• What a mess!

    Hello and welcome! I hope you enjoy what you read here. If you want to stay up to date sign up for my RSS feed or get my new posts sent to your email or find me on Facebook or Pinterest! Riley has always been mister independent when it comes to eating. He wouldn’t even…

  • Come What May

    One thing I have learned about life through the last 7 or so years is that God’s plan is always better than my own. I’ve experienced this so many times, particularly from big life decisions, like house purchases and things like that – every time I come up with what the “plan” is going to…

  • 4th of July Craft

    Earlier I was talking about doing some finger painting flag craft, well here it is! I kind of made it up as I went, and Landon had fun making it. Materials:  White and blue construction paper  Red and white paint Masking tape (painters tape)  Q-tip  Scissors First I took a large sheet of construction paper…

  • Everyday Life – Naps

    Landon’s napping. The dog is napping. Riley just woke up from a nap. I’m NOT napping. Not that I don’t want to be. We’re in the schedule of nap times now that makes it hard to get anything done, unless I stretch nap times for Riley, which results in a cranky kid. In order for them to nap the…

  • How I keep my house clean – Schedules and check lists

    I love check lists. Check lists for everything keeps me sane. If I tried to just remember everything that needed to be done, even if it is only a few things, I just would totally blank. I have tried a ton of systems for house cleaning. There’s a lot out there. But really what I’ve…

  • Backyard Makeover

    When we bought our new house the back yard, smack dab in the middle of the grass, looked like this: Now I love roses and all, but an overgrown rose bush in the middle of the yard is not very 2 year old friendly. And the two random mini pine trees – yeah those have…

  • Growth Chart

    Right before we moved, Brad’s Aunt Susie (who is a super crafty Aunt) made these wall hanging growth charts for both the boys. They are all quilted, the little boy in the middle is made from material! They have their names at the top (and a pocket to store markers for ages 8 – 14)…

  • Sleeping on the floor

    I swear that somehow Landon and Riley have meetings some nights where they create a schedule for waking up, where they alternate and tag team to maximize their chunks of sleep, while minimizing mine. And I’m sure that they have some type of monitoring system installed to know the second I’m in that stage of…

  • Happy Summer!

    In honor of the first day of summer, Landon and I made a sun. I drew lines on the construction paper for the triangles, and yes, this 2 year old (ok, 2 year 10 month old) cut all the triangles by him self. He’s had lots of exposure to using scissors. Not only through his…

  • Math Mats

    Math Mats

    Math mats are a wonderful way to scaffold and expose children to number sense concepts, like one-to-one correspondence, counting, and number recognition. The idea originated with an old program – Math Their Way (I think). I used math mats as a kindergarten student teacher with Mrs. Kliefoth in Thermalito back in “the day”, and was…