Welcome!

Hello to all my new readers!  I was so blessed to have to opportunity to share my story on moneysavingmom.com!  Thank you for all your sweet words of encouragement.  I hope you will find encouragement and inspiration here.

I have a small obsession...

with glass jars.  I love the shape and weight of them.  I love the cool, smooth feel of the glass in my hands.  They are pure and simple at it's best.  I've been collecting them for years.

I use canning or recycled pasta sauce jars to store beans, rice and popcorn kernels in my pantry.   It gives it the feel of an old country store.

I use jelly jars for holding small amounts of leftover sauces or for mixing my own dry spice blends.  Salad dressing bottles hold vinegar and oils in my spice cabinet.

And then there are our drinking glasses...I actually started buying a certain brand of salsa just for the jar, and now we have a matching set!

Jar candles have the best lids.  When the candle has burned for the last time, I clean out the leftover wax and use these jars for holding cotton balls and swabs in the bathroom.  There is one at the moment that is full of birdseed.  I had a small candle jar with a wooden stopper that is perfect for holding spare change in the car, and it fits in the cup holder!

Jars without lids hold taller items like pens and paintbrushes.  My sewing box wouldn't been complete without a button jar.

I also use them for holding memories...seashells we've collected over the Summers and sand from the beach we visited on our honeymoon. 

So before you toss that glass container in the recycling bin, look for ways to give it a second life in your home.

Simplicity in the kitchen is not about having a gadget for every job, but a few gadgets that do a lot!  One of my favorite tools in my kitchen is the ice cream scoop.

Of course it's perfect for dishing out sundaes, but I also use it for scooping out cookie dough.  No messy hands, just scoop and drop on the cookie sheet. 

With a big family there seems to be a birthday party every month, and an ice cream scoop is perfect for filling the muffin tin.  It keeps batter from dripping all over the pan and each one is measured perfectly. 

Scoops come in various sizes, but I just have the one.  No reason to clutter up the kitchen drawer when you can just fill it by 1/2 or 1/4 to get the amount needed. 

Homeschooling: FREE Preschool Activities

This year I am teaching my two older ones 1st and 2nd grade.  We have Bible and story time as a family, but while we are doing Math and English I need activities to keep my 3 year old close, but quiet.  Here are some of our favorites that I made for free, mostly from things I had around the house.

Color Matching:

I was in the Home Depot picking out paint colors when I came across these cute color samples.  I grabbed two of each of the basic colors and now we have a matching game. ( Free!)

Lacing Beads:

A shoelace and some chunky wooden beads...so simple but he loves this one.  He will lace the beads on with such concentration.  We match by color or bead shape, or make patterns.  It's great for fine motor skills too.  (This is obviously for littles that are past that put-everything-in-my-mouth stage)

Matching Shapes:

I cut pairs of shapes out of card stock.  I glued one set to another sheet of card stock and laminated everything with clear contact paper for durability.  Kids can match the loose shapes to the ones on the card.


Fun with Felt:

I have a huge stash of felt in every color of the rainbow and I am constantly trying to find new things to make with it.  Felt sticks to itself, so I give the kids a small sheet and various cut out shapes and they make pictures with the pieces.

I've also made sets.  We have a felt pizza: a brown circle for the crust, a smaller red circle for the sauce another white circle for the cheese and then lots of felt toppings.  They love designing their own pizza!

For ABC practice, I wrote the alphabet on a sheet of felt with permanent markers.  I cut out pictures that start with each letter.  They match the pieces to the letter sounds.

Junk Jar:

 I have an empty peanut butter jar full of lots of little random things.  Buttons, ribbons, paperclips, trinkets...The kids love to sort them by shape, color, texture, material...

To play "I Spy", they shake and spin the jar, searching for the object that the other is giving clues for.  They can also search for items beginning with a certain letter.

All these activities are put in their own zipper bags and kept in a drawer (or box).  I told my preschooler that this is his schoolwork and when we get out our books for school, he runs over to grab one of his activities.  He is really proud of them and it has been a huge help for me.
A few minutes of preparing these has brought much more peace to our day.