Sunday, February 2, 2014

QUICK AND EASY TIP FOR CHILDREN'S PUZZLES

Have you ever walked into a room and found your little one making a "mountain" of toys on the floor for no particular reason? Lately my son has been doing just that. Most days, the hour right after he wakes from his nap involves him playing quietly in his room watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I attempt to finish up some Thirty One business that I started while he was asleep.  The idea sounds easy enough right? Unfortunately within that small hour, my son manages to turn his room into a landfill; complete with every single piece of clothing in his dresser, all his books from his bookshelf, and most frustrating...every single puzzle he owns.  I walk into his room and for a second cannot process my thoughts because I am overwhelmed with the mess that I now have to help him clean up. Fortunately without much resistance he picks up his clothes and books and puts them away.  However the puzzles are another story altogether.

My 3 year old absolutely LOVES puzzles and we have tons of them.  When he was not even three yet, he was putting together 40-50 piece puzzles...which completely baffled everyone.  Not long after his 3rd birthday he was putting together 100+ piece puzzles. Naturally, the more puzzle pieces a puzzle has, the smaller they are.   So you can understand my frustration when he manages to dump five or more puzzles into a pile mixing them up together.  I usually spend 30 minutes at least trying to figure out what pieces go with which puzzle.  This takes up a lot of time that we could be doing something else, so I started doing something that I remember seeing when I was a child.


Although, I am sure this is nothing new and that many of you moms out there already had this idea. I just wanted to share because it has really saved me a lot of time in the afternoon.  Not only when my son manages to dump all his puzzles into one large pile, but also when he actually puts them together they end up spread out all over our floor and putting them away is much faster and easier now.  Especially when I find a stray piece laying on the floor somewhere.

This is so simple, I just assign each puzzle a number and write that number somewhere on the outer box or tin.  Then with a sharpie, I write that number on the back of each puzzle piece, so it's easy to see which piece goes with which puzzle.  Love it!


Tuesday, January 28, 2014

CHEESY BROCCOLI CHICKEN


Looking for something incredibly easy and quick to make for tonight's dinner? Check out my recipe for Cheesy Broccoli Chicken HERE or go to my Recipes page for lots of other yummy recipes!


Sunday, January 5, 2014

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND CATCHING UP!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS MY BLOG FRIENDS!

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday season! Ours was super busy and stressful this year which is why I haven't posted. However, there are many things that I want to share with you all and will be posting about in the next few days! I completed some really cute holiday projects this year and still would like to blog about them.  Hopefully you will find them interesting and cute and use them for ideas next year!

We've also had some big…I mean HUGE milestones here in our house over the last few months.  My son Colton ditched the binky habit, moved to a big boy bed, AND has almost mastered potty training!! Talk about exhausting! I definitely look forward to blogging about these huge hurdles we have passed and sharing what did and didn't work for  us!  I spent a lot of time online getting ideas and tips from other mothers out there, so I am hoping that those who will read my posts find them helpful too!  Oh and there was that other not some awesome milestone…I turned 30 in December. :/  This was a hard one for me! But after shedding lots of tears, I seem to be doing better.  I guess 30 isn't so bad after all….

Now that 2014 is here and since its the start of a new year and new beginnings, I plan on adding a few new sections to my blog.  One of my New Year's resolutions was to get back into reading again.  I used to love reading and found it very relaxing. But since i had my son, I have all but given up this hobby... unless you count the endless Berenstain Bears and Little Golden Books I have read.  There is a group of you that have asked if I would like to join their online book club and i have decided to make a page dedicated to the books I've read. Who doesn't like a review before starting a book?! I know I always read them beforehand.

 I also plan on adding a page dedicated to my life as a Police Wife.  So many thoughts and worries go through my head each day and now my husband took a job in an town with an even higher crime rate.  I've been told many times to not let worry consume you and to talk them out.  Over the last year or so, I have become online friends with many law enforcement wives as well as with ones that live near me.  We talk often and it helps, I feel that now that my husband has taken this job, I will need to talk even more. This section of my page will be mostly for those that share my worries and fears, but I hope that others also find it interesting and gain knowledge of what the families of those that keep you all safe everyday really go through.

So that's what has been going on lately in a nutshell and what to look forward to reading on my page.  Check back soon :)