Tampons and toilet paper = great toys!!

Earlier this week....

Moms of little ones  know that no where in the house is private. If I even shut the bathroom door  for just a moment kids freak out like I left the country. Seriously, it's like they have a 6th sense about it they will come running the moment I shut the door.  

So I was using the bathroom and baby Canary was having a blast taking a tampon that was on the floor and putting it through the tube of a toilet paper roll. She was having a blast so when I was finished I picked her, the tampon, and the toilet paper roll up put her in the room I was doing school work in with the older kids and she was happy for a good 20 minutes.

Yup, I am that mom that will let her baby play with tampons and toilet paper!

 Put it in, take it out - so fun!

 Put it in then....

lift up and shake to watch the tampon come back out!

Rewind

About  4 years ago when Owl or Duck were toddlers they got into a Costco size box of tampons. They would unwrap them then "shoot" them out of the applicator like a bombs all over the house. I really needed them out of my hair at the moment so I let them ruin an entire box of tampons. It was seriously worth the money though because they stayed busy for 2 hours playing war games with them.

KNOCK! KNOCK! ~ The gas man arrived, Imagine the look on his face as he stepped  over the many piles of tampons and wrappers all over the house. I laughed and said to him "my little ones got into them and are quite happy and out of my hair"  I shrugged. He laughed!

So new Moms, got a cranky toddler? Throw them some personal hygiene products and they will be happy for hours.

******RIGHT NOW******

Poor baby C is sick and clingy and I am getting nothing done today. Then I got out the wooden blocks that baby C has never played with. ( remembering her joy earlier this week with the tampon and toilet paper roll)

Dowel and a block with a hole, just like the tampon and toilet paper role but safer and less expensive!

A different block that fits the dowel.

 Then I found this little blue block so I gave her a pen to put through the holes ( under supervision of course.)

Look how much laundry I was able to fold ( 3 loads) while she was happily playing with her wood dowels and blocks with holes. This is real life so you may see actual underwear, it is clean and folded though!! She was entertained for almost 45 minutes (which is quite a long time for a toddler.)

So a quick google search for tampons and toilet paper lead me to this blogger click HERE

She knows all about toddlers, tampons and toilet paper.

This is a picture from her blog.

Baby C. likes to unroll the toilet paper too!

Springing into our new farmstead!

So Spring is here,..... now the real work begins.

After buying a farm at an auction  last summer and moving in during the first week of November I have had quite  a hard time keeping my head above water.

The house was not move in ready it needs a lot of work.

What we have done over the winter:

1. Paint all 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom.

2. Painted 1/2 the kitchen ( working on that presently) I usually do not like green but I LOVE these green walls and cannot wait to make it look like a Mexican kitchen.

 This makes me happy :)

Still working on the yellow for the other side of the room.

3. Got the new heated floors in and ripped out old heating system in the east wing! ( the house in not a mansion but it is LONG and I joked the first day we moved in about the long hallway with bookshelves and bedrooms being the east wing.)

4. Put down all new wood flooring in the East wing.

5 Had a new well dug.

6. Put in a whole house filtration system

7 Cleaned up lots of debris left all over 15 acres! ( still working on that)

( some near the barn, Garage and back of the house)

8 Unpacked 2/3 of our stuff

9. Ripped out some kitchen cupboards and appliances that were built in.

There is so much that needs to be done, not only are we trying to get the house ready and in a happy livable condition ( the mess and chaos is driving me MAD) but we are trying to get the outbuildings ready for animals and the land ready for planting. We are building a chicken coop to house over 100 laying hens as well. We not only bought a house but we are going to try and make a living at organic, ethical farming.

The mission statement I came up with last night:

Providing happy healthy meat and veggies ( yes our veggies will be happy, lol) because you are what you eat!

 Some of our seeds trays germinating on my kitchen counter.

Okay, yes it sounds weird and will most likely NOT be the actually mission statement but seriously you are what you eat and what your animals eat.

I bought a handful of ducks to try out their eggs. Nature made them cute for a reason  beacause they are dirty, smelly messy creatures! I cannot wait to get them out of my house!

Falcon will is working on a duck house right now.

So friends if you do not see me this summer or I have no time for you, please do not take it personal I am actually BUSY!

At the end of the day, I am blessed. I try not to forget that

Painting like Mr. Popper.

The Mexico goodies hubby brought back.

