good intentions

Well, last week was the first week of "Quarter 3" of Annie's school year...though a much abbreviated week, as we took Monday and Friday off along with the boys. And I had honestly planned to get back to my "homeschool happenings and highlights" posting. But the weekend went by and I didn't get to it.

I love doing my "good stuff" posts, and figured that since Melissa is now hosting Good News Sunday, Sunday would be the perfect time to post a new one. Again, it didn't happen.

Rich got home a little early from work on Friday, and I decided to just blow off all responsibilities and head to the basement and scrapbook for a bit. (Surprised I remembered how as it's been so long.) Meant to post my layout. Obviously, that didn't happen either.

Yep, sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging, huh? And don't worry, I do realize that is a good thing.

Anyway, here are the condensed versions:

"Homeschool Happenings and Highlights"
--Annie's favorites from the week:
*starting The Giver
*swimming lessons
*watching Nature: Alligators and Crocodiles (reptiles unit)
*watching Save Our History: Star-Spangled Banner (War of 1812 unit)

"Good Stuff"
*having Rich home...of course!
*conversation hearts "in season"
*having two extra days off from school
*starting The Fellowship of the Ring and finding that I was an idiot for ever having felt intimidated by it
*making time to scrapbook
*cuddling up with a warm beagle
*cuddling up with a warm husband to watch 2 episodes of Jericho
*paperbackswap.com, from which I got Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
*gift cards, which allowed me to pick up Blaze by Stephen King, The 6th Target by James Patterson, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (I know, I know, I was trying to save the rest of my gift cards, but with the discount from Educators Week, I just couldn't resist. But now the cards are spent, and I'd better start reading!)

"Creating Update"
*one scrapbook layout

*working on another project that I can't really talk about yet

Okay, and now I best get back to my previously scheduled life. (And catching up with everyone else's lives.)

this past week

For whatever reason, be it chronic sleep deprivation, or more likely simple laziness, I just can't seem to organize my thoughts here. So I'm just going to throw them out there all willy-nilly.

*Annie was sick this past week, so we didn't get a lot done in the way of "school" stuff. She's feeling much better, but is definitely not back to normal yet. The good news: not a single sign of asthma during this whole illness!!!


*Still reading Halloween picture books to the boys each night. Picked up a few more at the library Friday. I have fallen totally in love with one of them, Halloween Night by Elizabeth Hatch. The story is cute enough, but it is the artwork by Jimmy Pickering that has me wanting to go out and purchase my own copy of this book.



























*We'd hoped to go to the local nursery/Halloween heaven yesterday, but found it just waaaaaaay too jam-packed with people. Decided we'll try some evening during the week instead. But we headed to the grocery store to pick up some cider and donuts so our trip out wouldn't be a complete waste. (And we actually picked up some pumpkins there at Wegmans...they had some beauties!)

*The munchkins and I watched Return to Halloweentown last night. (Rich was busy walking the pooch and then jogging--or as he calls it, his "campaign to stay not dead.") The movie was okay, cute in that pre-teen Disney sort of way. The kids really enjoyed it, and that's what mattered.

*This weekend was the local library's fall book sale. I get so giddy in the weeks before these things! And being members of the Friends of the Library has its advantages...getting first dibs at the members only sale the day before it's open to the general public. We spent a whopping $10.70! For 21 books! This is my own personal haul. Annie, of course, found a pile for herself, Rich found a few, and I found a couple my mom has been wanting. So, all in all, a pretty successful outing for us!


My pile is definitely Stephen King heavy. There was a time...back in high school and through much of my 20s...that I devoured everything he wrote as soon as it came out. But then for whatever reason, my interest just waned. But something has re-sparked that interest, so I decided to pick up some of the books I missed during my long hiatus. (Actually think I read The Dark Half, but I honestly can't remember it.)

*After leaving the book sale, we headed to Borders. Hey, one can never get enough books, right? No, actually we went with a specific purpose in mind. We had a 40% off coupon for a particular book we wanted to buy someone (who shall remain nameless) for Christmas. But, of course, it's nearly impossible to get off that easily, right? I just couldn't help myself...I had to buy Cross now that it's out in paperback. And I actually started reading it last night...I was just too tired to focus fully on Frankenstein. Anyway, this is the first book in what seems like forever that I'm not reading for either homeschooling or for a reading challenge.


