Today, I felt better than I have in a long time. The new supplements and herbs that I started taking really seem to be helping the pain. I have had an ongoing battle with my health for some months now and I hope that it's finally turning around. Every Thursday, a local organization does free crafts for local children ages 4-6 and I generally try to make it if I feel up to it. This week, James wasn't with us because his swimming lessons conflicted and he was still with his grandmother, but Charles wanted to go so off we went. This weeks featured crafts was billed as "Easy Bedroom Door Bells". I wasn't too sure about that but I couldn't think of anything too bad that could come of it. I'm glad we went. It was a lot of fun. Not too many other children showed up, so Deedee and Kitty got in on it as well although technically they were underage and their age group meets on Tuesdays. :D They're really easy to make. All you need is a cardboard egg carton cut into sections, paint, brushes, ribbon, glitter and/or other decorations, small jingle bells and glue. Poke a hole through the middle on the bottom of each section and paint it whatever color you wish. Either set aside to dry or sprinkle with glitter and then set aside. If it's already dry and you want to use glitter, use a brush to spread on a thin layer of glue. One you have completed your decorations and each section is sufficiently dry, choose how you want to thread them. Everyone seemed to do it thier own way and the choices are infinite. One child used several varying lengths of ribbon, one for each section but he also tied on bits of leaves, bark, acorns etc. along the lengths. He tied one end to the bell and then threaded the other end through the hole on the inside of the section and then tied all the loose ends together (this is the same way that Charles and Deedee tied theirs, minus the bits of Nature). However, Kitty only painted two sections and I tied hers. I tied on a bell, threaded it through one of the sections from the bottom and then treaded it through her other section through the top before tieing on the other bell. I then tied a know in the middle of the ribbon to form a loop to hang it with. The other family there put all of their "bells" on one length of ribbon, evenly spaced. All of the finished product looked great. Considering there were nine children there 6 and under and two 2 and under, we blessedly had no accidents with the paint. Or, at least those easily remedied. Kitty's glow worm is now personalized (there's orange paint and glitter smeared on it) and I hot a small smear of orange paint on my dress. The cool thing is I washed it out right away and it left a very faint orange tint but it blended right in and now that it's dried I can't even see it. James is doing great in his swimming lessons. His grandmother takes him and she says that he enjoys it and that he's also very helpful with other children that are a little scared. I'm really proud of him. It seems like he's really grown up lately, even though he's still very childish at times. He had a lot of fun this evening because he got to go with his grandmother and see a play. She said it was rather odd but apparently James enjoyed it. He's working really hard on his K and T sounds although, he's getting really frustrated with them. That's why it really angered me that his grandfather offered to take him to a baseball game (something he adores) but only on the condition that James mastered both of those sounds BEFORE the game, which is very soon. |
