Preschool Letter "X" and Cincinnati Reds Opening Day

Tomorrow Jonathan's class will be studying the letter "X". I have been wondering what treat I could find for this letter. Not many things start with "X"! We have a Galerie candy factory outlet near here, which I just discovered a couple of months ago. I went there and found this cute little candy Tic Tac Toe game. It has an edible marker and sheets of candy Tic Tac Toe games. Perfect! I printed a little sign saying "Have fun writing-and eating-the letter "X"" and attached it to the package with glue dots. I had planned to take these in on Tues. morning, but Jonathan couldn't go to school. So I guess they will get double treats, because tomorrow is our Cincinnati Reds opening day!! Too bad the weather isn't very springlike, it has snowed here all day. The kids will get to share these little animal cracker-like baseball emblem cookies at storytime, or whenever Mrs. McDaniel thinks is best. The baseball napkins were left over from Jon's baseball theme birthday party last summer.

Then each child will go home with this Reds treat bag and a couple of goodies. What fun to put together! Again, some of the treats for this were extras not used at last year's party. I knew I'd find a use for them!

I am hoping Jonathan is still feeling better and can go back to school tomorrow, we both need him to!

A Sick Child, Basketball Games & Snow

This was our week-end:

My son has the virus that won't go away. He's been sick since Friday with an especially nasty virus, fever, throwing up and muscle aches. Look at those little red, fever-flushed cheeks! He has missed his Mon. and Tues. classes, maybe he will be able to go back to school on Thurs.

Here in Kentucky, we bleed blue! The entire state (well, maybe not in area of Louisville...) stands behind our UK boys in blue, even when we have a not-so-good season. But when we are playing in the Elite Eight games, all eyes are glued to the TV screen at game time. My little guy tried to watch the game Sunday afternoon, but just couldn't stay awake. He woke in time to see the end and cheer the Cats to victory! We are so proud of our Wildcats as they move on to the Final Four and are hoping for a national championship!

We had snow. I had the grass cut for the first time on Sat., and it snowed about an inch Sat. night. Just when you think it is spring, Mother Nature decides otherwise. We've had cold temperatures since the week-end and are supposed to get more snow tonight.

Here on Hartland, we are ready for an end to viruses and winter, and a UK win in the NCAA tournament!

Chair Redo

I have had this chair a long, long time. I purchased a pair of them at a flea market many years ago, selling its mate long ago. This is my computer chair. It gets lots of use, and as you can see, has been in dire need of a seat re-covering for awhile now. I decided to tackle it today.

First, I removed the seat from the chair and then removed the fabric covering it. I have an upholstery sample purchased at a yard sale last summer to use for the new covering. I put the seat on the fabric to measure and cut.

A few minutes later, all done!

While the seat was off the chair, I cleaned it (with Jonathan's help) and gave it a rubdown in Old English.

Reattached the seat, and it sure looks better!

I just realized how many projects get done in my kitchen, on the kitchen table. Where do you complete your projects?

Science Experiment: Planting Socks

My boy loves science. His favorite thing at preschool is the science experiments his Tues./Thurs. teacher does each week. So we decided to try our own experiment. We are going to plant socks! First, he put on an old pair of socks and walked around outdoors for awhile

, with this result.

Next we planted the socks in a flower pot. We are hoping some seeds adhered to the bottom of the socks!

Next up: watering the planted socks.

We marked the date on the kitchen calendar, and now we will water and wait. Will anything sprout? We have no idea! Time will tell. We will keep you posted!

Spring "Honey-Do" List

A few weeks ago I was trying to change a light bulb in my pantry. This is what happened: The darn fixture came right out of the ceiling and I still couldn't remove the bulb cover! Then lightening struck twice. I was attempting to change the battery in the upstairs smoke detector and this happened:

It came right out of the ceiling! What's a girl to do? Especially a single one with no experience fixing things like this! Fortunately, I have a "handyman" I can call. He is a very nice guy whose business is doing odd jobs--or big jobs, depending on what you need. It is very difficult to find someone to do little things like this, or hanging curtain rods, or replacing leaky faucets, or fixing storm doors when your son goes running in to one and breaks the thingy at the top that keeps the door from slamming. I have had him do all of this, and more. I joke with him that I have a "honey-do" list of small but necessary repairs about two or three times a year. He will stop by and spend a few hours completing my list. After a couple of hours here yesterday, I now have:

A new pantry light

And two new smoke detectors, upstairs and downstairs.

