i've kind of been a cooking machine lately

This might sound weird....but I just recently realized that you can bake a cake without buying a box of cake mix at the grocery store. Yes, I know. I just figured that out like a week ago. I've never been super savvy in the kitchen. Although most of my time is spent in the kitchen. The hubs and I run a daycare and I prepare breakfast, lunch, and snacks for 12 kids everyday. And dinner for my family of 5 every night. You would THINK that I would have realized that I can bake a cake without a box of cake mix. Go figure.

The big "ah ha" moment in baking my own cake came about a week before Jackson's 7th birthday. But let me back up a bit first. A few months ago we started the process of eliminating partially hydrogenated oils, artificial coloring/flavoring, and high fructose corn syrup from our home. We eat as much organic food as our budget allows. If you opened our cabinets and fridge, you'd find them stocked with healthy REAL food. Food made with natural or organic ingredients. We did our research and learned as much as we could about ingredients to avoid and how to actually read the ingredient label (not just the nutrition facts!) on packaged food. It was a big undertaking! Grocery shopping takes a little bit longer these days as I'm agonizing over ingredient labels and figuring out which foods are ok to purchase. Now that I am more informed I am realizing that grocery shopping is a fun challenge and I like finding new-to-me products at the store that are healthy (AND TASTE GOOD) for my family. So, when it came time to buy a box of cake mix, I was of course astonished at the amount of nastiness and fake ingredients found in a box of cheap cake mix. But a box of gluten free cake mix or cake mix with all natural ingredients were all at least a whopping $4/box. Not really within our budget. What to do? I stood in the baking aisle wondering just how in the world I was going to make a cake for Jack's birthday. And then all of a sudden it hit me.....I could just make my own. Seriously, I was not programmed to bake things from scratch. I used to be all about convenience and time saving cooking methods. But these past few months I have changed my ways and am discovering things on a daily basis that I can make on my own using REAL food ingredients. Much healthier. And, believe it or not, much less expensive too. Now I am having fun challenging myself at the grocery store AND challenging myself at home to figure out how to make things from scratch. So far, so good. The only problem? Math. I'm constantly doubling or halving recipes or substituting ingredients for what the recipe calls for. Fractions scare me. And now I'm surrounded by them....

Back to Jackson's birthday cake....my good ol' Better Homes and Gardens cook book came through--I was totally surprised to find an entire section on cakes!!--and I made a simple chocolate cake. Twice actually. One time for cupcakes and once for his actual birthday cake. And I substituted fruit puree for eggs and oil and cocoa + fruit puree for chocolate. And the frosting? Oh my....I made a peanut butter chocolate frosting with real food ingredients that tastes suspiciously like Nutella. Except way cheaper. I may or may not have made three batches of this already....

These bad boys were smothered with some delicious Nutella-like yumminess right after this photo was taken:

I've made a couple different varieties of granola bars and they have been a HUGE hit in my family.

I'm beginning to see that the possibilities are endless when it comes to food I can make in my own kitchen vs. processed and refined foods that I would purchase in a store. And, BONUS, now that food prices are pretty much going up each week, its nice to make less-expensive options. Next up on my list of things to try: Mac & Cheese (that tastes like instant Mac & Cheese, not the baked kind, and that would be cheaper than store-bought organic Mac & Cheese), whole wheat bread, peanut butter, jelly, and working on my waffle recipe (its never quite right).

I'm getting rather excited for the upcoming season so we can pick some fruit at nearby u-pick farms. I've never done u-pick before (except when I was a kid!) and am nervous/excited about learning how to freeze and can my own fruits and veggies! Yay for new adventures!

lists

I like lists. Like, I really REALLY like lists. I love making lists, checking things off my list, making things up to put on my list just so I can cross them off, creating cute little notebooks to keep my lists all nice and contained, and reading other people's lists. There is something very artistic about lists. They tell a big part of my story. Grocery lists, to-do lists, idea lists, scrapbook layout ideas, waiting list (for families that want to come to our daycare--yep, we're that awesome--wink) Lists are a big part of my life.

Lately I've had a bunch of ideas swimming around in my head. Big ideas. Life changing ideas. Fun ideas. And tonight I realized that I just need to WRITE THESE IDEAS down. And then I thought that I should apparently just blog about them too ;)

So, here's my "life to-do list" as of right now, in no particular order....not really a daily to-do list, but more of a list about things that I need to think through, change, or just figure out.

1. Adoption. Adoption. Adoption. I have a heavy heart for Ethiopia right now. If you don't know much about what is going on over in ET read this post by my friend Ashley. She explains it well. I am sad for all of those folks who are currently pursuing adoption in ET who are now just waiting to see what happens. Adoption can be such a waiting game and NOW it will be an even longer waiting game for those families just waiting to bring home their children. But I'm even MORE sad for the millions of orphaned children in ET who are affected by these adoption changes. The longer the ET government takes to process adoptions, the longer the waiting orphans will be in orphanages taking up space, therefore sooo many potential orphans will not even make it to an orphanage. Please pray for this situation to resolve quickly and for adoptions to continue as usual.
Now, what about our family? What is our current status in our adoption process? You can read about our new journey towards adoption here. We are pretty much still in the same place we were a few months ago when I wrote that post. Once we felt called to adopt, we let that resonate for a while and just prayed about the whole notion. Matt and I both feel called more towards domestic adoption of a non-infant. And we feel strongly that we don't want to disrupt our biological kids' birth order, which means that the child we adopt would be younger than Zoe. And Zoe is just now 18 months old, so if a domestic non-infant is what God desires for our family, it could be another year or longer before that becomes a reality for us. We have contacted a FABULOUS ministry called Loving Shepherd Ministries that works with adoptive families. They have given us tons of information and our next step is basically just getting started in the whole process!
Last night we attended a Q&A session with True Vine Ministries, which is an adoption ministry within our church. It was great to get some questions answered as well as connect with other adoptive families. We left the meeting ignited and excited to begin the process! Stay tuned!

