The Invitations:

Be creative in making your party announcement. You could purchase one like the Princess Party Invitation shown above, and add a little pop to it with glitter puffy paint, or by gluing on small rhinestones. Or you could make your own from scratch! For a princess party, you can make it in the shape of Cinderella’s shoe, a castle, like a rolled up scroll, anything like that! I thought it would be cute to send out the invitation like I was inviting each child to a royal ball. Here is what my invitations read:

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Princesses of all the land… Her Royal Highness, Princess Jada, is turning four years old! In celebration of this joyous occasion, the Princess requests the honor of your presence at a royal gala marking her fourth year.

Come One, Come All, in your finest princess attire, to insert place on insert date from insert time. Princess Jada and her royal Court will eagerly be awaiting your arrival! Please ring Queen Kendra to announce if you will be in attendance…

For some printable invitations, see the links at the bottom of this post. I’ve listed several good sites to visit for more Princess Party ideas.

(Me and Princess Jada)

Playing The Part:

Princess parties are so exciting for little girls, because they get a chance to dress up and have fun! Make sure that your little princess has a beautiful dress to wear. Also ask your guests to wear their own princess dress if they have one. Make sure that you have extra dresses and accessories on hand in case one of your guests doesn’t have their own. I had a dress up “station” where there was a little dress up trunk full of outfits, shoes, and jewelry for the girls to play with. What I didn’t have, I borrowed! If you have friends or family with little girls, see if they might have dress up stuff that you can borrow for the party and save yourself some money!

Don’t be afraid to play along too. Any little girl would love to have Mommy dress up along with her. I bought a Cinderella dress to wear as the host of the party. (It was like $30 at Party City, and I actually got my money back out of it by selling it close to Halloween time on ebay!) All of the girls loved that I was dressed up too! And I have to admit, I enjoyed it as well! Jada especially was in awe. She said, “Mommy, you really are Cinderella!” She was so excited!

Make A Cardboard Castle:

Last year I came across this site which showed how to make an awesome castle out of boxes, for under $10! We decided to make one for our daughter’s 4th birthday. She was having a princess party, and we thought this would be an awesome addition to the decor. And since we are all about frugal parties, this came within budget.

It requires several refrigerator boxes, which actually took a little while to track down. We went to Home Depot and spoke with a man in the appliances. We asked him if he had any big boxes like these that we could have. He told us that they break them down and get rid of them as soon as they come in. But, he would hold some for us from the next shipment. We had to keep checking back, but after a couple of days he had some ready for us. We ended up getting several refrigerator boxes, along with stove boxes, which worked out fine.

We didn’t follow the directions exactly. I thought it would be more frugal to just use duct tape instead of the rivets that they suggest you buy from the website. I was wrong. Buy the rivets, seriously. They aren’t that expensive, and after trying the duct tape, and several tubes of liquid nails, and using a staple gun, it FINALLY held together. Next time, I will definitely just buy the rivets. So, anyways, it came out really cute. I happened to have a can of gray paint leftover from a project, so I used it to paint the castle. Really you could paint it whatever color though. It took quite a few hours putting this thing together (doing it the hard way), but when it was finished we were very pleased. (Though I could have spent days detail painting it to look like real bricks!)

The kids LOVED the castle! They were in it for most of the party. We filled it with balloons, and they had a blast throwing them, kicking them around, and peaking out of the tower windows. The castle was the hit of the party!

A Throne For The Birthday Princess:

All I did was decorate one of our dining room chairs. I went to Walmart and bought a big sheet of stiff foam board. I also bought an inexpensive decorative stencil, and some glittery gold acrylic paint. I went home and cut the board to be the right size to make the back of the throne. Before I attached it, I used the stencil and the paint to create a really nice decorative scroll-like boarder. I also added a sparkly gold monogram by simply creating the lettering I wanted in Word on the computer, then printing it onto cardstock (thicker paper is better). I then cut it out to create a stencil, then traced it onto my board and filled in the lines with paint.

For the seat of the throne, I used a flower girl dress that my daughter had outgrown. I first cut the skirt away from the bodice of the dress. Since the seats of my dining room chairs are removable, I unscrewed the seat and removed it. I then duct taped the skirt onto the chair, on the inside of the frame where it wouldn’t be seen. I used the sash that came with the dress to cover the seat and then placed it back onto the chair frame.

Voila! A throne fit for a princess! And it cost me under $10. If you don’t have a pretty dress to destroy on hand, I’d suggest hitting up a Goodwill. They always have stuff like that for cheap!

