If you haven’t already heard about our More Time Moms Christmas contest. It’s not too late to participate. You can win an MTM Family Organizer! One a Day, everyday! To enter, place an order or leave a comment on our blog. We are drawing a name every day for the next 30 days. You can still enter, the contest ends December 24th.
Congratulations to our daily winners so far!:
Don’t worry, it may be early to some of you but if you’re like me and everyday is filled to the gills, planning for Christmas couldn’t be early enough. This year I decided to get ready a little earlier. We have made the ‘what I call’ mistake in the past few years to put up the Christmas lights in minus temperatures. We pull out the ladders and I send my ‘always looking for an adventure’ husband on up in the hypothermic inducing temp to unfold the magical Christmas scene I have created in my mind. Yes, Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. It isn’t just Christmas day, it’s the whole season. It’s the feeling I wholeheartedly embrace.
I have finally decided at my ripe age of 40 to let go of what is supposed to be the rule and just go with the flow of how everyone close to me is feeling. The last thing my husband and I wanted to do on Christmas day last year was to spend half of it in the kitchen, so we didn’t even make a Turkey. We went out for walks, dreamed, talked, and skated on the lake along with the kids tobogganing down our hill with just a few injuries. (Note for me this year, bring some helmets up to the lake) Coming in, sitting in front of the fire, watching a Christmas movie and munching on goodies made for one of the best Christmas’s I can remember. Nothing was planned, nothing was rushed, and we embraced every moment, we were so present.
My goal this year is to create a similar feeling my family enjoyed last year…….what does that mean? I NEED TO RELAX!!! I am an organizer with a self diagnosis of OCD. I like things to be just so and I will waste time getting it just so to the point where I have sincerely missed out on some special moments others have clearly enjoyed. This year the leader in me will let others lead the holiday…..to a certain point.
On a practical note, in addition to using More Time Moms Christmas Countdown checklist, I have decided to ask myself the questions I need answers to in order to have as much of a special stressed free holiday as possible.
Holiday Time Management
Before I plan the holiday activities, I need to check my Family Organizer. Are children going to be involved in exams during the season or are the exams after the holiday? How about the kids activities around Christmas i.e. parties, concerts and plays. What about their regular sport activities? Do we have to go to all the events because I would like to do what we used to do a few years ago and drive around in pyjamas, yes pyjamas drinking hot chocolate and looking at all the wonderful Christmas lights!
My laundry room is a magical place. You don’t believe me? Well, then explain what, aside from magic, would make my socks disappear. Of course, some prefer to blame the washing machine and its insatiable hunger for socks; single socks that is, never a pair. But regardless of what causes this phenomenon, there is one thing I know for sure; I am always left holding one lone sock.
Even on those days when both my socks find their way back from the laundry room, they never seem to stay together. So, aside from tossing what would otherwise be perfectly good socks, what does one do with all of those single socks? The best option that I can think of is to get the kids on board and make sock puppets.
By adding pom-poms, buttons, play jewelry and scarves; your otherwise boring sock takes on a life and character of its own. If you have a lot of time on your hands (which most of us don’t), you can always sew the stuff on. But helping out is a lot easier for the little ones if you use glue.
My favorite “hair” piece for sock puppets is pretty simple. I cut about 10 to 20 same length pieces of yarn and place them evenly, length-wise, on a table, one piece on top of the other. Then, I tie up the center with a small piece of yarn. Once the center has been determined and tied, I proceed to braid each side. Once my braids are completed, I attach the center to the top of my sock puppet. Add a hat or scarf and voila!!
The possibilities are endless and of course, the fun doesn’t have to stop once the puppets have been made; putting on a show is the best part.
It’s that time of year again, where the kids are planning their costumes and already making requests to have friends accompany us on our Trick or Treating adventures. I have developed a love/hate relationship with this holiday that is so beloved by the kids.
When our oldest son Jacob was one, my husband came home from work on Halloween night to proclaim that he was ready to partake in the festivities and bring Jake around the neighborhood to visit and enjoy his first foray into Trick or Treating. Secretly, I was horrified that my baby, who was still breast-feeding and just precariously walking, would be exposed to the Halloween horrors of candy. “Where’s his costume?” he said.
With preparing for back to school and all the routines one must re-adhere to once school is back in session, crafts may be the last thing on your mind. However, if your children need something creative to do, simple school related crafts may be just the thing you’re looking for.
If your child is a pre-teen or teenager, hanging out with their friends after school or on the weekend is what they like to do best, so why not give them something creative to do while they’re all together? T-shirts and fabric markers or paints are all you need to get their creative juices flowing and they’ll be guaranteed lots of fun in the process.
As a matter of fact, middle and high schools usually offer our children the opportunity to be a part of various clubs and committees, and what better way to show school spirit than to create matching t-shirts?
Of course, there’s nothing stopping your children from creating a t-shirt of their own for the joy of being creatively unique; and if this is the case, such a project will most certainly keep them entertained for hours. But if the t-shirts’ goal is to bring attention to a particular school club or extracurricular activity, it might be more fun to get all members involved. It could certainly make for a funtastic evening or afternoon.
The home-based vacation — aka “staycation” — can be a great alternative to an expensive trip, assuming you plan it well and really treat it as a true vacation. This is our year for it with impending braces for our oldest, gas prices increasing and air travel costs rising. The falling dollar makes even cross-border travel less appealing.
The big savings from a Staycation are transportation costs and lodging, but there are others.
Even if you want to eat out every day, you can limit that to one meal and still save lots on the food budget. We like to eat out for brunch, it is often great value at many good restaurants and you usually eat so much that it carries you through to dinner.
The real obstacle is psychological. We have been conditioned to think a vacation means travel and expensive vacations help us keep up with the neighbors. Don’t get caught up in that and finish this summer without a pile of vacation debt, you’ll have peace of mind and a head start on great trip — next year.
The following staycation strategies can help make your Staycation a truly relaxing break rather than a wasted week. (more…)
I just love reading and ever since I had boys I realized that they were interested in other topics than girls and that to ignite their passion for reading might be a bit of a challenge. From early on, my oldest son was attracted to real stories about actual things rather than the typical fairy tales and Disney books that my friends’ daughters were so enthralled with. The pattern repeated itself with his two younger brothers. Along the way, I have come across wonderful books for boys and thought it would be fun to share them with you this summer. See Trish’s picks
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