J is for Josiah

Saving laminating pouches…and your sanity!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 01:22:00 +0000

I LOVE laminating! I don't know what it is about it but holding that sheet of plastic covered paper, still hot off the presses brings me so much joy! It's like that piece of paper just got a whole new life and there are endless ways it can be used now. Stupid I know… But I also know I'm not alone. I joined a homeschooling group on Facebook and just about all of the moms on it love laminating too.

*This post contains affiliate links.*

My laminator is pretty new. I purchased it over the Summer to laminate worksheets and wall decorations for the kids' learning area. It's the Scotch Thermal Laminator and I LOVE it! One thing I found out right away though, was that "static cling" in the pouches don't really CLING very well when there are a bunch of smaller papers in it. Heck, even just yesterday I was trying to fit four squares of card stock (one sheet cut in fourths) into a pouch and if I didn't hold it just right, some of them would move as they were being fed through the laminator. Thankfully they were big pieces and thankfully my laminator feeds pretty slowly so I had a moment to fix it before it was too late.

This morning I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. I had printed a few pages for an activity I was setting up for the kids but printed on plain paper instead of card stock. To not waste paper and ink, I thought I'd laminate the cut out pieces and send them with Jo to his daddy's house today, so that he can practice his learning over there too. Well, what I hadn't really thought through was that I would have 18 tiny strips of paper, 18 small squares and 3 larger strips that all needed to be laminated. I arranged them on a sheet so I could figure out how they would fit but how the heck was I going to be able to laminate so many tiny bits of paper if my static cling decided not to cling today??

And then it hit me… GLUE! But not just any glue… This glue.

*NOTE: I am in no way being compensated by Darice or anyone else for this blog post. These opinions are my own.*

I came across this re-postionable glue tape one day in JoAnn, and because it was on clearance that day, couldn't resist picking up a few of them. I especially love how it works like the white out tape I used to love when I was in school.

After arranging my pieces of paper exactly how I wanted them on top of a closed laminating pouch, I slid them off one page at a time and ran a very small amount of glue on the backs of the papers. Then I opened the pouch and stuck each piece back inside, exactly as I had arranged them beforehand. The fact that I was able to use the glue meant that each and every piece stayed exactly where I wanted it to and if a piece was TOO crooked ( I was not going for perfection here) then I could very easily lift it up and fix it.

The REAL test came when it was time to laminate. Look at the bottom sheet in that picture. Can you just imagine the kind of craziness that would have unfolded once I lifted the page to feed it into the laminator? The second row of strips and all of the big ones would have sank straight to the bottom messing everything up, transforming me into some sort of crazy Momzilla I'm sure. Let me also mention that I was doing all of this an hour before I had to leave for work because I am crazy like that. BUT once I lifted up the pouch, nothing moved! I even gave it a nice little shake and the pieces stayed put. It was a miracle! Into the laminator they went and they came out perfectly, AND because the glue is transparent, there are no marks on the other side either!

Seriously you guys, this discovery today has me feeling like some kind of genius! I haven't even searched Google or Pinterest for anything like this yet simply because I still want to believe that only I could have produced such a brilliant idea! Using the glue tape saved me time (I would have made myself late for work trying to fight the static cling), saved laminating pouches (I was able to use every single inch of those things), and definitely kept me sane! I hope you will try it out and let me know how it works for you too!

You're Welcome :)

Clearing my mind

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 01:21:00 +0000

Hello! Once again, it's been a while hasn't it? Ah, life. Life keeps me so so busy, but most of the busy-ness is me trying to just organize everything around me. Oh man I can't tell you the different cleaning projects I have picked up around the house and all of the purging that has went on lately.

I took a moment to really look inside myself and figure myself out a bit and what I've discovered is that all of these seemingly endless tasks I've taken on, all of the organizing and cleaning that never ever ends when there are toddlers in the house and adults who all have their own style of living, it's all me just trying to gain a sense of control over things I have no control over. It's like, if I can organize the house, then I can organize the jumbled mess of thoughts and ideas in my mind. It reminds me of the "nesting" stage in pregnancy. I can't get anything to be clean or organized enough but every single day I'm working on something, somewhere just trying to make a dent, trying to get ready for something. But what exactly am I getting ready for? I have no idea. A part of me feels like if I can purge all of the junk and find places for all of the "stuff" and just make everything nice and neat (you know, like a Pinterest home) that everything will somehow be better. How does that make sense? I can't even tell you. I still won't have a car or place of my own. My paycheck will still be itty bitty. I still won't have even the slightest bit of "me" time. The kids will still drive me crazy at least once a day. And there won't be a husband coming home to me who I can rest my head on and open my heart to. No, a clean house won't solve any of those things. And a clean house, with two toddlers won't stay clean long at all. So I'll just keep busy doing what I'm doing, trying to grasp onto some sense of control. And maybe one day things get better. And if they don't, well then I'll just have to keep reminding myself of how blessed I am to even have such a beautiful home and wonderful family at all.

Out attempt at Fork Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 May 2014 00:41:00 +0000

The other day while scrolling through Facebook, something caught my eye. Shaunna over at Fantastic Fun and Learning, shared a really neat project that she did with her children. They used FORKS to paint really sweet designs onto paper and then cut fish shapes from the finished paintings. It was beautiful!

While reading her blog, I was inspired to give this a try with the kids but instead of fish, I wanted to try zebras and tigers since we had just seen some at Disney's Animal Kingdom days before.

I set out a few colors of paint and several different disposable forks that we had in the "junk drawer."

Josiah gave the fork a few tries before giving up right away. It was a little difficult to get consistent lines with the forks, instead, he used his to make dots. I sat down with him and tried painting with all of the different forks. I found that the plain white (cheap) forks gave me the best results. Eventually, Josiah did what he always does; he put his hands in the paint and smeared it across the paper.

I, on the other hand, managed to get a few decent lines on my paper and then cut out a "basic" zebra shape (if you can even call the shape of a zebra "basic"). The background is Josiah's finished painting. I never got around to trying a tiger.

I really like the way my zebra came out and definitely plan on trying fork painting again with the kids!

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 May 2014 01:06:00 +0000

Hello! It's been what, another month or so since I've blogged? Boy, let me tell you that it's been much harder than I ever expected to keep up a regular (2-3 posts/week) schedule on here. Seriously, hats off to the bloggers who are kicking butt in this nice right now AND keeping your home in working order. This isn't a goodbye post or anything like that, but it is an admission that I probably won't be able to update AS regularly as I originally intended. BUT I will keep writing, I started this thing and refuse to give up!

Here is what's new with us..

I am still working at my job and according to my manager and co-workers, I'm doing very well. I really like my job and although part of me wishes there was a way for me to work another day or two, I also really love that I get to spend most of my week with Josiah. Being a mom is the greatest job there is!

Josiah is amazing and is basically a genius now.

Warning: Lots of mommy-type bragging and gushing to follow!

My little smarty pants has been speaking in sentences for months. He knows all of the basic colors, including black, white, and brown, we're working on gray still. Letter and number recognition are areas that I try to focus on with him these days. He knows his alphabet only because he knows the song. Actually, he knows a TON of songs! Music is most definitely his "thing" and I can't wait to see how that grows with him throughout his life. Josiah has started counting and is grasping the concept of counting more than one thing but he's not quite there yet. The other day, he counted to seven (incorrectly) and told me that Mickey Mouse had 7 feet. Nice try sweetie pie <3. He also memorized the rhythm to "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?" and "reads" it often. For a two year old, he is simply amazing. He's very well behaved and doesn't have many meltdowns. He's definitely a BOY though and likes to bump into everything and fall all over the place. Scrapped knees are for mommy to kiss are very common, but other than that, he's such a joy to be around! And I know I am saying that because I'm his mommy and I can, but I've heard it from friends, family and strangers as well, so thank you Jesus we are doing something right with little child of His.