Jada sat on her throne as each of her guest presented her with her gifts to open. This really made her feel extra special on her day!

Music:

You really do need to have some music playing to make your party lively and fun for the children. A great CD that we enjoyed for Jada’s party was Disney Princess Tea Party. We hooked up the stereo to play it continuously throughout the party. The girls loved dancing along with the fun tunes! The whole CD cost me $12, but you can also purchase individual songs and download only the ones you want, for $.99 each! If you Go Here and scroll down, you can listen to samples of each song, and purchase only those which you like.

Activities & Games:

Dress Up: As each girl arrived, I’d lead her to the dress up station, where she would get a dress (if she didn’t have one) and accessories. Then I would sit her down at a vanity to apply a little eye shadow, lip stick, blush, and stick on earrings if her ears weren’t pierced.

I really lucked up when I found an old vanity on the side of the road a week before the party. I had been wanting to use one, but didn’t want to buy one. I grabbed it up, took it home, and painted it, adding the same gold and glitter stenciling as was on the throne. What a blessing that was to find, it was perfect! (And I actually was able to sell it at a yard sale after the party after it was all painted and pretty!)

Kiss The Frog: It’s like Pin The Tail On The Donkey, but with a frog and lips. Draw a picture of a Frog Prince on a large piece of paper. Next create paper lips for the children to stick onto the frog. Blind fold each child, spin the around a few times, then let them see who can get their kiss closest to the frog’s mouth.

As a prize I let each child chose a Disney Princess Lip gloss.

Princess & The Pea: I like to precede this game by telling a short, paraphrased version of the story The Princess and The Pea, using a book mainly for visual interest. If you read it word for word, you’ll probably lose the attention of the kids pretty quickly, depending on their age of course, so try to keep it fairly short.

Now, you’ll need three or four small pillows and a marble or small rubber ball (for younger kids) to hide underneath one of the pillows. Have the girls line up sitting on the floor in front of the pillows. Let each girl have a turn to sit on each pillow and try to figure out which one has the “pea” under it. Once they have determined the correct pillow, announce to that girl, “You’re right! You must be a real princess!” And as their reward I gave each of our princesses a crown of her own (each was only $1.00 at Target!).

Karaoke: Having an open mike is so much fun for the little ones! Not to mention a crack up for the parents to watch! If you have access to a music player and a microphone or a karaoke machine, this is a wonderful, and inexpensive activity for your party goers to enjoy! My husband happened to have a PA system for his business, so we were fortunate to have that to use!

Decorations:

As if the huge castle wasn’t enough, right?

Besides the usual streamers and balloons, something that I got and loved was a Palace Scene Setter. It’s that faux palace backdrop that you see in the pictures. It was super easy to tack up, and really made a huge difference in creating a magical place for the kids. For $18, it’s so worth it!

(Not quite as perfect as the picture I was trying to replicate, but oh well, it was still a hit!)

The Cake:

Want to save some money, and still have an awesome birthday cake for your little princess? You don’t have to have any cake decorating skills to make this adorable castle cake! Believe me, if I can do it, I’m sure you can too! There’s even an instructional video that you can watch. Not only will it save you money by doing it yourself, it will be much cuter than a store bought cake and tastier too!

(*Notice the flags are missing from the tops of the cones? Here’s a little tip: don’t refrigerate the cake with the cones on it before you put the flags in the top! The cones get hard, and the toothpicks will cause the tips of the cones to break when inserted. Keep them room temp.)

After hours of searching for more Princess Party ideas, here is a list of the BEST places that I have found for some great ideas online!

Familyfun.com- Invitation idea, games, craft

Princess Paper Dolls- Printable Activity

Princess Castle Maze- Printable Activity

A Ton of Great Princess Party Ideas

Total Guide to Princess Party- Printable Invitations, printable crafts (including crowns to decorate), lots more!

Hope this has been helpful for you! If anybody has any other neat and frugal ideas for a Princess Party, or if you’d like to share how you did yours, I’d love to hear from you!

