M is for monkey, moon, and mouse

Today we had preschool at our house.  It was only Ian and his friend Aurelia in attendance but we had fun learning about the letter Mm, the number 12, and practicing our cutting, gluing and coloring skills.  I can't believe we are half way done with our school year.  It will be over soon and I am going to miss it. It has been such a fun experience for all of us and I'm so glad we did it.  Next year Ian will be enrolled in a local preschool so I hope that everything he we are doing this year will prepare him for that.  

  

Reading Goals for 2012

I love to read. I always have. Books are my most favorite thing to collect.  I buy more books than I think I will ever be able read. It's an obsession. So in order to justify all of the books I've purchased and all of the books that I want to purchase I have decided to make a reading goal for myself for the year.  I plan to read at least one book a month, maybe 2 if I can find the time.  My plan is to alternate between fiction books and spiritual growth books.  I was lucky enough to win a Kindle Fire at Mr.G's work Christmas party last month (I never win anything.....ever). It is the most awesome thing I have ever seen! I already have about 20 book samples on it and have purchased a few that I want to read right away. It even let me move over my books from my old Kindle.  I can even access my magazine subscriptions on it. Reading just got a whole lot easier. And because this device is so awesome I have been really good about reading every night this month and am almost done with this months book.  I am currently reading this book and I absolutely love it.  I can't wait to get to the next one and I'm not even done with this one yet.  I'm looking forward to the movie version which comes out in March.

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Here are some of the other books I plan on reading this year.  What are you reading?  

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Self portraits

These are the kind of self portraits a 3 year old will take with the camera on your phone if left unattended.  They are seriously too cute.  I couldn't stop laughing when I saw them.  There were at least 20 of them but these are by far my favorite.  Silly boy.

Project Life-Week 1

I finished week one of my Project Life album.  I am so excited!!  I can't wait to get started on week two.  I think the key to getting it done is to have all of your supplies together and ready to go so when you have time to do it so you aren't wasting time looking for adhesive, embellishments, or pens.  I gathered up some supplies that I thought I might want to use on my Project Life and put them in a basket that I could easily move to the living room or kitchen when I wanted to work on my album.  This made everything so much easier.  I'm sure I will be adding more supplies to it as the year goes on but I'm going to try and keep things at a minimum so as not to overwhelm myself with too many options.  I have lots of alphabet stickers, 6x6 paper pads, embellishments, stamps and ink, adhesive, washi tape, and the Project Life Clementine Core Kit.  I had a great time put the first week together and it took no time at all.  I have a Project Life board on Pinterest that I went to for some inspiration.  I'm hoping to get week two done on Sunday so check back for a post on it.  Anyone else doing Project Life? Post a link in the comments so I follow your progress.  Happy Friday!

And So It Begins

So today I finally started my Project Life Album.  It's been sitting in the box it arrived in for a month and I didn't want to get too far behind so I sat down today and put all the page projectors in and all of the title cards.  I completed the title page and will work on the first weeks layouts this week.  I'm going to keep it simple during the weeks when life is busy and out of control (we all have those) and on the weeks when I have more time I'd like to be able to get more creative with the layouts.  Last year I had every intention of doing Project Life but I just never got into the groove of it.  I have a semi-completed album (all the title cards and filler cards are in the page protectors with no photos) so I'm trying to figure out how to get it done without stressing myself out. I'm thinking maybe just photos of the kids from last year and not worrying about it being chronological just fun photos from all of the things we did last year.  Anyway, I digress.  So here are some photos of the products I'm using and my title page.  I will do weekly posts on my Project Life Album progress.  I also have a board on Pinterest with lots of inspiration to help me get my pages done.  I'm also following lots of other Project Life bloggers and using their pages as inspiration too.  If you're doing Project Life leave a link to your blog in the comments section so I can check out your progress and get some ideas.  If you're interested in Project Life products go here.  I'm using the Clementine Core Kit and binder.  I'm also using Design A, B, C, D, and G photo pocket pages.  I will be using other scrapbook supplies to complete my pages too.  It should be a really fun project and I'm going to let the kids help me with the journaling and adding some of their school art and work to the album too.  I love to save and use memorabilia from our trips in mini albums and I will most definitely be doing that here too.  I'm in the process getting my desk organized too so  I will set up a little section just for my Project Life supplies.  If it's all out for me to see and I have easy access to it I know that I will be more inclined to get it done.  I have lots of ideas of what I want to do with Project Life but I will tackle this project one week at a time until I get into the groove of it.  

December Daily Days 7-13

I hope that I'm not the only one who didn't finish their DD album in December.  I have yet to finish it but I am determined to finish it by this weekend so I can start on my Project Life album.  Here are some photos of days 7-13.  I will post the final days pages next week.  Then I will be working on my Project Life album.  I have so many projects that I want to do this year that I am going to have to literally pencil them into my calendar to make sure that they get done.  First things first.  Here is my December Daily. Enjoy!!