Because it was her first project we started off simple. We took a onesie that no longer fit her baby sister and hemmed it into a PJ shirt for the doll.
Thrifty and fun!
After that we stitched up a little piece of elastic and tied tons and tons and tons…and tons more of tulle around it to form a tutu!
It’s nearly midnight, I’m exhausted & I want to crash. But tomorrow my boy turns 6!! This quick set up took less than 10 minutes and I had everything already on hand. I know it’s not pretty. I also know my son will love it regardless. Making memories for my children is my favorite thing to do these days. A week from now he won’t care that the streamers were pink & the only gift he had in the morning was bubble wrap on the floor. He loves that stuff!
But he will remember that his momma loved him and took time to surprise him with the fun things that little boys love.
I hope he never forgets that he was prayed for and loved. It’s his special day, but I feel like I am the one who received a gift. My boy.
I bought one of these little gems last year for my daughter. It was perfect for organizing her clothes for the week.
Each Sunday we picked out 5 outfits. The Monday outfit was placed on top, and Tues-Fri’s were put into the drawers.
Once in a while we would put Monday-Thursday in the drawers, and Friday would be her free day to pick whatever she wanted to wear.
It revolutionized our morning routine and saved so much time!
I also bought one to use in our school room to organize supplies and books. That one ended up not being used as well as I’d hoped. I bought that one in black so I can use it anywhere else I need to.
They are on sale at Shopko right now & I highly recommend them!
If you are looking for a song to teach your children about Flag Day try out this fun one we found on YouTube.
Watch “Flag Day Song for Kids (FREE LYRICS BELOW) DidiPop Kids Music” on YouTube
WARNING: I am obsessed with being closer to Jesus, and making my home a happy place.
I’ve read some great books lately that have really changed the way I feel about “stuff”. First was Organized simplicity, then at the suggestion of my former sister-in-law, I read Almost Amish.
I feel like I am in a constant battle with STUFF. I’ve always sort of thought that it just comes with the territory of having children. But then I realized it doesn’t have to. {I wish I knew this 10 years ago, don’t you?}
My children have plenty. I remember being at a party a few years ago when a little boys rubbery outdoor ball popped. He was angry and upset. So to stop his tears, the mom quickly responded with “oh don’t worry about it, we’ll just buy you another one”.
WHAT? Did you really just tell your kid that you would buy another one? I mean even if you fully intend on replacing it… don’t make that a default.
We live in a world where everything and even some relationships are perceived as replaceable. Our landfills are full and our divorce rates are out of this world.
Our family is getting better about not getting our kids so many toys. And I want to get better about this too. You see, my kids still have so much STUFF. I don’t want to raise children that expect gifts at each birthday and holiday.
We had a garage sale a few years ago where we sold 9, YES I SAID N.I.N.E, totes FULL of toys. Big huge totes… at like a quarter a piece… it was craziness. All of our shoppers were thrilled at our great deals. Towards the end I even started filling paper sacks and boxes with toys and marking them FREE.
It made me overjoyed to not be picking up or telling my daughter to pick up her toys all of the time. But, it also made me sad. I was sad to think of all the money our family/friends (and us) had spent on those toys.
There are so many things I’d love to ask for, for my children. School supplies, like printer paper (you have no idea how much paper we go through here), tape, markers, pencils, and workbooks. They wear clothing everyday, and they actually enjoy getting clothing too. But those aren’t “fun” gifts. And really, I’d love to see quality time given as a gift. And even more so, I’d love to see money donated to a reputable charity, in their honor.
I feel like I don’t get enough quality time with my children because we are so consumed by things.
We will be having another garage sale this year. This time, I am NOT holding back, and I am not going to feel guilty about letting stuff go. Thankfully I have my practical, sentimental husband to help balance this process out. But I hope to downsize greatly.
I’m tired of feeling consumed because I feel like our house gets smaller by the day. I want my children to be creative and having too many things actually makes that much harder to do. They never have to come up with ways to improvise or use their imagination, because everything is already there for them.
It is my hope that in doing this, we will live a happier, more peaceful, God centered life. Sometimes I struggle to connect with God when I’m so consumed by the materialistic things of this world.
And just to be clear, I’m not saying our kids need to only play with rocks and sticks (although we did this earlier in the week, and they had a blast). There are some toys that I love, like Lego. Both the boy and the girl like them, and they play with them together. They can be passed down to future generations, and they are really fun for all ages.
