Birthday Gift

Birthdays are important to Miss K. If you say, "July" she will quickly say, "my birthday." She begins counting down for her birthday the day after her birthday. She told someone the other day, "I am almost 12." Almost in another 6 months you will be 12. Well, not only is her birthday important but so are friends' birthdays.

She knew that her friend Ruth turned 15 today and she has been talking about it for a week or so. She wanted to buy a gift for her. I opted for making a gift.

I was sorting through my donate box and saw the yellow sun smile clip and the blue cup. I had bought some Cadbury chocolate packs at Christmas for 89p and we didn't give them all away. I pulled those out, some Hershey's kisses for weight in the bottom of the cup, some curly ribbon, and we were ready to make a gift.

Miss K helped to tape the chocolates to the bamboo skewers. Then we put them in the cup, tied some curly ribbon.

I think the Chomp was a bit shy when I was taking the photo. It kept turning to the back. Getting both the Curlywury and the Chomp facing the same direction was difficult.

Success! All the chocolates are facing the right direction.

A gift for Ruth. We gave it to her mother this morning and she was excited to get it this evening. Her comment was that, "Miss K is a legend."

Something so simple can brighten someone's day.

Beth

Keeping in Touch

It is always fun to get a handwritten note or letter in the mail. You reach into the mailbox and on top of the weekly sale fliers, and a bill or two is a note card with you name written in neat script and not the typed "Occupant" or "Our neighbor". A letter to read, to put in a book and remind you of that friend. I enjoy getting those notes.

I also enjoy writing those notes and sending them to someone. I enjoy being the one who brightens someone's day as they open the mailbox.

One thing that has helped me keep in touch is a pouch. One of the fun places to go in Hong Kong was the stationary stores. There were little stationary stores at the MRT (subway) stations, they were in the back alleys and along the major roads. You were never far from a stationary store. Inside the store you could find all kinds of things -- pencils, pens, little pads of paper, plastic folders, markers, toys, stickers, and lots of other things. I could easily wander in and come out with a few fun things. Staples and Office Depot are boring compared to the stationary stores in Hong Kong. One of the things that I would sometimes buy was zippered pouches. There were so many uses for these that you might need to have two or three on hand just in case you found a use. Now I am homesick and missing Hong Kong and wanting to go shop in the stationary store.

Back to my "Keep in Touch" pouch. This particular pouch that I use has two zippered sections. The one in the front is small and works great for a pen, pad of paper which at times has a list of people I am thinking of and want to write to and stamps.

There is a main section that also has a zipper. This is large enough for post cards and note cards. I can fit about 10 or more note cards in here. That will give me lots of notes to write. One of the advantages of having them in the zippered section is they don't get all bent up. The note cards don't start out wrinkled and creased or worn around the edges.

Having everything in the zippered pouch makes it easy to take with me. I can toss it into a bag as I head out for flute lesson and while I am waiting I can write a note or two.

At times I have made note cards using my stamps and other craft paper but recently I found a pack of note cards at Goodwill. I have also gotten some nice Hallmark note cards at Big Lots for $1.00. At those prices I can't make the note cards.

I have seen blogs and pins on pinterest about fun things that people mail even without an envelope but I have not yet gotten brave enough to mail those things. At the post office last week I saw someone mailing a tire though I don't think that would be called fun.

Have you ever mailed something fun without an envelope? What tips to you have for keeping in touch?

Beth

Weekly Wrap-up - November 15, 2013

My husband was out of town all week. He left in time to avoid all the germs we had which resulted in those of us here being sick and coughing all week. Being sick did put a damper on our week. I figure we got more school done than if they were going to school.

Bob is us Christian Kids Explore Physics and one of the activities was to make atomic models from Styrofoam balls or clay. We had some clay and so we made them.

Then the next day I made atomic model pancakes.

That was a special treat because we normal rotate between eggs and oatmeal. The kids said they tasted as good as Grandma's. One of grandma's specialties is pancakes. When we were growing up, we got plain pancakes once a week or so but now the grandkids get pancakes with chocolate chips.

That was part of trying to make school a bit more fun.

I can't say that this was our best week of school. We continued on and I think some weeks that is worth it.

I can't believe we are halfway through November already. In fact I didn't think that today was the 15th. I thought that was next week and so we went to swim team today and then realized that it is this week that Friday practice was moved to Saturday. We could have had a morning at home without an interruption. Oh well, we will go back tomorrow.

Miss K continues to ask for breaks. She also wants to do school backwards but I don't know what is backwards and forwards for her. I have a four week trial for Reading Eggs. She is enjoying that. I think some of the challenge is working on the trackpad on my computer. We will try it for four weeks and then decide.

Miss K's sight word reading is amazing. I just order 1,000 most commonly used words from Little Giant Steps. I want to spend some time this weekend reviewing this and putting a plan together on how we can use this.

I am thankful that we have another week next week. I want to spend some time this weekend planning. I had expectations of what Bob could do and I am needing to adjust them and do a bit of planning this weekend.

Bob has a piano recital tomorrow. I have a feeling that Miss K thinks she has one as well.

That wraps up this week.

Beth