Craft Hope Project 23

I have been wanting to have a craft group to do one of Craft Hope's projects for a while now.  Craft Hope is a blog with a major impact. Blogger, Jade, has projects regularly and tens of thousands of crafters make things and send them in to be dispersed all over the world. 

So, finally, when Project 23 came out, I decided to get together with some of my MOPS mommas and have a mini sewing party. This project was for pillowcases dresses to be sent all over... to a school in Jordan, an orphanage in Costa Rica, Tanzania, and more.  We came together for gumbo and snacks and got to work.

We had 6 women and 4 sewing machines going at a time!

In the end, we made 11 dresses ready to be shipped! We tried to make a wide variety of sizes, following this amazing guide of sizing info and more. 

We hope this spreads some love to 11 little girls!

MOPS!

I am so excited that MOPS is finally starting again. MOPS meets every other week for 2 hours. There is free childcare provided, breakfast, coffee, speakers and small group discussions. I joined this amazing group of women when Blaine was 1 and I was 3 months pregnant for Vivienne.  I was desperately searching for companionship with other moms.

I cannot express enough how much this group has changed my life. It was scary going through struggles of motherhood alone.  Exhaustion, postpartum depression, breastfeeding issues... you name it. MOPS has given me a support system that every mother should have. They have brought me dinner when I had a newborn. They have held my babies when I felt like I was about to cry or pass out.  They have helped with birthday parties. They have gone grocery shopping and running errands with me to help lend a hand.

If you're interested in joining - we have 2 different MOPS groups - night MOPS for working mothers (new this year!) and day MOPS for stay at home mothers.

Night MOPS starts tomorrow night from 6:30-8:30 at someone's home, so I won't be posting the address.  If you would like to attend, please get in touch with me and I'll send you the information!

Day MOPS starts THIS THURSDAY from 9:30-11:30. For more information - feel free to get in touch with me or click here.

The Decision to Homeschool

After a lot of thinking, talking, reading, researching, and praying... We have decided to homeschool. We are drawn to it for so many reasons, but one huge reason is that it allows us to maintain a family life.  Enrolling our kids in school would mean Jason would only see the kids one day a week. Running a tattoo shop requires crazy hours, flexibility, and teamwork when balancing a business, home, and two kids. We have learned to make the most with what we have.  Some of our most fun family moments are when Jason has a sudden cancellation and we make a quick trip to the playground, to get ice cream, or just hang out at home together. So in an effort to keep our family unit strong, we decided to make the leap. 

I am so excited that the world will be our classroom.  I'm looking forward to taking the kids to experience what we are learning. I feel so blessed that I will get to see them first hand as they grow and learn. 

This decision was definitely made easier having friends from my MOPS group who homeschool. They seem to enjoy it so much and are always doing fun and creative things with their kids. I saw them participating in so many group activities and communities. Like most of them, we are joining a group called CHEF (Christian Home Educators Fellowship) that has organized activities like P.E., field trips, camping trips, and more. Blaine is enrolled in Classical Conversations (CC) for this year, which will be the largest part of our curriculum. Quite a few people have been asking me what is involved with CC, so here's an outside blog post I came across a while back briefly explaining it. In addition to CC, we will be doing additional handwriting, phonics, and math.

 Also, Vivienne will be sitting in with what Blaine is working on at home.  And Blaine will be sitting in on some of Vivienne's work (mostly Bible study) from Hands On Homeschool, a 2 year old program, which he has already done.  

At home:

A while back, I turned our short hallway into a mini school area for Hands On Homeschooling for Blaine. As a confined space, I find it an easy place to hold the attention of our two wild toddlers. And I literally mean a confined space... I lock the doors and block them from escaping by sitting on the edge of our learning space or sometimes putting a gate up. There's no temptations of TV, snacks on the counter, or the dog as a distraction. We do our writing activities at the table, but anything that just requires some conversation, visual aids, iPad, or reading a book is usually handled here on pillow piles and a bean bag chair. I have framed posters of the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, separate frames with all of our immediate family members, and a cork board for me to stay organized. This also give us a place to display everything the kids create without disrupting the rest of our home. I've recently cleared off a lot of their artwork from all over the doors and walls. Although, I'm sure it will soon be covered again.  I don't think this little hallway will always be able to hold everything we are working on or always be necessary, but up until now, it has been perfect for what we are doing. We will figure this out more when CC begins NEXT WEEK!

The posters are large and really nothing fancy. Shapes and colors one is 20x30. Alphabet and numbers one is 16x12. Here are the images if you are interested in printing something similar. You don't have to print that big, just shrink to fit 8.5x11.

We are looking forward to this exciting  journey and I hope to update often on what Blaine and Vivienne are learning!

Have you ever thought about homeschooling? If you do homeschool, what do you love most about it? And is there a space in your house that you designate for lessons?