screen time tickets

last friday i posted on facebook that i had just implemented "screen time tickets" with my boys and that noah only had 1 left. for the entire week.

goodness.
i honestly anticipated more tantrums and frustration {on all our parts!} but as i type this {on wednesday} we've all been doing really well!
there will be a few new changes and alterations for our second week with screen time tickets.

as you can see each ticket is worth 30 minutes and can be used for tv, movies, daddy's iPad {one of the major sources of arguments before the tickets!} or computer.

how it works is that if the boys request to use the iPad or watch something i tell them to bring me a ticket and then choose what they would like to do. then i set the alarm on my phone and tell them when the alarm goes off, their time is done {or when a movie is done, etc. and they give the appropriate amount of tickets}.

each boy received 5 tickets last friday.
i am now planning on upping that to 6 tickets and will ration them out during the week; 3 on friday and 3 on monday. i may go back to giving them all their tickets on friday, but we'll see how the rationing goes if it seems to work for everyone.

jamie and i also discussed giving them an hour of saturday morning cartoons - as a treat for both kids and parents.
they also get one freebie of a family movie night which does not need any tickets.
noah also got a freebie ticket this week from daddy for obeying right away and with a really good attitude.

someone on facebook asked what happens if one child pays for a movie with their tickets and then the other child wants to sit in and watch. i commented that this is perfectly fine. the second child just doesn't have a say in what movie or show is being watched if they didn't contribute any tickets. over time this will hopefully lead to the boys working together to maximize their tickets and if they both want a say in the movie/show then they both need to contribute tickets.

right now both their envelopes are empty. they will stay empty until friday morning when i replenish them. we'll see how quickly they go through their initial three tickets or if they'll have learned to ration them for themselves.

overall their behaviour has been a bit better, they've played better together and have also self-initiated a lot more independent play time. hooray! oh we still have many fights every.single.day. {they are boys, after all!} but it's nice to see them being more creative and content with less screen time. kids will rise to the occasion and once again they have proven me right!

so all you need is to print off some tickets {i found mine here but there are other options for shorter amounts of time like 15 or 20 minutes or longer like 60 minutes}. i also chose to use colourful paper and then since i have no idea where i would laminate them, i used clear tape on both sides so we could re-use them.

this has been {so far} a good solution for our over-use of the tv and iPad. if you try it, let me know how it works for your family! i'll continue to update over the next few months as it's still a work in progress - and especially with the introduction of a new baby to our family soon!

how to make a sandbox in uganda

on saturday morning we woke up with no plans.

jamie said, let's go to the beach.


i said, let's make a sandbox instead!


so jamie called our friend james who can do pretty much everything and our local carpenter friend robert and told them what we were looking to do. today.
they both came over around 11am.
jamie, james and robert gathered 'round a notebook and discussed plans and materials.

then they dispersed, picked up supplies and got started.

one of the delightful things about africa when it works to your advantage is how people are just 'available' to help out with whatever needs to get done. sure i can come to your house right now and help you build a sandbox. why not?

we decided we wanted to paint it red. {noah said he wanted pink, but personally i don't think i could handle seeing a pink sandbox for the next year and a bit. just...no.}

oh...and then you probably need some sand for that big 'ole empty box.

um...how many sandboxes is all that sand for? just ours? oh. okay.

now it's time to fill 'er up!

sandbox complete!

and now we welcome many hours of play outside and more sand than i'd like inside!

also...anyone need any sand?

how to take a cold shower

it's true.
i take cold showers.
perhaps when we get out of this "cold" season i'll be happy for the cold showers, but for now my motto is "get in and get out.".
so here it is, my guide to taking a cold shower if you must.

step one.
hopefully your shower has a faucet (in addition to a shower head). if not, disregard this post.
this is necessary if your water pressure sucks is not so great (like mine).
turn on your water faucet.

step two.
starting from your feet, get wet as high as you can. for me it's usually up to my thighs.

step three.
crouch down and get your upper body wet.

step four.
put your head under the faucet and get your hair wet.

step five.
lather up your hair with your shampoo of choice (currently mine is Pantene).
you can either do this with your head still somewhat upside down or invert yourself. i usually stand up once my hair is lathered and on top of my head. (cold water on the back is the hardest part. hang in there, you're almost there.)

step six.
put your head back under the faucet or at this point, feel free to turn on your lousy shower head and stand underneath it to rinse out your hair.

step seven.
wash your bod.
rinse your bod.

step eight.
turn off the water and get out of the shower.

step nine.
use a spray-in conditioner and comb through.

you're done!
welcome to my life.

