Love Crucified Arose

He is risen, indeed!

Foodie Friday ::: Broccoli Salad

I know I have blogged this recipe before. (Twice, in fact, both here and here.) It is a huge summer favorite of mine and will start showing up in our menu rotation very, very soon. Definitely warranted its own fancy recipe card. : )

Sisterly Help

Supervising the boy's practice of sitting up. He's not there yet, but he has a patient instructor.



Project Life ::: Catching Up

Thank you to those of you that answered my little one question survey on this post! I appreciate it! I'll share the results soon, but if you haven't answered it yet, do you mind hopping over? It's one question - very quick. Much thanks. : )

Also, be warned .... loooooooong picture-heavy post ahead. If you want to see any of the pictures up close you can click them to view through Flickr. : )

I'm still going strong on my Project Life project ... it's just been a while since I have time to get some pictures of it to post. I'm about a week and a half behind on my journaling cards which I don't consider too bad. I would love to be better about filling out those cards at the end of the day and that's what I'm working towards, but I'm not there yet.

One thing I am enjoying is adding a bit more "extras" into the album. This takes me a little longer, but I like the additions to the pages. Below I've scanned in a drawing that B dictated to me of something her Cubbie teacher taught her a few weeks ago in class. I used one of my Crystal Wilkerson digital labels sized to fit a sheet of labels and printed it off and attached it.



You can see a couple more labels on this page - one is on the picture I trimmed to fit in a journal card slot showing the price to fill up my van. Ouch! I'm scared to think what gas prices will be when my girls are old enough to drive.



There's also one on this picture just to embellish it a bit.





You can see an empty journaling slot in the photo below. I missed a photo when I printed for this week so while I have gone back and added the photo (me taking a picture of B taking a picture of E), I haven't written a little card for it yet.



Got a little fancy with one of the pictures below in Photoshop. We had great light in the kitchen during lunchtime so I just snapped pictures of little people while they ate. Definitely see some of their personalities in this shot and since I couldn't pick just one to highlight they were all folded in to the same picture.



A few more little bits of memorabilia included below - we had friends over for dinner one night and went all out and made placecards for the table; there's also a nametag for me and the boy from a women's (one-day) retreat that was I was able to attend.



I am really enjoying sizing pictures to fit in the journaling slots instead of using one of the pre-printed filler cards. Just another easy way to fit a picture in that is worth remembering - like B playing our ukelele. By the way, did you know that ukeleles can be really, really loud?





For this week, I also included an 8 1/2 x 11 page protector between the full week layout.



One side is a list of N1's current favorite songs. I was making Easter rehearsal CDs for the kids at church and N1 asked if she could make a favorites CD. Do you remember making mix tapes? I thought it would be fun to have a record of her favorite songs from when she was seven. She wrote all the songs she wanted on her CD and we burned it for her. Granted, she doesn't have anywhere to play it other than in the car because we don't even own a CD player other than the ones on our computers. : ) However, she does have her "N1 favorites" playlist in our iTunes so I guess that's the 21st century version of a mix tape!



On the back I slipped in my grocery list from that week - it was my first-of-the-month restocking trip and I find it interesting to see what necessities come and go as our family changes. High on the list right now is yogurt, goldfish, tortillas and lots of veggies.



Another full page with a couple photos used in the journaling spots. There is a picture that one of the girls took of my iPhone - we are all about Phineas and Ferb right now when we have time to watch a short video via Netflix instant viewing. T downloaded them some of the songs from the show and it's been in heavy rotation when we are in the car. On the far right, you can see a little square pic from my iPhone that I took of my new bag. It had been a while since a new purse and it needed to be documented!



Up close...





If you have made it this far in my post, I'm impressed. : ) I truly do love this Project Life system of scrapbooking - I have actually found that instead of replacing what I would call "normal" scrapbooking layouts, it is increasing my desire to capture those bigger stories where I want to use more pictures and words to expound on an event or feeling. This project has just been an all-round boost to my creativity and I can see me continuing with this for many more years to come.

I'm Just Curious

As I am coming off a very full and fun weekend, I've been thinking some about the blog that I have been neglecting. I put together a one question survey that I was wondering if you would take a minute to answer, pretty please? I'm just curious why you (or anyone) comes by my little spot here and what kind of posts are of interest. In the end, this will probably still be a little-bit-of-everything kind-of a blog, but I'm curious. : )

It will take five seconds to answer. Unless you want to leave me a comment and expound. But you don't have to. : )

Much thanks. And have a great Monday! (Just click the link above to go to the survey).

Life is very full right now.

We are down to about 35 days of school left.

April weekends have been and will continue to be very full with Easter celebrations, music rehearsals, and the beginning of our family's crazy birthday season.

