A blog a day in May ~ Camera Woes

Well, it wasn't quite a blog a day in May, but it was close and more than I've ever done I think! Happy June, everyone!

Dear Camera:


I miss you. Please come back safely. You're scheduled to return tomorrow, but I haven't heard anything to back that up. I feel a bit depressed without you here. If I could pray for a camera, I would. Please come back to me soon, delivered like new (or new) by the Geek Squad - thank goodness for Premium Insurance!


xoxo
Yours in clicking,
Lindsey

A blog a day in May ~ Hate?

Okay, I have to do it. I'm sorry, but if this is my journal, I have to write it down to get it off my shoulders.


**pulls over soap box, steps up**


Why hate? What good does it do?


I watched part of an afternoon talk show (which I so rarely ever do) and was kind of appalled. Now, the content was horrible. The situation worse. I understand this. However, Talk Show Host decided, instead of even fathoming forgiveness, to harbor the hatred. To fuel the fight of the haters. To provide details in accusation of the admitted felon, challenging with direct eye contact. The look in the hateful guests' eyes said it all. Decades later, there was no forgiveness, no healing. 


Yes, I understand how horrific it must have been. I understand that some people just aren't capable of forgiving, or so they think. (I can't empathize or appreciate, but I can understand.) But why should the hate be sensationalized? Is this what people want to watch? 


Disgusted, I came to a conclusion that I can live with. 


Hate doesn't heal. Hate won't ever heal. Hate only harbors hate. That hate may lay within a heart for a lifetime. Forgiveness, however difficult it may be, forgiveness opens doors to healing. So why waste time hating?


**shoves soap box back into the corner**


Thanks. TTYL.

But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you
Luke 6:27

A blog a day in May ~ Creative Memories

I'm a fan.

I spent the evening at a friend's house watching a Creative Memories presentation and I have to say: Wow! They've come a long way. The products are updated. The paper is pretty. The digital is really, well, dummy-proof! Sorry... 'user friendly' better? 


((Not to mention it's always fun looking for the work of the uber-talented Nicole Martel in the pages of the catalogs!))


I didn't get much - I got another pack of PicFolio photo pages for the Disney album I've yet to start. No it's okay! I just got the first set of pages a few days ago. Some really cute stuff, I tell ya! 


It was fun going back to where it all began, I'm a fan!

A blog a day in May ~ Waiting

I have nothing exciting to bring to the table today.
I've been too distracted for the last few days waiting for a response. You don't need details, you just need to know that waiting is just about killing me. And no, I'm not waiting for the nd of the world. Waiting for good, waiting for bad; honestly, I really don't know. I'm just praying it out. So, I Googled 'waiting' and this is what I came up with.

No lie. This blogpost was interrupted right now; the email I've been waiting on just arrived with the answer. I had to stop, pray and will read in just a minute. Here we go.
Waiting (the movie)
Waiting or The Waiting - Wikipedia
a couple more about the movie
Waiting the Book

Clearly, I'm not going to find anything helpful this way. Let's try Googling 'waiting Scripture'.
Waiting on the Lord - Bible.org
--- aaah, here it is:
Psa. 27:14 Wait for the Lord; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.
Psa. 37:9 For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.

Psalm 62:5 Patiently wait for God alone, my soul! For he is the one who gives me confidence. 
Isaiah 30:18 For this reason the Lord is ready to show you mercy; he sits on his throne, ready to have compassion on you. Indeed, the Lord is a just God; all who wait for him in faith will be blessed. 
and the kicker:
Psalm 130:5 I rely on the Lord, I rely on him with my whole being; I wait for his assuring word. 6 I yearn for the Lord, more than watchmen do for the morning, yes, more than watchmen do for the morning.
some more:
Lamentations 3:25 The Lord is good to those who trust in him, to the one who seeks him. 
Galatians 6:9 So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. 


Don't even need to go back to the Google page. Thanks, God.
Father God, thank you for being here for me, thank you for bringing me answers. Please prepare and guard my heart for what I'm about to hear. Let my thoughts, actions and feelings be in Your glory and in Your glory only. In Jesus' name. Amen.

A blog a day in May ~ purple + pink = ?

