A Holiday Weekend!

No huge plans, but nice because everyone is around for the first time in several weeks! No rushing to practices, games, camps, etc.. Who knows - we may actually have a relaxing weekend! (mind you, it is Saturday am, so this may change)

I have been working to get my scrap area back to a "normal" mess. After all the running this summer, grabbing projects to take quick, putting back onto tables and picking up new projects and heading out the door, my tools were in disarray. I had not been able to locate my small round hole punch, none of the three fiskars eyelet punches and had misplaced my standard, old fashioned, hammer eyelet punch. Well - not anymore! I know where all tools and punches are (they were burried of course) and they have all returned to their homes. I still have one bag to clean out, but at least I can find the tabletop again.

Papers are returning to their homes, but I am still trying to figure out the best way to deal with scraps! Any suggestions are appreciated. Right now I have a 12 x 12 plastic container full, a 12 x 10 container full (sorted by color), and the bottom of a shipping box (12 x 2 x 6" high) full - I think it is time to purge!

The weather has been beautiful the last few days, though it is to get hot this weekend (relative term - hot to us is the 88 high). The evenings are to return to the 50's though, so no a/c. We had a frost advisory about a week ago - Fall is on the way.

I took this picture the other night of an absolutely beautiful sunset. I still can't get pictures to display the beauty my eyes can see, however, I still like the pictures I took.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Simple Sophistication?

A circle journal topic I recently received. This one is really hard for me. I started by looking up the exact definition of sophistication in websters - three choices:

1. the use of sophistry : sophistic reasoning b: sophism, quibble


2. the process or result of becoming cultured, knowledgeable, or disillusioned; especially : cultivation, urbanity


3. the process or result of becoming more complex, developed, or subtle

Well - next it was time to look up sophistry or sophistic - here we go:

Sophistry gives me: subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation; sophism

Sophistic yields: of or relating to sophists, sophistry, or the ancient Sophists or plausible but fallacious

This search is getting me nowhere - I had more of an idea before I looked up a definition. So, how about plain old sophisticate (root word)?

1: to alter deceptively; especially : adulterate

2: to deprive of genuineness, naturalness, or simplicity; especially : to deprive of naïveté and make worldly-wise : disillusion

3: to make complicated or complex

Well - after a lot of thought and all, the picture to the left represents simple sophistication to me. My husband wasn't quite sure, but did smile when I explained (btw - he is a ruminant nutritionist).

Why would I choose a cow? (The cow here is wondering the same thing.) They tend to look like the least sophisticated animals in the world.

She is a beautiful machine/animal. Think about these facts:

Cows can produce milk and meat to feed human populations. Calcium in milk is crucial for bone development just as protein is necessary for building bodies. Our youngest was iron deficient at one time, an increase in red meat, over time, helped his body adapt. (Eating meat is much safer than the iron supplements we had to provide to him for almost a year.)

Her intake looks like dried grass (hay) and little else. Humans would not eat it. She eats her hay and then ruminates.

She has billions of microbes inside her rumen. These microbes can eat grass and hay. These microbes break down the structures into smaller bits that the cow can absorb (utilize). 19 billion bugs per mil of rumen fluid. A cow has 100 liters of rumen fluid on average (remember 1l = 1000 ml). These bugs produce the microbial biomass that cows need. For this cow, her microbial biomass is proabably on the 4 to 5 pounds of mass (this is only an estimate). This mass is protein her body needs to carry out all of its complex functions.

This particular cow, Charolette is her name, raises some of the biggest calves every year. She is very tame and the kids love her. She is 14 years old and just ruminating (chewing her cud) after a big meal.

I found this website that can help explain the rumination process further http://4hgarden.msu.edu/kidstour/zoo/zacmain.html

Anyway - after being provided with something as simple as hay, Charolette's sophisticatedly designed body processes it into something more complex, milk and meat. So Charolette is my simple sophistication topic. (Pages will follow - she did well for her photo shoot, but now I need to get the pics developed)

Digital Attempt

I decided to try a digital ATC - here are the results (ok, before adding some embellies). I am happy with the basics, but couldn't resist adding some ribbon with a brad and skittle. I guess I just miss the texture of regular ATC's.

We are continuing school - everyone is completed for the day - hurray! Now off to purchase a new hay feeder and then back to finish up the new sheep pen. Hopefully we can get part of the shed rebuilt tonight as well.

Back to school on Kiss and Make-up Day?????

Its Back to School around here today! Ok, probably not what many envision - no school bus comes, no lunches to pack, I don't even care if they decide to start in their jammies! You probably guessed by now - we homeschool. We also don't start back to school in the normal fashion of many; we kind of "ease" into it, incorporating learning into our everyday routine. We start with just 2-3 subjects this week, add some more next, and by the week after Labor Day, we are into full subject loads (all except the high school age kids - they go full blown next week). Kind of different, I know, but it works for us. Over to the left is an old picture from days gone by - the young man is much older now, but I still remember this age so well. (however, he doesn't get as excited for new school years as he used to)

My scrapping will take a backseat for awhile (still occuring, just a bit slower) while mom gets back into the school routines. Menus are done, shopping is too! However, the bull broke the hayfeeder, so have to add some time in for finding and buying a new one this week. A large black Laborador Retriever also showed up over the weekend. He isn't as large as ours that died was, but he is big, in tact and, like so many, seems very friendly (once we removed the chain/rope he was dragging and an overly tight shock collar). We have called around looking for the owner, hopefully someone calls today. We have taken to calling him Sirus for now. He is well trained (slept inside our old kennel last night - his choosing, not ours) and obeys commands. We are figuring that someone is really missing him.

