Radiant you

Ahhh, is it Wednesday already?  This was a long weekend here with Monday being "Family Day."  Really, it is just an excuse to stick a holiday weekend into the middle of winter and I am not going to line up to complain.  My husband took the kids to see my MIL for the day and I stayed back to do some editing for the retreat talks I am preparing for this weekend, had a wonderful lunch out with a friend, and enjoyed some quiet moments in the house.  Now I'm all mixed up as to what day it is!

I am very much looking forward to having some more time to scrapbook and catch up on other things around here after the retreat is over.  Don't get me wrong, I am totally looking forward to the opportunity, but big events like this are hurdles in my thinking, I really haven't seeen past Feb. 27.  My oldest daughter is happy as she says I will have more time to clean the house.  Do you think that's a hint??

Speaking of my daughter, here is a layout I recently completed.  I love these photos snapped of her at the beach.  She seems to be skipping the "ugly duckling" phase and carries herself with a lot of grace.  She's a great helper to me and I enjoy having her around.  I used a whole bunch of Making Memories product on this page.  The layers are straight, my photograph is just on a bit of an angle:

I have a meeting later this morning and the girls have music lessons this afternoon.  What are you up to today?  Whatever it is, have a great rest of your day.

{head of her class}

This layout didn't photograph as well as I would have liked but I wanted to post it anyway.  This is my middle daughter, third child, working away at her schooling.  The papers are Scenic Route, the card stock Stampin' Up, and the journaling sticker is Daisy D's.  I am not always thrilled about homeschooling (hmmm, did I say that out loud?) but the benefits continue to outweigh our other options.  I do find joy in spending my days with my children, I've got a pretty good group of people here!

I am pretty happy that it is Friday.  This week has kind of kicked my butt.  I have hit a couple of snags in preparing for my speaking gig next weekend that will hopefully be resolved soon.  I had the funniest dream on Sunday night.  I was starting my first of three one-hour sessions and had my notes very well prepared.  I got up to the front of this auditorium and I started my session on how to properly make a bed.  I was very passionate about hospital corners and smoothing the sheets.  Just think, three hours of that!  I had to laugh that my mind doesn't even really relax when I sleep right now!

My two oldest were supposed to go skiing/snowboarding today but it is way too cold for that and their event has been postponed.  It is a long weekend here and I am looking forward to holing up inside, working at my computer, and getting some time to play with my pretty paper.  I'm working on a big photo order at ScrapbookPictures that I hope to get out today.

What are your weekend plans?

Loves of my Life

I have to admit to not being much of a Valentines person.  It's not that I don't like the reminder to tell those I love how much I appreciate them, it's just all the romantic pressure!  Our days don't allow for these great romantic diversions of dinners out, warm vacations, long walks on the beach....Okay, now I'm being silly.  What I desire is cultivate a life that doesn't need a particular day to celebrate love.  I want everything I do for my husband, my family, to come from a heart of love.  One day is just not enough of a focus.

That said, I do have little cards and treats for my five loves.  Right now my four children are sitting at the table doing their schoolwork lamenting the fact that Valentines Day doesn't count as a holiday from homeschooling.  I teach music lessons this afternoon and my husband leaves about ten minutes after my last lesson for a class he coordinates every Monday night.  I'll see him for roughly 9 minutes today.  Better make it count!

This layout is not exactly Valentines-ish.  I came across a LOT of older photos and wanted to use these of the birth of my first daughter, Olivia.  I saw this neat phrase for a title in an old magazine and used a sketch.  The cardstock is Stampin' Up, the patterned paper is Basic Grey, letter stickers are Scenic Route and American Crafts, the flower is cut out with my Big Shot, and the brad is Stampin' Up.  Look at these young people thinkin' they can have another baby!

Have a great Monday!  Any special plans for today/tonight?

