Parenting … a minefield.

 

Here is something for me to think about taken from Raising Small Souls blog tonight …

The 7 Deadly Habits are:

1. Criticizing
2. Blaming
3. Complaining
4. Nagging
5. Threatening
6. Punishing
7. Rewarding to control (as in manipulating)

The 7 Connecting Habits are:

1. Caring
2. Trusting
3. Listening
4. Supporting
5. Negotiating
6. Befriending
7. Encouraging

Do you recognize your own actions anywhere in these lists?

I spend many nights laying in bed wondering how I can make tomorrow better. It upsets me dearly to go to sleep knowing that I had so many negative interactions with my children during that day. On some days I could tick all 7 of the Deadly Habits above.

I need to work on this one more.

Thanks for stopping by …

Messenger Bag Quest

I am still on my quest to find the right messenger bag construction method that ticks all my boxes.

This one I made for one of Lujayne’s friend as we attended her birthday this afternoon.

I like this one better than the one I made yesterday as it has more structure to it with the side and bottom panels. Here is the back with her initial on the bag and her on crayon roll.

Lulu liked it and tried it on for size which then made me think it might a little too big?? Maybe take it down and inch or so? Do you prefer it square or rectangle?

The theme of the party was Strawberry Shortcake and the cake was very well done. I don’t think the photo will do it much justice as I was taking it with my phone and I had Eyad in my arms jiggling about, but you get the gist.

Thanks for stopping by …

Danjal’s Birthday

Today we went to Danjal’s 5th birthday party. It was very nice to go to a party that was a good old fashioned simple affair and lots of fun for the kids as I feel too often these days parties can get a bit extravagant and we forget that kids just want to have fun.

(see that lovely lady in the background she is due to give birth to twins any day now!)

I was pleased to have made a bag and crayon roll and booklet for Danjal.

The messenger bag was a mix of tutorials as I have yet to find a method that I am totally happy with but I shall keep trying . The fabrics were from my stash and the embroidery was some iron patches I had in my embellishment box.

The back of the bag and crayon roll.

The booklet is simple. Just a piece of felt folder over with some elastic inside so you can take A4 paper and fold in half and slip it through the elastic for an instant new booklet each time. This was the first time I had done this but I think it is a nice keepsake too.

Danjal’s mum made an amazing cake for later that was super delicious. It is a traditional Faroese cake with meringue , apple and caramel, mmmmm it was really good. I am a bit ashamed to say that before meeting Solva and her lovely family I did not know of the Faroe Islands!

Speaking of food I have not blogged much lately about my Deceptively Delicious cooking. I do manage to “sneak” some veg puree into many of the dishes but last night I was pretty blatant about it. We had “artists Night” where the kids could decorate their plates with the veg purees. It started with a base of mash potatoes (with cauliflower puree mixed in), then we snipped the corner of the purees and made our masterpieces and then we ate them. Sorry for the awful pictures but this was the best I got …

Lulu said hers was called “Happy Man with Crazy Hair”.
Thanks for stopping by …

Happy Easter

(aren’t these felt eggs gorgeous my sister made them last year, now I need to ask her to make one more!)

This is the first year we have had an egg hunt at home as usually Easter doesn’t get celebrated here being a Muslim family. However the kids are at an International school they tend to celebrate everything so the kids were keen to have an egg hunt and as my darling family had sent some chocolate eggs for the kids I thought “why not”.

I hid all the eggs in groups of three and asked them to work as a team.They started downstairs …

made their was upstairs …

and basically had lots of fun.

There was also some chicks and felt eggs to find as bonuses but they had to make sure everyone had one before they could claim their prize. It worked well and there was no competition or  “he got more than me” sagas etc.

After the hunt they all went to the kitchen to check out their stash and make sure everything was fair and even (their idea not mine – yay for small miracles).

Later in the afternoon we made some bunny candy necklaces my sister had sent over.

This is a nice activity to at any time as it involves counting, hand eye coordination, colour sorting and finally eating

I substituted the elastic in the kit for a larger kind and added some Froot Loops that I had purchased a week ago for this activity but had to hide from the kids, LOL.

Sami was not keen on the hard candy but he did like the Froot Loops. My poor deprived kids it was the first time they had them. Look at the concentration on his face!

Once the necklaces were made they enjoyed them as their afternoon treat while watching a DVD.

(Please excuse Lulu’s mid mouthful smile and Laith’s crazy hair which desperately needs a cut)

I hope for those of you celebrating Easter that you have had a lovely blessed day.

Oh and don’t think little Eyad missed out. He was in on the fun only he was on my hip most of the time except here, post nappy change, giving me his smiles as usual.

Thanks for stopping by …

Hot Cross Buns

Can you believe this is the first time I have made hot cross buns!

I was inspired by Tracy over at Mad Quilter and Kel over at The Handmaden with their great pictures of home baked buns. Mine are a little too brown I think but then my oven and I have had a long on again off again relationship and I think today was an off day.

The recipe I followed was this one from Best Recipes. It was pretty simple compared to a few others that I looked at. I used my breadmaker to make the dough but I have to tell you that stuff was very sticky to work with but it looks like it was worth it.

I also used my Paprika App on my iPad and stored this recipe. Have seen this app it is great. You can download from the web, copy and paste or just type in your recipes. It can create a shopping list, has a timer for when you are baking and a great meal planner where you can drag your recipes from your folders into the plan for the week (and if you want it then makes a grocery list for you). Very good. Oh and if you want to share recipes with family and friends you can buy a cloud app for $9.99 per year and then you have access to each others etc. Pretty cool.

Thanks for stopping by …

Happy Earth Day

I had planned to do some Earth Day craft today but somehow our day just morphed into a pretty long lazyfest which I think is just what we all needed.

It started with some farming … Lego style

and everyone was pretty happy

and Sami made his version of Astro Boy


while Laith hung out with his best buddy

then Lulu woke up (gosh I wish I looked like this when I woke up in the morning!)

Later after lunch the kids all gathered on our bed which is pretty usual for a Friday afternoon. Laith was teaching Ali how to play chess and Ali was cheating, LOL.

Laith was getting frustrated with Ali and said to him “Come on, even Dee Dee learnt quicker than you and she is a grandmother!”, I think that was a compliment Mum

The kids were looking at storybooks and Eyad was watching them all with wide eyes.

So while I did not get around to our Earth Day crafts we sure did give the earth a spin  … because as you all know Love Makes the World Go Round!

Thanks for stopping by …

Easter Cakes

Today we headed off for school with our plate of Easter Cupcakes for the teachers but of course I had to promise Sami he could have one when he gets home as he felt … “its not fair the teachers get all the cakes and I get none” LOL.

(Thanks Sharon for the cake toppers and the other ones you sent were used on the kids cakes at school but I forgot to a picture sorry!)

The kids bunny cards were attached to a brown lunch bag that was decorated with Easter stickers which held their packet of Tim Tams.  Okay so it wasn’t an Easter Egg but I am sure they will love their Tim Tams all the same.

(Mum Lulu’s wearing your top!)

The teachers are an awesome crew and they deserve every bit of praise and goodies they can get.

Eyad decided to wake up at 4.30am today and start his day … so I am … (yawn) ready for a nap … wishful thinking perhaps

Thanks for stopping by …

Hopping Craft and Cakes

Tomorrow is the last day before the short Easter break. Lulu and Sami painted some cards this afternoon for their teachers and instead of an Easter Egg we are giving them a pack of Tim Tams each (you gotta spread the Aussie chocolate luv!) as I am pretty sure once Al Fair sells out we won’t see them again in Oman.

After the bunnies I asked Sami if he wanted to do some roller painting and create a picture. Once again I had to shut my mouth and let him paint the way he wants …

then I asked if he wanted to finger painting and I put some special neon paints into little pots for him. At first he dipped his finger in and dabbed the paint on the page but he was pretty unimpressed so he grabbed a paintbrush and painted his hands and smacked them down on the paper and then jumped up and down saying yay … it is the process Mum, I have to tell myself over and over.

His pictures were fab!

Here are the finished cards with a little fluff added and some lovely stickers that Auntie Sharon had sent the kids.

Speaking of Auntie Sharon and her Easter craft we took some of the materials to school to do craft with the kids and here is a picture of some of their goodies.

Miss Julie thanks you Sharon as does Miss Alison as their class did the foam eggs yesterday.  Sami thought they were  - orrrrsome, lol.

Later in the afternoon when the kids were in the pool with Marlene watching them, I attempted to make rainbow coloured cupcakes using three different coloured batters …

but I think I did something wrong as instead of the colours staying in layers they moved around and they looked completely different in each cake.

Oh well, I am sure they will still be enjoyed.

I often get asked how I manage to do craft etc. with four children and to be honest it is not always easy especially when I think about the cleaning up afterwards. Today this little fella was in good form.

That allowed us to get the cards done but on most days we try to squeeze in some craft when he sleeps which is usually not long. Also I am very fortunate to have a housekeeper, which is a definite plus to living in the Middle East, and this helps a great deal. Sometimes I feel sad that Laith does not get to do craft with us as he is at school but then even on the days when he is home he is not as interested in joining us anymore especially if it is messy craft, .

Now if I could just get a little sewing time into my day I would be thrilled!

Thanks for stopping by …

Kids love a “treasure hunt”

My kids could play treasure hunt type games all day. This afternoon they were playing nicely so I wanted to reward them with something nice and then I remembered I had tube of glow in the dark sticks in my cupboard. We closed the blinds and made the rooms nice and dark and then I went and hid the sticks, that you twist around into bracelets, all around their rooms.

Laith was much happier as he had been home from school sick and was feeling a bit sad. In fact I just got home this morning from the school drop off when the school nurse called and asked me to collect him … just one of those things. He was fine when I dropped him off but got tummy pains straight after. There seems to be a lot of “bugs” going around.

The photos don’t do the bracelets any justice due to the flash but they are pretty cool to hide and seek.

Thanks for stopping by …

“the” iPad

I say “the” because I truly believe that the iPad had made such a huge impact in such a short time. We got ours in October when my sister came for Eyad’s birth and it is used daily. Now before you jump up and down and cry “bad mummy” please be assured that my kids get timed sessions and I can control what apps they play.

For a while now I have wanted to do an iPad app review but there are so many I don’t know where to start. Tonight however I want to share with you a few links  for educational and free apps.

There are so many good educational apps that allow you to sit with your child and play while learning. So how do you pick a “good” app? You can browse through iTunes but to be honest that can be pretty overwhelming given the number of apps available.

Personally I like to read reviews on the apps before purchasing and you can see those down the bottom of the app page in iTunes. Also Google the app and see if someone like me has reviewed it on their blog. Recently I found a great site that has reviews on some really good apps for education. You can see all the apps and the reviews on their website Apps for Children with Special Needs. I stumbled across this site recently when searching for speech apps to help Sami. They have a Facebook page that can alert you to new, free and specials on apps.

From their Facebook page I found this site that has free / discounted apps for April Autism Awareness Month. There are over 20 free apps there and I have looked through most and downloaded a few. This is their Facebook page.

If you find you have a number of apps and your iPad is getting crowded then make folders for your apps. For example I have a few math apps now that I use with Laith (actually they shake up my brain a little too which is a good thing!) so I have a folder marked Maths.

When you click on that folder it will show all the apps you have stored there.

Maths Bingo (.99c) is a big hit here as is Math Martians (free).

FREE STUFF (or reduced etc.)

A note about FREE apps. Some are fantastic and others are woeful. Be careful when looking at Lite Apps as some of them are Ad heavy and it prompts the user to buy the upgrade through a click on button in the App which can be easily done by a toddler. HINT – in your General Settings you can Turn Off In Store App purchases. I highly recommend doing that if you are going to let your children use your iPad.  Some apps are “free” but they have a limited number of resources / levels and then you are encouraged to pay for more.

Always test drive an App before letting your children use it. Of course you should know what they are viewing and if you have any difficulties with crashes etc. then you can resolve it or delete it before the child has a change to like it and then start complaining that it is not working!

Apps are often put “on sale” or Free for a limited time or reduced but how do you know about them? There is a great website called App Shopper and it will list daily all the specials etc. available on iTunes. The only problem is that it may entice you to buy more than you were looking for . The upside is that you can get some pretty great apps at reduced prices or even better FREE!

I hope to write more posts about different apps we are using and like / dislike. For example I found an awesome food app the other day that allows you to keep all your recipes in one place, download from the web, copy from a text document, makes a shopping list, lists nutritional value etc. but that will be another night! Then there are all the productivity apps that allow you to use your iPad for document writing, photo editing, scheduling and so on. You can even access your desktop remotely (Splashtop – currently reduced from $4.99 to $1.99), how good is that?

To finish off I would like to stress that the iPad in no way take the place of one-on-one parent interaction. Take for example reading stories to our little ones …

Yes sitting on Mummy’s knee is much better. But given the choice of the kids watching TV or listening to / learning to read with a story book on the iPad … well the iPad wins hands down.

Green Eggs and Ham I got this on sale when it was Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

All in moderation my friends … all in moderation .

It is an expensive piece of equipment and I feel very lucky to have one so I ensure that is treated very well. As for the new iPad2, well I shall drool over that one and keep entering the competitions and giveaways.

Thanks for stopping by …

P.S. I have no affiliation with the app companies or get any kickbacks, I am just a Mum trying to share the information.