Oh, hai there.

Hello, friends. It kind of feels like I fell off the face of the blog world. My last post was just photos and it was four days ago or something. I realize that all bloggers don't have to post every day, but I strive for at least 3-5 good content posts a week...and right now, I've been averaging none.

It's one of those busy seasons of life, I guess, where some things swoop in to take over my hours for a little while. So, here's hoping that I'll get back to normal stuff around here soon, but in the meantime, here's a little of what we've been up to in the past few weeks.

I made Addie's Easter dress this year and was so pleased with how it turned out! Ultimately, I want to list dresses in the shop.

The kids are obsessed with building things right now. And Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

We bought Addie a big girl bed. I didn't even realize it was missing a slat until we got it home and Andrew said "um, did you see this?" Whoops. Hopefully it's an easy fix because the bed was only $15 and I was pleased! Currently, it's sitting in the basement because we haven't had time to take the crib down yet.

For some reason, I decided that the week before drama productions of my own would be a great time to squeeze in an audition so I can try to knock an item off my Thirty by 30 list and perform in a show again. I rounded up my second best friend whom I met in a theatre bathroom and convinced her that the best way to spend our evening was belting our hearts out and then laughing until we cried in my minivan afterwards. It was amay-zing.

We're still waiting to hear if we got parts in the show. It's pretty doubtful, since we didn't go to callbacks, but we had the grandest time ever, regardless.

Did you catch the part about how it's almost production week? Yeah. A week from now, I have five plays performing. Thirty-seven girls to put onstage for their own moments to shine. I really have the best job EVER. But production week is flat out exhausting, so I may be around just a little less than average until the craziness winds down.

Don't give up on me, though! Lots of good stuff on my blog post to-do list. Have the happiest of weekends, okay?

Our Family's Easter Recap 2014

Easter was almost two weeks ago, but I haven't done a post with lots of great kid photos in a long time, so you can probably forgive me - right? Our Easter turned out much better than last year, when we stayed home with strep throat - so it was a great day.

We started our Easter morning at church. Getting toddlers out of the house early in the morning on a weekly basis is hard enough, but adding in the mommy's desire to look slightly nicer and it means the daddy may be the one actually dressing the little ones for Easter. I think in our case, he did a pretty great job.

I wanted to get some photos before the day got too far, as I fully expected someone to ruin their outfit along the way. Thankfully, I was wrong about that, but it was nice to have kid pictures out of the way first thing.

After church, we drove around for a long while and the kids both took naps in the car. Lincoln gave up naps months ago, but we knew it was going to be a long day so I didn't mind him getting some midday rest.

The afternoon was spent having lots of cousin fun and yummy food at Andrew's parents' house. The kids enjoyed a backyard Easter egg hunt. Lincoln caught on to the egg hunting after a little while, but Addie was more interested in just holding onto the first egg she found.

They were all pretty worn out by the time we were done!

Addie and Lincoln and their cousins Kinley and Max.

After that, we headed to my parents' house for more fun, egg hunting, and food. The kids still had loads of energy, but the parents were pretty wiped out. We crashed on the couch for awhile before we finally took the kids home and coaxed them to sleep.

It was a really fun day! In spite of having no Easter baskets, I think the kids enjoyed their day. I'm now on the hunt for clearance Easter fashion for them to wear next year!

Rethinking Easter: It's Out of Control

 It seriously astounds me every time I go shopping in the spring, after the Valentine's Day hype has concluded. I think I must be dreaming when I see 153 different Easter basket (or box or bag or suitcase) designs piled floor to ceiling in the most prominent aisle possible. The accompanying shelves lined with pastel-packaged toys, games, and trinkets are a sad and gaudy interpretation of a holiday that has absolutely nothing to do with bunnies, bonnets, and somewhat vinegar-scented dyed eggs.

And then there's the candy. I can't even talk about all the candy.

I get it. It's fun to give gifts to kids. Birthdays and Christmas don't come around often enough to give your kids the latest toy release that you know they will love. But Easter? It should NOT be an occasion steeped in commercialism and the greed of consumers. Why have we turned this day into a celebration of things?

Easter is about celebrating a risen Savior. 

It's a day of remembrance.

What kid is going to be excited about listening to a story about someone who died on a cross if he is greeted at every turn with another chance to hunt for Easter eggs filled with candy? As an adult, I know which one is more important. But my three-year-old son is far more likely to develop expectations about Easter that lead him to care very little about Christ's compassion for the lost.

Some people may say I am overreacting. Perhaps I am, I don't know. I'm fairly new at this mom thing in the grand scheme. But my gut feeling is that Easter baskets mean nothing in the long run, while a relationship with the Savior means everything. Maybe I'll be the unpopular mom my whole life because I just don't find it necessary, helpful, or realistic to indulge my kids with piles of candy and toys on the anniversary of Jesus' death and resurrection each spring. I can invent another reason to give my kids toys in the spring, if I decide it's necessary. But I won't do it on Easter.

I would rather that my children grow up knowing the true significance of the day. And if that means they reach adulthood without a single photo posed on the lap of a giant, somewhat frightening bunny? I truly think they'll survive.

Simple Moments v.15

This post usually happens on Thursday evening, but Adelaide decided to refuse sleep until after 11:30 last night.  Blogging became less of a priority the more times I had to nurse her back to sleep.

Anyway - here are a few simple moments we enjoyed this last week.

Easter Redux.  We couldn't make it to any of the family events last week since Andrew had strep, but at least this past Sunday we all wore our new clothes and seemed coordinated.  Notice I'm holding the really cute hat that Lincoln refused to wear.  After two Easters of him in newsboy caps, I was pretty sad at his refusal.

Adventures with Grandparents.  My parents went with us to the zoo one morning last weeks.  The kids had a blast and it was way easier for me to have extra adults to keep track of my energetic little man.  A post on this, with more photos, coming soon!

Nice Weather.  In spite of the grumpiness you see on their faces, they've actually been pretty happy that lately we've been able to go for a walk or two every day!  At least, until the weather took (yet another) cold dip and forced us all back inside.  If spring could just stay, I would be happy.  This particular photo was taken after a walk with Daddy - we typically climb the stairs and collapse after we're done.  Mommy needs some time to get back to pre-pregnancy exercise capacity!

That's it for today.  I hope your week has been beautiful!

Easter Fail, or The Year Daddy Had Strep

I did not crop this photo so you could be astonished at the mess.

We had big plans for Easter.  We were planning to go to church.  We were planning to attend two family parties.  Everyone - all four of us - had new clothes.  I even made Addie a headband specifically to match her Easter dress!

None of it happened.

Because Daddy came down with strep throat.

We spent the day with Daddy on one floor of the house, feeling miserable - and Mommy pulling out her hair on the other floor because the kids were bored and tired and wanted to see Daddy.  There was a lot of TV.  A quick visit from grandparents with some food and Easter eggs.  And less sleeping than normal for me since Andrew was holed up in the basement around the clock and the kids were up about 352,294,039 times in the night.  Okay, it was actually like 4.

So far, the rest of us seem healthy so we're hoping all effort to stay away from the germs plus the immunities from nursing are working.  Daddy's been fever-free for almost a day and the antibiotic should be kicking in to make him feel better soon.  We're planning an Easter re-do next Sunday.  Hopefully I'll have cute photos to share then!


I'm linking up with Growing Up Geeky today for Toddle Along Tuesday!  I hope your Easter was better than ours!

layouts lately...

Happy Easter! We had a really busy day yesterday...several different family gatherings to attend. It was kind of a long day for me as I have developed tendonitis in my right foot. Just what I need, right? The doctor at Urgent Care on Saturday said, "oh, well just don't walk for 3 days. You'll be fine." Ha. You can imagine how well that's going. I'm home from work today to try to avoid standing on it most of the day. Still have drama kids coming. But at least that's only a little 3-hour window in my day.

I guess I've reached a point in my scrapping life that I have been waiting for....for years. About a month or two ago, it would take me about a week to finish a layout. It would sit in the basement in front of the TV, and every night I would add a couple of small things to it. I don't know what happened - but now I somehow seem to be putting out a complete layout every time I sit down for 2-3 hours.

This is the best thing that's ever happened to my scrapbook life!! I'm accepting that it's okay if I don't make the perfect page every time. And I'm actually loving my pages more even if I don't think they're perfect - just because they are done. So exciting. I'm hoping this attitude stays around for a long, long time.

Anyway - here are some of the recent quick layouts. All of these have been created since a week before last Saturday, March 27. And they are all based off sketches I have found online, and in Creating Keepsakes magazines. I am loving sketches lately. And I have about 4 more layouts done that weren't "post-worthy."

Love my occasional Archiver's shopping sprees. :)

All the hype in the Creating Keepsakes world (and all over the blogosphere) is to make pages about yourself. Here's one of my first attempts. This one makes me sad today because my foot hurts so much...I have no idea when I'll get to run (or walk) again. :\

Coldstone yumminess at the Lake of the Ozarks after our first Murder Mystery gig last year. Really like these photos. The light is interesting.

Since I made a page about me, I wanted to make a page about Andrew, too. This was one of our set build days for Little Princess / Secret Garden last February. This was about the time I learned about tilting the camera for artistic value.

And apparently I can't take a straight photo. I got this to my computer to crop it and said "seriously? that's the best you can do?" Anyway, this is from the Michael Hogge radio interview for Little Princess / Secret Garden. I invited some of the homeschooled cast members to attend along with us. We all had a great time! Andrew took the "ON AIR" photo for me (he actually said "so you'll have a title for your page!" - awww).

I'm thinking since I'm home today, I may be able to get in a few more pages. And maybe I'll get around to printing off another round of photos. I haven't printed anything later than June 2009. Definitely time for some new material to work with.

Here's hoping the foot has a miraculous recovery today!