New Organizers!

Awhile back, I mentioned on facebook how Jeremy had made me this awesome jewelry organizer.

Corkboard covered in fabric with pins holding everything up.

It was kind of a big deal to me because, all on his own, he:

1.  Noticed that my jewelry was really disorganized.

2.  Went on Pinterest to find an idea for how to organize it.

3.  Made the organizer and hung it up.

Without saying a word to me!!!  In I walk to our room one day and there it is.

Amazing, isn't he?!?!

Oh...but it gets better.  I now have a matching makeup organizer to go with it!

Whenever I find great ideas, I instantly message them to him.  I'm sure he loves it.  :-P  I think his To-Do list has like 10 major projects on it right now that can all be traced back to Pinterest.

Magnetic Makeup Organizer (in five simple steps)

1.  Attach sheet metal to scrap wood using construction adhesive.  Make sure the metal will hold magnets.

2.  Stretch the fabric over the metal/wood and staple it to the back.  

3.  Cut trim to size and nail to wood.

4.  Cover the fabric with plastic and spray paint the trim to help disguise the nails.

5.  Gorilla glue or hot glue magnets to the back of all of your makeup.  (Magnet tape is not strong enough, get the round kind.)

I LOVE it!  It makes getting ready in the morning a snap, as I'm no longer digging through a bag or searching the bathroom counter for things.  Plus, it's out of reach of certain 3 year old girls who look like this after they play with makeup...

YIKES!

Family Organizational Binder

 In seminary, you move a LOT!  The worst part about moving so many times, is not the packing as most would think.  It's the paperwork.  Every time you move, it's finding new doctors, getting new auto/renters/health insurance, transferring records over, getting library cards, finding schools, not to mention changing your address on everything!  It's exhausting!!!

I've been meaning to make a family organizational binder for awhile now.  It's recommended by a lot of people for emergency preparedness...everything you need should disaster strike, all in one spot.  Disaster struck in the form of Liliana's preschool registration.  :-)  "Where's her shot record?  What's our doctor's address?  Don't we have her physical form somewhere?  Shoot, now I need her birth certificate!"  Jeremy has all of this stuff "organized" in our file cabinet (sense the sarcasm).  He has some weird system that makes perfect sense to him, but no one else could ever find anything.  He actually has folders unlabeled because "if someone broke into our house, then they couldn't steal our identity.  Because they couldn't find it."  Nice.  I can't find it either.

Now I can!

Our binder is organized into the following manner:

Individual-
Copies of things like our driver's licenses, teaching certificates, etc.  List of previous addresses.  Resumes...and so on. 

Financial-
A list of all of our bills, how we pay the bill, when it's due, what address it gets sent to, etc.  Jeremy takes care of this stuff and should anything ever happen to him, I wouldn't have had a clue where to start...now it's listed out for me.  Also, most recent retirement account statements go here.  When we get a new one, we file the old one and put the new one in the binder. 

Household-
Inventories (pantry, freezer, kids' clothes, etc.), Menu ideas, Cleaning schedules/checklists, anything I need to make our house run smoothly.

ALL Schedules-
If Jeremy gets a schedule (preaching, committee meetings, confirmation, etc.), he is to immediately make a copy of it for me.  I enter the dates into my planner as well, but sometimes I think something isn't important, and then later want to reference it.  Same with things like the kids' Sunday School schedule.  I probably don't need to enter into my calendar what they are learning about each week, but a situation might occur where I want to reference it.

School Information-
Class handbooks, school policies, copies of preschool contracts, etc.

Health-
Shot records, growth charts, physical forms for everyone

Emergency-
List of all of the numbers in our cell phone contacts.  Should we ever be stuck without a charged phone, I can still find the numbers I need.  Username/Passwords list.  Should we get organized enough to make a detailed emergency plan, it would go here.

Misc.-
Take out menus, random paperwork I'm not sure where else to put but I feel I need at my fingertips anyways.

