DAy 184

Just a quick photo of the snow melting--even quicker because of the rain we've been having.  Stoney Creek is extremely high, and hubby told me that some areas have been evacuated.

But I love the water!  It's gurgle of laughter tells us joyfully that spring is finally coming, and the robin that I saw today seconds the motion.

Day 183

Had a full Adam and Mummy day today.  Julia had her first sleepover (aaaawwww!) so it has been kind of an oddly empty evening. 

A couple of photos, very little commentary, since it's almost 3 am my time since I had to work after the kiddo went to sleep.  Here we go:

Day 182

There are better writers than myself who will have heard about this today and do wonders with it, I'm sure.  But I couldn't NOT share this story with you nonetheless.  It made my day a little brighter.  Ninja Knitters.  Whodda thunk it?  I have this image of masked little old ladies, setting aside their canes as they glide noiselessly through the moonlit night armed only with yarn and needles and a desire to cast off gloom and spread a little joy and whimsy.

Cape May Trees the Victims of a Knit and Run?  News at 11.

*****

Julia came home from school and raced upstairs, as per usual, and burst into the room where I work.  She stopped in her tracks and said, "Mummy--it smells really good in here."  It took me a moment to figure out that I had the window open for the first time since last Fall, and what she was smelling in the room was good, clean, fresh air.  So I cast off my work and we went for a little walk around the block together to get more of it.  Indeed, it does seem like Spring is at last making a valiant effort to make an appearance. 

Here's a bird's nest from last year that, for the first time in months, isn't filled with snow:

Dried hydrangeas--just coz I love hydrangeas to pieces.  They're beautiful both when they're dried out and when they're flaunting life.

Our toboggans had a good run this year, but now they're grounded.  Time to put them away.

We just HAD to stop for a quick game of hopscotch in the schoolyard...

..and hang out for a bit near the park entrance.  Deliberated going down there, but it was waaay too...

MUDDY.

Yup, definitely a sign that  Spring may actually be around the corner!

THREE CHEERS!!!

Day 181: A Bit o' Bizniss.

First of all.  Corner View.  The topic is miniature worlds, and I had such a fabulous idea.  Unfortunately, it will have to wait a day or two, because it involves the assistance of my able husband to put together, and we simply did not have time today.

Second of all, remember awhile ago I posted a really great blog link that a friend of a friend put up where he's following the directions of a book requiring him to do interesting, bizarre, and risky things every day for 365 days?  Well, shortly after, I clicked on the link to find that there was no blog attached.  Bummer.  Mike is sooo funny.  It made me sad when I thought it had ended

BUT there is good news!  Today I lamented to Barb (the mutual friend) that it was gone, and she said that he had to change the link name, but the blog is still up!  YAY!  It has been there all along, just hiding a bit.  So if you were missing Daily Tasking, just click and catch up.  That's what I'm going over to do as soon as I'm finished typing this.  Huzzah for Mike, the Intrepid Daily Tasker.  He deserves our support, he really does.  The subject of his blog is hysterical, and he puts things in such a witty manner.  Yeah, it's a bit rough in the spelling department, but look BEYOND that, and you will be so happy you did.  So, go visit him.  Comment.  Make mention on your blogs.  I don't want him to give up due to a lack of audience to his exploits in following the rules at all costs.  That would be a sad, sad day.

Thirdly, today's photo.  This evening I was able to go to an activity for the young women that I work with in the church.  Today was a yearly special activity called "New Beginnings," where the girls celebrate the values that they are striving to live, which include faith, divine nature, individual worth, choice and accountability, knowledge, good works integrity, and virtue.  Anyway, they planned a Values Olympics, and different groups of girls put on little skits or  to show how to apply each value in daily living. They did a really nice job, especially since the weather has been so bad that they really didn't have much time to practice.

Qt the end, they were all awarded gold medals.  Very pretty ones too, I must say:

And that, friends, is my daily photo,  I simply couldn't stop work long enough to take a picture of anything else today.  That said, I think Be  Strong and of a Good Courage is a motto we can all benefit by.

Cheers,

Lynn

Day 180: Chocolate heaven

OK, technically for me it's tomorrow, being 1:15 a.m., but since I haven't gone to bed yet can we consider it still today? 

Why up so late, you ask?  I'm almost embarassed to admit that I got sucked in to Blazing Saddles.  Why, oh why, do I find that movie so entertaining?  I've only watched the cleaned up television version...oh....umpteen times.  I mean, honestly, I giggle through almost the entire thing:

"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."

