Tired, Need Sleep.

Daffodil Craft

2012-03-20T16:15:00.001-05:00

When we were dating, my husband always gave me daffodils on St. Patrick’s Day. I love them; they just yell spring! to me. We are far from having real daffodils yet, but M and I decided to whip up some pretend ones to brighten up our kitchen. :)

This little craft was taken mostly from this post over at Silly Eagle Books.

Cut several leaf shapes from yellow tissue paper by folding the tissue into several layers:

Draw and cut circles from contact paper:

Poke a green pipe cleaner through the center of a circle, bending the end into a little nub on the paper side.

Peel away the paper and place six petals around the sticky contact paper: circle:

Wrap another pipe cleaner (we used yellow and a sparkly orange) around something to make the trumpet part of the daffodil. We used a small peg doll to wrap ours:

Attach the trumpet to the flower by twisting the end of it around the end of the green pipe cleaner “stem”:

Voila! Sunshiney daffies:

Have a beautiful day!
Nicole :)

Spring Wall Collage

2012-03-19T19:35:00.001-05:00

Apparently the Powers that Be heard all my complaining about snow and cold and took pity on me because March has been out-of-this-world beautiful! We’ve slept with the windows open a few nights, have had several late night campfires, and have even brought out the sunscreen! And technically it is still winter. Winter! Until tomorrow of course. But still. Winter here normally lasts well into April.

This little project was all M’s idea, and actually took place a couple of weeks ago before all the nice weather, right when we were starting to get a bad case of cabin fever.

It started off as a simple flower art project. We were going to try blowing watered down paint onto flower shapes with a straw.

But that was really hard work! We obviously didn’t have the paint watered down enough. I thought we were both going to hyperventilate by the time one flower was done. :) So M decided to paint the rest with a brush.

We made the centers of the flowers pop out a little bit by adding them on top of two layers of mounting foam:

Pretty flowers:

But that just was not enough spring inside the house. That evening M made big plans to decorate the closet doors (this closet is in a little nook off of our living room) with a giant springtime collage. At the time it was covered with coffee filter snowflakes – which were getting pretty old and boring – blah!

The plans were all his, and he did all the cutting and taping. I simply drew a few shapes for him to cut, all according to what he wanted.

The rainbow was made by layering half-circles of color:

Top of closet doors:
Bottom half:

There are even a couple of butterflies. :)

I love looking over at our closet doors. :) Such a happy space made by a happy boy!

Have a beautiful spring!
Nicole :)

Easter Printables

2012-03-06T13:48:00.001-06:00

Have your plastic Easter eggs made an appearance in your home yet this year? I love bringing them out about now; love how they brighten things up a bit with their pretty colors. :) I crave color this time of year. Crave it.

I’m in the process of going through all of my printables and moving them to a site where they can be a bit more organized and just… prettier than the current printables page. I found some Easter-themed printables and thought it would be fun to post a little reminder about them.

One of M’s still-favorite games to play with our plastic eggs is our Easter Chicks in Eggs game. I made this for him a couple of years ago and it is still a lot of fun – for him and the grown-ups around here.

Another favorite when he was 2 or 3 years old was this Easter Basket file folder game (I have to say I’m really looking forward to re-using some of these handmade activities with our new little one!). This is a fun way to work on one-to-one correspondence and practice counting to 10.

I also want to share this little Bunny Shapes Craft with you. I made this for M a couple of years ago, but for some reason never shared it on here. He went through a phase where he loved putting little animals together with shapes. This is a fairly closed-ended activity, but it’s good for shape recognition and learning to follow directions!

Have a beautiful day!
Nicole :)

Learning by Heart – Outer Space

2012-03-01T11:31:00.001-06:00

“The mother’s heart is the child’s classroom.” – Henry Ward Beecher

{M is 5 years old}

Goodness. It’s been a while since I wrote up one of these posts! We’ve been “doing school”, but it’s been sort of a haphazard here and there these past few months, and my motivation for writing about it has been null. I’ve been lazy on many levels since late November… M had the flu, then I had the flu, then there was the first trimester of my pregnancy in all its miserable glory, not to mention Christmas thrown in somewhere along the way… and well, we got a little off track to say the least. And the house is messy, maybe even dirty – and while I have no desire to actually clean anything up, still I feel guilty blogging when there are so many other things that need doing. :)

Yet here I am. So I guess I’ve succeeded in pushing down those guilty feelings. ;)

Anyway. M is totally into outer space these days, which I think happened about this time last year too. This time he’s all about the planets and the sun. He reminds us of the little boy in Jerry McGuire, with all the interesting facts he spouts off at random times… “Did you know that if you could go to Jupiter, you’d get instantly squashed flat because it has so much gravity?” “Did you know that without the sun we’d all be dead and frozen?” “Did you know that if you could get close to the sun you would instantly burn up and melt?” I think it’s safe to say he’s entered that phase where the morbid is utterly fascinating. :)

Books:

We read the books in the carousel below. His favorites were the Magic School Bus – Lost in the Solar System (audio version), and the Cat in the Hat There’s No Place Like Space.

I also picked up the video version of the Magic School Bus: which was a big hit! This was the first time we’ve checked out Magic School Bus items and I have to say I was very impressed with both the video and the book. I know I’ve heard nothing but good about them, but I’m happy to say they both exceeded my expectations (and I’m very picky when it comes to what M is allowed to watch!).

