This past winter has been a long one full of lots of illness and stress. But with new spring comes new hope, and a new season of goals!
Happy Mom Goal
This week, find a friend or sister with kids around the same age as yours. Have all their kids over to your house for a playdate one afternoon, and then send your kids to them for another afternoon. You both get a whole afternoon of kid-free relax time! It's beautiful!
Happy Kid Goal
This one works in conjunction with Dinner Tonight. This super fun, super easy dinner is an excellent way to lighten up the mood in your home if the family has been bored and whiney. Ever had a Barbarian Dinner?
Here's how it works.
Tell family members that you are planning a very special evening meal. Give them a specific hour and tell them you would like them to be on time. As they arrive, hand out old shirts or aprons to put on over their clothes.
At the table, they will find nothing but a disposable tablecloth (you can find vinyl ones at the dollar store) and mugs for drinks--no silverware, plates, or napkins. Once everyone is seated, begin to bring out the food. For the most fun, try using this menu: Spaghetti in sauce, green salad with dressing, french bread, spinach or corn, and chocolate ice cream for dessert.
Begin serving each family member by walking around the table behind them, stopping to plop down a heap of spaghetti on the table in front of them. Continue by serving each item on the menu, dropping it on the table in front of them. They must eat their meal barbarian style, using only their fingers--no forks or spoons allowed! Now the fun begins! Don't forget to break out the chocolate ice cream....and the camera for some memorable photos!
Happy Husband Goal
This week, find some time to just sit and talk to your husband. Take a nice evening walk, or go for a drive. Focus on him. Try your hardest to not vent to him about the kids, the laundry, the house, etc; Let him talk about work, school, whatever. And ask him if he needs anything from you as a wife and a support to him. Just knowing that you are there for them in every way they need you to be lifts a huge burden off their shoulders - and that makes for a much happier man!
Happy House Goal
Okay, this one snuck up on me, and I just had to do a post about it. Have you ever had the heart-warming experience of opening up the dryer door and finding bright red, blue, or green crayon melted all over every article of clothing in the laundry? Well, just such a thing happened to me a couple weeks ago. Apparently one of my little dearies had left a blue crayon in their jeans pocket when they put them into their laundry hamper. Now, this particular load of laundry had a bunch of our favorites in it; some super cute (expensive) clothes the kids had gotten from my mother in law, the baby's brand new hoodie from the GAP, and of course, my favorite shirt that I wear all the time. Yep. Blue crayon EVERYWHERE. I was so mad! That doesn't even begin to describe it, actually. But instead of taking my anger out on my kiddos (though I admit I was tempted to) I jumped on the web and started researching ways to get melted-on crayon O.U.T!
After an hour of searching, here's the recipe suggestion that I decided to try:
2 max amounts (line 3) of concentrated Tide (any good laundry detergent will work)
1 cup Oxiclean 1/2 cup 20 mule team Borax 1 cup Shout liquid 1 cup white vinegar |
I went with HOT water (but warm may work and be best for fabrics. Let this agitate for a minute, then add clothes, agitate for another minute to work through, and soak for about an hour and run on a regular, long cycle with extra rinse.
I repeated this two times just to be safe, and voila!- crayon gone! There are only a couple tiny light blue stains left on a few of the lighter colored clothes. I decided to share this in case any of you happen upon this same unfortunate experience. It'll save you from all the research, but get you the same awesome results!
Dinner Tonight
Spaghetti, salad, and bread! *see happy kid goal =)
