Mrs. H

Homemade Gift Idea

So you’re looking for something quick and easy to throw together this week as a gift from the kids to mom… or for grandmom. Or maybe your next door neighbor went above and beyond and now you feel obligated to return the gifting…

This is super easy, and you may have the supplies in your house already! To give all the credit where credit is due, I’m linking HERE over to the original post where I got the recipe – you can get the recipe from her. 🙂

Processed with MOLDIV

If you like my jars, I found them at my local Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each.
One note I will make from the original poster – her recipe was not enough to fill one of my jars – we made a double recipe to begin with, and it filled a jar and a half. So go into this with an open mind about how much coconut oil you’re going to need. We got blessed/lucky/whatever and had the exact amount of coconut oil to make the four jars we needed for gifts, but when you’re shopping/prepping supplies, just make sure you have plenty of coconut oil.

Another tip for the coconut oil – if it’s too cold it’ll be hard to scoop from the jar, so you can zap it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to loosen it up a tad.

And to make it easier to put into the jars without making a mess, I used my medium size cookie scoop (from Pampered Chef), which fit easily inside the mouth of the jar so I could drop the scrub directly into the bottom of the jar without getting it everywhere.

Becca loved stirring, and doing the math to help me double the recipe. She helped me count the drops of essential oils to add in, and got more than a tad frustrated with me when we got an extra drop of lavender in at one point. 😉 She sat with me as I got on the computer and designed the labels, and she helped type the words “Mommy” and “Becca”.

All in all, this gets recorded in the books as a super easy, wonderful gift idea that we’ll be repeating in the future! I’m looking forward to trying some other oils as well, to make different scents.

Side note, as I’m always trying to raise awareness for hidden disabilities – Becca has anosmia (the lack of sense of smell), so I told her this smells really good – what did she think it would smell like? She decided that if it smelled good, it must smell like peanut butter. Because peanut butter is her favorite creamy thing, and this is creamy. The glow on her face as she told me what she imagined it smelled like transported me to a different world. She’ll never know what lavender and peppermint smell like. But in her mind, she has happy things she can equate to various things, and the beauty of her disability is that everything smells pleasant in her mind. She’ll never dread the smell of a skunk, or wrinkle her nose as she carries out the trash. Blissful ignorance. It’s hard for me as her mom to see the positives in this disability, but seeing her smile today as she said it smelled like peanut butter… made me smile, too. Because I know she’s happy with her imagination. Never take for granted the abilities you have – someone, somewhere in the world, can’t do what you can do.

Create Your Own… Recycled Christmas Tree

steam activities header

Looking for a super fun, EASY, throw-it-together-in-two-minutes project for your kids that involves STEAM? Check out this fun little engineering activity I did with Becca this morning! She had to miss “school” (Mother’s Day Out) today because we are all sick, but I promised her something fun. She agreed that this project delivered on that promise. And seriously, ya’ll… it was SUPER easy.

recycled christmas tree

All you’ll need are some cups (any kind of cups would work, but we happened to have green and yellow solo cups, so we had a green tree with a yellow star on top!), some straws, some fruit pouch lids (or any sort of recycled lids you can use), and some masking tape! Our lovely Christmas tree is now in our foyer on our entry table next to our nativity set – she said we should put it there so Baby Jesus could see it.

This project was great for her problem solving skills – we had to use a lot of tape to make sure the cups wouldn’t fall, and she was upset that our first design didn’t look much like a tree, so we re-built it and she was much more satisfied with it’s shape the second time. We spent about twenty minutes working on this together. It was the perfect easy time killer, and lots of giggles were included! She can’t wait for Daddy to get home from work so she can show him our “masterpiece!”

Looking for more Christmas activity ideas? Check out my post here for little “busy bag” activities you can put together to keep even your toddlers busy!

Looking for more STEAM and Engineering activity ideas? Check out my STEAM and Engineering pages!

