document life now

Friday freebie: classic journalers

My freebie philosophy: You can use these journalers in your Project Life pages or use them to jumpstart your journaling on a regular digital page. Mostly, I want to help you get memories from whatever trips and adventures your family may have into an album.

This week's journal cards coordinate with my last freebie offering. Using the exact same colors that were used in the last set, I created coordinating cards with lots of room for journaling. Use them together or separate in order to add a punch of color to your pages.

You can download by clicking on the preview image or by clicking here.

four months

This was my life for over twenty years:

About four months ago, I realized the carbonation from the gallons and gallons of Diet Pepsi I'd consumed in two+ decades was destroying my stomach. I decided to give it up. My doctor told me I'd lose twenty pounds in no time.

She was wrong.

I do feel better. Most days. 

There are those days when nothing would make my life better more than a big tall diet pepsi. With sonic ice.

They are fewer and farther between as the months go on, but they still happen. 

Usually after a bad day at work. Or with my children. They're teens. They have hormones. 

I have NOT given up caffeine. I can't function without it. I don't want to function without it. 

So here's how our home looks now:

God bless the Keurig. I wouldn't be able to get myself to work most days if I didn't have a freshly brewed glass of strong iced tea. 

By the way, these awesome signs are from Sweet Blessings. She has more, and they're free. Great site.

rediscovering an old... friend

My girls -- and to a lesser extent, me -- are addicted to Friends. It runs for a couple hours every afternoon, and we find ourselves watching it often. It's the kind of show you can easily slip into watching, and just as easily walk away from it.

I tell my girls about the series premiere. Brady was an infant. Dan worked two jobs, and I was home a lot with him. Friends was a nice escape for me. A bit of adult conversation when my most frequent companion was six months old. 

They don't understand how ground breaking this show was. And I have a renewed appreciation for my current favorite show, How I Met Your Mother. Without Friends, would we have Lily and Marshall, or wait for it... Barney?

It's kind of fun to have a summer series. A show you watch from the beginning and catch up on all the episodes you've missed. Usually we do a show that is still on TV, but Friends works just fine for 2012.

recipe: triple berry crisp

After our little berry picking jaunt, I knew I needed to make some cobbler for my family. When we ate at Keeter Center for Kiah's birthday, Brady and I shared a delicious triple berry cobbler and I wanted to recreate it.

And then I decided I didn't really want cobbler. I wanted a crisp.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
• 1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
• 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups butter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Start by washing your berries (I just used a combo of berries to get the 4.5 cups. I wasn't picky about making sure I had exactly 1.5 cups of each). Put them in a big bowl and toss them with the sugar.

I did the next step in my kitchen aid mixer. If you have a pastry blender, you could do that, too. Mix the flour, oats, brown sugar and spices. Cut in 3 sticks of real butter. 

Take half of that mixture and press it into the bottom of a 9x13" pan. Spread the berry mixture over the top.

Using clean hands, crumble the rest of the dough mixture over the top.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let it cool as long as you can (we shot for 10 minutes). Spoon into a bowl and top with vanilla bean ice cream.

Serious yum. Brady, who never eats dessert, ate two helpings. It's really that good.

beast: the album

I'm a little crazy. You probably know that. 

My latest example of insanity? 

I started my vacation album before we've even left for the trip. 

I was thinking about the album, and I realized that I thought that our planning stage has been such a huge part of our lives these past few months. I should really document that in our album. After all, our trip success depends on how well we have planned.

So I sat down and pulled some photos from my iPhone and the internet and came up with what I thought would be a fun page to showcase all the planning we've done. 

I have a plan for the other side of this page, but that will have to wait...

disney project: Photos to take

In preparation for our upcoming Florida trip, I wanted to give Kiah some ideas for what photos she could take with her point and shoot. She has a little art journal type album she can put together, so I thought it would be fun to give her a list of photos she needs to get to put into the album.

A photo challenge. Or photo scavenger hunt.

Me being me, I had to make it pretty. I made my list, and then sat down with Photoshop Elements to create some fun little cards she could carry with her into the parks.

The result?

I printed them out, trimmed them and rounded the corners. Here's the final product:

At only 3x4 inches, they're the perfect size to slip in a pocket of her purse. We'll see how well she uses the list when she's snapping away. Whether she does or not, I had fun making them!

some quick portraits

Took these portraits at the zoo. I had borrowed our little point and shoot from Kiah to take them and I can't quite get the look I want from this camera, but they're not bad.

This girl is getting so tall. Her feet are actually bigger than mine. I had to buy her new shoes for summer -- already -- because she's outgrown the ones that I bought big earlier this spring. She's in the middle of a growth spurt. I can't help but wonder how tall she'll eventually be. She's already taller than her older sister.

My college student. He completed his college orientation a few weeks ago. He hated the whole "rah, rah, school spirit" part of orientation, but he loved talking to his advisor and getting his class worked out. He also added an endorsement to his major. He'll be certified to teach regular education Pre-K to 6th grade, and special education Pre-K to age 8. He's so ready to get started.

