Day-After-the-Weekend Round-Up

*is slow*
Very cute little felt band-aids that would make Daniel and his doctor kit happy. Thanks, Pink and Green Mama!
Art Projects for Kids has some great ideas for Valentine's Day. Be sure to check it out!
Low-point value Buffalo Chicken Dip from LaaLoosh-- only 2 Weight Watcher points!
Everybody loves a good sale. Pop on over to Pinching Your Pennies to learn what goes on sale when.
Nutrition for Health-- my friend Stephany wrote a great post over at her Naturally Simple blog. She has some great advice for staying healthy during the winter.
The Parenting Passageway has a great post for February-- Love for Your Partner.
I adore all the wonderful main lesson book ideas, projects, and chalkboard drawings over at Our Little Nature Nest. They're so inspiring!
Naptime Journal always has such beautiful creative ideas, and these framed fabric handprints were no exception.
Everybody knows about Chasing Cheerios, right? You definitely need to pop over and see these fabulous Valentine's Day surprise balls!
Sushi Sandwiches! Nom, nom, nom from Weelicious.

Have a happy, creative week!

Weekend Round-Up!

Valentine's Day is coming up fast! Check out these fun ideas.

~ A little felt sugar cookie set for your little sweetie from Pink and Green Mama
~ Valentines from cream soda bottles! Creative recycling from Nap Time Journal. She has some great decorating ideas as well.
~ Gina over at Weight Watchers Recipes has yummy 1 point chocolate covered strawberries
~ Hop on over to the Felt Cafe for felted Valentine's Day conversation hearts
~ And finally, The Magic Onions has the loveliest little beeswax hearts for you to make.

Have a week full of loveliness!

Weekend Round-Up!

This week brought some frugal ideas and lots of fun stuff to try with the kiddos!

I love GardenMama's tutorial for making watercolor lanterns. As we move closer to Candlemas, I can definitely see us making these.

Nicholas fingerknit his first bookmark this week. I'm sure we all can find ideas for marking our place in our favorite stories with these 32 bookmark links from Tipnut.

Get Rich Slowly has a great post on planning a (debt-free) vacation. Since one of our goals is to take the family to Disneyland once we've paid down our consumer debt, I'll definitely be studying this on!

Via The Crafty Crow (and it's so nice to see Cassi back online again!), we have these wonderful counting bean bags from Chez Beeper Bebe. Great for those early math concepts and circle times!

These mac, cheese, and chicken bites from Weelicious look absolutely delectable, and I can't wait to try them out. I'd like to try this 3-point Greek-style casserole from LaaLoosh as well.

I love these beeswax acorns from The Magic Onions. Unfortunately, Nicholas liberated all of our acorn caps because he felt they rightfully belonged to the squirrels, but this is definitely a project to tuck away for next year.

We've made little Zen garden's before, but this post from Ordinary Life Magic reminded me to get ours out again.

Looking for a frugal blog that posts deals and steals near you? Then you have to check out Bargain Briana's Frugal Map-- genius!

Wishing you a wonderfully creative week!

Weekend Round-Up! A day late and a dollar short

OK, I'm not actually a dollar short. Thanks to Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University, we're actually about one month away from paying off all our credit cards except one (curse you, Lowes! *shakes fist*) But that's neither here nor there. Here are some blog posts that caught my eye last week...

Speaking of $$$, Crystal over at The Thrifty Mama had a great article on stocking up at rock bottom prices to save. If you're new to stockpiling (or even if you're an old pro!) you should definitely check this out. Get Rich Slowly has a post on the best time to buy practically anything.

I found great inspiration for car organization over at The Mommy Organizer.

Our Little Nature Nest had a lovely blog post on putting together a math basket. I definitely want to put one of these together for Nicholas!

And finally, some stuff to try...
Homemade bubble bath at Skip to My Lou
Felt strawberries from Mr. Monkey Suit
Valentine's Day Fortune Cookies from Treasures for Tots
And I've mentioned the uppercase rag letters from Happy Together before, but now she has lowercase letters as well!

See you around the Blogosphere!

Weekend Round-Up!

It's that time of the week again!

First off, I've added some lovely new blogs to my Reader. Gingerbread Snowflakes has some lovely handmade holiday ideas. I especially liked these star photo ornaments, and I think we're going to make some.

I also added Adventures in Living and Learning. It's always nice to read another Waldorf-inspired homeschooling blog for encouragement and ideas!

Finally, I added Light and Momentary, an always inspiring and often hilarious mama blog .

Onwards and upwards.

