Come And Sit By Me

With summer in full swing, things in my home have definitely been much busier. I suspect, like my family, your kids are booked for check-ups with the dentist, pediatrician, and frankly any other possible appointment the family could have during the time off from school. Combine this with summer activities for the kids and needless to say, it has been a bit of a struggle to carve out time to get any writing done. Never the less, I have persevered and am happy to finally get back to it.

That being said, I thought I would tackle one of my least favourite tasks, the laundry, in my first post in this new subsection.

As a large family, one of the biggest sources of contention in our house is the laundry. Over the years I have tried many different tricks in an attempt to keep the laundry under control and less of a laborious task. Although, in the end, it still remained the complete pain in the ass it always was.
 

After much head scratching and a pure lack of ambition to deal with it any longer, I came up with the idea that we would no longer keep laundry baskets in everyone's bedroom. Instead, I decided we would try a method of sorting clothes each morning and evening in the laundry room.

To be honest, it was met with much resistance from my family at first. But, unless they wanted to take over the laundry duties, they were left with little to no choice except to comply.

I purchased the three basket rolling laundry sorter from Costco and established a lights, darks and socks/undergarments basket. From then on, once the kids dressed themselves in the morning, they brought their socks and underwear to the baskets (and PJs, if they were dirty.) In the evening once they put their PJs on they were then responsible to take any dirty clothes and place them in their proper baskets. They were also responsible for refolding any clothes that weren't dirty and putting them away.

My husband and I do this as well and we do it for our two smallest kids who cannot yet do it for themselves.

It took some teaching and to be honest refresher courses happen often to get this to run smoothly but, overall it has worked really well.

Each week I put one load in on Wednesdays and one on Thursdays. I do either lights or darks with half the unmentionables basket then the opposite the following day. I try to keep the folding to Friday or during the weekend although, this does not always happen.

Of course, there are still times when the older ones stockpile clothes in their rooms and miss the day for the wash. This does add to the following week's load amount but, overall the method still works so much better. No longer is there the gathering of everyone's baskets, hauling them all to the laundry room, sorting and then washing. I can't say that I now love doing the laundry or that if we miss a week due to company or holidays it doesn't become tedious again. But, I can say for the most part it has helped take a much-hated task and make it.....well.....still hated just much easier to do!

Photo T.B.

My discovery of the Tiny Love Classic Mobile was a bit of happenstance in the making. Our now 10-year-old son was just a newborn with a very challenging case of colic. I had spent day and night in a zombie-like state as I tried nearly everything to settle his gut-wrenching wails. Nothing worked.

When our son was nearly 2 months old we happen to be visiting my brother and sister in law. They had also just had a newborn son who was roughly 2 weeks younger than ours. When we were there, I noticed this really impressive mobile they had. I was really intrigued by the way the small spheres spun with black and white swirls inside and beads that fell and clicked as it turned on an angle. It was the Tiny Love Classic Mobile (tinylove.com).

I left my brothers that day wondering if this was indeed the saving grace I needed for keeping the remainder of my sanity intact. Now ten years ago this mobile retailed for around $70 Canadian. And back then that was a huge chunk of change to be spending on an infant product in our house.

After some back and forth, we decided we would wait. After all, most literature and public opinion seemed to indicate that his colic would subside by about 3 months of age.

Well, when our little guy turned 4 and half months old and was still wailing away my marvellously wonderful mother bought one for me.

Let me tell you, this mobile was gods saving grace for both me and my son. He loved it! Whenever I placed him in his crib, he just laid there content while Mozart, Bach or another classical song played and the spheres spun. When this mobile ran for its 20 continuous minutes and he was peaceful I sat down on the floor and cried. It was simply amazing.

When our son became old enough to stand in his crib the removable mobile arm was detached and he could still turn on the music and nightlight.

Although Tiny Love has come out with several different mobiles, this one remains my personal favourite. We have welcomed 4 more babies into our brood and each one of them truly loves and engages this mobile. Definitely worth every penny.

This mobile can still be purchased today at West Coast Kids (westcoastkids.ca) for $64.99, BuyBuy Baby (buybuybaby.ca) for $69.99 or through Amazon Canada (amazon.ca) with prices ranging from $55.99 and up.

In keeping with my last post regarding tips on how I manage my never-ending laundry. I thought I would take a moment to mention one of the products I find irreplaceable when it comes to getting those really tough stains out. It's simply called Stain Remover and its made by a company called Buncha Farmers (www.bunchafarmers.com). They are a Canadian based company and this product is an environmentally friendly, all natural, 100% biodegradable bar of gold!! I can not say enough about this product.

Truth be told, it was my husband's idea to buy this product and it did sit for some time unused. Yes, honey here's your shout out.

I have been complaining for many years about the time and effort it takes to pretreat the kids' clothes prior to washing them and they would still come out stained!!!

My husband, being the ever helpful guy he is, (and very likely not wanting me to quit doing the laundry, therefore, making it his job) saw it and thought it might make the job easier. By this point though I had come to the resolve that products just weren't what they used to be. The idea of removing stains effortlessly was an absurd notion and this was just another one of those useless products. Thanks very much, honey for wasting the money.

Then, one day I was pre-washing the kids' clothes when my husband saunters in and asks why I have not tried the Buncha Famers Stain Remover. Frustrated at having had this this conversation before, my mind drifted with the thoughts of him just not grasping what a complete pain in the ass the laundry really was because I always do it and why don't you remember to even put bibs on the younger kids since it never crosses your mind to even touch the laundry?! And furthermore, while we are on the topic of ass, I can show you where to shove this stain remover bar and it would likely fit nicely! You get the idea.

