Little Lessons

Brett spotted the sheet of stamps on the desk last night & asked "why is this bell cracked?" So, that led me to getting out our little Liberty Bell that we bought in Philadelphia. Damon & I went to the Poconos to a cabin (We stayed at Noami Village in the Birchwood cottage I believe. Very nice!) for our honeymoon & one day went to Philadelphia & saw the bell among other things. First I had to look it up online & refresh my memory on the history of the bell & why it cracked! I tend to not remember everything the first time but now, I probably will remember since I had to explain it to him. Then he measured the bell with the stamps-the bell is about "2 1/2 bell stickers wide" and "3 bell stickers wide at the top". Now if I could just remember where our pictures are from that trip! He also wanted to know about the Statue of Liberty & why we haven't seen that yet. Would love to.

This morning I explained to him about it being New Year's Eve & what the plan is for the next few days. Sometimes we forget to tell him what's planned and he doesn't understand why we're doing certain things. Now he knows there's mtg tonight, can look forward to seeing his cousins, G & G, Aunts & Uncles, going to the hotel, his friend's birthday party on Saturday & remember that he will soon be going back to school on the 5th. I think he will understand this year that after December comes January & a new year starts. It takes a while to absorb for all those concepts! I love all these little moments & this is where we can be our child's "first teacher" if we take the time & look for ways to expand on their questions. I see & hear things from my dck's that shows me they are learning/being taught by their parents. (Like: C was washing her hands & telling me "this is a vein" in her wrist. K was coloring a star & said "it's a star like Venus". These kids are 2 yrs old!) Sometimes we don't realize how much they really are learning and I try to remind or show my dcparents that they really have taught their kids a lot. They often think they learn so much at day care or from me but don't realize how much I see their influence.

I'm not sure he's learning much here but games are good too! : )

Paper Whites & Amaryllises

I have some bulbs growing & the paper whites are starting to bloom. The one in the vase/on rocks is from Julie for my birthday & I just started it. I moved the plants to the kitchen so we could watch them grow & see them in bloom.

Where's the snow?

It's raining & our snow is melting! A week ago we had this much snow & now there's bare grass in some parts of the yard.

New Blog

It's called What's for supper Mom? http://whatsforsuppermom.blogspot.com/ For some reason, my son never asks me this. Really, I rarely hear that. That will change someday I'm sure! He usually doesn't care too much about what it's going to be I guess or he will check things out as he's walking through the kichen. We're lucky to get him to eat much most days. I'm always wondering what I'm going to make though so I'm looking forward to joining in on this one. If you're interested in some new tried & true recipes & have some to share, join us!

2 New Scrubs

I made two new scrubs today - one vanilla & the other Red Rose & Thyme. You can see the Red Rose one is pink. Both have vitamin E drops & sweet almond oil. I also have fresh rain, relaxing blend, lemon verbena, sweet pea and ?? I can't remember the rest of the scents. I also bought coloring tints & aloe vera oil. The scrubs make your hands feel so nice!

December 25

We're having a different kind of holiday & enjoying it very much! This morning I made eggs & bacon for breakfast & then we started cleaning. Our house wasn't messy but some things needed to be done. I've been washing all the bedding & for some reason the laundry has piled up so I've been working on that. Damon will help fold & he puts his own clothes away. That way I never hear grumbling about where stuff is! I worked in the basement some & sorted toys. Made another pile of stuff to get rid of. It all needed to be done & it's nice I had some help doing it. It's rare for me to be able to sit down & really enjoy my house when it's clean & quiet!

I decided to check one more time for Brett's "Little Doggie" that's been missing since convention time & sure enough! He was in a sleeping bag. I checked there before but maybe in the wrong one?? Brett will be so happy to be reunited with him. I've felt bad that he's gone missing although Brett hasn't seemed to mind too much. He will cart him around again I'm sure, now that we've found him again.

We can't work all day though of course, so we're taking a break. This is what we're having for our holiday treats.

Shrimp dip - cream cheese, shrimp cocktail sauce, shrimp & green onion with crackers.

Peppermint bark, pretzel things & fudge

Tonight Jennifer will be coming & we'll have scalloped potatoes & ham for supper (although it doesn't sound so good anymore....) Tomorrow morning we're going to have Overnight Baked French Toast.

Just because post

about my keychains. I'm not a big fan of them but I have a few special ones. From the left: "Sisters" from Maggie for my birthday last year. Julie has one too. Pretty neat gift that really includes all three of us. I like this silverware handle one I bought at Cracker Barrel. It's just "so me" whatever that means! Seaworld charm dangle -my only momento from Seaworld other than wonderful memories there with Brett & Damon : ) and my most recent one, a Shutterfly picture key chain from Shanda for my birthday this year. Isn't it great? I love that she used a picture I took.

Gifts II

I also make gifts for my families because they treat me so well. snowman picture frame ornament from C. I hung it from my sconce & it looks nice there. They always feel bad when I confirm that we don't have a tree but that's ok.

My massage therapist gave me this scarf. His wife made gifts for all his regular clients. It's very nicely done.

I also received a ham, fruit basket & a couple restaurant gift cards. I especially enjoy the photo cards of the kids & the notes they write! It's nice to be appreciated!