*I finally managed to get a few more Halloween cards made this week. Of course, the big question still remains...will I actually get around to mailing any of them?
















Okay, okay, I have babbled on for far too long, so I guess I should go be productive or something.

paper and books

It's been a long time since I've gotten any scrapbooking done. And it will probably be a while longer yet. I can't believe we've nearly hit the end of September already. Which means my papercrafting time (yeah, what time?!!) needs to be spent getting all those Christmas cards made. O.K., O.K., I've been telling myself that for the past 6 weeks, but have yet to do anything about it. I did, however, manage to make a couple of Halloween cards spending 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there.

Might try to make a few more this week...but then I must put everything else away and drag out "Christmas" supplies. Maybe if the stuff is sitting out on my table, I'll actually manage to get around to it. Maybe.










As far as my other mode of relaxation, reading, I'm not doing much better. My biggest problem is that there just isn't enough hours in the day. But I think I may also be my own worst enemy. It used to be that I could only read one book at a time. Or so I believed, anyway. But several months back, I discovered that I really could focus on more than one at a time. And this was great...but I think I've taken it way too far! I'm now reading so many at one time that I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. I'm still trying to finish up A Time to Kill from the Southern Reading Challenge (which of course is long over). I'm reading The Trials of Life for the Non-Fiction Five (which ends Sunday, so I'd better get moving!). I'm reading Frankenstein for the R.I.P. II Challenge. I'm reading Charlotte's Web to the boys (and for the Four-Legged Friends Challenge). And then just to make things even more chaotic, last night Rich, Annie, and I started reading MacBeth aloud together (another for the R.I.P. II Challenge).

Yes, it would be fair to say that I'm in over my head. And yet, what did I do this morning? Signed up for two more challenges! I'm a sick woman, I tell you. Sick. Seems as if I thrive on failure, doesn't it? Anyway, Becky is hosting these two new challenges. Actually, she calls them mini-challenges. And for many readers out there that "mini" title would apply...but for me they are definitely full-blown challenges. They do sound quite fun though...one is a Jane Austen/Masterpiece Theater challenge and one is a C.S. Lewis/J.R.R. Tolkien challenge. Pop over to Becky's if you're interested. I posted my lists over at my "damn...how am I ever going to read all these?!!" blog.

playing...

Well, according my self-imposed blogging schedule, this is the day to post about creative endeavors. I'm afraid that this is generally going to mean I just don't post on Tuesdays, as there just seems to be so little time for creating anything lately. It feels like as there is time for is school prep. Endless school prep.

Anyway, this is a layout I did a few weeks back. I just love working with pictures from the munchkins' baby and toddler days...so fun reliving that time, if just for a few minutes in my mind.



And here's a glimpse at my "wishful thinking" creativity. I really wish an ounce of photographic talent in me...but what the heck, I have fun doing it and that's what truly matters, right?

not my usual

Well, according to the not-so-rigid schedule I'd made for myself way back when, Tuesday was to be my day to post about any of my creative endeavors. But for the most part, those have been severely lacking as of late. I did finish a layout a couple weeks ago, but am lacking the motivation to photograph it so I can post it today (got a doozie of a summer cold, that is just sucking my mental energies). Did manage to scan this card I made for my wonderful parents, who have been helping us out in numerous ways as of late. (They truly are the greatest!)



But I do have news on a different creative front. I had planned to post about this weeks ago, right before the computer debacle. Anyway, as much as I love to write, it's just not a talent I am endowed with. So when Carl announced his Tiny Story Contest I really had no intention of joining. (I thought it would be the perfect little exercise for Annie to try, but she never got around to doing it.) Anyway, Carl worded the announcement like such a challenge, stating that we couldn't use "but I'm not that creative" as an excuse. So I decided to give it a shot, just to see if I could do it. Now, this was not just any writing contest--it had very specific rules...it had to be exactly 100 words long and you could not use any word more than once. Aaargh. I have no idea if everyone else had as difficult a time as I did or not. The 100 words part wasn't so bad, but the not using any word more than once...now that was tough. Anyway, the unbelievable happened...I tied for third place! Which had me feeling giddy all day, let me tell you! Unfortunately though, I really feel unworthy. Seriously, you should really read what some of those talented people came up with (and you can, right here). I was honestly blown away by the stories the others wrote! My tiny story honestly didn't measure up, but hey...I'll take any boost to the ego I can get.

just another layout

Does that urge to create ever just get the better of you? That's what happened last night...I just wanted to scrapbook! So, I did. Despite the fact that I should have been working on homeschool stuff. Despite the fact that my old scrapbook room was in total disarray and my new one just wasn't ready yet. Despite the fact that I was in the midst of baking cookies for Annie's soccer party tonight. Despite all that, I just grabbed some pictures and set to work, running up and down the stairs between batches of cookies. And let me tell you...it felt good!



