joyfulmomofmany

One Little Word 2012

2012-01-21T21:13:00.000-06:00

Inspired by Ali Edwards, each year I prayerfully choose one word to be my focus. This year I had no trouble choosing my word.

One morning in December as I spent time in God's Word I read these verses in 1 Thessalonians.

"Now as to the love of the brethern, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethern who are in all Macedonai. But we urge you, brethern, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,"

1 Thess. 4:9-11

There it was! Excel.

There are so many areas that I could pursue excellence in: sports, photography, writing, homeschooling, gardening, animal husbandry, sewing, cooking and while all of those have some value I am primarily compelled to pursue excellence in another way.

I have thought about this quite a bit during the past few months. The Bible is a super-big book, and I'm certainly no theologian, but I propose that if the Bible could be distilled down to one key action it would be love.

We love because He first loved us.

"By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

1 John 4:9-11"

Relationships matter. Loving people matters. When my very short life is finished, I'm not going to wish that I had exercised more, been more educated, decorated my home more creatively, been published as an author, learned more or any other myriad of activities that I could pursue. I will care about relationships that I have invested in.

You will still find me taking photos, homeschooling, sewing, gardening, working out like a crazy woman and yes, homeschooling (for many more years!), but this year as I contemplate my One Little Word, "excel," I desire to pursue love.

Loving my precious Savior
Loving my husband
Loving my children
Loving my friends
Loving the world around me and, as John Wesley said,

"Do all the good that you can, in all the places you can, in all the ways that you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, for as long as you can." ~~John Wesley~~

2012, the year of "excel" for me.

Have you chosen a word for this year?

Catching up...

2012-01-20T23:25:00.000-06:00

Hey there! Oh! How busy we have been here... Christmas was *wonderful*~ our oldest son Nate was home from Ft. Benning GA where he is stationed with the Army for two whole weeks, our oldest daughter Micah and her husband Joshua were in town and my brother David, who I have not seen in seven years was home as well! Oh! I thought my heart would burst with joy!

We did manage, after several tries to get our annual family Christmas photo taken.

We actually ended up with several that I liked...

When you are trying to get 11 children to all look the same direction and smile while using the self-timer on the camera there are bound to be some amusing expressions! I still love each of these photos~ and there were more as well. So, so cool to have these to look back on from each year!

For some reason a number of my photos from past blog posts have mysteriously disappeared! Flickr, what are you doing to me?!! I will try to go back and fix those in the next week or so. If anyone has any idea about why that might be happening, I'd love to hear!

So much has happened in the last few weeks that I hardly know what to write about! As I mentioned, Christmas was fabulous... flew by entirely too fast, but still I was somewhat relieved when all of the fun was done. I *love* Christmas... celebrating Jesus' birth, decorating, baking, family fun, etc, etc, but I also *really* like to get "back to normal" when it is all done. The day after Christmas I was already putting decorations away, glad to get back to our normal routine around here.

On New Year's Day my sweet family decided to celebrate my birthday a little early before Nate had to leave and head back to his job as a chaplain's assistant in the Army. They were so sweet! The girls made a delicious dinner and even made my favorite black forest cheesecake! The older children decided to surprise me and purchased a new Specialized bike helmet for me! It even matches my bike and is so much nicer than the cheap WalMart helmet that I have been using for the past 5 years!

And speaking of bikes, helmets and exercising, I have been officially given the "go-ahead" to swim, bike and run as much as I would like! So I am back running with Tom or the boys... keeping it to every other day for now, but I'm pretty pleased that after only two weeks I have already put in a 7 mile run and several 3-4 mile trail runs. I'm really excited about the races that I am training for this year... I'll post more about that soon.

We started back to school on Jan 2 and on the 3rd the boys were unloading firewood from our pickup truck. Daniel was down on the ground while his brothers were tossing the wood out. A piece accidentally hit his hand, tearing his fingernail off and breaking his finger as well! Poor boy! I am so grateful that we have a children's hospital here in Kansas City. Six stitches, some bandaging and a splint later we were home. Daniel was *fabulous* at the hospital... I think the nurses there are used to having to practically tie down children who need x-rays, stitches, etc, but Daniel was super-good! So proud of him.

We are now more than two weeks out and his finger is looking much better... don't worry, I won't post a photo here!

This past week we had a bit of a viral "bug" go through the family... I think it was the first time we've been sick all winter... definitely made for a quiet day or two around here...

One of the children captured these photos of Tom and I as he was getting ready to go run... I love it when they do that. For too many years I was "missing" in our photo albums.

So many memories to record! Several of you have written to me about Project Life with questions, etc. I think that I replied personally to each of you, but if I missed answering any of your questions, please feel free to leave a comment here or shoot me an email. I've completed two years of Project Life now, (you can see my PL posts here) and yes, I am definitely going to fill another album or two this year as well. I don't have time to scrapbook any other way, and I have found this system of documenting our lives and stories to be fabulously rewarding and fulfilling. As I come across interesting PL freebies (like free journaling cards) and examples of PL pages I am trying to post them to my Pinterest PL board. Hope that will be helpful!

Oh! I have so much more that I have been thinking and praying about... so much to share, but I need to stop writing for now. I want to tell you about my "One Little Word" for 2012 and so many other things! Soon....

Have a wonderful weekend my friends! It's good to be back here!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-18T21:33:00.000-06:00

I thought I'd take a minute to wish all of my friends a very Merry Christmas!

The Plaza in Kansas City

We've been busy here, with final Christmas preparations and enjoying having our oldest son Nate home for two whole weeks!

Tom was so sweet to take me to the Plaza on a warm night last week to take photos!

My Mother's heart is so happy when I can gather all of my little "chickies" home again. (Our oldest daughter Micah and her husband Joshua will be in later this week!)

We've had piano recitals....

backyard football games,

Jasper our Welsh Corgi had to be in the middle of everything! So cute!

I love watching our farm animals... our poor guineas are in a constant state of panic, it seems. They are so funny!

My sweet giant bunny, Miss Bennett (I thought we'd use names from Pride and Prejudice for the rabbits!) ... she loves to be petted.

and our duck, Jemima. Isn't she adorable?

I think the little curl on her tail is the cutest thing!

I love our little farm... so happy with simple living.

Praying that you have a meaningful, peaceful, simple and blessed Christmas this year. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

And finally, I thought you'd enjoy this adorable video of children retelling the Christmas Story!

A very merry Christmas to you!

It's Official!

2011-12-14T03:32:00.001-06:00

After 11 (at times) long weeks, I am officially "crutch-less!" Yay!

Did I tell you that we had a *bit* of snow last week?

Thank you so very much for all of the encouragement, prayers and support during the past few months. I am quite sure that I have made some fabulous friends here in my little corner of the internet. {{{{hugs}}}} You guys are the *best*!!

The boys were *so* excited!

I can't tell you how very, very happy I was today to putter around my kitchen and just cook and clean. OK, so I have been doing just a leeetle of that (cooking and cleaning without crutches) the past week or so, but today I could do it without feeling guilty!

Timmy was *so* excited that he just *had* to go out on our deck and check it out for himself~ even though he had no shoes on!

The trick now will be for me to progress *slowly* as I tend toward always pushing myself.

Silly boy!

Gotta' wipe this silly grin off of my face and get some rest! (Did I tell you how happy I am?!!)

; )

Our Simple Farmhouse Christmas Tree...

2011-12-12T21:09:00.000-06:00

This year we did a few different things with our tree and I'm really happy with how it is turning out~ with 12 children, it is always a "work in progress!"

Some of the decorations are old... believe me, we had a bunch of old decorations! I thought it would be fun to add some new things this year. I'm really jiving on the combination of kraft and red, so that is the theme of this year's tree.

It's a little difficult to see in the photo, but I used an old tin washtub to set our tree in! The boys found it set out for the trash when they were mowing, and I was so glad that they brought it home for me. It seemed like our tree skirt was always twisted and smooshed to one side and I was forever fixing it. The washtub was a perfect solution~ cute and it doesn't go anywhere!

Tom and I purchased the strings of red beads many years ago. I remember thinking at the time what an extravagant purchase those beads were! We have most certainly gotten our money's worth from that purchase 22 years ago! In addition to the beads this year I added several yards of jute upholstery webbing with red stripes. I *love* this stuff! The cheapest place I found it was at the Online Fabric Store.

Do you like my little stuffed heart ornaments? I had a very, very worn out quilt that I picked up at a yard sale some years ago. It finally become so threadbare that I couldn't wash it any longer so I decided to repurpose it. These 6 little hearts were the first thing I made (I have plans for pillows and a "new" bunting for my kitchen and also my studio area as well!) I felt like I was doing something terrible by cutting that poor quilt, but now I am so happy with the sweet little heart ornaments.

This year we had fun involving the children in decorating simple manila tags.

I am planning on adding additional tags... some with the different names of Jesus and the Bible references for each name. It has been fun for the children to work on these during our devotions time this Advent season.

We made these little stuffed birds last year~ I think they are *so* cute! They are so simple that the children were able to make them without very much help. They are planning to make a new flock of birds to add to the tree this year. (We didn't add the wire feet but I think that the tree is so full that the lack of feet isn't really a problem!)

I made the little quilted angel with the lamb in her basket many years ago... I think she is so cute!

I had a little fun with my camera, capturing some Christmas bokeh as well... oooohhhh!

Come! Let us worship Him!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2011-12-11T17:52:00.001-06:00

I think that quiet early mornings are delightful... especially when punctuated by the twinkle of Christmas lights!

Here's a peek into my kitchen at 4:30am... just before leaving for my master's swim class. I *love* the lights above the cabinets!

We have been having so much fun crafting here... the boys have been making boats...

with sails and all! So, so creative and cool!

And I've been having fun doing a little crafting myself! Today I decided that my beloved kitchen farmhouse sink needed a little Christmas "bling" in the window...

The sheep were gifts from my mother... aren't they cute?

The children like to re-arrange these two so they are "kissing!" So funny!

The little pinecones in terra cotta pots were inspired by a photo on Pinterest. I think they are pretty fun!

When my older children were little we enjoyed making cinnamon dough ornaments for our Christmas tree and other projects. These are such fun and hold their fragrance really well. They are, of course, not edible. Apparently they were a little too tempting for some of my older children when they were little ... for several years we had cinnamon ornaments with small "bites" taken out of them! I decided it was time this year to make a new batch.

Here's the recipe, if you want to make your own!

Cinnamon Ornaments

4 oz. (1 c.) ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp. ground cloves (optional)

1 Tbsp. ground nutmeg (optional)

3/4 c. applesauce

3 Tbsp. white glue

Combine and work until smooth. Divide into 4 portions. Roll out 1/4" thick. Cut out with cookie cutters. Make a hole in the top for hanging using a straw. Dry at room temperature for 1-3 days, or if you are impatient like me you can dry them in your food dehydrator overnight.
yield: about 20 cookie ornaments

I decided to use part of the heart-shaped cinnamon ornaments for a garland to hang above my kitchen sink. I figured that if I used hearts I could enjoy it all the way through Valentine's Day!

I used twine, the heart ornaments, pine cones and some red glass beads.

The rest of the cinnamon ornaments will go on our tree... I think they are pretty fun!

Another new thing simple Christmas decoration that I've had fun with this year are these canning jars with lights in them! I seriously *love* the glitter and sparkle that these give off!

I love them so much that I put similar jars in other places too...

We have so many fun things planned in the next few weeks! Our oldest son Nate will be home for two weeks this Thursday and a week after that I get to see my brother whom I have not seen in 7 years! I am *so* excited! So excited! We'll be doing lots of playing guitar and singing Christmas carols, baking cookies and pies, playing games, etc, etc. I can hardly wait!

Hope it is twinkly and glittery in your "neck of the woods" too as you celebrate Jesus' birth!

Random thoughts...

2011-12-06T19:40:00.001-06:00

Source: southerngracetx.tumblr.com via Susan on Pinterest

Well, it turned out that there was a mix-up and my Dr. wants me to see him next Tuesday instead of today… sigh. So, one more week on crutches… Heather, I *loved* your idea to "bling" out my crutches! I'm thinking some tinsel and perhaps a strand of battery-powered lights for each crutch. Wouldn't that be funny?!! Anyone have any "bling" to donate to a good cause? ; )

I recently came across three articles that you might enjoy….

First up, a very thought-provoking article explaining what happened when a successful businessman and school board member agreed to take the same standardized tests that 10th grade students were required to pass in his school district. An interesting read, for sure.

Second, a heart-warming article in which siblings recall the blessings of being raised in a family of 17 children! Fabulous!

And last, a list of the 5 best toys of all time for children… I heartily endorse all of the toys mentioned here. You'll *love* this!

Thank you *so* much for all of the kind and thoughtful comments and personal emails to my post about our dear Lance. You'll never know how much I appreciate your friendship!

Rejoicing even though I'm *still* (9 weeks and counting!) on crutches here,

Good-byes are hard...

2011-12-05T18:25:00.001-06:00

Last Friday we had to say good-bye to our Great Pryenees Lance. Man, I loved that dog!

Is this not an adorable puppy? This was taken in 2006, when Jake was only 11 (he's pretty cute too, huh?)... now he's 17 1/2!

We had an abundance of morning glory flowers on my herb garden fence that summer~ I *loved* this picture of Lance! He was growing up quickly, wasn't he?

As many of you may know, we live on a small farm where we raise Nubian dairy goats, chickens, for both eggs and meat, and other assorted livestock and animals. Great Pyrenees are known as livestock guardian dogs. Lance didn't need to be told how important his job was on our farm.

He took personal responsibility for not only the livestock, but also for the children!

He'd do almost anything for a pancake or piece of cheese, but was a total gentleman, never "stealing" food from the children.

He did figure out how to beg though... his preferred tactic was to sit down and refuse to leave the house and go outside without some sort of food bribe!

I *love* this picture of Jacob trying to enjoy his pancake breakfast, totally surrounded by our three dogs!

A few weeks ago Tom and I noticed that Lance didn't seem his usual energetic self. We decided to take him in to our vet Thanksgiving week. There we received the totally unexpected news that our Lance's heart was failing him. The only possible medical treatment was going to cost $300/month and might only extend his life an additional 2-3 months. Oh my, how I hoped and prayed that the diagnosis was wrong.

I wanted to continue to see his laughing face around our house.

Tom works nights as a policeman. We have been on the receiving end of gunfire here at our house more times than I like to remember. (I'll share that story another time here) The Lord has *always* protected us, but I must admit, I felt more secure knowing that Lance was on patrol, always on the lookout for any potential problems.

As I looked through photos of Lance I came across several photos like this:

He spent a lot of time hanging out on our front porch... it was like his command post. From there he could keep tabs on all of the many going-ons around our house.

Most often when I would pull into the driveway and walk up to our porch he would try to get me to play.... "Come on!" he'd beg, "Pretty-please won't you play with me?"

He was so patient with the children, and with our other (less useful, but still very loved! LOL!) dogs. Here, our Great Dane puppy "Dude" was sitting on Lance to keep his bottom warm. So funny!

Anyway, as you may have guessed, our vet's diagnosis for Lance was not wrong. He rapidly declined until last Friday when we decided that we needed to have him put to sleep. By that time he couldn't even walk all of the way to the car, so the boys carried him to our minivan and Jacob and I took him in to our vet.

I kept telling myself, "It's "only" a dog, control yourself!" but I couldn't. I petted and talked to Lance as he took his final labored breath, relieved for him, that he wasn't suffering any more, but so, so sad to have lost him in the prime of his life. I simply couldn't keep from crying... Oh how I loved that dog.