Most of our learning came from these books and the video. The rest of what I’ll share was mostly for fun and to feed M’s interest…

Sensory:

We made homemade moon sand. I did not get a good photo of the items used in the sand because M was always so busy playing with them. They are all either buried in the sand or awaiting their trip to the moon in these photos:

I used a Space Toob: , which was a big hit (and which you can get for a reasonable price at Michael’s if you use one of their 40% off coupons). I also added in a couple of scoops just for fun and M used a wooden ball for an asteroid. He really enjoyed having it land on the sand and make craters (his idea!): You could use large rocks for pretend asteroids too, which would be a bit more realistic.

Tan Grams:

We worked together to figure out how to use our wooden tangrams to make a rocket on the fridge:

Science:

M received a telescope for Christmas and we used it to look at the moon one very beautiful full-moon evening. We also caught sight of a couple of planets (which just looked like big stars with this low-power telescope). All very exciting stuff! It was neat to see the craters on the moon enlarged.Shots of the telescope at night didn’t really turn out very well, but here you can see him spying on the neighbors during the day. Heh. He said he was looking at a tree, but I’m pretty sure it was the neighbors. :)

M loves a pack of outer space flash cards I picked up at Target a year or two ago. I pulled out the ones with pictures of the planets, and he decided to line them up in order on our window sill. He memorized the order of the planets, and I didn’t even know it until I saw him doing this!

I made up some little planet name cards with pictures, laminated them, and he traced their names with a dry-erase marker, then matched them up to the appropriate flash card. You could just use these to place in order, if you don’t have pretty flashcards. You can download the cards here.

Next, he decided to copy the planet names down in his handy-dandy, never-far-away notebook. :) (This little notebook is going to be a treasure when he is older!)

Crafts:

M made a rocket from a paper towel tube (similar to the one in this post, but not nearly as pretty):He lobbed it around the living room until Daddy came home and made him stop. I am sooo much more lenient about this sort of thing because busy boy equals resting mama and there’s quite a bit I’ll allow in order to make this happen these days!

We also made little straw rockets to blow around:Wish I could’ve gotten a shot of this in action – I even enjoyed playing with these! You fold a 2” length of paper in half lengthwise, tape it shut except for about 2” at the end, cut the open end into strips, fold the tip into a point and tape, then insert a straw and blow the rocket into the air. Very fun!

Linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up. Check them out for some great homeschooling posts!

Have a beautiful day!
Nicole :)

Spelling Names and free printable Bookplates

2012-02-29T12:39:00.001-06:00

M has been spelling his first name for a good 1 1/2 years now, but I am always on the lookout for some way to help him learn how to spell our last name and practice spelling it. He is just not interested in learning it, mainly because it is quite long and a little intimidating.

But he LOVES writing his name on the inside cover of books, so I made up some cute robot nameplates for him to use on as many books as he wants. These are sized at 4 inches by 3 1/3 inches – a standard shipping label size. Print them out on shipping labels, have your little one stick them in his books, then write his name on the lines. The deal around here is you have to print both first and last names to be able to use these.

Click an image below to go to the download page.

Robots and Rockets Nameplates:

I also made up some more “girly” ones, in case anyone is interested!

Flower Fairy Nameplates:

Flowers and Hearts Nameplates:

Have a beautiful day!
Nicole :)

Spring Fever

2012-02-28T10:43:00.001-06:00

Spring fever has officially hit our house.

Grumpiness, restlessness, a desire to run away – far, far away from Minnesota… and that’s just Mama. It definitely hits me the hardest. My husband is an eternal optimist – February always makes me happy because I know it’s not much longer now until spring (he says while I shoot eye darts at him along with mental warnings to just shut it because he knows full well what I consider real spring is at least two more months away); and M always has the hope of coming snow to break up the monotony of our days (while I shoot eye darts at the skies and wonder just how did I end up in this cruel, cruel cold wasteland).

So. There you see the real me. The real pregnant me,- because throwing up all of January, just to be hit with gray skies and snow in February does not. seem. fair. We need some happy yellow daffodils poking up through green grass. Not more grayness, covered with an occasional layer of whiteness and blah-ness.

We recently went here, as everyone in the family is desperate for Mommy to act somewhat normal again:

I kept thinking how lovely it would be if they would just leave me here for a week with a pile of good books and a pillow (and please try to get rid of the rest of the people milling about. Because sometimes they talk.).

And it seems M has caught the flower bug. He has grand plans for his very own garden this year. He spent an entire afternoon looking through a flower book and marking all the flowers he wants to plant:

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that here in Minnesota (sigh) you have to choose based on hardiness, not prettiness. So here’s what the book looked like when he was finished with his page marking:

He wasn’t actually finished… he just got to the “G”s and ran out of bookmarks. :)

My husband saves things like vegetable trays from Sam’s Club, thinking that they’ll come in useful “someday”. I fake-smile at him and mentally scream things like “Declutter! Peace! Sanity! Small home!”, while he thinks things like, “Useful! Recycle! You never know!”. As long as he stores his “stuff” out of sight, I am okay with it. And, clever man that he is (and he is, I admit) he used a little super glue to attach an upside down cover to a tray, then poked some drainage holes through the bottom of it. M will be using this to start his garden – hopefully sometime this week we’ll get around to actually planting the seeds:

Because in this cold and cruel place you have to start your seeds inside, two months before spring, if you actually want anything to grow.