Plus...how pretty!!!

 

Want to make one of your own?  Here are some sites with more ideas and FREE printables for your binder!

This Simple Home

Organized Home

The Inspired Organizer

No Ordinary Moments

I Heart Organizing

Spring Cleaning!

I LOVE Spring Cleaning!  I'm on a mission.  Everything in our house is either getting tossed, sold, or put in a labeled tub. 

This is my couponing stockpile closet.  (For those of you who don't know about couponing, check out Hip2Save or SwagGrabber).  When we first moved here, 8 months ago, everything in this closet was neatly sorted and lined up.  But then, somehow this happened.

Poor neglected closet.  But never fear, because now it looks like this!

And now for the dramatic side-by-side.

It makes my heart sing!  I have cleaned our local Wal-Mart out of the 96 cent shoebox tubs and have to drive to the next closest one to get more today.  Soon every one of our closets and cabinets shall be entirely sorted and labeled and my plot to organize the world will be set in motion!!!!  Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!  (Or at least I'll be able to grab some toothpaste without cringing at the disorderliness.)

My New Planner!!!

I am absolutely giddy about this!!!  SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Seriously.  Giddy.

So we had been using iCal to keep track of our schedule, but that was before our schedule got really insanely busy and it's just too hard for us to block out time for each individual family member's stuff digitally.  Time to go old school and buy a paper planner.

This should be exciting for me right??!!?  Shopping for a planner?  Shopping AND organizing at the SAME TIME!  Nope.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find just the perfect planner?  I want one that goes from July 15-July 15 because that's when our year goes.  AND I want one that divides up morning/afternoon/evening into chunks because that's how we look at our days.  Plus...it has to be pretty!  I was getting so frustrated by the whole ordeal, when it occurred to me to just make my own dang planner. 

Ta-da!!!

Liliana calls it my "sparkle book."

Isn't it pretty?!?!  Pink and sparkly and check it out-

Customized just for the way I picture our days in my head!  First off, it's listed Monday through Sunday.  I group Saturday and Sunday together, so I hate when they're separated onto different pages. It's hard to see here but each day/column has rounded squares for morning/afternoon/evening and then underneath are squares for each of us family members and then ovals for meal planning.  So if Micah is supposed to wear the color red to school on Thursday, I can put it in his "M" square without it actually being on our daily schedule part.  Make sense?  No?  Does to me!  That's why I customized it!  ;-)

Plus, I added in pages for yearly calenders (2012-2014...because I like to plan ahead), the school calender for next year, important phone numbers, a blank schedule for Jeremy's classes so I can add that in when we get it, and a blank price book at the back so I can always be sure I'm getting the best deal on stuff!

Total cost- $4.37 for them to bind it at our local Staples, plus $2 for the glittery cardstock for the front and the cost of ink/paper for the pages.  Cheaper than buying a pre-made planner and it's just right for us!  This would be great for teachers too, to make custom lesson plan books!

Interested in making your own?  Check out these sites for templates.  Or shoot me an email and I can send you ours. 

DIY Planner-  All sorts of templates for tracking everything from Weight Watchers points to book reviews.

Organized Home- Once again, lots of templates from birthday calendars to cleaning checklists.  While there, browse around the whole site because everything is great!

Calendars Quick-  Weekly, monthly or yearly calendars.  Less of the random checklists, etc. and more of straight up planner pages in lots of different formats.

Or do what I did, and open up your word processing software and create your own, so you can have just what you desire.  Then you too can be saying SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Labels, Seashells and Science Time!

We eat a LOT of grapefruit in our house.  I mention this because the Del Monte containers of grapefruit work great for storing craft supplies.  I recently organized all of our "special" craft supplies and made some cute labels to go on them!  (Our everyday craft supplies are stored downstairs by the kid table, so they have access to them all the time.)

