We also made "thankful" leaves. Here is where I have to thank my dear friends for thinking of me and bringing the leftover craft pieces from an event to my house (so thank you, A!). These leaves are super cool. They have a wax like covering that, when scraped off, have rainbow colors under it. Originally, I was just going to have the kids do designs, but then I changed it up and decided to combine another activity I had planned with them. I was going to make a "thankful" tree with handprints. To save time, I just used the leaves. The kids were great. The things they came up with were, well, interesting. I didn't want repeats, so they couldn't use what the other had done. They decided they were thankful for their family, friends, dog, country, world, and the sun (because without the sun, there would be no life...guess someone is paying attention in science). One of the nicest parts of this was that Sunshine got to practice writing and sounding out words. Instead of a tree, we are hanging them from the dining room chandelier, sort of like a Thanksgiving centerpiece.
Even during all the craziness here, we've made time to do fun little crafts. I saw the cool idea of melted crayons on a pumpkin on Pinterest. So, I got my pumpkin all ready and then, I stood there, for over an hour, with a hair dryer, and still, some crayons never melted. Luckily, with Husband's job, he has a heat gun. After getting that out, the pumpkin was AWESOME in under 10 minutes. I do not suggest doing this if you don't have a heat gun, unless you have hours to kill. Will definitely do this again next year, minus the time with the hair dryer! Another thing I found on Pinterest was this door sign. I didn't want mine to be as long, so I changed it up a little. The kids got to pick the kind of faces they wanted on their hands. Yes, I know this is the second time I'm posting this, but this time I added a link with it. This time of year would not be complete without pumpkin carving and painting. This year there were pumpkins everywhere! We had more pumpkins this year than we have ever had in the past, and it was great! Both kids got to tell Daddy exactly how their wanted their jack-o-lantern faces to look. They turned out super cute! Sunshine's is smiling, of course. Monster's looks mean. I got to do the surprised one. While Husband was working with the carving, the kids painted pumpkins. I painted our annual taped off "R" pumpkin because, by the time we got to that one, the kids were pretty much done. Sunshine also made us some very nice paper jack-o-lanterns at a MOMS Club event we attended. Every year since Husband and I have been carving pumpkins, we have tried roasting pumpkin seeds. Last year was the closest we came to success. Still, even then, Sunshine was really the only one who would eat them (which is odd since she eats nothing!) This year, I found yet another recipe for pumpkin seeds. After all our failure, what's one more recipe to try? This recipe has you soak the seeds in salt water. This one was a success!!! I did change up the recipe though because we have had issues with our seeds burning. By changing it up, my way took a LOT longer than the recipe says. Completely worth the time though! I soaked the seeds in salt water like the recipe said. After that, I let the seeds air dry, well, almost completely dry at least. Then, I baked them at 200 degrees for several hours. My first batch was faster than my second because I tested it out with only about 1/4 of the seeds. I'm glad I did test though. I didn't add the salt to the top like in the recipe. I did this because one complaint last year was that they were too salty. So, I left off the additional salt. I'm so glad I did because they were plenty salty from just being soaked in salt water! I will definitely be doing this one again next year! Immediately after Halloween was over, I started working on Thanksgiving. I feel bad for Thanksgiving because I need to rush since it's so close to Halloween and Christmas. I want to cram as much Thanksgiving stuff in as I can! First things my kids did was make Thanksgiving cards (and Veteran's Day and winter holiday, but most were Thanksgiving) for veterans and active soldiers. I forgot to take pictures of them, but my kids did a great job! And now, Monster knows how to spell country due to writing, "Thank you for serving our country" over and over. We also made "thankful" leaves. Here is where I have to thank my dear friends for thinking of me and bringing the leftover craft pieces from an event to my house (so thank you, A!). These leaves are super cool. They have a wax like