It's the simple things

I have been busy today finishing up some carseat covers. Tansley, my 3 nearly 4 year old found a discarded piece of material and asked if she could have it.

The scrap of material as she found it.

 I told her that she could and off she went and I continued sewing. About a minute later she returned and asked if I could put some velcro on it to make a bib for her Fluffy. I have been know to say "When I am done doing what I am doing, then I will do what you want me to do." But today I chose differently. Maybe it was because I felt sorry for her because she has been sick all day with a headache(which I think is totally unfair for a 3 year old), fever and achy muscles. But I'd like to  think that it was because I am trying really hard to be a better mom. A more attentive mom. A more patient mom. A mom that just stops what she is doing and takes 30 seconds to sew a little piece of velcro on a scrap piece of material. So, I put the car seat cover aside, found some velcro a put a little piece on, and voila! A bib.

Tansley and her Fluffy(the cat) and Yellow(the dog)

Tansley was so thrilled, off she went to put it on her Fluffy and I started on the carseat cover again. A minute later she was back asking if I had another scrap of material to make a bib for her Yellow(she comes up with very creative names for her creatures). We found another piece of material and I made another bib. She told me how much she loved me, gave me a hug and headed upstairs to show her older sister, who then wanted me to make a couple of bibs for her creatures. Another few seconds and I had another child tickled pink. I am still not finished the carseat cover, but that's OK, I'll get back to it now that the kids are in bed. 

The recipe for the yummy cookies in the previous post

Peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies
1 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chunky peanut butter
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup rolled oats
at least 1 cup of chocolate chips
preheat oven at 350F. Beat together margarine and sugars. Add eggs and beat until smooth, add peanut butter and mix well. Gradually sift in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips and rolled oats, mix well. place on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

PS. The video is on my facebook page if anyone wants to see it.

I may have done this in the wrong order.

Kymberly was a mess after supper...as usual, so I put her and Tansley in the tub while Kathryn and I worked on her collages in the previous posts. When the kids got out of the tub it was still pretty early...too early to put them to bed. So of course they wanted to know what they could do. I remembered that I had promised that we would make cookies or something today, so I suggested that we make cookies. Kathryn wanted peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. So away we went. Kymberly got right into it. I took video, but it is too large to be uploaded here, I'll see if I can cut it down. Here are the pics of our cookie adventure, after bath and before bed, good planning!

Kymberly getting right in the fun

Kymberly mixing the butter and sugar

Peanutbutter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Picking in the dough...Don't tell Daddy :)

The finished product

The beginning of a chocolate covered face

The Letter 'B'

The Letter B

Again this kid is creative. She had more pictures but I can only put 16 in a collage. How many 'B' words can you find?

The Letter 'P'

The Letter P

Kathryn got creative and tried to get some pictures of her 'picking' up something and 'putting' down something. She's also got a picture of a 'person' and something 'pretty'. Do you know which is which? How many 'P' words can you pick out?

Keeping Kathryn busy

Fancy Pillows

Kathryn has been out of school all week. She's been begging me all week for something to do. Yesterday we made pillows. She had seen some pillows like it at a store and had asked if I could make one for her
sometime. So when she was bugging me for a craft to do, I suggested that we look at my fabric box and see what there was to make a fancy pillow out of. She helped me lay out the fabric. I cut it out. she helped me pin it. And then I had her sit on my lap and push the foot pedal of my serger to put it all together. We made a pretty good team. She loves sewing, and I would have had her do it on her own little machine, but this fabric was more than her machine can handle. I had both Tansley and Kathryn pill the pillows with foam bits...what was messy. Kathryn helped me pin the opening closed and she did the hand stitching to finish it off. She did a pretty good job. This is how they turned out.

The girls enjoying their new pillows

Today, she's been bugging me again for something different to do. We went for a walk, went to the library and post office. But again, just while I was taking a moment to check my email and favorite blogs she's wanting to know if I have a craft for her to do. Both Kymberly and Tansley were napping. The first thing I see is this great idea on I never grew up. Kathryn loves taking pictures. For the past 4 summers she has documented our vacations with her own cheep film camera. So for Christmas we invested in a fairly inexpensive digital camera for her to use for such occasions. So I put her to work taking pictures with her camera. We start easy. I want her to go around the house or yard and take pictures of any thing she sees that starts with the letter 'P'. After she figured she had found everything she decided to start on the letter 'B'. We are going to work on putting them together after supper in a collage. We'll post therm when we are done. 

