2013 advent

Here you go!!! This is this years advent calendar! Along with this list we have scripture readings every day and this year we are adding in 25 random acts of kindness to do this year!!!!  Because of the timing of the year some of them have already happened. All that is a blog post for AFTER Christmas! Merry Christmas y'all and don't forget, it's not all about the gifts under the tree! The true gift came long, long ago!

Cheap, candy-LESS Christmas stocking ideas



 

I've had a few people ask me about cheap and practical stocking ideas for children. I figured it was easier to just do a post about it. Here's some things you should know:

• the pictures below are the actual items that will be in my children's stockings this year (so please don't tell them!!!!)
• my children love simple things--I love this about them
• we don't emphasize Santa- we are not "anti-Santa". This is just not the focus of our home.  We do stockings but we don't talk about him coming down the chimney or anything like that. Therefore, they are not disappointed that nothing huge or glamorous was in the stocking they received.
• we teach our children to be grateful for even the smallest things-I don't know that they would be disappointed even if it were coal in there!!!
• Lastly, I think it's very important to really know your children.  Know what they like and dislike. You will notice that my 3 year old child's stocking is almost identical to my 5 year old child's. This is because they are best friends. They are interested in having the same things so that they can do them together, but the items bought cater to each girl's person interests too. (For example, the characters or colors may vary even though they are the same type of item!)

NOTHING in these stockings cost more than $5. Most of that is regular price, but there are a couple things that I used coupons for.

 
 

• coloring books
• markers
• crayons
• small puzzles
• lip gloss
• nail polish
• cute socks
• fun silverware (I got Landon Cars)
• necklace or earrings
• notebooks (I found ours in the dollar section at Michael's with the girls initials on them...no fight over who's is who's!)
• bubble tape
• fruit snacks
• fun hairbrushes
• stickers
• sunglasses
• character cups
• movies (look at Target, they have a $5 section)
• Band-Aids with their favorite characters
• small packages of trail mix or crackers
• ink pens (the ones I found were 6 color pens in the dollar spot at target)
• bath color drops (Crayola's are awesome)
• bubble bath
• character bath soaps
• character wash cloths
• small balls
• bubbles
• children's work books (you'd be surprised!)
• dress up jewelry
• t-shirt
• small stuffed animal
• books
• tokens or game cards to their favorite game place (Chuck E Cheese, Andy Alligator's, Celebration Station)

Those are just a few that I'm either currently using or have used before.  I'd love your feedback of what you would add to the list!

Kawa What????

