Two Eggs

I caught our little nesting bird during a rare stretching moment this morning. It literally got up and stretched his or her birdie legs! While doing so I got to catch a glimpse of TWO shiny white eggs in the nest. Twins!

Baby (bird) Watch

A few weeks ago, two common doves started building a nest on our porch. Isn't momma bird cute sitting in one of my strawberry pots from last year? She and her husband were working their little hearts out, so I just couldn't make them start over building their home somewhere else. On Thursday, the momma laid one egg, and then left for the evening, and I think she may have laid a second egg when she returned. She hasn't left the nest since (she may be switching with the male we were told but we haven't seen that yet.)

Today is day 2 of incubation! We are so excited for our little birdie parents and can't wait to see the little bird(ies) that should hatch in about 14 days!

Basket of Daisies

Recently I was talking to my friend and mentor, Kelly, about materialism. I was telling her how I struggle to let my love of crafting, creating and decorating get out of hand and lean heavily towards the side of finding my joy in "stuff" instead of in God. She shared 2 Corinthians 9:8, 10-11 with me.

"And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others....For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched so that you can give even more generously. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will break out in thanksgiving to God."

This was really convicting because I can be a pretty selfish person, so Kelly challenged me to bless someone else with the talent and resources God has given me this week. Thus, the basket of daisies. They're for friends of ours that are going to a hard time. My friend Laura helped me put this together on Saturday. Pictures and directions for how to make one of your own are below. Now here is my challenge to each of you: How can you use a talent or resource of yours to bless someone else this week?

Materials:

1 Basket (mine was 14in. diameter)

3-4 blocks of desert foam

2 bushes of Gerber daisies (mine are assorted yellow, white and green)

2 bushes of Pink Hydrangeas

1 bush White Limonium filler flowers (or other filler)

1 bush dangling white flowers like these (Does anyone know what these are called?)

1 strand green garland baubles (sold in 6ft but I only used 3ft of it)

1 little birdie (optional)

1 small bag fake Spanish Moss (I used the tan color)

Wire cutters

(I purchased these at JoAnn's which was having a fabulous sale, but most craft stores should have the materials)

1. First cut the desert foam (I used a kitchen knife) to fit the inside of the basket. You will have to make several cuts to get the foam to fit well in the bottom of the basket, and then to fill in the gaps. I stacked 2 layers of foam on top of each other to make a solid base that filled the basket, leaving about 2 inches from the top of the foam to the top of the basket.
2. Next use wire cutters to cut the individual stems away from the bush base. Make sure to cut as low as possible to keep as much of the length of the stem as you can.
3. Arrange the Gerber daisies first, much like you would a vase of flowers, in a rotating circular pattern with 2-3 daisies as a peak point and then some lower and angled out more than up. You will need to push them in far enough to the foam that they don't droop, which is about 1-2 inches in.
4. Use the cut hydrangeas to fill in around the daisies, filling in most of the gaps at the top and the upper part of the sides. Keep most of the hydrangeas at a lower level than the daisies, so the daisies stand out the most
5. At this point use the Spanish Moss to cover the desert foam and fill in gaps around the flower stems. It's easier to do it now rather than wait until all of the filler flowers have been added, trust me.
6. Add the draping white flowers, some higher like the hydrangeas and some lower to flow over the edge of the basket.
7. Insert the White Limonium to fill in any remaining gaps, especially around the lower edge of the basket. Put one or two stems at the center to accent the daisies and hydrangeas.
8. Cut the green bauble garland into 6 inch sections and insert them in the same way to accent areas that don't "pop" or add color in any areas with too many white filler flowers.
9. Finally, find a home for the little birdie, just inside the base of the basket and enjoy!

Note: It helps to decide what will be the front of your basket when arranging the flowers. My friend Laura and I failed to do this. We tried, but we kept "losing" the front, which we decided was a good thing.

