Pink Pink Pink

I love this picture so much!  I love my girls.  Down the road I can picture us ditching the guys, heading to Panera and having a shopping day together.  I am so thankful for the four lives God has given us.  Clay and I could not have picked these kids personalities and temperaments if we had tried. 

Pink! All three of us are wearing pink, not planned mind you. 

Last week was a hard one for me.  Clay was about to officially start OTC's nursing program and I was worried sick about it.  I'm not sure why exactly, he has already done three semesters of pre recs so I knew what was coming, homework at night and a very focused mentality.  But now that he has started I feel much better.  We are in the game and we are hunkered down! :)  I also think it might have been the weather.  Does anyone else with small kids at home feel a little stir crazy?  I looked up the first day of Spring, March 20!!  Farther off than I thought.  The kids really are troopers, but ALL DAY inside is wearing on me.  Today it was nice enough that they all went out for a bit and that was so nice.  Not just for me but for them too. 

With all this cabin fever and the season of life we are in my daily goals are: 

Be Kind
Be Love
Be Peace
Be Steady
Be Hopeful
Laundry
Play with kids
Dinner
Homeschool
(The kids nap time is party time!!! Well, if you consider coffee and toast, crochet, blog reading, and resting a party, I do.)  

Pretty cut and dry. :)  When I focus on these things our days flow more smoothly.   Winter doesn't last forever, and neither will my husband's schooling. 

Photo Credit to my Dear Sweet Husband, thank you!

New Bed

 Playing our new game, Enchanted Forest, for the first time.  Thank you Grandpa Max, we love it!

 This is the stuffed Russian Doll I made for Felicity. 

 Baby doll sling from Nana and Papa!

 This is Ellie Russian Doll!

 Ellie spelled "I love Mom."  She blesses me so much!

 Scary part in Pete's Dragon.  :)

 This is called being a boy!

 Brothers!!

 My Dad and Clay getting a lot done today. 

 Boaz is unwell, so it was a movie day.

 Watching Lone Ranger with his gun.

 This is the bed my Dad made for Athanasius.  This I got a free day bed and mattress for free off of craigslist.  I check the free section several times a day.  The mattress is nice but the more we looked at the bed frame is wasn't that strong.  Dad took the black metal part (it looks like a rectangular trampoline) and then added some 2x4 legs.  I LOVE all the storage under neath.  We got 14in. from the floor to the bottom of the bed. 

 Dad and Ellie found this little table at a junk store today! What a blessing!  Good things seem to gravitate to my Dad in flea markets. :)

She has already being creating in her new space.   Thank you so much Papa!!  

I am really thankful for my Dad visiting this weekend, both Clay and I are on the verge of being overwhelmed.  He officially starts nursing school on Monday, our finances and paper thin and it just seems like a lot is on our shoulders.  I hope we can do this.  We need to have more faith. 

Keep Pressing On

 Alphabet bean bags for Athanasius' Nativity present.  Talk about the project of wanting to give up! I started before Thanksgiving but they are done. 

 The boys were watching the S.t John Maximovitch documentary.  The kids love this documentary.  Clay and I do too, it brings some peace to your soul.   Clay and I were sitting in the stove room when I saw them on the table together, I grabbed the camera I want to remember this.

 I am trying to squeeze out time from my days and start an etsy shop.  This is a little girls purse I made, it is called the "Going on a Bear Hunt" purse. :)  

 Here are some earrings I made this weekend.   I wonder, can I do this?  Will anyone buy my stuff? Can I really keep up with this? 

Maybe it is just winter and the fact that I keep thinking about planting a garden, but I feel a little "eh".  Just keep moving forward I tell myself.  I think this is how you might feel if you were half way done building a house, tired and wanting to give up.  Of course we aren't building a house but Clay is in school.  He still has a year and a half left.  I'm a little tired.  But I know we can't quit.  I know this will bless our family down the road. But it is hard.   I keep telling myself what our Priest says so often, "Jesus loves you and is mindful of you."  Because when I say those words the weight of the world isn't quite so heavy and it's puts things in perspective.  It will all be okay. 

New Year

 Clay delivers bread to the health food stores in town.  This coconut was taken off the shelf and passed on to Clay.  When he scares me, like he is with that knife, I start taking pictures and that calms my soul.  :)

 About to pour the coconut water.

 Here is a real life picture of my kids watching The Magic School Bus FIRST thing in the morning.  This is not my ideal scenario but they wake up early and I like to be dressed and ready for my day so this is how I achieve that.   And I'm tired of fretting over it.  :)  This is just a season.

 Our little man who loves accessories.  He is getting geared up for the day, watch on the arm.

 Athanasius is learning to read, and is doing a great job!

 See that little yellow sticking out from Bo's sweater?  That is his K Nex sword, ready to grab at a moment's notice.

 Homemade play dough from Nana!

 I have always wanted to open an etsy shop so I made a couple little girl purses and then got self conscious and gave one to Ellie.

 This picture makes me laugh!  I look like I am in pain.  When Clay saw this he said, "You really can't take a selfie."  If you need a good laugh just look at my selfies.   Felicity looks just thrilled.

 These are some before pictures of me cleaning out our closet.  Our room doesn't normally look like this but it does when hurricane Brooke blows through.  I think it is a combination of watching Tiny House Nation and the new year, I really want to get rid of stuff.  Seriously?  How do I have this much stuff??  For those of you with little kids, I do not normally take on a project like when I am by myself with the kids.  But for some miracle I already had dinner made, the kids were getting along really well AND it was movie time.  So it just felt "right" to clean it out yesterday.  In the past I have done this knowing it wasn't "right" and regretted the decision later.  But this time it went smoothly and I am very thankful.  A project like this takes a lot of brain power for me, and usually is best when tackled alone.

 I posted these real life pictures so you could feel better about yours! :)

 This is what I got rid of.  The picture doesn't do it justice, these bags are pretty large in real life.

 Homemade bean bag, or storage if you are in a tiny home.

 These are the AFTER pictures!

 Felicity still sleeps in our room.  Her crib is a mini crib, 24x36in.  It works great for us right now.  The crib is in front of the bathroom door.  There is another door to the bathroom by the kitchen and staircase.  That other door that the rocking chair is in front of is the closet under the stairs.  It only has a couple radiator heaters.  I purposely have not filled it up with junk because in the past I have sat in there with the kids during some potential tornadoes. 

 Her clothes are in those containers.

 My goal was to get the pink dresser completely empty, I didn't achieve that this time.  But maybe next time!

 Our closet isn't huge but it does have some nice shelving above the hanging rod.

 This is a shoe organizer but I use it to hang scarves and store Clay's t shirts.  I just roll them up and put them where a shoe would go.

I wanted our closet to be more bare bones than it ended up being.  But I made some progress and that is what matters.  Just another baby step on the path I want to be on.  Now I feel like I can think and breath when I open our closet. 

Here's to another year of fighting the good fight and working out my salvation with fear and trembling.  The past two years have probably been the most difficult we have experienced as a family but there has been so much good that has from it.  Soul goodness.  Things we never would have learned without the tears.