Recipe: Yummy Water!

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Water is a big topic at our house.
I manage to drink plenty, but I don’t always enjoy doing it.  Different types of water have different
flavors to me.  Some of them make me down
right nauseous.  I’m not a big soda drinker either, but I do love me some black tea or coffee.  mmm-mmmmm…
Sun tea!
If you’re looking to drink more water, give this a try!
You can cut your cucumber and lemon with a sharp knife.  I personally LOVE using my mandolin slicer.
Tangerine is great in water too!
We love our Camelbak bottles.  I had admired a few different friends using them before I finally bought them for our family.  Now we’ve also been buying them for gifts too!  They’re easy to clean and replacement parts if you need them, are cheap.
When we go on day trips I bring along a gallon jug of water to refill our bottles.
What do YOU like to add to your water?  

Picture: Messy Corner

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I am seeing dozens of posts on Facebook about organization and cleaning.  A trip to Target yesterday proved “organization” must be the trend right now.  The Christmas items have been clearanced out & many organizational tools now fill their spot.
Well for me, I believe fully in the phrase “the less you own the less that owns you”.
Today I’m creating joy in this messy little corner.  This is our “donation station”.
Those little printed signs get taped to the wall each time we do a whole house purge.  We’ve been doing this for 5 years now & find it to be good for all of us.  Especially after Christmas!  The grandparents, aunts and uncles were so good to our kiddos. 🙂  Time to pass on the old things to someone else so the kids can enjoy these new things.

Christmas Cheer: Simple Gift

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Here’s a very simple gift for anyone on your list. 
We won big at our town Christmas Celebration (I’m talkin’ grand prize kind of big.  It blessed our socks off, folks!).  It was such a great surprise that we chose to turn some of that money back into blessing others. 
I purchased some $5 gift cards from the local coffee shop.  I also asked for a cup for each card, because I think it makes cute packaging. 
We stopped at another local store to buy some candy for filling. 
 
 
The basics
 
Put the envelope in first.
 
Fill with candy and snap the lid on. 
 
Some of the cups have ornaments or other things in them.  After looking at these I wish I would’ve bought more candy for filling (or eaten less while we were filling them).  I also wish I would’ve bought candy canes to stick in the straw holes.  That’s what I did a few years ago, and it really adds a nice touch. 
 
As a bonus, the kids got to help with this project.  What kid doesn’t love playing with candy, right?  We did color sorting, patterning, adding, multiplication and division.  Oh, and a little taste testing.  For quality control, ya know? 
 

Merry Christmas!

Choosing Christmas Cheer

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Some years Christmas time usually leaves me frazzled, anxious, worn out & disappointed.  But this year I don’t feel any of those things!  I am so in love with this whole Christmas season & celebrating the birth of Jesus.
  I’m most thankful that I had another year of making memories with my little family.  Praise Jesus for these good times!
Here is what’s working for me this year:
  • I chose not to make platters of cookies for all of the neighbors.  I did however do simple neighbor gifts (I’ll post this soon!).
  • The 2 cookie platters that I did make were filled with 2/3 store bought goodies and 1/3 homemade cookies… that were from a mix… yes, I really did that.  & they were lovely and appreciated all the same.  –Am I really the same person who wrote a few years ago about cutting out processed food and only making all natural?  Yeah, well, uh… that girl had a 3rd baby and needs a break right now.
  • I chose not to worry about putting a price on gifts & trying to keep it even for everyone. Shopping is so much more fun when done from the heart and not the wallet.  Hopefully this doesn’t backfire and leave anyone comparing (or complaining).
  • We are not exchanging gifts between us siblings.  This is kind of sad, but it cuts out A BOAT LOAD of stress!  Those brothers of mine are already spoiled, and very difficult to shop for!
  • We are lightly homeschooling through the holidays.  Rather than taking a week or two off and trying to get back into routine, we are just lightly schooling through it all.  In all honesty, I think we are getting MORE done, when I am more relaxed and not pushing the schedule.
  • I’m throwing out random acts of kindness every.single.place I can.  I don’t want to reveal too much, because that would suck the joy right outta the whole shebang.  I do want to encourage you to just bless someone, anyone, in anyway you can.  Whether you get to stick around and see their reaction or just imagine what their expression was, it feels SO good either way.

Oh and here’s a silly one:

  • We put the great big over sized Christmas tree downstairs and let the big kids load it full of ornaments just as they wanted to.  The basement is off limits to the toddler, so she and the tree are both safer that way.
  • We bought a smaller (6.5ft x 3ft) pre-lit tree for upstairs.  I only placed one ornament on it. Um, because I bought the ornament, came home, hung it on the tree, and it hasn’t moved yet!