Tuesday, October 16^th, started out just like any other day at our house. Rylee had her stomach scoped the week before and was out the rest of that week. She was so excited to finally be back at school. I woke  her up and told her to go potty, brush her teeth,  and wash her face. When she was finished she came in my room to get dressed.  As soon as she took her pajamas off I saw it.  Her back was covered in a rash. She was so angry with me when I told her she couldn’t go to school. I’d seen this rash before. Many times. Both on her and patients at the clinic I worked at.  She had Scarlet Fever, a rash that often accompanies strep throat.  She got it almost every time she had strep. I still got her dressed, we ate breakfast, and as soon as our doctors office opened, I called. “Can you be here in 30 minutes?” We hear this almost every time we call. As soon as our pediatrician walked in the room, he looked at Rylee and said, “This kid has strep!” The rash was now covering her arms and neck. That’s what I figured and so he swabbed her and left the room.  When he came back he looked puzzled.  The strep test was negative. Since it’s a viral test there was a chance we came too early for the test to pick it up.  He wrote her an antibiotic, something he has never done with a negative test before, and just told us, “It’s textbook in appearance for Scarlet Fever. Keep an eye on her and let me know if something comes up.” She still had no other symptoms. No fever, not lethargic, eating well, just covered in what she called “polka-dots”. We got her medicine and headed home. We had a pretty uneventful day.  (This would be the last time I would say that for weeks.) We played games, watched movies, did art projects, nothing out of the normal.  By dinner she didn’t want to eat, but was constantly asking for ice water.  I thought to myself, ‘Ok, good.  She may not be eating but at least she is staying hydrated.' She also had spiked a fever.  Maybe this is the worst and by tomorrow she will feel better. I was wrong. Tomorrow brought high fevers, a cough, and the worst rash I had ever seen.  I was puzzled. Strep is usually better in 24 hours, not worse.  I wasn’t panicking and I didn’t call the doctor back (a choice I would later regret), after all there’s a reason you take the medicine for 10 days right?! By 5:00 that evening she started throwing up, her eyes were pink in appearance but if you looked closely it too looked like a rash, lips were starting to crack from the fever, and oh, that fever…I could not get it down. It was staying in the 103’s even giving Motrin or Tylenol every 3 hours, light clothing, baths, popsicles, you name it.  Finally, when the throwing up got really bad, I asked Ryan if this could be an allergic reaction to the new medicine we were trying. She’d never had it before and only had two doses at the time so it fit the options.  We opted to play it safe and I took Rylee to an urgent care clinic.  We talked with the doctor about all the possibilities and ran another strep test, still negative.  It was a doctor that I know and he said he thought it looked like Fifth’s Disease, a viral infection that presented those same symptoms, and since Rylee’s face was so red with rash it seemed really likely.  He even went and got a dermatology book out and we sat down and looked together.  My sweet 4 year old looked just like the girl in that picture.  In fact, he even made a copy so I could show Ryan.  I agreed that this was a high possibility.  We continued the antibiotic just to be safe. Thursday and Friday were much of the same. Rylee was so sick.  By now she had horrible diarrhea, the fever still hadn’t broke, the parts of her eyes that weren’t pink were starting to look like a sickly gray color, her lips were bleeding, she was not interested in playing games or doing anything other than laying on the couch, she coughed more than she didn’t, her face was swollen, her hands and feet were swelling, and her belly hurt all the time.  She hurt so badly that she couldn't even walk to the bathroom without screaming out in pain.  We were carrying her back and forth anytime she had to go. This poor baby was sick, and getting worse by the hour.  Friday evening Ryan and I sat down and had a long talk about what to do.  Children’s ER can be the best of the best or the worst of the worst depending on the staff you get. Our last experience there had been slightly worse than horrible and I was skeptical. We had to decide if we should take her to the ER that night, or we had one other option.  We had already decided that he would stay home with her on Saturday and I would go to work. I could see who was working where, find a doctor that we know and trust and he could take her there.  While we were debating on what to do Rylee fell asleep and we both decided to let her rest and we would see how the night goes, but try to wait until morning.  This decision to wait may have been the best choice of the whole two weeks. (I’ll get to that later!) I left for work the next morning, Rylee still sleeping, feeling guilty.  Am I a bad mom for leaving her there so sick???? Ryan had been working all day the last four days and I was exhausted.  Sadly, it would be more restful for me to go to work than to stay home. (And let’s be honest, I NEEDED A BREAK!) When I got to work that day I was a little bit disappointed. The doctor that I was working with was a great doctor, but would be the first one to tell you kids aren’t his specialty.  To top things off, I couldn’t find a doctor schedule anywhere to see who all was working.  I was just about to start calling the other clinics when the second provider for the day walked in. Usually this was a PA, and I’m OK with that, but on this day God sent me just what I needed!!!! The provider was not a PA, but a resident MD who worked part time in Children’s ER!!!! Thank you Jesus.  I told her about our week and what had been going on, as soon as she heard all the symptoms and that Rylee’s fever was what it was she said, “Tell him (Ryan) to bring her up here.” I could see the light bulb above her head but she wasn’t saying anything at all about what she was thinking.  Ryan waited until the kids woke up, got everyone ready and came up to the clinic.  She took one look at Rylee and said, “Stick out your tongue.” She then looked at Ryan and me and said, “Take her to Children’s right now.  I have a friend working, I will call her and tell her to be on the lookout for you.” What??? Not only are we going to Children’s, she’s calling ahead and telling them to wait for us????  I wasn’t sure what was going on but I then made my most regretful decision.  Money was tight for us at the time and so I told Ryan I would stay at work and IF they admitted her, then I would leave.  