Yes, It's Been a Year and a Half, but I Get Reminders on My Phone Now So Maybe it Won't Happen Again?

 Life happens, right? 2020 hit hard. Since I'm a stay-at-home Mom, you might think I wasn't really affected too much. After all, it's right there in my title: stay at home. Except, I like liked to take my kids places a couple times a week where someone else planned the activity and I just got to enjoy being with my kids. We went to storytime at the library every week. Caleb had just bought us a membership to the children's museum. We went grocery shopping all together, which totally counts.

And then, suddenly, all of that stopped. I was not prepared. I like to be prepared. And it was only supposed to be two weeks. (HAH!)

After falling over and reeling a bit, I came up with some plans. Not all of them worked so well, but one of them was this ABC craft for Jo. I tried to include Micah, but he wasn't super interested. Over a few months, she put together these crafts I prepared. Most of the ideas were from this page, but for a few of the letters, I liked other options better. 

We had them as a border in our dining area for a good portion of the year.

I think N is for Night might be one of my favorites she did. She had a blast painting it and got very creative. Jo splattered some blue paint over the page because "it's a rainy night".

I took up cross-stitching, which I kind of fell in love with. Here's my first project - a good reminder for every day:

Pattern from Etsy

I also took up watercolors (I found a cheap set at Meijer) and I'm having a lot of fun with that. I created a painting board for myself, so I can paint at the table if I want, and then move the painting off the table without disturbing it.

I sanded, stained, and sealed a pine board from Lowe's, then added two handles on each side to make it easier to carry. A year and a half later (with lots of use), it's still in perfect condition.

These were some of my first painting attempts. I've improved so much since then (more on that later), so it's fun to look back on.

Lots more has happened since then, and you can actually look forward to reading more about that because I've set reminders on my phone to write. :)

Love and Sunshine,

Leah Joy

Tot School

If you're not already familiar with the idea of Tot School, let me fill you in. It's like pre-pre-school. It's not about trying to teach kids things too early, but it is about having a focused learning time each day (or, more realistically, once every week or so). I don't force anything, and the point is having fun.

(If you're interested in more information, just look it up on Pinterest. There are TONS of ideas for activities!)

I started with the idea of colors, so for several weeks, we picked a color (in rainbow order, of course), and talked all about that color all week.

Red Day (She didn't own any red shirts)

Each day, we'd wear that color (if we had clothes that color) and fill a bin with pom poms, buttons, letter beads, and toys we found around the house.

Jo and I would get out her shopping cart and go 'shopping' around the house for the appropriately colored items.

At some point, I started digging scraps of fabric out of my scrap bin for an added element of play.

We also did Pink Day, Black and White Day, and Rainbow Day (which I unfortunately forgot to get a picture of). 

We've done other themes, too. Here are a few other pictures of some activities:

This was Number Day. She was supposed to string the matching number of beads onto each pipe cleaner, but she got pretty bored with that, so instead we just strung beads.

Ocean Day: Play-Doh + fish cookie cutter + googly eyes (Dollar Tree) + rhinestones (garage sale find) = Rainbow Fish!

Also Ocean Day: Water, bubble bath, cups/bowls/scoopers, and some plastic ocean creatures

Snow Day: This was a huge win. "Snow" is made with baking soda, water, and a little glitter. She played with this for HOURS.

Also Snow Day: I punched 1" circles out of plain paper and we pretended to write with 'snowballs'. You may not be able to tell, but hers says. "I love you, Mommy."

Unicorn Day! I made unicorn headbands for us to wear, but Jo refused to be photographed wearing one.

Micah, however, couldn't stop me.

Sorry, kid. (Sort of.)

I've been enjoying doing Tot School. It's good practice for preschool, plus Jo is learning good skills (sorting, cutting, drawing, etc.). And I get to do a bit of crafts in getting everything ready.

Love and Felt,

Leah Joy

Life Update (and Oh Yeah, Last Christmas)

"Friends, it has been an abominably long time since I have updated this blog," was how she began every post.

So, since the last post, we've had Halloween:

Jo went as Daniel Tiger and Micah was Tigey. The hats were made by Caleb's sister, and I made the pants and tail for Jo/Daniel. Everything else was purchased secondhand.

Jo turned 3 in November.

Then there was Christmas. Here's how I decorated my mantel this/last year:

We did have an 'exciting' accident with the Christmas tree...

No one was even in the room, so I can't blame anyone. :)

Now in 2019... Lots of crafting in the first few months - much more on that later.

I sold truffles again for Valentine's Day, and once again, sold more boxes this year than last year. That was pretty exciting.

Keeping Jo busy while I made 200 truffles:

Micah turned one at the beginning of the month.

And that about brings us up to date.

I have many more posts planned and I hope to get those out soon!

Love and Long Lengths of Time,

Leah Joy

A Josephine Doll for Josephine

Many moons ago, a friend sent me a link to The Josephine Doll pattern on whileshenaps.com.

I decided to make this doll for Josephine to give to her when Micah was born. That way, we'd both have a baby to take care of.