I think part of the reason that I was *so* sad was that not only was he super-sweet and a fabulous guard dog for our animals and children, but I think that I really depended on him to take care of us when Tom wasn't here. Certainly my hope and trust are in the Lord, but still I do miss knowing that he was on patrol.

We are fine here though... busy with school and everyday life. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving... our oldest daughter Micah and her husband Joshua were able to drive in to our house and eat with us. We laughed and had such a wonderful time. Nathaniel, our oldest son who is serving in the Army wasn't able to come home for Thanksgiving, but he will be home in two short weeks... to stay for two whole weeks! Yay! We can hardly wait!

I get to go in to see my orthopedic doctor tomorrow and should find out when I get to stop using crutches... I think I'm getting very, very close. I am doing lots of swimming now and some aqua-running too. So, so glad to get to be adding activities, rather than the other way around. I am beginning to make plans for the coming triathlon season... so far I have signed up for the Kansas City Triathlon which will be held on May 18. It will be a *cold* water swim in a local lake... my first wetsuit race. Should be exciting. I'll be doing the olympic distance... a 1.5K swim, 40K bike and 10K run. I have a *lot* of work to do to get ready!

I am also hoping to compete in two half-Ironmans... the Wisconsin 70.3 in July and perhaps Branson 70.3 in September. Those are longer events, consisting of a 1.2mi swim, 56 mi bike and 13.1mi run. It will be a huge challenge for me... I'm *really* looking forward to all of the training that I'll get to do with my family and friends. I'm *so* grateful to be able to be active~ what a privilege!

Meanwhile we are in the thick of Christmas preparations here... trying to "keep it simple" and enjoy just being here with my family.

Rejoicing in the simpleness of everyday life here and God's provision in even the sad times,

A little of this, a little of that...

2011-11-21T12:30:00.001-06:00

Around here lately I've been doing some of this:

In the middle of recovering a very worn out ottoman. Here's what it looks like now,

soon to have three big ruffles added! This was my Pinterest inspiration:

Source: etsy.com via Julie on Pinterest

Abbie decided to make her own denim version of my ruffled messenger bag~ it turned out adorable!

The boys have been doing a lot of this: (it's warm by the wood stove!)

And the dogs have been being cute like this! Aren't Corgis the cutest things evah?

We are taking this week off from school... lots of cooking/baking and general merriment going on here... I have even broken my cardinal rule and decided that I was in the mood for Christmas music before Thanksgiving this year. When Tom is home we keep it down, but when he's not, let's just say we have a rockin' good time in the kitchen with my iPod! And even the crutches don't slow me down too much! : )

Tomorrow is D-day for the chickens and turkeys here... and that's always fun, at least for us! LOL! I've been out of chicken in the freezer for several months now, so I'm looking forward to having lots of poultry to cook with~ just in time for some chicken soup! mmmmm.....

Hope you are having a fab week too!

Where else would I go?

2011-11-17T04:58:00.001-06:00

After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: "Do you also want to leave?"

Peter replied, "Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We've already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God."

John 6:66-69 The Message

Released to swim!

2011-11-16T20:55:00.001-06:00

Just popping in quickly to let you know... my dr's appt went fine yesterday! I've been "approved" to swim! Yay! So I still have to use a pull buoy for the next two weeks, but then I get to drop that and swim "for real", plus add aqua-running (or deep-water running) to my schedule. I still have 4 weeks on crutches and no cycling or elliptical or "real" running for a while yet, but at least I am adding activities now, and not removing them!

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week? Oh my! As usual, I have more projects planned than I could ever possibly complete... here are some that I'd like to do before next Thursday:

Source: mylifeasamrsh.blogspot.com via Susan on Pinterest

Source: homeandgarden.craftgossip.com via Susan on Pinterest

Source: granvillehouse.blogspot.com via Susan on Pinterest

Plus, now don't laugh at me, I have a blank, lovely dark red wall in our dining room that needs a gallery wall display there!

I *love* an eclectic look like this:

Source: detailsinthedecor.blogspot.com via Susan on Pinterest

Or like this: Love all of the different shapes... definitely needs some photos though!

Source: detailsinthedecor.blogspot.com via Susan on Pinterest

Then I saw this great tutorial on using decorative mouldings to make your own frames! Habitat ReStore, here I come!

Source: detailsinthedecor.blogspot.com via Susan on Pinterest

Plus, we've got lots of cooking/baking to do, 100 chickens and 6 turkeys to, um, butcher (sorry, I couldn't think of a more "politically correct" term!), and I'm still on crutches! Ah well, at least we won't be bored, will we? LOL!

I have Master's Swim early tomorrow morning (5:30 am!), so I'd better be good and go to bed... I can be so bad about staying up too late when Tom works nights. It's lonely to go to bed all by myself!

Fun at the zoo...

2011-11-14T21:57:00.001-06:00

I'm so glad that my children like to take photos and videos. When they went to the zoo last weekend with Tom, Caleb captured this *great* video of the polar bear playing with a ball! I thought you'd enjoy it as much as I did!

This afternoon I get to go to my orthopedic doctor for my 2 week post-op appointment! (I had a stress fracture in my hip and had it "pinned"... three screws inserted to stabilize my femoral neck) I know it sounds silly, but I am so nervous/excited that I kept waking up last night and got up extra-early this morning. Today I'll find out when I can begin to exercise again and I should be able to start adding activities to my agenda rather than subtracting them! Wooo Hoo! I am hoping to be able to start swimming later this week... I'll keep you updated!

Have a fabulous Tuesday, my friends!

On the docket today...

2011-11-12T12:46:00.001-06:00

The local zoo is free this month for city residents, so my very sweet husband took all of the younger children this morning! Our zoo is huge, so I didn't think I wanted to crutch around quite that much. Instead I have some other plans today...

A little of this...

Baked Southwest Egg Rolls, recipe and photo via

Abbie and I are going to make these egg rolls. I am planning to make enough to flash freeze some of them for later. Cooking while on crutches is a challenge, so I don't think it'll happen today, but at some point I want to experiment with making some gluten free egg roll wraps... I'll let you know how they turn out when I do. For today's project, we are using premade egg roll wraps purchased in the refrigerated section at Wal Mart. Should be fun! (and hopefully yummy too!)

A little creating like this:

At Home mug rugs via

or this:

via

or this:

I do believe I'm in love with banners, buntings, or whatever... I know, I'm a little late to the party, but hey, with photos like this, how can you help but be inspired?

Chalkboard bunting tutorial via

Christmas burlap banner via

V & Co. Scrap Buster Banner tutorial via

via Pinterest

via

And last, but most certainly not least: (I do love vintage pickup trucks~ love!)

via

Hope you are having a fabulous Saturday, my friends!

How we homeschool...

2011-11-11T20:51:00.000-06:00

I get a ton of requests for curriculum recommendations and I admit that I have hesitated to share here because even though I have home educated "officially" since 1993 I am more aware than ever of how very many options and approaches there are in home education. What is a good "fit" for our family might not be for yours and might not even be right for us in another year or two. So please sift... this is just what works for us, right now and with our large family and my husband's schedule.

Tom is a policeman and works evenings. This is *so* much fun for us because the children get to spend so much time with their father. However it can make it challenging for us to accomplish schoolwork. For many years when the children were younger I put together a very comprehensive schedule using this method. It was a huge help for me with so many little ones at home. As we had more older children though I began to notice that it created problems for me since Tom's love language is quality time and when he was home in the mornings he would really like for me to drop what I was doing and spend time with him. When we were strictly following my schedule it was difficult for me to do that. I'd spend time with him while in the back of my mind I'd be thinking "I'll *never* be able to get caught up now and complete our day! Never!" Aaaack! A few years ago I ditched the schedule in favor of simply following an "order of daily events" with the most important first. It was easy (well, easier!) for me to stop and visit with Tom or do whatever he needed done, knowing that we could simply pick up where we left off and if we didn't get to the things at the end of the list it was ok since those were the least important things anyway. That has been a huge relief for me and has helped me to enjoy my time with Tom more.

For many years I leaned toward a unit study or Charlotte Mason-type approach, but as our older children neared high school age Tom requested that we move them to a more textbook-centered approach. "Aaaaack!" I thought, they'll be ruined! Ruined! I didn't argue though and I am now very grateful that I followed his advice.

First of all, it helped with my workload. When my oldest daughter was in 12th grade I had 9 other children officially school age, a toddler and gave birth to our dozenth baby in December of that year. Talk about busy! With textbooks, I could give the older children their assignments and they pretty much taught themselves.

In addition, textbooks and tests gave them some good practice for how school is done "in the real world" to help them if they wanted to pursue further education in a more traditional setting (like college).

I do still tend to lean toward using "real" books as Charlotte Mason promoted, especially with the younger children, but for me it was too burdensome to completely follow a Charlotte Mason or even a lapbooking or unit study approach, as much as I "believed" in it. I think that if I had fewer children that might work for me, but it simply isn't a good fit for us.

So here's the breakdown of what we are using right now. I will start with the younger children and work my way up to the oldest.

Grade School:
Reading: I am a huge proponent of doing a lot of reading aloud and reading "real" books. In addition to lots of reading aloud, for many, many years we used Alpha-Phonics to teach beginning readers. I loved the fact that it was non-consumable and even though it tended toward boring, it did work. This year I decided that we had more than gotten our money's worth from that book after using it for 17 years (!!) and actually purchased some new beginner reading books!

We are currently using The Reading Lesson with Daniel and Timothy. All three of us are thrilled with it. The content is comprehensive, has plenty of review yet still moves along at a good clip. The illustrations are cute. We like it!

Just for fun and extra practice I also purchased this set: Now I'm Reading: Animal Antics. This super-cute set of 10 little books reminds me of the Bob Books, for those of you who have been around doing this for a few years, but with cuter illustrations and story lines too.

Science: For science with all of my grade schoolers I *love* Jeannie Fulbright's "Exploring Creation with" series. I love the fact that all of our younger children can work together. Not only is the text colorful and full of illustrative photos and diagrams, in addition Jeannie's conversational tone makes these books a pleasure to read aloud. She includes many prompts for the children to "tell what you have learned in your own words" and a ton of experiments as well! This year we are working our way through Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.

English: For English in the past we have used Shurley English and while I did like those books, we were ready to use something different this year. After reading glowing reviews I decided to try a new curriculum. We are using Sandi Queen's "Language Lessons" series for all of the children, all the way through high school! She has a very gentle Charlotte Mason-ish approach to teaching English which includes some phonics instruction (in the younger levels), copywork, poetry appreciation, beautiful full-color artwork for picture studies (my favorite part of the books!) and so much more. The lessons do not take long each day, but provide a very nice comprehensive English curriculum.

Spelling: First up: SpellQuizzer on the computer. You can read my review here of that spelling program. It works and it saves me a ton of time dictating spelling lists. End of story.

This year I have added the Sequential Spelling curriculum. Sequential Spelling teaches spelling using word families. Intuitive and yes, it works.

Handwriting: Start Write has played a key role in our homeschooling for quite a few years now. Every morning I print handwriting pages using Start Write. The super-cool thing about this program is the huge number of font options available. We teach Italics handwriting here and I have the option to use that, in either the printed or cursive form. (12 different fonts are available) I simply copy several of the Bible verses that we are currently memorizing (we are memorizing Ephesians this year) and copy them to Start Write. I can then print pages with outlines of the letters and "start dots" for my younger students to trace, or make pages for the older grade schoolers which has a blank line under each line of text so they can copy the verses themselves.

Math: For many years we were Saxon Math fans from grade school all the way through high school, and while it did "get the job done," quite honestly it became more and more tedious with each passing year. The hardbound books really are more suited to classroom situations where a teacher lectures and explains the lesson before giving an assignment. I had so many students in school that teaching math became increasingly time consuming. We did use the D.I.V.E. DVDs to help with the instruction for several years before switching to our current love, Teaching Textbooks.

Oh, Teaching Textbooks, how do we love you? Let me count the ways...

These DVD/book combinations are our favorites. Each lesson is presented in an engaging way, giving the children an opportunity to work practice problems at the end of each lesson and receive immediate feedback on their work. The animated characters are adorable... bottom line: all of my children *love* Teaching Textbooks. So much so that they ask to work a math lesson on their days off school!

In addition, on the gradeschool level the children's work is graded and they find out right away if they worked a problem correctly or not.

This curriculum, while not inexpensive, has saved me at least 4 hours of instructional time/day, perhaps more! I love teaching my children, but saving 4+ hours/day has been pretty sweet for me, I must admit! Teaching Textbooks has curriculum from 3rd grade all the way through Pre-Calculus. A worthwhile investment, for sure.

In addition, after reading a number of glowing reviews, I decided to purchase the Life of Fred math curriculum. This unusual series came highly recommended. To be quite honest, it hasn't been a huge hit with us. I let the older children choose if they wanted to use Life of Fred or Teaching Textbooks at the beginning of this school year. All of the older children chose Life of Fred. Everyone loved it at the beginning of the school year, but now all except one have switched back to Teaching Textbooks.

That being said, I'm going to still include a link here, because it might be a great fit for your family! The text for LOF is funny and engaging and he does to a great job explaining the "why" of math. The children thought that he was hard to understand and required a little too much "figuring" without enough explanation. In addition, I found the format of the grading frustrating as a teacher. Some answers are in one book, some in another, etc.

I haven't yet decided to sell our set, thinking that it might be a good "fit" for someone here in the future, but then again, I might sell it. We'll see. For now, for us, Teaching Textbooks seems to be a better fit.

History: We have used a variety of curriculum for history... currently we are using BJU textbooks from grade school all the way through high school. While these are pretty basic and not very Charlotte Mason-ish, they work and they get the job done. Believe it or not, even my grade schoolers look forward to me reading to them from theses books.

On the junior high and high school level it does take a whole school year to complete these texts, but at the grade school level we are usually done by the end of December. In the spring I will use a different book, most likely Ann Voskamp's book A Child's Geography. We started this last year and will finish it this year. I *love* Ann's conversational tone, worldview and content.... highly recommended!

Typing: Typing Deluxe. We have used this for several years and the children enjoy it. Not too "gamey" but still fun and instructive. It works.

High School:

In addition to the resources mentioned above, on the high school level we use:

Foreign Language: Spanish with Rosetta Stone, the homeschool edition.

Science: We heartily endorse Apologia's secondary level texts for science. These challenging textbooks are written in a conversational style that is engaging and well-written.

Math: As mentioned above, we love Teaching Textbooks.

Social Studies/History: Again, as reviewed above, we use BJU's Heritage Studies books.

English, Spelling and Typing were all mentioned above.

In addition to all of that, our two oldest boys at home are working through a drafting curriculum this year. (I always thought drafting and all of the tools used for that was *so* cool when I was in high school!) We are using Practical Drafting and have been very happy with it thus far. In the fall semester the boys are going through the book manually and in the spring will go through it using CAD software.

So there you have it... the vast majority of the curriculum that we are using this school year! I do hope that this is helpful.

Homeschool Record-Keeping Software:

This past year I switched from Edu-Track Homeschool (which is no longer supported, I don't believe) to Homeschool Tracker. I have been *very* happy with this software. This program actually does *way* more than I will ever need, (you can read about all of the features on their web site), but I think one of my favorite features is that I was able to take each of the children's school books for this year and schedule each assignment for the whole year for each book. Now each week when it is time for me to plan the coming week's lessons, all I have to do is send the next assignments to their assignment grid. I don't even have to get out their books! It did take a lot of time last August, but now that work is all done and I even took into account the number of school days that we will have this year to be sure that we would finish the text book by the end of the year. In addition, as other children go through those books in the future I can simply reuse the same lesson plans again! Genius! There are many, many more cool features included with this program... do yourself a favor and check it out!

