Teabag advent calendar

Ever since I was a little girl I had an advent calendar to count the days until Christmas. Last year I made this one for the women in church. (Boy, did I need to hear Elder Uchtdorf's talk...haha)

The advent calendar has an inspirational quote or scripture on it that you can ponder while enjoying your cup of tea. A great gift for your visiting teaching sisters!

This is what you need:

- 24 tea bags (or 25, depending when you celebrate Christmas)
- an empty (tea) box
- paper
- glue, tape or staples

Design your own teabags on the computer or cut wrapping paper, scrapbook paper or whatever you can come up with to make a little teabag. If you'd like to have mine leave me a message and I will e-mail it to you (in's in Dutch though, but you can write your text - it's a Word file)

Design your teabags.

 They should be slightly bigger than the teabag itself.

Cut and hold in half.

I used tape to close the sides. You could also glue or staple them. Put your teabag inside.

Take your teabox. Many already have an opening to take the bags out. If they don't - cut an opening like this.

Put all teabag envelopes inside. Take a pretty Christmas card and cut the same opening in the bottom of the card and glue it to the box. You can also use old Christmas cards. It's a great way to recycle them.

All done! It's that easy and cheap!

Moments That Matter Most

The waiting place

One of my favorite books is "All the places you go" by Dr. Seuss. This is one of my favorite pages. It makes me laugh everytime I read it because people can be so silly. (this includes me!)

People think when they wait for their children to be older, a bigger house, a higher income, a smaller clothing size and whatever they dream of, they will be happier. But then many times you waste time waiting for what will not happen. It is good to aim high, don't get me wrong, but enjoy the journey and be happy with where and who you are NOW. Today will happen only once.

Elder Uchtdorf's talk on things that matter most was fabulous and I love the Mormon Message they made from it. (see message above)

Planner

Ever since my mission I cannot live without a planner. I just like to have things organized. Meals, memorable moments, me-goals, everything! This one helped me a great deal and it's so cute too. And for free! Couldn't be any better.

General Conference

Wow! What a spiritual feast it has been! In our church we get to listen to our prophet and apostles twice a year in a special conference. They share the most inspiring messages.

I've been busy with preparations for the kids in church and my own kids for weeks now. Thanks to Sugardoodle.net and Scriptures4kids they had some great activity books to keep them busy during sessions. I also made some bags with snacks and activities in them and each bag had the face of an apostle attached to it. Whenever an apostle spoke they got the pick the bag with his face on it. Laneah couldn't wait for Elder Bednar to speak because she saw the candy lipstick in the Bednar bag. This is their tent to sit in and listen to President Monson.

This is how my husband taught the kids about King Benjamin and listening to our prophets. Haha...he's still a kid himself.

Eliam loved all the "families" in their tents.

Laneah also colored some easter eggs, Eliam liked the eating part better.

He did not get why his sister was drawing on eggs. Funny little guy.

We had our favorite food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and went for walks inbetween sessions to keep the parents calm and the kids sane. :)

I felt all the work paid off when Eliam came downstairs in the morning, ran to the Computer and said "Monson, Monson!"and in the evening when he went to bed he blew kisses to President Monson on the screen and said "Bye Monson!"

I love our prophet dearly and will do my best to follow him and teach my kids to do so as well. What a great Conference it was. Satan must hate post-Conference Mondays when everybody has renewed spiritual energy and desire to do better and gained stronger testimonies.

Favorite car play mat

I've tried several car play mats lately, but this one's got to be my favorite. I made it for Xandro's first birthday. I love how you can add different photos so they can drive to grandma, church, favorite grocery store, hospital, temple or whatever they love to go to.

I made this one with handles so you can fold it up and take it along.

Find the tutorial here.

DIY cleaning solutions

A while ago I decided not to use harsh chemicals and toxic cleaning solutions from the stores any more. They're so unhealthy when you inhale them and could be a serious danger to your children. Plus they are so bad for the environment. Making your own solutions is so much cheaper too!

I've tried some great recipes. All you need is a simple spray bottle and a few simple ingredients.

White vinegar is a natural deodorizer, absorbing odors instead of covering them up. (and no, your bathroom won't smell like a salad. The aroma disappears when dry.)

It's also a great substitute for fabric softener!

Homemade spray cleaner recipe:

1 cup of water

1 cup of white vinegar

Yes, it's that simple!

Baking Soda is a great deodorizer too. Just add 2 teaspoons baking soda to a spray bottle with water and you can clean pretty much anything with it.

Add a few drop of lemon juice and it smells nice and clean too. Or a few drops of lavender oil or tea tree oil.

And the fun part is my kids can help me clean! They get some water and lemon juice in a spray bottle and can clean along with me! Perfect! No toxic fumes or irritating solutions!
Spring clean away!