Baby Elephants

Slowly but surely I'm starting to feel the crafting groove again. We have a couple of gift-giving events coming up - a couple of new babies and a birthday party for a cousin. I was at one of my favorite fabric shops the other night looking for some fabric for the birthday gift (coming soon) and saw this adorable, super soft and cuddly fabric. It cried loudly to come home with me and so it quickly turned in to this cute little baby blanket. It is a two-sided soft minky type fabric and so all I had to do was put some pre-made quilt binding around the edges and boom - gift for a new baby boy. I wish I had chosen a different stitch for the binding - it kind of makes it a little wavy, but it will do. More to come . . . .

Parenting

Well I don't know what is wrong with me. I seriously can't seem to get myself motivated to do anything crafty. Apparently I'm in a reading mood. I've been reading a lot lately - and not just work reports. I've been trying to get some new ideas for parenting. My husband and I have followed Love and Logic since even before son #1 was born. And I will always love the Love and Logic way! But I was looking for some new ideas to help me lately as my boys seem to be growing up right before my eyes. They're not my babies anymore. And I really wanted to get some good ideas for ways to teach them to be good, smart, nice boys who are (appropriately) independent and have good values and know how to make good choices (even though I expect them to make mistakes along the way).

I came across some great books from the Eyres and have been reading "Teaching Your Childrens Values" along with another book that one of their daughters recommends called "The Parenting Breakthrough" by Merrilee Boyack which talks about teaching kids to be independent. I have really learned a lot and plan to pick up a couple more books by the Eyres as the years go by. We started with a value from the Eyre's book in February - Honesty. That went really well! Not that the boys are perfect, but they understand what it is about and why it is important. We've already branched off a little and are teaching "Joy" this month - our own value. We want the kids to be joyful and find ways to embrace the good things in life. The values are something that you don't just teach once, but over and over again at different levels as they grow up. So far, I'm really finding some inner peace in knowing that we're doing lots of different things to take our jobs as parents seriously.

Ok - now really, I have some crafting that HAS to get down over the next few weeks. My fingers are crossed!