My Family Loves It

I haven’t posted about my chickens in quite a while and they are turning into characters! I let them have free run of the yard now when we’re home and they are fun to watch. Today I finally finished painting their coop that John built (and will blog with the plans once he shingles the roof and its 100% done). It looks pretty good but we still plan to add some painted chickens on it for decoration! I discovered that Loretta is a pest, she kept sneaking up behind me and pecking at me while I was painting (luckily I managed not to fall over when she got me in the butt while I was leaning down to paint the trim). Thats her in the top picture, isn’t she cute! Here are a few more pictures, I am hoping they are full sized now but they aren’t laying eggs yet and still need to grow their combs. I can’t wait for eggs, I’m thinking another month at most.

After staying up past 1AM to watch the Olympics I was not thrilled to say the least to wake at 7:30 to a living room carpet COVERED in dog poop! I know which dog it was because Casey is a walk while she poops kind of dog and so she really spread things out. To make it worse John took the boys back to the lake with my brother for a “boys weekend” so he wasn’t here to help (ie: clean it up all himself). I am pretty sure I know why Casey did it though, there was someone nearby setting off a lot of fireworks last night and it freaked her out so even though she went out twice before bed, she must have been too scared to go. When I was VERY pregnant with Jamie (as opposed to the 29 weeks I am currently) and John was at work I had a fun-filled day of both dogs being sick all over the carpet throughout the house so I guess it could have been much worse.

Yes, this is a gross post not fitting with the “my family loves it” theme of our blog but cut me a little slack. I could have gone into much more detail so I spared you a little! Anyway I’ll end on a nice note, just look at what a wonderful cute dog she is letting Jamie play cowboy with her (back in December) so I can’t stay upset with her!

The Parent Bloggers Network and Couponers.com are teaming up to sponsor this week’s blog blast and want to know, what was your best bargain find EVER? I have made some great sale purchases at real stores (love The Children’s Place when they have sales with 50% off already reduced prices) BUT the truly amazing bargains I have found have been at garage sales. I am pretty picky at them and the things we come home with are usually in great shape. Its fun kids things we look for so if I can’t see toys I won’t stop (I really have no need for used chochkas). This summer we got a few Kinex and Lego sets, including a really cool Lego soccer set with all its parts that is on Amazon for $97 new (I bought it for $10)! I still think my best garage sale find ever was three years ago when I found a huge wooden velociraptor puzzle for $3, it had all of the parts and the box so I looked online and found it on Amazon for over $100! Other things we’ve gotten from garage sales since having the kids include: tinkertoys, rescue heros, barbies, a bike, 3 story car garage, puzzles, dinosaur and animal figures, transformers, a play kitchen and a wooden kids toolbench. The fun thing about stopping at a garage sale is that you never know what you’ll find. We have been very lucky to unexpectedly find some things we needed to buy anyway, like right before Ethan’s first year of hockey we got a hockey helmet and skates a mom was selling that her kid never even used! We don’t go to many garage sales actually but we do try to go a few Saturdays a year and usually those are to neighborhood sales which are more fun and have lots to choose from. If you have never been to a garage sale give it a try!

A little more about Couponers.com - its a coupon and deals shopping platform that averages over 100 new coupons and discounts daily from hundreds of your favorite stores.  Instead of picking deals for you, Couponers.com constantly updates new offers in a searchable and organized format so YOU can easily find the best deal for YOUR needs.

We have been using reusable grocery bags from Wegmans (our favorite local grocery store) for the past year and they are great for groceries BUT they are big to store in the car so I keep them in the kitchen (which has led to me forgetting to bring them a couple of times). The Wegmans bags are also ugly and bulky so I would never take them into a clothing store or any place other than grocery shopping. So my guilt was less because I was not getting “paper or plastic” anymore buying food but I still felt wasteful going into the pharmacy, the mall or Target and coming home with plastic bags. Recently I had enough so I looked online and found the Olive Smart Sacks!!! Of all the reusable bag options I honestly don’t think there is a better one to be found.

