OH What Makes a Homekeeper's Heart Flutter!!

Isn't this the cutest broom set you've EVER seen?? (Not that I spend my time comparing brooms....much....) I was at Home Goods yesterday and came upon this wonderfully delightful little set and bought them for my new house! We needed a new one anyway so I thought, "It might as well be REALLY cute!" I have never had one of these thingies that you put your broom and mop in but the house already has it! The seller also left a newish mop...something I needed as well! I also bought an ironing board cover with roses on it but I'm not going to put it on the ironing board until we actually move. It's also pretty. HEY...anything to actually encourage me throughout the day HAS to be a good purchase!

I made vegetable soup this week and used this little chopper to speed up the preparation time! I originally bought it to chop up baby food but it comes in handy to chop small amounts of carrots, onions, etc!

TA DA!!!! I got one of the bathrooms at the new house clean! I went to FOUR different stores to look for a new shower curtain but #1. I couldn't find an affordable one. #2. I couldn't find one I was in LOVE with!! (I know what I would like to have but I haven't been able to find it! ) So, I purchased just a cute plastic one for now. I'm not "thrilled" with the blue in the bathroom...but I like it well enough so we are keeping it for now. I think the seller had just painted it and since we have so much to do in the new house and in the old house, not having to paint that room is a blessing! It looks bright and "happy" to me!

I also bought hand towels for $1 each at Bed Bath and Beyond. (The kids aren't used to sharing the bathroom so I'm trying to make things as simple as possible...use clean hand towels...pick up after yourself...etc.... Sometimes I just need to "spell it out" for them!)

Well, Roger is urging everyone to get up and moving this morning...it is a "Work Day" at our new house! (So I'd better go!! "Blogging" does not count as work, evidently!!)

Blessings!

Beth

THE HOUSE IS OURS and ADOPTION STORIES!!

Yesterday was a busy and stressful day! We closed on our house and I spent the rest of the day running around as a Mommy taxi service! I had been thinking it was Tuesday and didn't realize that it was Thursday until I made Becca late for her trumpet lesson!! It was a good day, though, and I am sooo excited to own "the little blue house in the country." We took all of the younger kids to see it and they were pleased as well. Gideon's room is painted a soft lavender and I teased him that I would go buy him pretty lace curtains today. He said, "Oh...good...I love lace...." in a monotone voice! I think it will be painted two toned blue soon.

Since there has been such a layer of ice everywhere here in Indiana, we are giving the seller a few extra days to get his things out. But I think I will at least go and clean bathrooms and the kitchen cabinets today! I'm going to be very busy with Grandbabies on the weekend!



I went to a wedding shower for a young lady at church last night and I was talking to her Mom. I was telling her about the new house and that we are planning to adopt. She said "Adoption is very near to my heart...I was adopted!"

I had no idea! I asked her if she was adopted as an infant and she said, "No...I was nine."

She went on to tell her story very briefly to me and then said something that brought me to tears. She was talking about her adoptive mother and she said, "She knew I wouldn't have had a good life. Not only did she change MY life, but she changed the life of all of my CHILDREN!" (She has six...)



Being the blubbering emotional person that I am, of course, I got all teary eyed. That is exactly how I feel about the little girl God has waiting for US to adopt! I think she is in Africa...that is where we feel that God is leading us...and her life will forever be changed! She will have a Mommy and Daddy that adore her and all these older siblings to love her as well!

So many of the orphaned girls in Africa are immediately forced into prostitution as soon as they are released from the orphanages. AIDS is rampant there...most likely she would not know Christ as her Savior and she will die an early death...except that the Lord has other plans for her!

(She's going to grow up in "the little blue house in the country!!" More importantly, she will be taught about Jesus!)



Adoption is so beautifully depicted in the Bible since WE are ADOPTED into God's family through the death of Jesus...and our acceptance of his GIFT of SALVATION.

What would MY future be like if HE had not ADOPTED me?? What would my past have been like if someone hadn't cared enough to tell my parents' about the Lord and Salvation?



It's pretty humbling to think of that. Sometimes I feel myself feeling a little bit prideful...like when the residents of the home I used to work in would watch one of those tv shows like Maury or Jerry Springer. I would think, "How can people behave like that way on tv? I would never do that!"



But in reality, we are ALL capable of doing ANYTHING and it is only by the Grace of GOD that we do NOT act like that! I am no better than those people...I'm just different because I have been adopted into God's family! I COULD HAVE BEEN BROUGHT UP JUST LIKE THEM...but someone told my parents' about God.



Well, I'm done preachin' now...and I've got to get to cleanin' now!!



