The Iowa Farmer's Wife: gammie

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21 Days Gratitude: Day 21 - Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you and yours are having/had a delightful celebration of Thanks today. On this last day of 21 Days of Gratitude, I'd like to take a moment to answer the list of things to be thankful for on Inspired By Family's introduction post. Lots of stuff on there to be thankful for so here we go!

1. A friend: this was hard because I'm thankful for all of my friends old and new, near and far, but I'm so very thankful for my friend Kate. We are so blessed to have met your sweet family and I'm so grateful for your friendship and family. Thank you for being willing to send Dustin to Wal-Mart at 2am for me (I promise I'll call next time!) and for being our back up to our back up when Sprout was born. You have no idea how grateful I am that you all took care of Sweet P while we welcomed Sprout into our lives. Thank you.

2. Physical Health: I'm so grateful for my health and that of my children. Even though we've battled a variety of illnesses since Sprout was born, we are an all around healthy family.

3. A Family Member: Just one?! Argh. I'm going to go ahead and pick Auntie Rosita and TK (and mom you get a spot at the end).

Auntie Rosita: We talk almost every single day (usually multiple times a day) and I can honestly say she is my confidante, my counselor, my big sister and my biggest fan (I'm hers too!). It helps me immensely knowing she's praying for me and cheering me along each day. I'm so thankful for her and the words she sends/says to me on a daily basis. RoRo is my twin who just happened to be born 5 years before me.

TK: I'm so grateful for TK and all she's taught me (even though she's 9 years younger!). What that girl wants, she gets! I've always looked up to her despite the fact she's the baby and I admire the way she sets something in her sights and achieves it. TK is a natural with kids, including mine and she has found her calling in teaching. I'm so grateful for her and all she's doing to help educate our future.

4. A Teacher: I'd have to say Mrs. Luck from 3rd grade. She very much instilled a love of learning and reading in me, and I'm so grateful for that.

5. A Time of Day: 6am-7am - it's my quiet time with God and has quickly become the most important part of my day. It allows me to gather my thoughts, be with my Father and pray for others before I hit the ground running each day.

6. An emotion: Joy. It's my favorite emotion and my middle name. There's something fascinating about Joy. It's happiness sprinkled with excitement, love and delight. It's holding your newborn baby, kissing your groom, visiting loved ones, dancing around the room.

7. A Freedom you have: Staying home with my kids. I'm so grateful that I have that privilege.

8. A Skill/Talent you possess: Cooking. I'm beyond grateful that I can cook and bake and prepare meals that don't taste like cardboard!

9. Co-worker/classmate: Hmmm, I'm going to say the Farmer since he's the closest co-worker I've got. I'm so thankful for my helpmate and all he does to help me power through parenting. I couldn't have asked for a better partner to grow old with.

10. A restaurant: We don't eat out much these days, but I suppose if I had to choose it would be Gateway Market. I absolutely love that place and grateful they have a healthy selection of food.

11. Physical Activity you can do: I'm grateful that I can walk, run and jump with my kids. I'm also thankful I can dance and wish I did it more often.

12. An experience you had: I'm so thankful for the events that led me to move back to my hometown. It wasn't a good experience, but it led me to the Farmer and for that, I'll be eternally grateful.

13. Something in your room: My comfy bed. I'm so grateful that I have a bed and blankets to sleep on when so many in the world do not.

14. Something in your kitchen: My kitchen table. A lot of creation, love and inspiration happens there. It's messy on a daily basis, but I'm so grateful that we have one.

15. Something in your home: My family. Anything else is just material and can be replaced. So grateful for the 3 loves of my life.

16. A gift you received: This is silly, but TK's iPhone. I don't use it as a phone, but I use it to capture pictures and video that I wasn't able to do before without lugging around my big camera. I love the moments I get to save!

17. A defeat that made you stronger: Losing out as Class President my senior year of high school changed my entire life, and honestly I'm grateful for that.

18. The one thing you can't part with: A pair of jeans I've had since college. I haven't worn them in years, but I can't bring myself to give them away!

19. An animal: Hmm, this is tough. I'm grateful for our old cat Grayson. He died when I was in high school, but he was such an important part of our lives.

