Colonial American Crafts Book Series

I went to the library today and again left with much more than I thought I would. They are still giving books away (free will donation requested) so I stopped to look. The librarian handed these books to me saying her children had enjoyed them when they were young. I glanced at them and thanked her and put them in my bag. When I got home I was pleasantly surprised at what I found in them. I think they'll be a wonderful addition to our library at home.


Colonial American Crafts is a series of three books each book deals with a different aspect of Colonial American life, The Home, The Village and The School. Each begins with some history (which appeals to me since that's what I studied at UT) written for children about what home life, villages and schools were like during the period. Then goes on to give instructions on how you can enjoy the various crafts, games and recipes used during that time yourself.


Making corn husk dolls. From The Home the book tells how everything the early American settlers had had to be hand crafted.

Instructions on different embroidery stitches.

How to make your own George and Martha Washington paper dolls!

I've always wanted an "Old-Fashioned" Colonial Christmas!


Beautiful illustrations used in children's books.

I think we'll be having a lot of fun with these books.

Something to Think About

"People say the domestic life is narrow and stultifying, a prison for the intellect. Feminists have long made this claim. I guess you could say it’s true, but only if you think human history is boring, the laws of nature are boring, love is boring, birth is boring, children are boring, personality is boring, the mind is boring, morality is boring, death is boring, male and female are boring, sex is boring, illness is boring, kisses are boring, prayers are boring, philosophy is boring, poetry is boring, God is boring, the seasons are boring, gravity is boring, song is boring, trees are boring, sunlight is boring, the stars are boring, snow is boring, dew is boring. If all this is true, the home is not what it appears: a fount of ideas and truths, a university and a museum, a laboratory for the curious, a gallery of all that is human. If the home is boring, life itself is a desert."

Laura Wood The Thinking Housewife

The "Figure It Out" Philosophy

Excellent post here! With a growing household I'm seeing how it is increasingly necessary to have a lot of structure, discipline and oh yes, little maids.

Mother Mary Nursing Jesus

Hmmm, I hope I don't offend anyone but I came across this blog post today and got a pretty good laugh. Viewer discretion is advised!

http://concordiansisters.blogspot.com/2010/07/discretion.html

Comment Woes Part III

Making comments on my own blog doesn't always work for me. So here is my response comment to Heidi who was so kind to leave a comment on Preserving The Christian Family III.

Hey Heidi! Stalk away, that's one reason I keep these blogs, for creepy family and friends like you! I forgot that I do or did have this Sing the Faith. I'll have to look for the files since I changed computers I hope I switched them from my old iTunes Library! That would be great to start letting the girls listen to. It would be great for me to listen to to! And I have seen these Follow and Do books but never looked through them for some reason. I've been looking for a good way to teach toddlers the catechism. These sound perfect! Thanks for sharing these resources, I really appreciate it! Hope you are all doing well!

Anyone else interested in these resources they can be found at cph.org.

Follow and Do Set (Set of 6)
Sing the Faith CD

Thanks Heidi!

We're Learning

“Children rise to risk,” says Joan Almon, executive director of the U.S. Alliance for Childhood. “Give them some genuine risk and they quickly learn what their limits are, and then they expand their limits.” The problem is: If kids never encounter even tiny risks, they never develop that thing we call common sense.

I found this interesting quote on Free Range Kids. It's good for me to hear things like this because I have a super strong tendency to fear every step, concrete surface and sharp object around my babies. Phil often says "they'll learn" and "let them do it once and they'll know better next time". There's much truth to that but I still cringe and want to pad the world.

I'm trying now that Lily is becoming such a big girl to let her do a lot more on her own as far as climbing and getting off things goes. I know she has to learn how to do these things on her own. A couple months ago she landed on her face coming off the slide at the park and hey, she was ok. It startled her and she had dirt in her mouth and I wanted to cry, but she was ok. I'm working on Mama being ok now.

Mother's Day Tribute

With Mother's Day approaching I thought I'd share this little gem I found.

Borrowed From "Charming the Birds"

At My Place, Every Day is Mother's Day
By Scott Simon

My wife doesn't work. She's a full-time mother. She luxuriates in bed until 6:30 a.m., when our 2-year-old chants, "Mama, Mama!" like some ancient war call, and she trudges into the kitchen with our baby on one shoulder to use her free hand to heat milk.

I stay in my office, writing, procrastinating and checking baseball scores until I need another cup of coffee.

My wife tries to go to the bathroom. Our 2-year-old clings to her knees. Using a bathroom with a 2-year-old on your lap should be a rodeo event.

Our 6-year-old gets up and chirps, "Mama! Mama!" My wife holds our 2-year-old in one arm, our 6-year-old with the other, and heats up more milk with her third hand.

