Upcycling T-shirts

I like the bright red color of this shirt...and the contrasting green on the back. However, I don't wear cotton event t-shirts, so why not turn it into something wearable for the kids?

Sprouting a Creative Thinker



Tea Party Hats!

Yesterday morning, Camille came running up to me as I was enjoying my first hot mug of coffee. "Mom! Can we make a recycled project and then send it to SproutOnline? We have to use old stuff that you would recycle, like water bottles or those blue caps or something. Please?"

I love this girl! She totally gets it.

Anyway, after thinking about it for a moment, I suggested that we make paper hats for a tea party. We have a ton of packing paper leftover from the move, perfect for tea party hats. Of course, then I was all into this project. Here's what we submitted:

The first little piggy...oops!...birdy built her house with sticks...

I've come to the realization that life slows waaaaaayyyy down when you become a stay-at-home mom. I'm not complaining. Instead I'm seriously soaking up every slow minute. After 4 years of waking my kids up at the crack of dawn and then rushing to start the day, I'm content to sit back and discover what each minute will bring.

The other day, our minutes consisted of finding cool sticks on one of our favorite playgrounds. We drove home with a trunk full of sticks (many of which are still hanging around in different places) and a thousand ideas swirling in our heads of things that we could do with them.

When we got home, I pulled out some rainbow yarn and baubles and...walla! A little bird house. Now, the birds may not actually choose to call it home, but it looks very pretty hanging in the tree next to our garden.



Handful of "cool" sticks



Mommy's crude fashioning





Pre-baubles



Proof of Great Parenting #2: Your Marriage...Exposed

Better times according to Camille, 4.

While staring fondly at this image last night, Camille quietly says, "So, was this, was this when you and daddy liked each other better?"

I did the only thing I could do at that moment...I burst out laughing.

Sometimes yelling matches between you and your spouse just cannot be contained. Right? Right.

Chalk Paint!



Camille's potato in the upper left; Mommy's heart flowers in upper right

 Thank you to PBS for this fun idea. All of our out-of-town guests left yesterday, and the Christmas joy was beginning to turn into aw-man-I-have-to-go-back-to-school blues, so this provided a great distraction for Camille as well as a soothing activity.

Moms, you can lose yourself in play on this one too.

Tools:
Sidewalk chalk
Plastic cups or just reuse old yogurt cups
Paintbrushes - all different sizes work
Water

Drop pieces of the sidewalk chalk into the cups filled with water. You can either crunch up the chalk and make a paste right in the cup, or you can take the soaking wet chalk out of the cup and rub it on the ground till it forms a paste and then use the water to smooth it out. Paint away!

Your kid will enjoy watching the colors go from dark to light as the water dries. Plus, the simple act of brushing a wide stroke of paint across the patio without the worry of messing up is quite soothing.

As the sun was setting on our last few drops of vacation, we were busy painting away.


Camille at work




Magic carpet

Sun



I want my mommy!

That's me screaming.

I remember my first summer out here in Arizona. I was sick as a dog with Valley Fever; basically, pneumonia with a nasty body rash. Yes, gross. Blake and I had been married for three months and this was the first time I'd experienced any kind of illness since we'd started dating.

My mom, dad and little brother came to visit and my mother's parental instincts kicked in: she had me tucked into bed, took my temperature regularly, made me soup, brought me water. Poor Blake - he was completely removed from the situation, not that he minded I'm sure.

And now here we are, a day and a half before Christmas, and I am sick as a dog again. I don't even know where that expression came from or why I am using it. So sorry.

I'm dying! I have to make cookies for Santa and I am dying! And Camille is sick, and my eyes hurt and I'm snotty and coughy, and my ears are clogged up, and I've practically finished off all of the chicken broth in this house, and still I'm at death's door. Mommy! Help me!

Make me some tea with some honey and milk, and a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup with stelline (those sweet little stars), put a blanket over me and tuck me into bed.

What were your mother's remedies for you when you were sick? Share them with me...

Proof of Great Parenting #1: Cuss Words

Camille: Where's the ipad, mommy?

Me: On the counter.

Camille: Oh

Silence

Camille: See mommy, I said 'Oh', not 'Oh dammit' (repeats the sentence one more time because she thinks I'm not listening, meanwhile I'm putting in my contacts)

Me: Do you think that other word is a good word to say?

Camille: No, mommy, that's why I just said 'Oh' not 'Oh dammit'

Me: Okay, let's just stop saying that word altogether, okay?

Camille: Okay! (skips off to go get the ipad)