Too Cute Not to Toot

One of the projects I working on this winter is planning out our yard/landscaping etc.  When I came across this idea form Hometalk I thought it was adorable.  I would have to put a lock on it to keep my kids out of it but it is still a great idea!

Ok, I'm cheating on this one but I saw this idea from an Etsy shop and love it.  It would be so great for traveling - no more wet ziplock bags or hairy tooth brushes because they ended up next to the hair brush and for the price?  Why make it - just order it!

I'm not sure about you but we love Lofthouse cookies - those really soft sugar cookies with the fantastic frosting.  Well, authentic suburban gourmet. tested out a recipe she found on pinterest and then shares it.  Her photos make it look like the real thing but I wonder how close the taste REALLY is? 

Did you know Easter is just around the corner?  (I need to get shopping for some Easter outfits!!) Well, I know that we have Valentine's Day and St Patrick's day first but this idea from Simple as that blog was way to cute not to share here.

This idea is really a list.  I have great memories of my dad reading great books to me as a kid so I want to remember this list of books to read to the boys from Sarah Bessey.  I can attest that I've read most of those as a kid and/or when I was teaching - either to my students or as part of our curriculum.  They really are great books.

One last idea and this one is from HGTV.com and I think the boys would have fun making these this spring and hanging them in the trees.  Every year I say I'm going to hang some bird feeders in our trees but I never do :-)

Happy Crafting :-)

February Preschool

We slowly got back into the swing of things this week for preschool.  Very slowly but we did it!  I actually had plans for Monday and Tuesday but, our little friend who I babysit had a different schedule this week because his baby sister was born on Monday.  He didn't arrive until 10:30 both days so I kept thinking we would do school in the afternoon but I learned that .. .well, by the time the afternoon comes around I'm too tired to want to do school HA!

We did get out a favorite activity on Tuesday.  My mom got these awesome magnetic books for the boys at Josh's birthday and they love them.  Josh is able to match up all of the letters and all of the words for the books he has and he loves making funny faces with the magnets in the books as well.

I couldn't resist snapping some wonderful up-close photos of my boys!

 On Wednesday, we worked on finishing up all of our letter "B" worksheets. Josh was really working hard on tracing the letter "B" . . I finally got him to switch to a sharp skinny crayon instead of the big crayon. 

 Notice that Nate was very busy with peeling the paper off of the crayon - such concentration :-)

 Josh has finally started to master scissors.  Yes, I will admit that I held off on this activity because, well, who wants toddlers to know how to use them?  He was very proud of his finished product.

Yes, Nate is on the table.  That is his latest thing.  We worked on coloring by number, another new skill which Josh caught onto very quickly.

On Thursday we did some review and then worked on a craft (I'll share more later!).

 The boys working on our craft :-)  Josh lives in Pajamas - don't judge.  Nate still chooses to get dressed, which I am thankful for HA!

 Our Bible lesson today was on creation.  Once a week I try to read from this Bible and we discuss the story.  I then review it at dinner time and I would like to add an activity or two related to the passage the following week but I haven't done that yet.

 It was so cute!  I had just finished going through our flashcards with the boys; Josh asked for them and he then quizzed Nate on them all and did a great job.  I love to see them work together.

I LOVE those Faces!!

Finally, on Friday we celebrated a huge snowfall with a . . SNOW DAY!  My husband stayed home because the roads were so bad (he gets up at 3:00 am to leave - so the roads had not been touched. ).  The boys (all three of them) headed outside to shovel and play.

 Josh loved helping out with the shoveling - each of the boys have a small snow shovel so he used it to help clean off Darryl's car.

The boys were running around in the snow for awhile until Nate got a shovelful of snow in the face - then he was done and came inside :-)

No, we don't normally do "school" on Saturday but I thought I would include our activities on this post.  We ran some errands and then went in search of a hill that the boys could sled on.  They were so excited!  This was the first time we actually took them sledding :-)

 The boys decided that the sledding was not nearly as fun as running up and down the hill - this was Darryl saying "Oh, well" HA! 

 The boys took off in search of another hill for future reference and then took a short cut through the baseball field that ended up being a "long cut".  Darryl ended up having to carry the boys at one point because their legs just gave out from walking through drifts that were up to their knees.

It was a great weekend with all of the snow.  We did figure out that the "baby sleds" are not made for going down hills and we need to get a couple of saucers for sledding.  :-)

February Goals

Check out my January goals HERE!