I admit the resulting layout is nothing spectacular, but that's okay. It was fun working with these pictures...they're from such a long time ago! Though I'm still not the best photographer around, it is nice to see that I've definitely improved since then. These pictures are from a trip Rich and I took in Sept. 1989, before we were married. Back in those days when we took our favorite kind of trip...the kind where we have a vague destination in mind, but we just sort of wander around on our way there and back. For this trip, we knew we wanted to end up in the Outer Banks, but we definitely took the long way there. Leaving from the Philadelphia area of PA, we went and camped in western MD, drove down Skyline Drive, and headed to Appomattox Courthouse before ever reaching our destination. And then Hurricane Hugo ended up chasing us out of the Outer Banks, so we headed up to the Baltimore Aquarium and then to visit some friends in NJ before heading home. Ahhhh...those carefree days.

Anyway, now that I got that out of my system, maybe I can get back to some of the things I "should" be doing.

where has the summer gone?!!

I simply can't believe we're nearing the end of July already! How can this possibly be?!!

Rich was saying just last night that we really need to stop planning so many big projects for the summer and start relaxing and enjoying it instead. Sounds good, but how to put that idea into practice is the trick.

Take, for example, homeschooling prep. Since we can't really afford any pre-made curriculum, and haven't found any that we really love and would suit our purposes anyway, I tend to do most of it myself. The problem with that is that is takes time...lots and lots of time. Summer is the time to get as much prepared ahead as I possibly can.

And, of course, summer is the time for outdoor projects. There's just no fighting the weather, right?

And this summer, we're working on switching what seems to be half the house around. Moving my scraproom in with our "classroom". Moving Annie to the soon-to-be old scraproom. Moving Max into the room Annie now has. Annie's "new" room will need to be painted and whatnot. And we promised Gray that we will also paint his room once we get Max moved out of there. The bathroom also desperately needs painted. Again, painting is best done in the summer when you can keep the window open.

Add in the kids' summer projects...soccer 4 nights a week, flute lessons, writing "camp", taking care of the school garden for a week...

Now, here comes the question people...how do you find the time to relax and do the things you enjoy during the summer? I know darn well we're not the only ones who are incredibly busy. Heck, some of you are probably a lot busier than we are. So how do you do it? How do sneak in time for the things you love and the things that keep you sane? I really need some tips from some of you out there who actually have their act together.

Now over about the last two weeks, I did manage to steal 2 minutes here and 5 minutes there, etc. to complete a single layout. One. And I don't even like it. (Though I do really, really love the picture of Rich and Maxidoodle!)



You know, I suppose one obvious answer would be to stop blogging, but please don't ask me to do that!

a big old hodgepodge of nothing exciting...

*On slate for the day:
--Finish cleaning this house. (A "must-do" as Annie is having a friend sleep over tonight, and I'd really hate to have her go home and tell her mom what a pig sty we live in.)
--Pick up some odds and ends at the grocery store. (A "must-do" because we'd really like to be able to brush our teeth for the rest of the week.)
--Go to nursery to order flagstone. (A "should-do" before someone breaks an ankle on our crumbling walkway.)
--Make menu for coming week. (A "should-do" as it really does make life easier in the long run.)
--Work some on next year's school prep. (A "should-do" because I'd really like to have as much possible done before school starts, so I'm not constantly trying to stay one step ahead and actually falling two steps behind.)
--Go to Barnes & Noble. (A "just for fun" that needs no explanation.)


*I actually had enough gumption left at the end of the day to go scrapbook for a bit. Threw together a quick zoo layout. Nothing fancy. But then I never get too fancy.



