Ten on Tuesday

1. If you know me, you know how I love/tend to overbook us in all ways possible because everything sounds like so much fun, right? Well, Saturday was booked full from about 11am onward.  On Thursday or Friday, Brent's back had started hurting and got worse by the day.  To the point where I was helping him up from sitting positions, consistently, etc... We took this as a message to scale back the rest of the weekend.  We did all the Saturday things -- hair apt. and yoga for me, birthday part for E's friend, riding lessons for M, and then bailed on the Girl Scout party and hung out at the neighborhood pool instead.  After that, we pretty much dialed back to not much so he could rest and we could all mentally rest after chaos behind and looking ahead of us.  We went to the pool every evening as part of our good byes as it has been such a constant to us this summer. We tossed E high in the air I got to swim actual laps (20 one day!). We did other little house projects like replacing some window screens.  We rested.  With a new chair, meds, and rest, Brent's back is MUCH better and I think so are all of us.

2. Sunday's one activity (other than the pool) was breakfast out as we were out of coffee and the kids were feeling like fall hot chocolate.  It was fun and delicious!

3.  M is now in group riding lessons with three other girls including her buddy Ashtyn.  She seems to have conquered her nerves, is feeling the rhythm with the horse and following all the instructions well.  She has beautiful posture on the horse and got lots of compliments from her instructor (rare!).  She got the new riding stance on the first try and took the horse over small landscapte timber obstacles as part of the riding circut.  Having an hour class is MUCH better!

 4.  Did I mention we had a hard time letting go of the pool? Here is M on the last day hugging the furniture!  B is having less difficulty as he knows he'll be swimming four days a week, but it will be less leisurely than our family swims, I suspect and indoors.

5.  In a stunning turn of events I started actually scrapbooking again.  In the course of the weekend I finished 12 pages. (Four of those I started last week, but hadn't done the journaling).  In fairness, 7 total of those were pretty formulaic - 4 pages of vacation photos on the same model, 3 pages of kid interviews on a different model.  The remaining 4 though were all unique and it took me a bit to relearn how to do that.  It is weird, as I've scrapbooked 100s of pages overtime, but it takes awhile to remember what works and figure out the style/layout components.  The above is probably my favorite of the lot.  It is about getting snowcones with the Wainrights and our adventures with them.  The other three pages are about - celebrating July 4th at the lake, going to the Zoo with cousins to start and end the summer, and E's summer gymnastics lessons.  Yes, I scrapbook kind of randomly whatever strikes my fancy!  All this was inspired by stopping at an actual scrapbook store on Friday afternoon and buying 20 pages of paper with the challenge to myself that I had to complete 10 layouts by the end of Monday--- and I did it! Hooray!

 6.  We had big rains last week!  Just a torential downpoor so all the occasional "water feature" in our yard were in full effect.  My favorite of them is when the little "creekbed" in the front pours down the steps creating little waterfalls.  (Most of the rest are less cute and more in need of fixing).  E dancing in the rain in his backwards swimming suit is always cute too!

7.  We've been so lucky to have Grandma stay with us several days a week of late.  Thursday (you can tell it is Thursday by E's mass-day uniform, lol), she bought each kids some books and little fun presents. They loved listening to her read books most of all.  E is especially cuddly of late after long days at school.

8.  FunRun! The school fundraiser at Cross Timbers is named Fun Run.  They raise money for technology, teacher grants, Scholastic news, school events, and other supplies for the school.  If you'd like to donate click on  (M) or (B) and donate either a flat amount or an amount per lap.  The fundraiser ends Thursday! Thanks to those of you who have already donate!

9.  Yes, we did wake up to the big 5.6 earthquake on Saturday morning.  It was the longest one I think I've experienced so far. We're all fine here, but there is damage closer to the epicenter. I do worry about what happens with the next bigger one when this one was a record.  We're starting to do a bit more teaching of our kids about earthquake safety and I'm looking at my emergency supplies in a new light.  Apparently September is national emergency preparedness month (apparently?) -- -anyway, I picked up a couple more items for our kit today. I add a few things now and then in an attempt to get it closer to the 72 hour kit ideal, but no so big that Brent loses patience with it..... hmmm Today's additions were these emergency whistles with compasses and a few other cool features and a small sleeping bag - this is only the second sleeping bag in the kit, but there are those mylar blankets in there.  In concept we should have time to grab actual sleeping bags but like to have some as back up.  In DC we had whistles like this for building collapses so that might have been inspired by the earthquake...