Christmas Activities

I debated about how to do this post – if I should put everything separate so it doesn’t seem overwhelming, or just put it all together. I decided it’s easier to reference later if it’s all together… and honestly, if I wait on some things until later, you have less time to do them with your kids! So… get ready. I’m about to bombard you with a bunch of fun ideas – the first several will be great for even your little toddlers, and the rest will be geared toward your older kiddos.

Many of these activities I have stored in little plastic bags and all inside a storage box (in fact, the same box that once held our Apple Activities). But a couple of them are ready at the window any time one of the kids wants them. The great thing about the activities in the box is that while Becca is working on her activities, she can select something from the box for Gray to do, to appease his desire to do what she is doing. She can also interact with him on his activities, and I love watching the tender moments they share (which usually come right before a snatch-grab-cry-scream fest HA!) together when working on a project. If you have a toddler and an older child, you know how hard it is to find something they can both do either together, or to keep the little one occupied while the older one does something different. This box of activities seems to be my best effort yet in this department.. and is about 80% effective! So, here we go! Let me know if you try any of these with your kids! I’d love to see you share pictures on my Facebook page, as well!

sticky window

The Christmas Tree Sticky Window is super simple to make – just draw a Christmas tree onto a piece of clear contact paper, and then attach it to your window with tape – so that the sticky side is out. Then, cut various shapes out of felt or other fabric (so that they won’t adhere permanently) and let your kids decorate the tree over and over again! While Becca enjoyed this activity at first, this is definitely a Grayson favorite. He LOVES standing at the window and moving the shapes around. Of course, he also loves to carry the shapes all over the house and leave them random places…

shape identification

This felt Christmas tree was a busy bag I made a few years ago at a MOPS meeting – simply by cutting shapes from various colors of felt. It’s a great activity for the kids to do together – Becca loves to tell Gray the names of the shapes and their colors. She likes to make patterns of ornaments – he likes to throw them in the air and watch them rain down around him. Either way, they are happily occupied.

writing coloring

In an effort to provide activity for Gray AND Becca in the same box, I have a couple of Christmas coloring books and some blank paper that either of them can enjoy, but I also have magnetic Christmas words that Becca can spell, and then write in her bare book (I found a bunch of them in the Target dollar section at one point this summer!). She also has two rhyming word wheels that she can practice with and write the rhyming words in her book. Gray loves that he’s “writing” with crayons while Sis is writing too. He feels so big and important, and it shows! We just have to watch that he doesn’t run around with a crayon sticking out of his mouth… he has that tendency.

geo shapes

We have some really fun building materials – you could use anything you have laying around – Legos, Duplos (for your little hands), building blocks, marble runs, whatever you have. Challenge your little ones to build a Christmas tree out of the supplies provided!! Looking for more STEAM Engineering ideas? Click Here!

reading retelling

We have a play Peanuts nativity set (affiliate link – thank you!) available on our low window sill for Becca to retell the Christmas story anytime she’d like. Gray also enjoys playing with the characters, and he loves to sit and listen to her act out the story. I also provided in her Christmas activity box Jan Brett’s Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends (affiliate links – thank you!) books – along with a tiny stuffed ginger baby that she can read the books to, and then use to re-inact the stories.

Not an activity for Brother, Becca LOVES making Christmas trees of various designs using green popsicle sticks, red buttons, white pom poms, and one gold one for the star on top. She has come up with some of the coolest, and also weirdest designs. Some look like trees, and some, well… don’t. But she is having a blast, it’s a great sensory activity for her that really allows her imagination and creativity to go wild.

fine motor

Becca struggles with some simple things like getting dressed, and in order to strengthen her hands and fingers to work on those little things like putting on socks and shoes, I try to find lots of fine motor skill practice activities for her. I had some green colored pasta leftover from one of our habitat boxes, and also have some little Christmas jewelry pieces that I put in some little containers and let her string onto pipe cleaners to make bracelets and necklaces. She LOVES it, and it’s great practice. I even made an extension to this that stays in her room for holiday play – mini ball ornaments that she can string onto pipe cleaners. It’s fabulous for her, and I’ve seen just in the past couple of weeks her fine motor skills making some great improvements!

