100 Things

100 Things I am Unendingly Grateful for:

(encouraged by Karen G.)

1. My family
2. Our house
3. My husband’s job
4. The ability to be a SAHM
5. Creative pursuits
6. Warm comforters to snuggle under
7. Thick, warm socks
8. “Coffee”
9. Living in the city, but having a nice piece of nature too
10. Big Picture Scrapbooking
11. Blogs—a constant source of encouragement and inspiration
12. Facebook
13. Friendships that last
14. Skype
15. My kind-hearted nature
16. Books, Books, Books
17. My new stroller
18. Our van. God thank you for our van
19. New years, new days, new beginnings
20. Pictures
21. Our camera
22. Hobbies
23. Organization
24. Kelly Green
25. Bright Orange
26. Turquoise
27. Pink
28. Christmas
29. Lights on the house
30. Lights on the tree
31. Plan Toys road and rail system. Love it!
32. Wooden blocks
33. Space for imagination
34. Knowing how it is that I want to raise my kids
35. My mother and all she does for our family
36. Rain
37. Sunshine
38. A good cry
39. Heat—especially the moment when it first kicks on
40. Food
41. Dishes that need to be done, bills that need (and can) be paid, toys that need to be picked up, laundry that needs to be washed.
42. Remus
43. Memories of childhood
44. Notebooks
45. Great pens
46. Scrapbooking
47. Bird stickers
48. Time spend discovering me
49. Time shared discovering everything
50. The beauty of a good whale show
51. Sign Language
52. Christmas carols
53. Warm sweaters
54. Hot Chocolate
55. Christmas movies
56. My dining table and all the stories it could tell
57. My computer and the cool things it will let me do
58. The Box and the ability to handle all my photos
59. Picasa. Could not function without it!
60. Ali Edwards
61. Karen G.
62. Stacy Julian
63. Becky Higgins
64. Project Life and the husband that got it for me
65. The magic in the everyday
66. The ability to document the magic in the everyday
67. Gratitude lists and the attitude shift that comes with
68. My Library of Memories
69. The state of my savings account
70. Plane tickets home
71. Sunsets
72. Mass
73. The ability to meet God where HE is at sometimes
74. Pre-made baby food and disposable diapers!
75. Music and songs that speak to the soul
76. Flowing water
77. Time spent writing down, mapping out, and dreaming of where we are headed
78. Good conversations
79. The fact that my family always has to be together—usually in four square feet of space
80. Television and the ability to lose myself sometimes
81. Heroines that inspire and live lives that I dream of living
82. Intelligence
83. Culture
84. Education
85. My unused (as of yet) Master’s Degree
86. The Bible
87. Magazines
88. Amazon
89. Paint and its possibilities
90. Possibilities—a whole world of possibilities
91. Volunteering
92. Learning something new
93. Spending time with those I love
94. My children
95. Holding my baby in my arms
96. Hearing my son say “I love you, mommy”
97. Nursing
98. My protective and sweet dog
99. A full day’s work
100. Snuggling up with my love at the end of it

Happy Christmas to all and to all a great New Year!!!

December Daily

It may be December 8th (well, December 6th when I started working on this...) but I am totally jumping on this band wagon. I discovered December Daily last year, again at the beginning of December, and was blown away with Ali's design, the colors, the simplicity, the photos, the journaling. I began to put together an album, but it was too late and I was making things way too complicated. This year I vow to do simple, simple, simple, to leave the ideas that stretch me (like baseball card holders? Where do you get those anyway! or painting, or figuring out the whole digital aspect of things.) til next year when I can start earlier. I don't really want to spend any more money then I already have (on some new paper and embellishments) which means that my album will be focused mostly on the photos and the stories. Documenting our life and this season this December. And, well, that's the whole point anyway! =)

Gratitude Tree

I am just now starting to feel better from the cold I got before Thanksgiving, and as our Christmas tree is still tucked away in the garage and is not anticipated out anytime soon, (at least not until the rest of the house is feeling better) I thought I would share this tree instead... A sweetly simple gratitude tree inspired by other similar ideas I have seen on blogs. The leaves were done with a MS punch, and the tree hand drawn and then cut out of scrapbook paper and glued onto a blue sheet of card stock. It is taped into a 12x12 frame with more scrapbook paper as a background, and measures 8.5x11 so that when done decorating my kitchen I can pop it into our family scrapbooks to look back on. A quick, fun project and a cute reminder of all we have to be grateful for!