Keek's Peeks

Here I am Again

2011-04-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

I'm in a contemplative mood today. It's probably due to the rain and the beautiful music I'm listening to from Monica's blog. I've learned so much about life and the gospel lately that I think Satan uses it to build up my pride. I realized today (once again) that while I know I'm a child of God I have plenty of reasons to be humble.

Does anyone know how in the world it's physically possible to work out, read my scriptures, make 3 nice meals, change diapers for 2 babies, get on the ground to play with and teach my kids, read the books I want to, write in my journal, meditate, keep a house clean with dishes done all in one day, day after day after day? And that doesn't include all the other stuff like visiting teaching, calling stuff, trying to go on dates with Ben, go to the temple...and then all of my goals that I'm not even doing now... Don't get me wrong- I LOVE doing all of it, but I don't know how to fit it in. I know that what I'm addressing is the age-old "being the perfect mormon mother" saga, but I REALLY WANT IT! I'm tired of mediocrity and excuses. But I'm also tired of trying so hard and never achieving it. (And when I say, "trying so hard", most of the time that means sitting exhausted just by the thought of it all).

Does anyone have any ideas?

Disclaimer and recent random thoughts

2010-10-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: I really don't have much to say except a much needed disclaimer as to why I never post on my blog. I don't have the internet at home AND I just had two babies in the last year. So give me a break.

maybe I should make it a goal to post at least once a week. hmmm....

Random thought 1: Ben is hunting and is going to get the hugest bull elk of all time. (Why else would I be up on the computer at 11:00 instead of in bed with him?!) Oh, and did everyone know the difference between antlers and horns except for me? I didn't know until last night when Ben explained it to me. I feel like an idiot.

Random thought 2: I'm pretty excited that I'm almost down to the weight I was before I had baby #1, a.k.a. Teague. The only problem is that I've got considerably more flub now that before.

Random thought 3: Speaking of flub, I just tried on some jeans that I wore when I was dating Ben. Tried being the key word. I think I got them up to my knees.

Random thought 4: Um, I made another planner. This is the third one since my last planner post. Ridiculous.

Random thought 5: I think I've determined that I have a book obsession. making them, reading them...even reading about them. I could stay up all night reading book reviews. Oh wait, I've already done that...

Random thought 6: Crap, my baby is awake and I thought she was down for the night. BUT she's not crying, YAY!

thought 7: Did I mention that I hate to go to bed without Ben?

thought 8: I take it back. She is crying. Better go,

Goodnight!

Sneak Peek

2010-07-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Here I am again after, let's see...4 months. AND this update isn't even about me. HA!

This post is actually for my sisters. We are having a family reunion in about a month and for our girl's night we are making altered books. We will be focusing on Christmas Traditions. I'm putting some pictures on here so they can start getting some ideas for embellishments that they can bring, and to get their brains moving on it.

Before I put the pictures on, let me just say that while most of the altered books I will show are differently themed than I would do myself, I am amazed at people's creativity.

Here we go!

Next are pictures from an altered christmas book that Lorraine made. This is closer to what we are actually going to do, only we are going to dedicate each page to a specific christmas tradition and the history of that tradition. ie. santa claus, candy canes, the north pole, cards, lights, etc.

That's it! Mom and I are really excited to do them and have already put together some supplies.

Photo Peeks

2010-03-08T11:10:00.001-08:00

Hello All, we got these done at Christmas and I'm finally adding them. I had to show off my cute boys (and if you look really close, you can see the one on it's way).

Post Script

2010-02-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

P.S.
I figured out what I'm going to do with my planner I made. I'm going to make an altered book out of it with a LOVE theme. I'm going to put in it love quotes. There are a bunch of good ones from the book, "and they were not ashamed" It's going to be a, "I'm sort of obsessed with my husband" type book. TMI? find another blog.

