Monday, March 4, 2013
Interior Decorators for Hire
Thinking of redecorating a room in your house? Do you have a fondness for masking tape? Look no further than Norwood & Norwood, Inc. for all of your decorating needs. Payment gladly accepted in the form of Cheez-its.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Project Linus
(Jacksons: feel free to skip the 1st paragraph below since you obviously know the background here.)
Last year, the 7 oldest Jackson kids decided that instead of picking names for Christmas gifts, we would pool our money each year and give it to a charity. We would take turns picking the charity, going down the line from oldest to youngest, and then starting over again. Since I am the second oldest, this year was my turn.
I wanted to pick an organization that 1) was local, 2) would be something my kids would understand, and 3) would have some sort of opportunity for the kids to be part of the giving. I did some research and found Project Linus to be a perfect fit. Project Linus (named after the Charlie Brown character Linus) provides blankets to kids who have been through something traumatic - a house fire, an illness, etc... There are chapters all over the USA, including one here in Fort Wayne. All of the blankets made by volunteers in this area go to kids in Fort Wayne and surrounding towns. Samuel and Becca each have their own special blankets, so the idea of making blankets for other kids was something they could grasp. And we made no-sew fleece blankets so they were actually able to help make the blankets (although, disclaimer here - they got bored after a little while, so they did help, but it's not like they made entire blankets on their own.)
We ended up splitting up the money we had to work with - we used half to buy fleece, and gave the other half directly to Project Linus so they could buy whatever supplies would be the most helpful to them. The fabric we bought was enough to make 10 blankets. Project Linus uses blankets in 3 different sizes - baby, kid, and pre-teen/teen. Before I bought the fleece, I asked which size blankets they were most in need of, and they said they are almost always running low on the pre-teen/teen size, so that's what we made.
In case anyone ever wants to make blankets for them, it's really easy. I bought 1.5 yards of fabric for each blanket, cut off the uneven ends, and then used the directions found here. A lady at the Project Linus chapter here even gave me a plastic template to use for cutting the fringe all the same length.
This was a fun thing to do with the kids this year. Here are some pictures of the finished blankets:
Last year, the 7 oldest Jackson kids decided that instead of picking names for Christmas gifts, we would pool our money each year and give it to a charity. We would take turns picking the charity, going down the line from oldest to youngest, and then starting over again. Since I am the second oldest, this year was my turn.
I wanted to pick an organization that 1) was local, 2) would be something my kids would understand, and 3) would have some sort of opportunity for the kids to be part of the giving. I did some research and found Project Linus to be a perfect fit. Project Linus (named after the Charlie Brown character Linus) provides blankets to kids who have been through something traumatic - a house fire, an illness, etc... There are chapters all over the USA, including one here in Fort Wayne. All of the blankets made by volunteers in this area go to kids in Fort Wayne and surrounding towns. Samuel and Becca each have their own special blankets, so the idea of making blankets for other kids was something they could grasp. And we made no-sew fleece blankets so they were actually able to help make the blankets (although, disclaimer here - they got bored after a little while, so they did help, but it's not like they made entire blankets on their own.)
We ended up splitting up the money we had to work with - we used half to buy fleece, and gave the other half directly to Project Linus so they could buy whatever supplies would be the most helpful to them. The fabric we bought was enough to make 10 blankets. Project Linus uses blankets in 3 different sizes - baby, kid, and pre-teen/teen. Before I bought the fleece, I asked which size blankets they were most in need of, and they said they are almost always running low on the pre-teen/teen size, so that's what we made.
In case anyone ever wants to make blankets for them, it's really easy. I bought 1.5 yards of fabric for each blanket, cut off the uneven ends, and then used the directions found here. A lady at the Project Linus chapter here even gave me a plastic template to use for cutting the fringe all the same length.
This was a fun thing to do with the kids this year. Here are some pictures of the finished blankets:
Monday, December 17, 2012
Drawing Faces
The other day Becca and I were playing downstairs in the playroom. She loves to draw with the dry-erase markers on the easel. Usually it's just scribbles, but this time I noticed that she has figured out how to draw faces. Maybe this is something all 3-year-old girls can do? Samuel certainly did not do this at that age. I very clearly remember his 4-year checkup at the doctor's office where they asked me if he could draw a person and I had no idea because he never had. Now, of course, he draws all the time, but at Becca's age (3 years and 2 months), he could not have done this:
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Operation Christmas Child
Each year, through our church, we participate in something called Operation Christmas Child. We fill a shoebox with little things - toothbrush, toothpaste, stuffed animals, toys, etc... and it is sent around the world to a child who may not have any other presents at Christmas, or who may not have ever received a gift before in their life.
All year, we put aside a percentage of Samuel's allowance in his Share Jar.
(We do actually put aside a larger percentage than what you see here. This picture was taken after we spent the $ this year.)
At the end of the year, he is allowed to take this money and pick the things he wants to go in the shoebox. When you donate a box, you get to pick if you want it to go to a boy or girl, and pick an age range. We always pick someone close to Samuel's age to make it more meaningful for him. This year, he took the share money to the dollar store and picked out a bunch of things to go in the box. He really considered each and every thing before putting it in the cart - "would I like to play with this?" "would I think this is fun?" "this would probably break right away", etc...
In years past, he has had a hard time when we buy all of this stuff and then we have to give it away, so this year we did 2 things to make it easier:
1. We bought the items and then immediately brought them to church and dropped them off. Not having them ever come home with us made it easier to give them away.
2. He took some money from his Spend Jar and used it to buy something for himself at the dollar store at the same time.
Here is my proud little helper, dropping off the box at church:
All year, we put aside a percentage of Samuel's allowance in his Share Jar.
(We do actually put aside a larger percentage than what you see here. This picture was taken after we spent the $ this year.)
At the end of the year, he is allowed to take this money and pick the things he wants to go in the shoebox. When you donate a box, you get to pick if you want it to go to a boy or girl, and pick an age range. We always pick someone close to Samuel's age to make it more meaningful for him. This year, he took the share money to the dollar store and picked out a bunch of things to go in the box. He really considered each and every thing before putting it in the cart - "would I like to play with this?" "would I think this is fun?" "this would probably break right away", etc...
In years past, he has had a hard time when we buy all of this stuff and then we have to give it away, so this year we did 2 things to make it easier:
1. We bought the items and then immediately brought them to church and dropped them off. Not having them ever come home with us made it easier to give them away.
2. He took some money from his Spend Jar and used it to buy something for himself at the dollar store at the same time.
Here is my proud little helper, dropping off the box at church:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Future Artist (perhaps in a tattoo parlour)
Seriously, child, what do you have against drawing on the paper? Why must you always use your legs as the canvas?
Thursday, November 1, 2012
The amazing hat
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Happy Halloween!
Despite the icky weather, the kids had a great time trick-or-treating tonight. Samuel dressed up as a transformer. Up until about 4:00 this afternoon, Becca had been planning to dress up as a knight. However, she found a pair of bunny ears in our dress-up things and changed her mind. Since we don't have a bunny costume, she wore part of a monkey suit that Samuel wore a few years ago. However, since it was so cold out, she had to wear her coat over it so you can't really see more of her costume than just her bunny ears. To keep warm, Samuel wore 4 pair of pajamas on top of each other under his costume. I half expected him to fall down like Randy in A Christmas Story and not be able to get back up since he was so bundled up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)