Snow Bed

This reminds me of the time that it snowed 39 inches at our house in about 30 hours, back in 2003, on President's Day.  Code-man measured 22 inches in a non-plowed, undrifted area of our driveway this morning.  That's a lot of snow....I was kind of hoping for a snow day tomorrow, but there's not much chance of that.  We're hardy around here, doncha know.  It'll take more than a little snow to slow us down.  That big snow in WV had everything shut down for a week!

Remember this? This was us, snowshoeing on our road out to the main highway to see if it had been cleared yet (I believe the answer was, "no.")

Here's little Code-man, back when he was an only child (but not for too much longer), jumping off our back porch into the snow.  I think it was taller than him!

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Code-man's illustrated tutorial: how to make a snow bed, in 4 easy steps.

Step 1: Find a spot

Step 2: Prepare to fall

Step 3: Fall

Step 4: Make yourself at home

Step 4a (optional): for additional comfort, ask your mom to bury you

Ahhh...Comfy, cozy



Cutie Patoot



  

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And here's what my Hubby was doing, pretty much non-stop, from the time he woke up on Saturday until he went to bed, and he was back at it again today.

Bring it

So this is my 400th post (at least I think so).  Yay!

12 inches of snow and still falling?  High temp below 0 on Sunday and Monday?  Bring it on!

And have you seen my brother's blog lately?  No threat, my pine trees!  You can bring it, too, brother.

Room for a Little One

One of my favorite ways to count down to Christmas is to wrap up all of our children's books that have Christmas or winter themes, and then open and read one as a family each day in December until, on Christmas day, we open a wrapped Bible and read the Christmas story, as told in Luke 2.  It's so nice to take time, in the busy-ness of the season, to sit quietly (or, some of us sit not so quietly) together as a family, reflecting on what it's really all about, and this practice ensures that we don't miss out on reading any of our favorite Christmas stories in December.  We're actually not counting down this way, this year, so I've been bringing a couple of the books out at a time here and there.  It warms my heart to see our older boys reading and sharing these treasured stories with their younger brother.

One of my favorites is Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale, written by Martin Waddell, and illustrated by Jason Cockcroft.

In this book, the animals in the barn make room in the stable for others, including their enemies, to come in and find shelter from the cold night, saying, "there's always room for a little one here," until Tired Donkey comes along, led by Joseph, carrying Mary.  The book reads, "Joseph was cold and Mary was weary, but there was no room at the inn."  And then,

"Come inside," Kind Ox called to Tired Donkey. "There's always room for a little one here." Tired Donkey brought Mary into the stable.  Joseph made her a warm bed in the straw, to save her from the cold of the night.  And so Jesus was born with the animals around Him; Kind Ox, Old Dog, Stray Cat, Small Mouse, and Tired Donkey all welcomed Him to the warmth of their stable. 

The book ends with these words: "that cold winter's night, beneath the star's light...a Little One came for the world."

I always tear up as I read those words.  The welcoming kindness of the animals is so touching, especially in contrast to the cruelty of the world.  No room.  There was no room in the inn, as Jesus entered our earthly world, and it seems, in many ways, many still declare "no room" in our world for Jesus, in countless ways, unintentional and intentional.

The words of this song, "While You Were Sleeping," from the album "Peace on Earth," by Casting Crowns, have been running through my head this month.  Please enjoy (if you read my blog via facebook or email, you will need to visit my blog at http://bluefield5.blogspot.com/ to view the video):

My friends, my prayer for each of you this season is that you will make room in your heart for a Little One, who came to save the world.

Best Morning, part 2

Whoops-a-daisy!  I was afraid of something like this: I went through my list of posts, and discovered not one, not two, but five unpublished drafts that were counted in my total.  So that wasn't my 400th post.  This isn't even my 400th post.  *Sigh*  But we won't let that stop us! 

Anyway, I'm new at this giveaway stuff, so you'll have to forgive me for not specifying a deadline for the candle giveaway.  How about... Thursday, Dec. 16 at 8 a.m. CST?  That good for everybody?  Isn't this exciting?  Don't forget to leave your comment here (by the way, as of this writing there's only one qualifying comment, so you have an excellent chance of winning :-). 

