Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 129

Five Simple Steps to a Better Homeschool Day

The following post is from Angie of Many Little Blessings:

source: Angie Kauffman

Mornings are not my forte nor have they ever been. Deciding to become a teacher, and then ultimately to stay home with my children to homeschool has always proven a challenge for my night owl tendencies. I have found that some of our best days have been made possible when I have followed five simple steps that are sometimes a struggle for someone with a natural inclination to pull the covers over her head and hit the snooze button.

Try one, two or all of these steps and see if your homeschool day goes better:

Start the day well rested.

It can be so easy to want to stay up too late when kids are all snug in their beds and quiet has descended on the house. It’s a perfect time to catch up tasks, as well as just enjoy some time alone. However, getting an appropriate amount of sleep can be the deciding factor between whether your homeschool day will be a good one or not.

While I’m not suggesting that you go to bed at the same time as your children, it is important to know how much sleep you need to function well each day and make sure that you are getting that on a regular basis.

Write out a plan in advance.

Consider planning your schooling at least a week in advance. If it works for you to schedule farther out, that is wonderful. When a plan is not in place for school, it usually means that Mom will be frazzled trying to schedule things at the last minute, while the children can get grumpy or wild. A plan for your day helps everyone in the house know what to expect and can assist things in running more smoothly.

Prepare materials.

Even if you take the time to plan your day or week in advance, if your materials are not prepared, the day can get out of hand and hectic. I know that I am always more patience and pleasant when experiment materials are already out, copies have been made, and I don’t have to run around saying, “Just a second! I still need to make these copies.” A little preparation time in advance means that you can be ready to move from subject to subject without those types of interruptions.

Eat a good breakfast.

Not only is a good, healthy breakfast vital to your body’s well being, but it also can instantly put everyone in a better mood. The difference between a day when your family has had a good breakfast and when breakfast was an after thought (or not thought of at all) can be astounding. A good breakfast can also help you get through lessons until lunch time without having to little ones complain about grumbling stomachs.

Avoid distractions.

How many times have you been about to start school when you decided to check Facebook or your email just one more time? Then, how many times have you found that the “just a minute” of checking turning in to a much longer stop. Work to avoid those electronic distractions first thing in the morning. Try to just check your email and social media accounts when you can actually act on the tasks waiting for you, instead of checking often and letting things pile up.

What are some of the things that you have found that help you the most to have a successful homeschooling day?

Angie, a domestically-challenged writer and artist, is a homeschooling mom to three children. She writes about everything that happens in their lives between all the loads of laundry at Many Little Blessings. She is also the founder of The Homeschool Classroom, Catholic Mothers Online, and Just a Tiny Owl.

Five Simple Steps to a Better Homeschool Day is a post from Life Your Way

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Day 5: Drawers, Cabinets & Appliances {Spring Cleaning Made Easy}

For the next month, we’ll be spring cleaning the easy way with our Spring Cleaning Made Easy series! The goal is to get the whole house clean — one mini task at a time — without having to set aside a whole week, or even a whole day, to clean.

Spring cleaning is so glamorous, isn’t it? Today we’re going to clean out the miscellanea in the kitchen — drawers and cabinets, the remaining appliances and the tops of cabinets and shelves. Fun, right?

source: Tom French

Today’s task is actually part cleaning, part decluttering:

As we go through the drawers and cabinets, straightening utensils and organizing kitchen tools, be sure to pay attention to the items you’re moving around. Do you really use them? Do you have multiples? Could something else do the same job? Do you really need that many small appliances? If your drawers and cabinets are overflowing, decluttering is a great way to make it easier to get to the items you actually need and use, which will make your kitchen more efficient and keep it clean.

Drawers & Cabinets

Empty out each drawer or cabinet, vacuum up any crumbs (how do they get so many crumbs in them?!) and then wipe the insides with a damp cloth.

If you’re happy with the layout of the kitchen, you can go ahead and put the contents of each drawer back as you clean it, but now is also a great time to reorganize. Consider creating zones in your kitchen around your most frequent activities  — a baking zone with the tools and pans you use for baking,  a serving zone with plates, utensils and serving dishes, etc.

