a week of bullet points & pictures

This verse was the verse that Joyce Rogers shared as being her favorite verse in the Bible.  I fell in love with it.

I've been taking some time to step away and simplify a lot of things in my life.  I hate having to let things go, but it is necessary sometimes.  I may not be blogging or being on Twitter as much. I may not be able to make it to every social event.  

I hate that I haven't always had enough time to make those who I love feel loved.  I don't mean my close family or close friends, but extended family that I love or friends that I'm just not able to keep up with as much.  I'm making more of an effort to invest in people/relationships.  I love blogging simply because it preserves memories.  So many times I've looked back on a post and it brings memories back to mind that I had forgot about.  

To most people, this blog is probably pretty boring.  I just talk about my life. I hope it helps keep family and friends involved in our lives when they can't be here with us.

So, here is our past week in bullet points and pictures:

• Mon Sept 30- C Girl went on a field trip to see a play written by the mom of one of her friends, Bear State of Mind!
• Tues Oct 1- I had a great visit with Amber, my best friend from high school. The government shutdown. I found out that my brother, Kevin is furloughed.
• Wed Oct 2- I decided to start eating gluten free for at least a couple of weeks to see if it helps me feel better.
• I had great talks with Kelly this week and I am thankful for 14 years of friendship and encouragement in good times and bad.
• I've been a crafting fool this week- I finished the gallery wall in B's room, made a Hog wreath for the front door, redid a canvas in C's room, hung a shelf and hung clothespin art underneath in the playroom, organized all my many craft supplies, worked on C's Halloween costume.
• C girl's Parent-teacher conference was so, so good! We are SO proud of that girlie! She is growing in every level, reading at end of 2nd grade level, and is excelling in math!  Her teacher said that she wished every student was as great as C and she could tell that we were raising her in faith.  That compliment meant the world to me!
• Thurs Oct 3- I've been working at the library to stay in focus. I get so distracted at home!  In the afternoon, Tim stopped by and finally got to see C at gymnastics.
• Fri oct 4- We went to a birthday party for one of B's friends. It was so hard not to eat the pizza there! Great to see friends though! Afterwards, we walked around the square at first Friday.  The theme this month was Oktoberfest.
• Sat Oct 5- We had rain and cold front! Saturday morning we had Mugs and muffins at church: Lauren Greenhaw and her husband led worship and we heard a wonderful word from our speaker, Joyce Rogers, wife of the late great pastor, Adrian Rogers. I enjoyed it so much! And they even had GF muffins! We had other plans for Sat. afternoon but it rained most of the day! We went and watched the first half of the Razorback game at Chili's.  The kids were getting tired by that point, so we headed home to listen to the rest of the game on the radio.  Another sad ending for the Hogs.
• Sun Oct 6- We made gluten free waffles for breakfast and they were so good!  We had a lovely service at church. Joyce Rogers shared her testimony and sang for us.  I pray that I am as spry and passionate as she is when I am in my 80's.  We went to a little pumpkin patch that is downtown in the afternoon.  I took a few pictures of the kiddos while we were there choosing pumpkins.  I'm so thankful that they will sit and pose for pictures.  The last few years have been great as far as that goes!  After that, we hopped over to the small airport in town where they were having an airport open house and Aerobatics show.  We got to see a ton of planes!  The kids even were invited in to see the inside of a plane! The planes were resting when we got there, but right before we left, a plane went up and put on a show!
• Mon Oct 7- B Boy's class led Rise and Shine!  He had a long speaking part (a quote of Martin Luther King Jr.) and he did AWESOME! We are so proud of that boy!  I visited the gentlemen that I visit for our women's ministry. He turned 97! He still works at the jewelry store that he founded and goes to church every Sunday! He's a blessing to me.  I also had a mammogram and thankfully, it turned out fine.  We thought I had a cyst, but it is just a deep band of tissue that gets sore.  I'm glad that I wasn't prepared for what to expect with a mammogram.  They are intense!
• So far, eating gluten free has seemed to help me feel better.  I probably have eaten 95% GF.  I'm sure some gluten has snuck in since I'm new at this.  This is only day 6, so time will tell better if this is what is going to work for me.

DIY- I made my own homemade laundry detergent

C Girl stayed home from school yesterday after being so sick on Sunday. Thankfully, she got much better as the day went on.

They are loving our Christmas book every night!

We wrote letters to Santa last night and today we took them and mailed them!

 I've been meaning to tell y'all that I made my own laundry detergent recently.  

I am L-O-V-I-N-G it!  

I decided to go with a powdered version over the gel version.  I thought it would be easier on me.

My concoction is 2 c. Borax, 2 c. Washing soda, 1 Fels Naptha bar (grated), and 1/4 cup Purex scent crystals.

It smells DIVINE! I'm constantly sniffing my laundry now!

It cleans the clothes just as well, if not better, than the liquid store bought detergent I used before.

Fall Decor & more...

Lots of stuff has been going on over here! I just haven't had much time to document it!

• We shopped for our clothes for our family photos coming up at the end of this month.
• I've had PTO meetings- we are getting ready for our first annual Fall Carnival and for Parent/teacher conferences(we feed the teachers).
• We went to the zoo last week.
• We changed out the kiddos' summer clothes for the fall/winter wardrobe.
• The Razorbacks played Texas A&M Saturday, and to our great disappointment, they lost again :(  It's getting rather depressing.
• I decorated the house for fall!  I love my favorite season!!!
• I've been working on painting C Girlie's bed.  We have sanded it and primed it.  I'm going to be painting it the next couple of days.
• I've been very involved with my Bible studies.
• We've been helping the kids with homework and AWANA scripture memorizing and with reading! B Boy has been reading for awhile, but we've still been working hard at it!
• This weekend, we are traveling down to see family.  It's going to be so nice!  AND my little nephew Parker is having his 1st birthday party this weekend!  I can't believe those little nephews of mine are growing up so fast!

