Jan 26, 2009

Another Song 4U

This song has been in my head all week.

My Baby Boy is 8.




And it wouldn't hurt so bad if well-meaning people who knew him as a baby would stop reminding us how much he's grown and asking me if I can believe it! obviously not! I mean, we all know I was 12 when I had him. And for the record, I'm still getting used to being called 'Mom', let alone having an 8 year old. You realize, in another 5 (fast) years, he'll be a teenager? goodness... Where does the time go??

He is a beautiful eight year old though, isn't he?? (other then the bumped up eye from an errant football yesterday at church) I wonder where he gets it from? couldn't be this looker, could it??


of course, this little chickie is quite the looker herself.


And this was Eli's last big surprise. He scored big this year - a new ds lite, 2 video games, a cd, Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Jr and a new ipod shuffle. He was most excited about the shuffle. I guess he bleeds Mac just like Mom and Dad. :)

Yesterday's Thoughts

We had realife yesterday and this is the message I shared. Now, be forewarned that the first part of this is Rick Warren's - from his daily email devotional that I receive. I thought it was so good and I needed to share it with the group. But I added the 3rd portion - don't worry, it's obvious. Rick and I, well, we have unique writing styles. Like, his is good and mine is bad. But it's fun and I hope you enjoy it!

Margin or Marginless?
by by Rick Warren with closing thoughts by Anna Thoreson

God, listen to me shout, bend an ear to my prayer… You’ve always given me breathing room, a place to get away from it all. Psalm 61:1, 3 (MSG)
*** *** *** ***
A lot of people are on overload and headed for a crash. Consider these statistics:
· People now sleep 2½ fewer hours each night than people did a hundred years ago.
· The average work week is longer now than it was in the 1960s.
· The average office worker has 36 hours of work piled up on his or her desk. It takes us three hours a week just to sort through it and find what we need.
· We spend eight months of our lives opening junk mail, two years of our lives playing phone tag with people, and five years waiting for people who are late for meetings.
At least in the U.S., we’re a piled-on, stretched-to-the limit society that is chronically rushed, chronically late, and chronically exhausted. Many of us feel like Job did when he said, “I have no peace! I have no quiet! I have no rest! And trouble keeps coming” (Job 3:26 GWT).
Overload comes when we have too much activity in our lives, too much change, too many choices, too much work, too much debt, too much media exposure.
We’re stressed by information overload; we’re stressed by accessibility overload – we’re connected all the time. Simply put, we’re stressed by the pace of life.
Is there a solution? Yes. The solution is to put some margin into your life. Margin is breathing room. It’s keeping a little reserve that you’re not using up. It’s not going from one meeting to the next to the next with no space in between.
Margin is the space between your load and your limit. But most of us are far more overloaded than we can handle, and there is no margin for error in our lives.
Dr. Richard Swenson, MD says this: “The conditions of modern day living devour margin. If you’re homeless we direct you to a shelter. If you’re penniless we offer you food stamps. If you’re breathless we connect you to oxygen. But if you’re marginless we give you one more thing to do. Marginless is being 30 minutes late to the doctor’s office because you were 20 minutes late getting out of the hairdresser because you were 10 minutes late dropping the children off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from a gas station and you forgot your purse. That’s marginless.
“Margin, on the other hand, is having breath at the top of the staircase, money at the end of the month, and sanity left over at the end of adolescence. Margin is grandma taking the baby for the afternoon. Margin is having a friend help carry the burden.
“Marginless is not having time to finish the book you’re reading on stress. Margin is having the time to read it twice. Marginless is our culture. Margin is counter-culture, having some space in your life and schedule. Marginless is the disease of our decade and margin is the cure.”

