Day 18~One last before/after

 

This is chair I most recently finished. I wasn't going to do anything with this chair until I found the perfect fabric for my bedroom. It only took 1 yard to do this chair and I have enough leftover for accent pillows for my bed. This one was a little bit harder to match up lining of the fabric, but I'm pretty happy with the finished result. My room is very neutral. I've never even gotten around to doing drapes or any kind of window treatments. This fabric goes perfectly with the rug in my bedroom and coordinates with my robin's egg blueish bathroom.

 

I just realized that I never did a post on my first sewing project. The faux roman shade from Fly through My Window's blog. It was so hard because it was my first time to sew and I had a hard time getting the folds right and the zig zag fabric to line up correctly. It's still a little crooked and I haven't made it a top priority to take it down and fix it. I got this fabric on sale at Brentwood Interiors for $4 a yard!! I think they had it in the sale section where someone had returned it.

 

My bedspread is just a neutral silk quilt from PB that I bought several years ago. It was in my guest bedroom, but I got tired of the red in my room and was ready for a change so I just switched it with this one. My bed isn't made so I just took a close up of what it looks like.

 

I missed yesterday's post. Walker is still sick and I've been so busy trying to get some major things crossed off my "to do" list.

Day 17~Sunset in my backyard

 

This was Thursday night.

Day ??-Sick baby

I don't know why there's text on this picture, but I'm to lazy to take it off right now.

 

 

My intuitions were right. I knew it was WAY out of character for Walker to fall asleep sitting on the couch on Wed. He's had high fever, cold, cough and some other nice yuckies I'd rather not mention on the blog since late Wednesday night. I missed yesterday's post. Somehow I put my clearcare solution directly into my eye instead of normal solution. Anyone ever done that before? I have a chemical burn in my eyes and my left is bad so I went to my eye doc and he DILATED my left eye without telling me what he was doing. I was feeling really dizzy and wierd ( you know the feeling if you've ever had your eyes dilated). I kept waiting for it to go away in the 2 hour time I thought it would. I couldn't see anything last night and it made me so mad. No reading, no computer and I really felt like I take my eyesight for granted. I called his office this morning and told them, my eye is still dilated and they said, oh, he did it on purpose to last until Saturday morning. WHATTTTTTTTT?????????? That was not in my plans. I need a patch and I've probably misspelled a ton of words in this post. I thought about taking a picture to show you my scary big pupil eye, but I will spare you.
These pics are from my sweet baby today. Poor thing. I can say that this has slowed him down. a little bit.

Day 15-Ahh, Can you hear the quiet??

 

The boys are bathed, teeth brushed, their school bags are packed and I just took a picture of them all warm and cozy in bed. I'm having a hard time keeping up with this 365 day thing. We just haven't done anything to interesting and I haven't taken many pictures lately.
This has just been one of those days. A long day. I guess you could say I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. This was day 3 of Len not getting home until after bedtime. Still have one more to go. It snowed. Again. Which meant school was cancelled. Too cold to play outside. The boys get bored. I get cabin fever. Sometimes, it just exhausts me to even think about getting everyone dressed and out the door, including myself. Then thinking about breakfast, lunch and dinner. And right when I think I've gotten everything ready, I sit down only to hear, mommy I need more water, or I'm hungry only an hour after we just ate. Winter is just hard on parents and kids. Sometimes I wish I had a gym attached to my house so that my boys could just run all the extra energy off. I sat down on the couch for a minute to get on the computer. Sometimes I just hate technology. It's just so addictive. Not a minute after, Walker had dumped out a box of cheese-its and was stomping on them. One of those days. He fell asleep sitting up on couch today. He has never done this before and I started worrying that he might be getting sick. He fell asleep so fast I didn't even realize it or I would have kept him up. It was an hour before his naptime and he only slept for 30 minutes or so. There went naptime. My solitude. Once again, I was thinking about me, me, me. Yuck. It hurts to type out those words.
It's just been one of those days where the mommy guilt lays on strong.
I was short-tempered, impatient and irritable. I was selfish and wanted me time.
I was not showing my boys joy that I am their mother.
Days like today are not the kind of days I dreamed of as a little girl wanting to be a mom.
My boys still wanted to hold on to me as tight as they could when we read books and went to bed. They wanted me to rub their backs and stroke their hair. They wanted to be with me. Even when through the yucky-ness of our day. They still love me, even at my worst. Children are so quick to forget, to forgive.
It makes me think of God's love. He still loves me even when I'm angry with him, when I'm being selfish, when I'm not spending time with him, and not showing him or the world my joy of knowing him.
I love my boys more than life itself and the beauty of God's love is that he forgives. Tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning and it's up to me to set the tone of what/how our day will be like. It's hard to think that one day, my boys won't want me to hold their hands or give them back rubs before bed. One day, we won't have a little body climbing in the bed with us at midnight, kicking and moving all night long. Sometimes things seem so inconventient or impossible, but I know with winter comes spring and with spring comes beautiful days outside, going to the park and just the feeling of new life. I can't wait for spring! I know this is the most jumbled post ever and I'm a terrible writer, but I just want to be real and write what is on my mind.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. Psalms 73:26

