Craftin'

A friend passed along some scrapbook supplies to me this week, and it's gotten me motivated to scrap again. I'm about a year to a year and a half behind. :) Although I've changed my method and am not going to scrap everything. I do have a bunch of pictures and hospital stuff from (gasp!) almost a year ago and have been working on Natalie's birth. I want to give her a baby book(s) of her first year, and by golly I will! I want to catch up so that I don't have to keep looking at the blog to remember this stuff! Thankfully I have the blog, though. It's my brain... the memory part, anyway.

I've done only about 3 pages this week, which is pathetic, but that's because I got caught up in another craft. You may know that we've recently taken Financial Peace (and LOVED it), and we're currently paying for most things with cash. The envelope system I use came with the class, and it's pretty bulky, utilitarian, and, well... ugly. It is functional though. Then I ran across this on one of the blogs I read:

It's a pretty envelope system, and you can read about it here. I altered it a little to fit my needs. I actually used my Dave Ramsey envelopes minus the outside flap as a template since I like that size/shape a little better. Mine are also on cardstock since that's what I had that was pretty and two sided. I'm hoping they won't be too bulky and that they may actually hold up better. My original envelopes are showing some wear and tear. These new pretty envelopes don't have a ledger on the outside of them (part of what makes them un-ugly) so I made one on the computer and slipped it inside. That may actually work better for me since I don't have to throw out the envelope when the ledger is full; I'll just replace the ledger. I was thinking I had one of those big checkbook style wallets (like the one in the picture) but I can't find it. I did find something around here that will work for now though. I've been wanting to have some place to put all my cards and my envelopes, but still be able to take the envelopes out if I don't want to be carrying around my cash.

So far I've traced, cut, and glued together all the envelopes. I've also made my template for where the holes will be. I'm ready to punch holes, but my punch is old-school and involves sitting on the floor and pounding... loudly. It's 2:17 and both my children are sleeping. There's nothing worth waking them up! So I'll wait until later. If it's as pretty as I think it's going to be, I'll take a picture, I'm sure and post it.

Ooooohhh, I can work on my labels while the girls are sleeping!

Spittin' Image

I was looking through some of my blog posts from January of last year, and I saw this picture that I posted early January, before Natalie was born. I knew Natalie was a Pence, but oh my goodness. This is Matt, at about 5 months old:

Sunday

This morning we pretty much all slept in and decided to play hooky from church. We almost never do this, and it felt kind of nice.
I decided to try baking bread from scratch, with my hands. I'd been wanting to for ages, and I just finally did it! The bread turned out very yummy, only it didn't really rise. I'm guessing it was one of 3 reasons: 1)I killed my yeast with either too warm or too cold water 2) it didn't activate for some other reason or 3) it was too cold in my kitchen for the bread to rise. So, before next time I will 1) buy a thermometer 2) read the directions really carefully for everything and 3) warm my kitchen up a lot before I start. :) The bread really tastes delicious, it's just not very big and fluffy. The recipe I used had these ingredients: whole wheat flour, water, honey, butter, yeast, and salt. Pretty healthy, I say. Anybody have a whole wheat recipe they like? or bread making tips to share?
When I went to the grocery store this evening (mainly for eggs and bananas, our staples around here), I wrote down the price for everything in my bread and then figured out how much it cost to make those two little loaves. Depending on how much they rise (or should have risen), I think they're comparable to one loaf of store bought bread. Assuming that, it's a little bit cheaper to make bread myself. The major reason for doing it is that's it's better for you. Have you looked at the ingredients in your store-bought bread? Ew. Even the really good stuff has things in it I can't pronounce. I'm sure I'll still buy bread, especially for sandwiches. And I might decide that making bread is HARD WORK! I feel like I got my exercise kneading it this morning, though. I was actually out of breath! Sad, I know. I'm working on it. :)
This afternoon we all took a little snooze, except Joanna. She spent about an hour in her room singing. I'm pretty sure she was singing "Away in a Manger" to the tune of "O Come all Ye Faithful." It was pretty entertaining. The last couple of days Natalie has only really taken one nap. She's refused the other. I don't like this. So today when she woke up from her one, short nap, I snuggled with her on the couch and we both drifted off for a little while (to the sounds of Joanna singing). It was nice. :)
After naps we headed over to Mamma and Pop's for some leftovers. Yum! I LOVE leftovers!!
Just before we left, Natalie snuggled up to Pop. First she was sucking her thumb and leaning on him, then I guess her thumb fell out. Pop has kind of a funny face because he's kissing her hand.

It was tooooooo precious. I told him I'd come back for her in the morning, but nobody believed I was serious. :)

Family and Fashion

Matt's oldest brother Mike and his family drove into town from Kentucky last Sunday for the week. I took very few pictures. This is because I am lazy and often saw cute things happening but could not bother myself to get the camera. Sorry. I should add "defeat laziness" to my New Year's resolutions. But, alas, I'm too... well, you know.
Uncle Mike found a new buddy. We saw Aunt Mindy last night, and she and Joanna had to get some wrestling/exercising/? in.

