Saturday, July 13, 2013

If only...


.. I could get Caden as interested in actually reading books as he is in playing Minecraft.  
 Getting him interested in ANY book is a damn struggle, and here's the kicker: he's a REALLY great reader. As in, his ability and level is beyond his grade level. He is an extremely creative and imaginative kid, thinking up ideas for video games and drawing levels for angry birds. He uses vocabulary words beyond his age and understands the importance of reading... He just doesn't want to do it. Forcing him to read has resulted in sulking on the bed re-reading the same paragraphs over and over and not retaining a thing. 
Here we are at Barnes and Noble and I'm trying to encourage him to find a book, any book, that interests him. So far the only thing he's been interested in is this Moshi Monster encyclopedia... Which is 18.99 and not something I was hoping to spend. But, because I want him to read so badly I agree to it, only to have him put it back claiming, " Um, nah, I don't think I want this after all. " grrrr...
  I've offered incentives to no avail. It's come down to just flat out refusing the purchase of any more apps or games even with his own money, until he starts reading. I'm not saying the kid needs to read half a book a night. I'm just wanting him to read a little everyday. 
Is this bad? As a child I was a voracious reader, begging my parents for trips to the library or used book store every weekend.  I read Ramona Quimby, Ralph S. Mouse, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Trumpet of the Swan and all of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time books. I'd read in class and get my books taken away. I'd read in the car on the way to school and car trips were excuses to buy more books. To this day I fear I could easily make us bankrupt with how accessible books are to purchase through my Kindle. If I wasn't so crazy about scrapbooking too, that's where my money would go. 
  I guess I should back off, and not worry about it too much. Like everything we parents discover with child raising, every year brings on some sort of different phase. Maybe he will return to books when he's older. In the meantime I'm working on Paige. 

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Testing out a photo upload!

ISo I down loaded the Blogger app for my iPhone in the hopes that it will make me blog more because of accessibility and also, for posting current photos of my stuff. 
Here's a layout I did on Weds while inwas at work. Since we have two pretty big breaks in the beginning of our day, I puck out my papers, photos and get the design pretty much down. Then, after lunch I proceed to embellish on all my other 12-15 min breaks. It's crazy how much I think about scrapbooking when I'm out there on the stage and I've got a page in the works. I'll look out in the house and something will make me think, "Ooh! Oooh! Got to remember that!!" 

I really do like this layout. I used this sketch by Shimelle Laine at www.Shimelle.com: 

I pretty much followed it exactly. Sometimes it's a relief to use a sketch- it relaxes your brain so it's not stuggling to arrange your photos and papers in a "new, fresh way!"

So yay! It looks like the photo part works. Awesome blossom! 
Xo
Sums

Getting this thing Started....

Hi All!  Just testing out my very first blog post entry..... I am not computer savvy at ALL preferring to stick with something easy and basic, so please bear with me as I get used to what I can do on this thang.    My hope is that I can link up my fb, twitter and Insta accounts along with posting my scrap and craft projects, any sort of challenges I may participate in or dream up, and maybe giveaways too.....who knows?  I am just going with the flow right now and will try and post on a daily basis, though sometimes it can be tough trying to find the time with my clingy Miss P attached to me all day.  She's getting better about it as she's gotten older, but on the days when she's super overtired I can't get out from under her.  I try SO hard to not let it affect me, thinking there will be days when she's older that I'm sure I'll wish she'd pay me that attention, but right now it makes Momma weary!
So hang in here with me and hopefully this thing will evolve to something interesting to all of us. LOL...thanks you guys!!
Xo
Sums