Boy noise and sacrifices

I'm sure God knew what he was doing when he gave me Elijah 5 years ago tomorrow, but I don't know that I fully understand it. Ever since we left my mom's house yesterday, my life has been a cacophony of light saber swooshes and Transformer gun noises and everything that goes along with them. I think the part of my mind that processes such noises is broken. It makes me think that I could easily take a vow of silence and move into a monastery, if I were only a man. Though I guess I couldn't do that and be a parent at the same time....so here I am.

In other news...

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. My church tends to be pretty non-liturgical, but lately I've been thinking about the concept of holidays as holy days. While I understand the desire not to suck the life out of our worship by ritualizing it, I do think that traditions play a role in facilitating worship. And I find that cutting out the time of preparation for holidays means that I'm not prepared for them spiritually when they come. And they end up being just another day. We've never done much to celebrate Easter, and I think that we need to. After all, what is more worthy of celebration than our salvation? So my hope is to institute some of the traditional Christian liturgical practices back into my worship. Like celebrating Lent....

Yes. I'm giving up coffee for 40 days. :0 Starting tomorrow. Not today.

Unslumping yourself is not easily done

...but I'm working on it! With sick kids, sick Dan, sick me, and other stuff (I'm not even really sure what), it seems like I've gotten out of the groove lately with lots of stuff--scrapping, homemaking, school, working out. I haven't talked to my mom in weeks, our schedules don't mesh well (her best time to talk is in the evening, when Dan is home and we're knee-deep in dinner + bedtime). And poor Elijah's b-day party is next weekend, and I still haven't mailed the invites! I think I've told most of the people who are invited, but still.

An object at rest tends to remain at rest. I'm trying to give myself a little push to get going again.

I did have a couple fun classes recently. One only had one student, but she signed up for next month before she left that night, and has friends who want to come! And the students for the other class were advanced scrappers--my first time teaching people who were that knowledgeable about products. Talk about self-conscious! But I came to an important realization with regards to my classes--it's ALL about the finished project. Teaching is secondary. That runs contrary to my process-oriented nature, but from talking to these ladies, and then some other people who take classes, I realize that's the way a lot of people think who take classes. And I'm happy to oblige. :D

Still doing the Make Room for MORE! Challenge at myscrapbooknook.com. This week it's all about brads. I got these square brads at a garage sale 2 summers ago, I've been wondering what on earth I was going to do with them until 2 nights ago. Before I got all the stuff in the corners I hated it--it looked like a dog collar to me. All the random bits + pieces seem to balance it out though. And I got to play with my Mod Squad stamps, which made me happy.

Have a great, slump free day--I'm going to go do something productive!

Let's talk about something other than scrapbooking.

Right now--

1. Dan and I just finished watching Lost. He's watching The Simpsons. I'm here.
2. Lost being on at 10 now instead of 9 means that we don't have to miss the first 10 min.
3. Shiloh went to bed with a 102 temp. She will be beyond devastated if we have to miss the Valentine's Day party at our homeschool group on Friday.
4. Elijah's birthday is in 14 days. He loves the stickers we got to make his invitations. He's been talking about his birthday presents since March of last year.
5. Mariah is obsessed with Esther's new toy.
6. Esther's new toy is called Noodle the Poodle. Unfortunately, my creativity doesn't extend into stuffed animal names.
7. Watching someone light up when they've used a rub-on for the first time is exhilirating.
8. Sorry, that was about scrapbooking. Sort of.
9. I'm in the process of determining what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. Besides parenting, marriage, and you know, other stuff.
10. Staying home alone is the best thing in the world. Especially when the house is clean. I do love going to church, but I don't mind missing prophecy videos. Videos put me to sleep at 7pm.
11. Lost doesn't put me to sleep though...neither does 24.
12. 5 years ago I would have thought you were nuts if you told me I would someday have 3 must-watch TV shows per week.
13. I have 3 friends that I need to call. Hopefully tomorrow.
14. My life would truly be better if I used my crockpot most days.
15. Good night.
    

A yard of ribbon

It sounds like a lot, but when you're determined to streamline your stash, it can go pretty quickly! Dan wanted to rescan the layout...but I'm lazy and decided to post it as is. More to come, hopefully.

Photos by emages photography. You have no idea the pain and suffering we (me, my sister, and the photographer) went through to get some decent shots of Mariah. She was a total brat for almost the full hour. Then we got the proofs back and probably at least 20 of the photos were beyond perfect. I'm telling you, they're miracle workers.

Have a great day!