Works For Me Wednesday

Trekking out and about about with a toddler can be tricky enough, but running errands with a potty training toddler, her into everything ever curious, little sister and her energetic older brother is down right difficult.  Those bathroom stalls were not meant for four people!  But what do you do when your potty training toddler has to go and hasn’t learned how to hold it?

This genius idea is courtesy of my dear friend Rebecca.  When I saw a porta potty in her minivan I instantly said, “I need one of those!” 

And let me tell me it’s worth every penny.

I have a little potty seat in my minivan.  In the bag behind it I have the tube of mini M&Ms (her potty reward) hand sanitizer, Lysol (for disinfecting the seat) and extra clothes (for times when we don’t make it to the seat fast enough.  I recently added plastic shopping bags (for when she goes number 2).    Now, instead of dragging my 3 crew circus into the bathroom stall at every store on our errand run, I have her go before we go in.  (while her siblings are safely strapped into their seats (germ free).  At the soccer field with no bathrooms?  No worries… she can go in the privacy of our van. 

Changing my minivan into an RV courtesy of a $10.00 potty seat, definitely works for me.  For more great tips, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

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Last week the kids and I were looking for something fun to do during that difficult time of day between nap time and dinner.  We went in the yard to collect some leaves for leaf rubbings and I got another idea of what to do with the leaves when we were finished with our rubbings.   

We gathered leaves of various colors and types from the yard.  I then took some strips of clear contact paper and peeled the backing off of the contact paper, leaving it sticky side up on the table.  I had the kids lay their leaves down so that the colored side was on the sticky part and the backs of the leaves were facing up.  They got to stick as many leaves on there as they wanted and put them wherever they wanted.  When they finished they sprinkled some red glitter around on the contact paper.

I then picked the contact paper up and stuck it to my sliding glass door.  It made a cute fall decoration for our dining room.  There was little mess, and we all had a great time.  Easy, fun, minimal effort fall crafts work for me.  For other great tips, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

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A few weeks ago my hubby and I were shopping for a big purchase.   We aren’t the type to make big purchases on the fly.  They require lots of research and thinking and looking and more research then finally purchasing.  Cameras, cars, computers, TV’s… they’re all the same drill. 

But with three kids under 4, it’s not quite as easy as it used to be. 

We made two trips to the store in one weekend and I totally felt like a traveling circus. 

As my husband tried to talk to the salesman and look at various models, I kept my eye on the kiddos and wondered why in the world I even bothered to come.  It wasn’t like I was really able to concentrate on anything other than my 2 and 4 year old playing catch with my daughter’s purse and my one year old running in the opposite direction from the other two, continually. 

When I was called in my by hubby for consultation, I did so with a bucking bronco in my arms and the other two bouncing around.  My 2 year old would run up and grab the legs of the salesman, startling them with her huge embrace. 

As we left the store I looked at my husband and said, “This is why I like shopping online.” 

With online shopping my husband can do all the research he wants while the kiddos are in the comfort of their own homes, (or better yet their beds) and I can just come look at the screen and listen to the summary.  And my favorite part, they deliver to your home.  I don’t have to haul the kiddos out of the house, find their shoes, buckle them in their car seats, unbuckle them, and keep my eye on them in the store.   Online shopping totally works for me.  And I learned by trip three to the store, that for times when we can’t shop online, we make sure not to leave the stroller at home. 

Before you check out more great tips at Rocks in My Dryer, take a look at a few more pics of our traveling circus.

Yea…whose bright idea was it put giant red walkway through their store?  My oldest two thought it looked like a race track and my youngest treated it like the “yellow brick road” continually trying to follow the red road away from Mommy and Daddy.

We did get a reprieve when the kids found the movies.  They sat quietly looking at the movie pictures for quite awhile.  Doesn’t my son look pathetic as he lays on the floor in complete boredom waiting for Mommy and Daddy to finish?

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I didn’t used to be a procrastinator, but now that I have 3 kids, I tend to take care of the urgent first.  This means that sometimes my really good plans get altered when real life sets in.   I have found that if I want to tackle a large project or extra thing (extra being not laundry, groceries, cleaning, cooking… those necessities of life) I need to make a self-imposed deadline in order for it to happen.  It needs its own "urgency" so to speak.

When my first born turned one I made a scrapbook of his first year.  I finished it shortly before his first birthday so I was able to sit it out at his first birthday party for friends and family to skim through.  2 years later when my daughter was born, I made a similar book for her.  As I sat down every night for a month working on it I told myself with my next child I will work a little each month so I don’t have such a monumental task in front of me with three kids vying for my attention at the same time.   I really intended to work on it a little each month. 

That’s not exactly how book number three happened.  In fact, I didn’t even leave myself a month.  I cropped the first picture only one week before her party and I spent every night last week working on her book.  I finished the book at 3 am the night before her party.  I knew that not many people would look at the book at the party but I also knew that if I didn’t sit down and finish it before her party, chances are she would be graduating high school with a half finished baby book.   So,I cropped, taped, and laid out the pages of her book, driven by this self imposed deadline. 

It worked!  I now have a completed 45 spread baby book for my baby girl.  I know without this goal, I’d be sitting with an empty book right now. 

The only way I can make progress on "extracurriculars" is by setting goals and working to achieve them.  Often times I give myself a monthly to do list.  This approach works for me, it keeps me from getting defeated when life gets busy.  For other tips that work for others, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

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