Thankful Thursday

Today, and every day, I am so thankful for the two Moms in my life. My Mom, Barb and my Mother-in-law, Robin.

It's funny because Barb and Robin are two very different people. They have different backgrounds, different interests and hobbies, and are just very different in a lot of ways.

But when I think about them, and being thankful for each of them ... my reasons are very similar!! Both of my Moms love the Lord with all of their hearts. They both serve God in every way they can and live out their faith every single day. They both are inspiring to me, they encourage me, they support me and they love me unconditionally. Both of my Moms have been through some tough times in their lives. But they both still choose to give all glory to God and choose to live for God every day, knowing that He has a perfect plan for their lives ... even through the hard times.

I love that they love their kids ... and even more so that they love their Grandkids. They both love doing special things with the grandkids and spending lots of quality time with family. If you were to stop at either one of their homes you would find countless pictures of Grandkids on the walls, fridges, cupboards, etc... as well as artwork by their grandkids hanging on the walls, the fridge, everywhere! I hope that one day I get the chance to be that kind of Grandma. (Not anytime soon of course!!) =)

I love that I have learned so much from these two women ... not because they are constantly throwing advice at me or telling me how to live my life ... but simply through their examples, the way they live every single day. The way they become prayer warriors on my behalf, or on behalf of other family members. The way they teach through example. The way I see them treat others, even strangers.

I love this verse and think of it often when I think of my two Moms:
TITUS 2:3-5. "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."


I also love that I consider both of my Moms to be two of my very best friends. The first ones I think of when I need to talk to someone or when an issue arises. I know they will listen and they will pray, and they will help in any way they can. And they will do it all without judgment or criticism. And they will love me through the whole process. And I love them both for that ...


Happy (Early) Mother's Day to the two most special Moms in my world!!

(Oh, and I feel totally horrible about this ... but I don't think I have ANY current pictures of me WITH my Mom or Robin!! Guess I'd better get right on that!)

Scrapbook pages

A few people have asked to see what I've been working on lately. Well, I can't say I've done much lately, but I am trying to work on my Florida album from our trip back in March. And NO, I'm not that caught up, just felt like skipping ahead to something that was fresh in my mind!

I have been trying to finish the pictures from this trip for over a month now ... and still have a ways to go ... but here are a few pages to start with.




When Stacey took these photos at Sea World she said "I bet these will be some of our favorite pictures" ... and I agree! I love the way the pages turned out and the way the kids are all mesmerized by watching the Shamu show!
I just wanted to add this last page to make a quick illustration. So many times I hear people say they aren't creative, or can't scrapbook as well as someone else. Well I think that's just crazy talk! This page is SO simple ... it's 4 pictures (not even cropped!) stuck on a piece of patterned paper, with a few small dots stuck on at the end. But it still looks good, right?

There have been times when I have browsed the Scrapbook magazines and thought "wow, I really have to go all out with the embellishments in order to make my pages look THAT good!" I have often thought that mine pages didn't look as great as the ones in the magazines because they weren't as elaborate. You know the ones, the pages that have only ONE picture on them, but a thousand other details all around the picture?? Well guess what ... I have WAY too many pictures and FAR too little time to bother with all of that! Sometimes I do try to fancy the pages up a little. And yes I still love those embellishments. But I am on a mission this year to get caught up ... so you will be seeing LOTS more of my simple pages in the future.

"It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." ~~The Nester

Basketball game

We took the girls to a WNBA game on Sunday afternoon. It was so much fun! Actually, it was a pre-season game but still fun.

This was the first time we took the girls but I know it won't be the last!
We went there planning to buy tickets but when we walked up to the ticket counter this very nice man and his son offered us 4 free tickets! They had 6 and only needed to use 2, so they gave us the other 4 for free!! It was awesome! Gotta love the kindness of strangers!

Here are some pictures:



Maybe they will be that tall some day!!

Don't forget!

Sunday is Mother's Day! Don't forget to do something special for your Moms! =)

I did it! I did it!

