Sick kids and a nail to the tire

It has really really really been a crazy for the past 3 days. My poor daughter has been sick with a stuffed up head. The poor thing, she has been miserable and hasn't been able to go to and have fun with her friends. I have been up for 2 nights straight. Literally the total amount if sleep I have had in 2 nights is 6 hrs. Last I checked, it was summer break and I was suppose to be getting all sorts of sleep.

Today, I decided it was time to take my baby girl to get her ears checked. Thankfully, no ear infections, she has a slight case of vertigo. So it explains everything she has been doing the past 2 days. We have some bumps and bruises and a sick tummy. It has been a few interesting days around here with this illness.

I was so happy I loaded my kids into the van and all the sudden I see it. THIS HUGE metal object in the tread of my tires. I had a bolt in my tire, I of course immediately get upset. I don't know a lot about cars, except that they don't have blinker fluid or muffler bearings. (Inside joke from my high school days). I got my sleepy self to call my husband and to just take it to the auto shop. I have to say how happy I am we got a Road Hazard Policy for our tires. It was free, but having a toddler with vertigo and no stroller a trip to the mall well... This experience is going to be a fun one well, not that, but interesting for sure.

The gentleman behind the counter told me 2.5 hours, so off we went. I tried so hard to get my daughter to stay seated as much as possible. With an almost 3 year old that lasted maybe 2 minutes total. We had to go to the princess store, absolutely had to go. We managed to go to a few stores and it was, in all honestly heavenly. My kids were so well behaved, for 2.5 hours going all over the mall. I got my glasses adjusted, I tried on shoes for both kids, I got a lot done. It was super amazingly a smooth trip, I signed our work orders and left. We went and ran the rest of our errands and it was great, I rewarded with cookies.

Chores and your kids

I have a 9 year old and a 3 year old in one week. Hold on while I shed a tear that our baby is getting bigger and bigger. My husband and I are pretty much mostly on the same page when it comes to chores. The weirdest thing we do is, we don't pay an allowance. We are teaching our kids about money but we have standard chores and then I am guess what would be "commission" chores.

Standard being the obvious, clean your room, pick up your clothes, clear the table, be respectful and so forth. When we offer commission chores it's things like cleaning baseboards weekly, cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the pans from dinner, laundry, and so forth. I saw a pin on Pinterest (where ALL mom's get their ideas) that had a board with the money attached. It has been the BEST idea, my son picks a chore and collects his "commission" immediately. The hardest part is my son NEVER SPENDS A PENNY, birthday, tooth fairy, commissions and so forth. We love that he saves, but getting him to splurge is hard for us to get him to understand. He says he is saving for a house, in 9 years. We love that he is wanting to save, we also just hope that he learns to get a treat for himself every now and then.

How do you plan chores for your kids?

Summer Projects

I have a list of various Summer Projects I want to get started. My first one is getting a better morning routine. I am horrible at mornings. I want to be better because at my age, the late nights are no longer my friend. I follow this blog called Money Saving Mom. I am a huge huge fan of Crystal's, first, she has quadrupled my Kindle Library in a month with her links to free books. She posts update daily that save me money and offers so much more.

I purchased her book Say Goodbye to Survival Mode and I obviously being a poor time manager, haven't found the time to read it. I have a lot of different blogs that I follow, some of them share their morning routine. As I sit trying to wake up after I run my son to school, I am jealous of their time management. I have to say, I do not know where to start. So, my goal is to have this book read in a week. Maybe, I will have a system down and I will find more down time for me.

I would love to watch a movie start to finish in ONE sitting. Devote more time to my daily devotionals and Bible Reading. Who knows, maybe I could paint my bathroom in an afternoon.

My biggest issue is my and I know you see the memes, I have ADD cleaning. I will literally change the laundry and half way through the process, clean the kitchen and my master bathroom. Hours later, the washer is still half way filled with wet clothes.

So hopefully, this book will jump start a new morning routine

Murphy's law

So if you follow me on Instagram you saw that today was our last day of school. My relief was nonexistent as I was so tired from the day before, well really this whole week. I had been pushing the envelope so much to get all this end of the year stuff done on top of a few projects my husband and I were working on. We had our 8th grade promotion ceremony, a Sundae Bar for a 2nd grade class, errands, grocery shopping, putting away said groceries, and still home work, and making lunches. I did about half of this with my toddler on my hip towards the middle to end as she was very very tired. DID I MENTION I was in HIGH HEELS for 13 hours straight?

