This weekend I went hiking in my beautiful Colorado!  Here are some photos I took and used the Pioneer Woman’s Photoshop Actions:

I have been obsessing over the gold toe, heel, etc. movement cropping up in the most unlikely of places on our footwear.  Sure, I am all for a nice tan shoe, but I feel a little more daring and spontaneous when I have a flash of gold peeking out!

Here are some examples of what I am talking about:

J. Crew

So, on my shoestring budget, I decided to do a little Guilding myself:

It’s that easy people!  So go out the become an Alchemist, at least with your footwear!

Much like the book:

G and I went on a GREEN HUNT in our own home.  We decided to document our findings by writing them down in her notebook, coloring them (what else) green.  You can do this too, it’s easy and keeps your child learning and looking!

What you need:

• Pad of paper
• Green writing utensil

Start by writing “green” at the top of the notebook’s page that you will use.  Ask your little one to try and read it, and then tell them you are “going on a green hunt”! 

Start by going to the first room, sitting in the middle, and ask if your little one sees any green around.  Have them spot it and then write it down.  If your little one can’t discern that color at first, don’t correct… just redirect her/him to the right color.

We had to show a sleeping daddy afterwards!  Our hunt produced all kinds of green findings, and I helped to draw some of our objects so when we finished we could review what we had found.  Tomorrow night it’s pink, and even I am excited!

Have fun!

Good Morning!  I wanted to share a little activity I did the other day with my daughter G (2 1/2 years old) with a little help from a visit to the Library! (Ideas for older kids at the end of this post!)  Here’s what you need to do/grab for this one:

• “Mommy” scissors (unless your little one can now handle scissors appropriately)
• Glue Stick (I find they’re a little less messy than regular glue, but its up to you)
• Construction Paper
• Book: Mouse Count (we got it at our local library) Click below to buy!

First READ Mouse Count!  Next, transition to your work table and cut out shapes in similar colors to the shapes used by the mice in the book.

Second, ask your little one to use the glue stick to glue the shapes to the paper.  This was a trial run for both of us!

Third, open to a page you’d like to copy with the mouse shapes (any page you can do, we did the “sun, tree, house” page because it was easier for G to comprehend)

Fourth, start to talk out loud and question where the shapes belong on your little one’s paper that are similar to the one in the book.  G had a great time starting to realize she was making the same shapes and objects as the one in the book.  We even pretended she was a little mouse to have some more fun!

Fifth, have your little one hang it somewhere they love, or put it in your book if you aren’t borrowing it from the library!    This was a ton of fun, and when reading the book the next night little G gasped when we came to this page and ran over to show me that she had made the exact same objects! (Ignore the morning hair below… the learning opportunity was much more important than the hairbrush!)

IDEA FOR OLDER KIDS: I would have older kids try to cut the shapes themselves and go for making the fish or the cat.

A little while ago I was overjoyed to learn I was pregnant with our second child.  My husband and I were so joyful, so exuberant that we would not only be graced with another baby, but have the opportunity to grow our family and give G a sibling.  Being pregnant and knowing what’s coming is like swallowing the moon… what absolute love and warmth it brings to your heart.

We had 4 wonderful months with our Hope.  Without ever meeting her, she was able to bring our family such a season of rejoicing and treasure.  We were abundant in happiness, and it was all because of Hope.  A day shy of 17 weeks pregnant I learned I had miscarried, and delivered Hope at the hospital.  As a mother I can never describe the loss of my child other than it simply broke my heart.

I have been a “tide” of a believer when it comes to Jesus Christ.  I ebb and flow, come in and out in my relationship with Him, changing from being near and far from Him.  That night we lost Hope I didn’t just feel Jesus there, with me, but saw him scoop up this baby girl of our world and take her with Him to Heaven.  It wasn’t a dream or a flight of fancy.  The image remains clear to this day- Him taking Hope from this fallen world and carrying her to eternity.  Since that moment, my tide has come in.

Its been some time since Hope passed away.  Every day that goes by I think of her, what she’s doing, if she’s watching me and our family.  I wonder about how to start to assemble the pieces of our lives that reflected her, the time we spent anticipating her, and so on.  My husband and I wonder how to stay on the “path” with this sort of grief.

The other day my daughter and I went on a walk.  It was on a trail that my mom had brought her on before, and I am sure my mom must have called it the “path” instead of trail.  G kept asking me, while walking along, “Mama, are we on the path?”  I would answer yes a few times, but every so often she would turn to ask my this same question.  Finally I took her hands and looked into her face.  “Yes, G, we’re on the path.  We try every day to stay on the path.”  She nodded and stopped asking me… and I thought about it.

Every day, every hour, every minute my family and I are trying to stay on the theoretical path Jesus provides for us.  And the path has grief, has pain, has loss on it.  But it also has my daughter G on it, and my husband.  It has twists and turns, ups and down, but nevertheless leads us to Him.  At the end of this path I’m walking now I hope to finally meet my Hope.  And the journey to that end is worth every step.

This was a fun way to spend some time with my daughter this morning, and a great way to start learning about logo recognition and food!  G is now 2 and almost 4 months old, so we are starting to really look at letters, numbers, shapes, etc and try to spot them around our stompin’ grounds!

Try this idea out with your little one!

Start with scissors, book, newspaper clippings (see below for what to cut out), markers, and computer paper folded in half and stapled.

Start with cutting out logos in your local Sunday newspaper.  We cut out grocery stores so the caterpillar could eat food at each of them!  Have little ones help to tape the logos down on the paper.  We aren’t going for perfection here- mostly just the process of doing this together!!

Cut out food from the newspaper as well… today we had Parade do a feature on fast food so we cut out their graphics!  Tape the food (ask the little one choose which food would be good) and tape it on!

Lastly, let little ones draw a green caterpillar (we were referencing Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar so we used green, just like in the book).  G insisted on connecting the store’s logo to the food… which was awesome! (see below)

Finally, finish your book with a great big butterfly on the last page!  On each page I wrote…

“Gracie the caterpillar stopped by (insert name of store) and ate a (insert name of food)… but she was still hungry!”

It’s so much fun, and I hope you have as much success with this as I did with my toddler!

All’s quiet on the home front, for awhile now… hmmm, have I fallen off the face of the earth?  No!  Just that I have a good excuse as to where and why I’ve been a little absent lately!

Baby #2 is making his/her way into our lives late December!

As it looks, I will soon be blogging about our adventures of parenthood with one here and one on the way… and how seriously happy and blessed we are to have this next great journey be full of love and celebration!

We were able to visit the coveted Horseshoe Craft & Flea Market this Saturday in Denver!  It was FABULOUS!  I did not spend over $100 though I easily could have and then some!  If you need a jump start in creativity, from staring at Pinterest to too many purchases from Bed Bath and Beyond, this place will rock your world, food trucks included!

Wanna join us next time?

 Here are some upcoming dates (click the boxes to go directly to their link):

There is a man at work who is much older and a dishwasher.  He is commonly found with a smile on his face, and always asks me, without fail, “having fun?”.  I am at work when he says this, (we both are) so, no, I don’t usually answer that I am “having fun” at work.  I would have to be getting off work, on my way to go shopping or to see the Hunger Games, to really be “having fun”.

But today, after we ended our Young Marrieds Small Group at church on the “not a fan” six week small group discipleship study, I’ve been really thinking about how I approach life and what I am doing to be a Follower.

(To find out more about “not a fan” study go to www.notafan.com)

So today I walk into the kitchen for some really awesome quiche.  I am tired, the shoe on my right foot is wearing a blister on my heel, and I don’t want to admit the weekend is over just yet.  But here he comes, this grinning and happy and unbelievably compatible  human.  I am almost annoyed by this.  And then he says it!  “Having fun?”

“Well…” I start to want to go back to the “old me”, telling him all the reasons I am not really having fun per say.  But then I change my mind.  “Yes, I am having fun today,” I announce, his grin becoming absolutely contagious.

My day was, well, fun too! I got to catch up on some family photos with a resident, laughed with my Bingo group, and found some great entertainment prospects.  Maybe I’m not hang gliding or surfing or even at the park with my family, but in every way I am still having fun at work, and its okay to acknowledge it every so often.

I want you to try and find the fun in life, even if its just a little fun, just a little smile even.  But as long as we start to have fun, and spread the word, life is a little more bearable!

So, without further ado- ARE YOU HAVING FUN?

G was riding on my back as I did push-ups… and yes, I’m sore today!!!