What’s for dinner?

What’s for dinner at your house tonight?

I have been trying to come up with something creative, appetizing and quick/easy for us tonight. My attention has been a little distracted the past week with a little person who is under the weather (hence the less-frequent-than-normal posts, too.)

I just stumbled across this recipe for Stuffed Pizza Bites on a blog I follow: Our Best Bites (have you heard of them? If not, you should check them out – they have a lot of yummy recipes.

I’ll post some pictures and let you know how the munchkins and SuperMan like it tonight.

William Tell Momisms

I just watched this video and I have to say I wonder if this woman was watching my house when she got the idea to write this!?! This is motherhood in 3 minutes and 25 seconds. Take a few to watch this… too funny.

And thanks to BJ’s Scraps, where I found the video in the first place.

Beautiful things

Still working on sorting through the pictures from the last few weeks. Thought I’d share a couple here.

Halloween Fun

Sorry for the delay in posting these pics… it was a very busy weekend.

I now present to you: The Angel & The Scientist.

Even Angels need help with their shoes now and then.

Today…

Outside my window… the clouds are trying to overtake the sun and the leaves are changing into a beautiful blanket of color.

I am thinking…of all the things I need to accomplish today – there is not enough time!

I am thankful for…good friends, a loving family, God’s blessings.

From the kitchen…homemade oatmeal craisin cookies; ham for dinner.

I am wearing…comfy clothes; must get “dressed” for the day still.

I am creating…a positive mood and outlook to help me be productive today.

I am going…to love on my kids when they get home this afternoon.

I am reading…You Had Me at Halo (a silly, but entertaining book)

I am hoping…my husband’s job continues to be productive and he is not laid off again.

I am hearing…”I Will Rise” on the radio.

Around the house…my cats are sleeping, the puppy is trashing the yard, and the big dog is napping with one eye out for the pup’s attacks.

One of my favorite things…my hot tea in the mornings… earl grey.

A few plans for the rest of the week…Ballet, Jazz, making dinner for a friend who is recently home from hospital.

Photo inspiration:

Thanks to The Simple Woman’s Daybook for the inspiration.

simply amazing

I was at my mom’s house a few weeks ago… it is very humid there (they live near the coast) and so all sorts of things grow in places you would never imagine.

One morning, I went outside to swing with my little girl. She said she couldn’t sit on the swing because there were “prickly things” on her swing and she was afraid they would poke her if she sat down.

As I bent down to look at the “prickly things,” this is what I saw:

How cool is that?

Perfectly formed teeny, tiny mushrooms, growing on the seat of the swing. And in a perfect spiral!

Something so small that most of us would never have noticed.

Something so mundane that could be easily overlooked.

And yet…

A thing of beauty.

There is no reason (that I know of) for the mushrooms to grow in a perfect spiral. They had such teeny little stems – they were smaller than a straight pin. And the tops were perfect little cups turned upside down, balancing on the fragile stems.

How awesome.

Glorious beauty on a swing after the rain.

God’s wonder there for us to see… if only we look.

More of Me: The Abridged Version

Ok, so I found some time yesterday to do a little journaling in my Me: The Abridged Version book. I also realized while I was working that I wanted more vibrant pages for the album. The color scheme I had chosen was a little muted. So, I’m amping things up a bit now.

Here’s a sample of a page I’ve completed.

I’m still considering removing the craft paper background and just doing it on white. But I’m not sure yet. (do you have an opinion?)

I’m finding this is actually pretty fun. It’s an interesting change to write about myself – my thoughts, stories, etc. – as opposed to writing about my kids. Being the centerpiece of the story instead of the background character who is chronicling the kids’ stories. You should try it.

And, it’s interesting to me that my girls are very interested in reading the pages as I finish. And they want to know about me! How cool is that? As moms I think we get lost sometimes in just being “mom” and forget to be ourselves. This project is reminding me of the need to focus on me some – focus on my story – and focus on things that make me happy. (like scrapbooking!)

I challenge you – do a page about yourself. Pick a topic – list your five favorite movies or books, tell a story from your childhood, whatever gets your creative juices flowing. And, remember, the picture is optional. It’s the story that counts.

365 Days of Pictures

In the spring, I started a project I had been contemplating for several months. “Project 365” is designed to help you capture the everyday moments in your life. Not just the big events and holidays that we usually scrapbook, but the everday minutiae that makes your life YOUR LIFE. I think it is a really cool idea. I often think back on my childhood and wonder “Did I do that?” when I’m watching my kids play. How cool it would be to look back at a snapshot of my life at age 7, for example, and see what I was doing then – and even share that with my kids!

The only reason it took me 3 months to get off my duff and do the project was the thought of remembering to take a picture a day (of what, I thought?) and then actually scrapbooking all those pictures. I finally bit the bullet in March and started snapping away. However, I quickly realized that doing this the “traditional” scrapbooking way was going to drive me to drink. Too much repetition and too much cutting (the template I was using was quite complicated).

So, I decided to make this a digital project. Sooo much easier. I created the template and now I’m catching up on my album. It’s so much easier. Just drag & drop the pictures into the placeholders and focus on the journaling and decorative aspects of the page. I’ve decided to keep the pages pretty simple. I want people to focus on the pictures and the stories, not the fancy do-dads. Here’s a sample:

Here’s one with a little more decoration:

I’m chugging along, and actually enjoying the project, now that I am doing it digitally. I’m less overwhelmed by the thought of cutting all those little squares of paper and photos and focusing more on what pictures I want to take to capture the story of a particular day.

And, you don’t have to stick to the layout. For example, the week of Easter, I decided to focus on two things: decorating eggs and Easter morning. So, rather than having a photo for each day of the week, I just concentrated my photos on those two things to represent that week. Here’s how it turned out:

It also gave me a chance to easily handle portrait-style pictures without a lot of cropping:

Think you want to give it a try? Here’s the template (In StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 format) for you to try it out. You will notice I created it in a StoryBook (rather than page print) file. That way, I can see the two pages side by side (I love that feature) for lining things up and gaining symmetry. I can always print individual pages if I choose (and I will) to drop into my existing 12×12 album.

Have fun!

Cuteness

Someone has figured out that the cabinet makes a cool "clubhouse"

Where’s the handbook, please?

Has anyone seen the handbook?

You know the one….

Parenting your Child: Part 2 (The Pre-Teen Years)

I don’t think I got that with my order…

(or any other handbooks for that matter) But I really, really need this one.

You see, I have this wonderful, beautiful, intelligent child. And about every, oh, day or so, she is invaded by a creature that takes over her consciousness. You know the creature I’m talking about… The one who thinks parents are so lame and don’t know anything. The one who thinks little sisters (or brothers) are stupid and a pain. The one who has the most irrational reactions (good and bad) about the most mundane of things.

When she gets like this I need to find the switch, lever, or button, that will change her back. Because I’m not quite sure what to do with this other model. I’m hoping the handbook will show me where the button is, or how to take the batteries out so I can do a reset. (works on my ipod, why not here?)

So, if you happen to have an unused or extra manual lying around, could you loan it to me? I’m thinking I’ll only need it for the next, oh, eight to ten years… sigh.