Preschool and a Piano

Sooo,
I am desperately hoping to buy a used piano at the end of this month. So I am saving my pesos and crossing my fingers that we can make it happen. I have been without a piano IN my house for 4 years now, and I so miss it. Jacob and Abby want to learn how to play and I'd like to teach again. But in order to do that I need a smaller less heavy piano that isn't missing 3 of the 4 wheels! (My piano is old an untunable, and in my garage. not exactly handy.) So cross your fingers with me.
Preschool....well Mary you inspire me and make me want to do better. I have had a bad case of cabin fever, and somehow, it squelches my creative side and I forget how many fabulous things I can do, even in the winter.
So Rachel has been staying home instead of going to preschool and one of my part time babysitting kids just went full time, and I have an after-schooler now too. But all of this has been a huge blessing. Because, somehow with 3 kids to do preschool stuff, I have motivation again. So K takes a nap in the morning and David, Rachel, and KD, do preschool with me. They love it. Today we read THE MITTEN, one of our favorites, and colored and cut, and laced mittens. Then we filled them with animals we colored. We sang songs, did the Hokey Pokey and London Bridges. They had such a great time and the morning went by so fast. And the tv didn't even get turned on all morning. Hallelujah!
Rachel has already decided that tomorrow we will be making valentine's cards.

Potty Words

So this weekend I decided it was time to see if David was up for ditching the diapers.
I am a firm believer that potty training is best and EASIEST if you wait until they are almost past ready.
Why? Because I didn't want to "train" me. Going potty every 15 minutes takes too much time. And usually meets with lots of accidents. Remember I worked in the Toddler room at a Child Care Center. Lots of parents are ready and toddlers are not interested. It makes both parties frustrated and takes so much longer. I've tried it that way. I'm lazy. I want it to be child motivated, not mother motivated.
So, I wanted to see if David was interested, that's all.
We went to Walmart. Bought Thomas the Train Underwear (I had to pry them from his hands to purchase them...this was a good sign.), One package of  Pull Ups (just in case for when we needed to leave home.), and chocolate chips (for bribing...uhh rewarding...yes I bribe/reward my kids with a small treat for going to the bathroom.)
So the next morning we busted out with the underwear. It took the morning for him to get the hang of it. We went thru all 8 pairs of underwear. But every time he peed we cleaned it up together. I praised him for peeing...yes TMI, and we would go try to "go" in the potty, and then reminded him if he peed in the potty he could have a chocolate chip. He finally got it by lunch time. Then of course I had to put a diaper on for nap time. I washed all his underwear while he was asleep and when he got up we went to the potty and put underwear back on. He did great the rest of the afternoon and evening and threw a ginormous 2 year old tantrum at bed time when I wanted to put a diaper on him.
He loves going to the potty. He takes himself. knows to wipe off the toilet seat, and slime his hands afterwards.
It took a lot of coaxing to get a pull up on for church today. He even told me he needed to go during church. 2 times and kept his pull up dry during nursery.
I don't usually ask him (unless we are headed out somewhere and I would like to do a little preventative maintenance...I don't like public bathrooms.) I prefer that they ask, like I said, child motivated. Makes for a lot less accidents.
He is really getting it, and going potty in the toilet is exciting for him.
I am so excited!!!! This could mean the end of diapers for us. Hallelujah!
But if he decides he wants to go back to diapers...we will.
Rachel decided she wanted to go back, so we did...no fights, no worries. And two weeks later she was ready. She asked for her panties and never went back. No accidents, no frustration.
This could be the beginning of the end of diapers for us. And I have to say I am almost giddy!

Little by Little

So those of you who know and love me know that I want to have a gorgeously clean house.
Unfortunately, I have yet to develop the habits to make that a reality. HA!
I am trying hard to get better at it.
It is especially challenging in our small home. The balance between what we need on an everyday basis and what just causes clutter. Thankfully we have a large detached garage. Although some days it looks like a bad episode of Hoarders!!!
But today I decided to tackle above the kitchen cabinets. Our kitchen is tiny. Smaller than most apartments I've lived in. So lots of stuff gets piled on top of the cabinets for easy access. No MORE!
I cleaned it all off. Vacuumed the dust bunnies, took a magic eraser to the white cabinets, and cleaned out the cobwebs. It looks BARE! Oh well, at least it doesn't look cluttered.
How do you keep your house clean?

this week in a nutshell

So we've been sick at our house.

