Where I'll be this weekend

This afternoon we're headed off on the 6 hr drive to Minnesota to celebrate Kevin's sister Carri's birthday with the family. Since their house will already be full with Kevin's parents and grandma, we decided to camp! We weren't planning on getting in until late tonight, because of Kevin's work, so we are renting a small 2 bedroom cabin on the campgrounds. I'm super excited! We didn't even decide we were going until earlier this week and we really didn't think we'd make it to Minnesota until fall but here we are! It's fun to be spontaneous ya know!

Have a great weekend!

Peace be with you.

In the last couple months I've been doing a lot of word studies on well, words I need to study! I've been going through the fruits of the spirit, and looking through the concordance for all the verses on each word. I started with patience since that's something I need to focus on, to work on. And yesterday I covered peace. And digging up all those verses really did bring me peace. So I thought I'd pass them along. I know they're a lot, especially when it's just the narrow margins of my blog, but here they are anyway.

Galatians 5:22 "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

Job 22:21 “Submit to God and be at peace with him.”

Psalm 29:11 “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.”

Psalm 34:14 “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

Psalm 85:10 “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”

Psalm 119:165 “Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.”

Proverbs 14:30 “A heart at peace gives life to the body”

Isaiah 26:12 “Lord, you establish peace for us, all that we have accomplished you have done for us.”

Isaiah 32:17 “The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.”

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Romans 8:5-7 “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.”

Romans 14:16-19 “Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”

Colossians 3:5 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23-34 “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

2 Timothy 2:22 “Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Hebrews 12:14 “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

James 3:17-18 “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”

Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

A turning point.

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5:16

Yesterday I decided to quit spanking. Or at least for most of the time. Bear with me, I'm still trying to figure out a plan. God give me wisdom! All I know is this: I spank out of anger way too often. Well, doing it all is a sin. Anger in parenting is something I greatly struggle with. I just get sooo frustrated, especially when it's situations I don't really know how to handle. Usually we try to stay consistent by using a spanking for most everything--tantrums, disobedience, fussing, and angry actions--but now I want to change that. And I realized the other day I think my anger truly scares Eli when it comes to a discipline. So that's what's motivating this change.

Now I'm trying "time-outs" or "taking a break" for him to change his attitude and recognize his own sin. Yesterday I spent a LOT of time in the Bible pulling out verses on peace (to help me stay calm) and in the process put together a list of verses I want to use with the kids, that cover the areas we usually have episodes with. The idea in my head right now is that when he does something in which correction is necessary we go to the time-out spot, sit down calmly, and talk about what happened, review God's instructions in these verses. No crying, screaming, or anger. Here's my list. I tried to keep them real simple verses, things Eli could easily grasp, but at the same time not water it down too much.

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love." Ephesians 5:2

"In your anger do not sin." Ephesians 4:26

"Refrain from anger...It only leads to evil." Psalm 37:8

Do not be quickly angered. It's foolish. Ecclesiastes 7:9 (paraphrased)

"Be patient, bearing with one another in love." Ephesians 4:2

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Ephesians 6:1

"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong. Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else." 1 Thessalonians 5:15 I was going to just to use the second half of that verse but the first part is soo important too, especially for children, I couldn't leave it out.

"Be joyful always." 1 Thessalonians 5:16

"Be self-controlled." 1 Peter 1:13

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition...but in humility consider others better than yourselves." Philippians 2:3

"There is a time for everything...A time to be silent and a time to speak." Ecclesiastes 3:1

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...and be thankful." Colossians 3:15

"If we confess our sins, he faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9


I just ordered the book Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes...in You and Your Kids Based on the reviews it looks like a fantastic book, and I can't wait to get some more wisdom on what to do here! So if you could, pray for God to change our hearts and give us wisdom as we change our parenting approach!

Link love.

I'm just found a new blog today, and I'm loving it! It seems that every post I've read so far applies directly to my needs as a parent. Practical suggestions for bedtime challenges, anger, teaching honor and self-control, and so many other wonderful things! So go, check it out: Shaping Little Souls.

Another good one I need to explore is Values Driven Family where you can get all kinds of free resources like Bible memory charts, chore charts, character charts., etc You can also follow their blog here.

That's all for now! Happy Monday!

Project #3: shoes

My final project I tackled earlier this week was finding a shoe solution for this house. It's not a BIG project but definitely very important as shoes can easily become a big source of clutter. I love the new system!

