I wanted to paint the living room. I have a sweater that I like and decided that most of the house would look just great in that same color. It's sort of a muddy greenish brown color. On the day I was getting the paint, I dug the sweater out of the washing machine and put it up against the wall just to make sure. Yep, looks good. I took it (still wet) to Home Depot to get the color just right.

Mike watched all this with a raised eyebrow but didn't say a word. You see, I told him that I would paint the living room and he did not need to help. Besides, I was pretty sure he couldn't pick a good color...or even worse, say "white".

I bought the whole gallon. I decided to wait until Monday to get started. That way he'd be at work and wouldn't comment on how dark it was while I was painting. (I was having my own doubts) By the time he got home I would have one wall done and he'd be pleasantly surprised by how nice it really was.

Monday afternoon I got busy. I painted one spot and it almost looked BLACK on the wall!! A friend of mine called while I was doing this. She is a designer. She said I should never buy a gallon, always start with a quart. Where was she this weekend? Oh well, I thought, I'll take it back and get it a little lighter. I did that and tried again. This time it was much lighter but still dark. Even worse is that now it looks like poopy diaper color. "It's fine", I thought, trying to convince myself that once I finished a whole wall it would look better.

It didn't. Periodically one the kids would come down and comment with their noses turned up..."Is THAT the color?" Not to be swayed, I said "Yes! That's the color. And it's NICE!". They obviously don't have good taste.

By the time Mike got home I could deny it no longer. It was so uuuggglyyy. So dark, so brown, so yucky. He was very gracious and just smiled. I think he loves it when these things happen to me. He just said that he thought it was weird for me to make such a rash decision, that it was out of character. I'm glad he thought so. Of course he thought it very funny when I confessed that I didn't think he could pick a good color!

The whole thing is kind of funny now. Yesterday it was not. At least not to me. You see, I wasted $36!! Plus a good 2 hours. Both of those things mean a lot to me. I hate wasting time and money and especially BOTH at the same time!

I was reading my Bible before bed and I realized that I did not even pray about painting the room or picking a color. Some would say that God does not care what color I paint my living room. I would have to disagree. The Bible says that God calls all the stars by name, he knows how many hairs we have on our heads, and every sparrow when it falls. His Word says that I am more important to Him than all those things. If I had consulted Him I know I would've picked a better color b/c he knows my tastes and preferences better than I do. He also gave me my husband as a protection. He also knows my likes and dislikes. I disregarded both of them and the result was something very ugly.

Well, I will pick another color. Mike says "Please do!" I will pray about it first.

I have a small chalkboard in my nightstand. It was a gift from a friend as a visual reminder of forgiveness. (I'll save that story for another time) I like it b/c of what it represents and also b/c it was from such a sweet lady. I decided to paint the back of it with my ugly color to serve as another visual reminder. Hopefully this won't happen again.

Repetition

One of my daily irritations is a messy laundry room. We have so much laundry every day. We also have a lot (a whole lot!) of kitchen towels to wash every day. The laundry room is right off the kitchen and we had gotten in the habbit of just throwing dirty towels in there on the floor. Yes, there are baskets in there but they never seemed to make it that far. The laundry room is also the room you come into when you enter the house through the garage so you are greeted with the mess first thing.

I have a tendancy to think that if I say something once to my children that they should remember it forever and always do it. Just imagine my frustration about this! How many times have we talked about the laundry room? I tried different things . I would lecture, I would give that jurisdiction to a different child to be in charge of, I would clean it myself, .....the list goes on.

I was reading in my Bible in Philippians.
Paul said "It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. " I guess Paul understood what I don't! Repetition is good. It is a safeguard to help us live carefully and to obey. He did not expect to say something once and everybody to remember it forever. I had never read it like that before. Also I got to thinking of all the other times in the Bible when God reiterates things to his people...it's a lot!! And how many times has it taken me to learn a simple lesson? Or a Scripture I'm trying to memorize? It's not usually once. It takes lots of repetition. If it takes me that much time, why would I expect anything different from them?

