Could it be?

I haven't been posting updates lately for the simple reason that there isn't much to update really!  I don't know if I dare even say that things are a bit boring over here.  But they kind of are.  Kind of.  In actuality, there is never a dull moment in our house.  Miss Lila would never allow that!  :)

Lila is starting to talk more and more.  Were working on keeping her pipe in her crib, instead of always in her mouth.  But there are times it suits me more to have it in her mouth.  Does that make me a terrible mother?  Nah.  It seems with all of my kids that as soon as we took the pipe away, they started talking, she is no exception!  She still does her share of screaming and crying, but were working on it!

Elliot is Elliot.  Not much to update on that boy.  He is looking more and more like Landon the older he gets though.  I often get a wierd feeling when looking at him that I've gone back in time.  And, I definitely can't keep their names straight.  I was never going to be THAT mom, but I am.  "Landon, I mean Lila, I mean Bailey... ugh, I really mean Elliot".  It happens all the time!  I'll blame it on the chemo (how long can I use that one???)

Bailey starts girls on the run tomorrow.  She is also doing swimming at school right now, so that girl has a LOT of stuff to carry back and forth!  But this will be so good for her!  My goal would be to be able to run the 5k with her (although she would prefer I run far far behind her) at the end.  Probably won't happen, so she won't have much to worry about!

Landon... no sports right now, although baseball starts soon (right after spring break I believe).  He's busy with homework every night it seems, and going to the girls basketball games, and the Bridge, and church, and this weekend he get's to go to camp for two nights with church.  It looks like he will have a fabulous time! 

I am doing a Mom2Mom sale at church on Saturday.  If you want any of my kids clothes, be sure to come check it out!  I am hoping to get a LOT priced and set out there!  Not to mention toys and other miscellaneous stuff.  There are 25ish sellers that will be there, so you'll have plenty of options!

And, a post without a picture, just isn't a post!  Elliot playing DSI with his friends in the fort that we built.  We love to build forts this time of year!

And, a great quote (something to think about) from Forgotten God by Francis Chan...
We overanalyze the things that don't deserve a second thought and we blow right past the clear, obvious, important things in life.

Other books I've been enjoying right now...
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Remembering the Forgotten God (a workbook to go with Forgotten God)
Jesus Calling by Sarah Young
Jesus Lives by Sarah Young
and this book has been pretty good (ok, really good) as well!

Various Stuff

Just a couple of sentences from various books that I read this morning...

Pray all the time. 1 Thessalonians 5:17

How would my life change if I thought of each person I come in contact with, as Christ?

It ought to be the business of EVERY day to prepare for our FINAL day!

Have a great Monday!

Good reminder from "crazy love"

When we face the holy God, "nice" isn't what we will be concerned with, and it definitely isn't what he will be thinking about. Any compliments you received on earth will be gone; all that will be left for you is truth.

Just read that, among many other things in this book it made me stop and think!

You can't exagerate God

I was sitting with God this morning, spending time in His word.  I've felt very convicted lately at how little time I do spend with him versus how much time I spend with other things.  Things of this world.  So, I'm making an effort to spend more time with him.  Time in prayer, studying His word, listening (this one is very hard for me) and worshiping. 

I had three books open this morning.  My bible, a sample of the book Jesus Calling (which I got for free here, I will be buying both the adult version and the kid version of this book soon) and I picked up Crazy Love again.  Oh, and my BSF was out as well.  All four of these rescources kept pointing me to spending more time with Him.  And recognizing what a big God he is.  I loved the line in Crazy Love (now highlighted and underlined and starred) that said He is a God that can not be exagerated.  WOW.  Wow. 

My prayer this morning:
God, I want to know you better.  I want your love to flow from me.  I want to trust you with my life and my kids lives.  You are so much bigger than I could ever even imagine.  I tend to put you in the little box of my understanding, but you are SO much more than anything I could ever comprehend.  You are so much bigger than my time encased, air, food and sleep dependant life. You are set apart and Holy.  Perfectly Holy.  You are a God, my God, that I couldn't exagerate if I tried.  You know me, you know every detail of my life before I do.  You know the details that I try to hide from others.  You know when I'm hurting, when I'm weary, when I'm angry and happy.  God, I was created by you and for you, but I constantly fail to recognize that.  I want to believe that you were created for me and my purposes.  I am here to bless you by blessing others.  I'm here to love you and others through you.  Each day I should be asking what I can do for you, but to often I end up telling you what I want you to do for me.  God, please help me to change that.  Help me to live for you.  Help me to see your will and follow it.  God, help me to come to you for refreshment instead of turning inward  to myself.  I want to receive the perfect peace that only you can offer.  Help me to focus on you instead of the plans and problems of the day, knowing tha tyou will give me strength if I seek your face always.  Help me to follow the command of 1 Corinthians 7:31, to not dwell on things of this world, things that won't matter in eternity, but to focus on you.
Thank you for your grace, your forgiveness and your strength.  Without these things I am nothing. 
Amen

Prayers Please

Please join me in praying for cancer to disappear for my friend Kristi.  God hears our prayers!

