I Need More Craft Ideas Like I Need a Hole in my Head!

For the past year, there has been a new magazine making it's way into my cart at Michael's craft store: Living Crafts. Since nearly every issue of this magazine has some craft involving wool roving in it, I was so happy to find some at AC Moore! I bought several colors of wool and a needle felting kit. This spring scene is my first try at needle felting and I LOVE it! I would like to make a scene for each season of the year... we'll see how it goes!

P.S. Living Crafts is a bit pricey, but you can use your 50% off coupon from Michaels! Every little bit helps!

Fun Activities for the UnderThree Crowd..

After reading a few requests for activities for little ones, I wrote down a list of some of our favorite things to do...

• Kumon Books (We are doing the ones for two-year-olds now)
  
• Puzzles (our favorites are Melissa and Doug ones... I love that the have puzzles for all different levels. We have peg ones and the 12 piece jigsaw ones so far. You can often find these at Marshalls for less)
• Art Supplies (some of our favorites are: markers, crayons, window crayons, block crayons, glitter glue, glue, scissors, paint, mini twistables, and lots of different types of paper (watercolor, painting, fingerpainting, construction, plain white paper, scrap paper etc.)
  
• Cards
  
• Dolls (both magnetic and felt)
  
• Lacing Beads
  
• Scrap Paper and Child-Safe Scissors to Practice Cutting
  
• Silverware to sort
• Pots, pans, and pantry goods to play with and arrange
• Boxes (big ones to play in and little ones to open, closes, and hide things in!)
• Small Cars
• Books
• Animal Figures
  
• Shape Sorter
• Blocks
• ABC Magnets
• Basket filled with different treasures
• Small broom or swiffer
• Spray bottle of water and a rag (your kitchen floor will never be cleaner!)
  
• Pitchers and Cups to practice pouring
• Pan of rice or beans to use as a table top sandbox
• Playdough (If you don't make it yourself, Mary's Soft Dough is the best!
  
• Lacing Cards
• Stackers
• Gluing and collage
• Things to sort
• Matching or Sorting Cards
• Basket of rocks and shells
• Snack Prep. - slicing a banana with a child's knife, arranging crackers and cheese on a plate, pouring juice, etc.
• "Washing" the dishes
• Stickers (We have been loving coloring books with stickers lately!)
  

And Chasing Cheerios has a whole list, too: Toddler Activites... In fact, check out her whole blog! She has the most amazing activites for little ones!

The March Seasonal Shelf...

Though we are obviously missing some real nature, this is how we set up our shelf for the first few weeks of March. I'd like to add a pot of shamrocks if they have them at our market this coming week and maybe a budding branch or two. Sugar Plum is getting old enough to start collecting bits from nature on our walks now, so I hope to have less to do with the hunting and gathering for the table this month than in the past. We'll see how it goes!

::The book is one of our favorites: Out and About Through the Year by Shirley Hughes::

Irish Goodness...

After admiring this can of oats every single time I walk down the cereal aisle of the market, I decided to give it a whirl. The fact that it is March and a big month for the Irish was a bonus! The verdict is that Irish oatmeal is quite yummy! Little Man likes it a lot! We've been enjoying it with bananas and brown sugar, but I am sure that it would be just as good other ways. When we are finished with the oats, I plan on keeping the can as a planter... it's too pretty to toss!

We Have Winners!

Congratulations to Amy (comment 14) for winning the hardcover cookbook and Alamody (comment 4) for winning the softcover one! Send me your addresses and I'll get them right out to you, Ladies!!

Boys...

So we have a climber on our hands and nothing that we do has stopped him from clamoring onto the chairs and then onto the kitchen table. Many spilled and broken things and a bloody nose later, Papa took matters into his own hands! Our chairs are lassoed to the table and now no one is shrieking for someone to get down and no one is getting hurt! It's a win-win situation for everyone... until it's time to eat!

Bloggy Giveaway!

To celebrate my 29th birthday, I would like to give two of my readers a copy of one of McCormick and Schmick's cookbooks. The first winner will receive a hardcover copy of their Seafood Restaurant Cookbook and the second winner will receive a softcover copy of their Special Edition Seafood restaurant cookbook. I will draw the winners at 8:00pm on Sunday evening! Good Luck!

Stay Tuned...

To celebrate the start of my last year in my twenties, I'll be hostessing a giveaway this weekend... come back tomorrow to enter!

Practical Life with Little Ones...

I found this article, Practical Life with Little Ones by Elizabeth Foss to be so encouraging! As the harried mother of a nearly three year old and a fifteen month old, I read this article and felt like I could work a little harder to do fun things with both of the children. My aim is going to be to try to be more fully present to the children during the day... I've printed this article and plan on re-reading it when I need a little boost!

Oh, and have you seen Amanda Soule's recent post on laying out an art project at night for the children to do upon waking? What an inspired idea! I'm off to set it up now!

The Soothing Hum of a Vacuum that Works...

Having clean floors will never be taken for granted by me again! The vacuum we received for our wedding looked just like the one pictured above except that it was a gorgeous red color and never worked properly. The Bissel people finally took pity on us and sent us a new-to-us one. Vacuuming has never been such a pleasure! I had forgotten what it was like to have carpeting without cumbs!

Lenten Cleaning List...