Now it is time to plan for February!!  I'm using my 101 in 1001 goals list to plan my monthly goal lists in order to accomplish as many of those as well!

Home
1. Work on the landscaping/yard plan - this was on January's list but I really didn't spend time on it. I haven't even looked at this yet! 
2. Get a coat rack for the stairs and hang it up. This hasn't happened - I seriously forget to even look for one when I'm out!
3. Start saving to paint the house - the first big project that costs $$$. We are on target to get this done :-)

KIds
1. Start a Savings account for Nate- just so it has the same amount as Josh's so we can go from there. This is done!
2. Continue to try and conquer the diaper boys!! (I.e. Potty Trian!) A work in progress
3. Complete Lessons with the boys - goal is to finish letter C, Review A, B, and C and do lesson D. We had a slow month - lots of time away.
4. Do 3 activities (crafts, games, etc) separate from Homeschool We made birthday cards and also made a snowman craft.
5. Have a movie night with the boys and pop popcorn! Movies are not on the top of my boys list right now - this isn't hapening.

Me
1. Scrapbooking - I'm going to a weekend crop so with that in mind my goals are: 1) Complete July-October 2012.  So close!  I finished July- mid- October . . .
2. Get Earphones for the mp3 player and load music on it Another one of those things I just don't think about.
3. Increase my steps - I average about 5500 steps a day right now so I'd like to increase it to 8000 steps a day. Total Fail.
4. Read another book on my Topic Study Nope.
5. Begin Memorizing "The Sermon on the Mount" Nope
6. Learn to play 2 piano songs Nope
7. Work on healthy lunches for me - I struggle with this and go in cycles of eating really healthy, good for me lunches and eating crap because I'm digging through the fridge trying to find something to eat.  I'd really like to build a 4 week rotation of meals (overlapping many) just so that it is easy :-)  I feel like I was hardly home to eat lunch this month???


Marriage
1. Read and do The Husband Project Haven't even started it.
2. Get Dental Insurance Just didn't take the time yet
3. Order and begin "A Word a Day" Calendar ORDERED!!!
4. Open a savings account (membership) in my name for our true savings Done
5. Have a movie night with the hubs (I.e. I think we will actually be going out to a movie this month!) Done!  We actually saw two movies this month :-)
6. Plan March's budget before March 1st! Done!

Travel
1. Schedule at least one camping trip  Done - actually scheduled two - which is what we wanted to do this summer.

 Crafts/decor/Photography
1. Read "How to Photograph your baby" and do it! Grrrr - so easy yet I didn't do it.
2. Make a list of 100 things about me Nope
3.  Make the John Deere blanket for Nate Nope
4. Pick out 4 things from Pinterest to make/do this month In progress

Organization
1. THE BASEMENT It is about 90 % there!!
2. Organize Recipes into two binders.
3. Organize all manuals into three ring binders
4. Organize all of our tax documents into a file box

Holidays
1. Plan and do something fun for Valentines with the family (Note: The kids will be with Papa and Nana on Valentines day so I'm giving us the whole month to do something!)  Didn't do a thing - focusing on St  Patrick's Day!

Weekly Menu - the week with some fun stuff

This next week I don't have kids.  None. Zero. Zilch!  On top of that it is Valentine's AND I'm going away to a Scrapbooking crop!!! WHEW   Check out this menu!

Tuesday - We are just eating left over Sloppy Joe's from Sunday.  The kids leave today and I'm hosting ladies meeting so I'll be making a few snacks for the evening anyway.

Wednesday - At Christmas, Darryl and I were given a gift that has allowed us to be able to go away.  So tonight, we are using a gift card to go out to eat before heading to a hotel (thank you priceline and our friends for the gift!)

Thursday - We are spending the day together and have plans to eat out :-)

Friday - Darryl is on his own - I'm leaving to head North to scrapbook the weekend away!

Saturday- Darryl is still on his own!

Sunday - I'm not sure what time I will be home so, if I'm home for dinner, I'll grab something on my way in!

Monday  - The kids come home today so . . .I think I'm just going to make a kid favorite - BBQ Cups, Mac and Cheese, and Chips.

How easy is this week?? I LOVE it!!

Food Friday - Molasses Cookies

Molasses Cookies
adapted from . . .. a recipe gathered from a school field trip.

