Choosing Better Products

I would love to buy the healthiest of products 100% of the time.  However, like most people, I don’t have unlimited dollars at my disposal. Because of that, I prioritize my spending based on a few basic criteria.

A)  Consumed items are the highest on the list.  This includes the food we eat and the beverages we consume.  The goal is raw food… foods in their basic (intended) form that are then combined with other foods and flavours from other raw foods to create something wonderful and new.  

B)  Next are items that aren’t consumed but can very easily make their way into our blood streams.  We spend a bit more to buy toothpaste, dish soap, shampoo, dishwasher detergent, laundry soap, lotions, etc. that subject us to minimal SLS, Fluoride, Parabens, Scent, Colour, various random chemicals and (gasp!) SPF.  (Yes, that last one is worthy of a post all its own.)

For a couple years now, I’ve used the  Skin Deep site (from the Environmental Working Group) as a great resource.  You can search on the harmfulness of your own beauty products, but here is a list of things to avoid, by category.    With over 65,000 products in its database, you can check out a product’s Overall Score (rated 0-10, lower is better) and read what kind of health concern is associated with it.  As an example, I just checked out the lip balm I use.  It get’s an overall score of 2 (that’s a green light) and health concen “low”.  Pretty good.  (Whew!  Because I really like that stuff.)

C)  Everything else. 

Although the highest priority is given to the food we eat, we simply cannot afford to purchase only 100% organic, free range, home grown, pesticide free, local foods.  I’d like to, but I can’t. 

That’s why I find this list helpful.  This is based on American products, however I can’t help but think it’s a good place to start for those of us on this side of the border as well.  The US Environmental Working Group has tested produce and discovered that these products have the highest pesticide levels.  I’m not sure if it’s driven by the amount of pesticides/fungusides used on those crops, or if some of the product skins are more permeable than others.  Probably both, since none of these products are peeled to be eaten.  Either way, here they are; 

The Dirty Dozen:

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries (American)
6. Nectarines
7. Sweet Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Cherries
10. Kale/ Collard Greens
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes (not North American)

It would be great to have the latest figures for Canada, and for meat in particular.  I must get on that.  In the meantime, as we get ready to plant our garden (this week!), we will include as many of these as I can manage, that are already consumed regularly by our family.   And I’ve wanted a pair of apple trees for what seems like forever.  Maybe this will be the year to actually get around to planting them.   (I’ll try not to think too much about how, if my procrastinator-self had planted them when we moved into this house, we’d already be enjoying their deliciousness.) 

I recently came across another great resource for those of us wishing to make better decisions about the products we use.  The GoodGuide site covers more than just food and cosmetics, and rates items on the basis of health, environmental and societal factors.  They look at a company’s business ethics, philanthropy, and working conditions.  They go as far as looking at the global supply chain as part of their analysis to understand their resource management and environmental impact and give an overview of products.   I have only compared the two sites on a couple of products and their opinion of those products ranked in relative proximity to one another.  

Since I am someone who tends to challenge the status quo, I don’t really take anyone’s word for anything without doing a little figuring out on my own.  I am all about informed choice.  That’s why I’m thrilled to see these two sites available for people to review the information and form their own opinions.  It’s empowering to make good choices!   A good choice isn’t made on the basis of what people tell you to do.  It’s made by fact finding, soul searching and in some cases, a leap of faith.

And remember, we vote with our dollars. 

We do.  Where we spend our money makes a statement, like it or not.  We are called to be good stewards.  The cumulative impact of dollars going toward ethical and healthy products will ultimately benefit that company and allow them to do even more good, while at the same time taking dollars from companies that continually produce unhealthy foods and beverages for us to consume.   That’s stewardship. 

What would the EWG and GoodGuide say about the products in your home?  How is the ‘food department?’  The beauty department?  The cleaning department?  It’s not hard to change things up in favour of healthier options that are still affordable. 

Baby steps will get you there and you will feel and live better for it!

Curriculum Review: The Mystery of History (early input)

Aside from some unit studies we have done over the years, we didn’t really have a history ‘curriculum’ at all.   But the kids were expressing an interest in learning more, and frankly, I was interested in teaching more.  So, I started to explore some options for history. 