covering that, when scraped off, have rainbow colors under it. Originally, I was just going to have the kids do designs, but then I changed it up and decided to combine another activity I had planned with them. I was going to make a "thankful" tree with handprints. To save time, I just used the leaves. The kids were great. The things they came up with were, well, interesting. I didn't want repeats, so they couldn't use what the other had done. They decided they were thankful for their family, friends, dog, country, world, and the sun (because without the sun, there would be no life...guess someone is paying attention in science). One of the nicest parts of this was that Sunshine got to practice writing and sounding out words. Instead of a tree, we are hanging them from the dining room chandelier, sort of like a Thanksgiving centerpiece. No autumn is complete without collecting beautiful leaves and no Thanksgiving is complete without turkeys. We combined the two this year. The house at the corner of the street where we pick Monster up from school has the most vibrant red leaves. Sunshine gathered a whole bouquet of them. We then made turkeys and used those wonderful leaves as feathers. Unfortunately, the picture really doesn't do the leaves justice. Speaking of turkeys...Little Miss Sunshine had a project due for school. She had to "disguise" her turkey so he could make it through Thanksgiving. The kids could disguise the turkey anyway they wanted. Sunshine combined the interests of her family. First, the turkey had to be sparkly with a crown, of course. But her turkey also had to have hiking boots since Sunshine's family loves to hike in the fall. It also had to be playing UNO, which is one of Sunshine's favorite games. She did almost the whole thing on her own. I only cut out UNO cards and the turkey and drew the hiking boots. She colored and glued and drew everything. It turned out super cute! The UNO cards fold down and on the other side, she glued colored paper and wrote numbers. (This is a reminder for everyone else in her class....turkeys are due Friday!) And because nothing in this house is complete without a science lesson...... Sunshine's friend's birthday is coming up. He is very into the solar system right now. So, we did a mini lesson in which Sunshine made her friend a model of the solar system. She's very excited about it, so don't tell ;) There were probably more things in there that we did, but when I'm this far behind on posting, I can't be expected to remember it all!
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I know I've said it before, but autumn is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love everything about it. It's also our busiest time of the year. For some reason, I feel like this particular autumn has been our busiest, and maybe it has since our only "free" day happens to be Fridays. We are booked with activities until December. To add to it, I've been advocating for the school levy coming up. I feel like everything I've been posting revolves around this levy, so sorry everyone who doesn't live here (and if you do live here, make sure you vote YES for the school levy!).
Even with all the craziness, we've been having a great time! We've spent every weekend hiking. The past two weekends, we just beat the rain. Well, last weekend we actually ended up eating lunch in the rain, but it held off through the hike! All of our new hiking boots have been put to great use! Autumn wouldn't be autumn without many, many fall activities. We've hit several, but the best was this past weekend when we went on our annual trip to Pinecrest Farms. This was either our 5th or 6th year going with friends. In all those years, this was by far the nicest weather we've had! It was a sunny 75! We went on a hay ride, picked pumpkins, went through the hay maze and played in the soybean box! Aside from all the outdoor stuff we've been doing, I've been doing a few crafts. I think our Halloween door hanging turned out pretty cute. My list of things I want to get done this fall is growing and my time is getting shorter. I'm just hoping I can make it to the end of October without completely burning out! Crock Pot Balsamic Chicken This was a complete fail. I happen to make this on a night where I had a migraine. Husband had to actually feed everyone because I was down for the count. Next day, he said no one ate it. He said it was horrible, yet he saved me the leftovers. I'm brave, so I tried the leftovers, Chicken was not bad. Not fantastic, but it would be something that if I had to, I'd eat again. The peppers were not good. Can't pinpoint it, but they just weren't good. That being said, if I really wanted the chicken again, I probably could do the same thing to the chicken in the oven. Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew For this recipe, you need to scroll down about 3/4 of the way on the site. I thought this was great! I really enjoyed it. Great flavor. The chicken was a little dry, but I could tweak that if I were to make it again, but I won't be making it again. No one else liked it. Husband and Sunshine just looked at it. Monster ate some, but didn't enjoy it. I think for mosts families though, this would definitely be worth trying out. Pork Carnitas This was good, not great. Everyone ate it, even Sunshine, grudgingly. It's not something I would add the regular menu, but it was nice for a change. I didn't follow the directions completely. I'm a firm believer that the point of the crock pot is so I don't have to do a lot of work, so instead of browning and then taking it out when it was almost ready, I just threw everything in the crock pot, shredded it in the crock pot and just left it in there. I don't feel that not following the extra steps hurt the flavor any. Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup This is definitely a keeper. The kids didn't like it, but I thought it was fantastic, and since I'm pretty much the only one who eats soup in this house, I'm worth making it again. Husband even ate some and didn't hate it. I think my kids didn't enjoy it because the lemon gives it a bit of kick. Now, I didn't completely follow the directions. I cooked it all day in the crock pot instead of on the stove. I added the orzo 30 minutes before we ate. This was so easy to throw together and a great way to use up leftover roasted chicken. Grilled Chicken Tzatziki This was not good. It wasn't inedible, but it was something none of us enjoyed. I was surprised by this since everyone in this house loves tzatziki sauce. The marinade made the chicken too rich for our liking. Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas Success! This was awesome! Everyone ate it. Sunshine didn't enjoy it, but she ate it, so we count that as a win. Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins These were so good even Husband at them, and he doesn't eat muffins. Sunshine only at the tops and Monster only ate the bottoms, but I expected both of those things. So worth making again! Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeders Even though these aren't food for us, it's a new "recipe" for our birds. Several weeks ago, due to a gas leak, we had two bushes ripped out of our front yard. Lots of birds lost their homes. The kids were devastated. Literally crying about it. So, we decided to make bird feeders to help the birds. These things were so much fun to make, but a complete fail as far as actually feeding the hungry, homeless birds. It's been super dry, so they lasted a long time, and not one customer, at least that we ever saw. Then, one day of rain and the things fell apart. Next time I'll stick to pine cones. Ribbon Dancers The other day, Sunshine's BFF came over, so we decided to make something special for the two of them. I scanned Pinterest and found these. I didn't have wooden rings, but my neighbor had "rope" type ribbon in pink and purple that I used to make handles. They were super simple to make and cheap since I had all the materials on hand. I'm finally, after 6 months, getting around to uploading pictures. During this process, I found a couple of pictures of projects/activities that we did way back in February. So, here they are, in no particular order.
I've been trying out new recipes here and there. Instead of writing about one each time I tried it, I figured I'd save up until I had several. Let me just say, I have the pickiest family of eaters ever. And that includes Husband. Cajun Chicken Pasta I knew my kids wouldn't like this before I even made it. However, I thought that maybe, since it's Cajun, Husband might like it, if only for the heat. Since I refuse to make separate meals for my kids, I just cooked up more pasta and they had plain pasta and veggies minus the seasoning. They ate it right up. Husband happened to use the mushrooms I had bought for this meal for pizza the night before, so I that was missing from this recipe. I wouldn't have made a difference though. I added a ton of Cajun seasoning to spice it up for Husband. I did make the kids each try some of the Cajun chicken. Monster liked it. Sunshine, surprisingly, got through it without too much complaining. Husband hated it. He said it wasn't spicy at all. I find