BEFORE

AFTER

Only one more week left to finish the rest of my spring cleaning list!! Yikes!

A frozen moment of time.

There are some moments in life that are so beautiful, so sweet that it briefly makes time stop. Looking at this picture does that for me.

And yes, I say looking at this picture, rather than the moment itself because it actually lasted only a second, just a blip in the rest of Hannah's day. But so sweet nonetheless. And that is why I love photos. Because they have the ability to freeze time, to allow you to savor something for longer than you had in the actual moment, and to see the beauty in everyday things.

Project #2: toy storage

This was the toy box. Always overflowing, so many different bins and bags for things like blocks, Legos, Easter eggs, etc, and just overall really messy!

BEFORE

AFTER.

After I saw my friend Angie with this same shelf unit for their toys, I've been keeping my eye on it at Target, and finally with some birthday I was able get it put together! And I LOVE it! Check it out! I wasn't sure if everything would fit, but I decided that I was going to limit toys to what did fit and the rest will get rotated around every once in awhile. Turns out, most everything did fit and finally FINALLY I put away the plastic Easter eggs from 2008!click to view larger and see what's in the bins!

And in case you're curious, here is the rest of the play room. Still really bare right now, but I've sketched my design idea, and I'm pretty excited about it! I guess what I'm waiting on, besides money of course, it to decide what to do about curtains. The east wall is a double-wide window--if I sew the curtains myself I would need four panels of fabric instead of two, plus two panels for the north window, and unless I score a REALLY good deal with a fabric that I like, then it's going to cost quite a bit. I've spotted some fabric at Hobby Lobby that I really like but I'm not sure how to work it with the window size. And I'm not going to paint until we have our curtain fabric, because of course we want it to match! Sooo... any ideas? Know of any place to get nice curtains? I've always made ours, so I don't really know where has good variety for decent price.

Project #1: kids clothes

While the kids were at Grandma and Grandpa's house I wanted to tackle some of my bigger spring cleaning projects. So here was project #1, the kids' clothes storage. I had started bins for Eli's 0-3, 3-6, 9-12 month clothes, plus a box of shoes, and Hannah's huge bin of 0-3 month clothes, but seeing that Eli's almost 3 now and Hannah's now through her first year, I had a lot of catching up to do. We had a huge garbage bag of clothes that the kids had outgrown during our 4 months between moves, plus a bin or two that they were outgrowing just before the move, plus the very recent clothes they've outgrown in just the last 3 months.

before. all the bags and bins that need sorted through.

mid-project. This took all afternoon to get through! But I watched the Grey's Anatomy season finale online while I worked, so it wasn't too bad, except that my knees hurt from sitting on them all day.

All done! though I'm not quite sure where Eli's 6-9 month clothes are, or even if there ever were any!And just to be dramatic I'll add a picture of this angle.
This was the biggest project to complete, but stay tuned for projects 2 and 3.

A brief interuption...

...from my cleaning and projects before the family and kiddos return this afternoon. To simply share how much I LOVE Claussen pickles! It can't be any pickle, it must be Claussen, found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Must be dill, and must NOT be the bread n butter variety. Honestly, I don't buy them very often because they're $3-something per jar that usually only lasts one week and it's an easy thing to just go without. But last week I splurged. And mmm, soo good! Delicious as a mere 5-calorie snack, and they truly make a sandwich. So go, if you haven't tried them before, splurge and have yourself a treat!


Okay, now to resuming my cleaning. With the kids gone, yesterday we got some big projects done, and I can't wait to show you my before and afters! So stay tuned in the next couple of days! Until then, I'll be hanging out with my grandma, grandpa, mom, and kids while sipping sweet tea out on our front porch and grilling hamburgers! HAPPY TUESDAY!


P.S. If you usually read my blog in a blog reader, you should stop by and see my new blog background!

Bloggy Break

Just posting to say I'll be offline for a lot of this week. The kids are with my parents today and tomorrow so Kevin and I could have a little break. (woo hoo!!) Then when my mom comes to bring the kids back tomorrow, my grandma and grandpa will be with her and they'll all stay for a couple days to visit and see the house and all that. Since this week will not follow our normal routine, I'm not going to bother planning it. I'll just figure a menu and that's it. We'll be off having fun! See you in a few days!