Bullet Journal

This week I discovered a new way to organize my life.  I always have a bazillion lists I've written.  To-dos, shopping lists, don't forgets, tracking fit throwing, oh-I'm-having-a-brainstorm-here's-what-it-is . . . just to name a few.  I wanted to have a place to keep all that stuff so I bought myself a handy dandy note book.  Yes, I know there is an app for that, but frankly I hate typing on the phone.

Then I started looking for a really good way to organize all the things.  I found Bullet Journaling and I'm coupling it with activity tracking.  Bullet Journaling was invented by Ryder Carroll.  There are a lot of resources and tutorials all over the internet for bullet journals.  I did some research.  While I was researching I also found activity tracking.  It's basically a grid to fill in when you've completed something so you can see what you are really doing and where you need to do better.

I want to show you what I came up with.  It was actually really cathartic to develop the layouts and get all my bits and pieces organized.  Miss E wants one too.

 This is my future log.  Basically a list of all the big don't forgets for each month.

 This is my Birthdays and Anniversaries wheel.  This is an overview of all the Birthdays and Anniversaries I'm supposed to remember through the year.

My Vision Board and Weight Loss Tracker.  I think I'm going to call the vision board something else, though, because it is really going to be a collection of quotes and things that inspire me.

 Month overview.  I have a calendar, finance tracker, goals for the month, and monthly habit tracker.  For the finances I'm planning on tracking how much I'm spending on groceries and also on crafty things, so I will color code those entries.







This is my weekly layout.  I have a box at the top for each day of the week, with water tracker in them.  I'll be writing in my meal plan for the day in there.  The long columns for each a day is for my to-do lists.  My weekly goals and weekly habit trackers for me and Miss E.  I also have a section for notes and things I have that are up coming.


Obviously this is just the beginning, but I have some big ideas where all of this concerned.  I'll keep you all updated.  I'm thinking of making a printed planner, but that is still in the ideas section of my brain and (now) my bullet journal.

I'd love any feedback you might have about any of my posts.

Lotion Bars

I'm about to go in for a 6 month follow up with my oncologist.  I've been thinking about one of the most uncomfortable things about chemo and radiation therapy.  Dry, itchy skin.  I also wanted to do something nice for the folks currently dealing with cancer.  I decided lotion would be a good thing.  But then the hard part about store bought lotion is the alcohol content that can dry your skin further.  My radiologist had told me calendula oil is really good for scar tissue and dry skin.  The problem is it's pretty difficult to find good calendula lotion that isn't super spendy or laced with that pesky alcohol.  I recently went in search of something that would be better than store bought.  I landed on a super easy, three ingredient lotion bar.

I made these with a friend I haven't seen for a while.  We had a great time chatting and catching up as we worked making these fabulous lotion bars.

You'll need a good kitchen scale for this recipe because you need 2 oz by weight of each of these:

Calendula oil (Jojoba oil is nice too)  (found here)
Shea or cocoa Butter (found here and here)
Bees Wax pellets found here

You will also need a pan, a rubber spatula and silicone soap molds.

Put the oil, Shea butter and bees wax pellets in the pan over medium heat.  Heat until the Shea butter and the bees wax are just melted.  Don't let it boil.

Pour into the molds.  One batch filled this particular six hole mold. Allow it to set up.  It took about 30-45 minutes to cool completely and set up.  I learned the hard way not to move the mold until it was completely set up.

Wipe the pan out with a paper towel to make clean up much easier.

Peel the lotion out of the molds.  Ta-da! You have a handy dandy lotion bar that won't dry out your skin.

I put mine into some small plastic party favor bags that I had left over from Miss E's Birthday Party. I'm going to take them with me when I go in for my visit with the oncologist.  I'm hoping some of the patients there will get some good use out of the bars.

Mother's Day

Once again, it is time to wish all and sundry a Happy Mother's Day. This year not only am I an actual Momma but I'm also a God Momma. I have some really fantastic memories of going to pick wild flowers with my parents for our grandmothers and God Mothers for Mother's Day. This year I have some beautiful paper flowers my daughter (Miss E) made in art class and some really wonderful pinwheels she made in Girl Scouts.


I had the great privilege to help Miss E's Class make some tissue paper flowers for their moms. It was a little chaotic and (for some) frustrating, but fun. I have to remember the K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid) motto when working with a large group of kids.