Have any of you done this? Or wish you could, but don’t know where to start? Or are you just cool, calm, and collected when it comes to stuff?
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We are a cloth diapering family. I catch a lot of crap for that. Get it? Crap. Yep… Momma’s got jokes for dayyyys!
There is a product on the market similar to this and it is only about $20. However, I wasn’t able to find one to purchase as they are all out of stock everywhere I looked. Besides, I’m a DIY kind of gal anyway.
I made a quick run to the dollar store and picked up:
I attached the folder inside out so when I sprayed the water the.. um… ‘junk’ would not get stuck inside the pocket of the folder.
After I made this I anxiously waited for the baby to give me a poopy diaper to work with. {Insert your own corny “you know you’re a mom when” joke.}
The verdict:
It works, and works well! It’s not pretty, but it works amazing, and for under 4 dollars, it was definitely worth it. You could color coordinate this, cut off the pockets (or use another form of plastic), and make it pretty. I just didn’t and I’m okay with that.
Quick Update {July 2016}: This held up for over 3 years and is being tucked away for ‘someday’ when we hopefully have another little peanut to put adorable fluffy cloth diapers on.
on Amazon. The reviews look excellent, and it’d be to your door in about 2 days with Amazon Prime.This past Saturday our family celebrated something special. Even though we didn’t celebrate in the way we normally do, because we were busy cleaning and taking care of household things we were still celebrating. The celebration was marking 5 and a half years of what we call “The Carben1 Comedy Tour”. Yes it’s hard to believe it just 5 half years ago we welcomed our son into this world.
I wholeheartedly enjoy this boy so very much. There’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t make me smile and laugh and sometimes do one of those rolling on the floor laughing things everyone post about online. I mean, do people really do that after they read something funny? Doubtful.
Spend a day around this sweet little boy and you too will be rolling on the floor laughing. So Jesus, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for my little boy, my joy.
I know that someday he will grow up to be an amazing husband, like his father is. He will be a wonderful father to his children and he will make all of his friends laugh just like he does for me now. When that day comes I have no doubt in my mind that he will still love his mother very much, but I know so much of him will be with his own family then and so these days I have him so very close I will cherish.
If you remember back to my posts in Dec. of 2010 I said I’m not much for New Years resolutions. I feel like we should always be trying to be better. I mean, why wait until a new year starts to make a change?
Well back in Dec. 2010 we did take that time to implement changes. My husband and I made some big changes that have been great for our family. Mostly our food choices.
Since being pregnant and having a baby in the house I’ve gotten a little more relaxed and have had to rely on some moderately-convenience type foods more often than I’d like to admit. We went from being a no pasta family to having pasta every couple of weeks- and guess what- nothing major happened, other than of course we were more tired than usual when we consumed it. But it did pull us through another day, even if it wasn’t nutritionally the best choice, and I just have to be okay with that. Over all I feel like we’re doing good when it comes to our food.
So for 2013 I want to focus on spaces. I fully believe that the spaces you are in have a huge impact on your overall well-being.
Our home was built in 2005. At the time Mr. Awesome & I were dating/got engaged, we only had the princess, no pets, and I was working. Now a little over 7 years later we’re married, I’m a SAHM to our 3 kiddos & we have a cat. Our space has had to change to accommodate our growing family. Not only that, we also have changed some of our hobbies, and what we do in our spaces.
In fact the room I’m typing in right now has been:
My bedroom (before we were married).
My home office while I sold Mary Kay & did eBay.
The Princess’s bedroom.
The Princess & Prince’s bedroom for a short time.
The Home school room.
& currently is Blackie’s (closet- since she doesn’t sleep in here, but does store her clothes here!) room/computer room.
Home improvement takes time & money. It seems like getting the two together is a challenge. I wish we could do it all at once and be done. & to be honest, if we took out a loan we could. But I do NOT want to still be paying on it when I change my mind and want to redo whatever we’ve just done.
So things will be slow going, that’s alright.
For 2013 I’d like to see:
There are probably more things I will think of here and there. And maybe none of these things will happen, maybe some of them will. If they do, I’ll try to blog about it.
My favorite DIY project of 2012 was when we painted our shutters & then did my FIL’s shutters. What a transformation! I wish I would’ve blogged it! Maybe I will some day, I did take pictures fully intending to post it here.
So what will your 2013 look like?