Not to mention a husband that has worked some long Saturdays at our old house. Last weekend, he completely replaced the countertop and sink in the kitchen. Before that was painting, new carpet, and lots and lots of yardwork. The old place is looking good thanks to him.

That said, I have lots of things to update in my head but time keeps getting away from me. :) Soon, I hope!

Foodie Friday ::: Two for the Price of One (Steak Fajitas & PW Apple Dumplings

Two recipes a week won't be the norm for my little recipe project, but last Saturday we had two winners that deserved inclusion so I made recipe cards for both of them. The first was a simple recipe for Steak Fajitas that I found in an old issue of Kraft Food Magazine in my cupboard. What sold me on this recipe is the little marinade for the steak - A-1 and a little salsa. Yum. These went over well with my husband who had spent close to eight hours working outside at the old house that day (mowing, edging, trimming, tilling the garden, etc.) He was bushed and this hit the spot for him.



Next up ... Apple Dumplings made famous by the Pioneer Woman. These are unbelieveably simple and amazing. You can read the whole run down on the recipe here on her blog, but know that I didn't change a thing. I feel that the vanilla ice cream on the side is required, but it's completely optional. We had these for dessert Saturday night after our fajitas and had quite a bit left over on Sunday. My family normally joins us for Sunday lunch and we hadn't gotten the lunch plates cleared off the table when my Dad asked if there was any of that dessert from the night before left. (I had posted a picture on Facebook and said it was my treat after getting all four kids bathed). The leftovers were reheated in the microwave and immediately devoured.

If you need a simple dessert, this is your guy. Make these. : )


Happy Friday! We're off to take a little six-month-old boy to the dr. for his check up. This time is going by so fast!

God Gave Us the World

I was recently sent a copy of God Gave Us the World by Lisa Tawn Bergren from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. (I've written about two of her other books here.) This story is in the same vein as her other books in this series - a little polar bear poses a fairly significant theological question to Mama Bear and the resulting answer and dialogue is this book. In God Gave Us the World, Little Bear asks his mama if all bears look just like them. This opens the door for Mama to explain about how creative our great God is, not just with all the different kinds of bears, but also the different environments around the world in which those bears live.

I loved these lines from the book: "...the world reflects God's work. How big, big BIG he is. Goad can do anything. and if he's capable of anything, why would he make us all polar bears?"

This is a wonderful book that would be a very simple resource to open a child's eyes to seeing God's hand all throughout creation. Also, there are a couple lines at the end of the book on taking care of the world that God gave us which gives a nice environmental aspect at a young child's level.

We enjoyed this book and I know we will enjoy it many more times in the future.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. Thank you!

Relationship

My husband and I laughed out loud when we saw this picture. It is a spot-on portrayal of the relationship between little boy and littlest girl. She is a little bit crazy and loud and more crazy and he gets a little bit frustrated. It's all good though. I figure in a few years she will be the only one still fast enough to keep up with him when he really gets going.

Celebrating April Fool's with Reading to Know!

My friend Carrie is anxiously (and I do mean anxiously) awaiting the arrival of her third baby! To make the time pass more quickly she is having a whole slew of giveaways today on her blog, Reading to Know! Her blog is a favorite of mine as we are very like-minded in our reading.

Carrie ... praying that Bookworm3 makes her arrival very, very soon, if not today!!

Foodie Friday :: BBQ Beef & Rice Tacos

Week 2 in my recipe revamp project! This recipe is one that I love and credit for this goes to Kate over at Cooking During Stolen Moments. If you have not discovered her blog, you are missing out. She posts GREAT recipes that are easy and good. And what I most love is that she will break down the recipe into steps that you can take throughout the day to make the recipe so that you aren't trying to prepare the whole thing during the twilight hour. (Twilight hour - defined as that magical hour between about 4:30 and 6 p.m. when children and mama are hungry, tired, irritable, and the world has shifted a little on its axis.) : )

Anyway, this is one that used to be in our rotation very regularly and slipped off. I rediscovered it last week as I was perusing the cupboards for what I could make which the limited groceries I had on hand. Fortunately, all these ingredients are generally staples around here or this can be easily tweaked to work. You can read Kate's original walk-through of the recipe here, but below is the 4x6 card I printed for my own recipe project. (I apologize for the small font ... still trying to figure out how to make this work on one card). I made a few tweaks to the recipe when I made it this week - I was out of frozen corn so I used a can of cream corn, used dried minced onion from the cabinet, and left out the red pepper flakes. Still good!



Happy Foodie Friday! Today is my catch-up day around the house - N1 is off to her tutorial, laundry is whirring, and tonight we are having pizza and family movie night with the movie Tangled. None of us have seen it and to say that we have excited little girls here would be a HUGE understatement!