Taking the Scenic Route

Grandma and Zane had a ball tonight, from reading together to “sneezing”.  They were really cute to watch.

Reading Maisy

“Wiseman built his house upon a rock and the rain came tumbling down”

Doing the “rain” action

Father & Son concert

Pumpkin Yarn!

This is custom hand dyed merino wool yarn from Jessica at Fabric Connection.  It is meant to make pumpkin hats (the greenish one is for the stem and leaves)   I’ve got one hat on the needles.  I don’t have a pattern so I am just winging it and will probably make each hat a little different.  This one started with a seed stitch headband, then some increases to make it poofy.

Some really good readings for Christian Parents, especially if you are dealing with people following Ezzo or Pearl’s philosophy.  Notice that there are a lot of  good links at the bottom of the page.

The last few days have been so very HARD.  Zane has been absolutely insane.  Certifiable.  At one point this evening he ran screaming from his bedroom into the living room, aggressivly swept all the papers off of the computer desk, ran to the kitchen table, swept everything off of there, and did the same on his little table and was lifting it up to flip it over when we caught up to him.  He was as fast as lightening.  I have been working to keep this place clean and last night, when I went to bed, the entire house was company clean, including his room. (Even after a rough, whiny, making a mess kind of day)  Now every single mega block, train track set (train cars, buildings, logs, crates, signs, ect), every puzzle peice (including some 100 peice puzzles), every peice of everything he owns is on the floor, with a layer of cereal over the top of it.  He also dragged clothes out of the closet, laundry out of the laundry hamper, books off of shelves.  He is also whiney and crying and throwing tantrums. I would really like to know where my high energy, but sweet boy went. I couldn’t even get him out the door for the Tumnle Tots class today because he was having so many meltdowns we couldn’t get him out the door in time. 

I hope tomorrow is better because today was just too much.  Maybe he is getting ready for another developmental leap.  I just know this is really NOT the Zane I know. 

I have been lurking at a different parenting board the last weeks.  I discovered it through an MDC link and I am really feeling a connection there.  It is a

<QUOTE>Mom By Grace from Gentle Christian Mothering wrote

Something that I wanted to bring up, though, about the hard days. Just because you have hard days (or seasons) doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong. Just because your toddler or preschooler isn’t “getting it” doesn’t mean they are doing something wrong, either.

There is huge, huge pressure that as mothers, we place on ourselves to be perfect, to always do the “best” thing, to have the results to show in our parenting. I think a lot of the mamas at GCM feel that pressure extra at times, when we are in RL communities where punishment is the norm. We feel like we have to “prove” that it “works.” We don’t allow ourselves the grace we so much want to show our husbands and children.

Punitive mamas feel a lot of the same pressures. So do mamas with a lot of children. We all feel the pressure to prove ourselves, to make sure we aren’t “failing”. Honestly, having been in punitive circles, there are a lot of mamas who feel just like the mamas in this thread. Only they are trying to convince themselves that spanking IS working and they are going to smile and keep at it until they can prove it is.

The difference in punitive circles, is that when you are having a rough patch or your child is not measuring up to First Time Obedience, then obviously, YOU are doing something wrong. You aren’t “ambushing” them, you aren’t swatting enough, you aren’t being consistent enough, you are letting your child have too many freedoms, you are letting your child out of your sight. You, you, you, you, you. Tremendous pressure. And it is all YOUR fault.

I really would desire for the mamas here at GCM (and really, all mamas) to remember the GRACE that is the base of discipline that we are all striving for. God is so gracious to us. God knows we are not perfect. God knows we sin against our children, our husbands, our selves. What does He tell us? Try harder? You need to be more consistent? Not at all!

