Bowdenisms: Advent

Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts

Monday, November 30, 2015

Advent with little ones

Happy last day of November! Otherwise known as...the last chance to get your advent act together! Eeek!

Ok. Don't freak out, because that's the exact opposite of the point of advent- a season when we're supposed to be looking with hope, joy, and gratefulness for our coming Savior. But as a mom of toddlers, with a goal of celebrating the season, it can get a little stressful to feel like I have twenty five days to fill- and I better have some sort of special memory making plan.

But great news...I do have a plan! And it's called: repeat last year's plan!

When I shared our Christmas tour last year, I showed our advent calendar which I just loved. It was super cute (thanks, Starbucks!) and filled with simple notes for daily activities. It was all pretty small stuff, just enough to be festive, but not so much that it stops being fun.

My philosophy on advent with toddlers...or...anything with toddlers, is set your expectations low, and cut yourself some slack. (I went into this theory a bit more in depth in a Thrive Moms blog post: "How to do advent without losing your mind"), It can be a super fun time, but it can also be overly busy, and exhausting. But there's so much beauty in this season, and the best part about little kids is that they pretty much think anything is special...especially if you hype it up to them. So we had a blast last year, mostly doing regular stuff- but doing it with gusto!

So as December 1st approached (quickly!) this year, I wasn't worried! I figured I'd set the whole thing on repeat...we're already ready to roll! Buuuuuuut....then I realized that I never actually recorded all of the activities we did last time. I still had most of the scraps of paper in my tins (a small miracle in itself), but most is by definition not all, so I had a little bit of work to do. Plus, I wanted to tweak things a little bit this time around to match up with our schedule and events we already had planned. So I took a look at our calendar, and typed out a list to use as a cheat sheet for this year's line up of activities.

None of my ideas are particularity unique (a quick google search will lead you to a ton of useful lists, most with very similar activities...This list has a ton of great ones!) but in case you find yourself wanting to make some Christmas-y fun, with minimal planning effort, feel free to copy our list!

Here's what's on the docket this year:

Eat a special snack
Set up your very own tree
Read a book together
Write a letter to Santa
Go get a Christmas tree
Visit Santa
Family game night
Draw a picture for a friend
Have a PJ dance party
Sing Christmas carols
Look at Christmas lights
Buy gifts for kids in need
Perform in a Christmas program
Make a Christmas card for your teacher
Color in a coloring book
Santa bath (Psst...this is just bubbles and a little red & green food coloring!)
Facetime with Grandma and Grandpa
Movie night
Pancake breakfast
Make a craft
Bake something yummy
Recite our bible memory verses
Wrap a present
Go to church
Wish everyone you see a very Merry Christmas!

Fun, right? I know it's not rocket science (flying sleigh science?) but for a type-A planner like myself, making a list is a way to be a little bit more intentional about spending time together. I could probably fill a full year with fun things if I tried, and I certainly could do a better job of making our list more Christ-focused, and filled with opportunities to serve others. But there are still a ton of things we'll do over the next month that didn't make the "official" list, so this isn't meant to be an all encompassing view of our approach to the season. Likewise, there are probably a few entries on the list that just won't happen, but if it all doesn't work out as planned (if...ha!), I figure I'll just put "special snack" on repeat and call it a win. I can guarantee my kids won't mind!

P.s. In other "ghost of Christmas past" news, while I was doing some archive searching (hoping to find last year's list), I was reminded of an online advent calendar I made a few years ago (ok...SIX years ago. crazy talk!) with little activities for each day. So just for fun, I compiled it all into one post- which you can check out and click through for some fun this year (or the next, or the next...)

Soooooo....What are you all up to for the month? Anything we should make sure to squeeze into our plans?

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Monday, December 17, 2012

Chalk Art Christmas & Showing your real

Some of my favorite things:
chalk art
instagram
Advent (well...any sort of festive countdown, really)

So naturally, this year I thought it would be fun to do a project that combines those things. Since December 1st, I have been posting a daily picture of a holiday saying, rendered in chalk. I knew in the beginning it might be tough. I'm not a professional chalk artist by any stretch. In fact, my regular handwriting isn't even that good. But I love looking at typography, and thought it would be fun to try my hand at making my own. Here's some of "my work":

My first attempt (top left corner) was a bit...um...novice? But after working on it every day for over two weeks, I'm actually proud of the progress I've made (getting a chalk pen didn't hurt. Turns out having the right tools helps a lot). The above collage isn't in order, I just mixed them up to make it look balanced...But I'm having fun trying different approaches, recreating pieces I've seen and admired, and making up my own style. I try to make each day's message fit in with something we're doing to that day, so it in the end it will also serve as an abstract scrapbook of our advent season. (Fa la la was from the day of our Christmas party, ho ho ho was when we took Piper to meet Santa, and baby it's cold outside was from the first truly frigid day we've had...)

So if you're not already following along, fear not- we have over a week left to go...There's plenty more art in store. And though you can always see our most recent instagrams on the side bar, I want to encourage you to join instagram if you haven't already. It has quickly become by favorite spot on the web. I love the chance to see snaps of people's every day lives, along with a sweet caption or witty hashtag. It's easy to keep up with, and I find myself actually connecting with these people...maintaining (or forming!) friendships, staying connected, offering encouragement. It's a lot more than just square pictures with pretty filters. It's a community.

And on that note, I've started another little project that I really do hope you'll like. It started when I posted about being real with each other. All the way real. Answering the questions and showing the details that usually get glossed over. I wanted to keep pulling back that artificial curtain that blogs and social media often promote, and show what "real" looks like. My real. Your real. So I started posting pics of the behind the scenes stuff that is actual life. Sometimes it's messy. Sometimes it's beautiful. A lot of times it's both. I'd be thrilled if you would join in: Snap a pic of your real, and tag it for others to see, learn from, and be encouraged by. #showyourreal

Today's real? A shot of the "work" part of all this artwork. These chalk masterpieces (ha!) don't just make themselves!

See you all Wednesday for the Sharing Christmas link up!

Friday, November 30, 2012

Insta-wham!*

(*don't wait for that title to ever make much sense....I just like the way it sounds).

Alright....so you guys know I’m obsessed with Instagram....
But did you know they have web profiles now?

What does that mean?
Well...basically it means if you’re someone without an iphone (i.e. My mom) but you’re also someone who wants to see daily pictures of my daughter (i.e. My mom) you can now view instagram pictures online in one convenient spot.

For those of you interested (i.e. My mom) you can see my feed here. And Dustin’s feed here.

Want a snapshot (literally) of what you can expect?

Well....there's a lot of squishy adorableness (with my mug as occasional ~~distraction~~ bonus):

Some daddy-daughter adorableness:

Occasional worky-work shots:

And a bunch of general silliness:

Oh. And a whole lotta these babies:

No. Really. Like a whole, whole lot. Plus more.

But if that’s not enough to convince you to follow along, I’ve got a fun idea in the works for advent that I hope you’ll like. First pic goes up tomorrow...hope you'll come along for the ride!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas! Throw on a hat, climb in your santa bucket, and celebrate with those you love.

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.