I thought I'd include the following resources as well:

Used Homeschool Curriculum Resources:

Vegsource This huge site can be a hassle to navigate, but I have found some great deals there. Now though I primarily use Homeschool Classifieds. When I have curriculum to sell it will be listed at that link. You can also search the whole site for whatever you are in need of. Good stuff and a great way to save money too!

Managers of Their Homes	The Reading Lesson	Now I am Reading: Animal Antics	Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology	Language Lessons for the Secondary Child: 2
Teaching Textbooks: Algebra 1	BJU US History Grade 11	A Child's Geography	Sequential Spelling	SpellQuizzer
Typing Instructor Deluxe	Life of Fred	Start Write	Rosetta Stone Spanish	Exploring Creation with General Science
Practical Drafting	Homeschool Tracker

InLinkz.com

Catching up on Project Life- part 2

2011-11-10T18:17:00.002-06:00

Here I am with the second post catching up on my Project Life album! It always amazes me to see how very much has happened in our plain 'ol ordinary life here in the span of a few weeks!

First up: September 25- Oct.1, 2011
This was a pretty "average" week for us... no super-big stories, but still so, so cool to have a record of life around here. So many little fun details that I am sure I would not remember if I hadn't picked up the camera and snapped a few pictures.

Here's a close-up of the left side of the week. (that sounded funny... "left side of the week!" Wow... I think It's been too long since I've been able to exercise... LOL!) Anyway....

I decided to include a fun lift-up section so I could tell how the children helped me so a super-huge weeding project in my herb garden in almost no time at all. They wanted to be silly for one of the photos that I took, so this way I could include both pictures plus the short story.

On the right is a printed copy of our calendar for the past month. I use and *love* Google calendar, keeping track of not only family events/appts, but also my menu plans, older childrens' schedules, bills, animal care, my workout/training plans, etc. I think it is fun to have that summary of our life included here too.

Our other "big" event this week was the arrival of 100 cornish cross chickens which we will raise to eat. We have been doing this for probably 10 years now... *love* having such good organic meat in the freezer for our family!

October 2-8, 2011
This was a really, really full week which included a birthday celebration for Abigail and my grandmother falling and breaking her pelvis. Honestly a pretty tough week, but here it is, along with some of my thoughts about all that was happening.

I also found out this week that I have another femoral neck stress fracture (a stress fracture in my hip), necessitating 6 + weeks on crutches. sigh. As I type this now (11/10/2011) though I am already through the worst of my time on crutches (and subsequent surgery) and am feeling much more optimistic about getting through this, especially since I should be released to swim next week! Yay!

October 9-15, 2011
I spent almost all of my free time this week visiting my grandmother in hospice with my parents. I am so glad that I could spend this time with my Nana and my parents.... I honestly have good memories from a very difficult week.

I had to include this cute card that Daniel made for me... I *love* the little things that the children make for me, and I *love* having such a perfect "home" for them. As much as I enjoy looking through these albums now, I can only imagine how much fun they will be in 20 years or so!

To include this card from Dan, I simply slipped it into an 8 1/2" x 11" page protector and sewed a simple straight stitch next to the edge of his card. Then I took my handy-dandy paper-trimmer and trimmed the page protector to size. Pretty sweet!

Oct. 16-22, 2011
The memorial service for my dear Nana was this week and I included a few photos that I took with my iPhone there... I am still thinking that I might go back and include some of the cool photos that I have from her life in this two-page spread. I would need to use some additional page protectors, but that is the cool thing about 3 ring binders.... it is super-easy to add to it or rearrange things.

October 23-29, 2011
As I have mentioned here before, we have three dogs... don't ask me why. We'll just say that I collect children and dogs. Anyway I captured the cutest picture this week one morning when we were having pancakes. I don't know about you, but our dogs would do anything for a pancake. Anything!

I glanced over to the sitting area in our kitchen to see this: Jacob being held captive by all three dogs... each one desperately hoping for a pancake handout. So funny! And yes, no doubt they all three received at least some part of a pancake.

Anyway, on to this week's layout.

I think this week was the height of autumn color around here. Usually I take multiple treks outdoors to take photos of the children and the autumn colors, but since I am on crutches this year that didn't happen. I tried to make the best of things and just captured what I could see from our house... still very nice, I think.

I have to explain the top right photo of me here... the children were teasing me about how strong I've become since I've been swimming so much and using crutches... they decided to take a photo of "my muscles" to text to our oldest son, Nate, who is in the army. LOL! Pretty funny! He was, no doubt, quite impressed. : )

October 30- November 5, 2011
And here we are at the most recent week that I have completed in my Project Life notebook. This was a hard week for me as I had surgery, having three screws put into the upper part of my left femur, hopefully taking care of the femoral neck stress fracture that I have. The first few days weren't very fun at all, but I did manage to snap a few photos and record a few stories that made it into this weeks pages.

Here are links to some of my favorite products that I use over and over on Project Life... click on any of the photos for more information!

Project Life Products that I Love

Avery Tags 1 3/4" x 1 3/32"	Tim Holtz Micro Serrated Scissors	Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper	Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher Stapler	Project Life Photo Pocket Pages Design A
6 x 12 photo pockets	4 x 6 peel and stick photo pockets

InLinkz.com

So there you have it... a whirlwind tour of the last few months of our life here. Are any of you working on Project Life or planning to next year? I'd love to hear about what you are doing!

Catching up on Project Life- part 1

2011-11-09T15:44:00.000-06:00

I'm a week post-surgery here and we have been as busy as ever! Well, I've been busier delegating and sitting, but that counts too! The older children work on their school work pretty independently, so they just continued with their assignments. We gave the littler boys Monday off (the day I had surgery) and Tuesday also last week. By Wednesday I had moved downstairs from our bedroom to the couch and had taken up "residence" there.

Perfect location to work with the younger boys on their school work. (and play with my iPad!)

Timmy, who will be 5 in a few weeks is *really* enjoying "doing school like the big boys"... *love* this photo I snapped of him working on his handwriting. Isn't he cute?

One of the things that I have worked on with all of the extra sitting time that I've had on my hands (other than snacking... that didn't work out very well!) is working on my Project Life album. I know that I have said it before here, but it bears repeating, I *love* this project!

If you are not familiar with Project Life, or even if you are, do yourself a favor and check out this post for a fabulous and comprehensive overview of how Project Life works... and I also came across this post, the first in a series that should be very helpful as well!

I have been pretty much keeping up with printing my photos and getting them in the album, but haven't taken as much time as I would have liked to get the stories and journaling entered there. This was a perfect project for a professional chair-sitter like me to work on!

Since I haven't posted a Project Life update since... August 6 (hello?! August? Wow!) and I know how very much you would love to see what I have worked on, I thought I'd bless you with a very long and photo-heavy post showing you the pages in my album since then! Well actually I think I'll divide the fun up into two posts for you.... Alrightie then.... here we go!

First up: August 7- August 13, 2011

Some weeks I have more photos than I know what to do with and have a hard time deciding which ones will make the cut and then there are other weeks when I am busier and don't pick up the camera as much. This was one of those weeks. We were working hard on refinishing our school room, thus the sparse week, photographically.

A close up of the left page...

and the right...

August 14-20, 2011
Another light week here, but still so, so good to have it documented... and a few stories added as well. This was our last "official" week of summer here before starting school, so I was really busy with preparations for school and with helping finish up the remodel of our recreation/school room. Whew! Busy, busy week!

a close up of the left page...

and the right, including a bag from one of our favorite local running stores...

August 21-27, 2011

Again, a close-up of the left page...

and the right... The journaling on the right is taken from this blog post about my last triathlon of the summer. I would like to do more of that sort of blog posting that I can draw from to print for my Project Life album. Here's a little closer view of that right page with the journaling...

On the back of that page is this:

The photo of me on my bike is actually an 8" x 8" page protector... a fun size and here is the album with that page turned:

I included my "race day checklist"... so many things to remember for a triathlon! And here is the back of that page and the rest of the photos from the week... lots of fun miscellaneous photos and stories.

Next up: August 28-Sept.3, 2011

If I had to choose a favorite two-page spread from this Project Life album, this one just might be it. I simply *love* the photos, the colors, the stories, all of this!

Here's the left page: Tom celebrated his birthday and I had the opportunity to ride with Team Garmin's bike team. That was a really fun experience!

And the right ... I seriously *love* this photo of Tim and Jasper, our Welsh Corgi!

I have started printing out each month's Google Calendar so I can have another record of all that we did during the past month and putting it in my Project Life notebook, so that is what I put on the back of the photo of Tim and Jasper.

Here's the right side of those pages:

September 4-10, 2011

Did I mention here that we are raising turkeys this year? They are *so* funny! We purchased six straight-run (that just means that they are mixed, males and females) turkeys last spring. Two of them ended up being Toms. They are huge now and put on a pretty impressive show. Foremost in their mind is impressing the girl turkeys. That is all they think about... strutting around with their feathers puffed out. The females seem totally unimpressed. So comical.

Anyway, here's the "spread" from this week:

The left page,

a fun little 6" x 12" page protector that I used to highlight our trip downtown to see the circus elephants eat lunch...

The white journaling card is actually a separate 4" x 6" photo sleeve that I stuck on so I could more easily include the journaling from our trip and a fun photo of Jacob and Timmy on the back...

That longer 6" x 12" page protector lifts up to reveal this:

The last page highlights a fun little family bike ride which ended in a rainy downpour!

Sept. 11-17, 2011
A more "normal" week here, highlighting my longest trail run with Tom yet, 11 miles! I was super-proud of that workout!

left page...

and the right page... including a somewhat comical look at the ridiculous stacks of books on my nightstand!

September 18-24, 2011

This week I highlighted the boys' quest to capture a chicken-bandit and an insert dedicated to a 10K race that Tom and I ran with three of our children. It was a wet, chilly race. I had never run that far in a race before, so I really enjoyed the challenge. (and the weather... I love running in cold weather, rather than hot!)

So there you have it.... almost two months of everyday life here~ so cool to have captured the moments and memories that I did. Most certainly I would have already forgotten the vast majority of these events. I really can't recommend this project highly enough... totally doable for busy moms and *rich* in memories created.

Check out the huge line of Project Life supplies now available from Becky Higgins on Amazon. There are now more options than ever to help you celebrate your life. Super-cool variety packs of page protectors, clear envelopes, etc, etc. What fun!

Any questions, please do ask and I'll try to answer in a future post.

Up next: Sept.25- present! Soon, I promise!

10 Things Right Now

2011-11-03T15:29:00.001-05:00

1. Recovering from my second hip surgery... for those of you who have inquired (and there have been a bunch of you-- thanks!) I'm doing great! The first few days after surgery were not very fun, but today has been much better. Thanks SO much for your prayers and concern!

2. So grateful for the children and Tom, who are such willing helpers. Large families are a lot of work, (but oh!) the blessings of so many caring and willing (mostly!) helpers! I am SO spoiled!

3. I am not nearly as frustrated with my crutches right now as I was a few weeks ago... feeling like this is simply a "season" and will pass...

4. Totally *loving* Pinterest and all of the visual inspiration there.

5. Beginning to think about Christmas... lots of gifts to plan for and creative decorating that I'd like to do.

6. Really loving the new Needtobreathe album "The Reckoning" and also enjoying playing George Winston's album "December."

7. I am really in the mood to sew... I have a ton of ideas to work on once my hip is a little better. Check out my Pinterest sewing board if you'd like!

8. Trying to focus on what I can do right now, rather than getting frustrated with what I can't do.

9. Pinterest has also inspired me to think about style ... (you can find my style Pinterest board here) ...what I like and what I don't. This topic has *never* been on my "radar," I can be perfectly happy with a pair of jeans and a comfy shirt. The combination of losing weight and browsing Pinterest has inspired me to consider what I wear though. There are *so* many cute outfits pinned there... I'm trying to creatively branch out without spending very much money. A fun challenge!

10. I am finding myself more grateful than ever for my friends... both local and online friends. I have been attempting to take all of the opportunities that I can to spend time with friends. Out of town friends, when they pass through this area, and little meetings with local friends as well. I am *so* blessed to have so many faithful friends. Love you guys!

Hope the rest of your week is fantabulous!

Susan

Olive Leaf and bone density....

2011-10-29T19:26:00.001-05:00

Here's a supplement to add to your arsenal of natural treatments for osteopenia and/or osteoporosis.

via

For some time, the oleuropein in olive leaf has been known to have the following pharmacological properties:

antiviral
anti-microbal
antioxidant
anti-inflammatory
skin protector
anti-aging
anti-cancer
anti-atherogenic

Here is an article summarizing the benefits of olive leaf.

New research has shown that olive leaf is also beneficial for bone health. In summary, olive leaf has been shown to stimulate osteoblasts (the cells that are involved in bone growth) and inhibit the formation of osteoclasts (the cells involved in bone removal).

Olive leaf stimulates bone growth. A study documenting the usefulness of Olive leaf in the stimulation of bone growth was done at the University of Cordoba in Spain. It found that "oleuropein provoked an increase in the diffentiation of osteoblasts, cells responsible for bone formation". Source: .doctac 2011.
In addition there has been research showing Olive leaf as preventing bone loss. In April 2011 Japanese scientists Keitaro Hagiwaraa, Tadashi Gotob, Masahiro Arakic, Hitoshi Miyazakic, Hiromi Hagiwara published a paper, "Olive polyphenol hydroxytyrosol prevents bone loss" in the European Journal of Pharmacology>/i> stating: "Polyphenols reportedly exert physiological effects against diseases such as cancer, arteriosclerosis, hyperlipidemia and osteoporosis. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects of oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol, the major polyphenols in olives, on bone formation using cultured osteoblasts and osteoclasts, and on bone loss in ovariectomized mice. No polyphenols markedly affected the proliferation of osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells at concentrations up to 10 μM. Oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol at 10 to 100 μM had no effect on the production of type I collagen and the activity of alkaline phosphatase in MC3T3-E1 cells, but stimulated the deposition of calcium in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, oleuropein at 10 to 100 μM and hydroxytyrosol at 50 to 100 μM inhibited the formation of multinucleated osteoclasts in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, both compounds suppressed the bone loss of trabecular bone in femurs of ovariectomized mice (6-week-old BALB/c female mice), while hydroxytyrosol attenuated H2O2 levels in MC3T3-E1 cells. Our findings indicate that the olive polyphenols oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol may have critical effects on the formation and maintenance of bone, and can be used as effective remedies in the treatment of osteoporosis symptoms."

A summary of the study can be found here.

Additional information on natural alternatives to prescription medications can be found here... highly recommended!

There is a free monthly newsletter that you can sign up for here which will keep you up to date on the latest research/natural options for battling bone loss.

I don't have a specific brand/dosage of Olive Leaf to recommend to you... you'll have to do your own research to make an informed decision. For now, I have simply purchased olive leaf from Amazon, but I haven't yet done enough research to recommend a certain brand... I'm still learning here too!

Hope this is helpful.... bone health is so important!

Do your research, take responsibility for your own health and stay strong ladies!

The Ruffled Messenger Bag Tutorial!

2011-10-27T20:27:00.001-05:00

Remember this messenger bag that I showed you yesterday?

To be quite honest, I originally bought the drop cloths to make a slipcover for one of our (very tired) couches, but first I was distracted by my super-simple table runner idea and then by this messenger bag. I am going to work on recovering the couch this weekend... I'd *love* to finish it before I have hip surgery Monday.

I'll try to take photos as I go, so perhaps I'll have another semi-helpful tutorial to share sometime soon.