My very responsible, very independent girl. I'm not sure how this family would function without her some days. 

It's kind of fun to just stop and get these individual shots on a regular day. It helps me to remember who they are in the everyday. Have you taken an every day kind of photo lately?

recipe: Vegetarian Burgers

In our quest to find easy to cook foods for summer, I stumbled across a sort-of recipe for vegetarian burgers. I wanted to make sloppy joes for dinner, the veggie burgers didn't require any special purchases, so I thought I'd throw them together for Brady.

Your basic ingredients: white beans (we used white kidney beans because that's what we grabbed), 1/3 cup oatmeal, 1/2 an onion, some chili powder, an egg, salt & pepper.

Put it all in a food processor

and process until it's a good texture.

At this point we refrigerated the mixture to allow it to firm. When we were ready, we form patties. We probably should have added a bit more oatmeal at this point as well. 

Heat some oil in a skillet. Add the patties. Fry about 3 minutes on each side. Put on a bun and garnish to taste.

my favorite buddy movies

I love the guy buddy movie. I'm not much for a straight on comedy and romantic comedies kind of make me throw up in my mouth a little, but I love the genre of the buddy movie. Here's my top 5:

1. Without A Paddle. I remember when my sister and I decided to leave our kids with my parents and go see a movie one weekend. She wanted to see this movie. I was convinced I was about to see the stupidest movie ever. I loved it. We now own the DVD and watch it once a year or so. It's not only a buddy movie, but it's nostalgic about the 80s when I was also growing up. Bonus points.

2. Lethal Weapon. The classic buddy movie. Plus action. I love the Lethal Weapon series. Dan and I saw Lethal Weapon 2 a half dozen times in the theater (it was on dollar movie night while we were in college). I've since learned by Mel Gibson is insance, but I still love the movies. Can't help it.

3. I Love You, Man. Could there be any two better buddies than Paul Rudd and Jason Segel? I just want Jason Segel to come to my house and sit on my bed and be my teddy bear. Fell for him in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and loved this buddy movie. I'm an obsessive watcher of How I Met Your Mother as well. Pretty sure there's no better buddies than the Bros of HIMYM.

4. Men in Black. Brady watched this 542 times one summer. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are such an unlikely pair that I can't help but love them together. The first is still the classic.

5. My final buddy film is a superhero film: X-Men. I'm not a fan of Superman, Batman, etc. so I didn't have any interest in X-Men. Then I watched and loved. I love Wolverine and his odd relationships with the other X-Men. We have the whole series, plus Wolverine Origins and First Class. Not something I ever expected to enjoy... but I do.

What's your favorite buddy movie? Any I forgot?

my summer reading list

This is my first full summer with a Kindle. 

I'm a little excited.

Over the last month or so, Amazon has been sending preordered books to my Kindle. I, in turn, have been adding them to my summer reading list.

Summer is here. 

Here's what's on my list:

 1. Stolen Prey by John Sandford. I love John Sandford's book. Love the Lucas Davenport series and have reread it many times. Love Virgil Flowers and his new series. I just devour these books. I will read this book so fast that I will have to go back and reread the evening just to make sure I understand it. It happens every time. They are my ultimate fun read.

2. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris. Who doesn't love Sookie Stackhouse? Poor little fairy descendant torn between a vampire, and a vampire and a werewolf. She's just your every day kind of girl, isn't she? I don't watch True Blood, and from what I read about it, I wouldn't want to watch it. I love the books, however. They're fun and thrilling and make me care. 

3. The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts. This is book two of the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy. I sort of like to pace my reading. Two thrilling books, followed by a light, happy romance. I like Nora's trilogies. They're complete fluff, but they're fun fluff. I recently reread the first book in the series so I'd be familiar with the characters. 

4. The Witness by Nora Roberts. While I'm in a romance mood, might as well go with a mainstream NR book. I expect this one will offer a bit more thrill and a little racier romance. It will be a good lead in to...

5. Gone Missing by Linda Castillo. I stumbled onto this author's series about a formerly Amish woman who is a police chief a few years ago. I've read them all. The last two shocked me a bit in how graphic and tragic they were. I expect this one to be much the same. I don't want to finish them when I realize what's happening, but I need to see what happens... not just with the recurring characters but also with the mystery. 

6. XO by Jeffrey Deaver. I love the Lincoln Rhymes series, but Jeffrey Deaver kind of lost me the last few. However, I really loved The Sleeping Doll featuring Kathryn Dance, so I decided to give this one a try. 

7. Haven by Kay Hooper. There was some mess with Kay Hooper changing publishers and it's been way too long since she published a book. I'm anxious to read something she's written again. Even if it isn't a Bishop novel.

I'm thinking seven should be enough for a week or two. What will you be reading this summer?