Correspondence

With the team here from our home church in Arkansas this week, it's a great opportunity to send back some mail!  Quite a few of the thank-yous that we want to send can be hand-delivered via the office mail at church once the team returns home, so it's a good chance to save on postage as well.

I had originally planned on making the cards, but Miguel decided to have some printed at Office Depot (yes, there is Office Depot in Mexico!).  As it turned out, however, he didn't print quite enough, so I got to make some anyway! 

Correspondence with supporters and folks back home, as many missionaries know, is both a blessing and a curse...while I love picturing our friends and supporters getting a card from us in the mail, it is also quite a chore to hand-write all those notes!  I would have to say that making the cards falls into the 'blessing' part, at least for me...I was sorry I didn't have to make more! 

I experimented with several different designs, but the ones I liked the best were the ones with collage-style pieces of torn paper.  They turned out really cute! 

One the inside, I stamped the English "Thanks so much" on another torn strip...it's a good way to use up the scraps.  It's a bit more clear on the actual card. 

Here's another similar design in green.  I think it was my favorite.  There are two ways to tear the paper, one does not show the white core.  I usually do not let the white core show, but it looked good here. 

I used two scraps of paper for the inside of this one, but I did notice that it took away more writing space.  Of course, that's fine if you just want to write a short note! 

All righty then, back to work!

What Will be Keeping Me Busy

This is what will be keeping me busy for the next two weeks...getting all these cards ready to mail to our supporters!

There is a group coming from our home church in Arkansas next week, so this will be a great chance for us to send mail.  The postal service isn't used very much here in Mexico, so we wait for these kinds of opportunity to send mail to the U.S.  We're also looking forward to having the group here, it's a group of high school seniors accompanied by some leaders and our missions pastor.  Miguel has been helping plan and coordinate their trip and will be hanging out with them while they are here.

I made all these cards last week, there are about 50 of them or so...I kind of lost count after a while and I secretly hope I will need to make some more because it was fun!  I felt a bit sad when I was done because I think I really enjoy making the cards more than I enjoy writing in them!  It's not that I don't like writing letters because I really do, especially imagining people receiving a little note from us, but I really do like making cards!

This is a fairly simple pattern.  I used white or colored card stock and chose either a patterned or solid colored paper for the front panel.  I stamped the front panel before pasting it (I really like to use a glue or tape runner) to the front of the card.  Some of the cards say 'Thanks Very Much' and 'Gracias', some say 'greetings from Mexico!'.  But this card would be cute as a birthday card or something else.

Side note:  I often use the clear stamps (also called cling stamps) because then I can use the alphabet sets to write all different kinds of things or write in Spanish.  There aren't many rubber stamps available in Spanish, so the alphabet sets have been really useful to me.  I have invested in several different alphabet sets in various sizes in both the clear and rubber stamps.  This also saves on storage since I don't have a lot of different stamps to keep track of.

On some of the papers, I took a napkin (a q-tip would have probably worked better, lol!) and rubbed some black ink around the edges of the panel. I really liked how it dressed up the card.

I stamped a matching flower pattern on different paper, again, either a solid color or print, and then I cut out the flower and used a double sided adhesive foam pad to make it stand out from the card.  As an added touch, I pasted a flower and stamped a little 'hola' on the inside.

Cutting out the flowers was by far the most time-consuming part of making this card, but it was worth it because I really love how it turned out.

So, now I really need to get to work on writing in them!

In Darkness Flickering

In Darkness Flickering

Amidst the roaring dark we fight
With straining muscles trembling.
With weary hands we hold the light
Our hope is ever dwindling.
Heroes all, against the dark
Yet now our might is crumbling.
Piercing darkness finds its mark
And down we fall now, stumbling.

The dark howls in to cut me down
Then halts above me, quivering.
It's held above me, out of reach
By palest glow still shimmering.
The smallest light holds back the dark
I feel my hope rekindling.
So courage glimmers like a spark
A light in darkness flickering.

Written by my nephew, Kenny Bruce..remember the 5Ks? Kenny is a very talented young man who is currently attending New Tribes Bible Institute in Waukesha, WI.

Picture Fun

Remember those boxes I like to make? You can check them out here and find out how to make them here...anyway, somebody gave me an idea of a new way to use them. So I tried it out today! At this point, I have placed them unimaginatively in straight lines down the hallway (which Miguel recently painted a lovely shade of green!). I will probably rearrange them if I can figure out some other creative way to place them...they also look a bit crooked, which will bother me, too! lol

Old family pictures from when there were
just four of us...wow, those kids were cute! :)
Funny to see me with that long hair!

Aw! My sweetie and me...

Creative Fun

I have finally started my own collection of stamping/scrap booking materials...I made this card (it's a flat card, doesn't open) to hang on the wall beside her bed. There wasn't really any specific reason, a "just because I love you" kind of card. She loved it! It's fun how creative you can be with pretty paper and a few stamps. :)

How to...

...use the potty in the winter...

Variation on Snowstorm

Last year, I had fun making a snowstorm to hang on the back of our front door. This year, however, I decided to use some of the paper leftover from the craft boxes to make colored garlands for my kitchen window. I will probably still make the white garlands for the door, though. I only have a couple of strands up so far...this would be so much easier if I had paper punches, but I don't, so at this point, I'm cutting out all these circles by hand!

I put some smaller circles on top
of larger circles to give dimension...I folded
the smaller circles and only glued the middle
crease to the larger circle for a 'butterfly' effect.

