A new year, A finished house, A new adventure

Happy 2016!

To be honest, I am surprised that this blog even still exists as infrequently as I update, but thankfully the good ol' Internet hasn't kicked me off yet. Which is good, considering that I have plenty to document in the coming months (and plenty to catch up on it when if I get around to it). So since nap time gives me a very small window to throw some of this out there, I'll start this year with a very quick recap of what is happening around here, in hopes that I can expound on it later, and do a catch-up post about the kiddos later this week, since that would take up an entire post on its own.

So since I left you all a little bit hanging and wondering when in the world this never-ending renovation is going to be finished, trust me, I felt the same way. We ripped the house to pieces in June, and it wasn't until the week of Christmas that the very last part of our kitchen was installed after many, many obstacles. Renovating a kitchen from the studs is no joke... and between the cabinet designers, manufacturers, installers, and getting on people's schedules, there are plenty of opportunities for things to get held up. But after many mishaps and even the wrong pieces being ordered and delivered at times, I am thrilled about how it turned out! I need to do an entire before and after post, but just in case that never happens, here's our finished project (and you can see some of the before pictures here if you want):

Isn't she beautiful? I can honestly say it's exactly what we had in our heads when we looked at the space, and that kitchen island is my favorite spot in the house. It's where we have most of our meals, do our schoolwork, and hang out with friends whenever they come over. It was worth every penny.

BUT... here's the really unexpected part of our house plans...

As of two days ago, this beautiful house and all of our hard work is under contract to sell to another family.  For the past month and a half, Josh and I have been praying about and preparing for a move to Birmingham, Alabama, and to be honest, one of the hardest things for me to wrap my mind around was leaving what we thought would be our forever home. And then on top of that, leaving the church that we started in the care of someone else. As you can probably guess, this was not something that either one of us saw coming or expected, which is why we purchased a home last spring.

So why the move? Over the past four years, really since the church started, Josh has been heading up the coaching and training for future church planters through the Association of Related Church (ARC). This is the same organization that helped plant us, both when we were in Illinois and again when we started our church here in Kentucky, and for me personally, the people we met through the organization and the resources they gave us were always like fresh breath in my lungs. I told Josh to run every travel opportunity by me before he committed, unless it was for ARC. The people at ARC care about these pastors that plant so much, and want to make sure that their families always stay healthy. I loved everything about it, and told him that we would always do whatever we could to help make their mission of planting 2000 churches by 2020 a reality. For a long time he was able to pastor our people here well and continue to help get these churches started, both of which he loved doing so much. But the reality was that our church continued to grow and more and more families continued pouring in, and more churches needed to be started and more planters were coming through. We did feel like eventually we would be forced to choose, but did not really know when that would be, until a couple of months ago.

Here's the thing... I love Lexington so much. When it came to picking a place that we'd call home, we fell in love with horse country. Aside from a couple of colder-than-usual winters, it is absolutely everything I wanted my hometown to be. And I love our church, and I have far too many great friends that I consider family that we have met through our church. Oh yeah, and then there's the house and that kitchen. Oh that dreamy kitchen. But when it came down to it, there is no doubt in my mind that Josh was made to do this. Church planting fans a fire inside him like nothing else, and he loves being a mentor and coach to those stepping out to plant a church. If we believe that the hope of the world will only be found through the growth of God's kingdom through the local church, then we have to do all we can to make sure great churches are started in every community. So although it's a hard thing, it's the right thing. I have not felt such a peace about a move or a decision like this since the time we decided to move here, and if these past four years are any indication of how much fruit obedience can bear, then I can't even imagine what is to come. Sowing and reaping... funny how I picked the name for this blog around the same time we planted here. 

I could go on and on, and there are way too many stories of confirmation and just really amazing things God has already worked out for us to make this the easiest "yes" possible, but he probably does a better job of it anyway, so I'll sign off for now with the clip from his sermon this weekend. 

Never say never. Never in a million years did I think I would marry a pastor, fall in love with Kentucky (since I lived here when I was younger and said I'd never consider it), help start a church that would grow to minister to thousands, and definitely not move to Alabama. I may be the only Vol fan in a sea of crimson there, so I know without a doubt that it's God doing the sending.

