confessions

Cathy Z had a great list of confessions on her blog today. I thought it was a pretty neat idea, especially when I read the other blog post she linked to, (where she got the idea) so I decided to do the same. Why not, I thought?

Here goes nuthin’

1. I love to cook. Love to prepare food. I hate cleaning the kitchen afterwards.

2. I have always wanted to learn to drive a big rig truck.

3. I think Bill Engvall is one of the funniest people I’ve ever heard.

4. I think cheesecake is the food of the gods. It’s my favorite dessert.

5. I don’t like to eat veggies unless they are in a salad or soup/stew.

6. I think being a mother is the most challenging thing I have ever done. And the most rewarding.

7. I’m not a very good housekeeper. I like a clean house, I just don’t like to clean.

8. I think everyone should fly in a hot-air balloon at least once. What an awesome experience.

9. I love to watch my girls sleeping.

10. I have a love/hate relationship with The Bachelor/Bachelorette show. I hate how they portray people yet I can’t stop watching the train wrecks each season.

11. I love reading historical fiction novels.

12. I’d like to be a runner someday.

13. I’m scared to death of spiders. Even fake rubber ones.

14. I could eat Mexican/Tex-Mex every single day of my life and be quite content.

15. I don’t like fish.

16. I love cheese.

17. I love the quiet in the evening just after the kids go to bed – that’s when you can take a deep breath and let the day go.

18. My favorite kind of day is one where there is no to-do list, no schedule, and nothing that has to be done.

What about you?

confessions

Here goes nuthin’

1. I love to cook. Love to prepare food. I hate cleaning the kitchen afterwards.

2. I have always wanted to learn to drive a big rig truck.

3. I think Bill Engvall is one of the funniest people I’ve ever heard.

4. I think cheesecake is the food of the gods. It’s my favorite dessert.

5. I don’t like to eat veggies unless they are in a salad or soup/stew.

6. I think being a mother is the most challenging thing I have ever done. And the most rewarding.

7. I’m not a very good housekeeper. I like a clean house, I just don’t like to clean.

8. I think everyone should fly in a hot-air balloon at least once. What an awesome experience.

9. I love to watch my girls sleeping.

10. I have a love/hate relationship with The Bachelor/Bachelorette show. I hate how they portray people yet I can’t stop watching the train wrecks each season.

11. I love reading historical fiction novels.

12. I’d like to be a runner someday.

13. I’m scared to death of spiders. Even fake rubber ones.

14. I could eat Mexican/Tex-Mex every single day of my life and be quite content.

15. I don’t like fish.

16. I love cheese.

17. I love the quiet in the evening just after the kids go to bed – that’s when you can take a deep breath and let the day go.

18. My favorite kind of day is one where there is no to-do list, no schedule, and nothing that has to be done.

What about you?

It’s the Thought that Counts

Other things I’ve been up to

While scrapbooking could easily become an obsession and take up all of my free time, I have been up to a few other things lately.

I baked the first cake I’ve baked in months. This might’ve been a record for the longest time without baking for me. I made my old standby- Sunshine Cake. Try it, you’ll like it.
I have been on a decluttering and cleaning binge. Well, as much as my post-surgery no-energy body will let me, anyway.
I have been working on a new project with some friends who have been going through the same things I have been.
We colored Easter eggs yesterday afternoon – and had to have our brave neighbor friend kill a snake who decided to visit.
I’ve been on an adventure trying to find clothes for Big Girl, who is now too big for little girl’s clothes and not quite big enough for juniors sizes. (can you imagine the frustration?!?)

What have you been up to this week?

Project Life Update

I spent some time last weekend updating my Project Life album. I hadn’t worked on it since my surgery at the end of February even though I have been taking pictures here and there and saving bits and pieces to put in the album.

I have to say, I am still loving this format and the kit. I also loved how I realized that there were quite a few pictures that, once I put them in here, I didn’t feel the need to create an additional layout in the family scrapbook. I had told the story here and captured the memory… why do duplicate work? I love that! My family book is becoming more of a place to capture more in-depth stories and moments and special events. Project Life is capturing the everyday.

I am even considering inserting some “regular” scrapbook pages in here and making it THE album for the family for the year. Haven’t decided if/how I will do that, though. Just thinking about it.

Here are some of the pages I did. Still have a little journaling to do, but I was not in a writing mood at the time I did this. I will go back and update those this weekend.

If you're visiting from The Mom Creative, welcome and please come back!

Finally, a scrapping post!

I went on a weekend scrap retreat this past weekend. I decided I was not going to do digital this weekend, but rather try to use up some of my stash of “traditional” scrapbooking supplies. I really enjoyed playing with all my stuff and fiddling around with my Cricut, Glimmer Mists, and all the other goodies in my stash.

Here are some of the pages I did:

Using up some of the Close To My Heart papers.

Another use-up-the-paper layout. I had that heart patterned paper but had never used it. Loved the pattern but had to get creative with using it so the hearts didn’t dominate the layout. I like how it turned out. I still need to go back and write my story (in that big white patch on the right page) but I was not in a journaling mood at the time.

This is another CTMH layout – one I had done as part of a workshop last winter but never used because we had no snow! I had to get a little creative with my pictures because it was designed for vertical pictures and I had a ton of horizontal, but I’m happy with how it turned out.

