Love At Home Valentine Countdown.

Love at Home Countdown "home"

There is beauty all around when there's love at home.  This song is one of my absolute favorite church hymns.  When sung, it creates such a feeling of love, it's hard to ignore it's message (link here).  Inspired by Cristin @ Serendipity's "count your many blessings' house (link here), I put together this little house by converting a birdhouse into a representation of our home.  I have a few more things to do to it, but I'm not sure I'll get there before next Valentine's Day!  Eventually, I will have a hook at the top of the roof's peak where we can hang our Love At Home countdown.

Countdown felt envelopes.

Each day, a red felt envelope will be pulled out of our little Valentine mailbox.  In each envelope are words to the song There is beauty all around, when there's love at home.  I separated the three verse texts into phrases and put them on printable tags.  The idea is that we'll read the tag and talk about it's message and why it's important to our family.  I hope to make this a joyful experience for our family!  

fireplace mantle "Love at Home"

I purposefully made only 10 tags and didn't number any of them.  Sometimes life gets busy and I always hate getting to a countdown, two or three days late!  This way there is room for error and no room for trying to catch-up!  The printables will place easily into your Word document and fit easily on two pieces of paper.  Click the image below, right click, and push save as.   The file should be a high resolution jpg image.  Let me know if you have trouble and I can send you the individual image.  My email is shecalledme@gmail.com.

printable #2

Printable #1

Do you have a valentine countdown?

Have you heard There is beauty all around?

Kids Photo Album Routine and printable cards.

morning and evening photo album routine and printable cards.

Chaos, is the word I would describe many mornings and evenings in the Alley home. Four kids, two adults, and a MIL is not a recipe for calm. The girls are so helpful, yet still only 9; and following through can be more than difficult with two little brothers who are great at side-tracking their sisters. I have been researching tips and pointers at how to make both our morning and afternoon/evening routines flow more smoothly. I've added links to a couple helpful articles at the bottom of this post. The biggest and most helpful thing that came out of my research is the simple fact that I need to prepare more the night before and get up before everyone else in the morning. In other words:  who needs sleep?  This fun and simple way to manage the girl's routine was inspired by Amy Locurto.  She's got a lot of great printables including this ideas about routine cards.

Print. Paste on manilla folders. cut. laminate.

Taking her inspiring idea, I set out in photoshop to make my own.  I used free available clipart using google images search engine.  While these cards are a great way to easily manage a routine, I was having trouble finding the best way to implement them. 

I tried mini clipboards and then ran across this mini albums @ Michael's. The albums allow me to first; separate the morning from the evening cards and two; interchange cards are switch them around per the schedule that day. 

So far, my girls have managed to use them successfully.  My joy is not having to remind them constantly (I still remind them) but them is something tangible to give them as a reminder.  I can say "What's next in your routine book?"   The clear plastic cover is perfect, since they are carrying the album around as they do their routine protecting it from dirty hands and liquid. 

I keep the albums the yellow for morning and the turquoise for evening up on our homework cabinet right in our kitchen and hallway area.  I can't see this being full proof, and I am not going to be able to sit back put my feet up while they accomplish their routines without my mommy encouragement.  But, it has been very helpful at taking away the pressure of knowing what is next, especially with my two little ones always needing something. 

Click the photo below, save, and enjoy.  Feel free to change them as you need or make your own!

Check these articles out:

Managing Morning Mayhem

http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=11619
What I learned:
Get up before the kids - not when the kids get up. Be dressed and ready to manage their morning.


Organize your morning routine

http://family.go.com/parenting/pkg-back-to-school/article-747228-school-morning-routines-t/
What I learned:
Prepare the night before!