Stove-popped Popcorn

i bought corn kernels at the grocery store the other day. {yup, there are both markets and grocery stores here in kampala.}
i figured at some point i'd probably end up making popcorn.
i figured correctly.
we had no chips and we were all feeling a bit munchy so i decided to make some popcorn.
now it may just be because i'm in africa and all, but this popcorn was the best popcorn i've ever had. and there wasn't even any butter on it! {and i'm a soggy-with-butter-popcorn kinda girl!}
here's how you make it:

you need:

3 tbsp oil (i used canola. you can use whatever you like, but one with a higher smoking point work best}

1/3 cup corn kernels

salt to taste

on med-high heat in a large pan, pour the oil in and 3 or 4 kernels. {trust me.} cover the pan.

when the kernels start to pop, remove from heat and add in the rest of the kernels and cover again. the oil is now at "popping" temperature.

count to 30. {noah likes to do this with me - although he sorta gets lost after 15.} this allows the rest of the kernels to heat up.

then put the pan back on the stove and wait until you start to hear the popping. once you hear the popping, open the lid a bit {if you can, it gives the popcorn a crisper taste/feel} and start shakin'. 

once the popping stops/slows down you can remove the pan and voila! perfect popcorn!

you can add the salt now - OR you can add it to the oil at the beginning. this is what i do and it evenly coats all the popcorn.

i think in my last batch, i only had 2 unpopped kernels. sweet, eh?
and there are endless flavourings you can add:
cinnamon and sugar
parmesan and black pepper
curry powder
or just lots and lots of butter.
but we're pretty happy here just eating it with a bit of salt.

enjoy!

the eczema battle

For the last few months Noah has had these horrible red patchy rashes all over his body (namely back/stomach/groin/legs) and at first because it was mostly in the diaper area I thought it was some kind of diaper rash - even though he had just been potty trained.
But then it spread. And I thought that maybe it was viral. It wasn't pretty. And still isn't.
But after two visits to the doctor I am convinced it is eczema. I just didn't believe that eczema could look so terrible. But it does. And the poor kid just itches all day long.
So now we've got a strict skincare regimen and we'll see how he's doing in a week or two.
Right now (as of tonight) we're doing the following:
Homemade Oatmeal Bath (10-15 mins long)
Pat dry with towel
Put 1% hydrocortisone cream on the worst affected areas (right now it's belly/back/groin)
Slather on a pharmacy mixed combination of Glaxal Base moisturizer (hypo allergenic cream) and glycerin all over his entire body.

I'm also going to purchase either Vitamin E/Omega 3's to help keep his skin soft and moisturized.
If this continues until and through the first few weeks of considerably warmer weather then I will (reluctantly) look at changing his diet to eliminate possible causes of eczema. (the main two being dairy and wheat.)
Blech. I'm so not into all that diet change stuff, but if it's not changing I will totally do it for my kiddo.
Personally I'm fairly certain it's the weather as it's ridiculously dry and has been since his eczema flared up.
But we'll see.

Oh and here's a quick (and cheap) tutorial on how to make your own Oatmeal bath (great for eczema, chicken pox, poison ivy skin conditions):
You will need:
oats (I just used up what I had left which was large flake quaker oats)
a blender

Put about a cup (if you can fit that in your blenders - some are smaller) of oats into your blender and blend until you have a consistently fine powder.
Add the powder into a warm bath (not too hot as that will dry out skin even more) and mix around to break up any clumps.
Sit in the bath for anywhere from 10-20 minutes and then quickly rinse and pat dry.
Alternatively, you can put the powder in the foot of pantyhose and tie it off. Then let the water run through the  oatmeal sack and let it float in the water when you're done filling the bath. You can even squeeze the oat goop out onto affected areas while in the bath too.

