Volunteering at Woodbine School

My Children attend a wonderful school! Woodbine school has the best, most kind, dedicated teachers I have ever had the pleasure to interact with. 

Every time I volunteer at their school I am always very impressed by their work ethic, their kindness, and specially their patience towards all the different types of personalities they deal with daily.

What is it that makes them great? Here are a a few things I noticed that they do, that inspire me to try to be a better parent, and soon a better educator to my children (We are home schooling for 6 months, more on that in a later post):

1. They listen to the kids- They take the time to stop, look at the children in the eyes, and are genuinely interested in what happened to each of the kids. From listening to the stories about "their grandma's dog who is named after a gun" to what each of those children did over the weekend, and who got poked by whom. They listen with kindness, and their full attention.

2. They are patient- Today I noticed my son's grade 2 teacher was "reminded" by at least 2 or more kids that she needed to do the attendance, after she had done it. Each time, she thanked them for remembering this important part of school, and smiled at them, at no time it felt like she was annoyed at all. How do they do that?!

3. They keep their voices down- At church we are taught to listen to the still small voice, the teachers that my kids have had so far exemplify this so well. This is how I believe God talks to us, in a still small voice.They, our Woodbine teachers, do not yell, at least I have not heard them yell, and for the most part the kids respond to them.

4. The smile a lot! Thank you for doing this Mrs. L-J and Mrs. Ellis, and Mrs. ES, Ms. Parker, Ms. K, Mrs. Part, Mr. Wolfe and so many more of you!

5. They prepare- A lot of preparation goes into all the work our children do daily. All those papers we parents photocopy represent hours of research of ways to teach our children about Math, Science, Community, and so much more.  

6. They put my mind at ease, they emphasize the positive in my children, while giving me tips about how to help my kids succeed.

7. They spend time with the kids, and have fun with them. I imagine that a classroom full of active 2nd graders, and 6th graders is not always fun, but boy I hear nice things. "Mom, Mrs. LJ dances on tables, is funny, and nice", "Mrs. Ellis remembers our birthdays and has special birthday gum for us."

So for me volunteering is so much more than just photocopying, cutting, and gluing. It is a chance to see my kids in action at school, to see what, and how they learn, and to learn from those very skilled individuals. Oh, I know they are not perfect, but today as I reflected on them, they came pretty close! Thank you Woodbine!

A fun new Hobby!

My sweet husband is always encouraging me to develop my hobbies, or find new ones. He loves working with wood, and suggested that I try learning how to use a scroll saw. It feels a lot like a sewing machine, and in case you are intimidated by power tools like I am, this one is pretty safe, and fairly easy to handle.
Here is a photo of my first scroll saw projects.

I'm particularly proud of snoopy, since that is my first, mostly original project, and I learned how to do some wood burning along the way too. The other patterns came from various sources on-line, mainly http://scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.ca/2011/11/five-simple-christmas-ornament-scroll.html, I love that website, it offers a number of free, and simple patterns to use.

Here is another attempt at a water color sketch. I've always wanted to paint a picture of the Eiffel Tower, this sketch is basically a copy of an image that I found online, but hey that's how the Masters learned, by copying those who came before them ;)

American Girl Knitted Dress

Here is my latest creation. I follow a pattern from ABC knitting. I really like how it turned out. I was my first try with circular knitting needles.

Almost done...?...

So here is it, I think I am done, but it need a bit more detail...or maybe not.

Watercolor wash before taking the masking tape off...

Now to wait until the watercolor dries up, and I can take off the masking tape.....so nervous! ;)

Another try, and a different medium

So I try adding color to my last picture, and I'm not happy with the result, therefore, I think I will try a new method.

Here is the oil painting that I believe is NOT working out...

However, I might go back, and keep trying it out. So here is another drawing, this time I'm attempting the same painting with watercolors, and pen and ink. I'm trying out masking fluid for the first time. Wish me luck! I'm using "Fineline Resist Pen."

And here it is, the new under painting, after applying the FineLine masking fluid, the idea is that all those areas that look blueish will be white.

The under painting

So my Sister in law gave me a beautiful image from her trip to Rome to attempt to paint. I love the perspective of the picture, and since today my little ones were gone with grandma, and grandpa, I spend the afternoon working on the under painting.
Sometimes, I actually like under paintings more than the finish product (maybe watercolors with pen and ink could be something to try soon). I hope that's not the case with this picture, even though I really love how it is coming along so far.
I can't wait to get going, and add some color to this painting.
I don't think I'll include the original photograph at this point. But maybe once the whole painting is completed, I can put them side by side.
Yeah for awesome grandparents, that take amazing care of our children, so I can draw, and listen to 90's tunes for an afternoon. I guess grocery shopping will have to wait for another day.