Besides the aforementioned wheat star photo ornament, I also found these lovely felt trees at Wee Folk Art. Wouldn't they be perfect on a winter forest nature table? She also posted this sweet little tea wallet of a birdie on a branch-- what a lovely little Christmas gift this would be!

I bought an acorn squash specifically so I could try this roast acorn squash recipe from Weelicious.

I've found inspiration of another kind online this week as well. So many good ideas, so many kind and thoughtful words and comments. I've truly been blessed by my internet friends and community. May you have a blessed week as well!

Weekend Round-Up: Martinmas edition!

I love Martinmas. It's such a gentle, loving celebration, shining a light in the darkness as the days grow colder and longer.

We've opted for a week-long celebration of the feast of St. Martin of Tours. Who was St. Martin? He was a Catholic bishop who died around 397. The Baldwin Project-- how I love this website!-- has several stories of St. Martin on their website:
The Story of the Patron Saint of France
St. Martin from In God's Garden

St. Martin's Cloak is one of the most-told stories of Martinmas. In honor of St. Martin, we'll be going through all the coats, hats, scarves, and mittens up the attic. We'll get the kids' winter coats and things down, and give away what we don't need.

We like to couple the St. Martin story with a reading of Matthew 25:31-40. Lantern walks are a traditional part of Martinmas, and there are many sites that show how to make lanterns. Here are a few of my favorites:
Balloon lanterns, with jar and can lanterns shown as well
Uncommon Grace has beautiful oiled watercolor lanterns
Watercolor lanterns with cutouts from Our Little Nature Nest
More beautiful balloon lanterns from Klease
Jar Lanterns
More jar lanterns
Still more jar lanterns
Folded paper star lanterns
Paper bag lanterns

And hopefully at some point this week, we'll have a little lantern walk.

We may have to make some of these little St. Martins as well.

And Teaching Handwork has some beautiful examples of Martinmas art.

And of course, don't forget the free St. Martin's Day study at Alphabet Garten.

Of course, Martinmas has food traditions as well. Here are some of my favorites:
Goose with apple stuffing
Hobby horse cake
St. Martin's horseshoe cookies
Martinmas steaks from Scotland
St. Martin 's Day croissants
And, for the grown-ups, Bishop's Wine

Martinmas is celebrated in many countries, and you can read about some of them here:
School of the Seasons (scroll down to November 11)
Wilson's Almanac
Martinstag
Martinmas in Ireland

I'll hopefully be posting our Martinmas circle tomorrow, but here are some other sites with great ideas for stories, songs, poems, and more:
Our Little Nature Nest: Martinmas links
Fun Facts About St. Martin's Day
Song: Martinmas Time
Wonderful German Martinmas songs
And more Martinslieder

Weekend Round-Up

Hey ho for Halloween!

I've found some great seasonal ideas around the Blogosphere this week.

For Nicholas's birthday, I'm definitely adding cookie cutter tracing from My Montessori Journey.

This pumpkin banana bread looks easy enough for Michael to make with minimal supervision.

And for Katie Grace's work, this bean dip math game from Our Little Nature Nest will be a great way to review math facts. For fun, she might enjoy making this tiny fairy doll from Treasures for Tots.

We'll all probably find something from this list of crafts with acorns and conkers compiled by The Crafty Crow.

We've switched from allowances to commissions a la Dave Ramsey, so these printable chore charts from ModEco Kids should help.

Weekend Round-Up

Well, yee haw! We haven't done one of these in a while...

We're trying to get back into some sort of rhythm here, and I've found some great blog entries to help us do just that.

We're back at co-op, and this year it's been extended to a full day session. Over at I Have to Say, I found a great tutorial for making reusable snack bags. These would be great for our lunches!

Speaking of lunch, I can't wait to try Weelicious's Cheesy Pizza Dough Twists. Their mashed potato cake recipe looks pretty yummy too. For breakfast, we might try Econobuster's Baked Apple Pie Oatmeal.

As far as homeschooling goes, we've been enjoying reading Where the Wild Things Are lately. Nicholas and I even went on a date to see the movie! The Crafty Crow has a great round-up of story-related crafts, and I'm sure Nicholas will enjoy seeing some of these great Where the Wild Things Are activities show up in his workboxes this week. I'm betting he'll enjoy the felt jack o' lantern game from Chasing Cheerios as well.

The older children might enjoy this fall pastel landscape from Art Projects for Kids or maybe this watercolor fall tree-- I'm sure I can adapt this to use with a wet-on-wet watercolor painting.

Have a great week!

Weekend Round-Up

I got out my sewing machine yesterday to make a drawstring bag for Katie Grace, and remembered how much I like whipping up little projects for the kids. I found lots of inspiration online this week!

