Project Life Week 6 // February 5-11

Week 6 of Project Life.



The left side:

• we went to a favorite used bookstore on Sunday afternoon to sell some books; of course, a few new ones came home with us. These pictured were actually purchased for the nephew.
• a note from a friend. : )
• a photo documenting what we do while N1 is at chess on Mondays. Controlled chaos.
• we/I needed out on Tuesday so we drove to Trader Joe's which is about 30 minutes from our house. A few little treats were bought and sunshine absorbed. 

I'm not sure I'm a fan of what I did with the title card for the week. I had 8 4x6 photos/items and didn't want to give any of them up. I ended up turning the first photo in the the date card as well, but it's not my favorite. Oh, well. Labels were plain Avery file folder labels (5202) that I ran through my printer to put graph paper on.



A few journaling card shots. I may have a small addiction to finding diagonal lined paper for journaling. : ) And these rainbow stripes make me smile. It was a freebie from this site.



Tuesday card is from Marcy Penner's shop.



One insert this week - 6 x 12. Text and one photo taken from this blog post. Went back and forth on whether or not to cut and paste the journaling so it would be typed and ended up hand-writing it. I think next time, I'll just cut and paste to save a few minutes.



On the back is a heart necklace that B brought home from Bible study. N2 has one floating around here, too, and if it shows up, I'll probably slide it in the side as well.



The right side:

• candy land with B. 
• our recent read-aloud that we finished.
• a collage from our Friday Fun School last week.
• the annual youth Valentine's dinner at church.

Of note on this side of the page: I was able to include a photo of both the adults in the family! 

A few Instagram shots included on journaling cards.



Lots of hearts and scrapbook paper EVERYWHERE for this one. : ) I didn't include any journaling on this page about this craft or day ... I may go back and slip a journaling card behind the photo. At the same time, I thought the pictures pretty much sum up what went on. : )



The journaling frame and the little bits on the photo are all from the special February kit from Elle's Studio.



See the cute guy playing the electric guitar? : )





Thanks for sharing in my Project Life layouts with me and encouraging me to keep this up every week!

Project Life is a product and a system created by Becky Higgins and available on Amazon.com. It can be anything you want it to be. You can view all my posts about Project Life here. I'm always happy to answer questions about how Project Life works for me, if you have any.

Read-Aloud Thursday // The Long Winter

We recently finished our first read-aloud of 2012: The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This was always one of my favorite Little House books as a child, and now, reading it as an adult, I'm wondering why. : ) Don't get me wrong, I still absolutely loved it and loved reading it to the girls for their first exposure to the story.

However.

As a mama reading this book? They were STARVING to death, enduring days of darkness and subzero weather and struggling to heat their little home. The six Ingalls literally huddled around their small stove all day long during the blizzards except when venturing out to their shed to twist hay for more fuel. The picture the book painted was much bleaker from my adult eyes that as a child. I can't imagine being Ma, sitting there day-in and day-out, not able to do anything to help her family. I imagine there were a lot of prayers issued while they sat and rocked during those many blizzard days and nights.

From the girls' point of view: they picked up on the fact that the family didn't have much food and that there were some points through the winter where they weren't sure where the next meal would come from. We were all on the edge of our seats for the chapters where Almonzo and Cap Garland went searching for wheat to hopefully help the town survive through the winter. And we were all joyful when the train finally arrived and they had so many things to choose from to eat!

This was a wonderful book for us to kick-off January with ... my one regret was that our weather didn't really cooperate and provide the snowy cold days I was hoping would accompany our book! : ) Oh, well! For our next read-aloud(s), we currently have three books that we are reading from at various points in our day. (Most unusual for us!) We are reading Ben and Me during our school time as we study the beginnings of the Revolutionary War; our lunchtime read (a habit I'm trying to get back into) is The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White, accompanying our bird studies in science; and in the evenings, as our activities permit, we are reading The Mysterious Benedict Society. We'll see if Mama (and her voice) is able to keep up with all these books!

