Simple Winter Activities, Part 1

We've had so much fun lately with some winter themed crafts and activities! These are all so simple; you probably have all the supplies already in your home.

First, crystal snowflake:

You could make these for pretty much any occasion. Just mix Borax and boiling water in a widemouth mason jar and suspend your pipe cleaner shape with a string. 

Check back the next morning and (like magic!) you have crystals. I just made a simple snowflake shape, but you could do anything - I think a snowman would be really cute!

Speaking of snowmen, look at this cute couple:

Our supplies here were two toilet paper tubes, construction paper, marker, and glue. We wrapped the toilet paper tubes in white paper, added strips for their hats and scarves and a little triangle nose, then used a marker to dot eyes, mouth, and buttons.

As a final touch, we rubbed some glue on the snowman's hat and cheeks and sprinkled with salt for a nice textured look.

This penguin was the most labor intensive:

For detailed instructions check out Kaboose. There is also a template for the penguin.

I keep construction paper cut into little pieces in bags for mosaics. We don't do them a ton, but it saves a step to have the paper pre-cut.

I threw together this snow shoveling activity so I had a few minutes to prep the penguin craft and my kids loved it! We had a small amount of snow this weekend, so they really enjoyed pretending to shovel and dumping the "snow" over and over again.

I put the cotton balls in a pyrex lid to they had a little help getting them on their shovels. And we dumped the "snow" into all sorts of different containers!

I'm hoping to post a few more of our favorite winter activities soon!

The Ice Cube Method: Not just for baby food!

Remember the ice cube method for freezing homemade baby food? I've been doing a good bit of ice cube freezing since I started making baby food. I already try to portion and freeze a number of different foods (like spaghetti sauce and shredded cheese, or freezer meals like shepherd's pie or lasagna), but I've found that liquids work really well frozen in ice cube trays.

Some of my recent favorite freezes are juices (like the leftover pineapple juice from canned pineapple), and homemade stock. I've also used muffin tins to freeze stock. They are slightly more practical for me because I usually need at least a cup of stock at a time.

Sometimes the cubes need a little coaxing to pop out of the trays. I just use a paring knife and they come right out.

Recently, I decided to freeze some root beer that had gone flat. Incidentally, have you ever noticed that root beer is one of the best off brand sodas?

I'll use the root beer cubes the next time I make pulled pork. It won't matter that the soda is flat and we love the way pork tastes when it is cooked in root beer!

Do you have any creative ways to freeze food? Even though I'm not posting about food waste anymore I still believe that using up ALL the food you buy is one of the best (and simplest) ways to save money!

Charlotte's Web Birthday Cake

This weekend was our daughter's 3rd birthday! We had a great time celebrating, and I especially had fun making her special birthday cake. This year I asked her what she would like on her cake, and amid the dozen or so different ideas, she kept coming back to "animals". 

I looked at a bunch of different animal cake ideas online, and while a bear or a monkey or a fish were all cute (and I'm sure she would have loved it), I wanted to do something a little more specific and personal. I found a video with instructions for a barn cake with farm animals on Betty Crocker, and the idea was born...Charlotte's Web!

We read Charlotte's Web aloud this past year and she really enjoyed the book. I made a special Wilbur cupcake for her. (I made the cake from scratch using this chocolate cake recipe from the Frugal Girl. And I bought canned icing...priorities!)

I made a number of changes to the instructions to make it fit our needs, specifically I omitted all of the coconut! Instead of coconut hay and grass, I just used colored sugar sprinkled on the barn. I also added a spiderweb to the open door of the barn, along with a secret message from Charlotte...can you see it?

The barn was simple; I made 4 cuts in the cake to create a slanted barn roof. Then frosted the whole thing and dragged my offset spatula from top to bottom to create a slat effect for the barn. The red frosting was a little tough to get right. I used a red gel in white icing and followed the tip in the video of adding a little cocoa powder to get a better red color. It was a little more of a faded red than I had hoped, but it still worked well. I used graham crackers for the roof and the barn doors, and pretzels for the doorframes.

For the pigs, I used pink M&Ms in the snout, chocolate chips for eyes, and rolled out fruit leather cut into triangles for the ears.

The sheep were supposed to be covered with mini-marshmallows that were cut in half. My cutting in half didn't work great so I opted to squish them flat instead. I also squished marshmallows into rectangles for the sheep ears instead of gumdrops.

The chicks were rolled in yellow sugar...I love the sleek and clean way they look! I used an orange Starburst candy for the beaks - flattened some with a rolling pin and then cut into little beak shapes. Chocolate chips for the eyes again here.

