Water Gardening for Kids

It's that time of year again - gardening season.  Everyone is prepping the ground and planting the veggies.  Gardening is a fun activity for all ages.  For kids, though, planting a full garden is a lot of work!  Don't worry, though, your garden buddy can start their own fun little indoor garden with these fun ideas.  Make a fun family night out of it and reap the rewards for months to come.

Green Onions

Thank you to homemadeserenity.blogspot.com for this idea.  Green onions are a piece of cake for kids to grow in a glass. Instead of throwing out the roots of green onions, put them in a glass of water or Ball quart wide mouth jar and place in a sunny windowsill. Add a cup of water and keep onions hydrated.  The green onions will grow and you can trim and use as needed.  She does state she pulls the roots out every so often and rinses them.  If you want to make them look decorative, too, do several cups along the windowsill.

Celery

Yup, you can regrow celery the same way, too.  Just save the ends of the celery, put it in a glass with water, and place on your windowsill.  

Romaine Lettuce

This one was surprising for me.  I had no idea you could regrow lettuce indoors.  Like green onions and celery, Top Inspired states all you need is a container and some water.  Old sour cream containers or a wider bowl will work well.  Put the romaine heart in about 1/2" of water in the container and water every few days.  When the leaves are big enough, you can trim them to eat and keep growing the plant. Top Inspired also have several other fun ideas for veggies to regrow if you are interested.

Summer is OVER. Hallelujah!

Summer is finally over.  I'm pretty sure we spent more time away from home than at home.  I am so glad to be back to "normal" every day life!  While we all love our summer freedom, if the fun lasts forever, it starts to wear on you some, right?

So what now?  Kids are back in school, homework starts and a hectic life of sports starts once again. Parents breath a sigh of relief as they head off to work not wondering what their kids are doing today. Kids get to hang out with friends once again (we live in the country so daily play dates don't happen) and stay-at-home moms either send kids off in tears or shout for joy.

For me this year, I was really excited to send my teenage boys back to school.  They need the stability.  The girls are glad to see friends again and they both love school.  And my little buddy, well, he is loving having mommy and the house all to himself.  The house is quieter once again and stays cleaner for part of the day.  (I'm sure his enthusiasm for quiet and a break from teasing/loving siblings will wear off in a little while.)  This year is definitely a "Hallelujah!  School has started!" type of year.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: 
The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing  

BUY ONLINE HERE

What's the plan now, though?  If you are needing an idea of how to entertain yourself and fill up all your new free time (because parents are NEVER busy, right?), here's my plan - KONMARI. Every heard of it?  The organizing method is based on the best selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.  We are going to organize all the crap out of this house, literally, and only keep the things we love.  This is a different kind of organizing than I've previously learned.  Instead of going room by room we are sorting by category and only sparking those items that spark "joy".  Why spend time shuffling and organizing stuff you "might" need someday instead of just enjoying today?

We've got two years left until oldest leaves and I intend to make the most of it.  Obviously my previous methods didn't work because I am STILL finding things to get rid of even after starting this process two years ago.  Albeit, not much yet as we are only on clothes so far.  Why?  Because I was holding onto things either "just in case" or because I couldn't bear to part with them yet but knew I didn't use items.  It has taken me a few cycles to get rid of a lot of these.  Not anymore.  I'm ready to let it all go!  Fortunately, my previous efforts will aid me and we have seen a big difference already, which meant lots of extra play time this summer.

Theoretically, there shouldn't be a lot left to get rid of in the house.  The garage and outside, well that is another matter.  Hubby hasn't had time to help outside and he has been working on a Master's Degree for a few years.  Now he is finally done!!!  So, I know he'll love having a nice organized garage if I can just get him started in on it.

So, it's time to celebrate in my little buddy that loves to help mommy, spark some serious joy and get organized!  If your wanting to join in, check out the KonMari Adventures Facebook page with over 20,000 members and click to get Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, get reading and get moving. It's going to be fun and I'm so excited to make the most of the school day and just play with my kids after.  Here we go to a great and productive school year for everyone!

