Monday, December 31, 2012

Closing out 2012

I would love to catch you all up on all of our Advent crafting, Christmas activities, and all the other holiday happenings in our humble abode...but that would take awhile and I only have a few moments before my sweet hubby finishes making our special, adult only New Year's Eve dinner. 

What I do want to do is commemorate another year of great blessings and time with the people I love most.  Some days/weeks/months are tough around here - financially, marriage, parenting, everything all together.  Others are easy, careless, and beautiful.  But the point is, at the end of another year, we all have fallen even more in love with each other.  We all have grown individually and as a family.  We all have begun to further establish our family traditions.  And Hubby and I have deepened the resolve in each of us that shapes the direction our family will take and the ways that we will raise our children in an often chaotic world.  The days of 2012 have been filled with tons of love and extreme chaos...and still overriding it all is the sense of peace that we find by having each other.

Just a glimpse of the ever appropriate way that we closed out 2012!



Sunday, December 9, 2012

For those band-aid lovin' kids

Do your kids love band-aids?  Mine are obsessed with them.  I think they would easily go through a box a day if I let them...but I don't because they cost money and I am cheap.  They want one for the smallest of "boo-boos" and for all the imaginary wounds they dream up during their play.  I needed an alternative that was quick, cheap, and easy.  And this is what I came up with - felt and velcro band-aids.

 Mama had a boo-boo on her wrist.
We made a wide variety of sizes and colors - ones to fit mama and daddy arms and legs, all the way down to ones small enough to fit toddler fingers (not pictured here because they are on a sleeping toddler at the moment).

I thought I'd offer a quick how-to for how I whipped these together with my little helpers one morning.  I let the kids pick out the colors from our felt collection.  We cut a variety of strips ranging for 1/2" wide up to about 3" wide, at varying lengths.  I rounded the edges of each strip to give it a band-aid shape. 

I cut squares (actually, more like rectangles) of white felt and sewed them to the middle of each strip - nothing fancy, just a straight stick with thread of your desired color.  On that same side, to one end sew one or two pieces of velcro.  It doesn't matter if it's the soft or rough side of the velcro.  On the band-aid pictured below I sewed two horizontal strips (with the soft part of the velcro) on this side to allow for more flexibility in the circumference of the band-aid when wrapped closed.

Flip over the felt piece and sew the other piece or pieces of velcro on the opposing end.  I used only one vertical strip.  I did this to cut down on the amount of velcro used, mostly because I was running low.  On the next band-aid I used the inverse pieces and had two horizontal pieces of rough velcro and one vertical piece of soft on the other end.

Wrapped closed.

And that's it.  You're done.  Nothing fancy at all, but they have been a huge hit around here.  Mannchen especially enjoys using them when playing firefighter/parametic.  Töchterchen has now decided she would like some pink and purple ones.  I guess this mama better get more velcro soon!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

{this moment}

One day late....

A concept borrowed from Soulemama.  {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.