F A M I L Y

So here is a little run down of the last three years of my life..... I graduated from school, got a job and my life got REALLY busy. So here I sit in front of my computer once again three years later being blessed with the opportunity to stay at home with my little girls for a few months over the summer before she starts Kindergarten in September. Little miss A had her Kindergarten orientation today, I am so excited as she begins her new venture in to school.

Where has the time gone?

There were many times over the past few years I've thought to myself I should write a blog post about this and that.... and well today I finally found something I think is blog, Pinterest, and Facebook worthy.... for a few reasons.

1. I'm so happy with the outcome.
b. I love my mom.
c. I have time!!! 
4. I want everyone to try this because it's sooooo easy :)

The story behind these canvas' is that about 8 years ago my mom bought 8 canvas' and asked all us kids to paint one so she could hang them nicely on the wall somewhere, needless to say we all did a horrible job and they sat in her storage room downstairs since and I know she was always a little disappointed. This year for her birthday I decided after spending countless hours on Pinterest and having millions of ideas of things to do, that it was time to pull them out (I really should have taken a before photo). 

My inspiration:

http://alittleartsy.blogspot.ca/2011/06/beatles-diy-abbey-road-art.html

http://mypartofspace.tumblr.com/post/24327072579/spray-paint-silhouette-leave 

You'll need.....

- Canvas' (however many you need)
- Paint (I used Martha Stewart paint from Micheals)
- Paint brushes
- One bowl per color
- Children (or yourself, mine was a family project, no pun intended!)
- Mack tack (I found mine at the dollar store)
- Scissors (to cut out letters and mack tack)
- Spray paint (I got mine from Micheals)
- Large plastic sheet (to spray paint over)
- Lots of love and a little patience

~

My project took about three nights, maybe an hour or so a night. 


First night I set up each of the kids with a canvas and some paint. Each kid got ONE color of paint, a brush and a small dab of white paint and clear glitter paint on the side. They were allowed to paint the front of their canvas however they wanted as long as each canvas only had the one color. 

* I will update the blog with a pic of the paint I used, I just can't seem to find my box of paint ANYWHERE!!

~

On the second night that was all my job, I took some time on the computer finding the right fonts for the letters that I wanted. I'll try and break it down for you if your not that handy with computers, I'm sure I'll miss some steps on the way but just comment if you have any questions. 

1.   Open Word
2.   Type out the word family or whatever your wanting, like so: F A M I L Y
3.   Make the word really big where it all fits on the screen.
4.   Highlight one letter at a time and go through the fonts till you find one that you like.
5.   Once you have found a font for each letter, make the letters big enough to fill your computer screen (one letter per page
6.   This is where it can get a little tricky, next I screen printed the screen and pasted it into paint.
7.   Then I used the dotted line square and highlighted around just the letter and cut it from the page.
8.   Now I opened powerpoint and copied the pic to a blank page (this is because the canvas is square so I wanted to be able to stretch the letter out to fit the whole 8" square).
9.   Once I figured out how big the letter needed to be (took me two times of printing the "F" to figure it out), I did that for each of the letters individually.
10. Then I cut each letter out.

* On a side note I'm sure you could use a kricket to cut out your letters, I just didn't have one and am pretty good messing around my computer to get the results i am looking for.

 ~

The third night was pretty fun! I got to trace out each letter onto the mack tack, cut the letters out of the mack tack, stick the letters to the canvas and then I got to do some spray painting!!! 

* when tracing the letters onto the mack tack MAKE SURE you copy the letters backwards so that when you put the sticky side down the letter is mirrored (the right way).

I only allowed the spray paint to dry for about 10 minutes before I took the mack tack off. They have amazingly clean lines, there was one spot of the "a" that I seems to have missed pressing the edges enough and I think a little on the "m". 

So that's it folks it's super easy, you could do a child's name, your fmaily name, any word you so desire and the best part is that it is all custom to what you want. I hope you half even half as much joy as I did seeing my finished project!!!

As always feeling blessed.

N

Arrr Matey!!

The course I'm taking right now is Observation and recording something something something... hahaha I don't actually remember the "proper" title. Either way, I was partnered up in a group with one other girl in my class, we got to pick our partner (I was doing a little happy dance in my head!!)... so my partner and I went to the centre last Wednesday and did a running record... 

On a side note.. this is what a running record is for those that don't know! It means you go and observe approximately 20 children and try to write down everything you can about what they are saying, what they are playing with, what seems to be interesting them, for 45 minutes! When you are done you have a whole lot of chicken scratch of various different things. Children are very busy as you can imagine, so trying to keep up with 20 of them for 45 minutes, it's a lot of work! That is a running record, time consuming but super useful!

Next we go back to class and go over our records, and sift through all the things we have written down and try to find a common interests among most of the children. This is what we had to work with...