Fun Easter Crafts and Lessons

My girls are very excited for Easter later this week.  To ramp up the fun and bring out the true meaning of Easter, I went online searching for some fun crafts and family home evening lessons we can do together.  Every year I want to put more Christ into Easter and less of the commercial stuff.   Obviously I haven't gotten really good at that yet so it is a work in progress.  I'd discovered that over the years our Easter celebrations had a lot less to do with Christ than the Easter Bunny.  This year I am determined to make it a Christ centered week!

I'd like to give a special thanks to the other bloggers and Pinterest posters for these fun Easter crafts and lessons.  Hopefully you will all find something you love and have a special Easter week, too!

1.  Easter Scripture Egg Activity

If your kids are used to the Easter Bunny visitng, Your Homebased Mom has a fun idea for sharing scriptures about Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday using plastic Easter eggs in a basket.  Take 12 eggs and number each egg, put a scripture in each egg along with it's corresponding object item.  On Easter Sunday, take turns around the table opening each egg, in order, and reading scriptures about Christ and the atonement and discussing it's object lesson.  

Your Homebased Mom also has a Easter Egg Scripture PDF available online of the scriptures her family uses. 

2.  General Conference Easter Egg

I love this LDS General Conference activity page for kids!  A Little Tipsy ties in spring and Easter to her General Conference activity page for some extra whimsy.  Add a box of crayons or markers, and your elementary age kids are ready for some "egg"stra fun during General Conference this week.

To print, just click on the image at right for a larger version.  For younger kids who can't read yet, she has a basket and picture eggs they can color on her blog.

3.  Easter Garden Tutorial

I found this Eastern Garden Tomb tutorial on Pinterest from The Frugal Homemaker.  While Frugal Homemaker used moss she found around her property, I've also seen it done using wheat grass grown at home with basic wheat grain. While your are making your Eastern Garden Tomb display, discuss the atonement and sacrifice of Christ.

Wheat kernels are very easy to sprout.  Watch a video on home to sprout them below.

4.  JESUS Easter Egg Table Decoration

Here is a pretty way to add a remembrance of Christ to your table.  Take decorative eggs and add white sticker letters to six eggs spelling "JESUS!".  Purchase a narrow basket and dry faux grass at the dollar store to place the eggs in.  All done!  An easy and fast craft for kids to do.  Thanks to Catholic Icing blog for the idea!

5.  Elegant Easter Egg Decorations

I found this online through Good Housekeeping.  These gorgeous glitter eggs are super easy to make!  All you'll need are hard boiled eggs, dye, glue, a paint brush and glitter.

Boil and dye the eggs the color you desire.  Paint the eggs with the white glue or use a spray glue and roll in glitter.  Lay on wax paper or a tray to try.  All done!

6.  DIY Paint Chip Egg Garland

If you happen to have a lot of paint chips around your house, here is a great way to use them up.  Simply cut the chips in half and cut an egg shape. Punch two holes in the top using an extra small hole punch or needle.  Modern Parents Messy Kids used waxed cotton to thread hers, which helped prevent slipping.  If you don't have waxed cotton then you can use scotch tape on the back of the eggs to hold them in place.  You could also write your favorite Easter scriptures on the eggs as well.

Four Creative Jack-O'-Lantern Ideas for Halloween

Halloween is only a week away and jack-o'-lanterns are filling up the neighborhoods, shortly to be joined by droves of costumed trick-or-treaters.  There are silly pumpkins, scary ones and lots more!  Add some Halloween festivity with these fun and creative ideas for a little mess-free fun and a fun-filled craft with the kids.  Spicing up the holiday decor doesn't have to break the bank and can be lots of fun!

Clementine Jack-O'-Lannterns

Items needed:

black sharpie marker
clementine oranges

These fun jack-o'-lanterns are both super fun to make and taste delicious!  Grab your favorite clementines, a sharpie marker and have fun!  Draw your favorite jack-o'-lantern faces onto the clementines and fill a bowl.  Share with friends at a party or just grab a jack-o'-lantern for an after school snack.

 

Mason Jar Jack-O'-Lantern
 
Items needed:

empty mason jar
black construction paper
orange tissue paper
clear scotch tape
ribbon
battery operated tea light

Empty mason jars house a new visitor at Halloween.   Using the orange tissue paper, line the inside of the empty glass mason jar.  Use scotch tape to hold pieces in place on top edges.  Cut eyes, nose and a mouth of black construction paper.  Take a small piece of scotch tape and toll into a circle, sticky side out.  Tape pieces to front of glass mason jar.  Tie a ribbon around the top.  Turn on battery operated tea light and place inside the jar.  All done a for a mess-free glowing pumpkin jack-o'-lantern!