I made one of these super cool "ragamuffin garlands" -- as seen on The Nester's blog.
I thought they were so super cute when I saw her post about them, then I had just finished re-doing the bathroom and had plenty of leftover fabric so I thought why not? I could do that!

Honestly, it did not take that long and (I think) the result was worth it. It looks very cute hanging above my bathroom door. I am hoping to make some for the girls rooms too. Go check out The Nesting Place for more cute garlands! {{I know I've been saying that A LOT - I think I have a blog crush!!}}

Mama's (almost) famous smoothies

I've been bitten by the smoothie bug! Jessica posted a yummy recipe a couple weeks ago on her blog and ever since I've turned into the smoothie queen.

How did they become famous you might ask? Well, my kids are known for calling almost everything I make as "Mama's famous". I've made Mama's famous applesauce - they called it that before they even tasted it!! I make Mama's famous chicken fingers, Mama's famous chimichangas, Mama's famous turkey meatloaf ... etc. It's kind of fun knowing that your kitchen creations have such great names (many times before they've even been tried and enjoyed!)

Anyway, back to the smoothies ... these are the simplest, yummiest, creamiest snack you will find. Actually, I've even made it for breakfast when I'm in a hurry. But lately this has become my mid-afternoon treat / pick-me-up. So if you call my house around 3pm there's a very good chance you'll hear a lot of slurping going on!

There is no right or wrong way to make smoothies. Basically the only thing I avoid is ice cream or sugar - because I'm trying to keep them healthy. But I add fresh or frozen fruit, fat free vanilla yogurt, fat free milk, soy protein powder, and sometimes even some flax seed. Oh, and you HAVE to try it topped off with some fat free Reddi Whip - oh. my. word. it's delish.

H likes to dip her banana in her smoothie :J likes to use an extra long bendy straw:
I like it with LOTS of fat free whip on top!
P.S. Pour them in a fancy glass for the kids and they will be thrilled!!

Do ya think I like to Scrap?

I just realized that I rarely ever post about scrapbooking, even though it is truly one of my passions in life. And no I don't have any fancy pages to show you today ... rather a small picture of my addiction!

Recently we removed the carpet from our living room, so in the process I had to move the bookshelf, and everything on it. I stacked all my scrapbooks in my room and realized that all together they were almost as tall as me!
Next on my addiction tour is this awesome little find, straight outta the 70's! I'm sure many of our Moms had one of these when we were growing up! It's an olive green, plastic, double decker lazy susan. wow that was a mouthful! I found it at the Goodwill for under 2 bucks and I think all my little embellishments just look adorable on it! don't you?
And finally, just to show that although I love memories and preserving them I refuse to be called a pack rat -- here is a stack of 3 years worth of scrapbook magazines -- that I just got rid of! For some odd reason I always thought I should keep them, just in case I ever needed a new idea. But I finally got smart and decided to pass them on to some friends. (I did however tear out a few pages that I thought I'd like to use in the future.)


Speaking of scrapbooking, I think I'll do some tonight! It's rainy and cold, Bob is at work, the girls would love to watch a movie tonight - it's perfect!! See ya later!

Our first try at Lap Books

Being fairly new to the homeschooling world, I kept hearing all this stuff about 'Lap Books' but had NO idea what all the buzz was about. Thankfully the internet is full of tons of resources and after a little research I figured out that lap books are essentially these cool folder-type books that your kids put together that focus on a certain area of study, or a certain book. Almost like a unit study. Am I right other homeschool Moms? Maybe I'm not explaining it very well so you'll just have to see for yourself!

We decided to try our first one by choosing a specific book. Actually I found these awesome resources online and decided to choose a book from the list (that we already had in our home library!)

So we chose "Corduroy" by Don Freeman, and also "A Pocket for Corduroy". Combining the two books was great, there were so many little lessons to be learned from each book. Again, I had help from the online resources, I did not come up with this all on my own!

