In the Last 12 Months

I think we can all say “holy shit! what a year this has been!” and it doesn’t matter what your year looked like, it will be an accurate statement. For some of you, life has brought wonderful changes, and for some of you life has been a whirlwind of ups and downs, and lets be honest, for some of you it’s been mostly downs. We’ve been in the middle. We had two new jobs, a move, ailing parents, healing parents, an accidental death, and tremendous growth, along with a few injuries, in our kids.


It’s easy to find the downs. They stick out like a sore thumb. Pain, misery, and feelings of defeat all blast their obnoxious airhorns making it difficult to look around them, or to even forget them. We don’t like feeling this way, so for whatever reason, our minds focus the most on them as a way of saying “hey, don’t do this any more!”


It takes focus to find the big positives, and even more looking and concentration to find the little positives. We’re not trained to find them, we’re trained to avoid the pain, so that’s what we remember. Worst of all, is that we’re sarcastic and grouchy towards our positives. We diminish them for a variety of reasons. Maybe they weren’t the absolute most perfect thing in the whole world (seriously, give that crap a break. Nothing is perfect so just don’t even go there!) or maybe something could have gone slightly better. But in reality, you’re letting the negatives overtake the actual positive.

Anecdotal time: My husband interviewed for a new job, at the same time that I was interviewing for a new job. I was miserable because I readily agreed to a terrible starting wage instead of negotiating to what I am actually worth. The Hubs, who is our bread winner and has been working and gaining negotiating experience the whole time I have been momming made the exact same mistake. While the past is set in stone, our future possibilities are not. Just because we didn’t ask for the wages we wanted at the time, doesn’t mean we can’t go in later in the interview process and ask for them. And it doesn’t mean that we let the bummer of not asking for the appropriate wages at the time diminish the fact that we got a job interview!

The whole point is, find the positives, and don’t let the negatives dim the light that they shine on you. A really easy way to do this is to start a gratitude journal. It doesn’t have to be a fancy-shmancy journal listed for sale. You just need a notebook. In that notebook, you’re going to write down three things. The first thing you’re going to write down is what you accomplished today. I found it a lot easier to write down accomplishments as I went about my day. When I was in a grumpy mood at the end of the evening because dinner and bedtime had gone to shit, I had a really hard time finding things that I had accomplished. So if you need to, write those things down in the moment. No matter how small. They matter – all of them!


Next you’re going to write down 3 things you are grateful for. And you don’t want to write the same three things day after day, so make sure you’re looking for the little stuff that you are grateful for, too. This can also be done in the moment, or you can do it at the end of your day. You will find that you are grateful for different things as your day goes on. And you are welcome to find more than 3 things, but if you write them all down now, then when you’re looking for something new to write down tomorrow, you might find it a little difficult. The things you are grateful for can be anything, from the biggest big, to the smallest small.

Finally you’re going to write down 3 things you want to accomplish tomorrow. And again, these can be small, or they can be big. Are you going to put world peace down as an accomplishment? No, of course not. But you are going to put something that you can do, like a load of laundry, or pick up the living room, or scrub the toilet. Maybe you want to start writing a book – Your goal is to write a few words towards your book. Want to start working out? Your goal is to do 5 squats, or 5 pushups, or 5 sit-ups. Take that first step towards what you want to do. Want to run a mile? Well you can’t do that without taking the first step. Easy stuff, smart stuff – not unobtainable stuff because whose side are you on? Yours! And who are you cheering for? You! So make sure it’s stuff you can do so that you can find, and feel the positives as you look back on your day. And honestly, I have absolutely cheated and written down something I knew I was already going to do (like give a ride to a friend) and wrote that down. It’s still something that I wanted to accomplish, and it was absolutely something that was going to help a friend out, which also made me feel good about doing it.

