I am sitting here... in the midst of my family... cracking up hysterically while watching them play hide-and-seek. One, two, three, four... ready or not, here I come! I believe the rules of the game have officially been changed... that, and the quirks of young children (namely: Chicky) playing hide-and-seek... well, it is one of those moments that makes you want to pick up your kids and smooch them til the cows come home.
- Chicky counting... A, B, C, D... and turning me to ask, "Momma, where Daddy? Maymay? Where do?" (pronounced dough)
- Chicky seems to think that you are supposed to hide in the same place every.time.you.hide. Under the covers or behind a curtain... every.time... all the while thinking she is being just as tricky as the first time she hid there.
- When Chicky is hiding... and she hears the ready or not holler... she giggles. Hysterically. And she greets the seeker from her hiding place... "Hi Daddy!" Doesn't make for hard finding... but most certainly makes for lots of heart swells.
One of my guilty little pleasures is oggling (is that a word?) over crafty, home design blogs. Some people are so freakin talented. I love crafty, do-it-yourself type projects... but I usually need to pull inspiration from somewhere.
I have a problem with meals. I mean... I have great intentions... I buy all the ingredients... but then let them go to waste in my pantry. Our days are busy and dinner time often becomes a grab-what-you-can meal... rather than that of a good home cooked meal. What I envision in my head is... "Please pass the potatoes. How was your day, dear? Don't forget to eat your vegetable. What happened at school today?"
Yeahhh ... haha.
But now... now is the time, dammit. I was scrolling through a blog that I follow... crafty girl... mom of a little boy with autism... we talk therapy... we talk IEPs... we talk inclusion... love that. And I came across a menu planner board... seriously the answer to my problems.
So I made me one.
Got me a cheap little framed cork board from Michaels... don't forget to use a coupon --> cheap. Picked up some scrapbook paper and found these little clothesline clips at Walmart --> freakin cute.
Bought me a can of brown spray paint... sprayed and rusticized (ok... that really is not a word) the frame, the clothesline clips and the thumb tacks. Found these recipe cards at Target years ago... they were meant for a bridal shower gift. Oops... guess that never happened.
Mounted my scrapbook paper on my cork board using acid free scrapbook glue. Went to my handy dandy computer... printed off some menu items and my days of the week... mounted them on acid free scrapbook paper... wa la.
There she blows... err something. I am thinking the wall is a bit bare... and perhaps I should have made it a wee bit bigger... but whatever... nothing some accent items can't take care of. I have a menu planner and we have had our sit-down-and-pass-the-potato-dinners almost every night so far.
Love that.
(tutorial here)
::
We are anxious for warmer weather to settle in for the long haul... all the while taking advantage of the random sunshine that we have had. Our grass needs to green, our bushes need to bloom.
So... I am wondering... is it just my kids or are holes in the knees some sort of you know... new thing? Haha. Mason has holes in the knees of every pair of jeans he owns... literally.every.pair. And Nika... she has them too.
What on earth do my children do to their jeans? Momma gonna go broke replacing these things. On second thought... shorts are right around the corner... holes will have to do. I mean... they would just ruin the new jeans too, no?
Sigh.
::
More to come on inclusion, IEPs, labels... I have to show you the girls' identification bracelets I got and bounce more ideas on those... oh, and my Valentine's gift
But for now... I need to go finish putting away my Christmas decorations... and my Valentine's decorations... and I need to do the dishes... and go through my kids clothes... and organize our storage area... and wash my dog... and decide on some new decor... and...
Very cool. I am a horrible meal planner because I believe in leftovers like there is no tomorrow! :) But, I do cook a lot of homecooked meals now. My dutch oven was one of my best buys to date!
ReplyDeleteAnd, you can fill in some of that space with some UCL...jus' sayin'. ;)
Oh, and I think the holes in the knees is "in". Holes everywhere, actually. I can't bring myself to buy pants with holes in them!
ReplyDeleteWhat a creative and wonderful idea!
