Pruning

One of my favorite things about our new house are the rose bushes in the front yard. I do not have a green thumb at ALL so finding these this spring was a true delight.



A friend stopped by recently and told me that these roses will bloom all summer long if the dead flowers are regularly pruned so that new growth can occur.



While the girls rode their bikes for a bit before lunch, I found an old pair of shears (and the girls helped me some with our kitchen scissors) and went to work trimming the dead parts. It didn't take long before I had filled an entire lawn trash bag with dead rose tops ... and I know I missed some!



As I pruned, I thought about how Jesus uses the vine throughout the New Testament. As we are winding up this 2010-2011 school year, I have been thinking about taking some time to evaluate where I need to do a little pruning as a Mama, a teacher, a wife.



While I continued to cut on my bushes so many comparisons to pruning plants and pruning lives jumped into my head. As I pricked myself (multiple times) on thorns, I thought about how some pruning cuts a little close and might draw blood and pain.



Occasionally I trimmed a branch that had a dead flower and a brand new bud on it and realized that sometimes you have to sacrifice something good along with the bad to get something even better - more new growth!



I love having this tangible reminder that if we accept the pruning, we have new growth to look forward to. Looking forward to what I'm going to learn this summer and where God is going to have me grow.

32 Weeks

So.

My plan to do weekly layouts for baby boy?

I've gotten behind.

However, I did one today and that eased a bit of the guilt. (Really, I don't have much guilt. : ) It's the end of the school year, and as of this time next week, we will be down to our basic summer school schedule and I can hopefully catch up a bit).

This one is from last week and it's SUPER simple.



The template is from Allison Kimball. One of my all-time favorite paper scrappers back when she used to be published in Creative Keepsakes. She is dabbling in digital scrapbooking now and offers free kits and templates every so often.

The blue solid and cars patterned papers are from Echo Park's Little Boys digital line on JessicaSprague.com. The font is SNF Goody.

A lot of these pictures were taken with my iPhone this past week - while the photos aren't the clearest, I like the fact that even the camera that I'm using tells about the life we led last week. A busy one. No extra time or hands to haul around the big camera or sometimes even get the point-and-shoot out of my bag in time. But these little moments are captured - the first swing ride at the park, watching him chasing shadows on the floor in my bedroom, a rare shot of him asleep. (I risked waking him from a nap to capture that one because he was just looking pretty cute that day!)

Even with these fuzzy shots, love these memories of how much we are smitten with this little boy. : )

Food Friday ::: Asparagus Wrapped Bundles

My first recipe "by request."



These yummies were made on Sunday for my Mom's birthday lunch. The same lunch where we celebrated B & Mother's Day. (We combine our holidays around here in the spring because we have a few that tend to stack up on top of each other).

These are super-duper easy and delicious. The details are on the card above but the gist is that you wrap your asparagus in bacon and bake it in the oven until the bacon is done. (For me, that worked out to 425 for about 30 minutes). We are planning on trying it this weekend with green beans which is the original version that I had heard of; however, asparagus is one of my mom's favorite veggies so I was open to trying this in the hopes that the bacon would entice other adventurous eaters. : )

Also, just a note to say thank you for the comments on these food posts! I am no Pioneer Woman when it comes to posting recipes, but it is fun to share things that works in this busy mama's kitchen. : )

Hope you all have a good Friday! We are having a very wet one here and I'm looking forward to hunkering down with my family for our weekly pizza and family movie night. (It's the littlest girl's pick so we're either enjoying Ariel or Mulan ... almost always a princess with her). : )

What We've Been Up To

... in pictures.

We had some six month pictures taken by Grandpa:



We went to N1's field day and hung out:



We learned how to ride a 2-wheeler:



We swung in a swing at the park for the very first time:



We celebrated two very important family birthdays:



We received a long anticipated Buzz Lightyear:



We went to a Mother's Day tea:



We cut up and (almost immediately) ate six pints of strawberries:



We turned some of them into a pie for Grandma's birthday:



We discovered a new way to make asparagus that knocked our socks off:



We went to our cousin's Kindergarten program:



And this isn't all of it ... : )

Life is good!

