Humbled and Content

Tonight as I read blogs of my friends, I read things about contentment, emergency surgery, gardening, essential oils, Proverbs 31 women, and the list continues.  There are many many people on my subscription list from all over the world, all walks of life, and all stages of life.  I am so very thankful.

As I read about everyone's flower gardens, I allow myself to dream.  I dream of all the beautiful arrangements, flower and vegetable beds, and yard sale finds I hope to find in the future.  It truly is a blessing to visit everyone's blog to get such wonderful ideas of how I can redo the blank slate in our front yard, side yard with overgrown weeds, bushes, and trees, the enclosed back yard with the pool and deck.  I dream....

I want to start with my mail box.  I know this seems rather silly, but my mailbox in PA looked like this:

My mailbox here will resemble this with the Black-Eyed Susans, but a little different due to life circumstances.  We had to throw up a quick mail box, so we bought the materials locally, nothing decorative, but simple.  It filled the need.  So now, I'm looking at it as a blessing.  It is a basic box with wood to hold it up.  I've seen mailbox wraps to make it pretty with the changing seasons, so I'll consider those when I see them again.  I like Mary Englebrett designs, so we'll see if I can find something along that line. ;)  It will probably be a while before I do anything along that line because I wait until I can find it at the lowest price possible. :D

Along the front of our house is a lovely railing.  In some places it needs to be replaced, but it is simple and I love it.  

(The railing in the above picture along the front porch.)  

The railing pictured here shows what I mean.  It also shows the blank slate of the front yard.  We're going to have fun planting and watching things grow.  :0)

We'll replace the bad parts with new, repaint it and put up some window baskets.   The ones pictured below are the ones I'd like to put on the railing.

These are the ones from our PA house that we planted about 4 years ago.  

I'm excited to gradually get my flowers back and add to my collection.  For now, I look back at pictures from my flower beds in Pennsylvania.

For now, I am choosing to be content with empty whiskey barrels, no veggie garden, and the blank slate.  We are still getting doctors testing done, establishing ourselves in practices in the area and getting to know the seasons.  We're researching many things about the area too, with regard to flowers and growing, pest control and things like that.

I am humbled that so many folks have taken an interest in our daughter's story in God of Wonders Beyond Anything and Everything I Ever Knew or Understood and Resting on the Promises, in His Wings of Love.   We are currently in the midst of neurological testing, EEG, Neuro-Psychological testing, MRI/MRA and getting appointments for all those, as well as establishing ourselves with a new dentist.  Why all this testing?  Why now?  Well, in Pennsylvania we were told that once something came up, to pursue testing then.  We've had rudimentary testing done on her, but nothing extensive, giving us a picture of her brain.  So the Dr's down here in Georgia are using this opportunity to get all that done.  I'm thankful for that too.  Now we can see what's going on and if there is further treatment needed for her. There is no need to worry.  Nothing is "wrong" with her, we're just taking this opportunity to get all the testing done that we can so that we can get a better picture of her brain.

As for me, I had an MRI of my right knee done and found I have a complex tear in my miniscus, degraded cartilage (bone-on-bone), and arthritis.  The Dr plans to "clean house" addressing all the issues in one surgery.  The therapy is to just walk.  Wonder of all wonders, it's amazing!  The very thing I've been wanting to do for such a very long time, but can't due to this hurt knee, I can now do after my surgery.  Hooray!  Remind me of that when I am trying to get out of bed or a chair after my surgery and it hurts.  ;)

God has lessons for each one of us, on our own levels, adjusted to each of our own needs.  I am so very thankful He loves me to prune and grow me more for Him.  

God is Good!  

Blessings,

We Said We Wouldn't, Until

When we moved in to our Georgia house, we decided we would lay flooring in our bedroom and in to my office, continuing on throughout the rest of the house once our Pennsylvania house sold.  That has meant we've been walking around on sealed concrete floors since September 2015.

Just to give you some context, this is the floors we've had in the pictures below:

The "Old Man" laying on his new well deserved bed, sitting on the bare concrete floor.

My office floor will soon be throughout the rest of the house, just to give context.

Refreshing your memory...our bedroom floor is the same.  I love it!

Remember what I wrote about our Christmas tree?  It's a lovely reminder of this time in our lives, when we watched God's hand move in and through our lives, just with a simple look at the unfinished floor.

The Living Room Floor--Before

I absolutely love this floor and all of the pictures we have.  Originally I was embarrassed by our floor and just didn't want to have anyone over, but I need to get over it and embrace the hospitality of it all.  So, I set up a cleaning schedule and it keeps clean.  We don't mop it unless something spills.  We don't really concern ourselves with much more than that.  And I wait for God to provide for floor.  I love to see how God works!

