Flat Alex and Declan go to Japan!

My husband had the opportunity to travel to Japan a couple of weeks ago.  As much as we would have loved it, it wasn’t practical (or in the budget) for the entire family to go.  Instead, Flat Alex and Flat Declan made the trip in a suitcase!  You may remember when Flat Alex went to Europe and this trip was similar, but Declan got to go, too!

Here is Declan, happily waiting for the arrival of the train.  He loves trains in real life and I can only imagine how crazy excited he would have been if he was actually there!  I wonder what kind of train they were waiting for?

Ah, there it is, a shinkansen train!  Alex wants to ride on a bullet train in the worst way and asks if we can move to Japan so he can do this.  I don’t think he really gets that you don’t just take one to get groceries when you live there, but I’m glad he has a desire to travel.  We do hope to be able to take the boys there one day!

One last photo of one of my favorite things – Japanese vending machines.  They were everywhere when I was there and you can purchase all kinds of things from them.  This one had my favorite drink in it, so my husband snapped a photo for me.  It’s kind of hard to see, but third from the left in the top row of the first machine is Lemon Water.  It’s so good!  Lemon Water folks, if you happen to find this post, please export your stuff to the US!

Summer Reading

Summer is in full swing around here, but the last several days have seen off and on rain and storms.  The boys have been disappointed that they couldn’t go outside, but we used some of the rain delays to get a start on our summer reading.  We read a lot normally, but the incentive programs provided by many bookstores give an added element of fun.  Who doesn’t love free books??  We’re participating in the Barnes and Noble Summer Reading Program, which requires Alex to read eight books in order to choose one free book.  He’s a pretty fast reader and is already halfway there!  Barnes and Noble also provides a lot of great downloadable activities to go along with the program.  Some of his favorites are the Geronimo Stilton books and the Magic Tree House series.

If your kids also enjoy the Magic Tree House series, you will want to check out the Magic Tree House website, where they have an entire Passport to Adventure planned this summer.  You can print out a passport for your child and earn stamps for each book.  You can even enter to win a Magic Tree House for your own backyard!

What books are on your child’s summer reading list this year?

National Foster Care Month

The following is a guest post from Adopt Us Kids…

“Did you know it would take less than 1% of the U.S. population to provide a family for every child in foster care? 

May is National Foster Care Month and there has never been a greater need to bring attention to children waiting for forever homes.  More than 463,000 children are currently in foster care and 123,000 children are waiting to be adopted.

Children in foster care are loving children.  They are children like Shaquane and Edlina and Albert.  Every child deserves to have a home with caring and supportive parents.

Help us spread the message this month to reach all Americans and teach them about the love and joy that foster care adoption can bring to your life.

Visit www.adoptuskids.org to learn more about fostering and adopting. You can also join our online communities on Facebook and Twitter. “

Please join me and others on Twitter for a one hour chat on Thursday, May 27th at 2pm Eastern.  Use the tag #AdoptUsKids to learn more about National Foster Care Month and answer any questions you may have.

Book Review: Plan B by Pete Wilson

Pete Wilson, pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN, has written a new book, Plan B:  What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought he would?  I originally thought I should read this book so that I might have the right words or thoughts to share with friends who find themselves at the end of their spiritual rope, unsure of where God is at this point in their lives and why He has allowed this thing (death, job loss, illness) to happen to them.  I did gain that insight, but I was also so wrong – I needed to read this book because it is about me!  While Wilson talks a lot about people who face some tragic or life altering event and turn to their Plan B, I think the same ideas can apply to those of us who experience small setbacks or disappointments.  Plan B is very readable and packed with biblical stories, modern examples, and challenging questions.  The included study guide will make it a great book for small groups to study together or for individuals to dig deeper into the material themselves.  I’m looking forward to reading through it again!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Moop Love!

