school’s out for the summer…almost

Posted on 2013/05/19 by daisyeyes

Now that I have the roaring head banging song in your head, I present to you our summer plans. I do a great job of making it look like I have it all together and this summer is no different. This is the last week of school and so I’m hurriedly trying to paste all my last minute ideas together so that next Tuesday (because Monday is a holiday) we are ready and going.

One thing we will do this week is have a “yes” day. I implemented this day as the first and last day of any vacation that we have. It’s a no holds bar kind of day where you can cram your head with as much technology and anything else (within reason) because after that we are on a schedule.

Last year we had this crazy magnet thing that I had come up with. While we kind of held it together in the beginning, it pretty much all fell apart after a few weeks. It was a little bit too lax and the follow through wasn’t happening.

After spending Christmas vacation with one child who seriously needs some sort of schedule and me realizing that I am going to have to still work on the shop this summer, I knew we would have to have some sort of framework.

So this is what I came up with. A loose schedule filled with assigned days for things and different themed hours in our house. One thing I know that could easily overtake us is technology, so we are going to be very rigorous on this one. Both of my kids are getting to the age where if they are bored they want a screen. Not gonna happen this summer. We also have this Apologia science book that we’ve been talking about doing for at least 2 years and I swear we are going to do some of it this summer. So this is the lay of the land.

1. We have a family calendar hanging up that we will mark off the days as we go. This gives everyone a heads up for what is coming up that is planned for.
2. We have assigned days for things: Monday mornings we will have a chore time. They will be assigned one weekly chore that they will do on Monday mornings. Wednesdays is movie afternoon. Hopefully this helps with the “I want to watch a movie” whines. Friday mornings we will hit the library.
3. We will be unplugged between 8:30 and 1:00. No questions asked. I’m also trying to get rid of the t.v. as soon as you wake up habit. If they do wake up before 8:30, then PBS is totally fine, but if you wake up later than that….too bad.
4. We will have a loose structure to our day: breakfast, school time, work time for me with play time for them, lunch and then the tech hour. During this hour they are free to have whatever screen they desire: Ipod, Ipad, computer, Leapster, Wii…whatever. And then quiet hour. My hope is to have 30 minutes of reading time for all of us and then 30 minutes of quiet time in their rooms. This is more for my sanity than theirs! Then we will hit the pool
5. Obviously there are days where this won’t happen and to be honest we only have 4 weeks this summer that are totally open (we go to school year round so we have a pretty short summer). But these weeks we are “down” I hope will be pretty routine.

The second thing I did was our bucket list. I have a bunch of things I’ve pinned on my Summer2013 board and many of these ideas came from there. The idea for the mock chemistry board came from here.

I did ours a little differently and color coded the post it notes for free activities (pink), those that involve money (yellow), those that involve planning (blue) and a couple of open spots (green).

I have a tendency to be too structured and then never follow through, so I tried really hard to make this whole thing be a system of guidelines for us. Giving us all space for summer life to happen, but also a little roadmap for those of us that crave that sort of thing.

thredUp beware

Posted on 2013/01/14 by daisyeyes

A few years ago I saw a review of a company called ThredUp. The concept was simple. Fill up a box of gently used clothing and then list those items and other parents were able to review all the different boxes and chose one. I did this at least 3-4 times and never had a complaint about the clothing that I had sent in. And while I had a few duds in some of my boxes, for the most part it was all represented accurately.

Recently their company decided to do away with the swapping boxes idea and become somewhat of an online consignment store. The idea is you send in a bag of clothes to them, they go through them and then chose the ones that meet their criteria and give you credit for them. You can go to their website, use their iPad app and shop for clothes online. Simple right?

I thought I would give it a try. I have a local consignment store that I love, but it’s 30 minutes from my house. The idea that I could just fill up a bag, leave it on my step for the postal worker was rather appealing. I ordered my little green dotted bag, filled it up with clothes that I would have normally taken to my local shop and waited.
And waited. And waited.