In a lovely and wonderful sweep, our tax return supplied those wonderful funds that we needed to not only pay off a couple bills, but had some extra to take care of flooring and a front end alignment for our vehicles.  God is good!  He provides!  

We said we wouldn't redo the floor until the Pennsylvania house sold, but God said, "That's ok, I'm going to bless you anyway."  

So, when Home Depot brings us our flooring, we'll get started.  The underlayment is already here, so it's just a matter of waiting for the rain to stop so we can start laying flooring.  My husband and 3 young folks are going to be very busy getting the flooring done once it arrives, so I'll be in the kitchen making sure everyone is well fed.

How has God blessed you today? 

God Bless,

Friday Activity of Choice

Nothing especially exciting going on here tonight.  I've edged the entry way and hall way.  I'm thinking of continuing and getting some white paint out to do the edges.

I'd love to snap my fingers and have it done, but with edges, I'm a wee bit picky.  LOL

No, I'm not Wonder Woman!

I was reminded a few minutes ago, that I needed to not only grant others grace, but to grant myself grace.

You see, two of my three young folks are off to a training weekend with Civil Air Patrol.  Their chores were done yesterday before we left, but inevitably with dogs, you have fur--especially in the early Spring.  Wait a minute!  What am I saying?  There's hair A.L.L  T.H.E. T.I.M.E!!!!   Needless to say, vacuuming up the hair in the corners and where dust bunnies decide to gather is an essential job to do daily.  The mopping/swiffer wet jet is done two or more times a week with an off white tile floor.  I was planning to swiffer wet jet after vacuuming, but my lower back and hips started to ache.  Do I continue or do I take something for the pain, go sit down and have my coffee and rest my back for a bit until the pain goes away? 

I decided a blog post about granting oneself grace would be good.  I started re-reading a blog post by my friend, Lisa, and realized that she covered it well too, but from her perspective as a homeschooling mom who has returned to school.  Whatever your circumstance, whenever you push yourself too far without granting yourself permission to sit down for 15 minutes, you are setting yourself up for pain, resentment, and you miss out on possible precious moments with loved ones or with the Lord.

I like to take the FLYlady approach to getting things done around my house:  You can do anything as fast as you can, in 15 minutes.  In that 15 minute time frame you may not be able to complete the mountain of dishes in your sink and on your counters, or completely tackle the ever increasing "Mount Washmore" in your laundry room, but you'll be able to take baby steps.  Disclaimer:  If you look at the FLYlady website and read about her system, you'll notice that she promotes getting dressed to the shoes with your hair and face done every morning.  As I type this, it is 6:19AM.  I've been up since 5:00AM and I'm sitting here in my pajamas with my hair done...or rather tossed up in a barrette and side pony tail.  I thought I'd get some blogging done while I have my morning coffee and devotions, then get my painting clothes on--minus the shoes, and get my entry way and hall way edges painted before the kids get up at 7AM.  LOL  I like the quiet.  There isn't any grumpy people to deal with.  LOL

This is my work today.  I have never used this dark of a tan before, but I liked the rich coffee & creamer look to it.  This is only the first coat, so of course it will need more than this.  It is coming along, though!  My plan is to paint all the trim white.  It was a mauve color, so we're changing it up a bit.  The flooring will go in last and it will be the same type that we used in our bedroom.  I just didn't want to put the flooring in first, then slop paint on it.  LOL  The first door to the right is where my office/sewing area is.  It will be painted next, Lord willing.  I've not firmly decided what color to do in there yet.  I'd love to do a nice soothing blue, but I'm thinking it might not be a good idea.  I might get super creative and do a base color and a stripe across the room with an artistic touch.  This is what the kids and I had done in the boys' Pennsylvania bedroom:

The stripe was so much fun and creative!  And, if you notice, I tried duplicating it in the valances with the stripe on the bottom.  We tried bringing in some desert sand colors, then balance or offset with the blue marbleized fabric for the main valance color.  I've been watching Fixer Upper and it seems that muted grays and whites are often used in that show, so everyone is emulating JoJo's designs, or at least trying to.  I'm not one to go with current trends, but I use my home as my color palate.  I try to find timeless pieces that are beautiful to me and colors that I love to decorate with.  If I can't find those timeless pieces, I make do with something functional--like the side table in the picture above--it doesn't go with the bunk bed, but it's functional.  LOL  I frequent yard sales, facebook flea market groups, estate sales, and I try to go to auctions to find things that will work for a specific area.

There are so many different things I'd like to do to my GA house, but I have time constraints and I need to save for the other things I'd like to do--like a new front door to let in more light.  I've also been drawing out raised garden bed plans and other ideas for the front yard are swirling around my head too.  We'll see what happens with it all.

Almost two weeks ago, when I wrote the introduction to this blog post, my dining room and living room were being painted.  I have finished and I promise that I will update with finished pictures, but I wanted to get one with everything in place--including the new ceiling fan and scriptures I've found for the wall. I promise I will take pictures and post them!

