Oh Come Let Us Adore Him

Only 5 days until Christmas...and I'm just now posting about my Christmas decor.
I kept it simple this year. Because of our house reno I didn't have a whole lot of time to spend on decorating. But, I'm really liking the simple.
I don't like the stress that comes with the holidays, because really that's not what it's supposed to be about. So I try my best to get all my shopping done before december and my presents wrapped early, so that I can just focus on making memories, having fun, and the most important our Savior.
That's not to say that Christmas is completely stress free, because I still stress about little unimportant things, but I try my best to get most of the stress out of the way! I just want to enjoy this time. I don't want to feel rushed or lost in all the holiday craziness.
I want to be still and reflect on the glorious birth of a babe in a stable.
I'm overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. I'm humbled by the great love of our Father.

What I've been enjoying most this december is the Advent study I've been doing with She Reads Truth.

I've done a lot of studies with She Reads Truth and I've been blown away by the goodness of it all. I've learned so much and grown in character. If you are interested in doing their online studies, go check them out HERE. They are starting a new study on John in January. And trust me, it's going to be good. 

Alright, now for a look at how I decorated this year:

Our tree and Eli!

It's amazing how well the boys have done with not destroying anything on the tree. I thought for sure something would be broken within seconds. So far so good. I'm not much of a tree decorator. I don't use fancy ribbons or color schemes or anything like that (because that is a lot of work). Every year I buy an ornament for everyone to go in their stocking, so my tree is full of just a bunch of different cute random ornaments. We've got tractors and trains, and farm trucks, and horses (can you tell I'm living with boys?) I even have some ornaments that Brian made as a little kid. For me ornaments are all about the memories. I can't wait until the boys are old enough to help me decorate the tree. 

It's great when your mom has too many Christmas decorations to count and starts giving them away. These white trees are favorites. I'm surprised they are still in tact with two little boys running around.

This is the boy's favorite decor. They are intrigued by the little cabin and we've already lost a tree in the front. :) And look at those little cuties in that picture frame. It's hard to believe that was last Christmas. They love to point at the frame and say "baby"!

The manger scene and my little advent cabin. 

I just threw a couple of festive pillows on the couch and called it good.

This is what I have on the table. I love these reindeer.

And this is why I wanted little shelves in my kitchen. :) I got this snow globe this year at Lowe's. Who knew they had cute Christmas decorations? I sure didn't. I snagged this up on one of our many trips to get house supplies. 

I bought those little snow angel baby figurines last year, because they reminded me of the boys :)

And finally some wall decor:

Favorite chalkboard ever, painted by ME!

Also, one of my favorite Christmas signs. Brian made the tree and I painted it. :)

Bought from a store...sometimes you just can't make everything ;)

And I won this sign at MOPS. It just happens to be my favorite Christmas carol. This sign was handmade by some pretty cool gals from my MOPS group and they have a blog too. You should go check them out HERE!

Ok, well that's all folks! I hope you all have a very merry Christmas filled with joy, laughter, and good memories. 

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

The house renovation has slowed down a little bit due to Brian's increased hours at work. However, we are finally almost done! :)
It's been a long 2 months for me and I'm so excited to have my kitchen back soon. I don't think I ever want to eat a microwave meal again. Seriously!
Anyway, here is what we have been working on lately:

1. The Ceiling- We finally finished the entire thing and I think I'm in love!

This is a view of our living/dining room.

Close-up of our ceiling

View from the living/dining room into the kitchen

It took a lot of time to put up this ceiling, but I'm so happy we did. It was definitely worth it. In case you are interested in doing something similar to your house, here are the details.

We bought tongue and groove pine boards from Lowe's. Click HERE to see exactly what we purchased. It was $10.97 a package and each package should cover 14 sq. ft. I recommend buying a few extra packages because there were some pieces that were damaged (you can return them though). 

After we finished installing the ceiling we sealed it with this:

You could also use Polyurethane, but there were two reasons we chose this instead. 1. It has no odor. You aren't breathing in a bunch of fumes, which in my opinion is important. 2. It is water-based. Overall, it is much better for you especially if you have children. I also read online that the Polyurethane smells pretty strong for awhile. We applied one coat. You could probably do more, but we decided that we were fine with one coat (or maybe it was because our arms were really sore afterwards).

