Getting ready for company coming over this week for Thanksgiving? I’ll admit that cleaning the windows, mirros, and glass doors of our house is something that frequently goes by the wayside. When I do remember, I generally use a store bought window cleaner like most other people, but I find I need to wear gloves [...]
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Getting kids to do what you want them to do.
This is a challenge at some point for all parents. If you ask 20 parents how to best address this and I bet you will get 20 different answers (goal charts, time outs, spankings, etc). There are a lot of factors to consider including the child’s age, personality as well as if they are simply being forgetful, distractible or downright defiant. Mom 4 Life Kristina shares what is working for her below and we would love for you to leave a comment and let us know what works for you!
My hair ties, clips, and headbands are always getting lost. I find them in drawers, under the bed, closet floor, behind furniture. After several attempts to keep them organized, I decided to make a hair accessory holder. You can, too! It’s quick, easy, pretty, and a great way to use up scraps of fabric, ribbon, [...]
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Summer is here again and everywhere I look I see the (roughly) same pair of inexpensive plastic and rubber sandals. You can find them at different stores, often for under $3 in a wide range of colors. Who wouldn’t want to have some? Well, me. I don’t like them. Not that I’m opposed to color [...]
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The nice weather makes a perfect time to take the family out for walks. We walk quite often in my family, but until recently, my idea of walking safety was merely making sure the kids don’t run too far ahead and don’t go in the street. One day as we were taking our kids for [...]
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Our house isn’t big enough to grant me a permanent sewing space. As a result, I rely on a folding table and various boxes and tubs to store and move my sewing stash. This has never been a big problem except for the fact that my patterns and fabrics often shift or slide off my folding [...]
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Eating is necessary, planning for it is optional.
However, over the years I have discovered (or been reminded-again and again) how helpful it is when I take the time to plan out our meals for the week. As silly as it may sound, I can recall the first time this idea of planning meals ahead of time occurred to me. I was newly married with no kids and standing in the middle of a friend’s beautifully retro themed kitchen. Neatly attached to her antique fridge door was a little handwritten note indicating what she planned to make for dinner each day of the week. I stood looking at that list in wonder and amazement as the realization that I could have control over our dinner plans began to take root in my mind.
Since that day, I have worked to implement dinner planning into my routine with varying levels of success. The frustration point for me is that there are so many steps involved in the process:
Growing up is a big job. So many things to learn and do. So many new things to try. . . Quinten is so over his high chair, he is almost two years old after all and the high chair is just too babish. On to the big boy chairs! Oh wait, hold on there [...]
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Don’t you love when you find out a second use for a product you already own? This happened to me when I was looking over our Siliskins Silicone Glass Bottle Covers. My kids are too old to use bottles, BUT they do use cups. I often use small glass jars for drinking cups for the [...]
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For weeks, I was getting up earlier and earlier in the morning. For some reason, I couldn’t get my children out the door until the first bell at the school was already ringing. No matter how early I got up to start the day, it made no difference. Then, I noticed something. There was a [...]
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Eating out meant something entirely different before we had kids. Frankly, we had no true appreciation for the joy of simply sitting and enjoying a slow, relaxed meal! Things are different now. Apart from planned “date nights” where my husband and I revisit the “old days” of eating out, we do, on occasion, brave the [...]
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“Knowing that cooking was going to be a chore when I was adjusting with a newborn, we made up freezable meals for 2 weeks worth of dinners and I also went to Costco and purchased some of their pre-made meals and used paper plates and cups and disposable silverware until I was better adjusted to [...]
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Many of us have been there. You know, when you get called into school because the teacher must discuss your little one’s newest…creativity. Or, running an errand to the school’s office leads to a run-in with a less than friendly staff member. How do you, and by extension your child and your child’s educators and [...]
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Do you find that you have too much stuff in your bathroom and not enough places to put it? Or that you can never really find what you need when you need it? Here is what worked for me for being able to get it together and find it all. Step One: Get rid of [...]
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Have you ever talked to your kids about what to do in case of fire? I know we've told our son to get out of the house if he can, and if he can't, stay low and Mommy, Daddy, or a firefighter will come for him. Chances are that either you or your child's teacher [...]
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These days just about everything we could want to eat is available pre-made in the store. That’s not a bad thing, with hectic schedules being the norm rather than the exception. However, sometimes we can reap the message that certain homemade foods are either too hard to make or simply not worth the effort and [...]
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No, really. Easy. I'm a lazy baker, so if I can make these without a second thought, so can you! They say necessity is the mother of invention. The necessity: out of white flour when I promised to make cookies. The invention: a whole wheat version of the shortbread I usually make. However, my family [...]
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We had to share this great TummyTub feedback we just got with you! "Good morning! We received our TummyTub a couple days ago and I just had to write to you. Bath time was so difficult with my second child (born in December). Once his cord was no longer an issue, we started using the [...]
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Here's what Mom 4 Life, Sarah, has to say about Sock Ons: I just wanted to give a testimony on the “Sock Ons” product that you carry. We are forever putting Piper’s socks back on her. Now that she’s crawling full speed ahead it seems like her socks are left behind her! Or she’ll manage [...]
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Not too long ago, I came across a wonderful and easy to make keepsake: hand prints set in baked salt dough! I found the easy recipe and instructions on Kaboose. Childrens' hand prints in and of themselves are just so adorable that when you add a simple way to make them, they're hard to resist. [...]
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I love playsets. Well, I love my kids loving playsets. Why? If you get the right ones, they are open ended toys that provide hours of entertainment and storytelling. But the issue with playsets is that they are sets. If your kids are like mine, the little accessories that go with the playsets (people, swords, [...]
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With Christmas almost here, guests arriving, and children soon (if not already) out of school, I thought I'd present to you a fun Christmas paper craft that is easy to do, and particularly useful if your kids, or you, or your guests' kids find themselves bored. Kids can do this themselves if they are old [...]
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The other day I saw this lovely 3-d felt ornament that reminded me of long ago, when I did a lot of paper crafting. I remembered specifically some 3-d paper crafts that I learned to make using 2 pieces of paper and a needle and thread. The reminder, plus the fact that my 2 1/2-year-old [...]
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Cloth diapers to make potty training go faster? Check. Children's books about the potty that he'll listen to? Check. Cute little trendy potty chair in choice of color? Check. Child who wants to sit on said potty? …Not so much. At first my 2-year-old little guy was excited for his tiny little potty. He sat [...]
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