]]> http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2009/06/01/having-an-awesome-princess-party/feed/ 15 http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2009/06/01/having-an-awesome-princess-party/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/handprintsonthewall/Oyqz/~3/R0_AHg0cT9E/ http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2009/02/04/my-goals-for-2009/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:26:23 +0000 Kendra http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/?p=2743 I appreciate Crystal encouraging us to share our goals for this year, and I have many, so I thought I’d share them as well. This year, I feel, is going to be particularly tough. I have been feeling the need to really start preparing for the worst; here are some of my goals with that in mind for this year:

• Settling debt: When we were forced to close our business this past August, we were left with a ton of debt as a result. Without the business’ income to help pay the loans, we were suddenly unable to pay the high rates, and were falling behind fast. Our debt payments were over $400/mo. WAY too much for us! I tried all I could to work with the banks to negotiate a better rate or a payoff amount, but they were unmoving. Our interest rate was 18%! OUCH!! So, we decided to pay off the debt with a home equity line with an interest rate of 2%! So now, instead of our payments being $408/mo, we are paying $40/mo. Much, much better! So now, the only debt we have is on our home. Though a little more now, much more manageable.

• Start my very first garden. You can read all that I’ve accomplished so far here!

• Publish a Christian Children’s Book that I’ve been working on for almost 2 years! I’ve actually had it ready and waiting. I just need to find a good illustrator now…

• Reducing our power bill. Currently it’s over $200/mo! I’m sure there are things that we can do to knock that down. I know it’s winter and all, but that’s crazy! My goal is to get it under $100/mo.

• Get some farm animals. If you’ve been following me, you know that I’m fascinated with homesteading and living self sufficiently (if you’re interested in this kind of stuff, you need to be reading my series: The True Queen of Frugal: Lessons from Butterberry Farm). One of my goals is to begin acquiring some useful animals around the house. I’d like rabbits, chickens, maybe goats, a milk cow, and maybe a pig… maybe. I’m hoping to have at least one of these by the end of the year.

• Plant fruit trees.

• Make my own cloth baby wipes, and perhaps try the Family Cloth idea.

• Make my home safer: adding fire extinguishers, a driveway alarm, teaching my kids fire safety, preparing an emergency kit, etc.

• Stocking an Emergency Pantry with six months to a year’s worth of canned goods, flour, sugar, etc. Including learning to can, dry, and freeze my garden’s produce for storage.

• Learning to sew. Something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

• Fix up our single wide and get it rented out. This would help bring in some much needed extra income.

• Investing for my kids. If you missed it, read more about how I’ve started investing HERE.

• Sell unnecessary items. We have lots of yard sale things boxed up and ready to go, but also lots of inventory and such leftover from the business. I am hoping to liquidate everything in order to put away some money in an emergency fund.

• Make a will. I’ve been really needing to do this for years. I really need to make a will, for the children’s sake.

Well, that’s all I can think of right now. I’m sure that I’ll think of more to add later. It will be good for me to have this all written down, so that I can come back to it throughout the year to remind myself of things I may have missed. I am really hoping to accomplish all of these things and more. Prayerfully, diligently, and maybe even a little naively at times. But I am determined to do my best!

When the stock market started going downhill this past Fall, I began to really contemplate the market. I have been saying for years that I’d like to invest money for my children, but I never got around to it. It always seemed like such a complicated, and expensive task. But once I saw stocks plunging, I began to really look into taking advantage of the low priced market. I remember Dave Ramsey saying that when stocks go down, think of them as being “on sale”. Well, there was a major sale going on, and I wanted to get in on it!

I was a little hesitant, and not sure how long the market would stay low. But after it seemed to only be getting worse, I decided I’d better jump in while I could. In October I started looking into buying stock, completely naive about anything to do with investing. My grandfather, an expert (in my opinion) in investing wisely, suggested that I try using Scottrade as my broker.

I pulled all of the kid’s savings out, a modest accrual, and brought their money to my local Scottrade office. First of all, I didn’t know that they wouldn’t take cash. I had to go to the gas station next door, and get money orders. Next, I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t be able to invest that same day. I had to wait a few days for the money to actually post in their accounts before I could start playing with it. So, that was a little disappointing. I was afraid that the market would suddenly skyrocket overnight and I would lose my chance. It didn’t. I finished the process, and opened the accounts in each child’s name. No fees, no cost. Then I went home and watched the market like a hawk, and studied which stocks I thought I’d like to buy.

Now, I am by no means an expert. I am brand new at this. BUT, I’ve listened closely to many experts, and paid attention to what they are saying. NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY… as long as you will not need this money within the next 5 years. If you have a little money stashed away for your kids, seriously consider investing it. Everything is at bottom prices right now, and eventually they WILL go back up. Since I don’t plan on giving my kids their savings until they are atleast 18, I know I have time to safely invest their money, and I don’t have to worry about if they lose some in the short term.

I wish I could tell you which stocks you should buy. I wish I knew. But I will tell you how I picked mine.

