8/31/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday


Crick - Crick - Crickety - Crick... Burr - ump!
(Sorry, that was a church camp flash-back)
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8/30/2011

Kid Art - Water Color with Marker


This technique came to me one night from the bowels of my memory. I used to do it during college, and haven't really thought about it much since.

Materials:
disposable plastic lid (we used the ones from old oatmeal canisters)
washable marker (I think most markers work, but when working with kids, I recommend washable)
paintbrush and a few drops of water



Step 1. Scribble furiously with your marker on the plastic lid.
Step 2. Add a few drops of water. (the less water, the more vibrant your color)
Step 3. Have fun with your new (washable!) paint~

Hint: if you want to add more color to your lid, it needs to be dry before you can start coloring on it again. Washable markers and wet lids aren't friends.


8/29/2011

I'm So Not a Digital Diva...

There's a whole side of the scrapbooking industry known as digital scrapbooking. Brushes, page elements, papers, the whole she-bang. It's not new, it's been around for years. But I'm not a digital scrapbooker, so I really had no use for any of it.
Until recently. Lately, I've been doing a little bit of volunteer work for our church in the whole graphic design realm. Making logos and graphics for various purposes. I decided to take a peek and see if there was any digital freebies I could use on the net.
Dude. There's some really stinking cool stuff out there. While most of it isn't free, I did manage to stumble upon some stuff that was. I spent most of the day on Saturday snuggled in bed with my laptop, happily downloading freebies, and putting them to good use.

This is the first thing I made...

I needed something better for our "about me" page. Originally I had 1 picture of each kid, but with the way my blog template worked I could never get them to line up just right. So being the genius that I am, I made 1 graphic and put all 3 kids in it. Lets not talk about why it took me this long to figure that out.

8/26/2011

Kid Art - Masking

My kids are such fickle artists. They don't really like to be told what to make. (Wonder where they get that from?) which makes teaching art sort of a strange and unusual event. I go back and forth between throwing art books at them, hoping something will inspire them and racking my brain for interesting and easy techniques that will get them started.
This time I went for a new technique. Masking. Not something new to me, or them, but something we haven't used since they were preschoolers. So I thought I'd bring it out again and see what they thought of it.
The idea behind masking is to plaster your paper with stickers or tape, or anything sticky, then paint over them. Then when your paint is dry you pull the stickers/tape off and the paper shows through underneath. We used water color paper, which holds up better to massive amounts of paint than other types of paper.




They loved it. Of course. They love anything paint related....... I didn't get any after shots because as soon as they had taken the stickers away they packaged them up to take them to show some other homeschooling friends...

8/25/2011

Photographers Walk

The other day I hosted a photography workshop for some friends who had DSLR cameras but were stuck on AUTO. (Blech.) We met up at the local botanical gardens to test out some of the different functions on their cameras, and to talk through the mental processes I go through when I take a photo. Of course we all had our cameras with us and we each managed to snap off some rather stunning close ups. So here are a few of the ones I took.





My buddy Jody participated in the workshop, you can check out the shots that she took here

8/24/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday



blown away......

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8/23/2011

Brick it Up Baby

So earlier this summer my mother and I played bandits and stole some brick from a construction site. You're shocked, I can tell. Quite the team we were, a sweet Jesus-loving girl like me, and my squeaky clean mother. To be fair it wasn't really stealing, they were strewn amongst the rubble waiting to be hauled off, so really they were just trash.



And we rescued them.



That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
We didn't steal them, we rescued them.
And I put them to good use. Check it out. The flower bed at the west end of my house had yet to see any sort of edger/divider to separate it from the lawn and it looked rather pathetic.


before


Well six weeks and 100 bricks later, it looks rather dapper if I do say so myself.



8/22/2011

Family Art Day

If you want your children to be creative, you yourself have to model creativity.
One of the best ways to model creativity is to have family art time. We as a family regularly sit down with art supplies, just to see what happens, no specific project in mind. Sometimes we're inspired by something we've seen, sometimes we just want to make something.
I love, love, love that our local art museum has a family art center that is stocked to the gills with paper, paint, and sculptural items. On certain days they open their doors to the public for family art time.
We recently took some friends of ours down to check it out. What's even better than family art time? Family art time with your buddies.





8/19/2011

A Day in our Lives, the Theatrical Version...

