Weekend Fun

I know it is Wednesday and normally we would be thinking about the coming weekend, not the past one but I have to show you some highlights of our last weekend.

We had a great time camping - enjoying the nature around, trying to build dams in the creek and building rock towers, but mostly spending time with family.

Character: Contentment

Here is one of the activities we have been doing as we look at the character trait of 'Contentment' this month.

Each day after breakfast, each of the boys think of something they are thankful for and we write it on a spot and are slowly filling up our giraffe.  It is a great way to remember the little things that we have in life and can be thankful for.  And it is hard to be grumpy or cross when we are focusing on being thankful.  It is really changing the mood/atmosphere in our house.

New Things

Here are some things I recently received for my birthday.  These people know me so well.  All such 'me' things.

New picture for my veranda

A new cook book I can't wait to try out

A special old box for my sew supplies, surrounded by my current project. 

This box used to be my grandma's.  My dad made it for her to store her sewing things in.  I found it in the shed holding all sorts of random bolts, springs and things a while ago and mentioned something like that would be great for storing thread in.  So my mum cleaned it up and they gave it to me.  I love that is has such a family history.

Glitter

Let start this by saying I am not a big fan of glitter - but kids just LOVE IT!!!

After an incident with glitter this week, (read half a bottle upended on the carpet in the lounge and run through to 'make pretty patterns') I decided that perhaps an organised, semi-controlled glitter activity might be in order.  I got a sheet of contact facing sticky side up, trays with glitter and eager boys.

They had a great time making feet patterns and getting 'stuck' on the contact, then to finish off we stuck a sheet of coloured paper on, folded all the edges in and ended up with a fun, glittery piece of art.

My favourite part of this whole activity - it used up all the glitter!!! YAY.  And no, I'm not going to buy any more.

Happy Shiny Art

We recently did some combined art with some special friends.  When Grace put a link to this on facebook I made a cheeky comment that I would love to do it - as long as it was at her house and she could direct my boys.  She said sure and so we did!!

Well the whole process went surprisingly smoothly.  With clear direction, and others following the guidelines each of the boys did a great job of drawing on their canvas.  Then with some help, limited paint and a controlled environment they painted within their own drawing.  

One week on, we returned and re-drew our drawing to re-define the picture and then painted it with a shiny vanish.

These are now displayed proudly above each of the boys beds!

Sometimes I worry about setting too many limits on our kids but then I see them create something wonderful like this that they love and enjoyed doing.  This helped me to remember that there is a time for directed play as well as free play.  

In July

Winter Gratitude

If you know me at all, you know that winter is my least favourite time of year.  So to try and embrace this time of year and make a choice to be content with where we are, I'm looking for all the things about winter that I enjoy.

• cooking and eating hearty slow cooked stew
• wearing warm hand knits
• keeping warm by a roaring fire
• wearing ugg boots
• snuggling under my favourite nana rugs while watching TV
• sleeping in warm flanny sheets
• making the most of any sunny days that come our way!!

Thanks to Grace from arthousemum for inspiring some thankfulness in me.
What do you like about winter???