Family History activity for children who can't read yet

 This idea came to mind when I was thinking about how to combine flowers with family history.  An adult who can read would need to help the child follow the prompts. You will want to will want to print it double sided and flip on short edge. I designed this to be a little booklet. You will need 2 sheets of paper to print the booklet. The order of the pages will look a little funny but they do all line up when you stack and fold them up. I hope this helps those who want to help little ones do their family history who cant read yet.

Here is the link to the booklet

My Family History in flowers

Soap dispenser sludge

Why is there always water all over the bathroom counter?! It seems to pool around the soap dispenser into a disgusting sludge. How does something that's supposed to clean things end up so gross? 

This pool of soap sludge around our soap dispenser happens because of how we wash our hands as a family. It's a sticky mess that can be harder to clean if I don't get to it right away and I don't want to discourage my kids from washing their hands. If we washed them like medical professionals scrub their hands this wouldn't happen. 

As a family we have talked about shaking out our hands in the sink before drying. We have talked about wiping down the counter after drying our hands. We have tried leaving a towel right next to the the soap dispenser as a reminder to clean up after washing. We have tried placing a wash cloth under the soap dispenser to catch all of the spilled water but the cloth gets saturated very quickly and doesn't catch all of the water what was spilled from hand washing. We have tried placing a hand towel under the soap dispenser and this worked a little better because it captured all of the water but it still ended up a big sopping mess. 

One day I was washing some dishes and placing them on the drying mat when it occurred to me that those mats are really good at absorbing the water without getting really gross quickly. This thought made me pause and ask myself "Why couldn't those serve the same purpose in the bathroom?"

 I bought some extra mats from the dollar tree and placed the whole mat under the soap dispenser and I watched to see what would happen. Sure enough it absorbed all the water and didn't get sticky like the washcloths or towels did. When I changed out the drying mats I could pick up the mat and it wouldn't drip water all over the place. I could easily clean where the mat was when I changed them out.

After living with this for a few months my husband asked if I could cut the mats down so that they were not hanging into the sink or over the edge of the counter. I looked at the edges of the mats and thought I could do the same stitch on my sewing machine. I cut them to fit the shape of the area they were supposed to absorb water and zig zag stitched up the edges. 

 

We are still working as a family on not dripping all over the bathroom counter but at least we know that everyone is  washing their hands and I am always happy about that.

#Give Thanks

 #Give Thanks

There is so much negativity in the world right now, it can feel like being in quicksand sometimes. I am grateful for the invitation to express gratitude for the things that are going right in my own world. Please feel free to click the link above to see the invitation I am accepting and sharing.

Day 1. More time with my Husband.

In October of 2014 my husband was cycling home from work and was hit by a SUV. He was in a medically induced comma for almost a week and the doctors had a hard time waking him up. He spent another three weeks in in-patient rehab. He had a TBI, a shattered femur, a compound fracture in his arm, double vision and couldn't remember why he was in the hospital for more than five minutes.He had many other injuries and side effects from the accident. I was and am grateful that he could remember who I am and who our children are, even if he got their ages wrong after the accident. He had to relearn how to do so many things. He still has bad days occasionally where he doesn't remember things if he is very tired. He had to learn to write things down to remember them, an executive functioning tool he never had to use before the accident. I still need to drive for him occasionally if his brain won´t let him focus or if it is late at night because he permanently lost some of his periphery vision. I am grateful for the gift I have been given of more time with the man I love. He is still a loving man who is kind, a hard worker, an involved father who loves telling dad jokes. I am grateful he was able to relearn how to walk and seeing him remember things almost like he used to at times. I am grateful that I get more time to work on making him laugh, I am terrible at making jokes. I am aware on a personal level that we never know when we can loose the ones we love and more time with my husband is a gift from God I am thankful for.

Day 2. Children who love others.

We have four children and all of them are different from each other. There are some interests that overlap but their personalities are different and distinct. It can be quit challenging to find the time to support each child's diverse interests in a way that each feels our love for them. As a mother I have days occasionally when I am just tired; physically, emotionally and drained spiritually. On those days, I just want to sit down, take a nap, and stop being responsible for a little bit. On days like that how tired I am must show on my face because my only thought at that point is keep going, you can sleep later. My kids will say something like, mom you really look tired. To which I respond with a smile or a smirk, I am always tired, now we need to do ...(fill in the blank). Sometimes on days like this one of them will bring me a flower they pressed in a book for me. Or give me a bear hug and tell me they love me when I don´t think I can handle folding another load of laundry without crying. Another will decide they want to make dinner so I can sit down and rest. And yet at other times one of them will pull out their violin and play something because they know I love hearing them play. I am grateful for children who notice when I need to feel loved and supported and they find something they can do to try to make things better for me. I have also seen them do this with their siblings even though at times I know they drive each other crazy. I am grateful for children who are capable of loving others and who have the courage to do something about it.

