A little bit at a time

That's my motto right now. I've been struggling the past few months with our family having seemingly endless rotations through flus, colds, viruses, and all things stuffy, which has led to A-LOT of backed up housework, and a complete stand still with anything even remotely under the umbrella of "creativity". Giving up buying yarn for Lent didn't help with that much, although I did take advantage of the break in incoming yarn to organize what I already had. However over the last few weeks I have been making progress, most of the rooms in my house are allot better than they were a few weeks before that, and I'm continuing to make forward progress there. Dishes are getting done more regularly (although it's only about once a day, it's still an improvement!), what toys we've kept are getting picked up at least twice a day, and bags of donations are still being filled and dropped off.

^ Right Now v

Establishing simplicity and order in our home is my first goal, it's not really very fun, but it is rewarding to see more and more clear, clean surfaces, and my kids (and husband!) are really happy about this new arrangement. Next I will be focusing on our daily and weekly rhythms, which I expect to be much more fun. I want to start documenting my goals and progress here, partly for a bit of accountability, maybe to inspire someone else, and certainly to look back on later and enjoy. So here are my goals for April...

April

Paint hallway & foyer

Finish painting in Jenny's room

Re-paint markered wall in Anthony's room (nothing else worked so that's just going to have to happen lol)

Finish decorating Jenny's room

Plan our garden

Sew a selection of place mats and napkins

Set up back porch for Spring and Summer (involves mending the screen in several places as it is a screened in porch)

There are about a million other things that I want to work on too, but these are the Big Things, I have to do about two things a week to get it done, but that will be a good rate I think. I have next weekend cleared for painting, so that will cover three of the things right there. And some of the things (making place mats & napkins) will be so much fun they wont feel like chores at all. I leave you with a yummy picture, recipe will be coming tomorrow!

Easter Sunday

For whatever reason Blogger wont let me rearrange the pictures today, so you will be getting them in reverse order. :) So first, thanks to the great free pattern at Wee Wonderfuls, I was able to make these two cute little guys for the kids. I used scraps and they turned out so very cute! I made Anthony's like they said too, but I thought that Jenny's was cuter with the "back seam" as a "nose". I stitched them by hand so that they wouldn't be woken up by the sewing machine...I certainly need to practice more, but I had a fun time working on them.

(Jenny has named her bunny "Snack")

My sweet babies all ready to go to Mass. I actually kept Anthony home (I went to the Vigil) because of his cold/cough but Jenny went with Joe. She was very excited to get to wear a necklace that was given to me for my baptism (when I was about her age). Just a teeny tiny gold cross, but she felt very fancy! Anthony sat so nice and still for his haircut yesterday! He likes doing everything "just like Daddy" so he was very excited to show me how nicely he could sit. These two are just the best. :)

Fun project...

I know that this is a dreadful photo, but I had to share my find right away! I am working in my kitchen this month, which means restocking the necessary linens. I have some how made it nearly five years with just one pair of potholders. They (at best) look well loved. So I've been spending some of my nursing time browsing ravelry for a good pattern. The criteria was; cute, thick, made with already-in-my-stash cotton yarn. I found this pattern and I l-o-v-e it! (Rav link here) The one picture above is for a swap I'm in, made as a tester. It's so cute, and so very quick that I'm having fun making them for my own kitchen now. I have an ample stash of cotton "peaches and cream" yarn that I'm trying to use up so restocking my pot holders and washcloths is perfect timing wise. I will share better pictures soon; I want to finish my current work in my kitchen and then take you on a little tour. :)

Okay, back to browsing ideas for place-mats.....so far I like the ideas of this one and this one (etsy links). I'm working on the atmosphere of our meals, and I thought that a variety of place-mats would be a fun way of doing that!