*Carl, a man of apparently limitless generosity, decided to get Annie the extended edition DVDs of the Lord of the Ring trilogy. Yeah, WOW, huh? Actually, he found the first one and sent it to Annie as part of "her prize"...which, of course, he didn't have to do--he just made up the category for her prize after the fact. Anyway, he told me after he'd mailed it that he'd wished he'd got all of the movies for her. And wouldn't you know...yep, he went and did it. Annie and I watched The Fellowship of the Rings. It goes without saying that Annie loved it. What surprised the crap out of me was how much I loved it! I'd never seen the movies or read the books. I honestly just never thought I'd be interested. Wrong! Now I get what all the fuss was about...better late than never, I suppose. And of course, now I can't wait to read the books.

nothing much

Just not much exciting going on around here the last few days. I don't even have a "words on Wednesday" post today, because I didn't come across any new words this past week. Must not have got much reading done, huh?

Anyway, evenings are still filled with soccer games. Gray scored his first goal Monday night! And days have been spent doing normal stuff. I've been working on trying to "condense" the classroom, so I can move my scrapbook stuff out there. Also been working on getting the IHIP (Individual Home Instruction Plan) ready to send into the school district for Annie's next year of homeschooling.

The kids seem to be enjoying their first week of summer vacation so far. No "I'm bored"s yet anyway. Gray, of course, spends hours each day drawing. And Annie, of course, spends the bulk of her time reading. Max, as usual, spends the majority of his time trying to annoy Gray and Annie. When failing at that endeavor, he inevitably manages to find trouble elsewhere.

Since I've nothing else to talk about, I figured I'd post a couple of layouts I completed over the last couple of weeks...



Both blasts from the past. I randomly chose a photo box, and then randomly chose a photo. How fast time flies...those pictures of Annie are from 6 years ago, and the one of Gray is 4.5 years ago. Wow. Thank heavens for photos!



And this is just a card I threw together for a friend's little girl's birthday.








And now I guess it's time to sign off from this less than exciting post. But Mom, I'll bet you at least enjoyed the pictures of the munchkins, huh?

a case in point...

Just look me, back here again, when I really need to be working. I'm hopeless, I tell you, hopeless! And as if the fact that I'm back here blogging again isn't enough to prove what I wrote last post is true, take a look at this...



Yep, I actually scrapbooked yesterday. Now, mind you, I don't think for one minute that scrapbooking is a waste of time. It's just that I really should have been making better use of my time...I went downstairs to start getting the "guest room" put together, not to scrapbook. What is my problem?!!

creating update (week 6)

On the knitting front this week, I continued working on the matching hat. Not looking much like a hat yet though, is it?

I also began I new knitting project. Another scarf for Annie. Would like to finish it in time for her birthday, but don't really see that happening.

And on the scrapbooking front, I made myself start this layout. And as I'd hoped, once I got started I didn't want to stop until I'd finished. Rich really loves this layout, as does Annie...and that's always the best reward. I already used this photo in our 2006 vacation album, and I rarely scrap the same photo twice, but I loved this one so much that I wanted Annie to have a copy of it in her personal albums.



And that concludes this creating update.

creating update (week 3)

Running a day behind here. Oh well. It's not like there's much to report. Was a terribly hectic week.


Did make Gray's Webkin his scarf. Photo came out incredibly funky...the scarf in reality, is simply red. Silly little project, but they've made for good practice. And they've thrilled the daylights out of the kids...love it when something so simple can bring them such joy! If all goes well, I guess next week I'll be posting Annie's.
I also began a slightly more substantial knitting project. (Slightly being the key word there.) Finally feeling like I might actually get the hang of this whole knitting thing...well, at least the basics. Forgot to take a photo though. Figure I'll post it next week, when I've made a little more progress.

I've also managed to keep up with my writing for 100 Words. But it hasn't been easy. The hardest part isn't getting the word count to exactly 100 words, it's simply coming up with something to write about each day. I'm happy with some of my entries, and some of them, frankly, just suck. But I'm happy with myself that I've kept up with the challenge thus far.

And finally, just one scrapbook layout. The third and final spread for Day 2 of our Road Trip 2006 album.



And that sums up a less-than-stellar week of creating. May the coming week be more fruitful!

creating update (week 2)

A pretty slow week compared to last. But that was to be expected...after all, it was back to school.



