Spring Cleaning (In A Nutshell)

It's almost Spring time!  It's almost here!  The birds are singing, the sky is blue; life is good!  Winter is nearly over...wait, I live in Alberta and we just got 10 cm of snow last weekend.  Nevermind!  Nevertheless, it's the time of  year when people start getting antsy about being stuck inside and start thinking ahead to Spring Cleaning.  Do those words chill you to the bone?  Would you rather get a root canal than tackle the mess and clutter in your home?  HAVE NO FEAR!  YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!  When I first started thinking about all of the cleaning that I needed to do, I was ready to throw in the towel and just move.  However, once I sat down and started to organize what needed to be done (everything!) and when I had time to do it (approximately 4 years from now), the task seemed a bit less daunting.  And of course, when all else fails, check for a solution at Pinterest.com!  Seriously, I am mildly addicted to Pinterest, and could very happily lose myself there for hours!!  But I digress.

Let's get organized!  First of all, you are going to make a list.  If you've been following my Blog or if you know me at all, you know how CRAZY I am for lists!  They make my world go 'round, and they make me a much more organized (and thereby much happier!) Mama and Wife.

Please keep in mind as we go through this that my house has not been THOROUGHLY cleaned since we moved in 3 years ago.  Before you panic and don a Hazmat suit, this does NOT mean that I don't clean my house.  I vacuum daily and clean bathrooms 2-3 times per week, do laundry and dishes daily etc. The purpose of this Spring Cleaning event for me is to give the house a real deep clean, to get those areas that are often neglected (like under furniture and washing baseboards/walls).  This is probably FAR more extreme than what most folks will want to do, but I want to be thorough.  I figure, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it well.  I've been REALLY struggling with the clutter and "stuff" in my house, so this is a great way to purge old, unwanted things while you clean.  Again, I digress.  Back to your list!


Now on your list, you are going to break your home down into rooms or areas.  Here's mine:

  

This list is on two pages, and unfortunately doesn't even cover my whole house.  Missing from here are the Laundry Room, the downstairs bathroom, the Playroom and hubby's office.  But that's another list for another day.  With this round of cleaning, I decided to tackle upstairs, as this is our main living area, and thus are the areas that need the most work.  If you are anal about your lists, you may want to do a page for each  room that you plan to clean.  That way, you'll have more room when you (inevitably) forget something.  I'm not super worried about it, though, although now that I am looking at it, I'm definitely considering it :) 

Once you have your list in hand, go through every room that you plan to clean and take note of what needs to be done.  Let's look at the heading "Spare Room".  In that room, we have a credenza that is FULL of my Pampered Chef information, we have a bed, two small dressers and a closet that is used for storage.  There is also a bookshelf full of movies, and a window with venetian blinds.  So just from taking a look at my Spare Room, I can see that I have at least 8 jobs to do in that room, not including washing baseboards/walls.  So I am making notes on my list of what I want to do.  Now go through each room that you are cleaning and continue making note of what you want to do.  If you only want to spruce things up a bit, then you don't need to be this detailed.  If you want to do it all and paint the house at the same time, you may want to go into a bit more detail.  

Once you have a list made (and after your heart palpitations stop), now is the time to start assigning these tasks to specific days.  I don't often do one room all at once.  I find that if I break it up into different rooms, then I am MUCH more likely to complete everything.  If I am stuck in one room for hours on end, I am likely to get bored and just shove everything under the bed in an attempt to create more room.  However, then the job just sits there waiting for me, and it seems to quadruple in size before I get a chance to get back to it.  So by getting small jobs done one-at-a-time, chances are, you'll get things done more efficiently and completely.  

This is the point where you are going to want to pull out your calendar and assign things to specific days.  And be reasonable when you are doing this step.  If you are rushed or have other distractions, you are probably going to give up on the chore you are completing and it will just sit there, undone and mocking you.  Take a look at what you have going on, and assign from there.  Don't try to do more than one or two tasks in one day if you have something else going on (like a meeting outside of the house, a party to attend or taking kids to/from school).  You'll only get rushed and frustrated.  At our house, I know that on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays Jellybean has school, so I don't plan anything super time-intensive or super laborious on those days.  I also have a 15-month-old that I baby-sit, so I know that I don't want to do anything involving chemicals or things that will distract me from keeping an eye on her while she's here.  So take a look at what you and your family have going on, and go from there.  This may take you a few weeks to complete, but that's OK.  The point is that you are doing it, and creating a healthier, cleaner home for your family!  Don't get discouraged.  Even if you only do a few things on your list, it's all good :)