Liliana was helping me label the containers and came across some seashells.  A LOT of seashells!  Which she promptly poured everywhere.

This led to some science time and one of my new favorite photos of Liliana.  <3 it!

She has big eyes to begin with but her using that magnifying glass was adorable!

All on her own, she decided to find matches and put them in the mini muffin tin.

Labels, seashells and science time!  What a randomly thrown together post...which is very suiting with what our life has been like lately.  ;-)

Pretty and Printable Recipe Cards!

This project has completely consumed my last two weeks!  Remember this post two months ago where I said I wanted to make pretty, scrapbooked photo recipe cards for all of my recipes...it turned out to be a huge project!  Who knew we had so many favorite recipes?!?!  Instead of designing different cards for each individual recipe, I decided to make a template for each category, which cut down on a lot of time.

In any case, they're done!  For now.  Until I find a new great recipe tomorrow!  127 beautiful, photo recipe cards!

This is about half, the other half still need to be laminated.

Now I can cook wearing my pretty apron, using my pretty recipe cards, with my pretty daughter!  This makes my heart sing!

Making the Loaded Oatmeal Cookies...they turned out fabulous!!!

Being the kind, generous person I am (and humble too! :-P), here are the links to our recipe cards, ready to be printed.  If you want my original templates, so you can customize your own, send me an email.  I'll be happy to send them to you, I just didn't think they'd upload right.  Or go to this site and download free digital scrapbooking sets, and make your own designs!

Recipes

Appetizers-

• Puppy Chow
• Cucumber Sandwiches
• Cheddar Fondue
• Cocktail Meatballs
• Spicy Chicken Roll Ups
• Veggie Pizza
• Baked Chicken Taquitos

Dips and Spreads-

• Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Spinach Dip
• Vegetable Dip
• Gingerbread Dip

Seasonings and Sauces-

• Fajita Seasoning
• Pizza Sauce
• Steak Marinade
• BWW's Caribbean Jerk Sauce
• Taco Seasoning
• Alfredo Sauce

Beverages-

• Confirmation Punch
• Hot Apple Blast
• Jello Slush Punch
• Rhubarb Slush

Breakfast-

• Cinnamon Rolls
• Baked French Toast
• Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake
• Whole Grain Waffles
• Mom's Coffeecake
• Caramel Rolls
• Egg Bake

Breads-

• Country White Bread
• Banana Bread
• Pumpkin Bread
  
• Big Biscuits
• Lefse
• Zucchini Bread
• Tortillas
• Breadsticks
• Soft Pretzels
• Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread
• Pizza Dough
• Homemade Pasta

Soups-

•  Potato Soup
• Wild Rice Soup
• Basic Cream Soup
• Cheddar Broccoli Potato Soup
• Chicken Tortilla Soup
• Bestest Hamburger Soup

Salads-

• Jackie's Coleslaw
• Oriental Coleslaw
• Olive Garden Dressing
• Potato Salad
• Orange Jello Salad
• Mandarin Orange Salad
• Cream for Lettuce
• Strawberry Mousse
• Tortellini Pesto Salad

Vegetables-

• Sweet Potato Fries
• Grilled Asparagus
• Crockpot Potatoes
• Baked Kale Chips
• Potato Wedges

Side Dishes-

• Rice-a-Roni
• Easy Cheesy Potatoes
• Bowtie Pasta with Broccoli Sauce
• Homemade Pasta Roni

Main Dishes-

• Cheeseburger Pie
• Creamy Burrito Casserole
• Wild Rice Hotdish
• Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Spaghetti and Meatballs
• General Tso's Chicken
• Roast Sticky Chicken
• Sloppy Joes
• Japanese Chicken
• Grilled Pork Chops
• Peanut Butter Noodles
• Chicken Tetrazzini
• Cajun Pasta Alfredo
• Beef Stroganoff
• Jeremy's Special Chicken