Party Faces

Yay, it's Saturday!  Haven't accomplished a lot today but I did get up, made coffee, ate a croissant, and started some more laundry.  We have a few soccer games this afternoon and then our girls are going over to spend time baking with a friend of mine.  I had really hoped to do some scrapbooking last night but ended up going to Costco with my husband and a couple of our girls.  Costco is totally the $300 store.  Doesn't seem to matter what combination of things we buy or how few things are actually on our list, we usually end up spending around $300.  We stopped for ice cream before we started shopping, that was the bribe to get me to come along.  Obviously, it worked.  When we got home and got everything put away and kids to bed I was too tired to sit at my scrap table so I worked on a knitting project while we watched a bit of TV.

This is a recent layout using, again, Scenic Route.  I used a sketch from Sketch Support and I really like how the mix of papers worked and how quickly this came together.  I cut the stars out of one of the patterned papers and popped a couple of them up on dimensional adhesive.  My kids haven't been into face paint for a number of years but I remember this day very clearly.

Here's to a great Saturday! 

Stuck

It's still may be a bit early to tell but you just might be stuck with me.  A few minutes ago I took a bunch of photos of recent layouts and I am enjoying your sweet comments on my blog so much that I just might stick around!  It feels different this time around.  I'm not doing this to impress anybody or get noticed or to promote any kind of agenda.  This is me, take it or leave it, and I am enjoying blogging.  This is probably the way it should be.

I recently enrolled in a self-paced class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking, Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life.  I am interested in the "whys" and "hows" of design and am so looking forward to these projects.  My first layout for the class uses product from many different manufacturers.  I've got some more Scenic Route (see, I really am using it), Pink Paislee, Making Memories, Tim Holtz, American Crafts, Sassafrass, and a few others that I can't remember.  I am enjoying shopping my stash.

I'm not only about using stuff that I have, I just need to stop "saving" some of the "good" stuff that I've kept for just the right project (and instead it just waits unused).  I recently ordered Cosmo Cricket's 1934 and a few sheets of Basic Grey Wander for working with our Disney and California photos from last year.  I will be needing to keep up my supply of Kraft cardstock (really loving the kraft) and adhesive and all that stuff.  Oh, and I think I might have a new problem with border punches.

It's the weekend!  My husband has today off and we don't have heavy plans for the weekend.  The sun is shining and the temperature is supposed to hover around the freezing mark for the next several days.  I had a quick appointment this morning and came home and told Gary that I feel like going away.  Well, with the money we've spent on renovating two bathrooms in the last 11 months, unless I can ride that fancy toilet somewhere, we're staying put.  I have some editing to do for the retreat I'm speaking at and piles of laundry calling my name.  Other than that, I'll be spending time at home crafting and enjoying a laid-back few days.  Anyone else have big plans for the weekend, crafting or otherwise?

Have a fabulous Friday!

Happy Wednesday!

Wednesdays are indeed happy days around here.  Halfway through the week, music lessons in the afternoon (followed by some sort of shopping or treat), and the kids are occupied with Faithbuilders (a mid-week kids' club at church) and Jr. High Youth (yes, I have two of these in my household!).  Wednesday evenings Gary and I often linger at the table over coffee enjoying a quieter house while the kids are out and then we usually pursue some sort of project interrupted only by needing to go and drive the family taxi for pick up.  The sun is shining today and I feel a certain delight when this happens at the same time as my kitchen counter is cleared off and wiped.  Plus I'm wearing my favourite socks.  Simple things make me happy.

This is a layout I completed in the first few days of January.  I am finally starting to dive into my precious stack of Scenic Route papers, I also used some Thickers, a circle punch, and a border punch on this page.  I used a sketch but, for the life of me, can't remember which one as my worktable has been piled high with sketches as I've tried to organize my space.

Have a great Wednesday!

Out of Control

I know I'm not the world's most consistent blogger but I'm hoping to get back into it a bit in 2011.  After a busy Christmas hosting my husband's family (29 of us on Christmas Day and the turkey that made all the other cry) and a realization that this winter thing is going on for a while, I've enjoyed retreating to my scrapbook studio and working on layouts and cards.  I plan to share many of them in the days to come but today is all about the mail.

