How to make yogurt finger paint for babies!

                           How to make yogurt finger paint for babies!  I learned this when my oldest was a baby, and have done this with every one of my children. I studied child development in college before becoming a mother, and learned that babies learn best through their senses. This is a great way for babies to explore, and also very easy to do...



Step 1.....set out food coloring (at least two colors), yogurt, 2 bowls, and baby food tray

 Step 2....put yogurt in the bowls...

 Step 3....put in the food coloring. Be careful here not to put to much because it will be hard to wash it off of your baby.

 Step 4....mix it up

 

 Step 5....strip your little cutie down to their diaper.

 Step 6......put it in two piles on the tray

 Step 7....let the fun begin! If  you have a highchair that you can remove the cloth cover, I would reccomend it. I forgot to do it this time.

 Step 8.....snap pictures of the fu man chu...

 Step 9...snap pictures of the full beard

 Step 10....give baby old school sink bath...

There you have it....now, HAVE FUN!
     

       

Be. In the moment.

           Can I just encourage you to be in the moment with your children while they are still at home? There are so many distractions pulling us away from our family...work, facebook, etc. Our time with our children is so precious and will be gone before we know it. I will admit that I really struggle with finding balance between raising my five precious souls (vital), and running my Etsy shop (fun). I believe that Sweet Home Boutique has been placed here and established by God, so I just need to trust Him to work out all things. I have been so busy with my shop that last night I had a total "ugly" cry over missing that sacred time with my children...I repented of my skewed priorities and started today fresh. I purposed in my heart that no matter how stressed I get I will not raise my voice at my children. I also purposed to let go and completely trust God that He has "got this".

   This morning after my girls piano lessons (their teacher comes to our home), and our time spent homeschooling we made Thanksgiving suncatchers. I got them in the front of Michaels for $1.00 each. The paint was dry, so if you get these make sure you have kids paint on hand

                            

About half the time I fuss at my children for jumping off the couch. Yes, half of the time, so in other words they are allowed to do it. See, if we are not consistant with our rules and boundaries 100% of the time, than they are not really rules and boundaries at all. So, my new rule is that they are allowed to jump off of the couch after asking me, and under my supervision. Today we made a game of it, and snapped some fun pictures too.

                                                            

 

 

Yay, super fun and good memories made...By the way, this was our last jump because the little one on the couch jumped and landed on my 4 year sons foot seconds after this picture was taken. He was pretty much in unbearlable pain until I had him test out whether he could still do the funky chicken dance.

 

This post might be cheesy, and I aplogize for that. Even though writting is not one of my gifts I do believe I have something worthwhile to say.

 

So, I encourage you again to be. in. the. moment. with your children, and to enjoy them. completely.

         .

Organizing Tips for the household

          I have had a lot of good feedback about the other tips I have been writing about so I decided to share a couple more. These are things that I do at my house that helps keep things tidy


We have 3 bedrooms with 5 kids, but a really giant playroom upstairs. We have the rule at our house that there are no toys in the bedrooms. On top of that their rooms are pretty small, so to save on space we opted out of having dressers. Instead we keep the clothes all in the closet.  I used an organizer cube from Target and in the storage boxes we keep their socks and undergarments.

 Sheet sets in the pillowcase. I saw this on Pintrest and I love it...Put the fitted sheet and bedspread in their matching pilllowcases for easy access in bed changing. It also makes your linen closet a lot neater!

Hang those pots and pans up on a rack. We hang ours above the refrigerator (so it's not in a walking area)...

Put a storage case under the sink for your kitchen towels. It is nice having all the towels right there when there is a spill. I am also going to be doing the same thing for plastic bags at the bottom of the pantry.

 

There you are, a couple of tips. I hope they inspire your organized home!

How to Clean a Room in 3 easy steps.

Being the creative person that I am I find myself making huge messes when "creating"...The problem is that I do not like messes, so here is where this tip comes in.


I learned this from a kids book as a child and it has always served me well.

Step #1....make your bed (or lay a blanket on the floor if it is in a living area) put EVERYTHING that is out of place on it (If you are doing the kitchen put everything on the table)

Step #2.....once everything is on your bed vacuum, dust, and polish.

 

Step #3.....separate everything into piles, throw away the trash and put everything else away.

TA DA....now you have a clean room in 3 easy steps...

Now go and sit back and enjoy your clean home!

 

Teach Your Children To Not Whine, Argue, or Complain

        I am a mother to 5 children, and am constantly trying to get everyone to have a happy, cheerful and compliant attitude. I prefer teaching through positive reinforcement if I have the appropriate tools for that.  This is a little tool that I discovered that has really helped me a lot in squelching bad attitudes and whining....


The first thing is to get some mason jars (or other similar container), and write the verse Philippians 2:4 (Do everything without whining, arguing or complaining)..Also, write the child's name on it.

Second,  cut up little pieces of paper, I would cut about 40. Each piece of paper represents money.  For my kids each piece was worth 10 cents.

Last, fill up the jar with the pieces of paper, close the lid and set it somewhere within view of your child.  Tell them they have $4.00 worth of cards in the jar, and in one week we will tally up the cards, and see how much they have to spend. (I chose the Target dollar spot to take mine).

Tell them every time they whine argue or complain, they are loosing one of their tabs, and do it. I repeated the Bible verse each time they lost a tab. I really liked this, and found it very effective for my children. Especially my almost 7 year old.

That's it, have fun, and enjoy those Happy Kids!!