All I Want for Christmas

Follow this link to check out the shoes I just created on Converse.com.

Seriously, how cool are these?!  And yes, I know they're totally impractical, but I LOVE them. I think I will buy them for myself after Christmas. 

I mean, really - Chucks with zebra print, lime green and purple?!  Fabulous!!!!  You know you want some!  Click the link above and design your own pair. 

Here are the ones my kids designed for themselves:

Nin - a fun pink and purple mix:

Elizabeth: pink with a splash of teal:

I just love my Annie - this girl has a style all her own - and these would either go with everything or nothing at all:

 How funny is that girl?!  I love them. 

Harrison: the boy loves purple and blue. He did love the grey camo for the tongue, though.

Here's what happens when you let the girls design for their daddy. I'm cracking up. And fact of the matter is, my husband would wear these.  I did talk them out of pink laces. I think he'd draw the line there.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

Sweet baby boy starts preschool tomorrow morning. Excitement abounds – I think more from his sisters than from him. He is still saying, “No thank you, Mommy. I stay home with you and the girls.” Sweet little boy!!! Although today he seemed a little more upbeat about the possibility of going. We’ll see what happens tomorrow when it’s drop-off time. 
I’ve made a little “first day of school” treat for the three ladies in the office, his teacher and co-teacher, the music teacher, and the PreK teacher…even though we don’t have her this year (she had all three of my girls and we all love her). I’m doing water bottle “tags” with drink mix.  I got the idea from google images and I don’t remember what I was looking for when I found it but I thought it was a fun little treat. This is the blog post I found…mine aren’t nearly as cute since I don’t have all the cutie punches or Nesties yet (working on that!).  I wanted to go a little more “primary” since it’s the first day of preschool. I used yellow for the tag, stamped the tag in blue, sentiment in black and apple in a reddish pink (I really need a good *red* – hopefully PTI will have theirs out next month!!).  The drink mix is a raspberry lemonade. I love raspberry lemonade!

Because these drink packs are wider than Crystal Light, I had to cut the “tag” a little wider.  The yellow cardstock is 3” x 8.5”, the patterned paper is 2-7/8” x 6”.  I adhered the pattern paper and then scored at 2” and 6”, used adhesive on either side of the “pocket”, die cut the hole for the top of the bottle, and put on the Tag-It. As I look at it now, I wish I’d used foam tape and some baker’s twine. I’ll know to do that next time.
Recipe:Cardstock: Michael’s
Patterned paper: ancient from my stash, but I think it came from Michael’s about 10 years ago (I need to be on Paper Hoarders!)
Stamps: Tag-Its #6 (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Chipped Sapphire, Worn Lipstick (Distress Ink), Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Dies: Nestabilities Standard Circles, Large (Spellbinders)
Water bottle, drink mix – get your favorites from the grocery, WalMart, Target, etc.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Card for Friend

This is the card no one ever wants to make. I wanted to keep it clean, simple and soft. I grunged up the edges of the Spring Rain with some Old Paper Distress Ink and stamped the sentiments onto scrap paper before stamping it onto the card.

I will be giving this to our friends who lost their sweet baby boy to a cord accident at 37 weeks. Inside is blank. I am going to write them a short note. I’m also considering making them some note cards with various passages of Scripture printed and the Botanical Silhouettes stamped on them. I just need to decide which passages I want to use. I have a couple of weeks to do that – I’ll take those to them when we prepare dinner for them on the 18th.

Everything but the ink is PTI.
Cardstock: Spring Rain, Spring Moss, Vintage Cream
Stamps: Botanical Silhouettes
Ink: Distress Ink Old Paper and Chipped Sapphire (stamped off on scrap paper before stamping on the card)

Thanks for visiting.

School Days, School Days

So, in this post I said I was going to try to get significantly caught up on our scrapbooks.  Um. Yeah. That didn’t happen. I did, however, get laundry and ironing and other house duties completely caught up over the summer.