Foodie Friday ::: Hawaiian BBQ Pulled Chicken

I tried a new crockpot recipe this week and it is one worth sharing! I found this recipe via the Tasty Kitchen blog and when I realized that I had all the ingredients on hand, the regular menu plan was bumped for the night to serve this. A decision I don't regret. : ) We were sharing dinner with my BFF and her family, and this was super easy to put together and drop off at her house.



My photo this week wasn't the greatest, but don't let that deter you from making this recipe. You can read the original version here on the Tasty Kitchen website. This is definitely going to be a great summertime addition to the crockpot section of my recipe notebook.

Four

::: Betsy :::

Busy

Joyful

Generous

Cuddly

Determined

Loving

Ours

Project Life ::: Weeks 17 & 18

Yesterday was a very blah day here. It was rainy (again) and the 1st grader and I were just worn out. Typically I am a fan of the rainy day because we tend to hunker down and get stuff done without the lure of the sunshine and outside, but yesterday didn't follow that pattern. So, in an uncharacteristic move on my part as we have only 10 days of school left for this year, we did a half day of school and called it good. I let the the girls watch a mid-week movie bundled up on the couch amid blankets and pillows and I scrapbooked. It was needed all round and I think we are the better for our little mini-break yesterday!

That said, I was able to get weeks 17 & 18 of my Project Life album finished yesterday. (Week 16 is sitting there unfinished, but the most current stuff is now done!) Because week 17 included Easter and several extra events with photos I didn't want to leave out, I added in an additional page in the middle - a 12x12 insert with slots for six 4x6 photos on each side. (I believe it was an American Crafts insert).

On the left is the "regular" Project Life page and on the right is one side of the 12x12 add-in:



Below: the back of the 12x12 insert and the right side of week 17:

Breaking down the picture below:

• Sunday: a picture from a wedding shower after church on Sunday. We are going to miss this couple when they get married and move away!
• Monday: a late-in-the-day shot of my evening snack. A scoop of chex mix and apple slices. The apple balences out the chex mix, right? : )
• Tuesday: the boy on the move. This week brought several advances in the mobility department as he figure how to get out of his room and out into the hall.

The B side:

• Wednesday: oldest sister assisting with practice in sitting up.
• Thursday: a photo of the buds on the rose bushes in front of our house. Ever so grateful for the previous owners in planting these. To say that I am a bit obsessed with taking pictures of the flowers would be an understatement!
• Friday: we used this free download from Ali Edwards to make playdate invitations for a certain almost 4yo. Mama said no to a big friend party this year, but three little girls coming over to play isn't a party, right? : )
• Saturday: a rare picture of me and the boy from the Easter egg hunt at our church. Thanks to my Dad for snapping this photo! The boy has some tired eyes in this picture - he had had about as much egg hunt fun as he could handle.

This is the front of the insert I used. On the front side are a few pics from Friday egg coloring. The orange card at the top is from a free digital kit from Allison Kimball. The journaling card on the bottom is from Elle's Studio. It is a digital file that I resized to 4x6.



The back side has more photos from the egg hunt at church (the rabbit, purple paper & ribbon are all from the same Allison Kimball kit I linked above).

Week 18 layout with an 8 1/2 x 11 insert. The insert is an email of an Amazon gift certificate that my Dad sent me for Administrative Professional's Day. (He is the pastor of our church and I am the church administrator so we get to work together!) He totally surprised me with the gift certificate (and the sweet note on it) so I included it. I realize the gift certificate code is out there for all to see, but it's already been spent. : )



Side A of week 18:

• Sunday: a family Easter photo and only the 2nd photo of the six of us. (The last was our Christmas picture!)
• Monday: I documented our goodbye ritual with Daddy on the blog here and then include a shot of that in the album. Will I do another layout with the whole morning goodbye run down the street? I don't know, but I at least have a photo memory and the story included here.
• Tuesday: I was running out of dinner options this night and the cupboards were looking mighty bare. I came up with waffles and dyed the batter pink and purple. The girls, of course, loved it!