The doctor told me several times she WILL be admitted but I just wasn't sure. Again you never know with Children's. We made arrangements for the other kids and Ryan left.  Once he left, I started digging.  I asked questions I should have asked before he left. Things like what’s wrong, why are you calling, why are you so worried? I wasn’t answered directly yet.  She was still on the phone waiting for her friend to pick up.  The next thing I was asked was “What’s Rylee’s date of birth?” When she hung up I demanded, “ You have got to tell me what is going on. Should I leave?” Earlier when I let them know if she got admitted I would be leaving she told me that Rylee would absolutely be admitted.  So then the answers started. She said, “Rylee has Kawasaki Disease. She’s very sick. Her heart is racing. She will be placed on IV medication and watched for days.” I think I was in shock because all I said was "OK". I walked back to my desk and googled . I should know better, I really should. The first thing I read was on the Mayo Clinic Site.  As I was reading I thought to myself, ‘She can’t have this. It’s too rare.’ About an hour had passed since Ryan left and I was told the phone was for me.  It was him.  They admitted her.  This can’t be.  Did he even have time to get there? I left  quickly stopped by the house and threw a bag together.  I wouldn’t return home for 6 days.   When I got to the hospital Rylee was already on IV IG. An antibody to the disease.  It’s highly dangerous. For the first 30 minutes the nurse didn’t leave our room. She was constantly charting vitals.  After that she would come in every 15 minutes and take a complete set of vitals.  Once two hours had passed we were allowed to be moved to our room where vitals would be continued every hour for the duration of the 12 hour medication.  I haven’t had a lot of time to research this medication in great detail so I don’t feel comfortable sharing my half understood view of it.  I will say that while it can be used for many reasons we were told that it is so dangerous to children because for Kawasaki it has to be given in a high dose.  This is the reason they have to do vitals so often.  My Rylee would end up having to have a second round of this medication.  Talks of a third bag were in the air when she spiked another 102 fever after two full bags.  I would love to be able to blog in great detail about our hospital stay but honestly most of it is a blur.  My little girl was very, very sick!!! As soon as we were in our room they started a daily aspirin routine of 18 baby aspirin a day.  Her little heart was working on overload and this was the only way to keep her from having a heart attack.  The nurse when we were admitted was amazing.  She stayed late to try to help us get settled because things were happening and changing so fast.  Words like aneurysm, heart attack, and heart disease kept being said and I’m positive that Ryan and I looked confused and dazed.  How can this be? Lord, please don’t let this baby have a heart attack.  She’s only FOUR! Age didn’t matter at this point, my baby was struggling and she needed me to be there and be strong.  She deserved that.  I put all my emotions aside.  This wasn’t about me.  This was about Rylee. If this sweet four year old could do this then the least I could do was hold it together.  I was there day and night.  I showered in her room, I ate in her room, I slept in her room, I wasn’t leaving.  The hardest points where when she had to take the aspirin.  4 ½ every single time.  She hated them.  She’s never fought us to take medicine but she fought this with all of her strength.  We would be sweaty after trying to get them in her.  I wanted to cry and say this is not how my baby acts, she’s not “that kid” that you see all the time.  The nurses were so kind and so patient. One of them told us that hospital aspirin tastes worse than any other medicine they give.  It’s not the little orange ones you get at home.  On day three it hit me…why are we not teaching her to just swallow them? It was this hospital stay that Rylee learned to swallow pills.  Since they are technically chewable she still got some of the taste but not as much and we always had something right there to give her. She had the first of many Echo cardiograms and we were thrilled to learn that after the second bag of IV IG there didn’t appear to be any permanent heart damage.   Rylee spent six days in the hospital.  She was exhausted after any little excursion of energy. She might play or do an art project for 30 minutes and then she would sleep for 2 hours.  We watched Mulan for the first time, and the second, and about 100 more times after that. Once we found out we were getting to leave the hospital, we were instructed to treat her like a heart attack patient would be treated, low sodium, baby aspirin every day, and then there would be three more echo cardiograms.  There would be one final echo and an EKG when we saw cardiology in December. We learned that it had caused a heart murmur, be he also said it was totally functional.  It’s monitored by our pediatrician regularly. We weren’t allowed to do any vaccines for one year and there was the risk that any infection could cause the Kawasaki to re-appear.  Of course, Rylee got the flu and that meant two more hospital trips and another cardiologist and infectious disease doctor would become involved. There were talks of re-admitting, more IV IG, and multiple meetings between doctors trying to determine the best care plan for her.  In spite of all the bad, we are blessed.  This could have hurt her heart so badly, there could have been permanent damage, she could have had a heart attack, she could have died.  I’m so thankful that we waited until I went to work and that the Lord placed a doctor that knew about KD in my path. Had we gone to the ER on Friday, she wouldn’t have met the criteria to be diagnosed.  Had we just gone in we could have had a doctor that knew nothing about it.  We’ve learned on this journey that so many moms are ignored or dismissed because of lack of knowledge on the doctors parts.  We went to the doctor 3 times in a 5 day period.  I’m thankful that we did.  At the time, you feel like you are crazy but these kids get sick.  Stand up for them! You are their biggest advocate.  Rylee had strep many times before this and I knew something was wrong.  I would have never figured it out on my own because I had never even heard of this!  I’m so thankful my little girl is safe.  This last year has been exhausting and she’s still not out of the clear.  Once she hits puberty we will have to monitor her blood pressure and possibly start medication for that, but because we are informed we will not be surprised with a heart attack out of the blue.  My Rylee fought this disease like a warrior and overcame. We are truly blessed!

