Archive for September, 2010
Things I Love Thursday-Reusable Bags
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
Photo courtesy of photobucket.com
I’ve wanted to take part in “Things I Love Thursday” for a while but have never gotten around to it! So, today here I am! One of the things I love is reusable shopping bags. They are so versatile and inexpensive. I’m kind of a reusable shopping bag junkie. I tend to get a bag from each store I frequent. I have one from CVS, Hannaford, Market Basket, Toys R Us. Sam’s and several other places. Canvas bags make great reusable shopping bags as well. I’m sure many of you have a bunch of canvas bags you’ve accumulated along the way just stored away somewhere ,so why not put them to work? I keep all of our bags in our mudroom which is the way we leave the house. On my way to grocery shop I grab my reusable shopping bags and go! I prefer the shopping bags over the plastic bags any day. Not only am I doing a small part in being eco friendly but I can fit more groceries into one bag than I can into a cheap plastic bag. That means less bags to carry in. Plus, there’s no ripping and spilling of groceries all over the ground. Here are some other great ways to use reusable shopping bags:
-As stocking stuffers. They’re usually around 99 cents a piece so that’s an inexpensive addition to someone’s stocking.
- As Halloween treat bags. Our grocery store has some cute Halloween themed bags.
- To cart “stuff” around in. I use them to send extra clothing to my inlaws’ house when the girls go over there. I tote church materials to church with them.
- I have two bags as “upstairs stuff” and “downstairs stuff”. I have a two story house with a basement and we use every floor to the fullest. There’s always something from upstairs that needs to go to the main floor or basement and something from the basement or main floor that needs to go upstairs. I use these bags to throw those things in and then they’re ready to be carried up when I go upstairs.
Do you love reusable shopping bags? Have any other uses for them?
This post is linked to “Things I Love Thursday” over at The Diaper Diaries.
{WFMW} Audio Books
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
Or alternately titled “How Audio Books Have Changed My Life”.
Ok, so maybe my alternate title is a little exaggerated but it shows you how much I love audio books! I’ve been listening to audio books for about 5 years now. Which is about how long I’ve had kids. I’ve found that since I haven’t had as much time to actually read like I used to (many moons ago) audio books have made a nice replacement. They’ve also made tedious housework and chores fun! Well,maybe not fun but more enjoyable.
I listen to audio books while doing laundry, dishes and sundry boring tasks. My husband and I used to listen to my audio books when we were living in Rhode Island during the week and commuting back and forth on weekends from Massachusetts and back. I even got Mike interested in a couple of James Patterson novels! We would pull into our parking spot and sit there and listen to the end of the chapter because we were so drawn into the story.
By listening to audio books I’ve been able to stay on top of my “reading” list.
If you’ve ever tried to buy an audio book you know that they are EXPENSIVE. So, to get around that here’s what I do:
1. I check out audio books from my library. They have a great selection and I can also request a specific one online that they’ll bring in from a sister library in a neighboring town. I have several newer ones on hold right now. I’ll bet you can do the same thing at your library.
2. I take them home and upload the CD’s into iTunes on my laptop.
3. Then I create a play list of that book and upload it on my iPod. It’s that simple!
4. Just make sure to delete books from your computer as you go because they can take up a lot of space on your computer.
I have so enjoyed my audio books. The readers are so good and make the characters come alive. In fact, there’s one series that I’ve only ever listened to and couldn’t actually read because it wouldn’t be the same!
Here’s a short list of audio books I recommend to get you started if you’ve never done this before:
1. The Jester-By James Patterson
2. The Eve Dallas/ In Death series by Nora Roberts (This is the one I’ve only ever listened to. I’ve never actually read a single book from this series and I’ve listened to almost the whole series thus far.)
3. Any book by Sophie Kinsella. (Author of Confessions of A Shopaholic)
4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
5. The Bible. Yes! You can even get some Bible reading in audio book form!
6. Any books by Ted Dekker are also good in audio format.
Another side note I will add is to make sure the books say “Unabridged”
because then you know you’re getting the whole book on CD. Some of the books are “abridged” which means the whole book isn’t being read to you.
