Best of 2011

2011 has been a topsy turvey year for us here at Casa de Sense of Wonder. There have been some joyous parts, some scary parts, and some parts that I can't find words to define.

One thing that will define 2011 for me is starting this blog. It has meant more to me than I could have ever dreamed of. Getting to share my ideas, points of view, family fun, and then to find out that people actually WANT to read about them. AMAZING!!

So as 2011 winds down, I thought I would commemorate with a little "best of " list. The following posts have been your favorites. The most view, the most commented on, the most shared.


5. Back in November we celebrated by making a tree branch tee pee! This was so much fun for us to make and play in and it really excited readers. I think the best part is that you don't have to use any special tools. I had wanted to make a fort for the longest time, but I am no carpenter. This tee pee took 20 minutes to put together and it is still holding strong!

4. Last September soon after school started the girls and I mixed shaving cream and glue to make these wonderful sculptural puffy paint creations. This one is still getting shared on Pinterest and it couldn't make me happier. It is so easy and so fun and it looks good enough to EAT!

3. In October I was looking for some "no carve" ideas for our pumpkins. I decided it was time to finally try the crayon melts that had been traveling all over the blog world last summer. These two ideas melted to form one of my most popular posts. The Crayon Pumpkin Melt!

2. In October I participated in the 31 day better blog challenge. Sense of Wonder was just starting to pick up steam and I was anxious to take it to the next level. Things were going great, when all of the sudden, we were given a challenge that truly stumped me. Write an opinion piece. I had never done one before and I'm not sure why but the idea terrified me. I'm so glad I did because my top two posts were both inspired by that challenge. Shortly after Thanksgiving I wrote a post about celebrating Christmas with out celebrating stuff called Occupy Christmas. It really took off. I think people are looking for ways to make the holidays special in a way that doesn't overwhelm their children or their pocket books and this one hit home.

1. My number one most popular post is another opinion piece and I have to say it is one of my favorites as well because it is about something I feel very strongly about; respect for babies. Using the R.I.E. Philosophy at Home told of how I use the principles laid out in the R.I.E Philosophy to raise my children in a loving and respectful way, allowing them the opportunity to learn for learning's sake not out of a desire for praise or a fear of punishment. It is about allowing them the freedom to trust their own bodies in a safe environment. This post was more popular than I could have ever imagined. It got more page views in on day than any of my other post had ever!

So there you have it! The most popular Sense of Wonder posts of all time. Is there a favorite of yours that didn't make the list? I would love to hear about it!
Please have a wonderful SAFE New Years, and thanks for stopping by!

New Years Traditions

So I don't actually have any photos to go with this post so I'm just going to fill in with a few from Christmas. We had a lovely Christmas! Couldn't have been any better! We are now slowing down for that little space between Christmas and New Years before the rush of life starts back again.

This is from last Friday in our Secret Elf giving spree. We almost got caught so we were hiding behind a car.

The kids are sad that Christmas day is over, but I have to admit, I really love New Years. Not because I like to stay up late and party, I can't remember the last time I was actually awake for the ball dropping, but because I absolutely LOVE New Years resolutions! I think there is something wonderful about setting aside time each year for reflection and contemplation of self improvement. I take this time very seriously.

 I love to see my girls work together!

12 years ago, I sat at a table with my father in law shortly after Christmas. We were discussing resolutions. I told him that I wanted to lose weight. I had gained about 50 lbs during that pregnancy and was anxious to get it off. My father in law pulled out a sheet of paper and began telling me about his system for making resolutions.

 Here are Big Sis's gifts laid out Christmas morning. Her library bag reads, "I like big books and I can not lie" She loves it!

He told me that every year he devides his sheet in to catagories: personal, familial, financial, and proffessional. He figures out what his goals are for each catagory. For example for the personal category his goal might be to run a marathon, for the financial category his goal might be to put a certain amount of money in to a savings account. Under each goal he added a step by step outline for how he planned to achieve it. I loved the way he organized his list and over the next few years I tweaked the system to make it may own.

This is how I spend the week leading up to New Years Day. First I go out and buy and journal. It doesn't have to be fancy. A spiral note book will do. I use this to keep track of my goals. On the first page I figure out what category I want to divide my page in to. This will look different for every one. I decided to include 3 sections to my list; personal, familial, and spiritual.

