Creating Your Own Fonts

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com

I discovered this site a couple years ago, and I love it!  I’m sure there are others like it out there, and perhaps I’m behind on the times to realize something like this exists, but, nevertheless, I had to share.  On Calligraphr (no “e”), you can create your own font for free!  The free account lets you do the basic upper and lower case letters, numbers, and basic punctuation (although, I find it doesn’t always pick up my quotation marks and apostrophes).  It will also let you add one whole set of variants so that your font has a more natural look.  The paid account will let you store/work with many fonts at once, contains more characters, more variant possibilities, and other features.  (Once your font is saved and stored on your computer from the free account, it stays there; you just can’t store more than one font at a time on their site with the free one.)

I have yet to create anything super fancy or artistic on here, but I’ve done my own basic font, and I LOVE, love using it for our daughter.  She enjoys writing stories, so this is a great way to type up her longer work, but have it “written” in her handwriting.  Since her handwriting is still changing so much, it’s fun to update it as she grows.  This would also be a fun way to personalize letters or cards to people, if your kid isn’t up to the stage of writing lengthy text.

It took me a little bit of a learning curve to figure out where to place my letters within their guidelines, but if you look through “Tutorial 1,” it’s quite clear how to do it.

Anyway, just thought I’d share for anyone else who didn’t know this was out there.  It’s a fun way to personalize letters, cards, poetry, and stories, without much effort.

Frindle

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com


Frindle (1996) by Andrew Clements

Nick Allen isn’t a bad kid, but he certainly uses his clever ideas and wit to his advantage.  So, when he asks his 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Granger, about her favorite book, the dictionary, he’s really only trying to stall that day’s lessons.  But what she says in her answer leads to one of his biggest ideas yet.  In an experiment with how words are made, Nick creates his own new word for ‘pen’–‘frindle.’  What starts as a 5th grader testing his teacher, becomes something bigger than any of them could have guessed.

This is a super quick read, and I’ve read it far too many times to count.  It’s fun, sweet, and a great commentary on how change is created in our world.  And, if you’re anything like me, Frindle will leave you with some happy tears at the end.  If you haven’t read this yet, please do yourself a favor and do so.

Happy Thoughts

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com

In 1990, there was a book published called, 14,000 Things to Be Happy About.  I don’t remember exactly when my family purchased it, but I remember LOVING this book.  We had the daily calendar too.  I remember delighting in filling blank journals with my own lists of happy things:
–rainy, Sunday mornings
–my stuffed animal, Bunny
–freshly baked chocolate chip cookies
…things like that.

What I’ve come to realize about myself is that if I start worrying or thinking negatively, my mind can take off in that direction at an alarming speed.  Scary fast.  BUT, the good news is that my mind can just as easily and quickly take off in the opposite direction of happy thoughts, if I just give it the tiniest bit of guidance.  When I was a young teen, and even a young adult, I was pretty good at finding that space to encourage myself to look for the good and reframe things.  But, in these sleep-deprived, muddled days, I’m struggling with that quite a bit.

It wasn’t recently when reading this lovely post on my friend’s Patreon page that I even remembered my “happy” journals.  She created a “jar of joy” full of beautiful, decorated strips of paper that shared her “moments of goodness.”    I really love this idea.  It seems like a fun, simple way to remember some of the things in life that bring joy.  It got me thinking of different ways to create a collection of happy thoughts:

–happiness or gratitude journals
–a weekly chalkboard space for the family to jot down happy thoughts (Snap a pic at the end of the week, if you’d like.)
–a joy jar for yourself or for friends to contribute to, as well
–maybe a gift of a joy jar to a gift recipient (So, maybe have each guest at a party or reception write down a happy thought or memory associated with the guest(s) of honor.)
–a nightly dinner ritual to say something we’re happy about or grateful for in that moment

Anyway, I think the more we can appreciate about this wonderful Life, the more we will treat ourselves, others, and our world with kindness and respect.  And, in that way, this small act of finding things to be happy about can start changing the world for the better.

(When I looked up the book, 14,000 Things to Be Happy About, I came across this awesome website!  It’s colorful and fun, and when you click each section, including the calendar at the top, you’ll be able to view a list of happy thoughts for that topic.  You can also use the refresh button to the right of the list to get more happy ideas.  It looks like the author, Barbara Ann Kipfer, has many books of collections to help you find the good in your days!)

You might also like:
Sunlight List

Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day Gift Idea

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com

In my other Mothers’ Day post, I talked about readjusting my Mama Day expectations.  But, I wanted to share what has consistently been my favorite gift on Mother’s Day. (Although I did get a Buzz Lightyear sculpted out of fun tack this year, so that’s pretty tough to beat.)

I started this when my daughter was two, I think, and now I have a collection of these, which I treasure.  It’s a simple questionnaire asking questions about me.  In the past I’ve had other people help do these with her and fill it out.  My biggest advice (because I’ve done Father’s Day ones too) is to NOT ask many guiding questions.  Kids, especially young kids, tend to latch on to what you’ve said.  For instance, if I say, “What’s Dada’s hair like?”  and I start listing too many examples without pausing and just seeing what comes, I could be missing out.  I might start listing examples, like dark, light, long, short.  And she might just agree and say, “Yeah, light.”  But if I just pause, my daughter often comes up with her own very creative descriptions that I hadn’t even thought of, like “Dada’s hair is beautiful.”      Make sense?