that amazing since it made my eyes water and I instantly needed some Zantac. I liked it. Definitely not something I would want frequently due to the cream cheese base, but good for every once in a while. Unfortunately, we will not be having this again since I'm the only one who would eat it. Tortellini and Garden Veggie Bake I truly thought this would be a hit. I was wrong. No one liked this. Sunshine decided not to eat. Monster and Husband suffered through it. I followed this recipe exactly. I really had high hopes for it. I thought it was just OK. I ended up putting a lot of extra pepper on mine for a little flavor. It was very bland. The vegetables, however, were awesome. I could just eat roasted veggies all day though. Lemon Garlic Pasta This was OK for the kids, but didn't work for Husband or me. There was very little flavor. Monster loved it because he put tons of parmesan cheese on it, like he does to regular pasta. Sunshine loved it because it tasted like plain noodles, which are her favorites. Husband and I were left wondering what happened to flavor and thinking about what we could add to it to make it not feel like we were eating plain pasta. I even added more garlic and more lemon than the recipe called for. In fact, after I added twice as much lemon, I thought I may have made it too lemony. Nope, couldn't even tell there was lemon in it. This is yet another recipe that won't get repeated in my house. Rainbow Chicken I thought this dish was fantastic. The kids didn't hate it. They didn't like it, but they suffered through it. Husband really didn't like it either, but he ate it. I thought the flavor was fantastic. I used potatoes, carrots and peppers for the veggies. I also didn't have paprika on hand, so I used Penzeys Forward since it has a paprika base. Also, I doubled the rub recipe and did my chicken in one batch of rub and my veggies in the second batch. Even though my family wasn't fond of it, they ate it and since I really enjoyed it, this is a recipe that will be tried again at my house. Chicken Parmesan Casserole This recipe was super easy and not too bad. The kids weren't big fans, but they ate it. Husband ate it, too. We probably would have liked it a lot more, but it was a nice day and I happened to be outside playing when the timer went off. Even though I have an oven that shuts itself off when the timer goes off, it still dried out. I will be trying this again, but keeping a better eye on it! Slow Cooker Chicken Philly Sandwiches This was just OK. The kids ate it and Husband and I ate it. None of us hated it, but none of us loved it enough to add to our regular menu. If I really wanted to make something we hadn't had in a while, I would probably consider doing this again. The flavor of the chicken was good. I didn't have (actually never even heard of) Dale's seasoning. It just so happens that a friend was making this recipe the same week I was, so she had already looked up Dale's seasoning and found the ingredients. Unfortunately, the main ingredient is soy sauce, which has two issues, 1)MSG and 2) Husband doesn't like it. Looking at the ingredient list, I had to wing it. I didn't measure anything. I used a shake or two of soy sauce, Probably 1/2 a cup or a little less of worcestershire sauce (yes, still bad for us, but wasn't sure how else to get the flavor needed) and then just sprinkles of the other ingredients found in Dale's. Again, not bad, but nothing really special. Weight Watchers Cheddar Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Husband and I really liked this meal. The kids? Not at all. Each of them picked out the bacon and that was all they ate. I do have to say, I used turkey bacon just because we don't use regular bacon in our house, but I don't think that mattered. Husband and I both thought this was very flavorful and quite enjoyable. I'll be keeping this recipe around for when the kids get older and they are eating at friends' houses. So sadly, out of all of those recipes, there was nothing that everyone completely loved. I'm running out of new recipes to try. I look through recipe after recipe and I just know that either the kids or Husband won't like it. Luckily, summer is around the corner and the Farmer's Market opens next weekend. That means lot of meals with good veggies. We all love that! In fact, I know that the kids and I could always go without meat for a meal. Husband still likes to have meat dishes, but he, too, loves fresh veggies! Not only is the Farmer's Market opening, but we got our garden in this weekend, so we'll also be having some nice fresh veggies from our own backyard!
