A few of my favorite things

A couple weeks ago, I attended a FABULOUS organization night for a Relief Society enrichment activity. Several women shared their best tricks for organizing homes, children, schedules, finances and I left inspired to get all my batteries in a plastic organizer, my checkbook balanced, my chores assigned to days of the week and my paperwork under control. I also felt like an unorganized mess the next day when I looked around my house, but that's another story....

It got me thinking about how we all have things that work so well for us and might even work for other people - if only they knew! So here's a new "tag" - your 5 best tricks or current favorites. ANYTHING: recipes, finding deals on clothes or groceries, favorite websites, projects that turned out great, how to get your kids to do jobs, practice the piano, whatever.

ONE CONDITION: You don't feel bad reading what works for me because you PROMISE to remember that my ability to file paperwork is nil, I am not a morning person and never get up earlier than Carver, I have been late for the bus stop more times than I care to admit (several stories for another time), I almost always have a fine at the library and I read fiction WAY more than I should.

But if you love something, share it! Right?!

1. I just found PANDORA online radio. Have you already found this? It's SUPER cool. I put in Norah Jones and Patty Griffin for my first station and I like almost every song. Some I already know, others are new and that's the fun part. It's free and it's so much better than listening to those same 3 favorite songs again and again. I just wish I had it in my car, too. Check it out!

2. Every Friday we have chocolate chip scones for breakfast. Everyone loves them - well, except Derek. He's sick of them. They are the best with whipped cream and fresh raspberries on top. But plain is good, too. MMMMMMmmmmm...

Chocolate Chip Scones

2 c. flour
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick (1/2 c) butter, cut in pieces

Cut butter into dry ingredients (or use kitchenaid with the paddle).

Add:
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips (really much better than regular size)
1/2 c. milk

Mix til the dough comes together, but is still crumbly. Dump onto counter, knead til you can JUST press it into a circle about 1 inch thick. It should stay together, but don't over knead the dough! Cut into 8-10 wedges and place on baking sheet or stone. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes, til lightly browned.

3. Do you buy hamburger at Costco in the freezer section? I just found out about it and wonder how I've been missing out so long. 90% lean, in 1 pound chubs, thaws PERFECTLY in the microwave and tastes great. Sure beats re-wrapping all that fresh stuff from the deli section. I'm seriously thrilled that I know about this now. And so I gotta share. :)

4. I'm always evolving our homework system. Right now I love these boxes that I've had forever and used for various things through the years. They are great because the fit the girls' workbooks. Lydia puts her weekly homework packet in there and we never wonder where it went. I found math worksheets at this great website: http://themathworksheetsite.com/ and cut them into strips to put into individual envelopes. Lydia has a schedule of what to do each day - spelling, time, money, math minutes, two digit, math triangle flashcards, etc... I felt like there were too many things we were supposed to be practicing every day. A strip or two makes it manageable. And I love that the girls have control over it. I just have to check to see if they did them right, which is good because I always have a couple grumpy little ones to manage at the same time. I'd love more ideas about homework time. It's a tricky part of the day for us.


5. We've loved our scripture reading plan. It just sorta happened that when Lydia was about 2, we had her start "reading" a verse from the scriptures every day in family scriptures. We prompted her with a couple words at a time, depending on how much she could repeat. Then she could handle two verses. It came to be just about right to do the number of verses per years old. As she got old enough to read little words, we had her follow along for her verses and read what she could and we prompted her with the rest. We chose short verses and ones with easy words to say/read. It is amazing how many sight words are in the scriptures! And how they learn to recognize Zarahemla and Jerusalem, too! :) Ellie's been doing it, too. And now it's awesome to have the girls participate so much in scriptures. Carver's just starting to take a turn and still doesn't always say the word after we do because that's where he's at. He feels SO grown-up to be a part of things, though. Grace isn't quite there yet either, but her turn will come. I really think it helps them be a part of scripture study, gives great reading practice and helps them learn the language of the scriptures. So it works for us.

So now it's your turn! What works great at your house? Do you have a great system for organizing paperwork? I need help with that. Do you do all online bill pay through your bank? What do you love right now - favorite treat, dinner, music, anything! I really want to know!

