Christmas Book Tradition

I wanted to start an easy Christmas tradition for my kids last year and came across an idea while shopping at Barnes and Noble.

We love  books in our family, the more the merrier!  I thought won't it be nice to have the boys open a special Christmas book from Mommy and Daddy each Christmas morning.  The book had to have beautiful pictures since our kids are young and we would spurge here too.  Not a paperback which I normally turn to since my kids are also hard on their books, but a hardback, fancy book!

For our first year we choose Carl's Christmas by Alexandra Day.  We are big dog lovers in our family and this book totally fits our family.  Our bullmastiff, Cooper, could probably watch our boys with no problem just like Carl does for his baby.  The Carl books have just a few words in the beginning of the book and then the rest is up to your imagination with the help of the fantastic pictures. 

For this year, we are choosing You Are My Miracle by Maryann K. Cusimano.  Its a beautiful book that really helps convey just how much you love your little ones and this special time of year. 

I also write a special inscription in the book with the date so that we can easily keep track of the books each year and hopefully one Christmas morning, sit down and read them all together. 

Does your family have a Christmas tradition?  If so, please share!  I love to steal great ideas from friends!

Feeding the Birds

My backyard is like a nature preserve most days. Deer stroll in and out of it at their own will, not at all bothered by the people or large dog who live here.  Squirrels and chipmunks have endless entertainment running around the big boulders and rocks hunting for food.  A family of fox call our side yard their home. And a ground hog has even been spotted a few times.  But by far my favorite guests are the birds.  They don't dig up my flowers or eat my bulbs, but rather eat the bad bugs and add a little color to the sky. 

I kind of spoil our birds, I keep their feeders filled from about November to April thinking that between April and October there should be plenty of natural food for them to eat.  The only problem with feeding the birds is the squirrels.

I have had several bird feeders, always trying to outsmart the squirrels and have found that the Droll brand feeders seem to do the best job at this.  They are a little more expensive but they are really durable and are something you will have for years.  My favorite feeder of theirs is the Yankee Flipper.

You need to watch the product video on this one - it is hysterical.  When a squirrel tries to eat the seed and leans on the birds' resting bar, the whole bar jerks and "flips" the squirrel off.  Its great.  I have seen this live and am always amazed by it. After awhile, the squirrels do catch on to this trick and figure out other ways to get the seed, but at least for a little while I have a bit of entertainment.

I also keep a suet feeder filled all winter.  Wood peckers really like suet and my yard this fall has been filled with them.  My first suet feeder was a cheapy from the grocery store ---- it lasted one night.  I hung it from a normal shepherds hook and didn't even think of wiring it onto the pole, which is why it lasted only one night.  The squirrels must have dragged it into the woods that night to have the delicious suet all to themselves, selfish little buggers!  After this experience, I invested in a double suet feeder and some wire.  The double feeder has a cage around it so the squirrels can't get to it and the wire is my extra insurance.

I have also found that different seeds bring different birds.  Your run of the mill grocery store blend is junk, just don't buy it.  It has so much waste in it and will just give you weeds on the ground below the feeder.  Find a feed store and see if they have their own mix, these are usually made special for your area and will have less waste.  I also sometimes mix a few different seeds on my own to make a blend.  I try to pick seeds that don't have a shell so it isn't so messy.  Right now I have shelled sunflower seeds and thistle.  Best part of this mix is that the squirrels don't seem to like it, they aren't even bothering with it which is amazing to me!  Just be sure to store the seed in a steel container.  I was optimistic last year and thought the mice in my garage couldn't eat through a big rubbermaid container.....so wrong and disgusted on the day I opened up the container to find a mouse inside!

While you are at it, might as well pick up a bird book too.  As kids, my mom always had bird books in the kitchen on the window sill so that we could identify all the birds in our yard.  Kids are fascinated by this; it is especially fun on a snowy morning when the birds are all out looking for food.

Happy Birding!

