When we got a dusting of snow in January, I went ahead and put the boys in their snow pants and new boots that their Aunt Lisa got them. I'm pretty sure it's the most snow we will see all year and I would like to get SOME use out of their winter gear.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
SHARE DC
I haven't participated since Hunter was a baby, but there is a fantastic program in the DC area called SHARE. It's actually been so long since the last time I used it, that they've done a complete site overhaul since I last saw it. If you are interested in the SHARE program, here is an FAQ direct from their site:
What is SHARE and how can I participate?
SHARE is a non-profit community development organization offering a nutritious food package (about a $40.00 - $45.00 value) to anyone for $20.00 (add transportation in some areas) plus two hours of volunteer service. SHARE is not a governmental program and is funded solely by the price of the food package.
By pooling thousands of dollars across the nation, SHARE purchases food at wholesale prices and passes the savings on to its participants. Volunteers re-package food purchased in bulk and distribute it throughout a network of SHARE Host Sites in the DC Metropolitan area.
Each package contains 13-14 items consisting of 5-7 lbs. of meat, fresh fruits, vegetables, and staple grocery items (rice, pasta, potatoes, etc.). The package is designed to supplement a family's food budget with savings of up to 50% over local grocery store prices. More details here!
Occasionally, SHARE will offer a special package geared toward the holidays or season. For example, Turkey Packages are offered during the Thanksgiving Holiday distribution, a Superbowl Party Package is offered in January, and a Steak Package is offered in the spring and summer. These special packages still enable participants to receive quality food at a great price! More details here!
SHARE is open to anyone who wishes to participate by giving two hours of volunteer service and paying $20 (add transportation in some areas) for the monthly food package. There are no income or eligibility guidelines.
SHARE accepts cash, money orders, organizational checks, food stamps or EBT cards as a form of payment. Packages cost $20.00. Some participants may pay an additional $1.00 per package for transportation fees.
A SHARE Host Site is an organization that is sponsored by a church, school, community or neighborhood group, and in partnership with SHARE, agrees to...
- Promote the SHARE mission and philosophy in their community and provide caring service motivated by a desire to help others.
- Register participants and organize community service opportunities.
- Report monthly food orders and remit payment to SHARE on Order Turn-In Day.
- Provide adequate transportation and a distribution site for SHARE food packages each month.
For more information about becoming a SHARE Host Site, please call 301-864-3115 or 1-800-217-4273.
Find your local SHARE host site here.
SHARE has four distribution cities outside of our main warehouse in Hyattsville, MD: Baltimore, Hagerstown, and Hughesville, MD and Fredericksburg, VA.
In order to keep food costs low, SHARE requires each package purchased through host sites who pick up at these four "satellite" sites be charged $1.00 transportation fee.
SHARE does not deliver individual packages.
SHARE is a self-help program. Each person who participates in the network helps themselves obtain affordable and nutritious groceries.
It is a non-profit organization that takes donations to help reduce the costs.
No. The food is purchased with the money that participants contribute. Each month, quality food is purchased through smart buying and a network of national vendors.
No. Food pantries, soup kitchens, and rescue programs rely upon donated and recycled items. All of SHARE's food is purchased fresh each month. Actually, programs for the needy can benefit from SHARE in many ways. We have forged many community partnerships with these organizations.
How can SHARE provide good, supermarket-quality food packages for only $20.00?
There are two main reasons why SHARE can do this. First, we purchase food in bulk for our participants - that keeps the prices low. Second, the power of volunteerism enables us to distribute tons of food at minimal costs. Volunteers make SHARE work. We are pooling our resources to achieve common goals and achieve SHARE's mission.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
An Afternoon In Occoquan
Wednesdays we have a music class and on the way home we always pass by Occoquan. Today I wanted to make a stop there to visit 13 Magickal Moons, a magick/witch/pagan shop. I went in there for the first time on Sunday and wanted to see if they had something to help heal my foot. The kids and I wound up spending the rest of the afternoon in Occoquan.
