Amy J. Bennett

And the 2011 Christmas Card Begins

October 20, 2011 by Amy 18 Comments

My jaw just about dropped yesterday when I read a tweet saying there are only 66 days until Christmas. 65 today. And the days will just go by faster. How? How are we near the Christmas season in 2011?

This is the time of year I start thinking about Christmas cards and my yearly photo gifts and I start kicking myself in the rear end for not taking more pictures during the year. As the girls have gotten older, I’ve found that I’ve had less reasons to “grab the camera quick”! Yes, they are learning new things all the time but usually it’s happening up in that little brain of theirs instead of an outward manifestation like crawling or walking. Or, you know, smearing spaghetti all over their tray. In any case it IS time to start thinking about those cards and gifts.

Last year I super-duper LOVED my Shutterfly Christmas card.

The pictures meant a lot but I love the layout allowed me to share so many from that photo shoot. I’m ecstatic to say this year I’ll be using Shutterfly for our cards again thanks to a fabulous blogging program. If you have a blog, make sure to check out the end of the post!

It looks like they have some great holiday cards this year. Here are a few of my favorites:

Clearly I’m a sucker for cute little happy girls. Hm, wonder why?

And here’s the best part. I have the opportunity to give THREE of you a code for 25 free Shutterfly cards!! Just leave a comment here telling me which of the above is your favorite and I’ll pick a winner next Thursday.

I was given 50 free holiday cards in exchange for this post. Shutterfly, you rock. Are you a blogger? Want a chance at 25 free cards this holiday season? Register here: http://goo.gl/DDw7Q

Letters, Vans, Fruits and Books

October 19, 2011 by Amy 1 Comment

Returning books to the library. It makes me happy. Except the $7 in fees.

I feel like I need a big catch up post. Nothing earth-shattering but I feel like a few updates are in order:

1 – We finally got a letter from DSS last week stating a worker had been assigned to our home study and would be contacting us about setting it up. It’s been about a week though and nothing. I had hoped we’d be approved by November but it’s looking like maybe the first of the year now. I’m not in a hurry though, I know this will all happen at the right time.

2 – The body shop called mid-post and said the van is ready! Woot! Our van is supposed to be done tomorrow! Once the body shop sent it to a mechanic to get the electrical stuff up, a pump went out that had to be replaced and then the electrical stuff wouldn’t come on so they sent it to Honda where they found a fuse out and another sensor. It’s all supposed to be fixed by tomorrow. We shall see. I do so miss my van terribly. The gas mileage and parking power of a little car is nice but, well, it’s not my van. I am shocked though that they have not totaled the van. My guesstimate is they have now spent at least $7,000! I’m so grateful though. If I’m going to have a used van, I want it to be mine with a lot of brand new parts!

3 – I started FINALLY going through the Fruits of the Spirit activities from ImpressYourKids.org with the girls this week. They are completely soaking it up. Last night though almost felt like a complete disaster and I nearly wanted to give in (only 3 days in!) but I ran into a verse in Galatians today and I’m certain I need some FORBEARANCE to continue the GOOD work in my children.

4 – Melissa is doing the final edit of my eBook. I think I have a release date picked and I’m going to be sharing more very soon (maybe the cover next week??). Let me just say again how awesome my friends are and I love they are pushing me to make this the best possible.

5 – These next two months are going to kick my butt. I have a HUGE project at work that will require near 24-7 attention for a few weeks. Add in the girls’ birthday parties, Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping and I ALREADY feel pooped.

I think 5 is enough! I hope your week is going well!

Weekend Recap

October 17, 2011 by Amy 4 Comments

Well, if the last few weekends were quiet ones at home, this weekend surely made up for it.

Friday night started out with dinner at Moe’s (Welcome to Moe’s!) and then some shoe shopping for me. We had a rainy picnic at work on Thursday and my favorite Rocket Dog gray silk flats were finally ruined. I was so very sad to see the exact ones were no longer available but I thought these black and white stripes were pretty cute.

And I had a coupon and needed one more pair. I’m really up for some tennis shoes but honestly, I can’t seem to make myself rock the neon shoes I’m seeing everywhere. So I went with these:

I didn’t think I’d ever get Sperry’s but I love the blue goes great with the blue jeans I’m always wearing. They are super easy to put on and super comfortable.

Saturday was our big day at Scott’s first mountain bike race. They did a 6 HOUR bike race. He duo’d with another guy he rides with so they took turns doing a 9 mile loop through the Greenway. Both of them got in 3 laps totaling 27 miles. Can you believe a group of guys also did the TWELVE hour race?

Above is Scott before his first lap and below is him taking off for his last lap. Unfortunately we couldn’t see any of the trail. One guy did sustain a concussion and got some pretty nasty bruises. Scott has taken some pretty bad spills in past weeks on their Sunday rides but fortunately he stayed injury free.

All the guys at Tailwind did great. One of them even finished 3rd overall!

Scott was exhausted afterwards. We spent the evening at home so he could recover. He had a blast though and I’m sure he’ll be talking about it for a long time.

