Spring Clean - Little One's Bathroom

I have been working on my Spring Cleaning, but have not been very diligent about posting my progress. So, I'll see what I can post throughout the day. I also have not been very good about taking before pictures. But, many of the rooms do not look that different from before.


Okay - so here is Little One's Bathroom. Here is what was accomplished:

• Hung his footprint/hand prints and a picture of him in his Daddy's arms when three days old. This is one of my favorites sets of pictures - as the hand and foot prints are a family tradition. My Grandmother has a set for everyone of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren hanging on her wall. When Little One was born, we made a lot of sets - as they are such great heirlooms. The picture has a piece of velum over it and has the following verse printed on it:

I Samuel 1:26-28
I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.
So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord. And she worshiped the Lord there.

Little One
6/4/06
1:29 AM
8 lbs 10 oz

This was given to us at Little One's baby dedication. And, you know, this verse was a verse that I prayed before I was married and so desired children. The family that gave it to us didn't know that - making this little picture more of a treasure. Back to the list...

• Cleaned and scrubbed bath, toilet, sink and mirror
• Washed all towels and rugs
• Put all the bath tub toys in the dishwasher
• Organized cupboard - Cleaned out medicine/first aid box
  
• Scrubbed floor
  

Here are pictures of the end result. Look how much room I have in the cupboard! Ha, it's not that empty any more. I found some other things to fill it with. :)

Like the library, but not really....

This morning Little One and I headed to this place for some fun. We spent the morning in the children's section and had a blast. There was a Thomas the Train track and trains for him to play with, along with a little stage that was so fun! This was a first time intro to the Thomas deal, and he thought it was super cool to let the little cars (one at a time) go down the little hills "very fast!" and scoot them through the "yunnels". We then explored the little stage for story time, and looked at lots of different books. I noticed that they have an official story time a couple times a week, which we'll have to check out.

Coming from a mom's point of view, I loved it because it was a whole lot less stressful than the library experience. There were no computers to distract him, and it was whole lot cleaner than a library. Now, don't get me wrong, I love libraries and we will definitely be patrons of our local one. However, in this stage, it is so frustrating to go to the library because Little One would much rather explore (ie find every kid-size computer and try to get them to work and then be frustrated because they don't and then dump all the puzzles out and move on to what ever else he can find - probably another computer) and he really cares very little about the actual books. Not to mention the whole voice-keep-it-to-a-whisper deal. Phew. Those are all good things, but we're not ready for all of that yet. I know this is just a season, and I figure if we make trips to B and N he'll get the idea of the books without all the distractions, and then we can graduate to the library and actually take the books home. Another part I liked, is seeing all the displays of children's books. It reminded me of books that will definitely go on our library list but the displays made making that list a whole lot easier. Going to the library you have to search the books down, and is very time consuming and next to impossible with a toddler at bay.

As far as the spending part goes, we didn't drop a dime today. Little One hasn't figured out that when you go to the store you can actually take the things home with you - it's just all for looking at. I love that! However, it did get Mom thinking about purchasing a Thomas the Train track in the future, and how it would be so easy and enjoyable to grab a cup of chai at the in-house Starbucks and enjoy it while he plays with the tracks. Not to mention all of the sections of books we had to walk through in order to get to the children's section. Don't worry, B and N - I am sure your generosity of the train track use will pay off in the long run. :)

Make New Friends

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18&19

This verse is one of those verses that keeps surfacing throughout the major experiences of my life. I recall holding on to it especially when my sweet husband came into my life after having years of singleness. I grasped it when my son was born and I transitioned from working full time to being a stay at home mother - and a new bride.(Little one was born exactly nine months after we were married.) And now, I cling to it as I am in new physical location - away from all that I know and love dearly. I love the encouragement my heart finds every time I read "forget the former things" and "I am doing a new thing!"

When I dropped Donna Rene off at the airport - I cried deep tears. The kind of tears that roll off your cheeks and fall down with a splatter - because they are coming from such a deep place within your heart and there is no chance in stopping them. In the hours that followed her departure, I have never ever felt so lonely. It's as if she poured into my very thirsty heart love and friendship - which I had no idea was so dry. What was I going to do now? I didn't have a friend here to call, and I just wanted a friend to be with.

As I sat in my lonely funk Tuesday morning, my phone rang. It was a local number - and I picked it up. On the other line was the director of a local MOPS program. I had contacted her months ago, and we have played phone tag since. Yesterday was the first time we talked - and it was the day I needed it most. She informed me that the next meeting was today - and that I should show up at 9:00. Then, an hour later, I received another phone call - another local number - it was the small group leader of the group I was going to be in. While talking to both of these ladies I heard "welcome friend!" and "I can't wait to meet you!" When I arrived this morning, I was greeted with hugs and introductions. Again, those deep tears came - and resurfaced throughout the morning.

