Yes, Mother, 5 magic beans!

What a great weekend we had watching Ethan starring as Jack in the local children's theater production of 'Jack and the Beanstalk'.  All of the kids in the production did a wonderful job.  Several of our neighborhood kids were also in the play!  What an amazing time for them all.  Amazingly, I was not nervous about watching him (normally I would be a wreck).

As his mom I was proud that he had the lead.  It was only his second time auditioning for a play.  But even more important to me are the strides that I have seen my 'baby boy' make in the last few years.  He has totally stepped out of his own comfort zone and done things we NEVER would have imagined him doing.  When he was younger he would be stifled by his own anxiety, and thus trying new things rarely happened.  He always shied away from being on a stage.  Social aspects have always been the hardest for him.

I guess, in short, after years of encouraging him to try new things he trusted himself enough to 'jump' and he excelled!  As a parent that is wonderful to see.  We take the good with the bad when parenting.  Sometimes when you are in the trenches and the bad is so overwhelming you are not sure those good times are ever going to come.  So when there is a victory it makes you feel like the hard work can pay off.  We are so proud of the young man he is becoming!

Next stop on the theater trail.....tech crew for Alice in Wonderland!

This is Jack!

 This is the beanstalk!

Signing autographs after the show

           The neighborhood gang!

Ethan and Ethan(neighborhood pal)-also the Magic Harp and Milky White!

Medicine cabinets and turning 40

Decluttering continues

One area crossed off the declutter list (DL) last weekend was our medicine cabinet.  This is one of THE smallest cabinets in our house and it had it's own spot on our DL.  Our medicine cabinet was pretty ugly!  It's a small cabinet in our kitchen (next to the stove).  It had morphed and grown into taking space in the cabinet above the stove as well.  Now with 6 kids I could easily argue that we should have lots of items in this cabinet.  But truly, we are just a Tylenol and Advil family (well, maybe mom likes something a little stronger now and then--more on that below in the 'I'm 40, now what?' section).  The winner of the oldest item that was thrown away was a container of Vicks Vaporub that expired in June 1998!  That means that little bottle has moved with us EVERY time we have moved!  Ridiculous!  We had 2 grocery bags full of trash from this small cabinet clean out.

This is the done pic.  I forgot to take a before pic.  But seriously, how much crap could we shove in this small cabinet?  A lot!

40?

Okay, so I turned 40 last week.  Bleh.

I had some wonderful lunches, suppers and Girl's Nights Out too!  I am so blessed to have these people in my life!   

I got some awesome gifts from my family and friends.  

I know these two pics are sideways (I cannot for the life of me get them to flip--ARGH!), but I wanted to show you part of the AWESOME scrapbook my mom and Brynna did for me.  The top pic shows me as a baby and the bottom pic is a funny page they called 'name that baby'.  It's my kids (Brian's too) and you have to figure out which baby is which. I struggled with it!  I guess our kids all look a little bit alike!

You are probably wondering why I would think a ceiling fan was a good gift for my 40th birthday.  Well, we have had said ceiling fan for over 2 years and it was finally installed on my 40th birthday!  I was thrilled! (seriously, I was!)

And this tree picture (I actually got 2) is now hanging in our rec room!  I had told Brian I wanted these a while back at Kohl's (I love trees) and he remembered and got them for me!  I thought he was getting me a blender! (I would have liked that too!)

But I have entered a new decade. Now what?  Well, I already know that aches and pains are more prevalent.  I have been battling a bum shoulder for almost 2 years.  I suppose lugging babies around for the last 17 years will take a toll on a gal's body.  :)   This is where the medicine cabinet comes in!  Mom is allowed to take something a little stronger on bad shoulder days!  Gray hair has been my friend for about 8 years.  I don't think I am ready to let it grow out and have a totally gray head yet.  So for now, Nice N' Easy will remain my friend.  And I wish I had the body of me at 20 back.  I'm not really a vain person, but I would love for my boobs to be back where they started!

I wish I could say 40 years has brought me some great words of wisdom.  Mostly I can just say that laughter is a must.  Tears still happen. Life can be hard. But perspective is most important.  You can determine how your days will be spent.  Will you choose to see the blessings?  I try to each day.  I have a wonderful husband who supports my decision to be at home with our babies.  I have an awesome mom that adores her grandchildren and is intentional about spending quality time with them.  I am able to school my kids at home and choose the religion I want.  I have wonderful friends (old and new).  

