Kitchen Purge & Organize {Finished Friday #45} Come link up your finished projects, too!

link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post

I've been wanting to reorganize our kitchen for awhile, but this past week when I was given a "new" set of mismatched white dishes I finally decided that it was time to clean out and reorganize our cabinets.

Yesterday, my mom came by to help and we were able to get almost the whole kitchen finished. (Thanks, Mom!)

While I still have two small cabinets to go through I already feel much better!

We're getting rid of all of this.

And now my cabinets, though still filled with mismatched dishes, are much easier on the eyes since there is a common color scheme.

The space above the cabinets is also a little neater and nicer to look at.

I hung my favorite set of measuring cups on the inside of my baking cabinet for easy access.

And I finally prettied up the space a tiny bit by hanging these cute vintage-y metal trays on the wall next to the sink. I used picture hanging command strips so neither the trays nor the wall should be damaged when they are removed. (They really are straight, but I couldn't seem to make them look that way in my picture.)

I'm linking up to these parties.

Today's Questions: Is there a room in your home that needs a good purge & organize? Do you have a plan for getting it done?

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

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Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project!

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A Home Story at the MercyINK Blog

Today I'm guest posting at the MercyINK blog. Lauren asked me if I'd share some of my thoughts for her Home Stories series. Here's a tiny piece of what I had to say...

To me, “home” describes the place where I feel loved and accepted. It’s a place of comfort and encouragement…a place I can be myself without fear or rejection. This is what I want to give my family as well. I’ve found that the feeling of home is much more important than the look of the physical house.

Visit MercyINK to read the rest of my thoughts...and please say "hi" to Lauren while you're there.

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Letter I Spy with Game Tiles

If you're like our family, you may have some rarely used "grown-up" games that could make perfect learning tools for your little ones.

When I reorganized our front closet last week I found quite a few games with letter tiles. Most of these games aren't that much fun with only two people and Tim and I don't have very much free time for games these days.

So I decided to repurpose these games for the time being and use them to help our kids practice letter recognition and letter sounds (and later begin to form words).

Letter tiles from an educational store can cost a pretty penny, but you can easily find games second hand at thrift stores and yard sales.

Here are the games with letter tiles that we already have on hand.

Upwords (This is the older version we have. It works well with kids because the tiles are larger and click into place on the game board)

Scrabble (I see these all the time at yard sales, and it doesn't matter it they're missing a few tiles)

These next three are newer so it'll probably be more difficult to find them second hand, but you may already have them in your game collection.
Bananagrams
Appletters
Pairs in Pears
(we love the original concepts of these games as well)

Playing with letter tiles is a great way to practice letter recognition, letter sounds, spelling names, and even making words. Letter tiles are also a great for adding in some fine motor practice as little fingers pinch and grab the small tiles

We used the letter tiles, game board, and tile holders from Upwords to play several games of Letter I Spy. (You could easily do this with any of the games mentioned above.)

Letter I Spy

To set up the game we simply filled the board with letter tiles and placed a tile holder in front of each player (the game comes with four holders).

The first player calls out a letter they see..."I spy a D."

The player to their left looks for the letter, removes it from the board and places it on their own tile holder.

Then it's that player's turn to call out a letter and the player to their left has to find it and place the correct letter on their own tile holder. Play continues to the left until either the board is empty (longer game) or everyone's tile holder is full (shorter game).

Our kids really enjoyed this simple game and I enjoyed that they were learning at the same time.

Today's Questions: Do you have unused games that you could adapt to teach your children? What other ways could you use letter tiles to help your kids learn? We'd love to hear your ideas!

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Little Girl's Modest Skirt Makeover {Finished Friday #44} come and link up your projects, too!

link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post

I've had a pile of little girls' skirts waiting for alterations for several months. Someone had generously passed down several size 2T skirts with sewn in shorts for Eliya, but they are shorter than we prefer. While I still have a lot to alter, I was able to get one lengthened this week.

