Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho...It's off to IL we go!

We're heading out tomorrow morning to Grandma's house where we will spend the next few weeks getting her belongings sold and getting her house ready to sell. Although it won't be a typical vacation, we'll make the best of it and make good memories with extended family.

If you'd like to pray, please ask for our safety: Ashley and Rhett will be driving Grandma's car back on their own next week; my mom, the little girls and I will return later in July, our health: my knee has been giving me a lot of trouble, our peace: the emotions of going through and discarding a loved one's personal items are tough, and our testimony: we have a lot of unsaved family who will be with us.

While I'm away I will be computer-free. I don't have a laptop. Bloggers who write posts while watching tv make me jealous. :) I've decided not to borrow someone's ITouch to try to get by, but to instead take an almost technology-free vacation. Gotta have my GPS, phone & IPod. C'mon now.

So...I will not be posting again until a little ways into July. Please, come back and visit. I LOVE writing on paper and have all kinds of ideas for posts so I can share them with you when I return. I will also be taking lots of pictures and will catch you up on our travels with Project 365.

I have pre-scheduled posts on my cooking blog so you can enjoy a new recipe every other day, but I just ran out of time to pre-schedule posts here. Sad.

Can you tell I'm going to miss you? I like that.

Ok, I've got to pay some bills and finish packing a few bags...and maybe catch a little sleep.

See you soon! Until then, "Happy Summer!"

Project 365: Week 24

We've had a wonderful week celebrating 2 birthdays in our family. They were both "BIG" ones - Ashley turned 20 and Mark turned 45. We take an annual trek to the beach (usually on Father's Day), but because of working at church, we decided to go a week early. Anyway, here's what's been happening around here.

Sunday, June 13th

Life doesn't get more relaxing than this!

Monday

Don't forget to sunscreen UNDER the straps.

Tuesday

Happy Birthdays...two peas in a pod, those two!

Wednesday

We ARE ADDICTED! Can't hardly think about anything else...except maybe when we can play the next game.

Thursday

Ashley buys her first piece of technology on her own - an ITouch.

Friday

Jeana brings Manny over to play (and we play Settlers of Catan!) We love our furry friend & his mamma.

Saturday

We're leaving for the midwest on Tuesday and have to get our year-end standardized tests done...ahhh. No biggie, really.

Project 365: Week 23

Still catching up. Enjoy!

Sunday, June 6th

Our last KidStuff until the Fall. I love worshipping with my kids!

Monday

The dreaded pile of paper to be shredded. I save procrastinate this project in a specially marked file until I need the space back in my drawer (can we say "important papers here!")

Feels good to get it done.

Tuesday

Girls hanging out with remnants of their favorite things around them - tv, puzzles, American Girl and Guitar Hero.

Wednesday

Katie completed her first latch hook project!

Thursday

Favorite scent for the summer...

Friday

Washington D.C. by day (National Archives)...

By night (Washington Monument taken from the World War II Memorial)...

Our friend and his boys at the Roosevelt...

and their whole gang at the Lincoln Memorial.

Saturday

After spending hours in the Natural History museum on Friday...

Tara decides to make a mummy of her own with a baby doll. Where do they come up with this stuff??

Project 365: Week 22

I am woefully late again, but here are the pictures from week 22.

Sunday, May 30th - no picture

Monday

Happy 81st Birthday, Grandma! Wish you were still with us to celebrate! We miss you!!

Tuesday

We had a year-end Fine Arts Festival in our homeschool co op on June 1st. All three of my kids participated by submitting artwork and/or playing a piano piece. A momma was never so proud!

Here is Tara receiving her Character Award and Presidential Fitness award. She submitted her Native American bowl and a duct tape purse to display.

Katie played a piano piece for THE FIRST TIME before an audience. She was so confident! She also submitted her Reeses sculpture to display.

Rhett performed a Sonatina and submitted his painting of a thistle. What a talent! I could listen to him play everyday. Oh wait, I do! :)

Wednesday - no picture

Thursday

I have a favorite paper company - Lang - that I get my Christmas cards and yearly calendar. The paper quality is amazing and I just love the variety of designs they create. Here's a picture of my June calendar that hangs on my kitchen wall.

Friday

Gotta love a friend who gardens and grows flowers. We had our friends for dinner and she brought me a bouquet of hydrangeas. Beautiful!

Saturday

My husband took my youngest girls to the thrift store and this is what they came home with - a disco ball. They proceeded to make signs (see the 80's on the wall) to decorate my living room. I had a peace sign on my lamp shade and a disco scene of people dancing under a disco ball taped to one wall. Everyone that has come to my home within the last few weeks has had a taste of this new amusement! It's the best $5 they ever spent. I love that they dance to Bible school music; too cute!

Thinking of You!

I'd like to get points for thinking of you all! (Thank goodness, points aren't given for blogging!) I've wanted to blog everyday this week, but life is busy...busier than I thought June would be, as is always the case.

The girls and I have played with neighbors and friends. We've had company. I've been working at church. I've been supporting my mentee through a rough patch. We have CA guests coming tomorrow. I've brought meals to a friend who lives over an hour away each direction...in DC traffic. I've organized and paid my bills - yay! I've even kept up with the laundry for the most part, but I just haven't spent the time in front of the computer to get my 365 pics up (that takes so much time - whine!) I'm sorry. truly.

I'm looking forward to a full Saturday all to myself. My children will be out of the house and unless hubby talks me into something I think we'll just be enjoying the day doing whatever we want. That's when I hope to catch up with you all AGAIN. This is getting to be a bad habit.

Off to cook up dinner for tomorrow so we can just pop it into the oven after a day of sightseeing with our guests. I'll be thinking of you...maybe I'll give you the June tour of DC when I return. Wouldn't that be fun?!

Take Care, Everyone!

Inexpensive Teacher Appreciation Gift

Recently Traci at Beneath My Heart shared this inexpensive teacher appreciation gift.

It's a Teacher Assort-"mint" gift bag!

It was such a creative and easy idea we gave it a try at our house! Our recipient list was long. At co-op each girl had four teachers with a helper or two and Rhett had three teachers with a helper each. Plus, we added our Art teacher. I think we ended up making 28 bags total!

Traci had a cute ribbon, mounted her poem on colored paper and attached it to the outside of the bag. I figured if we attached the poems to the outside, half of them would fall off, so we just trimmed the card and added it to the inside of the bag. We started off with a cute brown and green polka dot ribbon, ran out, then used what we had on hand. They all turned out just fine and, hopefully, were enjoyed by all.

Curious to see more?

Each of the kids signed their names at the bottom of the poem.

This is what the goodie bag looked like from the back. Rhett joked that he hoped the teachers didn't think that he was dropping them a hint about their breath by giving them mints. :) I don't think so, son!

We filled it with all sorts of mint candies...mint Musketeers, Life Savers, York, Andes, Dove, gum and star mints. The bag smelled so good! I purchased all my supplies: candy, bags (by the Wilton supplies in the craft section) and ribbon at Walmart.

Here is what the poem says:

Thanks for your commit-"mint" to help me learn.
Thanks for your encourage-"mint" to always do my best.
Thanks for your involve-"mint" in my life.
Thanks for your invest-"mint" of time and energy
to make co-op (or you can put school, etc) such a great place to be.
Thanks for making each day an enjoy-"mint".
Thanks for helping to create a nice environ-"mint"
for me to learn and grow.
Everything you have done this year
has really “mint” a lot to me!!!

Like Traci, as a former teacher, I would have loved this gift! Little treats to enjoy and the creative use of the poem makes this a perfect little "thank you" to anyone who serves your children!