...day in the life

At times I have struggled to keep my house organized and all the members informed of various events/activities happening in our family. As our kids get older and grow in their reading abilities, we have taken to having a chalkboard in the kitchen with a bible verse or bit of knowledge to help us as we go through our days. I happened to be visiting with a friend a few weeks ago and noticed she had painted a chalkboard on the side of a wall in her kitchen. On her board, she had some educational tools for her kids (like the date and day of the week, current weather etc), emergency contact information for mom/dad, and her kids chore charts. I really liked her idea! My sister-in-law Jessica had given me a peel and stick chalkboard last year for Christmas. I finally found the perfect use for it!

I decided to put the weekly menu for our house as well as any family events happening this week. We will see if this is a helpful tool in our house.

My husband and I try to plan our menus each week based on our evening commitments, available food in the fridge/freezer and weekly sales. I will admit we are better at it some weeks than others. Especially depending on our respective work schedules! I find having a menu written out takes much of the evening stress off my shoulders. I appreciate having this line up and knowing that today is Taco Tuesday!

Below the chalkboard is the kids chore charts.  I have found these to be quite helpful in managing their duties around the house.  And they are more inclined to help when I have "cool" stickers to place in the boxes!

This past weekend was a 4 day weekend for the kids and we lived it up!  Friday was a bit gloomy, so we watched movies and made popcorn on the stove.  We were able to hang out in our jammie's and relax, which is just what we needed. 



The kids at the dinner table - having an intense conversation!



We took a day trip Saturday to see Papa Doc in Gainesville.

It was nice to have such a relaxing weekend together!  I am looking forward to Easter Break and the time at home as a family. 

...project

When we bought our new house, Rob and I decided we would “re-do” one room a year.  When we moved into the house, we immediately gutted the kitchen and den.  That was a MAJOR undertaking but our kitchen is exactly the way we want it.  This was the first big project we did together and I think it was pretty successful! 

Original kitchen - looking in from the dining room

down to the studs...looking in from the den

look Ma, new walls!  Looking in from the den.

Cabinets and furniture.  Looking in from the den.

Finished project.  The white door on the left is the
orange door by the ovens in the first picture. 

We have tried to go room by room based on our family needs. Rob is definitely a better visionary that I am. He can really see the potential in each room and how to best improve it to reflect our style.  My strengths lie in putting everything back in order.  And vacuuming. I am a champ at that! 

One of the things Rob had mentioned was to carpet the bedrooms and place the same wood floors we had in the living area of the house down the bedroom hallway. So these past few weeks have been a bit of an upheaval in our house while these projects have come to life! 

bedroom 1

bedroom 2/nursery

bedroom 2/nursery

Master bedroom

master closets

bedroom hall

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant at first of adding carpet to the bedrooms.  I have always liked hardwood floors and didn't mind the parkay floors we had.  But, it was a great decision to add carpet to the bedrooms and I LOVE the new look!  We also purchased new furniture for bedroom 2/nursery.  Since there will be 4 kiddo's in the house, we added a set of bunk beds to the bedroom. 

bedroom 1

bedroom 2/nursery

bedroom 2/nursery

master bedroom

master closets

a view down the hall

the beautiful new carpet, wood floors and baseboards. 

I absolutely LOVE the new look this has given our bedroom end.   I am so grateful for my wonderful husband and his vision for our house!   I am truly amazed at all the blessings in our life (including new carpet)!

family wedding...

The bride and groom.

This past weekend, my brother Joey got married to Sarah.  It was a great celebration of love!  They asked our kids to be in the wedding as the flower girl and ringbearer.  It has been the talk of our house for the last two months.  IN fact, at one point before Christmas, my brother causally asked how excited the kids were for presents.  I told him the hot topic of discussion in our house was their impending nuptuals! 

the excited flower girl and ring bearer with Baba

Striking a cool pose...

About a week before the wedding, we started practicing flower girl and ring bearer duties.  I made an asile out of random chairs in the living room.  Then gave my daughter a basket with bits of scrap paper and my son a pillow and explained to them how this whole thing works.  They came down the asile at race pace!  So there was more explaination and more tries.  But in the end, I think it all paid off!  They did a great job walking down the asile and sitting with their grandparents!

the ceremony

back down the asile to throw more petals!

