Mommyhood Moment- Saying Grace

I was fortunate to get to spend the weekend with my in-laws this past weekend. Last night at dinner everyone reached out to hold hands to say grace even JDaniel. He has never done that before. He has seen us pray before meals all his life and usually chooses to fuss during grace. Last night he put one hand in mine and one in his grandfathers. It was something I will always remember.

Mommyhood Tip- Sharpening a Crayon at Both Ends

You have heard of burning a candle at both ends. (Many of you probably feel that way at one time or another.)This tip calls for sharpening a crayon at both ends. Young children have enough trouble holding a crayon. If you sharpen both ends of the crayon, there isn’t a wrong end for them to color with.

Mommyhood Tip- Tracing a foot to buy shoes

This is a really cool tip. Trace your child’s foot on paper and cut it out. Place the cutout in your purse. When you are shopping for shoes, you can take out the tracing and measure it against the shoe. This will work out well when JDaniel doesn’t feel like trying on shoes.

$20 Voucher for Mariann Johansen-Ellis' Etsy Shop

This week’s giveaway is being donated by the amazing artist and illustrator Mariann Johansen-Ellis. Though we have only communicated via e-mail I consider her a friend. She and I have worked together to make sure that you will be getting something very special. I first fell in love with her print “The Three Boats”. The more time I spend at her Etsy shop though the harder it has been to decide what I love best. The prints are awesome, but so are the etchings. One of you will have to make your own selection of what you like best. Mariann Johansen-Ellis is offering a $20 voucher towards the purchase of any of the items in her shop. When your visit her shop on Etsy, you will see an array of marvelous things. I bet you have trouble deciding.

Bio on Etsy:

Full time artist Mariann Johansen-Ellis, born in Denmark in 1962, spent her childhood on her grandparents’ farm, surrounded by animals and nature, with the sea a short bicycle ride away, a happy childhood that greatly influences her work to this day.

Her grandfather expressed these surroundings in intricate woodcarvings, and with her mother very involved in various form of craft practices she knew from an early age that the creative field was where she felt at home. In 1989 she moved to the south of Spain, having fallen in love with the dramatic beauty of the countryside. This move turned out to be a major turning point in her artistic career, as it was here she discovered printmaking.

Mainly self taught, she has spent periods of time under the tutelage of various painters and printmakers, notably Mary Eisman and Luella Ramsey. Starting out as a painter, it was clear to Mariann Johansen-Ellis after her first contact with printmaking in 1989, that this was a medium she wanted to learn more about, and she has been creating etchings and original prints since then alongside her paintings.Mariann Johansen-Ellis has lived in South East Asia (Brunei) since 1999, she currently lives and works partly in Spain and partly in Singapore, She has been in Singapore since 2003, where she is also a part time printmaking class instructor at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI). She plans to open “ La Cascada Press” in the south of Spain in 2008, the premises are currently under construction, you can click on "Printmaking Courses" for more info,at http://www.artcanbefun.com/. La Cascada Press is a printmaking/teaching studio, dedicated to furthering and developing printmaking techniques and understanding.

Her works can be found in private and public collections in Singapore, Brunei, Great Britain, Spain and Denmark. Mariann Johansen-Ellis has collaborated with Sunbear Publishing in Singapore, creating a series of illustrated children’s books to illuminate the plight of endangered species.Sunbear Publishing and Mariann Johansen-Ellis are currently working on their fifth book. Other illustration projects include “Where’s Grandma?” a project commissioned by the Alzheimer Foundation of Singapore and supported by the Lee Foundation. In Singapore she is represented by Red Sea Gallery, at the gallery you can see a large permanent collection of her giclees, large etching and original work. (http://www.redseagallery.com/)

Please visit my website to see all my work, there you can also click on the "Printmaking Films" button and see films about the etching process, how to make a linoreduction print, and a film where I talk about my creative process, inspiration and also explain more about what an original print is.

Videos of Mariann at work:

http://www.artcanbefun.com/
http://www.mariann-johansen-ellis.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/

This giveaway begins September 7th and ends September 16th at 11:59 p.m.

What do you need to do to get this great gift voucher?

- Go to Mariann Johansen- Ellis’ Shop and leave me a comment telling what you would use your $20 voucher to purchase. (1 entry)

For extra entries do any or all of the following leaving a separate comment for each entry.