I come into the kitchen for more coffee.

She dresses our daughters. It's like trying to put tuxedo shirts on two squiggling ferrets. My wife walks our daughters 10 blocks to kindergarten, but it takes half an hour because our girls won't step on cracks, stop to look in every window and stomp in every puddle. She has to pull them along like sacks of nails.

When she gets back to our apartment, my wife can finally relax. She does laundry; pays bills; stays on hold with the credit card, Internet and phone companies for 45 minutes because the bill is wrong, while our 2-year-old swings from her neck like a chimp; resets the wireless service; changes diapers and light bulbs; buys food; picks up toys; cleans the fish bowl and hermit crab habitat; organizes closets; cleans what our cat coughs up; schleps to the storage locker; tries to take a shower but can't because our 2-year-old can't find her stuffed dog; picks up our 6-year-old from school and takes her to ballet; makes three meals and innumerable snacks; calls our mothers and sends them photos of their grandchildren; and wipes up milk, water and diaper spills the way Red Adair put out oil fires.

I help by calling my wife a couple of times a day to tell her how busy I am and ask, "Um, darling, can you find my red socks?"

She has four minutes a day to herself and eats only Cheerios that fall on the floor. She works 15 hours a day with no breaks or mandated meals, 365 days a year with no real vacations. Our daughters feel free to cough up and sneeze things into her hands. If Samuel Gompers heard about my wife's working conditions, he'd say, "Organize and fight!"

Instead, she knows that in these times it's a gift to be able to be a full-time mother. You know: just to be home with the kids.

Good Find #3!

I'm finding all sorts of helpful tips today!

From http://www.rookiemoms.com:

Kerry and her husband Rob, are the authors of the new book, How to Have Your Second Child First: 100 Things That Are Good to Know… the First Time Around (Chronicle Books).

When our mutual friend Lisa introduced us, I told Kerry that I am frankly too lazy to review her book since it’s no longer possible for me to have my “second child first”, but that I would like to know if she could share some advice with some actual rookies. “How about what to pack your diaper bag, or what a new mom should stock in her car?”

Here’s what she said:

Stock Up

It’s a classic new parent moment: You open your diaper bag at a restaurant, and realize it’s got a thousand things in it—but not one actual diaper. Or you drive to your old office to show off your newborn, and realize you have spit-up (or worse) on your shirt. These are but a couple of examples of why you should keep your car stocked! By keeping a few things in a cardboard box on the floor of your trunk, you have a constant insurance policy….and you don’t have to pack a bunch of stuff every time you leave the house. Want to stay longer than expected at a friend’s place but it’s almost baby’s meal time? No problem. Breasts leaking on your way to a job interview? You’re covered. Here’s what experienced parents advise keeping in your box at all times (and don’t forget to restock!) I guarantee it will save you more than once.

• Five diapers
• Full-size pack of wipes (to clean hands, faces, and clothing, as well as bottoms)
• Hand sanitizer
• Bottle of water (for drinking, dealing with messes, or mixing formula)
• Baby blanket (for warmth or to use as a changing pad)
• Nonperishable snack (if baby’s on solids), such as a couple of wrapped teething biscuits or zwieback toast
• Nonperishable snack for you (like an energy bar or trail mix)
• Sustenance for one meal if your baby is not breast-feeding exclusively (i.e., bottle and dry formula and/or one jar baby food with spoon and bib)
• Change of clothes for baby (make sure it’s size- and season-appropriate as the months pass)
• Change of shirt for you (and spare breast pads if nursing)
• Towel (for any number of things, from drying off playground swings to mopping up spit up; this is a great way to recycle your ratty dishtowels)
• Extra pacifier, if your baby uses one
• Extra favorite toy, book, or lovey, to pull out in a pinch

Going out on foot with your stroller? Don’t lug that huge diaper bag around with you. Keep two diapers, a zip-top bag of wipes, a blankie and/or small folding changing pad, and an emergency five-dollar-bill (in case you need coffee or a cookie) in the stroller basket at all times, so you can head out in a flash—without feeling like a pack mule.

Another Good Find

"8 Things People Never Tell You About Having Kids"

Find them here!

Before Bed Tips

I found this list on another site, planningwithkids.com. I don't have 5 kids yet and my life though busy at home isn't busy outside of the home yet either but I think this could be a good reference in several years. I do have a list of things I do before I "turn out the lights" for the day, I clean up the kitchen table, the kitchen counters, sweep kitchen floor, clean high chairs and pick up toys. That does seem to help me start out fresh the next day or at least not feel swamped as soon as I get out of bed! Anyway here's this list for reference.

1. Set Table For Breakfast.

We set out the place mats, bowls, spoons, glasses, cereal boxes so all that is required in the morning is for the juice and milk to be taken out of the fridge. This means that everyone can serve themselves as they get up.

