Do it yourself: Burlap Canvas Art

What a beautiful weekend we just finished. {Happy Monday, by the way!} My husband and I, along with our youth leader crew headed to a leaders conference just outside of Chicago this past Thursday through Saturday afternoon. I'm a sucker for those cute towns with sidewalk shops and old churches on every corner - so pretty! And of course the air was cool and the big colorful trees just completed it for me. If you ever get to visit Evanston, Illinois, do it. Our group attended the Rooted Conference, a branch of TGC. Made and modeled for those working with teens. It was a great time and everyone had some great take-aways. Isn't this a fantastic looking group?! We have some of the best people who work so hard to love on and lead teens. I'm thankful for them more then words can express, really.

But that is not what this post is about. :)

I hinted in my last post about the DIY burlap canvas I was working on. It's finished and today I'll give you a little step by step so you can try your own. Or, be like me and take what you like about it and then do your own thing.

The backstory:
I'm a big fan of burlap - every itchy, beautiful thing about it. It's easy to use, can be dainty or rustic, and the neutral color works well with most decor. While it's usually pretty affordable - the kind that is stretched across, canvas style, is not. You can plan to spend upwards of $15-$25 for a good burlap canvas. Just the canvas. Enter my FIND at Michaels the other day. I found TWO of these beaut's marked down to $4.99 in the back, scary, clearance section of the store. They were originally marked at $15!

There were a few ideas I'd had about to do with them, when I remembered this little pretty I pinned on pinterest a few days earlier. This Etsy shop sells the most beautiful and simple things. I loved the old hymn quotes, etc. But... I can't spend the money to have someone make it for me. Not right now. :) So I wondered if I could just whip something up myself.

(By the way, I'm a big supporter of Etsy's everywhere! 

If you can support an Etsy crafter WAY TO GO!)

So I took some time and chatted with my hubby about what we might like to look at daily. :) We agreed on a phrase from the hymn, Come Thou Fount.  So here we go! 

Step 1: 

(You can skip this if you are the confident type)

Lay out your canvas and draw an idea of how you want it to look on the plastic, first. This was really helpful to me as I was figuring out spacing while free-handing. Eeeek!

Step 2: 

Choose your paint! 

I love, love, love this Behr color "Cottage White". It's just a normal creamy white and I've used it in many rooms of my home. You'll also need a paintbrush - whatever you have is fine. I would recommend a wider one though to make broad strokes.

Step 3: 

Make your paint strokes. Working from a diagonal - brush left to right, repeat. Cover as little or as much of the canvas as you prefer. You may have to do a few layers as it soaks into the canvas a bit. Just eye it and DON'T obsess about being perfect. Also, as you can see - and much to the chagrin of my husband - I often just get right to work on the living room floor. Might I recommend putting newspaper underneath? Just.in.case.

Step 4: 

Once you have your desired amount of paint, give it a few hours or even a day to let it fully dry. Mine took a nap time - 2 hours. I was kinda in a hurry. Check on it a few times to make sure it's not absorbing and needs more. Really though, mine didn't need much help.

Step 5: 

Pencil or use a small point sharpie and write on your words. Then go over it with paint, using a tiny paintbrush. Michael's sells these - I used one of my kids paint by number brushes. :) Winning!

For some of you who may stress out about this whole free handing idea... I'd encourage you to remember the beauty in imperfection. And I'd also remind you that stencils are available at most crafty type stores. {grin} I looked up font ideas and then just winged it. It's not perfect, but it's me! I'm getting pretty good at copy-catting.

Once it's dry - hang that baby up! Yep, go ahead. Make a nail hole and hang it up. Bless your family with some good ol' truth to read day after day. I know I need this reminder! Oh how our hearts need reminding!

The lighting in my front room is very low in the evenings, but, you can get the point. Someday I'd love to set this on a shelf with some greenery next to it. But for now, it's hanging out on the wall behind my reading chair and it's a pretty addition to the room.

That's it! Super easy, affordable, and pretty. I paid $4.99 for two of these canvasses and had everything else on hand. Now what to do with the second canvas...

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to see what you come up with! Happy crafting!

