Come Tour Cody's Room!

Cody's bedroom was the first room to be finished. Probably because it was the most FUN! Here is a BEFORE picture! 

Pretty boring huh? 

And here are the AFTER pictures! 

We chose the theme of the room from his bedspread. Since his bedspread was already really blue we chose the other major boy color! Green! We taped off the gray road and my hubbie put the yellow strips. Then we just HAPPENED to find these awesome wall decals that worked PERFECTLY! Cody loves it and likes to "drive" his cars along the road! Fun! I made these valances too and saved a TON! The fabric only cost about $7 and since I couldn't find actual car window treatments that I liked and this fabric matched PERFECTLY, I was a pretty happy mom! 

Now I'm off for garage sales to see what else I can come up with! Yay! 

Come Tour My Kitchen!

I remember when I was a teenager I wanted a yellow kitchen. I wanted it decorated with sunflowers. AND I DEFINITELY despised blue kitchens. They were EVERYWHERE! Everyone had a blue kitchen! Nobody had a yellow kitchen decorated with sunflowers. Oh boy talk about gag me now! Well guess what. I now have a blue kitchen! And I LOVE it!!!

I worked several hours over the last couple of days alongside my hubby and we painted our kitchen a light cream color. I was really struggling with how exactly I wanted to do it but I wanted a navy blue border of some kind through my kitchen. I thought I would paint the fruits of the spirit or maybe the Love Chapter or something but I couldn't really land on anything and I kept searching the internet and kept hearing people talk about how LONG it took to paint words. Then I remembered it. I had a foam stamp that I really liked. Done. I tried it, liked it, and I attacked my kitchen with a vengeance! Here are the before before pictures! I say that because this is before we even moved into our home!

It's a little difficult to see but the before color is a creamy beigey pinky color. Notice the white curtains and a small round table and you can't see the fridge but it's beside the table.

Now here are the AFTER pictures!

Here you can see my valances that I made. I couldn't find exactly what I wanted without selling my children (just kidding! but I think curtains are ridiculously overpriced!) so I made my own. I had all 3 of these whipped up in about an hour and a half. AND the thick canvas material for all three of them only cost me about $10. They should last FOREVER! Sweet!

So what do you think? Do you like it? I LOVE it! Before I put up my pictures and decor it looked a little restauranty but now I LOVE it! Here's how I did the border . . .

After a little trial and error I used a small roller to roll the paint onto the stamp so it would be evenly painted and not globby or thin in spots. My hubbie drew a guideline along the wall in pencil. I've done that before and never had trouble but apparently this pencil was evil. It refused to simply erase so I had to paint over it. THEN it BLED thru the paint!!! So I painted over it again. Sooo I have no solution of what to use as a guideline but let me know if you have a better idea!

Here it is on the wall! It looks much better in person as a whole then each separate stamp but you get the idea! The actual stamping without interruptions maybe took about an hour. With interruptions and with the dumb pencil problem about 5 hours but oh well!

So there's the first room you get to see of our new home! Next will be my son's car themed room which is SOOO adorable if I do say so myself which I can since I didn't do very much of it myself!

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Christmas Lights - DONE!

It's official - I have decorated for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving! I know, I know, I know - it's breaking with my usual need to completely CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING! But the weather right now is much better to decorate in than the usual below freezing temps and the ever present problems of snow and ice. SOOO. . . My WONDERFUL hubbie helped me put up lights - much to his chagrin the weather was worse today than the day I REALLY wanted to hang them (Friday). But I just follow HIS lead! (Can't resist a little snicker here!). So here we are - pics of course!

and here are my most recent acquisitions to my Christmas decorations! I found this set of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus for a total of $9.00 at a thrift shop!!! WOO HOO!! I was HAPPY! And they work perfectly! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Obviously a little blurry but this was the best one to show you how bright they really are as opposed to the first picture!

Home and Heart Challenge Catch Up!

Ok I'm doing pretty good! I worked really hard yesterday and washed and folded almost all of our laundry yesterday, cleaned the kids room and cleaned part of the living room too! (That's the catch-up part!) I'm hoping to get the living room all beautiful today before we leave for church tonight. Sam's preaching tomorrow at another church. So in case you forgot - here are the before pictures of the kids room . . .

and here are the after pictures! 

ahhhh MUCH BETTER!!!

Day 5 of the Heart and Home Challenge

 YAY I accomplished another day! Here are my before pictures of my messy bathrooms! (In case you forgot!)

and here are the after pictures! 

Sorry I didn't have a before pic of my medicine cabinet - but it needed it! :-) 

here are the after pictures of my second bathroom/laundry room/storage room/ Utility room 

It's all clean and organized better now so NOW I'll show you pictures hee hee and you'll never know how bad it was! 

Notice how the medicine cabinet is now hanging and the sink is moved over - We bought the cabinet for $5 at a garage sale - :0) 

TADA!!! Oh happy me! 

So now today we're on to duhdundun . . . the KIDS ROOM! Now I need to provide a disclaimer. My kids room is never this dirty does not always get this dirty. It's very hard for me to keep this room clean at ALL. My little three year old and two year old are at that stage where mom needs to be encouraging every step of the cleaning process and usually it's just simply faster for mom to do it herself. They are definitely learning and learning well, but when scrunched for time and when I want it done the RIGHT way, MOM does it! :0). We've even taken the majority of their toys out of their room and put them in the toy room downstairs. That helped but as you can see, it still gets RATHER messy! Ok so with all of that in mind, here it is the BEFORE picture! 

Soooo here is my To Do list from Esther's site! And make sure you pop on over to see what she has to say about unexpected company - I love it! 