I challenge everyone to do something crazy-bold for God at some point this year. If He's whispering something to you, go for it. One tiny step can lead to another and another and before you know it, you're on the greatest adventure of your life. I'm so thankful I said "yes" to Josh when he asked me to marry him 6 weeks after we met. I'm thankful I said "yes" when it came to moving to Illinois. I'm thankful I said "yes" when we prayed about planting a church. It's always unexpected, but never fails to leave me in total and absolute awe of God's goodness.

So that's our next great adventure... hopefully I'll be better about keeping you posted this time around!

Progress!

It's amazing what a little paint on the walls and new flooring can do to a space! We actually have more done than these pictures show, but here is the work in progress. Our crown molding should be done this week and our furniture is in (but all piled in the middle of the room right now) so I should have before and after pictures of our space soon! Well, all except the kitchen, which is set to arrive at the end of August. Thankfully though it's starting to look like home!

View from the old kitchen. The room closes to view (the old dining room)
is the kitchen expansion and the room with the big window is the new dining room.

From the other direction... both rooms will be one big kitchen. Woo!

Our little floor model.

View from the back toward the front door.
The hallway is gray (or greige as they say) and the rooms are all a blue/gray color.

Jake cannot handle not being in any of the pictures. Neither can Mario.
And I spy a sleeping baby.

New floors, recessed lighting, and paint in the living room. So much better!

We're hoping to get everything moved in and situated over this next week. Stay tuned!

Because a New Baby is Not Crazy Enough

On the 1 year anniversary of the day that Josh and I MET, we had gotten engaged, married, he had taken a new job to plant a church campus, we bought a house, moved, and were pregnant with Jake. Yeah, it was nuts. When I was about 3 months pregnant with Lilly we felt like it was time to plant our own church, so at six months pregnant we moved again and started working on getting our church started with a 15-month-old son in tow. She was 5 months and he was almost 2 when we planted. Yeah, crazy again. So it's only fitting that in the same month that we had our newest addition, we also closed on a house... and then completely ripped out the downstairs and started renovating. Yeah, we have a problem.

We would have NEVER considered taking on this project if my husband did not know how to do most of the work involved. Plus, my father-in-law owns his own construction company, so we can get his guidance and assistance when we don't know how to do something (and by we, I mean Josh). It has become somewhat of a family project with Josh, his dad, my dad, our sister and brother-in-law, our nephew, a few friends, and even our kids helping out! It's not much to look at yet, but here are a few before and after shots of our project in process...

Family room before

All cosmetic changes happening here... carpet out, hardwood going down (in the entire downstairs actually), fan down, recessed lighting will be going in, cream colored trim and built-in shelving to all be painted white, walls to be painted (color TBD), chunkier wood for mantle will be installed

Here's more of the major changes: 

View from the front door before... a skinny hallway leading to the family room/kitchen area

Now... hall closet and built-in shelving removed to make it more open

Here is the view from the back of the house looking toward the front door. The front hallway is at least double in size! Looking at this picture, that family room is to the left from where it was taken. The kitchen is to the right and that door goes to the basement.

This is basically where I was standing to take that shot above. 

It's a bit dark, but that is our kitchen before:

Up close, it was a TINY kitchen and the refrigerator awkwardly stuck out. There was a doorway to the dining room to the left of the refrigerator. When we made our offer, we knew we would want to expand the kitchen eventually, and since we have the house we are renting through the end of July, we just decided to go ahead and do it now. So out went the wall between the dining room and the kitchen, and the old dining room will make our kitchen over twice the size:

Bye-bye old kitchen wall

Before: the old dining room, taken from where the kitchen door used to be:

After: standing in the middle of the old kitchen, looking at the new addition to the kitchen. That third room in the front will become our new dining room down the road. When we move in, we may use it as more of a TV room for the kids since the new kitchen will have an island with seating:

And from the other angle. This is taken from the new dining room. You can see the front hallway to the right, and Jake doing something weird on the stairs. The dining room is gone, but Jake is staying.

I love that you can now see that gorgeous window from every room!

