A Long But Good Day...

Ending another day well. It was a busy day, lots of in and out and I am really ready for my pillows! The funeral Matt and I went to today was for a special man in our church. I did not personally know him, Matt works with his brother and we desired to be there to grieve with friends and church family. But I was extremely moved by the telling of his life and the glory he brought to the Lord!

Did you ever have a friend show their love and excitement so gently and quietly but it spoke volumes!? Before the funeral began, one of the sweet women from church who is recently widowed, walked behind where I was sitting in the funeral, she quiet stopped right behind me, leaned down and kissed my forehead-it was with excitement for this new baby. She did not have to say a word to me, the smile said it all. How amazing is the family of God!! Deb and her husband Mike, before he went to be with the Lord after a very long battle with illness, had spent time helping me during my pregnancy with Bell when I was really sick. Mike sat at the edge of my bed and talked PICC lines, and meds with me,and listened to my thoughts, Deb helped with administering my meds via IV as she was Mike's primary caregiver in illness and had great experience in these things. They fed my family, did my laundry and loved on our little ones. Even though Mike was ill, and life was difficult for them, they still served others. I treasured the time they spent at our home, and Deb has continued to be a blessed example of service in my life, so that sweet little kiss just overjoyed my soul, she was rejoicing with us for this new baby.

On a less important note, we finished the new TV table last night. Here is a finished peek. I am happiest to have the shelf for the kiddos' creative tools. They have been on the tables up here meaning we still have to move them each time we eat. This way they are still out but accessible.

Bell and I had a good time in school this morning.

I was able to get a pair of mittens done for a friend today. Fun to drop that off as a surprise when she gets home.

Tomorrow is my first official Dr Appointment-Fun! Bright and early and then time to get ready for family and Thanksgiving.

Finished....

I have shared in earlier posts this week about some of the painting projects around the house. I told Matt when he came home today, "be careful, anything that is white is probably wet" He laughed at me when I said, "if I get the can of paint out, I mine as well get it all done"I finished the little shelf- not sure it will stay here-but I love the look.
The school table is done as well. Happy to have it back for the little ones. And on a side note, yes, I love old type writers! The kids love playing on them as well. I am hoping to locate replacement ribbons for them and then teach the kids to type. Madi and I found the blue one a long time ago and Matt and I found the tan one a few weeks ago. I am happy to be done painting!

Works in Progress...

Earlier today I shared a post of random simple events around the house. I have taken a few more photos to share the works in progress...This resting place for this bookshelf has yet to be determined, not because it is unnessesary, but because there are so many places waiting to be oganized out of crates! The girls helped me paint this. I still have a coat or two left and then need to seal it.
This is the school table for my youngest two. We are giving it up for a few days to give it a fresh coat of paint and maybe even some fun designs having to do with school. I still have not decided on that. I tend to move furniture around as often as i wash bedding-so making something with a permanent theme is not usually a good idea;)
This little side table is actually an old stool. I couldn't pass it up-it had such a cute bean shape to it. We have used it for everything! But I finally have gotten around to painting it and re-glued the legs.

And last but not least for now at least, is a little school chair I recently found. It is shorter than most chairs and would not fit at a normal table, but our school table is at an awquard height which has made it difficult to find seating for. This chair works fabulously! This chair I took the easy way out and spray painted. Certain furntiure re-dos I will not invest alot of time in because I know the beating they are about to take;)

A Birthday Project in Progress...

We began a project in the kitchen, on my birthday. Call it my birthday project. Everyone pitched in and we at least got it going. I had found this cabinet almost 8 years ago at a yard sale. I am still in love with the architecture of it, but over the years, it has been forgotten and always seems to end up as a last resort storage container because I just never have the time to figure out what I want to do with it. But I had a brainstorm recently, a think outside the box type of moment, where I think I figured out how to combine all our needs in the kitchen with the limited space and even a little "pretty" for an added bonus!

So... this is a work in progress, not even close to being finished, but I am just too excited to not give a sneak peek!! This is the before. The kids helped me sand off the crazy mix of paints from over the years. We ripped out the old fabrics in the door panels, and my husband made a few trips to Menards(which is thankfully only 5 minutes from our house.)

We need an island, but it needs to be smaller and I certainly need some storage space as well. We have been looking at thrift stores for something for months and have tried a few alternatives from around the house, but no luck. So we are adding onto the cabinet and building it into an island!!!

Another Update on Everyday Life...

Here is another one of my jumbled updates, seems to be becoming a normal occurence!