Now I’m off to continue my hibernation attempt (if only everyone would leave me alone, I’m sure I could sleep through March).

Your little ray of sunshine,
Nicole :)

3-d nature art – hot glue style

2012-02-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

I haven’t mentioned much here about M’s enthusiasm for the glue gun. He loves it. He uses it only with supervision, is extremely careful, and is responsible enough that I trust him with it. I would not advise a glue gun for every 5 year old’s art supply set though. Ours is a low temp gun; I can not use a high temp gun without getting blisters – I would never allow M to use one.

The wonderful thing about hot glue is the freedom it gives you to build upwards when creating art. Regular white glue would not hold as well, nor would it dry as quickly. Quick-drying glue is important when you are 5 years old and building something as fast as your imagination can go. :)

I started with setting out a few supplies: Glue gun, glue sticks, sea shells, glass stones (florist style, flat marble), wooden beads, craft sticks, pine cones, and a sturdy surface to place everything on. A thick piece of cardboard would work… we ended up using tagboard from the back of a certificate frame. A piece of wood would be lovely as a base as well!

Then I sent M out to scavenge in the yard. Since we’ve had a mostly brown winter it was easy for him to find several interesting things:

Then the fun began. M was very particular about deciding just where everything should go. He absolutely loved this. He finished two masterpieces and begged to do more. If I’d had enough material for bases, I think he would have done this all afternoon!

The finished artwork… Can you tell what they are supposed to be?

Playgrounds! We added some peg people the next day:
I love that he built miniature play areas… it reminds me of a fairy land sort of thing – something I’m not sure he’s ever heard of (poor child) – beautifully made with bits of nature and, of course, the amazing hot glue gun! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)
Nicole

Holy Week 3-part or sequencing Cards

2012-02-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

I created these cards for use during Lent, especially Holy Week (the week between Palm Sunday and Easter). I wanted to share them early in Lent so you can use them however you want. They would go nicely with the Jesus Loves Me, This I Know e-book that was released earlier this week! This was actually something that Erin and I wanted to include in the e-book, but just couldn’t get it completed in time. The pictures used on these cards are vintage illustrations, and beautiful, I think. :)

There are a total of 8 cards illustrating everything from Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem to his resurrection and appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Each card has a label, like traditional 3-part cards, as well as a scripture reference. To use these as 3-part cards, you will need to print 2 copies. Leave the label attached to the illustrations in one set, and separate the labels from the illustrations in the other set. Have your child match up the pictures and the labels. These would also make wonderful sequencing cards for telling the Easter story!

Download here, or click on the image above! Enjoy!

This post is linked to the Celebrating Lent Link-Up Party at Explore and Express and Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way.

Have a beautiful day! :)
Nicole

Ideas for Making Lent Meaningful

2012-02-22T06:00:00.000-06:00

Lent has officially begun! I thought I’d share some links for you to check out… these are what we did for Lent last year, and what we plan to do again this year. You can see our crafts/artwork:
our Lenten Basket:
and our Lenten Countdown Cross:

I hope these inspire you to create some Lenten traditions in your own homes!

I mentioned in those posts, rather presumptuously, that I was planning on making a second set of the Countdown Cross to give away; and that I planned to offer everything as a printable this Lent. It seemed like I had so much time to get all this done! Silly girl. With two computer crashes to deal with in the past year all of my saved items for the printables were lost, and while I did plan to re-do everything in time for this year’s Lent… well, I ended up pregnant and in some sort of pregnancy-fog, and that’s my excuse these days for every single failing I might be accused of. An excuse I’m sticking to until I can claim the new baby as one. After that gets old I’m sure I’ll come up with something else. ;)

Of course there is still the new Lent / Easter e-book! Go check it out if you haven’t yet!

This post is linked to the Celebrating Lent Link-Up Party at Explore and Express and Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way, as well as:

Have a beautiful Day! :)
Nicole

Jesus Loves Me Lenten activities E-Book!!

2012-02-21T13:40:00.001-06:00

Well, it’s up and ready to go! There was a bit of a delay; thank you all so much for your patience!

This e-book is the brainchild of Erin over at Royal Baloo. Erin organized it, edited it, put the actual book together… and put a lot of hard work into each part. I simply helped with some ideas, a handful of printables, and photographing and writing up a few of the crafts. It was a pleasure to work with Erin and I’m so glad she offered me the chance to do this with her!! You can read more about the e-book in her post. It’s our hope that this will be a help to you as you teach your child about how much Jesus loves them, as shown through the story of Easter.

You have the option of downloading the e-book from Scribd or 4Shared. Click on either link to go to the download page. This e-book is totally free!

This post is linked to the Celebrating Lent Link-Up Party at Explore and Express and Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way.

If you’re going to do the activities and blog about it, please add your blog to the linky list below!

Have a beautiful day! :)
Nicole

Art Project – Making Paper Beads

2012-02-16T09:28:00.001-06:00

Honestly, this was a little project for me – I have wanted to try this since I first found out about paper beads a few years ago. I was not sure that M would be at all interested, especially since the process includes the possibility of glue touching your fingers (oh the horror!). But, as it turns out, he LOVES to make paper beads and happily kept at it long after I was finished.

