Let Them Wear Pink! {a mother’s thoughts on encouraging our children’s unique selves}

This blog post isn’t about crafting or cooking or decorating your home.  It is about allowing your kids to be who they are, not who society tells them they SHOULD be. 

My ten year old son likes pink.  Yup, pink.  He loves it, actually.  This is a boy who isn’t a typical “boy”.  He is a very creative, sensitive child.  He doesn’t much care for ball sports, though he does like the outdoors and more solitary activities like rock climbing, running, swimming, etc.  Because of his dislike of team sports, I have been worried that he will have a hard time fitting in with other boys.  I have tried to encourage him to at least play sports recreationally, but he hasn’t been too keen on it.  He really isn’t all that coordinated.  He is NOT a natural, if you know what I mean.  Well, recently he came to me and said he wanted to play soccer.  I was shocked, but also happy that he was warming up to sports a little.  I quickly registered him for a soccer camp that starts next week.  He is excited about it.  I doubt he will ever be great at soccer, but I think it is great that he is willing to give it a go and have fun doing it. 

Well, he needed soccer cleats and socks and shin guards.  Saturday, my husband took him out to the store to get some.  I was not too pleased with my husband when they came home with these:

Homemaker Extraordinaire

Well, I have sure dropped the ball on this blog.  I am not sure what’s happened.  I guess the holidays were pretty overwhelming for me.  When you have five kids and a HUGE extended family, Christmas is A LOT of work!  But we had a great Christmas and a fun New Year.

Lately, I have been working hard on being a better homemaker/housekeeper.  I kind of had an epiphany of sorts one day a couple months ago.  I decided that taking care of this house is my JOB and that I needed to devote more time and energy and effort to doing a better job so that my poor husband didn’t have to pick up the slack anymore. 

I am not a fan of housework.  It is not something I really enjoy.  I know most people don’t either but I think there are a few people in the world that actually like doing it.  Not me!

So I came up with a cleaning schedule for myself that has really been helping me stay on top of things.  I decided that I need to complete at least two loads of laundry a day.  Then each day, I have different chores that I do.  I have found that if I do them every week they do not take long at all!

Monday: Mop the downstairs floor and wipe down some part of the kitchen.  I rotate between chairs, cabinets, appliances, blinds, etc..

Tuesday: This is my day for doing projects, particularly for re-finishing furniture.  So, no housecleaning other than laundry.

Wednesday: Bathrooms.  I only have 2.5 baths, luckily!  I have been amazed at how quickly I can get them done now that I am doing them every week.  I usually end up with a lot of extra time for picking up and putting things away.

Thursday: Vacuum, and organize something. I kept this day light because I have playgroup in the mornings.

Friday: Dust, change sheets, clean mirrors/glass.  I rotate doing half the beds one week and half the next.  And I don’t dust the whole house each week, just part.  Same with the glass and mirrors.

Saturday: Wash sheets and towels.  Yard work.  Or any other project that needs doing.

I try to get the laundry started before I go downstairs (I have an upstairs laundry).  Then I told myself I will work for about 2 or 2.5 hours each morning after I take the kids to school.  When 11:30 rolls around I am done and whatever I didn’t get done can wait until next time. 

For picking up I have noticed when I am doing my chores regularly the kids seem to do a better job of putting things away.  But I will often get the boys to “Sparkle the House” before bedtime so we can start the day fresh.  My husband is also a sweetheart and picks up behind the kids too.  He has also been doing the dishes for me almost every night.  I don’t really do dishes during the day.  We mostly use paper products and everything else goes into the sink and my sweet husband does them all after dinner.  It is a HUGE help to me, especially because by the end of the day the last thing I want to do is wash dishes.  My husband is AMAZINGLY helpful around the house!  Thanks honey!

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on around here.  Right now I am sick and have fallen behind.  But, that has given me a chance to do a bit of blogging!  But I feel a lot better about myself when I am accomplishing these things. If keeping this house in good order is what I am supposed to be doing then I want to do a good job at it! Unfortunately, I haven’t quite figured out how to mix in the things I WANT to do, like blogging. But I am working on it. Its all about finding the right balance, I believe. I’m getting there.

Oh, and I just have to say I am a HUGE Norwex fan!  Cleaning is soooo much faster and easier with their cloths and mop!  I love them!!  I don’t ever want to use cleaners again!

What tips and tricks do you have for keeping up with your household chores??

SPIRITOMETER {Printable}

We have a problem in our home which is that most some of us have trouble speaking kindly.  There is far too much yelling, name calling, fighting, and just general nastiness.  One of my sons is particularly challenged in this area.