Soooo... it's probably hard to see from the pictures, but that's where we are at right now. Next up is paint, paint, and more paint. And I mean it when I say we are painting every room in the house! When we moved in it was white, white, white everywhere, with cream trim. Look at the difference white trim will make... seeing them side by side makes the old cream-colored doors look dirty! And we'll be putting on new hardware, too.

I'm going to try and update when I can, so it could be days or months... you just never know with me! It's a family affair though, so everyone is expected to do their part!

Although some people are doing more than others!

 Just another month and this place will be home! Can't wait!

Laughable

It was so exciting… the idea of an impending snowstorm, inches of accumulation predicted, sub-freezing (and even some sub-zero) temperatures to make sure the snow stayed around for awhile… I was so excited to go to bed last night! The wind was howling and it was coming down as I closed my curtains, but when I opened them this morning, I could STILL. SEE. GRASS. Now that just ain't right. In my opinion, if it's going to be this crazy cold (we had a high of three today, which is unheard of in these parts) we need to have snow. And lots of it. Instead we had this:

Are you kidding me, weatherman?? To call this a snowstorm is laughable. 

As a side note, our kids are polar bears. We went outside simply to try the freezing bubble trick, which really did not work for us, and they would have stayed out for an hour. My face felt like it was going to fall off after about 10 minutes, so the kids had to come inside, too. At least we burnt a little energy though!

This town acts like the apocalypse is coming whenever there is an impending snow. Granted, the city does not have much removal equipment, so the roads aren't cleared as quickly as they are up north. But seriously, I think everyone and their mom was at Wal-Mart the night before buying milk and bread. Apparently that's all you eat during a snowstorm. I didn't know that until moving here. Perhaps I've become a bit of a winter-snob, if there is such a thing, after spending a couple of years in a  town that truly has winter. So today, to reminisce, I revisited this post:

http://theseedsyousow.blogspot.com/2011/02/it-definitely-was-blizzard.html

I'm not sure which made me more sad… seeing that gorgeous house we loved so much, the winter wonderland, or the little chunky-monkey baby Jake. My how he's grown since then. Those sweet cheeks definitely take the cake on that one.

I know there is a lot of winter left, so my fingers are crossed for at least one good snow this year. In the meantime, if there is not going to be snow on the ground, can we at least be in the 40's? Please, and thank you!

February Photo Ops: Day 7 - 9

[February 7 - Button]

I didn't realize how many buttons there were to choose from until this topic came up.  There are phone buttons (many of which are now touch screen), remote control buttons, buttons in the car, all over the kitchen, etc.  And then there are buttons on clothing, furniture, etc.  For this challenge, however, I chose this button:

Ohhh Disney World... how I miss you so.  I spent many a-weekend there with my girlfriends before getting married and one of those weekends fell on my birthday.  In a word, it was perfection.  Mostly because if it's your birthday, you get a "free" button.  That only costs the price of your ticket.  Yes, I am a sucker.

[February 8 - Sun]

This side of Kentucky did not see the sun once yesterday, which is odd since it had been sunny all week.  I'm cool with the dreary weather as long as that means it will clear up in time for our church launch this Sunday.  So instead, I took a picture of the little plastic sun that I hung on Lilly's bouncy seat:

Well, now that I look at it, it looks more like a flower.  Po-tay-to Po-tah-to.  And yes, those chubby cheeks belong to my own little ray of sunshine.

[February 9 - Front Door]

Ummm... nothing special here.  Just a blue door that's not even decorated.  Me thinks I need to step it up.

Seeing this makes me miss this door [sigh]:

Which reminds me... have I mentioned that we sold the world's greatest house?  It was one of the saddest happiest moments of my life.  And it is proof that God's timing is perfect.  When setting out to plant a church we had budgeted up until this month to cover that mortgage.  I surprisingly did not stress like I thought I would and as He always does, God was faithful and stepped in when we needed to.  It reminds me to never be surprised, but to always be amazed by Him.  

"Now glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think."

