Treasures From The Heart

 Well after yesterday's Thanksgiving feast, I guess it's time to gear up for the grand finale of the year...Christmas! My family is not big on Christmas, but I do like to give little gifts from the heart. Today, I found the amazing photo card that you see above on Shutterfly. They literally have hundreds of beautiful, full color, and chic cards to choose from. You can take a look at the some of these amazing cards yourself here. For me, it's much more personal to give and recieve gifts that mean something to me and that I can cherish for years to come. What better treasure to recieve than a photo of my family members with beautiful text saying something memorable. I guess I'm just an ole softy like that.

By the way, all of my family members that are reading can just consider this post to be a shameless and blantant hint (hint, hint).

I LOVE the Shutterfly photo cards because they are quite frankly gorgeous! I particularly love the collage style ones because it is always just so darn difficult to pick one cute picture of the kids to put on a card. The card that I'm displaying above has the perfect marriage of elegant colors and simple font to really highlight the pictures that I choose to go on the card. So family, your getting a sneak peak at your little treasure from me to you...hehehe. I especially like this card (showcased above) because it DOES NOT say "Merry Christmas" or use the words "Christmas, Holiday, Happy, Merry," or any other combination of words that specify any particular holiday. It gets straight to the matters of the heart "Love, Peace, and Joy" all the things that I treasure...now thats what I'm talkin about. I'm going to be sending this card out to all of my lovies and friends this year and who knows, maybe into 2011; Why??? Just cause I can! These photo cards are versitile like that.

I know what your thinkin...you want to get your own awesome photo cards to send. Well don't worry, I'm going to give you the hook up. Here's a quick link to Shutterfly's Holiday Cards and just in case you want to take easy street to the Thank You cards...I know, I know, I'm all about sharing the love!

As for my fellow bloggers out there, I'll let you in on a special little secret...you can get 50 Shutterfly photo cards for free. That's right FREE! All you have to do is CLICK to find out how. Don't you just love Shutterfly!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, We ate good and enjoyed the company of friends and family.  I hope that everyone had a chance to think about what truly matters in their lives today and gave thanks for all of those things.  I believe that thanks-giving should happen on a daily basis therefore, I continue to give thanks for all of my wonderful blessings, especially for my wonderful (sometimes stress-provoking) family!

~Blessings~

Sunshyne Is Officially A Junior Girl Scout

Here she is...My Official Junior Girl Scout!  She's waited a long time for this day.

Sunshyne has been a Girl Scout since she was six years old, starting out as a Daisy Scout.

She was completely estatic about getting her rededication paraphernalia ( ...and yes, that's the proper spelling).  She was so excited that I could hardly contain the excitement!

She's such a funny girl!

 

I had to hurry over to the Girl Scout Store to pick up her sash and troop number's.  She'll  be stunning in green and that's what it's all about.  Today I'll put them all together so that the next time I do a post about Sunshyne as a GS, you'll be able to see her in the full glory of her GS uniform...and maybe even a few cookies...hehehe...can't wait!

RJ's Starting Tot School!

                                                       Tot School with 1+1+1=1  

                                                 

I'm so excited to have found this wonderful learning blog for RJ. I guess it's more so for me because there's a certain element of accountability to assist me in "purposeful" play with him...you know on those days that I'd rather be laz'n around poppin bon bons. There's all kinds of good stuff on the website. I haven't got to all of it yet but that is one of the factors that makes it an outstanding resource, it keeps you coming back for more. Another comforting aspect is that there are dozens of other moms linked up to the site so that you can go over and check out what they're doing with their tots as well. Awesome, awesome, awesome! Anyhoo, today will be the first day that we will link up (provided that I can get my pictures up...can't be linkin up without photos on the first day). I've basically just organized RJ's learning area a little better and did a lot of "purposeful observing" this past week but it's where we started so I'll just share that...after all, all good things begin with a little organization, RIGHT.

But first let me introduce RJ...here he is tasting a blue Mega Blok...looks yummy!

(sometimes my camera phone like to make me scream...)

P.s don't you just love babies in these little footed pajamas!

Here is one of the shelves that I finally got "semi" the way I want it.  On the top shelf there is a wooden 1-5 number puzzle, a coin slot that I made with a Folgers coffee can, and a box of vintage ABC blocks.  I think you can see the other two shelves ok from this photo. 

Top shelf: wooden knobbed transportation puzzle, some wooden animal shapes in a tin container. The middle shelf has Mega Bloks and soft circus animals that make different sounds.  The bottom shelf contains a V-Tech tow truck with interlinking cars, and a teaching turtle. 

Here's a better view of both bookshelves....I hope.

(The very top of these shelves have stuff on them for older preschoolers.)

Here we have a knobbed Geranimals puzzle and a wooden clock on the top shelf.  The other two shelves contain activity mats.

The bottom cubby to the left contains an old wine gift box that contains shapes and other cool things to discover. The tray above that is currently used for noisy toys such as rattles.  The middle bottom cubby holds RJ's favorite ball and above that are his stacker toys.  The bottom right cubby contains RJ's favorite soft noise toy, a little green turtle like thing that makes a soft rattling noise and different textures on each side of it. Above that cubbie is a tray that contains five balls that have different textures and makes different sounds as well. 

This shot might be better...might not

Here he is actually attempting to stack the Mega Bloks...I was thoroughly impressed!

Well that's it for today, I have many learning stations set-up for him thru out the house but I'll get to those on some later posts, after all this is our first week...not to mention, I didn't feel like cleaning up the WHOLE house to get a few pics...hehehe.

Some Mama Time

There is always so much to do being a homeschooling mama, wife, friend, sister, daughter, soccer mom, housekeeper, head chef (as I like to think of myself), and child of God...no reason particular reason why that came last.  I'm so busy all the time that I often have difficulty balancing it all.  I find myself giving some things 80% while others get 20% and still others will get less or more of my time.  I always feel as though I'm stretched way to thin...which would be great if we were talking about my weight...but I'm not so that is definitely a bad thing.  The topic of mommy time usually comes up in some of the women's magazines that I read but unfortunately I haven't run into any of those articles lately.  Nevertheless, Mama's Time (as I call it) is EXTREMELY important!  It should never be taken for granted or underestimated.  This is our time to do things for ourselves and regenerate so that we are actually useful to our families.

Trust me...Mama knows best on this issue!  I have underestimated the power of this time in my life a time or two.  For example, the past several months I've only taken my Mama Time once a month.  MISTAKE!!  with a new toddler lurking in my home, oh honey I need a break every other day.  Realistically though, once a week is more like what I should be aiming for. 

This time doesn't have to be expensive, sometimes I have my time without even spending a dime or leaving my house for that matter, although I highly recommend leaving the house.  There's just something about getting away from the norm and seeing something different.  I like to leave and just go to Border's or Barnes and Nobles to look through the books, sit in a big comfy chair and bask in the delight of doing something WITHOUT my kids (as bad as that may sound...oh well).  I may go out shopping and only spend money on myself no matter how small or big the amount...because I'm worth every cent.  This is not "oh there's a sale on kids pajamas" time, or let me just stop off really quick to pick up hubby's dry cleaning.  This is a few hours that are completely and utterly dedicated to YOU.

Some other things to do:

~Get a pedicure/manicure

~Go to a movie

~Pretend to be a professional photographer, grab your camera and go capture that prize shot

~Go have an overpriced gourmet cup of java (somewhere you don't normally go)

~Go have you makeup done at Macy's or Sephora...somewhere

~Walk through your downtown and window shop

~Go buy yourself a beautiful bloom that you don't normally get (or a whole bouquet)

~Go to the farmer's market and see what delicious organic treat you can find

~Go see a play, symphony, or ballet with your girlfriend

~Go someplace fancy and order dessert first...naughty girl

~Go for a long drive and listen to grown-up music for a change

The point is to do something fun that you will enjoy, that's just for you.  Give yourself a chance to decompress and regenerate so that you can fully give to the folks in your life that mean the most to you.  That's exactly what I'll be focusing on probably more than once this week...it's been rough.

Blessings,

~Claudea~