Check out last year's cake also...cupcake train!

Organized Simplicity: Free download!

This is a great freebie! Amazon has Organized Simplicity available for free on Kindle right now. Prices can change at any time on Amazon, so make sure to download your free copy quickly. If you do not have a Kindle, you can still read Kindle books on your computer or smartphone.

Organized Simplicity is a great book that I really enjoyed. Read more of my thoughts about this book on my goals post.

Keeping things real

Last week I wrote about my goals for this year, including staying organized around the house. While organization is not something that happens over night, sometimes it seems like the messes and disorganization can happen in just a few hours!

Thanks to a busy day and evening yesterday, this morning I had my work cut out for me. Living room...

Kitchen table...

  Counter and sink...

Talk about a daunting task. I had some time this morning to devote to getting things under control, so while I'm not done yet, here's a look at the progress.

Table...

And living room...

I actually enjoy (or at least somewhat enjoy) cleaning up when I've got a good audio book to listen to at the same time. This morning's companion, The Hobbit!

Have you tried listening to audio books while doing household chores? Its a great way for me to use my time wisely to make my goals happen!

Get Organized!

One thing our family has been trying to do better at over the last few months is keeping things more organized around the house. I've read several things lately that encouraged me to make this a priority. I'm not calling organization a "new years resolution"; I want organization to be a habit that stays with me for the rest of my life. Building on the ways I improved last year, and looking ahead to where I want to be in another year...that's a practical application of Thrifty Living for me!

Are you looking for some encouragement to get organized too? Check out a few of my favorite resources:

The Money Saving Mom's Budget by Crystal Paine. She has a lot of good ideas about de-cluttering. Her "time budget" has changed the way I think about how I spend time on specific tasks. I can certainly carve out just 15 minutes a day to spend on organizing or de-cluttering. And that time adds up - over an hour a week and 65 hours in a year (that's a ton of time!). Check out my in depth review of the book here also.

Right now, I'm reading Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living by Tsh Oxenreider. This is a fantastic book about the joys of living simply and purposefully. I've waited 6 months or more to get this book from the library because of the number of holds...I totally should have just bought a copy of my own!

If you benefit from having a very detailed schedule, you may want to check out Home Storage Solutions' series, 52 weeks to a more organized home. This blog has 52 areas to de-clutter and organize with a lot of practical tips for each specific area. You can take the 52 weeks challenge and stay accountable with others who are looking to get their homes in order this year also.

Being organized is about way more than file folders and to-do lists, though they surely have their places. Living organized allows you to do the things that matter most, to accomplish your goals, and to be purposeful with your time

Last year I set a goal to read 48 books (4 books a month), and I read 53! This isn't something that just happened, I had to be intentional. I started using Goodreads to track the books I read, as well as any good books I wanted to check out in the future. I had to give up some things to make time to read. I watch very little TV, I read less articles on the internet, and I read instead of folding laundry and filing papers. (Well, sometimes I folded laundry and filed papers while listening to an audiobook, but not always!) I feel more organized this year because I made time for something I love (reading). I feel more organized even though everything is not perfect.

My 3 Big Goals:

Read 48 books. I think this is a manageable goal that will challenge me and be fun again this year. This also includes audio books.

Memorize 52 Scripture verses. My husband and I are working on these together using the Fighter Verses app. There are 5 sets of verses (its a 5-year plan) and we are starting with set one. If memorization is something you want to grow in, check out the Fighter Verses site, there are a lot of great resources (the app is $3, but comes with quizes and many other aids).

Work on our Adoption. We want to adopt a child through the Delaware Foster Care System. Our goal for the month of January is to finalize our adoption agency and begin the necessary paperwork. The timetable for an adoption is not set in stone, so it is likely that the adoption will not take place this year, but it would be a blessing if things moved quickly too!

My smaller organizational goals will help me to meet these big goals...cleaning closets, shredding old papers, going through clothes and toys to have a yard sale, and being proactive about going through the mail day as soon as it comes into the house.

Do you have any goals for this year? Tell me in the comments or link up with Money Saving Mom!

A Birthday Paper Chain

We had so much fun counting down the days until Christmas with our homemade Advent Calendar this year! Our daughter's 3rd birthday is next week, so I thought it would be fun to give her another visual and count down the days until her birthday. 

I cut several strips of construction paper, wrote the dates on each, and taped them together to make a birthday paper chain. She is super excited!

Every morning she gets to tear off a new link. I told her that when it gets to the last link it will be her birthday and she will get to open presents. Her response: "Good idea, Mommy!"

Do you have any creative ways to help kids wait for big events?