For Today

Somehow in the busy-ness of last week I missed doing this.

Outside my window: It's cold and rainy, perfect day for a nap but yet I know if I nap then sleep will not come easily at night. With age comes wisdom. Well, sometimes anyway!

I Am Thinking: About how much I have enjoyed this past week, celebrating our one year with Rebecca and talking with her about her adoption story. I've also spent some time going back through pictures of our time there and thinking about the sites and the smells. As I went back through the pictures of our visit to the Starfish Home I caught myself wiping away the tears. The memories of the nanny crying and sweet little Rebecca rubbing her face. I knew then that she was a tender hearted baby girl and I'll have to say that just hasn't changed over this past year.

I Am Thankful For: For my new job, it's such a good fit for me and my new co-workers are easy going, easy to get along with. The drive is much easier and it puts me home a little earlier than I was getting home which makes it nice for the evenings with the kiddos and Brian. Just very thankful!

From The Kitchen: Nothing worth talking about this week. We did however do a good job of cleaning out some things from the pantry during our 'financial fast' week. That's been needing to be done for a while now!

I Am Wearing: Gray sweats, pink t-shirt ... comfy post church clothes.

I Am Creating: We're still going great guns on the organizing front. It's amazing what can accumulate in (almost) nine years. The past few weeks I've been focusing on Ryan's room, the little guy - he's such a pack rat. I remember us doing a deep clean on his room before we went to China in 2005 and I know Brian and I both have worked on it several times since then but it was still full. Under the bed, the closet, every nook and cranny. I even shared on FB one night how a while back I found a box of rocks in his room. Yes, a box of ROCKS. Needless to say, we took everything out of his room and I made him go through it with me, piece by piece, asking him if it was something he was keeping, donating or throwing out. For some reason it seemed much easier to make that decision when he knew if he was keeping it that he was going to have to take it back to his room! Not sure how many bags we hauled off to Goodwill but there were several. And bags of trash, I think there were just as many!

GO - ORGANIZE!

We started the process of switching bedrooms around for the kids. Ryan's room is just a little bit bigger and will better accommodate two twin beds. So, Ryan and I completely emptied the girls room the other night and they are all bunking in his room for now while we get his 'new' room ready. New bedding was ordered and has arrived. New paint bought. New ceiling fan. The previous owners of our humble abode did some pretty goofy things here, like splattering paint all over beautiful stained trim - so I spent some quality time the other night removing that. Now passing the ball to Brian to put a coat of finish on the trim and then paint. I wish I could take a picture of all 3 of them in Ryan's room. His bed is still on the frame, but I just moved Emma's mattresses for ease in transition and so while a twin bed, it looks smaller since it's on the floor and then there is Rebecca in her toddler size bed. Makes me think of the "3 Bears" when I look in there! Ryan made me promise not to take a picture though :-( But the girls, they are LOVING sharing a room with Ryan for now!

I Am Going: Well, was going to start on the dining room next but still not sure how to creat a home office area for me. We used to have a desk in the basement but I really need something that is in my "path". Plus, the basement was converted to a playroom anyway. Any ideas out there on creating a home office area when you do not want to devote a whole room to an office?

I Am Reading: Finished up "Go Organize" but have some others on my night stand to start. Just need to make a decision as to which one. Choices, choices.

I Am Hoping: That I do not grow weary in this organizing/purging process. Now that's funny. That's exactly what I said two weeks ago!

I Am Praying For: The people in Haiti and also for the families who are in the process of adopting from there.

I Am Hearing: Sounds of the Cowboys/Viking game as well as sounds of the girls playing with mixing bowls and dry beans in the kitchen. All those nice new toys from Christmas and they're playing with beans. Doesn't make a whole lotta' sense! I hear Rebecca calling Emma "honey" so they must be playing house too. What a blessing those little dumplings are.

Around The House: Laundry to finish and put away. The weekly task of going through the mail and paying bills. Back packs already packed for tomorrow morning.

One Of My Favorite Things: Watching the girls play so well together. There is the normal sibling friction from time to time but there are way more moments like what I'm watching now than there are of them fussing. Sisters from the get-go, what a blessing.

A Few Plans For The Rest of The Week: Ryan has an academic team scrimmage tomorrow and then basketball practice in the evening. Choir for Brian on Wednesday. Game for Ryan on Thursday, gymnastics for the girls. Ryan's birthday is on Thursday, he's turning 12!!! Saturday will be jam packed with it being a church work day, academic team meet for Ryan and a birthday party for the girls. Not sure when we're going to get some time in to celebrate Ryan's birthday!


I wrote about trying a "financial fast" a couple of weeks ago so I probably should mention that. Goodness, that was way harder than I expected it to be! But so glad we did it and it was fun to watch the kids get involved. One evening when I picked up the girls Rebecca asked if we could go out and eat and before I could answer, Emma reminded her we weren't spending money that week. It tickled the daylights out of me. Then when we did have to go to the store it was very difficult trying to stay within the $50 budget we had set. But we did it! Pretty close anyway, we went over by something like 23 cents so I'm still counting it a success! The good things that came out of it were breaking me of the habit of getting something from the vending machine at work, not eating out and we also cleaned quite a few things out of the pantry in the process. We may just make this a once a month thing!

Have a great week everyone!