Stephanie and her boyfriend Kevin are Ohio fans... in case you weren't sure. :) It was entertaining to watch them watch the game.

Joanna LOVED going outside to watch the trains. Fortunately there were lots of willing hands to take her. Me? Too lazy. :)

Heather reunited with her buddy Joanna.

I promise Heidi was there, too, I just took waaaay fewer pictures than normal. We were sad to say goodbye to them last night. They drove back today. Joanna asked about Stephanie and Heather this morning. She's family deprived again. Me, too. We're in withdrawal. Anybody coming soon?

These last two are just cute. The girls and I were getting ready in my bedroom when I happened to look over and see this:

She'd climbed up on the stepstool (I don't think she was tall enough to see in the mirror, though), grabbed my hairbrush and started "brushing" her "hair." Oh, my goodness it was so cute! She's started doing more and more things lately that make me realize she's is getting so old.

Joanna got to wear her new jammies from Nana and Popo tonight. She loves 'em!

These pictures are so last year...

But they have lots of great friends in them, so I have to post them!
My friend Kathy, who is actually my oldest friend -- in that I have known her the longest of all my friends -- was in town visiting her family. She, sadly, is living in South Carolina. Anyway, we're both pretty bad at getting things arranged so we barely squeezed in a visit Monday evening when they were leaving the next day, even though they'd been in town for a month or so.
Kathy, with her son Josh and Joanna. My failed attempt to get pictures of our little ones: Natalie and Sam (9 months).

Josh wanted in Kathy's lap, too. And not just any part... the middle part. Hee hee. Poor Kathy is so baby girl deprived. She has one lone niece and one yet to be determined niece, but every body else is a boy. Not that there's anything wrong with boys, you know, is just... I think it's a little fitting, though, because Kathy is one of four girls and now they're having all these boys. I just love that Kathy's kiddos are the same ages as her niece and nephews. Not that I'm wanting my sister to go and have children soon (hear that, Kathryn?!) but I do miss that my girls aren't growing up with cousins.

They do, however, have lots of great friends!

We headed to Lisa's on Thursday to play. I walked out of the house with the diaper bag and two clothed children, but no jackets, shoes for the little one, etc. I just don't think "outdoorsy," you know?

Fortunately there were enough jackets and shoes to go around. :)

The Vandenberge girls got a great big swingset/fort thing for Christmas. And get this: their Daddy BUILT IT... with his hands and tools and wood and stuff... from nothing. I'm seriously impressed.

You can't tell from the picture, because of course we're not in Harry Potter, but Natalie was rocking.

Then she got to swing. She really loves to swing.

Her very sweet other big sister even pushed her. Awwww...

That finishes up any posts from 2009, I think. I have a few to post from this year already... coming up next!

Saturday

Today's a pretty weird Saturday -- it doesn't feel like Saturday. Matt had to work today, but fortunately only a couple of hours. Before he left, he let me sleep in; I love that man! I've been just so tired lately!
Goals of the day:
-catch up on laundry; it seems to be multiplying around here. :)
-keep the house picked up so that I can clean it this weekend.
-work on January's budget: since October, I've been using this software I really like, but the free trial ran out and I'm not spending money to use it. At this point I'm really really wishing I'd retained more from college about Microsoft Excel. I can just see how this budget worksheet would come together, only I'm lacking the skills to actually do it. :( I'll keep working on it. :)
-finish our photo calendar at Walmart.com, or at least get closer. I love having our photo calendar up on the fridge, but it's so much work to put it together, especially if I wait until the end of the year... which I did. This year I'm going to try to do what I did a few years ago, and gather pictures every month.

Now I will leave you with some of my broad goals for 2010 (baby steps, okay?):
-Be nicer to my husband... a lot nicer, even when I'm tired.
-Spend more time in the Word and in prayer.
-Stay in touch with friends better.
-Work harder at my job; get better at it.
-Save toward our “emergency fund.” Live with less, happily, and really blast through the steps from Financial Peace... toward financial peace.
-Eat healthier. Keep junk out of the house, and eat it only on special occasions. :) Start making a lot of things from scratch (bread, etc.). Meal plan every week, and keep more fruits and veggies in the house.
-Get on a sleep schedule so I'm better rested.
-Incorporate some kind of exercise into my daily life.

The girls

Jessica...
-is hiding from all the football by being upstairs in the office.
-is also hiding a little bit from Natalie, who is perfectly happy until I walk into a room, at which time she must have me or cry.
-confirmed today that I have the worst sense of direction. Kathryn got it all and I got none.
-is very sad that stinky Babies R Us is already out of the Earth's Best diapers that are on sale this weekend. :(

Natalie...
-loves to point.
-LOVES to talk.
-loves to push buttons.
-will be ONE really really soon!
-has a cold. :(
-took a nap sitting next to Daddy on the couch today.
-does not like riding in the car.

Joanna...
-is giggling in the hallway right now.
-LOVES her cousins.
-is a great shopper and a dream child in the car. (She was with when I confirmed just how bad my sense of direction is today.)
-did not take a nap today but has endless energy. Her mother... does not.

I'm being called from the football room. Maybe there's food... :)