baby socks and baby news

With much excitement, I knit my first pair of baby socks...

and they weren't made for gifting.

We're keeping them...

for our new baby due in August!!

Yes, baby #7 is on its way...

and we're thrilled!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope your day is lovely!

points of interest...

I made these yummy blueberry muffins last week.  Mmmmm...delicious and nutritious!


And a few other points of interest around here:

Our hens are laying again after a winter sabbatical.  Best eggs ever.

We watched this documentary last night and I cried.  A lot.  Watch it for a close look at two Mormon brothers and how their lives were influenced by their beliefs.  Their perspective on what is truly important in life is astounding for such young people.  And you'll get a good taste of why I spent 1 1/2 years of my life preaching the Gospel as an LDS missionary in Argentina.  And a glimpse of why I love what my Church teaches about families and the purpose of life.  Such a great film.

Have you seen this?  I loved it.  Three cheers for homeschooling!

Amazing information on vitamin K2 and why most of us aren't getting enough of it.  In recent research, our western diet's lack of this vitamin is being linked to infertility, heart disease, and much more.  So interesting!

I want my boys to be like him.  Inspirational!!

The girls and I watched this Masterpiece Theater version of Sense and Sensibility last week.  So beautifully done.  I want to live in the Dashwoods' cottage by the sea...

Hannah just finished Anne of Green Gables and she loved it as much as I did!  Hooray!  After being lost in the fantasy fog of Sanderson, Mull, Riordan, Horowitz, etc. (through which my boys have overtaken and surpassed me), I'm thrilled to have a girl reader in the house, who can enjoy the books I love!!  Next on Hannah's list?  Sense and Sensibility, of course!

The girls and I will finish reading aloud Pollyanna tonight.  How I love that sweet story!

I love Susanne's style.  I could stare at photos of her clean, white house all day long.  Especially when mine needs cleaning :).  Like it does now.

We had rain/sleet yesterday.  But still not a lot of cold or snow this winter.  Our fire is roaring anyway...


And now...
time to go make some Valentines with the kids.  And switch the laundry.

Happy Monday to you, friends!

large family logistics

So, I've been reading this amazing book called Large Family Logistics.  A good friend recommended it to me, and I've been poring over it for the past couple of weeks.  It's fantastic!!  It may even have the capacity to change how I do (or don't do) laundry...which would be miraculous, indeed!

The amazing author, Kim Brenneman is a homeschool mom of nine kids, who keeps a super organized, clean house, cooks from scratch, cloth diapers her babies, hangs her laundry to dry on a line by 8am, and is a good, Christian person.  She seems to be the most amazing woman to ever walk the earth!!  It has been awesome to read the details of how she manages her home and family.  Because really, it's all about the details and systems we put into place in our homes that make them run smoothly.

So many days seem to just pass me by, without my really having accomplished anything around the house.  Most days sneak by without a single load of laundry done or a bathroom cleaned.  I often go to bed with a sink full of pots and pans, and clean laundry piled up around me, instead of nestled in drawers where it belongs.  My kids do their daily chores, so the house stays picked up and relatively swept and vacuumed (meaning relative to an adult version of clean...kids' standards of cleanliness are quite different than adult standards, you know?), but I'm so busy trying to do way too many other (good) things with my time, that my home sometimes falls apart (um...knitting a sweater is good, right?  But that laundry won't wash itself, will it...darn!).

Kim Brenneman teaches that if we have simple, effective systems and plans in place, and train our children to be a part of them, we can keep order and peace in our homes and in our lives.  My favorite part of her book is how she assigns a weekday to each area of her domestic life, as the mothers of the  past did for generations.

Here's how she lays out her week:
Monday is laundry day (catch up on all laundry, but still do at least a load every day...she does 4 loads a day!).
Tuesday is kitchen day (make yogurt and broths, soak beans, clean kitchen, clean out fridge, etc.).
Wednesday is office day (finances, phone calls, menu plans, errand plans, declutter office, calendar, file papers, plan lessons, etc.)
Thursday is town day (errands, appointments, etc.).
Friday is cleaning day (deep cleaning, wash sheets, dust, mop, vacuum, etc.).
Saturday is gardening day (mow, weed, water plants, sweep/shovel porch and walkways, straighten garage, clean cars).
Sunday is the Lord's day (attend church, worship, rest).

Isn't it great?  I want to adopt this in my home.  I want to start working earlier in the morning, and work with a plan to really try to accomplish more in my home each day.  I think Kim's way of organizing her life seems super effective...kind of a way to fit everything in, you know?

If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend you do!  It is super inspiring.  So many great tips and such sound advice on motherhood, whether you have a big family or not.  Kim even included two appendixes: "Coping While Exhausted and Overwhelmed" and "Moving Beyond Survival Mode."  Even though she seems so close to perfection herself, I think she really understands the hearts of mothers.

Have any of you read it?  What do you think?

go-to baby gifts

Look at all these darling boy prints!!  

I stocked up on fabric last week at the Pine Needles 20% off sale.  The entire store was on sale!  I had noticed that the boy fabric in my stash was getting low, so I hunted around and found lots of cute prints  to use for baby gifts.

  

We've been making lots of baby gifts lately, and our favorite go-to gift is chenille-backed burp cloths.

So simple and useful and cute for moms to carry around!  Those photographed above are some I made years ago, and used for my last two girls.  They hold up so well, and get softer and more absorbent with each washing.  I loooove them!!  I've made blankets out of the same fabrics/method as well.  Just as cute as the burp cloths!  For receiving blankets, I just use cotton on both sides for a lighter weight.  

I make the burp cloths large enough to be used for a play-mat, changing pad, or even a small blanket, as well as a burp cloth.  Super versatile.  The fabric choices are endless, and they just turn out so darn cute!

Here's how to make them:

*Cut a generous rectangle of cotton quilting fabric.  About 20" x 15".

*Cut the same size from a patterned chenille.  (Mine is from the United Notions Warehouse in Texas, where I bought several bolts at less than cost!  I still have a couple of bolts left, used exclusively for these baby gifts!)

*Then, pin them right sides together, and sew around the edges, leaving a 4-inch space for turning.

*Turn right side out, iron, and edgestitch.  

So fast and easy, huh?

(I won't include in the instructions that I usually start making them 30 minutes before the baby shower or a new baby visit!  But they really are so fast, that three can be made in no time at all, and they make such a great gift for a new mama!) 

This past weekend, Hannah pitched in and made something for two of our new baby friends.  

She made these cute baby hats.  They only took her a couple of hours each, and they turned out so so great!  She used Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande Hand Dye yarn for the lavendar hat below, and she held two strands together to get gauge.  For the boy hat she made, she used a dark gray Blue Sky Alpaca outer yarn, held double.

I think these darling hats are a great addition to our go-to baby gifts, don't you?  Thanks, cute Hannah!

Tell me...what are your favorite things to give as baby gifts?  

What is the best baby gift you've received?