New Dishwasher

Our dishwasher has been out of commission since June.  That means I have been hand washing dishes (with a pretty bad attitude I will admit) ever since then.  The Hubs and I just weren't sure whether we wanted to repair our current one or pay a little bit more for a completely new one.  Well, with Thanksgiving just around the corner and all the holiday cooking, baking and entertaining that comes with it, I was ready for a decision to be made.  So we decided to just get a new dishwasher which I was beyond thrilled about.  But the box that it came in made the kids completely giddy.  They enjoyed hiding under it and playing in it.

Then the Hubs suggested that they color it which sent them from giddy to gleeful.  They loved drawing, coloring, and decorating the box inside and out.  And B did a nice job writing his numbers 1-10.

While waiting on the Hubs to finish installing the new dishwasher, B grabbed the packing pieces that were used to cushion the dishwasher inside the box and lined them up to serve as a temporary track for his trains.  I love watching the kids get creative with random stuff like this.

 Then they got in the box and the Hubs pulled them around the living room and dumped them out onto the floor.  This game sent them from giddy and gleeful to a frenzied level of excitement that they could barely contain.  (And don't judge the Hubs--he was wearing his workout clothes in both of the pics of him here!)

As many of us remember from our own childhoods, a giant box was one of the best toys in the world.  I have a feeling this box will be in our house for much longer than I would prefer.

What's On the Tank {The Hunger Games Trilogy}

I am CRAZY excited about the newest Hunger Games movie coming out next Friday.  I cannot wait to see it, and the Hubs and promised me a date night to go see it soon!  Now, I read the Hunger Games books last summer, loved them, and was practically standing at the nearest Red Box when the movie came out on DVD.  But with Catching Fire coming out in just 10 days, I have decided to read them again just as a refresher of course.

I read Catching Fire in about a day and a half, and I started on Mockingjay as soon as the library could get it in for me.  I am about halfway through it and have taken a bit of a break due to being really busy this week.  Although the content of the books is disturbing to think about (children killing children), it was quite thought provoking.  And I really loved that the books were practically completely free of any explicit or inappropriate language, and there was very little sexual content and that was mild.  I really, really loved these books.

So what are you reading??

Master Bedroom Gallery Wall

Ever since pretty much forever, I have wanted the perfect item to hang over the bed in our bedroom.  I had always pictured something flowery like a field of poppies or something, but I just never found just the right item.  Well, the other day the Hubs commented that we don't have very many candid shots of our family around the house.  And he is right.  We only had one candid picture framed or displayed in the whole house.  I have several professional photographs and portraits displayed, but nothing candid that I took myself.  So, I was a bit inspired and got busy on my most recent house project.

So I started this project by picking out a frame.  I looked online and had seen some really cute ones, but none of them were quite what I had in mind.  They just didn't fit the style of our bedroom.  And I wasn't wanting to break the bank either.  This project was definitely design on a dime.  So, one day this week, as I was walking through our local Wal-Mart, lo and behold, I find exactly what I was looking for AND they were only $4 a piece!  SCORE!  Then, I went through some of our best pictures and chose four of my faves.  I had them printed at our local Wal-Mart that actually does a pretty terrific job and then scooted on over and grabbed four of those fab frames.  Here is a look at one of the frames and a close up.

Once I got the pictures in the frames, it was time for the hardest part:  actually hanging the pictures on the wall.  I knew how I wanted them to look, but getting them exactly even with each other was not going to be easy.  The way I did it worked, but I am sure there are MUCH better ways of going about this.

I traced the frames onto parchment paper and cut them out.  Then I marked on each piece of parchment where the nail would be.  I taped them to the wall and measured to make sure they were evenly spaced.  Honestly, the tape did not stick all that well to the parchment, but it got the job done.  Then I just put the nail right through the marked place on each piece of parchment and hung the picture.  I only had to adjust one picture that seemed a little off.

And here is the finished product.  I am pleased.

And, like I mentioned earlier, I still have plans for the window treatments in the kitchen.  Fabric and trim have been purchased, and the wood for mounting has been cut to size.  All that is left is fabric cutting and sewing.

Pre-K Update 2

We are now 10 weeks into school, and B is doing wonderfully.  He is reading all number words one through ten, and can read all of the primary and secondary color words.  We spent the last four weeks working on the letters G, H, B, and P and the numbers 7-10.  We also read the books The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Little Red Hen, Barn Dance, and Mr. Pine's Purple House.  B is slowly gaining some appreciation for writing, but he really loves doing math.  He loves to count objects and write numbers.  His fine motor skills are improving as well.  His handwriting has improved by leaps and bounds, and he is gaining better control when cutting with scissors as well.  He knows his letter sounds very well but really struggles with putting the sounds together to make words.  He is hit and miss with rhyming words as well, but we are still working on it.  I keep reminding myself that phonics is a developmental thing and he might just not be ready for it quite yet.  We do little bits at a time to keep both of us from getting too frustrated.  haha

Here is his (and C's) work for the last few weeks:

We made gumball machines for the letter Gg, little red hens for the letter Hh, bats for the letter Bb, and pumpkin patch pictures for the letter Pp.  I also added in a couple of pages that I had left over from teaching Kindergarten:  the Little Red Hen sequencing page and the cut and paste sorting by initial sounds page which he loved and had no trouble with.