Call me Flip Flop

Oh, it has been awhile on here, eh?
I'm working through some heavy thoughts lately and 50% of the time I feel like my head is on straight, I'm thinking biblically, trusting the Lord, etc. but then the other 50% of the time I'm like an indecisive, mopey monster. That's where I am right now. To be honest, I feel that I've been here for a year now. It comes and goes... my heart and mind arguing and feeling all flip flop. Because I'm a woman and most of my readers are too, I assume I'm not alone in this. We aren't alone. So I'll share today some of my common struggle and we can encourage one another.

Since becoming a wife and mother I seriously DO dream of a simple, satisfying, uncomplicated life. Ha! Writing that out sounds absurd so let me explain.
I, want to honor my husband.
I, want to do special things here and there to show love to him.
I, want to raise my children to respect and love.
I, want to be a fun mom.
I, want to bless my family with all the homemade memories. 
I, want to have a beautiful and comfortable home.
I, don't want to hassle with chore charts and arguments.
I, DESIRE comfort and beauty.

But, sin. It's everywhere. It's my marriage and rears its ugly head through selfishness and pride and anger. It's in my parenting as I seek my own way, answer harshly, or give in too easily. It's in my home as I often find myself lacking contentment for what we have (so much, too!) and pining for the newest, prettiest, whatever. (or in my case, the chippiest, shabbiest, antique) Sin, it's in our world and it affects everything. My family is not excluded. So I have all these desires and ambitions to be a blessing, to seek the Lord and just ooze Jesus in my home - but I get in my own way, quenching the spirit, letting pride ruin things and discontent sour my joy.

Some days I wake up and think - "this is it!". We are going to be grateful, eat what we have in the house, create beauty in our spaces with things we own, etc. But then 11:30 rolls around and in lieu of homemade soup I just want Chick-fil-a, a starbucks and that new bookshelf from Pottery Barn. I loose steam. I forget that God is good, all in a few hours. Because being frugal and wise with money is HARD and shall I even admit that sometimes I get WEARY of it. As if having more would make life easier. Newsflash: it doesn't.

So, I went to bed last night and as I lay there waiting for sleep to come I was literally flip flopping between two schools of thought:

1- I look forward to opportunities to be frugal. Grocery shopping, looking for deals and ways to stretch a buck intrigues me and challenges me. It's good! I've gotten really good at patching holes in kids clothes and watching the Lord blow us out of the water with his provisions in all things. I love this school of thought and I love being in it. I thought through budget meals and how we could cut out this and that to free up more money, reviewed in my mind the trip earlier that day to Goodwill where I found a beautiful Banana Republic sweater for $1.49! Yea baby! Frugal living, I love it! Bring on the challenge! Let's rock this budget.

But then. Almost simultaneously.

2 - I am SO tired of driving ALLLL that way to Aldi. I'm weary of pasta meals and generic diapers. Would it be SO bad to just have a descent new car? Will we ever be out from under these student loans? How long is seminary again? I hate the challenges of budget living, I want freedom, I want more. Stuff, stuff, stuff. Seems like all we do is pay bills. No vacations. No date nights. Blah.

I'm thankful that Lord is quick to draw to my attention His faithfulness in our lives. How he cares and loves and provides. He gives us work! He shelters us with a roof. We aren't promised and don't deserve more. And really it's not even just money that gets me all flip-floppity. It's most things: raising kids, keeping a home, who I am three kids later, what I like, etc.
The Lord is doing a work in my life and I have much to learn. For now, I give thanks! In all things give thanks, my friends. Fellow budget masters: You are loved! Moms feeling like failures, you are loved! Indecisive homemakers, you are loved.

Dining room re-do!

Drum roll please. No, I'm kidding. It's not that exciting... but I am thrilled to FINALLY be 99% done with our dining room redo. This post has the potential to be a picture overload - so if you are up for it, join me. :)

When we moved to 1st street in October 2013 it was such a blessing to be in a home that for the most part was move-in ready. The previous owners did a great job with paint color choices and stayed with neutrals. Although there weren't many updates - it was at least done, no unfinished anythings. Even our basement has a half completely finished side, which I am so thankful for! But, the paint for some reason which I do not understand - is all flat. At first it was fine, but now that we've been in here going on 2 years this fall... the flat paint has absorbed nine trillion fingerprints and started looking gross. I repainted the kitchen a few months back and now it was the dining rooms turn.

I can't find a great before picture to share. But, just imagine fingerprints on flat painted walls and random whatevers hanging up just to make the room feel like home. :)

Ready?