Day 14~Just the 3 of us (for now)

 

This is my life right now. If you are a single mom, you are amazing. I don't know how you do it. My husband is getting his accounting degree and is finishing his last semester. He only had to get 60 hours to add to his regular degree in order to take the CPA, but since he works full time, he has had to do the Adult program which is at night. This semester, he has class on the following nights
Monday
Tuesday
Thursday
Wednesday-Tax Internship
Saturday 9-3-Tax Internship
So we really only get to see him Friday night and Sunday for the next 2 months. Have I mentioned what an involved and great dad he is?
Am I feeling a little sorry for myself? yes
Do I need to tell myself to be a big girl and quit feeling sorry for myself? yes
Walker at this age is just SO PHYSICALLY DRAINING. I have to watch his every move. In the few minutes I've written this, he climbed to the sink, got out paint brushes that were soaking and filled a soup pan to the top and began splashing everything with the paint brush. And I didn't even notice at first.
We are also making some very major family decisions that I don't really want to mention on the blog. It is taking all of my energy to check everything off my "to do" list to get things accomplished and ready to go.
I feel like I am cramming so much into my already crowded brain, that it just isn't working at full speed and I'm not making very wise decisions. I know 8 weeks will go by fast and we will make it. Doesn't help to have a snow day.
Sorry for the complaining. I don't feel like I even have a right to when I think about my friend Sara. It makes me feel bad.

Day 13- 33!

In my mind, I still feel I am 18, but my body feels 33 or older. The gray hairs are getting harder to pluck out :( Len ordered the most delicious caramel (my favorite) cake from The Flour Shop and I'm embarrassed to say that it is already gone. We celebrated last night because I haven't even seen my husband since 8 this morning. This picture isn't that great, but I loved Walker's expression. We decided to put 6 candles (3 + 3) instead of 33 candles and the boys loved helping me blow them out. They could hardly wait and we had to relight them a couple of times. I'm so blessed to have a wonderful husband and two incredible boys.

Day 12-Boy's Room on a Budget

For some reason, these didn't post in the correct order, ugh blogger!

 

I found this desk at the same antique/junk place as the bed and painted it the same color blue. It was so easy. I actually used spray paint and then used the walnut glaze to give it an older look. I did the same with the rocking chair. I framed one of Will's old finger paintings and just have it sitting on the desk. The desk was in my kitchen but it just didn't look right so the boys are thrilled to have their own desk.

 

I think I've done a post on these paintings before, but I saw them in a magazine for over $50 a piece and Len helped me draw them out and then I painted them. They are hanging over the boys' bed.

 

Here is a close up of the tricycle.

 

Day 12-Boy's Room on a Budget

I know I've posted pictures of Will's room before, but I finally feel like it's complete so I wanted to repost the finished look. The boys are sharing a room now so I had to add a "little bit of Walker" to the room. It took a lot of time and hard work, but I loved every minute of it. When you're on a budget, you have to get creative. I uploaded these in picasa and you can only blog four pictures at a time, so scroll down (if you want too) to see the other pictures.

