Ohmystinkinheck

Wow, is it just me or are all of y’all noticing an explosive kick in the family schedule? Trying to merge my work, homeschool, soccer, church, kids’ parties, and not let my house go to pot has been a bit much this past week. Just for the record, the house is what has suffered (that and my sleeping hours).

Seems as though, once more, I need to evaluate and simplify; its my creed when the schedule is awry and I don’t have a moment to breathe, much less see and speak to the OMSH-man.

I needs me some Mr. OMSH.

And just in case I sound like I’m complaining…I’m not. I believe families have control over most of the activities they choose take part in. I’ve made some decisions to limit my work after the new year, so the current frenzy has an ‘end’ up ahead. I’m thankful and blessed in much of what I’ve chosen to do and I don’t take it for granted for even a millisecond. I don’t need more time, just need to prioritize and let the chips fall where they may on the tail-end of things.

That said, after working through the night on a recent mockup for a web design client, I crawled into bed with Jeff at 4:30 am and let out a deep sigh of relief. Not only had I completed another mockup, but I enjoyed the process and delighted in the outcome as much as I hoped my client would when she woke to it in her inbox.

As Jeff often does when I get in bed after him, he reached his arm around my waist and pulled me to him - and with the simple act of gently caressing me from shoulder to feet, all remaining stress and tension lifted from me and I fell asleep quickly and deeply; I just love that kind of sleep.

When I woke the next morning Jeff had left for work, turned the alarm off to let me sleep, and left Emelie in charge of Meredith and Kenny - telling her not to wake me unless there was an emergency. That was exactly what they did. I woke up to Emelie baking sugar cookies, Meredith reading one of her independent readers and Kenny playing Legos on the floor near Meredith; it was 10:30. It was Friday - OUR ‘off’ day in school. I felt great.

Emelie had a sleepover birthday party to attend Friday night, and since she sleeps in her father’s t-shirts, needed appropriate pajamas (with an emphasis on having actual ‘bottoms’ to put on) to pack. Thursday morning during our errands she picked-out a cute flannel after making sure (an umpteen number of times) I’d actually have time to sew them before the party. Meredith jumped on the bandwagon too - and we tossed in an extra yard for my little cousin Olivia, whose birthday party is today.

And so, after waking on Friday, I checked email, saw nothing was urgent, and spent an hour of the morning cutting-out and sewing Emelie’s pajama pants - figuring I’d work on Meredith’s and Olivia’s pants Friday night after Em was at her party and Meredith and Kenny had run-out all their energy at a playdate.

Just knowing I only had a few things to do the whole day made Friday LOVELY. We watched 3 episodes of Andy Griffith, stayed in our pajamas until 3:00, then went and bought toe socks, a book and a balloon for the birthday girl.

I have to say that Emelie was thrilled with her pants.

I call them her prince pajamas, though I’ve never seen a princely frog with lipstick and eyelashes. Details, details…

They lay over the foot like she likes.

I have no idea why pajama pants feel better when they’re dragging the ground, but I’m the same way about mine.

The nicest thing about sewing is I could give Emelie the length she wanted without having to give up trimness in the legs and waist. Both of my girls have longer legs than their pants’ size ever figures in. So, either their pants are too short or the pants have a droopy butt and wide legs.

Not these though…no droopy butt.

Can you tell she felt I took one photo too many of her tush? Or maybe she’s just trying to help me prove my point.

No droopy butt here.

Later on I had to adjust my pattern to make Olivia’s size 6 pajamas. The pattern had been cut for Meredith’s size 8.

Can I say right now that if you haven’t taught your daughters how to sew, do it! Seriously, every woman needs to be able to sew at some point in their lives. Not necessarily because they will love it, but because they WILL need it over and over and over.

My girls know how to sew. Meredith doesn’t care for it much. Emelie likes to have projects here and there, but she needs something she can finish in a day or her interest wains. That’s fine; I’m the same way. Quick, short projects.

Like making pajama pants!

Most of my personal sewing is done in the wee hours of the night. It is peaceful; no one tries to eat strawberry yogurt on my work station (a.k.a the breakfast table, the school table, and ‘everything-else-table’) and I can keep going single-mindedly.

There is just something awesome about sewing without interruption(s).

And my sewing machine didn’t even vomit on me; no bunching of thread, no gargling and groaning, I didn’t even have to refill my bobbin. Don’t you hate it when you realize you’ve sewn a mile without noticing your bottom thread is NOT THERE? That’s the pits, really.

