Overwhelmed

Just a list of things I'm thankful for today...

a reminder of how quickly the time goes...

Listening to Mattie read her short little reading lessons fluently... at long last!
Seeing Jacob understand some of his grammar concepts... also at long last!
Watching our freshly reinstalled bird feeders get busier and busier with our favorite feathered friends.
Healing after ten months for my cracked tailbone and sacral vertebrae.
Finding an old video of Jacob reading a book out loud when he was little.  Such sweetness in that little voice!
Healing via surgery and recovery for Robert's leg and back.
The joy the kittens have brought to our family.
Hearing Mattie play upstairs with a friend her own age she clicks perfectly with!
Watching Robert find enjoyment in books as he recovers.
Jacob having fun at his first sleepover. :)
Our free art class at Carson-Newman.
Robert's presence at home while he recovers from surgery: company, friendship, understanding in the craziness, help with schooling, family Bible lessons from his perspective, kids' laughter that he causes.
Planning our nature study fun!
Re-doing fun 6 year old things with Mattie.
Hoodie weather.
Looking through old photos and remembering the memories of Jacob's six year old year.
My new job. The way it fits me perfectly. The way it can fit our family perfectly. The way God handed it to me.
And my favorite: God truly opening my eyes and heart to a deep-seated understanding of His grace in spite of me... an answer to prayers prayed for many years.

Some Nameless Additions

We have been wanting to let the kids get kittens for a long time.  They both love playing with them every time someone we know has some! (I know, what kid doesn't?) I don't have much affection for cats, and actually have been around quite a few nasty ones!  But both of the kids love them.  Robert's parents had some they needed a home for, so we let the kids each pick one.

But because I was fairly allergic before my allergy shots and Jacob seems to be following in my footsteps, I've been afraid they'd fall in love and then we'd have to get rid of them.  I'm still afraid of that!  But we have only rugs (as opposed to installed carpet) and only one upholstered chair (all our other furniture is wood or leather), so we decided there's no way to know except to try.  The kids know the risks.  I'm just praying we all do fine with them!  I'm also praying that Pepper likes them when she gets home!

Meet Nameless #1 and Nameless #2!

The jury is still out on the names... Lucy, Snowflake (not sure I understand that one!), Sam, Tony, Romp... 

My tenderhearted boy said he thinks this is the best day ever and has teared up more than once with joy. That makes it worth a try!

My life is eating me alive!

 My life is eating me alive.

For three years since we started our disability ministry I've been teaching Sunday school, many Wednesday night semesters, coordinating extended session, teaching VBS and finding helpers, planning Luke 14 with my friend, and coordinating fellowships and the disability ministry council. And serving on our women's council as a childcare coordinator.  I don't say any of this to toot my own horn.  I've loved what I've been able to do in these ministries!  But I. am. TIRED!  Our home boat is getting rocked enough here with schooling two now, watching the extra kids to pay off our lingering credit card and medical bills, and wading through life's challenges. 

I want my kids to remember a mama who was present, cheerful and energetic.  I want to train my kids to serve alongside me (instead of sitting in childcare while I attend a meeting about serving).  And I want to have the time to meet needs (while including my children) as they arise.  I've been hanging in there asking for help for over a year now, but I know it's time to step down and trust that the help will come or not, and life will go on anyway.

So I resigned from almost everything this week!   :weight off my back:   I'll still teach Sunday School and help some with our disability ministry, but I sent an email resigning from women's ministry and another one handing off all staffing to the people who staff the typical classrooms!   

What a relief!  

All I have to do is manage my home, the kids who come to it, home school and teach Sunday School.  

That sounds so doable! 

