sandra dawn

I’m cleaning out my drawers.

Beyond just a spring clean, it’s become a necessity because my “junk” drawer is overflowing and unfortunately with things like important documents – not just junk. As I was unearthing tax receipts and forms and mortgage statements (joy) I also came across some old magazines (weeeeeee!). So instead of doing the thing I’m supposed to (collect tax info, ugh), I started leafing through mags and drinking a cup of tea.

Of course I came across some great ideas and started ripping out pages of crafts, recipes, how to get your kids to stay in bed tricks and other gems. I realized though, in ripping out the pages, I was just creating more clutter and so thought of my poor neglected blog.

I’m going to share some of these great inspirations (from Disney’s Family Fun magazine) – partly to share, but mostly (selfishly) so I have them written down somewhere, so I can recycle the torn out papers and declutter some more.

Getting kids to stay in bed

Super easy, right? Right. We’ve been struggling with this since N started climbing out of her crib at nine months. (And it wasn’t so much climbing as it was head-first launching). Anyhow, now at two and a half, we’ve got the falling out of bed under control, but the wandering around is a tricky one. A mom suggested this: Give your kid a “hall pass” that she can use once a week to get out of bed. She even created a cute card and laminated it. I love it. I think I’d add a time limit for the pass, maybe 15 minutes. I think it’s a great idea, especially with older children.

Getting them to eat veggies and fruit

Sometimes easy. Sometimes not. So to inspire a healthy diet, there’s this chart that encourages kids to eat fruits and veg of all colours (which is a great way to sneak in a wide variety of produce, and not just stick with the typical peas and carrots….though who doesn’t love peas and carrots). It’s called, Today I Ate a Rainbow!

I found other tid bits, crafts, and I’ll definitely share more later. But I’ve procrastinated long enough and need to get out for a walk…I mean, file my taxes.