My home

My home is my sanctuary. My haven. my place of rest and the place where my kids and I are FREE to be. I like the quuote from "yours mine and ours"(new version) where she says "home is for freedom of expression, NOT first impressions". Whle I like the freedom in that, I feel like we need balance. My home is finally getting to be a place where I feel I can have guests. About three years ago, we began the decluttering process. I am so ashamed at how bad it really was. But I had made the bedooms and main rooms somewhat functional(but not great!) and the big family room was a complete pit. EVERYTHING went there. So, we began with giant construction grade bags. One for trash, one for Goodwill, one for putting other places(went to the garage for a while), then one for stray dirty clothes. It was awful how MUCH we had that was just not needed or beautiful. Yes, shameful. But I am guessing there are so many of us busy families that feel like that. Overwhelmed, not knowing WHERE to start and just feeling paralyzed. I read a few great books, Don Aslett's Clutters Last Stand, and How to lose 250 lbs this weekend were both good. Peter Walsh's It's all too much was AWESOME! Hannah Keeleys Hannah's Art of Home is great too. But really, when you are so swamped , it is hard to even READ, much less apply that knowledge to your own home! Add to that, my husband and I had very different ideas and standards.

So, I think a step-by-step of "getting your home how you want it" guide is needed. One for the real life people with real budgets, and with very little outside help(* big pet peeve here! I HATE when books say budget decorating, but they spent 15,000 on a single room! I need serious change for 100.00!!)

Step 1: begin with your bedroom!!! use trash bags or laundry baskets(I can never spare baskets for other things lol) for our room, we had reg sz black garbage bags.

1. trash

2.dirty clothes

3.goodwill donations

4.toys

5. books

After a few months of whittling this down, now my different categories fit into bank boxes which I reuse over and over(and they stack neatly so if you get interrupted they look decent in a corner) Set the kids up with an activity or movie and take off! Bag all those things. Tie them and take the toys to the garage for a while or the kids can put them in their rooms if you want . You are NOT to do this!!!! Goodwill stuff gets taken right to the car!! I MEAN it!!! dirty clothes, take to the laundry room and sort into loose piles of darks, lighs and whites so nothing wet gets seriously ruined by being in a plastic bag too long. trash take out immediately. Books, can be put back on the shelf. Bed needs to be stripped.(if you only have 1 set of sheets, put thse in the wash NOW)Then you take a break because that should have cleared a HUGE amount of space in your new sanctuary.

drink tea, read to kids, check email, eat. . . whatever. Then get back to it. This time, you look at the furniture. Do you really need all the stuff you have in your room? Are there things you DO need? Think outside the box when filling needs. We needed nightstands(have you priced those bad boys lately??) I know my husband is a piler, lol so knowing this, I don't WANT him having a large flat surface next to the bed, NOR do I want him to have another drawer to fill. So, I bought two wooden barstools at Goodwill and painted them barn red. Then topped each with a lamp. His has enough room for his clock, mine has enough room for my glasses and current book. They were 20.00. We have been using them for two years. Another thing-- dressers! another personal pet peeve. I HATE them. They are huge, dangerous, take up tons of space and really only provide a LARGE flat surface for my hubby to fill.(also they are expensive!!) We all use plasti cwhite stacking drawers in our closets. Kids can access them better and (hallelujah!) put their stuff away by age 2! They are cheaper and safer by far. So, my room got whittled down to my bed, my chair, my "nightstands", and hubby's computer table.(ok, that I hate but we are compromising and it may change) So, think a few minutes about your needs. Everyone's master bedroom needs to be a place for sleep, intimate time, and relaxing.(maybe reading) THAT IS IT! Your closet should be able to hold your dressing requirements. Your bathroom should hold your personal things. . . deoderant,make up. . .etc. Those things spread out on a dresser only kill moods and you may not even realize it. I painted my stark white room a nice green that I LOVE. It is muted and it makes me feel rested. If you want a tutorial on painting with kids email me! If you don't want to deal with paint, I understand. Just go with me on the other stuff. Needs:

1. bed(strong, and pretty are good qualities) as big as you have room for!

