Toy Thursday: Homemade Doodle Board

Judah and I have been playing with our homemade doodle board the last few days to pass the time. This is another activity that can be used simply for fun or to add as a tool for learning. It is super easy to put together and the results are endless.

I found the idea off of Pinterest at the Hippie Housewife. To make our own though I used washable finger paints in a Ziploc freezer bag taped down by clear packing tape onto our plastic table cloth (use blue painter's tape directly to wood table). To do this I poured a generous amount of primary colors into the different areas of the bag. We noticed the more paint you use the more fun you have. Before taping the bag down, I smoothed out any and all air bubbles. I used a light color piece of paper underneath to brighten the background and to catch any messes that may happen. Then I sealed the edges of the paper and the bag off with packing tape.


Judah understood the concept right away as he mixed the colors together like finger painting only mess free. To make designs, you take your finger and draw lines through the paint. To erase your drawings, just lightly smooth out the paint. This is how we doodled our letters and shapes as well as made hand prints. Judah then pretended it was mud and drove his trucks over the bags for road effects.

We left the doodle boards up for several days so that Judah could go back to it to play. We did have one scratch and I simply taped over it with clear packing tape. The colors mixed together. Since the paint remained wet inside the bag, you could totally undo the doodle board and use the paint for a real finger paint project.

Shuffle Saturday: Save St. Patrick's Church

This past Tuesday, I ventured back with my boys to Glidden to visit St. Patrick's Church on Cedar. It is at risk of being demolished. While it isn't an active parish, they still occasionally have Mass there. And my dad always makes sure to sing at Mass, even if it means he has to schedule a day off of work. It's that important to our family.

Why? Because it's where our ancestors worshiped. It's where our ancestors are buried. It's our roots.

It's a beautiful Church, isn't it?

And it was great to see my boys, Sean and Liam, exploring the grave site of his Great Great Great Grandfather Michael, who came from Ireland.

It almost looks like Liam is praying, doesn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if he was.

My boys have learned a lot about saving history. They've learned a lot about their past. They know they're Catholic. They know they come from a farm family. They love their Irish heritage and they love St. Patrick's Church.

If you're interested in helping the cause, please feel free to sign the petition to Save St. Patrick's Church. Thank you!!

Tip Tuesday: Turning Chores into a Learning Moment!

There are many different things that you can do as a stay at home mom as you raise your children. The options can be overwhelming. And when you throw homeschooling into the mix, things get even more complicated. Because of this, I think it's important to have a clear picture of what goals your are shooting for with your children.

Having these goals in mind will impact, among other things, how you discipline your children, how you spend your time, and how you spend your money. Although we are not able to take all of the credit (or at times all of the blame) for how our children turn out, the Lord has given us a tremendous responsibility in shaping our children.

Some of the goals for my children are to grow to love the Lord, understand what it means to love and show respect to others, and to be responsible and productive citizens. As I mentioned earlier, those goals strongly influence the way I make decisions in our home and how I help guide the kids.

So for tip Tuesday, I thought I’d share something I started before our oldest learned to read: teaching your kids how to sort laundry. I think it’s never to early to learn to be a helper and have family responsibilities.

All I did was purchase an $10-$15 laundry hamper at Walmart and tie on cards to help the kids know which hamper their clothes go in. For my non-readers, I tried to help them by color coding the cards. Red for dark clothes, yellow for lights, and white for whites. (I have a separate hamper for jeans and rags – especially since we farm.)

After some repeated guidance and re-explaining, they were soon sorting their own laundry. As an added benefit, I found that it gave way to some good beginning reading lessons. And it also helped my husband know which hamper I would like things in!

Rebecca Book is a stay at home wife and mom. She has been married to her husband, Ethan, for 10 years. They have 4 children, which they home school: Caleb – age 7, Hannah – age 5, Isaac – age 2, and Jonathan – 6 months. Together they run a pasture based farm with grass-fed heritage beef, pasture/wood lot heritage pork, grass-fed lamb, and pastured poultry.

Becca and Ethan have kept blogs The Beginning Farmer's Wife, and The Beginning Farmer describing their experience of starting their farm and having a frugal lifestyle. They still update their blogs when opportunity allows, but now they primarily focus much of their Internet time on managing their farming business, Crooked Gap Farm.

Shuffle Saturday: Politics in Iowa...With Kids??

