Vacation....again

We are off to go camping with my sister's family and my parents for the whole week next week! We will not be so lucky as to be roughin' it in a tent for the whole week though - we will be in a cabin!!! With real beds - Praise the Lord!!! I love camping and I don't mind roughin' it but we have yet to find an air mattress that actually holds air and you don't sink into the floor in the middle of the night - which then means NO SLEEP!!!!! I am usually quite grumpy by the time we come home from just 2 nights camping I couldn't imagine sleeping in a tent ON THE FLOOR for 6 nights - YUK!!! Maybe a cot is in order for dear old mommy???
I am pretty sure we will be off the airwaves for a week so talk at you when we get back in a week!!!

Mommies New Toy

we were given this wonderful hammock as a gift last week in canada and my hubby just put it up for me today.......

Thomas & Ben thought it was great fun to twist mommy up and watch her twirl around and around! It was great fun!!!

I don't really have a story to share so I thought I would share our favorite places to go on vacation!

We have 2 favorite vacation spots.....

Canada - we stay at my in-laws 'cottage' at the Ukranian Bible Camp on Pigeon Lake near Peterborough. We spend our days at the lake playing in the sand, canoeing around the lake and just enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods. The boys also do alot of fishing and we eat alot of fish! We spend our evenings by the campfire,that is always going, and chatting with the in-laws and any other relatives that are there at the time. This year we had 4 wheelers that we got to ride all around the camp - that was way fun!!!

the Lake.........

the Cottage........

Outer Banks - my boys absolutely love the beach! This was the second year that we didn't get to go to OBX(finances and our vacations have to be to visit family since we have NO family near us)

and we are all very sad about this change in our vacation spot!! We always stayed in the same house that was about a block from the beach and on the other side of the beach road was the sound where the boys would spend hours crabbing and fishing! We really, really miss the beach!!

Vacation Dreams......

1. To get back to the beach every year!

2. Drive across the US in an RV! I want to see all there is to see - the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Park, that big forest in CA that I cannot recall the name of right now and all the other amazing places we have right here in our own country!!! I also want to stop at all the funny places along the way like - the biggest ball of string, etc.. It has to be in an RV though becuase if we tried it in our van we would most likely all go crazy!! Plus - the whole RV experience seems like it is a must and that it would be super fun!!!!

3. Swim with the Dolphins! This is my ultimate dream! I have always wanted to do this and I will someday!! I love Dolphins!

4. Alaska & Australia. They just both seem like must visits!!

5. Jungle Trek! I so would love to go on a Guided tour thru the Jungle/Rainforest. All the animals and mystery leave me breathless!!!!

Digital scrapbooking

I am hooked! Sometime last year I got a whole bunch of FREE digiscrap stuff off the internet and I couldn't wait to start scrapbooking digitally instead of the regular old way with lots of stuff strewn around. I finally got around to getting some pages done while we were in Canada and all I had to bring with me was the laptop!! It was fantastic - every night I could scrap away and I didnt have any mess to clean up after I was done and every single piece of paper, mat, sticker or other embellishment that I put on the page was FREE!! I have gotten so much stuff free that I could seriously scrap for quite a few years this way without having to buy a thing - except the scrapbook itself and the pages to get printed!
Now - on the other side of it I have spent hours since we got home downloading NEW Freebies and Goodies so I can get completely caught up when we leave again and go camping next week! We will be in a cabin so I can bring the laptop for late night scrapping!!!! Fun, Fun, FUn!!!
I tried to upload some pages to show off but becuase htey are such big files they wouldn't load!!

Family Vacation.....Canada

We still have 5 more days of vacation but I wnated to show off some of the pics I have taken already! We are in Peterborough Canada - well actually we are in an ever smaller town but that is the closest town that is on the map! This is one of our absolute favorite places to come for vacation and we are having so much fun! We stay in the in-laws cabin that is on the property of the Ukranian Bible Camp Retreat Center. The lake is just a brief walk down the dirt road and we are surrounded by beautiful trees and quiet! Fishing, Playing at the Lake and the campfire in the backyard - that is always burning - are the highlights of our vacation! This year we have 4 wheelers to play on and they are so much fun - Mommy rides the big one more than the boys do! Stephen has mastered the little yellow one and zips all over on it with the biggest smile on his face but Ben and Thomas ride with mommy, daddy or Alex. Daddy and Stephen rowed the canoe ove rto the island that is across from us on the Lake and Alex goes over by himself! He wants to go exploring over there so hopefully it will stop RAINING long enough for him to be able to go! In between rain showers - which it has done every day since we got here - we have meanaged to get in some playtime!!! We also go to go strawberry picking with Uah - that was fun and dirty!!! Enjoy the pics........

Uah & Tat's backyard and house...beautiful!!!

I Painted...

...again! The Boys went to Canada with their grandparents a couple days ago(we will join them after we pick up Alex in Va Beach on friday) so I had a couple days to myself!! Big Suprise - I painted some things around the house!

I have been wanting to change the color on the stairs so I used some leftover paint and painted the wall in the stairs. When we first moved here I painted the walls very colorful and then when I started painting more of my own stuff and putting it up on the walls and it got to be way too colorful so..I have slowly repainted the walls in lighter colors and it makes the colors in the things I paint and like really POP!! It has been fun to find my style!!

This frame has been hanging on the wall for awhile now with our calendar and other necessities clothespinned to it. Yesterday I got a wild hair and painted the inside of the frame with chalkboard paint so when I need to write down a number or note real quick - it is right there!! I do love chalkboard paint!!

I found this adorable table at a yard sale for $4. It was plain and green when I bought it and now it is burnt orange with lots of fun squares decoupaged to the top with the words 'when God is in your heart - love is in your home ' around the edges! it is fun and random anad the colors are so much brighter in real life!

I have been eyeballing a silverware caddy at Target to use during school time for pencils, markers, crayons and such but since it costs money I got creative and created my own. I had this wooden box from somewhere and I used frosting containers to put everything in. Now - of course I had to decorate the containers with scrapbook paper because just plain white doesn't cut it!!

This was so fun to paint! I painted a flat canvas in fun colors and then wrote this quote from Dr. Seuss that I saw on a blog I like and I have been wanting to put it up somewhere in our school room - okay, kitchen - for awhile! A friend had given me this old frame made out of barn wood and instead of putting it inside the frame I glued the canvas to the top of the frame. it really looks good - i think! I love the contrast of the barn wood and the bright colors!

the more that you read the more things you will know, the more that you learn the more places you will go! i just love it!!

Leaving a Legacy

You have got to listen to this pastor - Voddie Baucham - speak about leaving a legacy for our kids and our families. He is incredible and this video is amazing. He spoke at our homeschool convention and we were all just blowna way by his talks about family, worldview, and education!
If you google him there are lots of other videos of his that you can watch! I really hope you will listen to him and that your spirit will be as moved as mine was!!