Blog Hop!

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Have fun!

Top Ten Tuesday

Frist of all, I want to make it clear that this is for entertainment purposes only in the spirit of my own sense of humor. While I realize it could make me sound ungrateful It was a conversation between my husband and I that led to this list. Based on some of the terrible gifts we have given each other, given to others, or that family has given us over our 11 Christmas' together.

So without further ado the top ten worst Christmas gifts ever.

10. Fruit Cake
9. Ugly Christmas Sweaters
8. Make your own ___________Kit
7. Gift cards to places that are not local
6. Clothes that don’t fit
5. Chia Pet
4. Memberships to places you will never go
3. ___________of the month club
2. Books or Music that do not interest you in the slightest
1. Christmas themed items that you will be packing up the following week because you can’t enjoy it till next year.

Number 1 always gets me. I refuse to buy a Christmas themed item and give it to someone on Christmas day. I always feel like why give something to someone that they can't enjoy year round. I'm not talking about an ornament or something sentimental but please don't give me a potholder with a Christmas tree on it, I'm not going to see it again for another 360 days. Please tell me I'm not alone on that one lol.

Holiday cards and Potatoes

Yippee, it cyber Monday. I'm making Holiday cards today. I missed the boat and haven't finished setting up my Etsy store. Who would of thought that the life of a stay at home homeschooling mom of 4 wouldn't lend itself to much free time for crafts and hobbies.

this snowman image is only for personal use and can not be used for custom cards sorry for the inconvenience
(if your looking for custom cards email me)

Yesterday however, I did manage to get a fun activity done up for my preschooler. I downloaded a Mr. Potato Head printable. I pulled it into psp and digitally colored it (yeah I like to let my young ones color but sometimes the ocd in me needs something to look a certain way) I had to "draw" my own potato but that was ok with a lot of cutting to get it down to size. I then laminated all the pieces and attached Velcro so my little one could build her own Mr. Potato Head while we do school work. I of course ran out of Velcro so its an unfinished project but she enjoyed playing with what was done. I am thinking when my new file folders arrive I will set it up to be a file folder game or a busy bag and maybe use good old Mr. Potato Head for some lessons on the 5 senses.

On another note, I also added a new Printables section to the blog. I have just a few up right now but will be adding more as I make them. Check them out I'd love to hear what you think of them.

Shopping Sunday

Did everyone survive Black Friday? I did, my oldest and I hit walmart around 8:30am picked up a few things and stopped for breakfast while the rest of the family slept in. I did most of our shopping online this year, poor hubby has a lot of assembling to do. He said because of this I have to take over wrapping. Poor kids, I have one wrapping method and it involves newspapers and duct tape. I can't wrap to save my life and dh has a "no gift bags" policy. Hopefully we will all survive it. So now on to "Cyber Monday" wondering what if any good deals I will find. I don't research Cyber Monday nearly as much as Black Friday but rest assured I will be doing my cyber Monday homework tomorrow while we watch football. What good underground cyber Monday deals are you scouting out this year? And did you battle the crazies on Black Friday?

Save my Saturday!

When the school week is over, the kids are antsy because its too cold to go outside or raining again! The rain here is enough to make you crazy I thought I moved to Small town Ohio not Seattle lol. The kids need something to do and mom, well lets face it, It's a day of rest. I always try to plan something out of the norm. I wish I had pics to go along with this post but we where so busy having fun I never got the camera out.

I bought Lego's for the first time on Black Friday. A big huge kit and it makes me nervous having a puppy in the house and a 3 year old who loves to put stuff down the heating vents lol. But we needed something new.

The kit we got contained 1,600 pieces. for $30 at walmart. This is a whole new world for my girls but my husband and I had countless hours of fun playing with them when we where kids. I wanted to try to make it a touch educational I took some small clear plastic cups and let each girl scoop a cup of Lego's and the challenge was to use all the Lego's in your cup to make something cool. My oldest made robots, My middle girl made hotels, and my 2nd youngest made a family. I was surprised how well they did. The second challenge was using 2 colors only I divided colors up in the cups and gave each of them 2 colors. This time we got a family on a boat, a bathroom, and a map.

Getting Lego's was a big step for our crew and while I still cringe every time I hear one hit our hardwood floors. It totally "saved my Saturday"

How about a giveaway :)

I had a great post planned for today but alas, I got wrapped up in Thanksgiving. However I did sit down and make this wonderful little activity for my 3 year old. Fellow Homeschooling mama's know that sometimes you just HAVE to have busywork for your toddler while you work with the older kids. One of my 3 year olds favorite things is to play with Bingo Daubers. Now lost of great printables exist for this and I think we have done them all twice or more. So I decided to do one with her name. She is going to flip Monday when she sees this. So I thought hmmmm.. maybe I can make a personalized one for one of my few blog readers.



So lets keep it easy 1 entry per action
1-Tweet this post
2- Share this on facebook
3- Grab my button and place it on your blog
4- Comment on this giveaway and simply say "enter me"
Now I assume I can do no more than 5 letters on a page, but I can make 2-3 pages and you can cut/glue them or I can do one large letter per page to spell the name however you want to do it.
Here is a glimpse at the one I made for my "Cady"

just make sure you comment what you have done so I can get your entries :) Good luck :)

*giveaway will end 12/2 EST*

Happy Thanksgiving! What a better day to express what your thankful for. I try to focus on the blessings in my life on more than one day a year of course. Trying hard to also teach my girls to be thankful for all that they have. As American children they have so much while children across the world suffer. I would adopt the world if I could and give to many. But, as that is not possible we can only pray that they have love and that all their needs are met. I am so blessed.






A short list of what I am thankful for this year.
I am thankful to know Jesus as my personal Saviour.
I am thankful to be an American and have religious freedom.
I am thankful for my amazing husband who is loving and supportive despite my many faults.
I am thankful for my daughters who are blossoming into wonderful young ladies.
I am thankful for my home, van, and food in my pantry.
I am thankful for iced coffee, dark chocolate and sweet tea.
I am thankful I have the option and resources to homeschool my daughters.
I am thankful my husband has a job he loves and is willing to commute to provide for us.
I am thankful for my amazing friends online and offline.
I am thankful that my husband supports my many crafting and home improvement ventures.
So much more I am sure but these are the ones at the forefront of my mind.
What are you thankful for this year?
If you are looking for a last minute busy activity to keep the kids out of the kitchen. Goggle is your friend just google "thanksgiving printables" and you will find tons of things from coloring pages, placecard activites, wordsearches and more.