IT HAS HIT.....

THE BLIZZARD HAS HIT AND WE ARE ALL SAFE AT HOME FOR A FEW DAYS NOW! SO FAR IT HAS BEEN A COZY NIGHT AND WIL CONTINUE TO BE JUST FINE AS LONG AS WE DO NOT LOOSE POWER. OUR WINDOWS ARE ALREADY COVERED WITH SNOW FROM THE CRAZY WIND.

MATT AND I WERE ABLE TO FINALLY GET ALMOST ALL OF THE CHRISTMAS STORED UP IN THE ATTIC, BUT I HAD ONE OF OUR SMALLER TREES THAT HAS NOT MADE IT INTO IT'S BOX YET, SO I SNUCK IT BACK INTO THE HOUSE TONIGHT;) IT IS JUST A SWEET LITTLE TREAT IN THE MIDDLE OF A STORM!

MATT AND I TRADED PLACES TONIGHT IN THE KITCHEN. I MADE DINNER AND HE DID THE BAKING. NORMALLY MATT IS OUR CHEF AND I AM THE BAKER-BUT IT WAS FUN TO WORK IN THERE TOGETHER TONIGHT. HUM? WHICH DO YOU THINK WE ATE FIRST? DID YOU GUESS THE COOKIES? YEP, WE HAD DESERT FIRST:)

I THINK THERE ARE A LOT OF CREATIVES SHUT IN FOR THIS STORM BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN A HOPPIN DAY IN THE SHOP TODAY:) NOAH DECIDED TO CUDDLE UP ON THE STUDIO FLOOR WHILE I WORKED, LOVE IT!!! THIS IS WHY I LOVE WORKING FROM HOME-IT IS THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!

LATER TONIGHT, MATT AND I ARE GOING TO TURN OUR OLD TV WARDROBE INTO A DRESS UP WARDROBE FOR THE GIRLS-I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!! AND MY SWEET FRIEND BETH! IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THANK YOU FOR THE IDEA-IT DAWNED ON ME THAT WE COULD USE IT WHEN YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT THE ONE YOU ATTEMPTED TO GET INTO YOUR VAN AWHILE BACK!!

Enjoying the Winter Season!

There is something about the winter that even gives Cole the bug to create. He began on this rug almost a year ago and has picked it back up to finish. He had me hunt down jersey sheets for this one in blues, whites, greens and black. He has now finished the rug and it is in his room. I will have to post a picture later. It is the thickest, softest rug my feet have ever felt!

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Many of you have followed along the adventure we have had fitting 7 of us into a tiny old ranch style house. We have struggled with fitting in a dining space for us and I am always rearranging attempting to find a way to make it work! Having company is always difficult ad usually lands us moving furniture into the garage to fit everyone. Well this year, like every year, we moved our dining table out to the garage to put up a Christmas tree. We end up sitting on the couch for dinner, there is nowhere to have friends over, and we are squeezing past one another everyday in our normal activities. After a good friend and her kiddos left one afternoon, I was struggling with this again but came back to a promise. The Lord knows our needs and has given us all that we have, so I just need to figure out the best way to use it! So I worked a few things out on paper and shared the idea with Matt, and got to work. We decided after 6 years in this house, to let go of the idea that our living room has to be upstairs. I purged and rearranged the basement to prepare it for bring down our living room. With Matt's help then, we moved our entertainment center downstairs and brought the dining room table into what has always been our living room. We split up our couch and loveseat set-moving one of them downstairs. We had always hesitated in this because our basement is not finished-but we let go of the idea that it had to be "just right". This change and the comfort it has brought has been just about as exciting as a new house. The table is always ready for meals-there is plenty of room for all of us to sit and watch a movie together, and when friends come over, we are not crawling over each other to get from one place to another! We left a little TV upstairs for school and weather etc, but it is a new place for us to gather around a table now-so fun.
This is how the "living room" looks now.
This is how the "living room" looks now. And when the tree comes down, I am looking forward to creating a whole new little cozy corner in it's place!

This is our new family room in the basement-we love it!!

The girls and Noah slept downstairs around the tree to celebrate their first night of Christmas break.

We had a beautiful snow last night!
Bell fell asleep watching the snow last night.
The girls and I worked on the Christmas village under the tree and getting the train running more smoothly. Noah is loving it!
We went sledding last night in the crazy snow! The hill was pure ice under the snow which made us all a comedy act attempting to make our way up the hill!

Helen's Thoughts...

When Matt and I were in college, some of my most favorite dates were spent hunting for old books. I am not a bookworm of the normal sort. Actually book learning has always stretched and challenged me a little on the uncomfortable side. I do love books though, old ones the most. And, my mom always says I am a romantic, I still get teased now and again about it, but in many ways it has served me very well. I can now say, I am happy to be that way. So, when it comes to books, there is a scene from a movie that captures that romantic side of me concerning books. It is in the newest version of Sabrina. it is a scene of her father in his home, and everywhere you look, there are stacks of books, comforting for some reason. Anyways, yesterday Madison came down with some fun flu season bug that just left her miserable with a fever we could not break. So after she had spent most of the day sleeping, it was difficult for her to fall asleep at night. She was so achy and just wanted to curl up in my bed where it was dark and quiet. So after the other kiddos were asleep, I crawled into bed with her and cracked open one of my favorite old books I had found on one of those college dates of Matt and I's. It is a book of Helen Keller's thoughts. One of the thoughts that struck me this time was this.

"I try to increase the power God has given me to see the best in everything and everyone, and make that best a part of my life. The world is sown with good; but unless I turn my glad thoughts into practical living and till my own field, I cannot reap a kernel of the good." -Helen Keller

It really is a gift the Lord has given to us, how He makes good come from bad. But sometimes we can decide not to see the good, we make a choice to focus on the bad. And reading those words come from a woman who lived in silence, whos life was so extremely difficult. It is nothing less than inspiring. She had horribly difficult days, days when she just wept, but she even says those days were nessesary in order to have the good days when she could talk with friends and see life's goodness. So, I am trying to continue to see the good the Lord has given and to make sure I let it impact my life, for it to be more than a thought.

Russian Tea Recipe

Every year at Christmas time, my mama would make this tea, actually she still does. It has become the smell and taste of comfort for me and I actually start making it as soon as those cool fall days arrive. So tonight I have just made my second batch as the fall flu season has hit us-yuck! Hey, it is a nice excuse to cuddle up with the kiddos for the weekend though! Dad is gone on a youth trip and we are going to relax. So here it is...the recipe for Russian tea.

You need...
6 tea bags of cranberry or lemon flavor(however, I use sleepy time tea from Celestial seasonings-so you can replace it with whatever is your favorite flavor tea)

twenty whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 can of frozen orange juice
can of pineapple juice(46 oz)
1 cup of honey
cap full of lemon juice

Directions------------

steep the cloves and cin sticks in 10 cups of water for 10 minutes
add tea bags for the next 10 minutes
remove tea bags
next add the frozen orange juice, pineapple juice, honey and lemon juice. bring to a rolling boil and reduce heat to a simmer.
You can remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves if your prefer, but they can be left in as well.


I put my tea in the crock pot for the day on low, and if there is anything left at the end of the day, I put it in a pitcher and store in the frig. It can be served cold as well. I put it in a sippy for Noah and he downs it. You will want to cool it a bit before putting it in a pitcher though. It is no fun to have a melted plastic pitcher added to the tea flavor!:)