I keep old calendars with pretty photos around just for projects such as this:

I picked a few pretty pictures and cut them into long triangular strips. I did not measure these in any way, just eyed them and cut. The main thing to keep in mind here is that the broad end will be the width of your finished bead, so keep it fairly small. You could also cut (or tear, for a bit of texture) simple straight strips. The triangular strips allow you to see colors from the whole piece in the finished bead, though, so we chose to do it this way.

Other supplies:Glue, foam paintbrush, wax paper, toothpicks, styrofoam (or something to poke the toothpicks into), and a thin paintbrush or skewer for rolling.

M picked a strip and began rolling it around the thin paintbrush. I showed him how to stop once the strip is halfway rolled and paint glue on the rest of it:

Continue rolling it up, then pop it off the paintbrush and onto a toothpick and stick it in your foam to dry:

Pretties:

Once these were dry, I did take them outside and spray a finish on them, just because I happened to have some. But M continued to make beads, and I did not spray them all (it was way too cold to go out and do it more than once!). I don’t think we can tell the difference between the finished ones and the unfinished. If you want to seal them and don’t have a spray finish, you could simply brush another coat of glue on the finished beads.

M was so excited once they were finished and ready for stringing – he got right to work!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Ice cold hearts for Valentine’s Day

2012-02-13T15:21:00.001-06:00

Early Valentine roses from my sweethearts – just had to show them off. :)

We did something different this year and made hearts from ice. I saw an idea similar to this recently here. It looked like fun, and they sure were pretty, so we decided to make our own version. M is all about freezing things – he has loved to make colored ice since he was very little, so this was a good twist for that favorite activity.

Supplies – water, sparkly things, food coloring, silicone heart mold, and freezing temps outside.

First M filled the molds a little more than halfway with water. We tried pouring, but decided to use the baster instead:

Then he added in some heart confetti and sequins, which pretty much floated on top. I had foreseen this, and that’s why we only filled them halfway. After freezing them we filled them the rest of the way and set them out to freeze again, so the sparkles were all contained in the middle of the ice:

We added yarn to the hearts prior to freezing so we’d be able to hang them up later:

See the wire rack in the photo below? It’s best to place the mold on top of a rack or tray of some sort before adding all the water! This makes it easy to transport. I found this out the hard way. :)

After the hearts were totally frozen:

We added some salt (see the bits?) and a couple of minutes later we added drops of food coloring, then stuck them back outside to freeze again:

After we remembered them (3 days later!) we popped them out and hung them up:

They are prettier in real life than these photos would suggest.

We worried, a bit too late, about the sequins falling out when the ice melts. M decided they will just make pretty decorations for the tree, but I’m thinking maybe pine branch tips or tiny pine cones would have been a better choice than sequins. Oops!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Coming Soon! Easter E-Book

2012-02-09T10:23:00.001-06:00

I was honored and excited when Erin over at Royal Baloo asked if I’d like to work with her on an Easter e-book for children. We’ve been coming up with crafts, activities, discussion tips, and printables to help little ones get a hands-on understanding of what Easter is all about. The activities span the 7 weeks prior to Easter, so it’s perfect for doing during Lent (or pick and choose what you like and create your own schedule!).

Visit Erin’s post about the e-book here!

Have a beautiful day! :)

What Mama’s been working on

2012-02-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

I’m so happy with how this turned out, and couldn’t resist showing it to the world. :)

If Baby is a boy, we will use M’s baptism outfit for him (which just happened to be Daddy’s too, so it’s very special!), but if baby is a girl we will use this:

Now, I am a simple sort of girl, so this is about as frilly as I want anything to get around here. Isn’t it sweet though? And I designed it myself, so I like to stare at it in amazement every once in a while. There were times I did not think it would even resemble a dress. It still needs buttons on the back, but otherwise it is finished.

It’s enough to make me ok with oceans of pink (well, ponds maybe) around here, if we are blessed with a girl. ;)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Sweet Valentines

2012-02-07T10:51:00.001-06:00

I couldn’t resist sharing the Valentines M has made so far. Actually, these were all made within 24 hours of finding his art box last week. He was a busy little cupid all day. :)

Can you see a theme running through most of these? Apparently making heart faces is big this year.

(Ignore the date in the corner – my camera’s settings obviously need to be fixed.)

M hardly bothered to write anything on most of these, and then I ran across the one for his favorite cousin Sophie and on the back it said this:“Watch out for Captain Hook and Peter Pan!” Haha – this is my favorite – such an unexpected (and mysterious, don’t you think?) message! Little boys’ minds work in interesting ways, don’t they? I hope his romantic messages improve beyond this at some point… or maybe I don’t, now that I think of it. ;)

And the sweetest valentine of all… a valentine pillow for baby sister or brother. He worked for an entire day on this – sewing two pieces of felt together, with ribbons pinned on – so there’s something blue just in case – and then stuffing it up.

Check out that blanket stitch, he was so very particular about everything:

He was so proud of himself when it was finished! He was going to glue more felt pieces on one of the sides to make a face (more faces!) but that hasn’t happened so far, and I love it just the way it is:

Have a beautiful day! :)

Valentine Art Box

2012-02-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

Let the Valentine-making begin!!

Whew, that’s a lot of pink and red!

I’m keeping it simple this year – just a few basic supplies. I am neither in the mood nor energetic enough to do a lot of art cleaning up right now.

