Just a quick one...

Of my baby boy....He's grown so much!

This was taken at the Applebarn in Gatlinburg recently. Looooooove that place!
Must get more apple butter!

Nine years ago today...

I married my best friend!

...and he is out of town today so we can't even celebrate!

Happy Anniversary, baby!

I miss you!

I just found my theme song!

Just wanted to share this because I thought it was funny....

I WILL SURVIVE (THE FIRST YEAR OF HOMESCHOOLING)

First I was afraid
I was petrified.
Kept thinking I could never teach
'Cause I'm not certified.
But we spent so many nights
Reteaching homework that was wrong.
I grew strong,
so now I teach my kids at home!
We study math and outer space.
I just kept on despite the fear
with a big smile across my face.
I bought a set of Base Ten blocks.
I bought books with answer keys.
My parents think we're nuts,
but they don't even bother me
Come on, let's go walk out the door.
We're on the road now,
'cause we're not home much anymore
My friends would laugh and say we'd be unsocialized.
I heard one mumble that I'd give up by July.
Oh no, not I!
I will survive!
As long as I know how to read
I know we'll be alright.
I've got all my life to learn.
I've got energy to burn.
and I'll survive.
I will survive.
It took all the strength I had not to fall apart.
Decided to attend a play date at the local park,
and I met oh so many moms who offered eagerly to help.
They used to cry
.Now they hold their heads up high,
and so do we!
My kids are cool!
They're not those chained up little people stuck inside at school.
So if you feel like dropping by and just expect us to be free
you'd better call ahead first 'cause we're probably busy!


***Sung to the music "I Will Survive"
Original song:
Written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris
First performed by Gloria Gaynor, October 1978
Homeschool lyrics written by Natalie Criss***

New addiction....sewing!

Three pillow cases, one blanket and these little guys...

I got the directions for these here .
Braden specified that his needed to have a split tongue (Hence, his new obsession with reptiles), and I let Bryson help me stuff them. Here he is with his "Fonser":

Apparently he has his monster face on!

I've been doing a sewing project every afternoon it seems. I'm just learning how, though I grew up seeing my mom sew, but I just wasn't "into it".....until NOW!

Here's to you, Mom. It only took me 34 years to pick up on it. Now, if you can help me make that purse I have the material for, you'll be off the hook making them for me all the time! ;-)

Yesterday in my back yard...

Just playing with Photoshop a little this morning (which I never have a chance to do, but it's after 9 and the boys are still sleeping!!) Just made a collage of happenings yesterday in my back yard. Enjoying the outside every day and NOT looking forward to it getting hotter.

Of course, I'm gonna do a scrapbook page with this collage.
You could have guessed, right?

No, I'm not MIA...

Just having a little summer fun with my boys before I start back "schooling" again!
And here are a few of my recent pages:

I did a couple more yesterday, but don't have pictures yet.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died yesterday while I was trying to take pictures of the kids in the pool! Great timing!

We've been having a great summer so far!

Here are some of the things we've been enjoying:

-Going to Destin in May

-Having friends over

-Going to the movies to see "Kung Fu Panda" (It was hillarious!)

-The kids playing in the kiddie pool

-Roasting marshmallows and making s'mores

-I've been enjoying lots of reading in my 'free' time

-Getting spoiled to Thomas working from home now!

-Going to "Go Jump!" (A place filled with those inflatable bouncer thingys....I even got in on it!)

- Lots of just being outside

Just loving us all being together all the time!

Bunches of stuff...

I know it's been a looong time since I posted anything. I actually have been crafting off and on! Between 2 boys, homeschool and life....it stays busy. Trying to squeeze in a bit of time for me! Here's what I've got:

Guess that's all for now. I spent most of the day trying to get these uploaded between each crisis! And here's to hoping I get some scrapping done tomorrow on NSD! Probably not since Thomas is out of town, but a girl can dream, right?

-M

ETA: The Record of Family Code Enforcement paper is from Creative Imaginations. ;-)

A HUGE day in my little boy's life...

On Friday April 4th, Braden decided to get baptized!!


It's not like something we'd really been talking about recently either. He had asked me questions about it several times before, and the last time we talked about it (a couple of months ago), I told him not to worry about it right now that he'd know when it was the right time. I know how his mind works, and I bet he'd been thinking about it ever since. So when he told me he was ready to do it, my first instinct was that he is too young, but then after talking to him, he really seemed to "get it" and understand why he wanted/needed to do it. It still amazes me that he could comprehend and decide something this important at such a young age...something that takes some people half of their life to decide! (His dad and I were both 25!) And yet another reason why I am super proud of this boy!