10.  We planted fall garden! I forget pretty much every year, but we made some small attempts this year.  I'm not super optimistic about all these things actually maturing before cold weather, but who knows!  Our sprinklers broke right after the big rainstorm so M is now in charge of watering the garden lightly 2x a day.  So far, so good!

If this table could talk

Dinner tables hold a special place in family life.  I looked for months to find the perfect one for our growing family.  After much searching, I finally found it at Crate and Barrel in Saint Louis, while visiting Audra.  In the summer of 2010, this became our family dining table.  It is very simple, classic rectangle with five chairs and a bench seat next to the windows.  It is almost too big for the space, but we want to fit as many people and as many stories around it as possible.

I love this space.

It gets used every day for meals, art, conversation, coloring, creativity, and learning through homework or home school, talks together, reading, experiments, sewing, molding with clay or play dough, painting, watercolor pencils, scanning maps, reading and making cards, or trying something we’ve never done before.  We sit together almost every evening sharing the stories of our day, the good, the bad, and the different.  We taste new flavors and tell so many jokes.  We laugh, parent, scold, love, and teach.  

This is where Maggie practices her French with me and Grandma.  This is where I do my December Daily many years, gathering the story of our Christmases.  This is where Brendan’s Spanish lessons happen.  This is where Everett climbs all over us.  This is where Brendan and Uncle Zach built a motor together and where Brent did dry ice magic for Maggie’s 5th birthday party.  This is where my sister, mom, Tracie, Chrissie, Kari, and I chat for hours about everything while kids play nearby.   This is where we paint together, build so, so many LEGO creations together, and play board games and card games together.  This is where we celebrate as a family and gather with friends.

We have pictures of this table at most of our celebrations - birthdays, brunch or dinner with friends and family, baptisms, baby and bridal showers, book club, preparations for adventures, and the Christmas Tea. We gather here to share our stories, celebrate our lives, and listen to each other.  Many times we are still sitting here hours later, even though there are more comfortable seats in our house.  

The table has born witness to a baby’s first bites of food, the first tastes of the the spices shop’s wares, and 100s of different cooking attempts.  It is the scene of date night for Brent and I and play dates for the kids.  Some days, there are flowers, often there are LEGOs, and some days there are fancier decorations.  Most days, it is a plain table, slightly stained with use, scared from projects, scattered with crumbs, well-loved and home for us.  

If this table could talk it would tell of snacks, simple meals and elaborate ones, having heard us ask for kids to try their food and sit on their bottoms, prayers, dreams, tears, laughter at knock-knock jokes created by our kids, stories of love, sadness, joy, and worries, birthday songs, crafting adventures, working together, helping each other, loving each other --- you know all the basics that make us a family.  This is where we gather to eat, but it is home to so much more.  I am so very thankful.

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I subscribe to Ali Edwards' Story Kit.  In some ways, it is a normal kit club and I receive product each month. However, unlike more traditional clubs each month is geared to a story telling them.  That theme is supported by classroom content including prompts, examples, story sparks, videos and guest presenters all helping you tell your stories using the month's theme and product.  I am LOVING it. I like that it is pushing me to tell stories I might not otherwise have thought of. I like that it is a challenge, that I get to puzzle things out, and of course get my stories told using lovely products. The above post is based on a layout and prompt from the February kit and a blog post Ali did on the same topic a while ago.  I will print the journaling and collage and add a few embellishments to turn this from blog post to scrapbook page, but I wanted to share the base here as well. 

Days 22- 24

Hello all,
  Ready for a few more days of December Daily? I've been catching up and have six total ready to share.  I am missing Christmas Day itself as I don't have the right photo paper to print the pictures, but it should be here soon.

