A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.
If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.
A wonderful evening at dusk, taken from the top off my neighbor’s porch while my children ran through the yard catching lighting bugs.
A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.
After I wrote the post Lessons from a first time music mom, I received some wonderful advice and wisdom posted in the comment section. It was from the principal violinist of the Knoxville Symphony, who is also a mom and a Suzuki violin teacher.
She made me realize we must create a regular practice schedule in our house, for our daughters playing the violin and the piano.
I am not good at scheduling during the summer (or ever really). I just don’t doing like it. Summers are for freedom and running barefoot in the grass. So whatever our solution was going to be, it had to work for all of us.
Katy, the commenter, set the goal for her daughter to practice piano everyday for 100 days. Her reward was a visit to the American Girl store.
That got me thinking. While I’m not one for rewards, and I would prefer their practice be inspired by their own desire to get better. That is not entirely realistic. They are playing an instrument as much for themselves as they are for us, their parents. Because it’s important to us that they learn an instrument. So we are stepping in with some incentives.
I’m focused on summertime right now. And because we will be traveling some, and have a few busy weekends planned, practicing consecutively everyday is not doable for us. (Although my daughter did say she wished we had a traveling keyboard for her.)
Our goal for the girls is to practice 50 times this summer, out of the 72 days of their Summer Break. After 50 times we’ll take them somewhere fun, that is out of the ordinary. So far talks have included the American Girl store in Atlanta (which is 20 minutes from my parent’s house), the Build A Bear store, or Dollywood. We have all summer to figure that out, or 48 practice sessions.
As soon as 50 times is up. We’ll start it again. And if they choose to practice more than once a day, that counts towards the 50 times – as long as they are good solid practice sessions.
To count the 50 practice times we created a system for each girl.
My middle girl, who is 5 and plays the violin, made a strand of 50 beads and will take off a bead everyday she practices. When the beads are gone. We go for a special outing of her choice.
My oldest girl, who is 7 and plays the piano, made a number wreath from scrapbooking paper. After every practice sesssion she’ll take off one of the decorative numbered circles. Same goes for her – when all 50 are gone she gets to pick a special place to visit.
Today was the first day we tried it and I think we will see good results. Something important for my middle girl was storing her violin down low, on the ground near her strand of beads.
When she removes the beads she is putting them in the bin with her violin. My daughter has a basket on the piano for her decorative numbered circles when they get removed. This way they visually see their practice times adding up, as well as being counted down.
Either way, nothing is better than the pride my middle girl had at her violin recycle this spring, after working so hard the last eight months to learn the same few cord variations.
However on a summer day when everyone is flying by the seat of their pants, I think a little incentive to stop and practice is worth the reward. We’ll see if I’m right.
Long before I became a mom I had an episode with a large ovarian cyst that had to be surgically removed. It was in 2002. I had already been married three years (I was 23 when I said “I do”). And around then, I started thinking about wanting to have a baby – some day.
Infertility treatments were in the news a lot then, grabbing my attention. I was already a vegetarian because I didn’t trust what farmers were feeding the animals. Next I started questioning what kinds of mystery chemicals were going into our bodies without us knowing it, thus causing these strange things to happen in our bodies that were designed to make babies and naturally populate the world.
That was when I started learning about estrogen disrupters and the dangers of BPA. I stopped putting plastics in the microwave and started avoiding them all together. Around 2009 medical studies started being released on the dangers of BPA, taking the news mainstream. The sassy side of me was thinking, “I told you so.”
And now, studies are saying BPA free is not safe either.
In 2004 my first child was born. We bought a few plastic baby bottles because that was what you did then. Seeing that’s what lined the isles at Babies ‘R Us – where every pregnant woman goes to gawk over all the hundreds of silly things you think you need when having a baby until you find out they are mostly all useless items. Right?
We never used those bottles. Because she refused with all her might to take a bottle, and never did. I even tried some silly thing that was silicon and shaped like a breast! Seven-and-a-half-years later, none of my babies have ever drank from a bottle. They went straight from nursing to drinking water from a sippy cup, a straw or eventually by my second child – a shot glass.