I just can't wait to see how far he will have gone by Christmas!!

Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes

Every year I participate in Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child by making two shoe boxes.  These shoe boxes are given to needy children all over the world as a Christmas gift.  I usually do a boy box and a girl box, and I typically choose the oldest age group because I assume that is the category that gets the least amount of boxes turned it.  But in all honesty, my shoe boxes are usually pretty generic and will work for almost any age.

So the kids and I went shopping for our shoe boxes today, and here is what we came home with:

Each shoe box contains:

• a flashlight--$1 from Dollar Tree
• 6 D batteries for the flashlight--3 for $1 from Dollar Tree
• 2 toothbrushes--$1 from Dollar Tree
• a tube of toothpaste--$1 from Dollar Tree
• hair brush--$1 from Dollar Tree
• a bar of soap--3 for $1 from Dollar Tree
• 12 colorful pencils--$1 from Dollar Tree
• small stuffed animal--$1 from Dollar Tree
• a yo-yo--$3 from Wal-Mart
• a package of socks--$2.88 from Wal-Mart
• a deck of playing cards--2 for $2.47 from Wal-Mart
• a washcloth--$0.47 from Wal-Mart
• a 1-subject notebook--$0.97 from Wal-Mart
• a pencil sharpener--$0.50 from Wal-Mart
• a box of crayons--$1.47 from Wal-Mart

I bought the plastic 'shoe boxes' from Dollar Tree, but I would not advise someone else to use them.  They are not very sturdy and I can't fit everything in them.  I plan to return to Wal-Mart and get a higher quality box.

Usually, I buy the school supplies for my shoe boxes in July when they are on sale and stash them at the top of my closet.  Apparently I forgot this year, because the only thing in my stash was the pencil sharpeners.  The crayons would have only been $0.25, the notebooks would have been $0.15, and the pencils probably would have been less than a dollar as well.  With the $7 for shipping that you are to include in the box, each box costs me less than $30.  Samaritan's Purse puts information in each box about Jesus and the salvation that is available to everyone.  This is an amazing ministry opportunity, and all you have to do is take one look at a testimony from a child who has received one of these boxes (which you can find easily of YouTube) and you will be heading out the door to shop for a precious child in need.  Be sure to go here and find out all the details about how to pack your own shoe box.

I {heart} Pumpkin Spice Cookies

One of my favorite things about the fall is pumpkins.  I love the way they look and, as you can see from my fall decor, I collect them and display them in the house.  But I am not crazy about the way it tastes.  I don't care for pumpkin pie or many of the other pumpkin flavored things.  However, I LOVE the Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice Cookie mix.

They are easy to make, I usually have all of the necessary ingredients, and they are ready to eat in a matter of minutes.  You can make them small or large, and there are cook times on the package for both sizes.  I made the smaller sized ones and here is the finished product.  I may or may not have eaten a couple of them before snapping this picture.

They have just the right amount of pumpkin flavor and the cinnamon and other spices are just perfect.  B is a picky eater, but C is not as picky.  He is not a fan of these cookies, but C loves them.  And as you can see from this photograph, the dough is pretty good too.

Get to the store and grab some of this cookie mix fast!

Costumes on a Budget

I literally pulled my kids costumes together the day of our Journey with Jesus event at church.  I had big plans for the kids to be Jonah and the whale, but life got away from me (as it tends to do sometimes) and I had to just go with what I had.  So once again, here is the final look:

I will start with C's duck costume.  The actual costume part was a hand-me-down from friends, so I just decided to go with that.  I put a white short sleeved shirt and tights with it.  I grabbed her yellow bow and my feather stash.  I pulled all the yellow feathers from the stash, bunched them together and stuffed them in the bow.  I cut the feet out of orange construction paper and tied them around her ankles with orange polka dot ribbon that I had left over from a sewing project.

B's David costume was really easy to throw together.  My mom had recently given me two old pillow cases for just such an occasion.  I cut the side seams out of the pillow case, trimmed off several inches of the length, and cut a neck hole.  I used some of the excess from the length to cut a strip for the head band.  I had some brown flannel for another project, so I cut a strip of that for the belt.  The Hubs decided B needed a  slingshot, so he grabbed the flannel, cut out a slingshot, and tucked it in the belt.  Pic to come.