color therapy

 i love color!! when shopping for our house my husband and i dreamed of all the colors that we'd like to paint in all the different rooms. when we found this house we were sooo excited that it was painted in all different good, coordinating colors. not colors we'd choose but nice ones. a lot of the colors have stayed as is, however, the downstairs family room was a very strange wood panelling. strange as in "hunt-the-deer-and-quail" themed scenery on it. we took it down only to reveal more dark brown wood grain panelling.
 "enough!" i said, "i'm just painting it!" and off we went to choose colors.
 originally this room was a playroom and we wanted it to feel like fun. not too stimulating but not too calming. with a that in mind my husband and i choose a granny smith apple green for two walls, a deep aqua blue for the other 2 walls and a peachy orange on all the trim. this did not make the play room feel fun and playful as we hoped. instead it felt more like an ice cream parlor at the beach. it didn't bother me but my husband would not enter the room at all. he said the colors "bothered" him.
 currently the room has been turned into a family room. we scored an old couch, found clean and free, on some one's front porch, a chaise lounge, free from a friend who was getting rid of it, and a reclining chair, again free, just off the side walk at another friends house. no shame here - i love usable and free =D
 the next color we choose was orange. good friends of ours  have a really wonderfully painted office of orange with navy blue trim. it looks fabulous and i feel cheerful whenever in it. little did i know that my husband was excited about the orange because he though we'd be moving into a more hockey themed room. more specifically? a philadelphia flyer's themed family room. no joke - he had another think coming! we really liked the orange and it tied nicely into the fireplace as it has a bit of orange in the stone. can you hear the big but coming? it was a very stimulating color - great for an office, not so great to relax and watch movies in, which is what we do the most in this room now.
 sticking with the theme of free, a friend of ours had two gallons of a pretty blue paint that i'm calling "periwinkle pause" and they didn't have plans to use it. last week i painted the trim and two walls this color - i love it! i do have plans on painting the rest of the room but being a busy momma, i can only do so much at once. the color feels calm and it's a nice feeling. the room does seems dark but i have big plans on brightening it up by recovering all the old mismatched furniture. ( a tutorial may be in the feature =D )
 it feels a little like we moved out of an orange traffic cone and into the sky :) here's the color difference:

so what do think? are you emotionally effected by color? when you think about painting a room, do you consider what you'll be doing in that room first?
thanks so much for reading a spending a little time in our neck of the woods :)

don't let me down mommy!

 this past winter i took care of a friends 8 month old daughter. she was a sweet heart and a gem to take care of. mikey was also a sweet heart and a gem to this little lady. gracie on the other hand started hoarding away her toys, and staking her claim on mommy whenever baby was too near me. i understood all of this and expected nothing less.
 i encouraged gracie first, to get to know this knew small friend, asking her where was baby's toes? mouth? ears? how many fingers does baby have? gracie started to introduce baby to some of her toys and eventually took an invested interest in baby's well being. she wanting to feed baby her bottles and baby-food, even wanted to change baby when she was stinky. don't worry, i didn't let her do much of the latter - although she was very helpful in handing me wipes while baby was working on her squirming skills.
 sometimes i would walk into another room, to find a pacifier, grab the wipes or find a bottle, only for a moment and always within, ear and often eye shot. funny thing is that when i stepped away i was first concerned for baby, wondering if being in a different environment without the bigger of the three familiar faces, she might get upset and cry. not so. instead it was gracie who came looking for me. once found, and often en route back to them, she would say, "i was wondering where you are mommy?" with question and relief in her voice.
 our house is a bi level and our living spaces are up stairs but the family room/play room is down stairs. gracie goes up and down the steps quite well, baby however, did not. when transitioning from one level to the next, gracie was suddenly unable to use the stairs. my gut instinct was to put my foot down and make her be the big girl that is was and just hold my hand while i held baby. quite honestly the fit she threw was not worth her heart ache or mine (call me a softy - i don't care). so i carried her down too, taking turns with her and baby. when baby was safely in which ever room, baby gate secured, i'd go back for gracie. here's the thing, while walking down the steps, holding me ever so tightly, she'd whisper in my ear, "don't let me down mommy."
 i knew that what she meant was, once we got downstairs please continue to hold me, but what i felt in my heart resonated through my being.
 don't let me down mommy. that's a really big thing to whisper into a mommy's ear. piggy back that new comment onto 'i was wondering where you are mommy," and good morning - holy wake up call - if ever i needed one!!
 i pray that my kiddos never have to wonder where i am, what i would think about any given situation and know full well, that no matter what, where, why & when, i will always love them.  i know their will be plenty of times, more then i wish to think on, that i will let them down. i pray that it is God that i don't let down, knowing full well that raising them up for Him, is doing my best to not let them down. even now that taking care of baby is done (she's home with her daddy now - yaaaaaaay for both of them! ) and those comments have long stopped (soon after baby stopped coming over )  i still hear them resonate in my head, whenever i look deep into their eyes, sink deep into their hugs and watch quietly while they sleep.
 the charge to parent is a holy high calling. often i take it for granted, take them for granted. i know all too soon they will be out the door, living on their own and i'll probably be that mom crying my eyeballs out and wondering if i did right by them - through God. i'm sure i will make decisions that will baffle them, say things that just don't quite make sense. it is my prayer however, that those things come straight from the Holy Father. that one day they may look back and think, 'oooooh - i get it i now...' but if that never happens, i pray, that no matter what it looks like to the world, i do my very best to never let them down in the Lord.

