Tradition is important to all of us.
My sister Pam is visiting from Australia, and during the time she stayed with us, there were lots of "remember when..." conversations.
It really reminded me of how kids remember the milestones and build on them. That is why today is important. Eleven years ago today Nicolas joined our family as a foster son. Two years later we adopted him. We celebrate Family Day to mark each of our children's adoptions. Both boys chose the anniversary of moving in, rather that their paperwork adoption day, as the day to celebrate because they feel they joined our family when they moved in, not when the government agreed with us!
Today is Nicolas' family day, so Michael took a day off work and we are off to do a family activity together. Enjoy your day!
Friday, June 22, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Choosing to Spend Our Time Wisely
Electronics are everywhere in our society. It seems they are taking over all of life, and they are certainly taking over our home! Some days it feels like the deepest discussions we have in a day are over who gets the computer next!
This week we have tried something new. We have set the router to turn off the internet for three hours each evening, meaning that noone is online when Michael gets home, and through dinner and bedtime. It is too early to see what the long term result will be but so far the effects have been fabulous!
Without the temptations of computer we have been spending time together, laughing, talking, and playing lots of games!
We even have a couple projects planned, such as organizing all our photos.
I love the freedom to be together that comes from not competing with a screen!
This week we have tried something new. We have set the router to turn off the internet for three hours each evening, meaning that noone is online when Michael gets home, and through dinner and bedtime. It is too early to see what the long term result will be but so far the effects have been fabulous!
Without the temptations of computer we have been spending time together, laughing, talking, and playing lots of games!
We even have a couple projects planned, such as organizing all our photos.
I love the freedom to be together that comes from not competing with a screen!
Menu Board
Hi Folks!
After a long dry spell I finally had a crafty weekend, or should I say week? I had a friend over for a few days and it was fun to spend some time crafting with her.
The highlight of my weekend was making a menu board for my kitchen. Menu planning is something I have always struggled with, and I have loved some of the menu boards I have seen on friends' blogs and on Pinterest. This weekend I finally had the joy of making my own! Yay!
Here is what the board looked like when I began. I decided to use this particular board largely because, though we have several corkboards in the house, it was the first/only one we could find at the moment I decided I was making my menu board RIGHT NOW! LOL My poor hubby - he is so patient with me!
He even tried it on the wall to make sure it was going to fit vertically or horizontally so that I would be safe no matter where my creative juices led!
I had some leftover checkered paper and green paper I really wanted to use as they are my favourite colours, and chose a pink for the background. I also had some labels left over from the ones I made to label my kitchen cupboards so inked the edges of them in the same purple that I used on the labels, then stamped MENU on them. From there I was not really sure where to go and started playing around with multiple ideas.
I knew I wanted two pockets on it, and was originally toying with making them from envelopes but was afraid that would not be sturdy enough to last in my house. Finally I had a brilliant idea - I emptied the playing cards out of two boxes then cut the tops off to get the size I wanted. I then scored my cardstock and covered them, and added labels that matched my title.
At this point in time I got completely stuck and felt like I was going nowhere fast. I also discovered that our clothes pins are either missing or still packed, so now I had a good excuse to make a run to the dollar store. I am so glad I did! While there I found lots of embellishments in my favourite colours, and a perfect match for this board! I also found a jumbo-sized clothespin. I wasn't sure how that was going to mesh with my whole menu board but I knew I loved it and would find a way!
Back home the creative juices started to really flow! However, the background seemed a bit blah, and when Amanda offered a piece of purple paper instead we knew we had a winner! What a difference the brighter purple made! The clothespins got covered in the same green paper as the card boxes. I then wrote the days of the week on the little ones so that I would know where in my week I was at, then modpodged to make them hold up better to being handled. I used wood glue to attach everything, largely because I couldn't find my hot glue gun. I have three or four of them and they have all grown legs and wandered off, probably with the scissors and nail clippers! What's with that anyway? I digress...
I glued everything on, added some pretties, and voila! A menu board! I especially love how the large clothes pin provides balance to the other side of the board, where I also have space for building my grocery list.