I came across this pin this morning all about organizing your laundry room. Now, I don't have a laundry room. I have a basement. A cramped basement that contains barely enough room to get clothes out of the washer without hitting the furnace and it's near impossible to get clothes out of the dryer without running into the hot water heater. I decide to click on the link though because I'm extremely good at organizing and making ideas work for my space. Well, not this. Martha Stewart obviously has delusions that we are all as rich as she is. The very first great idea on here is to keep linens organized into neat stacks. Let me tell you, if I leave any laundry out in the open in my "laundry room" for more than a day or two it gets dirty again. With all the dust from my furnace (and I just had it cleaned, thank you), there is a constant layer of dust over everything down there. Plus, why are we organizing linens in our laundry room. Even in my tiny house, I have a linen closet. Second idea on there wasn't bad. In fact, if I had any room at all, I'd totally do this. Instead of a cutesy little towel bar mounted under a shelf though, my husband rocks and fashioned a huge bar that is attached to open wall studs. It's not pretty , but it works just as well. Next is adjustable shelving for a laundry wall that can be used for just about anything. Sure, let me just take out my furnace, I don't really need that anyway. And then I can store the surfboard, I mean ironing board, right next to it for easy access. Yeah, I'll get right on that. Next on the list is a stain chart. Not a bad idea. However, it's recommended to laminate it. How many of you out there who are not teachers just have access to a laminator? That's what I thought. How about this. Save a stain chart to Pinterest and then check it out. May be a tad more work since it's not right in front of you, but with smart phones, ipads, kindles, laptops, the chart if mobile if saved on the internet. Here's one I really love next, perfect towel folding using a cutting board. Now, if you have time to use a cutting board to fold your towels, you have too much time on your hands or you're just anal retentive. The tight space laundry ideas and adjustable laundry closet are cute, but again, if your laundry room is in your cramped basement in a closet with a furnace and water heater, these ideas just aren't practical. The last idea is one that I just laugh at. Bags. Use bags to carry your laundry instead of baskets. Do you know how many bags I have in my house? Too many to count. I have a bag for this, a bag for that, a bag for another thing. Are they easier to carry, definitely. If I had to go to a laundromat, I'd like this idea. For walking clothes up and down stairs, give me a laundry basket. My kids can help put laundry away out of a laundry basket. My kids can not help out of a bag. When they reach into a bag, they unfold my folded stuff. That then makes twice the work for me, and I definitely don't have time to do twice the work. So, since obviously every single other ideas out there is for people with real laundry rooms, I'm going to give everyone some ideas for people without real laundry rooms, because you know what? I'm super efficient with laundry (when Husband brings up the clean, folded laundry baskets). Tip #1, Shout Color Catchers. I'm not talking the ones with OxyBoost, those are a waste of money. Just the regular old Color Catchers. Seems like a weird first tip, right? Nope. These things are magic. Really. I say that because my first real tip is to keep kid laundry together to make getting it put back away after washing easier. Each child has a hamper. I do a load of Monster clothes. I do a load of Sunshine clothes. All their clothes get washed on the same cycle, in the same temperature, hence the Color Catchers. When the clothes come out of the dryer, I toss them in a laundry basket. No sorting. All of them go in the same person's room. I really can't tell you how much time this saves. I used to sort it all and do everyone's laundry together, but the sorting and putting away took three times as long. To go along with this tip, do kids clothes when the hamper gets full. When the hamper is full, you have a large load. If the hamper gets too full, then you have to divide the clothes up, which makes more work for you. Tip #2. If the idea of washing all clothes in the same temperature and whatnot bothers you, then go ahead and sort. I do this for mine and Husband's clothes. The tip comes for when I fold. One half of the basket is his side and one half is my side. Now, out of everyone I have ever talked to about laundry, other than my mom, I'm the only one who does this. By doing this one simple step, I save a ton of time putting clothes away. I'm not opening and shutting drawers in to different dressers. Not only do I organize them while folding them, in the basket, but I layer them in the basket by top middle and bottom drawer clothes. Hanging clothes all go on the very top, only folded in half so that if, for some