Freebie Friday: Enjoy a Poster!

Do you need a little reminder to stop and smell the roses? I do! I'm finally coming back with a freebie that is really for me: a reminder to enjoy today and stop worrying so much about getting things done. There will always be things to do, but their won't always be two sweet kids who think I'm the best. Some day they will grow up and realize I'm crazy. Gotta enjoy it now!

Get the poster in RED, YELLOW, OR BLUE (ish green).





enjoy!!

Felt Food for Hungry Caterpillars

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is one of the little buddy's favorite books. So when I came across this post a few months ago on Once Upon a Thread featuring felt food from The Very Hungry Caterpillar I immediately wanted to do it. But then I got thinking about all the time it would take . . . and it went to the back burner. Today the little buddy asked me to read him the Very Hungry Caterpillar. He kept talking about it so I casually got online and showed him the felt food. He got so excited about it and of course said he wanted it. So I asked him if he wanted to help me make some. He sat on my bed for an hour and helped me pick out the felt colors, and put the pieces on top of each other while I cut them out. He lost interest in helping as soon as his caterpillar was made though-off he went talking to his new best friend.

Seriously he has spent the entire day playing and talking about them-that always makes me feel like a good mom. He even took the ice cream and his caterpillar to bed with him :)

Most everything I cut free hand so I don't have any patterns, and some of them didn't turn out that great, but if you want to make your own and have questions I'd be happy to help!

creating: some deep [and maybe a little weird} thoughts

It all started when I found this painting when doing some cleaning out. I painted it 3 years ago. It awakened a desire to paint that has been laying dormant all winter long. It got me thinking a lot about creating. One of the things I love the most about creating is the problem solving. It is rewarding and fulfilling to find a solution to a problem. It might be needing a solution to the mess that is called your fabric stash that needs organizing, or it might be figuring out the exact color when painting a painting. Maybe for you there is another aspect of creating that you love. But it seems that creating is inherent in being human. I think on some level everyone not only has a desire, but perhaps even a need to create. Part of my beliefs involve knowing that one reason we are on earth is to get a body. Creating wouldn't be possible without a body, and having a body gives us an opportunity to take part in the process of creation. I love to create. I think the most important creating process I can be a part of is in my children's lives. I am responsible for creating the life and environment that shapes and molds their lives. Obviously each of my children is also a part of creating their own life, but it is a challenging, and problem solving process that involves a lot of imagination and a lot of work. Sometimes I don't love it. Sometimes, like a couple weeks ago when they were sick and not sleeping and I was running on 4 hours of sleep gathered up throughout the night, I wanted to run away. But I knew it would eventually run it's course and we would be back the normal. And we are back to the fun and the regular. It may not be all the time, but there are moments, sometimes even days, when motherhood it is the most fulfilling of creative processes. Nothing is better than those moments.

Spring awakens my creative hunger, and to me sometimes it is a real hunger. It needs feeding, and when I do something I feel fulfilled. Sometimes mothering doesn't quite hit the button and I need to do something else. Although perhaps not quite as fulfilling on a long term scale, painting is the next best thing for me. It is difficult, demanding, and requires a lot of patience and problem solving--just like being motherhood in many ways. I love it. And when spring comes around I just get this hunger to paint. I think it first really started showing up after I went painting "on location" with my dad 3 years ago. Because of his work schedule we were only able to get 3 paintings in before I moved away to Cleveland. The one above is one of them. It's a farming area not too far away from my childhood home. It makes me miss home, but it also really makes me miss painting. It is exhilarating to paint on location. You only have an hour or two to paint because the sun changes the shadows on everything so quickly that it's a whole new landscape in a couple hours. So we paint small and thin (as in not thick paint-easier to move around, etc . . .) You have to just get the "gist" of the painting because you don't have time for all the details, but the colors, oh the colors are divine! Seriously, of all the creative processes I enjoy, excluding mothering of course, painting is, the most fulfilling and exhilarating. I'm really having the itch . . .

This article was also on my mind a lot while contemplating creating. It is excellent--better than my own musings.

FF-Nurturing Poster

My little sweetie is getting close to six weeks old. Life is getting easier. slowly. We don't have family too close and so I've relied on a few principles to get me through this crazy time.

First, I try to focus on the positive. Instead of griping and feeling angry at her for of all the sleep I'm missing out on when it's 2:00 am and I've put little sweetie down 4 times, and she's woken up yet again as soon as her head hits her bed, and we start over again with the josteling and shusshing, I try to think about how sweet she is and how this is my job right now, and it's okay. She needs me, and I am blessed to get to spend so much time with her. (don't worry there have still been bouts of resentment and the pity party-I'm not perfect.)




Second, I've really tried to focus on the bigger picture and why I'm doing what I'm doing. This has really helped! I have made the word Nurture my motto, and remind myself daily that my opportunity as a mother is to nurture my children (especially after the little buddy has dumped the entire salt shaker out and is rubbing it all over the counter). That's not just keeping an eye on them (which obviously I wasn't in the above mentioned case-but that's another story). It's "cultivating, caring for, and making grow." And there isn't a better job out there! I feel so lucky to be a mom and to get to watch my beautiful children grow, and to be the one to help them do so. I love my job, and even though it's not an easy one, it truly is the most rewarding. Sometimes I forget that though, and it's nice to have a visual reminder to step back and enjoy them, and remember why I'm doing what I'm doing.

So, I thought I would share this nurture poster I made that has helped me so much!. Hopefully it will be helpful to some of you too! As always it's printable on a letter size sheet. To make it centered, and frame-able in an 8x10 just cut an inch off the right side and a half inch off the bottom. This will make it 8x10.

Also, the quote at the bottom refers to this article if you want to read the whole thing.