20. A trait the person you're closest to possesses: Strength. She doesn't think so, but she's got strength to move mountains. And I'm so grateful for her strength because it's powered me through so many difficult situations and it's what keeps her going each day.

21. Creation, nature: I'm SO grateful for the unobstructed view across the street from our house. Seeing the trees, the flowers, the leaves, the sunrise, it all reminds me of how awesome our God is.

22. A book that has been meaningful in your life: Hands down, the Bible.

23. The one thing you love most about you: Hmmm, I'm grateful that I can fall asleep anywhere! I'm also grateful that I don't currently have trouble sleeping.

24. My mom and dad: I'm so grateful for my parents. Thanks for bringing me into the world!

My mom is one of the strongest people I know and is also one of the stubbornest! She has done so many great things and I'm extremely proud of her. I'm grateful for her honesty, her giving us the freedom and room to fly, and for her going to bat for me at least 100 times in my life.

Dad thanks for all your hard work and discipline. As weird as that might sound, I'm grateful that we had rules and structure growing up. Thanks for all you do for my kiddos.

Did you participate in the 21 Days of Gratitude? I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your families and remember to tell them you love them.

Baby Bear Preschool: Letter T

Time to get caught up with Baby Bear Preschool!

First off: Letter T! We did two weeks of Letter T because I found/came up with so many great tree activities! Plus the tree theme fit perfectly into autumn/fall, too!

You'll notice that in most pictures Sweet P is in her fairy costume or her jammies, that's one of her favorite parts of homeschool preschool - getting to wear costumes and jammies!

Verse: Thank the Lord for all the glorious things He does. Psalm 105:1

Song: We didn't really have a song for Letter T, but danced to all sorts of music!

We read T is for Thankful in Big Thoughts for Little People, Thou Shalt Not Steal in My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts , and Timothy's story in A Child's First Bible .

Apple Tree Number Match: Last year a garage sale down the street was selling preschool materials that the seller had made. I snatched up a few gems, including these numbered trees. They actually go with a set of dogs with dots on them, but I left the dogs in the envelope and we used the trees with red pompoms (apples!). Sweet P doesn't love to count so she tends to get tired of these types of activities quickly. I've learned to do high numbers first so that she gets 9 & 10 out of the way and has 2 & 1 last. You'll see in the top blog picture that she started with tweezers. She got rid of this pretty quickly and used her fingers instead. She can use tweezers, she just knows fingers are faster!

After she'd put all the apples on the trees, I moved them into a line on the floor. She and Beary grabbed baskets and then went to the apple orchard and picked apples! This was by far her favorite part.

Turkey Feather Counting: I made a little turkey and ten feathers out of construction paper and placed her quilted numbers in a sack. She pulled out the numbers one at a time and put the appropriate number of feathers on the turkey. I think she probably would've liked it more if I'd made 9 turkeys and she got to glue on the feathers because she kept asking me if were going to glue them. She slid the feathers off after each number and thought it was pretty funny when we did zero!

Contact Paper Tree: We went on several leaf hunts during our T week and after each walk, I laminated the leaves we picked up until we had several of each. I explained the activity, gave Sweet P the materials and she set to work. She said, "Some of the leaves are falling off the tree." We talked a lot about falling leaves so any time we talk about them she says, "Oh is it fall?"

Sprout examined the laminated leaves too! He loved the way they felt and since they were laminated it didn't matter if he tried to taste them (which he did, of course!).

Felt Apple Tree Sort: I made this felt game last year to go with Letter A, but it fit in great with our tree theme. She did it several times, stacking up all of the capital letters and then moving on to lowercase.

Writing in the Sand: This was the first time we've done sand tracing and she had a ball! She did capital T and lowercase over and over, and then just drew in the sand.

Letter T resist painting: Again, our first time to resist paint and it was a huge hit! Sweet P painted all over the page and then we hung it up to dry. We both thought it was pretty cool when she peeled off the tape later and the white T showed up! The finished picture is in the collage at the top of the post.

Cork painting! So fun! Inspired by The Picky Apple. I traced her hand on a brown piece of construction paper, cut it out and she glued it to a piece of white paper. I only had 1 cork, so she used the same one over and over. It fit perfectly into the paint dish and she had a blast! She also said she was making several leaves falling off the tree in this picture. I forgot to take a pic of the finished product and am too lazy to go find it to do it now, but you get the picture!

