Ice Cube Painting!

Ice cube painting is one of the more recent ideas I found on Pinterest and, with the crazy heat we've been having, I thought this would be a great way to introduce Annalise to painting. She LOVED it! :)

Here's how it's made: take old ice cube trays and some tempera paints. Fill the tray(s) with the paint and freeze it overnight. Take it outside when you want to use it! :) The heat and body heat from the munchkins will make the paint melt as the kids paint/draw with it. If you want a little more watery paint, you can mix it with water before freezing.

Here Annalise is working on a painting with her cousins. She loved getting messy, loved how cool the paint cubes felt and loved the messy art that resulted from her fun.

Annalise kept painting even after her cousins quit. She needed to be hosed down to get a lot of the paint off before she could rinse off the rest in the wading pool but we got her clean eventually. Trust me, the mess was totally worth it!

When iPhoto starts cooperating with me again, I'll post a picture of the finished project. :)

I like to give credit where credit is due so, this is where I learned about Ice Cube painting after I found it on Pinterest: http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2012/07/summer-fun-ice-painting.html

Welcome!

I have started a new blog in an attempt to keep a bit on sanity while being a pregnant stay-at-home-mom of a 2 year old! I love Pinterest. In fact, I love it so much, I'd say I'm addicted to it. I pin a lot. And I love looking at other people's pins - whether I repin them or not. I recently decided I need to actually do something with my pinning addiction so I concluded a blog would work. I plan to go through my pins and try some of them out. After I try them (on my own or with my daughter), I will blog about them. Shoot, if I feel creative enough and/or get inspired, I might even blog about something I did that I just thought of, rather than only blogging about things I've learned on pinterest! :) Here's hoping this blog will grant sanity to me and entertainment to you all! :)

On Hold

Soooo ... I haven't written on here for ages. I know. Life gets busy and this is one of those things I forget about. So, this blog will be on hold for a bit. I'm going to be starting a new blog "Confessions of a Pinterest Addict". I decided that instead of just pinning things to my boards, I should actually try some of them out! So I'm going to do just that and then blog about the results! :)  Hopefully people will read it and enjoy it. And, who knows, maybe it will inspire me to come up with my own creative activities that I can also blog about! :) Here's to creativity and blogging!

I wonder why...

I wonder why women are so cruel to each other. We spend our growing up years fighting the cliques, trying to fit in, bemoaning the fact that girls are so mean to each other by leaving each other out and by criticizing the things in others that we feel insecure about in ourselves. We hate it when others do this to us but it doesn't stop us from doing it to them. And we vow that we will be different. We strive for that as we get older ... and what do we find? We leave childhood and find that women are the exact same as adults as they were when they were kids. They still leave each other out. They still form cliques that only a certain type (whether judged by look, work choice, or family connections) are allowed to join, They still criticize ridiculously. They cause SO much hurt to each other and then wonder why they themselves hurt so much. Get it through your heads fellow women!!! We are our own worst enemies but we can also be our own best supporters! You don't need to be best friends with every single woman, but do you HAVE to be rude and cruel to the ones that aren't?!?!

Super-Mom?

Super-mom AKA Proverbs 31 wife (or as a new favourite author calls her, "Martha 31"). The mom/wife that can do everything and still be strong. Realistic? I don't think so. I've been obsessed with Martha 31 lately. Mostly because I have an intense, urgent desire to be a great wife and mom. Thankfully, through my reading (and talking with my DH), I'm realizing that what makes Martha 31 so perfect isn't that she can (and does) do everything, but that she first focuses on her relationship with God.  For all you Martha 31 wannabe's out there, I highly recommend reading My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife by Sara Horn (she's the one that calls the Proverbs 31 wife Martha 31). It is a humorous and inspiring book. I've also recently purchased Just Give Me a Little Piece of Quiet by Lorilee Craker (love her last name!). I've just started reading it today and it's a book of daily devotionals (or as the sub-title says "Daily Getaways for a Mom's Soul"). It looks like it will prove to be equally inspiring.

I need to keep reminding myself that it's not the doing that makes me a great wife and mom but the being - being in relationship with God and being willing to take time for myself to recharge. :) Here's to the start of a 'new' life as wife and mom.

I'll keep you updated. :)

What a thing to forget!!!

In all the stress and busyness of holidays and Annalise being sick, I completely forgot about the development of her speech! This past week she learned a couple more words and at the most endearing times! :)  On the first morning that I was at my parents with her (I was there a few days before Darran came and a few days after he left), I was feeding her breakfast. Her chair was right beside the wall that my parents have with all our wedding pictures and our wedding picture was right at eye level for Annalise in her chair. Well, there I was feeding her and she turned to look at the wall. Suddenly she stopped, her face lit up and she exclaimed, "Hi Da!" It was SO cute! And all the rest of the day, we would find her standing at the wall, staring at the picture and "talking" to her daddy. She was a bit confused that her daddy in the picture never talked back though. :) ... Then, Monday afternoon, we were dropping Darran off at the airport. We waited and watched while he went through security and she was chattering away at him rather loudly (and very cutely). Then suddenly, just before he went through (there was a bit of a line) she exclaimed. "Bye Da!" So cute ... and sad! I can imagine it would have been very hard on Darran to leave after hearing her say that! I know it would have been extremely hard for me to leave if I was in his place! :)

She has also been taking more steps on her own lately which is such a wonderful and cute thing to see. The funny thing is, she's more likely to take steps on her own (without holding on to anything) when she's sad/crying, then when she's happy. Weird and totally beyond my comprehension. :)

Have I mentioned I love being a mom and being at home with my little girl? :)

When does it end?

Just got back from a 10 day "holiday" to BC. Not much of a holiday when every day is super busy with events related to family reunion/parents anniversary celebration but it was fun nonetheless. On Monday of our holiday my little girl had a very high fever - seriously, so high that even my skin was burning when I touched her! Dr. at the walk-in thought it was the flu. Then the non-appetite started, and the many, extremely runny poops. Then the fever and runs suddenly stopped and there she is, at home now, covered in a rash. Turns out the walk-in dr. in BC was wrong - it's not the flu, it's roseola.

Seems I've been to the dr. so frequently with her since her birth - croup, milk sensitivity (that was discovered after multiple dr. visits and nasty lab work), and now this ... in addition, of course, to her regular check-ups and vaccinations. So, when does it end? I guess never. I guess this is just the beginning of my new life as a mom? :) Ah well, it's all good. I love my little girl. And, as I've said before, by the time baby #2 comes along, we'll be pros on baby illnesses and sensitivities. :) This is just training for future years for us! :)

And what about family? There are always issues when family interacts as well aren't there? I guess it's all part of being part of the fallen human race and being in relationship. But it is also how we grow in relationship so I guess we will grow best if we embrace the good and the bad and love each other through it all.

Well, I'm going to take advantage of my daughter napping and try to get some things done around the house (like unpack from holidays). Until next time ...