Some of the paper had some words and designs,
which worked well for the Christmas theme...
I also made some that are sort of a ball
shape out of four different circles...I have
instructions below.

Here are some of the colors I have so far...
this is scrapbooking paper, but you could also
use magazines, old calendars, wrapping paper,
construction paper or
even make your own decorated paper.
I use two circles per 'ornament' on the garlands,
so that they look pretty from either side.

For the 'ball' ornament, I took four circles,

and folded each of them in half.

Then I glued three of the folded circles together,
leaving the one side open
to glue in the string (or fishing line, in this case).
A glue stick would probably be better to use than
school glue, but it's all I have at the moment...the
garlands can be made with string, ribbon, dental floss,
fishing line, etc.

Then, I glued in the fourth piece to complete the ball.
I think I might have the kids make some of
these as ornaments for our
Christmas tree, too!

My little helper!

Vote for Me!

As you may know, I'm a regular over at CoffeeGirl Confessions, Women of the Harvest's blog for missionary women...we've got a contest going on over there where a 20$ gift card is at stake! Head on over there and vote for your favorite photo representing seasons around the world...it's a great collection!

p.s. Mine is the pecan tree! I shamelessly plead for your vote! :)

Christmas is coming!

I love Christmas! I love the Christmas story...Joseph and Mary, the angels and the shepherds, Baby Jesus, the Wise Men...I love the colors and the bows and the lights...and the presents, of course! And it's fun to pass on traditions to my kids. Every year is a little bit different for us since we're usually either in a different house or even a different country! Since we're new to Mexico, our Christmas decorations are slim, but we're getting creative and making do...we're pretty happy with the results. I am going shopping tomorrow to pick up some more things, but this is what we have so far...

We borrowed this door ornament from a friend at church.

Miguel even repainted the door! The bow

made it look pretty shabby...

The kids and I have been hard at work making paper snowflakes!

We are hanging them in the windows

and on the front door.

Along with the snowflakes, we have lights in the big front windows...

I also added a couple of strips of colorful wrapping paper

to the top and bottom of the glass...looks festive!

I set up a small table with a green tablecloth for
the presents and the manger scene...the kids have already spent
quite a bit of time rearranging it to their satisfaction.
Good thing it's kid-friendly!


Our diminuitive Christmas tree...it came complete with lights and
ornaments already attached! They are all kid-friendly and
since they are attached, Jkaile can't get them off.
He can, of course, pull the whole tree over, which
he's already done several times.
But no worries, I just stand it back up!
I highly recommend it for families with small children! LOL!

Trying my hand at painting

I do not claim to even BE a painter, but this year, I've had this strange desire to paint! I've never really had any training and always thought that because I couldn't paint this or that like someone else...that I didn't have talent. I think I'm finally at the point in my life where I can just have fun with it and not take it too seriously whether I am "good" at it or not. :) I just enjoy creating something, whether it be with words or paint or other things (like paper maché). And it's a great example to my kids as it encourages them to be creative as well!

So here are a couple that I've done recently...the first is just a scene out of my head. There are a lot of mesa-type mountains here and I just love the way they look. They remind me of the tepuys in Venezuela. The second picture is of Fish Mountain, as my friends call it, a hill close to where we live in this part of the city. Someone has put painted white rocks on the hill in the form of a fish, supposedly claiming this area of the city for Christ. Very interesting...we haven't actually gone up on the hill yet, but our friends climb it to look for rocks, cactus plants, and for picnics. We are looking forward to getting up there one of these days!!!!

Easter eggs

Today is Tuesday, only 4 more days until Miguel gets home...in the meantime, we're doing pretty good! I know that because I am feeling creative and bold and am coloring Easter eggs with the kids. :) If I were completely overwhelmed, I would be just surviving and not attempting anything extra, so this is very encouraging to me.

Anyway, I boiled up 1 1/2 dozen eggs the other day and have been thinking about creative ways to decorate the eggs. I saw a magazine article that had some really cute and simple Easter eggs, but unfortunately I only remember that they colored egg shells and then crushed them to glue on the other colored eggs. This morning, the kids and I sat down to blow raw eggs so we could color the shells. Each of the kids had their little bowls to blow into and I was helping them. Everything was going swimmingly and I was so proud of myself when blam! Jojo squeezed his raw egg a little too hard and a fountain of egg went flying up in the air 3 or 4 feet! It was quite impressive! Things went downhill from there because then he tried to clean up the egg on the table and just ended up sweeping it all into his lap...sigh. Then it happened to Micah, minus the egg fountain and big mess. So I shooed them away (they had done their share anyway) and worked with Gracia, who did hers very daintilly (I have NO idea how to spell that word) and with no mess, fortunately.

The kids are still enjoying watching videos in the van, BTW! :) It kept Gracia and Micah entertained for several hours yesterday since they found a DVD that they hadn't watched in a while. It's not that I WANT them watching that much t.v....I just need a break while Miguel is gone. I've noticed that when they watch too much t.v. they get grouchy and restless, so we've been limiting how much they can watch each day and encouraging them to find other things to do that develop their minds.

This morning some friends came over to pick Micah up for a sleepover...he was absolutely thrilled. He is also invited to spend Thursday night with the Underwood twins, so he's going to have a pretty special week! And will be extra tired this weekend, no doubt. LOL It's good for him to be spending time with his friends, since he's homeschooled he doesn't necessarily see other kids every day.

Jkaile is awake from his nap, so I'd better go get him out before he thinks that I have forgotten about him!