Project Life update

Project Life is coming along nicely for me. I've been adding in extra stuff some weeks and other weeks I'm just including photos + journaling. I love the flexibility to be able to add in extra life stuff! I also love the flexibility to not worry about having to take a photo each day. Some days I just don't. Or I forget. My weekly layouts are more of a "weekly glance" at our regular life. I'm not stressing out about having to take a photo each day. As long as the weekly layout sums up what happened throughout the week, then I'm good.

For this particular week in February, I added a few extra things to the regular weekly layout....

I included a blog post that I had written from that week. I just printed it on 8.5 x 11 white cardstock, trimmed it to 6 x 11, added some patterned paper to the top and bottom of the white cardstock, and slipped it into a 6 x 12 page protector.

Two of our kids went to the dentist at the same time, and I knew I wanted to include a lot of journaling about this visit. I added an enlarged photo to an Ali Edward's 8.5 x 11 "Story of Today" overlay template, printed it on my own printer, embellished it with some stamps and ink, and then wrote out some journaling.

I had more journaling than space would allow on the 8.5 x 11 layout, so I then printed out an Ali Edward's 4 x 6 photo overlay on white cardstock and finished the journaling on that. I put that in one of the photo pockets because the photo for that day was already printed on the 8.5 x 11 layout.

I actually ended up printing a bunch of these photo overlays (you can purchase them at Designer Digitals) on white cardstock. I have a stack of them in my little Project Life organizer and I'll regularly use them in place of a 4 x 6 photo when I want to write out journaling somewhere else besides on the PL journaling card. Yay for flexibility and awesome digital elements!

Jackson has been writing some awesome stories at school so I included an example of one on the backside of the 8.5 x 11 layout. The last extra thing I included in this weekly layout was a baseball card page protector filled with extra photos from the week, packaging from things we regularly use (such as a tea bag package and the packaging from some diaper rash cream), Valentine's the kids received, receipts from the grocery store, a Red Cross certification card from a class I took, etc. One last thing to note is that I included a Netflix DVD envelope in one of the 4 x 6 photo pockets. I just folded it in half and slipped it right in. This is definitely one of those life things that I'll want to remember many years from now!

I totally plan on keeping my Project Life 2011 layouts all in one album. For this reason, I will not be adding all these extra things every week! If I included so much extra stuff each week it would definitely take another album to be able to fit all the weekly layouts from 2011. Again, I love the flexibility to be able to add extra elements and life stuff, but I also love the flow that the Project Life weekly layouts provide with just my photos + journaling.

Now that we're more than halfway through March, it is fun to see my PL album filling up! It is already so full of memories, stories, life, and photos. It is awesome to see it coming together!

my sweet SWEET ornery girl

Oh, to be three years old again. I totally wish I could remember what I was like when I was three. Three year olds are like teenagers. They go through about twenty different emotions in a two minute time span. It is slightly comical. And slightly frustrating too.

Miss Macy is three years old. Three and a HALF years old, she'd like you to know. She can be an amazingly sweet cuddlebug one minute and then a nasty attitude mean chic the next. "Hmpfh" is a highly-used word in her vocabulary.

Macy likes being my little helper! She loves helping me do pretty much anything around the house. I love this about her. She likes helping prepare meals and bake goodies. Especially if there is a promise of licking the spoon or the electric mixer beater after making a batch of some tasty treat.

MOST of the time, Macy is a rule-follower. She's polite, quiet, and a good listener. When we are in public, she really doesn't test the boundaries or try to break the rules.

But a lot of the time she's a feisty little lady, just waiting for Mommy and Daddy to turn around so she can go do exactly the opposite of what we just told her.

She LOVES books, playing games (like Memory), riding her bike, creating art, and playing with her dolls.

I mentioned that she says "Hmpfh" a lot. She also likes crossing her arms if she's not getting her way.

She would implement "Pajama Day" everyday if she could. I have to very carefully choose how I convince her that it is time to change her clothes and brush her hair in the morning.

Macy is at the point where some days she still takes a nap in the afternoon, and other days she just has a quiet rest time. Most days she reads books in her bed for a while and then eventually falls asleep. But she no longer NEEDS a nap everyday. Right now she thinks it is super cool if she gets to skip rest time altogether!

She is falling into the category of "picky eater". Frustrating. She often claims she doesn't like something even before she tries it. The "battle with food" is one of my least favorite things about parenting. Right next to potty training.

Right now we are having SO much fun with Macy at age 3. We have some awesome conversations with her and its so fun to hear her opinion on things. And she has a great memory, so its pretty cool when she brings something up that happened a while ago and chats about it.

LOVE my Macy bug!

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!

Lint. Or is it Lent? I didn't know till recently...

It wasn't till about 3 years ago that I realized Lent isn't called Lint. Seriously. I wasn't raised in a church and whenever someone would talk about Lent, I assumed they were saying Lint. It was quite the "ahha" moment a few years ago when I figured that one out.....and I've never really admitted that to anyone, so I'm sure I'll hear about it from quite a few people....

