Discovery Boxes

 Generally at Christmas time, I get a little psycho when it comes to organization simply because of the influx of toys that come into our house. That feeling plus Major's negative behavior prompted me to create these discovery boxes. I had everything on hand already, I just needed to organize them in a way that was more accessible to him. His behavior has been less than awesome in recent weeks. Partially it could be boredom, it could be a phase, it could be that we are busy or that he is just rotten. Whatever the reason, I am willing to try just about anything to cure his attitude. We've done an overhaul on discipline and that's worked somewhat, but we all have a long way to go to make our days (mostly) peaceful. I mean he is 4 and I know we will have rough days, but I'm gonna pull my hair out.....tangent, sorry.....back to those discovery boxes. So I had all the supplies on hand, they just needed to be organized and accessible, like I said. Here is what I have so far....

These are just standard 8.5x11 3 drawer each stackable storage boxes. I labeled the boxes 1-12 so that he could just tell me which one he wanted. He has pretty much learned the order but just in case he forgets....plus, the # recognition is good too.

 In box 1:

Stamp Box

Paper, stamps and stamp pads

 In box 2:

Paint Box

 Paper and paint supplies

In box 3:

Play-doh

 In box 4: 

Glue Box

School glue, glue sticks, paper and lots of fun stuff to glue on paper

 In box 5:

Lacing Box

Empty thread spools, chenille sticks,  strings and beads

 In box 6: 

Cutting Box

Paper, ribbons, rubber bands, straws and of course scissors

 In box 7:

Magnets

Magnet letter and magnet board (cheap little fancy platter from dollar tree)

He has a bigger magnet board upstairs but I may rotate this one out some.

 In box 8:

Well it's empty right now.....I need to go to Lowes!

In it will be: nuts and bolts for fine motor control and hand eye coordination as well as some pvc pipe pieces. Have you ever connected a 5 inch piece to 2 elbow pieces? No? Well it  makes a pretty awesome little phone that actually amplifies your voice :) Neat, huh? So I will see you at Lowes? In the pvc dept... :) I may also throw in a few random pieces too just to see what he comes up with.

 In box 9:

Flash Cards and (hand made, with love) shape fans

 In box 10:

The mail man box

Old Christmas cards and stationary as well as envelopes, return address labels, stuff to make stamps and pens

 In box 11:

Paper and stickers

 In box 12:

Writing

Alphabet worksheets, a workbook, name card and pencil

Additional boxes:

Dr box. Josh brought home tons of goodies from work.  In it: stethoscope, shots, several different masks, gloves, band-aids, gauze, ace bandages, etc. He LOVES this one :)

 Paint:

I decided to keep it separate from the paint supplies just so that my walls didn't accidentally turn purple or something.

 Random misc supplies and overage.

 We have had this addition to our lives for some time now, but in a much smaller box, so today I bought a bigger box for our beans. It is a cool sensory activity and actually feels pretty therapeutic to run your fingers through.

 

 We have a rock and sand table outside but in the wintertime this is a good substitution. We just added some old containers and some shovels :) Lots of fun!

We got a new addition to the playroom as well:

Everyone who knows me knows I LOVE this organizer. Today we went to Target to get another one because ours is overflowing with Legos, Transformers, Cars, dinos and a bunch of other little things. I know for Christmas we will have even more small things to find homes for so hopefully this will make my job easier (and Major's too). 

 Dress Up got a face lift too. 

 I just organized his dress up clothes, got a bucket for the accessories and put the masks with the costumes. Next...I'd love to find a cheap-o mirror that I could paint so that he could see himself.

I hope these discovery boxes fill the blanks in my and Major's day. I hope they give us time together but for him to also feel free to grab one and work independently too. I hope it keeps him busy while allowing his brain to work creatively. Major is the child who needs a lot of attention and activity. He is fine playing on his own sometimes but often needs me to get him started on the activity. He has an amazing imagination, loves to dress up and role play and actually loves to color, write and build things too. I hope these little boxes provide him the jump start he needs to put all his energy, creativity and imagination to work.

