My Personal Independence Day

I hope you are enjoying your Independence Day!

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This year I am also celebrating freedom of a different nature.

Yesterday we dropped off all three children at overnight church camp, and we won't pick them up until Saturday morning.  We purposely picked the "all ages" week.

They were wildly excited and barely bothered to wave as we pulled out.

And Craig and I hardly know what to do with ourselves for five. whole. days!

But the possibilities feel a little like this!

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Domestic Skills for Boys

All of my kids have been doing chores for several years.  That means that my boys empty the dishwasher, do dishes, clean bathrooms, vacuum and dust.  This summer we've added sweeping and mopping the kitchen.  One of these days I'll get serious about teaching them to do laundry.  My older sister recommends that kids start doing all their own laundry by highschool.

The other day we were at a toy store that sells Ugly Dolls, and Skippy decided to make his own.

We got out fabric, needle and thread, and now Skippy can add sewing to his domestic skills repertoire.

I helped him some with the green one, but he did the brown one all on his own.

The plan is to make the next one using the sewing machine.

My goal is to grow competent men and helpful husbands.  I think we're on our way.

Messy Fun: Oobleck

Oobleck is a non-Newtonian liquid.  Don't ask me what that really means.  It's a liquid and a solid.  You can squeeze it into a ball, but when you open your hand it drips through your fingers. It's really messy, but it washes up easily with water.  If you are a fun mom, you won't really mind if your kids do it in the kitchen.

If you are a control freak like me, you'll send them out to the driveway.

Start with 1 part water and 1.5 parts cornstarch.  We had to keep adding cornstarch.

It's hard to stir.

Just start mixing with your hands.

It's drippy, stringy and gloppy.  You can pick it up.  You can drizzle it.

It's hours of fun.

My kids would still be out there if it weren't for the black thunderclouds that rolled in.

Happily for me, the rain will wash the mess away.  

Now that's fun for everyone!

The Chandelier Which Took Eighteen Months to Finish

A couple of years ago, I started looking for a chandelier for Pinkerbelle’s room.  I wanted it to be small, and I didn’t want to spend much (as usual).  Goodwill and ReStore were busts; for the most part, their offerings were too big, too ugly, and too expensive.  In December 2009, I found what I was looking for at a small church-run thrift shop.  The antique brass chandelier was small (about 12” across), pretty, it worked, and it was only $8…an unheard of price!

I don’t have any before photos, because right about the time I got around to starting the makeover in November 2010, the Great Computer Crash occurred and we lost three weeks’ worth of photos.  This thing is real solid brass (it weighs about 10 lbs), and it had an antique-y patina.  Although it wasn’t the super shiny 1980s brass, for my purposes I wanted to paint it.  I originally went with satin white, but after a paint malfunction back in Nov., I set it aside until last week.

When I went to Home Depot for some paint, I had decided to step it up a bit by using gloss white.  But I  came home with gloss hot pink.  It was a step out of my “safe” zone, but I’m so glad I did it!

 

 

 

I ordered 10 crystals from etsy and added them, although there are eyelets for 34 crystals on this little 12” chandelier if I had wanted to do that many! 

(I used wire to attach them and it doesn’t look that great if you look too closely; Craig says I need to use fishing line.)

 

 

Look at the details!  I wouldn’t have got that with a 1980s relic.

 

 

 

Pinkerbelle loves it as much as I do!

 

Cupcake T-Shirt

On a recent consignment store trip, I found a plain white t-shirt for Pinkerbelle for $1.  It was fine, but it was a perfect candidate for some embellishment.  I decided to do some freezer paper stenciling; it’s quick and easy and I hadn’t done any in a while.

I chose to do the totally trendy cupcake and free-handed a design (I did look at images online and based it on some of those).  Feel free to enlarge and use this image if you like.

 

I wanted to put a caption underneath and asked P. what she wanted it to say; she immediately said “sweet”.  My crafty cutter is an old fashioned model called  “x-acto”.  It’s a little more labor-intensive than the newer models, but effective nontheless.

 

I used metallic gold fabric paint for the cupcake wrapper and pulled a toothpick through it to create the lines.  Dimensional fabric paint was perfect for the sprinkles.

 

It’s always a little bit thrilling to pull off the freezer paper and see the result.

 

I let P. try it on before she went to bed.  She loves it, but she was being a goofball for the camera.

 

If you’d like more detail on the freezer paper stenciling procedure, see this post.

 

A Harrowing Day

We've got another snow day today!  I think this is the snowiest winter we've had in a while.  I'm actually looking forward to having a laid-back day.  I need to recoup from yesterday.

