exercise #5

ok so we are on the last exercise for this challenge. Still feeling grateful? I am but seriously I don't have time to actually do the deed! I feel sad but life is life.

Personal report of #4- It's on my mind, believe me, but haven't done the action. It's going to be done though! It will be done!!! Liking the positive thinking?

Exercise #5...
Give to others..
this is a big one.....the strategy: Volunteer as a family at a local charity. "showing privileged kids that everyone doesn't have the same advantages makes them more appreciative. " Now I know this is going to be a hard task to do in a day or two so I just want you to COMMIT to something that you will do in the near future to fulfill the assignment.

Post your "commitments" and you might win this....



It's a 4x4 minibook made as a sample for an add on kit I did a few months back. The book is completely done so all you have to do is fill it with your pictures and thoughts. Even my non scrappy friends who wants something fun and creative can get in with this prize so comment away.

oh and for those waiting for those fun camping pictures..... it's on my list, and it will be done. Sooner or later!

Have a great day,
Grace

exercise #4

Just got home from a peaceful and relaxing time in the dessert with the family and was devouring this really good book (will share details soon) and came across this quote which is perfect for our little challenge...

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.....It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity....Gratitude makes sense of our past brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow"- Melody Beattie

Doesn't that just lifts you up and wanna thank everybody insight?!

Well my report on exercise #3......I have been listing all the many blessings I have in my journal. I loved the time I spent away from the hussle and bussle of daily life so I can just stop and think. I also talked about this with the family. Asking them once in a while what they're most thankful for. I also reminded my son to thank his dad for taking us camping.

Now on to #4.... (this is a fun one)
Send thank-you notes
"Write appreciative letters to the important people in your life. Acknowledging your feelings on paper makes them more conscious and concrete. "

Now my scrappy friends, this is the challenge that you can use your "scrapping skills" so bust out those made cards, or if you have the time make a few and put them to good use.

And for those playing in this round, how about an assortment of 12x12 patter papers from manufacturers like Teresa Collins, Creative Imaginations, Webster's Pages, Basic Grey, My Mind's Eye and Upsy Daisy. 17 in total.



Catch you guys later,
Grace

offline this weekend

just wanted to let everybody know that I'll be offline this weekend. The family and I are going to the Mojave Dessert for our annual camping/hunting (for Mitch) trip. I'm looking forward to getting away.

The gratitude challenge started off slow but it seems like people are trying to participate so I'm giving you guys a few more days to get caught up. Remember just post your progress on the exercise # posts. That way when I pick my raks, everybody will get a fair chance on getting something.

Have a great weekend everyone,
Grace

exercise #3

Ok I was feeling a little sad that there's just one response with my challenge. I thought more people would be inclined to doing this with me. Oh well, I'm still doing it so I guess that's something I am "grateful" for. I know at the end, this would be a good exercise.

Know though, that you don't have to be a scrapper to join. Everybody can benefit with this, even if you don't scrap!

Ok so my personal report on Exercise #2....
I didn't really do much with this. Although there was one time yesterday when Maddie and I were eating lunch and she mentioned the magic word to me. I said "your welcome" and told her that saying the words "thank you" makes Mommy feel happy and appreciated. I then asked her if she feels the same way when we say thanks to her. With mac and cheese in her mouth she nodded and said sorry for ruining my chapstick! Ok I guess I got way over her head that she quickly changed the subject! Funny girl!

I do think that my kids understand the concept but I just need to be consistent in expecting those words from them cause if I waiver they will be right back to forgetting to say it.

So Exercise #3 is ..... Tonight write down what you appreciated for today- an approach that many studies have shown leads to a positive change. Do this with your family as well and the author added that if writing down makes it feel forced, just talk about it. At first the kids will say the generic things they are grateful for but with good example from us, they will slowly start being specific and some might even surprise you.

so for the rak for this exercise.....
you'll get some fun random stuff
(Heidi Swapp travel chipboards, Daisy D's stickers, laser cut leaves, acrylic block and photo corners.)


Have a great mid week day,
Grace

sorry, no photos

life is rolling around here and I feel the need to take some time to share events/happenings here cause this IS still a family blog and it wouldn't be fair to my wonderful family if I just show paper stuff all the time, right?!

Well there's some stories to share but unfortunately no pictures to go with them, so excuse the lack of visuals, sit back and scroll down to hear the latest on the Tolmans......

Ok so Halloween is done. Woohoo. Kids got a TON of candies. I've been sneaking the whoppers, musketeers and the kit kats. Shhhhh! don't tell ok.

