Lots of Snow...

Man, I always wonder why we live here....  my friend in Florida's son needed some snow photos for a lesson in school. Of course, she called me....  here are just a few that we sent her....

Could this little kid really be any cuter???

When you cannot afford to send flowers...

Make them!

The girls and I made Auntie Mindy a THANK YOU for taking us out for a super fun GIRLS DAY OUT yesterday. We are going to see her again tonight (to return my niece who spent the night with us) and are so excited to give these to her! Each girl painted her a thank you card as well.  Fun, thoughtful, and FREE. Triple bonus. :)

Featured in the Local Post Tribune Paper....

I was so excited that my recent "10 things I love about you" class was featured in the local paper. It was about 3/4 of the Front Page in the Neighbor section. My friends Jen and Michelle even had photos of their kids in the article. I wish they had mentioned my website (I asked them to) but it was still awesome to know that people might have thought about making something when they read this:

Link To Article

Finding JOY in 2009

It is day 17 of a wonderful year so far. I have worked out daily, gotten back on track of counting my points and really watching what I eat, trying to get more sleep (not happening so far, but I have a goal to do that) and I have lost 8.9 pounds already, too. I also have committed to the Project 365 concept of one photo a day and one memory from that day stored in a simple way. I did this a couple of years ago, but I did not have a super simple system to organize it all. My husband was diligent and picked up a Becky Higgins 365 kit for Shannon and myself. It came yesterday, and man it is great. I have printed out my photos daily (on my little mini printer I love love love) and just have to stick them into the pockets.

I find great JOY and PEACE in taking a photo a day. I love that my family is looking at every day with me deciding what part of this one day is the part we want to never forget. I love looking at simple life moments as wonderful memories. I love the idea of the girls and I looking back at this Project 365 in 20 years and LAUGHING at our hair, our clothes, and other little funny things. I cannot imagine how much I would enjoy something like this from when Matt, Mindy and I were little. I feel blessed to have found out about this concept the day before they went on sale, and I feel very lucky to be one of the few to have gotten one because they sold out so quickly. I feel like I am adding to an heirloom every day, and it makes my heart feel happy.

Here are a few of my daily photos so far (I do not plan on posting them every day because I am ALL ABOUT simple this year, and that would stress me out). I will try to post from time to time. I feel 100% certain that I will stay committed to this and to working out and eating right. All of that will bring me great JOY (which is my word of the year for you Ali Edwards fans).

Trying to get together a newsletter about Make Something Monday, but I had my first Parent/Teacher conferences this week, and I had so much to do to prepare for those... I will get that rolling by February.... and I hope it will inspire some people to make something.

I hope anyone reading this is finding JOY this year. :)

And a special thanks to those of you who emailed me asking if I was OK because I had not blogged in a while. Teaching is sucking up all my time, so there will not be as many blog posts this year, but I will do them once in a while to let you know about simple ways to capture memories, classes I am teaching, and Once Upon A Family sale items.... in fact, the AWESOME Lessons for Little Ones full set in the box (all 12 months) is on sale this month for 1/2 off - only $49 for all 12 lesson kits PLUS the box. Never going to get a better deal than that! I simply love doing these lessons with my girls. I love helping them understand important life concepts like Gratitude, Honesty, Family and so much more by completing simple fun projects just once a month like a family!

And, January is DOUBLE HOSTESS POINTS so if you want to run a quick book party, let me know and I can get you out some catalogs.... you can easily earn wonderful things FREE for your family with DOUBLE HOSTESS POINTS!

Hope you are all having an amazing start to your year!

Looking forward to a new year....

Hi. I hope anyone that reads this blog had a happy new year. My girls were both ill, so we spend a peaceful night at home snuggled on the air mattress in the basement with a fire in the fireplace watching movies. It was peaceful and at 9 PM we pretended it was midnight..... did the countdown and everything. My friend (whose house we were supposed to go to with the kids) brought over hats and horns which was SO NICE! And sparkling grape juice. It was fun. And they are feeling much better today.

Ok, now for a work based thing (sort of work based...)  I want to MAKE SOMETHING this year. And I want to help anyone who needs motivation MAKE SOMETHING, too. There are so many people I know who REALLY REALLY want to MAKE SOMETHING, but they get too caught up in being super organized, being "caught up", or wanting everything to be perfect before they make anything. Please, get over that need with me and MAKE SOMETHING for your family this year. I will help you.

I am working on a newsletter I hope to mail out a newsletter (you can sign up for my newsletter on the right tool bar of this blog if you are not on my list already) which invites you to MAKE SOMETHING this year. If you want to get things made rather than worry about perfection, you should sign up for this (by commenting on this blog post). I will happily email you every Monday night in 2009 to see how you are doing. I am a big fan of "Make Something Monday" which I tried to do in 2008.  It does not have to be Monday, it does not have to be fancy, it can be anything at all. Printing one photo, writing one story, uploading photos, adding memories to a digital book, simply capturing one memory....  week by week, one at a time. No pressure, no big expense....  just people motivating each other to MAKE SOMETHING for their family.

If you want to join my little MAKE SOMETHING group, email me at klsb@comcast.net OR post a comment on this blog (PLEASE put your email address in the post because I cannot usually find your email otherwise). I am not exactly sure how I will be able to set it up yet, but I will figure that out this weekend. I just wanted to let you know I was planning this to start next Monday.  So be starting a list of little things you can make. Just one little thing every week and we will all have 52 little things by this time next year. Ahhhh, that idea makes me happy.

I think I had success (when I counted points and showed up for my weekly meetings) on weight watchers because someone KNEW I was supposed to be there weighing in at my meetings. Because someone wrote in a little book if I had a successful week or if I needed to try a little harder.  I loved it. It worked for me when I stuck with it. (by the way, when you STOP counting points, STOP working out, and begin eating everything in site, the weight comes RIGHT BACK ON!).  I want to be your check point...  I want you to let me know what you are working on and how I can help you MAKE SOMETHING this year.  I think I will ask a couple of friends if they can donate a couple of prizes that will be raffled off to those trying to MAKE SOMETHING.... I think I will try to create a pdf of a check box that allows you to print it out and then you can put a check mark or a small sticker into the boxes for every week you MAKE SOMETHING. I am not sure yet. If you have an idea of how I could help you get motivated, let me know. I just wanted to let you know what I was thinking about today and invite you to MAKE SOMETHING this year with me. I look forward to seeing what we all create together.

Happy 2009. It is full of potential and anything is possible.