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So, if you know me at all, you know that I love to be outside.  It doesn't matter whether I'm having a horrible day or a terrific day, my day always gets better if I can spend some time outside.  Yes, even when it's 5 degrees outside.  And, surprisingly enough, even when it's 90 and humid (although I tend to retreat back to the indoors or at least jump in a lake faster on those sorts of days).

So after our grandma cracker building adventure, we bundled up and headed outside for some fun in the snow while we waited for the bus.  Just as an aside, I love my new snow bibs!  But then, I knew I would--my snow pants kept falling down, which was sooo not fun, and they were too long, too.  But the bibs are comfy cozy warm, and didn't fall down, or even threaten to.  Logo made a switch Wednesday, too, from bibs to pants,  and loves them almost as much as I love my bibs, because...and how can I put this politely?  It's easier for him to...use the restroom.  If you come to our house, watch out for yellow snow, and that's all I have to say about that.

No, I didn't put the little ones into a cage--this is a fort (couldn't you tell?), and the door's on the other side.

Code-man and Logo having a sit-down snowboard race.

Pal and Bubby had a sled race, too, which I videoed, so I don't have a pic, but Pal headed straight for me, and ended up sliding right through my legs!  You know how when you're seeing something on a screen, it slows down your reaction time (well, it does for me, anyway)?  I couldn't get out of the way, so I just made a bridge and hoped for the best.  We sure had a good laugh about that one!

Code-man catching some "rad air."  And yes, he did land this jump, as well as several others.  And yes, his mommy winced every time he did it--I foresee broken bones in our future.  I'll post a video as soon as I find the jump drive (ha, punny!) and get to the library sans children (or the Hubby breaks down and starts shelling out the bucks for satellite internet--yikes!).

 Snow angels

So what made this the best morning?  It all seems so ordinary--what was so special about it?  Well, I think for me, it was its very ordinary-ness that made it so special.  Once again, I had the opportunity to spend some time simply having fun with some of my very favorite people in the world.

Ahhhh...this was my view, as I was lying on my back in the "boat" the kids made out of snow.  A tiny glimpse of heaven--what could be better?

Perhaps today...

This week, a friend of ours from when we lived in WV has been posting "Perhaps today..." each day as his facebook status.  I thought I knew what he was talking about, but not wanting to assume (because you know what that makes of u and me), I gently queried.  I received a response in the form of today's post, "Perhaps today...He will return!"  I must admit, my first thought, after the initial, "ah ha, I was right," was, "not likely."  But that is so not true.  We don't know the day or the hour, and just because it hasn't happened on any of the days of my thirty-something years so far, doesn't mean that today won't be the day.

Part of being a Christ-follower is living in anticipation, yearning for the day Christ will return to establish His everlasting kingdom on earth, and believing that day will come.  And part of being a Christ-follower is striving, every day, to share a glimpse of the kingdom of God on earth to those who desperately need to see it, to experience it, to bring His kingdom closer, right now, today.  So, my friends, are you ready?  What are you doing today to prepare for that day, someday?

Best Morning, part 1

Wow, folks!  Welcome to The Accidental Blogger's 400th (!) post!  In honor of this momentous occasion, I'll be hosting a giveaway (tee hee!  I love the sound of that :-).  One lucky reader will win a lovely Apple & Cinnamon Velvet 40 hour candle that I got for free using a coupon--smells yummy!  Just leave a comment, telling me what you like best about The Accidental Blogger, to be entered into the drawing, and I'll draw the winner's name out of my hat, or maybe just choose the response I like best.  Please note, if you read my blog via email or facebook, you will need to actually go to my blog (http://bluefield5.blogspot.com/) and leave a comment to enter.

So yesterday, I told you that I had the best morning (I'm such a tease), and now I'm going to tell you about the first part of my great morning (stretching it out for all it's worth...by the way, my brother claims he's no threat to me this month, but I don't think I can afford to become complacent). 

