Train Play Surface

Train tables can be crazy expensive. After a visit to the home improvement store, I came up with the idea for a floor train board, which my Dad built. {He should probably start a blog!} A table takes up a lot of space, but this board can be stored behind furniture or under a bed. Compared to a train table, it is really cheap. This cost less than $20.

Here's what you need:

• Sheet of wooden fiberboard such as MDF (which won't cause splinters in little fingers and knees) about 1/4" thick
• Beveled framing wood
• small nails

The Weekly Song and Dance -or- Menu Planning and Grocery Lists

Menu planning, and the grocery shopping that follows, are not my favorite activities. But, it inevitably comes around once a week when the milk runs out and there's nothing to pack in the kids' lunches.

Just this week I met another mom from my son's class, at the grocery store, just before school started, scanning the Lunchables. Just like me. That was a crazy morning. I had just stopped at the store at the service station and they didn't have a single thing I could put into a lunch sack. So, I ended up buckling and unbuckling the boys in their car seats 6 times before 8:40 in the morning.

I try to minimize things like this. Several years ago I started planning a weeks worth of meals on one sheet of paper. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. I plan what I'm cooking for dinner under each day of the week, but I just list breakfasts and lunches at the end and just pick what I want to fix each day.

Then, on the other side, I list the groceries I need to make those meals in the order that I would find them in the store. Sometimes, you can get a copy of the grocery store map, bring it home and make a list aisle-by-aisle. I don't think I'm the only one who hates to get to the end of the shopping list and realize you forgot something on the other end of the store. I've done this too many times.

Here's an idea of what my weekly menu looks like. One sheet of paper, front and back. It goes with you to the store (with your coupons, of course), then onto the fridge until the next week.

The Funniest Joke Book Ever :)

My son, Roman (4) is very interested in jokes right now. He and Ava love to tell them and make them up, even if they don't make any sense. Asher, the youngest, even gets in on the action and tries to tell knock-knock jokes.

Here's a Microsoft Word Document that I made for a printable joke book with the easiest and funniest jokes I could find.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/91584774/joke-book


*All the clipart is from Microsoft Office clipart online.

Cultivating my Green Thumb

I have always wanted to start gardening, and now that my kids aren't babies, I'm trying to learn about gardening and teach them also. My Parents are the true gardeners and are really helping set everything up and give me pointers.

Plastic drum compost bin

My Dad built us a compost bin from a plastic drum that can be rolled on the ground to mix the compost. He built the frame for the small garden with the help of my 4 year old son.

Wood frame garden with potatoes we picked

We have red potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and green onions planted in the garden. The tomatoes are still green, but should be turning red soon.

The kids love the cherry tomatoes!! 

The kids have planted some things at school and at the botanical gardens. I'm trying to grow them so that they can see the fruits of their efforts. My son planted some flowers at his pre-school and I don't know what they are. We'll have to wait until they bloom, I guess. My daughter planted a bean plant in Kindergarten. We attended an Earth Day presentation at Shangri La Botanical Garden in Orange, TX this past weekend and the kids planted some bean plants and made "seed bombs" with some mixed flower seeds.

Roman's Mystery Flowers

Bean plants

In the front yard, for the first time since we've lived here (2 1/2 years), I have flowers in the flower bed. They are yellow and orange marigolds and dark pink geraniums. I had the kids help me plant them and told them the names of the flowers. Sometimes you don't even think they're listening, but they are. When we went to the botanical gardens, Roman spotted some marigolds and could actually name them! Proud Mom moment!

Marigolds and geraniums

My Dad also planted a few onions and some parsley in the back of the flower bed. I'm ready to start cooking with all my fresh produce!

Onions and Parsley

Last, but not least, is my fig tree. I am so looking forward to making strawberry-fig preserves and desserts. We planted it a few months ago, and it already has figs!

Little figs!!

Fig tree

My first post on RecapturingthePositive is creating a tic-tac-toe board with felt. I love using felt for projects! It's bright, soft, and doesn't need to be sewn. 


For this project, you'll need:

• a glue gun
• several colors of felt
• gallon zip-close bag

I hide away this tic-tac-toe board, and other games like it, away until I need something different for the kids to do. Then I pack them up for the next time they seem bored.

Here we are playing a tic-tac-toe tournament!