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Free Rainy Day Activities – Part 4 of 4

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In completing this series on free rainy day activities, I have barely touched the surface on the mass amount of possible indoor activities.

The activities shared in this series include: indoor picnics in Part 1, painting in Part 2, and baking, building, and napping in Part 3.

Even with all these ideas, I sometimes cannot think of an activity when my kids are going stir crazy. When these times occur, I turn to games. 🙂

Electronic

Though not my favorite, my children love playing on any type of electronic media. When they tire of their computers, they move to the X-Box 360, Wii, 3DS, or the iPad (when available). Besides playing referee, I spend more time teaching (or working on) sharing than they play. With limits, my children do play electronic games on rainy days.

Puzzles

My girls love to put together puzzles. My oldest daughter sees patterns and amazes me how quickly she puts together a puzzle. She is extremely creative and enjoys putting puzzles together over and over and over.

My toddler enjoys dumping out all the pieces and putting them in a safe place. Of course, if she could remember where the safe place is would help during cleanup. 🙂

My son enjoys puzzles on an electronic device more than working with his hands. Though all my children enjoy puzzles differently, puzzles offer another option for a rainy day activity.

Board

When all my children work together, we really enjoy playing board games. Both girls have a difficult time playing all the way to the end, but my son loves to have someone play board games with him. Besides my top 5 preschool board games, my children have added mouse trap, connect 4, and picture tri-ominos.

Imagination

My favorite games on rainy days are hide-and-seek and create a game. From building a train route and then using chairs to play train to using buckets and balls to compete with each other, my children can get very creative. With a rainy day and a little imagination, indoor fun can keep my children active.

  

Among electronic, puzzles, board, and imagination games, you might welcome the rainy days. Having lots of options for keeping little ones engaged during indoor playtime gives your family an opportunity for making memories and enjoying family time. Happy playing!

Question: What games do your children enjoy playing?

Summer Recipe: Pan Éclairs

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Today, I am sharing one of our family’s favorite summer dessert recipes.

These pan éclairs are not my original recipe. Since I am a baker (follow recipes exactly) and not a cook (adjust recipes to taste, what’s on hand, and spontaneity), I received this recipe from a friend a few years ago. I have seen similar recipes in magazines, but this particular recipe is my favorite.

Pan Éclairs

Ingredients

  • 2 packages instant vanilla or cheesecake pudding, 4-serving size
  • 2 cups milk
  • ¾ box honey graham crackers
  • Cool Whip, 8 oz.
  • Chocolate frosting (optional)

Directions

1. In medium mixing bowl, mix pudding and milk. Let it set for 5 minutes. Add Cool Whip and mix.

2. In a 9”x13” pan, put a layer of graham crackers, then ½ of the Cool Whip/pudding mixture, then a layer of graham crackers, then rest of Cool Whip/pudding mixture, and then graham crackers. Top with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. Refrigerate.

  

  

3. Make 1 day ahead and then cut into serving-size portions.

By allowing the mixture to cool for 8 to 24 hours before serving, the pudding mixture firms while the graham crackers soften which makes this dessert a crowd pleaser. This dessert must set, or you will have a runny mixture that will not cut into portions for serving.

Besides family gatherings, this dessert is great for parties, picnics, and cookouts. Made with milk, these pan éclairs are light, creamy, and delicious. Yum!

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In using time wisely, prepare your pan éclairs a day ahead, and you will have a fantastic dessert without the fuss on party day. Enjoy!

Question: What is your family’s favorite summer dessert?

Goals for May 2012: The Full-fledged Budget

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Photograph Credit: Flickr (Angie Torres)

Though some of these goals are a real pain in my side, I made these goals after lots of thought and planning. Just because they get hard means I need to find a way to keep them.

The financial budget is really hard for me. I do not find budgeting a gateway to freedom – yet. I love my food budget, but that emotion has not transferred into our entire budget. Maybe with some practice I will get there, but for now, I am at the beginning.

I have based my goals on Crystal Paine’s book The Money Saving Mom’s Budget, where Crystal breaks down the steps to reach your financial goals.

I have included my financial and other goals as I seek to change and improve. Though I do not meet every goal, I am plugging along. Progress, no matter how small, is still moving closer to my goals.

Physical

Drink 2 glasses of water per day.  Success! When the ice melts in my cup, I keep refilling ice and water. Many days I am drinking 3 or more glasses, so I am increasing this goal to 3 glasses of water per day.

Eat breakfast each morning. Yeah! I found a little secret that is working. When I make my son’s lunch in the morning, I make myself a peanut butter and honey sandwich to eat on the way to school. I know a peanut butter sandwich is usually a lunch option, but it works for me. Keeping this goal since summer is around the corner, and I might need to adjust my routine.

Exercise for 20 minutes at least 3 times a week. Fantastic progress! For two weeks I was very consistent before getting sick. After taking 2 weeks to fully recover, I am back to exercising. Designating a time for exercise has been the reason for my success this month.

Family

Plan at least one family outing/activity each week. Definitely accomplished! With 4 soccer games a week, we have spent lots of time together as a family. Love this goal, and keeping it all year.

Spend 10 minutes with each child each day. Still need more work on this goal. Recovering from my illness, I had much to do. With this goal, I will make this time a priority as I begin planning our summer routine.

Allow children to help with a household task each week. Paul and I are discussing adjusting our allowance system. Now that our children help more, we will be creating a chore list for each of them. Some chores help keep our household running and are done as a member of the family while other chores earn privileges, games, or money. This goal is a work in progress.

