We are moving...tips for packing up a house

I know, I know...I went MIA again. I am sorry. I ment to post some updates but we had so many things going on. Here is the scoop. We sold our house after it being on the market for 519 days. woohoo! We were going to rent a home while our house was under construction. Well, one day we were driving past our land and a house just 3 doors down was for sale. The house was beautiful and foreclosed. We made an offer with the hopes of being able to either remodel it or live in it while we build our dream home. We will not make a final decision in a year.

So we have been going crazy trying to pack and get geared up to move. We close on our new home next week. Our house is crazy right now, I mean crazy. Here are some pictures

Here are some quick moving tips.

Have 1 miscellaneous box. You know when you are packing up all of the DVD's you tape the box and then you find 3 or 4 random DVD's just minutes after? Well, my dad gave me this great tip. You have a miscellaneous box that all of the random junk that missed it's "designated" box goes into. Right now I have puzzle pieces, DVD's markers...pretty much a junk box that you can open at the end of your move and organize. It works GREAT.

Use garbage bags to move your clothing. I make a small hole at the top of the bag and pull the hangers through. Then I shove all of the clothing into the bag and tie it off. This works great. It's cheap and protects your clothing. If anything falls off the hanger it falls into the bag and not onto the ground . Here is a junky cell phone picture. A friend said you can reverse the bag and put the strings at the top, then you can reuse the bag.

Last tip, label the boxes at the top and the side. If someone is moving a smaller box they can just read the top of it. If the box is in storage you can always read the side of it. It's all about labeling here people.

I will be MIA for another week, maybe two. I look forward to giving you a lot of new decorating tips.

So simple, yet so fun!

My baby boy goes to preschool one day a week for 2 hours. The teacher is ah-mazing. We love her and all of her great ideas. When I picked up little man up from preschool he was excited to show me his "helping cloth". It's an Ikea washcloth with his hand prints on it. Simple huh? The teacher took it a step further and ... attached a cute little song.

Now when I need help around the house I ask little G to get his helping cloth to help me clean up. It's so much fun for both of us! I hang it on his chair in the kitchen so he can grab it whenever he needs it. Big G liked it so much he threw a fit that he did not have a cool helping cloth. I think we will be making one or two for each boy. Here are the pictures. They are cell phone quality but hey, you get the point!

The song is to the tune of "I'm a Little Tea Pot"

I'm a special helper, yes I am!

God made my hands, watch them help.

I'm a special helper, God made me.

To help my friends and my family

where did the week go???

Hey everyone,

I am sorry that I did not get a post up this week. I had so many great ideas but of course did not get to it. I will have a new post in 2 weeks. I won't have access to my computer for an entire week. Ack, what am I going to do? Oh well, it will be worth it in the end.

Snuza Review

Yeah, I know. You are wondering what in the world is a Snuza? Right? Silly name, huh? Well, as silly as this product may sound it's the most AMAZING product ever. I just love it. Okay, okay, enough already. You want to know what it is. The Snuza is baby movement monitor. It's small, uber small in fact. It clips onto your baby's diaper and detects movement. If your baby stops moving an alarm sounds and alerts you.

I am one of those crazy mom's that checks my little ones while they sleep. I have to know if they are breathing. SIDS makes me so nervous and I needed some peace of mind. I love that the Snuza can travel with your baby. It's totally mobile unlike some other baby movement monitors. It's also small which I love. It's on the pricey side which almost scared me away. I was not sure if I wanted to put up the cash if this baby is going to be my last. I have to say that it's well worth the cost.

If you worry about SIDS this is the monitor for you. I use it during naps and at night. I put the Snuza on the baby's diaper and am instantly at ease. I sleep better and love that I don't have to worry. If I had a child in daycare I would ask them to use the Snuza. I just can't imagine having a baby and NOT using this product.

I will admit that I had this for a good 3 weeks before I ever used it. I don't know why but I could not get myself to clip in onto my little one's diaper. It is pretty silly when I look back, ha. The only negative about this product is that I am not sure how it will work when my little one starts to roll in her sleep. I am going to have to simmer on this...

Bread! You can do it!

