“Doh”n’t Forget

A few weeks ago, it was my son’s half-birthday. 

Normally, we don’t make a big deal about half-birthdays, but my kids’ school has an incentive program they do for when the kids are good, or show school spirit, or help others, or when it is their birthday—or half-birthday if their actual birthday is in the summertime.

They are called spirit sticks, and the kids will do ANYTHING for them. 

Anything. 

So much so, that they have been compared to crack cocaine.

No lie.

So much so, that I have considered ordering my own spirit sticks to keep my kids in line at home.

To be fair, not only do the kids like them, but I like them.  Instead of candy or a crappy little toy to reward kids at school, they get these cute little straps of fabric that they thread onto a key ring that is hooked to their backpacks.

But I digress.

My kindergartener has a summer birthday, so he had  been counting down to his half-birthday for weeks, so that he could get his birthday spirit stick.  The big day finally arrived and after school, he ran to the car to show me.  After admiring it, he says, “you know mom, it would have been nice of us to bring a treat to share with my class to celebrate my half-birthday.”

What?!

Apparently, I missed the memo on that one.

The next day after school, his teacher comes to the car with him.  “I know this is short notice, she says, but would you mind helping your son fill out this ‘about me’ poster for tomorrow.  We would love to spotlight him for his half-birthday.  Oh, and he can bring a treat to share with the class if he would like.”  Turns out, she had a whole bunch of birthdays and half-birthdays to celebrate that month, and she was a little behind with the celebrations.

Phew.

So that afternoon I asked him what he wanted to take.  After discussing several options, I learned that half of the kids in his class have some kind of allergy to pretty much everything, so we went with this instead:

This large package of these little Play Dohs had been sitting around my house  because what mother in her right mind actually lets her kids play with play doh, right?! unused for the past few years and they were {miraculously} not dried out.

So we made a little labels for each of them and sent them to school with his completed info poster.

Easy, fun, and allergy-free.

Happy Half-Birthday!

The Best Birthday Present Ever!

Last week was my birthday.  I had a great week with fun surprises and lots of great gifts and birthday wishes.  My husband, though, went above and beyond and built me something that I’ve wanted ever since we moved here—shoe storage!

I don’t know if I have shown you master closet photos of this house yet, but it is a good-sized closet, and it just so happened that there was a blank wall that was begging for some kind of shelving.

I don’t have a before picture of the wall that was there, but here is a before picture of how my shoes were stored:Nice, right?  I’m kind of a slob.

So for my birthday, I begged suggested that my husband we build a shoe shelf. 

We started with some inexpensive wood from Home Depot, and had them cut it for us.

Then we painted, and painted, and painted.  {I don’t know what they use to put those numbers on the wood, but it just kept seeping through the paint.  rrrrrr.}

It turned out so nice!  I love that my shoes aren’t in a lump on the floor anymore and that I don’t have to dig through that lump every time I put shoes on.

My husband did such a great job, that we will definitely be putting his amazing carpentry skills to use in the future. 

Thanks to my husband for the awesome birthday gift!  Every time I see it, I am reminded how great he is, and how he worked so hard to fulfill my birthday wish.

February Visiting Teaching Message

February’s message reminds us that we should strive to be, and help others to be

Converted Unto the Lord.

Elder Russell M. Ballard said, “Capture the vision that the Relief Society can become one of the most powerful friendshipping resources we have in the Church.  Reach out early to those being taught and reactivated, and love them into the Church…”

The handout is simple this month. To make it, you need to print the message, trim it into a square, then fold it into an origami heart, and fill the pocket with treats.

 

So simple and fun.

I used these instructions for the origami pocket heart, but there are lots of other ways to do it.  Here is one more way to do it.

For even more origami hearts, and other Valentine’s Day ideas, feel free to visit my collection on Pinterest. 

Happy Visiting Teaching!

Bee Mine

I found a great Valentine printable and made a few things to make my home a little more “valentiney”.

First, I thought it would be fun to print it,
and modge podge it to a canvas,
  then frame it.  So I did, {after reprinting it on darker cardstock}
but while I was modge podging, I had an idea for another project, so I did both.

