My Physical Therapy - Part Two

Hey welcome back!!!!  I was really hopeful through the week that I would feel good enough to shower, get dressed and fixed up and make it youth group.  That didn't happen.  Then I was excited at the thought of getting dressed up on Friday and maybe heading out with my man to do some birthday shopping (see this post).  I have been going mentally crazy thinking about Target and how long it's been since I've been there and I had myself all built up for this incredible night of feeling like a member of the functioning human race, getting out of the house, spending time with the hubs and doing a little shopping.  But as it's been for weeks now, my body doesn't match my mind and I was too tired and empty to make any of that happen. I am trying sooooooo hard to rest and rest in Him.  Trusting in His plan even in this time of sickness and recovery isn't very easy. 

Well that's enough about me, you came to see the house so here's the family room (aka the room in which I spend all of my waking hours).

 

This is my keeping it real shot!!  Julia is laying on the couch because she's not feeling well.  There are things all over the ottomans/tray, but hey, this is life!!!  This at least gives you the set up of the room.  The couch is a little big to be in this position, but I like that it's facing the fireplace and it makes the space feel nice and cozy!!  Some day I'd love to remove the panel and paint.  It's a dark,  errr warm room and I'd love to see how much bigger it feels to brighten it up a bit!!

I was previously using this spool as an end table and since there isn't much room on either end of the couch for a table, I would have either had to pack it away orrrrrr get creative!! 

 

This fireplace is ginormous!!  On one hand it's great, because I can decorate it like crazy.  On the other hand, I don't know how to keep it simple.  Which would be fine except that I'm really craving simplicity. 

I tried a few different configurations and over the course of  a few weeks, I stripped it all down again and took a completely different approach.  I always shop the house first!  I happen to have a small door and few wooden boxes and drawers at my disposal.  I like the old books, it adds fall color and some height to display my jar of mini gourds and pumpkins.  (they're not real so I can use them year after year)

I kept the yellow candle stick from my summer mantle and thought it'd be a great perch for a fun faux pumpkin!!  I added an old camera for some fun and few fall fabric balls that I made years ago.  On the right side, I used a few birch rounds (from our birch trees in the back yard), a frame from summer that I picked up from Hobby Lobby, and an old berry crate.  There's also a little fall garland that I made with string and scrapbook paper and a glue stick.  Easy Peasy!

 

The bushel basket of pinecones and birch logs have been here all summer and I just added a small chalkboard with a seasonal quote "Autumn is a second spring" (where every leaf is a flower).  I decided to stack my old kettles, which I should have emptied first, right Jessica? :)  I also added an old mustard shutter to the back to break up the old brick and just add another layer of interest.

 

On the other side of the fireplace, I decided to bring down a few of my picnic baskets.  I love the red plaid one, it conjurs up all kinds of fun images of great fall picnics under beautiful maple trees bursting with color, warm wool blankets and hot apple cider in a thermos!!  Like the little one on top!  I'm still getting gorgeous roses in the garden and figured I'd better take advantage of that gift before they're done. 

 

Once the roses started to wilt and die, we resused them for a wonderful foot soak!!  Julia had the idea of letting me soak my feet and relax. She's such a sweetheart!!

 

We added some fresh lavendar too.  I soaked for a long time and my feet felt wonderul afterward!!  This is something that I'm going to have to do more regularly!!

 

I haven't done anything to speak of in the kitchen, most of it's a mess honestly.  It's the most used room in the house, so I have to catch it in its rare state of spotless!! lol  So this may or may not be the end of the fall tour.  We'll have to see!!   I'm taking each moment as it comes and can't make any plans. 

 

I hope you've enjoyed the small tour.  I pray that your home is a place of warmth and comfort as we head into the cooler seasons (cooler, ha!  It's 82 degrees here today)  Have a blessed week!!

 

<3 Lorraine

 

 

My Physical Therapy

We've already established that I've completely missed the month of September and I've been stuck on the couch doing nothing.  If you know me, you know that that doesn't fly for very long at all.  Eventually I'm gonna crack and have to CHANGE something!!  I love decorating my home for fall and I was so afraid that I was going to miss the opportunity entirely!!  Not happy.  I had my kids bring down my fall boxes from the attic and I vowed to go through little by little and take my time.  I figured that it would be good physical therapy and decorational therapy (is that even a word?)!!  It would get my creativity flowing and also get my muscles moving.  So, although I didn't get to link up with any of the amazing fall home tours, I decided to do one of my own.  Come on in and have a look around!! 

