Name Cups

We're on vacation this week, so today I am happy to be sharing a guest post from my awesome sister-in-law Tiffany.

With several children getting a new cup every time they want a drink you will soon fill up the sink or dishwasher with cups. Our easy solution is to make name cups—simply write a name on each cup and you are set! We use our cups for snack-time and dinner. The name cups come in especially useful on weekends or during the summer school break when everyone is at home.

Helpful Hints:

You will need a plastic cup for each family member and a paint pen. I’ve tried permanent markers (like Sharpie) in the past, but that washes off after a time or two. Paint pens work better—look for an oil based, permanent, fine point paint pen.

Some other ideas…

Colored Cups—if each child in your family has a designated color than it’s easy to get a different colored cup for each child. (I wanted to avoid the arguing over different colored cups so ours are all the same color!)

Kid Decorated Cups—have each child decorate their own cup with their name and a simple pattern or drawing. My mom had us do this when we were younger—I drew a bunny on mine! We mostly used our name cups for road trips and camping.

Water Bottles—this idea also works great for refillable water bottles! We have a set of nice ones we use for road trips.

Tiffany’s greatest joys in life come from her family and her faith. She lives with her dear husband and 6 cute kids in Texas. She loves to read, bake, and stay in touch with family. She tries to find and focus on the joy in the journey and blogs about it at This Journey: with joy wend your way.

What should I clean today?

In case you ever run out of things to clean in your house, you might take a look at this list:

The 10 Dirtiest Things in Your Home on Howtocleanstuff.net

This is a good reminder of the sometimes easily forgotten places that need cleaning. Maybe I'll get to them someday. :) I know it's been awhile since my computer has been cleaned. I think I'll give the Ant Bug the job of sanitizing our telephones--great fun on a summer afternoon for a 5-year old!

A 3 Item "To Do" List

I've posted before about my "To Do" Lists. Now that we have a new baby in our house, my "To Do" list has needed some adjusting.

Currently I'm operating on the "3 Item To Do List" method (inspired by Simple Mom, of course). Before I go to bed (usually while I'm nursing the previously mentioned sweet baby) I think about the 3 most important things I need to do the next day. 3 things a day is a realistic expectation for myself, with my 3 young children. This week my list included things like: laundry, call about adding the baby to health insurance, do a Nurture Mama blog post, finish the Primary newsletter, get groceries, return library books, etc.

I write down my 3 items and then do my best to focus on those tasks first whenever I have a spare moment throughout the day. I've been keeping my list in a prominent place on my fridge so it's easy to see what I should be working on.

Some days I don't quite make it through all 3 items. On those days, rather than becoming discouraged, I stop and reflect and remind myself that in reality I did a lot more than 3 things: I did cook dinner for my family, and I did do the dishes, and I did spend 2 hours at the park with my children, and I did read my scriptures, and I did nurse my baby x number of times and change x number of diapers, and I did tell my family that I love them. That's really what's most important, isn't it?

If you need some ideas for organizing yourself and your time a little better, be sure to check out the Home Management Notebook series on Simple Mom. Tsh has fabulous ideas and resources available to help you be more organized and more effective in your home.