Simplifying Christmas

Like most people, I love Christmas time. It's so much fun to give and receive gifts, wrap presents, listen to Christmas music, bake goodies to enjoy. Last year, I was just plain tired. All the many Christmas traditions we've started and maintained began to feel like a burden. Inwardly I groaned, "Do we really have to decorate Christmas cookies, make gingerbread houses, go look at lights, draw names and shop among the siblings, buy advent calendars, watch the light show on Metcalf, etc, etc, etc..." I was feeling a bit Scroog-y. We did those things and I tried to maintain a good attitude. I do of course want to make special memories for and with my children. I just want to find a balance between laziness (on my part) and frenetic activity that wears me out and makes me a grumpy Mom.

After the Christmas season last year, I purged a lot of my Christmas decorations. I just had too much stuff. So, I kept the things I really think are beautiful or that the kids really enjoy. This year putting up decorations was so nice and simple. A few things here and there, and of course the tree. I think I'm going to apply my decorating philosophy to our busy Christmas fun "to-do" list. We will keep the things that are really important, and if we need to skip a thing or two, that's okay. My goal won't be doing it all, but making what we *do* get around to special.

Before and After: Kids' Bathroom

We rented this house for a year with no thought of actually purchasing it at first.  It was just a blessing to have a rental at a reasonable price, that would fit all ten of us.  After living in the house, though, it really grew on us, and even though it was in need of a lot of work (major and cosmetic), the Lord allowed us to buy it last May from our friend and landlord at a reasonable price.  Since then, it's been a constant rhythm of projects, big and small. At times not much work has gotten done, and other times it seems like we have worn ourselves out working hard.  The Lord has used the unfinished and 'in process' appearance of our house to humble me: a perfectionist who loves to decorate and have everything look pretty and polished.

Our latest (and longest ongoing) project has been the kids' bathroom (and guest bath). This room was an original 1978 mess: brown tile everywhere, ugly dated wallpaper, carpet (can't stand carpet in a bathroom---especially with little boys!! Ewww). The tile surround in the shower had had water leakage behind it so the room smelled moldy.  Sure enough, when our tile guy demo'd it, he ended up delaying work a day so he could douse everything with bleach to kill all the mold.  

As of the wee hours of this morning (!), Kevin and I have pretty much finished with the room. The only thing left to do is a little bit of paint touch-up, and I will refinish the cabinets with Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations. They'll be a country white, so try to imagine them in the following photos!  Also, imagine I had three light bulbs for the fixture instead of one.  :)  Forgive the fuzzy pictures.  All I have time for this morning is uploading photos from my phone.  

Before....

And, After....

I don't know if I would have chosen the same paint color if the countertop had been in when I was trying it out.  I think we can live with the grey and tannish color, though.

I have much to do in the kitchen (as I'm sure most of you do), so I'm off the computer and into the kitchen.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Have a wonderful day of family and food and giving thanks to the One from whom all blessings flow!

Happy July

July is here (1/4 over already!), and we are back to school. The night before we were to start back, I admit I didn't feel ready or excited. However, I love that schooling year-round (taking off June) allows me to not feel guilty when we decide to take off days just 'because', or because we need to for sickness or travel. So, this year I have a 10th grader, 8th, 6th, 4th, 2nd, and Kindergartner. And Sam and Eli are in the mix, too, learning in their little preschool ways. :) I have a workable schedule, at this point, and things are going fine. I do need to stay in prayer for strength and endurance and patience. I fail in each of those ways so often. I'm persevering, by God's grace, though!

  The girls with our dear neighbor, Deb. They made these dresses with her help.

This is our new little puppy, Bailey.  Sad, long story short, our other puppy, Bella, got sick and we had to have her put down after only having her for two months.  I now understand people's attachment to their pets a little bit better.  We were pretty sad around here for a while.  We won't be able to pick up Bailey for two more weeks, but everyone's excited.  I am excited, and nervous.  Wow.  Having a puppy is a lot like having a newborn.  I'm trying to gear up for all the work that's ahead!