Back porch...hunting

Christmas at the farm....continued...
Instead of getting up early Saturday am as planned, we slept in til about 7ish. I was kinda disappointed because it is generally the only time of the year that I can hunt with Josh simply because of childcare. Anyway, sleeping in turned out to be great for us. We got to sleep, eat a nice breakfast, and relax some when we saw about 5 deer in the back yard. There are always a ton of deer at the farm and we often joke about shooting them from the porch, well that's basically what happened. Josh went out to get the guns and I looked from the window. After several minutes of no shots, I went outside too. He was just waiting for this big ole doe to get broadside. She had her babies with her and they kept blocking the shot so it took a little longer. Finally though, Josh shot her. We were pretty sure he killed her, but she ran. So after a few minutes Josh and I went to look for her. We tracked her blood trail and after about 15 min found her. I was super excited. She was a really big deer and provided us with enough meat for the year; well her plus the one Josh shot earlier in the season. It took several hours to do all that you have to do with a deer after you kill one, but it was worth it. Josh and David did all the gross gutting and all that, Josh cut her up and I prepared the meat for the freezer. Major was super excited too when we got back. He was inspecting her and even wanted to go along with the boys while they were skinning her. I think we may have a little hunter on our hands. :)

Just a warning: there is blood in the next couple of pics....

I love how proud he is here! And notice Josh's attire??? We were totally in pajamas. I had on black snowflake pants and giraffe patterned rainboots. Haha! Not technically real hunting, but so much fun, nonetheless.

Christmas at the Farm

 Last weekend we went to Pleasant Shade to my in-laws for Christmas on the farm! We (meaning Josh's immediate family) usually go up there the weekend before Christmas, open presents and spend the night. It's a lot of fun. Major got to have a sleepover in Pappy and Nona's room with his cousins. Jack, Hallie and Sadie all conked out pretty quick but Major was so excited to have a sleepover that he stayed up way later than he should have. We all had fun and are grateful for the time we had together to celebrate Christmas.

 Ready for presents!!!

 Jack and Maj

 Say waiting so nice and patiently

 Sweet boys

 Pappy Claus

 He was really excited about his guitar!!!

and I just realized I got no pictures of Hallie :(

I love wrapping, wrappings my favorite

Christmas is such a fun time of the year, especially this year with Major. He is so so so excited about everything from his Elf on the Shelf to the tree, Jesus' birthday, and presents. I am excited about Christmas morning this year because he is so excited! He understands Santa and is really anticipating it all this year, which is fun and awesome. We took him to Bass Pro for local heroes night so he got to meet Santa there. He was so happy and couldn't wait to sit on Santa's lap. I don't think he told Santa what he wanted for Christmas, if he did, he didn't tell me. :) He said it was a secret.

With that said, because of all the commercialism of Christmas we have been very careful to explain that Christmas isn't really about Santa or presents or any of that. It is about our Savior and his birthday. He have been telling him the story of Jesus' birth and Major will say he was born in "Befwelam" :) Every night when we say our prayers he prays to Jesus and thanks him for his blessings and says "thank you for being born in a Major". I'd be lying if I said it isn't a challenge to teach him the true meaning of Christmas only because everywhere he turns Santa is in his face. I feel like I could take or leave Santa, but Josh feels very strongly about the tradition of it. I agree that it is really fun and that it's fun for Major to do, I just want him to grow up knowing that Jesus is the reason we have a Christmas at all. We both grew up with the tradition of Santa and turned out fine, so I know he will too, I just don't want him to get wrapped up in the things of the world that really aren't important.

Anyway, I started this blog thinking about wrapping paper. :) One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is wrapping presents. I love shopping for them too, but wrapping is my favorite! Here is one of my favorites for this year.

Merry Christmas Y'all :)

Guilty bad Mama

Major is at a really great age right now. He is throwing less tantrums and is being a much bigger boy about everything. His behavior has greatly improved over the past few weeks and I honestly feel we are making progress toward happier days in the behavioral department. I am grateful he is the kind of kid that will play alone while I get things done, but because of that I am so guilty of not spending enough time with him. I am just going to get really honest here and say that I don't know if it's that I don't like to play with him or that I just can't turn my "it has to be done now" brain off long enough to really enjoy him.  I get to spend 4 days a week home with him and on the other days we are home by 230 so I really get a lot of potential play time with him, but I always seem to have something to do, whether it be dishes, laundry, cleaning, sewing (most frequently it is sewing) or more pathetically facebook or pinterest. Every night when he goes to bed, I review the day in my head. I think about what all got done, what didn't get done, what he played with, or how much tv I allowed him to watch. I think about if he got into trouble and if so why. Today he did actually, several times, for not listening. How much of him not listening was my fault though? How many times did he ask me to play and I was too busy to stop and enjoy him. Is his acting out just a way to get my attention after I have practically ignored him? Yes.

