Summertime Pursuits: Gardening and Sketching

Nature’s rhapsodic effect on me is evident the moment I step outdoors.  My anxiety level plummets almost instantly.  When I return indoors, I may be inspired to write about the pleasures of gardening or the satisfaction gained by sitting and sketching a leaf.  And I have, in truth, written about both.  You will find my thoughts in these pieces at AC:

• What Remains: A Gardening Poem

• Sketching Nature as a Summer Hobby:  The Art of Seeing

My version of outdoor living doesn’t require owning a cushy patio set.  Blades of green grass beneath my feet are enough.  Line drying my clothes in the warm breeze (preferably barefoot) and picking fresh berries are what I savor doing the summertime months.  How about you?  What are you looking forward to in these months ahead?

Summer Craft Ideas to Do Outside

Summer is getting closer and closer, with Memorial Day serving as the kickoff in my way of thinking.  In 2011, that weekend marks the end of school, at which point I will be back to spending all day with my three energetic children.  Thankfully, we share some common loves, like crafting, nature, and berry picking.  Ever since the weather warmed, for instance, my son cannot stop talking about summer and inquiring when the berries will be ready to pick.

When we are not picking strawberries, mulberries and raspberries, among other things, we will be doing some crafts in the summer months.  Preferably we'll bring our materials outdoors, though some crafts are not compatible with the summer breezes.  Choosing projects with materials that are less likely to be blown off the table is key.

Craft projects that, in my opinion, can be made outdoors:

Patriotic Pinwheel Bracelet

Spider Web Lacing
(a perfect compliment to The Very Busy Spider)

Ribbon Wrapped Ring Toss Game

Pistachio and Pasta Art

Bejeweled Boxes

Sandpaper Castles

Recycled Snack Boxes
(handy for our jaunts to nearby parks)

Gumball Bracelets
(a great way to use up parade candy)

We will surely be spending time indoors as well, and I hope to make more effective use of my "Jar O' Fun" idea this time around.  My plan is to have the kids draw out ideas at the end of each week and then slot those activities into the coming week.  That way we can create a workable schedule and make sure we are stocked with any necessary supplies.

How do you plan to spend your days this summer?

I am also linking to Friday Flair and Penny Pinching Party.

How I Created My First Blog Button with Blogger (the Easy Way)

Though I have been posting online for two plus years now, many aspects of blogging I have yet to learn. My main purposes remain the same as when I started blogging: to share ideas that are compatible with simplicity, personal growth, and contentment.  Meanwhile, I remain intrigued with how the blogosphere operates--partly because it is akin to learning a new language and culture.

Though I'm reluctant to make a button for this blog, I did want to learn how create buttons to share about events here. My graphic design skills are minimal at this point. But perhaps some of you are in the same boat.   In the points below, I walk through how I made my first blog button as a novice blogger.

1.  Information Gathering
First, I did a search for how to make a blog button.  And I discovered that I would need a graphic for the button.  Since I have no idea how to design a logo from scratch, I needed a photo.

2.  Photo Selection
I went to my Blogger account and opened my Picasa album.  I could have uploaded a new photo to my collection, but I wanted to keep things simple on my first attempt.  I found a photo in my Picasa web album that I had uploaded for a blog post back in 2009.  Here's the photo I picked:

3.  Editing
Next, I needed to edit the photo to make it smaller.  So I clicked on the "edit" button and a program called "picnik" opened up.  I cropped and resized my photo until it was about 150 x200 pixels.

4.  Adding Text
Then I clicked on the "create" tab to add text.  Here's what resulted:

 4.  Finding the Photo Link
I clicked on the edited picture to find the link to the photo and copied that link.  I would need the link to insert into my button code in the next step.
 
5.  Inserting my Information & Adding my Button to the Blog
Finally, I used the code in a helpful how-to post at A Heart for Home to finish my button.  I inserted the appropriate photo link and titles where indicated, and Voila!  I had a button, which I added as a gadget in my sidebar.

Should you want to join our challenge and grab my first button, it is not too late.  I am still working on the book challenge with my kids.  Once we finish, I shall have to devise our next event--and make another button!  

Do you have any tips about making blog buttons and/or graphics?

Class Field Trip: Going as a Parent for the First Time

Last fall my husband offered to watch our youngest while I volunteered in our daughter's kindergarten class every other week.  Getting to know her classmates and seeing her teacher and classroom in action has been invaluable.  A few weeks ago,  it was announced they were going on a field trip in May.  I wondered if I should try to go. 

There have been many class field trip opportunities for each of my daughters, especially when they were in preschool.  They've visited apple orchards, pumpkin patches, museums and nature parks.  But since younger siblings weren't allowed on the trips, I had never gone along as a chaperone. Until last Thursday. I decided to step out in faith and sign up to go with them to the farm. 