The other day I read an article in a magazine about a typical day-in-the-life of a homeschooling family. While the article was rather thorough and accurate I couldn't help thinking it was on the boring side. A little like my typical day. I decided to write a response to the article in my head. It looked a little like this.
Instead of a blow by blow approach I decided to write it as a play.


The characters:
princess twinkle toes # 1 and #2 - they look a lot alike and could actually be played by the same actress. In fact some days I think they are.
their evil gremlin brother - he has a nasty habit of stealing all the pencils during school time and hiding them under his bed. I think he's trying to communicate something to the audience.
the roaming ankle-biter - this part is played by the neighbor's baby. She's only in acts 1 and 2 of our little drama.
Don't overlook the stars of our little show: The fairest in the land (AKA Mommy) and Daddy, who is played by a badger.
* These titles in no way portray the actual temperament of the members of our family.

The plot:
The characters wake
They grumble over their responsibilities. The grown ups, not the kids - they play.
A tornado strikes the entire house, actually I think it's a hurricane. Whatever it is, it has 6 legs and a toddler.
The fairest in the land calls FEMA to come clean up the mess. They're no help. So she enlists the townspeople instead. They're just as helpful. So she does what any sane queen would do, she hides in the tower with a case of chocolate bars until her badger, I mean husband, comes home.
Curtains close! Everyone takes a bow.


See I told you that was more fun.
And sadly just as accurate.

8/18/2011

Of course.

The last year has been one great big object lesson in how to hold on loosely to our posessions. In October nearly every electronic devise in our house gave us trouble (both computers, our television, printer, cell phone, camera lense etc...) it got to a point of being almost comical. In May we were robbed (goodbye television that didn't really work and beloved camera), shortly after the break-in our water heater died, and we spent most of the insurance money from the robbery on a new one.


And now it's the van.


With out going into much detail we'll just say that the other driver should have seen Jory before Jory saw him. But he didn't. Complicated by the fact that our insurance policy didn't include collision. So not only are we out of a car, but we're also out $3,000 that we had squeezed out of our own finances for our adoption but will now going to fix the car.



Isn't that an interesting twist in a complicated story.

So now we play the game called "what is there to be thankful for here?" aside from the obvious - there were no injuries, I could have been on the backroads in WV with the kids by myself, it could have been the motorcycle... etc.
We're thankful that God has a (rather interesting) plan, and that this is a part of it.
We're thankful for the opportunity to talk through the self esteem issues that are surfacing in the kids, and the chance to discuss how our self worth is not tied to our possessions.
We're sort of thankful for another opportunity to trade our possessions for promises.
But mostly we're thankful that this too shall pass, and someday we'll get a good laugh out of it.


Maybe.

8/17/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Snails that climb. What will they think of next?


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8/16/2011

Seeking Guest Posters

Hi friends!
Did you know that we are now in the process of accepting guest writers to post on our blog? We are specifically looking for people to share their insight on life, love and whatever. We are hoping to spend most of the month of September in RUSSIA finalizing our son's adoption, and will have an interesting relationship with the internet during that time. If you've always wanted to be a guest poster on someone else's blog this is your shot! See the tab under our header labeled "Be a Guest Writer" for our writers guidelines.
Thanks!

On a completely unrelated note, I wrote out our submission guidelines last night and then all night was plagued with dreams about the flood of article submissions I received and the anxiety of "oh no, what have I done! Now I have to read all these articles!" I was a little relieved to wake up to an empty box.
That said. Bring on the tidal wave of article submissions!

Forgotten Favorites

And so ends the story of our most excellent roadtrip. But before the reality of life smacks us all in the face there are a few treasured photos that I never got around to posting. I thought you might like to see them...






Here's to having sand between your toes...

8/15/2011

One Big Bridge

Being from West Virginia and spending a good portion of my childhood vacationing there, the New River Gorge was an old friend that I was eager to introduce my children to.



After driving over the enormous arch bridge, we stopped at the visitors center to get an eyeful of the bridge and the river below. The kids weren't terribly impressed.

Of course.

No worries, maybe they'll be a little more awe-inspired from the view at the bottom. So down the twisty single lane road we go, down and down and down some more, to the very bottom.
When we finally made it to the bottom, we (ok I) parked ourselves on some rocks along the river bank. We chucked rocks into the rapids with a satisfying ker-plop, watched butterflies flit around, and waited for some rafters to zip through the rapids. Which they did, with a whoop and a holler.
I can't say that they found it as inspiring as I hoped they would, but we had fun, got some wiggles out, and scared the bejezus out of some innocent fish...
Mission accomplished.
I think.

8/12/2011

One Big Boat

Since the kids and I were driving home from North Carolina without the grandparents I decided it was probably in our best interest to not push the limits too far. What was really a 1 day trip we turned into 2. Which meant that we still had time for some adventures on the way home.
Our adventure on our first part of the trip was a tour of the USS NC, parked in Wilmington NC. I wasn't totally sold on the idea of touring the battleship, it was really hot outside and I didn't think the girls would really care. I figured we'd stop take a few pics of the exterior then be on the road.




nope.


As soon as we set eyes on the behemoth boat I knew we had to see the inside. It didn't help that all 3 were bouncing in their little seats, itching to go aboard. So we did. Go aboard that is.



Hot? yes.
The 9 story boat had no air conditioning, but they had a pretty good fan system below deck, so most of our exploring was down there.



Totally worth it? you bet.

8/11/2011

A House with a History

It was a favorite toy of ours growing up. Granny's beloved doll house. It lived in her basement, and my sister and I played with it as kids. Some of my most treasured memories of my grandmothers house are tied to this doll house. It was no surprise that it was one of the first things my daughters gravitated towards at my aunt's house.


It really was a magical place full of magical treasures



I'm so glad they discovered it.

8/10/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday


but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31

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8/09/2011

Lets Boogie

As if rediscovering the sea itself wasn't enough of a joy, on this trip our kids were also introduced to boogie boards.
I know I shared one of Alex last week, but I had a few more to share...



The weather was golden, the light was perfect, the joy on their faces... sigh.


bliss.




The expressions on their faces say everything...
With the week I've had I needed a reminder of these blissful sandfilled moments.






8/08/2011

Just Call us Sandy-Pants

Earlier this year my dad and I had to scrap a trip to the beach so that Jory and I could go to Russia. Although I was thrilled by the chance to go over and visit our son, there was definitely a sense of loss about that trip to the beach.
Fast forward to our recent trip to North Carolina.
When we were making our plans to go down for our friend's wedding, the fact that we would be a few hours from the beach was not lost on us. We put it on the list of possible options, knowing better than to get our hopes up.
Whaddya know, this time the stars alined and my children were able to meet the sea. Again. The last time we were there I had 2 in diapers. The waves were not fun. The salt tasted too icky. They weren't impressed.




5 years later it was a completely different story. This time they fully embraced the ocean and all it had to offer. The sand, waves, and shells were all treasures to rediscover. They've been to some local beaches on the lakes in our area, but this was a totally different animal.
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And they were smitten.

8/05/2011

Escape to Pilot Mountain

One of the first excursions we took on Road Trip 2011 was to Pilot Mountain in North Carolina.
We drove up and up and up some more to the overlook where we could see the very tippy top of the mountain. My parents and I were amazed by the view while the children played a strange version of hide and seek they created called "dwarf caves".


The tippy top of the mountain


Grandma and Grandpa


My kids wishing they were playing dwarf caves...

8/04/2011

Reluctantly Home

Hello! We've made it home safely from the beach!
We're back in the land of fix your own food and clean up after yourself. The land of overgrown gardens and sagging furniture. The place where my life is a little more complicated than it was yesterday when everything I owned fit in my car. But this is the place where Daddy is, and where the children can disappear into their own little world of legos and art projects (and give me some space!) This is the place where we belong, and it is good to be here.
I have so many stories and photos to share with you (oh my word with the photos). As soon as I find my camera (ahem) and shaken a little more sand out of our lives, I'll share some of the sweet memories I made with my parents and my kids.

8/03/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday - beach edition


Surf's up!
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8/01/2011

Dancing with Crabs

Our dance through the south continues. Yesterday we arrived at my aunts house at the beach in North Carolina. We arrived ahead of a much needed rainstorm, and managed to have some fun down on the dock before we got rained out.

Crabbing with the kiddos


Reading bedtime stories with my aunt...

Hopefully we'll get some beach time in today... I'll let you know how it all pans out...

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