Go ahead, Call my bluff

It's Works for me Wednesday again!

Parenting is NOT easy, but if you are a parent you already know that. I'm certainly not a parenting expert. I mess up all the time. However, I love my kids with all my heart as I'm sure you do. I try my best and sometimes it works. So, from time to time in my blog I will share failures as well as success stories.

Today I have a success tip for you. It's called Follow Through !! Kids learn right away how to push your buttons and manipulate you. I have found that consistency is one of the only things that works with kids. It takes a lot of work and effort in the beginning, but saves you so much in the end. For example: Tonight I decided it would be really fun to bake and frost sugar cookies with my 5 and 4 year olds. We were having a great time, pouring mixing etc. When I took the first batch out of the oven I put them on a cooling rack. I instructed my children (always making them look at me so I know they are listening which prevents excuses later) that if they touched the cookies at all they would not get to finish frosting them and they would not get to eat any tonight. I informed them...that was their warning and there would be no extra chances. My kids know that if I say it, I mean it. But wouldn't you know, my 5 yo daughter still had to test me. It was a simple act (she touched one of the cookies to see if it was cooled down), but a disobedient one just the same. (we give them rules for a reason...she could have been burned) It made me so sad. I was really looking forward to frosting the cookies with both of them. I wanted so badly to say "I'll give you one more chance", but I knew if I did, she would continue to call my bluff and not feel obligated to obey. So, after making her own up to her bad choice and own responsibility for her consequence, I asked her to leave the table.

It is so hard to be a follow through parent. One day though, when the choices are more important than cookies (drugs, alcohol, sex) my children will be well practiced on the reality of life and it's consequences. It's so important to train them young to make responsible decisions!

I hope maybe this will challenge you to be a follow through parent in your home. Give it a try. If your kids don't listen. You will find that once given enough time to see your consistency, your kids will know you mean what you say and will have to think harder before they make decisions. You will see a definite increase in good choices!

If you do give it a try, let me know how it works out for you.

Green Cleaning

I'm not exactly on the "Go Green" bandwagon yet, but due to my sons allergies I have been encouraged to hop on board. The most recent thing I have started doing is utilizing distilled white vinegar for almost all my cleaning. I know...It smells horrible, but the smell dissipates very quickly! Vinegar kills molds, bacteria and other nasty germs because of it's acidity, yet it is gentle enough to put in your laundry. You don't have to be afraid to breath it, as long as you don't mix it with bleach (see here). You don't have to be worried your kids will die from it and if you are like me, you don't have to worry about getting bleach spots all over your clothes because you lean against a wet spot on the counter. I found a site that has some tips on using vinegar here. One of my favorite uses is adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup to my rinse cycle. My clothes come out extremely clean with no residue and SO soft. I would not have believed it before I tried it. You can also add baking soda or salt with vinegar to make a paste for things that need an abrasive. I think it's awesome and I'm a born skeptic, so give it a try and let me know how it goes for you.

Secret Vengeance

Do toy makers have a grudge against parents? I think the answer is simple to see when you open a new cabbage patch doll for your two year old. Just to open the box alone, you have to slice through 6 sections of super duty, won't break no matter how hard you pull it tape. Once opened (after a few finger slices) you must pull and squeeze at the proper ratio to remove the inner package from the outer package. At this point your thinking "Almost there", but you are mistaken! Not only do you have to untwist all the twist ties, but you have to remove the same super duty tape from the twist ties first. After twisting, twisting and more twisting, you can now pull th doll free...OH NO...there's more tape! You fight your way through the tape only to find you forgot to snip 8 sections of thread (that are super thin, yet somehow indestructible) that are stitched to the box. Once finished, you wipe your brow and breathe in a paper bag for a minute or so. You hand the doll over to your child who joyfully receives it. That smile on her face makes it all worth it...then five minutes later, she throws it down and it's history.

At this point, you MUST remember! You made it...you are a survivor, a victor! Your hands may be sore and covered in band aids, but You conquered the box! You will live to see yet another birthday in which you can test your skills by hacking through the ever increasingly difficult toy packaging!

I survived the Zoo!

Saturday was Marcie's birthday. She is 2!!!! They had a free day at our local zoo and we decide to make that her birthday outing. Everyone had so much fun. We got there early, so it wasn't crowded and the weather was perfect. Everybody was happy the entire time with absolutely NO whining (which may be attributed to all kids having a stroller). When we got back home, my mom and dad were there and we all had ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery (cookie dough dream) yumm! It was a simple yet really enjoyable day! Here is our day in pictures:

I told the kids this was Franklin! (they rolled their eyes)

What a life!