Our school district had a late start yesterday--they do this about once a month to give the teachers time to do whatever it is teachers do when their students aren't around, so in addition to Bubby and Pal, I also got to hang out with Logo and Code-man for an extra 2 hours yesterday.  We started with home made, whole wheat, chocolate chip waffles for breakfast--yum!

And then, Gingerbread Week continued over at Camp Scarlet, as my friend J refers to this crazy place (of course, she uses my real name...), with the construction of graham cracker gingerbread houses (or, as Pal would say, "Grandma cracker" gingerbread houses).

We used all sorts of delicious goodies to decorate our houses.  I did notice, however, that no one opted to use the cheerios or raisins that I tried to slip in there :-)

I put about 1/4 c. of mortar...I mean frosting...into snack sized ziplock bags, then snipped off a corner, so the kids could pipe their own mortar onto the structures.  Logo was pretty sure he wasn't going to be able to do it without help, but he proved himself wrong!

Here's Code-man, adding pastel mint-chip Christmas lights to the side of his gingerbread chapel.  Later, he added a bell to the bell tower (and ate the roof, since it kept collapsing on him--but not before making a valiant effort to save the roof, making braces from various edible materials, until it became obvious that nothing was going to work).

To the cloud!  Two out of four isn't bad, right, considering that I'm cloud-less?
Here are the finished structures...and Pal eating a grandma cracker.

Oh, how lovely...a beautiful Christmas display. 
Looks like that camel is about to take a bite out of Code-man's chapel, doesn't it?

We had so much fun!  Really.  I wasn't expecting to, because generally when we do projects of this type, the children need too much help for me to actually enjoy the process.  After all, there are 4 of them, and I only have 2 hands (and only one brain, which is the real problem).  But it was so great to witness each child use his individual creativity to create his own unique creation (whoops, where's my human thesaurus now?).  I think the real joy came from letting go of any preconceived ideas I might have of how this process should go, and just letting the activity unfold through the ideas and actions of the kids.  It's really not about the finished product, not at all.  It's about the process, and, even more, about spending time with some of my very favorite people.

Stay tuned...up next, Best Morning, part 2.

Gingerbread Week

I just had the best morning...but I can't tell you about it, yet.  I was going to do just one big gingerbread post, but judging from my brother's rate of blogging already this month, now that he's tasted victory, he's competing in earnest.  And I can't let him win in the last month of the year, can I?  Got to keep up my momentum, such as it is.

So meet my new friends, Cookie and Gillian:

You're right: it's really Bubby and Pal with their new gingerbread friends in front of their faces.  We were channeling our inner Frugal Family Fun with this fun and inexpensive project.

First, I cut gingerbread shapes out of paper grocery bags, and then I held two shapes together, while the kids punched holes around the perimeter.  Next, we decorated our ginger boys, using craft supplies we already had on hand...and boy, did we decorate!

Elmer's school glue (I would use tacky glue if I were to do this project again) was used in copious amounts, as well as pom poms, cotton balls, sequins, googly eyes, beads, and foam shapes.

Next, I glued the shapes together, leaving an opening for stuffing.  I stuffed them with pages from the Fleet Farm ad (the best store ever), and glued the opening closed.  If I were to do this activity again, I think I would have done the gluing and stuffing before the punching and decorating.

Next, the kids laced their gingerbread boys together and...

Voila!  Cookie and Gillian were born.

Bubby and Pal played with their new friends for the rest of the day, and discovered that ginger boys enjoy riding on dinosaurs and soaring through the air, among other fun things.

Thanksgiving

Our family had kind of an unconventional Thanksgiving weekend this year.  We didn't go anywhere, and no one came to visit us, so it was just our little family, and we were free to do as we pleased, without regard to tradition or convention.  The kids didn't have school on Wednesday, so we spent the morning at our favorite inflatable playground, after which we ate lunch out, and then I dragged the boys along with me to Michael's (that's a craft store, just in case you didn't know) to dream and be inspired (I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who left feeling inspired).

