Our office redo

Last week I - meaning my mom, Greg and sometimes me - rearranged our office to make it less cluttered and to try to make it more kid-friendly. So the kids could come in and play or watch TV while I sew or work on the computer. With my mom's brains and Greg's brawn we accomplished much! I don't have any before pictures.. sorry. I don't really want to remember the way it was anyway. But here it is now! All we did was remove one rather large piece of furniture and rearrange the rest to maximize the floor space. It's amazing! What you can't see now is the art easel and toy box on the right wall, which is great for the kiddos to play and be creative while mom's in here creating stuff.



The original plan was to switch Carly's bigger room with this room, but after one stroke of genius and a tape measure, it was determined that her room was only one foot longer and the same width as this room, which translates to 11 square feet. Which translates to not worth the trouble.



Look what got uncovered! The poor piano had been used as a storage surface - still able to be played but not the ideal place. I like it much better here, and the kids demand a concert now and then too.

It's still a work in progress. I want to make a shade for the window to protect the backside of the piano, and cover some canvasses with colorful fabric for decoration, and add a row of shelving above the computer desk to hold the printer and scanner and TV. But it's so nice to have a clean and organized workspace!

Birthday number three for number two

Today is Carly's birthday! My baby is three! I will not do the sentimental letter to my daughter post, nor will I make a list of all her accomplishments this year, but I will photo-bomb you with pictures from her party at Chuck E Cheese! Thank goodness the snow cleared off the roads so we could even have the party! I'm so thankful for all of our family and friends that came to celebrate Carly's special day with us!

Her "Big Fat (flat) Cake"




Mom and my girl:


Caleb SkeeBallin with Mimi:


Carly playing games with MaMaw:


Birthday girl


Mom getting in on the action. I love driving games!


Sweet big brother. I have to brag on Caleb -- he was so sweet and helpful all day. He was genuinely excited for Carly's birthday. He wanted her to see her presents and was singing "Happy Birthday" to her in the car.


Doing a dance with ChuckE:


Pizza!!


Cake!!


She smiled so sweetly while we sang to her! It was so cute.




Blowing out the candles -- she totally gets it this year!


Presents!! And a wad of curious kids!


Carly got her "ooooone more Barbie"


Greg and I had another special present for her at home. Caleb didn't know what it was -- can you see the excitement in his hands?


A Bike!


With Dora on it!


She likes it! Now if the snow would melt and we could get back to our regularly scheduled temperatures, she can take it outside to practice riding!


Happy Birthday to our funny, smart, outspoken, sassy little THREE YEAR OLD!

Happy Snow!

Sunday after church it began to snow on us. I was not excited about it, because when it snows here life pretty much shuts down, and we were having Carly's birthday party the next day. Thankfully, it didn't stick much to the roads, so we enjoyed our snow day and were still able to have the party on Monday. Here are the pictures from our snow day!

My beautiful back yard:


Busy Kids building two snowmen:


Caleb was all about the snowman!


It was a good wet snow that was great for snowball fights across the road. Greg tormented the neighbors for a while!


Carly trying to throw a snowball. It kept sticking to her fleece mitten.


The boys making a snow mound:


Carly's big handful:


And this is me getting hit with a snowball, while my husband doubles over with laughter in the background.


And this is me about to get hit by yet another snowball (it's midair in the top left corner of the picture)


Happy Snow Day!

What's the word?

A few months ago in Mops, one of our speakers mentioned that she every year, she picks one word as a theme for the coming year. I thought that was a fabulous idea, and immediately started thinking about what I wanted my word for 2011 to be. The Lord brought one to my mind almost immediately.

Serve.

The reason I say God brought this word to mind is because I know this is not something I would come up with on my own. Mine would probably be "clean", or "responsibility", or "forgive." But that word, "serve" has been coming to my mind constantly since then, at odd moments, or when I need a re-focus.

My goal for this year is to concentrate on that word. Serve. In my world, this will mostly be directed to my family. I'm still thinking and praying about whether it will mean something more than that. But I think most of all it's an attitude that I'm being prompted to adopt. It's also a guaranteed way to take my focus off myself -- where it likes to be the most.

Serving others is a surefire way to eliminate selfishness. It's the ultimate in humility. Jesus served his disciples when he washed their feet. His entire life on earth was a service to humanity. The Message paraphrase says it like this: Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage. (Matthew 20:26-28)

It seems a good way to imitate Christ is to become a servant like He was.

So that's my focus in 2011 and beyond. Serve.

What's your word?

Christmas Even More!

New Year's Day we had our last Christmas get-together with my family.

Mimi and Poppy with Caleb and Carly:


My boys making the same face.. so cute!


Carly's new movie! We are SOOO in to Tinkerbell lately!


Caleb's new penguin pal and Carly got a ladybug pillow pet!


Mimi showing off her new scarf and charm:


.....ANNNNNND.... last but not least.... the Fruitcake!!