No time to actually read? Audio books work for me!
This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.
Ten Things I’m Loving At The Moment
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
For my Top Ten Tuesday post today I’d like to share a few things that make my days and weeks brighter right now. (Other than Jesus, my children and husband, of course. Those go without saying!)
1. Pumpkin Muffins from Dunkin Donuts.
In a word-YUM! A nice pumpkin spice coffee goes well with those too.
2. The return of Glee for it’s second season.
*SQUEEEEE!!!*
3. My fairly new camera.
I got a Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS Elph a couple of months ago and it is by far the best digital point and shoot I’ve had. It takes quality pictures and has some great options but is still easy to use.
Love it!
4. The “Anne Of Green Gables” series.
I started reading this series a couple of weeks ago. I’m on “Anne Of Avonlea” which is the second book right now. I’ve this series for a couple of years but hadn’t read it. I’ve seen the movies and loved them. The books are even better!!
6. Homeschooling.
We decided to homeschool our almost five year old daughter in Kindergarten this year. We’re on our third week. I’m loving it so far. It’s been an exciting and rewarding journey so far. We’ve definitely had our days, though. We’re doing the Christian Liberty Academy School System (CLASS) and I really like it.
These are the books we’re using….
And here’s our schedule!
7. My new homeschool room.
My hubby worked very hard to turn our basement into a homeschool area for us. I love it. Please click on the link and tell me what you think!
8. The new Fox show “Raising Hope”.
This show comes on right after “Glee” on Tuesday nights. Did anyone watch the pilot? I think I laughed through the whole thing! It’s fresh and endearing while being satirical and hysterically funny. I can tell this show is going to become a favorite of ours. I haven’t seen Mike laugh like that in a long while either!
9. Being in a church choir again.
It’s been years since I’ve been in a “real” church choir with a “real” director who wasn’t me. I’ve finally been able to join our church’s choir this year after us having been at this church for almost a year. I’m enjoying it so much.
10. Feeling my baby start to “kick”.
I will be 14 weeks tomorrow. I’ve been feeling “flutters” for about two weeks now. Woot!
Go check out Oh Amanda’s blog for more Top Ten Tuesday! Or even better, link up with one of your own!!
Our Homeschool Room Revealed
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
I am so excited to finally unveil for you the fruits of our labor in turning our basement into a cozy school room/playroom. Well, mostly my husbands labor but I provided direction and moral support. *wink* My husband worked very hard to do this and deserves a huge round of applause. It’s not perfect but it’s ours and we are so happy with it.
Here are some “before” pictures so you get the idea of what it used to look like:
We already used it as a playroom but it wasn’t very pretty and looked pretty messy all the time.
This is what our walls looked like-
And now….(drum roll) I present to you our new HOMESCHOOL ROOM!!!
This is what you see when you come down our basement stairs. The walls are painted a color called “Mojito”. I think it really brightens up the room. I still have some labeling to do and few more things to hang up. Mike has some touch ups to do so he has some painting paraphernalia hanging around.
The table we use is lightweight and folds in the middle. So every day after school I fold it and put it away so there is a nice play area for the girls. The table does take up a lot of room and so do the folding chairs. So, this is a good transitional set up for us. Especially since we have to fit a queen bed down there when family comes to visit!
This is my circle time wall and teacher’s corner. It’s right next to stairs as you come down. We (including my three year old, Madelyn) do the “Pledge Of Allegiance” each morning as well as the “Pledge To The Bible”. We pray, do the days of the week and counting. We talk about what yesterday was, what today is and what tomorrow will be. We do our Bible lesson and weekly alphabet memory verse. And my girls know to keep their hands off my stuff!!
This “A” verse idea I took from Impress Your Kids ABC Scripture Verse craft series. We will do a craft based on our memory verse one day each week.
Another nice touch Mike added was this built in “chalk board”. It’s chalk board paint, painted over magnetic paint and surrounded by white trim Mike had put together. It’s a magnetic chalk board!!! Neat, huh?? We were going to put up a white board but this turned out to be cheaper and the girls love it. It doesn’t erase super well but it works for us.
