Random Friday happenings

It's Friday.  I feel like I need to write a post.  My head is spinning with so much.

Last week my oldest son turned 7, this week my youngest son turns 4.  Tomorrow.  I'm struggling to deal with it.  I'm still recovering from my oldest getting older.  I guess, given that they were due on the 8th and 9th of November respectively, I should be thankful that their birthdays didn't end up closer together than they did.

It's also that season.  Winter gear season.  Now I will admit that in the past I haven't bundled my kids and sent them out in the snow often.  Though I think they spent more time outside last winter than in winters past it was a very mild winter and snowpants/boots were rarely required.  I have a gut instinct that we're going to have a VERY cold and VERY snowy winter this year and I'm trying to figure out who needs what.  I save things from year to year because generally speaking my kids hand things down from one to the next each year.  I may have given away some of the 2t stuff though thinking it was boyish and Sierra needed girly.  Seriously.  I'm an idiot.  I don't really care what color her winter coat that she might wear once a week during the season is.  What was I thinking?!?!  Fortunately I have great friends and she's all set for a coat and I did keep the blue 2t snowpants.  Phew. 

Boots.  I hate boots.  I have to get at least one new pair of boots every winter.  This winter it's Colton who is in need of boots.  Though it makes more sense I think to have him wear the slightly too big pair and get Kayd slightly too big boots that might last two winters.  I had all the kids trying on pants and coats and boots and Sierra thought for sure she was going to play outside.  Poor girl was so sad when I told her to take off her snow stuff.

Then I delved into the hats and mittens.  Mittens are worse than socks in this house and we have enough trouble with socks.  I laid out all the mittens, matched up those that matched and then just tried to match based on size and not actual color and about 3/4 of the mittens I have did not have matches in size or color.  Where are all these mittens at??  Seriously, there must be a mitten monster.

We don't use our winter stuff often.  Since my kids don't go to public school and don't have outdoor recess every day it isn't vital that we have a ton of extra snow stuff on hand.  I do like to have two or three pairs of mittens for each child because those get wet and cold quickly and that way I can change them and let them play outside for longer.  But really I have at least a dozen hats here for four children.  Do children really need 3 hats each??  Their coats all have hats as well.

I'm trying to declutter this house before the holidays.  The clutter just makes me feel boxed in and anxious and blah.  There's just so much STUFF with a family of 6 but I'm certain that some of it could go and we wouldn't miss it a bit.  Just gotta figure out what and get it out of here.

Those are my random thoughts today.  Going through our winter stuff was part of my decluttering project.  I did find a few things to pass on to the local coat drive and so I'm happy about that.  I also culled out several hats and VHS tapes we haven't so much as looked at let alone considered watching in more than a year.  With Thanksgiving in less than two weeks I really want to get things in shape as we have out of state visitors coming to spend the holiday with us.  Wish me luck.

Support small businesses this holiday and upcoming give away!

I like small businesses.  I don't always like that sometimes the prices are a bit higher than something you could get at a big box store or popular online shopping sites.  But I love that I'm actually supporting a person who is working hard to provide for their family IN the USA.

Here's how I see it, it's all connected.  I've recently begun my handmade Christmas projects (ok so two months ago I began, lol) and I've been purchasing fabric and thread and other pieces for different projects at stores like walmart and joann fabrics and meijer.  I do shop at the big box stores.  BUT for the work at home mom they buy their supplies at the big box stores and you buy their finished product from them and it supports all links in the commerce chain in the end.  But I think that the small businesses are often neglected.

I am privileged to know online and in real life some fantastic small business moms.  I am one of them even but I'll talk more about that later.  First let me introduce you to my mom friends.

First up is Megan.  She's a mama of two and a military wife.  She recently began selling cloth diapers and cloth wipes that she makes while she's home with her babies and her husband is deployed serving our country.  I was happy to support her when looking for a gift for a dear friend of mine who is due to have her blessing any day now.  She sells her diapers through her Sow Much Love facebook page.  Go check them out.  They are totally cute.
 
Next up is my friend Lisa.  She's a mama of one precious blessing but her store predates motherhood.  She's even semi local to me, living in the same state a few hours away.  She sells jewelry, ornaments, customized decorations for baby's room.  Her site has TONS of greatness.  She sells her stuff through her Little Painted Polka Dots website.  She also has some totally cute Christmas ornaments that can be customized just for you!