I love to cook, bake, craft you name it. The one thing that always failed though was bread. I had tried to make it a handful of times and it never worked. I watched a ton of youtube videos and even then...fail. Well, I came across this recipe and thought I would give baking bread one last try. I mean, why not? I was used to failing. I could do a tutorial but hey, it's already been done! woohoo. Here is a link to the recipe AND a tutorial, what a bonus.

Easy Bread in 5 minutes

We have not bought bread in months. This is all we eat. I make two loaves each week. One loaf is sweet and the other one is for sandwiches and things. You can add anything to this bread. The sky is the limit. I have added cinnamon, sugar, cranberries, walnuts, ugh the list could go on and on. I also use 1/4 whole wheat flour, 2/4 unbleached flour and 1/4 regular white all purpose flour.

Last week I started the bread, went to the gym and then did not have time to bake it. I stuck the bowl in the fridge and figured I would get to it later. Well, 2.5 days later I got to it. I let the bowl sit out for 40ish minutes and then made the loaves. Guess what? It still turned out. This stuff is ahhhhmazing. Give it a try and let me know what you think. I am in love and will never buy bread again!

Back to School!

I still can't believe that summer is over and school is back in session. You know what Back to School means??? It means a lot of papers coming home with your kiddos. What do you do with all of those papers? Set them aside? Misplace them? Organize them away only to never find them again? What about those late nights when you are looking everywhere for the field trip form? You know, the form that needs to be turned in first thing in the morning? As a former teacher I know all about the panic, phone calls, and emails about lost papers. Here is my solution

A couple years ago I was cruising the Target isles. I love looking at the end of isles for great deals. It was around October and there it was, an organizers dream. I found the mother load of three inch, three ringed binders. I felt like the angels in Heaven were singing. I paused and looked at the little red sticker. They were....twenty five cents. Can you believe it? twenty five cents. Needless to say, I bought every single one on the shelf. I had no clue what I would do with all of them but knew I had to have them.

Once my oldest started preschool the papers started to flood through the door. What do I do with all of these papers? ugh, the papers were driving me bonkers. Then it hit me, I had a bunch of three ringed binders begging to be used.

I place the monthly calendar in the front of the binder. It works perfectly. All I have to do is glance at the calendar the night before (errr the morning of) and see what needs to go to school with my little guy. Inside the binder is an organizers dream. The front pocket holds any papers that need to go to school, all of the supplies needed to pay the monthly tuition (yes, even a pen), and things that I have put aside to mail to the grandparents (AKA the projects that I don't have the heart to throw away). The rings hold the plastic page protectors. The first page is the classroom monthly news letter. Everything that comes home normally makes it into the binder. The class list has it's place and the art projects fit perfectly. The glitter even stays in place with the page protectors.

Here are some pictures. The pictures are not great. The name of the school was plastered all over every.single.paper. I did not want to share my son's preschool so I took some funky pictures.

The monthly Calendar

Monthly classroom letter

Year at a glance

One of the many art projects that I saved

I will be using the same binder for 2 years of preschool and hope to get another grade or two squeezed in. My hope is that one day when my little guy wants to look back at grade school he will have everything neatly organized away. We will see if it really works that way, ha

I'm BACK and have a paci clip tutorial

Wow, it's been forever. Life has gotten busy around here. In the last year so much has changed. I lost my best friend in November. My grandma was my world. Life will never be the same. . We are slowly getting used to our new normal without my grandma around. She will forever be missed.

In April we welcomed baby number #3. We will call her Baby "G". She is the best baby that we have had. She sleeps and eats so well, we really enjoy her. I will have to post about her birth later this month.

Here is the plan for the blog. I hope to keep up with 1-2 posts each week. I will try to continue to post on Thursday afternoons. If there is anything you want me to post about let me know!

Up first, a paci clip tutorial. It's pretty easy. Here goes!

~Find the fabric that you want to use. I embroidered the letter "L" on fabric.

~cut out the fabric and assemble onto the button. I bought the largest buttons I could find at the fabric store. The button had a wire on the back of it but I took that off.
~Glue the paci clip onto the button. I found the paci clips on Etsy.com
~Sew the ribbon onto the paci clip
~use some fabric glue to attach velcro to the ribbon
~Sew the velcro to the ribbon
~All done! I love these so much. They make great gifts for friends too!