The Creative Family

Ok, I am just loving this book. Such great ideas, that are simple to include in your everyday life. We are having so much fun as a family. Here are some of the things we have been more intentional about since reading this book, well most of it, still have a section to go and it is already well worth it.

-Games, simple games, my daughter likes a variation of Marco Polo, or hide an seek. We are going to incorporate game time as after dinner fun.

-Cross stitching, I got an 8" ring, and a blunt plastic needle, and some burlap and tread. It cost me about $15 for everything, and I got duplicates for my nephew and ample thread and burlap. My 3yr old loves it. It's a nice quiet activity. I'm excited to try it myself.

-Family Drawing time...ok we haven't started this yet, but I asked for a journal from santa :) and I hope to introduce this in the new year. But I have already been doing this with my daughter. She has her drawing journal. But I never thought to draw myself. This is probably one of the biggest things I have come away with, I can be creative too! It's good for my daughters to see me excited about creating. I've kinda put that part of myself aside as a grown up. But I am now exploring, even started some crocheting and borrowed my mom's sewing machine.

-Dress up. My daughter likes to dress up, but most of her dress up stuff is princess related. So we've been encouraging her to think of other things she could be. She has a scarf and it became a pirate hat, our ottomon quickly became a boat, and I was the princess she was saving. With a tutu on my head, I sailed away on the ottomon with my 'good' pirate. I plan to keep an eye out for more scarves, and different hats. We brought all the possible dress up clothes into one location for her to use. That was helpful.

I'm not big on schedules, mainly because they don't work for me, I always stray. But my 'plan' for the new year is to incorporate 3 elements into our day:

1. Reading time (besides bed time, we always read before bed), and any activities that come from the themes of these stories.
2. Family Drawing time - probably after lunch, or during baby's morning nap.
3. Active game time, or outdoor fun.
4. Creative time -either dress up, crafts, or baking.

*I find if I have some sort of plan for the day I feel I have accomplished something. Also, we don't get bored as often, wondering what to do next to amuse the kids. Lately I have been doing one 'project' per day. That's been good and it's pretty organic as to what we do. But I am going to take that project a step further and try and focus on the above 4 elements.

Homemade Christmas

Yesterday Grace and I did a really neat project that was cheap and easy, and is a great alternative to plastic Christmas tree decorations. I remember making these as a child. Ornament dough (recipe here) is simple! We made a few dozen stars. After they cooled I painted them a 'champagne' colour, which is a light gold. Then I gave my 3 year old a tube of gold sparkle glue, she'd squeeze some out on the star and spread it around with a paint brush. We are going to finish them off with some gold ribbon and after we add to our tree, we'll use the extras as gifts or as decorations on gift packages. I also made some trees and candy canes to paint another day. Grace made a snowman too, which we are going to dress.

It's fun being creative! I just received a copy of "Creative Family" and can't wait to expand the creativity in our home. I've only just cracked the book, but have already been motivated and encouraged. Today I did finger painting with my 1 year old. She LOVED it! (See my gratitude blog for a pic). Good thing it's non toxic. She made a beautiful rainbow. Through the creativity of this one year old God was able to speak to me. I had been asking for a rainbow for a few weeks. Waiting patiently. Not that now I know there's promise, I know there's promise, but it's nice to see a sign.