This little girl is my right hand man. She loves, loves, loves helping me with my projects and I think that for a 3 year old she does a pretty great job! It's important to me to try and include my girls in our household processes. They get opportunities to learn life skills and it keeps hands busy. August helped me out for a solid 40 minutes before deciding playing with her dolls would be more exciting.

Progress!

See the difference here. I chose a few shades darker because 1) it hides more 2) the light gray seemed a little too light/white for us. The room took me an entire afternoon to finish painting. I think I ended up doing just two coats - thanks to Behr paint. It's the only kind I use and it covers anything! The color was called Anonymous. Oooh how mysterious.

Finally, finally, after barricading a baby and really getting into it - I got it all painted. Some decor is up, the hutch is moved in! If you missed the story on the midcentury piece you can read that here.

I made these earlier in the year with some salvation army frames, burlap and antique silverware. Super easy, fairly inexpensive and just what I wanted but couldn't find in stores!

There's just have one more wall that I cannot decide on.

The room is small so I don't want to fill up the walls too much and make it seem smaller. But, I also don't want to leave a big ol' blank wall. I have two white shutters that I'm considering hanging up with some kind of wreath. I dunno. For now it's just the pretty dark gray paint. :) I also need to make some curtains - for the window AND our deck doors. But, that's another day.

My favorite part of the room right now is the mini-plate wall. Eventually, over time, I'll keep adding the small plates - a new collection I suppose. Here's what I did for that.

First, recruit your cute and extra helpful middle child. Have her lay out the pop tabs. I used those for hangers on the plates. Hot glue + tabs = cheap hardware!

As far as plates go. You could really use whatever your taste is. I have been collecting them from Goodwill, Salvation army, homegoods, etc. Any time I see an inexpensive little white-ish plate I snag it. I'm also including one from my grandma's china :) Wash the plates and dry them well so the glue sticks better. 

Check the backs of your plates. Some of them are made in really cool places. :)
You can look up these companies online, it's actually really neat.

Once you glue the tabs on, let it dry a few minutes. Then go nuts! I chose a circular layout for now - but will add to it over time and probably just go abstract in the shaping. LOVE how it turned out.

And that's a wrap for now! New paint, new furniture piece, new decoration.  I'm thankful for this home the Lord has given us and the opportunity to create beauty within our walls. Here's to a summer of hospitality and many nights as a family around our well loved table. :)

Blessings friends! Thanks for joining me today!

Midcentury shabby should be a thing.

Happy Friday morning, friends! Another week is in the books and you, like me, are probably ready for a good weekend.

I've been busy around here as April has turned into project month. :) So I'll jump right into sharing what I've been up to. First up: Mid Century Hutch redo.

A few weeks back I found this beauty on Craigslist for $20! It was in worse shape then the ad showed, but it still had descent bones about it. I'm not a huge mid-century fan - I think the pointy legs are weird and all the glossy-weird-70's things kinda creep me out. But, I'm a fan of low-cost projects that I can make into whatever I want. So, much to the chagrin of the people I surveyed for ideas... I decided to paint it.

Here is a before picture and some progress shots.

I sanded it down, removed the legs, got it cleaned up as well as it could be, discovered that the back was a pressed wood board that is crumbling in places {awesome}, sat down and drank another cup of coffee.

First few coats on!

The legs were pretty nicked up so I decided to go ahead and paint them to. Rust-Oleum makes some awesome metallic sprays and I use this bronze color on many things. I thought it would compliment the white paint and it did! 

Spray painted the legs a pretty bronze color

Once the legs were done and the hutch's paint was dry I moved it back so I could see what I was working with. Then I roughed it up with some sandpaper. :) The back of the hutch is this pressed wood - glorified cardboard material that would NOT hold paint. I even tried to sand the crumbling mess. So, plan B was to paint a layer of glue and add some burlap backing to it. Seemed easy enough, and burlap is pretty cheap. I already have several burlap pieces laying around, so it works.

Attached legs and moved in doors

Measuring for the burlap

Burlap applied!

Once the glue dried I was able to start playing around with what will go inside. I have my grandmothers china - that's the final step to this project. It'll be added in eventually, but for now I'm just testing it out with some odds and ends I have. I'm so happy I painted it and roughed it up. Shabby works in our dining room!

I think Mid Century shabby should be a "thing". For $20 and a little more for paint - it works! Project 1 - done! Three to go :)

'Twas the weekend before Florida.