We spent Thursday at a water park, which was so much fun--we splashed and played the day away.  It was a little odd; each time someone wished me a "happy Thanksgiving," I felt a little jolt, and thought, "yup, it is, isn't it?"  I kept forgetting.  We ended up at Old Country Buffet for supper, because it was the first place we came to that was open at 6:15 on Thanksgiving--it was the first time for Logo and Bubby, and Code-man was too young to remember having been there, so it was new for all of them, and they were just so tickled with the concept.  "You mean, we can have whatever we want, as much as we want?" was a frequent refrain.  The slushies and soft serve ice cream were particular favorites.

For the rest of the weekend, we played in the snow, we painted a room, we watched movies, we played games, we got our Christmas tree, Code-man had a friend spend the night.  This was seriously the best Thanksgiving I've had in a long time, maybe even ever, because I was able to just enjoy the things I am most thankful for: my family, our home, the fact that we have all that we need and more.

Just as an aside: this was definitely a "to the cloud" moment.  There was something wrong with someone in each of the pictures we took--I decided this was the best one, despite Bubby's face being hidden, but it sure would have been nice to be able to just click a few times and have everyone looking their best in one shot...

We had our turkey meal on Friday--I don't think Hubby was ready to go as far as to forgo that particular tradition, although I would have been just as happy without.  It wasn't particularly difficult to get the meal on the table, which was a relief--when we're sharing it with extended family it always seems like such a cacophony of chaos ensues in the minutes before we sit down to the Thanksgiving meal.  It wasn't a particularly extravagant meal--we did have a few extras on the table, but nothing out of the ordinary.  Even so, as we sat down to pray before our feast began, it stuck me as entirely ridiculous that on Thanksgiving we show how thankful we are for all that we have by gobbling up as much of it as we possibly can.  It seems a more appropriate response would be to show our thankfulness by sharing our abundance with others who have less to be thankful for.

I think my friend Liz (oh my goodness, I used someone's real name in my blog!  What has gotten in to me?) has the right idea.  This year, for the third time, her family spent the morning of Thanksgiving participating in the Walk to End Hunger at MOA.  Liz strives "to be an example of compassion and generosity even if it’s only an example for [her] children," and I think in this, she has succeeded.

No, I don't think we should do away with Thanksgiving--there is something to be said for enjoying a special meal in fellowship with family or friends, but I do think that if we are truly thankful for the extravagant generosity of our Creator, our natural response will be to give thanks for what we have been given, and to mirror God's generosity with our own, extending our bounty to others beyond our circle.

**Special thanks to Sawblock for assisting with this post in his capacity as human thesaurus

Boys in the snow

For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of two of my favorite boys playing in the snow this afternoon...I'll post a video of them someday (but, of course, that will require that I first find my jump drive (which is harder to do now that some kid (who shall remain nameless) pulled the lanyard off of it), and then find time to go to the library unaccompanied by kids.  *sigh*  Could be a while).  I would post some pics of Logo and his friend Thing 2 playing in the snow, but they're just too fast to be captured on camera :-)

A snow friend from the past

Everybody slept in this morning.  Why does this only happen on weekdays?  My little alarm clock used to be so reliable, although I wasn't too happy at the time about him being stuck on at 5 a.m.  (Actually, to tell the truth, he did wake me up at 5:23 this morning, but then we fell back asleep, and didn't wake up until 7:30).

So here's a picture of my little alarm clock, back when he was waking me up at 5 a.m. daily.  I was looking through pictures of winters past for a snowy red pine background for my blog, and just couldn't resist sharing this with you.  This was taken in March of '07, so the alarm clock was almost 4, Code-man was 6, and Bubby was -7 months.  Oh, and the snow friend was probably about 5 minutes old :)

Little Green Monsters

What is this little green monster up to?

 Ah, painting toilet paper tubes, what else? 

(and no, Hubby, we can't stop collecting toilet paper tubes.  Who knows when we might *need* them?)

 (Oh, and everybody else, don't tell my husband I've got a growing collection of cardboard egg cartons stashed away--who knows what he'd do if he found out?  Like, I bet he'd try to recycle them or something drastic like that)

 And look, he has a friend with him--she also appears to have green hands.