Christmas Advent 2012

Many of you know and many of you don’t know that last year we spent (forcefully) the entire month of December in a hotel.  Sounds fun right???? Try it…5 people, 3 of them 4 and under living in a hotel for a month where normal life such as work and school must go on. Oh, and Christmas…Christmas and all of its “things” must go on.  Oh and a first birthday and all that entails! It was grand! I felt like an unsettled taxi cab toting 3 kids in the hotel and 3 kids out of the hotel.  It was fun. Ok that’s a lie, BUT we did learn to make the best of it.  We actually had to leave our house a week before we checked into the hotel so it gave me some time to think. Not much time and even though everyone told me that we would be back home before Christmas and Landon’s first birthday (it’s on the 29^th), something in my heart told me we wouldn’t.  I knew we couldn’t take all of our Christmas décor to the hotel so I had to figure out something to do with the kids to make it feel like Christmas in our beige, bland hotel room! After lots of thinking and surfing the web (OK—surfing pinterest!) I came up with an interactive advent calendar. Then, it hit me, in this world of chaos that I was throwing them into, they needed something consistent.  I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased “THE GREEN BOX”. It was one of those sturdy photo storage boxes that was green with Christmas ornaments on it.  The kids loved when they would walk in a room a see the green box, something fun is about to happen. Sometimes it was in their room on the bed, sometimes they would practically trip over it walking in the door, sometimes it was in the car, you get the idea.  The box always had everything needed for whatever project was intended for that day! It gave us something to do every day in this strange place that we didn’t have many of our own things.  The craft ideas were our only decorations except for 1 strand of Christmas lights, a 2 ft tree sitting on a table, and my mom made the refrigerator look like a snowman.  It was a very simple Christmas and a result of that is that Christmas in our home will be much simpler from now on.  Who knew we’d end up loving this nightmare of a situation?!?!?!

Here’s a few things you need to know about my family…

I didn’t run out of ideas, my children LOVE to get new pajamas!

My kids equally love art, and all things related to painting, coloring, ect

We didn’t do a lot of baking due to said hotel experience, we only had a toaster oven. (I did however have a stove and a dishwasher! random fact!)