ReplyDeleteCute board - my menu is on plain old printer paper under 8 magnets buried under kid's artwork on the fridge :)
ReplyDeleteBethany, you're all kinds of awesome!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, is it just me, or does Nika look so much like Mason in this picture? I love how that happens! I have some close friends who have adopted 2 girls, and you would swear they were biological! Secondly, my son is totally destroying the left knee in every pair of pants he owns too. I also decided we would just wait for shorts. Living in AZ, shorts are just around the corner, yay!! Love the menu board!
ReplyDeletelove the board! :)
ReplyDeleteyou are far too creative, far too crafty for simple ol me:) I LOVE IT!! and the kids are too cute for words...love reading your blog as makes me feel alive and well in my world too. So glad we have met and look forward to more tomorrows. If by chance we do meet in person, I am certain my Alexa and my Sammy would help terrorize Bristow w/your 3some:)
ReplyDeleteLOVE the menu board....I may have to try that!
ReplyDeleteI suck at meal planning too. BIG TIME! That's a nice board and all, but in my house it would sit and collect dust.
ReplyDeleteAnd Nolan has holes in every single pair of jeans he owns too!! I finally replaced a few of them. I didn't want to replace because I was waiting for him to grow so I could buy the next size to make it worthwhile. Plus, the way I looked at it was people pay good money to get jeans with holes like that, so he's at least in style. I have not clue what he is doing to them. Actually, I do....playing soccer at school and sliding all over the field at recess. But Kaia has them too and she's not doing that stuff.
VERY cute meal plan board! And so much better than my lam-o word document I refer to every day!
ReplyDeleteooh-ooh-ooh! holes in jeans of the babes solution over here! so, my girl, same problem. i grabbed a pair of cotton pj bottoms with butterflies that she had long ago out-grown. i cut a large square out of the legs, put them up inside the leg and stitched them with a bright, double strand of thread. i admit, it's a little "Holly Hobbie"...BUT it's gonna get us a few extra miles out of the jeans we bought back in November. plus...the girl gets to rock a little grunge-like style. kind of cute.
ReplyDeletei get the boy's jeans at Sears because i'm cheap. wait, no. well, yes. but no. i buy them there because they have that "Kids' Vantage" thing where if they put a hole in the knee before they go up a size, you take them back and exchange for a new pair--NO CHARGE! sister is on a budge, so this helps us take three pairs of jeans the whole distance (and then some) to a school year.
:::whew::: how annoying getting all of those know-it-all suggestions, eh? ;)
i heart the menu board. might have to give that one a serious roll. you're a talented girl. :)
happy sunshine & big love.
I just have to laugh reading your post because I can't figure it out either. Every one of my little boy's jeans have holes in the knees. I don't get it! It's winter time too. I bought him a new pair and within a week, that one had holes too. Oh well...Kids are so funny! I love the menu board too!
ReplyDeleteMeal planning is a struggle for me, too... which makes absolutely NO sense, since I love being organized and have a list for everything! Maybe it's because our kiddos are picky eaters so there aren't too many meals they'll eat! I have vowed to get organized in the meal-planning department... maybe one of these days I'll get to it! :)
ReplyDeleteMy Mason (7) has holes in the knees of all his jeans also! I've come to the conclusion it's not that kids are rougher on their clothes, but that denim isn't as tough as it used to be. I mean, denim was invented for work clothes, but these jeans are not working for us! haha. I ended up cutting the legs off the damaged beyond repair pairs, and made them into denim shorts (long or short) for the summer just gone down here. Mason loves them and chose for them to remained frayed at the bottom, although you could add a decorative hem.
ReplyDeleteCool little menu plan project !! My meal planning went flying out the window back in April. Trying to get back into the swing of it, but I promise you, I will not be getting that cutesy with mine. I sit down with a pencil and paper, make out a menu for a few weeks and then hit the grocery store. Makes grocery shopping oh so easy! Hey, your next project can be,,,making those jeans into shorts for the summer. Whack 'em off and hem 'em up. Easy and inexpensive too!
ReplyDeleteLove this project! I linked to it from http://scrimpalicious.blogspot.com/2011/06/menu-planner.html
ReplyDelete