcro closure.
The top zips close, so you can keep things secure.
The bag is 18” wide by 15” tall by 5” deep
This bag is available for purchase. There is only this one. There is not a bunch of bags that are from this fabric combination, that is waiting to be purchased. SO if you love it, jump on it, or it will be gone.
Suepe’s Big Bag – Pink Tropical $120 plus tax and S&H-- BUY NOW
HUGE, I am Sorry! I was suppose to post this yesterday. I hope I didn’t keep someone on the edge of her internet modem.
Yesterday just ran right by me. I was up by 6 am and I was kicked out of the house by my darling husband, so that I can have a quiet breakfast out by myself! Huge love to my husband. I am one of those bazaar people that love to eat by myself. It is not because I want no one to chronicle the amount I eat (which that isn’t a bad reason), I just love the peacefulness. I really developed this love when I was in college and always eating by myself, before then I wouldn’t think to eat by myself, unless I was a loser!
Back on pace! My day literally went like this: Up, breakfast, dentist – fillings, home school, lunch, podcast searching, treadmill, clean kitchen, dinner, clean up, shower somewhere in there, and then in bed. I can’t wait to tell you all about my new love of podcasting. I think I can see that in my future.
Back to the give away! I think we had a few problems with the criteria!
A recap!
1. Make sure you are a subscriber/follower. Just push the little button to the right.
2. Then comment on the post. This way I can connect the follower to the commenter. If you do this backwards, come back and comment again so I know.
3. Now you are entered in to win.
4. If you then link it to facebook (with that little “f” at the bottom of the post). Come back to the post and comment that you facebooked the post. Not comment me on facebook. Because really, when it is time to pick the winner, I am only looking on the post. I am a mom of 4, so I am not going all over to find out.
the winner is: Skycu4
Stayed tune for the next giveaway!
Each month DCWV at www.300dpi.com has a challenge that you can win prizes with. I have won a previous challenge. The best part about DCWV is that they usually have a free kit to download!
This month, you can download for FREE!
Let’s get digital!
~trish