No, I'm not Wonder Woman and I've never claimed to be.  I am a woman who is saved by grace from the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am also a woman who needs to grant grace to myself more often than I do.  I need to love myself enough to push myself enough to get the needful done, but rest when I need to, to just be, pray, read, recharge, so I can get up refreshed and ready to tackle the next 15 minutes.

God Bless,

Plans Are Meant to be Broken

It has been a few weeks since updating my blog posts.  My husband has a new job here in GA and I'm trying (and failing) to get in to a good routine.  It seems that every time I think something is "just right", it turns out to not be so.  Every day is another challenge.

My plans have been to get up with my husband, ensuring he has a good breakfast and a cup of coffee to start his day. That plan was thwarted by nature.  My husband didn't want nature to call when he was doing his job, so I needed to rethink things.  I have, with the suggestion of my husband, procured granola bars and mixed nuts along with W*lmart brand energy packs instead.  I was making Trim Healthy Mama muffins in a mug for him daily from the cookbook, but it interfered with his needs, so it was scrubbed for his breakfasts.  Now he doesn't have breakfast, but has granola bars throughout the day, stopping off for an occasional burger at a fast food place when needed.  I know, not the ideal, but only he knows his routine and days, so it works for him.  The eternal conundrum in our home, however, is keeping the young folks from devouring what was meant for Daddy's lunch bag.  For the first time I've had to put a note on the box telling them they cannot have it.  But, they CAN have the Trim Healthy Mama muffins in a mug!  So, I think it's a good trade-off!  :0)  (Yes, I've been doing the Trim Healthy Mama plan since October 2015, but I'll have to leave that for another day.)  Dinners are still "on plan" though, which is good.

Here we are a month after my husband started his job and I still do not feel as if I have everything down pat.  I have a schedule, with many predictable-every-week-they-come-at-the-same-time-regardless, but it's just the other things that show up that are not predictable that throw me off.  We've had appointments for my oldest son to have entrance exams for a local technical school, other non-predictable appointments showing up, as well as activities that just adding those things make me feel so very exhausted.  This past weekend, while an absolute blessing for my two younger kids, started with homeschool group where I taught a class on edible essential oils, then went to make sure my kids ate, Sam's Club, then drop one off at one house, and another at someone else's house, get gas on my way home, then the 45+ minute drive home.  By the time I got home I was spent!  Exhaustion doesn't quite encompass it.  My body said that I should have gone home after homeschool group because my body was prepared for that, but not the extra running.  LOL

{Needless to say, I'm beginning to think that it is a good time to start keeping an eye out for property closer to all of our activities, but that remains to be seen.}

I hope to have things quiet down soon.  Tomorrow I hope to do some cleaning while my oldest son has (more) testing taken care of.  I feel like I've failed daily to get the basics done.  Oh! Let's not forget the flea infestation, the extra vet visits, the extra monetary expense and the heart wrenching that I feel when my doggies are going after yet another flea.  Yes, the vet in PA forewarned me about the fleas down here.  Ugh! We've NEVER had issues with fleas!  Whew!

So, here I am, exhausted, on the brink of being comatose with sleep, with mountains of clean blankets, rugs and furniture completely covered with Borax for more than 24 hours, a back yard that has been covered in Diatomaceous Earth, dogs and kitty have been through flea baths, and everything.  It is done and I am thankful!  But, the work continues tomorrow!  We'll be spraying for other not so savory bugs.  The traps and bait are purchased and I'm ready!

For everything, I am thankful.  I am spiritually challenged by so much pain and suffering by so many people lately.  I am thankful for the opportunity to pray for the folks who have come to me in a variety of ways to approach God's throne on their behalf.  I don't believe I've ever felt so burdened for people I've never met. (See previous post)  What a privilege to pray for all these folks!  The Lord is working on me so greatly, molding me, pruning the unnecessary, giving me gut wrenching--heart wrenching situations where I'm needed in a variety of very important people's life (not just my family, but a beautiful little boy with special needs).  I'm thankful for this! I've been challenged to ask God to show me where He needs me to join His work.  He's been a wonderful gentleman and shown me in some blatant ways.  He's also shown me ways to share our story and our faith.  What a blessing!

While I feel so very overwhelmed at times, feeling like a failure, God is faithful to redeem my time, placing me right where He needs me to be, to show His loved ones His unfathomable, always faithful love to those who need it the most.  I feel honored, and embarrassed at the same time. Honored and humbled that he would choose me. Embarrassed that my own selfish attitude has gotten in the way of His work. Lord, forgive me!

How many times are we letting those opportunities slide by when God places them right in our laps?  (You don't have to answer.)

