Summer Mantel

You may remember my Patriot Decor post.
I flipped the sign and painted the back yellow. Then I had Luke paint the Lemonade. I walked through the house and grabbed two of my Ball jars, filled one with change and the other with sugar. I found my mom's measuring spoons and tucked them into the sugar jar. YAY! I pulled one of my favorite cookbooks that has the best summer recipes in it. The little white pitcher was a garage sale find and the hydrangea was a gift from Mom B. last year.
I hesitated scissors in hand before I cut 3 of only 5 of my blooms, but flowers are meant to be enjoyed, whether inside or outside.
I think I'll be on the hunt for some lemon decor for next year!
LOVE IT!

Patriotic Decor

I was so excited to see this blog post at Poppies at Play,
I thought it would be fun to try it.
I gathered the troops and some scraps from Eric's workshop.

The sign in the middle reads, "The want, will, and hopes of the people."

I've got a couple more signs in the works, but will post later since they will be gifts.

Thousands of Seconds

I have no picture to go with this post. Though, if I had been thinking, I would have snapped a million to preserve such a sweet memory. So with no picture I am setting aside the dishes to "capture" it now.

Saturday was rough. I had a workday at school from 9:30am to 2:00pm. I arrived home to sleeping children, Eric and Uncle Bobby (Eric's brother we had over the night before). I ate, then set to work cleaning the house- (not on my top ten list after spending so long cleaning at preschool all morning). Grandma and Grandpa came to get Bobby and left. Eric started dinner and I was left with four tired, hungry kids. Their schedules were off and dinner wouldn't be ready for a while.
Oh dear.
I reached for the remote. I struck me hard in the face - that THAT was my first response to the TIME I had on my hands.
Time. Time. Time.
Extra time is like a unicorn- it just doesn't exist.
Yet,
here was thousands of seconds just waiting to be used.
I started to read to the kids and from there the evening grew.
I introduced them to my friend, "Chubby." And replayed happy childhood memories in the back of my head.
We played Mommy Hospital for what seemed like hours as the minutes passed. I was the front desk and the Mommy Hospital paged Doctor Kayla, Doctor Krista, Nurse Kait and Patient Luke from "bed" to "bed." The doctors buzzed around with orders for medications and treatments. The nurse was paged to assist the doctors in their surgeries. Luke played a patient who could not stop throwing up. It was a sight to see! There were also other patients: Curious George broke his toes, Cabbage Patch needed her hair straighten with an iron, Strawberry Shortcake had a big bugger, and the others I will save for my own personal memories.

I played with my kids from a big lazy boy chair, in physical pain, heating pad on my back- but filled with joy! I realized how little I remembered about P.L.A.Y.I.N.G. It has been so long since I really played. We grow up too fast for our own good.

I was reading a friend's blog today and will forever cherish these words of wisdom:

A quote from Miss Edie, age 92:

"Play with your kids all the time.
Cause soon you'll be old like me and wishing you could still get down and play with children."

The laundry didn't get done and it sits in huge pile.

2009 Simple Mantel

This year we have been so busy that I only took out one tub of decorations. Last night I got out own of our craft kits the kids got from Nana last year. We made little "Us Angels" as Kayla called them. The kids had fun helping me decide what would go on the mantel this year.
I am also trying a Homemade Christmas this year and making 90% of our presents this year. I have found that it does two things: makes me really think about what I want to make each person, and appreciate the convenience of being able to pick something out from a store :-).
Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Yay for Fall!

I have to say Fall is my favorite season!
This is the first year I've been able to decorate!

I still have a couple of small pumpkins to put around the living room, but I wanted to post what I'd already done so that I'd have a record for next year.

Isn't it beautiful?!
Every time I look around it makes me happy!
Here's the best part, it all came from our friends the Guiney's!
The corn and little pumpkins came from their home garden!
I am super excited to try to grow it in our garden next year!

I found this old window at a garage sale last week for $5!
I repainted it blue (from turquoise) to compliment my kitchen.
I LOVE IT ... but can't help feeling like it needs a little something...
Got any ideas?

