Mondays Come Too Fast...

I honestly believe that I ask myself 'how is it Monday already' every single week. We like to stay busy constantly and even steal away sometimes and I think that keeping busy 24-7 is what makes time fly by too quickly. My fit bit logged in so many steps each day this weekend, I honestly thought that I was on a Disney vacation! Do you know how many miles you log on those trips?! One thing I ALWAYS do when we steal away is bring a bag of school work and books, the kids moan and groan about it, but late at night when we are in the room, they are often found snuggling up in bed with a book and reading or playing some type of game. TV is a luxury that sometimes gets turned on the minute we get into a room, but they love going back to the books after the initial excitement!

Joann Fabrics has these adorable sleighs made of wood that your children can paint and they are the PERFECT size for your elf pet and Elf on the shelf along with some friends!!

St. Nicholas Day came and as we read all about him, the kids had fun exploring their new goodies! Books and candy and games along with a few other goodies!

Our elf has been having a war with the nut crackers every year since he arrived and this time they caught him coming back!! He is in popcorn jail, but it worked out just right as he brought along a family movie and a bag of popcorn!!!

Our book of the day is Courduroy's Christmas Surprise by Lisa McCue. I have been a Courduroy fan since I was a little girl and am always eager to share a favorite story with my kids. My husband knows of him, but he was never a fan, I think it's great that as an adult he is discovering an old friend and seeing him in a different way!

The silly elf took our coloring book that ST. Nick brought and he started coloring the pages we left blank!!

Enjoy every minute my friends, it goes far too quickly!

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Penpal Fun

I've mentioned it many times before, but penpals are awesome for children. They have the possibility to teach geography, handwriting, grammar, spelling and reading with the letter itself. Add in postage, travel to and fro and you have a math lesson as well! The same old same old letters can get old every now and then and you have to spice things up! Here are a few things I have done for my kids to make having a penpal a lot of fun! I've even mentioned HERE about our penpal writing station!

Creative envelopes are so easy to make and give your letter some great looks! Not only are they inexpensive, but they can be free too! We travel A LOT and stop at many rest areas, these places are havens of maps and brochures and magazines! My kids love to grab those but then they end up all over the floor of the van after the road trip. I gather them up and pull out the pages, perfect for collages and other art work but best of all, they work out as envelopes!!

These are all from a magazine about Illinois that we came across on our trip to St. Louis. The kids love thumbing through the magazine and finding the perfect photos. Neon Labels make the perfect address labels too!

My youngest is not a fan of writing, but he loves sending mail, I like creating paper for him with writing prompts, this makes it easy for him to write a message, color and draw and also keeps it simple and clean for the reader!

My 9 year old son loves comic books and what better way to send a letter, than to draw a comic of his own! I change out the format every now and then and sometimes it's only a partial comic and the rest is lined paper. On the edge of thise one I have some writing prompts for him to fill in a little information!

My daughter is a budding fashion designer with her own portfolio and a room full of sketches. I created this stationery for her to be able to send some outfit sketches to her penpal and still wriite a message in the box. I blanked out her name on this one, but her papers are personalized for that 'professional' feel. She LOVES these and often uses them when she is not even sending them and just makes outfit notes on the right.

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Fun on Friday

Friday is here and just about gone, what did you do with your day? Were you shopping, spending time with friends and or family, relaxing, cleaning? Please share! Ours was a lazy day spent in the theaters and then lounging around our home and you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way!

We shopped in the morning and then headed to an afternoon showing of Mocking Jay (yes, we took the kids, more on this tomorro). As we were headed home and discussing the movie, we chatted about wanting to see Penguins of Madagascar next. My husband then asked what was stopping us from seeing that today as well? We turned right around and were only 20 minutes shy of that movie starting! Hahaha!! We still had our drink and popcorn with us, so we refilled them for free and were ready to settle in with another film!

Our Elf on the Shelf brought Pajamas with his likeness on them and the kids were excited to wear them last night, so we had to photograph them wearing their jammies this morning. Roman absolutely adores penguins, so a penguin always makes its way into our photos! 

