I've been productive this weekend!

I had the opportunity to do some scrapbooking last night with Amy and Lori Beth. I finished that "Names of God" mini book that I talked about a while ago. I'll have to take some pictures of the pages. The cover was shared in this post . Here are the pages I did:

The light wasn't the best for photographing it. I used some Amy Butler paper and Cricut cartridge Lyrical Letters (love it!). These are pictures of Aubrey from last August. Her blue eyes really show up in the pictures!

These are some pictures from two summers ago. There goes that time flying again! We had bought a shopping cart for Lily and she was entertaining us with it. I used some old KI Memories paper and some new KI chipboard, the turquoise is American Crafts and miscellaneous buttons.

These pictures were taken right before Lily's tonsilectomy. She was really into ballerinas and we found this little number at Hobby Lobby on clearance, complete with the tiara, pony tail holder and shoes. She was in little girl heaven! I used some paper and pink vinyl Thickers from my April Scarlet Lime kit and some black chipboard Thickers for the title. I have heard so many people say they love them and I never really saw the fascination for them, but I'm think I'm beginning to!

Maybe I'll get some more done this evening and have more to share soon.

God bless you, dear readers!

How in the world does time go by so fast??

I have been neglecting my little blog again. And I'm going to rely on it some day to jog my memory about what I've done and what was going on in my world. Oh well, I'll try to do better!

I was just reading the LPM blog and Beth was talking about Moon Pies and treats from childhood. It brought back a memory of me when I was a little girl. Sitting in the back seat of our car, taking a drive through the country (as we often did) with the windows rolled down on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Stopping somewhere along the way for a cold drink and a bag of peanuts. My parents got those little Cokes, in glass bottles of course, and I got grape Crush (I hadn't developed a taste for Coke back then). Dump those peanuts in that bottle and you've got yourself a treat. Away we went, drinking our cold drinks and sucking those peanuts out of the bottom of the bottle. Ahhhhhh... We were probably listening to the radio too. Later on we added a 8 track player to the car. Then we were really in style. Herb Alpert or Roger Miller or maybe movie theme songs. Yep, those were good days!

Holy Week

I just read the new post on the LPM blog about Palm Sunday and memories of Easter. I was thinking about my favorite part of this week, Holy Week, between Palm Sunday and Easter. I love that our church has a Maundy Thursday service, celebrating the Lord's Supper and really reminding us of what is about to happen. From the upper room to the Mount of Olives, to Calvary and then the tomb. But then VICTORY on that first Easter morning. He is risen!

This is the real celebration for us. Christmas is important, of course. Without His birth, there would be no life to end on the cross. But without the resurrection, there would be no Savior.

In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever; til my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. Oh praise His Holy Name!!

Way Behind

I have been neglecting my little blog. How do I get so far behind? The weeks have been so crazy, but so wonderful too. A vacation for Amy and Daniel and us babysitting for 3 days, a trip to Chuck E Cheese with them, a revival at Brazil United Methodist Church, preparations for Easter, and now it is Holy Week and the pace hasn't slowed. But we have made some new friends and many precious memories. Life is good.

Life is good. I haven't always been able to say that with feeling, but I can really say it now. I guess it is all in my attitude. The ability to truly have peace and joy, even when everything isn't perfect. Praise the Lord for that!

"Praise the Lord" has certainly been a theme lately. I have heard sermons on the subject, it was the central theme of our "A Heart Like His" Bible study (by Beth Moore) Thursday night and seems to be cropping up all over the place. So, that is just what I am going to try to do all the time.

Praise the Lord!

Art

I found a link to this video on The Crop Circle. It is really inspiring me right now. I do consider my scrapbooking to be art. Everyone should have some creative outlet, in my opinion. After all, we inherited creativity from our Father. Just go look outside. Is that not proof of it? God created a beautiful, colorful world. Try it! Think you're not creative? Just grab a box of crayons or finger paint. I dare you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpunQZ4cUyI

Craftiness!

Just wanted to share some things I've been working on. This sort of thing is what keeps me happy and sane!

This is my very first layout with my very first scrapbook kit club. I subscribed to Scarlet Lime because the bright fun style which is very different from what I usually buy. I was ready to get out of my comfort zone and use something new. It's not a very good picture of the girls, but it was the only one I had of Aubrey's first pigtails and I wanted to do a page about them. She is not a very happy girl!

This is a layout I did using all old stash stuff:

While I was fiddling with the camera trying to get a good shot of her, she was busy playing in the cheese sauce of Lily's Lunchable. I wasn't paying attention to that, but you notice the guilty glances? She was looking to see if her Mama was looking at her. Little stinker!

And here is my Names of God book that I have been working on. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was doing a study of the Hebrew names for God. I have finished with the research and am almost finished with this book. This is just the cover. I'll share more another time. It has been such a blessing and a joy to do. I'm going to cherish this, I know.

A Long Post About What I've Been Up To

Part of the reason that my blog has been neglected is that I have been busy (who isn't?) and I have been gone. Another reason is that my camera had been giving me trouble transferring pictures. But I'm back to business as usual now and Kodak has helped me fix the glitch in transferring pictures, so I'm catching up now.

Lily had her tonsils removed a couple of weeks ago. That was traumatic for all of us--her being 3 1/2 and the fact that that child has had one challenge after another for her whole life! But she is like a different child now! She is eating and speaking more clearly, she is actually calmer and has a longer attention span. Who knew?? The baby had sleep apnea due to those things! It was time for them to be gone!

There is our happy girl who never used to want her picture taken and now begs for it. And "Wanna see!" when they are done--she loves a digital camera, that girl!
And while Lily was in the hospital (for 4 days because they couldn't get her to drink post-surgery), we were taking care of this happy girl. Yes, the picture is sideways because I forgot to flip it around before I uploaded it and now I don't know how to fix it. Oh well. We had her from Monday evening until Friday morning. Nothing like caring for a toddler for 24/7 to prove to you that you are getting old!

Then we had this huge (for around these parts) snowfall. We haven't had one this big in years.

We had to take a little trip out to the country and saw these amazing formations. I've personally never seen snow do that before. It looked like giant waves. And up close it reminded me of marshmallow cream. It looked just like you could run your finger into it and have a taste! The snow was deep enough that church was cancelled. That rarely happens!

That Sunday we packed our bags and on Monday we left for a Spiritual Formation retreat that Eugene was attending at Kenlake State Park outside of Murray, KY. Here is where I spent 4 blissful days resting and relaxing--no cooking or cleaning, yay!--and I spent a good bit of that time working on a project that I am going to share with you soon. I took a bag of scrapbooking supplies and my baby Cricut and had a wonderful time. Eugene actually enjoyed the speaker and the time with his colleagues. We needed that break!

These little cabins are really nice and you can't beat being able to look out and enjoy nature. Even though nothing is blooming right now, it is still beautiful to me. I see the promise of Spring in the buds on the trees and the birds and the squirrels. Here's the view of the lake from the lodge:

Of course I waited until the last day to take this and it was really overcast. But there is just something about water, isn't there? So calming and peaceful. Love it!

So there you have it. Paper projects and craftiness coming soon!

Blessings!