Boys Room and Master

 So the boys room is probably my favorite room in the house right now. I am such a sucker for stripes! I really wanted a room that cold grow with them and was not too "themed". I found these comforters on sale at Target for $19.99 and I knew that I HAD to have them and I went from there.

 

 The giant star on the wall was a find from a local store here in town that I am in LOVE with. I get probably 50% of the stuff for my house from there! I had looked at for a couple of months and then when we moved, I knew that it would look great in the boys room!

 The letter are from my other favorite place Hobby Lobby. Oh and that amazing trunk is from that same local store!

I found that old bed spring and just knew exactly where and what I wanted to do with it. The lady at the store and my husband both thought I was crazy... but I LOVE IT! It adds so much character and charm to that side of the room. I plan on just continuing to add random pics of the boys as I take them. And the lights, who doesn't love big white Christmas lights. They just make me smile!

 The built ins are so great and a huge reason we bought the house, but keeping those little fingers from destroying them every five minutes is a challenge! So at some point I am sure they looked neat and clean, but not for very long!

Our master is very cozy and classic.

When you walk in you are greeted by an eclectic gallery wall and a beautiful view to our back yard. 

 That end table is from World market, and I just love it! It is a blue gray color and is just so charming.
Please excuse the cord and books, once again, little fingers are EVERYWHERE in my house!!

I am working on Grace's room and then headed towards Harper's room. I have so many fun ideas...
 

Home Tour...FInally!!

After a long journey of trying to find the right house for our family, we did! We moved in about 2 months ago and it has been 100 mph ever since. Now that Christmas is over and our house is back to normal, I am going to try and start posting some pictures of the rooms.

I saw the home for sale online and at first wrote it off. The pictures were not that great and we kept looking. One day, I decided to just drive by it, once I saw the lot and all of the trees, I did not even care what the inside looked like. I just knew this was it for us. It sits on almost 2 acres and is about 3 mile from town. It was perfect. Preston and I went to go look at it for the first time together, and I think it took both of our breaths away! The funny part, is that nothing on the inside was great. But the BONES were amazing. All of the rooms were yellows and burnt oranges and greens... luckily both of us could see the potential! The built ins are AMAZING!!! I could go on and on of all the reason we were in love. As soon as we got back in the car Preston immediately told me to take a deep breath and not to get our hopes up. But, in true me fashion, I was already redecorating and painting walls and moving our stuff in...after 4 months of negotiating and a few hiccups along the road, we finally closed at the end of October. The thing I love most about our home is that it feels like us. It is for sure the home God wanted us to be in and I am so glad I have a husband who made me wait it out. I think I tried to convince him to buy like 2o other houses. Luckily, he knew what we both really wanted and was able to put up with all of my pouting and temper-tantrums. He is a keeper for sure!   

When you walk into our house, you enter into the foyer and to the right is our home school room and dining room combo. I really wanted a bright and clean looking room. The color is Intellectual Gray by Sherwin Williams. It is the best color ever! It is a chalky gray and goes with everything.

This is where we do school and life... we play, color and live in this room. Because it is the first room you see, I really wanted it to look organized and clean, BUT, it has so many functions (my office, school room, play room, dining room)

 

 

 
  The other half of the room is our dining room. The real challenge here was to make to rooms flow. So I tried to make the dining room feel comfortable and usable.

 When we walked into the house, I fell in love with the kitchen. It had so much charm and character, and ALL THE CABINETS WERE ALREADY PAINTED WHITE!!! Which for me was a huge plus. I did not want to have to paint cabinets again. The oven is so charming AND works better than any other oven I have had. It preheats in like 2 minutes!!! I tried to keep with the era of the kitchen and keep it clean and crisp. It really is my favorite room in the house. The only thing I want to do in the future is change the counter tops.

 This is my coffee station. It has everything, filters, sugar, coffee!! It makes it so easy in the morning to grab a cup!

 The papers on the fridge are reminders of what mothering is all about. Taking time to invest in the souls of our kids... I read them over and over...

  Connected to the kitchen is our laundry and mud room. It is HUGE and I love it!!! It has 2 closets and a wall of cabinets! When we walked into the house for the first time, I was in heaven! However, it was very hard to get passed the blue and white checkered wallpaper with a beautiful cat boarder. But leave it to me to just paint over it :) This is the only room in the house with a "crazy" paint color. I figured, if any room needed a cheery feel, it was the laundry room. The color is conch shell, by Benjamin Moore. I love it, it is a chalky coral color and just makes me smile!

 The back of the door holds all of my aprons, but at this time it has two Ironman costumes and an Optimus Prime costume... life with boys :)

 That is my one little one year old! Time flies so fast, and I am so thankful for my family and for this home that we plan to spend many years making memories in!
 