The best thing about this project was that it was completely free. The skirt was given to us, the thread was from my stash, and the fabric that I used to lengthen the skirt was a t-shirt from my knit stash.

I was a little limited in my lengthening style because I didn't have enough fabric to gather into another ruffle, but for a play skirt it works just fine.

To lengthen the skirt I simply sewed rectangles of solid pink knit together to form a tube the same circumference as the bottom hem of the skirt. Then I pinned and sewed the pink layer to the existing bottom and hemmed the new bottom.

Of course, the only picture I have of her wearing it is when she woke up too early from her nap and decided to rest a little longer on top of the kids' table. (She then promptly got the skirt so dirty it had to be thrown in the wash.)

I'm adding this skirt alteration to Kristin's summer challenge.

Today's Questions: Have you ever altered clothing for yourself or your children? What is your go to alteration?

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

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Television Viewing: What & How Often {TIPsters}

Make sure you visit Kristin & Christy for their thoughts on today’s topic, as well as our guest TIPster, Sheri @ Traveling the Narrow Road.

My husband and I have not owned a television since before our oldest daughter was born five years ago. Even though we don't have a TV, with a computer in the house we still have had to make a conscious choice about what our kids can watch and how much screen time is allowed.

Please, know that we are not saying that we have this all figured out. We're simply sharing what is working for our family.

First off, I think it's easier for me to start with the what our kids don't watch.

Emahry, our five year old, is very sensitive about anything scary or suspenseful. Instead of trying to push her past these fears, we simply don't let our kids watch anything that would be scary to her. We feel that there is plenty of time for her tender heart to become desensitized and we, her parents, don't want to be the ones responsible for it. That being the case, our children do not watch any Disney movies since the villains are just too much for our daughter to handle. So Emahry, our princess loving little girl has never seen any of the princess movies whose characters she enjoys.

As a side note, even Veggie Tales is off limits in our home as several episodes have been shut off part way through because Emahry has been scared. This isn't too uncommon from what I've heard, in fact I know of a little boy who had nightmares about a giant pickle after watching a certain episode.

So what do our kids watch? Well, since we like to limit the amount of time our children spend on anything screen related, we tend to lean towards DVDs that are under 30 minutes or that are made up of several shorter episodes. This makes it easier to let them watch something for a shorter amount of time without having to shut it off right in the middle. These are some of our kids' favorites:

What's in the Bible? (Have you seen our free review flashcards for Volume 2 and Volume 3?)

The Berenstain Bears (We own Always Look on the Bright Side and Bears Get a Babysitter which each contain 6 episodes)

Letter Factory
Number Land
Word World Rocket to the Moon (4 episodes)
Curious George Sails with the Pirates (8 episodes)
Mister Rogers (full length episodes free to watch at PBSkids.org, there are a few topics that we don't let the kids watch)
Usually our kids watch about one or two of these episodes each week. Recently this has been even less as our two oldest have really started enjoying books on CD. Of course, during bouts of sickness or times that require survival mode (like right after a new baby) this number definitely increases.
Typically, our kiddos only watch a full length DVD when we're all sitting down for a movie night. This usually happens two to three times each month depending on the season. A few of our recent favorites have been: 
Mr. Popper's PenguinsWinnie the PoohMary Poppins
Sometimes if we want to watch something as a family but we don't have time to watch a full movie we'll sit down and enjoy an episode of Mr. Ed for free at hulu.com, our kids think a talking horse is hilarious! (Although you do need to be careful about some of the commercials.)
Since our kids' screen time is fairly limited, whenever something is turned on it really holds their attention. For this reason I'm able to use short videos to keep them out of mischief when I need to complete an important task quickly, like when I need to schedule an appointment over the phone or deal with another sibling without interruptions. For these situations I've started making some kids' video boards on Pinterest. Here's what I have so far:
Kids' Bible VideosKids' Book VideosKids' Preschool Skills VideosKids' Music Videos
They also enjoy lots of the clips at JellyTelly.com.
(And if your kids are a little older, I've started pinning some good art and history videos, too.)
What do your children watch on TV? What types of movies are you okay with them seeing? How do you choose to use screen time in your home and do you set limits for your kids? Please, join the discussion. Check out the blog parties we like to join

Please visit my fellow TIPsters:

Kristin @ Bits & Pieces from my Life and 

Christy @ A Living Homeschool, 

and our guest TIPster,  Sheri @ Traveling the Narrow Road

for more tools, tips, and tricks of the trade.

