I've been busy relaxing these past two weeks, digitally scrapbooking all of my pictures from last year. Wanna see them? I'll be posting a set every day or so on the blog I created just for them. Come see!

On Being Silly.

It's tough to get a good picture of my boys when they are in a mood like this...

This is exciting!

So it turns out that all who participated in the great poem caper over at L.L.'s blog this week are now featured on "The High Calling Blogs" today! Check it out... Just my name appears so if you wanna check out the poem I wrote... click here.

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And I just wanted to send out a warm, heartfelt thank you to all of you who have really encouraged me in this with your words of kindness in my comment box to this poem and my other recent one entitled "In the Stillness"....

You have been so generous.

10 Things I Love...

My friend Alicia @ Confessions of a Snowflake gave me the letter "L" for this fun game of "10 things I love". I'm gonna do what she did and add them to my list of things that I'm thankful for, for Thankful Thursday.

1. Light~ especially sunlight as it plays across the faces of my children, candle light, moon light, fire light, and lamp light.

2. Learning~ new ways to do things through books or through watching or listening to others.




3. The Light and Life of the Word of God.

4. Lilacs blooming in the spring... the scent of them is one of my favorites when it comes to flowers.

5. New Life and My Life~ life growing within me and growing without. (*Blush*...Updated to say, "No, I am NOT expecting...
I just love it WHEN I am")



6. Landscapes of every kind. The beauty and majesty of the Rockie mountains and the rolling expanse of the Prairies both take my breath away. Lake Louise, in Banff, Alberta and Leaves budding in the spring and changing to brilliance in the fall.




7. Laundry and my laundry room~ I love the fresh feel and scent of clean laundry as I'm folding it and I love the brightness and size of my laundry room...small and simple.



8. The Love that my beloved gives to me~ this was taken on our 10th wedding anniversary. Now it's already 11 1/2 years since we pledged our love on the 18th of July.



9. Lovely, Little Lads~ so precious to me.



10. Laughter~ especially the kind where your cheeks start to hurt from smiling so much! This happens a lot when all of us sisters are together. Here we are trying to get a good picture on Elizabeth's 30th Birthday (she's the one in the middle) amongst all our laughing and goofing around.

(I'll have you know that I have one more sister as well, who's 9, and was in school during this picture!)

And how could I not mention the absolutely delightful sound of the laughter of a baby?... Love, Love, Love it!

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If you would like to do this yourself, let me know as you leave a comment. I'll go check out your blog and give you a letter of my choice!

(1000's gift list # 96-106)

Just before his first Haircut...

I was tagged on Saturday by Rebekah @ Rebekah's Beautiful Day and I'm excited to play 'cause this is a fun one! I had to go to the 4th folder where I store my pictures and post the 4th picture from that folder. Well... here it is!

I must admit I was glad it wasn't a picture that I didn't like!

I love this one... I captured this just before my middle child Marcus got his first haircut at 11 months old.

So now I tag:

The 160 Acre Woods
Fireflies in the Garden
White Oak Lane
Our Journey

Love to Read?

Jeannette tagged me in this... and so I must be it!

Well, here goes:

Who is your all-time favorite author and why? I guess I'd have to say Jane Austen, because she wrote so many of my favorite books... but it's hard to pick just one... there's so many!!!

Who was your first favorite author and why? I think my favorite had to have been the author of the "Mandie" books, Lois Gladys Leppard. I remember, when I was a young preteen, saving my money and buying each new book as it came out... I must have about 14 of them or so! These boods were wonderful for young girls, just enough mystery to keep it exciting!

Do you still consider him/her to be among your favorites? No.

Who is the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why? I don't know!!! But I will say that I am thoroughly gripped by the writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe in "Uncle Tom's Cabin"... a real heart wrenching book.

If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Probably Francine Rivers.

So now I tag:

My Sister Tracy:
You've just GOT to check this out! She's posted pictures of SOME of her books... you'll be amazed. (:O
Simple Beauty
Deborah

Well, girls, if you want to play, here are the rules:

(As you can see, I didn't follow them to the letter 'cause I only tagged 3 people. 6 people was just too much... I hope that's okay, Jeannette!)

Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the questions, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

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So, what have you been reading lately?

Photo: what I am relaxing my way through.

I'm Gonna Miss these Moments...

I know I have posted a picture similar to this in the recent past,
but I wanted to post this specifically for this reason.
Pam is asking us to post pictures of moments we know
we're gonna miss when they are past.

I thought it was a really neat idea and I immediately thought of
this picture 'cause I know I'm gonna miss this...
cuddles with my youngest son, Allan. He does this so much, and I let him, because I know that all to soon he won't come to me for this anymore.

For more posts like this visit Pam over at Your gonna miss this...

Pay it Forward Challenge

A couple of days ago I signed up over at scraps in bloom for a "Pay it Forward " challenge. I thought it would be fun and so here is the way to sign up if your interested in joining us as we share our creativity around the world. Quoted directly from Krista's blog:

• be the first 3 bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me!!!
• be willing to post this challenge on your blog, (meaning, that you will then ‘pay-it-forward’, creating a handmade gift for the first 3 bloggers that leave a comment on YOUR blog!!)

as far as i can tell, the gift can be any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item.

which means, you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. (end quote)

So what da yah think? Should be fun, eh? Leave a comment if you wanna join!

And Happy Thanksgiving Day to all o' you in the United States!