Kristi is a "member" of our Cancer Club (she's the one next to me), she is super sweet and needs our prayers!

Red Rug & Piggytails

Love this girl

Decorating

I'm almost embarresed to say that Lila is going to be 2 in April and I JUST got done decorating her room.  For the LONGEST time she had NOTHING on her walls.   They were just a pale yellow (which is what we painted it when we thought it would be an office).  The other day I told Matt that I wanted to paint her room.   He wasn't to happy about that.  At all.  (Matt is not so fond of painting).  So, instead I decided to embrace the color and roll with it. 

It started with a good cleaning.  (aka get rid of almost everything). 

All of her toys went into her closet.  She doesn't have that many upstairs, and the ones that she did have, she really doesn't play with, she much prefers to go in her brothers room and play with the ones he doesn't want her to. 

Next was finding the fabric to do this project (which I've linked to before, I knew I wanted to try it, just didn't know where).  I originally wanted to find a red background with white polkadots.  But after walking around the fabric store for a while (being led by a defiant toddler that screeched every time ANYONE came near her), I found this instead, and it was on the clearance rack.  $3.47/yard.  That's a deal!  So I settled.  (which I still have mixed feelings about).

I got a picture printed from when we were in Florida last year (12x18), Lila was wearing a red and white striped outfit, and she looked pretty darn cute, hot glued some ribbon to the back and hung it up.  So easy!

Next I printed a "Love One Another" sign from Becky Higgins. I printed mine in an 11x14 size, I knew that i already had a frame for that size, so this was perfect!  I'm still undecided about the feather, but for now it's pretty securely up there!



(Before starting this redo I hadn't noticed how much yellow and red she already had in ther room... books, frames, letters... all kinds of stuff)

While surfing blogland yesterday I spotted this:

JoJo's Room via the boo and the boy

I wanted to do something like that garland hanging on the wall, but I couldn't tell exactly what it was.  So I made up my own idea.  I had a bunch of random ribbon and a piece of nylon string.  Again, got out the trusty hot glue gun and glued away!  I ended up with this:

(Don't mind the humidifier, I have kids that get lots of bloody noses, this is supposed to help.  That's what they tell me at least)

After hanging it I had Matt come look... he walked in the room and said "What IS that?"  OK, so it may not be his favorite part of the room.  Whatever!

Years ago I had purchased a BUNCH of cheap white frames from Ikea.  I had planned to hang them up long ago, but again, never got around to it.  I had pictures in almost all of them, and I got three pictures printed for the ones that didn't have any yet.  I turned to my now good friend, hot glue gun, yet again!  I had started a "ribbon" theme and wanted to continue it.  So, the frames all got ribbon attached to them.  This is where Matt's help came in.  He's the math guy.  He's the perfectionist.  If it were up to me, these would have been hung in a more "Good Enough" fashion.  But, luckily it wasn't up to me. 

He got out his level and his ruler.  He then he gasped when he found out that all of the ribbons weren't exactly the same size, they were going to have to be hung at different levels to get the frames to be even.  But, humored me and went with it.  I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the end results.



And, do you want to know the best part of all of this (in Matt's eyes at least)?  If we moved out of this house tomorrow (or redecorated or something insane like that), there wouldn't be one hole in the wall or any additional paint to paint over.  Everything is removeable.  3M is going to have to start paying me (although they don't), I promote them so much. 

I think this may be my favorite room in the house now, and I think it will grow with her, we will probably put her in a big bed sometime this decade and I'm sure we can find a quilt or comforter to match something in this room!

Lila even likes her new room.  She loves to look at the babies on the walls, she loves to sit in her chair (which I realize doesn't match exactly) and read her books, and she loves to go to bed.  OK, maybe not that last one.  But she does like it!

(For some reason the "yellow" paint is looking all kinds of wonky colors, peach, tan, cream... but I promise, it's pale yellow)

Looking around to see what is next!!!

Simple

So, I've said before that my word is "SIMPLE".  I have it written above my computer and look at the word often, but I will admit that I'm having trouble embracing it.  I have clutter everywhere.  We have far to much stuff in our house.  To many papers, to many games, to many books, to many doo-dads, to many clothes, to much food, to much laundry (which is in direct relation to to many clothes), to many toys, to many tv's.  I want to clear it all out.  But, I know that that is not practical either.  So, slowly I'm going to start going through things, making things simpler and neater and more appealing, clearing out the clutter.  Getting it all ready for our GIGANTIC garage sale this spring. 

I love to watch hoarders.  The saddest part of that show though is that I understand how people get to be that way.  I understand being emotionally connected to things.  I have gotten much better with age, but I used to want to hold on to EVERYTHING because it inevitably had some kind of emotion attached to it that I couldn't let go of.  Something that my mom had, or made or something that my kids used when they were little.  As I've gotten older (and wiser of course) I've been able to realize that they are just things.  They have no place in our eternal future, therefore are not necessary in this life either.  I think of how little some people have, and how happy little things make them.  I think of my kids and how they seem to appreciate nothing.  Because they have so much.  Were going to make changes here.  Were clearing things out.  Were not going to make unnecessary purchases.  Were going to keep things SIMPLE. 

