For Little Hands :: Encouraging Spring

I'm trying to figure out how to work For Little Hands back into my weekly posts, I know consistancy is key and I'm not sure quite yet what the rhythm will look like. My thought this time around is to have it on Fridays as a way to kick of the weekend. I'll add more to it as the idea comes to fruition.

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We love the birds that come and visit our bird feeders; their sweet songs and round little bellies. It's a real joy to sit back and watch them and even when we don't, we know they're there and that brings a smile to our faces.

Here is an older post for you to enjoy(with wee hands in mind) about a simple way to interact with your neighborhood birds while  providing much needed nourishment.....at least where it's really wintry this time of year!

Look at my little Charlotte! She sure has grown! Oh my xoxo

Chocolate and Shrove Tuesday

Sometimes chocolate is just a good idea. It comes in a variety of sweetness levels, satisfying the severest sweet tooth to just one that needs a lit kick in the pants and everything in between! We're working on lifting spirits here this week. After another week of "fever baby" we could all use a little lift, and so what if we use chocolate as a motivator?!

 

 

Luckily for me (and really, do I need an excuse?) Valentine's Day is this week and today just happens to be Fat Tuesday, perfect time to indulge a little and bring out the bulk chocolate that's been sitting in the freezer since Christmas! 

 

A few weeks ago I bought a few packages of dried fruits: cranberries, blueberries, cherries, and plums. My original intention was to bake with them but then I realized.....who doesn't love chocolate covered dried fruit? Chocolate covered raisins has always been a hit, maybe we could take a walk on the wild side and try something new! Thank goodness we're a fearless bunch because these are just simply divine!

 

The littles we're thrilled to get their hands in a plate full of melted chocolate. I didn't have my eye on them the whole time so I wonder how much actually made it on the plate as opposed to in their bellies :)

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Then there is always the cliche of chocolate covered strawberries.

 

As this is the start of the Lenten season, I feel a very strong pull to just let the spirit flow and do whatever it is that I'm being led to. I haven't always allowed myself that luxury, and well.....having five children can make that a wee bit challenging at times. Our Lenten journey is described well here in this older post; how we hold on to the reverence of this time and nourish our spiritual bodies. As I form a clearer picture of our current state as a family, I'm realizing that nourishment for our collective and individual selves is paramount. We've all had to sacrifice quite a bit as of late, it's time now to figure out how to manage the difficulties in our lives without sacrificing our family body. I am really quite inspired that all of this seems to be culminating at the time of Lent.

 

"I believe Lent is the time to work with what gets in our way - the obstacles to our desire to fulfill our destiny." ~ Lynn Jericho on the spiritual practices of Inner Lent.

 

You can read her full post about Inner Lent here.

 

How will you work with what gets in your way this Lenten season?

 

Valentine's Day Window Hearts

 

Candle light, moon light, star light,
The brightest glow is from love light.

~Terri Guillemets

 

We made a simple Valentine decoration today to adorn our front door windows. I am in love with window transparencies; I love the colors that shine through, how they instantaneously beautify a space, the time and patience it takes to create them. These were awfully simple to create. Using white coffee filters, we water colored them and after they dried, I cut them into heart shapes and glued them to our front door windows (using a glue stick). Using homemade window paint (a simple mixture of tempura paint and dish soap. I didn't measure, I just eye balled it and hoped for the best) I traced the hearts on the window and there you have it!

 

Valentine's Day, I have found, can be such a bright and fun day while we are in the midst of February. At this time of dark and cold days, it's nice to have a day that is simply focused on just being kind and sweet and in love. We'll pull out the Valentine hearts we made last year and use them to decorate our nature table as well as create a few new ones to add to the lot.

 

 

As we get over the February hump and get closer to seeing the stirring of Springtime, I can't help but feel hopeful for the newness that we'll begin to witness. The sheep are beginning to show signs that lambing season will soon be here, birds are busy and chirping away, days are becoming longer and longer, and I know soon enough we will begin to see buds popping up from beneath the snow. Valentine's Day, for me, is a day to stir the sleepy busyness within me. It's been dark and cold for many months and while Valentine's Day isn't warmest or sunniest day of the year, it helps me to remember that with love......all things are possible. We can brighten each others day by simply acting out of love, being love, seeing love within each other. I'll be the first to admit, that it's been hard to be in that place this winter. It's been a trying time and I know I haven't offered up my best self on more than one (or two, or three) occasions. The light that will shine through each of the hearts on our front entry way will serve as a reminder to try to recommit myself to this virtue::

“Before you speak ask yourself: Is it kind, is it necessary, it is true, does it improve upon the silence?”   
~ Shirdi Sai Baba

 

*sigh* Love is good. It softens the heart and brightens the day. How might Valentine's Day shake the winter blues out of you?

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Ironically, as I was perusing Pinterest after this post was published, I came across this post with the exact same Valentine activity!! This has happened before and I love it!! It's amazing to me! Nonetheless, I feel it's important to include it here :)

http://innerchildfun.com/2013/01/quick-valentine-window-display.html

Snow Magic

 

Look into the garden

Where the grass was green,

Covered by the snowflakes,

Not a blade is seen.

Look outside the window,

All looks still and white;

Under snowy blankets,

What a pretty sight!

~ J.D. Macey

We're buzzing with excitement in our little hobbit home today! According to our local weather reports we're to expect quite a bit of snow throughout the day and overnight into tomorrow. We haven't had a good bit of snow in quite some time. The last real snow  we can remember (the kind of snow that slows and bring everyday life to a halt, the kind of snow that brings a rumble or two of thunder, the kind of snow that requires constant shoveling to keep walkways clear) was back in 2007. We had back to back snow storms, one of Valentine's Day and one of St. Patrick's Day. We've had a few good storms here since, but truly, nothing like those. We're anticipating good sledding, lots of baking so the oven can help keep our home extra warm, snuggling in to a movie or two, working on some Valentine treats, and really, just hunkering down and being together.

 

 

The littles woke up with so much energy (maybe they're feeling the energy from these two storm that have converged around us). They could barely contain their joy and excitement. After a little stroll around Pinterest I found this really fun idea for homemade snow at The Imagination Tree.

 

Using ingredients that I had on hand, cornstarch and vegetable oil (and glitter), I brought out a plastic storage tub, had Charlotte and Kiki pour the cornstarch into the bin, I poured the oil over the top of the cornstarch, and as they littles mixed and sifted the cornstarch I sprinkled glitter all over their little hands.

This simple sensory activity provided lots of fun (and mess, so be prepared!!) According to the post at The Imagination Tree children exploring with this sensory activity are learning::

Sensory: exploring through sensory investigation, learning new descriptive language
Literacy: story telling, vocabulary development
Science/ Knowledge & Understanding of the World:

combining materials, recipes, geography and habitats
Creativity: imaginative play, forming sculptures
Maths: counting out measurements

They made snowmen, piles of snow, sprinkled snow all over each other and all around them :) We didn't have any moulds of any kind, that might have made the play a bit more exciting but it was still magical and they thought it was a ton of fun to have some snow in the house.

 

Snowflakes falling soft and light,

Snowflakes falling in the night,

Soft and light, pure and white.

When the sun shines out so bright

All the earth is dressed in white.