Eraser Stamping TP Tree: (See the collage at the top of the post for a pic of the finished craft.) I pinned this verrrry early in my pinning days. After cork painting, I grabbed a pencil and she made apples all over the tree. I cut slits in the TP roll and helped her fit the top of the tree into it. Love how it turned out!

Leaf Soup: After a nature walk, she took all the leaves we weren't using for our contact paper tree and made leaf soup! I gave her a cup full of water and she went to down mixing and pouring.

Sorting Leaves by Color & Shape: These leaves are from the $ Tree and come in 4 colors. She sorted them into the clear plastic container by color and then again by shape.

Coffee Filter Trees: Click link for details.

We went on a walk to a playground when Gammie visited and came home will sorts of nature pieces. Actually, as she picked up pieces she said "This can be the head." and a Leaf Girl was born. I guess it's more of a leaf monster!

Apple Seed Dice Game: These foam apples are from Target's $ Spot. Sweet P's tray had the apples, a box of raisins (seeds) and dice. She'd roll the dice (we started with 1) and then add the appropriate number of raisins. This lasted awhile, until she decided to eat the seeds!

Yarn Tree: Inspired by 3 Dinosaurs using a Letter T worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler. After coloring the trunk, she went to town with 3 colors of yarn. I couldn't get it cut fast enough!

Tear Leaf Trees: Can you tell she's really into the tearing?! Love that picture! Her tray had scraps of green, yellow and red paper, along with a brown letter T and a glue stick. She did several pieces and then announced that she wanted to hang it up.

Acorn Lady: Gammie found these pieces of acorn on our nature walk and we glued them together to make a lady! Sweet P drew on the face with a marker. Too funny!

Other activities:
Center Grove Orchard: We went to the orchard TWICE during our letter T weeks and it's always a blast!

Food Bank: To go along with being thankful this week, we thanked God for our abundance of food and took food to a local food bank. We also dropped off several toys the kids no longer play with at the Salvation Army. We talked a lot about giving during this week as well.

Words of a Preschooler: Auntie Rosita volunteers at a food bank twice a week so she talked to Sweet P via Skype about working there and what she does. Well after we took food to the food bank, I told her about a girl we saw loading a truck and said, "See she's volunteering like RoRo does." Sweet P replied, "Yes, RoRo goes to the food bank because she doesn't have enough food to eat." Whoops.

Linking up to Tot School & Montessori Monday

Linking up to these Linky Parties

Making Memories: Apple Orchard

50 Travel Tips & Activities

Summer is here and with it vacations! And while vacations are AWESOME, they involve a whole buncha planning and that daunting thing that gets you where you're going...TRAVEL.

In April I made a 12-hour (each way) road trip alone with both kiddos and survived! So how do we make it through our trips? With a whole lot of activities, snacks, books and a little something called patience.

I gathered some great tips and activities from some of my favorite bloggers, threw in a few of our ideas and compiled a list of 50 Travel Tips and Activities.

Most of my tips are geared toward toddlers and preschool-aged children while road trippin'.

Snacks
1. Pack your child's favorite snacks. Now is not the time to try something new! (unless it's a fancy new snack you're sure your child will love)

2. Make a snack together for the trip. We love making Happy Trails Trail Mix for our trips and it's a fun way to connect. It's also fun to talk about how it's a special snack just for the trip.

3. Save up coupons for 100 calorie packs, which are the perfect size for little hands and mama hands! from Adventures in Mommydom.

4. Pack snacks in a fun new container like a reusable baggy from SewEco or a fun little water bottle/snack combo like this one.

5. Easy to eat and mess-free snacks are best, especially if you're traveling alone with your kids. Here are a few of our favorite travel snacks:

Boxed raisins
Trader Joe's fruit bars
Puffed corn
Chopped or whole apples
String cheese
Trail mix
Baby food pouches: such as Plum Organics, Happy Baby or Ella's Organics (I know I said mess-free, but these are too great to pass up)

Toys
6. Scour Michael's, Dollar Tree, Target's 1Spot and other $1 areas for fun new toys for the trip.