She might be trying to tell me something.

I just finished feeding the girls a very uncreative lunch of mac n' cheese. Kymberly was squawking from her highchair, but my bread machine was beeping at me to tell me to add the chocolate chips and nuts to my banana split bread, so I told her to wait just a second. I promptly hear the sound of her bowl and spoon being thrown on the floor, followed by the sound of fake snoring. I finished what I was doing and turned around to see her with her head down, laying on her folded arms and she is pretending to snore. hmmm...Do you think she might want to have her nap?

25 things about Me and my sexy hunk

This is kind of like the 25 things - except there are pre-decided questions and it's about you and your spouse or significant other, not just you. Come on, play along - inquiring minds want to know! ;-) Just copy this post into your own notes & change the answers! And Tag friends in relationships!!!

♥ What are your middle names?Mine-Kim, Daniel- is his middle name
♥ How long have you been together? Married for 7 1/2, dated for 2 before that.
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? About 8 years
♥ Who asked who out? I guess I'd have to say that Daniel asked first...put me on hold for awhile, and then I was determined to let him start things up again...and he did...smart man:).
♥ How old are each of you? We are both 32, but I am older than Daniel by almost 3 months.
♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? about the same of each, they almost all live in Lethbridge and area.
♥ Do you have any children together? 3 girls...much to Daniel's dismay, but he loves them
♥ What about pets? Two cats, both male(to try to even things out) Skyreach and Ranford
♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Daniel commuting into Lethbridge for work, It's ruff, but we would change where we are, we make it work.
♥ Did you go to the same school? Yes
♥ Are you from the same home town? Yes...but from different sides of the tracks. I lived on the northside, or the "bad" side, he lived on the southside, but came to school on the northside...he just wanted to be with the rest of us "bad" kids...he fit in better with us.
♥ Who is the smartest? Well, I did graduate from University, and Daniel hasn't done a day of post secondary educations....so....it's me :)
♥ Who is the most sensitive? Daniel, he's always crying in movies, especially when it comes to kids(little girls). But I usually am too...but I am a girl I am supposed to.
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? at our house...we don't get to do that much anymore, but we do like Eastside Marios.
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Cape Spear, Newfoundland, The farthest east point of Canada.
♥ Who has the worst temper? That would likely be me. He just gets silent and cleans the house spotless when he is mad...sometimes a mad Daniel can be benificial :)
♥ Who does the cooking? Me, me and me.
♥ Who is more social? Daniel, but I like to think that I am a close second these days.
♥Who is the neat Freak? Neither of us...it's not that we don't like to have things clean...it just doesn't happen.
♥ Who is the more stubborn? Most definitely Daniel, but again I am a very close second.
♥ Who hogs the bed? I think that Daniel does, I'm always curled up on the edge. But he says that I do and that he is always on the edge.
♥ Who wakes up earlier? Me, always me.
♥ Where was your first date? He came to my house on a bike, we went for a walk to the Lions park and swung on the swings, we sang the national anthem really loud.
♥ Who has the bigger family? Me, I have one sister and six brothers. Daniel has 4 brothers.
♥ Do you get flowers often? yep, just got some on Saturday. But he surprises me often for no reason.
♥ How do you spend the holidays? For Christmas be alternated between families, they are both in Lethbridge so it is easy to get to them both. For the summer we camp as much as we can.
♥ Who is more jealous? Neither.
♥ Who eats more? Depends on what we're eating. Cheesecake...totally me!
♥ Who does/ did the laundry? Me, me and me.
♥ Who’s better with the computer? ME! I better have learned a thing or two after 3 years of computer science
♥ Who drives when you are together? Always Daniel.

60+ years of love

I'm not sure how I missed this. After all I live right here in southern Alberta, you think I should have seen it on our local news, but no, I didn't. I had to read my cousin's (who lives in Moses Lake, Washington...thanks Kimber for keeping me in the loop) blog, to find out that my Grandparents were on the news for Valentines day. It's really a sweet clip, so go take a look...if you haven't already seen it.

