Can you guess what this is????

My (early) Christmas present!!!!! I got a new sewing/embroidery machine today and I am very, very, very excited!
Dear husband took me shopping today.....

These are all of the stitches the machine can do.

This is the machine ready for embroidery!

The machine is baby lock brand...which I hear is good :)

This piece is added to the machine when you are doing embroidery....

Machine ready for sewing!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Torbett house :)

1st Thanksgiving dinner:

A few lines from "Our Hope Endures" by Natalie Grant............a current favvorite song of mine...

But our Hope endures
the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged
Emmanuel, God is with us
El Shaddai,
all sufficient
We never walk alone
And this is our hope

I sure am excited about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and time with family! :) I think I'm more excited this year than ever...........
the 2nd Annual Variety show happens this Thursday!!

It was Show and Tell day at school today......we are teaching our students about this central idea: "Communication builds understanding of human identities".
A book I am fascinated with (and have added to my Amazon wishlist) is:
Happy husband ........I made this chocolate chess pie for him to take for Food Day at work (it hadn't baked yet in this picture)

I ironed this week! 3 pair of pants and a shirt.WOO HOO...........yay for domesticity! :)
VARIETY SHOW IN ONE WEEK............

Be a lamp,

a lifeboat,

or a ladder.

-Rumi

We're doing great :)

We (I) like taking pictures of ourselves......enjoy!

p.s.-we will have a very surprising Variety Show act...no one knows about it! (Jan and Seth-we changed our act! It's top secret ) Don't forget to e-mail me your act! (or at least a name for it)

Date with husband :)
Sweet, sweet boy with his momma's eyes

Twins :)

Boot ornaments from Janice!

Just a few weekend pictures!

"be the change you want to see in the world."

A glimpse of life lately:

This is a project I've been working on for school for quite some time. We are starting literature circles (sort of like a book club) in my classroom and each student has a job to do while reading the book. I typed each job and make these little booklets for them to remember what to do while reading!
I would like to get much better at signs like this..............this was a first attempt using a wooden sign, modpodge (my new favorite), and scrapbook paper.

Evidently sweet Caleb left his toy in my car! Brett has enjoyed playing with it too :)We are easily amused around the Torbett household

Spicy peanut chicken........yummy!

Variety show update! Please have your acts e-mailed to me by: Monday, November 17th! Remember, this years show will hold new surprises and will be better than ever!:) Lots to look forward to.........

Pictures I like :)

I have been thinking about about a certain phrase lately and have decided to make/call it my mission statement for life. Does anyone else have a statement that they feel sums up their purpose? Might sound intimidating to some but I've noticed several recurring thoughts come to mind on a daily basis...no matter what task I seem to be tackling at the time.
So, my mission statement for life is "To serve, encourage, and be a lifter of hearts through living a creative, generously abundant, celebrated life."