Planner Peeks

2010-02-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

OOOOKKKKK

So I did a little searching and stumbled across Keri Smith again. I found, "wreck this journal" in Barnes and Noble about 2 years ago and thought, "I HAVE to have this book". Did I ever get it? Nope, but my mind blunders upon the memory of it from time to time. Today I found her website and her blog and found that she had several more books. If I could make my journals like hers, I would love myself. (Not EXACTLY like hers, It would have my own flair- but I LOVE her style).

Here are her websites-
http://www.kerismith.com/
http://www.kerismith.com/blog/index.html

She has written a planner that I MUST see. I might just have to take a trip to the book store.

Never Ending Se-arch!

2010-02-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

Alright- refering back to the last post- my book.

I made it to be my planner for the first six months of 2010. Hold on- I'm getting ahead of myself.

I have been on what I call, "The Endless Search For the Perfect Planner" since about 2006. I used to try all the different types of formats of planners that you can buy.
Buuuut
Franklin Covey was too constrictive, and didn't have enough empty space. (as in-NONE)
Barnes and Noble planners weren't bad, but again- no empty space.
Walmart planners had the same problem.

So last year, I, at long last decided that the only way to have my own planner is to MAKE my own planner. Little did I know that I would still have to test out a seemingly endless amount of formats.

My planner from the last 6 months of 2009 worked out pretty well but didn't quite work. I'll have to put in a pix of it later. I don't have it now. The first section I did was just a calender. and then there were about 6 other sections entitled things like, "Ooooh, Baby", "Shopping, Shopping", "It's all about ME", "Gifts: the Forbidden Section"... I don't remember the other two.

The bad part was that some of the sections were filled within 2 weeks, and others never filled up. Well, that drove me nuts. So I decided that this planner was going to have the first section be the calender, and the rest would just be blank for my journal. Actually, for EVERY journal- my daily journal, my scripture study journal, my sketching book, random notes, etc. Then I was going to make a table of contents at the beginning and color code each type of journal. That way I wouldn't have to precount and preguess how many pages each one would take. Sweet. I thought I had it solved.

I made my new planner out of 28 lb. paper, and by the time the calender section was done, I was like, " Oh crap! The book is going to be too fat to fit into my purse!" So I thought, "ok, no problem, I'll just make two books. One with a planner and one that is blank."

(Oh, I failed to mention before that the reason why I am combining all my journals into one and with my calender is because it's driving me crazy that my life history has to be referred to by reading 3 or 4 or 5 books!)

So I used the Calender for about 5 days to see how I liked it before making another book and I came to this conclusion-

I HATE it.

-Not enough blank space (That is ALWAYS the problem)
-Because I made it I can't just toss it about and abuse it. You can already see by the pictures that it's starting to wear.

So I did a google search on
"Best Planner ever" and found The Planner Pad.

I thought I could replicate it in a simple notebook. I haven't tried it yet. I still need the perfect notebook for the job. AND notebooks are lined. Which won't work. I enjoy too much the freedom of clean paper.

Ok, I think My ranting and raving are all done for now. For those of you who were bored enough to read this whole thing, I will update you shortly.

Until Then, the planner saga persists.

productive peeks

2010-02-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

I made a book!

I've been wanting to do this for.....let's see- YEARS. Not sure how long exactly. But anyway, I did some research on the internet and learned from a good video how to do the coptic book binding stitch

Ok- here's the video link. It was BY FAR the easiest tutorial I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHAJyzzb4EE

Aaaaand here's the book-

Here's the front

And the back-

the details-

the inside back cover (which is the same as the front, but it had stuff taped to it)-

OH MY HECK it posted sideways. How annoying.

Now for the embarrassing part. sigh.

So I thought that hemp would match the book the best for the binding thread. BAD IDEA. Hemp could have been cool but the make of it was much too inconsistent (you'll see when you look at the up-close of the binding). Some parts of it are fat and some are skinny. It was also kind of harsh to the paper and caused it to rip easier as I was sewing.

Other mistake- I forgot to test the grain of the chip board (which was too thin in the first place) that I used for the cover so THAT was a pain.