I sat there listening to other moms talk about how hard it is to get everything done during nap, and how it's been hard to leave family and friends behind in another state, and how one lady keeps telling her husband that she needs to get GPS because she keeps getting lost! Oh, I am not alone! There are only three more meetings this spring, but I will go to those last three meetings and hopefully find some ladies to connect with during the summer.

And again, I hear the Lord say, "See, I am doing a new thing - Now it springs up do you not perceive it?"

I am reminded of the little song that we used to sing in Brownies:
Make new friends
Keep the old
Some are Silver and the other gold...

I am looking forward to the Silver and Gold I will find in this new place.

Made Me Smile...

Check out this post. It made me smile - and gave my heart a dose of encouragement. I hope it does the same for you.

Easter Weekend

I have no idea how to turn off this underline feature. Any tips or suggestions? I have spent about ten minutes trying to turn it off and give up.


I hope everyone had a great Easter! Ours was a tad different, but oh so good. Our friend Donna Rene came and visited. We had a great time. On Saturday we attempted to do an Easter Egg hunt with a local church we have been attending - however, we got there too late and the eggs were all gone. Instead, we explored the park. We then had lunch at one of our favorite places, and then proceeded to a new area of town that had a wonderful gelato (Italian Ice Cream) shop. Outside the gelato shop there was a park with rows of small stone walls. Daddy taught little one how to jump! Oh boy, was that fun! Here are some of the pictures from the day.



The wall Little One learned to jump from
Ready, set, jump!
Family picture in the park
Momma and Little One watching a clown make balloon animals
Eating Gelato! Mmmmm
Playing the xylophones in the park. Little one loved this!
So did Hubs and Donna Rene! :)
Little One's first time to wade in the water - He wasn't too sure what to think about it.


We played so hard on Saturday - that on Sunday we were pretty wiped out. The original plan was that Hubs was going to fry some chicken - and we were going to pack a picnic, head to church, and then see where we could spend an afternoon outdoors. Well, the clouds came in and it was about 30 degrees cooler and damp. Little One was running a slight temp and had a cough (which meant no church anyway) and it was really too cold for him to be outside. So we just had an indoor picnic and took it very easy. It was a really nice day.

Today Donna Rene, Little One and I met Hubs for lunch at a local bar-b-que joint and then we hit the Ikea store before Donna Rene caught her plane. We had so much fun. When I dropped her off at the airport I couldn't stop crying - I didn't realize how much I miss my friends!

But, on the bright side, we have a lot of company coming in the next month - my parents one week, my sister, and then another friend will be visiting. Knowing they will be here, all at different times, helps me tremendously this evening.

I know I haven't been too consistent with my posts - I have a lot I would like to write about this week and it looks like it's going to be a pretty mellow week - so hopefully my blog will be a little more interesting! :)


Have a great week!

Rebecca

A Productive Weekend... Spring Clean Dining Room and Backyard

Well, this is the room that I am most glad about finishing - and the room that needed it the most!We have never had a house with a formal dining room. And we don't use (not yet anyway) the one we have now. It is so much easier to eat at the kitchen table - so that's what we do. As a result, our formal dining room became our second garage serving as storage for all the boxes of stuff we didn't know what to do with or want to unpack. Yuck!

So this past weekend hubs and I tackled it together. I forgot to take a picture at the beginning - so you get to see mid-project. Yikes! I took three pictures - but I think one gets the point across.

Here is the finished product.




I apologize for lighting of the photos - I have tried everything I could think of so you could see the colors in the room, but it's just not working. My photography skills...are not. ;) I won't bore you with the list of things that got done. I think the proof is in the pictures!

This room literally took two days and two people to finish. However, it's done. You should have seen our trash pile for the garbage man this morning. I am sure he loved us. Because in addition to all the cardboard boxes that we emptied, there were also about 10 bags of grass. This is a picture of Hubs threatening the grass is now tackled. Look how tall it is!!




His "tackling" devise is the tool I planned to use to sweep and clean the patio while he mowed. :)
To see other's progress in Spring Cleaning - or to join in on the fun, check it out here.

Spring Clean - The Pantry

Sesame Street has become a really good friend of mine. I have tried to take out random TV watching out of our schedule - and one of the times that is alloted for TV watching is Sesame Street. That hour is a precious time for me - I become a busy bee! I owe a word of thanks to Sesame Street for entertaining my toddler and helping me accomplish my pantry cleaning in a timely and efficient mannor!

When we moved in I never really ordered the pantry. We just would get things and put them on the shelves. A couple of months of this madness and this is the result:

This is what I did during Sesame Street:
Took everything out
Washed down the shelves
Wiped down containers/storage bins
Swept
Put everything back in categories that make a little more sense!

Here is the end result:


Nothing to get too excited about - but it does bring a sense of completion to the kitchen.
Thanks Monica for the inspiration!