Subbing

I started this post a LONG time ago...planning to add to it.  Shortly after I realized that I hate subbing!  So, no more stories, but I'll share these few chuckles...

One morning my class was to join another class for a movie on Desserts (as I quickly read on the lesson plans).  I thought, "What a fun lesson!  I wonder if the kids get to eat any desserts while we're there?!"  Imagine my surprise when the movie started and the narrator began speaking about the Gobi DESERT!  How boring that lack of one S made our day.

Another blonde moment was when we got to the handwriting assignment.  The teacher's handwritten note said, "Handwriting CD".  While the kids were at recess and I was getting ready for the next portion of our day, I kept looking at "Handwriting CD", trying to figure out exactly where the CD would be and how in the world a CD could be used to help with handwriting.  Sad to say, but it took me a good minute or 2 for it to dawn on me that the C & D were written in cursive and the kids were supposed to practice writing the capital C & D in cursive!

School broccoli gives me MAJOR gas!

Geared Up for Summer

This morning the kids and I sat down and wrote out some of our summer goals.  Fun things we want to do, people we want to have playdates with, ways to keep up with learning and chores that can be done.  I want a good part of our summer time to be intentional.  The work and the fun!  I don't want the summer to pass by and leave us with a "we should have..." feeling.  So, we did some planning.

After we were finished our brainstorming, we busted our butts for about 2-3 hours and CLEANED the heck out of the house!  Daddy was QUITE impressed when he came home.  I can't explain why, but I clean much better when someone else is home, even if it's the kids.  If I have the house to myself, I tend to be less constructive.  Hence, the messy house since last August for a while.

Tonight I took the time to make checklists for the learning that we want to do this summer.  One checklist is just for reading.  I am requiring 3 chapter books and 50 short books over the summer.  When this is done, they get a jumbo sized candy bar.  (Side note: please, no one fill them in on the fact that these only cost $1 and they could easily buy one themselves if I let them.  They think that getting a jumbo candy bar is like the best thing EVER, so let's just keep them believing for a while!)  Claire has already read 14 books, Garret, 10 and Gavin, 8.

The second checklist includes all the other learning stuff...journaling, mad minute tests, art projects, worksheets, etc.  On this checklist I put a box for each subject, each week.  Most of this stuff is required...and not very hard to accomplish (2 of the categories are "Play on coolmath.com for 30 min" and "Play on toytheater.com for 30 min").  I haven't decided on the reward for completing every task, but it will be a biggie!  Maybe Kings Island.  Something that we would possibly do anyway, so by making it the reward we're not out extra cash. ;)  I also added one "lofty" goal to the list, which is learning multiplication tables.  I put a checkbox for x1 through x12.  I'll be happy if they learn through x5, elated if any further!  Since x1, x2 & x5 are pretty easy, it's really only x3 & x4.  They should be able to memorize that and get a jump on 3rd grade math!

Since the kids were tiny, I have always assigned colors to them...pink, blue and green.  Sometimes purple can sub for pink.  Sometimes yellow for green.  Bottles, sippy cups, backpacks.  Anything that is picked out by color will automatically be assigned to a certain child.  Because I'm all about efficiency (and if it weren't in my DNA to be that way, then having triplets would have probably forced it onto me) we had 3 sippy cups.  I found the brand and style that I liked, bought our 3 colors and washed and reused the same 3 all the time.  We didn't have any other sippy cups in our house, until we were given 2 other randomly colored cups (same brand and style, but not color).  These 2 cups eventually disappeared.  I don't have proof, but I am almost certain that one of the kids (probably Claire, who is most like mama) threw the rouge colored cups in the trash!  I didn't mind.  To be honest, I had thought about doing the same myself.  I used our long-standing color-coding system on the reading and learning charts.

For chores, I was able to re-instate our "chore card" system.  I don't make the kids do many chores during the school year.  They have to clean their rooms, bring down and put away their laundry and do anything else that we ask of them (most often that is load or unload the dishwasher).  But no standing, daily chores.  They are only home for a few hours and I don't want them to spend the whole time working.  But during the summer....now that's a different story.  With 8 extra hours to fill during the day, I feel no guilt in making them help out.  We came up with the chore card system when the kids were in kindergarten.  We have several index cards in a magnetic holder on the side of the fridge.  Each card has a different chore written on it.  Before anything else is done for the day, the chore cards have to be done.  This helps solve more than one problem because my early-rising boys are less motivated to get up early when they know they will be doing chores before they watch TV or play video games.  However, to encourage them to do the chore cards, I added in "watch 1 TV show" and "play 15 min. of video games" as two of the chores.  They are willing to do all the other chores without much fuss just to get to those 2 cards.  That idea had to be given to me by God, because it has worked like a charm all these years.

I have one last thing yet to do.  I have to make some sort of FUN checklist.  I've seen a few ideas on Pinterest - a bingo board or a simple "bucket list".  Last summer, Claire and our neighbor tried to come up with a point system, a la "Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer", but it was too complicated.  And she made it on a dry erase board...which, of course, got erased.  I'm gonna have to reel the kids in a bit on their lofty ideas of a fun summer.  We can only afford so many excursions to expensive locations.  Today we tried to come up with more relatively easy and free/cheap ideas.  A few of those are...

Science Experiment Day (finally do all those fun things that I've pinned)
Bubble Day
Cookie Baking Day
Water Obstacle Course Day
Hike at local parks
Picnic
Movie Day (watch movies and eat popcorn ALL day)
Fair Food Day
Water Balloon Fight
Stay up REALLY late

 It's the start of a new summer!  I really hope we make some lasting memories this year.  And keep most of the knowledge they gained in second grade.  I'm sure there will be many days where they don't feel like doing anything constructive and neither do I.  That is perfectly fine with me.  I'm cool with a big part of the summer just being summer.  No work.  No plans.  Just go out - or stay in - and play!  However, I think by doing this little bit of thinking, planning and prepping up front, our summer will be much more productive and fun overall.  I love having my kids home and want to make every moment count in some way!!