Welcome to our home!!  I haven't done anything on the front step besides hanging this wreath.  I don't really feel like dealing with spiders and cobwebs but hey, if we did celebrate Halloween, I could consider my front step finished!

I am keeping it rrrreal simple in the foyer.  I moved out my small table and mirror that used to occupy this corner and instead just went with my old basket hanger and a few signs of the season.  Don't mind my purse hanging there, feel free to hang yours there as well, or maybe your sweater!!

 

This little cabinet joined the foyer a few months ago.  The girls had it in there room for a long time and it housed Julia's little knick-knacks.  In a simplifying effort by Jessica, I ended up with it!  SCORE!!  One day I think I will end up painting the inset portion of the door with chalkboard paint.  It's a cute place to leave little notes for guests or just sweet reminders for us as we pass by this way throughout the day.

 

The inside isn't very fun but it is functional.  Instead of a drawer full of spare keys and sunglasses, they now reside here!  All of the spare keys are in the little brown crock.  I want to hang a few hooks in here to rest our functional keys on, but we'll see. 

 

Off to your right is our dining room.  I can always feel God's presence in this room in the way the light streams across the table and the hutch, in the two large windows that lead to a beautiful view of the fields and trees across the street, so colorful this time of year.

 

I am on a constant quest for simplicity in my home.  I have a lot of furniture and even more things to decorate with and after a while it starts getting to me.  I love everything that I have and it's hard to know what to get rid of, so that usually keeps me from truly moving forward.  But I started the simplifying process in the foyer and dining room and I hope that I can continue that throughout the house.

 

Come back to see the family room, and prayerfully the rest of the downstairs space.  Like I said I'm taking this slow, so it may be Christmas before we finish here!!  Kidding!!!  It better not take that long.  My patience is wearing thin already!!  

 

Have a blessed weekend!!  Thanks for stopping by!!  See you next time!!

 

<3 Lorraine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So many cookies, so little time

Has it only been one week or two since I've been on here??  I don't even know, honest...it feels like a looong time friends!!!  Three weeks ago I played around with the idea of offering sugar cookies for sale.  We make them for our family at the holidays and have offered them for fundraising needs.  They are usually a big hit!!  I was asked to make them for an engagement party in December and so I guess I'm making a name for myself and my cookies!!! 

I no sooner got the thought out of my mind and off of my lips and there was a message requesting 3 dozen valentine's day cookies for the following week!!  So, I figured what the heck??!!  Well 24 dozen cookies later, I think I am comatose!!!  I've been sitting on a stool in the corner of my kitchen, nestled againts the counter and cabinets making delicate little heart shaped cookies for the past five days!!!  It pretty much took over my life!!!  It was crazy!  It was exhausting!  It was time consuming and it was so. much. FUN!!!!

I am glad that I decided to keep the ugly 1970's credenza in my kitchen!!  It has served me well in this monster baking endeavor!!!!  Thanks Jessica for the idea of clearing it off and lining them up!!  It was perfect!!

 

I was able to bring over a dozen at a time to the counter to decorate them.  I only had one decorator bag, so this took more time than it should have!  I had made 4 different colors to decorate with and had to either empty and clean the bag multiple times or have the forsight to know what I wanted to do on dozens of cookies so that I could use it up before starting over!

 

 

I am so thankful for Pinterest for all of the great ideas!!  Some I copied exactly and some I came up with on my own!  I definitely had a blast being creative, it felt like I was doodling, which I love to do!!

 

I could drown this post with pictures of cookies!!!  Different styles, stages, locations, packaging, etc.  I really want to, but I'll spare you!!! I need to look into packaging ideas that are cost effective.  I have typically used aluminum pans that can be thrown away.  The dollar store had these great tupperware-ish containers that I decided to use for the bulk of the orders.  They worked really well, but looked impractical!!

 

Here is the first batch of cookies, packaged and ready to go!!  This was my staging area for completed orders!!  See the containers on the left?  Those are the dollar store ones, they're great!!

Just when I thought I was finished and had cleaned up, I got a few more orders!!!  LOL, I joke about not wanting to go back into the kitchen, but I am truly am thankful for each and every order! 

 

I decided to use these cute paper punches to keep track of my orders!!  Hey, if it can be done in a cute way, I'm alllll about it!!!!!

 

After completing all of the orders (I have one dozen that needs to be delivered today), I had to go back to the kitchen and make a birthday cake for my lil Valentine!!!!  My Joe turned 13 yesterday!!!  It truly feels like yesterday that he came into this world!!  He's such a great kid, thoughtful, quiet, creative.....its been amazing watching him grow over the years and we're excited to see what the next few years bring for him!!!