In our box this year… red and pink construction paper (cut in half); Valentine stickers – regular, foam, and scented (yum!); a couple of paper punches – a heart and a swirl, glitter in pink, purple, and an iridescent white; scissors, glue, a container of sequins and googley eyes (there are regular-shaped sequins and heart-shaped sequins); markers in shades of pink, purple, and red; a kit of foam finger puppet valentines (from Target dollar spot).

The foam finger puppet kit is basically this craft that we did a couple of years ago:(Target, quit stealing ideas from my blog – this is not the first time I’ve seen something we’ve done made into a neat little kit and placed in your aisles.) (What? Other people might have the same ideas because mine are not that original? Nonsense!)

Happy month o’ love, everyone!

Have a beautiful day! :)

More Books, Please - poetry in the morning

2012-01-31T12:45:00.001-06:00

After listening to some great talks from Andrew Pudewa (homeschool dad extraordinaire), and reading this wonderful article (especially the part about the importance of listening in order to learn correct sentence structure and grammar), I have really made an effort to give our home more of a reading atmosphere.

Now, I’ve always been an avid reader, and M was born with the love for a good story… books are one thing we could not do without. But, still it doesn’t hurt to add in a bit more where we can, or to be intentional about more reading than what happens here and there throughout the day.

I want to share, in a few posts, how we are adding more reading into our days. I’ve created a sort of routine of reading for our day – stuck neatly where it fits within with our normal schedule.

Breakfast: We read a daily reading from the Bible, or from one of our Saint Books: (these stories are awesome, but out of print, by the way).

Then I read some poetry to M. I think it’s important to develop a love of poetry – which can be a difficult thing to do. It’s a different style of writing (many different styles, I suppose), has to be read a certain way in order to really “get” what is being said, and is full of a sort of dancing around the subject… do you know what I mean? You have to be able to read between the lines in poetry… it’s always alluding to something, but never coming right out in good old plain prose and just saying it. :)

It’s good to do this at breakfast, when he is ~~held captive~~ not distracted by anything other than eating. Some wonderful introductions to poetry are Shel Silverstein’s books, Where the Sidewalk Ends:

And A Light in the Attic:So many of the poems in these books are easy to understand and downright funny and appealing to a child.

We also enjoy A.A. Milne’s books, When We Were Very Young:

and Now We Are Six:

Yes, he is the writer of Winnie the Pooh, and if you love Pooh, you will love the poetry in these books (they are not all about Pooh, by the way – in fact, most are simply about childhood itself – don’t let the illustrations fool you!).

Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verse: is also well-loved, but many of the poems are a bit over M’s head right now. I want him to LOVE poetry, not feel bored by it, so we won’t read from that one again for a while longer.

I try to find one or two very funny poems to read first, then something that needs a bit more digging to understand. No more than 3 or 4 poems each morning keeps him wanting more and gives him something to chew on without being overwhelmed. It also makes these books last a long time!

I was recently rewarded with M’s first “real” poetry (as opposed to nursery rhyme) reference … he saw a frost-covered window one morning, and said in a sing-song sort of voice, “It looks like Jack Frost was here last night. I think somebody must have been dreaming about ________!” (I can’t for the life of me remember what he thought it looked like, darn it). This was a reference to the beautiful poem, Jack Frost, by Gabriel Setoun, in which Jack creeps into your room while your sleeping and draws pictures of your dreams on the windows. :) It’s one of my favorites, and it was such a special feeling to share that little moment with M.

I’ll write more about our other reading routines soon!

Do you have any favorite children’s poetry books you’d like to share? I’d love to hear about them!

Have a beautiful day! :)

P.S. Thank you all SO much for your kind and warm words in response to my little announcement yesterday. :) I’m so thankful to have “met” so many wonderful people in the blogging world!

Surprise!

2012-01-30T10:02:00.001-06:00

There is one tiny little bit of news I didn’t share with you in my most recent post. I thought it deserved a post of its own. ;)

Are you ready??

This little person is due in August, and M is hoping SHE will be born on his birthday. :) Clarification: we do not know if baby is a boy or a girl, but M is definitely hoping for a girl. Me? My current weak stomach is having trouble dealing with visions of Polly Pockets, Barbie Dolls, and an ocean of pink… so I’m focusing on trucks and all things blue, hee hee. Of course we’ll be thrilled no matter what!! We’ll find out when baby is born (more surprises!), not before.

Is it not crazy that I started 2011 with prayers for a baby and we found out mid-December that I was pregnant. It came on the heels of a 2-week flu bug, and threw me for a loop, for sure. I had recently truly made peace with the idea of never having another baby, and… well… just so crazy. I can honestly say the emotions that go with having a surprise like this are very different than the ones that go with planning and hoping… I’m thankful that I’ve been able to experience both. And I am simply not thinking about my age. ;) Or my husband’s age. ;)

I have been feeling… awful. Barely making it through the days kind of awful. Which of course helps explain my frustration with not being able to get anything done. I am hoping that as I progress into the 2nd trimester this gets much much better.

We are keeping an eye on my progesterone levels, which dip distressingly low… I’m getting 4 injections per week (from my husband! Who is not a nurse, and if he were, might just be the world’s worst.) to keep my levels up – this is because of our previous miscarriages due to low progesterone. After some worry a week or so ago, we had the above ultrasound. Baby was waving arms and legs, practically bouncing, and had a wonderfully strong heartbeat. :)

I am so thankful.

