Saturday, December 8, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Summer Day 3: Buddy Up
I always used to hate it when I was told to buddy up. To me that says, find a friend (good luck since you're a stay-at-home mom) who you can stand to be around for long periods of time, who has the same schedule and the same priorities you do... and tackle whatever you're tackling together. Won't that make everything super easy?? Oh sure, if you can find this miracle person! Well, I'm feeling super blessed this summer, because I have! She's the mom of another kindergarten student, wants to do fun things over the summer with her son, likes my kids, wants to work out together, and has my same schedule. What?? The stars have aligned!
Yesterday morning we met at the lake front downtown. We walked the babies in my double stroller while the boys rode their bikes. After about an hour we were getting really hot so I invited them over to our house to play in the kid wash (see earlier blog post for how to make this super fun water toy). Several Popsicles, a slip-n-slide, a giant bouncy ball, and a Little Caesars hot-n-ready later... it was nap time and we had to cut the visit short. I've been so worried about keeping the kids occupied till midday, and here I am running out of time!
I had a plan for the summer. It was a pretty good one. It involved me playing with, teaching, and entertaining the kids. Alone.
For this one day at least, buddying up made my whole plan a moot point. I would've been fine taking care of the kids by myself, and if this is what you're doing, you will be too. But if you're lucky enough to have someone to call. Don't hesitate! If it doesn't go smoothly, try again. Call someone else. Don't worry about the other mom will be thinking about what you're wearing, you not-so-clean house, you child screeching like a dinosaur whenever they get excited. Instead think about the good, old-fashioned play your child(ren) will be enjoying...
and enjoy it.
Yesterday morning we met at the lake front downtown. We walked the babies in my double stroller while the boys rode their bikes. After about an hour we were getting really hot so I invited them over to our house to play in the kid wash (see earlier blog post for how to make this super fun water toy). Several Popsicles, a slip-n-slide, a giant bouncy ball, and a Little Caesars hot-n-ready later... it was nap time and we had to cut the visit short. I've been so worried about keeping the kids occupied till midday, and here I am running out of time!
I had a plan for the summer. It was a pretty good one. It involved me playing with, teaching, and entertaining the kids. Alone.
For this one day at least, buddying up made my whole plan a moot point. I would've been fine taking care of the kids by myself, and if this is what you're doing, you will be too. But if you're lucky enough to have someone to call. Don't hesitate! If it doesn't go smoothly, try again. Call someone else. Don't worry about the other mom will be thinking about what you're wearing, you not-so-clean house, you child screeching like a dinosaur whenever they get excited. Instead think about the good, old-fashioned play your child(ren) will be enjoying...
and enjoy it.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Summer Day 2: How to Salvage a Less Than Perfect Morning
This post is actually for yesterday. I'm still trying to figure out when to blog my day. At nap time when the day isn't really over yet? At bedtime when I'm so wiped I can't write anything that doesn't turn out sounding grumpy? Probably the right answer is to work on it during the day and just finish, edit, and publish at the end of the day. Any bloggers reading this? Do you write everyday? When do you write and what's your "process"?
Anyway, yesterday morning I was completely useless. I stayed up half the night (like a dummy) AND had a sinus infection. My poor kids played by themselves, mostly on pbskids.org till almost 11 when I was finally really alert and moving around. By that time it was only 2 hours from nap time. So I regrouped and made lunch (leftover pizza). I quickly googled activities to wear kids out and scanned a couple of articles while they ate. Then I remembered an awesome blog post I saw on Pinterest. 20 Ways to "Reset" When the Kids [or in my case the parent] are Having a Bad Day.
I knew I needed to get a lot of energy out if the kids were going to sleep. So went took 30 minutes outside and here's what we did:-First, I taught the kids how to do jumping jacks-Then we played a game where I shout the name of something in the yard (ex. slide, vegetable garden, swing, steps, etc) and they run to it as fast as they can... Then run back.-Last, I rolled a giant bouncy ball to them, and when they caught it they had to yell out the name of an animal (you could use colors, places, or whatever) and pass it to someone else
When we came inside, I made the oldest (age 5) jump on the bed 30 times while I put the baby in the bath and got a book to read. He said, "But mom, I'll get tired!".
