steph's stuff

Starting over

It's 8:30 am and I am starting the day over.

This morning did not go well. There were fights with children, nervous children who have to take a big test today, forgotten lunches, and then neighbors who saved the day for all of us. Thank God - literally "Thank you, God, for giving me these neighbors" - for neighbors like this. Neighbors who calmed us all down and let us re-start the day.

I'm going to work out, take a lot of deep breaths, and then get back to finishing up the last 4 weeks of Project Life so that I can post some of them later today. :)

Yet another weekend recap, Part I

I've been away from my blog so long that I don't even know where to start. I am uncomfortably behind on Project Life and uncomfortably behind on scrapbooking in general. I've been so busy writing and doing other things (LIFE) that I am beginning to feel a bit of panic about what I need to get done. 

And the summer is upon us - we only have 3 weeks of school left. Emily will take high school phys ed all summer long - she will have to be at school from 8-12 five days/week for 8 out of the 11 weeks of summer. Which really puts a dent in traveling time. Libby and Andrew will both go to a theater camp for a week and Libby starts cello lessons while Andrew will play on a summer football league. I'm sure there's more, too - I just don't want to think about it all right now. So I need to find a serious amount of time in the next few weeks to focus on scrapping before that craziness hits us.

In the meantime, here's another crazy-busy-weekend recap, part I. I'll try to add Part II this afternoon or tomorrow morning. 

On Saturday, our entire family worked at a super-fun local event! The food pantry that we volunteer at hosted an Amazing Race event in a neighboring town and it was sooooooo much fun. The five of us were all judges, along with three other kids from one of our favorite families while their parents competed in the race. I took more photos with the big camera but here's just a smattering of photos (unedited) that I took with my cell phone. 

Emily and Tom and I wearing our judges' hats at the first pit stop.

Our friends figuring out the clue to get to the second pit stop. And, Justin, why the evil eye???

The four oldest kids.

This team came in second place - they were a really fun group of guys. If you look closely, you'll see that the front guy is in a speedo. He competed that way all day long. And apologized to our kids. LOL.

And then here's our team starting off this challenge.

And, of course, the kids had to try it out! These 6 kids are the absolute best friends and get along sooooo well together. I am so grateful for their friendships.

And then at the end of the day. There were outside and working for almost 7 hours. I was so proud of all of them. 

I have so many more photos but I'm running out of time.....it was an absolutely fabulous event and I am proud to be a part of the fabulous community that came out and raised so much money for such a good cause.

Have a great Monday!

 

Thank goodness for Mondays

Our weekends just get busier and busier and I grow even more thankful for Mondays as we get closer to summer. Don't get me wrong - the weekend busy stuff is usually fun stuff! But I always end up wanting a weekend to recover from my weekend. This past weekend was seriously fun - we needed that, honestly. 

This weekend, Emily was Alice in Wonderland.

And then she had an Academic Super Bowl meet where she was captain/member of three different teams.

There was a wee bit of fun on Saturday night, too. ;)

As well as a busy Sunday that started off by working at the food pantry.

Today will be spent doing all of the chores that I didn't do over the weekend. And I'm really hoping to blog another week or two of Project Life!

Happy Monday!

 

Monday's Happy Things

 

Supplies: Yesterday and Today: You Should Know Layered Templates, Words + Pictures: Christmas Paper Pack, Elfin Magic Kit, Christmas Village Kit, Damask Transfers No. 02, Flourished Clusters Brushes and Stamps No. 02, Siblings Brushes and Stamps

Things making me happy today:

~ It's Project Life day! I have week 4 almost done but today is the day to put it all together. LOVE!

~ This coming weekend is our photo shoot weekend! I asked for one for my birthday and everyone agreed to do one monthly for me. Yay!!!

~ The digital layout at the top of the post. I created it earlier this month for DesignerDigitals and every single time the dog hair around the house makes me want to scream and yell, I look at this photo. And the dog gets to stay. :)

~ My kids being happy. I spent all day long with them yesterday and they were just happy all day long. All three of them - happy, laughing, playing with friends. And it just made me so happy to be with them and listen to them. And, again, I am sooooo thankful for our neighbors who have kids that just totally "get" my kids. 

~ Libby and her friend, Katie, have a really neat relationship. They don't get along perfectly all the time - who does? - but they work together so incredibly well and they simply want the other one to be happy. I watched both of them yesterday trying to work through a small difference of opinion they had and, with no input from anyone, they both offered a compromise that made the other one happy. It almost brought tears to my eyes because I was so proud of both of them. They just like to be together. There are big life lessons people could learn from watching kids play well together. 

~ A new week. Last week was not good - everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong. Today is a new week and I have another chance to get it right. 

~ My husband. I am the luckiest woman in the world. He puts up with so much from me and still loves me in spite of myself. 

Happy new week to you!

Summer school and summer fun

 
As I've mentioned before, the kids all do some type of education project during the summer. We call it summer school but it's not an organized routine type of thing. It's simply one of many summer activities that we do when we feel like it.

Lately, though, we've had a lot of rainy days and we've been inside a lot. Which means that the kids have done a lot of work on their summer school projects. And it's actually been a little bit tooooooo much time spent on summer school. We're ready for better weather.

