Showing posts with label Happiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happiness. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

small things {flower power}



small things #10 ... flower power

Everybody has that thing their kids do that makes them crazy.  That thing that truly isn't a big deal, but over time (day after day after day) and through insane persistence (really?  again??), that little thing, transforms into a big deal.  A really big deal.

For me, that thing was the inability of the bathroom hand towels to stay on the rack.  Ever.  At all.  In any way.  I am quite certain that the culprit is the smallest person in this house ... but the other bigger people have been accomplices in stepping over said towels.  Which adds to my head-holding.

I thought about counting the number of times I picked those coral and green towels up off the floor.  How many times in a day would it be?  But then I decided it would probably make me cry, so I didn't.  

It's really not a big deal.  Pick the towels up and re-hang them.  And re-hang them.  And re-hang them. Suddenly I have a grumble in my re-hanging.  And a twitch in my left eye.  One more re-hang and Snap! I start growling.

I don't like to growl.  So I came up with a solution.  

Join me on my journey to less re-hanging.  Less grumbling.  Less twitching.  And less growling, too.

Upon entering the bathroom, I might find something like this:



Not technically needing to be re-hung.  But not exactly pleasing to my twitchy eye, either.  I would also like to note that this would most likely be the result of a taller and older hand-dryer ... making other bathroom users look a little bit guilty.

The towels might also be in this condition:


And a little damp, as well.

Or, perhaps this technique:


Not actually on the floor, but not nearly on the towel rack.  And still damp.

Because of the apparent increased gravity forces in our bathroom and the inability of the towels to stay hung, I often looked like this:

Oh, my head!

Or perhaps more like this:

Hang. Them. Up!

Certain that this towel trouble is not unique to our home, I did a little Pinterest search.  To my surprise, I found only two solutions and both of them required sewing.  One showed how to stitch velcro to the ends of the towel to make a loop that hung over the rod.  The other instructed how to stitch the towel into a loop resulting in the need to remove the towel rack every time a new towel is hung.  Hmm ... not what I was looking for.

I headed to JoAnn's Craft Store with a vague solution in my head.  And my fingers crossed.

I came home with these:


Giant safety pins without the little loop on the end and a package of Clip-Eez.  The flowers have a little metal clip on the back with sharp little teeth that grab.  (Even your finger if your not careful.  Ouch.)  According to the package, the little Clip-Eez, "clip onto flip-flops, slides, hair bands, jeans, scarves, bracelets, belts, jackets, handbags, shirts and so much more!"  This project fell under the "so much more."

I pulled out my trusty glue gun and assembled the pins and flowers:


A little dot of glue was all that was necessary before closing the clasp over the back of the safety pin.  (Watch your fingers ... see above.)  Once the glue cooled, they were ready to try on the towels.

I found that I needed to widen the pin a bit in order to poke through the four layers of fluffy towel, but the pins were plenty large enough to accommodate all the fabric.  I also chose to hang the towels long (with most of the towel in front and only a few inches in the back) in order to make the new situation work for my shortest hand-washer.

Now our towels look like this:





And I look like this:


Now here's hoping they don't pull the entire rack off the wall. :)

Flower power ... hand towels hung, less growling by me and I only spent $4.98 and 15 minutes.  Priceless.
__________________


I hung the flower pins this past Saturday and I haven't re-hung a single rumpled, wrinkled towel.  And the wall is still standing.


Tip Junkie handmade projects

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I'm on the Hunt

I'm standing at the bottom of the stairs leading into the garage.  The herd of kids has unloaded from the van and I'm waiting for the dust from the stampede into the house to die down.  And to muster the courage to go into the fray and help the kids settled back into being home.  I'm also on the hunt for a smile from my boy ... they've been scarce today.

As I walk in the house, the family room is littered with school parts:  backpacks, paper, lunch boxes and a few shoes.  Aaron is plopped on the couch with his coat still on, browsing the newest Lego Magazine he just snagged from the mailbox.

"Hey, Buddy ... can you please finish your "I'm home from school" business before getting sucked in?"

"Sure."

... 10 minutes later ...

I head to the garage to get the bread out of the freezer and find that the floors are still covered in school stuff.  And Aaron has made himself comfortable on the couch.  Grrr ...

"Aaron, please take care of your school stuff.  Do you have homework to do?"

"Yeah.  I'll do it."

"Hey.  You already said that.  I need you to help me out."

"Okay."

"Yes, Mom?"

"Yes, Mom."

Aaron crawls off the couch and with the magazine in one hand he reads and rounds up his stuff.  As I watch him, he manages to hang his backpack on the hook (still packed with his old lunch), drop his sweatshirt behind the laundry room door and kick half of his shoes into the shoe bin.  That would leave one shoe sitting alone by the washing machine.  I'm good at math, eh?

As he heads back to the couch, I raise my eyebrows at him and clear my throat.

"ahem ... Is that job done well?  100%?"

"What?  Oh, sorry, Mom."

I swallow my overwhelming need to nag and head back to the kitchen, leaving him to finish his job.  A few minutes later he dumps his lunch box on the counter and plops down at the kitchen.

"Can I have a snack?"

"Sure.  We have granola bars or fruit.  Or octopus legs."

"I want some yogurt."  He pulls out his math homework.

"Sorry, Dude.  No yogurt.  I have fruit or granola .... ewww!  What is slimy inside your lunch box?"

"Oh, yeah.  I couldn't get the thermos lid back on.  I guess I'll wait for dinner."

"Okay ... just don't faint from hunger.  I'd hate for you to melt into a puddle."  He is not amused by my teasing.

He mumbles through his first math problem, writing, erasing, counting, erasing again.

"I don't get this!  Where's the calculator?"

"You can't use a calculator ... you need to figure this out.   The iPod already knows how to do math."  Still no smile.

"Can I help you out?  I'm pretty good at multiplication."

"How many times does 18 go into 90?  I have no idea."

I sit across from him at the table and peek at his work.  They are teaching this "new" math where they don't just learn the long division, they have to take the numbers apart and put the equations together in different ways.  I'm still unsure of the methods, but I jump right in.

"Well ... how many times does 15 go into 90?  And then we can do something with the other left-overs."

He grunts and doodles on his page.

"Uh ... 6?"

"Right.  Okay then how many do we have left over?"

"Three from each set of 6 ... that makes 18."

"Great.  I guess that means one more set of 18."

"Which means the answer is seven."

"Yep.  Now you just need to write that out so your teacher knows how we got there."

Aaron sighs and grumbles about "not knowing" and "too hard" and "how do I do that?"

I go back to my cooking and wonder if I'm ever going to get a smile out of my boy this afternoon.

"Uh, Mom.  I double-checked my work and you were totally wrong.  The answer is five, not seven!"

I turn to my boy ... who is beaming.  And laughing.  And holding his side.  And smiling.

"You were totally off!"

More laughter and head shaking and smiling.

"Well," I gather up my pride, "That's what you get for asking your mom for help with math.  You get the wrong answer, but the smile is free!"

Sometimes I get afraid that I will fall out of touch with my big guy.  Perhaps someday I won't be cool enough for him to enjoy hanging out with me.  Apparently, however, if I lose my coolness, I still have my faulty math skills to fall back on!

 13 A happy heart makes the face cheerful, 
   but heartache (and long division) crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:13, addition mine)


I'm so glad I found his smile ... it made my whole day.  


Even if it was at my expense!
_____________________________



Prompt #2 ~  Write about the last item you looked for. Why did you need it?

Mama’s Losin’ It






Day 6:  Me, Myself & I