So I want to try really, really hard to just enjoy him. If he asks me to sit in the floor and play cars or build a robot, or look at this and play this and read this then I am going to. I am really, really, really going to make the effort to enjoy my time with him. I know the days of him WANTING me to play with him are limited. He is such a gift and on days like today I feel like I have wasted my time with him. When he is in school and I am missing him, I am not going to remember that I got all the laundry done and the house clean and my personal sewing done all today. I am going to remember playing with him though. I know that he needs me to be present with him sometimes instead of saying "I'll be right there in a minute". It's not fair to him and I feel really guilty about it. I truly believe his behavior will reflect the time I spend with him as well. I know when the people I love most spend good quality time with me I feel happier and fulfilled. That's probably how he feels too.  So if I have to stay up half the night to sew or clean or whatever, then I am going to do that because spending the time with Major when he is awake and wants to play is more important than anything else in the world. Ok, now I'm going to snuggle him. :)

Christmas Decorating

It seems that all my blogs are catching up blogs, but whatever....here we go, catching up once again.

First: I am on Christmas sewing/creating/crafting overload thanks to Pinterest. I mean seriously? How many ideas can one person love. Waaaaayyyyy toooooo many because my sleep is seriously suffering over here. I've been sewing or making something almost every night for the past 3 weeks. If you remember this blog, then you remember the inspiration that I had for my own home this year. I have recreated, with my own little twist, some of those things.

This isn't a good picture of our mantle at all, but I do love it. I got the print from a blog I follow called eighteen25 last year and had it framed. The little trees are just styrofoam covered in glitter and the K is a cardboard letter covered in yarn (thanks pinterest for the idea) with a burlap rosette, just to girl it up a little bit. :) 

I really want to get a new, cuter garland for next year, but this one works fine and looks really pretty all lit up at night.

I am really, really loving me some burlap right now too. That sounds so country! I love the roughness of it, the texture of it and I love it even more when it is paired with a clean white linen fabric and some sweet details. For Josh and Major's stockings I lucked out and found silver glitter letters at Target for a dollar. I couldn't find an 'H' so I made another burlap rosette and glued it on there. Also mine has a ruffle detail that the boys' do not have.  I tied all three to the mantle with a chocolate brown satin ribbon. I love the simplicity of them!

When Major was in the shower the other day I was going through some scrapbook paper, cleaning it our and saw the sparkly brown and the green. I love those colors together! Then I searched a little deeper and found some cream and red and went to work making a cute little banner to go over my window in the kitchen. I love how this turned out, not too bad for a 5 min random project :)

This is a mirror in our dining room. I really don't love this wreath at all but I love the concept of having the wreath on the mirror. I will definitely redo this wreath for next year, but it's fine for now.

This is a total FAIL of a picture. lol Sorry for the laundry, I was too lazy to do it today. I took Major on a date instead. But the table runner, oh how I love thee! Chocolate brown burlap and red ruffles, the perfect combo if you ask me. It really is more beautiful in person. Probably bc I can throw the laundry on the floor. And btw...this pic just reaffirms my desire to redo this table. This was Josh's Mama's table and I LOVE it, but it does need a little facelift.

Our house looks really pretty on the outside too. Josh worked really hard to light up the house. We have wreaths on all the windows and beautiful lights all around it. I have several more small details in the house too, but didn't take pics of everything.

Onto other things:
For a while now, Ive wanted to redo the mirrors in our house. We have those cheap builders mirrors in the bathrooms and I wanted to 'frame' them. Well, thanks to Pinterest, a good tuitorial, a willing and patient husband and a dad who came with tools we got it done. I took a before pic on the iPad but not w my camera, so here is the after.

 This is in Major's bathroom. His mirror is a lot smaller than ours so we tackled it first. I can't even say how much I love it. :)

That pretty much sums up the projects around here. I have some other small Christmas projects going and have been sewing a lot for presents so between that and keeping Major and Transformer outta trouble, I've been a busy girl :) I will blog some of his adventures next time. Merry Christmas y'all!

