The House Tour: Craft Room

The final room of the house tour. I suppose it is more of a closet but because we took the door off, it feels like an an extension of the back room.View to the right of the room. The fabulous table was at this house when we bought it. I LOVE IT! It was left downstairs but it is the perfect fit for this space. It is the perfect height to stand at to do projects but also for little girls to sit on stools at and craft it up (as Mya and Sydney love to do)!
This space has all of my gift-wrapping and card-making supplies, along with other officey items (like paper clips, rubber bands, a three-hole punch, etc.). The peg board was already there - I just painted it a fun color. The fabulous grey organizer-thing (I have no idea what you call it) on the table was given to me (thanks Angie C) but it originally came from the ISU surplus sale, of course!

The card stash.

Card-buying is not in the budget so I usually buy packs of general cards on clearance. My should-be-professional-card-making-sister inspires me to try making my own cards. Now that all of my supplies are easy to find and I have a place to work on cards, I am beginning to try to make some. I will never be like Kate, but it is fun to see what you can make out of old cards that have been given to you. :)

Office supplies. The little glass and silver containers were less than a dollar at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off. The round metal containers I bought in Thailand when I lived there more than a decade ago!

Random supplies in Target dollar bin containers (middle shelf). Gift wrapping supplies in square Target clearance containers and plastic (look like glass) containers from Hobby Lobby (50% off of course).
Organized writing utensils. (I am quite aware that this room could also be called my OCD room!)

Gift wrapping supplies.

I have to do a little promo for the best glue gun ever. My sister and my mom have sworn by glue guns for years - they use them to fix and make everything. I have never really thought they were that necessary . . . until recently. Kate got me one this year for my birthday. But, not just any glue gun . . . this thing is awesome! It has its own stand which means you don't have to find something to catch the dripping glue.
Also, it also easily comes off the stand for you to take anywhere in your house to use for a little bit. Finally, you can leave it plugged in and just turn it on and off with the switch. I had previously not cared that much about a glue gun but I use this thing all the time! Ironically, I just bought Kate one for her birthday this month. They are at Hobby Lobby and if you print off a 40% coupon online, they only cost about $12.
Here is the left side of the room/closet.
The floor is left-over bamboo flooring from our old house (7 years later). We had a few boxe left over so we brought it with us and my brother installed it here to cover up the old linoleum. I love it!

Very left: Storage for Bibles, fabric, sewing kit, project-y stuff and extra craft supplies. Underneath is our filing cabinet.
Lots of foam and felt letters/things in the buckets on top, electronics/batteries/CDs in the black photo boxes and more crafty storage in the middle. I personally would rather organize craft supplies than make things with the supplies, but one of the primary ways I plan to spend time and bond with my older adopted daughters is to do crafty-stuff. Therefore, all the craft supplies (which were largely donated to us!).
The home school storage shelf!

I honestly don't know what to do with half the stuff on this shelf - but I'm okay with that. Since our girls are 7 and 8 years old, they will have to be officially registered in home school. But, fortunately (for me!) home school is going to be very, very simple the first several months. Lots of me reading to them, practice drawing letters and just learning English in the every day things we will do. That will be school. We will be focusing way more on bonding and attachment than school, but doing simple school stuff will be a great way for me to spend time with them.

Lastly, pictures of my nieces and nephews when they were each one year old. They will forever be like my first babies so I can't part with having these pictures somewhere in my house!

P.S. I'm pretty sure MandyBee Photography took at least three of these adorable pictures!

The House Tour: The Back Room

Or, as I like to call it, the secret weapon room!

Without this room we would not have bought this house. It adds an incredible amount of space for our soon-to-be family of six.

Here is the view from the garage entrance BEFORE:

NOW:

The story - as we have learned from different neighbors - is that this was an addition put on two owners ago by an artist/art professor at Iowa State. This was his art studio which explains all the (wonderful) windows and sky light. The first thing we did was to get rid of the three six foot long fluorescent lights. We replaced them with a ceiling fan and two sets of track lighting.

Here is a view going clock-wise around the room from the back.

This room is our play room/home school room. I got the table and chairs super cheap on Craigslist. My mom helped me cover those huge bulletin boards (from the ISU surplus sale, of course - $3 each) in fabric.