I don't think there's a way to attach an excel document to a blog (or if there is, I'm clueless), but since most or all of my followers personally know me, feel free to send me a message (comment, facebook, email, text, whatever) if you'd like me to e-mail you the documents to edit and use as torture for your own children!

Crayon Monogram Tutorial

I saw several versions of these crayon monograms on Pinterest.  I pieced together ideas from different tutorials and this is what I came up with.

You will need:
New crayons - I used all the pretty colors from a box of 64 making 2 letters
Old crayons - for filler and practice
Frame - I used a $2.98 black plastic frame from Walmart.  You could go more expensive.  My only requirement was the the frame was thicker than a crayon so the crayons wouldn't stick out past the frame.
Razor blade knife - I'm not sure what these are called, but I think they cost about a dollar.  The blade slides up and you can break off the tip to get a new sharp point.  You could try other knives but when I explain my cutting method, you'll see why I like this one.
A cutting board - mine obviously needs a good bleaching!
Glue - I used hot glue but I think tacky glue would also work well
Paper - I used white cardstock...big enough to fit the frame
Letter - either printed or drawn.  I used Elephant font and made it as big as it would fit on a regular sheet of paper.  Then I adapted it to fit my crayon size and look right.
Pencil and Pen
Scissors
Whatever random box or book that will work as a flat surface and is nearby if you're doing this on the floor in front of the TV like I did.

Start by laying crayons on the printed letter.  I did a few tries with old crayons and brown crayons (cuz I wasn't going to use them in the finished letter) to get the spacing and the cutting technique down.  With your razor blade out past the point that it's safe, but just right for rolling completely around the crayon, lay the blade across the crayon and use it to roll the crayon along the cutting board.  Ideally your line will be straight and you will have cut through the paper all the way around the crayon.  You will have also scored the crayon and it will snap right where you've scored it.

The angle cuts are harder, but I think they are what make the whole thing look more finished.  I used a sawing motion to get through as far as I could and tried not to tear the paper.  Only a few crayons gave my trouble.  Most cut pretty easy, even on an angle.
Note: see the red tip at the very top of the letter.  That's where the old crayon bucket came in handy.  I found the same color of red to make the pointy part (serif, maybe?) stick out farther, since one crayon length wasn't wide enough.

Keep filling in, cutting crayons at different lengths.  It's not shown, but up through about the green zone, there were middle parts of the crayon that were just thrown out.  By the blue, I was using the whole crayon with just one cut.
You can see how I adapted my printed letter to fit the crayons better.  I slimmed down the right front of the D.  If I had left it full size, 1 crayon wouldn't have covered the full width.

At this poing I wanted to check how my letter was going to end.  I used different crayon pieces to fill in spaces (on the left), but also paid attention to my rainbow pattern (on the right).

Using the cut crayons from the top section, I mirror imaged them from the bottom up.  So, the orange crayon that was already cut at the top was used to measure and cut the periwinkle crayon at the bottom...and so forth, to make it symetrical.

Next I gently rolled the crayons off the D paper, keeping them in their places.  Then I cut out the D, but narrowed it down quite a bit.  I used this to lightly make lines on my white cardstock so I'd know where to glue the crayons.  Each letter is different, but for the D, I really only needed the inside as a guide.
I think that a shadowbox frame would be really neat.  However, I am cheap, so I didn't get shadowbox frames.  I just put the white scrapbook paper in front of the glass (I did take the frame apart so that my paper is going behind the frame edges...thought I should add that in for the extrememly craftily challenged who may try this).

Time to start gluing.  If you are using a glue gun, once the glue touches the paper, it's pretty much dry, so make sure you have it in place before you press down.  Tacky glue would give you more time to adjust the individual crayons.  Something else to consider is whether or not you care which way your crayon label faces.  I just let mine fall randomly.  I guess that depends on just how OCD you are. ;)
Note: About halfway down the right side of my D, I realized that my crayons were wondering back and forth a bit so I used my pencil as a straight edge to keep the rest in line.
Something else to keep in mind...as you are gluing your curved edge, it will matter which part of your crayon faces up.  Line up the cut edge with the angle facing along the curve so that you know where to glue.

Not perfect, but not bad for my first try!  In the final picture you'll see that I also added the teacher's name at the bottom.  You could print this on the paper before you start.  I wrote it lightly in pencil first and then traced over with a fine point sharpie.

I decided to do the C a little differently.  I alternated the points of the crayons left and right.  I think it turned out pretty cool too.  You can see how I altered the shape of the printed letter here too.

Here are my finished letters.  I still have a W to do.  Might try it out of pencils since I used up all my good crayons on these 2!

We need a little Christmas

Looking for a new, fun way to decorate for Christmas?  Buy a red (or white, or green, or all 3) feather boa!  Cut it up and wrap it in fun places.  I bought one at our old house where I had 3 slim, black shelves on the wall.  I cut lengths for each shelf, took off my regular knick-knacks and replaced them with Christmas-y ones.  It was really cute.  I don't have the shelves anymore, so I improvised with the boa pieces.  I wrapped them around 4 candles on wroght iron stands.  I put them around another candle that's in a bird cage shaped thingie (feathers...bird cage.  Appropriate, right?).  And the last little bit I wrapped around a white flower that I stuck on a lampshade a while back.  BTW...got the white flower at Claire's for $1!

