Snowy Day Energy Busters for your Littles- Valentine's Day Edition

Last December, I made a little playlist with Christmas themed activities to help us shake out the wigglies on our snowed-in days.  My girls loved it so much they still begged to keep doing it.   I thought it was time to put away the Christmas festivities and make some Valentine's Day themed activities set to music.  Enjoy!  This kept us busy all morning!  

You will need:
Scarves or tape you can put on the floor
Stuffed Animals (yay!  they will actually play with them!) 
Hearts cut out of construction paper (10-12)
A basket to collect hearts

Heart Jump
Love me Do- Beatles
Lay some scarves on the floor so they look like a heart (or you can put tape on the floor- blue painter's tape works best.)  Try to balance and walk along the edges of the heart.  Jump in, jump out, 3 steps in, 3 steps out, march in march out.  Play it hokey-pokey style and pick parts to put in and out. 

Yes.  We still have our pajamas on.  And Yes.  Sadie is dressed like Tigger.  She needed some bouncing inspiration. 

Dance Party
I Wanna Dance With Somebody- Whitney Houston
Have a crazy dance party. Need some inspiration for some sweet moves?  Watch this awesome 80's music video.  It will inspire you to dance- with somebody who looooooooooves you!  You can also dance with your scarves and twirl them to make heart shapes in the air. 


Crazy Love Jumping Jacks
Crazy Love- Beyonce  (sorry for the picture...I tried finding one where Beyonce is a little more appropriately clad to no avail, but it was better than the videos of her shaking her thang on stage.) 
Do jumping jacks, but instead of clapping your hands at the top, turn your hands inward to make a heart shape, or put them in front of your body like a hug.  Pace yourself, mamas...this song is 4 minutes long.

Molly, Queen of Drama and lover of posing. 

In My Heart
You'll be in My Heart- Phil Collins
Stand a few feet outside of the scarf heart.  Throw your construction paper hearts and see how many you can get to land inside.  Or stand inside the heart, throw hearts up in the air and see how many hearts land inside.  Collect.  Repeat. 

And Lead me Anywhere
Teddy Bear- Elvis
Take a scarf and tie it around the neck of a teddy bear (or horse) and drag it all over the house like a lunatic.  Don't worry...we'll make it up to him in the next activity.

You Bet Your Pretty Neck I Do!
A Bushel and Peck- Doris Day
Take your child's stuffed animals and put them all around the house- upstairs, downstairs, on the couch, in the kitchen, etc.  Have your children go around and spread some love!  When you find a stuffed animal, give it a squeeze and a kiss (and tell them you're sorry for dragging them around).  Try to find and collect them by the end of song.


Scavenger Heart Hunt
L-O-V-E- Glee cover
Same idea...hide your cut-out hearts over and try to find them all by the end of the song.  My girls LOVE any kind of scavenger hunt.

Catch Me!
You're the One That I Want- Grease
Run, run, run.  You're the one that I want!  Take turns running away and catching.  When you catch your rowdy little bundle, give them a big hug, kiss, and tickle (and call them, Honey, of course.)

Boo!  I love you! 
I just called to say I love you- Stevie Wonder
My girls love to jump out and "scare" each other.  For this activity, take turns hiding and instead of jumping out and saying "boo!"  say, "I LOVE YOU!"  Giggling is sure to ensue.  (Covering up with blankets and pillows counts as a "hiding spot" at the Benson house.) After the song is over, call someone up and say "I love you!"  just because. 

Hope this helps get you through some rainy, snowy, or can't-leave-the-house days.  If you have any other songs or activities we should add, we would love to hear them!

Success!

Make It Fun!

The Giberson household was always overflowing with catchphrases...words of wisdom to live by.  Some have morphed over the years to mean different things; some are well served with an explanation or an anecdote; and some just ring with simple truth.  Some have been passed down through generations; some have blossomed from the mouths of our little ones; some originated with movies and have taken on lives of their own.  Here is a small sampling of Giberson proverbs:

• Trust God, but lock your car.
• I'll sleep when I'm dead.
• Find your passion; follow your passion; share your passion.
• If they're talking about you, they're leaving somebody else alone.
• This is my last Christmas.
• Do they like bird-watching?  If not, they should.
• I don't want to fight.  I'll wear my astronaut costume instead.
• Of course it can be done.  They move lighthouses!
• Worry is a waste of your imagination.
• We still haven't lost our winging it privileges. 