2. good mattress set

3. night stands

4. light blocking curtains

5. as high a thread ct sheets as you can afford

6. good mattress protector in case kids get in your bed

7. A comfy comforter

8. pretty quilt or coverlet blanket

9. good pillows (only however many you sleep with! throw pillows are high maintenance)

10. a cozy place to sit and reax(if you have room, GET A LOVESEAT!!! it makes a great place to talk to your spouse and sit close, but also as a kid's "sick bed")

11. a couple of things to hang up art or quotes that make you feel good. NO pictures of kids here! Just you and the honey are allowed here picture- wise.

12 a lock on your door!!

* think of what you would like if you could decorate your own room at a bed and breakfast retreat. Then do that in your room! Fountains, soft cozy rugs, pretty bedding. . . . etc

After you have declutteredand organized your room-- then have a little fun with getting new curtains and bedding. check http://www.overstock.com/ I have had AWESOME experiences. my quilt came from there it was 65.00 I think and is Antique Chic. My bed was 184 from there(KING SIZE!) My curtains were wal mart and 14.00 for two panels. Curtain rods came from Big lots. My chair came fom the local antique shop, and was the best 35.00 ever spent. "Night- stands" from Goodwill were 20.00 Paint and texture for my walls and ceiling were about 50.00. All of that was done over time. Because we work within a REAL budget. But having these plans keep me knowing exactly what I need, and what I should spend, and when something is a good buy. My mattress set was our most expensive part-- king sz and several years ago, was 500.00. Beginning with your room gives you a haven, a santuary to come to while you work on the rest of the house later.

So, make your bed with new smooth sheets, fresh comforter and quilt. Light a candle,spray your perfume on the pillows, and enjoy the view. FEEL the peace and quiet. The night we did this, I slept so deeply. The next morning, I woke up and looked around and actually FELT like I had been moved to a quiet cottage bedroom in some antique old B and B. It was glorious. It was after this first transformation, that My hubby began to see and feel differently about the house. This is the beginning of peace in the home. I promise. It offers destressing, intimate time, and real, sound sleep.

White socks

I also have lots of white with just lace and no bows.

Sweet feet

Hello Again! I have some socks ready! I have sz 6-12 mos, 2T-3T, and 4T-5T. Plus I have small(4T-5T ) camisoles. I am making these and selling them for our adoption fund. Socks are $5/pr, and camis are $6.00 each. email me if you are interested!

call to pray

Today I am weepy. No, it is't hormones! It is a profound deep move to pray. I am feeling this rumbling in my spirit so large it overwhelms me. I shudder at the uncertainty of it. But my God is bigger. I am ready to hide under the shadow of His wing and just pray. He is in control no matter what the economy is, the job we have or don't have, or the many needs we have. I am humbled by my prayers for our girls. I still have not even seen a picture of them. I pray for them like I do the children that already live here. I wonder if they know they have a praying mama? I am desperately trying to sort my thoughts and it seems my spirit just can't. I better go clean house and pray. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Baby Ballerina

Audrey(my niece) age 2 1/2 in her "dance suit" (um, minus a top) Lookin' pretty cute eh? Almost cute enough to forget the bubble bath in the potty trick. ;-)

FDA

Gotcha! You thought this would be about the Food and drug Administration eh? Nope, it is about a special part of our homeschooling I jokingly call FDA. Future drummers of America. My dear hubby, Dan was formerly in the ARMY band, and currently plays for our worship team. I have two kids who really love it. Moriah and Riley --and they both show serious gifting in this area. Olivia is our piano princess, Elijah is the guitar guy. Riley calls himself a drummer dude. MY girls both love to sing and dance. Isaiah is learning the 1-2 on drums, but he seems to like guitar(like uncle Joe) better. lol when he was a year old he broke Daddy's heart by holding the drum-stick like a GUITAR! here are a few drumming shots in our new music corner of the family room.