It is still cool to blog?!?

So I have not updated my blog for a very long, and so this question is mostly for me. I was reading back on my past blog posts, and it was enjoyable to see back on the happenings of our family, so I guess the answer is, YES it is still cool to post, and if anyone happens to also enjoy reading it then BONUS!
So here is to writing again.
OK, I was recently called as the Nursery Leader in our ward, and I really want to do a good job in my new calling. I almost have that same feeling I had when I started a new University class, a clean slate, and the possibility of doing really well in a new task. So, does anyone have any suggestion for running a really good nursery program? Anything you have done, or have seen done in the past, that has worked really well ? I am lucky to have a fairly small, and from what I can see well behaved group of children...so please bring on the ideas friends!

Halloween

This post is for you Miki. My mom told me you wanted to see pictures of your cousins in their Halloween costumes. Maija was a Woodland fairy, and Terran was a Red Bear. Happy belated Halloween everyone!

My Beautiful Fairy

My Red Panda

Poor Terran looked like he had the Chicken pox, I didn't have any face painting stuff, so I used my makeup, luckily his smile makes him looks beautiful no matter what. 

What a scary Witch!

Even Scarier wizard

My three best friends

Happy Halloween

My little sweetheart

This picture just makes me smile. I haven't written much about little T, but he is the sweetest, most smiley boy EVER!

Playing Dollhouse

So I am sorry to admit, that I am not usually one of those mothers who LOVE to play with their kids. I love reading to my children, I could read to them for hours, and sometimes I do, but playing...well I'm pretty lame at it. However, this is one of the MANY areas in which I will like to improve as a mother.
A few months back I found this pamphlet called "to the mothers in Zion" it was from a talk given back in the 80's by Pres. Ezra Taft Benson. He gave a number of suggestions on how to spend time with children. To summarize he said the following:
1. Be at the crossroads- aka when they leave and return from school, dates, when they bring friends home, etc.
2.Be a Real Friend-aka Listen to your children, really listen, and among other things PLAY WITH THEM!
3.Read to your children- This is probably the one in which I do best! ;)
4.Pray with your children
5.Have weekly Home Evenings
6.Be together at Mealtimes
7.Read Scriptures Daily
8.Do things as a Family
9.Teach your Children
10. Truly Love Your Children.

Anyway, I have tried, and many times failed, but stilled tried really hard to apply these principles in my life, and "Be a Real Friend" has been on my mind a lot. I tried to play with little M, since little T is still pretty young, and he is mostly satisfied with smiling, and chewing on things. Anyway, to get to the point, I find that as kids get a little older, this mandate of being a real friend gets easier....so for all you mothers who are not PLAYERS...wait, that came out wrong! I played Dollhouse today, for a while, I even lost track of time a little, and the best part, I REALLY TRULY enjoyed it. It was not something I was doing for the good of my kids, but because it was fun! and I guess I just wanted to share that good feeling with the rest of the world.
so good night to all you Players!

Terran

Maija with her brand new baby brother



On August 28th, at the very early hour of 4:20 am, we welcomed the newest member of our family, Terran. He is as his sister says "the cutest little Chunker!" I'm afraid my lack of announcing this great news earlier, is directly related to my lack of sleep. He is pretty awesome, and I can't believe how much I love this little guy!
Terran is also the newest model for his Daddy's photography, here are a couple of pictures of Terran that his Daddy took, I love my two little angels. Maija is doing well, and we are all slowly adjusting to our new growing family.

My sweet angel

If you need family pictures, you might like this.....

Wyatt is trying to get more practice and build his portrait portfolio… for a limited time he is taking clients for $60 portrait sessions (50% off his standard rate). See http://photos.digitalcave.ca/portrait-sessions.html for details and contact information. You can also see a sample of his portraits, and I know I'm bias, but he is pretty awesome!!!!

Mac Personal Finance Software/About.com Readers' Choice Awards

Wyatt's software Buddi has been nominated for a Mac Personal Finance Software reader's choice awards. He has worked very hard on this piece of software, it started as a way to keep track of our family's finances, and it became a project a few years in the making. I'm VERY proud of Wyatt, and not only his ingenuity, but his selfless work, this software can be downloaded for free, and used by anyone, it is cross platform, so it will work on just about any operating system (ie. Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc). So if you are reading this post, and have an extra 20 secs please vote for him here. You can vote daily until March 8, 2011.
Thanks again, and if Wyatt happens to read this....I love you, you are awesome, and I'm super proud of you.

What I've read lately....