So go out there my friends and find your positives. Write them down so it’s easier to remember them. Don’t let the negatives rule, because it’s the positives that push us forward

Pumpkin Pie Spice

I use pumpkin pie spice regularly, and for things not pie related like homemade granola, and DIY play dough. It’s never sold in large quantities, so you almost always need to run to the store to get some, or look up online how to make some because you rarely have enough. Frequently when you look it up online it gives you quantities to make enough pumpkin spice to kill a reindeer. While this is great for people who use it on everything, not very many people need that much. I don’t really feel the need to hinder Santa’s delivery service, so I am giving you the quantities needed to make just 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice. It’s a teeny bit more than 1 tablespoon, but this gets you all of the spices needed to make it delicious and perfect.

One Tablespoon of Pumpkin Pie Spice

  • 2 Teaspoons Cinnamon
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Ginger
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
  • 1/4 Teaspoon Allspice
  • 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves

Never fear, I will also give you the quantities to make 5 tablespoons in case you decide to uphold your grudge against Santa for not giving you the gift you wanted that one time.

Five Tablespoons of Pumpkin Spice

  • 3 Tablespoons Cinnamon
  • 2 Teaspoons Ginger
  • 2 Teaspoons Nutmeg
  • 1 Teaspoon Allspice
  • 1 Teaspoon Ground Cloves

Happy Making!

Recipe by Picture

If your kids are anything like my kids they really, and I mean really, love baking. They particularly love it when I’m in the middle of a project and can’t help them. Much to each of our dismay.

My youngest’s all time favorite recipe is chocolate chip cookies. My oldest loves the breads, particularly zucchini or banana bread. My middle adores eating what the other two make. It works out well all around.

In an effort to encourage their self resilience and allow me to finish my projects without regular interruptions I created picture recipes that they could follow, based off actual recipes. I made the directions super simple, fidgeted with the ingredients so that there aren’t any wonky portions, and put almost everything in pictures. While this takes the finesse of baking out, it makes it easy enough that my 7 year old can create cookies or bread.

Granted, there are still some oopses and learning mistakes, but they don’t need my help nearly as much as if they were following a written recipe. One of the funniest oops so far was when they decided they weren’t patient enough to make all the cookies and turned a batch of dough for 60 cookies into 24 cookies. I realized then that the attention span for 60 cookies might have been a bit much. I kept the recipe size the same, but told them that it should fill up a cookie sheet 3 times. As you can see, putting that much dough into so little cookies wasn’t really a big deal.

To help them determine how big the cookie drop should be, and where they should place it, we have these very nifty cookie sheet baking mats by Miu. They come with circles places evenly around the mat so it’s easy to see where the cookie dough should go and, assuming the drop of dough isn’t too large, they shouldn’t run into each other.

To create the chocolate chip cookies recipe, I took the basic Nestle Tollhouse recipe, adjusted for high altitude, and cut the recipe to 1 cup of chocolate chips. As much as we love chocolate, we wanted to taste the cookie bits, too. I’ve created a download for the chocolate chip recipe, and will be adding the banana bread recipe shortly. Until then, enjoy the chocolate chip recipe! *remember, this is adjusted for high altitude*

It’s Tough

Here’s what I screwed up today: I failed at calmly teaching my kid about fractions and we both wound up in tears, yelling, and interrupting my husbands call with one of the head people at his company (notice all 3 failures there). I tried to make bread and screwed it up twice – the first was that I used an entire packet of yeast in stead of 1/4 tsp because I misread the label and thought that the whole packet was 1/4 tsp, not that 1/4 tsp was the serving amount and that there were actually 24 quarter teaspoons. The second is that I used wax paper to let the bread rise the second time instead of parchment paper and it stuck like glue in carpet. I also messed up the last of the knitting project I was working on. And mind you, I’m writing this at 10 am and this was all today.

Now here is the absolute toughest part – not letting this bother me, and continuing to move on about my day. I really, really suck at this part. I tend to hold on to my feelings of failure and let it bother me for the rest of the day. I try hard, and when I fail at letting the emotions go, I feel even more like a failure and it’s a gigantic snowball of feeling like crap. And then once I start to feel this way it’s even easier to find myself falling into bad eating habits (read chocolate and other junk food), losing my patience even faster at my kids, feeling terrible about my health choices, and all the other things that I feel terrible about comes boiling up to the surface. It’s a really good way to be completely miserable.