• First, think of a product that you use often; something that you need (ie: electricity, gas, food…). I think it’s wise to invest in things that people cannot do without.
• Next, find the stock symbol for the company, and then look up their 5 year record. If their stocks have increasingly gone up (until this past year), then it’s probably a good one to invest in.
• Pay attention to what the media is saying. If you are hearing that a company is close to bankruptcy, or is closing, common sense tells you not to invest in it.
• Diversify: Don’t spend all of your money on one company. You need to spread it out between several, just in case one of them goes very badly, that way you won’t lose everything on that one. But keep in mind that there is a fee every time you buy/trade, so take that into consideration and don’t waste a lot of your savings on trading fees. Be sure how many shares you want to buy before you actually make your purchase.

Scottrade is cool because their fees aren’t crazy. I was afraid that brokerage fees would be outrageous, and that it wouldn’t be worth it to me with such little money to invest. What I like about them is that if you do all of your trading yourself online, you only have to pay a one time fee of $7 for every trade (no matter how many shares of that one company you buy). And that’s all I’ll ever have to pay them. Plus, they will give you free help and advice over the phone if you need it.

Trading online really isn’t as daunting of a task as it may seem either. If you are comfortable navigating the internet, you can do this. The hardest part in investing in making up your mind which stocks you want to purchase. After that it’s just a click of a button and it’s yours. It’s really that simple. You just have to research, research, research, and do the best you can to make a good decision.

I’m sure there are other stock brokerages out there that are great too. All I can tell you about is what I am familiar with, and have tried. But if you have a little stash of money in your kids savings account or piggy bank, maybe you ought to consider putting it somewhere where it just might grow to a substantial amount by the time they are ready for it.

So, tell me, have you invested yet? Got any advice to share? I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

After the big move, we were quickly consumed with the holidays, and all that goes with them. And, we ended up getting a big surprise for Christmas…

We’re having another baby!!

So, for the past couple of months I have felt horrible, morning (actually all day) sickness in full swing. It has been all I can do to get up and make sure the kids were dressed and fed, let alone try to do anything else. On top of that we all got hit with a horrible head and chest cold, and now me and little Titus are just getting over the stomach flu. One thing after another, but at least the pregnancy nausea has pretty much subsided, and today I’m feeling pretty good.

Needless to say, I’ve been waiting all of this out before I started writing again. I’ve had so much to say lately, so much on my mind. I can’t wait to share it with you all again. I’ll probably start off slow, posting a couple of times a week. Yes, I’ve visited with my friend Adelia, so I do have some more Lessons From Butterberry Farm to share with you this week.

Thank you for your thoughts, and kind emails. I can’t wait to hear more from you all again!

Your friend,

We all have needs, and we all get into sticky situations where we really could use a “hand”. Even our children experience times when they feel like they need to ask for help. And as our children observe what we do in a “bad” situation, they will subconsciously learn from our example as to how they should react in similar circumstances. If we freak out and panic, this is what they will learn to do. They will grow up, and when life throws them a curve ball they will become fretful and full of anxiety, wondering how they will ever get through such a crisis in their life. But if we teach them to lean on a Higher Power, and to put their trust in the Lord (where it rightfully belongs), then they will learn to give their burdens to the Lord and trust whole-heartedly that they will be taken care of. Imagine the relief and stress-free minds of those who have no worry for the future. Isn’t this the peace that we want for our children? Shouldn’t we want this for ourselves as well?

When things aren’t going your way in life, how do your children see you react? Do you get angry and yell or say ugly things? Do you wallow in self pity, wondering why things always go so badly for you? Or do you lift your voice toward heaven and call upon the Lord for help? You may think that your children are sitting obliviously in the backseat, but believe me, they are watching, they are listening, and they are learning.

I’d like to share a story with you:

We had just moved into a new condo in town. Me and Jada, then three years old, were home alone while my husband was away at work. I was about 6 months pregnant with baby Titus. It was a beautiful, sunny day so I decided to take Jada out on the back deck to play for a little while. There was an ugly sticker on the outside of the kitchen window that I thought I’d work on scraping off while Jada played, so I grabbed a chair and a razor blade to work with and we made our way out the sliding glass door.

As soon as I closed the door behind us I heard a horrible sound… “Click”; it was the lock, sliding into the locked position! I immediately tried to open the door up again, but just as I had feared, it was not budging. We were locked out. Now, it wouldn’t have been so terrible, but this wasn’t just any sunny day, it was sweltering! The deck was in full sun, and we were absolutely baking in it’s fury. My cell phone was inside on the kitchen counter, and hubby wasn’t due to come back home for another 5 hours!

