4 years ago

I'm feeling kind of yucky and should be going to bed, but how can I let the day go by without talking about my Little Miss? After all, it's her 4th birthday! March 31, 2007, our little princess was born and the day after I held her in my arms, with her full head of dark, dark, hair and her cute little nose. Each day with our little girl is truly a blessing and one for which we are ever so grateful, most especially to her brave, selfless birthparents who made the choice to place her for adoption....pure, unconditional, raw LOVE!

Thank you! We are honored to be the parents of this amazing little girl!

"Believe that life is sacred."

"Believe you are blessed."

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."

-Oprah Winfrey

Grass Heads

It's springtime! Someone please tell Mother Nature that; it's been so cold here and I really just want to wear my flip flops!

To welcome Spring, we did a quick activity the other day. I have done this project before when I was teaching a unit about plants to elementary school children.

Supplies:

-Plastic pots (We used 6 inch pots because that's all they had left, but smaller would be ideal)

-Foam (with adhesive)

-Googly Eyes

-Scissors

-Pencil/chalk

-Glue

-Soil

-Grass seed

-Water (in squirt bottle)

Steps:

1. Have the kids sketch out a rough design of the face onto the pot with a piece of chalk.

2. Use a pencil to draw out the designs onto the pieces of foam.

3. Cut and stick the foam to the pot.

4. Glue on Googly Eyes. (*For those of you new to my blog, you will soon learn that I'm not so great at taking the pictures of each step of a project. I usually have the end result though, so you just have to fill in the missing steps.)

5. Fill the pots with soil.

6. Add Grass Seed.

7. Water with a squirt bottle so the seeds don't wash to one area of the pot.

8. Watch the pot heads (OOOPS- you might not want to call them that in front of the little ones) grow a nice, thick head of green hair.

I'll post some pictures weekly to show the progress

I'm linking up with Heather today at Blessed Little Nest

for

Life Made Lovely Monday.....Check it out!

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars."

-Walt Whitman

As promised...

..... pictures from the big Pinewood Derby Race that E had over the weekend.

Here is the sketch of what he wanted his car to look like and the end result.

Pretty great if you ask me!

Victor taught E a lot during this entire process, but most of all, he taught him patience.

Waiting between each step was painful for a 7 year old, but worth it in the end.

Daddy's masterpiece. He came in 2nd for the adult race.

I'm glad to have my husband back...he was in the basement every night for a month. I told him it felt like he was having an affair.

"It is not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us

fathers and sons."

~Friedrich von Schiller

"Giving your son a skill is better than giving him

one thousand pieces of gold."

~Chinese Proverb

Miscellaneous Lovely

E did very well over the weekend at his Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He placed 1st for the Tigers and 2nd Overall. He'll be doing the district race in a couple weeks. He's lucky he has a dad who likes to do R & D (Research and Development) on what makes a car fast. Later this week, I'll do a post with a picture of his car....

Del's opened over the weekend. It was sunny and a comfortable 60+ degrees here on Friday, and today....SNOW, with more expected on Thursday...not so Lovely!

I'm finally getting around to hanging things up. I've had this Raggedy Ann and Andy (from my room as a little girl) waiting for some space on Little Miss' wall. They've made their home above a shelf in the corner of her room. The red shoes are a gift from her birthfamily when she was a baby and the photo is of her with her birth parents when she was a few months old.

We also spent some time Geocaching this weekend. It's so fun discovering the things that you didn't even know existed so close to your own home.

Like this, Mackinac Disaster. What a sad story.

I typically end with a quote, but today's is from www.websters.com

LOVELY

adjective
1. charmingly or exquisitely beautiful.
2. having a beauty that appeals to the heart or mind as well as to the eye

3. delightful; highly pleasing
4. of a great moral or spiritual beauty

I'm linking up with Heather today at Life Made Lovely Monday. Go check it out.

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Past-time

Unfortunately, scratching her bum has been a winter past-time for Little Miss. I think the dry air has dried out her skin so much that she can't help but stick her hands down her pants and scratch...poor itchy girl! Even caking on the lotion hasn't helped much.

Makes for a priceless photo!

The weather is getting warmer and we've noticed less scratching...thank goodness!

“Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions”

-Samuel Johnson

If you're new to my blog, I'd love for you to "follow me". Just click the button on my sidebar. Thanks! (I promise that not all my posts will be about itchy bums)

The Goings On

It's been almost a week since my last post? I'm slacking over here...