I am a Mormon.  I’m not sure I’ve ever really said that on this blog.  It isn’t that I wanted to hide it.  I just don’t want to be preaching religion on here all the time.  But, yes, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In our religion, we talk a lot about the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, as we believe he is a member of the Godhead, which is comprised of God, the father, His son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  We believe the Holy Ghost is the one who helps us to communicate with God, our father.  Sometimes, you can feel his presence so strongly.  And we talk a lot about having the Holy Ghost near and even present in our home.  When there is peace and love in our home, we believe he is present.  But when there is bickering and contention, we believe he cannot abide that type of environment and therefore leaves our presence until we are behaving better.

Anyway, one Sunday a couple weeks ago I had absolutely had it with the nastiness in our home.  I sat my family down and told them things had to change so that we could feel the Spirit more abundantly in our home.  That day, I required everyone in my family to speak only in a whisper.  Amazingly, it made a huge difference.  There was much more peace and kindness in our home that afternoon.  The following day, my birthday, I required everyone to whisper as well.  It was a very nice day for me!

That day I came up with a brilliant idea to make a “Spiritometer”.  I talked to my family about how we have different gauges to measure different things, like a speedometer on a car.  I told them I was going to make a “spiritometer” and explained to them that when the Spirit was strong in our home we could speak in normal voices.  But when there was fighting or complaining or disobedience and the Spirit was not so strong, we would need to lower our voices and try to say nice things to encourage the Spirit to return to our home.  I told them that unfortunately I would not be able to make a Spiritometer that automatically measured the level of the Spirit, but that I would have to move it manually depending on how I felt things were going in our house.

While I didn’t get around to making the Spiritometer for two weeks, I did verbally tell them where I thought it was and at what level they should be talking.  My 4 year old was so super cute.  Whenever I told them the Spirit was leaving, he would immediately start telling everyone he loved them and how awesome they are to try to bring it back up!  So cute!

Anyway, I really think this idea was an answer to my prayers in asking God how I could change the culture and tone of my home.  It really is helping us, me included.

I want to give this printable to you for FREE if you want it to try in your own home.  I created it in the program that goes with my Silhouette, and the only was I can figure out to be able to give it to you is that I made it into an .xps file.  Hopefully that will work for people!

To make it, I simply printed the image on cardstock and used ModPodge to adhere it to some cardboard.  After it dried, I ModPodged over it.  Once that was dry I gave it a coat of clear spray paint.  For the pointer, I used my Cropodile to punch a hole in a popsicle stick.  I printed out the orange polka dot design and ModPodged it to the popsicle stick.  I used a sanding block to sand the excess paper off.  You can make a pointer how ever you want.  A laminated cardstock arrow would work well.  I attached the pointer with a brad, but I put a small washer between the pointer and the board to keep it from scraping against it as it is moved.  Then I just stuck it in this frame and put the glass behind the board.  It would look better in a black frame but I didn’t have one on hand. 

The little ghosts are for my little ones that can’t read so they can see a visual of how strong the Spirit is.

Please email me if you would like the files.  remarkablehome@gmail.com

I’M SO MAD!!!

Today my kids and I made homemade Samoas cookies, that are supposed to be like Girl Scout cookies.  I wanted to be able to take some to my sister who just had the baby, as well as to a few friends.  So, I doubled the cookie recipe and make a big half sheet pan of bar cookies.  You start by making a shortbread cookie dough.  I changed up the recipe a little to make it easier and topped the cookie with chocolate instead of dipping the bottom of each cookie in chocolate at the end.  Then, I didn’t want to buy homemade caramels because I don’t like them all that much compared to homemade caramel.  So, I toasted an entire bag of coconut.  Then I made the homemade caramel.  What I didn’t know is that my stupid candy thermometer is a piece of absolute junk and it wouldn’t go over 202 degrees.  So, the caramel got too hot and now instead of a delicious pan of homemade Samoas I have a pan of cookies I can’t even bite into!!!

What a waste of time and ingredients!!!

On the plus side, I found I don’t care for the shortbread part either.  It came from the homemade Samoa recipes you can find all over the web.  I am going to change it up and try it again another day using a shortbread recipe that I do like.  Actually, I think I will go with a butter cookie recipe.  Shortbread is really too crumbly.

Anyone have any ideas what I could do with this now?  I thought of breaking it up for ice cream topping but the caramel is not as hard as toffee.  Its still a little chewy.  Could I harden it by baking it in the oven??

