The Adventures of CraftyLee,

I could never do that. How do you do it all?

2012-02-06T14:31:00.000-08:00

I could never (fill in the blank) Homeschool, have a business, have time to volunteer, etc. etc. etc. I hear this all the time. The short answer to this is I don't. I have said this before and I will say it again. and again. and again. If need be. I don't do it all. Just look at my gaps in dates on the blog. ;) Here in our cyber world filled with social media, 188 character snippets of life, and perfect photos that we often photoshop the "life" out of, it would seem some do it all. Reality says, lots of days I have dirty dishes in my sink, toys all over the floor, fighting children, me yelling at them, and gasp, are you ready... We may not even get school done that day!

I am convinced now more than ever that I am walking out God's calling on my life in so many areas. I am passionate about homeschooling, but I am finding that it is less about the lessons in the book that I am passionate about. It is the connection between children and their parents that I find so dear. It is not a perfect world. It is the process of my family learning how to respond to one another. How to build one another up in the Lord. How to encourage and give room to fulfill God's purpose and calling in each of our lives. While I still feel an accountability and responsibility to teach my children all they would learn in a traditional school setting and more, it is not the most important part of life. It is a tool to help them along the way. It is not the way. I get told all the time, "I would never have the patience to homeschool, you must me the most patient person on earth." The truth is I'm not. I love my children and I ask God to speak into that as often as I can. But there are days I lose it! Then I have to ask God to cover their hearts and ask them for forgiveness. One thing I have discovered is the more you are around your children the more you require they behave in a way you not only can tolerate but you actually enjoy! Does this mean you don't have "moments"? Of course not! This is true for all parents no matter how your child is "schooled."

I wear many hats, Mom, wife, photographer/business owner, teacher, life group leader, just to name a few. Recently the pace of my life had gotten the best of me. I was battling internal dialog that was unhealthy, no matter how much down time or breaks I had it didn't seem like enough. Nothing had changed in my external circumstances but internally I was depleted.

I was reading notes a friend had given me from a recent class at church. I kept noticing one phrase, get in God's Word. I started to wonder, when was the last time I read my bible just to hear from the Lord? If you are asking that question the answer is too long! I moved on and picked up my new christian living book and continued to read. That chapter was on letting God speak to you by reading His Word. Yes, I hear what your saying Lord, I thought as I closed the book and picked up my daily devotional. Do I even need to tell you what it said? Yes, I want to talk to you, get in the Word. O.K. LORD! I hear you I said as I picked up my bible.

He led me to Psalm 31. David is writing complaining to God and he says, "out of sight, out of mind," BUT you heard me say it, you heard and listened. WOW! The Lord was speaking to me. I had felt a little passed over by the Lord recently. I had a need I wanted Him to take care of. He was saying I HEAR YOU! That Psalm ends with this, "Be brave. Be strong, Don't give up. Expect Got to get here soon." He wanted me to know He was there. It was so healing to my spirit. My thoughts cleared up and I was able to move on.

Today God spoke to me again in Matt 11. "Are you listening to me? Really listening?" This time I was listening to Him. That chapter goes on to say, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me- watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

God blew me away! He spoke right to the heart of it. Ministering to others is awesome. Reading life giving books and devotionals good. Pouring out to your family, God requires that of us. But when that all gets to a point of wearing you down, do you have a relationship with Him? Can you stop and really talk with Him and let Him talk back and give you rest! Isn't that why we do those other things? Because we love our relationship with Jesus so much that we want others to know what it is like also. We read books and devotionals to inspire and encourage us to do what those who came before us did. TESTIFY and live a life of example to those around us to show them how GOOD HE IS! We can't do that on empty. He knows that. Today I am grateful for a God who gives me "real rest" just by speaking a word.

How do I do it all? Through Christ who gives me strength!

BOLD

2012-01-01T06:34:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Wow, 2012. It seems each year passes by quicker than the last. 2011 was my year to be FREE. A year a freedom it was. God granted my hearts desire to walk out this past year in the freedom only He provides. Daily He gave me opportunities to grow in His freedom. Some days I met Him head on and other days I was less than a willing participant. ;) I can honestly say I am so thankful that God was faithful in this area and as I move onto a new year I know He will continue to grow this freedom He freely gives.

My word this year is BOLD. I tried to choose a different word. Bold would not leave me alone. When I started thinking of what my word would be it was the FIRST word that came to my mind. I quickly dismissed it. Bold = responsibility that I did not want to take on. This word begin to take root over a year ago when I was writing to encourage a friend who was going through a hard time. She had lost someone close to her and I wanted to let her know how God had used her friend to change my relationship with Him, that He had used her friend to give me a gift of prayer and intercession I didn't know I had. Her response to me was BE BOLD with this gift. That sentence comes to me often when I see someone that could use prayer or encouragement. God's word also tells us this in 2 Timothy 1:5
That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn't want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.(msg)

Then I was reminded to be bold when asking God for anything and that Boldness and Freedom go hand and hand. 1 John 5:13 My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he's listening. And if we're confident that he's listening, we know that what we've asked for is as good as ours.(msg)

This year what being bold means to me is that I am going to be BOLD with my faith. Bold with my resources. Bold with my business. Bold in my ministry. Bold in my teaching. Bold in my study. Bold in the care and raising of my children. Bold in my marriage. I am going to live a BOLD life for Christ in every area. With Christ all things are possible! What is your one little word for 2012?

If you want to know more about the idea behind choosing a word of the year check out Ali Edwards blog. She also has a cool giveaway going on right now but it ends TODAY!

And if you haven't seen my Thank YOU at Rooted Images head on over to the blog!

2nd 6 weeks

2011-11-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

I am a little late posting our 2nd six weeks update. Here are my letters to the boys for this past six weeks. We are well into the 3rd six weeks right now, I have so much blogging to catch up on! I want to post some of the things we have been doing. I have been pretty good at taking pictures. Not good pictures but still capturing some of our activities in a blur on a camera phone is better than not having them at all. I am sure soon I will have time to go through them and post. Until then here is the recap. :)

Drew,

Your 2^nd six weeks in kindergarten has been great! We have studied the letters H, S, C, D, G. We have been reading lots! You love to rhyme words right now. You love to do your workboxes each day. This six weeks we have learned about addition up to 10, and you love practicing by playing math bingo on the iphone and using bean counters. Also covered in math were positioning, ordinals, classifying and sorting, Patterns (you are very good at these) Intro to telling time and parts of the clock, simple problem solving and logic and you are begging me to do subtraction. We have been learning how to be good stewards of the things God has given us and how to be humble and not blame others for our choices. You really took these lessons seriously and earned lots of stickers! You are really interested in community right now, especially the mail man, fireman and police officers. In science learned about Dinosaurs and you loved making your very own dino dig and field guide. I am amazed at how much you know about dinos! We talked about the earth and looked at a globe to see what was land and water, you found Texas on the globe all by yourself. You helped rearrange the school room and love our library. You remind me often to use my library voice in there. You also learned to ride your bike with NO training wheels! Super exciting. You now have your orange belt in Tae Kwan Do and you are really good at your moves. You are growing up and I am so proud of you. Keep up the good work!

Love,

Mommy

Alex,

You make me laugh everyday! You really know your letters and their sounds. This six weeks we talked about the letters H, S, C, D, & G. You love to play the game where we think of all the words we know that start with a certain letter. You are still trying to decide which hand you want to write with. I have a feeling you are going to be left handed but we will see because you really switch back and forth a lot. You loved making our dino dig and field guide. I think you know as much as Drew does about dino’s and I am amazed that you know all their names. You really listen when Drew is doing math. You are getting really good at counting objects to match the number cards. You are great at sorting objects and you love to play with blocks. You have gotten really good at riding your big boy bike with training wheels. You go VERY fast! You have your orange belt in Tae Kwan Do. I am super proud of you. Keep up the good work Big AX!

Love,

Mommy

God is Love.

2011-11-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 one of the most quoted and memorized passages that Christians often recite. I went to a funeral this past week. We celebrated the life of an amazing woman. People spoke of her kindness and the way she gave to those around her. It was a beautiful time of remembering. The focus of this event was to celebrate her life and her final destination. She was a believer and no one questioned who she would spend eternity with. That was such a joyful thought to me. That while those in the room that day miss her right now, SHE is dancing with her KING! The preacher said, “She probably feels sorry for us that we are still here.” I think that maybe true if she isn’t so much in awe of where she is to even realize who isn’t there.

I have no problem with preachers giving “the good news” at funerals. For me it is an appropriate time to remind others just how short life is and that there is a reality that goes beyond this journey here and now on Earth. Something happens in the aftermath of loosing someone you love. Your heart opens up in a way that is usually closed off to the world. We begin contemplate our purpose in life, what happens when we leave these bodies, we begin to question reality. We look for comfort. We seek or we run or maybe a little of both.

What I do not like at anytime is when the Gospel is told in a way that sounds like this, “God doesn’t want you to go to Hell. But that is where you will be if you don’t ask Jesus into your heart.” While this is true, I don’t believe God’s motivation is to “save” us from the burning flames of hell. While this is a byproduct of salvation, it is not, in my opinion God’s motivation. No one can claim to know what motivates God. He is a mystery. I do know a little something about what motivates the human heart.

Fear can be a great motivator. It can keeps us safe. A healthy fear keeps us from running into traffic or touching a hot stove. It also paralyzes us at times. It can cause obsessive behavior. A child who has an unhealthy fear of authority thinks he is in trouble even when he has done nothing wrong. Fear can also cause us to flee if we feel there is no escape to the terrible fate that waits for us.

Love can also motivate. Love motivates us to make good choices. It motivates us to sacrifice for others. It motivates us to share. It gives us a reason to keep on trying. It gives us hope.

In my personal experience Love motivates in a deep way. God has really shown me He wants to spend eternity with me MORE than he doesn’t want me to go to hell. I wished at this particular funeral this preacher would have approached salvation from God’s love. Not what we are trying to avoid, but what God has gift wrapped for us if only we would sign for the package. I do believe this minister’s heart was in the right place. Wanting to show others how important this decision to accept our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is. I just wonder if Jesus had to preach a funeral, what would his word’s have been.