TIP: Decluttering doesn’t have to be permanent. If you’d like to declutter but are afraid that you’ll regret your decisions, pack those items away in a box and label it with the date. You’ll still be able to get things out if you decide you need them, and after 3-6 months you can give away anything that’s still in the box!

Once you’re done, wipe the outside of the cabinets as well. We actually do this regularly as part of our weekly cleaning because 8 little hands in the house means they get fairly grimy.

Appliances

We’ve already cleaned the refrigerator and freezer, but today is the day to clean the oven, stovetop and dishwasher as well.

Use Katie’s easy dishwasher cleaning method to de-gunk your dishwasher while you work on something else.


If you have a self-cleaning oven, open up the windows for a couple hours and let that baby do its job!


Use this easy method to clean your microwave and freshen the air at the same time.

Bonus: Once you’re done the drawers, cabinets & appliances, grab a stool or ladder and wipe down the tops of the cabinets as well. If it’s really dusty, start with a dust buster to pick up the bulk of the dust first!

Track your progress this month with the Spring Cleaning Made Easy checklist, which comes in two versions — one with dates to coincide with the live series and one with generic labels so you can do it on your own at another time. Click here to download or print your copy!

Want to get a jump start on tomorrow’s task? Go ahead and start working on your cabinets, drawers and the remaining appliances.

Do you have too many kitchen tools?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Day 5: Drawers, Cabinets & Appliances {Spring Cleaning Made Easy} is a post from Life Your Way

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Crafts & Activities to Focus on the Meaning of Easter

People tend to talk about the “true meaning of Christmas” a lot during the holiday season, but it doesn’t seem to be talked about as much during Easter. While we love chocolate and eggs and bunnies, our family tends to separate our spring celebrations from our Easter celebration, but this year I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by morning sickness and life in general, and — I’m sad to say this — Easter hasn’t really even been on my radar too much.

That said, I’d like to find some ways to put the focus back on the Easter story in the coming week, and this year I’m looking forward to do the 8 days of activities from Katie Orr’s Find More Jesus ebook.

If you’re looking for some last-minute ways to celebrate, here are a couple other activities from the archives as well:

DIY Resurrection Eggs & Easter Story Book Printables

8 Days of Easter Advent for Families

How do you celebrate Easter?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Crafts & Activities to Focus on the Meaning of Easter is a post from Life Your Way

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Monkey Preschool Lunchbox {iOS App of the Week}

While most of the apps I’ve shared this year have been for adults, this app is hands down our favorite for preschoolers! Our youngest has been playing it for more than a year and still loves the matching, counting and puzzles.

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox is one of a suite of educational yet fun apps from THUP Games. It includes 6 different activities, is easy enough for a two-year-old to navigate and doesn’t have any of those confusing menu options or links that so often trips up little ones with other games!

With fun characters, silly voices and “stickers” to collect, this game is not only educational but tons of fun for little ones. We’ve recently been trying out a few of their other games as well, and so far the girls seem just as enthralled with those!

Download for your iPhone, iPad or iPod: Monkey Preschool Lunchbox ($0.99)

P.S. This one is also available for Android!

See all of our featured apps here.

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox {iOS App of the Week} is a post from Life Your Way

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Go Green or Get Fancy with DIY Cloth Napkins

The following post is from Janel of Life with Lucie and Ella.:

source: Janel from Life with L and E

Whether you want to be a little bit “greener” or just want to set a pretty table for a special meal, cloth napkins are a great DIY project.

Making your own cloth napkins is a perfect way to use fabric that has been recycled, purchased from the remnant shelves, or is leftover from a previous sewing project. It is also a great solution when there is a particular “look” that you want but just can’t find in the stores.

Cloth napkins are quick and easy to make. If you’re new to sewing, cloth napkins are a great place to start. Plus, you can enjoy them everyday so the time and energy that you put into them will be worth it.

Don’t stress out about making your cloth napkins “perfect.” Although my template method does make it easier to make them more uniform in size, who is really going to measure your napkins or inspect them for a perfectly straight stitch? Most likely no one. Just make sure that they are large enough and absorbent enough to do their job and you’re good-to-go. (Tip: Don’t use fabric softener on any fabric that you actually want to be absorbent.)

