Life Archives - Page 5 of 7

Homemade – Chocolate Cake

For Mother’s Day 2020, Sarah Beth and I took to the kitchen to make a homemade chocolate cake. After watching Joanna Gaines share her family’s favorite chocolate cake recipe, we wanted to try the recipe for ourself.

We love following the Magnolia story and everything the Magnolia brand represents, so we thought it would be fun to film our own mother-daughter baking adventure. Have you tried any of the recipes in the Magnolia Table Cookbooks? I need to add both of these cookbooks to my wishlist.

Enjoy a behind the scenes look at the recipe in action.

While we normally try to limit our sugar consumption, this cake was a special treat out of the norm for Mother’s Day. We have been spending more time than usual at home and enjoying trying new things in the kitchen. The chocolate cake was a big hit with the family and the fresh strawberries ended up being a fun surprise to cut into and enjoy eating with the cake.

Did you have any special treats that you enjoyed for Mother’s Day?

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography, Printables

Game Night

Mothers I see you and know you have all been thrown expectations out of the norm over the past 2 months. From making decisions that are best for your family, juggling working from home while entertaining children and continuing school at home, to providing 3 meals a day and keeping a sense of order in your home.

As a fun diversion, I hosted this virtual game night on Facebook to bring my friends together for an evening of fun.

You can download each of the game boards and post to your personal social media accounts and pages to host your own virtual interactive event.

STAY HOME – BINGO

I know each of our “Stay Home” experiences have looked a little different depending on where we live, how we are working, and the needs of our children. I know for many this has been a much needed time to slow down and rest during a season of growth. As we share our own personal stories from this time, I am sure common themes and activities connect each of us.

Download the Bingo board and you can digitally cross off items you have completed with Staying Home.

STAY HOME – BINGO Download

STAY HOME – THIS OR THAT

If you watch Instagram Stories, you may be familiar with “This or That.” Simply download the graphic and mark it up by drawing a circle around your answer.

STAY HOME – THIS OR THAT Download

STAY HOME – SCATTERGORIES

Scattergories may have been one of my favorite games growing up! I love having to think quickly to come up with a list within given parameters. I have devised a “quarantine” edition of Scattergories, that will be fun to share with your friends.

STAY HOME SCATTERGORIES Download

I SPY – STAY HOME EDITION

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Did you ever read/look at the I Spy Books that were filled with thematic collaged photographs? You could spend hours looking at hidden objects within the carefully arranged pages.

Think through the activities and things you have been doing yourself or as a family during your extended period of staying at home. Gather as many items as you can to represent what you have been doing and set them up on a neutral background (floor, on a blanket, on a counter, on a table) Have fun arranging all your items within your given canvas. Stand above your items. Grab a step ladder or sturdy chair and shoot down to photograph all your items laid out flat.

Try to make sure your items are well lit or use photo editing afterward.

This photograph will be a special memory to hang on to for years to come to tell future generations about the months you learned to be still at home.

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

Easy DIY Accordion Photo Album

Mother’s Day 2020 will look a little bit different for families across the nation. Local restaurants will not be open for taking Mom out for a sit down meal. Essential shopping has shifted to online shopping to find the perfect token of your appreciation for mothers and grandmothers.

This year try using the resources you have at home to create an easy DIY accordion photo album that can easily be slipped in the mail if you are not able to gather with your mothers and grandmothers on Mother’s Day.

Materials Needed for Accordion Photo Album

2 – 12×12 pieces of cardstock (white or color of choice) or 3 – 8.5×11 pieces of cardstock
10 photos that can crop to a 4×4 square
Cover image
Paper trimmer or ruler and scissors
Glue stick or double-sided tape
Optional – colored washi tape to decorate edges, ribbon for tying book closed

Gather images that you have at home, print photos on your home printer, or send to your local 1 hour photo lab. I was able to print 4×6 images at my local Walmart 1 hour photo lab. If you have more time you can send to your favorite online photo lab.

I was excited to be able to to pull 10 of my favorite images from the family portrait session we had with Spoiled Rotten Photography on the Spring Daydream Set.

To include 10 images in your Accordion Photo Album you will need 5 – 4×8 strips of paper. Below you will see how I used a paper trimmer to cut those strips from 2 pieces of 12×12 cardstock.

Next fold each of your 4×8 strips of paper in half to create 4×4 boxes.