Other tips:

–I try to make sure to NOT redirect her answers too much or laugh at them.  If she says she thinks Dada is 17, I simply write it down.  A hundred and ninety years old?- Sure.  I don’t want her to get self-conscious about the answers as we go.

–Although it can sometimes be tough for a kid to ever be in the right mood for this kind of stuff, I definitely back off when my daughter seems cranky about it.  Or, I sneak some of the questions into our daily conversations and jot them down.  “What do you think Dada’s favorite place to go is?” etc.

–Last year, I had used Calligraphr (no “e”) to print out blank font sheets, which I had our daughter fill out.  So, when I printed out the questionnaire this year, I was able to print it using her font!  (Not shown here)  If your child is writing, consider building a custom font for projects like this.

 

Along with the questionnaire, I print out a blank oval frame for our daughter to draw a portrait.  I used to draw little borders around them, etc., but now our daughter likes to do this herself.  And while our Pinterest/Facebook world usually loves to have preprinted cutesy things to share online, usually prefer something the kids decorate themselves.

 

This is such a simple gift, and yet, it brings such happy tears and laughter every year.  Whether you’re filling one out for a partner or yourself or pulling aside your friend’s kids to do one for her or him, it’s really so worth it.
(Please feel free to use these PDFs for your own priceless gifts, but please do not sell or share, and please link back.  Thank you so much!)

 

 

Mothers’ Day

Posted on by keepinthesunlightblog@gmail.com

These last couple years, Mothers’ Day has become THE number one day I’ve looked forward to most all year.  I was trying to figure out why that is.  And I realized it’s because every other holiday of the year, as a parent, is just MORE work.  Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, even St. Patrick’s Day, just involve more on my to-dos to make the day special for the kids.  And while my birthdays are a great chance to reflect on life, they usually go by a bit unnoticed or carry a bit of that, “Oh. My. Goodness.  Where did the last six (or insert-your-kids’-ages-here) years go?” sort of wake-up call.

Last year was my first year with two kiddos, and I cannot tell you how much I anticipated this blessed Mama Day “holiday.”  I had a list of wishes that I shared with my husband–nothing fancy, but a takeout meal from a certain restaurant or a bath without kids pounding at the door, that sort of thing.  Unfortunately, with little ones, those seemingly simple wishes just don’t always happen.  So, this Mother’s Day, I’ve set the expectation level very low.  And I had this sudden thought this morning that as much as I’d love Mama Day to be all about getting my every wish granted, or at the very least not having to deal with the tantrums and poppy diapers of everyday life, maybe I can reframe the day.  Maybe, just maybe, I can see it instead as a day for me to really stop and look at mamahood with new eyes.  Perhaps this is my day to really recognize these amazing blessings.  To laugh, instead of shout.  To hug, instead of scold.  To pause and really BE with my family and BE in the role of mama, instead of waiting for them to go to sleep so I can have my “me time.”

Does this mean I don’t still look forward to a day…someday…when I can get an honest to goodness nap or a day without any battles about getting in the car?  Well, no.  I still think that would be flipping awesome.  But, until then, I’m gonna try to see this day for what it is.  A day about embracing motherhood–spills, tears, messes, and all.

My friend sent me this article this morning, which cracked me up. I don’t love the website with all its annoying ads, but the cartoons are rather spot on.   One of my favorite bits was this: “The slight downside with little kids is that Mothers’ Day is really about opening the cards and gifts. After that, it reverts to a normal Sunday, with the kids needing things from you.”  Shannon Hale, of course, has some great thoughts on Mothers’ Day as well.

I also read this sweet article with responses from different mamas about what they would most want for Mamas’ Day.  It got me thinking about what my “perfect” day would be like.  And, as much as I adore my little munchkins, I gotta say that I would really just love for my kids to be able to hibernate safely for a day so I could catch up on stuff, get more than 3 hours of sleep in a row, go for a walk, read a book, spend time with my husband, work on family albums, have some quiet to think, that kind of thing.  Maybe they could hibernate for a whole week…?  (And all of this, of course, goes completely opposite from all my waxing poetic above about reframing Mothers’ Day, but there it is.)

Anyway, Happy Mamas’ Day to all you lovely mamas!  Hopefully we can all find at least one blissful moment today to take a quiet breath and remember how very blessed we are.

Mama Pins on my Pinterest

P.S.  Being someone who is very hung up on getting punctuation correct when my brain is able to, I have always been in conflict about the placement of the apostrophe in Mothers’ Day.  Some say it isn’t needed at all, because the day doesn’t actually belong to mothers.  I have to disagree.  Anyway, above, I’ve tried to use Mother’s Day when referring to my own personal experience with the day and Mothers’ Day when referring to it as a general day for all mamas.