Sunday we went to church, had lunch and then went off to a local farm to get a pumpkin. The girls had a blast with all the activities. Their favorite was this water pump game where you put a rubber ducky in the trough and pushed enough water to make it land in the far tub.

They also loved seeing the farm equipment.

Picking out our pumpkin.

And we just generally had fun getting out for the afternoon somewhere new.

This evening has been pretty quiet. We stayed in for dinner and took it easy. Thankfully even though the weekend was pretty busy, we’ve gotten plenty of sleep and I’m ready to start a new week!

A Safe Place on a Friday Afternoon

October 14, 2011 by Amy 4 Comments

Tough day today. And last night. I just got to one of my breaking points with so many things going on and wondering if I should be working. Nothing new here. I also had a massive headache come on about lunch time and my throat is sore. I feel generally run down even though I had a good 9-10 hours of sleep last night. Suffice it to say I’m ecstatic it’s the weekend.

I found this lovely music today on Spotify through my friend Lana. Beautiful worship music. Nothing like what’s on the radio or sung in churches. The album name is Chair and Microphone, Vol. 3. You can check it all out free on Spotify. I don’t know, it was just the perfect thing I needed for today. Maybe you too?

Safe Place

You are the one my heart is waiting for

You are my treasure,

You are my king,

You are the door

You hold me tight,

you hold me quiet You hold me safe

She’s Full of Grace

October 12, 2011 by Amy 3 Comments

“Grace is giving someone a gift they don’t deserve and that’s what my middle name is,” Emma paused in her explanation. We’ve gone over her name meaning a few times.
“Yes, and Emma means ‘full of’ so your names mean you’re full of grace.” I closed the car door as I finished the explanation and grabbed the girls hands. We were walking into the Speak Up magazine launch last night in an area of town we’d never been. It was getting dark and it was rainy and it’s not in the newest part of town. I didn’t feel unsafe but I think the kids did a little. I was glad to hear I could take the girls though since Scott was working and I wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise and I was truly glad they could come and see firsthand. It seemed like it was going to be a great teachable moment.

One of the vendors (low-income/homeless person selling the magazine) was at the party selling copies of the magazine. At the advice of Lana’s email earlier yesterday I had stopped at the ATM on the way to get $20 so we could buy our own copies. After we chatted at the party for a few minutes I took the kids out to the vendor to buy the magazines. A very gifted artist who is featured in one of the articles of the magazine (pictured above) was happy to help us. “I have $20 so whatever that will buy me! 6 and you can give me $2 change or 5 if you only have a $5,” I said happily. Dag was happy to oblige and gave me 6 with $2 change he pulled out of a hat keeping his money. I carefully explained on the way home that the magazines would be sold by homeless or jobless people to help them earn money. The girls asked if Dag was homeless and I replied I really didn’t know. They seemed to move on to other topics on the way home like how one of the new buildings downtown was lit up in rainbow colors unlike the red we had seen last time.

Last night as I was putting the girls to sleep Emma asked again about Dag. She said, “You know, next time someone buys magazines from someone like him and they have $20, they should, you know, just let him keep the $2. I think that would help him.” Like a punch in the gut, my eyes were opened. I hadn’t even thought about letting Dag keep the change. I was so excited about giving him business that I made it too much about business. “Yes, Emma, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it but I’ll do that next time. That would show a lot of grace, just like your name.” She gave me a big hug and Lexi understanding dawning says, “Mommy, you’re mean!” “Lexi, I’m not mean, I just didn’t think of it.” “Yeah, Lexi, Mommy wasn’t mean, she didn’t do it on purpose.”

I tried to teach my kids about giving and while I might have, I think they taught me a lot more about grace.

Top Ten Reasons to be an Early Riser

October 11, 2011 by Amy 24 Comments

It’s been almost two weeks that I’ve been going to bed early and getting up early. I know, two weeks isn’t long enough to consider anything a habit, unless your talking about buying Lattes every day and then I’d bet you’d call it a habit. In any case, I’ve found that I quite like it. Here’s why:

Scott and I go to bed at the same time. Since he has to get up at 4am when he’s on day shift, he’s in bed by 8. I usually was never in bed until at least 10 and sometimes 12. I’ve enjoyed the whole house shutting down at one time. It’s weird, but it feels like that “lights out” moment at camp when you knew you were all in it together.
I wasn’t getting a whole lot done at night anyway. My brain power by 8pm was not worth much so I’d find I was just circling between Facebook, Twitter and email. Sometimes I’d get a blog post in but only when I was lucky.
I start to think about the next day a lot earlier in the evening. This is good because at 7:30 I still have energy to plan for the next day. I find even though I’m up early the next day, I’m getting more things ready for the next day the night before.
I get up easier when it’s earlier. I have no idea how that happens but it’s easier for me to get up at 5:45 when I’ve gone to bed at 9 then it is to get up at 6:45 when I went to bed at 10. It shouldn’t be so as it’s the same amount of time but I have just found I am entirely too groggy the later I wake up, no matter how much sleep I’ve had. In fact, Friday night Scott and I were asleep by 9:30 or so and slept in until almost 9 and it was harder to get myself out of bed that morning.
I like starting my day before everyone else. I feel like I have a head start to my day and get my day started with the right attitude versus the kids up and me feeling like a failure for not being able to be up with the kids.
I get more done in the morning. I’m a lot more alert in the morning so I’m actually productive. With less time, I get more done.
We’re not rushed to get off to school. This morning, we were all literally sitting around the living room waiting for the time to leave. This has *never* happened before.
I like that the kids will remember that I’m up, ready and alert. I normally did have to wake them up for school anyway but I was in my pjs, hair a mess and barely alert. It worked, but I just feel better being completely dressed and ready. I have a better tone to my voice and attitude.
I’m not worried all day about all the things I need to do. Yes, some things have to wait but I like that I can get things started before work. That load of laundry that needs switched or that blog post that needs written (this one!) can all get done without me worrying about it.
I’m saving money! Now this one sounds funny but seriously, we are. Since I’m up earlier I have time to make my own coffee and get my snack and lunch ready for work when I go. Before, I was just rushing out the door and buying stuff at work. I still treat myself to Starbucks one work morning a week but I’m not buying the regular coffee at work every single time.

Wow, I didn’t think I’d ever be such a proponent as an early-riser but I think I’m in! The only downside I can think of is when you CAN’T get to bed early and it’s super hard to get up early the next morning. The good news is, it’s even easier to go to sleep early the next night and get back on track.

So how do you do this? I started out by going to bed super early one night when I was exhausted but then got up early the next day instead of sleeping in. Somehow, it’s stuck since then!

So tell me, are you an early riser or night owl??

Make sure to check out more Top Ten Tuesday posts over at ohAmanda.com

Warm Heart, Wet Ear

October 10, 2011 by Amy 4 Comments

Lexi recently playing dress-up with my clothes

Lexi and I were sitting in the recliner watching Scooby Doo last night. The sun had set and the lights were low in the living room. I turned to my left as I felt Lexi’s hands at my hair. She was looking at me with a smile and pushed my hair behind my ear. “You’re pretty.” Melt my heart. “That’s so sweet, Lexi. Thank you.” I turned back to the movies with a smile in my heart. I felt her still smiling and looking at me again so I looked back and smiled, sure that we were having a wonderful mother-daughter moment. I turned back towards the movie and suddenly felt a wet finger in my ear and heard her beginning to laugh. Lexi leaned forward towards Scott and Emma on the couch and yelled, “I gave Mommy a wet willie!!”

Stinker.

Weekend Recap

October 10, 2011 by Amy Leave a Comment

Source: cs9685.vkontakte.ru via Ksenia_Y on Pinterest

Random Pinterest picture in honor of Canada Day today

Friday night we babysat our friend’s little boy and took the kids to Scott’s mom’s for the night. Saturday morning we both decided to sleep in, something we almost never do anymore. We then had to rush to get on the ball to get Emma to a birthday party at Carowinds. Fun story.

We lost our passes a few weeks back so I decided to go first thing Saturday to get them to print a temporary pass for her. The line was so long as it was Bring a Friend day AND Scarowinds. I finally made it through and the lady would not give me a pass for her since Emma wasn’t there. I tried to reason with her but to no avail. I walked away aggravated at the lack of customer service. I understand why they wouldn’t but it still caused extra work for me when the whole point of me going early was to get ahead. Anyway, we went straight to get Emma and go back to Carowinds. We then had one hour to get the passes, get all the girls lunch and still buy and wrap a present. Clearly, I should have done that much earlier. Anyway, we swung through the Wendy’s line just outside Carowinds and then Emma and I went in to get her ticket. Thankfully, the line had completely cleared out and we got the ticket within a few minutes. The girls finished eating their lunch in the car and then Emma and I ran through Walmart. Fastest decision making by Emma EVER. We then realized she didn’t have tennis shoes on so we had to stop in at the house. On the way to the house, I was looking for the ticket and suddenly could not find it. I remembered that Scott had it in his hand just before I went into Walmart so we started looking everywhere. Then Scott says, “Oh yeah, I think I threw it in the Wendy’s bag.” WITH THE TRASH. And he almost had Lexi throw the whole bag away when we were in Walmart. Holy cow. We made it home with the ticket and I took the two minutes to wrap the present in the bag and Emma grabbed her shoes. We made it to the party right on time. Geezorama. I was ready for a nap after that.

So the rest of the afternoon, Lexi played with my niece and I did laundry, worked on my eBook, etc. We stayed in for the evening as well and capped off the night watching a Scooby Doo movie.

Sunday was another easy going day. We had our friend’s son for the day again and the girls stayed super busy with him. We stayed in for dinner and once again, watched the same exact Scooby Doo movie to finish out the night. Exciting times, I tell ya.

Overall a great weekend. I hope yours was great and your week is off to a great start!