thank you

The cocoa holders/boxes I made were done by using tutorials from sweet as a gumdrop (Brenda). You are brilliant! Can't wait to play with my goodies!

late night crafting

After going to the mall with the family to take pictures with Santa, I decided to go for one last late night crafting session before going back to work on Sunday. I finished 3 cocoa holders, a matchbox for some earings I made for my DH's friend's wife, and worked on more tags for a gift I'm putting together.

This first box is actually mine to use at work. On the night shift, we drink a lot of Hot Chocolate. lol

coming along

Homeschooling DD1 is getting better, I've learned that she homeschools best in the later portion of the day. I've also let her write with her "pretty pens" and "pretty paper." uuggghh girls! My son is a different story, but he doesn't realize that he's getting better and better everyday. I've had to break up the sessions and do maybe 30 minutes here, then 10 minutes there. He's been asking about doing Science and I have to admitt that this is one of my weakest subjects to teach, any ideas for first graders and toddlers would be much welcomed.

So last night I was "up all night crafting." Is there a group I could join? I swear, crafts stores should be open for moms like me who can only do this when the entire house is asleep. I worked on more boxes, I only got 2 more done, still naked cause I'm till waiting for my cricut E2 to come in.

Hopefully tonight I'll get some earings done and more boxes....

Christmas is coming...

I started on my Christmas crafts very late this year. My plan was to finish everything while I was on maternity leave. Well I went back to work on Nov 6 and I only started my projects last week. Here is a picture of how I've gotten. This is so sad, my naked cocoa holder boxes:

I'm almost finished with my ornaments I'll post picks probably tomorrow. 5 kids really takes a lot out of me!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. I had to laugh this morning when my son asked if we were doing homeschool this morning. He remembered last year, before we could go to our family's get together he had to finish his lessons. When I thought about it, that was a little mean, but I rationalized it because we homeschool, we don't need to take every holiday that the other kids take. He's gone 2 days out of the week, church day on Sundays, so that only leaves us 4 days to get in a week's worth of lessons. He got lucky this year, mom is sick so decided to take a sick day today. I'm saving my energy to do some late night crafting tonight anyway. I have only a week to make cocoa holder boxes, tea bag holders, earings with matchbox boxes, 50 tags, and 50 ornaments. I wish I had a magic fairy that could help me make at leat half of these. My cricut better come in the mail tomorrow or I'm screwed.

giving in

Hello, my name is mom and i'm closet control freak. I've been trying to balance being a good wife, raising 5 children, homeschooling, time for crafts,cooking, cleaning, and soon back to work full time. I can now admit that i can't do it alone. I'm not the most organized nor am I the most creative. I have employed the help of my mom, Creative Grammie, for various things. Today it was very clear that if someone could busy the 2 toddlers while i carry the infant and homeschool the 2 older ones i can cut homeschool time down to 2 hours per day. I have also learned to stop cramming so much into a school day, it's counterproductive. My DD1 gets tired very fast if i assign too much writing or too much paperwork she grumbles and starts hating homeschooling. What was i thinking? How much paperwork can i expect a kindergarten girl to do? My DS speeds right through math but takes forever with reading and writing. Phonics is now our biggest challenge with our lovely english language. Do you know how many sounds "y" can have? It's ridiculous. Yesterday Y said long i, today it says long e, when he learned the letter last year it only said "y as in yarn" Wow, i give these kids credit.

Didn't get any crafts done this week but I did discover Photo Craft Hawaii. Abolutely love that store. I plan to go back today. Hopefully tonight I'll have time to make something.
These are my blessed children on our excursion to the Bishop Museum.

kid creations

Last night I was up late trying to make a 'thank you' card for someone in my Bible study group. Well, DD1 & DD2 were still awake and took my scraps and wanted to make their own "cards."

This one is DD1's post it note holder made from my scrap paper.

This one is DD2's card that she designed and mommy helped put it together. She's so simple compared to her sister.