Anyway, so we'll see where we're at in the next few weeks and hopefully he improves.
He's so cute, though when he talks about his rashes.
He says,
Yeah. I have rashes all over me. 
When I see an especially "angry" flare up I say,
Oh Noah. I'm so sorry that you have rashes.
And he usually says something like,
My rashes make you sad? 
And I say,
Yeah. It makes me sad that you have rashes that hurt you and that I can't make them go away.
He was especially cute for the doctor when we saw her yesterday telling her about his rashes and beforehand telling me that he would "try to be brave".
This kid. So cute.

Garage Sale Tips: Part ONE

It's over. It's finally over and now I can breathe and sleep. (I went to bed at 8:59 last night - too bad my kids were up multiple times throughout the night or else I would have gotten 11 hours of sleep - thanks to my wonderful husband who got up this morning with the boys.)

I was probably on my third coffee at this point.

So, you want to have a garage sale and make it worth your while?
I can't guarantee anything, but follow these tips and you'll definitely do better than if you hadn't!

First: HELP

I could NOT have done it without these ladies!

Assemble a team of people who will help you throughout this process. Here are a few key people to have:
a) Organizers - people who thrive at putting systems together and organizing things. These people will help you to organize your things and get past the daunting experience of staring at a garage full of things and not knowing where to start. These people will be helpful both the week before the sale as well as the day of.
b) Networkers - these people will help get the word out about your sale via word of mouth as well as on the internet.
c) Hard workers - :) These are people who will help you do just about anything. They love you and want to help you. These people are KEY. These people can fit into either previous category and can also help you organize, move things, clear things, run errands, POSTER your neighbourhood, etc.
d) Childcare - if you have small children (as I do) it would be really helpful to you to have someone to watch your kids. At first I didn't think Jamie was going to be around, but it turns out he was able to stick around until noon to watch the boys while all the ladies organized and sold stuff outside. It worked out wonderfully. The boys were outside for a bit, but it was too cold for them to be out there the whole time and so they came out, played with the toys for a bit and wandered around and then went back inside. It was definitely nice to have Jamie around to help with this.

Second: WARMTH

Note that I have changed to a winter jacket. It was COLD.

If at all possible, I would not do a garage sale until at least May - especially if you're living in Canada. There were a lot of cold moments - postering, sorting and pricing in a cold garage and then bright and early putting things out on a cold Saturday morning. Granted, it was a gorgeous day for this time of year and I am so so so thankful for that, but if you have a choice, pick a warmer month.
It also helps that people are more into garage-sailing mode in the warmer months and you may get more traffic.

Third: ADVERTISE

Doing the first round of posters. (This was just a small arrow pointing down our street.)

This is key (as I found out). Here's what I did:
a) I posted an ad on Kijiji for free. I got over 20 email responses and over 300 hits on my two ads. On the recommendation of my friend Jen, I posted an ad in the "garage sale" category, but I also posted an ad in the "baby" category - guess which one got more hits? Yup. The "baby" category.
b) I/we postered. I give full credit to Jen and Shereen on this one. Shereen and I postered 4 main intersections on the main road that we live near and then later on Friday night Jen & Shereen went crazy with the posters in our subdivision which I credit to the huge amounts of traffic we got for an early April garage sale! We did 2 types of posters; one had our address, time and that it was a garage sale with an arrow and the other type were just 2 pieces of paper, one that said "GARAGE" and one that said "SALE" and they filled the entire piece of paper. Jen & Shereen put these up with arrows all around our subdivision and they looked awesome! Simple, but they did the trick (although now I have to go and tear them all down!).
c) As well as Kijiji, I posted on Facebook and emailed people to let them know that we were having our garage sale. We had a whole bunch of friends show up and it was fun to see who came out.