My other big project this weekend is to do some batch cooking. The children are helping me put some beef meals in the freezer during the next few days.... I'm using this batch cooking plan. It'll be so good to "feed our freezer" again~ I *love* having these meals to draw from on busy days... actually that would be almost *every* day here (and I wouldn't have it any other way)!

Back to the messenger bag though... when I began planning what I wanted to sew, I used ideas that I have saved in Evernote and on Pinterest like these:

via

(And yes, I want the truck too, but that'll have to wait until we find just the right truck, and I talk the boys into refurbishing it for me in their "spare time".... um guys??)

I *loved* the ruffles, but I really wanted more of a messenger-type bag with the longer single shoulder strap (since I'm on crutches right now) and a flap rather than an open top.

I decided to use this messenger bag tutorial and simply add my own ruffles! I think Alida's tutorial is fabulous, so I won't redo it, but I will tell how I adapted it so I could have my ruffles, plus I decided to line it a slightly different way, which I think turned out pretty nice.

Ruffly Messenger Bag Tutorial

Cut out the pieces for outer bag, pockets and lining as detailed in Alida's messenger bag tutorial.
In addition, cut out 8 strips for the ruffles as follows: 4 pieces 5 1/2" x 30" for the back and 4 pieces 4 1/2" x 24" for the front pocket.
For each ruffle strip, serge or hem to finish the long edges. If you choose to serge the fabric, one of the long edges then needs to be turned up and hemmed.
The other long edge needs a double row of basting stitches sewn the length of the fabric so it can be gathered.
Follow Alida's instructions, attaching the magnetic snaps, sewing the pockets and sewing the shoulder strap together.
Stop before Alida's instructions to "sew the bag sandwich" together, since you need to attach the ruffles first!
Gather the ruffles for the front flap and the back and adjust to fit the outer fabric pieces.
I spaced the ruffles and placed them, one overlapping the other and baste them in place. The bottom three ruffles I simply basted with the gathered, serged edge flat, but for the top ruffle, I placed it upside down and then basted it down so that when it was flipped down there would be a finished edge.
In addition to basting across the gathered edge of each ruffle, I also basted the short edges all the way down the long the edge of the outer flap. That way, when you sew the lining to the flap, the ruffles with stay where you want them. I didn't baste the side edges of the bottom front flap ruffle though, since I wanted it to drop below the edge of the front flap, so I needed to be able to keep it out of the way when sewing the outer fabric and lining of the front flap. Here's a few pictures which might help show what I did:

10. Now you will need to place the four ruffles on the back of the bag. The will be gathered and basted on the same way as the ruffles on the front flap were. Be sure to leave the side edges of the bottom ruffle free~ don't baste those side edges down since that bottom ruffle will extend below the bottom edge of the bag and you will want it to stay free of the stitching when you sew the back of the bag to the front.

11. I decided to sew my bag lining in a slightly different way than Alida did. First I layered the front and back flap, right sides together and stitched along the three sides of the flap, being careful to keep the bottom ruffle free of the stitching. Clip the bottom corners and then turn right side out.

12. Next, layer the front and back outer fabric, right sides together and sew around the side and bottom edges of those pieces.

13. Now arrange the lining, front and back, right sides together and sew around the sides and bottom of those pieces.

14. It is time to sew across the bottom corners of the bag, both outer fabric and lining~ see Alida's fabulous tutorial and pictures to do this step.

15. Finally it is time for the exciting part of placing the lining in the bag~ you're getting close to the end now! Turn the bag lining inside out and slide it down into the outer bag.

16. To finish the top edge of the bag, simply turn under the top edges of the bag and lining so the unfinished edges are hidden and then topstitch all around the top edge.

17. Don't forget to make some fabric flowers for embellishment! I tried several tutorials like this one and this one... pretty fun! **editied: This one is really good too!

Enjoy your messenger bag! Thanks Alida, for the fabulous tutorial! I *love* my bag!

If you have any questions, please ask away and I'll try to clarify my instructions! Enjoy!

Inspired by Pinterest

2011-10-26T14:09:00.001-05:00

It all started innocently enough with images like this...

And then I came across this post by Miss Mustard Seed on using dropcloths (of all things!) to make slipcovers!

My sweet, patient husband, who goes along with most of my endeavors, took me to several home improvement-type stores so I could find just the right dropcloth. I wanted one that was a nice texture and color, and preferably with no seams.

We ended up purchasing an 8oz dropcloth that was 4' x 13' from Lowes that was a nice light color and washed up beautifully. It did have a seam in it, but the fabric was so nice and soft after washing and bleaching it that I didn't really care.

Once I finished washing/bleaching it I laid it out on our long table and it hit me... all I needed to do was cut it in half and I'd have a super-easy table runner~ perfect for painting some sweet French-style pinstripes on!

So I cut the dropcloth in half lengthwise, serged the raw edge to finish it and used blue painter's tape to mask off the area that I wanted to paint.

To paint fabric, all you need is plain-ol' acrylic paint~ I used the brand Apple Barrel and for best results it is good to add some fabric medium to the paint to "set" it.

I was really happy with how it turned out!

Now I'm itchin' to try out some glass etching like this:

and create some glass hurricane candle-holders similar to this to put on my beautiful new table runner:

I think that will be so pretty and fun to customize for different seasons too!

That just got me started though....

I think that I mentioned that I am back on crutches again, trying to get another femoral neck stress fracture (in my hip) to heal up. I am on week 2 of trying to be totally non-weightbearing. sigh. So I can't run or bike right now, but I have been swimming~ a lot, and I am gradually improving. I actually swam 2.4 miles last Saturday~ without stopping~ all in about 1hr 20 min! Wow! I was *so* excited! Last June it was a struggle for me to get to the other end of the pool. So all that to say, persistance does pay off. I may not be fast, but I am persistant!

Anyway, I digress.... Tom and I decided that it would be best for me to go ahead and have this hip "pinned" like I had to do with my right hip last fall. That pretty much means that my orthopedic doctor will put three screws in my femoral neck (that's the top part of my femur, the narrow part where it turns and goes into your hip). That way, even though I am dealing with osteopenia (and I do have some new research to share here on building bone density... soon, I promise!) I should be "good to go" for running and doing some longer-distance triathlon events next year.

So Monday, Oct. 31, I'll be having my left hip pinned. It wasn't very fun last fall, so I'm not really looking forward to the surgery, but I'm really looking forward to getting past these fracture issues and back to running with my sweet family. I *hate* missing out on all of the beautiful autumn runs they have been going on!

I'll still be on crutches for another 6 weeks after surgery and one of the things that is most frustrating to me about being on crutches is that I can't carry anything. Last week I decided that what I needed was a messenger-type bag to carry my "stuff" around the house in.

After looking at lots of bag ideas I came up with this: (using dropcloth fabric, of course!)

I'm really happy with how it turned out... more info about that project soon!

Have a great day, my friends!

ps- if you want to follow my Pinterest boards.... here they are!

I need friends! LOL!

2011-10-25T11:11:00.000-05:00

Hey there!

I've been planning all sorts of posts, but have been so busy with life here that I've had no time to write!

I did want to take a sec here though before I go swim (while the children eat lunch) to make a little request/offer. If anyone would like to be "friends" with me on MyFitnessPal, I'd *love* to add you as a friend! Let's encourage each other!

I'm joyfulmomofmany (such a surprise, huh?!) there... look me up and "friend" me, K?

You can read my post here about how I'm using MyFitnessPal to loose some stubborn weight.

Have a *fabulous* autumn day! (or spring day, for those of you in the Southern hemisphere!)

On choosing the better thing...

2011-10-20T18:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we attended a memorial service for my dear Nana.

I have an incredibly supportive family... loving and super-patient with all of my many pursuits, but my Nana played a unique role in my life.

She thought I was perfect. For my whole life she has been my biggest cheerleader.

Certainly, I was aware of my faults, but I am sure that her unwavering confidence in me and my abilities, however unfounded, has encouraged me to attempt goals that I might never have considered otherwise.

She never started her own business, wrote a book, invented anything, or was highlighted in a magazine article, but her life was still incredibly significant because she chose love.

She chose love.

She chose forgiveness.

She chose grace.

She chose to "not take into account a wrong suffered," (1 Cor. 13:5)

She rejoiced in the truth. (1 Cor. 13:6)

Oh, I know... she wasn't perfect any more than I am, but as I reflect on her life I realize that I too want to choose love, forgiveness and grace as I relate to my family.

What a legacy an "ordinary" life can leave, when lived with love as the predominant motivation.

The years, they pass *so* quickly. I want to choose love too.

Here's to choosing grace.

Here's to choosing love.

I'll let the following photos speak for themselves. I know that this post is photo-heavy, but as I sorted through photos that we used for the slide show at her memorial service, I felt compelled to include these~ there are so many memories attached to them for me. So humor me, ok?

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;"

2 Tim. 4:7

May that be said of all of us.

That's Pinteresting!

2011-10-12T16:38:00.000-05:00

I tried. I really did. I kept hearing how addictive Pinterest was...

pages and pages of beautiful images.... decorating ideas, craft projects, luscious quilts, fashion inspiration, quotes, typography, recipes, gift ideas, tutorials, photography inspiration.... oh. my. goodness. !!

Yep~ count me among the addicted.

Here is just a sampling of some of the things that I pinned or repinned this past week...

Interested in Pinterest but not sure where to begin? Here is a fabulous "beginner's article." Here's another great article done by Katy at the Daily Digi.

Here is a link to my Pinterest page. If you need an invite, leave me a comment below, including your email address, or email me and I'll send one to you.

Happy pinning!

Battling "the bulge"

2011-10-11T21:48:00.000-05:00

For years I have battled “the bulge,” sometimes more effectively than others. For the most part, my approach was simple: exercise more and eat less. In theory it was a good approach. The problem for me was that it was all too vague. If I worked out really hard it was probably fine to make brownies "for the children", wasn't it? And yes, they were made from healthy ingredients so it wouldn't hurt for me to "sample" a small bit each time I passed the pan in the kitchen, now would it?

Long story short, I was working out hard, but I remained "stuck" at 165. I am 5'11", so that didn't technically qualify me as "overweight", but I know what I weighed when Tom and I married 25 years ago (145) plus I was pretty sure that if I was to have any hope of competing injury-free in triathlons with my low bone density issues I would have to lose some additional fat.

This past summer my father, who has struggled with his weight for years, suddenly began to steadily lose weight. And he just kept going (he has lost 55 lbs thus far). His big secret? An app (available for iphone, Droid, and on the web, all for free!) called MyFitnessPal.

Perhaps you have read the studies like I have that report how much more successful people are at losing weight when they keep track of calories. "No problem," I would think,"I can do that." I would then dutifully pull out some paper in order to log everything that I consumed... for about 36 hours before deciding that I had much better things to do with my time.... like clean toilets and turn the boys' dirty socks right-side-out (two of my most favorite activities!)

Folks, this app/web site is seriously cool. I primarily use the iPhone app and have found it to be so easy to log what I eat each day. Not only is there a huge database of foods and their calorie counts to choose from, it also gives you the option to enter your own recipes and find out the calorie count/serving. We mostly cook from scratch, so I don't use the bar code scanner very often, but that option is included in the app as well!

Not only do I enter everything that I eat, but I also can enter any exercise that I do each day, and that adds calories to my available limit, based on what I did and how long I did it. Sweet!

The app objectively tells me how many calories I have left each day and I make my food choices accordingly. This has helped me enormously since my choices are much more objective now. Either I have the calories available, or I don't.

When you first log in you will give it information like your height, weight, age and daily activity level. In addition, it will ask you what your goal weight is and whether you want to lose one or two pounds/week. Based on that information, it will give you a caloric goal for each day. For me it is 1200 calories/day, but when I work out I get additional calories to use~ yay!

I have lost 14lbs thus far and plan to lose 10-15 more. I am so excited about this! I am now wearing 6 tall jeans from Eddie Bauer! Seriously?!! I *never* thought I'd even wear 8s and now I'm in 6 talls? Wow! Seriously, I had pretty much given up on ever losing weight.

The other weight loss tool that I highly recommend is a scale that not only records weight, but also % body fat and % muscle too. Using this scale I have been able to watch not only my weight and percent fat decrease, but also my percent muscle increase! Pretty cool!

So there you have it... my personal weight loss tools for battling the bulge here~ trust me, if this mom of a dozen can lose weight, you can too! It really isn't that hard!

Transformations....

2011-10-09T22:14:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago the younger boys discovered four monarch butterfly caterpillars in my garden. They excitedly deposited the caterpillars and some leaves that they were on into a clear plastic bug house. Every day they checked their tiny "pets," waiting for them to form their chrysalis.

I didn't capture a photo of the newly formed, bright green chrysalis, but did capture this amazing photo...

This was taken the morning of the monarch's emergence. Can you see the beautifully distinct monarch wings within the (now clear) chrysalis? Absolutely amazing!

The day that we witnessed this transformation, my dear, dear 96 year old grandmother, "Nana" fell, fracturing her pelvis in multiple places.

When I arrived home after visiting her in the hospital, Joshua greeted me in our driveway with this!

I couldn't help but wonder at the timing of this butterfly's emergence....

My grandmother is now in hospice care and I have been able to spend time there with her and my parents as she nears her "graduation" to heaven~ a transformation that is even more astounding than a caterpillar
changing into a butterfly.

My grandmother has been such a gift to me. In her eyes I can do no wrong. My family is fabulously supportive and has always been there to cheer for me, but my Nana not only cheered, but was truly convinced that I was better than perfect. The older I get, the more glaring my faults appear to me, but it sure has been nice to have her think that about me anyway! Oh how I love my Nana!

In addition, I am now on crutches. sigh. As I mentioned before, I have been battling hip pain since last spring. An MRI last Friday confirmed my fear.... I do have another femoral neck stress fracture. The protocol is 6 weeks totally non-weightbearing on crutches. I am *so* glad that I have been given the "ok" to swim as long as I use a pull buoy so I am not kicking.

If you have been reading my blog since last year, you might remember that I had a femoral neck stress fracture in my right hip last year. I ended up having it "pinned" when it simply wouldn't heal up on its own. (Surely that didn't have anything to do with the fact that I kept "cheating" and didn't use the crutches like I was supposed to! I did really, really try, honest!)

Tom and my parents are already making bets on how long I'll last on crutches this time. Honestly! And they're not even thinking I'll last a week! I'm determined this time to be good...

Seriously though, I would appreciate your prayers~ I really can't begin to express to you how intensely frustrating it is for me to have to sit so much and not be able to run around cooking, doing laundry and playing with the children. In addition, it is a huge change for me to go from 2 hours of hard exercising most days to only swimming.

Six weeks isn't really that long in the whole scheme of things, but right now, after only 48 hours on crutches, it is looming large in front of me.

Don't worry, I'll find plenty of things to keep me "profitably occupied," but I'm being honest here... I'm really struggling with this and having to watch my grandmother die. God is still good and I am choosing to dwell on His promises... He will remain faithful, even when my circumstances are hard.

I appreciate your prayers, friends!

Fabric love!

2011-10-03T16:04:00.000-05:00

Look what arrived in my humble little mailbox last week!

This stack of fabric loveliness was given to me from Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew! I was one of three people chosen in a drawing there for this beautiful stack of fabric! It includes two 10" pieces of each fabric from the Robert Kaufman line called "Veranda" by Amanda Murphy.

I was *so* excited to receive so much beautiful fabric in the mail! So excited!

I was doubly excited because I have *just* the project for all of this textile loveliness!

Have you seen this book? The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird.

