Organize Your Toys

My point exactly.

I already said this.

Are you sick of picking up toys? Then get rid of them and stop buying more! Seriously. Why are you letting them control you and ruin your life?

People just don’t seem to get that kids don’t need a lot of toys. I actually think most parents buy them to make up for their own sad childhood. Toys do not equal love. When my kids were little I started asking myself, “Am I buying this for them or for me?” I think I have finally stopped buying things for myself and pretending they were for my kids. Except for their clothes that is. Those are all for me.

Queen of the Castle

Let me start off by saying, European Hot Chocolate??? I have never heard of such a thing! Stranger was a little scared of it but the kids and I sucked it down and, yes it's true, I licked the pot clean. (I'm just glad you weren't there to see it.)

I was excited when Lynn Bowen Walker asked me to review Queen of the Castle on my blog but then as soon as I said yes I was worried about what I had gotten myself into. I didn't need one more thing to do! But then the book arrived and who could resist it? It's easy to read! It's fun! It's got chocolate! No, not actually in the book. You have to cook the recipes yourself, dang it.

Lynn had obviously picked the right person to read her book because I could relate to so much of it. She is preaching my gospel! We are all different but we all have a job to do so let's do our best. We can know that we have Lynn to get us headed in the right direction! She offers great insights on everything from housework and parenting to gardening and holidays. There is something for everyone. This book is full of all the advice that your friends and family want to tell you but don't or if they did you wouldn't listen. Somehow though, when Lynn says it, it clicks and sounds so easy and logical.

"In truth every woman is a homemaker, whether she wants to be or not. Young or old, single or married, childless or with a house full of kids, if she has a home, be it three thousand luxurious square feet or a single-room apartment, she is most likely the one in charge of keeping it running." And what woman doesn't like being in charge???

I read Queen of the Castle a couple months ago and let me tell you how difficult it was to keep it to myself until now. After every chapter I was thinking, "Oh, that was great. I have to blog about that!" Now that I've done my time and my review I can lose control and start quoting Lynn willy nilly in all my posts.

There will be the, "Taking care of our families can be exhausting work," post.

And the, "attempting fewer activities so we can better focus on those that matter," post.

Not to mention the, "Your feet may be planted in front of the kitchen sink, but your mind is free to travel the world," post.

I'm even going to be quoting her quotes.

"I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it." Benjamin Franklin.

Lynn has done the work in writing her book. All we have to do is read it and let the inspiration wash over us. We all have the potential to become great leaders, teachers and nose wipers. Of course we do! Did you doubt it?

Smart Habit Saturday

Participate in SHS for 3 out of 4 weeks in May to be entered in a drawing for Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell and of course I will make you an Organizing Bag to put it in. I love the book and I love his products at The Clean Team. This is the last week to participate so if you want to be entered in the drawing, e-mail me the links to your entries. That makes it so much easier for me and I'm all about my life being easier!

I'm going to be out of town next week so I will do the drawing when I get back around the first of June.

If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

I've been thinking about this new early morning study schedule that I've been working on. What I've decided is that it's a series of habits and I'm never going to get it right unless I start at the beginning.

1. I have to have a habit of being home in time for the kids to start getting ready for bed by 7:00 and lights out at 9:00.


2. I have to get to bed by 9:00 and lights out at 10:30.


3. I have to stop eating sugar (yes, that again!) because sugar makes me tired and require more sleep.


4. I have to darken Lovely's window so she doesn't wake up before me! As the sun rises earlier so does she. All winter she was sleeping until 8:30 and now she's getting up before 7:00.


5. I have to remember that I really am a morning person even though Stranger has spent 11 years turning me into a night owl.

I'm pretty good at getting home early if we don't have an event we're going to. If the kids get to bed on time then I can usually get to bed on time. I don't even want to talk about the sugar thing because it's too depressing. I will work on the girls' window coverings when I get home from my trip. I dont' know about that last one yet. We'll see how that goes.

Here are the other habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are already habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life!