Milk Jug Jack-O'-Lantern

Items needed:

empty white milk jugs
white Christmas lights
black sharpie permanent marker
extension cord


These jack-o'-lanterns are super easy to make with items you probably already have in your home.  Collect empty milk jugs, white Christmas lights, an extension cord and a sharpie marker.

Wash and rinse jugs well to remove any milk residue.  When dry, take a sharpie permanent marker and draw a jack-o'-lantern face on one side.  To provide the light, make a hole in the back big enough to slip some white Christmas lights inside.  If you want to put the jack-o'-lantern outside, place some rocks in the bottom to hold it in place.  You can connect the lights to create a row of jack-o'-lanterns.  Stretch an extension cord if needed to provide electricity.

Rock Jack-O'-Lantern

Items needed: 

several small smooth rocks
orange craft paint
white craft paint
2 foam paint brushes
newspaper or old papers
paper
scissors

These easy rock-o'-lanterns only need some smooth flat rocks, white craft paint, orange craft paint, foam paint brushes and a piece of paper.  Collect a number of smooth flat rocks to group together.  Paint each rock with orange craft paint and let dry.  Make sure you put newspaper or any old paper underneath to protect surfaces.

Using the scissors, cut a jack-o'-lantern face from paper to use as a stencil while paint dries.  When ready, center the face stencil on the rock and fill in the face with white paint. Let dry and you are all done!

Fisher Price Cruise & Groove Ballapalooza

RECOMMENDATION:  Very high

My one year old LOVES balls.  He is all boy.  And he is also the fifth kid - as in "what can we possibly this kid for a gift?" at Christmas and birthdays kind of kid.  With four older siblings, we already had necessary baby gear, clothes and plenty of toys.  He really doesn't NEED anything.

Fortunately he also came preprogrammed with his own personality which zeroes in directly to balls and trucks.  All on his own.  Trust me.  His older sisters have thrown enough girl toys and Barbie movies in his path that I'm amazed he isn't converted at all.  Although, he does love to dance with the girls.

So, when I came across the Fisher Price Cruise & Groove Ballapalooza, I knew we had found a perfect match.  Balls and music.  PERFECT.  And I am happy to say that we were not disappointed.  Being only 17 months and on the tiny side, Ethan was too short to reach the top ball drop on the Ballapalooza for a month or so.  Fortunately he could start the ball anywhere he wanted until he got to where he can reach the top.

While I knew our toddler would love it, I grossly underestimated how much his older siblings would!  He had no shortage of people volunteering to start a ball for him, or crawl through the arch, or push the music buttons.  You get the idea.  Fisher Price definitely knew what they were doing when they designed the Ballapalooza.

Initially we had to get on the big kids cases to let Ethan play with it.  Envision telling your 14-year old son, "Hey, it's THE BABY'S toy. Let HIM play with it!".  We've now had it three months and we still have big kids playing with it.  It's like a magnet.  When Ethan plays with the Zballapalooza and the music starts, without fail a sibling comes running over.  The Ballapalooza is probably the MOST well loved toy in our house!

The fun things we love about the Fisher Price Cruise & Groove Ballapalooza:

1.  Multiple starting points.  One down low for babies, mid-range for toddlers and top drop slot for 18+ months.

2.  Two arches.  One is short for babies to crawl through.  The other is taller for walking toddlers.  And in our case, five and ten year olds to crawl through.

3.  Three spinners.  Two down low for babies and one in the middle.

4.  Music.  We love the energetic music chosen.  I've had to listen to it a lot and have yet to have it drive me crazy.  Music does keep playing for a bit after a ball is inserted.  Also has two volume levels.

5.  Six lights.  Coordinated to the music and great for entertainment.  Three lights on center pole on two opposite sides for a total of six.  Low, middle and high for different vision levels.