Now there are so many great options out there for avoiding plastic cups with children, from buying glass bottles (which are now available at Babies’R Us) to stainless steel options you can find in camping supply stores. It’s pretty simple to pass up those cute Dora cups these days.
Now I’m going to give you a little run down of what we have used and liked through the years, to the coolest glass cups I recently bought online researching for this post.
Klean Kateen’s are prettying much a given now, and a trusted brand we have used and owned for five years. Recently I added the Steel Pints to our collection. They are great for picnics, grabbing for the car on the way out the door, and on our porch or backyard where there are concrete surfaces and I worry about glass breaking around bare little toes. They are too big for my toddler, but work great for the rest of us.
Also in this realm are Sigg cups. About three years ago they came out saying the interior lining of the cups contained BPA. They had a voluntary recall and replaced old Sigg cups for free through a mail-in system, which was very nice of them to do. We had all ours replaced then. But the interior lining is now pealing away from the cups at the top. So if you are investing in a stainless steel cup I’d skip the cute designs and buy a Klean Kateen. They even have baby bottles now. Replacement lids are versatile and easy to order. My newly ordered BPA free tops still fit my five-year-old Klean Kateen’s.
Small juice glasses work great for little hands and can be found in all types of discount home stores and kitchen places when you look for them. Plain shot glasses are a perfect size for six month old hands sitting at the dinner table for the first time. Granted, you have to watch closely and teach that throwing them is not appropriate. Thankfully we have all wooden floors in our house and have broken very few glasses though the years. Usually they just bounce when dropped!
This set of 3.25 oz Duralex Picardie Clear Tumblers (also available at William-Sonoma) is what we used for our third baby and I LOVED them. They fit perfectly in her little hands. She still uses them today for things like small amounts of orange juice.
Recently I wanted to seek out something bigger for her, with a top. After finding the Cuppow that turns a wide-mouth mason jar into a travel mug for adults, I wanted something similar for children.
Browsing on Abe’s Market one night I couldn’t believe it when I found one! It’s called EIO Kids Cup and it’s covered in a silicone sleeve to prevent breakage. It uses an 8 oz. mason jar and you can buy them with the jars, sleeves and tops. Or individually as sleeves and tops. After a little trial by error for my toddler to learn to line up the hole on the top with her lips, she loves this cup! She requests it every time she gets a drink. Hands down it’s my new favorite thing. And when my other two girls saw it, they asked for one too! I had never seen this cup before and wondered why someone hadn’t invented one. Then, I literally stumbled upon it.
After that unique find I went fishing for more, and found the Be Kind Sillsipper Picardie Glass at The Glass Baby Bottle. The glasses are 7.4 oz and too wide for my toddler to get her hands around. But my older two girls enjoy them a lot. They use the lids at bedtime and place the cups by their beds. It’s a neat concept. But for toddlers, the top also comes off easily. So unless they really want the top on, the top would become useless. The Glass Baby Bottle has interesting options for stainless steel baby bottles by OrganicKidz and Pura. The colorful stainless steel 10 oz. cups by Ecococoon look like great fun too.
For on the go, my favorite glass bottle for both me and the girls are by Lifefactory, which we bought locally at Earthfare. The 9 oz size holds too much for my toddler so I bought her a 4 oz baby bottle size instead. Online you can get sippy lids, which just saves me from having to open the top for her. And makes it more usable in the car. We took out the rubber piece inside the sippy lid, that makes it spill proof and hard to suck out of. It works great for my two-and-a-half-year-old.
I got sucked into the beauty and sleekness of the BKR glass bottles for myself. It’s okay. I like the color and the top is the same size as a regular plastic water bottle which is nice. But moisture gets trapped between the silicon sleeve and the glass bottle when I put it in the dishwasher. So it’s not my favorite – a little too high maintenance for me.
As much as I’ve tried, I don’t like drinking out of stainless steel. It changes the taste for me and feels too much like camping. Most often on the way out the door I grab a regular glass from my cabinet, that I know fits in my car cup holder, and simply leave home with it filled with fresh water.
