my pink life, mi vida rosada

 (Also, can I just state here that I wish this wasn't part 12 already, and that the original "stay safe at home" campaign in MARCH had been effective?  I mean, I'm an introvert, and I like to stay home, but GEE WHIZ I'm ready to be ALONE in my house or wandering through a store already?) We spent the week of Thanksgiving at the family beach house.  We managed 3 days of school -- two sort of "normal" homeschool days and one field trip.  We went to the swamp and got up close to the pitcher plants and the venus fly traps.  We've been learning about plants off and on throughout the fall, so this was a fun way to sneak an extra plant category into our science learning -- we'll be reading about them a little for follow-up over this week (and writing about them and drawing them and so on).  Did you know that Venus fly traps are very small?  The average size we saw was about the size of my thumbnail. Perhaps you can see them better if you zoom in? It was...

 Well, Halloween has come and gone....but it was a fun one.  Different, for sure, but fun.  We *DID* trick or treat -- probably the first "normal" thing that we've done in a long time.  I turned a mermaid tail blanket into a dress for Miss Middle to wear; she dressed up as her favorite imaginary play character.  No one could tell who she was, but she would proudly announce her name and the adults, who probably generally don't know who kids are dressing up as "these days" would exclaim things like, "of course!" and "that's the best _____ costume I've ever seen!"  Miss Middle was very pleased.  Peanut decided to dress up as a flower.  I acquired green pants and green shirt, and she decorated a hat as a flower.  I think she did a lovely job.   And "the baby" dressed up as a black cat.  He figured out pretty quickly that it was easier to ride in the stroller and let big sisters bring him candy for his bucket.  I loved that m...

 Well, here we are, most of the way through October.   I have *finally* gotten started on a new sewing project.  Of course, it was not on ANY of my lists of things that should/need to be done....But of course, it totally makes sense for me to start a quilt. (No, no it doesn't.  It doesn't make any sense at all.  And quilting is NOT my forte -- I've made a couple, but people who really spend a lot of time cutting up fabric and sewing it back together again with lovely tiny little perfect quarter inch seams would definitely agree with me that it makes absolutely NO SENSE for me to be trying a quilt.  Again.) So I've made a whole bunch of flying geese, and I'm in the process of trimming them down and sewing them in pairs.  Then I'll lay them out and figure out which pairs I want to attach to each other, and start in on that.  But so far....I've learned (confirmed) that my ability to sew a quarter inch seam is lacking.  I've also learned tha...

 The homeschool life is suiting me well, I believe! The kids are starting to sleep just a tiny bit later, until nearly 7, which feels HUGE considering we were trying to walk out the door at 7 last year.  We're doing about 1.5 hours of focused ELA and Math work each (weekday) morning, plus plenty of science and social studies reading/conversation/experience outside of our classroom.  The best part?  (Aside from the hugs and high fives during the day, of course!) We can very easily take our "school" on the road!  We spent last week learning at the beach, with grandparents and cousins and sweet hubby working from "home."  I want my kids to be able to safely return to "real" school -- but I am definitely loving the flexibility of being able to pack up the school work and do it wherever we want to be.  I have made some progress on the project room cleanout, and Goodwill has received many donations of items that will hopefully be useful to somebody else. I r...

 Well.  Not a lot has been accomplished.  We are sort-of on a schedule. We are sort-of getting used to it. We are sort-of doing better about eating real food.  We are sort-of getting the house cleaned up.  We are sort-of trying to get back into a happier place....but it is slow going and still feels extremely monotonous.   I took the kids shoe shopping this morning, at a local boutique.  They now have closed-toe shoes for the fall/winter season.  It feels like a success.  A very, teeny, tiny, itsy little success.  The girls are no longer enrolled in virtual school.  We'll be a homeschool family this year -- so along with my making my own clothes and cooking from scratch (sometimes)....I'm feeling very stereotypical.   In good news, Miss Middle is starting to speak some Spanish with me.  Some of her schoolwork is in Spanish, so that is helping.  Peanut has always known more Spanish that Miss Middle; we did a ...

 Well, I've probably joined the statistic of how many extra people are experiencing anxiety and depression.  The truth is that most of my days look basically the same, and there are very few stand-out events to look forward to, especially considering that my family is not ready to re-join the world of restaurant goers and birthday party attendees and in person grocery shoppers quite yet.  It feels extra lonely these days, as I've done an extra poor job of staying in touch with some of my dearest friends and lack so much contact with more casual, but still apparently important to my mental well-being, acquaintances.  I've started making an effort to get back in touch with some of the people who help keep me grounded, and I've started the process of finding a counselor to talk to about some of the recent goings-on, and "school" starts next Monday for my kids (virtual, but it will put us back on a schedule), and I'm hopeful that we are going to turn a corner ...

Well, the sewing/creating inspiration has been low and slow.  After the last good bit of making, I retreated into a "the mess is overwhelming so I won't do anything at all" sort of funk....and I'm only barely beginning to try to get myself out of it. I *did* make some bathing suit bottoms, hacking the Avery leggings pattern .  They are wonderful to wear -- a little longer than the "boy short" bathing suit bottoms I have recently bought from Target, and very comfortable.  They require less of two things I don't love -- less sunscreen and less shaving. They match the swim shirt I made, using the Jade pattern .  I also made two bathing suit tops, beginning with the Hyacinth free bralette  by OhhhLulu, and a pair of traditionally shaped bathing suit bottoms using the Stevie Knickers pattern .  Combined with a top or two from Old Navy and a swim shirt from Lands End, I have quite the mix-and-match set of bathing suits to meet all my different swimming/beac...