Boy Scraps

It seems like everyone's having a boy these days.  Another friend is having a boy in November.  Normally I wouldn't be getting around to making them a quilt until at least October, but since all of my baby boy fabrics are already pulled out it felt like the natural thing to start next.  In fact, I was able to make these blocks entirely out of my scraps.  Wahoo!

Churn Dashing

July do. Good Stitches....check!

A good tutorial for these guys is found here.

Using Scraps & Loving It!

What is it about using scraps that makes us feel so good?  I don't know about you, but it makes me feel like I've been so resourceful and that my scrap bin is truly worth the space.  I love scrappy blocks and this one was no exception.  It took me forever to get it all pieced together, but it's definitely my favorite block of the Skill Builder series so far:  Broken Arrow

Love & Logic

source

Our book club read Parenting with Love and Logic for the month of June.  Here's the little blurb about the book:

"This parenting book shows you how to raise self-confident, motivated children who are ready for the real world. Learn how to parent effectively while teaching your children responsibility and growing their character.

Establish healthy control through easy-to-implement steps without anger, threats, nagging, or power struggles.

Indexed for easy reference."

Of all the parenting books I've read this one probably falls closest to my parenting philosophy. I really loved this book and it gave me pause and really made me think about how I approach communicating with and disciplining my children.  The one thing I have to say though is that it takes quite a bit of effort and it takes some serious personal discipline to always respond to your children without any charged emotion.  I also think there are instances that I don't know that I agree that just natural consequences are enough.  One thing that I really loved though was learning to listen more and give options instead of unwittingly forcing my will on my children.  I value them learning how to make good decisions; it's just hard to always put it in practice.  I've noticed when I am more consistent in being calm and giving my son options that his melt downs are less frequent, so the book definitely has practical use.