Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Project Bipolar


Wow! I can't believe it has already been a week since I last posted. Well, it's been a rollercoaster between then and now. My husband had what we call a "Bipolar Episode" and everything got turned upside down for about 12 hours.


Since then, I have poured my life into researching more (again) and I have found some resources that make me feel hopeful about the future. I hope to have some more interesting projects posted soon as I continue to pick up the pieces.

The cat makes me smile...it's good to have something to make me smile in times like these.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Woven Valentine Baskets


I was inspired by this blog on "Maya*Made" to have the kids make these adorable valentine baskets (that we hung as garland until we get ready to fill them with goodies).


Materials Needed:

  • Sturdy Carboard or Cardstock to make a Template
  • Ruler
  • Compass (or something round to trace)
  • Scissors
  • Assorted Paper
  • Glue Stick
  • Goodies to stick in it when finished

Step 1: Make a template using cardboard or other sturdy material. We traced around a juice bottle for the end and measured out about 4 inches.


Step 2: Fold one piece of paper in half (I prefer to use vintage book pages, but the kids weren't too hip on that so I used scrapbook paper)

Step 3: Place flat edge of template on the fold and trace around template.

Step 4: Cut out (each one is a half of the completed heart).


We decided to cut a bunch of these "heart halves" at once before we moved on to weaving so we would have an assortment to mix and match.













Step 5: Cut two evenly spaced strips starting at the straight edge going up about 3/4 of the way up.

Step 6: Take two heart halves and weave them together. This is the tricky part. I actually had to get instructions from another site that I can't find now. But their instructions put it this way: "While most weaving is over under, this is through and around."


Here is a picture once three rows are weaved together. Always start with the row that will be pushed to the top of the heart and end with the row that will make the other edge of the heart. Step 7: Cut a handle from leftover paper and glue it to the each side of the heart on the inside. (Optional: Glue sides of heart to make a deeper basket)


Step 8: Stuff with Goodies (I wish I had some shredded paper to nestle the chocolates in, but the recovering perfectionist in me will deal).

Step 9: Give to your favorite valentine.

I had more pictures, but for some reason I started having complications and couldn't upload correctly.

I hope you enjoy!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Passive-Aggressive Notes

A day or two before Christmas I was killin' some time at Barnes & Noble when I came across a simple yet profound book entitled, "Passive-Aggressive Notes." Rarely am I so quickly engaged in a book, but this was different. The book title is straightforward. This is simply a book of compiled notes that reflect passive aggressive behavior.

I've alway been intrigued by passive/aggressives and see myself able to operate in that behavior easily in order to avoid conflict. So in an effort to understand my tendancy better, I scrambled through the book, giggling to myself as though I could have been the author of many a note found there. I quickly reflected back to the notes I found from my mother growing up, "Please flush toilet when done using. Thank you. The Management." I tried one of these notes in my own life as a mother and wife. Let me just say, PA behavior just does not fly with Cholerics such as my husband. Praise God!

It's a slow process, but I'm slowly kicking this behavior and confronting things as they come...most of the time. And I'm seeing the rewards of following the instructions of Jesus and "Going to our brother." It works so much better than bottling it up, tossing it around with everyone but that person, and then either exploding in a rude note or face-to-face non-Christlike manner speech. Been there.



So the notes in this blog are notes I'm tempted to post for my mother-in-law who moved in with us right before Christmas. I just don't have the heart to tell her face to face. What if she just says, "forget it...do your own dang laundry and cleaning." I'm so ungrateful, huh?

ADDED 2/11/08:
I have another one I would like to post next to my bathroom trash can:
"This garbage is taken out weekly...banana peels get to stinkin'. Please place banana peels in kitchen garbage."




Friday, February 6, 2009

Let's Get On With It!

Hebrews 6:1-3 (The Message)

So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we'll stay true to all that. But there's so much more. Let's get on with it!

The kids are learning how to work with watercolor paints in our 2 Cool 4 School Homeschool Coop. Cara got these really cool watercolors that come in a tube. You squirt a little bit out and then add A LOT of water. The kids just did not get the concept of WATERcolors. They wanted dark, detailed paintings like you get when you use acrylics or oil. "More water, more water," Cara and I repeated over and over. Some continued to paint with dry brushes...but others grasped the elementary lesson and desired to learn more. The next week we put puddles of water on their plates and added a little tiny bit of water and forced them to paint the watercolor way. An elementary lesson I forgot I had to learn in order to learn the more complex techniques of working with watercolor paint.

The same anxiousness I had for these kids to just get the fact you have to use water is the same longing and desire I have to go "deeper" with God and for others to go "deeper" as well. I've experienced the amazing revelations of God and I never want to return to the elementary lessons. They are important, because just like watercolors painting....you have to understand the basics of using water with the paint in order to move on to fine, dark, detailing or adding textures to your paintings. Elementary truths of God must be understood in order to move on to the deep things of God.

Jeremiah 33:2-3
"This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it--the LORD is his name: 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'"
Isaiah 48:6(b)
From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things, unknown to you.
Romans 11:33(b)
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[9] knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!

Ephesians 1:17-19
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength,

Ephesians 3:17(b)-19
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I have prayed these scriptures A LOT over the past year as it is one of my deepest desires to know God in all His depth. Here is one of my prayer songs in my own words:
I wanna see your deep
I wanna see your mysteries
Your hidden and unknown
Your unsearchable love for me
I wanna see your deep
I wanna see your deep
New things, hidden things, all of your unknown
I wanna see your deep
I wanna see your deep
If only I could grasp your deep
Beyond all I know or understand
Fill me to your fullness
embrace me with your hand
I wanna see your deep
I wanna see your deep
How high, how long
How high, how long
is your deep?
I wanna see your deep
I wanna see your deep



Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Art of Well Digging


This week in the "Prairie Primer" we read about Pa and his neighbor digging a well. So I thought it was a prime opportunity to use different materials to show the different layers underground and the water table. Note from Kaden: The black spots represents the dangerous gases that humans can't breathe or they might die. I think it is interesting that Kaden takes an abstract approach and Katibree takes a more literal approach.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Rave 80's Head & Wrist Bands



I'm trying to come up with a creative way to photograph and market my MIL's latest creation. Input accepted. You know...to make everybody WANT one...not able to live WITHOUT it!!! And it must have a cool-factor.