I was on (you guessed it) Pinterest, and came across a webpage called A Pair of Pears, and they had an AWESOME to-do list with a free Printable.  This is completely a superfluous step, but I love how pretty and organized it is :) 

The days that Jellybean has school are really simple, non-labor-intensive jobs that I can take on throughout the day while BabyL naps, and even that I can do with her "help".  I really had thought that I would tackle everything at once, but that was SO intimidating, I wanted to quit before I had even started!  So I am taking it one day at a time, inspired by the Spring Cleaning Challenge.  I can do this at my own pace when I have time, and it doesn't seem like such a big job when it's arranged this way.  My sister-in-law actually gave me a great idea to use a board in each room with sticky notes of each chore that needs to be done in each room, and then as you complete each task, you recycle the sticky note.  I think that would be hugely motivating to see the sticky notes disappear! 

However, that's another blog for another day :)  Happy cleaning, everyone!!

'Tis The Season

I can't believe how fast this month has gone!  Here we are 10 days before Christmas, 15 days away from 2013, and I feel like I'm still stuck back in May! 

We are BIG fans of Christmas in our house, and this year is no exception!  We have Baba and Bumpa joining us for Christmas this year, and we are so excited!  Jellybean has been counting down the days on her advent calendar.  Wait, advent calendars.  Every year, we do a traditional Advent calendar that Baba actually made for me when I was in University.  Jelly has taken it over, and it is now our traditional calendar that we use every year.  

This year, we decided to add another fun calendar, that also combined a craft.  We saw this idea on Pinterest from inviting printables, and we loved it!!  

And of course, we had to do the chocolate calendar,  just for good measure :)  

One thing we decided to do this year as well was a book advent calendar.  We've talked a few times about Over The Big Moon on here, because they are FANTASTIC!  I am on their email list, and I love all of the creative and fun ideas that pop up in my inbox each day!   Jellybean loves them, too, as it means more fun stuff for her!  

The 25 days of books is awesome as an advent calendar for a few reasons.  First, we use it each day for number recognition and number matching.  She has the quilted calendar that she does each night, and she matches the number on the package to the number on the calendar.  It's amazing how much she has learned this month from that alone! 

To get started, grab a roll of paper, some tape, a felt and enough books for each day in December leading up to Christmas.    Please note:  the chocolates are optional, but always a nice addition :)

Then, just wrap them up!  If you wanted to, you could wrap them in Christmas paper and use bows.  We chose to use art paper from IKEA, for $4.99 per roll.  We used less than a roll for the whole month, and Jelly gets the rest for crafts!

Once you've got everything wrapped, label the books with one number for each day.  You may want to do this step as you wrap them, so you can keep track of them.  We kept a few books for specific days, like the Night Before Christmas for Christmas Eve, the Polar Express for the night before that so was can watch the movie as well.  Not all of the books are specifically for Christmas, so any about snowmen or snow  and things like that were given at the beginning of the month, and anything Santa or Christmas related were given closer to Christmas.  We also gave her a few that focused on the birth of Christ, to help her learn that Christmas isn't just about presents, that there is a religious aspect to it, too.  I think she loved those books best of all, and she has continued to read them each day.

We keep our books in a pile next to our Christmas tree.  Then, as she does her advent calendar each day, she gets to pick out the one for the day and we read it at bed time. 
Definitely a tradition we will continue next year!

Some of the books we used are:

The Night Before Christmas

The Polar Express

Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner

The Berenstein Bears and the Nutcracker

Santa's Magic Bag by Susan Karnavosky

It's Snowing by Gail Gibbons

And several more which, of course, I can't recall.  But we will post a complete list after they are all open!

Happy Holidays!

Preschool Packs

I am a BIG believer in allowing your child to play, explore and learn (who isn't?)  I LOVE it when Jellybean is using her hands to do puzzles, or counting things, or singing the alphabet song, or counting things around the house.  She loves to keep busy, and she really enjoys things that activate different parts of her brain.  And, let's be honest, a busy child is a happy child!  Think about it;  If your child is lethargic and watching TV all day, not only is (s)he going to be lacking energy, but (s)he isn't learning anything, either!  We found that with Jellybean.  I was busy working or doing whatever it was that I was doing, so the TV went on.  And she would sit there and watch TV.  Even if it was just for 20 minutes while I was making dinner or doing laundry, that was still 20 minutes where her brain wasn't engaged in what she was doing.  Her brain had shut off and was in cruising mode, as she zoned out staring at her show. 

