Meeting others.

Often times when you move into a new neighborhood, you are greeted with treats and goodies from kind neighbors.

We had a lot of that going on here in this awesome neighborhood that I may or may not have deemed “Zion.”

Along with goodies, neighbors offered to watch kids so that I could unpack boxes.

I am thankful for the goodness of others.

As a way to say thank you, and to meet some of our new neighbors; we also took around a little treat.

(homemade strawberry jam)

It was a nice way to meet people, and say “we are glad to be here.”

My advice to those of you who may be moving.

Don’t sit around and wait for others to come and meet you; get out there and introduce yourself.

It can make all the difference in a move.

Take it from the girl who has moved, oh about 10 times, in the last 9 years.

How our tree comes together.

I had a request that I do one post all about our Christmas tree.

I thought I could tell you how it all comes together.

Next year, I will have to try to take step by step pictures.

First of all, I do not have a pre-lit tree.  I light this bad boy all by myself with some help from my hubby or the kiddos.

I think it is important to wrap each branch with lights so they go in and out. 

Although quite time consuming, it makes for quite a beautiful sight.

Tip: stand back and squint.  If the lights are evenly spaced and there are no holes in your tree then you have done a good job with your lights.

When I was taking these night pictures, this one ended up on my camera.  I thought it was fun.  Obviously, I bumped my tripod.

Once we have the lights on, we start with the basic ornaments.  I bought a box of 40 red and a box of 40 silver ornaments.  They are in all different shapes and sizes.  I found them at Target after Christmas one year.  This gives us some really good coverage with 80 ornaments.

The basic ornaments are the base of the tree.  They are the ornaments that fill in the gaps, but not the ornaments that catch your eye.

 

We don’t just hang on the outer limbs of the tree.  We stick our hands all the way inside and hang there too.

Now, begins the fun ornaments. 

I have collections of ornaments.  I buy a few new ones each year for our tree.

When I find an ornament that I like, I buy them in sets of 3 or 5. 

That way I have a variety of my favorite ornaments.

 

I have never been a matchy-matchy(my computer says this is not a word, but I am using it anyway) sort of girl.

 I like my ornaments to be a reflection of things I love, or to tell a story.

 

I only buy ornaments that fall into my color scheme of red, silver, gold, and white.  I have a few touches of black in there too.

When looking for ornaments, I tend to be attracted to glass vintage looking ornaments.

I also love things that sparkle with lots  of glitter.

I love ornaments with words on them.

I also think big ornaments, and ornaments with texture are always fun.

I have had lots of luck finding ornaments at thrift stores, hobby lobby, the dollar store, and target.

I pick up ornaments year round.

After we have added all the varieties, then it is time for the kids ornaments.

They receive an ornament from us each year for Christmas.  I also try to keep them in our color scheme(if possible), and I like them to be classy enough that they would want to hang them on their tree when they take them with them.

For example, although they might like sponge bob now, he might not look so beautiful on their tree when they are 30.

I do pick out ornaments that reflect them during that particular year.  For example, Stella will get a white ornament because she was baptized this year. They receive these on Christmas Eve.

Then it is time for the picture frames.  My personal favorite.

 

This is the part of the tree that really represents me and my love for photography.

I have just found frames at thrift stores, and spray painted them in white, and silver.  I found the red frames at Hobby Lobby.

I change these pictures from year to year.  The red frames have a picture of the kids, and the others have fun candid moments throughout the years.

The little white frames were a score that I found at a random store in Kansas City years ago for a dollar each.  These little white frames have some of our earliest family pictures in them.  I also put the date on each of these pictures.  It is kind of fun to look back and reminisce.

The picture frames are what make the tree. 

I also have ornaments that are picture frames as well.

(yes that is me, when I was a youngster)

Picture frames are what I use to complete my tree, and make a statement.

I don’t think you have to use picture frames to finish off your tree.

You can use anything you love.  It should be big, and make a statement.

A few ideas that I thought of; If you love to read, you could use books that you love, children’s books, and ornaments covered in book paper.  You could also use your initials(big wooden letters). If you love to bake you could make big gingerbread cookies.  If you love to sew, you could cover ornaments in fabric, or hang spools of thread from you tree.  I have also seen nice big words out there to buy.  I think those would look real fun stuck in a tree.

We top our tree off with our vintage topper; this topper reflects my style and goes well with my ornaments.

We can’t forget what goes below the tree.

 

I am in love with my new red tree skirt.  I made this in honor of Baby Ruby and I love looking at it and thinking of her.

(tutorial found here)

Thanks for asking me share this little post.  It was fun putting it together.

Oh, and one more thing.  You are probably asking if our kids help in this little process.  Well yes they do.  They help all along the way.

We have had a few ornaments broken, but it comes with the territory.

I would rather have ornaments broken and memories made.

Do I rearrange the ornaments on the tree when they go to bed?

Why yes I do.

Shhh. Don’t tell.