I think feather pieces would be really pretty in the tree too, if you had one of those matchy-matchy trees (which I don't).  How about surrounding a mirror or sticking out behind a picture?  Woven through a metal sculpture?  I think you can get away with more, decorating-wise, when it comes to the holidays.  I mean, you don't want to go OTT (over the top), but you can take some liberties.  For example, I have a picture that I gift wrapped and hung back on the wall for Christmas.  Actually, it's the picture with oranges in it behind the bird cage thingie.  At no other time of year would this be cute, but at Christmas, it just fits.  A little OTT is called for.

I also have an orange and black mixed boa that I bring out in the fall.  I like birdies in my decorating.  I guess feathers were the next logical step!

Go out!  Buy a BOA!  Go CRAZY!  Or at least look for one on sale after the season so you can go crazy next year. ;)

Summer Delight

I was taught this recipe my freshman year of college (who says you never use what you learn in college?!?).  One of my friends had to do a demonstrative speech and we reaped the fruits of her labor by being her guinea pigs for the pracitce round.

This simple, delicious dessert is always a crowd pleaser.  It looks so pretty and tastes so good, but requires no more work than a bit of chopping, stirring and dumping.  I've taken it many times to carry-ins and I'm always asked for the recipe.  It's also very light so you can have ten more than one helping without getting overwhelmed.

Since my freshman year seventeen a few years ago, I have made this dessert countless times.  Every time that my mom was around when I was making or had made it she never failed to ask, "What's this dessert called again?"  To which, I always replied (with less and less patience each time), "I don't know mom.  I just make it."  After the millionth 10th or so time that she asked, I finally just made up the name "Summer Delight".  I couldn't come up with anything more creative and everytime I say it, I think of Afternoon Delight, so I'm open to name suggestions.  Maybe something like Summer Trifle?  But then I'd have to re-train my mom on the name!!!  And I'm not opposed to having dessert ranked up there with "other" delights!

I am not a low-fat, no-fat, low-sugar, no-sugar type girl.  I like sugar.  I like fat.  It tastes good!  Real good!  However, this is one dessert that can easily be converted to all that low/no stuff and still be rather tasty.  Sugar free pudding w/ skim milk and lite cool whip.  I think angel food cake is relatively low fat/sugar, but I could be wrong.  Fruit is fruit...sugar, but the good-for-you kind.  That just leaves the chocolate chips, which you could possibly leave out if you're a Sugar Nazi (story for another time...let's just leave it as one of "those" moms that I encountered at my kids' pre-school), but please don't call it Summer Delight if you do.  Change the name to something way more boring for my sake, please!  Plus, dark chocolate is good for you, right?  Antioxidants and all that.

One last thing...sometimes it's hard to get good strawberries and kiwis in the winter.  Hence SUMMER delight.  I took these pictures with plans to blog back when it was summer.  Early summer, in fact.  I tried other fruit before, but it just didn't have the same ring for me.  You have to have that tarty bite of sweetness that only strawberries and kiwis create together.  I'm sure someone possesing a more distinguished pallette than I could make some suggestions (I'll drink day old coffee, reheated in the microwave and can't tell that much difference from the original stuff, so my pallette isn't up for the challenge of finding substitutions).

Ingredients:

1 lg or 2 sm packages of instant vanilla pudding *

Milk - enough to make pudding according to package instructions

Cool Whip - again, 1 lg or 2 sm *

Angel Food Cake - one, either store bought or homemade

Strawberries - 1 regular rectangular container (what is that, a pint? 2 pints? IDK)

Kiwis - 3-5 depending on size and how much you love kiwi

MINI chocolate chips (you have to buy a bag, but end up using less than half of it...the extras can be eaten by any dark chocolate lover than you know or mailed directly to me)**

*the size of pudding and cool whip probably depend more on your bowl size than anything else.  I usually buy based on whichever size is the best value at the time...it all tastes yummy in the end.

**do NOT be tempted to use regular size chips.  They get cold, hard and stick to your teeth.  Granted, there are worse problems than having chocolate in your teeth, but buying the mini chips is the way to go on this.

In a bowl that will ultimately be large enough to hold the pudding and the cool whip, make the pudding according the package instructions.

While the pudding is setting up in the fridge, clean, hull and slice the strawberries and peel and slice kiwi (or cut into small chunks).

Remove pudding from fridge.  Add  the cool whip, reserving some for topping, and stir to combine.

Now starts the layering.  I like to do 4 because it's easy for me to visually divide everyting into fourths.  If you're taking this to a party and have one of those pretty glass trifle bowls, you'll wanna break it out and be careful/fancy with your layering.  If not, just slop it in there cuz it all tastes the same in the end.

Layer 1: Angel food cake, torn/cut into small chunks/cubes (roughly 1")

Layer 2: Pudding/Cool Whip mixture

Layer 3: Strawberries and Kiwis

Layer 4: a generous sprinkling of Mini Chocolate Chips (maybe 1/8 cup-ish per layer)

**Repeat***

Top with dallops of reserved Cool Whip (but it looks pretty with just the fruit on top too).

Refrigerate.  You could serve right away, but it tastes better after sitting for a few hours or overnight.  The cake soaks up the pudding and the flavors just meld together.

Now's the part where you splash your face with flour and water and act like you've been slaving ALL day, so you get even more credit for your amazing creation!

By the way, anyone notice my slight obsession preference towards writing with strikeouts?  Anytime you can convey sarcasm thru writing, I'm on board! ;)

My favorite video clip ever!

This is probably my favorite video clip from our family videos.  The lighting was terrible and the camera was my first digital, therefore not great quality.  But it's still great to watch.  This would have been the summer before the kids turned 2.  We have watched this video tons of times and laugh every single time we watch. :)  Claire wanted a piece of ice so badly!

Pride!!!

