Mamma Mondays: Free Cotton

Happy MONDAY everyone! Hope your weekend was stupendous! Mine was!

I have a little treat for you this morning. One of my dearest writer friends has started a blog to share her knowledge with the world. She is an amazing educator with a true gift for working with educators, parents and students. I should know, when I taught high school, she was my director!☺

She has started “Free Cotton” to share tips with parents, educators and students on how to to succeed with various techniques and strategies.

Ideas you and I would NEVER think of. Let’s just say….she earned “Teacher of the Year” and many other awards…for a reason.

I’ve seen her turn situations around that were deemed impossible. She has a gift…and truly we are so blessed to receive her knowledge through her blog. I’m seriously going to make a little book to keep so I can remember everything for Jaxon.

If you feel that you may not relate because you homeschool, that is not an issue. She’s also a successful homeschooling Mom as well. Her knowledge crosses all education boundaries.

Please visit FREE COTTON today and say hello my dear friend Teffanie…known to most as “Ms. White.”

♥Click the the picture to visit!!!

And I almost forgot! I'm starting Project 365 today with a special friend/blogger today! SO exciting!

Have a SUPER Monday!

XoXo

Friday Finds: Wasa Peanut Butter Snack

Jaxon’s sweet pea came over for a little bit yesterday. As you can see…he was thrilled! They SO love to play together!

They are just too precious!

I’m so glad it’s Friday around here. Whew. I joked with my friend today that I should not have been posting so much about cleaning and organizing. My house is quite crusty dirty…and I hope to goodness I have some cleaning time this weekend. It’s really bad. That’s life though…who are we kidding if we think every thing is PERFECT every day! LOL!

I do have a quick little recipe to share today for Friday FOOD finds. Recently I’ve been working on cutting sugar out of my diet. Wow. That’s a barrel of fun isn’t it??!

I’ve finally cut out coffee and cokes. Which is monumental for me. I’ve also been researching and trying alternative snack ideas. This week I was looking at my Wasa wafer/crackers wondering what I could make with them. Have you tried Wasa wafer/crackers? Be honest…alone…they are pretty cardboardish.

Surprisingly I came up with a pretty YUMMO sugar free treat! It’s SO GOOD!

It’s the perfect sweet yet sugar-free indulgence.

It’s also very filling!

This is what I used!!!

Okay well I forgot to include the peanut better in the picture! Oh well…you get the idea!

♥One Wasa wafer

♥All-Natural Peanut Butter

♥Agave Nectar

Try it! It’s DELISH!!

It’s sugar free and guilt free. Ahhh…and it’s perfectly crunchy and VERY filling!

DELIGHTFUL!

Happy FRIDAY!

Wednesday Toddler Activity: Homemade Valentine Dried Apple Slices

Sooo….this post was supposed to be about HOMEMADE BATHTUB CRAYONS/CHALK. But alas…they turned out to be an EPIC FAIL. Goodness…who knew you can’t RUSH things in a recipe and BEAT soap with beaters??? Ha ha ha ha ha….I even took pretty pictures of my MISTAKES!

Yeppers…it’s official…beating SOAP makes it very AIRY and BUBBLY…not good for BATHTUB CRAYONS.

They were PRETTY colors at least!!

And the final product = not so pretty.

These pics crack me up. I knew something wasn’t right the minute I started the beaters. LOL. You live and learn. Next time I will be patient. I will read the directions. *wink wink*

Soooooo…..instead…this is the HOMEMADE VALENTINE DRIED APPLE SLICES post. LOL.

I found this POST from Chalk In My Pocket. SUPER CUTE blog. Stop by for a visit by clicking HERE to read the FULL directions.

After reading the post I was immediately INSPIRED…and I knew I had these two little beauties. {and it has never occurred to me to make my own dried fruit?? DUH!}

Soooo I began slicing!!

PRETTY!!

I dug out a heart cookie cutter!

And let Jax “go to town” with it!

I wasn’t sure if he would like it or not. To my surprise….he was TOTALLY into it!

He had a great time. He wasn’t able to PUSH THROUGH every one…but he could at least leave a little indention….

Too CUTE!

I loved how much he enjoyed himself!

We also made STAR shapes too. You know…too many hearts might be too girly! LOL.

We put them in the oven…and headed outside to play for an hour while they baked!

There’s slight chance we might have stayed outside too long. ORRRR…my darn stove cooks a smidgen HOTTER than normal??? Because our little apples…were a little CRISP on some of the EDGES. So funny!

WHOOOOOOOPS!

The did taste MARVELOUS though. And my goodness…think about how much dried apple slices are in the grocery store! This is super cheap and super healthy. I will most definitely be making more of these…ahem…but I better set a TIMER!

Happy Baking!

Mamma Mondays: Dry Erase Organization Board

This weekend I finished a groovy little project to help me organize my day, week, month and so on. Since I’m the head Mamma and honcho around here there’s a lot of things I need to keep up with…even if I don’t want to. Such as changing air filters and all that other manly stuff that must be done somehow.

The problem is…between everything in single Mamma land…toddler tantrums…bills to pay…laundry to wash…I forget things.

Don’t we all??? Soooo to combat that issue I created my own little handy-dandy dry-erase-remember-everything board!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! Flylady would be SO PROUD! LOL!

The concept was not anything I magically came up with…I’ve seen a lot of SMART LADIES do similar projects. I just made mine…with a few of my own ideas.

I first created…and then printed out these little doodahs…

Then I used an 11x14 frame from the Dollar Tree….added a little scrap of fabric for a background…and taped my forms down like this….

Ta-daaaaah! Fabulosity!!!! I love it and it’s perfect to help this Mamma keep track of the most important things!

Things you could keep track of :

♥birthdays

♥doctor appointments

♥car maintenance

♥church events

♥household duties such as changing air filters or checking smoke & carbon monoxide detectors.