To put the base of your Accordion Photo Album together, lay each of the sections out, alternating the direction of the folded point.

Use a glue stick or double-sided tape to attach each individual piece to the accordion chain.

Use a glue stick or double-sided tape to attach 6 images to the front side and 4 images to the middle squares on the back side of the accordion chain. You will need to leave the first and last square to fold up to be your front and back cover.

If you have more or less than 10 images that you would like to include in your Accordion Photo Album, you can modify the number of 4×8 in. strips you add to your base. Use 4 – 4×8 in. strips for 8 images, 6 – 4×8 in. strips for 12 images and so forth.

Download the Mother’s Day cover images

Mothers Day Title Cover Download

Mothers Hold Their Children’s Hands for Awhile… Their Hearts Forever Cover Download

There is no greater love than that of a Mother Cover Download

We would love to see your finished Accordion Photo Albums! Use the hashtag #thewayhomelife and post on your social media.

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography

A Birthday in Quarantine

Savannah’s 14 birthday fell during our epic “Stay at Home” quarantine Spring of 2020. We all enjoyed good health, beautiful weather, but had to be creative in how we chose to celebrate with family and friends.

My sister dropped by with her kids to surprise Savannah for her birthday and Savannah was able to bake cupcakes with her cousin. She wanted to deliver a boxed cupcake to a group of local friends and then all join up that evening on a Zoom call to all eat their pineapple dole whip cupcakes together.

Here is a little video of her special day.

14 star balloons for 14 years of fun!

Savannah I hope you are able to look back on your 14th birthday and smile for the unique period of time in which you have been able to live and grow through. A birthday in which we were able to completely stop time and be fully present to make memories together with your family and friends.

I know you are missing the structure of school, your friends, and the band trip to Orlando you should be leaving for this week.

I pray we are able to successfully help you bridge the gap between middle school and high school in the coming months and your generation will be a step ahead of the previous generation in your abilities to empathize, create, innovate, and see the good in all circumstances.

I am thankful we were able to grab a few spring portraits at the beginning of our quarantine with our quick trip to Gibbs Gardens.

Do you have any loved ones who have celebrated a birthday during the Spring 2020 quarantine? How did you choose to make their day special?

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Categories: Life

High Five Friday – Lush Life

I want you all to meet my dear friend, Jennifer Pink Gumbert. She owns and operates the most amazing Art Gallery and Event Space called 🌱Lush Life 🌱 in Cumming, GA.

She took a dream and made it reality by merging all her passions into one space. For over 20 years she has represented local Atlanta artists and is now able to house their work in a gallery format. Her husband is a chef and their family has worked many years at catering local events and they know the need for a local space that can be rented out for a reasonable rate for small gatherings. The past 6 years Jennifer has been teaching and sharing her passion for chemical free living with Young Living Essential Oils products, and hosts regular hands-on classes at this space.

The Lush Life Event space has been open for 1.5 years and has been used to host events and gatherings that include local chamber meetings, birthday parties, baby and bridal showers, potlucks, business meetings, photography studio, tea parties, and informational events.

Jennifer’s daughter, Grace Gumbert, is a regular presenter at classes at Lush Life. I was recently able to work with Grace for her senior portraits and she wanted to use some of her favorite paintings at Lush Life as backgrounds. Grace is a naturally beautiful young woman, but I was pleased with how the rich colors of the artwork complemented her youth and vitality.

I would like to give a High Five to Lush Life for staying the course during this difficult Spring season. In a time when all public gatherings have been temporarily halted, I know the burden this places on ALL small business owners. When gatherings begin to resume, I would encourage you to reach out to Jennifer about hosting your next gathering at Lush Life if you live in the Cumming or Northern Atlanta area.

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

Picture Project

The past 9 days I helped Spoiled Rotten Photography host the #SRPpicturePROJECT. This was a fun project we put together to share with the preschools and parents that we work with as well as our friends and anyone who wanted to join. The purpose of the project was to take one picture each day to represent what you were doing, sensing, and feeling throughout your QuaranTIME. Our generation has never experienced so much TIME spent at home with limited disruptions and obligations. Each of 9 photographs were to be placed into a grid that could be shared, printed out, and saved as a memory to this special time.

