What's In My Teapot?

I am not an artist. Nor do I consider myself to be particularly creative. To be honest, my tendency towards neatness and order has a way of stifling the creative tendencies in my house because... well...  creativity is messy !!! Maybe this is why The Artful Parent , by Jean Van't Hul, has me so intrigued...it speaks to something that I want more of and it gives me hope. Could a non-artistic person like me be an artful parent ? Browsing through this book and seeing the pictures and interesting projects has given me the confidence to say, "YES!" Here is a quote from the book: You can invite art into your home with your actions, your words, your attitude, and the activities you offer. You can do it by having the space to do art, making art materials available, and introducing new concepts and activities. The author also says, I define an artful activity as any that's full of art, beauty, and creativity. As parents, there are innumerable ways we ca...

Now that Tuesdays have become my self-proclaimed day for book reviews, I look forward to them more than ever! I also realize more than ever how quickly a week rolls around! Have you noticed this phenomena? As soon as you commit to something on a weekly basis, that particular day comes quicker than some of the others! Since this is the week for a children's book, I want to feature one of Gavin's favorites. As mentioned before in this post , Gavin is a huge fan of Richard Scarry. I am not exaggerating when I say that he has spent hours pouring over Cars and Trucks and Things That Go and What Do People Do All Day and Hop Aboard! Here We Go , among others! I am amazed by how much variety one author/artist can produce, and no book showcases this as well as Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever ! This book is currently a favorite of Gavin's and I have no idea how many times he has chosen it for storytime. The good part is that since it is so big (288 pages & 82 s...

I have a bit of a tradition going on in my kitchen that Monday night is soup night! I don't remember exactly how or why this started, but I am a bit enamored with soups and all the different varieties, and over the years it has proven to be a handy way to start the week, especially as I like to make a large pot and then have enough leftovers for at least one more meal (and often more!) I like to have the second go of soup on Wednesdays, when we usually have evening plans: either prayer meeting, Ladies Night for me or Men's Meeting for Wesley. I have found that by switching up the sides a bit (cheese & crackers the first night, salad the second) you can keep meals interesting even if the main dish stays the same. Over the summer this tradition seemed to be more of a drag than anything and there were times I deviated from soup just because I couldn't find one that looked good or that I had the ingredients for. And sometimes I just plain down didn't feel like dicin...

These days there's a little more sunshine in my herb garden. That's the good part. The bad part is that we had to have an oak tree removed for that to happen! Our neighborhood is a bit unique for the beautiful trees planted along the streets, and most of them are oak trees, tall & beautiful. The only problem is that, as one neighbor informed me, the developers planted the wrong kind of oaks. Apparently the ones they chose have a life span of only 100 years. Now that sounds like a long time to me, and I guess the developers thought so, too, but the trees are reaching their prime and some of them are dying or have a habit of dropping large limbs at inopportune moments. One such tree resided in our front lawn, in a corner of my herb garden, right beside the driveway. On various occasions a large limb came thumping to earth. One time a large branch just narrowly missed Wesley's car and he became afraid to park underneath it. Another time, this past winter, a lar...