7. Wrap up new (and rarely played with) toys for toddlers (this could work for older kids too, but they are pretty good at opening presents by age 3!). Unwrapping the toys takes time and also makes a great sensory activity! When she was younger, Sweet P usually ended up playing with the wrapping instead of the toy! Toddler Approved recommends this for airplane travel as well!

8. Give your child a box with a latch or a backpack to fill with her favorite toys for the trip. If you are flying, remind your child that she is responsible for the backpack. This can help her decide whether to pack several light items or 2-3 heavier items.

9. Remember to pack any favorite toys or lovies! These can both calm your child during the trip and help him to fall asleep in a new place during your vacation.

Games
10. Play I Spy. This is a great game for any child who knows her colors and can be played in the car, in an airport, or while waiting in line for the restroom.

11. Count semis, cars, train cars or trucks or have your child choose a color for you to look for while driving. from Hands on: As we grow

12. 20 Questions or try "I'm thinking of something that starts with C", continue to give hints until they guess what it is.

13. The ABC game: a great game for preschoolers learning their letters. Find letters of the alphabet in alphabetical order starting with A. Moms and dads can help with tougher letters.

14. Find A...train, yellow truck, red car, motorcycle rider wearing a helmet, billboard. A great game while driving through large cities.

Music
15. I want you to stay sane on this trip, but sometimes kids music is the way to go with kids in the car. Find the CDs or fill the MP3 player with songs you all know well. Play them and belt them out at the top of your lungs! Encourage your kids to clap, dance or wave their arms to the music.

16. Check out children's CDs from your local library. from Creative Connections with Kids

17. Music from musicals like Annie and The Music Man are also fun tunes to teach your kids while driving.

Books
18. Lift-the-flap books are hours (or at least 10 minutes) of fun. Our favorites are Fisher Price Little People lift-the-flap play books. They have about 40 flaps per book and colorful pages for kids.

19. Books that play music. We reserve these for road trips and while they may get annoying after the 100th push of the elephant sound, they keep kids busy and happy.

20. Interactive books like this Elmo ActivePoint book. A friend let us borrow an Elmo and Thomas the Train ActivePoint book for our last road trip. I suggest covering the speaker with masking tape as it doesn't have volume control and is very loud.

21. Check out or bring along books on CD. from Creative Family Fun

22. Buy, borrow or check out Seek and Find books like Where's Waldo, First Look and Find book and I Spy books.

Activity Preparation
23. Put activities in a 3-ring binder for easy access for your child. Place washable markers in a zippered bag inside the binder. Paper, stickers and other flat activities will fit well inside the binder. from Creative Connections for Kids

24. Bring along a cookie sheet as a tray for activities. It give kids a place to write, draw, drive cars and eat snacks. I buy mine at Dollar Tree and they can be drawn on with a dry-erase marker and easily erased with a tissue.

25. Magnetize activities if you can. If you're using a cookie sheet as a tray this helps your child keep the activity on the tray and minimizes lost pieces.

26. Create your own or bring along a felt board for felt activities. For a DIY version check out this simple (and GENIUS!) version from MamaSmiles.

Activities
27. Stickers! Whether you buy a sticker book or just bring along a few of the 100's you have at home (you know you do), stickers are a hit in the car. Make your own sticker book or bring along a cheap notebook for sticker placement. from Creative Family Fun

28. Make a Miniature Mailbox for tiny hands. At Home With Ali made this adorable one for her toddler to play with on their trip.

29. Toy cars for racing, driving, crashing and cruising. The cookie sheet makes a great road for all kinds of cars.

30. Busy or Activity books. Make your own or purchase one from Etsy. These are sure to be a hit with any toddler or preschooler. Find examples at Inspiration Laboratories and Teach Preschool

31. Felt Dolls. You can find several templates online for simple felt dolls. Sweet P LOVED (and still loves) her felt dolls during the trip. Use a felt board to help keep felt dolls and their clothes organized. I love this version from MamaSmiles and we used this template from Smile and Wave.

32. Lacing cards. Ours fit in our 3-ring binder with the laces in a plastic baggy.

33. Usborne Books Sticker Dressing books. We have the "Fancy Dress" book and it was hands down Sweet P's favorite activity on the drive. It's also a great church activity. Sweet P got it as a Christmas gift this year and we'd never played with it so it was new to her. Usborne's sticker books are awesome and reusable, we also have the Soccer version.

