my pot
24 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in autobiography, digital scrapbooking
I am a saver, not a spender, even though I’m happily going through my “stuff” and trying to get rid of things we don’t really use. However, if I have something I really like, I will use it until it is used up. As I got ready to throw out this pot, I just had to take a picture, it has been such a faithful companion to me through my married life. Nothing in this life lasts forever, but this layout reminds me that some of the things which most enhance my life are simple things: a pot, my broom, a spray bottle of water, and plenty of rags. Things that allow me to do my job more easily, make my living space clean, and my food well-prepared. I have written letters to different children I’ve sponsored through Compassion over the years. On the surface, it seems that our lives are so very different. Yet when I’ve talked about the things which really matter most to us–our families, the natural world where we live, and the Bible–I find that the core of what makes our lives beautiful is very much alike. I want to try to remember to focus on these real and important things, and not be distracted by the things which will not last forever.
(Layout: BS intensity Quickpage, Doodles 2 and 3 by Sommerblume, EH round stitches)
My Space
17 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in autobiography, digital scrapbooking, motherhood
As a mom, sometimes I feel that everything about me belongs to my family: my time, my energy, my attention, and even my body (since someone is always pulling on some part of it). Throughout motherhood, I’ve created space for myself through creative cooking, crafts, Bible reading and studying history and theology. However, during my 14 years as a mom of preschoolers, I’d given up parts of my former, non-mom life. This last year, as I move out of preschool motherhood, I’ve begun to reclaim that part of me that liked to read Victorian novels, and enjoyed art. I started by creating an art space above my computer of things that are about me and also by starting this blog. We are getting ready to remodel that room and I’m ready to move on to a neater stage, but I wanted to record my attempts to bring back a part of me I’d given up for a while in order to better nurture my family.
(layout: For a long time, I’ve read about how great brushes are and how you can use filters to get different effects. I tried some out on this page and I actually figured out how to do them without getting completely frustrated! Purple is not a color I ever wear (I never wear pink either) but I saw a wonderful purple and green layout on Scrapgirls and have been wanting to use those colors together for a while. Now I may end up buying the Ophelia kit that uses those colors. By the way, the reason I list the digital items I use on each layout is that most of the designers put that requirement in their use agreements. Most of what I use I got for free or very inexpensively. If you like something, you can probably find it by typing the name in Google. Papers: dcouturefirendship paper2, Green with swirls Embrace LifeSandeKriegerMemoryMakers, P15Rapunzel, Retrodiva Cozy lace Ribbon, AGE Friendship flower, EH Sunflower (recolored and enhanced), Retrodiva Be Free overlay, my own fern element)
Sharefest
09 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in autobiography, devotional, parenting
Quite frankly, I was not particularly interested in attending the city-wide church outreach Sharefest. I really didn’t know much about what we were going to do or where we were going to go. However, we have always wanted to do ministry alongside our kids and they promised the kids could work with us. Since my friend was one of the people in charge I volunteered to help. We traveled to the far north of town to a project development. The apartments were neat, but barren. I was glad to find out we were assisting a woman who runs a full-time ministry there. Our volunteer hours help her get grants and are an encouragement to her workers. The group of about 130 scraped, painted, served food and built a bench. My friend asked me to take charge of the GA girls planting flowers. We had a wonderful time planting hundreds of begonias up and down the street. I was amazed at how hard the kids worked without stopping or complaining. We got to meet some of the kids who lived there and one dear woman was so very happy to have some “real flowers.” As we left, we drove up and down the street to see our work. The flowers did make the houses look more cheerful. I know enough to realize that changing the lives of these people takes more pain than the few blisters I brought home with me, but I was glad to have a chance to serve alongside of my kids to do the “good work that God prepared in advance for us to do.”
(Ephesians 2:10)
(layout:Dg a Friendship qp, joyful heart designs evoking damask pinkred paper, red scalloped edge embracelife sande krieger memoroy makers, CFR HDI DazzleknotborderEdwardheart)
our junior cooks
07 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in autobiography, digital scrapbooking, motherhood
Lately, my kids have been wanting to cook with me. Sometimes, I’m quite impatient to get something made as quickly as possible and I just want to shoo them away. However, I know I need to let them learn. My mom let me take over most of the baking when I was about eight. Sophie and Mollie are almost that age. So when I decided to make a coffee cake for no particular reason last Sunday afternoon, I decided to let them make it with me and take as long as they wanted. Sophie measured and Mollie mixed the batter. I let them choose the filling and walked away for a few minutes when they were awkwardly attempting to put the batter in the pan. “The worst would be a mess to clean up, ” I reasoned. A few minutes later, Sophie came over. “Would you get the batter out?” she asked, “Its too hard for me.” She skipped away to play, leaving me to finish up and think. I want to remember: focus on the process, not the end result; let them try new things without fear of failing; be there to help and clean up the mess that comes with learning.