A Pepper Update

Pepper is keeping us all entertained. The kids LOVE to tell her there's a dog outside and watch her run to the window so they can see her look out. They laugh uncontrollably when she does this. Even I think it's pretty cute. :)

We've gotten her almost 100% trained to go outside!  She came litter box trained. (Her previous owners had a lot of long days not home, so they did this so they wouldn't have to worry about her.) I thought it would be nice and convenient, but the convenience was majorly overpowered by the inconvenience of cleaning out stinky litter box and sweeping up the litter she drug out on her feet! Ew. So over the last month I've been training her to go outside. She really didn't see outside as a place to go potty, so this took some doing!  I moved her litter box outside, but she still would go to the litter box place and do her business.  That got old really fast!   Anyway, just this week she's finally coming to stare at me or whine to tell me she needs to go out.  She definitely knows what it means to "go outside," and she runs out and goes right away!  I still have the basement blocked off, so when it's open and she goes all day without peeing down there, I'll know we've succeeded.

She has learned to go outside and stick close with out being tied up.  Yippee!  If I stop paying attention she will run off, but as long as I watch her, she comes when she's called.

She's discovered she can get up on our bed.  The cute thing is she looks over the edge as if she's asking my permission.  I'm not totally fond of her sleeping up there, but she usually chooses to get off and head to her basket under my night stand.

She's realized a deep love for salami!  She eats almost nothing other than a few choice crumbs under the table.  I can leave my ice cream, peanut butter, crackers, sandwich, dog treats, etc. where she can get them and she won't touch any of it except eggs.  But twice now she's snatched salami from the eater's hand!  Mattie was standing with a piece on the way into her mouth and Pepper jumped up and stole it!  Mattie felt quite violated.  She quickly changed her tune when she realized how entertaining that was.  :)

All in all, Pepper seems quite at home!  We're thankful for her.  

Slip-n-Slide Fun!

It has been soooo hot here lately!  The kids are irritable because they're not getting outside to burn off enough energy, so we pulled out our generic slipnslide... aka contractor grade plastic!  

Getting a head start with Daddy's help!

It's always more fun 

with someone else!

I decided to be a fun mama and join in.

Ugh!

I'm sore, but it was more fun than I expected.  I guess we all need to be a kid every now and then!

He's a fun daddy too...

who goes a lot further than everyone else!

She's on a mission!

That smile is a gift!

I love hearing this boy laugh.

Happy boy!

Beautiful Family Pictures!

My sister in law, Cherilyn Magee, took these photos of us when she was in town this spring.  I love the way they turned out!  I thought I'd share my favorites.  Several of these are already up around here!

 Mattie, 5 years    ~~~~~~~~~    Jacob, 9 years

 I think this one is my favorite of the entire day.  :) No attachment issues with this child, that's for sure!

  This one is so sweet because Jacob got Mattie a honeysuckle flower and helped her put it in her hair.

  One thing I have always wanted is photos of Robert and I together.  We had some good ones one year, but didn't have a home that was ours, so we never got them hung.  I'm going to take several of these below and decorate our bedroom with them now!

 

God has blessed us with a wonderful family!  I'm so thankful Cherilyn captured that blessing so well.

Meeting my online friend!

Leslie is an online friend with whom I've been corresponding for over 4 years now! I met her on the Five in a Row message boards.  We started emailing when her daughter was born with Down Syndrome and have continued since then through many things. We had a meeting set up a year or so ago when Robert was working near her, but they ended up with a stomach bug so we didn't get together. On July 4th they were on their way through on vacation and we did a very last minute visit at ChickFilA. Her sweet husband was so patient to let us visit for a while!

 

The kids had a great time playing and Jacob wanted to know "if these were just friends we're going to meet once and never see again?" He doesn't like that part of making new friends with people who don't live here. 

 So nice to finally meet you and your clan, Leslie!

The finishing touch

Our family photo canvas arrived today, and here it is over the mantel! I think it's just beautiful!! I'll probably still swap up the stuff that's around it, but this is what I have for now.

Kitchen Redo!! Before and after...