2. Our Farmhouse Sink:

This is a dream come true. I think it's beautiful and I can't wait to wash dishes in it. :)

Brian had to build a frame inside the cabinet to support it. 

The most terrifying part of it all was that Brian had to cut the cabinet in order to put the sink in. If you cut it wrong the first time, you don't get a second chance. And let me tell you, sink bases are not cheap, so it's a little scary. Thankfully Brian is skilled and was able get it right the first time. 

We have our appliances installed and our floors are completely finished. The cabinets will be finished being installed today and tomorrow we get countertops! :) We moved all our living/dining room furniture in last night and we are getting rid of our lovely pod. All we have left to do is the little stuff. We have some sheetrock work to do on the half walls surrounding the stairs. I need to finish a little painting. We need to put trim up and then we will be completely finished and it will be time for us to tackle our next big project ;)

When everything is completed, be rest assured I will be posting before and after pictures. It's quite the transformation. 

Did I Hear You Right?

The boys were napping and I was getting in a little Bible reading time. I read a passage of scripture that I've read over and over, but for some reason it's never struck me like it did this time.
We all know the story of Saul to Paul right?
If not, go read Acts 9!
Let's not focus on Saul for min. ok? Let's take a look at Ananias.

"And the Lord said to him, 'Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul...'"

"Ananias answered, 'Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.'"

But the Lord told Ananias to Go and he did.

But this is what got me. What if he hadn't gone? What if he ignored that voice? What if he justified not going with how dangerous and life threatening it would be for him if he did?

What would have Saul's life looked like if Ananias did not obey the Lord? How would things have turned out differently? Would there have been less followers of Jesus? Less people reached? Less people ministered to?

And your wondering why this even matters? Because Ananias did obey the Lord and Saul became Paul. And Paul became a disciple of Jesus who made disciples.

But then I start to think about my own life. Have there been times I've ignored that still, small voice? Have I ignored promptings from the Lord? Have I justified ignoring those promptings with the thought that whatever has been asked of me won't really make a difference?

We need to open our ears. We need to always be listening. We need to be looking for opportunities for the Lord to use us. Because something small (or big) could change one life and that one life could change so many other lives.

We can't always see the effect of what God asks us to do, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is being obedient.

Even if we don't think it will make a difference, we can't underestimate a powerful God.
God took a man who was capturing and killing followers of Jesus, transformed his life, and used him to  bring so many to Him. He used the least likely to proclaim His Glory.

Have you listened to Him today?
Oh, Lord, open our ears to hear and eyes to see.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Is it too late to post about Halloween? Nah :)

Introducing the Wizard of Oz gang...

My friend, Kaitlyn and I decided to have our kiddies dress up in a theme and they were so darn cute! I still can't believe we got a picture of them all sitting together. I made Eli's costume which was pretty easy because it just involved some patches and yellow stretch fabric that I cut into strips to resemble straw. I wanted to make all the other costumes too, but in the end I'm glad I didn't. We just have way too much going on with this house reno. 

The Lion and the Scarecrow who wouldn't sit still :) typical!

I love these boys! 

The Tin Man aka Will

The Lion and Dorothy chatting

Kaitlyn and I decided to dress up as moms! I think we pulled it off pretty well ;)

The boys loved dressing up in their costumes. They kept pointing and laughing at each other. They also loved collecting candy (for their parents to eat). Eli waved and said "buh bye" as we left each house. Overall, we had so much fun. It was a great success and I can't wait for next year!

Now, for a little house update...

Here I am putting up the ceiling. I'm really happy we chose to do this. It is looking so good. 

And...the most exciting part is that we now have kitchen cabinets installed! 

I absolutely love how everything is turning out. It is pretty stressful making all these important and costly decisions without being able to really see it all together. It's good to know we didn't pick horrible choices and that it is all finally starting to come together! 

Floors are currently being put in. One step closer to being done.

Putting It All Back Together

Now that we have ripped apart our house, it's time to put it all back together. This is the part where I'd like to just hand it over to someone else, but that costs lots of money.

