Spring Break

Wow!  Where does the time go?!?  We are in-between sports right now so there should be time somewhere but I’ve seemed to have lost it!  It seems like March was just beginning.  I was so excited for spring to start and here it is already April and Easter right around the corner.  What happened to the Passion Week plans I was making for my family?  Here it is… Passion Week half over and we haven’t done a thing!  I need to spend some time with God showing me how to be a better time manager because obviously I’m way off!

Spring break came and went so quickly, we barely had time to enjoy it.  It was the middle of March.  My original plans were for a major de-cluttering, organizing, and cleaning in each of the three kids’ bedrooms.  I briefly mentioned to my mom back in the winter that maybe we could take a trip to Illinois to visit family over spring break.  I hadn’t been up there in awhile.  Well, as you can guess… mom’s plans over-ride my own.  So with three kids in tow, I head to Missouri Saturday for a big family get-together.  My parents just got back from their winter stay in Mexico.  Every year, they host a big pizza party so they can see everyone again.  As always, I had a delightful time catching up with everyone because I hadn’t seen them since Christmas.  I love this picture of Robbie with his little cousin Abbie.  She was born with a cleft lip.  Poor little thing has been through more surgeries in her four years of life than most adults will ever go through in their life time.  She is a sweet, beautiful thing and such a fighter too!  There is little evidence now of her cleft lip.

Sunday morning, we head out with Mom for Peoria, IL.  That is where all her family lives.  Along the way, we found this wind turbine farm.  It was awesome for us to see.  I finally realize what those long things are that we see semi’s carrying.  Haha!  We had to go down a few country side roads to get these pictures, but I LOVE country side roads!

While in Princeville, we came across this memorial for veterans of the town.  My Granddad and all my uncles served in the Navy and all were Seabees.  I discovered that my great-uncle, my granddad, and my uncle all served in World War II.  Two of my uncles served in Viet Nam.  My great-grandfather and great-uncle served in the Civil War.  Those that are still alive have never talked about wars so I had no idea.  I felt such pride when I read through the names.  I wish I could hear their stories of courage.

We didn’t do much sight-seeing on this trip.  It was all about visiting family and of course lots of food is always involved when my family gets together.  A little shopping with my aunts was thrown in also.  We all had a great time, even the kids.

We headed back home on Wednesday and stopped in St. Louis to see the arch. 

You don’t realize the massiveness of this unique monument until you stand beside it.

The water was up slightly at the riverfront.  Lol!  This is a Lewis & Clark statue.

It was nice to get out and stretch for awhile and break up the long trip home.

Since this was sort of a last minute trip decision, Rich had to stay home and work.  I was so thankful to have my older two kids to help out with the young one.  Ryan and Robbie have a wonderful relationship and I’m so thankful for it!  You wouldn’t have thought it would turn out this way because Ryan wanted nothing at all to do with Robbie when he was born.  Nothing!  Now, I have to practically tear them apart when they’re wrestling and playing.  So this picture is very dear to me.  Also, the little Mickey Mouse that Robbie is holding Ryan won for him in one of those little machines at a restaurant.  Robbie never laid it down for a second the whole time on the trip.  He kept thanking Ryan for winning it for him.  It was so cute!

We had a wonderful time on our trip.  I know the kids enjoyed this way more than cleaning their rooms.  It was a very long 12 hours from Princeville, IL to Bruner, MO to Catoosa, OK.  That’s when I really missed Rich the most!  My mom doesn’t like to drive so it was me all the way.  My back and bottom were so sore.  Ha!  What surprised me the most was how well behaved the kids were all the way home.  I did more complaining than they did.  I had to have more pee breaks than them.  I’m still bewildered about it!

I'm grateful for time that God allows me to spend with my family and I'm grateful for a family that I desire to spend time with!