Getting to bed early, again - still working on it
Crafts with kids - Working on it.
Using Crock Pot - Great and loving it!
Paperwork, again, and again - failing
Have lunch ready by Noon - Ok
Turn Off Computer during chores - Good
Become a Dresser - Good
Playing games with my kids - Terrible
Reading my Church Magazine - Habit
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Good
Clear Counters - Great
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Habit
Daily Prayer - Habit
Clean Toilet - Not great

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Organize Your Packing

I took a few minutes to make a packing list for a one week trip to my sister's house and watching the kids in action was pure heaven. They picked out the clothes they wanted to take and laid them on their beds so I could check to make sure they would work. Then they busily ran around the house collecting the rest of the items while I soaked in the tub. No, not really but it was a nice fantasy. I mean the tub part. I think I was busily scrubbing the kitchen sink.

The kids got the car cleaned out and vacuumed this afternoon while I did the really hard stuff like plan meals for a week at my sister's house for 10 people, forward my e-mail and make this list. I started with one I had made for our two week trip to California last December. We could get by with fewer clothes I guess but I don't want to spend any time doing laundry that I could spend visiting with my big sister and I don't know, ripping down walls and pulling up carpet. Hopefully none of that will happen on this trip but you never know. I'm trying to talk her into starting a new business and I have finally talked her into homeschooling next year so we have a lot of planning to do on this trip.

I'm taking my crock pot because I am in love with it now. Aren't I SMART?

Did I forget anything? Feel free to study my list and let me know if I need to add anything.

Kids Clothes
8 pairs of underwear
2 pairs of pants
2 pairs of shorts
7 Shirts
Church clothes
Two pajamas
6 pairs of socks
Jacket
Hat
Tennis shoes
Cowboy boots

Kids Swimming
Snorkel bags
Towels
Sunscreen
Flip flops
Swimsuit

Kids Other
Bikes
Activity books
Reading Books
Library CD’s
Scriptures
Sewing project
Drawing supplies
Games
Checkbook
Sleeping bag
Pillow
Flash light
Stuffed animal

Kitchen
Picnic Organizer
Plastic Cups
Granola (No, I don't go anywhere without it.)
Crock pot
Water bottles
Big water jug
Small cooler with snacks for car
Big cooler full of food for next week

Mom
Camera with charger
Cell phone with charger
Mp3 player with batteries
First Aid kit
Medications
Dramamine
Garbage bags
Quilting projects
Toiletry bag
Brush
Hair Straightener
Book

Lovely
Doll
Stuffed Animal
Blanket
Stroller
Sipper cup for car
Bib
Plastic pants (no diapers, woo hoo!!!)
Wipes
Swimming float
Swimsuit
Hat
Play Clothes
Church clothes
ALL the Panties she owns
Jacket
Mud boots
Crocs
Travel activities

Here are some things I had to do before our trip besides pack.

Visit the library so we don't have any overdue books while we're gone and to pick up books on tape for the drive.
Clean out the car
Collect ice in bags for the cooler. I never buy ice because it's not as cold as the ice from my own freezer and it melts too fast.
Forward e-mail to my web account
Charge batteries

Go swimsuit shopping

Lose ten pounds

Go back and actually buy a swimsuit

I still need to water the plants, clean out the fridge, wash all the sheets so we have clean beds to come home to, and finish my packing. What am I forgetting? Oh I know. Going to bed.

Stranger says he's not going to miss us and to make sure we don't come home until I'm positive the Lovely is completely potty trained.

The Potty Training Diaries

Tuesday May 22

This morning I had dry pants when I woke up! I found my Mom in bed and she said it wasn’t time to get up yet but the sun told me it was. My Mom said she doesn’t like the sun butting it's nose into our business and telling me things that aren’t true. She asked me if I wanted to go potty so I ran into the bathroom and that’s when she found out that I was dry all night! After I tinkled I went back to bed with my Mom and we slept for a long time. When we got up I was ready to go potty again and then later I told my Mom when I had to go. I wasn’t sure if the pee was going to come out but I put my head in my mom’s lap and waited for it. Pretty soon it came out! My Mom keeps telling me that sometimes it takes a minute and I guess she’s right.

