When you live with a budding artist, you live with piles and piles of artwork. And ALL of it is special. And NONE of it can be thrown away. At least, that’s what my 5 year old tells me constantly. And as gung-ho as she is about recycling, I still can’t manage to convince her that we can recycle some of her artwork, too. So, instead of living with the masses of piles everywhere, I started looking for ideas of what to do with it all to help contain it and keep it from taking over my entire house. I came across several great suggestions like these:

• Put the artwork into a plastic box that fits under your child’s bed. You can always add more to the box as it starts to build up again. And, you can usually talk your child into culling through the pile that’s been in the box for a while in order to get more of the new stuff in.
• Get a clean pizza box to store artwork (even some 3D artwork will fit in these). You can even have a box per child per calendar year stored away in a closet somewhere.
• Take digital pics of the faves and then recycle it all. (Talk about NO clutter!!)
• Hang them in your playroom or child’s room from a clothes line/string.
• Then, there’s the ever-present refrigerator door. (Can you find the door or handle behind all those brilliant crayon masterpieces?)

While these are all great solutions and work for some people, the problem I had with most of these was that the artwork was stored away somewhere that no one could see them on a daily basis. Or, if they were on display, there was just TOO much volume of work to keep up with it all on ONE refrigerator door. So, we decided to do something different. I ran across an article about making a collage of your child’s artwork on a canvas and hanging it in their room. And while the task of putting things on a canvas seemed a little daunting to me, I liked the general idea of being able to put MANY pieces of artwork together into one larger piece of art. For Christmas, we bought Kate a simple, wood frame from IKEA. We got the poster-sized frame so that we would have plenty of room to display LOTS of artwork. And the great thing about this frame, besides how CHEAP it was, is that it uses plexiglass for the front instead of real glass. SO nice for a little kid’s room where strange things happen to things that can break. We took that frame, painted it her favorite color, pink, and then added several decorations to it to make it truly hers. She loved getting to personalize it any way that she wanted to with little foam butterflies and wooden letters painted to match her room. And I loved that the whole project, including frame, wooden letters, paint, and foam cut-outs cost less than $10. Then we took her PILES of artwork and started culling through them all to determine which pieces we absolutely HAD to keep and which we could cut out just a special piece of, and which ones were truly recyclable. (This process, by the way took at least an hour! She comes from a long line of pack-rats, so it was inevitable that it would take forever.) Once we had the ’special’ pieces ready, we started to place them on the poster sized paper that was included in the frame. We took special care to cut things out with fun edged scissors, label the things that needed it, and arranging them just right so that nothing was covered up that was really important. Then, we glued it all down. (Quick tip: using liquid glue tends to make the paper wrinkle and even make marker bleed, so we wound up changing to a glue stick half way through the project.) When everything is glued in place, I have Kate take a marker and sign her name and date to the bottom of the collage. I think this will be a fun way to not only keep her artwork from this age, but also get to see a piece of her handwriting, too. Then, all that’s left to is pop it into the frame (might wait for the glue to dry first, though) and hang it where it can be admired by all. We have Kate’s hung in her bedroom so that everyone visiting her can see all her special pictures. It’s been a great way to personalize her room even more and she loves being able to show off all her artwork to her friends and grandparents. UPDATE: It’s been a few months since we did the original collage and there have been plenty more ’special’ pieces of artwork generated in that time frame. So, we bought a piece of posterboard, cut it to size and went about creating a new collage of the current artwork. Once it was done and ready to pop in the frame, we just set the new collage on top of the old one in the frame, sandwiching the old collage between the new one and the backing of the frame, and voila! a new collage for her wall with all her current artwork.

I’m not really a great cook. In fact, when Shawn and I got married a dozen years ago, one of our agreements was that he didn’t mind cooking if I didn’t mind cleaning it all up. Of course, over the years, that’s changed. Since he’s still working a full-time job AND running a business “on the side”, and I’m just a stay-at-home mom, I’ve wound up taking over most of the cooking in the house.

The good news is that I’m enjoying it more. But, I still wouldn’t say that I’m great at it or anything. And I’m definitely NOT any kind of gourmet chef.

So, when my sister sent me a link to this website with cool, easy recipes, I had to give it a gander. I was VERY pleasantly surprised to see that not only were the recipes pretty straight-forward and easy to fix, but there are step-by-step directions with pictures for each step. So, even the harder recipes feel easy and attainable. Oh, and the author has a GREAT sense of humor, too!!!

Check out The Pioneer Woman Cooks and see what you think. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be trying out her recipes tonight for dinner!!

Just saw this ad (on my own site, no less) and decided to check it out. They’re called Milk Bands and they are a bracelet that helps a nursing mom keep track of which side she last nursed on, how long the nursing was, and what time it was.

