Crafts for the Soul

a little while back i was doing some soul searching. i found myself always feeling stressed. always feeling like i was working; not only for my job but my wifely and motherly duties as well. i was really asking God what it was that was making me feel like i was drowning. i've had stress in my life before. i've had sports demands and school demands. i've been over-committed and under pressure. but hadn't felt like this too many times before. then it hit me; i had no creativity in my life.

so about two weeks ago i made it a priority to carve out 20 minutes a day to do something creative. it didn't matter what it was, it just had to be fun and require some imagination.

we've been on a pretty limited budget but we've been diligent about setting aside some money for fun things. mike recently built the kids a little wooden playhouse. and i have been wanting to do something but didn't know what. then the holidays came. and i knew what i had to do.

christmas decorations!

so here are a couple of my projects that i've worked on the last two weeks. some of them were completed in one 20-minute creative period...others over a couple days. enjoy!

no sew tree skirt

materials:
1 yd red felt ($2.10)
approx. 2 yds gold ribbon ($1.00)
hot glue gun and glue (already had them)

time: 45 minutes (i did this on a weekend, so i went over my allotted 20 minutes)
total cost: $3.10



christmas stockings

materials (for all four):
2 yds red felt ($4.20)
2 squares white felt ($.55)
2 squares brown felt ($.55)
fake greenery (approx. $.10 for all four)
buttons (already had them)
hot glue and glue (already had them)

time: 30 minutes to cut pattern and sew the stockings
10 minutes to glue white felt
30 minutes to make felt flowers/glue greenery
-------------------------------
1 hour 10 minutes (did it over 4 days)

total cost: $5.40 for four ($1.35 each)



kids "masterpieces" display

materials:
piece of scrap wood (already had it)
paint (already had it)
10 clothes pins (already had them)
hot glue gun and glue (already had them)
screws, anchors and a handy husband :) (already had all of them)

time: 20 minutes to paint the board
20 minutes to paint/glue on the clothespins
5 minutes to hang
-------------------------------
45 minutes (did this in one day, 20 minutes in the morning, 25 in the evening)

total cost: FREE!!!!



cinnamon christmas candle

materials: 1 red cinnamon scented candle ($1.85)
cannister of cinnamon sticks ($.50)
fake greenery (maybe $.03)
twine (already had it)

time: 20 minutes
total cost: $2.38



decoration wine bottle
materials:
empty wine bottle (already had it)
silver spray paint ($4.50 and used very little)
gold decorative greenery (2.10)
twine (already had it)

time: 20 minutes
total cost: $6.60 (and would have been cheaper if not for SUPER expensive spray paint here)

no sew christmas advent calendar
materials:
2 yds green felt ($4.20)
5 squares white felt ($1.37)
5 squares red felt ($1.37)
4 squares light green felt ($1.10)
gold ribbon (already had it)
paint for numbers (already had it)
glue and glue gun (already had them)

time: 4 days x 20 minutes each day = 1 hr. 20 min.
total cost: $8.04

(do you see the little paper man next to the advent calendar? landon made him and he calls him "the christmas boy." love his imagination!)

piece of heaven

with our fall schedule slowing down a bit we've made weekends intentional and a priority. we try not to schedule any "work" related stuff. we stay away from our computers more. we play outside a lot. and the most recent activity the kids love...

painting.

i have to say i grin a little when the kids say they want to paint. sometimes i groan, thinking about taking out all those paints and using tons of paper for just three brushstrokes. but mostly i get excited at the possibility of my kids being artists.

look how different they each hold the brush

art has played more than a huge role in my life. it has played a ginormous role in my life. i've always said that i didn't care if my kids were ballerinas or ball players. whatever they choose, i'll support them in that. but i definitely wouldn't complain if they chose to be painters. or photographers. or cartoonists. or sidewalk chalk artists.

emi is my careful painter. i know she's not even quite two but she has a delicate hand. she never goes off the page. she always holds a paintbrush like she is touching the most sacred piece of paper. she has this super adorable focus face where she purses her lips together and her eyebrows indent inward. so cute.

