What I'm Reading

Welcome back to "What I'm Reading!"  I did not post last weekend for no other reason then I didn't have a chance :-) 

Over the past few weeks I've been reading an extended series by Lauraine Snelling - Red River of the North, Return to Red River, and finally Daughters of Blessing.   This is such a fantastic series that as I finished reading the last book in the Daughters of Blessing series, Rebecca's Reward, I went in search to see if there is more in this "family" only to discover that I'm not the only one who loves this little town!  Lauraine Snelling even has a blog that is called Postscripts From Blessing.  Guess what?  There is another series called Home to Blessing which continues the story of the family.  I'm already saving my pennies to be able to purchase the books in the series!  I just love these books!!!

As I finished up the above series I decided that I needed to start reading some of the books on my year end book list or I would have zero success!  This is a book I picked up as a new release at a great deal through another blog and I'm looking forward to digging into it.  I've only read the introduction and I already like the way Angie Smith "talks".  I love how she pointed out that when Satan asked Eve about the Tree in the garden, he didn't say "don't eat", he asked her if that is what she was told - he made her think, doubt, question.  Isn't that what we tend to do?  Get a shadow of a doubt and latch onto it.  I'm looking forward to actually getting into the meat of this book.   So for now, I'm going to focus on my reading goal and see if I can't get a few of those books marked off that list!!!

Making Your Home a Haven

Yes, it is week three over at Women Living Well of

This weeks challenge has to do with removing stress, both from our homes and from our spiritual life.

Lets start with the home - Courtney challenges us to find a few areas that cause visual stress in our home (also known as CLUTTER!) Over the past few years, last year specifically, I worked really hard to declutter our house and get rid of all of those things that just took up space. This year I've focused on simplifying our family life.  I've done fairly well on accomplishing my goals but I'd like to show you a dirty little secret.  Well, it really isn't little and it isn't a secret because anyone can see it when they walk in my house!  Are you ready?

 This is my desk area.  Notice that there is very little space.  The basket and binders are my current projects.  (Notice I didn't even show you UNDER the desk!)   But wait . . . .

 This is my desk overflow.  Yep.  This stuff is also projects, paper, kids lessons and more that do not fit on my desk daily so my table begins to hold my "desk" stuff . . .until we need to eat.  Then I move it all to our bed . .. then I move it when we go to bed . .. it just goes in circles.

 That book shelf back there . . .yep, that is more "desk" LOL  It is something I've tried to utilize for organization but I just haven't made it work yet plus the kids like to pull the bins off of it that belong to "them" and open stuff up. 

Oh wait, he isn't part of the desk but he is so cute I couldn't resist HA!

There ya have it!  That is my problem!!!  I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make my wonderful roll top desk work for me.  Trying to keep it organized and clutter free just about drives me NUTS on a weekly basis. I just need more space!  I've thrown around a few ideas for additional storage but I don't want to add more furniture to the living room.  So, I need to really figure out some other solution.  I'm tired of the clutter; tired of moving stuff around; and tired of not being able to find things (Like a hole punch that I was looking for tonight and still haven't found!)  That is the clutter area I'm focusing on currently. 

As far as the spiritual part?  It is a simple truth - practice repentance daily - it will set you free!  You'll get rid of that spiritual weight you carry!  You can check out Women Living Well to read Courtney's full post and see a video she posted as well. 

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm loving . . . this fabulous fall weather.  Cool days, blue skies, and bright sunshine.  Not to mention the grey, rainy days that you only get in the fall! 

I'm loving . . . .working on the stuff for my sons birthday party on Saturday.  I'm not a huge party planner and many others do it better but I just have fun making it  . .. fun!

I'm loving . . . that even though we only went to the local farm stand to grab pumpkins (it was TOO cold and blustery this weekend to go as planned) my boys can't stop talking about the "Punkin Pach".  I guess seeing hundreds of pumpkins lined up in rows is impressive to them!

I'm loving . . . that my kids love to play together (yes, they still disagree sometimes).  Today, they were sitting on the porch, eating a cookie, and just giggling away. 

I'm loving . . . that we got to go out to eat on Saturday to one of our favorites.  We had planned a trip to the pumpkin patch/orchard but due to the weather, we took off and went to Toys R Us, just to walk around, and then to dinner.  Something we don't do often so it was great!