There are also those small business mom's who sell things like Mary Kay, Avon, Stampin UP!, Pampered Chef, Scentsy, and my personal fave at the moment, Usborne books.  Buying from these women still helps them support their families.  The previous links are to personal sales websites of other friends of mine.  Personally I like to shop from people I personally know when possible so if you already know someone who has a business through any of these companies and you are interested in their products please speak to your own friends about it.  

I am, personally, an Usborne Books and More demonstrator and I love these books.  I mostly signed up with the company because the sign on package is a good deal.  I also loved that there are no minimal sales requirements to remain a demonstrator.  You can check out what Usborne Books has to offer at my demonstrator website.

Please, this holiday season, consider supporting a small business, a work at home mom, or both with your dollars.  

And exciting news!!  A giveaway people!  Not just one giveaway.  Not just two giveaways.  But THREE giveaways!!!  Next Wednesday, right here on this blog you will have the chance to enter a giveaway for one of Meg's great diapers!  The following Wednesday you will have the opportunity to enter a giveaway for something from Lisa's fabulous collection.  And the Wednesday after that I will be a giving away some Usborne products.  So come back next Wednesday to learn more about Meg's diapers and enter for a chance to win one! 

*I was not paid for my endorsement or opinions of these women, their companies, or any other companies mentioned in this post.  If you shop through the Usborne link I will get a commission from those purchases.

Christmas, giving, family fun, and handmaking it

I have a number of things going on for Christmas this year.  It might be optimistic to think that I can make this much out of a single month.  Oh, but I totally intend to make it happen.

There will be the giving project.  We will do something for a random act of kindness or giving to our friends/families each day for the first 24 days of December.  There are tons of resources for great ideas for this online.  I've found several lists through pinterest and will link to everything at the end of my post for anyone interested in doing something similar.

This year the idea of doing a fun Christmas activity each day also appeals to me and feels doable.  Sierra is getting a bit older and if I nap them the kids tolerate being up late pretty well so we have a little more leeway than we've ever had in the past.  Again there are tons of lists going around on pinterest for this too.  Again I will link to those at the end of this post but also come back because once I have my list compiled I will be sharing it here!

A third thing I want to do each day for the first 24 days of December is The Truth in The Tinsel.  I saw this last year but funds were tight.  This year I got it as part of a great sale I caught on various e-books for homeschooling etc.  I have already printed it out and put it in the Christmas part of my day planner.  I'm going to start collecting the craft supplies in the next few weeks so I'm all set for December.  I plan to collect the items each day into a bin we can pull out in the evening and work through this as our nightly devotions with the kids.  I really like this because it is very similar to the Jesse Tree idea but everything is laid out for us.

And finally a fourth note on Christmas this year.  I've mentioned it in passing in other posts but I wanted to expound on it a bit.  We're doing a handmade Christmas this year.  I decided back in September when inspiration struck me in the form of pinterest.  We are going to sit the kids down right after Thanksgiving and talk to them about our handmade Christmas this year so they won't be blindsided on Christmas day at the lack of store bought gifts.  I hope to get them involved and encourage them to make something for their brothers/sister.  I think I might have them each draw a sibling name and make something for that sibling - with my help of course.  I will have a more detailed post with links and pics of what I'm making for the kids.  And I will probably still have NO idea what I'm making for KOJ.

How do I plan to make all of this happen??  Well, for one, we take most of December off from school.  It's part of why we start so early in August.  Our giving project will constitute our social studies for the month.  I will probably have Kayd continue in his math, grammar, and spelling (much to his dismay I'm sure), but I plan to add in a lot of fun hands on projects, activities, and fun printables like mazes and crossword puzzles as I find them for him.  For the month of December though our priorities are going to be the giving project, Truth in the Tinsel, handmade Christmas projects, and the fun holiday activities.  So yes, it sounds like a lot, but since we can forgo school without pushing us into July at the end of the year I do think it will be completely doable and hopefully a fun and memorable holiday season for the kids.

Ok link time.  I found these links on pinterest but I'm linking directly to their sources.

