Why Momma Mows The Lawn

Growing up my mother ALWAYS mowed the lawn. I don't think I ever saw my dad mow the law. He would go out after Mom was done and do all the detail work and set up the sprinklers to water (automatic sprinklers - what was THAT?). But it was always Momma out there mowing.

I never thought anything about it until I met my husband. "Mowing is MAN'S work." He made it sound so wonderful that there were just certain things a man was to do for his woman and that my mother should not have to mow the lawn.

So when we got married, one of hubby's responsibilites was to mow the lawn. I loved the fact that I was cared for in such a special way. I started to create "honey do" lists for my husband. After all, there were jobs for women and jobs for men.

But I realized that my "honey do" list was getting longer and longer and nothing was being done. And once kids entered the picture, I noticed now the lawn was rarely getting done as well. And when the lawn WAS getting done, family time with Daddy was not.

I realized that my husband's work week (usually 80 hours or more) takes him away from his family. He really wants to spend time with the kids and myself. And he would rather do that then mow the lawn or anything on my "honey do" list.

So rather than add to the list, I am starting to cross things off. Not because I don't want/need them done anymore, but because I am doing them. I have finally gotten over the whole "that is something for a man to do" attitude (which was really weighing my husband down because I was adding so much to the list for him to do). Instead, I have the "blessings list." IF my hubby has the time and wants to do it, what a blessing it is to me! If he doesn't and I do it, it becomes a blessing to him - by allowing him to spend the precious little time he has with us and not feel guilty about not doing something else that I addedto the list.

So this afternoon, while the girls were playing quietly on the deck, and baby JJ was sleeping, I went out and mowed the lawn for the first time. And it feels great! This weekend, rather than my husband feeling guilty the lawn is not mowed (he wants to go to a museum the girls have asked to goto), he can enjoy the whole weekend with us going through the museum and seeing the awe and wonder on the girls faces. He can explain things to them and feel satisfaction in teaching them. Oh I am so thankful that I changed my honey do list into a blessings list. And I encourage you to do the same. It is so freeing!!

From Chaos to Calm: 15 weeks to a Happy Home

Being gone last week, I missed out on sharing this little gem with you. But as they are only on week two (and we can just double up sometimes can't we?) I wanted to share this link with you:

From Chaos to Calm: 15 weeks to a Happy Home

A Little Bit More on Digital Scrapbooking

A FREE online mini-course! I am in the process of checking it out now, but it looks so fun and I am so excited, I just had to share it! And don't forget that Digital Scrapbooking Place has TONS of FREE tutorials!! I had not looked at the tutorials in a while, so it was neat to see NEW STUFF since the last time I was there (almost a year ago). They even havea beginners section in the tutorials.

Anyone doing the digital scrapbooking?? Let me know! I would LOVE to see YOUR gallery!! (Have I convinced you yet Lori?!? )

Cool things you can do with digital scrapbooking!

But first, some answers to scrapbooking questions. IF you want the cool ideas, scan down this blog entry.

I use Adobe Photoshop CS2 (just recently upgraded from version 7).

How to organize everything? I first unzip everything. Then I take the preview image and make that the image of my folder. It helps a little to be able to see what is inside the folder. When I want something I use SPOTLIGHT (a program that searches through all my files).

So for the little Ducky Butt layout, I wanted some ducks. I searched using spotlight for "duck" and I only had two. Both showed up at fairly good sized images (so I was able to see a small version of what they looked like before opening it). That is the GREAT thing about Spotlight, it shows images that are about the size of the thumbnail images I show on the right hand side of my blog of my newest additions to my scrapbook. When I want a background, but not sure what color I want, I search for "BG" which is short for background and most designers will name their background files BG. T hen I scan through all the thumbnail images until I find one that matches the picture(s) I want to scrap. Then I open the folder of that kit and use that kit to do my layout.

Sometimes I want something that doesn't belong to the kit (like a ducky or a brad or something). Then I just search for the word of whatever I am looking for (like "brad" for example). Then I find the brad in the thumbnail images that would look best with the kit I am using.

Don't forget to give credit in your layout comments for each thing you used (where you got your word art, your background, your elements, etc.). I create a font layer in my program where I list all of that and just keep it hidden. That way it is kept with the file and I don't have to try to remember where I got everything from.

Anyways, onto the fun!

---

OK, now for some COOL THINGS you can do with digital scrapbooking!
Some of these have a cost, and some don't, but ALL are COOL!!


Scrapbook in a Box


CD Album (great for kids and a GREAT way to use up all those free AOL CD's you get in the mail!)


Personalized Desk calanders (or checkbook covers or those $2 purse calanders you get from Walmart)


You might have seen these matchbooks, but you can customize it to your liking, print, cut and glue!


Make a key chain with layouts! Just resize your larger ones to a smaller size, laminate, and put on keychain!


Or better yet, for Grandma, or even yourself, make this cute little brag braclet!


Make bookmarks for each individual child with layouts you have done OF them!



Put your layouts on a magnet for your fridge or grandma's!


For the man in everyon'e life, a little brag book is just the thing!


