Heading home... where I belong

I headed back home Friday.  I was looking forward to this time alone to get back to my roots.

I can't even explain how much joy there was in my heart as I traveled through my state.  I saw those rolling hills and the familiar roads, towns, creeks, and churches.  I couldn't help but be happy to be home again.

But even in the small towns where you expect things to remain constant, there is change.  I stopped off at a local shop that I loved to visit.  I hadn't been in there in over 10 years.  The older gentleman and I had a brief conversation.  He says "That's the way the world is anymore."  I won't remember what it was like in there now... I will always remember it the way it used to be.

I forget how much my heart longs to be back until I travel that way and I'm confronted with my emotions.  Is it because I'm reminded of simpler times?

No matter how much I have tried, I just can't seem to call Oklahoma "home".  I've made a living there, made a house there, and even raised my kids there.  But my home will always be in Southwest Missouri.

I'm grateful for the closeness I have to my roots.  I'm grateful that I will never forget where me and my family came from.  I'm grateful for the strong family bond that has a legacy of love, unity, and kindness.


I found this Bible verse and I thought it was fitting to this post:


Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
~ Colossians 2:7

A couple of last weekends junking finds

I went out junking last weekend with two of my kids in tow.  I prefer not taking them so I can take my time and look for me.  They always have something to show me or something they want.  But it was either take them or not go.  I only have a couple of pictures for right now.

I picked up these rolling pins.  The big one was $1, the other one was only 25 cents!  I love it because it's different than any I have.  Can anyone tell me why it is made that way?  The guy I bought it off didn't know.  This is when I really miss my grandmas!  I would call them up and ask them about anything on this earth and they would give me an answer, especially about old pieces and home remedies.  Anyway, I was excited to add a couple of rolling pins to my small collection.

The old Cain's spice tin was only 75 cents and it is going on top of one of my spice cabinets in the kitchen.  I love this old broom!  There was a $6 price on it so I picked it up.  As I was looking at the stuff on the table, the lady said that everything on the table was a quarter.  I showed her the $6 price tag and she said it's still a quarter.  Woo Hoo!  =]

The broom is in great shape except for at the top.  I didn't want to cover any of the pretty bristles, so I just cut off the scraggly strands and glued a little homespun at the top.  It's going in my laundry room but right now, it's all decorated for fall so I will have to wait till I change out with the seasons.

I have a few more awesome deals that I picked up but I will show them with the makeovers I do on them.  I so love before & after pics, they are fun!

I know so many have already decorated for Christmas.  I love all the holidays and enjoy decorating for all of them.  But my first love is fall so I will join in at the end of November.  Thanks for stopping by for a visit, I appreciate hearing from you all!  I let my blog reading get three weeks behind... YIKES!  But I'm glad to say that now I'm only one week behind.  =]

Amariah's hot pink & lime green bedroom, part 2

Now on to pictures of Amariah's room.  Curtain and bed before...

I had bought a cheap curtain rod (and I mean CHEAP!) at Wal-mart for a dollar or two and that's why it's bowed in the middle.  It didn't even come with a middle bracket but I thought since the sheers were very light it would be okay... not so as you can see by the dip in the middle.  We bought this cute curtain rod with pink glass balls on the ends at Hobby Lobby on clearance.  Not only did it come with a middle bracket but it's pretty sturdy.

Here is a picture of the dresser and junk, er... stuff before...

We moved it to where the bed used to be.  Now it's just organized junk, er... stuff.

Here is a picture of her vanity and a shelf before.  Her birthday party last January was pink and green so she had to put streamers all over her bedroom. I'm glad she realized it was time for them to go.  It's so hard to let them be independent when you so badly want to say No, don't do that! 

So she took off the streamers and decided it was time to put the dolls and teddy bears away, even though they are special.  We bought the colorful glass bottles at Hobby Lobby at 50% off.  They had so many pretty colors, sizes, and shapes that she had such a hard time deciding!  I told her we can go back and pick up a few more since their glassware is on sale every other week.

Little bookshelf area and Dino, the turtle before...

I talked her into grouping her posters in one spot for a bigger impact.  I like how she positioned them.  We bought a plain white clock at Goodwill and painted it pink.  I think it turned out cute.

We bought two bead curtains at Hobby Lobby on clearance.  One was pink and one was green.  I cut them into 2-strand sections and put them on a cafe rod then hid the rod inside the closet.

A little help here... any ideas on what to do with the cords from the hanging lanterns?  I thought about making cord covers in coordinating colors but maybe it would be easier to have my electrician brother change it out to battery operated lights instead.  Any easy ideas?

