Sentimental Old You

Well, I'm done with being ready for the kids to start school. We bought school shoes this weekend and I'm over it. Today I'm choosing to live in denial. There's plenty of summer left. We'll probably even go to the pool and pretend like it's June 3 again. Maybe even fire up the grill and drink sweet tea for supper. And eat watermelon.

Remember a couple of months ago? When the girls and I were playing homeschool...at the preschool...with 10 other kids? We had a wonderful year doing Pre-K together. I told Honey that one of the perks of the girls being in my class was that he didn't have to buy teacher gifts.

But I did make myself an end of the year gift. I just didn't finish it until a couple of weeks ago. We picked it up this weekend.

Don't you love it?! I do. What an energetic, spunky, talkative, creative, special class. I love that our class was the Butterfly class. I love watching the magic of 4 year olds turning 5. I love how much they change and grow that year.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was our signature book. We read it often. They could all act it out. They all knew how it ended.

The girls recognized the butterfly on the plate as the one from the book. Whew! You never know how it's going to turn out. I'm not the most artistic apple in the basket.

I'm curious...how are you feeling about August? Are you in denial and pretending that it's June or are you ready for summer to pack up and go home?

Speaking of crafting...

Did I ever show y'all these? I've been cleaning, saving, and backing up files on my computer. As you can tell by the decor in the house, I took these pictures way back in December, and just never got around to sharing them.

I made this blanket as a baby gift for one of our old youth interns. Ashley is pretty special to us because she was our first girl intern, and she worked with us the summer I was pregnant with the twins. (The girls were born in September, so I was VERY pregnant...) Ashley pretty much got stuck with being me that summer because I was restricted from traveling after the first week in July. Bless her heart, she was a better me than . . . me.

Jen lives down the street from us, and among other things, she quilts. I found her tutorial for this blanket, and ever since I've been waiting for an excuse to make one. Honey thought I was crazy trying to do this just days before Christmas, but...that's just the way we roll.

The fabric I used was all scraps except for the back and the border, so it was a very budget friendly project.

Looking at this one makes me think that it would be fun to make one a little bit bigger to use as a lap blanket on a chilly evening. Yes, it's June, and it's 99 degrees outside, but as fast as summer is flying by, chilly evenings will be here before we know it.

Girly-ness

I found this tutorial a couple of weeks ago. It's the perfect project for this ADD crafter. . . easy, quick, and immediate results.

So . . . I made two or three of these yesterday.


And . . . my sense of accomplishment knows no bounds.

Some more gifts and stuff

We missed Bubba's last day of school because we were traveling, but before we left, he gave his teacher her plate to comemorate this year. The theme for the school this year was western, so I decided to make Mrs. P's plate reflect all the cowpokes in her room.

I really love how they all turn out a little different and definitely one of a kind.

We also missed Honey's mom's birthday because we were traveling. So, we took her out to eat the night before we left and gave her her gift. Making this one was actually a family affair. My SIL and I got together and made a Lastname Family Recipe book for her. We compiled recipes and asked family members to contribute some, too. Most of the recipes are foods we share at holidays and on our annual Squirrel Hunt.

Here are a couple of pages I did:

One of our aunts doesn't do e-mail so she sent her reicpes in the mail on recipe cards. I loved that they were in her handwriting and that she added personal notes to the end of each one. So I scrapped a page with an envelope and put the cards inside the envelope. They aren't readily available to cook from, but I think it added a whimsical touch to the book.

I don't want to take all the credit on this one. Here are a couple of pages that my SIL did. I love the themed paper!

I just love this idea and wanted both of our moms to have this family keepsake. The best part is that as our families continue to grow and we grow to love new recipes, we can always add more. It's as easy as putting in another page!

And still more projects

Lest you think I was lying (laying?) around on my couch and eating bon bons while on my blogging hiatus, I've been using the last few posts to catch you up on all the stuff I've done the past few weeks. Somehow I feel like I've been bragging by showing you all of the finished projects, but really it's just my feeble attempt to prove to you, the world wide web, that I'm not a slacker that just didn't feel like blogging. I really was busy! Honest.

