Links to Click

I'm saving Sarah's idea for a DIY credenza/buffet for when our dining room is no longer a schoolroom, or we no longer have little hands who like to rip books.  the day may never come, but i really like this project.  i also love her gallery wall behind it.

I may have to order some of these magnets for my brother, the photographer, for all the photoshop tutorials he's given me.  Thank you, Jon.

I love the ticking with gold triangles on this cosmetic purse.  So cute. I never would have paired the two, but I will have to think of a project to put the two together-and the tassel!

Appetite for Reduction may be the next cookbook I invest in.  Although it isn't gluten-free, it is vegan and low-fat.  Maybe it will help me get those stupid holiday pounds off without resorting to diet processed foods.  never again.

This tweet is a freebie-no click needed, but I had to pass it on:

@JohnPiper To manage a life of pain, as a believer in Jesus, remember: This is all the hell you will ever have to bear.  

Have a beautiful weekend.

Healthy Kids Meals

We've been eating, for the most part, gluten-, dairy- and sugar-free since the beginning of the year.  So, like 3 weeks.  But it feels really good to be eating so healthy-that I really think it's going to stick.  

The kids are doing great on it, too.  Except for missing their chocolate milk (which we added back last week buying Horizons Organic Chocolate Milk), they haven't seemed to notice.  And they love the healthy lunch chart. They now know they need to eat from each category, and because they are fixing their own lunch, it sometimes looks like a hodge-podge of a meal-like rice noodles, tomato, pear and raw almond butter.  But it's balanced and healthy and they made it themselves so they eat it all.  And I'm happy.

Most days, we've settled into a lunch routine...Belle loves Nori rolls with brown sticky rice, carrots, tomatoes and avacado.  We've had a sushi roller for years.  I'm so glad she's getting use out of it. 

Boo fixes rice cakes with peanut butter and raisins-and usually a tomato.

We're still looking for good, filling snacks though...and ones that are good to grab and go.  Any ideas?  

Is God Really Good?

At some point in any God-believing person's life, the question exists.  Sometimes it is barely whispered, or only a fleeting thought.  Other times, it is a gnawing overwhelming silence.  

I'm reading One Thousand Gifts and have found hope for the fear that surrounds the unanswered question.  Ann Voskamp has lived through the question after several tragedies and found the answer in the ordinary: gratitude.  She explains, "It is impossible to give thanks, and simultaneously feel fear."  

Yesterday, at fifty pages into her story, I challenged myself to write down 1000 things to give thanks for.   Dressing for church this morning, as a I slipped my hand into a coat I rarely wear, I found a note of a quote I must have wanted to keep. I collect them, you know.  Yet, this one, I forgot.  

"We walk by humble miracles everyday.  They give evidence that God is good."  

Ann's book is the first item on my beginning list.  The note is the second.  

These moments from our simple Saturday evening at home are also on my list.  
My littles masked in lemon and mint clay. 

I hope your weekend was sweet and full of humble miracles that went noticed.  Have you started reading Ann's book? 

Storage for the Schoolroom

We had a bin system for the first half of the year.  My oldest three kids each had a plastic bin that held their schoolbooks.  The three bins fit perfectly under a bench we had temporarily moved into that room.  This worked really well for a while.  

Then Baby started getting mobile.  

And her greatest pleasure each day was getting into those bins and ripping out whatever pages she could.

  

I thought about getting the Ikea Expedit bookshelves and those baskets that fit perfectly in the squares.  But Baby might figure out that those baskets can come out and she just may figure out how to get them out...so I thought a credenza or dresser of some sort would work better, and possibly cheaper.

  

Last week I found this dresser (Mainline by Hooker) on craigslist and my father in law picked it up for me on Monday.  My father in law is my craigslist-partner-in-crime.  Not only does he have a pick-up, he offers half of whatever the asking. And has no qualms doing so.  

He goes with me every craigslist purchase. 

every one. 

For $75, we got this dresser with a matching headboard 

(full-size if you're interested-it's going back on CL).  

On the right side, behind the sliding doors, are 4 drawers about the same size as our old bins-perfect.

DIY Quick Baby Shower Gift: Back Up Bag

    Over the weekend I gave a back-up-bag to a friend who's expecting a baby girl next month.  

I told her to put this in her car and forget about it.  Until the day when the diaper bag is out of diapers and she is out somewhere and really needs one. and a spare outfit.  you know those days.   

what I used: (I included a must-have pacifier clip, too)  

all ready to go:

It's not much, but that's the point. 

Do you keep a back up bag for anything?

This post is linked to TCB's Get Your Craft On.  

Rewards Cards Update

Made a little pouch for our reward cards after I laminated them last weekend.  So far this week, the kids have done my hair, written on the chalk board, taken a picture  and skipped around the house after working hard on an assignment.  ok.  i wouldn't say they were working hard.  but they might.  and the rewards are free, so i can give them freely.  

anyone else start using them? (i think they're still in Ana's shop) 

Links to Click

Or maybe it's only me.  I thought I came to the conclusion that I did not, in fact, have an addictive personality.  Although of late, I've taken to a few obsessions.  I think new years do that to me.

• I need new thoughts around my home.  These printables are perfect. 
• I have been on hypothyroidism medication since the '80's.  Recently I learned of a possible reason:  a gluten sensitivity (not gluten allergy).  I'm planning to eliminate gluten (and while I'm at it, dairy and sugar) for a trial period...I've read The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook (more than a cookbook) cover to cover.   
• I love this FREE chart to help kids make their own healthy, balanced lunch so much, I laminated it.
• One Thankful Mom has started a Rocking Mama Challenge -to rock your child for 15 minutes a day for 28 days.   I dare you to try it.  

Ok, tell me I'm not the only one with runaway enthusiasms--  what are you up to?  

DIY:: Winter Crafting with Kids

Confession:  we haven't opened a school book since the holidays.  well, maybe a math book or two, but we have yet to sit at the school table and get serious.

and honestly, I'm okay with that.  soccer hasn't started back up.  we took a few weeks off of piano lessons and our coop semester begins next month.  so I'm savoring the down time and doing fun things we never seem to have time for in a school day-like treasure hunts and borax snowflakes.

Today, I'm crafting over at A Bushel and A Peck.  If you've got some antsy kids and a few supplies from round the house, stop over!