I had heard some great things about Story of the World and was *this close* to buying it, but a bunch of feedback on some biblical inaccuracies held me back.  After a couple of months of hesitation, I discovered and ultimately chose The Mystery of History.   I didn’t personally know anyone who had used either, so I was only going on the basis of what I had read.   Perhaps the comments on Story of the World were unfounded, but with a the lack of such comments for The Mystery of History, and my desire to remain as biblically accurate as possible, I knew the choice was clear. 

We are taking our sweet time working through this book.  We don’t do a lesson every week.  At some points we don’t do lessons for a few weeks, and then we do a few all at once.   But it fits well with my desire to meander through our studies based on our interests and for that it is perfect! 

What I bought: 

1. One BIG book (detachable, reproducible pages)
2. The Audio CDs  (basically an audio book of the lessons)
3. One CD of printables (maps and such)

Major Highlight:  The biggest ‘plus’ with this program that it begins with Creation and goes from there.  As a product of the traditional school system and a Christian, I grew up knowing both histories, but like many, compartmentalized them.  One history was one I learned at church, from my family and by reading my bible.  The other I learned at school.   I knew they coexisted in reality, but to see them laid out this way has been a real awakening for me.   It’s all interwoven in a way I’ve never seen before.  Isn’t Stonehenge way more interesting when you realize it was created about 80 years before Abraham?  

Here’s my run-down of positives thus far:

• Right off the bat, I REALLY appreciated being able to print the necessary pages for my kids and put them in binders.  That’s a cost saver that I really do appreciate, and it allows the kids the ability to mark up their own versions. 

Okay, so speaking of ‘marking up,’ when we first started, this is how Caleb highlighted the important parts.  His comment:  “They’re ALL important parts!”   So, like the good teacher-mama I am, I showed him how to really highlight (hence the blue lines among the green). 

• I love the audio CD option.  The author reads the text herself and speaks with some slang that seems to allow the kids to better relate to her (but thankfully not too much slang).  She has a nice, calm voice and speaks with interest and excitement.  The kids read along and highlight as they wish.
• What we have done so far has been riveting.  Seriously.  We all love it.  
• The lessons are long enough to incorporate what needs to be there, but short enough to maintain interest.  For the topics that really pique the kids’ curiosities, we take little detours to uncover more of what’s interesting to us.  (Example:  From Ancient Egypt, we watched a great PBS documentary on Netflix about The Great Sphynx.   The kids lit up with excitement about what they knew from their MOH studies, shouting out facts toward the television.  Cute.) 
• The material is suitable for all student ages.  The activities are broken into Younger, Middle School and Older students.  Rather than pick the age group, I read all the activities and pick the one that is most relevant  the student.  Or I may allow them to choose from 2 or 3 of them.  My 11-year-old has completed activities of all three levels, for example, based on what I think he’d like.  The idea is to maintain their interest while  learning, so we go with whatever achieves that goal. 

(Gabe and his Ziggurat:)

• There is a great pre-test before every set of 3 lessons.  We love the ability to do this as a written exercise or verbally, as it’s simply an idea of gauging how much they already know.   It’s very helpful as the teacher to know where to fill in the blanks.
• Similarly, there is a regular “What Did you Learn?” quiz to help us mama-teachers determine what parts were missed and might need a recap.  In these cases, it’s nice to develop something fun (tactile) to tie to the item missed.  It will help for recall. 
• I really appreciate that the author says right from the get-go that there is no need to memorize dates, except for a handful of really key historical markers.   This keeps it realistic, and focussed on what’s important, because really, isn’t it more about what happened (and in what context) than the exact year? 
• There are additional activities to add to the learning.  One is a time line (where we create little figures to stick on a board and track the chronology of things).  We have been creating our figures but haven’t put them up anywhere, mostly for lack of wall space.  (I’m working on a portable option.)  The other is a memory box of cards with a few hints about each lesson.  This will be a great tool for review and study of the key important dates and monumental points in history.  Although we divide up the timeline characters between the children (so we have one master timeline) the kids each have their own memory box of cards.  I expect that as we continue through the future levels of this curriculum, they can still use their box as a valuable reference. 
• The maps are great!  There’s nothing like building a geography lesson into history. 
• Of course, there is flexibility in all the materials.  Since I’m a rather eclectic homeschooler, I don’t like to follow too rigid a routine to educate my children.   We are going along at approximately one-third the pace of what’s suggested in the book, and I’m more than fine with that.  In fact, I prefer it. 