After my cup of English Breakfast Tea in my pretty teacup......



Blessings to you all!

Beth

He's WALKING!!!!

The snowy/icy days made me miss my little buddy Brody last week! He was very lucky, though, and got to spend time with his Mommy and his other Grandma! However, he learned to walk while I didn't have him!! sniff sniff...weep, weep....
He is such a sweet tempered little boy!

It is an incredible blessing to have grandkids! We are now blessed with 5 of them, Dylan-7, Seraphina-2, Brody just turned 1- Liam-9 months, and Gabe who is just two weeks old! We were able to see Seraphina and Gabe yesterday after church!
I am going to spend the night with Liam this weekend so Mommy and Daddy can have a "date."
I'm thinking about kidnapping him FOREVER!!! I'm afraid they'd figure out who had him, though, and since hid Daddy is a policeman, I'd be in BIG BIG trouble!!

Our closing for our house is this Thursday and then we have lots of painting to do! I'm excited but a little scared about this new chapter in our lives. It's a lot easier to just do nothing, isn't it?

Speaking of doing nothing, I have lots of work to do in this house today!
Blessings,
Beth

Snowy snowy Saturday!

I admit it...this is NOT an award winning dessert...it isn't even very attractive...but it sure tasted good! I have never attempted a baked cheesecake....obviously....but I wanted to make something for our Ladies Missionary Luncheon today. So last night I decided that I would bake a cheesecake. I didn't have all the ingredients on hand to make it so I improvised. (That is my excuse for it being less than lovely...) Anyway, I actually used several tablespoons of my homemade strawberry jam to flavor it and I added some chocolate chips. It's very ugly but very yummy and it was a hit! I didn't even have enough cream cheese so I used some whipped cream cheese for bagels and cream cheese fruit dip that I had left over from a fruit tray as well as a package of cream cheese. Talk about "Yankee Ingenuity", right? It was a fun thing to try and next time maybe I will follow a recipe.......

We woke up early this morning to MORE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Roger and Gideon went to a men's prayer breakfast and while they were gone, the Heavens opened wide and dumped lots of snow on us just in time for the Ladies' Missionary Luncheon. (so much that our missionary lady couldn't come....) We had a good time anyway and I talked to ladies that I usually don't sit with so I really got to know some of them better!

Isn't this incredible?? This was taken on my way home from the luncheon...from my car window!

This county road hadn't been plowed and the snow was so deep that I could hear it dragging under the car! I wasn't sure I was going to make it home! In the distance you can just barely make out a truck coming and I was really worried that we were not going to make it past each other without someone driving into the ditch! We were fine, though!

I leaned out the side door of our little church to take this one. Can you believe how high the snow is piled? It came up over the bottom of some of the windows.

This is the old part of our little church. I think it's about 150 years old or so. We had our Luncheon in this old auditorium (which is also where they have their tiny Christian school!)

We probably had about 25 ladies today...all braving about 5 inches of snow that fell this morning and early afternoon!

But isn't it adorable with all the snow? It kind of looks like a little Christmas card! On Sunday mornings one of the young men in our church (a homeschool boy!!) rings the church bell. (Not that we get to hear it very often...we are usually running a bit late......) It's a happy sound, though, when we do hear it and the young man takes his job very seriously! He also helps keep the sidewalks shoveled and salted! (AND he's a farmboy!!) (I keep telling my teenage daughters that HE is a young man to watch...from a distance for a while....but still......)

They just roll their eyes and remind me that I have also told them I wanted them to marry one of the "Duggar" boys (of "19 Kids and Counting")..... Well, A MOMMA CAN DREAM, CAN'T SHE???????? I'm sure that there are a LOT of Mommas and Daddies wanting to fix their children up with one of those kids. They're pretty incredible!!

Well, I suppose I should take advantage of the quiet house right now and get some work done. I'd rather take a nap. However, since I am going to start packing for our move, I want to sort through my scrapbook and photo things. I went through some of my fabric and have reduced it to just one tub!

Have a lovely, blessed day!

Beth

It's a "ROOZYFUL" day!

Trinket Kitty...doesn't SHE look cozy? She is pretty excited, however, that she can hear birds outside our windows!

Ice cycles on the side of our house!!

A work of art!

The view from our front door! The sunlight has been blinding! This is ICE...not snow!!!!

"Too much effort to look at the birds..." she thought.