Finally I heard back from the company that I had received a whopping 80 cents for the one shirt out of 20+ items that they decided met their criteria. I was told the rest of the items were stained or ripped. Totally untrue.

After doing a little nosing around on the internet, I found blog after blog where people had written great reviews about the items they had received from ThredUp (for free to review), but comment after comment about situations like mine. They even have a multitude of complaints to the Better Business Bureau for the same thing.

So, while ThredUp may be a great place to buy clothing…DO NOT send in your clothes there. Support your local consignment store, do a clothing swap with friends, heck give that bag of clothes to someone in your community that needs them. But stay clear of that little green polka dotted bag.

responsibilities, contributions & expectations

Posted on 2012/05/28 by daisyeyes

I was a special education teacher for nearly 10 years. One thing that was constantly remarked to me was that I never gave up trying something for something better. If something wasn’t working, I modified it or scrapped it and tried something else. That tenaciousness has carried over into my parenting and home life. I’m constantly drafting and changing all sorts of things in our house. (which drives my husband crazy) Sometimes it’s because it’s not working, sometimes it’s boredom and sometimes it’s because I saw something that might work better.

I came up with this if/then chart a while ago and I’ve tweaked it many times since. Lately some things have happened in our home that have made us realize that this chart really wasn’t working for us and we were going to need to radically change some of the consequences. We’ve really figured out what consequences were working with our children, what were exacerbating the situation and not helping and what areas we really needed to focus on. The primary consequence that works with both our children is a removal from the situation. They both just need that time to collect themselves before they can listen and enter back into family life. My husband and I also just needed help with being on the same page. I came up with some key phrases (maybe like our family mottos?) and verses that would match. (these verses come from Desiring God’s children’s memory verse system we’ve been working through). So here is our updated version:

The next big thing I worked on was our new responsibility/contribution system. It will be a few weeks before we get it hung up and all the kinks worked out, but here is a broad picture of it:

Like I mentioned before, I used the idea from here and tweaked it for our family. We basically divided home stuff into two categories: responsibilities (you do these because you are a member of this family with no “reward”) and contributions (these are things you can earn money for).

Every day they see their chart:

There might be extra responsibility things that I add daily and for the contributions there might be specific things they need to do that day (mow the yard) or it might say “pick 2″ and they get to choose.

When they choose, they are choosing from this list of contributions:

As they finish a contribution, they put it on their cookie sheet. At the end of the day, they add up how much money they earned and put it on their time sheet. On Sundays, they are paid their commission for the week.

Hopefully by next Sunday (their first payday) I will have 3 change purses for each. One for saving, one for giving and one for spending. For my son, who is almost 9, he will be working towards his first savings account deposit. When he saves enough to open his account, he will start putting all his save money in the bank towards a car when he turns 16. For my daughter, who is 5, we are going to decide on one large item that she is saving for. She desperately needs to learn that in order to get something big, you have to wait for it. (patience is not her strong suit!)

The other thing on their cookie sheets are their technology cards. Each Sunday they get a new card with 10 punches equally 45 minutes of plugged in time. When the card is punched out, they are done for the week. No new card until Sunday.

Like I said, we just unveiled the system today, so this week is going to be a trial and error. They’ve known about the tech cards for a while so they thought it was kind of fun. They probably won’t be laughing come Thursday when they are punched out! But I won’t be either!

introducing summer 2012

Posted on 2012/05/23 by daisyeyes

I gave a little hint at some of our summer plans earlier this week and also shared my summer 2012 pinterest board.
This morning I decided to get all blog official and made a little button
Introducing my summer 2012 series:

In an effort to give myself a little accountability with posting and being on the computer, I’ve made a little plan. Here are some of the things you can look forward to in the coming weeks:

Once a week I will post a general glimpse at some fun things we have been doing. Think rainy/hot day-inside fun ideas, summer schoolish things, art school, outside fun and even some planning for our beach road trip.