Whip Up! linked to some great projects this week, including this children's cross top that screams 1980! and this beautiful girly dress, unfortunately too small for my daughter. I'll just have to make her a shirt dress, I guess.

Wee Folk Art has a lovely free elastic gathered skirt pattern. And then maybe I can make this little purse from The Object Project to go with it.

Not sewing, but Amanda over at A Miracle to Me made these sweet little knit balls and shared her pattern source.

Other than the balls, nothing for the boys this week. Now I know what to look for for next weekend's round up!

Post-weekend roundup

So, between the recital, the birthday, and Mother's Day, I'm sure you can understand why the weekend roundup is happening on Monday night.

In honor of Mother's Day, here are some inspiring posts for moms I found this week:
Zen Habits posted The One Tool You Need to Lead a Balanced Life. Balance is always something moms are striving for!

I love the birthday crown tutorial posted by Nicole over at Frontier Dreams. It's one of those projects I've always meant to get to but never quite had time for. Maybe if I start one for Nicholas, it will be finished by September!

Parenting Passageway has a post on Creating a Family Mission Statement. This might be something to do at our family meeting besides vetoing requests to get a dog!

Every mom could use some extra money, so maybe an Extreme Garage Sale can help.

And here are some tips for using your Gmail to create the ultimate productivity center.

Have a great week!

Weekend Round-Up

Yeehaw! It's been a while since I've posted one of these.

We had our official last day of school on Friday. We still have some stuff to get done, but I'd like to find some fun stuff to do as well while we wrap things up. Here are some ideas I've found in the blogosphere.

My Montessori Journey has a Draw a Chick activity that my daughter would probably enjoy. My preschooler might be able to do it as well.

Whip up shared these beautiful spring dragonflies that would be a perfect handwork project.

And if we run out of ideas, here are 26 more projects to choose from from Tip Nut.

Weekend Round-Up!

Yee haw! Here are some things that caught my eye in the Blogosphere this past week.

First, some fun lessons for this beautiful spring week:
A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling has a lovely St. Patrick's Day/rainbow lesson outlined here.
Or you can hop on over to Our Little Nature Nest for a Rabbit and the Sky main lesson.
Art Projects for Kids had two fun ideas this week: A Starry Night group mural and a Landscape Collage.
I'm so intrigued by the Peace Box over at Montessori Mama.
And finally, No Time for Flash Cards has some great ideas to use with a homemade balance beam.

There was some yumminess floating around the internet as well:
Weelicious has chicken on a stick. Because you know, everything tastes better on a stick.
I'm really wanting to try this broiled herb butter chicken from Carrie's Cooking.
And of course, tomorrow we'll be making Weight Watchers Corned Beef and Cabbage from Laaloosh.

And finally, some things that just look fun to try:
An herb spiral from tipnut
and
Spring cleaning my sewing machine, compliments of Whip Up.

Have a wonderful week!

Weekend Round-Up!

Did I mention I got a laptop? *pauses to do the happy dance*

All my graphics, logos, clip art, etc, is still on my old desktop.

Ah well, we'll muddle through.

Here are just a few things I saw in the blogosphere this week that I'd like to check out and try for myself.

Mommy Making Money has some good news-- free breakfast at Denny's this Tuesday!

Tipnut has some great advice on how to freeze bread dough.

Safely Gathered In has some great advice for using your stockpile-- homemade pizza!

I'd really like to try this smashed chickpea salad from Smitten Kitten.

Weekend Round-Up!

Boy, the holidays come earlier and earlier each year! Even in the blogosphere, there's been tons of holiday posting already. Here are some of my favorite ideas from this week.

Homemade Holidays
Children's Clothing Tutorials collected by Starry Sky Ranch
Homemade Bread Recipes from Tipnut
Holiday Baking and Food Storage from Food Storage Made Easy
Gifts from the Hearth from Frugal Village
Gifts for the Eco-Conscious from Sew, Mama, Sew!
Simplifying Christmas and Building Traditions from Passionate Homemaking

And Saying Goodbye to Autumn
A Late Autumn Verse from Journey through Waldorf Homeschooling
It's Not Too Late to Decorate! from Keeping the Castle
Turkey Finger Puppets from Skip to My Lou
Window Blankets from Naturally Simple
Crockpot Peppermint Hot Chocolate from A Year of Crockpotting

Have a great week!

Weekend Round-Up!

Whoops! Missed the weekend again!

Here are some blog entries that caught my eye this week.

Sew, Mama, Sew! has some great entries for homemade holiday gifts. I especially liked the gifts for babies and toddlers, holidays at home, and gifts for music lovers.