(layout: DC Designs Boy Crazy QP3, MAD Gather special, Springfresh Alpha)
dash and daring
26 Apr 2009 Leave a Comment
in autobiography, digital scrapbooking
Our cat, Sweetpea, is not a ferocious fighter. In fact, she prefers to spend most of her days lounging on a towel inside a plastic box in our garage. She is still a young cat, though, and can dash up a tree, or make the squirrels so worried they chatter at her endlessly as she walks by. Nevertheless, we were very surprised to see one day recently that she had “treed” another cat, who was meowing pitifully. Slashing her tail back and forth, Sweetpea looked proudly around, hoping we would notice her conquest. I suppose everyone needs a little dash and daring now and then.
(layout: Quickpage from Retrodiva birds of a feather freebee, alphas from Retrodiva cozy alpha and shabby princess.com Frestival alpha, KSC organic charm, nani button)
Can’t be mended
19 Apr 2009 1 Comment
in autobiography, devotional, digital scrapbooking, motherhood
Laying in bed and trying to go to sleep, I heard a knocking at my door. I was single at the time and alone in the house. I huddled deeper in my blankets, hoping the person would go away. Then I heard a call, “Virginia! Virginia!” It was my friend Sue. She and her husband had a newborn, and their marriage was sometimes shaky. I assumed there had been a fight, and got up, ready to let her in to have some tea and a talk.
Sue was crying and shaking, “John. He’s dead.”
John was her 7 week old baby son. The words did not quite hit me, although I think I did understand them. Sue and I had known each other since we were sixteen. We’d met while doing Junior High ministry at our church. When I moved from Southern to Northern California, Sue had helped me with her truck. Later, on a visit, I had introduced her to a friend of mine. They had gotten married about a year later. I had been with Sue throughout her pregnancy and been her labor coach along with her husband. I had seen this baby being born. He couldn’t be dead.
But he was. I don’t remember much about the rest of the night. I took Sue back to her house. The ambulance had already taken John away. I remember sitting with her and her husband. Talking. Then I went back home. There was a funeral. What do you say when a baby dies? They decided he had died of SIDS. No answer really.
Sue and her husband had two more boys. About ten years later, I got married and started having kids. By then, they knew that SIDS could be prevented by having babies sleep on their backs. I’ve never asked Sue how she feels about that. I was so diligent about following that rule that Brendan ended up being one of those kids with a flat head in the back. Luckily, our family doesn’t tend to go bald.
A few days after John’s funeral, I discovered that Sue had run over my sprinkler when she came into my driveway. It was broken. I fixed it, but it never did work very well after that. Sometimes broken things can’t be mended.
Twenty years have passed by since that night. There have been other births and deaths, joy and pain. Yet an intensity remains for me in this memory of a time I learned that I will not always have an answer, or the right words, or the right feelings. Sometimes broken things can’t be mended.
Yet God still is upholds the world and all that is in it. We read Isaiah 45 today in Bible Study. I am struck by the verse: ”Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’” (Isaiah 45:9). I pray that I will be a pot who can be molded into a vessel fit for use in His hands.
(layout: This is the first in a series of layouts I’m planning about significant moments in my life. I’ve changed the names of my friend. The papers and embellishments come from Digital Freebies MarialaFrance Spring Fresh collection, word art is from Scapgirls Refresh chipboard collection)
Budgie
10 Apr 2009 2 Comments
in autobiography, digital scrapbooking
A confession: we are impulsive acquirers of pets. Our cat, Sweetpea, wandered up to our door and we adopted her three years ago. Last summer, we went “visiting” the animal shelter and came home with our spaniel Violet. A few weeks ago, we went to the pet store to get some feeder goldfish for our birdbath and found ourselves contemplating buying five budgies (parakeets). Five?
