New Year's Resolutions

I decided several years ago that I was not making any more New Year's Resolutions. I cannot think of a single "worthy" resolution that I have kept for any length of time. Plus, I believe that if there is something about yourself you wish to change, you should not wait to change it.

However, I amended that resolution (ha!) later. I decided I could make one as long as it does not involve losing weight, exercising, or being organized. One year my goal was to get to bed every night before 10:00. THAT was a resolution that was easy to keep (back then it was, anyway - these days, not so much).

This year, my resolution can be summed in one word... read. This is going to be the year of the books. Now, I read quite a bit now, but it tends to all be children's books. Children's books are wonderful and fun, but I'm feeling the need to stretch myself.

So, I will be doing more reading for myself this year. Some of these books will stretch my mind mentally and spiritually and I will be a better person for having read them. Some of them will be pure fluff and mind candy, and that's okay. I will be reading... for me. And I will enjoy it.

Christmas Review

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas this year. We most definitely did.

I am now in recovery mode - trying to get everything cleaned up and organized after two weeks of fun. In fact, that is my goal for the time before we start school back up on the 7th. I have big plans for reorganization of some storage areas in our home.

Here's a quick overview of our Christmas this year.

Wanna See What I Made?

I get together with a group of friends once a month to scrapbook. We rotate homes and work on a layout from a kit put together by our Close to My Heart rep. Since we use her stamps and ink pads, it can be difficult to put them together at home if we missed a month. So, December was our month to "catch up" on any layouts we may have missed.

We went to Sandy's house and had a yummy lunch, then got to work. I chose to work on non-scrapbook projects that she had showed us in the past. I originally thought I would give them as gifts, but have decided to keep them for myself. I will, however, make them as gifts in the future.

We are going to hang this in the kitchen. (sorry for the glare spot)


The following is not actually finished yet, but I think they still look cute. They need to have another layer of decoupage, then I'm going to add ribbon and tags and other what-nots. (If you click on the picture, you can see it enlarged, but please don't. If you do, you'll see the dust that I thought would not show up in the photo. I was just so wrong about that.)

My picture looks all curvy, but I'm not sure why. Must be all that dust. :)


Aren't they purty? Merry Christmas to me!

Last Day to Vote!

I meant to post this reminder a couple of days ago, but then I got sick and, well, you know how it goes.

Go vote!! Now!! Vote!!

Today is the last day. Go!

(all links take you to the same place - here!)

A Dose of Christmas Realism

I love Christmas stockings. Love. Them. When I was a child, I would wake up on Christmas morning at dark-thirty and go to the den and check out the Christmas tree with all its presents underneath. I would always pull everything out of my stocking and see what was in there. There was never anything big, but I just loved it.

Since I married, I have wanted to make us beautiful, cross-stitch stockings. It hasn't happened. I have started the things more times than I can count and never gotten more than an inch or so done. And, since my children are rapidly aging (good grief, why can't they just slow down?! - but that's a whole other post), I've finally become realistic and admitted it's not going to happen.

So, yesterday, I ordered these. They are lovely, and just what I wanted. And, they only took me about 30 minutes to order, as opposed to months and months of painstaking, time-consuming, labor. And, hey!, you save $2.50 per stocking when you order three or more, so I saved money, too!

Now, off to shop for stocking stuffers...

P.S. I found out a couple of days ago that Robert also gets up very early Christmas morning and looks at everything in his stocking. Now, how can I possible be mad about that? LOL

12 Days of Christmas

I found this through TeacherBritt. It's great!

Winter Art Kit from Hearts and Trees

I've talked in the past about purchasing the Fall art kit from Hearts and Trees. We had a great time with it and I've been looking forward to the winter kit. (we did not finish all the fall projects, so I have things to save for next fall or fill "I'm bored!" days - yea!)

Well, the Winter Kit is now available! There are some great projects, including a fleece hat and a winter nature study lapbook. Those are just a couple of the projects available.

If you pre-order by December 7th, you are guaranteed a kit. After that, it's while-supplies-last. She's already had to increase her estimate, so I don't expect them to last long after the 7th.

You can find all the details here.

(BTW, I get nothing for recommending these kits. I'm just a very satisfied customer!)

In Which I Say the Word "Cute" Way Too Many Times

Ruthie has beautiful hair. It's thick, soft, and wavy. And, when the slightest bit of humidity hits, really, really... big. She has a very hard time caring for it. It always has tangles underneath, which doesn't help the "bigness" of it. She has wanted to cut it for quite awhile, but decided to wait for it to be long enough for Locks of Love.

Last week we made a haircut appointment for today and she decided it was THE DAY.

I took some pictures of the whole event.

Before... (Ironically, her hair was laying smooth and beautiful today.)



In the chair...


Notice 4 different ponytails. Lisa, who cuts our hair, said it was still hard to get the scissors through it. Like I said, thick hair.

The cutting begins...


And the final result (after being washed and cut properly)


Cute, cute, cute, cute, cute! I just love it! And, really, who wouldn't love to have wash-and-go hair?

And a picture at home, after it's dried, with her holding the cut hair.


Can I say it one more time?

Cute!

Remember to Vote!

Voting has started over at the Homeschool Blog Awards. Voting ends December 15th.