Sunday, February 27, 2011

I've been away. . .

. . .well, not really away. Just away from blog-land. Instead, I have been very much at my house!!!
Yes, that is me! (My hubby wouldn't take it too kindly if you thought it was him in the pink!) While, he has been VERY busy around the house, I've tried to help out when I can--mostly that means keeping the kiddos entertained and away from the mess!

But I thought I would give you a small taste of the "mess" we've been living in!
No more valences. . .

No more wall. . .

Everyone is helping out! E loves doing everything he can with his dad. Maybe it is being a guy and being able to destroy things. Who knows! Princess A, on the other hand, is an extremely helpful supervisor. :)
And here is the hole in my house. My hubby got a bunch of help from Grandpa A here. Again. . .it must be the ability to destroy things.

E checking things out. . .
And things being mended again.
Things I'm looking forward to. . .a "finished" kitchen and surrounding areas! And no more cleaning!!! When you have little kids in the house at the same time as a DIY renovation, that adds up to a lot of vacuuming, wiping and mopping multiple times a day! But the adventures continue!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Looking for Flowers in Winter

I may have mentioned my house is a mess--more so on the weekends when my hubby is home destroying it bit by bit.

I don't get to destroy it. . .I get to keep the kiddos entertained and out of the mess!

So, after a walk because the weather was great and the baby HAD to sleep, my kids thought they needed to pick some flowers. I guess common sense didn't seem so common that day. It's winter guys! After a very devastating search, I remembered a cute little post my friend had on her blog. And then we filled some more time that afternoon with flowers!
If you pop on over to her blog, she used buttons as the centers of the flowers. I didn't have enough buttons on hand that were easy to get to, so we used pony beads instead. Pretty simple craft though: cut strips of coloured paper, punch three holes, thread the paper on the pipe cleaners to create loops, make a "flower center," and there you go!

See? So easy!
Look at all this concentration!
And here is our final project. . .a flower for every person in the family.
Such a nice pre-Valentine thing to make.
Here is my hubby's version of romantic:
Ooohhh. . .I'm a very lucky girl! ;)
Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A Quick Frame. . .

Just under a year ago, I attended a "Take It Home" event at our church. It was pretty much a class for parents or parents and children to teach us ways to use the things we learn at church in your home (making a connection between church and home). The particular one I attended was for a pre-school aged group. It was about blessings and our children. One part that stood out to me was a story (don't quote me on this one, I'm just telling it as I remember it) about a man/parent who had a bible verse in his child's room and would pray this verse over his child while sleeping as she grew up. When his child grew older, she was able to repeat this verse in a particular situation when wisdom was needed--and knew what her dad had done all these years. That story left me thinking about the power of praying Bible verses over my children--and particularly praying blessings over them.

At this class, some Bible verse suggestions were given to us, as well as some "posters" of some of these Bible blessings. Some parents shared about how they already had verse hanging up as a result of taking this little class at an earlier time and what it meant to them. To be honest, I didn't jump on the bandwagon right away and mount these posters that very same day, but gave the whole idea some thought. I thought about how I currently pray for my children and if/how I would change the way I pray for my children after hearing what I did that day. I thought about scripture verses related to prayer and blessings and raising children in the Lord. I thought about the verses printed on the posters and what God had said to His people in the past and was He was saying to me and my children through those verses now.

Eventually my husband and I did choose a verse for each of our children from the suggestions given. One thing we did find was how the things we would pray for our children turned up in these verses--and it was {easy} to "assign" a verse to hang in each of their rooms.

It is interesting (for a lack of a better word at the moment to capture how I ponder this) to me now, already, that my oldest often wants to read his verse as his night time prayer or reminds me to pray the verse for him. I got a glimpse of the passion the story-teller mentioned above had in sharing his idea with others--a glimpse of a yearning to share in God's blessing, whether we fully comprehend it or not. And a glimpse of how we have a need to have conversations with our Father, but also for others to have conversations with this same Father on our behalf. IT also reminded me that sometimes when we pray we just don't know the right words to say. . .but that God does, and He gave us the words we need in His Word.

Phew--And this was just gonna be a "look-at-the-short-little-project-I-made" kind of post!

So, here is that part! Here is the latest one I made. Like I said, I didn't jump on this project right away. But a few weeks ago, when my husband started wrecking--I mean, remodelling, if you can call it that at this point--our house, I needed something to do that felt like I was creating something nice--not a mess! So, I decided to mount the verse we had chosen for our youngest child.

Here is how this project worked for me. . .go through box of old frames. Reject all of them. Not even a coat of paint would fix any of them at this point. Go through junk room. Find old picture that hung in a baby room once upon a time. Decide that frame could be used but picture had to go. Realize frame is too big for my trusty scrapbook paper. . .think a little. . .pause for a "Candyland" break with the kids (sheer excitement!!!). . .think some more. . . Realize that I can use fabric. Search remnant fabric box. Choose one that will match room colors and fame. Get to work.
My stuff
Covering the frame. I just covered it in a similar way that I would wrap a present. Easy-peasy.
Then I mounted the "poster" of the verse to the front side, added a few star embellishments, and there you have it. Easy project. Hardly worth blogging about. But shows you how art-ish-y you can look even in you are not! And it shows you what you can accomplish in a whole 15 minutes! And it made me feel like my home was a {teensy} but prettier and nicer than our kitchen looks right now. :)
By the wall and bed cover of my youngster's bed. (Choosing exactly where to hang it might take a while still--but it is done and ready to be hung!)
Here are the ones I have in the rooms of my other kiddos:


FYI: Other verse selections we were given at this class in poster form included Ephesians 3: 17-19 and Galatians 2:20.