Joyfully yours,

Too Much To Do (or a lazy mom whines)

2012-01-26T15:25:00.001-06:00

“I used to think that we can have almost anything we want from life, that it’s just a question of organization. But now I’m beginning to think that we have to make a choice more often than we’d like. The important thing is to make sure that it’s our choice, no one else’s, and that we make it honestly.”
- Adam Dalgliesh in Death of an Expert Witness, by P.D. James

I just can. not. fit it all in.

After being sick most of December and having some set backs in January, I have been feeling overwhelmed with the daily stuff that life is made of. I want to blog… but then when it comes down to it, I’d rather read a good book, soak in the tub, or stare at a blank wall.

I keep thinking I need to write in my journal for M – all these things I want to remember – things I want him to remember – words of wisdom… that sort of thing. But well, when it comes down to it… it just hasn’t been happening. (I hope that doesn’t make me a bad mother, because I’m afraid this is just the way it’s going to be for a while.)

I’m trying to organize some trouble spots in our home, our time, and the two pack rats I live with. Or trying to at least live with them without going crazy. Ok, more honestly, trying to figure out how to throw things away without them noticing. ;)

I’ve been rediscovering my passion for sewing and crocheting and creating beautiful things with my hands. I’ve even taken up loom-knitting. I am a crocheter through and through, but I do understand that a knitted something-or-other is nice to have sometimes too. ;)

I’m trying to work out the struggle inside that I’m having with facing these final months of small-childhood for M… the last of our days completely together; this time when I can see so clearly into his heart and mind.

I’m in the process of opening an Etsy store (don’t hold me to this, I’m only mentioning it in the hopes that it will actually make me work on it), revamping my blog, and creating a new site to house the free printables I offer. I’m working on an Easter e-book with a friend, and creating some reading helps for M’s “school time”. I’m putting together a space unit and an ocean unit, and thinking about plans for learning about how the human body works.

I think there are some reviews I’m supposed to be working on too.

And then there are friends, family, daily housekeeping, raising a small boy who wants my every minute, errands, and social events.

Sheesh. But seriously, how do you make choices to not do some of these things? They all seem so necessary… or else are things I really enjoy! I’ve realized that I’m so busy trying to organize everything into something manageable that I’m losing peace and joy in the struggle. Sometimes choices have to be made!

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? How do you cut back, or even choose the areas in which to cut back?

There are so many interesting things I want to share with you, so I’m going to try to get back into blogging. I’m hoping to share the basics of the reading program we are going through, and our arts and crafts activities a couple of times a month. I want to write about all the amazingly good books we’ve been reading and how we are fitting more books than ever into our days, our new chore system (new as in started 6 months ago, but just not written about yet), and lots of other things… look for some good announcements soon about a few of the things I’m working on. :)

Thanks for reading, and letting me vent (I am amazed to see that my readership has gone up over the past few months instead of down – you are all so appreciated!).

Here’s to getting back into the swing of things!

Have a beautiful day! :)

A Slow Advent

2011-12-22T15:27:00.001-06:00

Oh, this poor little neglected blog of mine.

This Advent has not gone exactly as planned. Not at all as planned, actually. There’s been a month’s worth of sickness and many, many things have just been laid aside. I am ashamed to say I’ve turned to store-bought craft kits to keep M busy. There is nothing wrong with these really, but they aren’t exactly the memory-making activities I had hoped for. Maybe we will get to them during the actual Christmas season (which lasts from Christmas day to Epiphany), or maybe not. I am thankful to just be well and functioning again, to be honest.

M was sick the first week of Advent, and then for almost two weeks it was my turn. I was couch-bound, watching the house get messier and messier through feverish eyes, and not caring. That nasty flu finally caught up with this anti-flu-shot girl, and gave me quite a beating. We all had it to a degree, but somehow I was the lucky winner of the worst case. Poor M was getting his own breakfast and lunch most days! He felt very proud, but it hurt this mama’s heart a tiny bit to see him taking care of himself like that. And then I had an awful case of pink eye, you know, just to round things off nicely. That meant no cuddling or snuggling with anyone, which after being sick for a long time is just incredibly depressing!

But somehow I was given the grace to realize that Advent is all about waiting and hoping and remembering just exactly where to look for the joy. I woke up on Joy Sunday (3rd Sunday of Advent), unable to go to church, again. And I wondered, just what was it I was supposed to be joyful about? None of my plans were actually happening, the house was a disaster, and I was being treated like a pink-eyed leper.

But time and time again, these past few months, I’ve been brought to a place where I’m gently reminded that fulfillment, joy, etc. are not found in plans, good times, or even health. Joy is found in placing hope – confident hope – in God and His goodness and love and mercy. Hoping for what I know is coming… Who I know is coming. Each evening of this Advent when we’ve managed to have our little devotional time, M places a straw (length of yarn) in our manger and whispers, “Come, Baby Jesus, be born in our hearts.” The simple and even boring Advent that has been our lot this year has, in the end, become a greater blessing in a way than a lot of fun and good times could ever be (although fun and good times are blessings too!). Our emptiness is slowly being filled with an amazing sense of anticipation – the joy of knowing that what we truly hope for, what we most need, is coming soon.

