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!

2012 Christmas Letter

 Happy New Year's Eve!  One goal I have for 2013 is to make an effort to be more consistent with blogging.  I'm thinking I'll start with once a week...  I decided to start off easy by sharing our Christmas letter.  I wrote this a month ago, so when it says we'll be celebrating a birthday soon, yeah...  we already did!  :)  Anyways, here it is, enjoy!

Hello! This is my first ever Christmas letter! I've never written one before, but in the last two years (yeah, I never even got a Christmas card sent out last year) our family has experienced a few major life changes, so I thought now would be the perfect time to send out an update!

One of those changes is our location! Yep, we moved! I know this is old news to some, as it's been over a year, but I do want to make sure that everyone has our current address. We are enjoying our new home, and we absolutely love being back in Clear Lake!

Perhaps the most exciting event of the last couple years was the addition of our sweet Koen James to our family. He was due to arrive on Christmas day, but blessed us with an early arrival on December 17^th, 2011. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz, a big baby if I do say so myself! We will be celebrating his 1^stbirthday in a couple weeks, and he is already walking! He is more and more fun every day!

Lena turned four on June 21^st. What a joy she is! She spends her days at home, working on learning her letters and numbers and playing with her brothers!

Eli turned six on August 24^th. How did our first little miracle baby grow up so fast?!? He is doing kindergarten at home this year, learning how to read, addition, and some world geography! We are so proud of all that he has accomplished so far!

Autumn (that's me!) is keeping busy teaching, feeding, changing, cleaning up after (etc., etc., etc....) the three previously mentioned ragamuffins! My hands may be full, but my heart is overflowing!

Joe's business, Advantage Business Solutions, has been growing and thriving, praise the Lord! They have been able to hire a few new employees and opened an office, which means that Joe is no longer working from home. He's a busy guy!

We will also be celebrating another big milestone on January 11th, our 10 year wedding anniversary! What a crazy, beautiful roller coaster the last decade has been! We are so blessed to have each other and our amazing family!

So that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods. To those that live near, I hope to see you soon and often. To those who live far, I hope you'll keep in touch. Thank you all for being a part of our lives.

Merry Christmas to you and yours! And a happy New Year, too! :-)

With love,

Joe, Autumn, Eli, Lena & Koen

I'm BAAAACK! (Or am I???)

As I'm sitting here typing this, I'm thinking, WHY???  I have a terrible track record when it comes to blogging...  but here I am.  I had so many ideas for posts, and even started writing a few, but somehow nothing ever made it past the "draft" stage.  I'm not sure what my goal is for this silly blog, but for whatever reason I want to get back to it.  If you're up for discovering what this will become with me, be my guest.  :)  Now, where to start (over)...