Coming Soon:

July 3: Quick and Easy Summer Meals
July 17: Taking Family Photos
August 7: Schooling Kids of Different Ages
August 21: Teaching Kids to Read

(Remember if you'd like to guest host an upcoming TIPster post, just let me know.)

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.

Raising Caterpillars {Finished Friday} come link up your finished projects, too!

link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post

A couple of years ago my friend, Kristin, posted about her children's experience raising caterpillars. I filed the idea away for when my own children were a little older.

Well, this year the timing was finally right...and we just happened to find two large swallowtail caterpillars munching on the carrot tops in our garden.

Our carrots were very pleased to be rid of their plump and unwelcome guests and our kiddos were thrilled with their new pets.

Thankfully, both of our caterpillars were almost to the chrysalis stage as Tim really couldn't stand cutting off any more of our carrot tops to feed these little "pests."

Mrs. Little (named by Emahry because she was...little) and Mr. Big (yes, the creativity abounds) began the chrysalis stage one day apart and emerged as beautiful butterflies less than two weeks later. Of course, those two weeks were tortuously long for our kids as they checked on the caterpillars several times each day.

Throughout our waiting we enjoy reading about caterpillars and butterflies. Our favorite book was Bob and Otto that tells the story of a friendship between a caterpillar and an earthworm.

Mrs. Little was the first to complete the transformation and was so ready to fly that the only photo we have of her release is the kids waving to her as she flew over our patio fence.

Mr. Big, however, was still readying his wings when we discovered him, so we were able to enjoy him a little bit longer.

I don't think I ever raised a caterpillar as a child. If I did, I certainly don't remember it, so this was a learning experience for me as well.

I hope this caterpillar raising will become a yearly tradition in our family...it's definitely worth repeating!

Since Kristin did such a great job simplifying the process, I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel. Just head on over to her post for directions on how to raise your own caterpillars.

Today's Questions: Have you ever raised caterpillars? Is it something you'd like to do with your children?

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

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Blueberries Galore!

Right off the bat, I'll tell you that our family goes through a lot of blueberries. And when I say "a lot" I mean that we buy 3 pounds of blueberries every other week. (We add blueberries to our green smoothies every morning as part of our super simple meal plan.)

But after an enjoyable morning of picking blueberries (and supporting a local farmer who uses organic methods of growing) we'll definitely be able to cut down on our blueberries purchases for a few months.

In case you've ever wondered, this is what 26 pounds of blueberries looks like in our tiny kitchen.

We also saved quite a bit of money to boot. A 3 pound bag of regular (non-organic) blueberries costs $11.90 and the grocery store, but we were able to get the same amount (locally & organically grown) for only $5.37! This is about the same as buying 1 pound of organic blueberries at the grocery store.

If we're able to pick enough blueberries for the entire year (about 78 pounds) we'll be able to save about $150 even with a cushion of almost $20 extra to purchase freezer bags.

Now to bag up all the blueberries and fill our freezer.

Today's Question: Do you stock up on local fruits and vegetables by picking your own?

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Free Kids Look & Learn Chicken eBook

Two weeks ago we started an adventure of raising chickens. For a few years we've been trying to figure out how to squeeze the cost of organic, pasture raised chicken and eggs into our grocery budget. Finally, we realized that we can only afford those items by thinking outside of the box.

Two Fridays ago Tim went and picked up our chicks. Our first night was a little rough and we ended up with  over 40 chicks (including almost thirty 5 week olds) spending the night in our townhouse!

Thankfully, those camping out in our living room are now limited to the 10 actual babies we have in boxes behind our couch.