$star math$

I programmed several index cards with a variety of patterns and addition/subtraction/multiplication story problems, and had her use these little star cards to solve them. She even said “I wish all math was fun like this!” So we’ve started using the star cards for other kinds of math too. You could use anything you have around the house – scraps of paper, fabric, cut pipe cleaners, Legos, Duplos, crayons, etc. Hands down, using manipulatives makes math more fun! (And Mr. Gingerbaby even got involved in the math, too!)

$more math$

Becca has always struggled with seeing the importance behind having any numbers beyond 20. She can count to 100 now with ease, but just really doesn’t see the point. But she does love a good challenge, so I cut some 100s grids into lots of funny pieces, and she really enjoys putting them together. I also took her sensory box from last Christmas and stepped it up a notch. She loves playing with it with her balance. She has discovered that the shiny and matte ornaments do not weigh the same as each other. She has weighed the cookie cutters that are also in the box, and loves to scoop and pour the rice/split peas into and out of the balance. She gets so excited when she makes them equal, and loves trying new combinations to see how much she needs to equalize if one side has more ornaments, etc. I love seeing her creativity come out in this simple hands-on sensory activity, and I love to see her enjoying math. She’s measuring with her measuring cup each time, and getting better at recognizing the values, etc. Seeing her enjoy math is so good for me – I’m not a fan of math at all… so I try hard to make it really enjoyable for her so that she will love it.

What Christmas activities do you have going on in your house? We are also doing daily advent activities, reading lots of Christmas books, and watching lots of special Christmas shows. I’m hoping we can get out to look at Christmas lights sometime soon as well. It can be such a crazy time of the year, but when we remember to stop and focus on the Reason for the season, it is all worth while.

May God richly bless you and yours this Christmas! I look forward to hearing from you on Facebook, and I look forward to starting the new year with some new resolutions and some new post ideas!! Do you have something you’d like to see me post here on my blog? Send me an email! I’d love to hear from you!

Precious Memories

To say I’ve been busy is putting it lightly. Gone are the days of daily blog posts. I hope and pray that one day I can get back to them again, because I really do miss writing – and we certainly have a lot going on that I would love to share. But today I have to write. I have to do it while the feelings are still fresh – while the memories are still raw. Before time steals them from me and they are only sealed in photos that will forever tell the story on my behalf.

This past week we drove to see my family for Thanksgiving. It’s becoming an annual tradition because my grandparents are unable to travel. In fact, they are unable to leave their assisted living home without special care. Seeing them this week was bittersweet. Grandma was very lucid. Far moreso than what has become normal. I had some beautiful time with her, and I will forever hold dear the photos of my precious Grandma working a puzzle with my baby girl. Thanksgiving afternoon, as I sat alone with the two of them, she told me I’m a good mama. She told me my children are beautiful. And she and I shared what I’m sure will be one last hug and kiss.

Grandpa was in and out. Sometimes he knew who I was, and other times he didn’t. He gave me some gardening tips and reminisced with me about all the things he used to do with his granddaughter – though he didn’t realize that the adult woman sitting across from him was the same little girl in his mind and in the photos he was holding. We talked about long walks through the woods near their home, and favorite spots. We laughed about how his granddaughter used to enjoy shucking corn – until she’d find a worm. I would then throw down the ear of corn and go running to the house!

I told them that even though we live hundreds of miles and 12 hours apart now, someday we will once again have forever together in Heaven. I pray that they get their wish to go to Heaven together. And I pray that God in His mercy takes them Home soon. They are both very human. They haven’t lived perfect lives. But they have lived forgiven lives. And I know that one day we will be together again, though I highly doubt from their current conditions that it will be on this Earth.

