Merry Christmas from the Kinsey Family!

Merry Christmas from the Kinsey Family!

2012 Christmas Card

2012 Year in Review (Additional to the Christmas Card)

Year in Review Photos:
First Row: 
1) Gracie loved playing with her Aunt Debbie's miniature poodle.
2) I love the pigtails in her hair!
3) Happy 2nd Birthday!
4) Playing with Play-Doh with Mia
5) Keeping it cool during a photoshoot with Mama.  (Look closely and you'll see me in the sunglasses.)
Second Row: 
6) "What's that a noise?" (train going by the Collierville Square
7) Fun at Mud Island!
8) That's my pretty girl!  She was holding her little friend newborn Baby Drew.
9) Happy 4th of July!
10) Happy Fall!
Third Row:
11) Feeding the goat at Cedar Hill Farms
12) Vacation with Daddy
13) Vacation with Mama
14) Gracie loves her PawPaw!
15) Decorating her very own Christmas tree!


I spent HOURS on prepping and designing this year's card.  I'll spare you the details, but let's just say, I will try my best to start the process earlier next year!


These four pictures did not make it on the final card.  I think they show my daughter's happy, mischievous spirit quite well!

Climbing on the Railing surrounding the Santa area.

I got her to play Peek-a-Boo to make her laugh.

My original design to fit on a 4x9 postcard.  This is the front.

 Photos that didn't make the final design:
First row, second photo: Gracie and Mama in church nursery
Second row, second photo: Gracie fell asleep reading one of our favorite books Llama, Llama, Red Pajama
Second row, third photo:  Gracie loved playing the basketball game at Incredible Pizza.

My original design to fit on a 4x9 postcard.  This is the back.  I decided to go a little more simple.

Photos that didn't make the final design:
First Row:
2nd photo: Gracie's first plane ride!  We survived with soda, baby, Pooh, and movies!
6th photo: Lovely portrait at Cedar Hill Farm (the pumpkin patch!)
Second Row:
1st photo:  Making stars for the Fourth of July!
3rd photo:  Yummy ice cream at the Memphis Zoo!
6th photo: Helping Daddy!!
Third Row:
1st photo:  Gracie met the Chick-Fil-A cow (who was played by our pastor's son Ryan)
2nd photo:  Our neighbors very kindly gave us their old playset which Gracie loves to play on.
3rd photo:  Gracie loved going to pick apples at the apple orchard!
4th photo:  "C'm'ere, puppy!"  Gracie loved playing with PawPaw's puppy Buster!

Blog Post Roundup (11/20/12)

Here are a few posts I thought y'all might like to read.

I know this is more than the usual, but I haven't posted any links in a while.

Redbirds and God! @ Living Life with the Loves

The Overlooked Problem of Speed @ The Pastor's Perspective

Where We are Called to Disciple @ Joyful Mothering

The Subtle Message of Secular Media @ Encouraging Words

A God Who Plays @ The Rigneys

The Gift I Have Because I Chose Not to Abort My Son @ Ordinary Inspirations

Are You Training Up a Sloth? @ Keep the Heart

Straight at the Heart @ Everyday Grace

Vote=Voice @ The Pastor's Perspective

What to Do in the Waiting Room @ Valerie Write Now

The Cold Hearts of New England @ Encouraging Words

God is in Control @ Journal for Women

Rhythm and Routine @ Journal for Women

The Dust of His Feet @ Encouraging Words

Never Quit Because of Someone Else @ Keep the Heart

A Look at the Problem @ Everyday Grace

Those Good Mommy, Bad Mommy Days @ Raising Arrows

There are No Perfect Days @ Keep the Heart

Human Beings are So Disappointing @ Smockity Frocks

A Question Every Parent Should Ask @ Encouraging Words

App Review: Beginner's Bible

Handlebar Marketing approached me about reviewing the iPad app for The Beginner's Bible.  In return (for being among the first 100 to respond), I will receive a free print copy.

The Beginner's Bible App by Zondervan ($1.99) is divided into two sections:  Read and Play.

The Read section has six different Bible stories with illustrations.  When the story is being narrated, each word is highlighted.  You can turn off the narration if you wish.  Each of the illustrations has some sort of interactivity with it which encourages the child to engage with the picture and relate to the story.

The stories are easy to read and to follow.  My one big complaint that the only way you can hear any of the sound is to plug in headphones.  This rather freaked me out because I worried that something was wrong with my iPad.  After checking the sound with the Netflix app, I determined that the sound is ok and that it is an app problem.

Additional stories can be purchased through an in-app purchase for $1.99.  It includes 6 new stories (The Visitors, A Bride for Isaac, Isaac's Blessing, Jacob's Dream, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph's Robe), 3 new coloring pages, 2 new puzzles, and 1 new bonus activity.  I'm sure there will be more Story Packs available as they develop the app.

The Play section has six different games to play which correlate to the stories available on the app.  The Beginning, Noah's Ark (shown below), and A New Home are coloring pages.  There are 7 different colors available to use to color the app, as well as a magic button that allows you to swipe the picture and it will automagically color it the way the original artist has it colored.  I liked that feature.  Catchy (but somewhat annoying) music plays in the background while you color.

For Adam and Eve and The Tall Tower, there are puzzles for you to put together to form the picture.  The pieces are easy to manipulate and I like that the "tolerance" for how close you have to hover the piece is very lenient for young fingers.  My daughter liked this pretty well, but wasn't quite into it enough to want to do the whole thing herself.  I find the background music annoying, but it's probably very catch for kids.

The Sneaky Snake game (shown below) is a lot of fun!  Apples float up like balloons and you have to swipe to pop them.  As you progress, more apples float up faster and faster.  (Hint: the trick is to do one long swipe to bust as many apples as possible rather than short swipes for each apple.)  I really got into this game myself, and my daughter liked doing it as well.

