The Well Rounded Mama

Scrapping the Summer Away!

Life in Asia takes patience...sometimes, LOTS of it.  We are STILL waiting for internet at home (first applied June 14!).  It's getting a little old.  Oh well...at least it is summer and needing internet means a trip to the hotel and pool.  I think the kids are happy :)

Anyway...we're keeping busy on our end.  We've been doing lots of little things for the house...organizing the garage, getting pictures printed, ordering new bedding.  We are really starting to love the new place!

We have also been trying to get other "stuff" done.  For me that means working on some of my scrapbooking and planning for another year of homeschool.  For Jason that mean doing some reading for his certification update.  Thankfully, the long summer days allow us lots of time to work AND play.

I've posted a bunch of layouts that I have done this summer in the album, but here are a few of my most recent/favorites:

 

 

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And no worries....I haven't forgotten about my PROJECT 365.  It's just a matter of finding the time to do all the uploading...I have almost two months worth!

And Two More Pages...

...because I am stressed. And when I am stressed, scrapping always makes me feel better. It doesn't solve all the issues, but I feel like I can now start my day.

 

Happy {inter}National Scrapbooking Day!

Happy {inter}national Scrapbooking Day!  I love this weekend, because coincidentally, it always marks my scrapping anniversary.  I made my first digital page and forever changed the path of my life FIVE years ago this weekend! I can't believe all the places this hobby has taken me and the people I have met through it.  It has been the most amazing ride!

You can see some of my anniversary posts here: One year, Two Years, (no three year post...a little too busy with a full time job and a two month old!) and  Four Years.

While most of the scrapping world will be shopping and scrapping this weekend, I will be away on a ladies retreat for women all over Indonesia.  I am not a big fan of big group events, but I am actually looking forward to this one.  Especially since some of the women I have come to know and love will be there...and there won't be kids interrupting every 2.5 seconds.

Since I knew I wouldn't be scrapping with everyone this weekend, I snuck in a few pages this week.  I am also releasing a huge template set over at SSD this weekend, so if you need some scrapping inspiration, head on over.

  You can always click on my digital scrap album to the left to see more recent pages :) Many of them are two pagers though, so you will need to click on them to see them in all their glory.

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Now it's time to celebrate my {not so little} man's sixth birthday.  We're doing it a day early, but we'll do it up right!

A Few Recent Pages

I am interested and passionate about many things.  I spend my days in a variety of activities I love: cooking, homeschooling, homeschooling prep, reading, being with the kids, taking pictures, and more.  All these things do their part to fill me up and energize me.

The one activity, though, that I can always count on to fill a little spot in me is my scrapbooking. For the last five years it has just fit perfectly into a little spot in my heart that no other hobby or activity has been able to fill.  It is the place where my love for photography, creativity, writing, memory keeping, and my family all come together and culminate in something tangible.  I have never grown tired of the process and now my family has over 1000 pages and stories saved.

And so here are some of my more recent pages. I don't share very often, but it doesn't mean I am not scrapping.  Just little bits of me digitally glued to paper as I save and pass the stories of our family on to the next generation.

   

And here's a two-page that took forever but that I am so glad I did!

CLICK HERE to see it larger

Happy Memory Keeping to you!

I've Been Scrapping

With the amount of my duties over at THE DAILY DIGI winding down, I have had some more time for my first love -- just plain 'ol scrapping. And you know what?  It feels good.  Scrapping rejuvenates me in a way I just can't describe.  Not only does it give me a needed creative outlet, but also it gives me the knowledge that the story of our lives is being recorded.  I love that.  And I love looking back through my albums and recalling little pieces of the story that I otherwise might have forgotten.  If you click on the album in my sidebar, you can see lots of recent layouts.  Here are just a few of my recent favorites (all of the layouts can be clicked to see them in a larger size).

 

     

Slowing Down

The last few weeks (make that 8 or so) have been busy.  Not the kind of busy I used to experience every.single.day or the kind of busy that I refuse to ever go back to...but busy for me.  It hasn't been so much in what needed to be done as what as needed to be thought about, prayed about, talked about, dreamed about, and worried about.  Not that I needed to worry...God is always in control.  But my brain doesn't always know that and since I am completely incapable of turning it off, it just runs all day and all night.  Add in normal life....four kids, a home, a family, homeschooling, a dog that chews up everything in site...add in extras like taking on a huge graphic design project for a homeschooling magazine...add in Thanksgiving and the beginnings of Christmas....and well, I've been busy.