Moriah reading the Bible

Little miss Moriah decided to read the Bible. There was absolute chaos all around. Boys playing rowdy and all. But there in the middle, was my baby girl calm as ever, and looking so intent it almost looked like she was really reading. She was there for about 20 minutes! Pretty cute.

a day in the life of the Moore house

Today is Thursday. Not a special day as far as even the average human goes. But for a mama of a "big family"(I quote that because I feel Ihave *only* 5. lol), Thursdays are days that are coasting days. Mondays I hit the ground running with lots of hope for the week. Tuesday I figure we can hold that momentum at least. By Wednesday, I feel we are either doing well, or are OFF TRACK! Thursday, sadly, most of the time I just think we are waiting for Friday. This week. my dad is in the critical care unit having had his major surgery. It has been an emotional and exhasting week. My lesson plan book is empty. Mon says, "Papa in hospital" Tuesday "Captiol day", Weds "Papa still in hospital", Thursday, "Moriah sick, Dr at 2:15". My baby has horrible poison sumac again. All over her face. And she has what I assume to be bronchitis.(which means no more visits for me at Papa's room!) I have decided to borrow a friends idea(thank you Linn) and call it "Thankful Thursday" Today I am so very thankful my dad is alive. I am thanful God saw my family through the literal storm Tuesday. I am thankful for friends to talk with about scary subjects and have them be real. I LOVED havingthe kids who acted like kids at the state capitol.( ok, they could have been a smidge calmer!) They were real and funny, and I am happy to report the hall of busts is still standing even after the Moore family came through! I had internal images of them falling domino style after the first one being knocked over by one of my boys. I am so thankful for the blogging and twitter buddies God has sent my way. He knew what I needed! I am thankful He has seen fit to bless me with more children. I am moved to tears today, wondering what my girls down south are thinking, feeling and doing today. I have finished our adoption training video (btw, Heart of the Matter Seminars are AWESOME!) and made a 96% on that last online test. lol They only gave me partial credit on one because I rambled I think. lol
So now we are prepping for the homestudy which we are aiming for over Spring Break! This means reaorganization in every room! Ok, I am thankful for my kids. But theones here need me so I better go. Happy Tthursday to all!

A day of thankfulness

Today I am so groggy We went to the capitol yesterday, for homeschool day. It was awesome and more on that later. But I just wanted to share how God took care of us. Some people would say that these were a lot of little coincidences. I believe it was God leading us to make the right choices. We left the capital to go take kids to get food somewhere they could be a little louder and it would be ok. We decided on Incredible Pizza. Dan was supposed to stay at the capitol because it was also higher ed day there. His colleagues were told there was so much going on with the homeschooling families, that there was no room for the higher ed people at the luncheon. So he said, well, Im just going with my family anyway. (HE was WITH us!! I would have been even more terrified without him) So, we ate and let the kids play. Dads watched them while we girls got to talk -- adoption and homeschooling. It was wonderful. So after a while, we said, you know, we really need to think about getting home. But we ended up talking more and then going to find the guys. About ten minutes after that, the guys were gathering kids and we were lining them up against a brick interior wall! (I have to mention, that tornados are my big fear. I have nightmares about it often. I am always in some strange place trying to gather my kids and figure out the safest spot. It was horrible having that played out in real life!!) So we had three mammas, 12 kids, and three dads. Girls were crying, boys were trying NOT to. Mammas were trying to reassure but at the same time not feeling so safe. We prayed and huddled and watched the giant screen they had projected the weather on. THAT was awful! You see the horrible images of the tornado, and then we have people who live there in the city with us, plus a friend who grew up there. So they are saying in whispers, thats two miles from here. hmm, thats building power, F2 now. Ok that part is coming this way. It is 1 mile away. The devastation played out on screen was NOT good for the kids or ME! I wanted to see the radar thingy again where you get the general idea!! Anyway, I had prayed, that this would pass us and we would be safe. Within a few moments it had. All the kids screamed woohoo and the moms sighed with relief. Kids even went back to play. But another one was coming!! We did the whole routine again. After that, the guys had decided that though there was another storm cell we should leave for home, and by taking an alternate route, we would pass the bad weather. So we said quick goodbyes and hugged kids( my baby girl was sad because she was asleep and missed the hugs-- so Les, we gotta get together soon!)*side note, how DID my three year old fall asleep in my lap in the middle of all that. lol?
So we had heavy winds and tired kids all the way home. But really we actually saw the sun on that route and missed the bad weather! With many stops and a food break, we didn't get home until 7:30. We had kids in bed by 8. I think I was asleep shortly thereafter, but not before thanking God for saving us and our special friends. It was a big day. I picture us in the palm of His hand though. Poor Sara(from Equador) was so terrified, and Les and I were too scared to think of the right words to explain and comfort. It was very frustrating. So I sang a hymn we had learned in our Spanish(thank you Rod and Staff!!) Esta Aqui, esta aqui, aleluya Mi Senor esta aqui. Basically just My Lord is here. but Sara sat in her mamas lap and held my hand and wasn't sobbing. I found out later, Olivia and Rachel had tied their dresses together by the back ties, so they would be together no matter what! lol The boys were so sweet to bring endless slushies to keep their sisters occupied. Sweet Austin kept checking to make sure his Olivia was safe. Another sweet moment, Ri was asking WHERE is STEPHANIE!? When she went to talk to her daddy for comfort. He looked at me like, where did you let her GO!? So, later I will publish some pics of our fun day earlier. But for now, I am sobered by the headlines of lives lost and buildings destroyed not far from where we were. Thank you God for keeping us safe in the midst of the storm.

