Sunday Sermon

Master Builders!

Isaac wanted a lego "assignment." I assigned him a zebra, elephant and giraffe. I loved the results!

The boys and their cousin, Nate, wanted a lego contest. I assigned them a car. We really couldn't pick a winner -- they were all so good!

We bought a Farm: Tom boy princess

I suppose, if your kids are playing outside more, they are going to get a few more bumps and bruises. This has been the case for Abigail. Her legs and elbows are covered in road rash. She has skin glue on her foot. She is covered in adventure for sure.

I need to preface this post by telling you that Abigail is a tom boy stuck in a princess' body. She will do anything with the boys. She will not be left out of anything. But, she will do everything while dressed like this:

The chick wakes up EVERY single morning and comes downstairs with a dress and a pair of underwear in her hands. She wears a dress EVERY SINGLE DAY. I have given up worrying that they  will get dirty or ruined. I've reserved a few dresses as being "just too fancy" to play in, but otherwise, her dresses are play clothes. I found a yard sale where the lady was selling her girl dresses for $1 each. I bough about 10 of them and figured, "Make a mess of them."

Yesterday, JB and his Dad planned to take the three older kids and my niece and nephew on a hike. I was worried about how this would go down for Abigail as I explained to her that due to ticks and thorns and whatnot, if she was going to walk in the woods, she had to wear pants. She actually took it well, and got our her cowgirl hat and asked me to braid her hair.

She was SO excited about going on the hike and was all dressed for it. The kids were playing outside while waiting to leave when Abigail had a fall. My nephew was pushing her in a little kid's car and it toppled over. A total accident, but nonetheless, a pretty tough hit.

It's hard to tell on camera, but there is a HUGE goose egg on her forehead. My poor nephew was a bit in shock as he brought in her from outside due to how big that egg was. But she was, of course, no worse for the wear.

We decided that she should stay home from the hike and watch a movie with me and Hannah instead, and as she curled up on the couch with a movie and snack, she immediately said, "I need a dress." She went into the laundry room and immediately got out of those blue jeans.

She is such a fun mix of the tom boy I was and the girly girl I never was. I truly LOVE watching this in her. The other day, she informed us she wanted her "ears peeled." I told her that this would hurt and she said, "That's okay. I can cry for a minute."

What a fun little girl!

Book Review: Princess Grace Sticker & Activity Book

The Princess Grace: Sticker & Activity Book is a delightful little 16-page sticker book for girls ages 4-8. Readers can join Grace and her sisters in creative and interactive fun which also includes the King and her kitten, Poppy.

My nearly 4 year old daughter loved the age-appropriate puzzles, activity pages, and 50 colorful and reusable stickers in the friendly and fun Princess Grace book. Some of the activities are a little too old for her, but she still thoroughly enjoyed her "new book."

Some of the activities include:

• drawing to finish
• a picture to color
• a word search
• message decoding
• counting the items
• finding items in a picture
• comparing two pictures to find the differences

Priced at under $5, this is a great little gift for the princess in your life. 

Bookloggers provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

We Bought a Farm: Images of our House

It is hard to believe that I can forget how challenging moving is when we have done it so often. Somehow, despite the fact that I am a veteran of this game, I am surprised when I find myself stressed and edgy. Truly, in the weeks surrounding a move, I find I am almost living an out-of-body-experience. This has happened each time we pick up and change locations. It is as if I am watching myself from the outside trying to self-talk myself down off a cliff.

My emotions include excitement, worry, joy, and fear, while also feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and spread to thin. I am so glad that this is the last move for us. Obviously, we can't predict the future, but we don't plan to move for a very long time and that feels so good because I am convinced that I am just bad at this moving thing!

Anyways, enough of that. How is life going? It is actually going very well. I took some pictures of our new home to share some of what is going on for us here.

All the boxes are unpacked. With Hannah in the house, not getting things put away immediately is truly not an option. I have found that just plowing through the first few days and getting all the major stuff done allows you to start living "normally" as soon as possible. You can cook in your kitchen, sleep in your bed, and put things away when done playing with them. 

The picture above is our finished living room. I really like how it turned out. The couch on the left is flanked by a bookshelf on each side and our Turkish picture hanging above it. To the right is another bookshelf and our desk. 

This house presents some challenges because while it is laid out intimately and very cozy, the nooks and crannies make it really small. JB and I have always said we wanted a "cozy" and "small" house over a "big" and "impersonal" house. Well, we got that. But finding a place for all our stuff is challenging. The good thing is that, as JB has learned in permaculture, sometimes the best laid plans come when the space and limitations are the most challenging. I can't just keep everything I want and put it wherever I want. I have to get creative and resourceful, and in the end, I think that will make for a better and more purposeful home.

