Dragonfly Craft

Yesterday I asked Noah and Lucille to pick out 4 pairs of helicopter leaves and 2 small sticks for a craft. There were some curious questions from the kiddos. What would we be using these for?

 Today we put them to use! We made some cute dragonflies on a blue piece of construction paper.

 We took a quick look at these dragonfly books that I got from our local library

Lucy asked for some crayons so that she could draw Antennas on her dragonflies.

The last step was writing down their favorite fact on a small piece of paper...

And gluing it onto their artwork. (Miss independent loves to use the glue stick all by herself!)

All done! Judging things by that smile, I think they enjoyed this craft!

Encouraging Honks

A few nights ago I snapped this picture while taking a walk with my camera. I happened to be in my neighbor's backyard when I took it. Shhh don't tell them, okay? The weather is definitely getting colder, and we are starting to hear the familiar honks of migrating geese!

Our Pastor once told us a fun fact about geese in his sermon. Geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to maintain the speed. In other words, they honk to keep each other going.

In the flight of life we all have an influence on each other. Will people be encouraged, or discouraged by knowing you? This is always a good question to think about.

Do you remember Steve Green's song based on 1 Thessalonians 5:11?  In Children's Church we loved singing it as fast as we could. This song was easy to learn, but it also has a lot of truth to it!

Encourage one another and build each other up, build each other up, build each other up

Encourage one another and build each other up, up up up up up up up up up!

The second verse talks about discouraging words. Encourage one another, don't tear each other down.

Is your honking encouraging? Take a look at the past week. Did you carefully use your words to edify one another? Were the things you said true, helpful, inspiring, necessary, and kind?

Start looking for people in your life that might need a word of encouragement. One of the best ways to be encouraged is to be an encouragement!

The Bubble Wand Experiment

Who doesn't love blowing a big bubble? I took the bubbles out on Monday, and let the bubble blowing begin!

Did you notice that we did not use typical bubble wand? Take a closer look! Noah and I were having fun playing outside when he picked up a leaf stem. He asked me if I wanted to see a trick. I watched as he carefully tied it into a knot. After he was finished, I told him that it looked like a bubble wand. Should I have said that out loud? Now we absolutely had to try it out!

After we made our predictions, Noah gave it a shot. Can I have a drum roll pleaseee? It turns out that a leaf stem can make a perfect bubble wand! Who knew?

Have you made any fun discoveries this week? Hang out with a kid for a while, you might be surprised!

A Rough Landing

Today was going pretty smoothly. Gabe was playing nicely, and Lucy was coloring a picture at the kitchen table. Noah came in the room with his green helicopter and remote control. All of the propellers were spinning like normal, but it wouldn't fly. A few minutes later...the mini helicopter was stuck in my hair. 

How did this event happen? I'm glad you asked!

Noah: Angela, I need some help. This helicopter won't fly.

Me: Okay, let's take a look. Did you fly it into something recently?

Noah: Welllll, it did get stuck in Fancy Nancy's hair. You know Lucy's doll with the crazy hair?  I thought that we got all of the hair out of the blades. Do you see any?

By this point I was already looking down at the toy. I'll admit that I was tuning him out. If I had been listening to him more closely, it would have sent some red flags flying.

I leaned in closer to check for any pieces of hair that may have been stuck. Nope. Nothing. I soon heard a familiar humming noise, and felt a slight tug at the end of my hair. Greaaat. I now was another victim of this little green monster. Why couldn't it have been Fancy Nancy, again? She didn't seem to mind too much the last time!

I finally got my hair unstuck as their mother opened the garage door. I guess I should have grabbed the controller, or at least remembered that I have long hair! 

Oh well, at least we have a fun story to tell people! I'll have to remember this as the strand of hair slowly grows out.

Moral of the story: Watch out for RC helicopters, they will get stuck inside any hair that crosses their path.

Patience Inspection

Whew! It feels like it has been a long week, and it is only Tuesday! I have been experiencing a battle of wills while babysitting. What happened to the perfect little angels that I had the other day?

The kids I watch after school are still working on picking up toys, eating all of their snack, and being responsible about daily tasks that I know they can handle. Constantly offering a "Pretty please, with a cherry on top?" when something needs to be done hasn't been cutting it. I am not a fan of threatening kids with timeouts, but there are not a lot of options when you are only the babysitter. I need to establish some authority with them. If I am not successful, the next 160 days are going to be tough! I recently made a small rule chart to hang on their playroom cabinet, and it has already been a useful reminder to them.

At Ladies Bible Study, I was babysitting some kids in the nursery. A three year old was tantruming over a Pooh Bear book for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually, he turned things around and apologized...just in time for his mom to pick him up. Let's just say it wasn't the quiet night of book reading that I had planned. ;)

What do you need to have, especially when dealing with disciple? Patience and Persistence! These two things are both optional, but they also go hand in hand with each other.

Patience is a choice! Kids will be kids, and we all have our difficult days. Always discipline out of love, not anger. I will frequently check my tone of voice. There is a difference between talking in a way that is serious, and harshly yelling out of frustration. Are you straddling the line in between staying calm and losing your temper? Remember: A person often falls in the direction that they are leaning.

Do we really need persistence? YES! It is so important to follow through with what you say. I'm sure you have seen a parent give into what their child wants just to make the screaming and kicking stop. While this might be the easy way out, I never feel good rewarding bad behavior. I can almost hear the child thinking, "Hey! That actually worked!"

On this lovely Tuesday my patience was put to the test, but I am happy to report that the right actions were eventually accomplished. I am going to look past the not so pretty moments, and find the small diamonds in the rough. Let's hope the rest of this week goes a bit smoother!

Reasons to Smile: August 2012

Finding joy in the little things!

• Hanging out in the college parking lot just to take pictures
• My cousin's daughter, Mia, turned 6 this month! Wow, time flies!
• I attended the $1000 Cache Ba$h with my brother for the second year in a row. Here's an awesome doodle done by a fellow Geocacher.
• A Mac fanboy? Well, someone has to like Apple right?
• Lucy was thrilled to get a bag of cheese on her 5th birthday. Who knew cheese curds could make a girl so happy!
• Mom bought monster tissue boxes the other day. She quickly defended them by saying, "It was all they had!"
• There's nothing like a package to brighten up your day! It contained: two chocolate bars, stamps, and a crocheted cupcake from Sweden. Oh, and a few other things from a certain someone in Oregon. I have the best friends.  
• Beautiful sunsets always make me smile