There are a lot of moms or  parents that get together and have the following discussion; How do you let your kids eat their Halloween candy?  Sometimes we get a opinions from parents, in-laws, other family members, neighbors, dentists or even just random strangers.  So what's the answer?
Do you put it all in one bowl for all your kids to share?
Do you let them try and eat it all in one night?
Do you let each child keep their own candy? To each their own?
Do you eat half of it and claim you don't know where the rest went?
Do you buy it back from them?
Do you make gingerbread houses with it?
There's lots of different ways to do it.  Often I think we place too much guilt on ourselves and sometimes (knowingly or unknowingly) on other parents. What is the answer? There are plenty of pros and cons to all these options and more. What thing do we leave out when we sit and way our options when trying to decide? The kids. That's right the kids. I know you are thinking about what is best for your kids when deciding on a plan. My point is, we leave out the fact that all kids are different when we advise others on this topic. How I choose to parent my kids is different than how you choose to parent yours. There are many different reasons to why this is, but one major factor is because my kids are different than yours. My kids each react differently to sugar, decisions, responsibility and more. So what works best for me and my kids, won't work best for you and your kids.
My point is don't feel bad if you let your kid sit and eat it all in one night. Don't feel bad if you only let your kids have 2 pieces a day. You know your kids better than anyone. It's ok to share ideas and options with others, but lets be careful to how we do it. Let's not assume our way is the best way. Just because it is the best way for your family, doesn't mean its the best for everyone elses!
With that being said, Happy Post-Halloween Candy Eating! Especially if your son brought home almost 8 lbs of it himself. Eat up and feel guilt free with whatever you choose to do with it. Unless you hand it out as candy next year, that's just gross!

One major tip that helps me manage much of my chaos is a little old fashioned; it's a day planner. I use a day planner to help me stay semi sane, it helps me be where I need to be and helps me stay on task. I know I could use my phone but, its not the same. I can't easily write down, plan or look up stuff. Finding the right day planner can also be tricky. I don't like the little check book size ones because they are too small. I'm also too cheap to buy the big huge nice and fancy ones. The Homemaker's Day Planner is perfect for me and my needs.

First of all I love how the monthly tabs are separate from the week tab. Why? Simple, I like to use a butterfly clip or paperclip to help me keep my place for the current week.  Usually other planners have the month, then each week broken down. So when I open up to this week, but need to look at the month as a whole I have to un-clip and flip to find it. When its separate I can look at each month as a whole to help get quick ideas of what the month is like, or to count if it's the 3rd Wednesday of the month and so on. As a side note I know some people rip out pages when they have passed them, I don't for several reasons. One main reason is it helps me track at the end of year how many dr appointments I went on so I can track mileage and cost for my taxes. Quite often I have to look back to see when I last did something or if I missed something. Hence why I clip to easily get to my current week, but still need all my past pages for reference purposes.
The very front of the homemakers day planner has a year breakdown for this year and next year. I love this so when my kids came home in September with dates I needed to remember for next year but I don't have next years day planner yet I can jot it down. Then when I order my next years day planner I can transfer the dates. Plus I can highlight or mark plans for trips or things that I need to keep in the forefront of my mind.

I also love how each week has a place for tasks. Sometimes I need to make a list of things that need to happen in general during the week. Like call the dentist, buy a light bulb for the fridge, or take something back to the store. Sometimes I have things that don't need to be scheduled exactly on a certain day, but need to be done in general.

I love the menu part of each week too. I usually plan 5ish meals a week and will switch them around during the week, but overall I like to have the week planned for meals. This helps me make sure I have all the ingredients and helps things run more smoothly. Some days we have piano at 4:30, scouts at 6, I have church responsibilities at 7 and my husband is working late. Those days are great for one of my quick meals like grilled cheese and tomato soup. Other days I have nothing scheduled and I can plan a more elaborate time consuming meal.  Knowing what my schedule is like, while looking at my grocery store circulars for sale items then writing it down helps lesson the chaos at home. Not to mention this helps save money on groceries or gas money for too many grocery store trips. Less hungry whiny kids plus non-stressed mom plus saving money equals much happier family dinner memories.