Two Peas in a Bucket is among the best scrapbook message boards and resources out there and I started hanging out around there in the fall when I started to feel my urge to scrapbook return after a long hiatus.  I enjoyed being on a design team for about a year and a half but really lost my desire to create after I resigned.  Something about working with deadlines really didn't appeal to me.  We were in the middle of a big renovation of our basement and I didn't feel like hauling stuff out and putting it away again so I was mostly creating the odd card out of necessity and otherwise not spending any time at home scrapbooking.  I needed to rediscover the fun of it, what drew me to the craft to begin with.

One of my new favourite things to do is to look at the daily blog links posted on Two Peas.  I have especially enjoyed this lady's blog:  Hilde's blog.  Love her style and projects, just consistently great stuff.  A few weeks into posting she was doing a giveaway on her site.  I was in the habit of posting anyway, made a comment on her project, and didn't think much about it until she contacted me to say that I had won.  I was thrilled but that pales in comparison to how I felt after I received this package yesterday.

Can you believe how generous she is?  She designs for all these companies and I am so excited to play with this new stash!  The second photo is the stack of patterned paper alone.  And you do know I love me some paper!  She is seriously out of control but I am very grateful to be the recipient.

I've been working hard at another project as well.  I'm going to be the speaker at our upcoming church women's retreat.  I have a good amount of holy fear, I'd say.  There are going to be close to 150 women there!  I am writing and editing and writing some more and it has been a neat process with very specific answers to prayer along the way. 

Have a great day!

thirteen

Top 13 Reasons I Love Parenting this 13-year-old Boy

1.  I had no idea what being a mom would be like until you were born thirteen years ago today.
2. You are so different from me and you challenge me to think about things in a different way.
3. You love Jesus and it shows.
4. You are enthusiastic about food which makes it more rewarding to cook.
5. You are a real help around the house and I appreciate your expertise in vacuuming, trash removal, and killing bugs.
6. You are funny.  Not always as funny as you think you are, but you are truly funny.
7. You are great with kids.  Seeing you work with the kids at Thursday morning playschool was a joy.
8. You are a hard worker.  I am really proud of the help you've given others in special projects and for the help you've been with the yard work this year.
9. You are a great conversationalist.  You are so much like your dad in the interest you take in other people.
10. It delights me more than you will ever know to see you read your Bible faithfully.  I was so proud of you on Sunday when you were baptized and thankful for what God is doing in your life.
11. You like ice cream, probably as much as I do.
12. You are eager to try new things like the firearm safety course, fishing, football.
13. You bring a lot of laughter and joy to our home.

People have warned us about having a house full of teenagers.  You are our first and I can honestly say that I look forward to your teen years with delight and excitement.  If they are anything like the past thirteen years, we will continue to be blessed by having you in our family.

Happy Birthday Dear Noah!

The Second Annual Post

Blogging isn't my strength. I had some issues earlier this year with some spam commenting and I considered moving to a different blog site to start up with a fresh blog. After coming to the conclusion that it would likely be more trouble than it's worth, I've decided to continue on with my weak little site right here. I'm not sure that I've been consistent enough to know what I want this whole blogging thing to accomplish. Is it an online journal? A blog about scrapbooking? A parenting site? A Bible teacher blog? The reality is I don't really know and, for now, I'm totally okay with that.

Am I concerned with response and comments and all that stuff? Nah, I'm really not. This is really just an outlet and an experiment in writing. I'm enjoying photography and crafting and parenting and learning and reading and all that good stuff. This is just going to be a hodge-podge blog.

So thrilled to be on summer vacation from teaching music lessons and homeschooling. I've had ups and downs this year but mostly I just really like my life. We just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. I'll be the mother of a teenager in just a few short days. I am working hard at focusing my energies at home instead of looking for more things to keep me busy. I want to freeze my children at this exact stage of parenting. I really like my life.

Happy New Year 2010!!!

