Beyond excited!!!!!

I have been looking for curtain fabric for a LONG time. About four years in fact. Well, I found it. Last week. And no. The straight-pinned, desperate, 11th-hour attempt at window treatment you see in the first photo is not it.

 

I also found an amazing site called Addicted 2 Decorating that had exactly the style valence I've been wanting and an incredibly thorough, easy-to-follow tutorial explaining how to make them.

 

So I went to work.

 

And my hubby went to work patching some rather large holes he had put in the wall recently.

 

And I finished my valences (including a matching pair for the kitchen windows) on Tuesday evening while my hubby worked an all-nighter.

And we painted today.
(And cleaned out the remains of the office paraphernalia...)

And my hubby hung my curtains.

 

And I am very excited!!!

 

Last Saturday ...

in all of its crooked valence, primered wall glory. :}
(Not to mention Saturday mess ... real life here, folks!)

Tonight.

 



 

(Imagine Jenny jumping up and down with excited little squeals and you'll kinda have an idea of just how excited I am about how everything came together.) :) 

 

And it only took us four+ years!!! ;)

 

 

Thanks for the tutorial, Kristi!!

365Project.2013 | Week 33

We return to our regularly scheduled broadcast ...

and I am glad. :)

I think I've missed these as much as my grandparents have. ♥

 

Day 224. Our first day of school.

 

To be honest, it was a little rough. Actually, a lot rough. As in, ready to cry, scream, or tear out my hair rough.

 

One of my students (who shall remain nameless) was ... eh-hem ... a little less than excited to have his/her daily occupation rather more structured than it had been for the previous however many weeks and put forth somewhat less than his/her best efforts. To say the least. Thankfully this student took to heart the little chat he/she had with the "principal" (AKA, Daddy) informing him/her that such attitudes would not continue, and the rest of the week was significantly better. :) As in, Monday was about the worst homeschooling day ever and Tuesday was pretty much the best. Such be the roller coaster of life. :)

 

Despite a lack of enthusiasm on the part of one, we still got some great first-day-of-school pictures, for which I am very thankful! :)

:: Hannah ::

3rd grade

:: Peter ::

1st grade

:: Matthew ::

life, age 3

Day 225. Guess who has figured out how to ride his bike!?!? As in, really ride his bike ... start, stop, gravel, grass, pavement, ... you name it, he's got it ... and having. a. blast. :)

 

Day 226. SO glad we participated in Park Hop this summer! :) We thoroughly enjoyed the closing ceremony and scavenger hunt, and we're looking forward to doing it again next summer. :)

Day 227. Meet James Dotty.

Inspiration for art project #1 ...

Hannah worked so hard on this project! I may be a bit biased, but I'm personally rather amazed by the work of my eight-year-old! ♥

Peter pretty much finished his project as quickly as possible so that he could move on to biking, but Mommy decided to move outside her comfort zone and pick up a pencil, too. Hannah and I had fun sketching together. :)

Day 228. Welcome to Hannah's Bakery!

The assistant chefs were in definite need of a bath after three or so hours of "work." ;)

Day 229. Lunch with our friend Andrew! :) He was our first friend to sleep over in our newly finished downstairs. :)

Day 230. Isn't my curtain cute?!?! We won't mention how late I stayed up sewing it ... ;) (The matching one is now finished as well, but I haven't gotten a picture of it.) :)

 

Such was our first week of school ... filled with new books, science experiments, building challenges, and other fun things 1st and 3rd grade are made of.

It's good to be back on a "normal" schedule again. :)

This Mommy likes routine.

And so do my kiddos.

:)

Whether they realize it or not. ;)

It's the Little Things ...

:: a budding artist ::

:: garden veggies ::

:: hair cuts ::

:: very particular three-year-olds ::

:: death-defying six-year-olds ::

:: Sodor ... Duplo-version ::

:: civil engineers ::

:: really cool flight simulators ::

:: tents ::

 

:: tents meet Mommy ::

:: happy garden flowers ::

I am thankful.

Thankful to be Mommy to my three amazing kiddos.

Thankful to be Wife to an amazing man who works incredibly hard.

Thankful to be Daughter of the King of Kings who daily blesses me with good gifts.



Big Rocks

So when it's been nearly two months since you've had a reasonable blog post, and words fail you every time you attempt to describe your "summer," it's probably best to just get on with the pictures.

 

If you didn't figure it out by the lack of posts, it's been a rather busy spell for us. We spent a lot of time working on the house. As in ... if Daddy wasn't at work (and he was at work a lot), he was cutting, building, wiring, mudding, sanding, or painting something.

 

And it rained. A lot. I could have taken a picture like this at some point nearly every day of July.

 

:: rain ::

 

Thankfully we were trying to make progress on indoor projects. It would not have been the summer for outdoor projects. Anyway. In the midst of what seemed to be often little more than a blur of days, here are some of the fun blessings that defined our weeks ...

 

:: Hannah's first night in her new bedroom ::

:: Chick-fil-A Cow Appreciation Day ::

:: The Blueberry Festival ::

 

:: VBS ::

:: friend joining us for VBS ::

:: Cedar Falls Park ::

In between rain storms we participated in a county-wide "Park Hop." Cedar Falls was a gem of a park we discovered through that program.

:: the zoo ::

Matthew totally fell in love with the zoo on this visit. For the big kids, it was all about their friends. For Matthew, it was ALL about the animals. Hurry on to the next one? "No, thanks." I'll just enjoy the one I'm looking at right now. The next one will be there when I get there.

 

:: fellowship with friends ::

Definitely a highlight of our summer! :) Thirty people made for a loud and crazy evening, but the fellowship was such a blessing!

 

It was a huge blessing to be able to have the kids playing downstairs while (most of) the adults fellowshipped upstairs.

 

:: swimming with friends ::

:: Matthew's last night in his crib ::

I once again underestimated this little boy's nearly angelic temperament. I totally expected a difficult transition from crib + milk to bed and NO milk. It wasn't. At all.

:: park hopping ::

The weather didn't particularly cooperate with our Park Hopping endeavors. And with the deadline approaching we had visited only four parks. We needed five to get "swag bags" and ten to get t-shirts. Guess who wanted t-shirts? Yep, my crew. :) So. We mapped it out, we packed our lunch, and we park hopped ... literally! We visited six parks in one day and had an absolute blast doing it! :) And even better, the Lord held off the rain--it began sprinkling as we were getting our LAST CLUE at our LAST PARK. And then it POURED!!!



And thus was our summer. :)

Ready for School!

It has been a busy summer.
To put it mildly.
But in the midst of the chaos, the Lord has provided some amazing blessings. And in the wee hours of the morning on the first day of our 2013-14 school year, we are ready for our new school year in our brand new school room.

 

And we are very excited. :)
(And Mommy's hoping to run on adrenaline and caffeine ...)

 



Here are the three amazing kiddos who will be sitting at those desks ... and are presently sleeping downstairs in their new bedrooms ...

 



 

I am overwhelmingly thankful for the privilege of teaching them and the blessing of our new school room. ♥

 

:::

 

For those who may be confused, this room used to be the kids' bedroom. They moved downstairs into their new rooms a few weeks ago. Last Saturday, we Chris walled in what will eventually be the master bedroom closet, we painted throughout the week, and moved in furniture this weekend. Curtains had to be put on hold because Mommy's conscience said that lesson plans needed to take precedence ... but they're coming. :)

 

And to family in particular, thanks for your patience with my complete neglect of our blog last month. I'm hoping that now that things are settled, I can at least post a few of our highlights from July and then get back into a regular posting routine. :) One can hope anyway ...