Frugal toddler activity

My 29 month old grandson, Brayden, is with me on Thursdays and Fridays. I'm always looking for inexpensive activities we can do here at home. We have done two in the past two days that he's really enjoyed and I thought I'd share them. Inexpensive Sandbox Your local hardware store (Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace, etc.) undoubtedly sells bags of playground sand for around $2.50 a bag. I got out a under-the-bed plastic storage box with top, and filled it with sand and put it out on my back patio. I dug through kitchen drawers and got plastic spoons, a funnel, different old plastic tubs, and put them in the sandbox. Brayden spent a full 90 minutes playing on his own in that sandbox! While he was in for his nap, I got some little plastic figures and planted them in the sand, and told Brayden he should dig for "treasures". Another full hour of playing by himself! One piece of advice - count the "treasures" before you put them in the sandbox to make sure you retrieve them all. You don't want one of these to go in your child's mouth when you're not looking! Thomas the Train It seems all little kids are train fans, whether it's Thomas or just plain ol' trains. In my back yard, I have two hoses connected together and then connected to the sprinkler. I noticed yesterday when I moved the sprinkler that the hoses formed a nice loopdy-loo kind of circle. I suggested to Brayden that it was a "train track" and with one foot on each side of the hose, we followed it around, making all kinds of great train sounds. The ends of the hose (faucet on one end, sprinkler on the other) were the "stations" and we switched places at each station, taking turns being the engine and the other being the caboose. I can see several toddlers playing this all at the same time. The Sprinkler If you have a little one and you have hot summer days, I'm sure you've already hooked up the Sprinkler and let them at it. What a great time Brayden had running back and forth through the sprinkler! When his interest started to wain a bit, I suggested he get out his "mower" and take it through the "mower wash" -- you could use anything with wheels the child can push or ride. That kept him busy for another 30 minutes or so.

My To Do List & DeClutter Challenge Update

I haven't posted a To Do List here for awhile. Don't think I haven't been cleaning my house! LOL I just haven't posted a list. I'm not sure that I've mentioned that every morning while I drink my coffee, I write my To Do List for the day. And I mean EVERY morning. I purchase inexpensive (.05 cents apiece at WalMart a few weeks ago - I bought 20!) wire-bound notebooks, and use that to keep my life on track. I have actually saved all my notebooks -- about 8 or 9 years worth! If I make phone calls or have appointments, it's in my notebook. I write down what's for dinner that day, where I need to go if it's an Errand Day, who I need to call or email, and my general To Do List for the day. I also keep track of what I'm working on in my quilt room, and a running grocery list. Honestly, if I don't have my To Do List made out, I tend to get nearly nothing done. Making a To Do List every morning is putting a bit of pressure on myself to get done what needs to be done. No To Do List - no pressure. Ninety-five percent of the time all items are checked off my To Do List at the end of the day. Here's today's To Do List:

• Empty all trash upstairs and downstairs
• Clean out refrigerator
• Make Jeff's breakfast
• Make Jeff's lunch
• Make the bed
• Pick-up upstairs bathrooms, quick wipe-down
• Vac kitchen and family room
• Package and freeze big package of pork
• Quilting - cut fabric x 2 hrs

• Dinner: Pork Fried Rice, Egg Rolls
• Phone Call: Time Warner Cable
• Email: Tricia, Karen

When I talk to Time Warner Cable today, I will make a note in my notebook of whom I talk to, the time of the call, and notes on what was said. I can't tell you how many times I've needed notes like this when a company says "We never said that..." and I can say, "Yes, XYZ employee said that on blah-blah-blah date and time." It also helps refresh my memory when I'm trying to remember who said what. Declutter Challenge Update It's a CD kind of week here. Every day I have gotten between 15 and 20 CD's out of the entertainment center and on to my Mp3 player. I'm so happy to be getting this done! Our main TV is on it's last legs, and we'll be buying a HD TV within the next month, which means I will be able to get rid of our big, clunky entertainment center! Woooo Hoooo! Before we get rid of it, though, everything in it needs to find a new home -- and for a lot (I mean A LOT) of CD's and Video's, the new home is going to be Goodwill! Of course, having gone through two Mp3 players and two PDA's in the past six years, I do wonder what is going to happen to all this music if my Mp3 player calls it quits... Anyone have ideas how to back all this music up without using my computer's hard drive?