God Bless,

Chicken Bone Broth

A couple days ago I made "Fotato" Soup out of my Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook.  It was the 2nd time I made it and based on the popularity of it the first time (they licked the skillet clean!), I doubled the batch.  I wanted to ensure that my husband had something yummy and soothing in his stomach when he got home from work (more on that another day).  I found that I didn't have any chicken broth, so I sent my kids to get some at the local store.  I was glad for them to go so I could get the cauliflower chopped up and ready to go while they were gone.

When I saw the broth sitting on my counter, I thought to myself, "I've made this before!  I can do this!  Why should I use this store bought junk instead of knowing what is going in to my food?!"  So, I took out the only bit of meat I had in the house with bones in it--a 6 pound whole chicken--to defrost.  We had it for dinner last night and whatever was left--carcass and all--went back in to the roaster to get all yummy and delicious with lots of garlic, Himalayan Pink Salt, thyme, sage, and some pepper...and of course lots of water filled to an inch within the brim of the 18 quart roaster.  I turned it on to 225­­°F and from 5:00PM to around noon today the carcass and leftover meat simmered and made some lovely golden bone broth for my family.  

When I do broth, I have 2 different ways that I can do it.  This time, since there was so much of it, I chose to do both.  I had a limited amount of freezer containers and didn't want to go to the store to buy more.  I had 4 quart containers and 3 pint containers, which meant labeling with contents and their date of being frozen.  This way everyone knows that these will need to be used within 6 months of the date on the container.  I let them sit on the counter until they are cool and then line them along the inside of my freezer door where they fit perfectly.

With the other amount of broth, I had to get the pressure canner out along with unearthing the canning lids and rings (quite the challenge when things were not exactly put away because a place for them had not been established yet.  Oops!)  So, finding the lids and rings, we got everything moving, sterilized, and in to the pressure canner with only a couple inches in the bottom.  

They spent 3 hours in the pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure to ensure there is no food poisoning to occur.  We will label these with their contents once they cool by tomorrow morning as well as their date, like the ones with the freezer container.  I make sure to leave them on the counter over night to cool so that they seal.  If they don't seal, I can pop them right in to the refrigerator without skipping a beat and saving the lovely contents for the next meal.  

I've made broth with chicken breasts before.  I usually simmer the chicken for 2-3 hours, then freeze.  Very few times have I pressure canned it, but this time I did.  

My plans for further collecting bones to make in to broth are to go to the local butcher and see if they will sell me bones with very little meat on them for my bone broth.  I'm going to try to process this once every couple of weeks to make sure we always have bone broth, chicken, ham, beef, and whatever else I can find.  If/when I get the bones from the butcher I'm going to freeze the bones, so I can put them in to my roaster, fill it with water and let it cook for a couple days.  I'm going to get more organized so I can make sure the broth is done in the canner by a certain time so we don't have to worry about missing church.  Yes, I messed up.  But, we were able to reclaim the time by having some card playing time while the younger 2 finished their school work.  

Now on to garden planning!  Oh!  And I'm getting an idea of what to do for my canning pantry!  

What do you do for food preservation?

God Bless,

Bitten by "the" Bug

This is one of those bugs that shows up in the most unexpected ways.  This morning we stayed home from church because I caught a virus/bug from the Dr's office when I took my youngest son in for his eczema.  The thing started by the next morning with the water works in the form of a runny nose, then proceeded from there giving me what I figured were hot flashes...well...because I've been thrown in to that time of my life due to my surgery last year.  No biggie.  I started the roller coaster ride of feeling good, then needing to sleep, then feeling well enough to make dinner, then mid way through fixing dinner, feeling like I was hitting a wall again and needed to sit down and rest.  Whoa!  This was a FAST acting virus!  My husband started coming down with it on Friday evening and as of Saturday, started with chills.  Considering one of our pastors has a brand new baby, among others in our congregation, we decided it was best to keep this bug home until it worked through our family.

But, that bug is nothing new.  Everyone catches those "bugs."  The type of bug I'm talking about is that of a bent and twisted creative bug.  A little history about me, for those of you who do not know:  I could be sitting somewhere, like this morning, looking at something and thinking, "I need to make something to go with that!"  This morning it was this bag that spurred on my inspiration:

I love the colors, the durability, the style and size of this bag.  I just need it taller to accommodate my tall needles.

So, I decided this morning that after I finish this project:

...and tying off the ends from that one and this one:

I'll begin my newest bag.  It will likely have much of the same colors in it as the one I'm replacing, but be a little bit different.  :0)  I'm going to knit this one instead of crochet.  

This bag was 100% crocheted, including the straps.  I really like the straps, so I may do those in crochet again because they're sturdy and they didn't curl like my knitted purse did. When the handles curl and you put them on your shoulder, they roll off your shoulder.  When I put this bag on my shoulder, the straps don't roll and it stays on my shoulder.  