In 1922, The Farmer's Wife magazine posed this question to their readers: "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?" The magazine at that time had 750,000 subscribers, and received over 7,000 letters. The best answers to this question are included in this book, along with the traditional quilt blocks they inspired.

The girls and I were already intrigued by the many blocks inspired by this book and had discussed making our own Farmer's Wife quilt. You can find a huge community of quilting inspiration here, at the Farmer's Wife Quilt Quilt-along. The Flickr group can be found here~ so many pretty quilt blocks!

Now we have a fabulous batch of fabric to use for the quilt sampler! Yay! Thanks *so* much Allison!

I'll post our blocks here as we complete them!

ps~ Allison is expecting her third baby~ you might stop by her blog and congratulate her!

The best budget-conscious homeschool whiteboard!

2011-09-19T21:45:00.001-05:00

Isn't it fun to look out of the front door and see chickens on your front porch? We keep a smallish flock of laying hens so we can enjoy nice fresh brown eggs here~ and I do love eating the eggs, but I think I enjoy watching our hens free-range and explore our property almost as much!

Tom captured these three "ladies" on our front porch this morning checkin' things out... Aren't they cute? I think chickens have the most adorable fluffy bottoms!

But you didn't stop by to read about chicken bottoms now did you?

On to whiteboards and homeschooling!

I am super-blessed to have a room for homeschooling. I'll be honest though, last year I spent very little time teaching down there. (Yes, we did do school last year! LOL!) First off it is super-cold down in our basement since we heat the rest of our house, upstairs, with a wood stove. Secondly, it was in dire need of some remodeling. So my solution last school year was to do the majority of our work upstairs in the cozy warmth of the wood stove.

Bad blogger that I am, I forgot to take before and after pictures, but we did fix up our basement homeschooling room at the end of this summer~ fresh paint on walls and ceiling, new carpet squares from our local Habitat ReStore... super-cool PVC computer table for two computers (I'll try to show you that soon) and my brand spankin' new ginormous white board!

Pretty sweet, huh? And yeah, at 4' wide and 8' long, I think it is big enough for even our largish family!

What would you pay for a 32 square foot whiteboard? How about $12.67, plus a few $ for some strong screws from our local Home Depot?

And yes, it works just like a "real" dry erase board! The dry erase markers erase just fine. We love it!

Here's a slightly better photo of the super-cool eraser that I purchased. I love the fact that it is there when I need it and the little pointy tip is fabulous for erasing smallish boo-boos without having to erase whole sentences or words. You can't really tell from the picture, but it is sitting on its very own little plastic holder which I actually adhered (using the included sticky tape) to our white board. The eraser holder is magnetic, but this whiteboard isn't metal, so that wouldn't work here.

You will notice that some of the screws holding the whiteboard are in awkward places... like the middle of the whiteboard. Unfortunately that was necessary due to where the studs are in that wall. I figured that I had so much real estate to write on that the extra screws wouldn't bother me. And they don't.

What do you think of my whiteboard?

Have any frugal homeschooling projects that you have done? Leave me a link in the comments~ I know we'd all love to see or hear about them!

Plaza 10K

2011-09-18T17:17:00.000-05:00

A little rainy morning fun around here...

Our oldest daughter Micah was in town this weekend to run the Plaza 10K. We made it into a family event~ well, part of the fam! It was a blast! Here we are before the rainy race start... being a little goofy for the camera. My parents were *so* sweet to come out in the 58 degree rain to cheer for us! What would I do without our personal cheering squad?

This inaugural race took place on The Plaza... a beautiful Kansas City shopping area~ the flowers were fabulous! Here are Jake and I at the 2 mile mark.

Tom offered to run with Micah and help her maintain a good pace. She did *fabulous*! I was so proud!

Here I am.... almost done. Yay!

I'm not very fast, but I'm persistant!

After the race Micah, her husband Joshua and my parents at lunch with us~ I *love* having almost everyone together! (Our oldest son Nate is stationed in Ft. Benning, GA as a chaplain's assistant).

Feeling super-blessed here,

The power of words...

2011-09-13T07:26:00.000-05:00

Have you watched this short video? It is a powerful reminder of the influence words can have.

What stories am I telling? What stories am I breathing to life in the lives of my family and in the lives of those I brush shoulders with?

Truly, words are powerful.

I need to consume words wisely (what am I reading/listening to?) so I can, in turn, influence with joyful truth...

An elephants' lunch....

2011-09-12T22:54:00.000-05:00

It is so hard to write a blog post when I've been away for so long! I end up feeling like I should write something very profound or supremely lovely in some way. Yikes! Talk about giving myself writer's block!

Since my last post we have been immersed in the "official" beginnings" of our school year here. This year I have have nine children who are doing school "for real." (At least as far as our state is concerned) Our two oldest children are adults out on their own now, so that only leaves Timmy not in school. I can't believe he is now 4! He, of course, is *very* interested in all that we are doing and is actually doing a little bit of school work himself. It is amazing to me how quickly he is picking up phonics with just a few minutes/day of work and reviewing letters and their sounds.

After many years of using Alpha-Phonics to teach reading.... and I do mean *many* years~ like 19, I was ready to "splurge" and try something different. After reading many reviews, I decided to try The Reading Lesson.... and so far I am, or I should say, we are really enjoying it!

I will put together a post soon listing the curriculum that we are using this year for everyone, not because I think that what we are doing is somehow ideal or "best," but because I know that I *love* hearing about what other families are using. It can be a wonderful way to find out about resources that I wasn't aware of.

When our oldest children were little guys, Tom and I frequently took them on interesting "field trips." We loved attending Civil War reenactments and museums, nature centers, etc. Alas, that practice had really fallen by the wayside in the past 10 years or so. Now please understand: I am quite satisfied being at home and find so many projects here that interest and occupy my time. I do not feel compelled to entertain my children or to be constantly taking them from one event to the next. It is my desire that my children also enjoy the simple pleasures of home and creatively occupying their time. That being said, I do think that there are many interesting things to see and do nearby, and we are entering a season where it is more feasible to go and do, so I am going to try to go and do more!

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was in town last week and we were able to take the children downtown to see the elephants eat their lunch! A trip downtown is always a bit of an adventure for us... and if you add elephants to the mix~ well! How can you go wrong?

Here was the crew... minus Miss Hannah, who was in class at the community college that morning.

Seven elephants eat a tremendous amount of food for lunch! There were loaves of bread, bananas, lettuce, carrots, apples and even watermelon for dessert! (The elephants knew just what to do with the watermelons... they stepped on them first to smash them, then greedily ate them, rind and all~ Yum!)

The boys had a bit of fun playing with clown noses....

And even Dad got in on the fun!

While we waited for the elephants to arrive, we enjoyed a display of lassoing skills.... yee-ha!

Here come the elephants! Yay!

There was also an informative Q&A time while the "girls" ate. (No male elephants over the age of 5 in the circus... they get too interested in impressing the girls!)

I love seeing my big guys enjoy the littler guys... *love* this about homeschooling!

And of course, what is a trip downtown without some cool reflective photography? The Sprint Center is a huge, fabulously reflective building~ I simply couldn't resist a few Kansas City skyline pics...

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I feel compelled to go eat a banana or something..... perhaps a watermelon would hit the spot....

On Facing Fear...

2011-08-24T22:58:00.000-05:00

What a summer I have had! The children, Tom and I had so much fun this year. We ran, biked and swam together, thoroughly enjoying the challenge of improving at all three sports and having such a blast in the process.

As many of you may remember, I was diagnosed with osteopenia this past spring. At that time I was cautioned to avoid "dangerous" sports like triathlon due to my increased risk of hip fracture if I would wreck on my bike or fall while running. Initially I was so scared that I decided to give up on my desire to compete in triathlons and even went as far as to list my new triathlon bike for sale on Craig's List.

Happily, that only lasted about a week before I came to my senses and realized that living in fear of what could happen, and being "safe" wasn't going to make me happy or satisfy me. I was already signed up for two triathlons, so I took my bike off of Craig's List and signed up for a third triathlon~ might as well go all out, don't you know, and I was off and training.

You can read about my first triathlon here and my second one here, today I'll recap the "grand finale" of my triathlon season this summer, an olympic distance (or long course) triathlon which took place at the lake that I have spent so much time training at this summer. This race was longer than the first two that I did, consisting of a .6mi swim, 25.53mi bike and 5mi run.

There was a thick fog blanketing the lake for the start of the race.... I wish I could have captured the way the light with the sun rising over the water through all of that mist for you~ it really was quite breathtaking! Here's the lake before the triathlon as athletes were swimming a bit to warm up and prepare for the race.

The swim course was marked by buoys, but was, for whatever reason very short of the 500yd that it was supposed to be. This race was a bit unusual in that for those of us who were competing on the long course, we had to swim the 500yd course, exit the water and run along the beach to get in and swim the 500yd again!

In my first triathlon I pretty much had a full-blown panic attack and resorted to doggie-paddling to get through the swim. In my second triathlon a few weeks ago I didn't do much better. I swam freestyle about 1/2- 2/3 of the swim because once again I panicked.

This time I felt ready for the swim~ I have been faithfully attending a master's swim class two early mornings a week, plus practicing swimming in open water. Before this triathlon I set the lofty goal for myself of swimming freestyle the whole way.

Here is the first wave of swimmers starting out in the fog... pretty cool looking, huh?

Here I am, looking way more confident than I felt!

I know that you are dying to know... how'd I do? Well, I'll say this~ next time I need to set a loftier goal! I didn't panic at all, and swam freestyle the whole course (even though it was short!) I should have tried to go all out and swim fast!

Biking was next~ my favorite part of the race! Honestly I felt slow for some reason, but I averaged 20mph, and that was with me holding back a bit because I was a little worried about needing to get off of my bike and run 5 miles!

I am, once again, flirting with a stress fracture in my hip so I haven't been able to run very much at all this summer~ opting to use an elliptical or deep-water run so I could avoid surgery on my hip but still keep competing in the triathlons that I signed up for.

By the time I was ready to run, it was getting pretty hot (upper 80s) and very humid. It was challenging, but I did it~ ok, so I was *way* slower than I would have liked, but I did it!

Here I am, smiling because I was finished! Yay!

I was so excited on the day of my triathlon that I finished the long course and completed the swim without panicing.

I was pretty disappointed the next day to see that my slow swim (I swam pretty slowly and walked down the beach between the two portions of the swim rather than running) and pitiful run time (62 minutes for 5mi) dropped me down to second-to-last in my age group.

I think, in hindsight though that this summer was hugely successful for me. I learned how to swim in a race in open water without panicing and I faced my fears of getting injured and competed anyway! Not only that, but I have made some fabulous new friends~ a win/win all the way around! OK, so I didn't win/win my age group, but there's always next year, right? ; )

Actually I am setting a goal of competing in two half-ironman distance (1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, 13.1mi run) events next year~ at this point I'm thinking that Racine 70.3 and Branson 70.3 will be the events that I'll choose. So, so excited about that!

So stay tuned... this homeschooling mom of a dozen faces her fears and has a blast in the process, so you'll be hearing more about triathlon training here in addition to the usual posts about homeschooling, large family life, photography and other random musings.

We started school this week and I've got to get up early, early for master's swim class tomorrow morning, so I'm off to bed.

Hope you are having a fabulous week~ taking some chances and seeing God faithful for you too!

Project Life July 31- August 6

2011-08-08T23:30:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd post a little Project Life update. I am still plugging away at this project~ some weeks more effectively than others. I say that to encourage you... there are actually a number of weeks that I didn't have (or make) the time to include any journaling at all. Do I wish the journaling were there? Absolutely! But, I am so, so happy to have the photos and the memories that the photos trigger that I am ok with that and can call it "good."
Our oldest son Nate was home on leave from his job in the Army for two whole weeks! Oh, the fun we had! It was so sad to see him go. I thought you might like to see a photo of the traditional group sibling send off hug!

All of the children were there except our oldest daughter Micah and her husband Joshua... So I almost had everyone together... almost! Perhaps at Christmas or Thanksgiving we will be able to get the whole clan together~ I do hope so!
On to this week's edition of Project Life.

I had a lot of fun this week doing some extra photos, two 8" x 8" pics and some fun lift-up photos with journaling underneath as well. Here's a close up of the left page.

And here is the right... I loved an impromptu shot that i took of four of the children, so I enlarged it to 8" x 8" and stuck it in it's own little page protector.

When you lift up that photo, this is what you see...

On the back is another 8" x 8" pic, of the group send off hug! Had to include that!

On the right page I had more stories to tell than I had space to tell them, so I decided to try some little 4" x 6" adhesive photo sleeves that I purchased recently.

There ares two of them that life up to reveal their stories underneath... Can you see them? One is under the adorable photo of our new little Welsh Corgi and the other is under the pic taken when Tom and I were trail running. In the photo below I am lifting up the photo of our new little dog to reveal his story...

And here i am lifting up the photo of Tom trail running to show the journaling under it.

Not every week, but many weeks I end up adding in extra photos or just ephemera from daily life around here. This has caused my album to fill up very quickly. I already need to begin a volume 2 for this year! Can you tell how much I love this project? I really do.
And just 'cause I figure that you would love to see some more adorable cuteness, I'll show you another pic of our little Welsh Corgi "Jasper."

For whatever reason this little guy has bonded with me and absolutely won't let me out of his sight! Everywhere I go, he is trotting right along behind. When I sit down, he lies down right next to me and if I must go somewhere that he can't, well, let's just say, it does make him sad. I'm smitten!

On other fronts here, I've got lots and lots of planning to do to in order to complete preparations for beginning this school year on the 22nd, so that will be my focus during the next few weeks. We have been homeshooling "officially" since 1993, but I still can get overwhelmed with all that is required of me in this process. Just tonight Tom and I were discussing how very, very important it is for us to remember when we feel that we lack wisdom to "ask of God, who will generously give us the wisdom that we need" so we will know exactly how to proceed this year. So that's what I'll be doing.
Seeking Him,
susan

My second tri....

2011-08-01T22:47:00.001-05:00

What a busy week last week was here! In addition to our oldest son Nate being home on two week leave from his army job at Ft. Benning, GA, I was also finishing preparations for this next school year, and for my second triathlon plus I was taking a bunch of photos of our daily life around here for this year's "Week in the Life" album!

I am going to *try* to post some of the photos from our past week here soon. Honest!

It is getting late tonight, but I did want to give a short race recap from my second triathlon this past Saturday~ the WIN for KC women's triathlon in Smithville, MO.

The whole week before the triathlon I wondered if the super-hot weather that we have been submerged in would continue and what temperature the lake water would be. Trust me, swimming in Missouri lakes is only tolerable at best and when the lake water is 90 degrees it is, um, disgusting!

Saturday morning dawned very early for me... I set my alarm for 3:20 am since I needed to leave the house at 4ish in order to arrive at 5 to set up my "transition area"(my little spot where I place my bike, bike gear and running shoes, hat, etc.).

I arrived bright and early with no problems, got everything set up, found my friends... and then it started to rain! As I was heading over to get in line for the swim I passed Tom and the children who all had awakened very early to drive up separately in our big van and cheer for me. They did not have an umbrella and when I passed them they were standing under a tree~ getting pretty drenched! I felt so bad for them, and even more grateful for such a wonderfully supportive family! They ended up going and sitting in our big 15-passenger van to wait on the rain to quit.

