I know, you can’t imagine your kids “ooh”ing and “ah”ing over a new towel on Christmas morning.  But this isn’t just any towel, it has their name on it!  Personalizing makes an every day item extraordinary; it makes it special.

It also makes things easier for Mom.  Our kids have 2 bath towels each, with their names stitched on (thanks to Nate’s mom– yay!)  So if there’s a towel left on the bathroom floor, I know whose it is; there’s no “not me- not me- not me” since the owner’s name is permanently woven in. 

I also like having two towels.  I put the kids’ towels on their clean clothes pile, to be put away in their little space in the bathroom cupboard.  Every Saturday night they put the dirty towel in the laundry and get the clean towel for their bath that night.  It saves me from washing towels excessively (Levi used to put his in after each use), and forms the habit of getting a clean towel after 3-4 uses.

My mother-in-law stitched the kids’ names using her sewing machine, but you could embroider or even applique just an ititial if you’re as sewing-impaired as I am.  Better yet, ask for this as a gift idea for your kids from someone in the family that enjoys sewing, so that they can bless you with their hobby.

I know, it’s past Halloween.  But I did this for my kids as a Little Thing and they talked and talked about how fun it was, so I had to share.  And they didn’t care that it is now officially Thanksgiving season instead of Halloween, so I spent a couple extra minutes on part of their lunch.  Just look at their smiles, the little posers!

All I did was cut off the top of the oranges and then swish my knife around inside to make it easier for them to scoop out the fruit, and then made the little jack o’lantern faces with a permanent marker.  Served with a spoon, it was an easy and healthy treat.

**I have to call attention to the background of the picture.  The PEIIP is going so well!  It’s not perfect, but the kids are really making an effort to grow this habit in themselves.  I’m already thinking about what habit to work on as a family in December!

I try to teach good habits to my kids, things that will help them have a better and easier life, like the Morning 5, and things that will grow them spiritually, like taking an active part in our morning family devotional.  Even a daily walkabout to clean up their things around the house is a good habit, though I admit it’s not targeting the core issue: they still leave things out when they are finished with them.

Since our kids were out of the high chair we taught them to carry their dishes to the sink… immediately cleaning after themselves.  But the general concept of putting away toys/crafts/the tiny-pieces-of-paper-they-just-shredded (why do they do this?) IMMEDIATELY when they are done… it’s just not a habit.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that despite my urgings, it’s not even a passing thought in my kids’ minds.

So yesterday I decided to start “Make-a-Habit”.  Supposedly it takes 21 days of repeating an action to make it stick, so I figure 30 days oughta do the trick.  And if we focus on a new habit every month, we’ll have aquired 12 new habits at the end of a year!

Yesterday I deemed November’s habit “clean up after yourself.”  Actually, I tried to make it a little fun: Put Everything In It’s Place, or PEIIP.  We’re pronouncing it “peep” for the sake of having an image as a reminder to keep up the habit; yes, I made little Easter peeps with construction paper and taped them around the house.

Amazingly, the kids are completely on board.  I think it helped that we started with a clean house, and I made two promises:

1. If everyone keeps up with this habit, we will never have to clean the house again.  Having our house on the market forever (and having to clean for showings and open house) this was a big sell.  I added the disclaimer that we’d all have to still do chores, but it didn’t seem to damper the effect of this promise.
2. At the end of the month we’d have some sort of victory celebration.  I’m hoping to make some homemade marshmallows in the shape of peeps, and since sugar and a movie equal a celebration according to the kids, it should be pretty easy.

I’m not laying this all on my kids, by the way.  The primary factor in teaching your children is by example, so I’m making sure that I “peep” every single thing.  Believe me, they’re watching.

I looove Fall.  The colors, the cool weather (which means an excuse to start a fire in the fireplace,) and the foods that just “go” with the season like chili and pumpkin bread.

We bought pumpkins at Walmart for each of the kids, and because we waited until they went on sale ($2.47 each for huge pumpkins!) I bought 3 extra pumpkins for me to try my hand at making puree.  I love to make pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin cheesecake.

