MADE: grocery bag dispenser, goo, and a craft

We've been MIA here for awhile.  Sorry.  No excuse other than I just get caught up in other things sometimes.

Husband commissioned me to make something that would solve the problem that WAS our pantry overflowing with plastic grocery bags, so I made this grocery bag dispenser from the tutorial on Make It-Love It.   I just used a single piece of fabric to save time (she sews a few different fabrics together, in stripes)

Extremely easy.  

I hung it on the pantry doorknob but it just seemed too low, so I hung it on the hinges.  It's cute enough to be showing and I'm just happy the kitchen is somewhat more organized.

You know me.  I don't like to make a trip to the store for anything if I don't have to, so I used lace for the ribbon, because I didn't have any ribbon.  Works just fine.

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I've been on a mission to do more fun things with and for my kids, so we made this goo (from Our Best Bites) that I had been promising G we'd make every day for at least a couple of weeks.  We finally did it yesterday.  I'm still working on the procrastination thing, but I think it's a worthy enough goal.

It entertained them for quite some time.  I put a big piece of freezer paper down on the kitchen floor for them to smash it down on.  They had a friend over when we made it, and they got tiny toys and cars out, to 'bury' in the goo.  They loved it.  (didn't get any good pics)  Here's a different recipe at Tot Treasures, if you don't want to buy Borax.

We put it in a ziploc baggie so they can play with it again and again.

And then there was this 'mess-free finger painting' idea, I saw on Mama Smiles.  They loved this too.  Put some tempera paint in a freezer ziploc baggie, tape to the counter with a piece of paper underneath, and let them go to town, without having to worry about the mess it'll make.  -I- loved this one too.  

We used primary colors, so we got to see how they mixed and made new colors.  We just left them taped to the counter, so they can come back and play any time they feel like it.  Then, when they get tired of these colors, we'll switch to something new.  Maybe next time we'll make tertiary colors with a primary and a secondary in each bag.

After-School Snacks

Both of my boys are in school this year!  They started on Monday.  I plan to welcome them home each day, with a lovingly-prepared after-school snack and some one-on-one conversation about their day.

I'm LOVING all of this free time I suddenly have, and have used it for grocery shopping, meal planning, cleaning, and preparing yummy dinners and treats.  My home has never stayed this clean, and we've never eaten this many yummy meals, this many days in a row.

I thought I'd share some of our after-school snacks.  If I continue this routine as I intend to, I should have new ones to share each week.  So far, every one of them has been a HUGE success, and I know the boys look forward to coming home and seeing what I've made for them that day, which keeps me going.  Griff only goes to half-day Kindergarten, so he gets to come home and help me prepare our snacks, which is fun for him.  He's always been the child of mine that likes to help in the kitchen.

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I found each of these recipes via Pinterest.

*click on the name of each snack and it will take you to the source of the recipe

*Strawberry and Mango Salsa with Cinnamon Chips

   Doesn't that sound good?  It WAS.  Griff thought it was so cool that we were MAKING our chips all by ourselves, and of course he loved that there was cinnamon and sugar on top!  And I loved the fresh fruit.  Mmmm!

*Homemade no-bake granola bars

   These were the favorite for this week.  Adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe, these are beyond easy to make (3 minutes of work?  yes, please!), and oh so delicious.  I ended up making a second batch the very next day, to put in Colson's lunch.  They're that easy.  And because the loaf pans are lined with foil, I lift the bars right out and put the pans back in my drawer.  Easy clean up.  Then I reuse the foil as dividers, when I put the bars in a tupperware container.  We made the s'mores version, but replaced the honey with brown rice syrup because we never have honey in our pantry.  It tastes GREAT with that replacement!

 Note: recipe only makes about ten, so you may want to double or triple it and then use a bigger dish for letting them cool.