Friday evening after swim lessons, dropping off the older two at a lock in and Matt's Date with Joslyn, Matt and i sat down to do some brainstorming on the ever present struggle of space for us to get everyone around the dinner table. We dreamed about building into the garage for a dining space, adding a 3 season porch were we could eat all of our meals, and thought about closing off the pantry in our kitchen to have a wall to put a table at, but then we decided to think about solutions that we could actually make happen;). We decided it would be best to start looking for a bench or plans for building a bench that would slide back in the corner and eliminate having to pull the table out every meal or having to gather chairs from around the house. So, I was finally a bit content with the fact the=at we at least had a plan and some direction! Well-guess what I found the next day-yep-a bench at the thrift store! I was actually there to find a dress for a wedding we are leaving for this weekend. But in the process was able to solve some of our meal time dilemma! So I sent Matt back later that day-pretty sure the bench would already be gone. I always let him do the inspecting of structure, quality, etc-and of course to do the heavy lifting! But he called and said he could not find it anywhere-I was heartbroken. I had worked everything out in my mind already-I know-I shouldn't do that-but I just couldn't help myself. So, awhile after he had returned home, he called me out to the garage to look at something. THE LITTLE SNEAK HAD FOUND THE BENCH AND THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY TO TRICK ME-HOW MEAN! Thanks hun!! So here is the before. I just needed to prime and paint it white. With the space in our house being small, light colors are more and more important to me!

Here is the after. I weathered it a bit and covered the cushion on it as well. And oh! There is lots of storage underneath!!! I will try and get a picture soon of the two little ones sitting at the bench-it is pretty sweet. Now, all seven of us are around the table, no chairs have to be pulled from other places in the house, no highchair has to be dragged in from the garage every time we eat, and we are finding more and more meal times to sit and laugh around the table again.

We are so very excited about this upcoming weekend! And actually, for us, it begins tomorrow! Matter of fact, I should be packing right now(I hate packing). Anyways-our friend Monika is getting married! She is a precious friend to us, and was one of Matt and I's first students when we began in ministry. So this is a pretty special occasion for us! Monika was here a few months back for a visit and while she was here we worked on picking out some fabric for me to make a bunting for her wedding. But what we ended up doing was making napkins in her wedding colors that could be used as a bunting. That way, after the wedding, she would have all these fun cloth napkins for her home. I am just in love with this idea! So earlier this week, this is the fun package I sent to her. I will have to post some pics after the wedding of them. And I think it appropriate to add-yes, they were made from reclaimed linens as well as dress shirts.

I unfortunately did get to spend much time on sharing about Noah's 3rd birthday, so i thought I would share a few little things today. Noah is absolutely enamored with Thomas, or any train for that matter-we are also a fan of chuggington around here. Well, I have probably sold a countless number of the vintage Thomas sheets but as his birthday was approaching I actually had to do some tracking down of them myself. So, a few months ago I found one and began planning out just how to it for his birthday. I used a large portion of the sheet for a quilt that I am actually still working on, Noah does not like me taking it out of his playroom where his trains are, so it is coming along quite slowly, but i was able to finish a pillow for him.

I was also able to take two of the panels and add them to some pj pants I made for him.

Here is another look at those pants. Somehow the stripes just said train conductor to me.

Summer is coming and we thought we would give Noah a buzz-I felt pretty reluctant-but it is pretty tough to keep up with everyone's haircuts around here, so for the summer, we gave it a try. It was quite to event around her, everyone wanted to watch this!! Noah laughed through most of it, the girls moaned, and Cole wrinkled his nose as each long lock fell to the floor. Taking pictures of the event helped me to not cry.

Once Noah starting itching, it wasn't too fun anymore! But I just love those cheeks!!!

Here is the lovely little man with his new doo. He laughed when he saw himself in the mirror. Whew!

I felt like I was running a race this past week. We had tilled up the garden awhile back, but I had not gotten a chance to get them planted until a few days ago. Fortunately, two of the girls were happy to help out.
There are still a few things to get in the ground, but they will have to wait until we are home from the wedding.
The flowers are starting to fill out, and how fun it is to see all the color coming to life!

Fun Finds....Birthday Edition

Alright, I had mentioned awhile back that I was going to do a birthday edition on fun finds for the week! So today, I have a few minutes to share. Grandma had sent me some money for my birthday this year, and I set it aside until I found the perfect thing! This is what I found while hunting ....
I found an oversized rolling ottoman. It was stained pretty badly but still functioned fabulously! The structure itself was perfect!
And LOOK and this!!! STORAGE! It opens up and has a huge amount of storage.
It took a couple of weeks working here and there, but I was able to make a quilted slipcover for it. I had alot of fun going with a very wild design of mismatched prints on this. I love how the randomness of it turned. I took fabrics from clothing and bed linens to make it. I made the cover in sections. First I made the top and quilted it, then the band that connected the top with the base. And finally the base which is also quilted. The very bottom dust ruffle is the only part not quilted. The kids love it too as you will see!
Both Bell and Noah have actually taken naps on it, it is that big! There is just nothing sweeter than this! Melts my heart.
The ottoman fits just perfect underneath our coffee table which means we are not tripping over it. But when we pull it out, three of the kids can fit on it when we sit to play a game or eat in the living room while watching a movie. So thank you Grandma!! I was able to fill a need, make something wild , make some fun memories and do it for $25.00!!! It was a good find!!!