Project 365

Opening page of the 2011 Album.

Project 365 is well under way. I've been doing a lot more digital work this year. Some of the pictures I use for the everyday shots come with a few more pictures I'd like to include, so I'm making extra pages to put into the binder. I'm also adding a lot more ephemera. There's so much stuff sometimes! I have a bunch of layouts at the printer right now. I can't wait til they get here so I can get the binder caught up! I sometimes wish I could print my pictures everyday, but I know that it just isn't economical, and definitely not practical to our lifestyle. So once a month I send in my order and once a month it feels like Christmas when I open my package and see all the memories!

Spring has almost Sprung!

It's almost time! We went out to the RV park this past weekend and got the RV put back into place, all lined up and ready to hook up for the summer. We didn't have time, or the suppies, to do any cleaning, but that will come soon enough! We have lots to do!

The Knitwit Files Vol 4: Mohawk Hat

Little Man's new winter sport hat

Let me first start by saying, I did NOT knit this hat. Little Man saw it (sans 'hawk styling) lollygagging around at Penney's when we picked up his winter coat. Being the "in" thing to wear this season it immediately caught and held his attention. I gave in and bought the silly thing and it laid around the house for some time, getting no use whatsoever.

A couple of nights ago I just couldn't stand it any longer so I gave the poor little dear a bit of a makeover. I picked up some yarn to match the braids and cut about a zillion 4" pieces and stacked them next to my chair. While watching TV I was able to latch hook these bits of string into the stitches of the hat, creating a lovely faux-hawk along the top center. (Any of you fashionistas out there will have seen several of these types of hats available at the local mall.)

No longer a skinny little nothing, this hat now has some major 'tude. Little Man was suitably impressed with his momma's crafting skills. I daresay this hat is about to see a wild and crazy time!

New YMCA Members!

We joined the gym! yay! The kids have been languishing in front of their TVs and computers for so long, they don't know what "active" means anymore. I've been wanting to start my marathon training so we joined the local YMCA. We went twice this week. Both days the kids played basketball while I did laps around the indoor track. I think joining the gym will really be a huge benefit to making progress on one of my goals this year: getting the family healthy! So here's to many more trips to the gym (and possibly a smaller waistband!)

Planting the Seeds of Servanthood

FMSC.org


Yesterday, The Girl went with her cousins and some friends to volunteer at one of the packing centers for Feed My Starving Children. They packed thousands of bags. Those bags contained a mixture of rice and other nutritious items that could be mixed with boiling water. One bag contained enough for 6 meals.

She came home last night full of information about starving children and how this organization is feeding them all around the world. The bags they packed yesterday were scheduled to be delivered to children in Haiti. It was all she could talk about. And this morning we spent some time looking at their website and looking for more opportunities to volunteer.

The seeds of servanthood, planted so many years ago, have been watered and nurtured once again. And the fruits of this labor of love will bring hope to all the children of the world. Can we ask for anything more?

Goals for 2011

Here it is! The 2011 Goals List!

Goal #1: Keep Blogging! I did really well up until the move and computer issues. I think 2011 will be even better, even though I still have no computer and we still need to move into a house at some point! I may even get some iniative and put all my blogs in one place! :)

Goal #2: Marathon! I am absolutely determined to do that marathon. Nothing is going to stop me this time. Nothing.

Goal #3: Family Photo Challenge. I read a blog about a mom that made a point of taking a family photo once a month for the whole year. I think this is a great idea and I'm going to do it. So at some point each month I will beg, bribe, and/or trick my family into a group photo.

Goal #4: Project 365. I will once again be continuing the Project 365 challenge. I've done it for 2 years and I think it helps capture our lives very well. I just hope P365 for 2011 stays caught up. I may change the format to make it a little easier for me this time around.

Goal #5: Webstore. I'm going to continue to develop my webstore. The goal is to have the store up and running by September. If I can't make it happen by then, it'll never happen. Sad, but true.

Goal #6: Debt. We will continue to pay down our debt. It's a sizeable amount, so I know we won't get it all paid this year, but we're going to make a huge dent in it!

Goal #7: Stay Positive! I sometimes let my "pragmatism" get in the way and tend toward the negative. I really want to get away from that. No more sarcasm, no more cynisism, no more. There's no room for negativity here anymore.

Goal #8: Crafting. This year's new skill will be Tatting. I've found several wonderful websites dedicated to Tatting, so I know I'll be able to find help. I'll be slowly acquiring the equipment and then this summer I will begin! I imagine most everyone will get a tatted snowflake for Christmas this year :)

Goal #9: Reading. I'm not going to set a number, because that would take all the fun out of reading. But I do want to read a bit more than the last couple years. So if I make it to 60 or 70 books this year, I'll be happy.

Assessing 2010

My goals list for 2010 was varied and long. I was able to accomplish a few of the items, but most of them are still in progress. 2011 will see the completion of a few more of those goals as well as the birth of some new ones...but I'll post about that later.