And what better way to personalize those DVD home movies than a DVD case cover and DVD cover?!?!

What Is In A Kiss?

I just cannot stop kissing the baby. The girls can't stop kissing him either.

But each time I kiss him, I can tell he has no idea what a kiss is or the meaning behind it. There is no smile (like he is starting to smile back at us when we smile at him). There is no recognition in his eyes that he feels loved.

And yet I know (from the fact that my girls LOVE to kiss him and to kiss me and Daddy), that by kissing him now, he will come to know the love behind it.

And that is not to say that I have stopped kissing them now that they are older. My 6yr may not get quite as many kisses as she did when she was a baby, but she gets a plethora of them for sure!!

I am not quite sure why a kiss shows so much love. I am just glad it does because I love kissing my children!!

Also, my dear freind Brenda has broken her foot. She has 8 children and cannot "stay off it for three weeks" as the doctors have told her to. Please take a visit over to her blog and say a prayer for her. THANKS!

A Scrapping We Will Go

Lori, yes I laminate at home. My husband bought a laminator a while back at Joann's for 50% off. SO we only paid $70 instead of $140. You can bind at home too, but I have not bought a biinder yet. I actually got the idea for doing this from my friend Brenda. She prints out her magazines and laminates the front and back covers and then binds them. She bought the binder at SAM's I believe. It is a spiral binding.

Her magazines looked so nice. She also does this with small little booklets. Helps them to hold up longer. She said she also does this with her children's school work for the year. WHAT A GREAT IDEA! (Brenda - you have so many great ideas that you should share on your blog with us all! I am sure there are a hundred more I have never thought of yet or heard you speak of yet! :D )

SO more about Digital Scrapbooking. Firstly, I just printed out my newest layout (Little Prince - link on right hand). The kit is made wit hte freebie "Simplicity" that you can get rom DSP. The little "beloved" charm looks 3-D! It looks so real! Like real metal!! AMAZING! But as you pointed out Lori, you can COMBINE digital and paper scrapping!!

I made a layout for the sonogram of our son. I did not have a scanner to scan in the pictures, so I made the whole layout on the computer, printed it out and put the picture of the sonogram where it belonged.

You can also embelish your layouts with REAL embellishments. Use real stickers. Or real ribbon. Or real metal elements. That would give it the feel and look of real. Lots of people combine the two. (Sorry Lori, you were not the first to think about it, but KUDOS for thinking about it at all!) :D

Another nice thing about digital scrapbooking is you only have to buy one kit and can do a whole album. When I did my Grand Canyon scrapbook, I had never heard of digital scrapbooking. In fact, all our pictures were prints (although we did buy a CD with the pictures on them). It cost a fortune to buy the same sheet 25 times, plus all the stickers, etc. With digital scrapbooking, I could have bought one kit and made 25 pages!!

AS for kits, it is like walking into a scrapbook store that has put together papers and elements and ribbons and all that match and go perfectly together. Here is an example:

I am not sure if you are not a member of DSP if you can click on the image above or not.

This freebie kit comes with three papers, 3 ribbons (one in a bow, one straight and long and one curled one), a staple, screws, 2 tags and more.

This really is as easy as it sounds. NO html required! Just a photo editing program (like Adobe Photoshop) (btw - there are free ones out there, but you are limited with what you are able to do), pictures, and creativity.

You also will want to grab up all those freebies too! There are kits (like above), and ploppers and so much more. Ploppers are a GREAT way to get started because all you have to do it load the .png file for the plopper into your photo editing software, add a picture, and you are done! The plopper has all the papers and elements already placed on it. Here is an example of a plopper:


The pictures are the only thing added! Everything else (the little red brads over the picture, the papers, the "fun" buttons) is all there and waiting for pictures! You don't have to think about design principles because everything is already placed for you. You just need to resize your pictures to fit in the alloted space.

As for me, the creativity and learning HOW to use the program were the hurdles I had to overcome. The more pages I created, the better I became at using the program (there ARE free tutorials at DSP that were of a GREAT help to me in getting started). There is also a class you can take (pay for) at DSP that will help you to better learn how to use your program. The class are good, and the attention you get to help you is invaluable. I have not taken the class because everytime I want to learn how to do something, I just ask my husband (it is like having a live-in instructor!). But I have take nthe class on making your layouts POP and was VERY pleased.

I also joined in a LOT of the challenges. With each challenge I have joined, I have grown in my creativity and knowledge of what makes a good layout. I started out with the monthly sketch contest, and am currently working on the DET Boot Camp Challenge. Both are free to join, you don't have to purchase a kit to participate, and you get lots of CC (contructive criticism) on how to improve. Of course you get TONS of encouragement too. Everyone there is SO NICE!

Holding On

What is your first instinct when you are scared? Mine is to usually run away and hide. Maybe that is because I have a knowledge of good and evil (Adam and Eve hid too, remember?).

I was looking at my son just now. Something really scared him and the first thing he did was reach out his arms and HOLD ONTO me. TIGHT! He is only one month old, and yet his first reaction is to hold on. I wonder when we lose that.

My other children (6yr, 4yr and 3yr) all run and hide now. Maybe they learned that from me.

