Tag Archive | kids

Quick morning routine – getting kids off to school

Sep2

We just started back to school here and unfortunately I came down with a humdinger of a bug and spent half of the first week barely able to get out of bed.

Thankfully, we’ve got mornings down to a great routine – and I am really lucky that my son is pretty easy. He gets up well in the morning and he’s very responsible. I don’t actually have to do too much.

However, he leaves for the bus at 7:09 AM which is fairly early. I wake him at about 6:05AM (that is when I get up too) and then we’re out the door by ten after 7. So we have to have a good morning routine. Here is how it normally goes down:

I get up and make his breakfast while he gets dressed. Then while he’s eating I go get dressed.

I then head out to make his lunch and he trades places with me in the bathroom and brushes his teeth and finishes getting cleaned up (yes, we share a bathroom – it’s a small house!)

One thing I do that helps get us out the door in the mornings, is I organize the items for his lunch at the beginning of the week. I buy large bags of pretzels or chips (YES, I give my child chips!) and divide them into smaller bags. I also bag cookies individually and remove outer packaging from other items. There is a drawer in my kitchen devoted to his lunch.

(sorry for the poor quality photos!)

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and the other drawer holds the remaining bags.

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This really helps me to move quickly in the morning, I just make a sandwich and add his drink (water) and he’s ready!

I give my own breakfast and lunch some starters as well – more on that later!

What tips do you have for smooth mornings?

Fun for Father’s Day and more!

Jun12
I ran across this cool little item a while back and put it on my Amazon wishlist.
When I needed to order a few things the other day, I popped this little cutey into my cart. 🙂
I love a tool that does double duty and this little Xyron sticker maker has such potential, it was a great score at just 8 bucks !
This cool little tool takes your item – a drawing, cut out, picture, and turns it into a sticker.
You feed your item in one end….

 

Pull it out the other end

 

 Lift to tear it off on the serrated edge
 Then rub to ‘set’ the glue

 

 Cut and peel off the top plastic

 

 

 

And you are left with a STICKER!

 

 

Peel off the sticker whenever you’re ready to use it

 

 

And they stick pretty good!

 

 

 

you can’t go wider than the opening, but you can go smaller

 

 

Hello little cutie-pie!

 

 

 And you can go lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnger.

 

Now, these examples aren’t exciting.

Not at all.

But think of what you can do –  food labels, stickers for your kids, stickers OF your kids – stickers for DAD on Father’s day – drawings the kids make, turned sticker would be a great gift for him!  or for Grandma, or yourself. Or your kids can make stickers to decorate their notebooks or laptops.

I can use it in my studio – for labels on packaging, to thank you stickers, or as a piercing guide.

I am sure I will come up with other uses too…..what about you – what can you think of???

Those little things add up!

Jun12
I’ve been reminded of this in different ways recently.

How little things add up.

Metalsmithing is like this in so many ways.

Each piece we make is the product of so many small steps along the way. And not only do we build on those steps but how well we complete each step often impacts the final outcome.

Little things add up!

Most pieces we make are the product of smaller components that we’ve made. Make earwires, make connectors, make a focal, made small detail elements. . . .and…………

these little things add up!

Into a fully finished functional piece of jewelry.

Janice Fowler, Handcrafted earrings
Earring components by Doxallo Studio in progress

 
Earrings ready for final clean up and polish

Part of what has me thinking about little things though is this.

 
That is my bread dough getting ready for it’s first rise.
If making sandwich bread from scracth doesn’t teach me to slow down and see the little things, I don’t know what will!
Every little thing you do to that recipe, all along the way, impacts how it turns out.
From mixing proportions, to kneading time, to rising temperature and duration…..I am learning this by trial and error (and 3 loaves of bread in less than 10 days)
Every little thing, every choice, they build on each other.
 
This lovely little lump of dough  belongs to my grandson. He often joins me in the kitchen.
He likes to help. and I like to let him. 🙂
From pouring ingredients, to stirring, to kneading dough…I even let him crack eggs.
He has his own technique he has developed – it goes like this:
tap tap tap, hold egg over secondary bowl, and fist it, smashing it to smithereens. It’s quite effective.
Yes, it’s messy.  But it’s really effective. 🙂
I just scoop the shells out, wash his hand, and then he dumps the eggs into the main bowl.
it works for us.
and you know what? It’s a little thing that we do together. One of many little things — that will build on each other. and will contribute to something in him. Hopefully something positive. 🙂

In addition to baking bread, I have made brownies twice in a ten day period.
This is good — YUM!
and this is bad…… Ummm, YUM!
I have gotten in the habit of making my brownies in cupcake tins. Everyone gets a corner!
A round corner, but let’s not get technical. . . it’s the same effect.
Crunchy edges, chewy insides. Oh em gee.
 hello calories! how’d you end up on my thighs?
ohhhhh, yes………………
remember?
little things add up.
So, I suggest cutting them in half  BUT, here is another ‘little thing’ I started doing a few years ago. I add fresh ground flax seed to my brownies. . . and sometimes some ground oats.
This stretches the batter a little and adds some healthful qualities to the brownies.
It’s a little thing, but if done in various foods we eat, these little dietary changes will add up! (you can also sub out some fat and other things but I haven’t done any testing with that yet)
One last little thing. 🙂
Try adding a tablespoon of instant coffee granules to your brownie batter.
You’ll thank me for it.