How do you go about feeling better? Well, once I’ve beaten myself up for the day, sometimes two days, I finally kick myself hard enough in the ass to get a grip and get back into routine. There are a couple good fast ways to start to feel better. The first is to do a quick brisk walk outside. Not everybody has this option, especially if you’ve got small kiddos at home. If you can do a quick workout that helps, too. You don’t need to change into workout clothes, just pop a couple moves out really fast and take a couple minute pause. Find a counter and do 5-10 leaning pushups, do a 30-second to 1-minute wall sit, and do a couple of squats. Super simple, or maybe not, but keep doing it and it will get easier. If you have the time get a quick cry out of the way so you can bust out those feelings, and then go wash your face so you can get back to it. A lot of times those burst of emotions just need to get out.

If you have a little bit more time then do a full work out and then take a shower. Or just take a shower. Not a bath where you can languish in your misery, a shower. Make it as hot or cold as you like, but get a good shower in – you can also use this time to cry but the shower and fresh clean start is important. This also gives you the time to think of alternative solutions and fresh ideas to help you with whatever problem you are facing. But don’t go off the deep end and make your problem worse by thinking of extreme, unfulfillable solutions.

Take this opportunity, no matter how small it is, to start over. It won’t be a completely fresh start, it won’t be a total do-over, but it is a new beginning. Grab this new beginning and do your best. The emphasis here is best, not be perfect. Nobody is perfect, nobody will be perfect, and holding yourself to that standard is only going to make you feel worse when you don’t accomplish what you feel is perfect. So just stop. Lower that standard to best and you won’t be nearly as miserable when what you accomplish is incredible in other people’s eyes, but not perfect in your own. Let that shit go.

Now go take your moment to acknowledge that you feel like crap, wash your face, and do your best for the moment. You got this!

Schedule Your Kiddos

Three weeks of spring break with no expectations of schooling, scheduling, or outside activities. If you’re like me, you had a mild panic attack. This was like summer break, but without the summer, the break, or the prep work that goes into doing “nothing” over summer. So if you’re looking for a few ideas on what, and how to create a schedule for your kids while you’re on break and before your distance learning kicks in I’ve got some below.

First and foremost set your expectations. Set them low. No, lower than that. Still lower. Okay, that’s good. You were already a busy parent juggling work, family, and trying to take care of yourself. Now you’ve been handed an additional full time job of teaching/entertaining/not strangling your kids for the entire day. Hang in there! You got this!! Lower (or get rid of !) your expectations and you will feel way less guilt about the amount, or lack thereof, of structured time your kids are getting. It’s not going to set them back in their schooling, it’s not going to irreparably stunt their capabilities, it’s just another break from school that literally every kid (except maybe homeschooled kids) are getting. Teachers are preparing for this, schools are preparing for this, and it’s going to be okay.

Now, on to the scheduling part. Time blocks are important. Walk into any elementary school and they have blocks of time set aside for each thing they do. And these blocks stay the same each day, too. This way kids know what to expect and it isn’t a surprise. You’re much more likely to get daily buy-in if you have a routine, whether they actually want to do what is scheduled for that time or not. Each learning block should be 30-45 minutes long depending on the age of the kid. Use those leftover minutes to fully stop the activity, clean up from that activity, get some wiggles out, stretch, and drink some water. These extra minutes of wiggles are really important, no matter how old the kid is. Even in high school you have to walk to your next class, getting your blood flowing and your brain a chance to move on to what is next. No-one likes being slammed with information for hours on end.

Get the heavy duty learning done in the morning. Math, writing, and reading, are best morning activities. It’s when we’re the most alert, and ready to absorb the information. But again, make sure they are in blocks appropriate in length to your kid. Here is where those low expectations come in. These are slow learning subjects. They get taught one day, and then you review, and review again, and review again. Then you can move on to the next little step in learning, then review, and review, and review again. It’s boring as heck for an adult, but if you can make a game out of it, it’s a lot more fun. It’s even more fun seeing the lightbulb go on in your kids’ head when they totally understand the concept you’re teaching them.