How to Make Cloth Napkins:

source: Janel from Life with L and E

Supplies:

posterboard for template
pen & yardstick
scissors
fabric (cotton and linen are good choices)
iron & ironing board
straight pins
thread
sewing machine

Directions:

Decide on the size you would like your finished napkin to be — 20-inch are nice for a formal dining but smaller works well for everyday too. For this project, I used some leftover material that I had so my finished napkins were 15-inches square. Typical paper napkins are 12-inches squares. Choose what works for you — that’s the beauty of DIY!

To make it easier to prepare the fabric, you can make a square template out of posterboard. The template should be 2-inches larger than you’d like your finished napkin to be. For a 20-inch napkin, you’ll need a 22-inch square template. Use the posterboard, yardstick, and pen to create a square template and cut it out with the scissors.

Wash, dry, and iron the fabric. Use a pen to trace the template onto the fabric. Cut out your fabric squares.

Once all of your fabric squares have been cut, trim down the template by one inch — a 22-inch square template should become a 21-inch square. This will help you iron your hems to the same size. Place the template in the center of a fabric square (wrong-side up) on an ironing board. Fold the edge of the fabric over the edge of the template and iron. This will leave you with a crease about 0.5 inches from the edge. Repeat on each edge of the napkin.

source: Janel from Life with L and E

Remove the template and fold each edge over again another 0.5 inches and iron.

To make it easier to finish the edges of the napkin, cut off the corners of the fabric square. The creases left by the iron will give you a guide of where to cut. Cut as shown along the dotted line in the photo below:

source: Janel from Life with L and E

For each edge, fold over twice and pin. Secure the corners and the edges with straight pins. The corner should fold up to look like the photo below.

source: Janel from Life with L and E

With your sewing machine, make a straight stitch along the fold for the hem all around the square. Finish the edges by sewing another straight stitch close to the edge of the napkin. Snip threads.

source: Janel from Life with L and E

Related Posts:

Going Paperless Around the House
Braided Vine Napkin Rings
Dress Up Candle Holders with Beads (Instead of using the beaded elastic tutorial for a candle, follow the same process to make a pretty beaded napkin ring!)

Do you ever use cloth napkins?

Janel is a stay-at-home mom of two and law school wife. Raised in a budget-conscious and do-it-yourself minded family, she loves seeing something in a store or magazine and making her own version at home for less money. Janel blogs about motherhood, crafts and recipes at Life with Lucie and Ella.

Go Green or Get Fancy with DIY Cloth Napkins is a post from Life Your Way

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Day 4: Clean the Pantry {Spring Cleaning Made Easy}

For the next month, we’ll be spring cleaning the easy way with our Spring Cleaning Made Easy series! The goal is to get the whole house clean — one mini task at a time — without having to set aside a whole week, or even a whole day, to clean.

Whether you have a dedicated pantry or just make do with various cabinets and drawers, it’s important to regularly sort and rotate your pantry inventory to be sure nothing goes to waste, and today we’re going to do just that!

source: Salvation Army USA West

Bonus Task: If you have a formal dining room or china cabinet, today would be a great day to pull your china out and clean the place settings as well as the cabinet itself.

If you have the time and space, start by emptying out your pantry onto the counter or kitchen table so that you can thoroughly vacuum and wipe the shelves and cabinets. Once that area is clean itself, you can start reorganizing and putting things away:

Divide your pantry space into zones. Think about the types of food you regular keep in your pantry and separate them into zones that make the most sense to you. You might separate cans, breakfast foods, baking ingredients and snacks. Or you might keep all of your prepared foods on one shelf where they’re easily accessible and put jars/cans/mixes on another. See how I organize my pantry here.


Get rid of excess packaging. Take individual snacks out of their various boxes and packages and put them in an open basket instead. Remove the plastic wrapping from any bulk purchases. And combine open packages of rice, beans, etc. in a jar or container with a tight lid. Eliminating that extra packaging will make your shelves feel neater and more organized.


Arrange food so that it’s easy to see. Turn cans so that you can see their labels. If space requires you to keep things in front of each other, put the larger items in the back so they’re easier to see.


Keep the ingredients you use more frequently at eye level and easily accessible. There’s no reason you should have to dig through the canned caviar that you’re saving for a special occasion every time you need to get to the flour and sugar!