My family and I have been spending lots of time at Walt Disney World lately and the kids (and grownups) absolutely LOVE it! This weekend we took them to Animal Kingdom and had a blast seeing the animals. It isn't a Zoo but it's the closest to one that we have access to at the moment and the fact that we already have annual passes helps my wallet as well. Win!

For Mother's Day we didn't do anything particularly special. In my family, we aren't too big on giving extravagant gifts on small holidays like that. I did want SOMETHING though and hinted to Josiah's daddy that Josiah should make something special for me. It wasn't a big surprise when that didn't happen though. After all, I was usually the creative one in the relationship. So, to get my wish and also make something special for my mom and grandmother from the kids, we had some fun with paint.

As you may already know, I absolutely LOVE art that involves little hand and footprints. I had seen footprint butterflies on Pinterest many times in the past and thought it would be the perfect activity to do with the kids. They loved getting their feet painted and that they got to use their hand as well to be the sun in their pictures. They turned out adorable and all of the lovely mothers in my house loved their gifts!

Here is a pic of Josiah's art taken off of my Instagram account.

Besides that, my mind has been one big, messy, never ending to-do list. I'm desperately trying to purge and organize a LOT at home. I live with 7 other people so we have a lot of stuff and have accumulated plenty of junk in the 10 years we have lived here. My big mission these past few weeks was to tackle the garage. The garage was a place for storing everything and anything. It's a two car garage and it was so full that we had a hard time getting in and out of it. As a matter of fact, we had a fire scare in there last month and it was hard for the fire department to get in there and find the source, but I'll save that for another post. Slowly but surely the floor has been making it's appearance in there though. My goal is to be able to fit one or both cars in there in the event of an emergency (such as a hurricane) and to have a big empty space for the kids to play in when being inside is boring but being outside isn't an option (gotta love FL thunderstorms).

Other things that crowd my brain right now are: Finishing School (I am SO CLOSE), Starting "school" for Josiah and Lily, Organizing and finding a spot to call a school area for the kids, curriculum planning, eating healthier, exercising regularly, building my savings account, reading my Bible and reading/teaching it to Josiah, being a better mom/aunt, being more attentive, blogging more, getting back into photography, refreshing my photoshop/illustrator skills, finding time just for myself, doctors appointments and a potentially new journey for Josiah….. Gosh the list goes on and on and I am exhausted just trying to write it out. Those are all things I am trying to do on a daily basis, most of which I never get around to though. Most days we are lucky to have picked up the toys at the end of the night. Still, as exhausting as it might be, and even though sometimes I REALLY wish things were different (better), I can't ignore the fact that all of it is very humbling not only for myself but for Josiah as well. Had we been in a different situation, we definitely wouldn't be the people we are now and would not have had to lean on God as much as we do. It's a beautiful thing, really.

So that's what's been going on in my life, I pray you've all been well also! 'Til next time!

Happy Birthday Josiah!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 01:52:00 +0000

Wow! I've been gone for a bit. MY apologies. I WAS waiting for more pictures to share on this particular post and then life took over (and I never did get those other pictures).

Josiah is TWO!

This year for his birthday we went with a Minion theme since he really loves Minions. We also decided that the best place for our budget and all of our family and friends would be to do his party at the same park we did his party last year. I searched Pinterest for "Minion Party Ideas" and came across a ton of fun ideas including Gru's party rules, and Minion favor bags. One thing I needed though were baskets. We had planned on an easter egg hunt and I certainly did not want to spend more money on baskets for about 10-15 little ones SO I learned how to cut my minion bags and turn them into baskets. Genius! They now served as goodie bags AND baskets for the egg hunt!

Another goodie we came up with were the "Freeze Rays." I had found 3 packs of adorable little water guns in Target's dollar section and picked up a few, not really knowing what to do with them. When Josiah's daddy, his fiancé, and I huddled together to plan this thing and I mentioned the water guns, she said "Freeze Rays!" They were probably the biggest hit of all with the kids (and adults too!). Josiah had a little bit of trouble shooting his water gun, the only way he was able to make it work was by using his thumb, which meant he was always squirting himself in the face. It was the funniest thing watching the toddlers chase/squirt one another and Josiah running after them, shooting himself!

The egg hunt was pretty simple. I filled about 70 eggs with candies and had my brothers hide them throughout the park. I switched the tops and bottoms of the yellows and blues to make minions, added googly eyes and sharpies the rest of the details. There were also purple (evil) minions hiding around the park as well.

*Note to anyone having an egg hunt in the park: use pre-packaged candies and stay away from chocolates! This was my first egg hunt ever and so I bought some chocolates and jelly beans to fill some eggs. The chocolate was melted and the jelly bean eggs were full of ants! Whoops! Good thing most of the eggs had packaged gummies inside.

After hours of play time at the play ground, it was finally time to wind down with some cake. It was an adorable Minion cake that Josiah still talks about. For a few days after the party he would NOT let me sing happy birthday to him because I didn't have a Minion cake.

All in all it was a big success. My only regret is that I should have taken more pictures of Josiah. But he would NOT stay still and I don't blame him at all!

On his actual birthday, Josiah and I went to Disney World to say hello to Mickey Mouse. His reaction was priceless!

I can't believe my baby boy is TWO now. As sad as it is that my baby is growing up so fast, I am looking forward to all of the fun and excitement these toddler years will bring us!

Birthdays!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 09 Mar 2014 03:11:00 +0000

Today, we went to a birthday party. Our little friend turned one year old and had a cute, simple little party. Josiah and I got her a small toy and we wrapped it in one of Josiah's paintings.

Please excuse my horrible handwriting and questionable "balloons," I fixed them after I took the picture! Lately I haven't had the brain capacity to think up new and wonderful ideas for the kids, so we paint A LOT! I use Ikea easels for them and the giant roll of paper (affiliate link). As a result, I now have a ton of large paintings hanging around my room and more drying on the easels. I knew it was about time we found a way to recycle some of them. It was a hit with our little friend's parents and an extra special touch from Josiah.

The party got me thinking about Josiah's upcoming birthday. Josiah will be two next month and we still don't have a clue what we are doing! For his ACTUAL birthday I have a special idea in mind, but as far as his birthday party I'm drawing a blank. This is one of the draw backs of being separated from his father. Because we both have our own separate lives, we don't always have a lot of time to actually SIT and communicate about things like this. Usually it's only a few short chats when one of us is dropping Josiah off with the other, and those chats generally don't end up with a final PLAN.

Last year we had a really nice party at the park, I really like the idea of open air because between his fathers family/friends and mine, we are a lot of people and children! We had lots of fun and had the playground all to ourselves. To keep it simple and inexpensive, I think I'd like to go this route again.

Josiah's First Birthday Party

What would you suggest?? Time is running out and I need ideas, help! Please leave some suggestions here in the comments or on my Facebook page!

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Starburst Pixel Art!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 01:47:00 +0000

Hello!! What a week it's been over on my end. If you've read my earlier post about my quest to learn more about handling finances responsibly, you'll be glad to know that I have already taken the first few crucial steps! Although it was hard to think about at first, the more I gave it thought, the more I realized that going back to work (and therefore leaving Josiah in someone else's care) was the right thing to do. Earlier this week, I started working again. I've still got mixed feelings about it all but I think once the newness of it all wears off, everything will be fine. I've also opened up a savings account. Let's just say that the last time I had one of those I was still a minor and had it only because I was too young for a checking account at the bank I was with. Yeah… I didn't do very well with it then because I had no idea what it really meant. This time WILL be different!

