Fall Fun

My Mom and Dad are here this week. Its fun to share photos and things we've missed out on in each other's lives in the past few months. I also realized I haven't posted much here in a while, so here are some of the events of Fall and some pages I did while waiting for my children to get home on the weekends. . . night is always my most productive time for scrapbooking!

Steven at his last cross country meet. Poor guy had been sick for a few days right before yet still shaved 3 minutes off his recent time. He is looking forward to running again just for fun. Its just who he is.

LittleBuddy the "Hunter" or "GI JOE" or "Covert Camoflauge Guy". It didn't matter what you called him, he just wanted to dress like this, and was happy to be with his friends at our ward Trunk or Treat, at school, and on Halloween night.


Three children, three pumpkins, BigBuddy cut the largest, with the help of our neighbor, and MyGirl based hers on the card my mom sent, and LittleBuddy went for personality!
Trek Pages of BigBuddy's experience in July. When we picked him up he said it was harder than he envisioned, but he was up to the challenge, and wished he could do it again, then he had a LONG nap!

Christmas pages of Bigbuddy's from 2007 - sadly I am that far behind in my children's books. These are 9 x 9 and are fast and easy to do. I keep them quite simple so I can get between 8 and 12 pages done in a couple of hours. Happily, my 12 x 12 family album is caught up to August of this year. I'm still tempted just to photo copy but I don't have a 12 x 12 printer, and I do have plenty of supplies, so thus I keep going. The pressure is on for me, though, with BigBuddy's book. I want it caught up before he leaves for college at the end of this school year. I'm going to be busy!

And because I know how busy I am, I am posting Thanksgiving decor today. We are excited to be with family this year for Thanksgiving. I've already found some bargain felt turkeys I have to use somewhere. . . more creative ideas to come!
We spent yesterday at the ribbon outlet and the Prime Outlets - with Christmas shopping begun! Oh, how quickly the time goes. I hope to be able to pull it off. Our ward boundaries are changing also in less than two weeks so there's a lot to be done in a short amount of time! Never a dull moment!

Definitions

I read this week that the definition of creativity is to live in the moment and make of it what you will. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Some days its easier than others. Today, its rainy and cold, I'm achy and freezing, MyGirl has gone back to bed - not feeling too well either, and the boys are out in the cold, having come back twice for warmer gear, and once to drop off their cell phones so they wouldn't get wet.

They want to make homemade pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, but it hasn't happened yet. My moment for now is just to journal and record - to remember instead of live in the moment.

This is my green thumb. I'm down to three tomato plants, but I froze another 7 quarts of tomatoes earlier this week. Every three days I go out and pick a whole basketful. If we lose power, the generator has to go to the freezer and save my babies (the tomatoes) who are the source of most of my green thumbing this year.



At our monthly Relief Society meeting we were getting in gear for giving this week. These are beans I put into a frosting bag, zipped it up with the sewing maching and tied a bow. Now I just have to make a tag with the recipe and its a gift ready to go for the holidays. We learned how easy it is to make truffles and peanut brittle, gift tags and gift bags. It inspired me to come home and finish making my mother's Christmas present. . . even my children were surprised I could pull it off.

My Bigbuddy came indoors a bit ago and said, "You have a huge preying mantis outside the front door." To my relief, it was outdoors. To my even more relief it was still there when I went outside to take a photo. These are the moments when nature reminds you that no matter what is going on, something unexpected is always around the corner, even just outside your door. So glad my children are so observant. They remind me to look more closely at the little things around me. Their true creativity never ceases to amaze me.

Baby Love

Was it already a whole week ago that I met my newest nephew?
How cute are those bubbles and that smile!!!
His parents adore him!
He is so sweet and alert and lovable!
We miss Spencer! We miss his parents! He is in our hearts forever!




The past few days we've had my aunt and uncle here from Canada also. I tell you - we are LOVING IT!!! We feel downright spoiled spending time with loved ones twice in a week. Now that we've gotten used to how great it feels to have family here even if just for a short time, we're feeling melancholy at their just as fast departures. We know it will be a long time before we're together again, sadly. Here's to hoping the time will fly until we see each other again, yet knowing how much will have changed by then. . . . Family . . . love each and every one no matter how far or how fleeting our time with them.

What Matters Most . . . .

Tonight in family home evening our family watched the short video by our church titled, "What Matters Most." I confess that lately I have given a lot of thought to this very topic. President Monson reminded me that what matters most is people. He said something that I want to always remember:
Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person to be loved.
It reminds me of the adage that when in doubt, if you have to choose between being right and being kind, be kind.

This is not easy for me. Not that its hard to love. Its been such a blessing to have my calling right now. I have found that when my sisters need to share the hard things in their lives, listening with love and pointing them to the Savior actually infuses my soul with light and increases its capacity to love them even more. I never feel burdened but grateful for the opportunity to share His love. No matter the problem, my loving them is always the right thing for me to do. How easy is that to know my role and have it so clearly defined for me.