The weekends will be devoted to sharing some before-after projects I hope to do. The first up is redoing the kid’s closet using Ikea’s expedit shelves. The other project I hope to do is prepping and wallpapering our stair treads. The biggest project will be the painting and redoing of the exterior of our house. This will be the biggest before and after!

Thursday Threads will continue, but in addition to posting some embroidery, I hope to share some of the sewing projects I have on my list to do while my shop is on vacation. I’ve got a line of patterns to try out, some ottomans to cover, chair cushions to cover and a host of tutorials. Not to mention some mock-ups for new things coming to etsy in July.

And of course I’ll continue Fantastic Fridays. Hopefully there will be a June and July Martha of the Month thrown in there too!

Whew! It’s day one of our summer break…off we go!

summer 2012 {the plan}

Posted on 2012/05/21 by daisyeyes

My son has one more day of school left and I’ve got one more week of working the shop before summer vacation begins around here. I’ve got great plans, but the top plan is to be flexible yet organized! We are changing up a few things in the running of our household and also planning on doing a little bit of light summer schooling around here too. This is the planning week and hopefully over the coarse of the next 7 weeks of our summer I will be able to share with you some of the fun things we did!

First up in the area of summer schooling:

My hope is to lightly do an artist of the week, using this book as our guide. In our weekly library trips I hope to grab a handful of books on that artist to have in our house while we are studying.
Both my kids have completely outgrown those lovely 2 hours naps, but we are instigating a mandatory 30 minute reading time and a 30 minute play in your room quiet time. The rooster is working towards a backpack and a backpacking trip with his father at the end of the summer (more on his reading challenge in another post) so he has a stack of 12 books he has to work through.
The chick is entering Kindergarten, so we will continue working through all the Kindergarten sight words and also continue working through Explode the Code (my most favorite phonics books of all times!). I’m still not 100% sure what the Rooster is going to focus on. More than likely we will do some hard work on memorizing multiplication facts and some other grammar/writing maintenance things. We will also take at least weekly library trips (spending one of our one hour quiet times at the library) and also enjoying all the special summer stuff the library will be hosting.

Second up in the area of home maintenance:

We are changing up our chore & responsibility chart. I’ll go more into this in another post when it’s all complete. I pretty much used much of the ideas from this example and created one to fit with our family. The essential idea is that there are things we do as a family that are responsibilities and there are things we can do that are extra (aka contributions) that we can earn money for (we are using the word “commission” versus allowance). We will have a weekly payday on Sunday and the kid’s will be responsible for keeping a daily time sheet.

The other big change are the technology cards. My kids get about an hour of “free” tv time during the day. Typically Wild Kratts & the Electric Company in the afternoon while I’m cooking dinner. These cards are for those times when they are “bored” and are looking for something to do. They will each get a card every Sunday and each punch is worth 45 minutes. They won’t get a new card until the following Sunday, so if they use it up before then, they are basically unplugged until they get another one. These cards cover using the iPad, using the computer, watching a show on tv/netflix or playing the Wii.

Those are the two biggest areas of structure in our summer. Honestly, the reason I’m putting the shop on vacation is so that I can have fun with them this summer. We have a pool and a park across the street, a fabulous library within 5 minutes and the mountains within 30. I want to be with them this summer in a way I just haven’t let myself before. Enter the Pinterest summer board.

I’ve created a board on Pinterest with links to all sorts of things that have peaked my interest for this summer and another board for all those things we actually do.

If you haven’t subscribed to daisyeyes yet, this might just be the best time! I hope to show as many pictures and ideas as possible of our summer. Sort of a journal of summer 2012.

I hope you follow along!

playing with scraps

Posted on 2012/05/13 by daisyeyes

You know the whole parenting frustration where you spend all this money on great toys and the kids just play with the box? I think there was a post a while back floating around the net that gave the top 10 toys for kids and it was like a cardboard box, pieces of wood, a rope etc. Simple things.

Our house is in a constant state of remodeling. My husband has stuff lying all around the house for all sorts of projects. I admit that most of the time it drives me nuts and I want to chuck it all, yesterday was one of those days I was glad for it.