*Tiny Tuna Melts (when you click on it, it just takes you to a picture, so I linked to the 'pin'.  The directions are written there, under the picture)

  I thought it would be good to get some protein in the mix, every once in awhile.  I think it helps my kids stay full [and happy], longer.  I made these on the day that C had soccer practice.  I didn't think a sugary treat would have been the best idea, if I wanted to keep him from getting cranky.  The boys gobbled these up.

*Homemade fruit snacks

  Please, if you do this one, notice in the instructions for the ones made with jello, she says '2 .25 oz' envelopes of unflavored gelatin.  I realized, after I had already added the 2.25 ounces, that she was saying 2 -.25 oz envelopes (so basically .5 oz of unflavored gelatin).  Yes, I added 4 1/2 times the amount it called for and ours were a little tough, but the boys still liked them.  : )  I plan to make them again, to redeem myself.  Maybe I'll try the juice concentrate version.

  And I used the little silicone molds we have, from IKEA.  We have fishies and hearts.  Sometimes you can find these molds at the dollar store, too.

*Chips and 'Bitchin'' Sauce

  All you need is a blender.  Because I've recently been on one of my health food kicks, I happened to have ALL of these ingredients in my kitchen.  Nutritional yeast and liquid aminos are not your typical ingredients.  You can use soy sauce as a substitute for liquid aminos, but you can also find it at the health food store, along with nutritional yeast.

  I was curious to see if they'd like this, because it's a different flavor than what they're used to.  Spicier.  But they LOVED it.  The only problem with this sauce is that they kept asking what it was called and all I could say is, 'Um, it's just sauce.'  Guess I should think up a new name for it.  : )

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I like to put a little note in Colson's lunchbox.  He hadn't mentioned any of them, so the other day I asked, 'Did you read the note in your lunchbox?'  He said, 'Yeah'.  I said, 'Did you like it?'  With tears in his eyes, he said, 'Well, yeah I did, but. . . .it kinda made me miss you and wish you were there with me.'  I said, 'Oh, I'm sorry sweetie!  I was hoping it would remind you that I love you and I'm thinking of you.  Should I not put notes in your lunch anymore?'  He quickly said, 'No!  You can keep putting them in.'  

Sweet boy, that one.

Teaching the meaning of Easter . . .

For our family home evening this last Monday, we used the idea that Carrie posted about here.  There are lots of great "Resurrection Egg" ideas all over pinterest.  Here is another one that I liked from Carrie. 

 

We also used pictures from the Gospel Art Kit (The Last Supper, The Garden of Gethsemane, The Betrayal, The Crucifixion, and the Empty Tomb).  These really helped our little ones understand better, since they could "picture" what was happening.

For our treat, (since our eggs didn't hold candy) we had jellybeans, and read the "jellybean prayer".





Jellybean Prayer made up by, Kelsie at Love, Kelsie Rae





You could even do the jelly bean idea alone, and expand it the way this mom did, identifying each color meaning with a different name for the Savior.  Simple, yet significant.

While we were having our family home evening, some friends of ours stopped by and brought an Easter basket with, you guessed it . . . "Resurrection eggs", to share their "tradition" with us.  Soooo sweet.  We've been opening them each night, to reinforce our lesson.  Yet another good idea . . . have your kids help you assemble "Resurrection eggs" to share with your friends, and then deliver them.  :) 

Happy Easter!

Choose the Right

We've been talking lots and lots about choosing the right with our kids. The other day, while perusing pinterest (love me some pinterest!), I found a tut for changing the background color on CTR rings. I'm pretty excited about it! We're going to put them in the kids Easter baskets. I wanted to link to the tutorial. I searched pinterest for a pin that actually links to the sight where they got it, and none can be found. Sorry, but thank you, who ever you are!

I started with the normal green CTR rings I picked up at Deseret Book for $1/ea.

Then after some mishaps caused by guessing on the process, I dropped the rings in a cup of nail polish remover for 10 minutes. I put the first one in for a little less than that, but I found that the ring left in 10 minutes cleaned up much more easily. I used a toothpick and my fingernail to clean out the hard to get to places.

