31 days - I've lost count!

 What a crazy, busy week ... I've had seminars, crazy at work, my students were caught cheating, correcting tests, going horse back riding, finishing my daughters dress, teacher's seminar day, Sunday School, two birthday parties....

Maybe that's why my daughters, one in particular, really acted up at church today!?!

The pictures are the birthday gifts, one for a neighbor lady, I used this tutorial: 

Embroidery hoop tute - I made it in a neutral color and painted some French words in front - bless this home.

 Today the girls had a party at a play land for one of the girls in their class. i made a jersey knit skirt with a flower appliqué and a bag.

 i'm stll setting my boundaries with my acting-up-daughter. Still showing tough love - because I think she needs it.

Today I want to link to a very nice post I read about 10 things children always will remember!

Read it!

A little love, a dress of her dreams, some inspiration

 it's showing love creating the dress of her dreams, right?

My daughter saw this dress, and it's her favorite dress of all times - she wanted different colors, though, more pink.

I made the dress to be able to be warn four different ways, with the "belt" and tutu, with the "belt", no tutu... without the "belt" and tutu and without the "belt" and tutu...

http://www.dressale.com/charming-spaghetti-straps-pickup-ball-gown-p-33174.html

 The bow is also detachable...

 no belt- with tutu

 used buttons in the back

 no belt, no tutu

 belt, but no tutu

 And her favorite way:

 Belt and tutu!

She'll be using this for Christmas, every little girl needs a princess dress at least one time in her life...

This is also my signature dress for Project run and play...

I always make things that can be worn in different ways or reversible dresses, 

my signature I think is making something that's versatile!

I'll be back later for a tutorial for the "belt" - it can be made with any dress with buttons down the back!

31 days - "pulling my hair"

Today has really been a one-of -a-kind kind of day. My darling daughter has had a tantrum for more than two hours, only because I'm not going to be home all day tomorrow. On Mondays I work until 5:30 and then tomorrow I'm going straight to a seminar about Faith at home - something I really enjoy and want to attend - learning how to bring up my girls believing in Jesus.

And it would have been so easy for me to tell her that I'll stay home, because she's telling me that the only way that I can show her i love her is by telling her I won't go..... (testing me, yes I know) 

And BECAUSE I love her, like i never thought was possible, I'm not going to tell her that. I'm going to that seminar, probably sitting there feeling very guilty, but also knowing I'm doing the right thing. 

I don't want to teach her that she can cry her way into things. I want her to grow up and be a well liked girl and a teenager that knows how to behave and to treat others. 

I did make sure that we spent some quality time together today, though, like after her tantrum and her crying and her wishing she died.... yes, not nice to hear!

Some days ago she wanted us to have a beading competition, and see whom of us finished first, so that's what we did tonight. And I know she knows I love her, and I know she's just testing me (she never had her terrible twos), but it would still have been so much easier for me to stay home tomorrow. 

BUT I AM NOT!!! Because I love her and I want to show her the right kind of love - the love that also cares about who she will be when she grows up!

I love you Ariana, always and always, no matter what you do or how angry you are with me!

31 days - 12 and 13

Yesterday the girls gave their letters to their teacher. She was very happy about them and decided to make a poem wall in the classroom - and put them up there.

I really like that she did that - the girls got a really nice confirmation that when they try to be nice to someone, it's appreciated.

Today they didn't get a new challenge. Their father is visiting and we all went bowling together. I really enjoy doing things like that together, showing the girls that even though we're not married anymore, they are what's important to the both of us.

Angel was wayyyyyyy too tired today though, and threw several fits... Someone has told me that some 7 year olds go through a pre-puberty age - she's definitely there... ah! When she gets like that, she feels like she is the worst at everything, she can't bowl, no one likes her,  she is the ugliest...

and the only thing that helps, is really putting her on my lap and comfort her and tell her great things about herself. i wish she was born with the same kind of confidence as her sister....

And during this month of LOVE, i really hope she'll see how great she really is!

31 days - 11 - doing favors and giving gifts

So, I was just way to tired to write a post yesterday... and because of this, you'll get three posts today!

Yesterday the girls had the same challenge as Wednesday, because they didn't really do anyone a favor.

But Wednesday night, right before bed time, Arielle asked what their challenge would be the next day... Yeah, they like their challenges.

Yesterday they were good at helping a lot of people out - and I think they really enjoy doing this.

they've even given me challenges - yesterday I had to do something special for someone at work and today I have to dance (!!!!!) in front of someone at work... at least it's going to put a smile on someone's face... (and luckily for me - there are only two other people at my work today)

Today is the day of giving, and the girls initiated that themselves. Last night (after bed time, I know...) they wrote a poem each for their teacher, so I told them the challenge would be to give it to her...