These phrases pepper the gaps in the Giberson lore.  Parents, be ye warned: the things you say over and over take up residence in your children's psyches.  They shape the way we think, the way we live, the way we raise our children.  For better or for worse, words never really die.

One such tropism that will forever live in infamy in my mind is this:

If it's not fun, don't do it.

It took me quite a while to realize that this phrase had a silent qualifier: "If it's not fun, don't do it...but if you have to do it, find a way to make it fun, and then do it."  (More about this later.  First, one last precursor to the actual point of today's entry...)

Another heritage we received from our parents was that of hospitality.  We always had an open home.  If there was a party to be had, we hosted it.  If people needed a place to gather, they gathered at our place.  If someone needed a place to stay for a few days, a couple weeks, the rest of the school year, the more the merrier!  We welcomed you in with a guest room, a family dinner, and a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.  And so it is in my home.  Whether it's a weekly potluck dinner for 12-20 people, or overnight weekend guests once or twice a month, or laying out a full spread for a party, my house is where it happens.

So when we decided to host Jason's family for Christmas at our house instead of traveling to Chicago this year, and they wanted to stay for TEN DAYS, of course.  Christmas presents to be crafted, cookies to be baked, parties to host, a toddler to reign, and a baby starting on solid foods...sure.  The more the merrier!

But once the dust settled (literally), and Jason's family returned home, I was left with a huge mound of linens to add to my ever-growing monster of a laundry pile.  I'm not going to lie.  I was grumpy about it.  I was barely treading water in the ocean of housework already.  I was burnt out from a steady stream of feeding and cleaning up after 7 people for a week and a half including one with a mysterious stomach bug, one with a back injury, a full-on bachelor, a toddler, and an infant.  So as I considered scaling Mount Laundry, I heard a little voice whisper, "If it's not fun, don't do it."  My initial reaction to the little voice was a dismissive grumble: "If I don't do it, nobody else will.  The buck stops here."  But then the little voice grew to a giggle.  "Don't do it.  Find a way to make it fun...and then do it!"  So I smiled at the little voice, and I took that pile of sheets and blankets, and here is what I did:

BLANKET FORT!!  One of my all-time favorite activities, but especially in the winter months.  When the outside world is covered in literally 2 feet of snow, I am all cozied up in my blanket fort.

The time has now come to take it down and return our home to its "Come one, come all" state.  And yes, fort-building did nothing to decrease the mass of laundry to be done.  But for a few days, our lives had a little extra magic, a little extra togetherness, a few extra memorable moments...because I made a choice to take advantage of a necessary task and have a little fun.

It's not a new concept.  Of course, we have Mary Poppins to thank for teaching us to sweeten life's medicine with a spoonful of sugar.  And we've all been told, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."  But there's something about the challenge to "make it fun" that motivates me to see life not as an endless stream of mundane tasks but as an opportunity to enjoy everything that needs to be done.  So as dishes pile up, I won't just load the dishwasher...I'll make it a color-coordinated puzzle.  When my son won't eat his lunch, I won't threaten and yell...I'll tell him a story that rewards him with a plot twist for each bite.  When we come to the end of the day, and toys are scattered asunder, we'll take a few extra minutes to play, "Where does this toy sleep?"  When I have some menial, repetitive task, I'll turn it into a game whose objective is to make it as precise and efficient as possible.  And yes, when laundry threatens to eat me alive, I will not cower or grumble or whine.  I will look right into its menacing, fluffy face, and I will build a blanket fort.  Because if it's not fun, I don't do it.

So...how about you?  What are your family proverbs?  What's your spoonful of sugar, your lemonade, or your strategy to take a task and make it fun?  What do you do with laundry monsters?  We'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

The importance of wool felted balls

Let's do some math, shall we?

One car (which my husband takes to work everyday) + 3 kids (one who is 3 months old) + sleep depravity + cold winter weather = One tired stir-crazy cabin-fever Mama

I've been in search of a project lately.  One that I can do while in a constant zombie-like state so I don't lose my mind.  Nothing big that I will have a complete melt-down if I don't finish in a sitting because I am summoned to fill another sippy cup.  Something that I can keep my hands busy with-- that has nothing to do with folding laundry or changing diapers.  Just something I can look back at and see where my time went.  Something that won't un-do itself.  Or need to be redone.  Like folding  laundry.  Or changing diapers.  Or filling sippy cups.   

