1. Freedom
2. The beauty!
3. How great Canadians are!
4. Prairies
5. The mountains
6. The ocean
Thursday, June 28, 2012
List 78: Things I Love About Canada
1. Freedom
2. The beauty!
3. How great Canadians are!
4. Prairies
5. The mountains
6. The ocean
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Foto Friday: Our Year in Photos
Month 6 Week 3: Season
For the third week of each month we'll focus on details.
To know more about this project you can read my first post here.
This was last week's but it hadn't happened yet and it is important to my kids.... if you can't tell they were um.... excited :) HA!
Three things to mention:
1. I didn't tell them to hug. They just do that sort of thing.
2. I thought I had put on my 17-55 lens and instead put on my macro.... so instead if getting a shot of the sign of the school too I was just glad I got both of them in it :)
3. I HOPE this summer is filled with happiness and them getting along this well the whole time.
You can see all my other entries for this project here
Go check out Brooke's over here!
Monday, June 18, 2012
15 on the 15th
I haven't really felt like blogging lately. So I haven't been. I make no promises about the near future. We'll see :) I am instead choosing sleep lately. Yep. And sitting on the floor with my little boys.
But I did do my 15th on the 15th.
Here's a Friday at our house.
If you want to see the other months they are here.
But I did do my 15th on the 15th.
Here's a Friday at our house.
If you want to see the other months they are here.
Friday, June 08, 2012
Foto Friday: Our Year in Photos
Month 6 Week 1: Best Friends
For the first week of each month we'll focus relationships.
My kids have been blessed with good friends wherever we have lived. Really we have been very blessed in our lives in that area! If you ask Lucy right now she'd still say Anise is her best friend even though Anise lives in Calgary for a year (although it's almost done - hooray!) and they rarely get to see each other right now.
PS I can't help laugh at this picture of these two cause they are trying to be serious... but these two laugh ALL day long when they are together. They have inside jokes and are seriously nutty together.
She also has a Raymond best friend named Hadley.
Alden also says KAden (Anise's brother).
Although I'd say his best friend is Kolton from down the street (I need a picture of them together!)
or Ben from his class.
Really overall I think Lucy and Alden are best friends. But whenever I say that they say "she (or he) can't be my best friend, she's (or he's) my sister (or brother)!"
Eli says its Dad. :)
or James Baldry. (and he always calls him "James Baldry" which cracks me up :)
You can see all my other entries for this project here
Go check out Brooke's over here!
Thursday, June 07, 2012
List 73: The Best Things About Being Married
1. Being married to my best friend who gives me support in all areas of my life: emotionally, spiritually, financially, etc
2. I can talk to him and that it doesn't go anywhere else.
3. That he sees the best in me.
4. Having 4 kids together.
5. That he'll bring me home a chocolate bar or some treat from the store cause he loves me.
6. That dating is long over and not having other room mates! I think Single life was way harder!
7. That we are comfortable with each other.
8. Traveling together.
9. Private conversations and inside jokes.
10. How much he loves me and helps me to be a better person.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
10 on Tuesday (on Wednesday)
1. When I spell Wednesday I always say in my mind while spelling "wed...nes...day" so I can spell it right.
2. Our basement carpet is fixed. Just need the drywall and the fireplace tile to be fixed.
3. We had tons of Steed family fun on the weekend. Hence the no posts for a few days.
4. We went to Heritage Park on Monday too. (Just pulled the kids out of school.)
5. Oliver needs his first hair cut. I am NOT one of those moms who is emotionally attached to hair. If it's long, I get it cut. End of story. :)
6. What a great challenge this is over here to play WITH your kids. I am thinking I need to do it too.
7. Holy rain last night.
8. I have a good idea for Father's day this year. Now I just have to get to it and get it ordered and done.
9. Eli's 4th birthday is coming up fast.
10. I finally ordered and pretty cool camera bag. Just waiting for it to get here :)
2. Our basement carpet is fixed. Just need the drywall and the fireplace tile to be fixed.
3. We had tons of Steed family fun on the weekend. Hence the no posts for a few days.
4. We went to Heritage Park on Monday too. (Just pulled the kids out of school.)
5. Oliver needs his first hair cut. I am NOT one of those moms who is emotionally attached to hair. If it's long, I get it cut. End of story. :)
6. What a great challenge this is over here to play WITH your kids. I am thinking I need to do it too.
7. Holy rain last night.
8. I have a good idea for Father's day this year. Now I just have to get to it and get it ordered and done.
9. Eli's 4th birthday is coming up fast.
10. I finally ordered and pretty cool camera bag. Just waiting for it to get here :)
Friday, June 01, 2012
Foto Fridays: Our year in photos
Month 5 Week 5: Backyard
For the first week of each month we'll focus on rooms in the house.
To know more about this project you can read my first post here.
Well we just got a new tramp and that is easily the best thing our backyard has to offer. Especially since the rest of our yard is lame-o right now. Hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have more fun stuff (and a fence). Here's a photo dump of the joy of our backyard.