But I started thinking. When I am scared, I try to run away. Maybe I should try holding on. Holding onto Jesus. And holding on tight.

And I wonder if in some sense we always try to hold onto something when we are scared. It worries me that if I don't train my children to hold onto Jesus now, that when they get older and reach out to hold onto somehting when they are scared, they might just grab a hold of the wrong thing. Evil is always seeking a way to pull us away from Him. Just some thoughts.

You Can't Go Wrong...

There are very few people who I trust when they recommend a book to me. Most of the time, the book is fluff (or "milk") in order to have a wider reading audience and not to offend anyone. I like books that are meaty and really challenge me in my walk with the Lord.

Enter OreoSouza.

Her latest recommendation is a book I have thought about ordering for my husband (we just had our first son). I have ordered other books she has recommended and have not been steered wrong since! Be sure to look through past entries in her blog for other book recommendations.

And while I have not seen any book recommendations on Brenda's blog, she too is one that I highly trust. I am so thankful to live close enough to be able to borrow a few of them, but most of them I am just gonna HAVE to buy so I have my own copy!

Answering YOUR Questions About Digi Scrapping

WOW! I am so glad to see there is such an interest!!

Hip - I laughed so loud at how proud your ButterBean was to "unstick" all those pages! LOL!! I never even thought of that as just one more benefit to digital scrapbooking!

Paper scrapbooking used to overwhelm me too. I am not sure why digiscrapping relaxes me! Maybe because it is I don't have to try so hard. Especially with all the free kits out there you don't have to worry about getting colors to look good together. Everything that comes together goes together! And there are a LOT of sketches out there (that show you how to place pictures). That is something I am just not good at.

I love being able to resize a picture (something you cannot do without paying for it when you are doing paper scrapping). If you look at my online scrapbook you can see that I rarely use a picture in the size that it normally prints (4x6).

I also like how little time it takes to do a layout now. I can can get several digital layouts done in the time it used to take me to do one.

As I said before, my layouts look 100 times better digital than they ever did on paper. Of course it did take a little while to get there. My first attempts looked pretty much like my paper ones did - AWFUL! But I so wanted to scrap so I would have a memory to pass on with the picture. I look at my moms and grandmother's pictures and even they don't remember who or where about 90% of the pictures.

Another thing I like about digiscrapping is that when I get an idea, I can make a template on the computer and then just plop in the photos. It takes a whole lot less time to crop an image on the computer than to crop one in real life. AND it comes out PERFECT everytime on the computer! LOL! I could never crop perfectly for the life of me! Even with the cutter! AND I can cut into several different shapes WITHOUT having to purchase a hundred different shape cutters!

As for the FEEL, if you were to rub your hands over it, it would feel just like paper. BUT as for the LOOK, there are times I catch myself rubbing my fingers over the ribbon in a layout because it looks 3-D!!
This is an example of a layout that I often do that to:

Click on picture for larger image.

That was made with a freebie kit I got from DSP. It may not look 3-D on the computer, but printed out, those ribbons look like they have texture and feel to them!!

I am not sure it is creating little web pages or little computer pages. It is all one big image made up of little images (pictures that I have taken, papers that someone has made, alphas that someone has made, etc.). All the pages really do look like layouts you would see in a magazine.

One of the great things about digital scrapbooking is you can do a digital layout (something you cannot do with paper). The image above is considered a paper layout. The image below is considered a digital layout:

Click on picture for a larger image.

I do print out my pages. I scrap in 12x12in but because I print my own, I print them out at 8x8. You can also buy a printer that prints 12x12 or send them off to Kinko's or Costco. I did not think I would like the 8x8in size, but I DO!! It is so cute! And it doesn't distract from the page at all. I buy 8x8in albums from JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby when they are having their 50% off sales. I have printed out all of my layouts, and my girls frequently look through them. The smaller 8x8in also is great for smaller hands!

I have even printed out the layouts in 4x4in (that is the great thing about digital scrapbooking, is you can shrink your layout down) and given them to the girls to play with as they wish. You can laminate them and punch a hole in them and put them on a lanyard for them to wear around their neck!

One other great thing about doing your layouts digitally is that you can put them all into a slideshow, add some music and burn it onto a CD or DVD! Makes a GREAT gift!

Well, I hope I answered all your questions. I will be HAPPY to answer any more. As you can tell, this is one of my favorite subjects!

Be sure to check out my online gallery to see samples of what can be done. And while there, take a look around at what others are doing. You will be amazed at what people are doing!! My layouts pale in comparission to most!

Oh yeah, one more thing. When you sign up for membership (FREE) at DSP, you get a free kit. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter. Their newsletter has freebies that you can ONLY GET through the newsletter.

Family Drawing Time

I have been really into crafts lately (trying to find some great things to do for training my daughters to be keepers at home). I came across a GREAT idea of a family drawing time!

I don't know why I never thought of this. I mean, I have always heard of family reading time. And recently I have wanted to start giving the children paper and crayons to color what they are learning/hearing while we are reading (partly so I know that they are listening, and partly to get them in the habit of listening, and partly so that I have some proof for the state of schooling).