I was looking through my ABC activities to do them again and adapt them for my little ones this year, and decided to put them together with some other ABC themed fun projects shared with me from other bloggers. Y’all are going to love these! They are all oodles of fun on top of being educational, so how could you go wrong? 😉
Which games and projects are you looking forward to doing with your kiddos? For some creatively frugal fun things to do with your munchkins, check out my roundup 10 Preschool Activities Using Household Items!
Today has been an all out booger of a day. I spent hours on the phone making frustrating phone calls to fun places like health insurance companies, doctors and human resources hither and yonder while my children ran around the house terrorizing because I couldn’t deal with them properly right then. My outdoor loving children somehow hate going outside once Mommy gets on an important phone call. They’d rather stand at my feet shouting things like “I’m hungry”, “I went potty” and “She took my toy ’cause I hit her with it”. This ended up in my three year old scattering crayons from one end of the living room through the kitchen and den, not to mention his toy trucks and legos. All sorts of other things have been going wrong and bumming me out, plus I am physically something of a wreck, but this is not meant to be a whine fest.
Chopping That Okra Into Submission
Any stress eaters out there?
I know we’ve all heard of stress eating. I do that some, too, but sometimes stress just triggers me into a massive cooking frenzy. I can whip my frustration in to batter, chop some veggies into submission, beat the snot out of some eggs, and bake the bad away while filling my home with a deliciousness. It’s something fairly mindless and soothing because I can control the outcome and see almost guaranteed pleasant results from my efforts. It makes also makes my family happy, even whiny little boogers who like to pester the living daylights out of their mommy when she just CAN’T. A great stress reliever for me is the simple act of cooking….ALOT!
If there are, you would love to join me at my house when I’m super duper agitated! You’ll certainly have plenty to chow down on! Today’s stress cooking fest resulted in the goodies in the photos. I threw my baby girl in our trusty Moby wrap and went to sweating out my frustrations over the stove. Dark chocolate coconut brownies to satisfy my stress induced craving for dark chocolate. Oven fried okra because I had a batch left needing cooked from okra our neighbor gave us, and can’t fry for real while the baby is on me. Two casseroles of ground deer, green beans, rice, tomatoes and other goodies- one for tonight and another for the day after tomorrow. Mexican cornbread to go with our crockpot ham and beans tomorrow. Plenty of food, y’all! 🙂
Stress Cook and Eating
What do you do when you are stressed?
You know, I think my stress cooking not only is about working those frustrations out in a constructive way, but also ties into wanting comfort food, which for me is usually something homemade. Whatever it may be, my husband and children seem to enjoy this particular way I cope with frustration and aggravation! 🙂
This is an older post, but I was thinking about it the other day when I let my children have cake for breakfast. I was tired, the baby was fussy, and it smelled so good just sitting there. Don’t judge me!!! lol For more shameful confessions, keep reading…
Anyone who knows me well (or reads my blog 🙂 ) also knows that I genuinely enjoy cooking. I love baking goodies to share, decorating cupcakes with my daughter, whipping up delectable meals for my family to gobble up, and just all around fixing scrumptious vittles. What many of you don’t know is that there are times I just plain absolutely fall down on the job. I mean, I really go outside the realm of ordinary feeding of family and children. To call what I do during those times cooking would be…well….a disgrace to cooks everywhere.
Take tonight, for instance. The hubby is on duty at the fire station, and I was gone most of the day with the munchkins. To say that I didn’t want to be bothered with cooking tonight is an understatement. I could not, would not, did not even want to think about bothering with it. I wanted to exercise for a few minutes while noone big enough to know how goofy I look bouncing around like a loon was here to watch. (I’m very much sick of the extra pudge in the tummy and thighs that’s still lingering from having my little Pumpkin, after years of being on the active side of life.) Guess what we had? Microwave maruchen noodles with a handful each of shredded baby spinach and pre-julienned carrots thrown in to make me feel like it was still a healthy dinner. While it microwaved and cooled, I did some of my old exercises & stretches with Princess Peach for the 15 minutes I would’ve probably spent throwing a simple dinner together. Winner, winner, what a dinner! 😉
To delve even deeper into the dark secret slip-ups of a mommy who usually loves cooking and feeding her family heartily…brace yourself, people, ’cause this one is an even bigger doozie!
Sometimes- like, say, yesterday- when my daughter asks for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast… *whispering guiltily* I let her. I know! Mom of the year here! Don’t give me that look! I was in a hurry, okay??
As if I haven’t already revealed enough of my lovely days of throwing in the towel of attempting to be something resembling Mrs. Handy Homemaker, there are also times when I throw together a bunch of chopped fruit and yogurt, then act really excited about it, and the kids & I have a fruit salad lunch that my sweet daughter thinks is a fruit party for princesses. Hey, at least this one is a healthy cheat! You’ve gotta give a girl credit for that!
So, now that you know some of my less-than-stellar moments of cookery, what are some of the things you do (or don’t do) on those days you are just too busy, too lazy or just not in the mood to have to fix something for your family? Don’t leave me hanging here! I ‘fessed up. Now it’s your turn! 😉 Oh, and if you want to try the cake I fed my kids for breakfast the other day, here you go… Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Glaze Cake
I am always on the look out for fun activities for my little ones that won’t cost me a fortune in extra items needed for doing them.
