gifts by the kids

I have not been sharing much about the creative part of this blog, Creative. Light. Less. Actually, I haven't written much about the light or less part of it lately, either! The creative part has been in full gear, full steam all of this time, but I haven't taken the time to edit or share photos. Mike's and my creativity and DIY spirit has definitely passed on to our children, because these days, I don't have much of my own to share, and instead want to share the amazing talents of my kiddos.

Here is a sampling of what the kids made and gave for Christmas 2017.

 

Lala Bug gave her Nonno some of his favorite things for his morning time; sudoku, coffee, and chocolate, but she wrapped multiples of them all nestled in layers of crepe paper. You can see a puzzle being revealed in his hands below. There were also instant Starbucks Via packets, small packets of sugar for the coffee, mini Kit Kats, and in the center, a plastic Easter egg (to give it its initial shape) full of Hershey Kisses that said Ho Ho Ho. It was very clever and cute. She got the idea from a ballet classmate a year ago, who gave each girl a gift wrapped like this after their performance.

Brown Mouse carved wooden butter knives for his Nonno and Grandma and for his Uncle S. He made his first independent one (which we use daily) in his outdoor summer camp.

Lala Bug embroidered this sweet collection of images (from Doodle Stitching) and then, using a pretty bird fabric for the back, made a pillow for her Grandma.

Lala Bug made "shakes" (herbal blends for fish, pizza, popcorn, etc.) with a variety of herbs and spices. She made her on unique blend first at her herbal medicine summer camp.

Both kids worked together to make a tea wreath each for Grannie, Uncle S, and their great aunt and uncle who often come for Christmas.

After we had so much success with our backyard bird feeders a few weeks before Christmas, the kids decided to make feeders as gifts, too. They made these for their great aunt and uncle.


And toffee. A holiday favorite. Lala Bugs helps make (and eat) this now.

This was a gift they made and gave in 2016, because I never shared it! Beeswax sand candles and essential oil scented bath salts.

Here is to a creative 2018!

right now...

This past week has been so interesting. There have been some incredibly challenging times, but more times of deep joy, pleasure, growth, exploration, learning, and connection.

 Special time with Lala Bug ended with a visit to the library. I love that my girl asked to visit the library as part of this time just the two of us.

 Pressing flowers with this beautiful press hand made for Little Brown Mouse by his Dada, for Christmas.

 

 Play time with these kids! Lala Bug, the librarian, and Little Brown Mouse, the used toy shop seller. So suited!

 We are currently doing a block on Africa. This was an unplanned block, but family is unexpectedly traveling there, and we wanted to learn more. We finished up Ancient Egypt and instead of moving to our next block, we just moved beyond Egypt into other parts of Africa. This ties in wonderfully with another Fables block Little Brown Mouse.

We have been reading through and will do some activities from Africa for Kids by Harvey Croze, which is wonderful and we read the book Anna Hibiscus, an early level chapter book by Atinuke. We also read a lovely book about Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson (his art is incredible) and talked briefly about how he parallels Martin Luther King (whose I Have a Dream Speech really captured the attention of Little Brown Mouse a couple of weeks ago). I started reading some of Kipling's Just So Stories, but they were not well received, so I will find a version of some more Anansi tales, then I will see if I can get the kids to write one of their own fables or trickster tales.

I need to spend some time re-evaluating the rest of our year, as we are solidly more than half way through now. I can’t believe it! I have made some changes to my approach to homeschooling in the past couple of months. No value changes, but subtle little changes which seem to be having a very positive impact on my energy for our homeschool and the kids' interest and engagements, which feels very, very good.