I believe he would have wept with us that day. Not in mourning for the dead. But out of the pain He saw on his other beloved people. The story of Lazarus shows this side of Jesus’ heart.

John 11

³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

³⁵ Jesus wept.

I also think he would be about his Father’s business. So many times in the bible Jesus went off to pray, alone. Do a quick search on Jesus + pray and see what you come up with. More than I can list here. This is one prayer Jesus prayed for those that would come to know him. Yes, while here on Earth Jesus prayed for you and me.

John 17

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you^[^e^] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Jesus only did/does what he saw the Father doing.

John 5

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

Jesus spoke so much of the Father’s LOVE. God the Father does not possess the ability to love. HE IS LOVE. He created Love. It is woven into the very fiber of who He is. Jesus understood the Father’s love for him. That is why he was able to obey even to the most horrific end. Because he knew his Father, he knew that all would be redeemed. You and I would be able to rejoice not just that we have a place in heaven but that we get to share it with HIM! He doesn’t need us friends. HE WANTS us! There is a huge difference in being needed and wanted.

Jesus wants us to walk with him so that others will know He is real! That his Father sent him and HE is real! God knew the only way we would ever be able to wrap our brains around his existence would be if we experienced him. My experiences with God are what define my knowledge of his “realness” Where my experience has not happened, my faith must bridge the gap. I have not walked to the other side of this life yet. What I do have experience with is living with the Lord. Him hearing me, talking with me, being faithful to me, providing for me. Those things only happen when I communicate with Him by praying, spend time in His presence and reading His written word. Now, my faith tells me there is a life after this, that those who believe in Jesus will be there with me and the Lord himself will share it with me. It tells me this because that is what His word says. I know His word to be true only by experience. By reading and trusting, then watching Him do what he says he will do. So faith feeds experience in relationship and experience in relationship feed faith.

I met Jesus because I was introduced to him. Not because I heard a prayer and repeated it. I was introduced to him by a few people who us both and wanted us to meet. Someone told me, “Jesus loved you enough to die for you. Has anyone else done that for you?” Jesus died for us. You are his friend!

John 15

¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

If we could only grasp the depth of God’s love for us, we would not question His existence. We would not wonder if this life was worth all it takes. If we were able to absorb the simple truth of LOVE we would be quick to introduce our Jesus to someone else. That he might make a difference in their life here on Earth now and in eternity.

My prayer is that we all may meet Jesus in this life. We get but one life here on Earth to decide what we believe about God. God didn’t make this a hard test. Jesus said if we believe in him, we believe in the Father who sent him. It is a FREE gift. Simple. He sent Jesus to die for you. Do you believe there is a God? Do you believe you need him in your life? Do you believe that he sent his son Jesus to die for you? If you answered yes to all these questions WELCOME to the family of God!

All you need to do now is, say it out loud! Tell someone you know and trust so that they can rejoice with you! Tell God Thank you for all he has done and will do in your life. Pray, praying is simply talking. Talk with God. Then pause and listen for him to speak back. It may be a thought that comes to mind. It may be a picture you see. It may be a song you hear. The more you do it. The more you will recognize His voice. As long as that line of communication is open, He will lead you deeper into relationship.

This is what I wish would have been preached. GOD IS LOVE. Everything He has done or will do concerning us comes from this place of LOVE.

Grocery Budget Challenge.

2011-10-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

I have decided to challenge myself. I am so tired of spending (more than I want to say) so much money on food every week. I know food prices are high but I think my problem is I want EASY. I think I can have it both! I did the grocery game a long time ago and while we did save money I found I didn't cook some of the things I bought. I don't mind using coupons but I don't want to spend hours doing it. Really I am not asking too much am I?

I started reading about $5, $10 dinners... Can these people really do that? Well I don't know if they can but I am going to try what feels like an EXTREME budget for me. First I will say I have a pretty decent pantry stocked with staples nothing crazy over the top but I will not have to purchase every ingredient for every meal. I did go to costco a few weeks back before I decided to do this and got pork chops, fish, chicken breasts for the freezer. I know this will make my budget meeting much easier for now. I still think it would be possible with some modifications. I will try to include the prices for those items even if I didn't actually spend that money. That being said here is my budget for the next 4 weeks.

Each week my goal is to spend no more than $80.00. This is for breakfast, lunch and dinner and a snack for the little ones! If you are already feeding a family of 4 on that budget, PLEASE let me know because I would love to hear your ideas. :)

It breaks down something like this...
Breakfast I will try to keep at $2 a day.
Lunch $3 a day.
Dinner (this is the tricky one!) $5 a day.
Since I have little ones... Snack $1 a day.

I found this website.http://www.5dollardinners.com/ that was a great start to planning my meals. Great printables and awesome links for resources.

I said this was going to be a challenge! I have planned 6 weeks of meals. I need accountability!!! That would be you! If you want to join me leave a comment.

Meals for WEEK ONE...
Monday
Breakfast: Pumpkin Bread (I have the mix)
Lunch: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Snack: Nuttella and Graham Crackers (I have)
Dinner: Tilapia scampi (I have the fish) white rice, broccoli

Tuesday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Meat, Cheese, Crackers
Snack: Homemade Granola Bars (I don't add the salt. way too salty! Other than that these go FAST!)
Dinner: Mexican Cassarole bake (baked cornbread, refried beans on top of that, ground beef with taco season, topped with shreaded cheese you can also add corn if you want)

Wednesday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Sandwich and Chips
Snack: Apples and Granola Bars
Dinner: Patty Melts, chips

Thursday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: French Bread Pizza
Snack: Grapes and Cheese
Dinner:Chicken and Stuffing with cranberry sauce, green beans

Friday
Breakfast: Bisucts with Chocolate Gravy
Lunch: P.B.& J grapes
Snack: Chex Mix
Dinner: Lasagna Roll ups, garlic bread

Saturday
Breakfast: Eggs, Sausage and Toast
Lunch: Sandwich and Chips
Snack: Granola Bars and Apple Slices
Dinner: Crock pot Ribs, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls

Sunday
Breakfast: Cinamon Toast
Lunch: Grilled Ham and Cheese
Snack: Grapes
Dinner:
Honey Seared Ckn (I use orange ckn and add honey it is the way Drew likes it and I have it already in the freezer), Fried Rice

We can all trim our food budgets. Even if you don't care about the cost savings, How nice is it to have a complete meal plan for a week!

The first Six Weeks.

2011-10-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

I was telling Michael last night how much I have enjoyed this first 6 weeks of school. I have seen Drew go from just sounding out simple 3 letter words to reading his books off the shelf in his room to Alex. I have seen Alex keeping up with Drew in ways I never imagined. I have been so blessed to be their teacher. I am so thankful that God opened this door for me to view my children's daily progress. Yes it takes up time. Yes it is hard some days when one or more of us doesn't really want to stay on task, and I am including myself in that equation. Most days are joyful, fun, and messy. I know I have done my job when I hear the boys say, "Mom, lets do more school!" and I hear that often. I love that God has forever changed the way our family views "school." It isn't a time of day or a place. It is the process of learning about ourselves, God's mighty nature and His awesome universe. This summer when I was planning our year God gave me a theme verse for this year it is Titus 3:8 "This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent for everyone." My focus has been on doing that which God sees as good. Not to check a good deed off my list but to soak up more about what God's goodness really means. Schooling my children is good in the Lord's eyes because He knew that in this season it was exactly what our family needed. It is good in His eyes because He told me to do it and I obeyed and trusted that He would fill in where I wasn't able. He has blessed our experience and family life because of our willingness to listen to His direction.

At the same time God gave me my verse, He also gave me one for the boys. 1 Peter 2:9. "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, god's special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." This verse reminds me that my boys are possessions of God, not mine. that he has trusted me to bring them up in Him, as a royal priesthood. While teaching them to read and count is important, my goal is to teach them how to connect to God so that they may fulfill the purpose He has placed on their lives.

I do think measuring progress is important. Homeschool is different in that the process of learning is the goal not the result to any given exercise. For Kindergarten I have set goals for the year. Each 6 weeks I am revising the goals for that particular session. I am finding the boys are blowing my expectations out of the water and I really did lots of research about what should be mastered by the end of Kindergarten. This is an AWESOME problem to have.

Since I know I was interested in how other homeschool mom's do their grades and progress reporting I will share mine. The boys report cards look like this.

Outside

Inside

I have added to the symbols. When I made this card I wasn't sure how I was going to do grading for Kindergarten. School is so hands on. I am not anti test by any means, it is just at this age most "test" are oral and done as we learn. Not on paper with big red x's and a number at the top of the paper. I did want a way to track progress for him to see, Daddy to see, to keep a record for someday when he is older, and there are many programs in the community that reward kids for doing well in school in which you need a report card to show. So I came up with our kindergarten grading system that really does stay true to the letter grading system. A = Mastered all goals. B = Mastered most goals. C = Mastered few goals. + (A+) means above expectation. Honestly with a teaching ratio of 1 to 2 if my students are engaged and not mastering most goals I am not doing my job as a teacher. I am also summing up what they have learned in a letter to them at the end of each grading period. Oh and I do write comments on the back of the report card and date it. Then they will get Daddy to sign it. ;)

I am using this blog as a yearbook of sorts to keep up with our journey in hopes of printing it out for the boys at the end of the school year. So forgive me, as not everything I write here is with "you the reader" in mind. That said, I do love it when you get inspiration for your homes and classrooms from this window into our world!

To sum up the first six weeks here are my letters to the boys about their progress. These will be filed with their report cards.

