The Well Rounded Mama

A Special Chritmas Gift

One thing that I have decided that I want to do is to give each of the children a handmade gift each year for Christmas.  Amongst the other "stuff" they get for Christmas, I want them to have something that was lovingly thought of, planned, and made with just them in mind. I want gifts that they can truly cherish rather than just things that they love today and forget tomorrow.

Since I decided this...oh, about a week before Christmas...I decided I would start small and just do a gift for one of the kids.  I now have all year to plan gifts for everyone next year.  I'm excited to think about what each child would truly love!

This year I chose to make a special gift for Alaina.  She will be seven in January and she is in the stages of growing out of being a "little girl."  I want to encourage her to grow in good ways, while also allowing her the ability to remain sweet, innocent, and pure in heart.  I feel that one of my jobs of a mother at this stage is to help her stay innocent instead of letting/pushing her to grow up too fast. Too many kids her age are worried about being in style, boys, and teen idols.

So, I decided to made a doll collection for her.  But rather than paper dolls that get ripped and ruined, I chose to create a felt doll collection for her.  I created different people (with different colors, because for her and her life, people really do come in all colors!)  I then created a variety of clothes, hair, shoes, and accessories.

And about 2 minutes after she opened it, she was having a blast!

And putting together the cutest people!

 

Here are some of my favorite things about this project/gift:

1) It is longer lasting that many gifts.  The felt is sturdy and can be played with over and over.

2) It is small so it can go with us anywhere -- whether that means on a family trip or if we move

3) It can be added to.  Already Alaina and I have added to her collection.  She is really into weddings so we had to create more "fancy clothes" and a tux for the guys. We have also made babies and some baby clothes, more shoes, more boy clothes, and few extra purses.  We can continue to add to it as we want.  It makes a fun craft time for both of us!

4) I can control what kind of clothes she has for it.  With something like Barbies, you are always fighting against culture and all the skimpy clothes that come with it.  With this, I can help guide her in modest yet stylish clothing choices.

5) When I was young and played with Barbies, my favorite thing was dressing them up.  I never really like playing with the Barbies themselves.  With this set, she can change the dolls very fast. One of her favorite things to do is have one of the dolls "say," "Oh I think I need to go to the salon.  I think I am going to dye my hair ______."  And then she changes the hair and voila!  instant hair change!

6) It was really simple to make!  For a few years I have had a paper doll that we have never opened.  I finally popped out the pieces and used them as templates to create the items.  Once I had the general idea of it, I could create whatever I wanted. All I needed was felt, scissors, and a hot glue gun!

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The best part of all this?  For my girl with the five minute attention span, she finally has something that she really loves.  She has played with it for at least half hour to an hour every day since Christmas and she lovingly puts it away each time (and believe me, this girl puts nothing away without being hounded!)

I've Been Scrapping

With the amount of my duties over at THE DAILY DIGI winding down, I have had some more time for my first love -- just plain 'ol scrapping. And you know what?  It feels good.  Scrapping rejuvenates me in a way I just can't describe.  Not only does it give me a needed creative outlet, but also it gives me the knowledge that the story of our lives is being recorded.  I love that.  And I love looking back through my albums and recalling little pieces of the story that I otherwise might have forgotten.  If you click on the album in my sidebar, you can see lots of recent layouts.  Here are just a few of my recent favorites (all of the layouts can be clicked to see them in a larger size).

 

     

Merry Christmas

Getting ready to start Christmas Eve Dinner...then off to church for a candlelight service.  So excited for tomorrow morning...I just love seeing the little people's eyes light up.  We don't buy a lot of toys/clothes/stuff during the year so Christmas is extra exciting for them. I especially excited about a gift I made for Alaina...will have to share after she opens it. It will be a pretty simple Christmas...a few gifts, a yummy roast, and a special surprise for the kiddos. 

I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year.  We've been given the gift of another year...let us not waste it but use it to its fullest.  I want the new year to fill me so that I can overflow onto others.  That is my wish.

Merry Christmas...from our house to yours.

