Author: monstauffer

Avoiding Wastefulness

In thinking about the girls’ bathing routine there was one piece that annoyed me. Since bath time is viewed by two small children as a time to play, and clearly not a functional washing period, we often struggled some in washing hair. So we decided to just not do it anymore. Kidding!

See, once you get past the whole “I promise I’ll try not to dump a whole bucket of water in your eyes so please stop shrieking” part, there’s the “why won’t this soap EVER come out of your hair” annoyance.

In looking into the problem deeper, it was blatantly obvious that the large amount of shampoo that poured out of the bottle was the culprit in annoyance and wastefulness. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but attempting to get a small amount of shampoo from the bottle while trying to assure child’s lack of drowning and tip the bottle just right to keep from palming a mountain of shampoo was challenging.

So after running across this idea in frugality, I thought it would work well for our shampooing needs as well.

So we converted our shampoo into foaming shampoo, which our children now call “whipped creme on your head” followed by hysterical laughter. Way to go Ms. Creativity. 😉

We worked together on this project: me filling an inch of shampoo in the bottom of a foam dispenser and adding water to about an inch from the top. (shown on our sensitive soap)

 Inch of soap in dispenser.              Water added to 1 inch from top.

After the lid was screwed on, Rachael and Abi began their participation. (It took us five minutes so we did it during lunch – hence the bibs). 😉

Shake, shake, shake…

And voila! Foaming shampoo that’s portioned out well. (shown below: soap, not shampoo)

2 Squirts for Abi. 3-4 Squirts for Rachael. And then we rub in the whipped creme. 😉

It comes out of their hair much better, since it’s not in abundance, and it saves us money in avoiding wastefulness.

Win, win!

We also used a really cute dispenser, “Hello Kitty”, which is a THRILL to our children in getting to use the “kitty shampoo.” – Gotta enjoy life where you can. 😉

We also tried this for their sensitive skin body wash (pictured above). Now, since the bodywash is lotion-based it squirts out of the foam dispenser unevenly, causing much hysterical laughter as the bathtub wall sometimes receives a spraying. But, it works well enough to prolong out the life of the soap and “portion control” the “liquid gold” soap for our little sensitive skinned kiddos.

Plus, slapping a label on it helps too. 😉

We tried this method for our handsoap dispensers too, using liquid handsoap (which always comes out of the pump squirters in WAY too large an amount for little hands). Now the foaming soap is fun, well portioned, AND my counter/elbows don’t catch the extra soap waste every time we wash hands. YAY! More Wins!

– maybe this could help you too. =)

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Wordless Wednesday: Gone Fishing

Ingredients: fridge magnets, some kind of string, stick from backyard (debarked would be smart – we learned later. hehe.), “catching dish”, (optional) a few drops of blue food dye in water, and large dose of excitement. 
 Abi trying to catch with hands, not fishing pole. 😉

 Our day’s great catch. =)
– fun indeed!
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More Home Decor plus Organization

So after seeing this idea on pinterest: using a wine rack for a towel holder,

it began to make my creative juices flow.

Since wine racks like this one are easily $50-80 or more, I instantly vetoed the wire rack idea.

In doing some searching, I found that the cheapest places to find wine racks still required a $15-20+ investment that I thought was a bit outlandish for my personal frugality.  Plus some looked a little difficult to convert. And in looking at towel racks the prices weren’t looking better.

So I kept thinking and let it sit on the back burner while our kid towels took up bulky space in the linen closet and were a bit difficult to stack due to their cute hoods.

Then I saw it on the thrift store shelf. With a tag on it for $1.99 plus it was 25% off day. =)

So I bought it, brought it home and cleaned it up.

Then painted it (already had the paint) to match our shower curtain/turqoise bathrub (seriously, we have a turquoise bathtub and toilet) with some much-needed supervision and assistance.

Then I found this lonely space on the bathroom wall.

Mounted our new friend.

And stuffed him with kid and baby towels alike.

We’re not going to store any wet towels in this guy since the active towels are stored on our single towel rack. There are currently two sweet critter towels (a duck and a butterfly) and will soon be a sweet newborn towel as well. But for the remaining towels with great character, this rack will work wonderfully.

And it brings more life and joy to the bathroom.




Total project cost:  about an hour in research, $0.69 at the thrift store (after 25% off applied), and 2 hours from cleaning to painting to drying to mounting/stuffing in the towels.

Wins all around!  =D

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Causing the Father to Run

Sometimes it’s just downright hard to be a Mom.

Every child grows, matures and changes differently. There are graceful transitions and there are really hard phases that seem to last F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

But it’s in those harder transitions, like teaching your child the power of self-control and self-soothing, that really pull the depths of a mother’s, this mother’s, heartstrings.