Here's what we did --- These are the front covers of the books. The girls chose fabric to dress "Corduroy", then glued on the clothes and even the pocket.

Inside of H's book -- after we added each of the elements the girls were able to make it as creative as they wanted. They glued on buttons (like the one Corduroy got in the book), glued on fabric pieces (like the pocket he got in the book), and added stickers and coloring wherever they wanted.
Inside of J's book -- we talked about friendship. Just like how Lisa became Corduroy's best friend in the book, and we added a friend pocket with the names of their friends inside.

We did button patterns - an important math skill ...
Here is the friend pocket. I asked H what 'amekam' spelled and she said those were the initials of each of the friends names. How clever!

This was our theme verse -- In the books they talk about an artist, a security guard, a saleslady, and a laundromat owner. So we came up with a list of jobs that people do. The girls did great. They mentioned jobs of people they knew like Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, etc...
Then since the books are set in the city, we talked about cities and how they are different from where we live. How many people in cities live in apartments and don't drive a car. Then we came up with a list of ways that people could get around if they lived in a city and did not have a car. We also talked about (and practiced!!) a life skill --- doing laundry!! It was nice to have helpers with that today!
It was really fun to take a break from the mundane school work and do something different and special for a change. And the girls loved it! We have decided to make lots more lap books about all different subjects! If you are interested, the website where I found the great ideas is called Homeschool Share. Go check it out!

Oh and by the way, you don't have to be homeschooling to try this! I'm sure any kids would love to try this as a fun and busy activity on a rainy day. Just pick a great book out of your library and let your ideas run wild!

Extreme Makeover - bathroom edition!

As I have mentioned before, I've been seriously inspired lately by a great blog called 'The Nesting Place'. (See link to the right --->)

Anyway, I have been wanting to make some changes to my (one and only) bathroom and while I was spring cleaning one day I got a little bit carried away! (I mentioned this before.) I decided right then and there that the wallpaper border just had to come down. And with no further plans I just got to work.

The bathroom has these green floor tiles, and I used to think that I had to try to match things in the room to the tiles, even though I really don't like the color of green that they are. Lately though I had this thought that I would just ignore the tiles and decorate any way I wished. Just forget about the green altogether. So since our cabinet and sink are black and white, and our walls a nice tan color, I decided to go with a black and white theme. And since we love the beach and water so much, I made the decor center around those things. This whole re-do was VERY inexpensive ... I bought all my fabric at this great shop where everything costs just $1.99 a yard! And many of my updates were made simply by using a can of black spray paint which cost me just 97 cents at walmart!

Here are some before and after photos ... Before ...
During ... what a MESS!
After ... it's so narrow that it's hard to see ... I used black spray paint to do the curtain rod and towel cabinet.
Curtain after ...
Frilly polka dot fabric on top of curtain ...
Bottom of curtain...
Shower curtain after ...
Fun, frilly trim on shower curtain...
New black curtain rod and cute black curtain clips ...
Since we love the beach, we have our palm plant in a new black planter, with shells surrounding the base... Shells and seaglass in a white dish on the counter. I found the dish at goodwill for $1.49!
Black and white pictures of the beach or waterfalls ... And this, my friends, is my favorite part! The best part about the Nesting Place is that her motto is "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful" ... well I definitely used that theme with this magazine basket! I hot-glued the fabric into the basket - I didn't even do ONE bit of sewing! As you can see from the inside, it's certainly not perfect, but once you add the magazines, you will never notice! Isn't it cute???
So ladies, it doesn't have to be perfect (or expensive!) to be beautiful!

I CONFESS!!!

I CHEATED! I HAD A CUP OF COFFEE THIS MORNING! I know, I can't believe I only made it TWO days! How bad is that?! I have NO discipline!

I gave in and allowed myself one cup this morning. And I split my sugar amount in half by adding half sugar/half splenda.

That's not SOOO bad, is it?

OK, now I need to go do some exercise because I'm so consumed by guilt ... =)