This one's from Kevin's phone and is a bit fuzzy.  She's a cutie.  We fell in love with this breed with little Bella. She was a really good doggie.

Keely, who, by the way, took almost all of these photos, took this of the dinner table the other night.  The kids love to have lit candles, even if we are having pizza.  You can see our newly painted dining room.  It was a bright-ish yellow before, and quite banged up.  I like a dark, cozy dining room.

We were in Nashville for a family reunion a few weeks ago.  The kids enjoyed this cool castle-themed park.  I love that you can see Eli's happy little face upside-down. And my handsome hubby in the background.

It's funny, but out of our eight children, Sam and Eli are the first two boys born next to each other.  Sam is quite sweet with Eli, and Eli clearly thinks he's great.  If you know Sam at all, you'll understand why this concerns me a little.  I think we have some interesting mischief ahead.

Annesley is a total ham.  You can see some of her handiwork in this picture.

Here's a little sweaty-heady on the Fourth of July.  We had a nice time with some dear friends, though we didn't end up seeing any fireworks at all.  Next year...

Happy July to you!

Spring Break Projects!

Yesterday Lily and Rowan and I worked on new dresses for their dollies.  They both helped some, watched some, listened some, and took breaks to do other things while I sewed and ironed.  ;)  I didn't get any photos of Lily, but she was very anxious to do as much of the sewing herself as I would let her.  Sewing is not my most favorite thing, but I hope that my girls will learn and enjoy it, so I tried to keep sighs and negative comments to a minimum.

Rebecca and Gwen model their new dresses.  Gwen's was sized incorrectly when I printed out the pattern, so it turned out a bit, um, flirtier that we were expecting.  You can get away with that when you are an 18" doll, I guess.  The free pattern can be found here.

I think children from large families have such hard lives.  No one pays enough attention to them.  I know they must feel sad and lonely much of the time.  Do you think Eli would agree?

This is his 'Cheeeeese!' face.

Oh my goodness, he makes me smile.

This morning I prepared a special breakfast of honey-nut cheerios.

I am always so impatient to buy flowers by March.  Last Friday was a gorgeous day, and I went ahead and bought some annuals for my front porch.  Saturday and since have been cold, cold, cold.  Yesterday I thought my poor little flowers might like some outdoor afternoon sun, even though it was cold, so I set them out.  This morning I suddenly realized that I forgot to bring them back in last night!  I rescued them and though they look a bit rough, I'm hoping they'll revive.

I am redoing Keely and Annes' room, and I couldn't settle on art for Annesley's side, so I decided to create some for her.  I printed out lots of things that she likes and decoupaged them onto an $8 canvas.  I thought decoupage was fool-proof, but turns out it can be goofed up.  The pink ink from the 'Keep Calm and be a Princess' page ran everywhere!  I'm going to try to salvage it by adding some pink paint elsewhere and then covering the whole thing in glittery stuff.  Annesley likes it, so I suppose it's a success anyway!

I have just discovered the treasure trove of free printable art to be found here!  I picked up this frame several weeks ago for $3.  The stand on the back was completely missing, but I knew that it would look nice on a picture frame stand.  The butterflies image is from the NYPL digital library.  I love it!  This spot needed a little color.  And I am kindof into butterflies right now.  :)

So, this week has been full and fun, and it's not over yet!  Tomorrow we'll get ready for dinner guests and try to savor our last day of break.  Hope your week's been great, too!

This 'n' That

It's been busy around here with projects, school, field trips, and friends. Here are some pictures of what we've been up to.

We've been here in our rental house for almost a year, and I finally accomplished the removal of the navy/baby blue/pink/gold wallpaper in the kitchen and breakfast area. What a job! I managed to get the first coat on a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still looking for a window to get the second applied. Then we can put the baseboards back on, hang curtains, and generally have a home-y kitchen! I can't wait!

Something very exciting also happened a few weeks ago. Noah became a communicant member at our church! This just means that he made a public profession of faith before the church and may now partake of communion with the body of Christ! So exciting, and so wonderful to see the Lord working in his life. I have some video, but no stills, unfortunately. This is the stained glass in our sanctuary.

