Of "cwafty things" and a Brave Mama

My parents put together a very clever Christmas gift for the J-Man and the Diva. A container of "cwafty things" as the J-Man calls them. Two huge organizer thingys full of just that - items to be crafty with: pipe cleaners, stickers, glitter glue (ugh), beads, felt, glue, etc....

They LOVE the "cwafty boxes". Before I pull them out of the LOCKED cabinet, I have to read stories about bravery. Think little train engines that could, brave little toasters, and so on. I have to give myself the pep talk. I am sure other moms have given themselves the same pep talk: " I WILL be that kind of Mom. I will be the kind of mom that let's her kids create, experiment (ie MAKE A MESS)." And it is all worth it....but goodness is it scary.

Just in case you were wondering if her dress was dragged through the glitter glue on her paper here: it was. And if you were also wondering if it washed out: it did!

The Dive is especially fond of the glitter glue. Fond enough to glob 3 tubes on one piece of unsuspecting construction paper.

The Tank likes it all. Particularly if she can color it or adhere it to her body. *Sigh*

The J-Man is a "just-so" kind of person. He will fuss and fuss with re-arranging his craft box half the time, and spend the other half gluing things together. Loves those Popsicle sticks.

And because I want my kids to be THOSE kinds of kids that know how to clean up after themselves, we begin the "Cleaning Up from the Crafting Expedition" energetically. And then I realize that really, they have helped clean up enough and I can get it done a lot faster. But I bite my tongue at stick it out to the bitter end, helping them "clean" up after themselves. All of this WILL pay off in the end....that's what I am telling myself anyway.

And because no post is quite complete without a picture of ALL my Precious Little Ones, here is my only kiddo not currently into "cwafty things"....

He sure has the being cute thing down, though!

Of Sibling Affection

Please tell me my kids are not the only ones that argue. Fight. Find joy in harassing one another. There are days when I truly think I am not a mother, but a referee. If they had their way, I would be more of a statistician - who won which round and in what kind of record time - that kind of stuff.

But there are moments. Those amazing moments when I actually hope. When I see little glimpses of the best friends I want my kids to be....


He is so good at entertaining his little brother whenever we ask!

Here The Tank is "reading" to the Pooter. These two have a very close relationship. He just gets this goofy grin whenever she happens to look his way. Love it.


This one is post library trip. Checking out the new books....wearing dress up clothes. They do this just about every week...pour out all the books and take turns swapping. They usually each come up with a favorite....The Diva's favorite will always be a pink book. That's how she picks books at the library...if they have a pink binding, they get checked out. Hey....at least she's not judging a book by it's cover! Ha.

This is my new favorite of these two. Can you see the mischief?

Of Yummy Cookies

The kids and I made the most delicious cookies ever. Well, the two older kids helped while The Tank was napping. Only on rare occasions am I brave enough to bake with her help:

(and this was just an ordinary coloring session! Black eye compliments of the playground...)

Imagine letting her near the eggs or a canister of flour. Yeah, it's about as scary as you can imagine....if not more.

Anyway.... we made these:

Animal Cookies. These are not your typical sugar cookie. They are much more liked frosted animal cookies...with a coating rather than a frosting. These paired with a chilled glass of milk was pretty much worth the 5 miles that I had to run to burn the calories.

The J-Man thought they were pretty tasty too...

And the poor Pooter. He just watched us eat them with very longing eyes....

You can get the recipe Here

However...rolling it out in between the wax paper was a bust. Much better to let the dough chill, then roll it out and cut.

Of Swim Teachers Who Wander into Our Lives "by chance"

Sometimes you just have to sit back and say, "Well, now. That could only have been done by the Lord."

In March, we signed the J-Man up for swim lessons at our local community pool. David usually took him as I was hugely pregnant and not too keen on sitting outside in the "heat". J-Man really liked his teacher, Miss C. In fact, he liked her sooooo much that when she was absent one day and had a sub, the J-Man had a melt down and didn't even do his lesson. We ended up having Miss C come to our house and do lessons in our pool with both the J-Man and The Diva. I liked her instantly. The Diva adored her. She is pretty convinced that Miss C is secretly a princess. Some days, Miss C is "Earl" (Ariel) and others she may be "Bill" (Belle). Through the course of the summer, we came to find out that Miss C was homeschooled, came from a large family herself, and was just a wonderful godly woman! No wonder we all loved her! And she even talked about God while giving swim lessons!




We had our last lesson for the season last week. We already miss her. But I think it is so cool how she just "randomly" happened to be Jack's teacher that first lesson. What a coincedence, huh?