Other things I thought of as I was grabbing glasses out of our cabinets to take the photo up top, was to just be mindful of what is around you. My girls love the sake set that we found at a yard sale to pour and serve each other tiny amounts of water. And if you are going to buy your child a tea set, buy them something like this one, that they can actually use. Don’t be afraid to give your child something breakable. Things break! Give them the tools to help clean up the mess and let it go.
Life is too short to worry about a little spilled milk. And life is too short to drink out plastic cups with leaching chemicals.
Cheers!
Sorry for my absence here yesterday. We were still celebrating school letting out, since Friday! We rang in summer break with a bang. Having non-stop mega play dates, attending a late-night minor league baseball game with fireworks, pool outings with friends, and walks to the park.
It all started Friday – and ended Monday afternoon, after hosting a sleepover with two adorably polite 6-year-old identical twin girls. It was their first time away from home, EVER. They did great. And it was so fun that I’m ready for twins!
This week is going to be a busy one as we finish moving everything from the upstairs of our house into the basement, and strategically make room for things before our renovations start on June 18. We’ll be spending a lot of time down there this summer, hiding from the noise and dust. Therefore I’m trying to make it all work perfectly.
In addition to that, we have music lessons and swim lessons planned. And on Thursday we’ll have friends over to help us create an “Enchanted Fairyland” in our backyard. Friday there is another pool visit with friends. So far there is no boredom. And last night, I squeezed in a much needed girls night with the moms from my neighborhood.
So please bear with me as we get into our summer groove. I have lots of fun things in the works to share with you. But it looks like postings this summer will mostly happen in the evening, as I spend my days playing with my children and keeping up with the fun they are having.
We’ll be doing our second TV Free Summer this year. In return, my girls ask that I keep my computer turned off as well. Plus every time I sit in my desk chair my toddler asks to nurse, and I am trying to avoid her constant requests for that. In addition, when I stop being busy around the house, it seems my children stop being busy too. And then the ruckus begins!
To give you a peak into what I’ve got coming up for you – there are Montessori summer shelves with lessons for 2-6 year-olds, pictures of our new basement spaces for the girls, the results of our “Enchanted Fairyland,” adventures in making our own laundry detergent plus more ideas from Pinterest on homemade cleaning supplies, and the glass containers we are loving while we avoid plastic cups this summer.
So stay tuned, as we find our Summer groove and I make time to document it here – for you.
A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.
If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read. 
This is a quick shot I snapped using my iPhone in our poorly lit basement, of my toddler painting with the end of a Napa Cabbage (if you try this, let it dry out for about two days first). I was working on tidying up around her – hence the mess blurred out in the photo.
A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.
In the final hour, I’m happy to say teacher gifts are done and waiting by the door for tomorrow – which is the last day of school for us.
My children very much want a role in choosing the gifts they give their teachers. They have their teachers for three years, so they really mean a great deal to them. Honestly, it would be awkward if I just bought something at the store for them to give. We have done gift cards before. Gift cards are always good! Kids like gift cards. And they like to give the same kinds of gifts they like to receive.
Tomorrow my oldest daughter will be taking flowers in brightly colored pots with a rainbow theme. The pots were less then $4 a piece and I bought a large flat of 22 flowers from Home Depot to use for all the girls’ teachers. Writing the notes to go along with the flowers was all the girls’ doing. The notes were hot glued to wooden plant markers and stuck in the potting soil.
My oldest daughter has five teachers, and one is a male teacher. She didn’t want to give him flowers so he is getting a jar of pears canned from our backyard pear trees, decorated with a picture of macaroni and cheese because that’s what he eats for lunch while sitting with the students.
My middle daughter chose to use my idea of painting old cans (that on found on Pinterest), because she wanted a handle on her gifts so she should easily carry them. So I made that happen by putting two holes in the upcycled cans and using jute twine for a handle, which is displayed in the last photo. 
For the note in my toddler’s upcycled cans, she painted a picture by stamping the end of a Napa Cabbage into paint, and onto the paper. This was great fun! Then I cut up the painting and used it to write the note on for the flowers. 