Cookies and Bars-

• Scotcharoos
• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate 'n' Oat Bars
• Sugar Cookies
• Monster Cookies
• Loaded Oatmeal Cookies
• Salted Nut Rolls
• Peanut Blossoms
• Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars
• Mounds Bars
• Cathedral Windows
• Nut Goodie Bars
• Peanut Butter Cups
• Rhubarb Oat Bars
• Lemon Squares
• Texan Cookies
• 7 Layer Bars
• Caramel Brownies
• Chocolate Mint Parfait Bars
• Fudge
• Raspberry Almond Thumbprints

Cakes and Frostings-

• Jello Poke Cake
• Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
• Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
• Marshmallow Fondant
• Buttercream Frosting

Desserts-

• Jello Cream Cheese Dessert (Slop)
• Apple Crisp (from scratch)
• Apple Crisp (from Jar)
• Pie Crust
• Strawberry Pretzel Dessert
• Strawberry Pie

Misc.-

• Avocado Beauty Treatments
• Fingerpaint
• Kool-Aide Playdough
• Laundry Detergent

Two notes:  

1.  These are OUR favorite recipes.  A lot are ones passed down from our family.  It's not meant to be a comprehensive cookbook by any means.  And I only made ones for the things I need recipes for (or reminders of what temperature to use, etc.) so we make a lot of other stuff not listed here. (This is for those of you thinking "She only has 5 vegetable recipes and a zillion cookie recipes!  What's that about?!!?!")


2.  Flickr was being weird.  I guess you can only upload 200 per free account...so some are on my account and some are on a one I created for Jeremy.  In case you were confused.

Hat/Mitten Organization

Curtain rod + Clothespins =  Dry, matching, easy to find hats/mittens and one happy mama!

Full disclosure:  Jeremy thinks this "solution" is a pain in the butt.  He much prefers the stuff-it-in-the-sleeve method of mitten storage.  I hate that method because the kids never remember they have something stuffed in their sleeves and then freak out when they can't get their arm through.  Plus, then the mittens are always wet and if it isn't the exact pair you felt like wearing then you throw them on the floor and have to search for 5 minutes for the ones you did want.  Well worth it to me to spend 30 seconds rehanging our mittens.  In the never ending saga of marital negotiations...I won this one.

Organizing Recipes

With all of the moves we have to do, we've done some serious downsizing.  The first thing to go were my cookbooks.  I never used them.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE trying new recipes...but why would I hang on to a whole shelf full of cookbooks when I can go online and find zillions of recipes that not only have pictures, but ratings and helpful comments with tips on how to improve the recipe? 

My favorite two recipe sites are All Recipes and Food.com (formally Recipezaar).  I usually search for something...like "baked chicken" and then when the search results come back, I sort it by "Most Popular" or "Highest Rating."  I rarely try a recipe unless it has 200+ reviews and it's 4 1/2 stars or better.  And before I make anything, I usually read through the "most helpful" comments to see if there is anything that needs adjusting.

The problem with this method, is that I often forget to bookmark a good recipe and then I have to try to find it again later, remember what I searched for and on what site.  So for awhile, I was printing off the recipes and shoving them in a photo album.

I'm less than thrilled with this method.  It just isn't pretty.  And I like pretty.  Then I ran across this blog, and she makes these ADORABLE digitally scrapbooked recipe cards that she gets printed like photos.  They're GORGEOUS and I'm in love.  But since I'm so picky about my recipes, I need to make my own. 

So that's my current project...taking photos of all of the meals I make, and creating a pretty recipe card for each of them.  It's going to take awhile, and I'm certainly not as good at it as she is...but here's one of them that I've done:

The scrapbook stuff is all courtesy of Shabby Princess....that site ROCKS!  I don't have any actual digital scrapbooking software...so I just use the graphics from Shabby Princess and put it together in a word document (as a 6x9 image so when it prints as a 4x6, it isn't pixely) and then save it as a photo.  So far, it seems to work really well!