1. Blogging. Blogging everyday went really well until my laptop died. I managed to use one of the kids computers for a few weeks until we started the process of moving back to Michigan. With all the hustle and bustle, blogging fell by the wayside. We are still not settled yet, but I've been feeling guilty about my neglected blog, so I thought a recap of 2010 might be a good way to put things into perspective. I still have no computer to call my own, so blogging for 2011 will still be sporadic, though I'm hoping to make a better job at keeping it up this time around.


2. Project 365. Ugh! I really, really tried to make sure I took at least one picture every single day. At first I was upset with myself for missing a day or two, and then a whole span of 11 days went by without a single snapshot. So now I've come to realize that it just wasn't meant to be and I shouldn't beat myself up about it. I haven't printed pictures at all since May. (shudder!) I have been keeping track of my photos and making notes here and there for when I'm ready to assemble the scrapbook, but I'm not nearly as on top of it as I was in 2009. Let's hope 2011 goes a little smoother.

3. Marathon. I started my training right on time. I did very well keeping up, with only a few lazy days. I made it to 15 miles and then we began the very unorganized move to Michigan. Once again my plans to participate in a marathon race have been derailed. But not in 2011! Oh, no! This is the year. I'm doing it.


4. Web Store. I designed the blog header, worked on graphics for the webstore page, even signed up with my store name. I made a handful of objects d'art to sell but never got around to adding them to the site. Again, moving takes a lot out of you.

5. Photo Challenges. Pull out tissue...My Rebel sat in a padded cell for 6 months without a single click of the lens to brighten its days. I didn't take any pictures until Christmas and then it was just normal Christmas stuff. I've had neither the time nor the inclination to participate in a photo challenge...sniff...so sad.

6. Book List. My goal was to double 2009's reading list. I don't think I made it to 82 books this year. I was keeping a detailed list on my laptop, but since it died over 6 months ago I couldn't tell you how many books I've read in 2010. I do know that it's probably very close to the same number as '09. I'm hoping 2011 will see an increase in leisure time for reading as well as better documentation of said reading list!


7. One Little Word: ACTION. The first half of the year saw a lot of action. I was doing quite well with my goals. Moving across the country put a damper on most of those goals, but I still kept them in mind, turning them over, examining them, re-evaluating them. I have a new word in mind for 2011. I'm still mulling it over. I'll let you know what it is as soon as I know for sure that my word choice is the correct one for the new year. That one little word is going to have a huge impact - so it needs to be the right word!

8. Debt. We did manage to pay off the truck loan early, and got rid of one credit card. That was as far as we got. We are still in debt. I seriously dislike being in debt. Debt reduction is still on the goals list for 2011.

9. Homeschool. Things got off to a fairly good start this fall. Even with the moving around the kids were able to maintain their workload. The holidays always set us back, but now that it's the new year, school will once again become our focus. Good things are happening.

2010 Top 10

In celebration of the last year, here are my Top 10 photos of 2010. Making my "2010 Favorites" file was so fun. The last year has seen a lot of changes for our family. So many good memories here! I'm excited to see what 2011 brings!

This photo is fun because you can see us in the reflection in the left lens of Mickey's sunglasses.


Our home away from home: Winter Garden Little League fields


Little Man at baseball camp, knocking out some batting practice


The Girl's new hair cut, with some fun color :)


Little Man in his All-Star uniform


Friday morning coffee dates


Making the trek north to Michigan


Enjoying the fall colors


The first big snow storm of the year


Playing with Christmas lights

Busy Busy Day

Every Saturday is a baseball day. It starts with watching a game or two in the morning, followed by practice in the afternoon and doing the concession stand inventory into the evening. It really does make for a very long day. Add to that the excessive heat and humidity we're already feeling here in sunny FL and it makes it pretty miserable too.

Only a couple weeks of the regular season remain. If J's team can hold onto the number one spot they'll go on to the district tournaments. J also has a chance of making All-Stars this year. So baseball may not be coming to an end just yet. And it's only going to get hotter...

Library Day

It's time to return some books. I love books. I check out more books than I have room for here in the RV. I stack them everywhere. The bookcase holds all the school stuff, so the library books are stacked on chairs, the floor, next to the couch, next to the filing cabinet, even on the table sometimes. It's rare for me to go to the library and not check out at least a handful of books. Right now I have 68 books checked out and I have a request in for 2 more. Today I will return 23 books, and probably bring home a dozen more :)

The one book I absolutely have to return because I renewed it to the limit:

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. (click the link to go to Amazon) This book is genius! The recipes are simple, and most of them are everyday kid foods, but made healthier. I can't wait to make some of these recipes. I typed up a lot of recipes out of this book. It's a winner.

PSE Photo Editing

Now that I've figured out how to make collages in PSE, I had a super easy time putting together 5x7 sheets of the pictures I want printed for the baseball sleeves in my Week in the Life 2010 scrapbook. Of course, even though it was pretty easy to do, it still took me several hours, as in about 6!, to get them all edited and ready to print.

These are my baseball card pictures for Friday. With a couple of exceptions,  I ended up with 12 pictures for each day. It was really difficult choosing the photos on some days, other days, no choice at all, (because I didn't take very many).