And, with any luck we'll sell enough at the garage sale so that I can get the new lens I've been lusting after for years!  Oops, maybe I'm complicating things. 

Permission to...

After doing some blog surfing I always get inspired.  Inspired to create something, or inspired to write something or inspired to better myself somehow.  Amazing how a blog can do that.  Today, I was inspired to give myself permission to do something.  Permission to do eleven things to be exact.  Eleven things in 2011.  (Get it???)  The only problem?  I don't know what those 11 thing are yet.  I've started a short list (on the piece of paper in front of me, which I know, does you no good)... but it's a work in progress.  I'm thinking that since it's February and there are 11 months (including this one) left in the year, I'll add one per month???  We'll see how that goes.  I think I'll add it on the sidebar, or maybe on the bottom of this blog. 

What do you need to give yourself permission to do?  Leave me a comment.  Inspire me...

Out East

Most of you know by now that I took a very spur of the moment trip out East a few weeks ago.  But, I wanted to share more about my trip... and how it came to be.

My good friend EJ moved to Vermont back in the summer of '09 (or was it '08)????, anyway, it's been a while.  I've wanted to go visit her for about that long as well, but the price of a plane ticket just didn't fit into my budget.  And, I felt guilty taking a trip without my family, or at least my husband.  So, I kept talking about it, but never went.  Since EJ has moved she has had two babies (to go along with her other two boys).  Each time she has a baby my desire to get out there and see her is even greater.  When EJ had her first son I spent a LOT of time with him (and her), and then I had Landon 18 months later.  When EJ had her second son I had a baby (Bailey) 13 days later.  Our kids were close.  We were close.  We had gone through a lot together.  When EJ had her third son I couldn't be any closer than a phone call.  It sucked.  And then, only 18ish months later she had her fourth son (yup, four boys... bless her heart) and I still couldn't be there.  It sucked again.  EJ has been home two times since moving east, but it's never for long enough. 

Anyway, around November my friend Anna and I had discussed flying, saving money, getting tickets etc.  It WAS going to happen, we were determined.  Then came the text message. 

"Hey, have you talked to our friend out east lately?" she asked. 

"What are you doing this weekend?" I asked.

Fast forward a few hours.  I call EJ...

"Hey, what are you doing this weekend?" I asked.

"No WAY!  Are you coming?" She said.

And two days later we were headed out at 4:30 in the morning.  We traveled across Michigan, across the border, to Canada, through Canada, through upstate New York (definintely not to be confused with New York city... there is NO confusion, let's just say that we passed through Carp capitol USA (don't blink or you will miss it) and an indian reservation where apparently everyone smokes.  A lot. I would say that tobacco shops outnumbered the houses.  A lot. Oh and somewhere in their there was a Bingo hall, just in case you need to stop if your ever in the area... fishing for carp or something).

We got stuck behind a school bus that stopped at approximately EVERY house on the main road through "town", which just gave us a chance to really appreciate the landscape.  Really really appreciate it!  Then we hit Vermont.  A few hours into Vermont we finally arrived at EJ's house.  Around 5:30pm.  Pretty good time, we thought!

 It was so good to see her.  So good to see where she lives.  So good to meet Julian and to see Rowan, Austin and Denver again.  We visited, ate dinner, visited some more and then Anna and I crashed.  
 

Friday EJ had to work so Anna and I headed out to Church street.  We had directions to Pine street as well, but we never made it there.  We shopped for a while and then we headed to a main attraction.  Think "Everything but the...", "Chubby Hubby", "Half Baked", "Fossil Fuel", and "Mission to Marzipan".  Did you figure it out?  No?  We headed to Ben & Jerry's for a factory tour. 

Friday night we headed out to dinner, just the three of us.  We sampled some fine Vermont cheeses, the girls sampled some beer, I enjoyed the water... and most importantly we enjoyed visiting and catching up!  Good times!  (End of first day)

Saturday we were able to go watch Denver play basketball and score a basket!  Good stuff!  We did lunch together and then us girls and baby Julian went shopping for a while!  We picked up Thai food at night and played some Bananagrams!  (End of last day)

Sunday morning we were up bright an early again (ok, so it really wasn't bright, but it sure was EARLY).  We headed back out at 5:30am.  At one point, the GPS got confused and tried to tell us that this would be a good route to take back home.  We disagreed. 





After following a few snowplows on the highway in Canada (for about an hour... at 35 mph) we were ready to start moving.  We made it home by about 6:30.  It was a short trip, but it was a good trip as well, good to spend time with friends, good to laugh, good to shop, good to get away!  So glad to have been able to do it and so ready to go again!

Singing Valentine

The Cityside Middle School Choirs (Landon is in the choir) have again decided to share their love with the Zeeland Community this Valentine's day.  All proceeds will be given directly to Zeeland's City on a Hill.  If you would like to send a "Singing Valentine" to a friend or loved one and support this great local cause, please  visit the choir's website here before February 9, 2011.  All calls will be made on February 14, 2011. 

There are 9 different songs to choose from and each call is only $1.00.  Seriously, what a sweet valentine and for only ONE dollar.  Can't buy flowers or even a card for that!