I'm finally in my new house! I still have a bazillion boxes to unpack, but this girl needed a creative diversion.
My new house actually has a great space that will be our school room. I'm so excited to get it all set up and decorated.
I bought an inexpensive table, with very average looking upholstered seats. The cushions were fine, but we really want our school room to be fun and colorful. With some fabric from Jennifer Paganelli, our dull brown seats were transformed into fabulous and inviting.
It felt wonderful to touch and cut fabric again. I can't wait to get creative with more projects in my new home.
Do you have a chair or pillow that could use a makeover? Go ahead and have some fun!
I'm always saying to my kids, "You never know what the next day or year will bring..." Boy was I right! I had no idea in November of 2012 that I would be moving to a whole new state!! Yes, you read that correctly. I'm moving!
With the craziness of trying to get the house ready to sell and getting all my other ducks in a row, Our Picket Fence shop will be on a temporary break. I'll try to keep everyone up to date with all my new adventures along the way.
An emotional roller coaster is how I would describe the past couple of weeks.
First my sweet hubs left for a 10 day business trip. So you all know that is just a recipe for bad things to happen at home. All you wives know what I'm talking about....
It all started on a fantastic note, when at the last minute, I was able to buy my son, who is FAR away at college, a plane ticket home for Thanksgiving!! I am so thankful God provided the means through my little Etsy shop! What a huge blessing!!
So, don't know about you gals, but when my hubs goes away on a trip, I get this strange urge to paint things... It usually goes okay, but my life had a been a bit too easy lately. I painted our basement stairs; they looked fabulous; I was thrilled; all was great until I was cleaning up.
Cue the slow motion music: I grab the bucket of paint, trip over a cord, bucket goes flying, lands with a thud on its side, lid pops off, and paint goes a flying. Yeah, it pretty much looked like you can imagine. People, a 3/4 gallon bucket of spilled paint is NOT easy to clean up. Just sayin'.
Now it gets even better. The very next day, which is the day before we were to pick up my son at the airport, our much loved cat went missing! With three teenage girls, you can imagine the drama unfolding. So that kind of put a sad mood on what should have been a very exciting day.
She was missing for 3 days before she came meowing back into our yard! The kids had passed out fliers to the neighborhood and by the time they got back, dear kitty had returned. Come to find out, she had gotten herself locked in a garage a few houses over! Whew, glad that drama is over. Three girls crying is just too much for this momma to take.
Dear hubs came home that night, you know just in time for things to get back to normal. Figures. lol Oh, and I STILL have paint in my hair.....
All of that to say, I am truly thankful to God I have my WHOLE family home this Thanksgiving. Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving full of God's blessings. Take time to be thankful for all of your blessings. :)
Election day!! Isn't it exciting? I can't wait till my hubs get home because we always try to vote together. It's a fun tradition we started a long time ago. It's also fun to take the kids along too. They get so excited to see the election process at work.
One of my fellow homeschool friends had a great idea that I think I'll borrow from her. She printed out electoral maps for her kids to color in as the states results come in!
Here is a link to blank electoral maps where you can print your own too! What a great hands-on way to show your kids how the voting works.
Don't forget to get out and vote!
Parents,
teach your children that our elections are important and we have the
wonderful responsibility of voting for men & women who will stand
for biblical principles.
Ever since my son got his Samsung tablet, I have been wanting one too! I finally saved up for one and got it yesterday.
While at the store, I perused the cases and about fell over in shock at the prices. So of course, I came home and made one myself.
I took my idea from the Kindle cases I saw. They were over priced cardboard cases!
It was super easy and didn't cost me a thing.
Yesterday, as I was trying to figure out how to "figure out" the settings on my needing to be repaired, ancient dryer, I had to laugh. I thought, this would make a funny blog post.
Yes, I am the wife of an engineer. I realized about 10 years into in our marriage that new appliances were never, or rarely, to be a part of my existence. While my friends were getting the latest and greatest, and onto their 3rd new dryer, my old dryer was getting a supercharged "makeover." Think Tim the Tool Man. Yep that's my man.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining one bit. I used to complain, but now I simply have to laugh. I love my crazy life and all the fun things my husband comes up with. It's always an adventure that's for sure.
But I had to share my latest battle with the dryer. So awhile back, the knob that you turn to select the right setting broke. Just fell right off. My sweet husband, who has been extremely busy lately, did a quick fix and put this wrench type thing onto the selector. Very chic.
Now this makes drying clothes quite the adventure sometimes. It's like Russian roulette! Yesterday, I threw in some towels, started working with the girls with school, and completely forgot about it. It was a really long time later when the dryer buzzed. Not sure what setting I picked, but those were some really, really dry, hot towels.
The thought of spontaneous combustion did come to mind.
It made me laugh, because then the next load I put in, I must have selected air dry. Completely wet. So again, with the random twirling of the broken knob....
He is going to fix the knob soon, but I guess, part of me fears, WHAT kind of knob am I going to get??
That little statement is thankfully a banned phrase in our home. I think it's right up there with "I'm bored!"
One of the ways we try to encourage confidence in our kiddos is to have them work on big projects together.
I am so blessed to have a husband that isn't afraid to try and make, build or fix anything! He is such an encouragement to me and the kids.
Over the summer, they built a fabulous tree house together with their dad. He had them each draw up design plans and submit their ideas. From these plans, they picked ideas from each that would work.
Dad had them cut, drill and do everything themselves! They loved each and every minute of it.
They learned how to operate many different power tools and how to work together as a team.
They started early spring and it took them nearly all summer to finish. Patience is a virtue, right?
To make their tree house complete, my oldest daughter made a rope ladder. She looked up online how to make one and did it all by herself! It's amazing! Can you tell I'm super proud? Oh and by the way, per mother's request, nice tall railings will be added to the tree house! Whew.
Now if you remember, last year they took apart our neighbor's pool deck for the lumber. That was such a blessing to get all that lumber for free!
Here is the funny post on how they got the wood for their tree house!
Raising confident, Christ focused children is our prayer and goal. By working together as a family and encouraging them to do "hard things" and trust in God, we are allowing them to be confident young people who don't know the phrase, "I can't do it."
Phil. 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
Now back to my boxes..