It was time for me to go line up for the swim. In this triathlon they started the swim using a "time trial start" which is fabulous for newbies like me because they start one woman every 3 seconds and had all of us line up by what we anticipated our swim time would be. (So much nicer than a mass group start!) It poured rain and there was so much lightening that the swim start was delayed for an hour. During that hour we just sat in the rain, already lined up by swim speed for the start. I *never* even considered that I might get cold at a July triathlon in Missouri! Never! But I was... we just sat there getting poured on and I actually got so cold that I began to shiver. Once the storm moved out of the area we were on... and I was then grateful for that warm lake water!

The swim was only 500 meters and thankfully it went much better for me than my first triathlon earlier this summer when I basically had a panic attack and had to doggie-paddle the whole distance! I would say that I swam 75% of this race freestyle and breaststroked the rest, so I was slower than I wanted, but I did complete it with a little more finesse than my last race!

Next up, the bike portion of the race. I do love riding my bike! The roads were wet and so I was a little more cautious than I might have been usually, but still had a fabulous time!

The bike portion was done *way* too soon for my liking, and then it was off on a 5K run. Thankfully, it was still cloudy at that point, so even though it was very humid, I didn't have the added challenge of running in the sun.

My run was a lot slower than I wanted, but all in all I was pretty pleased at how well my hip held up since I hadn't run in 4 weeks... well I had faithfully been deep-water running and using elliptical, but it really isn't the same as "for real" running.

It was so cute, at the end of my run several of the boys ran out to find me, then ran in and completed the race with me. "Come on Mom! You can run faster than that!" They'd be such great coaches!

I'm hooked on the challenge of triathlon~ I have *so* much to improve on, but I'm having a blast doing that. I've made some great friends and am already looking ahead to my last tri this summer in a few weeks and planning for some longer distance events next summer!

How are you challenging yourself this summer?

**edited: after I posted this I decided to post this little disclaimer: This post is not intended in any way to place a burden on anyone's shoulders. I still remember, very vividly, how taxing and busy the years were when I had only little guys at home, and no big helpers! Please remember that my "baby" is now 4 1/2 years old and I have many, many older helpers in this season of my life, plus many older children who actually like to run/bike/swim with me! This wasn't always the case. Please don't get me wrong, I *loved* those blurry, busy years of caring for our quickly growing family, but now I am gradually entering a different season of life and triathlon is one of the things that we have decided to pursue, both as a family doing workouts together, and yes, even individually, for me. So please, please understand that I only posted this to encourage you to pursue being your best and glorifying the Lord in all you do, not to make anyone feel burdened or discouraged. OK?

Hey there!

2011-07-22T23:13:00.001-05:00

I can't believe a whole month has passed since my last post! So here I am, with what I'm afraid will end up being a rather lengthy update. Ready?

I think I just might be enjoying summer this year more than any summer before. It has been super-hot, but we have been having so much fun that I (almost) haven't noticed!

One of the things that I have found the greatest satisfaction in has been all of the training that I have been doing for the two remaining triathlons that I have signed up for this summer. It has been extra-fun since Jacob (17) is very interested in competing in triathlons as well and is almost always game to go for a bike ride with me and, more recently has even begun to attend the "master's swim class" that I subject my sinking self to two (very early!) mornings each week! If you are not familiar with the term "master's swim class," this does not refer to the swimming ability of its participants, but rather to their (ahem) age. smile. I assure you, I am close to the slowest participant in the class, but I do persevere and have made tremendous strides (or should I say, "strokes"?) in my swimming ability!

One of the highlights for me of the past few weeks was a 1.5 mile open water swim that I completed for a womens' triathlon class that I attend! Please don't be *too* impressed~ I was *very* slow and I stopped and treaded water quite a few times, but I did it! I never, never thought I could do such a thing! When I finished I was so excited that I called Tom and my parents right away to tell them! Woo Hoo! I felt like I had just finished a marathon (not that I have done that~ yet~ just guessing what it might feel like!)

In the area of cycling, Jake and I decided to take part in a local group ride called "Tour de Lakes." I snapped this pic with my iPhone just before we left on the ride with some friends from my womens' triathlon class. Can you see the line of people headed up the street? Several hundred riders participated in this event. I was so worried about getting bumped and wrecking in such a large group, but the riders spread out once everyone got going and was really lots of fun!

It could have been pretty hot that day, but it ended up being cloudy and even rained pretty hard on us at one point. The rain kept us cool and we ended up riding 42 miles! Here's Jake and I after the ride~ we had fun, and I loved that I could do this ride with him. We have really made some good memories together this summer.

Since that ride we have gone even further! This was the sunrise that Jake and I saw as we headed out early, early to conquer a 50 mile ride. We wanted to avoid the heat as much as possible, so we were ready to go by 6:20.

And the view of the sun rising over the lake where we rode:

On other fronts, next week I'll be participating in Ali Edwards' "Week in the Life" project. Basically I'll just be taking lots of photos to document our days here, plus keeping track of the stories that I want to tell so we can remember what our ordinary life is like right now. If you think you might like to do this project in some shape or form (and it's *all* good!), be sure to download her free PDF files here. I think they should be super-helpful!

It will be an especially fun week to document because our oldest son Nate is home for two weeks from his assignment as a chaplain's assistant in the Army at Ft. Benning, GA. He just arrived home at 4am this morning and already we have had *so* much fun!

If you would like to see what I have done in past years with the "Week in the Life," you can check out those posts here.

Mixed in with all of our other activities, we have been working on conquering the weedy mess that was attempting to overtake my gardens! Yikes! So, so glad that I have so many helpers~ they really do make quick work of weeding jobs!

I have still been having a blast with my iPhone~ *love* the fact that I have it with me almost all of the time! I captured the lake photo below just before my triathlon class.

I debated whether to include this or not, but in the spirit of "keepin' it real" I thought I would. Remember my femoral neck stress fracture that I ended up with last summer? The stress fracture that caused me to need surgery when it wouldn't heal up, even after weeks on crutches? (Well, I *tried* to be good for weeks on crutches, but I digress...) Yep, you guessed it: I'm battling the same problem in my other hip now! So frustrating!

But there are two positive things this time: First, I realized what was happening early and stopped running immediately and second, I only have two hips! Once I get his hip healed I should be good to go!

So the following photo was the result of having to spend way too much time waiting to see my orthopedic doctor~ fortunately I could, you guessed it (!!), play with my iPhone!

I thought that the shiny chrome on the chair and plumbing were interesting~ see, I'm being way too honest and "real" here, aren't I?

The good news is that I was given the ok to continue to swim and bike and try to maintain my running fitness by "deep-water running" or using an elliptical. So I am doing that and really looking forward to the day that I can go for my little running dates with Tom and the boys again! My plan (ok'd by my doctor) is to go ahead and compete in the two triathlons that I have signed up for and I am praying that the Lord will intervene and heal my hip so that I won't have to have it pinned like I did my right hip last fall.

As I mentioned, we have been in the midst of a rather intense heat wave here~ 102 today! Pretty much every day we are able to take the children to the pool to swim~ it's been so fun to play with them there and see them progress in their swimming skills too.

When we can't go to the pool the boys like to improvise on the hill behind our house. Check out their water slide made with some tarps and a sprinkler! What fun!

And in spite of the heat they have had so much fun camping in our backyard. I love that they can have these adventures together. Can you see our Great Dane, "Dude" peeking out? He simply *has* to get in on the fun, still considering himself to be a little lap dog!

And then there's Timmy. Still cute as ever... I can't believe that he'll be 5 this December!

Another iPhone photo... grainy, but I love this pic~ his smile, his hair, he is such a sweetie!

So many other things going on here... I'm in the thick of planning for our next school year~ learning how to use a new homeschool record-keeping program called Homeschool Tracker. So far I am very happy with it. I think all of the pre-planning that I am doing should save me a bunch of time this coming year.

A few random pic from our 4th of July celebration... Jake and Abbie,

A little group corn-husking...

Hannah, Abbie and Joshua,

A yummy 4th of July plate...

And of course a few fireworks photos. I decided not to bring my big camera along this year, but instead see what I could capture with my iPhone.

So there you have it, a not-so-brief summary of the past month or so around here.

How's your summer going?

Rejoicing in God's goodness here~

in everyday life,

I did it!

2011-06-19T17:36:00.001-05:00

You simply can't imagine how incredibly nervous I have been for more than a week now, anticipating my first triathlon! I wrote a little here about facing my fears. Let me tell you~ it's *way* easier to discuss/write about the merits of overcoming fears than it is to actually slay them. Way easier. I should know: I almost bailed out of competing in the Topeka Tinman 247 times during the past two weeks!

After a night filled with severe thunderstorms and my iPhone waking me up every 33 minutes to remind me that there was a "severe thunderstorm WARNING" in my area (I finally put my phone in iPhone "time-out" and placed it face down on my nightstand). Tom and I awakened at 3:30am to eat a quick breakfast and then jump in the car for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Topeka, KS. It rained most of the way to Topeka and I found myself thinking, "Darn, the triathlon is going to be cancelled and I won't be able to ~~drown~~ swim like I planned!" (I was secretly *very* relieved!) Much to my dismay, the sky cleared and the race was on!

A word to the wise: Never look at the swim course early in the day. Once I set my bike up in transition, Tom and I walked over to check out where I'd be swimming and I almost sprinted back to the car (and left)! The buoys were *so* far away! Yikes! Turned out that the storm the night before had completely scattered the buoys. Once they were in place the course looked much more "doable."

You can't tell from these photos, but I was so nervous at this point that I wanted to throw up! I kept asking myself, "Why, exactly, did I want to do this?" I needed to be reminded. But I smiled anyway~ as I looked at the photos I couldn't believe how confidant I looked! The photos certainly didn't reflect how I felt!

Here I am surveying the swim course... only 400 yards~ but it looked like a long way to me~ and how cold was that water, anyway?

The race is started in "waves"... I was in the womens 40 and up group~ you can see in the water some of the first swimmers are already finished!

Turns out the water *was* cold, but too cold and I did complete the swim~ no one had to rescue me! It wasn't a pretty sight though. I think I totally psyched myself out and couldn't put my face in the water to swim correctly for more than a few strokes at a time. I'm here to tell you: doggie-paddling *does* work~ the forward progress is quite a bit slower, but it does work! LOL!

Here I am running to T1 (the transition from swim to bike)....

grabbing my bike,

and heading out for a 13 mile ride!

The bike is my favorite part of triathlon. I was *so* relieved to be out of the water and mounting my bike! Yay for solid ground and wheels! I had never ridden the course in Topeka before, so I didn't really go all out, but still turned in a pretty good time~ second best in my age group, I think. Anyway, the bike was done *way* too soon for my liking, and it was time to run.

My T2 transition (from bike to run) was a little faster than T1, (I still have *so* much to learn/improve on!).

By the time I started running it was in the upper 80s and super-humid! The run was an out and back, with the only aid station at the 1 1/2mi point. I am spoiled by going on my daily runs with Tom who carries water on his fuel belt and freely shares with me. That first mile and a half to the water seemed *so* long! I did make it out there and back though,.... here I am almost at the end of the run. By this point I was just ready to *finish*!!

I did it! I finished my first sprint triathlon~ and lived to tell about it! : )

I hope that this post doesn't seem too self-serving. I almost didn't post it, but thought that I would because I'd like to encourage other moms to pursue your fitness goals. There is very little possibility that I will ever be good enough to stand on a podium, but in my book, challenging myself, trying new things and being forced outside of my comfort zone are rewards in and of themselves. Plus, it just feels *so* good to be fit!

I'm already planning and excitedly working towards my next triathlon at the end of July~ trust me... I am just a mom of a dozen children with a very full homeschooling schedule~ if I can pursue this, I'm *sure* you can pursue your dreams too!

A HUGE thanks to my parents, two of our boys (Jake and Caleb), and to Tom who spent so much time early in the day (*very* early, in Tom's case!) to cheer for me! You guys are the *best*!!! Love you!

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...."

Heb. 12:1

Randomness...

2011-06-06T16:20:00.001-05:00

Lots of random things on my mind today...

I was sent a link to the following article in the Wall Street Journal~ in my opinion, a must read for parents! "Twin Lessons: Have More Kids. Pay Less Attention to Them." Read it! I think you'll find it a refreshing perspective, especially for those of us who struggle at times with being guilt-driven overachiever homeschooling parents.
Wow is it hot here! A mere 8 days ago the children were lamenting the cold weather that kept them from swimming and now I find myself running and cycling in 95 degree heat! I have never been a fan of hot weather, but I am determined to make friends with the heat this year. Here is an interesting discussion on the science of exercising in the heat.
Working on finishing up some updates of the tabs under my header... coming soon~ a journaling tab, and who-knows what else! Check back soon!
Looks like we are finally going to be able to pick up our "little" Flemish Giant rabbits this coming weekend! Serious cuteness awaits!

Another interesting article for your consideration, "The Pitfall Of Perfectionism."
And how about a few random photos that I heart right now? Yes?

and one more, 'cause I am in love with vintage trucks! One of these days I think the boys will find one and get it running for me. I would seriously drive this everywhere!

enjoying summer here...

A Bible that's falling apart

2011-06-05T08:51:00.001-05:00

"A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't."

~Charles Spurgeon

Not to imply that I'm never "falling apart," but still.....

"But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in Hhis law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields it's fruit in it's season
And it's leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers."
Psalms 1:2,3

Susan

Facing fear....

2011-06-04T20:40:00.001-05:00

I might as well admit it up front: I decided that sitting around worrying about what might happen was, quite frankly, driving me nuts. So I did what any sensible person would do, I got back on my tri bike and began training for triathlons again.

The first time I went back out on the street I was so scared. To top it off, there were rain showers in the area, so I kept getting rained on. I don't really mind getting wet, but I was so afraid... of slipping on the wet roads, or of a car not seeing me and running me down,etc. But I faced my fears and finished that 17 mile ride.

In addition, I signed up for another triathlon, the Topeka Tinman (I am already signed up for the WIN for KC triathlon and the Jackson County Triathlon which are both later this summer) and started attending a master's swim class! Of the three sports in a triathlon (swim, bike, run), the swim is most certainly the weakest for me.

While I can get myself across the pool, let me assure you, it is not a pretty sight (and I'm not referring to the varicose veins on my legs!). I was so nervous the night before attending the masters swim class for the first time that I woke up every 23 minutes all. night. long. When I did sleep, I dreamt that I was walking with my children through a cave which was getting narrower and narrower... The children were ahead of me so I had to follow them in spite of the fact that I was pretty sure that I couldn't fit around the next corner. Yikes!

On the bright side, I guess I am officially old enough that I'm past having the "it's the last day of the semester, I can't remember the combination to my locker, I'm pretty sure that I never attended one of my classes, and the final is today" dream. Do you ever have that dream?

Not only am I "outside my comfort zone" in pursuing all of this, I'm feeling like I'm not even on the same planet as my comfort zone!

I find myself thinking things like: What on earth was I thinking, signing up for this earlier triathlon? While I don't think I'll drown, there is a significant possibility that I'll come in dead last for the swim portion of the race. On the bright side, I can only improve from this point on, right? Plus it's another good way to ensure humility on my part!

So there you have it and now you know what I'll be doing with Tom and the children this summer. Great adventures await!

Building Bone Density, part 2

2011-05-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

I'm back with part two of this little mini-series that I am writing about how to build bone density. This issue was never "on my radar" when I was younger. I have no family history of early osteoporosis and have lived an active, healthy life~ ME? Low bone density? Who woulda' thunk it? : ) If you haven't already read the first part of this post, you can find it here.

Anyway, without further adiu, here is the treatment regimen that I have prayerfully decided to follow~ at least for now. I am always reading and researching, so all of this is most certainly subject to change.

and of course, some pretty photos that are totally unrelated to this post, just 'cause.

