Springing into Cleaning

After we found out we are having a boy, the nesting instinct started to kick in. In addition to the nesting adrenaline, we got a bit of Spring sunshine. Where we live winter is a long dreary experience... sun is a novelty. (If it happens to come out while we are driving in the car, poor Rose starts crying and demanding we turn off the light.)

When the sun does start shining through after the long, long winter....suddenly it is apparent that it is well past time to dust and wash windows.

The combination of making room for baby and spring cleaning produced an overwhelming desire in me to get my house in order. Plus, we are making plans for a little Baby-moon....and I would love to have everything in order before we go... an admirable goal.

All these forces coming together...Spring Cleaning, Nesting, and Baby-moon Deadline. I was one part motivated and one part completely overwhelmed. Time to make a plan!

Step #1: Time to commit my ways to the Lord. As always God wants me to have a heart for him. He wants me to be a devoted wife and mother. He also wants me to have a worshipful and peaceful heart.

Step #2: Start lining up some help. I have two small children, limited energy and a husband who is working full time who is also in Seminary. I am going to need some help with some of these jobs, especially with organizing the shed.

Step #3: Consult an expert. There are a lot of great organizing experts out there, but my expert of choice has been Sandra Felton. She is the author of The Messie Manual, and Organizing Magic. She also founded Messie's Anonymous. I like that she is a reformed Messie. Her tips often pertain directly to those of us who are prone to be Messie.

I decided to work through her book Organizing Magic. I invite you to go through this book, which is a 40 Day guide to a well-ordered home.

I will be writing about my journey through this book. Order the book and join me! It will be more fun with buddies to share the road with!

So order your book! Shake off your feather duster and let's get our houses in shape!!

Hug a Tree! Plant a Tree!

How do we celebrate Earth Day? Well, here is our Holiday Recipe for this fun holiday.

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We fill our library book basket...
with lots of books about Earth Day.
The girl's favorite books are:

Dora Celebrates Earth Day

Fancy Nancy Every Day is Earth Day

Word Girl, Earth Day Girl

The Mamma Favorites are:

Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth

Earth Day: An Alphabet Book

*Scroll down to find book links

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Craft Projects made from Recyclables

Family Fun Magazine is always coming up with great projects from everyday items that might wind up in your recycle bin. Check out their 40 Recycled Craft Projects.

Also the website DLTK has a entire section on Toilet Paper Roll crafts. Follow the link and print out the crafts. All you need are crayons, a glue stick and a TP Roll. 

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Activity:

Plant Something!! 

Earth Day 2011 and 2012 we have had the privilege to plant a tree in our back yard.

Our relatives live in a small apartment in the city. The past two years they have purchased a live tree for their Christmas tree. Then we get to plant it in our yard for Earth Day. It has been so special! These are pictures of the girls planting last year's tree.

If you don't have a tree to plant, plant something else. This is a great time to plant little potted plants or some flowers in the yard. You can talk about soil quality and how plants help clean the air for us. Plus digging in the dirt is always a good idea!

They enjoyed watering this little tree all summer. 

Earth Day Project

As long as the lid is shut, we get fewer accidental trash
 in our recycling can from guests.

Would Earth Day be complete without a lesson in recycling? Recycling is so fundamental and fun... a great project for Preschoolers.

The goal of this project was to teach the kids about recycling. Teach them to recognize symbols ( a great building block to reading). And to give them a hands on job they can do around the house. This builds independence and confidence, as well as hones their sorting and grouping skills. And not to mention... help save the planet! Basically creating mini super heroes!

1. I started by printing out symbols for our recycling bins and trash can. I also printed out the recycling sorting guide from our curb side pick up company. This acts as a great reference for what the local rules are. If you try to recycle something they are not equipped for, it makes their process less efficient... and more expensive for us in the long run.

The sorting reference guide on our can has really helped us remember what is recyclable and what is not. 

2. I washed up our trash cans and let them dry. (The kids helped spray with vinegar water and scrub)

3. After the cans were dry. I cut out the symbols and applied them to the cans with contact paper.

Our curb side recycling pick up does not take class. We needed a separate container
 so we could take our glass to the recycling center.

4. Then we put them to use. I gave the girls a lesson about what kind of garbage goes in each of the cans. We also talked and read stories about the importance of recycling.

Recovery... The Final Chapter of Mamma Shouldn't Get Sick

Through all the ups and downs in health my health we noticed that our family fell into a pattern. 1. Prevention 2. Survival Mode and 3. Recovery. 

This article is focused on the Recovery Phase. Throughout the years I would enjoy seasons of improved (if not precarious) health. Recently due to my treatments with OSB I have been able to get a taste of true Recovery. The Recovery Phase is when you start to pull out of Survival Mode and suddenly become aware of your surroundings.

For me coming out of survival mode always feels a bit like the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. The girl was asleep for 100 years… and so was her entire castle. When she woke up there was 100 years of dust and weeds around her castle. Now, fortunately for Sleeping Beauty she has a whole castle full of servants who were really rested to help her clean it up. But, the rest of us wake up from a physically and emotionally draining time to a huge mess.

If I could sum up the Recovery phase in one word it would be: Overwhelming.

The blessing of Recovery is that you are feeling better. But, in many cases you may just be barely better. I know for me, after some of the surgeries I have had, I found myself on my own with my house and my kids and I didn’t have  my strength back.

The Recovery Phase is tricky because you are recovering on multiple levels. You are recovering physically and have to build up your strength. You are recovering relationally; your family has been missing you and is ready for a steady you to be present in the living room, rather than your bed. And you are trying to recover your house out from under 100 years of mess.