Wow....has it been nearly a month??

Just dropping in to say that so much has happened since my last post. The main thing is that I have pulled Braden out of school to homeschool him. I had originally intended to do that anyway, and as a matter of fact, he belonged to a homeschool co-op for preschool when he was 4. When we moved to where we live now, a private Christian school was getting ready to open so we thought it would be a great idea to put him there. After 6 months of him attending, we decided it would be best to make a change of plans. I don't mean to brag.....(ok, yes I do ;-) )but he is on the advanced side and was having more and more trouble with boredom. While the other kids were still learning their letter sounds, he was reading fluently. While they were doing 2+2 and 3+3, he was coming home and begging me to do adding and subtracting in the hundreds and even multiplication! I tried to let him finish out the year, but his frustration came to the point that I could no longer stand to see him that way. We've been homeschooling for a couple of weeks now and he LOVES it. He always asks "When can we get started?" and "What's next?" He asks more questions about how things work every day. It's so encouraging to see him that excited about learning again! I know that some people think that I am crazy for making this decision. Yes, there is less time for "me" stuff. And let me make it clear that I am no super-mom. Things have changed and will continue to change. Some will go on the back burner for now (including my scrapbooking until I get this thing down). But I think I am doing what any mother does for her child. Sacrificing. And if I am in a situation where I can do something to help my child, why wouldn't I? I'm not saying that he will never go back to school. I don't know what lies ahead. But I can say this -- we are loving where we are right now!

Just whipped this up & the boys in the snow....

Here's a card I threw together with leftover scraps from a mini book I did yesterday:

I like to keep a couple of cards on hand (even though my main thing is scrapbooking) in case I need one. And I just sent one out today so that meant I needed a new one!

And here are the boys this morning in the snow! Not enough for a snowman, but just being out in it was enough for them!

Now I can get back to Spongebob! ;-)

3 Snow pages and a card

I just realized that 3 of the last 4 projects I turned in have something to do with snow. Must be subconscious! ANd it really did snow this morning!! Braden got a day off and we went out for a bit, but not too long considering that the temp is in the teens and the wind chill is in the single digits!

We warmed up with hot chocolate, of course. And now we're just chilling in the bonus room and watching cartoons. I love snow days!!

On a roll...

Wanted to make something a little different today.
That was fun!

On another note, I think we have decided to do the Disney thing this spring. Braden has been asking for 3 years now and I want to do it while it's still "magical" for him. I doubt Bryson will remember it at his age, unfortunately. Anybody have any good advice for doing Disney with a 6 and 2 year old??

A couple of new ones...

Just wanted to share a couple of new pages I completed this week...


I did one like this for Braden several years ago. It's fun to look back and remember how they said things when they first started talking...
This one was a bit of a challenge for me. I am not accustomed to:
1 - Making a page about myself
2 - Using a super girly color like PINK!
It was fun!

And then there's this:

Saw one of these in a CK and had to make my own version for Bryson's room!

On another note, I have been reading this book that Braden's teacher let me borrow.
I found this quote today that I totally love:

What you do today is important because you
are exchanging a day of your life for it...
let it be something good.
-Anonymous

Wow. Words to live by...

-M

Recovering...

From the Holidays! It's a lot of fun, but it sure is a lot of work too. I swore I wouldn't bake another thing for at least 6 months! The cookie party went well, and I was having so much fun, I only got one picture:

-Still trying to finish up the Christmas daily album I only got half finished because I didn't have time. Want to get that all fixed up in the next few days before I run out of motivation for it.

-Braden starts back to school tomorrow. I'm really gonna miss him. It has been like old times around here. Guess I'm still not used to the school thing.

-Turned in a new page at the scrapbook store:

-My word for this year is "Blessings". I will be creating an album throughout this year to go along with it called "Everyday Blessings". My goal is to recognize at least one blessing each week and scrapbook it. I want to learn to appreciate more of the good -- and see more good in the seemingly bad. Scrapbooking really is therapy, isn't it? Hopefully I will be posting my first page soon. Just took the photo for it 5 minutes ago!

-I need to do some purging and reorganizing in this scraproom of mine. Bet I could find a boatload of stuff to give away.

Well, I'd better spend a few more minutes with my boys before bedtime!

-M