What are your blessings?  

Life is short.  

Take the time to count them.

Don't Piss Me Off....when playing Canasta!

Ella and I were playing a mean game of Canasta yesterday afternoon.  She was not winning a particular hand and looked at me with a very straight face and said 'Are you trying to piss me off?'  It took my mom brain a few seconds to process what she had said and then I asked for clarification to make sure that I had heard her correctly.  And she ever so politely repeated what she said the first time, and then asked what was wrong with saying that.   Insert huge laugh from mom.  So I know laughing was not the appropriate response.  But I could not help it.  Brian was laying on the floor next to us and he looked up and told her that it's not the worst thing she could say, but the word choice was not the best and to not say it again.  Why does he always have to have the 'right' parental response.  Insert mommy sigh.  Probably because he works with adults all day long and can have adult conversations.  I am with the kiddos all day and sometimes just need the comic relief!  I am glad that I have my kids to supply it!

This little sweet pea turned 9 months old on Friday! 

She melts her mama's heart everyday.

More blogging this week on the decluttering efforts.  Got 2 more areas done and off our list!

Laminators and Omelettes

I have a new best friend!  It's The Laminater...

Tonight I used it to laminate several copies of the book of James for my women's Bible study group.  Yes, I laminated 10 copies of the whole book of James.  We are going to try and memorize this as part of our current Bible study.  Pray for us please!

Who knows what else I will find to laminate!  :)

In other exciting news...

Our kids LOVE omelettes!  They especially love their dad's omelettes.  He let's them special order the toppings they want on them.  They often are begging for seconds before everyone has even received their first one!

Here is Carly demonstrating the cheesiness factor of her favorite cheese omelette.  Yes, the cheese is stretching that far!  This girl loves cheese!

Here is my omelette.  I prefer the cheese and onion omelette with extra onions!  Yes, I love onions!  Does anyone have a  breath mint?

Graysen loves omelettes as well, but on this particular morning he was more intrigued about dipping his toast in his apple juice.  Don't ask!

I will leave you on this fine morning (it is 12:17 am) with a heart-warming pic.  My mom is staying with us for a few days.  She loves cuddling with her grandbabies!

(grandma and baby Nora)

Have a great week!

Wanted to share a cool thing I got for learning at home on my trip to Kansas City last weekend with my girlfriends.

So some people may not get too excited by a map.  But this is the coolest map!  It is 4' by 6' (GINORMOUS!) and it has embroidered felt pieces of animals, country names, continent names, ocean names, landmarks, and modes of transportation that stick to the map!  A seriously great find for our home learning!  The even better news....I looked online and this retails from $150.00 - $200.00.  Guess how much I found it for?   It was marked $7.99 and I had a 25% off coupon so I got this great steal for $5.99!  That rocks!  It's in perfect condition and all of the pieces were there!  I LOVE a great bargain!  And a bargain that will aid in a lifetime of learning for the kids is even better!  

Why does decluttering have to be so painful?

Clutter, clutter, clutter. Trying to de-clutter our house, trying to get rid of the 'stuff', trying to find that balance of what is needed to function daily in a house with 2 adults and 6 kids.  One word for me: OVERWHELMING.  I, unfortunately, did not inherit my mother's organization gene.  Or maybe I only inherited half of it.  My biggest deal is figuring out where to start.  I seriously can see the clutter, but I can walk in a room, look at the clutter and my mind seriously shuts off.  


There is a TON of information out there right now about getting organized, de-cluttering, etc.  Where do you start?  Well, besides the obvious of starting small, not trying to take on too much at once, making lists, etc, it started for me at church.  I know, sounds weird, it didn't even start in my own house where all the chaos exists. 