A flexible schedule provides the ability to ‘chase rabbits’ and have our learning take us down a path that, although off-schedule, allows us to enrich our learning with discoveries and experiences that will stick out in our minds long after the books are closed and back on the shelf. 

 It’s been a joy!

Here’s my run-down of negatives thus far:

• …*crickets chirping*…
• Nope, can’t come up with any yet.  

 Oh, what fun we’ve had with this one!  I’m excited to finish up the first quarter (probably in the late June).   I told you we were taking our sweet time.

This post has been linked to The Homeschool Curriculum Review Roundup.    Click on over to read more reviews from more moms on more wonderful curriculum options!

Curriculum Review: Math-U-See

 

I love when my homeschool curriculum catalogue arrives in the mail.  I get excited over flipping through the 150 pages, subject by subject, making notes with my highlighter about things I want to consider, or at least research a bit further.  I love it.  It makes me giddy. 

But the best input doesn’t come from the publisher.  It comes from hearing from people who have used it in the homeschooling of their own children.  So, I was happy to see Toni’s Curriculum Review Round-Up  over at The Happy Housewife this week.  

I hope my perspective and experience can be of help to someone shoveling through the enormous heap of options. 

For the first several years of teaching math, I had put together a cobbled mix of workbooks and word problems.  I knew that at some point when they were older, say, algebra level, we’d be best to purchase a program, but that was a few years away and we were doing just fine… at first. 

When I started to see the kids getting frustrated, and desperately wanting to avoid math altogether, I knew I needed to try something else.   I found the ‘something else’ bit quite overwhelming, as there are so many options out there.   But when I raised the question with some fellow homeschoolers at our kids’ drama class one day, Math-U-See received accolade after accolade.  I decided to give it a go.  

The program includes placement tests on its website and suggests where the child should begin.  However, since it was a decidedly different approach to math, I thought it would be best for my kids to go back one level and start there.  If they got it, they’d breeze through it (fine by me to skip questions and pages), but I didn’t want to potentially miss something important.  I wanted to lay the groundwork.  

That was over 2 years ago and we haven’t looked back!    Gabriel (11) is now on Epsilon (fractions) and Caleb (8) is on Gamma (multiplication). 

Overall, (FOR US) I would say a typical math lesson looks like this:

• Watch DVD (usually twice… it’s only a few minutes long)
• Test it out with manipulatives, discuss level of understanding and watch for lightbulbs (we usually use a white board for this part)
• Assign lesson pages (usually 2) and review pages (usually 2) – be there to help along the way
• End of lesson

Note:  For concepts that I believe will be more challenging, I will check work as they go along through their lesson pages.   Otherwise, I check the 2+2 pages at another time (usually minutes before the next math lesson while they’re working on something else) and depending on how well (or poorly) they mastered (or didn’t master) the concept, we will work through the incorrect questions, correcting them, before continuing on to the final lesson page and the final review page. 

Most days, we spend 1 hour on math.  Some days it’s 20 minutes.  Some days it’s 2 1/2 hours.  I try not to stifle it if they want to keep going.  And I try to move on if it’s a day we’re just not feelin’ it.  

I truly believe that kids will learn when they are open to being taught, and we all have days when we’re just. not. into it. 

Upsides

In addition to what I’ve already mentioned, two BIG ones come to mind:

1)  The sequential building of skill upon skill, bit by bit.  Each lesson contains 3 ’lesson’ pages and 3 review pages.  The review pages are especially critical in making sure they keep up the previous skills.  

2)  The manipulatives are wonderful – the program wouldn’t be effective without them.  They help children (and adults, frankly) to understand the WHY and HOW behind the what.  This is huge in my mind.  It’s wonderful to see the lightbulbs go off in my kids eyes when they master a new concept by seeing it, saying it and doing it with the blocks and fraction overlays. 

