Platforms, Play & Pursuit: Week 3

I'd love for you to come with me on a path of being intentional.  Intentional in helping my boys fill their empty summer hours, living out the dream of actually doing some of those fun ideas I've pinned on Pinterest, and pursuing and nurturing their little hearts.  Read more about it here.  

This weeks' Platform (giving the kids a place to start independent play):
 

  Inside: simply paying attention to staging books around the house.  Maybe I'll make a book nook somewhere, cozy, quiet place to pick up a book and read.
   
  Outside: I've got a ball of twine, I'll pile up some sticks and leave it with the twine...see what these boys and their imaginations come up with.


This Weeks' Play: Using posterboard or a canvas, we'll use masking tape to spell out our names on the canvas.  Then we'll paint over the canvas and tape.  Peel off the masking tape for a fun reverse stencil.  Wall art for each bedroom!

This Weeks' Pursuit: At bedtime (one on one stories are the best in our house) I'll tell the boys stories:  stories of when I was their age, of how my parents met and married, of what naughty thing I did when I was little and the consequences...

*My boys are 6, 8 & 10.  If these activities are too advanced, switch them up so they work safely and sanely for your kiddos.

Favorite Matching Spaces

If I look tired in this picture it's because I am. We had treasure & tragedy last week, I'm still catching up on rest. Today I'm taking care of some lab work that requires sharing lots of my blood, & drinking no caffeine all day. I have taken 4 naps today and am STILL tired. (I'm NOT sick, just routine stuff)

I know, I know, I'll quit whining. At least I got to take 4 naps...

But I had to share this picture, as I was sitting at the library I saw that the pattern on the chairs matches that of the background on my blog. Ha!

One of these days I will tell you the story of our last week, but not tonight. Tonight I will be satisfied with good places to be and matching patterns.

Platforms, Play & Pursuit: Week 2

I'd love for you to come with me on a path of being intentional.  Intentional in helping my boys fill their empty summer hours, living out the dream of actually doing some of those fun ideas I've pinned on Pinterest, and pursuing and nurturing their little hearts.  Read more about it here.  

This weeks' Platform(giving the kids a place to start independent play):
 
 Inside:  *Fresh Playdoh!  We don't play with playdoh often anymore, so some **boughten Playdoh ought to be a lasting treat.  My wise sister has decided getting it at the store is well worth the investment.  I'll change/add toys and props throughout the week.  I DON'T CARE IF COLORS GET MIXED! If mixing colors makes you crazy maybe you should look away...this is half of the fun of playdoh!
    
 Outside:  Going to plant some dollar store squirt water bottles in the yard for kiddos to play with.  This is also a good time to order Mr. Yuk stickers and teach kiddos about what bottles NOT to play with.


This Weeks' Play: Heading outside to create some artistic nature to share

This Weeks' Pursuit (in search of my childs' heart):  Setting a schedule this week to be sure we get Bible reading and Scripture Memorization in.  I really struggle to get this done each day, but it's what I want to be consistant with more than anything.  I'll follow up with a plan!

 *My boys are 6, 8 & 10.  If these activities are too advanced, switch them up so they work safely and sanely for your kiddos.

** boughten refers to anything that wasn't home made in the Little House book series.

Ready to paint

I've set up the paint supplies, the boys are outside but will find them soon enough! You have pics to share? I'd love to see them!

Platforms, Play & Pursuit: Week 1

I'd love for you to come with me on a path of being intentional.  Intentional in helping my boys fill their empty summer hours, living out the dream of actually doing some of those fun ideas I've pinned on Pinterest, and pursuing and nurturing their little hearts.  Read more about it here.  

This weeks' Platform(giving the kids a place to start independent play):

 Inside I'm going to pull out the watercolor supplies.  We have some watercolor papers, I'll set them out, cut some down to littler cards to paint.  Post card size?   My boys are old enough that I can leave these supplies out and expect them to care for art supplies.   Apply to your kiddos accordingly.

Outside I'm setting up a table inside for natures collections.  The boys, of course, always come up with sweet treasures from our walks or playing outside.  I love how they examine seed pods and leaves.  I'm going to have to find a very good spot for these things, oh how our kitty loves to play with nature's toys!

This Weeks' Play:

We're going to build this giant water bed to plop in the yard for a few days.  If it lasts that long.

This Weeks' Pursuit:  Do you remember the notes we passed back and forth in 4th grade?  The notes we folded like this?  I'm going to remember how to fold them, write a sweet note to my four boys and leave it on their pillow.  

*My boys are 6, 8 & 10.  If these activities are too advanced, switch them up so they work safely and sanely for your kiddos.

Platforms, Play & Pursuit: In hopes of having an intentional summer

Moving into Summer it's obvious to me that I've got some crazy list of ambitions.  It's not a wonder, either.  For the rest of the year I've been focused on school and the boys, just keeping things upright at home.  But we're on school break now, and I'm full speed ahead;  organize, paint, study and clean!

Beyond the lists,  I'm seeing the need to be intentional about having a little fun with the kids this summer. Spending time with them, loving on their not-so-little hearts, walking and talking with them about how much I cherish them, about who they are in the Lord.