Once you’re done with the heavy duty stuff and the wiggle sessions, let them play. Go fix lunch, or warm up leftovers but let them play. This gives you some alone time, it gives them some alone time, and you each get a chance to take a deep breath. If they got what you were teaching, or reviewing, great! If they didn’t catch on, they will eventually. Take it nice and slow, and keep your patience. Give them lots of encouragement, and lots of time. Once lunch is done with let them play some more.

The afternoons are the time for “yes” and experiments and outside the box learning. Big in the learning world right now is the acronym STEAM. It stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math (although I change it in my world to make). Five letters, five days of the week. Pick a science experiment on Monday, technology on Tuesday, engineering on Wednesday, art on Thursday, and make on Friday. Let your kid have a larger part in the doing of this project. This is their fun learning time. It’s going to be a little more stressful for you if you micromanage every little bit of the afternoon project. Let it go, lower your expectations, and find the fun. They’ll learn along the way.

There are plenty of ideas for each of the STEAM categories on various websites. Find one that you can do, and that won’t grate on your nerves too much (remember to lower those expectations!) and let them explore the afternoon. This is also a time where you can let them lead what they want to do. Ask them what kind of science experiment they want to do. Almost anything they want to do can fit into one of these categories. Do they like to play with Legos – that fits under engineering, art, science, math. How about painting – that goes under art, science. Baking cookies is science, math/making, art, engineering. Let the internet be your friend here. There are lots of ideas out there, and, more importantly kids learn from fun. It doesn’t have to be a strict learning session, it just needs to be something to do.

Here is the schedule we follow for my 6, 8, and 11 year olds

  • 7:00 Breakfast (play after breakfast until time to write)
  • 8:00 Writing Prompt / write letter to a senior or out of state family member
  • 8:30 Typing or handwriting (my kids asked to learn cursive)
  • 8:45 Math
  • 9:30 Reading
  • 10:30 Play outside
  • 11:30 Eat Lunch (play until STEAM)
  • 1:00 STEAM
  • 3:30 Clean up a room in the house (I have a schedule for this, too)
  • Play some more!!
  • 6:00 Dinner

Adjust your schedule as you need to, but once you find one that works, keep to it. Routine is very helpful for you and your kids keeping your sanity. And lower those expectations!!


The Age of Yes

A quick little post of encouragement for you. If you’re like me, you’re trapped social distancing with a gaggle of kiddos at home. It’s really easy to get stuck in a pattern of “no” when you’re being bombarded with requests from your kids. This isn’t fun for anyone. Your kids are looking for some fun, you’re looking for a little sanity and “no” doesn’t help solve either of those problems.

Here is your permission to say “yes”. Let them play in your too-big-for-them shoes? Let them learn how to tie a tie. Let them play in your makeup. Let them dig a hole in the yard and fill it with water (check first with your local utilities group first to make sure there aren’t any gas or electric lines!). Let them figure out how to bake some cookies. Let them “swim” in the bathtub. Just say “yes”! Let them be kids – after all, that’s what they are.

Now, this isn’t blanket permission for them to go hog wild. You still need to set your boundaries and expectations that they clean up whatever they get into (and you’ll still have to help them a little bit). What a great way for them to learn something other than their normal daily school and get to explore a little bit. And yes, this will be a little extra messy, and a little more fun, and a little more wild, but what great memories, and learning experiences they will gain! I would much rather they remember that they learned how (or how not to) do something, than that they were bored out of their minds for months and they weren’t allowed to do anything but twiddle their thumbs.

If you’re working on schooling your kiddos, then let your “yes” time be in the afternoon once all their mandatory stuff is done. You can also limit it to one big yes each day – that way you get to keep a little bit more of your sanity. You’re in this together – what would you have liked to have done if you were the kid?

Finding the Normal

While we all are trying to find our new normal in this time of uncertainty, I am looking for the little bits of old normal to bring strength and courage to our household. This afternoon we were given the official stay home mandate. As we’re coming up on 2 weeks of the kids being permanently home it was a stressful thing to hear. To say that life has been difficult and that we’ve all been on edge is laughable. I know there are some families out there who would describe their last two weeks at home as the definition of a shit show. It hasn’t been easy. But here is where we look for the little tidbits of pleasantry to help bring peace and a sense of balance to life.

