Race for the Cure

Back in April with just a few weeks left of school, I needed a challenge for my oldest. I gave him a choice: write a research paper or train to run a 5k race. He choose the race. No surprise there. But still, I am so proud of him for setting a goal and achieving it. Before the race he had worked his way down to an 8 minute mile.

My brother, John, has participated in the Race for the Cure in Raleigh and invited Lee to join him. My sister's family participated too. It was a hot, hot day in June. But Lee finished the race in a reasonable time, and with his group.



As for the scrapbook pages, well they have stumped me. I liked the inspiration page I found and these turned out ok. Papers from Scrapbook flair, embellishments from My Memories Suite. I think know that these are done, in the book and on the web :0, I can move on and get caught up with other fun events.

Congratulations, Lee! So super proud. Thanks Uncle John for challenging Lee to participate in the marathon.

No more Little Bill

Really, we haven't called Bill little in a long time. But surely this weekend is a milestone. Bill recieved First Holy Communion on Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa were there, along with Aunt Teresa and Aunt Michele. He enjoyed all the fuss and the solemnity of the occasion too.

In particular, there was a boy seated next to him with a short mohawk. This bothered Bill. A lot. I guess he didn't think this hair style was befitting the occasion. So he spent some time motioning to the other boy to "flat his hair." (I was hoping the mom behind both of them would intervene, but no luck.) Eventually, Bill re-focused on the altar and forgot about the hair cut!

My favorite part of this Sacrament (and every Sacrament of Initiation) is the opportunity to renew our Baptismal Vows. So proud to renew my vows, and hear Bill affirm his too.

Second favorite part would have to be the little girls all in white. How beautiful. How exciting! Bill looked handsome, but girls get all the froo-froo on this day. Even one of Bills classmates, a staunch short-hair-cut little girl let her hair grow out for the occasion!

Congratulations Bill!


(Last and most certainly least: scrapbook papers from Scrapbookscrapbook.com)

Not on my agenda for today

but had to share! Enjoy:

I really didn't intend to scrap today, but by golly, I found the time. These papers and embellishments came from Memory Makers Magazine and Free Digital Scrapbooking.com. Find the free downloads and go for it!

Both of these pages are made in Microsoft's Digit Image Editor 2006. I love it. But apparently other people don't, because Microsoft doesn't make this anymore. Maybe they figured out they were installing software for FREE, that Adobe is selling for about $200. Or maybe other photo editing software offers more options. But whatever the case, I am very happy with my current set-up :-)

Big Sky Dreams

Remember that scene in "Apollo 13" where Tom Hanks' character is looking at the moon and covers it with his thumb. He wanted to be there. I think about that moment, the dream.

I wonder if it began for that astronaut on a day like this:


Anna's home school science class launched their rockets today. The sun was bright, the sky very blue, weather warm. The boys chased the rockets to gather the pieces. Some of the parachutes broke away from the rockets, and the girls were excited to be there and see their creations take flight.

What a great day to dream!

Snow Day means...

more time to make scrapbook pages... Hooray!

Distrac-TING!

This must Satan's main form of offense, just to distract weak people. Like me. If he can succeed in changing the subject fast enough, then he'll win and I will have forgotten ALL about Jesus, God, Lent.

So I spent a few extra hours working with the digital images and completely forgot what I was supposed to be about today. I mean other than laundry, school and Holly :-) My sacrifice for Lent is to pray the Rosary daily. 20 mins each day spent in prayer. As of today, the 3rd day in Lent, I have prayed 1 and 1/2 rosaries. Distrac-TING!

Plenty of time left today to finish that 1/2, and 37 more days to get it right the first time. Why bother with such a rote, repetitious prayer anyway? There are lots of good explanations, but I like this analogy best: I could watch Holly laugh all day. And not be bored. Or any of my children when they are really happy. Or I could drive the whole 6 hours of the Blue Ridge Parkway and not tire of the rolling Appalachian Mountains. Or walk along the coast and be mesmerized by the depth and beauty of the ocean.

I want to be pleasing to God all day long too. After all there are examples to follow straight from the Bible:

Psalm 136 “God's love endures forever” is repeated 26 times

and this in Revelations 4:8 Day and night they do not stop exclaiming "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come."

Is the angelic choir that sings the same refrain day and night like the pagans repeating prayer mindlessly? Neither should I be. Repetitious prayer is only to be avoided if you are not aware of what you are saying.

Satan may be the master of distractions, but I'm pretty good at refocusing! So off to finish that Rosary!

I'm Hooked

Oh no. I may have to stop homeschooling, cleaning, baking.... I found this website with downloadable free digital papers ShabbyPrincess.com

I did need to download Winrar to unzip the files. And recreate the page when I accidentally closed it without saving :-)

To create the page, I used Microsoft Digital Image Editor. Opened all the files I would need: 6 pictures and 3 files from ShabbyPrincess. Then created a New File, with the size that I wanted: 13 x11. Finally, copied and pasted the items into the new file.

Because these files tend to get large quickly, at this point, I saved the new file. Then closed all the other files. Added my text and this time saved the file in the .jpg format.

Someone remind me to do laundry one day soon!