A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

Setting the Tone for the Holidays

Christmas can be nuts. As my husband points out, I try to do a year’s worth of activity in four weeks. But what could I cut out? I love the traditions, the gift-making, the shopping, the baking, the parties, the concerts. So my only hope for as little stress as possible is to have a good plan in place and start chipping away at my to-do list before things get too crazy.

Before we do anything else, let’s take a moment to do a little mental exercise to set the tone for the holidays. Sit down (preferably with a cup of coffee or tea) and imagine what your ideal Christmas would be like. (Ideal meaning pleasant, not perfect, of course.) Think of words that describe the mood you’d like to set. Here’s what popped into my head: joyful, holy, meaningful, fun, peaceful, cozy. How about you?

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Post-Halloween Candy Follow-Up

I didn’t see it coming. Last week when I suggested that the kids turn in some Halloween candy for cash or leave it out for the Switch Witch in exchange for a prize, they clutched their bags to their chests and looked at me with Puss-in-Boots eyes. But when I brought up the subject again yesterday, the kids shrugged and said, “Show us the money.” They picked out enough of their favorites to have one a day until Thanksgiving and happily handed the rest over. Who would have thought? What I learned is that it’s all in the timing; you have to let the excitement die down a little before asking them to part with their precious Halloween bounty.

And then my little capitalists took it a step further. After eyeing their piles of money (I offered a quarter per piece of candy), Lexie and Lily dug out their nearly-forgotten bags of candy from our town’s Labor Day parade. I had to dig a little deeper into the loose change jar than I’d planned, but it was fun to watch how excited they got.

I also set aside about 20 pieces of candy so we could do a little experiment. We chopped up the candy and added it to a brownie mix. We used chocolate-based candies, like Snickers, Hersheys, and Malted Milk Balls, but if you’re brave you could try Skittles and Starburst candies! I thought something tasted kind of funny (the Malted Milk Balls?), but the kids loved how the brownies turned out.

How about you? Did you try any strategies to keep the candy consumption under control?

Fun Ideas for Thanksgiving (plus Day One of Holiday Planning: the Christmas Planner)

{ image by Nicole Hill Gerulat }

Now that all the birthday parties and Halloween are over, I’m ready to start planning for Christmas. I tried to start Christmas planning on October 1st one year (as FlyLady recommends: see Cruising Through the Holidays), but all I did was make myself crazier for a longer period of time! I do try to get a few things done early if I can, but mostly whatever happens between the second week of November and New Year’s Day is what happens.

So. The first thing to do is get my official Christmas planner out and start filling it in. Do you have a planner? If not, click on this Countdown to Christmas post and you can print out everything you need to make one of your own. It helps IMMENSELY to keep everything holiday-related in one place.

Now that we’ve done a little Christmas planning today, we can turn our thoughts back to Thanksgiving. This turkey centerpiece from One Charming Party cracks me up! The Parents article also features clever Pilgrim hat vegetable holders, Mayflower-shaped place cards, and a “corn”-y dessert—everything you need to make the kids’ table the place to be.

My kids don’t have school today, so we’re heading out to see Puss in Boots. I hear it’s really good. (Lexie’s attending a birthday party and the girls are going to the movie, too, but I promised her we’d sit far away and they’d never know we were there. I’m hoping Lily can resist trying to get attention from the big girls.) I almost forgot: Lexie made one of these for her friend. I love this idea!

A Birthday (and Weekend Links)

How can this little one-week-old baby be 13 years old today? I know everyone says this, but the time flies by so quickly! I’ve never been the mother of a teenage boy before, but Andrew is making it easy. He’s as cheerful as ever and marked the occasion by being named the 8th grade Student of the Week. We are so blessed to have him.

Andrew is hosting a sleepover tonight, so I’m preparing for a houseful of teenage boys. The plan is to stick them in the basement with some movies and video games and occasionally toss down a pizza. Piece of cake. (Speaking of, Andrew requested a Dairy Queen birthday cake. I’m getting off easy with this party!)

While I’m looking at Andrew’s baby photos and turning into a pile of mush, here are some fun links for you:

Have a great weekend and I hope to see you back on Monday! (Christmas planning and organizing starts next week. Whoo-hoo!)

Mad Scientist Birthday Party: Part 2

I covered the first half of Will’s party in Mad Scientist Birthday Party: Part 1, so let’s talk a little bit about decorations, props, and food in Part 2. Because Will’s birthday falls so close to Halloween, our house was already filled with Halloween decorations. So I didn’t go too crazy with the decorations—I just tried to create a simple lab effect. I used silver plastic tablecloths to simulate stainless steel lab tables and set a pair of thin rubber gloves at each place.

Lunch was very simple: pizza and apples with caramel dip. Will and Grammy made brain cupcakes and we used sterile gauze pads as napkins. Tim put up a few black, green, and white streamers, and that was it!  But there are so many other things you could do. You could order test tubes and beakers online and have them sitting around or put food or drinks in them. You could hang posters or print-outs of famous scientists like Albert Einstein and Marie Curie on the walls. You could even dress up like a mad scientist yourself, with a wig, glasses, and pens in your pocket.

I cheated a little on the last experiment. We were all going to make slime, but it was such a gorgeous day that the boys wanted to play outside for a bit. So I made it while they were playing and scooped the slime into baggies for each to take home. Speaking of goody bags, I filled the big black plastic cups from lunch with Nerds and Pop Rocks (and the slime). We had set the volcanos aside to dry on squares of wax paper, so we sent those home with the boys, too. (Be sure to write their names on the squares so you don’t get them mixed up.)

Here’s the recipe for slime. The way the slime forms is seriously cool! I tripled it to make enough to send home with everyone.

Slime Recipe
Ingredients:
borax powder
water
4 ounce bottle Elmer’s white glue
food coloring

In a bowl, mix together the glue, 1/2 cup water, and a few drops of food coloring. In a separate bowl, mix one cup of water with 1 tsp. borax powder. Slowly stir the glue mixture into the bowl of borax solution. Knead the slime until it feels dry (some water might be left in the bowl).

I think I covered everything. It really was a lot of fun. Let me know if you give it a try!