Life on the Road

I am pleased to announce that Life on the Road is hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling for the coming week.  I’m writing this in the hopes that you’ll join the party!

If you blog, you’re welcome to submit an article! 

• The post can be new or old - anything you’ve written is fair game!
• Your *blog* does not have to be about homeschooling, only the post you submit

And it’s easy to submit with the Blog Carnival form.

You can also find more info at the website that runs the carnival, “Why Homeschool“.

Hope to see you at the carnival!  ;) 

Many, many thanks to Nataly of Beeutiful Graphics for the terrific new look over at our fun blog about the Knaus Berry Farm Bakery.

Yes, those are real Knaus Berry Farm cinnamon rolls in the header and next to the titles…  Makes me hungry just reading the blog now! 

Nataly also designed the adorable “Sleepy Cat” theme we use here…

I wonder if I can figure out how to ship some hot baked goods to her, to show my appreciation…

Even if you’re not a regular reader, this week is a great time to check out the Carnival of Homeschooling.  They’re celebrating their Second Anniversary today, and there are a lot of great posts.

We’ll be hosting the carnival here in a couple of weeks, so get your homeschool-related posts ready!

Are you an artistic type?

The Carnival of homeschooling is a really neat carnival that I frequently participate in … and will, in fact, be hosting here at the end of January!

They are holding a contest for a logo design for the Carnival, and submissions are now open!

Check out all the details over at the hosts’ blog, Why Homeschool.  Then get busy!! 

If you missed the challenge, be sure to visit the original post, and see all the great entries!

I delayed selecting a winner a little bit, since the hosts of the main contest over at Two Moms in a Blog were holding things open on their end.  But now…  It’s time!

There were two clear favorites among the judges (yeah, just us!  LOL):

Kristine over at Financial Tips for WAHMs posted this cutie:

And Karen at Leaping From the Box brought us this shot:

It was a tough call,  but the winner of the Tupperware is…

[insert drumroll sound effect here]

Karen!!

Karen, please email me with your mailing address, and I’ll get that right out to you.  (tiffany (at) tiffanyblitz (dot) com)

Good luck to all our contestants in the big Two Moms in a Blog drawing for the Kodak printer!

This is a terrific idea!  Many thanks to Crystal over at Biblical Womanhood for this encouragement.

I’m sorry I missed the first day - I already have some catching up to do!  I really relate to Crystal’s explanation:

I hope some of you will join me in this challenge, but more importantly, I know that I need the challenge. Things have been a little out of order here the last few months with travels, sickness, and my husband starting his own law firm… and our home has reflected this. So I’m hopeful that the next two weeks I can focus on getting things back into order here so that our home can become more of a haven of refreshment to my family and all those who would enter its doors.

Not that my husband started his own law firm…  But we did just move across country, pull all our stuff out of storage, he started a new job, and I’m getting more and more pregnant-looking and -feeling all the time!

* * * *

So, here’s my plan for Making My Home a Haven Today:

1. Refresh Your Spirit

Since it’s uncomfortably hot and humid here already, I’m going to pass on the cup of tea.  I think I’ll go for a nice, tall glass of cold water with my Bible reading.  I’m not in the process of reading through anything in particular, so today I’ll pick a spot to start my mornings with for the next little while.

2. Planning

I’m going to do yesterday’s assignment and solidify a morning routine.  I have a tendency to stay in my p.j.’s until necessity forces me to get dressed.  I can cook and clean and take care of the kiddos just fine in p.j.’s, and it’s more comfy, right?  I have really been letting the heat control me, and I need to break out of that habit.  I think I will be more energetic and motivated if I shower and dress first thing, although I may not follow the FlyLady ideal of putting shoes on - the heat still controls some things! 

3. Do Something

Luckily for me, yesterday’s “entryway” and today’s “living room” are really the same, as our tiny house dumps you right into the middle of things.  I intend to get out the Christmas music to play while I’m doing this…  We’ve all felt a little “holiday spirit” challenged around here because of the weather, and I want to start actively combating that.

 * * * *

There’s my commitment for today.  Now I’d better get off the computer and get to it! 

Care to join me?

This is the third in a series of “Photo Challenge” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).

Today’s theme is:

Saddest Moments

Wow, not your usual topic, eh?  The point, they say, is to remember that these moments were sad but that we did get through them.

The saddest time in my life so far was losing my father in January 2003.  (Yep, for those of you with a scorecard that’s just a year before the happiest moment.  Busy decade…)

I know lots of people never know their father, or lose him very young, so we were blessed to have had him at all.  But among our peer group (I was in my early 30’s, my sister still in her 20’s), most people still had (and in fact have) active and involved parents.  One of the comments I heard most from the caregivers when I was helping him through the last couple of years was, “But he’s so young!” (it started at age 59).

So anyhow, this photo is my sister delivering the eulogy at his memorial service.  It’s not the best photo, per se, but of all the photos of the service, this is the only one that really caught an emotion. 

To remember the happy times…  This is my sister again, with my son Nick and my dad, just two years earlier.  We had this enlarged and framed for the service.

I love you and miss you, Daddy.  But I know you are happier now, and at peace in the arms of Jesus…

Just wanted to share a couple of cute things I’ve run across online recently:

Elf Yourself

This is a fun/silly activity - see my kids elfed! 

Free Baby Stuff Giveaway!

The folks over at Our Blessed Arrows are preparing for a military transfer next spring, so they’re clearning out the inventory from their online shop by having weekly giveaways on their blog - just comment to enter.  This week’s giveaway is for a pair of Pedoodles baby or toddler shoes.

Happy beginning of the holiday season…  Regardless of the fact that Christmas stuff has been in stores since Halloween!  ICK!!  LOL

This is the first in a series of “Photo Project” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).  All of them are based on projects from the Kodak Ideas Gallery.

Today’s project is the Holiday Accordion Book with Pockets:

I decided to turn Nick (13) loose on this one, to make Christmas gifts for the family.  In fact I had just gone to pick up our family photos from this year’s venture, and Nick had school pictures done from the school where he has his band classes, and Iwas trying to think of a unique way to give them to my mom, my sister, etc.  Perfect!

For simplicity of construction, and since I don’t have any little frou-frou to put in them anyway, we went for a “pocketless” version.  For the transition to a kids’ project, we used construction paper for the accordion as well as the picture trim, with largely hand-made and hand-drawn decorations.

Thanks for the motivation to get some things checked off my Christmas shopping list!  (Good thing they don’t read my blog, eh?  LOL) 

This is the first in a series of “Photo Challenge” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).

Today’s theme is:

Photos That Inspire

This picture is really inspirational to me for a lot of reasons - some “public,” some personal:

• The light shining down from above - God?
• The glow through the flag (nice camera work, Wolf!) - very patriotic!
• The general idea of conquering the mountain
• This is Nick, 12 at the time.  The last time he’d faced a climbing wall he slunk away in defeat.  This time he was determined - and he did it!
• Bonus: Nick’s t-shirt is from the Audio Adrenaline concert he went to, with the lyrics, “I get down… HE lifts me up!”

What inspires you?