Encyclopedia of Me

This poster actually hangs in my office above my desk. You can click on it to enlarge it, but first I'll apologize profusely for the image quality. Sorry, and sorry, it's late at night and it's dark and I'm too excited to post this to wait until daylight for proper lighting. Moving on.

I bought it before I ever had children on one of many antique shopping days with my mom. I just love it. It's bunnykins-esque and authentically old. Anyway, I saw it and fell in love with it one day and determined it would hang in my children's nursery. But it didn't match the theme, and so loving it so much, I hung it in my office.

Kitty has a kettle. John has a jar of Jam. It makes me happy - even if they did mispell John, and used Kitty, Ann and Edward instead of some much more appealing K, A & E names - perhaps I'm biased!

So given my love for this ABC poster, I thought this idea I ran across recently sounded fun. And I think some of you will like it too!

I've seen several blogger's doing a series called "Encyclopedia of Me". As far as I can tell it started over at Bella Dia in 2007, before she became The Crafty Crow. And it's made another appearance recently.

The idea is to come up with an A-Z of you. Your daily life with your children, what makes you you, something from day to day life, it's really very open ended. Some letters might have more than one entry, some not. The original idea was to post one blog entry with the corresponding alphabetical letter each day for a month.

You know this is right up my alley! Not only would this be great for those of you who blog, but it would also work for scrapbooks for you and/or your kids; an A-Z of their school year, or just an A-Z of their personality or your family. What a great anthology!!

It's the beginning of the month, so this seemed like a good time to start. Are you with me? Let me know if this sparked some ideas of your own, or how you plan to do your own Encyclopedia of Me.

Guest Speaker Summary

If you missed GUM yesterday, you missed a great time! Careth T. came and spoke to us about parenting and discipline and a whole lot rolled into one.

I personally came away refreshed and with a new sense of purpose for my parenting. Here's the things that stuck out to me:

Be a Parenting Unit!
You and your spouse are in this together. Get on the same page. Whether it takes one discussion or a whole parenting weekend - take the time, and figure out where your coming from and where your going. What do you want your children's character to look like when they are teenagers and adults?

Build a Discipline Toolbox!
Our boxes might look different, but there should be a few different consequences used for discipline. Natural consequences is one that's been in my toolbox, but I forget to use. So I'll be working on honing that skill - or I'll be calling Tim or Christy (Careth's husband and sister - Natural Consequence Thinkers Supreme!) every couple days!

Be consistent! If you say it, enforce it. Period.
Do not undermine your spouse's authority by intervening during discipline.

Evaluate each child! and discipline accordingly.

Pick your battles, based on what's really important for building charachter. Fighting over shoes or mis-matched clothes at two is likely not the battle to choose. Uh-oh. I'm sorry you all had to hear that one too, I'm pretty sure it was meant just for me. Maybe not, but I certainly heard it loud and clear.

Careth also pointed us towards Dr. Kevin Lehman in conjunction with Focus on the Family, here's some things I've been looking at following this morning.

Successfully Handle Behavior Problems This series is a review of Dr. Kevin Lehman's work by Shauna Schutte and includes 4 follow up articles on Behavior and Strategies for different age groups. (Extra: more potty training tips in the follow-up articles!!)

Focus on the Family: Effective Biblical Discipline This page is a wealth of knowledge. Creative Disciplining Ideas, Approaches to Discipline, the Strong-Willed Child and more. If you need me, I'll be camped out here for the next week or so!

Parenting Adult Children And not to leave you mentor moms out - here's some articles for parents of adult children - Lord, help me make it here one day!!

We hope to have Careth back for some follow-up Q&A time soon!

A recipe

Today was cold! So cold that I had to bump my heat up. And turn on the oven. And then I wanted to bake something. You know, so I could use the oven to heat the house AND eat something yummy. But I was at a loss for something to bake. I bake a lot and I didn't want to make french bread or muffins or brownies or cake. Those things just seemed blah to me today (for shame, I know!). I need something that would last a while, and warm my heart.

Anyway, so I pulled out a couple of my cookbooks to look for recipes. I ended up reading my entire (yes, ENTIRE) 298 page, Flavors from the Foothills, Church of the Open Door Women's Ministry cookbook, circa 1992. There are some really fabulous recipes in there!! What was super fun, was I knew a lot of the women who contributed the recipes, like mentor mom emeritus Patti A.!

I didn't find the recipe my tummy might have been longing for. But the following recipe caught my heart and spurred the urge to write this post (before I head to my bed to snuggle down under the covers and watch a movie). It was exactly what I needed and I hope it warms your heart too!