The sun is shining silver on the frozen yards, streets, fields, and houses here in central Indiana this morning and I am thinking it seems like a ROOZYFUL day!
Becca and I are about to head out to a "Tom Sawyer" play in an hour or so! It is a production for public schools but they are allowing some of us who homeschool to attend as well! "Tom Sawyer" is a book that the kids in Becca's age group are reading, studying, and disecting this term so when the chance came up to go to this play, we eagerly took it! We haven't been on a "field trip" all year so this is wonderful!
Are you wondering what "Roozyful" means?? I don't know either...It's NOT really a word but it seems like a cute, pleasant kind of a thought to me! (I discovered it when I had to "type in the letters that appear" when I commented on someone's blog and there it was! Roozyful!)
It reminds me of Mary Englebreit's drawings...wimsical, cozy, etc...like drinking a nice hot cup of tea with my cat, a quilt and the latest copy of Victoria Magazine!
When the sun is shining and melting the frozen tundra, it just seems like "Roozyful" is a fitting kind of word for how I'm feeling!
Have a lovely, roozyful kind of day!
Beth

ICE STORM, CURRENT HOUSE AND NEW HOUSE!!

Central Indiana was hit with a pretty hard ice storm the last few days! The roads are completely covered with ice and not much traffic is moving! This is our current house with Roger and Gideon trying to dig out of the ice/snow. The ice/snow is so hard that they are walking on inches and inches of hard stuff without falling through! (I, on the other hand, have been keeping toasty warm in our house...with the exception of taking these pictures!) Jennie, Gideon and I all dug out the sidewalk yesterday. Becca has been sick so I didn't have her help out!

This is our "old" (current) house...Roger owned this house before we married almost 4 years ago. We then added two bedrooms, a big bathroom, and a huge family room on the back. It's a wonderful size but it is something we can live without. We've been trying to follow God's leading in our lives and downsizing. (Basically trying to live debt free...enabling us to adopt!)

This is a LOT of ice piled up on my poor little van!!

This is the inside of our new "old" house! I got the order of the pictures mixed up when uploading them. This was supposed to be the last picture! Anyway, this is the living room. The walls will be painted dark blue and the cabinets at the end will be white. Sadly, the man who owned this house before did a lot of work before losing it. It is still in process of the work that we will finish.

Two years ago I came upon this fabric at my all time favorite store...GOODWILL! I have probably 20 yards of the center plaid fabric and I purchased it for $9.99!! It is Waverly! When we eventually add a family room behind the kitchen, I plan to make curtains out of this. The flowered coral colored fabric will be my kitchen curtains with a little bit of trim from some of the others thrown in! I think I will make some pillows as well. I had intended to recover a cute little settee with the huge amount of plaid that I purchased but realized that I would be covering the same kind of fabric, different color, that didn't wear well at all! So, it is going to be on our windows instead! I think I spend less than $20.00 for all of it and there is a LOT of it! God knows our future, doesn't he, and provides for us! I had no idea that I would be making things for a different home! Praise the Lord!

Most likely, we will paint the kitchen cabinets white, the walls (which are knotty pine) the darker green, and the walls into the kids' bedrooms the lightest green.



THIS IS OUR NEW (OLD) HOUSE! (We will be closing on it next week!)

Lots of work to be done, a new covered porch, new siding (probably green), some windows need to be replaced, and the sliding glass doors removed and replaced with wall and windows to match the end windows. None of it needs to be done right away and if God directs otherwise, I'm happy to live in it just as it is!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?? SHOULD WE PAINT THE WOOD?? I'M LEANING TOWARD PAINTING IT, ROGER REALLY WANTS TO PAINT IT, BUT SOME HAVE TOLD ME THAT IT WOULD BE HORRIBLE TO PAINT SUCH NICE WOOD. (I kinda think that you have to be happy with it...paint isn't very expensive and it would really brighten up the kitchen!)

Another view of the kitchen. We will certainly paint the cabinets, most likely white. The appliances are really old but most likely we will keep them until they fall apart!
(The light fixtures really have to go......I feel really guilty that I'd be getting rid of something functional but......)

Isn't this gorgeous?? Lovely little corner cabinet! I can't wait to get started! We're not sure if we are going to paint this, too. I just think that this painted wood would make our home so cozy looking, as well as cottagey!

Well, the schools have just been called off for yet another day. My hubby has been home today as well. Poor Becca, since she is homeschooled, school for her must go on!! Unfortunately, we had a Missions Conference scheduled for our church this week and it hasn't been able to happen because of the dangerous ice!

Have a lovely day, keep warm and safe!!

Oh, by the way, Missy....when we had our new house inspected, there was no dead mouse in the kitchen drawer any longer. It makes me wonder, though, since I hadn't been in the house since mid November, how long does it take for mouse remains to just disappear?? Hopefully the realtor took care of it....

Blessings,

Beth