Monday Morning Musings...

The weather in northern IL is chilly, it calls for a fire to be burning constantly, because I like to keep the thermostat at 65*. Yikes! I know, I know that's chilly but it saves us money and we all get to snuggle under warm blankets whenever we sit down! What do you keep your temp at if you are in a cold zone?

Remember earlier in the month I mentioned my goal of drinking 1 gallon of water a day. Whoa, this has been such a wake up call for me. I am LOVING the water, but not loving the bathroom trips. It's still too early for me to notice much, except that I am not snacking as much nor am I craving too much in between meals. 

Are your bookshelves exploding? Mine are! One thing that I am doing to solve this is to get a group of people together in my home to swap and sell our books! I am setting up tables throughout my home and we will be set up to swap books for other friends or sell them if we cannot find a trade. I am very excited about this and will keep you posted on how it turns out! 

Teach the alphabet & letter sounds in no time!

A great way to teach letter sounds and/or the alphabet is with coloring pages, get yours HERE!!
1. Day One: As each letter is colored, have them sound out and say each letter. 

2. Day Two: print out a second copy and do the same. 

3. Day Three: Laminate the colored pages and cut out each letter combo evenly from 1 of the pages. (Saying each letter and letter sound as you cut it out to make flashcards)

4. Day Four: Repeat Day Three!

5. Day Five: You now have a set of Memory Game cards. Play with a few letters at a time and build up to playing with the entire alphabet. As each card is turned over say the letter and the sound.

Enjoy!

Are you a thrifter? Flashcard collector? I am using a mug tree to hold flashcard collections. This makes them easy to find and also keeps them out and on display. I change them out monthly and I notice that they are always being thumbed through! 

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Around the House...

Happy Friday! As many of you know, we just bought a house in August. We are slowly trying to make it our own, as time and money allow. Our work on the house usually begins on the weekends and that is only if my husband doesn't have to work OT and we don't have other family plans or things to drive our children to. Soooo you pretty much see how it's a painstaking process!

Here is one of my favorite places in the house. During a rain storm, my husband and I love to turn the couch around and just sit and watch it all come down. It's amazing and so calming. This week, I will be changing the ribbon around the 'S' to an all black color so that I can just leave it at that all year, instead of constantly changing it out based on the season. 

Our Family Command Center is SLOWLY getting started. I have a Dry Erase Calendar up along with a cork board and some file boxes. I would like to spell out LOVE in between those and then Family at the top. It is just a matter of finding what we need. I plan on adding another thinner and skinnier cork board to use as a menu board or maybe even a chalkboard. Still haven't found what I want yet. This space is ever evolving but I am glad that it is finally in it's beginning stages. 

Welcome to my livingroom coffee table. This is a giant magnet, is yours? It's a clutter magnet that I have to clean every.single.evening. Add in that it's glass and I have to clean it twice a day! LOL! How does it manage to constantly attract everything?? I should have taken this photo last night, so you could see how it looks at the end of a day! LOL!!

This is a picture of my evenings. No lie. Once the kids go to bed, my husband and I can be found in front of the fireplace playing games and drinking tea. We discuss the kids, our day, his work. It's the perfect way to unwind after a long and often tiring day.

I shared our classroom desk last week with you all and have just recently started adding various things to the space. Our latest addition is the low shelf that I knew I wanted in the space. Next thing that I need will be some frames in order to frame some artwork that I want to display under the shelf. It looked to naked under there. What's going on around your house?

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Craft in a Minute! Dessert Pedestals

I found some amazing dishes at a charity shop over this past weekend, but I knew that there was no way on earth that I needed more dishes in the house! I think my husband already things I collect too much! I quickly knew I had to think of something to do with them, because I could not leave them lonely on the shelf. A brisk walk to the candle aisle, found me some perfect pedestals and before I knew it the idea was born and I now have 3 fantastic display dishes!

 In the far left dish is a bracelet I designed and to this day remains on of my most popular pieces.
In the right dish is a tiny amount of vintage hand cancelled stamps I came across at an antique shop while on vacation.

Share what you have created lately!!