Instantly my mind began to race as I brainstormed my possible options. Jada, who had heard my nervous “Uh-Oh”, was watching, wondering what Mommy was going to do. I wasn’t freaking out, not yet at least. I’m not one to panic very easily. I calmly told little Jada, “Well, we’re locked out. Let’s see, what can we do…”.

I looked around, hoping to see somebody who might be able to help us. Nobody, not a single person in sight. The decks being on the backside of the condos, facing woods, nobody would see us unless they were behind the building. I thought about using something to reach across the gap to the next condo’s window to see if I could tap on it and get somebody’s attention, but I noticed that the neighbor’s car was gone, and I knew no one was home.

My next thought was that maybe I could climb down and go for help. I looked over the railing down the 10 ft. drop, trying to find something that might help. I seriously considered climbing over the side, and shimmying down the posts. I really didn’t want to do that though, being so far along in the pregnancy. It would have been really dangerous. And besides, I wasn’t sure what I would do about little Jada being up there all by herself, and I didn’t want to leave her to go find somebody. So that idea I saved as a last resort.

I paced, racking my brain. I felt out of options. I could not think of anything else that I could do. I told Jada that we needed to pray. I told her that we needed help, and that I wasn’t sure what to do. So, we prayed. As Jada listened, I begged the Lord to help us get back to safety. I prayed that He would show me the way to get us back inside. After I prayed, I felt calmed, and renewed.

Then, I had an idea.

The small kitchen window, several feet up, was facing just over the deck. I looked up at it, and prayed once again out loud, “Please Lord, please let this window be open!” I did not think it was. Being new in the neighborhood, and not being used to living in a busy town, I was extremely paranoid. The first night we moved in, I had gone around and made sure that all of the doors and windows were locked before going to bed. I was sure that I had locked this window as well. But I had to try. I pulled that chair that I had so conveniently brought out with me up to the house, just below the window. I got out the razor blade that I also happened to have grabbed and as I stood on the chair, used it to pry the screen off the window. Then, with pleading prayers that the window would open, I tried to slide the sash…

It moved. It opened! I could not believe it. The window slid open! I was overcome with relief! Okay, that was good. But the next trick was getting in through it. I considered raising Jada up and through the window so that she could let me in. But being so small still, it would have been hard for her to get down off the tall counter top, and the sliding door was heavy, and would have been difficult for her to pull open. I wasn’t sure she would be able to do it. I thought about having her call her Daddy once she got in, to have him come and open the door for me. But I didn’t want to bother him at work, and I didn’t want her to be inside by herself for so long. I decided I had to try to squeeze in myself.

Now, I’m pretty short. Just barely over 5′ tall. And even with me standing on the chair, the window was still above me. And it was a very small, sliding window. I wasn’t sure I could fit my big pregnant belly through it. But I decided that I must fit. The Lord would not have let this window be open for nothing. So, I pulled myself up and squeezed through the narrow opening. I made it! Once inside, I climbed down off the counter top, and opened the door to let my poor little, red cheeked, sweaty daughter inside into the cool air conditioning once again.

I was elated! As I opened the door to let Jada in I yelled “Thank you Lord! Thank you! Thank you!” And I exclaimed to Jada how thankful we were that the Lord had helped us. She was very excited as well, and joined in my praising. I immediately saw the opportunity to teach, and explained the whole situation to her:

“Baby, do you know what happened? We were stuck, weren’t we? That door locked us out, and we were really stuck outside! But what did we do? We prayed, didn’t we?! And the Lord heard our prayers! He helped us, didn’t he?! He made that window be open, and we had the chair that we needed to climb in, and he answered our prayers! Isn’t He wonderful? Thank you Lord! Thank you for helping us!”

I went on to explain that any time we are in trouble, any time that we need help with something and don’t know what to do, we should pray, because God always hears our prayers, and is faithful to answer them.

I know she understood. And she learned a very valuable lesson. I know the Lord allowed that situation to happen to give me an incredible tool for my child. I was so glad that she was able to learn something about prayer that day. And I know she understood because for the next week, every time we had trouble with something, she would stop and pray right there that God would help us. When my car wouldn’t crank I heard her little voice in the backseat say, “God, please help Mommy’s car to start. Amen.” How precious that was! And you know, when the car did finally start, we were able to give Him the praises He deserves.