Fourth: HOLD OUT

There is a trick to holding out your price to those seasoned garage sailors that come early and haggle with you without losing the sale. Here's one thing I learned: Don't bring your price down for early birds. If someone is willing to come early to get the good stuff, then they should be willing to pay full price - especially for a good item.
For instance, I decided we would sell our djembe drum. We don't really use it and we'll be in Africa if we do want to purchase another. I put it at $10 which I knew was an excellent price. Well sure enough, a man and his wife showed up and started picking up items and "shopping" through all our stuff at 7:40am while we were still setting up. I decided to let them but when he came up to me with the djembe and said he'd give me $5 for it, I told him he'd have to wait as the sale hadn't actually started yet. Well a few minutes later he came up to me again and said he'd give me $5. I was so distracted with getting things set up and organizing things that I just wanted to get rid of him and so I took the $5.
Only minutes after 8am, our neighbours from across the street came over and asked about the djembe and I told them it had already been sold and that's when I realized my mistake. It was a good item and I could have totally gotten full price for it, had I held fast to my original price.
In the grand scheme of things, $5 doesn't matter too much, but it was the principle that really stuck with me and I definitely learned a lesson of holding fast to your price - especially early in the morning.
In the last hour we started telling people that everything was now 50% off the marked price.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's final tips, some praises for my amazing team of ladies who helped and the final count of how much we made.

silhouette art tutorial

This year my Mom sent out an email to the fam saying that she didn't want any presents, just chocolate and flowers. Well that's all fine and dandy but being in the crafty phase I'm in, I couldn't just settle with "chocolate and flowers". So I started thinking and browsing online for some ideas.
And I came up with one that I thought would be simple, easy and yet very classy. Oh and it didn't cost too much, either (that always helps).
I'm not sure how it all came together but I had this memory flashback of my Mom giving framed silhouettes of all us kids to my Geda (it's what we called my Mom's Dad) when I was maybe 11 or 12 for his birthday (which was February 14th, incidentally).
And then I found some really adorable silhouette crafts/gift ideas.
And then I came up with my own project;
the family silhouette.
supplies needed:
digital camera
printer
scissors
black paper (I used scrapbook paper that I had from my scrapbooking days which is acid free)
a frame (I purchased a relatively inexpensive frame meant for posters from Walmart - 16x20 I think)
a pen
adhesive (I used scrapbooking acid-free double sided tape)
white paper (I bought white poster board since my frame was larger than any paper I had at home)

So while back in the day, my Mom taped a piece of paper to the wall, made me stand in front it and shone a light on me while she traced the shadow of my silhouette onto the paper, I just made my family stand in front of me and face sideways so I could snap a picture of their profile with my handy dandy digital camera. I got Jamie to take mine.
Now you don't need to be standing in a back lit situation (as all of us are except for Jude because I realized later that he was looking slightly down and didn't get a good angle of his chin so I re-took one a couple days later) but I found it helpful (especially compared to getting a clear profile of Jude).

Once you've got your pictures, you can print them out. All of the pictures were fine in relation to one another except Jude's which I had to scale down a bit so he wasn't larger than Noah. It took several tries, but I eventually got it the way I wanted it to look.
Then cut out the silhouettes.

Make sure to include as many details as possible like hair sticking up, mustache hair (only for men, please), certain nose details as this really defines the silhouette of that particular person.
If you turn them over so you see the non-picture side you'll get a better idea of if the silhouette looks fine/accurate/etc.
Once you you're satisfied with the silhouette, trace the outline of it onto your black paper, including any and all details from the picture.
Cut out all silhouettes from the black paper.
Now make sure your white paper is the correct size for your frame and make any adjustments that you might need to.
Position your silhouettes on your white paper and then use your adhesive to fasten them securely to the white paper in whatever position you'd like. You could even use several frames with one silhouette per frame. (I'd like to do this above my bed one day.)

Now you may have noticed that my pictures are all facing one way, but the silhouettes are all facing the other way. Well, that's because I just flipped over the black paper so that you wouldn't be able to see any pen marks left over from when I was tracing the pictures. I know, pretty tricky right?

Now put the white paper into the frame, secure, turn it over and you're done!

Stand back and admire your classy handiwork.

This is a very easy, but also personal gift or piece of art you can hang in your house (I kinda wanted to keep mine!) or give as a gift.