I'm loving . .. my family :-) 

 What are you loving today? 

"Banana's for you" Date Night Idea

Not long ago, I posted about the 120 Day Challange that I was working on completing.  As part of that challenge, I recently put together this date night for my Hubby! 

On the morning of, I put a cute little invitation in his Lunch Cooler so that he would find it once he started digging for his sandwich later in the day.  (To get your copy, click here - I tried to make it generic)

After the kids went to bed (they go down fairly early), our date started with making dinner together.  Since my theme (which you will understand why in just a few!) was "Banana's For you"  we made Banana Sour Cream Pancakes,  and Sausage Patties (Darryl ended up making eggs too because he was so hungry!).  Then, for dessert a little later we had good old Banana Splits!!!

Now, where did this inspiration come from??  For Christmas this past year, I picked up the game Bananagrams for Darryl's stocking and we have yet to play it! It was a hot item last year on lots of blogs!

It's a form of scrabble but without a board.  We had fun playing it and will play it again - it would be a great game to play with older elementary kids and above too.

Doesn't he look so serious?  He won.  :-) 

So yes, this was a successful date night - we had fun, got to eat hot food, and just hung out together! 

What dates have you done recently? 



Too Cute Not To Toot!

Lets start off this week with a fun, inspirational sign for the laundry room :-) I saw this idea over at Artsy Va Va and it made it chuckle.  You could easily make this (or have it made) with vinyl.

I thought these pillows from One Artsy Mama were just too cute to pass up.  I think that you could not only use them for Halloween but think of all of the kids books that have Monsters (fun ones of course!) in them that these would go along with too!

This next idea comes from I heart Crafty Things and is an idea that is based on a children's book.  I just loved it too much not to share.  Plus, besides this idea, she also has several other Pumpkin inspired books/ideas too so make sure and check out other posts too!

Ok, we are all talking about Pinterest and this idea from Dukes and Duchesses is just beyond a lightbulb moment.  When she is making dinner to take to a friend or looking for a birthday gift idea, she goes that friends boards on Pinterest to get ideas which is how she came up with this gift idea - click on the link to read exactly what she did!

I know that last year I posted and idea for making a pumpkin out of dryer vent tubing.  Well, this idea from Mommy x 3 = Insanity takes it a step further, making it a wreath and I just think it is so cute!

One of my favorites, Oopsey Daisy has posted a great idea called the "13 Nights of Halloween" and she even graciously provided the printables needed.

This post over at Too Much Time on my Hands has several great things going on - first is her idea for making the scrabble tiles.  Within the post she gives a link showing how to use carbon paper on projects and she also shared a tip about getting wood scraps at Home Depot - I wonder if Lowes has the same type of scrap bin?

I would love to decorate more for Halloween - I just think it is a fun Holiday (Yes, I know there are vastly differant opinions on this but I think sometimes it is how you were raised and what things have impacted your life).  So when I saw this idea over at Burton Avenue I wanted to save the idea here! 

Here's an original idea from A Law Students Journey for football season.  I think there are super fun and, if we actually attended football games I would have to make a pair!

Weekly Pinterest Challenge #2

You can check out my previous Pinterest success/failures in challenges by clicking HERE!

This week, I decided to do something with hand prints for our family decor.  I found this idea through pinterest at Tip Junkie and really liked it.  I've seen a few other hand print ideas but this one actually represants our whole family right where we are now.  It is "billed" as a Father's Day gift but I decided that doing it now was perfect because my boys are both approaching birthdays.  I may re-do this every year - how fun would that be?  Than add the previous years page to our scrapbook! 

Here's the original photo:

First, I dug through my scrapbook paper and decided to go with paper from dark to light.

The next step is the hardest . . . I traced every one's hands.

I decided to attach the hands to an actually scrapbook page and I want to purchase an Everyday Display to use as the frame as it will hold a 12 x 12 page (or lots of pictures!) and make it the center of my photo wall (which I want to update too!)  Here's my final product:

I wonder if, eventually, my hand will have to be the top hand because the boys will have larger hands?  I really love this keepsake - such a great way to save a moment!