I didn’t have any accidents today except one right after my nap. My Mom said it was a good thing I was sleeping in the plastic bean bag chair because there was a river in there. Once again, I didn’t get any of my clothes wet. I’m really nice like that.


Wednesday May 23

I was wet and poopy this morning and my Daddy was lucky enough to find that out while my Mom snored away in bed. But I used the potty the rest of the day. Yay! I’m even learning how to tell my Mom when I need to go. The great thing about my Mom is that she doesn’t ask me 50 times a day if I have to go potty. That would just be annoying and make me mad. Instead, everyone tells me when they are going potty and I go with them if I need to. I’m a lot faster than they are so as soon as someone says they’re going potty I run in there and use it first!

Thursday May 24

I haven’t worn a diaper for a whole week now! In fact today I didn’t have one single accident and now my pee comes out in the potty whenever I want it too. I don’t know why my Mom gets so excited about that but she’s happy so it makes me happy too. She tried to put my plastic pants on me tonight before I went to bed but I wouldn’t let her. I’m not wearing those things any more. My panties are more comfortable and plastic pants are for babies. I wouldn’t be caught dead in them.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that I had been saying my prayers for a few weeks that I would learn to use the potty and I finally have! Now when I say my prayers I tell Heavenly Father thank you for helping me learn.

My One Minute Mission

Check out my One Minute Mission over at GNMParents today.

If those One Minute people were really smart they would write a new series just for Moms:

One Minute Organizing

One Minute Potty Training

One Minute Laundry

One Minute Meals

One Minute Bedtimes

One Minute Musician

One Minute Fitness

One Minute Meditation

One Minute Pool Opening

One Minute House Cleaning

One Minute Fitness

One Minute Meditation

One Minute Naps for Mom

One Minute Seamstress

One Minute Languages

One Minute Sleeping

One Minute Out the Door

One Minute Scrapping

Any more?

Let's collect more ideas for them. What One Minute skill would you like to have?

Go Ahead, Ask Me Anything

Just wait till tomorrow.

I've been reading "Little Britches" to the kids and I love all the life lessons we are learning. The father teaches Little Britches that he shouldn't ask questions about things that he can figure out for himself. This is something I really want to teach to my kids. Not because I'm a great Mom and teacher but because I would just like them to shut up sometimes so I can think my own thoughts.

A couple weeks ago we were driving home from a very stressful activity and I thought I would lose my mind if I had to answer one more question. I had to say, "No more questions! If you have a question that you can't answer for yourself then write it down and ask me later!"

This brought so many more questions to their little minds that I could practically see them oozing out of their eyeballs. It's a well know fact that if you make a child think with their mouth closed then their head will explode and I wanted to see how long that would take.

I could see it all in their eyes, "But how can I write my questions down when I don't have a pencil or paper? If I can't ask my question then how will I remember it long enough to write it down when we get home? I can't even remember the last time I ate. Did we eat breakfast this morning? Am I hungry? I'm awake so I must be hungry. When and what are we going to be eating next or will I starve to death? I've never starved to death before, not that I can remember, but I feel certain that starvation is imminent and I might cease to exist if I don't hear every detail of the next 24 hours of my life over and over and over again. Where are we going? What are we doing? What's for dinner? Why doesn't my Mother love me? Now what were we talking about again? I think I'll ask Mom and then I'll find out when we're going to the nickel arcade because I never seem to get a straight answer about that."

"Mom?"

"Don't say it!"

"But I didn't say anything!"

"Yes you did. You were going to ask me a question."

"No I wasn't. I was just going to say, when are we..."

"That's a question!"

"Ok, are we..."

"Another question!"

"Well then I don't know how to ask you without using a question!"

"That's the whole point! Don't ask it!"