Financial

Follow Crystal’s year-long plan to reach my goals. On track. Our bare-bones budget continues. This month, I need to create a full-fledged budget which I have never done. Giving myself some grace, I may take a little more time with this goal. Though I am concentrating on the budget, I have chosen not to use cash. Having used $60 in Discover rewards to grant graduation gifts, our Discover Card (which we payoff every month) continues to serve our family well. I am not ready to lose these benefits.

Purchase dressers for my daughters’ room. This goal is ongoing. No progress made on this goal for April.

Purchase upgraded computers for hubby and me. This goal is also ongoing. We received the laptop for parts, but the seller did not include all the pieces advertised. This purchase was a $30 gamble. We learned, and continue to save for another upgrade.

Business

Write posts one week in advance. Bombed this one! With the illness, I fell behind, but I am almost caught up. Having my monthly blog schedule saved me from falling further behind. In fact, I adjusted the schedule by adding a Quick Tip Week, and this change worked beautifully. Thanks for sticking around during the lack of posts. My readers encourage me every day! You still read even when I post late. Thanks! I am keeping this goal and will continue to strive for one week of posts written and scheduled.

Make one improvement to the blog this month. Accomplished updating Using Time Wisely’s Facebook page! I hope you like the uniform look. I still need to work on the landing pages, so I will keep this goal for another month.

Read two chapters of blog book each month. Failed this goal in April as I did not read any business books. I did read my first Boxcar Children book and loved it. My son read it on his teacher’s recommendation, and I wanted to learn about the series. I really like this series, and I hope my son becomes a fan because it will make summer reading a blast. 🙂

My goals are working for me. With some easy and others challenging, the goals keep me on-task. By plugging along slowly and steadily, I am making progress. If you are struggling with your goals, then adjust. Small steps are still steps in the right direction. Keep going!

Question: How are your goals coming along?

The Art of Taking a Secondary Role

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Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

When you attend an event as an invitee, can you relax and just enjoy the event? I struggle – big time – just sitting and relaxing!

Recently, my son’s Sunday school teacher graciously planned a party for the first grade students and their families.

His teacher planned time for play, games, food, and entertainment. The party was well planned, but I still struggled with relaxing.

Struggle Arises

For me the hardest part was relaxing during the meal. After gathering food for my children and me, we ate. I then began perusing the room identifying trash can locations, mapping a direct route from the food to the kitchen, and checking to see how far along the guests were to finishing. My husband watching my movements, whispered, “You don’t have to worry about cleanup.”

How nice to have someone, who understands me, snap me back to reality. It was at that moment that I realized that the event planner in me was at work. I rarely attend an event where I am not coordinating or assisting. In these times of attendance, I really struggle to relax.

Evaluating Myself

My personality is to organize while using time wisely. I do not try to be organized; God created me organized. It’s who I am. I cannot refrain from organizing and planning, so I need to learn to take a secondary role.

Changing my Focus

When the event is not within my leadership, I am still trying to solve their problems and plan the next activity. At this event, I chose to go down to the gymnasium to watch the kids play while other adults stayed to help cleanup. Though choosing cleanup would have been easier for me, I needed to practice taking a secondary role and relaxing.

Though I need more practice, the art of taking a secondary role is a learned skilled. As I continue to practice, I hope to find attending events more enjoyable and relaxing. In the meantime, I am thankful for those, who know me, jarring me back to reality when I get distracted. Happy relaxing!

Question: When you attend an event, do you struggle to relax?

2012: Spring Yard Work – Part 1 of 3

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Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

Since last fall, the weeds, from what seems like the entire neighborhood, have come to stay at our house. The edgers around our flower beds received a coating of weeds and unwanted grass.

Though the project is still underway, between nights of soccer and weekends of family outings, we have begun cleaning up our front yard.

Living in a cookie-cutter neighborhood, our total amount of land is less than one acre. Our front yard consists of 3 beds in front of our house and a bed around our one tree. We also have a walkway, driveway, and sidewalk.

Keeping our yard looking nice is always a challenge with all the weeds and the different grasses: Bermuda in the front and fescue in the back. It probably doesn’t help that we do not spend lots of time in our yard, so keeping weeds out of our mulch beds is a chore.

After completing our garden in the backyard, we focused on the beds in the front yard. These BEFORE pictures show you how awful our front yard looked. The growth really took off quickly, so we moved fast to make it beautiful again.

We purchased mulch from Lowe’s on sale – 4 bags for $10. To cover all our beds, we purchased 12 bags of mulch. On a warm, sunny day, Paul got to work.

Remove Edgers

With the edgers buried under last-year’s mulch and dense weeds, Paul removed all the edgers from our 4 beds in front of our house.

Careful of bugs and ant piles, he dug up the ones deeply buried in the bed. Though he was careful, he still received a few ant bites from certain members of the ant colony that live under our tree. Ouch!

 

Clean out Beds

Paul then trimmed all the bushes and raked into piles all the old mulch, trimmings, and weeds. He then filled up trash bags with all the debris.

This yard work is very labor-intensive resulting in sore arms and lower back. Though the work is cumbersome, seeing the empty dirt floor creates a starting point for the work ahead.

Next week, I will share how we prepare our beds while continuing our spring yard work. (I’m using “we” liberally here as Paul has done all this yard work alone. :-))

Question: What plans do you have for your yard work this spring?