But now as a Christian, I'm slightly more aware of Lent. To be quite honest, I don't even know the whole background to Lent. I think I know the general idea, but we're not Catholic, so Lent isn't something strongly talked about in our church. Many of my non-Catholic Christian friends still consider giving something up for Lent. And some years I do as well. And this year? Well, I jumped the gun and decided to give up chocolate candy until Easter. But I made this decision a few weeks ago, so I guess I'm doing Lent+ this year. I'm such an overachiever. Not only did I decide to give up chocolate candy for Lent+, Matt and I are implementing something each day as well. We are committing to do the same daily devotion/Bible reading each day. For starters, we are doing the Proverbs Challenge. We'll read the same chapter from Proverbs each day. And then throughout the day we'll discuss how this particular Proverb manifests in our daily lives. Should be interesting!

I'm fairly certain I still pronounce it "Lint" though. I kinda like the twang. I also say "q-pon" instead of "coo-pon." Mostly because it irritates my husband. I'm nice like that....

can't get enough of this little lady!

Man alive, this little girl is all over the place! Between raiding the bathroom and trying to play in the toilet, emptying all the kitchen cabinets, pushing any button on anything electronic within her reach, darting out the door if left slightly open, climbing onto the table, and sneaking up the stairs, we are certainly worn out by the end of the day! And we have two other kids AND a house full of daycare kids everyday too! Zoe is at that age (almost 18 months) where she is into EVERYthing and curious about anything. She stays occupied with an activity for about 3 seconds. Basically, we can't really take our eyes off of her! We joke about how easier life will be when we're not constantly tracking her down and figuring out what she's getting into. But I dearly love this age too. As crazy active as she is, she's also a great cuddler and adorable chit-chatter. She hasn't reached those terrible two's, so she's not really defiant.....yet.

Chase down these little pig tails and jeggings??? You bet. Zoe loves being chased and she ALWAYS runs straight to this corner in our family room. She thinks she is so darn sneaky when she hides next to the couch while we say "I'm gonna get you!", pretend like we're roaring, and act like we're trying to tickle those chubs.

And then she makes her way to the couch, which she thinks is her own personal playground.

She thinks it is super funny to rip off her socks right after we put them on her tootsies.

And she wakes up with the most awesome bed head everyday. Most days I just leave the crazy hair as-is because I can't get over how stinkin' cute it is.

She is literally repeating EVERYTHING we say, which is just so much fun. She has quite a large vocabulary for a 17 month old. She gets that from Daddy. Neither of them stop talking....

Zoe loves taking a "baf" and spends most of bath time dumping water on her own head. She has yet to figure out she can dump that water out of the tub, like her big brother and sister seem to enjoy doing.

She isn't really afraid of much! She loves water, loud noises (she thinks the vacuum is hilarious) and when we jump out and "scare" her. But she isn't a fan of strangers....or the doctor, or even going to the toddler room for church.

She likes emptying all the kitchen cabinets. Over and over again.

This girl LOVES her some books.

And dancing. She can seriously shake her little rump. Her favorite is anything by Dan Zanes or this one particular Sesame Street song sung by will.i.am.

And did you know that one tiny little M&M can make this big mess?

She is not really a fan of the snow. In fact when she looks at snow she says "NOOOOO!" She gets that from me. But if we let her loose outside, she makes a run for it. She is going to love playing outside this summer!

But today? Well, today she's not feeling so well. She has a fever along with a cold and is slightly crabby and not content. I finally got her to take a nap with her favorite snugglers, her pink and white speckled frog and her green bunny blanket....both of which stay in her crib and she only snuggles with them when she's sleeping. Hopefully a good nap will help her feel better!

Love my little Zoe girl!

photo cards

I loooove making handmade cards. Love it. I love coming up with a design, gathering and cutting all my materials, and mass producing a big batch of cards. Its my creative therapy.

But life is busy. And when the moon and stars are aligned just right and it works out that my free time coincides with my creative juices, then I would much rather be working on a different crafty project than mass producing handmade cards. That is just how it is.....

However a few years ago I learned how to make my own digital photo cards. This technique combines my photography with my digi scrappin' skills. Neither of those skills are stellar, but I do enjoy photography and I know a little about Photoshop! Making photo cards is a huge time saver for me! All you do is take your photos, edit them, add a little text to the photo in Photoshop, print, and done! Becky Higgins does an excellent job of explaining these steps further on her blog.

Here are some examples of a few photo invitations I've done and Zoe's birth announcement.

For Jack's 7th birthday party in a few weeks. I added a digital photo overly in addition to the text in this one.

Macy's 3rd birthday party invitation. I think the hardest part of making digital photo cards is picking out the fonts. I think this handwriting font looks pretty similar to my own handwriting, which is why I downloaded it. I use it often!

Zoe's 1st birthday party invitation. I added some dingbat flowers to this one.

And Zoe's birth announcement.

Fun. Easy. Cute. And super quick!

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...