Valentine's Day Teachers Gifts

A post! Finally!

I'm not really sure why I haven't posted lately. I mean I know I've been busy, but I'm not really sure doing what.  I managed to get caught up on some scrapbooking that got pushed to the back burner through the holidays.  I packed up all of the Christmas decorations, and managed to get everything back to normal.

I also spent all last week doing some deep cleaning.  I figured if the weather was gonna act like it was spring, I might as well pretend it is too.

I chopped all of my hair off, and had red peak-a-boo highlights added to the front.  Crazy! I know.  I've kinda got a Neapolitan look goin' on, with the dark brown, blonde and red. It's a slightly asymmetrical stack bob.  Pretty funky and totally different from anything else I've sported in the last 10 years.  I'm not for sure what got into me, but I LOOOVVVEEE IT!  I never imagined I would like my hair short, but it is so super easy to fix and it STAYS fixed.  I don't have to spend an hour straightening it. It's AWESOME! 

ANYWAY, enough about all of that!



Try not to notice that none of the monograms are at the same height.  I didn't really think about them being photographed together.



I'm actually here to share what I made for Ty's teachers for valentine's day. 

I used my Cricut to cut out a stencil pattern on vinyl. Then I used the stencils to etch their initials onto some really nice heavy glasses I picked up. I filled them with red paper shreds and a bag of sugar free candy.

Perfect Valentine's Day gifts for his wonderful teacher, teacher's aide and of course the extremely helpful school secretary. (She's awesome. She makes finding out information a breeze!)

Of course they are not totally done yet.  I still need to add a ribbon and a gift tag. 

So what do you think? 

Do you send teacher's gifts for Valentine's Day?

The Fried Pickle Phenomenon

I admit it. I am a Screamer.

You know exactly what it is that I am talking about. You’ve all witnessed the tail-end of some poor mother’s wits as she yells insensibly at her children. In public. Yes, that is me. At least it easily could be.

I have always acted as though I believed the louder I yelled something the better it was understood. Kind of makes you wonder if I missed my calling to be an athletic coach or a drill sargeant, doesn’t it? Anyway, when Ty was about 9 months old, I lost all sensibility and yelled at the top of my lungs because he would cry every time I took two steps away from him. Now I realize that is what babies do, but I was a mess emotionally. The thing is, it was the look on his beautiful face that made me want to change. The look I saw on his face was one of fear. I didn’t want my baby to be afraid on me. I wasn’t someone to be afraid of. I loved him and would always protect him.

It was then that I realized how much louder our actions speak than our words. It was then that I promised myself that I would work hard NOT to scream or yell.

Like all bad habits this one has been difficult to break. I have had to change my strategy many, many times to find something that works. Just to change it again, when that quits working. I have had to have a lot of talks with Ty to explain why when we are both tired, things sometimes get ugly. We’ve talked about what things always seem to get us into trouble.

So, recently I have employed a new warning strategy. A warning strategy is similar to the count of 3 principle. The child knows that if the parent reaches the number three then all hell breaks loose. Right? It should anyway.

One of my pet peeves is having to repeat myself. Ty is essentially the best staller I have ever encountered. (other than my sister, but I think she is more obnoxiously slow than stalling) So to keep him from getting us both sidetracked or distracted, I find myself repeating myself, then ultimately loosing my temper.

So I told Ty that I wanted us to both come up with a code word. I explained to him that this code word was for me to use to warn him that I was on the brink of loosing it.

I asked him if he had any suggestions for what this code word should be. I told him that it should be something that we would not commonly say but something that neither of us would forget. He studied for a moment then he smiled and said he knew a perfect code word. “Fried Pickles.”

I told him that sounded great and that anytime he heard me say “Fried Pickles” that I was on the edge of loosing it and that he should proceed very cautiously. He said he understood and we shook hands to seal the deal.

That was several weeks ago, and this evening is this first time I’ve had need to use our new code word. He is always tired on Sunday afternoons. I guess two hours at church is more than he can handle. Sometimes I wonder what they do to wear these kids down so much. Anyway, I was trying to get his clothes laid out for school and get his lunch packed and he was having a meltdown over the wii remote not working correctly. I told him I would check it out as soon as I finished what I was doing.

Evidently, it wasn’t what he wanted to hear . So he was shedding big croc tears, and screaming etc, etc. So as the situation continued to escalate, I could feel how short fused I was. So I immediately picked him up, sat him on my lap and as sternly and firmly as possible I looked him in the eye and said “Fried Pickles”.

Then I completely lost it. Not like usual though. I laughed so hard I STILL think I scared him. Seriously, the next time you are on the verge of loosing your temper with your kids. Look them dead in the eye and say “Fried Pickles”. It may be just me, but I don’t think I can say that without loosing some of my steam.
I wonder what would happen if I said it three times real fast.

Eco Friendly Weed Control

I have just wasted an entire day of my life. I completely vegged out on my couch through 4 entire movies. During which I have been totally solo. No one around. It has been awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I miss Ty terribly when he is gone. Even as I write this I am longing for him and his never ending stream of questions. Sonnie Mae has also gone MIA today, and it always seems wrong when she is not around. (I would say her Mom thinks the same thing about her always being here, lol) But this lazy day has been glorious.

