The girls have been working on this activity book for about a month; they wanted their own activity book to take on our road trip to Texas. True was the creative director and had each girl contribute pages for it. You can tell which are made by Soul and Glow because they spell think phonetically. They are a lot of pages (about 30!), so I didn’t photograph it all, but I think it’s obvious the love and creativity they put into this little book. They drew each page, made copies on our printer, then True sewed the books together. These books will fun to look back on one day and laugh at all the cute little things they created.

This is one of my favorite jokes True has come up with. I let out a big, hearty laugh when she told me.

Get the print out here for other little joke lovers. See more kid jokes here.

I love crafty things, but I’m not a very creative gift wrapper. I always go for simple. And what can get simpler than presents wrapped with brown paper and painted on black string?!

I paint the crisscross portion on first, then top it off with the painted bow… voila!

If you any of you have ordered from my Cakies shop in the past, you know I used to send off packages decorated this way, but done with black marker. It’s cute and easy, and so that’s how our Christmas presents are decorated this year. To label, I have some shipping tags that I will write names on, and tape onto the top of each gift. The paper gets ripped off so fast (then put into the recycle bin), so I’m very practical about my gift wrapping. Plus, it’s what’s on the inside the counts right?! 😉 And don’t forget the thought counts most! 🙂

How do you decorate your gifts? Do you go all out or are you a simple gift wrapper like me?

To keep us organized and our team working together, we have plenty of charts around the house for different things. We have school charts to keep us on task during our homeschool days, and we have chore charts to make sure everyone is pitching in around the house. This is all our home, so it’s up to all of us to care of it. It’s not just mom or dad’s job, but the kids are part of the team too. Sure, Ben and I might be the team co-captains, but the girls are all old enough to contribute. Of course, they each have different ways to help because the expectations we have are based on their ages and ability, but our 5 year old is certainly capable of helping out. The baby can’t escape learning how to contribute too.

Some of you have asked about our old chore and routine charts, so we’re sharing with you an updated version of our chore poster and our chore checklist. These chores are part of their responsibilities at home. They have other jobs they can do at home to earn money too, but we don’t pay them for doing their regular chores. The girls know the faster they get things done, the more time they have for playing. Typically, Saturdays are for finishing up all the weekly chores, so they know to be efficient with their time, and stay focused, so they can have the rest of the day for play (or watching movies).

Laundry can pile up rather quickly in our home, but we master the laundry, and we don’t let it master us. These last couple years, laundry hasn’t been as intimidating because we all chip in to get it done. The girls can sort the dirty clothes, I put the laundry in the machine and put in the detergent, and they’re the ones who sort, fold, and put things away (Ben and I put away our own clothes). It’s a great system and I love that we all work together!

Advertising Sponsored by Church & Dwight, the Maker of ARM & HAMMER ™ products. All opinions are my own, and I’m thankful for the support you give me, this space, and the brands I partner with.

For Soul’s birthday outfit, I made her a dress with Star Wars fabric and a Luke-inspired jacket. She’s been wanting his jacket from Episode IV, which is pretty basic, so I added some fun pattern inside. Also, the extra layer will help it be more of a jacket. She was ecstatic when she opened up her gifts to see her specially made for her outfit. I think her little smile says it all. I think she’s worn this outfit a hand full of times already, and she only got it a little over a week ago.

In our home, laundry is something we are never in short supply of. There are always plenty of dirty clothes to wash, and clean clothes to put away. Plus with four little girls, I find clothes (not sure if it’s dirty or clean) under beds, stuffed in corners, between the bed and the wall, and stuffed in other random places. Oh the places the laundry will go! I partnered with ARM & HAMMER™ to share this quirky Laundry Monster, so the girls will remember to feed the monster their dirty laundry, and hopefully this helps keep all the laundry in one place.

The girls and I worked on the Laundry Monster together; I did all the cutting and sewing, and the girls did the painting. Obviously, the video shows the abbreviated version of how to make it, but if you want to make your own laundry monster, you can print out full instructions here, or see the step-by-step below.

If you need something to make sure the laundry stays in one place, you certainly need a Laundry Monster in your life too. Tell the kids to feed the monster their laundry, otherwise, maybe the monster might eat them!

Advertising Sponsored by Church & Dwight, the Maker of ARM & HAMMER™products. All opinions are my own, and I’m thankful for the support you give me, this space, and the brands I partner with.