Best Idea Ever

Best idea ever, I have to share it with you.
It's not my idea.
It's a gift idea for your child.
I'll share the link with you from where I got it but I'm warning you it's a challenging post to read.
Might make you mad - just saying. Click here to read the entire post.

We teach our kids to give in so many ways.
We do it differently all year long.
Two weeks ago we pulled up to a light and a homeless man was sitting there.
It was after school so we had after school snacks with us in the van.
The kids saw him and said, "Mom give him our snacks."
So I rolled down my window and gave him a bag of cheetos, a sunny D drink and a slim jim and said, "These are from my kids." He was appreciative and said "Tell your kids thank you so much."
It was touching to say the least.

Fast forward a week and we were at the same light.
No homeless man.
All of a sudden Coleson popped up quick and said with such enthusiasm, "Mommy that homeless man got a home; he's gone." He was full of so much excitement for that man.
How I wish it was that simple.
It made for a great conversation.

Sorry, I got side tracked.

Here's the idea:
You give your child money as a Christmas gift that they get to GIVE away to someone in need, to someone that Jesus would want them to help.
They get to choose how to do it.
They get to decide where.
How cool is that?
They get to be apart of showing God's love to someone.
I get teary thinking about it.

I love the idea of creating that giving experience for my kids.
I don't know about you but when I give something happens within me and I want them to experience that as much as possible.

I don't know how we'll do it yet or how much.
You could do $10 or $100.
You could warn them ahead of time that the gift they are about to open is a gift they will give away.
You could let them brainstorm places they'd want to give the money too.
We (I) might be surprised what they think of.
They might respond sort of weird because it's a unique gift; not like the normal gift.

I LOVE giving gifts so this gift has me so excited and anticipating Christmas.

How do you teach your kids to give?
I'd love to hear ideas.

Hard Water

Here's a product that really works - thought I'd share.

We have EXTREMELY hard water.

We soak our shower head in vinegar every 6 weeks just to unclog it.

We just haven't put water softener in the budget yet.

Hardwater makes for a mess on your dishes and on your dishwasher.

This stuff WORKS.

It's EASY.

You put it in upside down in your dishwasher and run it on the hottest cycle.

When you are done your dishwasher looks BRAND NEW.

You can find it at Walmart by the dishwashing soap.

Give it a try.

Summer Trick

My good friend Angie gave me a GREAT idea a couple months ago when we were chatting about summer.
We were discussing the video game battle.
We have a wii and even though 70% of the games they play are active there are some that are just plain old video games.
I was trying to figure out how to handle it this summer so they don't want to play it all day long.
I didn't want the on going nagging and I didn't really want to monitor amounts of time EVERY day.
So here's the summer plan and on week one it's been going good.

We have a wii day each week.
We picked Mondays.
They know they can play on Mondays.
Doesn't mean they can play all day but for the most part they can play away.
If wii day Monday goes good . . . no fighting over it, arguing which game to play etc. then they can earn one extra wii day that week . . . we picked Thursday just to space it out.

We also took a 7 day break from all things wii leading up to summer just to take a break.
Everything is sweeter when you've been away from it for awhile.
We'll make exceptions if we are having family game time or something.

Do you have any summer tricks or things you set in place to make summer run smooth??

Candy? No Candy?

How do you do an Egg Hunt?
I grew up getting candy in my Easter Basket and we did have an egg hunt BUT our family egg hunt was done with the eggs we dyed, yep REAL eggs.
We always did it inside.
Our baskets were hidden too.
Maybe we played with plastic ones outside, I don't remember, but the real egg hunt with mom, dad, and all three of us kids was with REAL eggs.
Dad and  Mom had to really make sure they remembered where they hid them all right?
We'd have found it eventually.
Until I was a mom I didn't realize that some people FILLED the eggs with candy for the hunt?
I'm not sure why I thought I should go along with this.
Our tradition became to get some candy in the Easter basket and a small toy or two.
Side note . . . I DO NOT USE that green grass.  Drives me crazy! It's tissue paper for us!
We hide the basket for each kid to find sometime on Easter morning.
Later in the afternoon Jason and I hide plastic eggs filled with candy outside for the kids.
I just can't take all the candy so usually I just fill them all with a few jelly beans.
I'm not against the candy, I LOVE candy and it's fun for the kids (it's better then party favor junk that fills up the toy boxes) but I just like enough of it that within a few days it's gone.
We can then brush real good and move on.
Well, this year in Family Fun Magazine I read a GREAT IDEA!!
Buy a puzzle and then put a puzzle piece into each egg.
After the kids find all the eggs they work on the puzzle.
I'm so doing this.
My kids (mainly the boys) love puzzles.
Just this week the twins did over 10 puzzles and had them all lined up on the kitchen floor and said it was a 'puzzle museum'.
They go in spurts with it, but right now they are in puzzle mode.
You could either do one puzzle per Easter basket so each kid has their own puzzle to work on and it's on their skill level or you could do one big puzzle for the big hunt and then everyone could work on the puzzle together.
Either way is a great idea.
I'd LOVE to hear your non-candy ideas!