Side B:

• Wednesday: a quick photo while we were all in the bathroom waiting out the tornado sirens.
• Thursday: we actually made it to the preschool story time at the library this week. I haven't even attempted to get to this with the girls in several years, but we decided to try today. N1 packed up some school to do and the little girls love the stories and singing time.
• Friday: my new favorite breakfast. Oatmeal with a scoop of blueberry yogurt in it. I started Weight Watchers this week and I think I've eaten this almost every day this week so far!
• Saturday: a photo from our family grocery outing to Sam's. The little girls were sitting in the front of the cart together and being silly. (B's eyes CRACK me up in the picture!) They really are the best of buddies and I love that.

Something new that I added in this week, after seeing it on another blog (which I cannot find - rats!), was the addition of a flip up photo sleeve so that I could add in two more 4x6 photos to a single day. Under the Thursday photo above from the library, I added in two more photos. One of N1 sitting at a table doing her school work and the other of a frequent evening ritual at the new house - making a small fire in the firepit in the backyard to wind down our day.



There is the last two weeks in a nutshell! I really, really am enjoying using Project Life to capture our daily memories. (I think I say that almost every PL post). The fact that I'm experimenting with other types of page protectors is just adding to that enjoyment because I can include some traditionally scrapped pages in with our PL inserts. This project can be whatever I want it to be and I love that. : )

For more info on PL, visit Becky Higgins' website.

{ Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real } ::: 4.28.2011

 { pretty } All four looking (generally) in the same direction after church on Easter. 

{ happy }

A munchkin helping to load her clothes in the washing machine. Truly makes a mama happy. : )

{ funny }

Sometimes, when we play (act out) Toy Story 3, we need a tortilla to go with our Mr. Potato Head so that he can really get into character. Cracks. me. up. every. single. time. (And, if you haven't seen the movie, that will be totally lost on you - sorry!)

{ real }

Fifteen minutes spent in the downstairs bathroom yesterday while tornado sirens were going off. Thankful for our protection as it wasn't near as bad as predicted yet overwhelmed for those in states just South of us. A true display of God's mighty hand in nature.

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter's { pretty, happy, funny, real } photo challenge.

The Nightstand ::: April's Version

When I remember, I do love to participate in 5 Minute for Books What's on Your Nightstand Carnival. It's always a good monthly prompt for me to see what I said I was going to read, and what side-tracked me. : ) Like last month, my reading has been spotty as I've been fitting it around a regular life that has been more full than usual of late.

In March, I said that I wanted to read:
:: The Strong Willed Child by Dobson (A-hem.) Haven't started it.
:: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp Ended up loaning this out to someone before I finished it. Must get back to it.
:: The Moffats by Eleanor Estes Read a couple chapters and handed it to N1. : )
:: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan Read and enjoyed.
:: The Mysterious Benedict Society Purchased for the Kindle while it was on a steal of a deal and am waiting until summer to read with N1.
So, 1 out of 5. Not great, but a book did get finished which at this point I'll take.

For April, these are on my list but I have not hopes or plans to get through all of them in one month!
:: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
:: Currently reading in The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson in the mornings. Inspired, convicted and greatly encouraged by this book right now where I am in life with little ones. I'm planning on starting The Ministry of Motherhood when I finish it.
:: Thanks to a great review from Amy and a recommendation from my BFF, I purchased the book and study guide to Homeschooling with a Meek a Quiet Spirit from Teri Maxwell. I don't know that I'll get that done over the next month. I may wait to savor it over the summer when we aren't schooling, but I am looking forward to it!
:: Made to Crave by Lisa TerKeurst. I was sent a review copy of this and can't wait to start it either, although I'm guessing it may rock my world a bit. : )

For once I don't have any fiction in hand to read right now, and I'm okay with that. I am craving non-fiction which takes me much longer to read, but I'm going with it for now. There will be plenty of time for fluffy, fun summer reading down the road, ie., the next Penderwicks book is coming out (The Penderwicks at Point Mouette) and I've preordered it for my Kindle. Can't wait to dive into that one! : )

Happy reading!

Linked to Five Minutes for Books monthly Nightstand carnival!