Mommy Hacks - Home Edition

Mommy Hacks - Home Edition

The Mommy Hacks have been some of my most popular posts.  

I truly believe every mom no matter how "together" she might have "it", she is always looking for ways to make it better, make it fun, make it work for everybody in the house not just her.

#1 Problem: NO YELLING IN THE HOUSE!!!!!

Tired of yelling across the house.... "time for dinner"...... "hey, time for dinner".... "guys, turn of the mine craft and get your boo-hinnys up here, now"...."if you don't get up  here by the count of 3 your grounded until your 50".  Sound familiar?

Solution:

Doorbell.  Yes, a simple battery operated door bell (found mine on clearance at Target for $5) and put the noise making part in the playroom, and the button where you are.  Push button, a loud ding dong happens.  A few classical training exercise with your kids and boom!  They come when you call, or ding dong.  No more yelling, threatening, and loosing your totally awesome mommy cool.

#2 Problem: Dinner Time!

Why do they have to eat 3 times a day and have snacks?  And why oh why does dinner have to happen every night?!!  Right?  You know you have thought that!

Solution:

If your like me and you need dinner inspiration you need it like... now.  I don't have time to go through all my cook books or troll the internet for an hour I need to start cooking now.  Here is what I did.  I ripped those cook books up and made my own with the pages.

• A 3 ring binder, a stack of sheet protectors and dividers.  One day I tore my cook books up!  Literally, I took an exact-o-knife and took the pages I wanted, the recipes I actually would use and organized them in a way that works for me.  I cook best by figuring out the ingredients I have first.  If I have sausage, I then go to that section of my binder and see what I have to choose from.  I don't have to go through 15 books, or thumb through a bunch of recipes I won't use or don't have ingredients for.
• Don't be afraid to throw away the recipes you will never use, get rid of those books you never have time to read.  Make one go to book and just add things as you go through life.  Or at least do this for your daily type of meals.  If you have to keep books for your happiness of the written word, then keep them for your fancy cooking days and don't overwhelm yourself on regular days.

#3 Problem: Unexpected Sick kid! 

Well they are all unexpected but at least we can usually figure out when our sick seasons are going to be and be prepared for the "right kind" of treatments.

Solutions:

1) Be bag ready.  What I mean by that is have some pre-made treatment bags to have ready in your medicine cabinet.  I keep a bag in each of my kids cubbies in the winter season.  One usually battles sinus issues and the other ear issues.  So, that's what our "go to bag" has in it along with a few other things.  This bag is to take with me in my purse or their backpack.  It's a great travel item.

Each bag as these items

• Kleenex
• empty zip lock - for used Kleenex's
• hand sanitizer
• chap stick (because chap lips follow every cold)
• Aquaphor lotion (because chap noses follow every cold)
• Nasal spray (our is prescription, I also put in our RX ear drops depending on the kid)
• a band-aid - because every sick thing ever needs a band-aid to truly help the sick :)
• a few cough drops
• I've started adding some chew able Motrin now that my kids are older and I can trust them not to eat them as a treat

2) Have your medicine cabinet grouped into categories.  I have "bins" labels with cold/allergies, flu/stomach, and wound care.  This is helpful replace something. Also, in the middle of the night when most serious sickness rear their awful head you don't have to fumble through a mess of things.  Keep thermometer, otoscope, flashlight for throats and nose sucker in a easy to access bin since that's usually the first thing you need to access.

#4 Problem: School Papers Everywhere!

Where are your spelling words?  Mom, I can't find my reading log! I have to sign that permission slip for your field trip.. where did I put that?  I can't do my homework, I can't find a sharp pencil! Sound familiar?

Solution:

Make one place.  I repeat.  1 - just one place.  Not one for this and another for that.  Just 1!  Did I say just 1 place yet?  Well... just one!  Here is our place

there is a power strip hidden behind these sorters for charging cords.

I found these fantastic mail sorters at Home Goods.  I painted the front part with chalk paint.  We keep clip boards in there for spelling words, reading logs etc.  All library books from school go there, along with their charging kindles, and a dry erase board.  Also the very back section is where I put their "keep" things from the school year as it goes along, at the end I will put these in a keepsake file I have for each kid.  Pencils, dry erase markers, erasers, highlighters and rulers are also kept here.  We use a reward system of tickets for spelling tests so that is what the containers are for on the edge.  If it's not in this spot.. then it's not in this house!

Obvious the decoration theme changes as the year goes round!

#5 Problem: Finding joy in the mundane "TO-DO" list.

The bathroom needs cleaned, the dishwasher is full again, and I am not looking forward to that stack of bills.  Yea.. I get that!  It doesn't sound fun, or joyful or how I want to spend my day.

