Family Visit

I was delighted to have my big-little brother, (big cause he's like a foot taller than me and little cause he's 1 year and 51 weeks younger) his sweet wife, my beautiful niece, and my mother visit us from Orlando this past weekend.  It was quite a monumental event because they have not visited us in 5 years.  Yes, I said 5 years.  Not that I'm complaining that I always do the dreaded 7-8 hour drive to Orlando several times a year and they NEVER visit us, but I'm just sayin' that it was nice that they came to us!  Ha, that so sounded like complaining, didn't it????

My brother's sweet family

Anyhoo, they came for a quick visit and we enjoyed them immensely.  It was nice to host my family and get to cook for them and for them to see how we do life.  Well, to say I cooked would be a lie since mother brought like 3 coolers of food for 2 days, but hey, I did warm up some bacon and fry some eggs, does that count?

We didn't do a whole lot except just hang out, visit the "mountain" as they call it, take the kiddos to the park, roast some smores and have movie time!  It was fabulous.

the girls

Jaidyn's first smore

Of course the highlight of the visit was the fact that my 3 year old niece is hysterical and so stinking cute.  She never says no...it's always "no thank you."  "Jaidyn, time to eat." and she replies, "no thank you."  "Jaidyn, can I read you a book?" "no thank you Aunt Lori."  My favorite quote was when she asked what Barbie's name was and I replied, "Barbie" and she said, "just Barbie?"  Like seriously Aunt Lori? Oh and then there's the fact that every time I called her name to pose for a picture she'd make this silly face and say "cheese."  Might I mention that it made it IMPOSSIBLE to get any decent pictures?  Her saying cheese and my  mother refusing to allow pictures to be taken of herself made my job of photographer very difficult!

I begged for a good smile...this is the best I got!  

So, those are all the sad photos I managed to take during their visit!  Erg!

I'm pretty sure they enjoyed their short visit to the country (seriously?  I'm north of Atlanta, not the country) and besides the fact my mother froze her booty off the entire time she was here (apparently 68 degree homes are cold to her), I think she may come back!  Soon, I hope!

pallet art

If you've discovered Pinterest, you know it's addictive....HIGHLY addictive.  And if you're like me, you pin a zillion ideas, yet have little time to complete those ideas.

Friday was rainy, yucky and cold so I was stuck inside and amazingly, we finished school super early (eeek!).  That meant, I could (1) prepare for our my family's arrival next friday, or (2) play around and try and create something.  I chose option (2). 

I started with this...

an old salvaged wood pallet that the Hubs disassembled for me.  I painted it and then headed into the computer room and played around on the silhouette (which is the best craft tool ever) and cut out a bible verse I've been wanting to post in the girls' playroom forever!


Within a few hours, this was the finished product and I love it! Practical, free (well, almost, but I didn't buy anything) and just may be pinterest worthy:

I'm thinking the girls are going to be seeing a lot of that verse.  I envision sending them to the playroom when they're in trouble, having them figure out which 'fruit' they've failed to display and then report back.  Hmmm...that's a fabulous idea!

Love, Hate, and Some Growth

As I get a little older and a little more mature in my faith, I'm almost embarrassed at some of the past choices, comments and even thoughts I've had.  Well, to be honest, I'm really embarrassed.   Luckily, with maturity also comes the realization of God's amazing grace and forgiveness.


A friend of mine quoted someone's twitter post to me and it has recently stuck in my mind. The comment was, "you can't hate Kim Kardashian and Michelle Duggar at once, you must choose sides."  I'm not sure what the intention of that comment was, or if I even have it completely correct, but it has made me think of how many times I've judged others.  How many times I've judged not only the Godless, but also the God-fearing people around me.

I've realized that those judgements have come out of my own insecurities and even desires.  I've judged because of jealousy and ignorance and the worse part is, I'm always able to justify it.

A sweet mom I had the pleasure of not only knowing in Florida, but also living near recently posted something on her blog that truly made my heart hurt.  There were many reasons why, but most of all because the very thing she was posting about was something I had been guilty of - judgement.

She is an amazing God-fearing woman that has a unique calling from God.  She is a mother of 6 biological kids, 3 adopted, and a new baby on the way.  Crazy?  Maybe.  In fact, I have even said it before.  But as I've matured in my knowledge and faith in God, I've realized she is obeying the calling God has specifically laid on her life.  The calling to raise children for Christ.  The calling to have as many children as God chooses to bless her with.  To homeschool them all.  To teach others how to raise God-fearing, obedient children.   And ya know what?  She is inspiring.  She is encouraging.  Sometimes she hurts my feelings with the truth.  But it's the truth from God's word.

Her children are amazing.  While I haven't met the newest members, the Hubs and girls have and they agree....sweet, amazing, fun children that I only wish we still lived close to.  A family I only wish I could be closer to in order to learn more from.  You can visit her blog here.

during Thanksgiving the family of 9, plus my girls

 While I'm still guilty of judging and no where close to the maturity I desire, one of my growth goals for this year is to be less judgmental, more forgiving, and a lot more loving.