Disclaimer:  I don't use a pattern for my bags, so each one is vastly different from the next.  I'll be sure to post pictures of my progress.  Perhaps I'll line this one too, just like my purse. 

I'm not looking for another purse, just another bag that I can fit my knitting in to and my Bible for Sundays that won't roll off my shoulder.  LOL  It makes carrying this purse a little awkward and cumbersome.  I thought of crocheting a shoulder pad for this purse around the strap so it would move up and down, but stay on my shoulder.  I don't know how well that would work.  I may still try that and re-felt it, but for now, I'm going to begin thinking of the newest creation while I finish up the last 2 table runners.  :)  

Editing to add that I started casting on!  This is what 100 stitches freshly cast on looks like~

So far I think I'll make a rectangle and start with 10 rows of garter stitch.  I'll see then how it looks with the size and how big I need it.

"Through wisdom is a house builded[sic]; And by understanding it is established; 

And by knowledge are the chambers filled With all precious 

and pleasant riches." 

(Proverbs 24:3-4) ASV

How are you creatively filling your home with precious and pleasant treasures?

God Bless,

Homemaking This Week

This week we are detail cleaning the Living Room, Porches, and Pool House.

Yesterday I made sure the walls were dusted with the Swiffer just because it was easier to get everything.  I worked on sweeping the cobwebs and dirt off the front porch and the porch/entry to the Pool House.  My guys took care of the back porch and getting all the cobwebs off the walls inside the pool house.  My youngest son's weekly job is to dust the living room, so that will be done on his day of choice.

Today we did windows in the living room and front porch.  We didn't get to the back porch or the pool house because my youngest son and I went a little further and scrubbed the shutters, moved the whisky barrels to the back yard, and raked along the front of the house.
Tomorrow I'm going to have them work on the back porch and pool house windows while I do some decluttering here in the living room.  As you can probably tell, Wednesday is decluttering on the calendar, so we need to get that done.  If it is done, we tidy.  I have more books to put on the shelf.  I also have a few shelves to make neat, so there is still work to do.

Thursday is detail cleaning the floor in the living room.  That's where we pull everything out, sweep and/or vacuum, probably vacuum the furniture or wipe the walls, and put it all back.

Fridays are "extra" days where I look at my notebook and pick some things that haven't been addressed and do them.

Saturdays are make up days that are built in just for those times when we have busy weeks and don't get to do the needed things in the room of the week.  We usually do Kitchen work that day too, so we don't have a lot of cooking and cleaning to do on Sundays.

This is my calendar where I keep track of the rooms of the week (on the left), what chore to do on which day (on the bottom), and along the right I usually have all my kitchen cooking/baking chores.  Since I took this picture many of the areas have been redone to reflect our lives right now, which is the beauty of it.  But why do this?

Sometimes we have appointments and we're going here and going there.  But things need to be done.  Whoever is home, can go to the calendar and look at what needs to be done on which day of the week and which room we're in and do it for me.  So, the calendar, in essence, thinks for me.

How are you taking care of the details this week?

God Bless,

Post Christmas Decorating

We took all of our Christmas decorations down and put them all away a few days ago.  Shortly after seeing the drabness of no color, I decided to grab my knitting needles and some bright aqua cotton yarn and went to work.  I have my fabric ready to get to work on my dining room curtains, completely with bright aqua in it, so it was perfect!

The needles are size 11 Caspian wood needles from knitpicks like the ones you'll find here:

Just click the picture...

I bought one set of these needles in size 11 as a gift to myself for finishing a large project.  They were well worth the money!  I love how the cotton slides so wonderfully off my needles.

I love decorating my house.  This house particularly is quite the blank slate.  The walls in our bedroom will be a light butter cream color with darker accents.  I just need to work on the sticky stuff on the walls with Goo Gone.  I have a couple areas done, now I need to move on and get more done.  Unfortunately, once I come out of our bedroom in the morning, it is very seldom that I return until evening bed time.  I need to be sure to work on our hide away, making sure to situate it and make it beautiful and inviting for me and my love.  I've found some beautiful things to put over the head of our bed, bought them for us for Christmas and now I just need to find a weathered/antiqued board for the shelf.

Once we get our bedroom painted, these will go over our headboard.  I am adding lovely and beautiful things that celebrate our marriage in our hideaway.  Why?  So it will be a peaceful haven and sanctuary from the world for the two of us to find solace.  I hope to finish the bedroom in one month, complete with curtains, paint, clean, neat and tidy furniture (with the help of my husband ;0) ) and moving on to another room.  LOL

I am so excited to get these changes done.  

To be continued...

God Bless,

Organizing After a Move

Sitting at the (very loved) table with my oldest son and hubby
playing cards with the sweet scent of a "Sweet Potato" candle.