A quick reading of the current budgie literature (full of the controversy over whether or not to clip budgie wings), convinced us that one budgie might be a better way to start. I sent Christopher and a couple of the kids off to buy one. They came home with a white bird with a blue spot underneath it’s wings. Inveterate fantasy reader, Maggie, dubbed the bird “Senji.” Christopher said, “I wanted to call it Blue Moon.” I opted for Blue Moon.
Blue seemed rather subdued at first. We tried to talk to him and get him to come on our hands but he didn’t seem interested. Then in the phone book, Christopher discoveredd Ramona the parrot lady and gave her a visit on the way home from work. He came home insisiting Ramona’s was worth a family visit, and it was. On Saturday, we met not only Ramona, but Ramona’s husband, three of her grandchildren and lots of different sorts of parrots I didn’t even know existed. Ramona clipped Blue’s wings for us and pronounced him healthy, but didn’t give us much hope for taming him, “Unless they are hand raised, they don’t tame well. All the ones at the pet stores are too old.” She cautioned us about his bite too. She and her husband regaled us with wonderful stories about the bigger parrots and made us wonder if we should get one. They said the best pet for kids was a blue and gold Macaw. Price tag $1500, plus more for a cage.
Blue Moon cost $23. “Maybe all we want is just a bird to, well, be a bird,” suggested Christopher.
Years ago, I’d had some finches who were “just birds.” They were pretty boring. I thought I’d give training Blue Moon a try. Steffi and I managed to capture him in a box and take him to the bathroom. He fluttered around a lot but we finally got him to land on our hands, then our fingers. After a week of working with him, he has become very tame and even the little girls can get him to “step up” to perch on them.
Blue Moon may never learn to talk like a Macaw, but as a pet for our family, he has given pretty good entertainment value for his $23.
(layout: template 157 from http://dittersfreedoodles.blogspot.com: papers: Retrodiva (http://www.retrodiva.net/, P11 Rapunzel: Alphas: CJS Vineyard cardboard alpha, Retrodiva Cozy Alpha, Retrodiva tweet tweet alpha; elements:MSS Nov ella bird, pretty primavera bow, corinanielsen DSD tag)
“Our Place”
02 Apr 2009 1 Comment
in autobiography, digital scrapbooking, humor
When we were dating, we would eat at Denny fairly frequently. Once Christopher said, “Maybe Denny’s should be ‘Our Place’.”
My answer was pretty quick, “Denny’s is NOT going to be ‘Our Place’.”
Instead, I was picturing white tablecloths, French food, waiters in tuxedos, real flowers, and maybe an ocean view.
I should have stuck with Denny’s. Reality sunk in pretty quick. Or maybe I should say real life. We’ve rarely eaten at nice places unless someone else took us there. Frankly, we are really too cheap to spend more than a few bucks on a meal. Furthermore, of course, those kids started coming after a couple of years. Kids who liked to spend most of their restaurant time crying, under the table, or throwing things under the table (at least my first two were like that). It didn’t take long before we stopped going to any place that didn’t have a playland.
If any place became ours, it was CiCi’s. For quite a while, we could feed our crew for about $10. As we’ve grown in numbers and size, the price has gone up, but we can still feed our seven for under $30, so that’s a bargin. Moreover, everyone still loves to go, especially Steffi who loves the curly pasta with white sauce. I’ve tried to make this at home, but it never seems to be quite the same.
Now that our family is older, they can actually sit pleasantly through a meal, and we have sometimes graduated up to Chili’s (across the street from CiCi’s). But I’d still have to call CiCi’s “Our Place,” because that’s where all the memories are.
(Layout: I finally loaded my brushes into my program and tried them out here. I’m just getting the hang of using them–they are the frames. I used papers from Shabby Princess Kristy collection, brushes are from Scrapgirls ASO Florid and JHI Christmas borders Family Special)
6 hours and back
31 Mar 2009 3 Comments
in autobiography, digital scrapbooking, motherhood
I drove six hundred miles yesterday, to San Antonio and back. Steffi and I started at 4:00 a.m. and came back at 4:00 p.m.–just in time to bring Brendan to swim lessons and do my workout–six miles on the bicycle and weights. Some days I think I’m crazy.
The reason for the trip was to see the awards ceremony for the state science fair and to give Maggie a ride home. The ceremony was very long and Maggie didn’t win anything. That was disappointing and a bit of a let-down since she had won so many awards at the regional science fair that I did not attend (who would have thought she’d win anything with a “growing seeds in salt water” experiment?). Anyway, I felt a little guilty about missing that, so I wanted to be sure to see this ceremony. This very, very long ceremony. With lots of speakers. All saying mostly the same thing–”You are all very good at science. We hope you will keep on taking classes and become a scientist or an engineer.” Some of them added, “And go to our University too.”
I do actually agree with that message since I’m married to a scientist. To tell the truth, I was very good at math and science when I was in Junior High School and the beginning of High School. I thought I wanted to be a scientist. Then I encountered two dreadful things. 1. a very nice but totally incompetent math teacher, and 2. a high school councilor who told me that because I was a girl, I should not try to take chemistry along with advanced Biology and math. Can you believe someone actually told that to me? That was 1976. They’d be sued now, I suppose.
I never got a chance to even do a science project, much less enter in a science fair. So,I turned to the arts, where I was able to be on the speech and debate team, the literary journal, and the newspaper. We didn’t exactly have a formal “gifted” program, but they’d gotten some grant money somewhere and asked us what we wanted to do. We told them we wanted to learn how to develop pictures and make a movie. So we did that. The movie was a take-off on the radio show “The Shadow” and was called, “The Shadow’s Lost Revenge.” We shot it in black and white on 8mm tape. It had a terribly complicated and incomprehensible plot which was filmed in very slow scenes with organ music in the background. It took months to make. It was boring to watch. We had a wonderful time.
I had wonderful English teachers who taught creatively and gave us a lot of freedom to work on independent projects and papers. I thrived at being told that the limits to a project were my own to make.
Maggie is a better artist than I was at that age and she can probably write better than I could too. However, she also has a breadth of science learning from her father. He would like all of the kids to go into science or engineering because we need more Americans in both of those fields. I have to agree, although I guess I would love to have some of my kids become writers like me. Probably, they will all be teachers of some sort because we are a hopelessly pedantic family.
I’m not sure driving 600 miles for a science fair will be worth it every year, but I’m glad I did it this year, with this kid.
(layout: I had terrible pictures. They were either taken with my cell phone or from a long distance inside a dark room. I’ve seen people use a picture as background and wanted to try that, so I took the picture of Maggie and Steffi and enlarged it to page size. It was very pixilated since it was also cropped, but I reduced the opacity to about 50% and then put a blue background behind it. I like the way it turned out. I think I’ll experiment with using that effect again)
Help! I’m Stuck
28 Mar 2009 Leave a Comment
in autobiography, digital scrapbooking, parenting
Sometimes, I’m not a very good mother. Steffi had been yelling, “Help” for quite a while before I actually left my computer to come and see what was the problem. Somehow, she had gotten stuck in the couch. All she had to do was to pull her arms out, but somehow her little muscles couldn’t quite do that.
We’ve all been feeling a bit stuck since Nicole’s death. Steffi has been acting up in a way we are not at all accustomed to experiencing. She has slammed doors, shouted, scratched and hit. She disobeys. She won’t follow directions. Actually, those are all normal activities for pretty much all kids, it is just that Steffi has never done any of those things. Is it because she is dealing with her own emotions about seeing Meme for so many weeks and then not having her there any more? Or is it that she is just ready for school and more activities? Maybe she is just finally safe enough with us to act out?
I’m trying to act on all fronts. I want to spend more time with her and give her extra attention. I’m trying to notice her right away when she asks me something and to hold her on my lap even more than usual. However, I’m also going to have her spend a second day each week with her friends at Mothers Day Out.
Chris and I are just now getting out of our fog of feeling down and deeply sad. The strangest part is that we both have been focusing on our own last five years of life a lot–as if we suddenly were facing our own deaths. We’ve both thought about death a lot. Just this week, we both had a revelation–we aren’t 85 yet. We actually probably have 35-40 years of busy living ahead. I think we are getting ready to live it.
(layout: freebie paper from Scrapgirls-Florid overlay paper special, frame: SPcom Festival_Swirly Frame. I had not used this frame before–it doesn’t look like much, but I applied pink glass effect to the frame and also bevels. I like the way it makes the picture fit the paper but also brings out the pink. I love using the plastic and glass effects with bevels for titles too.)