The back of the day planner has tear out grocery lists. I love this! For instance when I realized I needed a new battery for my fit bit, I wrote it on my list. When my son realized he ran out of cream cheese for his bagels he can add it to the list. This way I don't go to the store 5 times before I remember to buy either items, It's right there for me to see.

Its that time of year where my January is already starting to fill up. Kids basketball, husbands work seminars, church functions, school activities are adding up and its time to write them down so I don't forget or over extend myself. I am using the homemakers daily planner and love it. It saves me so much time knowing what is going on when.  Click the picture above or go to http://www.homemakersfriend.com/index.html to purchase yours.  Now the next tip is to not loose your planner, because when that happens I feel like I lost my whole brain somewhere!

This post is going to start different than planned. It was going to be about how angel hair pasta cooks fastest, and how to keep some spaghetti (or other pasta sauce) on hand can help make a fast dinner. In the end I think it's about how chaos can even sneak a few points in there too sometimes!
Yesterday was a long day. So when I was making my quick pasta dinner I grabbed a jar that Hormel sent me to review. I saw pictures of tomatoes and garlic with the words thick and chunky on it, and assumed pasta sauce. I even decided to try my new app and make my first gif to go along with this pasta dinner post. After I poured it in the pot I thought, something is off about this pasta sauce. Sure enough that's because it's not pasta sauce, It's salsa! Good thing I caught it, cause that would have been some weird pasta!

To add to my crazy week I thought I would add my favorite snack. It's Skippy peanut Butter. It goes with so much stuff! I like it plain, with celery, raisins, on crackers, on toast, or sometimes with chocolate. I tend to be an ornery mom when I'm hungry. So Skippy makes me more of a yippee  mom! When I fell full i can be more spontaneous and fun. Peanut butter has the protein I need to fill up and goof off.  Here's some of my Skippy Yippee's moments from last week of just goofing off and enjoying life as a craze (not ornery) mom!

Baby Cell Phone Selfies

Mario Kart Tournament

I kept debating whether or not I should share this with everyone. I decided why not? It is wacky Wednesday, so why not have a laugh at my expense?
I am a huge Survivor Fan. Ever since I watched the last episode of the first season I have been addicted. I love watching it and talking to my family members about it, it has really brought us all together. For years now I have said I will audition, but never have been in a position to do it. Now I finally feel ready. I made my first audition tape and finally submitted it. It's really simple and raw. I didn't want to dress crazy or act crazy, just show me and why I would be good at survivor.

As a mom I am use to no sleep, little food, and crazy people. Not to mention living in hotel rooms with 3 kids for 2 months! If that doesn't earn some Survivor credit I don't know what does!
Go ahead like, comment and share my video with all your friends. Wish me luck on Facebook, Twitter or on my you tube video. Thanks everyone.

Lately I am not loving my roller coaster emotions and my kids growing up. My mommy emotions have been out of whack lately. Usually it takes a lot for me to get emotional enough to cry.
This week I was sorting through clothes Graciella has grown out of. When realizing I may never have a kid wear them again, I just started to bawl. Sitting on the floor surrounded by cute baby girl clothes I cried like a baby. I decided it wasn't worth the emotions, and I put them all in the keep box. Later on I will man up and sort them or be that crazy mom who keeps them all! Selling or donating any of them isn't worth the emotions for me right now.
In addition to that I had another sentimental moment.  I went to tuck in my 2 year old Adrianna and I just couldn't let her go. Usually I read her a book, sing her a song, we say prayers and I put her in her crib. She was just letting me hold her so I kept singing and singing while rocking her back and forth. This of course also left me in tears. My babies are getting too big, too fast.
My last mommy moment goes back a little. Keep in mind I try really hard to be involved in my kids interests as long as they'll let me. One day it won't be cool for mom to be their friend, so I try to take advantage of that.
One example is when my son started collecting Pokemon cards, he wanted to learn to play so bad. I asked my baby brother Daniel to teach me how to play Pokemon cards. Not exactly something on my bucket list, if you know what I mean. Kadan was so excited not only to learn how to play, but that I would play with him!