God's Faithfulness in Parenting

  Tonight was a normal night. Bath. PJ's. Read. Bed. But tonight I got to have one of the sweetest moments with Grace. I hope that I never forget it. She continues to blow me away with the way she loves and how she truly feels peoples pain.

How many times as parents do we try to impart wisdom into our sweet babies and  say things like, " God loves you so much!", "God sent his son to die for you, isn't that awesome!" and drop hints at every corner that Jesus is the way, to just be dismissed and overlooked by the next page of a book, or the sound of Dad coming into the room. I try so hard to teach my kids that they are longing deep down inside for the love that only one person can fill, and end up feeling defeated that no one hears anything that I am saying.

Well, here is just a tiny bit of encouragement, nothing mind blowing, or life altering, but for me it was just enough of an affirmation by God that they are listening and that they accept and believe far more than we think they are.

We started reading the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jerico. After singing the song and going through what it meant to walk around the entire city, and the walls coming tumbling down, we prayed. Grace opened us up with the sweetest words, " Oh Lord... you are just so amazing and powerful. We can not see you, but you see us and you love us. You created all of our hearts. My heart, Fisher's heart, Mommy's heart, Harper's heart, Daddy's heart and everyone in the whole world. You love us and you sent your son to die on the cross for our sins." She then went on to name about 25 things God created and loves and ended with, "we love you." It was so sweet and heart felt and lacked any doubts or fears or concerns. 

After we were done, Grace asked me to come to her room and bring the bible with me so I could show her the picture of Jesus on the cross. The particular bible I was reading from is a kids bible but the illustrations are not "car-toony" at all. They are very real looking. I flipped to the page and showed her the picture and she just stared and took it in. She started commenting on the nails and the rope and the tattered clothes and then she noticed the blood. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and asked me "Why mom?", "Why would they do this to him, they scratched him and hurt him and made fun of him?" I got to explain all of the awful things that they did to him on the cross and the blood that was shed, and then I got to remind her that he did this for her. That is was her sins he was dying for and the this was the only way that death could be conquered.

It was so tender.
It was so sweet.
It was so raw for Grace.

After that she looked at me and said. "Mom, they must of done it because they didn't know."
What truth in such a sweet child.  We then got to look at the pictures of the stone being rolled away and the empty tomb and I got to explain that now Jesus was able to be in Heaven, and that now we have a way to be in Heaven with him.

It was only a couple of minutes, but it was such a sweet moment with Grace. I told her that whenever she is ready we can talk about what it means to have Jesus live in your heart and how before she was born, Preston and I have been praying for the day that she would accept this gift. Which she told me she wasn't old enough to have yet :)

In the midst of all the crazy, they hear us. In the midst of all the fighting and tattle-telling, they hear us. It was such an encouragement to me to keep pressing on. To keep fighting for the moments to bring it all back to the cross. Ultimately, only God can save, but what a blessing to be used in this world to share the good news. Often times my heart is burdened over who I need to be sharing the gospel with and my neighbors and family that are lost, but there are 4 kids living in the same house as me that are in desperate need of a savior. I long for them to hear the truth and I am so blessed to be apart of their lives.

Lately...

 It has been so long since I last blogged. I would like to think that it's because I have been doing so many wonderful things with my family but in reality it's because lately I have been in some kind of funk. A funk that has left most days feeling cloudy and gross. I have found myself waking up, dreading the day before me, asking God to make it go by quickly. Wow, just writing that seems so sad. I mean wishing away the days and hoping to just soar through these moments with my kids, trying to feel nothing and just get through it. I can not even imagine the sadness that those words have left in the ear of my creator, who am I to even begin to think that I even have tomorrow and to wish today away to? Who am I to question God's purpose and direction for my life? So, lately I have been battling to get out of this funk. To rise above, victorious, allowing God to receive the glory.

What a journey it has been. Honestly, I feel like I am somewhere in the middle at this point. Not fully restored, yet far from where I was. I feel like God has been really teaching me 2 things. First, only He is able to get me out of this funk. Only He is able to restore my soul to where it longs to be. Only he is able to bring me true joy. Only he is able to give me life, true life. I am so grateful, because I have tried myself. Convincing myself that I am strong and capable of being joyful and full of life. But, man, I was so wrong. I am able to only do so much. What a blessing that is. I mean if I could just flip the switch and be where I want to be, it would be such a waste. I can only see about 4 steps in front of me, and normally those steps are all about me. Taking me to the places and feelings that best suit me and my life and my stage and my desires. But Lord, you have so much more. So much better. So much more meaningful. Nothing to do with me. Nothing to do with where I want to be going. And once again I am so grateful. Slowly, my heart is changing. Slowly, I long to make his desires my desires. I am becoming aware that I am exactly where He wants me to be, and that's where I want to be. I am coming to grips with the fact that changing diapers and trying to teach my kids how to obey and how to love others is a great place to be. My family and my husband are a great place to be. How dare I wish all of that away and question God's plan for me. Even in the midst of the crazy day, I am choosing joy, because what else do you do? Do you curl up back in bed and pretend there are not 4 kids who are hungry and need to go potty? A few months ago if you would of given me that option, I probably would have ran with it! But, now I wake up and I ask God to be glorified through it all. Through every tear and every dirty diaper and every crumb on the floor and and every boo-boo. That He would be glorified through it all! I wake up asking God to do big things through my little, insignificant life. That raising kids to love him and serve him is a big deal. Something, not to be taken lightly. It's actually an enormous task that I will never fully conquer and is absolutely impossible without him. That loving my husband and honoring him with keeping up the house and holding it together is a privilege. A few years ago when we worked at camp, one of the tag lines for all of the chores around camp that no one really wanted to do, was "get to's." I "get to" to go clean up that spilled sippy cup, I "get to" go love on Miles when he runs into the wall for the tenth time that day. I "get to" change Harper's diaper. For me, it is a daily battle. A battle that I am determined to win, only through the love and mercy so freely given to me.