reason Husband has to put clothes away, he knows those particular things get hung up. If it's been weeks since I've done laundry (which has happened once or twice) I get His and Her laundry baskets. No, they don't say His and Her. When I fold clothes, I put all of mine in one basket and all of his in another. This doesn't happen often though....at least not recently. Tip #3: OxyClean. I had one person say to me once, "I knew you kept your kids clothes in good condition, but these [hand me downs] were amazing. There wasn't a single stain on them." That's because of OxyClean. I am crazy when it comes to stains on my kids clothes. I will do whatever it takes to get them out. There has been very little I can't save. When I fail, I call in reinforcements, aka, my mom. Between the two of us, I think over the past 15 years we've only not be able to salvage 2 or 3 items. And by salvage, I mean make them acceptable for us, who are crazy weird about stains. For really bad stains, I soak the item in OxyClean and hot water. If you keep heating the water, over the next day or two, you keep reactivating whatever is in OxyClean to get those stains out. Tip #4 follows right on the heels of stain fighting. Stain spray stuff. Honestly, I don't think it truly matters what kind you use. Everyone has a favorite. I LOVE Dreft spray, but it' the most expensive, too. Whatever stain stick/spray you like, keep it close to where you're actually taking your clothes off. I have a spray in the bathroom cupboard as well as in the "laundry room". This way,you don't have to take the article of clothing that you want to treat into the laundry room, just spray it, rub it and toss it in the hamper. All those sprays say to let the stuff sit on there anyway, so letting it sit in the hamper with all the other dirty clothes works just as well as letting it sit in your laundry room. Tip #5: Color Catcher /fabric softener sheet bag. What? Yes, a bag. Instead of throwing all those sheets out, keep them in a little bag, or, better yet, use immediately (which I never do but should) to clean your lint trap. By using the sheet, you can get more of the lint off than by just using your hand. And that takes us right into tip #6. No matter how small your area is, keep a trash can right next to your dryer. That way, the lint from the trap goes right into the trash and not all over the place while you are carrying it to the trash can. And finally, my last tip. Tip #7: No matter what kind of laundry area you have, keep it clutter free. The less you have in your laundry area, the easier laundry is. There are times I get lazy and throw Husband's work pants on top of the dryer. Or there are times I leave laundry baskets full of clean clothes to be folded next to the dryer. This just makes more work for yourself and makes laundry take longer. Now, since my laundry room is in my basement, I don't have the problem of having it in my "mud room" (ha! My whole house is my mud room!) and tossing stuff on top of the washer and dryer when I come in. The more cluttered your laundry area is, the more likely you are to procrastinate getting the laundry done. Keep your area tidy. Laundry rooms are for laundry, not random paperwork. So there you have it. All my wisdom about how to really make laundry more simple. I don't think that it has anything to do with the size of your laundry room or if you have everything all shiny and sparkly. It has to do with being efficient. Efficiency is something I pride myself in. I just don't have time to do things the hard way.
I'm trying to get back into trying new recipes for my family. It's so difficult because Sunshine and Husband are so picky. Monster will eat what I put in front of him, but will politely say, "No, thank you" if you ask if he wants seconds. I know it's a REALLY bad meal when Monster asks part way through if he can just be done. I had one of those meals this week. Chicken Tortilla Bake was my total flop of the week. Looking at the recipe, I should have known from the start it would fail. The recipe, in theory, should have been something at least three of us enjoyed, but, it called for condensed soup. Now, we just don't use that kind of stuff to cook with in our house. Every time I try, it turns out horrible. Maybe it's just too much sodium for us or maybe our bodies are rejecting the added MSG, but whatever the reason, no one in my house will eat anything that is cooked with condensed soup (and yes, that includes green bean casserole, only Husband and I will eat that, and we're not huge fans). Yet, I keep trying recipes that call for cream of whatever soups. I think this time I've finally learned. This meal was so horrible that Sunshine just looked at it, Husband wouldn't even get a plate of it, Monster struggled through about 5 bites of it, and I managed to choke down one serving. Then we broke out bread and butter and fresh fruit and tossed it. I'm sure that for people who use cream soups and enjoy them, this would be a fine meal, but it's definitely not one for our family!
