Kids
Book: “Fix It Duck” by Jez Alborough
This is one of the books the girls have requested many times, it is called Fix It Duck by Jez Alborough (aka Mr Fix It Duck book in our household). The girls always get a real kick out of reading this book. Duck has a leak in his house and he goes to his friends to borrow something. When they mention a problem they are having he tries to “fix it” for them. Somehow when he tries to fix it he ends up making things worse instead of better for his friends. It is a fun story to read with your kids with great illustrations.
Kids in the Kitchen: Fruit Cars
Apple Cars
The kids loved these fruit treats. It was a fun snack and craft to do at the girls birthday party too. At their party we set out a bowl of apples, oranges, grapefruits, and grapes so the kids could put together their own cars. The cars we’re a lot of fun and you could even drive them (so cute with their wobbly wheels).
Orange Car
Cute little fruit cars made by the kids. All it takes is some fruit and toothpicks (broken in half for the wheels). If you have smaller kids you may want to help them put them together and take out the toothpicks for them before they eat their fruit car.
Gift Giving: Welcome Home Basket for My Sweetheart
Basket full of goodies for my handsome man!
When Jake goes away on a business trip I try to have something special for him when he gets back home. Recently I had this basket full of goodies waiting for him on the couch upon his return. The basket included:
- Love Note
- 2 bags Original Chex Mix
- 2 pack Hand Sanitizer
- Sheets Energy Strips – Cinnamon and Berry Blast
- Peanuts
- Rolo’s wrapped in a red Love Note
Inside the wrapping paper – “I love the way you roll!”
I am thankful for a husband who loves me, works hard to provide for our family, and is an amazing Daddy to our girls. These little gifts are just one of the ways I love to remind him of how much he means to us. The kids have a blast helping pick out something special to “welcome” Daddy back home whether it is a balloon, a favorite food, special drink, sign, drawings, cards and more. Every time I try to do a different surprise and in various locations in the house to mix it up a little bit for him. I have a lot of fun doing it for him and I know it is appreciated too.
Creative Kids: Random Notes of Love
Cute little surprise note!
On one of our trips this year the girls hid a note in my backpack. I love finding fun notes from my girls. So who do you think put this note in my bag? If you guessed Brina you are correct! Jake got one in his backpack from Karlie. It’s the little stuff like this that makes me so thankful for my sweet girls!
Sweet note hidden in Daddy’s backpack!
Family Activities: Date Night Wish Lists
Found one of Brina’s Date Night Wish lists from earlier this year!
Jake and I try to routinely go on a Date Night with the girls. He’ll take one out and I will take the other girl out on a Date. Sometimes we’ll ask them to write out a list of some fun activities they would like to do during Date Night. As I was going back over some things I came across these two lists from earlier in the year. They made me smile reading them and remembering all the fun memories. Many of the activities are free they just require some extra time and attention.
Karlie’s Date Night Wish List for her Date with Daddy
We like to request these lists every few months because it gives us a good idea of what is important to our kids. So often we think the big elaborate activities are the most fun but after talking with them and reading their lists sometimes they would rather sit down and read a book with you, look through the telescope, picnic in the park, play ball, go look at animals at the pet store, or even a trip to the library. Just reading these lists again make me thankful for my girls and the little activities that make an big impact on their hearts and lives. Spending time together one-on-one and as a family is more important then all the trinkets in the world. These date nights are priceless memories that have opened up many wonderful conversations with our girls. They always look forward to their special date nights!
Do you plan one-on-one time with your children? If so what activities do you enjoy doing together?
Intentional Living: Weekly Goals
Our family was able to spend some time with extended family over the last couple weeks. It was nice catching up with many people and creating new memories. Now that we are back home everyone is trying to get back on the regular schedule. Before long the kids will be back in school so we want to make sure we are prepared for that as well as enjoy our last few weeks of summer break together. I am hoping to get caught up on a few goals this week.
Last week’s goals:
Family Goals
Read regularly to the girls and have them read to meParticipate in at least 2 fun Summer Activities with the KidsPlan out the Girls “Swim Into Reading” Summer Reading Goal (total 2,000 Reading minutes) Grand Prize for CompletionSpend time with extended family– spent time in both Kansas and Colorado over the last 3 weeks
Personal Goals
Spend extra time catching up and making memories with my extended family
Home Management Goals
Check in with the person coming by and check on the house / pets while we are away
Business Goals
Work on ideas for upcoming blog postsKeep up with the day to day items that need my attentionWork on projects with the family business
Ministry Goals
Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
Financial Goals
Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4- Emergency Fund – save 6 months worth of living expenses – temporarily on hold
- Car Fund – save money for another vehicle to replace the one that was totaled – working on it
- College Fund – put cash aside for 1 year of Jake’s College Classes – temporarily on hold until we get a new vehicle
My goals for the upcoming week:
Family Goals
- Read regularly to the girls and have them read to me
- Participate in at least 2 fun Summer Activities with the Kids
- Plan out the Girls “Swim Into Reading” Summer Reading Goal (total 2,000 Reading minutes) Grand Prize for Completion
- Spend time with extended family
Personal Goals
- Exercise at least 5 days this week
- Pick out my next book to read
Home Management Goals
- All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
- Weekly Dinner Menu & Schedule planned out for the week
- Work on My Summer Organizational Schedule
- Pack for upcoming trip
- Pay all upcoming bills
Business Goals
- Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
- Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention
- Work on projects with the family business
Ministry Goals
- Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
Financial Goals
- Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4
- Emergency Fund – save 6 months worth of living expenses
- Car Fund – save money for another vehicle to replace the one that was totaled
- College Fund – put cash aside for 1 year of Jake’s College Classes
I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true. When I focus on small steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals. Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick). Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.