Anywho, I've also came to terms with the fact that I probably wont be churning out awesome ideas and activities 3 times a week like all of the "bigger" blogs I drool over. BUT I do have something fun to share today!

This is actually something I did LONG before I had Josiah. I was a part of a message board type website that shared crafts and I shared this there. Then, not very long ago, someone shared a link with me that featured my project and picture. I wanted to give it an official "home" on here and also share with you how easy, fun, AND tasty this project can be!

A few years ago for an art class of mine, our final project was to make edible art. Someone had given me a bag of all pink Starbursts knowing they were my favorites, and that's what inspired me. I went to the store and bought quite a few bags of Starburst, found a template for my image and redrew it on graph paper to get my "pixels" just right and then began building.

What you'll need:

Starburst Candy

Seriously, that's it. Ok, a tray to build on might work also, but the floor or a tabletop will also work just as well. For my project I also used a hot glue gun but I don't recommend that if you plan on eating the candies later. Trust me, I learned the hard way that the glue goes through the paper.

Like I said, this is an old project so the picture is old and it was taken with an older camera and on a really crappy background before I cared about that sort of thing. So, I apologize for the quality, but it's cool huh?? The possibilities are virtually endless with this one. You are only limited to the colors available I suppose, although I even used a sharpie for his eyes (again, I don't recommend doing that if you plan on eating it).

The leftover candy became a tasty game of Tetris!

It was a hit with the class and I got an A on my final!

Browsing Pinterest, the only similar project I found was done with Skittles and it was pretty neat also. I can't link to it though because I haven't been able to find the original source yet. But, if you fancied trying something like this out on a smaller scale, Skittles are the way to go!

ALWAYS make sure to supervise young children with small pieces/candy that may become a choking hazard!

Well, that's all I've got for you today, hope you have fun giving this one a try. Be sure to come back and share with me how your project went for you!

Want to keep up with Josiah and I? Follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

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Two Years STRONG

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 20:29:00 +0000

I've been trying to write a this post for about a week now. I knew what I wanted to write about, but every time I was able to hop on my laptop, something would come up. When I did find some free time, I wrote. And wrote and wrote and wrote. It was way too long and full of way too much detail and my point wasn't coming across like I wanted it to.

And then Monday happened.

But before I explain Monday and before I explain what I had been writing about, let me share one of the last sentences I wrote in my original draft before completely deleting it all and starting over again...

"But everything happens for a reason. And I believe it's ultimately to glorify God."

God. Jesus. My savior. My comfort. My peace. I had planned to add Him in at the end of my post but I know now there is no other place for Him than right here at the beginning. All the glory for everything you are about to read goes to Him!

As I approached Valentines day, I felt compelled to write about something deeply personal to me, my breakup with Josiah's father. Mainly because it happened just days after Valentines day two years ago while I was still pregnant. The date itself is lost to me. I think my mind blocked it out because I can't pinpoint it for the life of me. In those two years I went through the craziest emotional roller coaster ride I could have ever imagined. But despite it all, I'm still standing. I have God to thank for that.

I cried so much these past two years, I'm surprised I still have any tears left in me! I've fought with my mind and heart, and went from trying to convince myself that I was "ok," to being SO unbelievably low and depressed, to raging with bitterness and jealousy, and even wishing that his girlfriend would turn around and break his heart worse than he broke mine. Mean I know, but I was in a horrible place. Over the course of the first year I dealt with one "milestone" after another. First it was learning that he was dating again. Ouch! Then I had to begin to put my feelings aside and let Josiah go with his dad when his girlfriend would be around. Eventually I had to stop pretending she wasn't real and meet her. She killed me with kindness that day, I went home and cried. I had to convince myself that as much as I wanted to dislike her and as much as I "SHOULD" dislike her, there wasn't anything not to like. Josiah's feelings toward her were tricky on me as well. He absolutely loves her! I had a very hard time dealing with the idea of another woman in my child's life, especially one who would play a parent-type role to him.

My goodness it's been hard. I can't begin to describe how it feels to have your heart broken over and over and over again. I can't explain the way it hurts to you see your young baby with his daddy and having to fight off the overwhelming feeling of love because you aren't allowed to feel those feelings toward him anymore. There was so much longing and hoping and wishing for a complete family, and then having to face the facts each time that it will never ever be that way. There were never ending, questions that kept me up at night of "Why me?" "Why us?" "What if?" And of course "It's not supposed to be this way! It's not fair!" played non-stop in my mind like a song stuck on repeat.

With my heart shattered into a million teeny, tiny pieces, I had no idea how I'd ever pull myself up out of the dark hole I had fallen into.

God Knew.

While I was stuck hurting and wanting nothing more than to take Josiah and run away somewhere far away to escape the person who hurt me the most, I couldn't. I couldn't take my son away from his father. I couldn't take his father away from him. So while I was dealing with one thing after another, I also needed to remain civil and friendly to my ex. I mean, it's one thing to have to be a single mother. It's another thing to be a bitter one, at least on the outside. I can't imagine ever being that "baby momma" type of woman, you know what I mean? I don't roll that way. Sure, I battled my fair share of negative thoughts from time to time. But at the end of the day I knew that thinking bad, wishing bad, and portraying myself negatively would hurt Josiah most of all. Plus, I still love his father very much, just not romantically anymore.

I started going back to church regularly right after we broke up. It took plenty of sermons, prayers and tears to learn that I needed to forgive him. Not just in words or even in actions (though those are very important too) but deep within my heart and soul as well. I made him and his girlfriend a part of Josiah and my nightly prayers. I often prayed that for Josiah's sake and their own, that they would "do things right," whatever that meant.

Monday I learned what it meant.

I dropped Josiah off to spend the day with his daddy and as I was ready to leave, he told me he had news for me. He hesitated for a moment and in my mind I already had an idea. He had proposed to her.

My first reaction was to smile because I was happy for him. I congratulated him, and then came the tears.

I can't explain those tears because for once in this long journey of trying to mend this broken heart, I really WASN'T sad! But the tears kept flowing anyway. It wasn't the "woulda, coulda, shoulda's" that like to whisper in my ear late at night. It wasn't jealously. It wasn't exactly joy either. I just don't know. But I was sure to let him know that I was very happy for him for finally doing things right and for being a better role model for Josiah.

As I was driving back, I prayed to Jesus out loud in the car. I cried and thanked him and cried some more. I even missed my street and kept on driving. It was a "pretty" cry too! Not the boogery, ugly cry where you finish looking like a hot mess and unable to breathe normally. It HAD to have been God!!!

This is what I think happened... I've just been set free. I have closure. Peace! For the first time in a very long time, I just feel good.

I woke up the next morning feeling fresh and new. Theres no more to be sad about. I still love Josiah's father but we are very different people now and I've known for a long time now that he isn't the one for me anymore. I really like his fiancé also. I appreciate the respect she shows me as Josiah's mother and how she treats my baby boy. She really does loves him.

As for me, I whole heartedly trust and believe that God has someone much better up His sleeves lined up for me and when the time is right, I'll find out who that person is. Until then, I'll still praise Him and keep doing what I'm doing for Josiah and myself.

I used to hate (and I mean HATE!!!!!!) hearing "Don't worry, one day it'll all be better," because I never knew when "one day" would come. Only God could have healed this broken heart and I'm pleased to say that almost exactly two years to the date of the worst night of my life, my first and most important "one day" has finally come! I'm looking toward the future and it looks bright and I've never been stronger or more ready to see what comes next! Praise God!

