"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Just a couple photos of the Butterfly Gardens from our little trip to Calgary this past weekend in honor of my birthday last week and in celebration of another homeschooling year completed!

For more photos and/or video check out my Scrapbooking Blog and/or my Homeschooling Blog.

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!

It was five years ago today...

It was 5 years ago today, in the midnight hour of 12:12 am, that he slipped into the world in the comfort of our home.
A little over 25 months after older brother.
I'll never forget his birth and how secure and warm I felt laboring in the soft glow of the candlelight and the warmth of the water.
Just my beloved with me... and the two midwives.
He came quietly, the pain not nearly as intense as I had remembered.
Him not screaming, but with wide open eyes of wonder at the new world around him.

They placed him on my chest, all slippery and wet.
Wrapped a warm towel, straight out of the dryer, around us... and I gazed in awe at this little miracle within my arms.
"It's a boy", they said, and I smiled up at my love through glittering tears of happiness.
Not much later I was tucked in bed, snug, with my little one nursing contentedly.
Absolute bliss, being with him this way, my second born son, Marcus Nathan.

As he grew, he loved to cuddle, he was such a calm baby, sucking his thumb.
He had a blanket, too, that he would hold to his nose.

These things passed well before the age of 4.
Now he's growing up, doing big boy things, playing with big boy toys, swords, bikes, legos, climbing trees.

Doesn't have much time for cuddles anymore but every once in a while?... he does.
He comes to me on his own and I love it.
He'll always have a special place in my heart for all the precious memories he has, and is, giving me.

Happy birthday, sweet boy.

"May the Lord bless you and keep you,
may He make His face to shine upon you
and give you peace."

I'm Smiling...

I just have to show you what I did this morning...
I'm so proud of it!

Yes, SCRAPBOOKING!


The words on the 1st page say:

"I'm smiling 'cause you're my brother
and I'm laughing 'cause there's nothing
you can do about it!"

And the words on the 2nd page say:

"A brother is... All boy, best buddy, loyal, dependable, brotherly love, protective and a friend.

I took the pictures a few weeks ago especially for the purpose of using those words and they turned out AWESOME if I may say so myself.

(Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Project Unveiled

So this is what I've been doing lately.
Inspired by some of the home making journal's I have been seeing

around blog land, I decided to start one myself.
Here's how I'm doing it.
I just brows through old magazines
and if I see something I like, I rip it out.
I don't think too much about it;

Love it? Rip it.

It's really neat to go back and look at what I chose.
It definitely tells me something about myself.
So far?
I absolutely love nature and beautiful things... who doesn't?

After gaining a pile of ripped out pages about an inch thick
I sorted them all into seasons
and put them in separate folders
so that I could arrange them in order in my journal.
I want to start in January
recording little things that happen throughout my day.
Appointments, quotes, cute things the kids did or said,

romantic things from my hubby, etc.

Just a bit of my life recorded for history.

Would you like to do one too?

Let me know. I'd love to know who else is joining me
and it would be great to see some of your pages as well!

fun hobbies and a scary mask

I spent a good part of my time going through my pictures on my computer yesterday. Figuring out which ones to print and getting them on a CD so I can bring them in.

I am feeling the urge to start scrapbooking again... slowly making my way from outdoors to in. But not quite because there are beautiful sunny days out there yet. I am excited to get my pic's all in order and into scrap books, though.

And yesterday evening I actually took out my cross stitching to work on! Something I haven't done all summer. I am working on a large quilt and hopefully will post pictures of it soon... I am almost done.

I may even post pictures of my scrapbooking when I get some pages completed.

Well, that's it for now. I guess I should get back to my kiddo's and my kitchen.

I plan to bake some "Pumpkin" goodies today and have a picnic in the park ... a good day for soaking up the sunshine.

Have a blessed day!

The boys are into crafts,too, lately... lots of snippets of paper, tape, scissors and pencils crayons are strewn about the house.

Good times... ;)

...What else? Fall!

Decorated my hutch for the season this morning. Doesn't look near as nice on camera... I couldn't seem to get the lighting right.

But what do you think?

I love the warm colors after all the white and bright I had for spring/summer.

This is the centerpiece on my mantle. I love this wreath with the 3 wick candle in the middle... so cozy.
And just in case your interested, here are some past scrapbook pages I have done featuring...

What else? Fall!

I did the above page when I just started out scrap booking about 12 years ago. The girl in the picture is me.

Ain't I sweet?!