And most importantly, we really wanted to push the religious reason for Christmas.  

 

So here it is the 2012 advent calendar

1.       Christmas rice krispies, Christmas CD, Christmas activity pad (We were traveling most of the day)

2.       Christmas Pajamas

3.       “God made Christmas” DVD

4.       Paint, and canvas to make thumbprint Christmas lights

5.       Christmas sugar cookies, paper and stickers to make Christmas cards

6.        Make red and green jell-o play dough

7.       Go see Christmas lights/ new pajamas

8.       painting ornaments

9.       Christmas book (The three gifts)

10.   reindeer food

This was a hit and several other people ended up making this too! My goal was to make it look Christmas-ish and also things that resembled dog food (I guess in my head I thought reindeer food would resemble dog food!)

pretzel balls

regular captain crunch-no berries

M&M’s (red and green)

Marshmallows

Craisins

Honey Roasted Peanuts

11.   book (llama Llama Holiday Drama) and Christmas candy necklace kit

The Candy Necklace kit I found at Wal-Mart. They look like strands of Christmas lights

12.   Elf movie and Christmas  tree Brownie

13.   Christmas Tree Canvas

I just gave them a canvas and paint and told them to paint a tree.

14.   Christmas t-shirts/pictures with Santa

15.   make Christmas Cookies

Sadly this was just placing the cute picture dough things on a tray and putting them in the toaster oven. Honestly, we ate more dough than cookies.  I’m totally OK with this!

16.   new pajamas/ Christmas books

17.   Gingerbread houses

We did one of those Mini Village Kits.  Landon was too young to do this so it was perfect…there were four buildings so we each decorated our own!

18.   tiger and pooh Christmas movie

19.   Christmas Coloring books

20.   mistletoe canvas

21.   Christmas Chocolates

I used those candy mold trays and colored chocolates you can buy at any craft store.  We did Christmas trees and Light bulbs!

22.   Christmas Books/hot chocolate

23.   matching game

24.   “night before Christmas” book

25.   matching pajama pants (a yearly tradition since Rylee was born in 2008)

The 2013 advent calendar looks similar, but there are notable differences.  I will post those ideas later but I promise they will be out in plenty of time to start!

My biggest advice if this is something that you try this year and you love it, shop the Christmas clearance sales for next year’s things.  that’s what I did and I feel like we were able to do things that we wouldn’t normally be able to do  (75% off makes a difference) Christmas is already expensive and you don’t want to make it even more expensive by going all out.  It’s ok to use things you have (movies, books, ect) they won’t remember them from the year before anyway!

 

Here are just a few of our "boxes"

 

 

 Day 1- our in the car box

 Day 2- this was fun because it was also our first night in the hotel

Day 4 

Day 5- you have to eat cookies when you make cards!

Day 6

 Day 8

 Day 9

 Day 10- Man this stuff was good!

 Day 11

 Day 12

 Day 13-painting Christmas trees

 Day 14

Day 17 

 Day 18-I also popped popcorn this night

 Day 20

Day 25-our matching PJ pants and our various green box projects in the background!

Where ever HE leads...