Birdy loves dinosaurs!

The next step is the most important part. The next step is prayer. I set aside time when I won't be interrupted. Early in the morning or late at night after the kids have gone to bed, I find a quiet place with my journal and I begin to pray over my list. I ask the question, "What is in my way? What is keeping my from being a better mom, wife, friend, sister, daughter, servant, leader?" I ask what plans God has for me, and my family. I ask what work he is calling us to do in the world. During this time of meditation I am constantly writing. I write down any names and words that come to me. By the end of this time of prayer I usually have a pretty good idea of what my goals should be.

My boys were tuckered out!

Once I have my resolutions down, the next step is to outline a game plan for how to achieve these goals. I spend some time researching each goal, gathering information, making book lists, or blog lists to help me find inspiration. This may take some time, but it is well worth it. It is easy to say, "This year, I'm going to go green!" but until you have a plan laid out to follow, chances are your goals will fall flat.

All those new toys and he still wants to play with the water beads! Go figure!

 

The first few pages of my journal are filled with this section. Once I get an organized list made, I move on to the next part of my new years resolution. This is why I buy the journal. It is more than just a place to organize my thoughts. I use it as a prayer journal. I use the pages of this journal to write down the names of each of my children, my husband, my mother, my brother, my mother in law, father in law, grand parents, and any one else I think of who could use my prayer. I pray over each name. I ask God how to pray for each person, what the struggles of their hearts truly are. As I pray I write. This journal turns in to a notebook full of letters to God. I keep it with me all year, adding to it when ever I feel called to do so, adding names that need to be added. At the end of the year, I pick up my journal and read over what I have written, folding over the pages as I go and writing, "Thank You"
on each folded sheet. I have been doing this for many years now. It is amazing to pick up these journals and read through them again. It is a tangible reminder of how far we have come, how goals have been met, how children have grown, and how God has worked in our lives.

Thank you, as always for stopping by! I hope this post inspires you and I pray that each of you has a blessed year in 2012!

Secret Elf: day 4

So we have been trying to plan our secret elf gifts in such a way that will not have us baking every day. Sweet treats are nice but we try to shake it up. For day 4 of our secret elf giving week we decided to decorate a tree. We used both homemade ornaments and some store bought ones we happened to have on hand.

The home made ones were made during our ornament painting party by hot gluing pasta together to form a snowflake. We must have looked funny lugging this up the street!

Like our other gifts we left a Christmas card with a poem inside. Today's poem read;

Here is a Christmas tree
We know it isn't tall,
but being Christmas elves we know
Some times the best things are very small.

Merry Christmas!

Secret Elf: day 3

Today marked day 3 of our week long secret elf giving spree. You can check out our previous secret elf days here and here. For day 3 we whipped up a batch of chocolate chip bites.

These are basically chocolate chip cookies but baked up inside mini muffin tins instead on on a cookie sheet. This will work with any chocolate chip recipe you like. You just have to bake them a couple of minutes longer than you would a cookie.

Just like we did on all the previous days, we left a card with a little poem. Writing the little poems each day is one of the best parts of this whole thing. We have to get more and more creative as the week goes on. Today our poem read...

We are the Secret Elves,
We're happy as can be.
You don't know who we are yet,
but on Christmas day you'll see!

We are almost half way done with our secret elf week. This is one of our favorite Christmas traditions. Big sis is already planning next years secret elf week, but if it's going to be a surprise we will have to find one of her friends who's mother doesn't read our blog!

Secret Elf: day 2

Yesterday marked the first day of our week long secret elf giving spree. Each year we pick one lucky friend and sneak up to their house each day with a present which we leave anonymously on their doorstep, ring the bell and run away. Yesterday we delivered a plate of snicker doodles. Today we left a jar of Love Soup.

Love Soup is a wonderful idea for an easy thoughtful gift. You include all the dry ingredients beautifully layered in a jar. You attach a note with the cooking instructions. A parent gave me a jar of this soup as a Christmas present one year and it quickly became one of my families favorite recipes.

To prepare a jar of Love Soup use a canning funnel to layer the following ingredients in to a 1 quart canning jar.