Saturday, I worked in the morning. I've been promoted at work as a counter supervisor and needed to go through some training so I did that in the morning while Mitch and the kids drove to Laguna Niguel for a cousin's baptism. That night Mitch and I went bowling with my brother Gary. It's been a loooonnnnggg time since we've bowled. Gary kicked our butt, Mitch was close second and I was the big looser. But it's ok, it was all fun. After an expensive hour of bowling, we hit the pool and played billiards. That's another thing that we haven't done since we got married. I remember doing it one time while Mitch and I were dating. Oh how time flies. I think, if my memory serves me right, Mitch won one game and Gary another, again I'm the big looser. Well what can I do, I'm not the bowling, billiard playing kinda girl. It's all good though! Oh and today I dyed my hair too. I bought my own kit at Walmart, thinking I've done this before so how hard would it be, right?! Well I got a little more ambitious this time and bought the ones with highlights and I totally messed up. Some of the highlights were way toooooo light. I think I kept those ones way tooo long that I should. Good thing is that when I part my hair to the side, instead of the middle, it hides those strands that are over bleached. Definitely NOT going to do that again!!!

Sunday- was very happy that I got an extra hour of sleep and it was fast Sunday at church, meaning I didn't have to cook breakfast. Woohoo! The day looked good already! Got dress early and sneaked it some impromptu family photo shoot before heading out the door for church. Christmas is just around the corner and I'm slowly planning my Christmas cards so a good family picture is definitely a priority for me right now. After church we just hanged out the house. Love these days.

Monday- so yesterday morning, I had quite a scare.... I was cleaning my house, like I always do on a monday morning when my next door neighbor knocked on my front door. When I opened it, he told me that I have a strange lady sleeping on my driveway between my car and the garage door. What!!! I went outside to investigate and there she was, a lady who looked like in her 30's, dark hair, fair skinned but very dirty sleeping away on my property. Freaked the "bygolly" out of me! Called Mitch and he told me to call Sheriff's dept. I didn't know the number so off I go and searched in the Yellow pages. Later on when I tell this to the Sheriff who came, he laughed cause I didn't know the number off the bat. He then gives me his card and told me to stick in the ref in case I would need it again, my reply- Hope I would never have to!
Anyways after over 30 minutes and a follow up call, the police came, tried to wake her up then when she wasn't responding called the paramedics and in less than 3 minutes, there they all were infront of my house, the paramedics, an ambulance and a fire truck.
I learned that this lady has been in and out of the hospital bec. of drug addiction and when she falls back to her habit, she would just crash into people's lawns and businesses. What kind of life is that!
Oh I was so happy when they wheeled her out of my drive way.

Tuesday- today is a rainy day. It's all good though cause California sure needed it. I also voted today. Felt good that I'm participating in a very important event in American history. I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

So that's it for right now. Hope you all that could vote will go out and make a stand.

Have a great day,
Grace

go out and vote

popping in here quickly to remind all of my US blog readers that today is a big day for us. Today our votes can make the difference.

and for my California friends please vote YES on Proposition 8.



Remember that our children don't have a voice yet, let's not ruin their future for them.

Grace

exercise #2

I guess people are still working on Exercise #1. I do hope you all try this. It feels good inside when you have a grateful heart.

As for me, this is what I did for Exercise #1....
- I lead the dinner and family prayer last night and thanked the Lord of all the blessings I have. After that I vocally thanked Mitch, Marcus and Maddie for what they bring in my life.
-I made some pork roast dinner last night and all my family were thanking me for a good dinner. I said welcome and commended them, especially my kids, for the good gesture.
-My kids sometimes forget to say thank you or please when they need something, so yesterday and today, I made sure that they don't get what they want until I hear the magic words.
-I made sure that I thanked each person that affected me in a good way last night and today like:
-my brother Gary for meeting me at their condo gate to get the DVD so I don't have to drive in
-my neighbor for alerting me of a strange lady sleeping in my driveway. Oh boy what a morning I had! That will be detailed in a later post.
-the sheriff that responded to my call to get that stranger out of my property. Although they were over 30 minutes late in responding.
-Mitch for getting me a box so I can send an overdue package out.
-Maddie for picking up her toys as soon as I told her to.

I think the big thing I learned from this exercise is everyday is a good day to notice your blessings and being aware of saying the "magic word" really does put you in a good mood and I'm sure whoever is receiving the "thank you" appreciates that too.

so I'm ready for the #2, are you?

here it is

Exercise #2 Connect the dots "explain why it's important to be grateful when someone helps you out" Now this article is geared to teaching kids to be grateful thus the exercise but I'm sure you can apply this into your life. Inspire me, I'm sure you can!

so for this exercise, whoever participates will get into a rak for this....


There are over 30 pieces of fun Christmas stuff here. These are from Becky Higgins card kit from last year. It has tags for gifts, cardstock and chipboard circles with Christmas sentiments on them, brackets and transparency greeting. Fun stuff.

Have a great day,
Grace

Gratitude challenge

I was reading my November issue of Family Circle and came across an article written by a Ginny Graves. She told of how she taught the true meaning of gratitude to her children. I was drawn to it bec. we as a society now tend to forget to be thankful on a regular basis, especially since material things comes easier to us than say one hundred years ago. Things can be purchased with a click of a button, we can get from point a to point b with a car, There's so many holidays now that there's always an excuse to give kids something, and on and on.

