children
Children: Our most valuable natural resource.
MOMMY! WHERE'S MY SCISSORS?!
Want to know how to create your own happiness at three o' clock in the morning? All you have to do is have a beautiful, outgoing, and fashion obsessed daughter that wakes up in the middle of the night to create outfits for her dolls! Yep! That's right! My beautiful 7 year old daughter, Miracle, loves to create all different types of outfits... especially when she is supposed to be in bed. "Mommy, wanna see my new creation?" she always says when I walk into the kitchen. Of course I would like to say, "Miracle! Get to bed.. NOW!", but knowing how passionate she is about making fashion just makes me smile and embrace all that she is doing in that moment and makes me want to join in. Our favorite way to create her masterpieces is by turning it into a game; I give her a theme or event to create an outfit for, and she gets to designing and cutting her fabric. "Mommy! Where's my scissors?" is most definitely something you will hear while visiting our house. For some reason, my daughter's most prize possession, her scissors, are the ONE thing that ALWAYS ends up missing. Perhaps it is because she takes them everywhere: to her aunts, her mimi's house, and even in our back yard. Unlike most children who would enjoy to go to a park, a cool arcade, or some kid friendly place, Miracle would rather take a trip to Jo Ann Fabrics or another fabric/craft store to get new supplies for her fashion creations. Miracle's personality is definitely like no other. When she was about to start preschool, we made the decision to send her to a private school; the same school that both of her oldest cousins attended. But at only age 4, Miracle started to cry at the thought of it and when I asked her why she replied, " I will have to wear the same ugly outfit every day momma and I want to be able to pick out my hair bow to make sure it matches my outfit every day." At that very moment, I made a quick decision to change her to public schooling for that upcoming year. The smile that showed upon her face while shopping for school clothing that year will be a memory that I will never forget. Every morning she would wake up and be so excited to pick out her outfit and hair ties and bows to match. When we would go into a store, I started to notice that she would touch a lot of the clothing we would walk by to see what the felt like. She would make comments like, "Wow! That feels so soft! I bet my doll would like to have an outfit like that!" and I would reply, "Well you can always make an outfit for your doll." After about a week or so, I woke up in the middle of the night to a sound that was coming from the kitchen. Miracle had her scissors in her hand and had cut up half of her own clothing and was making outfits for her dolls. I'm sure that at that time the look on my face was priceless, but I had remembered what I said a few days prior and decided to see what the new doll's dresses looked like. To my surprise, they were beyond beautiful and I decided to join in on the fun! From that point on, it has been a new way to create our own happiness. I am so blessed to be Miracle (the designer's) mommy!
By Angela Miller5 years ago in Families
The Deadline
When our eldest was born, I remember my partner expressing disappointment that he didn't have anything from his own childhood to pass on to our son. Growing up, Nolan and his family never stayed in one place for very long. Their sleeping arrangements shifted regularly between garages, living room floors, shelters, housing projects, and ultimately a compact car, fixed up and shared amongst the three boys, their mother, father, and two cats.
By Katya Nasedkin5 years ago in Families
Making Mermaid Memories
Growing up, my mom always made us a special cake for our birthdays. It was a huge highlight of the year; she would either make a cut-out style cake of the numbers representing our age, or a themed cake customized from scratch just for us. While that was all we really did for birthdays, I still remember the excitement around the process. This was before the days of Pinterest, but even so the cakes were beautiful. They took patience, time, effort, care, and love. While my mom never crafted, I wonder if her influence helped to inspire the love of creating that I developed as I got older?
By L Mackenzie5 years ago in Families
My Craft : Journaling
Happiness is powerful. Happiness is the ultimate shapeshifter; for it holds no absolute form or exact definition for every 7 billion people on earth. Each form of happiness is at the hands of the individual. For me, I have always found my most joyful moments when I was doing my craft of journaling. There is something so therapeutic about writing out your thoughts at the end of the day and marking those moments in time. Once I put my daughter to bed; I grab my tea, grab my journal, my colored pencils, my craft paper, and my crafting scissors, and get to work. Each page of my journal is so different. Some have very little decorations, to some having full paper mache glued across the page. Each page a stamp in time of that day's mood. I craft my imperfect days into perfect memories. My craft has always been my love for journaling and design. I’d never been a confident public speaker, but with a pen and a piece of paper, I felt like I was left with endless possibilities of what I could write about; It was my art form, my stress release, my purest form of happiness. I’d like to share some of my favorite memories throughout my years of journaling.
By Rachel Elliott5 years ago in Families
I AM......
“I AM” is a powerful influence on what I call drivers and swayers. It is said that what you put after “I am” shapes your reality. If you put negative words after I AM then you will connect to the negative emotions and act negatively. But if you put positive words after I AM then you will connect to the positive emotions and act positively. I try my hardest to help as many people as possible in the world because I feel that is my reason for being here. There are many things that I do for others and I might not have much, but what I do have I will give if someone is in need. Living this way has developed many hobbies for me, like creating bracelets, crafts, and homeless bags for others to try and cheer up their day. But I must say the most rewarding so far is volunteering my services to parents, foster parents, foster children, and foster agencies. The past few years I have been developing trainings for foster families including everything from behavioral contracts to chore contracts. I covered stranger danger, good touch bad touch, and also things such as emotions, responsibilities, etc.
By Buffie Peterson (Angelsoulbp)5 years ago in Families
5 Thing I Learned When My Daughter Started School
Heading into the last term of reception year, I am reflecting on how much I have learnt personally as a mother of a school starter. It has no doubt been an unusual year and with the mix of in-school learning and at-home learning it has given me an insight into what the first year of school entails. This time last year I was so nervous about what to expect. I had her school uniform ordered the minute I knew which school she would be attending. I was making sure she knew her ABC’s and checking how far she could count. I tried my hardest to prepare my 4 year old for a completely new experience. What I hadn’t prepared for was what I was about to learn. Here are 5 things that I learnt when my daughter started school.
By Mumma Bloom5 years ago in Families
Happiness in Within
Our family story starts on the Texas winter storm 2021. In January we moved to a first-floor apartment with a big patio, since it was an easy move, we were able to organize all furniture and toys quickly with our 2 sons. We were happy to have a large patio and be able to play outside even in winter, and the kids were excited to be able to play inside the house without disturbing the neighbors downstairs. We spent a couple of great weeks in the new apartment.
By Maria Josefina Muskus5 years ago in Families
Threaded Memory
From the time she was born, my daughter Lisbeth was always the light of my life. Although she was born with a rare genetic condition, she never let it stop her from living her life to the fullest. She was so small at birth that she initially wore doll's clothing and shoes, and I came to enjoy making custom dresses to fit her tiny frame.
By Junko Plavsic5 years ago in Families
