Life Captured - Day 1

Describe a moment from today you want to remember always.

At this time of year, life is fast paced. Everything is rushed, stress levels are high. All for good reason. You want your family to have the best christmas possible. In all that, it's easy to forget to appreciate the little things, the moments that made you smile. I saw this challenge going around the blogging community and decided to play along for December. A short quick post, maybe with a picture if it's captured, of a moment that made me smile, a positive. Something to remember. 

So here it goes....

# Coffee with a beautiful friend who I love. We have only been friends a couple of months, but already she has made a big impact on my life & I can tell she is a "forever friend"

# managing to shop with both little people without a tantrum or any real crying & they even stayed in the trolley. A pure miracle & a blissful (rare) shopping experience! 

 

# 3am smiles from Mr Moo, who wanted to have a conversation rather than sleep. Even though I was exhausted, his little face always makes me smile.

So what do say? Would you like to join me? Even just once a week, share a moment that made you smile. Leave a comment here or on my Facebook page. I'd love to hear your stories.

A Little Bit of Christmas Love Giveaway

Soooooo.....

If you are following me on Facebook or Instagram then you will already be aware I am VERY excited for Christmas!

I just LOVE the anticipation, the build up as my kids (including the Big Man Kid) try to guess what they are getting, while they count down the days. Watching the excitement build as shops fill with decorations, Santa arrives at shopping centres, telling Santa what we want.....

And then Christmas morning....the closeness, the casual comfortable air of happiness and excitement as wrapping paper piles up....

Yeah, I LOVE it!

And so I want to share my love of Christmas by giving a lucky reader, or 2, the chance to get a present from me!

I LOVE the Bikini Cookbooks. They are the books I use to menu plan each week. Each meal is around 300 calories per serve, making it perfect for losing weight or just some serious healthy eating. 

Michelle often shares sample recipes on her Facebook Page, so its worth heading over and having a look there too!

So, to share my love of these books, I have not 1 but 2 to give away! 

The Snack book has to be one of my favourite to date, with loads of snack ideas, both savoury and sweet. There are lots of finger food ideas for parties or kids afternoon snacks. And so, with Michelles approval, I am giving 2 of these books away!

So all you have to do is....

1. Follow or subscribe my blog if you don't already. I am hoping to boost my numbers in the new year. 

It has been pretty quiet this year, but I am hoping to have weekly posts on things like kids activities, weight loss motivation, PND, dealing with depression & anxiety, and my general observations of motherhood. Hopefully a few laughs as well as a few tears along the way. Also, more giveaways!

2. Like my facebook page. This is my main source of communication, where I do actually post daily! 

3. Share my competition with your friends.

Thats it. Simple.

COMPETITION RUNS FROM 2.30PM 20/11/2014 - 8PM 30/11/2014.

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON ONLY.

 (Please note. This is NOT a paid giveaway. I bought these books and asked permission from Michelle to give them away. Nor is this competition connected to Facebook in any way)

UPDATE: You can now also enter via Instagram. Go to my Muddled Mum instagram account, share the post & tag me in the share to go in the draw. 

Activity Monday - Christmas Craft

Today we started doing Christmas Craft. Mini Miss is already very excited about Christmas. She is no longer scared of Santa, but keen to see him, get a lolly & have a cuddle (yes, the stranger danger thing bothers me). She understands that there will be a tree and presents and celebrations. 

She also understands that Christmas is a celebration of Jesus birthday. 

So while I was setting up today's activity, she had a great time colouring in a picture of Jospeh, Mary and Baby Jesus. While doing this she informed me that "I love baby Jesus". Makes my heart swell with love. 

Normally I don't buy ready made craft activities. I find they are too directive and can stifle creativity. Also, if a child has a "perfect" example, even just a picture, of what is expected to be achieved but they cannot achieve it, it sets them up to fail. My children will learn about failures, I'm not going to set them up for it.

But this activity was different. And seriously, CHEAP!!! So I thought as an easy, no fuss, first Christmas craft activity it would be great. 

$3 from Officeworks, was this set of 6 Christmas figures that you make out of plaster of Paris & then paint them. Everything is supplied in the package, dried plaster, moulds, paints and a paint brush.

(NOTE: it did say to use with children over 5yrs & no Mini Miss is not 5, but with ample adult supervision she was fine).

I set about reading the instructions while Mini Miss coloured. Immediately I noticed there were no measurements. "Add plaster to water and stir until a thick pourable paste is made". No idea how much water to use, I had to guess. I also wasn't going to risk using too much, so I put the plaster in first then slowly added water while stirring the whole time. It took somewhere between 1/2-3/4 cup of water to reach a consistency I was happy with. Mini Miss did some of the stirring while I poured water. Stirring is one of her favourite things to do in the kitchen! 

Once mixed, we poured it into our moulds. 

Explaining to a 2.5yr that she has to now wait for a couple hours while they dried was not going to go well, so I had more activities planned, boring housework, but she loves to help! 

After 2 hours they popped out easily & didn't look too bad!

Now the fun, painting. Mini Miss needed some encouragement to paint them, it wasn't until later I realised she thought they were food as we had "cooked" them in the kitchen! No wonder she didn't want to paint them, I'm constantly telling her not to eat the paint! Eventually she got into it though! 

We were also lucky to have a fair bit of plaster left over, so I put it to good use.

No idea yet what we will use it for, but it's cute! And underneath I will name & date it.

The trick to using pre made activities is to  let go. Let your child just use their imagination, let them paint what they want, how they want. This is the hardest thing for me. I see that picture perfect example and want to achieve that, but I'm now focusing more on what Mini Miss gets out of it, rather than the final product. 

For example, from this activity, here are some of the skills she gets out of it; 

• Hand eye coordination, 
• Colour identification, 
• Colouring mixing, 
• Talk about Christmas and an ever growing vocabulary. 
• Learning the value of patience was a good one today too! 

So the final product? Not "perfect", but she is happy and so am I! 

Now I am off to explore Pinterest and find some more Christmas activities!