In just 2 days we are flying down to sunny Florida! We are all feeling that buzz of excitment, and to be real, I'm feeling the drain of trying to get every-single-little-thing done before we go. My hubby is slammed with seminary homework and is preaching Sunday morning, and I've had more laundry to do this week then any other time I can remember. But we keep reminding each other... "Florida". Keep pushing through.

Tonight I had a few minutes to hop on here and give a quick life update. We are all doing fine, I should let you know. I just genuinely cannot figure out how or when to do more updates and posts yet. I'm also lacking a computer (unless my hubby is home with his), so yea, that's where we are now.

Did you catch my last post on All Things with Purpose? We hosted a Good Friday soup dinner here in our home and it was such a great time. Click here to catch up on that news. 
Next month I'm planning to reveal a BIG project that will start post-Florida - a plate wall in the newly (to be) painted dining room! So that's exciting.

The biggest girl is losing teeth and growing up and making me feel old. She finishes kindergarten in one month. One month. Don't even ask me where this year has gone! We have really enjoyed watching her mature and grow in her knowledge. She LOVES to read now, is learning all kinds of new fun facts and came home today telling me she was going to go make a "Venn diagram". Don't worry, I wasn't sure what that was at first either. This whole first year of school thing ended up going so well and SO much better then I had pictured up in my mind. Knowing how much she loves to learn I think I have my summer challenge cut out for me. Sitting around and playing still happens, but this girl likes to keep her hands busy. I love her.

My two littles have two goals every day: 1) Be as cute and cuddly adorable as possible and 2) Destroy every clean surface in the home the moment I walk out of a room.
I.can't.even.

So it's toys and sticker books and puzzles and games and books and dollies and blankets and teething toys and any other random thing... all day long. I love them. I love this life. Sometimes I don't even notice all the mess, but then other times it's enough to push me over the edge. August will be FOUR next month and loves to tell me this fact over and over. Break my heart! Jane, as you can see, is pulling her self up and into absolutely everything. It's a new world having three mobile children. I love it. And, can you even handle those baby thighs!??!? {sqeeeeeee}

As for me. Well, you know...
Even though life is busy and we are enjoying ministry and our children and our marriage, I still so often feel like I'm "blah". Baby weight to lose but no motivation to do so. House to organize and keep clean with no motivation to do so. I had hopes of having a small garden planted by now - but that's still on my list. Blah. Just blah. I cannot say I'm bored, but I will say I just feel blah. There are a zillion different thoughts in my brain all the time, I tire easily, I want to exercise and eat healthier but I'm pretty sure I'm addicted to sugar. Ha! And yes I see the cycle thank-you-very-much. Even my reading time and study of the Word feels a little...tired. And that's never the Word of God's fault, it lies with me. I'm thinking we just all need a break, good thing it's coming soon!

This week I had my hair done. But not just a cut - like a full on salon experience. I think I've been to a real professional salon twice since I've gotten married. It was awesome and I drank up every minute. When I walked in they gave me fruit infused water to sip while I waited. Before my cut I was given a stress relief neck and upper back massage with warm oil {seriously}, then taken to the paraffin dip for my hands. Now, I'm usually pretty satisfied with just that feeling of having my hair washed for me... can I ever go back to life without massages and paraffin? :) My stylist was sweet and chatty and it was wonderful to sit in that chair and get beautified for an hour. I'm not kidding about the hour - I had a lions mane full of hair that needed some major TLC. Now I'm enjoying a long bob and it's great! Isn't it a beautiful feeling to just feel pretty on the outside now and again? After this third baby I've been having some image issues - sometimes a hair cut helps. Simple as that.

So now it's Friday night. I have a little more laundry to do and there are some dishes in the sink - but, I'm thinking a night on the couch with a warm blanket, some cocoa and Netflix sounds WAY better.
Florida and 91 degree days are heading my way. Push through!

Spring! {amongst other things}

Another season passes and a new one begins. I got a bit spoiled here in Iowa with our 80 {yes, 80!} degree days for a few days. Reality settled back in and the cooler days just make us eager for those warmer temps!

