FreshlyPlanted

How I Forgot to Date My Husband (And what reminded me)

By freshlyplanted - 12:37 PM

It all started with us looking up in our trees at a pair of birds sitting by themselves. "What are they doing?" Isia asked. "They're just on a date," I said, gently teasing. "What's that?" she asked, "Is it when you get married?" My mind quickly scrambled, trying to remember when we last went on a date. Yes, there had been Netflix viewing sessions after the kids went to bed. Quick interludes together fit into the length of one Wild Kratts episode. But getting out of the house together? That hasn't happened, I realize, since Esther was born. Over a year ago.

Now this hasn't always been the case. We were married for eight years before we got pregnant with Isia, so we had ample time to keep dating. Eating out, late nights at our favorite watering hole, and traveling were our favorite ways to connect- and we did them often. Then we became a family of three and, instead of going out for drinks, we took turns making coffee and staying up late rocking a colicky Isia. We still got out of the house time to time, mostly through swapping nights with friends and accepting family help close by, but we wondered in-between diaper changes when we'd return to a more regular night life. Then two more babies came along, we moved an hour away from family and friends, my dad had a stroke, and we stopped wondering. Life became more about survival, and my heels slowly moved their way to the back of our closet. Anytime dating came up, we discounted it as an unnecessary. When life gets easier and the kids are potty-trained/easier/able to stay home by themselves, we've kept assuring each other, we'll get back to it.

How I Forgot To Date My Husband | Freshly Planted

It's easy to date when you're living in a foreign country.

Then I looked into Isia's eyes, and realized that a year without dating is a lifetime in her six-year-old world. Lately I've been teaching her how to knit, the beginnings of piano, and the art of dishwasher loading- now I wondered if dating your spouse should be on that list too. If perhaps she needs to see us drop her off, and walk out the door to choose each other- rather than just succumb to the inconvenience. So that she can appreciate someday that marriage means you never stop choosing each other.

These eyes don't miss a thing!

So I've been planning our date: arranging friends to watch the kids, updating our babysitter folder, and packing a bag for the kids to take to their house. It's still seemed like a bit of a hassle, but I believe now that it's a worthwhile one. I want our kids to remember that parents need to take time apart by themselves so they can return to their family stronger. And I want us to remember that too.

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Plastic Lid Pumpkin Suncatchers

By freshlyplanted - 4:18 PM

I wasn't prepared for Isia's sweet words, "Mama, can we make something?" when friends came to play last week. While making wasn't in my plans, how could I possibly say no? So I scrambled head-first into our recycling bin and craft closet to see what I could find- coming up with these plastic lid suncatchers. Our friends loved them, and I think mine did too- they've been hanging in our window ever since (smile). They're made from plastic lids, which we have an endless supply of since we love oatmeal.

After everyone got their own lid, we used Sharpies to draw on our faces. The Mamas drew face outlines for the littlest ones let them color it in, but you could have black paper pieces ready to glue on- if you're actually planning this ahead of time (wink). We then gave them paintbrushes and asked them to predict what color red and yellow would make together. Then each child got a squirt of each onto their plastic lid to see for themselves!

Sidenote: It's better to give more yellow than red. It's only takes a little red to turn yellow into orange since yellow if such a translucent pigment, but it takes loads of yellow to do the same to red. (You'll save yourself a lot of paint this way.)

Then, to make the acrylic transparent, we squirted on a large dollop of glue to mix in with the orange. (Add more pigment to make a more opaque orange.) We moved them to cookie sheets to dry, which took a couple days. But when they do, they're lovely! I hot-glued a black pipecleaner loop on top, but a green ribbon would also be nice.

Then the kids taped them up in the window, where they've been great company during our schooling and meals. I've not gotten around to a lot of decorating this fall, so it's been extra-nice to have these.

One more teacherly note: For large groups, I'd write the kids' names on the outer rim of the lids at the bottom. It won't distract from their pumpkin and it's easy to see.

If your family also loves oatmeal, you might enjoy one of these other plastic lid projects:

Easy Sewing with Plastic Lids

We Heart Sewing with Plastic Lids

Plastic Lid Stencils

Printmaking with Plastic Lids

Busy Bag Number Activity

Collage Plastic Lid Suncatcher

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Making a Cloud Book: A Cloud & Wind Study

By freshlyplanted - 7:00 AM

One of the joys and struggles of school is that it happens everyday (smile). While children benefit from this rhythm, it can be hard to decide what to include day to day. We aspire for simplicity:

Small, easy to implement, tasks to build on everyday.