I mean, seriously, how can you NOT love a movie where the villain, brilliantly played by Harvey Corman, gets the opportunity to speak such great lines?

Anyway, after the movie, it was "ah crumbs--picture time."  So here's one of chocolate:

Story?  I came home from dropping off a friend's car, which I was driving since I bring her child and mine to choir and our car was in the shop.  When I got in the kids frantically told me that I could NOT go into the living room.  Finally I was escorted in, where I found the room tidy and this box of chocolates (one of my favorite kinds!) smack dab in the middle of the floor, with the kids pleased as punch.

Made me smile. 

And now I leave you, with another wonderful quote from Hedley Lamarr:  "My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention."

And wouldn't it stop a lot of discipline problems at school if things were dealt with this way?

Hedley Lamarr: Qualifications?

Gum Chewer: [chewing gum] Murder... armed robbery... mayhem...

Hedley Lamarr: Wait a moment. What have you got in your mouth?

Gum Chewer: [stops chewing] Nuff'm.

Hedley Lamarr: "Nuff'm", eh? Lyle!

Lyle: [searches the man's mouth] Gum!

Hedley Lamarr: Chewing gum on line, eh? I hope you brought enough for everybody.

Gum Chewer: [panicked] I didn't know there was going to be so many!

[Hedley shoots the gum chewer]

Jim: [hidden behind a rock] Boy, is he strict!

teehee

Day 179: Motivation Movers

Oy.  As much as we love our children, we get sooo tired of the nagging, having to repeat things umpteen times, constant correction...it was getting so our house was not a particularly positive place.  Trying to teach our kids that they need to follow the rules in our home (and believe me, there probably aren't as many as there could--and possibly should--be), be respectful of their parents as they are to other adults, be obedient, and mannerly has been a trial.  Ufda. 

So I took away an idea from Julia's teacher and adapated it for use at home.

Enter these little florist glass thingies.  The kids chose the colours and a glass vase to put them inm and I simply give them opportunities to earn them.  "OK--I'm going to ask you to put your pjs on now--if I don't have to ask again, you get a gem."  When we are reading the scriptures together, if you are respectful, sit quietly, and listen, you get a gem(or two--I'm not picky).  Eat their supper?  Gem.  Pick up their toys when I ask the first time?  Gem.  Go to bed without calling me upstairs a dozen times?  Gem.  When I bite my tongue and choose to use a patient, kind voice rather than be snarky?  I give myself a gem!  The catch?  If they say, "I did such and such, can I get a gem?"  The answer is nope.  hehe.

When the vase is full, it's a special, family fun time of their choice.  We do fun things as a family anyway, but this can be something the kids can choose to do.

Now, some people might thing a reward system for things that they are expected to do doesn't make sense.  I say if you can teach your kids to be happily appropriate at home without it--my hat goes off to you.   In our case, they always have had to do whatever it was that was required, but it was like pulling teeth.  Having to make the request a gazillion times and be ignored, and the ante always being upped was driving me loopy!   There was also the feeling that it didn't matter what mom or dad said, chances are they'd do what they wanted anyway, consequence be hooied, and then I'd have to deal with THAT issue, and then everone was unhappy.  It was the attitude that needed changing.   What this has started to do is make the execution of whatever the task is a lot more streamlined and happy, at least so far.  I have good kids, I really do.  I'm sounding like they're little terrors!  But it is so frustrating when the wonderful behavior that is exhibited everywhere else goes out the window when they get home.  And that had to change.

Yes, there are still fights to referee, issues that need to be fixed, times when what the child wants right then or the emotion they feel overrides everything else.  So there are still those policeman mommy moments.  But I figure that right now the important thing is to bring a positive, loving, happy feeling in our home again.  A feeling of working for something fun.  And hopefully, like the stickers I used when I was potty training the kids, once it becomes second nature they won't need them any more.

At least that's my hope.  It has only been going about two weeks.  Sunday was like a major relapse.  Not sure what was in the water.  But today they're back to being awesome little people. Having fun with each other, figuring out how to handle disagreements, being helpful.  It is a joy.

Night.

L

Day 178: Last Hurrah?

The way things are melting out there today, this may be my last ice/snow photos of the season.  If there is any justice in the universe.  At all.

It was a good thing I spotted the potential in these icicles when I did, because not ten minutes later they smashed down onto the ground.  Was I sorry?  Not really.  I love ice and snow, but it's March.  It's time for them to take a break and let Spring have her fling.

I was starting to feel as though I lived in Narnia.