Back to school and ATC's

School is starting soon and so it has been shopping time around here! New pencils, pens, glue, notebooks, etc., are all warmed up and ready to go! I know many people think, "it's just homeschool," but just ask the kids - they have to be ready to go just like "regular" kids. They do have the advantage of doing school in jammies, their reading in comfy chairs, and on nice days they often opt to do their seatwork outside.

We have a hockey tournament this weekend for one of the kids - so we will be running, but it is still fun. One is working on his Eagle project (about 1/2 way done right now) with a deadline of Labor Day, so he should be just on time!

I have been busy trying to finish up swaps before we start school. With an ever changing schedule, I have to take a month off of swapping before I start up any new ones. (Don't worry, anything I have started or due dates for will go on as planned :). Swapping out doesn't take nearly as long as creating everything.)

These are some of the ATC's I have been working on for various swaps. One is a halloween ATC, the other is for a Color ATC swap (orange). I also created the one with the small envelope for a floral ATC swap. My ATC album started to fall apart, so I decided to include some ATC's I have swapped for, though just a few - mainly the ones that fell out. The cow and dog ATC's are from a pet ATC swap; the corner one from a floral ATC swap.

Pay it Forward RAK at AMR!

These are the mini envelopes and brads I am offering. The envelopes are only about 2" wide, but great for scrapping (or including with gifts): E

The "letters" for the envelopes are pre-scored

Olympic Friendlies

My kids have been pretty bummed about the lack of coverage that actually shows the friendlies at the Olympics. We taught a group of girls at camp about Chinese history, a few words and were able to talk about the friendlies, what they represent and such. When you put their names together, you say "Welcome to Bejing". Some Chinese friends of ours sent the friendlies over for the kids as well as a beautiful book that has small pictures of the friendlies participating in every event for the summer games as well as postage stamps. Anyway, we made some friendlies swaps to trade with girls at camp - even some that we sent with some friends on their return trip to China earlier this week. This is a picture from one of the sessions teaching about China at camp.

Special thanks goes out to a great friend who made a Chinese for this presentation!

Stamp Image Swap

These are the snowmen (and one flake) I was planning on for the AMR Stamped image swap.

Can you guess I like snow?

I have also started a new swap on the All Moments Remembered Board. It is a scrapbook accessory swap. I have met several very nice individuals over there and we all love to scrap!

Camp Kit Swap Pages Completed!

I had the opportunity to host a swap on the CKMB website - we swapped out camp kits.

These were really fun to put together - thank you to all the talented ladies out there. My interpretations:

I haven't added my pictures yet - just got them ordered and back - now to the real fun. I left blank pages between the scrapbooked pages for additional jouralling, memorabilia, photos. I really like the small wooden album - it is a Heidi Grace (I think) that I found on clearance for $ .99 - worked out perfect!

BTW - if you are the one who sent the frog shown on cover (sorry, but I don't remember who did which kit - I should have labelled better) - is he a die cut?

Mission Trip Pics

Everyone was bothered trying to paint low around the bush - she loves trees/bugs, etc., so volunteered for the assisgnment

We also were able to go to a pow-wow - I learned how a grass dancer is different from other dancers. It was very interesting to learn about the eagle feathers, how costumes were created, and about the dances and origins.

A sneak peak - at a layout I have done for a circle journal project I am participating in. I won't tell whose is whose, but they have been fun! Oh - and below is a visitor we had in our garden this summer - he was very annoying (and annoyed at being disturbed) and sounded like a rattlesnake when he hissed. It is a bullsnake, and though they are great at hunting rodents, they have very bad attitudes when disturbed.

A Belated Thank You

I am really sorry this is so late, however, I won a great RAK from Glue and Popsicle sticks blog and with all that has been going on, never have sent a proper thanks. I plan to work up a page with the great items you sent on Tuesday this week and so should post soon. Thank you again - it was wonderful to receive and I cannot wait to play :)

Happy Book Lover's Day!

Well - we got through Girl Scout Day Camp and the Caddies did a phenomenal job! We made small passports for the girls and they were able to "travel" to Norway, Mexico, Back to America, and then on to China for the opening of the 2008 Olympics!

We are busy working with kids activities and hope to be able to plan relaxing vacation soon. Below is a picture taken in Mitchell, SD - it is the Corn Palace! Taken from parking area on our Mission Trip (we took a break for lunch and realized we were only 5 minutes away - so we had to stop by - pretty cool!)

Back on track?

Well - sort of. Day Camp is this week, so, again, I will not be posting on a routine basis.

Some great shots from the mission trip we were on last week. The hills in South Dakota were breathtaking.