My Peacefully Chaotic Life

Sweet Saturdays! It's been a great week of homeschooling and work. We are screening in a porch and applying fresh paint to the outside of the house. Hoping today holds a little TLC for the inside of the house! I find it has gotten away from us! Do you have those times too? The times you find yourself so busy you can't keep up with the normal things in life? Don't beat yourself up. It's not a problem when it's a season. It only becomes a problem when it's a habit! Unfortunately we all know that anything you practice long enough does become the regular way of doing life. So if you find yourself buried in the everyday life responsibilities, step back and take a deep breath. Think about what will bring you peace in your surroundings. Clean laundry, smelling fresh and sweet? I will admit I have a penchant for clean towels that are perfectly folded and stacked. Clean dishes, filling your cupboards? Uncluttered counters? I find I don't like to cook in a ...

Once again I find myself arranging ballerina buns and finding missing tap shoes. A new year of dance has begun and my girls could hardly contain their excitement. The fun of pulling socks over shin guards is also here. The only difference is that it is now my sweet boy that is playing soccer. They can start at the age of 3 here and he was excited to play last year. But when he arrived for his first practice he balked and retreated to the safety of Mama's arms. He was barely 3 at the time and was even still in a pull-up so we really weren't surprised. This year, however, he was ready! Funny how they can seem so big at home and look so tiny on the field! He did quite well at his first practice though. I had no doubt he would. From the time he took his first steps he would grab a ball and dribble all over the yard. (Dribbling in soccer is when you see them lightly kick the ball to move it around the field. Very important skill as they must be capable of maintaining contr...

So I said in my last post that so far the new recipes had been well received. Last night's meal...not so much. I should have known better than to say that  LOL! I liked it well enough and so did my youngest daughter. But the husband wasn't so fond of it. It was a Mediterranean recipe that had whole wheat rotini, grilled salmon, tomato, artichoke, olives and garlic. It also called for white wine but I used chicken broth instead. I think we are going to try it one more time with a few tweaks. Maybe a half box of noodles instead of a full box and add some canned tomatoes. I even thought about using quinoa instead of noodles since we all love it. I think extra artichokes and olives might be good, too. If that doesn't work, then this one will be discarded. It's funny but my husband hasn't been too crazy about any Mediterranean recipe I've ever tried through the years. When you look at the separate ingredients, he ought to love them. And the heart health aspect makes ...

READY FOR: Are you like me, wondering where summer went? It's passed by so quickly. Dance and soccer will start again next week. Yet, at the same time, there are days when I think autumn will never get here. Yesterday when we sat outside in the early morning and it cool and breezy. Yet it didn't have that fall feeling to it. I don't know about other areas of the States but in the South there is a certain feel to the weather, a certain way the sun and sky look, a certain scent to the air that tell you fall is on its way. I only wish it lasted a little longer! WORKING ON: We've been working on organizing our school room. Organization. Does it ever end?! It seems as though about the time I think I have things perfectly organized and running smoothly, I find a glitch that makes me start all over. I hate to call this organization prompt a glitch. He's certainly more important than that. :) It's my sweet boy. You see, he turned 4 in May and as such, is quite ready...

Well, it's that time of year again! New Year's resolutions and good intentions on steroids. While most are making plans to improve some area of their life and just hoping for the best, we have been busy at our house! For quite a while now, I have struggled with keeping up with clutter. Some might think, hey, you're home all day, what's the problem? Therein lies the problem. I am home all day! Along with a 9 yr old, a 7 yr old, and a 3 yr old. Not to mention, the husband who is right next door at work and pops in and out at varying times. When you throw in books, paper, projects and all those enriching activities that fill a day...well, it tends to fill your home. After Christmas (which was lovely, by the way), I looked around at the piles of gifts, dishes and paper and groaned. It didn't help when a couple of days later the tree toppled over. Oh, what a beautiful mess! My children do pretty well about cleaning up as long as it hasn't turned into a chaotic ...

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was very good. My oldest son was able to come home. We were afraid this might be the first Thanksgiving he wasn't with us but he was able to arrange his schedule to make it home. His band was away shooting a music video. What might have taken all week, they managed to do in one full day! He headed homeWednesday and stayed until Sunday. My guys were able to do quite a lot of hunting over the holiday. They both love to fish and hunt. We've been very blessed that our last home and this one, there are several places for them to enjoy the outdoors. We love deer meat. It is healthy and really helps to stretch the budget. When prepared correctly you might even think it is beef! The kids and I got a little creative with our vegetables on Thanksgiving day and created a fun centerpiece. My youngest named it Pluto. ;) Since I had a smoked turkey and a brown sugar ham, we opted for sandwiches for lunch and ate our Thanksgiving Dinner for supper that n...

