I dread school starting tomorrow

School starts tomorrow for the Pirate. He's fairly unexcited but we met his teacher last night and some of his friends were there which perked him up a bit about it. I'm not overly concerned about the Pirate. I think he'll be ok once he's used to the schedule. I am completely worried about the Bug. The Bug, who is 3, is not starting school tomorrow, despite what he might tell you. He stayed home with dad last night while the Pirate and I went to the open house, and Mike reports that he was devastated. Heartbroken. Unable to breathe because he was crying so hard. I have no idea how we're going to get the Pirate out of the car at school without a huge scene. I have no idea how the Bug will possibly survive without his brother. I'm trying to think up some exciting activities, but sadly there isn't much that the Bug truely loves, besides the Pirate. I'm planning to make a big big deal about how he's the Big Kid at home now! Other than that, I'm stumped. The park won't be enough. I'm not sure McDonalds would do it. Suggestions, cheap ones, welcome.

Meanwhile, I'm still participating in the 21 Day Challenge. I have managed to miss two days of pictures, but I still did the outfit! Today's theme was "monochromatic." Since it's supposed to be 100 here today, I wanted to be cool, so I choose a loose skirt and a tank top (and flip flops, but I didn't put them on for the picture.) Today's picture courtesy of the Bug, age 3.

Tank top: Target
Skirt: Walmart
Flip flips: Sanuks

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Random Friday: Vacation Adventure and 21DC, Day 4

• Yesterday's Challenge was "color blocking." I pretty much do this all the time. 
• This is my only pair of shorts. I would have gone with a nice colored skirt for this challenge, except we took a mini-vacation to a kid's park and I wanted to be able to climb on the playgrounds with them.
• Mike took the only picture of me yesterday. It has now traveled cell phone to cell phone to email to blog. This is as good as it gets, quality wise!
• Clothing: Shorts: Target, Cami: Yard sale, Tshirt: Target, Sandals: Sanuks.
• More on the trip later, because it seriously rocked. For a 24 hour trip.
• We got home 3 hours ago and my children are seriously seriously cranky. I can not wait for bedtime.
• We bought school supplies yesterday on the trip, and it wasn't nearly as much money as I expected.
• I am slightly grumpy that I have to sharpen and writes his name on 48 pencils. But I assume you are all doing that too, right?
• I am VERY grumpy that they require two boxes of 8 crayons. REALLY?? A box of 8 is $1.97 at Target. A box of 24 is like a quarter.  I almost just bought two boxes of 24 and picked out the appropriate ones. 
• But decided to come home and check locally first, since we were out of our own school district.
• School started Wednesday. Bring it on.
• One more banner under works and then I'll have run out of banner orders. Do you need one? I'm going to feel adrift without one waiting on me.

What I'm Reading:

• Faithful Place by Tana French. Not very far into it, but I'm realizing I really dislike the Irish slang stuff.

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Today's to do list, and the 21DC, Day 3

Ok, I know I promised to do more than just post outfits. Y'all, I'm so swamped today I can't think past getting an outfit posted! We are taking a mini-vacation tomorrow, 36 hours of just my family, and I have to cross every single item off this list before we can leave.

• Finish the current banner and get it in the mail. 
• UNload the car from the last camping trip.
• Pack overnight clothes/toys/gear.
• Find extra bedding. (We are staying in a camping cabin, they provide the beds, you provide the bedding. Most our "extra" anything are in a storage unit.)
• Possibly go to the storage unit.
• REload the car.
• Do the most basic of housekeeping- garbage, litter box, dishes. More would be awesome.
• Log my work hours for the last two weeks.
• At least an hour of paying work.
• Prep my invoice to submit Friday.
• Daily life stuff, like, oh, feed the kids. Maybe talk them into putting on pants.

So, that's taking up my entire brain.

Today's wardrobe challenge prompt was "pattern mixing." Now, in theory, I like it. I love it on other people! But when I walked into my closet I discovered that I own about 6 striped shirts, one floral t-shirt, and one Hawaiian print button up. I have a lot of printed skirts, but none were in the same color family at all. Fortunately, we were allowed to use a patterned accessory. Whew.  This was the best I could do.

I've made a note to be on the lookout for more patterned shirts, specifically florals and maybe gingham. (I keep a list in my phone of things to look for at the thrift store. Am I the only one?)  Tomorrow is color blocking, and if my experience today is any indication it should be easy peasy.

