English Muffin Personal Pizzas

I don’t know where I first read this idea, but it’s ingenious.  My kids love it, it’s easy, and it’s cheaper than ordering out, too!

Just take an English Muffin and lightly toast it.  Then spread your pizza sauce on it, top with cheese and pepperoni, or whatever else floats your boat.  Put it in the oven on 350 for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese melts.

If you get the kiddos to ‘help’ make their own, they’re ALWAYS more apt to eat it when it’s on their plate.  Plus, it’s fun watching them develop the motor skills to put shredded cheese on top of their pizza.  (Be prepared for a little more cleanup than if you did it, though! )

I usually put the finished product on a plate then throw it in the freezer for about a minute or two just to help it cool down a little faster before serving to munchkins.

So, what about you?  Do you have any easy, kid-friendly edible ideas?  I’d LOVE to hear them!  Comment below….

Product Review: Graco TurboBooster SafeSeat Youth Booster

We just recently moved Karis into a car seat out of her infant seat which meant Ethan got kicked out of his seat. Since he’s over the weight requirements for a booster, we opted to just move him straight into this Graco TurboBooster instead of buying ANOTHER car seat that would only last another year or so and also cost an arm and a leg.

• I LOVE how easy this booster is to move from car to car. Basically unthread the seatbelt from the shoulder belt positioner and you’re good to go!
• Ethan loves the race car color scheme (as does his daddy!) and the fact that he now feels like a ‘big boy’.
• Kate loves that she’s not getting hit in the face with the side of a huge car seat. (She sits in the middle of the back seat between her two siblings. Not something she’ll be able to do much longer as her hips and shoulders grow and become wider than the opening between the two seats. Hopefully we’ll be able to purchase a larger vehicle by the time that becomes an issue. And when we do, we’ll probably get Kate the pink princess version of this same seat.)
• Shawn loves that the price didn’t strain our pocket book too much. I think we got ours on sale for around $40.
• Karis loves the fact that she’s not stuck in that rear-facing infant seat anymore. She loves being able to see out the windows! 

OrgJunkie’s Dining Room Organization Round-Up

So, I finally finished and am writing the promised follow-up post!  I told you that I was participating in Org Junkie’s Monthly Organizing Round-Up and cleaning up my dining area of the kitchen.  (click here to see my previous post on the subject) Since my 5-year-old, Kate, is a budding artist like her daddy all of her art supplies and drawings wind up on our kitchen table and floor, as well as the window seat behind it.  After a while, it all starts to mushroom and take over the room as you can see in this before pic…  The piles of crayons, and pictures and more pictures, and cards, and table cloth for when we paint, and flipflops (the windowseat is by the back door), and everything else just seemed to always collect here.  And even when it’s organized, it’s still just not very pretty to look at.  In fact, my husband complains about it frequently.

I decided that not only did all the mess need to be contained better, but it also needed to move out of my kitchen completely.  The ‘formal dining room’ in our house is right off of the kitchen and we’ve turned it into a playroom - perfect spot for all of Kate’s art supplies.  But before I could move everything, I had to clean out a space on the tall table (away from siblings’ hands) to move everything.  (Don’t you love when one project requires a second and third project to happen first to be able to make the first one happen???  Blah.)

Finally, I got the table ready and then moved all the ’stuff’ to the table.  Then, I cleaned up the rest of the ‘outdoor stuff’ that sits on the windowseat and found a big bin to hide it all in.  So, all the flipflops, sunscreen, bug spray, water guns, and sidewalk chalk are now out of sight!  And look how clean my windowseat looks now!!

Of course, by the time I got all of that done, I was exhausted and the kiddos were screaming for my attention (quite literally, I’m afraid.  Yes, I tend to be a tad “focused” when it comes to organizing projects! )  So, I stopped for the day and decided to come back to the art supply/artwork mess another day.  I think that’s actually a key - knowing when it’s okay to stop and come back to a project another day and not feeling like it all HAS to be finished immediately.  Especially when you have three little ones under foot.  :)

So, a few days later, I decided to tackle all her art stuff.  Luckily, I had already put some amount of organizing mojo into this area of our lives and had containers already in use.  So, all it took was a little re-thinking of how everything was working and what would make it even better.