Someday, far, far from now, when I get them all done and put them in a cute little recipe box, I'll post a picture of the finished product.  I wouldn't hold my breath.  :-P

Printable Grocery Shopping List for Kids

I go back and forth on the whole "taking kids grocery shopping" issue.  On one hand, it's an awesome, hands-on educational experience.  On the other hand, it's pure torture.  In our last town, grocery shopping was my mommy time.  I'd bring with my ipod and a coffee and leisurely meander through the store.  Here it seems like I'm not able to sneak in as much mommy time, so I usually have a kid or all three with (yes, three...Jeremy is just as bad at sneaking treats into the cart as the small children are).  :-)

So I decided it was finally time to make a picture shopping list for the kids.  I've been meaning to do it for awhile, and today was the day.  I put pictures of things we typically get on most shopping trips on the list...the basics: milk, eggs, bread, etc.  There is a little check box for me to mark if we need the item that time, a picture of the item and then the name of the item.  Even though Micah can't read yet, we try to put labels on EVERYTHING.  It's a simple way to promote literacy development and build connections between words and objects.

I laminated the list and put it on a clipboard.  I explained to Micah that as we shopped, he was in charge of making sure we got the items on his list and wiping the X off when we put it in the cart.  That kid has never been so excited to go shopping before!  He excitedly told daddy "I get to be the boss of these things and make sure we buy them!!!  I'm in charge!"

He took his role VERY seriously.  And it kept him so focused that he didn't once ask for anything off of the list or whine that it was taking too long.  It was actually enjoyable to go shopping with him!  We even got several comments from other shoppers that he was being a great helper and that they wish they had a personal shopping assistant too.  He was sooooo proud!

Checking to see if we need it

Yep!  Erasing it off his list.

Here's a pdf copy of the list.  If you want me to email you the Word copy, just send me a message with your email address.  That way you can switch out the items that you want on it, but have a starting place.

Kids' Printable Grocery List

Car Kit

It's a huge milestone all parents come to look forward to:  the day you know longer need to carry a diaper bag!  But odds are, even after the diaper changing days are over (or after you discover to just throw a diaper in your purse), you'll still need access to a change of clothes or extra snack from time to time.

We have a car kit in our van for just those situations.  Micah spilled his lemonade on himself at church just the other day and I quick ran out to the van and got him new clothes, thanks to our car kit!  The kids were extra whiny after going to the Farmer's Market because they were thirsty, but I had a bottle of water for just such emergencies, thanks to our car kit!  Band-aids?  Got em!  Wet wipes?  Got em!  Whatever the emergency, the car kit is your answer.

Yay for car kits!!!

Here's what's in ours:

Snacks for the kids and us and a bottle of water (I should really add a couple more of those.)

A Ziploc filled with sunscreen, lotion, hand sanitizer, lysol, etc. and a travel size first aid kit

Wet wipes and antibacterial wipes

Two complete sets of clothes for each kid, one shorts and short sleeve outfit, underwear and socks and one long sleeve and pants outfit.  Be sure to coordinate so you can mix and match short and long as needed.  This has come in handy so many times not only for spills or accidents, but also if we dress for the wrong kind of weather or if we stop by a PlayPlace and need socks.

Be sure you restock your kit whenever you use something from it, so that you're never stranded.  We keep ours in the very back, so the kids don't know to ask for snacks, etc. all the time...it's only for those dire emergencies when we can't take the whining any longer.   They think I just magically produce this stuff from thin air.

What else would you find useful in a car kit???  I'd love some more ideas!  Of course, then I'd need a bigger container.  ;-)

Quick and easy way to record cute moments

You know how your kids say and do the most adorable things that are so incredibly precious you're certain there has never been another child as brilliant and wonderful as they are.  And how everyone says, "Be sure you right those things down!"  And how you are so impossibly busy that it never happens.

Any of this sounding familiar?