So, my hopes in telling you all about this is to challenge you and your reactions to hard times. The next time a crisis occurs, or a troubling situation arises, stop and think for a moment that maybe the Lord is opening a door for you to use this as a teaching opportunity for your child. Instead of freaking out, blaming God, or crying in self pity, use this chance to show your child the power of prayer.

I am sure He won’t disappoint you!

And then, teach them to give Him the praises He so richly deserves.

Here is a good little memory verse to teach your child:

“If one of you is having troubles, he should pray!” James 5:13.

]]> http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2008/12/08/teaching-our-children-the-power-of-prayer-praying-in-the-midst-of-trouble/feed/ 0 http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2008/12/08/teaching-our-children-the-power-of-prayer-praying-in-the-midst-of-trouble/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/handprintsonthewall/Oyqz/~3/yw3agPBZoLU/ http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2008/11/08/moving-day/#comments Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:02:52 +0000 Kendra http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/?p=2700 It’s finally here! Tomorrow is moving day. 8 months of working on this house and finally we are ready to move in. We still aren’t completely finished with the fixin’ up. But, we are close enough that we can get in and finish up the rest while we’re living there. Since many of you enjoyed my “before and after” pictures, I thought I’d share a few more with ya. I’m very proud of them If you didn’t catch my first post about our “repo” home, and before and after pic’s of the living area, check it out!

Okay, so here are a few more for ya:

Before: Master bedroom

See how nasty it was?! Obviously the carpet had to go! Lucky for you this blog doesn’t come with “smell-o-vision”… yuck!!

After:

Clean, new carpet. We pulled the strips off the walls, filled the holes, and painted them a nice neutral shade. Add some new trim, a fan, and it’s set!

Before: Bedroom #1

All I can say is “Blah”!

After:

This is going to be Titus’ new room. These colors might look crazy, but when I put in his bed set, with the pale yellow bedding, it will really look nice! My dad and I put up the chair rail and new baseboards (He cut; I nailed, caulked, and painted). Check me out:

You didn’t know I was so handy, did you

Before: Bedroom #2

Nasty, nasty, nasty!

After:

If you couldn’t tell by all of the girlyness, this is Jada’s new room. I free-hand painted butterflies and flowers around the boarder. It took me forever, but I love the outcome! And the fan I just adore. I had been eyeing it for months, and one day I went into Lowes to look for other things, and I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw the exact same fan on clearance for $40! I was so excited, and scooped it up immediately!

Here’s a closer shot of some of the detailing:

Jada loves her new room.

Before: Master Bath

Check out the floral wall paper!

It had potential…

After:

Much better. Though I still need a new mirror to hang there on the wall.

Nothing major. Just some new vinyl flooring, and paint on the walls. (Not to mention some elbow grease!)

Before: Bath #2

Who puts carpet in bathrooms anyways?

After:

This green will look great with my beige and white dragonfly shower curtain. I’m kinda wishing I’d gone with a different vinyl flooring, but oh well…

Before: Dining Area (Sorry it’s so dark!)

Filthy carpets. Mud splattered walls. Dark and dingy.

After:

Much better!!

So, that’s all I have to share for now. I don’t have good pic’s of the kitchen or den yet. When they are done I’ll update this post to show them too. The kitchen is HUGE though, compared to my little trailer kitchen that is. Can’t wait to show it to you as well.

Anyways, I guess I better go now. I still have lots of packing to do for tomorrow. It will probably be another week or so before we are settled and I have my office space back together again. I’m so excited to finally be moving in!!

Yippee!!

Your blogging buddy,

]]> http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2008/11/08/moving-day/feed/ 21 http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2008/11/08/moving-day/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/handprintsonthewall/Oyqz/~3/HjIdFVEnzgA/ http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/2008/10/19/just-popping-in/#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:50:30 +0000 Kendra http://www.handprintsonthewall.org/?p=2695 I am SO SORRY that I have just disappeared for so long! I totally didn’t mean to just drop off the face of the earth. I’ve just been extremely busy with things around here. I’ve decided that until we are moved into the new place, and settled, I won’t be doing much more blogging. Once we get all situated I will be back at it again though, so don’t leave me forever I’m hoping that we will be moved into the new place in two more weeks. Hopefully! I wanted to share a before and after picture with you guys of my new living room area. We still aren’t totally finished with everything. I still have painting to do, and baseboards to put up. But we are very close to being done! After 7 long months of mostly do-it-yourself remodeling! Check it out:

BEFORE:

Notice how NASTY it was?! Evidently the previous owners let a couple big dogs run in and out throughout the home and they tracked red mud everywhere. It was even splattered all over the walls! Along with who knows what else. Yuck! And that strange platform built underneath the windows… what was up with that?

