Rory's podcast

My husband's company has just launched the newest edition of Weather Defender. They are in the marketing phase of the release and last week Rory was featured on CodeRed podcast. If you don't quite know what Rory does be sure to listen by clicking here.

Final shout out for Jessica Sprague!

Once again, if you're looking to learn something new, want to stretch yourself creatively and enjoy gathering stories and memories, BE SURE TO GO OVER TO JessicaSprague and sign up for her FREE Holidays in Hand class.

You do not need to have photoshop for this class. And you do not even need to have time within the next week to complete the class. It is self-paced and the materials are yours forever, so if you don't get to the class until January, you'll be fine. It's free, and it's a beautiful introduction to Jessica, a fantastic teacher who has taught me literally everything I know about digital scrapbooking. Registration ends on Monday night at midnight, so jump on board. It's going to be a good time!

(this is a picture of the book we made last year in her free class. It was a lot of material that we printed off to make this fabulous book that has lists and lists of writing prompts, conversation starters and creative topics for scrapbooking. I am guessing the Holidays in Hand class will be similiar, except with a Thanksgiving and Christmas emphasis...)

Rich Mullins

"The Bible is not a book for the faint of heart- it is a book full of all the greed and glory and violence and tenderness and sex and betrayal that befits mankind. It is not the collection of pretty little anecdotes mouthed by pious little church mice- it does not so much nibble at our shoe leather as it cuts to the heart and splits the marrow from the bone. It does not give us answers fitted to our small-minded questions, but truth that goes beyond what we even know to ask." -Rich Mullins

My font is ready for download...

I have a few persistent friends who have been asking that I post my font so they can download it for their own use. This is pretty easy to do. (Well, actually it's easy if you're married to Rory Groves and he helps you put the process into easy step-by-step tasks. Thanks Rory.)

1. Download file by clicking here: BeccaGrovesFont


2. When asked whether to open or save it, save it to your Desktop.


3. Then double-click the file "BeccaGrovesFont" on your desktop to open it.


4. Click the button on your new window that says, "Extract all files"
   (Windows XP Users: Click on File > Extract all)
   
5. You should see another folder with the BeccaGrovesFont in it.
   
   Windows Vista users:
   Right click BeccaGrovesFont and select "Install".
   
   Windows 2000/XP users must take a few more steps:
6. Click Start > Control Panel, and double-click the Fonts folder
   
7. Copy "BeccaGrovesFont.ttf" file from the extracted folder (step 4) to the Fonts folder

The next time you open Word or Photoshop, BeccaGrovesFont will be on your list.

Imagination.

We built this fort to play in when I was out in Montana. When a blanket would fall I would comment to the girls, "don't get upset. we're having issues with the structural integrity of this fort." Later they would parrot, "Becca. You need to fix the structural integrity of this part."

We played in that fort for a solid 2 hours one afternoon. The fort was a spaceship and took us to dinosaur planet, the fort became a boat and took us to bear attack island and the fort was our little shelter from the big, huge storm outside and we had to keep our babies safe. My hair was a static mess, and due to either poor structural integrity or the 2 1/2 year old who didn't understand the fragile nature of a fort, we had to rebuild and secure our blankets with more pillows and clothespins quite often.

At one point we were laughing so hard that I had tears streaming down my face which instantly silenced both little girls who asked quite seriously, "why are you sad, Aunt Bec?" But I was not sad. I was so stinkin' happy. So happy to be free to play so hard, to be silly, to be dramatic, to use funny voices, to feel my heart race as we closed up every hole on our fort so no bears could get in. Playtime is fullyalive time.

The past three days I was at an American Camping Association conference with other camp folk. I ate lunch with a woman who shared a similar passion for imagination. She said that teaching imagination is actually a part of their staff training. And that each day with the campers there are blocks of times when props are given, vague instructions are presented and the end result is imagination.

I think camp is one of the most imaginative places on earth. Skits, storytelling, improv games, time fillers, costumes all the time, tricks up your sleeve...it's all full of creativity and making something more than it really is. But this woman was so interesting as she commented, "ten years ago I didn't have to teach imagination. The counselors came with one. And I still have a good handful that know how to play pretend. But the number is growing for the counselors who need help in finding their ability to see what isn't really there."

The gift of playing pretend and dreaming up worlds and storylines that are completely fictitious is a world I never grew out of. This conversation was thought-provoking, leaving me to wonder and dream of how we can help foster growth in all of our kids this summer, ages five to twenty-five. Imagination Education. A very interesting thought.