The move

We got a house.

  A house that far exceeded any and all expectations.   Isn't that just like God?   This morning at church the sermon was on Romans 8:28.   "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose."   What a verse!   What a promise!   I love God - therefore He is working on my behalf to use all the things in my life for my good.   Not my ruin.   My good.   And if our living situation isn't proof of that then I don't know what is.  

    There we were on the farm.   Living day by day in quite small quarters.   Hoping and praying for a place.   We started looking at apartments because we knew we had to rent.   We still own our house in Largo that my sister is renting from us, so buying here is out.   Our budget was low, and the things we found were not in the greatest areas or just not containing the things we needed for the kids.   I had started going to a Bible study in January at the church we are attending.   I was sharing in my group about our situation and asking for prayer.   A lady in the group has a daughter in my husband's class, and she began telling me that they were trying to sell their house.   They built it ten years ago and had four kids since then, so they wanted to upsize a bit.   They had actually already bought something new and were moved in, so they were looking to sell quick.   I told her we weren't in a position to buy, but would they be willing to rent.   She said she would talk to her husband because they already had it on the market to sell.   Once she got back to me she said he was totally willing to rent.   We came over to check the place out asap, and it was more than perfect.   Four bedrooms, an area for a playroom, two walk-in closets in the master (Tim is so glad he doesn't have to share with me), a great back porch . . . the list goes on and on.  

 

 

 

    We moved in as quick as we could.   The real twist is that we will be moving again in a year.   That is another story for another day, but I have already told my husband that I wish I could pick this house up and take it with us.   It is that perfect for us.   It isn't a mansion or anything, but it is such a great fit for our little family of 5.   We are so comfortable.  

    And after a year of cramming and never having enough space, it is nice to spread out.   God is taking care of us.   I need to remember this truth next year around this time when we will be on the search again.  

The Pantry

So . . . I said in an earlier post that I was going to have a reveal of our new and improved pantry. One of my main reasons for choosing to buy the house that we are currently in was the pantry. Our house is under 1700 square feet, so it is definitely not large. It is a great use of the space, so it actually feels bigger than it is to me. When I looked at the house for the first time, I could not believe the size of the pantry. It is enormous, especially in this little house. Anyways, I have always wanted to organize it with pretty baskets. I basically live in it, so it would be nice to look at pretty things while searching for rice or foil or whatever. I enlisted Tim, and we finally tackled it last weekend. Here is what it looked like before. 

Please don't judge me.

I literally have been piling things in there for almost two years.

It is such a large space behind a closed door, so I just couldn't help myself.

"Oh, you don't know where that goes . . . just throw it in the pantry."

The problem was that I always wanted to show people how big it was.

It was like the crowning glory of my house that I was ashamed to show off.

All that to say . . . after a few trips to the dollar store and a few nights of blood, sweat and tears-

Here is the new and improved Bettelli pantry.

Now, I know it isn't as fancy as others that I have seen, but it is functional.

I really wanted actual baskets and glass containers, but that is not practical financially or in the midst of toddlers.

I love the way it came out, and I can find everything pretty easily which is a big change.

I will probably put labels on the baskets eventually . . . more for other people who will look for things because I know how I grouped everything.

Hope you enjoyed the peek into my wonderful pantry, which I am very grateful for.

 

What is wrong with this picture?

What is wrong with this picture? 

If you recognized that the bottom half of the tree is missing ornaments, then you win a prize.

We have had to take off every single ornament below the mid-line if we wanted it to be safe.

You see, we have a little toddler terror who loves to take each ornament off and smash it if it is smashable.

Is smashable a word?

Moving on . . .

I really love this picture though, despite the unevenness of the ornament placement.

I love that it depicts the stage of life we are in.

I know we will have many pretty, perfectly symetrical trees in the furture.

What we won't ever have again are the times when our life screamed no symmetry,

no perfectness,

no exactness,

never immaculate,

and definitely no order.

All because of these two precious boys that God has so graciously blessed us with.

And I would pick them over all the order in the world.

Every. Single. Time.

Fall Wreaths

Look what I made . . .

 

Technically, I made them last Fall, but I didn't ever put them on the blog.

I don't have a tutorial on how to make them, but I think I can explain it pretty simply.

They were an extremely inexpensive and easy craft that can be accomplished in one naptime.  That is how I measure time . . . in how many naptimes it takes to accomplish the task.

Anyways, I bought two large rectangular picture frames from the Dollar Tree (the only dollar store where everything is actually one dollar).

I also bought one roll of the orange ribbon you see tied to the tops.

I bought four strands of Fall leaves from the Dollar Tree, as well.

I clipped all the leaves off the strands and took apart the picture frames.  I only needed the outer frame, not any of the other parts.

I (with no real technique in mind) glued each leaf to the frame until I liked the way it looked.

Then I attached the ribbon and hung it on our front door.

I love the festive spirit it envokes each time I walk through our doors.

Does this ever happen to you?

I hope I am not the only one this happens to.  I need help with the psychology of this problem, so if you have any insight please send it my way. I have this problem with making a long to-do list.  I try to keep it within the confines of time in one day, but it is usually overly ambitious if I am being honest.  That is not the problem, though. I make this to-do list, but instead of doing the things on it that are of the most importance or highest priority I do other things.  Not things like watch tv or take a nap (which I do my fair share of), but things that aren't even fun.   Yesterday I had a list with things like sending cards, doing Bible study, starting my 20 (yes, TWENTY or more) page paper for grad school,  putting away laundry that has been washed but unfolded for two weeks or more (I lost count), and so on on it.  You get the idea. But what did I spend the majority of my day doing? I switched my boys' wardrobes from summer/spring to fall/winter.  Yep, that is right.  I went through each and every item they had in their closet and drawers and picked out the things that didn't fit or weren't season appropriate.  Then I went through the bins and bins of clothes we have stored away and picked out things that fit and were season appropriate.  Then I had to hang all of that up.  Took quite some time.   

 Was that even on the to-do list?  Nope. Have I done this to my closet, you might ask?  Nope.  And I probably won't. Is it getting cold where we live?  Nope.  High of like 85 today. Do I enjoy doing this?  Nope.  Getting my kids to try on clothes is like torture. So please, someone tell me why I would sway away from a perfectly appropriate and un-fun to-do list to do something less appropriate and even more un-fun? I have no answers today, only questions.

Our Family Room

The "Inspiration Workshop" this week is Show off your Family Room.


I want to start off by saying that I love, love, love my family room. It doesn't belong in a magazine by any stretch of the imagination, but it is where we spend the majority of our time as a family.

We moved into our now house a little over a year ago. It was a complete mess, which allowed us to get a great deal on it. It is not a big house, but one of its best features is the large size of the family room.

Here is the before:

We (with our amazing, talented, and patient brother and sister-in-law) remodeled the whole house. We still have some minor things to finish, such as painting the molding, touching up paint on the walls, etc.

Here it is in all its glory (aka messiness):

As you can see we put in tile floors, painted the walls, put up crown molding and replaced the baseboards. We also put in new window treatments and casing.

We have a toy corner in the room, which is essential for any family room, right?

Here is the wall that used to have a large mirror on it (the one with the shelves) and our tv wall:

Lastly, I will throw in a few pictures of my Fall decor from the family room:

I usually put candy corn in that clear pumpkin, but I haven't had time to go out and get some.

Well, that about sums up my living room. I love looking at other people's houses, so it was a change to show mine.