Project 365: Week 20

 

Happy Anniversary!

Today, my hubby and I celebrate 6 years of marriage.  What a ride this has been so far filled with many highs and a few lows too. 

Winter Formal 2001 - my Senior Year of High School

Our Wedding Day - May 21, 2005

I love that we have so much fun together, even if we're not doing much of anything. We enjoy getting out for date nights once in a while, but are just as happy to order pizza and snuggle on the couch with a movie. I have a feeling we'll be flirting in the kitchen even when we're old & wrinkly.

June 2008 - Exactly 1 month before our Little Man was born

Easter 2011

I'm so thankful that he's the one holding my hand as we walk through life together. 

Happy Anniversary!!

"She smiles at the future" 

- Proverbs 31:25b

Home Sweet Home

Ran across this quote recently and thought it was 100% accurate. 

Even through the temper tantrums & attitudes (and I'm probably just as guilty as my toddler), I'm still so thankful for a home that I adore filled with a family I love.

Kids Gardening

On a recent trip to Walmart, I found these cute Miracle-Gro Kids Mini Greenhouse Kits. They were only $1 a piece, so I picked up two thinking it would be a fun rainy day activity sometime soon. Well, we've had plenty of rain recently so I pulled the kits out. They turned out to be SO neat! I enjoyed them as much as Little Man.

As always, be sure to read the directions first ;)

 

I was a bit concerned when I bought them because I knew there wasn't enough dirt in there, but here's the really cool part: they have special dirt that expands when you add water. The dirt on the left is before we added water, the dirt on the right is mixed with 1/4 cup of water and it EXPANDED when we stirred it. It was crazy to watch it grow.

Then we added a few little seeds: Sweet Bell Peppers & Zinnias.

Now we wait for them to sprout and we'll transplant them to keep here. I think Little Man will really enjoy watching them grow from start to finish. Let's hope it ends well!

A quick & easy project with a little learning thrown in - love it!

White Bedroom Insanity

It has been said that the definition of INSANITY is doing the same thing over & over and expecting different results. I think an addendum is needed: putting a white duvet on your bed year after year with a black dog & toddler living in the house. Evidently last year's white duvet fail just wasn't enough for me. I had to try again this year. Let's rewind so I can tell you the whole story...

I love our bedroom. The wall color is a strange green that changes in the light, but it's warm, comforting, and beautiful. I love the deep reds and greens. The plaid curtains salvaged from our old duvet. The quilt. I just love it. 

But it's sort of heavy in color, which I love in the fall and winter. However it left me wanting something a bit brighter and lighter for the spring and summer. Combine these feelings with two recent posts from the Nester (found here & here) and I was ready for a change. But it needed to be cheap. Like the FREE kind of cheap.

So I started by removing every possible from the room: the quilt & pillow shams, the lamp shades, the curtains, all pictures, every other little accessories. I was left with a very empty space. I guess the room was breathing (or whatever). 

Obviously I couldn't leave the room like that, so I shopped the house. Here are the items that were brought back to the room: white sheets & duvet, white lamp shades, two white candles.  Hmmm...that's a LOT of white. 

I knew all that white wouldn't last long, so I didn't even bother to iron the duvet. A mere FIVE days later I was proven right. There are muddy dog prints on the duvet, black fur that is desperately awaiting an upcoming grooming appointment, and so many more wrinkles from a certain little person who loves to "mess pillows" at least 3 times a day.

The room is still bare, bordering on stark, and now a bit dirty, but it has given me a blank canvas. A place to think and get out of my dark red & green box that's been there for the last 4+ years. I would love to find an inexpensive quilt to use in the spring & summer. I think it would be fun & refreshing to have seasonal bedding. We'll just have to wait and see...and bargain shop :)

Meal Plan Monday: Clear the Freezer

This past week and weekend was FULL of purging & organizing, which I just LOVED! We did a MAJOR clean-out of our garage (more details to come), leaving us enough space for both cars and enough extra room to relocate the chest freezer from the basement to the garage. I created an inventory for the chest freezer last week, which really motivated me to finish up some of the semi-prepped foods & freezer meals in our regular freezer, so that's how I chose our meal plan this week.