Have you had your heart broken or know someone going through it now? Please tell me your story and/or share mine. Everyone deserves know that they are not alone. God is always by your side. If you seek Him first, pray, read your Bible, focus on Him and His work, your life WILL turn around for the better. I am nobody. I am a sinner, I don't deserve even a fraction of what Jesus has done for me and what He continues to do for me. But He forgives and He loves us with a love we cannot even comprehend. Two years ago, as I sat nursing my newborn Jo and crying as I read a story of another single mom's one-year healing period and thinking it was too long, I would have never imagined myself in the position I am in today with my heart just about completely mended and ready to "move on."

Thank you Jesus!!

Pom Pom Painting and our Valentine

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 19:34:00 +0000

Hi! Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day! I did, I had an interview and got the job! Woo Hoo! The rest of my day was spent with my little love, Josiah!

The day before V-Day, Josiah and I wanted to "kill two birds with one stone" and make our Valentines with the pom pom painting technique.

To set up, I took four pom poms (red, green, yellow, blue) and four clothes pins. I attached one pin to one pom pom and then placed each color pom pom in it's corresponding little pot of finger paint. We were making valentines for his daddy and daddy's girlfriend so I presented the materials to him with two folded sheets of construction paper.

Here's how it went…

As you can see, Josiah took the pom poms out right away, only making one or two dabs with them on the paper before he stuck his whole hand in the pot of paint. It was at this point I was glad there wasn't much paint left in these pots and that the set only cost a dollar (Dollar Tree!).

This pretty much explains how just about every paint adventure goes with Josiah. He absolutely loves getting his hands messy with paint. I had to convince him to put his painted hands onto the paper, he was way more interested in just rubbing the paint in his hands like lotion. Silly boy!

Since Josiah enjoys using glue, I wrote and cut out some words and helped him stick them onto the cards. This was the end result. Pretty right? Ok I know my handwriting is crap but it's the thought that counts right?

For the inside I wanted something interactive for him and the recipient to be able to work on together. I also thought it would be fun to play off of Josiah's current favorite movie Despicable Me 2.

Here is what I came up with :)

Using construction paper, I cut out a basic minion shape and colored in the gloves and shoes. I also cut out some overalls, a mask, eyes, mouth and heart and then drew the finer details myself. The idea was that Josiah could help his valentine glue the pieces on and rebuild the minion.

In the end, Josiah ended up mixing all of the colors in the paint pots which was fine because I washed them all out and can mix new colors in them or store play dough in them now. Win!! And, I've learned my lesson too. From here on out, I'll only give a LITTLE bit of paint per project. You should have seen the mess he made and how I freaked out when I bathed him and bright red came out of his ear (because he decided to touch his ear with a red painted finger). Gotta love crazy, curious kids.

How'd your V-Day go this year? Did you get anything special? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

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No Mess Finger Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 21:44:00 +0000

Hello everybody! Long time no post right? My apologies. Truth is, I've been mentally exhausted lately trying to get certain things in order and also, now I watch my niece overnight while my brother goes to work. So, most days I'm just happy to make it through the day and keep the kids are fed and changed regularly, know what I mean? That doesn't mean we aren't playing though, but it does mean I'm not documenting and sharing everything either.

BUT I have a free moment to share something fun we did recently. Someone sent me a link on my Facebook page to this tutorial from Baballa on mess free finger paints. I loved every part of it, especially because I am constantly stressing to keep messes to a minimum since this is my grandparent's house and not mine.

The original site is in spanish but the pictures speak for themselves (also, you can choose to translate the website and google does a pretty decent job at it too).

Well, my try at it didn't exactly turn out how I expected it to. Have a look :)

I bought some finger paints from Dollar Tree and some makeup sponges as well. The plan was to cut the sponges into squares (cubes) and submerge them into the pots of finger paints. When it's time to paint, pull out just the sponges and place them onto a piece of card stock (or, in my case, a small plastic container). The idea is that the kids will touch the sponge with their fingers and then paint pretty little fingerprint dots on their paper.

Yeah, Right!

My first mistake was using the makeup sponges. They were too…foamy? Even though they did absorb the paint, they were so slippery and squishy that they would slide all over the place and touch the other sponges and the colors would mix.

Actually, my REAL first mistake was only making one set and expecting two toddlers to share. Most of the mix up happened when Josiah and Lily fought over the container and constantly wanted me to hold it on their side of the table.

I gave up on "Mess Free" right away and just stepped back and watched. Lily grabbed three of the four sponges and put them on her paper. She had fun squishing them.

Next, I pulled out a couple of porcupine balls and let them explore with them in the paint. They loved feeling the texture of the ball. Josiah rolled his around the paper for a bit and it made some interesting patterns on his painting. Lily, on the other hand, was more interested in the paint sponges and soon enough, she threw her ball at Josiah but it went behind him and got lost for a few hours.

Of course, we can't do any activity without at least ONE kid trying to taste something. Reviewing my photos from this session, I couldn't help but laugh because I realized I had captured the split second that Josiah put the ball in his mouth!

SO... In conclusion, we obviously did NOT have a mess-free paint session. But we still had lots of fun and at the end of the day that's what matters most, right?

I would definitely still recommend this method for older children who understand how to keep the sponges from touching and know how to share (if there are more little artists painting). Give it a try and let me know how it works in your home!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Pinterest to keep up with Lily and Josiah!

Linking up to: The Weekly Kids Co-op

Super Easy Piggy Bank

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 05:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone! I hope all of you up north are finding ways to keep warm while all of that cold and snow continues to come your way. Down in FL, we cool down significantly, but it's nothing compared to some of the subzero temps I've been hearing about. Still, the constant change in weather from warm and humid, to cold and dry in just a matter of days (sometimes hours) means colds are everywhere. I'm currently dealing with my 3rd cold in a row in 3 months. The last two left me with pink eye so I'm PRAYING I avoid it this time around. Lots and lots of hand washing! Good news is, Josiah's cold is not much more than a runny nose, and he should be getting antibodies from me when he nurses. Gotta love breast milk! Seriously, this child has been sick only a handful of times in his almost 2-years and they have never been bad!

Ok ok, enough about boogers and breast milk. I'm here tonight to share with you a super simple little creation that is sure to keep your littles busy for at LEAST 5 whole minutes! It's especially fun for closer-to-one-year-olds, more than closer-to-two-year-olds, as I'm now discovering.

All you need is a container. It can be any container with a lid and a slit cut into it. I happened to have LOTS of baby wipe containers around, Huggies (affiliate link) work better since the opening is more of a slit and it is made of a soft plastic/rubber. You will also need "coins." They can be bottle caps, lids, anything really. During one of my walks through the Dollar Tree, I found some oversized coins (pennies) in the party favors section. They were perfect!

When I first introduced this to Josiah, I had a quiet busy baby for almost 20 minutes. He had to work pretty hard to get the coin aligned just right with the slot, otherwise it wouldn't fit inside. This has been a "calm down" toy for quite a while. I'd pull it out when I needed him to sit still beside me while I worked on other things around the house.

Now Josiah and Lily each have one and about 15 coins between them. It isn't AS engaging for them like it used to be now that they have pretty much mastered how it works. So instead, it's become an instrument! When dropping the money into the container loses it's charm, the kids shake the container and love the sounds it makes. One coin sounds very different than 15 or more coins.