After the wedding, there were many pictures to take.  The kids were pretty good at entertaining themselves...Baba and Papa Doc had given each of them a bag of goodies that included a new book or two, a car, and other random quiet toys!

great minds think alike...and drive similar cars!

Beautiful sister Sarah and her lovely flowers.

Once we were done taking pictures, it was time to get our dance on! The kids had a wondeful time dancing.

Joe and Sarah's wedding is still a hot topic of conversation here!

  Congratulations Joe and Sarah!

  We love you!

Just a fun family fact...the bride's name is a combintion of my sister's name and mine.

It was just meant to be!

Sarah, Sarah Elizabeth, Elizabeth

phone call and a check

At some point in life, I called my mom to chat.  She was having "one of those days" where her household was falling apart!  Her comment to me was "there is nothing wrong here that cannot be solved with a phone call and a check."  How true that can be sometimes!
 

Last night my husband realized the refrigerator was not cooling as it should.  So, out came a weeks worth of food and all the freezer goodies to be divided between our cooler and my in-laws fridge.  Thank goodness they live so close! I now have the household necessities, like milk and coffee creamer, loaded into our tailgate cooler and hanging out in our playroom!  It's a campout here! 

The blessing in this is a VERY clean fridge!

Camping out...or camping in.

We also noticed last night that our oldest was not feeling to great.  I went on a hunt for the thermometer and tylenol (why does it always seem like the thermometers break just when you need them?) and sure enough, he is sick.  On our adgenda for the day is a trip to the pediatrician...for a strep test. It breaks my heart when my babies are sick. They feel puny and I have a hard time saying NO to any requests they make. We do not normally watch tv during the day, but for this guy, I'll make an exception.  Right now, our camp out includes some PBS morning cartoons and relaxing on the couch.

On another note, I had the opportunity to be up early this morning and work on my Bible study.  Our group is currently working on the book "Wisdom for Mothers" by Denise Glenn.  We are two weeks into this study and I have really been called to examine myself and some of my own habits and ways.  Wisdom is a great gift from God and requires serious committment.  But the benefits and rewards of God's wisdom are amazing.  This morning, I read in Proberbs 4:5-9, we have protection, understanding and grace when we acquire wisdom from the Lord.  I was also reminded how important it is to keep my eyes on the Lord and not to stray from his path.  So in all this crazy in my household, I know he has a plan.  And a GREAT plan at that.  I have an "extra" day to hang with my monkeys and help them recover.  I have a super clean (and hopefully working soon) refrigerator.  I have friends who find the humor in this situation with me.  And I am abundently blessed to have a husband who is in this with me.  He is one super terrific guy.   

quite time spot

For today, I am going to "not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:6,7

May your day be blessed and may you find the humor in life!



beginning



Lacey and I at my parents for my 25th birthday.

I decided to start 2012 with a blog.  I have had this idea for a while, but it has not panned out.  The seed for this idea was actually planted by a very good friend of mine, Bonnie.  I have her and her twin sister Lacey to thank for many of my wonderful childhood memories.  We were three peas in a pod growing up!

Bonnie and I at her baby shower last spring.

Sarah, me, Andy and Joe, December 2011

In a class at some point during my educational career, I had a professor say you should write a little bit each day.  By writing a little each week, I hope to share with you a little about our many ‘one more’ moments and perhaps even polish my writing skills!  This may be an opportunity to share my voice with the world.  Or the 3 people I can send this URL to.  And my siblings already know most of my opinions…this may be a very short lived blog!

What a blessing just one more can be.  One more Christmas cookie.  One more minute cuddled with precious kids.  One more visit with good friends.  One more loud and boisterous Christmas dinner with family.  There is something exciting about one more! 

Our family Christmas picture

SO allow me to share with you our most exciting ‘one more’!  My husband and I are expecting our 4^th baby in May of 2012.  We have welcomed three children into our family (a boy, a girl and another boy) and are looking forward to meeting this bundle of joy as well.  We like the excitement of waiting to find out the baby’s gender, so it will be sometime in late May when we find out if we will have another boy or another girl.   My husband is way better at guessing than I am.  For the last two, I was wrong and he was right!  As for the kids, our oldest would like another boy and our daughter would like another girl.  And the youngest doesn’t even know what’s coming! 

Baby #4