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!

 

 

My homemade Laundry soap

 I've had a lot of people ask me for this lately and some requests on facebook so I thought I would just add it to my blog! Why not right?! I'm bored and way over due to blog!

 

This is a powder recipe!

 

2 Fels Naptha soap bars (grate these on your box grater or put it through your food processor)
1 3 pound tub of oxi clean
1 box of borax
1 box super washing soda (make sure it's the washing soda NOT baking soda)
1-2 bottles of purex crystal...s (this is a softener but it's also for scent. I like it to smell longer so I usually get one big bottle and one small bottle)

Mix all together. It is low suds so it's HE safe. It is a powder so I recommend putting actually in the washer and not the pull out drawer that's on the HE machines (it tends to get goopy in there!)

You only use 1-2 tablespoons per load (I know it sounds crazy but it works) If you used the purex crystals you can put the finished mixture back into those bottles and the number 1 line of the purex lid is the amount you need to use. Built in measuring!!!

This lasted our family of 5 since last July!

Recently someone who equally shares my love for purex crystals found this lovely bottle of baby scented crystals so for this batch I will actually pull some of the mixture out before adding the crystals so that I can make a baby smell soap for my babies!!!! I'M SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS!

 

If you prefer Liquid soap, here's your recipe!

 

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

(Front or top load machine-best value)

Ingredients:

4 Cups - hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup -Super Soda wash½ Cup Borax

Directions:

-Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)
-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.
-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)
-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

The 12 days of Christmas Gifts-Teacher Style!!!

I wanted to do something really fun for both of Rylee's teachers for school this year.  They have both been amazing with her and so caring and understanding with all of her health issues! I wanted something fun and I was thinking about what is something different than most of the other kids would do!!! So I randomly, (with one of my other rAnDoM friends), came up with the 12 days of Christmas! You can see from the pictures I just typed up some cheesy sayings and put them on cute scrapbook paper so I won't bore you with all of the exact wording, I just wanted to give you ideas to grow on and make your own! I would love your feedback on other ideas you could have done for the days listed!

Day 1: Partridge in a Pear Tree-Pear scented soap from Bath and Body Works
Day 2: Two Turtle Doves-Turtles candy
Day 3: Three French Hens- French Vanilla Coffee
Day 4: Four Calling birds- This one was HARD-if you look it up it means black birds. I finally decided to spin off the word calling so I did a cute message board "in case someone called"
Day 5: Five Golden Rings: A bag of funyons
Day 6: Six Geese a Laying-Egg Nog
Day 7: Seven Swans A Swimming- A swan Book
Day 8: Eight Maids A  Milking- Homemade Milk Chocolates ( I did Peanut Butter Balls, Peppermint Bark, Chocolate Covered Pretzels, ect)
Day 9: Nine Ladies Dancing- Home made Lady Fingers
Day 10: Ten Lords a Leaping- Burger King Gift Card
Day 11: Eleven Pipers Piping-Cupcakes with #11 Piped on. 
Day 12: Twelve Drummers Drumming-KFC- the card said "This Drum Stick is on us!"

So as you can see nothing too big, but lots of fun.  Not to Mention Rylee had TONS of fun taking all the gifts.  Just remember, you have to start with 12 SCHOOL days left before Christmas.  We had to start Dec 4th so that we can finish on time!