 I've come up with a solution!  There are very few things I'm consistent about...but I am pretty consistent at updating my facebook statuses...especially with all the cute things our kids do.  Probably annoyingly so.  So I took a little notebook, went to my profile, and clicked on "Show More Posts" until I got back to the very beginning of all facebook time.  Then I copied down all of those cute statuses into the notebook for safe keeping. 

It was so much fun to look back on all of our kids' precious moments!  They've said some pretty hilarious things.  A few highlights were:

8-13-09-  Micah picked up the toy phone- "I'm calling the garbage man and telling him to come pick up Liliana."  Nice.


1-30-10-  I put Micah to bed tonight and said, "Goodnight sweetheart!  I love you!" and turned to walk out the door.  He shouted after me, "You forgot to say GO TO BED RIGHT NOW!!!"

10-9-10-  We're at a hotel with Jeremy's parents and Liliana wanted to go in the hot tub, but she put her foot in and said it was too hot....so then she asked me to blow on the water to cool it off.

It was also interesting to see the random things I felt were important enough to mention...particularly while potty training Liliana.  Two weeks worth of twice daily updates about her bathroom habits.  Sorry friends!  It was hugely exciting at the time...I promise. 

In any case, if you are a frequent facebook updater I highly recommend this as a way to keep track of those milestones and memories so you don't have to rush off to find their baby book every time something mildly entertaining happens.  Update and then later when you have time, copy it down!

Displaying Kids' Art

Micah has been on an artistic rampage lately.  I think he's gone through half a ream of paper in the last week.  His subject, of course, is Army Men and Star Wars guys.  And of course, EVERY picture must be proudly displayed.  We may have two refrigerators, but it just isn't enough room!  I had intentions of hanging a rope around the basement walls and using clothespins to hang up his artwork.  But in the process of searching for clothespins, I found these drapery hooks I used to use to hang blankets over the windows last year when I was doing daycare so the kids would sleep better. 

 

Since we had extra rods too, the end result is this:

I'm pleased with it for now, but someday....oh some glorious day...when we have a house for keeps, I will buy really pretty drapery rods, make some wooden letters that spell "ART" on a little shelf above them, get track lighting to hang a few feet away- shining at the display, and have it hung on a beautiful taupe painted wall.  Until that day, at least our fridge has some breathing room!

A special reading nook

I LOVE to read! There is nothing like settling in with a great book and being brought away into another time or place. I've always wanted to encourage a passion for reading in our children and have had baskets with books throughout the house so there is always one nearby when the mood strikes.

Our new house has all kinds of fabulous nooks and crannies...it's a hide and seek dream! And I decided to turn one of those nooks into a special reading spot for the kids.

Step 1- Buy a couple touch lights...the LED ones were 2 for $4 at Wal-Mart and I was able to hang them up myself easily.

Step 2- Throw in a couple pillows, lovies or blankets to make it more cozy. I love that their nook has doors on it for privacy, but you could easily add a curtain too.

Step 3- Add books.

Done! It took me all of 2 minutes to give them a quiet spot of their own in which their love of reading can grow.

The long awaited Family Organizing Center

Warning- this post is not for everyone! Not that any of my posts are, but many of you may think that it's extreme to dedicate an entire wall to organizing your family's schedules/paperwork. I could probably use another three walls. :-) An entire family organizing room. Can you even imagine!?! Sigh.....Okay, snapping out of it.

Ta-da.....

Yes, it's not all hanging entirely straight and yes it's driving me crazy too. :-)

The magnetic calendars you'll recognize from here.

Other features of our organizing center include:

•Two cutesy dry erase To-Do lists, one for me and one for Jeremy. These are made by taking an old picture frame, spray painting it, scrapbooking a cute paper to go inside, and writing on the glass with a regular dry erase marker.

