Spring has arrived!

Just in time! 

I am loving the sunshine and the warm air. 

I can leave the windows open in the daytime. 

The kids can play outside!! 

WooHoo!!

Even Macy, the dog, loves being out in the sunshine.

Week in Review 2/7-2/13

Sunday – This is Emma’s first year on the competitive dance team at her dance studio. (She’s the one in green on the left.) Her team consists of 1st and 2nd graders. Three of the kids were on the team last year, and the other three are new. She is loving it! Sunday, they had a “full” dress rehearsal – which means full costume, stage makeup, hair piece (a full ponytail). They are dancing to a compilation of 50’s music which includes Hound Dog, Wake Up Little Suzy, Shake Rattle and Roll, and more. It is too fun to watch. They have one more dress rehearsal before their first competition in two weeks.

Monday – Here’s Emma doing school. She is (in this picture) working on a Valentine’s Day unit study. It involves written work and work on the computer (reading a bit and watching some video clips of how chocolate is made, etc.). As you can see, she loves this study!

Tuesday – Early Valentine’s gift: Matt is horrible about waiting when he’s excited about a good find! I have been talking about wanting a hand-blender and a mini-chopper for months. He came across this one today while looking for bedding at Bed Bath and Beyond, and he couldn’t wait for Valentine’s Day to give it to me! I can’t wait to use it!

Wednesday – New rug and living room furniture: Matt found this rug while out shopping for bedding. I love the way it pops with the new living furniture.

Thursday – Snow people: We got snow, and we got lots of it here in TX. While Logan and the rest of the kids went off to school, Isaac and Emma made snow people. Isaac created “Bob” the Titans snowman. Emma created “Sarah” the snowgirl. The kids were so excited by the snow. That’s one thing they really miss about Cincinnati (besides their old friends).

Friday – Chocolate Chip Pancakes: Because of all the snow, Logan was out of school today. I try to make a hot breakfast when he doesn’t have to be at school early. (He normally has to be at school by 7 for track practice before school.) So, today I made homemade whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes.

Saturday – Logan and his new car: My sweet boy turned 16 right before Christmas. Today, he got a car!! We are all so excited for him. He is happy to have the freedom to go where he wants (within reason), and we are happy not to have to drive him there! Tonight, he picked up a friend and went to dinner. Then, he met more friends for a movie! Could life be any sweeter?

**Be sure to visit The Mom Creative to see other Project Life updates.**

Week in Review 1.10-1.16

Another week in review from the Zoo Keeper...

Sunday 1.10 Yummy!! I LOVE HOMEMADE BREAD!! I bake it several times a week. I don’t buy store-bought sandwich bread anymore. I even tried a cinnamon raisin bread this week that was fabulous! I will post my sandwich bread recipe in another post.

Monday 1.11 ~ Isaac reading ~ I love to see the kids “plop” down with a good book and read, read, read! Here he is reading The Extraordnary Adventures of Alfred Kropp.

Tuesday 1.12 ~ Emma at the library ~ Our home away from home – the library! We never have less than 50 books checked out between Isaac, Emma, myself, and our school books. We visit the library at least once a week.

Wednesday 1.13 YAY!! My Project Life scrapbook/album by Becky Higgins arrived today. This is where I will store my pictures and tell my stories this year!I have been so excited for this to arrive!

Thursday 1.14 I ALWAYS have a HUGE stack of books waiting for me on my nightstand. Some I am reviewing for various publishers, some I am previewing before I assign them to the kids, and the rest are pleasure books.

Friday 1.15 ~ The boys left tonight for a weekend of Disciple Now. They were broken into to age/gender groups and assigned a “host home”. They met at the church throughout the weekend for worship and other activities. Back at the hose home, they held Bible studies and small discussion groups. Both were very excited to go!

Saturday 1.16 ~ Day out with Emma ~ Since the boys were gone, Matt and I spent the day with Emma. Emma started her day at dance team rehearsal. Afterwards, we took her to Gymboree to pick up a couple of new outfits. Then, we headed to JoAnn fabric where I purchased fabric to make a curtain for her room (and picked up a few supplies for some dance team projects). Then, we took her to Target to get a treat out of the dollar spot (a purple cell phone) and a snack for the movies. To end our “Emma day”, we took her to the movies to see The Princess and the Frog. We all really enjoyed the movie. Instead of a picture for today, I will add her ticket stubs and a Gymboree tag to our scrapbook.

Project life (my 365 album)

Well, I'm still patiently waiting for my Project Life album to arrive. The shipment was pushed back. It should have arrived Saturday, and it is now scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.

While I wait, I've been checking out ideas to use in my album. Jessica, at Mom Creative, has started a weekly link-up where others participating in Project Life 2010 are posting their "week in review" pictures/stories. (Please note, you do not have to use your album as a 365 album. I've blogged about other ways I intend to use this in the future. Check out that info here.)

I like this idea of linking to Jessica's blog, though. It keeps me accountable - no, I'm not obligated - but it keeps me motivated to stay on top of my photos and allows me a chance to document my stories (in case I don't have time to journal in my album during a particular week.) I'm hoping this will deter burn-out by keeping me excited to look for everyday opportunites to document. I'm also hoping it will inspire me to think outside the box in some of my photos. For instance, I photographed my homemade bread yesterday (which will show up in next week's review post). While this is something I do several times a week, it's not something I've ever deemed important enough to photograph or blog about. However, it really is a part of our "every day" life.

