Jump Starting My Week.

Yes, even weekends can be crazy.

Sometimes it's impossible to get caught up on things over the weekend, and I rely on a lazy Monday to get things back on track. Yesterday was supposed to be our lazy Monday, but shockingly, things don't always go as planned.

We have been staying busy lately, which might partially explain my lack of blog posts. As school and everything else winds down, we have also found ourselves doing things such as:

Easter.

Learning to ride a bike.

Repairing a deck.

This awesome Mud Run with mom friends.

And on and on...

So yesterday, on our supposed lazy Monday morning, when I chose not to shower and get ready for the day before conquering breakfast with the kids and school, it is no wonder that the engine wouldn't turn when we loaded up at 7:35 in the morning. 

It's no surprise that the battery was dead as a doornail, which by the way—have you ever wondered what that saying means? Look no further. 

And it was unusually chilly yesterday morning; as I unloaded kids (2 of them still in PJ's) from the van and called my husband at work, I kissed lazy Monday goodbye. As I waited for our sweet neighbor to come with jumper cables, I scrambled to dress my little ones more appropriately for the weather and switched myself from PJ pants to jeans.

While we rushed over to school, then on to Goodyear to switch cars with my husband, followed by 3 consecutive shopping errands, I struggled to keep perspective on our Monday turn of events. While I worried over the fact that I might run into a familiar face in public with my ragamuffin kids and my day-in-the-life-of-a-mommy attire, my kids joyfully sang and played in the backseat and played eye-spy in shopping carts.

I am realizing more and more that these trivial upsets in my routine shape me more than any lazy Monday ever could. How can I really rate a dead car battery, a tardy kindergartner and an annoyance in my change of plans in the big scheme of things? I keep thinking back to one year ago when our little guy was hospitalized for viral pneumonia. 

It was scary; it helped pull everything into perspective for us. It reminded us to be thankful for the truly important things and people in our lives.  And you can bet we held them all a little closer and tighter that week.

I think of my friend Sarah who is a passionate advocate for the people of Sudan. I think of those woman and children near the Nuba Mountains who try to avoid bombs and famine while I sit here typing in my house, stressed about surviving until Season 3 of Downton Abbey.

http://www.bareearth.org/

I have to keep my own undesirable situations in perspective, and learn what I can from each tiny trial.  And as our crazy Monday morning finally culminated in a spectacular moment of triumph when Mason used his potty in the front of the Camry in the Post Office parking lot because we were out of other options, I had to laugh.

And even though I'm pretty sure I sent at least one exasperated text yesterday morning using words like “blerg” and “annoyed,” I'm very thankful for these lazy manageable Mondays. And even though Mondays are the potholes in the road of life, it's true, these tiny potholes are molding and preparing me for who knows what. It's not very hard to recover from the inconvenience of a dead battery and a trip to the store in Pajamas and no make-up.  I'm still trying to keep the big picture in check, remembering that these little warm-up stretches are hopefully making me more flexible for future, bigger potholes.

Toddler Toy: Upcycle a Wipes Tub

This Huggies wipes tub was just too cute to throw away! I decided to recycle it into a fun little activity for my 2-year-old. (Incidentally, I recommend the Huggies tubs over other brands because of the rubbery opening that is softer on little hands.) Ever left your toddler alone with a tissue box or wipes tub...to come back later and find it had been emptied one-by-one? Yeah. The fascination of one little white corner appearing after another...

To fill my tub, I pulled out a bunch of fabric scraps and cut rectangles about the size of a small paperback book. I tried to find different colors and textures--velvet, satin, flannel, and corduroy.



Then I cut some different shapes--oval, triangle, circle, heart, and square. I even pulled out a couple of my son's favorite old t-shirts that were in the rag bag because of holes or stains and cut out the front picture. This is a great option for anyone who doesn't have fabric around. The nice thing about t-shirt fabric is that it won't fray around the edges either.



If you knew your child would play with this over and over, you may want to go to the trouble of hemming the edges of your cloths. I didn't bother.

When I gave it to my son this morning, he had a lot of fun with it and got some good practice naming his colors and shapes. To keep it interesting, we made up games, such as "Find me the green cloth!" and "Sort the shapes."

It's a quick "toy" to make, and something that can be pulled out for Quiet play when Mom needs to make a phone call or fix a meal!

A Fresh Batch of Lunch Love Notes for Springtime!

It is hard to focus on school when it's sunny and warm and the green grass is calling. 
I wanted to cook up a fresh batch of love notes for my big guy to remind him that the lazy days of Summer are just around the corner--he will make it!  We all will make it!


It's time to finish strong; here are a few more love notes to print and place in your child's lunch or in his room or at the breakfast table as we finish out the school year!

Simply go here and print your own Lunch Love Notes!  If you want to make re-usable notes, print on cardstock and laminate them--my son usually brings his notes back home with him.  Hang in there....Summer is coming!

"Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil." 

~Reginald Heber.

Dyed Pasta: Multi-Purpose Entertainment!

Who knew a couple of boxes of pasta and some food coloring could provide my kids with multiple fun and learning activities enjoyed over a couple of days' time?! One of my son's home school lessons this week showed how to dye pasta and make beads to string. We dug out several kinds of noodles and prepared several cups of colorful beads. But the necklaces were just a start...we have actually used these noodles for three more activities so far. And happily, it took a whole 10 minutes of prep with things I already had on hand!

First, for the dye job. Materials needed:

• dry pasta in various shapes
• vinegar OR rubbing alcohol (the vinegar smell will linger, but may be preferable option if you fear a noodle "taste-test")
• small plastic ziploc bags
• food coloring
• paper towels on trays
  

Put a cup of dry pasta in a ziploc. Add 1 TBSP of the vinegar OR rubbing alcohol and several drops of food coloring to the bag. Close it up and gently smoosh it around to color all the pasta.