But of course, there are many other upsides:

• There is great flexibility in how we use the program.  In line with our entire approach to homeschooling, we do math on the days we feel like it, skip it on the days we don’t.  When we do math, we spend more time on some lessons than others (I will make up or pull additional questions from the website if needed), and conversely, we’ll skip many pages if there is no need to do them.  I don’t want my children to be bored with math, so there’s no point drilling into them something they already know.  This program works very well with my homeschooling philosophy. 
• The program is filled with tricks to make things easier.  I’m telling you, there are tricks in there that I WISH I had learned in school.  I can’t imagine how much less frustrated I would have been knowning some of these things.  And that says a lot since I was a pretty good student.  For all the kids that struggled and stressed and agonized… ?  Ugh… this would have likely saved them all of that. 
• Being from Nova Scotia, we were thrilled that MUS was available with a Canadian version, using kilometers and meters as appropriate. 
• There are lots of word problems, which I think is WONDERFUL!  The math requirements in real life don’t come to us in the form of neatly printed numerical questions.  They come to us in real life terms and force us to figure out what kind of math to use to answer the question.  Math U See is great in this regard. 
• I love that someone else is teaching the lesson.  Let’s face it, as a homeschooler, we get LOADS of face-time with our kids.    And the 5ish minute DVD segment allows me to do something else with another child while one is watching Steve.  We usually watch each lesson twice, so the student can be extra sure he gets it (and so I can pay attention at some point to). 
• Yes… Steve Demme.  He’s great!  The kids really enjoy him. 
• The skip counting songs are really helpful.  When my kids are stuck, I hear them singing the song for the appropriate multiple.
• There is a lot of Teacher material.  I choose not to read most of it, though I do use it as a reference when needed.  I’m sure that as we start to get into the higher levels, this material will become much more valuable.  (I did have to read up a bit on multiplying, dividing fractions for my 11 year old).
• There is also a test booklet which we tend to use later in the year.   I prefer to see how they recall a concept later, since I can see from their workbook marks how they are doing as they go.  Sometimes I’ll test quarterly, but mostly, I test when I think they are ready for one.   (Again with the flexibility.) 
• The program runs up to Grade 12 Calculus.  I don’t know if we’ll be homeschooling then, but if we are it’s nice to know we can continue with this amazing program if we coninute on in this (thus far remarkable) journey.
• I see they have added a Stewardship Course:  “A Christian approach to personal finance and consumer math.”   This sounds GOOD!!! 
• As an added bonus, the manipulatives have been great fun for my 4 year old who is eager to “do school” with her older brothers.  A cute workbook and use of the blocks makes her (and her mama!) very happy indeed!  

 The Downsides

• Though I appreciate keeping the costs low, it would be nice if the workbooks were a bit more exciting for the kids… especially in the lower levels.  Colour would be nice, but even a few cartoons would help.  It hasn’t been a complaint of the children, but I think it would be more fun for the littles. 
• The Candian version should eliminate the other imperial measures… like gallons and pints.  Our juice, ice cream, and gas are measured in litres, so this bit has been hard for my kids to visualize, though we’re working around that. 

And a story to share:

My Aunt homeschooled her children for a number of years before they entered the public school system.  They also used Math-U-See very successfully, and her son really struggled with the subsequent concepts in math after hitting highschool.  He came home one day and told his mom how he wished they used Math U See in the school system, becuase it just made so much more sense!  

Oh, and another:

There is a great study posted on their site about scores among Special Education students in Albuquerue.  Check this out! 

Both stories lead me to believe that MUS doesn’t have to be just for homeschoolers.  It can be for any student who needs a boost in this area. 

Heck, even MY math has been boosted because of it!  

This post has been linked to The Homeschool Curriculum Review Roundup.   (Thank you Toni for gathering so many of our experiences in one place!  It’s going to be fun reading what everyone has to say about various subjects, in preparation for next year!)

Lovely Links: Burying the Big Yellow Schoolbus

Most mornings, I get a 20 (ish) minute ‘recess’ from teaching.  This is a good example of what our sitting room looks like during the break.  Neat and tidy as you can see!   