In April Kadan's class went to the zoo for a field trip. I had originally planned on taking the girls and meeting them up there to be a part of it. Then one of the girls got sick and I was so bummed I missed out. Then this week Yesenia's preschool class also went to the zoo. I planned on taking the other 2 girls and following along, until my baby got sick. I missed it again! I felt so bad and wanted to join her but couldn't. Luckily both times I had a friend send me pictures while they were there and that made me feel better.

 

 

 I told my husband that we are going to be going to the Zoo as a family soon just so I can feel better. I am sure these are normal emotions that I just need to get use to.

Pasta is suppose to be cooked till al dente right? How do you know when that is? Simple, you see if when thrown it sticks to the wall. if you throw it to the wall and it sticks then it is al dente. At least that's what my father taught me, and what I am now teaching my kids. Check out our video on making sure dinner was ready.

It's hump day and we all need a little wacky moment to boost us to Friday. Write up about your wacky and crazy fun reminder and link up your blog post. Then hop around and read about others wacky Wednesdays. Just don't forget to link back to my blog.

What a busy and fun weekend we had! Friday was a tight squeeze do to a last minute doctor appointment, so we had a quick frozen pizza for dinner. Then we met Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Jacob at Kadan's Art show. He is very talented and we are fortunate enough to have someone local who teaches art from her home. He loves it!





Then for Easter dinner I invited my parents over to join us. My kids love when we break out the china and have a "fancy" dinner. We had a yummy roast with lots of vegetables. Everyone in my family, kids included, loved fruits and vegetables. As you can tell that was mostly all our side dishes. A nice laid back dinner, with good conversations and company was the perfect end to a long week.

  Lulu & Sweet Pea  
It's Thursday again and I wonder, "Can I even think of something I don't love enough to write about?"  As I walk to my laptop I step into a puddle of spilled water, and  realize I now have to deal with my biggest pet peeve of all. It's not spills that don't get cleaned up, it's wet socks. I HATE WET SOCKS! It weirds me out. I am not a fan of shoes but my feet get cold so I like to run around in socks. Especially fun socks, like purple fuzzy ones. I know to be careful in the bathroom and around the front door when it's wet outside, but still with 4 kids my poor innocent socks still find some way to make me scream and want to cry.
Read my last Thursday's post here.

I'm sure we all get in a wacky mood every now and then. If you have kids then sometimes your days can be filled with these fun times. I love the things kids say and do. Sometimes even we adults are fortunate to let our guard down and join in on the fun. I think it's important to not force ourselves and our kids to live inside an image of how we "should" act. Embrace these fun moments and share them is what I say. Feel free to link up your blog every Wednesday with me and write about your wacky fun times with your loved ones!
Today I want to share 2 wacky moments. The first one was a year ago, but a good example of just being our wacky selfs. My sweet husband and I got to have a weekend get away just the 2 of us. We stayed at The Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake City, ate at The Roof and goofed off around town. While at The Gateway I decided to run thru the freezing cold fountain in the middle of February. Why not?!



We had a lot of fun acting like kids with out any with us. Which just made us miss them that much more of course!
Next is something that happens randomly at our house, we break out in song and dance. I decided to go with  a clip just from last week. The kids wanted to watch Wreck it Ralph with Dad for friday movie night. We saw it in the theaters when he was out of town and they were counting down till they could show it to him. So last Friday as it was ending Adrianna starting dancing and the madness began. Since it was past bedtime, and it had been a long week I wanted to yell, "Put the pillows away, get in your pajama's, stop yelling, go brush your teeth and get straight in bed," and so on. Instead I decided to sit there and record one of those wacky memorable moments.