So I started the year reading a really fun manuscript from a close friend that is trying to get her book published..I won't say more about the book, or friend...but I cannot wait until I see her book out, and then I will tell you all about it. I'm so impressed with this person, she is so smart, and funny, and she writes from what she knows, which makes her writing ever better, I love her, and her writing, I just can't say enough about how wonderful this person is, not only an enjoyable person to be around, but someone I truly admire.....so to my mystery book I give two thumbs up!!!



A Thousand Splendid Suns- I've tried reading this book in the past, for some reason the first time I just could not get into it. But this time, as I picked it up, I could not put it down. It is such a sad book, and with all the news reports about Afghanistan, it was interesting to read a real story, to bring the lives of the people in that country to a more personal level. For somme reason the sadness I felt while reading this book reminded me of The Book of Negroes by Laurence Hill, if you read that one, you might enjoy this book too.
It was for sure not an entertaining book, but it was a beautifully written, and well told story...so if any of you guys are looking for an intelligent book, give A Thousand Splendid Suns a chance.



Around the world in 80 days- This is one of my classics for the year, I wish I had read it in French, but I will try that later on. It was such a fun book to read, but not really the type of book I generally read, but it felt like I was sharing the adventure with the characters. It is an adventure, a love story, a book that teaches you a little bit about the world. Not a difficult read for a 'classic."



Everybody is Beautiful- This book actually make me laugh out loud. It is the story of a young mom as she moves to a new city, and learns to find a passion in life, while still giving her all to her young family. Mostly I enjoyed it, because it made me laugh.

Not sure what I will read next, this year, I want to read just for the pleasure of reading, and so far I'm loving it!

FHE and little M

For about a good year or so we have been getting together as a family, and having Family Home Evening, I'm very proud of this, and what made me think of this? Well tonight after FHE (we do it weekly...sometimes we miss Mondays ;) ), Maija said "can we do it again?!!" She LOVES family home evening, and I have the children's song book, and the new nursery manual to thank for that. Maija loves to sing, so as long as we have an opening song, and a closing song, she loves whatever we do. I'm sharing this, because for the longest time, we had no clue how to go about doing FHE with a little baby/toddler.
The nursery manual has REALLY simple lessons, that make gospel principles easy to teach, and you can download the coloring pages from the church's website, and print them to color during FHE. Maija is a Sunbeam now so tonight, we tried something new we read an article from the friend, and she really liked that.
The Church's songbook is pretty awesome, if you are like me, and don't know too many of the primary song, then you can go online, and listen to them, and learn them with your little ones.
By the way, by no means think that our FHEs are perfect, generally at least two out of three people are doing summersaults, and we are pretty much the most off key family EVER, but the fact that Maija loves that time, just makes me a little too happy for words...please if you guys have any FHE ideas that work for your family with little ones, please share them under comments, I will really like to try out new things
Peace out.

Happy 2011

So it is New Years Resolution time again....well there is a few things I will like to accomplish...I think I'm going to leave out the fitness goal out for a little bit of time...more on that later. But I think I will concentrate on mind, and spiritual fitness for now.
1. Read the Old Testament
2. Keep up with Sunday School lessons weekly (Read the New Testament)
4. Complete my Personal Progress goals.
3. Read 10 classics from the BBC list
4. Read the Book of Mormon..I know this doesn't seem like a lot, but I think I want to keep things VERY simple.

It is a heavy read oriented list, but I think this upcoming year will already bring many blessings, so I think I will keep it simple.

Good luck everyone with your New Years Resolutions!...and you, what are your goals for 2011???

Feliz Navidad!!!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!!!!!

from THE OLSONS

A story and a grateful heart.

Today was "one of those days" sure I am blessed to have a beautiful, in most cases very well behaved little girl, but tonight, her little body was possessed by some whiny, crying little toddler. ;) Does that ever happen with your kids? It happens with my little Maija angel ;) Anyway, after finishing our bedtime routine (bath, teeth, books), and feeling like I could be a contestant in something called "Canada's worst mothers" (I sure hope that show doesn't actually exist!) I sat down, and started reading, and looking through lds.org and preparing an upcoming YW's lesson. As I was looking through the web site, I came across this video.

Motherhood Series: “My New Life” video with Stephanie Nielson (NieNie)

It made me cry, it made me think, and then it made me realize how lucky I am, to have the life that I have. I'm lucky to have my sweetheart, my family, my faith, my Relief Society group, my mother, good friends, my health, and although when Maija is screaming her head off, and I'm covered in bath bubbles, tears, and buggies, even in those times, I am still incredibly blessed, even if for a moment I forget it, I'm also thankful for these reminders.

If any of you guys are interested I found a link to Stephanie's blog, it looks funny, and fun to read.