The {little} Harvest

In April I decided I wanted to grow some veggies in my back yard... I went to the store bought some organic seeds, then I cleared a space in the back yard to plant a couple things. I wanted to originally do this because, I grew up with a garden every year in rural eastern Washington, every evening my family would all head out to the garden, and water, weed, and enjoy each other. I loved this time and I want the same experience for my children.

 I had plans to plant carrots, cucumbers, and broccoli, as well as strawberries, and a blueberry bush. We planted the carrots, strawberries, and blueberry bush, and hopefully next year we will do more.

I didn't have the summer I planned, but the boys still had fun planting the carrots and watching them grow, and now that fall is upon us we decided to pick a couple...here are the results..

They are super tiny and they taste terrible, I am hoping a few more weeks will yield a better result, but that is unlikely. We still had fun with the process, even if the result wasn't the best!

The story of a flower

It's the little things kids enjoy and take part in on a daily basis :)

~Modern Housewife Monday~ Chores

I don't know about you, but in my house I am responsible for a fair amount of the household chores, and I honestly don't know how those housewives in the 50's did it; they must have been killing themselves! Well actually, they did have a lot less distractions (uh hum blogging, facebook, etc.), and maybe smaller houses?? Who knows, I just know that keeping my house somewhat clean is quite the task, so some chores do get delegated out. I am sure the most common man chore is taking out the garbage and recycling, and yes those are my husbands main responsibilities. He also helps with the dishes, and does pretty much any other chore I ask him to help me with. I noticed though, that the free labor that lives in the house had been seriously under utilized. SO, this modern housewife Monday is all about handing some chores out, to the little people in your house.

Vacuuming: My middle guy loves to vacuum he will run around with the vacuum in the playroom for 20 minutes or so, he also loves the steam mop!

Dusting: Old (clean) sock as dusting glove! I like to set the timer and make it a race!

Washing windows: I cannot stop my kids from doing this, honestly any task they get to use a spray bottle then wipe, they love! (I only use non toxic chemical free cleaners)

Unloading the dishwasher: Both Asher and Jax love to put away the silverware from the dishwasher, Asher will also put away any item that needs put away in his reach!

Laundry: This in my opinion is the best chore for the little people to help with! All 3 of my boys love to load the washer, switch it to the dryer, sometimes fold, and help put away. Great for the littlest to the bigger helpers!

What chores do your kids help with?

MoM Dictionary.... Food edition

Another edition of MoM dictionary but this time let's play a game it's called which definition includes children Sounds fun right??


Grocery shopping: 1. A mini vacation in which browsing and wandering aisles for an hour becomes a sanctuary.
2. A major nightmare of "i want that" tantrums, cart climbing and unwelcome stares and advice.

Dinner: 1. A three course meal involving hours of prep and luxurious ingredients, including wonderful intellectually stimulating conversation, ending with a big "thank you".
2. Macaroni.

Reservations: 1. Reserving a table for any number of guests at a great restaurant i.e. put me down for two at 8 o'clock.
2. A feeling you get when you even think about eating out.

Menu: 1. A long and detailed list of food items or choices usually with decadent ingredients and a hefty price tag.
2. Appetizers: Smoked Arti..... that's all I got to read

Kitchen: 1. The sanctuary of the home where plump rolls, tantalizing smells and culinary delights you handcrafted over hours for your family are created with love.
2.An asylum filled with lots of bodies running in circles, yelling, and the occasional food fight.

:) Hope you enjoyed! What would you add? Can you guess which definitions children were involved in?

Cloth Bins Labeling {Tutorial}

Okay, so I have some cube like shelves in the play room at my house, and in those shelves live cloth like bins or boxes, whatever you want to call them, and in those bins there are supposed to be toys. My children do not understand, or better yet, they pretend not to understand the concept of cleaning up, and putting their toys away; but that is another post. I have tried and failed to label these bins to encourage and help my kids with the tedious and never ending task of keeping a clean play room. The first time I did this, I thought I was a genius! I labeled the bins, and for a month or so til the labels started to fall off, the boys did rather well at keeping the toys picked up, and put away; but as soon as those labels were gone, so was my children's temporary OCD.

Here is my first attempt:

Before

After

I made up some labels using clip art and words, printed them out, cut them, and taped them to the bins using packing/shipping tape. Like I said I *thought* I was a genius...sadly I was wrong.

The playroom again became a mad house, and it was a constant daily struggle to keep the toys contained! At one point we even removed 80% of the toys as a punishment (this did not work). Then I actually did come up with a genius idea! I remembered that the one, and only time the boys were actually able to, and liked, to keep the playroom clean was when we had the bins labeled, but I knew that I couldn't again do the paper taped on labels. Then it hit me, as I was looking at them one day...Fabric Paint! I already had an abundance of fabric pens and "puffy" fabric paint from my cousins baby shower you can read about that on my sister blog HERE, and I already had the bins, so I got to work, and I am tickled with the result!

Before

 (plain old cloth bin)

Get those supplies!!

Get Creative!!

After!!

I just love them! I free hand drew them, but I could also see using a stencil. I did smear a couple times so be careful, and use the pens (if you choose to use pens) to draw first, and then go over with puffy paint. I also used the bins I had already, and yes some of them were dirty, in a perfect world I would have bought all new ones to do this to, but I was spontaneous (and my kids would have got the new ones dirty I'm sure). I am very happy with how these turned out and all the kids love them! 

What do you think? How do you label things?

Back to School!!

My boys are loving being back at school with all their friends and teachers, the best part is they are at the same school this year, and riding the bus together, which they love! I however have been completely overwhelmed with all the paperwork and 20 different checks you have to write at the beginning of the year! Some day I will get used to (and remember) this! Here are some back to school photos! Enjoy :)

P.S. I will be talking about that cute "Back to School" sign I made soon!