Drew,
Your first 6 weeks of Kindergarten have been amazing! You have really picked up on reading. Yesterday I was so thrilled to see you reading "Gordon's New View" You even got words like "station" and "express" correct. That makes my heart so happy! You have really done well in Phonics and you know all your Vowels and we have started on the consent blends for the letters t, l, b, n, m. In Math, your favorite subject, you have really been using your problem solving skills to complete drawings and answer questions that someday you will know as word problems about different pictures you are shown. Your excitement about Addition and Subtraction is contagious. I wasn't even planning on covering that this 6 weeks but you jumped right in and started teaching me! I love it! We have also been working on money recognition and telling time. You are almost there and you really want a clock for your room. In science we have learned so much about God's world. Insects, Elephants, 5 Senses, Nature, Birds, Transportation, and even the Ocean. Our field trips to the Museum, Aquarium and Grammy's Chicken Coop were so much fun and I loved seeing how your field trip reports turn out. I love that you are excited about God's word. That you notice when we don't change our bible verse and are always asking for more! God is really going to use your love of His word!!! Art and Music are super fun and I love it when we sing and paint! You are doing amazing in Tae Kwan Do. I can't wait to see you at your first belt test soon. You are such a smart, loving, sweet boy. I love that you always want to see me with a smile on my face. I love the way you love on me in your sweet Drew way! Thank you for letting me be your kindergarten teacher!!!!

Love,
Mommy

Big AX!

I love Tot-School with you! Shhhh! Don't tell Drew but I think you are really good at Kindergarten. ;) You have learned all your Vowel sounds and names! That is really big boy stuff. You know your consents t, l, b, n, m names and sounds also. You have even picked up on a few sight words! I am super excited for you because it wont be long and you will be reading just like Drew. I see you with your books trying to sound out word and it makes me smile so big. You wouldn't settle for your own tot-school work. You want to do exactly what Drew is doing so I just let you. I am amazed every single day at just how smart you are. In math you can count to 20 and you use one to one correspondence when counting objects. You also know geometric shapes, circle, star, triangle, square, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, and 3-D shapes, cone, cube, sphere and cylinder. You know all the colors of the rainbow and love BLUE! You also have discovered so much about God's big world. You loved our Ant farm when we were talking about insects. We also learned about Elephants, 5 Senses, Nature, Birds, Transportation, and even the Ocean. Our field trips to the Museum, Aquarium and Grammy's Chicken Coop were so much fun you really liked throwing chicken scratch to the chickens but were not so sure about the shark tunnel at the aquarium. You love Chapel time and Art anything that is messy is alright by you. I love that you hid God's precious word in your heart. You always want to say Phil. 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Watching you kick and punch in Tae Kwan Do is so neat. You really are great at anything you put your mind to do! I love your smiles, hugs and kisses. I love the way you are always so excited to ring the bell or hold the flag. Thank you for letting me be your teacher!!!

Love,
Mommy

N is for Nest and Nature.

2011-10-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

Today we started N is for Nest and Nature.
After phonics and math we took a walk outside to gather things for our Nature Sensory Bin.

We walked the back yard to find sticks, leaves, and rocks. We noticed where the Lizzy the Lizard sleeps. (according to Drew under the deck and he was right.)

In our front yard we found a real nest in our redbud tree! The boys were thrilled! Then we walked over to the neighbor's yard to collect several acorns. Alex said it was like an Easter egg hunt and Drew was worried the squirels might get mad.

In the end our Nature bin turned out awesome!

Next we were off to the kitchen to do some wet felting. If you have never tried this it is an awesome sensory activity. It is easier to do balls as in this tutorial on youtube. Be sure and watch part 2 of this series to see how to finish out the project. We have made the balls before and the boys still play with them. I bought my natural wool online and I got a small bag of colored wool also to use as decoration.

First we talked about where in Nature we get wool. Drew was concerned that it hurts the sheep, so we talked about how it was just a haircut and he was fine. We talked about the many uses for wool and they both thought it felt like clouds looked and was warm and cozy.

Drew thought green, orange and purple made nice eggs. Alex wanted blue, green and yellow.

We took some fuzzy yarn and wrapped around the nest to make it look more like a real nest and now they are out with our fall decorations. I am going to bring them out again in the spring!

A day at Grammy's Chicken Coop.

2011-10-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

We recently spent the day with Grammy in her chicken coop. They boys LOVED getting the eggs and feeding the chickens right out of their hands. We made friends with Rusty, Specks, Squawk, Chicken Noodle Head, Lucy or Rio depending on who you ask, and Lacy. Who knew that a day spent tending to chickens could be so much fun. We were not ready to leave and I was almost convinced that I might need a chicken or two. But then again if I want to stay married,

I could just go to mom's and get the eggs!

This is Rusty, I think... It could be Lucy but I think it is Rusty.

Feeding the Chickens

Thank you Grammy for such a fun day!

Grandparent's Day and O is for Ocean...

2011-10-02T17:27:00.001-07:00

Papa David came over to celebrate Grandparents Day during school.

Papa did the Pledge with us, while Alex held the Flag.

He did our lesson with us, taught us a magic trick, and then each of the boys stood up and told everyone the things the liked to do with Papa David. They Papa told the boys his favorite things to do with them. It was so sweet. Then we busted out of school early for a safari!

Rain Forest Cafe

Alex was so happy to be eating with his Papa!

Then there was O is for Ocean...

For our sensory activity, every night we had a blue ocean bath. Just a couple of drops of food coloring and a little bit of soap for the bubbles. The boys are still asking for blue bath water! It was a hit for sure. We talked about sharks and other ocean life and how God's word tells us that God wants us to take care of our world. Nonna (grandma) was actually at the Texas coast the week before and got the boys 2 great books to go with this unit.

Drew used this one to draw different fish and find out fun ocean facts.

This one is super cute and Alex loved the rhyming and the slide out pages.

We took a field trip to the Grapevine Aquarium with Papa David as we celebrated Grandparents day to end our week.

Checking it out!

Watching the Sting Ray's in the bubble! They would swim right up to the window. The boys thought it was super neat.

They have glass platforms and floors all over the place. Drew wasn't sure about this at first. This was over the Sting Ray pool. Soon He did venture out over the glass.

Discovering the deep sea with Papa David.

The Jelly Fish were really relaxing to watch. I could have just stayed there but we had so much more to see.

Here at the rock pools you can pet a crab, starfish and here they boys are looking at a tiny lobster. This one, Drew was quick to tell me, does not have claws.

Pretending to be trapped inside a bubble.

Gee, wonder where they got this idea! LOL!

This was an awesome field trip. When Drew did his field trip report he said his favorite part was seeing a clown fish. I mean who doesn't like finding Nemo.

U is for umbrella...

2011-10-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

As our first 6 weeks of Kindergarten comes to an end, let me catch everyone up on us!
This project was just too cute not to share. I found it at Mama Jenn's blog.

The glue dries clear and it looks like water drops!

The boys loved this! The umbrella was out of card stock and they had to glue the pieces together. Then they got to do... DOT - DOT - THAT'S A LOT! (usually our saying is dot dot not a lot with glue). This was back when it was over 100 degrees and we were praying for rain!

A is for astronaut... and other space fun!

2011-08-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

This week is A is for Astronaut. We are using this to jump into our space theme. The boys are thrilled!

First we took a look at our Space Discovery Bin.

I used black beans as the filler, glow in the dark stars, moons and comets, balls for planets, a couple of space shuttles, Obi is in there because he is pretending to be our astronaut with his space helmet, a couple of jeeps for our Lunar Roving Vehicle, and some fun glass beads and marbles. I also added color letter A beads.

We talked about moon craters and how they were formed. Then we went to the kitchen to create our own lunar surface. We also conducted an experiment to answer the question what make a crater bigger or smaller. Drew's answers were awesome! Bigger balls bigger crater, throw it harder you get a deeper crater. Makes me smile! While we had the flour out we decided to practice our letter A and of course Alex had to taste the flour. He decided it was better in the brownies we made the other night than by itself!

Then we made it back to class to fly to the moon!

We practice our A's on the light box. For Alex I used clear tape so he had an outline to follow. Drew really enjoyed doing this without the guides and he decided on a solid purple A.

They were not ready for school to end today!

Our New Light Box!

2011-08-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

So I have wanted a light box for a while but just couldn't spend the money on one like this light box. It just looked like so much fun. So I went and did some searches to see how others were making their DIY boxes. Most of them you needed to paint. I decided to go at it on my own and this is what we came up with.

First 1 plastic storage tub. Not clear but frosted. (mine had a white lid so I just used the lid for the bottom of the box.) Then I used foil and clear tape to cover the inside the box except for the top (on mine is the bottom). This way the light is reflected and the top is bright. Sorry for the fuzzy pic but I was using my phone.

I then placed 2 bright led flashlights on the lid. (turn them on) attached the box on top and you have this...

I will buy the push button lights or maybe even fluorescent lights to go inside. For now these worked great, however I don't think my hubby is going to like us using the batteries in his nice flashlights.

Then I added some of our colored magnetic discs and MAGIC!

Alex loved it! Soon it was on to counting and rainbow making!

Drew joined in later. I think this is the new favorite activity!

Reading

2011-08-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight Drew read the bedtime stories. He read 3 bobs books. It was great. He has almost finished the entire first set. The first few he has read for a while and totally has them memorized. The latest ones are challenging him with new punctuation and sounds. The joy on his face and the pride he as when he reads to all of us is so sweet. Now only if I can get him to take off his Harry Potter glasses. As he so seriously put it tonight... Mom I can't see with out them. Funny boy. Looks like I need to find some more readers. I know bob's has a few more sets, I would like to get him some others also. I will let you know what I come up with.

New adventure!

2011-08-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

I have a new adventure. I am kicking off the official start to my photography business. I have been a lover of the craft for a long time. I have been doing shoots and learning more but it is time to make a leap of faith. This hobby of mine as out grown its hobby status. It is taking up more of my time and I LOVE IT! So I decided to get serious about it. Please visit my new photography blog The Blog, website Rooted Images and like me on FB! Thank you for all your support and prayers as I undertake something that has been a life long dream! If you are ready to book a fall session give me a call!