And I still need to finish up the other collages yet. I can't decide if I want to add a strip with the day of the week on the collage itself, or add that in later. I'll think on it. Next step is to work on the opening pages. I plan to do my journaling first and then import the photo so I can be sure to print the sizes I need for each day's opening page. I kept a running list of daily activities (with the time included) that I'm going to print out and put in somewhere...I'm pretty sure I'll be adding a few more pages. One of my extra pages is a large picture of a rocket launch during one of the evening ball games. Very cool. And only in Florida :)

My Crazy Life

I didn't even think about my blog yesterday! I didn't think about it until I was in the middle of my power walk this morning. It just hit me out of the blue that I didn't post yesterday! gah! It's probably because I spent most of the evening working on editing my pictures from the Week in the Life project.  I chose 132 pictures for the week, but I think I need to pare it down a bit more. Some days I didn't have enough to choose from and other days I had way too many. I also finally figured out how to make a collage in PSE! I'm actually kind of proud of myself for figuring it out. I'd read tutorials and just didn't get it. I'm so glad I stuck with it.

Here is Monday's collage. I didn't flatten the images yet, because I may still make a few changes. I like to keep my options open :)

Once I get all the pictures cropped and edited, I'll upload them to Shutterfly. They are my favorite online processor. They have very good print quality and pretty quick shipping. Hopefully, I'll be finished with the editing sometime today. I really want to get this project finished so I can enjoy the fruits of my labor!

I also have Project 365 underway, so I have lots of pictures to go through :)

Round-Up - March 2010

It's Round-up time again! Amazing how fast the time flies!

1. What magazines/books did I read this month?

Can you believe I didn't read a single book this month? I was too busy knitting :)

I did glance through some scrapbook magazines, Lucky Magazine, Taste of Home Healthy Cooking, and my latest copy of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. And even though I didn't read an entire book, I did skim through several knitting/crocheting books, a couple vegetarian cookbooks and some books on the properties of Atoms, and the Periodic Table.

2. What TV shows/movies/plays did I watch this month?

The usual suspects: NCIS, Project Runway, Shear Genius, House. I also started watching Human Target. Chad likes it better than I do. As for movies, we went to the theater to watch Alice in Wonderland (LOVED it!), we rented Where the Wild Things Are (but didn't like it), 2012 (eh), Wizards of Waverly Place The Movie (funny), and I know several others...I just can't think of them...must not have been that great.

3. What fun things did I do with my family/friends this month?

We've spent lots of time working in the concession stand together and countless hours playing baseball. We also drove to MI to see family and we got to meet little Connor (finally!) And the boys and I had a paper boat race! It was a lot of fun and only happens when we get a nice strong rain.

4. What gifts did I give/receive this month?

Not a lot going on in the gift department this month. Sheri on the 29th -I gave her an 8x8 scrapbook for Connor's first Christmas. All she needs to do is add pictures and journaling. Chad on the 31st - he got a new feather pillow and some pillow sheets AND tickets to go see the Blue Man Group!

This is going to be sooooo much fun! (but not til spring breaks are over)

5. What special or unusual purchases did I make this month?

We bought some bulgar to make some Kibbeh for Chad's birthday dinner!

6. What illnesses/health concerns did I have this month?

We have all been healthy but that unexpected trip to MI was to see my mom. She had had a minor stroke and we just had to go and see her and make sure she was okay. She's doing fine now, thankfully.

7. What were my accomplishments this month?

Well....the kids are almost caught back up on their schoolwork...

I finished knitting my first sweater/wrap. It's awaiting final assembly stitches..but still...the major knitting is finished! I also managed to remember to join in the I Heart Faces photo challenges :)

8. What were my disappointments this month?

I didn't get in as many miles as I would have liked. But I do know I have time to get them under my belt. I just need to go, go, go!

9. How did I do on my goals this month?

I've been blogging regularly (except that trip to MI), got in about 1/2 of my walks, kids are almost caught up on schoolwork, and 2 big ones: paid off the truck loan and paid off a small credit card! We're getting there!

10. Anything else noteworthy for the month?

We said good-bye to our Oregon friends. They needed to get home and it's a long trip.

Best Buds D and J (J is whispering to D that he can hide in our truck) LOL!

And life throws a curve ball...

This past week has been very out of the ordinary.  I received a phone call last Saturday night from my sister saying that our mom had had a stroke. A minor one, but a stroke none-the-less. So Sunday morning we packed up the car and headed to Michigan.

I spent the week with my mom, and thankfully she has recovered very well. Still some issues with her right arm and ear, but her chiropractor thinks some of that is from repetitive stress.

On the upside of this whole ordeal, I did get to see most of the family for the first time in almost a year. And I got to (finally) meet this little guy

Connor Jacob! Isn't he adorable?! We spent some quality time together. I think he likes me cause I got the ultimate approval markings: baby spitup. Yeah, gross, but I'm a mom, I can handle it :)

So, Mom is better. I got to see most everyone. Met the newest member of the family. And now I'm back in sunny, humid Florida. Onward...