* Purchase any of her items and come back leaving a comment that you did. (3 entries)

*Visit Sunbear Publishing and tell me the name of one of the books she has illustrated. (1 entry)

* Go to You Tube and watch one of Mariann Johansen-Ellis's videos come back and tell me something you learned. (4 entries)

* Subscribe to my blog . Leave me a comment saying that you have subscribed or that you already do. (2 entries )

*Follow my blog. Leave me a comment saying that you now follow or that you already do. (2 entries)

*Enter one of the other giveaways I am hosting. Leave a comment telling me which giveaway or giveaways you entered. (1 entry for each giveaway)

*Twitter about this giveaway with a link back, you must also be following me on Twitter. Copy and paste: MariannJohansen-Ellisgiftvoucher@JDaniel4smom .(1 entry)

*Leave a comment on any of my posts that is not a giveaway. (1 entry)

That is 9 ways to win. The winner will be chosen by using the random number generator at http://www.random.org/. )

Clue 5: to us

Friday Favorite- Mega Bloks

We received this bag of 100 Mega Bloks from a wonderful lady who works in the yellow nursery at church. She told us her children had been given them as a gift and were too old to play with them. It was like Christmas for JDaniel. He uses them everyday building towers for hours.

Creating Ways to Show Sharing and Giving- Links 4 Moms

Read Write Think has a great tool called Comic Creator. It allows children to create comic strips with conversation bubbles and cute characters. I thought it might be a great to have your child create a comic strip on sharing or giving to others. It prints out great looking comic strips that you could hang up on the refrigerator to enjoy and reflect on the message that they were trying to share in it.

Read Write Think has another tool called Shape Poems that would be easier for younger children to do with help from mom and day. Children could create a poem or nice sentences about sharing and giving. This prints great looking poems with a shape frame.

Both of these tools have lesson plans build around them on the Read Write Think site. They would be worth checking out too.

Hooray! Mother Goose and Miss Donna are back!- Greenville 4 Moms

I am so excited that the Greenville Public Library programs are starting up again this week after taking August off. JDaniel has looked into the conference room door where we attend Mother Goose on the Loose every time we go to the library to see if Miss Donna is there. He really misses her. Mother Goose couldn’t start fast enough for him. We are also going to look into Musical Jamboree in a few weeks. Mother Goose is for 0-24 month olds and Musical Jamboree is for 18 month olds until age four.

If you are not attending a library program, you should look at what is available in your area. Here is link to the library programs in Greenville County, South Carolina.

Starbuck Gift Card and Butterfly Bookmark Set Winner!

The winner of the Starbucks Gift Card is eclairre. You will receive an e-mail from me today informing you of your win.

I want to thank everyone who entered the giveaway. If you fell in love with the work of the Lil' Bit Sassy and did not win, please consider going to their websites and purchasing one of bookmarks, book weights, or the item you listed in the giveaway.

Mommyhood Tips: Take Lessons from Books- Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli is an awesome book about how someone’s life can be completely changed by a small event. Mr. Hatch is accidently delivered a box of candy with a card that says “Somebody loves you”. He walks through his life in lonely funk. He is all by himself. Knowing that someone loves him changes the way he acts around other people, and how he lives his life. By the time he finds out it was delivered by mistake it is too late he has many people that love him.

As you live your life today, try to make a positive impact on the people you meet. The mailperson may need someone to ask how their day is going. The garbage men may enjoy having a cheering child watch them empty the garbage into the truck. (Our garbage men get have Daniel come out to wave at them every Monday.) The senior saint at church that is housebound might love note of encouragement. The lady in front of you in line at the grocery store may need to have someone just say “Hello”.

Mommyhood Tips- Teaching Toddlers to Share

I found a great article called 10 Parenting Tips To Help Teach Your Child To Share located on the More 4 Kids website. Here are there tips:

•Tell your toddler that not sharing may mean his friends will not want to share with him either.

•If your toddler doesn’t want to share, explain why it’s important to share.

•Take the toys in question away; if your toddler doesn’t want to share – then no one will play with the toys.

•Never yell at the toddler, but be firm in your reprimands. Yelling rarely gets you anywhere and does not set a good example.

•If your toddler screams and carries on; give the toddler a time out, or what I like to do is a time in and sit down with your child, talk to him or her and make sure there is not really some other issue that is causing the problem.

•Thank your child for sharing his toys with others.

•Teach your toddler to think of others and how happy it makes them when they share their toys.

•If other toddlers are invited over, ask your toddler to pick out some toys to put away. But also remind him the toys left out can be shared with everyone.

•Teach by example; show your child how you are willing to share something you own.

•Finally, start very young. When my youngest was just a few months old and could sit up we would start playing a game. I would give him a toy and whenever he gave it back I would smile profusely, say 'thankyou' and give it back to him. Now when we are playing together he routinely shares his toys with me and his big brother.

These tips are just guidelines. I found them very helpful read over and think about how I am teaching JDaiel to share.