In the Storm

60 New Books in 2015.

My read more new books in 2015 project continues with a couple of good reads. After watching the movie War Room and completing the Bible study, The Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer it wasn't surprising that I'd pick up her book, Fervant that basically accompanies the study and compliments the movie. I loved the book!

I also read the autobiography by Gretchen Carlson, Getting Real. I haven't read an autobiography in along time (I think the last one was by Billy Graham) and I find them intriguing. That said, I'm not sure I liked hers. It wasn't bad and she talked about some interesting things but Getting Real for a title would say to me that the good and the bad would be 'revealed' and unless she had such a sugar-coated life as read in her book I'm not sure she really got real with the audience. I think she was transparent in some parts but there seem to be some things, maybe, left out.

The life-changing magic of tidying up. Putting the condescending attitude aside, attributed most-probably to her heritage, and tucking unrealistic visions into the far-reaches of the attic, I did like the book. It wasn't life-changing. Nor magical. I did, however, immediately purge my side of the closet of clothes and my costume jewelry. One note: if one lives with those with any degree of hoarding and they have no desire to purge and simplify what should be done? Does the author just assume that someone will disregard the wishes of another, like the she did with her family, and purge and simplify and tidy up for them? I think not! This is not going to happen! While I do not like the amount of 'stuff' we have I am not going to force my family to purge, simplify, or 'tidy up'. All that said, there are some good points in there. Loved how to fold things for drawers...

stories 2015 | wood splittin'

It may seem mundane. Or weird. Making a scrapbook page of Jeff, John, and Jarrod splitting wood but, man, this is life around here. Twice a year these guys do this thing. First, they spend an afternoon here and another there chopping wood, both ax and saw chopping, because there is always someone who has a fell tree that needs cleared of their property. Then they spend a day with a rented wood splitter, that I may or may not have had to pick up from the rental company, splitting a truckbed of logs into an enormous stack of split wood.

And they do this all for their Boy Scout Troops Boston Butt cook and fundraiser. And don't get me started on the amount of time and effort they put into those. Ok, twist my arm: generally, for Jeff, about 36 straight hours of backbreaking work from retrieving the cookers, prepping the cookers, to cooking the butts, stoking the fires, to cleaning the cookers, and then returning the cookers to their owners.

Don't get me wrong, when all is said and done we usually have anywhere from 3-5 smoked Boston Butts tucked away in our freezer to be enjoyed fully sometime later.

Digital products: Sahlin Studios' Like a Boss and Viewpoint

30 Days of Thankful | 7

30 Days of Thankful | 6

'Tis true I am behind. But, I finally realized I don't need specific photos, general photos will do and I can still tell my daily stories of gratitude.

stories 2015 | watching

We've watched some really good television this year. I just wanted to document, because it's truly apart of our life, what we've been viewing. My own three favorites so far this year have been Blue Bloods, but of course! Blacklist reaches the top of the list, and Madam Secretary, my most recent favorite, joins in for the top three contenders. New seasons of all through are on prime time television right now but their showtimes leave much to be desired for this girl who has to hit the pillow by 9pm for her 4:15am alarm.

Digital Products by Sahlin Studios

30 Days of Thankful | 5

Oh, the pool.

Oh, swimming.

I love swimming.

Swimming holds a piece of my heart.

For 1 hour all the bad pain goes away.

For 1 hour as I swim lap after lap only good pain remains.

For 1 hour the trials and challenges are, at the very least, sitting on the edge of the pool hoping I'll pick them up again.

For 1 hour I have no fears, no sorrows, no sadness, no frustrations.

Just the water and me.

I'm so grateful to God for any time I get to swim.
 

ashley loves her people.

Ashley is enrolled in the Master's program for Christian counseling at Liberty University - online but she has had to do a couple in-residence practicums. This is from the week she attended in October and was part of a group of ladies where they learned group therapy techniques. And with a group of ladies who all just - clicked!

Sending kisses Ash!

And I love how this page turned out. I began with a digital template and modified the size of the larger photo. I deleted a bunch of template embellishments. Then, I used One Little Bird's digital kit Better Together for the papers, sweet little journal card, and additional embellishments scattered throughout the page. 

love these little things.

This was fun to put together, albeit time-consuming. I'm not normally a 'circle' scrapbooker and definitely not so much on the embellishment angle but I totally scraplifted this page by Stephanie Bryan for Ali Edwards' Story Kit: Little Things. Except my page was for my sweet, precious grandson, Noah.

This little guy is fillin' out and just too cute for words. Can't wait to see him toward the end of this month for Thanksgiving when Elizabeth puts this sweet little thing back in my arms for some cuddle time.

 

noah at 2 months.

Elizabeth has been pretty good about posting photos to Facebook and she even sent a 2 month list of Noah-isms that I used for the journaling. Thanks so much, E. Noah is pretty darn cute! He is filling out nicely and getting a bunch of character in his expressions. This year is gonna' be fun while I put this album together.

Just look at that face:)

This will be a filler page between the months - maybe. Haven't decided how I'm going to work it yet. I'll probably do some inspiration searching and then go back through all the photos for the filler pages. We'll see...

date night album

I'm building a date night album one page at a time. Honestly, I haven't decided if I will gather all our date photos from past dates or just begin from today. I've already made pages of a ton of dates, regular 12 x 12 size but I've been so inspired by the 6 x 8 size album and I recently picked up a turquoise 6 x 8 leather album with protectors and I hadn't decided what to do with the album. I just knew at some point I'd make a 6 x 8 album.

So, a date night album it is.

This is the album front page cover. I used a stamp set from Ali Edwards' BUILD story kit and turned it into a chipboard set. I love how it turned out!

I even put together the first two-page 6 x 8 of our most recent date night. 

I absolutely love how it turned out. I'm not creative when it comes to embellishments so I'm pretty much going to keep it pretty clean and simple. 

Date nights are such an integral part of our life together that it seems only, well, necessary, to document this fun part. We've changed things up over the years from one night a month date night, then twice a month, and now we are dating once a week. It is our time together, even if it's just dinner, to relax, communicate, share a meal, decompress, watch a movie, walk the beach, whatever our hearts desire...and whatever our pocket book can afford.

We went to the Six Pence Pub on Bull Street, downtown Savannah, the night before Halloween no less, when lots of crazy's were out (in a good way). We had a lot to talk about, shared a great meal at the bar, I drank a Jameson Irish Coffee and watched the people come and go.