 
 Quite a few years ago, while teaching 4th grade, we took a field trip back in time to an historical village. One of the things we did was make molasses cookies in a wood stove. My job as the teacher was to mix up the cookie dough and bring it with me - the recipe was provided to me and I fell in love with these cookies!!  They are super easy and turn out nice and soft with the perfect flavor.   One note - I seldom melt the shortening and they still turn out fine.  Just make sure that the shortening is combined well with the other wet ingredients. 

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups shortening

½ cup molasses

2 eggs

2 cups sugar

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon ginger

Directions: 

Melt shortening.  Beat wet ingredients.  Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients.  Roll into small balls and then roll in sugar.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

ABC Books

Earlier this year, I saw a great idea on Pinterest about making an ABC book for your kids out of things at home.  It was a concept that I loved and knew I wanted to put together.  I had so much fun taking photos for these books and putting them together.  Trying to find create ideas for each letter of the alphabet that were also important to the boys in order to make the books special.

Aren't those awesome?  The covers are photos that truly reflect each of the boys personalities.  Here are a few sample pages.  For the most part, the pages are the same but I did incorporate some individual shots that were specific to each of the boys to make the slightly different.

Aren't those awesome?  You can see with the "W" page how I used photos of the boys from a trip to the beach to make their books personal.

So, how did I do this?  First of all, I created all of my pages in my Creative Memories Software.  It was super easy.  Then I uploaded the books to order them and nearly fell off my chair at the cost.  There was no way I could order the books.  I was slightly disheartened but started looking around and finally found a way to import my pages into Shutterfly and create my books.  The best part is they had a buy one/get one deal so the cost was actually doable.

I will admit, the kids did not go head over heels about these books like I thought they would but I do catch them "reading" them which makes me very happy.

21 Ways to Connect with your Kids and That's My Son

A few weeks ago I posted about the book 21 Ways to Connect with Your Kids.  This last week I started taking the quiz the author provides in order to narrow down your child's personality.  As much as I love this concept for the book and think that it is great . . .my kids are a little young. The quiz does not fit them at their age.  Instead of worrying about the quiz, I instead am just focusing on the "Connection Ideas" to add some spice to our lives.  The first one is "Fifteen Dollar Family Fun Night". I'm putting this idea aside for when the boys are older because it will be fun for each of us to take turns to plan this type of night.  Right now, my kids go to bed at 7:30 - we really aren't partying at night HA!.  The second Connection Idea is to eat dinner together. Well, we do. Every night.  I will say that right now we are working on teaching the importance of all staying at the table and not wondering around the house.  The boys have to sit down with us, eat something and, when they are done, ask to be excused.  Once they do that, no more dinner! This is a very quick lesson to learn once they go hungry one night :-)

So,for now, I'm working on Connection Idea number three - Looking for the positive.  I think it is so easy to say "No" all of the time and constantly be in "corrective" mode.  I find myself getting frustrated with the boys because they don't respond to what I tell them to do.  What I'm doing now (or trying to do) is to find positive things that they do throughout the day to praise them about.  For example, Josh cleared the table without being asked - I praised him all over the place for that one.  Or when Nate gave up a toy for Josh to play with - tons of  praise all around.  The author gives a list of 50 things you can say to encourage your kids right now such as "I believe in you", "I love spending time with you" or "You make me laugh".

Right now, my husband and I lay down with the boys almost every night.  This started as a discipline corrector - when the boys moved into one room, they played for hours after we put them to bed.  I got so tired of going in their room and yelling at them, moving one into another room as punishment and just being plain frustrated with their behavior.  One night, I laid down with one of the boys and guess what?  They went to sleep.  So now Darryl and I lay down with them - switching boys each night so we get equal time with them.  We sing songs, talk, make shadow puppets and then snuggle with our kid until at least one child falls asleep.  Do you have any idea how much they love this??? They fight over us sometimes . . .well, they fight over Darryl because, in Josh's words, "Dad is more fun" HA!  It is one of the best times for positive reinforcement as we really connect with each child.  And yes, for the record, Darryl and I do fall asleep at times too . . .it's just so relaxing HA!

Before I move on to Connection Idea four, I want to make sure that the idea of being positive is a habit.  Something that just happens without thinking about it.

So, as I'm working on those ideas, I wanted to move on to the next book.  I decided to pick up That's my Son by Rick Johnson.  The premise is "How Moms can influence boys to become men of character."  Isn't that my whole goal this year???  I'm looking forward to really getting into this book and sharing some snippets with all of you!