Sometimes, though, in the relationships that do matter most, I find myself distracted by problems. I find that its not my natural inclination to respond with that great mantel of charity and glorifying the Lord. Those problems are not mine. I can show empathy, and sometimes I have experienced something so very similar, but this is different. This is my own real life. . . reality in its most raw form.

Charity never faileth. The one thing I can count on no matter what is that Jesus Christ's love me for is perfect, and it has not, and it does not, and it will not ever fail me. Knowing that I am REALLY a daughter of God means that the promise in the scriptures that Charity never faileth was meant for me. It is my Heavenly Father's own testimony that He put into place a way and a means for me to get back to Him. I can trust deeply in His love for me. It is real and it is everlasting. Just typing it here brings tears to my eyes, so grateful I am for that knowledge which is unwavering within my soul.

In my quest for doing what's right even when its not always so evident and clear, the Lord has led me to the words of others that have inspired me. The web is a deep, wide place. I went to the obvious sources of inspiration first. Then on just faith, I clicked on links that had the exact answers I was looking for. Why did I remember one woman in Idaho's blog address, and feel the need to click on one particular friend in the long list of links she had? I can only reason that the Spirit directed me to do so. These were the voices of women I do not know, but am so grateful for the truths they spoke. It resonated in my soul that their wisdom was that which I needed. It doesn't change the fact that when life gives you lemons and you make lemonade and sometimes you realize those lemons weren't really what you were expecting them to be that you have a problem to solve. However, with President Monson's and everyone else's advice to focus on loving more than the unexpected bad lemons, in the end it will all be all right. I trust in the Lord. How grateful I am for His continued sustainence for me. I pray He will lead me where I need to go most, and to have the courage to follow whatever directions he offers.

If today was the day to climb into the ark, would I go when there are no clouds in the sky? I pray to listen and lead and learn so that the things that really do matter most are the things I focus on too. . . in every situation, especially the ones that aren't so easy.

A Day to Create

Finally, a day to create!
It has been so long to wake up knowing that this is the day designated for fun crafty projects! Of course, there were antecedents and possessive pronouns to encounter first thing, but after that . . . Fun!
Baby blankets were first on the agenda. Our ward is growing with little cherubic cheeks so I wanted to be ready for them. Next was an Enrichment project - Ikea frames painted Black with scrapbooking paper and white vinyl spelling JOY. Fast, easy, and inexpensive. I'll be personally making plenty for the holidays. We're offering this at our Christmas Craft night.
Next was a lovely homemade dinner. The nights I teach piano I usually put something in the crock pot or whip something up quick. We're certainly not starving, but its nice to take the time to really cook and bake. Tonight's menu - chicken and rice. I ignored my standard recipe and played with spices and seasonings and it all was yummy. We added vegetables and it was comfort food time. . . Love it!
Tonight I've been working on family Christmas gifts. I can't say too much now, but wait until after the holidays for all my postings. MyMike's heading to see his family in a few weeks so I thought I'd send their presents with him and save on shipping so I needed to get started. Keeping it heartfelt and homemade - my favorite gifts to give! I know I feel the love when I unwrap a homemade gift, so tonight was my first offering to those I love. I can't wait to do this again soon!

Remember where you were. . . .

Do you remember where you were on July 9 this year? How about when you heard the news of the World Trade Center bombings? I'll never forget. When I scrapbooked that time in our life a few months later, though, I realized that life had moved on. As traumatic as that day in our life felt, the next day, the sun still came up. I still made dinner. The children still went to school. MyMike still went to work. Life went on and here we are eight years later. My sense of living a more creative life has grown in the last eight years. I think its because I realized very clearly on 9-11 that on a perfectly lovely day, the world can suddenly change for the worse, never to be the same again. Yes, life moved on, but today I thought of the 10,000 children who lost their parents that day. Their lives have gone on too, but they've been left with the knowledge that their parent was killed because of hate. My heart still aches for them. They experienced a much greater loss than what I experienced that day. To take the moments we get and not take them for granted, is an important lesson I learned that day. I am grateful that in 2009, my children will remember the events of July 9 better than Sept. 11. To make the most of each day is living the creative life.

In 15 minutes increments over the past couple of weeks, I created eight pages of our summer camping experiences. I used CTMH Back Country paper pack, Cricut Plantain Cartridge for the titles, and Pewter and New England Ivy embellishments, Twill,and Natural Hemp. (Double click on the photos to see the details, if you like.)

Memories of Summer

 

Missing my oldest daughter, so made this collage of the fun we all had together. . . .
Happy she's doing well. Sad she's so far away. How fun was this to put together!
I love a good collage. Its an immersion in memories that floods you with warm feelings.
It was a good summer. These are among my favorite memories!

(And ignore the date on littlebuddies and my photo. . . he hadn't yet learned how to set the camera.)