update

Please pray? My dads Dr says his left lung has collapsed. They will have to insert a tube and re-inflate it. I am sorry to say, I am home with 6 kids and feeling a little more than out of the loop. I will try to stay updated here as I can though. Please pray for him, and also for my mom to have peace. Tank you my friends.~

My dad

My dad went in for a surgery yesterday. He had the top portion of his lung removed because of a cancerous mass they found there. It was a long surgery, and they said a very painful recovery process. We have been praying for quick healing and easy recovery and that the cancer would be gone. Well, the Drs report after surgery was this is a contained mass as it seems so far(they will do microscopic tests on the lymph nodes to see if there was any more anywhere else),and they feel confident they removed it all. He also was amazed it was caught at this early of a stage. (praise God!) He says the surgery was good, effective, and dad was off the breathing machine in record time.(another thank you God!) Poor dad was in a LOT of pain right after surgery. They have to make sure the patient is awake, breathing and all before they begin giving large doses of meds. So, this was hard-- to know he was in such pain. But , thank God, he was quickly able to be given a few different things. He had a rough night of pain. By this morning though, they were able to get a handle on the pain for him. He was requesting coffee by 6, and starting to get comfortable, and at one point said he felt the pain was at a "0" when it had been "off the charts". I was so concerned about the "getting him up" part. I knew how hard it was for him earlier to just BREATHE without excruciating pain. Well, the nurse had two guys to help him up, but Dad just said, you want me in the chair, ok, and GOT UP himself!! Praise God! She said she has never ever seen a patient do that! He was requesting his favorite drink, (Pepsi), and chatting and even making jokes. When I last saw him, he was tired, but seemed remarkably alert and somewhat stable as far as pain goes. He will be out of ICU tomorrow(YIPPEE), and Mom has been staying in a nearby hotel that was very comfortable. (and close to Sonic for her "happy hr Dr Pepper!") I am so excited that things are going so well. God is taking such good care of them both. Mom is amazingly calm. My brother was remarkably clear headed, my sister was her usual organized, helpful self, and Dad is showing humor and strength, and amazing courage. This was a hard surgery to agree to.(in case you wondered, for some reason, I was the emotional basket case who felt rather useless. lol) It looks like he may be out in 4-7 days(if this continues, maybe closer to the 4!) Please keep them in your prayers? Thank you to all those who have been praying already! I will keep you posted on his recovery and results of tests.

YAY!

