Mom and Me Journal Idea

Recently, I have been looking for ideas for connecting with Kaylin in a special way. I want to make meaningful memories with her while she still thinks I'm cool, which might not be much longer.

A few weeks ago, I set aside some time for the two of us to do a self-esteem craft activity together. It was awesome!  My amazing, creative girl had no problem at all coming up with compliments for me, but when she was supposed to make a list of all of her best qualities, she was stumped. It was really interesting to work through that struggle with her. I strongly recommend that project to moms of tweens!

Then last week, I was poking around on Pinterest and found this gem. The idea is for a Mom and Me Journal…a private communication between a mom and child about anything and everything. Since I was always big into journalling, and I obviously love to blog, I fell in love with this idea. 

I stole the verbiage for the opening letter from the original link, then gave it to Kaylin and she lit up. She's already written me back about a friend-triangle situation that she doesn't know how to handle. I wasn't expecting so much depth so quickly!  

At the end of her note, she asked me not to share the journal with Dad or the boys…it's going to be just between us. She told me she wants to keep it in her keepsake box when it's full of letters so she can show her kids someday. She is SO my child.

I can't wait to see where this little project leads. Kaylin is my quietest child, by far…I can only imagine what that could turn into during her teen years. I hope we never get to a place where I have no idea what's going on in her head!  

I'm wondering if I should also start something like this with Ryan? But I get the sense that this is a huge deal to my sweet middle-child. 

I think I'll keep it just between us girls. 

Getting Settled Back Into our Same Ol' House

To say that we got a lot done this weekend is a massive understatement. We had virtually nothing planned for the 3-day holiday weekend and I was thrilled. Equally relieved to have a little downtime and excited to tackle some projects around the house.

Over the past few months, as our potential cross-country move lingered in the air, the to-do list grew and grew. After Christmas, I spent so much time decluttering to prepare the house to be on the market, all other tasks fell by the wayside. It just seemed silly to organize anything, when I knew I would just be packing it up and moving as soon as the house sold, so closets and cabinets slowly turned into one disaster after another.

The garage was so crammed with empty boxes (and some that I'd already started packing) that Mike has had to park outside for months. It became our dumping ground for keeping the house realtor-ready and it was a nightmare! 

Since taking the house off the market, the empty boxes are gone, but I still hadn't unpacked anything. Until this weekend, that is. I suddenly had to make space for things that I've been doing without…beach towels, 3 large boxes of personal pictures, board games, etc.

I started this weekend with a very long list of things in my head. Tasks that seemed daunting, but I wanted them done. I figured that if we had gone through with the move to Dallas, we would have had pictures to hang, curtains to put up, furniture to arrange, closets to organize, and plenty of boxes to unpack. 

We are no longer moving, so finishing up the loose-ends around the house seemed doable. We needed to settle back into our home again. 

Saturday morning, I went to breakfast with some friends while Mike played baseball at the park with the kids. We relaxed when I came home, then I started asking favors. "Let's move Jason's bed into his new room" and "I wonder how long it would take to fix Ryan's dresser drawer?" Before long, Ryan and Mike were working upstairs while I tackled tasks downstairs. 

After church on Sunday, we went to Lowe's with a list. Jason awoke at 5:30am with the rising sun in his new yellow room. He desperately needed shades on his windows!  And while we were there, I wanted to gram rods to hang my bathroom curtains…and the laundry room lightbulb was out…as were lights in other parts of the house…and Kaylin wants to paint her room…we were there for more than an hour. When we got home, we had plenty to keep us busy! Then the projects continued today. 

Here are a few before and after pictures of work we did…

Before: The old playroom (new schoolroom) closet

After: The new schoolroom closet

Before: The shoe/utility/outdoor closet 

After: Some shoes still on the door (moved the rest to their bedrooms) and games/hobbies/crafts

Before: The upstairs schoolroom

Afte: Jason's new room (the lighting in both pictures is horrible!)

