Sprinkles of joy: aiming for your dreams…

Sorry for not posting anything last week. I do have a good excuse: I am a mom

Here is my weekly doses of encouragement.

Aiming for your dreams is not just having goals and accomplishing them. Even though it does bring great satisfaction to achieve certain milestones in life. But achieving your dreams is something that really came to mind after reading The Last Lecture by Randy Paush (if you haven’t read it, I highly recommend this book).

The main thing is that our goals change over time. Our childhood dreams don’t necessarily end up as our adult goals. Here is when we have to look back at those dreams and bring them out into the light. Let’s polish them off and plan some time to make those dream come true. Of course there are dreams that can be unrealistic, but many can be a source of great happiness. For example, I always wanted to design beautiful dresses. I did spend a lot of time sewing when I was a teenager, but now my sewing machine is covered in dust. Not for so long, though.

I intend to un-dust it and start working on a few small projects with my eight year old daughter. I bet I’ll make some great memories as I teach her some sewing basics and share my dream with her.

Jo-Ann~

Sprinkles of joy…

Here is my weekly doses of encouragement.

I was remembering a wonderful quote: “The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life”
— C.S. Lewis

I must say that reading these wise words makes me ponder on my priorities in life. And as I ask myself…
Are my priorities straight?
Am I enjoying the “interruptions” in my life?

As I think about the many great blessings in my life, I belittle the little things that bug or bother me. I start to enjoy the sprinkles on the cupcake more than the cupcake itself.

To be more specific, let me explain myself. The cupcakes in life are those great accomplishments, the “big” things in life: buying your first home, getting your dream job, traveling, and so many other things . The sprinkles on the cupcake are the everyday “little” things: the hugs in the morning from your kids, the “have a great day honey” comment, doing the laundry (it is part of taking care of your family).

It’s the every day things that make the most wonderful memories in your life.
It is so easy to get wrapped up in the cupcakes of life, but let us remember that the best part of it all is to cherish the sprinkles of joy.

Jo-Ann~

Road Trip: a printable kit to entertain your kids

Getting ready for a road trip?

My family was planning a trip to Virginia Beach, which is about 3 and half hours away from where we live. I knew that my one year old would take a nap during the trip, then need a snack and most definitely have a fit because of being in a car seat for a long time.

I knew what to expect… a stop or two would help us stretch out, change the baby’s diaper and that would work for my thing number two (my 8 year old daughter came up with the “thing”  idea, she loves Dr. Suess and she is my thing number one).

Now, to get my 8 year old daughter ready for the trip I tried something new. I usually pack a few books, an electronic game, and a notebook for her to draw, but this time I created a binder titled: My travel guide.

I printed out a prayer, a step by step map, to avoid the “Are we there yet?” question. This way she would be able to visualize where we were. I also printed out some silly songs, coloring pages, a scavenger hunt, the license plate game, a few mazes, and some empty pages with cute borders for her to draw.

I really enjoyed setting this all up, plus I learned some interesting information about the interstate numbering system, which I printed out as a road trip fun fact.

My trip might seem short for some of you who take road trips to next level, and drive for longer hours or even days. And so I am sharing my travel guide with you all. I made a copy of my original travel guide as set it up as a template.

You can find it here: My Travel Guide

 Good luck and happy road tripping!

 Warmly, 

Jo-Ann

And to think that I saw it on Creativity Street…

That’ s right!

Summer is around the corner and that means starting to plan on activities for the kids. So what to do, what to do?

As a mom, I want my kids to have the most fun, but I also want the fun to teach them something. Therefore, this summer I plan to change the name of my street to Creativity Street. I want to make sure that I have diverse activities that will keep my kids busy, entertained and of course in learning mode.

First of all we need an activity calendar, and why not make it one of the activities…

An activity calendar: you can print your own, buy your own or create your own. I like the create-your-own approach, and here is where your super mom skills come into place. There are so many things you can do to set up your activity calendar.

• For older kids you can have them set up a calendar using Microsoft Publisher, this way they can improve their computer skills.
• Another way can be, to use some fun materials like felt, scrapbooking papers, or construction paper. This one is my favorite. I plan to use felt and have my daughter cut out the squares for each day. We will also cut out different shapes to be used to identify the summer activities. I will put some magnetic tape on the back of the calendar and place it on the fridge.

Now that we have our calendar in place, we need to fill it up with the summer activities.  Here is my share of ideas, please join in and share your ideas too.

Places to go: one thing kids enjoy during summer is the outdoors. But there are also interesting indoor places to go to.

• Plan a picnic at the park. You can stretch a blanket, have lunch and play board games.
• Check for local festivals and events. One great website to search for local events is: http://eventful.com/. You can search for events by zip code and category: family/kids.
• Visit family.
• Organize a play date at a local playground.
• Visit museums and historical places if nearby.
• Go on a road trip.
• Go to the local library. They also host many fun events during summer.
• Start the kids on music lessons or sports (both if possible).

 Things to do: here is where Creativity Street is in action. 