I surfed online a bit and found a couple of handy tricks:

• If you want to roast your pumpkin seeds (such a yummy and healthy snack) you only need to put the pumpkin innards (I know that sounds gross, but they are gross) into a bowl and fill with water.  The pumpkin seeds float to the top!  All these years I’ve been getting my hands entwined in the stringy mess, sliding out each seed, and it usually took so long that I quit before getting most of the seeds.  Yesterday I took the “float” advice from Alton Brown at the Food Network and it was only minutes until I had all the seeds scooped out.  There’s a couple of ways to roast your seeds:  on the stove or in the oven.
• If you want to make pumpkin puree (you know, what many of us buy in a can so that we can make pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread) it’s amazingly easy.  I had been told to peel the pumpkin after cleaning out the inside… uh, that’s just too much work in my mind; peeling potatoes are bad enough, but a huge pumpkin?  Huh-uh.  BUT today I found out that you don’t have to peel!  Here’s a great tutorial of this easy process.  

Pumpkins sum up the Fall season for me: warm colors, yummy foods.  Please leave a comment and share your favorite pumpkin recipe!

I don’t know about you, but my bedroom is often the messiest room in the house.  I try to keep my things put away, but if I’m in a hurry I just shut the bedroom door.  And if someone is coming over and I need to do a quick clean-up, it’s just too easy to toss things onto my dresser and the chair and… shut the bedroom door.  In fact, I shut the bedroom door after getting dressed for the day and I don’t go back in unless I need something (because if I do, the bed looks too inviting to my sleepy body.) 

So out of sight, out of mind.  I don’t think about picking up any mess in my bedroom until I’m getting ready for bed, tired and done for the day.

Today’s mission is to spend just 15 minutes in your bedroom.  I spent my entire 15 minutes putting away clothes and hauling my kids’ things back to their bedrooms, but if you’ve kept up on your room pretty well, then do something extra in the room that’s supposed to be your sanctuary.  Like one of these:

*dust the dressers and nightstands

*put candles out and light them tonight!

*look at what’s on your dresser-top.  Anything that you haven’t touched in the past month needs to go!

*switch to flannel sheets or add an extra blanket for these colder nights

*vacuum!  I seriously vacuum our bedroom only about 4 times a year because there’s not much (noticeable) need, but if you think about dust and dead skin cells… ew, I’m getting my vacuum out right now.

*If you’ve actually got all of these things done before or during your 15 minutes, then please come to my house and give me a hand with my room!!!

We have been going to fast-food restaurants less and less because of the double whammy of the high cost of feeding a family of 5, and very-bad-for-you food–  and I feel all the better for it.  But!  Sometimes it is unavoidable or just plain easier to hit the drive-thru, especially on trips or when we have an especially hectic day.

Recently we went to camp 2 states away, and amidst packing all of us for a week at a rustic camp, I didn’t dream of preparing and packaging healthy snacks for the 8-hour trip.  This left us at the mercy of the quick drive-thru, and I’m sure you’ve repeatedly had the same experience as I:  Get a couple of miles from the restaurant, then realize that they forgot to put napkins or ketchup in the bag!

I try to keep extras in my glovebox: napkins, ketchup/mustard packets, plastic forks, and straws.  It gets messy, though, so recently I put everything in a vinyl pencil bag from our old stash of school supplies.  It works perfect!  I have the little packets in the see-through mesh pocket, all zipped and held in place, and the plastic utensils and straws are right there, nice and clean.  The taller straws I have to let stick out, but I just zip right up to them so they stay in place.  Nothing is flying around or getting squashed and messy in my glovebox, but I have what I need.

The few minutes it took me to stash my glovebox is well worth the lowering of my stress level… even when I have to eat on the go!

I love the Old Farmer’s Almanac.  It just seems that the “old wisdom” depended less on technology and chemicals, and more on the laws of God’s nature and simple common sense.  Not that the folks at OFA don’t enjoy some old wives’ tales thrown in, but for the most part they have a lot of useful information.

Like how to deal with fruit flies.  Those little critters bug-bug-bug me; my goodness, they’ll fly right by my mouth as I’m taking a bite!  The solution at Old Farmer’s Almanac online is simple: 

“You may want to try trapping the flies by inserting a paper or metal funnel into the mouth of a quart jar baited with bits of overripe fruit.  The flies will get into the jar, but they will not be able to get out.”

See?  Simple!  I actually have OFA online as my homepage.  I enjoy the tidbits of information that I never knew I needed  :)  They have an Old Farmer’s Almanac for kids, too, that I’m going to suggest to the grandparents for Christmas.  It’s got facts that kids would find interesting, like the part of a cricket’s body it uses to listen, and directions for activities like how to make a sunflower house.