(Ephesians 3:20)

Home

I have to admit, when Josh and I got married, we hit the jackpot in terms of our first home.  While most couples spend the first season of their marriage in a tiny apartment or condo, our first years of husband and wife have been spent in a beautiful, and very large, Victorian house... complete with the picket fence.  Upon first seeing it we both fell in love.  Josh has even called it his dream home on more than one occasion and I could honestly be happy staying in that house forever.  But alas, it is now adorned with a For Sale sign in the front yard.

This past week we spent about two solid days looking for a new house here in Lexington.  We knew the area we wanted to live in, had our "wish list" of criteria, and moved very quickly in order to find something that would be available for us starting in August.  Rental houses in this area, particularly in the neighborhood where we want to live, go quickly, so we knew that if we found anything we liked, we would need to act fast.  We were this close to settling on a house that would certainly be comfortable for us, but still not everything that we needed it to be, when one more ad caught my eye.  We were on our way to drop off our rental application on the first home when we swung in and toured what will be our new home for at least the next year... if not longer.  Again, it's more than we could have ever imagined and is perfect for our needs.  We feel blessed.

As we were debating the pros and cons of the houses we toured, it occurred to me that at this stage of my life, I could be happy anywhere.  Sure, space is nice to have and we would love it if the kids could have their own rooms, which as it turns out they will.  A fenced-in yard is ideal and room for a home-office is important, but if we had to do without either one, we would survive.  As I compared the options, I was just struck by how at this point in my life, my home is wherever Josh and Jake are... and that's why those first shoebox-apartment days for many married couples work out just fine.  As long as I have them under one roof, whether that roof be big or small, all is good in the world.  Sure, I'll miss our big Victorian, but as we transition here it is feeling like much less of a home and much more like a house.  And if anyone would like to buy it feel free... haha!  But seriously.

To that point, I would be lying if I told you that we don't have our concerns about having a mortgage, rent, and two sets of bills.  My maternity leave is right around the corner and it's a lot to prepare and plan for.  We have been saving for this situation for months, but as the start date on our lease draws closer, the reality of our situation becomes more and more apparent.  I am typically someone who worries about money, and was particularly bad about it when we got married.  I've always been used to having somewhat of a "reserve" saved up and do not like to see it dip below a certain amount.  With all this being said, I have been truly amazed at what God has been able to do in this area.  He truly started working on me as I became a diligent tither, and time and time again, He has provided and honored our giving.  Our prayers are still for our house to sell, but even though that hasn't happened, He has continued to bless me with a great peace about this move.  I expected to be a total and complete stress-ball right now, and instead I am nothing but excited about the move, our new home, and most importantly, the new work we are doing here.  While we did not see a large number of people come to our first meeting, the right people certainly showed up and have the passion and connections that we needed them to have... God definitely provided once again (as He always does) and things are moving in the right direction.  It seems like the more we continue to diligently and joyfully give, and the more we step out in faith, the more peace I have filling my soul.  I know I should not be surprised by this, as it is what His word says, but His love never fails to amaze me.  We are feeling tremendously blessed.

We're heading back to Illinois next week to pack up our first home and prepare for the move to our second.  So come August first we will be going from this:

To this:

Truck not included  :)

We're giving up a bedroom (as if we needed them all in the first place!) and quite a bit of square footage, but we are gaining more closet space than I could have ever dreamed of... Josh and I will actually be able to share one and have room to spare!  We have quite a bit of painting to do as every wall in the house is white (and Kim does not do white!), but it is nice to have a blank canvas which gives me the opportunity to pick out all of the colors.  We'll be paying for that upgrade, even though we're just renting, because my hubby knows how important the "cozy factor" is to me.  I am one lucky woman.

It will be bittersweet to pack up our things and leave a house, town, and friends that we have grown to love, but as the details of what we're moving toward continue to unfold, I am so very excited to be home again... in Kentucky.

 ³ Trust in the LORD and do good;
   dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
⁴ Take delight in the LORD,
   and he will give you the desires of your heart.

{Psalm 37:3-4}

Somebody Stop Me...

My name is Kim... and I am in full-blown, OCD, crazed nesting mode.