I'm also hearing a lot of friends wondering about just how busy to keep their kids, whether or not it's okay to let their kids get bored.

A firm believer in allowing kids to get bored, this is a whole blog post in and of itself.  In short, allowing kids to have empty time forces them to be creative and constructive.  Throughout this summer I'm going to create platforms from which my kids can take a leap into their own creative worlds with provided materials or themes.

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I'll never forget a weekend I spent with a girlfriend when I was in about 6th grade.  We'd watched all the movies, played all the games, done everything we could think of and we were just bored.  We wandered out to her garage, found some wood scraps and some hardware...we pulled it all together.  Grabbed some hammers and made something.  We made art that day.  It was so fun, and a forever memory.
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Maybe this summer I'll keep a little journal with you all...track the platforms I lay out, the things I'm going to do with the boys.  I'll do my best to keep up with my own ambitions.  At any rate, feel free to join along and share with me your journey.

April in Photos

Pandora and a bowl of chips (JUNK food!!) and a few minutes of quiet while my boys take their sweet selves to their rooms, book rest.  I was thinking 'what to do? what to do?' and then I stumbled across this article about how blogging is as much as an outlet as creating or building or excersizing and I decided I still love blogging...

here I am.  

Oh, and I brought some photos of our normal life with me: 

Joey and the Kapla tower.  Oh, we dearly love our Kapla blocks.  Yes, they're spendy, but there are 6 months to Christmas, so you have time to save!!  Just do it!!

We returned last night from a fun little weekendish outing.  We had scheduled a camping trip, but sadly it was predicted to be super stormy so we took the easy way out and called my folks...asked if we could crash them.  With another family of 4.  Eleven of us, in all.  They said yes and we went and had a lovely, lovely time.  So very fun!

Now I'm home and thinking about the reorganization I'm doing around the house...did you know that it's a tricky thing when you have three floors?  And I'm thinking about painting....  I have 5 rooms to paint (breathe) and hallways that run upstairs (breathe) and trim (breathe!!) and really could stand to do the spare bedroom (choke, die.)

No, really.  Almost dead.  Mostly dead.  And then I just forget about it and feel fine again.

That reminds me of a new trick...

I once read about a sweet little lady who coined the phrase "standing and staring."  I'm pretty sure she meant it to be used as follows:  "I knew my room needed something different.  I knew I must move a chair, or hang a picture, but I need a change.  So I'm just standing and staring, trying to figure it out."

I stand and stare on a regular basis, but it's much more like standing and staring because I can't figure out what on earth I'm going to do to begin these unsurmountable tasks that I myself have assigned to me.  I don't know where to begin (breathe) and I'm never, ever going to get this all done AND still be a mom AND make dinner, too.  So now, I'm standing and staring, trying to breathe, completely overwhelmed.  

(Staring in the yard is better than staring at my busy house)

So I have a new trick.  It's not organized or efficient but it gets me out of the standing part and helps me move.  I suppose I've developed it from my days with FlyLady and all that.  It's a 20 minute trick.  

I just decide to work at something for 20 minutes.  One thing.  Yes, I set a timer.  20 minutes gets me from staring at the dishes and gets them in the dishwasher. Then 20 minutes getting the laundry processed.  20 minutes playing a game of LuckyBoy with my Eli- 'cause he asked.  20 minutes moving furniture in the family room, 20 minutes moving office stuff up to the office.  20 minutes vacuuming then 20 back at the laundry.  I can do several sets of 20 minutes without standing and staring and be pretty productive, at least for an hour.  

(This is what I love...dinner at our house Thursdays usually calls for early Small Group visitors....squishing around the dinner table for tacos with friends.  (Doesn't this room need paint?)

Now, mind you, you'll find me staring again in an hour or two and then I know it's time to quit, I'm tired.

BUT, my boys, they're big.   I mean it's all relative....so if you saw me 4 years ago my boys would've been 2, 4 & 6 and I sat and nursed and stared, or worked in 5 minute increments and settled for a messy house and happy, sometimes dressed children and mama.  Days are different now.  Anyhow...

My plans for the summer, all those things on my list might get just a wee bitty bit done with this little trick I'm doing.  We'll see.  I'll be really pleased if I get 4 rooms painted.  

Oh, and I'm looking for input.  We are painting the main parts of the house a beige-boring color that goes well with the floors and couches.  Then there is a dark in color, not shade green in the family and school room.  Then we have the stairs.  It will be some time before we cover the stairs with hardwood steps so we're planning to paint them..try and make it look decent while we wait.  

So I want to know, what color would you paint these stairs?  

a day out, fishing for my sweetie

Morning Reading/Snuggle...favorite!!

Laundry and Kapla 

Oh!  And a new garden of rocks and succulents.  Want to mail me any hens & chicks?  Taking donations from anywhere!!

Playing games on the squishy-lovely rug...but watch out, it eats marbles!

And I just got a text from my husband, he's coming home and the masses are getting hungry...again.  Time to stop staring at this screen and wrangle up something to feed my cowboys.  

I hope things are going well with y'all and thanks for tolerating my rambling.  Please do comment and suggest a color for my gianormous stairs....