Refillable Easter Eggs - Organising My Home

Last year I discovered a girl called Louise who made refillable Personalized Easter Eggs and I bought some for my 3 grandchildren.

This year I will be re-using these three eggs.

Now when I got these large plastic eggs they were already full of treats and you can read more about the eggs & about Louise's online business in my review  

Louloumadethis - Unique Gift Ideas

 

This year when I went up to the storage area 

I easily found the eggs.

2 Deep Pink ones for Ruby and Sarah 

and a Blue one for Matthew 

but of course they were not full of little treats now.

I would have to think about it this year and decide what I should put in the eggs and then organise to get the treats myself.

BEFORE

Main Thing is I need to remember 

an egg is "egg-shaped" 

so not just any treat will fit inside.

IDEAS

First Thing as per usual for me is a list of ideas that would immediately spring to mind knowing what our grandkids like.

1. Chocolate
2. Stickers
3. Lego Cards
4. Little Notebooks
5. Washi Tape
6. Balloons
7. Bubbles

Secondly I thought about having a little look around my study for the box that contains things that I used to have for little prizes for my Sunday School kids a few years back.

1. Sharpeners
2. Bookmarks
3. Magnets
4. Hair clips
5. Pencils
6. Pens
7. Flip Bracelets
8. Small puzzles

So glad I thought about this because I then realised that I probably already had enough little treats in the house to fill all three eggs. 

I got out my two boxes that had these types of things plus other larger things stored inside.

The first one mostly had items that would be too large 

The second one had a variety of better sized items

 

FILLING  THE  EGGS

These were the things I could consider (except for the large bubble wands but they will be used in the back garden in the summer because the grandkids love to run around the grass after me trying to catch or burst the bubbles).

Small bubbles - but there was only one of these left and they would not be happy if one got bubbles and the other two didn't.

Washi Tape - only two was ok because it would be for the girls but at 2 yrs and 4 yrs they are a bit young to appreciate it.

Balloons - Yes definitely they always enjoy a balloon to play with.

Small ball puzzles - best for Matthew's age so he could get one of those.

Stickers - only a few Easter themed ones and they would suit Sarah

Little Hoop button operated game - Ruby would be old enough now to try it.

And we cannot forget the 

Chocolate treats - Ruby needs different items from Matthew and Sarah as she is allergic to nuts and dairy so I had to go online previously and order a selection of bars and buttons for her because there is not a good variety in our supermarkets.

AFTER

Yes everything I had picked did fit into the eggs but I could have had more treats if eggs were not egg-shaped and I didn't include any chocolate items.

 

     

Tips & Helps!

Don't leave things like this to the last minute.

Most mums and grannies will normally have some sweet treats in the house but you can also have some other little treats bought in anytime you see something in one of those pound shops or the dollar shops for our American friends.

Also what about some of those small things that your kids receive at Christmas or birthdays that they hardly notice among everything else or just forget about. Store them away in a box for a time like this.

Another place I like to gather things up from is any Christian Book Shop I'm in - some of these have a great variety.

Lastly when you are shopping online somewhere like Ebay keep an eye out for small items because sometimes you can buy a bunch of similar things for a good price.

So is Easter sorted for our Grandkids?

 

Almost for the grandkids because I have the refillable eggs and I already have some eggs for an egg hunt for them.  Now just need to get some Easter eggs for grandkids, the grown-up kids & my husband and myself because let's be honest we all love Chocolate Easter Eggs too.

Now you may be thinking how this is organising my home!  

Well....

1.  I had the eggs already in the house

2.  I knew exactly where they were in the storage area

3.  I had little gifts that would suit the kids ages in 2 boxes

4.  I knew exactly where these two boxes were in my study

5.  I had a table clear for working on where I could sort the little gifts out around the eggs without having to use my dining table.

Top 10 Things that make a Good Hotel Room

During the month of March Fred was travelling around Southern Ireland with work.

That meant several hotel rooms to enjoy or not to enjoy.

He had to go to Sligo, Galway, Limerick and Athlone in one week which meant a lot of driving in the evenings between those cities.

I rarely travel with him but that week I decided I was going too when I saw his itinerary.

Neither of us had been to these places before so obviously it was a good opportunity to see a bit more of our neighbouring country but more importantly I did not want my husband getting too tired having to drive so much in the dark, that he might have an accident.

Now of course it also meant 4 different hotels in one week - and that is not pleasant no matter how good they are.

Then the following week he had to go to Cork and Clonmel so he asked me to go then too because of the long drives.

Another 2 hotels in 3 days.

It might sound like a great job to be able to travel and stay in hotels but when you talk to most people that do this type of job they will tell you it is not one to be envied.

Hotels are not homes away from home unless you are paying an exorbitant amount to stay in the fanciest hotels imaginable but even then no matter what your home is like

"Home is always BEST"

You will be most relaxed and comfortable in your own home.

However hotels should make every effort to make their rooms clean, odourless, warm, and inviting if they want any of us to return.

So from those weeks away and our various other trips throughout the world I have come up with my

1.  NO SMELL

One evening we walked into our allotted room and immediately lifted the phone to get moved to another room.
Someone had obviously been smoking in a non-smoking room.

I am not going to be happy & comfortable in a room that has any type of smell.

2.  ACCESSIBLE TOILET ROLL

How many times have you not felt like you almost needed to be a contortionist to be able to sit on a toilet and also reach the toilet roll holder?

Even a taller person with longer arms than me would have a problem in many hotels.