Giving project/Random Acts of kindness links:
Random acts of kindness printable
Free printable RAK'd card
A great list of Random Acts of Christmas Kindness
Light Em up!
RAK for the school classrom - LOVE this for my teacher friends

Christmas family fun activities links:
Christmas books
50 things to do at Christmas
Advent Activities
Making an Advent Calendar

OTHER:
101 things, tips, and tricks for Christmas

Again you can always search keywords on pinterest.  My searches pulled these and so many more great ideas up.  And remember to come back here for my own lists in the coming weeks. 

Sew Saturday: Peek a Boo book

A quick post from me today.  I mentioned in a recent post that we attended a baby shower for some dear friends of ours.  When I began working on my homemade Christmas projects back in December and decided to do a quiet book for Sierra I KNEW right away that I wanted to do a quiet book of some kind for my friends' new baby as well.  The thing is that the quiet book for Sierra has taken hours and hours.  So I began searching around for a quiet book idea that would be simple to make, be made of fabric and sewing, and be something safe and fun for a baby.

I stumbled across a peek a boo book here at Oopsey Daisy and thought it was perfect!  But I wanted something a little less holiday themed.  And I needed to work with what I had on hand.

I do not have pictures of the process but it was pretty simple and the final product mostly speaks for itself.

I began digging through the mounds of scrap flannel I have in my house at the moment and found that animals was a common theme on a lot of them.  So I dug out my favorite ones and cut out the animals.  While digging I found this great black fabric that has kind of a velour feel on one side and silky feel on the other side and I thought it was perfect for a baby experiencing new textures.

I took my felt and cut it to size.  Then I took the black material and cut out squares for the flaps.  I sewed two squares together for each flap taking care that I would end up with a velour feeling side and silky side on each one.  I used my zig zag stitch to sew the animals onto each page then I sewed the black flaps over the animals.  Some of the flaps opened up, some down, some left, and some right. I added the name of each animal in freehand cross stitch.  Not my favorite thing to do but I think it added a cute touch mostly.

The last page of the book was my favorite.  I had found a template for a penguin finger puppet on pinterest and I sure did enjoy making him.  He was super cute.  I attached ribbon to the book page at the same time as I attached the black flap on this page and I attached the other end of the ribbon to the penguin's head.  This way the baby could pull it out and play with it and my friend wouldn't have to worry about it getting lost.

Once each page was made I sewed two pages back to back again using my zig zag stitch.  Then I put eyelets in the top left corner of each double page and I put a book ring through all the pages to make the book.

And that is this week's sew Saturday project.  Come back next week to see the wet bag I made her.

This post is linked up at

November goals, cleaning, handmade holiday, and a thankful heart

It's a new month.  A month that I think tends to fly by when we're not looking.  Much like October did.  I got a lot accomplished in October and I hope to be able to say the same about November.  This is really just an ideal goal list.  I'm not going to beat myself up if I miss something but I think it will be helpful to review it and update my readers every week to help keep me on track.  I mentioned in a recent post that I've begun using a weekly planner and it has been super helpful to my productivity level.  I will continue to use that this month.

Goals:

Cleaning/decluttering:
1. keep up with regular house work
2. work through the 31 days to clean e-book to deep clean the house for the holidays.
3. get rid of at least three bags of stuff to goodwill.

Handmade holiday - a note on this: we are doing a handmade holiday.  The boys will be getting a big tub of legos from us with a homemade lego building idea book, but only because I found these at goodwill and couldn't pass up the deal, legos are expensive when bought new!  Sierra will be getting a leapfrog toy that I bought on clearance after Christmas last year.  They will get a gift from Santa and their stockings filled.  Everything else from us will be handmade.  We're also doing handmade for our extended family members and really I'm very excited about the whole thing.

1. Finish capes
2. Make Sierra's and Emily's photo block puzzles
3. find a gift for KOJ
4. finish Sierra's quiet book
5. paint peg people for kids
6. finish I spy quilts
7. Finish sibling gifts

I finished our parents and my SIL's gifts today.  Other than the photo block puzzles I've begun all the other projects.  I will also be making pj pants for the boys and nightgowns for Sierra, Emily (my baby sister), and two of my nieces, but I will wait until after I get flannel on black Friday.