We are better this week, finally getting back to normal. But we are not going to try to fit a lot in. We are going to work on preparing our fantastically messy home and our hearts for the Love that is on its way. I’m just going to go slowly through the days, and savor the sense of anticipation as much as I can.

M has recently discovered Johnny Cash, and as I write this, Hey Porter is on (blaring even, you might say), and these particular lines are perfect:

“Go tell that engineer to make
that lonesome whistle scream.
We're not so far from home,
so take it easy on the steam.”

Blessings,

Magic Bubble ARt – review

2011-12-16T21:21:00.001-06:00

Growing Tree Toys recently sent us this fun little kit to use and review.

We’ve done bubble art before – with dishsoap, water, and food coloring – and truly the fun part of this is the bubble blowing. So, yes, that’s simple to do at home without a kit; but I noticed that the colors this time, with the kit, turned out to be much more vibrant, and the included crafts were a bonus.

Here’s everything the kit includes:The picture is so very bright it isn’t showing the tons of punch out pieces that came with this. There are 90 shapes and stickers included, and a little booklet that gives ideas of things to make.

Also included: pipe cleaners, dye, a stir stick, straws, green embroidery thread, paper cups, and a large bottle (much more than we needed) of soap with gold glitter in it.

I was not sure about the glitter soap, but it did sparkle up the bubbles (as long as we occasionally stirred it), and looked so pretty on the paper after it had dried! I’m afraid my photos aren’t good enough to show this, but take my word for it – very pretty!

The basic concept is to fill the cups about 1/3 full with water, soap, and dye; then stick in a straw and start blowing bubbles onto the papers and shapes. This MUST be done over some sort of covering – we used an old towel – because the dye will stain.

M really had so much fun doing this. I wish the kit had more disposable cups because they got very soggy very quickly, what with the bubbles spilling over the sides, but obviously regular cups could be used also.

Blowing 4 colors of bubbles all at the same time proved to be a lot of fun too: Take a look at that towel – definitely a good thing we used it! Fingers were stained too, but all in the name of fun, and no worse than when dying Easter eggs.

Now, M would have been content to blow bubbles all day long, but he knew this was a review and very seriously did every single craft included. In one sitting. He is a sucker for punching perforated shapes out of cardstock, so I think that had something to do with it. ;)

Here is a look at about half of the bubble prints he made:

A few things he crafted from all this colorful goodness…

A crown:

A hot air balloon:

Flowers:

Stick puppets, a fish, a door hanger, and some pretty patterned paper to use in the future:

As we were doing this (yes, I did get in on a little of the fun too!), I kept thinking about how perfect this would be for a birthday part, or any group of children. More cups and straws would have to be used, but there is definitely enough soap and dye mixture and paper crafts to make this fun and engaging for a group of 4 to 5 children.

M ended up loving this much more than I anticipated!

Have a beautiful day! :)

*I was provided a free Kid Concoctions’ Magic Bubble Art kit in exchange for writing a review. This review is entirely my own, honest opinion of the product.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

I hope you are all feasting away today with family and friends, and enjoying life’s many blessings! Fill your tummies with good food and your hearts with happiness. :)

A photo of our finished Thanksgiving Tree: (Forgive the rotten exposure. It looks better in real life.)

M wanted to place our leaves on the tree with our lists facing outwards, which made me wonder, why did we bother decorating them? ;) But the littlest person usually gets their way about this type of thing, so this year we have white leaves on our tree.

Each night for the past week we’ve written things for which we are thankful on leaves, and then tacked them to the tree.

I thought you might enjoy M’s top 7 things he is thankful for this year:

Our house
Our farm and apple trees
Mommy
Christmas
Food
Cupcakes, and Mommy, and Cake
Fish and Fishing for Fish (he has never gone fishing, by the way, but why get hung up on details?)

There is a glaring omission here, isn’t there? ;) Why did Mommy end up on the list two times (and what is the “Mommy” in between cupcakes and cake all about??), but no mention of Daddy? I giggle about this, mainly because I am not Daddy. I’m sure the thought of Daddy was in there somewhere. I think next year perhaps we will list our thanks for two weeks – to give us time to make sure everything is covered, and no feelings are hurt.

Just for the record, I did put Daddy on the very first of my leaves, and he is very loved.

Now, I’m off to stake out a place for my post-dinner nap. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

A garden of Gratitude

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

(Heh, heh – this vintage picture makes me smile!)

This is the month to be mindful of our thankfulness, a wonderful idea. I’ve been trying to set aside time each day to list my blessings. How neat to find that paying attention to my blessings and focusing on being grateful has worked to increase my gratefulness and my blessings! I decided to list things a little at a time, each day, and will share these as one post sometime around Thanksgiving.