The day started off pretty good, but as it wore on, little things started happening. There was the sugar crash of my daughter who had an ice cream sundae. Grocery shopping with the after work crowd (not my favorite thing to do). I was so thrown off on my schedule, I left my list at home and did it from memory. I forgot some key items. So that is another trip I have to make soon.

Naps were not taken so of course crying and I am guilty of bribing to get through all the errands. A mom has to do what a mom has to do. She had been so wonderful, but running after the big school kids all day, she needed rest. She decided to fall asleep at 6 PM so that meant her bed time was going to be WAY LATER than normal.

Then comes the biggest incident... the HOMEWORK incident. It is the night before the last day of school. Their Big Math test was already done, but NO, NO NO NO. We are going to do a double sided division work sheet. Just for fun. I am trying not to crab to much, but come on, they are done. The Honor Roll assembly was the next day at 8:30 Grades are done. So my son is doing his homework at 9 PM way past his bed time and it starts. He literally finishes and here comes the worst nose bleed ever. If you have been following Arizona, it is REALLY DRY HERE. We have a lot of wildfires happening and the side of the highways with the dry landscapes are literally bursting into flames. So 20 minutes later, there is a mess from the dining room to the kitchen. His homework is not in any condition to be turned in.

My son is a serious 3rd (now 4th grader), I knew the teacher would understand. NOPE, he had to have his homework. I promised him, I would take care of it. I get everyone in bed, lunches made, groceries put away, kitchen cleaned. I grab my wonderful little pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food (best stuff ever) and I sit to get the work sheet from the Math Site. I press Print at 11:39 pm... NOTHING. I press print again... NOTHING. My printer was disconnected from the network. So after working with the horrible Windows 8, I get it back online. I press print again at 12:04 AM... a message appears (ink is low).

At this point, I am willing to take the F for the grade. I get out my legal pad and start writing all the math problems.... I messed up 3 times. On my 4th attempt to create the work sheet, I wrote the last problem wrong. I decided OHH Well.

BY 12:49 AM, my tired, hungry, sore self went to bed. I woke up deader than a Zombie and could barely walk. I went to the Awards Ceremony to see my son get the Honor Roll. I some how finagled a 3 hr nap from my daughter so I slept in a blissful Advil aided state. I woke up not feeling fully awake, but I was awake enough to go to Pack Meeting.

My son did get an "A" in Math... I guess Murphy wanted me to really earn my Summer Break

Wexy Lunch and Munch Bags Review

Long time no write, the past week and next week are going to be SO CRAZY. It's our last day of school a week from TODAY! Between end of the year activities, Baseball Championships, PTO events, and our regular routine. I am finding no time for writing and I find myself counting the days to May 23rd when we can finally sleep in.

With our hectic schedule, I have found there is NO TIME for constantly washing our snack containers and such that I pack for when we are going to be gone. I was emailed last week by Wexy Bags to do a review and I thought to myself "Perfect Timing". I knew I was going to be running all over and I would have a chance to use the product A LOT!

When I find out about a new company, I love to read their About Us story. You find so much out about the founders especially what drove them to create their brand. In reading about Wexy Bags I read about Carie and her needs to provide lunches and snacks for her son who had a Gluten Intolerance and various food allergies. Tracey believed in providing foods that weren't processed or filled with GMO's to her family. Immediately you can see just like most mom's out there they have wants and needs for their kids. In creating this product they felt kids needed to get excited about healthy foods. You see so many foods that are overly processed with fun characters on it. My daughter sees them and wants them too, but cartoons don't fool mom. Carie and Tracey felt that kids need to get excited about their food, along came WEXY bags! They have 4 adorable Monsters Sammy the Surfer, Scout the Soccer Player, Bailey the Bubble Maker, and Dusty the Diver

My daughter has fallen in love with Bailey the Bubble Maker, she took all the bags to her room at one point. They are super cute and SUPER fun and you can read more about the monsters here. 

I used these bags non stop since I got them, if you follow me on instagram you have seen them there in some of my posts. 

