Three Ohhh

 "Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 37:4

(NKJV)

Today was the last day of my twenties.  I spent it at home, in my pajamas, with my three kids (changing diapers, wiping snotty noses, and reminding them for the 8,754th time that I don't understand whining).  I was supposed to get my hair cut today and go out to dinner with a friend, but due to weather and other circumstances both events got canceled.  And you know what?  I'm happy.  :)

Ten years ago, I had just gotten married.  Hubby and I were in the process of buying our first home and hoping to get pregnant, like ASAP.  If you would have asked me how I saw my life in ten years, I would have said that I wanted to be happily married, have three or four kids that I could stay home with, and hopefully have moved on to a bigger, newer home.  A beautiful, simple life.  Well what do you know?  God has been good to me! 

Sure, life hasn't gone exactly how I'd pictured.  Marriage is hard, and ours has oftentimes felt more like a roller coaster ride than a fairytale.  But it is good.  In fact, as I type this my hubby has taken the two big kids out to buy me birthday presents, giving me a few extra minutes of peace, fulfilling my son's desire to buy Mommy a present, and speaking to one of my top love languages (there's no shame in loving gifts!).  What a good man.

We didn't get pregnant that first month like we had hoped (and even expected!  I thought only people over 35 needed help getting pregnant.  Boy was I wrong!).  We struggled through nearly three years of infertility before being blessed with not just one, but three miraculous pregnancies.

After seven years in our first house, we decided it was time to move on to that bigger and better home, so we put our house on the market.  Fourteen long months later we finally sold our house and had the amazing opportunity to build a house.  I never dreamed that I would own a brand new house before I was thirty!

So yeah, the journey here hasn't followed the exact path that I had imagined, but on my last day of year twenty-nine, I can honestly say that I am right where I want to be.  I'm not sure what life will look like in ten more years, or what surprises will knock me off my feet along the way, but I do know that I'll be able to look back and see that God has been, and always will be, SO GOOD TO ME!

SO, happy birthday to me!  I'm looking forward to year thirty and beyond!

Silly Wet

I know, I know, I owe you an update on the office situation...  It's looking better in there, much better.  But I'll post about that another day...

If you're friends with me on Facebook, or if you follow me on Instagram, you already know about a fun little project that I did this past weekend.  I am absolutely in love with it, and I'm SO excited to share how I did it.  The best part is that it was E.A.S.Y!  If I can do it,  you can, too!  I am NOT a crafter, but I hosted some friends the other night for a craft night.  We were all just to bring whatever we might want to work on, and we'd eat, chat and craft the night away.  I was successful in all three areas.  ;-)  Unfortunately, this also means that I didn't manage to get any pictures of the process, so I'll do my best to explain!

Isn't it FABulous!?  Aaaahhh!  I love it!!  I know I am far from the first person to make DIY silhouettes, but I think mine are the best!  (Of course it could be because I absolutely adore the little people that they represent!)  Anyways...  Here it is, step by step:

1.  Take profile photos of your subjects.  This is the only part of the process that I did ahead of time.  I just snapped some photos of my kids with my iPhone while they were in the tub one day, since they were contained!  Here are the photos I used.

2. Print your photos out the size that you want your silhouettes.  I suppose there are probably a million different ways you could go about this.  I didn't think too hard about it!  The opening of my frame is about 10 inches tall, so I decided that I thought 6 inch tall silhouettes would be about right.  I simply inserted each photo to an individual Open Office Writer (basically an open source Microsoft Word) document, and enlarged it until I thought it was close to the right size.  Like I said, I was gabbing with my girlfriends while I did all this, so I didn't get too fussy with it.  I printed my photos in black and white, on fast draft mode, onto card stock.

3.  Cut out your heads!  Haha!  I just used the first scissors I could find.  Like I said, I'm not a crafter, so I don't have nice craft-only scissors,etc.  And I was too busy cleaning the house during the day to prepare for my craft, so the cheap scissors from the junk drawer were my tool for the evening.  My oldest son's silhouette was the easiest to cut out, since his picture was the clearest, straightest shot.  I did the face and then around the head, then just shaped the shoulder area how I thought looked best.  Seriously, no science or math here...  although this was an experiment... maybe this could be considered science.  I <3 science!  Aaaand, turning back around from that bunny trail....  Since my daughter and youngest son were both looking upward in their photos, I used their brother's silhouette as a sort of template for how to angle their necks, and to help determine where the back of sister's head should be!  I wish I had photos to show you of this step, so you could see how I sort of  faked certain parts to make things look right....

4.  Determine which way you want your silhouettes to face and trace around your photo cutouts onto black paper.  I happen to have a stash of scrapbook paper, so I grabbed a couple sheets of that.  Since I wanted my silhouettes to face to the right, I flipped my photos over and traced them so that they were facing to the left.  This way the non-traced-on side would end up the front, facing to the right.  Make sense??  Clear as mud?  Good.  :)

5.  Cut out your heads!  Again!  Do I even need to explain this step?  I had traced around my printed, cut-out photos onto black paper, so now I just needed to cut them out.  I went with a straight bottom, but you could shape them differently if you wanted.

