A Beacon of Light

The party is over, but we can still have fun with the chinese yo-yos!  

I'm working on reorganizing my favorite red shelves and cubbies!  Moving the scrapbooking stuff up, and the yarn down where I have better access to it.  In fact, I haven't scrapbooked or printed any pictures this year.  In January I tried the digital Project Life thing, but when I switched back to blogging pics and stories, I quit doing Project Life.  I just can't make time for both, so it's just blogging now.  But, I'm glad to have the stories with the pictures, at least!

 So, yesterday, while I was teaching in the morning, Jeremy took the kids to church for Beacon worship band rehearsal. They rehearsed 2 hours, had lunch, and rode 2 hours to another Nazarene church. Someone from that church had seen video of our teens leading worship, and they invited them to come minister to their youth group. They were having a Fall Festival, so the kids tried to get to know some of those from the host youth group during the festival. Then after the festival, Beacon did an hour worship service for them.  Though Jeremy and I didn't go along, when the kids told us about their experience, and we heard some more from our youth leaders, it made us realize even more how blessed we are with the kids' youth group.  This other church's group is really struggling to support, encourage, and teach their teens about Jesus because the kids' families don't want them to.  Our kids gave their testimonies about what Jesus is doing in their lives!  No matter what our kids felt the reaction was to what they said and sang, it was heard, it set an example, and God will continue use it in the hearts of those teens.  It makes my heart fill up so much that the love runs down my face.  <3 p="">

Jeremy and I spent the afternoon at home getting some things done in and around the house.  Then we went to Logan's and had steak!  We went to the mall for a while before we picked up the kids at church. 

Worship was great this morning at church!

And Beacon did a fantastic job leading two songs to close the service. I love these kids and their heart for Jesus!!!

Oh yes, Caeden sang his first solo in front of people last night.  He said he felt like he was going to pass out, but everyone said he did a great job.  I feel bad that we missed it!  I'm sure we will hear him many times in the future.  

<3 friends="" nbsp="" p="">

Oh yes, I didn't know ahead of time that the kids wouldn't have band rehearsal this afternoon, so we had to get [cheap] lunch in town.  We decided to hit Wendy's.  I was so excited to see they've brought back the taco salad!  I love Wendy's taco salad!  Jeremy used to bring it to me every Sunday night my senior year of college when I was an R.A. and had to "sit desk" in the lobby of my dorm.  Just a little bit of extra happy today.  :)

Back to my regular inconsistency

Happy Monday!  I know I'm in the minority, but I actually like Mondays...They feel like a good opportunity to start over, and I'm all about try-trying again!  I was reading a bit in a lovely little book called Seven Sacred Pauses: Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day, by Marcrina Wiederkeh, and I came across a beautiful quote this morning, that I had to share on my Facebook too.  

"To affect the quality of the day is the highest of arts." - Henry David Thoreau

I love it.  Today I want to do my best to create a beautiful, quality day.

In other news, I found that I was missing my "usual" style of blogging.  I was excited about the digital scrapbooking thing, and am still going to try to stick with that, I think.  But, I miss writing about the stories and feelings and happenings.  So, at least once in a while, I will pop in and do that here.  

Also, a few of the 3 people that actually visit this blog are annoyed at the scrapbook page thing.  So... I will be inconsistent...it fits my style...hahaha.  :) 

I will say, I am definitely going to continue to create some form of physical, printed albums.  Thanks to Becky Higgins/Project Life's recent "Project Photo Rescue," I moved our scrapbooks and photo albums to a more obvious and reachable spot, and the kids (especially Sylvia) have been looking through them a lot and reminiscing.  It has been really cool!  It makes it worth every time they've been annoyed at me for pointing a camera at them, and all the time spent scrapbooking and putting photos into albums with labels and stories.

Here are some fun randoms from recent days.

2/24 - A snow day sibling snuggle

Anakin Skywalker shooting me with a nerf gun

We played Mouse Trap one Sunday night!

Sylvia and I had a good chat about what this quote (from the front of a book she was reading) means...

Project Life App approach update

I'm doing fairly well keeping up with the Project Life App digital scrapbook pages, and documenting our photos and stories in this way [that is somewhat new to me] so far this month.  At one point I did change the design/theme/cards I'm using, so on the blog posts, the new ones don't match the first few I posted.  For years I have admired the Cherry Edition I started out with, but I decided the new Everyday Edition would be more neutral and fitting for our current photos, and since I was only a few pages in, I changed.

There are pros and cons for me about this new process, but I'm going to try to stick with it at least for this year and decide which outweighs the other. So far...

Cons:

• I'm having trouble thinking about journaling/card placement in relation to a 2-page spread while I can only look at 1 page at a time on my phone.
• I'm keeping it photo-heavy, because it will cost $1.99 per page to print, and it's making me feel limited to bullet-point journaling instead of story-telling like I usually do here on the blog. 
• I'm not sure if it will cost me more or less than printing pics and buying physical product in the end, and I keep reading Becky Higgins' social media posts and buying little $1.99 things like more page layouts in the app, and an awesome photo editing app that is worth the $1.99--PicTapGo.

Pros: 

• I am using "extra" time (riding in the car, waiting at kids' lessons/appointments, etc) to scrapbook!
• I'm "keeping up!"
• Blogging is quick!
• I'm enjoying a new challenge and goal.

I got off track towards the beginning of what will be our "book," so I put a bunch of the uplifting images I collect together for one page.  I always have a bunch of these kinds of things on my phone, computer, and digital folders...keeps me thinking!

Trying something new

I'm going to try a couple new time-saving things with our memory-keeping this year.  For many years, I've organized photos digitally, kept this blog, and also created physical scrapbooks.  I don't have time to do all of that anymore...at least not in the same way.  So, I'm trying out a new system.