 

 

 

I also threw together a little Valentine's Day fun for my love bugs!!!  I seriously mean "threw"!!!  I don't typically pull off Valentine's Day anything because of the birthday, but I've been feeling really inspired to take that day back and do "something" fun and special!! With the fact that I've literally been in the kitchen from morning til night for five days straight, I knew I couldn't do a whole lot and I didn't have any money to spend towards it, so I had to work with what I had.....not a whole lot!!

 

 

Luckily, you don't need a whole lot to be inspired and move forward!!!  So I gathered what ideas I came up with and just asked God to help me make it happen.  Typically when I get something in my head, I don't give up until I make it happen....I was sure that this was going to kick in for my surprise!!  A friend from church had given me a bag of wooden painted hearts, they've been in the garage for a few months.  I decided to have the kids paint them for me (heh heh heh) in chalkboard paint...they'd be the perfect little charger!!! 

 

Next, I knew I had some old Starbucks bottles on hand and thought it'd be cute to fill them with chocolate and strawberry milk.  I had just picked up some new red mugs from the dollar store and decided to make cake in a cup for them!!  I also had some small heart cookies left over, picked up the traditional "SweetHearts" for them and threw a few strawberry wafer cookies in the mix!!

 

I could have done so much more, and I'm not lying when I say that I am still fighting the urge to be discontent!  Some things die slowly.  The funny thing is, no one likes strawberry wafer cookies!!  The buttercream icing on the cakes was too sweet and gave them tummy aches, so they barely touched them.....they did drink their milk though!!!  That was a score.  I was highly disappointed in the response to this little shin dig.....the enemy knows my weak spots.  It's not pin worthy, it's barely blog worthy, but ya know what?  I don't care!!  I don't.  I could have done nothing at all, I could have used the excuse that I didn't have the time (I barely had the time) or that it wasn't important in the first place. 

But God gave me the desire, He gave me the means and He helped me make it happen.  I know that they enjoyed the treat, even if it didn't look like it.  I have to remember that what I do, I do for the Lord and not for man (or children) anyway.  I want to be obedient and pleasing to my Heavenly Father, and so I'm content.

I know that He delights in me, that I make Him smile when I am serving Him.  He is my sunshine and I am His <3  And that's all I need!!  I love the chalkboard hearts, I don't know where I'll use them after this, but I can't wait to see what we come up with!!! 

We moved on with our day, had french toast and bacon for dinner as per the birthday boys request!  He loved his little Creeper cake!!  He loved his gifts and he was surrounded with the people who love him the most!!  Isn't that what it's all about?  Knowing that you're loved, being surrounded with people who love you and falling into bed at the end of the day knowing you did a job well done!!

So I actually have to get back to the kitchen :/  I need to make some brownies.  Joe is have a friend or two over to hang out tonight and he's requested baked goods!!!  So back I go....to the one place that I typically spend very little time!!!!  If you need me you know where to find me!!!! 

Happy Friday friends!!  I pray you have a blessed weekend!!  Ours is packed with activity, as usual, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!!!!!

God Bless <3 Lorraine

 

 

 



 





My Backwards Bucket List - December

Hey friends, remember at the end of last summer I shared my backwards bucket list here and here??  Well I'd thought I'd share my December with you in that same format!!  Like I've said before, I would much rather look at what I have accomplished instead of list that's not been accomplished....this seems to work for me!!

 Ready?  Okay....here we go!!

1.  Rest....yep, among, perhaps the CRAZIEST time of the year, we found plenty of time to rest!!

We watched Christmas movies and enjoyed laid back dinners on the couch!!  We've even continued that into January!

2.  Family Night Out - Thanks to some generous, anonymous gifters, we were able to go the movies and have tickets for the six of us AND refreshments covered by Regal Cinema gift cards!!  We don't go out on the town very often at all, because, well, six people equals a costly evening!!  It was fun getting ready knowing that I was going out for a fun night!  We saw "The Hobbit", which was very good, even though I'm not a fan of the dark side of good vs. evil.  We also had our very first experience with YoGo!!!  It was yummy!!

3.  Putting my word of the year into action!! On December 31st I started a ridiculous project of literally simplifying my home!!  We took down Christmas decor' and I thought it appropriate to tackle the attic before putting Christmas items back up there!  It went on from there and we've tackled everything from cabinets to bedrooms and the detached garage attic!!!  We will be selling our stuff at a yard sale coming very soon....I cannot wait!!!

