The Perfect Plan

On my unplanned vacation I spent some of the time coming up with the perfect plan or schedule. I knew I would be coming home to a mess, inside and outside, with soccer season starting and school right around the corner I was starting to wonder how I could do it all! Upon returning home, I jumped right into my plan and the first week went well. The girls responded and even commented on how much they enjoyed the new "reward" system and way of doing chores. The first week of soccer went well and then week two...Monday was good. Tuesday started off fine and then I had to mow the lawn. I inadvertantly hit a rock, stick or something that shot up and shattered the van window. This is the day after all the tree limbs were finally taken away and the remnants of the storm pretty much gone, to now face another insurance claim. Thank God the window was completely covered and no deductible. As a matter of fact, someone is coming today to fix it. Ok, not a big problem, but now Katlynn is complaining of her swollen gland hurting and being tired. Off to the doctor...3 hours later and armed with antibiotics, we rush home to eat and off to soccer practice. Long story short, a very hectic day, constant running, but thankfully her blood tests came back fine. Ok, it is now Wednesday, a new day to get back to the perfect plan! Or not. I won't bore you with the details but I once again am reminded that there is no perfect plan, only He is perfect! I must remain patient and flexible. Perhaps God was preparing me for next week when homeschool begins?

Back up...I don't go to the doctor without something to do. So I brought a new book Embellished Emotions for scrapbookers. Love it! (done in my Wheezy voice from Dragon Tales) A quick summary: this book gives lots of ideas and inspiration for using quotes and sayings as titles and journaling in your scrapbooks. Although the book listed many resources and websites for quotes, they didn't mention the Bible. A perfect resource, am I right? :) So thinking back on the past couple of days and my "perfect plan", I decided to try my hand with a project inspired by this book. Here is what I came up with:
I think this would make a great embellishment, title or in place of journaling to go along with a picture of someone going on to college or any other big change in their life. My daughter would be going into middle school and I know from talking with other mothers, they are worried about this big step for their daughters. Wouldn't it be nice to do a page with a picture of your child and your thoughts/concerns/hopes for them as they enter middle school? I also thought about using it as a card embellishment to give to one of these young ladies as an encouragement before starting school.

A few directions for the tag:

I started out with a sketch to get my ideas down. I used a wipe erase board because it was accessible and could be erased and play around with easily.

With the sketch, I had an idea of where I wanted to place the text and what words I want "highlighted".

• I printed the text out on light cardstock and cut into strips.
• I stamped letters for "LORD" and "Future". Trim or punch out. (I used a little tag punch for "future". For "LORD" I stamped the square border, then letters inside and trimmed.
• Inked edges and matt "plans".
• I used a tag from Crossed Paths Faith collection as my base. Arrange your text elements until you are pleased.
• The "Hope" embellishment is from Crossed Paths Faith collection round epoxy accents.
• Add cross brad, adhere tag punch to back at top of tag.
• Adhere small circle punch to continue the round element theme from "Hope".

*Stamps are from EK Succes True Faith collection. Brad is Accent Depot, purchased from PaperWishes.

I hope the above tag gives you some ideas and inspiration for your next layout! I would love to see some of your own creations.

Faithfully,

Dawn

http://www.FaithfullyYours.net

The Storm cont.

I guess the beauty of digital scrapbooking is you can change your mind! I redid the first layout I posted and added a second one from the second storm.











(click on image for larger view)

No Fear digital kit by Kelly Shults of www.Scrapix-Design.com

Another Storm

A storm blew through on Wednesday, July 19. We were at church during the storm and witnessed alot of wind damage there. When we arrived home we couldn't make it to our driveway as our street was blocked with downed trees. We were without power, neighbors had holes in their roofs, our house seemed to be fine just alot of tree damage. We spent Thursday cleaning up and were blessed with church family stopping by to help with the clean up. Our neighbors all pulled together, helping each other out and talking more than we have in years. Funny how it takes a storm to bring the neighborhood together, or is it?

Friday morning we began packing the van for our trip to Wisconsin for the half-ironman my husband and bil were participating in. When storm #2 blew through. We headed for the basement until the tornado sirens stopped and discovered more downed trees including a huge branch on my husband's car. We had to break out the chain saw once again and move trees out of the street, but decided to go ahead and go since there wasn't much we could do here still without power and we had campground reservations. We arrived home Monday night and still had no power. We stayed with my mil that night and decided to head to Kansas City to stay with my bil. We are very blessed with Shawn's (dh) job that he can work from home with this work laptop and were able to go where we could enjoy the convenience's of life. (power, air conditioning, refrigerated food)

An extra bonus for me is my friend Anna and FY Design Team member lives close by and I can visit with her. We met up Friday morning for a scrapbook session and I was able to meet another friend and list member. I did not bring any scrapbooking supplies with me, but realized I had digital pictures of the storm and a digital scrapbook kit "No Fear" available in the FY store that I had never played with. So I was able to scrap afterall. Here is the layout I did:

(click image for larger view and use browser back button)

*No Fear digital kit by Kelly Shults of www.Scrapix-Design.com

I have more pictures from storm #2 and hope to get to that layout soon. Be on the lookout! :) We are back home, power is back on and things are almost back to normal. Soccer season has started. Four girls on four different teams, 3 practicing on Tuesdays and games every Saturday. Can't wait! Until next time...

Faithfully,

Dawn