Oh and Little Britches also drinks coffee, starts supporting the family when he's 9 and gets beaten with a 2X4 for stealing. I'm thinking about how we're going to work those into our homeschool as well.

The Potty Training Diaries

Last Month

I'm a Lovely little girl who turned two in February. My Mom says I'm ready to learn how to use the potty but I already know all about it. She lets me sit on it whenever I want. I like dragging my little stool over to climb up by myself and perch dangerously on the end of it. The best part is when I get down and unroll as much of the toilet paper as I can before my Mom takes it away and rolls it back up. She’s always ruining my stuff but I’ll work on it again later when she’s not looking.

Wednesday May 9th

One day when we went to the Lib-ary we came home with lots of new books. These books were different from any that I have ever seen and my Mom wanted to read them to me 37 times a day. I let her because her lap is so soft and warm and the naked babies made me giggle.

Wednesday May 16th

Today we came home from the Lib-ary with a new mooey (movie). Usually my Mom doesn’t let me watch mooey’s. I have to say, “Pweese can a watch a mooey Mommy? Pa-weese?” If I pucker up my lips just right and look really cute she might say yes but she lets me watch this mooey whenever I want. I really like the first part but then a Daddy appears and starts saying stuff I don’t understand so I have to say, “No Daddy! Daddy, quiet!”

Friday May 18th

My Mom took my wet diaper off this morning and then never put a new one back on again. I got to run around the house and say, “Naked bum! Naked bum bum!” It was fun until my sister knocked me into a cupboard and I got an owwie on my bum. Diapers are good for lots of things. They make it so it doesn’t hurt when you fall down.

Once when no one was paying any attention to me and I was in the bathroom working on a roll of toilet paper I climbed up on the potty for a minute. Later everyone got pretty excited when my sister discovered my itsy bitsy poo poo floating in the bowl. She immediately called a family counsel around the scene of the crime and everyone gave an official statement declaring that the evidence did not belong to them. Everyone cheered and clapped for some reason except for Daddy. Mom said he wasn’t convinced by the unsubstantiated evidence even after hearing the expert testimony.

Later that evening I spilled a big glass of water behind the couch. Except that it wasn’t water and it didn’t come out of a glass. I’m not sure how that happened.

Saturday May 19th

My Mom still won’t give me a diaper to wear and she won’t let me sit on anything but a plastic bean bag chair. She says she doesn’t want me peeing on the couch. It sounds like crazy talk to me. I had a tiny “accident” on the kitchen floor but then my Mom ran me to the bathroom and I spilled some more in the toilet.

It was so much fun that I used the potty all day long. My Mom was so happy and she took me to the store to buy new panties. She said my sister’s panties were too big for me and she didn’t think safety pins would fix them just right like my sister thought they would but she let me wear them to the store anyway. When we picked out my new panties I had to try them on right then and there. I loved all the funny animals on them!

I didn’t have any accidents and I even used the potty while we were at the store but as soon as I walked two steps inside our house I peed all over myself and the floor. That made me cry but my Mom said it was a nice thing for me to do because I had waited till we got home.

Sunday May 20th

I woke up this morning all soaking wet again. I thought I was wearing a diaper but my Mom said they were only plastic training pants and that I wasn’t supposed to pee in them. Well maybe she shouldn’t have fed me pepper jack cheese quesadillas last night for dinner then. It takes a lot of water to put that fire out!

Mom let me wear my new panties to Church! Usually we go to the nursery but today we spent three hours going to the bathroom and I still managed to have an accident in the hall. She said I would be wearing my “crocks” from now on because they will be better at catching leaks than my pretty flowered sandals. She said she is going to make a million dollars selling her new idea for, “Potty Training Shoes”.

Monday May 21st

My Mom was so excited when I got up this morning because my jammies were all dry. But then she found out that my blanket and sheets were soaking wet and she said I was pretty talented for soaking my bed but not my jammies.

