Justone

We Moustache You a Question…

February 13, 2012 By Ruth H. 1 Comment

…are YOU ready for Valentine’s Day?

I am happy to report that everyone at our house who is elementary school IS ready for Valentine’s Day. Check out these DIY personalized Valentines:

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We whipped out these funny valentine cards using Picnic (free for EVERYONE, right now!) and I had them printed out using Target’s 1 hour photo service through Shutterfly. It cost about $10 to print enough to hand out to both classes, BUT if I had been on the ball and used a Shutterfly promo code, I probably could have spent less than $6 for them.

The good news is that I still saved lots of time, because these handy cards already have my children’s names on them and don’t need to be folded or punched out or have stickers added to them. Hooray! Here’s how we did it:

I took a picture of each child.

I downloaded the pictures to Picnik. I used Picnik’s “Add a Sticker” feature to attach the mustaches. (Many mustache choices are available in the sticker files.)

Then I used Picnik’s collage feature to put the pictures on a colorful background and add text. It took a whopping 10 minutes.

Instead of candy, my children will be handing out mustaches-on-a-stick along with their Valentines. Much cheaper than candy, since we have all the supplies we need to make them. And I’m pretty sure the mustaches will be a hit with their friends.

Have you had any great ideas for Valentines, this year? If you are in need of any inspiration when it comes to doing something special for your spouse, check out the ideas I shared this weekend over at Infarrantly Creative.

Filed Under: A House in Holland, Holland for Families Tagged With: children, DIY projects, DIY Valentine cards, holidays, Justone, Superkid, Valentine treats, Valentine's Day, Valentines

What’s On Our Shelf This Christmas?

December 19, 2011 By Ruth H. 2 Comments

You may have heard of the Elf on the Shelf. Perhaps it’s a long standing tradition in your home.

Source

If you haven’t heard of it, you can check out the Elf on the Shelf official website, or check out some fun Elf pictures here.

Well, we don’t have an Elf on the Shelf at our house. That doesn’t mean our shelves are entirely empty. Nope, we have something on our shelf.

Brace yourself. [Read more...]

Filed Under: A House in Holland, Holland for Families, Postcards from Holland Tagged With: Bionic Man, birthdays, children, Christmas, Elf on a Shelf, Endeavor, family, humor, Justone, lobster, seafood, traditions

Mother Sews Best

October 30, 2011 By Ruth H. 5 Comments

Have I told you that I’m pretty sure a man invented Trick-or-Treating? A man without any children of his own? Because seriously, folks, would a woman–a mother–invent a tradition that involved elaborate costumes and unlimited candy for children? I rest my case.

Despite the fact that I had to pack for, unpack, and organize two back-to-back out of town vacations in the past week…despite the fact that I had several writing deadlines…despite the fact that just the mere effort of turning on my sewing machine these days causes me to say creative non-swearing epithets…I told two of my children I would make their Halloween costumes.

This is what my sewing room looked like by the end of the day, yesterday.

Though it may look as if poor Hunter the Dog got too close to my sewing shears, or as if I sacrificed some small animal to appease the evil spirit that dwells within my sewing machine, I can assure you that no animals were harmed in the making of our Halloween costumes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holland for Families Tagged With: Bionic Man, children, costumes, DIY costumes, Endeavor, Halloween, Halloween costumes, Justone, Mother Gothel, sewing, Superkid, Tangled, Trunk-or-Treat, Viking Warrior

Random

October 12, 2011 By Ruth H. 2 Comments

1. By 10 A.M. this morning, I had baked 2 batches of bread and 1 batch of muffins. I was totally impressed with myself. It brought to mind the time when the Bionic Man and I loaded up with flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder at Sam’s Club, and the clerk asked if we owned a bakery. Why yes, yes, I think I do.

2. Also by 10 A.M. this morning, my kitchen was a Disaster. Note, that it is “Disaster” with a capital D. Naturally, that is why I have escaped to my office to do some writing. Because it is one thing to bake, and yet another thing to clean up after baking. Where’s my sous chef?!?!?! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Postcards from Holland Tagged With: baking, Bionic Man, bread baking, cross country, Endeavor, fall, Justone, soccer

The Things We Do for “Fun”

September 23, 2011 By Ruth H. Leave a Comment

The Bionic Man and I have a rule that our children need to do some kind of activity on a regular basis that will keep their bodies moving. Our goal is not to produce Olympians, it is simply to give them the opportunity to find activities they will enjoy that will help them stay healthy.

Fall means cross country season for Endeavor.