Empty it on paper towels to dry. Best to leave it overnight.

I only had food coloring gel around, and a couple of the colors didn't dye the pasta so well by this method. So I actually mixed the gel with the rubbing alcohol and a cup of water in a bowl and we let the noodles sit in it for 7-8 minutes until the color "took." Not too long or the noodles would get mushy. That worked much better for us.

Noodle Fun #1: Beading!

String the beads on plastic elastic cord for necklaces or bracelets. Love the bright colors!

Noodle Fun #2: Sorting!

Using the sorting idea from this post, I gave my 2-year-old a muffin tin and several colors of pasta mixed together in a bowl. I showed him how to sort the colors in separate tins.

He LOVED it and sorted over and over for an hour-and-a-half! My 4-year-old thought it was super fun and did it several times too...first by color, then by shape.

Noodle Fun #3: Math Manipulative!

Use the pasta to make patterns. I laid out a pattern of various colors/shapes on a paper, and then asked my daughter to copy it. I hadn't tried this before with her, and she really liked the activity. She even made a complicated pattern for ME to copy! Noodles=learning fun for everyone.
 

Noodle Fun #4: Easter craft!

I drew an Egg shape on colored paper, added some craft glue, and then had the kids decorate their Easter eggs. They loved their pretty eggs.

Gotta love when you can make several new and exciting activities for FREE with a few supplies from the pantry!

Giveaway! Original Bottle Cap Necklace + Bonus T-shirt!

Alrighty folks.  Here is a fun giveaway with a lovely reminder to enjoy all the muddy moments with your little ones now!
We are offering this one-of-a-kind bottle cap necklace which proclaims one of our favorite sayings: Long Days, Short Years.

Along with this charming necklace, we are also including one of our MPM T-shirts!  Our logo is displayed attractively on the front corner, and our favorite saying is on the back as seen here:

There is only one size (A fitted woman's size Large!) so if it is the wrong size for you, give it to a friend!

Here is a glimpse at the giveaway goods: necklace and shirt together!

{The Rules!}

1. Leave a comment here.  Post your favorite activity with your kids here for 1 entry! 

2. For a 2nd entry, post this giveaway on your FB page and leave a 2nd comment letting us know!

Thanks and good luck to you all.   This giveaway will end on midnight April 10th and we will announce the winner on Weds. April 11th!

Creativity Corner: Art in the Sky.

I have always been mesmerized by clouds.  
Before I became aware that lying on my back in prickly grass would result in dirty clothes or bugs-in-hair, I would gaze for hours up at the sky.  The cloud-object game has been around forever, but to my 5-year-old, it was a completely new phenomenon.
Our recent cloud-gazing adventure was a wonderful activity and I really enjoyed sharing it with her!

Springtime is one of the best times to hunt for clouds.  I took Maddy on the front porch so we would be slightly shielded from the sun, but we also had a great view of the open sky.  This activity would also make a great field trip--literally, to a field! Or a park. At any rate, we headed to the front steps armed with several sheets of blue construction paper, a few white crayons and white pencils, and our best seeing eyes.

At first we simply sat on the porch and talked about what we saw.  The sky was so blue and the clouds were perfectly white and fluffy... it was easy to get started.  In the beginning, Maddy described the clouds without much creativity:  A bush.  A ball.  A splotch.  I tried to offer suggestions to help her use her imagination to SEE things differently and she quickly got the hang of it.  Once she figured out how to play, she couldn't get her pencil to paper quickly enough, and she was loving it! 

This activity was so interactive.  We talked about how the clouds change so quickly and why.  We also talked about our amazing Creator who makes each cloud unique and beautiful.  Why aren't all clouds the same size and shape? Why do we have clouds at all?  It was fun to see her really thinking and trying to take it all in.

**Artist Bonus**

If your child is older and interested in art, another idea would be to let them do a Contour Drawing of the clouds.  This is basically an outline of the cloud itself without filling the inside.  Another great exercise for any budding artist is Blind Contour Drawing which is a contour drawing that is done by only looking at the cloud and not looking down at the paper.  This will really work your child's fine motor skills and enhance their ability to process what is going on in their eyes and brain and eventually transferred onto the paper. Blind contour drawing is always a great way to practice drawing no matter what the object! 

Have fun with this--I enjoyed listening to all 3 kids pointing out cloud shapes all the way home from school today.  Look up at the sky, you won't be disappointed!

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

~Martin Luther 

Easter Sunday Tradition: The Hunt for Easter Baskets is ON.

SO, while I am currently compiling a list of songs, videos, verses and illustrations to share with our kids in the weeks before Easter that focus on the reality of The Resurrection, I have already received several requests for hidden Easter Baskets.  

I decided to hide the kids' Easter Baskets the night before Easter last year, then spent a few minutes drawing very SIMPLE pictures on cardstock--very similar to something you would see on Blue's Clues.  While the kids were outside I hid the cards in familiar places all over the house.  Each clue contained a drawing of where they would find the next clue/drawing.  They caught on quickly and the energy and excitement built each time they discovered a new clue.  

This is not award winning videography, but this is what our Easter Basket Hunt looked like last year!

This fun activity did not require much time or planning at all; my kids talked about it for weeks and still remember it one year later.  
While I want to place much emphasis on the true meaning and celebration for Easter this year, I try to remember that my kids are simply kids.  This is a great chance to bond and share an experience together!
Check out many more fun spring ideas HERE.