Experimentation

This blog is going to be looking different.  I am going to use it as practice space for my new project.  Humble Hearts will be a website to provide ideas, resources and encouragement for parents teaching their children the Bible on a daily basis.  I will be coordinating the website, but the content will not be just from me.

1 Year Old Craft: Bean Collage

At a recent learn and play group we did a bean collage.  My one year old liked so much that we've been doing bean collages during our craft time.

Paint colored glue thinned with water.

Drop beans and lentils onto the glue.  

The color in the glue helps her to know where to put the beans.  I turn the paper from time to time because otherwise she would just have a pile of beans in one spot on one piece of paper!

 

5 Favorite Children's Books 2011

One activity I enjoy as a parent is sharing books with my daughters. I'm so thankful for all of the books we have.  From friends and family, from our garage sales, from our library, and form Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Here are some books that have been extra special to our family this past year.

1.  "Baby Animals Black and White"

Babies visually are drawn to both black and white images and to look at faces.  This book has both.  While it doesn't have words, it is fun to make up what the animals have to say.  It has also been good for tummy time.  My first daughter enjoyed it when she was younger, and now our new little baby is enjoying it.

2.  "A Mother For Choco"
This has been my one year old's favorite the past year.  She would read it over and over again.  It is about a little bird looking for someone to be its mother.  My daughter liked acting out parts of the book (crying, hugging, kissing, dancing).

3.  "Barnyard Beat"  
This book about all the animals on the farm "having the beat" is so fun to read.  The words are written in way that you can't help but read them in a rhythmic manner.  Even for someone like me who doesn't have much of a beat!

4.  "Baby's First Bible"
This has been a wonderful first Bible for our daughter.  We wanted a children's Bible that included the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which this one did while still being age appropriate.  The illustrations are really engaging for a child.  Lots of animals are spread throughout the book, which gets her attention.  At the same time she is getting exposure to the vocabulary of people in the Bible.





5.  "Press Here"
This gets the award for the book that I am most looking forward to reading more of.  We just got this book last week from the library.   It is an awesome interactive book that at the same time teaches spatial awareness, left, right, etc .

Learn and Play Group Begins

Recently I started a Learn and Play Group at our home.  It has been so much fun!  6 children ages ranging from ages 4 years old to 10 months old get together with their mothers for a little over an hour.  We sit in a circle, read some short books, sing 2-3 songs, do a craft/art project and then have play time.  I've found that doing these activities with a group rejuvenates me to do these type of learning activities with my 1 year old the rest of the week.

It has been a fun challenge to come up with activities that can benefit all of the age ranges on some level. Especially craft/art projects with young ones that are still exploring with their mouth!  So far we made edible finger paint (recipe), homemade playdough that is non-toxic (recipe), and shake and see bottles.  None of the crafts went how I envisioned, but we had fun and I think it was still a learning experience for the kids.

Sewing: Taggy Blanket

Babies love to find tags on blankets and toys to play with them.  Taggy blankets provide babies with an over abundance of tags to touch and explore.  I made my first taggy blanket for a friend from high school that just had a baby boy.

Again, this project reinforced from me that sewing in squares or rectangles is one of the easiest things to do.  Despite looking at this tutorial, I still almost sewed the tags inside the blanket instead of outside the blanket!  I'm so thankful that in sewing that we can redo mistakes and are not stuck with them!  One side of the blanket was minky material (the bumpy side), which was more difficult to work with than I expected, but it still came together.

Psalm 63

Photographer unknown.  Picture was in an e-mail forward.

 Psalm 63:5-8 
 "My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
   and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
   and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
   and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
   your right hand upholds me."

I have found great encouragement in meditating on God.  How wonderful to be protected, like a baby bird under its mothers wings.  I have much to sing for joy about!

Sewing: Duvet Cover

I started this duvet cover project last winter, and I am proud that 8 months later it is finally finished!  I used this tutorial - Design Sponge duvet tutorial,
but simplified it (no French seams for me, and I used 2 panels of fabric on each side instead of 3).  

