{Weekend Links}

Having Kids Close in Age: You Won't Regret It
Of my own five kids, the closest age span is 19 months and the largest span is 26 months. How about you?

Friday Night Meatballs
Because our family feels the call to welcome people into our home,too,  though it doesn't always come easily.

Here's What Your Favorite Children's Book Series Says About You
As a child, I was a hopeless Babysitter's Club fan, but I grew into Anne as a teen.  Did you have a fave?

Ice Painting For Kids
I picked up a new watercolor set in the Target Dollar Spot today.

Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Next up on Owen baking list? A mash-up of his 2 favorite cookies-- oatmeal and chocolate chip.

January Learning

We're smack in the middle of our winter break from school.  After working steadily at the book work since the beginning of August, we look forward to this time of resting and recharging every year.  It's a good balance to our longer break in the summer.

I use our 6-week winter break to sneak in a bit of learning, taking care not to label it "school."  It's a mental thing for both the kids and me.  It is more leisurely and exciting when we sneak in a few things optionally without regards to a schedule.  It's also a way to fit in things we don't take time for during the school year.

Here's a peek at what's piquing our curiosity this January:

I'm a person who loves a good list or plan so on December 31st, I asked my kids if they had any goals for the new year.  Most of them shrugged and said, "Nope," or, "I don't know."  However, Owen, my 8-year-old mini-me who also thrives on organization,  immediately piped up and said, "Yes!  I want to learn to play the piano!" So we began. I teach him a lesson every couple of days, he practices (and usually memorizes) his songs, and then we move on to the next lesson.

Right before we closed the history book in December, we read a few sentences about Henry VIII, but we want to fill in a few details so I borrowed Wicked Rulers: You Wouldn't Want to Know!  from the library and ordered a used copy of Brilliant Brits: Henry VIII by Richard Brassey from Amazon.  Both books are conversational and fun.

One of the kids picked up a book of Shel Silverstein poetryon our last library visit so we're reading a few silly poems a day. Sometimes we get lucky at the library and find a gem like this, too.

During lunch every day (or dinner if we're not all together in the afternoon), Brian has been leading us through Our 24 Family Ways: A Family Devotional Guide by Clay Clarkson, picking up where we left off last spring when he went back to work.

 

Too much free time can lead to grumpy, whiny kids so we've been placing an importance on creativity this month. We're working on a set of 5 Art Appreciation Lessons, using supplies we already have around our home. 

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School or not, I spend a large part of my days in the kitchen, but the kids want to be more involved. Maddie has asked to make a banana layer cake together and Owen wants to make pumpkin bread since we never got around to it in the fall.  We're going to put our new KitchenAid to the test.

What are your learning in January?  You don't have to homeschool (or even have kids) to learn!

{Weekend Links}

And So It Begins @Fabric Paper Thread
This was especially timely as our family spent the first week of December stuck on the couch, passing around the tissues and thermometer, with boxes of Christmas decorations piled in the corner of the living room.

Running After the Flu

And this was timely in an entirely different way.  I'm not training for a marathon, but I'm using the 12-Day Comeback Plan to ease my body back into physical activity. 

Second Cousins
I'm still confused, but this is interesting!

25 Things People With 5+ Siblings Know To Be True
I read the list aloud twice, once to Brian and another time to the kids.  I laughed out loud both times! We especially loved #1, #9, #13, and #19. 

Paint Chip Trees and Snowmen on a Stick
Easy crafts and memory-makers are my modus operandi around the holidays.  I also want to make cookie cutter pizzas.

Free National LEGO Event at Boscov's
My boys will be there!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving is only three days away and I'm all for a simple celebration. 

Stress should not have a place in any holiday, especially one that is about giving thanks, accepting and appreciating what the Lord has given us.  Crafts, activities, beautiful decor, new recipes...they all have their place, but if they are causing more worry than joy, forget about them.

I enjoy sharing simple crafts with my children.  Hands-on activities help them hold on to and process their memories.  I take photos as mementos for me so I can feel no guilt (or at least less guilt) when the projects  end up in the trash after the season is over.

Both of these crafts can be done quickly or savored slowly if that's your desire.  They are low mess and easy enough for little ones to do independently without a lot of help. 