Introducing the world’s most famous toys: the tube and the stair tread remnant

We have a million of these cardboard tubes lying around 1. because my husband works for an engineering firm and he brings all of them home from work and 2. he is planning on entering a cardboard boat race and is in it to win it this year. The stair tread remnant is from the finally accomplished stairs into our basement (We are like 2 steps from being done with remodeling our basement…yippee!!).

The kids and I were outside yesterday and I realized these would make amazing balance boards. I wondered if the tubes were strong enough to withstand the weight of the kids and even me and they were! We had a blast playing around with our balance and found out that it works much better on the grass versus the driveway (I nearly had a major bust when the tube started rolling under me…can anyone say “lumberjack racing”?)

Then my son, being the boy he is, decided to make it into a catapult and starting launching things off of it.

So, when you start to get board this summer (no pun intended) just take a look at all the junk lying around your garage or carport and you never know what you might find!

martha of the month {april}

Posted on 2012/04/30 by daisyeyes

Whew, this one came down to the wire. April has hit me like a tornado and spun out just about as quick. It’s crazy to think that May is tomorrow. Thankfully, I’ve had my May Martha planned for a few weeks. Just have to get it done!

This month’s project is a big project that I”m starting this month and will hopefully finish up with the June project. I wanted to make school memory books for my children. I didn’t want to buy one of those premade little kits or even just a premade book. I wanted something simple, but would hold enough of their memories from school all in one place.

The idea for these pages comes from Martha’s Encyclopedia of Craft. The directions for this project were a little difficult when it came to procuring supplies. Instead of buying primary writing paper or graph paper, I opted to just print some off the internet. Thank you google. I couldn’t find any scrapbook pages that would fit into an 8.5×11 binder, so I ended up buying pieces of tagboard that I cut down to size.

Her page suggestions:

You also need some ink and stamps (if you want to go that route).

My finished pages:

I ended up folding the paper as suggested to make one pocket for memories and used the sewing machine to attach the paper to the tagboard. I stamped the grade and years in the right corner, but after trying to stuff a few examples of work in them, realized it would have made more sense to stamp it in the bottom right corner instead. You live and learn!

Their class photo is on the backside with some cute scrapbook paper on it. (Just opting not to share their class photo with the world for privacy sake).

June’s project will be a continuation of this. I am hoping to take a one inch binder and make a felt cover for it to put all the school pages in.

***

The other fun thing we are starting this year is something I totally stole from Pinterest. I saw this great idea where you buy Dr. Suess’ book, Oh the Places You Go, and every year have each teacher secretly write a special note for them. This becomes a gift for them when they graduate from high school.

I printed out a fun picture for both of them from their first year in school (Rooster in kindergarten and Chick in Preschool) and then typed out a special verse for them (a section of Deuteronomy 8). After a little bit of digging in the scrapbook paper drawer I “framed” the pictures and stuck them down with a little contact paper.

If your kids aren’t just starting out this year, I wouldn’t fret! My rooster is finishing up second grade this year and I’m excited to start this tradition even late! I’m having the Rooster’s first grade teacher sign for last year, but I’m not going to worry about tracking down his kindergarten teacher (we were at a different school).

mother’s charms

Posted on 2012/04/18 by daisyeyes

Just in time to start thinking about Mother’s Day, I finished these little charms.

Choose from three different options (and know that I’m always ready and waiting for any kind of custom request!)

There are two felt applique options: a little birdie and a stack of circles with a heart.

The third option is a hand embroidered hand print

You choose whether you would prefer full names, initials or for those blessed with many children, maybe just the first initial of each of their names?

Each charm comes packaged in it’s own little tin!

a foodie post

Posted on 2012/04/17 by daisyeyes

If there seems to be anything that strikes stress into the heart of a mom lately, it’s the idea of menu planning and grocery shopping. I spend way more time than I would like to think going over recipes, organizing recipes, making a menu, making a grocery list and let’s not forget actually going shopping and cooking!

