Project Life

As some of you may recall, I made an attempt (didn't stick with it though) to use Becky Higgins' Project 365 as a format for documenting our family life during 2009. I was really good about taking a photo a day for about the first 6 weeks of the year, then I got behind, got discouraged and stopped entirely. It was also a bummer that her Project 365 kits sold out immediately and weren't able to be reordered. I know a few of you were interested in the photo a day concept and I know one of you (Beth!) did a better job keeping up than I did. Well...........in case you never jumped on the 365 bandwagon, Becky in her supreme creativity has designed a new concept called Project Life. It went on sale over the weekend and as far as I know will not be sold out and if it does sell out quickly, there is another printing. So..........if you're curious, head over to Becky's blog and check out the details. It is an amazing value for only $40 (not including shipping) and is perfect even for people who don't scrapbook. It is also flexible so you don't have to do a photo a day. I am really leaning toward ordering one for myself and trying harder in 2010. I did a pretty extensive scrapbook for the year 2000 which I truly treasure. Now a decade and two children later it seems time to tackle this again. And I think Becky's system will make it really doable. If you decide to order, let me know! Then maybe we can encourage each other through cyberspace. (Although I think my local buddy, Krystal, was interested. If so, we can do it IRL.........in real life for those of you not well-versed in cyber-speak.) This would be a super Christmas gift for a busy mom of young children. Although it won't be shipped out until early January, Becky suggests if you are giving it as a gift this year you could print out a picture from her website and roll it up and tie it with a ribbon as a cute presentation.

Edited to add: After publishing this post I decided to take the plunge and order myself this kit. I have loved Becky Higgins and all things Becky ever since I began scrapbooking. I have many of her books and they are so awesome. If DH is reading this, consider it my Christmas present. But if you WANT to get me something else, let's talk IRL. :0)

Operation Christmas Child

This week is the national pick-up week for Operation Christmas Child. Our local MOPS group did this as one of our missions for the year. My two boys and I went to our local Dollar Store a few weekends ago to pick out everything for our boxes. This is our second year doing it as a family. We printed off the list from the Samaritan's Purse website of suggested items to pack and the boys had a lot of fun picking out everything. We used plastic shoe boxes with lids this year instead of the cardboard kind. It's amazing how much you can fit into those boxes. This year if you pay your shipping donation online you will receive an email telling what country your box goes to. I am excited about this. My oldest son, especially, is really interested in geography so he is anxious to know where his box ended up. I love this mission because it is a very personal and hands-on way for children to be involved with giving. My little boy wanted to go right to "the other little boy's house" to take him the box. I tried to explain that the other little boy lives too far away for us to do that but assured him that some grown-ups would be sure the box was received by a needy little boy somewhere in the world. Last year and this year we packed 2 boxes, one for each of my boys. And again we chose to send them to boys of similar ages as our own boys. Some year it would be fun (for me at least) to pack a box or two for a little girl since I never get the chance to shop for girly things.

Here is one of our packed boxes.



Here are the unpacked contents of one box. Both boxes contained a similar variety of items, all purchased at our local dollar store. The boxes included: toothbrush, toothpaste, washcloth, coloring book, crayons, slinky, nerf football, matchbox car, 3 pairs of socks, t-shirt, playdough, pencils, pencil sharpener, Slinky, hand puppet, small stuffed animal, and a ziploc bag filled with lollipops and peppermints.



If you are looking for a great hands-on mission project to do with your children, click over to the links listed above. You can put in your zip code and find the closest drop-off site in your area.

Kelly's Compassion trip

I have so much going on that I am hoping to post about soon. I have a bunch of projects either started or in the planning stages but can't seem to find the time to DO the projects. Hopefully that will change soon. Anyway, I wanted to write a quick post tonight to tell you that one of my favorite bloggers, Kelly of Kelly's Korner, is in El Salvador right now on a mission trip for Compassion International. She is blogging each day about her trip. My husband and I decided (well, I kind of just did it actually, but he's okay with it) to sponsor a child through Compassion during the Jeremy Camp concert we went to a few months ago. Most Christian musicians are very passionate about this organization and really try to promote it during their concerts. Our little boy is named Fernando and he lives in Honduras. We have written to him but haven't heard back from him yet as our sponsorship of him just started. If you are at all interested in learning more about this great organization be sure to follow Kelly's blog during the next week or so as she blogs about what she is experiencing. One of my lifelong dreams is to someday go on a mission trip and, even better, do it with my family. For now I'll live vicariously through Kelly. So head on over and see what it's all about!