I'm in need of some serious craft therapy.

Lucky for me, I am the daughter of the Queen of Craft and All-Things-Awesome.  One trip over to the homestead and my head is a-buzz with excitement with ideas of how to keep my hands from being idle, even when my mind and body are weary.

Nothing stirs the soul like a good dose of creativity.   

Its New Years Eve and my hands are single-minded, maybe for the first time in months.  As the ball is dropping, I'm on my belly on my hardwood floor taking photographs of my little gems.  The air smells like Dreft and wet lanolin and the fire is warm on my face and my fingers are wrinkled and pruny from an hour of wet-felting 107 little balls of wooly wonderment. 

One. hundred. and seven.

There's something about a large number with 3 digits that makes me feel accomplished. 

 

 

It is a New Year I am awake before the girls come downstairs and I am feverishly wrapping more and more colors of wool to add to my mountain of progress before I'm summoned again by a small person.  I don't know why I'm not feeling tired, when really I've only had 3 two-hour naps during the night.  My oldest stares through the bars that surround the woodstove and is convinced that they are dragon eggs, waiting to hatch.  She's not too far off.

The creative process feels so similar to gestation. 

The rose parade comes on, and I'm still turning bits of wool into orbs of color.  I dig out and empty my sewing box and separate the balls into felted and soon-to-be-felted piles. 

I stockpile.
They are random entities that beg to be organized and put in their proper places.
They are each single colors that ache for companions to become patterns.
They are possibilities.  And time.

It is a Sunday evening and my babies are asleep and I'm mourning the loss of Matthew along with Lady Mary and I'm drowning my sorrow into bits of wool.  Wrapping and wrapping and wrapping.  And tossing them into the pile.  The pile. The pile.  And I think of how time passes-- how sometimes you have something to show for it, and sometimes you don't and how both are desperately needed.  I  think how my time has manifested itself into wool felted balls and how great and monumental that feels.

My fingers start to have a memory, and my mind starts to stir again, and that tired achey always-stay-at-home-mama feeling doesn't feel so heavy.  

I thread a needle and arrange them into patterns.  I hang them.  I take pictures.  And my home becomes a haven filled with colored time on walls, strung up on white pearl cotton.

And I change diapers.  And I fold laundry.  And I fill sippy cups.  And I look at strings of wool-felted balls hung in rows and smile.  And I think how the number 3 makes me feel so accomplished. 

~Megan 
 

How to Have a Stress Free Homemade Christmas

HELLO, blog reader friends!!!!  We've missed you all!  We have had a busy and fun 2013, and we hope you have been blessed as well!  This year, we welcomed 2 new members to our family--bringing the grand total of grandbabies to seven.  We were all able to be together in New Jersey for Thanksgiving, and are already anticipating the next time we will be together again.  

  
The taking down of the old calendar and pinning up a new one brings anticipation, refocus, and a resolve to be better this coming year.  Here at Swan Bay Family, our resolution is one we hope will bind our creativity together as we look forward to being together once again.  It is a long-range goal--one that will take 12 months to complete.  We hope that you will join us, be inspired by us, and cheer us on for our journey.  Because 2014 is.......drum-roll please..........

THE YEAR OF THE HOMEMADE, STRESS-FREE CHRISTMAS

We want our main focus to be the birth of Jesus Christ.  The gift of time with our loved ones celebrating our Lord's birth, should not be stressful.  It should be filled with love, joy, laughter, and good food.

But unfortunately, we usually resolve to make thoughtful, budget-friendly, homemade gifts around December 10th or so, which results in much stress, much loss of sleep, and high shipping costs to rush gifts to their new homes.

December 2014 we will all be Christmasing at the farm.  We will be having at least 15 of our most loved, favorite people in the world all in the same place, and we would love nothing more than to be able to be so prepared that we will actually be able to enjoy every minute.  Climb on board if you would like to go through this journey with us!!!  

This is not only going to be the focus of our blog this year, but also the start of a new opportunity at Swan Bay Folk Art Center...and here is where it is going to get really fun...  Every month Niki will be hosting a one day "CRAFTERNOON" (formerly known as a one-day women's retreat) at Swan Bay Folk Art Center on some form of gift or project to help you prepare all the merry-year-long for Christmas.