........................................................................................

Here's a couple past time favorite Easter pics!!
Love this one of my boys!
Spring 2005. . . . Twins were around 18 months, Ian 3 1/2 !!
If you know Jason you know he RARELY wears a tie . . . weddings/funerals/graduations . . . and that's usually only if he's apart of them. 
So we did our take on ties . . . untucked shirts, shorts, and sandals!
They looked adorable and I think everyone at church got a kick out of Jason's boys' in ties.
Such happy blonde boys!

Oh Taters!  
2007 - She's about 6 months I'd guess.
She's gripping the basket wondering what this green stuff is she's sitting on. 
You gotta love the fuzzy hair!

Christmas Idea #1

CHRISTMAS IDEA #1

Participate in giving children CLEAN WATER in Africa all while Christmas shopping.  

http://water4christmas.com/

Water for Christmas is partnering with charity:water. (http://www.charitywater.org/).

We participated in giving to this last year but this year they have stepped it up.

They have opened an etsy shop where you can shop for chrsitmas gifts and ALL THE EARNINGS go to giving water to people in Liberia.  Give a gift this year that makes a difference.

My friend, Meg, has a great blog post on her blog about this. She has some pictures too. She and several other girls got togehter for a weekend to create items for the etsy shop. Maybe you have a talent to create something. You can donate your items to the etsy shop for others to purchase.

For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat,

I WAS THIRSTY and you gave me something to drink,

I was a stranger and you invited me in."

Matthew 25:35

Break Time

The to do list is long around here these days but we needed a break. My neighbor Mandy

and I tried out these fun sponge balls. Mandy and I decided WHILE making them WITH all the kids help that we could have done it quicker if we'd have done it BEFORE we told the kids what we were going to do. They had fun though!

(The idea came from Family Fun Magazine)

Supplies: You need three sponges per ball, string, scissors

Steps: Cut each sponge in 5 stripes.

Layer them in three rows of 5.

Tie the string around them tight.

As you tie the string the ball comes into form.

Let the water fun begin!!

Three Musketeers

The twins will miss Evan so much!! (We all will - we'll miss their entire family.) He's steps away from our house and the boys have really gotten to be good friends. They run back and forth from house to house!

Later they wanted to wash their bikes and needed a bucket for water. Jason gave them the cooler . . . turned into hours of fun. Jason says we have no need for a hot tub now!

My FAVORITES

I've been off the blog circuit for awhile so I thought I'd get back in it with something a little different.

Who doesn't love Oprah's Favorite Things show?? That's the one where you wish the entire time that YOU were on the show!! I thought I'd share some of MY FAVORITE THINGS! I chose all things around the house that make life a littler easier for me! Now is the part I wish I could say that for all of you who read this post you'll receive one of everything on this list!!!

#1 Display Bookshelf
(built by my very own man with Pottery Barn's measurements)

I LOVE children's books and give them to my kids as a gift with letters from me in them on special occasions so this allows me to display the nice ones. At Christmas I took them all down and put all our Christmas ones up!!

#2 THE PANTRY DOOR LOCK
This is my new favorite thing! After all sorts of Child Safety Locks this is my favorite, my neighbor gave it to me! Thanks Marjorie! It's cheap ($2 from Walmart) and blends in nicely. You have to lift it before you open it so the kids CAN NOT open the door with it closed. Now I have control over snack time again!!!!!!!



#3 Curtain Rod Picture Display
This is another idea stolen from Pottery Barn. It's just a curtain rod hung in our basement with the clip on style curtain rings. This keeps the refrigerator from looking like an art cabinet. Everyone gets to display all their work!! Pottery Barn has some GREAT ideas for displaying kids art work.

#4 SCRUBBING BUBBLES FLUSHABLE BATHROOM CLEANER

I fell in love with these. They don't do great deep cleaning but who has time for that on a regular basis. I keep one of these in each bathroom and can wipe down the counter and bathroom in seconds and then flush it!! With three boys this is a must!!!