2. The Hole in Our Gospel. We joined a new Life Group a couple of months ago within our church. We have sincerely enjoyed getting to know the other couples in our Life Group and are excited about "doing life" with these people. Our group just started reading The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. Oh my. I'm only a few chapters in and its quite good...yet I'm nervous to keep reading because of what I fear God will call me to do. This book is about figuring out what God expects from us. Its about going further and doing MORE than just living an ordinary life and going to church. Its about having a faith in God that literally moves us to action.

3. Finding new ways to live a greener lifestyle. This is something I'm really excited about right now! Our family has already made MANY changes to be healthier and leave a smaller carbon footprint on our planet. We now use all non-toxic (mostly homemade) cleaning solutions, which I LOVE. We have switched almost all of our personal care products to non-toxic (or at least less toxic), organic, all-natural, and/or sometimes homemade versions. (Read more about this process here...and if you have a few extra minutes, check out The Story of Stuff website.) We bring in less stuff and reuse/recycle more. I'm suuuuuper excited that our small town will be initiating a one-can recycling program at the end of March! We'll have one big trash bin where we can put ALL plastic #1-7 (currently we can only recycle #1 & 2 plastics) and all paper to be recycled. No sorting necessary. Yay!
After changing our cleaning products and personal care products, our next step was starting to re-think what we eat, how we eat, where we get our food from, and all that exciting stuff. We have eliminated all partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup from our home. (With the exception of one particular kind of peanut butter that my husband can't live without...) We have switched over to an all natural and mostly organic diet. Literally every week at the grocery store I am in awe that I am able to find organic versions of most of the food we eat! My kids haven't noticed any changes in the food we eat at all. And my husband and I feel much better about the food choices we are making! AND, eating this way is not breaking our budget either. Some of my favorite brands of organic or all-natural products are: Annie's, Kashi, Mom's Best, Cascadian Farms, and Meijer (Meijer has a FABULOUS and affordable All Natural and Organics line.)
So now I'm just in the process of becoming more and more informed. Making even better food choices! Possibly joining a CSA or at least purchasing as much food as possible from local farmers. Learning how to freeze and can food. Phasing out fast food (gasp!) and soda (double gasp!)...the list goes on and on! And FINALLY read Food Matters by Mark Bittman and watch "Food, Inc." I have the book. And "Food, Inc." is on Netflix.....so I have no excuse to not utilize these two informative resources!

4. Coming up with new recipes. This sort of goes along with #3, but I need to spend some quality time coming up with some good new recipes....we're getting bored with the same old meals....

5. Spring Cleaning. Totally dread it. I've already got a mile long list of things I want to deep-clean....

6. Project Life. Still in love with the Project Life concept. Still keeping up to date with it, but just barely. LOVE that so many of my friends are sticking with it! I need to post about how my PL album is coming along!

7. Getting crafty. Lately I am finding that my free time isn't coinciding with my creative energy. This is frustrating for me! I NEED some good crafty projects going in my life. Scrapbooking has been my main avenue of craftiness and I'm feeling the need for some looooong scrapbooking sessions soon.

8. Painting our kitchen. We painted our kitchen red when we moved to this house back in 2004. And I really REALLY like the red. But we also run a daycare and have many MANY dents, scratches, and areas where the paint is chipping. Its become slightly embarrassing and we just need to repaint! Now to decide what color...

9. Finances. Budget. Need I say more? We have a budget. But I'm not proud to admit that we don't really stick to our budget very well....I'm pretty sure this little area of our lives needs a little extra attention right now to make sure we're making wise decisions with the money God has blessed us with. Its not much, by the way, but its enough to get us through! We have eliminated a lot of extra "stuff" that costs extra money. Like a TV service. But I'm certain there are a few key areas in our budget that could be reduced...

So, there you go. A little glimpse into what I've been thinking about lately and a look into my world of lists. I'm sure there is more on my brain at the moment too, but these are the items really sticking out right now.

Happy Monday!

sacrifice

Romans 12:1-2
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing, and perfect will."

I've been memorizing these verses from Romans for the past two weeks now. God is working in my heart and changing the way I view things. Or maybe I should say that God is bringing up some things in my life that I've been neglecting or trying to ignore and hope that they will just go away. Such as my lack of self-control when it comes to all things chocolate (darn you, Nutella), my lack of motivation to exercise and seriously lose the rest of my pregnancy weight, and my awesome ability to get lazy and take the easy way out....I mean, why WOULDN'T anyone want to attack those issues? Fun stuff.