Be willing to declutter. If you have canned or packaged foods your family is realistically not going to eat before they expire, go ahead and create a bag or box to take to your local soup kitchen or community drop off. There’s no point in wasting the food or the space when other families would happily use those same items!

TIP: Like with your fridge, you can keep your pantry organized by taking the time to straighten it each week before you put new groceries away.

Track your progress this month with the Spring Cleaning Made Easy checklist, which comes in two versions — one with dates to coincide with the live series and one with generic labels so you can do it on your own at another time. Click here to download or print your copy!

Want to get a jump start on tomorrow’s task? Go ahead and start working on your cabinets, drawers and the remaining appliances.

Do you keep a pantry stockpile? What was the most surprising thing you found in your pantry?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Day 4: Clean the Pantry {Spring Cleaning Made Easy} is a post from Life Your Way

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Free Kindle Books {3/21/13}

One of the most popular features of our sister site, Jungle Deals & Steals, are our free Kindle book lists. With 15-20 free ebooks every day, these are a great way to load up your Kindle without breaking the bank, and Kindle books can also be read on smartphones, computers and tablets with the Kindle app from Amazon.

Here’s a quick list of some of the freebies that are currently available, but be sure to head over to Jungle Deals & Steals for new freebies today…or subscribe to our daily freebies email so you don’t miss a single book!

Fiction

Mrs. Tuesday’s Departure: A Historical Novel of World War Two by Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson 


Genre: Historical


Reviews:  (82 reviews)

Takin’ The Reins by Stacey Coverstone 


Genre: Romance


Reviews:  (1 review)

The Shortcut by William Sabol 


Genre: Mystery


Reviews:  (29 reviews)

Nonfiction

Conquer Clutter: 3 Books in 1 – Declutter Now, Organize Your Home, Simple Storage Systems – Discover the Secrets of a Clutter Free Lifestyle by Ava Conner 


Genre: Cleaning & Caretaking


Reviews:  (18 reviews)

50 Best Gluten-Free Pie Crusts and Fillings INCLUDING TART RECIPES by Jamie Fynn 


Genre: Pies


Reviews: No Reviews Yet!

My Personality is Weak! How to Build Leadership Habits in 7 Simple Stepsby Businessman Company 


Genre: Leadership


Reviews: No Reviews Yet!

Children’s Books

The Troll Trap by Rosen Trevithick 


Genre: Literature


Reviews:  (4 reviews)

Jane Decorates an Easter Egg: A Picture Easter Book for Children by Betty Palatin 


Genre: Easter


Reviews:  (2 reviews)

See more Kindle freebies here.

Free Kindle Books {3/21/13} is a post from Life Your Way

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Day 3: Clean Your Refrigerator & Freezer {Spring Cleaning Made Easy}

For the next month, we’ll be spring cleaning the easy way with our Spring Cleaning Made Easy series! The goal is to get the whole house clean — one mini task at a time — without having to set aside a whole week, or even a whole day, to clean.

Today we’re diving into the fridge and freezer. For some of you, this is no big deal and for others, it might not feel like a mini task after all, but either way, let’s roll up our sleeves and knock it out!

source: PV KS

Bonus Tasks: If you have an extra refrigerator or freezer, go ahead and clean that one out today too! If it’s been a while and you’re feeling really ambitious, go ahead and defrost you freezer as well.

Some people recommend turning off your fridge and emptying all the food into a cooler to save on electricity while you clean it out. If your refrigerator is really dirty and you expect it to take a while, be sure to do this. Otherwise, I recommend cleaning the shelves one by one — top to bottom — instead. You can close the door while you’re washing a shelf in the sink to help keep the temperature cool.

Okay, let’s get started:

throw out any expired or spoiled food
clean the shelves, scrubbing any spills that may have hardened in place
wipe the walls and shelf tracks
clean veggie and meat drawers with warm soapy water
clean under the bottom drawers as well, where crumbs and spills tend to gather
wipe the condiment shelves in the door
clean the door seals to remove any crumbs or spills

Once you’re finished with the inside of the fridge, repeat those same steps in the freezer.

Then, it’s time to clean the outside:

wipe the top of the refrigerator
wipe the doors {we like to use baby oil on our stainless steel appliances}
unplug the fridge and clean the refrigerator coils
pull the refrigerator out and vacuum up any crumbs left behind

And you’re done!

