valentine's day crafts

one of the email subscriptions i receive had a neat idea for valentine's day. we made these for a dear friend of ours that we will be visiting on feb 14.

first, we needed 3 basket-style coffee filters stacked together. then we folded them until they were too small to fold.

i wonder if this is his response to the empty stapler. anyway, stapling these near the bottom was the easiest until i ran out of staples. we wrapped paperclips tightly around the base of the flower instead.

next, the filters were separated from each other.

finally pick your favorite paint and dip your creations.

other great craft ideas can be found at www.craftbits.com

~~name calling~~

not many of us want to call our children nasty names. when mrT and i were expecting our children, we were very careful to investigate the meanings of the names before we decided they were the names we wanted. why? because we firmly believe that, although we may be speaking their actual name, we are prophesying the characteristics of the meaning into their lives.

my challenge lately has not been changing their names, but watching my tone because sometimes my voice says a child is stupid, dumb, or less than the gift that God gave me. how terrible. what devastating effects it can have. a sunny disposition can turn thunderous very quickly.

a wonderful piece of advice my mom (i think) gave me is to listen to my words and at the end of a sentence silently add "sweetheart" or "stupid." very quickly one's tone dictates which name your words imply.

like proverbs 15:3 says, 'a soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.'

i want my interactions with people to be 'sweetheart.' i'm starting at home.

***if you wanna be great...***

in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all...

i remember singing my heart out to that song as a child. what i'm hoping to instill in our children is service isn't always boring! Granny needed her lawn raked and we got to have fun doing it. check this fun serving time out.

who knew you could rake a yard with a leaf blower?

it's camoflaged nicely, but there's a geyser of leaves in front of that nozzle.

almost done!!

this wonderful mound of cottonwood leaves is only about half of what we raked & blowed (is that a word?). a few years ago, we had a pile so high, landing in the middle of it hardly hurt at all!

~~nature's beads~~

combine a little girl's love of crafting and nature walks and what do you get?

a snowberry tiara!

(some websites say that snowberries are toxic, others write the snowberries are only inedible due to their taste. our children have each tried them and i have no fear of them ever eating another!)

~~you should try this at home!~~

a few days back we tried a very cool experiment. almost every day since, the children have been begging to do it again! after collecting water bottles, balloons, a funnel, vinegar (acid) and baking soda (base), we prepared by pouring the acid into the bottles to 1/2 full and 2 heaping tablespoons of the base into each balloon.

standing ready.... set....

MIX!!!

(the results were instant... perfect for eager, curious budding scientists)

the balloon expanded until some of the pressure was released through the valve at the bottle.

i think we were all amazed at how simple and fun this could be!

we found that remixing the solution encouraged the reaction.

~~school days loom ahead~~

when i opened my email this morning, i was delighted to read a short paragraph that spoke directly to who i am. for those of you who know me, flying by the seat of my pants is what i do best and trying to force myself into a schedule is a little like pushing a rope. i do it for one day (the schedule--not the rope), two if i'm lucky... if i make three days in a row, someone better call the ambulance.

oh, yes, back to the email. here's what it said:

**if you change your plan, it won't mean that your first plan was a mistake. it will mean that your first plan became a step toward your next plan** (How Do I Know? (...if my plan for the year is a good one!) By Virginia Vagt

now that's more like it. i can live with that.

enjoy the wind up!