Labor of Love part II

Remember the Labor of Love post here,
well, I forgot to show you the dresser turned buffet for homeschool junk.  And I forgot to tell you the reason for the whole project was to house our homeschool books.  I was sick of lining our dining room floor with little piles of books every day. And the chest we were using became a bottomless pit and did not help my issue of organization.

I was determined to find a dresser to hold the chaos so that each subject would have its own drawer. That's when my fabulous friend so graciously offered us a dresser she found at a thrift store.

We've only used the finished product for 2 days (the girls go to school T/TH and are only home M/W/F), but so far I'm in love!

Again, I'm a nerd and no before pictures except for this one:

this is after sanding the top and sides

front view without the drawers...Hubs cut off the entire bottom, added a bnew board and replaced the feet

 The process was exact to the table post mentioned at the top of this post.  All the same failures occurred since we worked on the dresser, table and all six chairs at once.

This is the failure of glaze process.  I'm pretty sure it shouldn't have done this:

Now the big reveal with very crappy pictures: 

 Ahhh, beautiful!  And so very useful.  It wouldn't fit behind the dining room table so, here it lives in the entry way.  Since the girls are in and out of it about 500 times a day, it's probably a good idea that they have plenty of room to pull the drawers out.

This dresser had some funky vertical knobs that were impossible to replace.  And because I wasn't smart enough to have the Hubs wood putty, sand and paint over the existing knob holes, we had to get creative.

I found these chunky knobs at Hobby Lobby.  Then the Hubs found large washers at Home Depot and he painted them black, placed them over the existing holes and drilled a new hole through the center.  This made a perfect back plate for the new knobs and it covered the existing holes.  That man of mine is brilliant!

 

I'm excited about my renewed dining room and entry.  Now only if we had the money to buy a new rug, pretty light fixture, and some accents it would be heaven.  The reality is that of course, we can't so I'll just be thankful that the ugly pine table is gone and that I have a beautiful new buffet.

A True Labor of Love

When I tell you that my husband really loves me I mean it.  Besides the obvious fact that I'm the best wife on the planet (ha, ha), he dedicated his entire week off to my projects.  Of course it's a project I've wanted to do for YEARS.   Yes, I said years!

The story goes like this:  I got a free dresser from a fabulous friend to use as a buffet in our dining room.   Let me rephrase that.  A dresser I was going to turn into a buffet for the dining room that would hold all our homeschool junk.  However, it was ugly.  I mean U-G-L-Y!!!!  But, it had huge potential.  I had a vision for this ugly furniture item and needed the Hubs' help. 

That's not it.  If we were going to make the dresser turned buffet pretty, we had to refinish the dining room table that was also very U-G-L-Y.   If you've visited my house you know the one.  The one I have to keep because it was a wedding gift from the Hubs' grandparents.

So, this is where the labor of love comes in.  It took us an entire week to complete the project and to say we worked on it everyday almost all day would be putting it mildly.  And while I'm at it, I should admit the Hubs did most of the work while I directed the vision.

I'm not the best photographer, and I forgot to take a before picture.  So, here's an old picture of the table that was a pine color.  The top was destroyed and I'm pretty sure you could read some of Chloe's grammar papers as they were literally inscribed on the table top.

ugly pine, so not my style any more

 And here is the after:

 Ahhh, beautiful, creamy white with distressed edges and new fabric on the seats.

pretty fabric from Hobby Lobby...Clearance!

distressing on the edges...like the sideways shot?

 We stained the top using Jacobean Minwax stain and it is beautiful!  Dark, rich, with some wood tones shining through.  The pictures don't reveal the true beauty.

 The whole processs was  a true nightmare.  The top had to be stripped and luckily my father in law assisted the Hubs with this process.

Then we painted and the paint went on horrible.  So, it had to be sanded and painted, sanded and painted. 

Finally, we distressed and tried to glaze.  Yeah, well, this is where the project failed!  The glaze did not work as suggested.  Fail, Fail, Fail!!!!  I was not happy!  So, we sanded, stained the edges, painted again and then sanded. This time we used a sprayer.  Duh, had we done that first, we wouldn't have wasted 2 days!  erg!  It was not fun.  I determined during the process that those bloggers that love refinishing furniture are crazy!  It was not fun, it was not enjoyable and I hated the whole process! 

That being said, I love, love, love the final product!  It's refreshing, clean and crisp.  And, I am begging the Hubs to redo our outdated entertainment center.  Basically he laughed, but I'm thinking maybe this summer he may be up for it.  Just maybe, he'll have forgotten about how much work it was!

Meet Dasher

Right in the middle of getting prepared for Christmas the girls and Hub came home with this cute little guy:

This is Dasher...our new pet turtle which currently resides on my dining room table.  How in the world we ended up with him is still a blur.  You see, the girls had a playdate with new friends (sisters) and Mrs. A offered them a free turtle.  I made the mistake of saying ask Dad when he picks you up, and well, the rest I'm sure you can figure out.

The deal was they pay for the tank and supplies, agree to take care of him, and they could have him.  The girls agreed and now we just pray he starts to eat and doesn't end up in turtle heaven!