See? A reason to smile :)

I posted on Facebook/Twitter this morning:

Janet is choosing to have a good attitude and radiate joy in spite of circumstances. Be joyful ALWAYS!

And here are two things that made me smile today, both courtesy to snack time at school and a quick check in on Facebook:

Got this is an email today:

"Good news is that I truly outdid myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. Great stories. But two things made me take it down. First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by. Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn't realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn't take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.

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And number two:

More than toys and meals

Being a good parent is so much more that giving kids lots of toys and making sure they get to eat.  And yet, I am amazed at the number of people who take this task so lightly.  Fifty Christmas gifts under the tree?  Seriously?  Is THAT being a good parent? Is making sure they get dressed, eat breakfast, and get to school on time all that matters?  Is giving in to their whims so they "won't throw a fit" the best option we have?

Don't get me wrong -- I understand the temptation.  It would be so much easier if I didn't worry about all the "other" stuff.  It would be easier if I just did the minimum and hoped they turned out okay.  It would be easier to not pay attention to my kids and let them do whatever they want. It would be easier to not expect that they have manners, that they act respectfully, and that they learn to praise other people. It would be easier...but I wouldn't be doing my job.

This article was a great encouragement for me this morning.  I am not immune to "doing the minimum."  I give in to my selfish desires at times and don't do what I know to be best.  I choose not to bake cookies with my kids and instead let them watch a video.  I choose not to read a book to them and instead do what I want to do.  I don't always model the gratefulness and humbleness I try so hard to teach.  I need prodding too.  

The entire article was good (and is SO needed today!) but I wanted to especially highlight the last part...a list of things that Christian parents should be doing.  It's a good reminder as I start another new day with four precious little ones.

• Let there be much spontaneous celebration verbally of every hopeful sign of life and goodness in our children.
• Let us forgive them often and be longsuffering.
• Let us serve them and not use them.
• Let us lavish them with joyful participation in their interests.
• Let us model for them the joy of knowing and submitting to the Lord Jesus.
• Let us apologize often when we fall short of our own Father’s requirements.
• Let us pray for them without ceasing.
• Let us saturate them with the word of God from the moment they are in the womb (the uterus is not sound proof).
• Let us involve them in happy ministry experiences and show them it is more blessed to give than to receive.
• Let them see us sing to the King.
• Let us teach them relentlessly the meaning of the gospel in the hope that God will open their eyes and make them alive. It happens through the gospel (1 Peter 1:22-25).

November in Pictures

It just really hit me today that in just one week, Jason will be on Christmas break for THREE WEEKS.  To say I am excited is an understatement!  But this semester has just flown by so fast that I really didn't see the end sneaking up on us.  We won't take all of the three weeks off of school, but it WILL be nice to have a few days off AND to have Daddy around for school time!

Here is our homeschooling November (and a few days in December) in pictures.  And if you can't tell...yes...my camera is dying.  It is old.  It has been well-used.  And I am just hoping it will last until I can afford a new one (which may be never).

 

Levi learning about community jobs and then getting to play some memory games :)

We finished up our time in India with learning about animals and some special places

Some competitive games of word Bingo.  These kids take it seriously!

Being thankful...

Shape practice for Levi

Learning about how shapes are in our real world and learning how to look at something and copy it

Caleb doing some handwriting/word practice.  I made him some special paper with blue for the "sky" and green for the "grass." He knows his letters have to touch both.

Learning about how 2D shapes translate into 3D shapes and where we find them in our world

Caleb has become quite the expert in classifying patterns!

Christmas list writing

Learning about the rain in our "visit" to Great Britain

Preparing for Christmas as we learn about the story of the Christ child -- from Creation to Christmas

Painting a starry night...

Adding a nativity scene...

And being proud of our work!

Measuring...

Writing...

Spelling...

Learning about time...

Shape and pattern sorting...

Playdough playing...

And angel making.

It's been a busy month!  But lots of fun was had...we look forward to more! 

Things I am Mulling Over...

A few (okay lots) of things are occupying my time and thoughts lately...

