Through the Eyes of a Child

Can you look in the mirror and say to yourself that you are pretty, or handsome, as the case may be? I found several years ago that it is not that easy. Oh, sometimes I could think it, but trying to say it aloud was a difficult task. I also tried to face myself in the mirror and say some good things about me. I thought I had a healthy self-image, but the challenge of the task made me rethink how I looked at myself.

I am taking lessons from Girlfriend. She looks in the mirror and giggles and smiles. Then I say something like "Look at that pretty, pretty Princess!" which creates even more giggles. Sometimes she turns away, but that is all part of the game. She knows that will make me say she is a pretty, pretty, Princess all the more!

The other day as I was combing her hair, I asked her how she would like me to fix it. There have been times when she preferred two pigtails to one, or a ponytail on the side instead of the back, etc. On this day she looked up at me and said, "Pretty!"

I responded, "You just want your hair done pretty?" She nodded adamantly. Once finished, she looked in the mirror for approval. "Pretty, Pretty!" she said.

I grew up in a home where my mother thought it a sin, apparently, to think highly of oneself. She not only did not make any attempts to tell me I was pretty, but she pooh-poohed anyone else who did. She feared pride more than anything. I realize now, that she had no idea of what pride is, nor how God intended us to use it.

He is proud of us. He made us just as we are! I think He gets the same types of feelings for us that I get as a grandma, when Girlfriend giggles and calls herself a pretty princess! I feel great!

I have, since my childhood, learned to think highly of myself. Even the Bible does not say not to think highly of yourself...it says not to think MORE highly than you ought to! And if you read the rest of it, you will find that you ought to think pretty highly of yourself. You are made in God's image. You are thought highly of by Him! You are seated in heavenly places! Wow! We girls ARE princesses, daughters of the King of Kings!

Regardless of how you feel about God or religion, you have good reason to be proud of yourself. I know pride has been the downfall of many people, men and women alike. And pride has brought about lies and pain. But, I wonder if those people built up all that false pride because down deep they really did not like themselves?

I think pride is a lot less fearful thing than self-abasement. A realistic approach to oneself takes courage. Admitting our faults can sometimes be easier than admitting our strengths. Perhaps it is because the power of our strengths scares us and places responsibilities and accountability on us. I know some people who readily admit their strengths and try to hide their weaknesses. But, often, later in life, they discover they really did not know themselves as well as they thought they did.

Take a look in the mirror. Who do you see? I hope you see a great person who can love themselves and others as themselves. I hope you see someone who can address both weaknesses and strengths without flinching. Acknowledging weaknesses means we are growing. (Personally, I have never had a garden without a few weed problems!)

I hope you find a person in the mirror who can acknowledge their beauty. You are beautiful! Enjoy life!

Ah, the memories!

I decided to look back over the more memorable, unwritten moments of 2009. There are some things I want to forget, and others I wish to remember. Some are worth sharing for the lessons learned or the laughter gained. So, I shall share a "moment" of my creative Girlfriend!

It was a day when Handsome was taking a test. I needed Girlfriend to be occupied with things other than interruptions or needing attention for a while. So, I set up her water/sand table in an unusual place...the family room, complete with a tablecloth beneath. I knew that if the usual set up occurred (the bathroom shower) that it would only be a short time before she would come looking for us. So, we went about our normal routine for such a day. She chose to have sand that day, and sat contentedly playing with it like an angel.

It was after lunch, I believe, when I realized Girlfriend was not in sight and I went upstairs to check on her. There she was! Not at the sand table, but rather at the sink in the bathroom, with a pan of sand...rather a pail of sand that she was "washing". The entire sink was full of sand, backing up the running water which was very close to running over. Oh no!

Play sand is particularly fine-grained. That does not mean that it is easy to rescue from a drain! Especially one that is packed and the sand is wet. I scooped and scooped and made little progress.