Right now I am wishing like crazy that I did not give up facebook for lent.  I am bursting and the seams with pride and want so badly to post this there!  But, alas, if Jesus could fast in the desert for 40 days, surely I can not post on facebook for the same length of time.  Since I can't post there, you, my 18 followers, are gonna have to do.  Please comment so I'll feel the love and excitement!!!!

My daughter got an absolutely PERFECT report card!  First grade, so all Os (for outstanding) and all pluses under the individual grades (as opposed to minuses or checks), including behavior.  She could not have done any better on any area than what she did.  I almost cried over it!

OK, so I'm a little crazy.  All 3 of my kids have been on the honor roll every grading period so far (which also makes me very proud), but there have always been areas for improvement.  An S here, a check there, the occasional minus for something (usually behavior - DH's fault, for sure - haha).  I was one of "those" kids who had to get straight As every single time.  I cried when I got my first B in third grade, got only a few C's throughout junior high and high school and never got a D on anything.  So, although my kids do great in school and I brag on them like crazy and am so super proud of them, this level of perfection just swells me that much more with pride!

Sis, YOU ROCK!!!!!

My favorite Bible verse

I originally started to post about being a substitute teacher (which has been quite interesting), but as soon as I began to type about this change in my life, I started to think about how lucky and blessed I have been to NOT be subbing (or doing any other "real" job) for the past 7 years while my kids were at home.

Being a stay-at-home mom has been (or I guess was, at this point) one of the absolute biggest blessings in my life.  As we spent 5 years trying to conceive, I prayed and prayed that God would someday reveal the reason that we had to wait SO long to have a baby (or babies, in our case).  Along our journey, friends would tell me that they were pregnant.  I would be happy for them, but also VERY sad for myself.  I could see absolutely no reason why God would make us wait to have a baby while so many others around us were having babies...some of them great parents, some of them not so great.  I could never come up with a even a remote possibility as to why God was making us wait.  But I was wrong!

After the joyful Christmas morning (at 3am...but that's another story) when I peed on the umpteenth stick of my life, but FINALLY saw TWO lines and not one, the hurt and pain that I had experienced during our infertility trial disappeared in an instant, but some of the questions remained.  I was so happy to be pregnant, but still didn't understand why we had to go through the trial of trying and waiting.  Then, after our 3 little bundles of (crazy) joy were born, God answered my prayer to reveal why we had to wait.  And He didn't reveal just one small reason.  He revealed several major reasons!

If you personally know my husband and I, then you know that we are both first borns, both leaders, both know-it-alls.  We love each other like crazy, but we also butt heads like crazy.  God had, in His good plan for us, THREE babies...all at once.  If we had been given them right away, like I had wanted (and had seen no reason as to why we shouldn't have) I can 99.9% guarantee that our marriage would have crumbled under the stress of parenting 3 babies (and maybe even one).  We had no idea what we were in store for.  Although it was ridiculously stressful...and we still fought a lot...we had grown together over 7 years and were more prepared for the challenge of raising children than we were when we first started trying to get pregnant.

When I got pregnant, there was an "extenuating circumstance" that you could chalk up to coincidence, but I chalk it up to God having a good plan for our life.  We had tried one round of fertility meds, which we paid for ourselves, without success.  Realizing that the cost of fertility treatments would quickly go beyond what we could afford at the time, we decided to look into adoption.  Adopting a newborn is also quite expensive, but adopting a slightly older child (as a "foster to adopt") is not.  In fact, they pay you to foster in many instances.  This sounded like the answer to our troubles.  We'd get the child we wanted, while also giving a home to a child who needed one.  However, after going through the required classes, we were starting to feel that the cons outweighed the pros.  The poor children in the foster system have been exposed to SO many terrible things.  We felt so ill-prepared and were pretty much scared to death.  My hat goes off to any and all who offer a home to these precious children!

After going over that huge hill on the emotional roller coaster, we decided that giving fertility treatments one more try might be the way to go before committing to adopting an older child.  Because I was nervous that our insurance might clue into the fact that we were doing fertility treatments and therefore screw us over (like only insurance and taxes can) I was planning on paying for any and all fertility treatments directly to the doctor without even turing them into our insurance company.  If you're still reading, here comes the "oh wow!" part.  We were talking with our friends about our plans to do fertility treatments again and how we weren't turing them into our insurance company.  Our friend just so happened to be a personal trainer.  The owner of the company where my husband worked at the time just so happened to be one of his clients.  The 2 of them just to happened to be making conversation about us one day when our infertility issues came up.  The owner says to our friend, "I wonder if they know that they have $5,000 fertility coverage with our insurance policy?"  (Apparently he and his wife had spent years and lots of money trying to get pregnant without success and he had added the fertility coverage for his employees due to this.  FYI, fertility insurance is pretty much unheard of.)  We did not know about this coverage that we'd had all along!  I still remember hanging out in our pool when this conversation took place.  A little spark of hope started to grow inside me.  We used the coverage, and the rest, as they say, is history!

One of the other big reasons that God has revealed to me that we had to wait to have children is where this post first started.  When I was younger and thought about having children, I always thought it would be so nice to be able to stay home with our children, but it was always more of a dream than something that I thought could ever be a reality.  At the time that I go pregnant I was making at least half of our income (which, by the way, I had insurance and so did Greg, so we were doubly covered when we had the babies and never paid on red cent in medical bills - those were the happy insurance days - lol).  Even as we were trying to get pregnant, I figured I would have to do like all the other moms that I worked with - leave my precious little 8 week old baby with someone else while I tried to care about a stupid job**.  I never did price exactly what a babysitter or daycare for 3 newborns would have cost because without getting the actual figures, we knew that it would be really close to my entire paycheck every 2 weeks.  We didn't know how it was going to work, but we knew that God had finally given us our hope and that He would somehow make it work.  He SO did!  My husband had to make some changes...some of them quite bold, which had me scared to death.  But we have never suffered financially.  In less than a year after the kids were born my husband was making more by himself than we had been making together when I was still working.  Did I mention that I had short-term disability insurance at my job that covered my 6 months of bedrest as well as 12 weeks of maternity leave?  I got paid to lay around and grow my babies...what a gig!

