Motherhood
- Some fun activities with our homeschool co-op, including: “tech apart” day, bowling and laser tag, volunteering at a local organization that serves our local homeless community, a patriotic art lesson, and an island survival game day
- A couple of baseball games in Dallas
- Some swimming, hopefully
- Build bird houses with some inexpensive bowls, cups, and plates
- Do a watercolor tutorial from Brighter Day Press
- Sun prints (I already have the supplies!)
Summer Schedule Inspiration For The Kids
Someone told me last week that her kids were halfway through Summer break (from school). That genuinely surprised me. I learned last year that Summer was the perfect time for us to homeschool pretty consistently, so we’ve still been going (with the intent to use our breaks more in the Fall and during the holidays). And knowing we’d still be schooling, I’ve had some Summer activity ideas brewing in my head since before the season started that fit right into our Summer of learning. But these are great activities for anyone not homeschooling and just looking for a little more structure or even just some random suggestions for things to do. As usual, I’m late to put my thoughts down on paper (or digital notepad). But here I am at the halfway point (for at least some) finally doing it. Not too, too late.
Anyway… I created this schedule with flexibility in mind. Take a trip on Thursday instead of Tuesday, Build stuff on Friday. Make something on Mondays. Or just do one or two of these things in a week. You get the idea. It’s just inspiration.
I also created this schedule knowing that having set days for certain activities is helpful not only to me, but also the kids. They enjoy knowing what to look forward to and can make plans in their heads better with that knowledge.
So, here’s the schedule in written form with a bit more detail than the graphic:
Monday - Build Something
There are really so many ways to bring a building day to life. Use a specific type of building item, theme your build, race to build something, have a building challenge, work together to make something awesome, and so much more.
The suggestions I put in the graphic for building items are LEGO, magnetic tiles, wooden or unit blocks, dominoes, a blanket fort, and a stick teepee. A few other suggestions are Lincoln Logs, a marble run, something with cardboard boxes or popsicle sticks, and a building kit (like this one my kids loved).
We’ve invested heavily in LEGO and magnetic tiles (Picasso sets are our favorite, but we have a few different kinds) since my son was old enough to start playing with them. They were birthday and Christmas gifts from us and other family members, which made it easier to enlarge our collection. So it’s really fun now to have a lot to use to build!
For unit blocks, I’ve found that Jenga blocks are absolutely perfect for building! My kids have reached for them more than anything else recently. They build mazes and castles and pretend wars and forts and lots more! They’ve even used them to make indoor putt putt courses. They have 2 sets each that I purchased when on a BOGO sale at Target.
Several of the other items—like dominoes, blankets, and Lincoln Logs—I’ve collected through thrifting. The dominoes double as pretty decor in a glass container!
Tuesday - Take a Trip
My suggestions are pretty common, but they are easy to do in a day without much (or any) planning. I’m going to divide them into free and paid options below.
FREE - park, nature hike, library
PAID - zoo (a membership is typically totally worth it if you live near one), museum, lunch out, indoor activities (like ice skating, roller skating, a trampoline park, indoor rock climbing, Top Golf)
Wednesday - Play a “Game”
I used the word, “game,” here a little loosely because I couldn’t think of a better term. But basically I just mean anything that challenges the mind a bit without a lot of mess. So things like:
Board Games - A few of our current favorites are Sequence, Blokus, and Sorry. Card Games - We LOVE Play Nine and Skyjo! Puzzles - I pick these up at thrift stores if they’ve never been opened, but also occasionally grab a pretty or seasonally appropriate one elsewhere. Activity Books - Our absolute favorite activity books for a couple years now are these 1,000 dot-to-dot books. They’re frame-worthy once completed! Coloring Books - We’re partial to more detailed coloring books. This Audubon one is on our wishlist right now. Paint-(or Color-)By-Numbers - We’ve done a few of the Mondo Llama brand paint-by-numbers in the past year, and they’re good (not tooooo overly detailed).
Thursday - Create Something
A painting, a drawing, something with air dry clay, a Perler bead creation, a sewing or knitting or embroidery project, an outdoor chalk masterpiece, and more. So be crafty, yes. But you could also take this in a whole different direction and do a science experiment!