The second recipe I tried this week that got mixed reviews was sausage balls. I thought for sure it would be a hit with the kids and Husband. I, personally, don't like sausage, so I went into it knowing I wouldn't be thrilled. It actually called for an ingredient I'm betting most people have in their house, but I had to go out and buy just for this...Bisquick. Now, to be honest, I'm not really even sure what Bisquick is, so that should have been my first clue that this meal might not be winner. Regardless, the making of these was a bit more difficult than I anticipated. Getting the Bisquick mixed in with the sausage was frustrating. It was just very dry, and I cut the Bisquick by one cup (thanks to my neighbor's advice, I can't imagine if I would have used all three cups!). Once it all actually got mixed up, it went smoothly. For Monster, these were a huge hit. The kid gobbled them up. Sunshine just looked at them, even though sausage is one food she completely loves. I ate a couple, and they weren't horrible, but they were dry, so I could see why Sunshine didn't like them. Husband thought they were OK, but, again, very dry. I made the dipping sauce the recipe has with it and he definitely didn't like that (the kids and I don't like Mustard, so none of us even tried it) I'm thinking that with the right kind of dipping sauce, these would have been much better. Another problem with these is that they don't reheat well. It makes so many balls that, unless you're cooking for about 5-8 people, you're going to have a lot of leftovers. They are dry to begin with, so reheated, they are even worse. Maybe one day I'll make these again, but not any time in the near future. My biggest problem seems to be finding new recipes that don't have a bunch of added junk. We aren't a processed food family. If you check out our fridge and pantry, we have barely anything that has ingredients we can't pronounce. We don't have any foods with added food coloring. Does that mean I make everything from scratch? Heck no! We just don't have a lot of canned, boxed, or frozen stuff on hand. Winter's in Ohio make this pretty difficult because of the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables. We don't like having to buy our produce from Chile. We prefer to buy local. Sound like a food snob don't I? Well, I kind of am. A friend of mine just posted some recipes she found with no processed foods. I'll be trying out some of those, but I can almost guarantee Little Miss Sunshine is not going to be happy with any of it. Thankfully, she'll eat vegetables now *knock on wood*, so I load her up on those! I'm also on a bread making kick, so she can load up on that as well! And as a side note, I do occasionally make "junk" food. I just made brownies with artificially colored St. Patrick's Day sprinkles on top! I've completed two of the projects on my list of things I wanted to accomplish this year. I'm pretty pleased with them. The first is the "I love you because..." frame. I had the perfect frame, just needed to get off my butt and print up "I love you because..." We've been taking turns writing messages for each other on it. It sits right next to the coffee maker, since that's the most important thing in our house. Saturday, I had a few free moments before heading to our final Christmas celebration with Husband's family, so I made the snowflake ballerinas. Unfortunately, I only have white paper right now. They turned out quite well, but Sunshine didn't like they were just white. She, of course, wanted pink and purple. I also tried out a new recipe for our final Christmas dessert. I made what I would call Cherry Fluff, but the recipe is actually called Cherry Salad. Way too sweet for even my taste. I ended up just picking out all the cherries to eat. It also made enough for an army. I only used 1/2 a bag of mini marshmallows and 16 oz of cool whip and that was still too much, in my opinion. After the initial taste test, I decided to add almond extract, which turned out to be a good move. It was really easy to make, but not worth repeating.
While getting back to writing and trying to fit in everything that we did for a month, I forgot about two projects that were accomplished. The first was making a nutcracker for Monster and the second was converting the train table into a Lego table. One afternoon, around the beginning of December, Monster and I were in Hobby Lobby. He found a wooden nutcracker, unpainted, that he really wanted to make. It was 50% off, so it ended up only being $3, so I figured why not. When we brought him home and really looked at him, Monster got nervous about painting him because it was going to be much more complicated than he thought. The poor little nutcracker sat there and sat there, not even looking at us since it had no face, for weeks. One day, I asked Monster if he wanted me to paint it for him. That made him extremely happy. Monster's favorite color is blue, so he chose the nutcracker to be in two shades of blue (which was great for me since when he wanted to paint it, he had chosen about 6 different colors with lots of detail). Once I really sat down to work on it, it took me about 2 hours. I'm not happy with the cheeks, but I plan to redo those at some point. Monster loves it though, and that's what matters. Our second project was converting the train able into a Lego table. Found a pin on what to do. Seemed easy enough. And it was. Our biggest issue was that we didn't want to spend as a much as the woman did who blogged about it. We used 8 - 10 x 10 baseplates. We followed the seam on the train table so it could flip back into a train table if so desired. Monster loves it! We use it for all sorts of building, not just Legos. We got some nice bins at Target to keep under the table for extra Legos and Playmobil stuff.