Looking at issue #3 (being lazy and taking the easy way out).....this manifests its way into a tangible manner most commonly heard as "I don't feel like cooking dinner tonight, lets just get some Wendy's." This was getting slightly out of hand in our home, so toward the end of January Matt and I decided to take one month off completely from eating out. For 30 days we stayed away from all things fast food and eating out of any kind. And guess what? We DID it. This shouldn't have been that hard.....and it wasn't, for the most part. But every once in a while I so wanted to go grab some fast food rather than take the time to prepare a meal.

The CRAZY thing about all this is that we've been making changes in our diets for a while now--purchasing organic or all natural foods when possible, eliminating hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, and purchasing food from local farmers when possible. So you would think that we wouldn't even WANT to eat out at a restaurant knowing that we would be ingesting all sorts of nasty ingredients! But we are good ol' American consumers trained to purchase food based on convenience and taste and there is just something slightly thrilling about announcing "Let's go out to dinner!" And have I mentioned that fast food french fries are one of my favorite foods???

It was really starting to bother me how we would have a fully stocked fridge and pantry but still feel like we deserved to go out to eat whenever we wanted. And that many MANY people in the world literally search all day long for their next meal, yet we can totally take it for granted that we even have a few extra dollars to go out to eat. Bottom line: I was lazy.

I didn't go crazy trying out all sorts of new recipes or anything....I just told you that I was lazy. I didn't want to go overboard on having to find new recipes! I just cooked dinner like I normally would. But I knew I didn't have the option to skip out of cooking to go pick something up instead. I'm not saying we'll never go out to eat again! (In fact, we already treated ourselves to a little McDonald's...) But it was good to sacrifice all restaurant food for one solid month. We saved some $$ and felt a little better about ourselves in the end. Or should I say "in the rear"? Either way, I'm pretty sure my rear end looks the same as it did a month ago...oh well.

And, just for the record, we will probably do this little "no eating out for a month" sacrifice again in the future....in fact, we already decided that for March we'll be giving up all "non-meal food and beverage stops" at restaurants and gas stations. I love me some fountain soda.....and have been quite guilty of making special trips (or convincing Matt to go...) just to go get a fountain soda at a nearby gas station. Pure money suckage. Seriously, I have cans of soda and ice at home. But this really will be a biggie for me because I ALWAYS stop for a beverage when I'm out and about, so I'll for sure have to change my mind-set this month!

These are just a few ways that I am attempting to implement Romans 12:1-2 in my life. As I type this, I'm eating some Nutella on toast and contemplating watching a movie on the couch. Clearly, I've got some work to do in order to really take Romans 12:1-2 seriously...baby steps...

things i never want to say

Before I get a little serious, I thought I would share a little bit about how we prep for Valentine's Day:

The kids address little cards to their friends and classmates. And, that's about it. BOTH kiddos said they didn't want to attach any candy or treat to their Valentine's cards for their friends. Um, ok? Less work for me! See, Valentine's Day is probably my least favorite holiday. I never really bought into the whole "you have to buy an extra present and spend lots of $$ for someone you love" Hallmark idea created years ago. Yah, I totally know there really is a reason for Valentine's Day and there was a Saint Valentine that performed illegal marriages or whatever. Blah blah blah. I'm not a huge fan of hearts (although every once in a while one will pop up on a scrapbook layout..) and I don't really like red and pink together. I'm totally not romantic. (obviously....) Sure, Valentine's Day is sort of fun because my kids get excited about it and they like making cards and handing out little Valentine's to their friends. But I totally don't go out of the way to do anything extra on Valentine's Day. Except maybe make heart-shaped waffles and sprinkle some Valentine M&Ms on my kids' PB&Js.....perhaps that makes me a Valentine's Scrooge. I don't know. But I DO want to make sure my kids know that telling and showing each other "I love you" is something we do all the time, not just on Valentine's Day. And that they won't be getting piles of gifts JUST because the consumer mind-set of our society is to spend spend spend money on things we don't really need. So, yah, I'm sure we'll have a fun little day on Valentine's Day this year eating our heart-shaped waffles and pink and red M&Ms. And I'm sure that we'll make a few more heart beaded necklaces and red doilie cards until then. BUT the ONLY thing I really want on Valentine's Day is to hear my husband and kids say "I LOVE YOU!" Just like they do every other day.

When I sat down to write this post, I really didn't intend to talk about my anti-Valentine's Day views!.....what I REALLY wanted to blog about is a little mental list I've been compiling lately about things I never want to say to my kids. This list is in no way exhaustive. And, there are items on this list that I have to REALLY work hard at not saying. Some are easier than others. Some of these things are just common sense and some may not seem harmful to you. But I've thought quite a lot about these things and have decided that all of them definitely have the possibility of being quite harmful to my kids.

1. "I promise."
I never want to promise my kids anything! Even something as simple as "I promise we'll do that puzzle after dinner." Because what if something else comes up and I'm not able to come through on my innocent little promise? But I also don't want to promise them big things. "I promise I'll pay for your college tuition." How do I know NOW that I'll be able to come through on a huge promise YEARS from now? We've learned how damaging a seemingly innocent promise can be to our son when we "promised he could go to Grandma's house" and then Grandma got sick (or, on another day, the roads were too snowy) and he wasn't able to go to Grandma's. "BUT YOU PROMISED!" was all he would say. He was offended and hurt. And he lost a little bit of trust in his parents.