Here is a close-up of the menu side (and thanks to Tanner for the photos):
I chose to label my boxes "Planned Meals" and "Menu Ideas" as my shopping rarely lines up with the calendar. That way when I shop I can add all the meals I have ingredients for to the "Planned Meals" box and work from there when setting up my schedule for each week. If I end up moving things around, unused meals go back in that box again, and once we have eaten them, the card returns to the "Menu Ideas" box. For now I have also put in some blank cards and a pen as I didn't want to think through my whole menu in one shot
I am so excited to use my pretty board, and my kids are excited because Mummy managed to plan dinner before 6 at night two nights in a row!
Have a super week!
After a long dry spell I finally had a crafty weekend, or should I say week? I had a friend over for a few days and it was fun to spend some time crafting with her.
The highlight of my weekend was making a menu board for my kitchen. Menu planning is something I have always struggled with, and I have loved some of the menu boards I have seen on friends' blogs and on Pinterest. This weekend I finally had the joy of making my own! Yay!
Here is what the board looked like when I began. I decided to use this particular board largely because, though we have several corkboards in the house, it was the first/only one we could find at the moment I decided I was making my menu board RIGHT NOW! LOL My poor hubby - he is so patient with me!
He even tried it on the wall to make sure it was going to fit vertically or horizontally so that I would be safe no matter where my creative juices led!
I had some leftover checkered paper and green paper I really wanted to use as they are my favourite colours, and chose a pink for the background. I also had some labels left over from the ones I made to label my kitchen cupboards so inked the edges of them in the same purple that I used on the labels, then stamped MENU on them. From there I was not really sure where to go and started playing around with multiple ideas.
I knew I wanted two pockets on it, and was originally toying with making them from envelopes but was afraid that would not be sturdy enough to last in my house. Finally I had a brilliant idea - I emptied the playing cards out of two boxes then cut the tops off to get the size I wanted. I then scored my cardstock and covered them, and added labels that matched my title.
At this point in time I got completely stuck and felt like I was going nowhere fast. I also discovered that our clothes pins are either missing or still packed, so now I had a good excuse to make a run to the dollar store. I am so glad I did! While there I found lots of embellishments in my favourite colours, and a perfect match for this board! I also found a jumbo-sized clothespin. I wasn't sure how that was going to mesh with my whole menu board but I knew I loved it and would find a way!
Back home the creative juices started to really flow! However, the background seemed a bit blah, and when Amanda offered a piece of purple paper instead we knew we had a winner! What a difference the brighter purple made! The clothespins got covered in the same green paper as the card boxes. I then wrote the days of the week on the little ones so that I would know where in my week I was at, then modpodged to make them hold up better to being handled. I used wood glue to attach everything, largely because I couldn't find my hot glue gun. I have three or four of them and they have all grown legs and wandered off, probably with the scissors and nail clippers! What's with that anyway? I digress...
I glued everything on, added some pretties, and voila! A menu board! I especially love how the large clothes pin provides balance to the other side of the board, where I also have space for building my grocery list.
Here is a close-up of the menu side (and thanks to Tanner for the photos):
I chose to label my boxes "Planned Meals" and "Menu Ideas" as my shopping rarely lines up with the calendar. That way when I shop I can add all the meals I have ingredients for to the "Planned Meals" box and work from there when setting up my schedule for each week. If I end up moving things around, unused meals go back in that box again, and once we have eaten them, the card returns to the "Menu Ideas" box. For now I have also put in some blank cards and a pen as I didn't want to think through my whole menu in one shot
I am so excited to use my pretty board, and my kids are excited because Mummy managed to plan dinner before 6 at night two nights in a row!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Bear Hunt
Isn't it amazing how busy life gets sometimes? I find it hard to believe how long it's been since I wrote on here! What's more, I even got a bonus week - my mum was down here at my sister's and decided to take the kids home with her for a week! They had a blast and went to May Days with her. I filled my time playing with my friends and Michael and I organized our kitchen. It looks beautiful!
The kids had a blast, and I met my mum half way to get them back. I was lucky to see lots of wildlife, including three black bears. This beauty was at the side of the road on our way home and Tanner got some gorgeous shots of him.
Have a great day!
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