Then I made sure to rinse in warm water so the remover was completely gone before I started to add the nail polish. I found some pretty blue and pink nail polishes for $1/ea. It takes very very little nail polish.

I added the nail polish, even covering the letters. Then I cleaned the edges of the shield with a q-tip dipped in nail polish remover. To clean the letters, I found it best to lay the q-tip flat on its side and sweep it down the top of the ring. That way it only takes the polish off the letters.

Even though they love the green background, Jack and Addie are going to be so excited to have CTR rings that are their favorite colors!

Conference with Kids...

I  LOVE this time of year when the weather (at least currently in Texas) is perfectly warm, the flowers are starting to bloom, and we get to welcome spring by celebrating Easter AND (for members of our church )  we get to listen to  General Conference. I always love the feeling of having my spiritual batteries fully recharged and getting to hear and learn from inspired messages from our beloved church leaders. As wonderful and spiritual as it can be...with kiddos it can sometimes be a little bit of a challenge...
We have done a few different things over the years to help our kiddos look forward to and get something out of conference...Some of the things we do for conference are:

Conference Crepes (we have done this for the past 12 years since we first got married and it's one of our all time favorite family traditions) --the morning of conference, before it starts, we make and eat crepes filled with fruit, pudding, fresh whipped cream, peanut butter, nutella, lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar, eggs...every year we try some different combos- it's awesome and our kids love this!  We make sure to finish up before it starts and everyone is full and ready to listen! we usually eat what's left for a lunch snack, and have an easy crock pot dinner.

Conference Bingo- is always a must! this tradition has stuck around and we do it each time. We use candy as the bingo pieces, the kiddos place a piece on the pictures that show what the talks are about. We do the black out version to help it go longer...they try to black out the board before eating any pieces...this is harder for the littler ones;) Get yours HERE ( I love this one because you can mix up the categories by refreshing the page, that way everyone gets different bingo cards with out having to go to multiple websites:)

Conference Packets- Another tradition we can't do with out! I know there are many different versions of this, but we always get ours here  I like to punch holes and put them in binders to keep the pages together and make it easier to work in. I have the same binders that I've used over the past years, and it's always fun each conference to go through them and see what the kids did 6 months ago while I  replenish the sheets..

I love what this gal did to get her packets ready for conference:

(this pic is from her post here-- she has other great conference ideas too)

Conference Tent (idea from the Friend magazine and recommended by Grammy:)- we've done this twice and love it...but we decided it's a once every year, or every other year tradition as it can be time consuming if you have a ginormous, hard to assemble tent, like we have. But the kids LOVE it when we do it...we hope to do it for the next conference in Oct. (this pic of our tent below was taken last year...I can't believe how tiny Lily looks and how cute she looks with her arms folded)

This year we are going to try doing this in lieu of the tent.....

Conference Wall- (PDF and idea found here)-- you post different topics on a wall and cut out pics of the First Presidency and the quorum of the 12 Apostles. After a talk, one member of the family puts the picture of the person that spoke under the category. It helps kids and adults alike to pay attention. I like that we can do this as a family and it gives a great visual on what the over all theme was for that specific conference. I also love that, if laminated, you can use it over and over each time (just need to print and laminate new pics as new members of the quorum and presidency are added) 

Happy Conference Weekend Everybody!! Enjoy it!!!

"Guardians of the Hearth"

Do you ever have those moments where you wonder how your kids stay alive?  I mean with their curiosity and fearlessness . . . I feel like I’m always holding my breath! 

We went on a family camping trip over spring break.  We had a great time, and the weather was beautiful!  We even got to swim and fish!  Camping really is a prime opportunity for “things” to happen to your children.  I mean, there’s fire, and a lake, and fire starting and wood cutting supplies, etc.  Even the lanterns can burn if touched!  It’s a little bit of heaven on earth for kids though . . . dirt, water, sky, sticks, bugs, and all sorts of things to “tinker” with. 