Mike also hung these laundry room organizing shelves in our school room and they work wonderfully for us. Our school books are stored on the top shelves in file holders and in the hanging drawer is dress up clothes and accessories. Since this room also works as our playroom I’ve divided the girls many toys in between their bedroom and the playroom. The playroom contains all the “educational toys” (manipulatives, blocks, sorting, lacing, Melissa and Doug wooden toys, puzzles, play-doh, etc) and any toys used in preschool play areas like dress up clothes, dishes and play food, doll house etc. Our arts and crafts stuff is also kept down here. We’re still organizing their room but so far we’re keeping babies and baby stuff, Barbies and accessories, stuffed animals and whatever else that doesn’t go in our schoolroom/playroom in their bedroom.
You can see Madelyn sitting on the floor playing nicely by herself with her Strawberry Shortcake toys. Polly Pockets and little Strawberry Shortcake type stuff also reside in the playroom. While Katelyn and I do school work and Maddy is done with her little preschool activity she sits quietly on the floor and plays with whatever she feels like!
One thing I do that I think really helps keep a soothing and learning atmosphere is that I play quiet music during our school time. I play classical music and nature sounds. “Spa-like” music, if you will. I think it adds a nice touch!
Here’s my book corner. I got this stacking milk crate type things at Staples for hardly anything. They work well for now!
You can see that we have a half bathroom (that is temporarily holding boxes and stuff that needs to go upstairs!) on the left. That is perfect for us for potty breaks and hand washing. The shelving in there will be used to house our science experiment stuff and any kind of of “messy” thing that needs drying.
Here’s our daily schedule-
This is just a guideline I try to follow. Sometimes we finish earlier and sometimes we finish later! It’s flexible.
Some of Katelyn’s books are super thin and meant to do once or twice a week and some are thick and need to be done every day. Science and Social studies are very simple so we do those only once a week. I’ve left some leeway for arts and crafts and a music activity. If we are having a rough week I can focus on the basics which right now are math, handwriting and phonics and let everything else go. My girls do coloring and cutting all the time on their own. And we can always do the Bible lesson before bed or catch up on the weekends.
So there you have it. What do you think? If you have a homeschool room I’d love to see it. Post a link to it in the comment section and I’d love to check it out. Also, if you’re a homeschooler, what is your schedule like? I’d love to hear from you!
Ten Things I’ve Been Doing Instead Of Blogging
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
It’s Top Ten Tuesday! I haven’t participated the past couple of weeks and miss it! So, why haven’t I been participating? Well, I haven’t been a very faithful blogger for the past couple of weeks as I’m heading out of my first trimester. I’m thrilled that I still have a few readers who have stuck with me. (Hi mom!!!)
Here are ten things I’ve been doing when I could have been instead of blogging.
1. Sleeping
2.Napping
3. Hitting the snooze button until my alarm clock just shuts itself off out of frustration.
4. Renovating and organizing my new homeschool room. (Pictures to come!!!!)
5. Busy attempting to homeschool my almost 5 year old daughter in CLASS ’s Kindergarten curriculum.
6. Reading “Anne Of Green Gables” and being unable to put it down.
7. Moving piles of laundry and stuff from one surface to another when I need to use said surface.
8. Resting
9. Getting acclimated to our new weekly schedules ,and fall activities.
10. Did I mention sleeping?
For more Top Ten Tuesday head over Oh Amanda for some fun reads.
Our Life In Pictures
Monday, September 20th, 2010
Well, hello…..again. Things are starting to settle down a bit here and return to normal. Somewhat. I actually got up early to write this very post. Now that I’m heading into my second trimester (yay) that hopefully won’t require such herculean effort anymore.
So in lieu of a boring, long update on exactly what we’ve doing here lately (other than sleeping and trying to keep a handle of my messy house) I give you (cue introductory music)……
Our Life (as of late) In Pictures.
Our homeschool room is finished and I’m putting a few more finishing touches on it before I post the pictures. We are super proud of it and my husband did an AWESOME renovating it.