Winter Flowers

Winter leaves us with a very drab and boring landscape, especially after the New Year when all the fun holiday decorations are gone and we are stuck looking at bare mantles once again and empty cookie jars.

Start planning now and you can have a "garden" almost all winter long.  Flowers like paper whites, amaryllis, and poinsettia will grown inside very easily and can add just what you need to any room to make it feel more lived it.

I think paper whites are my favorite because they can pretty much grow in anything.  I have grown them in  just pebbles and in a pot with soil and had great results with either.  The fun part is figuring out what you are going to grow them in especially since they are so relaxed that they can literally grow in a regular old drinking glass with some water.  Pretty low maintenance, huh?

No matter what you plant them in, the instructions are pretty basic -- pointy side goes up, they can be close together, but not completely touching and keep them watered.  When you first "plant" them keep them in a warmer spot until they flower and then move them to an area with indirect sunlight.

I even keep poinsettias out all winter long and sometimes they last into the summer months too.  The key here is to replant them just like you would any other annual flower.  Water when it is dry and fertilize it once a month.  Remove the flowers or leaves as they die too.  You could even plant it in a holiday pot through December and then move it into something else for the rest of the winter.  With the great pinks and oranges that you now find poinsettias in, there is no reason to just have the typical red one that reminds us of Christmas.  They also come in different sizes, not just the traditional larger size.  I love the tiny single blooms to decorate with, they are a bit more expensive, but they make up for it!   Look for these at higher end garden shops.  For more information on caring for a poinsettia and making them rebloom, take a look at this page from Martha Stewart.

Get creative and you will be greeted by a cheerful flower all winter, hopefully chasing the winter blues away!
Here are a few inspiration for you to try out on your own!

 

Fabulous Way to Keep and Store Kids School Work!

My oldest started preschool this fall and each day after pickup we sort through his collection of pictures and crafts from the day. I love each and every thing he creates, but had no idea where to put them until I stumbled onto this blog.......

IHeart Organizing: School Paperwork Storage

If you love to organize and feel like a new person when everything has a place, you need to go to this blog. It is amazing! I love the cataloging of each school year and creating an easy memory box at the same time.

Happy Organizing!

Playroom Storage Solution

Like many of you, I dream of a perfect playroom.  It has amazing organization, thoughtful details, and all toys are always placed exactly where they belong.  Basically, it always looks like the pages of the Pottery Barn Kids catalog.


Reality at my house is a whole other story.  The only person really doing the putting away of toys is yours truly and my playroom floor is often covered in trains, blocks, trucks and my toothbrush (Tommy's favorite teether right now).  So, when I saw these large tubs or buckets for $7.99 a piece at Target I jumped at them!  My kids are old enough to put toys away, but they need direction and the big toys really had no place to go.  These tubs were the perfect solution, with 3 of them we have enough room for the smaller toys and the monster trucks. Also, its easy for kids to put toys in these, its just a big, over sized bucket that holds a ton of stuff

I can't seem to find these tubs online at Target, but they could still be in stores.  Regardless, they are really just tubs that you would use for a keg which makes them even better.  Party supply stores or the local beer distributor would have some on hand.  Since they are large and plastic, their uses are endless.  One will certainly move to the garage to hold balls in future years, another will be used as a makeshift water toy this summer, and perhaps one day, one of these will be used to chill a keg at the boys college graduation parties.  The versatility and sheer price (did I mention $7.99!!!) make these a great storage/organization solution. 

Not loving J&J right now! Baby Wash is harmful?! WHAT???!!!

I think we all try to keep our children as safe as possible and also believe that there is an unspoken rule about how awful it is to knowingly harm children, which makes this news from Johnson and Johnson so hard to stomach. 

Lauren at MommyBreakdown has the full story with all the details, check it out here and find another product this week to serve as your new bath time staple. 

Fall Yard Clean Up

I love the fall.  By the time September comes, I am tired of summer (which is hard to believe) and ready for a change.  The new colors, the smells, I find it all inspiring and invigorating.