This is her second year as part of her middle school’s cross country team. Last year, when she started, it took her 23 minutes the first time she ran the 3K course. This year, she can do it in less than 14 minutes. Running has helped Endeavor to deal with stress. She’s learned that she feels better after she runs, even when she’s had a hard day at school. Running has also taught Endeavor to eat. She has learned to recognize the connection between her body and it’s need for healthy food to power it up. She’s ravenous after she runs, and I’ll tell you: for the mom of what used to be three very picky, sporadic eaters, it’s good to be down to two. (Her grandmas will be interested to note that Endeavor still won’t eat cereal with milk, though.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Healthy in Holland, Holland for Families Tagged With: children, cross country, Endeavor, family, fitness for children, Justone, running, soccer

5 Things I Pinned this Week…

August 20, 2011 By Ruth H. Leave a Comment

Starting today, I’d like to share some of my favorite “pins” on a weekly basis. (No clue what I’m talking about? Read about pins and Pinterest here.) I’ll feature 5 things I’ve pinned during the past week every Saturday, with links to the sites they came from. Off we go with week number one!

1. DIY Paper Plate Baskets from Sarah Hearts

Maybe it hails back to my teenage days as a “migrant” farm worker at the Bear Lake raspberry patches (such a long story), but there was just something about these cute baskets that appealed to me. Perhaps I secretly want to run my own roadside farm stand? If nothing else, it’s a cute way to carry our excess cherry tomatoes over to the neighbors. [Read more...]

Filed Under: 5 Things I Pinned this Week Tagged With: benches, Bionic Man, chairs, dining room, DIY art, garden, Justone, moldings, painting, pinning, Pinterest

$30 Porch Makeover

August 12, 2011 By Ruth H. 3 Comments

It’s been a hot summer in our neck of the woods. We’ve spent way too much of it huddled around the air conditioning for comfort, hardly daring to set foot outside–lest we cook ourselves. At long last the heat wave ended, and we’ve been able to go out and look around. While the heat kept our grass short, I saw a few things that had suffered from neglect. Our front porch was one of them, landing a top spot on the to-do list this week.

Sadly, until I rolled up my sleeves and got to work, this was what greeted our guests:

It was obviously a much more comfortable spot for spiders than humans.

They were definitely spending more time out here than we were. Until we made it look like this:So, how did I transform this neglected spot with a little elbow grease and $30? [Read more...]

Filed Under: A House in Holland Tagged With: before & after, chevron, deals, doormat, Endeavor, front porch, garden, Goodwill, hand painted rug, home decor, Justone, metal star, outdoor furniture, outdoor living space, pillow, plants, porch makeover, rug, shopping, spray paint, summer, Superkid, thrift shopping, wicker, wicker furniture

Logan Canyon Hike

August 9, 2011 By Ruth H. Leave a Comment

While we were in Utah this summer, we went hiking with some of our cousins. My sister-in-law has organized weekly hikes with some other mothers. They drive up a little way into the nearby Logan Canyon, and take all of their children for a day hike, once a week. Doesn’t that sound fantastic?

Tell me again why I moved to the prairie. I’m jealous of these people with mountains in their backyards.

Oh What Do You Do In the Summertime?

August 5, 2011 By Ruth H. Leave a Comment

“Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?

Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high?Is that what you do? So do I!”

- Songs for Children

Great-grandpa has some of the best trees for climbing my children have ever seen.

Hunter the dog thought they were okay, too. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holland for Families, Uncategorized Tagged With: backyard, children, dog, Endeavor, family, Hunter, Justone, summer, trees, vacation

Job Charts You Can Wear

January 5, 2011 By Ruth H. 12 Comments

This is the time of year when most of us moms decide, “This is it! I’m getting our lives under control once and for all!” I’m going show you something that has been helping me control the chaos around our place since November of 2010. It has worked well.

Over the years, I’ve tried all kinds of charts and systems to help me get the children involved in our housekeeping chores. Some have worked better than others, but all had their failings, which meant that I resorted back to just calling the children in and giving them verbal instructions. As you may know, those verbal instructions have their own pitfalls, like both the kids and mom forgetting what they were. The alternative has been lists on our planning center’s white board, which has the advantage of helping me remember, but the disadvantage of the children running back and forth to check on their job list. Note:

children running back and forth =

children getting distracted and forgetting that they have jobs

With this in mind, I set out to create a no-fail system. I now present:

Wearable Job Charts

The first step of this project was the most time intensive. I considered what jobs I needed the children to do on a daily and weekly basis, then I divided those into categories, zones, and specific tasks (Flylady style).

