Romantic Spa Night {Stay-at-Home Date Idea}

WARNING: PG-13 post.

My husband and I decided years ago that we would stay home with our kids on Valentine’s Day instead of going out as a couple.  We have a tradition of doing cheese and chocolate fondue for dinner with our kids.  It is fun and the kids feel loved and special knowing that we want to be with them on “love day”.  My husband and I also decided years ago that we would switch off buying gifts/planning a Valentine’s date.  We go on a date for Valentine’s Day, but we do it on a different night.  One year I will buy a gift and he will plan the date.  The next year we switch.

This year it was my turn to plan the date and his to buy the gift.  He got me a Kindle Fire HD and a box of See’s Chocolates.  Woo hoo!  I am so excited about my Kindle and the See’s have special meaning to us (and good chocolates are just yummy!).  For our date we will be going to a steakhouse and seeing a romantic movie.  Nothing too exciting but we are definitely looking forward to it.  But I did want to do something special for him and something to commemorate our love for each other on Valentine’s Day.

So, after dinner last night we put the kids upstairs watching a movie with instructions to go to bed after it was over.  And I planned a “Spa Night” for my lover.  It was soooo fun to plan it and set it all up.  I just knew he would LOVE it.  And he totally did.  And even though it was a lot of work for me I really loved doing it for him.  I want to share what I did and how I did it. 

I didn’t take pictures, but I did take these shots of the bathtub area the next morning.

Laundry: The Never-ending Torment {And my awesome laundry system!}

I am not a fan of laundry.  I’ve always thought it was because it was never done.  As soon as you wash the last load, someone has something dirty again.  But I recently realized not only do I hate that it is never complete, I hate that there is always laundry all over the house…clean baskets of things to fold, piles of laundry to put away, or baskets of folded clothes waiting to be taken up to the kids room, or the WORST, clean folded laundry unfolded by kids looking through it for their favorite jeans.  And then there was the laundry room where people would just throw in any laundry sitting around the main floor…socks, sweatshirts, towels…anything someone had left laying around when they had to clean a room.  So, the laundry room was always a mess.

For the past couple years, I have been making my 11 and 10 year old sons do their own laundry.  This happened as a punishment for me doing their laundry and asking them to put it away and me later finding clean folded clothes back in the dirty clothes, in a basket under the bathroom sink, or just sitting in their room for weeks.  So, I told them I was not doing their laundry anymore and they would have to do it.  My older son does ok with it, though usually he is doing laundry at the worst possible times when he realizes Sunday night has has nothing to wear to school the next day.  Or they will start their laundry and then leave it in the washer until I advance it so that I can use the washer for my own laundry.  My 10 year old will just wear EVERYTHING he owns until he has about 6 loads of laundry to do.  Then, he will start wearing all dirty clothes.  In other words, he will never do his laundry.  I had had enough of this system!  I was sick of not having the washer available and sick of my kids wearing wrinkled and/or dirty clothes.

I have FINALLY come up with and awesome laundry system that is totally working for us!  Granted, there are still clothes all over the kids rooms, but since I don’t have to live in their rooms it isn’t bothering me too much.  Here is what I did:

Super Summer Schedule Re-Post {FREE Printable}

IF YOU LIKE THIS, PLEASE CONSIDER PINNING IT! THANKS!

I’ve noticed this is very popular on Pinterest right now so I thought I’d repost it for my readers who are new since last year.  Hope you like it!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I’ve been working hard trying to figure out how to make this summer work.  With all the packing and things I need to do to prepare for our move, I don’t want my kids sitting in front of the TV all day, bored out of their minds.  I REALLY want them to get to have a fun summer, despite the move.

I’ve been looking for ideas and will be compiling some different things to make a fun summer for my kids.  I came across this

 “Do It Yourself Summer Camp” from Power of Moms.

I loved some of their ideas.  I am up in the mountains at my sister’s cabin and I decided to work out our summer plans while I am up here.  Today I came up with theme days for our week days.  I made this cute printable to share with my readers.  I haven’t printed it yet, so if you print it and the colors are awful, please tell me.  I have no printer up here to try it out on.

To get this FREE printable, please click the button below.  You will just need to share it for me in exchange. Do NOT click the pin button that will come up when you hover over the button.  Click the right side of the swap for a Social Whisper bar. Thanks!

I’ll keep you posted on what else I come up with for our summer plans!

Washing You a Very Lucky St. Patrick’s Day FREE Printable Tags.

