It has snowed nearly all day here, an unusual event that deserves mentioning. We spent the day getting some housework caught-up, watching the kids build snowmen and make snow angels, and just generally hanging out.
Dinner-time brought out the sillies again, in what is now becoming a Sunday evening ritual: One-Word Storytelling.
Now, this week's installment in a new series I intend to post every Sunday from now on entitled Sunday Stories:
A bubble-eyed fish went to school and learned many tricks. One of the other fishes couldn't do any, so the fish sang a silly song. The fish that sang also danced. Once he even did carwheels! It was an awesome event. Soon everyone told the teacher it happened to have a trick that everyone loved. The teacher told the fish that he should do free-style art.
We're trying to work on flow and word-choice with the kids. We'll get there....
Showing posts with label Manor House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manor House. Show all posts
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Going Bananas, One Word at a Time
Family meal-time is a big deal at our house. It doesn't need to be fancy; it just needs to happen - regularly and repeatedly. I won't bore you with statistics here, but suffice it to say it has been fairly firmly established that when families share meals together on a regular basis, around a table without distraction (no t.v, phones, etc), everyone is better for it.
So, my kids know when dinner is ready, they are to sit at the table. Unless I make a big, surprise announcement like, "We're having pizza and ice cream on the floor while watching a movie tonight!" (which I do sometimes, because I'm cool like that...). Lately, though, this has been a challenge for our youngest. At 27 months, she does not enjoy sitting anywhere. Ever. Period. Layer in a dose of early evening fatigue, and mix with the rumblings of a hungry two-year old tummy...let's just say not everyone is always enthused with our mealtime arrangement. And it's not always just her, but we get through it.
Like tonight.
Dinner time started with a battle: first getting her into her chair, then getting her to stop kicking and screaming and snotting long enough to attempt to take even a bite. As she's the third child and we've been to this circus many times before, we largely ignored her fit except for the occasional reminder that once she settled down we would love to help her get some food in her hungry tummy. Eventually she did, we hugged, she took a few tentative bites, and before long she was chowin' down on minestrone and garlic toast. Within minutes her fit was a distant memory, and we began our newest dinner game: One-Word Storytelling!
The gist is this: one person starts a story by saying a single word. Any word that pops into their head. The story continues one word at a time, one person at a time. If the kids were older I might put a spin on it by only giving a few seconds for the word to be chosen, or maybe adding key words that have to be used at certain times in the story - no matter how they fit (or don't), but for now we just enjoy the story as it unfolds. Even the baby gets in on it on some rounds, although it's usually some random word she throws out that just happens to work at that moment, so we go with it.
Without further ado, here is the result of our dinner-time creativity this evening....
I like to eat bananas, and when I do I get crazy! My sister thinks they are gross. She likes grapes. I wish she were a monkey. I know how funny it gets around banana and grape shelves when my sister and I jump on carts like crazy monkeys! The manager thinks it's funny, but not right, so we get in trouble - but today we didn't because we were the only monkeys there. My mom left us to fling ourselves off posts to get into the mode for swinging in gymnastics. We were going, so I got a banana and loved pickles.
That random "pickle" bit was Mr. Four Walls, by the way. Figures. He had to put his goofball spin on our Manor House moment. Makes it even more of a Manor House moment, I suppose. And I"m not even going to begin to try to figure out what it says about me that "Mom" leaves her kids alone in grocery stores to fling themsleves around as a warm-up for gymnastics.....
It probably says I've gone bananas, one word at a time.
What are your favorite dinner-time activities? How do you handle the dinner time melt-downs, toddler or otherwise?
So, my kids know when dinner is ready, they are to sit at the table. Unless I make a big, surprise announcement like, "We're having pizza and ice cream on the floor while watching a movie tonight!" (which I do sometimes, because I'm cool like that...). Lately, though, this has been a challenge for our youngest. At 27 months, she does not enjoy sitting anywhere. Ever. Period. Layer in a dose of early evening fatigue, and mix with the rumblings of a hungry two-year old tummy...let's just say not everyone is always enthused with our mealtime arrangement. And it's not always just her, but we get through it.
Like tonight.
Dinner time started with a battle: first getting her into her chair, then getting her to stop kicking and screaming and snotting long enough to attempt to take even a bite. As she's the third child and we've been to this circus many times before, we largely ignored her fit except for the occasional reminder that once she settled down we would love to help her get some food in her hungry tummy. Eventually she did, we hugged, she took a few tentative bites, and before long she was chowin' down on minestrone and garlic toast. Within minutes her fit was a distant memory, and we began our newest dinner game: One-Word Storytelling!