Oh yea, and if you look at the second detail picture, you'll see newspaper print. When I was mod podging the paper onto the chip board (I did it over newspaper to protect the table) I left it on the newspaper while it was still wet and there you have it. Newspaper remains. grrr.

So here's proof of my learning curve-

Next post- a "kind-of" part two about the book. not about the making of the book, but it's purpose.

Picnik Peeks

2010-02-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

Hey, here are some of my picnik playings:

Sleep?

2010-02-09T16:10:00.001-08:00

Today I put Teague down for his nap and went in a few minutes later to check and see if he was asleep, like I always do. He was WIDE awake. So I went in about 20 minutes later and...he was still awake. So I left and got involved with whatever the heck I was doing and forgot to check him again. About an hour later, I went in, expecting to find a sleeping baby and this is what I found:

So I went in to talk to him and my word he was in a chatty mood! SO I tickled him and played peek-a-boo. He's got the most precious little giggle. I layed down by him and stared at his beautiful little eyes and looked at his perfect little lips and realized that I'm not over the miracle of who he is and that my body gave him what he needed to form his body- his lips, his nose, his fingers, his blood... It's so incredible.
And so humbling.

Daddy and Teague

2010-02-09T16:05:00.001-08:00

Teague is six months old today!

We started him on cereal about a week and half ago (much to my sleeping pleasures- YAY for 8 hours in a row!) This is going to be slightly out of order- SORRY- because I'm going to put pictures on later of his first time trying cereal. However, I just couldn't wait getting this picture on here because it's so dang cute.

Here I am again!

2010-02-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

Alright- the purpose of this entry is to let you all know that I'm going to catch up- so to speak. The next few posts are to inform the world of what we've been doing lately.
So here goes:

Playful Peeks- babysitting

2009-10-21T13:35:00.001-07:00

It's Wyatt and Cody day! Grandma's babysitting and I happened to be there too.

Here are the latest "Wyattisms" (He's 4)

- "My feelings are hurting" (because grandma wouldn't give him gum)

- "You're blessing!" (sneezing)

- "I have a baby in my tummy. His name is Tate. He's grandma's cousin."

- "That's good 'joe' ." (referring to hot chocolate. he got it from polar express)

- "I'm the captain of the axiom" (Wall-e)

- "Jonathan, you're a selfish jerk!" (monsters vs. aliens)

- "Grandma, I sent my grumpies home."

- to me, "I love you but I'm not a Super Hero." (This sounds like it was part of a conversation. It came completely out of nowhere, and then he walked away.)

- also to me from across the room, "Move away from me so I can't see you." Leave it to a kid to raise your self-esteem.

Precious Peeks- 2 1/2 months!

2009-10-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

He's been into his hands lately. Apparently, that's a milestone- YAY!

I left my camera battery charger at the in-laws......AGAIN.

2009-10-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

So, I figured that it was about time for me to add something to my blog, but my camera isn't working because the battery died and the charger is 2 hours away- sooo I couldn't add a picture relevant to right now. Sorry. So if you're here, reading this because you thought, "Geez, she finally updated her blog." I apologize for the dull nature of this entry.
I'm trying to think of something exciting to say.....
nope.....nothing is coming.

Let's see-Oh yea, my son is pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. How lucky am I to get to stare at him everyday, all day? He is smiling ALL the time and even starting to laugh a little bit. Sometimes when he smiles, he gets so into it that his whole body moves too. It's like he's so happy, he can't help it. I want to be more like him- feeling so much joy that my entire body smiles. Besides my testimony in God and Jesus Christ and having Benjamin as my eternal best friend, Teague is the best part of my life.

I Graduated from College!

2009-07-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

I finally graduated from BYU-Idaho! I now have a B.S. (hehe) in Horticulture with an emphasis in Production and a minor in Humanities. It feels so good to be done!

I have a blog!

2009-05-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone who will actually look at this-

I have no idea what I'm going to do with this, but I've been thinking for a while that a blog would be fun. So here I am! Hopefully it'll be exciting enough for you to want to come back to.