I told my Mom that my bum hurt but I couldn’t go poop so she read me stories while she stuffed dried apricots into my mouth. They were good! Later I wore my plastic pants to the gym and kept them dry the whole time even though I hadn’t peed in the potty since I woke up (DRY!) from my nap. Every time my Mom put me on the potty I said, “I can’t tinkle!” This time I didn’t wait till I got in the house. I peed and pooped in my pants as I was getting out of the car.

I don’t think I like this potty training business because before we went to the gym my Mom got frustrated that I wouldn’t pee in the potty. I didn’t want to try and I cried when she put me on the toilet. Then she said she would give me a piece of candy if I would pee and that made me cry even more so she gave me the candy anyway. She said she knew it was a bad idea but she didn’t want my brother to be late for tennis and she lost her head.

When we got home she said I was starting to get sick because my nose was running and all I did was cause trouble. I called it finding the sugar drawer but she called it a mess both times. She tried reading stories after she got me cleaned up but I didn’t like them. I put my feet in her face and kicked the book until she got tired of that game and sent me to bed.

If I am my Mother then who is she?

Don't you hate it when you decide the milk is spoiled after the glass is already empty?

"Hmmm, this milk tastes a little funny but it must be because it is whole milk and I'm not used to drinking whole milk."

"I don't think this milk tastes right but I can't really tell so it must be fine. If it were spoiled I would definitely know it."

"Ok, I really think this milk might be spoiled. I'd better take another drink just to make sure."

"Ewww! Spoiled! If there were any left I would so be throwing it down the sink in disgust!"

What kind of freak drinks an entire glass of spoiled milk? Does that sound familiar? Anyone remember the Easter Egg incident of '79? Mother?

The last couple weeks I have been the perpetrator of some very suspicious behavior and I knew it was going to catch up to me sooner than later. The person who left me a comment saying that my milk would last longer if I didn't keep it in the door can go ahead and say they told me so but there are darker forces at work here.

If we were to drink milk in chronological order like we're supposed to then we would never have spoiled milk but when Psycho (and apparently I don't know how to spell that because I had to Google it) Organizing Mom starts de-cluttering the milk shelf, strange things can happen and I'm not just talking about swigging from the jug when the kids aren't looking. You know the whole peas porridge story where you just keep adding stuff to the leftover stew until it's 57 years old? Ok, it's kind of like that but with milk.

If your girls drink red milk and the rest of you are drinking blue milk then you have two half empty jugs of milk in the fridge at all times. That's enough to give any organizer a panic attack! When you buy two new jugs of milk why not just mix the old jugs together to make more room in the fridge?

You're never eating at my house again, are you?

Everyone said I was going to kill someone with my organizing one day. Or were they talking about my Mom with the Thanksgiving turkey? Either way the Boy Scouts didn't seem a bit bothered by the brownies we made today so our cooking can't be that bad. But then they didn't have milk in them. Or Turkey.

I promise I am not a complete drop out when it comes to food safety. I even squirt liquid soap onto the side of the sink before I touch raw chicken so I can use it to wash my hands afterwards without contaminating the soap dispenser. How about if that is my organizing tip for the day?

Oh, and I have another one too. Do you ever freeze your milk? Pour a cup of milk out of the jug first so it has room to expand as it freezes and make sure you put the milk in your sink to thaw several hours before you need it because it takes forever. Now you will never run out of milk again. Except for when you use the frozen milk and then forget to replace it and then forget that you already used it and then you cry a little because now you can't have your daily granola fix for breakfast the next morning.

You give it a try and I promise I'll be good with the milk from now on. Mostly.

4 Secrets To Lazy Potty Training

Did I say my two year old was ready to potty train? Was she ever!!! She has just spent two days using the potty and we are not turning back. We bought new panties at the store today so no more diapers for us. Can you believe we went to the store in our undies? Yes! All of us were wearing undies. Of course we had clothes over them too but not one single one of us wore diapers to the store. It was scary but true.

I am feeling like an expert potty trainer at this point so I'm going to post all my secrets before I figure out that the entire day was an accident and I have no idea what I'm talking about.

