Just One Mom Trying

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Dating At Home: Love Letters

Are you going on a date with your husband this weekend? Remember, you don't have to go out to go on a date. But, whatever you decide to do, make it special.

Last weekend as part of our date, I put together a box for my husband. Inside the box were these cookies, which I knew in Asia as "love letters."

They are hollow cookies, rolled up like a scroll, or love letter. I found some real love letters from famous people and printed them out. I rolled them up tight and inserted the letters into the cookies. The last cookie was a love letter that I actually wrote for my husband. I tied that one up with a red ribbon.

We had some Chinese food, Trader Joe's style, and then he read the love letters. My husband doesn't like fortune cookies (the taste, not the idea), so these "love letter" cookies were great.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Textured Blanket

Emily 6:56 AM 0 Comments

My 8-month old daughter is infatuated with different feels and textures. She likes to rotate blankets for the different feels of them. I'm in the middle of finishing a new blanket just for her. I hope she likes it.

I've included chenille, pleather, satin, corduroy, terry cloth, felt, velvet, and a few other fabrics. Halloween time is a great time to pick up crazy fabrics of all types.

I have some leftover fabric that I'm excited to use for my next project.

# baby # crafts

Don't Underestimate Used Bookstores

Emily 6:36 AM 1 Comments

Used bookstores are great! Since we LOVE books, we take a trip to the used bookstore quite frequently. We have found some fun treasures. They are cheap and they are in really good shape. I think these books were $1.29 each.

I found some fun Halloween and fall books for $1.99 each. These are so nice to have for our little rotating preschool.

I'm collecting books for Christmas. Instead of an advent calendar, we are wrapping up 24 books and putting them under the tree. Each night MJ gets to open one book for her bedtime story. I was super happy to find these to add to our collection.

I found an animated scripture story DVD of "The King Is Born" for $4.00 so that will be a fun treat to mix up the books.

These two books were hardback books. I paid $2.99 instead of $1.99 for them. The one on the left is one of my FAVORITE books. I was so happy to find it!

Check out your local listings to see if you have a used bookstore by you! You might be surprised by what you find. As a former high school teacher and now a mom/homeschool preschool teacher, I wish I knew about this earlier. What a great resource!

# books # Christmas

Friday, September 23, 2011

Apple Printing to Make Sand Dollars

Emily 6:42 AM 0 Comments

Today we did some apple printing. But, instead of just making prints of apples, we dipped our apples in white paint to make sand dollars. We printed them on paper bags to mimic the sand.

I think I might redo this activity again in December and talk about the Legend of the Sand Dollar. I'll get some real sand dollars to put inside the bag with a copy of the legend:

Upon this odd-shaped sea shell
A legend grand is told
About the life of Jesus
The wondrous tale of old

The center marking plainly shows
The well known Guiding Star
That led to tiny Bethlehem
The Wise Men from afar

The Christmas flower, Poinsettia
For His Nativity
The Resurrection too is marked
The Easter Lily, see

Five wounds were suffered by our Lord
From nails and Roman's spear
When He died for us on the cross
The wounds show plainly here

Within the shell, should it be broke,
Five Doves of Peace are found
To emphasize this legend
So may Love and Peace abound

# Christmas # crafts

Birdseed Eggs

Emily 5:46 AM 5 Comments

This post is a little late in the season but I didn't want to forget about it when springtime rolled around again. I think I'm also in denial that summer is over.

I love these birdseed eggs! This summer we took a trip to California and hung some of these up in Grandma's trees. What fun! These particular eggs come from Smith & Hawken. They came 12 in an egg carton.

I wanted to know how one makes these. It is completely made of birdseed. There's nothing in the middle to keep the shape. I did some research and found out that you can make these quite easily.

Here's the recipe from Birds & Blooms:

1/3 cup gelatin
1-1/2 cups water
8 cups birdseed

1. Mix gelatin and water over low heat until the gelatin is melted and clear.

2. Remove from heat and stir in birdseed.

3. Stir until there is no dry seed.

4. Form mixture into egg shapes. Use plastic Easter eggs as a mold to get the egg shape.

5. Refrigerate for two to four hours and dry on baking rack for three days.

# crafts # kid craft

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Dating at Home: Movie Trailer Reviews

Emily 6:40 AM 0 Comments

It was my husband's turn to come up with a dating idea. He had a bunch of fun ideas but I picked his Movie Trailer Reviews idea.

We each made a chart (see below). Then we went to the Apple Movie Trailers site, watched some movie trailers and filled in our charts without the other seeing what we wrote. After we filled in our charts, we took turns sharing what we wrote down. We laughed at a lot of ridiculous movies coming out. This was very entertaining. I love laughing with my hubs.

Here's what my husband's chart looked like- he's got nicer handwriting than I do.

This was a very fun date to do while the kids were asleep.

Click HERE if you'd like to print out a chart for your own date.

# dating at home # indoor dating

Monday, September 19, 2011

Tickle Monster by Josie Bissett

Emily 5:37 AM 1 Comments

For a family activity we headed to Barnes & Noble to go read some books. We LOVE books. As we were browsing around the children's section, I came across this darling book. It was actually a "laughter kit" which included the book and some monster mittens. The book is super cute and the mittens were so fun. Check it out next time you head to the bookstore or HERE on Amazon.com