I might use the time to switch loads of laundry, make bread, prep supper, or, like today, wrap up a blog post.  If I’m really lucky, I’ll jump in the shower.  

Although it’s messy and busy and sometimes difficult, homeschooling makes great big gobs of sense to me in my head. 

For a whole host of reasons, I believe homeschooling is the right thing for our family.  It’s obvious to me that my kids are thriving academically and socially.  I can see wonderful development in their characters and in our relationships.   I can see they (mostly) enjoy learning.  I believe entirely that this is where they are supposed to be. 

That is, I believe it ‘entirely’ except for that teensy tiny part of me that doesn’t.

There is this occasional little irritation in the back corner of my brain that just… nags at me.  It may be a seed planted from a less-than-supportive family member.  It may be the sideways glances from someone at the grocery store wondering what kind of crazy woman would have three kids shopping with her at 1:00 on a Friday.  Somtimes (mostly, actually) it comes from the exhaustion of dealing with children all day… by choice.  Really?  I did this by choice? 

Yes, there are days as I putter around at recess, when I spend the time wondering just what in the WORLD I am doing!   Sometimes it’s the internal commentary that screams “but what about me?“   (I guess that comes mostly on the days I don’t get to the shower.)  Other times it’s wondering if my kids might be missing out on something by not going to school.    

Whatever it is, this ‘what am I doing’ question comes to me every once in a while.    And when it does, panic slightly, wondering if they will be on track if/ when they head to that big brick building over there.   And every. time. this. happens, I pray and I’m immediately comforted by one thing or another.  Last week, it came in the form of some wonderful comments from random people (‘my, what bright children you have!’), but also from a wonderful blog post. 

I’ve been getting to know Sarah via her blog, Small World.  (She has given me a new hope with our creative writing difficulties which I will be writing about in a future post).   On a recent morning, I was delighted to see Sarah had written on another of my very favourite homeschooling blogs, Simple Homeschool (Tsh of Simple Living Media also has Simple Mom, Simple Organic, etc… so check them out!)  Anyhow, I’ve been thinking about Sarah’s words of encouragement and wanted to share them with you for the homeschoolers out there who may have missed her original post. 

 Head on over here to see what I’m talking about.  

And thank you, Sarah.

Living with Intention

Have you seen this yet?  Oh. my. GOODNESS.  It makes me smile and cry at the same time. 

On the smiley side, it makes me grateful to be homeschooling,

    to be choosing more time with my kids,

         to be looking at things a bit differently,

                 to be thankful for the many gifts in my life. 

On the tearful side, it makes me hungry.

    Hungry to do more by doing less,

          to slow down,

                  to seek the gratitude not just in the obvious gifts,

                             but also in mundane.  

To live intentionally, and savour

every

little

bit 

of this amazing gift of life,

                                                                       as fleeting as it is.  

The best gift is yet to come.

 

Beauty drips from Ann Voskamp’s lips.  You can hear more of what she has to say on her blog.

Lovely Link: Homemade Art Supplies

I find exceptional joy in making things.  I think it’s beautiful to use your own two hands for the betterment of something.  I love to create, build, paint, write, bake, cook, even clean from time to time  (ha!).  

Yes, I am all for making as many things as possible within the my daily allotment of time.  Making your own _________________ (insert item here:  bread, art, clothing, furniture, art supplies, etc.) can be rewarding, educational, cost-effective, healthier, better for the environment, the list goes on.  There are lots of plusses. 

Aside from varying interest levels, the only real downside is time.  We all get 24 hours each day, and choose to spend that time doing a smattering of different things.  Whether or not homemade ________ ends up on our to do list, you have to admit that it’s cool to know that you can make your own homemade art supplies.  

I came across this post this morning and wondered whether or not I’d ever make any of them.  I’m intrigued by several, but really, only time will tell.  But since I get a lot of looky-loos on this site, perhaps one of you will try it out.  I just had to pass it along. 

Thank you to Tanya at The Homeschool Classroom for keeping such a great manilla folder over the past decade!

