Bear Attack!

HONEY WAKE UP!!

Mother was frantic to wake up husband because she could hear a bear trying to get into the house.

(All this thanks to Michaela's imagination! And Actually this bear was quite tame when we were reading We're Going on a Bear Hunt. )

Ahh, you knew he looked familiar, didn't you?

Father was up in a flash and commanded that mother get the large knife from the kitchen. After all, their only gun had been lost in a storm.

Sadly, Father had to kill the bear, but after all the bear was a threat to his big family. At one point the struggle was so intense the knife went flying into a dark corner of the room. Thank goodness Mother knew where to find the flashlight. The family dogs heard the struggle immediately and were all barking at the bear and jumping on the bear to help Father. It ended with everyone safe and with Mother and Father having plenty of bear meat for the winter.

The Doll House Bookshelf Gets Used

Oh, how happy I was to see this.

Sweet little girl.

The American Doll

Yes, it's true. The mysterious foreign doll who showed up at the doll house needing a home wants to become an American. Even now, she is studying to become a citizen.

Gasp! She's reading about... War?


Oh, it's a particular war. The beautiful doll shows us that she is learning about Abraham Lincoln from her little history book for dolls.

By the way, we are still trying to learn her name. I have an idea for a name for her. My daughter has a few ideas. Do you have any suggestions for a beautiful name for the mysterious foreign doll? I would love your comments!

Doll House Decluttering

We have done some decluttering of the doll house.

Hey. Even dolls can only move around and function so well when there's too much clutter. Of course, it won't do to throw out something you use from time to time, even if you're in a decluttering frenzy. Now, that's a lesson to teach!



You'll see the fancy dog bed that Princess of the Universe made from a little tin from the thrift store and some fabric scraps. That dog sure has a nice bed.



She put a couple of pieces of wood on the "fire." Of course the fireplace was drawn on paper and then decopauged to the wall.



The bathroom was also moved to a room with a fireplace (made from a cardboard papertowel roll), and yes that's the man of the house in the bathroom currently. Ahem. I desired to edit this out, but Princess of the Universe insisted it should stay in. It is real life, after all.



How would you like a huge, round bathtub which allowed you to step out and dry in front of a roaring fire? Could be dangerous. But it could be warm. :)

Lynn

Order Lends Itself To Play

My daughter's room is clean. The doll house sits ready for play. Leaving things nice and neat, keeping things nice and neat, help us play better.

Playing Dolls Together ~ Her Way

Yesterday my daughter and I had a nice time playing dolls again. Of course I am trying to interject my thoughts as we play, but I do let her take the lead with her imagination. It gives me a lot of insight as to what she is thinking these days.



She made a very fine horse corral out of some wooden blocks she got for Christmas. "Mom and Dad" are relaxing in the back of the truck. Out beyond the horses, the son and the daughter are playing on the tinkertoy swingset. :)



My daughter told me of a game she had invented with the dolls that was "really, really fun." It involved a haunted car and the doll family trying to hide in the back of the car or under the dashboard while the car drove around crazily. This is the haunted car:



I know it doesn't look so scary now, but boy you should just see it in the hands of my daughter. It would scare you to think about not falling out!

We had to get on her bed, on our backs, and hold the car up over our heads. She told me to take control of the car, so I did some crazy yelling and shook the car and the whole doll family fell out around her forehead. (I am glad they did not hit her face. Mom was not thinking too far ahead.)

My daughter started laughing. And laughing. She laughed until she had tears in her eyes -- a firsttime thing for her, and she pointed that out to me. I was laughing too, mostly at her. It was such a nice bonding time before I went to work.

I could tell she had continued to play dolls by herself when I got home last night.

Lynn

On Playing Dolls

I don't want this to seem something complicated. Life is complicated. Playing dolls is not. But playing dolls -- I believe -- can help a girl to handle the complicated things that will come her way in life some day.


I've learned a lesson raising four children. It's a lesson that has thrilled me at times, but sometimes has been painful. Children do what they see their parents do.

The day before Christmas 2007, I woke up feeling very overwhelmed. I was working outside of my home (just a season, I tell you) and it's easy to get overwhelmed. I was thinking, how will I get the gifts wrapped, or even finish buying the few things I need, and rest well tonight, and enjoy Christmas Day, knowing that I have to be back to work the day after Christmas?? I had a deer-in-headlights moment and did a totally abstract thing. I hung up my new 2008 calendar. It was probably meant to be. The quote for the month of January 2008 was exactly what I needed to see.

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)

I held that thought close. I decided to pick the sweet, simple things out of all the thoughts swirling through my mind and focus on them. Playing dolls with my little sweetie-pie was one of the first things to pop into my mind. The second thing was how much I wanted to see my mother and my sister (and how much they wanted to see me), so wrapped gifts were not as important as I could build them up to be. The important thing was me having a soft and sweet spirit and enjoying the important things. I decided just to relax and enjoy the days ahead. After all, my daughter is watching, and so are my sons.



This is all about playing. It's about doing something simple. In doing the simple things, though, we often paint such a larger picture that it's hard to see the whole masterpiece at one time. The Year of the Doll House is about doing a sweet, simple thing, and doing it day by day.

There's a precious thought that a dear friend shared with me recently. It keeps coming back to me in all that I do. It's helped me to focus on the sweet, simple things.

"...precept upon precept; line upon line...here a little, and there a little:" Isaiah 28:10

Precept upon precept and line upon line -- little by little. That's how big things are built.

Lynn