What an awesome invention for all the sleep-deprived moms out there who can never remember from one feeding to the next which breast to start with, or even when the baby last ate! I’m getting one for my pregnant friend and maybe even one for myself! Check it out…

Pros:

• Smaller and less bulky than traditional double strollers.
• No need to carry double AND single stroller. Since my 4-year-old, Kaylee, goes to school on Tues/Thurs I was carrying around a lightweight single stroller AND the double stroller, OR having to switch them out depending on where we were going. This one is small enough to be a single stroller if needed. I took my 19-month-old, Brayden, to the mall the other day in it, and it didn’t look awkward not having a child in the back like it would have with the double stroller.
• Kaylee loves the option of standing up, or if she gets tired, there is a little platform she can sit down on.
• Carseat fits perfectly in the front, so when we decide to expand our family again, the carseat will work with this one too. It fits most all infant carrier car seats.
• Tall enough to accomodate my husband, Chris, and my height. Most umbrella strollers are not tall enough for us, so we were hunched over while pushing it.
• Steers well and easy to maneuver. My lightweight stroller (Safety 1st Altura stroller) was HARD to steer and often went wherever it wanted to. It had a mind of it’s own, I think.
• 5 point harness in front seat.

Cons:

• Bag carrier underneath is not very big, forcing me to have to spend less money while at the mall… Wait, maybe this isn’t a downside afterall… But, for those days when you “need” to spend more at the mall, they make an attachment set that includes additional hooks that you can hang bags from.
• No parent cup holder. My double stroller didn’t have it either, so I grew accustomed to it, but again, the attachment set you can buy seperately includes that too. The attachment set also comes with a snack cup that you can hook onto the stroller so Kaylee can have snacks while riding (Brayden has a snack tray on the front.)

First of all, whoever decided to name this phenomenon “morning sickness” should be shot. It sets moms up for a rude awakening when the sickness that started in the morning continues into the afternoon, evening, and night time. I mean, if it’s called “morning sickness”, shouldn’t I be feeling better by lunch time? Not necessarily.

After having three children with pretty bad morning sickness in all three of those pregnancies, I’ve tried just about every remedy out there. The bad news? There’s not a cure-all. The good news? There’s lots of different things to try. Sometimes one thing will work and then the next time something else works better. So, just because you’ve tried one remedy and it didn’t work, don’t necessarily rule it out completely. There were a few things that worked more successfully than others for me, so I thought I’d at least add a blog about it to hopefully help someone else out there suffering from this nasty cocktail of hormones.

1. Sleep. About the only thing that worked with a 95% rate of effectiveness for me was going to sleep. When I was asleep, I was rarely awakened by the waves of nauseau unless it was REALLY bad. Of course, when you are at work, or trying to watch other little ones at home, this remedy is not always available. Too bad, since I think that if I could have hibernated for the first trimester of each of my pregnancies, I probably would have felt MUCH better!
2. Candy. You know how almost every restaurant has a basket of peppermints by the door as you leave? Well, they actually do help soothe a sick tummy. I bought a big bag of them and carried a bunch in my purse all the time. Something about sucking on that candy always seemed to help, even if it only eased the pain instead of obliterating it completely. Of course, the candies that you want should have real peppermint oils listed in the ingredients to get the best reaction.
   I’ve recently run into ‘Preggy Pops” – lollipops meant to help with morning sickness, but I’ve heard conflicting reports on those. Some people love them and some people don’t. Also, my mom just found a candy/lozenge made from ginger that’s been helpful for nausea for her. Makes sense since ginger is supposed to be an herb that helps with that – whether it’s nausea from morning sickness or from a stomach bug.
3. Eating Something. Most advice out there about combatting morning sickness is to eat. While I was a VERY bad about actually following this advice, it’s still some of the best out there. Somewhere I read that eating every couple of hours really helps – something about not letting your stomach empty completely allows for the excess stomach acids to work on something instead of your actual stomach.
   The best foods to eat? First of all, whatever your body is craving. Usually whatever sounds good to you is because it’s something that your body is lacking or needing. So, even if it sounds weird, go for it. (Of course, I don’t recommend eating dirt or any other non-food items…) Some books say to eat carbs – these seemed to work best for me. Others suggest some protein – this also worked, but was harder for me to convince myself to do. I also found that eating a graham cracker first thing in the morning before getting out of bed, seemed to alleviate some the rush of hormonal yuckies. I know some people swear by saltines, but I found those too hard to eat. Graham crackers will actually dissolve in your mouth without much effort – that was always a plus for me.
   One last piece of advice about eating. I found that if a particular food that I wanted was not already fixed or cooked, by the time it was done I no longer wanted it, or was too nauseas to eat it. So, either get your significant other to fix things for you, or fix things ahead of time for yourself. For instance, I did well with jello, macaroni-n-cheese, and protein shakes. But, if I had to wait long enough for the water to boil for the first two, I’d find myself in the bathroom for sure. So, I tried to make some of both ahead of time and keep them in the refrigerator for when I wanted it.