Thankfulness

1. have the kids do some projects on thankfulness, including writing/drawing in journals about things they are thankful for.
2. post something I'm thankful for either on FB or here on the blog every day this month.

It's going to be a GOOD month!  I just know it!

Halloween 2012

Well this is going to be a short post.  We love Jesus and we do Halloween.  I let my kids dress up and we go trick or treating.  They are never allowed to wear scary or gory costumes but we do let them dress up.  I'm ok with this.  Normally we go to a trunk or treat event that a local church holds.  I like this for a few reasons. 

1. We see a lot of people we know there.
2. One stop and it takes up the entire 1.5hrs that the city gives us to trick or treat.
3. There are little games to play at most of the trunks along the way.

But because the weather was drizzly and COLD last night we decided to go to the safe trick or treat at the school in the next town over.  Only then at about noon my mom messaged to let me know that this had been canceled.  Bummer.  But there was a church there that was having an indoor event so we decided to head over to that.

We loaded up our two spidermen,

Bob the builder,

Little Red Riding Hood,

and made our first stop at a friend's house where instead of candy she was taking professional digital photos, we reloaded and headed over to the church in the next town over.  That event only took us about 30 min or so and the kids really wanted to keep going.  Being the super smart mom that I am I had tossed their warmer coats into the car when we left home so we went back to the van and bundled up and headed out.  Being the super smart mom that I am I sent KOJ back to get the car and park it at the opposite end of the street we were venturing down.  This way tired, freezing children wouldn't have to traipse back to the car several blocks.  We went to maybe 10 houses but I sorted out the candy today and found that they got a decent haul in my opinion.

I sorted the candy out and divided it by types evenly into baggies for the kids to eat out of for the next week or so.  I sorted out most of the non-chocolate candy to take in to our church for the Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes we put together as a church.

Kayden turned 7 and his skyscraper cake!

Two days ago the son who made me a mother turned seven.  I look back at the seven years and we have made so very many memories and yet I look at my tall, slender son and wonder where on earth has the time gone?  Where has that little baby gone?  I remember with fondness rocking him to sleep, snuggling him during his babyhood, reveling in him learning to walk and finding his independence.  I even very vividly remember the first time he dumped an entire box of cheerios on the floor and began eating them one by one and I just laughed and took pictures.  The second time it was a little less funny, and eventually became completely unfunny altogether.  

He is the son that I made most of my mistakes on so I could parent better with the next ones.  He is the son who made me appreciate how easy of a baby my next one was.  He is the son who amuses me with almost everything he says.  I LOVE to hear the way his mind works and hate that my laughter hurts his feelings, because that is most certainly never my intent.

I'm so thankful to have been made a mommy by this son.  This big brother of all big brothers.  He's so great at his role.

For his birthday we let him have a friend over on Saturday and did a few special things.  

Super yummy caramel apples with caramel.  I found this caramel "recipe" on pinterest.  Ha, I spend a lot of time on pinterest. lol  You just take a can of sweetened condensed milk and stick it in a crock pot - put something under it, I used foil, you could use a saucer, but the can will leave rust marks if you don't put something under it. Cover it completely with water.  It has to be completely under water or there is a danger of exploding.  Put it on low for 8hrs.  Cool completely for several hours before opening.  I rinsed mine in cold water and then stuck it in the fridge for about 4 hours before opening.  It was perfect.  Honest.

Then ON his birthday he asked for pumpkin pancakes which were really yummy.

Then we took the kids to the children's museum where we were the ONLY people there besides the employees.  We had so much fun.

Came home for presents.

Spaghetti and meatballs is what he asked to have for dinner.  That was followed quickly by the much awaited "City and skyscraper" cake that Kayd had requested.  I think I pulled it off ok. I was pretty proud of the whole thing.  Tried my hand at marshmallow fondant even.  Seriously people - SUPER easy.  Very sticky, but SUPER easy.  Just search on pinterest.  I read about 5 different blog tutorials about it and they were all pretty much the same.

And then the day was done.  After he went to bed I told KOJ that I felt like the day was not a good one.  I felt kind of detached from it, like I was just going through the motions because it's what I'm supposed to do.  He told me I get slightly depressed on all the kids' birthdays.  Who knew?  Well, regardless of how I felt or viewed the day Kayd assured me that he had a great birthday.  I'm so glad he did.