Fun with Shadows

   My youngest has had so much fun for the last few months, playing with his shadow.  It’s fascinating to him!  We’ve played with shadow puppets, we’ve jumped on shadows, we’ve made shadows grow and shrink.  His first introduction to shadows was in his first week of lessons in Stepping Stones, from Master Books.  That lesson stuck with him, and I knew we had to go through the entire book.  I had gotten it for free as part of their review team, and though Seth had finished preschool, I wanted to  try it out.  I loved it!  Seth loved it!  If you’d like to check out the great homeschool options that Master Books has to offer, please visit my affiliate link!

     Anyways, fast forward to this week.  My neighbor has struggled finding some books from their reading list in a timely manner at the library due to covid19.  She asked if we had a book, and I knew we did, but putting my hands on it meant I needed to clean off our bookshelf.  After all, it’s the end of the school year and everything is out of place.  While looking for the book for her, I came across this book.  I had forgotten we had this one, but I set it aside, knowing that I needed to read it to Seth.  You guessed it, he loved it!!!  It’s such a sweet story about playing with shadows, watching them grow and nearly disappear.  It hasn’t won any big awards, but it’s one you should add to your bookshelf anyways!  I promise you’ll enjoy it too!

Christmas In July

   It’s time to start thinking about Christmas cards, and Close to My Heart has some great products to get you started!  We have card kits, scrapbook kits, paper packs, stamps, embellishments, and even some not so Christmasy things that can easily be used for Christmas cards!  Click here for all of our Christmas products, https://beautifulgrace.closetomyheart.com/retail/search.aspx?searchvalue=Christmas .  You can find our amazing new products here, https://beautifulgrace.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Products.aspx?CatalogID=271 .  Don’t forget to check the clearance section for awesome deals!!!!

I’m on YouTube!

   I am so excited about all things Close to My Heart, and have decided to start making a weekly technique video.  Just 1 minute to see a new technique!!!!  So awesome!

   The video this week uses the Aurora Paper Packet, Aurora Coordinating Cardstock, and Aurora Scrapbooking stamp set, as well as the Mint Shimmer Brush, and Clear Shimmer Brush.  You can find all of these products on my website beautifulgrace.ctmh.com!

   Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the video!

Monday Minute 2: Shimmer Brush Techniques

New Consultant Kit Unboxing

My new consultant kit from Close to My Heart is here and I’m so excited to share it with you!  You can check out our great products on my e-commerce site, and if you’d like to set up an online gathering of your own, I can do that too!  I’m so excited to be back with Close to My Heart, and I can’t wait to show you all of my new artwork!!!

Mom Vacations are real, and all the other fun stuff I’ve done these past few days....

   So my weekend started out great, then took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.  We had a field trip Friday morning to make King Cakes!  I let the kids eat theirs for lunch and totally skip eating anything healthy.   I made plans with our babysitter for my husband and I to have a date night.  My oldest was getting ready to go to some friends’ house to practice robotics and get ready for their competition on Saturday.  I ran in to help him find the shirt he needed, while another kiddo decided to chase his sister and push her down.  She had finally had enough, so she picked up a rock to throw at him.  Thankfully it didn’t hit him, but it did hit the window to my van.  Date night canceled!
   Saturday was great!  We had some beautiful weather, and the temperature was perfect.  We went to Elijah’s robotics competition and then came home to play outside for a few hours.  Sunday morning we had church, went to eat lunch at Johnny’s, and then back to the church to wait for the Crewe of Cotton Mardi Gras parade to start.  Sunday evening Gabe and I got to go to dinner and buy groceries without the kids.  Overall, it was a great weekend, even if it did have a little hiccup in there.
   Needless to say, the Valentine’s Day activities post is being postponed for tomorrow!!!  For now I’ve got to tell you just how awesome today was!!!
   Today I got a Mom Vacation!  It’s been a loooooong time since I’ve had a day to run errands without the kids.  I had to get that busted window replaced, so my Mom volunteered to come sit with the kids so that I could do that.  It was pouring rain, so I had to drive super slow to keep the covering from blowing off of the window.  Then I got to sit in the waiting room and wait all by myself for an hour and a half, where I was also able to have a nice fresh cup of coffee and drink it all before it got cold.  I ran through drive thru for my lunch, which I got to eat while it was still hot, and I didn’t have to share my fries.  I then dropped off an old modem so that we would stopped being charged for it, and stopped by the bank.  Since I was finished early, I decided to stop at the AT&T store for a new phone.  I managed all of that in just 4 hours!  I feel so productive tonight, but I feel like I got a little pick me up too.  I rarely get time to myself, and getting a new gadget for myself is nearly unheard of. I hope that maybe I can convince my Mom to make this a regular thing once a month.

I was happy to have a cup of coffee and a nice long wait !

The camera on my new phone is so much fun!  

Valentine’s Day Preparations

   I love Valentine’s Day.  The lovie-dovie candy and flowers part is nice, but the part I love is putting together super simple activities for the kids to do.  Seriously, $10 at the Dollar Tree and your kids can have a little fun all week long!  More on that this weekend!

   As I am working on a post for this weekend with some ideas for simple activities for next week, I knew that I needed to post my booklist earlier so that you could request them from the library or order on Amazon.  There are many great Valentine’s Day books, but these are some of the books on my radar this year.  Come back this weekend for some great go-along activities for kids of all ages!

This one is available on Kindle Unlimited!

This one is also available on Kindle Unlimited!

New Things on the Horizon

   I’ve started 2020 with an excitement for working and writing that I haven’t had in a while.  Over the past year or so I’ve made countless notes about topics to write about, content that I’d like to share on my blog, and a few bigger projects that I’d like to work on.  The time just wasn’t right for me to jump back into working.  During this time I had been approached to write several articles and blog posts for others, but I knew that it wasn’t the right fit for me.  I love doing this, but I knew that God was leading me to develop my own blog and work on some projects on my own.  I am still open to writing for others, and working on projects with some of the ladies that I have worked with in the past, but I want to grow my blog as I work on others.

   January is a free trial month for the new year, and it gave me a good chance to see how I can fit writing into my regular schedule, without it affecting my family.  A large family requires a lot of time, and I need to focus more attention on training my children up in the Lord, and teaching them each day.  Many times when I am trying to finish a project I let them have movie days or do their own projects while I am working.  This usually results in a bit of evening chaos as we try to reclaim the house before bed, and it often affects the next few days afterwards as well.  I know that this won’t work if I am going to really focus on growing a blog and sharing some of the projects that I have in mind this year.  I’ve decided to devote 3 nights a week to my work, after the kids have gone to bed.  This is time that I typically spend in quiet, all by myself anyways, so that I can wind down from the busy day.  I also have a little time in the morning while drinking my coffee that I can make notes or outlines on some ongoing projects.  It’s not ideal for everyone, but it works for me!

   So just what do I have on the horizon?  One HUGE project, and four smaller ones.  The one will help you with teaching your little ones preschool, while the others will help you manage your meals a bit better.  Both of these are things that I currently do myself, but have never taken the time to write them down permanently.  As I gear up for teaching my last year of preschool this next school year (how is that even possible?), I knew that now is the time to write down all of my great ideas.  As I began to plan time to write, I knew that I had to really stick to my meal planning in order for it to all work out for me to have the time that I need.  Chores have to flow pretty smoothly as well, but I haven’t figured out the secret to that one yet.

   Keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I dive into this new adventure.  I’m excited about the possibilities and I can’t wait to share more with all of you.

I decided to use the motor home as an office
so that I can work without interruptions.
  It worked well tonight!