The people at Olive Smart Sacks were so nice to send me one to review and 10% off for our readers (code found below). Just from their website I knew I’d love the bags before they even arrived! The “Smart Sack” is a small draw string bag that will fit in your car cup holder and it holds SIX shopping bags inside. I love that it is so compact and I can just grab the whole sack to bring in a store or just throw 1-2 in my pocket for a quick errand. The sacks are the perfect size and can really hold heavy items. I put them to the test with back to school shopping at Staples and I was able to fit the majority of my groceries in the 6 bags (actually I have a special cooler bag for perishables so between that and the 6 bags all of my groceries fit). If you are normally a “plastic” person at the store these bags basically function the same BUT they won’t break and are good for the environment. Click here to see some more reasons to make the switch away from plastic (like over 1 MILLION plastic bags are used worldwide EVERY MINUTE)! Besides being convenient and easy to use, you get 6 fun colors (I have the reef colors above and they look even nicer in person) and they’re attractive (you won’t feel awkward bringing them into your favorite stores). Of all the wonderful products that we have reviewed I really hope that I can help spread the word about these great bags because using them is such an easy way to help the environment and they make switching to reusable bags painless and fashionable!

If you want a bag that will fit over your shoulder they also make an Olive Smart Half Sack which comes in a set of 3 bags.

Stop your guilt too and go buy yourself an Olive Smart Sack, you can use the promotion code MFLI0915 to get 10% off.  The promotion code will be valid through September 15th. Oh and they would be great gifts too so why not get a few to save for holiday presents!

I found this GREAT and easy Jello idea and I HAD to try it and pass it on so that every Jello loving family I know can enjoy it too! Click over to the Huber Hof Academy blog for full directions but basically you make Jello normally except (after you mix your boiling water in) you add ice instead of the cold water and after 5 minutes of stirring it will set just enough to spoon into the glasses with the whipped cream layered carefully for clouds. I followed the instructions except I found that you need to definitely double the recipe and use 4 boxes of Jello (thats how many it took to make the 6 glasses above) AND I was lazy and bought Cool Whip to use instead of home made whipped cream (my substitution worked fine but don’t try with Ready Whip because it wouldn’t be firm enough to support the Jello). You can even make these a day or two ahead of time because our leftovers still look great in the fridge. I don’t know if mine look quite as perfect as the Huber Hof mom’s but I did them fast and they impressed the kids so I’m definitely going to keep making them.

Storynory is having a contest for a free iPod Touch if you fill our their survey before August 30th.  Winner to be announced September 15th.

Make sure you try out their podcast too.  Storynory has great, FREE, audio stories for kids.  We listened through all the available stories last winter during our weekend drives to and from hockey practice.  This summer we’ve been listening to audible books and have built up a reserve of Storynory that we’ll start listening through when hockey starts up again next month (ice hockey…NEXT MONTH?!?!? wow this summer has gone by fast)

Its been awhile since we’ve been able to do an Unplugged Project and I kept meaning to think of some great idea for HOT but … nothing! Then I realized that even though we didn’t do anything for the project we did do a few things that happen to fit with it. We LOVE backyard campfires and we had 2 this past week complete with smores! We have decided to make them an “after Jamie is asleep” activity since, at age 2, she is into everything and it’s nice to do something fun with just the boys! Last year she joined us for most of our fires and either sat in my lap or we brought out the portable crib, but she will be ready at 3 next summer for her first smores making.

Another HOT thing we did was pick out a wood burning stove insert to replace the super ugly old non-functioning one that came with the house. We happen to have a decent supply of dead trees for John to cut down and with fuel prices high we thought this would be a good move (as long as my asthma isn’t set off by it too much). The stove we’re getting is really nice looking with 3 glass panels so we’ll be able to enjoy the view and it makes me excited to think of winter. Here is a big stretch for the HOT theme: I did some baking! Just brownies and chocolate zucchini cake (I am growing zucchinis so I’m planning on doing a lot more baking with them).

Anyway, maybe next week (or the one after that) we’ll actually do the project!

Yesterday I goofed and put up THREE posts by accident (thats what I get for trying to write ahead). Anyway now I’ll be taking the rest of the weekend off from blogging as a result!

Yesterday I took the kids down the road to a U-pick blueberry patch with my friend Gretchen and her 2 kids. We were only there a few minutes when a big bumble bee was on Jamie’s face up under the brim of her hat. I shooed the bee away only for it to come right back and land on her cheek by the hat strap. I realized that the bee was attracted to the bright flower print of her hat so I quick took it off. You’d think that would be it, but the bee was PSYCHO and wouldn’t leave us. Next thing we know Jamie is crying and I don’t see the bee anywhere. Then she grabs her shirt and my friend suggests the bee is in her shirt! I pull up her shirt and this big bumble bee is IN HER BELLY BUTTON! It was trying to burrow in or something and was turning circles in Jamie’s tiny belly button, it was like a nightmare scene. I got it out and we all quickly tried moving to a different spot to get away from this bee but it landed on Gretchen and next it was back on Jamie and then it was on Ben’s face and then on me and we just can’t get away from this possessed bee!