So, to my favorite verse, if you haven't guessed it.  Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declared the Lord.  "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you a hope and a future."

I remember receiving this verse, printed on cardstock, at church camp during my senior year of high school. It was tear stained because I had spent time holding it while I prayed, trying to figure out what my major should be.  Talk about perspective - something that was so consuming at the time could now matter so little to me.  I mean, I'm glad that I have a degree...and do occasionally use it now...but if adult Heather could go back in time and talk to 18 year old Heather, she would tell her to figure out what paid the most for the least amount of work but that she didn't hate.  LOL  Don't worry - I will pass this insight on to my children. :)

Being raised in a christian home and very involved in church, I had heard this verse so many times throughout my life.  If someone would have asked me, "Does God have a good plan for your life?" my automatic response would have been "yes".  But although I could spit out the proper words, I don't know that I ever fully had the assurance DEEP, DEEP down in my soul until after going through 5 years of infertility, where I questioned if God even cared about me, much less loved me and had a good plan for me.  Then, after that long trial, being utterly blessed with 3 beautiful, healthy babies.  Although being a mom to 3 at once was possibly even tougher than not being able to be a mom at all, both things gave me the complete assurance that God DOES have a good plan for my life.  It may not come packaged the way that I want.  I may not understand the pain that I have to go through to get to His plan.  But I know that no matter what happens to me, God has a plan to prosper and not to harm me.  A plan to bring me a hope and a future.

Good news folks, the Bible wasn't written just for me.  It was written for ALL of us!  He has a good plan for your life too.  It's a promise!  How awesome is that?!  Work every day to follow that plan.  Ask Him to reveal it to you in His time.  Pray for patience and understanding when His plan doesn't make sense to you.  Spend less time trying to tell God what you want His plan to be for you.  Spend more time giving God "permission" to let His plan lose in your life.  These are words that I'm writing to you, but also to myself.  Because even after my life changing experience there are still times when life hits me in the face and I start out by thinking "why me?"  It may take a while, but eventually, I let God bring me back around to the point where I realize that whatever I'm going through is mostly trivial and that God will make ALL things good in HIS time (another verse there, but IDK the reference).

Thank you God for blessing me with 5 years of infertility where you grew me into the mother that you wanted me to be, the father that you wanted my husband to be, both of us into the couple that you needed us to be in order to raise 3 children and blessing us financially so that I have been able to spend the last 7 years being driven crazy 24/7 by my lovely children.  Please knock me upside the head with the reminder that Your Plan is the Only Plan and that's no problem because is is a wonderfully good plan.

**Please note that I am not knocking on working moms!  Every family has to do what is right for them.  For some that is working.  For me it was definitely being home with my children.  I do feel, very strongly, that our society is missing the boat when it comes to women, working and children.  When we women are preparing for life, no one ever whispers in our ears (much less shouts from the rooftops, like I think they should), "Spend some time thinking about a career, but keep in mind that some day you're probably going to want to have babies.  And you're more-than-probably going to want to stay home with those babies.  So work that into your plan, if you can."  We're told, "You can be anything you want to be!", but we're never told that what we'll probably want, deep in our hearts, is to be "just a mom" to our kids.  No one tells you what a wonderful blessing that is.  Well, here I am to say it.  If anyone reads this as they are thinking about their future and having children, know this...while not all women feel the need to be home, many (and I'd go as far as to say most) do.  No one can raise your children like you do.  If you can fit working into your life, great.  But nothing you do will count as much as raising your children.  Rocket scientist, brain surgeon, Mother Theresa...OK, well, maybe not her...but nothing else is as important as raising your children into the people that they are going to be.  Your children will drive you nuts.  You will long for the days when you could pee by yourself, eat without interruption, have a belly that doesn't have a roadmap of stretch marks.  But the day will come for you, like it has for me, when your children are in school and you miss being driven nuts.  When it feels strange to pee by yourself, not have to share bites of your food...and you'll buy some spanks...unfortunately the stretch marks are there to stay!  LOL
Again, although I am VERY pro-stay-at-home mom, please don't let my words guilt you (unless you feel that God is the one pushing that guilt).  It is not my intent to make any mother feel bad about doing what they feel is right for their family.  I am not that narrow minded that I think there is only one right way.  I just want to say something that I don't think gets said often enough.

Random (and not deep) thoughts

OK, so here are a few thoughts that sometimes pop into my head. I consider facebooking them, but then realize that no one really cares about this stuff. Ha! So, if you make the choice to read on you may have a laugh or 2, or you may be left thinking "I'll never get those 5 minutes of my life back".

Dear Clinique - please make your waxy eyebrow pencil in a screw-up-able form. I am tired of constantly sharpening mine. And half the time I knock the newly sharpened point into the toilet (because I shave it over the toilet and let the shavings fall in) or into the sink. I love the product, but hate the delivery. Thanks!

My husband currently only has 6 pairs of underwear. No wonder he's always running out of clean pairs. ***UPDATE*** In case you're worried, I bought an 8 pack so the underwear situation is under control once again!

Who decided that indigo should be part of the rainbow, or ROY G. BIV? Isn't indigo just a combination of blue and violet and therefore a tertiary (I think) color? No different from yellow-green or red-orange, etc. How does indigo get included? I feel this is not just to the other tertiary colors!