Translation: Lunde school poem! At Lunde school Merete works, and she is the best, therefor there is a fest. To Merete, you are the best teacher. From Arielle. (it rhymes better in Norwegian)

During fall, the leaves turn red and yellow and orange and in the end the leaves fall off and the birds fly off to Africa.. (from Ariana)

Aren't they just the sweetest?

I'll be back later to tell you how their teacher received the letters!

Day 31 - 10 - Serving someone

My girls didn't do as well today as yesterday on their challenge - they told me no one asked for anything... i guess we'll have to try for one more day doing this.

Today we've just enjoyed our afternoon together - walked/ scootered to the store, ate dinner and homework. I'm sewing another dress for the girls, and Arielle helped me sewing - ah, I guess she made the challenge after all....

But we'll still try the challenge another day!

31 days - 9, cahllenge for the girls

Yesterday i gave the girls a challenge: say something nice to someone tomorrow - Arielle wrote me a note right away - a very sweet note about me being mommy.

But then i asked them at dinner time if they had done my challenge - they both reported they had. They were so proud of themselves, telling me about all the friends they had said something nice to!

Makes a mother's heart happy.

tomorrow they are challenged to do something for someone! and we'll see how that goes.

It's nice to see that the girls enjoy being nice, and they see the rewards they and their friends reap from this.

Love always works!

31 days - 8 - setting some boundaries

Teaching my girls about love this month, is a really nice experience. It's so nice to just be a little more aware of how am around them.

i realize during this that i do a lot of the five love languages every single day. Quality time is the one that is the hardest to find time (!) to do every day. But it really doesn't have to be a long time. A short period of quality time is a lot better than a long period of time where we don't really see each other.

But love is also about setting boundaries and about raising your child to be person that cares about others.

I'm not a very strict person, but i want my girls to care about others, treat their friends and class mates with respect and love. I want them to be polite and sweet.

This is also love - because if they don't behave nice - they won't be liked by the other kids.

I'm cutting this one short now - it's (late) dinner time...

Day 7 - Touch

Today we'll talk about touch - we're a touchy family, meaning we like to give hugs. The girls love to sit on my lap and we have a big ordeal going on at bed time regarding hugs and prayer.

Doctors say we need at least 8 hugs each day to stay healthy - 

so, HUG YOUR KIDS

Day 6 - Acts of Service

Acts of Service - I feel like I do those ALL the time, ALL day long, EVERY day... as a mother there is always something to fetch, some mouth to feed, a table to clear...

I think my mother's love language is acts of service, so I was always served upon, and i'm doing the same to my girls. I love to serve them, and I never only sometimes took my mother for granted. I don't feel my girls are taking me for granted either. I hope I can teach the girls to be servants. I believe that we are all called to be servants.

When Jesus washed His disciples feet, He told them that they should go out and do the same.

I tried to show my girls some extra acts of services today... and did not get the same responses as yesterday... but that's okay. Ariana has had some broken teddy bears for a little loong while that she wanted me to sew.. so I finally stitched them up - and she just wasn't as happy as i thought she would be... guess that's not her love language, and that's good to know.

My girls are also good servants. They love to help me out, specially when we can do things together. When they help me, they are so happy and so proud, they definitely speak that language...

Filling my girls love cups, will help them becoming more secure and easier to deal with!

I worked a few years with homeless people in New York - and I LOVE IT - I love serving the homeless people, making them feel special, giving them what they need... I want my girls to know that feeling and to feel that they should do the same. i want them to know that we are all called to serve one another!

Tomorrow is TOUCH!

Day 5 - Gifts

Today was the day of giving gifts. And this is the love language that i mostly want to be careful with, because I don't want my girls to get spoiled. On the other hand, if that's how one of them understands that I love them, I have to take that seriously.

I didn't want to spend any money today - remember, it's supposed to be done CREATIVELY!

 Getting ready for kcwc - the girls and I had talked about me sewing pj's for them and they had picked out the fabric.

I decided I could sew them the pj's today. I put ribbon around them and wrote a note:

 To Arielle (Ariana) Sleep tight <3 mommy!

 And to my surprise, they loved it and really thought the pj's were gifts for them. One of the girls said: But mommy, we haven't talked about this! The other one threw herself around my neck thanking me.

This made me realize that giving gifts can be really simple, it is actually about the packaging - and I'll have to do this more often - not just hand them what I've sewn for them!

Tomorrow is Acts of service!

and soon it will be the girls time to show love by practicing themselves...

Day 4 - words of Affirmation

Today was the first Word of Affirmation day. Again this is something that is important to my girls. Specially one of the girls appreciate this. Her self esteem is not very high at times, and she really likes when someone tells her nice things.