We travel fourteen hours at Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with my family in Pennsylvania.  Rather than doing it all again at Christmas time or shipping boxes full of stuff back and forth, we exchange gifts while we are there in November.  We are limited in what we are able to transport back home, so some family members have begun to just gift us with cash.  At first I was a little bothered by the impersonal nature of that.  My grandmother explained, though, that she prefers give us the money to buy something we really want for ourselves instead of just giving us more things to clutter up the house.  With that in mind, I promised myself that I would honor the spirit of these gifts and find something I really wanted.  It took me a few weeks to find just the right things, but I did.

(photo from www.moopshop.com)

(photo from www.moopshop.com)

These bags are both incredible.  Honest.  They are all handmade by real people in Pittsburgh.  The attention to detail is obvious in everything from the pocket sizes and placement to the half-crossed block in the stitching. The Letter Bag has been perfect for hauling everything I typically carry everyday.  I keep my Clutch in the bigger bag, but I like knowing that I can just grab it and go if I ever don’t need to take everything with me.

I’m already thinking about which Moop bag will be my next!

The Sewing Room

When we moved into our current house, we “named” some of the rooms by their purpose. One room downstairs, that was designed as a formal dining room, became the Music and Sewing room. Music is my husband’s thing and sewing is mine. In the autumn, my husband generously offered to relocate his music gear to the office area upstairs so I could have the entire sewing room and dedicate it to my hobby. He also suggested that we renovate the room (paint and minor furnishings only, nothing structural!) to make it more functional. I was all for it – how do you say no to something like that?!

We prepped and painted the walls and then made the 4 hour trek to IKEA for some Billy bookcases, a desk that would serve as the sewing table, and a great entertainment center/bench that would work for us as a window seat. Once we got it all home, we decided that if we were going to start this thing, we needed to do it the right way. So, we ripped out the existing carpet and Rod installed a new hardwood floor. It all turned out to be a much larger (and more expensive) project than we planned on, but we found some great deals along the way that made it not so bad. My sewing room looked great!

Then, not even a week later, things reached a breaking point with Alex and his school situation. We made the decision to pull him out of his current school and bring him home to do homeschool. Sewing room out, school room in.

[EDIT: There are supposed to be photos of the before and after and sewing to school transformation, which help this post make more sense. I can't figure out how to load them, so I'll get those added when I have some technical assistance...]

Want some?

Want some?, originally uploaded by ostmega.

This is my first entry for the weekly contest at iHeartFaces (http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/). I don’t consider myself any kind of great photographer, but I hope to pick up some tips from others who are!

Happy Boys!

Happy Boys!, originally uploaded by ostmega.

Rare photographic evidence that Alex is, in fact, capable of producing a genuine smile when there is a camera involved.

We’ve been trying to stay busy and away from the television and computer on this summer break. It’s a bit of a challenge, I’ll admit, but we are working on it. The last few days have even seen some real crafting and sewing in our house! If I can find a semi-willing model, I might be able to post some photos soon for both of you that still check this blog…

Flat Alex goes to Europe!

Flat Alex at the Arc de Triomphe, originally uploaded by ostmega.

In late October (I told you I was behind!), Rod traveled to Europe for work. Alex and I would have loved to go along, but this was not at all practical. So, I made a Flat Alex – on a stick – and Rod was good enough to take lots of photos with Flat Alex at famous sites in London, Paris, and Munich. (You can check out more photos from the set at Flickr.)

On a more technical side, does anyone know how to blog more than one photo per entry from the Blog This function in Flickr? I’ve been using my own gallery for my photos, but it’s broken now, so I’ve switched to Flickr and I’m still trying to figure it all out. Thanks!

Happy New Year!

Stating the obvious, I’m quite a bit late on that.  One of my goals for 2009 was to update this space more frequently.  I don’t want to set some unrealistic expectations for myself, but I do want to make more of an effort here.  And, seeing that the last post was from July (!), I don’t think I can do much worse than 2008.

I’m having some technical issues with posting photos at the moment, so I’ll leave you (hopefully) with a fun video from our Thanksgiving holiday in Pennsylvania.