Valentines Breakfast

Pink Pancakes in a pan

Blood Oranges

When I was a kid, my mom sometimes made us fun breakfasts on Special days. Green pancakes on St Patrick's Day. Pink heart shaped pancakes on Valentines Day. Sometimes my mom may have got a little carried away and coloured more than just the pancakes in the festive colours. Today, I was that mom. I hadn't even thought about doing anything special for Valentines day breakfast, but then I saw these blood oranges at our little grocery store yesterday. And that set my brain in motion, that's all it takes, just one simple thing to get my brain to start churning. So here is what I did for Breakfast this morning. Pink pancakes with chopped strawberries in them, but not in the shape of a heart, I tried...and failed. Pink scrambled egges, I used the new NEON food colouring drops, they make nicer brighter colours. I even added a few drops of red to the strawberry banana juice to make it red instead of orange.

 It was all very pink, but it tasted so good. When Kathryn saw it she said "But is it healthy?". Like making something pink suddenly turns it into candy or something. They all enjoyed it, infact they ate all their scrambled eggs and then asked for more...that doesn't usually happen.

The Pink Breakfast...very tasty

Fresh from my garden in February!

It is February 13th and we are still eating fresh carrots (never been frozen) from our garden.They are still crisp and tasty and not even growing yet.There is no need to ration them, in fact my only worry is that we might not be able to eat them all. So if you are having me over for dinner and you want me to bring something, it will likely have carrots in it.

Carrots in February

The last of the onions.

I have 3 more onions, again crisp and not yet growing. We were eating fresh tomatoes well into December, and would have been able to make it through until January if I hadn't left them in my garage when it got really cold and they froze solid (they are in my freezer now waiting to be made into tomato sauce). I love gardening. I love eating vegetables from my garden in the middle of winter. It is very satisfying.

The letter "R"

At the beginning of this school year, Kathryn was assessed and it was recommended that she start working with a speech pathologist because she could not make the "r" sound at all. She has been working really hard and very excited about it. I often would see her making funny faces and doing strange things with her lips and tongue. I'd ask her what she was doing and she'd say "I'm doing my exercises"(apparently she had a lazy tongue and lips). At first she began speaking with a very exaggerated "r", it sounded really funny and at times somewhat annoying. But she was trying really hard. and then one day about a week or so ago, I noticed that she wasn't speaking with an exaggerated "r" anymore. It's been 5 1/2 months. Her speech pathologist called me and asked if we could meet. So I went up to the school yesterday, and was told that Kathryn would be "Graduating" from her speech class. Her speech pathologist told me that she had never had any child improve as quickly and work as hard as Kathryn. Kathryn was eager to learn, to do what ever was asked of her. I told her about Kathryn doing her exercises all the time at home. She wasn't surprised. I am so proud of Kathryn. She worked so hard and didn't get discouraged because she had difficulties. She was just determined to fix it. As I listened to her read last night I paid particular attention to her "r" sounds. She sounded just like a regular kid. I guess her lips and tongue are strong now. It was all that work with the lip barbell. 

The Journaling class

Tonight I taught a class on journaling for a Relief Society Enrichment class. I had asked the Young Women to join us as well. The class went great. Here is my out line for anyone that missed it or is interested in doing their own.

Introduction

I believe that everyone has many stories to tell and that life grows richer with each story that is told. This is true not only for the teller, but for those who have the privilege of hearing or reading the stories as well.

As wonderful as it is to sit and talk with family and friends, many of our anecdotes will be lost if we don't take the time to write some of them down. When we write the stories of our lives, we take our sharing to another level.  Our memoirs can be a precious intergenerational gift for the whole family and can inspire other family members to preserve some of their own stories

There are many ways to record our stories and memories. There are of course your traditional journals where you record your personal life experiences. Blogging can be a form of journaling. Scrapbooking is also a way to record special moment and memories. Baby books are a great way to record the events of your childs life. You can keep a school scrap book that records the highlights of your childs school year, teachers, favorite classes, artwork, etc.(I had a display of the different kinds of journals I had, some of the other sisters shared art journals, gardening journals, and gratitude journals)

There is something about recording events that help etch them into your memory. I have a journal entry that I wrote on my ninth birthday about the gifts that I recieved, where I was, what I did. I remember that day very vividly. It is the only birthday that I can recall that clearly. It is also the only entry made about my birthdays as a young child.