I wish I could say that I would go willingly, but I've recently learned that if it's outside of my comfort zone I fight.  In case you haven't heard, Ryan and I have made the decision to home school our children.  Well, that's a lie.  GOD decided that we would home school our children.  I argued with him for about 9 months (I tried really hard to tell God the home school message MUST be for the neighbors) and then one day I became so overcome by God's calling, that I burst into tears and poured my heart out to Ryan about this.  After 9 months of fighting God, losing sleep, and actually DREAMING about home school (remember Adam and Eve??? You really cannot hide from God) I had to tell him what I had been feeling.  Secretly, I was hoping that Ryan would tell me that he didn't feel like that's where God was calling our family, but to my surprise God had been dealing with him too about this. We prayed about it and I met with some amazing women that I can really trust to guide us and the decision was made...WE ARE NOW A HOME SCHOOL FAMILY.  However, more fears were there and all I could do was trust that God would show himself.  How would we ever afford it? Homeschooling is expensive and with the girls, I feel like it is very important to not only give them an education, but allow them to use their love for arts and crafts. It was also never an "option" for us, character training was a must.  How would we ever afford the start up costs with me only working part time and student loan payments? God has been overwhelming with his provisions.  Tonight I received the tub pictured and as I went through it with my husband I was literally brought to tears about how the Lord has provided for us.  There must have been hundreds of dollars worth of supplies in this tub.  We did a fundraiser, and out of no obligation to anyone people supported us.  Another HUGE blessing.  Remember that character curriculum I insisted on? A sweet lady at our church had 3 of the 4 units of the exact one I wanted to use.  I had already started looking at others because I knew there was no way we could ever afford that one.  Thank you Lord!!! It's been overwhelming, literally, to see how God has provided for us when we were faithful to what He was calling us to do.  I won't lie, I'm scared.  Actually, I'm terrified!!!! If you think about it, keep us in your prayers.  It's going to be a huge adjustment for all of us.  Right now, however, I'm just overwhelmed and grateful for all He is teaching us right now!

Be a blessing to...

Your Child's Teacher!

I can't think of a better way to thank the person that teaches your child(ren) than with things they actually care about.  It does no good to get your child's teacher a Starbucks card if they don't like Starbucks. (Right mom?!) Not to mention, if you will take 5 or 10 minutes to get this typed up and printed it will save you TONS of time when you want to get them something special.  It eliminates most of the standing at the store, trying to figure what someone that you don't know that well, might actually like. For me, it has been so simple and I can usually put together something small very quickly.  In fact, I made Rylee's teacher and teacher's aid both Easter baskets and I was in and out of Target in about 15 minutes with everything I needed.  Here are the questions that I used:

20 Questions!

Teacher________________________

This is a fun little twist.  Instead of asking you 20 questions that you care nothing about, these are 20 questions to help me get to know you better! Please answer honestly. If you don’t it won’t benefit you like I hope it will.  I don’t want to be the reason you need to start a garage sale box!

1.     Where is your favorite place to get a morning drink from?

_______________________________________

2.   What is your favorite fast food restaurant? _______________________________________

3.   What is your favorite candy bar?

_______________________________________

4.   What is your favorite drink?

_______________________________________

5.   What is your favorite sit down restaurant?

_______________________________________

6.   What is your favorite clothing store to shop at?

_______________________________________

7.    What are your favorite flowers?

_______________________________________

8.   What is your favorite brand of pens?

_______________________________________

9.   What is your favorite Bath and Body scent?

_______________________________________

10. What is your favorite home scent?

_______________________________________

11.    What is your favorite dessert?

_______________________________________

12.  What is your favorite way to relax?

_______________________________________

 

13.  What is your favorite color?

_______________________________________

14.  When is your birthday?

_______________________________________

15.  What kind of music do you like?

_______________________________________

16.  Which is your favorite genre of movies?

_______________________________________

17.   Where is your favorite place to shop?

_______________________________________

18.  What is your favorite kind of food?

_______________________________________

19.  What is your favorite snack?

_______________________________________

20.  Are you married?   Yes      No      Children?     Yes       No

(If so, how many?)_______________

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this silly survey.  We are fully aware of how overworked and underpaid teachers are.  We want you to know that we will never take what you are doing in our child’s life for granted.  We know that the way we are able to give back to you is in no way a comparison to what you are doing in ____ life, but we do hope that at times it will help take the everyday stresses away! Please let us know if there is ANYTHING we can do to help!

R&M

Make sure if you have multiple children to inclue the spot for the teacher's name that way you don't get them mixed up.  If you have any other ideas for question, please leave them in a comment.  This can always be adapted.  It really is fun to bless them and I think that it maked a big difference to the teacher to know that the student's parents are in their corner! Like I said, this is just our idea. Take it and run with it and make it your very own!