Before: The old schoolroom closet (it had become a hiding space for junk when people were coming to see the house)

After: Jason's new closet

We got so much done this weekend! The garage is cleaner than it's ever been. We brought donations to Good Will, I made appointments for a guy to come fix my windshield next week and for someone else to give us a quote on new garage cabinets, Mike fixed a cabinet door that Jason's been using as a step stool, all of the boxed I had packed are now empty and given away. I still have many pictures yet to hang, but I'm considering completely changing how I have displayed pictures in the past…so that might take another couple of weeks.

Our weekend wasn't all work and no play. We went to the movies, went to lunch after church on Sunday, Mike played baseball and basketball with the kids, we played Go Fish and Memory and baked cookies, we had sleepovers with the kids complete with pillow fights. Kaylin even painted a canvas for her new room.

It was a full weekend…tons accomplished mixed with plenty of fun activities. We will finish up school this week and take the month of June off before jumping into our new school year after the 4th of July weekend. 

During our short break from school, I think we're going to repaint Kaylin's room and give her a bigger girl theme. I'll finish decorating Jason's new room, maybe hang some pictures in Ryan's room. I'll have plenty to keep me busy!

I Forget About the "Mean Girls"

Today is our first official, planned day off from homeschooling. I was feeling a little burned out and made the executive decision to take the month of June off. It's still cool enough in the afternoons for the kids to play out front with their neighbor friends, we have things like VBS and church camp scheduled, and the novelty of "summer vacation" is definitely in the air with everyone we know. And this is the perfect time for me to get all of my stuff done. Car stuff, hair stuff, doctor appointments, scrapbooking...you know, the important stuff! 

Yesterday after the gym, I took Jason and Kaylin to the car wash and to get the oil changed. During the 1+ hour adventure, I noticed was another mom and a young girl who arrived at the same time as us and had the same services done on their vehicle. The girl befriended Kaylin. 

We learned that her name was Sara and that she just finished 5th grade. She. was. talkative. She talked to Kaylin, she talked to me, she talked to the man sitting near us, she talked and talked and talked. And her mom was silent the entire time. She watched Jason and smiled at his Jason-ness a few times, but she didn't say a word. After an hour of chatting and playing, Sara asked where Kaylin goes to school. 

Kaylin: "We homeschool. I'm getting ready to start 2nd grade and my big brother is starting 4th grade."

Sara: "Oh! You homeschool! I go to (named her school). That's where I make most of my friends. Except I don't have many friends. Most of the kids in my school are pretty mean to me."

Heart. Breaking.

Being in our little homeschooling bubble, I tend to forget about the "mean girls." And the cliques. And the teasing. And the bullying. It's like this cultural stigma that we can't get out from under as a society. There are anti-bullying campaigns and no-tolerance policies and yet there are hundreds of thousands of kids, just like Sara, who are affected by their peers in a negative way.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about Sara. That poor girl could very well continue to grow up feeling less and less worthy. Or maybe she'll get to high school and "find" herself, make some friends who treat her well and use her past pain to write awesome ballads that will earn her a Grammy?

I'm hoping for the latter.

Kaylin's Butterfly Birthday Party

We celebrated Kaylin's 4th birthday with some of her friends this morning. Months ago, she told me she wanted a butterfly party, so I kept my eyes open for fun ideas.

I had to begin the party at 9am to get everyone out of here in time to take Ryan to his last basketball game at 11:30. As the kids arrived, they painted butterfly, flower and dragonfly suncatchers. (PS - the stain is called that for a reason. My white shirt escaped unharmed, but my kitchen counter did not. What was I thinking?!?!)

Then the kids played "pass the present," where the kid holding the present when the music stopped got to unwrap a layer of tissue. The prize was butterfly sunglasses, of course!

For snacks, we had butterflies made out of apple slices and pretzel rods (with peanut butter as "glue" - you can use cream cheese if there are allergy issues), butterflies made out of celery stalks and mini pretzels with raisin heads, and veggie straw "worms," too. I saw a fun idea to put grapes in a snack sized Ziplock and tie the middle with pipe cleaners, but I ran out of time, so I threw all the grapes in a big bowl. Everything can't be butterfly themed, right???