 Mayan calendar

 Money, a yummy traditional candy,and Canary's Mexican baby name we named Maria Gonzalez

Sugar skull, my favorite!

Can't wait to get the farmhouse kitchen done now. I want the kitchen to look bright and fun with a Mexican flair.

This is the color I am putting on the kitchen walls. (This is a local fused glass studio) I color matched it, bought the paint and it is ready to go up tonight!

My painting jeans - all colors so far from the new house. Soon they will be yellow and orange too!

 I Painted the ceiling at the new house, and hope to get to the wall this week.

We are listening to Mr . Poppers Penguins right now on audio from the library and as I was painting today Duck says to me "Hey you are just like Mr. Popper." (I wish I could hire Mr. Popper to do this right now, I do not care for painting and I really am not very good at it, mainly because I rush ( then drip paint) or roll the paint to this because I do not want to keep going back to the paint tray.

We worked on  the old house getting it ready to paint and after painting there.One room mostly done

My favorite glass globe fell directly on my face when I was dusting it. I  literally saw stars when it came down on my face. It busted open my skin and left quite the lump.

Bye Bye fun mural my little birds painted.

Bye, Bye clouds I painted in Robin's room!

The old house is getting painted white and tan now for the renters!

Cows, Galaxies, Autism and Math

We made Galexies in a jar

We painted 4 types of Galexies

I was looking for a movie on bullying for the kids to watch (no one is being bullied in our family and my kids are not bullies but I just wanted to watch a movie about it as a family then have a discussion) My many facebook friends gave me a lot of suggestions and Termple Grandin was brought up. It is a true story of a woman with Autism. We have a few autistic friends so I thought this would be a good one to watch.

We watched

I love true stories, so do the kids. Watching this movie really helped make things click in my own head about how people with autism think. I know I will definitely be more patient with our autistic friends from now on. I never really understood!

Watching this movie only made Falcon want a cow for our farm even more. We plan to get one, just maybe not until next year.Click here for the link. Or just watch the video below.

Have you ever seen this cute video of a little girl who let her cow inside the house? It is so cute
Click here to vist the real Temple Grandin's website


We finished up reading

We made our own magic coins and practicing making wishes that would only half come true. It was quite tricky.

The little boys are loving The Life of Fred math books. I wish I would have known about theses earlier. The boys are always asking to hear Fred.

Every morning we check the temperature in the pump house making sure it is not too close to freezing.

 The temperature inside the house in varies rooms.

Then check the outside temp.

They then take turns moving our big thermometer( found at Goodwill for 2 dollars) to the right degree.

We also practice on our mini clocks.

They move the clocks to the correct time at the beginning of math
and at the end of math. Also I ask the children to change the time through out the day.

Mosaics Duck and Owl created to go along with our history and a  Barbarian.

Robin has been working on her Government patch for Girl Scouts.

Here is a poster she did all about a president she chose.


While we were chugging along at the homestead Hubby was beach side in Cancun, Mexico for a conference for our Latin American clients.

 {Green sea turtle just off the coast}

I asked him to bring me back something bright, fun, Mexican, and colorful for the new kitchen that will have a  fun Mexican flair to it.

Baba Yaga- Russian folkore

We studied Russia last month for our Homeschool geography club.

I was invited to this awesome performance by a new Mama I met who is from Russia. I bought the tickets as soon as I saw it.

"A full full length acrobatic story of Baba Yaga, an ancient witch who lives in the last forest in all the land. She is pursued for her medicine and knowledge by the fair Vasilia and her dancing friend Brim, who must complete a series of impossible tasks to get the witch's help. 

This dark tale is told through dance, aerial acrobatics, stilt walkers, fire dancing, and a number of large scale props and scene work. Not to be missed!"

Days before the event the stomach flu hit, I was so bummed 3/6 birds were throwing up!

No play for us!

Luckily, the flu hit hard and fast and was over in 24 hours so my little birds were healthy again and could attened the play.

 Baba Yaga's house that you could get your photo taken in.

 Coming back from the bathroom before the start of the show I noticed all the people killing time on their cell phones, I just had to get a shot

 A few pictures from the show, they are quite  blurry.

 Duck and Owl loved the fire dancing skeletons

Baba Yaga creating her potion

Papabird thought it was terrible,but he is spoiled going to very expensive shows all around the world with his clients.

The kids and I loved it! I loved the story and was entertained throughout the whole show. Sure there were many mistakes and no the danced were never in sync ( they were supposed to be) but you could tell they were giving it their all and having fun. These were not professionals but for a family of 6 to go to a live performance for $50 what do you expect?