Alaine (4) and Ben (6) made candy corn turkeys this morning. I helped them trace the outline of their hands onto construction paper, but  they did the rest.  They added feet, eyes, and a wattle with crayon and glued candy corn onto the fingers for feathers.  It was over and done before either of them had a chance to get bored!

Make sure to use fast-drying craft glue or allow your glue adequate time to dry before picking up the paper.
Our other favorite Thanksgiving craft can involve the whole family. I blogged about making a keepsake family turkey here and here. 

{Weekend Links} on Friday

"Things That Fascinate Me" Links

• I could have written this post.  Actually, I did write something similar last year. I could have written it again last week when I told Gavin that his favorite pair of pants was too short to wear again and one hour later a friend gave us a bag of clothes that contained an identical pair of pants in the next size up!

• I want to try these simple art appreciation lessons with my kids over the winter. 

• I've been reading through this series with fascination and awe. Brian and I have a history of twins in both of our families and I have an underlying apprehension that this could be me someday.

• Another use for the spotted bananas on my counter!
  
  
  
  

• I used this Thanksgiving copywork with my 8-year-old on Wednesday and I've printed more to use in the future. 

"Christmas is Coming!" Links

If you are savoring every last second of this autumn and Thanksgiving season, you may want to skip this specific section of links, but if you are like me and getting all your ducks in a row before Christmas helps you enjoy this season a little better, read on!

• Now is the time to put holds on your favorite Christmas books at the library before they are all checked out!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• This looks like one of the simplest Christmas crafts ever! 
  
  
  

• I'm planning to go through Truth in the Tinsel with my littlest ones (ages 4 and 6) during school time in the month of December. The ladies on my Facebook page confirm that it is worth the extra few dollars to also purchase the printable ornaments. We're using the free tracing cards from my friend Allyson's blog to make a little booklet to gather all the ornaments we color.  I've printed and compiled my things now to make the coming days easier.

S'more Ideas for Autumn

I don't consider myself an outdoorsy girl, but I do love an autumn bonfire. You can sit a bag of marshmallows in front of me and I would never be tempted, but if you roast one over a fire, I can't resist. 

{As an aside, how do you like your marshmallows-- a light toasty brown, black and crispy, or somewhere in between?  I love a charred marshmallow.  If yours accidentally catches on fire, hand it to me!}

our first backyard bonfire of the season

We are bringing the campfire theme inside this year, too.  Earlier this month, Alaine and Ben used washable paint to make hand-print campfire pictures.  Or as Alaine called them... "fire camps."

As long as the sun is out, summer s'mores are great in the fall, too.  We tried making them with other varieties of chocolate as suggested, but the kids voted hands down that the standard milk chocolate was best.

If you have a few marshmallows leftover from your s'mores, your kids will love this science experiment.  Believe me!

We had friends over yesterday afternoon and served  Gimme S'more Muffins.  They were a hit!  We found the recipe in one of Owen's cookbooks under the breakfast section so we also sent one with Brian for his morning commute to work.

We have a family movie night tentatively planned for Saturday night and I plan to mix up a batch of this s'more snack mix for a treat. It's probably sugar overload, but it will be a fun alternative to popcorn.

How Do You...Budget Summer Fun?

How do you budget summer fun?

When we put our pencils down in May, our summer days open up before us with time for new opportunities and experiences.   Summer is when we fit in all the things we didn't have time for the rest of the year. However, there are two factors I  consider before making commitments: 

• How will this activity affect the flow of our day or week?
• Is this activity affordable at this time?

Both factors involve budgeting, budgeting our time and budgeting our money. 

When planning, I aim to plug in only one major outing per week. This is for sanity's sake. (Trips the library, grocery shopping, and weekend plans don't count.)  Some weeks are busy and overbooking is unavoidable. I already know that during one week in July, my kids are attending a class one day, then spending the night with a friend so they can go to the water park the following day. Then they come home in time meet friends at a movie on the third day.  Most weeks, though, it is beneficial for us to sandwich busy days with at-home days.  Otherwise it is impossible for me to keep up with the housework and laundry, plus our meals suffer.  I keep a detailed calendar and try not to commit to anything with checking the date first.