Self-control has been a skill of Rachael’s from being very small. She seems to be wired with patience, nurturing and self-control. Her tantrum phase was almost non-existent. Words mean so much to her that she is more apt to tantrum through words (i.e. whining and defiant speech) than physically lose it.

Abi is the complete opposite. To Abi, words are effective communication, but there is also a bottled passion within her that she explodes in defiance and frustration when she is unable to communicate her emotions/needs to you or when she feels that her emotions/needs were not accepted. Mixing that deep passion and need to express herself with learning communication (which can be frustrating) and her deep need for physical forgiveness (i.e. you holding her to help her self-regulate and let go of the deep hurt) often creates a hurricane within her.

While Abi has been making GREAT strides in advancing her self-control to remain in the time-out chair during “cool down” moments. There has always been a part of Abi’s character that needs physical touch to regain self-control. Even as a young baby, she needed to feel your calm heartbeat and deep breathing to regain her own self-control. We’ve tried the “cry it out” method to no avail and only to witness her choking, coughing and in complete shaking distress in various ages/stages.

Working it out by herself just does not work for Abi. It’s just a fact. But I am hopeful with continued consistency, time and maturity she too shall learn the power of self-control and self-soothing.

But there are definitely boundaries so as not to create complete reliance on Mommy or Daddy to begin to regain her self-control. She just needs slower, simpler steps as she slowly learns self-control and advances in communication with maturity.  We do a lot of helping her to learn feelings words and appropriate expression of her deep hurts. She is a child of great passion, and I adore her for that. So teaching her to control those wild passion horses is a life-lesson relearned and relearned with each stage. 

And there are those really hard moments of teaching self-control in the midst of desiring the best for Abi and modeling acceptance of appropriate behavior. This is one of my hardest challenges with her. It breaks my heart to hear and witness her working herself into complete hysterics. I wish I could just learn the lesson quickly for her, but if I’ve learned anything it’s that Abi just needs time.

It’s hard when she makes the turn from disappointment and frustration to desperately trying to regain self-control. She has become her worst enemy and she is trying to communicate her want to be rescued and to regain control. It’s hard in those moments and my heart breaks for her as I do my best to stick to communicating my consistent expectations of her and the small steps to regain self-control.

It’s that “Mommy… Mommy,” as she pleas in utter exhaustion, abandoning herself willingly to attempt anything I say because she just wants the hysterics to stop. It’s the “Please… Mommy… please,” as she tries to breathe deeply and calm her hysterical diaphragm. It breaks my heart, pushing me to work past tears in my own eyes to repeat the familiar step by step instructions and give her the time she needs. I want so badly to save her from herself. But I know that I cannot physically be her self-control for the rest of her life.

Slow, slow steps forward. With much time needed and given.

In an instant of followed directions, even the slightest steps of success in self-control, my arms are out to her. She rests her head on my shoulder and her body almost instantly calms. Her breathing regulates. Her heart stops racing. All that’s left of the hurricane is a semi-radical diaphragm, reminding us both of the last forty-five minutes of hard learning.

My precious Abi… Mommy’s heart breaks for you in some lessons. I wish I could scoop you up out of the mess you have put yourself in. But it must be your will to turn from your rebellion. It must be your choice to desire obedience. I just wish it didn’t have to be so hard sometimes.

But God is teaching me the waiting, the praying and the hurting that caused the Father of the returning prodigal son to run.

I adore you, little girl.
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Social Isolation