That said, I feel like I’ve sort of begun to turn a corner with my level of foodie stress, only to have a whole host of changes coming my way this summer. It’s an easy trap of perfectionism (or the thought of it) and comparing my kitchen to another’s to fall into and I would love to be a community where we encourage everyone to eat better without stressing over it.

Our family of four grocery budget hovers around $400. I don’t stick to it as closely as I should, but give or take $25-30, this is where we sit. Once upon a time I was shopping at least 4-5 different stores in a month and have gladly cut that down to just about two: Walmart (I know, gag, but it is the cheapest) and our local food co-op.

Some of the biggest changes I’ve made lately is with dairy. My kitchen overall is probably about 50% organic from produce to dry goods. I try to buy as little processed food as I can sanely manage and we do bake a lot in our house, but dairy was one of my last hangups. It’s just so freakin’ expensive.

I started out with yogurt. We eat a ton of yogurt in our house and I was probably spending $50 per grocery trip on those little yogurt tubs and little containers for my husband’s lunch. No more. I’ve started buying only the 32oz containers of vanilla and we are slowly experimenting with adding other flavors, fruits and granola to it. We have recently discovered Brown Cow yogurt and are completely smitten. It’s awesome.

I’m still working out the milk issue. We’ve put the kids back on whole milk, generally because they aren’t drinking as much as they used to. We ration milk pretty good around here. The hubs and I are on 1% when I can find it. I’ve been buying different brands over the course of the last month and I will say that I have seen a huge improvement in my ability to handle dairy, namely milk. Organic cheese and butter for baking are my last two dairy items to convert. We shall see.

One of the biggest changes that is happening this summer is where I buy my food. This is where the budget is going to hit the fan, as I’m really not sure how to budget for it. Azure Standard is heading my way in a month and I’m super excited. I’ve read nothing but raving reviews about this family owned company and their prices are pretty hard to beat, even with Earthfare and a local food co-op to choose from around here. This is where I just don’t know how to budget. I’m hoping to start buying pretty much all the stuff I was buying from the bulk bins from them, along with some of their frozen meat (their ground turkey supplier and their whole chicken supplier has nothing but awesome reviews online).

We are also getting a Trader Joes (insert gigantic scream of joy) and a Cosco this summer (not to mention a Publix). Talk about too many shopping choices. It’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out by August.

But biggest change in our lives is going to be our no food dye or food coloring challenge. I’ve been talking it up with the kids for the past few weeks and we’ve been talking about the things we would have to cut out. Why are we doing this? I truly think that my daughter for sure has a sensitivity to it. We aren’t a heavy food dye family to begin with, but she does get her fair share of it at school in the form of Popsicles and other junk (insert gigantic groan). Before I made a radical change in her food diet at school, I wanted to try it out at home during a time with I could control it pretty much 100 percent.

The Kitchen Stewardship blog has a great series on avoiding food dyes called “my food is not a number”. Check it out.

I’m already starting to stockpile a list in my head of the things we have to stop buying and today was totally bummed when I saw that Edy’s 100% fruit pops have yellow and red food dye in them. Urg! More incentive to use all those Pins from Pinterest and make my own fruit pops!

What are you doing in your kitchen to reduce your menu planning/budgeting stress?

growing seeds of kindness

Posted on 2012/02/25 by daisyeyes

For Lent this year our goal as a family is to be more intentional in our actions towards each other. I saw an idea for something like this on A Holy Experience (Ann Voskamp’s blog). Her family practiced this idea during advent. I stored it away as something for us to do as we prepare for Easter.

The idea is that every time we do something kind for one another, every time we put others first, we get to plant a wheat seed. The hope is that by Easter, this pot will be overflowing with wheat grass.

My sweet children have already bought into this idea and I’ve loved all the conversations we’ve had about it. Yesterday my son remarked: “wouldn’t it be awesome if this whole little jar of wheat berries was gone by Easter?” and today my daughter asked: “can I give you a hug for a wheat seed?”

Here’s hoping the momentum continues for the next 38 days.