When my general practice doctor saw my DEXA bone density scan results his initial response was that I needed to go on prescription medications. I was so completely shocked to receive the diagnosis of osteopenia that I didn't know *what* to think!

I went home and began to research the side-effects of osteoporosis medications. What I found sobered me.

There are two types of prescription drugs for osteoporosis. The majority fall into the category of biphosphonate drugs like Fosamax, Actonel and Boniva. These work by stopping the production of osteoclasts which are supposed to reabsorb old, infirm bone. When these medications are taken, your bones may stay denser, but they will be composed of a higher amount of old, poor quality bone cells which over time makes your bones even more brittle and weak. Crazy and ironic, isn't it? These medications are supposed to increase bone strength, but instead the result is weaker bones! Our bones must have balanced bone reabsorption and rebuilding.

Studies have shown that long-term use of Fosamax is associated with unusual fractures of the femur and some potentially terrible problems with the mandible or jaw bone. Yikes!

After my initial research I made an appointment to see my orthopedic doctor. It was with some trepidation that I told him my plan to avoid prescription drugs to increase bone density and instead pursue a more "natural" protocol. To my great surprise, he wholeheartedly agreed with me and encouraged me to follow my plan for a year and then have my DEXA bone density scan repeated.

He told me that even on the prescription drugs the very *best* I could hope for would not be an improvement in bone density (WHAT???), but merely to "hold my own." I was so shocked at this statement that I had him repeat it! He reiterated that he would consider my plan a "success" if my bone density doesn't get any *worse*! Up until that point I had considered "success" to be getting back to normal bone density.

My bone density is already as much as 25% low in my left hip and the best I can do is "hold my own?" In addition, I haven't yet gone through menopause. During the first 3 years after a woman goes through menopause she can expect to lose an additional 20-30% bone density! This, of course, does not take into consideration the fact that with God *all* things are possible! In addition, our bodies have amazing restorative capacity, when given the right "building blocks" to work with.

He agreed with my concerns about the side-effects of the prescription medications and with my initial "plan of action." So, what is that "plan of action," you ask?

morning dew on the chives in my herb garden

The Plan!
*Please understand: I am not a medical professional or expert. Do your own research and prayerfully consider what the Lord would have you do.

Part one: Supplements

Vitamin D3~ 35 mg/lb of body weight is a good starting dose. The vast majority of us who do not live near the equator are low in vitamin D. Definitely important to have your vitamin D levels checked.
Coral Calcium/Magnesium (you might want to research this, but some recommendations are for a 1:1 ratio)
1200 mg Calcium/day
Additional ionic magnesium since the vast majority of Calcium/magnesium combinations are not in a 1:1 ratio.
Vitamin K2 and also this link.
Strontium Citrate~ a natural element that has been shown to help bone growth.
400 IU vitamin E/day
bioidentical progesterone (a possibility... still checking on this one)

In Addition:

a dark green, leafy salad every day
a smoothie with keifer, fruit and some of that additional magnesium that I mentioned above.
yogurt and granola for breakfast
apple and cheese for lunch. (Did you know that Sams Club carries a really yummy cheddar cheese in their deli section~ Tillamook~ which has no growth hormones?)

Now I'll be completely honest here... I don't always get all of this done each day. It's a goal, and I'm working toward this.

Herbs that may be beneficial:

Chasteberry
Horsetail
Oats
Alfalfa
Nettle
Rooibos tea

I'll be the first to admit, if something is an "acquired taste," I don't usually go to the work to acquire it! LOL! I am the *worst* about drinking herbal teas, etc. But who knows, I might work on an herbal tincture or tea because I really want to do all that I can to get this issue resolved. I'll keep you posted, ok?

Part 2: Exercise

God made our bones to respond positively to stress... as long as it is not too much stress! Specifically, to build bone density, we need "load-bearing" exercise. Swimming and biking don't count. Running (and walking) and weight training do.

Here's what I'm doing:

running every other day, being very careful to use correct running form (short strides, quick turn-over~ about 90 steps/minute/foot) (ChiRunning has great info on correct running form)
biking on the days that I don't run. There is a relatively quiet gravel trail that I can get a good 17 mile ride in on without being too worried about wrecking. I'm not riding out on the roads with cars (at least not yet~ we'll see how long I can refrain!)
weight training three days/week. Here is a good plan for beginners with excellent videos and descriptions of each exercise. I like the fact that all of these exercises can be done at home with minimal equipment.
I am seriously considering adding in swimming several mornings a week. While it won't specifically help my bone density issue, it is a great workout (especially for me~ I'm a ~~terrible~~ "challenged" swimmer!) and I am still considering competing in the triathlons that I had already signed up for this summer before I found out that my bone density was so low.

It is most certainly a balancing act for me. I need enough stress to encourage my bones to get stronger, but too much stress and I'll be back where I was last year with a stress fracture in my other hip.

The whole issue of building bone density is a big one~ there is *so* much information out there. I am quite sure that I have not even begun to cover all of the options for treatment. In addition, I have not specifically addressed what younger women who are still in the midst of having babies should do to prevent low bone density as they age.

I do know this: standard prenatal vitamins might not be enough. They weren't for me. Please research and do your best to provide your body with the vitamins and minerals that it needs to stay healthy.

Serving Him joyfully here,

If you are a mom, you NEED to read this...

2011-05-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

As I briefly alluded to last week, my little world has been rocked by a totally unexpected medical diagnosis. Don't worry, no cancer or anything like that. : )

If you've been reading here since last year you might remember that I spent a significant portion of 2010 limping and on crutches, then eventually having surgery to correct a femoral neck stress fracture in my hip. I recovered from that and began running again in December. In February I was trail running with Tom and Jake, twisted my ankle and ended up with two compound fractures. sigh. So it was back on crutches and in a lovely "boot" for another six weeks.

nope. absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I *had* to include some spring prettiness, 'cause that's how I roll.

At that point I questioned my orthopedic doctor pretty pointedly about the possibility that I might have low bone density. He repeatedly reassured me that the fractures I experienced are very common... at least the ankle fractures. The stress fracture in my hip, I was told, was merely the result of my overly-zealous triathlon training. Now I'll readily admit that I tend to overdo things sometimes, and I do know that my running form needed some work, but three fractures in a year? Honestly!!!?

I already knew that my vitamin D levels were pretty low~ in the low 20s (Vitamin D is critical for proper bone density and many doctors would tell you that somewhere around 90 is much more optimal), so I took matters into my own hands and asked my primary care physician to order a bone density scan for me.

more random springtime pretties!

The DXA bone densitometry showed that I have significant osteopenia in my left hip (they didn't scan the right hip due to the three screws there). The bone density is so low there that I was placed at "moderate" risk of a fracture. Oh my! I suddenly felt like a young active person trapped in a fragile 80 year-old body!

My orthopedic doctor told me that I really shouldn't be out riding my triathlon bike in traffic and zipping down hills at 30mph. Anyone who rides bikes would tell you that a bike accident isn't a matter of "if," it's a matter of "when." He explained that if I wrecked at this point I am pretty much guaranteed another fracture. If I would fracture my hip there is a significant chance that I would need a hip replacement.

Unfortunately hip replacements don't last forever and you can't run with a hip replacement either. sigh.

so, um, yep. I even think that dandy-lions are pretty this time of year...

Now I'm not sharing this to garner any sympathy~ although I'd definitely take some! ; ) The real reason I felt compelled to share this is that I suspect that there are other women reading this who could benefit from what I am learning about bone health.

Please understand, I am not a medical professional, just a mom who *really, really* likes to be active with her family and is determined to do my best to figure this out. Plus I'd love to help someone else avoid the problems that I am facing!

Are you at risk for osteoporosis or osteopenia?
Here are the typically listed risk factors for osteoporosis:

being a woman~ of thin or small body frame
a family history of osteoporosis
cigarette smoking
excessive alcohol consumption
poor diet
poor general health
malabsorption from issues like Celiac Disease
low estrogen levels~ women who have gone through menopause
hyperthyroidism
vitamin D deficiency
long-term use of certain medications like steroids
living a sedentary lifestyle

Here's the sobering thing: none of those risk factors apply to me... except the vitamin D deficiency. None of them! So here's the deal... the one thing that is left off of "risk factor lists" like the one above is this: women who have had multiple pregnancies and breastfed as well. I have had 15 pregnancies... 12 that went to term (three miscarriages) and breastfed each of our babies for an average of 12 months each.

Basically, if your body doesn't have enough calcium for immediate needs, it will leach what it needs from your bones. That's the sobering truth. For me, 23 years of taking prenatal vitamins pretty much nonstop wasn't enough to keep my bones healthy. Twenty-three years of eating a "whole foods" diet wasn't enough either. Neither was it enough for me to exercise, hard, pretty much every day during that time period.

Now granted, each of us has our own "weak link" and this might be mine and not yours. Please don't think you are immune to weak bones simply because you don't match the risk factors or because you are young and that issue simply isn't "on your radar."

Did you know that once a woman goes through menopause she can count on losing an additional 20-30% of bone density in a span of only three years? Yikes! I'm already ridiculously low and I haven't yet gone through menopause! I keep having mental images of me as an amoeba!

chives beginning to bloom in my herb garden

I'm writing this in hopes of helping other women who are just beginning to have children avoid the low bone density issues that I am dealing with. In addition, I want to encourage other "moms of many" to consider having a baseline bone density scan done, even if you haven't had any fractures and haven't yet gone through menopause.

This is getting long, so I'm going to stop here for today. Next up: a plan of action (and it doesn't involve prescription drugs!) There is hope! God is good and He created our bodies with amazing restorative capacity.

Persevering joyfully here,

(and prayerfully trusting God's plan)

Laugh and be inspired...

2011-05-02T06:30:00.001-05:00

I have been thinking lately about what it means to actively follow the Lord. To "buck the system" and say "yes" to God, even when it is hard. You will *love* this! (Thanks Kelly!)

Praying for those affected by the tornados

2011-05-01T09:26:00.002-05:00

On April 27 an incredibly devastating outbreak of tornadic storms destroyed and damaged thousands of homes in the Southern part of the US.

Among the families affected were several large homeschooling families. Kelly Crawford (of Generation Cedar) lost their home~ it's totally gone. The Crawfords have nine children~ including a 3 week old baby.

And on an even more somber note, the Lee family's (Baker's Dozen Farmhouse) father literally gave his life for his family of 13 children as he tried to shelter them from the storm.

Their church has set up a page to inform people who want to get involved and help here.

Here are some interviews as well.... the first is with Aaron Crawford.

The second is an interview with the Jordon Lee, the oldest son of the Lee family.

An adendum: Samaratian's Purse has a page here with additional info on ways to get involved and help.

Praying here,

Zion National Park

2011-04-28T21:36:00.000-05:00

My heart has been so full in recent weeks that I have had a difficult time writing here. A good friend of our family died recently after battling a brain tumor for several months, I received a somewhat discouraging diagnosis (which I'll be sharing about soon here), we've been busy trying to finish up our school year, put in a garden, etc, etc.

But this I can say: God is good! His plans are unfathomably exciting and wonderful. Oh! How I love following Him. During all of the difficulties and stretching that we experience here it has been so, so good for me to be re-reminded of His faithfulness, love and care for me. I have walked with the Lord for many years now, but still I *need* to spend time daily in God's Word in order to renew my poor mind. How quickly I forget the encouraging truths of God's Word! Silly me!

Anyway, on to today's post: part two of our recent trip out West with my parents. After visiting Death Valley, CA for two days, we left and traveled to Zion National Park, UT.

I checked out photos online of Zion National Park before leaving on our trip, so I had some idea what to expect, but as always seems to be the case, it was vastly more than I anticipated! There is something about being out West that just makes my heart feel at home. (Well, as "at home" as I can feel, this side of heaven!) Who knows, perhaps we will pack up and move out West someday!

iPhone photos stitched together using the app AutoStitch

I think we picked one of the best weekends of the year to visit Zion! The trees were just beginning to leaf out, but I still had fabulous views of the landscape without competing with the leaves to see.

The majority of my photos were taken using my trusty Canon Rebel xsi, but even my beloved iPhone got in on the action at times... like this shot.

I find myself completely captivated by trees, especially the tough tenacious ones who joyfully hold on for dear life in precarious places.

I love to frame photos with them.

During the few days that we visited Zion, the Cottonwood trees by the Virgin River unfurled their leaves. Don't you just love that new baby green color? I thought it was interesting that the shadow of the tree appears to be leafless in the water....

"He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

which yields it fruit in it's season

and its leaf does not wither;

and in whatever he does, he prospers."

Ps. 1:3

We explored and hiked. I was so grateful that my foot/ankle fracture had healed enough for me to keep up with everybody!

One of the things that caused a bit of a delay for me in posting this was that I wanted to spend some time in my new favorite photo-editing program, Lightroom and crop/fix lighting in these photos. Unfortunately, life happened (as I mentioned at the beginning of my post) and I decided that if I waited until I had opportunity to play with my photos in Lightroom, I would never end up posting them! So here they are in this post, SOOC (straight out of camera)!

another iPhone photo... pretty cool, huh?

We saw some of the prettiest flowers....

There were many other photos... if you are interested in viewing them, you can go to my Flickr site link in the sidebar and see them.

Meanwhile we're back at work here. I'm in a major cleaning out/purging spree right now~ *love* having things neat and organized. It seems to be a constant battle to keep the "stuff" under control. I'm grateful for all that we have here, but firmly believe that "less is more," and that I want to selectively own my stuff rather than being owned by my stuff, if you know what I mean!

Hope you are having a fabulous week, serving the Lord right where He has you...

Love and hug those that the Lord has placed you with.... it all really does come down to love, doesn't it?

Love,

Death Valley, CA

2011-04-21T16:42:00.000-05:00

Here it is! Photos from our recent trip with my parents to Death Valley, CA (today) and Zion National Park, UT (soon... I promise!)

Jacob, Caleb and I were the adventurers on this trip, courtesy of my parents! Thanks *so* much, Mom and Dad! (I'll gladly be your "designated photographer" on any future trips! : ) )

This was Caleb's first time to fly~ I was *so* excited for him! Flying is such fun!

We flew in to Las Vegas, NV. It was my first time there. Talk about sensory overload! Wow! We just drove through a small portion of Las Vegas~ and honestly, it was plenty for me. I'm not at all interested in gambling or shopping, so a quick drive-through was enough.

Can you see the roller coaster in the photo below? It actually originates in a hotel! Crazy!

After a few hours of driving, we arrived. Death Valley. Even after reading about Death Valley, I found myself unprepared for what it really was. I knew it was large. Honestly though, "large" simply doesn't do it justice... it is immense! And not just a large oval desert with tons of sand either. There are sand dunes, yes, but also hilly, rocky areas, vast salt flats.... and, well how about if I just show you some photos so you can see for yourself?

Death Valley, taken on my iPhone

Yes, we actually had clouds the first day we were there! It was a good thing too, since the temperature topped 100 degrees F!

"O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;

My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,

In a dry and weary land where there is no water."

Ps.63:1

At one point when we were driving North through Death Valley to hike it was so desolate that a car didn't pass us for at least 20 minutes. Such a lonely, quiet area!

Flowers in the desert? Yes, please! In a place so dry (less than 2" of rain/year) that even cactus don't grow, I found myself absolutely captivated by the tough little flowers that insist on blooming during spring in Death Valley.

We were able to squeeze several hikes in each day~ the topography captivated and amazed me!

Here, we were hiking out past a small "river" that was significantly saltier than even the ocean. Incredibly, the water is habituated with a small fish who lives nowhere else in the world... the Pup fish! Such diversity the Lord created, yes?

