Random Tid Bits

I'm writing this a week early. Classes started this week, so I know I'll be super busy. If you comment, I'll be sure to get back to your blog.

1. I gave my fall sylabi to the Education Director in the spring, well before classes were over. She never went over them; that I'm aware of. I find it kind of insulting; considering I plowed through to get them to her before my surgery. It's less than a week before classes start, and she still hasn't given them back to me with any changes. I emailed them on over to the Director (a different person) of the school. She emailed me back asking, "Did the Education Director approve these?" I just replied with a, "Yes." There are times where I want things to be right, and there are other times I just choose my battles. At this time I just chose to let it go. Yes she's reviewed them in the past, so there's that.


2. I was surprised to see a guy teacher back at work. Why was I surprised? Last year he told the student it was his last year. He also told me that he has Alzheimer's Disease. 


3. Last year I had lots of workbooks for my kids to work on during the summer. This year I didn't. For one they stop making a lot of workbooks in upper elementary. For another I've read a few articles here's one that being bored is good for kids. Here I was trying to give them something to do all the time.
   
   Instead of always giving them things to do I encouraged this:
   
   

   

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4. Mica's new to doing laundry. I went to go make Isaak's bed, after asking Mica to go get what was in the dryer. It was all wet. He put it in the dryer, but never turned it on. I just can't believe he brought them up and didn't think, These feel a little wet. We made him put them in the dryer, turn the dryer on, then I said, "Don't worry about it. We all start out laundry with mistakes."
   
   Travis piped in, "Mica I've washed a load of water before. I forgot to put clothes in there." Travis did that as an adult! I think us admitting we've made mistakes helped establish that he can come to us when he makes a mistake. 


5. We have a Family Reunion on my Mom's side once a year. In a way it's too much of the time. In another way it's just once a year. Here's a photo of my Grandpa with his siblings that are still alive. He's had 2 sisters, and 1 other brother that have passed away. These 3 have always been the closest of the siblings.
   
   My 91 year old Grandpa is the one in the front with the darker skin. I swear he looks part Native American, but I have no proof of that. 

What's your oldest relative? 

Random Tid Bits

1. I'm having trouble getting into the Christmas buying spirit. I think it's because it's been so warm. I'll have to look in the closet to see what I have already. I tend to buy year round. I know I have some bigger gifts, and smaller ones to. I did buy Santa paper. Our Santa paper has Santa on it.
   
   I bought Isaak this gold fingernail trimmer for his stocking. It's the little things you know. He loves gold. Mica will have one that says, "Smarty Pants" on it. Smarty is his nickname from Grandpa, so it works for him.
   
   
   

   

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2. I did muster up enough Christmas spirit to make my own wrapping paper. Except for Santa paper. Santa paper comes with Santa on it. I'm pretty sure the boys have never picked up on this; they've never mentioned any about it. Back to me making my own paper: There are these Star Wars snowfake templates that you can download for free here. Since we mainly have boys in our family I made a bunch of them, scanned them, and colored them in Photoshop. I repeated them as a pattern.





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It's a little hard to see because the images are on such a big sheet of paper. Here they are:





Tie Interceptor



C3PO



R2D2



Stormtrooper

 
There's a bunch of different Star Wars snowflakes. I repeated them to make wrapping paper, and printed them on 11x17 paper. I added gift tags that say, "May the force be with you this Christmas!" Each pattern is a different color to match the kid in our families favorite color.
 

3. Travis was looking for his pants. Like 4 pairs. He was getting irritated, and blaming me for his pants being awol, since I do the laundry. Of course this was on a morning where we were running late. Finally it dawned on me that I gave one of the boys a stack of his pants to hand to him to put away. Isaak swore he gave him the stack. Isaak handed him a stack of boxers. It was Mica that was told to hand Travis his stack of pants. Mica put them in his locker with his own pants. How he had room is beyond me. I'm just glad he found them. 


4. Travis likes to sleep like this:
   
   
   
    
   No I'm not the most pleasant person to sleep with. I have been known to grind my teeth, snore, and talk, but I've been better since I've gotten a mouth guard. He's slept this way since he was in middle school.
    