He also readied Jonathan's bike for spring, adjusting the seat and training wheels and inflating the tires after it sat in the garage all winter.

He works for a very reasonable wage, charging $50.00 for an afternoon's work. He calls his business Ken's Handy Ministry and says he started it primarily because so many older folks needed little things done and could find no one to do them. I am very grateful I found him. It helps me to maintain my home by doing small repairs before they become major issues, at a price I can afford.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Jonathan has had a fun day today, beginning with his breakfast this morning. He loved the green place setting, and the bear. Green is his favorite color!
I packed him an (almost) all green lunch for school. He had a sandwich in a green container, lime Jell-o, green goldfish crackers (yes, I picked the green ones out of the rainbow fish package!), green olives (which he loves) and green grapes.

He's all ready to leave for school in the cute shirt my niece made for him last year. It was a little large last year, which was great, because he could wear it this year, too.

I didn't know his teacher was planning anything for the day, but we were surprised! Seems naughty little leprechauns visited the classroom during the night and wreaked havoc! Tables awry, chairs everywhere, blinds a mess, and notice the upside down "V"s and vase. The calendar was all messed up, too! Little leprechaun footprints were everywhere, and they had taken all of the morning's work papers! The leprechauns left a map, so the kids went on a scavenger hunt following the clues on the map, and found gold covered chocolate coins and little bags of Lucky Charms cereal! See why I love his preschool?

Jonathan and his friends are peeping out of the classroom door as the wait for the only other boy to arrive. They had such a fun day!!

"May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live"

an Irish Proverb

Hope you all had a fun St. Patrick's Day!

Busy Evening!

Just in case you think I have been sitting around this evening after our busy day, I thought I'd share with you what I have been doing.

Tomorrow we are taking St. Patrick's Day
treats to school. I decided to try something new, inspired by a post on this blog. l put marshmallows on lollipop sticks and covered them with green sprinkles and let them dry. Dip the marshmallows in water to dampen and then apply sprinkles. Then I used an edible food marker to write the names of Jonathan's classmates on a marshmallow, then made marshmallow bouquets tucked in lollipop bags from Michael's.

Here are all of the treats we are taking to school tomorrow: treat bags for the kids with all green items inside, small green paper bags filled with green & white shred, Andes mints and a lucky coin for the teacher's aides, and for his teacher a small green tin with a shamrock spray on top, also filled with green & white shred, mints and a coin.

Next, I set the table for Jonathan's breakfast with as much green as I could find and a little surprise!

Now I am ready for a bubble bath and a few minutes with a good book!

Busy Week!

We are in the middle of a busy week around here! It started with a St. Patrick's Day party this past Sunday at the local library and will end on this coming Sunday with the season's first soccer game, weather permitting.
Tues. after school we took a friend with us to Totter's Otterville, a local business that is a huge playroom. This morning we were invited to another friend's house for a play date, and tonight is our first soccer practice.
On Friday, I have a trip planned to an outlet mall about an hour away. I always buy Jonathan's shoes at the Stride Rite store there, he has very hard to fit feet!
Saturday we have a friend's birthday party, then soccer on Sunday afternoon. Whew!
All this runnin' around is tough on this old mama, and I am sure it is only going to get worse!

Be sure to check out your local library for fun and free programs for your child, and yourself!

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Bechtol!

Tomorrow is our preschool director's birthday. I hope this little touch of spring lets her know how much we appreciate all she does to make our school special!

A Birthday What???

Jonathan is invited to a classmate's birthday party next Saturday, and I was trying to think of a unique way to wrap the present. We are giving him an assortment of small things: a Lego kit, a Hexbug and a couple of other things. I mentioned to my sister that the gifts were almost like things that would be in a stocking, and that's when I thought of it:


Jonathan loves his stocking, I think most kids do! So how much fun would a birthday stocking be? At first I was kicking around all sorts of ideas for the stocking itself. Making one from felt, or just drawing one on the front of a solid color gift bag. Today I remembered a big plastic stocking we received that Jonathan never opened. My sister was visiting, so we decided to see what we could come up with. We used Jonathan's foam alphabet stickers to label it, and I had some colored circle gift tags with plastic centers that we used to fill in the blank spots and make it look less "Christmas-y". To showcase the colored letters on the clear plastic stocking, everything was loosely wrapped in white tissue and tied with various colors of twine. It includes some of the birthday boy's favorite candy, too. A couple of little plastic frog poppers are peeping above the tissue wrapped gifts.