We have recently finished watching the Houdini miniseries and my son has now become obsessed with escaping from boxes, handcuffs and anything else they can think of. I only hope they do not attempt any under water tricks! 

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Homeschooling Myth #1

What a busy and fun weekend we had but it also left me scratching my head. Not many people know we are homeschooling yet, but it is slowly leaking out. One comment we get too often is about the kids and socialization. The kids and not having any friends or playing with their friends. This is the biggest myth out there about homeschoolers.

1. My kids are in clubs and lessons at the college and library, where they interact with other kids their age and older.
2. My kids see their old friends from school at least twice a month.
3. We are part of a co-op that goes on field trips and gets together for study sessions.

4. My kids are outside daily with the neighborhood children throughout the school year and summer months.

To me, my kids get to actually interact with other children more often than they did when they were in school, they are done with studying by 11 in the morning and the rest of our day is spent at lessons, groups, clubs and the like. My kids do not own electronic devices that keep them from chatting with people when we go to parties, family homes or even hospital visits. Car rides, Plane rides and Train rides are all about talking, reading and getting to socialize and work on the art of conversation. Communication is HUGE in our book and also in many other homeschooling homes. PLEASE do not spread this rumor or mention it when you meet a homeschooling family, if you have questions, always feel free to ask! Teaching our children is our passion and we will often answer anything you want and more!

Why can't we all just let one another educate in peace? There is no right or wrong way to do things, we all just do what is right for us. As long as we are personally doing what we truly believe is right for our children, then that is all that matters.

Enjoy every minute my friend!

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The Faceboook Phenomenon!

MY Facebook Page! Feel Free To Add Me!

Today we are checking out Facebook as a way of social networking. This is a great way to meet up with old friends and new. YES, it is a place where those old pals from highschool and YIKES even gradeschool may find you, but it's fun! I was utterly and totally confused by all the widgets, add-ons and craziness that was in front of me when I started, but afterawhile I started to get the hang of it! No worries, if it takes you awhile to get out there too! Just start by signing up! Ready to add friends? Post the link to your site on the public forums of your selling venues! Mine is on the Etsy forums and the Lollishops ones too! Once in awhile I Tweet my link on Twitter too! (read my blog post on Twitter here).

Alright, on to the promoting! At the top of your HOME page, you will see a little status bar, much like the one on Twitter. You click inside of the blurb and type what you are doing at the moment! I use this to put big sales, Exclusive codes to my shop and anything else that is shop related. But take a look at it right now ^ I ALSO use it to really update about my life. I don't want to spam Facebook either. I want my friends to stay my friends and not tune me out. Yes, i've already had to tune out frequent spammers, they post link after link after link to their shops. Not just blogs, shops, life etc. It's ALL SHOP ALL THE TIME! This is NOT the way to use Facebook! Starting a Group about your business! I had a couple customers ask me if I was on Facebook, then they started asking me about groups so that they could link their friends! So last week I started my very own group! PLEASE join mine and I will join yours! To get started just go to your HOME page ( you can find this at the top of your Facebook page) Then click on the right hand side the icon that says GROUPS.

Next you want to click on +Create A New Group on the right hand side of the screen it will look like this:

Just follow the prompts from there and it's super easy! Post your link on your public message forums too! (Make sure they allow it!) This is a fun way of keeping former customers and new ones in the loop of what is going on with your shop and what is new! Be sure to add SALE information and EXCLUSIVE discounts too! Get the word out quickly and in a fun way too! Invite your customers to share photos of them wearing your goodies or putting them on display somewhere!

So not everyone joined your group and you still want to spread the word about sales right? Well another awesome way to get memos out is through their NOTES function. Go back to your HOMe page and on the right hand side box where you found the GROUPS button, click on your NOTES button. It may not be visible like mine is, so click on the tiny little triangle that says MORE and it will be in that pull-down list. Click on WRITE A NEW NOTE. It's on the right hand side again! Follow those prompts and it's pretty easy! Publish the whole thing and now your entire stream will see it! So see, it's not that hard to get started on Facebook! Hope I helped someone out there!

New in the shop is my line of Breakfast Treats! From 9.00-30.00.