landon, although my wild painter, has quite the imagination. he is always mixing pictures with the new letters and numbers he is learning. he also never forgets who the picture is of or what animal he painted. he seems to be painting a lot of caterpillars, spiders and gagas (mike's dad who passed away in 2009) lately.

in parenting, i feel like it brings out the best in me and the worst in me. my ugliness rears its head in heated arguments (yes, those happen even with toddlers) and cuddles and kisses take all of my burdens away. there is just something about watching these little ones create that makes me hope and wonder and stand in awe of these beautiful creations. my beautiful creations. mike and i's beautiful creations.

god's littlest, most beautiful creations.

Maine - Day 3

...also known as the day i took, like, no photos.

we spent the entire day at the cabin. we went straight from pjs and breakfast to swimsuits and cold beverages on floaties. landon's dreams came true when our neighbor decided to take his plane out for a spin. he couldn't believe it could float on the water.

we were just as in awe when we realized some fish we'd had on the stringer suddenly disappeared. we knew something was in the water as we discovered remnants of fish guts and slashed scales floating near our dock. i was thinking the theme song from jaws but really it was just a ridiculously huge snapping turtle. and when i say huge, i mean, like, almost as big as emi. like, the kind that can rip fingers and toes off of your body. creepy.

when we were sure the monster was out of our midst, we gave the kids a green light to swim again. emi wanted to be like the girls and float around, basking in the sun and sipping iced tea. she was a natural bathing beauty, although she wasn't fond of her photo-fanatic mother ruining her sun time.

and, surprise, surprise...papa (that's what the kids call my dad) went fishing and came back with some breakfast for the next day. this time reeling in a bass and bluegill. landon was thrilled. again. this kid never got sick of our daily jaunts to the dock to see what papa had found on his trip in the boat.

and as the day was heading towards dusk, i happened to go check on a napping emi and fell upon the cutest picture ever. how on earth her pacifier stayed like that, i have not a clue.

six to go. and tomorrow i'm sure will be just as good as today. it's maine. how could it not be?

Maine - Day 2

...or also known as the day i took way too many photos.

our little cabin is humble. it has no running water. no indoor plumbing. and the roof is tilting slightly inward. for most, it probably isn't considered to be a vacation without all these amenities, but for this girl, it's a dream.





as a kid, i always wanted to live in the 1800's. there was something so appealing about life so simple. long dresses and bonnets. being "courted" instead of dating. having to go to the well to fetch a pail of water. if there were ever any woods near me, i would immediately enter them, pretend to build a house made of sticks and fir branches and build a "fire" that i started with my bare hands. so you see why our cabin is right up my alley.

before breakfast even started, the kids and i had a little impromptu bubble blowing. landon is a pro...emi, not so much. but it is pretty stinkin' adorable to watch her put her little lips together and spit at the bubble wand for like two minutes.



after we got coffeed up and full the fam and emi and i took a little walk around the neighborhood. it was such a good time and emi got some really good personal lovin' from my parents and my sister and brother-in-law. she reveled in the special attention.

she thought she was so cute acting all shy for the camera. :)



and she learned she could fly.



hitchin' a ride with uncle tommy.



that is one happy, loved, little girl.



we spent the rest of the day, just as life should be. wading in water, sunning on the dock and playing in sand.







as the sun began to set and the cool air set in, our traditional maine dinner went underway. the corn was husked and placed in a pot to boil.



as we were preparing dinner, my dad came home from fishing with a good catch.

i can't tell you how many of my best memories in my life have come from fishing with my dad. us girls used to go out with him, sometimes before the sun had risen and often times as the sun was beginning to set. we used to make up songs about the number of fish we caught. "i got ten fish, oh yeah." there were years when we would literally catch hundreds of white perch. ah, the glory days. now, with all the speed boats and activity and more people moving to the pond, we're lucky to catch two per day. but sometimes catching fish isn't really what fishing is about.



hello, girly girl, in your cute little dress poking the heck out of that poor bass' eyes...





mike tried many, many times to get landon to go canoeing with him, to no avail. so mike went out a lot by himself, sometimes just rowing, other times with a pole and minnows in tow.