There are Four Benefits of Putting Margin in Your Life
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
*** *** *** ***
Here are four immediate benefits you’ll receive by building margin into your life:
1. Peace of mind. When you’re not always hurrying and worrying, you have time to think, time to relax, time to enjoy life. We had a bird come into the building one evening before service. He started singing, and it was just like we’d been given an invitation: “Just relax. Everybody except those sitting directly under the bird, relax.”
2. Better health. Unrelenting stress harms our bodies. We all know that, yet we let it continue day after day after day. Many times we only build margin in our lives after the heart attack almost happens or does happen, or the blood pressure skyrockets. Why do we wait until our health plummets before we make this decision? Why not realize that we need to build some margin into our lives now? The truth is your body needs downtime in order to heal. Race cars make pit stops occasionally in order to get repaired. You can’t fix anything going 200 miles an hour. Yet, we try to repair ourselves while we’re still racing through life. Margin builds in time for better health.
3. Stronger relationships. Lack of margin is one big reason for the collapse of the American family today. When we don’t make relationships a priority and make time for each other, our relationships suffer. Relationships take time; and margin provides the time to sit and talk, to listen and enjoy one another, and to provide the comfort we each need.
4. Usefulness in ministry. When you’re overloaded by activity, you can only think of yourself. You’re in survival mode, just trying to make it through another day. But being available to God for his use makes all the difference in this world.
When you have no margin in your life and God taps you on the shoulder, saying, “I’d like you to do this for me,” your first response isn’t joy. Your first response is, “Oh, no! Another thing to do! Sorry, God – I’d like to do that, but I’m just too busy.”
We end up resenting the great opportunities God brings into our lives. But when you have margin, you’re available for God to use.
You don’t have to live on overload. You don’t have to live in survival mode. Begin today to build a buffer around your schedule. Then enjoy the benefits of margin and see what God does next!

So what then? How do we find margin in our already overloaded life?
Ok, so I need to admit that first of off, this is where Rick Warren’s lesson ends and mine begins. I was so excited to receive these emails, they spoke to my life in such a real way. I was left after this second one, waiting for a third. I checked my email box daily for a week hoping to find it waiting for me – the answer to all my problems – HOW do you build margin into a marginless life?? And yet, no answer came. So now, I have to find the answers myself. Seriously, this is the blind leading the blind here. It’s like asking a 3 pack a day chain smoker how to quit smoking!
So I’ve had these emails in my box for a few weeks now, and they’ve been eating away at me. In 2009 I’m building margin into my life. In fact, it’s my word for the year, if you believe in such a thing. Here are some steps I personally am taking.
Getting more rest. The world looks a whole lot brighter with an extra hour or two of sleep. If Rob and I get a day off, we lay out baggies of cereal for the kiddos and let them self serve breakfast in the morning – sneaking in as much as 45 more minutes of sleep. Going to bed earlier helps too, you don’t really need to take in those late night programs. There pretty trashy anyway, right?
Learn to say ‘no’. It’s a hard word, especially in this society. Or is it? You tell telemarketers ‘no’ all the time. You shoo off those pesky people in the common area of the mall with free samples or nail kits, don’t you? You block pop ups and ignore emails all the time. In fact, look around the room and see all the people who aren’t here today – they in essence, said ‘no’ to realife today. You can say no. You just need to exercise the ability a bit more often. It’s ok to say no to protect your family time, or to get a little extra sleep, or to make sure you get your quiet time in that day.
Speaking of quiet time…
Quiet time is essential for margin. You need time to spend with the Lord, to bask in His Presence and remember why we are running around this crazy planet. You need to remember that you are His precious child and He has tasks for you each day. If you are living without margin, you are probably so busy you are cutting Him out and you probably can’t even hear His voice over the din!! Sound familiar?
The cool thing about quiet time is that once you start building it into your life, you will change gears and build your life around it. You’ll crave that down time with God, where you can pour out your heart before Him. It’s revolutionary, but it can’t happen if you don’t make time for it.
And last, but not least, make a list. You may not cross off every task, but it at least organizes the chaos and gives you chance to prioritize. You may be a little less likely to waste an hour on the internet or sit down for that cheesy (and probably inappropriate) reality show with a list of what really needs to be done in your hand.
Keep in mind, your to-do list doesn’t need to be all unpleasant tasks like scrubbing the kitchen floor or mowing the lawn. I like to put the fun things on my list too, such as taking a long bubble bath or listening to that new book on cd I borrowed from the library. Prioritize down time for yourself so you don’t burn out on everyone else.
Above all, remember it may not all get done in one day. Sometimes we get really overwhelmed. Take it one day at a time. You can plan for that day and then wake up tomorrow and plan for the next day. Ask God to intervene when you are overwhelmed, but don’t be surprised if He intervenes in an unexpected way, such as a Snow Day or case of strep throat. Remember that He is in control and we need to be serving Him first.
So, in the spirit of Margins – I’m going to give you a little extra margin today. We are skipping past worship this afternoon to give you an extra 20 minutes in your day. I encourage you to use it wisely!!