Day 22: Left page

Day 22: Right Page

Meanwhile, let's see what happened before Christmas.

 When we last left off we had enjoyed one day of Richards family festivities.  Day 22 was spent with the larger Rouse clan enjoying lots of fun, more presents, and delicious food in a big family setting.  Lots of fun!

Day 23 - 

Day 23: Left Page

Day 24: Right Page

The next day was mostly quietly preparing at home.  I chose to chronicle the presents Brent and I finally started to wrap under the tree and the month-long enjoyment of the LEGO advent calendars. 

Day 24 - 

Day 24: Left Page

Day 24: Right page --- itching to add some twine to that little metal tag....

On Christmas Eve, we baked whole wheat chocolate chip cookies for Santa and readied cinnamon roll dough for our Christmas morning breakfast.   We went to afternoon Christmas Mass (which was a little crazy as the kids still had lots of energy.) The family photo before Mass was actually taken by E --- you can see the little remote in his hand.  Then we had delicious Christmas Eve dinner of steak, baked potatoes, and garlic bread with Grandma before slipping into PJs.  Of course we had to set out Sant's snack, open the fire place doors, and set the stockings out just so before anyone could begin to dream of sugar plums.

It was a nice gradual build up to Christmas.  Each day had a bit of fun, but none of them felt too overwhelming. 

DD Day 21: Presents!

Today, Christmas began in earnest.  The kids have been SO excited all week about celebrating at Grammie & Granddaddy's house with their cousins.  Brent and I were worried it might night happen after last night's ice storm, but it all went perfectly.  We took pictures in front of the tree when we arrived and then jumped right in to opening presents.  It was awesome.  Everyone got so many wonderful things. Most notably, perhaps, M got her most wished for item, a scooter! (Not the best present on an icy day, but she rode it inside :)

After presents we had all afternoon to play with the new toys and with each other.  There were pauses for tasty crafts and winding down time watching Despicable Me2 in the evening. I loved that everyone got to try out all their new treasures together and no one ever ran out of fun things to do.

This is what the next two pages look like together.  

This is one of my favorites of the kids.  They did so well.  I also really like the transparency flower page above.  Overall it was just an amazing family day and I am SO glad it all worked out with weather concerns and all.  

(Crafting Note: Almost everything on these pages is from the SC Kit, except for that awesome red flower and the white flower on the presents page, which came from Freckled Fawn kits. The "So Blessed" flair is from the Dec. SC PL kit and I truly was feeling it today." Also, I have blocked out some of the story as it is a little too private for the internet.  I do this periodically on scrapbook pages when there is something that I think is too private for prime time, but I want in my personal story). 

Dec. 18 - Blessings

Today putting this together went super quickly!  This was a good day to reflect on how blessed we were.  The day began with me watching B hand his bus driver the small gift we had for him and seeing this elderly gentleman's face light up.  I loved it.  He waved to me and thanked B.  Suddenly, all these many gifts we're giving began to transform from a task list into a recognition of how blessed we are to have all these people in our lives.  A bit later, with a tiny bit of nudging, Lady M decided to make bracelets for all of her classmates, teacher, and the lady who lead her school as well as many members of our family.  She made them one after the other and packed them into her back pack.  At school, she gave them to Ms. Roxy & Ms. Rawan first and, again, their faces lighted up.  They gave her big hugs and thanked her so much for making these for them (Yes, we gave them hot chocolate too, but I think they liked the special bracelet more in that moment).  Then, Lady M proceeded to carefully distribute bracelets to her classmates.  It was lovely to watch.  In the evening, she and B worked together on beading necklaces while wearing the bracelets she made earlier.  (I, of course, wore mine all day).  While they worked on the beading I finished up tags and packaging for teacher's gifts. Yes, we have a lot of teachers to thank. But today, that just means we're lucky to have so many blessings in our lives.  

(Crafting note - the ornament design with the blessings circle was adopted from Ali's Day 12).


This means I'm up to date, but also have posted a lot in the last few hours.  Here are the recent posts in case you missed one:

Day 15: Ballet
Day 16: Prepare
Day 17: Books!