Yesterday I spent six hours in the doctor's office and the emergency room with Pinkerbelle.  It really didn't seem like it was going to be that big of a deal.  A couple of weeks ago, she smashed her finger in the car door.  Eventually, it got infected and just wasn't getting better.  So yesterday, I took her to the doctor, who took one look and sent us directly to the emergency room.

In fact, it really was a minor procedure, but it sure seemed like a big deal.  At the ER, they took x-rays to make sure there wasn't a fracture (there wasn't) and then a team of five (!) professionals came into the room.  They hooked her up to monitors...

(A couple of people have mentioned her red fingers; I should clarify that what you see in the photo is actually iodine.  It's the tip of her index finger that is a mess.)

...and administered nitrous oxide (which did not make her laugh, but more or less knocked her out)...

And then they lanced and drained the wound (ugh!).

They gave her a popsicle for being a trooper.  They did not have treats for moms who manage to keep it together through the procedure.  Of course, because I'm not good with this kind of thing, I had Craig meet us there, so I did have a support system.

Let me just say how profoundly grateful I am that our children are healthy and this was only our second trip to the ER ever in 13 years of parenthood, and that hospitals in general are foreign to us.  We are blessed.

Preserve School Memories

It's that time of year again.  The kids are back to school, and the paper blizzard has begun.  In the first three days I received approximately 30 sheets of paper of varying levels of importance.  Some went directly into the recycling bin.  Some went in after the child was out of the room, had forgotten all about it and wasn't there to witness the act.  (Does that make me a bad mom?)

No matter how ruthless I am, there are always some papers that need to be kept.  Important notices, or things I want to keep as memorabilia. What to do with it?  Last year I started a standing file system.  Each child had a section, and each section had several file folders (homework, to keep, classroom info, etc).

 It sits on the counter next to the fridge, hidden from view unless you're right in the main kitchen .  It worked fairly well for me, although as you can see I started to get sloppy and just shoved things in the file box, but not necessarily in the correct folder.  I'll clean it out and start fresh again this year.  A really organized person would have done that at the end of the school year, but I'm not that person.  In fact, I still have stuff from two years ago that I need to sort through.  Most of this is the stuff I don't want to get rid of.

So here's my plan.  I saw this in a Family Fun magazine 2 or 3 years ago.  I bought the boxes, but never did anything with them until now.  One box per child per school year, labeled with the pertinent information, and holding school papers, photos, small artwork, anything worth saving that will fit.

Now that I've started on it, I realize that these particular boxes are a little too small for my liking.  They just snugly fit an 8.5x11.  These were Duck brand mailing boxes; a package of 3 costs about $5 at Walmart.  I'm going to look for a bit larger size, or go with something like this:

 I saw these in The Lakeside Collection catalog:  five 12x9 document boxes for $4.99.  That's a pretty good deal!  I also saw similar document boxes at Walmart in the office supplies section, but they were sturdy cardboard (good!), and $6 each (not as good).  So, I've got choices.

No matter what I choose, they will store away easily in a larger box.  I'm picturing a bankers box or two for each child, filled with these capsules of his or her school years, easy to pull out and look through occasionally, and one day to send with them when they move out for good (sniff!).

Oh to be so organized in all facets of life!  If I can pull this off, there's no telling what I can do!

Some related posts that may interest you:

Ways to use paper that doesn't need to be saved:   

Taming the Paper Trail 

Show off kids' artwork:   

Make a gallery

Great family gift

Becoming an Intentional Encourager

Mary Joy of Snapshots from my Heart & Home has begun a six-week series to inspire women to become "intentional encouragers".  I'm a little late in starting, but I'm going to take the challenge this week.

Being encouraging does not come naturally for me.  I tend to have a "glass half empty" outlook, and have perfectionistic leanings that make me hard on myself.  In the daily grind of home life, I have gotten into a rut, a habit, of focusing on the negative instead of looking for the positive.

My focus this week is going to be my children.  It is so much easier for me to see and point out the what they've done wrong instead of what they did right. Perhaps he emptied the trash, but didn't put in a new trash bag; I see the chore as unfinished.  Maybe she did a nice job making her bed, but there are dirty clothes all over the floor; while I might praise her bed-making, I'm sure to let her know I'm exasperated about the clothes.

This week I'm going to ask God to help me purposefully be on the lookout for reasons to praise and encourage my children.  I need to be like those Tour de France fans, clapping and yelling on the sidelines, or even giving a push occasionally (Craig's been watching the Tour all month).

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Won't you consider joining the challenge at least one of these weeks?  Please visit Mary Joy.  You will certainly come away encouraged yourself, and hopefully you'll want to pass it on.

Rite of Passage

My baby recently celebrated her 8th birthday!  I'm not sure how time flies so quickly, but unfortunately it's beyond my control.

