Raising Creative Kids through Play, Music and Literacy
These are from the class on how to use my new Bernina 1300MDC serger. I’m happy with my new toy and look forward to many hours of serging in the coming weeks.
I love the bright colors. We used them to see what each thread did and it was a great learning tool.
I threaded it all by myself! I’ve tackled the most intimidating part of the serger so now I can tackle any challenges that come up.
This post is linked up with Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom and Seven Clown Circus.
A few weeks ago I started a campaign in my home to reclaim my love of reading. Aside from a few parenting books, it had been since Harry Potter 7 that I read an entire book that wasn’t geared toward toddlers or preschoolers. I love to read but I’d fallen out of sync with my reading rhythm. I mentioned before that I tend to read in spurts, but that I wanted to become a daily reader. I put a book in the bathroom and stole a few extra minutes to read each time I’m in there. So far I’ve read two books and I’m on my third (and fourth)!
The first book I read was The Elder Gods by David Eddings. I’d read another of his series and really enjoyed it. Again, I was thoroughly captivated by the world he creates in this series. It’s the story of a land ruled by gods who must work together to fight off the evil god. The “good” gods leave their lands and travel outside their boundaries to hire soldiers to help fight. I really enjoyed the interactions between the leaders of the different groups of soldiers. They were witty and clever, two traits I adore, and they were able to set aside differences to work together to reach the ultimate goal. I’m excited to read the other two books.
We were in Colorado when I finished The Elder Gods and didn’t have the next one with me so I ran out and bought Book 1 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief. I became interested in reading this book after I saw the movie. (Yes! It can work that way) I was very surprised to find that they are so very different. Even more different than Harry Potter books and movies are from each other. As I was watching the movie I kept thinking: “The book version will probably be so much cooler with all the added insight and story line that usually doesn’t make it into the movie.” I was partially right. There was a whole story line completely unaddressed in the movie. I’m very surprised that the movie didn’t mention this part of the story at all. It’s like leaving Voldemort out of the Harry Potter books. If you’ve read the book and seen the movie, do you agree with that assessment?
The other side of this is that I didn’t like the book nearly as much as I thought I would. First, it’s written in first person (so “I” is a twelve year old boy) and that was hard for me to get into. Second the writing didn’t capture me as much as I thought it would. It wasn’t quite as cool as I anticipated after seeing the book. In the end, I liked the story line of the book and plan on reading more of the series. I’m hoping as Percy matures in the books the writing will mature with him.
Now I’m reading Motherhood Is Easy…As Long As You Have Nothing Else To Do For The Next 50 Years. I mentioned this book on Saturday. I’ll save comments on it for when I finish it and write my full review including a giveaway
The (fourth) one I’m reading is Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child
We are having a blast at Grandpa’s house this week. We’re sort of settling into a routine of play, hot chocolate, play, lunch, play, Elli’s nap, play, dinner, play and sleep. Wake up and repeat. Sammi is having a blast with her cousin who’s just 6 months older than her, though she is a few inches taller! Here are some pictures of them playing this afternoon.
Sammi and her cousin posing in the backyard
Sammi and her cousin have been negotiating games, TV watching, playground play and such. It’s interesting to see how they take turns talking each other into what they want to do. Sammi has had to accept that she can’t boss her (older) cousin around the way she can Elli. She’s also gotten pretty creative in enticing him to do what she wants. Overall, I would say she’s matured in her social development from the last time they played together. There haven’t been any temper tantrums or breakdowns over not getting what she wants. It’s been fun to see them just relish every moment of play they have together.
Saving the sheets from the wind
Elli napping after all that play. Doesn’t she look so pleased!
Grandpa’s house from Sammi’s perspective
Don’t forget to check out the Get Waussified! book review and giveaway for the complete set of 6 Waussie books. Deadline is March 18.
Playful Eyes
Today I love my family. Brent’s Spring Break is this week and I am so excited to spend time together as a family. We all slept a lot last night and the day is new and sunny.
I love the Jorge Cruise book Belly Fat Cure. Brent and I have been following his eating plan (like SouthBeach Diet, but without the strict cleansing stage) for two weeks and we are already seeing results. I’ve lost 5 inches off my middle section!
I love milk and cereal and the chance to have both while on Vacation from our diet. We’re relaxing the diet a bit this week because we’ll be spending time with family and friends and it may be unreasonable to follow it strictly.
Going along those lines, I love pumpkin bread. I found the last can of pumpkin in our cupboard so Sammi and I decided to make a batch. After two weeks on a low sugar/low carb diet, this pumpkin bread was like heaven! It’s yum… I’ve shared the pumpkin bread recipe before; if you have any pumpkin on hand it’s sure to brighten even the worst Monday!
I love great friends, near and far. I also love that we get to visit friends who are usually far.
These are some of the things on my mind this morning.
Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Affiliate and share links to products on Amazon that I mention in my posts. I link up to provide easy access to reviews and additional info on the products I share. If you happen to purchase a product through my link, I may earn a small commission. Happy shopping!
While at Blissdom earlier this month I had the opportunity to hear, and later speak with, one of the most influential players in promoting the necessity of play, Kevin Carroll. I sat in awe as I listened to his story of overcoming being abandoned by his father and then his mother. He embraced play as a way to explore his feelings, understand his experiences and find a place to belong. I can hardly do his story justice; you’ll just have to imagine the most touching story of trial and triumph told in the most eloquent way and you’ll have some idea of what I experienced.
