My friend Jeff alerted me to the fact that tomorrow is National Elephant Day in Thailand. To celebrate, the Asia Society in New York has posted an awesome photo gallery. Note that some of the pictures are quite heartbreaking, so please preview the slideshow before sharing with children.
Clair Robertson, the blogger-extraordinaire behind Kiddley, is back at it again on her personal blog Loobylu.
It's rather embarrassing how I perked up when I noticed new posts from her in my feed reader. I'm just sad I was mid-move when she started up again after a year-long hiatus :-)
Do go visit & welcome her back, her sites have been hugely inspiring to me.
Now that we're settling into the house (slooowly), I'm starting to get the itch to have some creative fun once again. This is especially a good thing since I've got a swap to ship out this weekend!!). It was so hard to even contemplate doing fun crafts with the kids when I was going through the move and working full-time, and packing, and mothering, and wifing...
I'm so glad that Bloesem Kids is around and chock-full of creative goodness for me to soak in. I'm especially tempted to try out some of Arounna Khounnoraj's craft projects which are beautifully photographed, and explained in a clear, straight-forward manner (no thinking required!).
If you have creative sites that inspire you, please share, I'm always on the lookout for new perspectives :-)
Well, we made it! After many long months of lining things up so we could move back east, and into my Mom's house, we landed at JFK this past Sunday night. Our week has been a whirl-wind of activity; figuring out how everything works in the house, clearing out shelves and cabinets, signing the kids up for school, and catching up with old friends.
Last night it snowed, and we awoke to a true winter wonderland. Maggie immediately geared up & headed out to shovel the driveway and make her first snowman, as well as many (huge) snowballs to clobber her brother with. Bjørn didn't see why I was being such a crank over him wearing socks and gloves to go out -- his purple, "itchy" hands and feet when I poured him into a hot bath an hour while later were enough of a lesson in listening to Mom, I think. We definitely need to find a local store that still stocks winter coats and boots or my kids'll surely freeze their patooties off during recess.
Poor Tor has been sick with high fevers on and off most of this week, every time we think he's finally over it he wakes up fevered again. Right now he's well, and I'm crossing fingers he stays that way.
Finally, we've discovered why my parents always called us "Petits Elephants"! It must be from this house -- my three kids surely sound like a herd of little elephants as they run about the house!
We're missing our friends and family in California, but it's good to be home :-)
We're living under a pile of boxes this week, and I'm not quite convinced we'll ever see the end of 'em. While I madly assemble boxes, and sort through the mountains of crap still left in my home, I hope you'll pop over to my other blog on Scholastic for a simple Valentine's craft: paper heart garlands.
I could really use a break doing something as mindless and sweet as that just about now :-)
... Speaking of distractions! the folks from Disney hosted a party for local blogging mommas yesterday afternoon! I'm kinda wishing I wasn't so fried by the time I got there, else I'm sure I'd have gotten in a bit more socializing. The boys had a blast even though Tor had no idea who any of the characters were -- Maggie opted to go to a meditation-yoga-kids-crafts affair with her friend instead. Here's a cheery picture of me with the SVMom Bloggers.
Things are going to be a bit quieter than usual around here for the next few weeks. We'll be sorting & packing up our apartment to head back east to the sweet little house pictured above (though the trees are barren right now, and the grass is probably covered in a chilly layer of frost).
Expect sporadic posts from me until about mid-to-late February. I'm hoping it won't take too long to get settled in and webified.
Molly is hosting her third annual mini-swap, and sign-ups start on Tuesday morning at 10am ET (do not forget this date & time!). This is a wonderful project where children (and their families) around the world are matched up for a little swap of creative goodness. Do head over to read all about it!
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And a sincere thank you to all of you who have left me notes of sympathy here and by email (and on facebook, and on maya's mom!). I really do appreciate your kind thoughts.
Two nights ago Ginger had a severe episode with what was at first thought to be vestibular disease. This is similar to a really bad case of vertigo, and the dog can not tell which was is up. When the children and I went to visit her at the doggie hospital yesterday it was discovered that she had a large abscess near her bladder, believed to be completely unrelated to the earlier episode. She was scheduled to have surgery this morning to remove the abscess.
When the doctor called to give me an update on scheduling this morning, she informed me that Ginger's symptoms had changed over-night, and her illness was neuropathic, not idiopathic as at first assumed. It was assumed that the cause was a tumor of some sort on the brain. She was getting progressively worse, and would not recover. Tomas and I chose to put her to sleep rather than have her live out her last days in the hospital.
She went peacefully in our arms, and we'll miss our ornery dog very much.
I know I've shared this video before, but I had to do so again this evening as it's brought me three and a half minutes of comfort. It's good to know I'm not alone.
Here's what today (a typical day) looked like for this lucky mom:
6:30 - 8:00am
Wake everyone up & get them out of bed (this can take several visits to the same groggy body.
Feed everyone.
Make & pack lunches (hot, these days because the weather has been so chilly).
Get everyone dressed (depending on the family member, this has degrees of involvement from me).
Make sure everyone has the stuff they need for the day.
Feed dog & cat (walk the dog if Tomas is sick).
8:00 - 9:00am
Drop kids #1 & #2 off at school
Drop #3 off at daycare
Drop Tomas off at work (his bike was stolen just before Christmas)
9:00am - 2:30pm
Work for fast-paced, hi-tech company (on days that the kids have after-school care this is 9-5, breaks consist of walking the dog or loading/unloading dish-washer or washing-machine/dryer)
2:30 - 6pm
Pick up #1 & #2
Take #2 to piano lesson
Take #1 to coffee shop for hot chocolate (Latte for me)
Pick up #2 from piano
Drop off #2 at playdate
Take #1 to craft store for project elements
Pick up Tomas from work
Pick up #3
Pick up #2
Get home
6:00 - 8:30
Take out the trash/walk the dog
Usher #1 to the bath-tub with instructions to wash hair
Make dinner & eat
spend 45 minutes untangling #1's hair
Bathe #3 & get him ready for bed
Usher #1 & #2 to brush & floss
(start writing this post)
Usher #1, #2, and #3 to bed
8:30pm - on
Look at the mess around me and groan.
Walk the dog.
Head to the computer to try take care of work that didn't get done during work hours.
Catch up on correspondence/blogging
Head zombie-like to bed when I can't keep my eyes open anymore.
My work schedule is a bit, uh... busy this week so I'm having to continue my stroll about the blogosphere in search of more creative inspiration instead of actually doing anything creative. My idea is that even if I don't ever actually do these wonderful projects, I'll at least have a faint memory of them embedded in my over-full noggin. Whenever the kids are desperate for something new to do, all I have to do is let the echoes of these posts inspire me. I hope they help you, too.
Write, Mama. Write. has shared a sweet heart-shaped Christmas ornament she made with her boy over the Holidays. This is one that looks so easy to replicate, I think the main thing is to have a good heart template -- my hand-drawn hearts always come out wonky & wobbly :-)
tiny happy shared (way back in December!) a link to this great no-sew tutu tutorial. We know a bunch of little ballerinas who would probably definitely like these. I'm thinking this is a perfect project for Maggie and Bjørn to help make.
Amanda (aka SouleMama) has shared the bird calendar her kids worked on all last year that she had printed by Lulu.com to send out as gifts this year. I love the idea of having a quality bound printing of a child's work and already have a number of ideas in mind (Bjørn's been telling me about the comic book he's been working on at school, and Maggie collaborated on a fairy-tale with her best friend last year). Tomas self-published his children's book with Lulu and we've been incredibly happy with the quality so far.
I've you've taken up knitting again as I have, you'll appreciate this bind off tutorial on the purl bee :-)
&, before I head to bed, I'll just state for the record how very much I still miss Kiddley, I hope Claire decides to bring it back one day!
PS ... I was off to bed but had to follow just one. more. link... to DIY Kids
