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  • 5 Sick Day Essentials

    5 Sick Day Essentials

    We have been terribly sick with colds this week. It’s passed through all the kids, and has left Mark and I a bit drained every day.  As I was trying to get some kind of sleep, I started thinking about the essentials my kids need to start getting better.  So of course I had to compile it into a fun pin-able post for you.




    Warmth 

    When you’re kids are sick, one essential you’ll want to have on hand is blankets. Besides helping keep from a chill on cold days, there is something comforting about being wrapped in a blanket.  Also have a favorite toy nearby for extra loves for the little ones. Add in cuddles from you, and all the love is sure to help your child feel slightly better.  If not it will at least keep you smiling with your kids.

    Entertainment 

    Movies, Books, and board games.  Grab a pile of your child’s favorite stories, and put them within easy reach. I don’t know about other moms, but I still feel guilty sitting them in front of the tv for the day, even when sick. We do watch more tv when sick, but I like to add in books, and simple board games we can play on the couch.  It keeps their minds active, while their bodies can’t be.

    Medicine 

    There’s only so much misery I can see my kids going through before resorting to tylenol and ibuprofen. When a fever spikes though, I don’t mess around, so I try to keep well stocked on childrens and infants ibuprofen.  I keep cough drops, like Pine Bros, on hand to help soothe the throat. Mostly though I like to rely on my rainmate with essential oils and steaming showers.  I also just came across this DIY shower vapor discs I want to try now too.

    Comfort Foods 

    Chicken Noodle Soup, Ramen, water bottles, and lots of Vitamin C. I have a recipe I’ll have to pull out for you, but it uses a lot of Tang, sugar, and cloves to up your Vitamin C. When I don’t have my mix for this handy, I pull out our herbal teas and honey for a soothing drink.  Don’t forget yourself either. Keep some chocolate nearby to keep you sane during those long nights of coughing fits, and 2 year olds sleeping on your  head.

    Rest  

    Lastly, on any sick day, everyone needs to get lots of rest. Especially mom! If you run yourself into the ground taking care of everyone else, you won’t be well enough to care for yourself, and be more prone to catching whatever is spreading. So do the necessities, and then take your rest with your kids. You’ll all get better faster.

  • How to keep cool in this Heat

    How to keep cool in this Heat

    How’s the weather where you’re at?  Are you melting yet?  I feel like I don’t need to do any kind of exercise in this heat, and I’ll still burn up enough to lose the baby weight. 
    We had some storm clouds roll in this morning, and I thought for sure we’d get some rain, and cool air. No such luck. It was cooler, than the past few days, but no rain.
    We wake up, and almost immediately turn on our swamp cooler, and fans. It would be nice if we could hold off until the afternoon, but I don’t think we’d make it. We’d be like slugs sliming our way around the house.
    Here’s a few tips to keep cool
    – ceiling fans! If you have some, use them. They will help circulate the air.
    – blinds and curtains. First thing in the morning, open the windows on the west side of your house to let in some cool air. Just make sure they’re closed and covered by noon, to avoid letting the heat in. At night open some windows to let the cool air circulate. Having curtains to block out the sun will also help block out the heat. They actually sell some curtains that have a reflecting back to push the heat away from your house.
    – Drink lots of water. Stay hydrated! 
    – Try to avoid doing laundry during the day. The washer and dryer create more heat as they run. I did a day of laundry earlier this week, and even with my ceiling fan our basement was just burning up. Now I try to get a load done in the morning, and then run one at night before I go to bed.
    – Take a cool shower. I can’t believe I’m advication cold showers, but this summer has taught me they can be quite refreshing.
    – Smoothies! I love smoothies, and they just offer such a refreshing cool summer drink.
    – If all else fails, head out of the house, and find a public building with A/C. Just hang out, and enjoy the cool air.
    I hope you are all staying cool this summer. If you have any other tips on how to stay cool, I’d love to hear them in the comments!
  • How to Pit Cherries without a Cherry Pitter

    How to Pit Cherries without a Cherry Pitter

    Happy 4th of July everyone!  It is cherry season, and I’m making a cherry pie today for our BBQ.

