Beeswax Finish

Just a note to myself.  Make your own beeswax finish.  Excited to make some of this for the kids wooden toys and play kitchen.

Giving Up Control

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

Giving control of my life to God is one of the hardest things I try to do.  I say try because time and time again I find myself trying to control that which I know nothing about.  I make my plans, and plan my future only to find out the hard way that God has something else planned for me.

As much as I plan in life God has another plan for me.  I keep seeing this over and over and over in my life.  Joe and I make plans and something better happens.  We make plans and they crumble and fall.  Yet time and time again God blesses us.  He gives and gives and gives to us and though sometimes we feel we don't deserve it or we use these gifts stupidly he does it again.  It truly amazes me how awesome our God is.

The roller coaster ride we are on right now is full of twists and turns.  I cannot see what is going to happen next week or even tomorrow.  I can only pray and give up my control to the only One who knows what to do.  I pray that we can open up our hearts to listen to him and center our lives around his plan.  I pray that we can learn to use His gifts wisely.  That we continue to grow closer to each other through Him.  That as His plan unfolds for our family we can embrace it, accept it, and use our God given gifts to further Him.  I am humbled by what is going on in our lives and so thankful that we are so blessed.

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

Kitchen De-Cluttering and Reorganization

When we moved in I unpacked the kitchen by putting everything away where I thought it would eventually go.  I had the intention of later re-organizing and making the kitchen more functional.  Since then no one has known where anything goes so dishes and ingredients get randomly shoved in cupboards.  This has made cooking and baking hard.  For my family I believe that an unorganized kitchen definitely means and unorganized house.  We live in our house every day, all day.  Since we homeschool we use the kitchen 3 times a day for meals and more times for snacks.  Our dining room table is usually where we do projects or schoolwork so when its messy in there things slip and don't get done.  Eventually the clutter takes over and everything is a mess.  So last week I finally did it and re-organized the kitchen.  Here are some before pictures.

This is what you see when you walk in the front door.  I really like it when this area is tidy and neat.

 

Another area you see from the front door.  This unfortunately also becomes the catch all spot!

My largest counter

Bowls and Glass

Plates, cups, and weird corner cupboard

Coffee Mugs, Bread

Misc Baking/Cooking

Dresser and Garbage

Top half of Pantry

Bottom half of Pantry

View of the front door and living room

Corner Cabinet

What happens when you open the door to the corner cabinet.

Top of fridge and above cabinets

And the after photos:

No longer a catch all!

I reorganized cabinets, cleared counters, scrubbed drawers, and put everything back in order.  Then I proceeded to label each and every cabinet and drawer.  This is not something I have done before and Joe and the kids LOVE it!  I thought they were going to laugh but instead they said it makes putting everything away so much easier.  

Family Walks

Longer days mean evening walks.  On Friday we went down to a local park and walked the trails.  The kids love this park.  It has these great canoes that they play in.  I think there are five of them total and they can literally spend hours in "the boats."

Spring is Coming!!

Seed Planting

We started our seeds a few days ago.  I let the kids each plant a few little pots of their favorites.  They've got pumpkins, lettuces, and different flowers all ready to go into their little garden pots.  I planted 10 1/2 flats of seeds.  I intended to just plant a few but as I was covering my dining room and myself in dirt I figured I would get most of it done at once!  So tomatoes, lettuces, melons, pumpkins, and so much more are now sitting snugly in flats in bedrooms, and bathrooms, and the dining room.  Some have all ready made it out to the greenhouse as they germinated quickly.  Others are slowly doing their thing and will be out there in the next few weeks.

I love spring time!  Gardening and preparing for a new year of growing things.  Its so exciting and I anxiously watch for the first seeds to germinate.  I love that my house smells like dirt and the job of spraying the seed trays with water each day.  Seeds are just amazing!