Christmas Hangover

No, I haven't been drinking, but I do feel like I have a hangover of sorts. After the months of planning and preparation for Christmas, I can finally take a breath and relax. Of course, all those tasks that I have been putting off until after Christmas are now looming over my head. I really don't even know where to start. [sigh] That's just life, though. There is always so much to do. I don't think it would matter how much time I had, I would still never run out of work. I do have to say that this was my most organized Christmas ever. I owe that to early planning. I did that this year with the help of this little Christmas planner. What a difference it makes starting in October! The planner has a week by week schedule to follow and really helps you to get a lot done. It also helps that we were more minimal with the Christmas gifts this year. Our kids got their traditional gifts of PJs, socks, and underwear and then we got a big family gift.

And about that...all I can say is that Wii are having fun!

My kids (especially the older ones) have been drooling over the Wii for quite some time. We were not going to buy such an extravagant gift, but when I started thinking about how much we would end up spending on individual gifts for 5 kids, I figured we would have that kind of outlay of money anyway.

If you want to see something hilarious, watch a 4 year old and a 6 year old in a Wii boxing match. They put so much into it. Abi was giving Patrick some kung fu air kicks even though we kept telling her to just use her arms. Patrick felt it nescessary to make the punching sound effects. I suppose that is just because he is a boy and LOVES to make those kinds of sounds. I wonder if he is ever in a situation where he really needs to fight if he will add the sounds, too. "Take that...ppshhhh....pshhhhh..." Hee hee! Both kids were running in place so fast that I thought they were going to wear down the floor. They have a boxing technique all their own!

Santa also brought the kids some used PS2 games for their stockings, so they are kind of in video game overload. I figured I would let them go crazy this week because we are on holiday, but then we are gonna have to enforce some serious limits.

Off the subject of Christmas...
Here's a funny little video parody about homeschool families. I got a kick out of it.

Speaking of homeschooling, I got creative this morning and put together a cute Reading Record sheet. My oldest already keeps her own reading list, but I am going to start having my 10 year old keep her own, too, and I thought she would do better using a form. Of course, I will still have to keep track of what the little ones do. Keeping good school records is a weak area for me. I thought perhaps I would be more excited about it if I had something cute to use.

Credits for the reading form can be found here.

I better get away from the computer and go have some fun with the family.
Have a great day!

Merry Christmas!

Yes, I know. Yesterday was Christmas. But if you think about it, we should truly be celebrating all year, right? Sometimes I think that all of our celebrating in December will just do me in with all of its busy-ness. So, here I sit on the day after Christmas. All of our "Fa la la-ing" is done. The gifts have been opened; the food has been eaten. There have been months of planning to get everything ready. Sometimes in the midst of all the hustle and bustle, it is easy to forget why we do it all. It is easy to get distracted and forget the miracle we are celebrating. God came to earth wrapped in flesh and it was all part of a plan to save each one of us. It's a mind-blowing miracle! It's more than I can truly comprehend. I am fortunate to be a part of a dance group at church and we have been worshipping to a song called "I Believe" performed by Natalie Grant. The words to this song tell about this wonderful story of Christmas:

"Natalie Grant - I Believe"

In a land far away
Time stood still
Long ago
There were shepherds in fields
Or at least this is how
The story goes
The story goes
Woman with child
And a man with no room
Born in a manger
For telling it too
This is how
The story goes
But it is more than a fable
And it’s more than a fairytale
And more than my mind can conceive

I believe
The Wiseman saw
The baby born the angels called the son of God
Heaven’s child
The great I am
Born to take away my sins through nailed pierced hands
Emmanuel has come
I believe

Two thousand years
Still the story lives on
God’s gift to us
Sent to earth
Wrapped in flesh
His only son
His only son
And the heartbeat of heaven
Confounded our wisdom
But it’s still the simple truth
That sets me free

I believe
The Wiseman saw
The baby born that the angels called the son of God
Heaven’s child
The great I am
Born to take away my sins through nailed pierced hands
Emmanuel has come
And I believe

Precious child
How can it be that God’s great plan
For His story
Would send you to
The lonely tree
That you would come
For one like me

I believe
In a cross
I believe he came for one, he came for all
Heavens child became a plan
Gave his life for me
In spite of all I am
I believe
I believe
Oh I believe
Christmas lives in me
I believe

Play the video to hear the song.


The words to this beautiful song have been ringing through my mind each day during our Christmas preparations and celebrations. I am thankful to constantly be reminded why we are celebrating.

May this amazing truth of what Christmas is stay with you not just during December, but all year long.

Merry Christmas!

Snow Day Sunday

We have had a snow storm blow through our area which dumped a fair amound of snow followed by freezing rain followed by more snow. We made the executive decision at 7:30am this morning that taking our pack of children out in the big ol' van to go to church wasn't wise and declared today a snow day. It turned out to be the right choice because we later discovered that our overhead garage door was frozen shut anyway making it impossible to leave in the van.

Barry and our oldest went out and about plowing and blowing snow at our rental properties while I held down the fort here with the rest of the kids. It was rough ;-) So rough that I felt the need to stay in my PJs until after lunch. I can't tell you the last time that happened.

One thing we did manage to accomplish today was to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with the kids. I couldn't believe it. My older girls told me they had NEVER seen this movie. How did they ever make it to the ripe old ages of 13 and 10 years old without being subjected to this classic during the holidays. I mean it airs all the time! I was feeling like a really bad parent who has been neglecting the cultural edification of her children. Thankfully, we were able to watch it. Elizabeth wasn't sure if she could actually sit through a black and white movie - no color - horror of horrors. Her only comment was, "Did people really act like that back then?" I fear that the deeper meaning of the movie may have been lost. [sigh] As for me, I watch the movie and wonder, "Does my life count?" George Bailey made a huge impact on many people's lives. Hmm...who do I impact? Just thinking out loud here. It is a good reminder that I am here on this earth for a higher purpose and my life is not my own.


Because I tend to get stressed around the holidays and scrapping tends to relieve stress for me and because we had a snow day today, I got a couple of scrapbook pages done. You should recognize the photo from the top page from my last blog entry. My Abi loves to taste the snow.

This second page uses photos from our big extended family get-together that took place yesterday. My father-in-law is one of 11 siblings. Most of them were there along with their children and grandchildren. There were a whole lot of little cousins running around. I have lots more photos but I did this page called StoryTime with Uncle Don showing how he did his traditional reading of "The Night before Christmas" to the kids. This was followed by the traditional singing of the Christmas Carols. The kids aren't too thrilled about it, but it is required by tradition before the opening of the presents. (It's so much fun to torment the kids, isn't it!)

Credits for the pages can be found here and here.

Snow!

We got our first snow of the season here. It started to snow before we went to bed last night and the kids were SO excited! Patrick went to bed tellin me that "There's white stuff on the roof!" Patrick, Abi and Anna were awake first thing this morning ready to don their snow clothes and take a trek outside. As you can see here, Abi couldn't wait to get a good TASTE of it. They had so much fun and stayed outside unil they were freezing cold. Then I welcomed them inside to sip hot cocoa and warm up by the fire.

The Wood Prince

Meet my little wood prince. I had so much fun creating this piece of art that I just had to try my hand at another one. This time I chose my son and I just didn't have the heart to turn him into a fairy. Someone commented at Scrapbook Graphics that he was a Wood Prince and I love that. He has a crown of leaves and a wheat sceptor. Credits for all of the goodies included in this can be found here along with a before and after picture.

Beautiful Art for Worship

Just wanted to pass along along a link to a site I ran across with beautiful artwork called MO'EDIM MESSIANIC ART. The artwork was created by a homeschooled girl, Carly Rose Hennigan. Her photography is amazing. Since I have a special place in my heart for worship art AND homeschoolers, I just wanted to share this.

Another page...

Had a few minutes this afternoon and I thought I would wrap up this page I started a while back. I had mentioned to Patrick that we should get a birthday photo like this and he loved the idea and it became a big deal. Probably because SIX is SO OLD - I mean it does take two hands! I used a whole big mix of different elements for this. It took me forever to go back andfigure out where each of these pieces was from. Credits for the page can be found here.

I am totally craving a nap today, but I thought I would try and be just a little productive here at the computer. Hope you are having a great Sunday!

Sweet Sweater Set

Just sharing this page of my baby girl in her pretty new sweater set. Well it isn't actually new. My friend made it for her when she was just a newborn, but she made it a bit big so she wouldn't outgrow it so fast. Well, this is the first time she wore it. She has been big enough to wear it for a while but our weather hasn't been cold enough for such a warm sweater. Sadly, I can't get her to keep the hat on. I have tried, but it usually ends up in tears. (Hers not mine ;-)
Credits for the page can be found here. This page was also featured in the Cottage Arts newletter this week because it was done using one of their new Simply Done templates which are really cool and have some special features if you are using Photoshop Elements. This page came together in a snap.

Seeing something like this sweater set makes me want to be able to knit. I can crochet, but some things are just better knitted. Connie (who made this lovely sweater) tried to teach me a while back. I wanted to knit a prayer shawl and she took the time to show me how. Well, I was slow and awkward at it and I ended up getting impatient with myself and crocheting the shawl. A youth prayer shawl ministry has just started at our church and my daughter, Anna, has decided to try it. She has been taught how to knit and it loving it. Seeing her pick up on this so quickly is so wonderful to watch (even if it does disgust me that she has picked up on it much faster than me). She has shown me one more time the process of knitting and it is starting to click better in my brain. I am determined that after the holidays I am going to sit down and actually master knitting.

Sorry I am babbling. I was up late last night because I have a nasty cold and couldn't sleep. Then I woke up early because I was so stuffed and my sinuses feel like they are gonna explode. I though perhaps I would go lay back down after a bit, but it is too late. I have to get everyone up for church in about a half an hour. So, I had better get some coffee into me and get a bit more awake!

Hope you all have a sweet Sunday.

The Golden Compass (revisited)

Back in August, I did a little research about this book after my 13 year old daughter saw it in the Scholastic book flyer. She was intrigued and we got it from the library. I won't go into the details of our experience at this time because I wrote about it here. I am just thankful that my daughter had enough good sense and intuition to put the book down.

Now, with the opening of the movie drawing near, The Golden Compass is getting quite a bit of publicity. I am glad to see that not all of it is good. I just received an e-mail forward that warned against letting your children see the movie. Here is what it said:

Subject: Fw: Warning of upcoming movie
As if we needed more Satanic
influences for our kids... click on the link below for more info- this
author is pretty shocking. If his admission that his series of "children's
books" are about killing God isn't bad enough, they apparently even include
references to castration and female circumcision. The movie is the hook to get
kids into the books.………………………………………………………………………………………….
This was sent to me -
important to know this!!! (I wasn't familiar with this author OR these
books...)

I just wanted to warn all Christian parents to avoid the
upcoming movie "The Golden Compass" put out by New Line Cinema and Scholastic
entertainment. It is due out in December. It looks like a fun movie, but this is
the first movie based on the trilogy of books titled "His Dark Materials."
The author of the books, Philip Pullman is a militant at heist whose professed
purpose with these books is to turn kids away from Christianity. He has said
this outright. The first movie has been cleaned up to avoid a lot of objections
- it is apparently not going to be too bad BUT ..the movie is bait for the books
which are horrible. The books get progressively worse with the heroes (children)
in the 3rd book actually killing God, who is depicted as a little shrunken man.
I am not kidding. This sounds too terrible to believe, but unfortunately it is
not. It stars Nicole Kidman.
See the website below for more info. &
verification:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp
The
Golden Compass (new movie out in December).

Part of me hates to even discuss this because from what I have read about the man, Phillip Pullman wants this kind of publicity - he loves it. He had been jealous that Harry Potter had been getting all the attention instead of his books.

I will say it again. Whether we believe it or not, there is a battle being waged all around us - a spiritual battle and often it is our children who are on the front lines. The enemy plays dirty. We need to face these facts and both protect and equip our children as best we can.

When I addressed this before, I felt frustrated because I was unable to find a good children's book review site. There are not enough hours in the day for me to preread everything my children read. I am so thankful that someone passed along this website: Facts on Fiction. It is a fantastic resource with very detailed reviews of quite a few books. Be sure and check it out.

I should really be in bed

I should really be in bed, but I was having trouble sleeping and I can't stand to lay in bed awake. So, I decided to get up and finish this scrapbook page I started a few days ago. I just love photos like this where the subject is bathed in a warm glow from the candles. You have to say it is kinda magical. Just this past year I read somewhere that shots like this are on the must have list. Every person deserves to have their photo taken with all the lights off and just the glow of the candlelight illuminating them. It is so flattering! So here is my son last month on his 6th birthday. Credits for the layout can be found here.

I am off to bed for I know morning will come MUCH too soon!

Fast Food Firsts

I have officially corrupted my baby girl's tastebuds. We took Patrick out to lunch for his birthday last month at the Golden Arches (a.k.a. the chicken and fries place). I realized when we got there that I didn't bring anything for Rachel. No food, bib or sippy cup. So, when the going gets touch, the tough order a Happy Meal. Right? I tried to be a little healthy about it, but the only thing you could substitute for fries was apple wedges which little Rachel doesn't have enough teeth to do. We did skip the soft drink and get the juicebox instead. She had never done a straw but figured it out so fast you would have thought she was a pro. Then there was the ketchup. To say she loved the ketchup would be an extreme understatement! Since I had no bib, I just dipped the end of a fry in a bit and handed it to her. It was love at first taste! I finally decided that giving her a little cup with a little bit couldn't be that messy. I was wrong. Next thing I know, she has completely bypassed the fries and is ramming her whole little fist into the ketcup cup. You can see the results on her face in this layout.

If you are interesed, the tiny journaling for this page reads:

Even though it was Patrick’s birthday, it was a day of “firsts” for Rachel. Upon arriving at McDonald’s, I realized that I forgot to bring anything for Rachel to eat, so she got her very first Happy Meal. She had never sampled ketchup, so I dipped one of her fries in it. Well, she was all about the ketchup! I gave her her own tiny cup with a little bit in it and the next thing I know, she has bypassed the fries altogether and was eating ketchup straight with her fingers! To drink, she had her first juicebox and her first time with a straw. I was worried she wouldn’t be able to figure it out, but it was NOT a problem. She slurped down the entire thing in no time flat. She is official a fast food pro. Hopefully, she will still eat her broccoli after this!

Credits for this page can be found here.

I made Digi Pick of the Day!!!

I can't believe it! This layout was the digi pick of the day on the 5th. I was totally oblivious until this morning when I got a google alert. Back when I was designing, a fellow designer had said that she had set up a google alert for her name. Google then searches the web for things that pop up with your name associated with them. As a designer, this is nice because if someone posts something using your art, google may find it and send you an e-mail. Usually, I get messages about a layout that I posted myself somewhere and it is outdated. But this morning, I got a message referring to the Digi Pick of the Day page. How cool is that!!!

Just another manic Monday....

How did it get to be Monday again so fast? It is a grey day here and I am having a really hard time getting my brain to focus on anything productive today which is not good because my to-do list is really long. I decided to give myself just a little time to put the finishing touches on a layout I started last week. The clothing confusion comes from the fact that we have been having some really inconsistant weather lately. You can see that my daughter, Abi, has no idea how to dress anymore with her winter coat and bare feet!

Journaling reads:
Our October weather has been inconsistent to say the least. One day it is cold and the next it is nearly 80 degrees.The kids don’t have any idea of how to dress each day. They run around barefoot in shorts when it is 46 degrees one day and like Abi here when it is 78. Check out that warm winter coat that she refused to take off and those bare feet she was running around outside with.. This weather is certainly causing clothing confusion.

Credits for the page can be found here.

Now I am going to have a go at the piles of stuff threatening to form a landslide off my desk. Have a great day!

Playing with a fun new scrapbook kit

I just wanted to share a couple of new scrapbook pages. These were both done with a brand new collaborative kit at Cottage Arts created by Doris Castle, Julie Mead, and Michelle Shefveland called Bountiful Blessings. I am loving the colors in this! This first layout has photos of my daughter Abi from last Thanksgiving. The kit colors were a perfect match for her dress and her homemade placecard.

I also used a free template which is available to newsletter subscribers in the next Cottage Arts newsletter.

Journaling reads:
The table has been set...the placecards have been lovingly created by Elizabeth...smells of yummy food are wafting through the air...It’s not quite time to eat, but 2 year old Abi is ready at her place and waiting with fork and spoon in hand.

Full credits for this page can be found here.



This second page uses photos I took last week of my son, Patrick, on his 6th birthday. It was a gorgeous Fall day and I took him outside for a offical 6 year old photo shoot. He loved that! This page uses not only the Bountiful Blessings kit, but also a new page tear template set, too. Click on the banner below to find them both.

Full credits for this layout can be found here.

New Video Project

Just wanted to share what hubby and I have been working on for the last couple of days. Maybe obessessing over would be a better way to put it. It is only a little over a minute long, but it has taken hours and hours to put together. If we were more familiar with our software that would make things a lot quicker and easier, but we tend to be the type to learn as we go. This video will be played at the National Youth Workers Convention in St. Louis this weekend. Our youth pastor will be attending and was specifically asked if he could put together a short video like this to be played for all the youth workers at the conference. Since we have done some video work for the church before, he asked if we could help. So, our youth pastor planned it, hubby filmed it and edited the kids and I created and animated the text/graphics. I LOVE the creativity involved in doing something like this. Unfortunately, I get frustrated because I do not know how to do what I want to do in the software (Adobe Premier and After Effects). I know exactly what I would do if I could edit video in Photoshop, though. Hubby reminded me that I have put in many more hours in Photoshop than Premier. I responded by telling him that he needs to get me a DV camcorder for Christmas so I can take lots of home movies and practice editing them. That would probably be as much fun as scrapbooking!

Blue Monday

Today is "blue monday" in our house. No, I'm not saying we are all depressed. I'm talking about laundry day (although, for me, the lines get blurred between depression and laundry ;-) Because we keep getting behind on laundry in this house, several weeks ago I decided to have a laundry day once a week. We had been trying to do a load a day, but it just wasn't always happening. On the first blue monday we had TONS of laundry as well as sheets. On top of that I have been trying to go through our stored clothes. The kids need warmer stuff so it is time to pull out the hand-me-downs. Sadly, I had some stuff that had been invaded by mice andI have been spending a lot of extra time sorting and washing even the sizes that no one even currently needs.

I have a confession to make. I really hate laundry. The part I hate the most is the putting away the clean stuff so I tend to get behind in this area. This has currently invaded my bedroom and I am having difficulty getting everything put away. I have 9 overflowing laundry baskets lined up along the walls (one for each memeber of the family, one for linens/towels, and one for socks). I just can't seem to get it all put away and now it is blue Monday again. Time to do more laundry and add to the Mount Washmore in my bedroom. Ugh! I want my bedroom back! So, you know what I am going to be doing for a better part of my day. [sigh] I have a hope that one of these days I will catch up and have a laundry system that works for us. The other option is running off to a deserted island and forming our own nudist colony so there wouldn't BE any laundry. Probably, that's not a very realistic option so I guess I will just keep plugging away at it.

In other news, I was able to get some scrappin' done this weekend. I can only show you one page (because the other is done with a kit that hasn't been released yet). It is just a fun little page of my silly Abi.
Journaling reads:
Full of sweetness and full of fun, Abi, and always full of silliness. As soon as you see the camera, you begin to ham it up and the posing begins. These are some of your self-proclaimed “silly faces.” Even playing the part of the goof your are beautiful and your personality makes me smile.

Credits for the page can be found here.

Have a great Monday!

Signed Scared

So, does this scrapbook page make you scared? Yeah, they are supposed to be signing scared. Part of the sign is making a scared face, but they aren't too convinving. They're having too much fun!

We have been learning sign language in this house. I have been intrigued with sign language since I was a girl. I don't know why, I just thought it was cool. I learned the whole ASL alphabet and tried to get my friends to learn it too so that we could "talk" in this secret code, but it never happened. A year or so ago, I discovered Signing Time videos. They sounded great and had really good reviews, but I couldn't afford to buy them and my local library did not have them. Last Christmas I was struggling to come up with a wish list to pass around for my baby who was just 3 months old (because in our family we always do this for everyone). Then I had the brilliant idea to put down the Signing Time DVDs. Studies show that signing with babies is such a positive thing. Rachel got the first DVD and all the kids and I watched it. Rachel was too young to learn the signs and we were not diligent in signing them to her. But around her 1st birthday I pulled the DVD back out and we all relearned the signs and starting using them with her. Since then she has learned to recognize quite a few and has signed back to us: milk, more, sleep, and cookie. Our library now has the whole series of DVDs and we have been checking them out and learning tons as a family. It has been a fun project.

Anyway...I went into all of this to explain this fun scrapbook page. One of Patrick and Abi's favorite signs is "scared." I am sure this is because they get to make a "scared" face along with the sign. When I had the camera out on Patrick's birthday, they decided to pose silly for me and this is what I got. Details and credits for the page can be found here.

Here is a song from the Signing Time Zoo Train DVD. We got it from the library and my little ones love it.

Oh, and this one has been requested a lot by the younger set in this house.

Cleaning House

The blog house that is...

My blog formatting went whacky today and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I had never upgraded to the new version of blogger, so I decided it was time and to clean house. As time allows, I am going to tweak this a bit, but for now be patience. My links and goodies will return and hopefully be better than ever.

A bit of fun photo tweakery

I was perusing the gallery at The Digital Scrapbook Place earlier this week and found some unique pages that caught my eye. I discovered that they were done as part of a stylelift challenge. I wasn't even familiar with a "stylelift" which is to copy the style of a particular artist. This month's stylelift is based on the altered art of Jessica Dittmer called Wish You Wells. Unfamiliar with her, I checked out her site and was immediately in love with it. She plays with photos and gives them this combination of an old photo and a drawing. Then she adds goodies like crowns, buttons, and pixie wings along with some sort of verse. Well, I decided that I really wanted to be able to do that! You can see my attempt here. It is close, but not exactly Jessica's look. It was incredibly fun to do, though! I have also shown a before and after shot because the difference is pretty dramatic. Credits for the goodies I used can be found here.

This was so much fun, that I will probably do this again. Shoot, after seeing how much one of these custom art pieces costs on the Wish You Wells site, I am thinking that I am in the wrong line of work. Anyone want to buy one? I'll cut you a great deal!

The Big Birthday Boy

Here is my big 6 YEAR OLD boy. He feels so big now! Yesterday was his official birthday and I told him that I wanted to take an official birthday photo of him. It was beautiful outside, so we found a spot under a tree to snap some shots. I was unable to post this yesterday because I had promised him that he could play Age of Empires with his big sister, therefore I was not able to get anywhere near the computer. He is currently obsessed with that game. He is constantly begging his dad to play it with him.

So happy birthday little buddy - love ya'!

So Long to the Zoo

Our local zoo has officially closed for the season. It always makes me sad because we really love our zoo. We made one last visit last week. We always go with my mom and dad, but this time our good friends joined us, too. Their children are about the same ages as Patrick and Abi and are good buddies. I have more photos that I want to scrap, but for now, here is one of all the kids except Elizabeth posing with the Rango the orangutan statue. I have more photos than I can count of my kids sitting here throughout the years. Of course, Elixabeth, my 13 year old, is conspicuously missing. I guess she just figures that it is no longer cool to pose with Rango. Gotta love teenagers! Credits for the LO can be found here.

1st Birthday Portrait

Happy Monday morning!
I am trying to ready myself to jump into a new week. I feel like there is so much to do and so little time. What I would really like to do is sit and scrap and forget about everything else. Maybe, if I am lucky I can squeeze in just a little time for myself. We'll see.

Just thought I would share a scrapbook page that I finished up on Saturday. It is another photo from my baby's crazy birthday photoshoot. I was thinking I really should do an outake scrapbook page of all the many bad photos taken that day. Anyway...here is one I liked. I kept the page soft to match the photo.

Journaling reads:
In a mere year’s time, you have matured from a helpless little infant to a sweet, pretty little girl.. You are on your feet and taking your very first steps. Although you say few real words, you love to babble back and forth with your family. You are starting to learn some sign language for more, milk , sleep and eat. Your eyes light up when one of your siblings interacts with you. There is no doubt how much you love them and can’t wait until you can keep up with them. What a cute little charmer you already are and we can’t wait to see the young lady you are yet to become. September 26, 2007

Credits for the layout can be found here.

My Little Birthday Fairy

It is a frazzle-day! Why am I frazzled? Well, you see that cute little fairy-girl in this scrapbook page. She is currently cutting 2 teeth and is not dealing with it well. In fact, she has been dealing with it by screaming at me in the most piercing way that a one year old can. It tends to wear on the nerves! This too shall pass. Hopefully, I will keep my sanity in the process. Adding to the chaos around here is the fact that I have a couple of energetic preschoolers who really need to go outside and run and today it has turned kinda cold. They got up and dressed like they have been lately in shorts and short sleeves. I sent them outside not paying attention to the temperture and they came right back in saying it was too cold. Shoot - I checked and it is only 46 degrees!

In other news, I did a little "scrap-therapy" to cope and relax a bit. I had so much fun turning Rachel into this birthday fairy. I took a bunch of pictures of her on her birthday in our homemade basement studio. It is laughable how many BAD photos I got. She is just not about to be troubled with sitting still long enough for a picture! This picture is one of the better ones and she isn't looking my way at all. When I went to create a layout using this, I realized that I did not have a kit that quite matched this photo. I wanted something with an aged look with just a touch of yellow. So I pieced this together from a bunch of kits by Doris Castle. Full credits can be found here.

I am off to check some math...have a great day!

Just one more pumpkin page...

Can you stand it? Although I have a couple more cute photos from the pumpkin farm, I am going to set them aside because I am itching to scrap some photos from my youngest's 1st birthday.

This layout was done for a challenge over at Cottage Arts to scrap about a "crop" - the kind that grows. I figured the pumpkin farm qualified for that. I kept the page simple and just used one of my photos to overlay on the backgound. I had many photos from in the pumpkin patch, but no real stand-outs, so I decided to cluster them together and tell the story.

Journaling reads:

Picking the Perfect pumpkinWas no easy task when faced with a huge beautiful pumpkin patch like the one Anna, Patrick and Abi faced on this day. Patrick immediately found one he loved as soon as he stepped off the wagon into the field. Anna and Abi were a different story.They perused the entire field. Anna finally settled on a bigger one.Abi picked up one cute pumpkin after another. She would pick it up by the stem and I would remind her that she learned in pumpkin school not to do that, but to instead hold the pumpkin itself with two hands. This discouraged her because the pumpkins had dirt on them and she didn’t want to get dirty. So she would discard that one and continue searching. Even Patrick had a last minute change of heart and asked if he could trade his pumpkin for another. Then the bell warning that the wagon was about to leave rang and I had to inform Abi that if she didn’t pick a pumpkin immediately, she would go home without one. She managed to choose one, but kept asking me to carry it because it had dirt on it. We returned home and cleaned the pumpkins and everyone was happy with their perfect picks.

Full credits for the page can be found here.

I can't believe that another week has flown by and it is Saturday already. How does that happen? Fortunately, we don't have a busy day planned and I am hoping that my family sleeps in and gives me some time to get some things done in peace and quiet.

Pumpkin School

I told you that I loved Fall and there would be more layouts like this! Here are some of my kids with their cousins at the pumpkin farm for "Pumpkin School."

Journaling reads:

On September 27, 2007, Anna, Patrick and Abi attended “Pumpkin School” with their cousins at the Kurtz pumpkin farm on Highway 37. Before taking a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick their own pumpkins, they went to school in the barn. There they learned all about how pumpkins grow, saw lots of pumpkin varieties, and even how to carry a pumpkin. It was fun for mom, because she remembered taking Elizabeth to Pumpkin School back when she was in preschool.

Everything on page (except the photos ;-) is from Cottage Arts. This was created for a challenge there. Full credit can be found here.

Gratuitous Giftie - Fall Quickpage

It's beginning to feel like Fall around here. We have had those cool, crisp nights and clear sunny days. The leaves are just beginning to turn. I love this season!

I figured it was time to share another freebie with you all. This is actually a quickpage that I created last Fall. I had been playing with some fun backgrounds including this leaf one and decided it would be fun to put them together like quilts. This is a pattern for a quilt square called Liberty. It leaves a perfect spot for a photo.

I hope you have fun with this! It can be downloaded here.

How fun is this?

I discovered this layout done by Scrappin4Him over at www.digitalfreebies.com It was created with my On the Tracks kit that was the Daily Download freebie at Scrap Outside the Box a couple of months ago. It is always so much fun to see your art used by someone else and Scrappin4Him did a fantastic, creative job. You can find the layout and leave her some love here.

New Poker Table

It was a busy weekend for us. First I should mention that my baby girl had her first birthday last Wednesday and we had her big party yesterday. Whooshh...where did that year go? I'll have more details on that later when I get her scrapbook pages done. I have lots of fun photos!

On Friday night, my hubby had group of guys from church over for a poker night. He is getting into poker. He plays Texas Holdem' with his buddies from work at least once a month. He is enjoying the strategic aspects of the game. He has even using it as a math tool to teach the girls about calculating odds and percentages. Anna is not thrilled but I think he's got Elizabeth hooked. She will even watch poker on TV with him.

Well after hosting several poker nights and knowing that he will probably be hosting more, my hubby has the bug to have a big poker table that 8 - 10 can sit at. We priced tables and ugh! There is no way that is going to happen. I suggested that we cover our kitchen table that can expand to 8 feet long, but he went on exploring different options like building a table or buying an old table and converting it. Then he tells me that HE has had this revelation that we could cover our kitchen table. I just had to laugh. And he says he listens to me ;-). So that is just what happened. He bought fabric and I sewed it up. I am no seamstress, so am pretty happy that it came out so well. You can see it in the scrapbook page above.
Journaling on the page reads:

There is a new obsession in our home with poker - Texas Holdem’ to be exact. Because of the poker nights that have taken place at our house, Barry had a strong desire to own a big poker table. After the sticker shock of pricing tables, we decided to cover our existing kitchen table. The economical solution was to use car headliner that is available at the local fabric store. Trish was commissioned to sew it up complete with darts at the corners, elastic around the edges and velcro to keep it in place on the long sides. It works great...... Let the betting begin!

Credits for the layout can be found here.

Saturday was a full day with preparations for Rachel's birthday party, a baby shower in the afternoon, and the 1st annual Wii Olympics we attended in the evening. A good friend of ours had a milestone birthday and got a Wii and invited a group of us over for a little friendly competition pitting husbands against wives. All I can say is that I am feeling the sore muscles today from beating up my hubby in boxing. I have pictures from that, too, that I really need to scrap!

Then Sunday was church. My girls and I worked in the nursery and I did my first week of leading our church's Cherub Choir. This is the little preschoolers. Ever since I found out that there was no leader for this group I have had this little niggling that this was something I should step up and do. Every morning during my quiet time, thoughts about leading this group kept flooding my mind. I argued with God that I don't need any more projects and I am busy enough, but this feeling just would not go away. So I told the children's leader I would do it. There is really no point in arguing with God. The safest place to be is in the center of God's will. The great thing is that after I shared this with a close friend she said that she had the feeling that she should be helping me. How awesome is that? I was very thankful because there were 13 wiggly 2-4 year olds. Help was definitely a blessing. Even my daughter, Anna, helped which was so wonderful. She is really great with kids that age. It went great. We sang "Jesus Loves Me" and I taught them the ASL signs for "Jesus," "loves" and "me." I can't wait to do it again next week.

Then we partied with the birthday girl here at our house with lunch , gifts and cake. Rachel, though, ended up being too pooped to party and fell asleep in her highchair with one hand still in her cake. It was too sweet and of course, I got pictures!

I am off to jump into my week. Hope yours is a great one!

Pumpkin Patch Day

Yesterday was pumpkin patch day! My sister-in-law invited us to join her MOPS group at the pumpkin farm several weeks ago. I made the mistake to bringing it up to my children to see if it was something they would want to do. WHAT was I thinking? They hounded me that day and EVERY day since then about going. ("What time are we going? Are we going today?") I finally put it on our big family calendar so they could see what day we were going and we have counted down the days to it. I guess that is preschool math at its best, huh?

I took my middle three children. Even Anna at 10 years old was excited about it. I warned her that it was going to be geared toward preschoolers and she didn't care. We all had fun and I was able to get some fun photos because I wasn't hauling a baby with me. Elizabeth had no real desire to go and stayed home to babysit Rachel.

I really had the bug to scrapbook so I spent a little time in the afternoon yesterday with a couple of these photos. This top page features my oldest nephew. This photo was just begging me to scrap it. He is just the perfect picture of the pumpkin patch with his smile showing how proud he is of the pumpkin he picked himself and his bright orange sweatshirt. I used Doris Castle's My Heart's Delight kit and full credits can be found here.



This second layout is of my Anna showing off her pumpkin pick in front of the hay wagons that took us out to the pumpkin patch. She spent a lot of time picking and had difficultly making a decision. I created this using the Cottage Arts Naturals 4 Paper Pak and Scrap.Edges 6 Brushes and Overlays. These textures are just wonderful. I created that pumpkin using some simple clip are as a guide and cutting out paper pieces. Then I used the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop to give it some shades and highlights.

Since the fall is my favorite season, I am sure you will be seeing more pages like this in the near future.

2 More Scrapbook Pages

I just wanted to share a couple more pages I completed in the last couple of days. Don't stop me now, I'm on a roll. I am scrappin' like crazy and having so much fun. Perhaps I am just making up for lost time this year because I have gotten so far behind.
This top page has photos from a couple of weeks ago of my baby girl. She has been acting so big and not at all like a little baby. Credits for this can be found here.

This second one is from back in June. I don't know why, but my kids are crazy about romping around in the pouring rain. Here they are soaked to the skin. Credits for this one can be found here.

I'm off to a birthday party - have a great day!

Scrappin'!

I had a burning desire to do a little scrappin' today. I truly have many other things I should be doing (laundry), but this went super fast with the help of a fun template. Everything here is from Katie Mann. Full credits may be found here.

This is my photogenic little Abi. She rarely takes a bad photo.

Journaling for this reads:

Abi - I wonder what “hats” you will wear in your future. Here you are practicing to be a firefighter at your cousin Simon’s birthday party. Remember you can be anything if you follow God’s leading.9-2-07

I have to dedicate this page to my mom. Let's just say she is not a fan of the whole red hat movement. This also proves that you can do a "Red Hat" page for someone under the age of 50!

Happy Times

I just wanted to pop in and share this scrapbook page I did the other day. It was one of those pages where I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it. So I used a little of this and a little of that an kept messing with it. Finally I just had to say, "Enough is enough!" and consider it done. Everything here is by Doris Castle and full credits can be found here.

This is a photo of my littlest taken at a family reunion last month. She does this funny little crawl on her feet instead of her knees. I should really get more pictures of this because I know it won't be long and she will be walking and this will be gone. Her first birthday is in 6 days. Where did that year go? Didn't I just bring her home last month? Time may be flying, but I really love this age. She is so much fun!

Tonight, my book club is meeting and we are going to get to actually chat with the author of the book we read. Isn't that exciting? I am off to get dinner going so I am not late.

CD Case Calendar

I created this CD case calendar for my mom for her birthday. (Happy Birthday, Mom!) It was really fun and easy using these templates from Cottage Arts. I used all 16 months that were included in the set. After I created all these pages and printed them, I got out an empty CD case and realized that I didn't know how one of these was supposed to be put together. Perhaps it was a blond moment [sigh]. In case anyone else is as clueless as I was, here is a great site with picture directions. Just what I needed.

Must-See Video

This video is well worth watching!

Gratuitous Giftie: Old-Fashioned Calling Cards

I thought I would have some fun this morning and pass along another gratuitous giftie for all y'all. These little cards have an antique flavor and remind me of the little calling or visiting cards that were used during the Victorian era. One would leave one with their name imprinted on it at a home where they had visited. Instead, I think these would make great little journaling cards on your scrapbook layouts.

The cards may be downloaded here.

Enjoy!

Serious Scrapbooking

TWO pages in one day. That IS serious, don't ya' think? I don't know how I did it, but I managed to squeeze in a second scrapbook page this afternoon. I kinda cheated because this one is a quickpage. I just inserted the photos and added a title and journaling.

In case you are interested, the journaling reads:
It is not everyday that one of the giant tortoises at the zoo comes right up to the rail to say hello to its visitors, but we were lucky enough to see this slow-moving creature up close and personal. The kids were thrilled to get a chance to touch him. Abi was happy to see the tortoise, but unhappy with me for making her step back so I could snap a photo .

Credits for the page can be found here.

Scrapped a Page

and it feels so good! I have really gotten away from my scrapbooking this year. This is not by choice, but just because of busy-ness. Now that I am not spending any time designing, I am hoping to find a little time for scrappin' like I did this afternoon.

I snapped this photo of my son at the zoo a couple of weeks ago. I was thrilled to find paper that matched the colors in the picture so well and had a hint of flowers without being too girly. My little man prefers things manly! Being the only boy among five siblings, he tries to distinguish himself by choosing things that fit his definition of masculine. On the day this was taken he was focusing on getting a picture all to himself and not the fact that he is sitting among the flowers. ;-)

Credits for the page can be found here.

Gratuitous Giftie

Well, it's official. I am no longer a Scrap Outside the Box designer. I'm retired. But just because I am retired from there, doesn't mean I am completely retiring from designing. It is in my blood. I don't think I can stop my creating any more than I can stop my breathing. So, I am planning on using this blog as an outlet for that creativity by sharing little gifts from time to time. I have one today that includes a September 2007 calendar in PNG form along with a coordinating digital background. Hope you enjoy it. Download it here.

The Golden Compass

Or perhaps the title of this entry should be "The Spiritual Battle for our Children." Let me tell you why.

My oldest daughter is thirteen. Although she has always loved books and being read to, she was a reluctant reader. Within the last 6 months to a year this has all changed and she now devours books. We are always on the hunt for good books for her to read. After perusing the latest Scholastic Book Club flyer, she pointed out this book, "The Golden Compass." The cover photo looked cute with a friendlier looking armor-clad polar bear. The description had a vague mention of witches which is a turn off for me, but she was intrigued with the fantasy aspect of it. We decided to check it out at our local library. I did not look too closely at the book and Elizabeth began reading it. Yesterday she asked me about the word "daemon" which is a term used commonly throughout the book. Unfamiliar with the word, I asked her if it meant something like a demon. She said no and described it as an entity that was like a close sister to the main character. Later that day, she said it was just too dark of a book and said she wasn't going to read the rest. I was glad that she is discerning. Today I was doing some record keeping and recording all the books we have read in our house during the past few days including "The Golden Compass." The copy we have from the library is a bit darker looking and has the subtitle "His Dark Materials * Book 1." This gave me pause and I decided to do a little internet research on the book. Come to find out that the author, Philip Pullman, is a pronounced atheist who has even devised a religion course called "Why Atheism" which is a DVD for 11 years and older. He believes God is dead according to this article and to prove it even kills him off in the second book in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. In his writings Evil is portrayed as God and the Catholic church. Nice. This is what is being promoted as good literature to our school children. "The Golden Compass" as well as the other books in the trilogy have given numerous awards including Parent's Choice Gold Book Award, Publisher's weekly Best Book of the Year, Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Booklist Editor's Choice, Horn Book Fanfare Honor Book, along with many others. It was even a New York Times Bestseller.

I am writing this for other parents out there who might have been unaware like me that this award-winning children's book is atheist propaganda clothed as good literature. This reminds me that there is an unseen spiritual war upon us. Our children are on the frontlines and most of us do not even realize it. I pray daily for wisdom as a parent along with divine protection for my children. There have been times that I have been concerned that by homeschooling, we are sheltering our children too much. God has been showing me lately that a certain amount of sheltering is good. Our children are innocent and impressionable. I believe it is my duty to prepare them to face the world on their own, but not at the expense of their innocence and the hardening of their hearts. God tells us in His Word that we are to be mature and wise about God and His ways, but naive as babies to wickedness.

I believe that it is our duty to do our best to monitor what our children are exposed to. That being said, I am certainly not as strict as some and more strict than others. Before we watch a movie or video, we usually look it up to see what it is all about. A great site we use is Plugged In. It does a great job or reviewing movies, video, music, and TV from a Christian perspective. Now if only I could find a site like this for books, the "The Golden Compass" incident would not have happened. If you know of a good Christian book review site, please share.

One review I did find on the book is here.

Lessons from Ratatouille

My hubby and his poker buddies took over the house last night so I took four of my five children to the movies. I chose Ratatouille because I figured it would appeal to all ages (it did), and it was playing at the Cinema Grill (dinner AND a movie). We loved it. Not only was it adorable, but the storyline was really good, too. If you don't know what it is about, you have little Remy who is a rat. Let's just say that he has devoloped a sense of taste in food that is a bit more refined than the rest of his rat family. He finds himself in Paris at the restaurant of a famous chef and ends up working with a guy who knows nothing about cooking and creating some fabulous cuisine. If you want to know more, you are just gonna have to go see it and/or check out the official website.

I was think this morning how there are some lessons that can be learned from Ratatouille.

1. Follow your passions
2. You CAN succeed against all odds.
3. Always wash you hands or paws before eating or handling
food.
4. Eat slowly and savor tastes.
5. Don't steal.

Kinda fun, huh? Good discussion topics for the kids.

Lunar Eclipse

Did you see it?
I set my alarm for 4:30am so that I could witness the lunar eclipse this morning. My two oldest girls sat out on the front porch with me in the dark and watched the earth's shadow pass in front of the moon and make it disappear. Very cool! Poor homeschooled kids - their lessons start even in the wee hours of the morning!

From this photo you can see that I really have no idea how to shoot something like this and I was dreaming about a big ol' telephoto lens for my 20d. Oh well...someday.

We were fortunate enough to see the moon completely eclipsed before the sun rose and the moon dropped over the horizon.

Big Retirement SALE!

Yes...you read that right. I am retiring from scrapbook designing. Life is very full right now with 5 kids, homeschooling, and managing 2 sets of apartments along with designing. FULL! Something has to go. Since I can't quit the apartments, and selling your kids on eBay is frowned upon, it has to be the scrapbook designing. I am kinda sad about that because I really enjoy it, but I have been praying about it and contemplating it and I know it is the right thing to do. I plan to channel what little creative time and energy I have back into my own scrapbook pages, my worship art, and some other misc. projects.

So, now is your chance to grab my designs before they are GONE!

You can get a great deal, too!

EVERYTHING in my store is

50%off

until the end of the month (August 31st) when I officially step down as a designer at Scrap Outside the Box.

This little page above was created using my most recent scrapbook kit called Anna's Paint Splatters (created back in April - does that tell you why I need to retire?) I don't think I ever posted it here.

Meanwhile, back at the farm....I have been taking some time to re-evaluate where we are going with homeschooling and life in general. Although we don't break for summer and "school" year-round, this time of year makes me pause. Seeing all the school supplies in the stores, schoolbuses on the roads and fresh new excitement about school makes me think about how we are doing and how we measure up in comparison.

My oldest is 13. I only have 5 more years of official educating time. For some reason, this fact has suddenly hit me hard and caused me to feel the pressure of my limited time to prepare her for life away from our fold. Will she be ready. Is there something important that I have overlooked teaching her? This is not a bad thing. I think it is good to regularly step back and take inventory of where you are and are heading.

Then there's my Anna who is 10 years old. She avoids schoolwork like the plague. Actually she avoids ANY work she can. It is easy for me to distracted and not realize that she is not keeping up. These two are enough to keep me busy, but this year my Patrick is kindergarten age and I will be "officially" teaching him. He is a sponge and has been learning tons without any real effort from me. And if I am going to take special time with Patrick I will HAVE to take special time with my 3 year old, Abi. Anything Patrick does, she feels the need to do, too. Although I feel like I am always educating all five of my kids all the time, I am officially going from homeschooling two to homeschooling FOUR. Double!

So life around here has got to stay organized. I will go CRAZY if it doesn't. I am not naturally organized. I REALLY am not! It is hard work for me to be so. I keep thinking about the verse.

"God is not a God of confusion and disorder, but of peace and order. " 1 Cor.
14:33

As difficult as it is to keep order around here, I need to do it to keep peace in our lives. Chaos is not from God and it must be fought. So I am also re-evaluating our schedule, routines, and chores. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed thinking about how to fit everything in that needs to get done, but I know we will make it work.

I have not been so good about keeping the little ol' blog up to date so I thought I shoul do a nice update. Sorry if I got a bit long winded.

Psalm 23

We have just been talking about Psalm 23 in our home and along comes this video. Perhaps you have already seen this, but it is still worth watching again. Too cute!

A Scrapbook Page!

Would you believe that I actually started this page back in JUNE? Things have been pretty busy this summer and I have not had any time for creative endeavers. I am so happy to finally get this done, even if it is a simple page. If you remember, this photo is from our camping trip with our good friends. I love tese big groups shots. I used a fun little kit called Nature is Calling by Tahera at Scrap Outside the Box. The natural backgrounds are gorgeous and there are a bunch of fun little camping elements. Hopefully I can find time to scrap some of the rest of my camping pictures with this kit, too.

Song about Parenthood

I thought this was cute and oh so true.

A little giftie from me

I was handing out the Daily Download at Scrap Outside the Box this week. It is a mini kit called On the Tracks. I have decided to offer a little freebie here on my blog from it, too. I am giving away the entire set of alpha and number tags.

You can download the numbers here.

Letters A-L here.

And letters M-Z here.

Enjoy!

Life = Busy

Busy = Lack of posting

Well, I just wrapped up a big graphics project that I did for the Grand Indiana Auto Tour which included creating over 50 unique, custom license plates for its participants and some various other labels. They came out great and as a perk, I got to create a license plate for myself. Now the others included an extracted photo of the participant's historic car with the Fort Wayne city skyline in the background. I didn't really want to see my big ol' Chevy Express van flying over Fort Wayne, so I just designed my own thing. Ever since we got our big van to take the place of our minivan, we have been calling it "The Bus." Probably because our friends keep telling us we are gonna need a bus to haul around all of our children pretty soon. So here is my caricature of our Bus. Each family member is represented, although poor baby Rachel is NOT buckled properly in her carseat.

Now that that project is done, I am on to my next one: laundry. A couple of weeks ago our house was struck by lightning. It happened at midnight and was QUITE an awakening! We had some structural damage and many electronics in our house were fried including my washing machine. It is a Kenmore and I called Sears but they were not really fast about getting here and then they informed me that they would have to order a part with could take 2 weeks to come in. Thankfully, my in-laws said I could come next door and use theirs. I did about 6 loads to hold us out. Now mine is fixed and I need to play catch-up. Yikes! A household of seven generates a LOT of laundry! But......

not near as much as this family: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070803/ap_on_fe_st/17_kids

So I have a lot to be thankful for!

Have a great Saturday!