    Over the weekend, I went to my mom’s to help pit and can some cherries. She has a cherry pitter, but doesn’t like it. According to her, you still have to check every cherry to make sure the pit came out, and it ends up squishing the cherries more.  A neighbor recommended the following way to pit cherries.

    Youl will need:
    – a plastic straw
    – towels
    – 2 bowls

    Place the straw on top of the cherry where the stem entered it. Holding the straw over a bowl push the straw through the cherry, and watch the pit fall out. Place the cherry in a separate bowl, and continue with the rest. Sometimes the pit will just move to the side, so you may have to dig with the straw a bit, but for the most part it comes right out.
    You’ll want the towels because this does get messy. I suggest standing so your arms are above the bowls, as this will keep the cherry juice from dripping down your arms.

    
  • Kids and Dish Soap

    Kids and Dish Soap

    What happens at your house when you think your kids are being good?  At my house it usually consists of doing something they really shouldn’t.  The opposite is true too. If I think they’re getting in to things, they’re usually just playing with their toys. 
    Here’s a good example.  Earlier this week I had been cleaning up randomly throughout the house, so I was never in one room for very long. I had put a load of dishes in the sink to soak, and then continued picking up every where else. At one point the Princesses, all 3 of them, pulled their chairs over to the sink to play in the water. I didn’t mind, as long as they weren’t making a huge mess. There were no knives in the sink so I knew they couldn’t hurt themselves. After awhile they went back downstairs. I eventually headed that way to take care of some items and finish going through the closet of handed down girls clothes as well. Here’s how it went:

    Me “Why is the floor wet?”
    Princess V “Because our feet our wet. We’re telling the truth!”
    Me “Ok, I’m glad you’re telling the truth, but why are your feet wet?”
    Princess V “It’s the blue soap”
    Me “What blue soap”
    Princess V “You know the blue soap”
    Me “where is the blue soap now?”
    Princess C “I’ll get it!”  She then runs across the toy room to bring me the empty bottle of Liquid Dish Soap.  The bottle that I had recently just opened and started using, that had been pracitically full earlier that morning.

    It was then I noticed the blue streaks down the walls and doors, and the sticky footprints all over the basement vinyl flooring. I was at a loss. I knew right away if I used a wet towel it would just suds and get nothing accomplished. So I grabbed a roll of paper towels and got up as much as I could. It looked pretty clean, so I went over it with a slightly damp towel – bad idea. There was still quite a bit and it got all sudsy. 
    My next idea was to reach out to my mom friends.  One said she would use cat litter to soak it up and then just sweep it up.  Now that I realized was brilliant! Problem is we don’t have cats, and I really didn’t want to pack 3 kids up to go buy some. Instead I used some red craft sand. I should’ve let it soak longer, but it still worked pretty well. Once I got that swept up I went over the whole floor with my steam mop
    It still feels funny to me down there, so later today I will go over it again with the steam mop. 
    So after learning from my mistakes, here’s a quick outline for you incase you ever run into the same sticky, gooey, sudsy mess.
    Cleaning liquid dish soap off vinyl flooring:
    -Pick up as much as you can with DRY paper towels.
    -Use something like cat litter, or craft sand to soak up the rest. Let it sit for 20-30minutes to really soak it up.
    – Go over the floor with a mop

  • Preparing Your Home for a New Baby #SeventhGeneration

    *This post is sponsored by SocialMoms and the Seventh Generation blogging program.*

    Whenever I get pregnant I immediately start preparing for the new baby’s arrival. There is so much to do, and although we ideally have 9 months to prepare, it doesn’t always feel like enough time. Between taking care of myself, my Princess’, and trying to figure out what I need to do to prepare for this baby, life can get overwhelming fast.  