Tomie dePaola made me smile as he answered some school kids' questions.

Zen Habits had 7 keys for turning bad habits into good ones as well as 7 fail-proof ways to rev up your fat burning and get lean. Apparently 7 is very Zen.

I discovered a great new-to-me blog, A Year of Crockpotting. Yum!

WeeFolkArt has the sweetest little gnomes in sleeping bags here.

Have a wonderful week!

Weekend Round-Up!

Wow. It's a weekend, and I'm posting the weekend round-up. Unheard of!

In honor of Pioneer Week, I'm sharing some pioneer posts that caught me eye.

What is pioneer week, you ask? You can read about it right here at Crunchy Chicken. And while you're there, be sure to check out her easy ricotta making lesson.

The pioneer's didn't have those fancy schmancy electric appliances, but they did have the sun. Check out this solar dehydrator over at Simply Thrifty.

If you're longing for something elegant but simple to add to your sweets, you can make your own vanilla sugar, courtesy of Happy Hearts at Home.

Part of pioneer living is eating simply and seasonally. Stephany over at Naturally Simple has some great recipes for using up those green tomatoes still clinging to the vine. I'd love to try this maple-glazed barbecue chicken recipe from Carrie's Cooking as well, maybe with some of smitten kitchen's Peanut Butter Crispy Bars for desert. And if that is all too fancy for pioneer week, there's always beans, beans, beans from Large Family Logistics.

Tipnut can help you not only clean your house on the cheap, but also without all the nasty chemicals-- just like our foremothers used to do!

Growing in Grace has some great ideas for decorating your home for the season.

And if you're sitting by the fire, feeling all domestic and itching for some handwork, Sew Mama Sew has sone beautiful suggestions here and here.

Happy Pioneer Week!

Weekend Round-Up!

How low can you go? Cutting back to a minimum from Get Rich Slowly.

Art Projects for Kids presents "How to Draw a Cat"

Pumpkin bowls and crocheted acorns from Resurrection Fern

Pioneer Week! This looks like a super fun homeschool project from Crunchy Chicken. I need to think about this. I can't decide if we're going to try it or not...

Young love gone wrong from Passive-Aggressive Notes


Frugal heating, parts one and two.

Autumn Splatter Tree from Let's Explore

Laundry: 10 ways to save on it! from Frugal Blog.

Landscape Photo Scenes from Let's Explore

! And a bonus: Make your home more energy efficient this fall from BeCentsAble

Happy Fall!

Weekend Round-Up!

Ugh. I'm sick, I think I have a fever, and I know I have a migraine.

*cue pity party*

So this will be brief. I just didn't want to skip it altogether like I did last week.

Blogginess:
Perfectionism is Bad for You from Daily Blog Tips

Kitchen-ness:
A More Organized Kitchen, A Healthier You from The Organized Life
Oaty Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Carrie's Cooking

Funniness:
Sorry, You Can't Have Any from Cake Wrecks

Mommy-ness
How Do I Spread Myself Around? from A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling

Loveliness:
A Swing for Petey and A Ribbon Ring from A Miracle to Me

Green Papal-ness (or is it Papal Green-ness?)
Pope Urges Simpler, More Frugal, Greener Lifestyles from Happy Hearts at Home

That's all I've got. Dang, I'm sick.

ETA: I'm so sick I didn't even post this last night. I fell asleep at the computer. So, here it is!

Weekend Round-Up!

Simplicity and grace. That's going to be my theme this week. This morning in Sunday School, we talked about some of the roots of anger. One that came up over and over again was the Almighty Schedule, and how upset we get when something forces us to deviate from it. And I was convicted of the many times my so-called simple life ends up being just another to-do list, and how often I get frustrated and angry with my children for interfering with my plans to create a perfect childhood for them.

Here are some ideas that might help.

1.Simple Homeschooling: Check out these awesome cookie maps over at Little Home, Big Love. The farm maps are great, but I'm thinking Michael might enjoy making a Pennsylvania map as a sweet way of hitting our PA history requirement. And Montessori Mama made this simple but lovely book, Helping Hands. The Crafty Crow linked to this wonderful lesson on Klimt's "Tree of Life".

2. Simplicity in the Kitchen: Mmmmm.... make your own granola bars! Carrie's Cooking shows you how. The spicy chicken n' bean skillet looks good too! Passionate Homemaking has some great tips for simplifying canning.

3. Simple and Frugal: I'm a sucker for free printables. Here are a whole bunch from Tipnut. The Crafty Crow has some vintage lacing cards you can print out for free as well.

