I enjoyed watching our son play baseball this weekend. Sometimes I close my eyes and remember him playing t-ball on his first team rightly named the Misfits. Then I open my eyes and a young man, strong and muscular, is before me. Metal cleats clicking and crunching on concrete is one of my favorite weekend sounds. Below are a few of my favorite weekend sights.

Photo Shoot

My first "official" photoshoot living the life I love (Thanks, Brave Girls Club!)

Let me know your thoughts....but be kind. This is a new adventure, and the very first time I am putting myself out there for others to see. Hopefully, very soon, I will learn more from I Heart Faces and Modern Prarie Girl, but until then, I am happy to play and shoot what I love.

A pretty productive day...put the bookshelf together, arranged the storage containers on it, and even moved it back into the play/craft room. I'm challenged on furniture arrangement, and I don't like the look of the bookshelf being off center against the wall, and then there's the plastic drawers next to the bookshelf that seems to be an eye sore. I am learning that organization is the key to my personal productivity. I haven't finished any scrapbook pages in a month because it is such a mess in that room.

"Before" Pictures

This is my workspace (and what is under my workspace). Here are my "before" pictures of the playroom/craft room. Any suggestions for furniture arrangement??!!

Cardboard boxes were housing stamps and extra 81/2 x 11 paper. (I was trying to be creatively inexpensive!)

Spring Cleaning

I'm inspired! ...by my friend who is an educator, raises dogs, and works with horses, by my new found friend who is an author, by my students (especially the one who is currently ranked #2 in her class...she is brilliant, beautiful, and sweet!), and by my kindred spirit Paper Goddess at We Will Always Have Paris who inspired me to Spring Clean My Work Space.

This is what I wrote to Paper Goddess:

OK...here I go! Just left all my favorite discount stores with storage baskets, bins, containers, and a book shelf that (kinda) looks like pottery barn, and I am ready to organize. I am going to take a picture and send to you, too. I cheated a little bit because I organized 12x12 paper and all those cheap frames I've been meaning to paint, but other than that, my room is a disaster. Literally, my shelves are cardboard boxes (you will see in the picture). Thank you for motivating me. I'm going in! If I don't comment again, I'm lost in the madness and please call my husband and let him know he needs to rescue me!

Reflections of Christmas 2010

With mixed emotions, we stayed in Texas this year for Christmas. After a challenging year, we thought it was important to be together and enjoy our Family of 4...plus a goat, 8 chickens, an adopted Cairn Terrier, and an 11 month old German Shepherd who still thinks she is a teacup size puppy. Another reason we stayed in Texas was to bring another little one into the fold...a Cairn Terrier puppy fromWits End Ranch, but alas, she was not old enough to come to our home Christmas morning. Instead, Bubba opened package #1 which contained 10 clues to what Santa brought him. The list included 1) Personal grooming can be fun 2) You can spend hours just smelling stuff, and 3) If it itches, you can reach it. And not matter where it itches, no one will be offended if you scratch in public. He had no idea what the list pertained to and what would be in package #2! This made us even more excited about our choice of gifts. We allowed him to open package #2 without guessing, and inside was a picture of a Cairn Terrier puppy! He couldn't believe it! "Where is it??!!" He asked. We were going to let him look around the house for awhile just for fun. :-) Sigh.....she wasn't old enough to live with us, yet, but we will be going to get her next weekend.

Little Bit, on the other hand, opened each gift like it was a puppy. From the first package in her boot (our Christmas tradition is to put out boots for Santa instead of stockings....it's Texas!) which was Hello Kitty "Polnailish" (translation= nail polish) to her princess rock guitar and carriage CD player with microphone, she would gasp and say, "Oh...my...gosh!!!"

The rest of Christmas day was spent watching Bubba play X-box live while glancing at the picture of his puppy and listening to Little Bit sing "Little White Church" and "Stuck Like Glue." Although we missed seeing our families and watching all the cousins play and visit together, our Christmas was relaxing. I gage that by being able to wear my PJ's all day!

More important than the gifting that occurred was the fact that we celebrated the birthday of Jesus together, shopped for a child who wouldn't otherwise have presents under their tree, and donated to our adoption agency in our children's name because we are so thankful for those two most precious gifts in our lives.