My sister-in-law made these bags for the girls a couple years back, as gifts. They are featured in Amanda Soule’s book Handmade Home. This year was the first year my toddler girl was able to really use hers. And she was thrilled about doing so, while collecting shells on the beach.
If you can sew, have the book Handmade Home, and are headed out anywhere in nature to collect some treasures, I suggest making these bags. They are one of our favorite things for the beach.
It pains me not to recycle. Especially on vacation when we are the most wasteful, buying things that come in convenient containers and beverages that come in cans and bottles.
Every year we come to Rosemary Beach I stack up our recycling hoping to find something to do with it other than putting in the trash. But as it piled up and my efforts to find recycling failed, it went into the trash.
This year I must have found the right local person to ask, or perhaps the the system is new. But the random guy stopping by the bike rental shop to pump up his tires told me there IS a place to recycle here, other than the closest county drop center – which is 19 miles away!
I just might have been the happiest gal at the beach to find out in the back depths of the community, where the housekeepers take all the linens to be washed, there is a secret recycling point set up by the county – which is not on the county’s website or in any of the information books from the three different places we have rented here.
This photo is my wonderful husband, on MY bike (a vintage ride I bought an estate sale), with our recycling loaded in my toddler’s bike trailer, headed off to find the service quarters where they hide the recycling.
I feel so much better about the world now, in a funny sort or small way where at least I’m doing my tiny part to recyle.
And I feel so loved, that my husband is willing to do this for me and not think I’m down right nuts.
SO – does anyone else seek out ways to recycle while on vacation? Because I really hope I’m not the only one.
During what always is a frenzy of packing before we go on a trip, it came into my head that my toddler girl needed a mama made beach skirt. She’s the perfect age for these simple Lazy Days skirts, because they are are easy for toddlers to manage at potty time.
They are also perfect for slipping on over swim suits and nice because they dry quickly when hung under an umbrella on the beach, blowing in wind.
So among the mounds of laundry being washed, packed and put away, I made a point to get out my sewing machine and get sewing. To make it her size, I shortened the length to 12 inches and cut off 8 inches from the width of the Lazy Days skirt pattern.
My little girl was so excited! She calls it her “cute skirt.” She wore it on the beach the first evening we arrived, when all the girls made a beeline to the ocean the moment the bags were out of the car.
This is my toddler’s third trip to the beach, but it was so sweet to see her act like it was her first time in the sand. Maybe it was the mama made beach skirt.
There is nothing like seeing my babies on the beach. Even though she’s not really a baby anymore. I just love it!
We just made a 500 mile trip to the beach and along the way, I realized I’ve gotten pretty good at road tripping with children. As I was thinking about doing a post on tips for road tripping with children, I was reminded I already had!
Jennifer over at Family Friendly Knoxville wrote a great post sharing her tips for taking summer road trips, including some travel tips I shared in a post that ran at my previous blog, which is now reserved for just for documenting my family.
Here is updated list of things that work for us, adapted from my original post after our Spring Break trip to Rosemary Beach in 2011, including more ideas that work for us as our children get older.
Happy travels! I hope this helps your journey, and your drive to get in the car and just go for it. In the end there is not a trip we wish we didn’t take. Only more I wish we did.
A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.
If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.
Taking a final run through the rooms upstairs in our house, before the space gets remolded and improved. The space feels like a tree house, with lots of great light and old house bones. Starting Monday the space will get restored so we can actually live in these rooms. We are all just as thrilled about this as my middle girl looks in this photo.
A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.
Yesterday I decided I must finally get that baby gift delivered, that had been siting unwrapped by my backdoor far too long. I don’t keep gift wrapping supplies on hand and while I keep meaning to sew a stash of fabric bags, it’s still on my want-to-do list.
The mom, who is due any moment now, doesn’t know if she is having a boy or a girl. Inside the fabric bag is a set of cloth wipes (because she uses cloth diapers) and an amber teething necklace (because I know her three-year-old daughter is not going to want to give hers up). Both were purchased from Cutie Tooties, who is a Simply Natural Mom sponsor.
Wanting a natural gift bag to go with the theme of the gift, I reused a muslin bag that a dress came in previously ordered from Etsy. The ribbon was new and in my stash of sewing supplies.
I love when things come together like this, in a very short time. Just as I needed to head out the door with three kids in tow, to piano lessons, to pick up raw milk, mail a Father’s Day present, pick up a box to store clothes in from our upstairs during renovations – you see my point. Things must be simple for me or they just don’t happen.
And this bag was perfect. Natural and pretty. Just what a sweet baby needs.
For more ideas on homemade wrapping, I have a Pinterest board labeled Homemade Wrapping ideas. There you’ll find where I used an old curtain as wrapping paper. And lots of there people’s ideas like these, using brown paper, yarn, stamps, photos, fabrics and more. Check it out. Be inspired. You won’t ever regret giving a gift like this.