• Glitter glue and children commenting that they LOVE glitter glue...
• Children playing Pirates in the dramatic play area...
• Two children were getting married and they were both wearing lots of jewellery...
• Two child were playing store, their main focus was collecting the money... 
• A few children were playing with a small box and pretending that it was a treasure chest...

So we took all our observations and found that they really liked shiny things, jewellery, glitter, money, and treasure. We needed to came up with something that would have all those things in one that children would be interested in. After a bit of thought we came up with the topic of "treasure chests". So now for the plan, we had to go back to the centre today and implement a provocation (another fancy word for activity) with the children. We decided on a circle. 

On another side note, so I'm at my friends house last night and I see this cute little leather bound box in the corner of her room, to me it looks like the perfect treasure chest, so I ask my friend if it is heavy, and then if I could borrow it. She was so kind to allow me to borrow it for my themed circle. We emptied it out and I brought it home. How cool would we be walking into a centre with a "REAL" treasure chest! And let me tell you the children thought "We were cool!"

So with pirate chest in hand and filled with fun goodies! We embarked on a journey of trying to contain 18 children. We had songs, stories and games. I spent a few hours yesterday with a whole bunch of felt, some scissors and lots and lots of glitter glue and made a Shape Matching Treasure Hunt game. 

The children enjoyed the game so much they asked to play it a second time, we did and then looked back after and decided that once would have been enough... hahaha it's all a learning process. The treasure chest was packed with goodies and we all had a good time. I think my favourite comment of the morning was from a teacher, she said "Wow you guys are making me re-think my circle skills and come up with some more interesting things to do with the children". I liked that because I have heard that it's easy to get stuck in a rut and doing whats comfortable working in a daycare setting, and the fact that something fun for me can breath life back into a teacher, it really is a blessing for the children.

At the end of the circle my friend Pete the Parrot came for a visit, he was calling children by their shirt color to go wash their hands and get ready for snack! Children love puppets and its kinda funny for myself to have to come up with a voice to speak for the puppet, hahaha I don't think I was successful there, I was laughing every time I went to talk. 

Hmm... What did I learn today... Oh I know... DON'T CALL THE CHILDREN WITH PINK SHIRTS FIRST, then your left with all the boys to entertain while the girls take their time in the bathroom! HAHAHA

Well have a great day, and I am off to enjoy this beautiful weather!

~Blessed~

N

Grab a tissue...

I was reading another blog tonight, I found it because I was sitting on facebook looking through differrent pages rather than doing my homework... busted... but anyways this is what I found... (and this is where I found it Prayers for baby Cooper)

grab a tissue...

How Preemie Moms Are Chosen 
by Erma Bombeck

Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen?
 
Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger.
 
"Armstrong, Beth, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. 
 Forrest, Marjorie, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia.
Rutledge, Carrie, twins. Patron Saint...give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."
 
Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a preemie." 

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."
 
"Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That would be cruel."
 
"But does she have the patience?" asks the angel.
 
"I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair.  Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."
 
"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."
 
God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect She has just the right amount of selfishness."
 
The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"
 
God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says momma for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see-- ignorance, cruelty, prejudice-- and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side." 

"And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air.
 
God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

 

Whirlwind....

Holy moley lately my life has been throwing me around like a rag doll, I feeling the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, I feel like things are so far out of my reach that I am just not capable of attaining them, and then it's like the hand of God reaches out and gives me something positive, or he answers a prayer. I feel like I am constantly battling with everything I am doing and being me isn't the way I should be. 

That thing that I always try to achieve is balance, I can fully and 100% admit I have none of that. If I focus my time on keeping my house looking clean, getting laundry done and cooking dinner every night for my daughter than I miss out on the other things like family and friends. I try to keep a happy balance between school, church, home and social life, but that doesn't work either. I have been working so hard on finding a way to heal from my past and grow through God to become the person he intended me to be. Is it weird that as I try to grow within myself that I am finding it harder to cope with the outside world, I am trying to be loving, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and have more self-control, but as I grow in these things I feel that I am continuously being attacked or brought down. 

Is my strength too powerful? Is my being content within myself intimidating? While I have made it my goal to give up the controls (of my life) and hand the wheel over to God, I find things more confusing than ever before. I shed tears daily for those that think I am against them. If only they knew my heart and what it is I wanted for them. If only they knew the love I felt for them, if only... If only... IF ONLY... I could go on for days but I wont. I don't want to. I will just keep praying that they will one day see my true heart. I will keep praying that who I am is good enough. I will pray that my love will keep growing. 

Wow what a bummer blog post so far... haha... I just needed a place to vent, a place for my thoughts to go, a place to let things go. I know that God has his hand on me and that all things will blow over soon enough. I know that at the beginning of anything it's hard to give up your control, but there will be brighter days and there will be happiness through the tears and heartache. I trust in Him and I put my life in his hands. He has done so much for me and I know he will continue to work through me. 

