A Slice of Smith Life

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Wearable LEGO and Link Ups!

4:00 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

I am linking the LEGO creations below that my 3 oldest children made to LEGO QUEST-Quest #38- Make something out of LEGO you can wear

" This is a beautiful sundress. On the upper right corner is a jewelry box filled with a bracelet and and a pair of earrings ."

by my 10 yr. old daughter

" This is me wearing a red sweatshirt and pants."

by my 9 yr. old son

" I made 4 pairs of earrings. I like earrings so I made these."

by my 6 yr. old daughter

I am also linking up to:

Melissa at Joys of Home Educating LEGO Mania Linky Party

Michele at My Blessings From Above LEGO Creation Thursday

Inger at the brick life, a mother's guide to LEGO, recently stopped in and left a comment on one of my LEGO posts. Be sure to hope on over to Inger's blog for great LEGO resources! Her blog and links are great!

Please join Lynda, Anna-Marie and myself for April's No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). You can link up any or all your posts for the entire month of April. The blogger with the most posts will be awarded a Star Blogger Award! Click below for details!

Labels:LEGO,No Ordinary Blog Hop | 16 comments

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - I'm the Center of Attention!

4:00 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Last week at a homeschool gathering, we caught this cute little friend of ours enjoying all the attention from his sweet friends. He's cool and relaxed with his foot propped up on the table!

Please join Lynda, Anna-Marie and myself for April's No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). You can link up any or all your posts for the entire month of April. The blogger with the most posts will be awarded a Star Blogger Award! Click below for details!

Labels:No Ordinary Blog Hop,Wordless Wednesday | 8 comments

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Featuring My 250th Follower!

10:22 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Ever since I featured my 100th follower, I decided to feature every 50th follower from now on because every blogger has a story and a life to share and I love letting others share their world with me and others! You can read about my 150th follower and my 200th follower and now it's time to get to know my 250th follower, Kara at The Chuppies!

Kara linked up to the No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) that I am co-hosting with Lynda and Anna-Marie and it was through NOBH that I first "met" Kara.

I asked Kara some questions to get to know her a little better. Below are the questions and her answers are in green.

1. How long have you been blogging?

Our blog has been up and running since December 12, 2008. That would've been our daughter Selah's first birthday and I needed a place to write and process feelings after she died, but as far as blogging consistently, I've really only been blogging regularly since the beginning of February 2011. I put myself into a self-imposed Facebook "timeout" and decided to focus more on blogging.

2. What part of the world do you blog from?

We're in the Portland, Oregon area (Pacific Northwest) and we love it here--mountatins, oceans, forests, high desert, lush farmland---very wet, but also very green and beautiful!

3. How did you find my blog to become the 250th follower?

I found you through No Ordinary Blog Hop--which I want to thank you, Lynda, and Anna-Marie for hosting every month...also for taking the time to come visit my blog and leave feedback (very encouraging to a new blogger).

4. How did you decide on the "theme" of your blog?

The "theme" of our blog has shifted over time. From a visual standpoint--it's mostly green, which is my favorite color, but I clearly still need help with the whole layout (I'm on a slow learning curve in that arena). As far as the content, when our daughter died from the disease Pompe in 2008, it was helpful for me to write out my feelings and thoughts. When a child dies, there often is a hanging silence that seems to smother communication--people don't know what to say and at least with me, I didn't want to constantly bring it up--so it was hard to know when and where to share. But the blog became a safe place for me to share and others to respond. Over time and through God's healing, I blog less about Selah's death...but it will always have an impact on what I write. Currently--our other 4 kiddos provide LOTS of inspiration for writing. And as I grow as a writer and blogger, my biggest desire it keep myself real before God--to write for His approval, as He leads.

5. How long have you been homeschooling?

We are into our second year of official homeschooling (I think most involved mamas are homeschooling, whether they know it or not). We have one in 4th, one in 3rd, and one in 1st. The biggest challenge-- is the one in diapers though! Figuring out how to keep "Miss Busy"....busy...during the homeschool hours has been a big challenge for me.

Our homeschool scenario is a bit different--the kiddos attend a school that runs M/W/F and then everyone in the whole school homeschools on T/TH.

So--I'm always a little hesitant to claim the "homeschool badge" because it is a lot of hard, but fun, but hard, but valuable, but hard work (for those of you who homeschool the full 5 days a week--I'm seriously impressed!).

6. Why did you decide to homeschool?

My husband and I really want to be involved in the education of our children (and it was nearly impossible for us to sufficiently keep up on their learning when all three of the big kids were gone every day, all day and then I'd have to dig through their backpacks after school to figure out what they did and did not understand).

We also want to bring God into conversations and school work in an authentic way all throughout the day. We don't want God compartmentalized to Sundays and church. We want to be able to talk about Him when studying history, writing, science or whatever the subject may be. As the number of our children has grown, we've also made a concentrated effort to avoid a hectic lifestyle--and homeschool has helped with this (though life still feels hectic to me :). Also, in 2009 our oldest daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia and a couple other learning disabilities through a local Children's Hospital, so when it comes to her education, I need to be very involved. She has been very successful in our current set up and I'm so thankful for the options we have through homeschool.

