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Wrapped Emotions took a hiatus for Christmas and through January. Melody is back now and has a new "assignment."
This week (well, this month's) assignment, "A Map of My Heart."
Melody's words, "Knowing what you truly love is the key to loving how you live. A simple way to begin to know what you truly love is to gather beautiful images that speak to your soul. So, let's do just that."
She tasked us with gathering images from magazines that spoke to us. For whatever reason, it didn't matter, and then put them in a collage.
I sat down with some old magazines, and I just couldn't "do" it.
Sure, I started, but I found myself just settling on pictures. It seems they were all "food," "flowers," or "book" related. But I just wasn't happy with what I'd found. I felt like I was doing the project as she assigned, simply because I needed to "follow the rules."
But, as I sat there, I realized the map of my heart is right here, in my house. In my blog. It's my family.
I'm so lucky to be surrounded by beauty every day.
Now tell me, am I not the luckiest person that ever lived? Need more proof?
And now, this next bit is just to make my mom and dad feel old.
I got some new glasses today.
You like?
Here's the "old" part.
They're progressive lenses. Yep. I've got bifocals now.
Several weeks back, my friend Sheila from My Memories gave me an award.
It's called, "The Daily Dose." It was created by Xandra from Heart of Service and has encouraged us to pass this award to blogs that we can't live without. Blogs that make us laugh, cry, think and feel connected every time we read a post. Blogs that we truly enjoy reading and give us a satisfying thrill when they have commented on our blogs.
I'm very honored that Sheila chose to pass this award on to me. Especially because I feel I've been letting by blogging go by the wayside since Christmas.
I know I haven't had time to read my "usual" blogs as often as I'd like. It came at a good time for me. It was a nice reminder that there are people out there reading my blog and are truly interested in what I put here (other than family of course)!
And in another very nice move, Elizabeth at Table for Five gave me the "Unconditional Friendship Award" today!
This award is for blog friends that are always there for you no matter what. I have to say, I feel the same way about Elizabeth. I'm already planning on visiting her in June when I'm back up in Michigan. She and her kids came to my parents house last year. This year, I hope to bring the boys to her neck of the woods.
And by the way, Elizabeth's been pretty sick with the flu or some other virus. If you have time, go give her a shout out and show her some love back!
So now I get to make some people happy and give out these two awards! Now what really is amazing is I'd like to give both awards to the same people!
Even though Sheila gave me the "Daily Dose Award", she is most definitely on my daily read! So I'm giving the award right back to her. Plus, she deserves the "Friendship" award. I can always count on Sheila's input and advice if I need it. I love her comments, both on the blog and over at Maya's Mom.
Charlene at CrazedParent is absolutely deserving of both awards too! I love her writing. Plus, I think she is my "separated-at-birth-and-a-few-years" twin. She has two boys similar in age and demeanor to Josh and Sam. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get to meet her in person someday... hopefully soon!
B at Random Acts of Motherhood is funny and a great writer. Definately deserving of both awards too. I love reading about her playgroup experiences. They will make you laugh, and cry at the same time.
Of course, Elizabeth is on my daily dose. All three of her blogs are! She's got Table for Five, Mom Cooks and Mom Reviews. And actually, I think she has more blogs, or contributes to more... I don't know. She's one busy lady and she still takes time to help out friends!
Finally, Shannan at Mommy Bits. She's also got two boys, similar in ages to mine. I like reading her blog because I can relate to it. So I'm giving Shannan both awards too.
Thank you to all of you for reading my blog, being my friend, and letting me into your little corner of the world as well. It's nice to share theI have a new knitting project I just finished.
Are these not the cutest? My first ever pair of mittens. And they were so easy, I'm sure all my friends will now be getting mittens for gifts!
Now I need to find a hat pattern to go with them!
I found a really cool knitting website/community called Ravelry. It's just amazing. You can search for patterns and yarns and shops... There is also a feature to keep track of your own supplies (yarn, needles, etc) and projects you 've been working on.
One thing I really like about it is if you have a pattern from a book or magazine, you can search for it and see what other people think of it, or what it turned out like for knitters of varying abilities.
The pattern for the mittens came out of a book I have called "One Skein Wonders." I could go on Ravelry, search for projects from the book and see who had done them, what they turned out like, what kind of yarn they used... it's really cool!
I also discovered, through Ravelry, there is another yarn shop in the town next to mine. I haven't checked it out yet, but I have plans too (once I can afford to buy more yarn)!
Okay, so now time for a Samism:
Sam's latest thing is telling knock-knock jokes. Josh loves them too, but since he's nearly seven, he tells "real" jokes he's read out of a book. Sam makes them up, and they make absolutely no sense.
Here is his favorite.
Sam: Knock Knock
Me: Who's there?
Sam: Angry
Me: Angry who?
Sam: Angry in your tummy!!!!!
The he bursts into fits of laughter.
Josh: I don't get it. That's not a real joke!
This, to me, is just further evidence that boys are weird.
He started out as a promising song writer.
Then, he branched out to author/illustrator/artist.
Now, he's trying his hand at Tabloid Journalism... Introducing: "The Pokemon News"
First (and let's hope the last, but somehow I doubt it) Edition:
Text (as written and spelled): "Poke News: Coming Soon. Atack of the Charizard!"
(And I am to point out that is not an "m" after "the" that is the top of the Charizard's head.)
Text (as written and spelled): "Pokemon are Scard! We dont know why. But it's horible!"
(Bubble says "help" -- I don't know what "kind' of Pokemon that is supposed to be.)