Solution:

 If you have the flexibility to choose, then exercise that right!  What do I mean by that? Well... here is what this thought process looks like in my life (this could be an entire blog post so pardon my quick overview).

This week, I have a to do list. It is not organized by days, priorities or anything so type A as that.  In fact it's not really organized at all other than all those items need to be done.  How do it get through it you ask?  Well.... I wake up and ask myself, "what are you in the mood for".  "Out of all those things, what is the thing (or things) that I can see myself having the most fun with".  Many things come into play with this process.  Such as weather, if it's nice I don't want anything real time consuming because the kids are going to want to be outside.  I have personally found rainy days are great days for me to pay bills, write blog posts :), and do organizing projects.  Maybe today I have a lot of energy and those days are good days to clean!

You might be saying to yourself, I will never clean the bathroom if I wait for a day that I "feel"like it.  My response, I think you would surprise yourself.  I have learned to follow my own rhythms,  identify when is my best time of day, days of weeks, etc to accomplish something on my list.

I've done the whole Monday = dusting, Tuesday = vacuuming and I hated it!  My weeks are not always the same, they fluctuate. My moods are not always the same on Monday and neither are my kids attention spans to allow the same activities on a set schedule.  I realized when I made myself do things on a schedule I dread doing them. It took way longer, and I don't go the extra little tid-bit to make it great!  This way, all my stuff gets done, quicker, and usually more fun.

Now the day you pay your bills.... well.. I got nothing for you there other than reward yourself when your done!

How to make a giraffe costume.

Oh the things we do for school music programs :)

Here is how I made a giraffe costume for my son.

A few quick notes....

• I used a hat because my son did not like the idea of wearing a head band like a girl.
• I used a shirt we already had and was almost to small.. and since my material didn't really stretch like t-shirt material I would suggest using a larger shirt rather than smaller.  Lesson learned.  

Items needed...

• hat
• chenille "pipe cleaners" large fuzzy ones
• 1 yard of giraffe material
• giraffe ribbon (if desired)
• plastic solo cup
• hot glue gun
• tassel (found in clearance isle in drapery section) for tail

Here's how to make it in a photo story line...

gather supplies

for the chenille horns I had to cut a small hole

and glue the horns from the bottom side to stay put

start with a curved cut out of the solo cup for the ears

hot glue fabric on one side

then hot glue from the other side

after this I edged it with giraffe ribbon

the horns are also glued to the ears at the base to keep them from flopping around

I used an old t-shirt and just flipped inside out so we didn't see the design.  I drew with a sharpie the shape I wanted, then hot glued the fabric on, I also trimmed the edges with the ribbon.

Here is the final look.

I wanted to add a bow tie...but the giraffe said no :(

The tail is his most favorite part!

Have I told you about my addiction? Fingernail selfies. Julep

First of all.. if you don't know me personally.  I'm pretty "low maintenance" in the whole "looks" department.  I don't really wear make-up, I rarely "do" my hair, a hair clip is usually my go to and I wear SAHM clothes.  It's just who I am and the stage of my life right now.

My name is Mommy and I take fingernail selfies... I can't help it! I also post them to my Facebook!  It's just something I do.  I'm completely GUILTY of this!

I have one girly thing that I enjoy doing. Painting my nails for these reasons.

1) It's the only thing I really do for my "girl self" on a regular basis.

2) A pretty nail helps me with my obsessive nail biting and picking.  I'm told this is a sign of perfection - I'm also told it's part self cannibalism.  So... obviously I need to control this. 

What started as a way to quit a bad habit has morphed into a an obsession.  Let me introduce you to my 43 little friends.

Yes I own all of these... soon 4 more will arrive at my door.

I LOVE NAIL POLISH.  

SPECIFICALLY JULEP NAIL POLISH.

It's the only one I have found that will last 5 days with out chipping.

Sorry to text yell, but I get really excited.

For those of you who don't know what Julep is it's a monthly subscription service that sends you product.  There are many of these out there.

I personally have decided these services are the best thing ever and wonder why it took so long for them to be so available?  Currently I subscribe to two, the Dollar Shave Club which saves me a ton of money and Julep Maven (which doesn't save me money but makes me happy with spending money).

The reason I am writing this blog post today, is I just got my notification of what is going to be sent to me in my next box.  I then changed out one product for another (the freedom to personalize your box is truly genius), because I can :).   

I like the option to make sure I don't get doubles or triples of the same color (although that rarely happens), but I try not to alter it too much.  I have found the colors I enjoy the most are not the ones I would have picked out  I have learned to trust who ever is on the other side of that choosing process and they are usually right.  I have loved almost every single one of their picks over my own.

Let me show you just a few of the things I have done recently.  

Are you inspired?

If you live close... you have an open invitation to come paint your nails with me! 

Want to join?  

My "dealer" would be happy to help you out!

click the link above :)