I know that many of you have moved quite a bit more often than I have as an adult.  You could be a military family or your husband or wife's job relocates you every couple of years.  So, this post is probably "preaching to the choir" as they say.  For me, though, it is sweet reflection over the past year's journey, making realizations about myself and my family.

I started decluttering years ago, thankfully.  I have been using the FLYlady method of doing things since September 8, 2001.  That's a very long time!  Now, I haven't been "gung ho" all the time at every single step of the way, but it has certainly helped me to keep most of the clutter at bay.  [Confession:  As I type this, there are papers cluttering up my coffee table that Lord only knows where they come from!  It's all good though because I know that my young adults can go through it and decide what needs to be kept and what needs to be pitched and take care of it for me!]

I began decluttering in earnest preparation for our move south probably in October 2014.  I had requested at that time a firm answer from my husband whether or not he'd be retiring the following May so that I could make plans to either stay or move.  [Thankfully, he chose to retire.]  I started with books.  I knew that once I went through all the books on the book shelves, getting them put in to boxes to sell, it would be easier to pack up the ones that I wanted to keep.  I went through them with the young folks so that I didn't throw away anything that they wanted.  Surprisingly, they released more than I ever thought they were willing to release!  I was so glad!  This was an ongoing process, too.  I didn't do it all at once because I needed to have surgery in February 2015.  Once I felt like doing things, I had the kids bring me more books that I went through while sitting on the floor.  They did the heavy lifting for me, taking the boxes once packed and labelled to the attic to get them out of the way.  Once the shelves were empty, I gave the shelves to a friend to use.  The books we no longer wanted were sold at our homeschool group's book sale and whatever didn't sell went to Goodwill, never to enter the house again!  Oddly enough, there were more books stashed throughout the house that I needed to get rid of too.  I put those in our yard sale.

The yard sale:  We had a yard sale for 2 weekends, getting rid of lots of stuff.  Once that was over, we packed the leftovers up and took them to a storage unit where a local lady stored leftover yard sale times to sell for a charity.  Those things never came back in to the house.  [Are you noticing a trend yet?]

Once all those things were gone, we started to pack up the house in earnest.  We were still finding things to pitch.  I went through every paper I could find to either file or burn.  We burned a lot of stuff from the garage, so it wasn't a big deal to burn more.

We still had a "give away" pile and we found ourselves giving more stuff away still.  The plan was to sell or give away most of our furniture except for a few pieces that were meaningful to us as gifts from grandparents, or they were antiques.  We ended up keeping one love seat instead of giving it away because that friend didn't have room for it in her new house.  It was a godsend, though.  We have seating here in our living room for it! :0)

Once all of our things arrived here in GA, the unpacking commenced.  I found things that I forgot I had, made a home for them and moved on to the next thing.  I also found things that made me scratch my head and wonder "Why on earth did I keep that?" and put it in the give away box.  Every so often we get the opportunity to bless someone with the contents of our give away box.  We had double just about everything since we had 2 kitchens in PA.  So when we heard of a family who needed things due to a fire, we purged even more!  It felt good too! :0)

I am finding that as I go through boxes, I relive old memories of when that item was purchased or given to us. A lot of times I still find myself saying, "Why on earth did I keep that?!"  I'd love to say that right now everything has a home and everything is in it's place, but it isn't.  I have more shelving and storage to buy to make that happen.  I am saving for some nice storage because it will be in my office where those items go.

I know that there will be times when something isn't fitting right where I put it and I'll think about how to do it differently and it will bug me until I figure it out, but eventually it will happen.  Sometimes I will find something that will fit "just right" at a yard sale to help me get something organized.  It is a wonderful way to adjust to fit the new space.

I am also finding that the organizing of my home after the move began "before" the move.  Ten years worth of accumulated stuff was dwindled down considerably in a matter of weeks, but it continues to be dwindled still, as I continue to get through those not so essential items to get things organized and feeling more like "home."

I'd love to show you what I'm doing differently here (for a variety of reasons) than when we were in PA.  I'll save that for the next post, though.  A little hint is given in the picture above.  :0)

God Bless,

Work Steadily Continues

This picture of my youngest son's room prompted my oldest son to do something like this with his room.

This is what his room looked like when we moved in and got all of his things settled.

As you can see, there is a small-ish mural behind the head board and bright dark "pink" trim.  My son decided to go with a dark green and light tan/cream trim.

I think it looks much better than it did! 

The trim is no longer bright dark pink!  It took a couple coats, but it is done!

Within the past couple of days, we've purchased some fabric for his curtains.  Next month and the following month, we're going to use the allotted portion of his budget for new bedding and a new rug for his room.  

In other areas of the house, we're continuing to plod along, slowly at times.  Some things take precedence, like making a leaking faucet stop, while other things--like getting the sticker residue off the walls--not so high on the "to do" list.   

