Reading Brings Joy | Family Brings Joy

A Mom Makes A Home

August 13, 2012 By Shan 2 Comments

I’m continuing my list of one thousand gifts…not of gifts I want, but gifts I have.

I am writing them down, one to one thousand.

22. Grateful my internet was repaired!

23. New music! Loving the group Tanlines. Listening to their album Mixed Emotions right now. I heart their All Of Me song…great beat and makes me feel happy.

24. Time spent with my Mom & oldest Daughter on Saturday.

25. The beautiful handmade quilted bed runner my Mom gave me as an early {3 weeks} Birthday gift.

26. Time doing crafty stuff in my craft room. It’s been neglected lately and craft therapy is wonderful. The creative side of me was having withdrawals.

27. Kids back in school brings some much needed uninterrupted time for me. Let’s face it, who likes to listen to their kids quarrel all the time? Not me!

{good thing they’re so cute! ;)}

28. Opportunity to learn & grow spiritually by giving a talk and teaching a lesson at church yesterday. With that being said, glad it is over…double duty is exhausting. 😉

29. Youngest saw this new art plaque I bought and said out loud, “This is true.” The little things like this make my heart melt.

Check out that awesome price!

30. When my husband calls me beautiful.

31. Having far away friends come for a weekend visit.

32. Listened to another awesome fantasy book: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead. It’s part of the Bloodlines series. Just finished it & can’t wait for the next one!

Joining:

Gifts Bring Joy,

Tuesday’s Ten Family Quotes

July 3, 2012 By Shan 4 Comments

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only – and that is to support the ultimate career. ”
~ C.S. Lewis
“What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.”
~ Mother Teresa
“You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.”
~ Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society
“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.”
~ Napoleon Bonaparte
“Home is where you are loved the most and act the worst.”
~ Marjorie Pay Hinckley
“To you who are parents, I say, show love to your children. You know you love them, but make certain they know it as well. They are so precious. Let them know. Call upon our Heavenly Father for help as you care for their needs each day and as you deal with the challenges which inevitably come with parenthood. You need more than your own wisdom in rearing them.”
~ Thomas S. Monson
“The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.”
~ Erma Bombeck
“No matter how old we get, we never outgrow the need to belong, to feel needed, or to be important in someone else’s life. We never stop craving hugs, words of praise, or demonstrations of appreciation. Families must continue to fill those needs, with just as much passion as when our loved ones were children.”
~Lorle Campos
“I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich.”
~Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, “Identity Crisis,” M*A*S*H
“The surprising simple secret to a great family life is the power of traditions.”
~ Lorle Campos

Happy Tuesday,

Filed Under: Photography Brings Joy, Reading Brings Joy, Values Bring Joy

Teachers Are Like Anchors

May 17, 2012 By Shan 4 Comments

Today is the last day of school. I’m at the hair salon using the Word Press app while my color is processing.

I wanted to feature my youngest’s 3rd grade teacher today. I’ll call her Mrs. L. She has been a phenomenal teacher for my daughter this year. Many days A {Daughter} would hop in the car and excitedly tell me about something she learned.

Mrs. L's wrapped gifts

In appreciation, we gave Mrs. L one of my favorite music albums ever. It’s called Anchor by Mindy Gledhill. You see, we gave her Mindy’s Christmas album for Christmas. She liked it so I thought we should share Anchor with her as well. The title inspired me to think about how Mrs. L is an anchor to her students.

Mrs. L was the runner-up in our school district for Teacher Of The Year last year (for the whole district.) I was thrilled to have her as my girl’s teacher this year. A talks about how kind & nice Mrs. L is. I have seen an amazing jump in my Daughter’s desire to read. Not only that, she has better confidence in her reading.

Mrs. L was nominated again this year for Teacher Of The Year. I just knew she would receive the award. She definitely deserves that honor & recognition. I was looking forward to telling everyone how A was in her class the year she got the award. Shockingly she was not awarded the title of Teacher Of The Year. My Daughter & I are very disappointed.

This has weighed heavy on my mind, probably more so than Mrs. L, knowing her. She is super sweet & laid back. So I made a special gift for her to open today, the last day of school. It is a plaque that says, “Mrs. L, our Teacher Of The Year 2011-2012.”