I've said it hundreds of times, I am always looking for something to make my day to day easier. Things that will save me time and get my household running even more efficiently. Recently, I came across this pin. I got excited since the title is "20 Things to Make Life as a Mom Easier". It's a good read. Good tips. Problem? I must already be the most efficient mom on the planet. Out of 20 things, I do all but 2 of them. And, one of the things I don't do (use a hand vac) is only because we have no place to charge one. I would love one though....I actually just used my mom's yesterday. Other than that one that I can't do due to lack of outlets, I don't keep up on my pictures as well as I used to. I'm trying though. I'm caught up at this exact moment. As for the rest of it, I may not do things exactly like the article says, but pretty darned close, and even, just maybe, more efficiently. It was kind of disappointing. I feel like I can be so much more efficient if I had ideas.
It was nice to read the article and see all the things that I currently do. I especially liked #10, "Keep extras in vehicle". Maybe it's because I was a teacher, or maybe it's because my father told me I should always have extra gloves, socks and a sweatshirt in my trunk, but I've been doing this for years, even before kids. I have to say, if you have kids and you don't do this, you need to. Here are two examples of why. Yesterday, I went to visit my mom with Sunshine while Monster was in school. We decided to go out for lunch at First Watch. Sunshine got pancakes....with syrup. By the end of the meal, there was not a spot on her that wasn't sticky. Luckily, I had a change of clothes in the car. Got her all washed up in the bathroom and she left the restaurant in clean, non syrupy clothes! Second example is from a cookout we went to last summer. There was a water balloon fight. One of the dads thought it would be fun to get the moms. Monster had a great time soaking me, while he got soaked in the process. No problem there, I had spare clothes for both of us in the car. We were dry and happy the rest of the time. Need a bandaid? I have it in the car. Scissors? Car. Napkins? Car. Soap? Car. Heck, I even have tampons in the car if anyone needs them. Since I spend so much time driving, my vehicles have always been like a little house on wheels. People who know me well, know I'm really kind of crazy when it comes to organization. You should see our closets. They are organized by color and style of clothing. Yes, it's that bad. There is probably no surprise when I tell you that I have been doing #12, "Organize Storage", for years as well. It suggests color coded bins and clear bins. Anyone shocked that my Christmas decorations are in green and red bins and my autumn decorations are in an orange and black bin? Teaching stuff was all stored in bins that looked the same (I'm down to just one bin now!) Clothes for Monster to grow into are in blue bins while Sunshine's are in red. Not only that, but everything is perfectly labeled so there is no mistake. Speaking of labeling, not only do I label boxes, but I also keep a running list of items in the attic. Our attic entrance is through Sunshine's closet, so we don't go up there unless we absolutely have to. This is why I keep a list attached to the entrance in her closet. Makes it so much easier to know what's up there vs. down the basement. The article has good ideas, but of course I think they're good since I do them. Really though, for me, it seems like common sense. I always have bags for Goodwill, bags for friends of clothes that no longer fit my children, bags of books to donate to the library, etc. Just makes sense in my mind. I am constantly purging my house of unused, unwanted items. I always have a plan for the day, even if I don't stick to it (because I believe in the ability to stay flexible). I have laundry days. I don't have hygiene days, per say, but I do something like it. We have recycling bins in the garage. We reuse towels. I rotate everything in my world (which reminds me my little car needs a tire rotation...must put that in the weekend plan). I just started bleaching some of my wash clothes. We use them at meal time instead of paper napkins and they get kind of grungy. I hate bleach, but once a month, a little bleach on them brightens up the whole meal time. If you are looking for some ideas on how to save some time, read the article. If you are already crazy like me, you probably do these things, but it's so nice to see you're actually doing things to save time! |
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