I’m making a little St. Patrick’s Day package to send to my son at college.  I picked up some Irish Spring soap (what’s more Irish than that??) to throw in to the box.  I decided to make a cute little tag to go on it and offer it to my readers as a free download.  Enjoy!

You can download this tag for FREE by clicking the button below.  In exchange you just have to share it on Facebook or Twitter for me! Thanks!!

3-D Shamrock Specimen Art {FREE Printable}

I made this yesterday and wanted to share it with you!…{free printable link below the break}

Brighten a Friend’s Day!…St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Candy Bags

I made up these adorable little treat bags to take around to a few friends.  I bought my candy in bulk at WinCo. I was amazed at the amount of foods they sell from bulk bins! Definitely worth checking out!

These were so fun to put together and deliver.  I hope they brought a smile to my girlfriends’ faces today!

To make them, just put in four Rolo, and then layer in your candies in rainbow colors.  It only takes a few pieces of each color to fill the bags.  The only purple candy I could find was Grapevines (grape Redvines).  I just used some kitchen shears to cut them into small pieces.  Add a cute tag and ribbon and you’re ready to brighten someone’s day!

I was originally planning to make some rainbow candy kabobs…..

Dazzling Dates for a Year {Printables @ ReMarkableHome.net}

Today I gave this cute man, my sweetheart of 12 years, a whole year of fun for Valentine’s Day!

You may have seen these “Year of Dates” ideas floating around the internet.  I decided that was the perfect gift to give my honey this year.  We try to go on a date about once a week, but our dates typically consist of going to dinner and then running errands at Wal-Mart or Target or the grocery store.  Not very glamorous or fun.  I decided it was time for us to spice things up in our dating life and have a lot more FUN!  I scoured the internet for ideas, asked my friends and family on Facebook for ideas, and racked my own brain for ideas that my husband and I would enjoy.  My super creative sister Laura who has an awesome

Family Home Evening Blog HERE 

and Dating Divas were my biggest inspirations.  I warn you some of the dates allude to activities meant for married couples.....

SCRIPTURE LOVE {Free Printable}

I love Valentine’s Day.  It's not a huge holiday, but it is special to me.  I love that I can just do something small to tell all the special people in my life that I love them!  What is better than a day about love?  I used to not like it so much before I was married and didn’t have a boyfriend to celebrate with.  I wish I had the attitude about it then that I do now.  It’s not so much about lovers as about love.  My husband and I usually forgo an alone date in order to stay home and love on our kids.  We exchange Valentines and have a cheese and chocolate fondue dinner together.  It is fun and our kids look forward to it.  We want them to know they are important to us and that we love them dearly.

My mom always did cute things for us on Valentine’s day.  She would make heart shaped pancakes or waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast.  She always gave us some type of cute Valentine that she made that always expressed her love to us, and usually came with something sweet.  For dinner she would often make heart shaped English muffin pizzas.  This was long before the days of oodles of ideas via Pinterest or blogging.  She wasn’t a very craft oriented person, so these little things meant a lot and were out of the norm.  My dad always gave us a store bought card, which I loved because we were not a store bought card kind of family.  He also gives us Dove ice cream bars!  Sometimes he gave us cute stuffed animals, too.

All of us girls (there were 7 of us) exchanged Valentine’s with each other, too.  And we still do.  Cousins make Valentine’s for each other and we sisters often make a treat or something for each other’s families.  This year I made this printable that I am sending to all my sisters for Valentine’s day.  And I wanted to share it here with my readers.  I hope you like it!

Go HERE for your FREE DOWNLOAD! PLEASE share this on Pinterest or Facebook if you download it and leave me a comment telling me that you downloaded it.

Thanks!

WONDERING LIST {Free Printable}

IF YOU LIKE THIS, PLEASE CONSIDER PINNING IT! THANKS!!

On our SUPER SUMMER SCHEDULE we are having THINKING THURSDAYS.  On this day, we are going to the library and also working on researching things from our wondering list.

A wondering list is a place kids can write down all the things they are wondering about so they can remember them until they get a chance to find the answers.

I decided to make a cute printable for a wondering list!

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE PRINTABLE!

THE STUPENDOUS SIX SUMMER PLAN {FREE Printable}

 IF YOU LIKE THIS, PLEASE CONSIDER PINNING IT! THANKS!

