bits and pieces

Every once in a while, it's just time for me to dump my brain in a post. Today's that day!  What's been going on that isn't worth writing a full post about?  Let's see here:


This is our 5th day in a row home, and my 5th day in my glasses.  We've had colds running amongst our girls, and I have an infection in my eye.  (boo)  But we're on the mend, and I hope to be seeing with my contacts again soon.  On a funny side note, my glasses are new and I love them... but the rims are much thicker and darker (they're black) than my previous brown glasses.  Every once in a while I'll startle, as I think I'm seeing someone or something out of the corner of my eye out the window... but it's just my new, thicker glasses playing tricks on me! 

I'm super excited about this weekend!  For Christmas, Jeremy got me a night and a day away in a hotel and he even picked the dear friend that's going with me!!  He's a keeper for sure.  :)  So we're gonna shop til we drop, dress up for dinner, do some much needed catching up and just spend time together.  We get to be gone from Friday afternoon until Saturday night... WOOHOO!!!! 

Cute pic, but the heels and dress are out for these chicks!

But I have to say, I would heart that dress if it was a bit longer... 

moving on....

If you're looking for a fun, educational game for your kids (or the whole family) - we've got the game for you!  The Scrambled States of America has been the favorite family game lately... we get loud, shout, laugh, and learn all at the same time... it's great, give it a try!  Thanks Marla Kay!! 

In the cute baby department, we have a little Gabi who is pulling up on things like there's no tomorrow!  This is how I found her the other day when I went in to get her up from her nap:

She was VERY pleased with her 9 month old self. 

She now pulls up to a stand on anything that is higher than ground level. 

This morning's favorite place was the newly installed baby gate!

We've always had a tension gate that dug holes in our drywall and drove us insane because we had to crawl over it all the time.  But now our gate is permanent, swings both ways and we love it! 

It was time for new play-doh and today was the day for that too!  We mixed cherry and grape kool-aid to make this cool violet colored dough.  Annika kneaded her little heart out in her backwards shirt. 

As a side note, I'm so proud of this little one of mine... she's been wearing her big girl underwear for days now and has only had 2 accidents, both of which were because the both of us forgot she wasn't in a diaper.  Oops!  But thankfully, both accidents were on the kitchen floor - Thank God for his mercy on me!

It was impossible for my little camera to do this sunrise out the kitchen window justice. 

BEAUTIFUL. 

Annika and her Bitty Baby wearing their accidental matching outfits.

I love her so much. 

Another random thing to share is that I'm still having awful joint pain with the weather changes that came with the dreadful, nightmarish bout of Fifth Disease I had last June.  I read then that the joint pain will come and go for months afterwards... but I was sorta thinking it would be a couple months and am wondering if it's gonna scram or not.  It's not a huge deal, but it's bothersome when it happens and makes getting out of bed in the morning my least favorite thing to do!  I have a greater appreciation and so much compassion now for those suffering from arthritus or similar ailments.  It's no fun. 

I took a bath tonight because the cabin fever was starting to get to me, and my body was hurting... it was lovely.  I put in a herbal bath tea that was gifted to me, and watched Father of the Bride on my laptop.  That cheered me up in a flash!  One of my all-time favorites. 

Okay, I'm almost done.

But one last thing I wanted to share is that I've started doing pilates these last couple weeks and love it.  For a person with dance and gymnastics in my background, it's amazing it took me this long to give it a go.  I was just feeling so tired of getting crazy sweaty and jumping around everywhere working out.  That's a huge reason why I start and stop so often.  I just get burned out doing such strenuous exercise.  I love pilates!  It's mellow, but hurts like the dickens...  I'm super sore and weak today, but it hurts so good.  I love that I can do it, and get away with not taking a shower after, or if I've already showered that day all is not ruined.  One of my biggest issues in the past with exercising, is fitting in a stinkin' shower AND exercising somewhere in my crazy day.  It's a real challenge.  But for now, I've found something I love, and it's so good for my body and my future health as I (GULP) age. 

Well, my bed is calling me...  hope you've enjoyed my randomness.  I know I sure enjoy being random. 

oops

I'm always laughing at the funny, mixed up things my kids say.  And now it's my turn to laugh at myself! 

Gavin and I were playing our second game of Stratego (great game) and I was all out of powerful pieces that would take his army down and find his flag... and the whole family had now gathered around to watch the end of the game and we were all laughing and whooping... and Gavin was jumping up and down because he thought he had the game in the bag... and my mind started racing... "What's that saying?  Don't count your... don't hatch your..." 

