Sewing Time

I have a grandmother who is a fantastic seamstress.  She can sew anything.  She's sewn countless things for me growing up.  She does clothes, curtains, upholstery, you name it, she does it.  I have had several opportunities to learn from her.  Once when I took 4H sewing.  Then another time when I wanted dresses and skirts for my sorority dress up dinners.  Both times she walked me through everything.  I have my mom's sewing machine.  What usually happens is I sew something then it sits in the garage for another year before I decide to sew again.  I want to start to sew more now.  I like sewing a lot and I like making things myself.

Anyway, lately I have been in the sewing mood after my friend Lisa showed me this blog and these cloth baskets.  About the same time I stumbled across this blog and her fabric flowers.  Even though I got these ideas from the bloggers I accredit my Grammy for any sewing ability that I have.

I started with the fabric flowers.

Then I tried a cloth basket out of some old material and old jeans.

Then I got the bright idea to make my Mother in Law a new bag to hold her church choir music for her birthday. 

 I actually made up this pattern myself.  I don't like following directions very much and I could kinda picture how I wanted it to be. 

I had some extra material so I made her a cloth basket too...

My Mother in law really liked her bag.  I did too.  I might make something like that for myself but more like a purse big enough to hold a few diapers, of course.  Now I can't wait to go pick up some more fabric at the fabric store.  I just have to think of more stuff to make!

Budgeting

One of my New Years resolutions was to do a better job at budgeting.  We went the whole month of January and barely did a thing... well, except spend money.  I mean, we've never been the type to go crazy or anything, just not consciously keeping track.  And that's what I wanted.  I want to consciously keep track of what we spend so I know if we go over or under.

Before Ben and I got married, and then when we got married before we had Luke, we both worked as engineers.  We had a lot of income.  We didn't really have to even try to save.  Ben and I've never been spenders, I think our parents taught us both how to handle money very well.  However, the transition between when I stopped working to just having one income is harder.  It's definitely worth staying home but it does take some conscious budgeting.  We did really well for a while.  Especially because right after I quit/got laid off my job, Ben got laid off too.  So we had to really skimp, even though we had plenty of savings, we wanted to make sure that just in case it was a while before we found a job, we could make it.  Then Ben was on a contract job before he got hired full time.  Now that he has a full time job with benefits and a pretty good salary, we felt more comfortable buying a few things that we had been waiting to buy until we had a regular income.  We still stayed on a budget pretty well, but during December and January (and all the moving) we got a little off track.

I found this budget estimator by Dave Ramsey.  I don't really follow him too much but I've heard people talk about him.  It was good because it can show you how much you should be spending in each category.  We adjusted some of the numbers to fit us more personally.  But most of it we kept fairly close to the percentages suggested.  Though, we spend a lot on groceries, so we took some out of our 'personal' budget to cover the cost.  I'm just not willing to compromise on good food.


I decided I wanted to write down each category on a separate piece of paper then subtract it whenever we spent.  Not only did I brush up on my subtraction, I also was very aware each time we spent money.  I didn't do it every day, but I tried once a week at least to keep up so we knew exactly how much we had in each category.  I think it helped a lot.




February was our first month trying to stay on this budget since we started keeping track again.  And I have to say we didn't do too bad.  I think we had some realizations of what we actually do spend our money on.  And that's good.  Now we can fix what spend too much on, and focus more on what we need.  We luckily aren't in any debt and we have a fairly good savings and I'm very thankful for that.


I think most of our mishaps are going out to eat because we are too lazy to cook.  Sometimes that's ok, but sometimes we just need to come home and buck up.  This last week, as we have been trying to make our grocery budget last the rest of the month, we had to eat in and think of meals to make here.  And, we've had some really great meals this week.  I think we just need to plan ahead a little more.  So we never feel like cooking will be too hard.

I feel really happy being conscious of spending and trying to stick to a budget.  I feel good being disciplined.

21 Months (Wednesday)

Dear Sweet Luke,

Oh I just love you so much.  Are you really almost 2? 

You have been saying so many things lately.  You can now say 'I wuv YOU'.  You always emphasize the YOU.   Daddy took you to the pet store and a bird said 'hello' to you and it must have really impacted your life because you always say 'That bird was talking', 'hello'.  You say it over and over and it's really cute. You also say 'Oh Gosh!' if either daddy or I pushes the brakes harder than normal... I think you heard Mama say that at Daddy once :)

You talk about things you remember like brushing the teeth on the big alligator at the Children's Museum.

You would not let me put you down on the alligator because it was 'scary'.  You've brought it up several times after though, saying 'I brushed the alligators teeth', 'it was scary'. 
I've been trying to take you places like the Children's museum and OMSI to enjoy our last couple months of just you and I before the baby comes.  You love going.

We've watched a lot of 'Signing Time' before bed, mostly with daddy.  The theme song says 'it's signing time with Alex and Leah'.  But you just shout 'Signing Time with Leah!!!' But it's more like Weah instead of Leah.  You also say Pwease when you want something.  Like 'water, pwease?' And you said 'My name is Nuke' the other day too.  I don't know how much other kids your age talk, but I think you're a chatter box.