Duvet covers can be expensive, and I really liked picking out my own material.  (I used Joel Dewberry herringbone "pond")

What held me up for all of those months?  I didn't have a zipper foot, and I was intimidated by installing the zipper.  That sounds like I needed...my mom. And she faithfully came to the rescue.  Especially when her pregnant daughter bemoaned, "I have to get this duvet cover done before the baby comes and it is winter again."  Thanks mom! 

Book: South of Superior

Snap shot of 7 month's pregnant: a little sewing, a little reading, with my little one by my side!

I recently enjoyed reading South of Superior by Ellen Airgood.  Some of the things that I enjoyed about this sweet book:

•  While you follow one main character, there is a whole cast of different types of characters that she gets to know in the small town.  I love books and movies that involve many different types of people coming together on something that they have in common.
• It takes place a little in Chicago.  It was fun to read references to my old stomping ground of Chicago.
• Most of the book took place in Michigan's upper peninsula.  It was fun to learn more about a region I only know vaguely about.  I feel like I have a better handle of what life up there is like.
• The main character grew and changed.  And it had a positive ending.  Yes, I'm one of those people that likes a happy ending.
• Thanks to my friend Janet for recommending it.  It is so nice to be friends with a librarian who has good taste!

Favorite 2 Player Strategy Games

My husband and I really enjoy playing strategy games.  We get to spend time together without spending much money. This list is full of games that we go back to over and over again.  All of these games also work great with more than 2 players.   Each of these titles are linked to BoardGameGeek.com where you will find a detailed explanation of the game.  In no particular order:

1.   San Juan

A card game version of Puerto Rico.   It is easy to set up, doesn't take to long, but involves some nice strategy.











2. Pass The Pigs

A dice game, where the dice are pigs.  A fun and lighthearted game.  How can you get too serious about pigs?  We were given a travel game for our wedding and have had fun taking the game on hiking and camping trips.  But to be completely honest, this game doesn't work that well when hiking.  Scoring how the pigs land is done best on a true flat surface, which is hard to come by in the "wild".  But that brings me back to "Really, how can you get too serious about pigs?"


3. Ticket To Ride

In Ticket to Ride you get the satisfaction of building something, in this case long train routes across America.  I like games were even if you loose, you still feel like you accomplished something.  Also, this game lends itself to making a fun soundtrack.  Make a play list of songs about different cities and also songs about trains and you are in for a fun time.



4.  Agricola 

This is one of my favorites.  But beware, it takes lots of strategy, lots of little parts, and lots of time.  But I love it!  Each person is raising a family, building a home and producing livestock.  Sounds simple, but there are so many different ways you can go to try to win.



 
5.  Bohnanza
Affectionately known as "the bean game".  Lower on the strategy end.  Higher on the social end.  There are different types of beans that you plant, harvest and trade.  In the two player version trading doesn't come into play quite as much, but it is still fun.






6.Carcassonne

In this game it is all about building and tile placement.  You are building castles, cathedrals, pastures and roads.  I think I would like this game even more if Luke didn't out maneuver me at the end every time!





7. Alhambra

This game is also all about building and tile placement, but in a different way than Carcassonne (meaning, sometimes I can beat Luke at this game).  Alhambra is quick and easy to learn but can still involve a lot of strategy.





8.Dominion

A game that is all about card play and building your dominion, in a lord of the manor sort of way.  I was reluctant to try this game for a long time due to there being a witch and curses involved.  But I then learned that you don't have to ever use the witch and curse cards.  This is the only game on the list that I have played for less than a year, so in a funny way my feelings about it aren't as strong.


Do you have a favorite two player game?

Baby Quilts Part 1

A year after starting to sew I really wanted to make a quilt for each of my girls.  With the theme of keeping it simple, I have started to plunge into a genre of sewing that feels like a rite of passage for me.