What we've been doing.

2011-08-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

Last week we were working on the Letter I, so for science we dove into the world of insects! The boys loved the BUGS! We made the Red and Black Ant chip clips and our favorite, we read, The Lonely Firefly, by Eric Carle, then we made our very own glow stick fireflies! They took them to bed glowing that night and it was a HIT!

UPDATE:

The Ants are here! I know you can't actually see them in this picture but they did arrive. In just a few short days they made tunnels like crazy! They were really fun to watch and super easy to take care of. They did die after about 3 weeks. They were expected to live 4-6 weeks but I think that since they were shipped in the extreme heat it just took a little off their life. We would definitely do this again.

This is Alex, doing a little handwriting. He loves dry erase markers! He still can't decide if he is left or right handed. So he goes back and forth. His getting ready for letter u page is a sheet with different lines (curvy, straight etc.) so he starts at the left side of the paper and goes to the right. He loves that he is doing "big boy" work.

Drew is working on his letter I sheet. We have moved on to the letter U this week but he is doing both letters in handwriting. We are studying the 5 senses this week. Yesterday was smell. Drew discovered scented pencils so today he was really struggling to get his 3 lines of writing done. I pulled out those pencils and it was like magic. He was suddenly all about writing. If only I can keep being creative in this area.

Scissor practice. Alex loves to cut! Hopefully he will only love to cut paper. :)

Drew is using our moveable alphabet to do a Montessori inspired reading activity. He has to fill in the blank with the first letter of each word. The cards have a picture cue and he has an answer card to self check his work.

This was a simple and fun math activity from our MEP curriculum. They had a picture of a bear and the boys had to tear a piece of paper to make his body parts. Drew REALLY wanted to use scissors. Alex was glad to tear! and the results....

Left is Alex, Right is Drew's

I mentioned the senses unit and today was sight day so here are a few of our sight activities.

We looked through our magnetic color counting chips to see how different colored lenses change our view of the world.

Then of course we had to play with the magnets!

And then we looked at tiny object with a magnifying glass. The boys thought this was very cool.

Then they decided to get out their spy glass and binoculars to look some more.

Major progress!

2011-08-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

So today was a BIG day in our house! Big Ax made HUGE progress on the journey to giving me a raise. YES we are talking about potty training. Yesterday I made the decision to be done with the pull ups except at night and today we worked super hard on making it every time and you know that one thing that is a big deal... SUCCESS! He was playing on my phone while he was "waiting" on the potty and took a pic of him sitting there on accident but I will spare you!

On another note... School has been great this week. We have been working on the letter I, color Red, Number 4 for Alex. Today Alex worked on punch page as we work on name and letter recognition.

For Drew, phonics and handwriting we have been reviewing the letter I. Since we try and keep our official "school" time to 2 hours, we pack a lot of work into it. I am trying to keep it fun and balanced with plenty of writing and learning time, and also let him do some fun things that aren't really challenging but more fun. It is during those times I notice he is really active in telling me about what he already knows. He shows Alex how to do them and really becomes a great teacher. I didn't expect to see this so soon, but really glad it is happening. Here he is doing his fun activity with the pom pom magnets.

Their favorite part of the day is when we bust into some their sports camps songs for chapel time. They squeal, sing, dance, do the motions and run around like crazy! I try and save this for the end of the day or at a moment when things have felt to tedious for all of us.

Today we finished a few minutes early. Drew got a Lego set for his birthday. We have been working on counting, sorting, and patterns in math. Soooo what better way to continue those concepts than to build Hogwarts Castle! Drew was really helpful in the sorting, and building. Alex counted out the pieces and matched the shapes and a few fun math hours later we finished!

Then we rushed off to Tae Kwan Do for a little physical activity. They had a blast! We officially signed them up and Drew really wants his uniform. We have a field trip planned for Friday to use our passes to the museum we got from the library reading program. Perfect indoor place to beat the heat.

I will end with our bible verse for the week. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

First Day of School

2011-08-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

and what a great day it was...

Drew's first day of kindergarten went great! He was not super excited about starting school today. Drew got to ring the school bell at the start of the morning. For a little while he considered that preschool was more fun when he would glance at Alex's activities. However, he ended the morning saying "Mom, Kindergarten is hard work but SUPER fun!" I was thinking the same thing. We had a great morning. I took several pictures but managed to delete them on accident! Deep breath, not a big deal. These are the important ones and I love the smile on his face. The morning went really smooth and I am so thankful for those who praying for us on this adventure.

Alex had a wonderful morning! He listened to most of Drew's lessons and loved art today. I couldn't believe how attentive he was. He got to hold the flag during the pledge and he thought that was super cool. He even knew most of the words.

This is our behavior color chart. Everyone starts the day on Green. If they end the day on blue they get a paw print stamp (they are lions and tigers) and if they end on purple they get 2 stamps. When we went over the colors and their meanings Drew wanted to know what kind of consequence I would choose as the teacher. I told him it wouldn't be fun and would most likely mean he had an extra chore to do after school. Then when we got to red and I said,"If you keep breaking the rules and not listening you will have to have a talk with Daddy when he gets home. What usually happens when you have to talk to Dad after you have broken the rules or not made good choices?" Drew's response, "OH NO that is usually a spanking! I don't want that!" Perfect. Just the response I was going for.

As you can see they both ended on blue and Alex asked to put his stamp on his foot and Drew on the hand.

I can tell that this adventure is going to push me to be a better teacher and a better mom. We had a great time but there were a few moments where Drew really didn't want to finish what he was doing. He did push through and I loved to see him do that. I loved our pace today, we got all of our work done with a little bit of play time in 2 hours. It was perfect and our morning flew. They are now content playing with each other and not begging me to be in the middle of their playtime. God gave me confirmation in several ways this morning that we are absolutely on the right path for this year. I am sure I will have more to post this week. My goal is to post 1-3 times a week as things progress. We will see. Right now I am more about being in the moment with the boys than remembering to take pics. I am totally o.k. with that.

Growing up

2011-07-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

Drew's birthday was yesterday. I still can't blog about it. Turning 5 was a big milestone for him and for me. He and Alex have a birthday party this weekend. After that I will post a big birthday blog!

Today as we were getting things ready for the start of school next week, Drew was looking at our USA puzzle. He said, "Mom Arkansas is really close to Texas on the map but *really* far in the car!" What a great observation he made. Not only that he used the word map instead of puzzle but that he recalled how long it took us to get to Uncle Robby's in the car. It feels so cool to see him make that connection and know that our putting stickers on the map when we traveled and talking about maps and states really does equal a lesson in geography. Then Alex followed up with, "Texas! That is the state we live!" I love watching the world through their eyes!

BACK TO SCHOOL

2011-07-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our school room. Model "Big Ax". He can't help himself, really he needs to be in every shot when the camera is in hand. We are super excited about our first year of homeschooling. Drew had some very specific ideas of what a school looked like so with his ideas and some functional ideas I found while reading *every* blog on the Internet, this will be our room. It is fun and happy and we all want to be in there.

On the door is our Clock in and out chart. They will move their school ID's to the in slot when we start our day. Since the school room is so fun and has sooooo many things with sooooo many pieces at their finger tips (yes I did this on purpose) I had to maintain some sort of control and keep it special. So once we clock out of the school room we are done for the day and must find other areas of the house to play.

Here is our circle time and calendar wall. There are some components on it for Alex and some for Drew but we will be doing this time together as a group. The flag was Drew's idea and what a GREAT one it was! There is a calendar in the middle of the art display. It is from our sponsored child in Uganda, it has neat art work and we use it to plan out our monthly special activities and birthdays. It is driving me crazy it isn't centered because I hung it on a nail that was already on the wall. I think I am going to have to go fix it now. :)

These are their art display boards but I have a feeling art is going to overtake our home. That makes me happy to think about! In our last preschool the kids were different animals for each class. So Drew really wanted to be an animal again. I let them both choose. Alex decided on tiger and Drew a lion. Great choices!

This is Drew's workbox tower and desk area. I love it! The desks I got for free and the Towers I got at Office Depot. Really love them.

Alex loves his desk and workbox tower! He can't wait to use them. That is it. I am just waiting on a few workbooks to arrive in the mail and we will be ready to go. My plan was to have school start Aug 22. But if I get everything in before we will start early.

Curriculum

2011-05-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

I have another post to share with you about our journey in making the homeschool decision but I wanted to share our curriculum first as this is what I am super excited about.

Drew can't wait to start Kindergarten. He and Alex have been really involved in setting up the "school" room and asks to go in there often. I really didn't want to start our school year until the fall. I wanted to use the summer to have fun and establish the rules and behavior expectations in the school room while also showing them in a relaxed setting how much fun learning in the school room can be. So we are doing some themed studies, arts and crafts, along with continuing our Spanish. So far this approach has all of us excited about going into that room where most of our supplies are stored. Now I have a real expectation that we will use our entire home for learning as we already do. Since the boys had been in preschool already, Drew especially desired a traditional classroom for kindergarten.

Back to our curriculum choices for the fall.

Drew- Kindergarten

Bible-
Raising Rock Stars http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingRockStars.html
And Character Studies from Confessions of a Homeschooler http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/11/character-study-arguing.html

Language Arts
Abeka

Math
MEP http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm
Since this is a UK curriculum I will be supplementing to teach U.S. Money and Time, I have reviewed this and talked to several people who are using it and I have great expectations for this program.
I also have Abeka that I may use to supplement

Science
Pulled from Abeka and online unit studies to go with our Alphabet Letter of the week. We are going to focus on Animals loosely based on My Father's World animal list.

Spanish
Rosetta Stone Spanish. Drew and I do this together and he loves it. I have pulled other online resources for reniforcement.

Music
We will use this website http://www.makingmusicfun.net/htm/mmf_music_library_homeschool_teacher.htm
Drew is really interested in playing the recorder so we are going to focus on this and enjoy lots of music and rythm lessons

Art
This is one subject my children have never been lacking. EVERYTHING we do is expressed in Art.