Yes . . . they are in their underwear . . . didn't think it would be warm enough to swim.  :)



We took the boat out to this awesome sandy beach which we had ALL TO OURSELVES.  The kids fished for awhile, buried each other in the sand, and played with the minnows (that were our bait).  They made little “pools” in the sand for the minnows.  They swam and played in the sunshine all day . . . it was wonderful.  Upon returning back to our camp, Caleb decided to take his “bare feet” over to the woodpile to “tinker” around a bit.  He picked up the hatchet and was singing “Eye of the Tiger”, in his mind, while he was chopping away at the wood (not following the “rules”).  Well . . . needless to say, he “hatcheted” his bare foot to the bone.  My husband scooped him up and ran.  We were an hour from the hospital, but they made it, and he was all stitched up.  Super scary!

That weekend, we learned that our dog had gotten out, and that our 6 yr old (Luke) decided to chase him across a really busy road and had almost been hit by a car (that our friends were driving – that’s how we knew about it).  It was bad – they came within about 8 feet of hitting him.  SERIOUSLY??!!  What is wrong with my children?

Then a couple days later . . . on Monday, I was at Target and it was a REALLY windy day!  I told Claire, my 3 yr old, to stay close to me cause there were cars.  Well, Claire was pretending to get blown by the wind and was swinging her arms and walking backwards (saying, whoa, whoa, whoa!) . . . I was getting the baby out of the car and turned around just in time to see a car back into her!   I started screaming and waving my arms.  The whole thing was kind of surreal . . . where everything is in slow motion.  Amazingly, Claire didn’t even fall down.  The lady was going really slow (thankfully).  She felt TERRIBLE . . . she was shaking . . . I was shaking, but Claire was just totally fine, and really didn’t want to talk about it.  I think she was embarrassed.  (Didn’t I JUST say to stay close to me because there are cars!?!?!)

So, the next day was Tuesday, and it was time for Caleb to get his stitches taken out.  Yea!  He was so excited that he could get back to playing soccer!  Later that VERY day, Luke, our 6 yr old, fell from a tree he was climbing in our front yard.  He ran into the house – screaming that he had broken his arm.  His lips were turning white and he was shaking like crazy!!  He couldn’t move his left arm and his fingers looked purple.  I tried to feel the arm, gently, and could tell that the humerus bone wasn’t straight.  I wrapped him in a blanket and it was yet another trip to the emergency room.  Well . . . the humerus was in fact broken . . . IN HALF!  It would have been a compound break if it weren’t for the bicep muscle which kept the bone inside the skin.  He had to have surgery and have 3 pins placed.  The surgeon said that it was the worst break he’d seen . . . and he’s fixed about 700 of these!  He had to be admitted to the hospital, so I stayed the night with him and they let us go home the next evening.

Well, I’m really hoping that these “injuries” and close calls have slowed my sweeties down a bit . . . but that’s probably wishful thinking on my part!

We had a special family home evening on “safety”.  We talked about keeping the commandments (“in this there is SAFETY and peace”), specifically “thou shalt honor thy father and mother, that thy days may be long upon the land”.  We explained that to honor us as parents, they must “listen to us and follow our directions”, because it is our job to teach them, and protect them, and help them to be happy.  We explained that we have their best interest in mind – ALWAYS – but they have to trust us.  We hope that our kids decide that they’d like to stay alive a little longer, and start to listen to us a little more, and heed our warnings.

I’ll tell ya what – it’s been rough for me as I watch my children repeatedly be in harm’s way.  I’ve had lots of tears, and lots of prayers, and lots of “what am I doing wrong?”.

