Rich Hearts Homebuilding 101

It is amazing how fast the landscape around our home has changed in just a matter of days. Monday morning, we had a 2 acre pasture beside our house. We have gone from that to having new home building site. It is very exciting!!! Already the basement walls have been poured as well as the front porch foundation. You can really see the shape of the new house and I am so thrilled with my big front porch. I can't wait to be able to sit there and watch the sunsets! I am documenting the building process of our new home at Rich Hearts Homebuilding 101. Come on over and watch the action!

Summer Fun

Anna has finally figured out how to climb our tree and she is SO happy about it.

Journaling reads:After years of watching her big sister climb the Norway Maple tree in our backyard, Anna finally figured out a way to get herself up there, too. Although she is still not quite tall enough to reach the branches, she has adapted and came up with her own method. She uses the Step Two toddler side which puts her right where she wants to be - in the tree instead of watching from the ground. Big sister, Elizabeth is sad to lose her privacy up in the tree, but she has had a couple of good years to herself up there. Anna is quite pleased with her accomplishment. 5-16-05

This photo was really dark and I corrected it in Photoshop and then I duplicated it and used the Virtual Painter-Pastel plug-in on it. I changed the blend mode to lighten and got these fun bright summer colors which were perfect with Doris Castle's Summer Fun quick page. This was a totally fun, quick and easy page to create!

Blue Morn

I've been going through some photos taken over the past few months and came across this one take from my living room window on a crisp winter morning. Thought I would make a quick page with it. I used Doris Castle's Royal Blue set for this.

It's Official!!!

It's official!!! Here's the first scoop of our basement to prove it! I never thought such a simple little thing as a scoop of dirt could be so exciting. Just watching this I was all nervous-excited and jittery inside. This is it! It is finally happening. Our new home is more than just a dream, but real!

How To Really Love a Child

Last night I was glancing through the Sonlight homeschooling forums. Someone had posed the question, "What to children really NEED?" The consensus was not stuff, but love and a purpose. Someone also posted this text which they said was off of a card. Thought it was a good reminder for myself and wanted to save it. What better way than to create a scrapbook page with it! As I said, it is a good reminder for me because sometimes I get so busy with LIFE that I forget to just play and spend time with my children.
Text reads:
How to Really Love a Child
Be there. Say yes as often as possible. Let them bang on pots and pans. If they’re crabby, put them in water. If they’re unlovable, love yourself. Realize how important it is to be a child. Take walks. Go to a movie theater in your pajamas. Read books out loud with joy. Invent pleasures together. Remember how really small they are. Giggle a lot. Surprise them. Say no when necessary. Teach feelings. Heal your own inner child. Learn about parenting. Hug trees together. Make loving safe. Bake a cake and eat it with no hands. Go find mastodons and kiss them. Plan to build a rocketship. Imagine yourself magic. Make lots of forts with blankets. Let your angel fly. Reveal your own dreams. Search out the positive. Keep the gleam in your eye. Mail letters to God. Encourage silly. Plant licorice in your garden. Open up.Stop yelling. Set sail in a wagon. Express your love. A lot . Speak kindly. Paint their tennis shoes. Handle with caring.
Children are Miraculous.

I added the phrases in bold because they describe the picture. I regularly take walks with my wagon-o-kids in tow. On this evening, my son was imagining that the wagon was a boat and spent most of our walk rowing with a stick.
I also changed the word elephants to mastodons because our city is currently doing a big mastodon art project and my children are obsessed with spotting them all over town.

This page was created using a special kit by Doris Castle that will be available for free at a special crop held May 21st at www.pagesoftheheart.net called Daisy Chic. It has some fun realistic looking elements and papers! One of the advantages of being on her design team is that I get to get my fingers on it early and play with it! Fun!!!

Self Portrait

I got the bug to take a self portrait of myself this morning. After reviewing recent photos, I realized that there are so few of myself and even fewer of myself that I like. I decided that I should actually take the time to make my own scrapbook page - a rare thing. It was actually very easy because this is a quickpage by Doris Castle (Flowery quickpages - Pocket of Flowers). I just thought it was beautiful and all I had to do was plop in my photo and add my text. The verse reads, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

And I have t be honest. I don't actually walk around with such a soft glow about me (especially at 6am when this was taken). I used a Photoshop action called Dave's Midnight Gold on the photo which softened it a bit.

Ground Breaking!

Last night we had our ceremonial ground breaking for our new home. FINALLY, our builder has permits in his hands and he has scheduled his excavator for this week to begin digging the basement. He may start as early as Thursday or as late as Monday depending on his other project he is finishing and the weather.
So we had our own little ceremony which was the kids' idea. Barry said a little speech and I said a prayer to ask God to bless this process and to allow this new home to be used for His glory. Then we all took turns digging in.

Orangutan!

The zoo opened for the season last week! It i so much fun to visit all of the familiar animals. We are such frequent visiters, they are kind of like old friends. Here, Anna is studying one of the female orangutans. They are so much fun to watch - perhaps because they are so human-like. Often we are lucky enough to have them come right up to the glass.

I really like the way this photo came out with Anna's silhouette and I kept this scrapbook page fairly simple using only Katie Mann's Colors of Heritage kit (www.katiemanndesigns.com). This compressed version really doesn't do these papers justice. I can't even see the fine text on the papers which is just beautiful, trust me!

Stylish Boy

My son...good thing he's cute 'cause he usually isn't very well kept looking lately. Here's is a good example. Shoot most days he's wearing a bit more dirt than this and has a few more bruises on his shins. In spight of all this, I think heis just the cutest thing! The descriptive little signs above read:
Charming Smile
You always have the perfect accessory to any look: your charming wided-mouthed smile. Accented by your baby-blue eyes, you are always in style!
Reversed Shorts
You have dealt with that new challenge of dressing yourself brought on by potty-training with finesse and ignored tradition by wearing your shorts backwards.
Mis-Matched Shoes
You compensate for your trouble keeping track of your shoes well by always making sure you know where a right is and a left shoe is at all times, even though they may not be exactly the same.

To create this scrapbook layout, I used some fun little goodies (doo-dads) from my friend, Mo. I used a combination of elements from Mo's Cottage set (little wood signs, wood texture on the title, and the "S" and "B" are from the adorable alpha) and her new Michael set (Alpha used for "Patrick," rusty nails, and the grass and dirt backgrounds).

Ode to Mousey

It was a sad morning in our home today. My Anna discovered that her dear hamster, Mousey, had left us. Anna has such a soft spot in her heart for all of God's little creatures and, of course, this goes double for her own dear pets. She wept and wept. There was no consoling her until she got her tears out. I tried to tell her that Mousey had a great life. She was 3 1/2 years old which is a lot in hamster years. When I looked in her cage, she looked totally peaceful. She was even curled up with one of the little plastic strawberries that Anna had given to her after she saw the mice at the zoo had some just like it. It was just her time.

Death. What a hard thing to explain to your child. I told Anna that it is a part of life and it hurts like crazy for the rest of us. We talked about little Mousey scampering around heaven with God. We placed Mousey in a pretty blue check box with her plastic strawberry and tied it closed with a pink ribbon. We carried her out to the little apple tree by the creek that has become the final resting place of many of our pets and buried her. Patrick joined us and we said a little prayer to thank God for the gift of our time with Mousey and Anna placed the first handful of dirt. Then we finished the job and placed stones on her little grave. Anna gathered dandelions and apple blossoms to decorate it. A fitting farewell to Mousey.

Mousey was a totally sweet and docile little creature. She could withstand the love and attention of many small and careless hands and was never mean. To set the record straight, we believe Mousey was really a boy, but when we first got him, we weren't sure and my girly girl, Anna, decided to call him a her. As he matured, we became fairly certain that she was in fact a he, but by that time we were all in the habit of referring to him as a girl. Thankfully, Mousey never seemed to have any psychological issues with this from as much as we could tell.

I think one aspect of Anna's mourning is not just for the lost of her loved pet, but also for the loss of merely having a pet to hold and play with. After many requests, I gave in to a trip to the pet store this afternoon and Anna is now the proud owner of a little dwarf hamster named Sam. Anna informed me that Sam can't take the place of Mousey, but he does make it a little easier to let her go. Death from the perspective of an 8 year old.

Now for death from the perspective of a 3 year old. Patrick's take on this whole Mousey thing is much different than Anna's. He was the one today to inform me that something was wrong with Mousey as I was making my way up the stairs to check on Anna's crying. You just don't know exactly what is going on inside the mind of one that age. He is very unemotional and matter of fact in the way he discusses that Mousey is not moving any more, but she is not sleeping. When I shared with Daddy and Elizabeth about Mousey, Patrick said in a serious tone, "Mousey's dead, but we didn't flush her. We buried her." I am not really sure where that came from, but it did give me a chuckle. Oh my! Death. Definitely not an easy subject to explain to your child.

Running my race....

I've never been much of a runner. Even as a child I was only moderately athletic. I could run if the need arose during a game at recess or gym class, but it was never my thing. When it came to a race, I could hold my own and keep up with the pack, but rarely, if ever, won. The same holds true for me and swimming. I was on a swim team from about the age of 9 to 15. I did a decent job, was constantly complimented on what beautiful form I had in my strokes, but rarely won a heat. One day, when I was probably a bit down about that fact, my mother sat me down and explained that I didn't want it bad enough. I was good and pushed myself, but the other swimmers wanted it more and they were the ones who won. I wasn't really driven to win and therefore didn't push myself that extra little bit that it would take to get ahead. I did finally reach a point that I really wanted to feel what it was to be a winner and gave myself that extra push and I did start winning many of my heats. It took a lot of work and determination.

Why am I dredging up these childhood memories? This morning during my quiet time, as I reviewed some of my memory verses, one stuck out to me. It is 1 Corinthians 9:24 and it says, "In a race, all the runners run, but only one wins the prize. Run the race in such a way to win the prize." It is Paul who wrote this and he was talking about his goal of bringing others to Christ, which, if you know anything about Paul, is first and foremost in his life. He continues to say, "All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a boxer who misses his punches. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified."

So, as I read this, I am thinking about what my race is. My life looks substantially different from Paul's. The race before me at this time is filled with a multitude of family responsibilities. When I look around at all I need to do, I feel completely overwhelmed. I feel like that race before me is filled with all these gigantic hurdles that I have no idea how to get over. The task looks exhausting. So, I question, "Am I running the right race?" I do think that I am right where God has placed me and He has a purpose for me being here. Perhaps I have placed a few extra self-imposed hurdles out there for myself, but for the most part I am in the right lane - on the right path. I think the key to many of my struggles is in that first verse. "Run the race in such a way to win the prize." I am running, but I am doing it just like I did it as a child. I am working hard, but I don't want the prize enough. I am not driven. I don't live with that extra push. I see this in my relationships, educating my children, how I manage our home, trying to be healthy and lose weight...every aspect of my life. I am working hard - really hard, but I am not giving it that extra push. I am not driven and focused enough to win.

I need to clarify that I am not competing with other people. On the contrary, I believe most of us are on the same team. This is a personal race. Perhaps it should be looked at as a spiritual race. There a couple of other verses that go right along with this race concept. They are Hebrews 12:1-2. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith." I truly need to live my life with more diligence and perserverance. I need to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus to know the race set before me and I need to get rid of everything that hinders and distracts from that purpose. Who would have thought life would be so much work! But I am up for the task with Christ before me and God's strength at my back! I AM running to win that prize!