Our categories are:

Clean-Up

Housekeeping

Bedrooms

For instance, if my children don’t do a few things each day to keep their bedrooms neat, then the Saturday cleaning of the bedrooms is a gargantuan task. If I send them up to their rooms each day with the direction, “Straighten up your room,” there are various interpretations of that. Instead, I created a Bedroom Category made up of five Bedroom Zones, with a short list of specific tasks within each zone.

Here are our Bedroom Zones:

The Floor

Around the Bed

Inside the Closet

Desktops, Shelves, & Tables

Saturday Special

I won’t overburden you with the tasks specific to all the Bedroom Zones, but just so you get the idea, here’s the task list for Inside the Closet:

Pick up the floor

Put away clean clothes

Put dirty clothes in the hamper

Straighten the shoe shelf

I was careful to make sure that all the tasks together in the zone could be realistically completed within 15-20 minutes OR LESS.

As you can see, once I had my lists of categories, zones, and tasks made, then I transferred those onto colorful, laminated cards with a hole punched in one corner. Each category is coded by color. Each zone has a simple picture. And, many of the tasks are illustrated with a simple picture, too.

Putting the cards together was cheap and easy. I pulled clip art off the internet to use for my illustrations, printed the black and white lists on my own printer, stuck them on cardstock I already hand, and laminated them at a friends’ house, free of charge in exchange for babysitting.

The hole in each corner was so that the cards could be hooked together with a caribiner or some other kind of detachable ring hooky-thingy. (Also something that I already had.)

Why the caribiner/hooky thingy? Well, not only does it make it easy when I switch around the zone cards each day, it allows the cards to clip onto a belt loop. This means that when the children are doing their jobs, they carry their charts with them! Here is Justone, modeling this break-through fashion statement:

The caribiner/hooky thingy also makes it easy to store the wearable job charts when they aren’t in use:

This is Superkid’s set, hanging from a hook on our planning center. I’ll tell you about our planning center some other time. (Please excuse the wonky label that was computer-generated to hide her real name from the crazies.)

Laminating the cards had another purpose, too. Besides making them durable, it allows the boxes by each task to be checked off with a crayon or dry-erase marker, then wiped clean, later. So, the kids can carry around their job charts with them, for quick reference, and mark off each task as it is completed.

How do I implement these wearable job charts in our home?

We have a designated job time. For us, that time is after the dinner table is cleared.

Each child has three cards to work on during job time, one from each of our categories. That means that each of them is responsible for a different zone in each of the three categories.

The children never work in the same area at the same time, because I arrange the cards in a different order for each child. Sounds complicated, but it is really just a matter of stacking the three zone cards in three ways. Keeping them out of each others space during job time means the tasks get done faster and with less argument.

I set the timer for 15-20 minutes while they work on the first card. Then I set it again for 15-20 minutes while they work on the second card. And again for the third card.

I have incentives for getting the tasks done before the timer rings. The children are welcome to move on to their next cards if they finish their tasks early. Completed zones = Full allowance. All zones completed early = More free time.

Job time ends 45-60 minutes after it begins. While it doesn’t last very long, keep this in mind: 2-3 hours worth of tasks have been completed within that time, and nine areas of our house have been cleaned our straightened BY THE CHILDREN. This is a huge time saver for me, and a great way for the kids to contribute to our household operations.

So, how has it worked for us? Great! The kids seem to appreciate the fact that they can do their jobs without a lot of nagging by mom, just by carrying around their job charts. Most nights, everyone completes their tasks before the timer rings. I like the fact that because the jobs I’ve given them are divided into simple, manageable tasks, they generally meet my expectations. The kids appreciate the fact that doing jobs this way, a few almost every night, has eliminated most of the Saturday marathon cleaning sessions that we used to have.

This system is incredibly flexible, too, which has done wonders in helping me to use it consistently. I have it set up so that we only use the cards five times a week, giving us two nights (Sundays and our designated weekly “crazy night” that everyone has activities) off from job time. If a night happens to be extra busy, I can drop the zones down from 3 to 2 or even 1. Some of our categories have less than five zones, so I can rotate those during the week so that one child doesn’t get stuck with the same job. I can add in new cards as we need them. And, it is customized to our own house’s needs.

Good luck with your own goals, challenges, and changes for 2011!

Feel free to email me at

triptoholland {at} gmail {dot} net

if you have any questions about this project/system.

I’m linking up to the following:

Filed Under: A House in Holland, Holland Gets Organized Tagged With: children, chores for children, job charts, Justone, organization