These were all physical dangers, but I began to think about the vast amounts of spiritual dangers that surround us and our children.  These dangers are even worse, because they are not readily detected, and can creep up on us.  I thought we were doing all that we needed to do to keep our kids safe from physical dangers, yet here we are, and my confidence has been shaken.  As scary and sad as these physical dangers have been for me as a mother, I know that spiritual wounds, accidents, damage, to my children would be soooooo much harder to face.  I am feeling a heightened awareness to the spiritual dangers that surround us.  

The lesson that I've come away with (cause there must be SOMETHING that I needed to learn) was that I need to be vigilant in my efforts to be a “guardian of the hearth” and a protecter of my family, from both physical AND spiritual dangers.  :)

You can read "Guardians of the Hearth":  Establishing, Nurturing, and Defending the Family, for some good advice and guidance.

C is for...

Today was my turn to teach our co-op preschool. There are 6 rambunctious little 3 year olds (and Jack) that come and run around. Its lots of fun, but also stresses me out. As most people know, 3 year olds are not known for their attention span. I want them to leave here having learned something, but sometimes that's really hard.

I had lots of fun today, hopefully, they did too! I love to watch all their cute little personalities interact, and listen to their little (often hilarious) gems of wisdom.

We always let the kids play for a few minutes when they first get here. Then we got in our circle and sang the ABC's. Then we started talking about the letter C.

C is for Caterpillar: We talked about my friend Connie the Caterpillar (using a story from Frontline Phonics with lots of alliteration). We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. Then we made balloon art caterpillars (from here).

C is for Cookie: We read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura

Numeroff.

C is for Counting: We fed cookies (Cookie Crisps Cereal) to the Cookie Monster (I found a picture on google images, cut out the mouth, and taped it to a bowl). I would give them a specific number of cookies they had to feed him and then they would use tweezers (the big kind. Mine came from the Bed Bugs game) to put that amount in his mouth. They didn't quite grasp the concept, but it was still really fun.

C is for Car, Cats, CTR, Candy: Next we decorated a letter C with stickers of things that start with C. I was going to have them glue on some of the cookies and little candies (mini m&ms), but they were having so much fun just with the stickers that we decided to fore go the rest of the mess.

We always end with some dancing. We LOVE jitterbug.tv! They have all kinds of kids music available. My kids love to go through and try out different songs all the time. The most popular choice of song for this preschool group is definitely We Are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner.

(The letter C paper and the feeding cookie monster activity came from home schooling activities I've seen Carrie do that I adapted to fit our topic and age group.)

I love you because...

When I saw this on Pinterest I knew I had to have it! 

I needed a simple version like this for our bedroom with the hope that it wouldn't look too cheesy,

so I just made my own and bought a frame on clearance at Micheal's:

We've had this hanging on our bedroom wall for a month now and it has been so much fun!

We write on it secretly, when no one is looking :)

I have found myself looking forward to seeing what my husband writes about me, and when I notice that it has changed it is such a fun little pick me up during the day. It has helped me look for the good and wonderful things about my husband rather than focusing on the negative.

I'm thinking I want to have one in each of my kid's room too.
What a fun way to let each person know you've thought about them and you notice how special they are!

As mentioned, I originally saw this on Pinterest which led me to Kiki Creates. Check out her cute ideas! There are a lot of different ways you could do this to make it work for your family like putting it on your refrigerator, in the playroom, inside closets (in case boys think its too cheesy, but you know they would secretly love it).

You can visit her etsy shop for more colorful versions.

If you're looking for a more simple design, you can print my plain version here!
{Go 'File' to 'Print' or just click the printer icon in the upper left corner}
It will fit in an 8x8 square frame. Simply place the paper behind the glass and use dry erase or window markers to write.

All Aboard!!

Day Out with Thomas

is coming back to Utah May 27-31st! You'll want to get tickets early to get a discount. Don't live in Utah? That's okay! Go here to see when he comes to a city near you.

Last year we had a blast!

Go here to see our adventures with Thomas.

Wallpaper

I found this cute kid wallpaper on A Cup of Jo. Cute for a boys room or a little nursery, don't ya think?