...What is BEST for my kids?  Is that the goal?  A better question is, "What is best for my kids for the sake of eternity?

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..."Wherever you are, be all there" (Jim Elliot)

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... What do we do when we are unsure?  Do we do nothing and wait in patience?  Do we step forward in faith?   This isn't a question necessarily about something specific but in general.  What do we do when we just don't know?

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..."Marriages fail because of how right it feels to justify sinful responses to sin."  (John Piper).  This one has occupied a lot of my time and prayer.

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...How do I be the mom I am supposed to be? It isn't a total disregard for my own needs (I would faint under the weight of it) but it is about lots and lots of sacrifice.

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...How do I best use the gifts, talents, and desires that God has given me?

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..."From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." (Luke 12:48).  What does this mean for me?  What does this mean for America?  

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...And I have spent a LOT of time pondering the following story. It is taken from the blog of a man that works at Rift Valley Academy in Kenya.  Years ago he started a feeding program for Kenyan school kids.  The thought behind it is that, "These kids aren't getting anything to eat.  If they don't eat, they can't learn.  If they don't learn, they can't break the cycle of poverty. So, he provides food for these kids so they can have one meal a day.  If you want to be totally entrenched for days and not be able to think about much else, start at the very beginning of the blog and work up to the present.  I did it last spring and I have been forever changed and humbled and am still not sure what to do with all the emotions.  Anyway, back to the most recent story:

I was at one of the lunch program schools recently, and out of a thousand students, three hundred were not receiving lunch. I asked the headmaster why, and he said that he did not charge for the food, but he charged 15 shillings a month (about 21 cents) to pay for the cook, the firewood and the water it took to cook the food.

At first I was angry, but the more I thought about it, I thought:  I have given an unfunded mandate. I’ve told them they can’t charge for food, but I don’t provide the other stuff they need to provide the food. I pondered this a long time.

What was really great was that before I could do anything, the other headmasters met with him and explained how he could use part of his operating budget to pay for firewood and water. They explained to him the value of the program, and I suspect they let him know what a jerk he would be if he messed up and I got cranky.

But the deeper you get in, the more complex it gets. Helping without hurting while being cultural sensitive is a lot harder than it looks.

But the hardest thing of all was thinking about three hundred kids who couldn’t afford 21 cents a month. I know how tough the economy is in the United States right now, but can you imagine not being able to come up with 21 cents a month?

Three hundred kids, about a third of that school, can imagine it very well.

Kind of makes you rethink your "need" for that $4 cup of coffee at Starbucks, doesn't it?

Slowing Down

The last few weeks (make that 8 or so) have been busy.  Not the kind of busy I used to experience every.single.day or the kind of busy that I refuse to ever go back to...but busy for me.  It hasn't been so much in what needed to be done as what as needed to be thought about, prayed about, talked about, dreamed about, and worried about.  Not that I needed to worry...God is always in control.  But my brain doesn't always know that and since I am completely incapable of turning it off, it just runs all day and all night.  Add in normal life....four kids, a home, a family, homeschooling, a dog that chews up everything in site...add in extras like taking on a huge graphic design project for a homeschooling magazine...add in Thanksgiving and the beginnings of Christmas....and well, I've been busy.

But...and this is a big but...lots of things are slowing down and I am so, so thankful.  Some big issues in our life our now resolved.  There are good things on the way. Some new, some the same.  I am stepping back from most of my responsibilities from THE DAILY DIGI.  Homeschooling is in a good groove. Christmas will be low key. Life is slowing down. Life is good. A slower life means more chocolate chip cookies on a rainy day.  A slower life means time to spend with a friend.  A slower life means relationships vs. responsibilities. 

I have a lot of things to share but for now, as the bottom of my coffee cup is close, I will just share a few recent scrapbook pages.  I love that after almost five years, scrapbooking still provides me the creative release and the peace that it did from the very beginning.  And in the process, I get to save some of the stories that are closest to my heart.

     

There are more to share and more things to say, but they will have to wait for another time.  I will be around here more often now...and I am excited about it!