Anyhow, I defiantly grabbed the bar and began using it on a shirt that had some sort of messy scrub resistant stain on the front. Holy crap! Without much effort at all that stain began to disappear!! It was amazing, it really was.

I can't say I immediately mentioned any of this to my husband who had left the laundry room and was unaware that I had tried it. But, eventually, the truth came out and yes, he gloated. But, ask me if he has since tried the bar himself and the answer is nope, not once, not EVER! Humph.

I have since tried this product on a variety of stains including previously treated grease stains and it has continued to not let me down.

The only drawback I would say it has is its form. It comes as a rectangular bar with no cover and when new it doesn't pose much of an inconvenience. But, once it whittles down to less than half its original size, it can be a bit of a messy challenge to use. Most times, as hard as I try to use the last remaining bit, I must ultimately throw it out as it is too tedious to use.

You can purchase these bars at Once Upon A Child (onceuponachild.com) for $3.99 a bar as well as West Coast Kids (westcoastkids.ca) for $3.99 or online only from Walmart Canada (walmart.ca) for $23.97 for a pack of 6 bars.

Photo T.B.

 

As most parents know, snack bowls are an essential staple in our youngsters day to day lives. Without them, we would be subjected to the continued requests and complaints about snacks during our car rides, play dates, grocery trips and just about any other time you can think of when comes to our youngsters' snacking needs.

Having eight children of my own, ranging in age from 28 to 3, I have used just about every kind of snack bowl the market has seen. Not only does this date me, but it also makes me very practiced in the snack bowl highs and lows.

I don't know about you, oh sure I do. You're a parent or have been a parent of a toddler, and like me, I can only imagine your little ones can often be found purposefully turning bowls upside down to see who could make the most massive crumb pile. After that, they can be spotted grinding it into the carpet or leaving it on the hardwood for the dog to run through and lick. Am I right?
 

Oh and the messes these bowls make in their car seats, sticking to their bottoms as the stockpile of half eaten and broken pieces of snack would gather in the nooks and crannies of their car seats. Of course, I was always right on top of things, vacuuming out their seats after each trip. Yah right, more often then not I would find myself quickly brushing it with my hand to the floor of my truck where it would soon be stepped on and ground in with the rest of the sand and dirt on the floor mats. Just thinking of this, brings to mind a memory of how my daughter loved to stick her hands down the sides of her car seat and enjoy picking at the crumbs from lord knows when. One time in specific, when I opened the door to unbuckle her, she was eating a piece of cookie that I couldn't remember the last time purchasing or the last time I had had it in my home! Just building up that immunity!

When I started on my snack bowl journey with my first child, the snack bowl of choice was the handy dandy toss away sandwich bag. As things evolved, we went from using small Tupperware bowls with no access lids to the containers that had tops with limited to excessive access to the snacks. Allowing for the spilling and crumb frustration that these messes cause.

I can still remember my excitement when the Magic Bowl arrived on the market. Your child could run, tip and spin it and the snacks would stay in the bowl with no lids, no spills. Well, as much as I believe that my children are as brilliant as can be, I don’t think mine were the only ones to quickly figure out how to make the snacks spill from this bowl too. It almost seemed like a challenge that they promptly conquered.

Recently, while watching one of Jillian Harris’ stories on Instagram, she began talking about a snack bowl she loved and used. It was called Munchie Mug. What caught my eye was the design. Instead of the expected rubbery teeth that the kids push their hands through to retrieve the snack, it was an overlapping fabric design. I was intrigued. This mug is also “completely food grade and dishwasher safe; it’s gentle on little hands and seals perfectly shut.” Yes, I liberated this description from the munchiemug.ca website. I mean they said it so well!

To top it off, they are a Canadian company that gives back to their community. The day I watched Jillian Harris' story, she was demonstrating a Munchie Mug from a stack of several that had been donated from Munchie Mug to the Mamas for Mamas charity located in British Columbia. Pretty damn awesome hey?!

So off I went on a google search of reviews, where to purchase them and frankly any other information I could obtain. I mean let’s be honest, I did mention how many bowls I have bought in the past that never quite lived up to my expectations. The reviews were good, and I discovered my local West Coast Kids carried them.

I purchased one of each size of the bowls (they come in a 12oz or 16oz size.) Both my three and four-year-olds picked their colour…...sort of. I did easily lead my 3-year-old to choose the purple one that I liked as he can be persuaded as effortlessly as Winnie the Pooh is to honey.

The bowls are more sizable than I anticipated (I didn’t know the sizes before seeing them in person); however, they are larger in a good way. They are taller and will hold a variety of snacks allowing for the portions to be more significant and last longer. The lids are easy to attach and detach with a smart handle nestled on the side of the cap without jetting out which can at times be awkward to store on strollers and car cup holders.

The fabric overlay of the lid works superbly well holding the snack and the subsequent crumbs in the bowl where they should be. And in a pinch, I have found that a quick rinse under warm water also works as the fabric cover is quick to dry and snaps right back to its shape that can become a bit loosened after several uses without a wash. The lids and cups also stack pleasingly well when storing them in your kitchen cupboard.

The price point is a little higher then some of the other snack bowls on the market, however, the investment, in my opinion, is well worth it as the functionality and durability of the mugs make them an excellent addition to any parents life.

The mugs come in several colours and designs that are sure to please your little munchkin.

You can find these mugs online through munchiemug.ca for $24.95 for the 12oz and $27.95 for the 16oz (replacement parts are also available for purchase through the website.) Or through West Coast Kids for the same retail price as the Munchie Mug website.
 

Photo T.B.