A couple of weeks ago I did another clean up of the office/craft area. I try to stay organized, but sometimes the paper in the office gets overwhelming and I need to do a purge. I shredded a lot and have a small stack to file. I could probably shred more but that can wait. In my cleaning up I realized (and found) quite a few craft, sewing, card projects that need to be finished! Finding those inspired me to clean up my sewing table, which for a long time has been a landing spot for too many things. I have a lot of material that I’m sure I can find something to make, and material already cut for a baby blanket.

My Mom came to visit and just left the other day. It was so great to have her here! She loves to garden and transformed my yard. We had very little curb appeal before she got here and looking at it now, wow the front of the house is beautiful. It is a spot that is fun to sit at and I’m happy to say the flowers are still alive and thriving. The backyard looks great too, we planted a handful of plants and cleaned up. I have a little more work to do, I need to finish laying some bark, but I haven’t yet. I need to before the weeds decide to pop up again!

Dropping my Mom and Stepdad off at the airport was so hard - living away from family is tough but when it is so in your face it is painful. The kids and I cried for a few miles down the road, I don’t think they realized what was going on until I started crying. With some airline ticket luck, Mom will be back this summer, but if the luck isn’t headed our way then she’ll be here in the fall.

I have been wanting to alter various items for ages now - paint cans, tins, other boxes - and today I finally got my chance. A friend of mine is a Close To My Heart consultant and she had a flip flop and altered paint can class today. The flip flop project was fun and easy (tying ribbon) and the paint can was just as easy (securing paper to the can). She is having various other classes throughout the next few months and I’ve signed up for at least two. I’m really not a scrapbooker - I believe pictures should be in order in an album, and cutting pictures? Ack! - but I can get into smaller projects like small books or altered items. She is even having a class on making a little paper box and a set of cards.

And I have to say I was very impressed that she didn’t badmouth any other companies - I admit I didn’t tell her I am a Stampin’ Up rep, but when others attending said something about SU she said good things about the products. I am glad - I know I would not have been comfortable continuing to take classes from her otherwise. I’ve been to a handful of other parties where the consultant had nothing but bad things to say about a rival company. It never looks good to behave that way.

I’m sure I’ve said it before but pictures are coming soon! I am determined to figure out the software by the weekend.

PS I’m on a weight loss/get healthier journey - join me at Losing My Baby Weight (new design coming soon!).

Is it just me, or does this not feel like the ‘traditional’ end of the year? Watching tv I’m seeing season finale’s and thinking “huh, finale? It’s May?” It just doesn’t feel like it is May.

For years our lives go on September to May schedules - with the other months being off, vacation time, break time. Maybe it’s because this is the first year of homeschooling but it being May right now is just odd! And strange that it’s taken six years for me to get out of that schedule (since college).

I always get excited when school is going to start because of the great back to school sales going on and the last fall that we were in WA, Alice went to school so we could have gotten on that schedule. I thought I would always be on that schedule - there are so many educators in my family plus I wanted (want) to teach as well.

There is a contest over at A Moms Review for a copy of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten. I first saw the book on the Moms Review site and read additional reviews on Amazon.

I love homeschooling and love finding new and fun books to work with. I think this book would be a great addition to my library - I can see how Alice is doing and see if there is an area we need to work on a bit more. We decided to keep schooling through the summer but won’t start first grade work until the fall.

Head on over and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the book, the contest is until Friday, May 11.

PS I’ll be back soon. The computer hard drive died so I’m working on moving it, setting up the laptop on the desk and trying to figure out what to do with it. That’s two computers we have now that aren’t the best, but with a little work would be fine. I do have back ups of everything so I’m safe there. I definitely need to figure out the camera software now!