6.  Set of 8 balls.  There are enough balls that even if a few get wandered off with, baby still has plenty left.

7.  Hanging inflatable ball with rattle and swinging gate.  Just a little extra fun for baby to swat at.

8.  Very stable and we don't have to worry about the Ballapalooza tipping over.

What we didn't expect:

1.  The Ballapalooza is a lot bigger than we thought and takes up about a 4 foot diameter space including play room.

As you can see, the pros greatly outweigh the con.  We highly recommend the Fisher Price Cruise & Groove Ballapalooza toy for babies and toddlers.  There is definitely lots of fun to be had with it!

Why I am Moving Towards Minimalism

Littlest and I are having fun playing on the floor today.  Or should I say he enjoys climbing on me and playing with his toys.  This is a picture of pretty much all the toys in his room.  There aren't a ton. Just enough for him to play and have fun.  And, not lots for mom to clean up. He can easily help clean up his own room.  Which leaves us more time for the fun things in life – like play. 

This journey actually started last August.  The kids and I have been wanting to move for awhile so that we could have neighbors and not as much yard work.  I got some free moving boxes from a lady off a Facebook group.  I then spent a month going through the house and boxed anything I didn't think we'd use in the next three months, hoping to make the house less cluttered for showing.

What really ended up happening, was we never found a house we liked and never moved.  I did discover, though, that the house was easier to keep clean.  I had boxed up 47 boxes of miscellaneous items.

Then came the introduction to 40 Bags in 40 Days Declutter Challenge.  We decided we liked having less stuff to have to pick up and take care of. So, I joined the challenge to get rid of more.  As of halfway through the challenge, we have gotten rid of 30 boxes of things we don't need.  Ten of those boxes were items from the 47 boxes that we hadn't touch since last August. 

The journey is ongoing and I still have more to go through.  We haven't even touched  the garage or the barn yet.  My kids clothes are being gone through again today.  The office just scares me but desperately needs done.

What's my goal in all of this you might ask?  To spend more time with my kids doing fun things while they're still here at home with us instead of cleaning and organizing everything on our vacation days.  My goal this summer is to have fun and not spend all day trying to get the kids to do chores and pick up things they got out.  We are on our way to a minimalist lifestyle and doing the things we love with the people we love.  Our possessions no longer own us.

10 boxes of items I will never have to wash or pick up again!

2014 East Idaho Home and Garden Show

Can you tell what the kids favorite part of the 2014 East Idaho Home and Garden Show was?  Out of hundreds of vendors, the girls and cousins had so much fun playing with the day old baby quail at their favorite, the Coop Craft booth.  As you can see, they are VERY tiny and absolutely adorable.  We were at the booth a long time as the kids just didn't want to be pulled away.  Even Ethan, our toddler, liked them although he was too nervous about what they were too touch them.  Obviously the bigger kids didn't have any issues with that.

Can we keep one?

One of the King cousins kept asking if she could take one home with her since they were only $2.  The quail is the cheap part.  It's the rest that adds up quick!  Although, I did get some ideas if we ever decide to do chickens again.  The vendor used a small fish tank with wire mesh on the bottom and a heat lamp.  We happen to have several currently empty fish tanks and an unused heat lamp on hand.  Great idea for baby chicks.  

We all had fun at the Clearwater Spa booth playing miniature golf.  The kids got a piece of candy for trying and if they made the put then they got a big candy bar.  Only one kid made the put but I got lucky and made one, too.  The gentleman then sent me to the next levels and told me I could win a free date night if I made it.  Wahoo!  Hubby and I are going out while oldest babysits!  Totally free date night.  Thanks Clearwater Spa!

Hubby and I's next favorite booths were the landscaping designers: Outback Landscape Inc., Lawn Tech, Bushman Landscaping Inc., and Merrill Landscaping.  I was hoping to find some ideas for the backyard and I wasn't disappointed  We found several very nice and easy to do firepit design ideas.  The one by Bushman Landscaping, Inc., was our favorite as it had the outer seating area that would fit a lot of people.  I told out oldest we found a fun project for him this summer.  He looked a little wary when I mentioned that as he and our second son weren't there to see it.  Haha.  It will be fun to enlists the kids' help to get it done once the weather warms up. 

All in all we had a good time.  If you happen to be in East Idaho in March, stop by Idaho Falls and check out the East Idaho Home and Garden Show.  We look forward to going again next year!