We partnered with some other AMAZING local small businesses who sponsored each day, giving away some very cool prizes! We are giving everyone until Monday, April 13 to submit their completed 9 grid to be eligible to win prizes, so you can still jump in this week and participate if you missed out last week!

I shared some of these pictures along the way on my social media, but here is the full story behind each picture.

Day 1 – Photograph something PURPLE

I love watching the purple wisteria vines pop up in the most unusual places during the month of March! We found a hidden patch to photograph the girls while it was at its peak.

Day 2 – Photograph something I SEE

I had begun seeing many women, including my mother, sewing face masks for the frontline health care workers, and had a vision for this portrait that I wanted to photograph my mother for. We Can Sew It!

Day 3 – Photograph something I SMELL

The girls and I got up early one morning to drive to a local strawberry field to buy a bunch of strawberry baskets to deliver to friends and family. I love the smell of fresh strawberries in the spring!

Day 4 – Photograph something I HEAR

Daily I hear the sound of my feet hitting the pavement in the 2 mile loop in my neighborhood. I have a favorite Pandora station that inspires my thoughts and it is this time alone with God that prompts me to take my next step.

Day 5 – Photograph something I TASTE

I recently picked up some sourdough starter from my sister and we baked our first batch of homemade sourdough bread this week. It tastes so good, and is so easy to make.

Day 6 – Photograph something I FEEL

I had all the feels as this 24×30 metallic canvas arrived on my doorstep! I took this silhouette portrait featuring my girl’s interests… clarinet and guinea pig, last summer shortly after we moved into our new house and learned of the beautiful sunsets from atop the mountain. This was a project the girls and I envisioned together and they were just as excited about the process and having this canvas printed to hang on our walls as I was.

Day 7 – Photograph something I PLAY

We have been inspired by all the sidewalk chalk drawings and messages that have flooded our newsfeed and were able to find the last box of Crayola chalk at Michaels. After creating chalk mosaics in our driveway, we got permission to leave sidewalk chalk drawings and messages on the sidewalk outside our Grandmother’s retirement apartment since they have been more isolated during this time of sheltering in place.

Day 8 – Photograph something I READ

I have been digging deeper in to my Bible to find peace, hope and direction for the here and now and what is to come.

Day 9 – Photograph something I GROW

Our time of staying home was kicked off by Sarah Beth’s garden party and we have since planted some herbs, flowers, and vegetables to watch sprout and grow and hopefully be able to enjoy the produce of in the months to come.

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Categories: Faith, Family, Life

National Rainbow Day

Did you know that April 3 is observed as National Rainbow Day? This morning when I learned that Friday, April 3, 2020 was National Rainbow Day, I couldn’t help but think of a better symbol of hope our nation currently needs after 3 weeks of many families practicing “social distancing” and staying home to help contain the spread of COVID-19.

Rainbows are caused when rays of light from the sun hit water droplets which reflect some of the light back towards an observer. The water droplets are usually rain drops, but could also be spray from a waterfall, a fountain, or even fog. To see a rainbow, you must have the sun shining behind you and the water droplets in front of you.

Throughout time rainbows have been seen as a sign of beauty, hope, and promise.

In a time period where we are fearful of a virus contained in human water droplets, let’s not forget how we can reflect the Son’s (Jesus’) rays of light that are shining through us to create a beautiful portrait of hope and promise that is bigger than any virus and assurance that we will make it through this period of uncertainty.

The sun may be shining where you live today so hunting down a rainbow is out of the picture, but there are many ways you can create a rainbow to spread hope in your home or local community.

A list of 20 Rainbow themed activities you can use to spread BEAUTY, HOPE, and PROMISE today.

Tie-dye t-shirts
Draw rainbow chalk drawings on sidewalks
Bake a rainbow cake
Paint rainbows on the windows of your home
Skittle Rainbow Experiment
Dye hard boiled eggs for Easter
Rainbow Shaving Cream Marbled Art
Torn paper rainbows for preschoolers
Make Fruit Loop cereal rainbows
Rainbow handprint rainbow for toddlers
Coffee filter rainbow craft
Make rainbow fruit kabobs
Paint rainbows and messages on rocks and leave on neighbor’s front steps.
Read classic children’s books like The Rainbow Fish, Elmer the Elephant
Make rainbow slime
Rainbow yarn art
Make recycled rainbow crayons from melting crayon pieces
Make rainbow juice popsicles
Go on a color hunt throughout your house photographing single color items and merge them together for a rainbow collage.
Write message of hope and encouragement on colored post-it notes and stick on friends and neighbor’s front doors.

