Big Plans

One week off of school and I have big plans. I thought I'd share my goals with you to help me get them organized and to keep me accountable.

 

I want to organize the photos on my camera's SD card which leads me into my next goal of doing LOTS of scrapbooking. I want to try out some new recipes from my friend Sarah's blog -  "Whole and Heavenly Oven". Some of the recipes I'd like to try are..

• rye bread - my husband's favourite kind of bread so I'd like to master it.
• homemade marshmallows - I think this would be cool. It's been on my to do list for a long time and Sarah's recipe looks good.
• ginger molasses snickernoodles - I love molasses cookies.
• red velvet fudge cookies - fudge - need I say more? I think not.

I need to put away our annual grain order. My husband took a couple of our children and picked up our year's supply of grain on Saturday. They were out of spelt and steel cut oats so we'll have to go backfor those when they come in. Other than that we got hard wheat, quick cook oat flakes, navy beans, black beans and maple syrup. You know you're out in the country when the road sign looks like this...

 

All of this for less than $600 - That's less than $60 per person for a year's worth of grains.

I may or may not do some sewing. I have a few projects kicking around in my head.

 

But my biggest goal of all is to potty train my three-year-old. We've talked about this for months trying to prepare him. He's pretty excited right now. We'll see how he is once we actually start.

 

Do you have any great potty training tips? This is #7 for me, and I'm still dreading it.

 

Snow Cream and Pictures

We are all starting to get back to normal health-wise. It feels so good and is a great reminder to me to never take my health for granted. Last night my three littlest guys slept all night without coughing - wonderful. We were able to start school again on Tuesday. We were off most of last week because everyone was so sick. This week we did about 50% of our normal work, and hopefully next week we'll be able to be back at school 100%. I love routine and have sorely missed it.

 

 
Today we had a treat - snow cream. I've seen a couple of blogs talking about this here and here so decided to try it today. The children loved it. I did a diet version for myself which totally underwhelmed me so I turned it into a protein shake. The children topped theirs with some homemade chocolate sauce and pronounced it wonderful.

 

Speaking of diet, after several months of playing around with the Trim Healthy Mama diet I decided to get serious with it again. I lost 22 pounds last year using it, and I would like to lose another 8. So on Monday I started up again and I've already lost two pounds...and this with very tempting foods being brought into the house by others - waffles, ice cream, muffins. My husband did take me out and I didn't follow the plan. One night I was up in the middle of the night with insomnia and ate off plan, but still I managed to lose two pounds in five days. I'm happy. I truly do enjoy this diet.

 

I've also been doing some organizing and purging this week. That feels good too. For a year now I've had some of the children's artwork on the wall in our entryway. The problem is that sooner or later one of the pieces would fall down. Then I would have to figure out what to do this time to make it stay up. The end of this story is that I took them all down, scanned them, and now I'll print them up and scrapbook them.

See what I mean? One down. I'm ready for this wall to be empty.



 

Please indulge me for a minute as a mother - the artwork I am so proud of...

 

Finally, I am gearing up for my husband's 50th birthday party next week. My mom has always taught me to see it big but keep it  simple. My decorations are going to be very simple but I think the winners are going to be 8x10 photos from various stages of my husband's life. I formatted them in my digital scrapbook program. Then when I had them printed someone made a mistake and I ended up paying only fifteen cents a print - bonus. I then bought frames at the dollar store so they can sit on the tables. Here's a sample...

 

 

It feels good to be productive again. How was your week? Have you ever eaten snow as a dessert? ☺

 

 

 

 

Celebrating Family

This has been a busy week, but I don't have a lot to show for it. First of all, my husband has his 50th birthday coming up next month, and I've started plans for a big party.

 

Secondly, I installed a new digital scrapbooking program on my computer, and I've been busy setting it up and getting all of my digital pictures organized. I have/had the Creative Memories StoryBook program. However, when my old laptop was replaced I couldn't transfer the StoryBook program to my new laptop. I did a lot of research of what program to go with for making photobooks and decided to get one from the company who designed the Creative Memories program. I'm glad I did. The screens look exactly like the CM StoryBook program. As an added bonus I was able to transfer all my digital kits from CM into Panstoria's Artisan and use them.

 

I love, love, love digital scrapbooking and was so glad to find a simple solution for what I need. I use my digital scrapbooking to make a book everywhere that has all of our birthday and other celebrations in it. I also make a book about our family vacation every year. Last year I made one for my brother-in-law about his time in basic training. Recently I made a book for my mother-in-law's 70th birthday celebrating her life. I also make gifts and Facebook cover photos using this program. I enjoy scrapbooking with paper, but I enjoy the digital scrapbooking because there is no mess. I see value in the paper and digital which is why I do both.

My children love reading books that star themselves and their siblings.

Random bits - We had our first normal week of school since the New Year started. Everyone is finally feeling better. Routine feels so good. My baby turned thirteen months this week - I can hardly believe it. My sister just found out she's expecting baby #6 after six years of no babies. We're all excited to say the least. I read a really great post this week about freezer cooking that made it seem doable. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but couldn't wrap my head around the organization needed. Now I think I can.

 

So how was your week - busy and feeling productive or busy but not feeling like there was much to show for it?

Say "Cheese"

Today I want to talk about a different kind of preservation. Yesterday I was thinking about how quickly my baby is growing up. He’s three months old already, and while I love all the ways that he’s changing and interacting with us I miss his newborn days. There is something so special about those first few days when you’re learning all about this new little person. I’ll never forget discovering my baby’s dimples just minutes after he was born. Now we get to see those dimples a lot because he’s such a happy, smiley baby.

I know that three months from now when he’s getting more mobile and can entertain himself just a wee bit I’ll be missing things about what he was like at three months. Right now he’s still small enough that when I go for walks he faces me in his wrap and I love looking down at his little chubby face. Soon – way too soon – he’ll be big enough for the backpack. Somehow in the blink of an eye they go from cuddling in your arms to being taller than you with feet that are size 12!

My newest baby snuggling
in the sling

My oldest son at six weeks

My oldest son pushing my toddler at
the zoo

I remember sensations and smells but not sights as well. How do you remember what your baby looked like? How chubby or lanky he was? How much or little hair he had? With pictures! But those pictures are no good if you take them and then they just get kept in a box somewhere or on your computer’s hard drive. They have to be out where you can see them – to remember, to marvel at the change, to be thankful for all you’ve had with that child.

I used to put all my pictures into photo albums. I had absolutely no interest in scrapbooking. That is not for me. I don’t have the time or creativity for it. But then I discovered Creative Memories PicFolio albums! These things are fantastic. They were made for people like me. You just slide your pictures into the pockets – no scrapbooking skills necessary – but your pictures are safe. I did discover that I do enjoy doing a little bit of embellishing and journalling but I don’t have to if I don’t want to.

I think the journalling is important. My children love to look at our albums now and read what I have to say about them. They’re the heroes and heroines of these stories! So don’t just put your pictures in a box waiting to someday get around to books or store them on your computer. Get them out, show them off and write about the memories so they won’t be forgotten. Like the time we picked 65 pounds of strawberries in one hour! Who could remember that statistic without some help. Or the silly times when your toddler played peek-a-boo with you using a box on his head. Or the sweet times when your oldest daughter cuddled your youngest to sleep when he had a cold.

Pictures are wonderful and tell fantastic stories don’t let yours stay silent. Check out the Creative Memories web site they will have something to help you get started…http://ca.mycmsite.com/sites/georgellamore. I do not get anything from you visiting or buying from this site, but if you do I will be so happy that you started preserving your memories. You won’t regret it.