1. First of all you must have a two year old that obeys everything you say and never argues. If you don't have a child like that I highly suggest you get one. We were successful on our third try. Results may vary.
2. Next, you know your child is ready to potty train when she is interested in watching other people go potty, when she can clearly communicate with you, "You go poo poo Mommy? Huh? You need wipe your bum Mommy? You use toilet paper? Huh Mommy?", when she hides to poop in her diaper and when she screams, "WET DIAPER!" while ripping the offensive article from her body each time she pees .
3. Thirdly you will want to get several potty books and read them to your toddler for two weeks straight. Get one with songs you can memorize. You won't actually be allowed to sing the songs while your child is going potty but they are fun to learn anyway. Wait until you're driving your nine year old and his friends around. That might be a more appropriate time to display your potty musical skills.
4. Lastly you must have a 7 year old who thinks it's fun to take your toddler to the bathroom 27 times a day and read stories to her while she goes potty. She must enjoy helping her wipe her bum and wash her hands and know all the right moments to clap and cheer. If you don't have one of these then you can borrow mine. She is booked through next week so get on her schedule as soon as possible.

That's it! Just follow these four easy steps to potty training and you will also find yourselves going to the store in your undies. Just please don't try on your new undies in the middle of the pantie isle while you're there, no matter how cute your bum bum is.

Never mind. If it's that cute then go ahead.

Smart Habit Saturday

Participate in SHS for 3 out of 4 weeks in May to be entered in a drawing for Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell and of course I will make you an Organizing Bag to put it in. I love the book and I love his products at The Clean Team. If you want to be entered in the drawing, e-mail me the links to your entries when you're done with three of them. That makes it so much easier for me and I'm all about my life being easier!

If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

My goal this month is to be in bed by 9:00 to read, asleep by 10:30 and up by 6:30.

I'm still not getting up as early as I want but I am getting much better at getting the kids and I to bed by nine. They are getting used to the new schedule but sometimes they have a difficult time falling asleep when it's still light outside! I really have got to get some window coverings made for their windows. Victor has a blanket in his window and the girls don't have anything!

So I have been setting my alarm for 6:30 and dragging myself out of bed by 6:45. Unfortunately I still don't have time to do any studying before little Lovely gets up around 7:15. It takes me about that long to do my morning devotional and check my e-mail. I just don't see how this is ever going to work. Even waking up at 6:30 makes me exhausted for the rest of the day. How will I ever get up at 6:00??? I just wish I was one of those people who only needed 6 hours of sleep!

Ok, that's enough whining for one night. Now tell me about your habits!

Here are the other habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are already habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life!

Getting to bed early, again - still working on it
Crafts with kids - Working on it.
Using Crock Pot - Great and loving it!
Paperwork, again, and again - failing
Have lunch ready by Noon - Ok
Turn Off Computer during chores - Good
Become a Dresser - Good
Playing games with my kids - Terrible
Reading my Church Magazine - Great!
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Good
Clear Counters - Great
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Habit
Daily Prayer - Habit
Clean Toilet - Not great

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Punished by Rewards

If Punished by Rewards and No Contest by Alfie Kohn are two of my favorite books why haven't I posted about them before? Oh I know, because I'm lazy. But I do mention them in my article today at GNMParents.

Let me preface it by saying that a Scout leader’s job is very difficult. I have first hand knowledge of this fact because I did it for 10 months and hated just about every minute of it! I know, I'm terrible!

I think it would have been fun if it hadn’t just been way more than I could handle. Instead of the 5-6 boys that the guidelines suggest, we had two leaders trying to control 14 eight year olds who really just wanted to be running wild at every moment. We also had a handicapped boy who needed the full attention of one of us or else he wasn’t able to participate.

Don’t even get me started on planning activities and trying to keep track of all their achievements and awards! I know some people have the patience and skill for a job like that but I obviously do not. All Hail to you Scout Leaders out there!

Now go read my article!