Gifts

This is what I made for my day care families this year: the holiday potpourri, framed scrapbooked 5 x 7 pictures & fudge. In the bags there's also cups with cocoa mix for the kids (cocoa mix, mini marshmellows & sprinkles with mini candy canes), kleenex packs & green sparkle play dough. Plus the cards & ornaments the kids made. I didn't get the pocket calendars done but it's not 2009 yet! I'll probably do some of them, but not necessarily for everyone. I decided the framed prints were easier, although not cheaper because of the frames. This ends up being a pretty big project since there's 3 split families so that's double of everything. I figure I work with both of them, appreciate both of their business & they both pay me.

What we made yesterday

Dot art trees-I couldn't find a pattern so I made one in Word.

Handprint santa cards. They're so cute! Most kids made 2 or 3 for Moms & Dads (many are separated so we need two) and Grandparents or whoever they want to give them to.

Salt dough candy canes & cut out ornaments. I remember making these in elementary school & thought it was so great so I wanted to make them with the kids. That's mine in the picture. : ) We started with the candy canes & the kids wanted to continue to make things so we got out the cookie cutters & craft supplies.

Salt Dough

1 cup flour 2 cups salt 1 cup water red food coloring

Combine flour and salt and slowly add the water. You may not need all of the water. I then separated the dough into two equal parts and colored one part with red food coloring. Make desired ornament & microwave in 30 second intervals for a total of 2-3 minutes. One of our buttons melted & ours didn't need 2-3 minutes so be careful & try 30 seconds at a time. I like that you don't have to wait days for them to dry out.

This is one of the more simple ones but I like it! Most of the kids pushed lots of buttons & things into their dough. We wrapped them in tissue & put them in the parent's gift bags.

Winter Banner

I liked my thankful banner so much that I decided to put up a winter one. I didn't make this one though, I bought the kit from Emmie Cakes & then put it together. I can't say I'll have one up for every season/holiday, but I won't promise either!

Since you asked....

Well, Neisha asked so I'll tell you all!

• I'm off Wed, Thurs, Friday this week & next week. Yes, I feel guilty about it somewhat. I realize *I am responsible* for the way I feel & I can't allow people to "make" me feel this way. My contract includes Christmas Eve & Christmas as paid vacation days. Then I took a vacation day for January 2nd. I used my last 2008 vacation day in August before Brett went to school so I don't get paid for this Friday. I gave out a calendar last January, reminded on the activity calendar in November of closed days coming up in December & what the holiday payment policy is. No one is giving me issues really, but I still feel guilty? This is the hard part of my job. I want to give everyone the good news they'd like to hear but yes, they still owe this week & next! It's not any different anywhere else. Maybe they just don't realize it.
• I don't have much planned for the rest of this week. I need to work downstairs sorting toys & organizing my curriculum. There's always next week.... We have our visit Thursday night so looking forward to that. We have a new game to play (if Jen wants to.)
• I making a frozen wreath. I'll let you know how it turned out after it freezes!
• I'd be glad to make & sell sugar scrubs. I could even come up with other variations. I'm thinking $4/each plus shipping? I have other ideas of things to make & sell but that's another lifetime (and will probably be here before I know it! Life changes pretty quick.)
• I had a massage last night. It wasn't long enough. Then I was up til 1:15 a.m. Nothing like the last minute.
• Good thing we don't do this xmas stuff. I mean, I've been known to go overboard so this little I've done for my day care families is plenty of work (I love to make things for them/with the kids though!). I can't imagine if we celebrated this holiday full blown....
• I had a great birthday! Thanks everyone for the cards, gifts & emails, Facebook comments. Wow, how nice to hear from so many.
• I will be posting pictures of things later, maybe this afternoon or evening.

Birthday

Julie & I celebrated our birthday with our family today. Here's a few pictures (as much as I dislike pictures of myself.)

The gourmet popcorn maker!

K & M

My lovely neice!

A couple more calendars

For Julie

For the two Grandmas

Peppermint Sugar Scrub

This recipe is very similar to the other: 1 cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup olive oil peppermint essential oil drops I made these for Julie, Mom, Kira & Maggie. These jars hold about 1/2 a recipe. I use my scrapbooking software to make the labels. I printed these on photo paper, covered with a sheet of Contact paper, cut around the edge & then hot glued it to the lid. The first ones I made I printed on a full sheet of sticker paper & then covered it with Contact paper to keep the ink from smearing after you get your hands wet.

Peace & Quiet

Saturday we met G & G Ransom & sent Brett home with them! I'd have to say I'm enjoying the peace & quiet! We talked to Brett tonight & he's doing great there. This isn't the first time-he's gone up there for a week at a time since he's been quite little. I was just wondering how he was doing since Friday I had to take him in to the Dr. Good thing I did-he has a sinus & ear infection. We didn't even have a Dr. with our new insurance yet, so luckily we found one & got in Friday evening. We like the new Dr! I knew I probably would since I went to his garage sale a couple summers ago & ended up talking to him a while. At that time he gave me a reference book on childhood infectious diseases. It was really disgusting! LOL I didn't ask him if he remembered though. Just glad my little guy is feeling better!

Jingle Bells

One of the videos from Brett's concert: Jingle Bells At the end Brett wants to wave but contains himself. Then the little girl behind him, Julia, reminds him not to wave & he doesn't like it! LOL Too cute.

Reindeer craft

Today S finished up his reindeer project. His Rudolph turned out so cute! He said "he beautiful!"

Playing in the snow

We didn't even go in the back yard because the snow is so deep. This is how much is on the deck! It's drifted up & we're snowed in!