Friday - Have a Party
Make this anything you want! Bake a cake just because. Have a cute little tea party. Plan out a fun charcuterie board for lunch. Have an ice cream celebration and make it extra fancy or super simple…I’m sure it’ll be well received either way! Or do a book party where you read a book, make a craft, and have some sort of related food item. There are so many options here. And anything you call a party is sure to be exciting for everyone!
My girl made me a plate and served it to me with pistachios and pecans. ☺️
We had the best day at the zoo yesterday!
It was overcast and thundering and not super busy. We saw every single animal, which included lots of babies. Got caught in a heavy downpour and waited under a pavilion for a while, which was fun. And a zookeeper gave the kids peacock feathers.
May Monthly Round-Up: Butterflies, Mother's Day, Yetis, + Summer
I started a monthly round-up last month, so I’m sitting down again to do one for May.
It was a sweet, busy month. We’re not far into June, but when I looked through photos I have from last month, some of those things seem like they were multiple months ago. Time is weird sometimes.
Here are some highlights from our May, which was really just a couple of weeks ago.
BUTTERFLIES
My girl got a National Geographic butterfly kit from her Paw for her birthday. It comes with a voucher to order Painted Lady caterpillars when you’re ready. So, we decided to do it a few weeks after she got it. The caterpillars arrived, and we got them set up in their jar. The info packet says you’ll get five, but she got six. I think it took about seven-ish days for them to start making their chrysalises. Only three appeared to have made it through the process as only three were hanging from the jar lid. The others ended up in chrysalises but were on the bottom of the jar. But when I transferred the three that were hanging, Ro said we needed to keep the others just in case. As you can expect, she was right, and one of the ones that was on the bottom of the jar emerged from its’ chrysalis as well. We got it into the larger container with the others and observed them for a day, then released them. It was a neat learning experience for her.
MOTHER’S DAY
Mother’s Day is really special to me. I always, of course, think about my mom (who passed away when I was 10) and my Memom (who pretty much raised me after my mom died and passed away herself 5 years ago). I desperately wish they were still here with me and my family. But, I’m a mom too now. And it is really, really, really one of my very favorite titles and responsibilities in my life. So, I’m just really grateful that I get to celebrate that and be loved by my children.
The actual day was a good one! My kids (and husband) celebrated me well. We went to church (Matt spoke, and it’s worth a listen), then I chose to go to a restaurant we had not been to in a long time—La Cuisine de Maman. They gave me thoughtful gifts that I really like! And we spent the rest of the day at home together.
Waiting to be seated for lunch. The restaurant–La Cuisine de Maman–is on the grounds of Vermilionville, which is a really cool and beautiful historic and folklife park that is situated alongside the Vermilion River in Lafayette, LA.
My gifts! A LEGO set to add to my Botanicals collection, a 10 oz. YETI that my bud picked out for me, a super cute set of anklets that my girl picked out for me, and a beautiful great blue heron art print from a local artist.
YETI DRINK DATES
As I just noted in the photo above, my bud got me this little YETI for Mother’s Day because I had mentioned that I liked them! My girl already had one from a couple of years back. So, I guess B felt left out. Ha. He decided to get him one with his own money for his weekly coffee.
Since we all had our own, we decided to have a YETI tea time one evening when Daddy had a meeting out. We had a few other YETI drink dates in May as well. And they’re just the best.
Ro made place cards for the occasion. Sweet girlie!
PLANNING SUMMER
Our entire Summer isn’t planned out, but I did manage to get a few things set in stone. I also have several things that don’t require much pre-planning saved in my brain (or maybe on a piece of paper somewhere) that I’d like to do when it works out.
A few things we have planned:
A few things I’d like to do at some point:
It was a family yard day today. The kiddos willingly worked hard. 💚
April Monthly Round-Up: Plants: Baseball, Homeschool, + 90!
My husband has recently started doing weekly round-ups, so I’m taking his format and making my own monthly round-up. With more photos. Because that’s what I like.
GARDENING
My garden was a huge focus in April (it is a lot of other months too, but especially in April). Planting transplants, putting in more seeds, purchasing other plants. I love it all so much.
Pictured here: Swamp Milkweed, Spoon Tomatoes, Craspedia, Sage, Jalapeños, more Sage, Bachelor’s Buttons, Beefsteak Tomatoes, Borage, and Four O’Clocks
I’ve also been reconfiguring a few of my garden beds. I’m making two from three. And they’ll match two in front of them, so it looks a little more symmetrical. I’ll also be able to add another arched trellis (like in the photo below) for some climbing plants (and beauty).