We are enjoying many moments of summer around here. In our backyard there is always a gaggle of girls, and almost everywhere we go.
My oldest daughter and I were indoctrinated into the world of Dollywood. We went with friends, just us two moms and these two girls. It was a first for everything that day for my girl. Her first visit to an amusement park, to play Skee Ball, eat Mini Melts, go on a water ride – the whole nine yards. Doing this as shared one-on-one mother daughter time was the way to do Dollywood. I’m not sure who had more fun, the moms or the daughters!
It was a good time with the silly, fun loving Lawerence Girls, at a Smokies baseball game. Six girls under age seven most definitely counts as gaggle of girls.
My oldest daughter has been working really hard at riding her bike with no training wheels, hoping to get a bigger bike soon. With all that practice comes bandaids.
Next, another girl had to try it with no training wheels, like her big sister. And of course, there was one more running after her – wearing her favorite purple star snow boots that we haven’t been able to retire from winter.
She may not ride a bike yet, but the littlest girl proves she’s not too little to climb trees. Even at dusk in her pajamas. Even after her friend (another girl) went inside for bedtime.
Then there was the curly headed girl who wanted straight hair. So we did that for fun one evening. Pause, wow, where did my middle girl go?
She wanted to show our neighbor her straight hair. There is always something interesting over there to see, and always unexpected. Plus there are two more girl neighbors who usually come out to play, into the moonlight.
Our sassy cat, Vera, usually follows us.
It’s a gaggle of girls, no matter how you see it.
My oldest daughter recently found my old Sark books buried in the basement. I forgot how much I loved Sark many years ago. Her books embrace a simple and creative life, in clever and colorful ways. Now my seven-year old is reading Inspiration Sandwich, or at least enjoying it’s playfulness in words.
When a friend of mine posted this photo with phrases titled How To Really Love a Child, by Sark, I had to do more than share it on Facebook. I want to remember this one. So I’m posting it here. I hope you enjoy it as well.
For months I have known it was coming. When I’d have to move all the stuff I’ve been storing upstairs in our mostly unused two bedrooms and three closets, to the basement while the upstairs gets completely gutted down to the studs. If you are new to this space, here’s the backstory regarding our renovations and us living in a 90-year-old historic house.
I’m really excited. Really really excited. But getting ready for it has been A LOT of work!
The girls are thrilled to be getting new bedrooms upstairs. With updated features like central heat and air, insulation, new lighting, and a bathroom they can both fit into at the same time – which will entail popping the roof and adding a new dormer to the house!
So we’ve been running our tails off, up and down two flights of stairs, moving furniture after bedtime in the dark, and finding new homes for all the things I save. Some stuff has been purged. But I have to say, I like being the mom who has all sorts of who knows what to pull out when someone wants to create an Enchanted Fairyland. You just never know when those old fabrics from that estate sale down the street will come in handy. And soon enough, they usually all do in some fashion.
Since fall, the girls used the hall closet upstairs as a play fort space with their dolls. And all that had to be relocated, as well as my sewing room, a guest room and a closet full of clothes that I have not worn (and was ironically locked shut) since before I started birthing babies. Seeing it contained my wedding dress, prom dresses, and outdated fun little dresses that will soon make fabulous dress up outfits and Halloween costumes for the girls – I just CAN’T get rid of them now.
This spring, I started this Basement clean out project, but never got to finish it all. The ping pong table where years of children’s art work and baby announcements lived, finally got cleaned off and stowed away.
After we scrubbed the old basement brick walls, I took old curtains and fabrics to make a doll area for the big girls (SEE sometimes it pays to be a save things).
Below is the final outcome. After they spent two full afternoons running all the stuff downstairs and organizing it, starting from a heap of mess on the floor, ALL BY THEMSELVES. I continue to be shocked that every time they play down there, they completely clean it all back up again – setting it back up the way they see as organized. I am happy to stay out of this and thrilled that I am not the person picking up teeny tiny birthday candles that belong to a doll named Molly. Having a friend over that loves “to organize” helped set the motivational mood for creating this space.
We’ll be hiding out here this summer, and in the backyard, as the dust takes over upstairs. The real challenge will come mid July, when our kitchen gets demoed too – YIKES. It almost feels like we are moving out of our house, and into our basement where we’ll be doing lots of arts and crafts in this space. And sewing. Hopefully lots of sewing…in this this space. 
Late Monday night I finished setting up my new sewing space, and I think we are almost ready. Demo day is June 18 for the upstairs! Six days to go!
This summer we will be spending a lot of time at home together. My girls are not signed up for any camps and jokingly refer to this a Camp Mama, as we embark on a classic camp free summer with no TV.
