We've been playing a new game at our house.

You could call it Mommy-is-Sick-of-Feeding-the-Ungrateful-Masses, but as I am not bitter, it's really about a simple points system.

I told my food-fearing, taste-starved children that I was going to cook what I wanted for dinner and no one was going to make them try a bite of anything anymore. They were in charge of their own hungry tummies for each meal and they couldn't be unkind about the food I make and that whining about dinner would no longer be tolerated. (Then I throw in the sweet part...) "However," I said, "every time you try something new, a nickel-sized bite of something, you will get a point. If you get ten points, you will get a prize. You'll get a bonus date with mom and dad, a game rental from the Redbox, a snowcone... (stuff around a dollar)"

And I left it at that.

It has been magic!!!

Just last night, watching Bryce dig into a mushroom-filled wild rice casserole was more rewarding than finishing a good book.

Over the last two weeks my kids have eaten kale chips, kohlrabi, carrots, that rice casserole, steak sauce and grilled garlic spread on grilled french bread. The funniest part is how surprised they are that they actually like things.

I didn't think it would work this well. 

They only amendment I made to the original statement is that they could get up to five points per new thing (to encourage truly tasting what they put in their mouths).

We have had snow cones, rented Epic Mickey...and that's just the beginning. Bryce is DEFINITELY in the lead on this. He just cleared his third set of ten yesterday. Ella's had two and Dane one.

The final benefit is that I'm enjoying dinner again. Family dinner is quality time instead of tense and unhappy. I'm not afraid to share that in the past I have left the table in tears because food and filling tummies has always equaled love to me. I think my love may be better spent elsewhere, instead of using it as a cooking ingredient.

Three months ago, Cam and I decided to have dates with our kids in earnest. Each month they get a date with one of us. One month I'll take both boys (at different times) and Cam will take Ella. The next month we switch. 

We try to keep them on the cheap, though we do have a $5 dollar budget just in case. 

Most often, they involve an ice cream cone and a movie (at home or the dollar theater). 

This ice cream date with Bryce was sponsored by the library. Read five books, get a small ice cream for free. Yay! So Bryce and I used the rest to buy dye to tie-dye a shirt for him. He loved that!

Once Ella and I bought flowers for our garden, I let her pick out several six packs. When I first came up with the idea she hugged me and told me I was the best mommy EVER! The night before we were to have our date (keeping in mind that Bryce had gone to a movie with dad earlier in the week) she said, "Mom, our date tomorrow is really just shopping. That's not a date." 

I was so sad! Cam told me to stick with my plan, so the next morning we headed to Lowe's to get the flowers. We hadn't been browsing long when she hugged me and said "This was a lot more fun than I ever thought it would be!" She even stuck with me throughout the planting and she designed how they would be planted (in a rainbow shape). The girl has good taste. 

I've taken Dane to the library in the evening, just the two of us. That was enough for him. 

I think they really long for one on one time with us. I can see the benefits of them knowing they're going to have us all to themselves. I think they feel closer to us and I feel like I have permission to give them my full attention.

Years ago, my mother bought this vanity for Ella. It sat for awhile in the garage and I finally got 'round to painting it. 

Then as the drawers were unusable without drawer pulls, it just sat in Ella's room for more than a year collecting stuff on the top of it. With (a very little) money promised to the project, I finally could see what I wanted to do with it. 

I bought fabric at Hobby Lobby and used Mod Podge to adhere it to the surface of the drawer. Because I used duck cloth, I was still able to retain a fabric feel, while guaranteeing that the fabric would stay. I used a medium application of Mod Podge and then used a Popsicle stick to smooth it all down. It was my best experience with Mod Podge yet!
I had pre-drilled holes for the drawer pulls and just opened up the fabric where the screws needed to be and attached them.
 These cute porcelain drawer pulls are from Hobby Lobby.

These are from Lowe's

I also had an old brass stool with ugly black vinyl on it. What to do...

Then I saw this look in a Martha Stewart magazine. Knitted stool covers!

No, I don't know how to knit, but I had a knitting loom and thought it might work.

Ella and I stripped all of it off the black vinyl, finding another vinyl that, judging from the odd pink shade, must have been over fifty years old. She cleaned the metal frame while I continued to un-upholster the seat down to the wood.

I bought some chunky alpaca yarn and used the loom to knit a long soft rectangle. I covered the wooden circle with foam, covered it with muslin and finished it off with the soft knitted cover. I spray-painted the brass with an matte espresso brown.

  

So you say you want to get into genealogy and research your ancestors and all that family tree jazz?

You say you'd start today, but you hesitate because you've never seen a census chart or marriage record?

You say you simply don't have the time to get into the true trenches of researching your people...yet?

Well, I would like to make a humble suggestion: try Family Search Indexing!

Family Search Indexing gives you the chance to work on someone's family history by indexing various records from the United States and other countries that will help them to find and ultimately help you to find where your ancestors came from, what they did for a living and other cherish-able information.

Give it a try! It's absolutely free without any strings. The benefits to you is that you can easily get comfortable with the records you'd use when you are able search for Uncle Joe and Grandma Zerelda and you really are helping further the connections of families everywhere and that has got to feel good.

Click here to volunteer!

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with www.familysearchindexing.org site. I just love to do this volunteer work and view these little slices of history.

It's long, but worth the watch. I honestly wept.



We are all creators, always creating.

So these in expensive wooden frames (most likely those inexpensive wooden ones that come in the 3-pack at IKEA) duct-taped together to make one huge piece of classy art work. I love this and would've never come up with this on my own.

from Domino Magazine