I let the kids take over one of these new beds, and they have been excited. They’re currently growing (everything from seed) beefsteak tomatoes, jalapeños, bush beans, sunflowers, borage, sage, and swamp milkweed. All with minimal help from me.
So far, I’ve harvested about 30-something Sungold cherry tomatoes, several handfuls of strawberries (the birds have enjoyed way more than we have this year), and 2 banana peppers. And there’s a lot that’s looking good and should be ready to pick pretty soon.
OTHER PLANTS
Outside of the garden but still in the outdoor plant realm :), I’m probably most proud and excited about my Louisiana irises and Peggy Martin roses. They were beautiful this year. My next project is going to be attempting to propogate some new Peggy Martins.
I have 3 of these roses climbing on their own 16 ft. cattle panel trellises secured to 3 t-posts with UV resistant zip ties.
BASEBALL
My son is enjoying playing coach pitch baseball for the third season. And I thoroughly enjoy (with some nerves mixed in) watching him learn, grow, and have fun doing it. We all do. He was invited to try out for an all-star team again, but we decided to pass on that as he’s only 8, and we’re not ready to have baseball completely take over our lives. I really don’t know when we might become more involved, but now just isn’t the right time.
HOMESCHOOL
We’ve found a pretty good rhythm in our homeschooling lately. Getting done earlier in the day has always helped, and we’ve actually been able to consistently accomplish that.
We’ve also had a really great semester with our co-op. Our topic this semester was animals by location (so there was geography mixed in). There was a lot of great learning opportunities. And most weeks included some sort of a craft or hands on project. Simply because I love how all of their creations look in a group, here are a few of the things they made this month.
We also had some pretty cool field trips. Just a couple of weeks ago, we met a fellow homeschool momma and her daughter at a park and learned all about showing goats. Milked goats and fed the kids too. But the highlight was definitely baby goat snuggles!
MY GRANDPA TURNED 90!
My Pop, my last remaining grandparent, turned 90 at the beginning of April! We took a trip to North Louisiana to see him and celebrate with a lot of other family.
Fairly certain no one wears more socks in a week’s time than my daughter. I did (her) laundry for the second time this week, and there were 15 pairs. 🤪🧦
While Matt took B to baseball practice this evening, Ro and I: Transferred painted lady chrysalises to a larger enclosure, I did a maze she drew, I read a book to her, played catch, she put on a scooter show, planted flowers, fed fish, and she tried to coax a bunny out of the fire pit with grass. ✅
I’ve so enjoyed cuddling up in bed every other night with my bud and reading two chapters of (our 1970 thrifted edition of) The Chronicles of Narnia series. We finished The Silver Chair last night.
Conversation in the grocery store with Ro this afternoon:
Ro - “What’s beef made from? Cow?”
I said yep.
Her response - “I like cow!”
older gentleman walking by giggles to himself
Made gingerbread cookies (my favorite!) last night
Currently 🦁🎥🌾🌮👟🐅🍪☕️🧱
Reading: Just finished reading “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” to my son. We’re 4 chapters in on “Prince Caspian” now. I found this whole 1970s Chronicles of Narnia set at a thrift store for either $4 or $5!
Watching: @mtt and I just finished watching “A Gentleman in Moscow.” I liked it.
Researching: Countertop grain mills. I think it would be so amazing to mill our own flour.
Purchasing: Lots of Christmas gifts. ‘‘Tis the season. 🎄 My grandfather graciously gives me money to purchase my own gifts. So more specifically, I just purchased myself a Masienda tortilla press and masa. Something I’ve wanted for a while, but just couldn’t justify. But that’s what makes it a good gift!
Wearing: I got a new pair of classic Vans. Sized up half a size for some toe wiggle room (because I wear barefoot shoes a lot of the time and can’t do a tight toe box anymore), and they are so comfortable.
Enjoying: Took my kiddos to the zoo here recently. It’s not very big, but they’re making some improvements as of late. My kids have visited with their grandparents a lot in the last few months, and they were so excited to show me around because it had been years since I’d been. We had the best morning there.
Eating: I’m making gingerbread cookies this week. This is my favorite recipe! In the past, I’ve just mixed powdered sugar and milk until I get a consistency for icing I like. But I think I’ll try a royal icing this year.