Mother’s little secrets

There is a book that I refer to a lot.  It is called  A Mother’s Book of Secrets.  It is a great read full of wonderful ideas that have helped me as a mother. I am re-reading it again for probably the fifth time. The author’s also have a blog.  I enjoy reading this one from time to time.  I seek guidance here as a mother often.  These two women are my go to gals when it comes to parenting tips.  

Last night, while I was reading the book, I started wondering what my little book of secrets would hold.

I have been a mother for ten years now.  Sometimes, I think that I still don’t know what I am doing.  I have found a few little things that work well for me and my family.

Last week, I had the realization that I am in full-swing as a mother now.  Jonathan and I are done having children.  No more pregnancies, late night feedings, or nursing babies.  No more excuses to not be on my game.  I have always felt that I am not fully with it as a mom in the chaos of new babies. I always think of that time as survival mode.

I have never been at this point before.  I have always had the excuse of pregnancy, and now I don’t.  It is time to get my parenting skills together. I know I need to give myself more credit, but now that I am in to the stage of just raising kids, not having them; I want to make sure I get it right.

I always learn so much from other mothers.  Hence the reason I love to re-read the book.

I thought it might be fun to share ten of my little secrets.  These are the ten things that get me through the trenches of motherhood.  The ten things that help me find the magic in motherhood. Being a mother is not an easy job, but it is the most rewarding job I have ever had. When I do these things, I find more peace in our home, and more time to just BE with our children.

1.  I try not to go to bed with a dirty house.  Well, let me rephrase that.  I try to go to bed with a straightened house.  I love waking up to a house where things are put away.  In order to do this, I enlist the kids to make sure the house is all put together before we lay our heads down on our pillows.

2. How do I enlist the kids?  my best tidying up secret; stations.  Each one of our kids is responsible for a station in our house.  They are responsible to make sure their rooms are clean, and their station is clean. Stations consist of; den, playroom, dining room, and family room.  Each child has a room, and I pair the older kids up with a younger child to make sure they know what to do. 

Their station needs to look like we would want it to look if a visitor was coming over.  That means every pillow needs to be put back on the couch and toys picked up.  We do stations just before bed time, and while they work on theirs, I work on mine.  I tidy the kitchen, wipe off the table and chairs, and clorox wipe the bathrooms. It takes us between 10 to 15 minutes, and then we go to bed with a clean house.

3. Bedtime routine, and two thumbs up.  Every night, rain or shine we join together as a family.  This is the most important time in our family’s day.  We start our time together by talking about what is happening in our family.  We discuss anything that might be important to remember or something we have going on.  This is also an opportunity for the kids to tell us important points about their day. 

Then we do one of my favorite things as a family.  Jonathan or I pick someone to receive “two thumbs up.”  Two thumbs up is a way to reward someone in our house for doing something awesome.  For example, “Isaac you get two thumbs up for being reverent in church, or Tess ate all of her dinner tonight.”  It is the perfect opportunity to point out the kind of behavior that we like to see. 

I remember a friend telling me that her daughters self esteem grew when she started riding horses and receiving awards.  She had never gotten an award before.  I believe that kids grow when we acknowledge their successes.  In our family one of our kids gets an award every night.  Someone is always a winner.  When him or her receive two thumbs up, we give them an actual two thumbs up, we clap for them, and they receive 3 extra tokens(I will share this secret in a minute.)  After our two thumbs up ritual we end the night with family prayer.  I believe this routine to be one of the greatest things we do as a family.

4.  Ok, tokens.  We have been doing this in our family for a couple of years now.  We are still doing it, because it works and our kids respond to it.  I did a post on this a few years back.  Go here, if  you want to read more about it.

sidenote: I am a little more relaxed with the tokens and what we give and take away for, then I was in the beginning.  If you choose to do this, find what works for your family. 

Tokens are our way of rewarding our children for chores, good behavior, and good choices.  We also take them away for the opposite.  Tokens can be redeemed for money, or used to spend on computer, tv, or other special rewards.  We love the token system. Our kids cash them in every Monday night.

5. Plan out your week.  I have a beautiful calendar.  Which I absolutely love.  I bought it here.  I sit down with it every Sunday. 

I use it to plan out my week, and make sure we are all on the same page around here.  I write everything down that I want to accomplish in the week as well.  Once I have done that, I fill in the days with my kids stuff, hubby’s stuff, and my stuff.  That way I make sure I accomplish things that are important to me as well. A mom that does for herself, is a happy mom.

Included in my list, I have clean the house, laundry, and exercise.  I figure out which day that week those will squeeze in the best and plan accordingly.  I also plan when and what I will exercise for the week.  If I want to do it, I have to have a plan.

6. Lay out their clothes.  I lay out my kids clothes every night before bed.  It is so helpful, and saves so much time.  When clothes, sock, and shoes are already out, then there is no rushing around looking for them in the morning.  I even lay out the bows that I will have the girls wear in their hair.  Saves me so much time, and brain power.  My brain doesn’t think so well in the morning when I have just crawled out of bed. I have to say this is one of my greatest mommy secrets.

 

7. Enlist your kids to help.  I have heard my friends say that they don’t have their kids do chores.  My kids do chores every day. 