You can see all my other entries for this project here
Go check out Brooke's over here!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Living with Creativity
I grew up in a very creative household. My mom would set out still life objects on the table, with lamps and we'd sit around and sketch it together. She'd let me make my own pies by the time I was Lucy's age. I felt apart of my mother's world and more myself because of all of the creative-ness in our lives. It just was how we were. It was free and easy and cheap and so my childhood. All of those things are apart of my children's lives now too I think. I don't do the still life with lamps but we are creative in other ways. I must admit it is harder with Eli because he seems to have less patience with it all that my older two. They relish everything we do that is creative.
So are you wondering, how do you live creatively? Well this is totally my two cents on the idea. But these would be my tips.
1. Keep supplies for crafts around and available and accessible. We have various collections of art supplies. There is so much fun creative stuff at the dollar store now. And that is great. But sometimes too it is nice to be able to get them the nice art stuff, like a good sketch book and good pencils or the cute cupcake liners you've been saving, and let your kids use them. Yep, they'll do a kid job with them. But they'll realize that you value what they do enough to let them use it.
2. Accept that creative often breeds mess. Oh my I could show you the piles that are made around here constantly. I am trying to teach them now (especially Lucy) that paper mess needs to be picked up after you finish. But even think about creativity in the kitchen - that makes mess. Playing in the dirt? Messy.
3. Do something creative with your kids, not just them doing it alone. Family drawing time, building lego with them, playing with play dough, creating a stop motion movie with their lego creations, sculpting, junk sculptures, etc.
4. Let them see you doing things that are creative. Create things yourself. Start project life, write, take some pictures, draw, get creative in the kitchen, build something, paint a wall or a picture, etc....
5. Creative living isn't just arts and crafts. Creativity comes in music, in cooking and baking, in yard work, in writing, in paper crafts, in dress up and plays, in story telling, in dancing, in decorating, in building, etc.
6. Resist the urge to fix it. Let them do it however they are going to do it. And have THEM do it themselves. I can tell the kids who are over who's parents intervene in their creative endeavors by the way they constantly ask for help or have trouble getting started unless they are given complete instructions. If you want to show them, get your OWN stuff and model how to do it. When you do it for them you are telling them you don't think they are capable. Letting them do it on their own builds the thought in them "I am capable, I can do it."
7. Talk about it. When your children show you something they have made, ask them to tell you about instead of saying "is this a __________". Let them tell you and be interested and attentive to what they say. The greatest compliment to a child is when they hear an adult tell another person about what they've done. It means way more. So listen and then share it in their presence.
8. Give them a place to display what they've made. For my kids this basement wall is the place. The big wooden frame that is empty has a clip in it that they can rotate things they've made. And it's "framed".
9. Finds things out of the house that are creative. Like an art class or get a group of kids together and have them create a play or something together.
10. Undirected play time (without screens) helps creativity in children. Think about when you were a kid. And how you created things, games, stories, ect. Often we over schedule our kids and they don't get a chance to just BE kids and let their minds create. There is a whole book that is great about this.
So what do YOU do to help your children live creatively?
So are you wondering, how do you live creatively? Well this is totally my two cents on the idea. But these would be my tips.
1. Keep supplies for crafts around and available and accessible. We have various collections of art supplies. There is so much fun creative stuff at the dollar store now. And that is great. But sometimes too it is nice to be able to get them the nice art stuff, like a good sketch book and good pencils or the cute cupcake liners you've been saving, and let your kids use them. Yep, they'll do a kid job with them. But they'll realize that you value what they do enough to let them use it.
2. Accept that creative often breeds mess. Oh my I could show you the piles that are made around here constantly. I am trying to teach them now (especially Lucy) that paper mess needs to be picked up after you finish. But even think about creativity in the kitchen - that makes mess. Playing in the dirt? Messy.
3. Do something creative with your kids, not just them doing it alone. Family drawing time, building lego with them, playing with play dough, creating a stop motion movie with their lego creations, sculpting, junk sculptures, etc.
4. Let them see you doing things that are creative. Create things yourself. Start project life, write, take some pictures, draw, get creative in the kitchen, build something, paint a wall or a picture, etc....
5. Creative living isn't just arts and crafts. Creativity comes in music, in cooking and baking, in yard work, in writing, in paper crafts, in dress up and plays, in story telling, in dancing, in decorating, in building, etc.
6. Resist the urge to fix it. Let them do it however they are going to do it. And have THEM do it themselves. I can tell the kids who are over who's parents intervene in their creative endeavors by the way they constantly ask for help or have trouble getting started unless they are given complete instructions. If you want to show them, get your OWN stuff and model how to do it. When you do it for them you are telling them you don't think they are capable. Letting them do it on their own builds the thought in them "I am capable, I can do it."
7. Talk about it. When your children show you something they have made, ask them to tell you about instead of saying "is this a __________". Let them tell you and be interested and attentive to what they say. The greatest compliment to a child is when they hear an adult tell another person about what they've done. It means way more. So listen and then share it in their presence.
8. Give them a place to display what they've made. For my kids this basement wall is the place. The big wooden frame that is empty has a clip in it that they can rotate things they've made. And it's "framed".
9. Finds things out of the house that are creative. Like an art class or get a group of kids together and have them create a play or something together.
10. Undirected play time (without screens) helps creativity in children. Think about when you were a kid. And how you created things, games, stories, ect. Often we over schedule our kids and they don't get a chance to just BE kids and let their minds create. There is a whole book that is great about this.
So what do YOU do to help your children live creatively?
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