A new layout~

Amy put up a challenge on the blog. The colors were too good to resist. You should try one, too!

A new layout.

new gallery!

Today is a new gallery at write. click. scrapbook! Check it!

inspired by Monika

It's day three of Monika sketches. Here is my layout!

it's nearly August

It's nearly August. Here is a peek at my new gallery layout! I am excited for this one. It was a good to get this story recorded. I have a feeling it will be one that my children face as they get to be mother's of busy kids. It will be fun to see the similarities in years and year.

The other exciting news is that the newbies at write. click. scrapbook. will be showcasing their talents in the new gallery. It so exciting!! They are amazingly talented. I can't wait for you to see fall in love as I have.

reaching back

these photos are from last year. and from the year before. look at my tiny Poppy going back with her teacher for her evals...

Mother's Day photo

A picture from Mother's Day a couple of years ago. Goodness my babies have grown. :(

Grid love

Having a bit of a love affair with grid paper. And loving that bottom photo. So not us. But us. heehee.

my peace

i should rewrite this journaling. it doesn't tell the story. of how i stand on the beach and immediately become another person. no, the same person, but the truer, more essential person. the person who is grounded. and for whom nothing seems overwhelming.

seeing the size of the ocean reminds me that i am small. and that nothing is that significant. in a good way. i love the perspective of realizing that things ebb and flow all around me and i am just a part of the universe, and that it is not all my responsibility. in fact, it hardly notices me at all. my role here is neither crushing nor essential.

the roar drowns out all the other noise: both that around me and that inside my head. it is the one place i can truly just be. just sit and be. no busy thoughts. no sore head. nothing at all. i don't have that anywhere else.

the colors are my essence. blues and greys of every hue. visual peace and harmony.

here, everyone is entertained by the sand and the water. nothing plugs in. nothing is digitized. laughter plays on the treble clef, accompanying the bass of the water. together they bring peace to my heart and my soul.

here i feel my father in heaven. i feel His power. and His awareness of me. this is a curious juxtaposition against the nothingness that i described above, but they truly work together. i am certain it is also intertwined with the part of not having busy thoughts. tha clarity of thought allows me to be more contemplative and more aware of my spiritual yearnings.

one day i will have this out my front door.

until then, i will visit yearly if at all possible.

happy accident

This one is for the write! week at write. click. scrapbook. I quite like how it turned out, though it was a bit of an accident!!

Is it okay to admit that out loud?

motherhood matters

I did this for our mother's day week at write. click. scrapbook. i think it is so important to be honest about things. especially concerning motherhood matters and how it matters. and how hard those matters can be.

a book about me

imagine, a book about me and my life.things right now. maybe different tomorrow... :)

made this with a cocoa daisy kit. love them.

March Mini Madness

This was my mini album for this month's gallery at write. click. scrapbook. I love was so excited to use this fun paper from October Afternoon. Have such a crush on them...

music

made this for a write. click. scrapbook. saturday post. is it wrong to admit that i love it?

pagemap

The amazing Becky Fleck created a PageMap for us at write. click. scrapbook. This is my layout using it! Love how fun and easy it is.

this beautiful life

I bought this book as Lavender and I were at Target for a quick pick up of Valentine's Treats the day after. It had lots of badges on the front declaring it a must read. And was on sale, so I grabbed it.

What a mess of a book. The subject matter is good for prompting a discussion around the dinner table, but that is it. The book is about a boy who receives a graphic email from a girl and then, without thinking, forwards it to his friend to have him help reason through it. Rather than help, the friend forwards it to a couple of friends, and by weekend's end, it is wholly viral.

I don't even care about giving away the plot as I would like to help you to not have to read this book, so essentially the boy is suspended from school, and then the damage begins. The parents are of course affected, even reaching the father's job, but the sadness is the unravel as each member of the family is left healing in their own corner without much from each other. You see the family disintegrating, but then the book ends sharply with only references to longterm fallout.

While I think this book is trying to tackle a true and very current issue, it borders on smutty as it tried to help you understand the graphic nature of the video that this misguided, unparented 13 yr-old sent to a 16 year old boy to try to win his affections. The mother watches it repeatedly, the father only once. The little preschooler sees it and learns the dance. It is revolting.

I read the author's notes in the back about how she was trying to have Manhattan be as much of a story at the viral email. I missed out on that. I admit I skimmed a good two thirds as I searched for something redeeming to read. And found nothing.

Don't read this. But do talk about the danger of forwarding graphic/explicit materials with your children.

books read: 6

write. click. scrapbook. saturdays

This week I was in charge of our scrapbook! post. I was excited to see them take shape. love love love good scrapbooking days.

outside wonderland

 I grabbed this book at a quick Target trip to have something to read on the plane home. It was on sale for 3.76. Who could say no?

I really enjoyed this book. I loved how ferociously the grandma loved these kids. I loved how the kids had some residual loss issues but yet were smart enough to seize a good relationship when it was there. I loved the side players, too. Ms. Cook had wonderful visual descriptions of the characters. I could see them all so perfectly in my mind's eye. Wonderful.

books read: 5

dressed in black

made this for the Write. Click. Scrapbook. gallery. oh, the good ole days and the music...

the stuff that never happened

I bought this book as it intrigued me that it had the same cover as another book I have read.

Odd, no? You would think there are underpaid workers somewhere researching these things.

On to the book. I read this while traveling. Alone. I liked some of it, but really try to stay away from books promoting adultery. I did enjoy the book, and it was refreshing to see a couple trying to put themselves back together and make their relatiionship work after an affair has taken place, but there was still much justifying of the adultery. Just not my cup of tea.

The book is well written and the relationships were well-constructed. And Ms. Dawson did accurately capture our less than fine selves. I thought she did a good job showing how a small fight can become a huge mess, without trying.

I also really liked how our real selves can be hidden from those we love as we make their lives smooth and polished. Seeing the grown child handle the discovery of hte mother as a human was well written.

Not a waste of time. But not a good use of my time, either.

books read: 4