Day 17: Books!

Day 17 was the final day before the excitement really begins.  Today, was a "read in" at B's school.  A variety of different people came to Angie Debo to read books to the kids all day. This reminded me that we hadn't had our Christmas books day yet.  As one might expect, at least one of the books I bought weeks ago for this purpose has gone missing so a substitution of a "not quite so Christmassy" book had to be made.  M got the new Tallulah's Nutcracker book. B received "Seven Silly Eaters." E received  "A Child's Christmas in Wales," which actually should probably belong to Grandma or Great-Grandpa and may be swapped out for something else for him as this is a better book for lovers of literature than for one year-olds.  (Why didn't I read it first???) Anyway, we then read several more Christmas books from our collection and called it a night as Daddy was off at his last dorm duty of the year!

Crafting notes:  I wanted to fill in the empty left side of the photo so I just added these thicker bits there and in the right hand corner.  I topped them with more star sequins for sparkle.  The journaling lines are that thin gold striped washi from the SC kit.  The idea to use them as journaling lines came from Ali's day 16. I added a tiny bit of sparkly silver and called it good:)

Hopefully, I'll have day 18 soon as well. I hope all your preparations are going well!

Day 16: Prepare

Remember the old church hymn "Prepare the way for the Lord"? I don't know if we were doing quite that kind of preparations, but the refrain was in my head all day as we worked on our own variety of Christmas preparations. We ran all over doing errands -- things like picking up food for class parties, finished gathering up pieces for our teacher's gifts, and generally getting our week of celebrations in order.  Lady M, continued her elf coloring spree in down moments.  So far we've printed 15 pages of elves.  Thanks to Chrissie for the link.  

Also, big Congratulations to some of our dearest friends, the Wainrights who welcomed baby Maia Marie today!  We are completely thrilled for them and excited to welcome them to the "parents of 3" club (We should thinks of a better name...hmmm).  In any case, we can't wait to meet their new Lady M!

Dec Daily 15: The Ballet!

Day 15 was hard for me to work my way up to as it is so hard to choose photos so again I used a lot. I used blue and pink bits from the SC and Freckled Fawn kits across the pages to keep them a unified package.  The story is all about Lady M, Grandma, Tracie, and I attending the OKC Ballet's production of the Nutcracker. 

See that journaling card at the bottom left? It is in a page protector cut in half.  I cut appart more of the blue words from the SC kit and pasted them in the journaling where appropriate.  They are sprinkled throughout the pages of the spread as well. 

Here we are closer up with the journaling over the last page. M loved the show and did really well this year.  However, I was feeding her little bits of chocolate throughout so at the end she was FULL of energy and danced inside and out. 

She also enjoyed the milk and cookies in the lobby.  She wanted to see all the stars of the show, but would not talk to them or take pictures with them as she was just too shy. (This is the back side of the journaling card insert)

Here is the spread with the insert flipped over. 

The Right page is M smiling under the staircase and dancing her way to the car.  The Spice Shop had an ad in the Program right under the description of Act II.  We saw it during intermission.  It includes pictures of Grandma and Uncle Able.  Very exciting.

(The arrow, blue bling, and "joy" badge are also from the Freckled Fawn December kit). 

And that friends, was Day 15.  Sadly,  no pictures with Tracie as M was refusing pictures after the show and Tracie didn't join us until the last minute before.  

Either way it was a very fun, festive day, and the ballet was beautiful! 

Day 6 - Snow Day + Gingerbread Cookies

Day 6 was lots of fun -- it was our first snow day in quite some time!  The littles began the morning playing outside in the snow with Daddy.  M and Brent even made a very small snow man.  We do have lots of snow (maybe 6 inches) but it is dry and not good for snowmen.  We persevered.  Brent and the kids played, watched some shows, and spent lots of time making watercolor pencil paintings while I worked.  Then, Brent cleaned off the driveway and went in to work for a 1/2 day.  The big kids watched a movie while E nappped and I finished up my work.  Then, it was time for the big Gingerbread Cookie making adventure. 