We continue to work on getting the running of the home working better.  The laundry and dishes have been the biggest boon to our existence.  Yes, I know it is that way for most folks, too.  For us though, our laundry room diminished in size greatly in comparison to how things were in PA.  Looking at things now, it has been a blessing.  Everyone keeps their own dirty clothes in their own rooms.  They sort their own clothes in to a small square basket whatever they decide to wash first on their own laundry days.  Their small basket goes back and forth from the laundry room to their bedroom with their clothes and bedding, while their color coded hampers stay in their bedrooms, thus decreasing the clutter in the laundry room.

This is the system we've come up with:

Mondays-Oldest Son's Laundry Day

Tuesdays-Daughter's Laundry Day

Wednesdays-Youngest Son's Laundry Day

Thursday-Momma and Daddy's Whites and Reds

Friday-Momma and Daddy's Blues

Saturday-Towels & Bedding

For now, the kitchen responsibilities are:

Daughter-Washes Dishes & Loads Dishwasher

Oldest Son-Puts Dishes Away

Youngest Son-Wipes counters, Microwave, & Table

Meals:

Breakfast-DIY

Lunch-DIY

Dinner-Momma makes dinner a couple days a week, when I can't due to appointments, Daddy makes dinner, or one or more of the kids make dinner.

This is where we are in our lives currently.  I make meals for my hubby and I for breakfast due to our special diets.  The kids get whatever they feel like having whenever they're hungry.  Our oldest has stomach issues, so we may eat something that does not set well or is unappealing to him at the time, so he waits until his stomach settles to eat.  

Our lives are drastically different than what we've ever done before.  Things continue to change and we continue to work on everything to get the best solution for our lives the way we are now.  We don't do things the same way other people do, I'm sure.  But this way works for us right now, and it's ok.  I'm striving for having dinner at the family table more regularly, so we're moving in the right direction.

Work on the house and our lives continues. It continues to change, continues to adjust, nothing stays the same.  That is as it should be.

God Bless,

2016 Cometh

As I sit here writing, 2015 only has 20 minutes left in it.  We're watching "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" as the truest of nerdy folks would be, unless it is just us who are ultra nerdy and this is the movie of choice on New Year's Eve.  LOL

The labels you see at the bottom, yes, go ahead and page down, those!  Yes!  Those are already established *goals* that are in place from year to year, month to month, week to week,  and day to day.

But!

(You knew there had to be one! LOL)

I want to infuse my home with whimsical things that make me and others smile.  I'm not a stoically serious person, but I take joy in lots of silly things, and so should everyone who steps foot on our land and in our home.  Yes JOY!  The Lord Himself created laughter, and for goodness sake, aren't we ones to give him a GOOD chuckle by telling Him our plans, so by gosh and by golly, we're going to have some whimsy around here!  LOL

Why don't I make resolutions?  Because they fall away as soon as the end of January rolls around and things get boring or hard.  I'm right there right now with my own weight loss, so I beat the punch by a month!  LOL  I know the holidays have been around, and I know I can rejoice in this fact, but in spite of the holidays, my Wii says I gained .4 pounds in the past 2 weeks.  LOL  Yes, I laugh at that!  I can't believe it has only been .4 pounds!  So, I"m going to look at it this way:  I've had my breakfast and coffee, so that's where the .4 pounds came from!  So, I didn't gain anything!  I stayed the same.  Woohoo!  LOL

You really need to laugh more my dear readers!  I really need to remember that myself....to laugh more.  A merry heart makes good medicine!  Well, I need to remember that!  :)

Well, it has taken me 11 minutes to get this far, so I'm going to sign off and bid you all a warm farewell.

See you next year!  Which will happen in about 9 minutes!

Happy New Year!

God Bless,
Regina

Organizing Continued

Organizing continues throughout the house.  Please forgive me for this disjointed post, but it shows some goofyness, some pets, some school work, some of my guys and my lovely daughter, boxes (still) and just trying to get things put away and in place.  

I have my calendar connected to my phone.  It is a wonderful tool to help remind me to unpack and find homes for things, appointments, when I need to leave for certain things, and other important things in my life.  I love using this tool!  It is becoming very close to my right arm!

...taking a break from organizing...

For your viewing pleasure...yes, we're goofy!  I noticed my husband and my oldest son had blue jeans and orange shirts on the other day...by sheer accident.  I called them in and asked to take their pictures in a "Like Father Like Son" sort of thing. It was fun!

They dressed alike and didn't realize it.

...back to organizing...

Organizing continues in the dining room.  I have my dry erase board and calendar up right where everyone can see it.  The bulletin board, however, needs to have a couple screws put in the concrete wall.  My youngest wasn't too sure about doing that since Daddy wasn't home.  He wanted to be sure Daddy was ok with it.