THE KIDS ROOM - or other BEDROOMS 

*Deep Cleaning

1. Take down curtains, wash if needed. 

2. Strip the bed, and put the sheets and blankets in the wash. 

3. Hang up any items of clothing, that need hung. Gather dirty clothes (put in hamper to wash)

*4. Gather clothes they don't wear anymore. (If it hasn't been worn in a year or two, donate it! (Throw away anything that needs to be dumped! Please don't donate your junk.) ;0) Sorry, just want of my pet peeves!

*5. Gather all knickknacks, and get them washed and dusted off.

6.  Deweb the room.
7. Gather all toys into a pile. Sort out and put away. (If you have A lot of toys, maybe have your children pick out a toy or two to donate.) Having them choose would be a way to teach them to care for others. (Teach them to give of their best, not the least favorite.)

*8. Gather a bucket with hot soapy water. Wash woodwork, trim and bases, (Walls if needed.) 

*8. Wash windows

9. Dust and polish all furniture - shelves, dresser tops etc...

*10. Rehang curtains, iron if needed.

11. Vacuum/Sweep/Mop (Depending on floor type.) 

12. Put clean sheets on bed, Fluff pillows and make it look nice.

13. Sit back, relax!

14. Revel in your BIG accomplishment! 

Home = Haven

When I was growing up my mom would always make it known that her bedroom had first priority in becoming a haven for her and my dad. In all of our moves it had priority in being one of the first rooms to be completely unpacked and a place for her and her husband. She turned that around to me and my sister in our own housekeeping and taught me that that should be the first room to be cleaned or organized. My husband is my priority in my family relations and he should feel that way in our bedroom. Women Living Well is hosting a challenge to  "Make Your Home a Haven" in the month of October. I'm joining up with them and I'm really looking forward to making my haven mindset reach out to the rest of my home and not just the bedroom! 

"Mission Toy Room" Accomplished!

It's finished! Most of the toys are now down in the basement and no longer in the kids room. The toys are now occupying nice bookshelves in our family room downstairs. My baby monitor is set up so I can keep an ear on them which makes me feel better. I love it and the kids like the space to spread out their toys! And believe me they do it too! Bedtime had become "Let's be quiet as mouses and play with toys instead of sleeping time" and it needed to be stopped! Several people (including my mom and husband) have told me that I should try splitting up my kids into different rooms. I agree wholeheartedly! I just can't do it! My house is set up with the Master and one other bedroom upstairs and two downstairs. I love having a 4 bedroom house! It's awesome! But I can't do it! I have several reasons:

1. If she wakes up and starts to cry, I may not hear her if the monitor gets turned off.

2. My basement is a walk out basement and she could escape and I'd never know it!

3. My basement is a walk-out basement and someone could take her and I'd never know it!

4. My basement is a walk-out basement and is scary even to me at night!

5. Probably the biggest reason - I'm not ready for her to grow up and be that independent!

Needless to say, I'm hoping our house will have 3 bedrooms all on the same floor so I can be close to my kids and not worry about those things anymore. In the meantime, they're not complaining and I'm the one who deals with the bedtime issues anyway so it's all good!

Moving Again!

It is becoming evident that we will probably be moving within the next couple of months. Another chapter is about to begin. Unlike most people who have mental chapters that pertain to segments in their lives such as age, schools, jobs or births of children, I use another reference point to organize the chapters of my life - MOVING.

My moving experiences began when I was a baby and we moved from one house to another house that I don't remember to "the green house." (It's not green it's yellow with green painted foundation) Most of my young childhood days were spent in this house. A.k.a. the snake house. We had snakes in the basement, in the yard and underneath the front doorstep. My dad tried to help me get over my fear of snakes by catching one and showing it to me. I wouldn't go near it. My dad then proceeded to kill it and throw it into a neighboring field. I will NEVER forget that! (Dad do you remember that?) If you know me at all I have a TERRIBLE fear of snakes. It began at that house. I do have good memories there too but for sake of time I will continue with my moving experiences. We then moved from "the green house" to "Camp," this was probably my favorite place to live because we had so much fun there! From there we moved to "the Anita Acreage" we were only there for a short time while we prepared for my dad to go to college. We moved into a travel trailer and "moved" to Florida where my dad went to school for one year. Then we moved our trailer from Florida to my grandma's backyard. We then sold the trailer and moved into "the acreage" and dad continued going to school. We lived there for a few years then moved again to a parsonage when my dad became a pastor. At this point my parents stopped their moving and stayed for several years but I continued the moving cycle as I went on to college, back home, spent a summer living at a friend's home, back to college, then to an apartment with a friend while I finished college. After I graduated I became engaged to my hubbie and until we were married I lived at my parents home again. My husband moved me to his hometown and we were there for 6 months. Ministry possibilities moved us again and we were in an apartment for 2 months. The utilities were too high so we bought a house. After a year my husband was asked to become an assistant pastor at a new location so we put our house up for sale and it sold in 2 weeks. We bought a house and were there for a year and a half then we moved to "Camp" for the summer and helped out there. Now we're in our current apartment while my husband goes to school for his M.A. Whew! That was a total of 20 moving adventures! And now we're preparing for #21 and (unless something changes) we're moving back to the house we bought (shown in the picture) which was being rented and will be empty soon. I am only 26! I wonder how much experience it takes to be considered a PROFESSIONAL mover? I think I can cut it! I can unpack all of my possessions in about 3 days - I used to be able to do it in 24 hours but since kids came along, I need 3 days! But needless to say I am looking forward to the house again. The dishwasher, privacy and room for the kids to run is looking VERY attractive! In that order too!

I must say however, that looking back I can see God's handiwork in all of it. It's all in the journey of following God wherever He leads us. If God wants us to move like this for the rest of our lives, I am fine with that. If God wants us to stay in one place for the rest of our lives, I'm fine with that (although that would be a transition!) Wherever and whatever God leads us to, we will follow.