7 Quick Takes Friday

I’ve never participate in7 Quick Takes Friday but I’ve been reading Jennifer’s blog for awhile and it never fails to make me think.  I haven’t posted on this blog in awhile, partially because my mind has just been sort of full of random stuff. So I figured this would be a good way to get back in the saddle.

1. Spring cleaning continues, although slowly. I got derailed by sickness (first mine, then John, then David). So I kind of lost my momentum. The next thing to tackle is the dreaded soap scum. I’ve been searching for a good home remedy and I’m ready to do some scrubbing. But not today.

2. Art projects with kids are all about flexibility or frustration. I had a great project planned today from the book Storybook Art by MaryAnn Kohl.  (The book recommendation comes from Heather, who is a source of endless good ideas. ) The book is full of awesome art projects to do with kids that tie in to well-known children’s picture books. It works particularly well with the literature based curriculum we use.  This week we’re studying Miss Rumphius by Barbrara Cooney and the Storybook Art book had a lovely project involving paint and collage techniques to create a meadow full of lupines.

John enjoyed making the lupines, which we did using a variety of materials to make dots with blue, violet and pink paint. He used an eraser, a carrot cut in half and his finger. They turned out really well. The next stage was to paint a watercolor meadow. He started off well and then started adding a lot of red. I’m all for encouraging creativity so I asked what it was. A forest fire. He is currently at the table working on a series of paintings for which is he narrating a story about “Volcano….ashes destroyed the entire city…a giant boulder came out of nowhere and destroyed everything.” Should I be worried?

3. We have lettuce and spinach coming up in our garden. Last year was our first year for a garden and I was pretty happy with the results. I consider myself as having a black thumb so I have low expectations for the whole gardening thing. There is something pretty amazing about putting a seed in the ground and then watching it grow and serving the results for dinner.

4. I’m reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin now. I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It reminds me a lot of Dickens who I like quite a bit.

5. If you want to be dissatisfied with your life, go shopping. For the most part I’m very aware of our blessings and pretty happy with our house and material possessions. Last week I went to Crate and Barrel to use a gift card I’d gotten for Christmas. Suddenly I was surrounded by things we really really needed. Everything is just so new and shiny and pretty in the store. It’s so easy to fall into the mindset of thinking that somehow life will be better if I had that cool bright red rubber spatula or the new dishes in bright summery colors.

6. David appears to be potty-training himself. With quite a bit of help from John, but not much from me. We’ll see how it goes.

7. John got his T-ball uniform yesterday and it is unbelievably cute. The cutest part is how excited he is about it. He insisted on being the one to fold it and put it away. He tried it on and was just very proud of himself. Tomorrow is his first game. I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle the cuteness.