We continue to work on streamlining daily chores to keep things running smoothly.  I'd love to do so many different things to this room and have tons of stuff on my amazon and ebay "wish lists" to purchase in the future.

My dining room in the morning light.  I just have a little more to do and it will be finished unpacking.  The work, however, will continue.  LOL

"Bunny Trail"....or organizing pet care during traveling or moving...

Gus was interesting bringing down to Georgia.  The vet suggested giving him 10mgs of Melatonin while we drive each day to help calm him until we arrived at each destination.  It worked well to settle him a bit, but a lot of the time he spent in the kids' laps snuggling, or like you see him pictured here.  We purposely planned to break up the trip in to 2 days so the dogs would get a break from traveling.  Rustie, Biscuit, & Pickles traveled well.  They just curled up and slept.  Gus was a little more of a challenge because it seemed like he either couldn't get comfortable, or sensed a change was happening and was just restless.

My precious daughter holding Gus on the way to pick up my youngest son from a Civil Air Patrol function.

...moving on to the house...

 I'm trying to let these colors (3rd one down on all 3) grow on my husband.  I know that eventually whatever color I choose, it will look nice.  I have ideas!  :)

Different colors I'm considering in the living room--3rd color down from the top.

 This is the biggest wall in our living room.  It is drab and very dull looking.  I really want to brighten it up with some color, add a nice clock and some other things I find.  :)  Yes, there are still boxes in here.  I'm trying to stay "hands off" with those because I've left it up to the kids to take care of.  Here in the next week I'm going to get them moving.  It's been long enough.  :D

The large long wall I get to decorate, the wall opposite of this wall is almost completely one full huge window.

 Mr. Pickles has enjoyed our new house.  We found him a kitty condo and he loves eating at the top because the dogs cannot get to him.  He also likes his morning cream in a tiny dish while I make coffee.  He's found that visiting people while they're doing their daily work most often ends up with him perched on a table on top of a piece of paper or inside a box or something that inevitably needs cleaning.  LOL  He likes sitting on top of boxes.  I'm hoping to eradicate the boxes from the house very soon so that he won't have anywhere to sit, but on the chairs he's supposed to be on!  LOL

Pickles decided to come see my youngest while he wrote his memory verse of the day. 

 The living room is getting cleared and a wee bit of decorating done.  I received some birthday money from my in-laws and bought the "G", plaque and candles on the mantle.  My hubby thought I was funny getting the "G" as a deer antler.  I don't want everything to be done completely with a feminine touch, but one of masculine and feminine combined.  I have a bit of my floral and lace here and there, but not much.  I'd prefer to blend the two.  Besides, my husband and sons live here too!

The boxes are dwindling, now it's getting difficult figuring out where to put things.  I know we'll need more bookshelves!  That's a given. The piles of boxes directly behind the lamp is all books!

 I'm excited to have a place for all of my fabric and crafting supplies!  Outside this picture to my extreme right, almost behind me is a table where I plan to cut fabrics and lay out patterns.  I can sit and do delicate, tedious quilting cuts or large scale work.

To the left is my office supply shelf.  To the left of that is filing cabinet drawers and my L shaped desk that I'm clearing off and filing all the papers that everyone seems to have found upon unpacking.  I thought I had everything filed or thrown out, but not so!  Just a bit more to go and it will be done.  I'm not allowing myself to do any crafting (except knitting) until this is done.

I know where all of my fabric and patterns are!  Hooray!

To the left of the above picture, just add the book shelf where the boxes are to the right.

While I organize and put things in their place here in Georgia, I'm finding that a lot of things are different than I had them in Pennsylvania.  I love the above "L" shaped desk that we bought to hold files, the printer, my sewing machine and my sewing notions.  I love the space here.  I love how large our bedroom is.  I was telling my Mother-in-law that I think it is the largest bedroom we've ever had in our married lives.  Of course there are lots of things that still need to find their place.  Yes, there are some things I'd like to give away, but all in due time.  I cannot do everything all at once.  My goal is to unpack AND put away 4 boxes per day.  However, while unpacking, the house needs cleaned, concepts reviewed and retaught in some cases, and life still needs to move forward.  Appointments need to be driven to, classes and functions need to be attended, new friendships need to be nourished, and I need to spend more time with my husband.  With all of this busy time, we need to purposefully set aside time to spend together.  I'd love to snap my fingers and have everything done to my liking, but realistically that takes time and money.  We're doing things debt free, so the changes we make will take time, as money becomes available. Until it is done, we wait, sometimes not so patiently, but in those times God is growing our patience and showing our young folks how to wait for things until the money is available.  The fruit will show itself in due time!

God Bless,

That's me trying to get a picture without glare!  LOL  I'm goofy too!  LOL