Tip Tuesday-Put Those Expired Coupons To Good Use!

You may or may not already know this, but you can donate your expired coupons to overseas military families.  The coupons can be used for six months after the expiration date in the overseas military commissaries.  Food can be a lot more expensive and the simple act of sharing our expired coupons can help these families that sacrifice so much to help protect this great country.

There are various ways of sending them to the military.  The following websites over a few options.

There is the Overseas Coupon Program where you can adopt a specific military base to send them to.   

Then there is Troopons and Coups For Troops.  You can send your coupons directly to them and then they distribute them to military bases that can use them. 

It's such a simple thing to do.  And it's the very least we can do to say thank you to these families that do so much for us.

True Colors Swap!

As you know, I participated in Jessica G. True Colors Swap.  The packages have all (hopefully) been mailed and gleefully opened by all the participants.  Here's a picture of swap package I received.

You can probably tell that my favorite color is pink.  A pink drink bottle, pink pencils, pink homemade soap (raspberry lemonade), pink bracelet and a pink fabric banner.  I'm thinking that banner will go in my girls room that I'm hopefully redecorating this summer.  There was also a package of silly bands that were immediately spirited away and divided equally among the natives.  It's very convenient that those packages come with two of each sign.  Otherwise, things could get ugly.

My swap partner was Lori of Morning Glories & Moon Flowers.  Her current favorite colors are turquoise and yellow.  This is a picture of the package I sent her.

 It was so much fun shopping for the just right things for this swap.  I was especially happy about the book box.  My partner loves to read and loves turquoise and when I found a box that looked like a book, was turquoise and had pictures of books on it I was thrilled!  We were asked to send something homemade and because I am completely crazy, I decided to make some earrings.  But I've never made earrings, or any kind of jewelry, before.  That's where the crazy comes in.  Anyway, I was pretty happy with the earrings I made.  So happy that I made myself a pair too!

Thanks for hosting such a fun swap Jessica!

Wordless Wednesday-Summer Solstice Toes & Sunshines

Tip Tuesday-Sparkle Flip Toes

Getting a new pair of flip flops each year is a big deal tradition at the Chaos house.  They allowed to pick any pair that their little hearts desire from the $1-$2 racks of flip flops.  That is a big deal.  Total control over the purchase of the official sponsor of summer foot wear. 

This year we switched it up a little.  I took the girls to a local craft store to pick out their flip flops since they were on sale.  Then they each got to pick out a bolt of ribbon to decorate the flip flops with.  They got to pick out flip flops AND ribbon.  Their joy was full.

For each flip flop I tied two pieces of different length ribbon to each side of the toe separator thingy.  On Lolly's I did three pieces of ribbon since it was a more narrow ribbon.

From there I tied knots between whichever two ribbons I could get to tie and look cute.  It only took about 20 minutes to do both pairs and the cost was $4 plus tax.

Voila!  We have Sparkle Flip Toes.  Although Babs prefers hers to be called Rainbow Flip Toes.  Whatever you decide to call them, you'll have happy little people with happy little feet.   

Now I think the Mom might need a pair of fancy Sparkle Flip Toes as well. 

It's The Ugly Couch Contest

(That title was sung in my mind to the tune of "Ugly Bug Picnic" from Summer Magic.)

(If you've never seen Summer Magic, you really should.  It's one of the best movies EVER!)

In other news, I'm over at MMB today discussing ugly couches.  So come on over and share.  Or ask questions.  Did I mention that I need some design questions for future posts?  Because I totally do. 

My Kindergarten Girl

My Lolly Girl on her first day of kindergarten.

She had such a wonderful time in school.  It's so hard to believe that she's already finished kindergarten!  The last week of school was full of lots of festivities.

There was the official kindergarten program that included lots of cute songs and at least one mom we all know who cried through the entire video.

Isn't her teacher just adorable?!  She is so good with the kids.  We were lucky Lolly had her for a teacher and hopefully Babs will too.

Then, there was the awards ceremony.

And of course we couldn't forget the thank you treats for Lolly's classmates, class aid and teacher.

And the dance festival on the last day of school.  SO FUN!

My Lolly Girl on her last day of kindergarten.

This year has gone by way too fast.  And now I have a big first grader.