RECIPE FOR RAISING CHILDREN
pg 233, Anonymous

Start with one child. (In case of twins, double recipe. For triplets, triple recipe.)
Gather equal parts of Love and Security.
Have on hand Discipline, Understanding, Patience and Togetherness.

Note: This recipe takes many years to complete.

Blend together Love and Security and apply it directly to the child. As the mixture is being raised, sprinkle on Understanding and Patience. As needed, fold in Discipline, but make sure the mixture is consistent. Too little may make the mixture thin and weak - too much may make it thick and stubborn. Continually roll the mixture in Togetherness. This keeps it from sticking to bad influences.

When this is completed, there will be no need to bake it. It will be ready to serve.
[italic's editors note]

Valentine Projects

Valentine's Day is approaching, and though I don't particularly like made up holidays, I do love love themed crafts! I've compiled a bunch of ideas from things I've already come across, and I hope you have fun doing some of these with your kids. Don't forget to tell them how much you and God loves them today!

The Crafty Crow - lots of glitter in these Valentine crafts! And tons of other posts with treats and all sorts of craft ideas - again, Crafty Crow is my favorite craft blog!!

Heart Cutting from Chasing Cheerios - for the younger crowd just learning to cut.
And some other heart themed activites from Chasing can be found here.

Need a cute idea for those class valentines? Here's one from A Very Country Christmas, "I dig You!"

Or this one from Saltwater Kids: We Make a Great Pair.

Also check out FamilyFun for some sweet treats, valentine printables and more.

Our first project here at home was Stained-Glass Heart Garland! It's a mish-mash of several projects I saw here and there. Here's how we did it:

Yesterday I laid out some wax paper for the girls and they shaved some old crayons on to it. Then I layered another piece of wax paper and then put it between two layers of paper bags or cardstock. Then I ironed lightly. (Recommendation...don't squish the crayon shavings too close together, spread it out if you really want that stained glass effect.)

Then we cut heart shapes, whole punched and strung them on ribbon. Here's the finished works of art. We had tons of fun doing this, and they're light enough to hang on my window blinds!
















What projects do you have planned?

Welcome Gwenyth & Nehemiah!

I'll let Lindsay make the announcement in her own words:

It has been a few days & life is a little nutty, but AMAZING. Gwenyth Hope & Nehemiah Jackson were born on January 28th (their 36th week out of 40). Gweynth was born at 9:43pm weighing in at 5lbs. 11oz. 19in long and her brother Nehemiah followed at 9:58pm weighing 6lbs. 12 ozs. 18in long. They are both doing really well and are at home with us. We are all doing really well too. The girls love to help do all the mommy things and Titus is learning to play with his tools and footballs away from the babies :) He's adjusting wonderfully! Thank you for your prayers and your excitement we look forward to introducing them to all the wonderful people in their lives very soon!
Love, The Willmers

i just had to say...

HALLELUJAH!

just for Beth...

And if you're totally lost, this morning we watched Session4 of the Believing in God series by Beth Moore. And in her charasmatic, praise Jesus way, she commented to those of us not live in the studio audience, that you can say Hallelujah on the internet too. Just type it BIG. That's what those large fonts are for!

I hope you're believing:
God is who He says He is.
God can do what He says He can do.
I am who God says I am.
I can do all things through Christ.
God's word is alive and active in me.

Rainy Day Activities

You know you're thinking about them right about now, here's a quick list I whipped up! What do you do on rainy days??

Make a fort or tent with sheets (read books with a flashlight or play games inside)

Make a train with a cardboard box

Finger paint with shaving cream and food coloring on a cookie sheet

Turn on some music and have a dance party; play freeze dance

Blow up balloons and play hockey or volleyball

Bake: anything!

Pour/Scoop/Measure: use a shoe box or similar container and dump some Rice/Beans or popcorn kernals in it, add spoons, measuring cups, strainers, etc (this requires supervision)

Collages: make paper plate collages with whatever you have on hand, cut up paper, tissue paper, cotton balls, and glue on a paper plate

Handprint/Footprint art: if you have butcher paper they can make feet trails or just use whatever paper you have!

Make Greeting Cards for the next holiday

Jewelry: Cheerios/FruitLoops necklaces/bracelets on string or pipe cleaner

Count the house: count all the windows/doors/beds/chairs/sinks/etc.

Bath/Bubbles: let him blow bubbles in the bathtub or take a bath

Doggy scavenger hunt: if you have a dog, hide some treats and then let him loose to find them

disney.go.com/preschool has games and videos

The Parenting Box

My parenting box refers to the resources (ideas, activities, tools, etc.) I've gathered to help me parent better. One of my favorite resources is a list of tried and true activities used when the kids are fussy or cranky or just need to be pointed in another playful direction.