These two layouts (above & below) are from a SEI kit I had gotten in October. I loved, loved, loved the papers. There were iridescent papers, felted papers, all kinds of beautiful papers. I used to get their kits as part of Club SEI. After using a few of the kits this weekend, I started wondering if I wanted to sign up for the club again. They have BEAUTIFUL papers and the kits are really nice.

That cream paper on the left page has silver iridescent leaves on it. I don’t know if you can see them in this photo, but the paper is gorgeous.

This was using up a free kit I won at a crop at Archiver’s back in February.

And this was the Crop Mania goodie at the Archiver’s March crop. I modified the title using my Cricut and some plain white paper, but I like how the layout turned out.

And these last three were just using up some more papers I had one or two of but loved. And these 5×7’s of the girls I just loved and couldn’t not put in the scrapbook.

And this one is another kit from Archiver’s – I think it was the February goodie at their Crop Mania.

Tomorrow, an update on my Project Life album. Yeah, I worked on that, too. :-)

If it were only so easy…

The school is having a book fair this week. I’m a huge fan of encouraging kids to read… and of fundraisers for the school. But, the book fair just drives me nuts – and here’s why.

It has nothing to do with the books – I love going and picking out some new stories for the girls – and I love how excited they get about the new books.

What I don’t like are the piles and piles of JUNK that they have to sell along with the books. The pens, posters, erasers, and do-dads that they pile on the tables in the book fairs…. they are overpriced and usually won’t last more than a day or two after you purchase them.

But what do the kids fixate on? The JUNK! Not the books! The JUNK!

So, I have a rule. Mommy will pay for BOOKS only. If you want to spend your money on the junk, you have to spend your own money. Not Mommy’s. I figure it will help the girls learn to think about what they are purchasing and decide if something is really worth parting with their cash.

Sounds good in theory, right?

Well, here’s what went down this week…

We went to the book fair with the understanding that Mommy would buy 2-3 books each and that would be all. Big Girl already was talking about some highlighter she wanted and I reminded her that she could spend her own money if she wanted. Ok, off we go.

Get to the book fair – Big Girl has forgotten her wallet and asks me to “loan” her $3 for the highlighter that she simply must have. “Okay,” I say, “but you have to pay me back when we get home.”

Fast forward about six hours and it’s bedtime. All of a sudden Big Girl is fixated on another pen set at school she simply must get the next day. I remind her she can spend her own money but I will not be loaning her any more money to purchase the pen.

Fast forward to morning – no wallet can be found in the disaster area also known as Big Girl’s bedroom and we have major drama because the Bank of Momma is closed for the day. She goes off to school in a huge huff and is very angry with Mommy for not loaning her $5 to purchase the highlighter (I told you the junk is overpriced!)

Fast forward to after school – I am snuggling with Big Girl and telling her how much I hate it when she leaves for school angry with me and how glad I am that she is happy again.

She looks up at me and simply says

“Well, all you had to do was give me the $5 and it would’ve all been OK.”

“Really?” I ask. “It’s just that simple? I give you whatever you want and you’ll never be mad at me again?”

“Yes, Mommy. Don’t you know that?”

Sigh. If it were only so easy, I think…

It’s coming, I promise

I have been having some health issues that were a “byproduct” of my surgery in February. Nothing too serious, but I just can’t seem to shake them. I went to the doctor yesterday and hopefully things are headed in the right direction now. I feel much better today, so that is a good sign.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, I know many of you are wondering what happened to the Template Thursdays and my scrapbooking posts. I promise, they are coming back soon. Hopefully as soon as next week if I keep feeling as good as I do this morning.

So, thank you for being patient with me while I am healing and know that the pages and templates are coming soon.

Cookies, anyone?

Did you do your civic duty and buy Girl Scout cookies this year?

I hope you did. Everyone needs a little Thin Mints in their lives.

This was the first year that we were not just purchasers, but “pushers” of the oh-so-addictive Girl Scout cookies. IMGP2263

Okay, so maybe “pushers” is a little extreme.

It’s not like we had to “push” anyone to buy any, that is for sure. Once word gets out that you are selling them, people seem to beat a path to your door to order some. That part is pretty nice.

The girls are in Brownies/Daisies this year, so I got to experience the whole cookie selling thing for the first time.

IMGP2269 The girls loved it. Me? Not so much. It requires way too much organization and coordination for my taste. There’s money to keep up with, cookies to sort and deliver. My dining room looked like a Girl Scout cookie warehouse for a few weeks, and that was just from the cookies we sold/ordered. I can’t imagine what it was like for the Cookie Mom for our Troop. I’m sure her whole world was Girl Scout cookies for a few weeks.

But, the cookies are so delicious and the girls have such a good time selling them… guess we’ll do it again next year.

Only next year, I will be better prepared. I have my spreadsheet all ready to go.

From high in the sky

SuperMan came racing in the door on Saturday evening, grabbed the girls and went racing back down the driveway.

The dogs were barking like crazy at something behind our house and I was a little curious what all the hullabaloo was about.

Well, here is what it was:

SuperMan and the girls went racing off to watch the balloon(s) land in a pasture that was behind our neighborhood. I stayed home with the insanely barking dogs and watched what I could from the back porch.

Here are some more photos from the event, taken by the budding photographer, Big Girl (she is getting pretty good at this, I think)