I love Pinterest!  It’s been a bitter-sweet relationship between Pinterest and me.  It began with a curious sense of exploration and hit a bump in the road when I discovered one of MY creations was out there so publicly.  Haha I can laugh about it now, but at the time I really kind of felt betrayed.

Two years ago when I was prepping my daughter’s bedroom I made a hair bow holder for her many hair bows out of some left over chicken wire that we had used the previous summer to make a compost pile.  I thought it up and thought it was genius so the hair clips could simply clip to the wire and still look so cute and be a wall display all on their own.  When I saw this idea ALL over Pinterest,  I was kind of mad, to be honest.  I thought it was MY idea and now all these people would be copying me.  Foolish me.

From there I went on a Pinterest boycott, but the craft-er in me couldn’t stay away for long.  I came back and if you visit my “boards” now you see I have pinned a lot.  On my “Pinterest” journey I have processed the phenomena of this website with lots of friends and my husband.  It stinks you can’t make “private” boards so no one sees what you pin, but than I now realize that defeats the purpose of the site.  I think they want ideas to be shared broadly and we all to benefit from one another’s creativity.  This rather selfish perspective of holding onto what I thought was mine has grown.  I now see that even though you might think you created something its probably been done already at some point or another.  What I thought was MY hair bow idea, I now don’t hold tight to at all.  I’ve made them for lots of friends/family as gifts and even sold some at craft shows.  Every one should experience this genius idea.  🙂  If you don’t have a girl, maybe you have a need for a noteboard?  You should make one!  They are so cheap and easy!

There are a lot of really creative people in this world.  We were created in God’s image…and I don’t know a better artist!  Who can design the scope, beauty and broadness of the Grand Canyon but then still create the smallest of bugs and organisms?  We all have some sort of creative spark in us and why not benefit from it?

I know as a busy mom I am often so exhausted I don’t have energy or time to think up fun, cheap things to do with my kids that will build fun incredible memories of their childhood.  Even if I know of an idea or did an activity as a kid…I may have forgotten it and cant pull it out of my brain when the time is right.  Pinterest helps me.  I love it and am proudly declaring my feelings aloud.

Here are three things I pulled off Pinterest that we did this Easter season.  PLUS, one Erica original (that I know now is probably widely done as well).

Pictures in order:

1.  (Erica’s Idea) This is what Rea’s hair bow holder looked like at the very beginning.  Its funny to see this picture now because those were some of my very first hair bows to ever make, and now you can’t see one tiny free space of wire because the thing is packed full of bows!

2.  (Pinterst Idea) We had a “dip dinner” one night over Caleb’s spring break.  It’s one of our favorite (and super unhealthy) dinners.  We get cheese dip & salsa from a local Mexican restaurant (Ceviche), or make buffalo chicken cheese dip and eat that on the couch while watching a movie together.  This week we added plastic eggs with special foods inside to the kids’ dinner.  They LOVED opening up the eggs and seeing what surprise was inside.

3 & 4. (Pinterest Idea) I printed off some charts/graphs/sorting activity sheets that we used jelly beans to help us complete them.  It was so fun!  The boys were practicing compare/contrast skills with counting and colors without feeling like they were doing “school”.

5. (Pinterest Idea) We put white daises in a jar with red food dye and watched how the leaves of the flowers soaked up that red dye.  I used this as an analogy to show how our sin was like the red dye and Jesus (the white flowers) took that on himself when he died for us.  The boys really got into it.  We talked about what is sin.  Every time we mentioned a sin I squirted some dye into the  jar of water.  I remember in middle school the PTA selling green carnations that they had used this food coloring idea with for at St Patrick’s Day, but I sure didnt remember it much less think to convert that technique into an Easter Illustration.  Thank you Pinterest!

6.  (Erica’s Idea)  Ever since the boys were little Matt and I have wrote letters to them in a a seperate journal for each of them.  We got kind off track once Reagan came into the picture, so there has been a lull of journaling.  Ever since our very first easter with Caleb, we have written our kid(s) a letter and put that in their easter basket with the rest of their goodies.  It’s a simple card that says something a long the lines of we are so proud of them, love them, and know that Jesus loves them even more than us and pray they come to see that in their lives at an early age and understand the true meaning of Easter.  This year we started the journals back up with writing their easter notes inside them, and wrote in Reagan’s for the first time.  It’s never to late to start something right!?  I think these journals will be a cool gift to give them one day.  Whether that day being a graduation or a wedding day, I think it will be special to have a journal full of love letters from thier parents.  We plan to write in them more frequently and especially on birthdays and holidays.  I’m sure this idea is not my original, but in case you haven’t seen it on pinterest or some place else just yet…I wanted to share it with you.

We all have something to share with one another!  I’d love to hear of a special tradition you do with your kids!  Please feel free to comment below!

Note:  If you don’t know what Pinterest.com is go check it out!  It is an online pin board where you can organize and share things you love.