Our Neighbors Are So Hating Us Right Now

(My nine year old took these photos for me because I was too lazy to do it myself. He takes good photos but his prices are steep.)

Organize your Squeezy Shaky

Several months ago someone posted a WFMW that I loved. Thank you whoever you are! She said to put sour cream in a squeeze bottle to squeeze on tacos and burritos. So fun and not messsy! We go through a lot of sour cream and jam on crepes so my kids love our Sour Squeezy. Apparently we eat way more crepes that the average person should be allowed to eat. I hope it's a phase that my seven year old is going through.

The only problem I had was getting the sour cream into the small bottle opening. Help! Then I came up with a solution to spoon it into a baggy, cut the bottom corner off and then squeeze it into the squeeze bottle. That is a lot of squeezing!

Squeezing the sour cream onto the crepes was so thrilling that I got the idea to fill a squeeze bottle with jam as well. I dumped the jam into the blender and blended it smooth. That made it easy to pour into the squeeze bottle and kept the bottle from getting plugged up with fruit chunks. I bought more bottles at a dollar store, 3/$1, so I could get the entire jar of jam organized at once. Yes, you can organize jam! I can't really think of anything more organized than squeezy jam. I'm sure you can buy it already squeezy but blending your own squeeze is a lot more fun.


My other idea for today is a Raisin Shaker. You never knew you needed a Raisin Shaker did you? I didn't either until I found this bottle in a box in my pantry and was determined to come up for a use for it. I bought it at a garage sale to use for salad dressing but I think it makes a much better Raisin Shaker.

You can shake your Raisin Shaker and you can shake your booty but please don't ever shake your Crack Baby.

(You can stop watching after the Raisin Shakin because the excitement is pretty much over at that point.)


How exciting is it that I didn't clean my kitchen for this production? And I don't know why we did this on the floor except that we wanted you to see all the dust and garbage under the kitchen cabinet.

Where we get to make poo poo jokes without getting in trouble.

Inspire not Require

This is one of the eight keys to A Thomas Jefferson Education. Do you have the talent to inspire your kids to greatness or do you most often resort to requiring? This was best described by Shannon Cannon at a TJEd retreat I went to two weeks ago. "It's your choice. You can either be inspired or I WILL require!" Don't you feel like that some times?



My two year old is ready to be potty trained. I am ready for my two year old to be potty trained. I am not ready to potty train my two year old.

Last year I was indecisive of whether I would inspire Lovely to potty train or if I would require it like I did with my older two. They were both potty trained, day and night, by two and a half. It was a long ugly (stinky) battle but I emerged victorious with many casualties on both sides. Cotton panties are supposed to be disposable right?

Now that the time has come I can't seem to force myself to require potty training. Am I too old and tired for the fight or am I now a wise and loving Mother? I'm voting for wise and loving so it's time to get inspiring!

Ok, but how do you inspire a two year old to potty train herself?

We made our weekly visit to the library yesterday and came home with lots of poopy books. The older kids were shocked, "Ewww, that's disgusting Mom!" Animals pooping, little girls pooping, poo poo in the potty, poo poo on the floor, poo poo at the zoo. Naked bums, poo poo holes, poopy diapers. Who knew there were so many details to be read, studied and giggled over??? When Daddy gets home we will be all about sphinct@rs and r@ctums (nothing funnier than teaching a two year old to saying sphinct@r) but until then we get elephant Doo Doo at the Zoo and we're doin' the

*Tushy Pushy
(sung to the tune of "The Hokey Pokey")

You pull your undies down.
You take the potty out.
You sit your bottom down,
And you push the poopy out.
You do the Tushy Pushy
Till the poop is in the pot.
That's what it's all about!

If that's not enough to get her *Itsy Bitsy Poo Poo dropping in the potty then I don't know what will. "

Are you feeling inspired yet Lovely? It's up to you. You can be inspired or I WILL require!"

