Homemaker Day!

Home Ec at Home!

The kids lost screen time a while ago. Their attitudes when we had to turn things off, the badgering, and fighting was too much, so they went away. We bring out ipads from time to time for 30-60min stints when it's earned (or needed!), but it's certainly not at the level it used to be. It's both good and bad, but for the most part it forces us to BE with our kids more. Frustrating at times, but isn't that what parenting is? :-)

Despite the weekend, today is a solo-parenting day. Temping to take back out the computers, but I know it's not for the best. Rather we are having a home ec kind of day! We are starting sewing lessons and making homemade ice cream.

Sewing - Lesson One

Set Up!

We attempted a sewing craft a year ago, but the kids got frustrated with having to cut fabric and we never even got to the sewing part. So, this summer we are beginning sewing lessons. I started by taking the needle OUT of my old machine and getting it set up at a kid-friendly height. I googled "sewing machine paper practice sheets" and after a trip to Costco for paper (it had somehow all disappeared from the printer), printed some out. I found a slew of ones I liked on The Sewing Geek website. I printed four of them for each kid and we went to work. The first issue was making sure they could operate the machine safely. I set them up at our front "junk" table and put the foot pedal on a stool so they could reach it.


We began with the straight line (no thread, no needle) and talked about how the machine works. How it goes faster/slower, how the pressure foot works and where to keep your hands so you stay safe. At this point their craziness payed off as they distracted each other. I was able to point out when they weren't concentrating without having to worry about a needed sticking them!

They were decent at taking turns, which was nice. That's not always the case. One we all had two turns with straight lines with no needle, we took a break. I think I needed the break more than they did. Our break consisted of making ice cream, which is continued at the bottom of this page!

Sewing - Lesson One (and a half)

I had planned on making this two days, but I was bored and they were interested, so I put in thread and a needle. I am happy to say that no one sewed their finger! We did the same straight lines we had practiced before. We worked on putting the pressure foot down, turning the needed down, then getting positioned before starting. Then when we were done, putting the needle up, pressure foot up and pulling the paper out. I still trimmed all the threads, lest they accidentally cut their PAPER with my SEWING SCISSORS.

All three of them did a great job. I was really happy with their progress. We are making pillow cases as our first project since it's all straight lines. I feel like as soon as I can cut their fabric, we are going to be ready! We'll do another few sessions of paper practice, then hit the fabric! I can't wait.

We have the pillowcases up first, and then "sleeping bags" for a stuffed animal. Knowing my luck they are going to want to make one for their HUGE bears. I think I will encourage them to pick one of their smaller animals so we can make the project bear(ha!)able.

First Practice Pages

Zachary's Lines	Annabelle's Lines	Logan's Lines

Ice Cream!

Our sewing breaks today were interspersed with ice cream making. I found the recipe online and it seemed simple enough. All you need are two ziploc bags, one quart size (though I think sandwich would work) and one gallon size and just a few ingredients. You can also use two coffee cans, but we don't have any!

            Take the smaller ziploc and put in:

                     1/2 cup of Half and Half

                     1 tablespoon sugar

                     1/4 teaspoon vanilla

            Place the smaller ziploc into the larger one. 

            Surround the smaller one with:

                     3 cups ice

                     1/3 cup coarse/rock salt (we bought "ice cream" salt at Fred Meyer)

Shake, shake, shake. Shake, shake, shake. Shake your ice cream. Shake your ice cream. (singing is optional, but encouraged).

It should take about 10-15 min to "set". The vanilla took much longer because the kids were in charge. While they were "working" I set to work on a fresh strawberry version. I put strawberries (the remainder of what I had in the fridge) in with the half and half, sugar and vanilla and blended it up quickly before putting it in the ziploc. When we went to eat it, I felt like it was TART and needed a little more sugar, so I put whipped cream on top. The kids loved it!

Summer = Time to Blog!

Summer: Day 1

Ahhhhh, it's summer! Finally time to update on life. I finished school two weeks ago, but the kids finished yesterday. That means today was the first day of summer we all had. I am already crazed :-). I had purchased a groupon for The Craft Factory over Spring Break, but didn't use it until today. It was great! It's located in Multnomah Village so just a hop, skip, and a jump from our house. When you go in they have several different wood or sturdy cardboard "bases" to start with. Behind each are tons of sample project ideas. The lady who was working was SUPER nice and helped the kids get situated. Once they have chosen a base they have a TON of embellishments that they can glue on. Feathers, knobs, letters, beads, really anything you can think of. I loved all the robots that I saw, but the kids didn't want to go there. Logan ended up choosing a cutout of the State of Oregon. I was pretty excited about that, thinking that he would develop something really cool. Rather, he turned it into an arm ground. I think between Logan and Zach we used up all the army guys they had!

Annabelle, staying true to herself, made a crown. I can't tell you how many times she said, just ONE more thing, I just need to add ONE more thing. She manged to glue a huge Christmas ornament on there, I was pretty impressed. Almost everything gets attached with a glue gun. I was apprehensive, but in the end, it wasn't an issue at all, the kids did awesome and managed not to burn themselves! WIN!

 All in all, we were there for over an hour. With the Groupon it was $22 for four kids (I could have made and craft myself, and in hindsight I should have). The two kid groupon was $12, or $6 per kid. The regular price is $10-$12 per kid ($12, but $2 off if it's your first visit. I wasn't sure if they would let me combine the groupon AND the $2 first time discount). The four kid groupon was $22, so even if I only used it for three kids, it was still $7.33/kid which was cheaper than the two kid groupon and the regular price ($24). That's the most math I've done in weeks! :-) All in all it was a success and I am thinking of getting another groupon so we can go again this summer. The kids all had a blast. The boys were both whining about going, saying they didn't want to, but left asking when they could go back.  If you are looking for a cute summer activity, this is totally it! Parking can often be tricky, but we were able to find a spot right out front. The only way I saw to access the store was via stairs (it's on the second floor), so it's not handicap accessible (that I saw), but I would still recommend it!