“Come, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.” Because of God’s grace, we can go to God when we are struggling, when we are failing. We can repent when we need to, we can rejoice that Christ’s sacrifice has already covered those times of anger/unkind words/impatience. We can pray in those moments we struggle. I don’t think we can live out GBD without really relying on God and depending upon Him each day. And that can be really hard. </QUOTE>

I had an interesting phone call.  A program coordinator from the YMCA called to hear my thoughts about the Music and Motion class because there had been complaints.  The first thing out of my mouth was it should be called Music and Sitting if that is what they expect the kids to do. She laughed and said “So you think it is TOO structured?”  lol.  I told her I just expected it be more of everybody doing action songs (head – shoulder – knees and toes type songs) with the parents doing the actions, and the kids imitating or playing some music and the kids beat drums or something. You know…like the title, Music and Motion.  Some people evidently had their panties in a bunch because the teacher didn’t have “control of the classroom”.  I asked her how they expected to control a classroom of kids from walking to three?!?  She agreed and said that was why it was parent participation. I told her that although I am right on top of redirecting him away from purses, bags and strollers (and was frankly sort of ticked that people brought so much crap with them to a half an hour tot’s class..I came in with car keys only….what could you possibly need in a half an hour that justifies luggage?), and making sure he is gentle with the other kids (no pushing and such), but I was not going to battle him to sit down in a Music and Motion class, especially when there are a whole group of kids energetically running around the circle. They were all happy and having a ball and nobody was getting hurt.  I don’t get what the big deal was.  Evidently several of the parents in the group’s first comment was “Is that their only child?”  LOL!  My first thought too.  If the only experience you have with children is a child that is basically quiet, who actually SITS and who listens and obeys without it ever being an issue, you are NOT going to get it, AT ALL. 

We were sitting in our living room and noticed the sounds of planes started sounding really strange all of a sudden.  We are used to quite a bit of air traffic since there is a small airport (private planes, not commercial) near us and we are in the flight path of the military planes, but this time it sounded weird enough to prompt Zach to ask if the pilot was drunk as he walked to the door.  Well, they weren’t drunk, but evidently there was an airshow (or practice for one) at the nearby airport.  Planes were diving and circling eachother doing all manor of tricks.  Zane was really excited and kept pointing and declaring “eh-pay” (airplane) over and over again.  It was an unexpected treat.

edited to add:  After some investigation, I discovered it was an air show.  The planes did a bunch acrobatics (large area of smoke to the right of the planes) and what you see pictured is probably the simulated dogfight.  It was spectacular, although I can’t imagine paying the $40  – 50 admission price to get in to see it.  yikes!

“Cleaning”

While cleaning tonight, he sat in partially full tub of mega blocks and when I handed him stacks of mega blocks to put away, he pulled them apart into individual peices and set them down in the tub without standing up.  It was really funny.

Playground Fun

Grabbed my camera for our trip to the local elementary school playground

Here is Zach giving me a heart attack while Zane giggles

Zach taking a turn on the slide.  lol.

Zane working hard getting up the steep stairs.  Zach mugging for the camera

Zane squatting down to go down the big step.

What am I going to do with you Zach!?!  lol

He finally made it all the way up the pirate ropes!

Zane carefully turning all of them to “O”, saying “esk” (X) and O as he reads off the blocks.

PSA:  Italian Charms

This is posted in response to a question.

For those that are unfamiliar with Italian Charms, this is the best picture I could find with a little bit of googling.  I wish my dh and friend weren’t hogging the computer I can download pictures on, or I would just photograph some of mine.  lol. 

The second picture is of a blank charm, which is what I work with.  I take a photograph and scan it into my computer so that I can perfect the image quality.  Then I carefully assemble the charm.  When it is complete, the top resembles glass and is slightly rounded which magnifies the picture just a bit.

Recently, I also got some double wide charms (size of two charms) so that I can do a larger variety of custom work.  I also do team logos for smaller, local schools that you are not usually able to get jewelry for.  I will basically do any photo you want, as long as it doesn’t infringe on copyright.  (and things can be altered slightly to avoid copyright infringement)    I can make a charm of literally any photo…from your child (which is the bulk of my work), favorite diaper (hee hee), your company, your team…anything you can think of.  (well, I won’t do porn or stuff like that).  I sell them on consignment at my SILs store.  They sell for $24 and up.  (No, I don’t see all of that money…lol.)

Here is a photo of Zach working on a charm from a previous posting.