I do remember this happening to some extent when I was pregnant with Jake, but this time around it has taken on a whole new level of crazy!  Take today for example... let's see... today (aside from working from home and taking care of Jake) I cleaned all of the kitchen appliances and then wiped down the washer and drier which reside in our creepy basement.  Our front porch also got a nice little sweeping and clearing of some cobwebs and then I added "deck paint" to my shopping list so that I can do a fresh coat on the railings tomorrow.  Speaking of paint, there has been a patched portion of a wall upstairs that has been driving me nuts for some time, so today I finally sanded it down and put a coat of paint over it.  Hmmm... what else?  Oh yeah, I started cleaning all of the downstairs windows, but that is still a work in progress.  I can thank my friend Chelsea for that since she mentioned that she likes nothing more than sparkling windows.  Until that comment I had probably never noticed dirty windows.  Thanks, friend... now that's all I can see!  Then I decided to Murphy Oil our kitchen cabinets.  But why stop there?  If you have ever been to this old house or have seen pictures, you would know that it is covered in wood.  IN. EVERY. ROOM.  We're talking window frames, baseboards, cabinetry, and intricate woodwork in every doorway.  So yeah, what did I do?  I oiled all of it!  My back may not forgive me for that one.  But now that I had shiny wood, shouldn't I have floors to match?  Which brings me to ten o'clock at night when I started sweeping and mopping the floors.  Can we say psycho?  Someone just needs to tell me to go to bed already!

I guess the good news is that if our house shows again any time soon, it should sparkle like the Emerald City.  Part of me wondered if this behavior was due to the helpless feeling that comes when your house is on the market, but then I look back at the past three weeks when I haven't been at my own home and really do blame it on the nesting.  My sister, Angie, is a bit overwhelmed at the level of psycho-organization that has been going on with me as her houseguest.  Our big project was cleaning out the playroom, painting it, and organizing the closet, but the rest of her house is getting small changes as well.  I even dusted the other day!  When is the last time I dusted?  And it wasn't even my own house?I   just hope that this is not a reflection of my sweet baby Lilly's personality.  I am a mom who appreciates tidiness, but I don't think I need to give birth to Monica Gellar.  One in our household is enough.

Other than that, I guess I haven't given a bump update in awhile, so while I'm thinking about it, here are my confessions from 26 weeks:

• Nesting is my middle name.  I guess you've gathered that by now.
• I am not proud to say that I have gained almost as much weight as I did in my total pregnancy with Jake.  There have been three occasions now when someone finds out I'm due in September (and I fail to tell them that it's actually late September... or October 2nd if you want to get all technical) and they gasp in shock.  Two of them actually told me that they thought I was due in the next few weeks.
• Based on the above, I am trying to walk more and eat less crap.  When you're moving though and temporarily living in a household with two growing boys, it's impossible to get away from it.
• Speaking of food, I do crave fruit a lot and am loving Mexican food this time around, which is funny since I despised it with Jake!  I'm also liking popsicles and thankfully Minute Maid makes them without sticks.  Random fact #264 about Kim: she hates food on wooden sticks.  Just the thought of it makes my teeth hurt.  But my biggest (and worst) craving?  Coke.  Oh yes, there is nothing like a Coke, especially one from a fountain and a bonus if it's of the cherry variety.  I try to stay away but it calls to me.  Ready or not, Lilly might just be a ten-pounder!
• Overall I feel really good.  Lifting and carrying Jake around is getting a bit tiring, but it's probably because our little beefcake is a whopping 27 pounds and 11 ounces!  He had an appointment the other day and I was quite impressed with that stat!  He's in such a lovey phase though, so I take advantage of the cuddles.  He doesn't seem to mind the belly much but has recently discovered and taken an interest in my belly button.  He will lift my shirt, poke it, and then cover it up again.  It's pretty funny.
• My biggest surprise has been that Lilly is quite a mover!  I didn't feel Jake until about 22 weeks and I felt her little bumps at around 18.  And then even crazier, I could see her move starting at about 21 weeks!  Josh saw it, too, and now several other people have seen her roll across my belly!  If you want to feel her kick you're guaranteed a show around 3:00 each afternoon and lots of movement before bedtime.  I love it, but wonder how bruised I'm going to be when she's more than just two pounds!  Ouch!

