Just some layouts...

On this beautiful Friday morning, just feeling dandy about how much scrapbooking I've been getting done lately...nothing fancy right now at all, but just happy to have them done. :) Wanna see?

(Click on any of these to make them larger.) 

Just a quick layout about our trip to Miller Farms...um, almost four years ago. I got a bit lazy and didn't want to try to decide which pictures to include or how to do it so just printed them out as index prints. :)

Making jar candles with our homeschool group while my mom and sister were visiting...

Our first annual ornament co-op...

One of our Master Naturalist programs a few years ago (our favorite, actually)...

Another Master Naturalist program...

A trip to the Butterfly Pavilion for a class with our homeschool group...(yes, I went the index print route again, lol)...

Making volcanos (for the first time)...

A year end picnic with our homeschool group...

And the boys' very first day of Options. :)

Yup, these were all from 3-4 years ago and all for our homeschool album. Feels good to be catching up... 

Impromptu.

A recent layout about a great day last week:

(Note: I've recently added a gallery over on the left with some of my projects using Ormolu products. Specific products used are listed there. This layouts is one of those.) 

Journaling reads:

Impromptu field trip days are one of my favorite parts of homeschooling. Today was no exception. After doing a wee bit of math workbooks at home, the boys and I decided to head down to Boulder to watch a laser show at the Fiske Planetarium. It wasn’t exactly what we were expecting but the boys still loved it. After the show, we played with some of the exhibits there (nothing that the boys didn’t already know really) then geeked out at the Apple Store, got some frozen yogurt at Spooners, played with a giant rolling globe, drove to Centerra’s Barnes & Noble and then finally headed home. Along the way, we covered SCIENCE (at the planetarium obviously, through Apple technology, and in spinning the giant globe and talking about inertia and friction)…HISTORY (the laser show was an hour about the history of flight)…GEOGRAPHY (I made the boys identify what continents and countries they were spinning when playing with the globe)…MATH (always plenty of math in the day, like figuring out how much to pay the parking meter and working out percentages (sale prices) at the book store)…READING (the boys read a number of books at the book store, not to mention the signage at the planetarium exhibits)…PE (walking around Boulder after the planetarium and pushing the giant globe around)…and even ART (if you count creating numerous frames in Photobooth while at the Apple Store *laugh*). So thankful for the flexibility of homeschooling together! 

Also, it just so happens that one of my other layouts is featured on the Ormolu blog today, too, so check it out, okay? :)

I did it!

Yup, last Saturday my pal, Molly, and I ran the Fort Collins Human Race! It was my first ever race that I actually ran (I'm not counting the Bloomsday in Spokane, WA that I did during college since I totally walked and talked during that, lol). I did the 5K and Molly tackled the 10K (she's a rock star and is running her first ever half-marathon this coming weekend!). We both finished strong, and we both found it hilarious that the finish line had quote marks:

(Yeah, we're silly like that and posed with our own quote marks to prove that we'd "finished," LOL. Incidentally, have you seen the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks? Hilarious!)

Anyhow. So happy to have done this and to have had my good friend at my side! Random other remarks:

• The weather was simply gorgeous for this race and I was appreciative. ;)
• Yes, Molly and I have the same hat. We did not plan that or even realize it until that morning.
• I love my awesome running skirt by SkirtSports! It has pockets on both thighs plus a music port...which makes carrying my iPhone and listening to music while I run so doable! (I had a hard time finding running gear with pockets suitable for my iPhone and continue to be open to recommendations, though I'm pretty happy with SkirtSports.) (Also, I didn't listen to music during the race. And when I do, I use my One Good Earbud so I can still hear other stuff.)
• I find people watching while racing to be fascinating.
• I may have caught the racing bug. Molly talked me into signing up for another 5K in October and I'm even thinking about doing a 10K in November. I realize that these distances are ones that I can run in my normal weekly running already but there's something cool about having a goal and a timeline. :) (To clarify, though, I haven't actually run 10K as of yet, though I've gotten pretty close. Having finished the Couch to 5K program, I'm now using the Bridge to 10K program to build distance.)

After our races were done, the boys took part in their fourth Healthy Kids Fun Run (it was the fifth in the series but we missed one due to Noah's city swim meet):

Noah's over on the far right, all in black. :) They started the kids in waves by age group again this time (we prefer when they do this as it helps prevent Micah from getting trampled, lol), and Micah ran this one all by himself. (Either Nathan or I has run with him thus far...he was quite proud of himself.)

And that, my friends, was an awesome way to start our weekend!

Quote #32.

This week's quote:

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best. –Epictetus

I’m an introvert. Always have been. Making friends isn’t the easiest thing for me. So. I feel considerably blessed by the relationships that I do have and love how this quote highlights the value of quality over quantity. I feel privileged to have worthwhile relationships with friends who truly do call forth my best and challenge me to be a better person (whether they realize it or not)—friends who encourage me to try new things…friends who respect my choices and understand my reasons…friends who set the bar high so that I aspire to follow in their footsteps, even when that means forging my own path. Thank you.

Incidentally, I hope my boys "get" this. I hope they see that being surrounded by people is not necessarily as important or as helpful as having friends who really know and care about you. I hope they see that rewarding relationships take work by all involved...that if you're going to expend the energy to work at a relationship, you should make sure it's one that uplifts you.

My "DID" album.

With my first 5K coming up tomorrow, it seems like a good time to share a little album I just created. It's just for me and I'm calling it my "DID" album. Yeah, it's kinda a weird name. I know. ;) It stems from this quote I've been seeing lately that really speaks to me..."She believed she could so she did." I've yet to find this quote attributed to any specific person but have seen it in numerous places (like this, probably my favorite). Anyhow. I like it. I find it motivating so made it the backbone of my little album about this fitness journey I'm on...someplace to remind myself of what I've attempted and accomplished and aspired to.

So. It's in an 8x8 album. Right now, it looks like this:

And here are some of the inside pages:

The title page...

Taken from my blog...

 
Some tags from initial purchases...

Books that have made a difference...

And inspiring quotes...

I have a few more layouts for this album but will have to share those later. ;) After tomorrow's race, I'll make a page for my race bib. I have no idea what else will end up in this album but just love looking through it. It makes me happy. :)