6.  Attach to your background.  My silhouettes were going into the Norrlida frame from the best store on earth IKEA.  It has a mat inside that is black on one side and white on the other, so you can adhere whatever you want right onto whichever side you prefer.  Obviously I went with white.  I tried to do some measuring to determine where to place my silhouettes, but ended up eyeballing where I wanted them.  All I used to stick them in place was a tiny piece of double sided tape.  Then I popped the whole thing into the frame and oooohhhed and aaaahhhed!  (And Instagrammed!)

What do you think?  Are you going to try it now?  Let me know if you do!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chevron!

I changed my blog background in honor of the two of these that now reside in my living room!  <3 <3 <3 them!  More info to come!  ;-)

Something I Used To Be...

Over at These Moments, I've shared a couple of my goals for 2013.  (Am I the only one that still feels weird saying "twenty thirteen??")  I definitely have more personal goals to share, but I also have some house related goals for the year.  You see, I used to be a super organized person.  At our first house, everything had it's place.  I could put things away without a thought.  At this house, I have done very little organizing and I'm constantly wondering where in the world things go!  Which, unfortunately, results in stuff being dumped here, there, and everywhere!  And it's DRIVING ME NUTS!

Check out this bird's eye view of how my kitchen island looks as I type this...

Now picture me, hanging my head in shame...  I mean, seriously, no wonder I don't enjoy cooking these days, I can't find my kitchen counter!

SO, it's time!  Time to regain control of the clutter!  Time to tell all that stuff where to go!  (I mean that in the nicest way!)  Time!  To!  Organize!  *Cue the applause!*

2013 Home Goal #1:  Organize one room/space each month.

That's the official goal.  Sure, I'd love to organize the whole house this month.  But let's be realistic.  I have three young children.  We are all home, all the time.  And this is the sort of thing that gets worse before it gets better.  BUT, maybe if I start organizing other areas of the house, all that junk on my kitchen island will actually have a home!  Yay!

The plan is to start with what we'll call the "home office."  And get this happy coincidence:  Jen, over at IHeart Organizing, the BEST organizer around, has presented the blogosphere with a monthly organizing challenge! AND, January's challenge is to conquer the home office!  And boy do we need to!  Over the last 16 months, this room has served as the hubby's full time work office (his business now has an office, so he's no longer at home), his dressing room (his clothes live in the office closet and his dresser, which hangs out in there), the baby's sleeping area, and a dumping station...  I would love to turn the room into our home office/my craft room.  I'm not sure yet how I'm going to accomplish that, so stay tuned!  And with that, I'll leave you with some super embarrassing BEFORE pictures...

The view looking straight in the door

Turning to the left

Keep turning....

And all the way

A better view of the desk area

A better view of the junk corner...  Yikes!

SO, who's with me?!  Are you going to start with your home office?  Or some other area?  Or is your home perfectly organized already?

A Resolution Resolution

I'm back with another goal for 2013. To me, this goal is quite the strrrreeeeetchhhh!  What could this crazy resolution be?  To read books.  Insane, right?  I mean, I read blogs quite a bit, and other random publications that come my way, but it's been years since I've finished an entire book.  I've started quite a few, but I never make it more than a few chapters...  Reading is hard for me to do these days.  I'm a stay at home (homeschooling!) mom to three children, ages 6, 4 and 1.  Moments to myself are few and far between during daytime hours.  And by the time everyone is in bed at night, opening a book is like taking a sleeping pill...  out. like. a. light.  But somehow, some way, I will read.  I would like to read at least one book each month.  Like I said, I have a nice stash of choices.  I was paralyzed with fear a little stressed at first about which book to read first, what type of book would be the most beneficial to get started on.  Then I slapped myself across the face and said, 'Just pick one and go with it!  If you follow through with this, you'll get to them all eventually!"  So, what book did I choose?  The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer.  Our church went through this book and The Resolution for Men as Sunday school classes this past year, and I LOVED what a read.  I was encouraged and challenged in just the first few chapters, and I can't wait to dig into the rest!

Isn't it fitting that the first book of my reading resolution would be about resolutions?! 

What are YOU reading these days?

Picture This

I'm not sure how long I've had a digital camera.  But I do know that since that day, I have only printed a VERY small number of photos.  So, one thing I want to accomplish this year is actually doing something with the thousands of photos I've taken.  I'm thinking I'll create some simple photo books.  I'm not sure if I'll do a book for each year, or a book for each kid, or something else...  Right now Mamabargains has an offer for a voucher for a 5x7 40 page brag book for only $9.  I bought three!  Yippee!

What do you do with all the photos you take?

This post is not sponsored by Mamabargains, I'm just excited and thought I'd share!  :)

Light Up My Life

According to Pinterest, I pinned this lamp "39 weeks ago."  That's longer than I've ever been pregnant.  And I have three kids.  So yeah, I've had my eye on him for a while.  Annnnddd, now he's mine!  And his twin brother, too!  Yep, while shopping for clothes and groceries at my very favorite store Target yesterday, I spotted a couple of these lamps marked down to $13.98, and I couldn't resist!  My original pin was on my dining room board, but I'm thinking they'll look great flanking my sofa in the living room!  Yay turquoise!