The girls bedroom

The girls have a small bedroom upstairs right now. It's not so bad when they are sleeping in bunk beds but for the past 8 months or so no-one has wanting to sleep on the top so we have them seperated. It's so crammed you can barely move in there. It's driving everyone crazy. They want a place to play where Theo can't get at them but they can barely turn around in their bedroom. We have a large bedroom downstairs that we use as a guest/storage room and we've decided to move the girls into that room. They will be right beneath us but I know I'll have a hard time at first....they'll feel so far away :( They will have more space though and their own 'kid' bathroom! I hope it goes as smoothly as I'm hoping it does but I do have my reservations for sure. I got a *sweet* deal on the bedding thanks to my brother who lives in the States and was willing to allow me to have my stuff shipped to his place for him to forward on to me. I'm excited to have it done...but there is work involved first. We need to clean out the room and decide what to do with all the junk. I think we've decided that we aren't going to keep the guest bed. Initially we thought we'd move the bed upstairs but I think I'm going to need that space for homeschooling stuff. We rarely get overnight company anymore. We used to be like a hotel and I was constantly washing the bedding and getting the room ready for our next visitors but those days are few and far between now. It's hard to justify saving the second biggest room in the house for guests that come only a few times a year when we can be using the room on a daily basis. So, we will have a queen blowup mattress and for those that don't appreciate that, Chris and I will sleep on it and give them our bed for the nights when we have overnight guests.

I'm pretty sure I've decided on painting their room blue and brown...stripes. It's a lot of work but it will look tres cool when completed. I'm painting some headboards that came from Chris's sisters old bedroom and have already bought a nightstand. I'm still deciding on what type of storage system to get...will most likely end up being Ikea. They need a place to store some crafts and toys....and ideas?

I'll post pics as we go along! Hopefully by the end of April they will be downstairs living every teenagers dream :)

Here is a pic of the bedding.

I'll try again!

Last week I posted a super huge long blog and then when I went to change the font to white so it could be read, I accidently deleted it. I was so MAAAAAD. I'll try again and honestly I hope to become much better at this blogging thing. There have been so many times in the past few weeks that I've though "I should blog about that"....and then I just don't.



Today was a crazy day. Hal had a dentist appt at 930 which we didn't make it to. It was just to early...the roads weren't great so it was going to take about 45 minutes to get there, the kids slept in and so did I. Daylight savings sucks, although I am grateful that it will now be light enough outside for me to go for a run when Chris gets home. I just need the temperature to increase by a few (40) degrees!



So, I called the dentist when it became apparent that we were going to be late and asked if they would rather I reschedule than come late and they said "yes, please reschedule". We went to Bible Study instead, which is our usual Tuesday morning thing. I love the Ladies Bible Study group at our church. It's led by a great lady who I really look up to. She is someone that I'd admired from afar for a while and this past summer started meeting with once in a while for coffee. She is a great mentor for me and I'm glad that God has put her in my life.



I honestly can't believe how quickly the kids are growing up. Hallie just celebrated her 6th birthday and we had a very fun "Chocolate Factory" party for her. My goal/hope in having big parties for them and "doing it big" is that it's their special time to be celebrated and when Christmas rolls around, that's Jesus's time. Their friends have fun at their parties and go home with a few small 'gifts' and at Christmas, we will have fun celebrating Jesus's birthday and they will each get a few small gifts. Their birthday is all about them and I want Christmas to be all about Jesus.



Hallie is really big right now on showing the love of Jesus to people around her. She 'cleaned' my room for me last week when I wasn't feeling well and said

"Mom, because you aren't feeling well, I cleaned your room for you. That's called thinking of others (udders) before yourself right? That's what Jesus teaches us in the Bible"

She is especially concerned about our muslim neighbors and that they won't be going to heaven. She can't wait until summer time so she can tell the little girl that's her age all about Jesus. I had mixed feelings about this, which I blogged about last week (sigh) but it's been resolved and Chris has spoken to some people at his office that are familiar with the Muslim culture and religion and I now feel comfortable saying "You go girl!!"



