I am (uplifting them)

Here’s a wonderful project that I am so happy to see!

I am (uplifting them) is a new social media project that proposes to use social media to uplift our kids instead of to shame them.

Page creator Stephanie says:

I am saddened by the amount of kid-shaming photos and stories I see all over the internet. My proposal is that we flood the world wide web with kid-positivity and uplifting stories and photos. So, grab a kid (preferably your own; if not get permission) and ask them to finish the sentence, ‘I am…’ Write down what they say (I guarantee it’ll be positive) snap a picture of them holding it and post it everywhere! Post them here as well and let’s see how many uplifting, positive things we can learn about our children!

Want to take part?  You can join in on Facebook or Twitter and invite your own kids to celebrate how fabulous they really are.  🙂

I’m off to see what my kids want to put on their signs!

 

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10 Ways to Make Today Magical

Happy Monday!  I hope you’re staying warm in your little corner of the world.  They’ve closed the schools because of the cold here in Minnesota.  It is staggeringly cold!  With wind chills, they say it could get as low as -79.  That’s crazy business!

It’s a good day to stay inside and make some happy memories with the kids!  Or… if it’s lovely and warm where you are, it’s a nice day to go outside and make some happy memories with them — and enjoy it for me.  🙂

Here’s a few ways to make a little magic this week…

1. Start a paper chain of happy memories and accomplishments from 2014.
   
2. If you have snow outside, bring some inside in some big tubs and let the kids play with it at the kitchen table.     
3. If you’re lucky enough not to live in one of the freezing cold places right now, you can still have lots of fun with snow and ice!  Here’s a list of ten ways to make the day magical, warmer style for warmer climates.
   
4. Sneak outside and do a bit of this. 
5. If you can brave the cold, make some snowball art.  Aren’t these wonderful?  They’re done by textile artist Ceca Georgieva, who has lots of other wonderful stuff on her site too.     
6. Make a list of 100 things you want to do together by the end of winter.  Here’s one of our old winter bucket lists.
7. Yarn bomb something!  You can even yarn bomb inside objects like chairs and bedposts.  Here’s oodles of wonderful inspiration on Pinterest and here’s stuff I’ve compiled about yarn bombing in the past.
   

   Lovely yarnbombed tree via Pinterest. Original author unknown.

8. Get glow in the dark paint and help the kids write secret messages and pictures on their ceilings.  The paint will be invisible during the day.  Paint onto poster board and tape it up if you don’t want to paint directly onto the ceiling.
9. Make maple syrup snow candy! Here’s a bunch of recipes and instructions. You can use crushed ice if you don’t have snow.
   

   Photo by Bradshaw & Sons http://emmabradshaw.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/how-to-make-snow-lollies.html

   

   Photo by Galadriel Thompson on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/galadrielthompson/5345056792/

10. Find a few minutes to do something really nice for yourself.  Buy yourself a couple of truffles at the check-out and go enjoy them in a cozy spot.  Take a relaxing bath with a magazine.  Call a friend who makes you feel fabulous.  You get the idea!  Extra credit if you come back and tell me what you did!

And with that, chickadees, I have to go run the tap again so the pipes don’t freeze again!  And perhaps grab a child to give noisy kisses to, too.

Have a magical day!

 

Weather Trees!

Weather Tree by Betsy Wetsy on Flickr

I’m in love with weather trees. 

I’ve admired them over the years and always wanted to start one with the kids.

Weathertree.com offers this one for sale from the UK each year…

And they also offer one that focuses on goals (weight loss, exercise completed, eggs laid by chickens and small business profits are some examples!) instead of weather…

And this gorgeous one is available on etsy.

I’ve had several pinned on Pinterest for a while now to inspire me to make my own.

Now with the new year and this free printable weather tree from se7en, we’re all set to go!

Some people just color them with one or two colors for sunny or cloudy, while some color-code the leaves for hot, windy, rainy and so on.  On some calendars, you can see people colored the leaves several colors to show changing weather or various elements of the day’s weather.

We’re going to do the weather (cloudy, rainy, snowy, sunny, etc.) for the main part of the leaf and outline the leaf to show temperature (hot, cold or mild).  Of course, here in Minnesota I think anything above zero counts as mild these days.  🙂

Ours is printed and we’re filling in the first leaf tonight.

Happy 2014!