Getting established...

You'll see a few photos here of the bookcase I built Bev and Kevin and Baby Riggan to go in their Dr. Seuss nursery. After I ship it up there and get a few good pictures of it in the room, I plan to do a longer post on the 'how-to'. Not that too many of my loyal bloggies (what are we called out there??) would be interested in the step-by-step process, but I plan to link to the post from my woodworking site where we all really like the 'how to' stuff on things like this :) 

The boys were my helpers each step of the way :) 

I knew for me that getting some kind of routine established with the boys for homeschooling would and will be the most challenging part. I love making plans to get organized and reading books that give me tools to help me get there, but when it comes to actually executing those plans, well lets just say that isn't my strong point. 

I read a post on a homeschooling blog that I follow today that encouraged me. I'm seeing posts all the time on this group of blogs I follow that talk about the 'day in the life with...' and then it lists the various ages of kids they are homeschooling. It all sounds great and structured, but most of them are older than my two are right now so I feel like it doesn't really help me too much right now. This post did though. She was mentioning some of the goals she has for her 5 and 2 year old boys and they seem to be in line with my 'unofficial' goals that we have right now. I'm trying not to let myself get too caught up in following my lesson plans at this point because we still do activities and learning and hands on stuff 'outside' of our school time. I just get hard on myself when I can't 'check off' that days lesson plan. 

A book I'm reading through right now, which is actually pretty great, is 'One Bite at a Time', and that's just what I have to remind myself to do with all this life stuff that I want to get on top of and feel like I have some sort of handle on...one bite/day/step/activity/goal,etc at a time. Thank goodness I have some patient little dudes with this first time mommy :) 

He he he...pink toes in the sand!

I've been able to pull the boys away from their swing set and dirt paradise (our yard) a few days lately with some gorgeous beach weather. It is a little 'cool' at the beach, but still very pleasant and perfect for drawing roads and tracks in the sand to drive our cars on and fun things like that!

One thing my little guys love right now is 'Gummie', or gum as most of us call it. They ask for GUMMIE everyday, and we've been able to use it as a bribe almost quite a few times here lately, which has been nice. Looks like my next trip back to the states I need to stock up on some bubble gum and different little packs to have on hand. Can you believe I can't get bubble yum down here? Never really noticed it until I was trying to find some for them them other day. We were in a bit of a routine a couple weeks back of walking to Smitty's every few days to get a blow pop and that was a huge deal to them. Once they realized there was gummie inside the suckers all they wanted was to get to the gummie, so we ended up always having to get them to the gummie part and then they would get it from us. Now that they have discovered you can just go straight to the gum, they no longer care for the suckers :) Which is good for me in a couple ways...gum is much cheaper, less sugar than the whole sucker, and keeps them entertained for quite a while. Oh yeah, and not as stressful for them to walk around with...

My name is slowly getting out around the island for the woodworking stuff. I was actually lined up to start working over on Stocking Island this coming week at a house that is being renovated. I was going to help put up some interior walls, cabinets and shelves in the kitchen, and possibly help with the tongue and groove ceiling. I was really getting very excited (and nervous in a good way) of the job and the work and the possibility. Yesterday Dallas and I both just sort of hit a moment when we realized our work was picking up pretty quickly, which is very much a blessing, and we have lots of stuff coming up over the next few weeks and the last thing we needed to do was add more to our plate and have me out of the house doing another job right now. I'm really sad because I think it could have been a really great opportunity, but also really proud of myself for knowing my limits and listening to the Lord right now and not pushing myself when I didn't need to. The guy was really understanding and great about it and said he hopes to be working with me on some furniture orders very soon, so hopefully that will come through. 

Oh, let me tell you our little hostage situation the other day...it was one of those moments that we all know we have, or at least I hope we all have or else I'm just a weak mom, where I knew I needed a little time-out so I didn't yell or shout at the boys for let's face it...being boys. I was stressed and just needed a moment to cool off, so I went in the bathroom and sat against the door so they couldn't open it. It's amazing how just a door between cuts back on some of the noise :) 

Anyway... I'm sitting their with my head against the door, and they both immediately come running to the door knocking on it and saying/singing, "Momma, open up, we need some juice. Mommmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaa, I want some juice, I want some juice, I want some juuuuuiiiiiccccee!" My response was silence. I hear them plotting....

"She's in there, right?" (even though they just saw me walk in there)

"Momma! Yeah, she's in there."

"Uh, it's locked, we can't get in this way, we don't have a key."

"Look, there's a hole see if you can see her." (Yes, most of this was Joss, but Emit was throwing in little bits here and there too)

"I can't Joss, I can't see her."

"I know, we can go in the closet. We need to climb up in the closet and over the wall. There's a hole in the bathroom. Remember the hole. You know the hole in the top of the roof." (Talking about the crawl space to rafters)

"Yeah, I seen it, the hole. Let's go!"

Then they go to the closet next to the door to the bathroom and start talking their strategy for climbing up the closet and getting into the hole, but they can't because the wall doesn't have a hole and then, oh.. you hide here and I'll count. Yep, they forgot all about their mission and decided to play hide and seek instead. They always hide in that closet. Meanwhile, I'm sitting on the other side of the door trying not to burst out laughing at them and thoroughly enjoying my little time-out :) 

They run around these days singing the theme song to Cars 2 or at least Finn McMissles theme song "badat ba badat ba badabadaba badat ba". It really gets stuck in your head. I tried singing it with one of the other toy cars we have and Joss was quick to tell me, "That's Finn's song momma, that car can't sing that one!" He has very particular ways you can or can't play with his toys. It's sweet, but gets him in trouble some with Emit too because Emit could care less how Joss wants him to play with it sometimes and wants to do it his own way... how dare he, huh!?

I was really DIY'ing it the other day with our seats in our truck. Since we took over ownership of the 'big white truck' as they boys call it, the seats have needed some major tlc, along with many other parts to the old truck. They had huge holes in them where the padding had come out, and we were finally sitting on the steal beams under them, so I tried to fix them myself. I know my Great Aunt Martha would probably get a kick out of them because I used some of her old fabric that is probably straight out of the 70's to cover them. I had some left over foam that I used to stuff in them and then covered them with this fabric. I need to get a picture of them, because let me tell you... they are stylish :) But we all agree, they are SO much more comfortable now. 

My real point in talking about the truck was to tell a little thing Joss did when he was helping me work on it. They hung out inside the truck while I was sewing and stuffing the seat, and when Emit went down for his nap one day Joss and I went back out to work some more. He felt so special to be helping me all by himself. We were talking and laughing and having one of those sweet mommy-son moments. He was helping me put pins back in the pin cushion when I took them out and handing me things as I needed them. He was actually a really big helper. He was asking me all about the process and I was explaining as much as I could to his curious little mind. He asked me, "what is this tiny little trash can for?" I was a bit confused until I asked him to show me what he was talking about and he picked up my thimble and held it upside down. I thought it was so cute how he thought it was a tiny little trash can that I almost didn't want to tell him what it really was. However, he did get a kick out of the actual use for a thimble too. He really like the little experiment we did when I showed him how a little needle felt on his finger with and without the thimble. He kept hugging me and saying, "Momma, I love it when I get to help you work!" :) My sweet boy!

TA-DAH....here's the bookshelf!

I wanted to get it photo ready for her baby shower last weekend, and I've been doing the final touches and then I get to figure out the best way to wrap it, put it on a boat and get it on a truck to be delivered safely to Bama :) Sorry sis... this won't be "made in the USA", but hopefully you'll make an exception this time :) LOVE YOU!