A little Valentine fun, a little organizing fun

First, a little Valentine fun.  I always like to bake candies/cookies/foods for the kids' teachers.  They all have way too many "teacher" things so this makes the holidays more fun and shows how much we appreciate them!  This is Amariah (she really dislikes having to stand in the pictures, can you tell?  Lol!) with some goodies for her three teachers that she has this year:  Cinnamon Apple Jelly, Brown Sugar-Oatmeal Mini Loaves, Peanut Butter/Kisses Surprise cookies and Oreo Truffles.  Yum!

Well, since I've been back from Mexico... I have been FREEZING!!  I'm not one to complain but that sunshine on my face and sand between my toes every day ruined me!  I've been trying to stay busy.  My projects have only been ones that can be worked on by the fireplace.  I LOVE my fireplace so much!

I finally put my cabinet together.  Well, I guess I should tell the truth... Rich finally put my cabinet together.  We talked about painting it a different color because I didn't think black would look good in that room.  But here it is finished and it will stay black:

Oh, I think I need to show a before shot.  This is what the room looked like in October when I decided to tackle re-purposing two of my rooms.

Here's a (not so good) close-up shot of what this cabinet's purpose will be.

I finally found an open cabinet that held three sections with interchangeable shelves.  One section for each child.  When they come home from school, they go straight to the laundry room and drop off their bags, books and lunchboxes.  It has been wonderful this week to use this cabinet.  I got so tired of stepping over bags and kicking them out of my way.  This is a lifesaver!  And now for the fun part!  I'm going to show you how we made the boxes on the top shelf that will be used to hold all their papers.

I grabbed these boxes from when I put Christmas candy out on the shelf at Hobby Lobby.  At the time, I had no idea what I would use them for.  They turned out to be the perfect size and shape!

Then each child went through all my scrapbook paper and picked out some paper for the sides, front, and lettering.  We used Elmer's glue because it is safe for the kids to play in.  This was their favorite step of the whole process.  Here are Amariah and Robbie spreading out their glue.  Ryan, at age 14, was too old to get his picture taken and I had to make him sit down and play in the glue.

Once they glued the paper to the front and the sides, I used a xacto knife to cut around the curves in the front of the box.  If you don't have a Cricut, then I highly recommend you get one!  I only have the smaller one but it gets the job done.  I originally bought it for my scrapbooking but have used it on every thing else!  We cut out their names and glued them to the finished box.

Robbie had fun saying his letters as he put them in the machine.  He was so excited to see his name print out.

 

This is what the finished boxes look like...

 

It's a little bit of organizing but on a grand scale for our family!  School stuff has been an eyesore for us as long as I can remember.  Now I have one more small cabinet to buy for this room to hold all their extra school supplies then I can mark it off my list as complete!

I am grateful for fun loving kids that like to get in there and be messy with me as we create and see what we can come up with.  I love to bounce ideas off of them and see how creative they can be.  A simple but messy project, a small amount of time, but wonderful memories made!

Slight Progress

I've been working all weekend in my laundry room, turning it into the kids' catch-all room.  Whew!  We have too much stuff!!

There are three areas of this room that I'm going to re-purpose.  The first area-- it is the area behind the door as you walk into the room.  This door is always left open because it leads to a bathroom.  So this door to the room kinda acts like a door to this "closet".  All the stuff is hidden, because you have to walk in the room and shut the door to see what is behind the door.  I like it that way!  It's all very accessible, yet hidden.  Perfect!

Here is the YIKES! before picture (and before painting)...

Here is the after picture.  I hope you can tell a difference.  Lol!

The top 4 shelves belong to cases of pictures that are waiting patiently to be scrapbooked.  My soon to be 11 year old (as of next week) daughter has the next shelf.  Yes, along with all her scrapbook supplies, the Cricut is on her shelf.  I bought it with intentions of using it all the time with my scrapbooking but somehow it has become hers with her many school projects.  I will say I'm thankful to have it; her project boards look rather smashing when the Cricut is used.  So far... an "A" on every project.