Here are few things that have been going on:

Fresh Air...(a little chilly, but we'll take it),

Roller Skating,

Melting Snow to reveal signs of spring,

more outdoor photo ops,

and Avozinha's 98th birthday.

"Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."

John Kennedy

This quote seemed to be fitting, as I've been to 3 funerals in 3 weeks. I'm hoping I'm done with those for a while...so very sad for the families who have experienced these losses.

Spring

...is on the way. I'm motivated to clean sweep and organize the house. Here is my creative space, where I do all my blogging and crafting. It actually doesn't look all that organized in this photo, but believe me, it is. I guess I should have tried to stage it better, but this is reality.

We've been spending more time outdoors...I think we could all use some light therapy right about now.

There is still some snow on the ground, but most of it has melted. Now we go and play outside in the mud with our rainboots on.

This weekend we're moving the clocks ahead. I'm not excited about the time change, but excited that Spring is on the way...yay!

"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!"

~Mark Twain

Ellie

Those of you who have read my blog before are familiar with Little Miss' Ellie. She drew a picture of her the other day on canvas. The canvas has been painted yellow for a while for something else I had in mind that never really panned out. The two purple ovals in Ellie's hands are balloons. Pretty good for a not yet 4 year old, don't you think?

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

~Pablo Picasso

Funny...

All these posts recently about mason jars and using them for storage, and look, Lisa Leonard is hosting a giveaway of her new 'my treasure' necklace. Go over and enter. You may be lucky enough to win.

photo by Lisa Leonard

"Luck is believing you're lucky."

Tennessee Williams

Tired...

I'm basically mentally drained tonight, so until tomorrow...

"All you need is love"

-John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Purging the Clutter Part III

Nothing too exciting today...more organization pictures.

I have come to realize that horizontal organization, such as this....

...is not as efficient as storing things vertically. It is much more convenient to have the ability to see everything, rather than having to dig through a drawer to find what you're looking for. Little Miss actually has access to anything on this bottom level of the bookshelf. These days she is mastering the art of confetti-making; this involves taking an entire sheet of scrapbook paper and cutting it up into tiny pieces.

Another whole shelf view of my lovely jar storage. I still have to label them all using tags. It will be fabulous.

"There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”

— Edward de Bono

Click here and here for my two previous purging posts. Happy Tuesday!

Purging the Clutter Part II

In yesterday's post, I showed you a small glimpse into my creative space and today here's a bit more. I save jars and containers from everything. It's a problem, part of the reason I have so much clutter to organize. But, I'm using them to help with the clutter, so it's a good thing, right?

Here are some frosting containers and another container (from I don't know what) that I covered with scrapbook paper and use to store paint brushes and scissors.

...and jars, in all shapes and sizes, that store all sorts of supplies.

Check back tomorrow for more glimpses of the result of my purge.

I'm linking up with Heather today at Life Made Lovely Mondays.

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"We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once."

-- Calvin Coolidge

Purging the Clutter

When I daydream, I imagine my life without clutter....ha, ha, ha. I refer to myself as a recovering packrat, who sometimes falls off the wagon. I love things, old things, and I have a hard time saying no. But lately, I'm trying to purge and just say goodbye to things that really are just cluttering up this house and therefore clogging the brain too. I can never find things. Ask Victor (my husband)...I'm constantly looking for something. Usually I find what I'm looking for in a reasonable amount of time, but still, it's frustrating, and another sign that there is just too much stuff.

The other day Victor asked me for something to cut circles. "Yes, I have something. Now I just have to find it." Although I found it within 10 minutes, it caused me to purge and organize my space.

This week I'll be showing you some of the results...before a week goes by and it's a mess again.

I've had the old wooden wine box with the jars hanging on the wall for quite some time, but I reworked it and now it stores all my scrap pieces of ribbon, lace, and yarn much more efficiently. All the scraps are sorted by color, pleasing to the eye. I save all the jars from this sauce. Victor's parents had the box in their garage.

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

~Hans Hofmann, Introduction to the Bootstrap, 1993

Little Miss Invite

Little Miss' birthday is quickly approaching; she decided on an ice cream themed party this year. She cannot stop talking about her upcoming birthday. "Is it my birthday tomorrow, is it the end of March, Mommy?"

It's coming... too quickly as far as I'm concerned!

Here is her invite...with some pertinent information left out; I'm still not completely comfortable with putting it all out there.

P.S. I got my camera back today. It's working better than ever; I'm looking forward to using it a lot this weekend.

"Life is like an ice-cream cone, you have to lick it one day at a time."

-Charles Schultz