Snow Days!

Here in Preston County we tend to get a lot of snow days. In fact, last year we only had 1 or 2, and that was a very abnormal year! This year we have already had quite a few. I don't mind snow days really, but as a mom of 3 I've gotten used to a certain routine and schedule, and snow days really mess with the flow of our household.

Travis is about to turn 5, so he is the only one in school, Pre-K. Normally Don takes him to school on his way to work, and then I pick him up at 1. When we have a 2 hour delay I take him to school at about 9:30 and then I have to turn right around and pick him up at 1. There is not a lot of time to get stuff done on those days, considering it takes me a half hour just to get the babies in the car!
Today is our third snow day, thanks to those pesky Alberta clippers. I've decided that Pintrest has become my savior on these days. Why, you ask, well, lets start from the beginning....

I started Pintrest about a year ago. For about a year I had no idea what I was doing, or what it was all about. I pinned stuff from websites occasionally, but I didn't really know how it worked with the whole sharing thing, so when I figured it out, it changed my world! Now I am addicted!
One day I saw a cartoon pin that said something about "honey, you better bring home some dinner because I've been too busy pinning nutritional recipes to cook dinner." I thought, wow, that's so true. I've pinned all this stuff, but I've done nothing. So, I've decided to start actually doing some of my pins.

On Friday I made a crock pot stew recipe from Pintrest. It turned out great, and I didn't have to go to the store to get anything, I just used stuff I had in my fridge that needed to be used, like my potatoes, carrots, celery, and sweet potatoes, and of course some deer meet. This comes in really handy, because I live 4 miles from a store, and that's just the dollar store, so my options are limited.

After I was done throwing that all into my crock pot, I decided I would clean the microwave using something I saw on Pintrest. "1 c vinegar + 1 c hot water + 10 min microwave = steam clean! Totally works. No more scum, no funky smells. Easy Peasy!(need to try mine needs cleaning)". It cleaned pretty well, but it also needed a bit of scrubbing, nothing is ever really easy.

Since that went so well, I cleaned the toilets with vinegar via a Pintrest recommendation. This also went pretty well. The only problem, my house was smelling of zucchini bread and beef stew, after all that cleaning it was smelling like vinegar, but it only lingered for a couple hours.

Yesterday I decided to try a craft with the kids, since it was a snow day and I can only keep them happy with toys for so long. Again I went to Pintrest for something I had pinned months ago. I took all of our old crayons and cut them up. Pre-heat the oven to 250 F, put pieces of different colors of crayons in a mini cupcake mold (don´t forget to use paper cups or spray the mold with vegetable oil). Place the mold in the oven and let it melt for about 10 minutes, they melt very fast. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely before giving them to the kids. Even Eileen could help with this craft. They came out great and now we have favors for Travis' birthday party this weekend.

The Kids Crafting

our finished crayons

More Pintrest goodies next time....
I am progressing in my running finally. I'm not crossfitting very much, but as they say, the best way to get better at running is to run! I am still doing some "weights", and I've decided to do a pushup challenge that I found on...you guessed it, Pintrest! We'll see how that goes. I am focusing more on my core too. I think I've decided that the Plank is THE best possibly exercise for the core. Again, I'm still testing this theory. Tonight it is to the track for some 600 meter repeats. Hopefully my calves will hold up. And just in case you were wondering, if you are having calf issues, I highly recommend compression sleeves or socks. I have been wearing the compression sleeves. I know I need a massage big time, but who has time for that?

Pic of the week, Travis reliving his youth, he will be 5 on Sunday!

This blog post brought to you by Sesame Street!