I decided to gather together a list of 10 great activities using items commonly found around any home. Some of these are mine, and some are from other bloggers who graciously gave me permission to share them. All of them pass the penny pinching test, as well as the fun for kiddos test. Click the blue links for each activity! I hope y’all enjoy!
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There you go! 10 awesome activities for your little ones! Which would you like to try first? For more activities for your kids that are fun, cheap and educational, check out my blog posts Dollar store education: Color sorting blocks and Pompom Pickup!
“Take a picture with me, Mommy! “, my five year old daughter chirped this afternoon.
Excuses immediately ran through my mind of why I would really rather not. I have a headache, my hair is a mess, I am wearing no makeup and I have hardly slept in days, so I am not looking my best.
Then I had a flashback to being that girl begging for pictures with my mom, who hated having her picture taken. She usually said no, but those times she actually said yes live on as treasures for me. They are beautiful reminders of the loving, joyful childhood I had with a mom who put aside her own insecurity in how she looked for long enough to make a record of a moment with her daughter.
My mom passed away at age 44, long before I had my own little girl.
Each snapshot of my mom is an irreplacable memory, frozen in time.
I cherish them, and the ability to share them with the grandchildren she never met. Because of this, I don’t care if I look like a homeless crazy person, I will take that picture with my babies whenever they want. They don’t care about how I look now. Later they will look at that photo and remember that moment with Mom, regardless of what my hair looked like.
Take those pictures with your kids.
How you look right now doesn’t matter. You don’t have to look like a fashion model to be a fabulous mommy. How they feel and the memories preserved in time do. You won’t regret those messy moments captured in a picture. Those messy moments make up the beautiful, crazy life filled with the love you have for your children….and that’s what those photos will represent to them when they look at them.
Here is a letter I wrote to my mom on her birthday during my pregnancy with our little Sweet Pea, if you would like to read it…
I have been trying to cook from ingredients I already have in my cabinets as much as possible. I had a couple of bananas that were overripe, and was out of chocolate chips and raisins for the cookies I’d normally make with them. I also had a cake mix that needed used, and a craving for chocolate and peanut butter. From that jumping point, I brainstormed and cooked up the Chocolate Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Glaze. Wanna try it? Here is what I did…
Chocolate Banana Cake
1 Duncan Hines chocolate cake mix
1 cup water
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
2 mashed overripe bananas
Grease a 13×9 pan. Bake at 350 for 32-34 minutes, or until toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.
Frost it with peanut butter glaze.
Peanut Butter Honey Glaze
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water
Mix well.
This would work great as a simple topping for cake, muffins, or brownies. It would also make a healthy sweet fruit dip.
Pretty simple, huh? My family loves this easy peasy cake! It’s moist and sweet without being sickeningly sweet. It’s also very inexpensive, especially if you’re like me and only buy cake mixes with awesome sales and coupons.
If you want another way to use up overripe bananas (or peanut butter, my couponing comrades!), try these recipes below…
With school just starting, I thought I’d share a few suggestions for a variety of after school snacks. There should be something to make any kiddo happy in this list, from homemade junk food to truly delicious healthy options!
This recipe for multiple versions of oatmeal cookies are made with only wholesome ingredients- no sugar or flour- and pass the taste test of my children and hubby who all have a sweet tooth. They are quite filling, and healthy enough that you could be the cool mom giving them cookies for breakfast! 😉
Love s’mores, but no time for campfires for awhile? Here’s your solution!
S’mores Cupcakes
Which of these do you want to try first? These are all tried and approved by my own munchkins. They don’t pretend to like anything just to spare Mommy’s feelings, so you know they’ve passed at least a couple of kid tests. 😉
Anyone else find the weirdest things coming out of your mouth when speaking to the crazy cute beings known as your children? I often pause after saying something to one of my children and think “Wow, that would sound completely crazy if someone wasn’t in this scenario to understand!”. I thought I’d share a few random quotes and the adult side of conversations from the mouth of this weird mommy, free of the context they were responding to. 😉
“Did you really just fill your teacup from the toilet?!? Don’t drink that! Give it to me!! Wash your hands! Because people poop where that water came from! Yes, yuck!”
“Peanut butter is not paint! I don’t care if it makes your room smell good!”
“You would scratch someone, too, if she picked you up by the tail and spun you in circles! No, I am not putting the cat in timeout! I’d put you there if he hadn’t scratched you already, though! I’m mean? Ummm…thanks!”
“Get your foot out of my hair!”
“You can’t fly. No, you can’t! Not even if you’re wearing a cape. Don’t climb up there. Stop! GET DOWN NOWWWW!!!”
Say What??
“Don’t put your toes in your mouth. Because they are dirty, that’s why!”
“No, you can’t drive my van to the park! You’re five years old! I’m glad you watched Daddy drive lots of times, but that doesn’t mean you can drive yourself! I know you drive your power wheel, but that’s different.”
“The closet is not a toilet!!!”
