My Life’s Song

May 18, 2012 in Kids, Scrap

All my life, music has played a HUGE role. From growing up in a musical family to “majoring” in music {and flirting} in high school. I almost didn’t graduate because I took so many music classes that I didn’t have all the required classes I needed for my diploma.

It was PE.

I almost didn’t graduate from high school because I was developing my talents in choirs and symphony and even jazz band {one semester – and I was so bad, they didn’t ask me to do it again even though they still needed a bass player} instead of hanging out in a smelly locker room.

Anyway…

Do you remember those commercials when iPods were brand new? A guy was walking down the street like a normal person, listening to his iPod, and his shadow was rocking out, dancing like no one was watching. That’s how I felt when Mr. bought me my very first iPod. Suddenly my life had this amazing soundtrack!

When you walk around with your soundtrack constantly in your head, it makes you really think about the songs that tell your life story. As a youth, my favorite songs {and books, and movies…} were the depressing ones. If someone died in the end, I probably loved it. But my life wasn’t depressing, so those songs didn’t really fit.

So I kept listening to my soundtrack and dancing like nobody was looking and searching for the perfect song that would sum up my whole life. And then one day I decided it was time to introduce my daughters to a movie that had been a favorite of mine when I was a young girl.

From the opening strains of  “Maybe far away, or maybe real near by….” to hordes of girls working, singing and dancing through the orphanage, to minions dancing around a mansion, my girls became completely entranced with Annie. And then I found it, the song that tells my story.

“Some people are drippin’ with diamonds,
Some people are drippin’ with pearls.
Lucky me, lucky me,
look at what I’m drippin’ with…
Little girls!”

 

I don’t feel the same way about it that Ms. Hannigan does, though. I kind of love drippin’ with little girls.

What songs tell the story of your life?

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Moments to Memories

May 17, 2012 in Photography, Scrap

I love taking pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. We got our first digital camera in 2003 when Mr was deployed and baby Babs was on the way. I didn’t want him to miss every moment of her life until he could come home, so a digital camera was a top priority. Actually, as I remember it, I started having contractions early in the morning and was worried about not having a camera yet, so we drove all around town, through the contractions, searching for a good deal. In hind sight, maybe not the best decision, but at the time it made perfect sense to me. When we finished camera shopping, we headed to the hospital and had a baby.

Priorities.

Now that I have hundreds and hundreds of photos in files filling my laptop, external hard drive, Mr’s laptop, and our family desktop, what do I do with all of them? Why, make scrapbooks, of course.

I have to confess, I didn’t hop on the whole scrapbooking bandwagon at first. It seemed like way too much money, time, and mess than I wanted to invest. But then a few years ago I discovered digital scrapbooking, and I was instantly hooked. I can reuse the same supplies over and over again and even make it look different every time. I don’t have to keep my kids away from the scissors and glue, jewels, and fancy papers because they’re just pixels on my computer. I don’t have to worry about what will happen to my page when I walk into the other room because I can save it. If I hate a photo crop or placement, I just click “undo” and it’s like it never happened — an absolute necessity for the perfectionist in me.

Are you a scrapper? Do you work with paper or digital? Do you have a favorite scrap hang-out?

When I discovered digi-scrapping in 2009, it was at a cute little online community called Brownie Scraps. It had a really amazing family feel and such nice people, amazing encouragement, and fabulous challenges that taught a complete newcomer like me how to get started. Since then, Brownie Scraps has changed hands a few times, but now it’s back in the hands of the original owner, is getting the family feel back, and it’s an even *better* place than before for a newcomer to learn how to get started. Brownie Scraps has gone exclusively templates, and the challenges are set up in levels designed to teach and improve your scrapping skills. A beginner can learn the absolute basics, an intermediate scrapper can find out how to do new tricks, and the advanced scrapper will be challenged and pushed to new levels of scrapping amazement. You really ought to come on over and check it out!

From now on I’ll be sharing some of my scrapping with you because after we create these moments of harmony, I want to remember them. Here are just a few memorable moments…

How do you preserve your moments to memories? Are you a scrapper, too?

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Pinspiration: Summer Fun

May 14, 2012 in Holidays, Kids, Pinterest, Vacation

My kids have 9 days of school left.

NINE.

I guess that means it’s time to start thinking about what we’re going to do all summer long.