I fell in love with this star fabric and bought a yard of it to go with the panels I made. I found the PB Kids green gingham panels at a consignment sale for $5 a piece and when I got them home, I realized they were a slightly different color. One was lime green and one was more of a pastel green so I cut one of the panels in half and put brown ric rac on each side as a border. I used the other panel to back the initial pillows and star pillows in the rocking chair. This was a long process with lots of mistakes, but it's finally done and that's all I'm going to say about it. sigh

 

 

My mom gave me this rocking chair when Will was born and it was a dark walnut brown. I decided to paint it blue to go with the rest of the furniture. I used the leftover star and gingham fabric to make pillows for the chair. We put Will's dresser in the closet because it is black and doesn't really go with the rest of the color scheme.

 

Here is a close up of the star fabric. There is only a tiny bit of red in the bedspread, but I wanted to use the red as an accent color in the room, so I used the star fabric, toy chest and shelf to add red accents to the room. The bedspread is the PB Kids Kasey quilt and I love the colors, that it's not to "themey" and it doesn't look to babyish.

 

Day 12-Boy's Room on a Budget

The boys share a room now. They love sleeping together and I think it just makes them feel safe, although Walker has gotten in the habit of crawling in the bed with us every morning around 4 is am. We usually don't even know when, but he just slips right in between us. Don't tell him, but I kind of like it ;). I made the boys these initial pillows out of an old brown shower curtain that I bought at TJ Maxx years ago. I never used it so when I bought my sewing machine, I decided that I could use the fabric to tie in the brown in the quilted bedspread. The pillows are brown on the front and green gingham on the back. I just cut out the letters and sewed them on. I borrowed this idea from a blogger I don't know, but love to read about.

 

 

I found this bed at an old antique store on Highway 72, the route home from my grandparents house. It cost me $10!! I painted it blue and then used a walnut colored glaze to make it look old.

 

My mom and I found this toybox at a garage sale a few years ago. I think it was $5. It was just plain wood and I painted it black and it stayed that way for a few years until I decided to paint it red for the playroom, but somehow it found it's way into the boys room and looks really cute at the end of their bed. It is full of stuffed animals and books.

 

Day 12-Boy's Room on a Budget

Walker's cross stich.

 

Will's cross stich.

 

I found this little bookshelf at a garage sale for $10. I painted it red and it has pegs to hang their coats and backpacks. I used the shelves to put little things they've made over the years that are precious to me.

 

This is one of my favorite mother's day gifts. This was a gift from the boys' preschool. They took the picture and then a very talented teacher at the school wrote the bible verse on the matte. Isn't it precious?? I bought the frame at goodwill for 50 cents and painted and distressed it.

 

Day 11-Do family pictures make you crazy?

 

My sister took this picture over Thanksgiving and yes, I'm lucky enough to have a sister who is a photographer. She always takes shots of my boys and I'm so grateful for everything she's captured, but for some reason whenever we are down in Montgomery, we never get around to going on location to take a family picture. Over Thanksgiving, I was determined to get the perfect Christmas card pic. Will was about the only member of our family that would cooperate for her. It was one of those hectic days. We had to wake up Walker from his nap to get the perfect lighting outside, change his clothes, take away his paci, he was having fits, the ground was muddy, it was freezing outside and the wind was blowing really hard (which made Len and I have fits). We kept having to crouch on the ground and the boys were leaning on us in a way that made our ankles and knees hurt, Len didn't "smile" the way I wanted him too and he squinted and complained. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I'm crazy, because I was SO MAD at him. For.not.smiling.the.way.I.wanted.him.too. It was very dramatic, tears and all. I can't believe I'm even admitting this, but do family pictures do this to your family too?? You just want the perfect shot, but everything seems to go wrong? Well, I completely overreacted~let's blame it on hormones shall we? The funny thing is, we got some of my favorite pictures we've ever had taken as a family and to think of the angry lump in my throat all afternoon after the shoot. Whew, maybe next time I will put things into perspective and just have fun with it.