 Hmmm...seems like those kids are always painting around here...and yes, this part of the process soon evolved (or de-volved?) into finger painting as well.

 And now, after several days of painstaking labor, the big reveal.  Ta Da! 

The finished project: Advent calendars.

Thank you to Kendra at My Insanity for the inspiration, and to Nicole, Andi, and Jamie for their moral support and assistance in my quest to find materials.

I think they turned out cute, if a little cheesy, and, as Andi assured me, the cheesier the better for kid craft projects :-)  In fact, I like these ones so much, I might just shell out the money to make a permanent one for our family. 



Happy Advent, everyone!

Brownie Pecan Pie

I'm not a football expert, or anything,  but I think the Vikings would have had a better chance of winning if their quarterback had been on the field...

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I think that pecan is both my dad's and my father in law's favorite kind of pie.  I like it, too, but it always seems like there's something...missing.  That's why I was excited to try this Brownie Pecan Pie recipe--everything's better with chocolate, right?  A few days ago, I asked my husband if he would eat this pie if I made it.  He told me no.  I was a little hurt, but thought, good, more for me!  Yesterday, while Hubby was at the game, taking pictures of quarterbacks cavorting with the fans instead of stomping their feet on the field, I put it together.  Then, while Hubby was at the Cub Scout meeting, discussing who knows what, I tried a piece.  So good--you've got to try it, too!



Black Forest Brownie Pecan Pie

1 c. light or dark corn syrup

1/2 c. sugar

1/8 t. salt

4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate, broken into pieces (I used ~2/3 c. semi-sweet choc. chips)

3 T butter or margarine

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1 t vanilla extract

1 c coarsely chopped pecans (I used ~1 c. chopped, + ~1/2 c. halves)

1 Keebler Ready Crust Graham 2 Extra Servings Pie Crust (or make your own graham cracker crust)

1. Combine corn syrup, sugar and salt in a small saucepan.  Bring mixture to boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.  Boil for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat.

2. Add chocolate and butter to syrup mixture, stirring until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.  Let cool for 5 min.

3. Pour chocolate mixture slowly over eggs, stirring constantly.  Add vanilla and pecans; mix well.  Place pie crust on a baking sheet or pizza pan (for stability).  Pour mixture into crust.

4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes, until center of pie is slightly puffed; cool at least 1 hour.  To serve, top each slice of pie with about 1/4 c. cherry pie filling and a dollop of whipped cream, if desired (we skipped the cherries, and added a scoop of vanilla ice cream).

So when hubby got home, he did end up trying a piece.  After a few bites, he found me and said, "is this the pie I said I wouldn't eat if you made it?"  I replied in the affirmative.  Oh, he said, this is good!

Spending decisions

We went to Logo's 2nd & 3rd grade concert, "The Principal and the Pea," on Tuesday.  It was so much fun!  The kids did a great job, and so did Miss P, their music teacher.

Here's Logo.  He did a fantastic job speaking slowly and clearly as he said his line, "our principal knew this school from ceiling to basement."  It was fun watching him during the songs, too.

There is something so wonderful about the first accumulating snowfall of the season--doncha just love it?

And...knowing my audience, I would guess at least half of you are now screaming "no" at your computers.  By the way, I can't hear you.

And, I couldn't resist this one.  Here's a headline from last Sunday's Pioneer Press: "Mind-body link revealed in spending decisions."  It was an interesting enough headline for me to start skimming the article (you will notice that it is a full 6 days after this particular article was published, so maybe not so very interesting).  Here's the opening line: "Economists once assumed consumers make rational money decisions based on what's best for them." (emphasis added)

Are they serious?  Economists really thought that?  In which theoretical world were they living, and which mind-altering drugs were they ingesting?  I can count on the fingers of one hand the people I know who, on a regular basis, make rational money decisions, and I'm pretty sure that I don't know anyone who always makes rational money decisions.  And what the heck is a "rational money decision," anyway?

"It turns out spending decisions often can be less about number-crunching math and more about touchy-feely emotions and the mind's link with the body."  Well, thank you consumer researchers, and thank you Pioneer Press, for that insightful illumination of our nation's spending habits.  You heard it here, folks!