Then we have the little guy's shelf.

Am I insane for putting Play-Doh, stamp ink, paint, chalk and markers at the reach of a 4 year old?!?  Probably so!  I brought him in and showed him his little shelf.  I wish I was recording him.  He was oh so excited to have his own little place for all his neat stuff!  I sat him down and we discussed how important it is to tell Mommy or Daddy when he wants to work on something.  Then we get the clear table mat and take it to the dining room table.  When we are done, we put it all up and put it back in its place.  If not, then everything gets put up where he can't have it.  He's pretty good about listening.  Even at four years old, he understands consequences.  We'll see how it all pans out.  Actually, I look at it as investing in him and influencing his creative side.  I love being able to offer him choices at his age.

Yah!  Stage one completed!  Stage two started!  Gotta love progress, right??

I'm grateful for kids that get almost as excited as me when it comes to organizing and taking care of their things.  I believe it's very important to teach them to respect and take care of all things that God has blessed us with.

Re-arranging Rooms

I sure do love the mood I get into when I take down my Christmas decorations.  Everything looks so clean, so sparse.  Well, not really sparse because my home is full of things I love so it might be to the point of clutter for some people.  But I surround myself with things I love.  Anyway, back to the point.

In light of this creative mood that I'm in, I have been re-thinking the purpose of a couple of rooms in my home.  So... I have taken it upon myself to do some re-arranging.  As I sat down in one of the rooms to make a mental list, I started to get the feeling of being overwhelmed with the task ahead of me.  Yikes!

This is the plan:  I will take everything out of my now craft/laundry room and turn it into a catch-all-kid room.  Hmm... I need to come up with a catchy name for that area.  I re-painted the room back in October with the plans of purging and organizing as I put it back in the room.  See how nice and clean it is?

Well, it didn't get organized-- more like thrown back in the room and looks worse than ever now.  So... all my craft and scrapbook stuff is going upstairs to the library.  I still have to buy 3 more cabinets with that same finish to store it all in.

When everything is out of that area, then we will get three (one for each child) bookcase-type cabinets.  That will be their area for their school books, athletic equip that is not kept in the garage, toys, jackets, shoes, and no telling what else.  I have a 24 x 36" bulletin board that will go on the wall for all their school/sports/fundraiser/whatever else papers.

This picture is definitely a before shot.  Before I even painted the room.  Eeek!!  Wow, that's a mess!!  This behind the door area will be where all their craft, crayons, play-doh, etc will be.

That is all I can think of at the moment, but I am going to do some net surfing about organizing kids stuff.  If anyone has some great ideas they want to pass on, I would be ever so appreciative!

Julie, this is mainly for you.  =]  When we were stuck at home in the snow and ice, I took the opportunity to organize my gift closet.  This is the only space in my home that is neat, clean and organized right now.  Lol!!  This is pretty much what it is...

This 3-drawer cabinet contains boxes, gift bags, tissue, and flat wrap.  The bottom drawer contains only Christmas.  The middle drawer is organized by everyday, baby, birthday, and kids' categories.  The top drawer is all solid colors.  Yes, there are lots of solid bags-- 200+!  But don't you worry... I only buy them on clearance.  Those all happen to come from Hobby Lobby where I paid pennies for a bag!  I'm such the bargain shopper.  On both sides of the cabinet is where I store my roll wrap.  One side is Christmas kids and the other side is other Christmas, baby, and birthday wrap.

The big blue tote is where I store gifts that I buy throughout the year.  I mainly start buying the essentials for my kids' Christmas (pj's, undies, slippers, etc) in June.  Also, if I come across an extremely awesome deal on something, it gets tossed into the tote.