I, admitly, do not really like making cut out cookies as it takes forever to get through the whole process and I'm usually over it by the time it is time to decorate.  The kids, however, love it and this seemed like a good day for it.  They helped with every stage and had a fabulous time.  E attempted some decorating, but mostly got VERY messy.  The bigs were more patient and made some fabulous creations.  It was a fun silly day and a great time with our kids.

(Crafting note - before I started working on this last night my SC boxes arrived and there were lots as fun goodies.  That cool "Love This Life" transparency is from the January PL kit.  The cork on the bottom photo is from my SC Secret Santa via Freckled Fawn.  On the right hand page, I used this cool metal tag that I bought on black friday.  It says "Walking in a Winter Wonderland." Perfect, right?)

Here are the pages together.  I'm mostly waiting to photograph them in the mornings even though I finish them at night because sometimes inspiration strikes over night.  I wasn't very pleased with the right page initially, but when I was photographing them this morning I had the sudden realization that the decorating photo should be on top (as shown here) not in the bottom slot where I put it initially.  With that one small change, I suddenly was much happier.  The great thing about pocket pages is that that was a very easy thing to fix!

DD 4 & 5 Doughnuts + Snow!

With all the weather excitement today I didn't get day 4 posted earlier so here are days four and five together (fun fact, apparently I posted them together last year too!) As mentioned previously, I'm trying to make December full of fun and low on stress (i.e. not over planning things).  Yesterday presented an opportunity to embrace impromptu fun and we seized it!  

On the way home from school, M asked if we could have a doughnut party. Now normally, my answer to this at 2:30 in the afternoon would be no, but, we're having random fun so off we went!  We bought a dozen festive doughnuts and threw ourselves a party.  The little kids had a hard time waiting for their brother to get home, but we made it by cleaning the counter and setting out the doughnuts in a fancy cake dome (which protected them from sneaky hands as well as looking pretty).  After lots of doughnut fun, we did baths x3 (at say 5pm...) Then, I knew they wouldn't eat dinner so we had popcorn and a movie instead (fun! although not a very nutrient dense day )  Brent has caught my cold so he slept through most of this, but the kids and I had a very fun evening.  Props to Lady M for keeping the fun rolling:)

Here is what the page looks like without the earlier page behind it.  I'm having a lot of trouble getting the "GIVE" letters from day three to stick and stay in a straight line. Turns out that stickles aren't a great adhesive on plastic so I've opted for my standby glue dots.  Otherwise, there's just a bit of stamping, sequins and flair to wrap up day 4.

Day 5's surprise was a lovely snow storm.  It was the type with the big beautiful fluffy flakes of snow.  It was E's first real experience playing in the snow and he loved it. He was full of smiles and fist pumps as he toddled around after his siblings.  The littles actually went out twice - once before B came home and once after.  The big kids had little heart hand warmers in their pockets and we managed to find mittens/gloves for everyone, which is a snow day miracle itself.  After everyone was freezing we came in and had hot chocolate and marshmallows (of course).  And enjoyed watching the flakes keep falling. We have a couple inches of snow now and may get a couple more.  School is cancelled tomorrow which will be our first snow day of the year (and maybe last year too!)

Crafting Notes: The ribbon on the photo, the number, and flair are from the SC December Daily Kit.  The little "snowflakes" are from an earlier SC kit and probably not meant to be snow flakes, but it works, right?

Here are the two pages together with the peak-a-boo page showing.  I kind of like how (completely by accident) the embellishments fit well around E's face in the page behind it. Hooray for serendipity!

I hope you all are having a lovely December and are somewhere safe and warm. 

DD 2013: Day 3 - Give

In response to so much "buying" between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, they have now created "Giving Tuesday."  While I didn't participate in the other "events." Giving is always part of our Christmas celebrations so I used this nudge to focus on giving yesterday.  Above is the full spread.  The right page is about giving and the left is about missing my Dad.  Yeah, so my one photo, one story plan is falling slightly off the rails, but I'm fine with that.  I'll explain more below.