Why Share My Goals?
- To keep me accountable
- To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
- To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
- Create healthy habits in my life
- To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn
How did you do this week on your goals? Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.
The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results.
The Real Things Haven’t Changed….
Book: “The Berenstain Bears and the Truth” by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Our girls love the Berenstain Bear books and we have read so many. The Berenstain Bears and The Truth by Stan and Jan Berenstain is one of the books we read recently. The book is about telling the truth after the cubs broke a lamp in the house. If you are looking for a fun book to read to the kids and want to teach a lesson at the same time this is a good one.
Recipe: Fresh Blueberry Muffins
Fresh Blueberries
A couple weeks ago the girls and I went over to a friends house to pick blueberries. I was really impressed with how dedicated the girls were to picking the blueberries with me. They had a blast picking the blueberries, washing them and of course helping us eat them. The kids loved eating the fresh blueberries and helped me make homemade blueberry muffins, blueberry smoothies, and more goodies with the fresh blueberries.
When we picked the blueberries we used a beach bucket to store them in while we are picking because it had a handle. When we got home we rinsed the blueberries, and laid them out on racks to dry out (see picture below) before bagging and putting them in the freezer.
Fresh blueberries drying out after being rinsed
You don’t want to store fresh blueberries in an tight container all today, especially if you are leaving it on the kitchen counter for awhile because they will go bad. The blueberries, much like some people, need a little bit a space between them and the next one to breath.
Homemade Blueberries Muffins (made with the fresh blueberries we picked together)
I am so thankful for a sweet friend who let us come over and pick blueberries. The blueberries have been a huge hit in our house and it was great having a chance to pick and catch up at the same time. Blueberries are very healthy for you and this is the time of year to get stock up on some either picking them yourselves or getting them on sale at the store.
Fresh Blueberry Muffin Recipe:
- 1 cup fresh Milk
- 1/2 cup Oil
- 1 Egg
- 2 cups Flour
- 2/3 cup Sugar
- 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Fresh Blueberries
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12 muffin cup pan. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together and create a well in the center. Put milk, oil and egg in bowl and blend well. Add the moist items to the flour mixture and stir until moistened. Fold in the fresh blueberries and spoon into muffin cups. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven butter the tops of the muffins and sprinkle with sugar in the raw crystals.
Organized Chaos: Health & Medical Supplies
Organizing Our Health & Medical Supplies
Do you ever open the medicine cabinet for a bandaid or to get Tynenol for a child’s fever or something else and either everything falls out of the cabinet or you cannot locate the one item you need? I love to get items on sale, clearance, or with a coupon but it is usually not reasonable to stuff everything in the same cupboard in the kitchen and hope that you can find it when you need it. You don’t want any health or medical items somewhere young children can get ahold of it, it’s not food so the pantry isn’t really a great option either. Since all the items don’t need to be in the cupboard at once (do you really need 2 to 5 boxes of the same bandaids in the cupboard all at one time) you could store them someplace accessible yet out of reach.
Here are some more pictures on what is in the containers.
Health & Medical items organized on the top shelf on my husbands closet
The spot I discovered that works the best for our family is at the top of my husbands closet (thanks honey for sharing your closet space). He was super sweet and redid our closets with the wire adjustable shelving which makes it much easier to store items in the closet. For several years any extra items would be put in a box and stored on the top shelf of his closet. Whenever we needed to get something we had to lug the entire box down and go through it to see if we had what we need. I decided it was time to make it more accessible and user friendly. I bought clear plastic containers at Dollar Tree, put all the items from the big box into the containers, labeled the containers, and re-stacked them on the top shelves of his closet.
Far Left Stack
- Liquid Prescription Medicine
- Non-Liquid Prescription Medicine
- Medical Equipment Equipment – Blood Pressure Monitor, Stethoscope, etc…
If you notice out of all the stacks this one is the hardest to get access to (and for a good reason). Many of the items in this stack are prescription based and in order to get anything out of this stack you have to move at least one of the other rows. I intentionally put this in the hardest to reach place because these items shouldn’t be used as much and you don’t want someone to accidentally grab the wrong thing thinking its cough syrup.
Middle Stack
- Allergy Medicine
- Headache / Fever
- Tums / GasX / Stomach
Right Stack
- Cold Medicine
- Cough Drops
- Liquid Cold Medicine
Organized Health & Medical Items
Having the health and medicine organized has made the whole system much more efficient for our family. If we are out of bandaids I go into the closet, get the bandaid container down, and restock the bandaids. If I notice one of the containers is getting empty I will put that item on my list to look for in the sales fliers and on the clearance shelves. Once a container is full I no longer buy any more of that particular item until we need it again because what we have in stock should last us several months. This system has helped us save time, money, and energy. It is much easier finding what you need, to see what needs restocked, you don’t waste money on items you already have at home, and it looks so much better too
Left Stack
- Miscellaneous – items that don’t fit into any of the other categories or ones that we typically only keep one extra of since we don’t go through them as quickly
- Vitamins
- Heat Pads
Right Stack
- First Aid
- Bandaids
- Gauze / Medical Pads
This system has worked very well with our family. I think it is important that you find what works best for your family and go with it. It didn’t take me long to get this set up and it has been a huge time saver ever since we started using it. I would love to hear how and where you store these types of items in your home?