The one room we put a lot of effort into at the beginning was our bedroom. The paint and carpet in our room was absolutely horrendous and not livable. So during one of our past visits, we got new carpet put down and painted the walls. I really like the color and while the room isn't big, it is big enough and very cozy. We don't have any pictures hung yet or anything, but it totally works for us. 

It has a very nice closet area and very large bathroom. Eventually, we will probably redo that area, but for now, it works for us. We were originally going to stain all our furniture dark, but we ended up thinking that light color worked well in this room being as it is right off the living room and that room is very dark wood.

Here is a picture of Isaac, following the "no touching the banister" rule. The upstairs is open to the bottom floor. We have set up two nice chairs to create a small reading area in this space. The boys then have a room to the left and the girls to the right with a long section of closets and bathroom connecting the two rooms. However, this banister makes me a wee bit nervous so until we get it more secure (we are going to put up a netting or something to give an extra level of protection), the kids have been told they may not, under any circumstance, touch the banister. This works fine for the big kids as they really are good respecters of rules. Hannah doesn't get to go upstairs without an adult with her. We are keeping a gate at the bottom of the stairs. 

I'm not including pictures of the kids bedrooms because we have major projects planned for the winter. For now, their rooms serve a function, but they need major painting and changes made. Whenever we do that, I'll be sure to post some before and after pictures.

Here is another picture of the sitting area upstairs. These chairs were Dad and Mom's. We all loved the chairs but weren't sure where we could make them work in either of our homes. I am glad to have found the perfect place.

Eventually, we think we may create a second room in this space and eliminate the vaulted ceiling living room below it. I am hopeful this can eventually be our schoolroom. 

Right through that narrow door is the kitchen. This space would have been a formal dining room, but we have turned it into our school room. It is tight, but I think it will work. I am not sure I can homeschool four teenagers here, but for four little kids, I've come up with a good system. It's a "busy" room, but I think it will be fine.

One interesting thing about this house is the fact that it has almost been put in backwards. The front door (as seen here) is not a door we will be using. The door in the kitchen will be the utilized door just based on location. So we decided to let this front foyer serve as an extension of the school room. 

You can't see it well, but there is a bookshelf and some drawers on the other side of the piano.

Yes, a piano! Most exciting about this space is the piano! Someone was selling an old church piano, and we managed to land it! In addition, when we landed the piano, the woman at the church who played it was there. She's an older lady who has been giving piano lessons for 20 years. The boys are going to start lessons this fall as part of our homeschool curriculum.

Friday Funnies

The other day, Sidge saw a person who was very old. His skin was a bit saggy, something I didn't even think about or notice until we walked away and Sidge asked me, "Mom, why does he have hanging chin skin?"

*****

You find all kinds of things when you are moving. I found this little apple game. It has a worm attached, and you are supposed to figure out a way to remove the worm from the apple. It is one of the "Rubix Cube" type of games. Sidge wanted to try it, and I was amazed at how long he was sticking with it. But suddenly I noticed he was getting more and more agitated.
Sidge: "Mom, can you show me how to do this?"
Me: "I can't Sidge. I have no idea how to do it."
Sidge: "Well, I don't understand why they made it?"
Me: "They wanted to stretch your brain. To make you think. To make you ...."
Sidge: "Frustrated?" 
Yeah. That too.

*****

I have hung a cross up in the laundry room above the spot where I am changing Hannah. I have been trying to use it as a reminder to talk to her about the Lord during these few minutes of private time we share. Hannah repeats everything so it only took one time for me to get her to say the word "cross." I then started telling her that Jesus died on that cross. "Baby Jesus" she will repeat. So now we can say "cross" and we can say "Baby Jesus." In addition, Hannah can easily say her own name "Hannah" but for some reason, she likes to call herself "Hiney." All right, stage is set.

Me: "Hannah what is this?"
Hannah: "Cross."
Me: "And who died on this cross?"
Hannah: "Hiney did."

We Bought a Farm: Elderberry Flowers

My niece and nephew are here visiting. Today, JB took my nephew Nate and Abigail on an adventure. They gathered Elderberry flowers. Believe it or not, you can cook these flowers and create fritters. JB is currently in the kitchen coming up with his own "eggless" recipe for fritters!

***UPDATE***

JB wrote a post detailing the recipe he used to make the fritters. They were scrumptious. (Although I continue to have a mental block with eating things that I would ordinarily not think of eating.) Click here to read all about Eggless Elderberry Flower Fritters.

Maybe she is my kid

I found a big basketball hoop at a yardsale for $75 before we left Spring Hill. While my nephew Nate was shooting some hoops (he's a basketball maniac!) Grama brought out a small hoop -- just Hannah' size.