It's good when we understand each other. : )
Anyway, yesterday morning I was completely useless. I stayed up half the night (like a dummy) AND had a sinus infection. My poor kids played by themselves, mostly on pbskids.org till almost 11 when I was finally really alert and moving around. By that time it was only 2 hours from nap time. So I regrouped and made lunch (leftover pizza). I quickly googled activities to wear kids out and scanned a couple of articles while they ate. Then I remembered an awesome blog post I saw on Pinterest. 20 Ways to "Reset" When the Kids [or in my case the parent] are Having a Bad Day.
I knew I needed to get a lot of energy out if the kids were going to sleep. So went took 30 minutes outside and here's what we did:-First, I taught the kids how to do jumping jacks-Then we played a game where I shout the name of something in the yard (ex. slide, vegetable garden, swing, steps, etc) and they run to it as fast as they can... Then run back.-Last, I rolled a giant bouncy ball to them, and when they caught it they had to yell out the name of an animal (you could use colors, places, or whatever) and pass it to someone else
When we came inside, I made the oldest (age 5) jump on the bed 30 times while I put the baby in the bath and got a book to read. He said, "But mom, I'll get tired!".
It's good when we understand each other. : )
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
My Summer Homeschooling Experiment: Day 1
In my mind today was the first official day of summer. The start of the "summer semester" in the Minton house. My blog reading over the last few months (since there actually was no blog reading before the last few months) has opened my eyes to many different types of moms who manage their homes in many different ways. One example is homeschooling. I usually put homeschoolers firmly in the off-their-rocker catergory... I suppose some of them may be. But many of my new mommy role models are incredibly normal, except for being AWESOME, and guess what??? Almost every single one homeschools! Well, I'm one of the most undisciplined people I know, so I'm not about to try anything stupid right away.
But... Summer is very long. And just today my 5-year-old was diagnosed with ADHD. The easiest way for me to cope with nearly 3 months trapped in the house with my 3 kids also happens to be the best summer scenario for them too. And to keep myself organized and inspired I'll be attempting to imitate my favorite homeschoolers. I'm not sure I'll succeed. In fact I'm likely to fail multiple times a week. So I guess I'll learn along with the kids then. : )
Boy, I sound very boring this evening. Possibly because it's the middle of the night and I should really be asleep. Oh well, better get on with it. I hope my adorable kids in the pictures make up for my lack of wit in this post. I'll work on that, ok?
Day 1 didn't really start with a bang. Before nap we managed to clean up our girl's room a little (which I made a mess of when I organized the oldest's room over spring break, lol), eat some watermelon, and our big accomplishment was playing with our "rainbow rice". Found the idea on pinterest from this blog. We used old Easter egg die and vinegar in ziplock bags to color rice, about a cup in each bag, let it dry overnight, and used it for sensory play. The kids had a field day for about half an hour. Mixing it, burying things in it, throwing it in the air and down the slide. Making it was almost as interesting as playing with it and made no mess at all! My only suggestion for other mommies trying this is that if you want to do patterns or color mixing or anything cool and educational... Set it all up before their little eyes touch it.
But... Summer is very long. And just today my 5-year-old was diagnosed with ADHD. The easiest way for me to cope with nearly 3 months trapped in the house with my 3 kids also happens to be the best summer scenario for them too. And to keep myself organized and inspired I'll be attempting to imitate my favorite homeschoolers. I'm not sure I'll succeed. In fact I'm likely to fail multiple times a week. So I guess I'll learn along with the kids then. : )
Boy, I sound very boring this evening. Possibly because it's the middle of the night and I should really be asleep. Oh well, better get on with it. I hope my adorable kids in the pictures make up for my lack of wit in this post. I'll work on that, ok?