The small blue tote is the "party tote".  It holds balloons, streamers, banners, etc.  That is mainly Amariah's department.  She's my big birthday decorator.  This is awesome for me!  Not only does she love to do it, I love being able to mark that off my list without any worries.  No stress there!  =]

This tote holds the 25 cent packages of bows that I buy after Christmas.  I love after-Christmas sales!  On top of it, I keep all my solid tissue paper.  It is organized by color (of the rainbow).  Yes, I am a freak... I already know that because my family likes to remind me.  I had to show you my little stash of tape.  Every year after Christmas at Hobby Lobby, we always have tons of tape left over.  So I stock up on it at 66% and 80% off!

Then this shelf contains cards.  The box on the right is my Christmas card box.  It contains silver pens, cards, address labels and thank you notes.  The box in the middle is my card organizer.  It came from Current.  Remember that neat little catalog?  I wonder if it's still around?  I've had that box for many, many years.  It just happens to be the very first thing I ever bought, even before I married, for organizing.  I guess it can be blamed for my organizing madness!  The box on the left is mainly Christmas gift tags/labels.  There are a few everyday ones in there.

I guess this post is long enough.  If you made it this far, then thank you for holding out till the end.  If you stopped 1/4 of the way into it... I really don't blame you.  Haha!  I'm just way procrastinating!  I could accomplish so much in the next hour with the kids being in bed, Rich gone to work.  But I'm a little overwhelmed on where to start.  I think I'll post pictures as I go so I can look back and see that progress is being made.

I am grateful today for a place in my home for everything and everything (soon to be) in place.

Christmas, Part Three... and finally the end!

We finally made it for Christmas with Rich's mom on Rich's birthday... the day after Christmas!  Yes, he grew up with his birthday presents wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and Christmas cards instead of birthday cards.  Poor little baby... so I try to make his birthday all about "him" even though he is 42.  Well, these were circumstances beyond my control, so he still had a good birthday/Christmas.

I just love this picture of Ryan, his eyes are so beautiful!  Now, the light 'stache that's going on... not so much!!  Anyway, he was playing around with his new hat and $$ he received from Mema.

The next morning, Sunday, we woke up and headed to Missouri.  Finally!  We met my parents in town for lunch, then headed to their house and opened our gifts.  Some family members dropped by to see us.  Even though ALL the family wasn't present, it was a very nice visit for those we were able to spend time with.  We played games and laughed so hard till way past midnight.  That's unusual for us on a week night!

We rang in 2010 pretty quietly.

Well... not too quiet, actually.  Our plan to get together with a group of friends was shattered by my kids' unruly behavior.  It was getting towards the end of Christmas break and they really hadn't been out of the house except for the two Christmas get-togethers.  They were WILD... to say the least!  I don't know what was going on with them.  I let them stay up till they couldn't stay awake any longer and let them sleep most of New Year day.  That day turned out to be a nice and quiet day.  Lol!  I guess they just needed to get it out of their system.  Whew!

With all the ice and snow we've had, we were waiting for a warmer day to give them their last present.  We knew it wasn't going to happen and they would be going back to school very soon, so we had to do it this day!  Please look past all the clutter (hopefully that will be our Spring project because it didn't happen last Spring!) in the garage, but I wanted to post this picture of them "closing their eyes".  I just love Robbie's expression... he's the little guy in the middle.  He's trying so hard not to peek!

Again, I love Robbie's expression in this picture as the other 2 are extremely excited.  Rob... he's not so sure...

...as this was their last present.

We had to take it for a spin.  So each child got one ride and then the older two got to drive a little bit.  We are going to take them and get their little heads fitted for helmets, but for this one time ONLY; I did allow them to go with bicycle helmets.

Not sure I'm too ready for this!!  Amariah is wwaaaaayy too young to be behind a wheel!

But this scares me more than anything else!!  In one year and three months... this will be a real wheel, a real vehicle, the real deal!!  I'm so glad I have God to sustain me through these years and not Prozac!