I didn’t want to expose Kyra to more embarassment due to her poison ivy, but I had to pick up a friend from out of town, at the mall.  We ended up staying to eat lunch in the food court, and I noticed two things:

First, that people looked at Kyra’s face, a lot.  Her poison ivy rash hasn’t responded to the treatments yet, and it looks like a huge burn or a massive birthmark on her face and neck.  I was probably more aware than normal, but I know Kyra was self-concious, too.

The second thing I realized was that people were so… considerate.  Some looked away quickly, but most made a point of smiling at Kyra.  Several people made comments to her, like, “You’re holding your tray of food so well” and, “Hi, Sweetie” and “Aren’t you a pretty girl!”  It’s not like we’re normally ignored or anything, but there was a noticeable, intentional reaching out to Kyra specifically.

It just made me feel good, that so many people were thoughtful and kind to my daughter, and made an effort to make her feel normal and capable and pretty.  

It’s very easy for me to get caught up in what’s negative in our world, with emails and movies and television reports on the news of bad people doing bad things… And I forget that there are a lot of good people, too.  Yesterday’s trip to the mall was a much-needed reminder of the kindness that is out there, that there is a decency within most people and a desire to do the right thing and show compassion.  I’m thankful for that reminder, and thankful for the kindness of strangers.

For more Gratituesday, visit Heavenly Homemaker.

Poor Kyra got poison ivy on her face– across her forehead, along her nose, around her mouth, behind her ears, down her neck.  She must’ve touched a plant when we were weeding for friends, and she scratched and rubbed for a day before I realized what it was.  Her face is deep red and leathery and swollen, and though it doesn’t hurt and barely itches, she’s embarassed because people keep looking at her; it is startlingly red.

This is the third time she’s gotten poison ivy this summer.  Her skin is so sensitive that she reacts with any amount of exposure, and even afer the rash is gone the area stays red for weeks.  And this summer, in about a month, she goes to camp for the first time, meeting tons of new friends…  And she’ll have a splotchy red face.  Ugh– I hurt for her!  I want to take it off of her body and smear it all over my own, just so she won’t have to deal with the stares and questions.

I told her that— that I’d take the rash and the allergy and put it on my own body if I could, so she could have her soft smooth skin back.  She pulled back and looked into my eyes, as if to see if I was telling the truth.  And then she smiled, and her eyes… it was like I could see how content she felt, how loved she knew she was.  That is a cherished moment for me.

I know that I would do anything for my kids.  I would die for them without even thinking about it!  …But do they know it?  Part of the beauty of unconditional love is the recipient being aware of that love, of the immensity of it.  I’m not saying to go tell your kids you’d die for them; it’s too overwhelming and beyond their comprehension.  But when was the last time you told them something deeper than the foundational “I love you”? 

I show my kids my love for them on a daily basis: the cooking and cleaning and training and activities and snuggling and treats are all because I love them.  But don’t we all need to hear it in words, too?  I love the special times that Nate brings me flowers, but to be honest it’s what he’s written in the card that fills my heart.  Try to find a way this week to tell your kids how much you love them, beyond those three little words.   

The no-rinse hand sanitizers have always bothered me.  It’s the thought of putting chemicals on my hands to kill germs but not rinsing them off… then I rub my itching eye or lick the chocolate off my finger…  I don’t know, it’s just doesn’t seem healthy.

But I like the concept, a lot.  If we’re on a trip and stop at a gas station to use the bathroom, I just can’t believe there’s any part of my body with worse germs and bacteria than what’s on the doors and faucet and doorknob of that bathroom.  In the past I’ve kept baby wipes to clean our hands after using a nasty public restroom, but I like the idea of a hand sanitizer much better– something that will actually kill the germs!

I found this recipe online, and I can’t wait to try it out!  It calls for ingredients I need to purchase so I haven’t made it yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes when I try it out.  If you make it before me, please share your results!

Homemade Hand Sanitizer

• 1 cup aloe vera gel
• 1 tsp rubbing alcohol
• 2 tsp vegetable glycerin
• 8-10 drops tea tree or lavender essential oil

Check out the full information here if you are interested in making your own hand sanitizer!