Here’s a few photos of the process of creating the upcycled can arrangements, with my toddler helping. Don’t forget to put a hole in the bottom of the can for the water to drain. We put two holes on the sides too, to make a handle with jute twine. The last photo shows how that worked out for my toddler, carrying the flowers to her teacher at the end of the year picnic Thursday night. It was an extra step, but I really recommend it. Plus the bow on the front is cute too.
The names of my children have been blurred out on their cards for privacy. I know it’s one tiny thing compared to all I share here. But if feels like the right thing to do, withholding there names from the internet world. So that’s what I do.
Last weekend we went to a birthday party for an eight-year-old who wanted a fairy party, in a park, with carnival games and volleyball playing. Lucky for her, we have a park that fit the bill. And she has a mom who embraces these ideas, helping her make them happen.
I thought some of the ideas were so great I wanted to share them with you.
I’ll start with the carnival games, made and designed by the eight-year-old herself. With a prize area that included the children making their own goodie bags with stickers, erasers, hair clips and candy.
Other activities included decorating a beach ball and making a fairy wand, kid-ideas inspired by supplies from the dollar store.
The mom and daughter made the homemade cookie cake together, using special chocolate produced in a facility with no nuts since her little sister has a nut allergy. The birthday girl requested a bake potato bar for the main entree at the party, with hot potatoes and all the fixings laid out from home. There was also butterfly shaped sandwiches with decorative flowers, which was what my daughter chose.
It was a fun time for all ages.
With lots of fun for the birthday girl. She is a special friend of ours, that we have known since these two girls where babies. They were part of our very first play dates we had when we moved to Knoxville in 2005. And the moment I saw their matching stroller in the driveway, I knew us mamas would be good friends. They are neighbors of ours. And they give us one more reason to renovate our house instead of moving. Happy birthday girl. Here’s to the next eight years!
We have been a fan of Todd Oldham since I found his book Kid Made Modern last year. When my girls need some inspiration I throw out the book and something always comes to us – like the box houses we made last June to kick off our TV Free Summer.
That is why I was so thrilled to see his new line of art supplies in Target, which became available May 20! It’s the perfect thing to stock up on for summer.
Shopping for a birthday gift for an eight-year-old, I knew we could find something in that isle.
My daughter immediately chose the Diary Kit. At the party, the gift was a hit.
“I have been wanting to make my own diary forever,” said the birthday girl when she opened the gift. As the party was dying down she told my daughter her gift was her favorite. They soon found a tree to cop a squat under and wasted no time getting to work on that diary, using the hardback book, wooden stamps and markers provided in the kit.
As a mom of girls who can NEVER have too much tape on hand, I grabbed a set of the Printed Tape. The eight colorful rolls of tape are proving to be just as much fun as I thought they would, and full of open ended creativity.
First my toddler sorted the tapes, then stacked the tapes, and cut pieces of tape to stick all over the table. It comes off easily, adding to why this tape is one of my new favorite things.
Once the big girls saw what was happening they swopped in. My oldest girl used the cardboard tube the tape came on to make the telescope shown at the top of this post. My middle girl covered an old cardboard can to make a drum.
Not bad for an art supply that costs under $7!
The rest of the tape went into a basket and was placed on a shelf with paper, for the girls to choose at any time. Now the signs and paper art made from tape are in abundance too!
The Duck Tape Kit is next on my list. Because what girl wouldn’t want to make a purse out of funky patterned duck tape? Or maybe I should just make it for myself. Either way, my girls will be impressed.
I have thought about buying fun rolls of duck tape many times before for a project like this. But to buy a good variety would have been too pricy.
Usually I am not a big fan of pre made art kits because I believe they cost more money than necessary, seeing you could just buy the supplies and do it yourself for less money. That is not the case here. I think these kits are worth it. They are really good ideas, that kids really want to make. They are packaged in a way that is earth friendly versus glossy boxes that can’t be recycled, and contain quality made, reusable art materials.