The class! {sorry I cut off the girl on the left}

I’m extremely grateful for all my kids teachers. They have such big hearts with lots of patience! However, I want Mrs. L to know how grateful I am for her. In our minds she is Teacher Of The Year! 😀

Above {middle} is Mrs. L with A on the first day of school. Isn't she pretty, too? :)

Teachers bring JOY,

Filed Under: Crafts Bring Joy, Friends Bring Joy, Photography Brings Joy, Reading Brings Joy, Values Bring Joy

Breaking Tradition & Breaking Dawn’s Families

November 18, 2011 By Shan 2 Comments

Well, it pains me to say I broke tradition last night.

I did not go to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn this morning. Are you shocked?!

Since beginning my Operation Get Fit, I have signed up for the Hilton Head Half Marathon. So this Momma is serious. I knew if I went to the midnight showing I probably wouldn’t get my training run in today. Let’s face it, I didn’t want to run today even with getting a night’s worth of sleep. It’s been rough getting back into shape. My runs have not been easy at all. This is different for me. I have run one marathon and 3 half marathons. Usually by now in my training it is not too difficult to run 3 miles. This time I can’t seem to get into the groove and I am dreading every run. I share this for the purpose of letting all of you newer runners indulge in the fact, that it CAN be difficult, even for us more ‘seasoned’ runners. {I’m sorry if that sentence is a run-on, no pun intended} Running is more about mind over body than you realize. Each run this week has felt as though I am running the last 3 miles of a marathon. I find if I am thinking too much about the run and the difficulty, I want to stop. So I train myself to think about other things. For example, one day I took the word BLESSINGS and for each letter I thought of something I consider a blessing; something I am grateful for. Another example: there is a young man who walks his dog on the track every morning…from behind he looks like Edward {Robert Pattinson} so I would tell myself to run to Edward. LOL, hey you do what you need to do to keep running.

Back to Breaking Dawn…my 16 year old daughter and I stood in line for tickets yesterday to the 4:25 showing today. I have to brag about one of the BEST things of living in small town USA…our tickets were $4 each! That is the matinee price, ahhhh…LOVE that!

Waiting in line for our tickets yesterday :)

In the middle of the night I woke up and had the idea of talking a little about the importance of FAMILY in the Twilight Series. {Yep, us bloggers are always thinking about content for our blogs} Family is a strong theme throughout the books.

There is the Cullen Family:

Source

The Swan Family:

Source

The Volturi Family:

Source

In Breaking Dawn you learn more about The Amazon Family, The Denali Family, The Egyptian Family, The Irish Family & The Romanian Family.

Quileute Wolf Pack/Family:

Source

Yes, these families are not real, but the importance of FAMILY in the books {& movies} is very real. Family stands behind each other and accepts each others faults no matter what. It’s about team work, strength in togetherness and sharing.

Last but not least, I had to add this to today’s post:

Front of Scarf

Back of Scarf

One of my very creative Twilight friends here in town made her Twilight T-Shirts into a scarf! What a wonderful idea, huh?! Thank you Tammy for allowing me to share this awesomeness with my readers. 😀 I LOVE it!!!

Happy Friday,

Filed Under: Crafts Bring Joy, Friends Bring Joy, Me Time Brings Joy, MY Family Brings Joy, Photography Brings Joy, Reading Brings Joy, Running Brings Joy, Values Bring Joy

Calling all Readers & Crafters!

November 8, 2011 By Shan 2 Comments

Do you like to read books?

Do you like to craft, scrapbook, journal?

I found the coolest project on one of the coolest new sites My Craft Channel. {Yes, I said coolest twice}

My Craft Channel is wonderful! It’s a new site and has some of my favorite people, including iheartfaces and Stacy Julian from Big Picture Classes, who offer free crafting & photography videos.

I found some more awesome people, Angie & Wendy, on My Craft Channel from Ella Publishing {Their site is AMAZING, btw}. It was their Episode 5 video titled Book Themed Circle Journal I am referring to as the coolest project including books and crafting.

Angie & Wendy asked 10 women who like to read & craft to journal their favorite books of the year 2009. You can see their video by clicking here. {Can’t embed video, sorry!}

Here's one person's layout (ignore play symbol, photo only)

Screenshot of the video, photo only

The closest thing I have ever done to this idea is when I made my 10×10 Twilight themed ABC scrapbook. {No Twilight hate comments, please}

I totally want to make one of these Book Themed Circle Journals!

Who else would like to make a really cool book that includes your top 10 favorite books of 2011?

We will be set on what to read for 2012!

If you are interested, let me know in the comments section and I will send you an email about the particulars.