I love living in Iowa. I'm an Iowa farm girl at heart, spending much of my childhood summers playing at the family Century farm, dropping rocks down the well, swimming in the (clean) cattle trough (we didn't have livestock, but the silver containers made good swimming pools) and learning how to drive a stick in the cornfield...I won't say how old I was. :)

I am amazed at the different paths my life has lead me down. In high school, I wasn't even interested in politics. I knew my parents had a "Ross Perot" sign in their front yard, but that was about it.

Fast forward a few years and I worked as a canvasser for RPI (Republican Party of Iowa) my last semester of college- and after graduation from Iowa State (where I was a Conservative Political Opinion Columnist), I worked for the Iowa House Majority Leader. After session ended, I went to work for Senator Grassley's campaign and was elected Secretary and then Co-Chair of the Polk County Republican Party. All by the time I was 25.

I've made some really great friends in the political world (including my co-author of Mommy's Recess) and had the chance to meet some really great Political figureheads.

And now that I'm a mom, I can share this love of politics with my kids. My five year old already thinks that a Democrat is a dirty word (not by our teaching, he's just come to that assumption) and he thinks it's neat to see people on CSPAN who are also in a picture with mommy and daddy hanging on the wall.

I love bringing my kids to events...while it is a little stressful for me to manage all three, I'm lucky enough to always have a friend at any political function who is more than willing to watch a kid or two.

And it makes for some really great photo ops. How cool would it be to say, "And here's a picture of me with President so and so back in 2012." Now, I'm not saying I've decided who I'm supporting in the Iowa Caucus or even the Straw Poll...but I have an idea. With my work as Communications Director for CAPE PAC, I really can't publicly endorse anyone, which is fine. It gives me more of a chance to keep an open mind and open heart.

Yesterday we attended the Pucks and Pizza with Pawlenty event. The boys loved watching the Hockey game, the pizza and Liam enjoyed meeting "that Fox News guy" aka Tim Pawlenty. When Liam told him what he called him, T-Paw laughed and said, "I like that! I might have to use that!"

And, of course, we got some great photos.

So with all of the candidates criss-crossing the state, take your kids out to listen to the candidates and get a picture. They'll learn, you'll learn and you'll have a good time!

Wash Wednesday: Getting On My Soapbox About Casey Anthony

So maybe this isn't about actually cleaning or washing anything. But soapboxes can be related to cleaning, right?

I totally did not intend to write about trust and the swimming pool the same day the Casey Anthony verdict came down. That was unintentional...and interesting.

I am tired of people saying that they can't judge Casey because God is the only Judge. Yes, God will judge Casey (and all of us) for our actions. I'm also irritated when non-religious people throw God into it. Really? If you're so concerned about God judging Casey Anthony, what about God judging you? Just sayin.

Do I think she did it? Yes. Maybe it was an accident. But because your baby dies in a pool or in an accident doesn't mean you have to put THREE pieces of duct tape over her mouth and toss her body in the woods. There are better ways to handle it.

Accidents happen. I get it. I know it. But the fact that she didn't report her daughter missing for 31 days? Which is why I was glad to see that someone created a petition to create Caylee's law. According to the website, "there should be a new federal law created called Caylee's Law that will make it a federal offense for a parent or guardian to not notify law enforcement of a child going missing in a timely manner." And I agree.

I'm not a perfect mother. And I admit it. I lose my temper. I even lost a kid once. My five year old ran off at the Minnesota Children's Museum. Not so much ran off, more like hid. But after not seeing him run in the area he was playing in for 2 minutes, I began to panic. I sent my husband searching for him because I was staying with the younger two. When my husband came back empty handed, my heart sunk. I felt dizzy. I felt like I was going to throw up. I grabbed an employee who radioed over to other employees that we were looking for a 5 year old with brown hair and blue eyes. They radioed back that they were already looking for a boy with that description (in my panic, I failed to ask my husband if he'd already contacted an employee). I yelled for him, I hollered, I screamed. Husband went looking on other levels of the museum.

Just then, the employee who stayed with me saw a kid wearing the clothing I described. He said he saw a little boy peek around a corner of a "ant farm maze" and yelled his name. And it was my little boy.

He said he was "just hiding like an ant" as I hugged and kissed him. I was TERRIFIED. It was only minutes but it felt like hours. And I was emotionally drained after that short amount of time. Needless to say, we left the museum. No more fun for the day.

I understand being terrified...but why didn't she contact someone? I couldn't imagine going out and partying while my child was missing. That just boggles my mind. Maybe they didn't have enough proof for murder. But there was neglect. That's for sure. And the fact that she smirked after the verdict was read? She's guilty. She knows it. And she just got away with murder.