I also read a blog post this week about how we use our influence as bloggers.  Now, I'm going to say right now that I know not many people read my blog, but a few do.  And even those few people might take something away from the things I write.

I want my words to be edifying and to somehow glorify God.  I hope that my posts are not a drag to anyone and I definitely hope that they never bring anyone down.  I want everything I do to represent who I am.  I've never been more mindful of my actions and words than I am now.  I guess that is part of growing up.

So, with that, here are some pictures of the stuff we have been up to-

Notice my desperately-in-need-of-water houseplant in the background.

I have since watered it and now it doesn't look so sad, lol.

Primed and ready!

Fall Picture Day 2012

Meeting Goals {even if they are contradictory!}

I know that I didn't formally announce any resolutions on my blog, but I did make some.  Two of them were- to slow down and to volunteer more. Contradictory, much?!  


I felt like 2011 flew by.  It was a year with much anticipation and I spent a lot of my time waiting for the next thing that was to happen. If you read this post, then you can see just how much happened in my life last year.


After all of that, I knew that I wanted to take some time to take it easy, slow down, and enjoy this season in my life.


There are some projects I would like to get caught up on- Organizing my pictures all the way, backing up my blog entirely, and finishing my recipe book.  These projects take time and I can't seem to find enough time to accomplish them!


My days, these days, are chopped up into 1 and 2 hour increments.  I take B boy to preschool, then pick him, make lunch, get him down for nap so I can accomplish a few things, then get him up so we can go pick up C girl, come home and have a snack before taking her to ballet and then come home to make dinner.  After dinner is AWANA study and reading and getting ready for the next day.  And that is just Monday!  Tuesdays are busy with Bible study and volunteering in C girl's class.  The rest of the week is similar to Monday!


I know next year, when they are both in school, things will flow better.


My other goal, to volunteer more, is coming along.  Slowing down and volunteering more seem very contradictory when they are used together!  I hope to find a good balance between the two!
 As I said, I have begun volunteering in C girl's class every Tuesday.  I also was asked to be a Care Group Leader for my Sunday School class.  Along with that, I also volunteer with the PTO.  I'm hoping to find more ways to give of my time to help others.  


I feel that things are opening in my life right now.  I've let go of some things that had been eating at me and I've begun to meet a lot of really awesome ladies through church, school and dance class.  


I have some blog posts that I need to catch up on.  We did some hiking at a couple of new places recently and I want to share those pictures.  I will be posting recipes here and there because I want to have a lot of our family favorites to share with you in the Recipe Tab at the top of the page.


I made these yesterday and that was really fun-

I'm hoping to make a Valentine's wreath using these felt flowers and maybe a headband or two for C girl.


Here's to meeting goals and finding balance doing it!

Christmas Deco Mesh Wreath Tutorial

I know that these wreaths are not new, but this is the first time I have attempted to make one.

I was so tired at looking at our old wreath that we had used for years.

Sooo, I did what anyone would do. I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some red deco mesh and some glittery ornaments!
1. I stripped the old wreath of all the stuff on it.
2. Next, I rolled out a bunch of the deco mesh and then bunched up one end and twisted it secure with a branch of the wreath.
3. Then you "pouf" up the deco mesh and secure the next part with a branch of the wreath.  You continue to do this all the way around the wreath.

4. I fired up my hot glue gun and glued the glittery ornaments on the wreath. I also had some red glittery sticks with balls on them and some decorative leaves that I glued into it as well.

5.  I could have stopped there, but then I decided to use some small green glass ornaments that I had.  I also added another set of deco mesh "poufs" sort of in the back/top of the wreath.

So, what do you think? Do you like the way it turned out?  Have you ever made a deco mesh wreath?

I now realize why wreaths are so expensive! LOL

Here are a couple of more ideas I found on Pinterest:

Do-It-Yourself Project-- Put your child's name on thier wall

I try to be crafty.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  I love things that are homemade and especially those that do not cost very much!

This project only cost me $5.00! I KNOW, right?!

The letters were normally $.99 a piece, but Hobby Lobby had wooden stuff 50% off so 6 of these wooden letters only cost me $3.00!

The paint was $.99 at Hobby Lobby.

I used Ticky Tacky stuff to apply them to the bedroom wall.  It is usually $1.99 but I got it for $.99!

We painted them (I had a REALLY good helper helping me!) and hung them up!

There are so many ways you can do this--- Different size/style letters, hang ribbon from them, decoupage fabric to them, paint each letter different colors, etc.

Well, I think it turned out pretty cute! ;-)

Craftiness

I finally finished my project for my daughter's bedroom wall.  I am pretty pleased with it.  I started with plain, undecorated wood frames and letters.  It gives her room more of a "big girl" look.  She had had princesses on the wall since she was about 2.  Now she is 5.  It was time for a change.  Change is good.

This weekend we also went to Home Depot for a kids workshop.  The kiddos had a lot of fun and got to make a spice rack.

Lots of glue will help it stick...

Thanks to soon to be "Aunt" Jessica for taking these fun pics!  We had fun with you this weekend!