Friday, December 30, 2011

2012 - Life Management in a binder

One of my goals for 2012 is to get all my to do's, schedules, cleaning, cooking, planning, commitments, etc gathered together in a neat little package so I can, from day to day, know whether I am coming or going.  I used to be completely organized, minute by minute in a nifty lil planner I carried around.  Then the world of smart phones and babies happened.  This past year was a whirlwind and flew by way too fast.  I don't want that kind of year again.  In steps the home management binder.  I have too many menus, calendars, check lists, and post it notes spread from here to there that I need to organize into one cutesy binder. 


You can find tons of information on building your home's binder online.  Just google Home Management Binder.  It really is a person by person thing, and needs to be coordinated to your lifestyle. 

Since I am on a quest to find my favorite printables for my binder, I thought I would share. Maybe its time for you to challenge yourself to creating some sort of binder too?

The Tool Box on Mommy Tracked has a large selection of printables:
            Week at a Glance Calendar    Eat Sheet Menu Planner   Weekly Family Calendar
              
Get Buttoned Up has a large list of forms your can print, including lunch box notes and more!

        goallist_large     dailyscheduleform   
          


    Printable pages for your Household Notebook available for free at Organized Home as well as more forms available from Organized home here.


Tons of printable spreadsheets for everything in life at Donna Young.  Great Homeschool forms as well!


You can also find plenty of printable bundles for a small cost.  I am debating on going this route.  I really desire a weekly planner with chores to tackle listed.  Of course I could fill in 52 weeks worth of chores on my own, but I did find this one already filled in. 
     The Project Girl 2012 Weekly Calendar with chores  ---  this site has an annual sale in Jan. so I am waiting to see if I can get a deal on the 1st.  It's only 12.99 now and would save me hours of creating my own documents...however, my "never pay retail" side is kicking in.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Baking, Baking, Baking...just keep Baking. Or is it swimming? I think Dory (Finding Nemo) sang it as swimming swimming swimming...but its baking baking baking in my head. May have something to do with all the baking going on around here. Something about the holidays brings out my inner baker. I've always been a cook and not a baker. 2011 brought me into my baking side of life. I mastered the cupcake, and making oat flour cookies this year...and I'm excited to see what new talents I discover in 2012!
I happened upon this post from Bakerella featuring their oh so beautiful cupcakes. 
Candy Cane Christmas Trees

So when it came time to make treats for children's church...I went this route. Only, I had helping hands a.k.a. kids...


I used Wilton's melting chips in green and painted the melted candy onto each tree with a basting brush.  Then I let the kids add M&Ms and a gumdrop top while I got busy on the cupcakes.  Each tree was centered on the cupcake and then I piped icing around the base.  Add red sprinkles ... Done!  It was a fun, quick project we all enjoyed! 

 And I am pretty sure the kids at church will enjoy eating just as much as we enjoyed making them!

Happy Holiday Baking!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Filling your advent Calendar

What do you put in your Advent Calendars?  We are doing a filled advent calendar this year for the first time.  In years past we just had a countdown calendar that we moved the snowflake from number to number.  This year I am making an advent calendar with an activity or gift in each day. 

I love this Free printable from
The Petit Cadeau!  Its full of ideas and premade cards ready to add to your calendar!  There are extras so you can pick and choose what you prefer.  I'm going to avoid filling it with tons of candy and gifts, and lean more on the activty side. 
 

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Christmas Advent Calendars

I've had an Advent Calendar that we used for several years, however, it saw its last Christmas last year.  It was a simple, store bought countdown calendar.  You simply moved the snowflake to the correct date until Christmas day.  I loved having it for J, simply to avoid the 25 days of "how many more days?" question.  He knew he could go count it himself! 

This is year I am planning to DiY one.  I love the idea of adding little trinkets and gifts for each day.  We can deter not only the "how many days" question but also the "can we open a gift" one too! Lil Bug won't quite understand the concept yet, but I think its a great tradition to start with her....I love family traditions!