I was quite pleased with the results. I like doing something original and different like this. I used what I already had on hand, so there was zero cost in the wrapping. I'll let you know if he likes it or not!

It ain't always a walk in the park....

If you look at the "about me" on my blog home page, you will see I invited you to join me in my joys, and also my challenges.
This has been a challenging morning. It's 11 a.m. We've had two time outs already. Someone is whiny and clingy and just plain grumpy. I know that's how kids operate, but it is hard sometimes.
I've noticed that Jonathan goes through "stages" where he is extra clingy, or extra naughty, or tries to test the limits and assert his independence. Usually not all of these stages at the same time. Usually. Today seems to be the exception!
I try to distract him when possible, or find a project for him to do. Today he is watching too much TV (at least it's PBS Kids!).
One of the most difficult aspects of single parenthood (at any age) is that you are the only one to deal with days like this. I can't take a little break and run out for milk while dad keeps him entertained, or ask grandma to stop by for an hour or two. And none of the "just wait until your dad gets home!" stuff for me.
Fortunately, days like this are, if not rare, at least infrequent. I'm still right where I want to be.

Ironing: Obsession #3

Do you iron? According to most people I mention it to, I seem to be part of a dying breed. One friend's daughter, now 9 years old, was shown a picture of an iron at school (at about age 7). She had no idea what it was!

I just cannot let Jonathan go to school, or anywhere else, for that matter, in wrinkled clothing. I air-dry quite a bit of our laundry, and I iron. A lot. It's never done and I am never caught up. Still I forge ahead.

Today is a rainy day, and I am ironing. I have a small laundry room, so I do most of the ironing in the kitchen. The ironing board is a semi-permanent fixture there. I'm okay with that!

Preschool Letter "U"

This is letter "U" week at preschool and I have been wondering what to take for treats for this letter. Monday's thematic learning class is "Under the Big Top". They are going to learn all about the circus and perform in their very own circus at the end of the day!

I found these cute clown cookies at a local bakery and put them in red & white treat bags, tied with tickets left over from Jonathan's birthday party last summer.

The Tues./Thurs. class was a little more of a challenge until I realized something. There are two things we love in Kentucky: horses and U.K. basketball. What does "university" start with? A "U", of course!! So each child will get a plastic U.K. cup filled with blue & white shred, U.K. mints and a little basketball. He is taking a ukulele for his "U" Show & Share item.

Next week we will be taking St. Patrick's Day treats, instead of a letter theme treat. I really love making treats for his class!

"GO BIG BLUE--UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY WILDCATS!"

Catching a Leprechaun

Jonathan was a little cranky yesterday after school, he was tired and has a bit of a cold. So, to relax him a little before bedtime, I told him we were going to try to catch a leprechaun tonight. To do that, we had to build a leprechaun trap. So after dinner, we got to work.

A tissue box, green construction paper, green marker, glue stick and stickers turned into a leprechaun trap! We decided to try to lure him in with Froot Loops and shiny green coins.....leprechauns love shiny things, don't you know. I told him they were wily little creatures, and very hard to catch.

This morning he raced to the kitchen table, only to find one had visited and left footprints, but the little elf had managed to escape!

Adios, February!!

I always love the first day of March. To me, it signals the end of winter, even though I have seen some really big snowfalls in March. However, if it is March you know they can't last too long.

I am not big on New Years resolutions, but I make some March-olutions! Time to get out and walk, do some spring cleaning and some yard work.

Seriously, I have a lot I need to accomplish this month. I am planning to work on a list tonight and try to make things manageable. I want to get things better organized around here, so I hope to do at least one drawer or cabinet each day. Things need to be readied for the season's first yard sale. The garage is a mess from the winter and because I tend to stuff things in there when I don't know what else to do with them, especially since I don't have a basement and storage is at a premium. The yard is a mess from winter, also, and I need to get it ready to plant flowers and hopefully a tomato plant or two. Add to that some special spring projects (painting the storage building, painting woodwork). March, and April, need to be productive months.

My problem (one of them, anyway!) is that I am not known for my time management skills. I waste too much time deciding what to do, instead of just doing it!

Here is what I hope to accomplish in March:

• Paint the woodwork in my bathroom


• Start cleaning the garage


• Organize at least one drawer/cabinet per day


• Get Jonathan's spring/summer wardrobe in order


• Do some yard/flower bed work


• If weather permits, have a yard sale. If not, have things ready to have one on the first nice Saturday


• Do general spring cleaning

I'll have to let you know on April 1st how I did. Maybe telling you guys what needs to be done will hold me accountable!