For those of you who say you can't judge Casey, would you be willing to let her babysit your children? Think about it. And quit jumping on the parents who are upset at the verdict.

Yesterday was a sad day for good parents everywhere. And a sad day for little Caylee. She didn't deserve it and she doesn't have justice.

Shuffle Saturday: Take Time

Last weekend my family went to Minneapolis for the RightOnline Conference, a Conference for Conservative bloggers to learn and hone their skills in writing, tweeting, blogging and learn about policy issues. We also heard some great speeches from possible GOP nominees.

Thursday-Saturday evening, I was focused on the Conference. My husband was nice enough to keep the boys (yes, all three) occupied so I could focus on learning, taking notes and networking.

There's nothing like being stuck in a hotel room with three kids under the age of 5 to make your apartment feel HUGE when you get home.

Anyway, my husband went to the mall with the boys, drove around downtown and locked himself in the hotel room with the boys. Once my conference was over, it was time for some "family time". We decided to head to the Minnesota Children's Museum and by luck, it was a Target free Sunday. Every third Sunday, Target pays for all admission fees to the Museum. What a deal!

We parked in the ramp and in the skywalk on the way there, we discovered a McDonalds! It was our cheapest meal while in Minneapolis! We grabbed some breakfast and sat down with the boys. Liam, our 5 year old who never met a stranger, greeted an older gentleman who was sitting at the next table. At first we thought he was a typical older guy, as the conversation started out about how all of his friends are dying...but we hung in there and learned so much.

He told us about how he was 82 years old and still swims a mile and a half a day. He told us about how he swam at the University of Minnesota in college. And he did diving as well. And he traveled in a show with a man who came to be Greg Louganis' coach. Liam told him he loved to swim and wanted to be a swimmer when he got older. The old man smiled and said, "Swimming and diving is a great sport."

The old man talked about swimming and diving. He talked about diving off of a board when the board was made of wood. He discussed how he wore WOOL suits when he competed. And then he came over to our table and pulled out pictures. A plethora of old, black and white pictures that were worn over time and years spent in his wallet. Young men, most gone now, wearing wool suits and smiling. The legs of the suits went to their knees. The large buttons keeping the suits up around the shoulders.

This is only an example of what the suits looked like. The one he showed us was more "wooly" and longer in the knees.


And then he talked about how most of his friends are gone. His friends he swam with in college. His friends he toured with in the diving show. All gone. I turned to him with a smile and said, "Tell you what. How about when Liam goes to the University of Minnesota and swims, you come to his meets?" He smiled, nodded his head and said, "That sounds great."

I never caught his name. He never said. I didn't think to ask. I was so interested in his stories. All weekend we were so caught up in our schedule and keeping on schedule. But some of the best time spent on the entire vacation was the time we didn't schedule.

When we took time to stop.

To listen.

To hear what the lonely man at the McDonald's in the skywalk had to say.

And I think he enjoyed having someone to talk to.

Make Monday: Make It Memorable

On Memorial Day, we decided to visit the grave sites of those who have inspired us.

We ventured to Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines and laid flowers at the grave of the family who built the barn we're trying to save from demolition.

I taught my son that at one time, all of the headstones were someone. They were people who shaped our city, our state and our country. They were someone's mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers...and yes, even children. Liam chose to leave a flower at a little boy's stone, who was only 4 when he died.

Dying is a part of life. After experiencing the funeral of Great Grandpa Bob, my son knows about death. Having his dad over in Iraq when he was only two, he knew about the news, soldiers dying and the sacrifices soldiers made for us.

Make it Memorable on Memorial Day. Make it a learning experience.

Shuffle Saturday: The "Intelligence" of our Education System

*Disclaimer* These views are completely my own. I have not shared my thoughts and feelings with Emma. You may not agree with me, she may not agree with me. But I have to say this.

I've had the "joy" of working with a school board lately. I'm not impressed. I always held these "adults" up to a high standard. After all, they're the ones who guide the school district and our educational system. That being said, I find myself frustrated when I, someone who is 30+ years younger than most of them, acting like more of an adult. Recently we discovered they were spying on tweets. Nice. THAT'S REAL adult. But I believe in the first amendment. I won't censor myself. I guess some people don't like what they see when a mirror is held up to their face.