I have a few ideas, but I wanted to flesh them out some more, so I turned to my favorite inspiration site. Here’s a little sampling of what I found. You can find even more ideas in my Pinterest Summer board. All photos are linked to the pin.

Not only are there some great ideas here, but it’s a printable poster! Love it!

I have been toying with the idea of daily themes, so this idea caught my eye.

 Speaking of printables, here’s a whole kit of summer fun!

Can’t beat super fun for super cheap. Here’s a bunch of great ideas on a budget.

I always have all these great plans for summer vacations and then we end up just hanging out and not doing much of anything for days at a time. After a whole school year of being on a schedule with deadlines and obligations, it’s nice to just be able to hang out with nothing to do. That’s why this is my favorite one of all.

Make a list of activities and games, foods you want to try, places you want to visit… anything you think sounds fun. Involve your kids, your bucket list, the great ideas you can find in my Pinterest Summer board ;) …  Type them up and print them out. Then put them in the jars, and when you want something to do, just pick one or more from the jars. Then you’re not on a schedule, there’s nothing you HAVE to do each day, but you have fun stuff to do when you want. Perfect!

What are you going to do this summer???

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Motherhood

May 10, 2012 in Kids

All my life all I ever wanted to be was a mother. Well, maybe not all I ever wanted. I also wanted to be a teacher, a surgeon, a professional chef, a model, and a princess… in no particular order. But whatever else I wanted my future to look like, I always knew MOTHER was at the top of my list.

So when Mr. and I rode off into the sunset to start on our happily ever after, I was so excited to be with this amazing man and start a family. A year and a half later, when we drove off into the sunset, we were on our way to the hospital. I was pretty sure some construction had been done on the roads to add a few extra bumps here and there to make my contractions extra painful. I pushed for two hours, and finally my husband was showing me this tiny little person — who looked exactly like him — and my dream had come true. I was a mother.

My own amazing mother was there with me for two weeks to help me figure out how to keep this tiny person alive. Then she had to get back home, and that’s when it hit me. I had to keep this person alive without her! Mr. and I were completely responsible for this sweet little girl, and I had NO IDEA what I was doing!

Now as Mother’s Day approaches, I look back at that day just a few weeks shy of 13 years ago and realize I still have no idea what I’m doing. We have added 4 more sweet girls to our family, and I just hope I’m doing the best I can for them so that they can learn and grow and become the amazing women I know they are meant to be.

Recently, my cousin posted on Facebook that she was having a sit down with her 5-year-old daughter to talk about the rules of their home, and that little girl looked up at her mom and said, “Mom, are you just like making this up?”

Why, yes. Yes I am. And I just hope every day that I’m getting it right.

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Chicken Enchilada Rice Bake

May 8, 2012 in Food

Dinner was so amazing tonight I just couldn’t wait to share. I didn’t set up my own photo shoot, so I borrowed this one from Picky Palate.

This dish is AMAZING, so you should all head over to her blog and check it out. Make it tonight. You won’t be sorry.

Jenny at Picky Palate creates her own recipes, and she is amazing. Seriously, she has a gift. She calls this one Chicken and Black Bean Green Enchilada Rice Bake – which is quite a mouthful, but so is this dish! The sauce is divine, and all the flavors blend perfectly. We all absolutely loved it. It did have a kick to it, so if you don’t like any heat in your food, you might want to cut down on the cumin and pepper. We served it with guacamole, and not only did that add another delicious flavor, it also helped cut the heat. We’re not big olive fans, so we left out the olives and added corn instead. Delicious!

The best part — besides the taste — is how quick and easy it is to throw together, and you probably have most, if not all, of the ingredients on hand already! It calls for rice, chicken, cheese, black beans, tomatoes, olives — or corn, in my case — green enchilada sauce, sour cream, cumin, salt and pepper. Basically, you spread your cooked rice over the bottom of a baking dish and layer beans over that. Mix everything else together, except the cheese, and spread over the top. Then sprinkle cheese over it all and heat it up. Easy peasy!

I’m not going to post the full recipe here because I don’t want to be a pirate. Arrrr!  But I’ve included so many links to her site, there’s no way you can miss them, right? Just in case you didn’t click on one of the bajillion links above, here’s another one. Happy eating!

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