Every time Autumn comes rolling in, I feel a need to evaluate our curricula. Seeing what is working for us, and what we’d rather do without, is a vital part of keeping our homeschooling not only educational, but fun. This year, we took a modified summer approach to our schooling, choosing one day a week to cover the “essentials”, we really were able to fully emerge in the topic of the day {my favorite being a tie between History Fridays and Nature Wednesdays}. Another thing that I discovered is that, although we chose to focus on just one topic each day, reading time every day was solidly carved into our lives and we would naturally gravitate towards ‘quiet time’ and story telling to one another, especially when the kids recieved a new book. These two realizations are what brings me to this post.
When I sat down to see what we loved day to day, and what the kids naturally gravitated to, the answer was clear… BOOKS. More more often than not? Usborne books. From our history lessons to our free reading time. When learning about how our body works to exploring the world atlas, the resources we reached for time and again was our Usborne books!
This massively awesome pile or reference books is just the ones we’ve used in the last week. So when it came time to order up some new resources for school time this August, when we started back at full schedule homeschooling, I decided not only to order, but to sign up to be a consultant myself. I cannot explain how exciting this all has been for everyone in my home. We cannot wait to share our favorite books and show you how we incorporate them into our day to day. Be sure to follow along with me here and if you really want to get in on some fun specials and secret insider {think me being silly with all the kids on FB live} join my litterateur group on Facebook!
It was brought to my attention that the freebie add-on for the sprightly soaker had been lost in interspace on the web because of expiring domains, so what better a time to update it and post it up here for all to download here.
It’s that time of year again! The taking of photos and the making into cards.
Inevitably, some of those photos don’t end up making the cut. 
It’s always so hard to choose though, as {well I think} these kids just can’t take a bad photo!
Here’s to this year’s outtakes. I’m hoping by sharing them here, they get to spread a bit of happiness all the same. ❤️
Have you been following the awesomeness that is the handmade holidays series over on sew mama sew? Everyday, for the entire month of November, a lovely lady guest posts with a specially curated list of their favorite tutorials and gift ideas from around the crafty web. In case you haven’t already guessed, TODAY is the day my curation goes live! 
The theme I chose is Baby’s First Christmas, in honor of Colin’s first christmas. I figured I would be scouring my favorite blogs anyway for ideas of things to make my little guy, I might as well share…
I’m so excited about continuing to be a part of the wonderful sew mama sew community. If you remember, way back in 2011, I shared my Aquarius Swimmer pattern.
Then again in 2014, I created my Tooth Fairy Doll Pattern just for them too.
Speaking of my patterns, have you checked out Etsy yet? I heard there’s some fancy print sewing pattern designer that decided to start selling her digital patterns on there. {hint: It’s totally me}
Starting with my Crescent Moon Yoga Pants pattern, my entire Little Comet Tails Pattern line will be available on Etsy for instant download in the next coming weeks. They have all been refreshed, rewritten, and updated to make them easy to follow and pretty to look at. Speaking of pretty to look at, check out my store…
I’m so excited to be releasing my PDF’s on Etsy. After all my current patterns are digitally available, I will start releasing some new patterns that I’ve been working on. Stay tuned!
Thomas was hanging around with Colin and me while I took some product photos.
We got to talking about photography, and photo editing. Thomas asked why one would edit a photo, so we discussed how mood and feeling could be expressed through color and lighting. Then Thomas commissioned me to take some photos of him, to edit… 
Off he went, returning with his lightsaber. I snapped a couple shots, then we uploaded them to my computer for some edits; Thomas style.
Here’s what he came up with; complete with glowing saber and fire ball. What a fun little lesson we both had. ❤️ I just love watching this guy grow.
The kids decided October 1st that they all wanted to be characters from Adventure Time, so off sewing I went!
Molly as Princess Bubblegum.
Thomas as BMO. (BMO… HAPPY!)
Marcus as Finn the Human.
This year, I decided to add knitting to my repertoire, because… well… bananas!
Happy Halloween!
By our house, there is this park.
The kids and I don’t go often enough, but every time we do we say, “We need to come here more often!”
There’s two huge playground areas, a sculpture garden, a swim beach, and even a train that circles around.
Today? We rode that train.
We bought our 75¢ tickets, and got them punched as we boarded. 😉 This time, we got in the red caboose in the back.
Yup, Thomas…
Molly…
Marcus…
…and Colin.
Well, me and Colin {photo courtesy of Thomas}. I had to sit on the floor it was so tiny… And so fun!
