Our household has a slight imbalance when it comes to Testosterone.  Currently it is 4 Testosterone bodies versus 1 Estorgen. And seeing as 3 of those 4 Testosterone bodies are all still minors, there are just some things you need to learn to work around. One of those things is to find everything that needs to go back into the school bag to school! After a school library book went “missing” for about 3 weeks, I had to make a plan.

You might not believe me but it is actually much easier than you think to lose a book in my “kinda ocd tidy – I know where everything is” house. So, in order to solve my problem I had a few choices:

1. Put trackers on every item needed for school (my budget doesn’t allow this)
2. Mess up my house to find the missing books (no OCD person, even if you only have it slightly,  will ever agree to this)
3. OR as any creative person would do….make one dumping point for all the school goods! (much better sounding idea as I didn’t have to choose from the first two options….rescue remedy avoided!)

It didn’t take very long for me to get an idea of what I wanted and I had the perfect wall to mount my new “Dump It Station”.

In order to get this new station made I needed to rope in the adult Testosterone in my house. So with one Testosterone body and one Estrogen body we set off to by all the materials.

Our materials list was simple:

• 3 containers for school books and supplies
• Hooks (preferably 2 per child)
• Wood to mount the containers onto
• Nice big bolts to attach it to the wall (Testosterone body sorted this out for me)

We used Bashew crates*  and went to our local wood yard to find rustic looking wood pieces. In order to get the piece to look like I wanted we needed to attach the crates to the wood before we attached it to the wall.

*for my overseas readers, any drinking bottle crates like Coke or Pepsi will work

As much it is great to make things on my own, there are just some things that are more enjoyable with my best friend next to me. It also doesn’t hurt that he has much more muscle than I have, as the wood was pretty heavy!

I think though the best part of making this was my littlest testosterone filled body telling me that I must please stand away as he will be helping his Dad build this with his tools!

So when you have a testosterone problem are getting messy, get creative…..BUILD A “DUMP IT STATION”

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Earlier this year my Middleman* had a Library night for his Grade at the school (very clever idea I might add). All the kids had to dress up like a story book character.

The instruction that was brought home* was – A book character that wasn’t a movie. My interpretation – That the character had to originate from a book (even if it was made into a movie)

Wow, so during the process I realised how many books were movies and as we were going according to the Middleman’s instructions it took a little while before finding a book that wasn’t a movie yet. After a little creative persuation on how cool it would be to be Wally from “Where is Wally?” ,we were set. 

Have you ever made a suggestion and convinced your child that it is a great idea and then you wonder why you actually suggested it? But so, this is all part of parenthood and I embrace it and love it!

So with a decision made, I wasn’t going back to ask for another character….we were all happy (I think).

It should be really easy to just go buy stuff for a dress up, but we live in South Africa where there are some things that are just not that easy to find or could cost you an arm and a leg. And I need both my arms and legs with 3 boys!

I made a decision on what the outfit had to consist of:

1. A white and red beanie

I knew I could crochet one, so it seemed an easy enough task

2. A red and white striped shirt

Thought I would find one in a shop somewhere but nowhere had red and white OR white and red striped shirts anywhere. Fortunately after a conversation with my very handy mom, she offered to make one quickly

3. Glasses

Had an idea I would be able to find this at a Party or Novelty store

4. A cane

Thought I would be able to find this at a Party store, but with no luck decided that I would just make one with paper mache. How difficult could it be?

5. Jeans and sneakers

These were easy enought to find as we had them in his cupboard

Beanie

I had a basic beanie pattern that I crocheted kept on fitting on his head as I went along to make sure it was big enough. The pom pom for the top of the hat is a very basic pom pom which can be made with 2 paper wheels

Shirt

I am sure that red and white striped material would be easy to find, but it is like every shop stops stocking it when you need it. Fortunatly, my clever mom found a cheap (non-breathable and probably flamible*) material that she could make into a T-shirt. Perfect for the amount of time he needed to wear it. With her master sewing skills, we had a shirt in no time!

Glasses

Totally in luck I found these round nerd glasses with plastic bottle top looking parts where the glass would go. Because you could barely see through them, I just popped the insides out and voila – Wally glasses

Cane

This was the fun part. Making a cane was actually a rather easy process. I knew that I could find a wooden dial and with some paper mache I could make the top part.

What I used:

• Wooden dial – I looked for one that was about the height I needed (the Middleman’s waste height) and was rather thick .
• Saw
• Wire
• Newspaper
• Clear wood glue
• Brown paint – I used all my primary colours to make a brown

Method

1. I sawed the dial to the appropriate height, baring in mind that the rounded part that I was going to make would also add length to the stick.
2. Using the wire, I formed the rounded part of the stick on top of the dial.
3. Mixing some water with the clear wood glue powder I made the glue that I was going to use for the paper mache.
4. I tore the newspaper into strips and formed it around the wood and wire letting it dry after every layer.
5. After it was properly dry I painted the stick

A pair of jeans and sneakers added to the mix and the *Middleman was Wally and a VERY VERY happy one at it. He kept on sneaking behind stuff so I could take “Where is Wally” pictures.

He declared greatness on the evening and it is now a talked about event in our house!

When you can’t find something in the shop, kids are mostly very happy with a homemade item….especially made with love!

SO GO BE CREATIVE!!!

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