•A "mailbox" folder holder for each of our family members. I originally looked for these in the store, but all I could find were plain ugly clear ones and it was like $25 for three of them...and we needed four. Jeremy and I made all of these out of one $10 sheet of particle board and two 99 cent bottles of paint. Plus we have enough of the particle board left to make an awesome mailbox like this for Liliana for Christmas.

By the way, Micah is very disheartened that he has not gotten any mail in his "mailbox." When I get the mail from outside I divvy it up and usually it's all for mommy and daddy. During the school year, he'll put his folder in here but right now, he's been stuffing his bath towel inside because it drives him crazy that it's empty. And my attempts at giving him pretend mail for in there hasn't worked. So if you'd like to mail the kiddo something, it'd be much appreciated. Message me for our new address.

•A chore chart- this isn't something I was planning on putting up. I was trying to avoid the whole laminated-clip-art-looks-like-little-kids-live-here thing. But Micah insisted that he could not possibly help with chores without his chore chart hanging there. I'm hoping to redo this into a cuter something or other eventually.

•A menu board- done in the same style as the To-Do lists. My mom joked that most people who just planned out a menu for the week would consider themselves organized. I will say that we definitely don't adhere to it as much as I'd like to, but usually we end up making all of the meals, just mixing up the order.

•And finally, a little holder thing that has the pieces for the magnetic calendar and some pens, tape, etc. so I can fill out any forms I need to from school and put it right back into Micah's folder. Funny story- I was so excited to find this awesome holder thing at Goodwill for only $3! Score! Then a week later I saw it at Ikea for $2 new. Whoops!

So there you have it. We're officially organized. I will say that the thing we're enjoying the most is probably the To-Do lists. I keep finding little things throughout the day that I need to remember to work on when we get a chance. It's great to jot them down and put them out of mind for the moment. And Jeremy seems to work really well when he has a list of what he needs to do. Not all husbands do well with that, but he appreciates knowing exactly what I need of him and the satisfaction of being able to cross it off the list when finished.

It's the Little Things

I'm easily pleased, as evidenced by my sheer delight in our new marker holder!

This is how we used to store our markers.

This is my new 25 cent marker holding solution.

It's an ice tray that makes long skinny ice cubes to stick in water bottles. I got it from a rummage sale for a quarter. Jeremy was like, "Really???" And I was all, "Yep."

Now you can sleep better at night since you won't be up wondering how to properly store your markers in a neat and easy to use manner. You. Are. Welcome!

Incredibly Awesome Magnetic Calendar

So a few months ago on facebook, I posted a picture of a family command center.

I LOVE the idea of having one place to organize all of our paperwork, schedules, to-do lists, etc. I started brainstorming about what our family command center would look like.

I ran into a problem with the calendar though. Jeremy and I both use iCal on our Macbooks and we love it. It's easy to repeat events, add and delete things, color coordinate, etc. I'm not sure I'd ever want to go back to a hard copy calendar. But what's a command center without a calendar?!?! So I gave up for a little bit and waited for genius to strike.

Turns out genius struck in the form of a 4 year old boy with incessant questions. "Is today a church day? How many more days until gymnastics? When can I have Colin over for a playdate? How many more night-nights until we get to go on our field trip? Do I have soccer this weekend?" He definitely likes to know what is going on and when. So I decided that the calendar should be mostly for the kids to keep track of what is going on and a bonus visual for us for when our laptops are not right in front of us.

I decided to go with a magnet board that had little pictures that could be rearranged. Easy for the kids to follow and understand, and quick and easy for me to update. I also really wanted it to be cute and look like something that belongs in a grown-up home, especially after doing daycare for two years and having a giant laminated sun calendar in the middle of our living room.

Here's the step by step:

•First, we used metal roof sheeting and bent it straight and glued it to a board. Make sure the metal you use is magnetic! They're actually bigger than what it looks like...I'd say it's about 10 inches by 28 inches maybe...I could be way off.