A couple of weeks ago our pastor was talking about greed.  Now, I don't view myself as a greedy person.  But the main theme our pastor keep talking about was that it was NOT about finances, but about what was in your heart.  Huh?  Yep.  He said this AT LEAST 10 times!  Well, my heart seemed fine to me.  But again, I was hit in the face with a huge reminder, that the 'stuff' that is lying around our house is just that, 'stuff'.  And my heart was coveting this stuff for some reason.  I walked out of church and said to Brian right when we got in the truck that our pastor was right and we needed to get rid of the 'stuff'.  He chuckled. But I knew I needed to make a change.  And that change involved my heart (and my head) thinking I needed this stuff.  But I learned several years ago that stuff doesn't make me happy.  My family makes me happy.  Watching my kids grow and learn makes me happy.  Having a husband that loves me and who is a great father to our kids makes me happy.  Not stuff.


Brian and I have had a huge struggle over the years of how to manage the 'stuff' in our lives.  I am guilty of not wanting to get rid of anything (not on a Hoarder's level, but still way too many things) and I have never understood his need to not need anything.  We also tend to differ greatly on how to 'store' the things we do have.  I think we should have nice containers that are labeled to house all of the 'stuff'.  He thinks if we have to buy a new container we have too much 'stuff' and we need to get rid of said 'stuff' so then the need to get new containers is non-existent.  


I have this picture in my head of what I would like my house to look like.  Nice matching furniture, cool shelving units with all items nicely labeled, neatly folded clothes in all of our dressers and closets.   Someone just slap me now!  This is not going to happen in my earthly lifetime.  I have 6 kids (current age range 9 months to 17 years).  There is no point to having really nice things right now because I would spend all of my time nagging the kids to 'stay off' and 'don't touch' in an attempt to keep that stuff nice.  And, honestly, I don't have the energy or desire to fold every piece of laundry that I wash everyday.  I am fine with it sitting in laundry baskets.  Underwear doesn't need to be folded (yes, mom I truly believe this). And obviously, we cannot take any 'stuff' to heaven with us, so what is my deal?


So Brian and I walked through our house and wrote down 35 areas in our house that we need to clean out, declutter, re-organize, etc.  Some really small rooms have several areas that we have to conquer.  Our laundry room (the smallest room in our house) has 3 areas!  We had some great conversations about things we maybe wanted to do in some of the areas.  This is a great start for us.  To even have these conversations without me having a breakdown that he was trying to take something away from me is a huge step. 


Some of the areas we can do together and some we have to tackle on our own.  First area for me was my closet.  I have been playing the 'when I lose this baby weight I might want to wear that again' game for about 17 years now.  Anyone else play that game?   I have never won.  :(  But I went through my closet one night last week and I have 6 big garbage bags full of clothes that I am getting rid of.  Three of the bags were maternity clothes!  I have struggled with the mere thought of getting rid of my maternity clothes for quite some time.  My mind was racing with questions like 'Does this mean I cannot have more kids?', 'Do I want to have anymore babies?', etc.  I finally landed on this.....getting rid of those clothes means nothing more than this:  I am getting rid of those clothes.  Just like I am getting rid of the other 3 bags of non-maternity clothes. After all, if God decides that our family will be blessed with anymore children, then I can get more maternity clothes. (I am a great thrift shopper!)  (Side note:  someone please pick my mother up off the floor. Even talk of a slight chance of a possible maybe of having more kids causes her heart to palpate just a bit.  Relax, mom. :)


I now have some ginormous storage space in my closet.  And I am okay with that.  It is not space that I feel that I have to have 'stuff' in.  I am leaving it empty for now.  Maybe some other great idea will hit me when we clean out other areas of this space being useful in some other way.  Maybe it just needs to stay empty to remind me that clear space serves it's own purpose.


I am truly hoping that our 'de-stuffing' project will really allow us to focus more.  Okay, maybe I just need to focus more.  It's odd how cleaning out a closet is a satisfying task.  But it is about my heart.  And it's not about wanting to get more stuff.  It's about simplifying.  The less stuff we have the easier our lives really will be....less pick-up time daily, less cleaning.  More time to spend together as a family (although family cleaning can be fun!)


Any ideas for organization would be truly appreciated.  I have a Pinterest account now and have some ideas out there. I would love to hear from others that have struggled with this same issue.  And I am selling some of this 'stuff'.  Anyone that needs maternity clothes, I have just about everything. :)


Thank you, Doug (our pastor), for giving the message you did a few weeks ago.  My husband will be forever grateful.  :)

                                (my bags of stuff from my closet)