I have no belly photo to post today, but perhaps tomorrow I'll take one and add it to this post.  Nobody needs to see the mess that I am after all the cleaning I've been doing!  But for now, I'm going to take my own advice and get my booty to bed... after I fold the laundry and clean the bathroom of course.  Kidding!  Yeah, I'm not convinced either.  So belly pictures to come... goodnight for now!

Unfinished Business

Lately I have come to realize that I have gotten really bad at finishing things that I start.  Take this blog for example... I used to post on here regularly and now it seems like it's once in a blue moon.  Granted, I don't feel like I have much blog-worthy stuff to say, but surely I can find something!  Or my Project365 which lasted all of, what?  Three weeks?  Awesome.  Or the P90X workout that I started last summer... let's see, that ended up being about P3X since it lasted a whopping 3 days.  Now I do know that having a kid puts a whole new dimension of time demands on a person, and that comes on top of working a full-time job from home, keeping house, and trying to serve the church a bit as well as my husband, but how much of this slackerness is acceptable?  Let's take a look around the house, shall we?

Ah yes, my office-slash-playroom.  See the curtains on the right side of the room?  Yeah, well I ordered one too-few panels and was supposed to either find someone to chop the existing panel in two and hem the edge or (more likely) get online and order a second panel.  Yeah, neither have been done.  Not to mention that I had grand plans to organize this mess and that hasn't happened yet either.

Which leads me to another room in the house- the spare bedroom and possibly Jake's room when the new baby comes along.  It's hard to see in this tiny picture, but when we painted the room blue, there was a shelf up that I couldn't get down.  So when my father-in-law last visited in December, I had him take it down, fully intending to spackle and paint those spots.  Yup, it's now four months later.  I think it may be about time to "get around to it."

Moving on... our beautiful remodeled bathroom.  By the time we had completed this we were both over it.  Especially Josh.  So I told myself that I would do the touch-up work later.  Yeah well, that was last fall... long before that shelf in the above picture came down.  And there is still orange on the white and the ceiling still needs a top coat of paint.  Just don't look up when you're in this room, okay?

This one actually makes me laugh a little bit because it is a room that is finished, just not in this picture.  I took this picture ages ago as a "before" picture for the blog, have since repainted and redecorated and still have yet to take and post the "after" picture.  Seriously- how hard is that?

 And it's not just house stuff if you're wondering that by now.  It's little things, too.  For example, this is a photo of my Nana's birthday card, still yet to be mailed.  My Nana's birthday was in January!  Not to mention that she's been in the hospital over this past month and I'm sure a little mail would cheer her up.  Ridiculous.

And while I'm on the topic of birthdays, not only did I totally forget to do birthday blog posts for both sisters in March, but both are still waiting on their gifts.  Well, they're not really waiting because we don't expect anything from each other, but I still have yet to get anything in the mail to them (along with some money I owe one of them).  This bag has been sitting on my dining room table mocking me... I just need to get it in a box and mail it already!  And I know exactly what I want to get the other sister and just haven't gone out to pick it up yet.  Another thing on my ever-growing "To Do" list.

As a mom, time really does get away from you more often then not, but when surveying my surroundings lately I've realized that I use this "lack of time" as an excuse!  Even when it comes to the important things such as my daily Bible study, which is now weekly if I'm lucky.  It took me months to finish Numbers, and granted, it's not the most exciting book in the Bible, but it should not have taken nearly that long!  So I've decided I need to hit the "Reset" button and start finishing these things that I've started... no more excuses.  In fact, I'm going to rid my life of excuses all together.  Some things are unavoidable of course- I mean, I can't go to Hawaii if someone asks me because I don't really have the funding for that, but things like that aren't excuses but rather reality.  But when I can, I plan to start being more proactive and persevere until I finish my projects.  We'll see how it goes... I'll keep you posted.  In fact, I think I'm going to start right. this. minute.  So here's my commitment for tonight... this project has been calling my name for some time now:

Gotta go!  Can't put it off any longer!

What projects can you get finished this week?