What recipe failures have you had lately?  Come on girls, make me feel better!

FLOUR FROSTING {Recipe Review}

Well, today I decided to spend some time with my 4 year old making some cupcakes in a jar.  We made these from a white cake mix.  We simply made the mix according to package directions, divided the batter into 3 equal parts, tinted one red and one blue, and layered the colors into jars sprayed with cooking spray.  I used a cookie scoop to put the batter into the jars, but had to use a baby spoon to spread out the white and red batter.  It would probably work better to put the batter in pastry bags or Ziploc bags with the corner cut off and pipe it into the jars in even layers.  We baked them on a cookie sheet for 25 minutes or until they sprung back a little when gently pushed in the center.

NOTE: I used 1 cup wide mouth jars.  I think I am in love with these jars and will be making more things in them.  They are just soooo cute!

Here they are before they were baked:

Here they are after:

I left them on the counter to cool and this is what happened, compliments of my two year old:

Here is how he got up there:

He is a stinker.  Good thing he is super cute:

Well, I went looking for a recipe for some new kind of frosting so I could try out something new. I came across a recipe that uses flour several times and everyone was raving about it.  I read many different versions, but decided to use the one I found HERE on The Girl Who Ate Everything.  I think she got it from The Pioneer Woman.

I had my doubts that it could REALLY be as good as everyone claimed.  But I decided to put the recipe to the test.

Here are my notes on making it:

1.  Add the flour to COLD milk in a COLD pan and make sure it is fully whisked together before turning on the heat-this helps avoid clumps.

2.  When you cook the milk and flour together it will get REALLY thick…like the skin on a pudding thick.  That is ok.  Just don’t burn it.

3. Beat the butter and sugar together for a LONG time, like 5 minutes.  Be sure to scrape down the bowl several times.  If you don’t mix it long enough, you will have grainy sugar in your frosting.

4. It doesn’t take as long to cool the flour mixture down as you think.  Stick it in the freezer while you beat the butter and sugar and it will be done when you are ready for it.

5.  Beat the flour mixture with the butter mixture for another 5 minutes.  It won’t ruin it.  You can’t overbeat it, I don’t think.  It just makes it silkier.

Well, I have to admit this is a really good buttercream.  I am not a fan of most buttercream frostings….too sweet for me.  But this one is not as sweet as most.  It has a very smooth and silky texture and is a little lighter in feel than a traditional buttercream.  I think it would lend itself well to some fruity flavors, like lemon or a raspberry puree.  I read that a lot of people have problems getting it to turn out.  I had no problems.  It was pretty easy.  I think the key is just to beat everything really well.  I will say it has quite a buttery flavor.  I think it might be better if it had 1/2 c. more sugar. But then maybe all the sugar would not dissolve.  But it was ALMOST too buttery  I wonder how it would taste on chocolate cake.  Probably pretty good.

I prefer cream cheese frosting, but you can’t ALWAYS use it so this is a good substitute.  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

CAUTION:  This frosting MIGHT make your kid look like this: 

Flickr Tags: cupcake,frosting,flour,dessert,baking,4th of July,mason jar,jar

APRICOT HAND PIES-FAIL!

So, I came across this recipe for apricot hand pies.  I love hand pies and wanted to try these because I needed to use up 20 pounds of fruit they look amazing.  So, I prepared the filling like so:

Wash the fruit and remove the pits:

Cut each half into quarters and place in bowl:

Add lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon.  Then stir it up and place in refrigerator:

That part all went fine.  Then I made the pastry which is a very delicate pastry made with butter.  Here is what I did:

Place dry ingredients in food processor.

Cut cold butter into cubes and add it to flour mixture, processing about 10 second until it resembles coarse meal.

With processor running add ice water until dough comes together:

I thought my pastry looked great but when I went to roll it out and make the pies it did not work so well.  I discovered the recipe I used had several flaws (no cooking temp, double the yield the dough actually produced, no amount of flour to be added to fruit, too thick of specification for rolling the dough).  I followed the recipe and made up my own parts for the things that were missing or obviously wrong.  I was pretty bummed when my hand pies looked like this because the dough was far too crumbly and delicate:

I tried doing some non-folded over double pies but they still didn’t look too great:

I brushed them with cream and sprinkled them with raw sugar.  I baked them at 375 till they were golden brown.  They actually tasted pretty good.  My husband suggested putting some of the extra filling into some crescent rolls.  So, I tried that but my rolls were old and falling apart and this is how crappy THEY looked:

No one liked the crescent roll ones.  The crust on the pastry ones was very buttery…tasted like a not sweet shortbread cookie.  Which made me think that a shortbread cookie hand pie would be SUPER yummy because there is quite a bit of tartness to the fruit filling when you are suing fresh fruit.