Here is the BEFORE of this space:
And NOW:
I painted this room "Mysterious Ocean Fog" (a Walmart color I had matched at Lowes). This is my current favorite color in the world. The space above is my office space. We took the door off of the closet behind my desk to create more space in this corner. The closet space is my home school/craft/gift wrap/etc. storage room. It will have its own post next!

I had to post my favorite quote (author unknown) that I have where I can see it daily. Because one of my greatest struggles is the sin I'll call "timeaholicism" - always wanting more time to accomplish more tasks - I need this reminder daily!

It is extremely liberating to recognize that God gives us enough time to finish everything to which he has actually called us. Here are some of those things: devotional time with God, relationships and service in your family, church and community; and matters of stewardship over your material goods. If any of these areas are suffering because of the amount of time you spend doing other things, take a closer look . . .

On with the tour . . .

Jason wanted this room to be as open as possible so that the kids can run around and play. I agreed. Jason and Abram are having "batting practice" as I type this! But, I also wanted a small area that was more "comfy" for the kids to be able to sit and read. We were able to accomplish that with a cheap, small futon from K-mart and a rug we already had. The futon folds into a bed which is also very helpful since we don't have a guest room.

Here is the view from the back of the room looking towards the front of the house. The door on the left is to the garage and the door on the right is to the kitchen. Having an entrance straight from the garage is another huge blessing of this house.
The previous owners (when they "flipped" the house) put an old kitchen cabinet and sink in this space. The reason they put a sink there was because there was plumbing there from the the closet on the other side. The former artist owner made the closet into a dark room and it still had the big trough sink for developing pictures.

While this was a unique idea, the sink had to go. With four kids we needed a place for coats, hats, shoes, bags, etc. So we turned this space into a "mud room"/entry area.

I had half of the white hooks (Walmart) from our old house. They circle hooks were Hobby Lobby clearance. I got the Ikea shelves for half the Ikea price on Craigslist. I love that the horizontal shelf makes its own bench for the kids.
And this is Jason's area for keys, sunglasses, wallet, etc.

Many Truths

A must-read post from Katie in Uganda. I wept my way through reading it last week. So many truths for me to cling to when I think about our kids whose pasts we know little to nothing about.

The Last Week

Last Tuesday we packed up our bags and jumped in the car around 2:00p to drive to Chicago at the last minute. Doyle (Jason's mom's husband) was there getting cancer treatment but got moved to the ICU that day because his body was not responding well to the chemo. We went to be with Jason's mom and Doyle. We got home late Saturday night.

A cancer treatment center is not exactly the best place for a two year old BOY, let me just say that! There was lots of bouncing off of the walls the first day. But there was a lot of room outside to run and play and ride his trike (which we took).

We stayed in the guest quarters with Rhonda (it was like a hotel). I found my two boys doing this after nap time one day. What could be capturing their attention so intensely?

The Cardinals and the Cubs tied in the 9th inning! We were sitting in Chicago as they were playing at Wrigley. :)
Abram's favorite part about the cancer treatment center was the fish aquarium near the entrance. Especially this "big fish."
I can't say I've ever seen a fish like this before.
Before we came home we drove a couple miles to the beach of Lake Michigan. It was cool and starting to rain, but they still had fun.

I love this one!
Grandma Rhonda joined in the fun after while.
While I didn't get any pictures with her, I also got to have lunch with my friend, Eve, who just moved to Chicago. She is getting married THIS weekend in Chicago so we will be back to the Windy City in just a few short days.

I Dare You . . .

to read THIS ARTICLE (go to page 56-57) from a relatively new faith-based magazine called Karis.

I just dare you. That is all I'm going to say about the article.

But I will say something about the author, Heidi Weimer (wehaveroom.org). I like to call her my 'inspiration' for us adopting three kids. Jason and I first read about the Weimers several years ago. Their story was called 3+3+3 because they had three biological kids and then adopted a sibling group of three from Ethiopia and then adopted another sibling group of three from Ethiopia. And they were just over 30 years old!! When I first read their story, I thought, "wow . . . unbelievable, but so cool." But I certainly wasn't signing up to adopt three kids at that point.

And in fact we never really set out to adopt three kids when this whole C-country adoption thing happened. God led us in that direction and we went. Sometime after we had started the process to adopt three kids, I stopped and remembered the Weimer's story. At that moment I realized that God had used them to prepare me for what we were doing. He used them to help me see adopting three kids maybe wasn't so unbelievable after all.