May is pretty big in our family. Of course there are all the end of school activities and projects, but aside from that, in our family, there are birthdays. In fact, all of the married women in Honey's immediate family have birthdays in May. Mine is at the beginning, my SIL's in in the middle, and my MIL's is at the end. Throw in some Mother's Day and teacher gifts, and we have ourselves a gift giving extravaganza!

Several months ago, my SIL shared a wonderful idea. Her brother was getting married and she wanted to welcome her new SIL into the family. She compiled all of her family recipes and scraped them into a recipe book. It was a wonderful, thoughtful wedding gift, plus all of the family recipes were preserved and passed down.

When I saw her precious book, I coveted it. Then I realized that I could make one, too! So waaay back in January, knowing how hectic May was, I started making a family recipe book for my mom for her Mother's Day gift. I had every good intention to have it finished by the end of Spring Break. You know, so that May wasn't so crazy. But, alas, it didn't happen. And the week before Mother's Day, I finished the bulk of my mom's book. But I'm so glad I did it.

I organized Mom's book by months. My mom loves holidays. She's always up for a new reason to change the seasonal decoration in the house. So I thought it would be fun to include her love of the holidays as the theme for the book. It's a bit ironic that I started this project just a couple of weeks in to my little Weight Watchers project. As I was thinking about all of my favorite comfort foods, I realized just how much our lives revolve around food. It was fun though.

Here are a few of my favorite pages:

January was soup month. I love curling up with a warm bowl of soup and a good book.

Of course, February was dessert month. It took several pages to fit all of these recipes in.

May was Girls Night Out month. This is the month for all of the salads and girly food.

June was main dishes. No particular reason there, but I just needed to fit it in somewhere.

July was cook out month. For obvious reasons like . . .it's summer. . . the 4th of July is a great time to cook out. . .

I also included favorite birthday cakes in August because Mom's b-day is in August. April was Easter month, so I put some of our favorite home cooking recipes in there. December is one of my favorites because all of my favorite Christmas breads, finger foods, and ciders are there.

Since all of the recipes are already typed up, one of my goals this summer is to make myself a keepsake book. It really will go much faster since typing and compiling is the most time consuming part. The project will be much more enjoyable at my own pace, without a deadline, one page at a time.

What's on your summer to do list?

School is SO Out!

Oh yes it is! The Preschool is D O N E! Summer break is here and I couldn't be more ready! I love my job at The Preschool, but the last 6 weeks or so, it's been pretty time consuming. I know that being busy just comes with the territory when it's May, but I'm blaming it on The Preschool, OK?

I wanted to share one of the many projects that has been eating away at my free time over the past few weeks. It's the teacher gift that we gave to the girls' teacher this year. Their class was called "The Little Sweeties", so this is what I came up with.

Ms. Lisa had no idea that she was getting a class thumbprint plate, which is a HUGE miracle. Because making the plate involved sneaking 4 year olds around and getting them to secretly paint their thumbs. And then getting the 4 year olds not to tell anyone what they've been up to. Which is the miracle part. Because 4 year olds aren't the best secret keepers. Anyways, they did it and Ms. Lisa was delightedly surprised.

Just to let you know what you're in for over the next few days. . .a lot of pictures of finished projects. We got more pottery, some scrapbooks, and just some general fun and mahem. I just wanted you to be prepared. Why now you ask? Well. . .because. . .The Preschool? It's out!

Life Happens Between PGRs

So, Prayer Group did not disappoint. We had a wonderful weekend catching up on each other's lives, encouraging each other, and petitioning our Father about the matters in our hearts. And playing with the newest baby in the group. She is precious and perfect in every way. Such a sweet, tangible, kissable piece of evidence proving that God does answer prayers, and longs to give us the desires of our hearts.

Since Sunday afternoon, our household has been trying to recover from Prayer Group weekend. Laundry, dishes, and plain old snuggling has been abounding here at the casa. Not to mention, sleeping. Once the weekend of fun has been had, we have to catch up on the things missed here at home. Thanks to Honey and Gran and Grampy for taking the kids for the weekend and making it possible for PGR to crash at our place at the last minute.

This morning I was finally able to pick up the latest addition to my plate collection. And for your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of pics.

My goal is to have a plate to display for every season. So far I have fall, winter, and this one for summer. I still can't decide what to do for spring. Thank goodness I have a few months.

Honey spent yesterday as his first official day of selling. It was a great day! The goal is to get one order every day (or 20 each month) and he came home with 2! I hope with each day that passes, he will become more and more confident in his new job.

So, this week is back to real life. VBS, library story time, and swimming will probably be involved.

Crazy is as Crazy Does

I realize that I have cut back on the blogging lately. There for a while I was blogging every day and sometimes, I was so inspired, I would type two posts in one day and just wait to post the second until the next day.

But here lately, it's been hit and miss. I have a few ADD tendencies and a couple of OCD tendencies, and when their universes collide, it produces a frenzy of epic proportions. When it comes to hobbies, I am very ADD. I like to sew, quilt, scrapbook, blog, read, garden, and craft, just to name a few. If I see something even remotely crafty, my first thought is "I need that". My second thought is "I could make that". It doesn't matter if it is a quilt, an ornament, or a scrapbook page. I just jump from one project to another without any rhyme or reason, or common sense.

At this point the OCD part of me usually kicks in. When I start a project, I can't rest until it is done. My eyes glaze over and I become a zombie..."Must...finish...this...skirt..." I can't think about anything else until it is done. The house looks horrendous and 1/3 of our grocery budget goes to paper goods so that I don't have to do dishes. (You'll recall that cooking, cleaning, and dishes are not on the above hobby list)

All of that to say that I've been indulging in a few of my favorite hobbies the last few days, and haven't had the spare concentration power to blog. Last week I read two books. I would love to tell you that I read to learn and make myself a better person. But I do not. I read for pleasure. My favorite genre, well, pretty much, the only genre I read, is Christian romance. I love a good story, and the fact that it is a romance is just reading heaven on earth for me. So heavenly that my little OCD self can't seem to put the book down until I am finished. I wake up early, do the bare minimum possible to get through the day with 3 children, and spend the rest of the day, and possibly the night, reading. This really isn't healthy for me, the kids, or Honey. So he found a solution. He found the greatest invention ever. It lets me indulge my ADD tendency of just picking up a book whenever the fancy strikes me, and satisfy my OCD tendency of reading the entire book cover to cover no matter how long it takes.

Honey found a series of Christian romance books at Mardel's. They are cheap, usually about $5, and there is one named for every state of the US. That means that there will eventually be 50 of them! The best part about them is that each book contains 3 or 4 short stories. The stories are usually about the same little town in whatever state, but the stories themselves are only about 140 or 160 pages. This is the perfect length to finish in a couple of hours instead of making it an all day affair. My OCD self can read one entire story and feel some closure and resolution, but also allow me to, you know, pay attention to my family.

Anyways, I'm hooked on them and when I get an itch to read again, I'll be looking for the next state on the list. But until then...I have a sewing project to work on. I think the fabric is ready to iron.

It all started with...

I didn't know what a blog was. I'd never even heard the term before, and I never imagined that such an alternate universe existed until my good friend Amy was preparing to receive the referral for their baby girl from China. Amy had been spending time reading blogs from the Chinese adoption community and at our annual Prayer Group Retreat, she shared some of the sites with me.


I came home and immediately became addicted to Do They Have Salsa in China? (A little side note here: I learned everything I know about blogging by reading and viewing the Salsa blog. I learned what a post, sidebar, link, and comment was. I learned that reading a complete stranger's writing wasn't considered stalking, but lurking, and that it was socially acceptable, not to mention perfectly legal.) It wasn't long before I started noticing that M3 kept a blogroll of sites that she visited regularly, and so I began clicking at will. I figured if she liked reading them and I liked reading her, then I would probably like reading the same ones she read. It was during this time that I discovered the really cool technology of clicking on the names of people in the comments section. This would take me to their blog and I was introduced to a new person. Some of the sites I visited often and some only once or twice. If I found a blog that I liked, I would try a few of the sites on their blogroll or in their comments section, and the process would continue.