Here is our finished product.




Here's what you need (all of which can be found at the dollar tree):

Green Pipe cleaners

Tissue Paper (I used brights and pastels)

And basics: (Scissors, ruler and pencil.)



Start by making two piles of 5 sheets of tissue paper. you can be as creative or not as you want with color combinations. I had some kids decide to do multi-color flowers and other kids choose to do mono-color flowers. It really just depends on who you are making them for. Arrange your two piles as neatly as you can. I lined up one corner of each sheet in the pile. That helped them to be more tidy. Once the two stacks of 5 sheets of tissue paper are as tidy as you can get them you are going to fan fold (aka accordion fold) the who stack together. It doesn't need to be a super tight fold; this is mostly so cutting is easier.

Time to measure. For one of the two now folded stacks fold it in half end to end and cut it in half on the fold. For the other folded stack measure two sections of 7.5 in and you should have one 5 inch section left. I had the kids draw a line all the way down from their marks as a cutting guide. Cut on the lines. You should now have 5 sections of folded tissue paper.



(I left this step out when I did this with Miss E's class. I thought it would be a little confusing.) Before you attach the pipe cleaners you can adjust the width or tightness of your fan fold. different fold widths produce different looks for the flowers.



Refolded and ready for pipe cleaners 

When you are happy with your fold widths fold each section in half end to end. Insert the pipe cleaner into the fold. Then fold it over the top so that it is longer than the width of your paper. Twist the two ends together (Confused? I have pictures 😀) You will want to cinch it pretty tight around your paper to make the last step a bit easier.


Folded over the top


Twisted

Next decide what shape you want for the petals. I have the options with a finished product pictured below. Cut both ends the same way so you don't get a funky looking flower. If you are working with younger children it's okay if you skip this step.


Triangle


Inverted Triangle


Circle


Inverted Circle


Fringe

Now that you have the pipe cleaners attached and the ends trimmed to the shape you want it's time to make the flower appear. Starting with one side of the flower, open the fan. Insert the thumb of your left hand under the top layer of tissue paper. Holding the bottom four layers with your left hand use your right hand to bring the top layer up as far as you can. You have to be firm but gentle at the same time. you are going to work all the way around the flower pulling the top layer up as far as you can. Repeat this for each layer of tissue paper. Voila! You have a flower! It was really cool to see how the flowers for the kids turned out. Some of them looked tie-dyed. I've made them before with patterned paper. They turned out pretty nice too.


Fan out one side


Insert your thumb between layers


Keep working around the flower


All done

Back in Action

Hello I am back!  I've changed the name of the blog and I've updated the background.  I've come a long way since 2012.  Yeah, it's really been that long!

Let's see quick update on my crazy (sorta interesting) life.  In February of 2013 I had a minor operation to remove some large Fibroids from my uterus.  In June of the same year our daughter, Miss E, moved in (age 5 at the time).  We became foster parents.  Boy, do you have to do a lot of training for that!  Personally, I think that the rigors foster and adopting parents are put through; all prospective parents should have to go through.  I think people would be so much more prepared to be parents if they did.  But that's a rant for another time.

In January of 2014 I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  I started treatment two weeks later and finished chemo therapy in May of 2014.  I had Surgery July 3rd 2014 and started radiation therapy in August.  I was finally declared cancer free in November 2014. That was a long year, because dealing with the cancer and parenting Miss E and continuing to try to get through life in general can be very stressful.

Miss E can be stressful without all the other stuff thrown in anyway.  She has Reactive Attachment Disorder, Anxiety, and ADHD.  Currently she is 9 years old with the intelligence of a 12 year old and the emotional acuity of a 3 year old.  So, yeah, you can imagine how life can be sometimes.  Things seem to be improving each day as she is continually learning to cope with big emotions and the fact that life sometimes just doesn't go according to plan.

2015 was pretty uneventful.  I think we were all just recovering from the craziness of 2014.  In February of 2016 we officially adopted our daughter (yea!!).  And we've been clicking (well, limping) along ever since.  I started taking an antidepressant in January (I think) of this year and since then my brain has been on fire with lots of ideas, big and small, about crafts, recipes, parenting and other stuff.  I've actually been able to accomplish a lot of my big ideas too!  Now I'm ready to share some of them with you.

So that's me caught up.