Merry Christmas!

This was my Christmas photo card I designed this year~Merry CHRISTmas!

Here's some of my favorite pictures from this fall.  I've been too busy homeschooling to get much up on my blog, but we managed to get a few photo opportunities in here and there.

Knights of Arrethtrae

"We can strip the knight of his armor, to reveal that he looks exactly like us, or we can try on the armor ourselves to experience how it feels.  Fiction provides an ideal opportunity to try on the armor"

C.S. Lewis

To say I love reading would be an understatement.  Ever since I picked up my first Little House on the Prairie book at the age of 7, I have been reading, reading, reading.  I have gone on magnificent adventures, meeting new friends and traveling all over the world and beyond.  I have been transported back in time and experienced the ages of past, all within the boundaries of my imagination, through the gift of words and stories.

When I pick up a book that I have read previously, and begin to sift through the pages, it is like receiving an old friend into my home.  It is almost like sitting down for tea with the character and rekindling our friendship. If you are a non-reader, this will not make any sense to you, but if you are an avid reader, then you will will understand this friendship that I'm talking about.  A well-written piece of literature has the capabilities to capture our hearts and stir our affections like no other.  Jesus, the Greatest Teacher, knew the power of a good story, especially the story with a purpose.

I have had the luxury the past few months to read the stories about the Knights of Arrethtrae. (Earth+Terra [Latin for earth] combined and spelled backwards).  Below is book 1 in this series.  While these books are aimed at youth, I found them both fascinating and compelling.  They are allegorical in nature, and have been compared to a modern Pilgrim's Progress.  It is the timeless story of good and evil, of the "King who ruled the Kingdom across the sea, along with His Son and their gallant and mighty force of Silent Warriors."  The Prince was later sent to Arrethtrae to "train a force of commoners--for He was a true master of the sword. [The enemy], claiming to act in the great King's name, captured and killed His very own son...The King used the power of Life to raise His Son from the dead...and the Prince will come again to take all who believe in Him home to the Kingdom across the Sea."

These stories written are about the charge the Knights of the Prince take up:  "those who love Him must travel to the far reaches of the kingdom of Arrethtrae, tell all people of Him and Him imminent return, and wage war against Lucius and his Shadow Warriors.




In this particular book, Sir Kendrick is a seasoned knight with a troubled past, and he takes along a younger knight, whom he mentors, on a journey to a far away castle.  This castle is ruled be evil Lord Ra, who holds secret parties and festivals for all the young people of the land.  He encourages the youth to rebel against their parents, and then he sucks them into his party life, or he locks them in a dungeon where they are never heard from again, or he turns them into one of his evil warriors to do his bidding.  At the very least, these youth escape his evil clutches with a sense of apathy that evil should be tolerated.  You will have to read it for yourself to find out what happens to Sir Kendrick's charge, Sir Duncan, and if the prisoners of the dungeon will be set free.  But beware, there are ravenous wolves abounding in the forests around the Castle of Bel Lione.  Each book focuses on a particular set of virtues and stongholds.  This book looks at forgiveness and rebellion.


These books are so applicable to today's culture and I find the Spirit pressing down on my to share these books any way that I can.  I have spoken to more friends who work with youth and prayed about this like I've done with few other books or experiences that I've had.  I've shared bits of this story with teen girls, hoping to start a small group book study in the next few months.  I believe stories are that powerful, and this story, moving with the authority of Jesus Christ, can have the power to remove strongholds such as rebellion, fear, apathy and escapism that are so prevalent in our culture.

In the book, Honey for a Teen's Heart, Gladys Hunt shares that "reading together provides opportunities for the discussions every family needs.  Books are about someone else; that means we can look objectively at the characters' choices and actions and discuss them."  Reading books together strengthen the family bond and allows for children and parents to share their thoughts and feelings and ideas about the world around them.  Adolescents need to know their parents are real people and they need to know why of who they are.  Sharing a book together is a sharing of yourself.  Hunt goes on to say, "When people read together, they give each other a piece of their mind and a piece of their time, and that says a good deal about human worth."  She quotes another author who says, "that next to being hugged, reading aloud together is probably the longest-lasting experience of childhood."