Scarf: Thrifted
Shirt: Kohls, via consignment store in TN
Skirt: Maurices, thrifted
Shoes: Same black ballet flats from Pamida as yesterday


Onward!

21 Day Challenge, Day 2

Today prompt is "tuck in." I'm pretty sure I haven't tucked anything in in about 7 years.

I choose this striped shirt that actually has another blue band around the bottom and I think I like it more tucked in than out. It's been in my closet for at least 5 years and I think this is maybe the 5th time I've worn it. I bought it to wear back home when the Pirate was two. You can see it in this post. (Also, that stack of books? I've read two of them.)  (Also also, look how tiny the Pirate (previously the Monkey) is there!) I paired it with a plain black a-line skirt and black ballet flats and I feel a wee bit French.

In all honesty, I probably won't leave it tucked in while we are home. I am still nursing the Princess and it's really annoying to keep untucking and re-tucking.

The Pirate served as my photographer, once again. This is the type picture he usually takes.

Outfit details:
Striped shirt: Walmart
Black skirt: Thrifted
Shoes: Pamida
 



I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

On the first day of the 21 Day Challenge

(which was yesterday, but I'm just now getting this posted. See remainder of paragraph for explanation) I woke up tired and lazy on the first day of the challenge. I know, I said I wanted to join so as not to be a sloppy, lazy, stay-at-home mom.  But we camped this weekend, and my baby doesn't sleep, and I didn't get a morning shower and hey, here's another excuse!  So.

The prompt for the first day was to choose an item to remix 3 times in the challenge. For those of you not in the know on fashion blogging, this simply means to wear it in three different ways or outfits.  We were not allowed to choose jeans, but I wouldn't anyway. Instead I choose this straight denim skirt. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it has tiny dark pinstripes to give it a little interest. Today I went with an easy navy tshirt, which matched a lot better in my mind than in this picture.

And speaking of the picture, the Pirate will be serving as official 21 Day Challenge photographer, so there's no guarantee that you'll even be able to SEE my outfits in many of the pictures. This is one of his better compositions. (Hey, he's six and taking pictures with an iPhone, what do you expect?)

I don't plan to do a separate post for each days outfit, I'll probably just add them to the bottom of whatever else I write that day, but for the first day I thought I'd explain myself. Doing it at all feels a little weird, to be taking a daily picture of myself, especially when you consider my tiny wardrobe and my lack of real style, but I'm looking forward to participating.

Wardrobe details:
Skirt: Target
Shirt: Walmart
Bracelet: Life is Good
Shoes: Target (multi-strap flip flops, but the Pirate didn't manage to get them in the picture)

I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

The 21 Day Challenge

One of the biggest challenges to staying at home is to not look like a total schlump (yes, I made that up.) It would be so easy to just wear yoga pants every day and not to care, and frankly, if we still lived in the old house I probably would. In fact, I'd be in my pajamas when Mike got home from work. But now that my job is staying home, I find that I am rebelling against the stereotype of a stay-at-home-mom who wears sweats and her husband's old shirts*. In June a friend and I made a pact to not wear pants (only skirts and the occasional pair of capris) for the entire month and crazily enough it's now August and you'll find me in a skirt almost every day. Granted, a lot of them are super casual and worn with a (non-printed) t-shirt. So when Kayla over at Freckles in April posted her 21 Day Challenge I decided to join in.

Here's how it works (description taken from the intro post):

For 21 days I will post a daily outfit prompt. Each Saturday I'll post the list of prompts for the week so you have some time to prepare, then the day before I'll put up a more detailed post with inspiration pictures.

Then, get dressed, take a picture and upload it to the 21 Day Challenge Flickr group* and/or blog about it and submit your link here on my blog. Cell phone pictures in bathroom mirrors are perfectly acceptable here (but if you want to go all out and take pictures in natural light and cool locations I will applaud you wildly).

I think I can do that. I just need to find a mirror that doesn't require that I stand on the toilet or edge of the bathtub...

(And did I mention there are prizes?) 

*If you know me in person you know that this is SO not me. I Do. Not. Wear. sweats. You will never find me at the Walmarts in sweatpants and an old T-shirt. But I still don't want to be all sloppy and look like I don't care.




I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.