Ha a midday blog post, not like me to spout out on of those.


Through the storm I'm still feeling blessed!

N

Kiss Kiss!

We were doing language and literature in school way back in November, such a fun course, I have lots of useful resources for my days as an ECE...


We were supposed to make 2 puppets, I was on google looking around for ideas and came across this amazing puppet! 

Here is what I used, (vary material based on what you have at home):


KD box
Coloured foam sheets (could use any type of paper)
White computer paper
Hot glue gun
Hair elastic
Scissors
Ruler
Circle stencil (or free hand if you don't have a stencil)

1. So I used a box of Kraft Dinner cut through the middle making sure to leave one side of the box intact (don't cut all the way through, just 3 sides, I measured the box first to make sure if was even on both sides). 
2. Then I wrapped the whole box in paper so that the blue KD box wouldn't show through if there were any openings.
3. I measured and cut each piece of foam sheet to cover each side and gave each piece a letter so I wouldn't mix them up when gluing them after.
4. Heated up the glue gun and started gluing on the sides.
5. Then I cut out the smaller pieces for the eyes, the nostrils, the ears and the tongue.
6. When I was happy with the sizes of the small pieces I glued them to the box.
7. Then I cup the white paper into strips about 1cm thick, and rolled them up for the teeth. I glued the ends down and then hot glued them into place.
8. The hair elastic is so that your hand stays when you have the puppet on, i just hid it inside the mouth (the photo doesn't show the elastic, but I added it after and it helped keep the puppet on).
9. For the ears I just cut a small slit in the corner of the box and squished the folded circle into it and put some hot glue inside to hold it in place.

I think that covers the steps, if I missed something it should be pretty easy to figure out, if anything didn't make sense just comment and I will try and help. 


So after making the puppet I came across the book "Kiss Kiss!" by Margaret Wild & Bridget Strevens-Marzo and the puppet matched perfectly, the story was a hit in class with my adult class mates so I would imagine that it will be a hit with the little one's.

I know you can make other animals, like a tiger, a monkey, a giraffe, a cow, the possibilities are endless, my only thought was that the ears can't be too big other wise they may not stay intact if the children use the puppets, but let your imagination go and have some fun, I would love to see some other styles to grow my KD puppet collection. 

Rice and Meatballs.... :D

So I was trying to come up with a quick creative dinner last night, I had very limited amounts of food in my fridge/ deep freeze, this is what I came up with...


Meatballs
Teriyaki Ginger Marinade
Rice (Basmati)
Mushrooms
Green Onions
and a little honey


Put the rice on, preheated oven for the meatballs
Chopped mushroom and sliced the green onions,
Sauteed mushroom in garlic powder and butter,
Waited 15 min took rice off, put meatballs in the oven for 15 min,
Played with Amber,
When the rice was done I added the mushrooms and onions,
Took meatballs out of the oven and put them in the mushroom pan fried them up with the Teriyaki Ginger Marinade and a little honey,
Served meatballs with rice..

Sprinkled with sesame seeds and dinner was so easy and delicious.


Little Miss started to get bored of eating so I offered her sprinkles to add to her rice and then she kept right at her dinner so happy with her "sprinkle treats".... hahaha, needless to say she finished the whole bowl and my thought's were that she can have as many "sprinkle treats" as she wants anytime if it helps her finish.

 
Blessed :)

Dedicated or delusional, you be the judge...

So my sweet baby girl is about to turn two, the party is planned and the favors are almost ready to go. 


I decided to make capes for all the little kiddies! I found a super cute pattern on http://applecyder.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/clever-little-cape/ and I took on the challenge of making 15 of them, at times I thought I'd lost my mind, but seeing the final product I couldn't be happier than to have put my heart into each one. 


So on applecyders blog she has a tutorial on how to make it and it's very easy to follow. 
http://applecyder.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/apple-cyders-clever-cape-tutorial.pdf 


Once you get past the first few you'll breeze through the rest.

I did orange & red or pink & red for the girls,

and green & blue for the boys.Each cape got the child's first letter ironed on... :) (p.s. I got the fabric from Value Village, I found some matching bed sheets and it happened to have been their 50% off sale so I think I spent $16 on the fabric)

I decided that the older one's will get cookies in a jar. I took the recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com/CowboyCookies.html#ixzz1O5hLjyz9 and devided it in half to fit the jars. I also made some changes to what I added depending on what I had in my cupboards.

So at the end of the day I think the younger little super hero's will be thrilled and the older wiser bakers will be just as happy! I vote this endevour to be a success considering it's only the 2nd and her party isn't for another 10 day! GO ME!!! hahaha. 


Well that ends my first ever blog post, really I should be sleeping so I bid you all farewell and sweet dreams!