Now I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew and can't go to sleep. So I am beginning to stew on all of the things that I should've or could've done today. Of course I realize there is no use crying over spilled milk. It's just what I do.

In an effort to stop obsessing over the undone housekeeping, here I am writing to you all.

While some may say that I am jumping the gun a little this year, I can't help it. I'm soooo over winter right now. The other evening it was warm enough to make a walk around inspection of the house. During this excursion I saw my daffodils poking up through the ground. I swear it was like a burden was lifted from my shoulders. Seriously. A layer of the winter doldrums just peeled off and floated away. I wish all of my problems could be so easily solved by little yellow blooming flowers.

Just like housekeeping and laundry, weed control is a never ending battle. Every spring I start out gung-ho. I am bound and determined to keep my flower beds and lawn perfectly groomed. I pull those stray weeds fully out by their roots. I mulch. I water and I fertilize. Then I go on vacation.

I'm not sure what really goes on during those 5 or 6 days I'm gone, but when I return my beautiful well -groomed landscape looks shabby and abandoned. It's so disheartening that I struggle through the remainder of the season just doing what has to be done.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I want to share with you my recipe for a non-toxic weed killer. you can use this in your flower beds if you are very careful to ONLY apply it to the obnoxious weed you are trying to rid yourself of. I'm not that careful so I just pull the weeds in my flower beds, but I do use this in areas I don't want anything to grow.

What you need:
Gallon of Apple Cider Vinegar
26 oz. box of Salt
2 Gallon Garden Sprayer

Directions:
Mix both ingredients until salt is dissolved. Pour mixture into garden sprayer. Completely saturate either the ground or the plant itself.
Repeat this process daily until weeds are eradicated.

Just some Info:
Applying on hot sunny days allows the plants to soak the solution up more quickly.

Spraying the plant directly, destroys its protective coating. The plant then dries out all the way to the root. Unfortunately, the root itself is very hardy unless treated several times it will usually survive. Thus in time the weed will re-emerge, and will need to be retreated.

Saturating the ground around the plant lowers the soils ph to a point that it can no longer survive.

Household vinegar, such as apple cider vinegar, contains about 5% acetic acid. The USDA says that for better weed control a stronger acidic content is recommended. You can purchase horticultural vinegar, which contains 20% acetic acid, online. I prefer to stick with the household vinegar because I know it's safe and effective for my needs.

Salt and vinegar can be corrosive or damaging to other surfaces as well. Please use care when applying near concrete or concrete products as the salt will damage these surfaces.

Disclaimer:
The information contained in this blog post is made up entirely of my own experiences and opinions. I can assure you that I am not a scientist, a botanist or any other formally educated person who has studied the effects of vinegar and/or salt on plants or any other living or nonliving thing. This information has been shared based solely on my own personal use of salt and vinegar while defending my home against unwanted plants. I cannot promise or guarantee that even if the information within this article is followed precisely as stated that it will have the same effect on your weeds. I can only confirm that this solution has performed well for me. It may not kill or control your weeds. It may not even wilt them.

Grammie Saves the Day!!!

Although today is Ty's 5th birthday, it is his first "school" birthday. We both have been so excited about it all year long. Every time one of his classmates had a birthday and brought in some sugary delicious treat for their classmates, he and I would brainstorm ideas of what we would do on his birthday. Of course, being a cupcake man, he always circled back to that idea.

Yet, somehow between supervising the construction of a valentine box and valentines for his classmates, ordering flowers for his teacher, etc. and making sure I have all of my half of Saturdays b-day party stuff taken care of, the school cupcake idea kinda got lost in the shuffle.

It resurfaced again last night around 10:00.  Quietly getting up to search the cabinets, I knew it was pointless. I don't cook real food let alone cupcakes. But when I opened the first cabinet and saw the icing, I thought I was in luck. Digging deeper, I found cupcake liners, sprinkles, and that gel icing you can write stuff with. Unfortunately my quest never unveiled any cake mix.  Time for Plan B.

I call my Mom. Being the super Grammie that she is, she immediately volunteered to get up early this morning and go to the store to get cake mix and make him some cupcakes. As great as that idea was, I felt that was a little much. After all it is She who would have to arrange to get them to school and play homeroom mom, while I was at work.

For anyone who does not nor has ever resided in a small town, this may not seem like such an major issue. So get those images of neatly packaged cupcakes sitting in your grocer's bakery out of your head. In order to have luxuries like that, the grocery store has to be big enough to have a bakery. Ours, obviously, does not.

So exactly how did she save the day?

None other than those neat little individual cups of ice cream. The ones that are so perfect for parties. She called Ty's teacher this morning to see when the best time would be to bring them. According to her, they were a smashing hit for all involved. Maybe he never realized he was missing the cupcakes. And if he did ... well.... his Mama Lilly (aka stepmom) has that base covered for him this evening. It all works out.

Thanks Mom! I owe ya one! (again)

Happy 5th Birthday Ty! You're the Best!