P.E.
This year Drew will be doing swimming over the summer. T-ball in the fall and we will let him decide in the spring what he would like to do.

Alex- Tot School
Alex will have a couple of "school" activities to do each day with us. I am finding he just wants to do what Drew is doing. So I will let him do that as much as he wants. I am amazed the things Drew has taught Alex just by being his playmate! I am pulling lots of printables from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/Preschool.html and http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/07/letter-of-week-curriculum.html I have taught Alex's age in preschool for a combined 5 years so I am confident that we will expose him to all the basics and more!

Bible- Alex will join us for the same lessons I have listed above.

Language Arts
Letter of the week and prewriting skills

Math
I will pull resources from many places to focus on Number recognition, counting, sorting, etc.

Life Skills and Fine and Gross Motor Skills
We will be spending lots of time here. Like all preschoolers most learning will be done in play. I plan on using some montissori type activities to keep it interesting.

P.E.
Because I believe that every child should be physically active, Alex is going to do swimming over the summer and Blast Ball in the fall. :)

So that is the plan at least right now. I am sure I left out tons of things I have written down in our plans. I really just wanted to share the basics. I am trying to keep it simple for this year. Plan the basics and keep it fun. After all part of the reason we chose this path was so that Drew wouldn't have to be doing school ALL DAY 5 Days a week. Plenty of time for being a little boy is what we have in mind. Makes me smile just thinking about the messes to be made, the sweaty dirty boys to be bathed and the look of accomplishment on all our faces.

A new chapter.

2011-05-14T19:45:00.000-07:00

It is time for a new chapter in the Cuffia household. Yesterday we finished up the last day at our preschool. We have been apart of the SCP family for 4 years. I started teaching there in the fall of 2007. I worked in the Guppies (baby class) and taught in that room for the next 3 years, Drew was in my class that first year. He was such a rolly polly! I got pregnant with Alex the following year when Drew was in the Lady Bug class.

Soon Alex was born and joined me as a Guppy. The next year Alex moved up to the Elephant (toddler) class, Drew was a Tiger (3) and I started feeling like I wanted to change age groups. I had been with the babies and had my own babies and I was ready for a change. So in the fall of 2010 I became a Bee teacher (2year olds) and my class was next door to Alex who was now a Lady Bug. As I look back on our motivation for our preschool experience it was two fold. First I was a stay at home new mom when Drew was born. I didn't have many friends with children Drew's age and felt alone. He didn't have anyone to play with and I was his entertainment all day and while that was fine, I felt he would have fun making some new friends. Preschool was a perfect fit. It allowed all of us to make new friends. I only worked 2 days a week. I knew everything going on with the boys and could drop in on them anytime, yet they still had some independence from me. I got to be their teacher their first year in that setting and that was helpful for all of us. Plus I earned some extra spending money and they got to do FUN THINGS while learning about the Lord!

As Drew went into the Giraffe's class this year we started praying about what choices to make for his education as we approached kindergarten. Things in the public school system started feeling a little shaky with debates over raising the classroom size and funding. Then there was Drew's summer birthday to take into consideration. We had more questions than answers and just continued to pray about the next step. Soon we came to our decision. Michael and I both agreed that the best thing for Drew would be to homeschool at least for kindergarten. I gave my director the news we would not be back in the fall and set off to research our homeschooling options. We are excited about this journey and will really miss our weekly time at Southlake Christian Preschool. I will post again soon with more on this exciting adventure I can't wait to share!

My Birthday Month is Approaching!!!

2011-01-28T07:24:00.000-08:00

Ahhh Feburary, I love it! Not only because it is Valentines day, My Husband's birthday, and occasionally we get snow in Texas during that month, but it is also MY birthday. My Husband would say I might have forgotten to mention the Super Bowl falls into this month also!

It is a joke in my family that I celebrate my birthday for a month. My Birthday is February 2, (YES GROUND HOGS DAY) I DID use to celebrate it for as long as I could stretch it out, until I married a man that had a February 17th birthday! How dare he rain on my celebration!!! ;)

All kidding aside, birthday's were a HUGE deal at my house growing up. We were always the princess that day. It was always special. Not that there were tons of gifts or anything crazy over the top, just we were made to feel that day as if we were the only person on the planet that mattered. We always got to choose what dinner we were going to have, either where we were going out to eat, or what Mom would cook us for dinner. Dad always woke us up early that morning singing and playfully giving birthday spankings and Mom always told the story of my birth at some point in the day. I remember setting down with Mom every January to plan my party. When we got older and our presents got more expensive, we had a choice between a party or a big gift. I ALWAYS choose the party. I loved planning it with Mom and I loved seeing all my friends having fun. I guess I have always loved party planning! Funny I can't really remember a single gift I got on my birthday but I can remember planning the parties with my mom.

The love for birthday celebrating continued as I had my boys. At first my husband couldn't quite understand it. He has learned to accept it with a happy heart! I remember the day Drew was born I said to my husband, "all of my life I have thought my birthday was about me. Today I realize that most of that day wasn't about me at all." It was about my parents fears and excitement. The anticipation of a new life joining a family. The wondering, what will they look like, will it be a boy or a girl, what kind of person will they grow up to be, can I be a good parent, can I get through this birth... It was so not about me, and all about me at the same time!

As I have become an adult, Dad doesn't come into my room singing, but he does the next best thing... He calls at the crack of dawn before the roosters are awake to make sure he is the first one to tell me happy birthday. Mom still calls to tell me the story of my birth and we still plan a meal together. Birthday's are so important to me because as a child it was a time I felt nothing but loved.

This post has turned into something I never planned it to be! I love it when that happens... Now on to something fun... My birthday wish list. I have lots of stuff on the list. As a mom I am always in need of a closet update! I found these boots at Anthro a couple of weeks ago, and my Mom-In-Love got them for me!

I also want this book because I have such picky eaters!

I started my own Project Life binder but I still really want this one sold on Amazon by Becky Higgins!!!

I love Anthropologie and I really want a glass door knob for my kitchen pantry so a gift card would rock!

Plus, anything with bling, new hat, crafty, photography related... ( I really want a new lens, but still can't decide which one!) My list goes on and on. Not that I will get most of it but hey it is fun to make a list now and then! If you haven't you should!!!

Project life day 2

2011-01-18T18:21:00.000-08:00

I know I promised crafty stuff... Don't worry I will get it posted soon. Right now I am having so much fun with my project life! I am trying to take a pic a day. Not gonna kill myself if it doesn't happen but at least 7 photos a week. Eventually I hope it will help me learn how to use my camera a little better as I am telling the story of our family. The hardest part for me is to choose between the boys. But out of 365 photos I feel I can even the score.

This is Monday's photo. It was a hard day. The boys were bored. I was tired and grumpy and Alex was on Day 1 of paci withdrawals. So to break up the afternoon Drew and I decided to build a huge Thomas train track on the playroom floor. We had met a friend over the weekend who had done this and Drew loved it. So I got out all the bridges and buildings we own and most of our track and put my engineering cap. It was not super easy to make all the pieces connect but we got the job done. This was the result...

Project Life 2011- Day 1- Train Tracks!

Tuesday we had preschool and so when we got home Drew did his usual veg in front of the T.V. Alex on the other hand put on a concert for Buzz in the kitchen window seat.

PL 2011- Day Two- The Piano Man

Life is good!

Project Life

2011-01-16T19:07:00.000-08:00

This picture is from Big Picture Class's website it is a sample layout of Project Life.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a big scrapbooker. I have done all forms of this hobby and really love it all. Creatively speaking I love the hands on scrapbooking with tons of fancy embellishments. Visually speaking I love clean almost magazine style layouts. As a mom I love whatever gets the pictures on the page and the story told for later when I have forgotten all these little moment. There is a place for it all. I have a book in every style and I love it.

As my boys have gotten bigger and busier I have noticed I haven't been able to take time to keep up like I once thought possible. Other things are getting that priority. I find I post little tid bits on Facebook or scribble little post it notes to put away later, or jot a note down on my calendar. All of that is great but if you never get it in a book USELESS! Last night I stumbled on Project Life. There is a FREE class on this topic at http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ and you can buy the kit here http://www.beckyhiggins.com/products/ Well you can usually by the kit there. They are out of stock right now but hopefully IN STOCK by the end of January.

You can read up on it there if you want the details. I am going to include our family bible verse in our weekly layout and have each of the kids do a drawing or tell a story that I will write down for them most weeks. I am not going to try and take a picture a day, rather just highlight something for the week. If we do something fun or if we just hang out that is what I will do. I am starting late so my book will only include 50 weeks. (At one time this would have been a problem for me... Thank GOD I am free from that... I think! LOL!)

I am going to see how this goes. Not going to focus on it tons just hope to include it in our living out life. I will let you know how it goes. If anyone wants to join me, it will be fun. Oh and they have a digital version also that you can print in a hard bound book at the end of the year. But I wanted to include the kids original art work so I decided to go with the printed version. Plus I love to watch as the pages fill up. Tommorrow I promise a catch up post with pics of the crafty stuff I posted on FB the last 2 weeks and maybe something new... MAYBE I SAID! :)

FREE

2011-01-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Tip Junkie's http://www.tipjunkie.com/giveaway-word-of-the-year/ My friend Paige and I struck up a conversation about what our word of the year was. I thought hard about what word I would choose and I decided on FREE.

Free which is what I am in Christ. In 2011 I want to remember to walk in that Freedom daily! I love the way Pastor Bob Hamp defines Freedom, " Our definition of Freedom is based on two verses in the Bible. In John Chapter 8, Jesus tells the crowd, “you can know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” In 2nd Corinthians 3, Paul tells the Corinthian church, “…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom.”
Rather than define freedom as the absence of bad behavior, or the expulsion of demonic forces, we believe the Bible tells us that freedom is the not the absence of something, it is the presence of Someone. Certainly some things get in the way, but removing them does not equal freedom. Freedom is when you engage the presence of God and become the person you are created and redeemed to be."