When I woke up yesterday I heard the birds chirping their good mornings, and the sunrise was a blaze of raspberry red. It was a good reminder that spring is coming, along with all the freshness it brings. Despite what is going on in the big world, there are all the little things patiently waiting to be discovered again. The smell of fresh brewed coffee, or a warm cup of tea; The green shoots of grass poking out of the soft earth and the new buds on the trees; Seeing the house sparrows flit around our yard and the robins perched on our fence. I remembered that I am looking forward to smelling the blossoms of the crabapple tree living next door to us.

My other favorite bits of joy include fresh bed sheets, the smell of clean laundry, the smell of warm bread, a clean mirror, a quick set of body weight movements (squats, sit-ups, and pushups), sitting in the sunshine, reading to a kiddo, and popcorn. Funny little oddities that can bring a moment of joy to cherish.

We got our seeds out yesterday and made our planting timetable. We’re going to try and do the square-foot gardening method this year, as opposed to following the row planting directions on the seed packets – cross your fingers for us! Today we got to the planter beds to sow the early start seeds and enjoyed the smell of fresh tilled earth. It was fun to play in the dirt and look for worms. It brought a sense of control to an otherwise out of control time.

So while you’re busy trying to wrap your head around all the big that is happening in the world, don’t forget to enjoy the little things. Because without the little things to bring focus, the big things only seem insurmountable. It’s the little things that get us through. One of my favorite sayings is the question “how do you walk one thousand miles?” and the answer of “one step at a time” – Find the little things my friends, and enjoy them for the small packets of joy that they are.

Stir Crazy

Are you going stir crazy yet? We’re doing our best to not eat our young. Both of us are working from home, I’m also homeschooling the kids, and trying to keep my sanity by knitting and crocheting. The biggest thing that has helped us thus far is keeping a schedule with the kids. Us, too really. The need to keep a scheduled was dramatically emphasized today, our first saturday, when we told the kids they could do whatever they wanted and that there wouldn’t be any school today. That went down like a wagon on a hill.

We’ve made a few adjustments from our old normal schedule to allow the kids to sleep in a little longer (7 am wake up instead of 6:30), and a little more leisurely breakfast. But dinner, bedtime, and making sure we still get some education time in is still a standard.

Currently our schedule for the kids looks like this:

7:00 Wake up, make beds, and make sure rooms are clean

8:00 Breakfast and breakfast clean up. Once they’re done with breakfast clean up they can play or read until school starts.

8:45 -9:00 We start “school” between 8:45 and 9:00. One kid will start on their writing prompt. I googled writing prompts for kids and picked my favorites. I also have the kids email their teachers once it’s their turn for “screen time.” For each writing prompt they need to write an appropriate amount of lines – 1st grade is 3 – 5 lines, 3rd grade is 5+ lines, and 5th grade is two paragraphs. They also need to make a drawing to go with the writing prompt.

While kid 1 is doing the writing prompt I’m giving another kid individualized math help. The third kid is either playing math games or typing games online. This is also the time that they can use to email their teacher. After 20-30 minutes we rotate.
 
10:00 Once each kid is done with their rotation they can read four about 30 minutes. This needs to be a just right book so that they can read while I finish helping the kiddo I’m working with.
 
10:30 I send them outside to play. They need a break. I need a break. We all need some sunshine. It’s a good time all around. Sometimes this will be riding their bikes around the park, or playing in the yard. Around 11 I start making lunch.
 

11:30 – 12:30 lunch and lunch cleanup. Once cleanup is done they have another 30 minutes or so to play

1:00 We start “school” again. The afternoons are for science, art, baking, etc. Since these things take a little bit longer than 20-30 minutes this gives us enough time to complete a whole project.

3:00 I try to keep “school” hours pretty normal. Once we’re done with our afternoon project the kids are thrown outside again. They can come back in whenever they are ready, and are free to do what they want.

I hope you are finding your groove in this time of adjustment. I know it’s been extremely difficult for some of you, and I wish you nothing but the best. Hang in there. You can do this!




