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The Big White Farmhouse

intentional living, little by little

January 24, 2012

{recording life} Making a Life List

Do you read Learn with Jenny?  She is an amazing woman with a powerful story…you must check her out!  I love her zest for life and her quest for intentional living.  She is starting a new series on her blog about creating a life list and that is right up my alley! (You know how much I love lists!) 

Part One is actually the preparation before you create your list.  She asks three questions: What do you value?  What excites you?  What are your inspirations?  Good things to think about, right?  Below are my answers.  I’d love to hear some of yours!

Values List
Jenny says: “These are the things that really matter to you. Simply, these are your beliefs and ideals that you hold as special.”

  • Family
  • Creating a welcoming and loving home atmosphere
  • Charitable giving/service and modeling that for my children
  • My Catholic faith and continually growing in faith
  • Recording my family’s stories for future generations
  • Creativity
  • Living intentionally

Excitables
According to Jenny, “These are the things that make you feel centered, grounded, yet alive. These are the simple acts that often bring out the best in yourself, serve to spark an active imagination, or put yourself in a healthy, energetic mindset to dream big.”

  • Laughter
  • Giving gifts
  • Being in the kitchen
  • Heart-to-heart conversations with family
  • Taking photographs
  • Working on my Project Life album
  • Reading
  • Sewing of any sort with my hands, not so much with a machine
  • Getting out of our everyday routine, even if it’s a day trip or small excursion

Inspiration
Jenny says: “What serves to inspire you? There are things all around you that help to influence you or inspire you everyday. These include people, events, blogs, magazines, music, concerts, life experiences, photography, etc.”

  • Start Something That Matters
  • Pinterest
  • Magazines and catalogs like House Beautiful and Pottery Barn
  • etsy
  • Ali Edwards and how she does Project Life
  • Jenny’s weekly letters to her children
  • Photographs of my childhood with my siblings and cousins
  • A Homemade Life (my current read…definitely making me think of the stories that exist around our favorite meals) 

If you’re interested, Jenny has a free printable worksheet you can use.  I found that this was a really enlightening exercise and I am excited to work on my own life list in the coming weeks. 

January 23, 2012

{chit chat} Miscellany Monday: I’m All Over the Place Today

How was your weekend?  Ours was pretty low-key, but still went by too fast!  How does that always happen? Anyway, I’m all over the place this morning.  Care for a glimpse?

1. I spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon working on next week’s school.  Usually I like to stay three or four weeks ahead…oops!  We are reading Very Last First Time so we’ve got Inuits, arctic animals, and oceans on the learning schedule.  I’m hoping the boys are interested…if not, I’m declaring it Polar Bear week.

2. Came across this article and thought it was so true for all of you newer mammas out  there: To the Mother with only One Child .  A must read.

3. I think I’ve started something big.  Puzzle mania has hit the house!  The big boys will sit for almost an hour (an HOUR!) doing puzzles over and over again.  Can I just say how glorious the silence is?  My new tip for Mammas: puzzles.   

4. I was honored to be a part of this list on Grace’s blog last week.  I may or may not have put off doing a mountain of laundry to check out some of the girls. 🙂

5. I have home improvement on the brain in a big way lately.  Gearing up to repaint the walls and all of the molding in my living room…well hello crazy burst of energy!  Where did you come from? 

Miscellany Monday @lowercase letters

January 20, 2012

{kids craft} A Homemade Highway (using Painter’s Tape!)

The cotton balls are supposed to be snow.

This week in school, we are reading Katy and the Big Snow and learning all about how a city runs.  I found this idea on Pinterest months ago and thought it would be fun to do with boys.

OH. MY. WORD.  I truly underestimated the awesomeness of this little project.  If I hadn’t run out of painter’s tape, we would have had our roads spanning the entire kitchen floor.  The boys have played happily all week and it has been a life-saver when I’m trying to bake something or get dinner on the table!

This is a great idea for rainy days, winter days, even I’m-dying-for-a-break-from-these-kids days.  I did the majority of the taping, but I’m sure a child slightly older than my oldest can be left free to his own imagination.       

P.S. My husband thinks I would make a fine urban city planner.  Please take note of my amazing parking lot. 🙂

January 18, 2012

{etsy finds} Beautiful (and Delicious!) Cookies from Sugar & Flour

Hearts, Mittens, Apples, Onesies, Owls
Today’s cool etsy find are these amazing cookies made by Karen at Sugar & Flour.  Aren’t these cookies so neat?    They are made from a vanilla/almond sugar cookie dough and frosted with vanilla/almond royal icing. Baked fresh to order! 

I have ordered from her twice before and have been so pleased both times.  And the cookies….oh yum!  You must try them for yourself!  Her cookies are perfect for birthdays, baby showers or just because!  Wouldn’t the apple cookies be so cute individually wrapped as teacher gifts?  You can find her store here.

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