Spring????

How does the saying go "April showers bring May flowers?"  If that is the case our May ought to be filled with flowers!  Recently our days have been looking a lot like this....

and this 

 

and this

Now don't get me wrong... it makes for a dramatic picture with a sky of swirling clouds in a beautiful shade of gun metal grey and the birds chirping their happy little songs in the background.  In fact I love having the windows open a smidge to clear out the winter funk of three young men (yeah I guess it is time to admit they are young men...not "boys" any more! but I am still holding holding out on the youngest at soon to be 12!) and one big, sometimes stinky dog!  However these same weather conditions do nothing for our building project or gardening for that matter.  And don't get me on the plight of the poor farmers.  I mean seriously these folks were able to have over half of the corn crop in by this time last year and they haven't gotten a single seed in the ground this year.  Which means reduced yield this fall!  I truly feel bad for the farmers, not just here but every where!  We grip and groan about the rising cost of food in the stores but do you see any farmers getting rich?  NOpe, not even CLOSE!  In fact some are even slowly losing money due to the high cost of fuel and equipment maintenance and for others its not even close to a slow lose.  Sorry about the rant... I love farmers and I really do feel for their plight!  

Okay now where was I?  Oh yeah the weather... which was really part of me explaining why I haven't posted much of anything in FOREVER.  See with the building project I haven't been doing any crafting or much of anything worthy of posting.  My time has been preoccupied with sorting papers, drawing and redrawing floor plans, looking at plumbing and lighting fixtures, sorting more papers and cleaning.  Yeah tons of exciting stuff..... Oh we have also been dealing with all the initial orthodontist appointments, final podiatrist appointments, junior high scheduling, high school scheduling, track practice, children's play practice at church, youth band practice, mission trip training sessions, high school play practice (tech crew),  and a muddy backyard which is now off limits due to open fence.  Did I mention we have a BIG dog?  She loves her backyard but is now relegated to a tree in the front instead of the porch as she tried and almost successfully removed a support post on the front porch.  It now leans to the left just a smidge... As I said not a lot of exciting stuff.  Just normal, every day hum drum stuff that I am oh so grateful for!  It all tells me that my "boys" are thriving and healthy and enjoying life.  That they are growing in the Lord and are developing deeper friendships.  They are stretching and finding their limits, sometimes even moving beyond them.  They are growing up and I am trying my hardest to step back a bit and enjoy it with them!  

Did I mention we are ALL super excited about the prospect of the family room?  NO work today due to weather but the new sliding patio door plus all the windows and interior doors are to be delivered today!! Yippee!

The openings for the powder room and craft/music/guest room.

(finished room size: powder room 5'x5', guest room 10'2x11')

The family room looking into the dining room.  The door be removed and widened a bit to become the opening into the main portion of the house.

(finished family room size 15'7"x14')

(and now I wondering if we should have gone 15'7"x15 on the family room and 10'x10' on the guest/craft/music room???? oh no! what did i do?  breath deep it'll be ok!)

The family room.  The double windows will go in the opening on the left.  The opening on the right is actually where the new patio doors will be installed.  Right now it has a full sheet of particle board laying across the opening.  As you can see we still have a little bit of moisture on the "floor" from the last storm which hit before they could get the space completely enclosed.

As you can see "we" are making progress.  Who am I kidding?  They are making progress!  We are praying it will be done, completed, fine, esta bien? Si.  Thank you!

Spring Break!!

SPRING BREAK!!!

Most of which was spent at home sleeping in, watching movies, and generally being LAZY!  but we did take Chris was able to get a day off mid week and we went to the 

We had a wonderful time!

I can't even begin to post all the pictures which were taken.  Sean took possession of the camera on the drive and lets just say almost 400 pictures later when the battery died (oops I knew I forgot to do something the day before!) he handed it back. 

The only one of Chris and I...

And our eldest being silly...

Yep the humor of boys!  

Gives a whole new perspective to Pickin' and Grinnin', huh?

I have to admit I love it when we can catch Ian being silly as he can come across as such a serious young man.  And I see Sean managed to capture a single picture of Evan, in motion!  But then that is pretty much his nature state right now... constant motion especially when he gets to just be a kid with his older brothers.  

More spectacular displays!

And lunch!  Yep Chris figured if we drove all that way we may as well stop in at a Famous Dave's.

 we followed this truck from the museum for a ways and then finally passed it... about 30 minutes after we got to the restaurant they drove in!

We refrained from going to my favorite store which was only 20 minutes away because Famous Dave and my stomach were NOT agreeing on this trip.  However the trip home was uneventful THANKFULLY!

All in all we had a wonderful Spring Break from school.  Now we are just waiting for the school year to end.  The boys are very excited for different reasons.  Evan will start junior high next year.  Sean will be a sophomore and marching band practice starts back up in June.  And Ian will only have one year of school left and is already looking towards graduation in a year.  And for me... well they are ALL reasons that I would love to turn back the hands of time!

walls and rain and Easter and...