Here are a few tips for the Recovery Phase:

1.     Commit your ways to the Lord. Thank him for this new phase, ask for the strength to meet this challenge of recovery head on.

2.     Hydrate, take your vitamins, and rest as needed, get outside and get some fresh air. In other words, don’t over-do it. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and trying to recover from Survival Mode in a day will just send your health back into the dumps you just came from. Pace yourself, do what you need to do to continue to gain strength and put distance between the present and that last health upset.

3.     Be physically and emotionally present for your family. It is easy to let the state of your house and affairs to overtake you at this time. Be mommy in the midst again. Be the wife at your husband’s side. Be available for hugs, present at the dinner table. Try to be super observant and in tune with your husband and children. Go on a date with your husband. Do something fun and out of the ordinary with your kids. Enjoy the moment!

4.     Get a plan of Action and someone to help you. Sandra Felton the Author of Messie’s Anonymous suggests using the Mount Vernon Method. You start in one corner of the house and work your way around the home. This is where you start. Sorting and purging and cleaning each room before moving to the next.

a.      Prioritize. Start by getting the main spaces livable….Get the kitchen to a functional level.  Tackle Laundry Mountain. Swish that Toilet.

b.     Smell hunt… find out what that smell is…Your front loader, that drain, something in the fridge.

c.      Clean something that your husband will appreciate. What is your husband’s happy place in the home? Make sure the bed is clear for him. Clear a path between the door and the computer.

5.     Take Baby Steps… when your baby first learns to walk every step is a accomplishment worth a round of applause. This is what the Recovery Phase is made of! Each little step towards Recovery is a victory. Rejoice in each accomplishment. Don’t get bogged down with the end goal, celebrate each victory. With each step you will gain momentum. Recovery is like slowly peeling away the layers of an onion. (And sometimes you cry during the process.) Layer by layer you will peel away the mess left behind from Survival Mode and in the end hopefully find your family and your kitchen counter in the process.

Clinging to Imagination

 Here is a sweet and simple activity that my kids love, your kids might like it too.

This is a set of vinyl cling, window decals that were purchased at the dollars store (for a $1). This particular set is a under the sea theme. (And one left over Valentine's Day Heart)

My girls love creating scenes and making up stories with the different pieces. They love moving them around, doing voices of different fishes and pretending together.

As long as you don't mind the decorative finger prints on your windows to go with it... You could get creative and stick these to white boards or other surfaces for them to play on.

However, my kids happen to love washing windows, so that could be a follow up activity!

Just an imagination inspiration that I like A-Latte!

A Very Revealing Celebration

The girls did their part to help with making the cupcakes.

These were our Gluten, Dairy, Egg Free ingredients. 

 We absolutely loved the idea of the gender reveal cupcakes that are totally trending right now. What a great way to break the news to the family.
We debated as to whether we wanted to find out with everyone else while eating the cupcakes or at the Ultrasound.
We opted to find out at the Ultrasound and kept it a surprise for all our loved ones. (Which was good because the minute our Ultrasound Tech put the wand on my belly...there was the boy bottom!)

Our party plans did not quite pan out as planned (Our family was busy or traveling the week we wanted to do the party.) but through lots of trial and error we were able to put together a very special and memorable celebration. We decided it would be absolutely wonderful to share our little party with just our family of four. Then we took our cupcakes on the road and shared them with our grandparents who live near by, and a special Aunt who is also local. 

Johanna inserted the colored frosting directly into the cupcake with a frosting tool. She did not cut out the middle. 

The rest of the family got either a phone call or a party in a card. We had one international call from London to share the news with my sister and her husband while on their backpacking trip through Europe.

My friend Johanna graciously came over and made and decorated the cupcakes for me. She did a fantastic job...even with all the diet substitutions. Such fluffy frosting!

This was so special and so much fun! What a great memory! 

The beautiful gender neutral result.

We sent cards to Great Grandparents and the Aunties and Grandparents that could not join in the celebration.

CJ discovering the hidden color. It's Blue!!! She knew it! 

A little party in an envelope!

Toasting baby brother with Sparkling Cider.

Can't wait to meet our little man!

Here a pretty, there a pretty, everywhere a hair pretty

Our prettier 'Hair Pretty' display.

As I looked over at my daughter's American Girl doll I was surprised how much she really does look like my daughter. Right down to the very messy brown hair.

I picked up the doll and started brushing her hair. Time for an intervention, for the doll and for the girls.

This is one of the styles in the book,
a french braid with beads tucked in with bobby pins.

One of our issues is inspiration. I would love to fix the girl's hair in all sorts of cute ways, but my five-year-old either wants a big pony tail or just a head band.

So, I went on Amazon and found a great book all about fixing little girl's hair. It has lots of great pictures and easy to read instructions. This proved to be inspiration for both of us. She can look through the pictures and get ideas, and pick a hair style for the day.

Fortunately, they have styles for all hair lengths as well as varying time constraints.

Next I made a basket that contains all the tools and products I need to fix their hair. It includes a wide tooth comb, fine tooth comb, spray bottle, detangler spray, hair spray, & gell.   I also have a brush and bobby pins that match their hair color. The book gives suggestions about other tools that are handy. It has worked great to have everything in the basket. The basket saves time so I am not looking every where for items I need. It is also great for fixing hair on the go!

Our new guide to hair, and hair fixing basket.
A winning combination!

I decided to take a prettier approach to our hair pretty collection. I gathered several glass jars from around the house. The girls helped to sort and classify the hair pretties and then we lined them up on a shelf in the bathroom. It is now easy to grab just the right hair pretty and we are enjoying he decorative display!

This is my attempt at "Belle Hair"-- Not in the book.
Twisted sides, a bun and hair left down in the back.