It's a lazy day here and even now my eyes are heavy and making me feel like I need a nap. Still almost 10 months after my last baby was born I need/require/want SO much sleep! The dishwasher is swishing away, my hubby is reading and my two littlest are napping. It's a calm day and for that I am thankful. I feel like we are finally in a good groove and life feels normal now, like we always had three girls. Some new things are on my plate these days and I'm enjoying the added structure. Last month I joined up with the blog, All Things with Purpose, as a contributor. You can see that post here. It was great to jump back into blogging and share some of what's going on in my home! I'm currently working on the next "edition" which will be mostly about hospitality and Good Friday. My fave. :) I'll be sharing something on that site on the first Monday of each month, join me!

In T-minus a few weeks we are heading to Florida to attend The Gospel Coalition in Orlando. Alone. Without kids. Woot Woot! While a big chunk of my heart always, always, aches to leave my babies... the other bigger chunk does a happy dance just thinking about time alone with my beloved guy and some awesome teaching at this conference. Plus, Grandpa and Grandma have a pool - I'm sure my girls will love that bonus time with them! But anyway, yes, I'm so excited for our trip and I'm thrilled as I looked over the 84 names that will be teaching and preaching and leading workshops. I'm sure it'll feel like we are drinking from a fire hose, but I need it. And I need some sun.

Speaking of my children. Ah, I love them. At 6, 3, and 9 months we are loving these ages.
Jane is now crawling and getting into anything she can find. I love this baby! She says Mama and Dada and adores us. She also loves her sisters, it's beautiful. We are so thankful for this easy going, precious, little baby girl.

Ava and August are treasures as well. Ava is quite the reader and is constantly making her own books. I remember doing the same thing, it's cute. August is our peace-loving middle child who just dances and primps her life away. All three girls are so different and we really enjoying our days with them. Gifts!

Projects. A friend of mine sent me a note a few months back that said something along the lines of how she didn't know how I did all my little projects with three kids. After I laughed out loud and reminded her how sometimes social media makes reality a little more... pretty, I just told her it's a little at a time. My current projects list is extensive and ranging from upstairs to the basement and now to our back yard/deck. I'm in WAY over my head but that's one of the blessings of being a homemaker and keeping busy. By the end of spring I hope to have:

- Deck power washed and restained

- New mulch down in all the flower beds

- Small raised salad garden planted (???)

- Finish master bathroom painting that I started in January ;) 

- Plan and organize and MASSIVE yard sale

- Paint the dining room hang up my wall of plates. Eeeee! 

- Paint a small desk in my bedroom

- Make dining room curtains from sheets. Pinterest better be legit on that! 

- Create a REAL laundry room space in the unfinished side of the basement. 

- Find a free or cheap hutch. Paint it. (dining room project)

There is always something to be done and with summer approaching I'm hoping for an energy surge and lots of days to throw open the windows and get busy.

I hope all is well where you are. I'm hoping to hop on here again tomorrow and do a quick post about the yard and some BIG plans I have for our outside space, and a sneak peek at what I'm whipping up to bless our cell group on Good Friday. Join me!

Come.On.Spring.

Am I right? I mean, I'm all about treasuring each moment and enjoying the seasons... I even LOVE, LOVE winter time. But, the itch for spring is definitely here! This morning I woke up to the sound of birds and even now as I sit in the quiet of my TV room there are adorable little pudgy birds chirping away at our feeder outside. They are ready. We are ready. I'm pretending I didn't see this little sight from the Weather Channel. (Buzzkills!) Winter storm Thor... we don't like you.

 

But rather then belly ache, let's focus on something pretty instead. :) And speaking of birds earlier reminds me - Spring has arrived inside our home! Our deck might be ice coated but the interior is green and blossoming. Here's a peek at what I've been up to this weekend.

 

I'm feeling the warm breeze of spring already. {Sigh} But seriously, this was a fun time for me to go through what we already owned and fill in pieces with frugal buys. The little bird was found at the Dollar Tree! The bunting was cut from my old hymnal! I love cheap and free :) I will say, if you have any "fun money" stashed away Hobby Lobby has some awesome deals right now. I picked up the boxwood balls, some silk flowers and that cute round basket on my buffet this weekend. Super great prices and 40%! Also, Burlington Coat Factory of all places. I was really surprised at the aisles of clearance stuff that was in GREAT shape, and super cheap. Housewares were all marked WAY down.

So anyway. We are eager to put this cold February behind us and look forward to some sunny days.
I hope you are having a fantastic weekend! Enjoy your Saturday!

My Kitchen redo attempt.