The workshops will include how to make crazy quilt personalized stockings, fancy flirty aprons that you will love to wear or give as gifts, ornament making, a snowman quilted wall hanging, a quilt-as-you-go table runner, a finger puppet busy book, an interactive advent calendar, and a mother-child gift-making class.  We will also be sharing some of our favorite recipes from our "Traditions Cookbook" and maybe even inspire you to make a family cookbook of your own.

Snowman Wall hanging class on January 18th. 

Two aprons can me made in our "Fun Flirty Apron Class

 on Feb. 1st

Make 2 crazy quilt heirloom stockings at our March 22nd class. 

So keep checking back to see what crafting, cooking, and kid adventures we're up to and make sure to check our website if you'd like to see our class schedule.  Happy New Year from all of us at Swan Bay Family!


Love, Niki
Amy, Megan, & Robin 

Toddler Chrismas Snowy Day Energy Busters

I recently came across a wonderful blog post about getting some energy out of cabin-fever toddlers with some fun Christmas themed activities.  On the post there is a PDF file to download of all the signs for the activities.  I printed them off, glued them to some construction paper and tacked them around the room to make different dance stations.  My girls LOVED this.  I found some song on YouTube for each activity, and since I wanted a nice tidy place to keep them all stashed, I thought I would dust off the blog a bit and put them here.  I'll try to take some pictures of what these all look like, but we were having so much fun, I didn't want to spoil any fun by dragging the camera out (plus I was holding my 2 month old for most of it.)      

Image from Toddler Approved

 Run Like a Gingerbread Man
Run, Run Rudolph by Bryan Adams
 Run run run around the house (as fast as you can...you can't catch me!)  

Tip toe like elves
from the Nutcracker
(shhhhh!  You don't want any creatures stirring!)

Slide down the chimney like Santa
Santa Clause is Coming to Town by Mariah Carey
Climb up the stairs and slide down on the steps on your bottom (just like Santa slides down the chimney).  

Reindeer kicks
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
This was supposed to be kicking, but for us it turned into crawling, eating, sleeping, dancing, etc. like reindeer.  

March like a Nutcracker
from the Nutcracker
March to the beat! 

 Hop over Candy Canes 
Candy Cane Lane by Point of Grace
I used a couple of scarves and put them on the floor in the shape of candy canes and had the girls hop over them.  SOOO fun! 

Christmas Tree Jumping Jacks
Sorry for the Zumba video, but I liked the music :)  
Make your arms pointy like a Christmas tree and do jumping jacks. Watching a 2 year old do this was quite entertaining. 

Teddy Bear Crawl
The Grinch
Was supposed to be crawling like a bear and again, ended up eating, sleeping, playing, roaring, etc. like a bear.  

Glide Like a Penguin
Snowflake (this video is so cute!)
Get some socks on a slide on the hardwood.  Our penguin excursion turned into some waddling with some arm flapping.  Fun times.  

Choo-Choo Train
We Need a Little Christmas by Glee
This includes some marching and arm pumping like a conductor.

I hope this inspires you to get moving and have some quality time with the littles.  Thank you Toddler Approved for the great post!  I can't wait to do this again tomorrow!  (and hopefully get some pictures!) 

Random Sheepish Things

The two new sheep, patiently waiting for breakfast (and their names)

As you probably know,  I purchased two new sheep last month and there is a contest going on right now to name these most unusual sheep.  I have spent the last month trying to get to know them a little bit better and to make them part of the flock, but they  seem to resist my attempts to bring them into the fold.

     Every morning I go out to feed the sheep.  I beckon them in by saying "Little Shee-eep".  They all come running in from the pasture but the two new sheep run to a different place from the rest of the sheep everyday and wait patiently for their portion of the food.

This is all of the sheep eating breakfast, minus the new sheep.

Here are the two new sheep eating in peace (breakfast for two)

The new sheep are waiting the the background, with a fence in between.

Everyday the wool continues to grow.  I just can't wait for sheering time in April.  I have been having so much fun dyeing wool and making things out of my other Wenslydale sheep, Marshmallow.

There are just not enough hours in the day to do all that I would like to do with all this wonderful wool.  I know I am weird. 