Abby has missed the whole week of school.

David, Abby, and Rachel have funny voices, coughs, and unfortunately FEVERS.

But no puking. This is a major plus, because I am a wimp.

So we've made lots of juice, noodle soup, & Jello. (what's the perks of being sick if there's no Jello.)

Netflix streaming to our tv has been a lifesaver. We've watched Strawberry Shortcake, Shera, Avatar Airbender, Thomas, Rainbow Bright, and when the kids are tucked away asleep I've watched way too many old episodes of BONES and Psych.

We've cuddled and snuggled and lived in jammies and robes. 

There have been major emotional breakdowns.

Tissues dropped all over the floor.

Tears (we watched the little princess and Abby and I both cried.)

Runny Noses

Multiple Children in our Bed

And, my favorite, lots of hugs.

I've completed some good projects this week

Vinyl lettering above my kitchen window

Canned Pinto Beans....and actually remembered to put water in the canner and ask for directions. ha!

Made Wheat bread...without success, but it made decent french bread for breakfast.

made some quick trips to the store to buy some awesome deals with coupons.

And cleaned out my dishes cabinet

 Winslow and I went to the Snowflake Temple last Saturday

Thank you Mindy and Riann for watching the kids so we could go.

Se Hablo Espanol. Opps, it was the Spanish session. Thank heavens for subtitles!

The session started late so we got some good quite reflection time. And the subtitles kept me awake. Although I will admit to yawning....a LOT! It's so peaceful and quiet and warm, my body has to fight to stay focused.

Then after the session we stopped for what we had thought to be a quick bite to eat. 

Instead we were blessed to eat with a gentleman from the session. 

He was in his late 70's, had lost his wife a few years back, and we had the privilege of his company and his stories. 

He had known Winslow's grandpa from Bluewater, whom Winslow had never met.

He bore strong testimony of the gospel.

It was a rare treat.

Thankyou to my wonderful hubby for taking me to the temple.

And please accept my apologies for being a little grouchy at the end of each day. 

Okay maybe a lot grouchy. But I really love you. Thanks for being so patient with me!!!

Movie Night Reward

So tonight is supposed to be our Movie Night reward. But David and Rachel are not feeling well, so we might have to move it to next week.

The deal was we had to read scriptures as a family EVERY day for a month. This included vacations, weekends, no exceptions. And we finally did it!!!

We read in the car on trips, we had to be super dilligent. Our stake is really pushing scripture reading and prayer and family home evening. We were doing it most of the time, so we thought we could step it up a notch.

I am so proud of my kids for their reminders and for Winslow who made sure every day of vacation we had scriptures.

So the idea is we have a family movie (at home...we're on a budget remember) pop popcorn, have pizza (totinos! :)) and enjoy together.

A lot has been going on in our lives so daily scripture reading has been a real blessing. We made charts off Sugardoodle.net and Rachel begs me to read her scriptures at night.

We've promised our kids if they read or have read to them the whole book of Mormon we will take them out to a fancy resturaunt.

What ideas do you have on promoting scripture reading?

Christmas Magic

I love enjoying Christmas. We've pulled out our favorite Christmas books, we're making snowflakes and pepermint bark. Here are a few of our favorites, some classics and some new ones!


     

what do you like to read at Christmas time?

The Tree

Christmas is My Favorite Time of the year. It really is. I love to listen to Christmas songs, and sing Christmas songs, and be jolly. But Christmas always brings with it a dose of anxiety for me. My cozy house, sometimes seems overly cozy with all the extra decorations and a big tree in the house. So this year I gave into Winslow and we put the Christmas tree on the front porch. It looks fabulous and really it's a much better idea than trying to cram it in the house. We had fun picking our tree this year. We went the day after Thanksgiving and picked out a tree of the mountain. LOVE IT!