If you can’t make it out over the squeaky-squeaks, there’s even a tunnel!
—-
Marcus: We’re going in there!!
Molly: Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to go in the tunnel! Are you guys excited to go in the tunnel?
Me: There’s a tunnel?
Molly: Yup!
—
😉 We all had a great time, and I promised this time, we would go again very soon.
So, umm… Hi? I’ve always said that I want to blog more, and then life happens and I don’t. I was thinking about all the excuses I have for not doing it, and about how to convince myself to change my ways and just sit down and write, but let’s be honest, I’m just not that structured. So here’s me, starting up blogging again, maybe just maybe it will stick this time.
Now, where should I begin…
When last I left you, our main bathroom looked roughly like this: 
If you were paying close enough attention (see my reflection in the mirror in the last post) I, at approximately the same time, looked something like this: 
Don’t ask what my toes looked like at that point, because frankly? I couldn’t see them for months. 
I kid… Lol… But back to me and the bathroom… Soon after that, May 19th to be exact, we both looked like this: {The hubby is in this too, beaming like the awesome daddy he is}
Colin Finn joined our {not so} little family in the wee hours of the night in the bathtub that I had specked out for just the occasion. The rest of the kids? In love. 
Here’s a couple more photos to fill in the gaps and catch you up to today:
The days have been going by so quickly, I can’t believe this little guy is 3 months old already. 
Oh yeah, in case you are wondering what the whole bathroom looks like, here’s a shot of that too, now that you are looking at pictures: 
Alright, alright. That’s enough catching up.
Let’s pretend that I’ve been updating regularly for the past 5 or so months, and this was just another post about what we did today.
Molly decided this past week that she wanted to go camping. So bright and early this morning they put up the tent in the backyard. 
Then off we went to the store to get some supplies. While we were there these two had to ride the 1¢ ponies.
First, we had a proper picnic. 
Next, we roasted marshmallows by the fire. 
In case you were wondering, Thom, Colin and I all took part in the festivities as well. 
Once the sun set, they played around with the lantern in the yard a bit. 
Then, the kids all piled into the tent… 
Thom read them a story, and off to sleepy land they went. 
All’s quiet on the {little backyard} western front. Nite-nite.
When we moved in a bit over a year ago, the bathroom looked like this. Lovely lighthouse wallpaper, shower door fun, and wonderful woody accents.
At the time, I thought, “No biggie. The wallpaper can come down, and the shower door can come down, and a bit of paint, and we’ll call it good.” Unfortunately, something else came down that we didn’t plan on… See that huge mirror? Yeah, turns out that not only was it not glued to the wall, but after Thomas took a shower one day and closed the door behind him, we all heard a large crash to the floor, the anchor screws literally just fell out of the wall. With it, it claimed the sinks, cracking one of them in half as it came tumbling down.
Thom installed new sinks for us, and hung some new (securely fastened) mirrors, and we replaced the light fixture, removed the shower doors, (and swapped out the toilet seat for a lovely white painted wood seat), but that’s where the successful DIY updating ended. The wallpaper was not a cooperative coming down as the mirror had been. Upon diving into it, there was not one, but three layers of wallpaper and various paint jobs between each layer, causing the wall itself to just come crumbling after it in patches once I did get to the final layer, and if that wasn’t enough the tub spout started to drip. By the start of this week, that drip turned into a full on steady stream of HOT water, complete with heating up the shower handle in the process, making the whole thing not very kid friendly and needing to go. (Plus the wall behind it was caved in a bit too, so we were starting to worry about permanent water damage to the floor and walls).
Time to call in a professional to help us out. <3 We interviewed three contractors and the one we chose was a clear winner for both Thom and I. Since starting this week, he has been so professional and neat that our instincts seem to have been proven correct. We couldn’t be any happier with how it’s all been progressing.
Since the main bathroom is out of commission, all the kids have been piled into our little master bath, but I think our system has worked out so far! It’s not something I’d want as a permanent setup, but we all are working together to get this done as smoothly as possible.
Here’s a little taste of what we are going for in that space. I’m so excited to see it all finished, and will be back here next weekend to update you all on how it’s shaping up as well. For now, I leave you with this week’s progress.
In just four short (okay long) days, here’s where we are at. All the fixtures and walls have come out, and new electric (including an new awesome shower light in the ceiling), also the plumbing is in, complete with a DEEP soaking tub that our amazing contractor figured out how to make the deeper and wider tub fit into our modest space. I cannot wait to use it!