I love them both dearly, and I’m so glad that Becca is old enough to (even if only vaguely) remember them. I’m also so very glad that we were able to bring a few minutes of happiness into their very dreary, forgetful world. Our week was far more than just spending time with them, but these are precious memories that will never be repeated, and I will cherish them always. gma gpa collage

Deep Breaths… of Hope

Hey ya’ll. So you know those ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ months when you have great intentions but everything is just so insanely busy that you don’t know which end is your head or your tail? Yeah. The old analogy of running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off… Here we are sitting in November, and I’ve been holding out on you. Because I have a secret… it’s this amazing book that I read that I want you to know about! But it’s more than that. It’s a deep breath of hope. Because if you’re like me, you have so much on your plate, and so many good intentions, but homeschooling gets shoved into a corner… and so do you. You might feel distraught or like you’ve let down your kids. If you have a gifted child and you’ve ~~chosen~~ been forced to homeschool because there just isn’t another option right now for your child, I definitely know how daunting it can be to approach every new day with confidence. Heck, it can be daunting to approach every new day. PERIOD. What is confidence???

So I’ve got a book that I want you to sit down and read over the holidays. It’s going to give you a jump start for a fabulous new 2016 with renewed HOPE for your homeschool experience!! It’s a book written by my friend, Alicia Michelle, whom I found through a mutual friend. You might remember me mentioning taking her Bloom class this summer before the school year started. This book, her “Back to School Survival Manual,” was a PHENOMENAL encouragement to me, and really set us off on the right foot. It also gave me the HOPE to know that seriously, ya’ll, there are gonna be months like October. Where no blog posts get written. Where good intentions fall by the wayside. Where homeschool becomes unschool becomes no school at all… where mommy’s health and kids’ health becomes an issue that sends everyone to the couch for one more episode of Zaboomafu and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. But by reading this book, I’ve been encouraged… and I have found HOPE!

Perhaps my favorite line of the whole book is in the last chapter, but seriously, ya’ll, it sums up the last month of my life. When I got to page 70, I was in the middle of feeling pretty useless as a homeschooler. I was feeling down. I was feeling like a failure. And then I read this.

“Bottom line: We will fail, in some way, shape, or other. We will mess up. Our kids will mess up. And our homeschool year won’t turn out like we expected.”

She goes on to give me hope that I CAN restart. I CAN apply pillars of time to organize a daily rhythm (like in Part 3). I CAN go back any time I want to Chapter 1 and revisit why I’m doing this. Homeschooling is NOT something we plan to do forever. But in the season we are in, it’s where we are. So, I need to carefully evaluate how I’m letting others’ opinions of homeschooling affect my own attitude toward what is a necessity at this point. I love her title on Chapter 1: “Mama This Is Your School (And Noone Else’s)!” I have to remind myself of that regularly.

I love that she provides printable charts and questions to answer to keep me focused and on the right path. I can print them out and write on them over and over again, or I can answer them in my head – whatever works better at the time. I also like that with a digital copy I can pull it up on my phone or my computer – meaning I have it with me anywhere I go to encourage me when I need a little pick me up. Since she sent me the book back on September 1, I’ve flipped through it various times when I’m feeling like I just can’t do this anymore, and the encouragement and deep breaths of HOPE I get every time I read it are so wonderful. (Yes, ya’ll, I’ve been keeping this secret HOPE from you since September… I’m so sorry! But better late than never, right??)

Truly, if you are a homeschooler who is new, or a homeschooler who has been around the ~~blog~~ block a bazillion years, this book it going to give you a deep breath of fresh air and HOPE to start your 2016. If you buy yourself anything for Christmas this year, make it be this book.

Here’s a quick glance at what she has included:

And now… wondering where you can get your own copy? I’d sure appreciate you using my affiliate links here: Back to School Survival Manual

Also looking for help with planning and flexibility? You might be more interested in her Back to School Bundle, where you’ll get the Back to School Survival Manual AND her book, Plan to Be Flexible!