After snacks, the kids colored on white coffee filters with markers. We sprayed them with water, let them dry, and wrapped pipe cleaners around the middle to make more butterflies. I had magnet tape to adhere to the back, but just realized that I completely forgot about it. Oops...




Before everyone left, we loaded them up with sugar. (I hated giving them cake at 10:30am, but it was unavoidable!) The butterfly cake was a hit, but the drippy red frosting on the ladybugs was yet another huge mess. This was the messiest party I've ever been to and I was the one who created all of the drama!


Party favors consisted of pink butterfly headbands and wands for the girls and bug catchers for the boys. (This was one benefit of knowing the theme early...I found these back in June and haven't seen anything nearly as appropriate since then.)


The most important detail was the Kaylin had a ball. Last night at dinner, she prayed, "Dear Jesus...thank you for my birthday party tomorrow and that it's going to be all about me. I can't wait. Amen."

Princess Cake

I know this isn't a new idea, but attempting a Princess/Barbie Cake was very new to me. Kaylin was BEYOND excited for her Princess cake and I didn't want to screw it up.
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Even though I've heard, "All you do is make a couple of round cakes and another cake in an oven-proof bowl," I needed more instruction than that. I found this great video that really helped simplify the process. The only information it didn't have was how long to cook the cake in the bowl. (I found that on line...after about 50-60 minutes, insert a cake tester and remove cake when it comes out clean)
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I used 2 small cake pans and the Pampered Chef small batter bowl to bake the cakes. I made and chilled them on Thursday, frosted and decorated the cake on Friday and left it uncovered in the fridge until the party Saturday. I was nervous that the frosting would be crusty, but it was perfect. Since I used 2 cake mixes and had leftover batter, I also made a dozen cupcakes to hand out to the 2 and 3 year old guests. That was VERY easy and most didn't care that they weren't eating directly from the Princess cake. Those who did care also got a small piece of the larger cake. (Load 'em up with sugar, that's what I say.)

I found Kaylin's first Barbie at Big Lots for $5. Her wild blonde hair was pulled back with some pink tulle and I protected her from the cake elements by wrapping her body securely in plastic wrap.

I even used a piping bag with star tips...I was so proud!

(thanks, Mom, for doing the little candy flowers on the skirt...they turned out so cute!)

I cut the cake in 1/2 pieces, like a wedding cake, so the slices wouldn't be too tall.

VICKS Vaporub works!

Have any of you seen the email circulating about putting Vicks Vaporub on your feet at night? I looked it up on Snopes a few weeks ago when Ryan had a cough and it's still "undetermined." But let me tell you...IT WORKS.

We've been using a vaporizer in Kaylin's room for about a week to help her cough, but she just can't seem to beat it. I tried the Vicks and it didn't seem to make much difference. Then yesterday, I ran into a friend at the chiropractor who said that she read that you put Vicks on your feet, then wet socks (warm water), then dry socks. She did it on herself and she said she slept SO well. Then last night at 2am, Kaylin got herself into such a coughing fit that she was choking and gagging and actually made herself vomit. I went in to change her sheets, changed her PJs and did the Vicks trick with the new wet-socks-technique Sally told me about. Within 2 minutes, the coughing stopped. I rocked her a bit and put her back to bed and seriously, it was...dead...silent. Nothing. The coughing was completely gone. I, on the other hand, was wide awake and took over an hour to fall back to sleep. But wow, I'm so glad Kaylin was able to sleep peacefully. She had been having coughing fits for 2-5 minutes all night long, poor thing.

What's weird is that Kaylin's wet diapers in the mornings (after putting Vicks on her feet) smell very strange. I've heard that this works b/c the Vicks absorbs into the bloodstream, so I guess that's how it exits the body. Beware of odd smelling diaper changes if you try this, but if your family is coughing, DO try it.