So there you have it.  My pre-teenage daughter's bedroom.  Not much in the way of major change, just little make-overs that we performed here and there.  It was fun working together to achieve what she desired.  I prefer the yellow & white, daisy & bumblebee stage but I know this is part of growing up.

No matter how much I want to fight her growing up, I choose to embrace her age and enjoy her at this time in her life for I am grateful for each day here on this earth that I have with my precious daughter.

Amariah's hot pink & lime green bedroom, part 1

Excuse the lighting in the pictures.  I wanted to share what my 11 year old daughter Amariah and I did with her room over fall vacation last month.  The two boys spent the week with Grandma and Grandpa in MO so it was perfect timing for us to concentrate on her room.  We had so much fun doing it too!

We talked about painting the walls hot pink and lime green but we decided all her accents would blend in and wouldn't "pop out".  So the decision was made to keep the walls a neutral color.  Honestly, I was a wee bit disappointed because I thought it would be so much fun to paint with those colors since the rest of my home is neutral and dark colors to go with my primitives and antiques.

This post will be the makeovers of some new/existing pieces and then I'll do another post with the finished room.

She had seen this lamp back in the summer at Hobby Lobby.  When we were in there buying ribbon, trims, and fabric; we noticed that it was 66% off so we couldn't pass it up, right?

It's a very cute lamp but white just doesn't work with her room so we took it off and bought a lime green boa that we cut up and hot glued in its place.  Much better!

Under the lamp picture (with the white boa) is a red fabric covered bulletin board that I bought at 90% off one year after Christmas.  I covered it in a cute yellow gingham back when A's room was yellow & white with daises & bumblebees.  Now we are using it for her next stage, the pre-teen stage of her room.  This is the fabric she picked out for it:

She picked up some cute buttons at Joann's that she wanted to use on the board.  The thrifty shopper that I am training her to be... the buttons are the only thing that we paid full price for.  I already had the ribbon in my crafting stash.  The finished piece:

All the furniture in her room belonged to my husband's grandmother so I'm thrilled that she is getting to grow up with it.  This vanity chair was covered in what appears to be a sheet (some of my FIL's handy work, lol).

A picked out this cute fabric to cover it.  We didn't screw the seat back to the frame yet because we are going to paint her furniture white again.  I hope to start that next week!  Realistically, it'll probably be next spring but I'm gonna try for sooner.  We also bought some really cute hot pink trim with little bead dangles to add right under the seat to dress it up a bit.

One last little makeover to show.  She received this neat board for Christmas last year but it's never matched anything so it's been stuck in the closet.

We took out the fabric covered bulletin part

A picked out some pink polka dot fabric to cover it in and some pretty cute ribbon to stripe it.  Then she added a little wooden piece to the upper corner.  I forgot to get a close-up picture of it.  Now she loves it!

One of my favorite things in her room is her name spelled out on chipboard that a very good friend added scrapbook paper and embellishments to.  Marie did a fantastic job on it and even asked me if she could do it because she wanted to play around.  She wouldn't even let me pay her for any of it.  It's so very sweet and most definitely the focal point of A's room!  Amariah saw that poster and wanted to add it to her room.  The poster and poster frame were 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

I'll be back soon with the rest of her room.  I know... you all are so excited you just can't wait, lol.  We really enjoyed our time together... shopping, eating out, talking, laughing, and even working.

I am grateful that God blessed me with a beautiful, loving daughter.  I see so much of me in her.  I pray for her and her future daily and I hope one of these days I'll be helping her with her daughter's room.  =]

Halloween Amish doll??

This is a fun, little post that is good for Halloween...

Remember my Amish doll that I bought for $4 at the antique mall in Amish land a couple months back?

Well, her apron was just too white.  After I took it off to tea dye it, I realized her body was too white.  So I decided to give her a bath in tea and look what I found!  The name, town, and date of the maker!  How cool is that!  She is celebrating her 21st birthday this month.  Lol!

I had to hang her up to drain all the tea out and well, this is the only thing I could come up with...

I have to say, it was quite comical being in the kitchen to watch the faces of each family member as they came through and laid eyes on it.  My husband was obviously speechless because all he did was shake his head and walk away without a word.

My two older kids came in the kitchen at different times just talking away and both stopped dead in their tracks and said "What are you doing?  What has happened to you?  Why would you do that??".  They too shook their heads and got out of there as quick as they could.