Here is the right hand page with the pages behind it removed.  The upper corner is the word "GIVE" again adhered on a smudge of gold glitter stickles that are hard to see here, but neat in person.  Then, on both sides of the transparency I added these bursts, stars, and dots from the SC Kit. 

 Below is a collage of the charities we gave to yesterday.  I talked through the concept of charitable giving with my kids and told them what groups Brent and I donate to regularly (Oklahoma Regional Food Bank, Myriad Gardens, Child's Play, Project Night Night, Heifer International, OU, GW, NPR, St. John's Catholic Church, Wiggle Out Loud, etc...)  

Then we talked about why we give money to these groups.  I liked that B asked interesting questions like why do we give money to the Myriad Gardens as he didn't see a tie to how that was helping people.  I explained that we support them because they create beauty in our city and hold events that enrich our community. I think they are growing and building the city of OKC with their plantings, educational outreach, but also by community building. (Yes, I'm a new donor to the Myriad Gardens this year, because I'm so impressed with its evolution lately). 

At the end, B chose to donate to Child's Play (also Brent's Christmas choice).  M chose to donate toys and warm clothes to her school as part of its clothing and toy drive. I donated to Project Night Night on behalf of E.  We also did a few other small donations based on our conversations and I encourage you to think about giving this season too and talk about it with your kids. I'm not going to say it was an easy concept, but it is important so I took the time and several approaches to try getting them to think about it more. 

This other story needed a place too. It might fit well in my "more magic" section at the back, but it is also sort of part of the giving story as my parents were definitely the ones who instilled in me the need to give back and help others.  Yesterday, Audra's crew visited for awhile and we went to the cow calf hay-- a small restaurant that I think my dad would have liked.  The little grandsons he never met both had on their overalls and were looking very cute.  My kids and Zane took turns riding on these saddles and I just know he would have loved it.  I miss my Dad and am trying to carry on the lessons he taught us with our kids.  That twinge of sadness is a real part of my holiday season so this seemed like a good space to fit it in with a picture of our very cute overalls boy. 

Crafting note - the card here came with one of my SC kits. I just added the zig zag washi for a bit more color and visual interest. 

DD 2013 - Day 2: Beautiful

I've grown into the habit of looking for the day's story after four years of completing this project.  There are a few days I plan out for the month and a few others I know will fit in between.  Each  December, one page of my December Daily is devoted to each of our children.  As yesterday unfolded it was clearly Lady M's day.  Above is a picture of her in the Christmas dress she picked out herself.  I "think" I will add this picture as a 6x8 into the album with pretty paper or embellishments on the back.  

For now, we have this sweet image, and my letter to her about her fabulous, exciting day.  She was full of Christmas spirit and helped everyone else be too.  In addition to picking out her dress she also picked out her ornament (a blue sparkly whale?)  Then we wandered through the toy aisles and took pictures for her wishlist-- which she insisted I write up for Santa when we got home. (B of course needed one too).  Then she spent most of the evening dancing and singing as a "fairy" in her "princess" dress.  The songs were mostly original and often included God and America (true Okie). 

 (Crafting Note - I only added the #2 tag and some shimmer to the journaling card today.  With my finger I spread some gold stickles across this decoration box and left little dots of glitter around the text as well.  Then, I glued these wooden words on and voila!  Yes, it was kind of late when I did this as I spent a lot of time picking out Christmas Cards, but once again the project was done in about 7 minutes so no worries even at 11pm.)

I made a second little insert page of her and her wish list.  B's wishlist and picture will go on the reverse when they are finished.  I'm not sure if this little insert will live here with "her" day or move to another day, but for now, it works and I have the story, the pictures, and the wishlist to mark our very special lady's very special day!

 (Crafting Note: The wish list is written on an older Elle's Studio journaling card I happened to have in my purse when she decided on this project --- lesson learned.  Keep journing cards handy! B asked for a bit more festive Christmas card for his wishlist so I let him choose from those in my SC kit and everyone was very happy.)

Together they look like this.  Do you think the enlargement would work well in the middle at 6x8 size or should I just leave it like this?

How is your December?