We gather together...

Here is a sign I made for our house. It's above our dining room and just before the kitchen. A place where we gather together to ask the Lord's blessing.

Eucharisteo Moment

Eucharisteo - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember as thanks to the Lord.

cool idea!

I love these little tea lights from IKEA! They smell so lovely and so good and I'm always lighting them around our place in little vases or jars. They really are the best. But the packaging and such is a little messy, not a fan of bagged tea lights, and if you try to keep them in the package they seem to get all over the place. So...I found a great way to upcycle what I normally would have put in the trash.....

Enter: the Cascade box. Yes, I know, they are not the most eco-friendly of detergents, butcha' know what? They actually clean the plates!

Walla! A great holder for those tea-lights and the lid is perfect for easy access. These babies would make great crayon holders, button holders, really anything, but I've found them to fit a whole package of tea lights. yay!

back to business

Ah yes, summer has been flying by. We've been busy, what's new? What did you miss? Vacation to San Diego including camping at the beach, I celebrated my 30th birthday. Soeren celebrated his first birthday, school continues, recipes tried out, sewing and scrapbooking. Lots of great stuff. Just doing everything to avoid the dreaded fact that we live in Phoenix and today it is 110 degrees outside. It is CRAZY hot! But I won't think about it, we will move on and share pictures! How about that?

we got to visit my mom (she flew out from SC!!) and here is her shot with all 10 grandkids (the first time ever!) with them all together. It was so great!

My husband and I NEVER get pictures taken of just the two of us...we made up for it! I love these so much!

...and this will be the Christmas card picture!

My sweet sister in law Sally and I in Oceanside near their groovy beach side apartment. I was completely jealous and ready to move in.

a discovery made, my mom and I look A LOT alike. I mean, if this doesn't say it all, I don't know what does. Spooky huh?

Camping at night near the fireside. Cold? we experienced cold? Yep, it was amazing!

My 30th birthday...

All the girls in my family. Such great times!

Hopefully I'll be posting more often, recipes discovered, projects and the like. Love to you all!

wedding tea party

Yes, I got up at 2am this morning to watch. Abi got up too and the two of us giggled and oooo and aaahhhed over everything. Watching a royal wedding with my little girl was ultimate bliss. I cried when the bride came down the aisle as I thought about the final days and THE wedding in Heaven. The church will be adorned in white. And here was this gorgeous bride this morning coming to meet her groom in royal colors with regal pagentry. So beautiful! They played "Jerusalem", my favorite hymn of all time and of course I cried again. All of England sang together, yet another image of things to come. Of course we had to celebrate, and what better than to have an English tea breakfast party: Bangers, sausages, lemon curd, strawberry shortcakes, some crackers and cheese, and Earl Grey tea.

Genn loved the printables where she could decorate the royal cake

and here is Abi making special hats for the occasion.

Here is the lemon curd recipe, it's the one I always use. Never fails. Unbelievably addicting.

the first stages of the lemon curd

and a yummy jar freshly made.

Hope your day is delightful and full of love.

who needs a gym?

Before you read this: please do not mind the lack of fashionable workout gear, the lack of a pedicure, or the lack of pants on my two year (potty training in high gear around here)

So THIS is my gym. "Hmmm" you say "where are the weights, where are the fancy treadmills, t.v's and gym freaks?" Well, I have kids: much better!

Dragging children along the floor, clasped to your ankles is a great workout for the back of the thighs!

Here I am working on my arms...

I've now increased the weights and am working on my hamstrings.

Some squats...

Working the bycepts.

Plank pose...

push-ups with a little extra (55 lb) challenge

More squats, increasing the weights this time.

Working out with kids. The laughter goes right to those abs, the workout is intense and the fun never-ending!

coming down off the sugar

Here are my five sweet kiddos in their Easter Sunday best. Easter was fantastic, good church service, good ham, mashed potatoes, good Asparagus/hollandaise casserole (an invention of mine), good rolls, and LOTS of candy. So much candy!!!! The kids were a little twitchy this morning... right back into homeschool? nope! Let's start slow.

I have a lot of packages of photo paper I snagged in a cleaning out of a school supply stash. What to do with all that paper. I was inspired by this San Diego artist's work and I thought it would be fun to mimic her art. So here are a few snaps from our ink and watercolor project.

I did this one for demonstration, not very good, but you get the idea.

I love the abstractness of my two year old's artwork. The kids loved this project. Great way to warm up slowly into the schooling work-week. Happy Easter to all of you. and remember... He is Risen... He is Risen Indeed!!!!

Blissfull weekending

Lovely April weekend of very warm temperatures. Exciting events like babies standing, enjoying company and fellowship with wonderful people, really good food( peanut butter chocolate chip cookies being one of them) Babies being passed around, wine being passed around, laughter being passed around: beautiful!

Smiling babies!!!

Beautiful gifts from a lovely friend, pretty things that bring a smile to my face!

Weeding, weeding and more weeding and counting all the blossoms on my habanero plant.

and all the lovely yellow heirloom tomatoes I'm about to enjoy

And the exciting beef steam tomato coming along nicely...

And one hilarious and now POTTY TRAINED two (almost three!) year old.

Looking forward to watching this movie a friend lent me. Can't wait!!! Also excited to dive into this book which just came in the mail. Looking forward to family coming to town to visit....happy Spring days indeed. Blissfull indeed!

Coupon purse

This last weekend I went to a workshop on couponing and saving some serious cash from thepractical saver lady . I was so inspired!!! So much to learn and so much money to save. She showed us something she uses for her coupons and I thought to myself "I can make that!!!". It's a little different than the one she has and I have yet to make the dividers out of old folders but here is the purse.

It has a button in the front for when you want to close it, and one in the back for when you want to hang it over your grocery cart handle and have easy access to your coupons. I fell in love with this material at JoAnne's and used a 40 % off coupon to buy a yard (which was more than enough material) It is reinforced too.

I really love how it turned out!