Today I’m being featured over at Heart of the Matter Online.

I’m writing about how we discipline (and we do, really, I promise).

Come visit me over there?

You will need 8 playing pieces – 4 ladybugs and 4 bumble bees and a gameboard/bag for each game.

The first step is to gather rocks. We don’t live near a place that we could find our own in nature, but we do live near a rock seller. We went there, explained what we wanted them for, and asked how much approximately 50 fairly flat river bed rocks were. The very nice gentleman told us he wanted absolutely nothing for them, just for us to remember him in the future. Wow! (If you live in Arkansas – contact me – I’d love to send business his way!) A side benefit of going there was that my kids had a blast picking them out of the huge mound, sliding, rolling, and generally getting filthy in it! We picked fairly large rocks so that the smallest of our family couldn’t get them in their mouths.

We brought our treasures home and I let the kids wash them in a pan at the table. We let them dry and then began the painting.

Paint them with acrylics.

After they dried we used permanent markers to put on the details. I let the kids help – the imperfections just make them all the more charming.

We used white paint to add the other details.

We then went through the same process for the yellow bumble bee pieces.

Next we drew a tic-tac-toe board with permanent marker on one side of a rectangular piece of material. It was at this point that my kids jumped at the chance to play. This was SO not posed. It’s a good sign that the kiddos in our family will enjoy it!

I folded the top edge over and sewed a straight line all the way across leaving a tube in order to run a ribbon through it for a drawstring. I used a drawstring from some old pajamas. A safety pin stuck in one end makes it easier to push the string through the tube.

I folded over the bag and sewed the bottom and side (making sure to leave the space where the ribbon comes out.)

Put your game pieces in your bag and you have a great homemade, cheap present!

My kids loved helping and then had a blast playing with it when we were all done. It can be as fancy – buying special material and lots of frilly glittery details – or as simple – I used an old shower curtain cut up for the bags – as you want. Just be sure to comment here with your link if you try it out – I’d love to see your version!

{I originally wrote this at Heart of the Matter online – be sure to head over there for other great Christmas crafty ideas!}

I’m linking this up at Kimba’s DIY Day!

Here it is;  the recipe I use for making my own detergent.  I’ve been making it since Thanksgiving of 2008 and I haven’t gone back!  Come over to The Heart of the Matter to see how I do it (and leave me a comment over there!)

I’m blogging over at Heart of the Matter Online about lapbooking today!  I have promised before that I would explain how I do these awesome things and so here it is!  I have also mentioned before that this would be great for public schoolers too – it’s a great place to keep all those papers you just can’t possibly throw away.  And all those teachers out there – these are great to sum up a unit study you might be working on with your class.  Take a look!

**Thank you to Heidi of Mt Hope Academy for this photo

I write to you my fourth and final letter. This one, as well, is about those sweet babies of yours. I know they are the joys of your life. But I also know when we’re gettin’ real with each other they can be the absolute challenge of your life. In those difficult times I hope these words come back to you. And bring you comfort.

To read the last of my letters to you please go to Heart of the Matter – I’m hanging out there today.  Thanks, guys!