with corn in the pot we began to prepare our lobster for their big entrance. for as long as i can remember, we have put the lobster to sleep before putting them into steam. it was a trick my grandpa taught all of us. the lobsters are asleep, they get put in the water, they don't scream or tense up, and the meat is tender. hey, we may be carnivores, but we are humane carnivores.

in case you were wondering: you put lobsters to sleep by placing them on their heads, upside down, claws back, while rubbing the back of their shell. no joke. it works and they never know what's comin'!



landon was all about putting some lobsters to sleep.





we used to buy lobsters for like $1.15/lb and get like 30 of them. they are now more like $4.50/lb (obviously still cheaper than at a restaurant) and taste just as good.



we ended our night, and ashley and tommy's last night in maine, with a campfire and s'mores. yes, we are sentimental about our fires. no, we did not sing kum-ba-ya.



another day down, seven more to go.

Maine - Day 1

emi woke me up early, kinda to say, "hey mom, we gotta get going. we don't want to miss a thing." and had it been anywhere else, i would've been grumpy, but because of where we were, i had a pretty good skip to my step. so i put the kettle on the stove, warmed up some water and poured me some coffee. hey, a girl needs coffee at 6:30am, whether she's in maine or not.

it was another half hour before anybody else woke up so emi and i slipped outside, her with her cup of milk, me with my coffee, and sat on the front porch. not long after, we heard the ziiiiiiiip from the tent out back and emi immediately knew what that meant...brother was up.

yup. mike and lando slept in a tent. some may call that torture, but for the two of them, they call it awesomeness.

can i just say that i seriously love landon's morning eyes.

swan pond was absolutely breathtaking. a slight mist over the water, the sun not completely up yet. the contrast between a bright yellow canoe and the blue-green water was something i couldn't help but admire. i seriously took my camera everywhere. if there was a swaying reed to photograph, i was going to be there.

and like each morning after, landon and mike hurried to the dock to see what they could see. several mornings some large bass swam around looking for minnows to prey on. another morning a ginormous, and i mean GINORMOUS, snapping turtle hung around devouring some left over fish we fileted. don't worry, i will put a photo of him up here. but that's another day.

and me with my camera attached to my hip was able to capture some sweet shots of papa with miss ruthie. that poor man, living his life with a house full of girls. fighting over bathroom time and music preference. but he did learn a few things about loving well even in those war zones. and it was more than rewarding to see my dad and emi bond.

around mid-morning we hiked it to the portland lighthead (otherwise known as a lighthouse, not totally sure why its name is different). every year, on one sunday of our trip, we go there to picnic and enjoy the company of some long-time friends, don and pat. there's always cold-cut sandwiches and iced tea or lemonade.

it was breezy and a little chilly but for us folk who live in 90% humidity and high 80's most of the year around, it was a welcome change.

and our attempt at a family picture was slightly ruined by landon throwing a fit because we wouldn't let him climb on the rocks and emi, well, she just didn't want to have to do anything she didn't want to do. so no smiles from the children, but at least no one is screaming. (see the group photo below...)

my sister, ashley, and her husband, tommy

don, my mom, my dad, and pat

tommy, ashley, screaming emi, shelly (my sister, abbey's, best friend and roommate, my mom, abbey, me, lando, my dad and mike

while the others went out exploring and watching the kite-flyers, our little family went back to the picnic site and dozed. well, the kids wouldn't really let us doze, but we rested just the same. and for real, i can not for the life of me figure out who took this picture.

we celebrated abbey's 23rd birthday, as we always do at the lighthouse and pat made a delicious cake. it was a pretty sweet day. and the fact that we had little-to-no child meltdowns made the day that much sweeter.

we headed back to the cabin and landon and emi ruth partook in a goodwin family tradition that their cousins, their mom, their aunts and many other relatives have all done at some point in their lives. a bath in a cooking pot.

and after being up since 6:30 and getting to bed around 11:00, the day felt long and full. i laid down and thought to myself, "i can't believe i have 8 more days like this."