Here are the baked pies:

SO, it majorly bums me out when recipes don’t turn out right.  I will never use a delicate crust like this for hand pies again.  I think I might have to try a sweetened pie crust or a cookie type crust next time…if I ever get up the courage to try again, that is!

BEST. SUMMER. EVER. {Paper Craft}

We have a wall in our stairwell.  Years ago we followed a tradition of my husband’s family and created a picture wall on that blank space.  The picture wall was just hundreds of snapshots stapled to the wall so that they overlapped.  There were a few enlargements as well.  We would put up pictures of our friends and family and cute shots of our kid or pictures of memorable events.  It was fun.  But I got tired of it having no rhyme or reason.

So, I decided the pictures needed a frame to go in.  So, down came the pictures.  I got some molding to make a frame, but was too afraid to attempt it on my own.  So, maybe a year later my younger sister Jennifer, who is very handy and knows how to build things, came into town and helped me get the frame up.  After that I just needed to fill the nail holes and paint it and then re-hang the pictures.  Well, 4 or 5 years later I still haven’t gotten it done!  This is the story of my life.  We lived without a sink in our downstairs bathroom for about 4 years because it took me that long to complete the project of a vessel sink made from a bowl on a little antique dresser.

Anyway, since I never painted the frame and put the pictures back up, this space has been used for some different things.  Currently, it is housing our SUMMER TO-DO LIST, which is the main topic of this post!  Here it is!

I cut 12x12 paper (this is from Wal-Mart) into quarters so I had 6x6 squares.  Then I made 4x4 squares with the activities printed in them.  I used 8 different fonts.  I attached the white squares to the scrapbook paper squares with double stick tape.  Originally I was going to do a banner with these, but I got a little carried away and made close to 80 squares!  So, the banner would have been longer than my house!  So, instead, I used sticky tack to put these up in my frame.  They make it look must more cheerful!  Don’t mind the old paint.  There is also a hole one of my precious boys kicked in the wall when he was mad!  Aren’t kids so fun???!!!

Now, I want you to know this is not perfect.  Nothing I do ever is!  Do they fit in the frame perfectly??  NO.  Are the squares perfectly square?  NO.  Did my printer cut off the border on some of the squares?  YES.  Do I dislike one of the fonts I chose?  YES.  But, since I am fighting perfectionism I just let all of these things be.  It doesn’t change the fact that we are going to have a super fun summer!  My kids are VERY excited about all these activities.  I am hoping it keeps them from being complete couch potatoes this summer.  But, I must admit I am worried I will not be able to keep up with this plan!!!

For those who might like to see my list more clearly, here it is!  ALSO, we will be needing friends to accompany us in some of these activities.  So I hope some of my Vegas friends will let me know what they would like to do with us!

Stepping Back

I have been giving my blog a lot of thought the past few days.  I am realizing that it is taking too much of my time and I am not getting done the things I need to accomplish, like mopping my floor  I originally started this blog so I would have a place to list items for sale that I have created.  I was planning to make up a bunch of things and then have a boutique sale at my house.  But I wanted to have a website to direct people to for future purchases or where their friends and family could go to buy my stuff.  But as I was creating it I decided it would be a lot more fun to be able to post the things I do on a regular basis….the cooking, the crafting…you know, the things housewives do to make their homes remarkable places that no one really notices but them.

I have been reading blogs for awhile now.  I have seen many posts by the “big-time bloggers” on how to have a successful and popular blog.  And one of the things they all say is to blog every week day.  I have perfectionist tendencies.  If I am going to do something, I like to do it all the way.  So, I decided I was going to blog every week day.  I figured if you’re going to blog you need people to read it.  There’s not much point if no one is following…if no one is liking and using the ideas you are sharing.  So I have been blogging every week day.  It has been really fun.  But now I am realizing that it is really taking my time away from my true priorities, which are my children and husband.

So far, it hasn’t really been too difficult for me to come up with a post for each day.  I have done many projects in the past and had some of them documented in pictures that I could share with you on this blog.  What was really taking a lot of my time was linking up to linky parties.  Again, I felt like I needed to put my ideas out there on linky parties to generate traffic to my blog.  I was trying to do what other bloggers have told me is necessary to have a successful blog.