March 2nd: Master Bathroom
March 3rd: Master Bathroom Drawers and Cabinets
March 4th: Family Closet
March 5th: Master Bedroom Closet
March 6th: Dressers
March 7th: Saturday
March 8th: Sunday
March 9th: Master Bedroom
March 10th: Nursery Bathroom
March 11th: Laundry Room
March 12th: Linen Closet
March 13th: Nursery and Closet
March 14th: Saturday
March 15th: Sunday
March 16th: Hallway and Steps
March 17th: Entrance and Closet
March 18th: Reading Room
March 19th: Living Room
March 20th: Craft Cupboard
March 21st: Saturday
March 22nd: Sunday
March 23rd: Dining Room
March 24th: Baseboards
March 25th: Windows
March 26th: Glass Doors
March 27th: Kitchen
March 28th: Saturday
March 29th: Sunday
March 30th: Pantry
March 31st: Freezer
April 1st: Refrigerator
April 2nd: Drawers
April 3rd: Cabinets
April 4th: Saturday
April 5th: Sunday
April 6th: Desk
April 7th: Children’s Artwork
April 8th: Garage
April 9th: Front Porch and Deck
April 10th: Clean Car
April 11th: Saturday
April 12th: Sunday
April 13th: Back Porch
April 14th: Plan Paschal Clothing
April 15th: Paschal Baskets and Clean Garbage Cans
April 16th: Plant Flowers for Hanging Baskets
April 17th: Launder Spring Bedding
April 18th: Great and Holy Saturday
April 19th: Pascha!!

I'd love to see your Spring Cleaning Plans if you have any!

Living and Learning for March...

Faith

Forgiveness Sunday

Sunday of Orthodoxy

St. Gregory of Palamas

Sunday of the Cross

Annunciation

St. John of the Ladder

Homemaking

Keep to Homemaking Budget

Lenten Cleaning

Boots for Self and Children

Meal Planning & Weekly Shopping

Organize Papers Seasonally

Goals

Improve Prayer Life

Potty learning for Sugar Plum

Finish Reading: The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios

Read from the Prologue

Cultivate a Quiet Spirit

Rituals

Baking on Monday

Library on Tuesday

Playdate on Wednesday

Arts and Crafts on Thursday

Games on Friday

Special Days

Mama’s Birthday (5^th)

Nana and Grandpapa’s Anniv. (16^th)

Gramma Daria’s Namesday (19^th)

Papa’s Birthday (21^st)

Grandma Judy’s Birthday (25^th)

Aunt Jenny’s Birthday (30^th)

Learning

The Sign of the Cross

Learn The Lord’s Prayer

St. Patrick

Shamrocks

Rainbows

Inter-Library Loan Books

Setting and Clearing the Table

Daily Lenten Activities

Full Lenten Moon (10^th)

Spring Returns (20^th)

Nature table scene and book basket

Visit an Art Museum

Listen to stories on the iPod

Kumon Books for Two-Year-Olds

Serendipitous...

I unearthed this large cloth remnant from a box a week or so ago and cut it into two pieces - one to fit the kitchen table and one for the dining room table. I put away the dining room table one, but we've been using the kitchen table sized cloth ever since. I like how it dresses up the room a little, looks good with the trivet Fr. John gave me for Valentine's Day, and how I found four matching vinyl placemats for it at Marshall's the other day!

Pizza and Kite Flying...

After a morning church service, we realized that the weather was going to be nice and warm. Add a beautiful windy day in with a cheesy Friday, and a kite that has been waiting to be flown since Christmas, and you have the recipe for a great outing!

Finally!

For some reason this simple project turned into one that took forever to get around to! These binders will soon be filled with all the papers that are tucked into the nooks and crannies of my desk... I think that organizing by season and having space for school and craft ideas, homemaking, decoration, and list-making will really simplify things for me this coming year. Now all that is left to do is fill them!

Imaginitive Play: Farm Set

I found these shelves (they can also stand upright) at Michael's a few months ago, and immediately knew that they would be perfect to store and display our farm toys. Using my 40% off and 50% off coupons over the course of a few months, I was able to get three shelves. They are working so nicely! I still have to get four baskets for storage, but Michael's often has sales on baskets during the month. I love how they are the perfect height for our little ones to kneel down and play! They have really enjoyed setting the animals up in different configurations each day.

Beautiful Cotton Nightgowns...

Maybe it is because I love old fashioned things, but I have wanted a crisp cotton nightgown with delicate embroidery for years! I love looking at the ones on the April Cornell website and I recently came across Victorian Classics, a site specializing in pretty nightgowns. I would love to get the one pictured above for this summer!

Scary Bedtime Prayer...

I though this was so funny!

**Sorry that your comment got deleted, Penny! I had to get rid of the post because it was messing up my blog... Will you re-comment with that beautiful prayer again?**

Creating a Child Friendly Environment: Play Kitchen

I was in a re-arranging mood the other day and tried changing the play kitchen around. Putting it on a chest with more "counter" space and lots of drawers for food and other kitchen essentials has been great for our little ones. They love the space and the fact that it is a little closer to the ground than the nightstand we had it on before. I love the wood combination and that it fills up that small wall in our kitchen so well! It is always amazes me that children get more interested in something when it is arranged in a pretty and organized manner - even if it takes a little more effort to keep it that way!

Yes, Little Man is perched on a kitchen chair which I normally do not allow someone who is so unsteady on his feet to do...

Friday's Feminine Tip...

If you love homemade cookies fresh from the oven , freeze some dough in individual portions. When you want to bake a few, remove the frozen dough from the freezer, arrange them on a cookie sheet and place on the stove while your oven preheats. They will be defrosted by the time your oven is pre-heated and you'll be able to enjoy a yummy cookie in no time at all!