Why is it that every time you come into some extra money, you end up needing it for something and it doesn't end up being extra after all. I guess to be glass-half-full, I should be happy that we have the "extra" there to cover what it's needed for, but I feel more glass-half-empty about it since it happens way too often.  **UPDATE** Feeling way more glass-half-full about the money deal since I wrote the first half of this a while back (it takes me some time to compile random and not deep thoughts).  This month we unexpectedly came up quite a bit short on money.  And then we got money from 3 different sources that we don't usually get it from.  So, life's not always out to get ya. :)

It is sad that my memory is now so terrible that I originally came here to add another "thought" to the list, but after seeing the previous money thought and updating it, I now have NO CLUE what  the first thought was that I was going to add.  GRRRRR!!!  I blame the kids!

Oh, hooray, after clicking on the other tab that I had open in my browser, I remembered what prompted me to open my blog!  Has anyone seen the new Rachel Ray cooking show where she does a week's worth of cooking in one day?  Personally, I think she's missing the boat on that one.  The whole point of cooking several meals at once is to use the same ingredient/cooking method in several different dishes and therefore save prep time and clean up time.  She saves no time, just does 5 unrelated meals back to back.  I only watched 2 episodes before I deleted it from the DVR schedule, but in those 2 episodes I only saw her use ONE ingredient in more than one of her week's worth of meals.  I could so do that show WAY better...minus the raspy voice, of course.

Given the choices of Rick, Rich, Ricky, Richy why is it that people named Richard choose to have people call them Dick?

I gave up Facebook for lent...other than replying to messages and wall posts that are sent to me.  I'm amazed at how little I miss it.

Keep an eye out for a couple of recipe blogs that I need to post.  One for a frappuccino mix!  YUMMO!!!  And another for what I call "Summer Delight" which is a crowd pleasing dessert that includes pudding, fresh fruit, angel food cake and chocolate!  And also a tutorial for making really cool flowers out of old satin shirts.

Homemade DRY laundry soap and other laundry tips

I have several friends that use homemade laundry soap.  The number one reason - cost!  I haven't done the math, but it's pennies a load.  I made liquid laundry soap a time or two and while it did save a lot of money, it was a pain.  Cooking it.  Storing it.  Shaking it before every load.  Too much work for lazy old me!  I stumbled across a recipe for dry laundry soap and thought I would give it a try.  I've been using it pretty much exclusively ever since.  It's super easy to make/store/use.  And is just as cheap as the liquid version.  The only hard part is finding the ingredients.  Kroger carries them all in the laundry aisle.  Not sure about other stores, but if you ask around, I'm sure you can find them.

The ingredients are:

2 cups Washing Soda (not baking soda, although it is made by Arm & Hammer too),

2 cups Borax,

1 bar Fels-Naptha soap (I've heard that you can use other bar soaps, but have never tried).

First grate the bar of Fels-Naptha onto a piece of waxed paper.

If your kids are cheese lovers like mine, warn them not to eat the soap that looks deceptively like freshly grated cheddar!

Spread the soap out and let it air dry for a day or two.  This isn't a crucial step, but if you have the time it helps the soap break into smaller particles in the finished product.

 Using the waxed paper as a funnel, put dried soap along with one cup each of Washing Soda and Borax into a food processor.  Save waxed paper to use again as a funnel later.  You can use your every day food processor.  It's just soap.  Wash it when your done and you can still use it for food.

Process until WELL combined and the Fels-Naptha has broken down into small particles.  Add another cup each of Washing Soda and Borax (2 cups total each) and process until combined again.

Dump onto the waxed paper that you saved.

Used waxed paper as a funnel again and store in an air-tight container.  I use quart canning jars because I had them on hand.  My sister gave me a plastic lid that fits onto a wide-mouthed jar.  It's super handy because I don't have to fight with the lid and rim every time I open the jar.  You could also glue a lid into a rim to keep them together.  From one batch I get over one quart.  I store the extra in a regular sized mouth canning jar, which makes it easy to dump into the wide-mouth jar when I need a refill.

Now, here's the part you're going to have a hard time believing, but you're just going to have to take my word for it.  USE ONE TABLESPOON PER LOAD!!!!  I have washed hundreds of loads with this stuff and it works!  Trust me!  If you use too much it will build up on your clothes and washer parts.  Don't ask me how it works with so little, just trust that it does.

 

Using 1 TBSP at a time, you can see that a batch lasts a LONG time!  I don't know for sure how many loads it does.  Assuming that the end result yields about 5 cups, then you get 80 TBSP (thank you unit converter on my computer - ha!).  So, 80 loads.  I don't remember exact amounts, but let's say the Washing Soda and Borax each cost about $4.00 and the Fels-Naptha is about $2.00.  Also, you can get at least 4 batches out of each box of Washing Soda and Borax.  So, basically $3.00 for 80 loads of laundry - less than 4 cents per load.  And that's probably figuring high.

Some people have said that they don't want to use it because they like their laundry to have a certain smell.  That doesn't bother me, but I use softner in the washer and just buy a scent that I like for that.

I also dilute my softner with half white vinegar.  You can actually use just white vinegar as a softner, but I like to have the scent in there too.

Another laundry money saving tip...use cold water on most loads.  Unless you've got some really dirty, nasty, smelly stuff, cold water will get it clean.

One last money and time saving tip - Bounce dryer bars.  I bought one in March 2010 and haven't had to replace it yet!  It's just starting to show through to the bottom and will probably need replaced this March.  I think they cost about $3.  Can't beat that price.  And not having to throw a dryer sheet in with each load is just one more little time saver.

With 3 kids, I do a lot of laundry.  Probably averages out to a load a day.  So I've done anything I can to make it simpler and cheaper.  Hope what I have learned helps you out too.