And, dare I say it out loud, but the weather looks to be turning and we're going to have some wonderful holiday fun around here - outside, on the water and in the sun. Can't wait!!

But I would also be remiss if I didn't mention that our fun has been overshadowed by the very unexpected death of a friend's mother. The same friend whose mother was just here visiting and I took family photos for.

 
My heart is breaking for their entire family. Our thoughts are with them and we hold them very close in our hearts right now.

The first of many

The kids and I had a weekend full of friends, laughter, hugs, pools, and a few fruity drinks. Well...the fruity drinks were all mine. ;) Tom, unfortunately, had a weekend full of illness. He spent the weekend on the couch, sick and missing all the fun. Soooo hoping he's on the road to recovery and that he can join in on the fun next weekend.

This felt like the first "real" weekend of summer and I'm hoping it's the first of many. I've done 4 photo shoots in the past two weeks and so this weekend, I didn't even touch the big camera. Instagram was all I needed. :)

The weekend started with a party at a friend's house for her former neighbors and the middle-school girls. Em and I crashed that party. LOL! What a great group of girls Em has found for friends. Love all of these girls!!! (Thanks so much, Linda!)

Saturday was a low-key day, hanging out with wonderful new friends at their pool and getting a sunburn on my chest. Ouch!

 
 
Emily and the littlest neighbor are quickly becoming close. But, alas, Emily is just one of many girlfriends Austin is gathering. ;) (I stole the photo from his mom - thanks, Dana!)

I didn't take photos of the next party because that's where the fruity drinks were consumed. ;) One of the best parties I've been to in a long time!

Sunday morning was perfect. Sun, coffee, the sunporch, a husband who was out of bed, and a neighborly chat.

 
The kids all spent the weekend swimming with friends, riding bikes, playing outside, and staying up very late. By Sunday afternoon, they were all allowed some TV and I love that they all piled on the couch on top of each other to watch the show. :)

Our evenings are usually even busier than our days and Sunday is no exception. AJ is a fixture at our house and we adore him! Em and AJ are in choir together and they sing constantly when they are together. Watching them choose songs from the ipod and dancing around my kitchen is such a great way to spend an evening.

Backgammon games with Daddy are another one of my favorite things to watch.

And then the best part of the whole weekend - snuggling with my honey under a quilt on the sunporch after a long weekend. :)

 

The Germans are coming!

Our new neighbors used to live in Germany and Tony still works for a German company. Every couple of years, some of their German friends come to the U.S. and we were so lucky to meet them on this trip. They had a party last weekend and we had so much fun and had the BEST food prepared by the Germans. Yum!

I took a lot of photos for Dana and Tony and wanted to give them a sneak peek. I'll have the photos ready for you in another couple of days, Dana!

 

 
 

For Michele

A dear friend of mine has a milestone birthday today and I was able to do a mini-photo shoot for her today. Her mothers and her three sisters traveled all the way from Alabama to be with her for her birthday and I was honored to spend a bit of time with them this weekend.

Here's a sneak peek of their shoot. My friend, Michele, is on the upper left in the white shirt. Michele, I am honored to be able to call you friend and I love you dearly. Happy Birthday!

 

A viewing party

About a month ago, my girls were talking about the royal wedding constantly - begging for me to let them stay home from school to watch it (ummmmm....no way) and then planning on how and when to watch it with friends. I was joking with them about all the moms staying home and watching it without the kids and then it occurred to me that many of my friends probably were going to tune in to watch part of the wedding. So, why not use that as an excuse for a party in our pajamas after the kids went to school?!

And that's what we did. :)

Here's a few pics of that morning. I only took photos of those ladies who showed up in actual clothes. The rest of us were in pajamas so no photos. :)

The night before, I ran outside and cut some azaleas and buds from my pear tree to make a simple centerpiece.

 
 
We had juice, tea, and coffee.

 
And then lots of super simple foods displayed in silver trays.

 
And doilies. My friend, Mel, will probably laugh at me but I can't help but think of the UK when I see doilies.

 
This friend just makes me smile every single time I see her. And today was no exception. :)

And her lady-in-waiting who makes me laugh no matter what she does.

This was so much fun that I'll have to find another excuse to have a breakfast party sometime soon. It was a great way to spend a morning. 

 

March Scrapness

Game on! Those were the words uttered to me last night by my good friend, Sharyn. She has a lot of scrapbooking and card assignments to complete by the first of April. And she likes challenges. 

So, I challenged her to what we will call "March Scrapness." :)

The challenge is simple - scrapbook layouts (her) vs. quilt blocks (me). Whoever creates the most layouts/quilt blocks by midnight on March 31st, wins. We had to make a point system since the quilt I'm working on has very simple blocks and I can make them in about 20 minutes. Scrapbook layouts can easily take an hour to create. So, points are awarded as follows:

1 handmade card = 1 point
1 quilt block = 1 point
1 scrapbook layout = 4 points  

And to stay accountable, here are the blocks I have already made for this quilt for Libby. So, I'm starting the challenge with 8 blocks that do not count for any points. If I get this quilt finished, I'll start another.

 
Libby has a trundle bed and wants a "horsey" quilt for the other bed to match her current wonky log cabin quilt so I'm just copying this design with fussy cuts of horse fabric as the middle square.

 
Game on!