However, there is a part of the fall that I don't find to be so inspiring..... fall yard clean up.  All of my flowers are done at this point and while the color in the yard is beautiful from the fall leaves, it is also a lot of work.  Here is a quick list of what I try to complete in the yard before the ground freezes for the winter.

1.  Empty out flower pots:  I dump the majority of my flower pots out into the compost pile.  Actually just the flowers go into the compost, the soil I keep in a large trash can so that I can reuse it the following year.  I stack my flower pots in the garage, putting a few newspaper pieces in between any of my ceramic pots so that they don't crack.

I do keep a few perennials in my pots over the winter, most of these are trailers like creeping jenny.  I take these pots and move them up against the house for the winter months, trying to shield them from some of the winter weather.  Surprising to me after the first winter of doing this, my creeping jenny has always made it through the winter like this and served as a great foundation plant in many pots each spring as I continue to divide it and spread it around. 

2.  Rake out flower beds:  This job stinks, no other way to put it. I live on a heavily wooded lot which means lots and lots of raking.  However, I just don't have the patience to rake everything in the fall and have perfect flower beds all winter long.  I focus on the front yard, rake what I can and sometimes purposefully leave a little bit of the leaf cover behind to serve as "insulation" for my plants and also as organic matter.  In the spring, I'll get back out there and thoroughly rake, but after a long winter, this is a welcomed job. 

3. Yard Rejuvenation:  Very late summer and early Fall is a great time to plant grass, but since we are past that point this year, its just time to keep the leaves off the grass so that it can breath through the winter and also be ready to spring back into action in the coming months.  I also like to use a winterizer on our grass in mid-November.  I feel like this just gives the grass a little bit of pick me up come early spring.  In reality, it does strengthen the roots, keeps your grass a little greener a little longer as winter sets in, and bring on the bright green spring grass a little earlier.  All things that matter for me!

4.  Shrubbery/Tree trimming:  Before it gets too cold, you can still trim your shrubs.  I have a few burning bushes out front that need to be trimmed each fall right before the winter sets in or else they drive me completely crazy as I look outside in the cold months and see these few random spikes sticking up. Since we are now in late fall, just keep your trimming to what is really needed; wait for the spring to do a major overhaul on any bushes or trees.

5.  Clean Up the Perennial Beds:  This is actually really easy.  I usually let my perennials like Black Eyed Susans and Cone Flowers go for awhile as the flowers die, thinking that the birds appreciate the seeds from these plants.  I don't cut these back until early December, if at all, some years I just don't get to this and its not a big deal.  Its easy to cut these back again in the spring before the new growth starts up. 

6. Annual Flower Clean up:  Another easy job is getting rid of all those Annuals in the ground.  I really don't have too many of these any more and try to put as many perennials in the ground as possible and just keep annuals in pots, but I do have a few.  At this point of the year, they easily pull right out of the ground and go to the compost.  Rake the area a little bit and it is ready for winter.

7. Mulch: Some area of your yard may need a little bit of extra cover for the winter.  More delicate plants and young trees will appreciate the extra blanket of warmth!

Each year is different and the weather and time dictate a great deal to what actually gets done in our yard before winter and what waits until spring. Don't stress about and focus on what keeps your plants healthy and happy through the winter months! 

Things I am loving right now!

Here are a few things I am totally loving right now!

1.  Pinterest:  This is the coolest social media site. Its an online pin board; think digital bulletin board that collects all of your thoughts, inspirations, etc while sharing with others.  I love seeing other people's ideas, crafts, and recipes especially with the holidays coming and my desire to turn my house into a winter wonderland. 

2. Young House Love blog:  A wonderful home blog by a couple that are amazing DIYers. There is so much information in this blog it would be overwhelming if weren't for the organization of the blog.  You almost can't call it a blog, there is just too much information here.  Its more like This Old House and Martha Stewart's love child with a completely easy to read instruction manual.

3.  Halloween candy:  Need I say more.  Its November 1st and I bought about 2 1/2 bags of too much Halloween candy.  Hopefully my jeans will still fit next week.......