2. "I just want you to be happy."
Of course I want my kids to be happy. Who doesn't? But, I want them to be emotionally healthy first. There is a difference between kids being happy and being healthy. ALWAYS allowing our kids to be happy means we're neglecting some HUGE areas of development. The three biggest character traits we are trying to instill in our kids are respect, obedience, and kindness. We also want to teach them patience, self-control, how to handle disappointment, living peacefully among others, being joyful in all circumstances, and forgiveness. I'm not trying to be my kids' friends. They've got plenty of friends and will continue to make more friends throughout their entire lives. I, alongside my husband, have been given the unique responsibility to parent Jackson, Macy, and Zoe. The kids do not lead/discipline/control this family. The parents do. This is how God intended parenting to be. My goal is not to please my kids' every whim and give in to every little thing they want. This is teaching them that happiness is easily attained at any cost. My goal is to teach them to be content with where they are (through being respectful, obedient, and kind....)

3. "Hurry!"
Simply because I do not want them to feel like life is always moving in fast forward and we have to hurry everywhere. I'm a better Mama when I'm not in a hurry. Unless there is a life or death situation where we would literally need to hurry out of the way, this is something I try not to say at all.

4. "Where did the time go?" or "I can't believe you are already __ years old." or "I can't wait until you are (insert next developmental milestone)."
This is something that has always made me stop and think. And yet I still say things like this every once in a while! Why would I want to wish time away to get to the next developmental milestone? Yes, it will be quite nice when all of my kids are potty trained and self-sufficient. But why do we feel the need to spend so much time wishing time away until then? Doesn't this dismiss where we are in life right now? And then, when we DO reach that stage in life when our kids are all potty trained and self-sufficient, won't we then just complain about something else that we can't wait for? Why should it be so hard to believe that my kids have reached a new birthday? Haven't I been with them every single day of their lives? I want to be more conscious of simply living in the present. To live. Just be. To not yearn for the kids' bed time. To enjoy the little ordinary things that happen in my life all day long. To love on, play with, cuddle next to, tickle, celebrate, and simply enjoy my family just as they are. Potty trained or not.

Alright, enough with the heavy.....

scripture memory challenge

The awesome Women's Ministry at my church has challenged us to memorize two Scriptures each month in 2011. Many women in my church have taken on this challenge, including myself, and its been pretty cool to see everyone posting which verses they will memorize. Because I am a visual person, the only way I will actually remember to study and memorize my verses is if they are in plain view for me to see. Matt found this little photo flip album at Meijer and this is how I plan to keep my Bible memory verses in plain view:

And, where do I plan to keep it, you might ask? Well, in the kitchen of course. Not because I'm eating all the time....but because preparing, serving, and cleaning up meals is a HUGE part of my day as a Mama and daycare provider. So, my Scriptures will be in plain view for sure. Right next to my recipe box and blender. AND, I might even get a little crazy and move it around the kitchen here and there.....

What I LOVE about this flip photo album is that I'll have all my verses together and I can flip to them whenever I want. And, of course, you know I had to get a little creative and make each verse a little pretty ;)

I had another one of those "aha!" moments tonight when it comes to my Project Life album. I won this cute little "thirtyone" organizer from my friend Angie and I have decided to use it as my "Project Life all-in-one" organizer. I stuck everything in here that I'll use for PL and I can easily grab it to take it with me when I'm working on my PL album. Besides all the kit contents (journaling cards, date stickers, etc) that come with the PL kit, I also stuck my corner rounder, a small adhesive applicator, photo overlays, a pen, post-it sticky notes, and random things I want to include in my PL album (receipts, tags, small memorabilia, etc). I'm good to go!

In other news, we're on day 3 of NO SCHOOL here. Lots of snow + wind + ice + COLD = cancelled school. Its been kinda fun to be stuck at home with not a lot to do, BUT we're also ready to get back in the swing of things. Its amazing how little we accomplished these past 3 days! You would think we would have been able to check off a bunch of things from our to-do list. Well, we actually don't really have much on our to-do list at all.....so we did some laundry and I did a few creative things. But mostly we just snuggled up in the gigantic multi-couch fort (assembled by my Tetris-loving husband, Matt), played with the kids, and enjoyed the relaxation. We stayed at home for 2 days while most places were shut down and the weather was super crummy. And then today we were able to venture out. Jack and I went to the library to replenish his "Captain Underpants" books, Matt went to the store, and the kids went to Grandma's house for a few hours for a much-needed Grandma night. Matt managed to dig a little path out so we could go get the mail yesterday...

Good times.

how I revolutionized doing laundry...

I recently changed every single thing about how I do laundry. And OH MY WORD my life is so much more streamlined now. Its been totally fabulous.

A while back we started going green in our home. This process has been going really well and we've made many changes in our home. One of our changes is that I now make our own homemade laundry detergent. This turned out to be super simple, very cheap, much healthier than store-bought detergent, and it works really well. My friend, Lisa, posted a tutorial on how to make homemade laundry detergent. I followed her recipe and am quite pleased! For my fabric softener, I add about 1/2 cup of baking soda right in the wash and about 1/2 cup white vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser.