    So I’ve compiled a list of 10 tips to prepare your home for the arrival of a new baby.
    1 – Look up safety regulations, and recalls on any baby furniture you are going to use. Safety standards change a lot over the years, and products often get recalled.  This is especially important if you plan on using hand me down gear.  One of the first things I did after finding out I was pregnant, was check our car seat. We’d been using it since Princess V was born, and she just turned 5 yesterday.  I am so glad I checked it. It is a 5 year car seat, meaning Princess R was the last to use it. So now I know I need a new car seat.  We’ve also been using the same crib, which still meets safety guidelines, is in good condition, and has not been recalled.  View recalled items. 
    2 – My next area of concern is paint. We are doing a lot of rearranging of rooms. This baby we will be putting in Princess V’s room, and moving her in with her sisters. Her room is painted very bright colors though, and is very girly.  We don’t know the gender yet, but I am sure it is a boy. If it is a boy, even a girl, we want to tone the colors down a bit. Thankfully paint these days no longer contains lead, but I still plan on researching the different brands of paint to find the safest for our nursery.  Also, I don’t plan on helping with the paint, but I know some expecting moms like to still paint. Just make sure you keep the room well ventilated, and wear a mask.  Protect you and that little child growing inside.
    3 – The closer it gets to baby’s arrival, we will start setting up the nursery.  Right now Princess R is still in the crib, but around January we plan on moving her to the toddler bed.  At that point, I will be sanitizing the crib.  I love using baby wipes like Seventh Generation for this part. I know the wipes are baby friendly, and if any one of my children decides to suck on the crib, I won’t have any worries. 
    4 – Baby proof the nursery.  Make sure the crib is placed away from the windows. Tie up any cords from blinds. I love this website to educate on the dangers of blind cords, and what you can do.  We also have hooks on the sides of our windows to wrap the extra cords around. Cover up those plugs too. Baby won’t be moving around for awhile, but if you start baby proofing now, when baby is suddenly on the other side of the room, you won’t have to worry, and you can enjoy the excitement of a new milestone. 
    5 – Once we have the nursery painted, the furniture sanitized, and the room baby proofed it will be time decorate the nursery.  If you have older children, involve them! The transition of bringing home a new baby will be easier for them if they have helped pick out curtains, pictures, and bedding. 
    6 – Educate your older children. About a month or two before baby #4 comes we are going to take our kids to a sibling class at the hospital. I was thrilled when I found out this class is offered! They help get your older siblings ready to have a baby in the house. They cover holding the baby correctly, diaper changing, and other safety aspects.  In the meantime, at home, I will also teach the Princess’ different safety guidelines for baby. Simple things, like never stick anything in baby’s mouth, wash hands before touching baby, and always ask permission to hold baby.  
    7 – This next tip is going to be hard for my Princesses, but after Christmas, I am going to go through all of their toys. Any small toys, I plan on either getting rid of, or storing up high. 
    8 – Another tip is to make sure any chemicals you have are stored up high. For us we’ve already done this since we have older children. We have a few items stored under the kitchen sink, and that is locked with a baby lock. The rest I have in the bathroom cupboard, which I even have to get s stool to reach.  In the past year I have started using more family and planet friendly products. Even though these items are “safe” to use around kids, and are “natural” I still store them out of the reach of small hands. I would hate to have any accidents happen. 
    9 – A month or two before baby comes, we will have the nursery set up, decorated, and ready to put baby in. It will be time to wash all the baby clothes. In the past, we have used hand me downs. With 3 Princesses, we’ve kept all the clothes. Sitting in storage, they tend to get a storage smell to them, and before using on a new baby, I want smelling fresh and clean. Our concern is that sensitive baby skin.  Eczema is prevalent in our family, and laundry detergent has been a contributing factor. When doing baby’s laundry I look for dye-free, fragrance free detergents like Seventh Generation.
    10 – Freezer meals. You don’t want to worry about what you’re family is eating, how many pizza’s you’ve ordered, because you are too enthralled with a new baby.  A month before your due date, start making double dinners. Put one in the freezer.  When baby comes, you’ll have meals ready and you won’t have to worry about those pizzas because you’ve already made dinner.  I plan on having at least a week of meals, but 2 would really be ideal.
    My last tip to you the expectant mother is to enjoy nesting. It’s one of my favorite parts of the pregnancy. My whole house gets rearranged; I beam with excitement because I am being productive. And I know I am getting close to holding that bundle of joy in my arms. When you’re house is spotless despite having older children, you’re nursery is set up, and you know you’ve done all you can to make baby’s arrival in your home safe and comforting. Sit back, relax, and smile. Soon your baby will be in your arms, and because you prepared you won’t have a care in the world other than to hold that baby, and sleep.  I hope all my pregnant friends have a wonderful pregnancy!