This toy also encourages counting and sorting as well! I'll often hear Josiah mumbling his numbers while doing this. He doesn't know them as well as he knows his ABC's but he does know 2 and 7 ("feven") pretty well :). One day, I went to clean up after him playing with this and noticed only silver coins on the table. I opened the box and saw only brown ones inside. This was something he did all on his own too as he never really pays attention to me when I try to show him how to sort anything. I sent the pic below to his dad who may or may not be slightly OCD himself, in a good way of course!

All in all, I say this was a win. It did it's job of helping with some fine motor skills for Josiah, and now that the kids turned them into shakers, it makes me even happier that this "baby toy" still serves a purpose!

If you're looking for a toy like this with all the "bells and whistles," the Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn: Learning Piggy Bank (affiliate link) has great reviews and is super adorable!!

This post contains affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission if you purchase through them. Thanks for your support!!

If you like what you see, please don't hesitate to like, share, tweet, pin,+1, etc etc etc! Help a sister out ;)

God Bless and Keep warm!

Sunday Special

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 18:52:00 +0000

I just wanted to share a little something special that happened this past Sunday. It was just before 9 in the morning and Josiah and I were snuggled up in bed. We usually spend an extra 15 to 20 minutes in bed after we wake up and snuggle, nurse, talk, whatever, before getting out of bed to start our day (or in this case, get ready for church). So there we were in bed and I was making him laugh when all of a sudden he stopped, got quiet and gasped at me.
He smiled and gasped again at me and then started saying, "Beep….Beep….Beep!" Now, I already knew that my mom's phone alarm had been going off in the next room. She likes to use the old internet connecting sound, (I can't even try to spell it, but if you've ever used dial-up, you know what I'm talking about!). The thing is, from her room to my room with our doors closed and a tiny bit of hallway in between, I can barely make out that sound most days.

The other thing that you may not know yet is that Josiah was born with Sensorineural hearing loss in his left ear. I haven't written about this officially yet but I will soon. In a nut shell, the issue lies in the inner ear. Various audiologist visits have told us that his hearing loss was originally Profound (next to deaf in that ear) but then most recently, his test showed that his hearing loss was more in the Mild range (he can hear really loud sounds in that ear).

So it came as such a surprise to me that Josiah was able to hear such a tiny sound two doors away! Oh and I'd also like to mention that the night before, as we went to bed, we said our nightly prayers as usual and I felt compelled to pray for his ear and lay hands on it. Do you think it was a coincidence that Josiah surprised me with such a treat the next morning? I think not! God is great and has been nothing short of WONDERFUL in our lives!

Moral of this story: Pray! It works, trust me!

Learning Financial Responsibility

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 22:56:00 +0000

Lately I've been thinking about finances and the future. You see, I'm a stay at home mom (SAHM) and while I love every waking moment of this life, the unfortunate truth is that being a SAHM doesn't pay. At least not in dollars. As embarrassing as it is to admit, it's about time I learn how to REALLY be financially responsible.

Image courtesy of hin255 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As a kid, I grew up watching my mom work all of our lives while we spent a lot of time with our grandparents. I know she was doing what she needed to do for us and I had a great childhood. But I did experience feeling "different" when I'd visit friends and their parents were fully present in their lives and focused on THEM, I guess because they had the means and support to do so. It's what I wanted for my own children. When Josiah's father and I were a new couple, the idea of raising a baby with anyone else was odd to me because my mom had been a single working mom. I'd have to share MY kid with someone else? I couldn't grasp that idea at all because I never had that growing up. Fast forward to a few years later when we were actually trying to become pregnant. The idea of a complete family absolutely melted my heart! To imagine a life full of love, picturing family outings or a cozy Christmas with a snuggly little bundle of joy just made my ovaries tingle! I. Could. Not. Wait!

But then it happened... There I was, 8 months pregnant, hormonal, tired and stressing over issues going on at home when things took a turn for the worst. All of my hopes and dreams for a happy COMPLETE family, something I never had growing up, were ripped away from me. Now, I too was on my way to being a single momma. Life just does not play fair.

So I was a broken hearted mess for a while but still had to keep myself together. I moved back home with my mom, brothers, my then sister-in-law, niece, and grandparents. I leaned heavily on my family, church, and God for strength and I was able to get out of bed day after day. Josiah's dad and I were always civil though. Regardless of what was going on, I knew he loved his unborn baby and I definitely wanted to make sure my kid had his father actively present in his life no matter what. And maybe a big part of me secretly hoped that by being civil and strong and letting him still come to all of the doctor appointments and be there for the birth, that something would change in his heart and he'd realize that his family needed to be complete again. *Sigh* The things we come up with when we're hurting, right?

I worked up until about a month before I gave birth, so when I left, the money stopped coming in. It was never a thought in my mind that my family would fall apart the way it did, so I never had a savings planned. Not to mention we were having financial issues anyway before we split so it had already been hard to save. But in reality, the truth is I never really knew how to save my money the right way. If I ever had any extra, I was quick to spend it. I didn't have a savings account and was never any good at keeping up with my checking account either. I liked pretending I was a SIM with the "motherlode" cheat code and endless money to spend on whatever I wanted! Sad, but true.

When we split up it was agreed that he'd still help me out when he could and that Josiah would always be taken care of financially. It's been that way ever since. His dad and I are still very good friends. I still love the man very much, and love that we can always talk through anything concerning Josiah and co-parenting. Even when we disagree with each other, we can communicate that too. Like when I learned about his new girlfriend and when I finally had to come to my senses and stop saying "No" to him bringing Josiah over when she'd be there too. Now, almost two years later, Josiah loves her and looks forward to play dates at daddy's house with her. And you know what? Confusing as it may be to me, I even like her too! To say that it still doesn't hurt after all this time would be a lie though. But when I feel weak, God makes me strong and I can press forward another day.

Now back to the original topic, finances. I've been blessed big time to have such an amazing, supportive family. To let me and my son live in this house rent-free, is more than I could have ever asked for and I just can't thank them enough! But it's time for things to change. I absolutely love spending every moment of my day with Josiah, I do. In fact. I hate that I have to even consider changing that. But facts are facts. I won't be able to move on, move out or move up in life if I'm just "doing nothing" so to speak. I also won't ever be able to get to the position to be able to give back and bless others if my finances aren't in order first. Still, it bothers me that someone else will be spending precious time with my son, time that should belong to me. I just always want him by my side (most of the time).

However, more than the upsetting feeling of having to leave Josiah behind, is the thought that he might grow up like I did, with no understanding of how to deal with finances or how to prepare for the uncertainties that lie waiting in the future. I don't want him to blow every cent he earns on junk and I don't want him learning the hard way about credit. For this reason, I've been looking into different ways on how to teach children about how to earn and manage their own money. I figure, I could also stand to learn the basics this way too.

For his first birthday last April, Josiah received Financial Peace Jr. (affiliate link) and only last night did I get around to really looking at it. It teaches great concepts but Josiah is still just a bit too young to understand them. He was more interested in pretending the calculator was a phone! I asked some of my fellow bloggers on the Kid Blogger Network for ideas and, as always, they delivered!

My favorite of the responses came from Busy Kids Happy Mom, called "Learning about Earning." She used pompoms and a very small container as a visual to show kids how much they earned and how much they needed to fill the jar and earn a reward. Josiah likes to put change in his piggybank and into the offering basket at church but he has no real concept of the value of money or what it takes to earn it. Since he isn't quite ready for real money yet, this sounds like something we might just try soon!

Kids Activities Blog shared 50 Ways to Save Money which is more of a list of tips for adults than children. I really enjoyed it though, especially those first 6 tips! Lord knows I still need help in that department!