You know how God does that sometimes? You have no idea at the time that He is using something or someone to prepare you for the future, but you look back and realize He did. He is so good like that!

When we went to the Christian Alliance for Orphans conference this past May, I got to meet Heidi. It was one of the highlights of my time there. She is just a regular mom who is sold out for Jesus and she continues to inspire me.

So, go on now . . . read the article!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Kate and I packed up all five kids in my van and headed west this past Tuesday. Our original purpose was to spend most of the day with our cousin but she got sick with the flu so we couldn't go to her house. Bummer! We were ready to go, though, so we went anyway and decided we figure out what to do on the way. We considered the Omaha zoo, but didn't have enough time to make it worth it. So, we decided to go to the park in downtown Omaha and walk around.

Our first stop was Subway in Council Bluffs to get sandwiches to take to a park for lunch. But not just any Subway . . . it was the Subway that we went to ALL THE TIME in high school.

We couldn't find a park with a playground so we decided to eat lunch at the look-out point in Council Bluffs where, again, we used to go to in high school. It took a few wrong turns to get there, but we made it. I think the kids enjoyed the view. We were able to point out where the Omaha zoo was, where Grammie used to work and more.

(Don't mind Abram stuffing his face with a fist full of cheese puffs!)
Next, we headed west on Broadway (the main drag) in Council Bluffs. So much has changed since we were younger. Kate and I were pointing out what used to be where and telling stories of things we remembered around there. We were having a blast and laughing our heads off . . . especially when Kate saw Runza and shrieked with excitement! Brady chimed in a couple times with "come on!" He wasn't enjoying our stories as much as we were. :)

When we crossed the river into Omaha we decided to drive by the airport to see if the kids could watch airplanes. That was a flop but Kate and the kids got out to see 3-ft long lilly pads in Carter Lake (I was driving around Abram while napped.)

We drove by the homeless shelter (Open Door Mission) that Kate and I worked at one summer during college. We did VBS-like activities and outings for all of the kids who were staying there. We have many memories from that time. It was so hard dealing with those kids whose lives were a wreck, but so rewarding to love them and tell them about Jesus.
Next stop: the park in downtown Omaha. First, the kids fed the geese.

. . . with the assistance of the homeless man on the park bench. He was cutting up lots of bread for the kids and giving them instructions for how to feed them.

Abram was eating apples and enjoying the view.

I love this park!

Then, we went to the slides. These slides have been at this park since Kate and I were young. The older kids loved them - the slides are really fast!

Sydney made it down a few times.

And Kate braved the slide with BOTH little boys. Hilarious!

Abram was more into climbing and running around than the slides.

Abram and I went down the slide once. Mya had camera duty and got this picture taken but didn't get a picture of us sliding. Oh well!
This place was perfect for Abram and Greysen because there was so much space for them to run and climb.

Jumping off the last step is a must in Abram's world.Taking it all in.

I am not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but this place was a photogragher's dream. So many great places and backgrounds for pictures.

Then we walked around the Old Market just a little bit. So many stores and restaurants have changed. And of course, Kate and I retold stories of more memories from high school here.

Terrible picture, but one of the only one with all of the kids.
After the Old Market, we went to the lake by Con Agra.
Abram's 20 minute nap in the van left him running out of steam by this point.


But after he rested a minute he was ready to climb, jump and run around again.
Check out the air he got on this jump!

After walking all around the lake, we met an old friend at the mall in Council Bluffs (no pics).

Then, it was time for dinner with Uncle and Papa.

A super sleepy Syd with her Papa.
Two year olds at a restaurant . . . need I say more? Abram is building a tower with the salt and pepper shakers and the sugar holder of course!
Time for P-poppers for the ride home. We purposefully left after dinner so the kids would sleep.
On the way home we drove through our hometowns, Treynor and Carson.

Back in Huxley at 10p. Abram had just woke up.
All-in-all, it was a very fun trip, especially for making it up as we went along. The van ride got a little hairy at times with five kids and their shananagans. At one point when the two little boys were both screaming at the top of their lungs, Kate told everyone to just enjoy it because they will only be two years old once. Cracked me up!