Family Friday - Entertaining Kids on a Rainy Day

Entertaining kids on a rainy day with physical activity is a breeze when you have some creative ideas up your sleeve. These fantastic ideas found at Homemaker Barbi's Family Friday are fantastic. I know I'm going to clean out the garage in particular to do some of these activities!

Physical Activities for Kids on Rainy Days

1. Sports in the garage. If you have an uncluttered basement or garage, let the kids go wild playing handball, racquetball or any other activity that keeps them moving in place.

2. Exercise in the kitchen. Even in your den or kitchen you can move the chairs aside and make room for some hula hoops and jump ropes.

3. Kids’ exercise DVDs. Kids’ exercise DVDs are good to get them jumping and moving their bodies.

4. Crazy living room dance party. Just playing loud music and having them dance up a storm will help release built up energy.

5. Hide and seek. Play a game of hide and go seek all over the house to get some movement in.

6. Obstacle course. Set up an obstacle course using household items (pillows, chairs, etc.).

7. Home fun house. Face 2 chairs across from each other and cover with pillows to create a tunnel to crawl under, line up phone books and step stools for them to climb on, turn pots upside down and let them make their way through by balancing on them.

8. Sock racing. Have slip and slide sock races down the hallway.

What are your best fun physical activities for kids on rainy days? Let us know in the comments!

Family Friday: Time to Share!

Now it’s time for you to share your Family Friday post with the rest of us! If you’re not sure how it works, read the directions and guidelines for Family Friday here.

Please add your family-related blog post below in the Mr. Linky. Remember, you MUST link your post back to HomemakerBarbi.com. (If your link was deleted, email us.)

Confirmation Gifts - Survival Kits From God

For some reason I cannot find the original post that I made on this. I found the photos of my "final" creations. I have one male and one female cousin in grade 8 who received the Catholic sacrament of Confirmation.










I did a quick Internet search on creative gift ideas for these kids who have it all but would also be meaningful in a spiritual way. So I came up with these. I used baby jars (which I have lots of these days) and decorated them to give away. I hot glued buttons on one and pennies on the other. I also wrote a list of what was included in the jar as if it were a note from the big G-O-D man himself. I soaked the paper in tea and cut it in an uneven, scroll-like way to age it. I thought it turned out fantastic. I'm not sure of the recipients' reaction... so hard to read a 13/14 year old.

My Boy in the Garden

The swing set is now at the back of the yard. This is great except for the fact that it draws the attention of the youngsters to the "garden" of rocks, weeds, trees and flowers that exist at the back of the yard.

I attempted to clean out one small garden by de-weeding and placing specified border of rocks around it so they could tell garden from other. I also put a wood-chipped path (which I have to de-weed again as you can see in these photos. Here is my young Travis enjoying the path (and gnawing on a stick he found ~sigh!).

Our Swing Set

Wow, I really am behind. We've had this swing set up and running since May (it was Mommy's Mother's Day gift to get it all assembled). Here it is as it went up ...





















And here are the kids loving it in its assembled glory. This is the best Mother's Day gift EVER!!

Dressing for Winter in Balmy Weather

I finally had a moment to go through photos on the camera. I'm working on cleaning up the memory card for more current photos.

I had forgotten but in April, during a balmy spell, the crazy kids decided to dress up like it was the middle of a winter storm. Do you think they would let me dress them like this as easily when it actually was a blizzard outside? Of course not ... Enjoy.

I Am Thankful

Thank you to Mom who sent me this forward on a particularly bad day. It made me appreciate my life and relax.

I Am Thankful

For The Wife.
Who Says It's Hot Dogs Tonight,
Because She Is Home With Me,
And Not Out With Someone Else.

For The Husband
Who Is On The Sofa
Being A Couch Potato,
Because He Is Home With Me
And Not Out At The Bars.

For The Teenager
Who Is Complaining About Doing Dishes
Because It Means She Is At Home,
Not On The Streets.

For The Taxes I Pay
Because It Means I Am Employed

For The Mess To Clean After A Party
Because It Means I Have Been Surrounded By Friends.

For The Clothes That Fit A Little Too Snug.
Because It Means I Have Enough To Eat.

For My Shadow That Watches Me Work
Because It Means I Am Out In The Sunshine

For A Lawn That Needs Mowing,
Windows That Need Cleaning,
And Gutters That Need Fixing?
Because It Means I Have A Home

For All The Complaining
I Hear About The Government
Because It Means We Have Freedom Of Speech.

For The Parking Spot
I Find At The Far End Of The Parking Lot
Because It Means I Am Capable Of Walking
And I Have Been Blessed With Transportation

For My Huge Heating Bill
Because It Means I Am Warm.

For The Lady Behind Me In Church
Who Sings Off Key
Because It Means I Can Hear.

For The Pile Of Laundry And Ironing
Because It Means I Have Clothes To Wear.

For Weariness And Aching Muscles
At The End Of The Day
Because It Means I Have Been Capable Of Working Hard.

For The Alarm That Goes Off
In The Early Morning Hours
Because It Means I Am Alive.