Elf on the Shelf

 Last year I really wanted to do the Elf on the Shelf with Major but we never did. So this year, I told Josh that I really, really wanted to do it. So on Friday we went and got our elf whom Major named Transformer Elf. We read the book and Maj was so excited! He woke up this morning and couldn't wait to find Transformer. We searched the house and with a little coaching Transformer Elf was found. Major's super happy excited face turned into tears very quickly once he saw where Transformer was and that there were no toys from Santa. I had to explain to him that Transformer was gonna be here for a few weeks to let Santa know how he behaves. His response was "Ugh, hurry up Jesus' birthday, I NEED to open presents"! Haha poor kid.

 Silly ole Transformer found his way to the farm on his first night at our house.

I meant to take a picture of Major this morning once Transformer was found, but I was distracted by the early time and the tears.

Transformer found a new hiding place for the day which was on the counter and kept a good eye on Major all day. Major did great. He looked at him, talked to him, but never touched him, which of course is a strict rule of Santa's. 

THEN

We watched the Elf on the Shelf movie tonight and that stinky ole kid Taylor Mctuttle got Major's wheels turning about touching the elf. So of course when Maj went downstairs to "pee" he knocked the elf off his little tree. We made Major feel really bad about it so before bed he said he wanted to write a letter (like in the movie) apologizing. Poor kid.  Anyway, Here is Major's letter and how he will find Transformer in the morning...

I just wrote word for word what Major said then he wrote his name and drew a picture of Transformer himself.  This sort of makes me happy and sad at the same time. Sweet little stinker.

 Poor Transformer had to get some band-aids because of his tough fall.

I will do my best to try to remember to do a picture of Major in the morning. I think it would be so fun to see his face once he finds this guy! 

If any of you do Elf on the Shelf, what do you do with him during the day? Does he stay in the same spot or sneaky sneaky move throughout the day? I'm curious about that. This is so much fun! I have a list of things for him to do or places for him to hide. Super fun! 

Christmas Decorating

I am a total fall girl. It is easily my favorite time of the year. I love the weather, the smells, the activities, the food, just all of it! Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday too so I am getting really excited about all that yummy food I will get to enjoy this week. With that said, the weekend after Thanksgiving (also known as my birthday) we have always put our Christmas tree up. I remember doing it as a kid and when Josh and I got married, we continued the tradition. We play Christmas music and let Major pull out the ornaments,we decorate the tree then the house. Well, thanks to Pinterest, I now have a million fun projects in the works for Christmas.  As much as I love Thanksgiving, I love Christmas too. I love sharing the birth of Jesus with my baby, I love that family is together, I love the magical feeling of this holiday. My absolute favorite Christmas songs, that play pretty much on constant repeat are Christmas Like a Child and Joseph's Lullaby both by Mercy Me.  Joesph's Lullaby just about makes me cry every time I hear it.
I will always hold off til after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas, with that said, I do already have a lot of inspiration gathered on Pinterest and in my head :)

 These stockings are in the works already. Mine will have a burlap rosette and the boys will have buttons on theirs. I love the simplicity of them. 

Source Cozy.Cottage.Cute

 I thought this was really sweet too. I don't know that we can hang them off our kitchen chairs, but I may try some variation. 

Source: Cozy.Cottage.Cute

This wreath, actually the idea of this wreath, I am loving so much. We have a huge mirror hanging in our dining room and I think a Christmas wreath hanging in front of it will be the perfect compliment.

Source: Cozy.Cottage.Cute

 I am loving these lanterns right now too. We saw some at Hobby Lobby the other day that I may go back and get. The options for them are endless and they are just adorable. 

Source: SouthernLiving.com

 And this little tree canvas...Seriously, how cute is this? Major and I will be doing this craft soon as well. I love it to pieces. 

Source: houzz.com

I always love to put ornaments in jars and things so naturally I love this idea too. And in those Mason jars, how amazing would some cinnamon sticks smell next to a vanilla candle? Yum!

Source: I don't know :(

I made a Christmas wreath similar to this last year and can't wait to pull it out and hang it this year! 

Source: Pinterest

I forget year to year what I have or what I've made so I am excited to get things out next week and to make a list for new crafts. Yay for the holidays!