7. What do you like best about blogging?

Best? Probably the actual writing...and then that "push the publish button" when it all kind of comes together. A close second though is meeting new friends. I have met lots of interesting, encouraging people in the past 8 weeks and even a few kindred spirits.

8. Do you find any challenges with maintaining a blog? If so, what are they?

Finding balance--I'm slowly learning that I don't have to post every day and real life overrides responding to a comment. I also want to make sure that I'm not driven or deflated by the responses of readers. Our page views have shot up in the last 8 weeks because when you start at zero...800 in a day feels pretty exciting! But--I don't want blogging to be about comments or page views...I want to write what God puts on my heart and leave it at that.

9. If you had 3 wishes what would they be?

I'm going to change this to "3 superficial wishes" if that's okay? (Because it's too early in the morning to think too deeply).

#1) A full week to sleep in as late as I want, with my own nap time carved out if needed.

#2) Someone to come completely clean and organize our entire house and then a "touch up" crew that would return weekly.

#3) The ability to eat whatever I want without considering how many laps-around-the-track I just negated.

10. Where is your favorite place to be with your family?

Together.

Period.

I really mean that.

I think after Selah died it shifted how much I value that together time.

I hope you will stop by Kara's corner of the world and say "Hi!" over at The Chuppies. You can read more about her and her beautiful family on her page, Who are the Chuppies? If you have adopted children and/or have a child in Heaven, you may be especially interested in getting to know Kara better. Kara's posts are faith-filled, inspiring and heart warming through all the triumphs and trials in her life. I hope you will be touched as I was after visiting Kara's blog. Thank you Kara for becoming my 250th follower! See you in blogland!

Please join Lynda, Anna-Marie and myself for April's No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). You can link up any or all your posts for the entire month of April. The blogger with the most posts will be awarded a Star Blogger Award! Click below for details!

Labels:Every 50th Follower Feature,No Ordinary Blog Hop | 14 comments

Friday, April 1, 2011

Another Friday, Another Art Showcase!

9:04 PM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

My daughter, who is 10, painted this in her homeschool art class last year. We have it displayed on our piano in our dining room. The teacher asked the students to sketch and paint a scene from the Bible and my daughter decided to paint the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel came to visit Mary to tell her she was chosen to become the mother of God's Son. The Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated each year on March 25, 9 months before Jesus' birthday. The scripture verse that my daughter wrote on the top right corner of her painting is:

"Behold, the Virgin shall be with Child, and shall bear a son."

Matthew 1:23

I am linking this artwork to Kimberly's Art Showcase at Happy Hearts Academy. Link up your child's artwork and join the fun each Friday!

Labels:art showcase,No Ordinary Blog Hop | 18 comments

Welcome! Ultimate Blog Party - 2011

7:32 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Party 2011 that started today! This is my first time participating and I'm excited to be a part of this blog party!

The Ultimate Blog Party is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom and hundreds of blogs will be joining in to meet new blogging buddies and have a chance to win great prizes! So click HERE to join in on the fun!

Let me tell you a little bit about myself and my blog before you go!

This is me!

I am a devout Catholic, homeschooling, mother with a loving and supportive husband and 4 beautiful "cupcakes." My children are my pride and joy and they are the inspiration for this sweet blog I have created to document my passions in life, my creativity, and my family's memories.

Here is me with hubby and my 4 "cupcakes"

I began blogging in June 2010 as a way to document all the birthday cakes that I have made for my cupcakes over the last 10 years. But, I blog about lots of other topics, like my faith, family life, and topics that I am passionate about. So there's a little bit of everything on my blog.

If you like what you see here, you can leave a comment (I love comments and replying back to them!) on my posts and follow me on Google Friend Connnect (GFC). I'll be sure to stop by your corner of the world and follow. My blog also has a Facebook page that you can "Like" on my right side bar to be able to get up-to date blog posts that I write. If you have a Facebook blog page let me know!

I am excited to be a co-host with Lynda and Anna-Marie of No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). Each month you can link up as many of your posts as you like to NOBH and have fun meeting new friends in a relaxed and fun no ordinary blog hop! So check out NOBH and we hope to see your posts! Oh yeah, and don't forget to grab one or all of our cute buttons for April and put them on your posts and blog homepage so others can find NOBH too! Displayed are a few buttons you can choose from:

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the party!

Labels:Blog Party,No Ordinary Blog Hop | 18 comments

Thursday, March 31, 2011

I'm a Guest Blogger on Crunchy Catholic Momma!

6:45 AM | Posted by asliceofsmithlife | Edit Post

As mentioned on Tuesday's post, Tricia over at Crunchy Catholic Momma is celebrating her 2 year blogiversary in a big and fun way! Congrats Tricia on blogging for 2 years!

She is having giveaways all week so be sure to check them out and enter to win! Another way Tricia is celebrating her blogging milestone is by inviting guest bloggers to post on her blog this week. I am thrilled that Tricia has included me as one of the guest bloggers today! So hop on over to see what I said and enjoy reading Tricia's blog! Her talents and family life amaze me!

Please join Lynda, Anna-Marie and myself for March's No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH). You can link up any or all your posts for the entire month of March. The blogger with the most posts will be awarded a Star Blogger Award and each post will be an entry to a great giveaway! Click below for details!