Sam has been very busy being a three-year-old boy. This involves lots of running, imagining, playing with sticks, and other important work.

My hubby had a birthday last week. We had fun celebrating him. And eating his cake. :)

Back to the kitchen project: I have searched and searched for affordable artwork to hang on my newly painted wall. I spotted these pretty frames for $12 each at Big Lots a few days ago, and I'm going to print two butterfly images from the web (on nicer paper), and have them dry-mounted for framing in the frames. I think it will be just what I've been looking for. I love red, by the way. Kevin says I need to branch out, and tried to talk me into using purple in the kitchen decor, but I just couldn't do it. :)

The kids and I enjoyed a field trip to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City last week with our CC Community. We did tours in the morning, and different workshops in the afternoon. So much fun. I want to go back now, with Kevin, to spend more time looking. Keely's class created Chinese landscape 'scrolls', and Rowan's worked on Native American art.

This precious Elijah makes me grin.  Sink baths are the best.  

Babies are the best.  

Thanksgiving Blessings!

Do You Yard Sale?

Years ago, my friend Ann from Lawrence introduced me to the joys of yard-saling. (It's not a word, I know!) I have been hooked ever since. No, really. I have a problem. My kids laugh at me as I turn into a neighborhood, relentlessly following signs, even though I have about 75 cents left. Just. One. More. Hey, 75 cents can buy a lot at a garage sale!

Today, Sam and I had some time to run around, and I found some great stuff (I think!).

• Four like-new cute purses for $2 each. I plan on giving a couple to Mom.
• A pair of rubber boots for Annes for 50 cents.
• An oblong tin-tile planter for 50 cents.
  
• The basket of hydrangeas for 50 cents. I plan on pulling out the dusty flowers and using the basket for the girls' crocheting stuff, 'cause I like the shape of it.
• A Tommy Hilfiger shirt for Kevin for $1.
• Some other clothes/books/odds and ends for a quarter to fifty cents.
• My very favorite find: the kitschy old paint-by-numbers boat picture for the boys' room, which has a travel/sailing theme. This was my most expensive purchase today, at $4.

Here are my top rules for yard-saling:

1. Stop at every one you have time for. Even if, from the street, it looks like a bunch of junk, you should check it out anyway. You never know what little treasure is hiding in there. Case in point: The sale where I found the purses was almost entirely tools. There was one big box, though, of those great purses. The man even gave me a bit of a deal off the marked prices....his wife wasn't around. Hope I didn't cause any marital discord. :)

2. Don't be afraid to ask for a lower price. Almost every time I ask, I get a "sure"!

3. Don't give up! For every sale where I find something good, there are probably 3-4 that I don't.

I have found that giving the kids 50 cents or a dollar each to spend helps them understand the value of money. They have found some amazing toys at garage sales, and it really makes them think before they plunk down $14.99 for something similar at Wal-Mart. Also, I have recently encouraged them to get rid of something at home if they find something to buy. This helps to keep us from drowning in stuff. It also makes them really weigh if they like their goodie that much.

Happy yard-saling!

Teen-ager-ish Room

A few months ago, Keely told me-in a very diplomatic way- that she felt that her room was a bit too little-girlish, and would like to re-do it for her birthday present.

I guess she has grown up a little in the seven years since I first decorated it for her and Lil.

Good-bye, vines and hidden smiley flowers.

Sweet pink and purple quilts were fitting for my five-year-old...but now, at almost 12, it's time to pass them on.

Sewing pillow inserts

Keels said that everything needed to look 'cool' and 'teen-ager-y'...Must it really?

butterflies from Thailand

So, Happy early birthday, my dear girl. You're growing up and out of little girl things. I'm bracing myself for the coming of many more bittersweet milestones. :)

We have Pottery Barn taste, but a Wal-Mart budget! We copied some ideas from the PB Teen catalog, like the light walls and bright accents, but everything we bought came from Wal-Mart or Target. My favorite thing of all, the curtains, were $14.99 for the pair!