Now, I won't claim to be a great gift giver and I forget more than I remember (too many to always get it right!), but I will say it has been fun thinking and pondering and deciding on the gifts with Dustin and the children. Lou and Bug both have birthday parties they are attending at the end of this month and I think the ideas they came up with will be fun. This process has been good and educational. Here are some things I have learned so far:
1. How quickly our children have become entrenched in popular toys. Bug really wanted to give his friend a toy from Target. I explained about our goal for gifts this year and reminded him that he was all for it but he still insisted on a specific toy. I was pretty firm, but loving here. I then showed him all the cool ideas I had collected and presented him with a couple of crafty how-to-books. After alittle while, he returned and showed me things that he liked. He still talks about the other gift, but was really excited when we went to the hardware store and purchased the wood for the project he had picked out.
2. My kids are kinda lazy with the whole 'follow-through' thing. This did not come as a shock, most kids hover here for some time, mine being no exceptions, but this needed to be addressed. Any task taking longer than ten minutes is a chore! I am determined to not make the gift for them (help, yes, but not do it) and they can have the joy of finishing a simple task. So I learned to set aside some quiet time for just one child (which is harder than it sounds) and also found natural stopping places along the way to continue to project for another day. A project that would have taken me thirty minutes, takes my child four times that and I needed to be okay with that. Learned that the medium hard way.
3. My standards need not apply. My kids make mistakes, that's okay, in fact, that's the point. What they don't need is their Momma making them redo what is already adorable and functional. So what if Darth Vader was orange, maybe he was having a good day...
I am sure there will be more life learning lessons throughout this entire experience and I know that most of them will be for Dustin and I. What I hope will be a great success for my children might just be what we all needed.
4 comments:
I like this idea! I love that you guys experiment with things. Jeff and I are not really handy enough to have any sort of a successful handmade anything, but I think trying new ways of learning, parenting, and living is so essential to growth. Like my old stake president's family, who lived exclusively off their food storage for a year. Or our adventure gardening this year (not creative, but we've never grown anything before, so still a worthy cause). Or the time my parents decided to drive home by only making right hand turns...except that there's not really an inherent lesson in that. Anyway, I love seeing the new things you guys try and the ways you think outside the box. I hope there will be more updates on this experience throughout the year!
I'm all about us doing a homemade swap on the Brown side this coming Christmas. I just need more than a few weeks notice of what the plan is. :)
Thanks Ladies!
Charity, that would be really great! The reference was made toward my own personal extended family, but fun loves company. Besides, who wouldn't want a homemade gift from you?
Yeah, I figured it was about your family. :) We should figure out earlier this year what the official plan is so we could possibly do something like this.
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