I have long valued the power of play in a child’s life. I firmly believe every child needs time and space to play. To explore their environment, to learn how to interact with others and to let their imaginations run wild. Kevin Carroll, Katalyst reminded me that it’s not just children who need time and space to play. As adults, we also benefit from play, daily. My favorite quote from his presentation was, “If you don’t make time for play-deleterious things will happen!” We even took an oath resigning our adulthood and embracing the opportunities for play that come with childhood. I needed the reminder that play is important for renewing my creativity as much so as it is for my children.
I wanted to share Kevin Carroll with you because he’s really inspired me to evaluate my dreams and vision for my future and the future of my blog. I find myself filled with a desire to do good, a yearning to make a difference, and yet I am having a difficult time clarifying exactly what good I can do or what difference I can make. His presentation has filled my head with all kinds of ideas for way to find my dream and develop a plan to accomplish it.
Since such a journey seemed rather daunting to me, I thought I’d share it with you as a way to motivate me to continue my pursuit and a way to get feedback and input along the way. As I was talking with my mom on the drive home from Nashville about the ideas that were rolling around in my mind, she added some terrific dreams of her own that I plan on sharing, too. I’m looking forward to this process together!
Photo Credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mooshinindy/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
It’s been a month since I started the Biggest Loser competition and I’ve lost 7 pounds. Not bad, but not as good as I’d hoped. Last week I made three goals. I had success with two of them, but I really floundered on the third. And I started sliding on my initial goal that I had been doing so good at! I have my work cut out for me this week. And the chocolate chip cookies I at on the way home from the zoo today probably didn’t help much.
I am really struggling to work out more than three times in a week. I have really great intentions, but when it comes down to it, something always changes my mind. I’m so worn out by the end of the day that it’s hard to get myself to exercise after the girls are in bed. Then I stay up late cleaning, blogging and the like and so I’m too tired to get up early and do anything before they wake up. I tried a couple times to workout with them awake and that was completely fruitless. So this is a dilemma I’m still facing. Any suggestions?
About the two successful goals. I looked at cookbooks and chose meals for each day. Then I made my grocery list and went shopping. We ate some really yummy food this week! I think I may have to devote a week to yummy recipes just to share all the ones we love. Interested? Okay, so I probably shouldn’t dwell on the food so much since that’s what got me here in the first place! But, I do get a lot of joy out of eating good food so it’s important to me to make healthy choices so I can continue to enjoy it.
I don’t have much to report on the meeting this week. There was a specialist from the health department who spoke on diabetes. I, however, read my book (Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child
As for the coming week: Exercise more! I am going to focus on that single goal and see what magic I can make happen.
Not Sunday's hike, but the trail looked similar.
I learned a new word at the Biggest Loser meeting this week: Hypokinetic. Hypo means lack of and kinetic means movement. We learned about a set of diseases that are hypokinetic. These are diseases that you have a higher risk of developing if you lack movement in your lifestyle.
By increasing the amount of movement, or exercise, you participate in daily or even weekly you can reduce your risk of these diseases. In fact, the lecturer explained that we need 2 1/2 hours of physical movement over a week to reduce our risk. That can be spread evenly over the week or can be done in chunks like 1 hour on Monday, 30 minutes Wednesday and 1 hour Friday.
So I thought I was safe with our two hour hike that we took last Sunday around Cumberland Gap National Park. However, I only lost a pound for the week. I think that I was a little over-zealous in celebrating Elli’s birthday and indulged a bit too much in Cake and Ice Cream. They were super yum, though!
My goal from last week was to intensify my workouts. I think I was fairly successful with that goal: a two hour hike and an hour of Masala Bhangra. However, I lacked consistency and my diet was definitely neglected. So, I am making new goals for this week.
Hopefully I’ll be able to report a 3 pound weight loss next Saturday!
Here is a tribute to the women in my life I am fortunate enough to call Mom.
To my mom who raised me so lovingly and continues to help me grow up.
To my step-mom who has truly been a mom for me, always loving and supporting me.
To my mother-in-law whose wisdom and generosity know no bounds.
To my grandmothers who are dear friends, not just relatives.
And here’s to my two darling girls who, in calling me Mom, melt my heart everyday.
As women we bond, we share, we nurture, we love. We consistently find ourselves connecting with those around us. Today is a day to celebrate those women who nurture, those women who care and those women we love.
Today I’m also grateful for Brent who has worked hard to make today special for me. After I got up this morning he snuck my presents and cards from the girls onto my pillow.
He was also pretty sneaky about the present he got me. He had to talk me out of getting it myself because I was headed down to Goldsmith Jewelers on Friday to pick it up with my birthday money. Fortunately he was able to delay my plans until Monday without raising any suspicion.
I got my two little girls! I fell in love with these charms at the blogger event I attended at the end of April. I’m so happy to have them on my bracelet. Here’s my bracelet to-date.
Happy Mother’s Day! My hope is that each woman believes the difference she makes in another’s life as she serves, befriends and loves. Each act matters. It really matters.
Something else you should probably know about me: I’m a linguist. I received a master’s in Applied Linguistics from the University of Utah in 2005. (That’s not the joke! Wait for it… Wait for it…) This is a little exercise in morphology if any of you are interested! Virtual High 5s and hugs all around for those who get it!
(Now this is the joke)
mato buol “your mother runs”
baku keol “his dog eats”
matil seol “my mother plays”
bua “I run”
bue “you run”
apro buol “your father runs”
see “you play”
bakil seol “my dog plays”
kea “I eat”
apru keol “his father eats”
matu buol “his mother runs”
foa “I walk”
foe “you walk”
bako buol “your dog runs”
How would you say “My father walks”?
