February the Month of Love

I love this time of the year. I get to use my creativity to make something sweet for my loved ones. I love coming up with new ways to surprise them.

This year I am making my son a mailbox and putting love notes and a small gift in it everyday until Valentine's Day. I haven't decided what else I will do. My husband will also get notes too. I leave them around in different places for him to find them. It's fun to see his reaction.

Here's some ideas to get you started. Get 14 cards, note cards, postcards, index cards. Whatever you can write a love note one. You can get cheap cards just about anywhere. Hallmark, Wal-Mart, Target the Dollar Store. You can also be creative and make your own cards with stickers, markers, construction paper, glitter and whatever else you have on hand.

Send one card the them everyday of the week or put it on the dresser, lunch pail, backpack, wherever you want you loved one to find it. Sending a card in the mail is great because not a lot of people get mail anymore and this would be neat for kids to receive one each day. Now I realize that on Sunday you can't send one so hid it somewhere in the house that they can find it. You can also do this during the week as well.  You can also send them to their place of work.

Inside the card you can say whatever you want. Be creative and have fun.

If you wanted you could put clues in them for where you will take him or her out for Valentines or pieces of a puzzle they will have to put together. Special stickers, candy, small toys, pencils, pens and anything small.

Start getting your stuff together now. Have fun with it and don't forget you got to do it everyday.

I made love notes this year using Picmonkey. I haven't figured out how to share documents yet so I hope that you can print these out and use them. If you right click them and save them to your computer you can put them in a word document and print. If you not you can always make them on Picmonkey and print them out yourself.

I had so much fun making them and I hope everyone enjoys them.

I also have some other ideas for Valentine's Day that I will share with you in the coming days.

What do you do for your loved ones? Do you countdown or just wait until the day?

Here's the one I made my husband for today.

These are the one's I made for my son. He loves jokes so I will hand write them in the bubbles. You can write whatever you like in them.

10 FREE & Fun Rainy Day Activities

1. Play in the rain. If the rain is warm and it's safe put on some rain boots and grab an umbrella.  

2. Have a car race. Take some cars and have races around the kitchen floor or down the hallway. Winner gets to choose dinner, free day of chores or something special.

3. Camp indoors. Put up a small tent or make your own with blankets and chairs. Get sleeping bags or make a big pallet on the floor. Sing campfire songs and tell stories.

4. Make silly faces. Take magazines and cut out noses, mouths, ears and eyes. Glue them on a piece of paper and make a funny face.

5. Make play dough. Kids love cooking and they love play dough. Make a batch together. There are quite a few recipes out there. Some you can even eat.

6. Watch a movie together.  Make it a great family movie with popcorn and candy. Find a movie at Redbox for free using one of these codes. DVDONME or BREAKROOM.

7. Draw pictures of each other. Sit down and have each person sit still for a little while and draw each other. Don't draw very well. Use stick figures and magazines. 

8. Do a puzzle together. Find one that is going to be just the right challenge for your family.  Make your own puzzle by finding a picture in a magazine and gluing it onto a piece of card stock. Cut out pieces and put it together again.

9. Measure the rain. Take two cups that are the same. Put one in the front yard and one in the backyard. Which one will get more rain? Take guesses on which yard gets more rain and how many cups will fall.

10. Have a talent show. Each person in the family gets to stand up and show a talent they have. Can you put your leg over your head, make shapes with your tongue, play spoons or something else interesting. Show your talent.

Trying to be Healthy

Get up and go to kitchen. Look for healthy food. Go ahead go look. I’ll still be here when you get back. What did you find? If you’re like me you found a bunch of junk.

I decided it’s time for me and my family to start eating better and I need to loose some of my weight. Let's get started. Most of all I just really want my family to eat better.

I just started my journey this week and I must say it’s hard. I never realized how much junk I had in my house until yesterday. I went into my kitchen to find something to eat for lunch. I opened my cabinets to find macaroni and cheese, packages of rice and instant potatoes. Than I went to the freezer and found tater tots, french fries, waffles, ice cream and pot pies. The refrigerator let me down too. I found nothing but a whole lot of processed foods and fatting snacks. I was really sad. I guess I never really looked at my pantries that way before. 

I thought we were doing good. I mean I use ground turkey instead of hamburger. I serve at least two vegetables at dinner. Isn’t  that good enough.  So in my despair I opted for the pot pie from the freezer for lunch. I know it’s an awful choice but what else was I suppose to eat. Oh, I could’ve had a peanut butter sandwich. That would have been a better choose but I didn’t think of that.

I decided it’s time for me and my family to start eating better and I need to loose some of my weight. It’s time to get started. Most of all I just really want my family to eat better.

So last night before bed I got onto Pinterest and started looking for healthy choices. There are a ton of alternatives to all that stuff I have hidden away in the cabinets. I was surprised at how many things I forgot about and things I’ve never thought about.

It’s my goal from now on to make better choices. I’m not planning on changing over night or taking everything out of the house that is bad but I do want to offer things to my family that are better. I want to at least try. Even if it’s just having fresh veggies and fruits available all the time, that is a great place to start.

Here’s to make better choices.

What does your family enjoy? Are you making good choices for your family? What are some of your favorite snacks or meals?