So my experience with my kids reaction to dandelions is similar to the way life changes much like the dandelion changes. Last summer my oldest brought me a handful of "flowers" for my kitchen. How could I resist such a sweet gesture? First, you see dandelions as pretty flowers you can pick for your friend, teacher, or mommy. As a child reaches the age of 3 or 4 they soon learn that life is about love. They want to share their love and show it to you by picking pretty dandelions for you. You drive in the car and hear them joyously shout out "look mom!!! Lots of pretty dandelions." They have yet to be tainted by the evils of the world and and they see things in such an innocent way. Source Next, you see dandelions as these beautiful fluffy things that blow in the wind. They are different and often they don't see them as the same flower as they once were. Much like a child grows, they change and become a little person, rather than a kid. Its different and often the … [Read more...]
Celery Rose Stationary- Mother’s Day
Not too long ago I was chopping up some celery for dinner. I grabbed the stock and sliced off the base of the celery and set it aside. A few minutes hours later I looked at that left over end of the celery stalk and saw a rose. A rose? Yup, a rose! I've seen people use potatoes as stamps for projects so I thought that maybe it would be alright to use some celery, right? All you need to make the cutest Rose Stamped Stationary for Mother's Day is celery, paper, and paint! Cut the end of the stalk of celery off and dab it dry on a paper towel. Dip the celery stalk in red paint and have your child stamp it on the paper. Use their thumb or finger to make the leaves with green paint. It's THAT easy! I wish i had more photos to share with you but somewhere between cutting the celery and the final product I forgot to pick up my camera again. Hope you have time to make these and will share with us how it went. … [Read more...]
Discipline Gone Wrong
Have you ever caught yourself doing exactly what you said you'd never do? Or saying exactly what you swore you'd never say? You know what I am talking about.....that one thing your mom always said that irritated you that you swore up and down you would never be caught saying.....until suddenly, you do! courtesy of Ahh! Parenting Well here is a funny (and TRUE) story about discipline gone wrong. When I was a preteen and teenager I cleaned to let off frustration and steam. Whenever my mom would upset me (which was frequent- let me tell you two ladies with raging hormones- run for the hills!) or if we'd get in an argument, or I'd even been sent to my room (ack!!!), I cleaned. I would make sure she knew I was ticked. How? Well, first thing is first, I'd make sure I slammed the door good and loud and if I didn't feel like the door slammed to my liking heck, I'd slam it again, just for good measure. Next I would turn on my radio and blast some crazy music that I seriously cannot … [Read more...]
Pipe Cleaner May Day Baskets
May Day is coming up soon. Some people celebrate it and some people don't. In making these May Day baskets with my kids I learned that some people even celebrate it differently than I remember. For me, it was a day where you left candy in a basket at the door of a friend or neighbors house. For Jamie, it was a basket filled with flowers. Two different versions of the same idea. Just to brighten someones day and to make them smile! All you need to make these baskets are a handful of pipe cleaners. (I found MY package in the dollar bin at Target, SCORE!) Gather up a handful of pipe cleaners and pick out 5 and snip those in half. They will end up being about 2 1/2 inches long and you will end up with 10 pieces. Take four of those pieces and twist them together (to give you eight spokes) and take another and attach it to your pipe cleaners and snip it so that it measures the same as the rest. This will give you nine spokes (and you will want an odd number) to weave. Begin by … [Read more...]
Fun Stuff Fridays (#18)
Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn’t hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I’m not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I’ve let my link up subscription lapse so you can’t get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016… Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. We love seeing what our readers have been up to and cannot wait to share some of our favorites! … [Read more...]
Wee Gen – Seventh Generation Diapers- AWESOME!
Going green, when it comes to diapers, can mean lots of different things. You could interpret it to mean "I am going to cloth diaper and use cloth wipes" or "biodegradable diapers and biodegradable wipes" or even "disposable diapers that are chemical free." Either way you look at it, it involves a little bit more effort on your end but in my honest opinion totally worth it! My "need to be green" started when my youngest was 3 weeks old. We used the same diapers on him that we had used with our previous three children. We noticed that his poor little bottom was getting redder and redder with every change until at 3 weeks of age is bottom was so raw that we took him to the doctor. He had been diagnosed with a chemical burn from the brand of diapers we had been using. I was horrified! A chemical burn? Really? Yes, really! We had to use 3 different prescription creams to help heal his sweet bottom up and used cloth diapers until he was completely healed. After that experience I did … [Read more...]
