Someone Missed Me

I heard the other day that someone missed my 7 Quick Takes on Friday.  It's nice to know I'm missed, but I think he's a little biased.  Maybe.

Here's a little update:

~~~It was a little busy last week.  It always is, but especially on Thursdays when I have American Heritage Girls.  Lots of stuff gets crammed into that day so I'm a little crazy.

~~~Friday morning I spent getting ready for our co-op in the afternoon, and doing a little, essential schoolwork with the kids.  I'm in charge of props and costumes for our little show on January 1.  Usually, there's a small army of experiences sew-ers, if not actual seamstresses, to help.  Not this year.

~~~Tom has his annual Fall Festival coming up, which isn't as fun as it might sound.  It's a piano competition where he plays 2 pieces for just a couple of judges.  He also has a very difficult duet to perform, so we've been trying to squeeze in several extra rehearsals with his partner in the past week.

~~~Gus is 13 weeks now, and he seems to have doubled in size, but I know he can't be more than 5 lbs.  Although, when you think about it....6lbs. would be double his original size!!!  He's almost a dog, now.  Still very much a demon with his dangerous teeth.  He's obviously very smart and has learned quite a few commands, but he's, just as obviously, extremely stubborn and mouthy.  He bites people way too much, and it worries me, and I get frustrated with him, and that doesn't help the situation at all.

~~~I'm also frustrated with The Dog Whisperer, whose book, How to Raise the Perfect Dog makes me a little crazy.  He starts with the perfect dog!  Carefully examining the litter to pick the right temperament and energy level.  He doesn't tell you what to do when you already have the imperfect dog with the wrong temperament.

~~~Book Club was on Sunday where we discussed Unbroken, which was really a great read.  I highly recommend it.

~~~Here are a couple of pictures from our AHG camping trip 2 weekends ago.  The first is a yurt.  They have yurts at this campground, and several of us were quite enamored of them.  We decided to have a leaders' retreat one of these days and stay in the yurts which sleep 6.

Standing atop the earthen dam.

That looks like 6....See ya later!

Ruffle Scarf

Isn't this scarf the cutest thing?  I think I'm in love.  

At Goodwill last week,  I found 3.5 yards of this gorgeous, turquoise, jersey fabric for $2.92.  Meg thought it was the perfect color for her costume, and it's my favorite color anyway.  

I had a couple of hours yesterday to sew because the neighbors had a teacher workday, and they were all over here playing, so I worked on costumes.  Meg and her buddy are going to be Powerpuff Girls, so I'm making both costumes.

And then I thought I'd make a scarf out of some of the extra material using one of my pins on Pinterest.  The pics don't really show the right color....you know, it's really hard to take an iphone picture of yourself and get your scarf but not your goofy I'm-taking-a-picture facial expressions!

This was the inspiration, but I have no time to make little, fussy flowers for my scarf, and since the jersey comes in a tube, basically, I just kept it that way and made it an "infinity scarf."  It's so simple to do:  I cut 2 strips and sewed them together on both sides with a short, narrow zigzag stitch, stretching it out as I went to make it ruffle.

So happy with this little project!  Even my fashionista daughter approved.  

Score!

Flylady to the Rescue, Again

So, yesterday, I told you I'd tell you how I managed to cross a bunch of stuff of my to-do list.  I needed to sew a whole bunch of little things, clean & dust my room, finish up those knitting projects from yesterday...

There is still more stuff to do, stuff that I never seem to get to in the time God allots for a day.  It has really been weighing me down, making me feel farther and farther behind.  Which I was.  It wasn't just a feeling!

We started using the timer for our schoolwork a couple of weeks ago to keep the kids on track...go back and read that, if you haven't already...the other day I was inspired to take another page from the Flylady book:  crisis cleaning.  We weren't really cleaning, but I'm definitely in Crisis Mode here with all the things I have to do that are piling up!

For Crisis Cleaning (when you're in a hurry to clean the house and you can't get the whole thing decluttered perfectly), you set your timer for 45 minutes, work hard until it rings, and then you get a 15 minute break.  Repeat ad nauseum until you run out of time or your house is clean.  For some reason, those 15 minute breaks keep you from burning out or getting exhausted.

Employing the same method, we set the timer for 45 minutes of schoolwork, and then 15 minutes of housework.  I sent the kids to clean sections of their rooms during the 15 minutes while I worked on my myriad projects.  In 2 days, I was able to cross a bunch of stuff on my list, AND we finished schoolwork at the same time as usual!  And you know what else? Some days our brains are just fried from sitting at the table most of the day, just trying to stay on track and get our work done.  I'm always dragging them back, literally or figuratively, to their books, and we're exhausted by the time we're finished (or just call it Quits because we've had enough).  With the timer, and all the additional work we got done, we were still energetic, mentally and physically!

It amazes me how it works.  I don't "use" Flylady anymore, but she definitely has some powerful methods on her site if you need help.  I love the timers!  We'll be using them for a few more days while I try to whittle down my list!