So, I’ve got a plan for our mornings with our SUPER SUMMER SCHEDULE. I’ve got a fun READING PROGRAM ready. Now for our afternoons.  I have A LOT to do to get ready to move.  I have to be able to devote a good chunk of time to packing and organizing and fixing things in our house.  I can’t be constantly entertaining bored kids.  Nor do I think that its good for kids to be constantly entertained.  Kids need to have some self directed time.  It is important to me that my kids work on some educational things during the summer.  We haven’t really done this in past summers and I wish we would have.

So, I have come up with the STUPENDOUS SIX, which are six tasks for my kids to do on their own each afternoon while I am working on other things.  My oldest is off on his own now, but my next two sons can do these all on their own.  My five year old will need a little help and my youngest will be napping during this time.

Here they are:

(A life book is like a journal made from a composition book that the kids get to decorate)

Somehow I have to link these tasks to earning screen time but I’m not exactly sure what I want to do yet.  I am thinking like they can earn ten minutes of screen time per task so they could earn 5 hours for the weekend.  What would you do??

To get this FREE PRINTABLE click the button below.  In exchange you will just need to share it for me. Thanks!

SUPER SUMMER SCHEDULE {FREE Printable}

IF YOU LIKE THIS, PLEASE CONSIDER PINNING IT! THANKS!

I’ve been working hard trying to figure out how to make this summer work.  With all the packing and things I need to do to prepare for our move, I don’t want my kids sitting in front of the TV all day, bored out of their minds.  I REALLY want them to get to have a fun summer, despite the move.

I’ve been looking for ideas and will be compiling some different things to make a fun summer for my kids.  I came across this

 “Do It Yourself Summer Camp” from Power of Moms.

I loved some of their ideas.  I am up in the mountains at my sister’s cabin and I decided to work out our summer plans while I am up here.  Today I came up with theme days for our week days.  I made this cute printable to share with my readers.  I haven’t printed it yet, so if you print it and the colors are awful, please tell me.  I have no printer up here to try it out on.

To get this FREE printable, please click the button below.  You will just need to share it for me in exchange. Click on the right side of the blue bar below.  Do NOT click the pin button! Thanks!

I’ll keep you posted on what else I come up with for our summer plans!

SUMMER READING PROGRAM

One of the BIGGEST, most IMPORTANT things I want to implement this summer is A LOT of daily reading for my kids! I am soooo tired of TV I can’t even tell you. I think the effect of TV, especially TODAY’S programming, on kids is absolutely awful.  When we move, I am thinking of not getting TV hooked up, at least for a good, long while!

Have you heard of How Does She?  It is a site packed full of fun ideas. If you sign up for their email list they will send you passwords to be able to download some of their fun printables.

I recently got an email from them containing a password for printables for a

 Summer Reading Program!

It is super cute and I think it will be so fun for my kids! You can read all about the program HERE

I am hoping they will add a blank bingo board so we can fill in our own ideas for places for our kids to read.  If you like that idea, I hope you will ask them to do it for us!

SUMMER SUBWAY ART {Free Printable}

IF YOU LIKE THIS, PLEASE CONSIDER PINNING IT! THANKS!

I made this summer subway art last summer and gave it away to followers of my blog.  I wanted to post it again for those new followers who might like it. 

 

If you would like this printable, please first follow my blog in some form and then you can download it here: 

Thanks for following!

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

SUMMER SUBWAY ART {Printable}

I have been looking around for a cute summer subway art printable to put in the frame I have on my entry buffet.  Since I haven’t been able to find anything I loved, I decided it was time to try my hand at creating subway art.  Here is what I came up with.Isn’t it so cute???  I am really happy with it!  I created it in Microsoft Word.

I have decided to use this as a little incentive to get people to become followers of my blog.  I hope that’s not rude. 

If you would like this printable, just become a follower or email subscriber of ReMarkable Home and then email me to tell me you did and that you would like the file and I will send it to you.  My email is remarkablehome@gmail.com

LITTLE MAN SHOWER KEEP CALM POSTER {Party & Printable}

UPDATE:  This Keep Calm printable is now for sale and come with my cupcake toppers and favor tags.  The whole set is only $6!

To purchase, please email me at remarkablehome@gmail.com .  I will send you a PayPal invoice.  Once your payment is received I will email you the files.

I created this little poster in Microsoft Word.  I used the font
“Gill Sans”.  I thought it would be cute to say “Keep Calm and Grow On” for a baby shower because you grow a mustache and babies’ main job is to just grow!  I love how it turned out!

You can purchase this along with my cupcake toppers under the “shop” tab at the top of the page.