We need a break...

Aren't you glad that next week is Spring break? I sure am! We are at such a busy time in our lives. Here's a breakdown of our typical week. I know you probably don't care but I just want to write it down so years from now, I can remember all that we used to do! Now remember, Emma & Dougie attend a school that is about 30 minutes away and all of their extra curricular activities are either at school or in that general vicinity. Hold your horses.....

Monday- Emma has track until 4:30. The boys & I usually go to the park until she's done. Dougie has baseball practice from 6:15-7:30 and Emma has Social from 7:15-8:15.

Tuesday- Emma- track til 4:30. Emma's been involved in a youth girls Bible study from 6:3-8.
Wednesday- church

Thursday- Emma- track til 4:30. Dougie has baseball practice from 5-6:30

Friday- NOTHING, unless it's rained during the week & they reschedule ball practice. ugghhh! Whew! It doesn't look that bad when you see it written down but when you factor in cooking supper, a 4 yr. old and a (almost) 2yr. old, it can get a little crazy.

This past Thursday, Emma had her 1st track meet and it was an hour and a half away! But it was worth it. She did pretty good. The one event that she does that amazes me is the hurdles! I can't hardly believe my baby girl is jumping those gates. She cleared them all! I'm still without a camera so I didn't get any pictures. Her next meet will be after Spring Break, so hopefully, I'll get some then.

Thankfully, we'll get a much needed break next week.
Love y'all dearly!

A 1st for me....

I've never been a crafty person and I'm certainly not artistic, so what I'm about to share is waaaay out of my comfort zone. If you've spent anytime looking at any home decorating blogs, you'll see that decorative signs are everywhere. And lots of very talented people make them and they look so cute in their homes. So it got me to thinking, I wonder if I could make one? When we moved into our home, the previous owners left a bunch of wood in the shed. I sorted through and found one that would be a good size. Then I began thinking about what I wanted to put on the sign. I wanted something Spring or Easter related. I decided to use "He makes all things new." because it describes what happens at Spring and what Jesus did for us at Easter.

The first thing I did was paint the board with white paint. The paint was some that we had already. It's a basic white paint that you would use on the trim in your house. I did a couple of coats.(no picture)
I knew I wanted the letters to be green, so I used an acrylic paint, "green grass."


Next is when I had to get creative. I don't have one of those neat vinyl cutting machines to cut out the words but I knew I needed something to stick to the wood so I could paint over it but be simple to remove. I definitely didn't want the 'stenciled' look. So I created the phrase in a font that I liked on my computer and then printed it out on contact paper. I then had to cut out every.single.letter.by.hand. Oh my, it was a little trying.
Then I placed the words on the board.


You can see that some of the letters are black and some are white. That's because the ink never completely dries on the contact paper. I looked like I'd been finger printed by the time I finished getting the letters on. I ended up taking a wet paper towel and wiping the ink off the letters once they were in place. I didn't want it to mix with the paint.
Next, I painted it again with the white paint. I was gentle around the letters because I didn't want them to come off. (no picture) It took a couple of coats.
When it was dry, I couldn't wait to pull the letters off and see what it looked like.



As you can see, the paint bled underneath the contact paper. Which is ok with me. #1 I'm not a perfectionist and #2 I like that it gives it a little character. You can definitely tell it's homemade and I'm ok with that. And I also knew that I wasn't done.

The next thing I did was to "age" it a little bit. I took some wood stain, again, I used what we had in the shed. I'm glad I practiced on the back first! I used a rag to wipe the stain on and then used a WET paper towel to wipe it off. If the paper towel's not wet, it leaves too much stain. Trust me, I know! Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step.
The last step was to sand it. I used 80 grit sand paper and was surprised at the amount of sanding it took to get the look that I wanted.


The finished product~

When I get my mantel all decorated for Spring, I'll show you.

Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." Revelation 21:5

Love y'all dearly!



I'm linking up to:

The Circus

A couple of weeks ago we took Caleb & Asher to the circus. This was the 1st time they'd ever been. Caleb was so excited. We didn't tell him that we were going until we were in the car on the way to the arena.

This is the only picture I have and I took it with my phone. I left my camera at my SIL's a few weeks ago & haven't gotten it back yet. We bought a disposable camera (yes, they still make them!)& took more pictures but who knows when I'll get them developed.
Asher wasn't really into the circus, he would watch some things. He was more interested in flirting with the little girl sitting in front of us who was sharing her popcorn with him!
Caleb, on the other hand, enjoyed most of it. There were a couple of times when he was bored but to be honest, I was too! He really enjoyed the clowns and really got their humor. In fact, that was his favorite part.
The funniest part of the night was towards the end of the show. The ringmaster/magician put his assistant inside one of the lion cages, locked the cage and covered it with a cape. He did his magic and when he pulled the cape off the cage, the lady was gone and a lion was in the cage. We all clapped and cheered. Caleb watched as they began to roll the cage, with lion in it, off the stage. He looked and me, all worried, and began yelling, "They gotta turn her back! Aren't they gonna turn her back?!?"

Overall, we had a great night. The only thing that would've made it better is if Emma & Dougie could've been with us.

Love y'all!

I'm-a baaack!

If you have any form of Super Mario in your home, you've no doubt heard Luigi say,,"I'm-a baaack." Since Santa brought our Wii for Christmas, it was not long after New Year's that Asher picked up that phrase. He would just randomly say it, and we would all laugh and get a big kick out of it.
Well, today, Asher turned a corner.
This morning, Caleb was playing Mario in the Wii room (formerly known as Prince I mean, the formal living room.) He yells (as he does a 100x day), "Mom, Asher's pushing the buttons on the Wii TV!" So Steven walks in there to find out what's going on. He sees Asher trying to reach the other Wii remote that's on top of the tv. Caleb tells Steven that the batteries are dead in that remote, to which Steven realizes is the perfect solution. Asher can hold the remote, think he's playing and it won't mess up Caleb's game. As soon as his Daddy hands him the remote, Asher, triumphantly stands by Caleb, looks at his brother and yells, "I'm-a baaaack!"

Love y'all dearly!!!!