Kids Clothes Week Challenge is wrapping up.
I managed to get three pieces sewn this week, even with a two and a half year old who just gave up his naps. [sigh]
In my dream world, I would have gotten more done. But I’m happy with the pieces I did create. And as soon as the weather and my kiddos cooperate, I’ll show them to you.
Did you sew anything for KCWC?
Elsie Marley is back with her bi-annual Kids Clothes Week Challenge, starting next week! I’ve participated the past three years, and I am always happy I did. Even if I kind of wimp out toward the end of the week. Or get super frustrated that none of my sewing is producing anything worthwhile.
And I almost always make pants. I think that’s because my boys tend to destroy their pants. Do you have kids who do that too? Yikes.
A few of my past KCWC endeavors… (click on the pictures to head to the post)
pants…
more pants…
shorts (AKA short pants)…
even more pants…
…finally something that’s not pants! :)
I’m not going to lie. I’m probably going to make some more pants. But I do hope to try a few other things. We’ll see what I have time for the littles allow me to get done.
I am going to see if I can get to a pattern or two from Sewing for Boys.
Are you participating in KCWC? Or are you just sewing something up for the littles in your life? Or yourself? I’d love to hear about it!
This afternoon, a dear friend stopped by my house for a visit. We chatted about her upcoming wedding plans, and I shared some things that have been going on with my kiddos.
At one point, I said, “This parenting gig… it’s hard. Really good, but hard.”
She responded, “Most things that are worthwhile usually are.”
Oh isn’t that the truth.
I love being a mama. Everything inside of me loves it. Even when I hate it, I still love it. But being a mama means so much more than just changing diapers and feeding babies. There’s the worry, the guilt, the doubts.
And always the wondering… Did I make the right decision? Should I have taken the paci away when I did? Should I give it back? Is it okay to let him cry? Should I take him to the doctor? Can I let him play outside by himself? Am I giving each of them enough attention? Are they independent enough? Is that normal??
The last few weeks have been tiring. Between illness and dealing with some other parenting challenges, I haven’t done anything I thought I would do. The house? A constant mess. The sewing projects? Abandoned. The blog posts? Postponed. The playdates? Cancelled. The laundry pile? Ever growing.
And this mama? Exhausted.
Truly, being a parent is so.darn.hard sometimes. Maybe more often than not. But even in the midst of the hard times, when I’m not sure what to do and feel like I’m just sifting through the mess, surviving on caffeine and chocolate, I can do nothing else but lean into the arms of a Father who never tires. He knows how hard it is. He wants to carry me through it.
So I’m going to let Him.
Back at the beginning of 2012, I made some not-resolutions. I had a lot of goals for all areas of life. One of those was meal planning.
I’ve never been very good at meal planning. I don’t enjoy following recipes, and I don’t like to follow rigid schedules. I like to fly by the seat of my pants. But I knew that I needed to give meal planning a shot – partly for financial reasons, to help us to stick to our grocery budget. Also to eliminate those moldy bowls in the back of the fridge filled with unrecognizable leftovers. [not that you'd ever find those in my fridge... ahem.]
There are many printables out there, but I could never find one that I liked. I usually ended up using an index card. Which, honestly, is just fine. But I decided to make something that would work perfectly for me.
meal planning + coffee
This template is for meal planning and grocery shopping. Since those two go hand-in-hand, it made sense for me to have the two in the same place. It’s pretty simple – just a space to write what we’re having for dinner each night. Since I don’t plan our other meals [because my littles want to eat PB&J every.single.day.] a dinner-only template is all I need. The grocery shopping list is then broken up into real food categories: produce, protein, dairy, grains, and other – with the majority of space reserved for produce.
Download the Weekly Dinner Menu Planning and Grocery Template.
After my meal is planned, I simply cut off the bottom, take my list with me to the store, and keep my menu plan in my binder. I’ve tried writing my lists on my phone to reduce paper waste, but I’m just a paper and pen list kinda girl. Can’t get around it. So my kiddos color on the back of the paper when I’m done, then the paper is recycled.
Okay, so here’s the honest truth: I used this template pretty consistently in January and February and was a huge slacker in March. Meals were a little bit more stressful, we were over on our food budget, and we didn’t use up all our leftovers. So this month, I’m back on the meal planning bandwagon.
And here’s the other thing… I’m boring. When it comes to meals, I make the same things over and over again. Even though my Pinterest recipes board is filled with recipes, I find things I like to make, and then don’t branch out that often. And I have one of the pickiest eaters in.the.world. So I keep it pretty simple – but good [I hope]. But we always eat dinner together, and it’s mostly unprocessed and from scratch. That’s more important than fancy schmancy meals, in my opinion. Meal planning has really helped to keep that as low-stress as making-dinner-for-five-while-three-kids-are-vying-for-my attention-and-Daddy-isn’t-home-yet can be.
a little dinner making serenade
Do you meal plan? What helps you to stick to it? I’m going to share a few of our staple meals, then it’s back to some sewing posts for awhile. I’ve gotten my sewing mojo back – woot!