Teacher gifts

I had so much fun making teacher gifts this year! It started with the little Post-it Note thingie.

Then I decided to make some caramel corn. I was going to put it in bags, but kept forgetting to buy them when I was out. I had 3 oat containers on hand because I was supplying reindeer food for all 3 of the kids classes, so I improvised and turned them into containers for the caramel corn. It was fun to decorate them.

I started by cutting the containers in half. Then I cut verticle lines up the top half of the container so that it would nest inside the bottom half. The top half has that rolled over part that secures the lid.

After getting the containers the right size, it was just a matter of covering them with paper, ribbon and embellishments. I made a third, but I guess I forgot to take a picture of it.

Decorated hand sanitizer bottles were also included. Although this gift was more for the kids, I'm sure the teacher appreciates the killing of germs too! To make these, there's really only one tricky part - start with a bottle with smooth sides. A lot of bottles are funky shaped. These are from the Dollar Tree and are straight all around. Well, the front bumps out and the back bumps in, but it's still a flat surface to glue the paper to. After that, just use your imagination and make them fun. I had some black paper with silver guitars and thought that "clean hands ROCK!" was the perfect saying to pair up with it. My kids LOVE SpongeBob and they really liked that bottle too. I just used an image from the internet and cropped it to fit the size that I needed. I tried to come up with a third idea so that they'd all be different, but the creative juices must have been running low at that point.

Here's the reason that I had so many oats. The pile is for 1 of the classes. The other 2 classes chose to make the packets as an activity during the party. It's oats and some type of glitter. You can use cake sprinkles or actual glitter. This year I had purchased some blizzard snow for the captured snowflake ornament that I made, so I just used the left overs from that.

I've seen these done in several different ways. One way is to fold a paper lunch sack so that the top is a triangle. Then fold it more than halfway over so that the triangle point faces down. This becomes the nose of a reindeer face. Then you staple "antlers" made of sticks or pipe cleaners on each side at the fold. Add some eyes and it's all set. I go the snack baggie route because they are a lot cheaper and easier to work with...especially when you're making 60!

And, of course, the most awesome gift of all. I took a picture of each kid in the class and turned them into paper ball ornaments. To get them all the right size, I used photo editing software and cropped the faces into a 2.5" circle. I printed them on heavy paper/untextured card stock and then cut out the face circles for the ornament. The rest of it went together just like a regular paper ball ornament. The only tricky part is making sure that all the faces are "up". So, 10 of the 20 triangles should have the folded point at the top of the face and the other 10 should have the folded point at the bottom of the face. 5 "top points" make the top. 5 "bottom points" make the bottom. The remaining 10 alternate to make the middle ring.

Lastly, I added one of the felt Santa ornaments that I made and I had the kids and myself each write their teachers a note of thanks. All the websites say that's what teachers treasure the most...and one of ours confirmed it.

Here's the finished product. I got the baskets at the Dollar Tree and added a bow to the front. I wish I would have gotten a different size basket because everything didn't quite fit right into these and it didn't display as nicely as I'd hoped, but oh well.

So, all in all, I think I spent:

$1 per basket

$1 per sanitizer

$.50 per post-it set

maybe $1 each for the caramel corn supplies

$0 for the paper and ribbon - it came from my stash!

So, less than $5, but a whole lot of time and love went into them. I appreciate my kids' teachers and I hope these gifts help show that!

This is what my crafting area/dining room looks like when I'm done!

Post-it holders

One of the teacher gifts that I made this year was post-it note holders. They cost me a whopping 50 cents each (not counting the paper or glue, which I already had on hand). They aren't anything super special, but they are pretty cute and have that fun home-made flair that turns 50 cents into a gift worthy of giving and receiving.

I got the idea from this site, but made a few changes. Here are my instructions.

Remove the backer from on set of post-its and stick it on top of another set. Add tacky glue* along the top of the stacked set and glue the backer paper to it. When it's dry, cut off the excess backer paper. I'm not sure if this step is necessary, but I figured it can only help to reinforce the top.

*Aileen's tacky glue is my new best friend. This Christmas I have used it to repair many broken ornaments and other decorations that I have previously glued with hot glue. While I also love hot glue, it has it's disadvantages. It does not hold well on smooth surfaces. It takes time to heat up and cool down the gun. Being the klutz that I am, I usually end up burning one or more of my fingers whenever I use it. However, tacky glue has none of these issues and while it doesn't dry quite as quickly as hot glue, it does dry fast and already has a tacky consistency (hence the name) so it grips pretty good from the get go.

Cut a strip of heavier cardstock type paper. It should be just slightly taller than the post-its and long enough to wrap around the post-its and overlap just a bit.

If you are not lucky enough to have a scoring tool and tray (or whatever it's called), then you'll have to improvise, like I did. Find something with a shallow groove - like a paper cutter - and something with a rounded point - like this tool that I have from Creative Memories. Line up the paper where the folds need to be and score along the lines. For this project you will need 4 score lines - 2 to each side of the post-its - so the paper will wrap around the post-it stack. To determine where these lines should be, just lay the post-its on the paper and make a mark to each side. Then turn the post-it pad up on it's side and make another mark at the proper thickness. Be sure to make the "thickness" marks equal on each side. After the score marks are made, fold your paper and check that it wraps nicely around the post-its, but do not glue it into place yet.

Momma needs a mani (and a pedi too for that matter!)

Now for the closure. You have a lot of options - velcro, string wraps, elastics, etc. I was going for simple and what was on hand, so I just used more paper with a flap. Cut an appropriate shape out of the paper you are using or a coordinating paper. With the paper wrap around the post-its, lay the cut-out on top to determine where it looks best. You will be gluing the cut-out to one side of the paper (the left) and making a flap for it to tuck into on the other side (the right). After laying the cut-out on top, make a mark on the right half of the paper, where the flap opening needs to be cut.