This week we have been enjoying a business trip that has us staying in the Atlanta area. Coming through Atlanta was absolutely crazy! The place we are staying is actually considered a suburb. You can't tell though because you never knew when you left Atlanta itself! Our hotel is very nice and that is always a plus. I had hoped we could sneak in a field trip of sorts but there really isn't anything close enough. There is a lot of shopping here though and our family enjoyed seeing the large malls and letting the kids ride the train and carousel. Wow, what a difference from any of the places we ever called home! Even the place we used to consider the big city is really nothing more than a town in comparison. Before we moved to our current home, we lived in a very rural area. Snakes and coyotes were a constant in life, traffic and people were not ha ha! But I loved my quiet life. It was peaceful. Peace was welcomed anyway we could get it during the stress of the last couple of ...

Are you familiar with Samaritan's Purse Ministries ? Maybe you've heard of their ministry, Operation Christmas Child where you pack a shoebox with goodies of all kinds and it is sent to needy children around the world. This year my girls wanted to do something in honor of their baby sister, Abigail, who is in heaven. I suggested they pack a shoebox. These girls have been so excited. They chose just the right wapped box from our church windows (the one with disney princess wrapping paper). They chose just the right knitted cap from the Christmas tree in our sanctuary. ( we have a member known as "the knitting lady" who makes dozens of caps and hangs them on a tree to be included in the boxes). They plotted and planned for what they might like to include. While we did buy about a dozen items from the dollar store, we went elsewhere also in order to buy some nicer toys. The cheaper ones do not last and we wanted her to have something nice. I would rather fill one sho...

yes, she is as tall as a water bottle!

It's been a lovely week here. The weather has been absolutely perfect, not too hot, not too cold. The leaves are changing with colors so vivid that I almost can't take it all in! I mean, have you just stopped to admire the beauty lately? The sunsets this week have been breathtaking! God's amazing artwork is at its finest in autumn, don't you think? Yesterday afternoon the children played outside, busily piling up leaves and jumping in them, only to do it all over again. Today the weather suddenly took a turn and temperatures plummeted with freezing temperatures expected tonight. I went out and cut armloads of camellia blooms to decorate the house with. With their delicate pale blooms, I wasn't sure how well they would stand up to the freeze and I wanted an excuse to bring their beauty indoors! Now I sit here curled up in the recliner with my cat, Tiger, trying to get warm by the fireplace. He has a hard time staying warm now that he is older (almost 16 years) ...

Did you get your extra hour of sleep? Not me, my body knows when it is time to wake up. I lay there for  a moment before the alarm went off. I marveled that I had finally managed to sleep in. But when I got up and saw all the clocks said the same thing, I realized my husband had forgotten to turn the clocks back. ;) Just as well, because I needed to get Sunday dinner started. I wanted to put the meat in the crockpot last night but it was still frozen and I wasn't so sure about that. I am hoping it will be done by the time church is over. I had originally gotten the recipe from the facebook sensation, Crockpot Girls. They are in the process of changing up their facebook site because of the whole trademark name change deal. they are Crockin girls now, I think? They have loaded a lot of the recipes on the new one, but I couldn't find the one I needed. So I thought I would google it. I was shocked to find all these blogposts up that were criticising them and were suspicious o...

I had never been inside her home until the day she told me CPS had removed her children. On that day I had gone over with some clothing for her daughter. When she came to the door I rattled on about what the bags held and if she could use them. Open mouth, insert foot.  She took me in the first few rooms. My impression was that of dark rooms and general disarray, as you might find in a case of depression. The windows are busted out and they had no water. Their dog had messed in the floor and was jumping in and out of the busted windows. I immediately told her I would help her clean, organize, repair, anything. I truly wanted to see this young woman piece her life back together. Well, of course, to her I am "the pastor's wife" and she is too embarrassed to let me see the whole picture. So I tell her that when she is finished that I will gladly do a walk through and see if there was anything obvious to be done. My work background qualifies me to...

It's my husband's birthday today. We haven't done anything particularly special to celebrate but it's been a good day nonetheless. We went to church and he preached a great message on being useful and not wasting your life away. When we came home, lunch only took a few minutes. I had already cooked lunch in the crockpot. Have you seen the crockpot girls on facebook? They have some terrific recipes. I cooked the pork chops and gravy one except without pork chops LOL. It was SUPPOSED to use thick cut pork chops. Have you priced those? Good grief! So instead I found a family pack of country style ribs. By the time we got home from church they were perfect. Everyone liked it and the gravy was divine. After we ate we all curled up in the living room and watched some of the Love Comes Softly movies I had taped. My little guy crawled up in my lap and promptly fell asleep. Great excuse to not get up for 2 hours! Now we are all out back enjoying a lovely day. The FisherM...

