Little Elephants: Kids Crafts and Fun Activities

Thank you!

Thanks soooo much to the folks who took the time to give me feedback. It is incredibly helpful just now, especially since I'm at a bit of a cross-roads and needing to pick a direction!

From your comments I heard three messages loud and clear :-)

Fix the feed! I've tweaked the blog feed so that full posts come through. From now on if you subscribe by feed-reader or email you'll get Pictures! Full text! Links! Yay! {big thanks to Ali for pointing that one out!}

More advice-y stuff! On the parental advice front, I feel so awkward there... really. I feel like I'm learning as I go and run into road-blocks and crappy-mom moments just about as often as I have "yay, me!" moments. I'll try to bring in more on the process of parenting, but please remember I'm no expert on the subject, and like most things I do, I tend to go on intuition more than anything else.

More, more, more! I'm going to try scheduling myself a bit. I always find it so interesting that when I take the daily post challenges, I end up wanting to write more than one post a day. Maybe it's time to give myself a bit of a challenge again, eh?

So, while I get my blog on, I hope you'll take a minute to visit the bloggers who helped out with the feedback here:

• Amanda at the Library Collective
• Melissa at Bridgeman Pottery
• Michelle at Scribbit
• Tilly at Pomegranate Dreams
• Cristina at PiriPiri (how I wish I could read Portuguese!!)

Today is YOUR day :-)

I’m in between jobs just now and will have a bit of time to devote to my poor, neglected blog while I hunt down my next thing. I would LOVE to hear from you, my dear readers, just about now. So, today is YOUR day.

I’d like to know what you’d like to see more of here. If you’ve ever clicked away from Little Elephants, wishing I’d done something differently, I’d really like to hear it. If you think it’s just peachy-keen as is, that’s ok, too.

So, please, won’t you come out from behind that screen and let me know what you’d like to see more of here?

Come on … don’t be shy!

Happy Spring!

Having just come back to the East Coast from California, it's funny the small things that strike me as wonderous and different as I explore my garden. After nine years on the other coast, I'd completely forgotten how exciting (in a silly, deep-down-this-is-incredible way) it is to discover those first spring blooms. I'll admit to having been spoiled by the year-round flora over there.

Hope you, too, are enjoying a great start to the new season!

Baby, it's cold outside!

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 :-)

A little quiet while we pack

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.

Ginger

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.

So, what does your day look like?

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.

This'll be our year (took a long time to come)

Today is Tomas and my 23rd anniversary. Not of marriage, but of our first kiss. This is the anniversary that we've always marked, rather than our wedding day eight years later.

In 2007 he played The Zombies' "This Will Be Our Year" for me one day, and I've somehow come to think of it as our anthem. A few months later he sent me the link to this video a guy had edited to celebrate his parents -- it's set to the same song.

Enjoy! & Happy New Year!

Goodbye, 2007

You've been a busy, busy year for us. Full of highs & lows and everything in between. Mostly, I think, I'll remember you as the Year of Activity. Even though I started this blog before you showed up, you are the first year I've ever had that was documented so well. I am so grateful for that.

Today, we'll be celebrating you the same way we have each and every day of your existence. With crafts, and cooking, silly stories, board games, books, and good company. This strikes me as a fitting farewell.

Goodbye, 2007, we'll remember you fondly!

A bit of still and quiet

Not that the title represents anything that happens around my house with any frequency these days, but the thought of it relaxes me like you wouldn't believe.

We're finally at the end of the stomach plague around here ... Tomas is still a-bed with it, but he's on the recovery side of it. It's been a week of non-stop laundry, bland meals for those who could stand to eat, and juggling non-sick-kids' schedules, work schedules, and random holiday tasks that never got done.

I have hopeful visions of us out again as a family tomorrow to pick up our Christmas tree. I could sure use a bit of holiday spirit just about now!