You have ate almost everything under the sun recently, surprising me sometimes at breakfast by finishing your eggs and asking for more.  You REALLY like bananas.  You also like everything when I cut it into smaller bites.  Before you would like them whole then take your own bites.  But now, you like everything in small bites and are willing to eat almost everything... well if you feel like it... but you have been so hungry lately you'll at least give it a try.

You will touch my belly when I tell you that your baby sister is moving around.  You say that you can feel her move.  I'm not sure exactly what you are thinking, hopefully you like the new sister when she comes!  I know you are excited for more milk. It's just so cute when you kiss my belly and 'hug the baby'.

You still love to sleep (thankfully)... here's some more adorable sleeping pictures.

Though, recently  you've decided that your bed time should be late... really late.  But that's ok, you've slowly gotten back into your old routine.  I think it was because of teething your canines.

Coloring is still one of your favorite things but your new love is play dough.  I was sick one day so I got play dough for you to play with... you loved it but we accidentally let it dry out.  So we made our own and that has lasted longer.  I let you use the waffle iron to make waffles and some pans to pretend cook your play dough.

oh yeah I made you play dough shoes too :)

We've just had so much fun with you lately.  You are so much fun to play with and to watch grow even though we don't like it.  We love you so much more every day and we just think you are so sweet.

Wordless Wednesday- Animals taking over our house!

For more wordless wednesday pics check out Hobo Mama!

Coming soon- Luke's 21 month blog post... I'm almost finished but too tired to finish tonight.  Today he is officially 3 months away from 2 :'(

Attempt at 'Daily Similarities'

I've wrote about this before.  I think it's something my husband and I are very bad at... 'schedules' and 'routines'.  Even so bad at them that I don't like to even use those words.  I don't like living on a schedule because I want to be flexible not ridged.  But maybe we need to be more in between.

Luke is staying up way too late all of the sudden.  He just had some late nights about a month ago... and now it seems like more nights are late than early... and more mornings we sleep in until at least 10 and nap time just gets later and later.  There just comes a point where we decide that it's probably a good idea to change.  I always look at possible catalysts to our problems.  Here they are.

1.  Teething.  Luke is getting four teeth.  The canines. 

While I think this is a possibility of messed up sleep, it's not the cause of so many late nights.  That's not typical for teething Luke.  Teething Luke wakes up and fidgets in the night but usually goes about the normal schedule.

2.  No more breastmilk (and the night time hormones)

I think my milk supply has diminished and gone to colostrum just recently.  But he's used to having the hormones at night in my breastmilk that make him sleepy.  I know it's a change for him.  But, he still nurses and still nurses to sleep despite the milk. 

3.  Needs more fat. 

This last one is the one my intuition says.  I think he needs more fat.  I think he used to get fat from breastmilk but now isn't getting as much so he's always hungry.  I notice that when he stays up late he requests a snack or a couple.  I think I need to have more food around, food full of fat and calories. 

With that being said... I still think we are getting out of our normal 'daily similarities'.  We moved recently and so we have just been off schedule because we are busy doing work to the house, or putting things away etc.  Plus the fact that I'm pregnant now, we aren't mindful of the usual times that Luke takes a nap, or goes to bed.  We haven't been consistent on meal times because somedays I just don't have the energy to cook before Ben gets home.  Sometimes I do.  So dinner times ranges.  And my husband doesn't have to commute anymore so we don't have to worry about him getting up an extra hour early now, so we just stay up later, which happened on accident.

I think we need to be more consistent with things we do everyday... lunch time, dinner time, nap time (around the same time), winding down at the same time.  I think if we try a little harder just to be a little more ball park with everything we can really make a big difference and an earlier bed time.  I know it won't happen tomorrow but I'm hoping with a little work, we can get it right.  I know it would help Ben and I to have more of a routine.  We will be more productive and have more restful time as well.  So hopefully this is something we can work on.  So here's to making a better schedule.

Wordless Wednesday- Guitar with Daddy

For more lovely pictures visit Hobo Mama!

Counting

I think Luke likes numbers a lot.  He's been really into counting and talking about angles... (though he doesn't exactly know what angles are).  Which is good because that is one of the things Ben and I can teach him because we actually both know lots of Math.
I'm not quite sure what his favorite number is yet, but if he's anything like Mama and Daddy it'll be pi. 

Month In Review

A thought... I miss summer, but mostly, I miss the sun.


A sound... of our new dog, Misu, barking. (sometimes when I'm sleeping, good thing we love her)


A taste... Cara Cara oranges I got at my favorite Market.  So juicy. So tasty.


An image...

My husband and son working hard on our floor.

 
A scent... of a sunny day, walking with my son, reminding me that spring is a few months away.  And that there will probably be some teaser days in February, if we're lucky.
Oh, and the scent of many burning candles that my son loves to have lit.

A word... words shared with one of my good friends that I haven't seen in a while and her daughter that got so big.


A touch... of my loving husband massaging my sore pregnancy hands and feet.


A gift for me... new flooring being put in my house by my husband, a pedicure with my friend Usa, a new dog, and many new kicks from my little one growing inside.


A post you may have missed... I'm surprised I got as many posts as I did out.  Here's a couple... Without a Stroller and 20 months  or Pregnancy Update... Enjoy!





I always wanted to do Month in Review, I just finally remembered and had the time :)  Thanks Holistic Mama!!