“Daddy doesn’t make milk. Yes, I know he has nipples, but only mommies make milk. Yeah, it probably would taste funny with all that hair on them, anyway.”
“That’s sweet of you, but I really don’t want the biggest booger ever.”
This is just a small sample of the odd things I’ve heard come out of my own mouth in response to my children, if this gives you any hint into the tee-total lunacy of my household. Anyone else have some doozies you’ve caught yourself saying?
As a homeschool graduate currently homeschooling my own munchkins, I’m always looking for creative and inexpensive educational activities. I absolutely love dollar stores of all kinds for bargain educational supplies to use! They cost so little, and can cover so many different topics. One of my nifty finds has been these color sorting cubes. Being creative with them, I can come up with bunches of different ways to use these little boogers to keep my little smarty pants entertained and educated at the same time. I’ve used them for lots of different things, but I thought that I would share some of what we have done with them as fun & stimulating preschool projects.
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We started off the day simply. Since I’m a penny pincher from way back, I took two styrofoam plates we had used for our lunch, wiped them off, grabbed some colored markers, outlined and filled in half of each plate in the four different colors of her sorting cubes. I then asked her to put all of the cubes on the matching color section. As you can see, she did great. 🙂 She did this a few times before she was ready to move on to something else, so then I came up with a couple of more fun educational games for her…
Pattern and Varied Numbers
I flipped the two styrofoam plates over, and drew out the new projects with my trusty markers again. What, you thought mrs frugal was gonna use new plates? LOL On the left in this photo, I told her to follow the color pattern using two blocks in each rectangle. On the right, I asked her what each number and color was, then requested that she put the correct number and color of blocks in each rectangle. She really enjoyed this one, since it was a little more challenging. After a little while, she was ready to do something new with her color cubes, so Mommy had to come up with another challenge…
Counting and Sorting
For her last color cube project of the day, I asked her to put 4 blue cubes on the blue side, 5 green cubes on the green side, 6 orange cubes on the orange and 7 red cubes on the red. We did this same “game” with several different series of numbers. She really enjoyed the challenge of remembering how many went on which color, since it wasn’t written down.
Now that I’ve shared a few of the educational games we do with our color cubes, what are some inexpensive items you use to help kiddos learn? What do you wish you could find an educational use for?
For some great recipes, please click the Chef’s hat!
Does it bother anyone else for their little girls to aspire to be a princess in the classic “I’m so helpless! Please rescue me and cater to my unrealistic whims, oh, obscurely perfect man of my insanely romanticized fairytale dreams!”?
I love letting my daughter play dress up, be girly, and pretend to be a princess, but the helpless and hopeless romantic version grates on my nerves more than a wee bit. That’s why I’m an enthusiastic fan of the spunky and sassy princess types! They make the point that you can be a pretty princess simultaneously with being strong, intelligent and perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, and that’s a message I can get behind. 🙂
Want some princesses for your little girls to learn about who are far from wilting weaklings? These are powerful women our girls can look up to! Check these rockin’ royals out, y’all! 😉
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This little princess wasn’t born in a palace. Her mother was a poor village woman who married the king, making her a newly minted princess with all the quirks of an ordinary sweet & spunky little girl, along with the newfound trappings of royalty. She is a kind, but very resourceful, little person. Sophia is a totally relatable little princess, in her own magical way. Get Sofia the First gifts here:http://amzn.to/2hpK4We
Mulan / Mulan II:
Mulan’s father was in poor health, and was called up to war. She courageously took his place, and became a renowned and rewarded soldier, with some interesting twists along the way. Find Mulan gifts here:http://amzn.to/2gEuk2S
Esther was actually a real queen, way back in the days of the Old Testament. In a day when women- even queens- ordinarily had very little power or influence, she managed to save the entire Israelite people in her kingdom using her intelligence, wisdom, grace and every ounce of power she had. She accomplished amazing things, especially considering the time she was living in. She was definitely a royal of worth! Get Queen Esther gifts here:http://amzn.to/2gsMhOo
Merida is certainly nowhere close to the helpless maiden type! She had to learn how to calm her wild spirit through a whole series of crazy adventures where the princess is the girl who is both causing trouble and fixing it herself . When they say brave, it royally fits! Find Merida from Brave gifts here: http://amzn.to/2hwdAMM
Who can forget this super duper popular pair of sisters-their struggles and strength through their fantastical adventures? Wimpy little ladies they are not! They are full of determination, character and spunk. Let it go! 😉
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Now, I think of the classic Rapunzel as the aforementioned annoyingly helpless and pathetic princess type. The version who appears in the movie Tangled, however, is anything but that! She grew up sheltered in a tower, but she broke free and corralled a young man into helping her along in her urgent quest. Find Rapunzel from Tangled gifts here:http://amzn.to/2hm7w6p
Princess Leia from Star Wars:
Intergalactic strong woman and princess, anyone?? Doesn’t get any cooler than that! Find Princess Leia gifts here:http://amzn.to/2hg6ATi
Do you know of any other atypical brave princesses or other strong royal ladies whom your little girls adore? Are they fans of any of the amazing girls I mentioned?
Penny Pinching Peach 