Week in the Life Day 3

Wow! Day 3's photos already! Or, maybe I should say, it's about time. Yep, I'm working on this late today. Been one of those days, I guess. But, here is yesterday's day in photos - I got a little bit artistic with the photos while editing them...


The kids played outside in the morning, and Jake ended up filthy, so once I was done with my workout, I gave him a bath - he loves baths!

In the meantime the girls played in their room. Ummm.... sadly, they just cleaned it last week. See the red curtains? Dave found them in a house he cleaned out (don't worry, I wash them well), and they make the room so... red! Seriously, when the sun shines in, the room is awash in red!

Jake took a fairly early nap, and the girls asked to use my paints. They had a lot of fun painting!

Elizabeth's dog clown.

Lily's bowl of chocolate and painting of herself with someone who is NOT her sister (they had a lot of arguing yesterday!)

And the little guy sleeps. Umm... I think I see a popsicle stick in there - you never know where he'll throw them.

After painting, Lily wanted to throw a fashion show for me. I was trying to work, but took some time to watch. She put a chair at the bottom of the stairs with a pillowcase lying in front of it (I didn't quite understand that part...) and walked up and down the stairs with the same dress over and over, but different accessories (including stuffed animal and bubbles.) I caught this photo as she was changing something up there - I loved the effect of the sun coming through the bathroom window.


After nap it was time to play outside. Elizabeth with a smug look on her face, for some reason.


I did a lot of laundry - mmm... fresh towels! The bottom ones here are the new ones - I washed them on their own, and the dryer lint from these was incredible! The boys didn't think that was very exciting when I told them...

This is kind of a crumby photo, as Dylan all of a sudden noticed I had the camera and trying to get away, but this where you'll usually find the boys when they're home at the computer, or on their bed playing Magic.

Dave pulled out the cheetos while he was making supper, then headed outside. This has become a favorite snack of Jake's lately, so he thought he would follow suit, and proceeded to stuff as many cheetos in his hands before he went out the door - I finally had to grab the bag, he had them falling on the floor, in his mouth...

Jake and Lily putting some mail in the box for me.


Lily on the back of the truck.

Jake wants to sit there too!


Yum - corn on the cob! Poor William still has braces, and has to cut his off.

While I did dishes, Dave had the kids outside, and Elizabeth took some pictures of the young ones swinging. She's really trying to help me with this!

Week in the Life Day 2

Here is my day 2 of Week in the Life. It was a day where we stayed home all day, and I got my work done halfway early. That's always fun! Oh - and my daughter Elizabeth told me I could borrow her camera for a while - what a sweetie!!

Me, doing what I do. Well, most of what I do is on the computer, but we like to keep a hard copy of everything we do as well.

When I got my work done, the little guy was sleeping, so I thought it was a great time to paint my nails - I'm loving this orange shade! And a little caffeine and ginseng never hurt anyone, right? (except that's my hubby's soda, and he might not like if he saw I was drinking it...) lol

During crafting time (at least the girls get to do that whenever they want to), Lily made herself a Mrs. Snowman mask - cute, huh?

After they got all their other work done today, my guys cut our own lawn. Here's Dylan doing what he does most of the day - weed eating.


And Jake loves it when Daddy is mowing - he gets to ride along. He should have been eating supper right then, but riding the tractor is definitely more fun (plus supper last night turned out really bad, so I can't blame him for not wanting to eat it!)

After all the yard work and dishes and laundry, Dave had to bring the trailer back to the shop, and said he wanted to get a new pillow. So, he and Jake and I hopped in the pickup, and went to Walmart. Jake wasn't wearing any shorts! lol

What a mess Walmart was last night - boxes everywhere! And wow, did we load up a cart! Not only did we get a new pillow for Dave, but for everyone in the house (it was time!) Plus, he decided we needed new towels too - he's right - the great Martha Stewart Egyptian cotton ones we got about 10 years ago were getting a little (or a lot) on the bad side...

Explore

I just need to love on Shimelle here for minute. She is so inspiring to me. If you haven't already, I would TOTALLY suggest you watch her video on Ali Edward's blog - you can find the blog post here.

I am taking Shimelle's Explore class, and am totally loving it. I can't believe how much she has put into it for such an inexpensive class! Here is the book I have made so far.

Front cover - how lucky was I that my new labels from Elle's Studio showed up while I was making this - that EXPLORE tag was just perfect for my cover!

Here is a self portrait of myself, the way my family often sees me - with my camera in hand.

A letter to myself reminding myself what I am taking the class for.

Just playing with map papers and circles - making my own embellishments.

We were instructed to write down something that we feel is perfect in our lives.


And these pages were in response to a request to take a photo of where we stand the most, sit the most, and sleep the most. Sleeping the most would have to be a tie between the bed and the recliner, I'm afraid...

I am really enjoying this class!!

Week in the Life Day 1

Welcome to my first Week in the Life. I am so excited about this! The day certainly had some ups and downs, but I got about 110 photos of so, and took lots of notes. Here are some of my photos and words.

Dave started out the morning writing down what they did the day before, and planning work for the day ahead. This is a morning ritual. They have plenty to do today!

