Photo Book

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Thwarting...

Having a "parenting is just a fancy name for suicide prevention" kind of day. I mean, really. 

I was "indisposed" for two minutes {mommy's need potty breaks too!}.

What kind of sentient being sees a burnt out light bulb on the kitchen table and decides to see what happens if he smashes it on the ground immediately in front of his little sister????

THIS KIND OF SENTIENT BEING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes, I do realize I've already shared this photo on several occasions. I justify posting it again, because to me, it is the embodiment of the "other half" of my son's apparently split personality. The one who seems to come out when I'm not looking. For two minutes.

Thankfully, mommy was able to book it to the kitchen before said child attempted to "vacuum" the shattered glass while barefoot, using a rolling popper toy. Sissy's quick, but she was busy chewing on something considerably less dangerous than broken glass. 

My monkeys are safe, and another suicide/assassination attempt has been successfully thwarted. And I'm gonna need a nap today!!! :)

Thrift Store Finds and Projects!!!

These past few weeks have been full of ministry, packing and projects! A few months back we scored a couple of pieces from assorted thrift stores- and each has become an object of my long pent-up creative energy!

This little beauty we found while staying at the coast for.... $5!!!!!

How could we pass it up???

The reason for the low price being, we believe, that it was originally wired to hang like this. Imagine if you will...

Hmm...octopus, anyone?

I used sandpaper to distress the edging and highlight the details.

  I love all the character :)

And here is the finished product! 

How do you think it will look hanging in our dining-room-to-be?

While on the hunt for ingredients to begin another project, I came across these adorable little folding chairs! The store was having a 50% off sale, so together they were only $10!

I didn't like the finish, so I sanded it off (left: sanded/ right: untouched). Originally I had planned to paint them, but I think I like the aged look and rosey hues of the sanded chair on the left. 

My little man loves his new perch :)

You may have noticed a large roll of latch-hooking canvas in the first chair photo. What you may not have noticed was the obnoxious pile of plastic bags next to it. 

These contain 72 white t-shirts. My insane plan is to create a flokati rug similar to the one shown in the picture below.

(Click the photo to view the website with original instructions)

However, I would like my rug to be bigger than the one shown (only 4x6) and either white or off-white.

 Check out the photo below to get an idea of the scale I'm thinking.

The plan is a 5'x8' area rug for our new living room.

This particular project is long-term, so I will update as I go along. At this time I have spent roughly 16 hours cutting t-shirts into 4"x 1" inch strips, and have an estimated 4 more until the cutting is done.

After that only approximately 40 hours of latch hooking!!!

What did I get myself into?!!!!!
But the good news is the final product will be a $300- 500 rug for only $70!

Happy crafting everyone! I'll talk to you in 5 years... when my rug is finished ;)

The Kiddos

 I realize it's been pretty much forever since I've posted about my two favorite little people. Here are some snapshots of our last few weeks :)

I caught Westly in the bathroom one day, reading to Sissy :) 

Success!!!

Snuggles 

Think West was worn out that day?

I surrender...

Sunday morning. I'm singing next to my husband at the beginning of our church service, worshiping alongside friends and family. 

But the truth is, my heart isn't in it. I was singing the words, and distracted by thoughts of our soon-to-be-home, my kids, friends, my discipleship team girls... thinking about almost anything except the awesome God I was praising with my words. 

Then, A.J. and the worship team began to lead us in the song
I Surrender.

The chorus is "I surrender all to you, all to you". As we repeated this a few times I realized just how empty the words were to me at that moment. I was unwilling to surrender the three most important things in my life right now, but I forced myself to imagine my feelings if these things were taken from me.

The house we've worked so hard and waited so long for...

...my precious children...

...and my best friend.

Having surrendered all of these things in my heart I was alone, clinging so much more tightly to the only hope I had left- heaven. 

But it felt... right. I wished for a moment that I could stay this way, that without competition the cup of my hope was completely poured out on heaven. 

And it struck me, that this actually IS reality. Without competition, heaven is the only thing I have any right to cling to. The only thing God promises will never be taken from me. In fact, without a shadow of a doubt, I will eventually loose everything listed above, except my promise of heaven.

Thank You, Lord, for giving me an eternal rock to stand on in the middle of this swiftly passing life.

Household Binder

Ok, I've never actually "linked" my blog with anyone else's, but this event seems more than worth it! I've recently started following the I Heart Organizing blog and I must say I am both in love and far more organized. This past month her challenge was to create a household binder. This amazing lady whipped up printables for all of us to borrow FREE this month for our own binders. You can find them here: iheartorganizing.blogspot.com-- and be sure to check out those free printable before you must pay for them on 4/9/11!!!

I loved this challenge!!! Getting all our important info in one place makes so much sense, and it's pretty :) To be honest though, anything I show you will be a copy cat of what you can find through the above link... except this!

If you would like a copy for boys click here.

If you would like a copy for girls click here.

*Please note that they won't look like the above pics until you download them. Also, be sure to select only pages 1 of 1 when you go to print*

For quite sometime I've wanted to create an inventory for my children's "grow-in-to" clothing that I have put away. This will *hopefully* prevent me from finding a "great deal" on something we already have and buying duplicates :) I can also keep track of what they do need and watch for a cute and inexpensive version before I'm buying on a need-basis. And, (because I am hopelessly anal when it comes to making even the smallest things easy on the eyes) I did my best to have my template "flow" with the other downloads from i heart organizing.

Have fun organizing!!!