•Then I brushed Mod-Podge on the metal and laid scrapbook paper over it. I learned with the first one that you need to wait for it to dry before doing a top coat. Otherwise the paper bubbles up.

•I did 5 coats of Mod-Podge, letting it dry 20 minutes between each coat. (It was my first time using Mod-Podge and I was way impressed. You can get really creative with this concept! Mod-Podge over a dollar store magnetic cookie sheet to make an Advent calendar or a travel game, etc. The possibilities are endless.)

•Then I smiled really pretty at my darling husband and he framed it with molding and painted it.

We made two of them, so we can see two weeks at a time. When one week is done, we'll pull them off the wall and switch the actual calendars instead of having to switch the magnetic pieces. Then we'll always have the current week and the next.

I printed off clip art symbols for everything I could think of that we do as a family. Dentist appointments, swimming lessons, holidays, play dates, library trips, etc. and laminated the pieces. Then I attached magnet strips to the back.

Here it is with some magnetic pieces.

I LOVE the end result! It's not perfect,..there are a couple of smudges that are bound to drive me crazy every time I see them, but it's effective, pretty, and will certainly help the kids keep track of our schedule. Best of all...it only cost about $14 for both calendars!

Once we get settled in at our new house, I'll have pictures of the finished command center!

Library Trip

"Lili-nana! Wake up! We're going to the BIG Liberry!" shouted Micah this morning.

We go to the liberry library weekly at least. We don't have Netflix...we use the library. We rarely buy books...we use the library. I love it because it meets all my criteria:
•It's free.
•It occupies them for a good hour.
•Both the kids love it, as do I.
•It's educational and (bonus!) the fun continues afterwords for the week.

Today the kids got to sign up for the summer reading program. It was a different library than they're used to going to, so new toys to play with! Between the trains and riding the "elegator" (elevator), the playtime was just as great as the reading time!

I love watching the kids' different approaches to picking out books. Liliana runs into the room and starts grabbing books...as many as she can carry and whatever ones catch her eye first. She hauls them all over to the nearest seat and starts looking at them until she gets bored and then she repeats. She's definitely an impulsive library shopper.

Micah is much more selective. He's only interested in it if it's about Legos or Star Wars. Occasionally something else catches his eye, but he'll flip through it before deciding whether he wants to commit. He's very thoughtful about his choices. Today we found a book that had BOTH Legos and Star Wars...he looked at it the whole way home.

Here are some things we do that help us make our library time more organized:

•If there are any books that I know I want to get ahead of time, I reserve them. That way the library staff have them pulled out for me and I don't have to try to watch the kids while finding them. Even if they are children's books and we'll be in that section the whole time, you never know when something will go wrong and I'd have to leave without having time to look for mine.

•The kids don't have limits for books, but I do make sure that every book we bring home is readable. I don't want it taking up space in our house if it's too hard for them. Right now they can handle about a paragraph of text per page...anything longer and they start getting antsy.

•We do have a limit of one movie each, plus one movie I pick for a family movie night.

•I've been working through a checklist of 101 books every child should have read to them before entering Kindergarten with the kids. That way,amidst the princess and Dora books, I'm sure they're getting some classics as well. Here are some links to similar ones. Print it off, keep it in your library bag and cross a few off each time.
Top 100 Children's Books
National Education Association's list
New York Public Library

•A friend of mine saves money by bringing with her kids book order forms from school and choosing library books from there. I love this idea!

•The library "receipt" immediately goes on the fridge when we get home. The day before we go to the library, I pull all the books I can easily find, cross them off our receipt and put them in our bag. Then I have a full day to go through and search for any remaining hiding books and we aren't panicking while the kids are waiting by the door.

Jeremy's such a good sport, carrying our big haul!

One thing I haven't figured out and would LOVE some suggestions for is what to do with the classroom books they bring home from school. Since they look like regular at-home books, they often get mixed in with other books and then we're scrambling to find them later. Please leave any tips you have in the comments!!