Motherhood Realized

Have you heard of Power of Moms?  It's a wonderful site for moms--full of essays, podcasts, videos, and programs all geared toward moms.  If you haven't already, you need to go check it out!

Are you back? Ok. Recently they published a book titled, "Motherhood Realized"  which is a collection of essays about motherhood.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy. This little book was chalk full of essays that made me think "yes!"  Some even brought tears to my eyes (which was a little embarrassing since I mostly read while in waiting rooms and at the park!)  I jotted down several of my favorite gems:

"You are exactly who your children need.  No one can fill your shoes."

"Your children want you!"

"I feel empowered to let go of my guilt, celebrate the progress that I have made, and accept that during this season of my life, motherhood is enough."

"... our fabulousness and greatness is often very ordinary."

"We might as well accept that the hard stuff is going to happen and prepare for it wherever possible. And once we've got that acceptance and preparation in place, it's a lot easier to enjoy our lives." 

"It is not always easy, but it is good."

"...when the sweet moments come, we need to breathe them in long and deep." 

I could honestly keep going and going. So many great thoughts!  So many things that helped me to refocus and become re-energized! I loved that at the end of each essay there was a question posed and a challenge issued, like this one:

Ask your children to tell you something they think is fabulous about you.  Write it down and place it somewhere you can see often.

Most of all I was reminded that motherhood is a sisterhood.  We're all in this together trying our very best.

And today we are offering an e-book version of both Motherhood Realized and their first book Deliberate Motherhood!  (Just in time for Mother's Day!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

**I was given an ebook of Motherhood Realized to review but all opinions are my own.

Gifts Kids Can Make: Fun Crayons

Our big quiet book giveaway ends tonight.  Be sure to enter here if you haven't had a chance yet.

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My 4-year-old and I had a great time making these crayons as a gift for his 6-year-old brother.  I read somewhere that it's best to use crayons that are not washable.  I also saw that cheap crayons do not work well.  So we went to the store and bought some new non-washable Crayola crayons for this project.  Little Mr. A was a great crayon-wrapper-peeler.

After getting all the paper off we broke the crayons into pieces that would fit into our silicone Lego mini-figure mold.  It was a little tricky to get enough crayon into each one but we got it to work.

We then set the silicone mold on a cookie sheet.  If you don't then when you grab them out of the oven the liquid crayon will spill!  We placed them in the oven (set at 225 degrees) for about 13 minutes.

Once the crayon was melted we let them cool.  After letting them sit for a few minutes I put them in the freezer to speed up the process! We popped them out of their mold and then placed them in an old stationary box.

Mr. A was so excited to give these as a gift to his older brother. His brother loves them!

Hands Down You're the Best Teacher Around (Includes Free Printable!)

There are still a few days left to enter our big quiet book giveaway.  We're giving away 5 already made quiet book pages as well as 3 copies of Amy's book Quiet Book Patterns.  Enter here!
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Teacher appreciation day is coming up and I wanted to share a simple card that my son made for his teacher in the past (inspired by this post).


We started by tracing his hand on a card upside down.

I then made this simple printable tag (using the free subway art I found at Burton Avenue) . . .

And we attached it to the card.

Inside he wrote a sweet and simple note to his teacher to go along with the gift he picked out.

(To print your own printable tag: Click on picture below to enlarge, then right click and copy.  Open a word document, paste, adjust printable to the size you want.)

Serving Pink Lemonade's Big Quiet Book Giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who joined me in sharing my quiet book games over the last few months.
(Find the series along with the free templates HERE.)

As promised, today starts Serving Pink Lemonade's Big Quiet Book Giveaway!

What does that include???

First . . .

One lucky winner will receive all five quiet book games!


(dry erase marker not included)

Five quiet book pages already made for you!  These pages practically make up a quiet book all by themselves.  Keep them for your own kids or give them away as a "homemade" gift (you don't have to tell them you didn't make them :)  These pages come separately--meaning the pages will not be sewn together in a book.  This way you can arrange them into your own quiet book however you'd like or divide the pages into separate quiet books and add your own pages to them.  Sweet!

Second . . .

Three more lucky winners will receive a copy of my book Quiet book Patterns!

Quiet Book Patterns includes 25 easy-to-make activities for your children.  This book is full of original quiet book ideas that are sure to keep your child's brain active and their hands happy!

Each page is formulated to help your child to learn through play--because that is how young children learn best!

The pages include fun ways for children to use their imagination, develop storytelling and problem solving skills, express creativity, improve hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, as well as learn about sorting, color, and number recognition.  All of this and more through playing and having fun!

 Each book also contains a CD so you can easily print out the templates to make your book.   With simple instructions and templates in hand, I don't think there's an easier way to make a quiet book!

What are you waiting for?  Enter through rafflecopter below and be sure to tell your friends to stop by and enter too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

General Conference Doodle Books

I've seen doodle books floating around the web.  None of them quite fit what I was looking for so I decided to design one of my own.  It's pretty generic and can be used for this or any upcoming General Conference.  Each page has a part sectioned off for notes and the rest of the space can be used for any doodles!

General Conference Doodle Book

Each page is meant to be printed on a half sheet of paper (8 1/2 x 5 1/2)--which is why there is so much blank space at the bottom of each sheet.  I then plan to hole punch them and tie them together with some twine.  

My boys are pretty excited to use them! (And youth and adults might just love them too!)

Have a happy Conference weekend!

Alphabet Adventure App

There's a fun new app on Story Panda called Mila and Penn's Alphabet Adventure that I wanted to share with you today.

Loveable characters Mila and Penn journey through the alphabet as they discover eggs with legs and giraffes on roller-skates.  This is not your typical ABC's book but rather a beautifully illustrated adventure through words and drawings.

Plus the nice people at Story Panda are giving away these three printable activities to go along with Mila and Penn's Alphabet Adventure.  Feel free to use them how you'd like.