Home Improvement

You may remember when we started working on the front of our home last year... here.
This year I got a great idea to tear out all the ground cover. We've had several issue with spiders and snakes in the past. There were some spots where the ground cover was half an arm deep.
It was quite the undertaking, but we got it done in just a couple of weeks. I'm so in love with the new front of our home and can't wait to fill it in with plants over the years.

Before:

After:

Before:After:
Before:After:

Before:

After:

The Girl's New Beds

Here is the girl's new room.
The only thing that I'm working on now is stenciling their names on the wall beside their beds.
The Olivetti's were SO VERY generous to give us these bunks.
All we had to purchase was a new mattress and support for Krista.
It's amazing how God answers even the simplest of prayers.

You know I couldn't resist putting a "Sisters" chalkboard up.
I love having scripture all over the house!

Christmas at the Bibby's

It was our GREAT please to host Mom and Dad (Grandma and Grandpa) for Christmas for the first time in 11 years.

Eric cooked the ham and loaded mash potatoes (the best I'd EVER had).
I made the green beans, jello, bread and dessert.
The best part was that I was able to spend all day decorating and detailing,
since they took the kids to the Children's Museum.
I had so much fun fussing over every detail!

Eric surprised me with something I haven't seen in 10 years,
his dimple.
I never realized how much I'd missed 'him'.
Now he's growing a beard and it's the irrestible (yeah, he's still got it after 10 years)!
WOW! I love this man! I'll have to post an picture soon!

To be festive I made a candy cane "J" for Jesus pie.

Thanks, Jen Guiney for this awesome centerpiece idea.
I went out and gathered berries, pine cones and sprigs from the trees.
Then put them all into a juice carton and filled it with water.
The freezer was a little unlevel, but it still turned out cute.
I also took the same natural elements to decorate the chandelier above the table.

It was a wonderful evening.
After we said goodbye and ushered them out we sat thinking and talking about how blessed and what a lovely evening to reflect on it all.

Happy Early Birthday..... to ME!!!!

So after years of pining and yearning through magazine pictures,
I have a beautiful bedroom!

I LOVE THIS ROOM!
I got the bedspread at a garage sale for $10 and had it stashed away for company, but decided it would be perfect for our new bedroom.
The headboard I got at a thrift store for $35 dollars, can you believe it?! Isn't is beautiful?
The lamps, throw pillows and new fan for Eric, were a gift from my Mom for my birthday.

I have been thinking on how to get more scripture around the house.
My first thought was to stencil it around the room and then I quickly decided to scrap that idea after doing the little bit in the kid's bathroom (picture coming soon).
So I went out to Eric's workshop and found a piece of drywall. I painted it with some leftover chalkboard paint from a previous project, roughed up the bottom edge to give it a slate look, and added some knobs for decoration. It came out better than I could have hoped!

My final cost was new hardware. Our nightstand and matching dresser is a treasure from Eric's grandparents. It was their wedding set. I replaced the hardware with knobs to give it a "double breasted suit" look! I love, love, love this room!
I love decorating on a budget!

There were a couple of other touches that I didn't photograph including a picture frame with wedding vows that looks just like the chalkboard above the bed. Mom and Dad Bibby also gave us a glider rocker that I LOVE!

It was so nice to have my Mom here from Texas to help and what a fun birthday present!

My house, my home a place filled with things and overflowing with love!

Welcome to our home

So I thought I would share our home with you room by room. I decided to start with the girl's room since it's one of my favorites. I remember waiting for Krista to be born, still a very busy little baby in my belly. I could hardly wait for her arrival. I took such joy in fixing up the room with help from a gal from church, Katherine. Kayla was thrilled to have her room fixed up and painted. I think she was just as excited as I was.

I am particulary proud of this rocker. It was a gift from Eric when I had Luke and was covered with a blue jean material. I couldn't find the material I wanted so I covered it with a $7 fabric shower curtain. Notice the ties around the footstool, that's what you would use to attach it to the rod....it made a nice trim. :-)

These shelves were a $7 bargin from Hobby Lobby clearance that were a dark green color. It's amazing what a little paint will do.

You'd never believe it, but these five wire flowers are actually hot plate holders from the Dollar Store. I just wired them together and they fit perfectly above the closet.