She named her doll "Dolly", proving that she's just as good at naming things as I was at her age.

Jo takes good care of her doll. She reads to her, changes her diaper, and gives her tummy time.

I sized the pattern up a little bit, so the finished doll is about 7" long.

Love and Pink,

Leah Joy

Jo's Halloween (2017)

Yes, I am very far behind on these posts!

Looking back, it's funny that Jo went as Elmo, since we've barely watched any Sesame Street in months. She's far more into Daniel Tiger now.

I found the idea for this costume with my trusty sidekick (Pinterest).

Jo and I went to Once Upon a Child and found red pants and a red sweatshirt. I decorated the Elmo face with felt we already had. For the tutu, I bought a roll of 6" red tulle from Hobby Lobby and made a waistband of elastic (already had). This is the kind of tutu where you cut strips of the tulle and tie them on the elastic. While it's a super quick way to make a tutu, it does not hold up well against long-term (ab)use by a toddler. However, it worked well for the day!

Now I need to start thinking about a costume for her this year. Any ideas?

Love and Tulle,

Leah Joy

New House Tour: Jo's Room

I right away need to apologize for the picture quality in this and upcoming posts. I've mainly been using my phone, which looks fine, well, on my phone, but once blown up a bit, it's a tad grainy. Sorry!

Here's what Jo's room looked like after we purchased it (and moved her toys in, and stuck art on the one nail in the wall):

When we had first looked at the house, there were also purple curtains and a huge purple bed in this room, so we were ready to be rid of the purple. I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but the walls were sponge-painted two tones of lavender. They even painted the outlet covers, switch plates, and the actual outlets and switches, too. That's a lot of purple.

The room also had a very funky smell, which I can actually still smell just looking at the above picture. We had had the carpets professionally cleaned, and even after several baking soda and essential oil treatments, the room still smelled funky, so a coat of paint seemed like it might help get rid of that smell.

I chose a very pleasant soft pink (we call it Little Tikes Pink). My mom helped me paint the whole room, and we also did the trim in white. What a difference! (And it got rid of the smell!)

Then my mom helped me decorate! (Oh sorry, and Jo did, too.)

Until I was able to make new curtains for her room, I hung up the living room curtains from our old house.

The heart crayon art is something Chloe and I made with a friend several years back. It goes very nicely over Jo's kitchen. (Craigslist find!)

And here are the new curtains!!

They are fully lined with blackout fabric.

And they have beautiful unicorns!!!

The pink perfectly matches the walls (I actually chose the wall color to go with the fabric), and the bits of purple help tie in the existing carpet. But I love that having a teal background makes the whole room a little less overwhelmingly one color.

Love and Unicorns,

Leah Joy

Life Update - 6/28/2018

Dear Readers,

Believe it or not, I have not actually forgotten about this blog! I realize it has been over 6 months, but with moving, being pregnant, having a newborn, and, well, keeping myself and 2 tiny humans alive, I've been way too busy to get around to updating you all. So, there's a lot to say!

In chronological order:

We moved! Last October, we moved to our new house! The first couple days after we closed, we had the carpets and the air ducts cleaned, as the previous owners had animals and we have allergies. We also made sure at least one bathroom was cleaned, and that the storage room was clean and ready for boxes. We then had our first big moving day, where we moved as much as we could, mostly boxes of things we wouldn't need for a week (i.e. books, storage, extra clothes, most toys, home decor, etc.). The next week was exhausting. We cleaned almost every square inch of the house (some rooms got demoted until after we moved as they wouldn't be necessary right away, like the 3rd bathroom, and the spare bedroom). 

Jo had a lot of fun helping us wipe down walls:

And "sweep":

Actually, that's a curtain rod.

 And sand:

Finally, the following Saturday, we rented a U-Haul and moved the rest of everything!

Unfortunately, it turns out we inherited a flea problem! I'm choosing to believe that the previous owners thought they had taken care of the problem, as flea eggs can live dormant for several months. Since we cleaned super thoroughly, it's probable that we stirred up some areas they just hadn't cleaned in a while. (I still wish they would have told us, though, so we could have taken care of the problem before we all got bit!) We actually first thought it was bed bugs, but after thoroughly treating every possible way they could get us, we were still getting bit. That's when we realized it was fleas, which are actually a lot harder to fight! Ugh. At least we don't have pets! That makes it much harder.

After months of daily vacuuming, shampooing, and washing of our sheets, we were finally flea free! Huzzah! Just in time for Christmas! Believe me, there will be a whole slew of posts on Christmas (now that it's nearly July!).

The following couple months were filled with decorating (which I do very slowly), unpacking (still not done!), quilting (more posts coming!), and settling in to our new home. (Plus a trip to IKEA; it was our "babymoon"!) It really is a wonderful house and it feels just perfect for us. We're really happy here!

And then in March:

Welcome to the sunshine, Micah James! He was born March 7, and that's pretty much what I've been up do since then!

I hope to get several most posts out soon, but I make no guarantees.

Love and Babies,

Leah Joy