Jake was amused by something! And I think he has a piece of Dave's toast going into his mouth. He usually likes to eat breakfast with Daddy.


While I exercised, Jake got up on the top bunk bed, and he never gets down unless I get him down, so they waited up there for about 45 minutes. I think they were having fun though - I hope so, at least!

The girls saw me taking a photo of my feet, and wanted their pretty painted toenails in the picture too. We had all bought some new polish on Sunday, so it was fun to take a picture.

We ran to town to get groceries. Jake had finally finished off the unliked purple popsicles, so we finally were able to get another package (the purples always get left for the end. Orange first, then red, then purple.) We also go a treat of chocolate milk - it's great, but it will never compare to the Heartland chocolate milk in the glass bottles that we loved!

My precious camera in a bag of rice. I did the unthinkable. While taking some photos upstairs for Shimelle's Explore class (which I am loving!), I walked into the bathroom. As I entered the room, my hand hit the doorknob, and my camera went flying. It landed directly in the open toilet! Yuck! I tried to turn it on pretty quickly afterward (I knew better, but couldn't help it...), so I'm sure it's fried. But, I'm trying to dry it out, and hope maybe it works again. I'm not feeling very good about that though. This was the camera Dave gave me for Christmas a couple years ago when he knew I wanted a new camera (of course, I was wishing for DSLR...) Fortunately, no matter how old it is, I'm thankful that we have a backup digital camera, because poor photos are better than no photos! As you can tell, I forgot to take off the date stamp...


After supper when the girls were taking out recycling, Jake wanted to help. Of course, he didn't want to come back in, even with the promise of his favorite treat - watermelon! Elizabeth ended up carrying him in kicking and screaming so we could do dishes (she said he even bit her shoulder.) The watermelon did eventually calm him down, but you can still see a tear on his face.

After dishes, I folded some laundry. As I looked at these shirts of my boys', I reflected on how hard Dave and my boys work. It was 94 degrees out today, and they were out mowing all day! What incredible dedication they show!

Jake is often trying to help while we do dishes, but tonight, Lily got him to lay on the sofa with her, and watch cartoons. That was a huge help, because he usually gets water all over the place! They looked so sweet here. It was so dark, so I'm thankful I was able to get the photo to look halfway decent!

Some Pre CHA Favorites

I am sitting here with some major CHA envy! How I would LOVE to go - especially since it's just kinda close (only about 5 hrs away...) But, as I look at all the goodies here on my computer screen, I've been collection some of my favorite sneak peeks. I thought I'd share them with you. Prepare to be falling in love!

Jenni Bowlin has some lovely new Halloween and Christmas kits coming out, but my favorites are some of her embellishments. Look at these lovely flowers!

And this great alpha!
Webster's Pages has several new collections coming out, but Western Romance is my favorite (I think...)


And the trim that goes with it... to die for!


Crate Paper's kits are always some of my favorites, and the Random Collection is no exception!


I'm also in love with their Farmhouse Collection.



Studio Calico has really outdone themselves!! They have 3 beautiful new collections coming out with oodles of goodies to go along with them! I think Memoir is my favorite collection.
And these new Mister Huey's are definitely calling my name! (I love that Overdue!)


Pin Paislee has lots of goodness debuting! Check out these adorable wood letters!


And their new Mistables collection looks like so much fun!


October Afternoon also has a Farmhouse Collection coming out that I love!

And their Sidewalks Collection looks adorable!
Glitz has a few new collections, and Vintage Blue is my favorite of those.
Maya Road has a incredible amount of new goodness! I'm loving this crocheted ruffle trim!


And these cameo stamps have my mind spinning with possibilities!
And how cute are these chipboard pieces??



My favorite new collection from Lily Bee Design is Head Over Heels - so pretty!


And Elle's Studio released their new collection this week (some of it is on it's way into my mailbox already!)

I love these pennants!



And their new Little Snippets line is awesome!!

I am sure there are some that I've missed... but these are the ones that have really stood out to me this week!

It's been a while...

It's been a little while since I have blogged, but I have good reason. I had planned to start a LOAD on July 1st, and was very excited about it. But, I got really busy on July 1st, after being up very late the night before uploading things that needed to be uploaded by the end of the month. So, at a certain point, I decided I would start on July 2. But, sadly before July 2nd came, I got a call that my stepson had been involved in a bad accident. He is okay - a broken arm, and very banged up, but we are so fortunate that he is still with us. Sadly the family of the other person involved was not that fortunate. So, it's been a very sad and tense time here, and scrapping has been the last thing on my mind. We feel so sad for the other family, and our son is traumatized over this. Plus, we are still waiting to see if any charges are filed. It's quite stressful here.

But! Life goes on! I finally scrapped my first page yesterday, and it felt so good! I can't make any promises that I'll actually do one every day, but I am sure going to try.



Credits: Cardstock - Colorbok; Banner tag - Elle's Studio; Alphas and word sticker on banner, date sticker - The Girls' Paperie; Woodgrain alpha - Sassafrass Lass

The paint splat I did using a Ranger Mini Mister, in which I mixed some acrylic paint and water. I'm pretty happy with how that worked. I have to do some more playing around with that to make it exactly like I want, but so far, I'm liking what it's doing!