At this point it seems like this is lasting an eternity and we’re all going nuts. The bee is around me the most so I put Jamie back down and realize that I am holding her flowery hat still so I toss it on the ground and the bee goes straight to it. I’m not usually a bee killer but as soon as the bee flew inside the hat I started stomping on it and I was very relived when I got it. Poor Jamie must have gotten stung a bunch of times inside her belly button and she still this morning has a red circle with a 2 1/2 inch diameter surrounding it. She also got stung on her hand (and she says her head too so maybe under her hair) but Gretchen had children’s benedryl chewables in her car and I gave Jamie 2 and that sting mark went away in about 10 minutes. So I think the crazy bee got her a ton in her belly button if she still has a red circle and slight puffiness today.

I always tell the boys not to freak out over bees, that “if you leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone”, but now I won’t feel I can say that! Of all bees I always heard that the big bumble bees were the most docile and didn’t sting often and I had no idea they were one of the ones that can sting repeatedly! Things could have been worse, Jamie has a matching dress in the same print as the hat and Brooke who is in the picture with her (just prior to bee attack) just tested positive for a mild bee allergy. I think I’m going to encourage John to get a little spray happy out by the back deck and try to get rid of all of the yellow jacket and wasp nests that we have. I know bees get wacky in the Fall and I’d like them all further away from the house by then after yesterday!

*Oh and the wonderful parents we are, last night we put on a nature DVD we rented that was all about BEES and ants! Poor Jamie but at least John put away the Bumble Bee game that was littering the family room floor with plastic bees!

I haven’t done a Blog Blast in awhile so I decided to join the Parent Bloggers Network and Burger King for their current Blog Blast: Are you THAT Family? They are looking for people’s “dinner out with the kids” horror stories: “tell us what you do now to avoid the food on the walls, juice on the table, and sanity gone totally out the window. Do you just not go out with them anymore? Do you bring a babysitter? Or do you stash some sort of magic toy that occupies them while you scarf down your meal?”

When our first son Ethan was born I started taking him out for lunch a lot and John and I never hesitated to bring him along when we’d go out for dinner. We were lucky and he was just SUPER good going out to eat. Our lucky streak continued after Ben was born and both boys still were great in restaurants. I was very proud of myself and thought we’d always be able to take the kids wherever we felt like to eat BUT then Jamie was born. At first all was still smooth sailing but then somewhere over the last year things started to get harder. Jamie is not quite as easy as the boys were and as a new 2 year old she is sort of hit or miss when we go out. I don’t think she is so terrible out to eat actually, its more just the combo of 3 kids that makes it much more challenging (and the boys aren’t as easy as they once were either). The more kids, the more chance of somebody getting the cranks! We’re not the family that everyone stares at because the kids are so terrible (at least we haven’t been yet!) but its like we’re on high alert sometimes trying to head off any trouble. Its not quite as enjoyable as in the past to go out as a family now and I definitely think we go out less but I think its important to keep going out and if we plan right ahead of time things work out well. I think when we have 4 kids things will be about the same but who knows!

I never was one to bring a big stash of diversions but those work for some families. I find one toy per kid and small snacks help bridge the gap between ordering and eating and I see nothing wrong with a few lollipops tucked away for emergencies! To me the biggest thing is to go out when all the nappers in the family had a good nap that day and to avoid crowded restaurants so there is no extra waiting. Its also important not to stress out! I mean what is the worst thing that can happen if the kids misbehave, you leave early? One of us has taken Jamie out to the car to leave a few minutes early while everyone else finished up and payed and it easily avoided her throwing a fit (but that has only happened twice so far).

So the whole point of this blog blast was to share your eating out horror stories but I didn’t do that since we have had no totally horrible behavior problems at a restaurant so far. We have had a whopping 3 incidents of d-word diaper leaking while out to eat since we’ve had kids, one pee accident and a minor choking/throwing up event but honestly those didn’t come to mind until just now since I was more thinking of misbehaving! Those gross moments weren’t so fun but they didn’t really ruin things either somehow (or not in my memory anyway)! So after doing this blog blast I am thinking we had better go out to eat very soon, I’m kind of craving IHop or maybe Japanese!

*If your family likes Burger King, they have new promotional kids’ meal toys by Crayola - perfect for boys or girls, and definitely worth tucking into your bag before heading out to eat.