Channeling Your Inner Artist....

Here are some great artsy ideas.....

Art Projects For Kids' Van Gogh flowers

Cathie Filian's artwork a la Warhol

Art Projects For Kids' Joan Miro watercolor painting




Art Projects For Kids' abstract landscape

That Artist Woman's Spring Trees

Imaginechidlhood's shadow drawings

Flip Flops and Applesauce's rainy day paintings with a toothbrush

Smilemonster's Shaving Cream Art

Unplug Your Kids' marbelized paper

4 Crazy Kings' handprint butterflies

Ordinary Life Magic's stained glass art

Moopy & Me's happy, creative idea



Ramblings of a Crazy Woman's sunshine craft



BHG's whimsical garden art

Let me know if you do any of these art projects! And have a great weekend!!!

Fresh Air

I'd like to introduce you to a great organization, The Fresh Air Fund. According to their site, they are 'an independent, not-for-profit agency, that has provided free summer experiences to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2008, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.'

If you are interested in hosting a child, signing up your child, volunteering, or donating, head over to their site to find out more!

Make Your Day Monday

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself because this crack in my side causes water to leak all the way back to your house."

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them.

A New Song

Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

Anyway

You can spend your whole life building
Something from nothin'
One storm can come and blow it all away
Build it anyway

You can chase a dream
That seems so out of reach
And you know it might not ever come your way
Dream it anyway

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
I do it anyway

This world's gone crazy
It's hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway

You can love someone with all your heart
For all the right reasons
In a moment they can choose to walk away
Love 'em anyway

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
But I do it anyway
Yea - I do it anyway

You can pour your soul out singing
A song you believe in
That tomorrow they'll forget you ever sang
Sing it anyway


I sing
I dream
I love anyway

Accomplishing Big Things in Small Pieces

An essay by William Wissemann, a freshman at Bard College, as shared on This I Believe.

I carry a Rubik’s Cube in my backpack. Solving it quickly is a terrific conversation starter and surprisingly impressive to girls. I’ve been asked to solve the cube on the New York City subway, at a track meet in Westchester and at a café in Paris. I usually ask people to try it first. They turn the cube over in their hands, half-heartedly they make a few moves and then sheepishly hand it back. They don’t even know where to begin. That’s exactly what it was like for me to learn how to read. Letters and words were scrambled and out of sequence. Nothing made sense because I’m dyslexic.

Solving the Rubik’s Cube has made me believe that sometimes you have to take a few steps back to move forward. This was a mirror of my own life when I had to leave public school after the fourth grade. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I still couldn’t consistently spell my full name correctly.

As a fifth-grader at a new school, specializing in what’s called language processing disorder, I had to start over. Memorizing symbols for letters, I learned the pieces of the puzzle of language, the phonemes that make up words. I spent the next four years learning how to learn and finding strategies that allowed me to return to my district’s high school with the ability to communicate my ideas and express my intelligence.

It took me four weeks to teach myself to solve the cube—the same amount of time it took the inventor, Erno Rubik. Now, I can easily solve the 3x3x3, and the 4x4x4, and the Professor’s Cube, the 5x5x5. I discovered that just before it solves, a problem can look like a mess, and then suddenly you can find the solution. I believe that progress comes in unexpected leaps.

Early in my Rubik’s career, I became so frustrated that I took the cube apart and rebuilt it. I believe that sometimes you have to look deeper and in unexpected places to find answers. I noticed that I can talk or focus on other things and still solve the cube. There must be an independent part of my brain at work, able to process information.

The Rubik’s cube taught me that to accomplish something big, it helps to break it down into small pieces. I learned that it’s important to spend a lot of time thinking, to try to find connections and patterns. I believe that there are surprises around the corner. And, that the Rubik’s cube and I, we are more than the sum of our parts.

Like a difficult text or sometimes like life itself, the Rubik’s Cube can be a frustrating puzzle. So I carry a cube in my backpack as a reminder that I can attain my goals, no matter what obstacles I face.

And did I mention that being able to solve the cube is surprisingly impressive to girls?

Make Your Day Monday: The Daffodil Principle

The Daffodil Principle
by Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

Several times my daughter, Julie, had telephoned to say, "Mom, you must come see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from my place by the beach to her lakeside mountain home.

"I will come next Tuesday," I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call. The next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I got in the car and began the long, tedious drive.

When I finally walked into Julie's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Julie! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and the children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!"

My daughter smiled calmly, "We drive in this all the time, Mom."

"Well, you won't get me back on the road until it clears and then I'm heading straight for home!" I said, rather emphatically.

"Gee, Mom, I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car," Julie said with a forlorn look in her eyes.

"How far will we have to drive?"

Smiling she answered, "Just a few blocks, I'll drive ... I'm used to this."

After several minutes on the cold, foggy road, I had to ask "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the garage!"

"We're going to the garage the long way," Julie smiled, "by way of the daffodils."

"Julie," I said sternly, "please turn around."

"It's all right, Mom, I promise, you will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience."

After about twenty minutes we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church I saw a hand-lettered sign ...

Daffodil Garden

We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Julie down the path. As we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped.

Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

Five acres of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen! "Who planted all these?" I asked Julie.

"It's just one woman," Julie answered, "She lives on the property. That's her home," and she pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory.

We walked up to the house and on the little patio we saw a poster ...

Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking
50,000 bulbs
one at a time
by one woman
2 hands, 2 feet
and very little brain
Began in 1958

There it was ... "The Daffodil Principle"

For me that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than thirty-five years before, had begun - one bulb at a time - to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top.

Still, This unknown, old woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of magnificent beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration:

learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time,
(often just one baby-step at a time)

learning to love the doing,

learning to use the accumulation of time

When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Julie, "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her direct way, "Start tomorrow, Mom," she said, "It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of our yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson a celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask ... "

"How can I put this to use today?"

***Thank you to my mom for sharing this with me. =)

Gethsemane

"Anyone …will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? ....

"You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that [life] is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy.... How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that [everyone has] to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. [We] have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

"Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that … to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, all will have to pay a token of that same price.

"For that reason I don’t believe [life] has ever been easy... I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

"If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

"The Atonement will carry [you]. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life." ~Jeffrey R. Holland

Some Egg-selent Ideas!

Easter is this Sunday, can you believe it?!?! Here are some cute crafty Easter ideas. Enjoy and have a great weekend!!!

Martha's egg creatures are SOooooo cute! It's not just this bunny, either. Go check it out!

I love Family Fun's egg turned into bumble bee idea. Cute!

Head over to Lolly Chops to find out how to create these delightfully-dyed easter eggs!

I like this chick napkin holder from Busy Bee Kids Crafts.

These sparkly eggs are adorable! Head over to Domestifluff to find out how to make them!

Martha's egg garland is too cute!

I also like Martha's egg wreath idea.

I think this boquet made of egg cartons is clever. BHG shows you how.


How To.... Do Something teaches how to make art out of egg shells!

I really like Activity Village's felt eggs.

Family Fun's fluffy chicks are just the ticket for Easter weekend!

BHG shows how to make this dainty easter basket!

If you've got any cans around the house, this basket idea from BHG is really cute. =)

I like this spring centerpiece from BHG.

This lop-eared bunny from QD Patooties is retro fab!

What's Easter without bunny ears? Martha tells you how.

The Fab Miss B teaches how to make these fab tiny fuzzy bunnies!

Wee Folk Art shows how to make these cute bunny finger puppets!

Living Locurto gives some cute (and free) Easter printables!

If you forgot to plant your daffodil bulbs last year, no worries. You can just make these paper daffodils from Busy Bee Kids Crafts.

Autism Quotes

"For success in science and art a dash of autism is essential." Hans Asperger

"Asperger’s syndrome has probably been an important and valuable characteristic of our species throughout evolution." Tony Attwood

"Someone with Asperger’s really is like you, just more extreme." Dr. Winnie Dunn

"Consider the following four dead-end kids. One was spanked by his teachers for bad grades and a poor attitude. He dropped out of school at 16. Another failed remedial English and came perilously close to flunking out of college. The third feared he'd never make it through school--and might not have without a tutor. The last finally learned to read in third grade, devouring Marvel comics, whose pictures provided clues to help him untangle the words. These four losers are, respectively, Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, John Chambers, and David Boies."

"I feel life is a journey and we all have to learn to ride the storm, for some of us it can seem more like a tidal wave, but with every storm the sun eventually comes back out." -Alyson Bradley

"Chaos is in fact just an illusion created by your inability to perceive the order in which things truly are." -Alyson Bradley.

"I may have been born different and misunderstood from birth, but I know there is a place for me, somewhere in this universe." - Alyson Bradley

“I just want to continue to exist, but you continue to question my very existence!” – Alyson Bradley

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities." - Dr Seuss

"I do not suffer from Autism, but I do suffer from the way you treat me." -Tyler Durdin

"Not everything that steps out of line, and thus 'abnormal,' must necessarily be 'inferior." - Hans Asperger

"Just because you're a bird doesn't mean you can fly..." - The Ostrich.

"The difference between high-functioning and low-functioning is that high-functioning means your deficits are ignored, and low- functioning means your assets are ignored." - Laura Tisoncik

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible"- Frank Zappa

"I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird." - Frank Zappa


***This list was found on A Family United for the Autistic.

Autism 151

In honor of Autism Awareness month, I'd like to share a site that was brought to my attention. The site is Autism151. According to their site, they are part of an inspiring campaign, "to pull our community together and offer a brighter, more positive view of autism... The Autism151 name comes from the fact that 1 out 150 kids is diagnosed with autism... Inspiration comes from knowing that every one of these children has a story to tell - a story that is often a lot more positive than negative."

The site has many inspiring videos already posted, and their goal is to have at least 150 videos posted by the end of April.

I know there are a lot of readers who have children with autism. It's my wish that each of you can join Autism 151's community of hope. I hope the rest of us can watch the inspiring videos and be uplifted by the unique perspective of autistic children and parents, and also be more aware of the disorder and more understanding of those who are dealing with it firsthand.

For more information about autism, go to faceautism.org.