2. Prepare Lunch Boxes.

This is by far much easier to the night before than in the morning. You can see my process in detail here at Preparing School Lunches.

3. Complete Notices.

The children have a folder where they place any notices from school when they arrive home. I will fill them in as required and place them in their lunchbox for collection. It is their responsibility to then see that it makes its way to school.

4. Ensure Clean and Available Uniforms/Clothes.

We don’t actually put the clothes out for the school kids, but Mr I and I will will make sure that their uniforms are in the right spot for the children to get them. I will work with the preschooler to lay out clothes for the next day. He is at a stage where he is very particular about what he will and won’t wear. Having them organised the night before means that if he wants to wear his “motorbike t-shirt” that I have the time to calmly find it for him. If I leave this to the morning, I find that this sort of demand more frustrating and time consuming and it starts to build up stress in the house if it takes me some time to locate the desired t-shirt.

5. Un-stack Dishwasher.

Depending on what I have cooked and who we have had to visit, our dishwasher can do 2 -3 cycles in a day. Almost always we put the dishwasher on after dinner and Mr I then empties it before bed. As one of the kids jobs is to stack the dishwasher in the morning, it is so much easier if it is emptied.

6. General Tidy.

With 5 children, I have realistic expectations about the tidiness of our house. One thing I find really helps is to try and start each day with a relatively tidy house. This doesn’t mean perfection, but means all things back in their place, so when the toddler makes his way into the lounge room for the first time in the morning and starts tipping out the blocks, it is just one layer of toys on the floor!

7. Empty The Bin/s.

We have three small bins inside: rubbish, recycling and compost. It is most likely that one of these will need to be emptied and Mr I does a check of these at night. Having them emptied means less running around for me the next day.

8. Check The Calendar.

As dates for events come in, they all go up on the family calendar. Checking it regularly means that I have a better idea of what is coming up and can then make the appropriate plans.

9. Make To Do List.

I find that once I have written down my to do list, I automatically feel more in control of what I have to do the next (few) day/s. It also means that I can plan the best way to prioritise the activities that need to be completed and reduce the level of running around that I do.

10. Wind Down.

This is a new one for me. I am now trying to turn the computer of 30 minutes before I want to go to bed and having time to just potter around, read etc, before I hop into bed. This should mean that I go to bed calmer and feeling more relaxed.

What is your night time routine? What things do you do, to help make mornings easier?

Housewife.

Wo-"Man In the Mirror"

I thought I'd share this post from a blog I follow called "Heart of my Husband". I certainly needed to hear it!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Your own precious mirror

I have a very dear friend, due to give birth to her 6th child, who has taught me nearly everything I know about parenting, childbirth, housekeeping, cooking...OK basically everything about being a wife and mother.

You know those friends that you don't realize just how vital they are to your life until you have to leave them? Oh, I always knew she was special and important, but when she came for a visit in December and ended up being here playing mommy while I was in the hospital, I was reminded of just how amazing this person is.

So just this morning I was reminded of one of the best things she ever taught me about parenting. Well, I suppose it really began a few weeks ago.

The house was a mess and I was grouchy. After hurrying through several chores and ordering the kids around to certain messes, I told my eldest to pick up a pile of toys. He looked up at me, not in laziness or rebellion, and asked sweetly, "Mommy? Will you help me?" "No son, you made the mess so you will clean it up!" I said proudly, thinking, that will teach him to leave a mess! ha. Well, as my dear friend tried to teach me, your children become the best mirror of yourself.

Where had I gone wrong? Suddenly my kids were being rude to each other, not helping one another, and being generally grouchy. I disciplined them but they grew grouchier and whinier...it was every man for himself.

Then, last week, once again, I was telling my eldest to pick up and he again (though somewhat sadly this time) said, "Mommy? Will you help me?" I began to say my old line (which was really me being lazy and proud) and then halted in my tracks...this was the very attitude I had been seeing in my own kids. I stood silently for a moment as my son stared up at me and said, humbled, "sure son, I'd be glad to help you!" I knelt down with the baby in my arms and helped him pick up. He was overjoyed.

Today the children and I were mopping the kitchen floor by hand, each with our own spray bottles and rags, and my eldest asked his little brother to pick up a mess that he (the little one) had made. The little one set about clumsily to do what his big brother had asked and I heard my eldest say, "Here, I'd be glad to help you brother!"

Do you see attitudes in your children that you do not like? Are they lazy, rude, quarrelsome? Perhaps, mama, the best place to look is in the mirror. I can only say this because I myself am guilty of it. Take your day moment by moment and try to smile more, delight in them more, and offer a helping hand. You will reap your reward in their own little hearts and they will become your own precious mirror.

