One Sheet Wonder

I have a few sets of cards on my list of Insane Goals.  One Sheet Wonders is an easy way to get many different cards made in a short period of time, with a small amount of materials.  There are tons of templates available.  I used this cut template and these card samples.  These are all done with the exception of stamping a sentiment and writing inside.

Materials:
12x12 patterned paper, cut to 8.5x11 (template called for 8.5x11, but I chose a 12x12 paper)
3- 8x8 solid cardstock (used most, but have some scraps
A2 card bases (premade or an 8.5x11 cut to 8.5x5.5 and folded)
Vellum scrap
Various ribbons
Paper flowers
Jewel stickers
Eyelets

The best part is I didn't buy anything for this set of cards!  I picked up three more masculine patterned papers and cardstock to go with them, as well as two more feminine sets.  One thing more that I need to check into is the price difference between premade card bases and using cardstock.

Insane Goals: Baby Prep

I came across Simply Rebekah somehow, someway.  Honestly, I don’t remember how exactly but it was probably some combination of Pinterest and clicking to other blogs.  She started in 2011 writing up a list she title "Insane Goals" that would last her through the year and doing a monthly check-in on her blog including accomplishments, disappointments, and her goals with items crossed off.  Some of her goals for 2012 could be pasted right into my list as she is also expecting another little one.  I think it’s a great idea (I started a list a couple weeks ago anyways) and will work for me to get some of the non-routine (oh wait, I don’t have routine) stuff done around the house before baby gets here.  So here goes my list of INSANE GOALS!

Food & Supply Preparations

• Purge & organize freezer
• Purge & organize deep freezer
• Create freezer meal list for approximately 2 weeks worth of dinners
• Fill freezer with dinners
• Create shopping list for 2 weeks worth of food (take a single trip after return from hospital)
• Create a small stockpile of bath products

Baby Themed Goals

• Decide if we will make a changing station in our room
• Pull out and clean bedding
• Pull out and clean gender neutral clothes
• Pull out and clean diapers
• Clean bouncer
• Clean baby toys
• Clean and install carseat
• Set up crib
• Set up bassinet
• Decide whether to make or buy thank you cards, or use leftovers from Melodi
• Decide where to store toys
• Determine what needs purchased for baby
• Make necessary purchaces

Melodi Themed Goals

• New bed installed
• New dresser installed
• Clothing moved from changing table to new dresser
• Find a way to keep stuffed animals organized
• Reorganize cups in kitchen
• Update Publisher baby book
• Finish second year album
• Make “busy bags”

Labor & Delivery Goals

• Reread Birthing from Within
• Review Spiritual Midwifery
• Pack hospital bags
• Pack Melodi’s bag

Crafting Goals

• Complete hanging blanket for Kaden
• Stockpile cards through August
• Birthdays (7?)
• Mother’s Day (5)
• Father’s Day (5)

Blogging Goals

• Finalize blog layout and copy to all blogs
• Reevaluate having the teacher blog at this point in time
• Write twice weekly on each blog

House Goals

• Decide on carpet (clean or replace)
• Get slab jacked up
• Get the garden started
• Get rid of last year’s left over garage sale stuff
• Spring cleaning!

Stay tuned for a check-in come the first week of April.

Sick Mom = Crazy Mess

Part of being pregnant includes having the occasional off day.  Okay, maybe that's a part of everyone's life whether pregnant or not.  I haven't been feeling well the last couple days and was up off and on all night last night.  Luckily Melodi is good about occupying herself so that I can get some extra rest, but the house doesn't keep itself up if I'm having a bad day.  We still have to eat, which means dishes.  We still have to potty train, which means accidents.  We still play with stuff, which means toys/books to put away.  We still have random things happen, which means more to take care of.  The random thing is Shadow, our dog, pushing a couple boxes down the stairs.  Of course, both were filled with paper, one was recycle and one was the pile on the kitchen table that needed sorted through.  Now both are at the bottom of the stairs in one crazy mess of a pile, more of a mess since Melodi decided to occupy her time with the papers.  Hopefully tomorrow is better and I can get some stuff done around the house.

I Need Busy Bags or Quiet Bins

Our second baby is due in 8-10 weeks and as I will be nursing I need something for Melodi to do while I take some quiet time with baby.  I think the best way to accomplish this is to make a LARGE collection of Busy Bags or Quiet Bins.  I'm going to start with some Busy Bags and reserve Quiet Bins for when Melodi gives up her nap, but still needs some quiet time to herself.