So since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought of challenging myself to pay more attention to my everyday blessings and helping my little ones better understand the importance of it. And I also thought that some people out there might be interested in joining with me so I figured, I'd put out the challenge in blog. So are you up for it?

Ok so here's the thing, in the article the author mentioned 5 exercises she did with her family that helped them learn the value of gratefulness. She even called it the "gratitude check". Isn't that cool!

Anyways, I'll be posting one exercise a day for this coming week. Do the exercise, write about what you did and how it helped you and your family have a more grateful mindset. You can talk about it in your blog, site or the traditional journal and then let me know your progress by commenting on the post. If you've posted it in your blog, just add the link to your comments. I think it would benefit us in the long run if we write down our feelings right after each exercise, this way all of our emotions/perspective are fresh. Plus if you do consider this project as a good theme for a layout or mini album, all your journaling will be done. :) If you want, you could even take pictures of things or persons that will remind you of each exercise.

And to encourage you more, I'm giving out some raks (random acts of kindness) to those that participate.

So are you ready....

Exercise 1
"walk the talk"
Openly express your gratitude and praise family members when they try to follow suite.
The author says "The first step to changing kid's behavior is being a good role model". So for your first assignment, be aware of how you express gratitude and talk to your family about the things you are grateful for.

and the rak for this exercise is....
a copy of this book which just came out.


I can't wait to see your response.
Grace

halloween hoopla

ok so besides being such a busy month, I'm particularly happy that October is over and done with cause that means that Halloween is over. Costumes are put away and candies given out.

So what did we do during that most "sugar-hyped" day? well we started off by watching Marcus perform with all of the Kindergarten class in his school at the School District's office. He was so cute dancing and singing to a fruits and vegetable song. I love that the class was sending a "healthy" message while being totally adorable.

Here's Maddie while we waited for the kids to arrive in their school bus. I've finally found something that can occupy my kids while we wait- playing games in my phone. Maddie was playing some bowling and when she got a hit, she proudly showed it to me.


Here's Marcus in the midst of all the youngsters. I'm so proud of him and how he's slowly breaking out of his shell, both figuratively and since he has the costume, literally too. LOL


After the thing, I couldn't resist taking some shots of Maddie outside the building. She's a total goof.


And then that night before I went to work we went to church for our ward's Trunk or treat. There were not much people but all those that were there sure had a lot of fun, especially the kids that had all those candies to pick from.

The missionaries got into the spirit by tricking people. One of the elders got into the car and hid behind this black umbrella and every time somebody reaches out to the basket of candies, he'd spook them with his hand. He even got the bishop. Totally funny.


There were definitely some decked out trunks. Really impressive.


Here's Maddie in the "parade".


After that they were handed out some fun toys and she got this funny glasses.


Oh, I flat ironed her hair so I can twist it just like Belle. Her hair is so thin, I couldn't really do much but it was kinda fun seeing her with straight hair.


So that's it. I'm looking forward to a new month.

Grace

projects to share...

what would be a post with out some Scrapbook share? well thought I'd break it down today so as to not have a wayyy tooo long of a post.

Ok so here's a quick and easy way to dress up those Halloween treat bags you need to bring for your kid's class or for your Halloween party favors.


I made this for Maddie's preschool class. They had their Halloween party today and each parent had to bring something for each kid. Now you all know that right now I'm pressed with time so I made it a point that I wouldn't stress myself out too much with this and yet made sure that I presented my "crafty" side to all the moms. LOL.



All I did with these tags was designed it in MS word, grabbing a clip art and adding some text. Printed them off on white cardstock, cut them, punched a hole and used some of my inexpensive ribbons to tie them to my clear treat bags. I loved the clear ones cause kids can see what's in them and also that the bags didn't clash with my ribbon nor my tags.

And while catching up on my Heroes show last night, I covered my new journal. Journal writing is definitely something I've missed doing and have promised myself that despite my overly packed schedule that I will take time to write again. So to inspire me to do my goal, I prettied up a simple notebook.


I used a paper line complete with tags and stickers. Then rummaged my ribbon and flower stash to add the final touches. This is so simple to make and you can even make a big batch of this for some homemade Christmas gifts.






Speaking of Christmas projects, I've noticed that a lot of people have been making my altered post it notes lately. I'm so happy that people are being inspired by the projects I share here in my blog, with that being said, is there any projects that you've seen me share that you would like a play by play instructions on. I wanna be of service to you my dear blog readers. *wink* So just leave me a comment and I'll try to post as much as I can.

Oh and one last thing...I was reading my November Family Circle magazine and came across a neat article about gratitude. In the article are certain challenges that the author asks us to do to to help us (and our family) really understand the many things that we should be grateful for. So next week I'm hosting a week long "gratitude" challenge here in my blog. It would vary from things you write to things you need to do. So are you up for it? I wanted to do it myself cause I think it will be a great theme for a thanksgiving mini album. I will post the challenges everyday and have random raks to share as well. Hope you'll stay tune for that! It'll be fun.

So that's it.

Have a spooky day tomorrow. *wink*

Grace