Undeck the Halls

The holidays are here and gone... can you believe it? And usually with the return of January 3rd or 4th comes a little bit of let-down. The family has left town or you have traveled home, the cookies and yummy treats that you've allowed yourself to indulge on for the past month have all been gobbled up, and those Christmas decorations that were fun to put up are now just taunting you with the task of taking them back down. But for some reason this year, I actually enjoyed taking them down. Christmas and New Year here in Mauneyland were spectacular, and it was a nice break from the norm, but I realized as I "undecked the halls" that I love the norm... the norm is good. Often times I can get so caught up in checking out other blogs and reading about other lives that I forget how good I have it here. I have blogging friends that seem to have it all, do it all, and have perfect hair and cute outfits all the while I sit here in my sweats and continuously figure out a way to squeeze in three minutes of me-time to blog or workout or whatever!

But then I think about the things I blog about... my wonderful family, our fun vacations, our beautiful house... and I realize that anyone reading my blog might think the same about me. I wade through our mounds of pictures to find the ones where I look the cutest, regardless of how everyone else looks (oh come on, you do it, too!) and I talk about our happiest times. With this, I do hope that I never sound like I'm boasting or bragging, because I certainly do not want to come across that way, but looking back over the past year of posts, I can see how much joy we've shared here. Regardless of whatever other struggles we are going through, and believe me, we have them just like everyone else (as to my perfect blogger friends), there is so much laughter and an abundance of joy and I love that it has been captured here in my own little blogoshere. I used to keep a journal about all of the things that I am thankful for day-to-day, but this is so much better, and it makes me excited for the "norm" of 2011. It's a new year, and with that comes such hope, such excitement, and such a feeling that anything can happen. So as you take down your ornaments this year or get beat up by pine needs as you try desperately to unwrap the lights from its grip (yes, this already happened to me), just keep your eyes focused on the promise that is to come. And most importantly, fix your eyes on Jesus and the promises of His father. I find that my years are full of joy and happiness because I continue to keep my priorities straight. And just think... if I focus even more of my day-to-day norm on Him, 2011 will be more blessed than I can even fathom. I can't wait!

And just because I love posts with pictures (and because I never got around to it in December), here are a few snapshots of our home before the undecking. Our home is truly more cozy at Christmastime...

Our snowman and woman guard the candy, but don't ever seem to do a good job. These two lucky fellows were forgotten about when we put away stuff in 2009, so they got to stay out all year long, even through the summer!

The lighted garland up our banister is always my favorite!

We don't have one- but two!- mantles to decorate. I contemplated leaving the lighted garland up all year round because it looks so bare without it!

And let's not forget the stockings!

My mom has made all of our stockings over the years. As we got married, she lovingly crafted each of our husbands their very own. And then came grandkids and of course she did the same. I searched everywhere for this one as it was a "vintage" kit (meaning they don't make it anymore) and found it on eBay. I think it's now my favorite.

And here's where the real fun begins... and a quick story. This is our living room... or was our living room until the week before Christmas. When my sister and her husband were here, they asked us if we had ever considered putting the pool table in this room and our living room furniture in the room where our pool table resided. We had always felt like our living room was pretty cramped, and the room with the pool table really served no purpose as we rarely play and it is smack in the middle of our house. So within two hours the four of us had made the switch- light fixtures and all! So for Christmas we not only got lots of presents... but we got more space! I don't really have "before" pictures of the rooms before the change (aside from this one) because it all happened so fast! So here's the old living room decorated before...

The tree in its new spot in what used to be the "billiard room"...

And the room undecked! This picture is taken from the old living room, which is the new home to our pool table... confused yet? Our new living room is so much bigger. Thank you, Mike and Mindy for all of your help! We love it!

And one more shot from the dining room. Our living room is now in a much more central location in our house and much more conducive for family and friend gatherings. Why didn't we think of this sooner? Plus (and ironically enough) our furniture actually matches the new rooms better... I never liked the green with the red pool table and the old living room was too beige. Problem solved!

So that's our extreme home makeover for 2011... new year, new living space, new hope! :) I wish you all the best for your 2011, too! Make everyday count!