Robbie didn't like it.  We had to force him to get on.  He kept saying "Now go real slow Daddy, did you hear me?  Go real slow".  In the end, he loved it.  I don't know who had more fun?  Daddy or Robbie?

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas.  There was no rushing here, rushing there, rushing everywhere, and not getting any sleep like our Christmas' usually seem to be.  This year it wasn't all about the presents like my kids like to think it is.  This year it was all about quality family time-- the way it should be every year!!

I am so very grateful for the love in my life, the family in my life.

Soup for the Soul

Our church had its Ladies Christmas Party Tuesday evening.  "Soup for the Soul" was the theme.  The whole evening revolved around this theme.  Our Women's Activity Team is awesome!  As always, they put together a wonderful evening!  We had a delicious smorgasbord of soups, salads, breads, and desserts!

Needing something to label my soup, I came across a very cute little soup label in one of my Gooseberry Patch cookbooks.  So I sat down one night and went through all of the 28 GBP cookbooks that I own and found tons of cute labels for us to use!  I copied them onto cream colored cardstock.  Then the real fun began!  I used my scrapbooking chalk and watercolor pen to color in the pictures.  It took longer than I anticipated, but I enjoyed doing it.  Robbie wanted to color and chalk with me, so I got his coloring books and he joined me.  I asked him if we should get his workbook and work on some pages.  He LOVES his workbook!  He said "No Mommy, I'm having fun coloring with you."  Ah, too cute!  =]

As the ladies came in the door, the labels were sitting on a table for them to write what they brought and tape to it.  There were so many mouth-watering dishes-- I'm glad we had the labels!  I was so excited about getting a night of sweet fellowship with my sister friends that I forgot to take a picture of the food tables before.

My favorite soup is "Granny's Potato Soup".  Funny... We don't have a Granny in our family.  I'm not even sure where the recipe came from.  But she sure made some delicious potato soup!

 

It's so delicious... I think I'll share with you:

• 6-8 medium potatoes
• 6-8 slices bacon
  
• 2 can cream of chicken soup
  
• 2 cups milk
  
• 1 stick butter
  
• 1 pt. sour cream
  

Dice potatoes and boil until tender.  Fry bacon until crisp.  Crumble bacon and put into crock pot.  Add 2 cans cream of chicken soup, milk, butter and sour cream.  Put drained potatoes on top and turn crock pot on high.  Cook until bubbles and well mixed.

Yum!  Only I cheat a little and use real bacon bits instead of taking the time to fry up some bacon.  I also leave out the sour cream.  And it is still very yummy and creamy!

Our leader of the Women's Ministry had a devotional for us about the different kinds of soups of our life and everything that we put into our soup.  I enjoyed the lesson and it touched my heart.  Amanda had a powerful way of presenting her message and she gently reminded us of the many, many blessings that we have!

 

We were blessed to hear the testimony of one of our youth girls.  The microphone was open to any others that wanted to partake.  It was a wonderful time of sharing.  Following this was a very compelling prayer time. 

To end the evening, we had a craft.  How fun!  There were tables set up with enamel paint and markers.  We painted on soup bowls!  It was hard to decide what to do, but I ended up painting a lime green and pink one for Amariah to use in her bedroom.

I am grateful for:

• my husband for encouraging me to attend this event
• my oldest son for watching his younger brother so I was able to attend
  
• my sister friends who are so fun to be with even when I'm dog tired
  
• my daughter who loved her bowl painted just for her
  
• my God who loves me, bestows His great mercy on me especially when my soup is scorched/burnt
  

Much joy, much frustration

I really am not one to brag.  I have despised braggarts for as long as I can remember.  Even as I child, I never bragged.  It just didn't seem right.  I felt so smug when I would do it.  That's what I love about my little blog.  It is my 'safe sanctuary' away from the world.  I can cry all I want, laugh all I want, be outraged and irritated all I want, or even brag all I want.  So that is what I am going to do!

