The Daughter's Project

Emmy won a big magnet board at school last week. She painted it very cute to match her room but forgot to take a before picture (I thought I'd trained her better than that!) So she took a picture of the back side, which looks almost like the front side did before she beautified it :)

BEFORE (sort of)

AFTER

So cute!

D lists household tasks children 12 and older can manage...*Plan menus and prepare meals for a day *Do the grocery shopping *Manage the house for a day *Plan a family activity or vacation *Watch younger children *Work with an adult to learn how to do such things as hem a pair of slacks, follow a recipe, change a furnace filter, or repair a faucet.

That reminds me, it is time to change the furnace filter...I should totally have the daughter do it.

Creating Cards

Today was a really great day.

I took my 2nd nap of the year.

It was amazing.

The kids asked me if I was sick.

The daughter made this very fun patriotic crepe for dinner.

It's been quite the creative day around here.

For over a year I've been meaning to start attending my friend Debbie's card making classes.

I love homemade cards but the thought of coming up with an idea, shopping for all the supplies, and then cutting everything out--makes me want to take a nap.

Debbie does all the work and then all I have to do is assemble.

She's amazing.

Thanks Debbie!

BEFORE... and THE TOOLS




And this would be my friend Denise displaying an unfinished project of her own...and won't it be so cute once it's completed!


THE PROCEDURE

First I managed to set my arm right on top of the ink pad.

Making the cards was so easy!

I gathered all my materials and assembled 6 cards.

2 of each.

It was painless.

The only thing that would have made it better is a bag of peanut M&M's.

Apparently it was BYOBOM&M's.

I didn't get the memo.

AFTER...

Isn't this guy the cutest thing ever!

And here I am...displaying all that creativity

along with a big wad of blue gum.

D shares this poem...

Promise yourself success

At the beginning of each day.

And you'll be surprised how often

Things turn out that way.

--Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

A nap + 6 homemade cards = a very successful day :)

The Flower Holder

D suggests... A part of every child's memory should be some times spent entirely alone with either Mother or Daddy. Perhaps this could be while younger children are napping or being privileged to remain up a few minutes after bedtime for special companionship. Or maybe this time together could be during a shopping tour with Mother...

I took D's advice and took my 8 year old shopping, just the 2 of us, while we were on our girls trip last week.

She named all of the mannequins.

BEFORE...

With 4 girls we have lots of these floating around the house...

With the help of the 5 year old we gathered up as many as we could find.

THE TOOLS


THE PROCEDURE
I just glued some ribbon for a "hanger" and then pinned some ribbon for the flowers to clip on to. It's nothing fancy but it should remedy my current flower frustrations.

AFTER...

I may need to make one more when all of the other flowers show up, but for now, problem solved!

Love Those Shelves!

BEFORE...

There is more work to be done in the laundry area but I couldn't stand these Christmas cards up not one more day! I told myself I couldn't take them down until I was ready to clean the shelf above them so today is the day!

I LOVE cute shelves! I've put up a lot of shelves over the years--actually it's my dad who hangs them for me. Every time we hang a shelf he says, "Do you want to paint the top of this? "No", I always say, "Who's going to see it?" So, yet another secret is out, I NEVER paint the tops of my shelves.

See those Christmas lights...I put them up 4 years ago for a little mood lighting in the evenings. They stopped working about 2 years ago. It's about time I took them down.



Oh the dust! It's been so long since I cleaned this shelf and the stuff on it that much of the dust has evolved to grime...there aren't many things worse than grime.



THE TOOLS







THE PROCEDURE

I removed my Christmas cards and took all the items off the shelf. Then we (I had a cute little helper today) began cleaning the shelf and everything that was on it.




My type of craft project...a little ribbon, some mini clothes pins and WALAH your very own Christmas card displayer!



D says an IH has the courage to be happy and strives to live above the grievous faults and moodiness, sulkiness, and complaining. She is gracious and thoughtful and is consequently adored by her family and admired by all who know her.
It would seem I have some work to do in this area. A couple of my family members did not admire the way I arranged the new items on my shelf...in fact they criticized my creative work! I wasn't gracious or thoughtful in my reaction--I gave them both a pretty dirty look.
Maybe I should apologize for that.




AFTER...




My 5 year old informed me "It's not springtime mom!" So I took down most of the spring/summer stuff and replaced them with my very humble collection of snowmen.

Tomorrow, we deal with the "Coat Hallway".