Now, though – school has started in The Shoe!

We are using the following curriculum -

Science: Apologia, Exploring Creation with Astronomy and I’m using the notebooking pages from Jeannie Fulbright’s website. I love that she includes a notebook for “non-writers”, too, because it allows Harrison and Annie to participate in science with the big girls. Harrison loves doing school with his sisters.
History: Story of the World  All four kiddos have a history notebook and they love it. They love history, which is a ton of fun for me since I love it, too.
Reading: Annie is doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She’s doing well, loves learning new sounds and reading small words.
Katherine will be using the Veritas Press 2nd grade literature list. She needs a little more practice before she starts chapter books so we are doing the “More Favorites” before she moves on to The Boxcar Children.
Elizabeth will be using the Veritas Press 3rd grade literature list. Narnia, a children’s prose verion of The Iliad, Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte’s Web. She gets to read some great stuff this year.
Handwriting:  We continue to use A Reason for Handwriting.  Annie is in book A. Nin in the transition book (and I’ll probably have her go through more of the manuscript section of the book than Elizabeth did last year).  Elizabeth is in book C – it’s all cursive for her!  Why yes, we do still teach cursive in The Shoe.
Math:  Annie and Katherine are doing Saxon Math.  Annie is doing Math1 and Katherine is doing Math3.  Elizabeth has moved to A Beka Math 3.  
Grammar:  Only Elizabeth and Katherine are doing grammar and we are using Shurley. They learn both grammar and writing in this curriculum. Diagraming sentences. Oh. Yay. Something they’d stopped teaching in English when I was in school. I never learned to diagram a sentence.
Spelling:  Again, only Elizabeth and Nin are doing spelling. We are using A Reason for Spelling which they are loving.  I’m using a level that’s probably a little easier for Elizabeth because I’m teaching both of them at the same time. 

Phew. That’s it.  And I’m working, too.  Is there any wonder I’m up at 5:30 and awake until midnight? 

Where to start

I’ve made one sympathy card this weekend – a dear friend’s mother died. Just a couple of hours after I made his card, I found out a sweet young couple at our church lost their unborn son at 37 weeks. My heart is broken. How do I make them a card? How do I convey how much I ache for them, how much I am praying for them, how I literally don’t have words and just cry for them? But I will, because I do not want to not acknowledge their loss.  I cannot imagine. No one can know that hurt unless they’ve been there – left the hospital with empty arms. I hurt for them. I pray for them constantly.

This morning in church, our Worship Pastor announced that he is leaving. Their family is moving to take care of his wife’s aging and ill parents. I am thrilled that God provided the perfect job for him at another church in the area. I am glad that he is modeling for his children how to honor your parents. But, oh… Their youngest child is one of Elizabeth’s best friends and when she realized they’re moving far away, the look on her face was more than I could bear. He has been with us through the lowest of the lows…the days when our marriage was literally hanging by a hair (thread is stronger that what our marriage was hanging by, it was that bad). He was there as we, as I, struggled with infertility and gave us precious counsel. He was on the phone with my husband moments before Brad’s dad died. He has been with us through the highest of the highs…he has been at the hospital when each of our babies have been born, he celebrated with us and was the officiant as we renewed our wedding vows. He has truly pastored us. He has been at the hospital every time I’ve had surgery – and knows what a horrible PACU patient I am. He was there with Brad the last time I had surgery and was as shocked as we were that I was loaded up and headed home 30 minutes after I woke up (it was a BIG deal). His wife has been a dear friend and sounding board. She has counseled me as a wife and as a mom. She’s often the first call I make “Do I need to go to the doctor with this child?” (she’s a RN).  To say him leaving is unexpected wouldn’t be true, because we have expected it…just not yet.

But still, as sad as their leaving is to me – it’s not the loss of a child. We can still have a relationship with them. We can go visit them and it will be fun. Everything has been tempered by this young couple’s loss. I am drained.