So, long story short, I started looking online (Yay, Pinterest!!), and discovered an absolute gem of a page, Over The Big Moon.  WOW!!  These ladies do some amazing work, and you should definitely head over there to check them out!  They have created hundreds of printable sheets that you can print (duh!) and then laminate and cut out for your kids to use over and over.  There are counting sheets, pre-writing sheets, coloring sheets, matching games, cutting skill sheets, puzzles and so much more.


Jelly absolutely ADORES these!!  We did an Autumn pack, and now we are working our way through the Halloween pack.  It's fabulous! 

So here's how to prepare them:

Go to Over The Big Moon and pick out your amazing printable pack.  I would recommend doing them in color, although it's not mandatory.  It can be a bit spendy printing a bunch of pages in color, but it's definitely worth it! 

Print your items on either a plain paper or a cardstock paper.  I used cardstock for most of them, and when I ran out, I just used plain paper.  I wish that I had had more cardstock, though, because I like the firmness of the paper as it stands up a lot sturdier against a 4-year-old who's having fun!  You could also choose to laminate your cards for a longer shelf life, but again laminating can get pretty spendy, so you may only want to get a couple done at a time.  You could also use a clear contact paper and cut them out that way.  Our local Dollar Store sells rolls of clear contact paper, and we actually use it to make sun catchers with tissue paper (but that's another post for another day :) 

Anyways, you print them out, you laminate them if you want to, and then you play!  I divided ours up into different bags, to keep all of the parts together for each game/activity. 

I use inexpensive Dollar Store bags to store the various pieces.  Then I stick them all in an extra-large zipper bag to keep it all together, and then they all stack neatly on a shelf for storage! 

Then, I can just pull one or two out at a time, rather than overwhelming Jelly with 12 bags all at once.  I find that doing it this way also really allows her to spend more time on each activity, as she isn't constantly looking for the next thing, and she can focus on one task at a time

Jellybean is concentrating VERY hard on sorting!!  Love it!!

These sheets are engaging, they are educational, and they are FUN!  Jelly doesn't even realize that she's learning when she's doing these!!  And isn't that the point?

Spoooooky!!

Jellybean is in a co-op preschool, so once per cycle, the parents get to be a parent-volunteer in the class, which basically means that for one afternoon, I get to come in and play!  I get to do crafts and hang out with the kids, and best of all, Jelly gets to be the special helper!  I am the parent helper next week, and I was struggling to think of something Halloween-related that I could bring in that would be healthy and fun.  Enter Pinterest!  I love it!! (Seriously, if you haven't discovered it yet, get on over there!  It will change your life!!)

I went over to Pimp My Dinner, and she had these super cute mandarins!  I think they're brilliant!!!!  Healthy; check!  Fun; check!  Easy; check!  LOVE IT!!

All in, these took about 10 minutes to make.  Simply purchase individually-packaged mandarin cups, and draw on a spooky face on the top with a sharpie!  Easy peasy!  Now all I need to pick up are some orange spoons to eat them with, and we're all set!  

*NOTE:  Try not to stack the cups on top of each other after you've colored them, as the sharpie ink tends to be a bit tacky afterwards for a few minutes.  Let them dry for a few minutes before you package them!

Enjoy!

I wanted to start doing some shape recognition with G, and found a wonderful website, No Time For Flash Cards.  We've used them before, and they have FANTASTIC ideas!!  This one is super simple, and I am looking forward to G playing with this!

1.  Assemble your supplies.  Foam sheets, scissors and felts.  I used Crayola, but you could use colored sharpies or whatever you prefer.  You could even glue foam shapes or stickers on if you wanted to.

2.  Color designs on your foam sheets.  To make it a bit trickier, I did a few sheets in the same color with the same design, and then I cut them out in different designs.  I also did the same basic design on the two dark green ones, but I had one go horizontal and one go vertical.  Then I cut them in half, to give a bit more of a challenge. 

3.  Cut out your foam sheets.  I cut most of mine in a straight line, but the ones that had the same designs, I cut differently to see if she can differentiate between them.  

4.  Invite your child to play!  I plan to lay out one half of each on the table, and then have the rest in a pile.  This is a super easy way to play, and it will help with pattern-recognition and shape recognition.  If you wanted to, you could also have your little one color the designs on the foam sheets.

5.  Have fun!!!  Remember that as easy as it is for mom and dad to step in and do it for them, let your LO do it him/herself.  They'll love it!!

Summer Lovin', Part 3

We decided that the last 2 legs of our trip would be filled with fun and laughter.  We got to meet two of our new nieces, and we got to create some more amazing memories for G.  We started out visiting with my brother, his wife, and his 3 beautiful girls, and it was amazing.  We went swimming, we had a wonderful visit, and G got to spend time with her cousins.  The visit was WAY too short, but for me, any time spent with family is amazing!! 