Day 1 didn't really start with a bang. Before nap we managed to clean up our girl's room a little (which I made a mess of when I organized the oldest's room over spring break, lol), eat some watermelon, and our big accomplishment was playing with our "rainbow rice". Found the idea on pinterest from this blog. We used old Easter egg die and vinegar in ziplock bags to color rice, about a cup in each bag, let it dry overnight, and used it for sensory play. The kids had a field day for about half an hour. Mixing it, burying things in it, throwing it in the air and down the slide. Making it was almost as interesting as playing with it and made no mess at all! My only suggestion for other mommies trying this is that if you want to do patterns or color mixing or anything cool and educational... Set it all up before their little eyes touch it.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Family Night: Pizza, Pudding, and Pinterest-Inspired Painting
A few months ago our family implemented Thursday "family night" at our house. We finally realized that church, work, school, gymnastics, birthday parties, etc all have set times and dates to get put in the calendar. Because of that family time is ALWAYS 2nd priority to our outside commitments. The only way to put our family in its proper place in our schedules and priorities was to make an "appointment" in all our calendars for a set time each week. For us that turned out to be Thursday, so now, with a very few exceptions, Thursday we are all required to be at home for family night. We usually try to have something fun planned, but sometimes its nice to just all be in the same place at the same time with no where to be, ya know?
Last night we started off the night with the kids helping Dave make homemade pizzas and a instant pudding topped with graham cracker crumbs (yum!). Isaac asked if we could do a painting project for family night, so I went to my trusty Pinterest "Kids Activities" board and found two fun ideas. We already had a few small painting canvases. This was a 2-pack of 11x14s from Hobby Lobby.
For Isaac I used painters taped to tape off a modern geometric pattern and helped him choose or mix colors to match his room. He painted each square a different color and then we peeled off the tape. So simple, but the look of pride on face was priceless. (What is it with me and alliteration in this post??) Here's a link to the blog I got the idea from.
This project is fun for grown-ups, too. My hubby did one in black paint that looked like an abstract, framed cross. It was pretty cool. I get the sense our living room wall will soon be the family art gallery.
For Zoe I taped off her name, like in this idea I saw on Pinterest. I gave her 2 cups of similar colored washable acrylic paint, because they were going to end up mixed together anyway with a two-year-old painting. We used light pink and light purple. She painted the whole canvas and then painted in again... and again. She probably spend 30 minutes applying pink and purple pain in layers. When we peeled off the tape, her eyes lit up when she recognized her name. Very cool! Made mommy smile. = )
We painted outside, so clean up just meant putting our masterpieces somewhere out of reach to dry; throwing tape, paper plates, and plastic cups in a big trash bag; and bringing the paint and easels back inside.
Last night we started off the night with the kids helping Dave make homemade pizzas and a instant pudding topped with graham cracker crumbs (yum!). Isaac asked if we could do a painting project for family night, so I went to my trusty Pinterest "Kids Activities" board and found two fun ideas. We already had a few small painting canvases. This was a 2-pack of 11x14s from Hobby Lobby.
For Isaac I used painters taped to tape off a modern geometric pattern and helped him choose or mix colors to match his room. He painted each square a different color and then we peeled off the tape. So simple, but the look of pride on face was priceless. (What is it with me and alliteration in this post??) Here's a link to the blog I got the idea from.
This project is fun for grown-ups, too. My hubby did one in black paint that looked like an abstract, framed cross. It was pretty cool. I get the sense our living room wall will soon be the family art gallery.