• Writing: have them create an acrostic with their name. You can then make copies and mail them to family. They can do an acrostic exchange with friends and mail them to each other. The anticipation of getting mail for kids is quite interesting.
• Reading: sign up for a library reading program. The kids get free stuff, while improving their reading skills during summer.
• Scavenger hunt:  create your own set of items to be found around the house or right down your own riddles or clues. You can have a hidden treasure at the end of the game (like a summer journal notepad).
• Family night: try to set up one day during the week to make it your family night. 

 a) Read a book out loud, taking turns and, role-play the scenes of the story.

b) Another thing would be to watch a good movie and enjoy some popcorn. 

c) Play board games.

d) Work on a family project (start a family tree album).

• Cooking:  if the kids are old enough to do this: bake cookies, make cupcakes, try a new recipe. If you have a girl, get her a cute apron or if you sew, make one as an activity. For boys, get a chef hat. I like to role play like I am on a TV program (LOL…).
• Cleaning: this is can be a tough one, for many parents including me. But we can find ways to creative, back to the super mom skills.

a) Get one of those ticking timers and complete over a task. Time yourselves to see who can fold the towels faster or wipe the table faster. Maybe things won’t get perfectly organized or cleaned, but it gets the kids the idea that cleaning can be fun.

 b) Put on a CD, a song with a catchy beat, and list a set of tasks to be done while the music plays. Once the song finishes, whoever completes the list of tasks and screams “okie dokie artichokie” gets a treat (ice cream for instance). You can come up with your own screaming code too.

c) Some people do something called spring cleaning…what? Why not summer cleaning. Let’s teach the kids about giving. Have them select, let’s say 10-20 items from their rooms (it has to be things that are still in good quality) and have them put those in a box and give them to a local charity or homeless shelter.

Let’s enjoy this summer and make wonderful memories at the same time, right in your own home; in Creativity Street. A high five to all the moms out there!

Warmly,

Jo-Ann

The do-a-little disorder

That’s right. I have discovered that I have the do-a-little disorder. I am still debating whether it is a good thing or not. Most times it’s okay, but I would rather avoid it.  And now that I think about it I hope that other women/moms share the same experience.

Well, then….what is the do-a-little disorder? Let me provide a picture for you…

Most times when I am in cleaning mode, I tend to overbook myself with chores and tasks. Not a realistic list of things to squeeze into one day. I work full-time and have two wonderful kids; therefore most of my cleaning is done during the weekends. I do try to do a few things during the week to ease the weekend load, but still, most things are done during the weekend.

And so, let’s say that I wake up with my unrealistic cleaning goals, and there I go…I am on a mission to conquer my home. “It will all be done today,” I tell myself. Yeah, right!

I start in the kitchen, just after breakfast. I wash the dishes, clean the stove and wipe the dining table. Seems like I am a t a good start, but then my disorder  is activated….and as it usually does, it activates without a warning.  I would appreciate a heads up, you know. At least an e-mail warning me, but no, it’s a creepy disorder that shows up with no invitation. So, without knowing it, I remember that I have a ton of laundry to do, so I go upstairs to get the laundry. By the way, I live in a three level townhouse and my laundry room is on the first floor. It is not fun at all to be running up and down the stairs.  It’s good exercise, I tell myself as a positive insight.

I go and get my laundry and notice that my daughter has left some toys in my room. So I drop the laundry basket to take the toys to her room and have a mother-daugther chat about putting the toys where they should go. Then I notice that my daughter’s bedroom window is not clean, so I go downstairs get some paper towels and Windex, and go back up to clean the window.  Then I remember the laundry basket, so I go back to get the basket, but on my way I decide, since I have the Windex in my hand, maybe I should shine the bathroom mirror. And so, I end up shinning the mirror. While in the bathroom, I discover that the toilet needs to be cleaned up. So I clean it up. Then I go back to get the laundry and I decide to change the bed sheets, just to get those washed too. By then it’s snack time. A good deserved break after so much work, I guess it’s also a good excuse to set aside the laundry basket.

After snack time, I go back to get the laundry basket. I make it to the laundry room and start with first load of clothes. My laundry room has a desk with my sewing machines.  I realize that some of the sewing materials are not in their place, so I do a quick clean-up and organize the sewing station. Then I go back upstairs to get another laundry basket, on my way I stop in the living room to pick up some of the baby’s toys and while there, I stop to watch some TV. “Oh, I’m just going the check the news, I tell myself.” One hour later, its lunch time….and so it goes on. I hope some of you can relate to this and just give it a laugh. I bet some of you are having some flashback images of running around the house like this.

In definition the do-a-little disorder is cleaning without a plan. Most times I try to set up certain tasks and just get them done, those days I feel great. I might not have done all the things that I wanted, but I did start and finish a few. The do-a-little disorder just gets little things done, and you end up feeling like you really didn’t accomplish much. If you plan ahead you will get more done, and done the right way. Oh, there is nothing wrong in doing things a little at a time, but I have to accept that I do enjoy having the whole living room organized, with some other rooms a bit messy, than the whole house messy with only a few things done on each room. So now, I try to focus on one room a time and set up realistic goals. I have also read some interesting books on the subject, and done some online research. I must say, there are a lot of great ideas out there. Still, every now and then the do-a-little disorder kicks in, and honestly when it does and I realize it…I have to laugh!

Warmly,

Jo-Ann

A mom’s notes blogger