Following Footsteps

This journey, of blogging, of following my dreams, of spending time doing what I love has been amazing and enlightening. It has only been a little more than two months since I wrote my inaugural post and I can’t believe how much has happened since then. So much changing – things with me, how I see the world, what I think about, how I want to spend my time . . . but what I’ve been noticing, too, is how my children have changed.

Destri of Mother Huddle spurred me to take notice of this change in my kids. Here is the quote in her post that made me pause (I think this quote originally showed up on this blog Inspired to Action):

Imagine who you want your kids to become.

Be that.

Part of why I wanted to start this blog was to value making things and pursuing creativity in my life. But I also stated that I want MY CHILDREN to grow up valuing it. When I wrote my first post, this goal seemed a long way off. How wrong I was. I’ve never been more aware than in the last two months of how apt this quote is, of how much our children DO follow our footsteps. I see it every day in how my kids increasingly want to spend their time. They want to make, create and explore right along with me. Baillie asked me to teach him to knit: “really knit mama, for real.” He picked it up like a champ.Baillie is now knitting on his own and is proud to be 12 rows in – oh he’ll count, he’ll count every single row. “Mama, can we have a knitting night tonight?”

Look what Allie did with her valentines gift that I blogged about (I really need to move those sharpies out of reach!) Isn’t it cute?

My kids saw me embroidering the messages on my hearts, and sure enough asked me to show them how to embroider. So I called out my mantra of crafting with kids: START SIMPLE. Guess what? There was NO mama-yelling! Here’s what we did:

You need:

-a pencil with a good eraser

-cheap loosely woven muslin

-cheap embroidery hoop

-cheap floss

-needle

-scissors

1. Have your kids draw a simple line drawing on the muslin. With pencil, they can just erase if they make a “mistake.” If you have a perfectionist like I do – whew!

2. Thread needle double style with one big knot at the end so that the floss doesn’t come off the needle.

3. Tell them to follow the lines (I showed them the back stitch. My five year old did it. My eight year old did not. But, guess what? They both had a ball.)

4. Voila – beautiful creations, really.

My daughter made a blanket for her fairy:

Charlie just wanted hearts and flowers:

Their ability to open their minds and think of all kinds of ways to use materials amaze me. Allie is embroidering her socks. She tried finger knitting with twine. She also drew on our gorgeous orange leather chair with those dreaded sharpies. I couldn’t bring myself to take a picture of that (isn’t it pretty, mama?).

I found Charlie carefully selecting and layering old fuse beads he found in a see-through container – a strata of gorgeous color. I could go on and on.

I am loving their creative exploration and the fun and freedom they have with it. They open my mind and spur on my creativity – Imagine who you want your children to become; Be that! YES, they WILL follow.