#5 MY HEART ROCK

Ian found this for me on Mother's Day at a special Bartel farm we used to hang out at in Oklahoma. My boys are all rock collectors and give them to me as "presents". I can't keep them all but this ONE rock helps me remember the LOVE in ALL the other rocks that they've all given me. One rock is simpler to display than 100's right? I keep meaning to display it in a shadow box. Someday I'll do that!

#6 OVER THE DOOR PURSE HOLDER
This is a new favorite of mine too. With the addition of a princes loving lipgloss girl in our family I had to find a place that kept my purse safe from her little hands!!!! Daddy needs to figure one of these out for his wallet and chapstick too!

# 7 KIDS RAINBOOTS

These are a MUST for all kids for ALL seasons!! Watch for them on clearance at Target in the off seasons. My kids always have a pair that fits! In winter we mostly use snow boots but their are still moments when the rainboots are needed. Kids can slip them on all by themselves, get them muddy, wet whatever! We even travel with them, especially camping.

#8 MY LAPTOP

This is my office, my communication center to the outside world, my scrapbooker (digital), my budget planner and on and on and on. The best part is it can go anywhere . . . a must with four kids. I don't get time to sit in an office by myself so this is a very important possession to me!

#9 SCENTSY CANDLE WARMER

This keeps my house smelling AWESOME!! (A hard task with 3 stinky boys.) For obvious reasons candle's just aren't a part of my life right now. My friend sells them if you're interested.

#10 HOT WHEELS CAR HOLDER
We can fill this up and still have cars leftover. Found this at Target this past summer for $15. Worth every penny. The boys love picking out the right car for them! It's best if you can hang it on a door you don't open a ton. We have it on the closet with the heating/air stuff in it.

Just one more . . . had to add this . . . this definitely makes the day easier!!!!

#11 Dr. Pepper - my drug of choice - preferably fountain drink style!

So much to share . . . festivities!

WISHING YOU HOLIDAY CHEER!
If you aren't Grammy/Gramps or Grandma/Grandpa this will probably be one of those posts where by the end of it you'll think, "okay, I've had enough of the Quiring kids". Of course Grammy and Grandma will still want more. We've been busy with activity and festivities. We're traveling over the holidays and are getting REAL excited to see our families!!!



Activity Number ONE: Crayon making

Found this cute idea on a friend's blog and thought we'd try it. You use abc silicone ice trays (got them off of amazon) and put your old crayons in the tray and then bake them for 10 minutes (or until liquid) at 250 degrees. You let them sit for an hour or more and then pop them out. Then your old crayons turn into new crayons in the shape of ABC's. I LOVED the idea. The boys and I peeled all our old crayons and got to work. Then Ian (my gift giver) had the idea to give each one of his classmates their first initial for a Xmas Gift. How could I say no?? The problem . . . . the party was the next day and when we counted the kids in his class there were 6 or 7 kids starting with the letter C. So after making one set with the boys I continued to make C's INTO the night!!



They did turn out cute. We put a color sheet and the crayon in little baggies I use for my scrapbooking cards. His teacher said it was a hit.


Activity Number TWO: "Look Mommy, paint my toes. I paint my toes!"

Mommy's response . . . "Don't MOVE, stay still, where have you been?"

Enough said on this activity.




Activity Number THREE: More Fun in the Snow. Tatum finally made it out and enjoyed it. The boys have had numerous snowball fights with the Hawaiian neighbor boys. They have forts and snow walls to make the fight more exciting.


Activity Number Four: Jingle Jam at Ian's School, they sang two songs and he did great.For your viewing pleasure, I've posted many videos at the end of all of our holiday singing! Tatum said after EVERY SONG (for every grade) . . . "My turn sing!" Each time I lied to her and told her she was next. I know that's not great modeling but if I would have told her she wasn't going to get a turn we would have had to leave from the fit that would have followed. She was very upset when the show was over and she didn't get to shine on stage. She mimiced ALL of the actions from Ian's songs and even added in her own moves. Afterwards Ian even said, "Mommy Tatum did great hand motions." If you watch the videos you'll notice Carter and Coleson were done with the whole singing thing by the time it was time for Ian's grade.

ACTIVITY Number FIVE: Carter and Coleson's Preschool Singing

This was there first time to do any sort of singing on stage. Our church doesn't include the preschoolers so they've never performed. The show was 30-40 minutes. I was amazed, I didn't expect that. They used all sorts of instruments and all! It was fun watching them both keep beat.