How about a Road Runner? This guy was running through the common area near our hotel room in Furnace Springs~ which is a natural oasis there in Death Valley. I think if I were a road runner in Death Valley, I'd hang out here too! (sorry, no coyote!)

It was common to find small areas of wildflowers by the roadside... those plants received a small amount of additional rain each year in runoff from the road which enabled them to grow and bloom there. Lovely!

The next few photos were taken at the original hotel in Death Valley... another natural oasis there~ incredibly beautiful landscaping and so lush!

Only a few miles from the above oasis is the "Devil's golfcourse," more surreal Death Valley landscape. The ground is pushed up into hard salt-encrusted "bumps" that extend for a great distance. Very, very strange.

Badwater is the lowest point in Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level. (Badwater is also the starting point for the infamous Badwater Ultramarathon~ a 100 mile race which is run during July each year here. It is officially been removed from my bucket list! LOL!!)

Before leaving Death Valley to drive to Zion National Park, we drove up to "Dante's View," overlooking Death Valley from 5,475 feet above Death Valley! Not only was the view incredible (having trouble coming up with new adjectives!), but it was also about 20 degrees cooler! Aaaah!

The view wasn't as crystal-clear as I would have hoped due to extremely windy conditions the day before (lots of dust in the air!), but such a view! The white area in the photo below are the salt flats at Badwater~ mile after mile of salty, desolate landscape.

Love this photo of my Dad... he *thrives* on traveling and exploring~ to me this shot typifies him.

Up next, photos from Zion National Park, UT....

Hope you've enjoyed this whirlwind tour of Death Valley!

Living purposefully...

2011-04-10T22:24:00.000-05:00

What do you think? Does documenting your life cause you to live your life with more purpose, more joy? I came across the following YouTube video that I thought you might enjoy...

At first when I saw this I thought, "Why would anyone want to inherit that much information?" But as I considered I realized that I would *love* to have this kind of information to peruse from my parents or grandparents. OK, so perhaps not *quite* that many volumes, but I think you can't help but love this man anyway! I can only imagine how much more *rich* his life must have been for systematically documenting things the way that he did.

Are you like me? Have you found that simply *knowing* that you are going to have to "give account" of your activities is enough to cause you to live life more faithfully? Embarrassing to admit, but so true for me. If I know that I could be called upon to relate what I have been learning in my quiet time with the Lord during our family devotions time I am much more careful to find some good applications during my devotions. (blush)

When I "give account" of my days by journaling or documenting our life in various ways, I think it inspires me to live the life that I would want to read about later. (Perhaps you have read Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years?)

Two more inspirational journaling posts for you:

First, this post detailing a fabulous way to keep a simple family journal~ *love* this idea! (No photographs or scrapbooking involved~ trust me, *very* "doable" and adorable!)
Second, another collective family journal~ what a fabulous keepsake this will be!
I've also written a few posts about journaling.

So, how do you document your life? Do you think it makes a difference in *how* you live?

I'm planning to be back soon with photos from Death Valley and Zion National Park! We had such fun!

Early spring thoughts and travels

2011-04-01T08:10:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd pop in for a moment so those of you who live in colder climates would smile....

After my post with photos of the little bits of green spring growth around here I received several comments and emails lamenting your *lack* of verdant green in your neck of the woods.

This is what we awoke to this past Monday! We honestly weren't too disappointed~ it was so pretty and it didn't last long at all.

Jacob, Caleb and I are off on a little adventure later today. My parents and flying us out to visit them and go hiking in Death Valley, CA, then in Zion National Park, UT! Later today it will be 105 degrees in Death Valley (!!) and in the 50s-60s when we hike in Zion Ntl Park. Fun times await!

I hope to have lots of photos to post here in a few days!

In the sewing room...

2011-03-23T22:02:00.000-05:00

Aaaah, spring *must* be coming because the girls and I have been inspired to sew, sew, sew. Well, that and garden, but we can't do *too* much gardening yet here, so it's back to sewing.

The boys were *so* excited to show me that some of the bushes in our woods are beginning to leaf out! Yay!

And there is now green in my herb garden as well...

The chives are up too!

Who knows, perhaps this will be the year that I actually use my herbs! Hope springs eternal....

But I digress. Back to sewing. This past weekend Abbie decided to salvage a favorite pair of jeans

and turn them into a skirt! I think it turned out so cute!

It was really easy... she simply cut off the legs and then attached the skirt on top. For the skirt, Abbie sewed three strips of fabric together, then gathered each "set" of three fabrics. That way it is not quite so "poufy" as it would have been if each layer were a little larger than the layer above it and each layer gathered. Clear as mud?

There is plenty of swirl and twirl though. I think she did a great job. Don't you?

The warm weather inspired me to get out the quilt top that I began last spring. I decided that it needed some extra blocks. Bigger is always better, don't you think? (I don't want to hear any comments about big rabbits, either!) (wink!)

So I added the green sashing and the blocks around the edges... and now it is too big for the backing and batting that I purchased for it. So yes, sometimes bigger isn't better. ; )

That's ok though. I'll just have to make another quilt so I can use the back and batting that I purchased, don't you think?

Here's a little more green for you... just 'cause I figured that if it makes me happy to see it, it must make you happy too!

And some early spring blue sky...

sigh. Sending happy spring thoughts your way,

Around here...

2011-03-21T21:05:00.000-05:00

I think spring is really, really arriving here! I was able to ride 17 miles outside on my bike both yesterday and today.... it was wonderful! Today it was sunny and close to 80~ I was actually almost too hot. That was a nice problem for a change.

I've been thinking about blogging lately. There are so many bloggers that I admire. There are profound spiritual blogs, photography blogs, decorating blogs, running/triathlon blogs, homeschooling blogs, homesteading blogs, quilting blogs, and the list just goes on. It seems to me that the blogs that are most interesting to read are those that primarily focus on one topic. One topic that the author is most passionate about. My problem? I don't really have just one topic that I'd enjoy writing about day in and day out month after month. I think that I have tried, at times, to "be" the other bloggers that I admire so much.

That simply won't work now, will it? It may have taken me 47 years, but I have come to the conclusion that I must simply, and unapologetically be me. I'm sure that some people will be disappointed that I don't write very insightful articles about parenting or homeschooling or any other vast number of topics. To be quite honest, I most likely will touch on those topics at one time or another, but I tend to be more of a shallow meandering creek than a deep river. (The deep river would be Mr. JoyfulDADofmany~ we balance each other nicely!)

So consider yourself warned! You simply won't know what you'll find here from day to day! I have many varied interests. I guess the revelation for me today is that my "many and varied interests" are ok.
; )

This morning while working on school with the younger boys Timmy called out "Look Mother! Look at my dinosaur!"

How cool is that? My super-intelligent 4 year old figured out how to hang his dinosaur from my antique table! "Timmy! That's so cool! Your dinosaur is climbing up on the table! I'll bet he is proud of himself!"

At that point one of my other, shall we say more negative children walked in, saw the dinosaur and commented, "Oh no! Timmy look! Your dinosaur is falling!"

We all had a good laugh about our different perspectives and the need to, in life, choose to have a positive outlook on things. It's a challenge sometimes, isn't it? I think though that the more often I choose thankfulness and joy, the more that those character qualities become habitual for me. I very much long to demonstrate that for my children.

And on other fronts....
Guess what it looks like I'm going to get? Is this not the absolutely cutest rabbit ever?

These are Flemish Giant Rabbits~ and I think I'm in love!

Tom gave me the ok to purchase a Flemish Giant rabbit with some of the money that we earned from selling some of my Nubian dairy goat babies. My plan is to get a doe in the next few days (I found someone nearby who breeds them) and then find an unrelated buck so we can breed them! In the past we have raised both meat rabbits here on our little homestead (we never did really get used to killing such cute animals), and angora rabbits (beautiful, but they required way too much brushing for a busy homeschooling mom). These Flemish Giants should be really, really fun. They are truly "gentle giants," love being petted and held, etc. I'm really excited!

Hope you are blessed with many happy pansy faces on your porch this spring! These make me smile every time I pass them!

Oh! Before I forget, we are almost drowning in both fresh eggs (from our free-range chickens), and milk (from our lovely Nubian dairy goats). If you live in the area and are interested in purchasing either item email or call me, k?

Spring's coming...

2011-03-19T19:43:00.001-05:00

This is what we awoke to this past Monday! As I prepared to take a photo of my snow-laden crabapple tree, a small flock of Robins alighted there! What fun! I did feel sorry for them though. Fortunately for them, the snow didn't even last the day.

We are all doing fine here~ a few sweet friends have contacted me recently to check and be sure all is ok since I haven't posted here recently. I am fine, just busy! My ankle is healing nicely~ I'm back to swimming, using an elliptical machine and riding my bike on a trainer. I *think* I'm going to get to take my triathlon bike outside for a ride tomorrow. That will be so fun! I was grateful that I could workout as much as I have since I didn't want to loose the (small amount of) running endurance that I had built up after recovering from my hip surgery last fall. Nonetheless, exercising indoors by myself is not nearly as fun as being outside with my family. I can hardly wait for my first real outdoor run with Tom and the children!

In spite of the small bouts of snow, spring is really arriving here! Check out my daylillies! LOVE seeing green again!

The children and I planted five of our large raised bed gardens with sugar snap peas yesterday. Hannah, Abbie and I are busy planning some garden renovations for this spring. The herb garden is coming back to life as well... chives are emerging, etc. Yay!

I have become a big fan of Google Calendar the past few months. This free service allows you to create (and selectively share) as many calendars as you like! I have created separate calendars for:

Family events/appointments
Tom's work schedule
Home maintenance tasks
A perpetual gardening calendar (telling me when to start different seeds, set out seedlings, prune fruit trees, etc~ all set to repeat each year for me!)
Birthdays/Anniversaries
Menu Planning
Training Schedule (training planned out for triathlons that I have signed up for, plus a half-marathon that I hope to be able to run later this year)
Tasks: I actually use this as a checklist of when our bills are due~ utilities, mortgage, etc. As soon as a bill arrives in my inbox or in the mail I enter the pertinent info on the date it is due as a "task." That way, when Tom is paid every two weeks, I just look to see what is due during the next two weeks, pay those items and then check them off of my list. Sweet!

Google calendar allows you to "turn off" or "turn on" calendars at will. This is so helpful! Most days I only have the "birthdays/anniversaries," "family events and appointments," "menu planning," and "Tom's work schedule," and my "training" calendars "showing." I like to turn on my gardening calendar and my tasks calendar (our bills) individually. Make sense?

If you were more organized than me (and more committed to regular blogging), you could pre-plan your blog posts in it's own calendar as well! Cool, huh?

In addition, Google Calendar can be accessed on your iPad, iPhone or Android so you can take your schedule with you when you are out.

Google calendar is seriously a busy mom's right hand helper!

Do you use Google Calendar? I'd love to hear how you use it~ I'm always looking for new ways to organize and be more efficient!

Project Life 2/13- 2/26

2011-02-28T21:50:00.001-06:00

Two more weeks of Project Life~ wow! How time flies here!

First up: Valentine's Day! At our house the guys go out of their way to bless the girls and I... we feel very spoiled! This year Tom completely surprised me with a new running shirt. The boys combined money and purchased running jackets and shirts for Hannah and Abbie~ woo hoo! Now for some warmer weather!

Not to be outdone, Hannah and Abbie made some of the most fabulous cupcakes for a special dessert that day~ they were super-delicious!

How 'bout a recipe, you say? Sure!

Here's our favorite gluten-free chocolate cake recipe and a super-delicious chocolate icing recipe that Abbie recently found. Hannah used a cake decorating bag to make huge chocolate icing swirls on each cupcake. They were simply *begging* for some sprinkles, so we happily obliged! Mmmmm, so good!

Very Yummiest Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake (or cupcake!) Recipe

2 c. sugar

2 c. brown rice flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. guar gum

1c. butter

3 Tbsp. cocoa

1 c. water

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine dry ingredients. Place butter, cocoa and water in saucepan and melt, stirring over medium heat. Bring to a rapid boil and pour over dry ingredients. Stir to mix well. Add eggs, buttermilk, baking soda and vanilla.

Pour into sprayed 9" x 13" pan (or lined muffin tins). Bake cake at 350 degrees for 20-30 min. I believe the cupcakes took about 10-15 min. Remove cupcakes from muffin tins to cool on cooling racks before icing.

Super-Yummiest Chocolate Cupcake Icing

1 stick (1/2 c.) butter, softened

1/4 c. crystalline fructose or honey (we used fructose)

1 egg

1/4 c. carob power or cocoa (we used cocoa)

1 tsp. vanilla

Blend the butter and crystalline fructose until light and creamy. Then blend in egg, cocoa powder (sift first to remove lumps) and vanilla. Spread on cooled cake or cupcakes.

OK, back to Project Life! Here's a close up of the left page from 2/13- 2/19.

I added an adorable house drawing by Timmy to an 8 1/2" x 11" page protector:

And on the back of that, the journaling from this blog post, telling about my little trail-running accident.

A close-up of that journaling:

The right side of that week's pages:
I *love* capturing photos that show relationships between siblings, like the one below of Josiah and Timmy. Josiah was taking Timmy out to sled on a warm day. It is so cool to me how loving and gentle he is with little Tim. Also some great little "snippets" of life here~ Timmy reading to his bear, our Great Pyreneese Lance inviting me to play with him, a group photo of some of the younger boys posing with their favorite project this week: handmade darts! I think the creativity that they invest in their play is really fun!

And week 2, Feb. 20-26th:

Lots of fun here... I'm back on crutches with two fractures in my foot/leg, but the full/happy life goes on here, we're still working on school, etc. Actually the children were thrilled to get Monday off school since I needed to go in to see my orthopedic doctor.

Here's a close-up of the right side of those pages. I actually used a Verizon bag, just three-hole-punched it... more on that in a minute, and included a portion of my receipt from the urgent care visit on Sunday to have my ankle x-rayed. I added a little journaling at the bottom and called it good.

When you flip that page/bag (!!) over, this is what you see:

OK, I'm about to reveal my deep, dark secret here~ ready? I'm a total geek! I have been enamored by iPhones since they first came out. Alas and alack though, we have been faithful Verizon customers for many years (no coverage from other carriers at our house) and until recently Verizon did not carry the iPhone. Now they do and my (very sweet) husband told me that I could get one this week! Yay! (Just between you and me, I think he felt sorry for poor me, on crutches *again*! sigh)

Here's a close-up of the back of the bag page (I left the handles on the bag~ thought that it was cute with them still attached), added a photo of my iPhone and the super-cool box that it came in, and some journaling.

And I *do* heart my iPhone!

Here's the right side of the pages from this past week. Can you tell that I *love* documenting our life this way? I *really* do! It was fun to take some of the photos this week with my iPhone. I really like using my Canon Rebel, but the small size and portability of my iPhone (especially while I'm on crutches) was wonderful!

That's about it from here (at least on the Project Life front!),

Hope it's warming up where you are!

Linking up with:

Hello Tuesday!

2011-02-22T15:34:00.000-06:00

Hello Timmy + teddy + book= adorable cuteness

Hello blue skies!

Hello to little boys who grow up too fast!

Hello Henny Penny!

Hello to big dogs who still want to play....

Hello curly-tailed ducks...

Hello to my new "boot" which looks so much better to me than a cast! No running for a few weeks, but I'll be able to swim~ yay!

Hello growing boys and growing puppies too!

Hello sunlight streaming across favorite quilts....

"The Lord will accomplish what concerns me;

Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting;"

Ps. 138:8

Still rejoicing in the everyday here,