I can't believe the month is almost over!  I know you are probably sick and tired of hearing about how I can hardly believe so much time has passed.  But that seems to be our life recently, as in the past 5 years, ha ha!!  Not that I mind but it sure does make childhood go by far too quickly for my tastes.

Now lets see where are we... that's right we have an addition being built!  Two days ago we were here... a roof but no walls.

Can you tell we've had a "little bit" of rain recently?  And it is supposed to start raining again today and continue for the remainder of the week.  The grass sure is nice and green!  So far we have had 1 dry day for every 4 days of  of thunderstorms and tornadoes.  Thankfully we have been protected and have had no damage!  

I will have an update of more pictures to this post in a few hours but don't want to disturb the builders whilst they are furiously working to beat the next storm system. :)

Inside much has been going on as well.  I have a new chalk "board"!

It is the chalkboard contact paper available at Michael's, 18"x 6' but I only used 5 feet I think.  

We love it for keeping track of all the projects going on plus our "needs" lists!

And we had an absolutely wonderful Easter!!  It was a very quiet day as there was no Sunday school or evening services,  just the morning service spent in worship of our risen Lord and Savior!  

Yes I have to admit we did the annual hide the Easter baskets for the boys.  It is getting hard as they are all old enough that we really have to truly ingenious in the hiding places.

Later in the afternoon we had lovely dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, pistachio salad with the "fruit" flavored miniature marshmallows, peas, and buttermilk biscuits.  

My silly boys hiding their faces as we were setting the table.  Ah yes there is no table cloth as we have misplaced them!  Seriously all of my table cloths have gone missing as we prepared for the addition.  And no one knows where they might be.  

This makes me a bit sad as I have some lovely old linens that I love to use for special occasions such as Easter and birthdays and Mother's Day!

And we have absolutely NO IDEA what has become of them!

Our festive center piece.

Kumquats ($.50 reduced for quick sale) and artificial ranunculus which were on sale as well.

Both part of my Easter "basket" which is the tall glass vase seen on the hutch in the previous picture.  

A lovely buy at Goodwill for $1.99 (and half off to boot!)

We have a new addition to our home!

Okay so did that get you wondering???  No there are no more children on the horizon (that we know about!!) or any new animals... but an addition nevertheless.  Yep our humble abode is going to be getting bigger!  (from 1250 to 1650 square feet, woo hoo!!)  We are so insanely excited... okay I don't know how excited the boys are but Chris and I are definitely over-the-top excited.  This means when family comes to visit they will have a room to stay in, a bath close by and we will have a family room.  This also means I have been busy drawing plans, drawing and redrawing room plans, deciding on flooring (still undecided but NO carpet!), figuring out furnishings and lighting.  Let's not forget paint, window placement, lighting placement... do we paint?  do we do a board and batten treatment? (please oh please say yes)  Do I paint the kitchen cabinets to make the area seem brighter?  Do I remove cabinet doors?  OH the decisions.  And my wonderful husband... well he gave me a kiss and said "whatever you want, honey!"  WHATEVER I WANT!?!?  I don't know what I want...  :)  He really is such a sweetheart about the whole thing and has incredible taste!  In fact this the same man who convinced me to paint the kitchen in Alaska tomato red!  and ya know what? He was so RIGHT!  It looked incredibly awesome and is my all-time favorite kitchen.  So since this house has lower than normal ceilings in much of the house plus a somewhat low vaulted ceiling reminiscent of a cottage we are going to try and decorate as such.  Just as long as there is not a lot of fru fru stuff.. cause ya know I'm not a fru fru girl.  Give me antiques I can use daily, thick butcher blocks, leather sofas, and a distressed dining room table I am one happy girl.  No there is no peeling paint in our house because he who I love dearly feels the need to paint it but he is fine with a scarred well used dining/kitchen table.  AND he has been so patient with all the CLUTTER (something he loathes!) as I try to downsize.   So here are just a few pictures to show you the progress...

Oh by the way, they just started the actual construction on Thursday as the weather did not cooperate all winter long!

The crawlspace dug and blocked in.  My climbing rose bush in the jack-o-lantern bucket and the location of our old patio.

The temporary new location of my old patio.

And in other news... We just completed the AWANA Grand Prix!  What a great turnout and the kids seemed to have such a great time.  They were supportive of each other no matter the outcome of the races.  I won't be including any pictures of the kids as I do NOT have the express permission of the other parents to post pictures of their children but here are some of the cars, to include a few "novelty" cars.

Don't you love the monarch butterfly caterpillar car and the ladybug car?

And the mustache car?  Trust me it really does look like one when you look at it straight on!  Absolutely hilarious!

(our youngest the day prior to getting his braces)

(and his car for which he won 2nd place for best race car design.. it really does look like an Indy car in real life! It was his first year to race!)  A great time was had by all!!  I am so glad we were able to help out this year.  Not only were the kids so much fun to watch but so were the parents (I'm tellin' ya some of the parents were more into it than the kids! lol)

Oh if I haven't said it before, I am saying it NOW.  Any and all ideas for flooring, paint, wall treatments, etc will be gratefully accepted, links will be more than welcome as well!   