In the morning, they are responsible to : make their bed, put away pj’s, brush teeth, say prayers, eat breakfast, get dressed, comb hair(with mom’s help), and clear breakfast dishes.  At bed time: put their pj’s on, put away clothes for the day, brush teeth, say prayers, and do their stations. 

I also enlist my kids to help me when I need it.  They help clean bathrooms, load and unload the dishwasher, and wash windows.  Even Tess has chores that she can do.  It is so important that kids learn to be helpful.  My kids have always helped, and they rarely complain because they just know that is what we do. 

My favorite times are when we are working on it together.  We turn up the music, and crank out a clean and tidy house in about 30 minutes.  5 or 6 people working together is so much easier than 1 person doing it alone.

8.  If something isn’t working, fix it.  If there are little problems in your house, work together to find a solution. 

For example, after school at our house was making me crazy.  We just recently came up with a solution so my brain didn’t explode from over stimulation.  The kids all wanted to talk at once, or have me sign this, or read this.  With 3 school age kids coming at me, I found myself wanting to crawl in a hole and hide.  So… this is what we came up with: 

Once they get home, they pick a snack from the snack basket and take it outside to eat.  This gives me five minutes to tie up any loose ends from what I have been working on, and also allows them five minutes to decompress.  After snack, they work on their homework, and when they are ready they call for an FM.  FM stands for five minutes.  Each child gets their own five minutes where no one can interrupt them.  We discuss what went on that day, we talk about what might be coming up, and I look over homework and any papers that came home and might need to be signed.  I love this because this allows me to talk to the kids one on one. I also find out important bits of information that they might not have shared with me when everyone else is around.  This is a solution we came up with together.  If something isn’t working, come together to find a solution.

9. Calm equals power. I have recently figured this out, and I am still working on it every.single.day.  Staying clam does give you so much power.  Try it.  Instead of freaking out.  Just try staying calm.  You will be amazed at how much better the situation turns out.  Now, if I could just remember to do this every time.

10.  Be assertive, not passive.  Mothers who are passive, rarely accomplish what it is that they want with their family. 

It is so important to be assertive with your family.  Set the limits, and enforce them.  Set the tone, and try to live by it.  Find time to assert some fun.  Be assertive with love and understanding.  Be assertive with rules. 

When we let too many things go, we never accomplish what it is we want to do, or who we want to become.

Limit your passive moments to only things that really don’t matter, like a battle over shoes.  Be assertive in moments that matter like, respect of others, or others property.  Even if it is your property, you don’t want them to think that it is ok to do that to others things. When we are assertive, we show are children that we love them.

I know I said 10, but number 11 is my most important secret.

11. Laugh. Take the time to have fun.  STOP!! what you are doing and be with your children.  Laughter changes your mood. These moments will pass, and if you don’t have any fun while you are in them; you will regret it.

That is all folks; those are the secrets that I have stumbled on that have helped me along this hard hard journey of motherhood.  I still fail every day.  I still worry that my kids are going to grow up to hate me.  I still make BIG mistakes, but I wanted to share what I have learned.  I wanted you to know what I am working on to make my children’s childhood and our family more successful. Hopefully they can help you in some way.

Now, what are your secrets?

Valentine Ideas

I know it is Thursday and time for What I have learned, but I am going to postpone it until tomorrow.  I wanted to share what we are making for our Valentines this year.  I wanted to post it in enough time to leave you with some good ideas to get rolling with your own Valentines.

Every year, I make the kids Valentines with a photo card.  It makes it fun and personal.  So let’s start with Jex:

I found the original idea for Jex here on Pinterest.

Here is Jex’s card:

Once we print the photos, I find that it is easy to mat them on mat stacks.

  They work perfect with 4x6 photos and can be bought at Hobby Lobby.

 

I printed this little number out to go on the back.

 

That way the kids can personalize and address each one.

You are welcome to use this little printable as well.

Go here to find it.

As a treat to go with Jex’s Valentine:

A mustache attached to a fun straw, a water bottle, and a drink mix.

We placed them in these fun bags, and then tied them all up and added the Valentine.

Stella’s card:

I came up with this little idea on my own.

To go along with the card:

Hot chocolate and heart marshmallows, all dolled up in a cute polka dot bag.

It was easy to place these inside, and then just staple the card on.

Isaac’s card looks a little something like this:

For his treat, I get to make the class something.  His preschool allows that which is so fun.

So I am using these items to make some really cute mini cupcakes.

I haven’t made them yet, because I want them to be fresh for the big day.

I plan to make cupcakes in mini ice cream cones with a little pink icing on the top.  I hope these will look just like mini ice cream cones, which happen to be one of Isaac’s “favorite” treats.

I plan to place them in these cute boxes and wrap them up in these fun clear bags.  Then attach the Valentine.

…and because I couldn’t leave out the little miss, here is her Valentine:

Well a couple for her…

I couldn’t resist.

Thanks for checking out our Valentines.  I plan to share what Isaac’s treat looks like on the big day.

P.S. don’t forget to check out my giveaway for a great digital scrapbook software from www.mymemories.com.

Or use the special code to buy it at a great deal.  Go Here for more details.