There is one room in my home where I spend the most amount of time. My kitchen. I love being in the kitchen whether its to bake, create, brew coffee or chat with my hubby. It's my place. I'm not a super picky kind of woman - I don't really care much about having a fancy kitchen...but I will confess, that my strange green counters and finger-printy walls (from the last family that lived here) is kind of grossing me out. :) 

So, I'm taking on the task of doing what I can to kind of redo the kitchen for as cheap as possible without any major renovations. For me this means - paint. So my pale, finger-printy, scuffed up, tan kitchen walls will very soon take on the shade stone brown. I saw it at Home Depot and just loved it right away - so warm.

 

My husband and 5 year old leave for camp tomorrow and will be gone for a week - my goal is to have it done before they get home. Here are some before pics:

See that white patch? I fixed a hole all by myself! :)

THE most finger printed wall I have ever seen. Who chooses flat tan paint for a kitchen?!

For now, paint will do. We can't do anything about the green counters or the retro oven...but nice walls will for sure help :) And an idea pic of what will go on those walls once done. :) Thank you Pinterest!

For the wall by the pantry (that has the white patch) - thinking of this idea, on a smaller scale. I love the mini clips that let you change out pics, and that it's BURLAP behind it. My kitchen valance is made from burlap.

 

We'll see how much gets done with a 6 week old and 3 year old :) 

May 30, 2014 {Thoughts}

Well, my due date is looming in front of me... 5 days. I've been "checked" for the last several appointments and remain at a 1cm. So, if I don't go into labor before - Tuesday I have a non stress test and ultrasound to check on baby. While I haven't taken too many pics of this belly, here's one from 2 weeks ago - roughly 37ish weeks. And I laugh at the poor, poor, quality of my little ol' cell phones pics :) But you get the point.

In the meantime we have:
-Ava's 1st dentist appointment
-a ballet rehearsal and recital the next two nights in the next town over
-one more graduation open house
And...
An entire week of Vacation Bible School at church, of which my husband plays a large role. :)

It makes my head spin and sorta dread when my girls are older and get into sports and activities. I am a homebody through and through. But for this moment today, I'm sipping my coffee, enjoying my young children and waiting for a baby to come. May ends this weekend and then life changes for us. A new season, in many ways.

Despite my elephant ankles and restlessness I have gotten a few house projects done. Though my list goes on and on and on. We ripped down some wallpaper on the basement stairs and were pleasantly surprised to find GRAY paint underneath :) I've been working on our finished side down there and finally got my dresser painted and curtains made to hide the "laundry side". I'm planning to paint the walls green :) GREEN! Everything down there is cream and bland, so it's getting a makeover. In time. The dresser was FREE and given to us about 5 years ago - I spray painted it white and spray painted the pulls metallic bronze. It's now perfect for crafts of all sorts for the girls :) {Also, may make a great place to stop and fold laundry... until I get my vignette up above it}

The curtains were super easy and I whipped them up on a saturday morning :) I bought the material and made them, then realized we had about 5 inches on the bottom...too short. So I grabbed my extra burlap and extended them. LOVE how it turned out.

Life rolls on and we are eager to meet our #3 girl! Especially these two, who, now that they share a room are enjoying the pleasures of all things 6am. {Sigh}

I'm here, I'm fine, I'm... very pregnant.

Would you believe that for this entire pregnancy I have taken maybe 4 pictures of myself? 4? I documented so well the growth of the belly with my last two babes, yet somehow baby this time is just not getting the picture time. I'm seeing more and more how all those sayings about "Third borns" are true. :) Hopefully we'll remember to take one at the hospital before go-time.

I'm 35 weeks and the finish line is in sight! It's beyond crazy to me that we are already to May and that in just a few short weeks baby will be here in our arms (Lord willing!).
We still have some projects to finish up:
-Purchase bunk beds and move August in with big sis
-Purchase additional mattress for said bunk bed
-Fix up the beat up crib and move it back to highest position
-Move the girls newly painted shared dresser to their shared room
-Take a hospital tour. We are delivering at a new hospital and I'm a bit nervous.
-Order the new pump...really hoping insurance goes a long way for this item!
-Paint the nursery? I SO want this to happen, but when?!
-Plan and celebrate Auggie's THIRD birthday!!!!

