Promotions

Here at home, my goal is to work myself out of a job. ;) Some moms struggle with letting their kids do work around the house because they "don't do it right." I, however, will do just about anything to get out of housecleaning, and would rather see dishes in the wrong place than sitting on the counter dirty, hence...

• Shiloh has been promoted to dishwasher emptier
• Elijah has taken over her former responsibilities as silverware sorter
• I am now kitchen manager

Big deal, right? It's a huge deal to me, which probably tells you all something about my life...

However, lest you think I'm overwhelmingly pathetic...I've been asked to join the Ben Franklin Design Team, which means I will be designing scrapbook pages for them to display in the store. I actually dug out my Social Security card and filled out a W-4 for the first time since 1997! This will nicely complement my teaching opportunity there, and I'm thrilled to be working with great people and at a great store that sells great stuff!

Congrats--you've finished the race!!!

This is the 8th and final clue to the knowledge of who our {hip}santaclaus is!! I can't wait to find out myself, she (?) has been beyond generous and has brought some serious holiday cheer to the Pub.

Anyway, this 8th and final picture is supposed to complete the puzzle and reveal Santa's identity. Cut and paste it into your word processing document and e-mail it to hipsantaclaus@yahoo.com along with Santa's name. If you don't know yet, you can pea-mail {hip} for the answer.

Congrats on making it this far--and good luck!!

I *heart* days off...

Dan had to use up some vacation time, so he took a half day on Friday and a full day off yesterday. The best thing is when he takes a day off and everyone else is working, because then we don't make plans with other people....isn't that horrible??? It's not that I don't love getting together with friends, it's just so nice to stay home, get caught up on things here, have him field some of the interruptions, etc.

Anyway, we're back to the daily grind today. The kids have already trashed the house, I'm still in my jammies, have a mile-long to do list. Here's a few things on that list...

• finish apps for 2 design teams
• finish up Christmas cards
• weekly cleaning (I try to do it all in one day)
• make my sister's Christmas present (a decorated journal)
• finish Shiloh's present (a decorated box)
• wrap some presents
• do school

I'd better not add anything more to this list!! I think it's already past what I can reasonably do in a day!

Have a great day, and I hope whatever's on your list is getting accomplished. :)

Homeschooling update

Since this blog was initially about homeschooling I thought I'd give a little update.

1. I'm realizing we've done way more than I've given myself credit for. Shiloh is on letter P, Mariah (who's 2) counts to 13, and Elijah does puzzles like a champ and draws dinosaurs!
2. We've learned about a bazillion random things that really aren't random at all. The Fatherhood of God, properties of light, clouds, flowers, counting, making 10, poetry, comparisons, trees, day/night, seasons (to name a few).
3. I've learned a system that works for keeping a 2- and 3-year-old productively occupied while teachind Kindergarten.
   
4. We take a lot of days off. As in, we've probably only done 2-3 days a week tops for the last couple months. BUT, when I reviewed my monthly calendar last night, I realized I'd given myself 3 weeks off in December that we won't need. So if we do 4 days of school between now and next Friday, we'll be caught up!!!!
5. I need a math curriculum. Shiloh's ahead of the preschool level in our curriculum, but not to the kindergarten level. She has a hard time counting to 20. And the curriculum doesn't give me much for how to teach math. I think she's just not math-inclined. And I am, math has always just made sense to me. So I've got my eye on something with a little more detailed instruction.

I don't love homeschooling the way I thought I would. I know it's the right thing for our family, and I think I'll enjoy it more when the kids are older. My ideal for homeschooling is everyone busy doing something interesting and meaningful, having conversations about what we're all learning about, in-depth Bible study, library trips, volunteering together and talking about it afterwards, sitting around the table working on math problems or some kind of necessary homework together, singing, learning hymns...a lifestyle of learning that has structured times of instruction but isn't about that. A life of strong family relationships, learning in context, and Christ at the center directing, teaching, guiding. I think we're building to that, and that makes it worthwhile.

Published!!!