I'm linking up with Amy and Read-Aloud Thursday this week. Join in with us at Amy's blog Hope is the Word!

ETA: I'm also linking up with Barbara's Laura Ingalls Wilder reading challenge!

Those Days

I have them too.

Rushing out the door after lunch to get one to chess, then an afternoon well-check doctor appointment for another.

We spill something everywhere at chess.

Another child starts saying they don't feel good so we have the doctor look at them while (conveniently) at the appointment. That one IS sick and needs a prescription.

Everyone was at Walmart this afternoon buying supplies in case of snow and last minute valentines. The pharmacy is located ... guess? Right next to the rock salt display and valentines. Crazy crowdedness.

Sick child is acting slight bonkers at Walmart. Such that I have to carry her through the store to keep her still.

Boy keeps saying "nigh nigh." All he wants is a nap. Me too, buddy. I don't think it's happening for either of us.

Home. Unload. Discover that the meal you assembled in the crockpot before leaving for the all-afternoon events is not prepared because you forgot to plug in the crockpot. Rats.

Three way timeout for quarreling sisters in separate corners of the kitchen while I work. Struggling with one child a lot lately.

Quickly throw together a meal of cheese and crackers, frozen waffles, and whatever else I can quickly find because they are hungry. Now. Ask the girls to stop putting their feet in each others' faces while they eat dinner.

Give the boy a small boy and a spoon and about a tablespoon of yogurt. He is ecstatic. And messy. And now in desperate need of a bath.

Bathe boy.

Husband arrives home. Feeling under-the-weather. Finally succumbed this weekend to the cold that the rest of us have passed around for two weeks.

Just little snippets (definitely not the whole picture) of what Monday afternoon was like. Busy, loud, overwhelming. Yes, we read lots of books in our house and yes, I like to scrapbook pretty pictures, but I we also have not pretty read-aloud moments and non-photographable (if that's a word) parenting occasions as well.

Decided that instead of rushing to finish and post my Project Life layout today, that I'd just briefly sum up a real life afternoon of events. Not perfect by any standards, but definitely our "life right now" some days. And, as such, I imagine I'll print this list out for next week's album page just as reminder of what my life was sometimes like on a busy, cold afternoon in February with an 8 year old, 6 year old, 4 1/2 year old, and 16 month old.

Sixteen Months

He is sixteen months.



He loves balls. LOVES balls.



He is always on the move. Running after sisters, running away from sisters, chasing Daddy. Always running.



He has discovered some of his books and will sit quietly in his bed for a few minutes and look at them by himself.



He constantly has a drippy nose right now. He's cutting one of his two-year molars just a wee bit early and the nose will. not. stop.



He wears 18 month clothes for the most part. Other than a few pair of 12 month pants that fit, he has definitely out grown that size in shirts.



He has added a few new words to his vocabulary:

please (peeeez)
thank you (taaa u)
eat
night night
dog
ball
shoes (shuz)
Mama
Da
car (caw)
diaper (diii - puh)
Uh-oh (hah ho)



He knows where his tummy and toes are.



He is a delight and joy.

Project Life, Week 5 // January 29 - February 4

Week 5 was an extra full week with N2's 6th birthday! Whew. She had a very special couple of days as she was doted on by friends and family and I really like how it all came together in this week's pages.



The first page:

• Maybe my favorite candid shot of the day as she is sitting there while we sing Happy Birthday to her. This was actually a photo my Dad shot, but I converted it to an Instagram on my phone and added the "love" paper and the "6". (The love paper is from a kit that I've linked below).
• On Monday night, N2's best friend and her family came to dinner and this was round two of Happy Birthday and pink cupcakes + pink icing + a cherry on top. 
• Tuesday night found us without power for several hours! We already had plans to go to over to friends for the evening for our small group - the girls were thrilled to find out that they still had power even though they live close to us. On the way home, we stopped at Waffle House - T was hungry and we didn't know when the power was going to come on so I could heat up dinner for him. It was the girls first trip to Waffle House so it was an adventure. : )

The little picture on the journaling card is a shot from my phone of our favorite music right now. T discovered this group called The Rizers (short for "memorizers") and it's scripture set to great music. It's been on repeat a LOT in the car lately.