I'm sure we'll be sharing more as we venture along on our chicken raising journey, but I just came across this free Chicken ebook download from Amazon and wanted to share it with all of you.

I'm sure we'll all learn a thing or two from this free ebook.


The price of this ebook is currently $0.00, but that can change at any time. Make sure you double check the price before checking out.

This ebook is sold for Kindles, but you can easily download this free application that enables you to read Kindle ebooks on your PC. This is how I read all ebooks, and it works really well.

This post contains affiliate links.

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What's in the Bible? Review Flashcards DVD 3

Our family and the kids in our small group Bible study are so pleased with the What's in the Bible? DVD series. The kids are learning so much about the Bible and God's big rescue plan for his people. The adults are learning quite a bit, too.

We're very excited that so many people enjoyed our What's in the Bible? Review Flashcards for DVD 2.

I've finished the next set of flashcards for the What's in the Bible? DVD 3 (Wanderin' in the Desert).

Volume 3 finishes up the Pentateuch with the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You can watch a few video clips from DVD 3 here.

These flashcards are great for extra review to go along with the What’s in the Bible? DVDs. Since I make these flashcards to use with a wide range of ages, simply choose the questions that you think will work best for your kids. These sets even have a couple of blank cards, just in case you'd like to add your own questions.

We’ll share the other sets as I finish them so sign up for free blog updates so you won’t miss out.

Click the links below to download:

What’s in the Bible? DVD 3 Part 1

What’s in the Bible? DVD 3 Part 2

Today's Questions: Have you seen the What’s in the Bible? DVDs? Do you think you might like to use them with your children? Why or why not? 

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DIY Beaded Sun Catcher {Finished Friday} Link up your finished projects, too!

Join the fun and link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post.

A few months ago I was inspired to make a beaded sun catcher by this pin. Unfortunately I couldn't track down the original link, but the picture was enough to help get us started in the right direction. Over the past few weeks the kids and I have been working on this project as a graduation present for my niece.

The bead stringing was simple enough for our 5 year old and 3 1/2 year old to do independently, which made this a fun project to work on here and there as we had time.

Materials
wooden top (painted, stained, or left natural)
drill with small drill bit
monofilament fishing line
metal circle key ring
metal crimp tube beads
small needle nose pliers ( I have a pair of chain nose jewelry pliers like this that I love)
lots and lots of beads (we used mostly glass beads to help reflect the light)

My dad helped with the project by cutting out the letter R (our niece's first initial) that I traced on a 1 inch thick board. He also drilled small holes where I had marked, about an inch apart around the entire letter.

You can see the holes here.

Since the sun catcher will be hanging, I chose to make the letter face the correct direction when viewed from below. Even though this sun catcher is meant for indoors, I couldn't help snapping this shot while taking some photos outside.

(We painted the wooden piece white and let it dry completely before starting.)

I simply cut the fishing line to double the length I needed (for the beaded part as well as the part at the top to attach the key ring). Then I added a small bead to the string. Once the bead was on I pulled both ends of the string together so the bead was in the middle and I slid the crimp bead onto both ends. To keep the bead from moving around I pushed the crimp bead down to the other bead and pinched it closed with the pliers.

You can see the ends in this photo. (The crimp beads are the tiny silver ones.)

Once I had finished securing the bead to the middle, Emahry and Jonathan took over the stringing of the beads. Emahry (5) was able to hold both strings together and get both ends through the beads quite easily. Jonathan simply used one of the ends to strings his beads and then gave me his strands so I could poke the second string through each bead.

We made all of the strands about the same length and the secured each one with another crimp bead before passing the end of each strand through the wooden top. Once each strand was through I topped it with another small bead and then used another crimp bead to keep it in place.

Attaching the strings to the key ring was definitely the hardest part. If your piece of wood is symmetrical I would highly suggest just hanging it by attaching a couple of eye screws and threading a length of chain or wire through them. Since the R wouldn't hang evenly I attached each set of fishing line to the key ring with a crimp bead. This was a lot easier said than done. 