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.

Make sure to share your rainbow activities on social media and incorporate the following hashtags to inspire and encourage others.

#NationalFindARainbowDay
#FINDaRainbow
#MAKEaRainbow
#BEaRainbow
#CreateLightInTheShadow
#TheWayHomeLife

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Categories: Life, Photography

We Can Sew It!

We Can Sew It! After seeing so many women starting to gather their own personal resources and skills to sew face masks to fill the need in our current healthcare crisis, it made me think of the iconic Rosie the Riveter portrait that represented so many women entering the workforce to fill a need during WWII.

We are currently fighting a different type of war, but the combined efforts of women joining forces through social media are seen and appreciated.

My mother, Vanessa Sauter, was one of the first women I saw talking about taking on this project to provide sewn face masks to her friends in the healthcare fields. My mother allowed me to doll her up for a photoshoot of an image I had envisioned to create with the face mask project 😷, that she and so many others have been working on.

I hope this image represents in a small way the efforts millions are putting forth to help their fellow neighbor. I hope we are all able to use our gifts and talents to create light in the current shadow in front of us!

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Categories: Family, Life

Star Girl

Do you ever judge a book by its cover? Raising my hand high over here! During our extended staycation due to the Coronavirus, I sat down to watch the new Disney+ original movie, Star Girl. The picture for the film recently caught my eye when it popped up as a new movie offering and I wanted to make sure watch it with my girls. I knew nothing about the story line and was judging based on the picture, it would be worth watching.

The movie takes place in small town USA. Without giving away too much of the plot line it contains a powerful message to tweens and teens to stand out from the crowd with all their quirks and the positive power and energy one person can bring to a community and school by not being afraid of who they were made to be.

As we were watching the credits roll, I noticed the movie was based on a book called Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli. As a former 5th grade teacher, I had an instant flashback to remembering the cover of this book. I could visually remember a simple cover with yellow and blue. We looked up the book online and discovered it was published in 2000 and sure enough it was a simple teal cover with a hand drawn green girl and yellow star. We looked among the chapter books lining our book shelf, but couldn’t find it. No doubt I ordered this book through the Scholastic Book Club as I was building my own classroom library from 2002 – 2006 when I was teaching 4th & 5th grade. After moving boxes and boxes of classroom books at least 5 times, I finally sold and let go of 100s of children’s books this past year. I imagine I looked at the cover of this book, having never read it, and tossed it aside because I didn’t think I needed it or my girls would never pick it up to read on their own.

How many times do we miss out on great books and powerful messages because we simply don’t look past the packaging/front cover. Even worse, how quick are we to judge someone based on their appearance that we miss out on the value they could add to our life?

“She was bendable light: she shone around every corner of my day.”
― Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl

While you are enjoying your own Corona staycation this Spring, I highly recommend watching Star Girl on Disney+ with your family or even better order the Star Girl book for your 5th grade+ student to read on their own first and then watch the movie.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments after you read Star Girl or watch Star Girl on Disney+!

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Categories: Family, Life, Wellness

Misfits Market

Are you looking to keep fresh, organic produce on hand while you are home with limited access to the grocery store? There has never been a better time to look into home delivery boxes. For several months now our family has enjoyed the benefits of having fresh fruits and vegetables delivered to our doorstep every 2 weeks from Misfits Market.

If you use my referral code: COOKWME-RA9UPK you can save 50% off your first “Madness” box until 3/18/20. Make sure you choose the larger box. You can change the size box and frequency at any time.

We have our Misfits Market box set to arrive every other Thursday. You can pick the day of the week you want it delivered and choose between every week or every other week. My girls love getting to unpack the cold-packed box and see what colorful goodies we received each week.

I love the flexibility of this produce program, because you can change the size and frequency of when you want your box delivered. You can choose to skip a shipment if you will be traveling or don’t need it one week. Also after your first shipment you are given the option to customize and choose which items you would like from the available seasonal options.

We love the opportunity to try new vegetables and experiment with different recipes for using fruits and vegetables. Some of our favorite ways to use the produce have been:

• Cabbage burgers – Slice cabbage into rounds, sprinkle olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast in oven.