The boys were absolutely tickled with the shop because not only are there a bunch of cats chilling in the place, the woman that was working that day had her four week old baby with her. The kids both love babies and it was an exercise in futility trying to keep them away from the little dude. They thought it was just fantastic that you put change in a little jar on top of the fridge to get sodas and were fascinated with all of the herbs for sale. They're already asking if they can go back. Maybe the shop will start doing some children's class's at some point.
After we got out of there, we walked (hobbled) up to the Occoquan Mill Museum. I would like to to go back either with Garrick or once I'm out of my cast. While the museum is very very small, it has all sorts of wonderful artifacts from Occoquan's history. They even had a table full of stuff for kids to touch and feel. Trent was delighted that he could write his own name in their guest book.
I got a request from the kids to visit one more "fun place." So we crossed the street and went to Tastefully Yours. We got some gelato and ate it outside. In January. Because it was seventy degrees out! (Shakes head.)
My Homework
Occasionally, Trent likes to give me "homework" and this is what he made for me today. I had to fill in the "A" he made for me. I think this letter "maze" came out beautifully and shows me that he can be very careful and precise when he wants to be. I'm pretty pleased with this.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Swingset Time
Garrick trying to teach the boys how to use the swings. Not sure how successful he was.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
A First Sleepover!
The boys hosted their first ever sleepover last night! It was so much fun for them. It was a lot of work and very tiring for Garrick and I, but it was totally worth it because the kids had such a blast! It went a lot more smoothly than I had anticipated, so that was a bonus. All the kids made it through the night at our house, too. Although, one of them did join me in the big bed. I didn't mind. :D
We had pizza for dinner, the kids watched a lot of TV and ate chips and dip (being the health conscious Mom I am, I made sure there was a plate of veggies. It was never touched.) Ice cream before bed was in order and then we read "Pinkalicious" (yes, there were girls at the sleepover!) "Arthur's First Sleepover" and Dr. Suess's "Sleep Book." Donuts and Life cereal were on the table for breakfast.
Garrick decided that the next sleep over that we host will be in tents outside in the back yard.
I Do Stuff I Find On Pinterest: Sugar Body Scrub!
Every year after Christmas we have left over candy canes that are just never going to be used. This year I figured out a way to use them up! I've made the first sugar scrub in this pin before, but I hadn't tried out the peppermint one because I don't usually have peppermint candy on hand and I only recently picked up some peppermint essential oil.
This year, after looking at a basket full of candy canes that were probably going to be thrown away I thought about those body scrub recipes and pulled them. I was able to use up six candy canes making this stuff and my skin felt wonderful afterwards. I know what all of my female friends are getting for Christmas next year!
<div style='padding-bottom: 2px; line-height: 0px'><a href='http://pinterest.com/pin/255157135107879750/' target='_blank'><img src=' 
' border='0' width='320' height ='213'/></a></div><div style='float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px;'><p style='font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;'>Source: <a style='text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;' href='http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/2009/04/4-homemade-sugar-scrubs-that-go-from.html'>condo-blues.blogspot.com</a> via <a style='text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;' href='http://pinterest.com/marlabeephoto/' target='_blank'>Marla</a> on <a style='text-decoration: underline; color: #76838b;' href='http://pinterest.com' target='_blank'>Pinterest</a></p></div>
Allergic Reactions!
I had a cold last week and I went to Pinterest to find some home remedies. I tried a bunch, but this one I had an allergic reaction to was by far the best! I found one remedy that said to do a foot soak using water as hot as your feet can take with two tablespoons of ground mustard.
Well, apparently I'm allergic to mustard! The great part was that I'm pretty sure it cured the cold, because this thing was just starting and I felt like I was about to get much worse. I woke up the next day feeling all better! I've decided that I WILL do this remedy again because I would rather have an allergic reaction on my feet than congestion in my head. I'll just be sure to have Benedryl on hand if I'm going to do it.
I tried a few other remedies that seemed to help a lot. Look for those in a future post!
Friday, January 18, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Double Sided Needles
I'm starting my first knitting project using not only double sided needles, but needles that are this small, a size 2. This will be my first pair of socks as well. I have used double sided needles to finish other projects before, but this will be the first time using them for an entire project. We'll see how this goes.
I also started another baby blanket last night. Light blue and pink are the colors for this one.