I am finding that the years come and go much faster than they used to. Growing up, I was often the youngest. I started school when I was just 4.5 years of age so was usually the youngest in my class. I was engaged shortly before my 22nd birthday and married four months later, much earlier in life than I had thought. DH and I were the first of our circle to begin our family and I found myself with four children before I turned 30. I now realize that, not only does time fly, but time is, indeed, the great equalizer.

You and I have the same months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds before us in this new year of 2010. I have been contemplating, but not "resolving", to spend this year well. What does that look like? What changes need to be made? What relationships need more/less time and priority? How will our family be enriched/endure suffering in this year before us?

I am confident in the Sovereign God who holds all these things in His hand and in the reality that He has a plan for me in 2010. I've ramped up my Scripture reading over the past couple of weeks and hope to read through the Bible by the summer. I determine to spend time seeking Him, in prayer, in worship, in His word. I pray that I will be obedient to what He asks of me and quick to repent when I fall short of the mark.

You see, 2009 was less than stellar. It was a plodding through kind of year with twists and turns that I had not anticipated in any way, shape, or form. It held moments of significant pain as well as moments of recognizing the Giver. My marriage is stronger than ever. My children continue to amaze and challenge me. True friends showed their faces as I walked through some dark times. I saw weaknesses in my life that I hadn't seen before, at least not as clearly as I do now.

Lord, help me to to recognize the difference between the urgent and the truly important in this year ahead.

Blessings on you as you start a new year with purpose, determination, and a teachable heart.

Sometimes I Crack Me Up...

My sweetie and I are intentional about the way we parent. In fact, we call it "intentional parenting." What does this mean? So glad you asked. It means that we choose what we say, the activities we participate in, the books we read, what we watch, etc. with the goal in mind of equipping our children well for their lives. It also means that we find ways to weave truth into conversations about everyday things and try not to miss opportunities to connect with the little stinkers.

Take, for example, our dinner conversation tonight. I made waffles and bacon. Who doesn't like to come home at the end of the day and, instead of finding a nice casserole or a hearty stew, finding the table set for breakfast? Back to the conversation. Since there is an excessive, and I do mean excessive, amount of candy in our home at the moment, somehow the topic of taking care of your body and putting good things into it came up (which, of course, is why I chose to reinforce the point with waffles and syrup because everyone knows that syrup isn't your regular kind of sugar, it's breakfast sugar which is altogether different...). Back to the conversation. The kids started to ask why people don't always take care of their bodies, take pride in their appearance, etc. My sweetie told them that if someone doesn't feel good about themselves, they might give up on some of the external stuff and then feel bad about that, which leads to a vicious cycle of self-deprecating thoughts and a twisted view of being made in God's image and all this perfectly lovely stuff that you should say when you are intentional about your parenting. Never missing an opportunity to make a point, I piped in with this knee-slapper:

...and if you ever look in the mirror and not find anything you like about yourself, that's the time to look yourself square in the face and say this out loud: "Hey, at least I've got really great parents."

Okay, it was a good one. Even Miss O had a chuckle and that is a rarity when it's a response to her own mother's ramblings.

Here's the thing...

I've thought about this blog thing for a long time. I enjoy reading what others write and I enjoy writing as well. There are some excellent blogs out there. There are also some that are a bit...much. Where is that line between an appropriate level of sharing and putting it all out there for the world to see. I was at a workshop this summer talking about connecting with the uninvolved in women's ministry. The speaker made the comment that the reason that so many (and she was talking specifically about young single women) put all their information on facebook or their own websites is that they just want to be known. I've thought about that for a good while. Sad to me.

I am known. My husband knows me. Too well at times for his liking, I suspect. My children spend every day with me and see the good, the bad, and definitely the ugly. I have a few close friends who I share my heart with. Most of all, I serve a God who knows my innermost thoughts. The One who has known me since I was formed in the womb. Can you ask for more than that? What, then, is the purpose of blogging? There is no void in my life that this exercise can fill.

Maybe, perhaps, it's not just about me. Maybe there is a wee possibility that I can encourage one person. That in sharing my own triumphs and struggles one reader will see a reflection of their own life, examine it, and make a change for the better. Maybe it's just a creative expression because that's how God wired me. Maybe not everything needs to have a grand purpose but can still be profitable in the long haul.

Maybe I'm back. I have a lot of photos worth sharing over the last (almost) year since my last post. I've been growing and learning and trudging along as I seek to follow Jesus in my life. I've acquired a few battle scars along the way and there are more to come. There's joy too. And it's worth every hit.

Blessings on your day if there is anyone out there. *wink*

Seriously?

How did I not post for all of October and November?

Was I too busy setting the table?




Or laundering pink clothes?




Or snuggling up some cuteness?




More than likely I was just a bit taken up with the needs of these:

Sticker Shock and Other Things

Renovating. I've mentioned our basement renovation which is actually going quite well. All walls are in place and we're making our way towards soon pouring self-leveling concrete to even out the floor. My designer backed out but I think I have a replacement that will likely work out better in the long run. I'm excited about that.

I've spent the last week or so getting estimates on some major outside work: siding, windows, eaves, redesign. This is where the sticker shock comes in. The construction market here is hot and you really have to book well in advance of when you want the work done. I'm looking at scheduling this for the spring and need to make a decision in the next few days, if not today. I'm waiting for a contractor who is 25 minutes late for our appointment. Not a good sign. My first choice at this point is pricey but highly recommended. Seems like such a grown up thing to do.

Football season has come to an end for this household. I think this photo will give you an indication of just how well things went:

I'd post but...

I'm too busy with our new little dude, Caspian Beary.

This little cockapoo comes from the home of some dear friends. Their daughter is the same age as my daughter and they are tight. Like, one Sunday morning they were explaining to me that they are twins. I digress. Little Miss G was pretty sad for her friend, knowing that our puppy was leaving a bit of a hole in her friend's heart. She cried off and on for a couple of hours after they left.



She managed to hold it together well enough to snuggle up with her happy siblings for this shot:



We're using our timer to make sure everyone gets a proper turn to cuddle:



This girl rarely smiles. She must be very happy indeed!



He is so cute he almost doesn't look real. But he smells like a dog. Good thing he has this face to see him through:



I'll return once a bit more of the novelty wears off. Or he sleeps through the night. Whichever comes first.

Confessions of an Un-Morning Person

I'm going to come clean. I like my bed. A lot. We have a good mattress, a wonderful down duvet, and a peaceful bedroom. We frequently have a late-night visitor climbing in between us in our warm cozy bed, but it's a pretty nice place to be. Another confession. I tend to stay up way too late. I used to think I didn't require a lot of sleep but I'm rethinking that one. The post-bedtime hours in our home are quiet and enticing. I seem to start projects late in the evening and get caught up in creating or laundering or reading or anything else that is more enjoyable in quiet or that I've put off doing in the day. Years of getting up in the night with a baby or two and grabbing every bit of sleep until the first child awoke in the morning conditioned me to get up only when I absolutely had to. I used to think I was rather enterprising, still finding time for hobbies even with little ones around. Now my littles are, well, not-so-little and sleep is a bit more predictable around here. Now it's simply a matter of personal discipline.

It's no secret here that I love the Word of God. Day after day and year after year I grow only by exposing myself to God's Truth and my relationship continues to grow. I've made time for this at different times of the day, out of necessity, and that quiet time has come in the late morning, afternoon, or late at night. I've been convicted lately of my need to seek God in the morning before my day starts.

You see the challenge. If I'm not up before my children, I'm not going to have time for reading and prayer in a quiet room. After eleven years of motherhood I sleep through the alarm clock without hearing it. How am I going to consistently find that morning time if something doesn't change?

After six weeks, I can tell you that I have consistently had a good half-hour in the mornings to spend with the Lord. No, I'm not waking up to an alarm. No, my husband isn't waking me up. No, I don't make my children sit quietly in their rooms until it's time for the noise of the day to begin. It's been a very simple solution, quite honestly.