   His roommate (one of our good friends) sleeps this way to. He says it's like sleeping in your own personal tent. I have to wash 2 pillowcases instead of 1 when I do laundry. 


5. Me: "Mica put your pants in the hamper they are dirty." Me the next day: "Mica why do you have your dirty pants on?" Mica: "I didn't know they were dirty."
    
   Me: "Isaak: why are all these pants in your hamper?" Isaak, "Because I didn't want to put them in my drawer."
    
   This happens all the time!

Lingerie Bags - Set of 4 Review

I always put my bras and undies in a lingerie bag. It just so happens that my old one started to tear. I've had it for a long time. I'm glad I was sent a set of 4 Lingerie Bags from Fuse Essentials.

Cost:

$27.99 and on sale for $14.99. I think that's a pretty good cost considering that you get 4 bags - different sizes.

Included:

• 1 Small Wash Bag: 8" x 12" - Great for Bras, Underwear, hosiery, scarves, mittens and Shoe Laces

• 1 Medium Wash Bag: 12" x 16" - Great for Multiple Small Items, baby clothing, socks, Lacy Shirts and Skirts

• 2 Large Wash Bags: 16" x 20" - Great for Stuffed Animals, and Large Clothing Items

I washed my undies in a small bag, and a lacy top in a medium sized bag.

About:

Made with an elastic zipper cover to ensure a quiet, snag-free wash. The zipper seemed sturdy. I have had problems with metal zippers catching on things in the past.

Keeps socks together and stops you from losing them to the mysterious "sock monster". I most certainly have a sock monster at my house.

Made with premium mesh that never rips or tears in the washer. The only lingerie bags you will need for the rest of your life!

Recently I made my own Laundry Detergent. I thought this was a great post to include the recipe my sister Terra gave to me:

• 1 box of washing soda - Walmart

• 3.5 cups of citric acid - Amazon

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• 3.5 cups of baking soda - Costco

• 1.75 cups of salt

• 6 bars of Castile Soap - Grated - HyVee, Walmart's Website, or Amazon

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Isaak loved helping me grate the soap. I just kept telling him to watch his fingers. Mica on the other hand acted like it was the biggest chore he's ever gotten.

• 120 drops of essential oils - I used lemon - You can get essential oils on Amazon, Whole Foods, or any other natural grocery store

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You use 3 Tablespoons per load! It made a ton! If you keep making it, it ends up being cheaper than buying detergent. I know I'll make it again because I have all the stuff. I put where to get the different things because I had to run around a bit to find this and that.

Isaak loved helping me make the detergent. I love knowing that my laundry has less chemicals in it, I know what's in it, and it will last a long time.

Between the Lingerie Bags and the detergent I've made - I feel like I've got the power with laundry. I'll do anything to help protect my clothes.

 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. 

The Tale Missing Pants

My kids have to take care of their own clothes. They put them away, put them in the hamper, and when it's time to do laundry they separate things out for me, and put things away when I have everything sorted. Isaak doesn't hang up his own shirts because he's not coordinated enough yet, and isn't tall enough to reach the hangers.

I went to set clothes out for Isaak, and noticed most of his pants were gone. They weren't in his drawers.

I looked in his hamper, and there were most of his pants.

I said, "Isaak why are all of your pants in the hamper?"

He said, "I just don't like putting them away Mom." At least he's honest.

I said, "Well son you're going to still have to put them away. Only you'll have to put them away all at once after I wash them." Little man is going to be doing some laundry this weekend to see what it takes to do it.

I have to say that Isaak is more difficult to punish than Mica is. Taking "things" away doesn't phase him. He'd be happy to find a rock and play with that instead of toys.

We have to be a little creative in our punishments.

Random Tid Bits

1. I'm happy to say that I love doing dishes, and laundry. Odd I know! When our water was turned off I hated using paper plates. I don't like wasting things! We had dishes covering the counter. I had two baskets full of laundry. Last night I did the dishes, and separated out the laundry. It felt good knowing that I could take care of them.