Day 3. A God who listens and loves

I remember hearing as I grew up that God in Old Testament times was an angry person. I also remember my shock the first time  read through the Old Testament and I noticed how disobedient the ancient Israelites were. God would try to get them to do the right thing and try again and again until eventually He would need to start to implement consequences to help them learn to stop doing whatever they were doing wrong. I saw a patient parent who was trying to help rebellious kids learn to stop making the same mistake. As stupid as I felt they were and as often as I have wondered at how slow they were to learn, I have benefited from that same patience when I have made stupid choices of my own. I am grateful for a Heavenly parent who loves me and listens to me when I talk with Him in prayer. I love the relationship of love.

Day 4. Ancestors

One of my interests is learning about my ancestors. One of the reasons this started when I was young is I was often asked ¨What are you?¨ This started at such a young age I didn't understand what I was being asked at first. I thought other kids or adults couldn't tell I was a girl. I was a Tomboy you see so I thought it was my clothes or because I was often playing sports of some variety or building forts. Later as a teenager I realized I was being asked what my ethnicity was or who my ancestors are. So by the time I was about 11 or 12 years old I started asking my parents and they didn't know much. So I started writing letters to aunts, uncles and grandparents. These aunts and uncles and grandparents had some answers but a lot of it still didn't add up. I kept digging and learning about how to research family trees. Finally in my 30ś some of my family members and I took DNA tests. The results lead me down completely different research avenues. I very quickly found a paper trail that matched the DNA. Now I have answers that make so much more sense than what I was given as a kid. I am very blessed to have ancestors from all over the world. It is this diversity that causes people I meet to not be able to neatly put me into an ethnicity category. I am grateful that my ancestors, for generations, broke with social norms and married people who were different than them. It is a great legacy of diversity that they have passed down to me and our children. I have been enjoying learning about them and from them. I have a chance to learn from so many cultures and take the good from my ancestors that they offer.

Day 5. Art

I am grateful for the ability to create things of beauty. To learn from others who create beauty. To have the chance to explore the balance between creating something functional that also beautifies my world. I also enjoy the opportunity to create things that have no other function but to be beautiful and lift the spirits of others. There are so many things that are hard and ugly in this world that bring it down. I love that art has the potential to lift others out of that darkness. I love that art can give artists a way to express what is inside them and a viewer can look at that art and be touched by what that artist is saying.

Day 6. Health

I have been sick the last few days and I am feeling grateful that what I am feeling is a mild cold. So many have lost their lives to Covid19.  I have been watching on the news as so many have died. Right now in our country we have lost a third of the lives that we did in the Civil War to Covid19. In the world more people have died than in our Civil War. So many lives lost. I keep hoping it will stop and yet all I see is it getting worse. So I am grateful that all I am dealing with is a cold.

Day 7. Gardening

I love planting seeds and watching them grow. I enjoy the anticipation of waiting and watching for the seeds to sprout every day. I enjoy watching the plant grow and change as it matures. I like the satisfaction of adding in supports and clearing weeds so that the plant can grow well. To be clear I do get annoyed by weeds but I enjoy ripping them out by the roots so that the plant I want to grow is healthier. With so much of what I need to get done as a mother and wife that requires I stay inside to get things done I enjoy the time outside in the sun and fresh air. Time spent gardening feels like a luxury in my life.

Alternative for a Heating Rod or a Flower Nail for baking deep cake

Supplies:

metal whisk

Tools:

wire cutters

Step 1: Take your metal whisk and cut the rounded top off of your whisk. Leave the top of the whisk handle attached as this will make removing it much easier later. Wash your whisk after cutting it.

Step 2: Bend out the metal rods till it is shaped like an umbrella.

 

Step 3: Insert the rods into the cake, making sure that one rod goes into the center of the cake.

Step 4: Bake with the lower temp and longer time needed for your cake. I had to remove a wire rake for it to fit in the oven.

Step 5: When the cake is done pull out the rods with a pot holder, it will be hot, and let the cake cool.

 

Baked all the way through. I still don't know the right frosting technique yet. I tried royal icing at flood consistency, white chocolate ganache, and white chocolate glaze, all of them failed badly.

My husband got this really neat cake mold in the shape of a dragon curled around its eggs. It is really detailed and quit deep. I have tried baking this cake many times in the years we have had the mold and the middle always sinks and doesn’t bake all the way through. I have baked it a lot longer, sometimes it bakes all the way through but then its dry, and who likes dry cake. Sometimes the outside even tasted slightly burnt and the middle is still mushy.  It has been really frustrating.