This is the front of the birthday insert. I used one of the Project Life Photo Pocket Pages B that I found in my stash. (Truthfully, I don't even remember ordering these, and I don't think I've ever used them before!) I have pictures going in every which direction which is a little hard on the eyes, but I wanted lots of slots to work with.

The birthday girl survey at the top is from a birthday kit by Emilie Ahern - super cute. I didn't think about the fact that 4x6 slots were going the wrong direction for it, but there wasn't any question of leaving it out. : ) The two other smaller red/pink cards are from Emilie's Valentine's kit.



Up close:



The back of the birthday insert. The big gift for N2 was a giant dollhouse for her and B's room. Their reactions were a riot.



Birthday donuts. The little "today matters" tag is from the Elle's Studio limited edition February kit. Their Christmas kit ended up being such a good investment for me on my December Daily album that I decided to by the February/Valentine's kit as well.



Tag on the bottom right is a free printable from The Tiny Twig.





I added a 5x7 insert with a few of the birthday cards that N2 got. I didn't want to throw them away (a card in the mail is a rare thing nowadays).



The right side of our week:

• she reads her first book to me outloud (with a little help over a few of the big words).
• two little sickies. Not really sick, but congested enough to feel sluggish and grumpy. A rare shot of the two of them curled up together.
• chronicling a Friday tradition - the kids always want to run up and down these stairs outside for some reason so into the album it went. : )
• new hair for mama. : )

I just had to include this picture of N2 - it is so NOT the normal picture of her, but she has this crazy side that you don't see often. It makes me laugh.



The cool striped paper was also part of the Elle's Studio February kit. I really, really like the diagonal stripe. : )



After I got my hair cut, I had dinner with a few friends - a much needed night out for Mama! My friend Erin took some pictures at the table so I've left a little spot to stick one in when she emails it to me.



This was a crazy busy week for us. Once again, I'm so thankful for this system that is helping me chronicle some of the daily bits and pieces of our lives that I don't want to miss.

Happy Wednesday!

Project Life Week 4 // January 22-28

Week 4 of Project Life! This week has two inserts - a 6x12 insert from the little girls' overnight with Grandma (and Grandpa) and an 8 1/2 x 11 with some papers I wanted to highlight, also from the little girls.



On the left:

• the heart on the title card was left over from the craft I attempted with my Sunday School kids. I had a few extras so I stuck one in the album.
• head shots of my Sunday School class (those that were there that day) for a little project I am working on
• a photo of one of N1's timed math tests from last week. Worth recording!
• a photo of my notes from Beyond Opinion (which I blogged here).

The photos below were both 4x4 so I attached two of the filler cards from the Clementine kit to fill out the 4x6 slots.



Have you downloaded the free "recently reading" project life card from Emilie Ahern yet? I've already used it twice. I foresee this will be featured prominently throughout the album this year! The card on the right is a printable from Marcy Penner - the Take Note Series 1.



My 6x12 insert.







My 8 1/2 x 11 insert. The front is a story by N2 that I wanted to save. (She wrote it apparently under the pseudonym Emily). : )



A piece of art from our Bible study with a note on how B is doing in the class from her teacher.



The right side:

• a dessert that N1 made in a field trip she went on last week
• N2 + the boy + his dog
• a picture that N2's best friend drew her
• a photo from a church music team gathering that took place at our house. May I just state for the record here that a good time was had by all ... and it was LOUD. : ) The card on the far right is one that folds over and there is a little hidden journaling there about the husband. : )

This card is a printable from Paislee Press and I used it to record something our sweet neighbor said.





And, as a little thank you for the three of you that read my Project Life updates each week, I made a little printable for you. : ) This is my first attempt at a Project Life printable - I was inspired by Emilie's "recently reading" printable and decided I needed one to keep track of any memorable movies that we watch as a family. It's sized to fit in the Project Life 3x4 journaling spots and I've printed and tested it so it should hopefully fit for you!