But...and this is a big but...lots of things are slowing down and I am so, so thankful.  Some big issues in our life our now resolved.  There are good things on the way. Some new, some the same.  I am stepping back from most of my responsibilities from THE DAILY DIGI.  Homeschooling is in a good groove. Christmas will be low key. Life is slowing down. Life is good. A slower life means more chocolate chip cookies on a rainy day.  A slower life means time to spend with a friend.  A slower life means relationships vs. responsibilities. 

I have a lot of things to share but for now, as the bottom of my coffee cup is close, I will just share a few recent scrapbook pages.  I love that after almost five years, scrapbooking still provides me the creative release and the peace that it did from the very beginning.  And in the process, I get to save some of the stories that are closest to my heart.

     

There are more to share and more things to say, but they will have to wait for another time.  I will be around here more often now...and I am excited about it!

In The Last Few Days

In the last few days I have learned (or re-learned) a few things.  Over the weekend we were all supposed to go to one of my favorite places and enjoy the weekend away together and with Jason's brother who is here visiting.  Things didn't go as planned...Jason worried about leaving the house empty during this time of year, so I agreed to stay home.  I was sad not to go, but excited about the prospect of two days home ALL ALONE and all of the many, many things I would get done. Well, instead of accomplishing the most impressive to-do list on the planet, I got sick.  REALLY sick.  As in my fever was 105+ and I won't tell you how much plus lest you think I am stupid for not going to the hospital.  So, in the end, my glorious two days alone getting the next few weeks of school planned, getting a whole bunch of work for my website done, cleaning the house, etc., turned into two days of doing nothing but staring at one of three screens: the TV (finally getting into LOST), the computer screen (researching anything and everything because my brain was in a read-only mode) and a thermometer screen (seeing the numbers fluctuate between 101 and 105+).  In those "joyous" two days and in the few days since the my health and family's return, I have learned a few things:

1. I don't know how to rest and sit still.  Everyone keeps telling me how much I need to rest, even if I am feeling better. I keep saying, "Unless I am dying, I don't know how to do that." Can another mom of four kids age six and under please tell me how to rest?

2. Having  my body completely shut down is a good way for God to get me to involuntarily rest and therefore spend a lot of time thinking and praying and wrestling and thinking and praying! I worked through some really hard issues while sick and if I hadn't been sick, I never would have had the time.

3. Knowing what I want isn't always an easy thing. So many factors get involved and I can't see God's way through the crowding of my way, the world's way, the easy way.  But when I take the time to really think and pray and sort through issues (and what are really non issues), the path that God has for me starts to appear. And that path contains perfect peace.

4. As much as I LOVE my kids, and LOVE being around them all day, being away from them for two days was a really good thing.  Reason?  Read number 5.

5. I am tired.  Not just "I didn't get enough sleep last night tired" but really tired.  As in "I have been parenting babies and toddlers for almost seven straight years and I think it is finally catching up with me" tired. In all honesty, up until now, I wouldn't have ever said parenting had worn me out. But I am okay admitting that now I am tired and that it is okay.

6. I have really, really cool kids. I already knew this, but they remind me every day.  My most recent proof:

We were sitting on the front porch with pizza.  I hadn't eaten much due to being sick and I was really hungry, and really weak.  Caleb asked for a drink.  I told him that he could go inside and get it. He back outside not just with a drink for himself, but with FOUR cups. The top cup was full of water (because he knows that Alaina likes water).  The other three cups were empty and he was carrying the milk. So my five year, who could have just gotten something for himself, thought of his siblings, thought about what they might like, and then took the trouble to bring it all out. That is the kind of kid I am trying to raise.  He amazes me every day!

7. Scrapbooking makes me happy.  You would think that four and a half years and over 800 pages would make me know how happy it makes me. And yet I forget.  I scrapped some this weekend and oh how I love it!

The past was amazing…the present is unbelievable…and I know the best is yet to come.  That’s how life is with you sweet girl.  At just three months, I was sure I was the luckiest woman in the world with the most wonderful baby in the world.  You were smiley, happy, even tempered, sweet, loving, and full of wonder.  I didn’t know how it would be possible to love you any more than I did at that moment.  And then you grew…in height and in heart. And that sweet nature kept growing with it.  Now, at six years old, you are the most amazing little girl I could ever dream of.  You are smart, creative, kind, sensitive, helpful, repentant, loving, forgiving, understanding, other-focused and Christlike.  I didn’t know so much could be part of one little heart.  And so, I know that as much as I love you now, I know the best is yet to come. I know that the heart that is within you will continue to grow and change as you become the woman that God created you to be.  And I can’t wait to see who that is and what He has in store for you.  You were created for something amazing — of that I am sure. I feel like I know a little of what Mary felt like to be the mother of Jesus…awed, humbled, and totally excited to see what great things are in store.