I have to share one more photo of someone’s journal page using book covers to make a pennant…genuis!

Photo only

P.S. : Angie & Wendy promote goodreads.com, but I use Shelfari.com. No compensation was given for the writing of this post.

Linking Up:

So fun to combine the 2 loves,

Filed Under: Blogs Bring Joy, Crafts Bring Joy, Friends Bring Joy, Me Time Brings Joy, Photography Brings Joy, Reading Brings Joy

“Love” for the Up & Coming Blogs {Liebster Awards}

November 1, 2011 By Shan 12 Comments

I received an unexpected blessing this morning!

Carrie from In The Sweet Sunshine generously gave me a Liebster Blog Award.

I was grateful for the 4 years of German to know that Liebster comes from the word Liebe. Liebe means love in German.

According to Carrie, “the goal of this award is to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers.” Even though my blog has been around for a while now {since August 2008} I guess I am considered an “up-and-coming” blogger. That is totally and completely fine with me. I am grateful and flattered. 😀 The followers I DO HAVE are loyal and I am grateful for every single one of them!

Last week a friend of mine came up to me at my Daughter’s dance studio and said, “I just want to tell you how much I enjoy your blog. I read it all the time. I don’t ever comment, so I have been wanting to tell you how much I like reading it.” Thank you so much Marsha for your very sweet words! I do work diligently at offering my readers family friendly content. Compliments are always warmly received and make a bloggers day! The Liebster Blog Award gives me encouragement. I hope Family Brings Joy might make a little bit of a difference in peoples lives for good.

One of the great parts of receiving this award is I have the opportunity to pass it on. I love the principal of ‘paying it forward’ and spreading acts of kindness. It is my honor to grant this award to the following “up-and-coming” blogs {Random Order}:

Eye Heart – I am a mother of three boys and wife to a wonderful husband. I have a passion for makeup, beauty, fashion, design, photography and last but not least all things culinary.
Creative Outlets of a Thrifty Minded Momma – Wife to Hubby the Great, Mom to two curly-headed-blonde-hair-blue-eyed beauties (Boog and Bear), and a doer of all things creative. I’m thrifty minded out of necessity, but determined by choice. Determined to make my home a place that my family loves to be for the price I can afford to pay and loving every second of the challenge.
The House That Can Do All Things– This Blog is dedicated to, well, hmmmm, lots of things: Crafty things, Decorating, DIY, Family, Food, & Fun!
Room Rx – A friend of mine once told me I had an addiction to design She was right. I now consider myself a “design junkie.” I am also a mom of three, a wife and an outdoor enthusiast. I love anything design and home related, but I am really inspired by a good bargain. This blog is my way of cataloging the things that strike a chord with me and get my creative juices flowing.
Dimples & Tangles – I am a believer in Jesus Christ, the wife of a Southern Baptist minister and the mom of two of the sweetest kids! I enjoy spending time in the Word, reading, sewing, shopping thrift stores and clearance sales, decorating and reading home blogs. I always have a project or two in the works, so this blog is my attempt to chronicle our family life and our efforts to make this house into a welcoming home!
Moments & Impressions – I was a corporate gal… never thought I would leave. Now I am a stay at home momma… still trying to figure out what that means. I love old things and brand new crayons.
The Butterfly Mom – I created this blog as the catch all for crafting, parenting, reviews, home management, cooking and baking and everything else in between.
Daddy’s In Charge – I don’t claim to have all the answers about fatherhood, every dad has their own way of doing things, but I can share my stories to let you know that you are not alone out there.
Hanging With Dad – Aside from being a stay at home dad who does graphic design, web design and audio production, I joined the Houston Athletic Rugby Club at the beginning of the 2009 season and plan to continue playing for as long as my body (and family) will allow. It’s one of my few activities where I get adult interaction outside of the house.
Busy Lil Homemaker – I’m a Christian SAHM who keeps busy home educating our two beautiful daughters, writing, piecing quilts, baking, and much more.

The Official Rules for the Liebester Award are:

Copy and paste the award on your blog
Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers

Okay, yes, I bent the rules a tad…I chose 10 instead of 5. Hey, I believe in “going the second mile.” 😉 If the awarded blogger above had a button for their site I added it. Personally, I love to add buttons to my posts. I believe a good button is important in advertising your blog. {Tip: helpful to other bloggers if you have it handy on your sidebar} If you were awarded and HAVE a button, please let me know & I will add it to this post. Thanks!

Thank you again to Carrie at