When we left my brother's, we headed straight to the Vancouver Aquarium.  G had an AMAZING time!!  She was with her best friends, and there was so much to see, learn and do, and we would do it again in a heartbeat! 

There were just a couple of things that we would have done differently. 
1.  We would have planned the financial side better.  Air Miles offers vouchers for free admission with the redemption of your miles, and that would have saved us about $40.  We also spent over $30 on food for lunch, which we could have saved by bringing something with us.  It's hard being on the road to try to plan ahead like that, but we will definitely hit a grocery store before we go next time!  A loaf of bread, a bag of chips and a jug of water would have gone a long way!

2.  We would have checked out the attractions inside the facility online ahead of time.  We wanted to go and see the film they were offering, but there was a 2 hour line-up wait, and had we checked it out ahead of time, we would have been more prepared.  We got there at opening and could have gotten into the first seating, but we didn't realize that it would have been so full so quickly!! 

And that was about it!  We had a fantastic time, and got some neat souvenirs to remember our journey!


After that, we had one more day visiting new babies, and then we went back up to Baba and Bumpa's.  We spent our time visiting with our family and swimming and having fun, and G had a blast.  She LOVES all of her aunties and uncles and grandparents SO much, that it was such a thrill for her to get to see each of them!! 

After our family time, we decided to take one last chance to spend some time with just the 3 of us, and we stopped at the Enchanted Forest.  It was started by a woman in the 50's, who created all of the figures by hand without a mold or form to shape them!  It took them 10 years to clear the paths (BY HAND!!), and then in 1960, it was opened to the public.  You can see the giant Castle along the highway, and we had driven past it dozens of times on the way to and from visiting family.  This was the first time we ever stopped there, and it was SO MUCH FUN!!  The paths are lined with fairy-tale characters, and G had a blast learning about the fairy-tales and different characters.  Daddy and I loved sharing the stories that we remembered from our childhoods, and she loved hearing them!  I don't know if we will go every year, but we will definitely go back again!  There was even a spot at the exit where you can feed the ducks and the fish that they have in a giant pond, and they have a cute gift shop at the end of the tour.  They also have a rock climbing/zip line tour that you can do, although we decided that we are not particularly athletic people, and it really held no appeal to us at all :) 


So that was our big adventure in a nut-shell!  We had the most amazing time, and I can't wait to do more traveling in the future.  Especially if all our trips are a dream like this one was!! 

Summer Lovin' (Part 2)

The biggest downer about a vacation is that they NEVER seem to be long enough.  We are in a position where my hubby gets 2 weeks of vacation per year, and we try to divide it up between our two families when we get a chance to head home.  My parents and hubby's parents live about 7 hours apart, so it's not a quick jaunt between them! 

After our (very much too short!) visit with my hubby's parents, we headed out on the road again to go visit my side of the family.  We had a couple of extra days there because one of my best friends was getting married, so there wasn't a lot of time to get visits in with my folks or my brother, but luckily, G was entertained the whole time!! 

When we left the Kootenay's, we knew it was going to be a long, hot day.  We are VERY fortunate that we FINALLY have a car with air-conditioning.  But this is the first car that has.  In the past, summer trips have been VERY hot and VERY uncomfortable.  This is definitely something to take into account as you travel.  If you are somewhat lacking in the cooling department, make sure to take extra steps to keep your little one comfortable in the backseat.  A hot child is an uncomfortable child, an uncomfortable child is often a whiny child and a whiny child makes a 3 hour trip seem like a 3 day trip!  Plan on having a cooler with cold snack and drinks in it, like veggie sticks, cold fruit and water.  Try to schedule stops at a lake or spray park.  A lot of cities have a Chamber of Commerce (or the equivalent) website, or an attractions or tourism website that will often list local parks, wading pools and spray pads.  If you can, try to schedule a lunch break or snack break at one of these places.  This will not only give your child a chance to cool off, they will get to burn off some energy, too!!  Growing up, we'd always take a summer trip to visit my grandparents.  And I remember my mom having a bag with a cold wash cloth in it. I think it was more to wash hands and faces after snacks, but it somehow always ended up being a way to cool off 3 kids in a hot back seat!!  They also have those one-time use cold packs that you crack and they become cool which could also help on those blisteringly hot days, although I would definitely use those with older kids and not with those who have the potential to put it in their mouth.  (On a side note, if you do have to travel on SUPER hot days, remember to carry some extra water for the engine, just in case!!)