New beginnings

As of tonight I am a Cub Scout mom!! I love it. My oldest son who is 8 had his first Cub Scout meeting tonight. One of the most exciting things for him was getting his uniform. His little brother is already asking when he can be a Cub Scout. After the meeting my little scout took off his belt and my youngest son tried it on. He said, "Well, Mommy. I tried on that belt and it fit so I think I CAN be a Cub Scout!" It was very cute. I am excited for my big boy. I remember very clearly my first Brownie meeting when I was a little girl. I was so excited to have my little brown beanie and my Brownie handbook. Having a sash and being able to earn badges for it was awesome too. It is fun to relive the joy of new beginnings through my sons. I am looking forward to many great experiences as a Cub Scout mom. My husband will be really involved with it as well. One thing I really like is all the great activities we can do together as a family. Here are a few anonymous peeks of my son in his uniform.






He was also really excited to receive his official Cub Scout handbook at the meeting tonight.

My Halloween treat

When the boys and I went to my parents' house to trick-or-treat on Halloween night my mom surprised ME with a paper bag labeled "Happy Halloween" and "Merry Christmas". I was surprised and delighted to find a little autumn teapot and two matching teacups inside. I had seen this at my favorite local thrift store and had left a shameless hint about it in this post. Just like with the chicken quilt, my mom came through! Thanks, Mom!! I love them so much!





The lid of the teapot has a cute little acorn-shaped handle. So adorable!!

A few things we've been up to

A week or so ago I headed down to my craft room and dusted off my sewing machine so I could make a Halloween pennant banner for our home. I had bought a pack of charm squares (pre-cut 5 inch squares in a coordinating variety of fabrics) at a quilt store this summer but had not been able to find them. When I was hiding the candy corn treat bags I made for the boys I found them! It didn't take me long at all to get this festive little banner stitched up. I just picked several squares that I liked (all different), folded them in half diagonally and ironed them. Then I placed the folded edge into the crease of some orange double-fold bias tape I had on hand and sewed it all together using a straight stitch. Easy peasy! I also made one with just fall fabrics that I'll hang up now that Halloween is over. Below you can see the Halloween one.

On Friday evening the boys and I cleaned out and carved our jack-o-lanterns. Here you can see the boys pulling out the pumpkin guts. I forgot to take an after picture to show the finished jacks. This year I used those little battery-operated LED candles instead of real candles. I love those......so much safer. For Halloween my oldest son who is 8 dressed up like a Patriot (the Revolutionary War kind, not the football kind) and my youngest son who is 4 dressed up like a racecar driver. We had great Halloween trick-or-treating weather. A little chilly but not too cold.......a full moon and a clear sky. I'll have to do another post about a great treat that I got on Halloween night.

Clarification

Very recently a reader of this blog pointed out to me that my post about the book, The Shack, may have implied that I have discovered something very awful about my husband. Please let me assure you that that is definitely not the case. And I want to publicly apologize to him if that is what anyone thought. I knew it was going to be hard for me to express in writing what the "skin of knowing" quote meant to me and now I am sure that I did a chop job of explaining it. I'll try again here.

As most of you know, I am a teacher. I am currently teaching preschoolers who are just about the most fun and joyous type of people to be around. However, preschoolers tend to think about things very literally and to see things in black and white. This is why you may often hear a preschooler say, "You're not my friend" or the infamous, "You're not invited to my birthday party" (stated indignantly even when the birthday is 9 months away). To a young child, if their friend does not behave in a certain way they think they can no longer be friends with that person. In my classroom this happens when their friend plays with someone else, sits by someone else, etc. Thankfully, as we grow older we become more flexible in our thinking. This flexibility allows us to accept and even love people who don't share our beliefs or who don't look just like us or act just like us. In fact, as adults we are often very willing to overlook the annoying or aggravating habits of those we love due to the very fact that..........we love them. So what I was TRYING to say in my previous post is that I find it a beautiful fact of life that our love for others is able to grow over time even as those we love do things that surprise us, upset us, or disappoint us. I am the first to admit that I have done many things to surprise, embarrass, upset, and disappoint the people in my life who claim to love me. (My previous post may be just one of many examples of this.) And sometimes I do those surprising, embarrassing, upsetting and disappointing things over and over even though I know they are surprising, embarrassing, upsetting and disappointing. How wonderful that the people who love me are able to "grow" their love even in spite of this. Am I making any sense now? I hope so. And again, my sincere apologies if anyone thought for even one second anything negative about my DH. I love him........he's a great daddy, a great husband, and an all-around great guy.