I started praying six weeks ago that God would wake me in the morning so that I could have that time with Him before the children get up. And you know what? He's been totally faithful to do so. It hasn't been the exact same time every morning but within a twenty minute window. I wake up and anticipate that time. Heading for the sofa in our south-east facing living room, I grab a warm throw and settle in with my Bible and journal. I shouldn't be surprised that God would wake me consistently but it is just so obviously not something I am doing on my own that it excites me. These times are fulfilling and quenching and intimate as I seek Him.

Maybe I'm becoming a morning person after all.

Sunday Night Musings

Returned home a short while ago from our annual church picnic (rescheduled to today after the initial June date was rained out). Neat to catch up with a few people and enjoy a wonderful afternoon/early evening outside. Fall is settling in, with a crispness in the air and the changing palette of the leaves. I love this time of year but am often disappointed by how short this season is here. I wonder if there are "season chasers" similar to "storm chasers"? If there are, I would love to spend a year chasing autumn around the globe, crunching in leaves for days on end, and enjoying the mastery of God's paintbrush dotting the trees with the wonderful colours of fall. Perhaps I wasn't made for the Canadian prairies after all?

Last week was tough. After months of a more leisurely schedule, returning to a full week of activities, lessons, teaching seemed a bit of a blow. I am struggling with impatience within and am repentant for the ways this has spilled over in my dealings with my family. I have the same 24 hours to do my work as everybody else and I find that I get overwhelmed, let it pile up, and feel sorry for myself. Not a good cycle, huh?

Still plodding through my valley, working through some old hurts, and trying to get real life done well on a day-to-day basis. As you can tell from the previous paragraph, I'm failing sometimes. Miserably. And yet I know the One who is faithful to heal and restore and bless and I continue to chase after him.

Forget chasing seasons. I'm chasing after eternity.

A Special Meeting

We had a real thrill Friday afternoon traveling out to my friend's country home to meet the new puppies. Now, a bit of sadness has fallen over this sweet tale as the puppies' mama died when these little ones were just 1.5 weeks old. I have to say that this sweet family is loving all over these little pups and just taking tremendous care of them. Enough chat, you have to see:



We've named him Caspian and are looking forward to integrating him into our home in just a week and a half.

{randomness}

It's a new month and that means a new Scraptivity! kit. Here is one of the layouts I submitted for the Design Team reveal:




Journaling reads:

Homemaker - Homebody - Homeschooler - Stay-at-HOME mom. Not exactly the life I imagined. I thought I'd be a lawyer, marry late, and have 1 or 2 children. Make a real difference, you know? And now I'm pouring my life into what goes on between these 4 walls. Wife - Mother - Homemaker...making a real DIFFERENCE.

Isn't it amazing how you think you've got it all planned out? I've always admired women who are so settled in their path. I thought I was one. I'm really thankful that God planned differently for me.

Carrying on with Week 2 of our homeschooling year. I received two huge boxes of a curriculum order I placed last week. So many great titles to grace our bookshelves. Even my son's interest was piqued by a couple of the new books we unpacked. Reading Marguerite Henry's Justin Morgan Had a Horse
to my oldest two and we're all enjoying a good read. My 7-year-old is quite pleased with herself as she works through her Phonics book, thrilled with words like "skunk" and "plum". My youngest shows diligence and enthusiasm, for which I am thankful.

My eldest daughter is struggling right now with an infection on her leg as a result of a wipeout on her bike, an ingrown toenail, and a possible throat infection (we're awaiting the lab results). She's this stoic child who rarely reacts strongly to anything and is obviously dealing with a fair bit of discomfort and sadness as all parts of her body seem sore. I'm not always the best mom in these situations as I struggle not knowing what to do, how to fix things, and how much coddling/rebuke they need. I am hopeful that she feels at least a bit better in the morning.

There you have some randomness from me. It's just that kind of day.

Funny little quiz

82 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Longer post later. This was a fun little quiz.