Planning only one outing per week helps keep costs down.  Each payday, Brian asks me whether I need extra money for the coming week and we set that aside.  My favorite activities are free, though!  We live within fifteen minutes of two libraries and within twenty-five minutes of two more. I scour all of their schedules at the beginning of the summer to see what classes or programs they are offering throughout the summer.  Last summer, we saw a fantastic juggling show, watched a drama production, and spent a morning doing preschool crafts...all for free!  This year, we plan to go to an animal presentation, a hands-on forensics demonstration, and a science-themed play.

I also love the $1 movies at our local theater.  For $6, I can take the kids to a movie on the big screen and be home in time for lunch.  



Some of our most special summer memories have been made at home.  At-home activities are usually cheap and they rarely get in the way of our meals or chores. My friend, Allyson, and I have started a new Pinterest board of simple crafts and activities for summer...or anytime! 

How do you budget extra activities in the summer? 

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My How Do You...? series is back for only a few more weeks.  Is there anything you want to know?  Leave a comment here or on my Facebook page or send me an e-mail.  I'd love to hear from you.

In the meantime, you can browse the archived index of past topics.

Easter Eggs

Our family makes a yearly event of dyeing eggs for Easter.  Last year, we invited a group of friends to share in our tradition with us, but this year we worked on our project alone.  We scaled back acadmics to the very basics one day last week and devoted our school day to "art" instead.  

We began with shaving cream eggs. Aside from a few messy fingers, it was an easy variation to traditional dyeing.   We filled a 11x8 baking pan with shaving cream and 8-10 drops of food coloring. Then we used a toothpick to swirl (but not blend) the colors. 

After rolling the eggs through the rainbow mix, we set the eggs on an old towel to dry before wiping off the shaving cream to see the results.  (I didn't get an individual "after" photo, but you can see a few of the tie-dye eggs in the vase below. 

After dyeing a few shaving cream eggs, we moved on to egg dyeing with a twist.  The dyeing part was the same as usual (boiling water, a splash of vinegar, food coloring), but we used an Easter egg color chart to achieve specific colors with names like lime, cantaloupe, maize, and raspberry. 

The other difference this year was that we inserted the eggs in a whisk before dipping into the hot water.  It saved us from worrying about burned fingers or splashes of water all over the table from dropping the eggs into the cups. 

We chose to displaying our array of eggs in a vase on the kitchen table.  After using food dyes and shaving cream on our eggs and then leaving them out at room temperature, they are no good for eating, but buying 18 eggs is far less expensive than many craft supplies.

We ended our day with one last egg decorating project: Minion eggs.  Recreating these little creatures from Despicable Me was super easy.  All we needed were a few cheap plastic Easter eggs, electrical tape, googly eyes, and a permanent marker.  The kids created their Minions in secret so that each one could be different.  Then they did a big reveal to each other when they were done.

Not up for boiling water, food dyes, or googly eyes? My kids have also had fun coloring these free Easter egg printables this year.


What about you?  Have you done an Easter crafting?

This and That

It has been a long, cold, snowy, windy winter.  The weather has not been conducive to much playing or working outside.  It's not been ideal for half-marathon training either!  I stretched the borders of my comfort zone throughout January and February-- often running in the cold and wind, and even in rain and sleet.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring, but this was our scene on Monday afternoon. 

Kind of reminiscent of the beginning of last spring.   To be fair, last weekend was gorgeous.  We spent most of Saturday outside.  I ran 11 miles {!}. Then the kids made kites out of garbage bags and flew them in the front yard while Brian and I put up a small fence at the entrance of our driveway.  Two days later, the mercury plummeted and we had 4 inches of snow.

Brian stayed home from work because of the weather so I used the snow day to do a little baking for the week.  I made a batch of sourdough bread for the freezer, a dozen banana crumb muffins for weekday breakfasts, a loaf of egg bread in the bread machine for sandwiches, and a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (some for the freezer and some for eating warm from the oven). 

I also experimented this week with a slow-cooker rice pudding that uses coconut milk.  It had a delicious coconut undertones, but the rice absorbed too much of the liquid. I prefer a creamier pudding. My other kitchen experiment was making hard-"boiled" eggs in the oven.  I eat an egg every morning with my breakfast and I thought this might be an easier method, but I found the baked eggs harder to peel. 