Text: "Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
n!"
(approximately)
I have such high hopes for him!
The boys and I made their class Valentines this year. I think I mentioned already I got our idea from Charlene over at CrazedParent. We melted down old crayons and made heart
shaped ones.
(We used the same Michael's mold that Charlene did... well, not THE SAME one, but the same kind.)
Here is Sam putting the crayons into the mold.
The finished product!
The boys also decorated little bags to put the hearts into. We used generic, plain red and white paper treat bags.
The kids decorated them with heart doilies, heart shaped stickers and buttons, stamps and some glitter glue.
We filled them with the crayons, little pads of paper and Hershey's Kisses. Mommy helped finishe them off with tags and bows.
It was a great project for the kids. It did take us several sessions to complete, but it was lots of fun. And I think they turned out really cute! Each one was unique!
Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!
He also had a sleep over at the birthday boys house. Apparently, they had a great time and were up until at least 1:30 in the morning, and then back up again before 7:00 a. m. Needless to say, Josh was a wreck on Sunday. We went to the playground because it was such a beautiful day and thought the fresh air would do Josh some good. He fell asleep on the way to the playground and on the way home!
We had him in bed by 6:30 last night. When I tried to get him up at 6:00 this morning for the bus, I couldn't wake him up. He slept until 7:00! I had to drive him to school and he was about 5 minutes late, but it was worth it for him to get that extra hour of sleep.
I have a feeling it will take him most of the week to recover!
On Thursday night Josh was in the "PE Show" at school. A few kids from each class were selected to go and show-off some of the things they'd been learning in P. E. this year.
Josh was about as far away from us as you can get, so I did not get any pictures. It was very crowded and the kids were all over the place in the gym.
Each "year" had a different song they did a little dance to then showed off some skill. First grade did a dance to "I Like To Move It" -- which was very cute. Then they demonstrated their ball handling. Josh's group's skill was soccer. They dribbled the ball and shot "goals" through their partner's legs. They also demonstrated passing and trapping. Of course Josh is a natural at this!
Friday was Rich's birthday.
I picked Josh up from school early and we headed over to our local grocery store to get some cake and balloons. They had fun trying to pick out one that Daddy would like. I had to nix the "Winnie the Pooh," "Lightening McQueen," "SpongeBob," and "Train" balloons. Finally, Josh picked out one that was appropriate -- it says, "Go CRAZY! It's your Birthday!"
Rich was able to get off work early and since it was a gorgeous day, we headed over to a local park for about an hour.
It was really nice to be outside in the fresh air! The boys were both tired from being up late the night before. I think the fresh air is so good for them, especially when they are tired. At the very least, it gives them a release and distraction so they're not getting cranky at home!
Then we took the boys to a local restaurant they like for dinner. Rich and I had dinner later at home. Then we came home, had cake and opened presents! The boys were quite worn out (as you can imagine) so they got off to bed early and Rich and I had a really yummy steak dinner!
Josh is going to a birthday party this afternoon at a roller skating rink -- that should be interesting -- and then he has a sleep-over at the "birthday boy's" house. I think he's going to be tired tomorrow too!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
We finally had some really pretty weather here this weekend. It was warm enough to get outside, finally, so we did.
Josh spent the night at a friend's house on Friday. He stayed up too late and got up too early (of course) so we wanted to take it easy but still get outside. So in the afternoon we headed over to a local park. It was really nice being outside in the fresh air and just the thing both the kids needed to expend enough energy to tire out their bodies!
The weather on Sunday was even nicer than Saturday so we got up and headed out to our local Georgia State Park for a walk. Now normally when we go for a walk, the boys complain so we wanted to make it fun for them. We decided to have a Nature Scavenger Hunt with a "Treasure" at the end.
They were so excited! This was a stroke of genius if I do say so myself! I found a website that had lots of different ideas and lists. I edited this list and printed up copies for the boys, packed up pencils, water and a snack and we were off!
Sam inspecting the list. "Hmmm... What do we need?"
Eagle eye Josh finds "something orange" right away! I thought this would be the hardest one, but nope. First thing!
Checking to see what floats. Where we are standing is normally underwater. We watched fish jump up and catch flies one year where we are now standing. The drought has really lowered the lake levels and reduced this part to nothing more than a stream.
The boys each picked something to see if it would float -- Josh's stick floated and Sam's pinecone got stuck in the mud. But then it floated once Daddy "unstuck" it!
The "Future Scientist" writing down his findings.
Some other things on the list that I got photos of were: a tree with no leaves, something an animal would eat, something pointy (also worked for something brown), and something green.
Once the boys found all 17 items on their list, they found a treasure!
For a smart kid, sometimes Josh amazes me! He could not figure out how the "treasure" got there -- even though he practically caught Rich putting it there! And he kept wondering who put it there.
In the end we decided it must have been the Woodland Faeries!
And you know, the "treasure" the Faeries left looks just like the coins Santa left in their stocking! Imagine that!
Sam was quick on the uptake though. He said, "Thank you Mommy and Daddy for my chocolate!"
We continued on with our walk and stopped a bit later for a snack.
Finally, we reached the end of the trail!
See, I did go on the walk too!
Josh declared himself the "winner" and then it was time to go home for lunch!
We had a great time -- the boys thought the scavenger hunt was fantastic! The website I found has lots of ideas for future scavenger hunts too.
Next time, I may do a different one for Josh and Sam. I may have a place for them to draw what they see or put pictures on Sam's list so he knows what he's looking for. Make it a bit more age appropriate!
But it was lots of fun and definitely worth doing again!