Cut the opening and then glue down the cut-out piece. Also glue the post-its into the wrap. Write a nice little note on the first post-it and Ta-da! You have a super cute gift ready to go!

Part old, part new made to look old

This grate was in the ceiling of the kitchen in our house. It was covered over by the drop ceiling that the previous owners had installed and that we ripped out. Back in the day, it must have been how heat got from downstairs to upstairs. I'm guessing that it didn't work so well!!!

Greg took it down before he installed the new ceiling (Yes, I have an awesome husband who can do that sort of thing. Installing new ceilings, that is. Not taking down old grates. Ha!)

I was looking at it the other day, thinking that it would look really cool with something in front of it. So, I set it aside, with plans to make it cool some day. That day came sooner than expected.

When my girlfriends were over for the ornament exchange, I showed them the grate and told them about my plan, when suddenly I remembered a cross that I bought for $3 a few days earlier. It was black, which wouldn't work over top of the dark grate. Someone suggested that I paint it cream and scuff it up to make it look old. That's exactly what I did. Did you know that a nail file works just as well as sandpaper when you want to "antique" something but don't want to walk out to the garage in the cold? This picture is before antiquing.

I LOVE how it turned out. The more of this repurposed old stuff that I add to my house, the more I fall in love with it.

Here is it's new home in my home!

Ornaments

And here it is!!!! The BEST homemade ornament EVER (if I do say so myself...and I do)!!! During the ornament exchange, my sister pulled out a "special" ornament just for me. It was the original Baby Jesus ornament that I made and then gave them all away. It was so super sweet of her and I was about to tear up over it until she broke into the sweetness with a "now you can quit complaining about not keeping one of these for yourself!" comment. Sisters! HA! Love you Melissa!!!! You do have to admit that it really is awesome, right?!?!

I have made quite a few ornaments this year.

Ever wonder what 10 starfish would look like if they were painted like Santas? Well, wonder no longer. These are the ornaments that I made for the exchange this year. I bought the starfish 3 years ago in Daytona Beach on a trip that we made after Christmas. This was after the first ornament exchange and because it was fresh on my mind, and I had made Santa ornaments before, I bought the starfish in anticipation of making them the following year.

Funny story about them...at the store, I had picked out my 10 starfish and left them at the counter to be wrapped while we continued to shop. When we were done looking around the store, I went back to the counter to pay for my starfish, only to find they were gone. Apparently, there were 2 cashiers and 2 different people buying something that had to be wrapped. The cashier that wasn't the one I dealt with, sold my starfish to the other person! The really funny part is that they weren't there to buy starfish! What a surprise they got when they got home and opened the box!

So, back to the ornament saga! Like I said, I bought these starfish 3 years ago. However, for the following 2 years, I forgot that I had bought them until after I made my ornaments for the exchange. This year however, I remembered the starfish when it came time to plan for the ornaments. Of course, things never go smoothly, so although I remembered that I had bought the starfish, when we moved I packed them away "somewhere" and I couldn't find where that somewhere was. I figured that, being the logical packer that I am, I had to have put them with my Christmas decorations, but when I started searching for them I wasn't having any luck. I have 6 plastic storage containers full of Christmas decorations. Can anyone guess which box I found them in?!? That's right, the very last one. And by that, I don't mean the last box that I looked in because obviously I wouldn't keep looking in more boxes after finding them. I mean that I had to look through all 6 boxes to find the starfish and they were in box #6! But I did find them and the end result was very cute!

This is the "dolled-up" version of one of the paper ball ornaments that I posted about earlier. I added the ribbon hanger and some glitter snow paint along the seams. Pretty cute, huh? (BTW - see the little Santa poking his head out of the corner? That was my original starfish Santa. He's quite a bit bigger than the exchange Santas, but you work with what you've got!)

My sister found this paper star ornament idea online. Easy and fun. If you're dying to make it, comment on here and I'll post instructions. The picture doesn't do it justice - it's a lot cuter in person.

This Santa is probably the cutest of the ornaments that I made this year. He almost caused the starfish Santas to be delayed yet another year. But, after making one and realizing how much work he took, I went back to the starfish.

This is another "copied from the internet" ornament. Actually, I think they all are. Maybe not the starfish. I can't remember if I came up with that idea on my own or copied it from somewhere too. Probably copied it. I'm crafty and cool, but better at copying than actually making an original. The hardest part was getting the snowflake to spread back out after shoving it into the ornament hole. In the words of my crafting buddy, Angi, it's a bit "wonky", but still very pretty. The picture could be better, but I liked it best without the flash and there wasn't enough daylight at the time. You get it though. The "snow" in the bottom is iridescent. So pretty!!! The etsy shop selling them called it a captured snowflake. I think that's a pretty good name.

This ornament wasn't made by me, but it's one of the reasons that I make ornaments...because of the memories that go along with them. Pretty much every ornament on my tree has a memory or story behind it. Whether that story is that someone made it, someone bought it for me or that I got it for 75 cents when it was 90% off at Cracker Barrel after Christmas, there's a story that makes each ornament special. So, this one is my husband, Greg when he was probably about 4-5 years old. The red bobbles are coiled pipe cleaners. It's old and no where near up to my crafting standards, but it's one of the sweetest ornaments on my tree. For many years it hung on Greg's family tree. And it still does. We are his family now. Hold the phone! Does that mean that one day my daughter-in-laws are going to want all the picture ornaments of my kids? Not sure I'm prepared to think about that type of thing quite yet!

Merry Christmas Everyone! This year, make an ornament for someone you love!