The Christmas Card Game!

This year, our family will be having a Christmas card game!
The rules go as follows:

Each week leading up to Christmas, we will choose a random selected winner from a box. The kids will also choose purposefully selected winner on December 22nd based on the following criteria:

Most Creative
Most Beautiful
Most Animals

You have to have a family picture somewhere in the card (those are what I am drawing out of the box). It doesn't need to be a picture card -it can be a letter with a picture inside. Your card needs to be received by December 22nd to be part of the game. The winner will recieve a box of Christmas treats! If you do not live in town I can ship them to you.
You can't win if you don't play!
Happy Christmas Card-ing!

PS: if you need my new address I can email it to you.

(This was our rejected picture this year)

Autumn

Weeeeeeeeeee!

Yes, I let my kids play in the backyard in their pajamas...

How fun!

Soft landing!

The pups got in on the action.

Can you find my dapple?

My kids decided to play with our dress up hats and
pose for pictures the other night while daddy was gone.

When I get to Heaven....

When I get to Heaven, I am going to ask the Lord why people have a tendency to go off the deep end. What will you ask?

More Words from the "other one"

"Miss Lucy" came to evaluate him again today because 6 months has passed since he started therapy. Here are his scores:

He is 2 years 6 months by birth date

His Auditory Comprehension scored at 2 years 8 months

His Expressive Communication scored at 3 years 3 months

His Articulation scored below 2 years old (not surprised, we are the only ones who can understand him).

Now that Lucy has gotten him to speak so much more than he could before, she will be working on articulating the words he can already say. He has grown so much from only using 2 words! Her next plan is to use Auditory Bombardment (okay, I just love that title) to get him to say the sounds he is unwilling to say now. He is making such progress my friends! Rejoice with me!

A big fat mess?

According to my math husband, this is an abomination to math textbooks everywhere. I find them actually being put to good use. We are pressing the beautiful fall leaves the kids gathered yesterday or a Thanksgiving craft project. From the sight of the many, many different and beautiful shades of oranges, reds, browns and yellows - there has to be a Creator!

"Are You My Friend?

I've been working on this topic for a few weeks. I found this list online and thought I'd share it with you! Enjoy!

Things a friend does:

1. You give me time
2. You listen to me - and you listen without making me feel judged
3. You're quick to remind me that I have strengths
4. You help me heal when I'm hurting
5. You tell me the truth when it will help me; you don't tell me the truth when it won't help me
6. You show me by your demeanor, tone, and smile that it's important to you that I feel secure, comfortable, at ease
7. You show me that you're sorry when you hurt my feelings; you allow me to show you that I'm sorry when I hurt your feelings
8. You don't abuse me. EVER. You make sure that I know you seek to protect me.
9. You make small surprises for me
10. You find words that support the best that is in me
11. You let me cry when I need to
12. You encourage me to tell the truth to you and to admit when I'm afraid

Yes, you are my friend. And, I need you."

http://www.life-with-confidence.com/signs-of-a-good-friend.html

Flower Girl

Brown be gone

First, we taped off, removed switch plates and put down a drop cloths because we are messy with paint, we've come to realize.

We filled in the grooves with Kilz primer and cut in the trim before we rolled on the large parts of the walls. Kilz is amazing.

Isn't he cute?

(Before)

3 coats of primer and one coat of "lemon edge" Valspar paint and some custom stained trim by my beautiful hubby and voila!

(After)

a mile of mullion

I washed the walls with my favorite non-bubbly detergent, Mr. Clean as per the directions from the internet. I love Mr. Clean. The yellow kind is the only kind that will do for this ole' girl. I guess I could tolerate the orange but anything else is gross. Anyway, so the walls smell fresh and clean. I started taping off the trim and the areas to be painted. After much debating and research. I decided to go with latex primer just because I did not want to deal with mineral spirits to clean up with kids around. The walls aren't too slick since they were last stained, oh about 42 years ago.

This is about how high the mullion trim will be. I am hoping the antique white paint we do above the line will add a very subtle and clean architectural interest. The nice thing about painting this room is that it is big enough to just pull the sofas away from the wall and work behind them.

Aren't we cute? We have matching scarves from Justice. Matchy, matchy!

The sectional saga - part deux

So, we sold the sectional. We sold it and I made 30 bucks for my pain and suffering. I was out shopping all day for a new sofa set when I got an email from the buyer that he did not want to keep the sectional. He said they did not measure properly and they wanted me to take it back.... To my understanding, that violates all of Craigslist etiquette so I chose not to justify it with a response.

I know, it's horrible isn't it? I had promised I wouldn't damage your retina's didn't I? Sorry...

When my full day of shopping yielded nothing but a sofa I liked with no matching loveseat, I decided to just stop looking and be patient. I happened about these being sold from an estate. The house was immaculate and it spurred on some other decorating ideas. I felt sad though. Most of this lady's things were sold except for a few momentos the family was keeping. She had amassed decades of treasures, only to have her "Grandma's Blessings" photo albums and treasures boxed up to move to a storage shed some place in one of her grown children's sheds or something. It was me so very sad and moved me to tears... Life is fleeting. Pause a moment to contemplate this...

On to the lovely couches we bought from her son.

It is uncanny but they actually match a cushion on a rocking chair that I received from my grandmother years ago.

I have some sort of weird sickness that makes me ill to purchase something new unless it looks old. I actually get physically ill. Can you tell? So here is my decorating plan. I will be putting a rug back down when our puppies are grown up a bit. I will be hanging a large piece of traditional art on this back wall. I am going to have my oldest with sewing skills make some blue toile pillows to go on the couch, a fireplace cushion and make a cushion for this old wooden desk chair in the room also. Hopefully, they will match this vase below. Since I sold the leather monstrocity and bought two couches for $200 less, I can fund some further decorating in this room as shown below. WOO!

Also, for the big huge project of the season, we will be adding a chair rail to the living room and be *gasp* painting the top 2/3 of the paneling. I know, I know, I said I refused to paint it. I have come to realize that it is the only way to make the space light unless I try to rip off the paneling and drywall the top portion. I am not willing to go there, so this is our best alternative. The estate that we bought the sofas from had done it and it looked so incredibly pretty that I can't not do it now. I am excited! We already have some like it. My hope is that it looks like this in the breakfast nook (pictured below). All of the wood in this house is custom stain and it all matches. I am hoping that it will make the project look more seamless!
Can you picture this in the living room behind the couches??