Monday: Taco Bake (taco meat prepped in the freezer)
Tuesday: Stuffed Shells & Salad (Stuffed Shells from the freezer)
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Sandwiches (Pre-cooked & shredded chicken in the freezer)
Thursday: Turkey Tettrazini (Pre-cooked & shredded turkey in the freezer)
Friday: Pizza Night
Saturday: Anniversary Dinner Date
Sunday: Hamburgers on the Grill

I also have some pre-cooked & diced ham in the freezer that I'm going to use to make a quiche so we can eat off that for breakfast this week. All that should mostly clear out our regular freezer, so we'll be ready to dive into the deep freezer!

Explore other meal plans at OrgJunkie.

Project 365: Week 19

 

The Great Garage Clean-Out

I have declared today "The Great Garage Clean-Out of 2011". Our garage is out of control with stuff. Some stuff that needs to go, some that needs to stay, as well as dead leaves, spider webs, and some other gross stuff.

Even though I would have liked to go at this alone, my husband fears my purging skills and wants to participate. So I'm looking on the bright side: our little one is away at his grandparents house so we can have some uninterrupted time together. Plus he's great at heavy lifting. :)

I've been excited about this garage clean-out because I, honestly, just enjoy organizing and ridding our life of unused and unnecessary clutter. I'm not a stuff person. Just not my personality. But this morning, as I sip my coffee in a quiet house and catch up on a few blogs, I came across this post on material things. These two passages really hit home in a new and fresh way.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens...a time to keep and a time to throw away.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 6

This is the perfect mediator verse for my husband and I today. It reminds me that it's not always time to get rid of something and I need to be more sensitive to my husband's needs of wanting to keep his stuff, even if I deem it unnecessary. I'm hoping it will remind him to know when it is time to part with some things.

Do not store up your treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will also be your heart. 

Matthew 6:19-21

This verse stepped on my toes big time. Although my purging actions may have good intentions & consequences, my motives aren't exactly focused where they need to be. My focus should be eternal, storing my true treasures in the Lord and His heavenly kingdom. While I do think this in my mind, my actions do not always show such focus. I've spent more time with my sewing machine this week than with my Bible or in prayer combined. I've been reading a new library book each evening, but haven't cracked open my Bible for a morning quiet time in a while. Let's not even think about the time I spent reading blogs... So, I have to ask myself, where is my heart & my true treasure? 


I do think it's necessary that I add a little disclaimer. The items in our possession are not necessarily bad things. In fact, I would say they are often very good things, things we are meant to enjoy. However, as our pastor likes to remind us, man tends to take good things and make them ultimate things. We cross the line when we find our identity in how big a certain collection is, the latest electronics filling our house, the neighborhood we live in, the kind of cars we drive, career success, or even how spectacular our children are, instead of finding our identity as a follower of Christ. Take a moment to think about your life and what it is filled with. How do you define yourself? Do your actions and motives reflect that self-definition? Don't let those be rhetorical questions.


Sometimes I find the Lord's whispers a bit hard to discern, so I'm truly thankful when He speaks so loud & clear in such a simple, yet profound way.

I caved...

I caved and gave in to Pinterest. I asked for an invite from a friend yesterday and now I'm in love! 

So many great ideas, just pinned away for me to get inspired. It's sort of like bookmarking something, but SO much better! You organize your pins on different boards based on topic. Organization & inspiration - so fun!

Here are a few other bloggers who wrote about Pinterest with much more informative posts.

Endless Jubilee

IHeart Organizing

Young House Love

In case you are really curious, you can see my pins here. I'm still figuring it all out, but so far it's great!

Little Man's Closet Clean-Up

Last month, iHeart Organizing challenged her readers to Project: Purge. I jumped in and got started on my kitchen, but sort of lost some steam after vacation & a little medical situation arose. 

Well, good thing for me, this month's challenge is Project: Projects! It's time to just get some projects checked off the list. First I made a list of projects to get done around the house going room-by-room. Wow...that list is overwhelming. Time to jump in! 

An easy project to start with...clean out Little Man's closet. My general method of sorting his outgrown clothing, artwork to keep and important papers is to throw it in the closet. I have piles and piles and piles. It was time to address those. 

I began by sorting everything I encountered into four categories: 

(1)Trash   (2)Donate/sell   (3)Keep & store in attic   (4)Stays in closet

Here are some before & afters

Here's everything that needed to be moved into the attic...no wonder it was overflowing in there!

While I was in Little Man's room, he was in mine. I thought he was watching some TV and playing with his baskets of toys I keep under our TV.

Here's what he was really up to...

Traded one organized space for another unorganized space. Thankfully our room cleaned up quickly.

I foresee a yard sale in our future with all of this purging...especially after we tackle our garage this weekend!