Counting By Tens
Posterous was having some problems this past week and I wasn't able to post this until now. This is Tmoe on Wednesday, learning to count by tens using some very realistic looking play ten dollar bills. Trent is funny because he has the hardest time remembering the word ten, and keeps calling this "10" seven. If he looks at this "7" he will say seven, but he just has the darndest time remembering that "10" is ten. We'll get there, it'll just take some practice!
He's also a little bit frustrated with school work because we took a long break for the holidays. He wants to start over from scratch on everything. I told him we won't be doing that because every curriculum we are using implements plenty of review along the way!
I Do Stuff I Find On Pinterest - Stopping Using Campbells Cream-Of Soups
I've been avoiding a lot of recipes I find that call for a can of Campbell's cream soups. Campbell's has such crap put into their soups. I feel like I'm missing out on a bunch of really great recipes as a result. I found this recipe on pinterest ages ago and was going to try making it over the Summer (but then I broke my foot...) Since I'm sort of getting my life back in order right now, I'm starting to do the pinterest experiments again, and I assembled this one tonight!
I will update with the outcome of these experiments, but the idea is to make a simple dry mix that you can use in place of Campbell's soup when a recipe calls for it. I made one according to the original recipe (almost). I also made another special one. I have a friend who has a child that has a lot of food allergies. Believe me, when I say a lot, it's an understatement. She has enough on her mind because she has two other kids besides the one with allergies. I'm always looking for ways to cook gluten-free anyway, so I'm giving some experimentation a shot here in hopes that I can find a way to make my friend's life a little easier.
The batch I followed the recipe for has a chicken bouillon base, the other has a vegetable bouillon base. The veggie base is gluten-free, msg and sodium free. I mixed that one up in hopes I will have good results using milk alternatives. First I'm going to try with almond milk and then I'm going to try with coconut milk and see which tastes better. If neither of them work, well the experiment didn't go so well. I'm hoping it does though. I read through almost all of the comments on the original article to try and find a way to make this work for my friend. Keep your fingers crossed, folks!
I Do Stuff I Find on Pinterest - Positive Reinforcement
Here's another Pinterest find that I have implemented. We only just started it within the past week and I'm already noticing a difference in my children's behavior. The concept is simple. If you notice your child doing something good, you add a pom-pom to their jar! Then they get something good. I'm finding my children already trying harder at things. I don't ALWAYS give them a pom-pom for good behavior, just when I think they have been exceptionally good!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
I Do Stuff I Find On Pinterest
Yes, I actually do stuff that I find on Pinterest. Usually it's just recipes, but today I started the jar you're supposed to open on New Year's Eve. You write down only good stuff that happens to you through out the year on scraps of paper and throw them in the jar. On December 31, you read them all so you remember the good times you had. We'll see if I can actually stay on top of this little project.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Saturday, January 5, 2013
New Faucet
Right before Christmas, Garrick finally replaced our old leaky faucet. I love the new one, it's beautiful.
More Curriculum
Everyone everyone everyone keeps telling me that The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer is THE history curriculum to do if you are homeschooling. So, I ordered it on Amazon and it just came in yesterday. I also bought a gallon of Elmer's glue and got two new pairs of scissors for Christmas. Adding to the homeschool mess that we have going on.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Christmas Eve Activities
Our activities for Christmas Eve included making snowflakes, decorating sugar cookies and writing a letter to Santa. We got some snow, big heavy flakes, in the morning but then it turned into rain. We cut out snowflakes to try and encourage the snow to stick around. Trent wrote his first ever letter to Santa Clause all by himself! We did help him with the spelling. Then the boys decorated our second round of cookies for Santa. All in all, it was a very nice Christmas Eve.
Christmas Cards
I guess sending Christmas cards out to my family and friends for four years straight means that we'll get a lot of them!
Tool Box
So, last year for Christmas, Trent got a tool box to build from his Grandmari and Grandpa. It only took us a full year to actually take the time to sit down and do it with him. Of course he immediately took it apart again.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
First Round of Christmas Cookies
The first batch of Christmas cookies were M&M/chocolate chip cookies, with the red and green ones of course. The boys watched Christmas movies on the computer and strategically placed candies on the top to make the cookies all pretty and festive. The cookies were really really good too.
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