Pregnancy wise I feel GREAT just pretty tired all the time. My husband is awesome and has been the picture perfect patient, loving, and errand running kind of daddy to be (again). I'm so thankful for him and the 10pm run to the grocery for pre-cut watermelon, ice cream bars and coke lately. :) He's the best and I'm severely thankful. Even when day after day after day he comes home to a less then tidy house... what a treasure.
I've been having days, full days, where I have contractions all day off and on and no position changes or water drinks stop them. No one seems concerned and then the day after they are gone again. I'm curious to see what my dr says next week at my 36 week appointment. I'm also curious if I'll have another due date baby, go late like daughter #1 or... will we have a surprise EARLY girl? I love pregnancy but I'm starting to think a late May babe might be ok too. :)

Today I used up my Target coupons to stock up on diapers - and because I'm pretty random and love trying everything, I got one of every package... some pampers, some Huggies and a package of UP & Up for down the road. My mini-stock pile seems a little more hopeful now. The Lord has provided for us in HUGE ways with this baby by means of people giving us their gently used stuff, it's amazing. We now have a plug in swing, new travel system, bouncers, clothes, exersaucer. etc. There are just a few "must buy" items left! :)

Life wise... we are doing fine. It's the end of the student ministry year and we are full steam ahead with banquets, sr trips, open houses, graduations and normal end of the season stuff. As much as we love our youth staff and teens - I think everyone is ready for a beak in routine, not to mention some summer weather!

I've been so hit and miss around the ol' blog and I can be sure it will stay like that for awhile. But, I'm here, I'm fine, I'm very pregnant. :)

Raising girls. Why I love it and am 100% sure God knew exactly what He was doing.

Previewing our Easter dresses

My girls. 5 and 2 (almost 3!) and truly one of the biggest joys of my day each day. Sure it's hard work, long hours, and ridiculous arguments about hair do's, bedtimes, and eating healthy... but it's a wonderful blessing in my life to raise these ladies.  This afternoon while I watched them dance and play in the front yard - it dawned on me how obviously in control and intentional God is in my life. While I do really know this on a day to day basis... watching my girls was like a thunder clap to my senses in what I believe about God. 

- I love girly girl stuff. Dresses, hair bows, baby dolls and painted nails. Bring it on! 

- Princess movies, dress up gowns and the general color PINK. Still some of my favorite things :)

- A strong dislike of cleaning the bathrooms. While my girls are not without their "messes", after chatting with mom's of boys, I'm positive I would not fare well with the messes I hear about from the other gender. Pos-i-tive. 

- Girl pretend. There is something amazing to me about watching my daughters pretend to be momma's - that nurturing, gentleness they display with dolls or sticks wrapped in blankets to be dolls blows my mind. It's inborn and it's so precious to me. 

And maybe it sounds silly to even bring God into that, but then again maybe not. He so intimately knows me...before I was even formed, to know what I needed to grow and flourish. And one of the big answers is = girls! Even when I feel my inadequacy and insecurities creep in... He knows. He provides the wisdom and strength. Good stuff. 

And while not totally on topic - though I can weave it in... 

I love that my girls really truly appreciate it when I try to be Susie homemaker :) This week I tried my hand at some place mat pillows to spruce up the sitting room. They made me feel like a rock star and couldn't believe mommy could turn a place mat into a pillow!  While they aren't totally finished... they were easy, quick and I love 'em!

Quick tutorial:

Pick up some place mats, I found a package of 4 at TJ maxx for under $10.

Rip the seams open large enough for a hand full of fluff to go through. Fill with the fluff, remembering to get corners fluffed as well. I found the fluff at Joann Fabric with a 50% coupon. And it ended up being on sale anyway for $6 or less.

Rip off the tags, and once you have your desired level of fluff, you just pin it together and resew them shut. That's what I'm waiting to do now - once I dig out my sewing machine from our pit of a basement :) So, 4 brand new, adorable throw pillows for $15 or less - I'll take it! They run for about $15 per pillow to buy premade at TJ Maxx. I'm excited to get them done. 

And lastly, I promise, I may be strange to admit this - but I so enjoy doing laundry. It's one of my fave household chores and prepping for baby girl THREE and getting her clothes ready has me just about giddy. Last week I tackled a pile of badly stained outfits and (AMAZINGLY) all the stains are gone, they've been washed, folded and tucked into the nursery in waiting. Have I mentioned how much I adore baby girl clothes?! And how Oxi clean is a miracle worker?

Thankful for all these things today!