4. Meal Planning Made Simple: But First We Have Coffee has a great list of what The Basic Pantry needs. And if your budget's tight (or you want to save some money so you can stock your pantry!) visit Money Saving Mom for tips to live on beans and rice for a week... without losing your mind. You can also pop on over to The "Cent"sible Sawyer and check out her meal planning video tutorial.

5. Frugal Gifts: If you're looking for some frugal gifts, how about this oven mitt pattern from Skip to My Lou? Or how about this simple but sweet Hedgehog and Baby Softie from Molly Chicken?

6. Simple Ways to Bling Your Blog: Split Decisionz was busy this week, making free blog buttons, found here and here. She's got a wealth of other information, freebies, and tutorials as well, so check her out!

7. Simplify Your Computer: Declutter your computer using tips from I'm An Organizing Junkie.

8. Simple Ways to Help Your Budget: Here are some easy tips to lower your heating bill this winter, brought to you by beingfrugal.net. And here are some tips from Frugal Families on creating a rich enviroment for kids, whatever your budget.

9. It's Simply Autumn: These beeswax-preserved leaves from Resurrection Fern are just lovely. Then you can jump over here and whittle some gnomes for your nature table as well. Happy Hearts at Home has some lovely free autumn homeschooling resources. Tree Hugging Family has some recycled autumn kids' crafts to enjoy.

10. A Simple Way to Make a Difference: Tree Hugging Family has some great info on Blog Action Day. All you have to do is register and commit to blogging about poverty on October 15.


And finally, I would encourage everyone to read this simply wonderful and thought-provoking article from Simply Home Remedies: Flu Shots... Yes or No?

Weekend(ish) Round-Up!

I'm so very behind.

One doctor appointment + one photo session + two wedding rehearsals + two weddings + three soccer games + one beginning of children's choir + one confirmation/dinner/youth group combo + one flat tire = CRAZINESS!!!!! (and not much done on the weekend)

But here we are, a day late and several dollars short, soldiering on.

1. Baby Goodness. I've cloth diapered four babies now. And while it's fun to buy the supercute dipes, it doesn't have to be all about consumerism and expense. Check out Tree Hugging Family's entry on DIY Cloth Diapers. Cloth diapers truly are better for baby and the environment, and once you get used to them, they really aren't much more trouble than disposables. Simply Home Remedies also has a tutorial on making fitted dipes.

2. Good Things to Eat. Hmmmm.... what should I make first? Enchilitos or Almost-Nutri-Grain Bars from Carrie's Cooking, Get Rich Slowly's homemade salsa, or the soaked oatmeal breakfast suggested on Passionate Homemaking? Or maybe some homemade chocolate syrup from Simply Home Remedies would cure what ails me.

3. Good Things for Little People. Speaking of cloth diapers, how about making some for your little one's dollies? Skip to My Lou has a tutorial here. Chasing Cheerios had some awesome ideas, as usual: a family memory game and some great shapes to make. And check out the beautiful toys and the autumn felt board Amanda over at A Miracle to Me made for the blessed little ones in her life!

4. Good Things for the Nature Table. I really need to change my nature table. I am ashamed to say there are still mermaids cavorting about seashells. I found inspiration in a new-to-me blog, Resurrection Fern. Check it out! You can knit a forest, wet felt a Cinderella pumpkin, or felt a little tree stump.

5. Good Things for Your Home. The blogosphere was awash with laundry talk this week. Keeping the Castle has a video, "How to Do Laundry." Working Title is figuring out how to be thrifty and save the planet in her laundry room.

6. Good Things for Your Fabric Stash. Is it odd that I rarely sew but still have a fabric stash? Frugal Village wants to help me with my "Sew Much Fabric, Sew Little Time" problem! And if that's not enough, Bohemian Revolution has a list of tutorials from Sew, Mama, Sew.

7. Good Things to Ponder. Starry Sky Ranch shared a great article on "The Montessori Home" (and, as she points out, in easily could apply to the Waldorf home or any other family aspiring to live simply. Zen Habits shares 10 Steps for Overcoming Micro-Addictions-- those annoying little habits that stop you from living the life you want.

8. A Joyful Heart Is Good Medicine. If laughter is good medicine, Cake Wrecks should keep you healthy all winter long. She's been on a roll lately.

9. Good Things for the World. Mom in Madison reminds us that September 21 is the International Day of Peace. This would also be a good time to read Ghandi's 5 teachings to bring about world peace on Zen Habits.

10. Good Things in Your Mailbox. Finally, how cool is this? The Hearts and Trees fall kit: 7 notebooking pages, an art print with corresponding project, and 3 more projects with materials, all for just $11.95 plus shipping. I ordered one and can't wait until it arrives!