Hope you have a great week!  We will as we get to sleep in.  ITS SPRING BREAK!!  Woo hoo!

thrift modern art

This weekend was so productive!  Saturday Sean and I spent much of the afternoon running errands and finishing up projects.  We scored a MAJOR find!  Our local Blockbuster is closing its doors (permanently closed as of today) and they were selling EVERYTHING in the store... Yep you read that, EVERYTHING!  This included all displays and cabinets.  So by Saturday evening we were the proud owners of 4 (FOUR) metal 24 inch wide double drawer cabinets which look like this.

(OKAY I NEED SOME SERIOUS HELP!!  All of a sudden when I try to upload any photos taken after March 15th I can not get them to appear in the drop down window... any suggestions?  I use a MacBook Pro and have NEVER had any issues with pictures loading before.)

(these bad boys are the height of our upright freeze!)

Are you ready for the cost?  TWENTY DOLLARS!  for all 4 of them... and one stack was even mounted on casters plus all the stuff inside.  So for  $20 we got 4 cabinets (one is currently stuck shut, possibly permanently), 4 heavy duty rolling casters, cardboard, about 50 peg board hangers, 4 4"x12" storage bins, cardboard, 6 L brackets, and some other stuff.  )

Now on to our art project. We made these awesome wall sculptures using....

 the inserts used to separate the layers of apples in a bushel box.

 Just a number coats of metallic spray paint and a utility knife were all we needed to make these. 

Linking to:

Our bedroom...

Remember how I've been saying we have been clearing out the clutter... well here is our bedroom.  It only took a year to get pictures up and we still need to put up more.  Right now I am looking for frames... the finish doesn't matter because spray paint is my friend.  Just as long as it has the right character.

Do you see the pictures?  That is my mom and her twin when they were babies. 

 And there is another of them being held by their stoic German grandmother.  And we can't forget dear hubby's grandma.  The rest of the old family pictures are still in the closet awaiting their new frames.

The right side of the mirror also has my "pride and joy", ha ha!  yep it is one of our old rusty garden rake heads.  I have no idea where we came up with it but I can honestly say I love them ALL!  Yes we have more than one and they are all put to good use.  Finally a place to hang my necklaces where they won't get all tangled... yeah!!

And now for the other side of the room:

(I see we might want to hang pj bottoms somewhere else, oops!)

Do you see the picture above the bed?  Here is a close-up... 

(the lines in the upper left corner are a reflection of the ceiling fan blades)

I love this picture!  And do you know what?  Its one of those wall vinyl you can get at Target which incidentally remove your paint if you actually apply them to the wall.  So this one is applied to the glass in a frame I found at goodwill for $3.99 but wait... it was half off!  (total price $7 include vinyl because it was clearance but I used a gift card!)

  Its on the back side of the glass which helps to mute the colors a bit so that they match the quilt.  

And here we have my ever faithful companion, Lily!  She is sure to follow me whenever a picture is to be taken.  In fact you will normally find her tail somewhere along the edge of most pictures as a big black smudge. Silly girl!

We have talked about painting but it looks like it will stay on hold for a while.  I think I like the creaminess of the wall especially during winter.  Now to find a clearance puffy quilt/comforter to add another layer of plushness.... nothing to heavy just another layer for the snuggle factor. Or maybe some new pillows.  What do you think?

Linking to:

New things and exciting things are in the works!!!

Oh I can hardly wait to show you all what is in the works!

 Do you remember this?

or this?

or even this?

Well the clutter-be-gone team has been hard at work!  Pictures are being hung, clutter is being sorted and given the old heave ho and much is or has left the house!!!  Thank you of so very much eBay and Goodwill!  (the changes are really quite exciting!  who knew a cleared floor could be so thrilling?!)

It might be dark and dreary outside but the inside of our home is starting to feel like HOME!  I can't wait to show you all what all is in the plans and what some of our ideas are.  But that will definitely be for another day and another post.  Let me just say there is a lot of paint involved, dirt to be moved, holes to be dug, artwork being constructed and so so much more.  It really is pretty exciting, in a somewhat overwhelming sort of way. ha ha! :)

Sorry NO updated pictures today... this is my 15  30 minute lunch break. Yes I am timing my computer time these days as I was disturbed with the number of HOURS I was spending on here and how incredibly depressed I was becoming.  The destructive thoughts of envy, self deprecation, self defeat, and unworthiness had begun to creep their ugly heads into my head once again.  But you know what?  I am worthy but it is not through me but through Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour.  He made me who I am and in Him will I rejoice!

REJOICE in the Lord always; and again I say rejoice!  

Philippians 4:4 (KJV)

 ⁶Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.

 ⁷The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.

Psalm 28:6-7 (KJV)