If you click the link below, you should be able to download a PDF ready to print. (If you do download it, would you please let me know? Thanks!) It probably goes without saying that this is for personal use only.



Hope you all have a great weekend. I'm already thinking about next week's PL layout - the one with all the birthday pictures. : )

Our Homeschooling Day // January 2012

I've been wanting to do a day in the (homeschooling) life posts for a while now. We have some days flow well and we get a lot done and others are total train wrecks. At the end of the day my husband will ask the girls what we did in school, and while I know I have a record of the pages that we checked off in workbook A, B, or C, by the time we sit to dinner, I'm too tired to remember a lot of the nitty gritty details. This is my feeble attempt at recording some of that for my remembrance.

For any that might be newish to the blog, my crew consists of an 8 year old girl (2nd grade), 6 year old girl (kindergarten), 4 year old girl (pre-K-ish), and a 16 month old boy.

6:05   Up, coffee, check email/Facebook/Twitter, Bible study. My alarm goes off at 5:30, but apparently I hit the snooze a few times this morning.




7:10   Everyone is still asleep - we had a semi-late night last night because our power went off - and the girls and boy were up until about 9:30 pm. Hop in the shower.

7:30   I'm now clean. Little girls are up and the baby is making noise. Help little girls find clothes, diaper change, peek at email.

7:45   Head downstairs and start breakfast. N2 starts unloading the dishwasher - her new chore now that she is SIX. Nutella on toast for a couple girls, cereal for B, dry cereal + some egg for the boy, egg mcmuffin for me. Make T's lunch and check the fridge for our dinner plan. It's Wednesday/Awana, which means easy and fast: quesadillas for the kids, and T and I usually have something like fajitas or chips and salsa.


Morning tunes.

8:30   Start getting ready for a run to Office Depot before we start school. We are completely out of white paper and I have some printing that HAS to be done for church today before the aforementioned Awana. I visit with T while he checks his email and gets ready for work, girls are getting shoes, brushing teeth.

9:00   Leave for Office Depot.

10:00 Back home. (How did that take an hour?) N1 helps me start a load of laundry - her new chore now that N2 is six. The boy goes down for a nap. We read our Bible story (Catherine Vos Children's Story Bible about Jeroboam and Rehoboam). N1 works independantly on her Bible study homework, Explode the Code, handwriting and then reads. N2 reads a whole book to me for the first time: Annie and Snowball and the Prettiest House. We had a few words we needed help over, but all in all, this is the first real book that she's read out loud to me. Big stuff.



11:00   Check email and print a couple things for N1. We are reviewing our recent reading on Ben Franklin so I print some notebooking pages for her to write what she remembers about him. We go and look at our timeline on the wall and review where he fits in the history that we've covered so far and add the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the timeline. N2 is working on her Explode the Code and handwriting and a math worksheet I printed for her. B is alternating between drawing and playing. While they all work for a moment, I switch laundry.

11:45   Baby is up. N1 and I try to finish her Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons before lunch, but baby is too distracting. N2 and B have gotten out some of our math shapes and are playing a pattern game they made up. Minor meltdown because someone didn't follow the "rules" and pieces are thrown. Everything halts while order is (semi) restored and pieces picked up.

12:00 Lunch. N1 on baby duty for a moment while I find food. Kids have hot dogs, assorted fruit and chocolate ice cream. Totally healthy today. Ha. I eat leftover salad and baked potato and not-one-single-bite-of-ice-cream. Go me. : )

12:40 Girls are done with lunch, boy still eating. Little girls are playing upstairs and N1 is downstairs with me researching American Sign Language on her Dad's computer. Sweep kitchen, take out trash, tidy downstairs  while waiting on the boy.



 1:00   Check email. Nothing - yay. : ) We move into the boy's room and do our afternoon reading aloud there to contain him. Two chapters of The Long Winter.