Everything I saw, I knew my kids of varying ages would love – bead stringing with pipe cleaners, glitter glue galore, shimmery acrylic paints, necklace kits with real beads, basic paint brushes, canvases for painting, felt kits, paper flower making kits, comic book making kits. Can you tell I’m sold?
Here is a link to all the Kid Made Modern art supplies available at Target, so you can look and see what would be a favorite at your house.
This isn’t any kind of sponsored post and I’m getting nothing in return for this. I just wanted to spread the word to all the mamas out there looking for simple ways to keep your creative kids entertained this summer at home.
I know I’ll be buying more of these supplies for summer, and stashing them away for a raining day. Because when it comes to summer, a mom has to be prepared!
Friday I asked my toddler’s teacher what kind of lessons she likes the most at school right now, because I am setting up some Montessori style activities for her this summer.
She told me three things: homemade play dough with flour mixing, bead stringing and paper cutting.
That evening we were making homemade pizzas so I divided up some dough for the girls, and even my seven-year-old came running to join in the fun. All sitting around the “tiny table” as my toddler calls it, they played with dough and flour for a good thirty minutes.
I had just ordered three new cutting boards and rolling pins which made three perfect play dough lessons for three girls.
For this summer, I’ll leave this lesson on our shelves as one that can be chosen at anytime.
I know just who will be picking it the most. And if she is lucky, her sisters will join her again. Because this time, I think it was her favorite part.
My toddler is quite feisty if you ask me. Really, they all are right? It’s the age of independence and them wanting to do everything themselves. Sometimes it inevitably results in frustration and them acting out due to their inability to rationalize or communicate what is happening. Or maybe it’s just them being mad that things are not happening the way they would prefer during times when that is not a possible option.
We try to practice positive discipline, with attachment parenting philosophies of respecting the child, with the hope they model that respect back to us and their siblings.
In the grand scheme of things, I think it works. But sometimes it doesn’t – like all attempts at parenting. And no mater what, sometimes it’s all trial and error. Every stage and phase is different, bringing different solutions. Basically there is never an easy answer.
AND I know the hard times are yet to come – when there are three teenage girls living under one roof here. But one thing that has remained constant for us so far, is a child’s need for space to calm themselves down before we can really work things out.
Time out never really worked for us. It goes too much against giving a child a choice and displays too much of the parent showing authority over the child.
So right now, when my toddler needs to cool off a bit, she goes to her “Green Chair.” When she chooses to hit instead of using her words, I say, “Acting this way is not okay. Please go to your Green Chair until you can be sweet.” Now when this happens she runs right to it. She sits, rocks, cools down and then returns for a hug – when she is ready, by her own choosing.
When I was a child my mom called this concept “The Thinking Chair.” And we had to sit in it and think about what we had done. The chair was a gold throne high back chair, velvet with tucked buttons, straight up 1970’s. It sat in our formal living room where no one ever went, except to visit “The Thinking Chair.”
That vintage chair now sits in our children’s living room and my big girls use it as their thinking chair, like my toddler’s “Green Chair.” There are times when they all visit theses spots all on their on choosing, for some peace and quiet.
Then there are the times when all the sisters are acting out together (which does happen occasionally). And I sit them all on the sofa and tell them no one can get up until they all choose to get along. It usually always includes a silly lecture from me about how lucky they are to have sisters because I never had one. Sometimes I sit with them.
In the end it turns into a big cuddle fest – after a small amount of kicking, hair pulling and tongues sticking out. But hey, that’s what sisters are for right?
I’m reminding myself of these times and strategies as we enter summer – a 72 day stretch where starting Friday it will be me and them 24/7.
We’ll have a classic camp free summer, with no schedules other than music lessons and weekly art classes at home with a local artist. There will be no TV other than movie morning Fridays. And together, we will all survive – with our “Green Chair” as well as “The Thinking Chair” and group hugs on the couch when needed.
We are close group, us four girls. I’m laying the ground work now for me to be one of them, hoping this equal respect of positive discipline will carry us through the teenage years with flying fun times.
Wish me luck!