Example of an I-Spy Quilt

The "I-Spy Quilt" concept initially inspired me.  The idea of having a quilt where a child finds different items sounds really fun for a toddler.  But I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, so I chose 8 different fabrics and stuck to an animal theme.  These two tutorials from Sew Mamma Sew gave me ideas of how to make a patchwork quilt Link 1 Link 2

5 1/2 inch squares

A rotary fabric cutter really helped to cut out the squares.

Not the final pattern.

I rearranged the squares on the floor to figure out a pattern,


and then sewed the sqaures into strips.

My helper!

 My 1 year old sat in my lap for short periods of time while I pinned the rows together.

Quilt top #1 sewed together. 

She's more interested in the mulch than her quilt progress!

Next up: learning how to attach the front and the back, quilting it all together, and binding it.  Then doing it all over again.

To be continued....

Baby Porridge Recipe

Learning how to feed herself!

Quick. Healthy.  Inexpensive.  These are all words a mother likes to hear related to a recipe for her baby.  These things make baby porridge my favorite baby food recipe.

Baby Porridge

Breakfast, lunch and dinner it can be mixed with other fruits or veggies for substantial nourishment. Whole grains and dried beans are healthy and inexpensive, but can take a long time to cook.  This recipe cuts that time down amazingly.

Recipe:
1/3 cup uncooked whole grain (I've used brown rice, or millet, or groats, or wheat berries, or spelt, etc)
2 T dried beans (I've used white beans, large lima beans, lentils, garbanzo beans, or red beans)
2 cups water
Note:  I usually stick with one type of bean and one type of whole grain per batch.  My favorite combination is brown rice with white beans.  It has a nice creaminess to it.

 1.  Put grain and beans in a food processor and process for to 2 minutes.

 2.  Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a small saucepan.  Add in the grain/bean powder and stir with a whisk.

3.  Cook for 10 minutes uncovered, stirring every couple of minutes.
4.  Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Baby Porridge mixed with fruit.

I got the recipe from "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron.  

I would love to hear what is, or was your favorite baby food recipe to make!

Love Birds

This last weekend we attended a wedding and gave the bride and groom these two handmade love birds as a part of our gift.  The colors for the wedding were purple and black.  

While making these I learned that sewing something small and curvy proves to be more challenging than sewing straight and rectangular.  After scrapping my first attempts, I rallied my troops and went for it again. 

I have wanted to make these birds ever since I saw this bird mobile pattern.  I hope to make a bird mobile for the nursery some time in the future.  Especially since now my 1 year old loves seeing birds.  She gets so excited about birds that she does a baby-sign for birds whenever she wants to go outside.

Asking for Help

My 1 year old has been learning baby sign language.  She recently learned how to ask for "help" (she uses a fist instead of a "thumbs up".)  Quickly she learned that asking for "help" has a lot of power.  Especially when you are with someone who loves you and that person wants to help you.

She does the baby sign and then I will quickly be by her side wanting to know what she needs.  The first day or so she would ask for "help" all day long.  Now it has just simmered down to a consistent plea throughout her day.  This doesn't mean that she always gets what she wants.  But it does mean that I then know that she has a need and I help determine what is best.

This had made me think a lot about increasing in asking God for help throughout my day. 

Psalm 109:26  Help me, O Lord my God! 

Save me according to your steadfast love!

God loves me and wants to help me.  I am trying to remember to look to Him and ask for help more throughout my day.

 

Psalm 121:2  My help comes from the LORD, 

Who made heaven and earth. 

What a comfort to know that I am asking a God who has the power and the ability to help me.

Psalm 46:1-3  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

No matter how overwhelming the situation may be, it is not overwhelming for God.  In my life right now I get overwhelmed by caring for a 1 year old while 6 months pregnant, but God isn't overwhelmed with my situation!

Psalm 63:7  For You have been my help, 

And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.

 Just as my daughter is comforted by my help, I can enjoy the comfort of my Heavenly Father caring for me.