Walk

I think I may have mentioned that Pal & Bubby like to wave at the Waste Management driver every Monday morning.  Generally he comes by either as we're waiting for the bus or right after the bus has gone by, but yesterday he was late, so Pal suggested that we take a walk to find him.  I love to walk, so I agreed, even though I wasn't wearing very good shoes, and off we went.  Along the way, I noticed some interesting seed pods, including some milkweed pods, that I just couldn't resist collecting for tomorrow's project.  The kids noticed some coyote or wolf poop on the road, so we spent some time examining it, then compared it to the horse poop in our neighbor's field.  It was a beautiful day for a walk, even so early in the morning, and eventually the Waste Management truck came by.  This was kind of an aberration in our day, as we've fallen out of the habit of taking a daily morning walk, but a welcome one--I miss it.

It seems Bubby misses our walks, too.  This morning, after the big yellow bus had swallowed up his big brothers, Bubby insisted that we needed to take another walk to get more milkweed.  Now, as I mentioned before, I love to walk, and today is another beautiful day, but I hadn't expected Bubby to want to take a walk this morning, and I hadn't showered yet.  This normally would be of no consequence, however, there was somewhere we needed to be at 9 a.m.  I agreed, telling Bubby that we needed to make it a short walk, so we could get home. 

Now, normally, I'm the one who is egging us on to walk farther.  We will agree, for instance, to walk just to the next mailbox and then turn around, but when we get to the next mailbox, I will suggest that we walk to the yellow sign, and so on.  Today, it was Bubby who kept insisting that we walk farther.  To make this long story short, we didn't arrive back at home until 8:55, and, since there are no showers out on the side of the road, I did not get a chance to shower before we had to head out to our appointment.  I did take the time to change out of my PJ pants, though :-)  I did find some more lovely seed pods, the kind that I had seen on a blog and admired, and wondered what kind of plant they came from, and hoped that I would be able to find around here.  And yes, most assuredly, these lovely seed pods were there yesterday when we passed by, but I didn't see them until today.

Isn't that always the way?  Here was a good thing, a thing that I love to do, this walk, a gift from God on this lovely day, and yet, it wasn't on my terms.  I wasn't expecting this good gift today, and I wasn't ready for it.  So many times in my life, God has been ready to give me some good gift, and because of my need to control, because I'm not ready to receive the gift, because it's at an inconvenient time, I have politely declined.  What?!  Seriously, if God wants to give me a good gift, who am I to refuse?  And yet, time and again, I have.  But today, because I was open to hearing God's voice in the voice of my 3 year old boy, because I yielded my desires and my agenda, I have received this beautiful gift.  Friends, what good gift does God seek to give you this day?  And will you receive it?

Our feathered friends

So, did you guess what we were going to do with the gourds?

We made turkeys!  Isn't that fun?



Pal's turkey has 3 eyes.  I'm not sure why.  He also has about 7 legs.  I'm guessing she likes drumsticks?



This guy's my favorite--I think because he was made from my favorite of the gourds.

Our feathered friends

Just in case you were wondering, hot glue does not stick very well to gourds--I recommend tacky glue.  I thought you might find that tidbit useful.

Crafty October

Before I share my crafty pictures, let me just say that I'm really liking our new staggered bedtimes.  Last year at this time, all three of our boys were supposed to be getting into bed at the same time, which was actually fine when we had two parents around--two bedrooms, two parents--but was not so much doable when I was parenting solo.  Now, we put the youngest to bed, then put the next youngest to bed 15 minutes later (a little strange, as they're sharing a room, but it works), and then the third youngest goes to bed 15 minutes after that.  It's so nice to be able to get everyone read to, and everyone into bed "on time," while also being able to keep the distracted ones on track, even when my partner in parenting isn't around.  In fact, sometimes, even when we do have two parents around, one parent (Sawblock) does all of the bed-putting-in, giving the other parent (me) a much appreciated break.  Ahhh.  It is so refreshing to find a routine that works.