I've been watching the events unfold in Wisconsin. I understand why people feel unions are important but, in my opinion, they've served their purpose. We're not in the middle of the industrial revolution. Children are not forced to work in textile mills for 16 hours a day. We've grown past that. And to be honest, I think the auto industry wouldn't have needed a bailout if the Unions were not involved. I can't think of any other occupation that pays $50/hour plus benefits plus pension that only requires a high school diploma.

The teachers in Wisconsin are upset they may lose their collective bargaining with the union. These "educators", who use "think of the children" ad nauseam in arguments about funding, apparently forgot their mantra and refused to go to work. So what's more important? Educating children or what your union heads say. 

Who is suffering because of all of this? The kids. It's not their fault the State of Wisconsin is in the red. And it's not the fault of the Governor, either. If the public sector followed the private sector's lead, they would have been making cuts years ago.

Two years ago, I took a pay freeze in order to save jobs at the company I was working at. Meanwhile teachers were still getting raises. And now they're hurting. The public sector was very short sighted during the recession. Hurt now or hurt later. They chose later. Which is now.

If teachers want to continue to use "won't someone think of the children" maybe they should put their money where their mouth is. Think of the children. Do your job. Don't cause schools to close so you can protest.

And speaking of "adults", I'm irritated at the stunt the Democrats in Wisconsin pulled. They, for lack of a better term, "took their ball and went home." Again, adults. DO YOUR JOBS.

What kind of an example is this teaching our children? Don't like what people say? Don't go to work.  How about these "adults" go back to Wisconsin, represent their district and do their job. If anyone in the private sector ran away from work/failed to show up so they could protest their boss, they'd be fired. Simple as that.

It's time for the public sector to do what the private sector has been doing for years. The public sector can't outpace the private sector in compensation and benefits for years and believe it won't catch up to them. If they do, I worry about sending my children to a public school. They may be better off if I teach them. I know I won't cancel their education if I don't get paid. Then again, I DO "think about the children".

Shuffle Saturday: Helping With School Projects? How Much Is Too Much?

My preschooler, Liam, was given Mr. Monkey for the week. We were asked to take Mr. Monkey on adventures, take pictures of the adventures and write in the journal about what Mr. Monkey did and who he saw.

The previous kids who had the journal took Mr. Monkey to their new playroom and had a tea party. I knew Mr. Monkey would have more of an adventure with us. I've always been competitive, even on things that aren't a competition. With all of the volunteering I've been doing to save the barn, I knew Mr. Monkey would get a few unique opportunities. Sure enough, I was asked to go to the WHO Radio studios to talk about the Barn effort. I took Liam and Mr. Monkey and got a few cute pictures.

I've also considered taking Liam and Mr. Monkey to the State Capitol to visit some of my friends and get some cute pictures. And then I wondered, am I turning this into my own project? Am I really doing this for Liam? Yes. But I'm also, as my dad said, "Name dropping--but not name dropping, with the monkey."

Granted, I probably would have brought Liam with me anyway, because how often can a five year old say he's been inside two radio stations in two weeks? These will be great for his scrapbook and he can look back and say, "Wow. I got to do a lot of cool stuff with mom."

And then I wonder, "how much is too much?" When does this stop being about Liam and the monkey and start being about me. I despise the stage moms on "Toddlers and Tiaras" and do NOT want to become one of them. I suppose when Liam says he "doesn't want to do it" anymore, I'll stop taking him.

So I ask, how much is too much? Where is the line on learning?

Make Monday: Make It A Learning Opportunity

Learning opportunities are everywhere. My preschooler helps me with my coupons (if it is 40 cents off of two, how much is saved on one item?), my toddler counts items for me and points out animals and fruits.

Last week I mentioned "Making a Difference" with the "Save the Barn" project I've been working on. We were blessed with a unique experience to visit a radio station to talk about the cause. I decided to load the whole family up so Liam could see a "real life" radio station and see how it works. Sean (my 20 month old) and Brendan (6 months) didn't understand but Liam was very excited. Before hand, we listened to the radio, talked about how people could tune in to the station in their home, car or office and he "helped" me get my notes and talking points in order.

When we arrived at the station, he was interested in the headphones and microphone. Ed Fallon, host of the radio show, allowed Liam to put the headphones on and talk into the microphone (at a commercial, of course).

Liam knew why we were there "Because we have to save the barn!" and thought it was neat that mommy was on the radio.

You can turn any thing into a learning opportunity....and a cute photo op for their scrapbook.