craft much?

 okay, so i got the arts & crafts room cleaned up so much so, that i even crafted yesterday! come on, let's hear it - "yaaaaaaaay!"  their is still tons of organizing that i really need and want to do. it's gotta be put on hold though until i can really wrap my mind around the different "stations" we have, and what i'd like to have at each one.
 for instance, my 5 year old mikey has a drafting table = his station. the drafting table was given to us by dear friends and was a total score =D my 2 year old gracie, has a small toddler table = her station. the hubs has a great drafting table that he bought ages ago = his station. the desk i have was a free "pick" from the side of the road (again another score =D ) = my station.
 each person has a "station" or spot of their own and i'm so thankful for this! for each of us to have a place of our own, to just spread out and create?! just the thought of it excites me and fills me with gratitude!
 so each family member really likes to do different things. i don't feel that all the supplies need to be out all the time, but i like them to be accessible and easy to find. so i need to do some brain storming and think about: each personality and 1.) what each person would appreciate having at a ready 2.) what supplies can be stored away 3.) how best to store them for each family member 4.) keeping in mind different ages and capabilities.
 i wanted to share with you what i did to spruce up the floor. this was back in november 2011 but i thought it was pretty neat, what do you think? does your family like to do arts and crafts? do you do it all together and do you have a special place to be free to express yourself in this way? oh, and if anyone has any ideas on nice ways to store supplies for any ages and stages, feel free to toss them my way.

 

if for some reason the above link isn't working, please click the link below to see what i did to the arts and crafts room floor :)

http://youtu.be/rR6_QbyOg4g

thanks for reading and thanks for watching too! it was a joy to share with you :)

holy m.i.a. blogger batman!!

 hello blogging world and virtual memory scrap book! my, how the time has flown by since i last blogged! i guess this happens to best of us? ... anyone? anyone? so much has happened since my last blog post, and really nothing at all has happened either. if that makes any sense?
 the kids are still saying and doing super cute things and yes, i've been missing typing them all out here. i know i'm gonna forget all the cute/rad things they did for the past few months - shame on me!!
 last week gracie told me, "the star wars music is stuck in my hair." yes. hair. no typo. she really said hair. i had to ask her a few times to be sure i was hearing her correctly. "yes, gracie girl. it bugs me too when i have star wars music stuck in my hair," was my response.
 i'm gonna miss her when she's grown, or at least when she better understands "sayings." her most favorite thing for the past couple of weeks is being a cat. we're lucky to get any english or half human words from her lately. she does make a cute cat and i don't even have to clean out a litter box so she can stay cat-like for a little while.
 mikey is still "making movies." nope, he doesn't play "make believe" or "pretend." he makes movies complete with different scenes and soundtracks.  he still builds stealth fighters only now out of legos instead of wooden models. lately he enjoys running around the house "extroying" any bad guys that are "threatening" us ladies =D links (a character from a cross bow firing game he and my husband play ) is at our house everyday and we have to sing happy birthday to him pretty much every morning at breakfast. so far links hasn't asked for any breakfast of his own, so he can hang out all he wants.
 my creative outlet has spilled out of the blogging world and all over the house. i have been repainting old furniture that i find any where for cheep or free. i have big ideas and a small budget. thankfully i really enjoy a challenge =) i'm also very thankful for honest friends who tell me when their is just too much color happening in one room. i need someone to pull back on the harness 'cuz i just don't know how when it comes to walls and furniture.
 i did start to scrapbook a for real type of scrapbook/journal. i really, really, really  (did i say REALLY?) enjoy it! except... it's in our arts & crafts room which has become such a mess that i can't even reach it. we did a ton of running family members around for a month or so, so tons of my house work has fallen to the way side. another good thing is that i enjoy cleaning and organizing, so now my excuse for not yet straightening it up is because i'm building up the anticipation of it all ... did you buy that? can't blame a gal for tryin'. i really do miss and quite frankly need a creative outlet, so i'll be signing off for now and going to attempt to straighten up that room. perhaps my next blog post will be "how to fit an artsy, craftsy family of four into one smallish arts and crafts room comfortably"...i better go get to it.