That last sentence I have heard Bob say so many times, "Freedom is when you engage the presence of God and become the person you are created and redeemed to be." Still when I hear and read it I get a refreshed look at what true freedom is. Freedom is peace in the storm, freedom is joy in the pain, freedom is light in the dark, freedom is warm in the cold, freedom is kindness when hated, freedom is gentle, freedom is love, freedom is hope, Freedom from responding/reacting in ways the world would expect of me, freedom is everything God intended us to be from the beginning of time. Free to praise and fellowship with Him in the closest of ways.

While thinking of this topic I went back to Pastor Bob's TDLD app on my phone.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tdld/id411966627?mt=8 I listened to him tell the story of the Acrobat again. I love that story, I get something new out of it every single time! It is in his book also. If you haven't heard or read it you should. It reminded me personally of how God wants me to step into the role He designed for me since the beginning of time. That we should boldly, fearlessly meet this destiny each day. That the details of our lives are worked out by a loving, all knowing God who is FAITHFUL to His people.

"you will know the truth and the truth will make you free" This year my focus is on TRUTH, my eyes set on HIM, the Lord God. Freedom isn't something to strive for it is the GIFT that you get when you are in constant communion with the Lord. It is impossible to be FILLED WITH TRUTH and NOT BE BREAKING CHAINS and getting more FREE with every new truth that my heart absorbs.

I have often looked at people in the middle of terrible circumstance and wondered how they make it. How do they sleep? How do their hearts not explode from the sheer weight of the situation. Some seem to handle it with tears and grace in a way I don't often understand. I am beginning to see that when you have a close relationship with the Lord. When you can truly, trust him to carry the weight, even if the load is still heavy, you can continue to stand and place one foot in front of the other. Trusting that He won't let you be crushed. That He will lighten the load one item at a time and when it is time to rest and the work is done, he will rub your sore muscles. Then the next time they are stronger. The load isn't as difficult. Yet He is still there to share the journey.

Free, Free to walk with my Saviour every day. I am Free because GOD gave me the choice. I am Free because GOD made me to be exactly who he created and redeemed me to be!

The Bird Cage

2011-01-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

As I posted on Facebook earlier, my creative juices were flowing this week! I really wanted the Pottery Barn's Woodland Pendant Light. In my previous post. So I started looking on line and Found a few examples of others who have done the bird cage light thing. First I came across this post By Creative Little Daisy http://creativelittledaisy.typepad.com/creative_little_daisy/2010/08/it-is-any-wonder-i-have-paint-in-my-hair.html Then I saw these http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/lighting/bird-cage-lamps-by-roost-042664 So I put the two ideas together to achieve my PB inspired light. I found the pendent light kit on clearance at Lowes for $7.99 and the bird cage at Ross for $8.99 and $4.99 for the matching chain. A little help from my printer and a free online vector image for the bird, and My wonderful Hubby for hanging the light, this was my end result. I love it and I find myself turning on the entryway light just to see it shine!

2011-01-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

I don't really have a decorating style. I love lots of things about Pottery Barn like their colors and storgage ideas. I love antiques, at least the idea of antiques. I don't really have any but I love old things with a story. I am a retro girl for sure. But if I could outfit my house from only one store it would be Anthropologie. My husband recently walked into one with me and he said, "Oh I get it! I know why you like this place, everything in it is totally you." I DON'T however like to spend a ton of money on home decor. I would rather spend it at Good Will or a craft store!

This is a post of things that have inspired me. As I tackle the DIY projects I will share. But for now here are some things I love.

Anthropologie Rosette Quilt in Purple!

Pottery Barn's Woodland Pendant Light.

Anthropologie's Eat, Drink and Be Merry Light!

I have plenty more but no pics! I have plans to make my entryway more functional, Bathroom cabinets to paint. Master bedroom walls to texture and paint. I want to re-do the boys playroom in a train theme and simplify their sleeping space. Soooo many plans, So little time! At least I have already done The bedding and the birdcage light. I will blog about that soon! I am sure I will have more to add to this list. My goal this year is to make my craft projects count! So that I can get the new things I want and still feed the crafty bug on the same budget!

Give me a word...

2011-01-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

I admit,I have put off starting this blog up again. It looks like the last time I was writting here, Alex was tiny! I know why I had to take a break. I was too busy living life to write about it. Life has changed since then. Priorities are different. I come back here as a place to keep a record of my journey with God and my Family and to share a little craftiness along the way. With that it is only appropriate to start this blog off in 2011 with the note I posted on Facebook last night.

At that same time, a fine vineyard will appear.

There's something to sing about!

I, God, tend it.

I keep it well-watered.

I keep careful watch over it.

so that no one can damage it.

I'm not angry. I care.

Even if it gives me thistles and thornbushes,

I'll just pull them out

and burn them up.

Let that vine cling to me for safety,

Let it find a good and whole life with me,

Let it hold on for a good and whole life.

Isaiah 27 ish.. MSG

I prayed today for God to give me something for the New Year. A fresh new word. Something as sort of an anthem for the year. I kept thinking maybe it would actually be one word, but all the words that floated through my mind were not right, not THE word. I almost NEVER just open up to scripture and randomly get a rhema word. That is exactly what happend tonight. I often find myself camping in Isaiah. Tonight the heading in my bible caught my eye... Selected Grain by Grain. I read on but that wasn't the part that spoke to me.

At Kairos God spoke to me about a garden. Once again He reminded me of this Garden. When I had prayed for a word, I had asked him for it to be specific and personal. Nothing gets more personal than a word that starts with I, GOD. I love that He reminded me that he was my provider(I keep it well-watered.) that he was my protector (I keep careful watch over it. so that no one can damage it.) That He is not angry and He cares. Even when I give Him thistles and thornbushes. They are no problem for Him it is like they don't exsist, He is in control (I'll just pull them out and burn them up.) That HE wants me to depend on Him, I am not a bother(Let that vine cling to me for safety,) That with Him I will find a good and whole life, and I will never be alone, for He wants to share it with me!(Let it find a good and whole life with me,Let it hold on for a good and whole life.)

As I read this, with every line God reminded me of the journey we took this last year. VERY specific moments when He has spoke on these very things to me and examples of how He came through. What an awesome gift!

PRAY and Ask Him for something to cling to this year, I bet His answer is ME my child CLING TO ME FOR SAFETY and you will find LIFE, a GOOD and WHOLE LIFE WITH ME!

I will be back soon. I have more post. For those of you who know me on Facebook, you will see some duplication here and there. Bear with me as I try and catch up! Also, if you notice that smilebox link on the side is of Drew! He is so tiny there. I couldn't bear to take it down, although I am sure soon I will replace it with more current pics. Right now the trip down memory lane is too sweet!

BLESSINGS AND JOY IN 2011!!!

Castles and Stuff...

2008-10-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to write about today. Baby Alex is sleeping so peacefully in my arms and Drew is down for a nap, in these quiet moments I have had some time to reflect on what I want for my kids. Everyone who knows me knows I LOVE the Internet! I have been finding myself on it more and more, while it is true I am looking up things related to kids, parenting, and gift giving, nutrition and cloth diapering (my favorite! I know you all think I am weird!), it has been taking up more and more of my time. Truthfully I don't have time for all of this now with both kids and still get the other things done I want to do. So I have decided to spend a little less time online and a lot more time playing!

We had a busy weekend! We spent some time with family and a lot of time with friends. We had a birthday party to go to at a friends house and Drew had a blast! Bouncing on the jump house and running with the kids. As we were getting ready for the party and I was contemplating a gift for a young girl I started to think about all the STUFF we have and how I have already in just two years of being a mom, have started to DREAD gift giving holidays such a birthdays, Christmas, heck now we even do Halloween, Easter... when does it stop? Don't get me wrong birthdays will always be a HUGE deal at our house, but maybe not as elaborate as I once thought they should be... I think I will make the cakes/cupcakes, have some fun with friends but not drop several hundred dollars on the event! Most moms I know dread having to take all the toys home and try to find a place for it in the already over stuffed room. So for this party I decided to make a cute scrapbooking apron and give the gift of crafting...I went through my scrapbook closet and gathered the girly stuff I had and made a run to Big Lots for a few things like glue sticks and a disposable camera... the gift turned out great! Here are some pictures... The best part is it will be something to keep her busy and something she can keep for a long time. I think gift giving should be more like this, handmade or something they can experience or really use the imagination with. Not plastic, over advertised characters... (we all know I am guilty of this Drew owns ever CARS car there is along with pj's house shoes, tshirts and whatever else they put mcqueens tires on!) But it is this experience that has me so yuck on the entire idea! So what to do about it...

This morning I got out 2 dinning room chairs, a sheet pillows, and some felt... Had ya until the felt? First Drew and I sat down with the felt and he told me about all the colors, then I had him choose two he picked black and tan of course! Then he choose some orange and I choose yellow. While I was cutting out the makings of a crown he was sorting buttons trying to decide which ones he wanted for his crown. I am going to sew the buttons on later because he was a little impatient with the process! I finished it and he took it to the mirror to try on and LOVED IT! The we went to work building our castle. He was so excited about the sheet fort! Of course we had to tear it down and build it again many times but soon he settled in with a flash light. It was sooooo fun! He watch a little tv from inside and then I wanted to turn it off, aware that since I had Alex he has watch WAY TOO MUCH tv! So I gave him a scrap piece of canvas and his markers and told him to draw a picture. He was over there saying "this is my castle", "cool huh!?!" after that I started to sew the edges and let him stuff it, we ended up with a castle pillow that I hope to cherish forever. It was such a great morning, I forgot how much fun it is to play! I am going to set time aside for more of this kind of activity. We may not always pack so much into the morning but as I watch him playing by alone when we were done it was so cool to see his imagination take off from such a simple activity. If you are looking for some awesome ideas for your family check out this book "The Creative Family", by Amanda Soule I am a huge fan of her blog but the book rocks! and if you want to check it out and she has a link to a flickr group so you can see what other families are doing! Enjoy the pictures! I will be back
soon...

zoo days

2008-01-08T17:12:00.000-08:00

Wow! No wonder no one reads this! I haven't updated in forever. Sorry but life has been so busy lately, I feel like I am just now catching up! The holidays were great and I will be posting some pictures soon! We got a lovely suprise that Cuffia baby #2 is on the way so don't expect much more out of me as far as keeping up with blogging. Maybe it would help if I only had one blog to keep up with! So soon I am going to stop updating myspace and try to stick with this one here. Just wanted to say a quick sorry and I promise to do better.... blah blah blah!

