Giving Update

I've gotten over parting with the quilt. I'll be ok!
Since then, I have given:
*time-kept a friend's child for an afternoon
*time-had 2 couples over (and their children) for dinner and game night. We know how to party! It got so rowdy, someone had to be taken to the emergency room!!
*time-went to the grocery store with my mom. You have to know, my mom is notorious for asking you to go clothes shopping with her and then, after you're in another town and in her car she springs on you the fact that she has to go grocery shopping afterwards (and out pops this mile long list). Ok, grocery shopping for my family is bad enough now I have to go with her too!! :) But, Saturday I did and with no (ok, few) complaints! :)
*time-we went to my in-laws after church Sunday to visit with my brother-in-law who has been working out of town for a couple of months now and was here for the weekend

Well, it looks like I gave the very thing I previously said I had the least of! I seemed to find enough time to share with everyone this weekend!

So Sweet

As I was making lunch today, Tanner offered to fix drinks for everyone. I don't know why I found this so sweet. I think it was just that he made it in one their cups instead of the glass I usually use or that he fixed me one of their root beers that their Papa gave them. Or maybe it was the single ice cube floating around all by itself? More than likely it was that look of accomplishment and innocent pride on his face when he brought it to the table (without spilling a drop!).

Early Morning Ride

This is the beautiful view we had as the boys and I left our house to meet a friend for a bike ride Friday morning. We rode early (7:15) to not interfere with our busy day (we both homeschool). The weather was perfect! And, look at that sunrise! We are currently training to ride in a local bike ride in mid-November. They have a 16 mile family ride. Matthew and I did it last year. Tanner wanted to join us but we were concerned that he couldn't make it. So, Mike said to let him go as far as he could and to call him and he would come get him. Tanner made 5 miles! I have to say, that's further than I expected!
I love cycling! Matthew seems to really enjoy it too which I am so excited about! It's a goal of mine to BRAG (bike ride across Georgia) before I'm 40 (I have 7 years). We'll see...

Giving Biggie!!

I knew the day was coming, but I didn't know it would be so hard. I gave my first quilt away today! It was for my niece.

What's the big deal, you ask? Well, I have been working on this quilt for almost 10 months! It was originally meant to be a shower gift, then I thought I would get it done in time to take it to my sister-in-law in the hospital when the baby was born but I didn't make that either!

In my defense, I have had to teach myself how to embroider (online) and learn how to quilt (read a quilting book). Insert finishing a house and moving somewhere in there too and you can see why it took so long!

I think it turned out pretty good for my first quilt. The embroidered pictures are vintage baby animals and they turned out really cute! I think Amy (my sister-in-law) really liked it. I love the idea of my handmade quilt being passed down through the years as my great-grandmother's afghans have been. I'd like to think it would be so appreciated.

This is Alayna. She's almost 6 months old. Who couldn't part with just about anything for this face?

Giving Update

I wanted to update you all on my givings since last challenge post. I have to write them down so I won't forget them. I don't want to post every single day on what I give as that would surely get boring.
To date I have joyfully parted with...
*time-kept a child just to give the mom an afternoon to herself
*made a cake for my grandma's 84th birthday (red velvet-her fave!)
*time-kept 2 young children so a friend could go shopping and enjoy a little time alone
*gave away a few items a friend needed from my garage sale pile (free of charge, of course!)
*made a wedding cake this weekend (did not charge for this, it was my wedding gift!)
*time-had a friend over for tea
*made a cake to take to my mother-in-law
*time-balanced Mike's business account, paid his bills and got them in the mail (glad that one's over!)
*bread crumbs (ok, I know this one hardly counts, but I didn't have anything else that day and my mom really needed them for a recipe!)
*ice-cream-I surprised the boys with an ice-cream for no reason except to treat them

Teaser: I am about to deliver my giving for today. It's a biggie (and, by far, the hardest thing I have had to part with)! I will have to post it later, gotta' go!

DUI

We went to a car show Saturday in honor of our troops. It was fun. There was a good turn out of cars to see and they had live entertainment and free drinks and snacks. The thing I was most impressed with, though, more than any restored classic there was the drunk driving simulation. Some of you may have seen this before but I had not. They have these goggles that distort your vision and sense of balance as if you are drunk.

One of the things they do is throw tennis balls at you. Here's Mike trying to catch one. People were walking sideways and grabbing at thin air trying to catch the ball. It was quite entertaining!

They also had you drive a golf cart through a cone course. They said every cone you hit represented a possible accident and every cone you run over represented a fatality. Well, I killed 13 cones! It's amazing how the goggles work!

This was their seatbelt demonstration. They had dummies in the truck, one belted in and one not. They would flip the truck a few times and show how someone could get thrown out of a vehicle if not buckled up.

Mike and I talked to the guy running the demos and he said he would love to come do a talk with our homeschool group. I'm so excited! We have a great range of ages, but he said he could also do some pedestrian demos as well as one with bikes.

He said they go to the schools around prom time. Isn't this fantastic?!?!

Giving Feels Good!

I am loving this giving challenge! I have given away a jar of homemade blueberry jam, a stack of magazines (I was saving them to go through and tear out pix or recipes I wanted to keep, but I decided to just give them away without even going through them! I have a friend who is building a house and I thought she might enjoy looking through them for ideas), clothes I no longer wear and the biggest brownie (Tanner and I were home by ourselves and thought we'd have a brownie so I gave him the biggest one leaving myself the microscopic crumb known as the other brownie).

I want to challenge myself to give away things that aren't so easy to part with. It's easy to give away things that you don't like or don't use anymore. Parting with clothes that I haven't worn in over a year wasn't that hard! I almost feel like it's cheating! This week I want to concentrate more on giving away things that are more meaningful to me. I'm not an overly materialistic person so giving away 'things' won't be that difficult for me. Having to give away my time is another story! We shall see...

*This is a picture of the church my grandma grew up in. I took this picture and had it blown up and framed for her for Christmas a couple of years ago. She was surprised as this is a two-hour drive away. She hung it up almost immediately. It's amazing how something so simple and easy can mean so much. I love it!

Decluttering

I cleaned out my closet today and this is what did not make the cut!! I have been wanting to clean out my closet for a while and finally tackled it this morning. I took every single item out, swept the floor and dusted my shelves. I started by replacing only things that I love but that was only about 3 items. So, until I go shopping for new winter clothes, some merely mediocre things had to stay. Now, to do something with that huge pile of clothes on my floor! Actually, I have someone coming to look through it. Hopefull, they'll take it all!!

Next up...Mike's closet! (Just don't tell him, he'll never miss a thing!!)

Giving Challenge

Who's with me?

Tea for Two

Is it 'unmanly' for guys to drink hot tea? Much to my delight, both of my boys like it. Matthew prefers chai (my personal fave) while Tanner likes green tea with milk. Is this unusual? Are they ruined for life? I'd like to think that one day two sweet young ladies (of my choosing, of course) might appreciate this quality in my handsome young men. They do insist on the red and blue cups, they won't drink from the flowery ones. That should count for something?
I'm kidding, of course, but I do love it when I see little interests and likes of mine surface in them.
*You can tell which is my lefty!!