Thank you dear friend for all you have been to my family. If not for your friendship, my grouchy children would have one frustrated and angry mama. I miss you!

Ordinary Days.

*Warning, this could make you cry and want to do nothing but hold your babies all day!

Snack Time.

Lily is finally starting to eat a little more variety so snack time is becoming a lot easier. And thanks to divided plates, a lot more fun for me! I challenge myself to see what I can come up with to fill each place and wonder what Lily will actually go for. I like to give her options.

I was so proud of my peanut butter graham crackers with chocolate chips....of course the only thing she ate was the chocolate chips, but it was fun anyway!

Clara is a champ with the sippy cup. She doesn't loose a drop of whatever's inside! It took Lily a very long time to keep anything but milk from her bottle in her mouth. The problem is keeping Lily's cups out of her reach or finding. She'll down a whole cup of juice before I know it.

Good Read.

Here is a very good article on raising children by Pastor Rolf Preus. He raised 12 children of his own so he's probably a good authority on the subject!

You'll find it at the bottom of this page. It's titled: Childrearing

http://www.christforus.org/Papers/preuspapers.html

Good Reads.

I came across this paragraph in a novel I just read. I quite identified with the feelings this character had in these first few minutes and hours with a new baby!

At this point the baby began to cry, steadily, angrily; and Clare taking her in her arms for the first time, made two extraordinary discoveries. The first was that on contact with her mother the baby instantly stopped crying and the second was that she was indeed utterly, perfectly beautiful. With a flash of insight, Clare suddenly wished that they could all stay here forever, the baby safely cradled in her arms, protected by the hospital staff.
For with this new love came also a new and terrible vulnerability, from which there would never be an escape. How shall I endure chicken pox, and tree climbing and reading about children dying in fires? she thought. Life stretched away in an infinity of dangers and she felt afraid.

Training

We got another Tee-Tee on the potty from Lily today. Here's an interesting article on potty training which I've been reading a lot about recently. This one is unlike any that I've read so far.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/category?blogid=46&cat=1593

The Babies Are Coming

I can't wait!

Babyfood Jars

Phil's not the only one that has use for used beer cartons. I was tired of trying to keep jars stacked nicely in the pantry and find what I wanted without knocking them over so I decided to try these as little shelves. They're working very well so far I just have to leave a space in the middle so I can get the jars out. Finally they are categorized and neat.

The Best-Kept Secret to a Clean Home

This post was first published in July 2008 from SimpleMom.net

While I was scraping dried food bits off my seven-month-old son’s Bumbo the other day, I was reminded of the best universal cleaning hack there is.

Clean it right away.

If I had wiped off my son’s Bumbo as soon as he finished spreading his meal hither and yon, it would have hardly taken any elbow grease, and at most, it would have killed two minutes of my time.

Instead, I chose to wait until later that day, which meant I had to roll up my sleeves, use the scouring pad, and devote ten minutes of time I could have spent emptying the dishwasher, folding a load of laundry, or reading a blog post.

A few minutes of time can really add up when it comes to managing our home.

Which is easier, rinsing and loading your dishwasher right after dinner, or scrubbing off hardened bits of food the next morning? What about folding and hanging a freshly dried load of laundry, or folding wrinkled shirts that will then need ironing in order to wear?

It’s so easy for all of us to breathe huge sighs of desperation when we think of the day’s chores ahead of us. But consider how long — really — your typical daily chores could take, on average, if you did them right away.

Here are a few from my day:

• making the bed – 1 to 2 minutes
• decluttering the bathroom counter after getting ready for the day – 1 minute
• wiping off the bathroom mirror and faucet from water marks – 10 seconds
• clearing the dining table from the meal (especially if everyone brings their own plate back to the kitchen) – 1 to 2 minutes
• unloading the dishwasher – 3 to 5 minutes
• loading the dishwasher – 5 to 10 minutes
• wiping off the dining table – 1 minute
• wiping off the kitchen counters after cooking – 2 minutes
• throwing away items after using them (envelopes, wrappers, etc.) – 5 seconds
• putting the magazine back in the basket after I’ve perused it – 5 seconds

You get the idea. I just wonder how many minutes — or hours — I sometimes spend cleaning things that could take mere seconds or minutes if I did them right away. Add to that the reduced stress, the lessened physical output, the visual peace, and the increased space earned from a home cleaned quicker, and I’m sold.

I’m going to work on getting better at cleaning as I go.

Application Time

Set a timer for 15 minutes and see how much you can get done in your immediate environment. If you’re currently surrounded by clutter in your living room, that’s an obvious choice. I’m not asking you to rearrange your day’s schedule – just spare a tiny handful of time.

Step back and review your decluttering job. Does it look better? Does it make you feel better?