On another note... I took Drew to the zoo today and he loved it. Monkeys! How how they entertain! We had fun looking at the white tiger although I am pretty sure he was thinking "lunch" The day ended with a look at the flamingos and me getting pooed on by a bird! Thank goodness for wind breakers with a hood! Good day, Good Friends, Good fun. Until the next time... (Hopefully this week)

2007-11-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

What a day! The weather was perfect and with the cold front approaching we decided to hang the Christmas light a few days early. We had so much fun! Michael did most of the work, while Drew and I played. We went on a leaf hunt and got so many different colors. While some up north would consider our tiny pile of leaves something to laugh at, we are proud of our treasures. Here in North Texas this is about as colorful as fall gets, even if fall comes in December...Today I am reminded by the beautiful color palete I see in the dying leaves, that God makes everything perfect.

Advent Calendar Fun!!!!

2007-11-19T17:52:00.000-08:00

I guess I, like most retailers am skipping Thanksgiving and going right for Christmas! But hey you have to make this Christmas Tradition early because it starts December 1! This is the first year I am doing an Advent Calendar. It is going to be so much fun. I made this one out of 24 small matchboxes and 1 giant matchbox for the base. I glued them together, 3 columns of 8. Covered the 3 sides (not shown) with fun Christmas paper and then painted each drawer. To make the little drawer pulls I just cut pipe cleaners and twisted them together, and put through a hole punched in the drawer front. This project can easily be done in an afternoon, I made 2 today, one for my son, and one for my nephew with a friend and a house full of kids! What do you put inside a tiny match box? Here is the list for what I will have inside... I printed each out and rolled into a little scroll tied with metallic curling ribbon. Then I will add into the box the items in parenthesis close to the date of opening since some are food products and will get yucky! Use your imagination and have fun with it!

Mommy and Daddy’s Cheat sheet!
Day 1 Clue to find a disposable camera of their very own! Take a picture of a Christmas Tree.
Day 2 Have hot coco or milk chocolate shakes if it is too warm, with all the fixin’s (chocolate chip and mini marshmallow)
Day 3 Take a picture of a Reindeer! Chocolate candy
Day 4 Make a Christmas ornament (Tiny bag of glitter)
Day 5 Sing a Christmas song or Dance to Christmas music! (whistle)
Day 6 Make a Christmas card for someone special. (a postage stamp to mail it… let the little one put it in the mail box)
Day 7 Read a special Christmas book together. (a ribbon bookmark)
Day 8 Have a fancy candle lit dinner! (Birthday candle, explain how it is Jesus’ birthday)
Day 9 Complete an act of charity, explain what charity is and have you kids put a quarter in the salvation army bucket. (place a quarter to put in the bucket in the box)
Day 10 Take a picture of a Nativity Scene! Small candy cane or peppermint
Day 11 Have breakfast for dinner! (a chocolate candy)
Day 12 Write a letter to Santa. If child is too young have them glue pictures of gifts they want onto a paper then have them color it (an eraser)
Day 13 Watch a Christmas movie or cartoon and have Popcorn! Put a movie ticket and a clue to find a bag of rainbow popcorn!
Day 14 Take a picture of a family! Heart sticker
Day 15 Make smores! Small graham cracker, one mini marshmallow and a small choco square!
Day 16 Take a picture of a star! Star sticker
Day 17 Play with “snow” (put a little bag of just add water snow!)
Day 18 Take a picture of a snowman! Snowman sticker or Choco snowman
Day 19 Bake and decorate Christmas cookies! Yummy! (small bag of sprinkles)
Day 20 Go look at Christmas Lights! (small car, or clue to find a new night light)
Day 21 Christmas is about giving too! Take a Christmas treat to a neighbor of friend
Day 22 Take a picture of yourself! A small mirror (a clue to find a small mirror)
Day 23 Family game night! (a game piece )
Day 24 As a family tell the story of baby Jesus. (cross, horse, or small little bit of hay)
Day 25 Merry Christmas! Gift of your choice!
NOTE: take a picture every day when you child is opening the calendar or doing the activity for that day and use those photos for next years calendar!
If you have little ones, sub any of the above for child appropriate treat (gold fish, pretzel) a bible verse to read together, something you are thankful for, something special about them, or a memory of Christmas past!

As for how my scrolls read here is the copy I printed out and rolled up in each box... feel free to use it all, some of the ideas were borrowed from things I have read here and there, and I wrote the little rhymes, Consider it my Christmas gift to you! I suggest printing out both the cheat sheet and the actual scroll text so that you don't forget what you need for which day! :) Hope you enjoy making these as much as I did! I can't wait it will be so much fun for the entire family!!!

24 Days till Christmas! Wouldn’t it be fun to take a pic, if only we could find a camera that goes click! Look high then look low, find it close to the place where you watch your shows! You can find it you will see, then take a picture of your Christmas Tree!
23 Days till Christmas! Yum Yum oh what fun! Lets have fancy Hot Coco with lots marshmallows and a few chocolate chips!
22 Days till Christmas! Use your camera and take a picture of a Reindeer! It doesn’t have to be a real one.
21 Days till Christmas! Make a Christmas ornament for your tree!
20 Days till Christmas! Sing a Christmas song or Dance to Christmas music!
19 Days till Christmas! Make a Christmas card for someone special and put it in the mail!
18 Days till Christmas! Read a special Christmas book together.
17 Days till Christmas! Have a fancy candle lit dinner!
16 Days till Christmas! Complete an act of charity, explain what charity is and have you kids put a quarter in the salvation army bucket.
15 Days till Christmas! With your camera take a picture of a Nativity Scene!
14 Days till Christmas! Have breakfast for dinner!
13 Days till Christmas! Write a letter to Santa. If child is too young have them glue pictures of gifts they want onto a paper then have them color it.
12 Days till Christmas! Watch a Christmas movie or cartoon and have Popcorn!
11 Days till Christmas! With your camera take a picture of a family! (yours or someone else’s!
10 Days till Christmas! Let’s make smores
9 Days till Christmas! Take a picture of a star! Star sticker
8 Days till Christmas! Let’s make it “snow” today!
7 Days till Christmas! Use your camera to take a picture of a snowman!
6 Days till Christmas! Bake and decorate Christmas cookies! Yummy!
5 Days till Christmas! Were going to look at Christmas Lights!
4 Days till Christmas! Christmas is about giving too! Take a Christmas treat to a neighbor of friend.
3 Days till Christmas! With your camera take a picture of yourself!
2 Days till Christmas! Family game night!
CHRISTMAS EVE!!!! That means tomorrow is Christmas! As a family tell the story of baby Jesus.
Merry Christmas! At last it is here! A very special day so give a cheer! No need to worry the rest of your gifts are under the tree, so get busy unwrappin’ ‘cause Mommy and Daddy want to see!!!

For a few intersting facts about the Advent Calendar Tradition check out http://www.teachingmom.com/features/adventhistory.html

2007-11-02T15:28:00.001-07:00

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

Scenic Route for Mommies!!!!!!!!!

2007-08-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

Check out my latest addition!!!! This came about by request! Hope you all like it!

2007-08-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

This past year my Great Aunt had to start her battle with breast cancer all over again. I had decided to walk before she found out her cancer was back but now more than ever want to complete this walk in support of her fight with this disease. I lost a dear co-worker to this disease, and this past year 3 other family members lost their battle with other types of cancer. I just started to feel helpless, I didn't know where to start to make a difference, even a small one. So here I am, I choose the 3 day walk this year because it requires personal sacrifice and dedication and help from other ordinary people who want to make a small difference in a world that sometimes seems so vast. Thanks for your time I hope you will be able to help me in this journey. Every donation no matter what the amount is appreciated!

2007-07-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

I can't wait!!!!! I will be up tonight to go get my copy? Will Harry die? My guess is NO! But I have been known to be wrong a time or two... So I will have to wait and see. I bet I am finished with the book by Monday morning, if Michael lets me read all weekend long. This is the first book that I don't want to finish. I love the HP world and all the characters, but all good things must come to an end. :( I have Potter fever for sure!

2007-07-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

Party planning like crazy!!!! I love throwing parties of any kind, and anyone who knows me knows that. But for some reason planning Drew's first birthday has me crazy. I don't have much left to do, and I am sure everything I have done will be "too much" BUT I DON'T CARE!!! :) He only gets to celebrate his first birthday once and I want it to be extra special for each and every guest. I ordered his cake today, I got it bigger than I should have but I did save a little money by just ordering Drew's cake from Kroger and making cupcakes for everyone else. I am getting more sentimental by the day, sometimes I wonder if my heart will explode. I know I have said this so many times but he is getting so big and I just can't believe it.

The picture above was taken in Arkansas at Uncle Robby and Aunt Angie's wedding. It looks like a studio photo. The back drop couldn't have been better. The wedding was beautiful as was the Bride. I am so happy for them, they truly are a perfect fit. We stayed at a cabin in the woods very close to Beaver lake and the only downside to the entire trip was we didn't get to say long enough... That and an eight hour drive with Drew! That's all I have for now. I am going to get back to playing and planning... In that order :)

Soooo big

2007-07-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, if you could have been a fly on the wall this day! This picture says fun filled day, sticky, happy, great to be a kid! But the reality was rainy, hectic, crying the entire time we took pictures, cleaning off a sticky mess, but a precious precious day! This picture turned out awesome! It was the only one I took that day that wasn't blurry. I am not a great photographer! But there was a professional photographer there who took most of the pictures for us... we should get them soon and I can't wait, even if he cried in all of them! I am realizing as his first birthday approaches that every single picture captures a unique moment of his life frozen forever in time and will be his only window into the world of the first few years of his life when he is older and memories of his early childhood aren't as bright and clear as the photos. I will laugh every time I look at this picture because it is so Drew, yet not a fair representation of his mood that day! I love my son, I love his Daddy, and I love our life. I truly couldn't be more content with everything I am experiencing these days.

