Project Life: Week 7

I never thought our life was so busy! Well, I knew it was busy but not notable. Wondering if this is an unusual year or just an unusual perspective. Our kids are older too. That means they get personal agendas. LOL. It's exciting, but I'm not so sure this is going to be a 2 book kind of year, if you know what I mean. On to week 7!

With Valentines, there was extra that I wanted to capture for sure. Add in a Valentine's dance, a play, and time spent with friends and family and you've got a full week. With all the flip flaps, instagrams, and collages, I think I've got 23 pictures! Wowzers! So much for a pic a day (which I'm not abiding by anyway)! Here's the overview:



I added flip flaps from Close to My Heart to the 3 picture slots on the left side this week. It was just too much! Sunday, we had a visit from my brother and Sis-in-law and their kids, so I added a group of the kids, a group of the adults, and one of their baby, Miss Paisley, as an instagram. She was so tired! Monday, a dear friend came over and we started cleaning out our garage to convert it into a temporary school room. There was a pic of one of her daughters that was just my favorite photo of the week, though, so I had to add it! Tuesday, of course, was Valentines, so I squeezed gifts in using instagrams and a collage from these tiny templates. We also took our load to a consignment sale we participate in in the area. Whew.





My first insert this week is of my oldest at her Ballroom class Valentine Dance. She was crowned queen, so that added some extra excitement to the night. I shaved off 2/3 of the Design B page protector and made my horizontal pics 3x4.



On the back side I used 2 instagrams, a blank grid journaling card, and some Martha Stewart labels.



The second insert is a play program that goes with the first pic on the right side. A friend of mine and her husband were cast as the lead roles in a play. She asked me to photograph the dress rehearsal for her so they would have some pictures of the event. It was so fun and great to see them on stage! It's just 3 hole punched.



The third, yes third, insert is a letter from my niece to Graycen after visiting on Sunday. It was just too sweet to pass up. It could move to Graycen's album later, but for now, it will live here for safe keeping. I just slipped it in an 8.5x11 page protector. I've thought about adding a pic of the two of them. They are 3 months apart in age.



On the right side, I have a very traditional Design A spread. It includes, my friend (with a black eye from a fight scene!) and me after the play, a new dish rack my dad built for me over my sink, me lounging on a friend's HUGE new countertops, and Jason's aunt baking cookies with Grayce and her granddaughter. They came for dinner and a play visit on Saturday.



What's missing from this week - can you believe something is missing?! - is the invitation to the dance (it's around here somewhere) and pictures from Disciple Now at our church. Bree wasn't interested in taking a camera (Grrr), but one of her friends had one, so if I end up with some pics, I may slip them in next week since it ended on Sunday. I also may slip my Valentine card from Hun in there. We'll see. Love it!

Linking up with Jessica at The Mom Creative.

Project Life: Week 6

I'm happy to be getting to post this week actually in this week. Don't want to break the streak! Week 6 was jam packed full for us at the D Den. I still have a few things floating around out there, but at least when it finds it's way to me, it will have a home! That is one of the things I love most about this project. It gives me a home for all that memorabilia. I don't have a box full of it where it doesn't mean anything. This gives it an appointed place and puts it in the context of the time it happened to our family. That is why I stick with paper for this project. It gives me the freedom of inserting papers, receipts, tickets, programs, and all that stuff I would otherwise have to find a home for. The digital format is so appealing to me, but this way really completes our family picture more easily for me. That being said, on to week 6!



First off, I had to work with that funky page protector that I used last week. It was a great week to do it though, because my baby turned 6 this week and it made the week special! We had birthday celebrations, Super Bowl with friends, making valentines, 2 skate parties, visits from family, a 4H meeting, and a lunch date, among a myriad of other "events"!

The left side shows highlights of Graycen's birthday week on that 4x12 strip. I also used more of the "supplement" paper that I had gotten to go with my clementine kit. I really loved mixing that in this week. It also had little elements to cut out and add in. I put 5 2x2 instagrams across the top - Graycen being measured, her birthday ribbon from Memaw, her Snoopy cake, a visit from Gigi (her great grandmother), and a visit from Mimi and Mr. Roy. The other highlights of the page are from Sunday and Monday. Sunday we hung out with our friends the Firths all afternoon and watched the Super Bowl together that night. In the afternoon, Katie and I got this picture on our phones. The guys had taken the kids out on 4 wheelers and this was Jason with Graycen and Ella Kate. The funny part is that Ella Kate is usually so shy around Jason, almost scared of him. We couldn't believe she was riding the 4 wheeler with him! The 3.5x3.5 instagram is Jadon in church reading along in his Bible, and the other one for Monday is Caitlyn's beautiful marshmallow valentines.