KC EDventures has guides for all ages that list books and tips on the subject of saving.

The Art of Simple used storytelling and constant communication, which I really liked, to get the message across to her children.

There are so many more resources and savings plans floating around the web as well. But as for me and my family, we have to start at the beginning, and that's with God. I'm learning what it really means to tithe and to give to bless others by placing God first in absolutely everything in our lives. It isn't always the easiest thing to do I'll be the first to admit that, but it does get easier with practice!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this journey. I do apologize for an incredibly long post today, however I feel like I can't look toward the future without acknowledging the past. If you have any tips or creative ideas on how you save/manage money, and/or teach your kids about financial responsibilities, I'd LOVE to read them!

And as always, don't forget to check us out on Facebook and Pinterest!

Sticky Bug Monsters!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 15:02:00 +0000

Happy New Year beautiful people! I pray you welcomed 2014 surrounded by family, friends and loved ones. We celebrated at our church and it was great! I look forward to enjoying my beautiful family this year and sharing them with you all as well!

If you saw my last post, you'll understand this one as it is basically the same exact thing really. The inspiration came when I played one on one with Josiah and I helped him stick too googly eyes onto some painters tape. He saw it and called it "Cookie Monster" (smarty pants!) and didn't let go of it for a long time!

My 2-and-a-half-year-old baby cousin Isaiah had come to spend Christmas with us all the way from Indiana and I knew we needed to do something FUN. He is very much a BOY and into dinosaurs and monsters and all of that stuff. I was sure this would be right up his alley, especially since he comprehends things a little bit better than Josiah and Lily do. I was right! Isaiah absolutely LOVED it!

The materials used were simple: Blue painters tape, googly eyes, a small piece of paper, pipe cleaner, and pompoms.

I simply rolled up some tape into tubes with the sticky side facing out. I tried to make sure the tubes weren't too big or they'd become bracelets instead. Next, I cut a black pipe cleaner into three even pieces (because I made 3 bugs) and after bending them into antennas, taped them to the inside (non sticky) side of my tape roll. I cut three zig-zagy shapes out of a small piece of scrap paper for the teeth and stuck them on as well as the google eyes. It really took no time at all! After that was set up, I brought the coloring table into the main living room, spread some pompoms on it and placed a bug in front of each kid.

Josiah knew what to do right away and started sticking pompoms on his monster. Isaiah was scared of his bug at first, so his momma showed him how it worked. Lily likes to observe and then copy so she watched the boys do it first.

It didn't take long before Isaiah got into it, sticking tons of pompoms on his monster, peeling them off and then doing it over and over again. Lily was happy to just play with the pompoms. It took her a while before she slipped the tape bug on her hand and started to play too.

After a few minutes, Lily and Josiah decided it was time for a snack and went off to grab some crackers. Isaiah played and played and played. When he finally got bored, he began to peel the eyes off of the bugs and tried tasting the pompoms. That's when it was game over and time to clean up.

I think this game was a win for sure! I'm sure Josiah and Lily would have played longer if I didn't take so long trying to set it up (set up is quick, charging the flash to your camera and trying to straighten out the house is what took long!). We will definitely be doing this one again and again!

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Sticky Fingers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 06:27:00 +0000

One Sunday morning at church, before service began, I needed a way to keep Josiah entertained. He pointed to a roll of colored duct tape, so I put a piece on his hand and we pretended it was a bandage, or an "owie," as he calls it. It wasn't long before the owie lost it's fun factor and Josiah was bored again. Thats when I tried something new and it was a win with not only Josiah, but the other kids too!

Tape! It's incredible that we even spend big money on toys, games and junk when a simple roll of tape from the dollar store can keep a kid entertained for a long time!

Here's what we used:

A roll (or rolls) of tape (I like wider tapes such as Painters Tape Packing Tape and Duct Tape)
Anything you want to use to stick to the tape (pom poms, paper, small toys… I used folded and balled up pieces of tape from the same tape roll when I did this at church)

Thats it!

All thats left to do now is cut or rip off a piece of tape big enough to fit around your child's hand or just their four fingers, whichever you prefer. Roll the tape into a tube/circle with the sticky side facing out, and then slip the roll over your child's hand or fingers. Show them how to pick up the objects with their sticky fingers and watch them have a ball doing it over and over again! Easy, simple, FUN!

You can try a bunch of different things with this idea. How about an experiment of which object sticks better and why (different objects, different tapes)… Or how about picking up wet objects vs. dry ones? Or turn it into a game of who can pick up the most items in a certain amount of time! The possibilities are endless!

Oh, and you can't NOT high five someone with sticky fingers, especially when both of you have sticky fingers! Try it, it's fun!

If you and your littles do give this activity a try, I'd love to hear about how they liked (or disliked) it and what you did different! Leave me a comment below and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Pinterest!

Also, Josiah and I would like to wish each and every one of you a very happy New Year! Please be safe!

*Edit* If you liked this, be sure to check out how we turned our tape rolls into sticky, hungry, pompom-eating, monsters!

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Our Pretend "Date"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Having two babies in the house, they do a lot of playing (and fighting) with one another. Last night was pretty special though. Lily went to bed early while Josiah stayed up playing with our new-to-us kitchen/diner set. I've been in awe at the two of them lately because they've started really getting into pretend play, especially with this kitchen set and the new one at our church as well.

Last night Josiah walked up to me with a little plastic frying pan and a spoon in his hands and pretended to feed me. So of course I took a bite and it was DELICIOUS! After a few more bites, I walked over to his diner with him and attempted to squeeze my big ol' behind into one of the tiniest plastic diner booths, all the while praying to God that it wouldn't break or that my booty wouldn't leave a big dent in one of the seats. A dent would definitely lead to a fight over who gets the undaunted seat. By some miracle, I made it in! I had half a butt cheek hanging off the seat and my belly was squished against the table but that made no difference to Josiah. He absolutely LOVED it!

He immediately sat down opposite me and began to feed me some of his imaginary food. Then, I went around to the other side and pretended to chop up some red and green peppers, cooked them and came back to the table with a plastic taco. He preferred the plastic peas, carrots, and corn for himself. We sat and ate and shared our food with one another. Soon we pretended to be thirsty. We borrowed Lily's little tea set and pretended to fill our cups, calling it coffee because we don't drink tea. So yummy! Josiah really took his playing seriously and it melted my heart to be able to take part in it with him. We ate and drank and cooked over and over together for about an hour. The house was quiet, there was no fighting, or whining, it was just me and my sweet boy on a pretend date with pretend food. I honestly cannot tell which one of us had more fun! My mother was in the room as well and I was tempted to ask her to snap a photo of us but I didn't, figuring it would distract Josiah and our pretend play would be over.

I re-created the scene for you!

Sometimes being a mom is rough and exhausting. Having two little ones in the house can get even crazier. But this little bit of peaceful, pretend play was so heart warming and so joyful. It reminded me that it's important for me to be more involved as well. Even though the kids have each other to play with, that isn't enough, they need the grown ups to get down to their level and play too! Some of my most memorable moments as a child took place when the adults played too. I'm sharing this for you and so that I can be sure I never forget this. Hopefully this is only the beginning of many, many more imaginary adventures between Josiah and I.

What are your children's favorite pretend games to play with you? I could definitely use some tips!

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Real Snow for Warm Weather Winters

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 20:54:00 +0000

Something Crazy happened last night! What's wrong with this picture, can you tell? Palm trees and snow?! Snow in Florida? That has to be fake, Right?