That was step one in revolutionizing my laundering process...

Step two is where it gets super amazing.

With five people in our family, we do have quite a bit of laundry in this house. We have nowhere close to the amount of laundry the Duggers have to do, but the sorting and putting away of laundry can still be quite tedious. I used to just collect everyone's laundry and wash it all mixed together (well, I did sort out the whites....) Five people and five different closets equal a lot of time sorting all the folded laundry into the right person's closet. Just typing that last sentence gave me a little headache. Anyway, a while back one of my friends shared her laundry method and I finally gave it a try. Her name is Erin. She's freakin' brilliant. The method? Drum roll please.....

Do each person's laundry all in the same load.

That's it. Simple. Yet brilliant.

I like to keep up on our laundry. I don't really ever let it pile up, so this method works amazing for me, because I don't have heaps and heaps of laundry that all needs done at the same time. On Mondays, I do all of Jack's laundry. On Tuesdays, I do all of Macy's laundry. On Wednesdays, I do all of Zoe's laundry. And I do all of mine and Matt's laundry on the weekends. I do one load of white laundry each week. And I throw in towels, dish rags, etc with any load throughout the week. I seriously LOVE putting laundry away now. I literally fold all of one person's laundry and just walk it ALL in to that same person's room and put it ALL into that same person's closet and drawers. And then I leave that person's room happy and not frustrated because I don't have to enter four other closets and figure out who's laundry needs to go where.

So, really? An entire blog post about laundry? Oh yes.

the year of MY STORY

This is one of my favorite photos! We now have a 2 foot by 3 foot canvas gallery wrap of this photo hanging above our bed. Yep, 2 foot by 3 foot. Once we add some finishing décor touches (wall art that I'm still planning on creating...), I’ll upload a photo of this bad boy hanging on our wall.

Its freakin’ fantastic.

And now, on a more serious note....

For 2011 the “one little word” I’ve chosen for myself is “story”. Focusing on really documenting the stories that make my family who we are. The big things. The little things. The everyday things. Mostly this will manifest in my scrapbooking. Which I’ve been doing for years now, but will be focusing on it a little differently this year. I’m doing Project Life again this year, but this time I’m doing it alongside a dozen or so of my friends. (I’m beyond words excited that so many of my friends are seeing the power of photos + words to document their stories!) I’m no longer concerned with HOW many layouts I create or HOW many albums I can fill. (This is something I’ve not necessarily always been too concerned with, but I’m REALLY making sure to let this go now!) I’ve got some bigger projects planned that aren’t even necessarily scrapbook pages, which I’m excited about too.

But more specifically than just documenting my story, this is the year I really want to focus on me for some other reasons. (But it all relates to MY STORY, right?!) The past two years have been a period of discontent for me. I’ve not necessarily gone through depression, but there have definitely been periods where I’ve had stronger feelings of discontent. I know God laid all this on my heart during this season of discontent in order to shake things up in my life and force me to see where changes need to be made. For whatever reason, the start of 2011 feels like a fresh start for me. Digging in deeper with some new friendships that were cultivated in 2010. Getting on track with my relationship with God (something I’ve ALWAYS struggled with), starting with participating in the Scripture Memory Challenge started by the Women’s Ministry at our church. Continuing with our “going green” initiative that started in our family in 2009, but was off to a slow and intimidating start, and then in 2010 we made BIG eco-wise changes. Making some big strides in our adoption process. (read: actually STARTING the process…) Really, REALLY buckling down and focusing on losing weight and getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Basically, stepping it up to the next level and LIVING my life the way God has intended me to. Living my life and then telling the story.

Looking back at the past two years, I see my life as being inside this big bubble. And I’ve just been skimming the surface around the bubble, never really penetrating inside it and getting to the core of things that matter. Just wasting time by not necessarily accomplishing anything. (Or ignoring the things that matter.) Basically, its time to get off my butt and stop being lazy! And, I don’t even consider myself as a lazy person, BUT when it comes to actually accomplishing the little things in my life that REALLY matter, I have certainly been lazy. I’m tired of procrastinating in the little things! Its time for some necessary changes.

So, here’s to 2011!

P.S. I promise to get back to the whole “why/how I scrapbook” thing I was posting about in November. Clearly the month of December came and went and I didn’t even touch on the subject! More to come soon.

how I scrapbook, part one

I've already shared quite a bit about WHY I scrapbook. Now let me tell you a little bit about HOW I scrapbook and about my creative process. Here's my secret: I don't really have one creative process. I'm crafty so sometimes I want to do an artsy creative scrapbook layout. But I'm also a busy mom. So sometimes telling my family's stories needs to be done in a more time efficient manner. One of the best decisions I have made with my scrapbooking is that I don't scrapbook every photo I take. I DO print out lots of photos. I DO keep a little notebook where I write down ideas like topics I want to scrapbook about, sketches I have seen that I want to mimic, ideas for titles, color schemes, etc. I do not keep track of how many pages I have created for each of my 3 kids and I do not make sure that they have equal amounts of pages in their scrapbooks. And I also have no intention of handing over 30 scrapbooks to each of them when they get married (or move out or whenever I end up deciding to give them all their scrapbooks). Again, my main goal is to document our everyday lives, NOT to be a scrapbooking ninja and see how much cardstock I can use in one year.