Since my family lives cross-country, they don't see our "daily life". And, since they visit us here in TX just a few time a year, I thought this would be a good motivation for staying on top of the "week in review" blog posts. This way, our families can know what goes on in our everyday life. It also serves as conversation starters when the grandparents call. When there is a lull in the conversation, they can talk about something they've seen on the blog. It sure beats the "I don't know" they will likely encounter when they ask "So, what have you been up to this week?" I've begun posting our seeks in review such as our 12.27.09 week in review or our 1.3.10 week in review. **Just a note, I plan to document our weeks from Sunday through Saturday. Because the first week of the new year actually started with the end of 2009, my first few pics are from the last week of 09.**

Can you tell I'm a bit excited about my year-long project?

To see what others photographed this week visit The Mom Creative here.

Week in Review 1.3-1.9

Make a Smilebox collage

1.3.10 ~ Isaac and Emma love to pop some popcorn, grab the pillows off my bed, and watch a movie on my bedroom floor in the evenings.  I love that they get along so well!  She really looks up to him, and he really takes care of her.

1.4.10 ~ The treadmill – Isaac and Emma both wanted to learn to use the treadmill.  So, I decided to make it a regular part of their school day.  Wonder how long the “wonder” will last?  Not long if they’re anything like their momma!!

1.5.10 ~ I took Isaac and Emma to the Dallas Museum of Art.  It was the first time any of us had been to an art museum.  You can read more about our visit here. 

1.7.10 ~ I got my new camera lens in the mail today.  Somewhere between Gulf Shores, AL and home back in June, I broke the lens on my Nikon camera.  I have used a crummy point and shoot since then.  After Christmas, I decided I’d gone long enough with mediocre pictures.  It finally arrived!!

1.8.10 ~ Logan got the “hard copy” of his driver’s license in the mail.  He’s had a paper copy since his birthday last month.  Can you see how excited he is?!?

Week in Review 12/27-1/2

As part of my goal to FOCUS on my family, I set a goal to photograph my family every day of this year. I’ve done pretty good about taking a picture about 6 days a week so far. I’m hoping to do better throughout the year. What a great way for me to chronicle our everyday life!

Here’s a look at the last week of 2009 and the beginning of 2010…

If you click "play" this will open in another screen. You will then be able to enlarge each individual picture to see it better.

Make a Smilebox collage

12.27.09 ~ Matt refinished a desk we had in the living room. All of our furniture is black/white. He brought in a brown desk with the promise of painting it black – last summer. Better late than never, huh?

12.28.09 ~ Logan got his braces off after 39 months!!

12.29.09 ~ We got enough snow for Isaac and Emma to build a snow blob snowman.

12.30.09 ~ We spent a our two-week Christmas break RELAXING!! It was so nice. This was the first year we didn’t travel to visit family, and we missed them. But, we really enjoyed the down time.

12.31.09 ~ We went to the neighbors’ house for a New Year’s Eve party. Emma loved being able to stay up late, but it took her a few days to get “right” with her sleep again.

1.1.10 ~ Matt and Logan spent many long hours putting together 2 big puzzles over Christmas break.

365 Photography Goal

FOCUS.  Remember that word?  It’s my word of the year.  One of the things I want to focus on is my family.  Sounds like a “duh”, huh?  Well, obviously, as a homeschool mom I do focus on my family, right?  Well, kind of.  I focus on what needs to be done.  I don’t always focus on my family as a unit.  What’s that mean?  It means I get the chores done, errands run, and food cooked.  I get school work done and kids to classes/practices.  But, sometimes I get so focused on those parts of “family” life that I forget to FOCUS on us. 

In an effort to focus more on “us”, I have set a goal to create a “365 Album” this year.  My goal is to photograph my family – events, moments, and everyday stuff – every day this year.  I found this awesome scrapbook/photo album to help me organize all these photos.  If you knew me years ago, you know how “into” scrapping I was.  That, however, was before Emma was born, and I learned to sew.  Then, I found a new passion.  I didn’t lose my desire to photograph everything, I just lost my desire to scrap those pics.  So, where are they?  On CD’s!!!  I don’t print them, because I don’t scrap them. 

That’s about to change, though.  My goal is (as soon as my album arrives) to edit and print my photos once a week.  Then, I’ll sit down one evening each week and journal the photos from the previous week and put them in my album.  As I edit my photos, I’ll also upload them to my blog in a “week in review” post so my friends and family can keep up-to-date with our family fun.  I’m excited to see this come to fruition over the course of the year. I’m excited to FOCUS on my everyday, ordinary, “just mine” family!!

**And, because I am always one step ahead of myself like to plan ahead … I’m already thinking about other ways I could use this album.  Of course, I would have to order more, but that’s OK.  I’m thinking I want one to put all of our Disney pictures in one.  This way, I can tell all of my stories, but I don’t have to embellish or cut any paper!  I’m also thinking about doing one for Emma’s dance years.  I’m thinking about a 2-page spread for each recital (so far she’s been in three) and a 2-page spread for each competitive dance season (this is our first).  As I said, I am getting way ahead of myself here just thinking aloud…**