Author: jennifer

Baptism Invitations

Paper

This beautiful daughter of mine turned eight last month, and will be baptized on Saturday.


She is blessed  with a golden heart.  We marvel often at her sweet and sincere goodness.  We’re so excited for her special day.  This means that there will be a flurry of activity in our home this week as we prepare for family to gather in honor of her decision to enter into this sacred covenant.  Among those activities is the creation of her invitations, something that should have been accomplished at least 10 days ago, but at least I’m doing them!


Projects like this are created from my old stash of scrapbook supplies.  I went with  a simple design, printing the information on the photo and mounting the picture on a piece of white cardstock.  I then cut pieces of my favorite vellum to cover the entire invitation.


After some experimenting I settled on a simple white ribbon woven back and forth across the top to hold the two layers together.


I’ve said this before, but there is something beautiful in stacks of paper and supplies all lined up together.


I love the shades of white, the subtle gray produced by the vellum over the photograph, the shadows, the way white helps you see texture.  I never tire of white.  Simple and elegant.


I added a simple strip of white cardstock with a charcoal gray design stamped across it to cover the text on the photo below.  This makes the invitation easier on the eye as you aren’t drawn to try to read two layers of text on top of each other.


And underneath the vellum…


This is a project I was tempted to skip when I missed the window to mail them at an appropriate date.  I’m grateful for telephone and electronic communication!  Still, I felt like I should do it, and now that they’re finished I’m so glad that I did.  When the children came home from school and saw them, I was so happy to present my daughter with her own invitation to keep.  Interestingly, my almost twelve year old daughter ran immediately to her room and returned with the invitation I made for her baptism four years ago.  My heart whispered to me that what I had done was important, and I’m so glad I followed that prompting.


Now they are en route, and although they’re late, I hope they will still serve as a reminder and a memory.

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Flashback

Musings on Life and Beauty

I was sitting across the table from my little guy while he worked on writing some of his letters.  We’re working on learning all the letters in his first name.


As I watched him work on letters, then scribble, then go back to his efforts, I was suddenly reminded of another little boy doing the same thing years ago.  Unexpected tears pricked at my eyes as I thought of my second son at age four, sitting at the kitchen table with pen and paper, the same blond hair and the same smile pulling at his mouth, the same sunlight filtering into the room.  I thought of that second son and remembered hearing him walk into the kitchen behind me recently.  His walk sounded heavy, like his oldest brother, and I realized how fast he’s growing.


I looked back at my four year old with new appreciation.  With all the curve balls this little guy throws at us, I sometimes shake my head and wonder.  Moments like this remind me of his sweetness and desire to be good.  They also remind me how quickly this mischievous little smile will change as he grows.  And I think, “I love this.”

I’m so grateful to be a mother.

Jennifer

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One Step Report #43

One Step

Cozy.

That about sums up my heart tonight.  The children are in bed.  Correction:  Seven of the children are in bed.  One of them is back out of bed.  As I type this the sounds of my four year old contentedly eating the dinner he refused to touch four hours ago carry through the house.  October is complete and with a happy heart I prepare to greet November.  You may be tired of my pictures of the sky, but I cannot resist sharing one last fiery October sunset.  Honestly, it’s been a beautiful month.


This week’s report:  107 steps.  Oh, how I wish this number represented forward progress in areas that really matter to me.  Unfortunately the week was crammed full of  urgent but unimportant tasks and activities.  If  nothing else, at least I have a list of all the things I did when I wanted to be doing better things.

With the end of another month, the current grand total of steps for the year is over 3,000.  Who would have guessed?

Highlights:

1.  After almost 15 hours of time in 5 days dedicated to his soccer team, our son’s fall season is over and we are officially done for a couple of months.  (Could you hear that sigh of relief?)

2.  With the end of his season, I am taking a leave of absence from my part-time, unpaid position as shuttle driver.  I intend to stay OUT of my car as much as possible.  Yes, we’ll still have gymnastics four days a week, piano lessons, Scouts, etc. but removing the soccer and lacrosse schedules makes the calendar look rather dreamy in comparison to September and October.

3.  I thoroughly enjoyed the things my four year old son said to me this week.  A couple of examples:  “Mom, my leg muscles are insanely huge.”  After watching the Math Circus DVD by Leap Frog, I overheard him walking around the house saying “And zero is our special friend.”  That boy is a riot, I tell you.  And for the record, I should state that he walked into the Primary room of his own accord today. For weeks he’s been laying on the floor to kick and scream immediately following Sacrament meeting.  Big victory.

4.  On Monday night I had a great learning experience as a mother with my two year old daughter.  Precious.

5.  I bought a new hair dryer this week after my old one died (when myself and 3 daughters all had wet hair and it was raining outside).  They seem to quit on me after only 6 months or so anymore.  Is it just me?  I’ve tried multiple brands, and they all fizzle out and stop.  If you’ve got one that works, I’m anxious to know what kind it is.  I’m tired of buying them.

6.  I had professional pictures taken of my little one this week.  I’m excited to see them, and really hope that one of them captured the essence of her.

7.  One of my dear friends who moved away in August was back for a quick trip.  I loved seeing her, catching up briefly, and sharing a hug.

8.  We had a truckload of dirt delivered, and my awesome husband moved it to where our flower beds will be in the front yard so that I can plant tulips (which are en route via UPS because I couldn’t find what I wanted locally). Somehow we got lucky and managed to schedule the dirt delivery when the weather was pleasant.


9.  I cooked some favorite recipes.  Yum.

10.  Today I had the opportunity to teach a short lesson on the topic of reverence. It was a great experience for me.  I know that it is never my own intelligence or wisdom that I’m sharing, but it is always an experience I enjoy.  Today was no different.  I learned so much.

11.  And just to keep things real, we have this picture from our ultra reverent scripture study this evening:


That would be me with three children climbing all over me.  And here’s proof of how quiet we weren’t:


I have no explanation for the thirteen year old who felt that taking pictures was an appropriate way to “follow along.”  All I can say is that we’re not quitters and we’ll do better tomorrow.

And so another week has come and gone.  The next promises to be an exciting one.
Have a great week!

Jennifer

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