A few years ago I started doing "month in review" layouts. I would gather a bunch of random photos from the previous month and journal about all the things we did that month. Then one week out of the year I would do a "week in review" approach where I would take TONS of photos everyday for one week, journal in great detail about our days, and keep lots of extra little goodies that helped tell our family's story (tags from new clothes purchases, receipts, grocery lists that I had written out, mail, things the kids drew, etc.....THESE are the little things I would love to have from my childhood!) At the end of the week I compiled all this stuff and did a 2-page layout for each day.

Here are some examples from one week back in 2008. My camera has a hard time taking getting a photo of a layout that is already in a page protector, so these photos might look a little cloudy, but I think you can still get the idea.

When I was designing these "week in review" layouts, I decided I wanted each 2-page layout to look similar. So, I enlarged one photo from each day to 8 x 10 and included five 4 x 6 photos from each day. I used divided 4 x 6 pocket page protectors for one side of each layout and a sheet of beige 12 x 12 cardstock for the base of the other side. Each day's layout included a bunch of journaling on what we did that day. For the remaining 4 x 6 section of the divided pocket page protector, I included receipts, grocery lists, random thoughts, my to-do list, etc.

This layout is from September 29th, 2008.  The left side is an 8 x 10 photo of Macy in her baby swing. The right side includes photos of Matt and Macy listening to his ipod, the kids on the swing set, Jack playing with a piggy bank, Macy playing on the floor, and the apple selection at my grocery store. Random photos that all made up my day.

And an up close look at how I included the journaling for this day.

This was October 3, 08. The left side is an 8 x 10 photo of Matt reading a book to a bunch of our daycare kids. And a bunch of journaling towards the bottom of the page of our daily happenings. And the right side of the layout is 5 photos from our day. We happened to be at Jack's preschool that day for a Fall Festival, so some of the photos are from that. Crayons from his school, a scarecrow, Fall themed books, lanterns, and me driving our van.

This was October 4th, 08. On the left side of the 2-page layout, I slipped 5 photos of everyday life into a divided page protector. Macy standing in her crib, Jackson eating at a wedding reception, Jack and Macy playing on the couch, Jack eating a sucker, and a shot of my messy computer desk. The right side of the layout is an 8 x 19 photo of Macy coloring. Then towards the bottom I wrote in great detail all the little things that happened that day.

At the beginning of 2009 I had an idea to start what I eventually called "Project 365". This idea was something I had been thinking of for a while but didn't know how to execute. Then one of my favorite scrapbookers, Becky Higgins, created a product called "Project Life" that was EXACTLY what I had been thinking about. The whole point of this little project is to take one photo everyday and journal a sentence or two about what you did for that day. Brilliant. Becky's Project Life kits contain everything you need to scrapbook through this "photo a day" approach. I took at least one photo a day. I took photos of everything in our lives. Not just people, but photos of places we regularly visited, things around our house, prices of things (like gas!), meals I prepared, seasonal things, etc. I took my camera everywhere and just snapped away. Project Life is an awesome way to document your story. And if you use one of Becky's kits, then you don't even have to have one ounce of creativity. She gives you all the elements you need to create an awesome album using your own photos and words. I love this approach. However, I also discovered throughout the year that I still wanted to scrapbook other layouts as well, so I will not be doing Project Life EVERY year.

Here is one example of a weekly layout from my Project 365 album from 2009. Again this image of the photos looks cloudy. They aren't, its just hard to see in this image. On this 2-page layout, there are seven 4 x 6 photos. One for each day of the week. Macy in her swing, Jack walking out of preschool with his teacher, my craft room, Matt mowing, eating s'mores by our campfire, the kids playing in the sandbox, and our dog laying in the grass with his favorite ball. The green 4 x 6 cardstock shows the week that this layout is about. And the small white journaling cards at the bottom of the layout are where I journal a sentence or two about what we did each day. Simple, simple, simple. And now I have an entire album with 52 weeks of everyday stories. A little glimpse of our lives from that year.

While I loooove documenting my family and our sweet everyday stories, I also enjoy doing "traditional" scrapbook pages as well. In the next post (or two...) I will share more about my creative and artsy scrapbook side, perhaps a little about digital scrapbooking, thoughts on scrapbooking my kids' school memories and the millions of papers that come home from school everyday, and how I scrapbook on a budget.

why I scrapbook...

I’m going to give you a sneak peak into the life of a scrapbooker. Are you excited?? I sure hope so. Because the scrapbooker who’s life you are about to get a sneak peak of is none other than me. *wink*

First off, let me tell you a little bit about WHY I scrapbook. Mainly, I scrapbook so I can preserve my family’s history. And I’m a crafty kindof gal, so preserving my family’s stories in a creative way suits me so well. I believe that there is no right or wrong way to scrapbook. Using photos and words to document the amazing everyday stories of each of my family members is what it is all about for me. I may or may not consider myself a perfectionist. But when it comes to scrapbooking, I have adopted a few mantras that I often repeat to myself when my perfectionism rises to the surface. --->Imperfection is perfect. Its OK the way it is. Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be.<---

Because I focus on scrapbooking everyday moments and stories, my goal is that anyone could flip through one of my scrapbooks and really understand the essence of my family. Both good and not so good things. Funny things. Quirky things. Our likes and dislikes. What our everyday routines looked like. Conversations we had with our kids. Places we go on a regular basis. And all of the many MANY little stories in between. This is why I scrapbook.