I think she's a natural! :)

Wee-wind Wednesday

Today I want to wee-wind to June of 2007 when we moved into our very first "house." We had lived in a townhouse, lived in a duplex, lived in a mother-in-law apartment, and lived in a condo, but on Eglin AFB, we moved into a house. We packed ourselves, and it was exhausting -- especially considering I had done an IVF transfer the day before we flew down. 

Here is a link to 2007. Our very first house.

And yesterday I unpacked the last of life in our very last house. 

Beauty.

We Bought a Farm: The "After" of the bunkhouse

Yesterday I posted the before pictures of the bunkhouse. Today ... the finished product. There are still a few small things to do. (Mom has some big plans for the front porch.) But right now, it is inhabitable. It will need a shower added to it and a closet, but Dad and Mom have moved in and are loving it!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

They have not done much to the porch yet other than really clean it up. But Mom has a lot of plans for making this an extension of the house and really sprucing it up. Whenever that gets done, I'll make sure to update this picture.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Instead of a crooked toilet and barely kitchen, a new and improved bath with a full fridge. To keep budget, Dad used the same toilet but gutted it, put a new seat on it, handle etc.

Take a look at this sink. Due to space issues, a "real" sink was not really possible without breaking budget.

Isn't this sink so cool?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Here's a pick of the whole kitchen. Right now it doesn't have a stove, but it does have a toaster oven and microwave. And check out the window. Dad put in a bigger and better window above the sink here which really brightens up the room.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

All the paneling had to come down off the walls and be cleaned. Underneath Dad redid some insulation and wiring. You can see here where the air conditioner is going to go into the wall.

AFTER:

I love how they figured out a way to have a table and couch in one small place that totally meets the needs of both eating and lounging.

This entire project was completed by Dad and Mom for around $1,500! We are so proud of their work and so amazed at how wonderful it looks. Eventually, we hope to add a shower, closet or even another room, but for now -- what a place!

Pampered Chef Fundraiser

One of our couples: the Nicholsons, are currently raising funds through a Pampered Chef party. At the end of the show, 20% will be donated to their adoption costs. A fellow adoptive mom, Leesha, is running the show for them and agreeing to donate this money to them.

Please click here to browse around and consider some purchases for a great cause!

We Bought a Farm: First Construction Project

JB's parents headed out to the farm about five weeks before we did with ONE mission. Find a place to live! There were multiple options on the property, but we knew the 8 of us couldn't live inside the main farm house while they worked on a place. While we have lived in one house for 2 years easily, this house is smaller. It is only 3 bedrooms and just not enough house for 4 adults and 4 kids.

So we came up with a plan. They go to the farm ahead of time, live in the main farm house, and work on somewhere to live. 

After some lengthly discussion, we decided the best option in a five week time frame was the "bunkhouse" on the property.

So today, I will show you the before pictures of the bunkhouse. You'll have to tune back to tomorrow to see the after.

I should note that my father-in-law is a MASTER carpenter. He is an incredibly skilled artisan. He is capable of so much. 

Here is a picture of the bunkhouse when we bought the house:

The bunkhouse is an approximately 350 square foot building about .25 miles (1/4 mile) from the main house. From what we understand, this was used for people to "hang out in" and even sleep in while they were doing coyote hunts on the property.

Here are some pictures of the bunkhouse when Dad and Mom arrived:

The bunkhouse had a toilet and small kitchen area. 

Here is a wider angled picture. There's the bathroom on the left, the "kitchen" in the middle, and some sort of big bench that ran the length of the room.

Another angle of the room.

Pretty yucky to start with!

And now, time to get to work!

Scrubs went over to the bunkhouse with them every single day. Here he is finding a place to sleep.

And here is Scrubs being forced to stay out while work is in progress.

Stay tuned! Tomorrow I will post the pictures of the "after". You will not believe what Dad and Mom accomplished in just around $1,500 worth of work. 

Click here to see the result!

We Bought a Farm: Panorama

My niece and nephew are here visiting. They live four hours away. Grace took a panorama picture with her camera. You can just barely see the bunkhouse in the background:

We are at 6

Flashback with me if you will.

Here is a record of our stitches/staples/glue experiences:

Isaac -- April 25, 2011

Isaac -- January 1, 2012

Sidge -- April 10, 2012

Sidge -- May 30, 2012

Abigail -- February 20, 2014

Abigail -- May 30, 2015

And now, as of today, our little lady is included on the list for the second time. It only had to be skin glue, but Abigail was outside without shoes on. (We have a rule in our house so not sure how she slipped by without her shoes on.) She sliced her foot on a brick. JB went to get a bandaid, and when he returned and looked at it closer, he realized it was a gaping wound and needed skin glue at the least. So glue away he did. (Love having a hubby who is a doctor!)