Completed 2 spreads for our Road Trip 2006 album. Not much creativity involved though...just following the plan I came up with for the album. So it was just a matter of execution. Almost finished the third and final spread for Day 2 as well...I needed to enlarge a photo, but discovered we were out of photo paper. Oh well.




Continued practicing the knitting. Was getting a little bored with knitting and ripping out and knitting and ripping out, but I didn't feel ready to start any real project. Then Max asked me to make his Webkin kitty a scarf. Perfect. As simple as it gets, yet sort of productive as well. Now Gray and Annie want scarves for their Webkins, too. Which is fine with me...more practice. Maybe by then, I'll be ready for something a bit more challenging (or at least a bit larger).
Did want to say a big "Thank you!" to Dawn for hooking me up this a great knitting website. Haven't had a great deal of time to fully explore it, but it seems absolutely fantastic. Did learn a new way to cast on there, which I like much better than the way I learned from the booklet I'd been using.

And on a new front, I started working on a batch at 100 Words. It's a neat little writing site. To participate, you must write 100 words each and every day for a particular month. I am definitely not a writer, but it's a fun challenge to help me spread my wings a bit.

And aside from a birthday card I threw together so last minute that I didn't have time to scan it, that about sums up my creating endeavors for the week.

creating update (week 1)

I posted a week or so ago about how Keri Smith's Living Out Loud reinvigorated me. It reminded me of how much I love to create. It's always been a big part of my life. Until the demands of motherhood grew so overwhelming that playing and creating just for me simply had to take a back-seat. I don't think allowing that to happen was wise. So I have decided to make a concerted effort to put a little more "me-time" back into my life. And I've decided that I'm going to update my blog once a week with my efforts...I'm hoping that will motivate me to squeeze in as many of those precious moments as possible.

On the scrapbooking front:

Completed 3 layouts this week (been a loooong time since I've done that many layouts in such a short time--of course, it did help that it was winter break, and that I had 2 whole days without the kids).





































































On the sewing front:

Made this little purse for a friend's daughter's birthday. Had a lot of fun with this. The green fabric is from an old shirt of Annie's. Just kind of made the whole thing up as I went. Was the first time I ever tried making French seams...wanted to use them so I could hide the strap inside them down the sides for a little added stability. I simply love how it turned out! Hopefully Bryn will like it, too.







Miscellaneous:

I decided to try my hand at knitting. I love the look of knitting, but I've never learned to do it. Thought it was time to try. So far, I'm not making anything per se. I'm just practicing the stitches. Picked up the "knit" fairly quickly, had a lot more trouble with the "purl". I actually think knowing how to crochet may be hindering the process a bit...I'm having a hard time adjusting how I hold the yarn. But I'll get it eventually...just have to keep plugging away.

I also worked a bit on my needlepoint picture, but I didn't take a photo of that.


All in all, a pretty good week. Wish I'd done some writing as well, but I can't do everything at once, I suppose.

another hare-brain idea

O.K.--so I'm now thinking that my "use up scraps immediately at all costs" plan may be doomed for failure. I still like the "idea", but actual execution is already wearing me down. I completed another layout using those 2 papers from my original. And another card. (Which puts the total at 2 layouts and 4 cards.) The problem? I'm sick to death of these papers! And I STILL have some left. How can 2 lousy sheets of paper go so far? And I've discovered another problem with my whole half-baked idea...I added a third pattern paper to the second layout, so I now, of course, have scraps from that paper as well. This is going to turn into a never-ending quest.

Oh well. Not the only dumb idea I've ever had. Not even the dumbest.

something from next to nothing

Don't ask me why, but I just hate scraps. I hate having tiny portions of food leftover. I used to hate the scraps I would have left from my sewing projects. And now that I scrapbook, I hate all the paper scraps.

But I simply can't throw these scraps away. (Well, the food often does get thrown away once I've given it sufficient time to mold in the fridge.)

So I've given myself a new mandate. Whenever I make a new layout, I have to use up the scraps immediately.

Last week, I actually completed a layout (the first in literally months). And since then, I have made 3 cards (one of which I already mailed) from the scraps. And I have another layout planned which should just about use up the remains.




Sure, I'm about sick of these two particular papers. But at least I'll have no scraps to store, right?