Valentine's Weekend

We met Derek's parents for Valentine's Day in Portland and the kiddos had a big party at my parent's house while we were gone over night. We went to the Pittock Mansion, Powells bookstore, out to eat at the best little cafe, saw Pink Panther 2 and wandered into Sur La Table and Anthropologie downtown (that was more fun for the ladies than the men!). It was really fun. Derek came home Monday, the kids and I stayed til Wednesday so I could SEW all night -almost literally. It was wonderful and exhausting all at the same time. :) A HUGE thank you to my dad for waiting outside my door in the morning to get Carver the minute he woke up and to let me sleep. What a great man!

Highlights of the trip were playing with my nephew Ben and seeing Carver run all around the house with him, giggling and chasing and being completely adorable little boys. We went to the Children's Museum and the kids LOVED the water part best of all. There was a stage to play dress up and drums, face painting, a train track, clay sculpting, and a grocery shopping place that was pretty dang cool, too. Grace fell in love with Grandma's pink tu-tu and wore it constantly. Over pjs and overalls, during mealtimes and naps. I made her a similar one when we got home and she's sleeping in it right now. Hilarious. The girls loved watching 101 and 102 Dalmations, doing projects and having a change of scenery (and audience). Nothing beats a trip to Grandma's! Unless you're Carver and it's Grandpa's house to you! He pretty much followed my dad around everywhere. Grandpa is one patient man - he made Carver's day over and over again!

Ben and Carver driving the ambulance.

Carver on the drums. He LOVED that.

Grace was a completely obsessive, aggressive shopper. Around and around, picking out more food, pushing her cart with gusto.

Grace loves the tu-tu and her Grandma... and her Grandma's glasses
.

way cool digger in front. Carver was grumpy and only decided to stand by it
just as we were leaving.

Isn't Ben a cutie?

I loved this dentist chair. Auntie Lyssa did Lydia's face painting as a tiger. Very cool.

Yummy recycled water. Carver couldn't get enough.

Future Scientists

Both girls wanted to enter the school science fair this year. And unfortunately, I'm a sucker for educational experiences because I agreed to let them. Granted, I only gave them about 6 choices for projects, ones that I'd found online and was willing to do. They were simple projects, but the doing of the project is not the hard part. It's the presentation that requires so much effort. Ellie chose tie-dyed milk, a project where you put food coloring in room temperature whole milk, then a squirt of soap to cut through the fat and water in the milk. The effect is swirling colors that's really pretty neat. We got to talk about primary and secondary colors a bit, too.


Lydia chose to sprout bean seeds in various degrees of salinity: no salt, a pinch, half a scoop, a full scoop. Interestingly enough, the pinch sprouted better. That was all we could tell by science fair night, but over time the no salt seed is MUCH taller and healthier than any of those pinch-o-salt seeds. Fun experiment.


Our school's science fair is perfect. It's open to all grades, it's non-competitive. No judging at all, just teachers walking around and asking students about their projects. They get ribbons, a goodie bag and their names are drawn for fabulous prizes! :) Most of the projects are very student-made, a lesson I learned last year when I stressed about a professional looking board display. This year I loosened up considerably, making only the titles for them. They wrote all the words themselves - and spelled most of it correctly. Here's Lydia at the fair with her bean seeds.


Another thing I loved is that they put the girls right next to each other. It's a CRAZY night in the gym and the non-scientists in our family had a hard time enjoying the chaos and time stuck in the stroller. It helped a LOT to have the girls together. Here's Ellie. She brought milk and soap to do demonstrations that night.



AND the best part is that she won her very own magnifying glass in the drawing, which she loved posing with. She was anxiously waiting each time they drew names, hoping and hoping. Pretty exciting when it was her!

The celebration

Here's some pictures of Derek's birthday bash (click to see them bigger). We had a treasure hunt to find all his presents, which was a TON of fun. All bike parts, the only true birthday present for this man. He requested mini-pizzas (pepperoni, pesto chicken and chicken bacon ranch), fruit pizza for dessert. The best part was pumping up tires, playing with handlebars and rolling wheels around the family room.

Happy Birthday, Derek!