4.  My first real cookie order!!  My Pastor and his wife asked us to make sugar cookies for their oldest sons' engagement party!!  I was freaking out!! We make these for ourselves or holidays all of time and we've done them for fundraisers, but this time there was a little bit more pressure!!  I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out!

 

5.  Christmas & Programs-Our chidren's choir worked very hard on about 5 songs that they shared at three sunday services and at the Children's Christmas Eve Flashlight Service!  My hubbs and I also participated in the childrens Christmas Eve service; we played a spoof on Hollywood Squares.  My hubbs was a contestant and I was one of the nine squares!!  It was a blast!  Now that my oldest lives elsewhere, him "coming home" for Christmas is always a highlight <3

my girl all the way on the left 

 younget and oldest (8 & 21)

 My five heartbeats playing games together...a gift on so many levels <3

 

6.  Disney Movie Night- as per Jessica and her Senior Class Trip, they have been doing a montly disney movie night....December?  Santa Claus 1 & 2, Christmas cookie snacks and a fun photo shoot!! 

 

7.  Outreach-the month wouldn't have been complete without opportunities to get outside of ourselves!  We had new friends over for dinner, I was invited to have lunch with some sweet girlfriends that I haven't seen in way.too.long, I was asked to decorate for the Ladies Tea that our church staff puts on for some of the women in our congregation and we held our first big student leadership training & service weekend.  We hit the streets of two local cities with hot coffee, donuts and hats/scarves/gloves for those in need that we encountered.  All of these opportunities were a wonderful way to be the hands and feet of Jesus <3 

 

8. Chalkboard Art - I had moved things around enough to pull my chalkboard out of the garage and find a home for her!!  I've had alot fun with this and love the inspiration that I find on-line!

 

9. Christmas Shopping-thanks to friends!  Our wallet is very, very, very tight and we had come to terms with the fact that we just couldn't swing Christmas gifts at all this year!  I can hear some of you gasp!! lol  I know, the horror!!!  Thanks be to God that He moved some friends of ours to give a generous gift to us so that we could buy our children a few gifts.  It really made Christmas so much more special and meaningful and these were small tokens of our thanks and appreciation to these families <3

10. Seeking the Light -something that I always do!!  He is always present and where there is Light, there can't be darkness....that is my focus!!

11. Date Night-an unexpected opportunity to have a small night out with the hubbs <3

12. Face Mask Fun -we decided to try a recipe from Pinterest!!  Boy was that fun!!

13. Teaching Opportunities-teaching Senior High Sunday School has become a highlight!!

14. Family Walks-they started out as family walks but quickly ended up to be just the two of us!!

15. Don't/Did shave december-hubbs wen all through November and most of December before shaving...he had such a blast shaving it off, I'm sad that I can't share the pictures!!

16. The end of soccer season-Our boys had one make-up game that took us to the first weekend of December!!  They ended up in second place for their division!!  It was a great season and we are so proud of our boys and the team - they have grown tremendously in one season!!

17.  Hot Cocoa Station-it was so much fun to see all of the different cocoa stations out there in blog world!!  Each one is so unique to its creator...what a fun thing to have for the winter months!!

19. Advent-for years I have wanted an advent calendar, something to count up to the weeks of Jesus' birth and every year I go without!  This year I made my own unconventional advent candle"wreath" using a wooden box and candles.  I also had the opportunity to make a calendar or countdown, with empty match boxes.  I strung them up in an empty frame and each night that we were home for dinner we would have a reading from that days box and take part in the family activity included on the paper.  We did anything from performing a random act of kindness (leaving gingerbread men in our mailbox for our mail lady) to heading outdoors to play flashlight tag!!  It was a blast and a beautiful way to worship our Creator!!

20.  Baking-another aspect of the holiday season that we didn't plan on participating in was baking Christmas cookies, sad, but true.  We are learning to accept these things and God is blessing us for our willingness to say "yes, okay Lord, take it".  A dear, sweet, precious friend of mine, Denise, wouldn't hear of us having a Christmas without cookies, so she provided a way for us!  We went nuts baking!!  We were in the kitchen for three or four days straight!!  We were all so very thankful for Denise's kindness and gift!!

 

 

So there you have it!!  My backwards bucket list!!  It's amazing to see just how many things we can pack into 30/31 days!!!  God's goodness is everywhere - you just have to slow down enough to see it!!  What were some of the highlights of your December?  I'd love to hear about them!!

 

 

God Bless <3 Lorraine