4. Teas. I tried every herbal tea out there for nausea. Peppermint tea. Ginger tea. Sick tummy cocktail tea. Pregnancy tea. Granted, if I liked hot tea a little more, this remedy may have been further up my list… Although each of these teas worked to a greater or lesser degree, the best advice I have here is to drink it slightly warm. Not too hot, and definitely not cold. Something about ice-cold drinks does NOT help a bubbly tummy.
5. Sea Bands.These little elastic “bracelets” are meant to be worn on the wrists so that the plastic piece aligns with the acupressure point associated with alleviating nausea. They are most often used for sea-sickness (thus the name), but also work for morning sickness. These worked okay, but eventually got on my nerves and most times I decided they weren’t all that great for me.
6. Vitamins. I only tried B-complex vitamins a couple of times. While they probably would have worked well, I have a thing about pills, and it didn’t help at all that I threw up after taking it the first time. I also have heard that it helps to take your pre-natal pills at a different time of day, instead of in the morning (like before going to bed, or with a meal). I always tried to take mine with lunch since that seemed to be my best time of day.
7. Meds. With my last pregnancy, I finally got to point where I had been throwing up for 3 days straight and couldn’t handle it anymore. My midwife prescribed Zofran, but after realizing how INCREDIBLY expensive those pills are ($450 for a bottle of 20 pills), she switched me to Phenergan. While this actually worked pretty well, it’s side effect is drowsiness. So, while I was feeling slightly better, I was so sleepy I could hardly keep my eyes open. After taking it for about a week, I weaned myself off of it so that I could be a better mommy to my 2 toddlers!

Overall, the best advice I have is just to try everything at least twice. That way you give yourself a chance to find out if something might work the second time that didn’t work on the first.

Last tid bits… If you’re experiencing morning sickness at work, keep a toothbrush and toothpaste in your purse to use after visiting the porcelain throne. Mint-flavored gum can also help with that. And, when you are brushing your teeth, if you’ll watch yourself in the mirror, you have less chance of actually gagging yourself and making yourself throw up. It actually works! Try it!

So, what have your experiences been? What’s worked for you? Add to the comments field below and let us know your thoughts!

]]> http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/morning-sickness-bleh/feed/ 0 kay Sea Bands http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/swimming-lesson-advice-from-a-pro/ http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/swimming-lesson-advice-from-a-pro/#comments Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:29:11 +0000 Kay http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/swimming-lesson-advice-from-a-pro/ ]]>


I have a good friend who used to teach swimming lessons every summer in her back yard pool. She has taught most of the kids I know and has also trained lifeguards for years. Wouldn’t you know that the year that I’m ready to put Kate in swimming lessons, my friend is out of the business. So, the next best thing is what I’m listing here: her advice to me about how to scope out a person or place that offers swimming lessons. Hope this helps you the way that it helped me!

1. Try to get in a class that has 6 or less kids.
2. Make sure the class meets at least 4 days in a row. Normally they meet 4 days in a row for 2 weeks.
3. Try to meet the teacher ahead of time, since it is all about relationships and how the teacher will do with your particular kid’s personality.
4. Find out how the teacher will deal with getting face wet and how they will handle kids that don’t want to do what they are asked. My opinion is that you want them to lovingly lead your kid rather than force them.
5. Above all, if the class has more than 2 students per teacher you will need to stay
   where you can watch your kids because a teacher almost always turns her back to at least one student and that is when that student chooses to do something brave!!

]]> http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/swimming-lesson-advice-from-a-pro/feed/ 0 kay http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/save-those-boxes/ http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/save-those-boxes/#comments Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:28:18 +0000 Kay http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/save-those-boxes/ ]]>


A few weeks ago, My sister-in-law and I were talking about how to store baby gear between babies and she mentioned a great idea that she had read somewhere. We both thought it was great advice and that I should most definitely share it here…

Save your boxes.

You know – all those huge boxes that the car seat, the stroller, the high chair, and the swing came in. Put them in your attic while the items are in use. Then when baby #1 is done with them, put them back in their original boxes in the attic. It will keep them protected, clean, and easy to store until you’re ready to pull them back down for baby #2.

Of course, you could always just do like I did and have babies 1, 2, and 3 so close together that you never actually put all the baby gear completely away. I’m not necessarily recommending this method for you, I just know that it’s the way it happened for me.

Thanks for the great idea, Tiffany!

]]> http://themommyjournal.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/save-those-boxes/feed/ 0 kay