I’ve had this Kenmore since I graduated highschool. I was given the option of a highschool ring or a sewing machine.

Umm…that was easy.

“Something I’d use forever or something I’d tuck away in a drawer, keepsakes box, or lose?”

Der.

Olivia’s pants came together quickly and I ironed them, folded them around a piece of cardboard, placed the soft, knit shirt we bought to match on top, and tied it all up with a bow.

Makes a very nice gift.

Well, Mer says we also need to get some Lipsmackers, but after that…done!

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Yesterday was the second time I’ve taught the Texas Symbols class at our Homeschool Co-op. I knew I’d be hard-pressed to beat the Texas State Dinosaur lesson I prepared 2 weeks ago. That’s one thing about putting my ‘all’ into a project; it sets the bar higher and higher. I am my own competition; which isn’t always good since I’m also my own worst critic.

If you cross your eyes and squint, it’s a Bluebonnet.

No really, I swear it is.

Next on the Texas Symbols list was the Texas State Flower, the Bluebonnet. Teaching about Bluebonnets certainly had its own built in challenge. The primary challenge? It’s a flower and the majority of my Kindergarten through Second Grade class are boys. Secondary to the first challenge, well…it’s no dinosaur.

Why did I have to start with dinosaurs? For CRYING OUT LOUD!

Anyway…

Initially, I struggled to find an ‘active’ way to give the Bluebonnet its due as the state flower. As I read up on my subject more and more it really ‘grew’ on me and a lesson began to form. My lessons are 50 minutes long, and I know you’ll be surprised when I say this…

THEY ARE STRUCTURED.

I can hear you laughing from there, by the way.

The class goes something like this:

Lesson (10 Minutes)
Relay or Active Learning (10 Minutes)
Story (10 Minutes)
Craft (15 Minutes)
Review (5 Minutes)

Teaching keeps me from becoming stagnant in my own learning. This lesson busted a myth I’ve long held - that picking Bluebonnets is illegal.

Nope, not true.

I also learned that Texas has FIVE state flowers, not just one - but they are all different varieties of the Bluebonnet.

And finally, I learned Lady Bird Johnson (First Lady to President Lyndon B. Johnson) is the reason you can see Texas Bluebonnets thick as thieves along the state’s highways from about March to May; it is her ‘legacy’ of sorts. She persuaded the government of the state of Texas to seed bluebonnets and other wildflowers along the highways throughout the state.

The kid really got ‘into’ the relay, which involved spelling out the word Bluebonnet with letter tiles. I divided up the letter tiles into two containers, making sure there were enough letters to spell Bluebonnet in both containers, and landscape-printed two papers with the word  B l u e b o n n e t  across them.

The kids were separated into two teams and instructed to run across the field, dump out the cup of letters (if they were the first person), find the right letter tile to match whichever letter in the word their team was on at the moment, and then run back to their team - releasing the next one to run and repeat the process. We played it three times and by the time we finished the kids were worn out and ready for a story.

I read Tomie dePaola’s, The Legend of The Bluebonnet, stopping to answer questions and discuss details they didn’t understand as we went along.

And then? It was CRAFT time.

From as far back as I can remember, whenever we did Texas History or Texas Symbols in school we made paper tissue Bluebonnets. I think it is an elementary age rite of passage for Texans. Not wanting the kids to miss out on such a monumental point in their lives, that is exactly what we did.

I like to close out a lesson with a short review, and because I love building ‘rewards’ into my reviews, I made a special ’something’ for the Review Rewards.

First, I purchased a package of Blow Pops.

Then, I used some of the blue tissue paper I bought for the craft project to roll-up the Blow Pops…

…and secured the ends with matching blue thread.

After locating the oldest glue gun known to man, I glued the Blow Pop wraps to a presentation board.

Once they were all affixed, I filled in the gaps with squinched up pieces of tissue paper (basically a larger version of what the kids would do in their craft time.)

You should know my glue gun is probably the first glue gun ever made. This one was purchased by my mother back when glue guns didn’t have adjustable heat and everyone that used them KNEW they would eventually require a skin graft.

Once the extra pieces were glued on, I drew and colored the stems and leaves.

DONE!

None of the kids even noticed I was disguising Blow Pops, but were thrilled when they were able to come rip-off their ’surprise’ after answering one of the review questions right.

I really was surprised by how well the subject matter went over, how much ’stuck’ in their minds for the review, and how much I learned about my own state flower.

I’m tinkering with the idea of introducing the Texas State FOLK DANCE next.

Square dance anyone?

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