To DIY, or not to DIY, that is the Question

We finally decided to meet with a real estate agent about officially listing our house. She surprised us by telling us she thought we needed to take care of the peeling paint before we could list. This was not on our fall agenda. We called a painter, but he was very uncertain if he could get us in before the temperatures were too cold. So...... although it pretty much falls under the category of crazy to DIY paint your house when there is like 1 week left of above freezing temps. (with some encouragement from our small group) we decided to go for it.

It was a CRAZY, exhausting, often frustrating, sometimes encouraging week. A few tears might have been shed but we survived and are pretty much done. We basically had to paint all the white on our house (trim, gable, & soffit)

While Jeremy did the prep work with the power washer the kids and I took on raking our yard. They were so helpful and actually did a lot of hard work. Our yard is very blessed with leaves since we live next to a patch of woods.


Faith was done working by the time I got the camera out...this girl keeps play on her priority list. But, she also surprised me on the second day by being a very hard worker.
I am so thankful we survived it...and I'm thinking since we saved all that money we can afford to pay the painter to paint the lovely (said with sarcasm) yellow come Spring. ;) That is if we haven't sold our house and have an all new DIY list.

"These Are the Moments" Monday

Saturdays around our house are known as "Daddy Day" and we start them off right with Daddy breakfast. This Saturday I walked into my kitchen to find my hubbie dicing potatoes to make homemade hash browns. He instructed me to look down.

This is what I saw.
Titus had found his own cutting board, potato, & knife. He was doing a perfect imitation of his daddy. (even using his left hand) Immediately the words to "I Wanna Be Just Like Him" started looping in my brain. (If you aren't familiar with this classic tear jerker song you can hear it Here.)

These are the moments ...

I am incredibly thankful I married a man who loves the Lord.

Oh, how thankful I am that my son watches a daddy who seeks to lead and serve his family with the strength and character of a man who loves Jesus.

(And he makes a pretty incredible breakfast too :)
Yes, Mam those our homemade hash browns with bacon & diced peppers. YUM!!

While I'm on the subject of Daddy's and their example to their kids I couldn't help but mention the movie Courageous. Last week Jeremy and I had the chance to sneak away for dinner & a movie. It was such a blessing! It is so awesome to see the truth of the Gospel proclaimed from the big screen. It was such a powerful message. Most of you know Jeremy and I are pretty frugal people, but I found these movie tickets to be worth the investment. We also plan to purchase the movie when it comes out on dvd. We want to support and be reminded of the biblical truths this movie illustrated.

Shoe Box Packing Party

Who knew when Lindsay Otte introduced our group of "girls" to packing a shoebox gift for kids around the world in college that it would become a beloved family tradition in our home?After writing our letters after school Friday night we had pizza and took a trip to the store to purchase the rest of the items we needed to pack our shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. It gets funner ever year now that the girls can really get excited to pick out items for "their" boxes. Grace of course chose purple items and Faith chose pink.

Titus plotting...
See that big orange cup....its full of water. Titus is currently trying to eat a ring pop through the wrapper.
Then he grabs the playdough out of his box and chucks it. This boy has got an arm. No pictures of this but just imagine how much water that cup holds and it going everywhere....opps!
So we decided it was time for Titus to head off to bed before we prayed for our boxes. This picture cracks me up. I told the girls to pretend to get ready to pray so I could snap a quick picture. Jeremy wasn't wanting to cooperate and I snapped the picture anyway. The reason it makes me laugh is because it looks like it was a very spiritual moment...however it was not.
I can't wait to someday take the kids on a trip to a processing center (they have to be 13). But for now we love this November family tradition!!