Create

Creating things has always been one of my passions. I love taking something that is ugly and making it beautiful, giving something useless a purpose and combining items to make something new. When I was young my parents always encouraged my creativity. I had colored sand, play-doh, paper beads, sewing supplies, embroidery, paints, coloring books, mosaic puzzles and probably more. If I was ever bored, my mom would remind me of a craft I could do.

This desire to create served me well while teaching. Nearly half of my time was spent creating lessons, materials and activities to engage my students. But it seemed that over the years, with the hectic pace of life, I had let large portions of my creativity slip away. Frankly, I realized in January that it had been too long since I'd allowed myself to relax by having a hobby. And no, making ESL materials or reading a book for work or school does not count as relaxing (I really had to remind myself).

This said, I'm forcing myself to re-discover my passion to create, in some old ways and some new. I plan on sharing some of the results on here.

My first projects have come from learning to use the Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus 3.0 software. I purchase it during a special last year, so I can make a wedding album for my best friend. I've been pretty happy with the software so far, and was even able to use it to make a newsletter for our work with refugees. I also used it to create the header for this blog (see the top). Here are a few pictures of other things I've designed while learning to use the software.

(P.S.) If anyone ever needs photo cards, scrapbooking pages or announcements designed, let me know!

Locks of Love

When I was in high school one of my classmates donated her hair to Locks of Love. I'd always hoped I could do the same someday but my hair had stayed-put at my shoulders. I didn't muster the patience to let my hair grow long until I got engaged in 2008. After all, I had the perfect incentive - beautiful wedding hair! I wanted grow my hair out for our wedding and donate it afterward. Unfortunately it took another full year to grow my hair long enough, mostly because I had to get semi-regular trims to keep it healthy and free from split ends. I held out though, actually started enjoying my long hair, and a few weeks ago even had a nightmare that someone cut my hair in my sleep just to be mean. Weird. I never thought I'd become so attached to my hair. Today I gathered to courage to make the cut. So, without further adieu, here are the before and after pictures!

Before between 11 and 12 inches were cut off...

...and after!!
Today was the first time Michael has seen me with short hair!

Winding down (frantically)

With 1.5 days left I feel like the world is spinning much faster than usual. I'm under mounds of exams to grade, have so many papers and supplies to sort/organize/recycle and I'm trying to duplicate some materials I've made this last year for the school to use after I've left.
So I had to stop and take a breather before this year slips away...

I think this will forever be one of my favorite pictures!

My students make me proud!

Wow, my Beginning and Prelit classes have made me so proud lately!

In Beginning ESL we've been reading an ESL version of Romeo and Juliet. They've been SO into it - I love seeing them excited about reading. Last week when they were reading the final story my classroom was SILENT for 35 minutes. ...This just doesn't happen. I was amazed. Now we're working on characterization. Today I gave them a whole page of quotes from the story to sort by character, and they also had to write next to it why the person was prompted to say it. They amazed me with their ability to make connections. Since they've worked so hard lately, I'm letting them watch Romeo and Juliet the 60's version on Wednesday. I was really surprised when they voted for the older version and not the 90's one with Leonardo Dicaprio. They said, 'Romeo and Juliet is a classic and you can't change a classic.' WOW. If this wouldn't make an English teacher happy, I don't know what would.

My prelit students have also amused and amazed me so much lately. A few weeks ago we read a book about dinosaurs, and 2 weeks ago we read about weather and I taught them how to use weather.com to find the weather in their native countries. So I was a little confused last Thursday when a few kids came in and said, "Dinosaur weather!" They asked if they could use the classroom computer, and then guided themselves to weather.com, typed in weather, and proceeded to show me "Dinosaur Weather" for Dinosaur, Colorado. What smart kids! They wanted to see what weather dinosaurs had. They did understand that it wasn't actually weather for dinosaurs in the past...but they thought it was pretty hilarious as did I. You can see if for yourself here: Dinosaur Weather. :)