Fortunately, Daddy was home and so was a wet-vac! Yes, It did the trick without damage, except to lose some of the sand! I learned a lesson that day. Two year olds are creative people and when their usual routine is changed, they will find a way to make it extra interesting!

The table will stay in the shower and primarily be a water play table! I think the whole house will like that better!

Happy New Year

This will be a better year. Last year was the year of good intentions. My desire is that THIS year will be the year of good ACTIONS! I have laid aside the idea that making resolutions will assist in bringing this about. All that ends up happening is that the resolutions haunt me and add to my guilty feelings. However, without goals, nothing will be accomplished.

Therefore, I am making some goals today. One of those is that I will write daily. I have three blogs. I will write something on one of those daily. Therefore, at least two times per week there should be some news on each of them. Knowing myself as I do, however, I realize that this is probably too lofty a goal. I am leaving it as my goal and promising myself and my friends that I will do my best to accomplish this goal. I should have at LEAST ONE item on each blog weekly. If I achieve this, I will consider myself successful.

I am writing at least weekly for our church as well. I write the curriculum for our kids church, along with puppet skits, etc. so that really is partly why I have been so lax in attending these blogs. And I also write quite a bit for my homeschooler. Teaching him some of the weirdness of the English language often works better by writing my own stories that fit the subjects. He is much more interested in reading about topics that peek his interest, and finding those at the library takes a lot of time. Not only that, but finding interesting topics that also fit the English rules of the week, can be a daunting task! This probably sounds like another excuse, and perhaps it is...

The point is, I shall truly attempt to do better at keeping up with the blogs. The request I have from you, my friends, is to encourage me, by making comments from time to time, or at least letting me know that you are reading them. Sometimes, I am tempted to make the blogs more like a journal or diary, which, I guess, is okay. However, daily, thoughts go through my mind that may well be of interest to my readers. So, if I know I have readers, I will be more motivated to get my thoughts onto the blogs. THANK YOU!

I love to write. I love to share. I love my friends. Happy New Year!

ps- this is the only time that all my blogs will say the same thing! THAT I promise!

Time Flies When You're Having FUN!

Wow! Where has all the time flown off to? Perhaps it went south with the ducks and geese...Oh yeah! Not all the birds leave Arizona in the winter...and then we get the "snow birds"...Now I officially rambling. But it is true...time has gotten away from me. I titled this "Time Flies When YOu're having fun" because that is mostly what I have been doing. Fun! Of one type or another.

We changed out the ocean room to a pumpkin patch and falling leaves room and now it is already time to make into the snow room for the winter...or at least part of the winter I had hoped to make it a room full of snowmen and flakes...snowflakes, that is! So far, both time and energy have eluded me during the opportune hours for such a project!

Speaking of projects...I have been consumed with them of late. I hand-made a quilt for my youngest grandson's second birthday. I do this for each grandchild on that birthday. I try to go with a theme that they or their parents choose. Last year Girlfriend got a princess one. Mr. Boo's was a "things that go" theme, mostly with trains, planes, and trucks. There were some cars, hot air balloons, school buses, and bicycles on it too. Oh! And a skateboard or two! It took me a lot longer than I anticipated. Struggling with osteo-arthritis and fibromyalgia is not fun. Such handiwork has to be done in segments...when I can take the challenge. But, that all got done and arrived by his birthday. He seems to like it very much!

The next project I tackled was making Girlfriend a dollhouse for Christmas. I started off really cheaply with a small book case I purchased for one dollar at a yard sale. Then came the paint...four different colors to match a table and chair set she has which was custom made. Then Grandpa made a roof...then I bought tiles for the flooring...and a pink placemat for the bedroom carpet. then we made or bought (depending on the room) furniture for each room. So it now has a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, famil room, bedroom, and two more unfurnished rooms at the moment. Thinking about going with a laundry room and a parent's bedroom...but I may have to make the bed...can't find one...anyway, that is almost done. Just have to velcro the furniture to the flooring so it doesn't slip around and get broken or lost! PTL!