I got an e-mail this morning that I'm going to be published in a scrapbooking magazine for the first time!! So exciting!! The funny thing is that people tend to think of scrapping as a Mom thing--you know, moms taking pictures of their kids and writing their memories and thoughts about how much they love them. But the page I got picked up is one I made about Dan! Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for the Jan/Feb/Mar issue of CorrespondenceART magazine...probably will be on the newsstands in a couple months or so. :)

What are you doing Dec. 9th?

If you're within driving distance of Bonney Lake Ben Franklin, I hope you'll be taking my Holiday Tags class! We'll make the tags in the picture to the left, and learn some of the many uses for tags for sprucing up your Christmas presents or embellishing your scrapbook layouts. You can sign up on their website, the cost for the class is $15 and supplies will be about $5.

While we're on the subject, what is the best scrapbooking class you've ever taken? What did you like about it? Any suggestions for a newbie teacher?

Have a great day!

Rosy needs...

Got the idea from Sara W. to google my name + needs and see what comes up....I'd explain these, but they're funnier without knowing the context. :)

1. 'Rosy' Needs Some Weather
2. ROSY needs your help and that of your friends, family, colleagues and associates
3. what Rosy needs is a good psychiatrist.
   
4. this rose needs some soil amendments and mulching.
5. Once the lock was filled, the lock-keeper opened one gate, which is all Rosy needs.

Had to look up Dan too...

1. Dan Needs Bush Hogging
2. Dan needs a new Car.
3. Uncle Dan Needs You
4. dan needs the love too, y'all.
5. Dan needs to overcome himself

It's been brought to my attention that I need to update my blog...

Yes, it has been a couple weeks! And I've actually had blog-worthy things to share, just not the mental RAM to make it happen. Did I actually just make that joke??? Evidence that I spend *way* too much time at the computer. :P

1. I've been given the opportunity to teach Scrapbooking and Paper Crafting classes at Bonney Lake Ben Franklin! I'd been wanting to get into teaching classes for a while, and I've gotten to know the Class Coordinator, who is running an amazing program! You'd think a craft store in a town the size of Bonney Lake wouldn't have much to offer, but they have a huge scrapbooking dept. and monthly crops that are attended by 60+ people! Anyway, I made her aware of my interest and she's letting me give it a go. My first class is Dec. 9th at 7pm, I have a really fun project planned and am excited to see how it goes! If you're in the area, you're welcome to come--more information is on the calendar page of their website.
2. I was named Pubster of the Day on Nov. 14th! POTD is a huge honor, if you're into that sort of thing, which I am. :) My online scrapbook gallery got lots of attention and I got to know a few people better.
3. Dan and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! It's been a crazy, action packed 6 years, and I love him more than ever. Dan is truly the most caring and fun husband I could have ever imagined having. My mom babysat, and we went out for dinner using a gift card we'd been holding onto since last December! I didn't want to go pregnant, and Esther's just now to the point where we can leave her for half a day. We had a great time!
4. Homeschooling has slowed down somewhat. I had planned to take Thanksgiving week off, and it turns out we'll be using that to make up missed work! Good thing she's not technically school-aged yet. My mom brought down lots of educational goodies, and I've been better about library trips, and I'm grateful that one of the great things about kids is that they're still learning even when we're not doing anything formal.
5. I'm studying the book of Judges in my Wed night Bible study, and keep seeing how the Israelites failed to pass the knowledge of God down through the generations, and how their children would fall into sin and idolatry as a result. A good reminder to take seriously my job as a parent to teach my kids to love the Lord and walk in His ways.

Ok, hopefully this will be enough to keep Sara happy for a while! Have a great day!

Cheap tricks pt. 2

Ok, here's another before and after shot. The after shot isn't fabulous, but I thought it was a good recovery of an unusable photo.

Just in case anyone was wondering (which I'm sure you weren't) we don't really celebrate Halloween. We do carve pumpkins though. This one is Marshie. You have to leave a comment if you know who that is.

Had to add in Elijah. The great thing about a 5MP camera is that you can crop way in and still get decent pics.

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.