I had 2 inserts this week! First, Ali Edwards proposed doing a day in the life for Wednesday. That was the day of Graycen's birthday, so I thought that would be a great day to play along. I'm even considering doing it for every kid's birthday. We'll see how that goes. I just added an 8x8 insert. It is a template from her Yesterday and Today class that I took last year. It was perfect for it for me. I broke down and ordered the digital Clementine papers from Jessica Sprague to use for this digital layout. The backside is a grid of pics from the template. Super easy!





Insert 2 is of the 2 skating parties we had on Friday. The front side is the Valentine party with our Homeschool Association. It is an annual event the kids look so forward to. I included Jadon and Graycen's valentines that we made with their pictures. The back side of the second insert is our Family Night at the church. We ended up taking 2 of our neighbor friends and babysitting 2 cousins! That made 7 kids (Bree was gone to a birthday slumber party.) It was a little wild on skates but we made it! The top vertical picture is reserved for a picture of me and our Childrens Director on skates! It was taken by another friend.





The right side of the week is traditional Design A and shows 2 business cards from my lunch with Jason and main errand on Tuesday, Graycen and her friend celebrating their birthdays together, a 4H meeting project, and all those youngins back at my house watching a movie after the skate party. The last pic was taken with my photosynth app and cropped. Having fun with that!



Wow! If you are still with me, bless you. This was a long post. Don't forget, for more inspiration check out The Mom Creative where I link my Project Life pages!

Valentines Sweetness

We had a sweet Valentine's Day here at the D Den. My sweet, thoughtful husband surprised me with this:



So, I in turn surprised him with this:



Not exactly the same is it? LOL. They were supposed to look like this:



Well, maybe the thought counts this time. LOL. My card rawked though, but that will remain between us! ;)

I'll be back soon with a Project Life Post and a Room of the Month post. Busy, busy!

Project Life: Week 5

Week 5! That's amazing! Loving this project and now that I am comfortable with it (only took a year!), I'm ready to branch out and start thinking outside the little white box, so to speak. ;) This week I replaced the right side page protector with a different We R Memory Keepers protector I had. It wasn't the one I originally envisioned, but I didn't own that one, so we're moving on. What this means is next week I'll have to work with it too. I'm excited though because we have some special occasions coming up next week and it will be nice to draw attention to it that way.

Here's the complete week:



I really loved what I had to add this week. Some good stories and everyday life.

The left side shows me playing photoshop with my friend Katie. This is becoming a regular habit. Lol. She is learning digital scrapbooking and it gives us a chance to put our weeks together - well, together. We did a huge lego sorting the beginning of the week for J's new trofast, and he is loving that. Building like crazy. Graycen had some sweet moments. I love that she has this pillowcase dress her Aunt Laura made her when she was 3 (we think). She is about to be 6, and it is still just as cute. Still loving playing with instagrams and all the filters and styles. The 2x2 inch size is perfect for the 3x4 journaling cards.



The right side is the different WRMK protector. It has one long 4x12 inch slot on top and 4 4x6s underneath. I downloaded a new app (thanks Gina!) called photosynth. It's said to be not quite as good as photostitch, but it was free so I wanted to try it. We had a ladies' event at our church and my homeschool momma's met to go together. This is our table at the restaurant before the show. I loved capturing everyone around the table, and the app worked pretty well unless someone really moved (Ame has no face - sorry!) This was a great spot for it. I just cropped it to the original dimensions to fit on 2 4x6s, trimmed them, and stuck them down side by side on a 4x12 piece of cardstock. (My ticket is on the date card on the other side.) I used a free template from Oscraps (Paisley Press maybe?) to drop in 2 other pics from the night on one of the 4x6s below.



The other highlight of the right side was our shopping errands on Friday. I captured the buggy because it was full of things for valentines and a birthday celebration I normally wouldn't buy. It also shows my almost 6 year old riding in the buggy. ;) I used a flip-flap from one of my favorite Close to My Heart consultants to add a pic of me and the girls that night watching Dolphin Tale. That is one of my favorite things (Friday night movie night) and it was the ending of a unusual usual day. Figure that one out. The backside of the shopping pic is my journaling card.




Hope you are loving your Project Life journey as much as I am! I'm linking up at The Mom Creative, so check out Jessica's blog too!

Remember, Don't Invent

Today "Remember" came to me. Not in a good way though. I am remembering today, but it's not things I want to remember. It feels more like haunting. This is an exercise. What part of my spirit needs the stretching? Trust? Forgiveness? Peace? I have a feeling just because I chose this word for this year, it is going to stretch me and tug and pull. Hopefully, for the better.

