Validation

I made a few cards recently.....Some don't scan well if they have embellishments that stick out....I guess I have a little blue mark on my scanner - I need to clean that off! :) This one says: Wishing You the Best of Birthdays This one is making use of some awesome, bird-themed stickers I bought. I found some metal hardware to frame this nest sticker, and punched out some tiny letters....The little bird footprints are part of a clear stamp set...

I changed my blog colors, since the other ones were so Christmasy. I almost hated doing it, because it means Christmas is over. I hate taking down decorations, too. I try to leave them up as long as possible. The Christmas decorations are still up in my house. I got a fake tree, so I could put one up right after Thanksgiving, and leave it up after New Year's. I also leave birthday decorations up for awhile, too. Crepe paper, balloons, etc. It stays up until my husband starts asking about taking them down.... I also don't put away my suitcase after a vacation. It stays there, with stuff in it-until, once again, my husband starts asking when I'm going to put it away. I think he's used to me now, and patiently allows a certain window of time for leaving stuff out. I guess I just want to hold on to the happy moments - the experiences, and not admit they're over......

I have to share something new I learned last night at church. Our pastor was gone, and one of our other pastors, Yoel, shared a great message. (We are very blessed to have awesome speakers who can fill in when our main pastor is gone). Yoel was talking about how the Holy Spirit empowers us to live for God. And, one way He does that is empowers us to be "sincere." This is one of the verses shared with that bullet point: "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." Phil. 1:9-11 (NKJV). The word "sincere" was emphasized by Yoel, and this is what he explained about the word. The word literally means "judged by light." It is a term used in making pottery. In those d...

From the looks of the other blogs I read, there's not a lot being written - especially me! I've been trying not to be on the computer that much, with my family home. All of us are on vacation from work and school, so it's been nice chillin' with everybody. The other day, we went to a museum, which was a nice change, and it got us out of the house. My son has wanted lots of cuddling and game-playing. We've been playing Battleship and Aggravation. I have also built some Lego creations with him. We've watched some family movies like Evan Almighty and Hairspray. The girls got to spend some time with friends in the last couple of days, too. Yesterday, I started getting the "it's almost time to get back into a routine" organization bug. I went through Ben's room, my desk, the office desk, etc. and got rid of a bunch of junk. I made out our family "week at a glance" calendar for the fridge, so we could all get an idea of what our s...

Yesterday, we arrived home after spending one night at my mom's house. It's about a 2.5 hour drive to get there, and a beautiful one. We think we saw a seal swimming next to the bridge, and we saw a bald eagle, too. The Puget Sound region is beautiful, especially now, with the Cascades dusted with snow. We got to see my grandfather who is almost 93! We had four generations sitting around the table eating homemade chicken and noodles. Mmmmmm. My mom made three kinds of pies, and we brought some Christmas cookies. My grandfather talked about his younger days of learning the plumbing business, first working in Seattle, and then starting his own plumbing store/business in Port Angeles, which operated for 23 years. Since his stroke, he has a little bit of speech difficulty, but it certainly doesn't stop him from sharing, which I'm glad. As we were eating, he stopped, and said emphatically, "We are truly blessed." Then, my mom stopped and said how wonderfu...

I have presents under the tree now! I'm so excited. Are you getting excited for Christmas?!?!

I helped in Ben's classroom yesterday. I was so glad to get a chance to come in, because I know it means so much to Ben. First grade is quite different from the first grade I remember! It is quite academic, and those kids were working hard from the morning until I left at lunchtime. She had such control of the classroom, and those kids were amazing at staying on task. She is a very business-like teacher, but would always give an encouraging word to each and every child. I corrected and filed papers, as well as cut out some crowns from construction paper. I just sort of tuned my ears to what was going on in the class while I performed the busy work. I got a kick out of calendar time, when the teacher got out a puppet and used a funny voice. At lunchtime, I took a chair to sit next to Ben. I swear, I had three children talking to me at once the entire time. They wanted to tell me all sorts of things - it was hilarious! I heard about how tall their parents are, about their b...