 Anchoring Exercise (I played some soft meditation music while I guided them through this exercise)

Take a deep calming breath, relax.

Describe the experience of today.

How did your day begin?  Is today a typical day for you or is it unusual in some way?  Look around you.  What do you see, smell, and hear?

Who have you talked to today, or has it been a day of solitude for you?  What have you learned from the conversations you've had?  What have you learned from your solitude?  What feelings have come up for you today?

What has been enjoyable?  What has bothered you?  Write whatever comes into your mind.

Where did your mind take you?  Were you at all surprised by what ended up on the page? Which was longer, your description of what you enjoyed or what bothered you?

Sometimes our wisdom is able to speak louder to us during an anchoring exercise like this one because it is often the one pause we give ourselves to focus and reflect on the here and now.  Try to make the anchoring exercise part of your daily routine.  Pick a time of day which is a naturally good point to stop for a few moments and regain perspective.

Each story is an heirloom.

I think the most important thing in writing a journal is to put down the things that meant the most to you and perhaps changed or molded the person you are now; i.e. loved to go to grandparents' house?  Picture yourself in front of the house... what did it look like, what did it sound like when you went through the door... what could you smell....  why was it fun...  what do you see when you picture your grandparents standing there greeting you....  waving goodbye....  it is amazing how much information is stored in our brains that can come out if we quietly revisit in our minds...

Memories of a Place
Names
Traditions
Travel
Friends
Special Family Times
Pets
Parents
Parenting
Siblings
and much more!

If possible, pull out some old letters and photos to get a better feeling for times gone by.  Listen to some of your old records and make yourself a snack you've always enjoyed.  Sounds, tastes and smells are very powerful memory triggers

Describe some of the places you've lived, or a place that was especially memorable to you. Often, if we can mentally transport ourselves to meaningful places in our lives we are able to remember many events, or just simple day-to-day moments, that we otherwise might have completely forgotten.

What hung on the walls of your bedroom? What did you see outside you windows? Where did you like to read?  Did you like to climb trees?  When friends came over, where did you play?  What did you play?  Did you walk to school?  Take the bus?  Capture these moments!

Describe some of the "smaller things" you remember.  Sometimes people don't want to write about anything in their lives except the most exciting parts.  That's fine, but then your readers will miss out on the smaller details which, sewn together, give a more in-depth picture of who you were and are. Here is an example of a very simple, yet descriptive entry from my Great Great Grandmother, Katherine Love Paxman,

      "Richmond, April 19, 1885
                 Sunday morning, weather cool and cloudy, all nature seems hushed in quiet slumber and everything         seems to have assumed the look of quiet peaceful rest, on this, the day of rest."

Can you just feel that day? You can see it can't you? I bet you have experienced a similar kind of day. What a simple entry, yet it shows a bit of who she was.

As the memories come back, take as many notes as you can.  Remember to use all your senses.  What were the common smells in the kitchen?  Did you paint or color or play with clay in a certain room?  What was the texture of your favorite stuffed animal?  Do you remember the sound of your parents' car coming up the drive?  Or the sound of the ice cream truck?  What other sounds, smells, tastes and textures were part of your day-to-day life?

Meandering from room to room, into the yard and down the street, more and more memories will tumble into your mind like childhood cartwheels.

Journal prompts placed in a decorated jar are a great way to get started, especially if you feel overwhelmed by recording events from past years. Here are some Adult journal prompts, Youth journal prompts, Children(6-12) journal prompts, Children(2-6) journal prompts. Cut these word strips out and place them in your pretty jar. At least once a week, choose a slip of paper, paste it to the top of your page. Date your entry and answer the prompt. Remember to be descriptive. Think about the things that we have talked about. Allow yourself to relax and remember.

Another exercise that I have found useful, something that I picked up on Facebook, is to write 25 random things about yourself. I wrote my first list, and published it on my blog, and I found that over the next week I was thinking and remembering more random things. So I wrote a second list and published it on my blog. And wouldn’t you know it, that very night as I lay in bed, my mind was thinking of even earlier memories, I will be writing a third list.

After all the talking was done, I had the sisters decorate jars to put there journal prompts in. We had a realy great time and all the sisters that attended were excited to go home and get writing.