I came away from that reading determined to be more patient with my children and to remember that repetition is a safeguard. As I was helping the kids do dishes that night, I went to throw a towel in the laundry room. Guess what? It was clean!!

It's almost Joshua's birthday! My baby will be five!! He is very excited and has made an "order of ceremony" with Maegan. It goes like this...

Breakfast: waffles with juice

Lunch: Alot of chicken corndogs. (A bunch and a bunch)

Dinner: Pizza

Dessert: Chocolate pudding cake



1. Turn the lights off and blow out the candles.

2. Take a picture.

3. Sing "happy birthday to you"

4. Cut the cake and eat it.

5. Open presents.

Don't Try This At Home!!

We had mashed potatoes for dinner. Lately when I make mashed potatoes I will mash a sweet potato in them for added nutrients. It's not a big favorite, but I do it anyway. It makes them pretty and orange.

Today I pulled out the left overs for lunch. Knowing no one would really want them, I decided to spruce them up and make potato salad. I didn't really have enough ingredients to make a good potato salad but we did have pickles so I decided that would suffice. I started chopping, adding, and stirring. At this point I have potatoes, pickles, and mayo. It doesn't look good. So I add the mustard. Whoops. The orange potatoes, green pickles, and yellow mustard made a color that was....well, wrong for potato salad!! It had an unusual sweet "twang", not to mention those stringy things that come with sweet potatoes. Oh well, back to the drawing board. We decided on leftover beans for lunch instead!


I have a few kids that are becoming whimpy when they get hurt. The least little scrape or bruise causes conversation for days. Tired of this, I decided to try something besides the old "suck it up" speech. Christian starts complaining of a carpet burn. This is the second or third time I've heard about this carpet burn. I tell him I have "just the thing". I go to the kitchen and whip up a batch of "pain medicine". It is a mixture of oil, vanilla, soy sauce, vinegar, and different spices from the cabinet. I call him in and give him a big tablespoon full of it. Thinking myself pretty clever, I had to hide my face to keep from smiling. He says, "hum, tastes like salad dressing" and turned to leave completely unaffected. I was SOOO disappointed!! I thought I had him for sure! Well knowing this would happen again very soon, I added some taco seasoning, mustard, and a splash of hot sauce. I'll let you know how it goes!!

Pregnancy

I HATE being pregnant. I love having a baby but I just wish there was an easier way to get them here. The cartoon animators had a great idea going with the stork. If only it were that easy. I always start out the pregnancy with great intentions of retaining my joy but somewhere along the way it all goes downhill. After my baby is born I always think of things that I wish I had remembered when I was pregnant. Since my baby is only 2 months old now and this is fresh on my mind I thought I'd make myself a list just in case the Lord blesses us again.

*Stay away from chocolate milk, hot chocolate, and Hershey's kisses. They make you fat.

*Avoid roast at all costs!

*There is no shame in taking naps.

*Drink water on purpose.

*Walk or do some sort of exercise everyday even if it's small. You'll feel better just thinking that you've done something whether it really amounts to much or not.

*Try ginger capsules and don't give up on them prematurely.

*Take vitamins at night, even if it's only a Flintstones.

*It takes a long time to get up when you sit on the floor.

*Buy whatever clothes you want that the budget will afford...even if your baby is due next week. Remember that just because Baby is due next week does not mean he will come and you may end up wearing that new shirt for 3 weeks instead of 1.

*Opt for drinking juice instead of eating. Eating does not alleviate morning sickness if you're not hungry.

*2 Cor 12:9-10 Accept this weakness and allow God's power to rest on you.

*Smile.

*No matter what anyone says no amount of walking, sex, or eating popcorn will put you into labor. However a bad roast from Sams will do the trick and maybe ordering something different at a restaurant will too.