AFTER: (well, almost done…)

Much better, right?! Yes, I painted those walls. And my dad pulled out that hideous platform thingy. But we did hire a professional to do the laminate floors. I wasn’t about to try to mess that up! So, it’s coming along. I’m very excited about finishing up, and finally being able to move in!

So, that’s a little taste of what’s been going on around here. I’ll share more with you guys later, when I can. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before I’m back at blogging again.

Miss you guys!

1. Letting your child sleep in the bed with you.

Now, before I get a bunch of comments from all of you who co-sleep, let me explain myself. I don’t see anything wrong with responsibly sleeping with baby. I did it with both of mine for the first three months, and it was wonderful. It becomes a problem, however, when you allow baby to sleep with you for much longer than this. The longer baby sleeps with you, the harder it is for him/her to learn to sleep independently. I’ve seen it lots of times. And, sorry to say it, most of the time the co-sleeping continues because for Mom it’s easier, or it just feels good. This is selfish. You are developing insecurity in your child. And believe me, the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be to stop the habit.

I had a single-mom friend who had her little girl in the bed with her from the time she was born. By the time her child was 3 years old, Mom was ready to have her bed back. But by then, the habit had been long nurtured, and wasn’t going to go away so easily. For many nights she tried laying her daughter down in her own bed, but by the middle of the night, the little girl had wandered back into Mommy’s bed where she stayed until morning. If Mom tried to put the girl back in her own bed, she cried and screamed and fought until her exhausted mother gave in. The frustrated Mom didn’t know what to do, and the poor little girl didn’t understand why all of a sudden she wasn’t allowed to sleep in the comforts of Mommy’s bed as she always had. Sleeping in a whole different room, in a cold and lonely bed (in her mind), was too intimidating for the toddler.

It is so unfair for you to do this to your child. So, start off right by forming good sleeping habits early. Co-sleeping for breastfeeding or whatever early on is great. But by 3 months a baby can sleep 8 hours through the night. Don’t make it harder for your child then it has to be. Teach them to be able to comfortably go to sleep on their own, in their own bed. Believe me, you’ll all get a better night’s sleep!

2. Using “White Noise” to help your child go to sleep.

When you put your baby to sleep, don’t debilitate him/her by creating a sleep crutch. Insisting that you turn on a fan, white noise machine, music, or some other sound in order to help your child go to sleep faster is only creating a bad habit. I’m not saying that you should NEVER do it. There are times, like when you have noisy guests over, or are at somebody else’s house, when using a pleasant sound is good for helping to drown out the background noise that would otherwise keep baby awake. But you should put your child to bed without a noise for the majority of the time, so that he learns to put himself to sleep in the silence of his own room.

My husband is a prime example of this. He simply cannot go to sleep without a fan or something creating a low humming sound. If we sleep somewhere away from home, where there is nothing to make a white noise, he tosses and turns and goes crazy in the silence.

My dad also told me of a man on his softball team who has this same problem. Every time they have a game out of town, this man brings a small fan with him, just so he can go to sleep. There is no reason to create this stumbling block in your own child’s life.

3. Using a baby wipes warmer.

Sure it sounds like a pleasant thing to wipe your new little baby’s soft tushy with a soft, warm baby wipe. And I’m sure that baby loves the feeling of it. But what happens when you are out to eat and you have to change baby in the bathroom using a little pack of room temperature travel wipes. I’ll tell you what happens. Baby is suddenly shocked at the cold thing wiping her bottom, and cries in protest wishing for the cozy warm wipes that she’s so used to.

I’ve never had a baby cry about being wiped with baby wipes right out of the box when that was all they had ever known. There is no need to create this habit of needing to have warmed up wipes. In my mind, it’s simply overindulgence, and when reality hits baby is confused and upset.

4. Allowing your child to carry around a special blanket or stuffed animal everywhere you go.

Limit it to bedtime only. If you allow your child to carry his special thing around with him everywhere you go, you create several problems: If you forget to bring it in the car with you, you will have to deal with your child being upset about not having it. If you accidentally leave it out wherever you were, your child will be devastated to have lost it. And, your child will become dependent on this thing to bring him comfort throughout the day. You want to teach your child to depend on the Lord, not on material things.