Calendar and weather studies have always been a natural part of that rhythm:

What's the date today?
How do we write it, and the month too?
How many more days until this, or how many days have passed since that?

And the same for weather. Drawing our daily weather on her calendar (a Dollar store one that fits in her bookbag) began when our oldest was in kindergarten last year. It helped her start to build time vocabulary (What was the weather like yesterday?) and practice early science skills of observation and predicting: What do you think the weather will be like later today? Do you think our picnic will get rained out tomorrow?

Studying clouds helps us predict weather, and this cloud book was so fun to make together! We also use our weather vane (at the end of post) to keep an eye on our crazy changing weather. Our local saying is, "Don't mind the weather- just blink & it'll change!"

Easy DIY Cloud Book For Kids

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MATERIALS

Two pieces of construction paper
Cotton Balls
Glue
Colored Pencils
String, Yarn or Embroidery Thread
Yarn Needle/ Embroidery Needle

DIRECTIONS

Step One: Fold both of construction papers in half widthwise (or "hamburger" as we used to say in middle school). Place one inside of the other, then mark your pages. We began with the first inner page as 1, the next facing page as 2, then the back page as 3 since we're studying three types of clouds: cumulus, stratus, and cirrus.

Step Two: Design and decorate your cover, then start create your cloud pages. Here Isia has decided to begin with a cumulus cloud while referencing "Clouds" by Marion Bauer. It's a favorite on our nature shelf! Keep adding clouds until you've filled your pages. You might need to let the pages dry in-between cloud pictures, depending on how much glue was used.

Here is what her finished pages looked like:

Now for assembling! You're going to take a long length (I usually measure it from their hand to shoulder) of embroidery thread (or yarn/ string), and thread your needle. Then stack your pages together, making sure they're lined up (double-checking to make sure) and as even as possible.

Now sew your book together with four stitches. (Sidenote: Once you've mastered this binding, you can turn any stack of papers into a quick book. It's pretty amazing.) I like to mark my holes first by laying my entire book flat on a piece of cardboard, and pushing a pushpin through the middle for my #1, 4 hole. I then make my #2,#3 holes by roughly dividing the space on either side of my middle hole in half.

SEWING

Take your needle and go in the #1 (middle) hole from the outside, leaving a long tail hanging out as you sew (you can see a bit in the picture below), then sew on the inside to the #2 hole.
Pull your needle through the #2 hole, then sew up the length of the outside to the #3 hole.
Pull your needle through the #3 hole (as pictured below)
Sew back up to middle on the inside, and pull through. Pull your string taunt, without bending the book. Knot string ends together and tie a bow, clipping off any excess.

Your easy cloud book is finished! These make great references, especially on a nature shelf. You can mark daily cloud formations on the calendar and mark the wind too- which is nice to study with clouds (especially since it's so good at pushing them along).

A quick weather vane is a great way to figure where it's coming from- and where it's going.

Simple Straw & Pencil Weather Vane

MATERIALS

Half of a Straw
Square cut out of cardstock for the wind catch
Smaller* triangle cut out of cardstock for the arrowheard
Straight-pin
Pencil with good eraser
Compass

DIRECTIONS

Tape your triangle to the front of the straw, then tape your square to the bottom end of the same side. Stick your straight-pin through the middle of the straw, right into your pencil, leaving room for your weather-vane to rotate around. Blow gently on it to make sure it rotates freely, making adjustments as needed.

*The smaller arrowhead allows your weather vane to point toward the source of the wind. Since the arrow is smaller, the surface area toward the back of the arrow is lighter. So when your weather-vane catches the breeze, it turns to distribute the air flow evenly on both sides of the arrow.

To use: Take your weather-vane outside and hold gently up in a windy area. Watch to see here the your arrow points, then compare to your compass to see which direction the wind is coming from. For fun, keep a daily calendar of wind directions and look for patterns- especially during seasonal changes.

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A Lesson from the Leaves

By freshlyplanted - 10:30 AM

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