Bookmarks

I collect bookmarks. If you think about it, it's really the perfect thing to collect if you are going to collect something. They are useful, inexpensive, take up very little space, and you don't have to dust them. I don't have too many as my collection is somewhat new. You see, before I started officially collecting them I would just grab whatever piece of paper was handy and call that my bookmark. Having a real bookmark is much more fun. With the exception of one, none of my bookmarks cost money. They have been made for me by people I love. I don't buy them or make them for myself, I prefer to get them as gifts. That way whenever I use it, it always reminds me of the one who made it. Whenever I get a new one it always makes me want a new book so that I can use it. When I start a new book I always try to match the bookmark to the book. For instance, the boys' devotional we are reading together has the bookmark that my 4yo Joshua made for me for Christmas. My new Bible study book has a pastel floral cover and it is very femine looking on the inside. My bookmark for that is the pink charm-type one that Maegan gave me for Christmas. It's very girly and pretty and fits the book perfectly. Whenever I pick it up it makes me smile. And that is the whole reason for a collection, isn't it?

Mike on the ball at the wedding...

 

Boy, was I wrong about today! We woke up this morning to see SNOW!! Well, really mostly ice and sleet and a little bit of snow but it is all the same to my little guys. They spent all morning outside with their sand toys and their big sisters, Laney and Laura. The bigger kids had made what they call a "sled" out of wood weeks ago and it has been in the garage just waiting for such an occasion. It got a good workout today. Then they all came in for hot chocolate, chicken soup, and warm bread. They had the best time!

My sweet Christian....he went with his daddy today to shoot the wedding. Mike has trained him in a special job to hold a piece of white cardboard in a certain place to reflect the flash on certain pictures. He has practiced this and he is good at his job. He was so disappointed to see the snow this morning and not be able to go out. His attitude was very good. He watched his little brothers out the window while waiting until it was time to leave. Before he left, we had a conversation in the kitchen. He was telling me that he was glad he had such an important job in the photography business. He said that his job might even be more important than Maegan's, who acts as Mike's second photographer. You see, it's all well and good to take pictures but it's even more important that the pics turn out well. And that's where he comes in. I had to agree and smile at his willingness to be such a big part of our family business. We all prayed today that we would have snow tomorrow too, just for him.

Last night Mike and Maegan went to the wedding rehearsal to take a few shots and get familiar with the order of ceremony. Maegan's pictures were fantastic! Mike was so proud of her. I'm so glad he's taken time to train them in this. It makes them feel so included, which they are, and that it's not just Dad's business but "ours". He has all four of the older kids learning to edit the pics too.

God bless you ....and pray for SNOW!!
Love,
Sandy

Hello Everyone! Welcome to our new blog spot that Mike has created for me. I'm not sure that I agree that anyone would be interested in our goings on, but it makes him happy to read so I've agreed. I'm not sure what exactly to write about, but he told me just to journal about our days. Here I go....

I bought a new Bible study book at Sams for only $4! I just love a bargain. I started it this morning and it's pretty good. I was reading in Joshua 2 passages where God told the Israelites to "be careful to obey" and also to "avoid the foreigners living among you, lest you fall tempted to their ways"...excuse the paraphrase. As Maegan gets older a new issue we are facing is that of friendship relationships. Reading this made me want to re-visit the issue with them again. My hesitation is that I want to approach this tactfully, not "blasting" anyone. I prayed for an open door.

A friend of mine loaned me a boys' devotional book that we've been going through. I was delighted to read this morning about this very issue. My open door! We had such a good conversation about living as foreigners in this world, awaiting our real home in heaven. I just love homeschooling for this very reason. I can spend as much time as I want teaching my kids what is really important. It was a nice morning.

It is so cold today and will continue this whole weekend. That is bad news for my little boys because they love to play outside so much. Tomorrow is also Mike's first wedding to photograph. It is a big deal. Even though the wedding is only Sat afternoon, he will spend the rest of the weekend editing the pictures so we won't see him that much. I look forward to spring!

Have a blessed weekend!

Nathan and his good buddy, Joe(y)...
Copyright StillTreasures

Nathan's Hard Time

Momma went on a walk and left him home. Just don't seem fair. 

Just sweetness...

Nathan is so loving to his baby sister...

Discovery...Seeing what this is all about anyway

A test message for blogging..it's all the rage, since I am so full of rage, I thought I'd check it out. Blah, Blah, Blah.