Improvising for Decorating Dilemmas

Moving into a new house always creates new decorating fun and challenges.
The deocrating is especially sticky if you are on a limited budget and can't just go buy some new curtains or decor. Making do with what you have on hand is always a fun challenge to me!
     With this most recent move, I was faced with many such challenges!
Three of which I will address here....
(1) The master bedroom is big but it also has 3 BIG windows so a place to put the bed became an instance "head scratcher" . The situation is made more more difficult because my husband has a very large desk/hutch that needs to go in the bedroom also. The only solution came in putting the bed under the smallest window. I dislike beds under windows! But as our bed does not have a headboard (never really got the money and the "find" to coincide) it was low enough to fit and looked passable temporarily..
(2) Dilemma #2 is caused by those same 3 big windows. I have never had that many of that size to contend with, so do not have matching curtains for that.
(3) A huge mirror that is a prize possession of mine usually has hung above a mantel or the piano. There is no mantel in this house and the only spot for the piano was on a basement family room wall that is concrete. So hanging the mirror became an issue.
      We searched the house for another spot for the mirror. There were four options that presented themselves as big enough but three were immediately ruled out because of conflicting decor or furniture. We settled on the entry hall but as it is quite narrow the mirror, instead of enlarging it , only seemed to close it in more.
      Roaming throught the house , thinking, thinking, and looking through my curtain stash, thinking, thinking; I came up with an idea!
        If  I can somehow come up with a window treatment that doubles as a headboard or bed treatment, then the other window treatments do not have to match, just coordinate! So I only have to have two matching curtain set ups!
       This is the finished product (well as soon as hubby fixes my attempt at hanging the rod,) :)

I combined a long ,cream, lace ,scarf with a smaller, red, valance/panel combo curtain and propped the mirror on the windowsill! Voila! I like it!!
   And THREE decorating dilemmas solved in ONE, I like that, too!! :)

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A Little Child...Big questions

His little voice was teary and very serious. He had some very hard questions for Daddy.

At the first hesitant words, Daddy stopped what he was doing at the desk and took him on his lap. He is almost getting too big. His legs dangle on the ground. He is 9.

"Dad, how do you know if you want to be a Christian for the right reason? " His words kinda tumbled and jumbled from there. His thoughts were difficult for him to form.

Paraphrased something like this, "I don't really intentionally do wrong things. But I do wrong things sometimes. Does that mean I will go to hell? I don't want to go to Hell . I want to go to Heaven. But I don't know if being afraid of going to Hell is a reason to be a christian."

Wise little man.

Mommy had stopped on the stairs at the first words and came back to join the conversation somewhere in the middle there. This was going to be an important conversation.

My husband gently , slowly, explained salvation, discipleship, love and fear ,  motivations and convictions with him. Big concepts, are sometimes hard to put into words clearly enough for such important questions in one so young.

It was one of those moments when you know the gravity of your responsibility of training this little one for life, for God , for eternity.

Big questions; Hard questions; Wise questions. Thank you , Lord for your infinitely, gentle, leading of your little ones.

Questions....questions that a lot of us adults need to ponder long and hard ourselves.

Are we a Christian for the right reasons?

Moving and Normalcy

      I have been unable to post for awhile since we have been moving.
I wonder each time we move , "How in the world do we accumulate so much stuff!?"
      This time had it's own little challenges ,moving belongings for 11 people with 3 of them missing. The eldest daughter married and moved away and couldn't take all of her things. The eldest son is away working for 6mos. so most of his stuff is still here. The second oldest son, is overseas for 6mos in missions. Most of his stuff was boxed up before he left , but we still needed to move the boxes!
      Added to the mix was about a foot of snow, a steep winding driveway and a broken snow plow. Needless to say putting on tire chains every time in and out was NO fun!.
       As I posted before, my clothes washer and my Bosch mixer gave out also! It has been one of those times you just close your mind and focus on the task at hand. It will somehow get done . It always does.
      When my mixer gave out I declared we would just buy bread until the move is over as I did not want to mess with making it by hand. We did buy a few loaves but........for me bread baking is normalcy. The smell is "home". The kneading and forming it are therapeutic. So.....I just did a couple small batches in my KitchenAid. :)

Soon I hope to be back to normal ( whatever that is)! :)

Parenting?