I am loving Wexy Bags for a lot more than just their cute monsters. They are also Bisphenol A (BPA) free, which as we all know is a major concern these days with our exposure to this chemical especially in kids. BPA has been known to cause cancer, asthma, heart disease, thyroid problems, even obesity. These bags are 100% BPA free! 

If you are concerned about recycling or post consumer waste, Wexy Bags are 100% biodegradable. When thinking about health, Carie and Tracey thought of everything. That includes the effects on the enviorment! Their product box is also 100% recycled cardboard and made in the USA! As Moses Henry Cass said "We don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" I love this product so much that it honors a quote I love so much. 

I have fallen in love with these bags and as a mom on the go they support my ideals. I love that I have bags that are fun for my kids and friendly to the environment. With our summer activities too such as swim practice 2 times a day, we will be needing a ton of on the go snacks!

If you go to Wexy Bags you will find out all sorts of information, including placing an order. I found a small little something that ANY PARENT can use, and that is a FREE E-BOOK! In this little bonus are snack and meal ideas! The recipes are allergy friendly as well, and they explain the nutritional benefits to each recipe. I have recipe #12 planned which is Bailey's French Toast Bites planned for our first Breakfast of Summer Break and Recipe #4 Frozen Grapes is going now since Grapes were on sale this week! 

I included a few pictures from my instagram, as you can see, the bags add some fun to snack time. 

 

Disclaimer: This was a sponsored post by  Wexy Bags. Wexy Bags AKA Two Moms on the Go, LLC provided the product for my review as compensation. All opinions and photos are mine and of my own views. Please ask to use pictures or an context from this blog If you have any questions please feel free to email me HERE 

Sources: Wexy Bags and Wikipedia Bisphenol A (BPA)

Summer is a comin

So my son can count on small but fun things I plan at home for the last day of school before Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. I get a movie we have never seen, Root Beer Floats are a MUST, and a fun dinner. For us this year I am having to improvise since we have Pack Meeting for Boy Scouts and we won't be home until 8. I am so bummed we look forward to this every year. Pity Party Over!

However, I have 6 weeks (we are year round remember) to plan and keep my kids happy and distracted. The pool and the ever obvious Swim Team will keep us going. However, when we are what hose who gets them. I call Water Logged. I need more ideas. That is where Pinterest comes in. Now, we are all prone to a Pinterest Fail, myself is for sure a Mom who has had A LOT of those.

I am planning weekly trips to the library, science experiments (2 a week), cooking fun (I suggest doing this during different times of day for different meals). My son wants to help with dinner first, so he will be in charge of planning the menu. I will guide him for budget purposes, slicing if needed, etc. We are planning a few mother and son dates nights to talk about books we are reading.

I am super excited that Harkins does a summer movie program and I can get 10 movies for 5 bucks. That is a Friday thing so I can't wait. Check your local theater, at 10 AM they do a showing of a repeat kid's movie and the tickets are SUPER CHEAP. Great way to escape the heat for us (In AZ it will be a scorcher this summer)

What ideas do yo have for summer break. All mom's need help in this area because when you hit that wall, you need reinforcements!

Have a great eveing!

Plastic bags vs Containers in packing a lunch

My son's school is a year round school. We start in July so I am ahead of all the "Back to School" bargains that the stores offer. I made a promise to myself in the summer of 2013 to pack my son's lunch and see how far I could go before I caved and had him buy lunch at school. I am proud to say I only have 15 days left in this school year. I have packed lunches and breakfasts for him all year. This is a huge commitment, I wanted to pack fun meals that weren't just sandwiches every day.

After the 1st quarter we get a 3 week Fall Break. I began to get irritated at all the plastic bags in his lunch box after 2 weeks. So my research began on containers to pack his lunch in that I can wash and reuse. I decided to get the ziploc 3 compartment containers... those are now my "EMERGENCY" or "FIELD TRIP" go to. They gave up, where the line divider is on the width part, it gets and odd shape after you pull it off. Mine were done after a week, It couldn't latch on at all. So I began to look at what people call "Bento". 