Ok yes. Well, yes and no. Let me explain…

The picture above is fake-ish. You see, I live in Florida, very close to the attractions and "tourist traps." Theres a little town not too far away that really goes all out for the holidays. In December, it "snows" nightly on one of their streets. But it isn't really snow, I call it "snoap" because it's really just foamy bubbles. But it does make this time of year a little bit more exciting for us, especially with the Christmas music they pair it with.

Florida in December is hot. In fact, I've been here for close to ten years now and this has been the warmest winter yet, in my opinion. I'm from New York where snow is normal this time of year. Josiah however, was born here in sunny Florida. He's never seen snow and I wanted to change that. I wanted to give him and Lily the chance to experience real SNOW, not just "snoap," and I've figured out how! Without further hesitation, I present to you...

I'd seen plenty of indoor "snow" crafts in Blogland using cloud dough recipes or cotton balls. They were cute, and I may try a few of them soon. But I wanted snow. Real, cold, icy snow. Then it hit me! I realized that I already had everything I needed to make it happen! Snow is seriously the easiest thing in the world to make. All you need is a lot of ice, and a blender. I have the Ninja Blender which advertises that it can turn ice into snow. I had to put that claim to the test and thankfully, it did not disappoint! Check out how easy it was to make… The next 3 pictures do all the explaining for me.

ice

blend

SNOW!

THATS IT! So easy! My brother and I couldn't help ourselves, childhood memories of a white Christmas came rushing back. We had to have a little fun with the snow before letting the kids explore (see my little snowman above).

To be honest, Josiah and Lily were not overly excited about it. Lily did jump around saying "Ice! Ice!" while we prepared the bins. But I'm sure it wasn't because it was SNOW. They had never really experienced snow like this before. They were pretty much just happy to be able to scoop and pour something into their little buckets. I probably could have given them pom-poms and got the same reaction! And yes, that is my Felt Christmas Tree falling apart behind Josiah. See, I wasn't kidding about sewing on the gift bags!

As usual, they wasted no time putting the cold snow into their mouths. The next 20 minutes or so were spent eating snow. Good thing this snow was homemade right? No yellow snow over here! I wanted to make snowmen with them but they didn't understand the concept. They also didn't really like touching the snow for too long with their hands.

After they got bored of eating and scooping snow, they tried something new... Cold Feet! Josiah thought it was especially silly to put his foot into the snow.

The snow gave us about 30 minutes of peace and quiet in this house. The only almost-fight happened when Lily, for whatever reason, decided that Josiah's green scooper was now "mine." But once we reminded her that she had a red one, she was content and the two actually sat still and played quietly and pretty independently! We also had a mini "snowball fight" as well, but by "fight" I mean I sprinkled my ball of snow over their heads.

All in all we had a good time. Josiah and Lily enjoyed the all of new sensations they got to experience with the snow. Incase you're wondering, we decided to keep this activity indoors because it was just too warm outside to be able to keep the snow from melting so fast. Gotta love the Florida life. :)

So tell me, what did you think of our snow play activity? Do you have warm winters too? If so, how do you make the best of it when the rest of the "world" is under a blanket of white? Or if not, what are your favorite activities to do in the snow?

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Felt Christmas Tree with Gift Bag "Pockets"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 07:35:00 +0000

Christmas is right around the corner and this momma is happy to FINALLY be done with classes for the semester! My last paper really kicked my butt and kept me away from the blog for longer than I expected. But it's over now and I am here and ready to serve you!

I've been busy (between finals and papers) thinking up and working on a few fun ideas for the kiddies and I am maybe a little bit TOO excited to share with you our latest creation!

Ok Ok, I know it isn't anything new. Felt trees are very popular and so much fun to look at don't you think? I knew I just had to try my hand at one for the kids to play with. I didn't take pictures every step of the way but it's pretty easy to figure out. Here's what I did...

First of all, gather all materials! I was originally torn between the dark green and a brighter green felt in the store. I REALLY wanted the brighter green. Then I thought to myself: "CHECK REMNANTS!" I found a piece of felt just a few inches shorter than the 1 yard I needed. It was the dark green BUT it was 50% of the already discounted price. Oh well, Christmas trees are dark green anyway right? I also found a fun christmas themed piece of flannel that I knew I could do something with. I took one final trip around the store and I came across a felt star. It was perfect for what I needed it for and only a dollar! Can't go wrong! My total was $4.08!

I already had plenty of sheets of different colored felt, and a glue gun. I did however, purchase some glitter glue pens at Dollar Tree and extra glue sticks for my glue gun.

At home, I began drawing out shapes on the felt with a sharpie. I've seen this post before about an easy way to cut felt. It's genius really, but I was feeling too ~~lazy~~ tired to get out the iron and didn't want to work with a hot iron on the dining room table anyway. My awesome mom helped me cut out the ornaments and the Christmas tree. Then I got to decorating! I may have gotten a little glitter happy, but thats what Christmas is all about isn't it?

Next came the challenging part: gift bags. I had already glued down my felt "presents" in the middle of the tree before I decided that I would make gift bags to hold the ornaments. Let's be real, I knew very well that the best part of this tree was going to be knocking down all the ornaments so I needed some place for them to go. And of course, having two little ones in the house who fight for everything, I wasn't going to take any chances by making only one "pocket." My design was pretty basic but I didn't snap a pic of it. It was just a piece of felt glued on the three outer sides to a piece of fabric the same size. I used the fun Christmas fabric for this. The unglued side forms the opening of the pocket. I cut a small piece of ribbon and formed it into a "handle" for the fabric part of the bag then I glued the back of the bag (the felt part) to the tree.

When it was finally time to hang the tree on the wall, I used some of this double sided poster tape. I made sure to get ALL of my edges, especially the gift bags because they stuck out. With the help of one of my good friends, we carefully stuck it to the wall, and then I jumped around and did a happy dance because it was just SO DARN CUTE!

Josiah wasted no time exploring the tree and ornaments. Naturally, the first thing he wanted to do was rip the whole tree off the wall *face palm*… It didn't take long to show him how it worked though, and when he did figure it out, he really enjoyed himself. He sat for a long time just sticking, unsticking and rearranging the ornaments. But soon enough, he did exactly what I knew he would do; he began slapping all the ornaments off the tree and onto the floor. Lily was napping when I put up the tree and when she woke up and saw it, we weren't home. My brother told me that she also tried to rip it off at first. After realizing how it worked, she had a blast sticking all of the ornaments to the tree. I returned home to an empty tree, but fat pockets. Lily had put all the ornaments into the gift bags!

The kids love it. I adore it. I think it was a success…BUT there are a few things I would do different next time so let me save you the trouble of running into my mistakes by telling you the things that I would change...

First, Make sure the gift bags are entirely ON the tree. The fact that mine stick out on the sides a little bit has made them weak. I wasn't going to use any tape that would mess up the paint on the wall so I used removable, double-sided poster tape. When the kids dig into the bags however, they pull off from the corners. It isn't hard to re-stick them to the wall, but it would be better to not do that.

Second, use something better than hot glue for the gift bags. The left corner of the bag on the right is peeling from the tree. Sewing it might have been the better solution. I think my problem was making the gift bag too flat/tight.

Last, smear a small bit of glitter glue to the back of all the ornaments. Felt sticks to felt, but little hands can't always get the ornaments to stick properly and the kids get frustrated when some of the ornaments keep falling down. The glitter side of my ornaments grip the tree very well. I still have yet to actually add glitter to the back of my ornaments but it is definitely on the to-do list!

