This was, by a mile, the best birthday party H has ever had. Four of her friends and their moms met us in Brooklyn at Brooklyn Owl, a unicorn horn store, for a day out in NYC. The moms went for coffee, and Adam and I stayed to take photos of the girls picking out their own special unicorn horns, making unicorn crafts, eating unicorn cupcakes, and solving clues for the store’s magic mirror, which spoke to them and transformed them from little girls into magical unicorns. We could not have packed more unicorns in if we tried, it was fabulous.
Category: Totally Random
That is some random stitching together of outfit selfies up there, but the top row is Jan-April, and then the next row I started stacking months. May and June are under January, then July and August, then September and October, and then under April it’s November and December. What can I say, I have the flu. Stitching a collage together without Picasa was a challenge this year, but there it is. The whole of 2017 in selfies.
I’m kind of exhausted by politics this year, it must be said. But I made this banner last week during the DNC to celebrate HRC’s historic nomination for a major political party. I’m full of excitement and positivity about my kid’s future, and whatever happens in November (and my own personal politics, which are hard to ignore with a banner like this), representation matters.
I have a secret in my basement, and we have come to fear this secret.
Last year during apple season I was tired of all the usual apple things, and I got this idea in my head that I was going to learn how to make hard cider from scratch.
I have been so much more methodical about what I want to teach this year than ever before. Maybe it’s the part-time status; I feel more urgency to be on top of stuff since I only have 2 days a week. I usually only plan units a few months ahead, until the end of the novel studies I do with first grade and older. But sometimes I lose momentum after that because the novels are such a long-term investment, and even kindergarten can lose steam after spring break. So this year I’ve mapped out everything I want to do in grades pre-k through 6th all the way through June. And I think it’s a great plan.
Okay, here we go. And I’m determined not to have my lowest total ever this year. I’ve been beating that record in a downward trend the past 3 years running. I hope I can get back to what I loved about books in the first place and enjoy them again.
I can’t believe this is the 6th year of this list online! Last year was my lowest by far because I just did not have the time or inclination to read when H was born. I’m excited to see how I do this year, but a little trepidatious. I am so easily overwhelmed by all the prolific readers I know through the library and kidlit communities, and I just can’t keep up. I’m not the fastest reader to begin with, and I always have so many other things going on that I definitely rely heavily on audio books to keep me well read. I’m still trying to get current with my knowledge of recent releases after maternity leave. There are always way more amazing books than time to read them, and more and more I’ve found my attentions drifting back to grownup books. It’s actually pretty interesting; since H was born, a lot of the books, films, and TV shows I used to find entertaining are impossible to get through for me now. I am over dystopia. I am struggling with YA. I am more drawn to middle grade than I used to be. Maybe it’s all the bleak material rolling out the past few years. Having a baby with her whole life before her makes me shy away from terrifying visions of the future. And extreme violence; I have not been able to watch Criminal Minds since she was born, for example.
I’ve decided to keep a running index of the crafty things I’ve made. I’ve been doing an end-of-year post since 2010 with all the craftiness of that year, but I was going through one of my sketchbooks recently and decided I wanted an index of everything I’ve made in the years since I started this blog. I’ve learned so much about sewing and crafting, and I realize now that I started this blog when I was just really teaching myself how to sew. Some of my early projects are hilariously bad, but I love seeing what I’ve come up with since. So here it is, working backwards from today to 2008.
Okay, 5th year of this list! Wow, that’s pretty cool. Actually, it’s the 5th year that I’ve kept this list online, but I have notebooks full of reading lists going way back. I did not do very well in 2011, but as I write this on January 6th we’re still waiting for H to arrive in March. Not so much reading time, I fall asleep too easily.
This will be the 4th year that I’ve blogged my list of all books read (books for kids that I read for work, and books for teens/adults that I read for fun). Here are the totals for each year so far: