Dance, Ballerina, Dance

Sorry for no posts last week. Between the Memorial Day holiday and a week filled with recital rehearsals and performances (not to mention lots of work for my day job) I was a pretty busy girl. But, it was all worth it in the end. The girls’ performances were wonderful and I have never been prouder of them.

Big Girl danced in two shows – one for ballet and one for her jazz class. She had a blast and did so very well.

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Little Bit danced in one show with her ballet class. She was simply adorable and I loved watching her.

This week should be slower, I hope, and I can get back to regular blogging and scrapbooking. I am missing my creative outlets.

Moving forward

Today is the last day of school.

As I was getting Little Bit ready to walk out the door, I told her, “Today is the last day you will be in Kindergarten. After today, you will never be a Kindergartener again. You’ll be a First Grader!”

She is so excited about moving up to the next grade.

But, as I said it, I realized – Today is the last day I’ll be the mother of a kindergartener. My baby girl is growing up.

And, with that, comes a whole host of new challenges and discoveries – for all of us.

But, life is like that – once you think you have it all figured out, they go and change the rules on you.

Big Girl is wanting to branch out more on the internet. Which is a scary thought for me. She wanted her own email account, so I set one up with copious protections. She wanted her own laptop. Ammi & PopPop took care of that one – and then I set up a bajillion protections on it (which drives her crazy and makes me happy because I know she is safe)

Now, she wants to be on Facebook.

Really?

That one is just a little far out there for me.

Now, granted, the reason she wants to be on Facebook is because she wants to play the games. But, goodness, that is like opening Pandora’s Box to me. There are ALL KINDS of things on Facebook that I don’t want her exposed to. And I’m not sure I’m savvy enough with FB’s settings to shelter her from them.

But, I also know she is savvy enough to figure out how to create her own FB account and if I’m not careful that is what will happen eventually.

So, do I cave and let her have one?

Right now, she plays the games on either SuperMan’s FB account or mine (so if you see me reaching some awesome level on Farmville, that’s Big Girl, not me.) That stopped the requests for her own FB account temporarily.

But, I know it is coming. She’ll be haunting me (again) for her own. “All my friends have one” is the current mantra.

And my response is the tried-and-true parenting classic “If all your friends jumped off the bridge, would you?”

But, this does bring up the question – when will it be time to loosen those reins just a little and let her try some things? I can’t keep them in Kindergarten forever, as much as I want to. I can’t keep them tied to my apron strings (and safely tucked behind me) for the rest of their lives. And, I don’t really want to – not really. I want them to fly free. I want them to experience new things.

I just don’t want them to run smack into the realities of life that are out there – the weirdos who prey on kids, the inappropriate content that is everywhere and that no one seems to care about – all that stuff will come soon enough. Why should they rush into it?

So, what’s a mom to do?

If you have kids, how are you handling these things? I’d love to hear your suggestions.

What are your plans for summer?

The princesses get out of school tomorrow.

We are all anxiously counting down the hours and minutes until they are officially “free” for summer.

Ironically, this week has been the easiest in MONTHS in terms of before-school routine. Little Bit even woke up on her own this morning. Did the planets all align correctly and no one told me? I tried not to make too big of a deal out of it, just in case she decides she likes doing that and plans a repeat performance.

Now, I don’t know about your kids, but with mine, the whole “school’s out for summer” novelty will wear off in, oh, about 13.25 days. Maybe less. And that leaves a WHOLE LOT of summer still to come… a whole lot of days to fill. And you know what phrase I’ll be hearing all-too-quickly?

Mom, I’m BORED!

*run! run for your lives! the BORED monster is here!*

Well, this year, I’m trying to be a little bit more prepared than I have been in years past. I am a work-at-home mom. I have a “real” job in addition to being a mommy, blogger, wife, scrapbooker, friend, well, you get the picture. So, in order to be able to be productive at work (and remain gainfully employed) and still spend some time with my kids (and keep them entertained and happy) I have been contemplating some survival techniques.

Here are the things I’m considering. Would love your suggestions if you have done this yourself before!

“Babysitter” twice a week – I have two teenaged girls who are coming by on Tues/Thurs (one each day) to hang out with the girls, do some crafty projects and maybe take them to the park or on some “adventures.” They’ll stay four or five hours, feed them lunch and give them some much-needed attention and direction. Why am I doing this? Well, Tues/Thurs are my busy days at work. I have back-to-back conference calls, etc. and the kids would just be nutso by the end of the day (and me as well) if they didn’t have someone to hang out with.
Daily (or almost daily) trips to the pool – I have been working an early-morning schedule while the kids were in school and am hoping to continue to structure my day similarly this summer. Starting early will mean (hopefully) I can quit early and take the girls down to the neighborhood pool for some much needed fresh air and exercise. They always sleep so well in the summer after their nightly swim.
Daily exercise – on the days we don’t swim (or maybe those days, too) we’ll do some other type of exercise TOGETHER. Walking, swimming, biking, hiking, or maybe dancing around the house like crazy fools while we listen to some music. This will give me a chance to get my exercise in and still spend time with the girls.
CHORES – Big Girl is already dreading this one. Ha ha ha. I have decided that this is the summer to get serious about a chore schedule for the girls. This past school year, we implemented a few chores and have rewarded the girls with an allowance if they do their chores. I am going to kick it up a notch this summer with a few more chores and implement a daily schedule. Do the chores first thing in the morning, play the rest of the day. That’s the plan. I’m contemplating a chore chart or chore jar, but haven’t decided yet how I”m going to implement this. Do I give them a choice of what to do each day or tell them what to do each day?
Crafty Fun – I am going to dedicate some time each week to some type of crafty project. With SuperMan’s work schedule, I have a longer day to fill for the girls without backup or distractions from Daddy. So, I’m thinking we’ll do some craft in the hottest part of the day. Hoping the teenage people will be able to assist with this as well, but I want to be a part of some of the crafts. I get a lot of ideas from the Family Fun website.
Summer Scrapbook – part of the reason I moved my scrap stuff to the basement was to have all three of our scrap/craft spaces in one room. I am planning to partake in Big Picture Scrapbooking’s class Kidding Around which is all about scrapbooking with your kids. I’m looking forward to doing that class together with the girls. Should be fun.

Whew!

Looking at this list makes me tired!

When am I going to do all this and still work, clean house, do the laundry, cook the food, do the shopping, save the universe from destruction, and paint my toenails?

I have no idea.

But that is the plan, anyway.

Wish me luck!

New Scrap Space

I spent a lot of time last weekend moving and reorganizing my scrapbooking stuff. I moved it from the sitting area in my master bedroom down to the basement. I decided it was time to make our bedroom a real bedroom, and not a scrap room with a bed!

Here are some pictures of the new scrap space in the basement. I have some decorating to do – I want to get some things on the wall to make it a little more inviting/crafty/creative. Last weekend I was just focused on getting everything downstairs and set up.

This is the space – two parallel tables nestled in the corner. One is my worktable and the other will be for storage and for laying out larger projects.

My worktable (complete with inspiration – a picture of SuperMan, some chocolate, and artwork by my kids)

The view as you come down the stairs.

I decided to keep my stamp pads close by as well as the tools, idea books, pens and other things I use on a regular basis. The cart tucked beside my chair holds odds and ends. I want to reorganize it and put some other things in there like my stamping tools, etc.

The sort/store/Cricut table. SuperMan made the shelves for my tables out of stair tread boards. I love them and it is great to take advantage of vertical space for storage. Behind the CM paper tote I have a Rubbermaid drawer that houses mini albums and some other projects-in-progress. The 3-drawer Rubbermaid has ribbons, brads, eyelets, and other stuff. Behind the CM photo box are my stamping and embossing tools. Paper and stickers are on the top shelf.

I also need to get some storage space. Everything is under my table and it’s not very pretty. I want to get it organized better so I can find things – and so little fingers don’t go wandering through my stuff (the kids’ play area is at the other end of this room)If I have a buddy over to scrap, there is room across from my tables to set up another table for them. I also have a TV and stereo downstairs so I can watch TV or listen to music while I scrap. I am going to keep my eye out for a cheap DVD player to put down there, too so we can watch chick flicks.

Friday’s Flowers

Joining FIMBY blogger Renee with her Friday’s Flowers tradition. Here are some flowers from my own yard:

We have planted some new hydrangeas this spring. I love hydrangeas and can’t wait until these are a little bigger and full of blooms.

Templates for You

I have created a few more templates to be used in StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0.

The pages I created using them are below. They give you a good focal-point picture and still have room for some other photos. I had a lot of pictures and I wanted to fit them all in a few pages. I think this did the trick.

and here are the pages: (click on the image to download the template)

Here is a link with instructions on saving your templates and importing them into a StoryBook.

Hope you enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Creative Memories,Creative Memories templates,StoryBook Creator,StoryBook Creator Plus,digital scrapbooking templates

Field Day

When I was a kid, Field Day was something I dreaded. It was sooo hot in South Georgia and the thought of being outside and being forced to participate in sports was the equivalent of being banished to Hell. I used to try to come up with all sorts of reasons why I couldn’t go to school that day (none of which worked) and why I didn’t need to participate. I was not athletic, competitive, coordinated, or heat-tolerant. All of those things added up to making Field Day a miserable experience for me.

My girls, however, have not inherited those traits from me. They, thank goodness, have a love of physical activity and seem to be relatively heat-proof. So, Field Day for them this year was a great time.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that their school put on a fantastic event. I have to hand it to those folks. You can tell that months went into planning the day. There were water events, track and field-type events, coordination challenges, relays… all sorts of things. And there were eighty-bajillion volunteers. Which, I am sure, is part of why things went so well. Thank goodness for involved parents!

SuperMan was off of work so we were able to enjoy watching the girls in most of their events. Here are some highlights:

Crossing Over

The girls had their very first Bridging Ceremony (with the Girl Scouts) yesterday.

And we actually held it right here – on this bridge. How cool is that?

So, now Big Girl is a Junior and Little Bit has one more year as a Daisy before she bridges to Brownies.

And, they received their badges, petals and other various awards

Big Girl received the “LifeSaver” award for always being willing to help others out. Little Bit received the “Gummy Bear” award for always being so sweet and loveable.

Who knew they’d enjoy this so much? Or that I would, too?

Finally Scrapbooking Again!

The girls had a Girl Scout event on Saturday and SuperMan was busy with yard work. What’s a girl to do when she has a few hours on her hands and no pressing chores?

Scrapbook!

Exactly!

I had purchased the Jessica Sprague intro to Photoshop class a long time ago and had never sat down to actually take the class. So, Saturday was the day. I had peace and quiet, no interruptions, and some recent pictures to use. I was ready.

Before I share the layouts I made, I have to tell you – if you are considering doing any digi-scrapping and have been intimidated by the sheer power of Photoshop, you are not alone. I have resisted using it for a long time because it just seemed overwhelming to learn. As a matter of fact, I owned it but never used it.

Which, I decided, was really silly.

So, that’s why I purchased Jessica’s class. And it is a great class. I would highly recommend it to anyone. I love the clear and easy descriptions of what to do, how to do it, and the great supplies she includes in her course materials. So, even if you don’t have any digital supplies yet, you can still complete your first pages as part of the class.

Here are some of the pages I’ve made so far. I’m about halfway through the class.

This was my very first layout:

Then, I got all crazy and used a Cathy Zielske template I had from the Design Your Life class I took this winter. I think it turned out well and it was good practice using the things I’d just learned.

This was a “challenge” layout made with a quick page kit. I still need to go back and add some journaling. And this was my Lesson 2 layout. I still haven’t figured out how I am going to do 2-page layouts, but I am sure I can do it. I just don’t know how yet! But that is important to me because I do most of my scrapbooking in 2-page layouts. Like this “Fish” page is just begging for a sister page with the rest of the photos and story.