3.  COMFORTABLE BED

Ok some of us like a firmer bed and some prefer a softer bed but I think we will all agree that none of us like to feel the springs!

Yes one of the beds in our last trip was guilty of that.




4.  BEDSIDE LIGHTS

Every room should have a bedside light and I am not sure that I can remember a room that did not have one and when it is a single bed only one is required but when it is a double or larger bed then TWO are needed.

Also please, please, please let me be able to switch mine off at a different time to Fred and also not have to walk round to his side of the bed to do that.




5.  CLEAN WINDOWS

On different occasions I have opened the heavy curtains to find net curtains and then when I have opened these there are dirty windows.  So dirty they have no need for the nets, but maybe the hotels think that the nets will deter us from finding the dirty windows.

In one room in this Eire trip the rod holding the net curtains fell down as I opened the outer curtains.

Dirty Windows makes you wonder what else is dirty!

hotels should make every effort to make their rooms clean, odourless, warm, and inviting if they want us to return

6.  COMFORTABLE CHAIR

I am not JUST saying that there should be A chair in the room - oh how I hated the number of times that the only place to sit was on the bed - but I am talking about a comfortable chair not just a hard backed one by the desk/dressing table/TV stand.

In this one room this is what happened

A.  Even though there were two chairs in the room there was not enough room between the bottom of the bed and the desk to put a chair

B.  I had to pull the bed down to the desk so that I had something to sit on while I worked on my laptop and yes I know it is a LAPtop but when you are working on it for any length of time you like to have it on a table or desk.
Can you see the gap left at the top of the bed?

C.  Dirty windows.

D.  Curtain rail fell off.

E.  Only one light over the double bed.

Oh yes and this was the room we were moved to after the room with the smell!



7.  AIR CONDITIONING THAT WORKS

Repeatedly we have found that rooms have air-conditioning which is great in any country.
Mostly the little boxes on the wall will appear to give the choice of what temperature the room can be set at but how often do they actually work properly or it is obvious for us to know how to set them?



8.  TABLE AS WELL AS A DRESSING TABLE/DESK

For anyone staying more than one night in a room you can expect that they will have something they want to do other than just sit on the bed and flick through TV channels.

I often wonder why they want us to have room service (and they do because they can charge more money) but yet there is no table at which they can set the tray for us to eat.

9.  PEN & NOTEPAD

It used to be the thing we would notice immediately sitting beside the bed.  Not any longer.  The majority of rooms I now see are devoid of the pen and notepad.

No matter how long I am in a room I am bound to want to jot something down.

Like when you suddenly want to make a note of something that you have just remembered you need to do the next day or a blog idea has just flitted into your head but you are just falling asleep.

Or perhaps when you have to ring reception to find out all the simple details that should have been in the information booklet that they have removed from the room because they are putting in a new one the following week - so my question is: Why remove one before the other is there to replace it???
(True Story)




10.  QUIET WATER SYSTEMS

No-one and I mean no-one wants to be woken up by the sound of a flushing toilet in another room but sometimes that is understandable.  However we definitely do not want to be constantly hearing ever single toilet on the same floor flushing or in fact the cistern filling up again or water flowing through all the pipes on the floor.

In one hotel room it was so loud that I kept running into the bathroom because I thought our toilet was making the noise and it wasn't.



PLUS -  MY PET PEEVE!

A Gideon Bible.

So often now as we travel we find that hotels are not allowing the Gideons to come and leave bibles in all the rooms or they are now removing them.

If you feel that there should still be a Gideon bible in your hotel room please ring reception and let them know because the local branch of the Gideons would be delighted to be asked to provide more bibles.

No New Year Resolutions? - A Dose of Encouragement

Are we thinking about the end of a year?
Are we thinking about the preparation for a new year?

Yes because let's face it, all of us will have something in our minds about the new year.
It may not be resolutions as such and with me it definitely isn't but I still have some kind of plans and hopes and thoughts going through my mind as to how I want to do certain things during the year but then on the other hand I also have loads of things that I should have thought about more in advance for this coming Year.

However regardless of how organised or unorganised I may be throughout the year to come will that make any significant difference to God's plan for me for this year?

No

because His plan does not depend on my organised life or even my organised thoughts but I believe He is waiting to see whether or not I will be obedient to His Word and His Spirit prompting me day by day.

Let's see 

Where am I writing this post?   

When am I writing this post?

I am writing this today, New Years Eve in the late afternoon while I wait in Currys Electrical Store in Sprucefield, NI for my husband to pay for a item we have just picked out in the sale.

I will not be able to post this until sometime this evening after I get home, get internet connection and get this finished and edited.

Other things will be more important and need to be done before I get back to this.

I may even have to wait until after we have our dinner although my plan would be to do this earlier.

But will it make a lot of difference whether it is posted before dinner or after?

No

because again God's plan does not depend on my great organised efforts or plans but solely on whether or not I am obedient to Him even today.

So I do wish everyone a

but I do not have any New Year Resolutions

nor have I made any of those lists that I love to make.

This year I do want to be more organised, I do want to be more prepared in advance for events but I really want to be more open to listening and obeying.

I am writing something I feel is important for me and for others to be encouraged knowing that each year, month, week, day are not governed by how well we organise them or plan for them but by God's Love and Grace and Mercy extended in each one of them.

I am writing so that we can be encouraged that God's plan for the year ahead is not going to succeed or fail because of us but rather that we will be enriched by our participation in His Plan when we are simply obedient to Him.

So this year 

no New Year Resolutions for me!

no Lists and Plans in advance for me!

just a prayer

Maybe you want the same thing in this New Year.