Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Daybook

Today We Are Celebrating: A's 6th Birthday--wow I am amazed that our BooBa is 6, it does go fast. I think it has been a fun day for him filled with special treats and a lot of Transformers. (Posting a day late, I didn't feel good last night and had to stop and get in bed.)

Around The House:I think I am longing for Spring and when it isn't threatening snow the sun is shinning brightly and the birds are singing. I made this arrangement using 3 Dollar Tree flower stems, branches from the yard and a vase with greenery I already had. I am getting excited to transition the house to a fresh season.



I wanted to share my china hutch before the change over. My red dished are still up in addition to a splash of red flowers and a Love day decoration made with scrapbooking supplies and a vintage print from here (so many cute prints). Also on the middle hutch of the shelf you can see 2 creamers and a mini teapot, all thrifty finds that I am so glad to have. Thrifting has been a great way to start building up my tea collection.


Also as spring approaches I am longing to clean out and reorganize cupboards and closets but that will probably have to wait until summer.

Real Life: This is what our great room looked like on my last tile cleaning day. Yes, a mess and they cleaned it all up.


What I'm Reading: Dwellings: Living Fully from the Space You Call Home. It is by Mary Beth Lagerborg and inspiring in all areas of home life. I had wanted it for a long time and got it this past Christmas. Reading it is like comfort food for my heart. I am also reading Oolong Dead from the Tea Shop Mysteried by Laura Childs. I try to retreat for 2 chapters and a cup of tea every afternoon.

Quiet Time Ponderings: Oh there are so many things right now. I am currently in Galatians and I already got stopped at verse one "Paul, an apostle---sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the father,". Okay, so if Paul was sent to the Galatians by no man but God himself am I any different. I (we) are sent by God to minister to our families and to any other person or people that cross our threshold or path. This verse gives me confidence that no matter where I am, home or away I am sent by the Lord to do his ministry. So, no worries of "What am I going to say?" or "I can't handle this" when the 3 year old is screaming for the umpteenth time or the 7 year old is doing the same in the form of arguing and crying; because God has sent me to minister to these needs. So I read on and got stopped again in verse three "Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." So as I go about ministering to my family and any others God sends my way; am I greeting them with the same grace and peace God desires me to impart to them? Am I giving grace to my children in their behavior and mistakes, even if I am horribly tired and impatient? Is my own attitude fostering peace in our home? or is my attitude grouchy, cross and short? When I am driving, visiting the library or grocery store am I greeting others with grace and peace when they are slow, crabby, impatient or confused? I should because that is how our heavenly father greets us. So many more gems but I will stop.

In The Learning Loft: We have finished up our study of Australia and will be starting Antarctica. For Australia instead of making notebook pages we made mini books and put them all in a lapbook when we were done. This was a great change that we will stick with for Antarctica. We also have a few more weeks left in our Dinosaur Study. We are using a Dino book and study guide from Queen Homeschool and it has been wonderful. E is working on 2-digit addition and subtraction with carring and borrowing as well as graphs and graphing. A is working on skip counting by 2's and 5's. K is doing lots of counting and ABC activities associated with The Mitten by Jan Brett.

In The Kitchen: I made macaroni and cheese for A's birthday and we have also enjoyed Rosemary Chicken, Chicken and White Bean Soup and Lentil Soup. The freezer is stocked with the left overs. J and I really like soup but the children do not but I will persist.

On My To Do List: Lessons, laundry, clean bathrooms, pack for So. Cal trip, prep some lessons, clean up the kitchen and change B's diaper.

Have a great day!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Valentine's @ the Park

J asked what I wanted to do for Valentine's day and I said "go to the park." Yes, I know it is the middle of winter but the need to experience some sun on my body is huge, so we went to the park in Reno and had a picnic. I think the smiles on their faces tell you it was an afternoon enjoyed by all.


Boo-Ba

Peanut


He seems a little young to be doing this but he climbed several times with our help and had a lot of fun. I think it was only his second visit to a park.




My favorite picture of the day--K all smiles.

Visit a park it's good for the winter heart!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Valentine Card

Here is our final card project. The children and I made this for J and we were very happy with the result. I used 2 lunch bags folded in half and then stapled the binding. I had 2 pockets at that point so I snipped off the ends of 2 of the bags to get 2 more pockets. Then the 3 older children wrote or dictated their messages for Daddy and decorated their cards. I attached a little pretty scrap paper for tabs and we filled the pockets. (I think scrap paper is so handy and I keep a file of my scraps for various uses).


Our cover


An inside page with one of the children's handprints.


Another handprint and a vintage print printed from here. I discoverd this wonderful blog 2 weeks ago and have printed out many things to frame for added touched here and there.


The back cover with B's handprint.

Such a cute keepsake that can be made in so many ways--give it a try!

Scroll down to see the original post and link to the idea for this card with a lot more detailed pictures.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Cute Card--you want to take the time to look at this.

I just had to share this because I think it is so neat and could be used for so many occasions. It is a fun interactive card or book that you can make with so many of your own supplies or your children's. We are going to make one soon and I will post pictures when it is finished.

Here is the link--enjoy.

Monday, February 8, 2010

A Quick Heart Game

I made this game for K's Tot School with a Valentine's theme but you could make it with any theme you need.

Supplies:
dollar store stickers
blank business cards




Take 2 cards and adhere the same sticker on each card and presto you have cards to play matching games --try Go Fish or Memory. I made 10 pairs but make as few or as many as you would like. You could also turn this into a File Folder Game by attaching one set of cards to the inside of a folder and have your tot match them up.



Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Snowflake Craft

This was a fun multi-aged craft. First I gathered all things, white, clear or natural from around the house. We used white beans, white pom poms (not seen in the picture), white and clear buttons, and white and clear beads.


I"m not sure where this muffin tin presentation came form but somewhere in blogland (sorry) but sometimes a craft is all about the presentation and organization to make it interesting to the reluctant crafter.

Then E took some popsicle sticks and glued them into a snowflake pattern for everyone to paint white and then we decorated with our stash of items and glue.


Here are E and K's creations.


I hung them with fishing line from our dinning light and it makes a cute display of the children's handiwork.

Go ahead give it a try and enjoy the time with you precious children.

Wintery Days

What do we do all day (besides lessons)? How do we spend Winter days? Here's a look.


We let the 3 years old have the camera--not bad if I do say so myself, yes K really took this pictures.


We loose our first tooth. A noticed it was loose on Friday afternoon and by bedtime he was in the bathroom with a mouthful of blood doing the extraction himself. It was uncanny because the previous day as part of our Dino study we studied and made a booklet on the 4 types of teeth.


We learn to self-feed with a spoon. B is now 16 months.


We pull out the ball pit.


We make transformers out of math rods and tape.


E gave K a manicure and a pedicure.


Build a snowman, of course--E did this all on her own and then helped A build one too.


And we play in the snow in our boots, jacket and swimsuit--K wanted to also go in the sprinklers but I had to tell he no, much to her disappointment.

Happy Winter!