Drinking: Bone broth hot chocolate. The recipe calls for chicken bone broth, but I actually prefer beef. It’s really good either way, though! My kids have actually had the opportunity to have packaged hot chocolate several time recently, and they wouldn’t drink it because they said it wasn’t good.
LEGO-ing: I got 3 Christmas Polar Bears sets for 70% off after Christmas last year. Saved them and got them out this week to do with B and Ro. Fun times.
Some Lego Organization
Organized our “imagination” Lego pieces by color a few days ago. Wasn’t positive they’d stay that way. But so far, the kids have played with them more AND put them back in the right trays. ✨
Used these clear trays from Target and tried not to overfill them so that they can easily search for the piece they want.
Shuttle Pen Valentine’s Day Exchange Gifts
On Monday, a precious homeschool group we are part of met up for a Donut Shop Valentine’s Party. A family in our group owns a donut shop, so they invited everyone to come see the process of making donuts on a large scale, and then, the kids decorated mini donut king cakes (‘tis the season in Louisiana). It was so sweet (in more than one way) and special!
After the tour and decorating fun, the kids all exchanged Valentine’s cards and little gifts. Side note: homeschool kids still get to do all the fun things! I kind of had an idea of what Brigsby would bring, but didn’t make a final decision until the night before (with his help). Honestly, that’s usually how I roll.
His gift and Valentine’s card came together sooo cute, and I was proud because I created it myself. Super easy. So, thought I’d share. And bonus: IT’S NOT CANDY!
I searched Pinterest a week or so ago for some Valentine’s exchange ideas. Found some cute things, but not a combo of anything I liked (or wanted to pay for). In searching, though, I came across these cute shuttle pens! I ordered them just in case since Amazon returns are pretty simple.
I moved on from them thinking we’d do some cute stickers with a card that said, “Stuck on you.” But the night before, Brigsby and I decided we preferred the pens for the exchange.
So, Monday morning, I quickly (which isn’t usually the case) pulled up a flash card template in Canva, deleted everything except the layout, and made these “cards” that say, “You color my world.” Perfect for the colorful ink in the shuttle pens! I printed them on card stock, and they came out so nice!
I should’ve pulled out my paper trimmer to probably speed up the process a bit, but it actually didn’t take long to cut them out. And I would’ve had to do the rounded corners (which I think make things look extra nice!) with scissors anyway.
After I got them all cut, we stuck the cards in the pen clip, and voila! Homemade, purposeful, and not super cheapy Valentine’s gifts!
A Rowyn Moment
Yesterday afternoon after @mtt got home, I told the kids I was running to Target. Ro immediately runs to her room. She comes out with this “list.” She made it a few weeks ago. Very tediously, as you can see. She told me it was her birthday list (which is 3+ months away), but that I could use it as my shopping list with the stipulation that I not mess it up and bring it back. 😊
Hand-Print Flowers
We did a quick Mother’s Day craft with stuff we had on hand. I got the idea from Pinterest. The original craft used foam for the “blooms” and leaves, which I’m sure would be a little more durable (and not show the bleed through of glue). But I didn’t have any, so I just grabbed the card stock. Amazingly, both my 3-year-old and 13-month-old let me quickly trace their hands! My expectations were low, but highly exceeded. Brigsby carefully painted the popsicle stick “stems” while I cut out handprint “flowers” and leaves (I just quickly drew them with a pencil). Although it’d be super easy to finish quickly, we actually didn’t get it all done in one day. Brigsby probably spent about 20 minutes painting (crafts aren’t typically his jam, but he connects with painting here and there), then was ready to move on. So, I set everything aside and finished up today. I love how they turned out! 2 are for my mother-in-law, 2 are for me, and 1 is for my husband because Brigsby wanted to make him one too. 💙 If I had planned ahead (story of my life, but I’m working on that), I would’ve done a few more to gift to my MIL because the little wrapped bouquet is so fun! Maybe we’ll make some more later. This would be a great keepsake craft, birthday gift, Spring/Summer activity, etc. Definitely not Mother’s Day specific. But that’s how I found the idea, and I’m glad I did!
PS - I might have had as much fun taking pictures of them as I did putting them together. 🙂🙃
Books Pictured:
Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the Natural World by Julia Rothman Everything is Mama by Jimmy Fallon