Finished Object Friday

I always enjoy Charity's Finished Object Friday so much and always mean to link up...usually I get busy and forget. Today, I remembered...so I'm sharing a "few" things I've completed over the last couple of weeks. I love the inspiration I recieve from reading these and other blogs.

The girls remembered the candy pumkkins we made a few years ago and wanted to do them again. They are so fun and easy for kids. You just need candy circus peanuts and some sort of gum drop or tootsie roll (depending if you want brown or green stems on your pumpkin. Cut the candy peanut in half and "stick" it together- cut side down, with a small cut piece of the gumdrop. Let part of the gumdrop stick out the top for a stem. Draw pumpkin lines on with a toothpick or small knife.

Today, we did up a big batch of salsa. I have a great recipe that I shared here. http://rickarennkids.blogspot.com/2010/10/some-like-it-hot.html

(Sorry, sometimes my computer won't let me link a word, and sometimes it will). Strange.

To kick of the Autumn season and the soon arrival of school, we made a Autumn looking cake. Chocolate Cake with Cappuccino Icing was a HUGE hit at our house!

We've also had an eventful week of Potty Training Boot Camp. This is one thing I have definitely been putting off and am so glad to have it an (almost) finished object. The story is here. http://rickarennkids.blogspot.com/2011/08/potty-training-boot-camp.html

With school just around the corner, we have been busy paining and decorating our new classroom! Read about that here. http://rickarennkids.blogspot.com/2011/08/wisdom-knowledge-and-understanding.html

And finally...I FINALLY completed the shower curtain in the girls' bathroom. Read that post here.http://rickarennkids.blogspot.com/2011/08/raggedy-red.html

Potty Training Boot Camp

We have officially enlisted.

Our chant? "Can we do this? Yes! We can!"

While I am not here to criticize any one's training method, I personally cannot put a child through 6 months of half-hearted inconsistent basic training. Neither will I proclaim my child to have graduated from this course at 14 months only to have daily "accidents." And please.....don't blame your lack of success on JR. The question is not whether your child is ready for this, but rather, "Are YOU ready for this?"

I'm not saying my form of Potty Boot Camp is for everyone, but in case you are interested...I'll give you a brief overview. I try to enlist them right around 2 years of age.

1. Be prepared. Plan to devote somewhere between 2 days and 2 weeks of your life to this regime. I have experience with 4 enlistees thus far and the longest session was 2 weeks, the shortest...2 days! Choose a time period where you will not have to be away from home. You can't have boot camp at Walmart! Set aside special treats--stickers and small candy--that your child has not seen before. I like to use things like skittles and gummy fruits. Lots of water in fun cups and little juice cartons are great as well!

2. Be Persistent. Have you ever housebroken a puppy? Training a child is not that much different. Put some plastic sheeting down on the floor under the potty chair, grab a stack of books and "camp out." Don't get discouraged if your little trainee is not too interested at first. DON'T GIVE UP! Remember, YOU are still the sergeant in charge!

3. Be Pantless. Or pantiless. :) Those cute themed underwear will be great in a few days, but for the first few, the less clothing the better. Big girl panties are a fantastic reward for a little gal who has completed the course!

4. Be Positive. First, find a way to convey your "disappointment" when accidents happen. (Parents know how to do this.) Then, PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE when things go right!!! We sing and shout and dance about...we call everyone on the speed dial list (with the exception of 911) to celebrate with us.

So...you might want to know how we are doing this time around, huh?

Okay....day #1

We have had the pretty times, the sane times, the awesome times, the happy and smiling times....

....and then we have had moments where we just thought we couldn't possibly make it.

Kaite figured out that liquids aid in the process and the more you 'go' the more candy you get and so you see the empty juice bottles. We had multiple requests for "More juice" yesterday. At one point I even caught her trying to empty her water cup directly into the potty chair in an attempt to get the prize without the performance, so to speak.

Oh--and as part of being prepared, you might want to invest in some of this. Resolve. Just in case your little recruit wanders of the "plastic training field."

I should know. This happened to me. I left my little charge long enough to tend a buzzing dryer and returned to find her in the kitchen with "brown stuff" all over her legs. It wasn't mud and for once I wished it was. While I rushed her to the dunk tank I sent my Boot Camp graduates in search of "the rest."