♥pet care information

For now I have my handy-dandy board on my incoming mail/errands desk by my front door. I haven’t found the perfect wall space for it…and right here I can still see it daily to remind me of my tasks to do!

Here’s a few close-ups:

And a small confession…I have a {slight} obsession with dry-erase boards in my home.

I used an old window a few months ago for a board in my kitchen. Each week I write my weekly meal plan on it…as

a reminder/schedule for the week.

Basically if it has glass such as a picture frame…or an old window….you can use it for a dry erase board! And they come in VERY handy if you want to stay ORGANIZED!

I made my {daily*weekly*monthly* quarterly*annually} printouts available if you would like to make your own ORGANIZATION board!

Click the following lists to view the printables individually!

♥Daily

♥Weekly

♥Monthly/Quarterly/Annually

Send me a PIC if you use them and make your own! I’d love to see your FABULOUS LOVELIES!♥

Have a SUPER Monday!

Friday DIY: Affirmations & my obsession with chicken wire….and a NEW printable

This week has been a monumental week.

First of all it REALLY DID SNOW here yesterday. SHORT & SWEET…but it really happened!

Then….

one of my dearest writer friends & and I have been very FOCUSED

on being STELLAR

writers/editors/

designers/bloggers/photographers…

as well as…..

being successful…

and OWNING our talents.

That probably sounds like crazy talk but between us it’s a HUGE thing!

I must say that the power of affirmations about your life…can cause DRASTIC powerful energy shifts.  I printed out affirmations and put them everywhere in my home.

When I work out on my treadmill I do air-punches and repeat my affirmations over…and over. LOL!

I could do an ENTIRE post on how many AWESOME thing changed and occurred just this first week.Whew.

Believing in yourself…really is powerful peeps.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

One physical thing my  affirmations triggered for me was to CREATE my office area. I have a desk where I work from daily but it wasn’t fabulous or inspiring. And it hadn’t been for a LONG time.

As I kept doing my “I am a Writer and an Editor” affirmations…I started shifting my desk area around. Suddenly it started looking “for reals.” LOL. A real office. A real writer home office. DUH. How long have I worked from home as a writer and an editor and I just now get this? I’ve tried a little before…but never followed through completely.

Sooooooooooo as I created my office space…..I also made a CUTE decoration for my new area. {You knew I had to didn’t you???}

I have shown previous projects of CHICKENWIRE stapled to empty picture frames. This time I went BIG with the ♥chickenwire!

Oh yes I did.

I stapled a LARGE piece to my wall.

Like a BIG MAMMA memo board!

WORD.

Seeeeeeeee! Love it! I have BIGGER plans for a WHOLE WALL piece…but this was all I had on hand.

It’s a great place for pictures, work reminders, design ideas, Jaxon art work and bill reminders.

I nailed two yard sticks and two strips of ribbon around the wire to sorta-kinda frame it out. It’s not at all perfect…but that’s PERFECTLY ok with me!

To attach papers/photos I used large and mini-sized clothes pins as well as simple, small binder clips. All items I already had!

Items used:     ♥Chicken wire scraps

♥2 yard sticks

♥2 strips of ribbon

♥Staple Gun

♥Hammer & nails

Price for this project: $0.00 – I had everything on hand!

Lesson learned – Look around and use what you have to create NEW places and areas within your home!

AND……….

Affirmations do WORK!

I. am. a. writer.

I. am. an. editor.

I. am. a. designer.

I am. a. photographer.

LOL.

I. am. awesome.

I am. successful.

What are your affirmations? What do you believe about yourself?

Take a minute to create your own. We are ALL awesome in some fashion. What talent do you need to own? Just see what MOUNTAINS you can MOVE with a week of affirmations. I dare you.

Make it a HABIT to OWN your TALENT.

As a SUPER DUPER Friday extra….I found a quote this week that goes along with BELIEVING…and DOING…and making a HABIT of excellence and strength of character.

Here it is:

Make an affirmation.

Create your HABIT

of owning your strengths.

Download your own copy of HABIT print by clicking HERE.

P.S Don’t forget to swing by Facebook and Twitter and join in the Easie Peasie fun!!!

Happy Merry FRIDAY !!!

♥♥I linked this project to:

New Facebook page!

Hi LOVELIES! I just wanted to let you know I have a new Easie Peasie FB page!

Yipppeeeeeeeee!!

I think?? I just now figured Facebook out and I usually notify my friends of recent blog posts…but I thought it would be SUPER cool to communicate with you on Facebook TOO!

Soooooo……use the link on the right side-bar to LIKE me!
Or you can visit me by clicking here…



I also have a Twitter account which you can also access by using the right side-bar. I still don’t have a clue about Twitter but I’m working on it!
Thank you SOOOO much and I cannot wait to CHIT CHAT!♥
XoXo

Wednesday Toddler Activity: Finger Painting Valentines

Well February is right around the corner…and with it Valentine’s day. Have I mentioned that I have the SWEETEST…CUTEST…BEST…MOST WONDERFUL valentine! My little munchkin!

I decided we should start making a few V-day crafties on Wednesday Craft days.

To start our projects, we made sweet little….

So cute…and such a sweet way to create memorable Valentine’s with your little ones!

To begin I created and printed out this “Love” image.

Then I got out all of our painting goodies and Jaxon and I started CREATING!

It doesn’t take much persuasion to convince this guy to paint. He especially loves finger painting.

I totally ADORE how it turned out!

To complete the project I glued it to red construction paper and glued a strip of CUTE red polka dotted ribbon for hanging!

I love♥ it!

Want to download your own “LOVE” printable to use with your sweet pea?

Yay! Click HERE!

Have a SUPER day!

XoXo

 


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