Currently loving

 This picture. A real genuine smile. She makes me happy.

Her music.  She's performing at a church a couple of hours away and wishing I could go. Wondering if we could take a weekend away.

This post. I love her view on parenting, family and pretty much everything in general. Her post today about keeping a clean home was spot on. Loved every.single.word.  Plus Courtneys like her are good for the image...not so much for another Courtney. Ahem...The Bachleor...Ahem.

This Catholic Blog. She has really good preschool resources and tons of cute crafts.

This dress. Beautiful and feminine, but in a really lovely neutral navy.

This recipe. It's so easy and I currently have chicken in the fridge just waiting to go in tomorrow.


Today is Ash Wednesday and we are fasting...kiddos modified of course, but I am so impressed with them. They haven't even asked for "normal food" at all today. Usually they try to graze throughout the pantry all day. I think we'll celebrate their sacrifice with a special breakfast in the morning.

~C

40 days.

Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent. Being an adult joining the Catholic church it wasn't something I knew much about. Sure, we gave up stuff. Sweets, TV...nothing ever stuck. I always felt like it was reliving another New Years. Another time of the year to give something up and fail. I don't like resolutions for that reason. 

This year I have a completely renewed outlook on Lent. I'm excited. Really excited.
I read somewhere that it takes 40 days to do something before it becomes a habit. That could be completely wrong, but it's stuck in my head for some reason.
40 days.
40 days to make better choices to come out a better version of who I want to be.
Closer to God.
More spiritual and prayerful.
More at peace.

 So, yes I am giving things up, but the things I'm giving up this year are things that aren't good for me anyway and instead I'm replacing them with things that will be positive towards what I'm trying to accomplish.Who I'm trying to be. The example I'm trying to set for my babies.

A more peaceful, spiritual, kind, patient version of ME.

Jumping back in with layouts to share

I could make ten million excuses for not blogging, but only one would be excuseable. Someone who will remain nameless dropped my computer shortly after I last blogged. Luckily it was an accident and he's cute and hard to keep a grudge against ;).  Kind of put a kink in finishing my December Daily...which by the way is still sitting uncompleted on my desk. I do plan on finishing since I still kept taking pictures and keeping notes, but I'm not planning on sharing. I don't think anyone including myself wants to see Christmas stuff right now.

I did finally get a new computer a few weeks ago...a desktop this time. Not risking a dropped laptop again. Holy big mess that was. Yikes.

Not knowing how to jump back into blogging I thought I would just share a couple of layouts today.

~C

December Daily Days 1-5

So I decided to start on the first day of Advent after all. I'm way behind on photographing and blogging, but staying pretty caught up on creating...and that's the important part anyway.

 I used everything out of my stash, and a lot of it's OLD, so if you really want to know what something is let me know and I'll try to figure it out.

I'm planning on adding dates to the calender, but that's something I can do later when I have extra time.

On that first Sunday my parents had the kids for the night and they took them to see Santa at the Reindeer Ranch.

Day one: Our advent wreath. I look forward to bringing it out every year and the kids love singing grace and getting to blow out the candle every night.

Day 2: My failed photoshoot although there were actually a couple in there that were pretty cute. I wanted to include a lot of the "outtakes" so I made the flip out book....which I forgot to take a picture of folded out, so I'll add that in later. Oops.

Day 3: Pat's brother is in the hospital in Seattle right now and Pat drove up there to visit him for a couple of days. I just wanted to document our day while he was gone.

Day four: Another simple page of our day. It was still November, so we aren't doing much Christmas related things yet, but I really wanted to include the daily stuff.

Day 5: A glimpse into a normal time in our house right now. I snapped these shots during our "quiet time". I really love that time of day. ;)

So far it's been simple pages, simple stories, no stressing, and I'm having fun with it. Be back soon with a few more days.

~C

Sunday

Happy late Thanksgiving! We had a nice quiet relaxing day...and then I decided to head to Walmart for the craziness of Black Friday. It was my second time ever and my first time alone...I thought I was going to hyperventilate, but I made it and got what I was after so no harm done. I'll even admit it was a little bit fun. Ha!

Today I got the kids dressed and ushered them outside in the front yard for an ill planned photo shoot. Let's just say I was not prepared with a location and it was WINDY. It was not. happening. Can you tell they weren't into it?! Literally every single shot was like this. Next time I'll find a better spot without my neighbor's house in the background...and candy. Lots of candy.

 Haha! Seriously, what was I thinking?!

I did manage to get an intro page for my December Daily done. It's on clear plastic that I've had in my stash forever...not sure where it's from, but I have a few pieces left and I like the clear look. Hard to photograph, but I'll take another one when it's in the album.

 I've decided to just do December even though Advent technically starts today, but I am going to start on the first with our Advent wreath. Can't wait to start!

~C

Season of Advent cover (December Daily)

I've always loved Ali Edward's December Daily project...admired it, but never wanted to commit to it. This year I'm going for it even though I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing. I'm not sure if I'm going to create all the pages ahead of time or just wing it daily. Maybe a mix of both?
I have never even  done a Christmas layout, so I really didn't have any Christmas/winter product. I ordered the Jack Frost kit from Elle's Studio because I loved the colors and I knew I wanted to do a mix of pink and aqua in with the traditional Christmas colors. Then I just pulled a bunch of things out of my stash that looked like it would fit in.
Since we celebrate Advent I will start it this Sunday with the putting together of our Advent wreath. I knew I didn't want to start it on December first because that's missing a really special part of our Christmas season.

The album is 6x8 chipboard covered in patterned paper. Right now I'm using rings, but I need to order bigger ones I'm sure. The shimmer mist is hard to photograph and it looks a lot more opaque than it shows. I also sprayed the snowflakes with it.

Woodgrain paper (crate paper), Hambly Doily rub ons, Maya road wooden snowflakes, Elle's studio calender tag, Martha Steward washi tape, label(etsy), heart...???, Studio Calico shimmer mist, Studio Calico fabrips for binding, American Crafts numbers

So my promise to myself is to finish it. No worries about being perfect or missing a day. No stressing.

~C