Our first official week of homeschooling is behind us.
It was fun, challenging and not without a few tears.(Katelyn’s, not mine.) Katelyn has stated a couple of times that she “wants to go back to her old school/ REAL school!!!”. I’ll admit that it does bother me when she says that but we’re pressing on. She is struggling with handwriting and not liking when I make her write things over again when she does sloppy work or work with a bad attitude. I knew we would bump heads somewhat. She enjoys every other subject except for handwriting. So, I’m trying a few different approaches. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t think of praying over our homeschooling time until well into the middle of the week. That probably would have been a good idea!! So, now I start out our homeschooling time with prayer. It really helps!
We’ve been enjoying the last dregs of nice weather before the cold of fall and then winter (yikes!) really set in!
We went fishing again a couple of weeks ago….
and caught TEN fish! Not bad for first timers, huh?
Katelyn started soccer last week. This is definitely a new experience for all of us. She is having to adjust to following the rules and understanding that it’s not all about her! There are several kids on her team who are faster and more adept and handling the ball and that is frustrating her a bit. Soccer isn’t what she thought it would be. (Her scoring goals all the time. Her getting the ball a lot….you get the idea.) She is dying to score a goal and prays every day that she will score one at her next game. We’re trying to teach her that making a goal isn’t everything. This is also teaching her patience and perseverance. All things she is NOT good at. It breaks my heart to see her get upset when she finally does get a chance to get the ball and it’s quickly taken from her. But, that’s how life is and that’s how the game of soccer is played. Good lessons for all of us!
Here’s my soccer player-
The girls started dance this past Saturday. It was a first for Madelyn! I wasn’t sure how she was going to do. Especially since she doesn’t like being in groups and usually takes a while to adjust to new situations. She did fabulous and loved it!
My dancers-
After dancing we went apple picking. It was a perfect day for it.Of course, I took so many pictures of dance class my battery started dying so I didn’t hardly get any of apple picking.
We’ve started attending church on Wednesday nights again. I’m teaching Mission Friends for three years to Kindergarten children at church. It’s like a Bible club but it’s focus is on teaching children about missionaries and how we can all tell others about Jesus. Katelyn is doing the children’s choir on Wednesday night which will run until the end of November. Then she’ll be in my class. After Mission Friends and children’s choir is over Mike picks up the girls and I head to choir practice myself!
So, we’ve been pretty active and busy. But it’s been a good kind of busy.
Happy Fall, friends. I can’t believe it’s here already!
Thanks for stopping by my little ‘ol blog again. I really appreciate you all taking the time and interest in reading what I have to write. Without you guys it would just be me and the computer!
It Was A Perfect Beach Day
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Alternately titled: It Was A Perfect Birthday Weekend.
I couldn’t enter Fall without posting our beach pictures from last week. It was also the day before my birthday so we killed birds all around with one stone. We went to the beach, then my inlaws kept the girls while we ate at the Outback and then watched “Vampires Suck”. The movie was…..eh. All in all in was the perfect day for the beach and a wonderful birthday/Labor Day weekend.
The beach we went to is about 40 minutes from us and wonderful since it’s clean, small and is never packed out when we go. That is one of (grumble) the perks of living in New England. There’s a beach not far from us in every direction for the most part.
Not only was the weather perfect, but I’d say this was the most relaxing trip to the beach we’ve ever had. We took less stuff and were actually fine! The girls were a lot more content and easier to deal with this time too. We didn’t have to entertain them because they were busy entertaining themselves! Madelyn wasn’t afraid of the water this year so we could all go in together.
The water was cool but not freezing. In the shallow end it was actually warm!
There were actually little fish swimming around our feet. The girls were a little freaked by this since they don’t actually want to be up close and personal with any sea life. Mike caught, with his net, a crab (not hermit!) in one of the many tide pools and when he put in on the ground the girls started SCREAMING. Katelyn ran behind and me screamed ” Put it back before it crawls on me!!!”. The poor crab was moving slower than a snail and Katelyn was ten feet away from yet she was still afraid the thing was going to get her. Kids!!! We also caught a tiny little starfish that was stuck to some seaweed. Of course, I failed to get a picture of it!