Starting Over

I so enjoy being a Company Girl over at Home Sanctuary.  Rachel Anne gives us girls “small things” to do each day and it is really very effective in motivating me to find time to squeeze in one little thing five days a week.  As an added bonus, we award ourselves points during the month based on what we accomplish, and have a chance to win a prize.  I won a prize back in 2009!  What fun that was! 

Most things take just a few minutes, but they are things that make me feel a tiny bit better about the condition of my home.  Case in point:  Last week, I used Q-tips to clean the gunk in the rubber/ magnetic strip around the fridge door.  It needed to be done and took me only two minutes.  Thank you Rachel Anne. 

Friday’s ‘small thing’ was a bit bigger in nature.   It was big enough that we had all weekend to tackle it.  It was ‘starting something over.’   I had to think of something that wasn’t really working well, and start it over again. 

I decided to try a new approach to our ‘non-schedule’ for homeschooling.  I starting plotting out ideas on paper and came up with something that incorporates the main subjects, allows a spot for extra credit as I choose spontaneously, incorporates group time and independent time (language arts and math), and gives me a spot to write the specifics for the week, and mark it for the day it was done.  Then I opened up Excel and messed around with a new plan.  (OOOHHH…  I love making charts!)

Okay, so I haven’t filled it in yet (that will happen this am with my coffee) but… isn’t it purdy? 

We’re giving it a go this week.  Next week, we’ll decide if it’s something we’ll keep, tweak or toss. 

Here’s hoping.  

Here’s to starting something over.  

(And here’s to 50 points!  Woohoo!)

Word Hunger/ World Hunger

I so appreciate a robust vocabulary.  One of the benefits of homeschooling my ability to hand pick literature that will assist in the development of my children’s vocabulary.   In my opinion, there is little point in reading things to potentially cause its deterioration.  You can read more of my thoughts on that here. 

I just found a great link on the Pioneer Woman site, provided in the homeschooling section.  It’s called FreeRice and it’s a little(big) vocabularly quiz site that donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Program for each word you define correctly from a multiple choice selection.   (Apparently there are other quizzes too – like geography, but I have yet to play those ones.)  The site doesn’t require any signup or registration.  You just take the link and start playing!   

I fear it does have some addictive qualities, but the more you play, the more people you feed!  How great is that?  

Check it out and do your part.  Get your kids to play.  See who can feed the most people.  Is there any better prize than fighting world hunger?

Edie

I wasn’t going to say anything about this issue at all, but I can’t get it out of my head.  It’s on my heart in a BIG way and when I read today’s request for a link up, I knew I had to share a few words, as inadequate as they may be.  

On Boxing Day, I got an email from my friend, Jen, asking if I’d heard the news about Edie.   Jen and I share a lot of similarities, and one of them is our love of a good blog.  Jen knew that Edie was my very favourite blogger and wanted to know if I’d heard.   Earlier that morning, I had seen that Edie had posted a prayer from the Lutheran Prayer Book until she could find the words to discuss her loss.  Edie was intentionally vague about it, and so at that time, I didn’t dig any further to see what had happened.  

But when Jen’s email later that morning told me that she lost her home and everything in it to a massive fire (and that everyone made it out), I broke into tears.  I was tearful for the rest of the day, and for a couple days afterward.   It was just so…  tragic.  I could not stop thinking about this woman I had come to care for.  I ached for her pain.  For her loss.  For her disbelief.  For all of it.   

On one hand it’s odd to feel so much grief for someone whom you’ve never met.  But on the other hand, I think it’s a remarkably beautiful thing.    God puts certain people in our paths according to his divine plan.  Edie is my sister in Christ.  She’s a true encouragment.  She’s a Proverbs 31 type of woman, virtuous and lovely yet the first to say she’s a sinner.  She’s touched me in a way I’m not sure she’ll ever comprehend.  Aside from a few comments and emails back and forth, I’ve not had any ‘real’ contact with her.  But ever since I read her blog for the first time (late 2008?), I knew there was something remarkable about that woman.    I know that is probably offputting for her to hear, but she is remarkable.  Beautifully and wonderfully made.

