Adjusted Expectations

Scootle busy working on this year's valentines in 2012

Last year, I had big plans for homemade Valentine cards.  I had been a mom for a little over two years then (what a novice, pffft!) and still didn't have a good handle on what projects were doable with two kids, 2.5 years apart.  I have blocked out the details, but lets just say that I did what I NEVER thought I'd do, I sent the kids to school with BOUGHT cards (gasp!).  Little did I know that I was actually doing a VERY DOABLE project, it's just that my timeline was off.  We embarked on a very doable, two year valentine card making project.

 This year, it was a piece of cake.  I pulled out my handy-dandy box full of cut pink and red card-stock and random cute valentine cut-outs the boys and I worked so hard on last year.  I sat the boys down for an assembly line a lovely afternoon of crafting, with threats against taking away their play time romantic music playing.  I barked out gently showed them how to glue!  stamp!  write names!  It was actually kind of fun, but crazy.  Rather than some idyllic craft time with my kids, they were moving so fast so they could go play that I could hardly keep up with them.  It's a wonder they didn't glue the whole house down just so they could hurry up and play.

Speed stamping

Speed name writing

After gluing these last ones down, he ran out of the room!

I am not as crafty with my kids as I thought I would be.  I thought I'd be more like my mom.  I have so many memories of being crafty with my mom.  She is really creative and was able to make a lot with little while I was growing up.  I would love to involve my kids in crafts, but I have also learned (now that I am a wise mother of three years) to adjust my expectations.  I have already started brainstorming next year's valentine's project and it is a little less involved.   I am also trying to be more realistic, realizing my childhood memories are mostly snapshots of highlights.  It's not as if we were crafting every day (right mom?).  There were a whole lot of just plain, average days in between.  And even though they will remember the snapshots, I think it is the every day routines and structure that will nurture them most into who they are going to be.

A sample of the two year cards

* The sample above is so misleading!  Unfortunately, the Valentine cards are already being delivered at school, so I can't go take a picture of some of my favorites.  They have cut-outs of things like a boy in cool shoes, a popsicle, leaves, birth announcement advertisements, etc. 

Fun With Felt

I am enjoying this holiday season as though I were a child again.  So many of the last few holidays have been filled with longing and yearning - with pain and wondering ... will they be here next year?  Well, they are here this year and the pain has been replaced with so much gratitude and gladness.  I have five stockings hanging up.  Five.  I was finally able to get rid of the rag-tag stockings Bill and I individually brought to our relationship, as well as Samba's cheap $1 stocking from who knows where.  I got out my sewing machine, and trusty, forgiving felt and went to town.  I had way too much fun making these.  As I am having fun making memories with our boys.  No one could have explained to me how hard motherhood was going to be.  And no one could have explained to me how magical it was going to be either.

Three Contient Family Collage

Collaging has become another way for me to express myself. Sometimes I feel like I am exhausting my loved ones and myself with the same talk over and over. Collaging gives me an opportunity to work on a non-verbal level, which helps me get a lot of clarity. I usually just sit down with a pile of magazines and cut anything that strikes me and glue it on paper. This is not meant to be art, it is just therapy for me. As you can see, I played with the idea of biological child in this whole mix, but my heart is just not fully in it at this time (and neither is Bill's).

Above is the big picture. Below are a few of my favorite images:

Hi, kids!

Can't you see this on a Christmas card?

I can't wait to lift this glass off of my heart!!

This is some love for whoever she is in Ethiopia

Polka-Dot Curtains

Both of our moms asked about the polka-dot curtains... I apparently didn't upload the pics correctly, so here goes!

I look forward to having more interesting things to blog about!!

Nesting...and goofing off

Here are pictures of the fabric I bought for the curtains in our kids' room. I look forward to sewing! The curtains will be in the stripped fabric, with tab tops in the blue star fabric, with the animal buttons at the base of each tab. I will keep the walls the color they are now, a buttery yellow. L and D gave us the crib and B and S gave us a barely used mattress today! I LOVE having a crib in my house... didn't I say that already :) ? I do :)

Here are a couple of silly pictures of our sweet Samba! These pictures were taken in the only 2 seconds she was not trying to rip the leis off her neck! I know, we are terrible :)