  Neither one took very long, and have made me feel a little more festive.
Thanks to Aly Brooks  for the great printable!
A few other bloggers created something from this printable too.  To see what they came up with, see below.

Time for a New Clock

Shortly after moving into our previous home, I found a great deal on a wall clock.  It was $6, at the grocery store, and served us well for many years.  Every now and then, we would switch out the battery when it stopped keeping accurate time, and it would continue to run like a champion.  A few times, it got knocked off the wall and after about 5 years, it was being held together with masking tape.  When we moved, it took another hit and the time-keeping mechanism pooped out.  So I went to Hobby Lobby in search of a new part, but the new part cost more than the clock did in the first place, so I decided to put my old wall clock to rest.  You can sort of see it in the top left of this picture:

Since then, I have been keeping an eye out for a decent deal on a new clock.  The other day while I was at Hobby Lobby {hmmm…I’m seeing a trend}, I was making my way to the paint isle when I glanced down.  I was inadvertently in the clock isle and there was a really great clock with the most beautiful chippy rusty turquoise finish I had ever seen.  In fact, a few months earlier at the Parade of Homes, I had admired one just like it. 

But the tag said $199.00{!} and it was broken.  I started to walk away and then thought maybe I would just check to see if they would give me a deal on it.  I took it up front and the girl told me that usually the highest amount they could give off of an item was 60%, but she would check with a manager to see what they could do.

I went and got my paint and then went back to the front register where the girl told me that the manager said that in this case, they could do 80% off.  For a minute I thought she had said 18% off, because no way were they going to do 80%. 

But they did!

Naturally, I could not leave the 80% off clock at the store, so I bought it.

As I was checking out, the girl looked at me skeptically and said, “So, how are you going to fix this?”

I said that I wasn’t going to fix it, that I would probably just remove the broken piece, and then left the store—kind of quickly so they wouldn’t change their minds.

When I got it home, I thought that the best way to remove the broken piece would be to unscrew it, but it was filled with plaster, so because I am lazy and didn’t want to chip it out I started to look for another way to remove it, and lo and behold, there was a nut underneath it in the back that I easily unscrewed in about 7 seconds.

After the broken piece was off, I decided that I liked it even better than if it would have had been unbroken.

  Hooray for Hobby Lobby!

This post was not sponsored by Hobby Lobby, I just love a great deal!

January Visiting Teaching Message

This month’s message is on sharing your testimony and on missionary work.

I especially liked President Uchtdorf’s quote about testimony--

“The Lord…entrusts a testimony of the truth to those who will share it with others.”

Sometimes, I get nervous when it comes time to share my testimony, but I want my testimony to grow, and I certainly want to be someone that the Lord can trust…so I will be trying to bear my testimony more often, and put my fears aside.

For this month’s handout, you will need 2 sheets of paper.  You will also need 2 candy bars. 

  

Print the message, and the tag for the candy bars.

Cut the labels, and tape them around the two candy bars.

I used some twine to tie the candy bars and the message together.

Happy Visiting Teaching!

mmmonday {Spicy Salsa}

When I was younger, my family would come home from church on Sundays and pull out the Pace Picante Sauce.  We would add cheese to the salsa and warm it up in our new {giant} microwave. 

After I was married, we would buy Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa.  It was delicious.  We would eat it cold, and it had a great flavor.

When we lived in Saratoga, we found a great fresh salsa made by Rico in Salt Lake City.  We usually got the mellow roasted, but when we were feeling extra crazy, we would get the Poco Loco. 

With the Rico salsa, we were forever changed.  We realized that we loved fresh salsa—sure it was a little more expensive, but we couldn’t go back.

Now, if you’ve followed along for a while, you know that I love a good deal {cheap or free}.  It pains me to pay too much for something, and salsa is no different.  A few times, I tried to replicate the Rico salsa with very bad results.  It seemed as though we were destined to have to run to the store for our salsa fix for the rest of time.

And then.

I found this recipe.

I tweaked it a little and {heavenly choirs singing}

It is so good.

So good that I may have eaten the sample I put in the dish to photograph for this blog post, when I realized that my camera battery was dead and I had to charge it for a minute…even though it is 7:30 in the morning. 

And it is waaaaaay less expensive.

So here you go—here is the recipe.  Free yourselves from grocery store salsa!