Raya is progressing leaps and bounds with respect to her speech therapy and occupational therapy. We are surrounded by a great team of people right now that genuinely care about her and want her to succeed. When the OT (occupational therapist) used to come over and I would notice something that Raya couldn't do, it was so overwhelming for me. Now, I just look at it as one more thing she can accomplish. She is so focused and driven and is doing so amazingly well. I can't even describe the changes we've seen in her over the past 3 months. Her pediatrician confirmed this week that her "issues, struggles, difficulties..whatever you want to call them" are from birth. :( She has been referred to the neurologist and we will wait to see what he/she has to say. For now, I'm just so happy that she is progresssing...and at a great rate!



Theo is by FAR our most difficult 20 month old. He is a stubborn little guy that likes to eat!!! He is constantly in the pantry or fridge and is pulling out food or screaming for it all day long. He is a very fun little guy as well. He likes to play...but only with balls, trucks, trains or markers. He will have nothing to do with the 'girly' toys. He loves to play with the girls though and make them laugh. The biggest difference I've noticed is his need to wrestle and be roughed up a bit. If he's really grouchy, I just start tossing him around and he gets happy pretty quickly...usually!



I've been wanting a Bosch or a Kitchen Aid mixer for a long time now but couldn't ever justify it. I had a thought a couple of weeks ago that my grandma may have had one that might be sitting at my 'step-grandma's' condo. My mom doesn't really cook or bake much and so I called to ask her if she knew or thought there might be one there that wasn't being used. I was fully expecting her to say "What's a Bosch?" but guess what.....you won't believe what she said....she said "I don't think Grandma had one but I do!" I was like "what???...you are kidding...do you know what a Bosch is?" Well, sure enough, she had one and I am now the proud owner, I mean "borrower" of it!!! (she wouldn't give it to me, but that's okay, I'm just happy to have one in my house!)



Chris and I have been trying to do random acts of kindness lately and it's been amazing to see how it comes back to bless us. I can't/won't share specific details because someone might read this and then it wouldn't be very "secret" would it? But it's just been amazing to see how God uses what you give him and how he really blesses you in return.



One of our big decisions of late is that we will most likely homeschool Hallie next year. I used to have a huge list of reasons of why it would never work for us or why I would never want to and they slowly, one by one, keep getting ticked off as being invalid now. Even in the beginning of December my whole list applied and now none of it does. It's a weird thing that can't be explained so you'll all just have to trust me when I tell you that the mind can't do what the heart won't let it. My mind says 'send her to school with all the other children' and my heart says 'you have to keep her home and teach her and guide and direct her until she knows who she is'. I'm hoping that come September, my heart agrees with my mind but I have a feeling it will be my mind submitting to my heart.



Chris is in a position transition right now with work and I'm so super proud of him!!!



As for me, I'm just really trying to figure out who it is that God wants me to be...as a mom, friend, sister, daughter, mentor, neighbor, co-worker, church member....I think he has a job description for me under each one of those titles and I'm beginning to search out what each one of those looks like. I've been awful at it for the past couple of weeks but I really enjoy when I set my alarm and get up before the kids and pray for them (and our family). When I actually take the time to invite God into our house...let him know he's not only welcome but he's wanted and needed here...

We've been singing this new great song at church lately and I can't get enough of it. I have the words printed out on the fridge and Hallie asked about them today. I sat down with her and explained that it's about striving to make God the biggest part of everything that happens in our lives every day. I read her the words, then sang it for her, and then she asked if she could learn it so she could try and do it too. I showed her it on youtube and she loved it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrIWy42sC6U&feature=related

Well, I've been sick for about three weeks now and I'm headed to bed. No energy left to proof-read...sorry...

Random Ramblings

Okay....I'm mad...I just blogged the super longest blog EVER and it didnt' work..,.

AAAHHHHHHH