 I decided to make each of the girls a daughter-mother book. This is a book where we can write to each other. I wrote something in the book to them today, and I put the book on their pillows before bed time. The text today said some things I really enjoy about them.

The girls that need it the most thought it was soooo embarrassing, go figure...

 But I do think this can be a nice tradition. In here I can write nice things about them, we can write about things we want to remember and they can tell me things they don't feel like telling me up front.

 I just decorated two composition books - with some nice wrapping paper, stickers and a post card. The white card reads: Happiness is to love you - and the black ones: god is love.

Here are the fake tattoos they did yesterday!

i think they look so cute!

Why am i doing these 31 days? one of my girls has been going through some issues lately, and I've noticed that when I make sure that she feels loved and has enough time with me - everything goes more smoothly.

I want my girls' love cups to always be full, over running. 

I don't want them to get everything they want, I don't want them to be spoiled rotten, but I do want them to ALWAYS feel loved, always feel like they are my priority, even when I take time out for myself.

i also believe that we understand love in different ways and if I understand love, lets say by acts of service, and i constantly try to serve my girls, but they understand love by words of affirmation, then I won't be able to communicate my love to them by serving them. I need to understand how they understand that they are loved. Of course I also believe we need all of the above. But we have ONE way we understand it better than the others. 

At this time in life, I know my girls enjoy quality time. I also know that they express their love to me by acts of service towards me. They are soooo proud of themselves when they get to help me, but we have to do it together - that way the help me and we spend time together...

Tomorrow I picked GIFTS - and I'll try to do it and not spend a dime...

Leave a comment if you try this!

31 days - day 3

I just tried to write this post on my tablet, but publishing it failed....

Today the girls and I spent a lot of quality time together. We've exercised together on indoor machines, painted fake tattoos with face paint, gone for a walk, spotted images in the clouds. We love these days, the days where we just enjoy eachother.

I am a single mother, I have to work full time to make the ends meet, and sometimes I don't have a lot of time, I know that making room for quality time is so important to the girls, they do feel really loved. They bloom when we do things together. and some times they feel like they don't get enough time with me. 

And when all we have to do for them to feel special, is walking outside, telling stories about the clouds together, then it's something I need to make more room for in our lives.

I want my girls to always feel loved. I want them to feel like I priorities them. I therefor try to be on the computer mostly when they are in bed. THEY are important, not my friends on facebook or not even you guys (smile), I can make room for ME-time when they are not around. 

Later this month I will also talk more about the importance of me-time.

Tomorrow I'll be doing... tatatataaaa - WORDS - and I already know what I'll be doing - starting a new tradition in our little family....

Teaching love, day 2

I still didn't make my 30 "lottery tickets" - so today I've tried to incorporate all five of the love languages.

Words of Affirmation - trying to tell my daughter how pretty i think she is and that she is so good at drawing. I told her i want to make one of her drawings into a dress for her.

Quality time - We needed pet food for our FOUR chinchillas and THREE Guinea pigs - and because I know that they like to go and look at all the animals, I brought them with me and we walked around looking at all the cute animals.

Receiving gifts - the girls have been away for two days, so today coming back, I hade made them two skirts each. i don't think this is their love language, but they do love to get something nice to wear!

Acts of service - same as above, I reckon

Physical touch - I took both girls on my lap, playing on our tablet together - mixing physical touch with quality time.

For tomorrow I drew (yes, I've made the tickets) QUALITY TIME - which is perfect because it's our first day of fall break. 

Now I just need to think of some creative way to get some quality time in - and remember it's not quantity!

if you want to play along, leave me comment in tomorrow's post about how you shared some quality time with your child.

Creatively teaching love - 1

It's October 1st!

Shich means the 31 days of blogging about one thing starts today.

I want to - for 31 days - tell my girls I love them, being more creative about it, making sure they "get it".

I want to use Gary Chapman's The five love languages as a starting point. Children up to 12 can switch their main love language, and my girls are 7. I will therefore use all 5 of them.

I will make up 31 notes, giving each of the five languages equal attention. The day before, I will draw one note and see which one I'm doing the next day.

My girls aren't home today, so today I will do good words - and call them!

This will be my 31 days!

31 Days starting tomorrow

Tomorrow is October 1st and for the second year in a row I'm participating in the 31-days-of-blogging-about-one-topic-challenge over at The Nester.

Are you in? 

I am - still praying about what topic to write about, I have three, four, maybe five to choose from!

I do have a main idea, I just have to form it into a concrete plan!

I love this challenge, it gives me a chance to focus on something that will hopefully enrich our lives.

Happy blogging!

Update: Here is my topic this year: 31 days of creatively teaching my girls about LOVE - meaning how much I love them and how much Jesus loves them!

I want to show them love in creative ways for 31 one days!