I urge you, buy this book for your family and read it together, if you have tweeners or teenagers in your home.  Perhaps you struggle with doing family devotions together, but you know that you must talk of spiritual issues together.  These books provide perfect opportunity to draw your children in and allow each family member to share their thoughts and feelings.  At the back of each book, there is a chapter by chapter discussion questions and answers that are quite fantastic, and you will need your Bible handy to be able to answer these thoughtfully.  They are engaging and provoking.



I chose to read these ahead of time by ordering them from the local library using inter-library loan, and then started buying a few from CBD.  I cannot wait until I can place each of them on my bookshelves to read again and again with my family.

Shutterfly {FREE} Photos

I love getting our family Christmas card together each year. For many years, I have made our own cards...stamped them, designed them, digitally made & printed them. This year, a few cheap and quick deals caught my eye.

Shutterfly is offering 50 free cards to me for blogging about them! And if you blog about them, the offer is open to you as well...until December 10.  It's good for 5x7 folded or flat cards.  Yippee!

At church yesterday, I had the family dressed and ready for some good pictures. This is what we came up with. Of our whole family, I have either black and white (vanilla tint action) or the dreamy hot cocoa action.

Next, we have 2 poses with all 3 kids. I think the one on the left of Maverick is better. Maverick didn't cooperate very well and kept trying to get away, which caused the girls to be distracted or to "help" keep him in place.

So I like this one of the 2 girls. They both are giving genuine smiles and their eyes are wide open. Makenna and Tim share the same unphotogenic trait: squinty eyes, eyes rolled back, eyes closed, etc.

And of course, a few of my Mav-man, looking cute.  I love seeing the curve of his cheek, the long eye lashes laying down.

Here's a few Shutterfly cards that I like:

I love these color schemes as well as being able to use multiple photos.  Another must:  It must say Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays or some other greeting.  I'll show you soon what I came up with.

My Christmas Girls

I grabbed my camera on the way to church Sunday for this purpose!  I wish Makenna had on her Christmas dress, too, but I didn't want to start another argument...she was set on wearing the horse dress.  Hannah had picked her dress out, too, and that's the only reason she's dressed for Christmas.  These pictures were rather unplanned.  We were even late sitting down for the service!  I wish that Maverick could have been in these as well, but he's got boogie eyes right now, and not exactly the cute boy I want for my Christmas cards.  So, we'll try again next week!

How was your weekend?

My Saturday was busier than usual. I woke up early to go to craft sales with my mom. There were several in my home town. I didn't buy anything, but I got a few ideas. I saw two booths of stamping/paper products. I didn't think they were selling much. I felt bad for them, as I've been there before. I also went to a Father-daughter banquet on Saturday night. You see me here with my father-in-law and my 2 sisters-in-laws. Aren't the girls beautiful? By the way, the sis-in-law sitting is expecting her 2nd daughter at Christmas. We had a fun time together. I took my girls for a walk the other day when I thought it was warm...it was very cold! Especially by the Lake, it was sooooo windy! Our walk leads us through the woods, up and down a few hills, and down the sand dunes so the Lake. The waves were very noisy, and Hannah was too scared to walk between me and the water. Aren't Makenna's eyes so blue?! They really are this bright in real life.

Friday, while I was stamping, I ran out of adhesive, and I wasn't able to get to the store until this afternoon. So, today I adhered everything together that I had made. Here is one: It's just a tag, but it's really cute, imho. I copied it from the catalog, us

ing the snow flurries stamp set. My base is ?? from SU--the Very Vanilla confetti looking paper. I layered Cool Caribbean on the top, with a strip of Certainly Celery between the layers. I stamped the greeting in basic brown and I stamped a snowman in Basic Brown on white CS, and layered it on Real Red. I think I should color him in a little--add a little red or something with my blender pens and SU stampin pastels. In the top corners, I used the tag corner punch to clip the corners off. I punched a 3/4" circle out of Certainly Celery and folded it in half over the top center. I added an eyelet and silver ribbon to the top and it's ready for a gift!

