Hubby had a full week off this week, and I can’t help but feel a bit jealous of all the time he got to spend with the kids.  This week was the first Tuesday I have had school free in 2 years, so I did get to enjoy a little extra hanging out time!  I feel as though I’ve had more of those moments lately where I am reminded to enjoy the moment and truly be present.  I feel like sometimes we get so caught up with work and what’s going on in the digital world that we forget to just be in the moment.

I was supposed to test a new swim suit pattern this week, but I somehow managed to send the fabric to my old house and didn’t realize it until Friday night.  On Saturday, little man asked (again) for a shark tail snuggie.  Apparently they have been advertising these shark tail sleeping bags on TV and my son has been asking for one for three weeks.  We looked through my stash and found the perfect, ultra soft, gray minky.  He helped me put together the pattern (we used the free Shark Tail Blanket by Made for Mermaids) and cut the fabric.  While I sewed the pieces together, he was the official sweeper.  For anyone who has never worked with minky, it has a tendency to make a huge fuzzy mess any time it’s cut or pinned or moved.  I feel like it fuzzes if you just look at it funny!  He really did a fantastic job cleaning up!

The end result was fantastic!  We’re now on day 2 of “Mommy, my shark tail blanket is so amazing/soft/beautiful” and “Mommy, the shark is eating me!”  He was so in love that we decided to make mermaid tail snuggies for the girls using the free Mermaid Tail Blanket pattern by Made for Mermaids.  It was a hit with baby girl too!  Can’t wait to give my niece hers tomorrow!

I may have gone a little overboard on the length, though.  On hubby’s suggestion, we used the entire length of the fabric (2 yards) for the blanket rather than the specified 45″.  Oh well, guess they’ll be able to take them to college now…

The snuggies came just in time for some major cuddling as fevers set in on top of congestion, ear pain, and coughs yesterday afternoon.  It hurts my heart to see my little munchkins so miserable and know that there’s nothing I can really do about it.  It’s a good excuse to all curl up on the couch, watch some Harry Potter, play with Legos, and just be present.  I love snuggle time, and probably get less than we should.  I became increasingly aware of this every time I had to get off the couch to work (I was on call for work this weekend as well).  I am lucky that I am able to take call from home and not have to go into the office, but it still causes quite the commotion when I have to drop everything to take a patient call or look something up on the computer.

So this week, I’m going to try and be even more mindful to stay in the moment and leave work at work.  I’ll make sure to put the phone down and really enjoy each and every moment with my family.   This week’s challenge was to sew something with felt, which I obviously didn’t do, but next week’s challenge is to use a pattern that we own but haven’t made.  I have a few in mind for that…