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And speaking of routines that work, I am also loving my Five Dinners in One Hour free trial week.  I don't want it to end.  Michelle, the author of 5 Dinners in One Hour, has developed menus that allow her to prepare 5 dinners in 1 hour.  She sent me a free trial menu that includes recipes for things like turkey bacon swiss croissants, slow cooked Asian pork chops, and black bean and corn quesadillas, a grocery shopping list, and instructions for how to put together 5 meals in just one hour.  And it's not just the main course--each meal is nutritionally balanced, with protein, starches, veggies, and fruits--yum!  I put together 4 of the meals yesterday in less than an hour, including the time spent getting all of my supplies out AND cleaning up.  Each day, there's minimal additional work to be done to get the meal on the table, but I've got all of my meals just waiting for me in the fridge.  Talk about Ahhh...it's nice to have all of these meals waiting for me at the end of a long day, but what's even better, from my distracted, full-brain perspective, is someone else telling me what we're going to have, and someone else making my grocery list.

If you want to try it, you can get the free trial week menu here.

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And now, the moment you've all be waiting for...

OK, maybe not.

A wonderful thing has happened in my life.  The integration of Pal into our daily lives has spurred me on to more creativity.  You see, I love making stuff.  Making stuff, I think, is what I like the very best in the whole world.  But making stuff, when you have small children, is...difficult.  If you try to make stuff without them, well, you have to figure out somewhere else for them to be.  I have such small chunks of time in my life that are child-free, that, by the time I would be able to get my supplies out and get started, it would be time to put it all away again because the children would be back. 

Making stuff with children, is even more of an issue, because the grown-up spends so much time setting up the craft, cleaning up from doing the craft, and policing the children during the craft to make sure that paint doesn't end up on the ceiling, or popsicle sticks don't end up glued permanently to the table, or pompoms don't get lodges in nostrils, that it just isn't fun, and it's soooo not worth it.  For instance, the other day, I spent 20 minutes setting up an art project, then about 20 minutes cleaning up the art project when it was over.  The next day, I spent another 30 minutes putting the finishing touches on the art project.  All of that, for about 20 minutes of kids being creative.

But Pal...Pal makes it worthwhile.  Now I'm setting up and cleaning up for the same amount of time, but it's for two children, so I can divide my effort by two.  The other day, Bubby's friend Car came over, too, so I was able to divide my effort by three.  For instance, in my above-mentioned art project, sure, I spent over an hour on it, for only 20 minutes of kid activity, but it was 3 kids, so it was really an  hour of kid activity.  Much more worth-while (or so I tell myself).

Have I expounded on that enough?  Explained it into the ground?  Basically, having Pal around has given me a mental excuse to get creative with my kid.  Yay, Pal!

I'm not going to acknowledge each project, so let me just say that my inspiration this month came from:

Valerie at Frugal Family Fun Blog

Patrice, Erin, Tiffany, and Jessica at Lemon Tree Creations

Family Fun

and Maya at Maya*Made

Owl playset--yes, Hubby, I *am* saving the toilet paper tubes for something...

Bubby & Pal wore these pumpkin bracelets to a Halloween concert

Making fruit of the spirit apples

I love how the sun shines through these in the morning

Fingerpainting (isn't she cute?!)--I'm not sure Pal had ever fingerpainted before--
she wasn't quite sure what to do, at first.  As you can see, she figured it out :-)
Thanks to Aunt Chip and Uncle Bubub for the fingerpaints

I love this one!  First we painted with watercolors on coffee filters (might as well, since we don't use 'em for coffee), then cut the filters into leaf shapes.  Next, Bubby and Pal cut paper bags into branch shapes (I got them started with the trunks) and glued them to a piece of paper in the shape of a tree, and finally, they glued the leaves onto their trees.

Here's the aforementioned time-intensive project...my tree trunks kind of look like hands, don't they? 
Next time, I'll trace the kids' hands for the tree trunks. 
What am I saying?  Next time?!  Am I nuts? 

These are for tomorrow's project. 
Can you guess what we're going to do with them?

And that's not all...but it is all for now.  Gotta get some sleep so I'll have energy to guide those children as we transform our gourds tomorrow.