Ok, I saw it once too often....
The video circulating through facebook of the dad who found the disrespectful letter about her parents on his 15yrld daughter's facebook. I am not posting the link because of the bad language on it.
The Dad proceeds to make a video and posts it on his daughter's wall of him reading the letter and addressing her issues and her subsequent punishment.
He takes issue with her foul language ; which he should. He reprimands her disrespect; which he should. He sets her straight on her viewpoint of her "unfair" life; which he should. He addresses her lack of appreciation for what he has done for her; which he should. And he clearly lays out punishment ; which he should.
When I saw it , it had over 6800 comments on it. I scrolled down quite a way and couldn't find one single one that disagreed with him. They applauded his "tough love" parenting, his being "willing to stand up", his "not taking it anymore off a spoiled brat daughter". They said more parents should parent this way then we wouldn't have kids who think they're entitled to everything and are lazy and disrespectful. And on and on....applauding his parenting.
Might sound good if that was really what it is, but it's not.
Let me address his "parenting"--
How is public punishment and humiliation any way to show your love and respect for your daughter.
He addresses her in the same tone of disrespect she uses.
He uses the same kind of language she uses.
He says that at 15 she should be out of the house holding down a job and boasts how he had left home by that age and was taking care of himself.
When he's done telling her how he feels , he stands up walks to her laptop and proceeds to put 7 bullets into it. Enunciating as he does so what this particular bullet is in response to, throwing in one as he says his wife asked him to.
Then he sits down and says he hopes all the kids who thought she was so cool can see this and he hopes parents will stand up and put boots ** ***** kids' *** for doing things like this and not take the **** **** off their kids anymore.
Really? Are you serious? That's good parenting?
No wonder the daughter has no respect. No wonder the daughter uses bad language. No wonder the daughter won't let her parents have her password and posts bad letters about them.
The problem here started long before this episode.
What happened to "Fathers provoke not your children to wrath"? What happened to " train up a child in the way he should go".
I'm all for good old-fashioned discipline. I often implement grounding and taking away privileges. There is definitely a place for tough love. I agree children of today are spoiled. I agree parents shouldn't take disrespect.
But I will not agree with punishment that is disrespectful and done in an ungodly manner. That will not reap the outcome we are looking for in our children!
Our children's training is a sacred trust. We must go with God and walk in His way to do it!

Twenty Years Ago

Twenty years ago,today, morning dawned with a beautiful baby girl for our family! After losing 3 babies in the early stages of pregnancy and two deliveries with complications , the 9mos. prior to that were spent in a lot of prayer. We were blessed with only 7hrs of labor and no complications!
She joined two brothers 4 and 2 who were as delighted with her as we were. At last we had our tiny girl. At 7lbs and 13 oz , she was much smaller than her two brothers.
She was an excellent baby, She slept through the night after 4mos and you could just lay her down anywhere in the middle of anything and she would go to sleep! She crawled late becasue she had a difficult time figuring out how to get her knees up under her. many times we laughed at her little push-ups trying to get herself going. She went quickly from crawling to walking and walked at 10 mos.
She grew to be chubby short little toddler . Mommy had so much fun dressing her!
She quickly became my helper , as 6 more difficult pregnancies and 6 more babies entered the family in the next 10 yrs.
She learned housekeeping at a young age and became a better housekeeper than her mommy.
Throughout the years sometimes our relationship was a bit rocky. She liked cleaning and sewing-- Mom liked baking and cooking. She loved crafts--mom hated crafts. She loved bright , splashy colors-- Mom stuck to more muted tones and patterns. She could sit for hours writing stories and poems-- Mom didn't have the patience and aptitude for either. She was shy and aloof as a child and effervescently, outgoing as a teenager--Mom would have preferred it the other way around.
If Mom would have been wiser, much wiser so many years ago, things would have gone easier.
Then suddenly.... or probably not so suddenly really.... it just seemed that way.. somewhere in her mid-late teens....
We became FRIENDS....good friends! :)
Her chatter turned into long talks with mom. We discussed everything and anything. I sought her advice on decorating the house, arranging the furniture, and dressing styles. She learned to cook and bake. She was amazing at it! She was creative, talented,  and gifted in nearly every aspect of managing a home and a whole lot of delightful "extra- ciricular" activities to accent those skills.
She was/is what a mother wants...a godly, beautiful, talented daughter!
Then suddenly.....or probably not so suddenly really...it just seemed that way...
She was courting....she was married....she was gone.....
She found a young man whom we love. She was a beautiful bride.
But she moved 2500 miles away...
I miss her...we miss her...
Happy Birthday, Vonda LaRose!!!!!!!! Thank You, God for my Daughter!




Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday is supposed to be a post wth pictures and no words. Well, as anyone who knows me would tell you, "wordlessness" is hard for me. :)

But....this is my kind of wordless.....

We are in the process of moving ...

AND......

                my washer broke down
AND....
       my Bosch mixer.....looks like we will be buying bread during this move.:(
   
       there are .....NO words...

It's a little difficult to find the "Orchids"  today....

He's Just a Little Green (and yellow)Turtle

Simply Saturday

He's just a little green (and yellow)glass turtle. He is just big enough to hold a 4" flower pot or candle. He has survived 3 household moves. He really has never even made it to the "perfect" spot in a delightful herb garden for which I first invisioned him.
He was just sitting in the middle of a whole bunch of random glass stuff on a secondhand store shelf when I first saw him. He was a castoff. He never made it to someone else's "perfect" spot and they (perhaps wiser than I )decided it was time for him to go.
So there he sat.
I stopped.
He smiled.
Now really that is where he's special. If you see his smile you can't resist him. So he went home with me. He has sat and smiled ever since. It really doesn't matter how he gets pushed around he still smiles.
Today he got pushed from his windowsill and...he broke...
As always when one of the children break something, I tried not to make a big deal about it. He was after all just a little green glass turtle.
But....then .... Over my protesting, my husband stopped his work on taxes, pulled out the super glue and painstakingly glued all the pieces back together.
I really won't mind the cracks you can still see, when he is tucked into that "perfect" spot . And those cracks will always remind me of a very dear man who knew what that little glass turtle had some how came to mean to me . It would be hard for me to even tell you. It really is rather dificult to explain , but with a true friend , I didn't need to. He knew.
And the little green (and yellow)glass turtle...he still smiles.....and my heart smiles with him.

Mom's Menu: Spanish Rice, Tossed Salad, Applesauce, Biscuits w/ honey