Final Simplify Post (well, not really)

Doesn't that look peaceful . . .. and amazing?  I think it would be fun to wonder down that path on a cool summer day and life would be Simple.  This will be my (almost) final Simplify post as we start to push toward the holidays.  I say "almost" because I'm sure I'll post an update on what I'm doing this time around as well as a final post.  I'll tell you a little secret . . . .I already know what my theme word is for next year and I am already writing down ideas. 

You can catch up on all of the previous simplify posts by clicking HERE. 

This post is a little different.  I feel like I've hit just about everything I wanted to do to simplify our lives that resolved around the family and home.  Yes, there are still projects to complete - I'm still hoping to have the little projects done in the bathroom and have the kitchen painted by year end.  Otherwise, I'm very happy with where I've come from and where I've ended up! 

There is one big area that I need to work on in order to simplify my life and that is . . . . . Scrapbooking!  My original goal was to be current by year end.  If I keep pushing I might get there but beyond that I have a bunch of projects I would like to get done as well.  A few weeks ago, I cleaned out and organized all of my scrapbooking supplies as well as all of my projects.  I sorted everything into envelopes and then into bins by project and then by year so as I work through my list and I can just pull out what I need and be able to complete the task.  I don't have a "space" anymore for scrapbooking so I had to combine things into storage solutions that will make it easy to pull things out and work at the table. 

Here are my goals for the rest of the year.  I actually have scrapbooking goals written through November 2012 - that helped me lay out which projects go where but I also rework this goal list periodically so it isn't set in stone :-)

September 2011 - Finish 2010 Digitally and Updated our Family Album (pull the envelope and make sure that all of the pictures are in the album; file the duplicates for future projects)  I did not set up this list until halfway through September so I'm actually working on these projects in October.  I can say that I am halfway through December 2010 digitally and I am almost finished with Family Album project.  We did just get a few family shots done last weekend which I need to order and then add to this as well.

October 2011 - Do Jan-March 2011 Digitally; Christmas Ornament project - put pictures in kids 1st Christmas Ornaments; Update Josh and Nate's books (Pull envelopes and make sure all of the pictures are in the albums and file the duplicates for future use; order Josh's 3 year photos and put in his book as well);  Order 20 pages digitally. I finished the Ornament Project (see photo below!)  It was such an easy project, I just never took the time to do it!  I will admit that I printed the photos of Nate from the computer so that they were done until I can locate and/or order the pictures I want.  I didn't want to delay the project though (I should say they ARE the pictures I want, they just aren't on photo paper.)  Also, I've almost finished up Josh's and Nate's books with the exception of the most recent photos from a week ago as well as photos from our last two shoots (I guess I ordered to give to the family but not for their books!).  I will be ordering those this coming week and will update his book as soon as I get them!  I need to finish up Dec/Christmas 2010 so I can start 2011.  As far as ordering pages - I need to wait and see if I can fit it into our new budget yet; it might need to wait a little longer :-(

November 2011 - Do April- October 2011 Digitally (there is one 12 hour crop that I will be going to which will help with this!); Finish Red Pet Album (before Kids, I did an album for our pets and they are so much fun but, now, I've found that it is easier just to do the pet pages in with the regular pages so I want to finish this album since it is for 2008-2009!); Alive Album - I originally started doing an album for all of my husbands concerts but, again, I found that this really isn't a great album and now I include the pages in our regular album so I need to decide what to do with the album I started;  Order another 20 pages digitally.

December 2011 - Do November 2011 Traditionally - assuming that I am current by December (current means working on the month before during the current month) I want to return to more traditional scrapbooking verses digital.  My plan is do make sure that any major events are traditional and, if needed to stay current, I'll do some every day pages digital; Finish "old" album - Several years ago I started a project of going through all of my photos from way back in the day and get them into scrapbooks.  I am so close to being done (I hate working on these albums) that I can taste it but I ran out of pages.  So I need to order the things I need and finish up the pictures so I can be done with it! 
Order 20 more pages.

I've been working diligently all year to get these projects done and I have made huge progress (2008, 2009, 95% of the old albums, the kids books started and almost done; baby books, and more!) but I still have a ways to go.  Just getting my year books current will take so much pressure off of me (except I still need to order ALL of the pages - feel free to donate HA!)  because I just want to enjoy our books!!!

So, here we go and yes, I will keep you updated on my progress :-)