*** Afterwards everyone sat around for another twenty minutes and just hung out talking. It was really cool. :)

Jan 24, 2009

Feeling Crafty

As promised, here are my super-secret projects from this week. This is the reusable birthday banner I made entirely out of felt. It took me about two hours to cut and piece together. Very simple.
The idea is that it coordinates with this fun streamer that I made out of Fat Quarters. I had read about it on another blog and thought it looked easy enough. Both of these items will be used again and again for boy birthdays in our house! I'll be setting about making another pink set for girl birthdays in the near future.
This is the completed look in our kitchen, horribly underexposed, sorry abou that. It looks neat in the blue room though!
And this is the fun little bird I painted yesterday with the boys while we celebrated Eli's birthday. It's about the size of my hand and looks super cute in Sarah's eclectic room.

Is Mac Better than PC??

Well, this is a question I get asked a lot. Especially with my clients, since I do all my work on my Mac. They always want to know why I am a Mac girl, and it's so hard to articulate.

Anyway, I happened across this video today and it sums it up perfectly for me. :)

Jan 22, 2009

16 Things

I'd seen this idea on a few blogs as of late and thought it was cool. So today I give you 16 things about me at this moment that you may or may not know.

1.) Every day I drive past 2 houses in my neighborhood that have been completely gutted and remodeled since Ike. One is in the older part of our neighborhood about 6 blocks away, and the other is literally 2 blocks from my house - same age and size as our home. It's surreal. I can't imagine going through that, that family hasn't lived there since the storm. I'm so grateful that our damage was so minimal in comparison.
2.) I really, really, REALLY love taking people's pictures. Seems like a no-brainer, but I mean it. I wish I could turn my business full-time, but I just can't take that time away from the church and my kids and my hubby right now. It's exciting to think about someday though.
3.) Facebook is amazing. I love being so connected with people, especially people I love all across the world, it's really something!!
4.) Right now I can't get enough of the "Rock What You Got" cd from Superchick. Surprisingly, although it's totally a rock album, the lyrics moved me to tears on the way to church last night. The whole album is amazing, but this song in particular gets me...


5.) I'm baking a chocolate cake from scratch this evening. It's actually my second cake of the day, the first one got frosted in a warm kitchen and hence all the chocolate slid to the plate. Here's the recipe for the redo - the first was just a box of Betty. http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipes/detail.asp?id=184

6.) I just used 'hence' in a sentence. Wow.

7.) I'm getting off work early tomorrow and I'm almost giddy about it. What's that about??

8.) Rob and I have taken to watching LOST again and I'm way into it. He brought home the projector from church to test it on the wall for the superbowl and I'm thinking it'd be way more fun than watching it in the office chair on the Mac. :)
9.) I, the one who owns a sewing machine purely for paper crafting, have been sewing lately. I have a couple really fun projects/surprises for Eli's birthday supper tomorrow night. I'll take some photos, I promise!! (and thanks Heather, for loaning me your machine while mine is under the weather!)

10.) I have been having a bad hair day for about 2 months now. I seriously hate it all grown out like it is now, but am working towards a new style and I'm soooo impatient. I debate calling Jennifer for an emergency cut like 12 times a day, I'm not kidding.
This is the big reveal of the haircut I'm going for, and it's still a long way off. I love the flippy/sassyness of it and I so know my hair could do that, if I don't attack it with scissors myself between now and then. :)

11.) I'm working on a new skit for Valentine's Day for church - got a special cast I'm pulling together and I'm pretty psyched about it! Stay tuned for details.

12.) I'm also working on the special plans for the Fireproof Valentine's dinner and a movie at church, I'm super excited about all that's going to happen there too! Enjoy the preview, this movie is amazing and I'm so thrilled to be sharing it at church!!



13.) I've wondered, am I the only one who was extremely disappointed in the music choices for the 'neighborhood ball' for the new president? I mean, come on, Beyonce? Shakira? Kayne West? seriously? It's disappointing to me to know that Mr. Prez listens to the music that is marked 'explicit' in the iTunes store. bummer. On that note, I'm just really sick of the celebrity status of our new leader in general. Stop goo-goo-ga-ing and let the guy get to work already. Looks like he has a really big job ahead of him.

14.) I have a serious addiction to Outback lately. Rob and I like to order Curbside after the kids go to bed and bring it home for a quiet date at home. The good news is that we split a meal and there's no drinks or tip. The bad news is that it's 2000 calories and it's still $15 that could go in our retirement account or on the sad little remainder of the ATP credit card. We are crossing it off our list until Valentine's Day and that will be our date that night.

15.) I finished an incredible book a little over a week ago. It's called 'the Shack' and I don't want to even tell you what it's about, but you should read it. Definitely a thinking book. It's also available on iTunes for about $5 as an audio book - which was a great way to take it in for me.



16.) Seriously, I am so tired and overwhelmed right now. I shouldn't even be on here, but Thursdays are supposed to be a day off, which means I should be able to do fun things like blog and watch tv - guilt free. I did work today, and spent a lot of the day prepping for tomorrows birthday stuff with Eli, but I could spend another 3 hours up and I just don't have it in me. Somedays, when I feel like this, I just have to put one foot in front of the other and push through a day (or event) at a time until it slows back down. I'd really, truly prefer not to live my life that way. And that's probably why I push in other things (like the special sewing projects) because I know this is the only life I have with my family and I want them to know how awesome I think they are. I can do it, some days I just can't think about it..


I think that's just about enough out of me for tonight. Love to you all. And because Thursday is winding down (aren't we sad to see it go?), Happy Friday!

Jan 20, 2009

Two Posts In One Day - scrapbook pages


I love the way this page turned out, quite by accident. It was the last page of the night and it was late, I was feeling uninspired. In my foggy brain these journaling pages looked like clouds and bam, there it was. Love the dimension and all the crazy shades of blue.
And once again, I can't get enough of these Heidi Swapp chipboard letters. Just wish they would stick!
I ordered a bunch of these bam pop frames and this is for some reason the first that I've used, but liked it with the woodgrain paper quite a bit! And the polka dot is new Jenni Bowlin paper. And I need to point out the scalloping on the top - that's a Lori inspired purchase - it's the Threading Water punch from Fiskars - very fun and easy to use!!
Here's Eli's birthday card. The inside is all me, but the outside is a complete and total lif from a Cards book that Heather brought over the other night. But I loved the Robot/Monster idea and thought E would totally get a kick out of it. My boy turns 8 next Monday! Wow!
And this is my Christmas Card page - just a fancy pocket for this years card. It could still use something, but I haven't figured out what just yet.




Oh, I forgot this lovely photo from yesterday, my fave of the day.

Promised Photos From Yesterday's Fun

So these are in no particular order, but all from yesterday and all of our family fun. It really was a ridiculously awesome day. We slept in, and meandered out about 10:30. Headed to the San Jac Monument first. It's a pretty cool site. And you have to remember that it's South Texas so it was a balmy 70 degrees, with a bit of a breeze (as you can see above) and just perfect running around weather.
Rob took this photo of himself and photoshopped it - I think it's pretty cool :)

And these two we took of each other, I already have a page in my brain of these photos looking at each other with the word "US" in between, can't wait!!
Sarah got new shoes the other day at the Old Navy clearance sale (I think I paid a $1.50 for these!), and totally understand her love of shoes. :)
Rob took this beautiful Texas Sky photo of us girls.
And this great shot of E and I on the steps of the monument.
Love this one of the kids cause they are truly always in motion like that!
And this photo is special cause you can still see her baby chin and her dual dimples. She thinks she's so grown up, but deep down she's just my sweet baby Sarah.
Eli snapped this one of us. He's discovered the zoom on my lens of the big camera, and was pretty enthralled. I totally understand.
Eli and Sam Houston. pretty fun.
Sarah told me that her Grandma Sally made this quilt. She does good work!
Snapped this shot on the way out of the monument, love the light and the silhouettes. So cool.
They weren't overly impressed. but we were. :)
I'm pretty sure I can see my house from here. All the way to the right. :)
Pretty incredible view.
Although, this view is pretty good too. I love that Eli lets me take his photo over and over and he's totally cool with it.
Actually, both of them are.
Sarah was enthralled with the seashells in the concrete. I am too, to think that seashells are so common here that they are used for pavement! wow.
Another cool shot of E.
And here's the monument in all it's glory. Just about 600 feet tall if I remember right.
We took the ferry boat over there. The kids never get tired of riding the ferry. It's crazy to me to think how close this is to our house, these big huge boats - so cool!
I'm probably biased, but I think my kids have the most beautiful eyes ever!!

Overall, it was an awesome day and I'm thankful we got to spend it as a family. Totally worth Rob taking a personal day. :)