Finally, I decided to pinch each crimp bead partially closed as I got it positioned correctly, then when each set of strings was attached I went back through loosening and tightening each string to make the R hang evenly. Finally I used the pliers to close each crimp bead completely and I cut off the extra strings.

I already have another beaded sun catcher in the works as a gift and would love to make one for myself soon as well.

Today's Questions: Have you finished any projects this week? Let us know in the comments and link up your posts below.

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)





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Feeding Picky Eaters {TIPsters}

Make sure you visit Kristin & Christy for their thoughts on today’s topic, as well as our guest TIPster, Mindy @ Sweetness in the Small Stuff.



Let me just start with a disclaimer, okay?  Most people would not consider any of our kids picky eaters. However, we have experienced seasons when our kids displayed picky behaviors, so we do have a little experience. Here are our Top Ten suggestions for feeding picky eaters: 1. Try to build your meal plan around the healthy foods they will actually eat. Everyone likes to feel that their opinions matter, including your kids. Give them a say by having them list all of the foods they do like. Then try to incorporate tried and true favorites along with new foods. 2. Get your kids involved in preparing meals. Our kids all love to help in the kitchen! And taste testing is a great way to let your kids try new foods in a non-confrontational way. 3. Make mealtime fun. Sit down together and give your kids your attention. Talk about their day and enjoy your time together. (Young kids also love pretending they are animals as they gobble down their food; chew your carrot like a rabbit, eat your meat like a T-Rex, you get the point.)
4. Offer variety, but don’t fix separate foods for your child. You are not a short order cook, but kids will continue to do what works for them. If you’ve catered to their demands in the past it’ll take a while to convince them that you’ve changed your ways—wait them out. Eventually, they’ll eat (more of) what’s offered. 5. Have them eat the less desirable foods first. Our children will generally all eat a green salad, but I don’t know many children that would choose a salad over pasta. So, the whole family eats our salads first, before the pasta is even brought to the table. As a bonus it also feels like we’re having a fancy meal :) 6. Help them eat it. This rule only really applies to toddlers, but we’ve found that many times when our toddlers have refused to eat a certain food, a little extra attention and help from Mom or Dad was all it took to get the food in their mouth. 7. Realize that your child will eat when they are hungry. I think, for the most part, children are very aware of their own need for food and will eventually eat when they are hungry. On occasion we have sent children away from the table hungry, but it’s only happened a handful of times and our kids have always been ready to eat what was prepared at the next meal.  8. Don’t give snacks if they haven’t eaten what’s offered. This goes along with the last point, but really, if I knew I could skip the peas but still have cookies after dinner, I’d probably do it, too. This also goes for healthy snacks.  9. Set an expectation of what they will eat—and stick to it! Decide with your spouse or with your child what they will need to eat at each meal. This may be a certain number of bites, trying everything offered, or eating a serving of at least one vegetable, whatever it is, set up your expectations and then stick to them. This Dinner Adventure Sticker Chart might be a good place to start if you’re dealing with a really picky child. 10. Present new foods several times. Children will often “dislike” a food simply because it’s new. Keep offering it until you’re convinced they simply don’t like it. Then come back to it after a while to see if their tastes have changed. linking to Top Ten Tuesday...and check out all the other blog parties we like to join

Today's Questions: What tips do you have for feeding picky eaters?

(Any advice for kids with the opposite problem, who eat everything in site, even three-day old crumbs out of their little sister’s booster seat or peanut butter off of their sibling’s face?)

Please visit my fellow TIPsters:

Kristin @ Bits & Pieces from my Life and 

Christy @ A Living Homeschool, 

and our guest TIPster,  Mindy @ Sweetness in the Small Stuff 

for more tools, tips, and tricks of the trade.

Coming Soon:

June 19: Television Viewing (What & How Often)
July 3: Quick and Easy Summer Meals
July 17: Taking Family Photos

August 7: Schooling Kids of Different Ages

August 21: Teaching Kids to Read

(Remember if you'd like to guest host an upcoming TIPster post, just let me know.)

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.