Actually I am not remembering as much as I am inventing. I think about things that haven't happened, but are related to what has. That's really not fair - to me or anyone else. Matthew 6:34, "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." That should probably apply to the past also. Making up "scenes" in my head is probably worrying about tomorrow - as if it is to come. Today. Be present today. Plan school. Love these tired kids from a long Super Bowl Sunday. Love this house. Take care of it remembering to be grateful for what I have to take care of.

From my beloved Psalms (55:22): "Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken."

I Peter 5:7 - "Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you."

He cares for me. How humbling. I'm blessed that I have physical people around me that care too. My husband cares for me. He tells me. Other family and friends care too. I am truly grateful. I am so aware of the fact that we cannot follow our emotions. Mine used to be much more even keel and reasonable. Now that I am crazy, I will follow you Lord. ;)

Project Life : Week 4

I got to add my first insert this week! I was beginning to get paranoid that my life was lame and uneventful when I kept seeing everyone else's inserts of events of the week. ;) Just kidding. I love that I have weeks of simplicity and 1 or 2 focuses and then weeks of crazy, not enough room, excitement.

This week started with parties and ended with parties. I have some around the house shots and then some school and art shots. My inserts are our Annual International Festival with our Homeschool Association.



On the left side I highlighted the weather on my date card. It has been so mild and crazy here in Georgia this year. I love being able to use screen captures and print them as pictures. Sunday was a surprise 30th birthday for my friend Katie. We were in kahootz with her hubby to keep her away from the house, so my pics are from behind her! This was my favorite though. I also included a new drawer for that kitchen organization project I keep hemming around about. There is a shot of above Caitlyn's desk, that I love. It was full of color and animals and life, just like her!



On the right side I got to highlight Graycen doing Foot Math. I put the instagram on Facebook and I loved the comments I got. She is well loved. The other event was Breana trying some crayon art from Pinterest. I'm really glad she can explore creativity and try things that she likes. The bottom picture is Jason doing some P90x with his workout buddy. She hung with him the whole time. LOL.



This week my 2 inserts are about our International Festival. We studied China with our friends the Rockers. On one side is our preparation of our board and food. The second side is our display and the fun at the festival. Insert 2 is Caitlyn's painting on rice paper of a panda that was included on the display board and on the back is Graycen's scavenger hunt. I wanted to capture her handwriting and the fact that she answered most of the questions on her own! I used a Design B page protector with the 3rd row cut off and a regular 8.5x11 page protector.









Link up at The Mom Creative!

One Little Word 2012: REMEMBER

I'm afraid that the inspiration for my little word this year is going to wear off, so without putting it off any longer, I am ready to commit and elaborate. This year's word came to me during an Explorer's Bible Study lecture. I don't know why, but things started to just pour into my brain on how applicable this word can be this year. This year I want to...



It struck me so powerfully that I knew that this was it. I hope to just have "remember posts" ever so often to exercise this word this year. This fall we were encouraged to be purposeful, to resolve in one of the lectures. I found myself strongly yearning to remember everything I was hearing and thinking. Now, I know that's not possible, but I feel if I am purposeful in remembering, I will just create better habits of observation and application. On the notes that day I knew areas of "remembrance" needed to be remembering memories (Project Life, scrapbooking in general, blogging, journaling, scrapbooking moments and stories and not just events), remembering scripture (memorizing it, writing it, posting it on my desk cabinet door, bookmarking it, putting it on the wall), remember my priorities (my husband's needs, my children's hearts, my church service, my home, my friendships), remember myself (my physical wellbeing - go to the dr., exercise, eat well; my spiritual wellbeing - communication with God, regular study, reading through the Bible; my mental wellbeing - reading, hobbies), remember to slow down and take time (for thinking, for organizing, for resting, for creating, for all these things).

I want a calmness and an order to this crazy life. I feel some big changes coming and some maturing coming. It may be painful. It may be uncomfortable, but I'm ready for the outcome.

I've also thought about this in a different way. I want to remember the past this year. Some of that is good. Revisiting what my babies sounded like at 2 (and preserving that) is a sweet piece of the past. I want to remember the hard struggles. I want that to make me thankful and thoughtful and purposeful in moving forward. I don't want to remember the hurtful things, but I never want to forget the lessons learned from that. I want to remember the present. The daily happenings, the lessons now, the age cuteness of all of my children now. BE PRESENT. I want to remember what is promised for my future. In obedience to Him, I want to trust God's sovereignty to provide my future whatever that looks like. Remember His promises. Remember who He is.

That's all for now...I hope there's more...a whole year's worth.