There is a collection of ideas that I have found on Pinterest for Busy Bags.  I figure that I will need about 4 a day for 5 days during the week, so I need to come up with 20 bags.  I think that some of these may be books, magnet sets, and chunky wooden puzzles kept "put away" for nursing time.  Of course I would like for most of them to be educational or developmental in nature, and NOT messy.

It is going to be a work in progress as I have quite a few pins to sort through.  Luckily I have 2 months to get these together, but I also have a pile of other projects.  Maybe I'll have the planning done and be ready to do the shopping when my mother-in-law is out next month to help me with final baby prep.

Current Idea List

1. Paper, colored pencils/crayons (add stickers when a little older)
2. Lacing cards
3. Pipe cleaners, pony beads
4. Matching Color Shades (a little to young still, so do a Color Matching Wheel)
5. Felt board
1. build your own cupcake
2. tree
3. house
4. doll and clothes
6. Letter magnets (refrigerator, these are better than the premade bright colored ones)
7. Number magnets (refrigerator)
8. Fishing (felt fish with washers inside, pencil fishing pole)
9. Sensory Texture Boards
10. Matching Cards (store bought since we have a couple, or homemade)
11. Button Matching Game (I like the one a little ways down this page better)
12. Quiet Books (also useful for church, meetings, etc)
13. File Folder Games (switch out seasonally)
1. The Easter Story
2. Daniel in the Lions Den (telling time, too young still)
3. Shapes
4. Flowers
5. Counting (octopus, watermelon)
6. Colors
14. Lacing Cards (make with laminated cardstock shapes and a hole punch)
15. Popsicle Stick Puzzles
16. Color Sorting
1. colored pasta into cups
2. craft pompoms onto color cards
17. Flashcards
1. color
2. alphabet
3. animals/sounds
18. Lacing Beads

Some of these will make for good car travel bags for our road trip this summer and future PCS moves.

Reading Levels

Recently my husband asked me about the reading level of some of the books that we read to Melodi.    She LOVES reading and would spend all day bringing us books to read to her if we let her.  I had no clue what the reading level was of any of our books as it is not posted on the back of them as I remember it being when I was growing up (okay, late(?) elementary when I knew where to look).

The Dr. Seuss books were taken care of once I saw this on Pinterest, talk about great timing since we had just talked about it.  Leann of Montessori Tidbits had just posted this list on her blog.  She breaks it out Late Kindergarten, Beginning/Middle/Late First Grade, and Early/Middle Second Grade, based on her interpretation of the Accelerated Reader grade level equivalent.

We also have a large collection of the Little Golden Books so I did a Google search for "little golden books reading level" and found this.  It is not exactly what I was looking for but I should be able to convert it to a list like Leann's easy enough.

In my search I also found the 1000 Good Books List by the Classical Christian Education Support Loop.  This list is broken into grade levels of 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12.  It's a large list and I haven't spent enough time exploring it to give a fair assessment, although I will be returning to it in order to find more books to add to our library.

Here we go with a list of the Little Golden Books reading levels.

Baby-PreK

• The Poky Little Puppy
• Sleeping Beauty
• Little Mommy
• The Little Red Hen
• A Day at the Seashore
• Pinocchio
• The Fire Engine Book
• The Shy Little Kitten
• Triceratops for Lunch
• The Saggy Baggy Elephant
• Nurse Nancy
• Good Night, Little Bear
• Noah's Ark
• The Happy Man and His Dump Truck
• Richard Scarry's Busiest Firefighters Ever
• Old MacDonald Had a Farm
• A Blessing from Above
• The Color Kittens
• The Bunny Book
• Thomas and Friends: May the Best Engine Win
• The Little Christmas Elf

Not done yet.  Thinking this is going to be more work that I really want to take on.  The list that I am looking at on JacketFlap is not really what I want as it includes non-Little Golden Books making it difficult to sift through at times.  There are also 1,176 books in the Baby-PreK level, and in the Ages 4-8 level there are 2,884.  So, this plan is going out the window.  Another reason to throw this one out is that I'm not sure I totally agree with some of levels given to the books on the Baby-PreK list that I've gone through so far.  There are far too many words in "The Poky Little Puppy," "Sleeping Beauty" and "Saggy Baggy Elephant" for it to be considered Baby and I don't think that a 3-4 year old would be reading them on her own.

Back to the drawing board for this project.  I may use the same technique that Montessori Tidbits did and just do it myself using the Accelerated Reader grade level equivalent and the books that I have.  Look for more on this in the future, it may end up being a page instead of a post so that I can add to it as we accumulate more books.