So it’s been sort of socially quiet around here. Our Internet went out in a storm last Thursday night/Friday morning of last week and I’ve, excluding a trip to Matt’s office to touch base with the virtual world, been socially cut off for a week. It sure makes this “stay at home Mom” appreciate the outlet of virtual connections. I’ve missed staying in touch with the daily lives of family across the country, friends on different schedules, and not the networking, but the opportunity technology allows for real connections to be made through virtual outlets.
I’ve found myself with a quick question thinking, “I’ll just look that up,” only to remember the lost resource and remain in the dark to the answer. No it’s not that there are not other resources available to me to aid in my question answering, but it is to say that many times those resources are unavailable and when they are, I have forgotten the question or find myself so distracted with two young children and my current oven baking contract (wink, wink), that I miss the opportunity.
We were blessed to not sustain any damage from the tornado-like winds that hit Friday night/Saturday morning in our area storms. I sat out on the front porch swing with Abi for what felt like a surreal break in time, watching tree branches and debris swoop over our roof and ride off into the neighborhood. We just sat in silence, in awe, of the power and might of God displayed in dark clouds, heavy rain, and flag-pole shaking winds. Our house is designed with an inlayed porch that runs for half the length of the house. Since the porch is capped on each end by the built-in garage and bedrooms on the other side, it is actually a pretty protected little space housing our porch swing. We’ve spent many quiet afternoons, evenings and mornings swinging to a storm’s rain, enjoying the overhanging roof’s protection and the occasional misting reminding us of the reality that we are actually outside. The porch is further protected by a row of bushes, soaking up the rain and standing as a waist-high protection from small backwinds. This little blessing of a space provides for safety and security to two little girls as their little toes get dusted with occasional mists from the comfort of the porch swing.
In the process of the storm, though while our power did not sustain damage (yay for lights and AC!), our community’s water line broke, resulting in a 36 hour boil advisory followed by an additional 24 hour extension. When you use boiled water for almost all functions, the advanced timing, lack of ability to cool the water quickly, and practicality of two water/water-ingredient consuming kids plus my “drink at least 64 ounces of fluid per day” leg cramp needs seems a bit outlandish at times. So needless to say, we consumed many store-bought fluid ounces of additional powerade-type drinks and eventually broke down to purchase 2 gallons of water (It still leaves a foul taste in my mouth to purchase water in this advanced and blessed country. Not being snooty, just cringing at purchasing something I can get from a hose. LOL. Though in this case, I completely understand not utilizing the hose.)
During the past week of “social blackout” I’ve realized a few things:
  1. Sewing projects have to be put on hold until free patterns can be further reviewed Online.
  2. I use the Internet and Internet-connected devices for distraction a lot during this last trimester.
  3. My friends/family use the Internet to connect with people more than the phone.
  4. It’s way too quiet around here.
  5. We miss Netflix.
  6. Facebook and Pinterest and Email are my news channels.
  7. I wonder what’s happening in Nigeria lately.
  8. Or what’s happening in my friend’s adoption, or the other sites I enjoy keeping up on – my newspaper.
  9. I miss my cousin, and sharing the pregnancy hiccups and encouragements together, from the “heart of it all” to the West coast.
  10. I’ve missed some opportunities to pray through some prayer requests that have been posted Online.
  11. My little nester-needs missed Pinterest and the really good and practical ideas I’ve enjoyed adding to our daily lives.
  12. I’m just kind of bored. LOL.
It’s not that I don’t enjoy books, or “non screen time” activities. But it’s also the reality of the heat wave (will it ever leave the mid-nineties WITHOUT venturing into the 100’s category again?) keeping this little sun-burnable crew indoors. Coupled with the reality of being on a boil advisory adjusting our drinking habits, resulting in some light-headedness and general fatigue in my “making another human” category. Coupled with the reality of two young children’s and this tired Mommy’s napping needs, completion of homeschooling this week before our “Hannah break”, and the general reality of the heat zapping all motivation/energy… it just has made things a little quiet, and eventless, and boring around here. Maybe Matt has noticed how I wait like a puppy for his return from work. “What’s the outside world like?” “What are people doing out there?” “Any new life-happenings?” hehe.
So needless to say I wrap up this long and, probably, exhausting post that I’ll get to post AFTER all this is said and done, with the anticipation of our “fix all” web-box parts that are coming in the mail for us on Saturday. And Amazon, if you really love me, send them a day early just to be nice. 😉 
[THEY CAME FRIDAY!!!!!!] So Yay for our “social blackout” problem fix. =D
Thanks for sharing in this dose of RANDOM!
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Home Improvement

So my nesting and “always looking to improve our space for cheap” bug has been biting again lately. I have been evaluating our primary living spaces, reflecting on homeschooling and came up with a plan for intentionally making “away” spaces to aid in variety in play/learning. In other words, it was time for a change.

I decided to tackle these two spaces, ultimately making them three spaces to allow for separation and decluttering.

I will unveil first the before photos and then two of the completed spaces since the third space is not fully finished yet.

The before:

 The practicality of my homeschooling shelves clashed some with the reality of two small girls. So I decided moving the books away from the homeschooling supplies and “closing” the homeschooling/discovery play supplies to a “Mommy distribution” policy would aid in keeping it cleaner. 
 The “office” space is on the opposite side of the fireplace from the homeschooling supply and books/piano. [We don’t have a room assigned for our office space b/c we decided instead to have a playroom and teach the value of “no touching” even in a common space, plus reserve a bedroom for respite care/adoption.]
 Our main room in our house is the living room, arrayed with two couches, a large TV (gifted to us) and then this wall of: cat climber (right), dollhouse (I painted and got from an old therapy work “exchange”) sitting on top of a table (covered by a blanket) with extra blankets stored under it (movie watching snuggle time), princess castle, then large lego bin (left) and then you start running into our “entertainment” section by the TV.
And now, the After:
I started by moving the homeschooling supplies and the piano to divide our large common room that holds our missions table (outdoor patio glass table/metal chairs kept inside), dining room table (closer by the kitchen) and office area. 
[Side note]: Since our fireplace is not a working feature of our household (cracked chimney), we don’t use this area as a sitting area, but we do use the “missions wall” to add/learn about missions projects, our world vision kids, missionary friends, etc. I’ve displayed information about the global hunger needs, persecution, and world vision village phases for the reminder and active, ongoing conversation about God’s work and the labor/laborers still needed in the harvest. I am ultimately going to flip our large poster area with our (soon to be) three world vision kids display area to allow for an easier update space and a larger space to display the children’s artwork/letters. I’m in no rush to complete this project since changes will be coming to our missions wall with two of our missionary friends coming home in August, therefore, taking down their pictures/information and moving them to the missions binder for continued prayer for the region, even when our missionary friends are not there. Anyway… so that’s the posters/info you see displayed on the wall above the toys.
Hoping to deter run-by piano use, Matt and I moved the piano sideways, thus providing an endcap to the missions table/dining room area and making the illusion of a separated play area with the toys from the living room. 
Since we do homeschooling at the dining room table, this small play area will allow Abi a “space away, yet nearby” to play while Rachael does her table work. Abi, my more “touch-base” kid, didn’t enjoy looking at books (the previous bookcase was there instead of the toys) for the homeschooling time and often would not play alone in the other room since her character likes to be close for a few “touch bases” during homeschooling.
This set-up will allow her to play quietly with the dollhouse/animals/legos/miscellanious basket of larger electronic toys while still remaining socially close by. 
I chose to use a small buildable shelving unit to allow for decluttering and easy “slide-in/out” old laundry basket storage. When everything has a place and we don’t see all the utter details of the toys, things look much neater. Plus asking Abi to clean up entailing putting things in bins = realistic expectation for her age. 
Next I tackled the living room space. Due to the shape of our living room and the ridiculously heavy TV, we really have found the best set-up for the living room large furniture. But I was wanting to make a quiet space available for a little bit of a refuge away. Since we have toys in the other two play areas (playroom and large common room), I wanted to make a space where the girls could go to enjoy the quiet while still reserving their rooms for sleep (we’ve found it helps best to reserve their rooms for sleep, thus creating the environment at the “doorstep” of their room and clear expectations while in their room). 
Thus I give you, our new space (with minimal but nice changes):
 I pulled the toys out, made a “forward facing” bookshelf from a pinterest-inspired idea mixed with a “what we have around the house” reality.
I also decided to keep the small metal bin of “edible books” (cardboard/foam books) for easy Abi access. While Abi can reach the bottom shelf of the wall-mounted bookshelves, I know that she also enjoys her “dump and fill” nature in all environments and often finds “the right book” best by spreading books out on the floor. So her board-book bin allows such enjoyment at her level.Rachael can reach the bottom shelf with ease and the top shelf while standing on a pillow animal.
I put all the reading pillows under the bookshelves, with hopes to couple them with the blankets previously stored in the living room and also allow movie-time snuggling with pillows too. 
To the right of this picture is our large three-paned front window, which allows this space to be naturally lit for most of the day. Between the two couches, the pillows and the blankets, this allows a nice quiet area of learning, reading and discovering. We have already enjoyed the snuggle time on the couch (verses the floor in the previous room) which my back and my Mommy’s delight so appreciates.
The limitation of this bookshelf allows us the ability to put enough reachable books on there without overwhelming the girls with choices (fits about 25 books). That limitation also allows us to switch out books every few months or so to keep up the variety and interest.

I made this shelf out of 1 eight-foot 2×1 board we had left over in the garage, 1 sixteen inch scrap-board, and old laundry line. Thanks to our church maintenance guy, Michael, and a phone conversation with my brainy Dad, I got the boards measured out, cut down, screwed together and mounted with 5 metal brackets to the wall. I used an additional 8.5 inch piece of wood in the middle section of the bookshelf to provide extra support since books, while light individually, can add up in weight.  
I will unveil the office space another day when it is completed. When I rearrange I like to also take the opportunity to clean out, vacuum, wash down the items, etc. I have put the office on pause for a few days to return to my regular housework/chores (so as not to get too far behind on those) while taking on these new projects. I’m also waiting for a chance to put the finishing touches on my two bookshelves. 😉
Thus far, to flip the two spaces between the large common room and the living room it has cost me $10 in dry wall screws (we ran out and the small package was not a deal) and 5 metal brackets at $0.89 a piece to secure the bookshelf to the wall. As mentioned earlier, I already had the wood, extra laundry line, paint, and obviously all the toys. 
Plus with using black Tempera paint to paint the shelves, the girls enjoyed helping paint as well and I didn’t completely spazz out when Abi decided to taste the paint. EEK! Granted, only one taste sufficed the child. 😉
The project took me two days of time (life had to happen between), which I also count a cost to the project. And it was a cost well worth the “new” spaces.
=)

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