Project Life (www.beckyhiggins.com) has a great app I'm learning to use to create digital scrapbook pages with my photos right on my phone--which I use to take almost all my photos now anyway.  So, I can simplify and do everything in one place and just add my pages with photos and stories right to the blog and save a lot of time--I hope!  Here goes...

PL Prep

I'm still working with photos of our trip to Disney.  I haven't done "traditional" scrapbooking for a couple years now, but do Project Life instead.  All my prints from July, August (so far), and Disney came from Winkflash today!  Over 800 photos to sort through.  Once I find time, it shouldn't take me too long to put together that Disney album!

Document the Days

As you may have noticed by the increase in blog posts, I am working on documenting daily life better.

Even when there isn't a huge event, that doesn't mean there isn't something significant or worth documenting in a day.

This was my breakfast this morning.  Many people may find it a strange combination, but it is something my dad taught me that his dad ate.  It is rolled oats (uncooked) with honey drizzled over top, sprinkled with raisins and a spoonful of peanut butter on the side of the bowl.  I think it's yummy, and it keeps my tummy full for a long time.

Having a good system in place, makes it easier to document daily life.  I have learned quite a bit about this through Becky Higgins over the years.  As I mentioned recently, I am using her Project Life products, which are becoming insanely popular right now.  

In fact, a week ago today, some of her products that have been out of stock for months restocked on Amazon.com.  I was one of apparently thousands of people who were "stalking" Amazon.com waiting for them to restock, because they sold out in less than 24 hours and won't be in stock again for a few more months.  

The things I ordered arrived today; yippee!!

Project Life and why it is perfect for me

I'm all excited about memory keeping again, thanks to Project Life!  I've kind of run the gamut with pictures and recording moments and memories, as far as doing it creatively versus just getting them down in the books.  

I love taking pictures.  Sometimes I like to do it just for the artsy-ness off it, and get excited about a really nicely composed shot.  Sometimes I am excited about a blurry picture that looks terrible but is the only one I have that captures a special moment.  

I do like to do crafts.  Scrapbooking is really fun and rewarding for me.  But, trying to scrapbook the 100 pictures (on average) I print each month would just be frustrating because I would never feel close to keeping up.  

It's all about balance.  (I am still figuring this out in life, so please stand by while I have this epiphany.)

I do pretty well with keeping my photos organized and archived.  Each month I save them all to DVD and upload and print my favorites.  I blog regularly, so stories are saved to go along with photos too.  

But, I believe there should be a place for printed photos to go along with memorabilia and stories too.  That is the part that has become overwhelming for me as our lives get fuller.  A few weeks ago, I really started to pay attention to the thought of doing Project Life.  I've known about it, but never thought it was right for me until now.  Now, I am so excited and on a roll with it!  I purchased a few supplies and in the past few days I have put over 4 months of 2011 photos, stories, and memories in a great album the kids are excited to look through!

I'm still a messy crafter...

But, I'm loving the format and the process!

Thank you, Becky Higgins!

Sharing the Moments and Memories

We live over 200 miles from both sets of the kids' grandparents.  That is one of the main reasons I keep this blog, but one set of grandparents doesn't have a computer or Internet.  So, I made a 2011 year-in-review mini album for them to have a little peek at some of the special and everyday moments we had last year.  

I really enjoyed doing this project, and I hope they will enjoy looking through it.  It only took me a few days to put together, because I had kept up with my photo organizing over the year, and I used stories right off the blog to print out.

Although I have done well with blogging and keeping photos organized and printed each month, I have not done much scrapbooking the past couple years--maybe 20 pages each year.  Doing this little project made me think about the ways I keep our photos and stories.  Maybe planning layouts for every special event or photo is not the best way for me, since I take SO MANY photos!

Then, the other day, I saw a post about Project Life pop up on Facebook, and I have been looking into it more seriously than ever.  I am now really intrigued about an easy, already organized kit that can be as simple or creative as I want it to be!  I'm very much thinking I will finally try it out!  Now, I just need to decide if I will start with this year, or go back and complete it with previous years' photos and incorporated the pages into my scrapbook albums...

Scrappin' a bit

I managed to scrapbook some pages this past month.  It's been a long time, so I feel rusty. But it was good to get a few done.

(Click on photos to see them in my scrapbook.com gallery where they are larger and you can read the journaling. )

Sylvia's Holly Hobbie Mini Album

I've been wanting to put this album together for about 3 1/2 years, since I took these pictures of Sylvia, and just now got to it. Sometimes it just takes me a while to make the time, but I'm glad to have this special project completed.
I took these pictures of my sweet Sylvia when she was just 2 1/2. The Holly Hobbie doll is just like the one I had when I was little. The dress was one I got out of a "free" box at a garage sale before Sylvia was ever born, and used just for these pictures. All of the quotes throughout the album are collected from actual Holly Hobby items.

If the slideshow above is too much for your connection to load,
click the picture below to go to the album.

Holly Hobbie Mini Album

Scrappy, Scrappy

Been scrapping some the past couple days...
As always, click the pic to see larger...

Buddies
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

Sylvia's Favorites at age 3
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

This one I did for the Creative Scrappers 1-Hour Layout Contest this afternoon:

Friends
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

A few recent creations:

Click images to see them larger and with journaling.

Way Back When
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

Flower Crowns
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

ME - so they say
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

snowflake ornament
by TarynLeah
Scrapbook.com

Recent Layouts

The cooler weather makes me want to stay inside and scrapbook! Here are some recent pages I've done. (As always, click on the photos to see them larger.)