Then the youngest, the just-turned-5 came in chattering on about something.  He stopped.  His eyes were so huge I thought they were gonna bust right out of their sockets!  He started backing up, then slowly made his way over to me and got behind me peeking through and stuttering he said "M-o-m, what is that?".  Poor thing had to sleep with me that night.  For a few days afterwards, he would look around the kitchen before he came in.  "Mom, where is that thing that was hanging up?".  He just didn't want to believe it was a doll.  Not until she was put back together did he hold her and laugh about it.  =]

I told them all that we were making our own haunted house decorations this year.  They got so excited about it that I had to tell them I was just kidding and was only tea dyeing.

Poor things, they just don't ever know what to do or say about my primitive exploits.  =]

Thank you... and football & cheerleading...

Thank you for the prayers for my husband.  We praise God and thank Him for bringing healing in Rich's body!  Most people we talked to said they had kidney stones for a minimum of two weeks, most had them 3-4 weeks.  But Praise God! Rich only had them for one week!  We were praying that it would pass before his scheduled surgery appointment on Monday.  You have to hear this, it was the coolest thing!  Thursday evening after the kids were in bed, we sat together and I was telling him how I felt confident enough to say that the stone would pass before Monday morning.  I had total peace for the first time since the whole ordeal started.  He said "You're not going to believe this, but after the preachers were here to pray with me (earlier that evening-- I was gone and came home as they were leaving), I felt a total peace come over me and I too, know the same thing".  We both smiled and I said "Well, God just confirmed it for us, so get ready for pain when that baby comes out!!".  He passed the stone Saturday evening and played drums at church Sunday so we were excited to call Monday morning and cancel the surgery!  Our God is just too marvelous for words, isn't He?!

Since then, we've had a busy month of football and cheerleading!  Homecoming was Oct. 8.  Here is Amariah and the 6th grade cheerleaders with their Mardi Gras themed float for the Homecoming parade.  They made their own masks, I thought they turned out cute.  Amariah chose orange and black.

Our beautiful and very sweet friend, Saleana was chosen to be the freshman attendant.

It was a wonderful, fall night... perfect football weather!

The cheerleading association which is 1st - 6th grades always does a dance routine at halftime that they learned during cheer camp over the summer.  My camera setting dial was turned and I didn't realize it because I was too busy snapping away so all my pictures are blurry.  =[  Amariah is on the front row, second from the right with glasses.  She is really good at cheering and dancing, we are so proud of her!

This picture is from last week's game on Saturday.

Funny thing... we were gonna get her set up for an eye appt. the next week to finally get contacts.  During this game her glasses kinda fell apart on her so needless to say, we got in first thing Monday morning.  She is loving her new look.

On this day, I'm grateful for prayer warrior friends that are always there to encourage, support, and lift us up to Jesus.  Their faith and love are always so inspiring to me.  Thank you Lord, for the friends you place in our lives!

Comfort

Do you have a favorite comfort mug you reach for?  This is mine.

  

Even when we have snow in April, I love to fill up my snowman mug with hot chocolate!  It's so good on this crisp autumn night.  Even though there is a chill in the air, I love to keep my garden window open so I can hear the leaves rustling around.  I can't see them tonight, but I love to stand near the sink and listen to them.

Another of my comforts... or should I say my favorite comfort... is being wrapped in the arms of my Loving Savoir.  That's where I am right now.  I am saddened for my husband.  Rich has kidney stones and has been in pain since Saturday night.  We went to the urologist this morning and our options were to wait it out for it to pass or surgery.  The stone this morning is in the same place as it was when we went to the ER Saturday night.  Rich decided to wait for a couple more days and then surgery.  So we set it all up for surgery Monday morning.  Please join me in prayer that his stone will pass before then and we can cancel that surgery!

I'm grateful for my Loving Savior that lets me come to Him and pour out my heart, my grievances, my worries... all while He wraps His arms around me tighter, assuring me that all will be well.  All will work out.

Portable fabric samples

Okay girls... since you have so much wonderful advice to give, here is my next question... Do you take fabric samples with you when you go shopping and if you do, how do you store them?  Sometimes when I'm out supply shopping, I find myself wishing I could see my fabrics to match some things.  I'm trying to find a way to take all my fabric with me without carrying the whole stash around.

There is a nifty little app for the iPhone that is for fabric.  You take pictures of your fabrics and you can even store them in special folders.  Kinda neat, but I like seeing the real thing in real color.  So I thought about putting snippets of fabric in a composition book.