For Zoe I taped off her name, like in this idea I saw on Pinterest. I gave her 2 cups of similar colored washable acrylic paint, because they were going to end up mixed together anyway with a two-year-old painting. We used light pink and light purple. She painted the whole canvas and then painted in again... and again. She probably spend 30 minutes applying pink and purple pain in layers. When we peeled off the tape, her eyes lit up when she recognized her name. Very cool! Made mommy smile. = )
We painted outside, so clean up just meant putting our masterpieces somewhere out of reach to dry; throwing tape, paper plates, and plastic cups in a big trash bag; and bringing the paint and easels back inside.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Shockingly Easy Summer Project That Will Impress Your Kids, Fellow Moms, Random Strangers, and Maybe Even Your MIL
I was feeling brave yesterday I guess. Or maybe being couped up in the house with sick kids for two weeks just made me desperate for some excitement in my life. Either way, when my mom called and told me there was a cool idea in Lowes Creative Ideas Magazine for a kids bike wash made out of PVC pipe, I thought... I'm so doing that.
I googled to find a couple more ideas and ended up using this one from Family Fun Magazine I used it because it was super cool, but also because it had a materials list and an easy-to-read diagram for cutting the PVC and piecing it together. I ended up spending about $65 total including accessories and a new tool to cut the PVC. The PVC pipe itself was probably only $30-35. It took me less than 3 hours and that was including getting my neighbor to help me figure out how to use my new tool and chasing the kids around the backyard in between PVC cutting and assembling.
The kids really seem to like it... Especially my 5- and 1-year-old boys. Let me know if you've ever done a PVC water park and what the kids thought. I'd love to hear your feedback!
I googled to find a couple more ideas and ended up using this one from Family Fun Magazine I used it because it was super cool, but also because it had a materials list and an easy-to-read diagram for cutting the PVC and piecing it together. I ended up spending about $65 total including accessories and a new tool to cut the PVC. The PVC pipe itself was probably only $30-35. It took me less than 3 hours and that was including getting my neighbor to help me figure out how to use my new tool and chasing the kids around the backyard in between PVC cutting and assembling.
The kids really seem to like it... Especially my 5- and 1-year-old boys. Let me know if you've ever done a PVC water park and what the kids thought. I'd love to hear your feedback!
Saturday, April 7, 2012
My Spring Break Spring Cleaning Adventure pt 1
This is a sequel. The second chapter of my radical decluttering of my home. I realized that as a family of 5 in 950 square feet, if we can't have more space then we need less stuff. Yesterday was the first day of spring break, so I decided to take advantage of my husband being home to take on my next big project.
I decided we would EMPTY my 5-year-old's room. (Yes, I know you think I'm crazy.). It was a huge undertaking and I'm still finishing up the last few things, but I'm really excited about the results!
Just for effect here are the before pictures.
Ok, so here's what we did...
Step 1: Empty the room of everything except large furniture, wall hangings, and window treatments
This alone took us nearly two hours, but it was worth it. Here's the room empty.
And this is about 80% of what we took out of it... Now filling my living room. Yuck.
Ok. Step 2: Clean the room like it hasn't been cleaned since you moved in. Scrub baseboards, disinfect surfaces, dust everything, clean ceiling fan, orange glo the floors. You get the idea.
Here's Isaac scrubbing baseboards.
Step 3: Rearrange any furniture and set up your organization system
And Step 4: Put everything back.
This one is a doozy. But I'm going to keep you in suspense. Part 2 coming soon. ; )
I decided we would EMPTY my 5-year-old's room. (Yes, I know you think I'm crazy.). It was a huge undertaking and I'm still finishing up the last few things, but I'm really excited about the results!
Just for effect here are the before pictures.
Ok, so here's what we did...
Step 1: Empty the room of everything except large furniture, wall hangings, and window treatments
This alone took us nearly two hours, but it was worth it. Here's the room empty.
And this is about 80% of what we took out of it... Now filling my living room. Yuck.
Ok. Step 2: Clean the room like it hasn't been cleaned since you moved in. Scrub baseboards, disinfect surfaces, dust everything, clean ceiling fan, orange glo the floors. You get the idea.
Here's Isaac scrubbing baseboards.
Step 3: Rearrange any furniture and set up your organization system
And Step 4: Put everything back.
This one is a doozy. But I'm going to keep you in suspense. Part 2 coming soon. ; )
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