*From Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Tot by Bruce Lansky

Smart Habit Saturday

Participate in SHS for 3 out of 4 weeks in May to be entered in a drawing for Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell and of course I will make you an Organizing Bag to put it in.. I love the book and I love his products at The Clean Team. If you want to be entered in the drawing, e-mail me the links to your entries when you're done with three of them. That makes it so much easier for me and I'm all about my life being easier!

If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

Thank you all for not giving up on your habits! It takes hard work but even if you are only doing one habit a month then you are making serious changes in your life. The list is long of things I want to change but I know I can do it because I have about 50 more years to work on it!

My goal this month is to be in bed by 9:00 to read, asleep by 10:30 and up by 6:30. I failed miserably this week! I think I only got up before 7:00 twice. I knew this was going to be a difficult habit for me so I will be working on it for a long time.

Over the last two weeks of trying this out I have learned that the kids have to start getting ready for bed by 7:00. If they're in bed by 8:00 they can read for an hour and then lights out at nine when I go to bed. When we get home late from things like Scouts or when Daddy is home none of this happens and we end up with tired kids, a grumpy Mom and all around chaos.

It's a vicious cycle. I stay up too late so I'm tired the next day so I take a nap so I stay up too late. Tonight we're all going to bed early. It's 7:41 and the kids are all in bed! They have a 4-H activity at 9:00 in the morning. Victor (nine) has planned all week for everyone to go to bed at 7:00 so they can get up early and get their jobs done before we go. He was about ready to strangle his sisters (seven and two) for not cooperating with his plan but he has finally wrangled them both to bed!

Here are the rest of the habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life!

Getting to bed early - failing!
Crafts with kids - Working on it.
Using Crock Pot - Great
Paperwork, again, and again - failing
Have lunch ready by Noon - Good
Turn Off Computer during chores - Surprisingly I am doing this really well.
Become a Dresser, Playing games with my kids and reading my Church Magazine - Yay, I got my Conference Edition this week!
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Good
Clear Counters - Great
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Habit
Daily Prayer - Habit
Clean Toilet - Good

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

7 Things

Thea tagged me for a meme so I will not procrastinate. I will get memming! Is it possible that there are seven things you don't know about me?

1. I love to listen to opera but I hate watching it. Singing is not acting people! No, I don't watch musicals either. Well maybe a few good ones like My Fair Lady and Fiddler on the Roof but I definitely don't memorize the songs. Ok, maybe some of the songs but I don't know any of the dances and that's the truth.
2. I broke one of my fingers off in a sewing machine accident when I was 24. I had just started dating Stranger and he held my hair while I threw up for two hours after my surgery to reattach my finger. I knew he had seen too much and I would have to marry him after that.
3. I have deformed toenails on my little toes. It's all my Grandpa's fault.
4. I used to love animals when I was growing up. Now, not so much. Anything that makes more work for me is not my friend. That's why I thought buying a farm would definitely be the way to go.
5. I fell out of a car on the freeway when I was 7. I get to blame everything on brain damage.
6. I'm a gum smiler who doesn't chew gum.
7. I only wear fish hook earrings. I won't buy the kind with a separate back because I'm too lazy to put them on. I know some of you still think I'm joking about being lazy. I'm not joking.

Marcia also tagged me to show my planner but I have already revealed all! You've seen my puppies, now if you want to play along you have to show me yours. Consider yourself tagged!

Presenting the Gallagher Boy

I know I said I wasn't going to write anymore articles on teaching your kids to work so I didn't. At least not this week. Instead I asked my nine year old to write one for me! Isn't he so sweet?

Teach Your Kids to Work, Part VIII by the Gallagher Boy

We didn't want to disappoint his fans so we produced another video for you. Don't pay any attention to his flatware washing technique. Ewwww! Let's just say he was a bit distracted with all the filming and questions, ok?



Part I, Whose Job is It?
Part II, Getting Rid of the Clutter
Part III, Let Them Help
Part IV, It Takes Time
Part V, Work Together
Part VI, Learn to Practice
Part VII, Make it Easy
Part VIII, by the Gallagher Boy

Kids Can Hang Up Their Clothes