 You guys know I painted the living room last weekend.  I love the blue so much I decided to paint the kitchen too!  I love, love, love these rooms now!!  And since this is where I spend most of the day, it's a major gift to me.  Here are some before and after pictures.

After living room was painted, when I was trying to decide whether or not to paint the kitchen.  :)

 It's not really a natural perspective, but you can see how the two rooms join together.  I guess it's a great room of sorts. 

 What you saw if you walked into my kitchen on Thursday or before.

 

What we have now!  I love the lightness and airiness of the blue! I put up decorations (some) I've had around the house for 2 years and haven't known what to do with.  I just went with white curtains/valance because I really can't find a fabric I love, these were cheaper than it would have been to make anything, and they match what's in the living room.

This one is darker, but I love the way it shows off the gray counter with the blue and white.  And notice the gray (spray painted) light fixture in the back half!  It was brown before and didn't match anything back there or the other fixture, so I went with the $5.37 can of Rustoleum and have a "new" matching fixture!  Now if I can just find someone to trade my gargantuan microwave for their small one that will fit on my counter so I can get rid of the island (next to the frig in front of the window), I'll be finished!

Wanna come sit in a sunny room with me?

I painted the living room last week!  We painted everything neutral when we moved in, but I've learned that khaki really feels dark to me to be in all the time.

It wasn't a very dark khaki, but the lack of color felt dark to me... not just in a lighting way, but in a dark, depressing, lack of life way.  For this color, happy, sunshine loving girl, it wasn't working!  So I asked Robert if we could do a light blue in hopes of a breezy, airy feel and am so pleased with the result!  Robert and I both love it.

We've had some decorations, but nothing personal and I was tiring of feeling like TJ Maxx lived here.  :)  I have years of photos and was overwhelmed at the thought of choosing which ones to print. Then I didn't really have matching frames; some are black, some are different shades of brown and there were a few white ones in there too.  I was trying to lighten the living room because it's been sooooo dark in this north-facing, almost no direct sunlight room, so dark frames weren't really going to help my cause!

I was on a blog the other night and saw the (probably obvious to anyone but me) idea of spray painting what I had. Why didn't I think of that? So the next day I got my spray paint and got busy! 

This is what I had to start with. (I have quite a bit more, but didn't want to paint all that I had until I was sure I had a place for it and I was pleased with how it all turned out.)

An hour later, I had a bunch of matching stuff!

I looked through about 7 years of digital photos and chose my favorites. I also pulled out some favorite professional ones from past years (that never got hung) and used them too.  Here's my gallery wall!  (If you click on it you can see it larger and see the individual photos if you'd like to.)  I need to use some putty for a few of the cheap frames that won't stay level, but I love it otherwise!  I'm going to add one more section on the right side, but I have to get those frames so it will be a bit.

I love the little splashes of green and am looking for a fabric with white, blue and green in it for my kitchen valances.  I didn't realize until it was all hung that every photo except one had green in it. 
We have a family portrait on canvas on order (a Groupon I had) that I'm so excited to put over the mantel when it gets here!  And here's my other favorite spot with those beautiful faces to look at.

I LOVE having these pictures up!  I had to pay for the prints, but the other stuff for all of this cost me less than $20 - one frame half off, the mirror on clearance and the Family thing for $2.50.  I have more frames I'm going to paint and put in my hallways... after I paint the kitchen tomorrow.  :)  I love the blue and white so I'm continuing that in there to tie it all together.  And the one last project I'm requesting for my birthday... overhead recessed lighting in the living room.  The perfect gift to celebrate 35 years of life, don't you think?

Our Beautiful Dancing Girl

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful.  I know that full well." 
Psalm 139:13-14

"Then maidens will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow." 
Jeremiah 31:13

"Let them praise His name in the dance: let them sing praises unto Him with the timbrel and harp."  

Psalm 149:3

 

"They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance."  

Job 21:11

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: ... a time to dance and a time to laugh." 
Ecclesiastes 3:1, parts of 3:4