Amy Beth

December 10, 2013

Treasure Basket Fun

2013-03-11_5066_1

 

I’m sitting in the living room, watching Charlie as he moves haphazardly between toys, picking one up, putting it down, getting something new out of the toy drawer, banging a couple together…you know, normal baby play behavior, when he goes over to the shelf, reaches his hands up and says “blah.”
That’s his word for everything in the world. It generally means he wants something.

I look up to see what he’s pointing at and say, “Do you want your treasure basket?”

He grins, and stomps his feet around a few times (that’s his happy dance) and toddles over to a clear spot on the rug. He’s ready for some serious playtime.

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November 14, 2013

Sister Time!

My sisters and I embarked on a massive art project this summer. We decided to enter the Mystery Build Contest, which involved getting a mystery box of art supplies in the mail and creating a piece of art from only those materials. It was a lot of fun, it was challenging (that goat face about got the best of us), it required a few pretty intense weekends of work. But we got it done and we’re pretty proud of our creation. I wrote a little more about it over on our shared blog My Sister Says.

Photo Aug 11, 2 50 03 PM

Right now public voting for the contest is open. You can vote for our project #103: I and the 3D Village on page 4 of the contest submissions. (Actually, you can vote for as many submissions as you like. There are some pretty amazing ones. But we’d really appreciate if you’d vote for ours too!)

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October 29, 2013

October in Review

October in review

For some reason writing these month in review posts seems to make the months go by a lot faster. Maybe it’s because I’m just more aware of each month as it ends. So instead of jumping straight from summer to “Oh my gosh, it’s Christmastime!” I get to “Oh my gosh!” at each month as it passes. But despite the quickness, October was lovely. And I learned some good lessons.

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September 30, 2013

September in Review

Another month has gone by, and once again I’m linking up with [Emily at Chatting at the Sky](http://www.chattingatthesky.com/2013/09/27/learned-september/) to share the things I’ve learned this month.

1. **Late summer/early fall is almond season.** I know this because we have an almond tree in our backyard and it has been dropping almonds by the bushel-full. When I first learned we had an almond tree I was kind of excited about it. I started envisioning tasty desserts and breakfast granolas full of fresh toasted almonds harvested from our backyard. But then I looked into what it takes to prepare almonds for eating and realized that I will **not** be harvesting my own almonds. Here’s why:

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September 18, 2013

A Tip for Motherhood

I’ve discovered a very helpful tip for motherhood thanks to a recent Google image search.

You see, part of my job involves finding images to show during my pastor’s sermons on Sundays. Many times this involves finding images of people experiencing certain emotions. For this particular sermon I needed to find an image of a mom who was feeling stressed out or overwhelmed. Here is a sampling of some of the images I found. See if you can come up with the handy tip…

Unknown-2Unknown-1stressed-mother-in-kitchenimages-4images-2images-5

Did you notice it?

Let this be a lesson from Google:

Small children, telephones, and the kitchen do not mix.

Just don’t even try. Then maybe you won’t end up looking like one of these lovely ladies.

Maybe.

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August 31, 2013

Hooray for the Internet!

I thought I’d share a few of the things I’ve been enjoying on the internet lately.

#What I’m reading

[Keeping Kids From Toy Guns: How One Mother Changed Her Mind – Atlantic Mobile](http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/08/keeping-kids-from-toy-guns-how-one-mother-changed-her-mind/278518/) – This is an interesting article discussing the zero-tolerance stance many schools take these days on guns and whether it is actually beneficial. The most thought provoking line:

“There is no easy answer when my Japanese friends wonder at the paradox of our banning gun play when we do not ban the guns that kill thousands of children and teens in the U.S. each year.”

[A place you can always return to | Simple Mom](http://simplemom.net/a-place-you-can-always-return-to/) – This is a sweet story about a couple’s favorite place. My favorite line:

Read more…

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August 29, 2013

August in Review

Once again I’m linking up with Emily at [Chatting at the Sky](http://www.chattingatthesky.com) to share the things I learned this month. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Apparently I am a very sweet person because mosquitos love me. Upon stepping out the door I will get no less than 5 new mosquito bites every time. My husband (who mosquitos seem to ignore) found [this interesting article](http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/07/why-do-mosquitoes-bite-some-people-more-than-others/) about why mosquitos are more attracted to certain people. Unfortunately it’s not very helpful, as mosquitos seem to be attracted by uncontrollable factors like blood type and the kinds of invisible bacteria that live on your skin. However, [if we could just find a high powered fan to blow across our entire back yard](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/science/a-low-tech-mosquito-deterrent.html?_r=1&) I think we’d be golden.

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July 31, 2013

July in Review

I was inspired to make this post by [Emily at Chatting at the Sky](http://www.chattingatthesky.com/2013/06/28/lets-share-the-things-we-learned-in-june/). Each month she does a little recap of the things she’s learned. They may be small and silly or big and profound, but I thought a similar post might be a nice way for me to remember all the random snippets of thought I have throughout the month.

## So here are five things I learned in July.

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July 29, 2013

A New Blog!

I didn’t post last week because we were on a short trip, and quite frankly my brain has been feeling rather fried lately. But because I really need more to do in my life, my sisters and I just launched a new blog!

But really, one of the things I love most about my sisters is how they fuel my creativity. We love working on art projects and crafts together, and this new blog is just another way for us to encourage each other to move forward on our ideas. The blog is [mysistersays.co](http://www.mysistersays.co) and we hope to explore each of our different perspectives on life as we go through different life stages.

[So take a look!](http://www.mysistersays.co) We’ll be rotating who posts each week. I posted first with my thoughts on rearranging a room and how it can bring new life to a space. This week my youngest sister Carly shared some stories about the garden she’s been growing this summer, and next week Erin will be sharing an art project she’s been working on. We have some fun things planned for the future, and I think mostly we’re just excited about working together!

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July 15, 2013

My First Stitch Fix

Contrary to popular opinion, not all women like to shop. I am one of those weirdos. Maybe it has something to do with my aversion to crowded places. Or my indecisive nature. Or the fact that things hardly ever look as good on me as they do on the hanger. If I could go into a very quiet and sparsely populated store that only had clothes that fit me and that encouraged me to take as much time as I needed to stare at myself and consider my options in the fitting room then I might enjoy shopping a little more. I haven’t found that store, but I have found Stitch Fix!

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