beans, glue and paper plates

last friday i did another quick activity with ben.
super easy!

1 - rounded up supplies: paper plates, glue, beans and a pen
2 - drew a 'B', a flower and a sun
3 - traced the lines with white glue and put some glue on a plate for dipping
4 - ben placed the beans

this kept ben occupied and interested.
he even made a "crazy shape" one by himself.

i tried to introduce a new vocabulary word - "abstract",
but he still calls it "crazy".

then we made sugar cookies.

ben is always in charge of sprinkles.
doesn't that make you want to eat one of our cookies???
just kidding - i've learned.
ben only gets a few of his own cookies to decorate.
mom does the rest.

unexpected surprises

this week has been full of some unexpected surprises and encouraging moments that have left my heart full.

like taking a some quick photos after a warm afternoon walk at the park.
i had been wanting to shoot some outside photos with the kids for awhile,
and instead of trying to "schedule" time with clothes,
accessories and props like i had been wanting to do
(probably from seeing too many photo blogs and pinterest ideas),
things fell together on their own.
to me the moments i captured are perfect -
even though they are not the "perfection" i was planning in my mind.
i think i am finally learning the joy of contentment,
and letting go of comparison and expectations that often leave me feeling less than happy.
what a waste of my time.

here are a couple of the pictures i shot on monday afternoon.
they are like sunshine to me.

wishing you a happy weekend!

planting a paper garden

i must say i often struggle keeping ben busy -
he loves learning, he has TONS of energy, and he loves to help me with whatever i might be doing.
which is wonderful, but sometimes i need something he can work on by himself.
i've seen some fun ideas for busy bags and projects for preschoolers,
but i don't always have time to organize projects or ideas.
so i've been trying to come up with some of my own simple, interesting and frugal projects for ben.

here's something we've been doing this week -
planting a garden (on paper).

since we are not growing a garden of our own this year (trying to tackle some other home projects),
i decided it was okay to cut-up the garden catalogs.
ben has really enjoyed helping with our garden the past couple of years,
so he got pretty excited about choosing his vegetables, fruits and flowers for his own garden.

initially i did not have the images cut out when this idea came to me,
but i quickly realized that it would be much better with the images already being cut out.
i think i cut the rest of them while watching a little tv in the evening,
and the next day ben was able to plant his garden without much help from me.
just a few "what is this called?" and he was occupied.

we've also been outside doing fun things like sidewalk chalk.
i traced ben and he helped me color in his clothes,

and a kite was most appropriate for a windy kansas day.


and what was miss julia doing?
observing, of course.

daydream weekend

not counting losing one hour of sleep,
jake's back hurting today,
a late evening with julia,
and too much time in the bathroom with ben -

this was a weekend like i use to daydream about.

not perfect, but pretty darn close.
at home with my husband and our kids,
eating pancakes saturday morning (jake makes the best!),
doing some household chores,
grocery shopping and running a couple of errands,
saturday night mass (ben was so well behaved!),
homemade pizza saturday evening (once again - jake makes the best!),
an online visit with grandma and grandpa,
staying up late watching tv with jake,
sleeping in sunday morning,
eating leftover pancakes,
laundry and cleaning,
listening to some john prine pandora,
cooking a sunday evening dinner - including brownies for dessert,
playing chutes and ladders,
dancing with ben,
cleaning up the kitchen,
and listening to the quiet sounds of our little family in our little home.
simply beautiful to me.

hope your weekend was just as lovely.

warm days

it's sure been warm here lately!
in fact, our quince are blooming and our daffodils are shooting up.
and even though it's also been windy,
we've been trying to get outside as much as possible for some much needed fresh air.

 

when we're not outside ben has been spending lots of time tracing shapes and letters in this dry erase book he got for his birthday from my aunt and uncle. 

it's pretty amazing to watch him learn these days.

he is really interested in reading and writing - 

and he sure makes his mom and dad proud.

we were also proud parents when we took ben to visit a preschool tuesday morning.

we are considering starting him this coming fall - just two days a week.

he was initially worried that we were going to leave him there that day, 

but after watching the other kids and meeting the teachers, 

he was soon standing in line for the pledge of allegiance and sitting on the mat to listen to the teacher.

once we were home he started pouting.

i asked him what was wrong and he told me he was sad because he wanted to stay and play at preschool.

being three can sure be hard.

for all of us.  :)

so glad tomorrow is thursday - i think it's my favorite day of the week.

 

a car window & a paper flower bouquet

today definitely felt like a monday
a little rushed, disorganized, hurried, and blah - all at the same time.
but today did also have a couple of really good moments.

this first good moment happened when the kids and i hopped in the car to head to the post office.
but first i have to back-up to sunday afternoon when jake and ben cleaned out the car
(very thoughtful i might add).
they finished cleaning and found that the front passenger side window would not go back up.
bummer - seems like there's always something happening to our "well-loved-almost-vintage" vehicles.
but thanks to my diy husband a how-to video of replacing the window part was found,
and he was going to order the part from our local oreilly's today.
so now we're back to the trip to the post office.
just for fun i thought i would try roll up the window while we were driving -
maybe it would work.
no luck.
oh well, i thought.
and then we were stopped at a light, and i looked down and noticed the child safety lock was on.
i flipped the button to off and UP went the window.
UP. DOWN. UP. DOWN.
i quickly called jake with the good news.

the other highlight of today was mailing a birthday present to my friend nikki.
my friend mandy and i were planning on sending a gift together,
but weren't too excited about any of the ideas we came up with so i decided to make something.
i've been wanting to make rolled paper flowers for awhile now.

i used this tutorial for a guide and really enjoyed making a such a special gift.
and i can't wait to make some more!
(please excuse the so-so photos - took the inside late last night)

 

 

lately...

i've really been consumed with thoughts of my friend nikki lately.
it's amazing how much i find myself thinking about our friendship -
and it seems like such a long time ago that we were kids.
i have so many memories of us during grade school and junior high.
she moved away in high school, but we stayed in touch and then ended up being roommates our first year of college. (living in a dorm room the size of the closest can always bring out the "best" in people so our second year we went our own ways.)
but then lived together again our third and fourth years of college with another dear friend, mandy.

somewhere along the way we both found our own ways,
and i must confess my path didn't go the way i had planned.
i wasn't the friend i should have been - on many occassions.
but despite the bumps along the way... nikki was always there and willing to be my friend.

age, distance, husbands, kids, moves, jobs, and busy calendars have definitely minimized our time to stay connected over the years.
but really i find my friendship with nikki isn't necessarily about what our relationship is today,
but the time we spent together years ago, the kids we used to be and our dreaming about the future.
that's all part of who we are today.

so i now find myself anxiously awaiting any update, thinking about how her life is changed, thinking about her family, thinking about her new baby girl, and just thinking about my friend -
the girl, the woman, the wife, the mother, the daughter.
i would love to "do" something more - but right now i fell like the only thing i can do is pray,
and look forward to visiting her again soon.