I am thankful…

For the sense of empathy M has… his heart for poor children, hungry children, babies we know and don’t know, neighbors… and the specifics he’s able to articulate in prayer for them. I worry about his tender heart so much, but I know that this is really a blessing and I’m learning to be thankful for it.
That my 5 year old “big boy” has begun taking my shirt to bed with him (like when he was a baby – does he even remember?) to snuggle with and smell as he sleeps. That is love.
For all the beautiful nature surrounding us, and for a renewed eagerness to be out in it as much as possible.
For good books that prove how amazing and inspirational words can be when the right person puts them together in the right way.
For a husband that comes home from work tired, and still finds the time to read a chapter or two of Hank, the Cowdog out loud, sometimes with only one tired eye open. And still knows how to make us laugh at all the silly parts.
For being closer (not there quite yet) to making peace with the possibility that no more babies are in my future.
For a small house that only takes a few hours to clean. I’m convinced God knew what he was doing because he knows how I am about cleaning.
For magic erasers.
For my new sewing table and the little sewing / mama-craft nook in our home that I finally found a way to make.
For forgiveness, from everyone – God, my husband, my son… everyone.
For glorious autumn days that help me remember to be joyful.
For coffee.
For Coke.
For an oven that still bakes lovely things like pumpkin bread and apple crisp even though it is ancient.
For routines and good habits.
For wisdom when I (remember to) ask for it.
For intuition.
For our neighbors and our friendly little lane.
For traditions.
For the books we read out loud and the friends we make with the characters in them.
For the women I meet with every Monday morning… they have each become so important to me.
For friends that remember to ask about specifics in my life, showing that they are sincere in their care.
For such good role models as the people in numbers 22 and 23.
That so many people have taken a look at our Jesse Tree packet and have downloaded it or printed it to use with their families. It feels good to share wonderful things with others and it’s humbling to think of helping someone “out there” with something our little family does.
For occasional, unexpected moments of peace and quiet.
For soft, thick, cozy yarn and the pleasure of making something out of it, just for me.
For the joy of making things for others too. {Lest you think #27 was selfish. ;) }
For catching the moment on a windy day when yellow leaves are falling so quickly and thickly that you can’t see past them.
For catching sight of little boys trying to hula hoop. :)
That the worst thing my 5 year old has to worry about is finding where he mislaid his newest and most favorite rock.
For children’s audio books.
For the library, and that it is so close to our home.
For my husband’s job, and his willingness to support us while I stay home.
For a better understanding and appreciation of the work of a stay-at-home mom.
For my health and the health of everyone I love.
For my weekly hour in our church’s adoration chapel.
For visiting relatives.
For turkey dinners and naps afterwards.
For a warm, cozy bed.
To live in freedom.
For our military, the sacrifices they and their families make.
For the beauty of falling snow.
For the pure joy snow gives to the children I know.
For the cozy inside feeling snow gives me.
For second (and third, and fourth…) chances to get things right.
For the gift of being a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend, and every other role I’ve been given – I am truly blessed.

Art Time – Oh the things You can do with Melted crayons

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

Our Thanksgiving tree (find the pattern here) was up and ready to go, one week before Thanksgiving:But no autumn-themed scrapbook paper to make our leaves from! Target dollar spot, you really let me down this year. I checked other places too – and could not find a single (cheap) autumn pattern anywhere – sigh. I just love those scrapbook leaves.

Ah well, this was a great opportunity for an art project I’ve been meaning to do for ages – coloring with crayons on a warming plate.

We used scrapbook scissors (pinking and scalloping) to cut leaves from white cardstock; covered our little cup warmer with foil because melting wax tends to leak through paper, even cardstock; put the leaves on top of the foil and slowly drew with the crayons.(I do not have a warming tray, but this little cup warmer works great for small projects like these leaves. You could also use a cookie tray taken from a warm oven, but make sure little hands don’t get burned!)

The crayon melts as you draw and begins to glide across the paper. There’s something very relaxing about doing this! M enjoyed it so much, he stopped making designs and began to just color entire leaves. The smooth movement and the deep saturated colors on the paper put him into a sort of trance. :) I think this would be a great rest time activity! After he was done we turned the warmer off, crumpled up the foil, and were done. No mess, which is always a plus, right? :)

Our leaves (mostly):

We also made some great little autumn shapes by melting old crayons and pouring them into cookie cutters… this is always fun because it involves SMASHING crayons with a hammer or piece of wood, or whatever you may have lying around that would make a good smasher. ;)

Sort:

Smash:

Melt and pour:

Let harden, then pop out:

A little wax leaked out the bottom of the cookie cutters, but everything turned out okay. Still, I would use the flexible, non-stick muffin trays in place of cookie cutters, if you have them.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Art Time – Autumn Glitter Shapes

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-06:00

We made these last week, using some autumn cookie cutters from Target’s dollar spot.

Glitter is always so much fun, isn’t it? And so pretty as it makes its way around the entire house. Isn’t it fun to see a dusting of glitter sitting there, shimmering away on your couch as the sun hits it, two weeks later? And then you realize you most likely had glitter on your bottom when you wore your black pants to church that morning, and you feel so thankful to have given someone behind you a pretty little treat like that. Ah glitter. We all need a little sparkle in our lives, don’t we? ;)

So we gathered up some colored construction paper, glue, our cookie cutters and some glitter. Trays were helpful for keeping the glitter under control, but apparently not helpful enough.

We had a saucer full of glue, into which we dipped our cookie cutters (wide side down). Then we let them sit on our page for a while to let the glue drip down enough. Next up was shaking on the glitter and then tapping it off. I could have sworn I’d taken photos of actually doing this…

After they dried, M punched holes in the corners, we strung them up on ribbons, and added them to our oil pastel leaf banner, out in our breezeway:

Pretty, yes? A great outside activity too, if you ask me. ;)

Have a beautiful day! :)