Project Life

It's been a while since I have posted here. Life has been busy. I haven't really wanted to post short and sweet blog entries, but maybe that is the key to getting in the habit of blogging.

In a similar vein, I have not been able to create many scrapbook layouts over the last few months. Maybe because I like to put a lot into each layout - a lot of thought, a lot of journaling, a lot of feeling. Sometimes a lot of photos. This year I am trying to get on the Project Life bandwagon, a kind of short and sweet way to scrap. I don't have to agonize over the sizes of photos, the length of journaling, the amount of embellishments. I can just go in and get 'er done.

Week One was pretty easy,

just a few random shots from our everday lives this week and a little journaling ot go along with them.

But at the beginning of Week Two I could feel my interest waning already (I feel like I am suffocating when I use the same format over and over - kind of the way I feel at the end of Week In The Life) but I decided to push on through it. I am encouraged by Ali Edwards' posts from the past year as she did this project. I think if I can stick with it I will have a really cool album at the end of the year documenting our lives.

So today I rotated my template and made page one of Week Two,

and now I am kind of excited to take more pictures and see how page two shapes up. I'll let you know...



The first of many...

This summer has been a whirlwind. Several trips, a hospital stay, and learning to live with Elijah's diabetes have made for a very draining and uncreative season in my life. My scrapping has been limited, sometimes forced, and not what I wanted it to be at all.

Last week we went to Missouri to visit my folks and then spend a few days at Silver Dollar City in Branson. It was the first trip to Branson we have taken without planning to camp. It was our first vacation experience in a motel instead of a camper or tent. We have to have two rooms, you see, and we thought the cost would be prohibitive, plus we didn't like the idea of having a room without an adult.

But Naomi is 17 now, and very responsible.That, added to the fact that we sold our camper this summer and have no plans to buy another one, made us a little more comfortable with the idea of trying the whole motel thing. It worked great. Four people to a room, two TVs, free WiFi, adjoining rooms, all combined for a restful trip. A bonus was that since I no longer had the means to cook we got to eat out every night (woohoo!)

We had two days at Silver Dollar City with cool temps which made wandering around and going on rides much nicer than the 100 degree temperatures earlier this summer. Plus, since most kids were in school, there were virtually no lines for any of the rides. The show lines were still longish, but I know when to get there to get good seats and don't mind the waiting in line for a good musical.

This time the Harvest Festival was in full swing so we got to see lots of craftspeople making their wares. Theodore found someone making the moccasins he has been looking for and scooped up a pair. We watched coopers, and woodworkers, glass blowers, weavers and basketmakers. Fall Decor was everywhere and I got lots of photos of everyone. Now if only I can get the time and inspiration to scrap them we will be in business.

Which brings us to the title of this post. Yesterday Phrona had a two hour dentist appointment in Jackson, so I took my laptop and had some uninterrupted scrap time. With a few tweaks once we got home I managed to actually finish a layout. Hopefully it will be the first of many.

Today I ...

Today I am tackling a mountain of laundry. When you take eight people on vacation and are gone for eight days the end result is a TON of dirty laundry. And some great memories, but you can't really get to enjoying the memories until you get that pile of clothes churning and tossing in the washer and dryer. And THEN you have to fold it all. I can handle all of that. Until I hit the load with 56 pairs of white socks in seven different sizes that have to be sorted, matched and put away. (At this time I would like to sincerely thank my daughter, Naomi, for refusing to wear anything but flip flops year round, thus saving me from having to deal with yet another eight pairs of white socks. Thank you, darling. And, yes, you may bring this blog post up when I start ranting and raving about you wearing flip flops to town in the dead of winter.)

Today I had a little boy just wiggling with joy because he was getting to do school.

                 We did A's and B's,
                  big and small,
                  coloring pages, dot-to-dots.
                  We did it all.

Then he turned the page
and what did he see?
A big smiling cat,
with a new letter,
'C.'

                 Can I do this one, too?
                 I'm afraid not, dear.
                 We've done A and B
                 And done them quite well.

Let's rest on our laurels
It's time for a break.
We can do C's tomorrow
And maybe a D.

               Why not play your nintendo,
               or watch some TV?
               Sure thing, he said,
               That's okay by me.

So not only am I a bad mother (because I really did encourage the boy to go play video games or watch brain deadening TV) but I have also just revealed that I am no Dr Suess.
sigh.

But  we did A's and B's, I got another load of laundry done, and he is excited to see what tomorrow's school work will bring. I'm good with that.

Today I uploaded my August photos to my Flickr account for safe keeping.
ALL of my August 2011 photos.
In one day,
actually in just over half a day.

That is a little sad. Why? Because I only took 246 photographs in the whole month. And half of those I took in ONE day. Usually I have a good thousand to two thousand pictures each month that I have to upload to Flickr. Maybe I was depressed. Maybe I was tired of all the sparkling blue pool pix. Whatever.