I don’t worry about “keeping up” with my layouts. I don’t even come close to scrapbooking all of the photos we take. I scrapbook those photos that tell the stories I most want to tell. I scrapbook some of my favorite photos just because I want to. And lots and lots of photos just get put into our photo boxes. And that is fine with me. The day that I start to say I’m “behind” in my scrapbooking is probably the day that I will stop scrapbooking. I don’t want my hobby to become a chore. I don’t want to feel pressured to make scrapbooking a lot of extra hard work. I just want to document my family’s stories.

Here is where I do most of my scrapbooking. This room is our old walk-in closet. But it was too big for a closet so it is now my scrapbooking room. I LOVE it in here.

I have everything out and ready to go. All my supplies are within an arms reach. Well, some supplies are a few steps away….but it is nice to go in my scrapbook room and work for a few minutes and then leave everything out until I have a few more minutes later in the day. By the way, my scrapbook room also serves as our home office and Santa’s workshop (wrapping + hiding gifts). Perfect.

Throughout the next few posts, I'll share some of my favorite scrapbook techniques, post a bunch of photos of recent layouts, and attempt to show you how it IS possible to document your family's stories on a tight budget with not a lot of free time....and EVEN if you think you're not creative. Stay tuned!

books on my nightstand

I like to read. And I also like to not read. (I go in phases...) I kindof have a pretty narrow tunnel of books that I enjoy reading. I'm a big Nicolas Sparks fan, but my dear husband doesn't consider Nicolas Sparks books as "books". And I like Twilight. Ahhh, Twilight. (I'm Team Jacob.) Other books that top my list would be the Harry Potter series, Redeeming Love, anything about Ramona Quimby, and all the Babysitter Club books (I'm kicking myself for gettin rid of them years ago....) So, perhaps my taste in books is a bit juvenile, but that's just how it is. I ALWAYS seem to have a stack of books that I want to read or am currently reading. I'm real bad at just reading one book at a time. Something about being a woman and trying to multi-task....so here is a rundown of the current stack of books I'm working through. And they aren't literally all on my nightstand (is nightstand one word or two?). The truth is, if I try to read a book in bed, I automatically fall asleep. My husband is opposite. If he lays down to read a book, HOURS later, he's still wide awake reading. I don't get it.

Matt thinks I only like to read self-help type books. And this is true to a point. I like reading non-fiction books, MOST of which help in some way for me to be a better person. But I'm not searching for answers in the big cosmic new age kind of way. One book that I just finished yesterday is a FANTASTIC parenting book. Its called Parenting From the Heights by Anne Wiggins and Linda Williams. I read it as a part of a women's Bible study through our church. It was more of a book study than a Bible study but it was just really good. This book gives helpful tools and solid information on discipline and parenting in general. The techniques taught in this book help parents teach their kids right from wrong while building up solid character traits in our kids. Cultivating their hearts from within to create positive outward behaviors. Seriously, its a good book. I HIGHLY recommend it for all parents. Its one of those books I want to carry around with me while I'm grocery shopping at Walmart at midnight when there are other parents there dragging their overly-tired and whiney kiddos around the store and the parents keep yelling and spanking their kids for "not behaving". I'd like to give this book to them. It challenges us as parents to change OUR parenting techniques to create postive changes in our kids. Just read it. You won't be disappointed.

Another book I've started reading is Food Matters by Mark Bittman. I'm going through this one slooooowly. Mostly because I know it will provoke many changes in the way we eat. And, to be quite frank, big changes sometimes scare me! You see, our family has been on a "green living" kick for a good year or so now (more on that later, I promise) and we've been slowly changing many areas in our lives to be more Earth-friendly. We've already changed many of our personal care products and cleaning products. We are making better choices in what we purchase and are generally creating less waste. The next "step" in our family's journey on becoming "green" is changing how we eat. In this book, Mark Bittman offers some eye-opening information on what we are eating and how it affects the environment and our bodies. And, most importantly, how to make changes in our diets that won't break the bank and are easy to do for most people. Like I said, I'm reading it slowly! Its a lot of information to digest.....no pun intended.....

I Capture the Castle (not pictured because it literally IS on my nightstand and I'm downstairs) by Dodie Smith is actually a fiction book (whoa!) that I'm getting ready to start per request of my husband and friends, Erin and Evan. All of those people are book lovers. So.....we'll see. I read the first page but I was kindof in a bad mood, so I'm gonna need to start over again. And I have this wierd thing about not liking books that others recommend. I should get past that soon, because apparently this is a super good book.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This is one book that I've had among my stack of "books to read" for years now. I've started it about 12 times and each time I'll get to around page 40 and then I can't read anymore. Pride and Prejudice is my FAVORITE movie and I've literally watched it 348 times, so its really hard for me to read the book since I've seen the movie so many times. But I'll keep trying....