Well, I hope you loved our felt Tree as much as we do! I definitely enjoyed sharing it with you all! If you make one (or have already made one) with pockets like mine, please share so I can check yours out too! I just love seeing how creative everyone is! :)

So tell me, what are your favorite crafts and activities to do with the little ones for Christmas?

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, that is, if you purchase through any of my links, I earn a small commission. Thank you for supporting us!

Linking Up:

About Me

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 05:49:00 +0000

Welcome!

I guess we should start off with proper introductions first, right? My name is Erica and I've been blessed and honored with the job of being Josiah's mommy! I am a single, stay-at-home mommy as well as a part-time student. This wasn't exactly the life I planned for us but I wouldn't have it any other way! Josiah is my inspiration and motivation. He's my whole world!

Ready to meet him?

Ladies and Gentleman I present to you... JOSIAH!

Josiah is my AWESOME-SAUCE little dude who brings so much joy into my life! He is almost two years old and (so far) a pretty laid back, well behaved little guy. He loves music and already knows a handful of songs. Some of his favorite things are superheroes (Batman and Spiderman), Mickey Mouse, singing and dancing, Minions (from Despicable Me), waffles, reading books, and playing with his blocks. Josiah's a smarty pants and he learns more and more every day. As a parent, it's the most wonderful thing to be able to be a part of that experience. He is truly a gift from God!

J is for Josiah was created to share ideas for children's activities, as well as to serve as a space for me to vent and seek help when motherhood gets rough. I hope I can help inspire people with my website and hope to make many new friends along the way!

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Craft: Hand and Foot Print Turkeys!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 06:43:00 +0000

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I figured it was time for a craft! Josiah and Lily don't know a thing about Thanksgiving or turkeys yet, but they do know that when I say we're going to "color" they're in for a good time!

Browsing through the dozens of crafts on Pinterest, I came across this one (Scroll down to "Turkey Shirts" I could not find any other source for this project so if it's yours, please let me know so I can give proper credit.) I knew this would be simple enough for the kids to make with the help of myself and my brother and would get them just messy enough to enjoy themselves. I gathered some materials and set out an old table cloth on the floor...

These are the materials we used:

Brown, red and yellow paint- I used Crayola brand paints
Paper plate for pouring paint into
Paper - I used a paper designed for acrylic paints because it was more durable
Googly eyes, glue, paintbrush and/or markers for eyes and other small details
Baby wipes or paper towels for quick cleanups
Hands and Feet :)

I started out by pouring some yellow paint into the paper plate and then rubbing Lily's hand in it. We made 3 hand prints on the paper to act as feathers for the Turkey, then it was Josiah's turn.

As you can see, Josiah was not too sure about what was going on.

He was not to thrilled at all when I put his hand in the paint but as soon as he realized how cool it was, he quickly got over it and had fun making his turkey.

Next came the red paint. I poured some in a clean paper plate and had the kids rub their hand in it. Instead of 3 hand prints, this time we only added two and we placed them right on top of our original yellow ones.

Then came their favorite part, getting their feet covered in paint! I added brown paint to a clean plate and dipped a foot into it. The brown foot represents the turkeys body. You want the heel part of the footprint to be the turkeys head/face, so when you press it to your "feathers" make sure the paper is upside down! In other words, your child's toes should be the turkey's toes too!

Cute Right?

We left our turkeys to dry while the kids got a bath and the living room got cleaned up. They were allowed to dry all night. Not because they needed to, they were actually dry within an hour or two, but we had to get ready for church that evening. The next day, I used some white paint and my pinky to add some eyes, a beak and a gobble (or whatever that thing is called!) and when the whites of the eyes were dry, I used a black sharpie to complete them. For our first ever holiday craft, I think they came out adorable! What do you think?

There are four because I want Josiah to be able to give one to his daddy and of course it wouldn't be fair to Lily if she only made one right?

Here's a closer look at one of Josiah's turkeys.

In hindsight there are a few things I would have done differently. I should have had the kids use red first and not wipe their hands clean between colors. This would have gave us some orange and it would have made the brown part of the turkey stand out a bit more. Also, for one of Lily's turkeys, I used a paint roller to color her foot brown. As you can see in the photo above, that turkey is almost invisible! Good thing she made two also right? ;) Oh, and also make sure all the paint colors are poured and ready to go ahead of time. 2 year olds are not very patient creatures, and I'm still learning that. They were so antsy and excited as I poured the next color in front of them that they could not wait for the other to take their turn, you'll notice a few extra hand prints on some of the papers and thats why lol.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our Thanksgiving craft, and I hope you give it a try too. If you do make some hand and foot print turkeys, please share them with me!

So tell me, What kind of crafts are you doing with the little ones this Thanksgiving?

Linking up to:

Learning how to play... Again.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 07:03:00 +0000

Recognizing and admitting that you have a problem is the first step to overcoming it. So, for my very first post, I have a confession to make...

Hello, my name is Erica and I've forgotten how to play.

(Hi Erica)

I've become an adult. A boring old adult who stresses over time and deadlines, and needs coffee to survive. Long gone are the carefree days of childhood when I could just sit and color in a coloring book or play "mommy" with my baby dolls.

Now I'm a REAL mommy and my heart resides outside of my body in the form of a perfect, little, almost-two-year-old boy named Josiah. As a single mother who's living with family, I'm usually so concerned with keeping up after him and cleaning up messes as they happen, that I feel like I've become stricter than I probably would have been if we had our own place for him to destroy. It makes me sad honestly.

When the kids (My almost-two-year-old niece lives with us too) play with the Mega Blocks, they know that if a block goes in their mouth, it's game over. If they start scattering the blocks all over the place, ESPECIALLY under the sofas, game over. They also know how to clean up the blocks when play time is over because, let's face it, I don't want to pick up 80-something pieces by myself multiple times a day! I also hoard certain toys and puzzles in my room to avoid messes and don't like it when the pieces go missing, or when crayons get broken during coloring time. Please tell me it's not just me!

I FORGOT HOW TO PLAY!!!

I don't know how to have FUN! I know that I need to loosen up a bit (ok, A LOT) and I need to let the children direct the play. I've read that on all of the cool mommy blogs I follow. But even though some of those other mothers may have more than one child, no one seems to be in my same boat.

I know this blog is named after my son, but my niece lives with us too and the kids are so close in age, they might as well be twins. My niece has been through lots of change this past summer and maybe because of that, she has become somewhat of a bully to Josiah and can be very jealous around him as well. It's finally rubbing off on Josiah too now. We're hoping it's a phase and try our best as a family to work with them on these behaviors. But until then how as a parent, can I play when the kids almost always end up fighting or hurting one another? I feel like I just spend most of my days happy that I kept them both alive and well, you know? Like I'm more of a referee, if that makes any sense.

I'd always pictured myself being a COOL mom. I want to be *THAT MOM* that all the mommy bloggers portray themselves as. I understand that it's probably an unattainable goal considering that those mommy bloggers have REAL kids and REAL lives too. A girl can dream though, right? I want to set up tot trays, and sensory bins and do all of the crafts I've pinned on Pinterest! And I've tried, believe me I have! But both kids are so different that what one may enjoy, the other might not, and to give each kid something different to do would only result in all sorts of tantrums, melt downs and fights. No thank you.

I'm trying to learn, I'm desperate to learn! How do daycares and teachers do this with a bunch of students? God bless teachers! I need help!

This blog is where I want to share my honest thoughts on motherhood (and Aunt-hood) and the process as I learn to let go and let these kids be kids. Just a warning, there will probably be plenty more questions and cries for help along the way!

So tell me please, how do YOU play? If you have multiples close in age, how do you survive? If you're a teacher (bless your heart!) what's your secret?!