Happy birthday to the best dad, a man who does dishes and laundry,
gets up early to teach seminary every day, tells stories to the girls every night,
never misses scriptures or prayer, eats whatever I make for dinner,
lets Carver wash and vacuum the car with him every Saturday,
lets me sleep in on Saturdays, gives wild horsey back rides and
chases the kids around the park, gets up with kids at night and
still somehow has the energy to put up with ME!

I admire and love you so much - happy birthday, Derek!

Homemade

Okay - so can I admit that I saw this on several blogs and was too chicken to
play along and volunteer handmade gifts? FINALLY, I've got the courage to promise to do it.
Hey, a year's a pretty long time, after all!

okay so the first 5 people to respond to this
post will receive something made by me to you.
my choice.
made especially for you.
of course there are some restrictions and limitations:
1 i make no guarantees that you will like what i make!
2 what i create will be just for you.
3 it will be done sometime this year.
4 you have no clue what it will be... it may be a story. it may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque.
i may draw or paint something. i may bake something and mail it to you. who knows? not you, thats for sure.
5 i reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
the catch? oh the catch is that you must repost this on your blog
and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog.
the first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!!
oh and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!

P.S. And can I also confess that I just figured out how to center a blog post?
Where have I been?!

Grace's turn

Sunday was THE BIG DAY. The one we've been waiting for, counting down to, dreaming of. Grace's first day of NURSERY! I tried to take the perfect picture as the kids were loading in the car and we were only a FEW minutes late heading out the door. This is about as good as it got - Grace in her "tappy shoes." She adores her church shoes. The tapping sound, the shiny black pretend leather, probably the way they smash her little toes and give her sweaty feet, too. She also loves to wear everyone else's shoes, most especially fancy ones. And no - we don't practice food binding -she really and truly wears size 3. Our kids all have tiny feet. How they walk, I'll never know.



So nursery, ah - yes. The bliss, the stillness and reverence of gospel doctrine - as good as I remembered. The really weird part is that EVERY other time I've sent a child off to nursery, I was expecting another one. Yikes. Not this time!! I have to admit it feels a little empty, but mostly just wonderful!

And the beauty of being #4 is that all it took was me saying, "Grace, do you want to go to your class?" And she was lisping her little "yes" and nodding like crazy. She knows ALL about the places she doesn't get to go yet and the things she doesn't do. It's about time it was her turn!! She loved seeing her picture on the poster in the class and sat right down with books at the table. Another girl was hoarding the books, but she just helped herself to one she wanted. Another perk of being the bottom of the totem pole. I said good-bye and she thought it was no big deal to be left in a room full of kids and toys and a wonderful nursery teacher. Smart girl!

Grace is the classic youngest child. She flirts and poses and thinks everyone should dote on her, especially adults. And we do!



She is talking a LOT more now that I'm trying to keep the yum-yum to bedtime and crucial moments. She has a little lisp (SO cute!!) and doesn't talk as much as the girls did at 18 months, but I don't worry. She's still young and it feels okay. Besides, she's catching up with Carver every day. It's neat to see their friendship emerge. She recently asserted her place with him in dish-doing or "bubbles" as Carver calls it.




What funny little buddies they are becoming! Can you believe they are only 21 months apart? Grace is getting a little bigger and I don't worry quite as much about Carver smashing her, but still... it's better when they have their own chairs for bubbles. He knocked her off that night with just a little shuffle. I guess that's what comes of him doubling her in weight and bulk!

Crazy as it sounds, I LOVE when they share their yum-yums. I've seen each of them remove their own from their mouth and offer it to the other. Or go find another one for their sibling. Talk about LOVE!! Willingness to share the thing they love the most. Germy as anything, but it's sure sweet!

And this is the real Grace, the reason that she always has her hair done. :) I'm just super stubborn about not cutting bangs. They are adorable, but I just don't have time to trim them or grow them out when we're done with them. So she's stuck with this:



We adore Grace. She is sweet and girly and hilarious. She is the pickest eater and doesn't like to be fed. She has been doing it herself for months. No wonder she's tiny!! :) Happy nursery day to her - more proof that babies really do grow up, that I'm not ALWAYS wrestling someone at church and that someday my arms will be empty of little ones. I'm not giving her up yet, though!