Catching my breath...

Looks like I have a post in my edits that was supposed to be posted last Monday for "hello monday". Hmmm...
Not too sure what happened except that it has just been so crazy that I imagine I meant to post it and never did.  Anyway, I didn't even notice until I went to check what number "hello monday" I was on...
*sigh*
So, what did you miss? Well... my oldest graduated from High School.

I love that she spotted us right away in the crowd!

That's her!

She has already started at Chaffey College and will be studying Kinesiology  as well as playing water polo for the school.

Some very faithful cheerleaders here...

Daddy's Girl

Halleluyer! WE did it. lol

Me and My Girl

Then the next day, THIS happened

 My Taryn promoted from 8th grade and will be attending North High School next year.

She graduated with honors!

 Naomi ended the second grade with an amazing field trip to a local park that has a splash pad. They played all sorts of games and enjoyed a picnic lunch with all of the other second graders. She had such an awesome teacher this year. Mrs. Hernandez was all about fun + learning.

And lastly, this little man.  He completed his first year of school.  Kindergarten was intense. Each full day was stuffed with learning writing, reading, math and more from the moment they walked in until the time they headed home which was 2:55 just about every day.

Also during the week were award ceremonies, parties and celebrations of course - you get the idea.

It's been wild, but I am finally able to sit down and catch my breath.  Sort of...

Another big huge thing - is that after 6 years of giving it our all, we've closed the doors to our Freedom Church and ministry.  There were many reasons and events that led up to this decision, and although I still haven't been able to process it all, I have faith that it was the right decision.

So as that door has closed, we are watching to see what other doors will open.

We are praying for a job for my husband - his other job at CBU is done for the summer and won't resume until the fall classes begin again.

Learning to walk our talk and trust Him.

hello monday|seventeen

hello triple digit temperatures! Looks like the warm weather is here to stay. Got over 100* this weekend.  My husband promised the kids he'd "hose them off" and he kept true to his word. They had a blast.  We sure do miss having a pool.  It's been a couple years, but we still talk about how awesome it was while we had it.

hello first time dentist visit - this would be for my little guy. We are hoping he gets a good report.
hello birthday dinner - We are looking forward to a birthday dinner for my father-in-law this Friday. I have been blessed with wonderful in-laws and love getting together with them when we can.
hello senior pictures - We are headed to the beach this weekend for Hannah's Senior pictures. The family is looking forward to playing and enjoying the beach while she gets her picture taken. It means that announcements will be sent out shortly after!

hello family fitness - We've made a decision to really get moving this summer.  Hannah will be attending school nearby and it will start this summer. She will also be playing summer water polo for the college. The two youngers will be attending swim camp and Taryn will hopefully be playing some volleyball.  We plan on getting out more and MOVING and being ACTIVE.  I am excited about this and really hope we can stick to it!!

hello paleo eating- It's high time we start meeting up again! I was doing so well until sometime around November.  I let "life" and stress dictate what and how I ate and it's time I reclaim that control. It may be slow getting started, but once I'm in - I know I can do it.

hello RLS - why do you have to haunt me?  Hoping the improvement on my eating and exercise will help relieve some stress and in turn relieve some of the RLS.   

hello monday mugshots.   This is how I've got my washi tape and baker's twine sorted.  I got these lovely dishes from a friend in Pennsylvania.  I love them and use them for all sorts of things!  In my mug today is Lipton's Vanilla Caramel Truffle tea.  It's one of my favorites.

So there you go. hello monday and new beginnings.

Inspired by my friend, Lee at Embrace Life, Hello Monday provides a peek into the coming week - in all its glory. Join us and Lisa for the Hello Monday fun.

“If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”  ~~Jim Rohn

A Year In the Life of an Art Journal | one

I am happy to be taking part in A Year in the Life of an Art Journal challenge again.

This year the prompts are for photographers as well as art journalers. 

The challenges are given out on the 15th and 30th of every month.

Here is the challenge for January 15, 2013:

PROMPT: New Year's resolutions or ONE WORD. 

Do you make New Year's resolutions, or take part in the ONE WORD project? 

SHOOTERS: Shoot your mug with your word or something that symbolizes your word.
(Sharing on Monday Mugshots on fb also)

BOOKERS: Use watercolors on your page to emulate your word... (if you don't have water colors, watered down acrylic paint will do just fine.) use color to convey that word and what it means to you. While your paint is WET, sprinkle salt on it, and let it sit. When your paint is dry, brush off the salt.  (people taking part in the creative prompt can put their mugshot for this prompt on this page.) 

 I have been choosing a word for my year for the last five years.

I tend to over-burden myself about unnecessary things 

and this year, I've decided it's time to MINIMIZE.

 For these pages I used a double spread in my almost complete (YAY) journal that was already gesso'd and started covering it with a layer of mod podge and then random pages of vintage text from dictionaries, old scouting book, vintage hymnal, worn copy of Pride and Prejudice, etc.

I just mod podge'd away and didn't worry if there were wrinkles or anything.

Then I started painting on a water color wash of orange...my favorite.

(Make sure your page dries in between each thing you do.)

I added two pictures that I printed off quickly on my regular printer.  One is of my coffee mug that I wrote my One Little Word on.  I used a Sharpie Marker and free-handed on the mug. Then I placed it directly on the oven rack at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or so.  Won't wash off now. :)

The other picture is a little setting I made with some Scrabble tiles to spell out MINIMIZE.

   I added scribbles of oil pastels and gelato here and there.  Did some smudging.  Then I took some Bahama Blue acrylic and just let it drip down my page.  Just anything that made me smile and broke up the orange a bit.

 I began to write random words that represented things I wanted to minimize.  I used a Sharpie marker for the bold words.  Then around the word I used a Glaze gel pen to write how I would MINIMIZE those areas. 

I have found that the Glaze pens work great on top of any type of medium - even the waxy oil pastels.

 I may continue to add things to the pages that I want to MINIMIZE as I think of them, but this is it for now.  

To MINIMIZE fear:

Psalm 56:3~But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.

Colossians 3:15a.~Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

Do you art journal or like taking photos? You can join in on the fun twice a month too!  Just head over to Rachel Whetzel's page to play! 

hello monday|one

**Edited to add: This post was originally posted on Monday night.  When I didn't see it post to my fb wall, I went back to check it and it was gone.  Ugh. After some work, I think I finally have it fixed.  Hopefully it's here to stay. =)  Anybody else having glitches with Blogger?

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I've been enjoying the "hello monday" posts that have been out in the blog-o-sphere and wanted to try it out! I have been waiting for the new year to roll around so that I could start fresh.  Then I almost missed it! Ha!  Not going to let the late start throw me off already.  So, better late than never.  By the way, I've mostly read the posts on Lee's blog, but I believe it may have originated on Lisa Leonard's blog.

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hello first monday of the year.  I am truly looking forward to new beginnings this year like never before.
hello Olivia's Mexican Restaurant. My husband and I went out for a quick lunch and when he asked where I wanted to go, I responded "Somewhere yummy and fun."  This made us both laugh so much. I don't know why in the world I said it like that, but now it's going to stick. I just know it. Anyway, he took me to a little Mexican cuisine place that was recommended to him.  It turned out to be very good.  I enjoyed the Chile Relleno and Taco combo plate.  It was yummy AND we had fun. We always do. :)
hello normal routine.  The kids all returned to school today and are back on regular schedule.  Hannah has a water polo game at least 4 days out of the 7 this week. Taryn has different club meetings and the little ones were already loaded down with lots of reading and homework for the week. Marco and I have all of our regular responsibilities too. Yep. Back to "normal".
hello new OneLittleWord. My new word to focus on this year is minimize. I've already found myself conscientiously saying "no" to all the To Do lists in my head.  I have found that when I can say no to it "all", I can start truly saying YES to what's really important.

hello to real joy.  It's high time I got back to doing things that bring me real joy. Not just that feeling of satisfaction because I didn't disappoint someone or knowing I met others' expectations.  That's too much.  A very good friend of mine recently shared this statement with me, "I keep trying to remind myself that if something is making me feel anxiety, it probably needs to not be given any of my time or energy. "
Normally, I would not allow myself the LUXURY of feeling that way about something - but the new me is going to accept it 'cause I know I need to change my thinking.

So there you go. hello monday and new beginnings.

“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Likewise, I never imagined that home might be something I would miss.” 

― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

New Year, New One Little Word...

So, I got my Christmas decorations put away yesterday - finally.  I love how the house feels after it's all cleared out.  Don't get me wrong, a few weeks ago I was excited about getting my house all decked out with Christmas decorations, but things were starting to feel crowded.  Now that the front room is all cleared out and organized, I feel inspired to get the rest of the house de-cluttered.
By this time every year, I usually have my One Little Word chosen.  Instead of making "New Year's Resolutions" that are sure to be broken by January 9th, I choose a word that serves kind of as a "theme"...a word I can think about daily to focus on throughout the year.
Words that I've chosen in the past are:

FOCUS

TRUE

JOURNEY

DO

This year I began thinking about my word around Christmas.  I started thinking about my year and all that has happened...good and bad.  I looked through my blog and read about my past words.  My husband chooses a theme for the church every year and this year he chose "I believe".  At first I thought that my word would also be "Believe" because I have so many reasons to really BELIEVE this year.  Then I thought that it might be EMBRACE because I really need to embrace who I am, where I am, etc.  As I pondered my word, I realized that my words always seemed to be about me doing more, wanting more, seeking more...  I almost feel like my word for the year should be SNOOZE or NAP because to be honest, I am tired.  Not always physically tired, although that is true a lot of the time too, but I just felt so WEARY this last year.  So many things that happened that just wore me out.  

I am the type of person that is always on the go and even when I am taking a "break" I fill it with things to do.  I love making lists and crossing things off.  I am the type of person that makes a big deal out of a lot of basic things. I have a hard time keeping things simple.  I rarely can do anything spontaneous because I have so many things lined up in my head that I don't have "time" to just do or be.  My friends and I have even joked that it's a sickness.  I am not so sure that it's funny anymore - it's getting kind of serious really.

Well, as I struggled with the choosing of my word - I was making a big deal about it - I mean, come on! It's going to be my word for the whole year.  I realized that even this simple action was causing me unnecessary stress.  Then it hit me.  MINIMIZE.  minimize.  I needed to minimize!!  Wait...is that what I want to do?  Let me look it up on freedictionary.com:

min·i·mize  (mn-mz)

tr.v. min·i·mized, min·i·miz·ing, min·i·miz·es

1.

a. To reduce to the smallest possible amount, extent, size, or degree.

b. Usage Problem To reduce. See Usage Note at minimal.

2. To represent as having the least degree of importance, value, or size: minimized the magnitude of the crisis.

Hmmmm...  I think this is it!  There are so many things that need to be minimized.  Just some things that come to mind:

worry

clutter

stress

weight

self-doubt

projects

This is just a start, but I really like this.  Yes, I will still focus and do, but I really want to focus on keeping things simple.  I want to really minimize some fears that I am holding on to. But can I do this?  Is this like setting myself up to fail? Like the dreaded resolutions?  I think the obvious answer is yes.  I must.

So, I would like to announce that my One Little Word for 2013 is minimize. 

Did you choose a word?  What is it?  Feel free to leave a link or your word in the comments!