 

If I went, however, I needed to find someone to watch my son for most of the day.  Thankfully, a kind friend from church was willing and available to take him.  This enabled me to go on my first field trip ever as parent!   And it was a perfect day of sunny skies and adorable kindergarteners and animals.  I am so glad I was there for it all!

Menu and Activity Plan {5/9-5/14}: Reality Check

Plans were many, but what came to pass was not what I expected last week.  I aimed to read all of our children's books (details here). I planned to use my slow cooker every night.  Both of those plans are carrying over into this week.  Several out-of-the-ordinary events, like a field trip, my daughter falling and getting a slight arm fracture, and our hot water heater going out temporarily, made for a challenging end to the week.

My version of Fish Rolls.  So simple to make!
Check out more fish recipes at the Ultimate Recipe Swap!

Feeling the need for some stress relief, I opted to bake and watch The King's Speech.   By lunchtime Saturday, I was at a loss for what to concoct with the few ingredients we had in the kitchen.  Finally, the idea to make fish rolls came into my head.  It was the perfect way to use up leftover Puxa Vida Tilapia we enjoyed two nights before. 

I am holding loosely to my plans this week, though I still believe 'tis better to have planned and lost than never to have planned at all!

Plans for dinner:

• Vietnamese Chicken
• Lasagne
• Slow Roasted Venison 
• Chalupas
• Noodle Stir Fry
• Roast Leg of Lamb

Plans for activities:

• Finish our book challenge.
• Feed some ducks all of our stale bread.
• Visit the children's museum.
• Help with MOPS registration.
• Do a craft with my son.

Find more menu plans at Menu Plan Monday.

Kids Craft: Rough Skinned Sharks

Though we live far from their natural habitat, we can study sharks at close range whenever our family visits the aquarium at the Omaha zoo.  We also learn about sharks via books, such as Shark Attack! by Cathy East Dubowski.  Since my daughters and son are so fascinated by sharks, why not make some?  In doing so, we learned about different types of sharks and about the denticles on their skin.   These tiny teeth-like structures cannot be easily seen, but we can imagine what they might feel like after creating textured sharks.

Materials:

• Sandpaper
• Scissors
• Crayons
• Paper (not thick)
• Shark printables (we used coloring pages from the Georgia Aquarium)

Directions:

1. Print out or trace outlines of shark shapes onto regular copy paper.
2. Place rough sandpaper under the paper with the shark outline.  Use the side of a crayon to color the shark, pressing down so that the texture of the top paper becomes rough.
3. Cut out the sharks, feel the rough skin, and display.

Additional resources:


If you are looking for further information or lesson ideas, the Seaworld website has a helpful downloadable resource for teachers (and parents I assume), Rough Rubbin' Sharks, which I consulted before we made our sharks.

Check out Kids Get Crafty for many more creative project ideas.
This idea is also linked to Show and Tell at ABC and 123.

Children's Book Week 2011: Progress Report

Did you know that this week (May 2-8) is Children's Book Week?  As a happy coincidence, I thought it would be fun to start reading through our entire collection of children's books.  This would basically require our screen time and my cooking duties to be minimized.  I thought several nights of slow cooking would help my chances of success.  But I forgot to take into account all the extra activities we were doing this week.  As a supposedly stay-at-home mom, I have not managed to stay home and read much.  Every morning so far we've been out--shopping, caring for other children, attending our weekly Bible study, and then today I went on an all-day class field trip!

We're still on the first shelf!

Not surprisingly, we've read just 20 books out of an estimated 200 plus titles.  Still, we will press on and enjoy reading together.  I will be sure to report when we've accomplished our goal.  I'm aiming for the middle of next week, which would extend our challenge to about 10 days (versus the idealistic one week goal that I set initially).

Want to join our reading challenge?  It's not too late!

Simply comment over here and I will add your name to the list.

Celebrating Children's Book Week: The Count 'Em Up Book Challenge

How many children's books do you own?  Do you think you could read them all in one week?  Or maybe in one month?  Join me as we celebrate the joys of reading books with a challenge and work our way through the shelves together.

My goal is to read and count all of our children's books in one week*.  Maybe you'd prefer to give yourself the whole month.  The choice is yours.

Ready to start?  Just leave a comment at the end of this post and I will add your name and web link to the list below.  You are welcome to link back here or add the button on my side bar to let others know about the challenge (though it's not required).  I'll post an update of my family's progress on Thursday.  Then next week, stay tuned for the report on how we did with our book challenge.

 Let's read and count 'em up!

Who's in:

1.  Me @ Roots of Simplicity
2.  Asian Treasures
3.  Strasilo
4.  Doris
5.  B
6.  [ You're next!]

* With our longer children's books, I may opt not to read them cover to cover.  We'll look through them and choose certain parts or favorite stories in a collection.  Whether or not we read every page, I'll count every book we manage to crack open.

I'm linking this to Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.