These Wenslydale locks will make some great elf beards.

Wool Felted silk scarves.  How fun is this?

A Day (and a Night) in the Life of a Shepherdess

I know it has been a long time since any of us has posted, but this story warrants posting.

The latest additions to Swan Bay Farm

Look at this beautiful wool

Isn't this just a face you want to kiss?

       Last Saturday was the Fire House Roast Beef Dinner night in Port Republic.  It is an important event for everyone in town, so Gary and I knew that when we set out to Salem, NJ, (a 1 1/2 hour drive each way) to buy a new sheep for our flock, we would have to be back in time for our roast beef dinner.  My friend Carol Winchell, has a breed of sheep different from mine called Wenslydale which have curly shiny locks rather than soft wavy wool.  I have been looking forward to adding some of these sheep to my farm and Saturday afternoon seemed to be the best time to go.
     Once we got to Carol's farm, I immediately fell in love with the shimmery gray/brown wool of this full grown female and another beautiful white sheep that was cute enough to kiss on the lips.  We loaded them in the truck and headed back to Port Republic, stopping at the fire house for our takeout roast beef dinner.  By this time it was 6:30 and beginning to get dark.  I told Gary to start eating and I would quickly unload the sheep and be right in.  The little white sheep came out of the truck easily and went right into the pen.  The dark sheep was not as cooperative.  She jumped off the back of the truck and proceeded to run through my yard.  I quickly ran into the house grabbing the only lantern we had and started to follow this sheep, up and down the road (about 2 miles), praying that God had a better plan than I had to catch this elusive sheep.  She would either have to tire out before me, or get caught in something.  I did not care what the plan was, I just did not want her to get hit by a car, or go somewhere where I would not be able to see her or find her.  She was so black and when I shown a light on her, I could really only see her eyes.
     She was faster than me, and weighed more than me.  The sheep from my flock come when they are called.   My sheep come to me if they hear the feed bucket full of food, but this sheep was not used to my ways, and I certainly was not used to hers.  After about one hour of running up and down the road and back and forth through my across the street neighbor's field, the sheep turned into my neighbor's driveway and then turned again into the woods, crashing through limbs and briars until she got stuck and could not move. 
     I was able to get through the briars and start untangling her curly locks from the briars.  As I was untangling her, I was getting tangled too, and knowing that I was not strong enough to pull her out of the woods by myself and no one knew where I was, I just started to pray that some how we would both be get through this.  When you put a sheep on their back they are powerless to run.  I was able to flip her into that position, stamped down about 3 feet of briars, and drag her by her front legs until I got to a spot where I needed to clear out more briars.  All of a sudden, I heard the fire alarm go off echoing through the town.  It immediately occurred to me that the firehouse dinner was still probably going on and that all the firemen had to leave to help someone's house from burning down.   I could here the sirens and then through the trees I could see one fire truck, and then another go down my road, and then a few pick up trucks.  I was hoping and praying that my house or my relatives houses were not burning down.  I continued stamping down briars and dragging the sheep 3 feet at a time, doing this for about 50 feet until I reached my neighbors driveway. 
     I started to yell for Fred or Denise, but they did not hear me so I started to shine the flash light in their windows from a distance, hoping that they would come outside.   They finally came out and I asked them to call Gary to bring the truck down so I would not have to drag her a quarter of a mile back to my house.  He would not answer the phone, so Denise drove Fred down to my house to bring the truck back.  She came back saying that Fred could not get the truck out of my driveway because the fire trucks were at my house.  A few minutes later Gary arrived in the truck, more worried than I had ever seen him.  When he could not find me anywhere, he was afraid that my mean ram, Merlin (the one with the big horns) had gotten me.  He had called the fire company to light up the field to see if I was laying there.  Later I found out that the call went out to the fire company for a "light up"call and a possible goring.  About 20 minutes later the State Police showed up asking where the runaway bull was.  It is funny how stories can change.
     The next day I had been planning to teach my Sunday School class about the story of Abraham, and how God provided a sheep which was stuck in a bush as a sacrifice so he would not have to sacrifice his son.  (Genesis 22)  It is so amazing to me that God used a bush and briars to entangle this sheep too.  I am also so grateful to live in a town where people truly care for each other, and did not seem to be bothered to leave the fire house to help find a lost shepherdess.