stacie's sacred space

my girl

 

 

 

 

she was playing with my iphone on the tripod again.

i just love her and what she created right there in my bathroom.

while i missed her at school today, i looked at these remnants that she left behind for me right in my iphone.

she's in rare form this week with excitment about turning seven.

she decided she wants to have a party.

so we're getting all ready for that!

 

 

i wanted to get her shoe size so we ran to the store after school.

i know her school shoes are tight!

maybe they will fit johnny next :)

i also might have wanted to buy her shoes for her birthday.

then we found these and fell in love.

check out these edgy new school shoes.

we might get in trouble for going against dress code.

i'll ask for forgiveness.

we're just marching to the beat of our drum!

 

i love my jane-brain more than i can even put into words!

i'm glad she's my girl.

some of my favorite things to give

i like to find fun ideas of gifts to give.

i enjoy putting gifts together.

i am so lucky there's a way cool internet community of momma's who blog awesome ideas!

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hot chocolate party, anyone?

 

 

wanna reflect on the best of your days?

 

surprise, it's a cupcake party!

 

a fun way to deliver fresh baked cookies.

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i get a lot of inspiration here and here and here.

i know i've said it before, and now i'm making sure to give credit where credit is due.

those women all rock!

this magical season

 

it started with a big bowers family party.

all four generations celebrating together!

 

 

their great grandma will be 94 next month ... she's amazing!

 

 

five of her six kids were here to celebrate with her.

 

 

mom and dad loved all over all of us ... their support oozes, and we always appreciate it :)

i crashed hard on the way back home.

i knew the list was long.

makin' magic is hard work.

 

 

next on the list was teacher gifts and class parties.

i was losing faith that i could get everything done that i wanted to get done.

i called dave when i was on the verge of tears.

he was on the verge of laughing out loud at me from his desk at work.

thank goodness he didn't tell me that until i could laugh with him!

 

 

johnny's "winter" party (because we can't call it anything else in the public schools these days) had snacks, a toilet paper snowball fight, and pin the parts on the snowman.

 

 

bowers family christmas - check, school christmas - check, church girls christmas (getting together to wrap for the two families we adopted these holidays) - check.

we haven't seen santa yet.

we still had one more gift to buy for the feeman family christmas.

so we headed to easton where they only charge $5 for a picture and they allow us to snap with our own camera.

 

 

lines - ugh. the kindess of this man - magical!

 

 

next up, discipleship program christmas.

i have been working on this garland for weeks.

it turned out neat!

 

 

i'm happy i could pull myself together enough to gift the women we pray for.

 

 

deliveries made to the nursing home and the motherhouse - check.

packed for another trip out of town - check.

 

 

on our way to hudson to celebrate christmas with the feeman family.

jeff loves to play iphone on the way.

 

 

we arrived and went straight to our favorite spot ... the fireplace.

with cousins and sibs and parents, everything is better!

 

 

busy, busy, busy.

it's all good stuff.

this is what makes this season magical.

one project

i volunteered to be discipleship program mom for both my big kids' classes this year.

it took a good amount of my energy in september.

i have prayed about it a lot too.

i also feel like i've slacked (insert dear friend saying, "stacie, you are too hard on yourself!").

well, for christmas, i want to do something nice for these ladies we pray for.

so here's a peak at the project i picked for the 3rd graders to give their partner.

 

 

 

gingerbread garland.

the perfectionist stacie didn't like how the heads turned out at first.

then my kids decorated them.

i strung 'em together.

i saw beauty.

i saw possibilities too.

how would you like to be prayed for by all of those little sweeties?

okay, i think she will like this gift.

p.s. i'm glad to be kicking perfectionist stacie to the curb someday!

ginger peeps

we started small with this.

 

and didn't really get a good pic of the one we made.

the icing was hard to manipulate and these were too small for the tiny fingers we have.

so we moved onto this (i couldn't find a link but we got them from trader joe's the freezer aisle where all of the cookies and candies can be found there) for a friday fun after school.

 

 

 

man, the joy here is amazing when i slow down enough to be here right now.

just look at these ginger peep creations.

 

 

joey, janie, johnny and jeff in that order.

they look normal size there don't they?

oh no, there are awesomely, bigger than my head!!

 

jeff cracked up!

even though it's blurry, i'm glad i got to capture that laughter (and pure joy)!

 

 

christmas music, snow, lights on the tree and my favorite people around the kitchen table where memories are made.

don't let the turkeys get you down!

the kids are crawling the walls waiting for grammie and papa and michael and justin to show up.

i'm enjoying the sunny and somewhat warm (if that's what you call fifty degrees) day in my somewhat clean house.

i love celebrating thanksgiving!

it is my favorite holiday.

joey made this turkey at school last week, and i love seeing him as i scurry around my kitchen.

 

this year is a teeny bit different because i'm spending a little more time outside the home that i have in a few years.

sometimes i find negative energy out there.

but i'm not gonna let the turkeys get me down!

 

 

instead, i'm praying my thanks.

 

 

and enjoying this little surprise that was delivered by a friend yesterday!

friends are wonderful ... thank you, theresa!

it speaks to me

this little calendar on the ledge above my window sink.

now, can i just listen?

especially now when life feels full of things to do, and i know i have a very challenging week ahead of me.

birthday presents

i like to give meaningful and thoughtful gifts even when it's my kids' friends.

joey has two very, very good friends who have parties this weekend and he wants to give them gift cards.

he was sure to tell me that's what kids his age like cuz they can pick stuff out themselves.

i was fortunate to be able to see one of those besties to add a creative touch to the gift card ... nine balloons in his favorite football team's colors.

now we have something to wrap up with that gift card! 

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i feel like a clown here.

 

okay, i'll do something goofy while you snap away.

 

 

you're gonna make me stand still again? well, then a fake smile i'll flash at you!

 

 

we're always up for sprints ... they are even more fun with my buddie and nine balloons.

 

 

can we have janie in one of our pictures? (my heart melted at that ... these boys are very sweet to her and boy, oh boy is she delighted to be included!!)

 

 

that's a wrap!

i have lots of ideas of places to go for these shots that are more scenic or exciting than my backyard, but it's way more practical to hang here where i can snap, cook, clean up, snap some more, feed 'em, let 'em hang out.

delayed gratification

this was my favorite thing in the kids' easter basket from grammie and papa.

i have really enjoyed watching it grow and now the bloom is beautiful!

 

the kids each got one, and it won't be long till we'll be eating those tomatoes and cucs right out of our own garden.

 

craft paper and happy tape

 

one of my favorite combinations!