Pretty soon, I heard Kammy's voice and this is what it said, "OHHHHH!!!!! OHHHHHH!!!!! I'ts BEA---U-----TI----FUL!!!!!!!!! It looks like there has been a horse in my bedroom!

Indeed it did! I spared you the gorey details and just took a shot of the carpets AFTER I'd applied the cleaner. The resolve spots will give you an idea of the extent of the damage. UGH!

In all fairness to my sweet recruit, it is the ONLY accident thus far. I think she just needed to learn that BOTH 'items' are to now go in the potty. I bought her some princess panties a few days ago, before we started training and when she saw them in the cart, she said, "What those?" I said, "Panties for you." Kaite sighed really big and said, "thought so!"

She has asked for a diaper a few times and I told her that we don't wear those anymore.

Her response....."OH DEAR!!!!"

She was on her potty early this morning when her sister Kammy came by with the offer to play ponies. "No, ank you." Kaite said. "I'm potty shraining!"

Meanwhile, mommy is admitting just a teeny bit of sadness that my baby is now in Potty Training Boot Camp. The boots are a little stiff and uncomfortable, but that's the whole point of Boot Camp, right? Getting those boots broke in! :)

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Tiny Talk Tuesday

Kaite has had a been of a cold and been a bit more of a grouch. Here her sisters were trying to help her attitude by giving her the "Royal Treatment."(Saturday evening after hairwashing)

Family talking about having Jesus in your heart: "Is Jesus in your heart, Kaite?" Kaite: "NO!" Us: "No? Where is your heart?" Kaite: (reaches in neck of shirt) "In pocket. With cell phone.

Kaite talking about Thomas the train and all his friends: "and Harold the Hello...Heelo....Harl...Haca...Hocha.....sigh....Harold the PLANE." (She was trying to say Harold the Helicopter). lol

I think it's pretty cute/smart of Kaite to refuse hard candy when offered her, because...."No ank-you. Shoke on it!"

The other night, Rick reached out to tickle Kaite's little belly. Kaite quickly pulled her shirt down and said, "Bellie SHUT!"

Kaite holding her candy while she "potty trains". We are currently beginning potty training week here at our house. I have a very successful method--in progress now on child #4. You CAN potty train that child and it DOESN'T have to take 6 months, either! One word. Consistancy. I ususally do this right a the age of two (it's a magical potty age) but Kaite is about 4 months past that so I hope I didn't miss that magical time with her. :)

This morning she was sitting on her potty and big sister Kammy came by with the offer to play ponies with her. "NO!: Kaite said. "I'm potty shraining!"

Last week when I bought her a package of panties, she looked in the cart and said, "What's that?" I said, "panties for you." She sighed really big and said, "thought so."

Linking up with Tiny Talk

http://notbefore7.blogspot.com/2011/08/tiny-talk-tuesday_30.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NotBefore7+%28Not+Before+7%29

Blessed Baskets

Deuteronomy 28:5a

Blessed be your Basket

I read this just this morning in my Bible reading time. I thought it was such a pretty verse and sounded like "Harvest Time."

We housewives often gather things in baskets; I place blackberries fresh from picking in a basket, use a basket to store lovely garden tomatoes, laundry is carried in a basket, a basket holds pens in our schoolroom and spices in the kitchen. I even used a basket to store extra diapers for the baby.

God chooses to bless all of my baskets, for which I am so grateful!

The verse goes on the say, "and your store." That just might mean those things we "store up" for the winter months. The canned beans and tomatoes the jellies and preserves. Even the special Chocolate Cappuccino Cake I made as a treat for my family.Kitchen work can at times seem drudgery...hands deep in dough...the phone rings...baby climbing on the counter fussing for a snack...someone wanting a story read...spilled milk...a voice calling, "Mmmmooooommmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

When my hands are the fullest, it does me good to remember that my baskets too, are full (and not just the laundry baskets either).

Smile.I love how gathering in baskets and storing speaks of harvest.

What a blessed time!

Baskets seem to imply something "extra" more than enough.

The cake was not necessary to our survival after dinner today, it was extra.

God's blessings, too, are extras!

They are the "icing on the cake" so to speak.I confess, I have already added some "Autumn" touches to my decor.

I love the harvest season and what it means to me,

--all the extras of God--

His blessings on my life.

May I be faithful to labor in the harvest he has given, so that it may not be said of me,

"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few."

My Baskets are BLESSED!