I am filled with much joy and pride from Amariah's Parent/Teacher conference.  We've always gotten remarkable reports about her ever since her very first year of school.  She is a bright young lady and I am so very proud of her.  We have never pushed for her to be a straight A student.  She has put that pressure on herself.  Sometimes, she puts too much pressure on herself!  We have always taught her to love God first, her family second and her friends next.  We have embedded in her the importance of an education.  She knows that school is to be more important than sports, friends, and yes... even boyfriends!  All the years of experience with P/T conferences had not prepared me for what I was about to hear from her current 5th grade teacher.  When I walked in, he immediately told me how much he has enjoyed having Amariah in his class.  He said she was doing great, no problems.  Yes, I know.. (I can brag here) I hear that every year.  He told me that I wouldn't believe what he was about to say.  He went on to explain to me about the GATES test that is taken every Spring and Fall.  It is reading, comprehension and vocab.  She received a near perfect score!  She tested at above high school level!!  I was shocked and so was he!  He said he couldn't believe it!  So for the rest of the conference my mind was swirling, trying to comprehend how smart my little girl was and trying to pay attention as well.  It was so hard.  I was basking in the gloating I was hearing about my girl.  He then went on to tell me how she is so smart, but she doesn't brag about it.  I emphasized that I have worked hard on instilling humbleness to my kids.  Still in shock over her test scores, he shocked me even more by illustrating how very much my daughter was like his own wife.  His wife is a doctor, who is very smart, beautiful and has a lovable personality.  He proceeded with his envision of Amariah going very far in life and doing great things because she is smart, pretty, outgoing, and has a wonderful personality.  Okay... Wow... I'm speechless... and so very proud!  I can honestly say I've never had anyone brag on my own child so much. 

Thank you Mr. Dillbeck for such kind words about my girl.  She is special and she knows that because I tell her all the time that she is.  She will tell you that she is special because God made her, God loves her and God will always be with her.  I am proud of how well she is doing by the world's standards, but nothing makes me more proud than her knowing Jesus as her Lord and Savior!

Whew!

Now about my frustration... Ryan.  Can we go to the opposite end of the spectrum??  What on earth is going on?!  We go from a child with straight A's to a child with one failing grade and four grades that are within points of being failing grades.  What?!

  Extremely heavy sigh here

What have we done wrong?  Where have we failed him?  We are honestly at a loss of what to do with him and for him.  We have struggled with him from all the way down to first grade.. all the way up to the now current 8th grade.  Every single year, every single teacher, every single word the same.  He's immature, he doesn't care, he's too laid back, and believe it or not, he's very smart.  I know this.  I've heard this many times over.  He can do the work, it just seems to get lost somewhere between the desk (or his homework folder) to the teacher.  This is a sampling of his grades:  100, 100, 0, 97, 0, 0, 88, 100, 0, 0, 0.  There is no motivation unless he finds it on his own.  Will we ever survive his school years?  Will we make it through high school?  Will he graduate??  As much as I hate to say it, I find myself pondering these things over and over again.  What can we do?  What can I do?  We've punished, bragged, grounded, bribed, spanked, paid money.  What is left to do?  I'm exhausted.  Have I given up?  Not at this moment.  Truth be told, in the past I have and I told him so.

As frustrated as I get with him, I will never give up on him.  He is still my boy.  My oldest child.  I've been praying for him before he was even born.  I trust God with all my heart.  How else could I ever get through this?  I know there is a lesson somewhere in all this mess.  I'm thankful God is in control of the situation because if He wasn't it would be utter chaos!  As frustrated as I get about Ryan's carefree (or should I say care less) attitude towards school, I am thankful that he too, knows how very special he is.  He knows God made him special, God loves him and God will always be with him.

I'm thankful for Ryan and Amariah (and Robbie, too!).   More so, I'm grateful for my loving God who gives me the strength, peace and wisdom to face each new situation that arises with each child.  I don't even want to think what my life would be like without Him!