Snow Flurries

Can I just brag for a minute about my girls? Is that my "right" as a mom? :) Last night, we had our church's Thanksgiving Dinner. Our entertainment was a home-school group band and orchestra. I sat in the front row with my girls, and waited to see Hannah's reaction to the music. She loves music, plus many of her teen friends were sitting up on stage playing (as a pastor's family in a small church, Hannah spends a lot of time with older kids, and tends to think of herself as one of the teenagers). She sat very intently through the whole thing, and loved clapping after every song. During the band portion, she would ask "Mommy, more? More songs, please?" She really enjoyed it and was even trying to sing along. "Sing, mommy, sing!" Makenna, too, really enjoyed it. She sat on my lap bouncing away, especially liking the orchestra. She was trying to sing too! **Funny Story**There was an elderly lady sitting down behind us, with a cane on the floor. I had moved to the side to sit on the floor with my girls, and Hannah noticed the cane. She asked, "Mama, is that a shepherd's staff?" I tried not to giggle, amazed that an almost 3-year-old would think of such a thing! I asked her, "So does that make her a shepherd?" She thought about it, and stared at the lady, and decided that yes, she was!

Now about the card...I'm just experimenting on possible stamp-a-stack card ideas. This is made from a 3x12 Bashful Blue cardstock, wheeled with "Snow" jumbo wheel from mini catalog. It was inked with versamark cartridge. I used a piece of Hobby Lobby paper, cut 3x2. The snowman stamp comes from "Snow Flurries" (as does the sentiment) and is inked with Bashful Blue. It is layered on Real Red cardstock. I tied silver ribbon around this. I paper pierced the edges and used a white paint pen to make stitch marks. I used blender pens and SU! stampin' pastels to color in the snowman.

Criss-Cross Card

I've been wanting to make a criss-cross card for a while now. They look really fun and special. Here's my directions:

Cardstock: 2 pieces (Wild Wasabi) cut 4.25x11, scored at 5.5. Cut each piece diagonally from ceter top to bottom corner, making sure one piece is cut to the bottom left corner, the other to the bottom right corner. Layer these pieces on top of each other so that the whole rectangle portions are on top of each other, with a triangle on the left and the right.

Designer Paper: cut 4x5, cut in half on the diagonal. I used 2 different pieces of DS here. Layer triangles on the cardstock base and adhere.

Assemble card: use sticky strip or SNAIL along bottom of middle panel as well as the bottom of the triangle fold that is on top.

Insert: 3.75x5. Use corner rounder on top corners. If desired, layer neutral CS on top, measuring 3.5x4.75 and use corner rounder on top corners. I decorated white cardstock with the jumbo wheel "All about Christmas" in Certainly Celery ink

Round Tab Punch: I used Designer paper and adhered with brads to the insert piece

Optional: Belly Band, 1.5x12 long Card Stock; score at 5 5/8, 11.25. Place sticky strip on small 3/4" section and adhere.

Decorate: use ribbons, hardware, punchouts...I used a snowflake punch on DS

Snow Card

I created this Z-fold card the other day, and how appropriate that I show it today, as it's trying to thunderstorm and snow outside. It is soooo windy, and the waves on the lake are huge! It's actually a little scary! I don't like that it's almost dark at 5:00 now.

I CASEd (copy and stamp ??) this from another one I've seen that I liked. I did the base 4.25x12 and then I rolled my new snow jumbo wheel in versamark, and then embossed with white powder. For the white layer on the inside, I wheeled in Real Red and sponged the edges with red. I also used the corner rounder on the corners. I used white satin ribbon on the edge with a sentiment Joy stamped in versamark on Pretty in Pink paper and embossed with white powder. I edged this with Real Red and ticket punched the corners. For the rectangle layer on top, I used a base of bliss Blue, layer of winter paper and a diamond shape of Pretty in Pink. I stamped on this the mittens in versamark and embossed in white. This stamp set is a discontinued set I bought last year and I can't remember the name of it.

Entered in the Weekend Sketch Challenge #23

The base of this card is white cardstock, cut 4.5 x 9. Real Red is cut 4 1/4 square. Pretty in Pink is 2.75 x 3.25. Bashful Blue is 4.25 x 1.25 (?). The white layer on top is not measured, just cut to fit the snowman. The sentiment is on Certainly Celery, stamped with basic Black ink, corners cut with ticket punch, threaded with green stitched ribbon after eyelets were added. All corners are punched with ticket punch. Snowman is shaded with ink and blender pens and glittered up. Real Red paper was stamped with the Snow jumbo wheel, inked with versamark and embossed with white powder. The stamps come from the It's Snow Time set. I really like how this card turned out. I was inspired by the colors used in the Winter Bright scrappin' kit.