I cut a few pieces out but I haven't stapled them to the page yet.  I'm holding out for a bit... hoping to get some great advice from YOU on if this works or if there is something better out there.  So I will wait for your ideas.  =]

Have fun creating and crafting!  Till next time~

Microwave tip

As I'm sitting here enjoying my caramel apple slices on this First Day of Autumn (quite by accident, but delicious nonetheless) I thought I would share a little microwave tip that I read in one of those handy dandy magazines like Better Homes & Garden or Martha Stewart Living.... wish I could give credit where credit is due but I'm not sure where it goes.

I'm not a microwave cooker, don't particularly like mine except that it's a combination convection oven which is pretty handy sometimes.  When it does get used, I demand that food is covered or else you clean off the explosion that's stuck on the roof.

Here is my little bowl of caramels that are getting melted down (gotta love these cute little bowls from The Pampered Chef, they are wonderful!).

We're not coffee drinkers so I bought a bag of coffee filters at the Dollar Tree. 160 for a buck.  You put these over your food for cover instead of wasting precious paper towels.  Paper towels are precious in our home, we seem to go through them quite fast!

Oh, but that's not all folks!  They can even be used as little plates...

This is wonderful if you have little ones in your home.  Mine would much rather have chicken nuggets from the microwave than deliciously cooked in the oven. I don't even know where he gets that.

Another great use for these are when you are washing windows or mirrors.  I have not tried this one yet as I keep forgetting.  Using coffee filters are much more cost effective than paper towels.

Just wanted to share my little tip with you.  Today I am grateful for little bits of information that make our life a little bit easier, a little bit cheaper.  =]

Rusting jingle bells

You girls are truly wonderful!  Thank you so much for all your words of support, advice, and encouragement on my last post!  I really love and appreciate each one of you!

I have managed to set some jingle bells outside to rust.  I loaded up when Hobby Lobby had their bags 50% off!  That included the ones in the Christmas section that were in big tubes.  It always excites me to get my supplies so cheap.  I had such a huge grin when I was walking out of the store.  Is anyone else as cheesy as me?  Lol!

My thoughtful husband saw my platter of bells and said "It's going to rain, those bells are gonna rust, you better get them inside".  Haha!  When I told him that was my plan, he just looked at me like I was crazy then went on about his business without saying a word.  He's just used to it by now.

That was on September 8th.  Here it is two weeks later and they are doing pretty good:

The bigger ones are going pretty slow.  I will have to move them to a deeper dish so they will be completely covered.

So you girls that rust bells the natural way... how long does it usually take?  I check my water level every few days to fill it up and give them a shake.  My itty, bitty ones are probably done.  They are so tiny, so cute!  You can't even see them, they are covered in the water.  I can't wait to use them!

Have fun crafting and creating!  Till next time~

WHERE'S MY CREATING, CRAFTING, SCRAPBOOKING TIME?!?!

Wow girls!  This is really not going as I envisioned it would.  =[

Today marks the 5th week that my kids have been in school.  I was not pushing for school to start, I enjoy spending the summer with my kids especially since I was able to quit work this summer and spend even more time with them.  But I will say that I would get excited when I thought about the alone time I would have to create, craft, and scrapbook!  WRONG!

My little guy started half-day Pre K this year.

My baby girl started middle school this year.

My big guy started high school this year.

Let me just run through what my typical day has consisted of these past five weeks.

• Get the kids up at 6:40am
• Leave the house at 7:20am
• Drop off daughter at middle school at 7:30am
• Drop off oldest son at high school at 7:35am
• Go home and spend the morning with youngest son
• Leave the house at 12:10pm
• Drop off youngest son at elementary school at 12:20pm
• Go home and do dishes, laundry, pick up the house
• Leave the house at 2:20pm
• Pick up daughter from school at 2:30pm
• Pick up youngest son from school at 2:50pm
• Go home and help with homework, check the computer
• Leave the house at 4:45pm
• Pick up oldest son from football practice at 5:00pm
• Go home and cook dinner
• Leave the house at 6:20pm on Tue and Thur
• Drop off daughter at cheer practice at 6:30pm on Tue and Thur
• Go home and relax!
• Leave the house at 8:15pm
• Pick up daughter from cheer practice at 8:30pm
• Go home and get school bags and clothes ready for the next day
• Daughter in bed at 9pm
• Youngest son in bathtub at 9:15pm
• Oldest son in bed at 10pm
• Read books to youngest son in bed at 10pm
• 10:30pm till I crash-- computer time

Daughter's games are every Saturday.  Son's games are on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

WHERE'S MY CREATING, CRAFTING, SCRAPBOOKING TIME?!?!

I know, I know!!  I've heard it thousands of times and that's no exaggeration... enjoy this time with them while you can for they will soon be gone.  I'm trying my hardest!