We decided to let her get her ears pierced for her birthday.  I was way more nervous about this than she was.  I was not keen on taking her to the mall and letting some 16 year old do it.  I got online to search for "best place to get ears pierced" and lots of people were recommending tattoo/piercing parlors because they are licensed, regulated, sterile and all that.

After  
1) strong objections from Pinkerbelle who did not want to go to a tattoo place (ask her again in another 8 years)
2) a "what's wrong with the mall?" from Craig, the health and safety expert, and  
3) emailing a tattooed friend of ours who said the place he goes is "no place for kids"
we went to Claire's.

Betsy, the assistant manager, appeared to be older than 16 (barely), and accustomed to nervous parents.  She walked me through the procedure and assured me that she wore gloves, sanitized the work area, and that the earrings are sealed in a package until they are fitted into the piercing apparatus and are never touched by human hands.

She was meticulous about getting the dots even.

I seem to remember when I got my ears pierced many, many years ago that the gun made a big ka-chunk-a! noise, but the kind they use now is virtually silent.

Pinkerbelle didn't even flinch; after a pause, she said "ouch" in a deadpan voice.

For the second ear, she had a curious (and slightly freaked out) audience in the mall.

P. was a trooper.  Apparently it was practically painless, and she's done a good job of cleaning her ears with the solution they gave her.  My baby isn't much of a baby anymore (sigh!).

But I told her no dangly earrings until she's a teenager.

Cheap and Easy(Bake)

Did you have an Easy-Bake Oven when you were little?  I had this one:

I'm quite sure it must have come from a garage sale or something because a) I'm not that old (this appears to be the original 1963 version) and b) it would be extremely rare for me to have any kind of "in" toy otherwise (no Baby Alive or Rub a Dub Dolly for me).

Oh my goodness, I found the Rub a Dub Dolly commercial on YouTube!  Tugboat shower!



Anyway, back to the Easy-Bake...we got one for Pinkerbelle for Christmas a couple of years ago, and only then did I realize the ridiculous prices on the baking mixes (which is probably why I don't remember using my Easy-Bake Oven very often).

Not to be deterred, I got online and found instructions for using regular cake mix.  For one of the little round cake pans:
3 Tbsp cake mix, any flavor
1 Tbsp milk

1. Spray pan with baking spray
2. Combine cake mix and milk until smooth; pour into pan.
3. Bake in preheated Easy-Bake Oven for 15 minutes.

We've been using the same box of cake mix ever since we got the oven (I know, I know, but I do reseal the bag with a clip, and besides I figure it's so preserved it's like a Twinkie and never spoils).  I printed out those instructions and taped them to the box.

Now, whenever the stars align and Pinkerbelle's desire to use her oven coincides with my willingness to put up with a little mess, we have the mix ready to go in the pantry.

Just Do It

It pains me to admit this, but I am not a naturally fun mom.  I thought I would be, I planned to be, but I guess my personality is just a little too uptight.  I totally love my kids, and it's not that I ignore them or anything, but I'm just not the mom that has activities planned all the time or anything like that.  And I'm okay with telling them to go watch TV if things are getting too loud.

Recently, my friend Amanda did a post called Eighty-Three Percent.  It was mainly about balancing blogging time and family time, and it's a really good post.  But what got me was the quote she used:

"The home is eighty-three percent of your child's world, and you have only one opportunity to make it of maximum benefit."

-Dr. Howard Hendricks

My kids are 12, 9, and 8.  As they get older, less and less of their world will be home.  That's how it should be, but I can't help but think of what opportunities I've already missed.  Even before Amanda's post, I had decided to try to "do" a little more this summer.  More for me may be less than for a lot of people, but comparison is the death of contentment.  

Part of the plan was a weekly trip to library (we usually go pretty frequently anyway, but more sporadically).  They are all signed up for the summer reading clubs and have been reading more because of it.  That's a good thing.  We will also take advantage of some of the summer activities the library puts on; this past Monday it was a movie and popcorn, which was great since it was 100*.

The other part of my plan was one out-of-the-ordinary fun activity a week.  A couple weeks ago, with all this in mind, I decided it would be fun to tie dye shirts with the kids.  I did some tie dying when I was a teenager, back in the 80s when movies about the Vietnam war were abundant and pseudo-hippiness was cool.  I don't recall it causing any panic attacks back then.

We picked out some colors, I had the shirts, and then they sat there.  It was too hot to do it outside, I was afraid of dye staining everything in the house, yada yada yada.

This morning I bit the bullet and we just did it.  And guess what?  It wasn't that big a deal.  Oh, I panicked a couple times with dye splashing or whatever, but it all turned out in the end.

A fun time was had by all.  And hopefully, that is what they will remember, more than that their mother almost had to take a Valium to get though it.