2:00  Back to the school room. Finish N1's language arts + math. Little girls and boy are playing in a bedroom.

2:40   N1 done with math. I go to help with little girls with cleaning their room and fold a load of laundry.

3:00   Boy is down for a nap. I help N1 print a few pictures for something she's working on in her room, check twitter, get sleepy.



 3:40   Find something to drink and move to my comfy chair in my bedroom for (hopefully) about 1/2 hour rest time. The boy is still making noise in his room; the nap turns out to bust for this afternoon, but I leave him in there for a while longer. Little girls are listening to Christmas music (?) in their room and N1 is in her room listening to an audiobook by Alexander McCall Smith.

4:15   Give up on a nap for the boy. Get him up and head to the school room so he can play and I work on my Project Life album for a bit. Girls have gone outside to play and I can hear/see them from the school room window.

5:15 Start dinner. Girls eat, review verses for Awana, etc.

At this point, I quit trying to take notes on what went on. Girls + neighbor were delivered to Awana at 6:30 and I went to pick up a few holds at the library and some milk. Back home by 7:15 to put a very tired little guy to bed and wait for T (who was still at work) to get home. Long day for him. He goes to get the girls from Awana while I make dinner for the two of us, tidy the kitchen again, pick up a bit around the house and in the school room. We get little people home, jammied, and into bed by about 8:30/8:45 and then we collapse and watch a TV show on Hulu together. I attempt to read but am too sleepy by this point. Bed by 10:15.

All in all, this was a good day. (If I had taken notes on Thursday/yesterday, you would have noticed that it didn't flow as well). I prefer to do math in the morning, but of late, we have been doing it after lunch so we can get some of our reading done while the boy takes his morning nap. I imagine when he drops his morning nap, the schedule (such as it) will be reshuffled again. I would like to get us back to reading some while the girls eat breakfast and lunch, but I haven't made that happen. That needs to go down as a habit to resume for February.

Happy Friday to all!

I'm linking up with Simple Homeschool's Day in the Life series today. 

Read Aloud Thursday // Reading About Groundhogs

Happy Groundhog Day!

In honor of the "holiday," I am taking the lazy man's approach to Read Aloud Thursday this week and sharing links to two other posts that I've written on Groundhog Day reading. Mama was not quite on the ball this year on checking out some of our favorites from the library, but that's okay. It will roll right back around next year. : )

2010 Groundhog Day reading post

2011 Groundhog Day reading post

For more great read aloud suggestions, visit Amy at Hope is the Word!

February Reading Plans

In January I tried to make a few short term goals for reading to get myself back in the habit of prioritizing time with a good book. My goals were short (and hopefully attainable!) I wanted to read Beyond Opinion for the Reading to Know book club and two L.M. Montgomery books for the L.M. Montgomery challenge (also at Reading to Know.

The result? I finished both my LMM selections (blogged here) and made it almost, but not quite, halfway through Beyond Opinion (blogged here). Yay!

I also read two short e-books: Blogger Behave and Mindset for Moms that were great food for thought (and short reads!)

I also blogged N1's Winter Reading List that I've assigned her, and on her behalf, I'll report that she's already finished two books from the list - a first to have them done so early. She finished Mr. Popper's Penguins and Huge Cabret. Now, she's never read beyond the two that I've required because she's usually got a stack of her own library selections to peruse, however, if she is willing to tackle another of Mama's choices, then she runs the risk of a prize or two. We'll see if she does that this month as she has all February to do so.

Since my January plan worked fairly well, I thought I would try the same thing for February. My goals for the next 29 days are to read:

• Running Away to Home for the Reading to Know February book club selection
• The Core - written by the founder of Classical Conversations, a well known homeschool tutorial

Only two books. I don't have any fiction grabbing me right now so I didn't put any on the list. I also really want to read Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick, but I have told myself that I can't purchase it until I finish both of these other books. Incentive!

What are you reading? Anything good? Happy February!

2012 Reading Goals:

January