    New Parent Resources

  • Home Buying Tips

    I love that Social Mom’s Writing Prompt today was Home Buying Tips!  I’d love to share a bit more of our journey in purchasing our first home.  The struggles we had to go through, and the walls we hit.  If you are new to the blog, let me start by saying, we just bought our first home last week!!!  It’s been such a fun, exhausting, and sometimes exasperating experience.
    Where do you start?  
    For us, we started looking at homes when we were first married.  We’d periodically get the idea in our head to buy a home, look at some, and then decide we should wait.  We’ve been married almost 6 years now, so it’s been a long time coming.  We also watched HGTV’s home buying shows on a very regular basis.  By the time we were truly ready to buy, we knew exactly what we liked and didn’t like, what we wanted and what we could do without.
    The Realtor
    Finding a good realtor is very important and can really make the difference in finding the home for you.  When we started out, we didn’t shop for a realtor. We called one, she showed us a house, and we just stuck with her.  I didn’t like her, I just didn’t feel comfortable around her, and it made for some unpleasant house hunting on my part.  We had already signed a contract with her though, so we had to use her.  However, once her contract was up, we started calling other realtors.  We found one we both liked, and it was amazing! We had looked for 6 months (6 months!!!) with the other realtor.  In one day with the new realtor we had found a home we both liked (it’s seriously my dream home!), and had an offer in on day 2 with him.  It was such a great house that there were a couple offers on it, but by Friday we were in the #1 spot.  
    Deadlines
    Make sure you meet all deadlines.  Buying house involves a lot more than I had realized.  I didn’t know about inspections, lead base paint tests, and appraisals.  I really thought you just showed your loan approval and got a yes or no.  If you don’t meet deadlines, you risk losing your house to another buyer.  That is exactly what happened with the house we got.  They had a previous buyer, but deadlines were not being met, so the sellers put their home back on the market, and we got it.  I feel a little bad for the other people, but not too bad, since the home is now mine 🙂
    Mortgage Company
    Shop around.  We didn’t at first.  We were going with a lady who our first realtor had recommended.  She was nice, we were going to use her, but we didn’t.  First off, the sellers preferred we use a company our current realtor worked with.  So that pretty much made up our mind.  But before going with them, we checked out a couple more companies.  The hubby is a teacher and one company was offering a $200 gift card to teachers who used them.  It was tempting, and we almost went with them.  Then we looked at the company our realtor uses.  Not only did she save us $50/month then the other company, she also said she’d give us the $200 the other company was offering.  SCORE!  Thanks to her kindness we were able to purchase a refrigerator without adding more debt onto our budget
    “Shopping” with Kids
    We took our kids to every house we looked at. We have three kids, 4, 3 and almost 1.  Was it a hassle, yes. Were there times we wanted to leave the kids, yes.  So why did we keep taking them with us? The home isn’t just for the hubby and I.  It’s for our kids. A place for them to grow in love and safety.  We wanted them to like it just as much as we did.  Our 3yo loved every house.  The 4yo though, she had some fun comments “I want this one”, “this room is mine!” And my favorite in response to me asking if she liked this house “uh, yeah!”.  Really child, you’re only 4, no need for attitude yet.  If you can, I strongly suggest bringing the kids with you.  Let them have a say in where you live.  Just be respectful of homes that still have people living in them.  For those homes, we usually went in one at a time, while the other parent sat with the kids. 
    Last but not least – Have fun!  Enjoy the time, don’t settle for something you don’t like, just to get into a home. You don’t have to buy at the top of your budget, there are lots of decent homes you can get cheaper and save yourself some money.