Since Hanni didn't, I will

Today's ND giggle:

"I made like affinity of those at scout camp."

Cheap tricks

There are many wonderful things about being married to my husband, one being his knowledge of Photoshop! For an amateur photographer, Photoshop can be a huge benefit! Here are the before and after versions of a photo I took yesterday. There's more that could be done color-wise, but the trick I'm most excited about is that I selected Esther's eyes using the magnetic lasso, and brought up the contrast. So many little things that can be done to improve mediocre photos! I'm looking forward to exploring this. I'll keep you posted.
**ETA** The two boxes on the bottom are the same photos the first time I tried to upload them. The ones you can see are the before and after. The after shot looks more bluish here than IRL, for some reason.

Esther

My baby has eczema so bad that her cheeks are bright red and scaly most of the time. So I take a bazillion photos of her when they're normal. Here's my favorite from Monday's photo shoot:

All in a day's work.

Cat and I got together yesterday to assemble the goodie bags for our dinner this weekend. It was truly amazing to see so much product in one place! Definitely makes me feel proud to be a part of the Pub.

The only thing cooler than all the free stuff is knowing that I get to meet so many amazing people on Saturday! So many people that I respect as people as well as artists will be at the convention. Even if all I was doing was getting away from the kids for the day, it would totally be fun. But getting out for the day + classes + shopping + new friends + old friends...wow.

American Crafts

You know how you think every once in a while, "This food is so good, I could live on it for the rest of my life and eat nothing else"? That's how I feel about AC letter stickers. They are just perfect. I don't even know what makes them so much better than other stickers, they just are. They just work. So much so that I made a page title with them that took up most of one page! I had so much fun with it, especially considering the subject.

If you have faith like a little child...

I love hearing Shiloh express her love for the Lord, her desire to follow Him, her growing understanding of what we believe. It is a blessing to pray with her and to be the one to teach her about God's Word and His ways.

The God of the impossible....

I've been praying lately that my life for God would be marked by things that aren't humanly possible. That like Abraham, I wouldn't waver, but be strong in faith. He fully trusted God to bring a child into the world through his barren wife, when they both were well past the age of childbearing. He never wavered in faith. He did have a pretty big misunderstanding about how God's promise was to be fulfilled, but he fully trusted God.

The things I'm trusting God for aren't physically impossible, but they are far beyond what I'm capable of. The ability to manage a family of 6 on one income, to still be sane at the end of the day, to teach my kids how to love and honor God with their behavior.

I've decided to include Elijah (3) and Mariah (2) in our school time. Talk about impossible! I feel that it's the best way to make my marriage the priority it needs to be and gain control over my schedule. Today was our first day and it went great! I'm hoping that by the time the novelty wears off it will be routine enough that it won't be too hard to stick with. We spend the first half of the time on the couch reading, doing a memory verse, and doing a Bible lesson (with some science & social studies mixed in). Sometimes we'll do some sort of P.E. activity, then we do table time. 3-15 min. segments where both of the little kids get toys to play with for the segment, then they can switch. Mariah did amazingly well. I didn't even consider doing school with her awake when we first started, and I still wouldn't if I wasn't including her in what we're doing. It will be good for her to learn some discipline, and I found out today that she can count to 5!

All in all, a good day. To anyone who is reading, let me encourage you--don't sell God short! He wants to do so much more through us than we let Him, and delights in the impossible.

80's music challenge

This is an awesome quiz! Some guy really knew his stuff. I scored 85.5, if you beat me you will have my undying respect.

Here's the quiz

ND quote of the day

"Since when does Grandma go to the dunes?"
"Looks like there's a lot you don't know about."

Is my afternoon break a thing of the past???

Having some downtime every afternoon is very important to me. It's pretty much the only thing that allows me to still be human when Dan gets home. It's my #1 piece of advice (to anyone who asks) about how to make family life work--take your break in the afternoon so you can be available for your husband when he gets home. For us that means if Dan wants to watch a movie together or something, it's not a big deal because I can do my scrapping or reading in the afternoon. If he wants to listen to music I don't like, it's no problem because I have all day to play what I want to listen to. I really think it's one of the keys to a marriage that works.

And yet, here I am. I decided at the beginning of the year that we'd do school in the afternoon so I didn't have to take care of 3 little kids while I was teaching the 4th. My idea was to do school from 1-3. Somehow, though, by the time I get Mariah down for her nap, feed Esther, clean up from lunch or do a chore or two, it's closer to 2:30. And now Mariah's in a big girl bed, so I can't ignore her when she wakes up. We're training her to stay put until we get her up, but, well...staying put isn't one of my 2-year-old's strengths.

So that basically leaves me "on duty" all day long. At least for now, until the girls get used to their new arrangement. I just don't fully relax unless they're all sleeping. And it leaves me not knowing when to make the phone calls that I need to not have interrupted. Maybe it won't take long to get the kinks work out. But if you're reading this--PRAY FOR ME!!!

Clouds

We did a unit on the sky this week. Prepared to discuss the differences between Cumulus, Stratas, and Cirrus, I asked Shiloh if she knew what the different kinds of clouds were.

"Cloudy clouds, rainy clouds, and sunny clouds," she answered. :)

I think so much of education is just common sense. Stuff we all sort of instinctively "get", but can't put into words. I remember that about school, especially college. A teacher would explain something, and it was like I'd found the 2 or 3 missing pieces to a puzzle that was just-about-not-quite done.

It was a good reminder to keep it simple, to build on what she already knows, to stay with things that are practical and relevant.

Journaling challenge

This week we wrote a poem for the 2peas journaling challenge. Here's mine:

Ten

10 little bits of life
to bathe until they wrinkle
hold them out for tickles
sit and watch them wiggle

10 little bits of beauty
to paint pink
slip into patent leather
run barefoot in the heather

10 little bits of potential
to jump over hurdles
sink into warm sands
carry you to foreign lands.