I found Laptop Lunches due to their price $23.99 for their Bento Box!!!. I got my bento set the last day of school before break. I was super excited to see it in the mail box (fast fast shipping). I got up 3 weeks later and packed my son an awesome lunch in his new lunch container. I loved it and it paid itself off in 1 month compared to plastic bags. I was super sad to lose the container month later. So back to plastic bags for me and griping about the costs.

I decided to try a Planet box bento system next. This was an expense I wrestled with for a few months actually. I wanted the Rover Complete which is $59.95.  I had to do the math to justify the cost associated with it. The container came with a 5 year warranty which I was super excited to have

Here is my break down. 

Let's go off a 4 week month of 20 days of school. I bought the Target brand sandwich ziploc bags and 100 came to a box which were $2.64. I packed 4 bags a lunch (sandwich, fruit, veggie, and a small treat or snack) So I got 25 lunches a box and at 9 months a year (just lunches not anything extra and breakfasts it was getting costly) I kept losing track so then I just starting writing the dates on the boxes when I got them. I was getting a box every 1.5 weeks! So 2 a month, it was costing me $47.52 a school year ( 9 months and that doesn't include summer). 

So now that the boring stuff is over, I broke down and ordered the Rover from Planet Box. I am super happy with the container again like the Laptop Bento. I love each container for their own individual reasons, it really depends on the meal and the purpose I need it for.  I can say financially, there is major major advantages to using containers over plastic bags. If you follow me on Instagram with what I post for my son's lunches you can see sandwiches are there but not often. My son loves getting meals from home that he loves. Stir Fry is his favorite, macaroni and cheese, and Turkey Meatballs. His lunches are famous with a few of the teachers they have to see what he has. For me, I know what he is eating and he eats it all. 

There are a TON of lunch containers. Ziploc, Laptop Lunches, Planet Box, Yumbox, Easy Lunch Containers, Lunch Bots I haven't used all of these, but I have read reviews. I know tons of bloggers who use different containers. I am building my collection, it depends on your needs and wants. it also depends on your child's age. Some coordination is needed to open some of the containers, keep in mind if your school will help. (Yes, some won't help open a lunch container... shocking to me)

If you are on the fence on ordering containers, take into account your costs and number of kids. I only have 1 whom I pack lunch and breakfast for. Keep track in your own way for your budget. I am not a couponer so I can't get all the bags on sale. I don't have the patience with potty training of my toddler. Keep in mind what works for you and if you don't like it... there is Ebay or a friend who you can give it to. 

If you have any questions please feel free to comment here or use the email me link. 

The RESET BUTTON and our Toddler

So, if you know me personally, you have heard the EPIC stories of my daughter. I love her with ever fiber of my being and that she is so spirited and wonderful. She by the time she hits kindergarten, will turn every hair on my head grey. My children are 6 years apart, and we always say my son is like having an old cat. He is easy going, chill, and has so much patience for his little sister. Which with our little princess, she is chaos bottled up 2.5 feet of girl. There is a saying "Let her sleep for when she wakes she will move mountains" which is so true.

The most recent case was when she robbed the Easter Bunny, she ate all 14 chocolate eggs, and shoved all the money in the oven of her play kitchen. She didn't know, but she did out the Easter Bunny to my son, I think he was teetering, but this pushed it all over the edge. I am so sad on this transition for my son and we have chatted about the Easter Bunny, Santa, and the Tooth Fairy. He still loves the idea and is now excited to help carry the tradition for his little sister. (IE, he can hide the Easter Eggs).

I am getting to a point, I promise!!!!!!!!

I realize, I got caught up in the madness of life when I looked at my planner and can't remember the last time I used it. I got a printable planner from The Handmade Home and I love love love it.  I just haven't actually used it in a month. It is amazing how a month can change your WHOLE SCHEDULE and the way your run your home. This generation of kids won't know a 9-5 job for their parents and weekends off. With technology especially there are many ways to connect to the office. I mismanaged everything and lost our structure so that means our schedule is FLAILING.

With our toddler who is challenging as it is, we like to have structure so she knows what is coming and it makes teaching behavior expectations so much better. I kept trying to figure out why the temper tantrums were coming more frequent and it hit on Tuesday evening. So now I have to tighten the ship and and press our RESET BUTTON.  This is going to be hard for me because she will defy it and the moment it is back on schedule Summer Break starts.