She now has 3 magazine holders that are specifically designated for 3 different kinds of things.  One for workbooks, one for sketchbooks and CURRENT artwork (I’ll have to write another post about what I do with all her artwork that accumulates at such a FAST pace), and one for stationary (my daughter LOVES to write cards to people).  She has an art kit box (thank you, Tiffany, for that birthday present!) that houses all of her stamps, markers, map pencils, glue sticks, and scissors in neat little organized trays.  Then she has a stack of art projects like beading, mosaics, and stamping that require adult supervision. And the last box next to the bookcase is full of all her painting supplies, including smock and table cloth.  All of the crayons and coloring books moved to another section of the playroom in a three-drawer rolling cart where the youngest two could also access them.

When I was done, I called her over to the table and explained the system to her. (Lucky for me, she takes after her parents and actually enjoys systems!) She got it almost immediately and then called her daddy in to show him and explain each section to him.  Best way to learn is to teach it to someone else, right?

So, now, I just owe a huge debt of gratitude to Laura over at OrgJunkie for encouraging all of us to tackle this project.  And I’m SO in for the rest of the year, so keep your eyes tuned for my next project!  What’s YOUR next project?

My Dishes Saga Continued

Just figured I’d update you on my dishes saga since I bored you with the original story.

I went to Target yesterday with intent of buying my dishes – you know, the ones that I wanted, not the ones that KATE wanted… I get there only to discover they’ve cleared out the Global Bazaar section and are bringing in patio furniture and Easter stuff in that section of the store now. Great. So, don’t panic, just go look where all the other plates are. Do they still have the ones that I want?

No. Of course not. So, I go home dejected. Again.

Shawn mentions the possibility of buying them online. Hope reborn! I go online and… sadly, they are ‘not available’ anymore and the serving dishes that match are on clearance. Boo. Sad again.

Since most of my ‘dishes money’ is cash, I decided to widen the search to ALL dinnerware Target and otherwise. After much searching on many sites including IKEA, Linens-n-things, other major department stores, etc and still not finding the ‘right’ ones that called my name, I went to Walmart.com expecting NOTHING of course. It IS Walmart after all. What kind of good quality, trendy dishes are going to be at Walmart?

These!!!

I can’t wait to go to Walmart and check them out in person. And maybe even BRING THEM HOME!

Don’t worry. I won’t take Kate with me this time!

My Dishes Saga

For my birthday, back in January, my parents gave me a large bill of currency and gave me the strict instruction to use it on myself.  Not my children.  Not the bills.  (What does this say about me that they felt the need to give this instruction?  Never mind - I think I know.  I think we ALL know.)

The funny thing is that I had just been thinking the day before about how tired I was of my everyday dinnerware and how I’d LOVE to replace it if I had the money.  I’ve had my same plates, bowls and teacups since Shawn and I got married in 1995 (you do the math) and even when I got them, they weren’t what I would have called my ‘perfect’ set of dishes.  Don’t get me wrong - they were beautiful and they were great quality Mikasa plates, but what I really would have gotten if given the opportunity would have been handmade pottery.  That’s just my own personal style.

Anyways, I had just seen the coolest sets of dishes at Target in their Global Bazaar section and had been drooling over them when the large bill made it’s way into my hands.  Divine Providence. Continue reading…

Dining Room Organization Challenge

I was browsing some of my favorite blogs the other day and ran across OrgJunkie’s latest fun. While I love that there are others out there that are as ‘freakish’ as I am about organizing, Laura’s posts seem to be some of the best. She’s now doing a monthly challenge to all her readers called Org Junkie’s Monthly Organizing Round-Up. The month of February was a challenge to organize some portion or all of your kitchen. Unfortunately I missed the deadline on that one, even though I did just recently reorganize some of my kitchen cabinets. (I had to do something to house my new beautiful plates!)