Shh ~ Just Listen to Me

I went to the doctor's to see why I am feeling so out of control. She sat there and chatted with me (which was good) but she didn't listen to me ~ more like talked to me. Why do people think that they are helping by spewing a bunch of advice that you either already know or that you didn't ask for. I felt it was a useless appointment and that someone was more interested in solving things than in helping me talk through it. Counseling doesn't work because the counselor is only available during the day. This causes more stress as I have a home daycare and cannot make regular appointments.

And now it is time for vacation. I'll be packing throughout the day to try to alleviate the potential stress it could cause. I also have a plan to "surface" organize as I go through each room. I just hope the tornado trail of children isn't too bad at tearing things apart behind me as I go.

10 Ways You Can Prevent Over-Spending

Thank you to Simple Mom for the post on how you can prevent over-spending (click on the title of this post to be directed to the original article link).

1. Plan – Know what you need and want.

2. Compare – Do your comparison shopping.

3. Budget – Set a financial limit.

4. Use cash – Credit cards are dangerous. 5. Save first, spend later – Put away money before you spend.

6. Keep busy – Fill your day with interesting activities.

7. Be rational – Emotional spending is almost always bad.

8. Be creative and flexible – There is very little you absolutely need.

9. Think experiences – Enrich your life without the “stuff.”

10. Negotiate – Understand that you have a right to save your money.

On Having Been Absent

I am SO sorry for ignoring my blog. I weaned off my depression medication around the second week of June and I have been so inconsistent in my moods and energy levels.

Do you suffer from depression, anxiety or moodiness? How do you deal with it?

The Day of Poo

**POST WARNING - not for the weak stomached.

The 3 year old (Ava) had the stinkiest poop ~ and she decided to do it in a pull-up that was only on "in case". If you want gory details, she overflowed the diaper with pee (so much so that it was streaming down her leg) so when I waded through that and pulled off her sopping shorts to open the diaper and say it exploded on me (with poop) was an understatement. It was even in her socks and shoes!

The 18 month old (Travis) also decided to poop right before his nap. No big deal, right? Well, I opened the crotch snaps on his outfit and it was down to his knees. So I shoved him into the tub screaming and whining the whole time because a) he doesn't want a bath and b) he is tired because it is nap time. How does it get on his hands? Ugh. So I clean him up, put him to bed and find chunks of poo on the (NEW) carpet in my bedroom. Not too bad as it's only a few of them. Then I go downstairs to find blobs of poo on our rug. I suppose these splotches are where he decided to plop on the floor from standing to sitting and then continued on. It looks like he did this a half-dozen times. The final masterpiece was walking into the kitchen and finding a good chunk of poo waiting for me. I am so grateful that none of the other babies from the daycare decided to taste-test ... ugh!! (okay, now I feel like gagging).

Ways to Save Money on Laundry

Thanks again to Homemaker Barbi for her tips on how to save money when doing laundry. Here is a summary of her tips.

1. Buy Energy Star rated appliances.

2. Cut dryer sheets in half.

3. Dilute laundry detergent in the bottle with water.

4. Use less detergent and liquid fabric softener.

5. Clean the lint trap before every load of laundry.

6. Line dry your clothes.

7. Create a hybrid drying routine.

8. Do less laundry.

9. Double up 1/2 loads of laundry and only dry full loads.

10. Dry loads back to back.

11. Double spin clothes in the washer.

12. Use vinegar in the wash instead of fabric softener (1/4 cup). Smaller loads need smaller amounts, unless you want to smell vinegar on your clean clothes! This cheap alternative to liquid fabric softener will save money on your laundry supply budget for certain.

13. Wash in the coldest temperature recommended for your clothes.

I was reading The Creative Mama and her post about The Two-Piece Suit where she bought her self a two-piece bathing suit even though she hasn’t lost all the baby weight and believes she certainly doesn’t have a two-piece body. The power of her post is that she "made a decision, a conscious choice to push aside my self-image issues, my insecurities about my post-two-babies-body, and the lingering voice inside of me that says 'I’ll just let the hubbie take them swimming'."And because she donned this admirable attitude, she didn’t miss out.

I think this post hit home especially for me because I have been contemplating registering our children for swimming lessons and I had the same internal dialogue as The Creative Mama. I have had two babies, darn it! I have never claimed to have the perfect bathing suit body and my kids and hubby don't really care. They just want to be with me as a FAMILY. And so I am going to post this blog and proceed to register all of us for parent and tot swim lessons. Yep, two kiddies and their mommy and daddy will swim (or we'll hold them) together twice a week for a glorious 30 minutes of splashes and giggles and quality time. I can't wait.

Happy Canada Day!

I was getting frustrated while e-searching July holiday menus and craft ideas and mainly having July 4th recipes and ideas popping up. Nothing wrong with July 4th - if you are American. So today (of course on Canada Day itself) I found some really cool links on celebrating the big Maple Leaf day.

Canada Day Menu and Your 100 top Canadian Things ~ thank you Homemakers.com

A summary of the Homemakers top 10 Canadian favourites include:
10. Tim Hortons
9. The beautiful Canadian Rocky Mountains
8. Fresh water
7. Hockey
6. Health care
5. Freedom
4. Our changing seasons
3. The Canadian character
2. The landscape
1. Multiculturalism