Planning for the year....Holidays, celebrations and traditions.

Planning for the year....you may ask, what is this all about? Well, its the way I like to live my life. I love to sit down and plan out things in advance....as much as a year in advance. This gives me a chance to create traditions with my family and maybe do things I wouldn't have time for if I didn't plan it out. I know what your thinking...how can you know what you are going to be doing six months to a year from now. Well, this is not set in stone type of thing. It is kind of like a wish list of activities, recipes and decorating ideas that you want to do.
This is how to get started.
I like to use large index cards and write the month at the top. Then as I think of things I would like to do, I jot them down.
I also get ideas for websites like this http://www.suelebeau.com/march.htm. This website has all kinds of ideas and history information. I also plan in some recipes that are our family traditions or new things I would like to try. Then as that month gets closer I lok at my calendar and fill in activities that we are not doing real life stuff (you know doctors apt and stuff like that). I have found that it is much easier to have thought of a fun idea, researched it and prepared for it rather than try to do it all in one day.

For example:
I set down and look at, this is the month of March what activities do I have planned for my family? Most of us think of St. Pats Day, but did you know there are many other things that are celebrated this month as well. This is Woman's history month. What a great time to talk about a woman who has influenced your life, it could be someone you know or a figure from history.
Also, it is Dr Seuss, Alexander Bell, and Albert Einsteins birthdays. I like to hit the library and find a book or two about these people. This gives my kids a chance to learn about someone new. How fun would it be to let your kids have a birthday party for Dr. Seuss. You could make all kinds of silly decoration and have green eggs and ham for dinner. That would be something they will always remember.
Any who, I try to make a plan for at least a month in advance so that we can plan all the fun activities around all the real life stuff.

Other things that I plan:
Birthdays... I have a stack of stuff I have been collecting for my babies 2nd birthday. I am doing a western theme, so I have been collecting everything cow boyish for several months now.
Holidays...always buy and anything I can on sale to prepare for the next year. I love to try some new traditions and recipe for each hliday along with the old.

Once you start doing this you will find out how much easier it is to get some fun activities in, have all your parties ready to go and how much more prepared you will feel.

Here is another fun website that has been around for a long time, but it has really great planning printables, I have uses them for several years now...http://organizedhome.com/

I'm still here!!!

I'm still here. I can't believe how long it's been since I have been on here. It's has been a very busy and crazy couple of weeks. I will fill you in on all of our happenings:
My mom came back to my house to recover after her surgury. She is doing very well. She stayed for about ten days.
My son was in a robotics compitition, he as been staying after school every day for about six weeks. They placed 7th out of 60 schools and were invited to go to state and the national compitions.






























Then there is the every day stuff...this is a typical day at my house. My little ones decided to make their own stawberry milk...they didn't quite get the concept of putting the powder in the milk.

































Well, I hope that anyone that reads this blog will check back in. I have many ideas that I want to share...so don't give up on me.

Update on my mom...

I thought I would update you all on my mom. She is doing very well and feeling better each day. There were no compilations and she should be home in a week or so.

Wow, its been a long weekend. Sorry I have not been on here in a while. We had some bad news come our way last week. Thursday night my mother had a heart attack. We have a long line of bad hearts in our family, so it was not a big surprise. She is doing ok, but she does have to have surgery. So any who, I won't be on here a lot in the next week or so. Here is a link to the heart association....I think we hear so much about so many other causes that we forget about our hearts. I know I am going to go have some serious check ups. My mother did not have the typical heart attack that you see on TV. She had more of indigestion and breathing problems. Most people would not have even known they were having a heart attack. They said she has had problems for several years and we didn't even know it. I think we all associate heart trouble with old people or people who have a lot other health issues...at least that is how I thought. Well, here is a link to the American Heart Association...check it out and get your self checked out.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200000

More Valentine Stuff...

Isn't this the cutest...I got this at Walmart for $7.00 the other day. I thought that was a great deal. I love these things. I like to change out the stuff inside for the seasons.















This is a card I made for my good friend Megan. She makes all her cards...even all her Christmas cards...I thought I would make a couple for friends and family. I get the rest at the dollar store. I can't bring myself to pay $4.00 for a card.

This is stuff I am putting in my teenagers mail boxes. I got the mail boxes at Target in the dollar spot. I have them on my mantel in the living room. I have seen these everywhere in blog land, so I didn't take a picture. Anyway, every day this week I have put a little treat in them. My little guys get stuff too...not as much candy. Here are a few things I have done.
This is a Stride gum pack. I just wrapped two pieces of paper around it and then a piece of twine. The round thing is a tag found in the office supply section with a paper heart glued on it.














This is a card I made into a pocket and glued ribbon onto it. The heart is something I had in a drawer...it is a scrapbook thing.















Envelope...with candy in it and a stamp on it.















I like dress stuff up, but I don't like to spend a lot of money. I think doing little things that you put time and love into are more important than paying a lot of money for something.

Valentine Treats...XOXO!!

Here are the Valentines treat bags that I made for all the girls at work. These are red lunch sacks from Target...$1.96... that I just folded over and taped shut. I added some black and white polka dot ribbon and a little rhinestone. I wanted them to look like little purses. I filled these with candy.

These are some little Valentine buckets for my nephews. The buckets I found at Wal-mart for .75cents and also the clear cello bags. I got the red polka dot ribbon and love bug stamp for a dollar each at Michaels.

Craft of the week!

I was feeling crafty today and I had told myself that I was going to do at least one craft a week . Well, here it is. I had needed something to put my mail into. This what it looked like before I started. It was cute, but not the colors I'm using. Anyway, I had bought some Mod Podge a few days ago and decided I would try it out. All I did was trace around the outside of the the box and the glue it on...this was super easy. I then added some pre-made flowers that I had picked up at the dollar tree. I also added some rick rack ribbon and letters that spelled out MAIL. I decided I'm going to look for more junk around my house to cover or make into something other that what it was supposed to be used for.
This is how it turned out.