Back in Business!!!

Well, I hope I haven’t totally destroyed everyone’s confidence in me as far as this blog goes!  I’m really sorry for the unintentional vacation that I’ve taken for the last… almost month (wow!)… I guess I have no excuse other than we have gotten really busy in the last few weeks!   Derek had been working really odd hours as well, so it was difficult for me to find time to get on the internet as I only have a connection when he’s home with his smart phone and wi-fi hotspot.  

Anyway!!  Welcome back..to me…?  Thank you! ;]  I’m feeling refreshed and ready to post again!  Has anyone noticed that SPRING has SPRUNG?!?!  The children and I have been outside almost all day today.  It’s beautiful out!  The birds are singing like mad and we’ve been playing on the swing set and I’ve been spraaaay painting!!  That’s right!  Finally!  

 

I’ll just try to give a quick .. but probably not so quick.. update on our family happenings.  It’s been a long time, so I’m sure I’ll leave something out.  

We have a basement to redo.  We rent my husband’s grandmother’s house and, although the basement was already finished, it got water damaged years ago when she was living here and so now it needs to be gutted and remodeled.  We’ve lived here for I think 3 years now and we’re finally starting that process!!!   And it feels sooooo good!! :D  We’ve got big plans and I’m way excited!  Grandma even liked our remodeling ideas!  It’s going to be an awesome layout for our family once we’re all said and done.  Here is my man, hard at work, completely gutting what used to be a second kitchen.

Here is what we started with...

Now of course, we had to have something to keep the children occupied while Daddy worked.  Usually we let the kids help with whatever project we’re working on, but this one wasn’t safe for them.  So here they are, busily playing in their new rice sensory table.  Sensory tables are a day care thing… but they’re lots of fun!  I took a rubber maid container and filled it with 9 lbs. of uncooked white rice.  I got the rice super cheap!!  (3 lb. bags for $1.79/each at Aldi’s!!!)  Then I added some different sized small containers with lids, some measuring spoons,  cars and trucks and away they go!  It can get quite messy, and it did!  Since it’s been nice out, we moved the rice outside onto our deck.  We just put the lid on it when we’re not playing.  

Here’s something very exciting!!!  I added a new service on top of all the other home-business projects that I have going on – Children’s face painting!!!  That’s right!  I’m planning to get involved in different town celebrations, county fairs, and birthday parties, etc. in our area.  Since my last posting, I’ve even painted faces at my very first event!!!  It was awesome!  I’ll have a separate posting specifically for that event later in the week.   I’m so happy to have been a part of it as it was a huge blessing to someone I love!  Praise God for the opportunity!  I’ll also have a separate post with more details on my face painting business.

Brownie!

We said goodbye to some special critters recently as well.  The last two steers that we had been raising went to the butcher.  We had 7 total that Derek brought home as calves and we’ve been raising for the last year.  Five of them were sold at the sale barn a few months ago.  We saved out our prize steer, Brownie, and his friend to continue to fatten up so we could have the meat for our family.  Sadly, the kids and I watched Derek and his brothers load them onto the trailer for their last hurrah.  Both cows walked right on without making a fuss.   It was sad to see Brownie go because he was unlike any other steer you’d ever see.  He was like a 1000 pound dog, so gentle, curious, and friendly.  If we ever raise calves again, I know we’ll never have another one like him.  We’re very thankful, though, that God provided us with all that meat for the next year.  What a blessing!  

I started to get spring cleaning fever!  Last week I was cleaning like crazy, sorting through stuff, getting rid of stuff, etc etc.  Then I decided that.. Hey!!  I’ll surprise Derek and paint our bedroom while he’s at work!!!  So while on my last shopping trip, I bought paint and snuck it into the house and hid it, fully intending to paint our bedroom on Monday.  In my mind it was going to be all done and look totally amazing when he got home and he was going to be sooo surprised!!  Well, turns out Hannah decided she wasn’t going to nap that day.  So when I finally did get started at 2pm, I had a lot of prep work to do.  And I had a ceiling to paint.  And I wanted to paint all the trim white.  And this all had to be done BEFORE I could paint the walls.  So when Derek got home he returned to a house torn apart from everything pulled out of our bedroom and put in the middle of the living room, and a house in complete craziness because when momma doesn’t do her daily duties daily…everything falls apart!!  He was happy that I was going to paint, though.  :]  And at least I had the ceiling done at that point.  

Fast forward to late last night…as I was putting the finishing brush strokes on the wall.  What was supposed to have taken an afternoon ended up taking me a whole week!!  Isn’t that how it goes sometimes?  After two nights of sleeping on the bedroom floor, Derek couldn’t take it anymore and so we slept in the midst of my project mess in our bedroom.  Then I got seriously, seriously ill for two days!!  I guess the flu thought it better get one last lick in before the season was over.  Then I couldn’t sleep for two nights so I was kind of worthless as far as getting any work done the next days.  But now I can happily report that the bedroom is painted, done, finished, complete!!!!  Thank goodness!  

We enjoyed celebrating Jesus’ Resurrection with our families!!  I already said this on facebook, but I’ll say it again because it’s worth repeating.  

Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him from RISING AGAIN!!!  Praise the Lord that He overcame because I can’t!!!  

I just have to say this… I love Jesus.  What He did for me on the cross, and what He does for me everyday.. I just can’t even begin to describe how thankful I am!!  

All the kids!!  I love Ethan's sack on his head..very safe.

Treat baskets from Auntie Carol!

Hannah and Abbie

And here we are again today.  It’s just beautiful outside.  Like I said, we’ve been playing on the swing set and around the yard all morning.  I’m just sneaking in this blog post while the children are all napping.  I’m about to go hang my first load of laundry on the line for 2013!!!!  That’s always an exciting event!! In 3….2….1………..