In-between these "times", I did manage to get things gathered, priced, and set up for a garage sale that we had.  We did really good... sold lots and lots of stuff... not much left.  Yah for that!  I was also able to get almost all my fall decorations out.  Yah for that too!  Now to find the time to take some pictures of it so I can get that header picture changed, haha!

So if you don't see me for awhile, I'm still here... trying to catch up on my blog reading (only one week behind now instead of two) and taking care of the duties of one blessed momma and wife!  I will add this... yes, my husband is very involved with the kids, helping out with them and the chores of the home but he works between 48-60 hours a week on the midnight shift.  He's always willing to lead a helping hand after he gets a good day's sleep.  =]

Looking forward to seeing all of your fall decorations~

Our first day of school

I can't believe I've been gone from here for a month and a half.  Wow!  I expected things to slow down when school started but silly me was wrong!  Things have been crazy busy lately.

Well we are 4.5 weeks into school already.  The start of this school year has been a rough one for me.  There are lots of "firsts" with my kids that makes me stand up and take notice of the fleeting years.  I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that my oldest baby started his first day of high school.  My middle baby started her first day of middle school and my youngest baby started his first day of elementary school.


My almost five year old little guy was so excited about finally going to "big school" like his sister and brother.  But after three days of it, he was ready to stay home with mom. Robbie is a momma's boy and momma did have a hard time with her baby leaving. He is only in school half a day in the afternoons so we still have our mornings together, just him and I... and we love it!

Oh my word!  Let me tell you how perfect God's timing is!  Robbie picked out a book for us to read on the night before school started.  I've always had a love of children's books and have been collecting them since before my first child was even born.  We have so many books in our library, that I had forgotten about "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn.  It is a perfect first day story!  This is a story about a little raccoon getting ready to start school.  He talks about his fears to his mother.  His mother comes up with a wonderful solution to help her little raccoon remember that she loves him and is thinking about him, even when she isn't with him.  She kisses him in the middle of his palm and whenever he feels lonely and needs some loving from home, he is to press his hand to his cheek and he will be reminded of her love.  I had tears in my eyes after reading this story.  When I dropped Robbie off at school the next day he was such a big boy.  As I was leaving, I blew him a kiss.  He caught it in the air and put it to his cheek.  We smiled so big!  Then I rushed on out of there before anyone could see not just the tears that were streaming down my face, but the full blown crying spell I was having.  He's so adorable and has brought so much joy to our family.

My 11 year old baby girl, as I sometimes call her is maturing well into her years.  It makes me happy but at times I would love to see her enjoying life a little more.  I know it doesn't help to live with two boys though.  Amariah is our smart, beautiful, well-adjusted, compassionate, mature, loving, diligent (I could go on and on and on) athlete.  We have received numerous compliments on how well-rounded she is... being good at every single thing she does.  She pushes herself to the max and doesn't give up.  She is truly a breath of fresh air and I am so thankful for her willingness to help out at all times without even being asked.  We enjoy our mom/daughter shopping trips so much!

I went in the school with her and embarrassed her three-fold but not really meaning too.  For some reason, parents don't go in the middle school and take pictures of their kids at their locker and in the hall.  Hehe!  As she was pushing me down the hall to get rid of me, I told her I loved her anyway, was very proud of her, and wished her a wonderful first day of school.  

My big guy has grown tremendously over the summer.  14 year old Ryan has come so far and matured so much just since May, the end of last school year.  Here he is on his first day of high school.

He likes to look tough but he can be a sweetheart... when he wants to be.  He's always cracking jokes and making us laugh.  He is a huge help to his dad and I.  I took him to his doctor for his football physical and he is now 5' 5 1/4" and weighs in at 154 pounds.  I said "He can't be that tall, that's how tall I am."  He stood right in front of me and looked me straight in the eyes!  When did my baby boy grow up like that?!?  I took him school clothes shopping and we had to transition from youth sizes to men's sizes!  I was having a hard enough time with the thought of him entering high school, now I am having to shop in the men's department for his clothes!  Ugh!

This day was full of tears... Sad tears, joyful tears, melancholy tears, proud tears.  I just couldn't seem to stop the tears.  I've always been an emotional person but this day was a hard one for me.  Thankfully Rich understood all too well how hard this was for me.  Why, I even caught him wiping away the tears when the last child was dropped off at school.

As if you couldn't tell... my life is full of busy-ness, but it's also filled with lots of love.  I am so proud of each one of my kids and have so much love for them.  I am extremely grateful and thank God daily for bringing our family together and growing us up in love!