OK! I have the plan for the wall storage. Thank you to Alicia and Edna. The neat thing is, alot of it we already have! I just need to paint it all to match and attach it to walls. I am doing black semi gloss for the shelves and table. The chairs will be red satin. Then I got red plastic dishpans at Walmart for 2.00 each. I think it will look really cool. I will post a bunch of pics as soon as I can. I can see it in my head though and it looks REALLY cool and also very neat. lol The boys new beds have black metal -- I think it will all look good together. And it will all be pretty cheap.(YAY!!)

Favorite Websites for families

We have some favorite websites, that I thought some may not know about. Here is the BEST doll site for girls of all colors. http://www.sleepysoft.com/ It can be really hard to find a baby doll for little ones with skin color other than white. It can be very frustrating at the lack of choices available. I think it is really important when you have little children to show them an array of babies-- even if you have not adopted. But esp let them have one special baby that looks like them.I have seen it work wonders for Moriah. Hers is the "Bailey" hispanic dolly. It was her best Christmas present ever, and her special lovey. They have a WIDE variety of types of babies too, soft lovey styles for tiny ones, and then all the way up to collectibles, with affordable play ones in the middle. They have Asian babies that are SO beautiful. Take a look, you will love this family- run website!
http://www.visionforum.com/ is a great one. We ordered most of our Christmas stuff there. They have "Beautiful Girlhood" and "Boyhood adventure" plus "Grandpas classic toys" It is awesome. Helps give the boys REAL active things to do. We ordered the zipline for Elijah this year, and Isaiah got a rubberband gun. You will loove this one too if you are looking for stuff to keep your active boys entertained without video games. lol Or to remind your girls God made them feminine and that it's awesome! ALL the girly stuff made my girls swoon and squeal.
http://www.lillianvernon.com/ All around great stuff at great prices.
http://www.lakeside.com/ another like that.
http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/ GREAT homeschool curriculum. We have loved the Spanish, the Math, the Science. . . we are REALLY liking the service and the prices. :-) With a big family and more on the way, you have to think of those prices and be smart.
http://www.sonlight.com/ best book lists and REAL books ever! I love them. The kids are soaking them up. We just use the history books, and the readers and read alouds, and that gets expensive, but it is worth it to surround us with great literature. I have three avid readers and my 5 yo is working through his phonics and GETTING IT!! I think he will be reading this year too. So reading good books and getting them excited about it is worth that once a year price.
http://www.mfwbooks.com/ I love the two Language books here. Primary language lessons and Intermediate Language lessons. Riley is still in the Primary one. It lasts three years. He is in the final part of that one.
http://www.hwtears.com/ the most wonderful handwriting program for all types of learners!! Awesome. It took the frustration and tears (of me AND my kids lol) away. It is easy to teach, easy to learn and WORKS.(oh, and affordable!)
http://www.artisticpursuits.com/ art we love. 42.00 for the book but it will last us a while. We do art once a week.
http://www.orientaltrading.com/ they have an active kids catalogue with toys and stuff, then also a hobbies one w ith scrapbooking stuff. Few people know they sell other stuff than the usual party supplies or VBS type activities and crafts. They sell furniture, teaching supplies, art supplies at the BEST prices. Check them out with a cup of coffee in hand, you could be there a while. oh, they have metal buckets that we use for color coding bathroom supplies. Each kid has their own bucket/color and we fill them occasionally with travel sz deoderant, toothpaste, body spray, toothbrush, comb and hair gel. It keeps everyones stuff separated and organized. one of our favorite purchases has been our giant pocket calendar. Ok -- you all have a great day

Boy's room mission

Well, the boys' bed is together. I will spare you all the before pics, because I was actually too ashamed to take them. Those boys can mess up a room so darned fast. But I see the reason is we need better STORAGE! I need to get homes for things. So I am in the process of planning a storage system. My mission impossible: easy, cheap, effective storage shelving along the entire north wall of their room. hmmm. . .. I better think this out some more. Right this moment there are Bionicles, Legos, Rescue Heroes, clothes, towels. . . etc etc all over the floor. So my mission better get figured out fast before my nerves are frayed. I thrive on order. And feel at peace when things are simplified and orderly.(or can be that way within 20 minutes or less!) Any ideas on affordable storage solutions are way appreciated!!!