getting a face lift

 "confessions" is getting a face lift! a long over due face lift at that. while my picture at the top of the blog was a cute one, it was very outdated! and while i'm stating the obvious, might i also add, it didn't fit the page?
 here's the thing, i really like to blog (even though i've been m.i.a. lately). i'd really like to make this a pretty place to store all these memories that i'm sure i will all too soon forget. but the truth of the matter is, i don't know how to, and quite frankly, i didn't really want to take the time to learn - until recently.
 so i'm asking for a little patience as i am a s-l-o-w learner when it comes to computer'ish type's of things. after all, we've only had a computer (actually this is a net book) and an internet connection for the past 2 1/2 yrs. yep, scardy-cat that i am, i've been afraid of the internet since 1994 - true story. perhaps i'll blog about that another time? so i am going to give "prettying-up the place" a try. any suggestions?
 i've been playing with piknic.com to make a photo collage for the above picture but as you can see, it's still doesn't quite fit the page. also, i'm still trying to figure out how to reply to comments so if it takes me a while to get back to ya, it's not that i don't want to - but only that i'm not too sure how - lol!! what a blogging mess i am!
 here's to hoping i'll be able to figure it all out - any extra tips in the comments section would be a wonderful welcome :) in the mean time, i'll probably get back to blogging a little more regular again even if the blog is in the middle of it's face lift - i won't mind the mess if you don't :)

my 4 yr. old reads and builds stealth fighters

 this summer, while walking through a parking garage, my son decided to read, for the very first time! (that we know of.) stopping inside to use the bathroom i missed the whole thing, of coarse. when i got in the car i could tell something good had happened. their was excitment and smiles on all the faces of my family, and the chatter was out of control!
 "what's going on?" i asked
 "mikey read the sign," my husband said as if to say 'duh!'
 "what?" i asked thinking i heard him wrong, mikey is only 4 1/2.
 "yep! he sounded out the sing "level 4" all by himself and asked me what it meant." declared the proud papa.
 "are you kidding me!?" i asked.
  hugh? imagine that! this must be a fluke i think silently to myself. we had been working on letter sounds for the past year, consonance mostly. i had hoped he'd read early but this seemed young.
 the next night while at the dinner table mikey says, "daddy your coke was free! "
 "no it wasn't, they were 12 for $4.99" i say wondering where in the world he got that idea.
 my husband sitting beside his boy, face lite like a Christmas tree, spun the can of cola around to face me.
 "it says free right here," mikey said as he pointed and proceeded with a phonics lesson.
 of coarse it does! an advertise on the back for an amusement park and a buy one get one free ticket.
 "he's reading!" i exclaim with much excitement. i couldn't believe my boy was reading! i still can't believe he's reading, small words mostly but i am such a proud momma!
 later that week at an art supply store i let him pick out a wooden model to paint and glue together with his dad. watching them put it together i decided to get him some early readers. my sister in law lived by the book store so i called her to see if she'd like to go with me.
 "did i tell you that mikey has started to read?" i ask her over the phone, watching my boys in the dinning room fuss over the model together.
 "oh yeah?" she's asked, "what's he doing now?"
without missing a beat, the words just flowing out of my mouth i say, "building a stealth fighter." we had a good laugh over that one, but yep, i'm a proud momma.

walking the balance beam

 when i was a little girl i had two nick names given me by my mom. onion and gracie. onion for reasons i'm not getting into right now ( i'm not even sure i know ). gracie because i was the one who would fall over nothing at all. i was, in fact, the cheerleader who tripped over the lines painted on the basketball court. true story... several times i'm afraid. even after about fifteen years of dance class i am still quite a putz.
 balance. it's not something i'm good at. it is something i am seeking, even to this day. several months ago i was given a beautiful new sewing machine *sigh* boy did it spawn creative juices!! along with my creative juices flowed a deep sense of guilt! (crazy - i know!) this guilt came from the thought that i was taking time out of my already very busy day of wife, momma and home maker, for myself. that i was hoarding away time = stealing moments for myself! *gasp*
 a few months have passed and i am realizing that what i need is to make time for myself, and that it's not only okay - it's good for me! 
  so this is the week! i am making a schedule and going to stick to it! i'll be blogging about it over at strivingforintention.blogspot.com.
 here is what i must remember: 1.) one day at a time 2.) one hour at a time 3.) it may take time for the schedule to fall into place 4.) it's worth time and effort for the whole family to follow a schedule, for it to be made and prayed over so that the schedule is also honoring God. so that i am reminding myself  that His schedule should be my schedule.
 even my husband was telling me that he'd like to have a schedule! i know that kids function better with a schedule. even i, one who doesn't like a schedule, functions better while on one! so where's the schedule?!? i'm making one tonight...and i'm kind of excited about it because i'm making sure that in that schedule i get time for myself to do what i want. that it could be sewing, knitting, paper crafting, painting - hey even napping if i want! no folding laundry or putting dishes away during my time though. i can't let that happen - lol!
 the cool thing about having a schedule is that i'll know for sure that i'm not taking time away from my family and house work. it will all be on the schedule, right there looking back at me whenever i start to feel guilty for taking time to do these things that i really enjoy. the things that really help charge me up.
 so that is my news. i know i haven't blogged in a while. my creative juices have been used up else where - in my new sewing/crafting room :) but i'll be making time for this too.
 look out balance beam i'm hoping on! ( i really hope the floor below is padded - lol! )