Tatum picked up where she left off at Ian's performance asking when it was her turn.

This first picture is priceless to me. They look so cute side by side. These weren't their assigned spots, they just wanted to start out together. When I was telling the boys on the drive home how well they did I just started crying. The twins are growing up so fast, I don't know where the days are going!

ACTIVITY NUMBER SIX: More Singing . . The elementary kids sang at ALL three services this weekend. We are SUNG out!

ACTIVITY NUMBER SEVEN: Ginger Bread House - We did this tonight.

If you haven't found these kits in Walmart/Costco/Sams/etc. you've gotta get one. They are only like $9. This is our second year to use them and they are SOOO simple. I have memories as a child holding the gingerbread house together forever while it dried. Mom needed all hands to make the thing work. Jason had heavy Christmas music on so the kids would decorate a second and then run off to play some air guitar. Jason and I ended up throwing the candy on the house just to get it done.

ACTIVITY NUMBER EIGHT: Photo Shoot of Christmas Clothes . . . Since we are traveling some over the holidays we did the Christmas clothes thing today for church instead of Christmas Eve. The pictures we took at church didn't turn out so the kids posed for me when we got home. It got silly but I LOVE the silly pics! I love seeing the kids laugh! Keep laughing kids!

This was the best we could do for a family picture. We're all IN the picture so we'll call that good!

ACTIVITY NUMBER NINE: I don't have pics for this but today we took the kids to the Dollar Store (everything a buck) and the boys all brought their $5 to pick out one thing for each person in the family. My boys are gift givers and buying for there siblings is a highlight. Jason hung out at the fastfood playland next door and I took them one at a time to shop. I probably looked like an idiot because I was smirking most of the time trying not to laugh. The way they all reason things out and decide what to buy is HILARIOUS! They all shopped for me too and I wasn't supposed to look. Carter was the sneakiest and I'm really not sure exactly what he picked out but I think it's breakable, some sort of figurine. Coleson said, "I found what I want to get you mommy, don't look." Then he put a pack of cigarette lighters in the basket. No, I haven't taken up smoking. I had to laugh and tell him, "Oh shoot, I saw it." Then I told him what they were and that I didn't smoke. He then picked out something that makes me want to cry tears of joy . . . he picked out a spoon for me to use when I cook. Coleson is my chef and cooks dinner with me most nights so I thought it was so special and fitting!! While walking into the store with Ian he says, "Everything is a $? Wow, do they have dresses?" I told him no and he said, "Ah man, that's what I was going to get you." Can you just see me in a dress from the dollar store? What a kid, love him!! I REALLY want to tell you what they each got Jason but I don't want to spoil the surprise for him, he's gonna have to hold back the laughter when he opens his gifts.

Well, if you made it to the end of this post you are a die hard Quiring Fan! HA! I'm sure the weeks ahead will bring even more holiday festivities. Can't wait to walk into my parent's house and be with family, then it will be off to spend time with the Quirings - can't wait!!!! If you haven't had enough of us you can check out videos of all our singing fun!

Ian's Jingle Jam Singing

Carter and Coleson's Preschool Performance.

Tatum got her TURN . . . she was making Ian sing with her. Whenever he'd stop she'd instruct him to "SING!". He was a good sport.

One last video . . . this one is an old one. All these singing performances made Jas and I reminise about Ian's performance when he was three. The video may be a little fuzzy but he's the one in black, you'll hear him. He's the one singing, "Sing merrawee, sing MERRAWEE! Jesus is Born!" GOOD MEMORIES!

Did I mention we are doing Christmas with our kids in the morning?? I've GOT TO GET TO BED! Goodnight!

Blue Light Special!

Blue Light Special! That's what Jason announced when he came home with a purchase that he was VERY proud of!! He bought a dim blue light bulb and a timer. The lamp is set in the boys room for 7:00 AM. The rule is . . . if you awake and the blue light is on it's "Wake Up TIME" and you can get out of bed. If you awake and the bulb is not on, keep on sleeping or just hang out in your bed. Of course the one exception is to go potty but then it's back to bed!! Isn't he a smart dad??? The clock idea just didn't work with the twins and we needed something a little more noticeable. We tried it last night and I heard Ian say right at 7:00 "Yes, we can get up!" HA! He's not the problem with getting up early but ever since we got on a "school" schedule for Ian the twins have been up much earlier but not really "ready" for a happy day if you know what I mean! Steal the idea if you have early risers!! I'll let you know if it works long term!