TIP: Clean out your fridge and freezer each week before you grocery shop. It won’t be as full, so you can quickly clean up any spills, clean out the produce drawer, etc., and you’ll have plenty of room to easily put away the new groceries!

Track your progress this month with the Spring Cleaning Made Easy checklist, which comes in two versions — one with dates to coincide with the live series and one with generic labels so you can do it on your own at another time. Click here to download or print your copy!

Want to get a jump start on tomorrow’s task? We’ll be tackling the pantry.

How often do you clean our your fridge? What’s the oldest thing you found?

Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Day 3: Clean Your Refrigerator & Freezer {Spring Cleaning Made Easy} is a post from Life Your Way

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Buy a Shirt & Feed a Starving Child in Haiti {Sevenly.com}

Have you discovered Sevenly yet? Sevenly offers a new shirt design each and every week, but these designs aren’t just pretty — they’re designed in support of a specific cause or charity, and $7 from each shirt sold is donated directly to that charity!

This week’s charity is Feed My Starving Children, and $7 from every purchase this week provides food for a starving child in Haiti for one month! I love this week’s mission, and I’m especially excited to see that they’re featuring more tanktops as we welcome spring. (The only question is how well they’ll work for me as maternity tanks, LOL!)

See all of this week’s designs here.

Why Sevenly?

Sevenly is a for-profit company that is making a tangible difference through their giving. They offer high-quality, stylish clothing at a reasonable price and instead of pocketing all of the revenue, they give $7 from each and every shirt purchased directly to the cause of the week.

While giving directly to a charity is always the better option, Sevenly is a great way to expand your wardrobe and support the causes you care about at the same time. And your new shirt offers you the opportunity to become an ambassador for these charities as well, as the designs are sure to open up conversations along the way!

Buy a Shirt & Feed a Starving Child in Haiti {Sevenly.com} is a post from Life Your Way

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My Everyday Road Trip & a Chance to Win FREE Gas for a Year!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cooper Tire for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

source: mandiehman on Instagram

Our family spends a lot of time in the car each week, driving over the mountains and through the woods as we head “to town” and back for a variety of activities — church, our homeschool group, errands and appointments, playdates, visiting my in-laws and more.

Although there are times I regret our decision to move to the boonies and therefore to spend so much time on the road, our girls are exceptional travelers because they do it so often, which is a good thing when we take a day trip or to head to Florida to visit family.

To pass the time in the car, the girls always load up with a variety of activities, take turns listening to stories or playing games on various devices, practice blowing bubbles with their gum or enjoy classics like the alphabet game or I spy while we drive.

Occasionally our everyday road trips turn not-so-ordinary, like when we find ourself fishtailing and spinning on an icy road (like this past Christmas Eve), when the cat — who is not as fond of road trips as the rest of us — suddenly decides to pee in her cage while we drive, or when a carsick child throws up in the backseat. But for the most part our family enjoys our time on the road!

Enter the My Everyday Road Trip Contest

Cooper Tire has been crafting tires for life’s road trips for nearly 100 years. With quality passenger, light truck, sport utility, performance and winter tires, Cooper has the perfect tires for most vehicles on the road today!

To celebrate the time that their customers spend on the road, they’re hosting the Cooper Tire’s My Every Day Road Trip Contest. Enter to win FREE gas for the year by sharing your not-so-everyday road trip stories through written stories, photos or video.

The top written story will win a $100 gift card to use toward gas for one week, the highest rated photo entry will receive a $500 gift card to use toward gas for one month and the top five video finalists will each win a new set of four Cooper tires and advance to the final phase of the competition.

In the final phase, Cooper Tire Facebook fans will be encouraged to vote for their favorite Every Day Road Trip video, to help determine the final winner. The video with the combined highest score and most votes will be awarded a gift card for $5,000 toward gas for one year to fuel their daily drive.

Starting April 15th, fans who vote on the videos in the My Every Day Road Trip Contest will also be entered to win Road Trip Kit worth more than $200.

Like Cooper Tire’s Facebook page for complete contest and sweepstakes rules, submission guidelines and to share your not-so-everyday road trip story!

My Everyday Road Trip & a Chance to Win FREE Gas for a Year! is a post from Life Your Way

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