Overall, this is a good app.  Gracie (who is 2-1/2) has a typical attention span for a toddler and enjoyed listening to some of the stories, but not all the way through.  She enjoyed interacting with some of the illustrations.  The best way for her to enjoy and benefit from this app is for me to do it right along with her.  I will gladly let her wear the headphones because I really do not like the music.  I do wish that the audio could be heard from the speakers (for the reading).  I just think that should be the norm on all apps.  The app is well made and is very easy to use.  I do think that $1.99 is steep for each Story Pack.  I'd rather see the Story Packs run for $0.99 or at least have twice as many stories and activities available.  To purchase enough for the whole Bible will run a pretty penny.

A note for Handlebar Marketing:  I did a review on the App Store, but I have no idea how to get the url for it.  My user name is MrsKinsey.  Here is a screenshot of my review:

DIY Cabinet Redo

I have been hinting around about the "big project" I've been working on.  I finally finished it tonight!  I honestly thought I was never going to get it done.  I started on it about two months ago and the weather and real life prevented me from working on it.

This is my Grandma's china cabinet.  It is at least 46 years old and was given to me about 10 or 15 years ago.  It was on loan to my former church's parsonage until this past spring.  We put it in our garage until I figured out what I wanted to do with it.  I decided to totally redo the look.  I couldn't decide on what color to paint it.  I knew I wanted it to be contrasty, but not so trendy that the colors would be "out" in a few years.  I debated on whether or not to use earth tone colors like my Grandma liked, but finally decided to use traditional eye-popping colors that *I* like.  My husband and I went to Home Depot and he decided for us to use spray paint.  [Note: never again!]  I looked at all the colors and decided on Colonial Red for the outside, Heirloom White for the inside, and Brushed Nickel for the hardware, all in satin finish.  I used a kind of a brownish-red primer for the red and a white primer for the off-white.

My husband did the sandpapering prep work.  He also replaced the left side of the base cabinet because it had been damaged in the process of being moved (I was not happy!).  He also moved the cabinet in and out of the garage and onto the platform in the backyard.  The platform is actually the floor of the old shed that my husband took down this summer.  He decided to leave it there until we finish all of our painting projects.  (I have just one more project in mind.)

It took several weekends to get it all done.  I really wanted to have it done within two weeks of starting; instead, it took two months to finish it!  I kept telling Robert, "I'm never going to get my cabinet done!"  Little bit of drama there.

If I had to do it all over again, I would absolutely not use spray paint, at least not for both colors.  Even with using painter's tape and masking paper, I had spray from color onto another color.  I went to Home Depot and got sample containers of paint to match the spray paint (I spray painted a couple of popsicle sticks), but the red turned out to be totally off.  The off-white was close enough that I could use it.  I resorted to using a red sharpie marker to touch up the red which is not the best but will work for now.  I think I'm going to find some acrylic paint that matches and use that to touch up instead.

With the hardware, I used the primer paint and the brushed nickel.  What's funny is that if it could be painted on the wrong side, I did that!  I had to go back and paint the correct sides of the hinges and the magnet plates.  I suppose I was in a hurry and guessed rather than tried to figure out the correct sides when I was doing it.

There are still some brown glass etching on the doors that I don't know how to get rid of.  I'll just leave it until I find out what to do.

I finished up the main painting on Saturday and Robert brought it into the house that evening. I finished up the painting this afternoon and put everything together.  Robert helped me put the glass doors on.  I'm so happy that it's done, and I really like the results!

I will be using this cabinet as a combo office supply cabinet (for the drawers) and photo album cabinet (for the shelves).  This means that I can work on organizing my photos and putting them in albums.  I also want to do photo books for our family.

Blog Post Roundup (10/20/12)

Here are a few posts I thought y'all might like to read.

Far Above Rubies @ Everyday Grace

If You Must Speak @ The Pastor's Perspective

Facebook Users, Unite! @ Valerie Write Now

Living on Less and Enjoying More @ Keep the Heart

Elementary School Teacher Cuts Child's Hand Because She Couldn't Properly Do Islamic Hand Sign @ Chicks on the Right (Wrong on so many levels!)

Falling Off the Wagon @ Encouraging Words

100 Ways You Know You're A Mom @ Tales From a Gypsy Mama (I do not know anything about this blog.  I found the link on someone else's roundup.)

On Choosing the Very Best Books for Your Children @ The Rigneys

When Your Teen Says No (Part 1) @ The Pastor's Perspective

Keeping up with Gracie's Meds

After being sick practically all last week, I was looking forward to getting stuff done around the house today. Although I did get to go shopping at Target and Walmart (not only is the house NOT drop-in company ready, but we also needed groceries and other things), the rest of my day got interrupted because Gracie is now sick. We had to go to one of the other locations for her pediatric group which we had never been to. I like the people over there but didn't like the wait. Anyway, long story a little shorter, Gracie has bronchitis (first time) which is probably viral but because she'd been coughing for a while, the doctor put her on amoxicillin for the next 10 days. I made up the chart above to keep up with the dosages.

Unfortunately, Gracie did not get her nap today so she will go to bed early tonight. Right now she is watching Caillou on Netflix and sitting in my lap playing with Mommy's hair.

Blog Post Roundup (9/29/12)

Here are a few posts I thought y'all might like to read.

Get a Dumpster @ Learning God's Lessons

 

A Grudge is a Ball and Chain @ Keep the Heart

5 Lies You May Believe About Yourself @ Sidetracked Sarah

Does the Bible Specify Dresses and Skirts? @ Keep the Heart

Don't Wait for "Let me Know"! @ Living Life with the Loves