Give Thanks

I am so thankful that the potty training is going pretty smoothly so far. Today was Day 3 and Jilly had no accidents. We made a quick outing and she came home dry and she used the potty on cue every 45 minutes. She even woke up from her nap dry and just called out to us from bed, upset that she had wet her Pull Up.

Since we were home almost all day, JillyBean and I dove into a little craft project for Thanksgiving. Like most kids, Jilly found Halloween exciting and is already anticipating Christmas. I want to make sure that Thanksgiving doesn't get overlooked.

Thanks to my wonderful MOPS group, I came across a project for a Thanksgiving advent-style calendar. We made ours with 15 pockets, since I couldn't get more than five on a row, and we are counting down. We included the scripture from 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "give thanks in all circumstances..." at the top.

Jilly placed all of the pumpkins and leaves on the calendar pockets. It was a fun little project and it gave me a chance to talk to JillyBean about how blessed she is and how important it is for us to thank people and to thank God (through our prayers) for all of those blessings. She doesn't quite get "thankful" so I explained it as things that make us happy.

After the calendar was complete, Jilly had to tell me five things that make her happy (we had to do five to make up the days we have missed). So far Jilly is thankful for:

1. Granddad
2. Santa Claus
3. Mommy
4. Daddy
5. Nanny (Nana)

We will place a note in each pocket leading up to Thanksgiving then we will read them all that day as a reminder of all the blessings we have in our lives.

This is an important exercise this time of year and one that I want to make a tradition for our family, especially leading to Christmas. Too often we are busy trying to fulfill Christmas gift lists that we forget to say thank you for the amazing things that we encounter every day.

Leaf Man

JillyBean has been obsessed with leaves ever since the fall colors began to appear last month. We cannot go outside without her picking up at least one leaf just to hand it off to me to save. "Oooh, mama," she says. "This is a good one." Needless to say, we have quite a collection of yellow, orange and red leaves of all shapes. And I can't bring myself to throw them away. Finally last week I got an idea - let's make a leaf man.

I was inspired by two things: the beautifully illustrated book, Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert; and our first week's art class where Jilly used glue water as a homemade decoupage.

This morning Jilly and I took a little stroll through the woods near our house to add to our collection and also to find a few other odds and ends to complete our leaf man. I know, it seems strange that we would gather more leaves, but in order to make a proper leaf man you must have a vast selection of leaves.

I made the glue water using one part water and about one-and-a-half parts glue (you need a little more glue for the leaves than you would if you were doing a project with paper). Then we pulled out the construction paper and went to work. First we picked out which leaves would represent which body part, arranged them on the paper, then dipped our paint brushes in the glue water and smeared it all over the leaves and paper to stick. We used acorn shells for the eyes and simply glued them on to the face.


I'm very proud of the way these guys turned out as is Jilly. She simply beamed as she admired the final creation. She finally has a permanent home for her beloved leaves.