** Let me say it again; some of you seem to be misunderstanding, or just not completely reading what I’ve written. I’m not against a child having a comfort item. My own little one has a special blanket that he would carry everywhere if I let him. My suggestion is merely not to allow them to form the habit of carrying it around with him every single place he goes.

5. Feeing your child off your plate.

Seems innocent enough, right? But I promise you, if you begin feeding your child off of your own plate every now and then, you will soon create a little beggar. You will not be able to sit down for one little snack without your little one toddling over, climbing up in your lap, and begging for a bite of whatever you have. You will never be able to eat in peace again if you start this habit! If you think your child is hungry, sit him down at the table with his own plate of food to eat from.

6. Never making your child drink plain water.

For whatever reason, when we would run out of juice I would always find myself apologizing to my daughter as I handed her a cup of water saying, “I’m sorry baby. We don’t have any juice. We only have water.” When one day it dawned on me… what a terrible message I was sending her! I should never be apologizing for giving her such a wonderful drink as the one that the Lord intended to quench our thirst. After that revelation, I decided I was not going to buy juice any more. I started giving my children cups of ice water instead, and now they love it, and even ask for it! Drinking water is a wonderful habit to instill in your child, so don’t feel bad about it!

7. Cutting the crust off the bread; always peeling apple slices.

Just because you didn’t like eating the crust when you were a kid doesn’t mean that you should start this habit in your own kids! You are only creating picky eaters. If they don’t like it, they can eat around it. You have too much to do in a day, you don’t need to waste your time slicing the crust off a sandwich! The same goes for peeling apples. Unless it’s for your baby who can’t chew up the peeling yet, let them eat around it it they don’t like it.

These are just a few innocent mistakes that we all easily make with our children. I’m sure there are a billion more that I haven’t mentioned. But just keep in mind that it’s easier to create bad habits then to break them. The point of this post is to encourage you to avoid these problems, and fix them if they have already begun, before they get out of hand and become a nuisance.

If you want to share any tips or stories that you may have about creating bad habits in our children, I’d love to hear from you! I’m sure there is a lot that I can learn from you as well!

It’s that time again! Time for another week of minimizing our homes… clearing out the clutter in order to free our homes from the burden of too much stuff!

I feel like I should take today’s post to explain the point of Minimizing Mondays for the newbies. This isn’t meant to simply be motivation to organize your things. What this is about is living with less! Not simply clearing out a junk drawer, but actually getting rid of things that are taking up space in your home but serving no real purpose, yes, even possibly things that you like but don’t necessarily need. I am here to inspire you to let go of the material things in your home that are cluttering up your life and taking valuable time away from your family.

Let me explain that. Having tons of clothes leads to piles and piles of dirty laundry to wash. Cabinets overloaded with cups, dishes, and tupperware containers cause you to waste time digging through them looking for one particular item. Shelves lined with doo-dads and whatchamacallit’s take plenty of time dusting and cleaning around. An excess of kid’s toys all over the floor… how many times do you clean them up every day? All of these things, when in overabundance, cause waste of time in our lives. I am urging you to rethink what you actually NEED in your home, not just what you like to be able to say you HAVE.

So, when I give a challenge, it is not merely to organize what you have (though it is wonderful to have your things nice and tidy and in their place), I am provoking you to rethink what you actually keep in your home and allow to take up space in your life. So don’t just rearrange the shirts in your closet… get rid of half of them! Don’t simply find a creative way to store the ridiculous amount of toys in your home… donate the majority of them, your kids won’t die, I promise!! Getting the gist of it? Less, less, less!

LIVING WITH LESS!! Free yourselves of the material burdens in your life! Give your time back to your family and kids and off of these things that distract you in little ways every day. Now, go for it!! I want to hear what you think and how you’re putting these thoughts into action in your own home! Let’s continue inspiring each other to have less and live more!!

So, I thought I’d throw the question out there for you, my faithful friends. If any of you have homeschooled, or are homeschooling K-1st grade, do you have any advice for me? I’ve been just printing stuff off the internet, using worksheets from activity books, and pretty much just making up her lesson time as I go. I’d like to have a consistent curriculum for her, one that I know will be thorough.

She is already reading, writing her letters and short words, counting to 100 and doing simple addition. I’m just not sure where to go from here.

Can anyone tell me what I need to be teaching her for K-1st grade?

Do any of you have any suggestions on which books are the best for each subject? I’ve heard that some publishers are better in one subject than another.

Any good websites for printable worksheets??

Hopefully some of you might be able to help guide me along!! Thanks so much for any advice you can offer!