Rainy Day Christmas Music...

We have had rainy days for the past two days...THANK YOU LORD! We were needing rain so badly, our town has been in water conservation/warning status for a few weeks, and it's just felt stressful. I am so thankful to be able to turn on the faucet and get clean, fresh water, and I can't imagine living in a country or situation without it. We are so blessed. Anyway, it's been cloudy, cooler, and rainy, so after church this morning I slipped into comfy clothes, put a pot of white chicken chili on the stove, and turned on my "Christmas Guitar" cd. It's Christmas music, with just guitar, and sounds from nature...I love it. It sounds like something wonderful but doesn't scream "pressures of the holidays"...I love it...did I mention I love it? Anyway, we are just hanging out this afternoon, it's snuggly and relaxing...love. I feel so blessed to be home, surrounded by kiddos (we have an extra Evan today!), even though our house is a disaster and Kris is not here with us, it's a blessed day!

Front Porch Face Lift!

I have been working hard this morning on our front porch!  The weather has been so much cooler that it has had me in the nesting and sprucing up mode!  I started painting last night, and finished everything up today while Claire was napping and Asher rode his bike around me in circles (ha!) I am really excited with how everything turned out.  I am still looking for a few more garage sale finds to finish it off, but I am excited about the changes I was able to make with just the cost of spray paint and some inexpensive cushions from Walmart!  Meme got this set for us as an anniversary gift.  It was cast aside of their flea market by the owner, and she offered to buy it.  It was a little rusty and a crusty greenish color, but I dusted it off and gave it a new coat of glossy black Color Place spray paint.  I picked the cushions up for around $6 for 4 of them, and thought the red might add a burst of color. 

I also cleaned up our old park bench.  Kris and I have had this old thing since we bought our very first home in 1999.  We bought it new, but it has been dragged to 6 different houses, sometimes exposed to rain and snow, and it has survived!  The cast iron was orginally a weathered green, but I thought it might look nice in black...because that's my answer to everything...black spray paint (ha!) I covered all the wood parts up with newspapers and painter's tape, and sprayed the iron black.  Next I took all of the paper off and put several coats of redwood stain that we had leftover from our swingset on the wood parts. I was so happy about how it came out!

I also painted up a pot with our house number on it.  I have seen these on Pinterest and just loved how they looked but couldn't figure out how to add the numbers without buying them in vinyl or hand painting them...but I had a brainstorm (which doesn't happen to often to me anymore) and decided to stick on scrapbook stickers and spray paint over them.  Before the paint was completely dry, I removed the stickers with tweezers to reveal the previously cream color of the flower pot! I was excited to finally have a house number flower pot!

Hope you've enjoyed our front porch!

First Day of 7th Grade!

Today is Katie's first day of 7th grade...I can hardly believe it!  Eight short years ago we sent our precious little sweet pea to the Bible School in her tiny navy blue and green plaid uniform for kindergarten, and now she is taller than I am!  She is beautiful inside and out, and we are so proud of the young woman she is becoming!  We love you Katie!  Welcome to Junior High!

Can I just share some of the blessings that are going on in our home right. this. minute?  Claire is in Asher's room dancing her little heart out to "Rise and Shine (and give God the Glory, Glory)" and I just heard her and Asher giggling like crazy down there!  We have electricity...for the air conditioner, and it's supposed to be 109 degrees today.  My beautiful , beautiful girl is hugging me as I type...right. now.  She just woke up.  I had coffee and read my Bible this morning.  My sweet boy came down from his fun room just to ask if I could "hold him"...be right back.  I got my kiss, hug, shakey-shakey and "shiggle" from my boy...my life is good...I am so incredibly blessed.