I’m all for my children experiencing some good old classic summer boredom – the kind that makes them beg to go back to school. However, a few weeks back it became clear that I was going to have to step it up this summer to keep my stubbornly independent two-year-old engaged, and prevent toddler behavior that results from boredom and frustration.
In preparation for this summer, I cleaned out the play kitchen that lives in our dining room and I am setting up shelves of Montessori lessons.
Throughout the summer I’ll be posting about the Montessori lessons we’ll be doing at home, that are being added to our shelves each week. We will be filling the shelves and rotating out the lessons as we go along, when we need a new activity, and when the girls seem responsive to being introduced a new lesson.
Through the years I have gone back and forth on where I stand about setting up Montessori lessons at home. My older girls have attended Montessori school five days a week since they were two. During the school year I feel like school is enough. So I set up our home to reflect basic Montessori principals that help us flow through our day smoothly, not focusing on a educational outcome.
However my youngest daughter is two-and-a-half now, and the work of doing lessons truly is a lot of fun for her. Having things set up for her to go about her day independently, with a strong sense order, helps keep her a happy and peaceful two-year-old.
I have learned a lot about Montessori education by experiencing it as a parent the last five years. I am still inspired by every conversation I have with my daughters’ teachers. And I feel fortunate I can rely on them to do the serious teaching, like reading and math. While I focus on the fun things at home.
In doing this approach of having Montessori lessons on our shelves at home, it helps immensely that all my girls attend Montessori school. My toddler did so for the last year, since before she was two. Therefore even she understands the culture of finding a lesson on a shelf, understanding the right way to choose it, handle it, and return it to the shelf when she is finished. She doesn’t always do so perfectly, but she understands the process. And her sisters are quick to reinforce it!
Naturally, they all transfer the familiarity of the process when presented it at home.
Some of the lessons on our summer shelves will be created with my older girls in mind as well, in some respect or another, from “showing” my toddler the lessons to helping her “restore” the lessons.
Below are the lessons I put on the shelves last week. Most of them are easy to assemble. They fall in the realm of practice life, art and sensorial.
Bead stringing: My toddler’s teacher tipped me off that my daughter loves bead stringing. And, she suggested I put the beads in something that was challenging to open. So that is exactly what I did. To create the lesson I used wooden beads leftover from necklace kits given to my older girls. My toddler prefers bead string with pipe cleaners. But I included some regular necklace string in the chest as well, incase my older girls wanted to join her – which they have done. When my toddler finished her beadwork I was pleased to see she returned the chest to our lesson shelves without being asked or reminded to do so.
Paper cutting: This cutting lesson is created by drawing lines on strips of paper, for cutting. There are also small envelopes, which I cut and taped together, for my two-year-old to put her finished bits of paper inside. She LOVES this. On the last day of school her teacher handed me about 20 envelopes full of bits of paper from the last two months of school. For the primary 3-6 age group, the lines get more intricate. And yes, I leave the scissors out all the time, available for cutting. So far in our five years of leaving scissors out for children to use when they choose, we have never had an incident of improper use – such as hair cutting. Thankfully. 
Mushroom misting: I saw this Back to the Roots Mushroom kit at our local Three River’s Market food co-op. And then when I saw the concept being shared with children at How We Montessori, I added it to our summer shelves. Inside the box was an online coupon code – GiftofGrowing20 – that will get you 20 percent off and free shipping if you order here. Plus, post a picture on their Facebook site of your growing mushrooms and they will send a free kit to your school. All my girls have loved misting, and watching these mushrooms grow!
Cotton ball sorting of different sizes: This lessons uses three different sizes of glass bowls and a set of tongs ordered from Montessori Services, and one bag of different sized pom-poms from the dollar isle at Target. She puts the smallest balls in the small bowl, the medium sized balls in medium bowl and the large balls in the large bowl. It teaches size differentiation and fine motor skills by using the tongs. This was challenging work for her. She enjoyed it and has chosen it often since it was shown to her.
Spooning beans: Spooning and scooping is always a favorite for pre-school age children. This is just one way to offer it, using dried garbanzo beans.
Water pouring and serving: Here, the glass bottle is filled with water and the expresso cups are available for pouring and serving water. 
Feather dusting: With our upcoming renovations where I expect dust to be everywhere, I’m providing the option to dust at a moment’s notice. It’s already a favorite by all the girls! 
Plant watering: My oldest daughter was the first to spot this lesson, then water the plant with the provided water. She even took it a step farther and created her own sign that said, “I don’t need water.” And returned it to the plant. Now they check this all the time! And we need houseplants that drink more water.
To stay informed and read about what we are adding to our lesson shelves each week, be sure to subscribe to Simply Natural Mom – by Facebook, Twitter, email or RSS feed. Also check out my Montessori Pinterest board.