I think I have a problem. 
I love purple and pink.
Is that a problem?
I'm pretty sure I know from where it stems. I distinctly remember small arguments with my mom over color choices. Those were in the days of dressing in royal purple + bright yellow. Hot pink with teal trim + floral leggings + teal socks, headband. 
But of all the colors I wanted, she never let me have pink + purple.
So here we are decades later and my mom buys an outfit for my daughter: a purple shirt with pink flowers and purple leggings with pink trim to match.
But...? But...!
Now I collect. Can you collect for revenge?
My favorite sweatshirt I found upstate last summer - it's light pink with light purple writing on it. Just the other day I found a brighter purple sweatshirt with bright pink trim.
Yesterday, I was going through my scrapbook paper looking for teal, pink and yellow and I found at least 4 sheets of pink and purple patterned paper. 
Funny, right? 
I think a layout is on the horizon - there's even a crop challenge at Cocoa Daisy about what you're wearing now. Take a look!

A blog a day in May ~ Little Shop of Sketches

How cute is this site?! Got an email today with this sketch in it, so I thought I'd see if I could work it out. Here goes!

Little Shop of Sketches
Sketch #82








just dandy by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Pebbles, Inc., My Little Shoebox, Cardstock: ,Rhinestones: Recollections, Bazzill, Rub-on: Bazzill, Alphabet: My Little Shoebox, Flowers: Prima Inc., other, Brads: Recollections.

A blog a day in May ~ Not Guilty

*bang*bang*bang*
Hey! Sooooo... I missed a few days. But ya know what? For the first time in my life, there are no apologies, no exceptions asked, no guilt whatsoever. It's been fun blogging - more like journaling - to clear my head. And with a day or two missed, it feels fine. Especially since I heard there were blogger bugs this weekend anyway...
*bang*bang*bang*
Hey ScrapStreet gals!
Hey True xoxo chicks!
Hey there Cocoa Daisies!
I know people are reading, even if they're not commenting. For some reason, though, a search must lead many, many people to a post I once titled "Live Your Life with Arms Wide Open" - guess many do a search about living that way. I can tell you how!
*bang*bang*bang*
Anyhow, Friday was nuts with the whole family home. Saturday was crazy with a 9am T-ball game, 12pm birthday party, 2pm baseball game and 5:30 wedding. Sunday? Well, Sunday I did absolutely nothing. I actually sat on the sofa catching up on the dvr for about 70% of the day. It was wonderful. (=
*bang*bang*bang*
Today, as you can tell from all the noise, my husband is working on the finished basement downstairs and I've been dilly dallying in my scraproom all day. Started a layout, hoping to finish. Will post tomorrow.
*bang*bang*bang*
*bang*bang*bang*
Aw, man. Got ear plugs?

A blog a day in May ~ Achoo!

Allergy season is indeed upon us. Matthew's getting hit the hardest in this house, poor guy. Itchy eyes, cough, constantly runny nose. 








Apparently I thought it a good idea to buy tissues on sale. Good tissues, ugly boxes. Our downstairs green & orange bathroom's tissue box needed a major makeover, so, well, I did!


McKenna now wants a purple one and I'm sure Matthew will put an order in soon as well.

 God Bless You!

A blog a day in May ~ Jump!

about the girl

This is my McKenna. Girl after my own heart. Interested in the girly part of life just enough to get by (nails painted - but usually yellow, hair down "like a big girl" - because she doesn't want it burshed, lip gloss occasionally, sparkley shoes but only if they're sneakers and hardly ever a dress to be seen). Much more at interest are: dirt. fun. dirt. school. playing outside. dirt. watching a little Disney channel. dirt. soccer, t-ball, swimming for sure. then dirt. I was that kind of girl, too. I did wear dresses though. In the dirt.

about the photo

On the day I was blessed to serve and hear Tammy Trent at GraceOC's Women's Conference, ten yards of brown mulch was delivered to our driveway. After baseball, the kids and Doug spent all day passing out this mulch into the garden that spans the front of the house and through the driveway. Apparently, jumping and playing in it weren't optional. Apparently, shoes were. At this point, it was senseless to get mad over a pair of socks and it was much more conducive to grab the camera and play. After some in-the-pile shots, I got down as low as I could to add drama to her flight and height. I love everything about her - the hair, the arms, the pointed toes (yay!), the fearlessness. 

My girl. 

A blog a day in May ~ The day after

Sometimes the day after the main event is better than the day of. Maybe it's the feeling of expectations unmet, maybe it's feeling like you didn't do it well enough for someone else. Who knows.

But my day after was the best. With husband home, there was less stress of the daily stuff and even a little more "me" time. Entire family up by 7:15am. Everyone helping out this morning. Husband drove carpool to school today. Pedi's with a friend to start my day. Lots of outside sunshine. Husband cleaned inside and out of both cars and outside of the camping trailer. Deck cover went up, clean cushions on chairs, 2 of 3 meals outside. Husband even cooked dinner. Not sure where the day went but there was lots of light so it doesn't even matter, or I don't really care!
It was a good day. Strange prose in this post, but today was a good day.

A blog a day in May ~ Mother

Happy Mother's Day.
xoxo

A blog a day in May ~ Paula's Italian Pasta Salad

Personally, I don't like anything with dressings or mayo, but when I agreed to make pasta salad for 40 people at a baby shower and Paula Deen had this recipe on the same day, I thought it was pretty much a message sent from above that this will do, without needing a taste test.


So 3 pounds of bow-tie pasta is cooking alongside 1 lb of baby bow-tie pasta (nice touch, eh? for the baby shower?) 

Paula's Italian Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1 pound bow tie pasta
• 1 cup store-bought balsamic vinaigrettedressing
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
• 1 (4-ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained
• 2/3 cup pitted kalamata olives
• 1/2 diced green bell pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Grated Parmesan, for topping

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat. Add the pasta cook it according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, in a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinaigrette, mayonnaise, and sugar.

Drain the pasta well, transfer to a large serving bowl, and let cool. Add the tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, green pepper, salt, to taste, and the black pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Sprinkle with the cheese, toss lightly, and serve.

Enjoy!

A blog a day in May ~ Two in a day

...not blogs, but the other day I got two layouts done in one day and best of all, both layouts were just for me! 

No requirements, no dt work, no "work" involved at all.

Although, I did get a little inspiration from Faith Sisters' speed scrap for the digi.

Oh, that's funny - I just realized that I never took a picture of the paper page. Priorities, I guess!


Here it is ~

We Like Skype by Lindsey Krauss. Supplies: Paper: Little Yellow Bicycle, Transparency: Hambly Prints, Letters: American Crafts, Making Memories, Flower: Prima, Inc., Buttons: BasicGrey

Rhinestones: Kaiser Scrapbook, Other: cream cardstock, square push pin, tiny button.




Digital page:
down & dirty by Lindsey Krauss. Credits: (papers, tags, clip)
 Green Grove Mini Kit by Dora Phillips for ScrapStreet.com,(tie & ribbon) Artistic Fall by e-scapeandscrap, (fonts) Rage Italic, Baby Kruffy.

A blog a day in May ~ Cinco de Mayo!!

Yeah, Cinco de Mayo means nothing to me. Other than the fact that I coincidentally made chicken fajitas and yellow rice for dinner last night, I mean. Sorry.

But what did mean so much was spending time with my daughter, having a Mothers' Day Tea Party at school with her. They did it up - tablecloths, china, tea and cookies, gifts and flowers. I am blessed.

We were going to get dressed up (McKenna & I), but the morning got away from us. While every other girl in class had a dress on, McKenna had her favorite brown sweatshirt and lots of yellow (her favorite) on. I figure if she had worn a dress, no one would have recognized her anyway, so we're happy with casual for now. ;-)

No progress on Operation Scraproom. Sometimes we have to clean the rest of the house, too. (=

A blog a day in May ~ Tomato Soup

That's what's for lunch today. Good ol', super-plain, out-of-a-can, Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup. I know. boring. But it's only 90 calories per serving so I can have the whole can if it's with not much else. I mean, I love to cook and blend ingredients and spices, but not my tomato soup. And that's my nugget of information today.

What?

I can't write a 500 word blog every day, I'd lose ya. I'm sure I'll still find a way to overtalk this one.

Oh! made with milk. The tomato soup, that is.

Here's a story. One of the very first things I made on my own was - you guessed it - a can of tomato soup. Mom watched as I read each step in the directions, made it slowly and perfectly, poured it into a bowl for myself, tasted and promptly spit it out. I was so upset that I cried for what I remember was forever. It tasted terrible. Then Mom clued me in to the milk instead of water and my culinary confidence was restored. 

Today's lunch: pic of a phone pic. Emailed photo taking too long!

Made with milk.

And serve it with Ritz crackers and an ice cold glass of milk. I reached in today to grab some Ritz and the box was *gasp* empty!! So today, it's Cheez-Its. Yum.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Project Scraproom Overhaul: Corner is complete. Clean! I even started on my desk, here, next to me. 

What's different? No unfinished layout!

Do you see something else different here?

I got a digi and a paper layout done, both yesterday! (My Facebook status says: Finished both a digi layout and a paper layout in one day. Universes must be colliding somewhere.) The digi was a speed scrap for Faith-Sisters and the paper was a page I started about 7 weeks ago inspired by a ScrapStreet magazine call - gadgets. It's called I Like Skype. Will photo and post later. 

A blog a day in May ~ Hey, I made it back!

Okay, even I didn't think I'd write two days in a row. And this is live writing - not pre-scheduled. AND I've even got a list of things to blog about in days to come.

Wait, is that what scheduled means? Pre-scheduled? I don't know, look it up.

So, after getting home from MOPs (Moms of Preschoolers) today - never heard of it? don't have one? Google it - if you're a mom, you need it!

Anyway, today Miss B (names and faces have been changed to secure identity) spoke to us mainly about encouraging following through at home with what happens in church. Ah, Miss B. If you're a @GraceOC'r, and if you know her as I do, you'll agree that she is a God-sent angel walking this earth, if there is such a thing. Although, she'd deny it and give it back to God, she's good at that.

Anyhoo, I'll try to add some references at the end, but on my slow-drive home, it dawned on me that there is one thing that I am absolutely, positively sure of that is about me. I am a kid person. That's it. That's today's revelation, apparently. I've always had kids in my life, from babysitting at a young age, to co-coaching at age 13, to running a youth gymnastics program at a local school near my college, to be on a cognitive psychology lab team having to do with - yes, you guessed it - kids. Teaching preschool out of college, coaching again and again... and ultimately home with my own.

I remember when my now ten-year-old nephew was born, I flew down to take care of him for a week while his mom went back to finish school. Man, I used to just sit and stare at that tiny jelly bean while he was sleeping and sound. I find peace in children.

4/18/2011 -- hike lookout overlooking the Hudson

Today I was visiting with my mom in the one-year-old room during MOPs and a few were teary so I let myself in, plopped on the floor and got to playing. Phones, piggy banks, a big ball. Even got a known-crier cutie girl to stop crying and talk to me. It's like a magic. God has built me with some kind of kid-magic, I guess.

Let's pause here for a moment. Two of my own is perfect for me. For some reason I have a ton more patience with others' kids than I do with my own and I'm fully aware of my limits. So no, there will not be anymore kids added to our family. Maybe just dogs.

So while I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with my life, I know it will have something to do with kids. Hoping from here, God will lead me.

Rick Warren 

Raising children is one of God's primary ways to teach you unselfishness.

A few at-home references: 

The Jesus Storybook Bible

Amber Sky Records

My First Look << and by the way, the creature from this site inspired the walls in our very own Pre-K Promiseland walls!


Project Scraproom Overhaul: today is get that floor corner cleaned up, as seen in the post below this one, photo #3. 'after' pic coming in a few!

A blog a day in May ~ In the beginning

I think this is my last-ditch effort at a blog. I'm terrible at blogging and quite frankly, I'm tired of apologizing every time I do get to the blog. Honestly, with so much inspirationality (no, it's not a word, look it up) around me, I usually feel like I have nothing to contribute to the world of blogging. Hmmm, maybe I'll point you in those directions... So for each day in May I'll try to post something - anything - to see if this blog can be saved. Yes, I know it's May 2nd so you may say I'm a day late; I can say 'no I'm not!' because what you don't know is I wanted to do this in April so I'm actually a month and a day late. *big grin*


I'm not going to stick to blogging about scrapbooking because honestly, I don't think I even remember how to do that anymore. I still think of layouts to create as I snap pictures, but rarely are my hands in paper. This layout on my desk I started over 6 weeks ago. I've only completed eleven (yes 11) layouts so far this year - I kid you not - and no digitals. And I am totally and completely in love with exactly zero of them. They always do look better on paper than posted on the net; but still, I love them not. 

The other thing I'm working on is Project Scraproom Overhaul. I don't need to add much, I just need to complete the organizing I started when we moved in recently a year ago. the only thing I foresee buying is a few more Cropper Hopper vertical paper holders for some theme-y stuff (boy, girl, wedding, dog) on the floor. I've got a good start, but lately this room is a dumping spot. Right now I only use it once a week for Sunday school prep. Oh, and last month I glue-dotted an orange flower to a black headband for family fun night aka JUMP ZONE at Grace. I do want to use the room for scrapbooking again. If I can snap 124 pictures of my kids in 2 days, mostly having to do with dirt piles and building stuff, I certainly can find an hour or two to scrap some. I mean, look! Here I look more like a hoarder than a scrapbooker. Although I've heard, in some circles, those two are synonymous. (=


So... here we go. Bets on whether or not I'll follow through? Yeah, I'm with you.