Tip Tuesday-Foamy Soap

A while back, maybe a few years...I don't remember, I started noticing that our bathroom towels (used to dry hands) were ending up with big gray circles in the middle.  These are bright, coral colored towels so it takes a lot of effort for them to show dirt.  And, yes, I planned it that way. 

After a time of much thought on the situation, I realized that it was soap residue from our recently potty trained Lolly drying her hands.  So I guess it has been a few years.  I decided to give foamy soap a try since it seemed easier for the kids to use.  And it is!  It's easier for them to get soap all over their little hands and much, much easier for them to rinse off.  Problem solved!

Photo from Google

And then we were out of foamy soap.  New problem.

I had read online that you can make your own foamy soap so I decided to consult with Google for specifics.  I looked around several pages (I can't remember any of them now)(it's been a while) and decided to go with what seemed the easiest option.  Because I am lazy.  Or smart. 

Here are my handy dandy instructions!
1. Buy a foam soap dispenser.
2. Use all that soap first.
3. When it's empty, put about 1 tablespoon of regular hand soap in the bottom of the bottle.
4. Don't measure, just guess.  It will be okay.
5. Then add hot water to the fill line.
6. Shake and enjoy!

Not only does the foamy soap save your towels, but it will also save you money.  Before I started doing this I would use up one of those large soap refills (I think they're a gallon or so...or not) in just a couple of months.  Now, they last MUCH longer.  At least 6 months!  We usually end up replacing the foamy soap bottle once or twice a year since they wear out, but still a good deal.  Good for the towels, good for the wallet.  And it's probably good for the environment since you're buying less bottles of soap.  Everybody wins!
 

Blog-iphany

Recently, I had a blogging epiphany.  I call it a blog-iphany.  I really like making up words, in case you haven't noticed.  My favorite so far this year is crapalanch, but blog-iphany works better for this particular moment.  And in other useless and amusing facts, whenever I tell CG I had an epiphany, he asks if it hurt.  Yep, we're classy. 

Anyway, back to the blog-iphany.  I haven't been blogging much lately.  Surely that has been devastating to all, but I just haven't done it.  And it's not like I don't have anything to blog about.  I have lots of half posts and random stuff floating around in my brain just begging to be blogged.  But I haven't done it.

And do you know why?!?!

I do...now.  I've realized that I seem to not allow myself to blog much unless everything else is done. Everything.  And everything...that's a lot of stuff that needs to be done.

There are two problems with this.  Well, at least I'm going to talk about two of them.  The first problem is fairly obvious.  I NEVER GET EVERYTHING DONE!!!  EVER!!!  It is nigh unto impossible to get everything done.  At least for me it is.  And I'm assuming it's that way for most people.  The "to do list" is never ending.  For every one thing I accomplish, I usually end up adding two more things.  Let's pretend that makes me ambitious.  Not neurotic.

And secondly, the whole reason I started blogging was as a creative outlet for my creative self.  And to talk about my kids.  It's one of the few creative things I can do that isn't messy or time consuming.  And it doesn't usually require a trip to the craft store.  Or the fabric store.  Or the emergency room.

I need to have some sort of creative outlet so that my brain, or what's left of it, doesn't implode.  And to deny myself that just because there are no clean dishes or underwear in the house doesn't seem quite right.  Clean dishes and underwear are good and all, but I still need to have some priorities.

Of course, I'm not saying that this means that I'll be blogging a lot more from now on.  No promises or threats.  But I will be trying to feel less guilty about spending 10 minutes to write a riveting blog post for all of us to enjoy.  And if you don't hear from me in a while then you'll know that my house is a disaster and I'm trapped under a mountain of laundry and guilt.  But I'll get out eventually....
 

NO WAY!!!

I cannot believe it.  I'm in total shock.  I won a ticket to EVO!  Seriously, EVO.  I'm so excited!  It's such an amazing conference and I am lucky enough to get to go again this year.

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you Mom It Forward! 

A Swappin' Good Time

It has been a LONG time since I participated in a swap.  Way too long, if you ask me.  Wouldn't it just be fun to do a swap to kick off summer?  Why, yes....yes it would. 

And thanks to the wonderful Jessica of Duck Duck Cow, we can!  She's hosting a Favorite Colors Swap and I'm totally excited!  I just signed up and you should too!  Head on over here for all the details.  But be sure to do it today because today is the last day to get in on the action. Hurry!