1/3 cup beef bouillon granules
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1/2 cup dried split peas
1/2 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
1/4 cup barley
1/2 cup dried lentils
1/3 cup long grain white rice
1 cup uncooked tri-color spiral pasta

 The cooking instructions are as follows

In large kettle, brown one pound ground beef in a little olive oil. Remove tricolor pasta from top of jar and reserve. Add the rest of the jar contents to the kettle with 12 cups water. Let come to a boil and simmer 45 minutes. Add tricolor pasta and simmer 15 minutes more. Serve with your favorite bread or with a tossed salad.

We left this new gift on the doorstep with a note which read

We're the Secret Elves
Catch us if you can.
We'll come back tomorrow,
With more gifts in hand!

Secret Elf: day 1

Last year Big Sis and I got the idea to do something special for a friend of hers at Christmas time. In the days leading up to Christmas we made little gifts and treats to leave on her friend's doorstep with cute little notes. We didn't say who we were until Christmas day, we just left the note on the porch, rang the door bell, and ran away. This was so much fun for Big Sis. It had all the excitement of toilet papering a house but instead, we were sneaking around doing something nice!

This year we picked a new friend to give our sneaky gifts to. And what is better? We have and extra elf! Big Sis's friend from last year is staying with us this week to help.

Today was our first day of gift giving. Me and the big girls made holiday snicker doodles. We mixed red and green sprinkles in to the cinnamon and sugar to give the cookies a festive look.

Then Big Sis wrote a note which read;

"We are the Secret Elves
and we're here to say,
'We'll be back with presents
from now 'till Christmas day!'"

Then we started our trip to our unsuspecting family. It was a dangerous mission. The big girls dressed all in black (even though it was daylight) and carefully carefully they sneaked up to the house.

They placed the cookies on the porch with the card, rang the bell, and....RAN!

Reaching Out to a Community in Need

        Big Sis is 12 years old. She is in the 7th grade. The middle school she attends is one of the poorest in the school district. When she was in the 5th grade, other parents were busy telling me their plans to transfer their students to other schools so they wouldn't have to mix with "those types of kids." We decided not to do that and we couldn't be happier. Last year her school was recognized with an Exemplary status meaning that they are a top performing school. This year a group from Schools to Watch came to tour. Schools to Watch recognizes high performing schools based on the following criteria:

• They are academically excellent—these schools challenge all students to use their minds well.
• They are developmentally responsive—these schools are sensitive to the unique developmental challenges of early adolescence.
• They are socially equitable—these schools are democratic and fair, providing every student with high-quality teachers, resources, and supports.

The fact that this school is able to achieve all that it has with a student population which is dealing with poverty, hunger, homelessness, abuse, neglect and so much more is amazing. The reason they are able to achieve this is because of the care the faculty has for each child. 

Every Thursday and Friday I volunteer in the food pantry located on campus. This food pantry was started by the staff at the school in response to the problem of hunger facing several students. In the early days, staff would actually all pitch in to get enough groceries for these children take with them over the weekend. Last year the PTA took over the pantry. Working with the devoted faculty to meet the needs of the student population in the Leander Middle School food pantry has ended up becoming one of the highlights of my week

Items for the food pantry are donated by parents, teachers, local churches, and individuals from the community. Children who depend on free breakfast and lunch during the school day and who would other wise go home with no food on the weekends are identified by the councilors. We prepare a back pack full of food for them to pick up every Friday to help make it through the week end. 

This last week we had to prepare the students for a two week break. This meant that we had to send home WAY more food than we normally would. Our once full pantry was looking a little sad by the end of the day, but luckily we had enough donations to send home 28 back packs full of food home with these families. 

In addition to helping with food over the holidays, we also worked with several local churches and businesses to sponsor families who had lost their homes in the wild fires which burned through central Texas this last September. Big Sis's Sunday school class sponsored a family and bought gifts for all of the children and gift cards for the family. Getting to deliver these gifts was one of the most special Christmas experiences I have ever had. These families were so thrilled and touched to receive these carefully wrapped presents given by strangers. My sincere thanks goes out the the youth group from Highland Park Baptist Church, Hill Country Bible Church, and the ladies of the Leander Middle School PTA. Way to spread some Christmas joy!

 I shared this post on...