My Sweetie asked me to try to make the dragon cake again for Father’s Day. I said I would try and I was determined for this time to be different. I started researching online to see is someone had the answer to this problem.  I finally found a professional baker Chef Allen who had a YouTube channel called Global Sugar Art  the video is called Baking Cake in Deep Pans | Two Minute Tips & Tricks | Global Sugar Art. Chef Allen said to use a heating rod in the middle, drop the temperature, and bake it for a longer time.

Strike one; no local stores had heating rods. I found someone online who said you could use a flower nail like a heat rod. I was excited; I could use this work around. Strike two; there were no local stores that had any flower nails. They didn’t even sell them. That left ordering it online as my only option and I didn’t have time for it to get here in time for Father’s Day. I talked with my husband and we had a number of ideas we could try as alternatives.

Later that day my husband came home with an amazing solution, a whisk. We cut the top rounded part off and used it like a bunch of small heat rods. The whisk is already food safe, which was a problem with the alternative ideas we came up with.  A whisk is cheap and easy to get at the dollar tree, grocery store, or department store.

It took 1 hour and 22 minutes at 325 degrees F. The cake was baked all the way through without being dry, burnt or mushy in the middle. Thank you Chef Allen for teaching me how to bake a deep cake and thanks my Sweetie for the solution. So if you are in a pinch and can’t get a heat rod or don’t have time to order a heat rod or flower nails this hack will do the trick.

DIY School Supplies Organizers

Polka Dot School Supplies Organizers from conditioner bottle

  

1. Cut the top off the bottle, clean and remove labels.
   

   
2. Cut down to the desired height.
   

   
3. Trace with a bottle cap (I used chapstick) half of the circle onto the bottle with a dry erase marker or washable marker and cut out with scissors or an exacto knife. Clean off the marker after.
4. Sand down edge to soften the sharpness of the edge with sandpaper or a nail file.
   
   
   
   
5. Punch out holes with a hole punch in the center of the scallops.
   

   

   
   
6. Punch out holes to glue onto the bottle and glue on with a glue stick. When all the dots are in the desired locations Mod Podge over the top of them.
   

   
7. Hot glue on a ribbon below the scallops and glue the bow in place.
   

   

Polka Dot School Supplies Organizers from sour cream tub

1. Clean an empty sour cream tub and then put a layer of Mod Podge on the outside and press the paper onto it. It will have wrinkles but these wrinkles do not bother me since I like the texture. If having an almost organic texture to it will bother you then I wouldn't use a sour cream tub as it is difficult to get a flat surface and I don't like the look of painting it. I added three layers of paper.
   

   
2. Punch out holes with a hole punch and glue the dots with a glue stick. After you’ve glued on all the desired dots, Mod Podge over the top.
   

   
3. Hot glue on a ribbon below the rim and glue the bow in place.
   

   

Bride Pencil holder from conditioner bottle

1. Cut the top off and clean the bottle.
2. Cut down to the desired height.
3. Draw the top of the dress with a dry erase marker or a washable marker. 
   

   
4. Cut the top of the dress detail with scissors or an exacto knife.
5. Sand down the edge to soften the sharpness with sandpaper or a nail file.
   

   
6. Hot glue accents onto the container. You can put on whatever you want: lace, ribbon, polka dots, stripes, flowers or buttons etc. I used hot glue on the waist bow, then glued the faux hem ribbon on. Finally, I punched out holes to imitate buttons for the back of the dress and hot glued them on. I spread Mod Podge over the "buttons" to preserve.
   

   

Groom Pencil holder from shampoo bottle

1. Cut the top off a bottle and clean it.
2. Cut it down to desired height.
3. Sand down the edge to soften the sharpness of the edge with sandpaper or a nail file.
4. Sketch out the tux design on paper and cut out the template so you can check the proportions on the bottle. If it's wrong try again until you get the scale to look right. Then cut out around the design loosely so that you can fold it in half and cut it evenly (similar to cutting a paper heart). Trace the template on your plastic or paper and cut around the outside edge.
   

   
5. Fold over the edges of the lapels and trace the outline. Cut along the lapel line, giving you three pieces.
   

   
6. Hot Glue the shirt and lapels leaving a small gap in between them to create the look of a jacket.
   

   
7. With a permanent marker, draw the bow tie and any other details you want to add. Mod podge over the top of all the suit pieces and let dry.
   

   

   

   
   

The genesis of this project comes from us needing a way to organize our office supplies. I tried the bottles for a number of months, in different heights, first with just tops cut off and cleaned. They didn't break and did a fair job containing our stationery so I mulled around in my mind if I could improve them. It occured to me that they were too tall to see their contents  without dumping things out. Plus they were boring to look at. I experimented further with different heights and ways to attach decorations. The directions above are the best way I could find for waterproofing and preserving the decorations. Waterproofing is necessary if you have kids even if there is no way liquids"should" be anywhere near the pencils. I even tried it in our bathroom and they’re still just as I made them.