And I shouted out, "uh... uh...uh... Don't pluck your chickens before they hatch!!!"  Then everyone REALLY started laughing, and right after it came out of my mouth I knew I'd messed it up.  It took us a while to compose ourselves, Jeremy actually laughed so hard he cried! 

I was caught.  And now I won't "count" my chickens before they hatch. 

what a difference a day makes

This picture makes me laugh so hard - it's Gabi doing her best Cosmo Kramer impersonation!  And this picture also shows how long her hair has gotten...  I had just taken out her little ponytail before bed last night, and this is what it did.  Bam! 

ha!

There ya go, sweetie pie... those curls are much happier this morning. 

The back is all grown in now and is curling up like crazy too...

I'm excited about all of the great Gabi hair that is to come!

homeschool update

I just wrote a new updated post at The School Stop in the column to the right... scroll down a ways until you come to it. 

the kids are also enjoying ice skating lessons every other week....

building electronic circuits...

and Morgan made a four-poster bed like she saw while we were reading about

the lords and ladies of old in Europe! 

Some of our homeschooling highlights for sure. 

just life

A glimpse of homeschooling - this night we were finishing reading Caddie Woodlawn just after dinner..

the old kitchen green (which I still like)

and the new, brighter kitchen green!  I love it. 

Organic Green by Valspar at Lowe's



And here's our little Gabrielle who has mastered the art of pulling up on things.  

She isn't even crawling on all fours, but she's a go-geter!

new and decluttered boy's room

Here's another glimpse into a project we worked on one recent weekend. 

The boy's den, I mean room. 

I really should have taken before pictures, but Jeremy and the boys tore into the room before I had a chance.  We made a conscious decision to majorly declutter their space and keep only 3 major types of toys for them.  They were all for it, actually, since all of the other things just were messing up their room and gave them more to clean up constantly. 

So we kept LEGO, Playmobil, and Nerf darts/guns.  Then we gave them one dresser in their toy drawer to fill with miscellaneous things they wanted to keep, but weren't part of a set.  That made us all happy! 

And the closet in the above picture, only holds Gavin's clothes... but see the empty hangers on the top rod?  Yep, those all held shirts, and they were all stuffed on the lower rod!  Craziness.  And not to mention the closet was filled with things they never used anymore...  Ahhh - relief! 

One whole garbage bag of shirts and pants came just from this closet.  That will happily be sold to bring home some sweet kiddos  into our friend's families through adoption in the near future.

You should have seen the clutter and stuff that sat on their window shelf before!

the first stop

A couple months ago, when I heard my Mom was able to come up for Gabrielle's adoption day, I immediately thought of a project we could do together while she was here.  You see, my mom organizes for a job!  Yay for me!  So I asked her ahead of time if we could tackle the new and so unorganized school closet.  Last fall, we turned our school room into the bigger girl's room to make room for their new baby sis.  And the things we didn't toss from old school room now had to fit in this closet in Gabrielle's room.  That was no small task. 

Bookshelves were moved to different parts of the house, along with board games and puzzles.  But all of our everyday school stuff needed an organized home.  I thought back in August, that I'd done a really good job organizing it all.  But it turns out there was just WAY too much junk I thought I needed to keep. 

I really wish I would have taken a before picture, but I forgot.  You couldn't even see the white of the closet wall, it was so stuffed.  And you couldn't see the floor either.  It was baby and school all thrown together in one big jumble. 

I'll show you all the junk that came out of it in a minute.. but first I think I need to have a moment of silence for my new favorite organizing tool: 

these simple clear boxes

They were just over a buck at Lowe's and I bought 8 of them, sure that I'd use them all up.  And that I did!  They house:

crayons

colored pencils

glue (all sorts)

post-it notes

dot paints

markers

and... and...

I can't remember the other two, but trust me, these little bad boys are worth their weight in gold!

I love how they are clear, so the kiddos can see what they're grabbing.  Plus, they're small enough to stack 3 in each cube.  We had so many crayons in this house, that I threw out all the broken ones and only kept what I could fit in one clear box. 

Mason jars were my other best friend in this organizing job.  I have one each for pencils, pens, scissors, paint brushes, chalk, etc..  I just love clear containers, it makes me so happy to see our supplies looking cute and ready to be used.  Can art supplies look cute?  Well, ours do. 