Now I'm sure you never run out of things to do in your house. You likely have endless ideas and enthusiasm for playing and teaching your children - and if that's really the case....well, can I come live with you? But around here and at certain times of the year (like tax season!), my days seem really long. And I find myself wondering what am I supposed to do with these children?

Enter parenting box. It took some deliberate thought and lots of inquiries to build up my parenting box. And I'm so very grateful to every parent out there that helped me fill this box as its been a HUGE help to me as a parent.

Below you'll find 5 of my favorite, tried and true activities:

1. Bubbles - seems to be a great activity at any stage and works year round.

2. Rice/Beans/Pasta/Oatmeal Box - Take a fairly good size plastic storage box (mine is about the size of a shoe box) and fill it with your choice (or whatever is handy in your kitchen cupboards) of rice, beans, pasta or oatmeal. You can use a little food dye on all but the beans if you'd like which can make it even more fun. Include something to scoop, pour and fill. Dixie cups, old laundry detergent scoops, measuring spoons, etc. The younger the child the more hands-on supervision you'll need to provide - but these items are edible, so a taste here or there won't hurt. I started this when my first was about 18months, and she still pulls it out to play with.

3. Build a fort - now this comes with a warning. Once you do it once, be prepared you'll be asked to do it again, and again and again. Forts are big in my house, and you can make 'em out of all sorts of things, a couple of chairs with a sheet thrown over for one. When I was a kid, I used use the couch cushions as walls and make a couch fort - hours of fun! I think Emma was about 3 before I discovered this fun activity, but Audrey loves it too at just over 1.

4. Bathtime - sometimes we take more than one bath a day. Because bathtime, makes everyone happier. Our current favorite bath toys are rubber ducky's so of course we've got about a dozen different shapes and sizes we've collected here and there. But we've also had lots of fun with a couple of tupperware containers and a washcloth or two. Bubbles, bath confetti and bath dyes are also favorite special treats.

5. Cleaning with baby wipes - not only is this a great activity, but it teaches them hardwork, works on coordination, and saves you time. Both my kids love to take a babywipe to the kitchen cabinets or the floor. They'll "help" me clean almost anything I put in front of them. Just be sure to limit the number of wipes they can use or invest in the baby wipes industry.

So what's your favorite tried-and-true-never-fails-to-kick-the-fuss-right-out-the-door activity? Would you post it in the comments section so we can all grow our parenting box a little bit more?

Pick Your Own Oranges: Sat January 9 - 9am to 10am @ Heritage Park, La Verne
Saturdays starting January 9 until March 13
5001 Via De Mansion, La Verne

Tortilla Time: Family Fun Class @ the Arboretum - Sat. January 30, 10am - noon
$10 per member family/$12 non-member family, pre-registration required

Snow Day - Fri. February 19th, 5:30 - 8pm, Finkbiner Park, $6

Butterfly Brigade: Family Fun Class @ the Arboretum - Sat. March 20, 10am - noon
$10 per member family/$12 non-member family, pre-registration required

Spring Egg Hunt - Sat. April 3rd
Activities begin at 9am @ Finkbiner and Dawson Parks, Egg Hunt @ 10am

Grateful Monday

The gifts have been given, the decorations are put away, the 2010 goals have been made, the girls and I are reluctantly going back to our regular schedule and Jon headed back into the office this morning. I am always sad to see the holidays go, because I love the awe and joy and gratefulness that surrounds them, and the time spent with family and friends rejoicing. But mostly I'm sad to see them go because it means transition is around the corner.

Every January is a month of transitions in our house. Not only do we transition back into the regular daily routine following a vacation, but we begin to transition into tax season. We send Daddy back to work after having him home all the time, and as the weeks progress his hours will become longer and his work week will go from 5 to 6 days. It's hard on each of us in its own way, each year being different too.

And then it hit me. Like a billboard. Gratitude. The things in life that are hard to deal with are often things I could turn into gratitude. So this morning I am grateful, today I choose gratitude. I'll be taking time this year to record something I'm grateful for each day, and I know it will do me good to start off this season of transition with a little bit of gratitude.

I am grateful for today. I am grateful for another day to spend with my kids teaching them, playing with them and loving on them. I am grateful my husband has a job he loves and excels at, and I am grateful it provides enough for me to stay home. Thank you Lord for these things and all your blessings day to day, help me to recognize and remember them over the next few weeks, when the days are long and we all miss Daddy.

What are you grateful for on this Monday?

Psalm 136: 3-4
³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.
⁴ to him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.