Around 6:00 AM this morning my little guy trudged into our room and I pulled him up in bed with us. I was greeted by ice cold legs and feet where he had kicked his covers off. As he snuggled down between us, I tried to go back to sleep, hoping to find the dream I had been in the middle of. Which is when the Rat Terrier woke up and jumped down from the bed. Gravity doesn't work well with Pretzel when she stands up after sleeping all night so I jumped out of bed to catch her and run to the living room where I unceremoniously dumped her out the back door. Not having much fur, she wasn't impressed. I didn't care. I went back to bed, grateful to see my son still curled up trying to go back to sleep. I quickly slid under the covers, pulled him close, and tightly shut my eyes hoping to go back to dreamland. I didn't care what dream at this point as long as it was good. Then Pretzel decided to remind me it is cold outside and she started up crying and barking. Sigh. I de...

My oldest son loves it when I make homemade lemonade. I add some extras that are not necessarily needed to make it good but just put it over into the extra special. It's really sweet and gets stronger the longer the ingredients mix. My lemonade is not unlike a marriage. I start out with the basics, lemons and water. In marriage you begin with an ordinary man and an ordinary woman. But it doesn't become lemonade until you add the sugar. In marriage this is the love! To become more than just separate ordinary people, you must mix in love. However, just a romantic love won't be enough sugar to overcome the sourness of the human spirit or the blandness of a self centered person coming into marriage. The love must be grounded in friendship and self sacrifice. The idea that you must fight to not "lose your identity" is one that the enemy has planted in order to destroy. Before you jump to a conclusion I am not drawing, let me explain what I mean by that. :) I a...

Well, I promised to share some fall pictures as well so I thought I would show you some pictures I took when we took a recent trip to the river. Well, trip probably isn't the right word because this is only a few minutes from my door but here goes. :) The water was low but still it was beautiful because you could see all the river rocks. We hiked along the riverbank... ....and found a few blooms hanging on. Little LadyBug spotted the sunlight hitting the tree above us just right to catch this shot. The children observed everything closely.... They even managed to learn something new! Yes, that is indeed a porta potty. They had never seen one (well, that they remembered anyway!) and wanted to peek inside LOL. Chalk it up to life experience LOL It was a beautiful day spent together. What treasures are you passing by that would be a fun time for your family?

Summer has slipped away and here we are right in the middle of fall, my favorite time of year! Over the summer we had birthday parties, gardening, the GuitarMan had a big concert with his band, and there were countless evenings spent outside while the children chased fireflies. Well, here, let me just show you! What is summer without grilling out? Our gas grill is great if there is a crowd or we're in a hurry but the taste can't be beat on this old grill!          The sunsets looking out from our back porch were breathtaking! That's the roof of our church you see. FlowerChild and The GuitarMan had birthdays in June. She wanted a Flying Backwards birthday party. What is this, you ask? That is the name of GuitarMan's band. Their symbol is the hummingbird. We bought a plain ice cream cake and her big brother drew their symbol on it. The things a brother will do for his baby sister!! Lots of time was spen...

Every time I sit down to write a post it seems I get interrupted. Do you ever get that feeling? As though you can't finish anything for having to start another? Well, today is no exception for me. I have laundry going and need to finish organizing our playroom/schoolroom. And I don't even want to think about our master bedroom and bathroom. But for now, it looks like I am about to head out the door to take the kiddos to the splashpad. We promised them we would take them today and since we are going to grill chicken for supper we can't be too late. Oh, it never ends LOL. Sometimes you just have to hang on for the ride. ;)

As tempted as I am by that title to post a picture of raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens I will be strong and show you a little something else from my home. ;) Oh, so much I could tell about this little snapshot. For starters, this was in my foyer. However, in my recent organization spree I did some rearranging. Okay, a LOT of rearranging! While the quilt still hangs here, the table has been moved and replaced by the piano. I told you I did a lot! But let me just tell you what I see here. One, the chocolate wall. Autumn  is my favorite time of year and the color of this accent wall just makes me happy. You can't see the bottom of this table but I think it is so pretty with the dark wooden legs and the marble top. Fresh flowers always lift my spirits. But what I really want to show you is the quilt along with the quilt rack. The rack was handmade by my aunt's uncle. Yes, I am Southern and have that need to explain family ties even if we ar...

Have you ever watched Hoarders? Oh, my! Talk about motivation! Then, of course, there is always the wakeup call of a move. What to keep. What to throw away. Over the years, you tend to accumulate items that can overwhelm you. You wind up with just too much STUFF! I've gotten to where I try to only keep what I love. The result is that I am pretty much surrounded by things that make me happy. DISCLAIMER: This does not include the numerous toys, art projects, dirty dishes, or laundry that seem to just follow my children LOL. Oh, and it also does not include the litter box. ;) So I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite things with you. Today's favorite thing is: My rooster and my hen There's nothing valuable about them but they are very special to me. They hang in my dining room.They hung in my mother-in-law's kitchen, on either side of the door leading to the dining room, for years and years, probably from around the time they built the ...