We are redoing all the electrical in the kitchen and living room. I'm so thankful my husband used to be an electrician and actually knows how to do this stuff. I get to be the electrician's helper. Which means that I've gotten to do a lot of crawling around in the attic and learned way more about wiring and circuits then I've ever wanted to :) 

Next is putting up the sheetrock. This is a chore! We have had several late nights working on this. 

These are the half walls we built to go around the stairs leading to the basement. Still have to finish them.

And, here is my new kitchen in boxes! So Excited!!!

The cabinets are actually being installed today! Yay! I'm loving how it all looks. We are on our way to being done. It will still be a little while until everything is completed, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

This Crazy Thing Called Renovation

We have been BUSY working away on our house renovation. And boy, It's a lot of work. After we got the beams placed in the attic, we went straight to taking out the walls between the kitchen and living room.

The demolition is my favorite part. It's a great stress reliever and it goes fast. It's the clean-up and putting the house back together that isn't as fun.

Taking out that wall makes such a huge transformation. The house feels so much bigger. Can't wait until it's completely finished and we can actually use this space!

 After we took the walls down, we tore out the entire kitchen. It was really a bittersweet moment. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to get rid of those old cabinets, but living without a kitchen with twin 

1 1/2 year olds is hard...crazy hard. Yeah, I know! What were we thinking?

Kitchen Demolished :)

Now that we no longer have a working kitchen we have everything set up in the basement...and we don't have a very big basement, so it's a tight squeeze. We took our small kitchen table down stairs and placed it where our coffee table goes. My craft table is taking a break from crafts and instead is holding all the kitchen essentials. We are doing lots of microwave dinners and grilling. I'm using our tiny bathroom sink to wash dishes. It's definitely not the ideal setup, but I am oh so thankful for my new kitchen. It's all going to be worth it. 

Our make-shift kitchen :) 

It was a couple days after we took the kitchen completely out that our parents' took the boys for 5 whole days so that we could get a ton of work done without any interruption. Let me just say, I am so thankful for grandparents. You guys are lifesavers. 

After we destroyed the kitchen it was time to tackle the linoleum floor. Worst job ever. I spent 4 hours just trying to get a decent section pulled up. It was so stubborn and I'm so happy that it is gone. This floor had definitely seen it's better days. 

Goodbye, You won't be missed, Linoleum!

Now that we have torn the house apart, we just need to get it all put back together. :) Should be no problem, right? Cabinets are being installed on Tuesday. Countdown has begun. Ahhhhh!

Beams and Flooring and Ceilings, Oh My!

So the other day we went and picked up our flooring from Lowe's and also got wood from Menards for the beams Brian is making so that we can take down some walls.

Our Trailer- Load

Oh, and we bought kitchen knobs and pulls at Menards too! The boys really enjoyed this shopping trip.

Brian let them stand in the cart while he pushed them. I was freaking out and telling him it was dangerous, but I let them have fun anyway and took a picture. 

Ok so now for a sneak peak...of the flooring!

It is called Handscraped Vintage Antique Bamboo (from Lowe's).

Now to the dirty work...We have popcorn ceilings in our living room and since our kitchen does not have popcorn ceilings and we are taking a wall down we needed to do something. So naturally, we decided to scrape the popcorn off of the ceilings. 

I taped the whole room off in plastic. They sell plastic with painter's tape already attached, but I didn't buy it because, well, it was more expensive. It would have saved me a ton of time though, and probably would have been worth it. The things we learn. :)

Brian, getting ready to enter the Room of Doom (literally).

My popcorn-scraping Hero. 

I helped too. We were in it together. It was terrible. I mean really terrible. It was hot and hard and I never want to scrape a ceiling again. But, we did it. 

The couple who scrapes ceilings together, stays together :)

It made an absolute mess.

After all that hard work, I started sanding the ceiling so that we could make them match our other flat ceiling. After 10 mins. I knew this job would take me days. So we decided, "why not buy tongue and groove wood to put on the ceilings?" 

I think it is going to look great. Brian wants to leave it natural and I want to paint it white. Any opinions or suggestions???

Brian built beams to put in the attic so that we could take the wall down between the living room and kitchen. With the help of friends, he was able to get them on the roof and installed in the attic. 

This is me on the roof pretending to lift a heavy beam. The funny thing is that my legs look disconnected from my body. Photo credit: Brian. Well played, Husband, well played.

Up next...Walls will be coming down! :)