I went on like this for a while and I discovered that the Chinese adoption community isn't the only group that is thriving in the blogsphere. There are homeschoolers, moms, Christians, organic food lovers, book clubs, crafters, scrapbookers, organizers, photographers, and the list could go on.


After a few weeks of reading a variety of different blogs, I realized that I could write one too. I didn't have to be waiting for an adoption to go through or inventing new ways to cook chicken to write. I just needed to have something to say. So in September 2005, I began blogging. At first I only told my closest friends and family about it. Laci was probably my first loyal reader and commenter.


I started finding people that I actually know through Amy's blog. She and I are friends from college, but we have many mutual friends that she knew in her area that have since moved to my area. I would read the comments on her blog and connect to people that I know. This is how I found Lisa who in turn linked me to Jennifer, Amy, April, Erica B, and Larissa.The internet really makes it a smaller world than we realize.


My biggest discovery came when Sunny Jo suggested that I read Beth Moore's Living Proof Ministries blog. It was just in the beginning stages and I really enjoyed reading the comments as much as the posts. This is where I discovered BooMama. One of her comments made me spew my drink and I have been reading her blog faithfully every day.


BooMama has buttons in her sidebar for 5 Minutes for Mom and eventually (one day when I was stalking...er...lurking her blog) I clicked on it. 5 Minutes is a great site for all things mom and they host a couple of blog carnivals, one of which is Tackle it Tuesdays.


There are a few other ways that I have heard of to find new sites but I have not tried them. You could join a blogring. From what I know of them they are lots of fun, I've just never tried one. I believe Larissa is a member of the Christian Women Online blogring, so you might ask her more about it. You could also try a site called StumbleUpon. Again, I haven't tried it, so use it at your own risk. The best site I've found to answer questions, or just learn more about this monster called blogging is Blogging Basics 101. They write a new article pretty much every day. They use normal, everyday, common mom language to explain things, and if you have a question they have probably already answered it and neatly filed it away in one of their categories.


So, long answer short, when you find a blog you like, click on the buttons and links in the sidebar and in the comments. You never know what or who you will find!

Works for Me Wednesday - Easy Summer Scrapbook for Kids

First of all, this mama is not a scrapbook queen, so don't set your expectations too high. Although, this project is perfect for any level of scrapbooker because you can make it as simple or as cutsie as you want.

Last summer Bubba had just finished Kindergarten. He was an emerging reader and writer. The first grade teacher in me cringed at the idea of him spending the entire summer doing brain mushing activities like playing video games and watching TV. I wanted him to retain everything he'd learned in Kinder, and maybe even pick up a few new things.

I came up with this:

A summer journal Kindergarten style. I bought an 8x8 scrapbook, a package of colored printer paper, and top-load plastic cover pages. On the left side I made simple scrapbook pages documenting the activities we wanted to remember. I kept the pages simple so that it wouldn't be so overwhelming and so I would keep up with it and get it done quickly and almost immediately.

Then on the right hand side I gave Bubba a piece of blank, white printer paper and told him to journal about what he was doing in the pictures. This eliminated the "Mooom, I don't know what to write about." whining. It also gave him something to say ("I was wearing orange shorts." "I was hitting the ball.")when he was just out of words (a boy thing).

I told him not to worry about spelling (as he gets older we will work on that) and to write whatever he wanted to about each activity. If he asked how to spell something, I said "Do the best you can." If he was completely stuck, I helped him hear a few of the most important sounds in the word and moved on. I asked him to come up with a couple of sentences for each page, and...I also paid him a penny per sentence. If I really wanted extra, I gave him a nickel for 3 or 4 sentences.

When he was finished writing, I asked him to read it back to me. If there was a word misspelled or hard to read, I drew a line under it and wrote the correct spelling (mainly for me when I wanted to go back and look at this piece of history YEARS down the road). I tried to leave the grammar and syntax as he'd written it. My goal wasn't a perfect paper, but to document his work at that time in his life.

We accomplished this while the twins were napping. It kept him quiet so they could sleep and gave us some one-on-one time. I also quickly realized that he would not be up to this EVERY SINGLE DAY, so we just worked on it once or twice a week, or less if we were caught up. (BRIBING him with money didn't hurt either.)

In the end, we had fun reliving our summer memories, Bubba's brain stayed activated, and I ended up with a great scrapbook. It WORKS FOR ME!

Go to Rocks In My Dryer to see more great Works for Me tips.

End of the Year Business

What says it 's time for the end of school better than teacher gifts? Just a little somethin' from me and Honey to say thanks for putting up with our offspring for a whole entire year. (We know it can be a challenge at times. Like say, oh, every day. Thank goodness the girls only go to school twice a week!) In honor of the year ending, I stopped by my favorite pottery shop and painted up a little rememberance for each of the kids' teachers.

This is the front of our favorite first grade teacher's plate. She got little thumbprints turned in to basketballs and footballs. Her kids play sports and this will come in handy when she is entertaining their teams.

This is the girls' teacher's plate. Her class was named the Rainbows of Love. I turned all of their thumbprints into bees and ladybugs. I hope they will love them. If not...I'll take them!

The New Blogger!

I finally made the switch. I am officially on the New Blogger (formerly known as "Blogger Beta"- I'm not sure why, in the year 2006, they chose Beta to signify a new generation of blogging since it reminds me of the video tapes that came out before VHS, but, anywhoo...) Whatever it is called, I am now a user of it. I tried to convert several months ago so it would quit flashing at me every time I logged on, but I couldn't figure out how to insert all my nifty stuff in the sidebar and the tickers that keep me excited about whatever is coming up.

When I first started my blog, I spent hours trying to decipher the HTML codes on the template and even more hours doing trial and error programming until I figured out how to add all that stuff that makes it cute. I still don't know anything about HTML programming, I just know how to copy and paste the stuff where I want it.

So, I thought, this Beta thing is supposed to be easier. If I could figure out the HTML stuff, surely I could figure out the easy stuff. Well, I couldn't, at least not in the first hour of trying, so I reverted back to my old format and thought, "Don't try to fix it if it ain't broke!"

Well this week, Binkley Blog got a new look, and I could tell she used the new format. I thought, (no offense to you Binkley Blog), if she can do it, so can I. So I tried it again today and had success! It really is a lot easier than reading a bunch of nonsense where every little period and slash means something huge.

Thanks Binkley Blog for inspiring me to broaden my horizons. That doesn't happen very often.

Holiday Happenings

I just wanted to post a picture of my Christmas plate this year. I painted one for me and three others just like it for gifts. I've waited to post a picture until the danger of ruining the surprise for the gift recipients is over.



In other news, we attended Bubba's Christmas party at school yesterday morning. We, meaning me and the girls. First Grade Teacher is way less uptight about letting me bring the girls to class than Kinder teacher was. A mom in the class got McD's Happy Meals DONATED for the first graders. I brought the girls one to eat in hopes that it would give them something to do so that they would stay out of trouble, and make them feel like big kids. It worked. They were very good and patient, and they even got to go with First Grade Teacher and pick up the class from the gym when it was time for the party to start. (Have I mentioned how much we love First Grade Teacher?) Here is a picture of Bubba with FGT. After Happy Meals, they decorated sugar cookies for dessert. Then they made ornaments and had a gift exchange. They played a really cute game sitting in a circle passing the gifts left and right as FGT read a story using the words left and right. It was funny and the kids loved opening the games that their friends bought for the classroom. We had lots of fun this week with parties, but I am glad the party season is over and we can enjoy some down time with family for the next few days. Have a Merry Christmas!

That's all I need. . .

. . .another new hobby! Recently I have been spending my time painting. There is a little shop here in town that has all kinds of pottery and a place to paint it (away from the kids and away from your own dinning room table) They will even clean up the mess for you! And, it's affordable! (I'm liking this new hobby more and more by the minute!) The girls that work in the shop are very encouraging and helpful, and are ready to rescue your piece at a moment's notice if it looks like your artwork is getting out of hand. So far, I've made b-day presents for both of the grandmas and Great C and a keepsake for me. This year, I plan to make Christmas presents, too! Here is a pic of the plate I made for myself this fall. I can't wait to get my Christmas one finished!