The second lovely thing God has been teaching me is that sin is so ugly. I have found myself in the throws of discipline. I mean it used to be so easy, to teach Grace and Fisher right from wrong. "Don't touch the stove, it's danger and hot!" "Don't put that toy in your mouth you could choke!" Now, it is a different ball game. Now, there is a battle waging war on their hearts and it comes in a really cute little package with dimples and white-blonde hair and calls me Maa-Maa and wants to cuddle. It's ugly! Every second of the day is filled with correction and trying to explain that it is not necessarily what was said but how it was said. Filled, with arguments about who got what first and who said I hate you to who first. It is pure evil! I find myself saying things like, " Fisher, you are going to have no friends! No one is going to want to come to your birthday party!" Parenting at it's finest right there! Trying to explain over and over that you have to obey Mommy, because the bible says to, and because I want you to know how to obey God when you get older. Feeling like I am getting absolutely no where, real fast. It has made me so aware of how big of a deal sin is. I mean God hates sin! And yet, so many times in my life I play it off as not being that bad or not worthy of asking for forgiveness.  I mean it was not that bad, the way I used my words towards Preston, or the continual right I feel to have everything I could possibly want. And then it hits me, I am doing the same things to God as my kids are doing to me. The exact same things! Putting myself before everyone else, not sharing and giving with a happy heart and not using my words to bless and build up! Ouch! It hurts when your sin is staring straight back at you. It hurts thinking you have come so far and yet still have so far to go! I want to just throw my hands up in the air so many times during the day and give up on my kids, I have even called my husband and told him that I give up, there is no hope for any of them. They will all grow up to be selfish, joy suckers, who think only of themselves! All to often I judge my success as a mom on the behavior of my kids. All to often I feel like a failure, because everyday they mess up, everyday they fall short and everyday we are left at the same place. Praise God, that God's success is not measured by my behavior! That is worth repeating... PRAISE GOD, THAT GOD'S SUCCESS IS NOT MEASURED BY BEHAVIOR! I mean that would just be awful, praise God that he does not give up on me and leave me where I am. HE is the god of restoration, and of forgiveness. He longs for me to draw near to him and to be lead by him so that my sin does not win. That the battle for my soul is victorious. Because the war is raging and the enemy is strong, but God is bigger! He is bigger then my kids rebellion and my kids sin! His death on the cross was and is and will always be ENOUGH! What a breath of fresh air that is. I do not have to take the burden alone to teach my kids right from wrong and how to control their tongue. I am able to walk with them and guide them and point them to the cross. My new parenting goal is not to have kids that are always well-behaved and impress all of my friends with their amazing attitudes. That grow up to be the best at everything they do and go to a great college and make tons of money. My new parenting goal is to have kids that are pointed to the cross. That they know that the cross is their only hope to overcome this world, and that they know above all else their mom loves God and longs more than anything that they would live a life that glorifies Him.

So now, we take this journey together, as a family, to be reminded everyday that we will fall short. And that is ok! Because God never falls short! He is the only way to have life abundantly!  He is the only way to get the fog lifted and to see the beauty that has been given to me each day! Whew! It's not about me, and I am ok with that!

Flowers!!!

We have been blessed with AMAZING wild flowers this year.
I could not help myself to take some pictures...

Playing with Fisher

Fisher has one of the best imaginations! Sometimes I watch him
play and wish I could have as much fun as him with the simplest of toys.

Fisher is ALL boy and so different from me, he makes me laugh all day!
This is his mean dinosaur sound...

You never know what you are going to get with him and today was all about Jurassic Park. Yes, don't judge, my kids have seen it and love it! And yes that is permanent marker on his cheeks, he said it was whiskers...

Today was not a great day for the airplane pilot...

Of course the airplane had to crash and get eaten by the t-rex...