I also picked up a doll cradle and two high chairs at yard sales...all for under ten bucks! They are all wooden...so I painted them to match all the other furniture as well. Now the challenge is finding boxes so I can wrap them up!

And now I have a few projects for the adult children in my life. I cannot disclose those here, however, just in case one or more of them should decide to read this blog. Never have yet, but who knows? Those are all easier and less intense with the physcial aspects, but time-consuming none-the-less!

On top of all this, I have managed to decorate my home almost completely, and get my Christmas cards done for the first time in like five years or more! Ha!

Well, I did not intend to write an epistle of extraordinary lengths, but it looks like I have done so anyway! I shall try to be more accomodating to be faithful to write this blog...I have to say that Facebook is part of the problem, as I get on there and feel like I have displayed my events and overlook this blog. I shall do better...I shall do better...I shall do better... (I may have to write this on the board 1000 times!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS if I don't get around to blogging before then! AND HAVE A BLESSED SEASON OF JOY,,,not stress!

Out with whales and in with the leaves~

What a week! I really should say, "What a month!" It has been full of changes. We changed out our Science topic from the Ocean and its creatures to Chemistry and the study of Matter. That meant we had the sad task of taking down our ocean room and replacing it with pumpkins, leaves, and resemblences of fall. While I do not yet have current pix of the fall room, I will post some of the ocean one. While this new one is not as elaborate, it was fun putting together and designing. Three of my grandsons on Columbus Day painted the "wallpaper" and made some of the pumpkins.

As far as the Science goes, learning about matter, and atoms and the table of elements and protons and neutrons and electrons, etc. is really quite fun. Handsome has a kit from Academy of Science for Kids which has packettes with hands-on explanations and experiments. He finds them very intersting, I find them easy to use and teach. This appears to be a very good program. I never took Chemistry in school and while I picked up some of the info along the way, it is enlightening to me as well. I think I WILL try to memorize the table of elements...just to see if I can! (Maybe you can teach an "old" granny new info!)

Girlfriend is potty-training. She is so funny when she accomplishes her task. She beams and claps and points. And announces it to Daddy and sometimes Grandpa on the phone...

There are lots of tales to share...and I shall share a many soon. As for today, I just wanted to post something and some pictures now that I have my computer figured out!

The Power of a Moment

That's all it took...a quick moment of inattentiveness...I left the scene to get a different marker since the one we were using was running low. Girlfriend had been quietly coloring with her crayons at her own desk. Upon seeing me leave, she decided to follow, at which Handsome decided to move her desk slightly.

This created a reaction which concluded by them both pushing the desk across the room. This would not have been a big issue, had not a wayward crayon gotten lodged under the leg of the desk.

YES! In a brief moment of time, the light colored carpet was hued with a dark blue streak about four feet long!

So, I spent a good deal of the afternoon trying to remove the color. In the end, I did succeed, but if you look REALLY closely, you can tell that there has been some marking. Fortunately, most of us don't look THAT closely, and if we tried to, there would be too much action of little feet dancing or playing anyway!

THis, is the power of a simple moment!

The Baby Needs You

Girlfriend is well into her twos as evidenced by her antics. And now that Hunky is attending regular Kindergarten, she requires some extra attention at times. This is fine, even wonderful, to spend special time with her. However, sometimes she prefers that one on one time to be in the middle of Handsome's instruction time.

Grandma, here, being full of antics myself, came up with a "solution"...or so I thought.

"Girlfriend! I hear your baby crying! She needs you! Go get your baby and feed her!"
This worked for a few times, with Girlfriend taking off at lightning speed to care for her baby.

But! she was not to be outdone! Later that week, when she was in need of a time out, thinking quickly to avoid "the time-out corner" she yells out "Wait! I hear my baby crying! She needs me!"

AND as if THAT wasn't funny enough...THIS week, when I tried to use the same tactic, she looks at me and says "Gramma...that baby is just fine!"