Temperatures promise to be in the 60s again by the weekend, but in the meantime, we are bringing touches of spring to the inside of our house.

Our van is the repair shop so we are using that as an excuse to stay home for few days.  The kids have been asking to play with the Kool-aid Play-Doh again. 

They like its bright color, but they like even more than it smells like cherries. I need to try making another batch with a different flavor/color of Kool-aid, too.

I'm not sure what to do with my at-home time. Maybe I'll do some spring cleaning...or maybe I'll just settle for vacuuming the Play-Doh crumbs out of the carpet. A little readingsounds more appealing. 

Art for Little Hands

Benjamin is five, and like many boys his age, he is not entirely comfortable holding a pencil.   Forming letters is a cumbersome, painstaking process. He likes to color and draw pictures but only if he can do it his way.  If a workbook requires him to write the number 2 or color the tree green, he sighs.  I didn't plan art program for him in school this year because I thought he would resist, but he feels left out when the older kids get creative with their art books once a week. 

One day on a whim, I pulled out Ed Emberley's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book(affiliate link) and asked Ben if he would like to give it a try. 

The book is designed for young elementary age children, and I'm finding that it challenges Ben without frustrating him.  I start by giving him an ink pad and asking him to make 4-5 (or 10) thumbprints on his sheet of paper.  He always wants to wash off the ink immediately so while he is gone, I put away the ink and open the book. 

I  select something for Ben to try-- a pirate or a cat, maybe-- and then he follows the very basic, very simple step-by-step directions for turning his thumbprints into works of  art. 

Sometimes we stop at 1 design, but often, Ben will ask to try another.  Man with glasses was a recent favorite, as was man with a monocle!  Not only is he working on his fine motor skills, but he is also learning to pay attention to detail and follow directions to achieve a final result. 

We were given our copy of the book, but it is available at many libraries or for purchase inexpensively on Amazon.

For a slightly more advanced art book, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals(affiliate link) is an alternative choice.  I borrowed it last week from the library for Owen, my second grader.  While most how-to-draw-type books are still too advanced for him, he spent an hour with this book covering a page with his doodles. It is currently less than $4 on Amazon!

A Busy Week... and a Giveaway!

On Wednesday, I hosted a giveaway exclusively for my blog's Facebook page.  If you haven't liked my page yet, you can do it here:

Today I have another giveaway right here on my blog! 

This year I mistakenly thought that since Thanksgiving is falling so late in the month, I would have time to check off my to-do list slowly and methodically and that I would enter the holiday season feeling on top of things.  Instead, my time feels a precious as ever.  As jealously as I have guarded my days, I found that every one this week was jam-packed with activity.  Haircuts, post office, grocery shopping, gym class, school work, library, running... The beds needed clean sheets, the bathroom floor needed a good scrub, and tomorrow we are hosting Brian's family's Thanksgiving get-together at our house so extra cleaning and baking responsibilities were added to my list. 

This much busyness is outside of my comfort zone, but instead of fighting it, I've decided to embrace it for this season.  It makes for a more joyful family when we can accept our responsibilities instead of grumble about them. 

As we approach December, I'm pondering ways to keep our focus on the meaning of our celebrations.  That's why I'm excited to give away a copy of Truth in the Tinsel eBook to one of my readers. 

Truth in the Tinsel will guide your family through each day of December with a passage of Scripture, discussion questions, and an ornament craft.   If a craft a day sounds too overwhelming, you can purchase printable ornaments to color for only $3.99 (not included in the giveaway).  Truth in the Tinsel was written for preschool and early elementary school children, but any child who can color or likes crafts would enjoy the book. To view a sample page of the eBook, click here.

The eBook is $7.99, but if you use coupon code  FROMMYLIFE20, you will receive 20% off of your purchase. (Curriculum and the printable ornaments are excluded.)  If you make a purchase and then win the giveaway, your eBook purchase will be refunded.

To enter for your chance to win, fill out the Rafflecopter form below.  Giveaway ends  Tuesday, November 26 at midnight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway