2016

So I decided in the New Year that I would try to post once a week on Thursdays give or take a couple days or weeks. On Tuesday, I decided to get a head start and write a post, then on Thursday I could just quick proof it and post it and I would be done. Well, the post sat there and simmered and tonight when I was thinking about posting, it had simmered into something totally different than what I felt like writing. I am leaving that post to simmer back into something I want to use.

There was nothing wrong with the post. I talked about resolutions and some of my goals for the year and I will likely come back to that and post it at a later time.

But today, I wanted to talk about other things. I think I will schedule this post because by the time it is actually Thursday I may have something different up my sleeve again. And right now I have time as Amber is taking a bath. (Yes, yes she is not left unattended in the water; though I really think she would have to about crawl out of her tub and face plant into it in order to drown because you see I still have her in her baby tub. It's easier that way. She doesn't know any different and I don't worry about her slipping and drowning.)

I talked about my word for the year in a previous post, I think. I chose a word and so I want my blog posts to revolve occasionally around the word throughout this coming year.

The word is:

The year 2015 was a tough year. Amber was definitely the bright spot in the year. Joy often felt depleted or missing altogether so this year I want to purposely look for joy even in less than desirable circumstances. One of my loosely held goals for the year is take a daily picture of things that bring me joy and I would like to post a few on here throughout the year.

These are some of the things from the first 6 days:

Yes, she appears to have figured out what to do when the camera comes her way. She is learning to stack rings on her little ring stacker or whatever it is called. 

I love to watch her daddy and her play together. She is quite a daddy fan.

 The sun shone for like two days this week.  It was Awesome!!!

So, you can read online about sensory play and giving your children textures and things to play with. Well in the interest of not wanting to be a bad mom, I was reading up on some ideas. Actually, in the interest of being able to make supper without a whiny crying baby, I read up on some ideas that might keep her entertained for a few minutes. This was a pan of water. I thought she would be like "How boring" but she actually enjoyed it until...

 I gave her ice to play with which she again thought was great fun. But then when she could get the whole ice cube in her mouth, it made me nervous, so I took it away and replaced the pan of water with warm water and let's just say we had a meltdown, no pun intended.

 My planner just makes me so happy. I love to write down what I would like to get done in a week, both have-tos and want-tos and the sheer joy of being able to check off my list each day. Yes, I know some of you will totally not get it. It is the place where I write all my menus which I plan out for a month. This planner has perforated shopping lists in the back where I write down my grocery needs according to the week. I am planning to do a monthly shopping trip where I will get all the nonperishables and as many perishables as I think we can use before they spoil. The remainder of the month I will shop sales and perishables.

This was another sensory project though they said to give her uncooked rice. I knew that would never work. This was no sensory project to her: this was get this rice in my mouth and down my dress as fast as I know how. It's food and I sure enough am not going to play with it and feel it.

And then a curling ribbon entertained her for a long time tonight. She played with that the whole time I made supper and how easy is that?

So in case you can't tell a lot of my joy for the year will likely come in pictures of Amber and right now there is a little girl by my side who is saying it is time to get off the computer and come and play with her. 

So post number one is done for the year.