A quick note

Just want to say hi to my friends in the blog world.
The requirements of life have prevented me from pursuing a new blog entry.

I have some things in the works that will eventually make it onto this blog.  My mind returns to the blog  often as I really enjoy getting things done and making blog entries.

I am guilty of returning to the Yves Rocher store.  I might post on that tomorrow!

Until next time... keep organized and have a good day!

Thanks for reading,
Cassie

Link Party #4

Today is the day that I hope you will share with me what you've been up to.
It's the weekly Thursday link party.  So grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair and take a few minutes to relax and enjoy!

Click on the link below to join in.

Punctuality

Just a few words on punctuality and that before school routine.

How is your routine going?  Yesterday we did great.  Today was much more of a challenge.

Here is a typical view of the morning collection in the kitchen.  The kids lunch bags, my lunch bag and work bag, sweater and phone.  We are adjusting to the rigors of a new schedule that has us getting up a solid hour earlier than we used to last school year.

Yesterday we were early everywhere.  In fact my daughter was almost 1/2 hour early for school.  I have to take her early in order to deal with the traffic as I drive south again after dropping her off.  Today I decided to to leave with her about 10 minutes later.  BIG MISTAKE!
I didn't factor in that yesterday was only the grade 9's at high school, and today would entail the traffic of the rest of the student population being dropped off as well.  In addition to this, there was construction on the road that was slowing down the traffic going south.  I waited 25 minute to get out of the drop off area!  aaahhhhh!
I had to phone my son and have him walk to school with a french horn, lunchbag and backpack.  He barely made it on time.  It's time to push the pause button and sort this out.

Why is punctuality important?

I would guess there is a lot of information out there on the subject of punctuality.  When we are punctual we reduce our own stress levels significantly.  When we make time to be punctual and organized, we can go into our day or meetings with confidence that we haven't missed important details.
Punctuality also leaves a positive impression in the minds of others.  It conveys to them that we have a few things together, and that we place a high enough value on our commitments to organize ourself to be on time for them.   This increases your odds that people will take you seriously and give you new opportunities also. 

Let's take a look a making the morning routine a punctual one. The morning routine will always work backwards from the arrival time required at each school and/or work.   Once you know what time you need to be at the school and/or work, you can calculate how much time you need to get ready.  You must also factor in time for traffic and red lights.

Steps to a punctual morning:

1. Prepare what you can the night before.  This includes getting the outfits sorted for you and the kids, and hubby too if needed.  Iron any clothing that requires it, and either set your clothes out, or ensure you have located what you plan to wear in your closet.

2. Prepare part of the lunches the night before.  I am a fan of making the sandwiches fresh in the morning, so this is part of what I get up early to do.  The night before I can add to the lunch boxes the juice box, cookies, and any other item that does not require refrigeration.  If you prefer to make your sandwiches the night before, you can leave them wrapped in the fridge.  Ditto for celery or carrot sticks, cheese sticks or yogurt.

3. Go to bed on time.  This will increase your odds of getting up on time more than anything else.

4. Obey the alarm.  Resist the urge to hit the snooze button.  Get up straight away and wake the kids and head for the shower.

5. Complete the rest of your morning routine.  This includes getting ready for yourself, helping younger children with hair and clothes, feed the pets, take your vitamins, make the beds, leave the bathrooms tidy, leave the kitchen tidy after breakfast and lunch preparations.

6. Start gathering everything to leave 5-10 minutes BEFORE you need to be wheels turning.  This is one of the most important parts of the morning.  I always tell my kids when it's close to that time.  I call down the stairs "10 minutes to the window" (as in, window of time closing).  I must admit that more times than I care to recall, this is where our perfect morning can fall apart.  We can all be doing great, and if we miss this step, it all comes undone!
You must keep in mind that you have to give your kids time to finish what they were doing, put on coats, shoes, winter gear when it applies, gather lunch bags, backpacks etc.  I have found that if we won't allow at least 5 minutes minimum, we end up leaving the house late.  We need more like 8-10 minutes in the winter time.
Why so long?  We are locking patio doors, giving the dog a cookie and gathering all the items previously mentioned.


There it is.  If you have also found that back to school have brought new experiences in your morning routine, just stay positive and learn from the delays you might have experience, and keep on re-calibrating that plan until you have it just right.