Drew's First Hair Cut

2007-06-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well I think the picture sums it up... Not the best of experiences! Drew cried the entire time! Mommy felt awful, I couldn't wait for it to be over! Now he looks like such a big boy :( part of me wishes we hadn't cut it yet, but it really needed it! Tomorrow I will be glad when we go to have his pictures made... Tonight just a little bitter sweet... one more "first" crossed off the list. I know it is just a hair cut for goodness sake! One wouldn't think it would stir such emotion... Mommies can be silly like that I guess...

Felt Board Fun!

2007-06-01T07:50:00.001-07:00

It is hard comming up with new creative ways to keep a 10 month old busy! The other day my mom, sister and I were talking about a felt board story that my mom use to do for us. Which sparked an idea to make felt boards for the boys! So I got a piece of foam board and covered it with black felt. There are tons of sites online with free coloring printouts and even felt board templates... So I started printing and coloring, a little contact paper and a few stick squares of felt on the back and presto! our new toy was created! Drew loves it! Yesterday he sat so quietly as we did the 5 little monkeys, after we were finished I let him have at it. Of course the first place our new found friends went was right in Drew's mouth! Oh well! They are his and so easy to replace if they get too soggy!

Looking up with love...

2007-05-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

This picture just makes my heart melt! I have seen this look so often, his little way of letting us know just how much he love us. This look says so much, I am proud, I feel loved, I love you, I am getting bigger, look at me! This is a look that years to come I am sure will flash across his face and I will remember days like these when he was crawling around looking up.

Matchbox swap...

2007-05-21T20:01:00.001-07:00

I am finally getting around to posting the few pics I have from our matchbox swap. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the one Trish sent me, but when I do I would love to share it! She made the cutest matchbox car!!! Really creative use of a matchbox and the actual matches! :)

Fancy Tea and Garden talk...

2007-05-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a great day! Mom came over for a little "garden talk" and a trip to the Flower Ranch. We walked the rows and rows of plants and she purchaced the two flats she came for and of course we split a flat of stock and she added two extra small potted flowers for good measure. As Drew took his nap we made some tea and fancied it up will some fresh mint from Mom's herb garden! So much fun! Then we began to look at water fountains for my back yard and talk about her plans for her secret garden... It made me want a secret garden also, I mean who wouldn't want one? Drew woke up and taking our fancy tea with us, we set out on a mission to find a pot for my fountain.

After a few stops we Found what we were looking for at Garden Ridge. I got a great pot for the fountain and a beautiful green glass bowl for my broken bird bath! I will post pictures when I get it finished! I am planning on working on it tomorrow.

As for today, I am going to get my match box swap partner a package mailed! I just got the address yesterday! I can't wait to post the results of the matchbox swap! If anyone is reading and want in on the next swap just email me, all are welcome!

9 months old...

2007-04-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

Who could of told me that while the 9 months I was pregnant seemed like they were going to last for an eternity, the first 9 months of my little boys life were going to fly right by! It didn't hit me until today just how big he seems. He has reached so many milestones, and yet there are still a lifetime of milestones to come. His sweet smile and sense of humor that is already apparent, the way he is pulling up on my legs when he wants to stand, even the way he picks up his little bites of food and carefully puts them in his mouth with such a proud look on his face. My heart can't help but ache a little as I watch my nephew, who is just 8 1/2 months older than Drew, and know that walking, talking and running from mommy as she is yelling not to get to close to the pool , is just a few months away from being a reality. I also see so much happiness in going forward, all the things I can't wait to teach him, and the things I can't wait to see him teach me! But tonight for just a brief moment that I am sure won't be the last in my journey as his mother, small bittersweet tears start to fill my eyes as I am so aware my son is going to grow up a little more everyday!

A weekend of gardening...

2007-04-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

This is a new adventure for me. In the past I have planted flowers in early spring only to have everything dead a few weeks later because of numerous reasons, not enough sun, too much sun, not enough water (rarely too little water)... I never thought I had the time, energy or patience to spend gardening. I watched as my mom's yard was being landscaped and with every new plant and shade of green and splashes of color that popped up here and there, there yard became a peaceful retreat. Now that Drew is getting bigger and we are spending more and more time outside I wanted a retreat of my own, thus began our latest adventure.

The previous owners were really into gardening. From what are neighbors say, they were in the yard every day. We have lived in our house going on 3 years now and have done little but mow the yard! So there is plenty of work to do! As my mom put it the "bones" are there, but I could only see work, work, and more work. Little did I know I would soon be enjoying the work. I invited My mom and step-dad over this weekend to help out. My step-dad has a lot of garden knowledge and tools, so it was such an educational day! We made a new flower bed and did a lot of weeding, and although I still have much more to do I am so happy with what we did this weekend. I can't wait to see how each and every minute spent outside changes my yard!

2007-04-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

Swaping fun!!!! I know it has been awhile, but life has been really busy. With Easter, and a few trips which I will write about later, plus keeping up with an almost 9 month old and getting a little crafting time I haven't had much time to post! But today I got a wonderful suprize in the mail! My Earth/Mother's Day Tote Swap package got here! There were so many wonderful goodies!!!!! Thank you so much Smartcake at swap-bot!!!! I will put each and every item to good use. The other picture is my ATC swap goodies, Thanks to Regina at creativekismet for organizing it! I got them a few days back but I finally made time to take pictures and post them. I am so into this swap thing! These were my first two swaps I have been inspired to organize a little swap between my local scrapbooking group, an altered matchbox swap, can't wait to see how they all turn out. Getting something fun in the mail brings back memories of when my grandma and aunts use to send me gifts in the mail as a child. I remember I could hardly wait to get their packages when I knew they were on the way and I get that feeling now with the swaps. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Finally back!!!

2007-03-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

I am sorry for the length of time between my last post until now. We had a couple of deaths in the family and have been very busy dealing with that. I am finally starting to get back in the groove of everyday life... So here it is, my very first Apron!!!! I found a vintage apron while out thrifting the other day and decided to try and make one in a similar style. I was happy with the results for a first try! But I am sure their are many other patterns calling my name... My husband is questioning why I need any aprons at all... I guess I will just have to show him how an apron is used! Until next time...

What a busy week...

2007-03-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

I didn't have much time to post this week due to the fact that I am getting serious about keeping up with all the household stuff, between that and Drew and working on a few swaps I didn't have much time to get on the computer... I did however manage to make several trips to a few fabric stores and a few thrift stops. I got a lot of fabric to make some canvas grocery totes. Time for me to get busy so I can take them with me next grocery run!!! Just a little peak at my canvas fabrics...

Fairy Twists

2007-03-12T16:25:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun today! I took my Fairy Twists (I didn't know that was what I was calling them at the time) over to Julie's so Kaitlyn could be my little model! She was such a good girl letting play with her hair, she even let me do it twice! She loved it when I attached the ribbons and couldn't stop playing with them as she ran to her closet to grab her "high heals" so she could complete her fancy ensemble. It was greatness! I was saying I didn't know what to call these rings... Kaitlyn said "Mom, I feel like a fairy" and Julie suggested Fairy Twists! Perfect since that is how you put the hair up... you twist it around the ring!!! Yea!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Julie and Kaitlyn for such a fun day!

Sunny Days...

2007-03-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

Friday I took on a little sundress project, just a few seams, add the straps and there you go! I don't really like the belt... Maybe wider or just leave it off but this is the only picture I have. This project was started and completed all during Drew's naptime! I have really been inspired to sew lately even if I am not the best seamstress. Simple projects have been fun, pillows, quilts, Drew's bedding, But I have never made anything to wear. I think I may try it again sometime soon. I went shopping with my mom today for fabric to cover a few chairs and a bench she has, she got an awsome deal on the fabric she purchased! I will post some pictures of the finished product when she completes them.

Sweet beginnings continued...

2007-03-09T09:59:00.000-08:00

I looked everywhere for a changing table but I didn't want to pay a lot of money for something I would more than likely not use as much as I should. We mostly change diapers on the floor, sofa or bed! But I did need some storage space and I really HAD to have the changing table, must of been the hormones!!! So my mom found this one at a garage sale for $20.00. I wish I had taken some before pictures of it. It was bright blue with some primary colored stencils on it of Noah's Ark, it wasn't painted very well at all! But I thought I might be able to do something with it for the price. I had already painted the letters of his name for the wall so I just painted the changing table to match. Then I went out and bought new hardware, I did splurge on it ($60.00 at Anthropology for the green glass knobs) but it was totally worth it.

Sweet Beginnings...

2007-03-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

I have to start some place so here it is, Drew's mural. I used some craft paints I had laying around and a couple of quarts I had in the shed for the fence and tree trunk. I always have paint! I used a projector for the outline and although I have done a lot of faux finishing I have never painted a mural. It has been fun and I wish I had a little more time to spend on it so I could finish it up! Working with the projector isn't as easy as you might think. When I first started planning Drew's room I didn't want any characters at all! But once he got here his personality just started screaming playful and cheery, so I decided on Winnie the Pooh because I liked the colors of the classic pooh stuff and my mom used to read the books to me as a child. I decided to mix the classic colors with the contemporary characters it is a work in progress and I am sure the day I finish it he will be ready for something new! I have grand plans for the room, I would like to add a beehive and a few bees, a sign by his changing table that says, "Drew's Thoughtful Spot" and Pooh quotes over his closet. I will keep taking pictures as I go and post some updates when I am finished. TTFN!!!