2. Giving is a wonderful thing! My first year students all got brand new MacBooks. I didn't buy them. I got to help hand them out. It's so fun seeing the look on people's face when they get something they've wanted for awhile! 


3. I have one student that whines as much as Isaak does. I'm not joking. It's really sad when a college student whines as much as a 5 year old does. She's either whining because she doesn't get how to do something, whines because she's not as good as other students in the class, or whines because she hasn't gotten an award for a competition that they students enter every year. I feel for her, otherwise she wouldn't come to me to whine. At the same time I tell her, "If this stuff bothers you do something about it." Then her eyes fill up with tears. I just wish you could install confidence in some people. Other students are too conceited. Those students I wish I could knock down a notch.


4. Another horrible thing happened this week. A little 5 year old girl named Payton was sitting eating breakfast with her mom and brother. A bullet went into their home, hit the girl and killed her. She's the same age as Isaak. The brother that was at the table is only 4 years old. No one knows who fired the shots. I'm just heart broken for this family! The area they lived in is the rough part of town. It doesn't matter. No one should worry about eating breakfast, and have a bullet enter their home! The family is trying to celebrate her life instead of grieve over it. They are strong people. Their only hope is that gun violence stops!







5. To end on a happy note Isaak created a fun drawing I want to share. He spelled everything out himself. 

Isaak Did the Laundry

The last two weeks I was getting so sick of doing laundry. Mostly it was Isaak's. He kept wetting the bed. He was in a stage of doing that. It's dry for a long stretch, then wet, wet, wet. I know we're not supposed to make a big deal out of it.

To be honest Isaak loves tasks. The next time he wet the bed, Isaak happily did his own laundry.

I have an old school washer and dryer; my laundry room isn't pretty. It does the job; just like Isaak did his job. Oh and Daddy helped Isaak. He didn't carry the basket up and down the steps, nor did he do the settings of everything himself. He did however make his bed. He didn't do too bad of a job. It all came untucked, but it didn't matter; it was the thought that counted right?

Any tips on night training?

Isaak goes potty right before bed. We wake Isaak up at 10:30 or 11 to go right before we go to bed. When he's in the bed wetting stretch even that doesn't matter. We also limit his liquids after dinner. That doesn't seem to matter either. I do see a pattern: When he drinks a lot during the day and eats well, that's when he wets.

Super Busy!

I know I didn't even post a Sing, Sing a Song Saturday post yesterday. I still want to keep that going.

This weekend was crazy busy. I'll post about each thing we did with photos.

Here's a quick recap:

• We refinanced our house. Now we have lots of work to do before they inspect us. We have to put a railing in on some steps we have, we have to scrap and paint some of our house and we have to replace a door that goes from our basement to our garage. We both feel overwhelmed! We've never refinanced, so we didn't know all this had to be done! YIKES!
• We finally celebrated my birthday that was June 21 and Grandpa Spiehs' Fathers Day. It was nice we went to a park. That's something new for us.
• I had my first online friend over. I never met her in person. She assisted me with one of my very first giveaways. Check out Snugfits. We email back and forth and talk on Facebook. Her family (3 boys) came to my house along with Aunt Terra and her (3 boys) to have fun on our slip n' slide. It was a great time!
• Today I ran errands all morning. 
• I've been cleaning, spackling, digging up weeds and doing laundry all weekend! 
• Isaak has to of course be going through a stage of night time accidents. He'll go through a month of time being dry and then it's wet, wet, wet! I take him potty before bed. It doesn't seem to matter, he's still soaked when he wakes up! Uggg! 
• Daddy's been swamped at work! He's always swamped when we don't want him to be! 
• Blogger was acting odd yesterday for me. I went to upload a video for Sing, Sing a Song Saturday and my site along with others were just spinning. That's the main reason why I didn't get up a song.

Laundry

Today I went to do laundry. Guess what I found in Isaak's laundry basket?

Sir topham Hatt's Car from Thomas the Tank Engine

That's not all. I also found a pair of his underwear with stickers on it. I was thinking?!?!?!?