But, I’m SO in on March. This month’s challenge has been the dining room. While we don’t have a formal dining room anymore (it’s now a playroom), the area in the kitchen where we eat was starting to get over-run by my daughter’s craft supplies. Since she’s a budding artist (she takes after her daddy), we have a little bit of everything and somehow it’s always on the kitchen table and the windowseat behind it. Here’s a ‘before’ pic for your amusement.

So, my goal this month has been to clean up the windowseat and therefore all the craft supplies and move them somewhere higher (where the 18 month old can’t get ahold of crayons to write on the floors and walls with) and more organized in ONE space.

Check back in with me in about a week and I’ll show you the finished project. Or, at least the ‘finished-for-now’ project. Because, seriously, is any project truly and thoroughly completed? Isn’t there always just ONE more thing we want to do to make it perfect? Or maybe that’s just the German perfectionism in me coming out…

Oh, and don’t you want to join me and all the other ‘freaks’ that are organizing their dining rooms this month? Add a comment below about what your next project is going to be!

Go Get Some Pants, Please…

I’m trying to make my 3 year old little boy a little more self-sufficient. And since he’s REFUSING to potty train right now (very frustrating), I’ve decided that he can learn how to get himself dressed at least. I seem to remember Kate being able to do that quite well by this age and I’m starting to wonder how much of it was because she was a girl and how much of it was because she was the first child…

So, one morning (when we were already running a little late - what else is new?) I told Ethan to go in his room and get out an outfit to wear for the day. He came back with a shirt and shorts (that didn’t match by the way) in his hands. I told him that it was still too cold outside for shorts and could he please take the shorts back to his room and get pants instead. I thought that this was a reasonable request… One that a 3 year old could easily handle… I was wrong.

I got distracted doing other things, brushing teeth with Karis, changing diapers, etc… About 10 minutes later I made it to his room to check on the pants-getting-efforts. What I saw when I walked in the room made me hit the roof! I was all ready to gripe the boy out when I figured I should take a deep breath. And that’s when I decided that instead of losing my cool, I should run and grab the camera…

Ethan had not only completely unloaded his top drawer of short sleeved shirts and shorts, and not only the middle drawer of long sleeve shirts and pant, but also the bottom drawer of clothes that don’t fit anymore. The pile of clothes on the floor was almost as big as him!

After a quick discussion about how to find clothes WITHOUT dumping them ALL on the ground, we grabbed some pants to go with his shirt and got out the door before those clothes could suck me in…

The Things Kids Say

Heard at the dinner table…

Kate to Ethan: “Don’t you even think about it, bro… I can see your wheels turning!” as she points to his head.

Ethan, covering his forehead with his hands: “Don’t look at my circles!”

Heard at a friend’s house during a thunderstorm…

Pippi to her daddy downstairs after a loud thunder clap and bright lightening: “Daddy, I’m afraid of the lightening!”

Jeff: “You don’t have to be afraid. You know that God is in control.”

Pippi: “And so is Kate!”

We laughed so hard at the timing of that last comment - “God is in control, and so is Kate.” Of course, there are lots of times that Kate thinks that, but that’s another story…

Honey Better Than Drugs for Kids’ Coughs

Parents might consider giving their coughing child honey instead of medicine, according to a study released Monday.

Buckwheat honey — a dark variety sold in most grocery stores — relieved children’s coughs and helped them sleep better than dextromethorphan, the drug in most over-the-counter cough suppressants, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Honey also beat out no treatment at all.

“(Honey) is a cheap and effective treatment,” said Dr. Ian Paul, lead investigator for the study. “Consider using this as a treatment before going to the pharmacy to pick up an over-the-counter cough and cold medicine.”

Click here to read the rest of this article, courtesy of the Houston Chronicle.

Come and See!!

Today we were outside playing the in the back yard because it’s FINALLY dipped below 80 degrees here in Houston! Finally, fall weather!! But, I digress…

We were having a blast sliding on the slides, playing pirates, feeding the dog sticks (yes, she was actually eating them - weird, huh?), and pretending to fish. After a while, Kate wandered over to the deck to sit on the porch swing. She came running back over to me saying, “Mommy! Come and see!! There’s ants on the swing! Come and see!!!” Continue reading…