Thanks for reading.

Cassie

Today I am linked with: 

Long Weekend Project - Piniata

I have not blogged for several days.  Getting ready for back to school has been a busy time.

I thought I'd show you what I have been up to.  

I was organizing a church event.  It was an end of summer ice cream social.  It was only after I completed all of this that I could get onto getting all the before school preparations done.

Before school started I made sure I did the following:

1. Complete all laundry.  (I had let this slip in my lazy last week of summer, so this was something to putt away at all day)
2. Ensure all groceries are complete.  Butcher shop, cheese shop, bakery, grocery store.  MMMMM!  the food we bought is all so good!  Sooo exciting.
3. Ensure all housework is done and caught up.
4. Ensure kids have organized their outfits, backpacks, showers, hair dye (they are into the streaks and funky colours) etc.
5. Cook some lovely homemade food.  I made homemade vegetable soup, homemade chocolate chip cookies, homemade baguettes - 4 of them, and hubby and I together made 18 pieces of homemade southern fried chicken.  It was a Jamie Oliver recipe from his America cookbook.  It turned out awesome.

In the midst of all that I organized a church End of Summer Ice Cream Social.  I think you can see why blogging had to wait.  Part of the social was a ice cream cone shaped pinata.  Here is how I did it.

1. Get some paper and twirl it and cut it into a cone.

Tape the ends  and seam together to secure the shape. 

I had to use Christmas Wrapping paper because I didn't have any cardstock around.  I doubled the thickness of the Christmas wrap and it seemed to work.  Next I added a layer of waxed paper.  This is so that I could remove the paper layer when I was done. 

                        

Then I assembled my supplies.

I made some pinata paste.  (I will add recipe at the bottom of this entry)

I blew up a ballon for the top.

I gathered bowls to balance the project on, the bowl of paste, and roughly torn newsprint.  You want it roughly torn, it will actually make the finished project smoother.  Resist the urge to cut your newsprint with scissors. 

The next steps is to apply the newsprint and paste to your pinata shape.  It will be a delightfully messy job with your hands.  Be sure to coat your newsprint very well with the paste and apply in a random fashion, not in perfect rows, or you will see it as it dries.

Here is what my top and cone shape looked like after 1 coat.   I left the top of the ice cream shape open, because that is where I will add the candy later, and it also makes it very easy to pop the balloon when ready.   When the first layer is dry, I taped string into place that will hang the pinata.  You must paper mache over the string area well to make it strong. 

You will apply 2 layers of newsprint.  You have to allow 12 - 24 hours drying time between each layer.

Once you have the 2 layers dried.  You have to tape the shapes together to assemble it.  

After you assemble the shape, add the third layer.  The third layer will be white paper.  Use the same white paper you push through your home printer.  Tear it up roughly and apply a third layer and let it fully dry.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the white layer.)  See my string to hang it with sticking out the top now?

After you have the white layer you can either apply coloured paper or tissue paper cut into squares, or in the case of this particular pinata, I used party decoration streamers from the dollar store.

I did not photograph the process, but basically you scrunch the paper and using your other fingers, dab some paste onto it to hold in in place.

I did this with the pinata balanced in a bowl or a bucket depending which part I was working on, and rotated the  project by putting the bowl or bucket onto my kitchen lazy suzan.  This little lazy susan has helped me to turn many a pinata!

After you have applied the tissue paper or streamer paper and let it dry, you can pop the balloon and reach inside to remove the extra paper if you haven't already.  

Then you end up with a ready to hold candy, pretty project like this! 

My eyes were closed for the picture!  But at least you can see the project. 

Pinata Paste

2 cups cold water mixed with 1/2 cup all purpose flour.

On the stove top boil another 2 cups of water.  When it is boiling add the cold flour and water mixture to the boiling water.  Return to a bubbly boil.  This will happen very quickly, so stay by the stove and stir the pot.

Remove from heat and add 3 tablespoons of sugar and stir.

Allow to cool a bit and use.  You can store leftover paste in the refrigerator for a few days.  It will be nicer to use if you microwave it a bit first. 

Well, that's what has kept me very, very busy for the last few days.

Thanks so much for reading.

Cassie

Today I am linked with this blog: