Happy New Year!

It's hard for me to believe that 2007 is over, and a whole new year is about to begin! But I'm excited for this new year and can't wait to see what God has in store for us in the next 12 months!

May this be a blessed and happy year for all of us!

Handmade with love...

I received several handmade gifts this year for Christmas...I so enjoy these "labors of love"...



My ten-year-old sister made me this jar of hot cocoa mix - which I will thoroughly enjoy! It's finished off with a little ornament, which is a jar that says "Hot Cocoa" on it! Abbie also made homemade peanut butter cups for my husband - yum!


My mom made this lovely cross-stitched towel - it adds such a sweet, homey touch to my kitchen!


This beautiful rug was made for me by my mother-in-law. She has such a gift for painting! It looks so nice in my kitchen!



Another special treasure created by my mom. This adorable little doll is a wonderful addition to my collection of rag dolls!


Lots of people take their own bags to the grocery store...now I have my own bucket to take berry picking! My dad made this berry bucket for me - perfect for the next time I pick blueberries!


This bookmark was made by a another teacher at my school - such a fun little treat in the pages of a book!

I was so blessed by all of these wonderful gifts!

A wonderful Christmas...

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with our families! We spent Christmas Eve with Seth's family, then went to my parents' house on Christmas day. We even got a dusting of snow on Christmas, which is rare around here. We didn't get a lot of snow, but it was enough to have a white Christmas!

We were blessed with many wonderful gifts for Christmas - my biggest surprise was Seth's gift to me, as he gave me both a serger and a dress form! I am so excited to use these, as they are things I have wanted for a long time!

Over the next several days, I will be highlighting some of the treasures that were given to me, as well as the projects I have been working on for the last couple of months.

Merry Christmas!

The presents are wrapped, the house is clean. And we're off to celebrate Christmas with our families. May you have a blessed Christmas as you celebrate our Lord's birth with your family and friends!

Gift Bags

I just thought I'd share this idea I found today. One of my kids gave me a present in this gift bag, and when I first saw it, I thought they had bought it like this. But when I looked a little closer, I saw that a piece of wrapping paper had been taped to one side of a normal brown paper bag. It made a really nice looking gift. A simple, inexpensive idea for wrapping smaller gifts....

A new way to make snowflakes...

I did these snowflakes with my class today. It's a fun twist to the classic paper snowflake. Just place the snowflake on a piece of blue or black construction paper (I use a little glue to hold it down). Sponge paint white over and around the snowflake. Remove the snowflake, and let the paper dry. The kids loved it!

I know that when we have kids, I am going to be very thankful for the last few years I have spent teaching. Not only do I now have lots of ideas of things for kids to do, but I also have experience dealing with different kids. Plus, I figure that if I can handle 20 four and five year olds, I can handle pretty much anything! =)

Almost...

I'm nearing the end of my Christmas projects. I've finished several things up in the last couple of days and only have a couple of things left to do, besides wrapping! I think I can finish most of my wrapping tonight, and most of the other things I have to do Saturday morning....and then I can relax and just enjoy Christmas weekend! Looking forward to it!

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

This is one of the best times of the year to be a teacher! It's one of those special times when all your students bring you gifts! So far I've gotten a tin of cookies, some candle holders, and an ornament. It's so fun!

Problems...

I'm having problems getting pictures to show at the moment....something to do with the college's filtered internet, I think. I'm not sure if they're just not showing up for me, or if they won't show up at all...Hopefully it's just me...

Gifts...

Family friends that were at Seth's party yesterday gave us this adorable Christmas present. They made it, including painting the birds. Isn't it adorable? I'm thinking I'll have to leave it out all year long - just maybe change the decorations. I thought it might be kind of fun to hang little black and white pictures on it....

Surprises....

I love surprises. I love receiving them, and I love giving them. =) Yesterday my husband was the recipient of a surprise graduation party. My mother-in-law and I have been planning it for a few weeks, and it fortunately went off without a hitch (well except for that when we arrived at their house, one of Seth's friends was arriving late, so we saw him, and Seth found it extremely odd that he was there, but he still didn't really catch on). It was so fun for me to watch Seth's face as we came into the room and everyone shouted "Surprise!" He loved having all his family and friends there to celebrate with him. What fun!

He Did It!

Seth and I are so excited! After several years of hard work, he has finally finished his Bachelor's degree! He has put so much time and effort into this, and has done very well! I am so proud of him! Last week we attended a "commissioning" service that the college held for the fall graduates. They recognized all the graduates and prayed over them. Yesterday Seth had his last final and his last day at his internship. So he's done. It's kind of weird to think that he won't have any more classes, studying or internship. But it will definitely be very nice! We're excited to see where God takes us from here!

Still Busy....

I've been finishing up more projects, though I still have several more to go! A few days ago I made my wrapping paper. I did this last year, and really enjoyed it! I buy a roll of brown paper, and stamp it using shapes I cut out of sponges. It hardly uses any paint, so the paint I bought last year will probably last several more years! One roll of paper will probably be enough, though if I need a little extra I'll just stamp the inside of some brown bags. I could use only brown bags, which would be even cheaper than it already is, but they don't have quite the "tearability" that the paper has, and tearing into packages is part of the fun, right?

I also finished this Christmas quilt that I sent to my grandparents. I had made the actual quilt several years ago, so all I had to do was tie the quilt at each of the corners where the squares meet. I got that done and sent it off in the mail.

I also have finished a couple of other projects, but more on those later... = )

So far so good!

I have lots to get done before Christmas, but so far I'm doing pretty good. I've been making myself a list every morning to keep track of everything that I want to accomplish that day. It really helps me! I had a long list yesterday, and I was so happy to be able to get everything done! I finished up some presents, wrote all of my Christmas cards and got everything ready that needed to be mailed (well, except for one thing that I'm still finishing up!). It's always nice to have that job done! Along with my cards, I also sent one of these ornaments that I made a few weeks ago. Seth took everything to the post office for me this morning, so presents are on their way! It's always so fun to get things in the mail!

Well, on to finishing my jobs for today!

Simplicity...

I've been wanting to get my Christmas cards done for several days now. I finally got them made yesterday. I didn't want to do anything too time-consuming, since I have so many projects I'm trying to get done. But I did want to make them, instead of buying them. So I made these simple cards. I just printed up a couple of verses on the computer, printed them, tore them out, glued them on the card along with a piece of cardstock, and stamped on a design. I had all of the supplies, including the plain cards, so they didn't end up costing me anything. I had found these cute Christmas stampers last year at Wal-Mart, and was glad to get the chance to use them! It only took me about an hour to make 20 cards from start to finish, including clean-up time! I'm hoping to get the cards written and sent by Tuesday. That's my goal...hopefully I can accomplish it!

As a side note: I've been informed by the "Bible Police" ;) [a.k.a. my dad] that I'm supposed to cite what version of the Bible my verses came from. So, just to make sure I have all my bases covered, I used the NIV version. =)

Christmas Night

We are in the middle of enjoying a wonderful Christmas evening! We had a nice candlelight dinner tonight, then headed over to a nearby botanical garden to enjoy their beautiful light display. It was completely free and absolutely lovely. We really enjoyed it! We may have just started a new holiday tradition! The pictures don't quite do them justice, but some of things we saw were a hanging fuscia, a spider on its web, a pond complete with swan and lily pads, and a peacock. It was a very creative display! In just a little bit we are going to be settling in on the couch to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", which is on TV tonight. And of course we'll enjoy hot cocoa and cookies! What a fun (and frugal) evening!

Lessons...

They say you learn something new every day. My lesson for today: Don't put a bottle of honey in the cupboard upside down.

My Centerpiece...

I've finally finished my centerpiece! It's been sitting half-done for the past couple weeks because I didn't have any greens to go on it. I took some today that had fallen down in the school yard, so I was able to get it done! I was happy with the way it turned out...

Busy with Christmas...

It's been busy, busy, busy around here! We've had lots going on, plus I've been working on the many projects I'm trying to finish before Christmas! I love doing them, even though it makes me a little busier than I like to be. Someday I'll be organized enough to start my projects in September and then maybe I'll be able to breathe a little bit in the few weeks before Christmas! But as it is, I'm using most of my spare minutes to work on the gifts I'll be giving to my loved ones in a couple of weeks. After the big day I'll post some pictures of the finished products....

Weather...

We've had lots of crazy weather around here the last few days...

Saturday we got snow - a rare treat around here! We ended up with a couple of inches....but by Sunday it was pretty much gone, as it started raining...and it hasn't stopped yet! We've had a lot of rain today...so much that many areas have flooded. We also had wind in some spots today, which only added to the trouble. It's been so bad in some areas, that the governor declared a state of emergency here. Where we live is okay, thankfully, but there are many roads near us that are closed due to flooding. Some of the pictures on the news are pretty amazing. The weather is supposed to start improving now, which is good news....

Let's Say Thanks...

It has to be so hard for our soldiers to be away from their families, especially at this time of the year. I'm sure it means a lot to them to receive cards and letters from people all over our country, people they've never met, but who are writing to let them know they appreciate the sacrifice they are making. Xerox is helping people do this, at the website www.letssaythanks.com. If you go to this website, you can choose a card design (all of which were drawn by children), choose or write a message, and submit your card. Xerox then prints the cards and sends them to the troops. It's fast, easy, and free. What a wonderful way to be a blessing to someone!