All of these little cut backs have made it easier to put my time, money and energy  into the things I feel more passionate about right now.  What can you do, or are you already doing, to go LOW STRESS this week and next?

The Work Place

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My home is my work place.  I am here more than anyone else.  I am in charge of more physical duties here than anyone else.  I am not complaining. I take pride in this.  God has provided me a beautiful home, and a husband who allows me to be a housewife.

This year we took a leap of faith by also extending my duties to not just at home mom, but full time homeschooling momma as well.
This is just about pure joy!
Along with adding full time homeschooling to my job title, it also added a lot more STUFF to the house.
I mean it..A LOT MORE!  Books, printer paper, cardstock, colored drawing paper, construction paper, reading books, text books, teachers manuals, workbooks, pens, pencils, art supplies (this is huge), science supplies, craft supplies.  It just goes on and on!
It didn’t have to be this bad.  I just let it get this way while I was shopping for the perfect things to help the kids to learn.

I’m a pretty neat person, although all of this stuff is starting to overwhelm me!  Another resolution of mine, is to get on top of the clutter!  I’ll post little pictures of before and after, or long drawn out blog posts explaining the process to you.  Either way, I’ll let you know how I get out from under this STUFF!

Maybe while my hubby is home for Christmas break I can take the time to reallllllly organize.  Or maybe not, because I’ll be too busy cleaning up after him snuggling and enjoying his company while he’s here.

Before and After: 5 Minute Tidy

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We are running late- we have exactly 15 minutes to get everyone dressed, out the door, and to storytime across town. That seems like plenty of time, but not when you have 3 kids going three different directions and a house to clean up quick.
Yes I said clean up the house quick.
It is my rule to keep the house looking nice for when my husband comes home. Some of you may think I’m crazy, he probably thinks the same thing too.
Since I knew that he would come home while we were still gone, we did a quick clean up. 
Here is a before and after of my 5 minute tidy.

Christmas Revolution

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Within our little family we had a Christmas Revolution a few years ago, and it has produced a multitude of blessings.   Here are a few, just off the top of my head.  I know there are so many more.

  • Fewer toys to trip over on the floor
  • Less hollering at the kids to clean up those same toys- multiple times a day
  • Fewer dollars spent on meaningless things
  • So more dollars may be freely given to charities in need.
  • Less stress when the credit card statement comes and money is already tight from the increased heat bill during cold winter days.
  • Less time shopping, although it is one of my loves, shopping out of obligation is something I despise
  • Less time bickering over discussing what is the “perfect” gift to give to give to relatives we hardly know, because we only see less than a handful of times a year.
  • Christmas day is spent playing games as a family, being together, enjoying each other.  It’s not spent in separate areas of the house playing with our new “things” by ourselves.
  • MORE TIME TO FOCUS ON JESUS.  He is the reason, for the season.

My hope is that someday all of our Christmas celebrations are *truly* about Jesus.  I love getting together with our families.  But when it becomes about “having” to get together {and no one ever has the time, so we’re often just squeezing it in quick}, it doesn’t feel like it’s about Jesus at all.  That just feels like a burden.

Please my friends, do not be burdened by Christmas.  Not in a materialistic way, anyway.

Design: Ikea Shelf for Cars

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I’ll start with letting you know, this little project would’ve been cheaper, had we made the shelves ourselves.  That was our (my husband’s) intention.
We were at Ikea back in the spring and I really wanted these Ribba Ledges.
 I told my husband how cute they would be for books and cars.  I told him I wanted 2 for each kid.  To which he responded “No way, look at how expensive that would be.  I can make those way cheaper, and we already have the white paint”.
True.  But I know that well meaning man.  I knew by his tone that these shelves weren’t getting made.
Nevertheless, I agreed, like a good wife should.  Well, I made a deal really.  I think we may have even shook on it.   I told him that if the shelves weren’t built by the next time we came to Ikea that I was going to buy them.
I won.. sort of.. I mean I got the shelves, but sure paid a lot more than I wanted to.
We got these two long ones for the boy, then put a small one for books in my oldest daughter’s room.

A Beautiful Moment

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I’m so thankful for God’s grace.   Today was a complete opposite of yesterday.   I realized it this afternoon.  
I was in the kitchen, wearing an apron {like all good housewives do} with my hands covered in flour as I rolled out gingerbread cookies. In the other room I hear the baby playing happily in her playpen.  I know the little boy is laying on the floor coloring. He’s at the feet of his big sister, who is laying across the couch reading her Junie B. Jones book out loud for her younger siblings to hear.
Life is precious. Moments like these are the things I live for.  Praise you God for this moment of happiness.

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