There was one other organizing box with layers and compartments I found that I got two of.  It's the one with the teal lid with the handle sticking up (in the photo below) and one holds all our office supples (stapler/staples/rubber bands/tape/paper clips/brads) and the other one holds beads, beads, and more beads. 

The baby's side took a major gutting too... Why in the world did I have like 20 blankets in her closet?  When we only use one in her carseat?  And she sleeps in a swaddle blanket?  Well, they're either stored or donated now. 

Gavin was so excited to help Jeremy put together the shelving... cute guy. 

Okay, so here's the dirt.  Some of the stuff that was filling the closet to the brink!  I thought I was so organized having it all in labeled drawers...  they should have been labeled:

just junk

stuff I'll never use, but saved anyways

toilet paper rolls that have been here 3 years

paper towel rolls that will be here 3 years

those tiny beads that get spilled all over the floor

dried out markers

dried out pens from 1996

Seriously, why didn't I trash that stuff when I "cleaned" it all out last fall? 

Well, I view stuff much differently now.  "Things" in our house have been drowning us for too long.  We have been slaves to it!  Picking it up, dusting it, yada yada.. Enough.  This was the first stop of a major overhaul we've done on the house these past two weeks, and I wanted to share our first project. 

It's more of a spiritual thing than anything.  Stuff was getting in the way of our relationship with God. 

We just don't want that.  We don't want to be selfish hoarders, we want to be free to give our things and not be attached to our things. 

Wow, I got on a bandwagon... back to the junk that was in the closet!

More...

and more...

and more...

There was one more huge plastic 3-drawer dresser that was in there too... I had already moved it out to the hall and forgot to snap a picture.  Craziness I tell ya. 

It's been about 3 weeks since the closet was finished and it hasn't gotten messy yet.  It's so easy and simple now to put things back in their places.  Ahhhhhhh. 

More on other house projects later ~ night!

on the other side

Here is Dave yesterday evening, just hours after being released from the hospital! 

He has some healing left to do on his body and in his lungs yet, but we are thankful for the speedy recovery he has already experienced!

update: Dave released!

An update from the homefront today... my father-in-law David was released from the hospital this afternoon!  He is still in pain from his burns and lung issues, but we're thankful he can rest peacefully at their temporary home these next few weeks.  Please continue to pray for peace for both Dave and Anita, and for continued healing of his wounds. 

God gives beauty for ashes, aren't we so thankful for that? 

So thankful they are both still here with us. 

please pray

My awesome in-laws, David and Anita's house caught fire this morning.  Anita wasn't home, but Dave was home and fought the fire until he was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  He suffered burns and has smoke inhalation issues and is now resting in the ICU.  It is crazy cold here right now, like -40 at their house when the fire started.  So recovery of the things in the house is not feasible, and most of it will most probably be considered a total loss.  Please pray for peace and comfort for them, and for our family and the rest of the extended family as well.  Please pray for healing for Dave, as he'll be hospitalized for a couple more days it looks like. 

He is a dear, dear godly man that we all love and admire. 

homemade goodies from Grandma

Our kids benefit greatly from some crafty and talented Grandmas... 

My mom sews napsacks for all her grandkids, and Annie and Gabrielle were among 4 grandgirls that got them this year for Christmas!  Drew, Gavin, and Morgan have loved theirs for years and pull them out for sleepovers and movie nights.  They roll up and velcro closed and are easy to store... thanks Mom! 

She also went all out on tents for the kids!  They hang from the ceiling on a big hook and have a hula hoop velcroed in to keep their shape at the top.  They're tall and SO fun!!!  They store flat under their beds too.  The cushions on the bottom are soft and all 5 kids can fit in one tent.  I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the boy's tent this day, but it's blue with tie dye/batik material for the top and pockets. 



And I love that what they do most in them is read! 

Another crafty Grandma, Marla Kay made these adorable matching purses for Morgan and I! 

Aren't they so cute? 

We love homemade gifts, because we know how much time and love goes into them. 

Gavin got baptized!

Gavin decided he was ready to be baptized a few months ago,  and on January 2nd he was!

We are proud of you, Gavin for the decision you have made to announce to the world through baptism that you are going to follow Jesus with your life.  We love you so much. 

Sorry for the jump around quality and low volume of this clip...  but you get the point.  :)

Almost the whole family was able to be there that day.  

We had a yummy lunch out together afterwards. 

Gavin and Pastor Larry

Larry has been the pastor of our church since 1977, the year I was born. 

When we moved here and started attending this church, I was 8 years old just like Gavin!