Anyway, last night I was talking with my husband about my blog and how much time it is taking.  I was feeling really guilty because I haven’t been spending much quality time with my kids and I have certainly been neglecting my housework (thought I must admit I neglected my housework much of the time BEFORE I had a blog!)  I was telling him how I want to make money to help him out and also how I just like to create things.  And if I’m going to make stuff I need to sell it because what else am I going to do with it all?  He told me (like he has many times before) to quit trying to make money and let him take care of it!  And he is right.  That’s his job not mine and he doesn’t need my help anyway…he is doing a great job at supporting our family! 

ANYWAY, what all this rambling boils down to is that I am going to be placing less emphasis on blogging and more emphasis on parenting.  I am still going to share recipes often (I have to cook anyway so I might as well photograph it).  I am still going to create things and list them to sell (have to fund my hobbies this way or I feel guilty for spending money (I’m a very frugal person)!).  I am still going to share my ideas and the things I am doing with you all.  What I am NOT going to do is try to promote my blog.  I am NOT going to try to blog every day.  I am NOT going to do projects just to blog about them later. I am not going to care how many followers I have or how many page views I get a day.  I DO want to try to share some skills and knowledge with you all.  I want to teach you some interior design stuff (the little bit I know).  I want to show you how to do some of the homemaking type things I learned from my mother or grandmother or other places.  I want to share my talents and gifts with you, and especially with my family and real-life friends.

So, I am not going away.  But please don’t be mad if I don’t have a new post every single day!  Once again I want to say THANK YOU for reading and commenting and making me feel like what I have to offer is useful to you!  I DO need that in my life.  Being a homemaker isn’t very glamorous…keeping a house is hard and mostly thankless work.  So it really is very helpful to me to be able to get a little feedback from you, my wonderful readers, on the things I do above and beyond scrubbing toilets and cleaning spills.  I appreciate you!

Showing the REAL

So, I've been thinking alot about this little blog of mine.  I have been thinking to myself, "There are so many amazing blogs out there written by more talented ladies with better ideas.  Why would anyone want to read MY blog?".

Now, honestly, I did not start this blog in hopes of getting tons of followers.  My original idea was to just have a place to list the items I create for sale so that my friends and family could direct their friends and family to see them (and hopefully buy them).  But recently, I decided to post some of the things I have done, like parties and crafts, on Facebook for my friends to see.  Why?  Because mothering five boys is hard and not always fun!  Boys are not too good at noticing the things their mother does to make their home and lives special.  So, I guess I was looking for a little validation and praise for my hard work.  Thankfully my FB friends gave me just what I needed and it made me feel like all my efforts were worth it!

So, back to the blog....I decided that it would really be fun to put my ideas and creative endeavors out into blogland for all to see and enjoy.  I SO enjoy reading the blogs that I follow and getting inspired by others creative ideas.  It is one really enjoyable thing that I can do for myself each day.  So I decided maybe I did have something to offer people and decided to use this blog to showcase my own creative endeavors and hobbies.

Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes when I read blogs I start to feel really down on myself.  I wonder how these amazing women can seemingly "do it all" and do it all so well!  Sometimes I have to take a blog break because I start to feel like a failure or like I am not good enough.  I don't think we women should have to feel that way.  We all have different talents and strengths and weaknesses.  No one can "do it all."  People put their best face forward on blogs.  Many of the big time bloggers spend hours a day on their blogs because they are their source of income.  It is their job.  My job is being a stay at home mom to five boys.  I am lucky because I don't HAVE to work out of the home.  I'm not saying we are rolling in dough over here.  Money is actually VERY tight.  But we have chosen for me to not work outside the home.  I honestly don't know how working moms do it.  I think they are AMAZING!  I can't even keep up with my house and meet my kids needs when I am here all day every day.

Anyway, so, in thinking of how I could make my blog a little different I decided I am going to try to keep it very real.  I am going to try to be very honest with my posts and projects.  I am going to try to show you when things don't work out quite right....and that happens ALOT around here!  I am also going to give you a glimpse into what real life is like when raising five boys.  In other words, I am going to try to keep it real.  I will show you parties that are NOT over the top and perfect, yet the kids still have a great time.  I will probably spare you seeing pictures of the ring of pee around my toilets or the HUGE pile of dirt I sweep up off my kitchen floors.

SO, for my first case in point....
While other mothers got up early on St. Patrick's Day to make their sweet children an amazing green breakfast of green pancakes shaped like clovers, cups of rainbow fruit salad, traditional Irish scones, green eggs and milk, all served on a beautifully decorated tablescape, I served my kids this:

Don't worry, I dyed a gallon of milk green to go with it!

And guess what!  They absolutely LOVED it!