The gist is this: one person starts a story by saying a single word. Any word that pops into their head. The story continues one word at a time, one person at a time. If the kids were older I might put a spin on it by only giving a few seconds for the word to be chosen, or maybe adding key words that have to be used at certain times in the story - no matter how they fit (or don't), but for now we just enjoy the story as it unfolds. Even the baby gets in on it on some rounds, although it's usually some random word she throws out that just happens to work at that moment, so we go with it.
Without further ado, here is the result of our dinner-time creativity this evening....
I like to eat bananas, and when I do I get crazy! My sister thinks they are gross. She likes grapes. I wish she were a monkey. I know how funny it gets around banana and grape shelves when my sister and I jump on carts like crazy monkeys! The manager thinks it's funny, but not right, so we get in trouble - but today we didn't because we were the only monkeys there. My mom left us to fling ourselves off posts to get into the mode for swinging in gymnastics. We were going, so I got a banana and loved pickles.
That random "pickle" bit was Mr. Four Walls, by the way. Figures. He had to put his goofball spin on our Manor House moment. Makes it even more of a Manor House moment, I suppose. And I"m not even going to begin to try to figure out what it says about me that "Mom" leaves her kids alone in grocery stores to fling themsleves around as a warm-up for gymnastics.....
It probably says I've gone bananas, one word at a time.
What are your favorite dinner-time activities? How do you handle the dinner time melt-downs, toddler or otherwise?
Friday, January 6, 2012
Manor House Perfection
Every once in a while I come across a home, in person or in a photograph, that absolutely speaks to me. I LOVE this house.
I envision stepping into a foyer simply but elegantly decorated, a blooming Amaryllis on an antique entry table. A warm fire crackles in the parlor (because this house has a parlor). The smell of bread baking wafts through every hall. From the inside looking out, the cold, wet, harsh, snowy exterior quickly becomes simply a festive and homey backdrop to the warm, joyful, inviting interior.
A family lives here.
The snow will eventually melt and reveal a wide, green lawn for games of tag and kick the can and football. Borders of flowers will bloom, carefully and loving selected and tended: tulips and daffodils in the spring, giving way to cosmos and daisies for the summer heat, that soon make room for delphiniums and mums to linger into fall. The maple and alder leaves will put on a fiery show, and a grand holiday meal will be meticulously prepared come November. A passerby will hear laughter and shouts as the clan gathers around to watch the Cowboys and Lions. Snow will again fall. Wreaths and garlands and trees will be placed. Decorations will be dragged from the dormered attic, and children and parents will giggle at forgotten treasures of years past now again found in dusty boxes.
Sounds perfect, right?
We can't all have this sort of perfection. I'd venture to say that no one really has this sort of perfection. Our "manor" might be anything from a 4000+ square foot McMansion, a modest ranch house, or a cramped apartment. The family might not always be able to gather for the football and the feast. There might not be enough money for the grand meals, the antiques and decor, or even the simple flowers bulbs out front.
But no matter the circumstance or the setting, time will pass and memories will be made, good or bad. So today I commit to do one thing each day to make my humble home a Manor House.
What are your favorite tips to give your house a Manor House feeling, especially when funds (or motivation or energy) are low?
"Manor House"
Photo credit: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A family lives here.
The snow will eventually melt and reveal a wide, green lawn for games of tag and kick the can and football. Borders of flowers will bloom, carefully and loving selected and tended: tulips and daffodils in the spring, giving way to cosmos and daisies for the summer heat, that soon make room for delphiniums and mums to linger into fall. The maple and alder leaves will put on a fiery show, and a grand holiday meal will be meticulously prepared come November. A passerby will hear laughter and shouts as the clan gathers around to watch the Cowboys and Lions. Snow will again fall. Wreaths and garlands and trees will be placed. Decorations will be dragged from the dormered attic, and children and parents will giggle at forgotten treasures of years past now again found in dusty boxes.
Sounds perfect, right?
We can't all have this sort of perfection. I'd venture to say that no one really has this sort of perfection. Our "manor" might be anything from a 4000+ square foot McMansion, a modest ranch house, or a cramped apartment. The family might not always be able to gather for the football and the feast. There might not be enough money for the grand meals, the antiques and decor, or even the simple flowers bulbs out front.
But no matter the circumstance or the setting, time will pass and memories will be made, good or bad. So today I commit to do one thing each day to make my humble home a Manor House.
What are your favorite tips to give your house a Manor House feeling, especially when funds (or motivation or energy) are low?
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