Here are some of the DIY countdown calendars I am pondering...

Advent Pocket Calendar
Simple pouches, made from Scrapbook paper from Kimberly Petersen
IMG_1605
Bucket list Calendar made from Dollar Store items! Via Infarrantly Creative

UPDATE****
Our Advent Calendar 2011

I went with pockets made from scrapbook paper.  Inside each pocket is an activity from the free printable advent activities I posted about here. 

               

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Thanksgiving .... It's here already!

I cannot believe it is Thanksgiving 2011 already!  In the blink of an eye, we will be ringing in 2012!  I've already seen New Years ideas sprouting up around blogosphere.  Right now, I am focused on Thanksgiving.  Here is a roundup of some of my favorites!

Free printable Thanksgiving Lunch Box Jokes via SuperMom Moments.
  I love putting a note in J's lunch every now and then!



Thanksgiving Love Notes for your other half via Happy Home Fairy
The Thankful Tree
I am in love with this Thankful Tree from Simply Vintage Girl

Free printable Thanksgiving Wall Art by Kiki Creates

If your entertaining or being entertained for Thanksgiving, enjoy the upcoming week.  Take it a day at a time, and enjoy each day.  It will be Black Friday before we know it!


Friday, October 28, 2011

Every New Beginning Freebie

I made this for a project I am working on for a Housewarming Gift.  Thought I would share with you!

NOTE: Google Docs is showing this with some color missing...however when you click Print or Download Original, it comes over in full. 
     

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Sun, Moon, Stars Mobile


Lil Bug and I are working on yellow and reading Good Night Moon (when I find the book, it's grown legs and disappeared somewhere in this house).  Today we made a sun, moon, and stars mobile.  It was quite simple and she loves it!
        You will need these two print outs (printed on card stock for best results)

Yellow construction paper or card stock cut into 2-3 inch strips
stapler and staples
glue
foil
string or ribbon


While I was cutting out the moon and sun, Bug colored the stars.

I added foil (bling bling) to the back of the sun, moon and stars after I cut them out.


Bug colored on the foil with yellow markers. 

I had some tiny star stickers that we added to the stars.  This helped incorporate some hand eye coordination skills!  They were so tiny!

Then we stapled the strips of paper together, end to end to form a circle.


We attached all the sun, moon, and stars to the circle with ribbon....added ribbon to hang.....

and we now have a sun, moon, and stars mobile!

Linking up:
abc button

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Apples, Apples, Apples

Bug and I have started her tot school program...and I am steadily building it as we go. I can work on weeks ahead while she works on the activities for the current week. Its working, but I don't recommend it. However, I just couldnt find an all in one plan that I wanted to do, so me being me, I took on building my own.

This week is RED, "A", and APPLES! 



I made an Apple felt board set with a picture of herself and apples to put "up on top".  She loves it!
Idea adapted from post on Toddler Brain
 


















We also made an apple tree!
Original Idea from Happy Home Fairy



We recycled a parmesean cheese container to sort red pom poms into. 


I used the RED color matching cards from Homeschool Creations. I laminated the cards and then put them on a ring for Bug to carry around with her.

I gathered red items from around the house and created an eye-spy board. 
 


We did some painting ....
original idea from
No Time for Flashcards




....and threaded Fruit Loops onto a Pipe Cleaner to make a worm for our newly painted Apple. 

Of all days, Lydia chooses this one to be camera shy! 


And made an edible bracelet.
 

Added red Fruit Loops to our Apple covered A printed from Making Learning Fun


We ate some Apple Shake Ups.

1 tsp sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 apple, cubed
1 plastic bag

Add sugar, cinnamon, apple cubes to bag. Seal tight. Shake Shake Shake!
Eat up!

Update: See the Apple Shake Ups in action at Mess for Less!!


And of course we colored using red crayons, markers, colored pencils, and even a red pen!
Foloow the links to some of the great printables we used!


Linking up!
abc button
5 a day booksPhotobucket








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