Day 10~Praying for Sara

 

photo credits~Katie Moseley Photography ( I got this picture off Sara's blog so you could see her and her family and put a name with a face when you pray). You can click on the link to her blog and send her words of encouragement and let her know you are praying for her.

I want to humbly ask for your prayers for my friend Sara Walker. We grew up going to the same church in Montgomery and attend the same church in Nashville. She has been through so much since December 6th. She was 38 weeks pregnant with a baby girl named Anna Elizabeth. She had a very uneventful, normal pregnancy and with no warning on a Sunday noticed that her baby wasn't moving. She went in for an ultrasound on Monday to find that baby Anna had died. I don't know if they will ever know what happened, but it was just tragic. Sara and her husband Brian gave so much glory to God through their pain and instead of our church family giving them money/gift cards, they asked for donations to Agape in her name. I'm not sure of the time frame, but a few weeks later she went to the ER with pains in her abdomen. After many tests, they found spots on her liver. She has been through every test imaginable and today (on her birthday) was diagnosed with colon cancer. She is 4 days older than me. 33 years old. No words. I am asking for you to pray for her like you've never prayed before. Please pray for her husband, the Pigg family (her parents), and her precious boys Camden and Scott, that they will have strength in the days to come. Please pray for her doctors, that they will be able to provide the best treatment available and I ask you to boldly pray that she will be healed. The only way I can describe her is to refer to Proverbs 31:10-31
10 [b]A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Day 9~Before/After

 

This ended up being a little bit harder than expected. It had a few more curves than the other chair. This after picture isn't completely done. I ran out of the gimp/border, but I was able to get it yesterday and finish today during Walker's nap. I didn't feel like taking another picture so if you enlarge it, you will be able to see that it isn't finished. I have a few more projects I've been working on and I will post them as soon as I'm finished.

Day 8~ A boy and his daddy

 

Day 7- Using up what little snow we have left

Our Snow Family-We helped but Will and Walker did most. Do you like my robe and scarf and what looks like a bee-hive? Maybe I'm a 50's mom. Will said that was my hat.

Day 6-The Sister

 

 

10 things about my sister
1. My sister is my best friend.
2. On a normal day, we might talk on the phone 5 times.
3. She is hilarious!
4. You will never win an argument with her.
5. We didn't like each other AT ALL during our adolescent years, now she knows almost of all of my deep dark secrets.
6. She always puts me in my place when I'm overreacting about something, she's my voice of reason.
7. She is an excellent reference guide to ANYTHING you might need to know about. If I have a question about where to find something, I always ask her first.
8. She is the fun mom, I'm the more serious, routine mom (compared to her).
9. She has a VERY STRONG opinion about what she believes in and she doesn't care what ANYONE thinks about her decisions. I on the other hand, worry what everyone thinks and I'm a people pleaser.
10. She will probably kill me for posting some of these pictures, but she has posted some unflattering pics of me before so I'm putting them up anyway.

Day 5~Family

This picture just blows my mind. I can't describe the feeling it gives me in words, but this huge group of people are the result of Jack and Christine Walker's love for each other. They loved each person in this picture with unconditional love and it makes me cry everytime I see it. The memories I have of going to Tuscumbia, the close relationships I still have with my cousins today, and just the strangeness that they are gone from this earth just brings happy and sad tears.

This picture was taken after my dear Nene's funeral. 7 out of 10 of the grandchildren gave the most beautiful tributes to my grandmother I have ever heard. I think about those tributes when I see this picture. I never blogged about my grandparent's deaths (they died within 7 weeks of one another). I'm working on a post about them, just so I will have some of the facts about their childhood, marriage, and life together written down. I might never publish it, but at least I will have it in my archives.

Day 4-Discovery

Yesterday, I had given Walker a cup of water. A few minutes later he came around the corner and said,
"Mommy I just poured that water down the drain."
Me: "What drain, the sink?"
Walker: "no, mommy this one."
Me: "WWWWWWWAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then I looked down the drain to find that Walker had been using it as his personal trashcan for I don't know how long! GROSS

The brown thing is a leaf in case you're wondering.