One of the things that was a constant fascination to G as we went on our trip was the fact that the water levels were ridiculously high this year.  At my in-laws home in the Kootenay's, the river has taken over the beach and they have actually had to open more portions of their Dam to accommodate all of the extra water.  It was crazy, and G was suitably impressed!!

This is one of the local Dams that has had to open extra portions to keep up with the water.  Even as far away as we were from it, the noise was crazy!

This was a really neat experience for G to have with her Grandma and Papa, as they are both super knowledgeable about their local area and had a ton of information on the water and the dams, and G just thought that that was the coolest thing ever.  They took us on a tour to show the water levels and various dams in the area, and that's one of the biggest memories that she has from the trip.  For days afterwards, she'd say "Remember when we saw that water?  My Papa told me that the water is very cold and very fast, even though it doesn't look like it on the surface".  She loves looking at the pictures from our trip and remembering the cool sights that she saw.

Anyways, after our visit with hubby's parents, we hit the road.  We were on the road by about 8:30am, only 1/2 hour behind my schedule.  Now, I totally get that schedules can change.  If you are traveling with young children, if you are up with them until 4, unless your spouse/partner is sleeping so he/she can drive, you are likely not going to hit the road at 6.  It's not safe, it's not logical.  And I will guarantee you that 9 times out of 10, your little one will be so jacked up and ready to go that sleep the night before a big trip may be elusive.  We were really lucky with G, as she is a sound, deep sleeper.  So even though she was excited, she still went to sleep.  If you have little ones who get super excited and unable to sleep, you might want to hold off on telling them that you are heading to a special place until the morning of.  That way, you'll all get your beauty sleep and be fresh and ready for your trip!

We knew that the trip between parents' houses was about 7 hours, so we tried to find things that would keep G entertained on the trip.  Grandma and Papa gave G her birthday gift, princess shoes and crowns to wear!  She LOVES them, and she spent at least 2 hours in the car trying on each pair of shoes and wearing the different crowns.  She and her cousin even wore them to lunch!!  It's great to have a bored bag in the car, but it's also fun to have some new surprises every so often, like a new coloring book, or a neat craft.  Again, the Dollar store will come to your rescue!  They have all kinds of neat craft and coloring kits.  We got some that were Dora-themed that were like little mosaic tiles made of foam that you used to decorate a picture with.  Craft kits are also fun, just make sure they don't require glue or you may find your back seat a little more sticky than usual!

We had a lot of family that we wanted to visit on the way, so we took a tiny detour to get to see my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins.  It worked out perfectly because it was about 3 1/2 hours away, which is about the time that it takes for G to start getting a bit squirrelly and wanting to get out of her seat!  It was great because not only did we get a great visit with my aunt, G also got to run around and play and burn off energy!  She also got to hang out with family that she had never really met before, and it was a great experience.

Watering the wall at Auntie's house :) 

After another brief visit, we were on the road again!  This time, G slept all the way to Baba's house so we were good to go!

One thing that we really prepared for was down-time when we got to our destinations.  Because the purpose of the trip to my parents house was to go to my friends' wedding (where I was the MC!!), we wanted to make sure that when I had wedding-related things to do or when we had other stuff going on, that we had stuff for G to do.  That's where her inside bored-box came in handy.  We had her play-doh in there, some markers and a coloring book, and a painting book.  These are SUPER handy as they have the paint on the bottom of the page, all you need is water.  I didn't want to have to deal with paintbrushes, so we brought some q-tips to use instead.  We also had a container (from the Dollar store, of course!!) that had some pony beads and pipe cleaners in it to make some jewellery on the way.  You could definitely do this in the car, but beware the bumpy road!!

Now, because we were going to the wedding, and because I was involved, we had a dinner with the bride and groom's families.  It was awesome for G because there was a little girl who was the same age, and they played together famously all night.  It wasn't until the end of the night when they tried to knock each other down the stairs that there was an issue!  The only down side was that we had to leave earlier than we would have liked, to accommodate G's need for sleep.  DON'T try to push your child's limits in terms of needing to sleep or eat, or you will definitely be sorry!!!  As the bride and groom had already tied the knot in New York, the wedding that we went to was actually their reception.  In order to make sure we kept G entertained, we had brought along some goodies in her backpack, but the bride and groom also had thought ahead and had bought the girls coloring books with new crayons and puzzles to do!  Although, once the music started playing, dancing was in full force and the coloring books were completely forgotten :) 


The day after the reception, we were on the road at 7am.  Check out our next post to see more!!