Did the realization that I took so few pictures to document the precious moments of our life last month spur me on to pick up my camera and snap away at the everyday things of life today?
Nope.

Maybe tomorrow.
Today I have to do laundry.
I already have pictures of that from other months, even pix of mounds of those horrid white socks.
Not that I am that sure I want to remember it anyway.

In My Time

In My Time is the title of the new book by former Vice President Dick Cheney. I haven't read the book. I probably won't read the book since it is not a favorite genre of mine, nor is it one of the books my children have to read for school this year. I do try to read most of the books required by their curricula. This year, between my five students all in different grades, I have a good two hundred books to read, give or take a few. So Dick Cheney's new book won't make it into my cart or onto my nightstand (not that I have a nightstand, but that's beside the point.)

But,
I love the title of his book.

In My Time.

It makes me think of all the gadgets that have come or gone in my time.

I remember phongraph records, 45s and long-playing 33s. Now my children see a 45 and they ask what kind of computer used a CD like that. Or how about 8 track tapes? In my house 8 tracks were usually country music, whereas albums were classic country (the old stuff) or rock n roll (again, the old stuff.)
Then tapes were deposed by cassettes, and cassettes by CDs.

I remember typewriters. And writing things out long-hand, in cursive no less. Cursive apparently is on its way out in most school districts. Soon no one will be able to read the letters of the past. And no letters are written in the present anymore, its all just email, or instant messaging.

I remember when a nook was a cozy place where you could read a book, not the actual contents of the book in a digitally downloaded form.

I remember delivering newspapers every morning as a kid. Now if the local paper comes in newsprint form to your house it is brought by the mailman. But lots of people just opt for the online version instead, to eliminate the paper clutter that has to be dealt with eventually.

So much has changed, just in my relatively short lifetime. I wonder what things my children will reminisce about when it comes time for them to acknowledge that they, too, can begin a monologue with the words "In my time..."

It's Getting To Be That Time of Year Again

Yes its almost that time. The time when we begin to long for cooler weather, shorter days, weekends off with no school. And it is also the start of birthday season. And birthday season means not only counting down to each kid's birthday (Hey, Jimmy, this is your last Tuesday ever to be seven!) It means time to come up with new ideas for the birthday cakes.

In the past we have had lots of Pooh Bear and Tigger cakes,

 and castles,

 and Barbie cakes decorated to look like American Girl dolls,

 flowers,

Power Rangers,

and cars.

Lately we have encouraged the 'Make Your Own Cake' trend.

And a few rebels have chosen to go the non-cake route, choosing instead Cinnamon rolls, or Pistachio Pudding, or  Lizzie's favorite: the Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert.

So with the first of this year's birthdays upon us (not counting Naomi's, whose bday was waaayyyy back in the springtime) I am faced with the choice: Do I pull out an oldie but goody pan like this Scooby Doo resurrected from my childhood

Or do I come up with something new? Only 24 hours left to decide...

Beginning to Pull it All Together...

Now comes the next phase of this Week In The Life project - putting all those photos we took last week together with the stories and getting them into an album. So far I have Sunday done. I used Ali's template ( well, actually I made my own based on her template) for the first page of each day with a large focal photo.

Then I added a collage for the opposing page, adding just a few word strips,

And a third page talking about a major story in our life right now - Elijah's Diabetes.

I may add a 'regular' layout I did based on some pictures I took of Elizabeth and our observations of some of her peculiar habits.

And that will probably be all for Sunday.

I hope to be back tomorrow with the completed pages for Monday.

Week in the Life - Monday, July 25, 2011

Even though Elijah's diabetes has brought many changes to our routine, other parts of our life are still going as they always have. Papa still goes to work and every morning he lays out the things he needs to take with him: keys, cell phone, teeth.

Every morning the kids want to be fed. This morning they won out and got to start off the day with cool, refreshing Jello. In Mississippi by the time it is 9:00 a.m. you are ready for something cool and refreshing.

Speaking of food, it is nearing the end of the month and the end of the grocery budget. I have $35.00 left to spend on groceries, so I need to be careful in what I choose to buy so we don't run out of anything we really need. So I headed to Save A Lot and after spending $29.64 I came back with this:

The ice cream and Diet Coke were necessities, everything else was negotiable. While I was unpacking the provisions, folks started arriving. Gabriel came over for some girl-time with Naomi, lots of beads, and wire, and laughter, and chit-chat.

Aunt Mary brought a slew of young uns to play in the pool

And Jace came up for some play time with Granny

and even better than playing with the bestest Granny in the whole world is getting to play with Granny's toys

While Granny and Jace enjoyed playing in the lovely air conditioned house with cool toys, the boys and Lizzie played in the pool with their cousins and Papa.

All in all a lovely day.