So much of what she says speaks to my heart.  I really enjoy following her life as an educator to her children and seeing the similarities and differences with my own homeschooling journey.  I like to read about the girls’ recitations (Jabberwocky was so great!).  I really take delight in stories of her family, but especially the raw, completely from-the-heart posts about her faith.  Her humility is infectious.   Her words stream together like poetry.  It’s beauty.

But the one post that really left a long lasting imprint on my heart is “Stitched in blue and broken for you…”.  I read it and re-read it more than once.  I commented about it.  I emailed about it.  It’s just so beautiful!   And it is indicative of the type of woman Edie is.  Loving, humble, honest, self-less, broken.  I love her.  Truly. 

Edie, it is my prayer (and the prayer of countless others) that you

maintain your focus when it all seems so blurry,

stay unshakable when you’ve been OH so shaken,

keep your eyes upward when you just want to shut them tight,

and march onward in love and humility. 

Draw nearer, dear child. 

May your birthday see you gathering up your loved ones and enjoying your togetherness, and the gift you know it is. 

xo

L♥vely Link: Knock-Off Wood

I own a tool belt.  The power saws in this house belong to me.   Tools are frequently the gift of choice from my husband and my builder dad. 

Yeah.  It’s how I roll. 

When I finish sorting and purging in my basement (one day… one day), I will have a dedicated workshop section where I can putter and spew sawdust and create and learn to improve.  I’m not great at it, but I SOOOOOO enjoy it.  

This is why I love Ana, creator of Knock-Off Wood. 

She is a SAHM in Alaska.  She is like me when it comes to loving this stuff, only she is exponentially better with her tools than I.  But Knock-Off Wood isn’t just a clever name.  She sees a lovely piece of furniture and designs plans to replicate it.  And if you like projects like this and enjoy spending $200 on a piece of furniture instead of oh, say… $2200, she’s the girl for you!     Best part?  Her plans are FREE!  She wants to encourage people to do things on their own.  (Love that!)  The only request is that you send her pics of your completed projects.  

I look at her site and want to build it all right away.  But funds and time are scarce these days so for now I will just hover over at Knock-Off Wood and make mental notes of the dozens of things I am going to build.   I do plan to hope to tackle three things this year:  

First up, an armoire for our tv.  I can’t stand looking at it!    It’s slightly too big for the other armoires we have in the house, so I can’t wait to build one and just close the doors on it! 

Next, a recycling cabinet for some found space in my kitchen.  (We’re closing up one of our back doors to allow for some storage in this old house with no closets!) 

Then, a window seat/ storage bench in my bedroom.  We have a perfect little alcove for it.  

At some point, I want to add a wall of shelving and window seat on my landing.

And yeah, the same thing in my living room.

And a platform/ storage bed for us. 

And maybe a daybed for my daughter. 

And perhaps a new vanity for my powder room.

See what I mean?  It doesn’t stop.   I really could keep going… 

For those of you who are feeling inspired, or even if you are not inspired but can appreciate some nice furniture eyecandy, here is a very small selection of the lovely projects:

I love this hutch. 

 And this armoire. 

And this bench designed by Ana.  (It even fits a laptop, which I love!  Hmmm… perhaps I should make this as a coffee table in my sitting room…)

Or this one, that costs about 15 bucks and about an hour of time!   Even if it took twice as long and cost twice as much due to all the bad cuts, a $30, 2 hour investment would be a great project for testing the waters… 

What about a Bookcase? 

 Or a banked bookcase?  They look so good two or three in a row. 

 

Or a small bookshelf? 

 

A playhouse loft bed?  Are you kidding me?  What kid wouldn’t love THAT?   

And this is just a fraction of the pieces I love. 

Her site also includes all kinds of tips on using mdf versus ply, what kind of nails, the actual measurements of lumber (what genius decided a 2×4 shouldn’t be 2×4?), finishes, etc. 

As a huge plus, she also includes a cut list and most (all?) times a picture of the cut layout so you know exactly how to get the most out of your 4×8 sheet. 

      …I know.   I’m gushing, right?  This stuff just makes me drool. 

Keep your eyes open for Ana.  I’m sure that at some point soon you’ll be seeing her in bookstores and in all likelihood on tv too.  

I’ll let you know when I complete my first project. 

In the meantime, I will continue to drool.