February Knitting

I was given some more (!) yarn from a friend who had signed up for a knitting club, but decided she didn’t like some of the patterns. Yay for me! One of these patterns was for a stuffed bunny. I had never made a stuffed animal before, but was willing to give it a shot, especially since my youngest’s teacher just had her baby.

Using Mary Maxim Baby Blankie yarn, you have enough yarn to make two of these adorable stuffed bunnies. The kit came with enough stuffing for the first bunny. Luckily I had enough stuffing from making letter pillows for my kiddos to stuff a second bunny. I wasn’t planning on making a second bunny, but when the kids remembered a good friend’s baby was turning one, they insisted we make the second one for her.

This was a really fun knit and I look forward to making another couple. I hope these bunnies are loved as much as I loved making them!

I’m still working on my Celtic cabled scarf. Because I’m making this scarf from my stash, I’m hoping that I have enough yarn leftover to make a matching hat, or even better, hat and gloves! We shall see. Here is my progress:

January Knitting

I have been knitting for years. My mother-in-law taught me and I’ve been going strong ever since. I love the different things I can do, and between knitting and crocheting I am pretty confident I could make anything I put my mind to. In the last two years I was given two large stashes from a friend, and my great-grandmother. I made a promise this year that I would go through my now gigantic stash before I would buy any more yarn. It’s worked…mostly. I did buy some yarn to make my sister a scarf, but it was only two skeins. With three kiddos I have a lot of “down” time while I sit at various practices, so I was able to do quite a bit of yarning in January.

Here are the things I made in January to get through my stash:

Crocheted blankets for identical twin girls

The first project I made in January were blankets for a friend’s identical twin girls. I crocheted these blankets using the Purl Soho Crochet Four Points Baby Blanket pattern. However, instead of making 4 corners I only made two per blanket and sewed them together along the diagonal. I used the remaining yarn from one blanket to sew together the other blanket. This helped with the idea that although they were different, they were still a part of each other.

A poncho – color change every two rows knit in stockinette.

The next project I made was a poncho for my nephew. This is stockinette stitch, with a color change every two rows. Instead of making two rectangles and sewing them together, I made one really long rectangle, and then sewed end to the side to make the wrap. The reason I didn’t make two pieces to sew together was because I didn’t think I had enough red to finish the project. It still worked for what I wanted, but I think next time I will make the two pieces like you’re “suppose to.”

Cables in action
Completed cabled cowl

My next project I used up some yarn I had given my oldest as a project to work on while she recovered from having her tonsils removed. Needless to say she got about 20 rows into her scarf before finding something else to work on. I tore out what she had done (with her permission, of course), and got started on my first real cable project. The yarn is one skein of Caron Cake Bumbleberry

I had done cables once before but it was one big cable, and I wasn’t very impressed with it. I knew I needed to practice cables to do a Celtic cabled scarf I’d been eyeing some yarn for, so this was my chance. I was inspired by Hana Paimen’s Cable Braids Headband since there wasn’t an edge, which is what I haven’t liked in other cabled patterns.

Sunset Hat with scrap yarn pompom

When I bought the Caron Cake yarn for the cowl, I found a bunch of Caron X Pantone kits on clearance, and decided hats would be fun to make for all the kids. After making this first one, I will not be making hats for all the kids, but I will probably make a multi-skein something or the other in the months to come. But this one did go to my niece, and it matches her personality really well. This pattern is called Sunset Hat by Emily Dormier. I added the pompom from the leftover yarn I had from making the hat. It was a fun pattern to follow and I will make the hat again, just with different yarn.

Waldo’s Fisherman Rib Cowl

We get more than a few super chilly days here in CO and my oldest was concerned that the gentleman holding the door open for the kids coming into the school needed a scarf, or something to keep him warm. This was a very fast project – it took two days from start to finish. I used unlabeled yarn but followed the Seaman’s Cowl pattern published in the Seaman’s Church Institute’s Christmas at Sea Program.

I got one more project cast on in January, but am still working on finishing it. Here is a sneak peak at what’s on my needles: