Behold, magnets! Though the picture doesn't capture these little gems quite so well, hopefully you still get the idea. These three here well that's a bee, an illustration of an old house and sunset over some islands somwhere. We had hours of fun pouring through old magazines and finding photos to cut up and play with to make our own little magnets. The tip for this easy and fun craft came from a dear pal who'd given me a set. Credit for the original recipe goes to "Martha". I must say I never looked up the actual instructions. And now glancing over them after the fact well I see a couple of points that would have made this even easier to do. Oh well. We had fun and that's what counts. In the spirit of improvisation, which is my true nature for all things crafty, we just sort of went with it based on what my pal had described and we came out with some pretty cool designs. My girl got right in the mix with these too and loved being a big part of the design plan for these little giveaways. She cut and planned her own bunch of magnets to give away. We've made about 40 of them by now and we're stopping. They can be quite addictive or maybe that's just the glue. No I'm kidding that stuff was nasty. Next time I have to find a less toxic smelling gluey wonder. To be sure, only the mama here handled this nasty glue. The project was great fun for all of us and making these sure made for some crafty good fun this cold blustery weekend. And up next...
..cookies, streaming live on the topic of making things. We made chocolate dough, green and plain and had some fun meshing the doughs together for a marbelized cookie look--ooooh aaaah. I managed to make a few pinwheels but mostly we just cutout lots of tree leaves, snowpeeps, hearts and flowers. We had hours of fun literally making the dough, rolling it out and cutting the various shapes.
A day inside just me and my girl. This day together did us both so good. I stayed home from work to get rid of this crud I've had and kept my girl home too. We had a sweet, slow day making cookies and paper snowflakes, talking and just being. Together.
And as I think of her in my streaming consciousness tonight, I am feeling proud for some big stuff she is working on. 5 as I've written about at least in this household and from what I hear from other dear Mama pals brings its incredible joys in parenting and challenging times--like any age I guess. I know challenging times are often for us, about her experimenting with new behaviors and attitudes and pushing boundaries. I did it. Her papa did it and so does she and so will she. It is her job to after all. And really they come in waves I'm sure triggered by changes in her growing self and whatever is going on around in her world.
These moments are my learning moments. As a parent I am learning over and over to do a little check in to thine own self and remind the me here how I want to parent. These harder moments on the parenting highway present an opportunity to react or not. And if reacting, oh how I try to react with kindness and patience as much as I possibly can but in moments of utter exhaustion I may lose it and raise my voice. I don't like doing that. I don't want to do that but its happened. I've hit the heavy metal pitch once or twice (check out the reference to the metallica voice in this article). And it sucks. I feel like crap and I vow never to do it again.
Truth is, so that I'm not too harsh as the parenting self-critic, I'm not much of a yelleroverall. As I say, I've had my moments and they're more about me than my girl...of course. That's the lameness of yelling. And yeah yelling, I can't stand it. I grew up being yelled at by one parent in my more challenging moments I guess and I hated every second of it. I stood staring while being yelled out consciously but of course not physically sticking a finger in both hears to drown out the concert in thrash-metal. I muttered under my breath just what I thought of this this parent I love dearly but whoa bessie was I not loving her in those moments. But I understand now more than ever as a parent, we are human and screwup crappy moments in parenting happen. We come with experience of how we were raised which factor in the equation. And really so that I don't repeat all that I vowed never to do when I grew up to become a Mama(and yes there was lots and lots of good too), I work on my parenting and I read books and I talk to friends, probably I talk too much. And yes, I apologize for my screwups. All of it helps. There is no perfect. For any of us. Thank the great goddess of human growing. There is learning. And growing together. To me the learning and the rise from these challenges is what brings us as mama and girl closer and makes me love my girl even more if that is even possible.
I try with each challenge to do a little better just as my girl does. And she has her moments as I do. And as I strive to do better in my darker moments, so does she. What I am loving is she recognizes these harder moments and steps back even hours later is fine and talks about what she has learned. And yes there is lots of praise for her learning and recognizing and trying. We all need praise it makes us strive harder and for a 5 year old well it works to motivate her to keep trying to travel the road of positive behaviors. And what I must remember is to chuck expectations of what should be. Rather, just be and appreciate in what is. Focusing so much on the more challenging behaviors doesn't do much good and it makes me feel like I'm carrying around a magnifying glass the size of Texas to look for all that needs changin about everything and everyone yep me included.(no offense Texas I love Big Bend Nat'l Park and Austin and hiking Mt. Guadalupe and the music that comes from there and well...) Rather if I stay tuned to the positives and focus on building those well let's just say the day does have a much more pleasant vibe. And I go back to thinking how the heck would I want to be talked to and treated. Would I want ever freakin thing I do to be corrected or criticized. Uh let me think. No. And as I said more than once, I have my moments so for the love of all things fair my girl can have hers too and if they happen to be in public well then we're finding tools in our toolkit here that help us through those.
This girl is so good for me to be around. I She reminds me to let go sometimes, lighten up and let us each find our way a bit. And when she bucks up, then it is our job as the mama and papa to help guide her to do that in appropriate ways. With manners, yes.
After all though, I want her as she does her growin to stand up for what she believes is right. I like that she speaks up and says how she feels. As a developing little bean in this world, she'll continue to learn to exercise that in better and more effective ways and yep that's where modeling healthy communication sans the heavy metal pitch or whatever else negative can sure be a good thing. Standing up for what she wants I know doesn't mean she'll always win but learning to express herself with emotional grace well that is something to behold. I am proud of her everyday for the growing she is doing now; for the challenges she is rising to and learning from little by little. And for the kind, beautiful and big heart she shines.
For the small steps, slow and steady we are taking on this journey together, well I'm very grateful.
And that concludes this evening's stream from my ready-for-bed-soon consciousness. Thanks for tuning in.
