Aliens, Tornadoes, Advent Calendars, Google and Kitchens

Being a mom of a boy is a unique challenge.  All over the internet there are support groups for moms of boys in most of the social communities.  I have not found one yet for moms of girls. I am starting to realize that this is not a coincidence. Boys are just…very different. Being a mom of a boy can sometimes be like raising an extremely energetic, get into trouble before you can blink, ‘where did you get THAT idea?’ type of alien. Then there are the worms, frogs, and other creepy crawlies that come with them.

For the past sixteen years my Dad has bought all of the kids those inexpensive candy advent calendars at Christmas. Yesterday in the time it took for me to finish folding half a load of laundry The Boy left my side, scaled the wall, took down that slim box of candy and opened each and every little door. Little boys are a handful.  Little boys on a sugar rush are tornadoes!

Tornadoes

Ask me how many times the kitchen floor needs to be mopped to get up a whole ’spilled’ bottle of oil. I should know, but I lost count. I was too distracted by trying to figure out when The Boy saw Hubby use oil to seal wood work and why he happened to remember that factoid immediately after dumping dry red cool aid powder on a more whitish than I before realized carpet. (You would think it would just vacuum up, but it does not.)

I caught him to get him to wash his hands before he had red stains everywhere. One Kachop! to the soap dispenser and liquid soap goes squirting all the way across the room to land oozing on the wall! (They will be banning those from schools before long I tell you!)

I spent more than three hours chasing him from one mess to another before he finally crashed. For an alien, he is SO cute when he sleeps! Bonus for me – I was able to put the rare check mark beside exercise yesterday!

Advent Calendars

Today The Boy and I spent our time making an advent calendar to replace the simple tradition that was devoured yesterday.

One of the great things about subscribing to blogs using RSS is that my Google Reader has a search feature. In addition to letting me bookmark and tag articles for later, when needed it can search all of the blogs I already love to see what goodies they have on hand.

I found a wealth of ideas and thought I would share some of them with you just in case you are running a bit behind or have a mini chocoholic in your household. These links are some of what I found last night when I searched my RSS subscriptions for Advent:

• Countdown to Christmas – make your own advent calendar from Little Birdie Secrets
• Christmas Countdown from Make and Takes
• Magnetic Advent Calendar from Remodeling This Life
• It’s an Advent from Joys of Home – How easy and cute is that first one! I could have done it in a flash last night except for the whole chocolate incident.
• Decorating a Jesse Tree – Day 1 Creation from Blissfully Domestic. Day one of a full series.
• Recycle Bin Advent Calendar from Craftastica
• Mini Stockings from Martha Stewart Crafts
• DIYP#26 Advent Calendar & Shape-Its Giveaway! AND Our Family Advent from We are THAT Family
• Pocket Advent Calendar from My Little Mochi
• Halloween Tutorial from Just a Girl. Easily converted to Christmas.
• At Long Last… Advent Calendar Tutorial (and Blog Candy Winner!) from Pretty in Ink. I linked to this one even though it is sort of a duplicate because it is a clever way to store small craft items year round if the lids are tight enough.
• Make an advent calendar house from polymer clay from Chica and Jo. I may mix up some old fashioned salt dough and let The Boy help me make a gingerbread house.
• Late addition I found later – Advent Calendar Roundup from Jannypie

Can you pick a favorite?

And if you are an avid crafter always on the lookout for ideas, consider getting the RSS for WhipUP and Craftzine. A few of these were click throughs from their feeds. They have a ton a day, but they are wonderful references to have on hand.

What did you do for an Advent countdown?  I would Love to hear. Please share the details or a link in the comments for the rest of us!

Kitchens

P.S. – Back to organizing the kitchen.
I know everyone has a lot going on, but I would like to continue the Kitchen Challenge and some quick kitchen tasks on LPO.  You may want to review the November articles if Thanksgiving left your kitchen a little worse for wear.  And if you do not have time to join in, no problem.  The articles will still be here when you need them through the category list in the sidebar or in the site map under Organizing Basics.