We parked ourselves next to one of the tide pools and the girls enjoyed playing in it and building next to it. Madelyn especially loved the tide pool. Katelyn preferred being in the ocean but the little tide pool was more Madelyn’s cup of tea.
Katelyn worked very hard on her sand castle. I was impressed with her focus! She built the foundation and then Mike helped her build it up.
I thought it came out pretty neat!
“Look at me, mama!”
After we were done packing up and changing clothes in the HOT public bathrooms (my least favorite part) my inlaws took us out for a late lunch at a local seafood place and then ice cream. Mike and I were so tired when we got home we had to take a nap before we left for my birthday evening! We were tired but happy folks!
A Labor Day Update
Monday, September 6th, 2010
Well, hello there. It’s been awhile. Yes, it’s me…Mel! I’ve come out from under piles of laundry and first trimester haze to wish you a happy (un)Labor Day! I wanted to give you a little update about what’s been going on around here.
Yesterday we had a big church cook out with lots of friends from everywhere. It was a lot of fun! We had close to 50 people come throughout the afternoon and there was pretty competitive volley ball playing going on.
I’m pretty tuckered out today but it was worth it!
I had my first prenatal appointment and ultrasound in the past week or so. Everything looks good!
Here the first picture of my “Sweetie”.
The quality of the picture is not so good but if you were to look at the original photo you’d be able to see the baby’s little head and two teeny arms and legs. We got to see a nice strong heart beat. Everything is exactly as it should be. I’ll be 11 weeks along on Wednesday! Almost past my first trimester! Can I get a what what??
I’ve been having some neck pain that is causing me some pretty bad headaches so I’m hoping a good adjustment and possibly a deep tissue massage will take care of it. I’ve been sleeping in in the mornings(well, until the girls get up anyway) so I haven’t been blogging. I have a hard time blogging after everyone is up. I’m hoping to get back to a semi-normal routine within the next couple of weeks and ramp up my blogging again.
Speaking of routines, ours will be changing soon! Now that we’ll be homeschooling our daily schedule will be changing a bit.
Katelyn’s Kindergarten books have come in and I am SO.EXCITED. I don’t know what public schools teach Kindergarteners but this curriculum seems a bit hard! I am inpressed with everything she will be learning, however, and I’m chomping at the bit to get started.I love how each subject is infused with the God’s word and there are new Bible verses to be learned with practically every subject. In case you’re wondering we’re doing the CLASS system. (Christian Liberty Academy School System.) I’m not at the point where I feel comfortable picking and choosing curriculum from various places. They have a standard Kindergarten curriculum and an advanced Kindergarten curriculum and I trust their judgment on what books should be in each kit! And, as it so happens, we did the CLASS system growing up and it worked great for us!
Here’s a picture of the books and subjects she’ll be doing. I’ll write a more extensive post about what she’s learning, the activities we’ll be doing and the homeschooling schedule we’ll be following once I have it nailed down.
Mike has been busy the past several days creating a nice homeschool room for us in our basement. It’s been the laundry room/guest room/playroom so far. Now the play room/guest room area is turning into the homeschool area too.
This is what the room looked like right before Mike started construction. This is also in the midst of moving things around and organizing toys etc. You can see our walls down there are made of field stone which makes putting anything on the walls impossible. Mike is putting drywall in front of the field stone to make me some nice walls down there. I’m so excited! I’ve wanted “real” walls down there forever!
A different angle….
The walls….ugh.
The progress being made! My poor hubby suffered a two by four blow to the head the other night but thankfully he’s ok!
Last Friday was my birthday (ahem) and we celebrated by going to the beach on Thursday. (Another post in and of itself too!) But here’s a sneak peak at the fun we had…
Katelyn made an impressive (if I do say so myself) sand castle by herself. She worked long and hard at it (which is not always common for her) and did a great job. Future engineer??
So that’s what’s been going on around here! Thanks for reading!
Happy Labor Day!