Marcie feeding the giraffe.

Show off!

She blew out her own candles!

They handed out free sunglasses. (the kids took them Very seriously)

Marcie dancing!

Mark's first tattoo.

Maylie's butterfly tattoo. (It cost 50 cents)

It had to happen eventually...

Mark received his very first set of stitches on Tuesday. He decided it would be a great idea to stand on the bathroom counter and look at his handsome face in the mirror! He figured out it was actually a bad idea as he fell off and busted his chin open on the floor. It was a pretty bad gash. Dad took him to urgent care and he came home with four stitches. I got the bum deal, however, because my new job is to keep him from busting it back open for the next couple of weeks. (yeah, right. The boy who was standing on the counter!) Well, it took me a while to get these pics up, but here they are in all their gruesome glory!

I laughed so hard I cried!

I watched this video at A Day in the Life of a MaMa.

Kids At Play

We bought the kids some "new" play equipment off Craigslist for 50.00. I put it together by myself today! Woohoo! They played on it for about 45 minutes until everyone got too hot (very humid here). This is the first outside play stuff they've had. It was fun to see them playing on my BARGAIN!

All Toothbrushes Are NOT Created Equal

Part of my Tackle It Tuesday was to sanitize my children's toothbrushes that they keep throwing in the floor. That is just so disgusting! So I got bright idea #1888 and decided to boil the toothbrushes...well, that's what you do with bottles! It actually worked for some of the toothbrushes (the ones that cost $1 for a 6pk...Go figure)but for a couple of poor tooth decay soldiers it was the end of the road. They served us well. May they RIP.

How NOT to mop the floor!

Ok. So it's Tackle It Tuesday and I decide since I haven't tackled anything I feel worthy of posting I would tackle my bathroom this morning. I have recently switched to cleaning with vinegar as a step to have a healthier home and to support my son who has allergies/asthma. However, today, I thought I would mop the bathroom one last time with bleach. Every thing was going ok, until I bent over the bucket to wring out the mop and inhaled a fume that made me choke and felt like it burned my airway. What could it be? Did I use too much bleach? NO...I forgot I had been mopping with vinegar and had not thoroughly rinsed out the mop before sticking it in the bleach. So, my first thought was of the kids in the house. I covered my face and ran the bucket outside to be disposed of later, then ran back in the house and kicked on the attic fan. I think all the fumes are gone, but my nose smells like bleach. So, I guess what I tackled this Tuesday was staying alive! I will however post my before and after bathroom pics, even though at this point I'm thinking I should have just left it alone. See cleaning is just not healthy! Ha Ha! Vegging out on the couch is much safer!


No, we haven't been using this ??Bathroom??



Ahhhh....the demon mop bucket!

Great Website for Teaching Kids to Read

I found an awesome website that my kids actually LOVE to use. They think they are "playing", but they are actually learning phonics. Starfall.com has different levels depending on how far along your child is. My 3 year old (almost 4) uses it, but I wouldn't go younger than that. It is very interactive and keeps their attention. I have to make them get off! Just thought I'd share. It Works For Me.

Heather

Saturday Super Kids

The weather here in Missouri is so unpredictable. It is spring weather one day and literally the next day it snows! However, Today was a beautiful day. TJ told the kids he would pay them each 10.00 to pick up all the sticks out of the yard. After I picked my jaw up off the floor (I was thinking more like 1.00), I grabbed my camera and took some pictures of the kids hard at work.

Savings at Kohl's

I decided to participate in Super Savings Saturday from Money Saving Mom. I am so new to this that I haven't started doing my CVS deals or anything awesome like that, but I did come across some cool clearance items at Kohls. I got my kids t-shirts, skirts, and shorts for 2.50/piece (Jumping Beans). That is equal to consignment prices,so I couldn't pass it up. Hopefully I will have even more saving to show for soon!

Markers and Crayons Have Babies!

I have come to the conclusion that markers and crayons are asexual. You know that you can scour the entire house top to bottom. Take every crayon and marker, throw them in the trash, take directly to the dumpster and the next day you find your two year old has found a marker and has colored your couch, walls, herself. I'm telling you...these things reproduce. Anyone who has children knows this is fact. It's probably some secret government conspiracy like Area 51 or something. Join me on my mission to wipe out this disastrous race of Art products! Ok...well, I guess the kids need crayons, but the markers MUST go!

Hoping this post finds you Marker free!

Heather

Let's Try This Again...

I somehow screwed up my first blog after putting some hard work into it. So I'm trying again here with round 2. I will be organizing today and putting a new post up later tonight.