34. Our Making Face Magnets were a big hit on our drive as well. These are super simple and cost almost nothing if you have magnets on hand. Don't want to make them? Check out Melissa and Doug's Make-A-Face Sticker pads or other make-a-face stickers. Also a favorite and it's hilarious to see where your toddler/preschooler puts the magnets/stickers.

35. Fill a bag with baby toys and keep it in the front seat with you. As your baby throws or drops toys, hand him a new one. When the bag is empty, it's time for a pit stop. Refill the bag and start over! This worked well for Baby Blue for most of the drive.

36. File folder games. We used Confessions of a Homeschooler's Paint Brush matching printables and our folder fit snugly in our 3-ring binder.

37. Mustache Match game or other magnetic match games or puzzles. Again, magnetizing the games makes them easy to play without dropping pieces in hard to reach spots in the car.

38. Empty notebooks or coloring books for coloring, writing or drawing.

39. Pipe cleaner creations. These bendable craft supplies can be used to make just about anything, including houses, glasses and people. from Let Kids Create

40. Clothes pin activities. I made Sweet P a clothes pin/paint chip color matching game, but there are several other clothes pin activities like this clothes pin number match from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

41. I Spy or sensory bottles or bags. A great activity for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Make your own for simple fun for your kiddos.

Organization
42. Put items you need for pit stops in a separate bag (diapers, wipes, diaper pad, wallet, etc). from Dirt and Boogers

43. Use a simple organizer for things you need easy access to while driving: wipes, sippy cup, activity binder, snacks, etc. from Creative Connections for Kids

Pit Stops
44. If you have a potty-training or recently potty-trained child, bring along a portable potty on a road trip just in case. You never know when a fear of public potties, automatic flushers or dirty bathrooms will arise.

45. Bring post-its or stickers for automatic flushers. Stick the post-it over the sensor to keep the toilet from flushing while little ones take care of business. Forgot the stickers? Put a wet piece of toilet paper over the sensor.

46. Pack a lunch and stop at a playground or park you've scouted ahead of time.

47. If you're traveling through lunch and dinner, stop at a nice restaurant (not McDonald's) for one of the meals. Call ahead of time to place your order so the food is ready when you get there. A tasty meal without the long wait. Brilliant idea from my friend Beth.

Don't Forget
48. Blankets and pillows. These are great in the car, in hotels and while bunking with family or friends. And if you're like my child, you won't sleep well without blankie.

49. An extra change of clothes and underwear for EVERY family member in a carry-on or easily accessible bag because you NEVER know.

50. To relax. Road tripping or flying with kids doesn't have to be stressful. Remember to have fun, play games and sing along!

For more travel tips, activities and ideas visit my Travel Tips/Ideas Pinterest Board.

Stained Glass Cross Craft

Sweet P made this as a gift for Gammie for her birthday. It's right up Gammie's alley and perfect for the Easter season. It was such a simple craft and it looked beautiful in the window! We sent it to Gammie so now we need to make one of our own!

The Craft: Stained Glass Cross

What you need:

Purple (or color of choice) card stock
Colored tissue paper (we used several colors but one is fine)
Contact paper
Scissors
Hole punch
Yarn

Cut a cross frame out of the card stock. I folded the card stock in half to cut it and it was much easier than trying to make the ends the same size. Cut contact paper twice the size of your cross (you'll need it to cover both sides), then cut the contact paper in half. Affix the cross onto one piece of the contact paper and cut around the edges so that the only sticky part is in the middle of the cross frame. Cut small pieces of tissue paper (child can help with this if scissor-aged), then have your child stick the tissue paper onto the contact paper until covered. Place the other piece of contact paper on top of the finished product and cut around the edge of the cross. Hole punch the top and thread a piece of yarn through the hole. Tie off the yarn and hang in a window.

A great sensory project both when creating and admiring!

Holiday Highlights

After being gone for 3 weeks visiting family and friends in the southwest, we've been busy readjusting to our routine at home. We hit the ground running when we got home and are still whirling from that. As we get back into the swing of things, take a look at the highlights from our holiday season.

We had so much fun and got to see so many wonderful people. We're missing pictures of Auntie Maria, Mama Mary, Auntie Jane and Papa RayRay but it was SO good to see them!