Matt, my husband, and I are leading a life group in our church and we are currently studying a church-wide topic called "Life on Purpose". Its based on the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Its all about figuring out what purpose God has intended for each of us. Its a daily devotional book. Good stuff.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Fran Chan, as we like to call him. This is a crazy good book that was super challenging and I need to read it again. Its about living a radical life for Jesus.

The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison. This is a mother's memoir about realizing that life is about the little things and stepping back and realizing what is important in life. I haven't started it yet but love the idea of finding important life moments in the middle of an ordinary day.

So, there you have it. My life in books. This post took way too long for me to write. All that time I could have been reading....

tomorrow is the big day.

Today is the last day I'll be pregnant. EVER. Tomorrow we welcome baby Beers #3 to the world. Pretty anxious and slightly nervous but EXTREMELY excited.
Lately I've just been going over and over all the details that need to be done before the baby arrives. With two kids already at home and me being in the hospital for 5 days for this baby, there are a lot of logistic details that need covered before we head in tomorrow! My surgery is at noon, so I'll have a little bit of time in the morning to finish up some things too, I guess. The worst part is that I can not eat OR drink anything after midnight tonight. Not even water! So, yah, I think I'll be slightly thirsty tomorrow. Then I'll be on a modified liquid diet (think popsicles, broth, jello, pudding, etc) for a while after the baby is born (till I pass gas after the surgery, which takes a day or two..). Anyway....
Not much else to report right now. I am not posting any photos or anything today because I'm just trying to check things off my to-do list.
We will post photos and info tomorrow sometime!

can't think of much to say.....

So, summer is for sure in full swing here in Indiana. In fact, we sorta just skipped lovely and nice Spring weather and went straight to 90 degree humid hot sunny weather. Gotta love Indiana.

Let's see....whats happening around here....my pregnancy is going pretty good. I'm 28 weeks right now, which means I am just entering the 3rd trimester, which is generally when you are most uncomfortable. If you do the math, you'll quickly see that my entire 3rd trimester coincides with the entire 3 months of summer.....so basically it is going to be one hot and long summer for me. I now get to go to the doctor every TWO weeks, instead of just once a month. Super fun. The baby is moving a bunch and I love feeling her wiggle around inside me. It is so fun talking to the kids about thier new baby sister on the way. Jackson is pretty excited, he just really wants us to pick out a name for her! Everytime someone asks about me having another baby, he says "I'm having another sister, but my mom and dad haven't picked out a name yet." Kinda cute. Talking to Macy about it is an entire different story. I keep telling her that the baby is inside my belly, but she insists that it is inside HER belly. None of that makes any sense to her. We read the "I'm Going to be a Big Sister" book all the time. She loooooves babies. She sees me and Matt with other babies and kids all the time, and I am certain she'll be fine with adding a new little munchkin to our family in a couple of months. More and more baby "things" are making their way into our house (new car seat and new swing/bouncy seat thing, for example) and she's asking "Where's baby?" a lot. On top of all the baby talk we are in the process of getting her "big girl" room ready. She will be moving to a new room in about a month or so and the baby will take her old room, since it is ready for a baby and Macy is done with the crib and everything. We just bought new furniture for her new room this past week and Matt has been putting it all together these past few days. Her room is slowly coming together and I think in the next week we'll have it all set up. She now has a new bed and mattress, dresser, and nightstand. We've also picked up random decorations and other things at various garage sales or crafty stores the past few months. I LOVE projects like this, so its fun to put together a new room. We're hoping for a smooth transition for her both in her new big girl bed AND in her new room!

A photo of Matt putting together her dresser (and Jack and Macy 'helping' out):

Matt's upstairs right now hanging her new blinds and then we'll be hanging up more decor soon as well. Will post photos of her new room as soon as we finish it!

We've been outside a LOT lately! Jack loves the kiddie pool. Macy is more a fan of the swing set and running around the yard. This photo shows them playing "restaurant", which is one of their favorite things to do outside. One of them asks "What would you like today?" and the other one orders their food.

Father's Day.....started the day waking up Matt with breakfast in bed and he got to open his gift....while the kids rolled around the bed. Then we went to church, out to lunch, and to a new park with a Splash Pad. The afternoon was all about relaxing and then we made ice cream sundaes after dinner. I am so thankful for such a wonderful husband, friend, and father of our children. He rocks!

Our 7 year anniversary was June 22nd. We had a nice day! We've sorta started running out of new things to do on celebration days.....so I let Matt sleep in for a couple hours and then he let me have a couple hours of 'alone' time later in the day, we went to Jack's tball game in the evening, and had Pizza Hutt for dinner! The weekend before we were able to go out to eat and plant our butts at Borders looking through books and magazines, which is one of our favorite things to do. Except that this particular evening that we were there, they had a horrible musician playing, so we didn't stay there as long as we normally would!

Jack and Macy have been playing together REALLY well lately. Jack is usually quite helpful and has been for a while when it comes to his little sis....but lately Macy has been playing nicely with him and enjoys being around her big brother. Here they are sitting together (voluntarily) in a saucer chair we found at a garage sale....which they LOVE!