Speaking of Russia.....
The book Duck helped me act out at our Homeschool geography event a few week prior.

The craft we did. There are 4 nesting dolls accordion folded and slipped into this paint sample pocket (in the story the nesting dolls were magic and hid in a little girls pocket)

My birthday gift to myself this year. Custom made for me on Etsy. This is my go to the Zoo or other events with the kids bag. So I can walk away from my diaper bag and keep my valuables safe on my body!

Celebrating Maslenitsa, the Pancake week. It is the richest and merriest of Russia’s festivities which is celebrated with sledding, burning scarecrows, and bonfire jumping. All the week people gather and eat pancakes with relatives and friends. We ate pancakes this week with home made strawberry syrup then would have gone sledding if it wasn't  below zero outside.. Next year I would love to burn some scarecrows but maybe not encourage my children to jump over bonfires!

So you call me a bad parent? Part 1

Ahem,

As I stand on my soap box I will shout "So you call me a bad parent? Let us break this down"
So grab a bowl of popcorn ( preferably GMO free and freshly popped in your handy dandy stock pot) Since you are now eating food lets start with that.

FOOD
So you call me a bad parent because I do not feed over processed, chemically laden, nutrient deficient foods many call a meal or a snack. Well that I am, with childhood obesity and cancer on the rise  I have no doubt this is linked to all that crap food. Even some of the organic and natural stuff is just as bad, but a better wiser option in moderation. I practice the 80/20 rule with my kids 80 % whole foods (bone broth soups, organic fruits and veggies, free range meats from local farmers and lots of eggs from our hens) the other 20% is gluten free pizza, healthier candy ( organic and not riddled with chemicals and dyes) and then crap food at least 2x a month we go out to eat at nice sit down restaurant ( usually the kids choose well, steak, shrimp, veggies etc). I do allow some take out and fast food Chipotle is a family favorite  and if we must hit a drive through we head to chick fila. (yes it is BAD but at least we can get gluten free grilled nuggets!) So STOP giving my kids CRAP FOOD.

My children know why we do not eat the 20% crap all of the time they have read up on it and watched documentaries they know why it is bad and understand.
STOP GIVING MY KIDS CRAP!  I will throw it away  you are wasting your money.  Educate yourself and stop living with blinders on.

TOYS
So you call me a bad parent because I don't want the kids to have plastic toys with batteries?
Gosh, some of these are just as toxic. Cheap plastic crap covered in lead paint and made in China. These toys not only are toxic but they only hold my kids attention for a day or so anyway then it  is off to the landfill  ( which is a separate topic for another day, maybe part 2) children need imagination how can they get this if all they do is push a button on a toy? How can I raise big thinkers when never given a chance to be creative and think?

MEDICINE, HEALTH AND WELL BEING.
So you call me a bad parent because I make my children play outside and do not vaccinate?
Yes my children play outside EVERDYAY (well not in subzero temps) physical exersize is not an option our bodies need it to  stay healthy and happy ( yes happy, ...,exercising releases happy endorphin ) Try it, you will like it!

No, I do not vaccinate my child I do not wish to inject the government made  chemical cocktails into my children . I would rather risk  my children getting the actual disease than  risk the side effects of the poison my government  calls a cure. If you would like to have a conversation with me about this please be educated and know the list of ingredients in the vaccine and know what the words mean. Other wise just shut the hell up. I do not wish to waste my time talking to the ignorant.

I also do not  take my children to the doctor  every time they are sick I cure 99% of everything at home, mostly with raw garlic! Yup that's right raw garlic. I discovered this after many rounds of antibiotics to get rid of MRSA, garlic killed it in two weeks.

ELECTRONICS
So you call me a bad parent because my kids do not have cell phone or laptop in their room?
We have many computers, Children shuld not be allowed to sit all day in front of a scream it is simply NOT healthy!

CHORES
So you call me a bad parent because I do not pay my children to do chores?
Yes my kids do them but I do not pay them. I teach my children that being part of a family means they need to help out and divide up tasks. It is not fair to have 1 person do all the work. They learn at an early age that helping family is a way of life not something that deserves payment!

Let's just call this part 1, I have so much more to say... I mean SHOUT!

I am a research junkie I will look up everything I am told and will compare it from multiple sources from multiple viewpoints before making my own educated decision I suggest you do the same.