Remember back in June when I posted about several areas of my house that I wanted to get organized? So I posted pictures of the areas and stuff to motivate me to actually get them cleaned up?

Riiight.

Well, I am embarrassed happy to report that a mere 4.5 months later, I’m finished with that little list I created, and I think that we can all agree that posting it for the world to see was, indeed, very motivating (eyeroll). I immediately went to work on a couple of the easier-to-tackle areas, so they aren’t quite as neat and clean as when I started this project, but they are better than before. Believe me, I have another list of longer-term projects started, but here are a few after pictures of cleaned up areas!

this room was the first one i organized back in june; it's now a little fuller and messier, but not much.

ok, compared the "before" pic, these shelves are fuller! explanation: tons of stuff just laying around the basement was moved into boxes, etc on the shelves. also, everything top right is christmas gifts...the xxx is over someone's gift that kinda showed through the bag in the picture!

remember that huge bag full of pictures that needed to go in albums? well, i printed at least that many more, and now my albums are current through the end of august. this is progress. jack henry gets album D and album F out at least twice a day. not sure why those are his favorites; his pictures aren't in those!

I am also happy to report that I threw away 3 large garbage bags of trash, donated another 4 large bags of treasures, and have all of this piled up for a garage sale in the spring:

yay!

…comment number 8, Tanya! Congratulations!

And remember to visit Sara’s site, Less Ordinary Designs, for your Christmas card/baby announcement/invitation. As I’ve said before, she’s amazing to work with! And as soon as we get our pictures taken, I’ll be choosing our card!

For another giveaway, hop on over to Heather’s blog, where she’s giving away a copy of her favorite Christmas picture book.

Couldn’t you just eat him with a spoon?

Just enjoying a beautiful day last week…he came in covered in chalk! (He only did a few of the drawings though; his brothers were making some kind of Star Wars trap out of chalk on the back patio.)

My brother just emailed me this picture of my nephew Will a couple of days ago with the following message:

Michael Scott, this one’s for you…

Are they the coolest parents ever or what?

You know I love Compassion International.

To me, the most powerful testimonies for why this program works is to hear from adults who were sponsored as a child, and what it meant to them. I recently read Peninah’s story; it’s so moving. Being involved with Compassion rescued her from a certain horrible future, as her family is part of the Maasai tribe.

We’ve loved sponsoring Jeremy over the past year. Though letters are few, we’ve loved getting to know him a little bit (you may remember that he shares a birthdate/year with Luke) and seeing him grow and change. He’s clearly learning what it means to know the Lord, and while I don’t know what his family background is exactly, I’m sure that Compassion is helping him along this path. And who knows? It’s possible that he’s teaching his family about Jesus.

Several months ago, I presented our two older boys with an idea. Their piggy banks have a section for donations, and that money has gone to a couple of causes over the last 18 months (school supplies for kids, food for food pantries). However, I suggested this time that they just continue to save their donation money until it got close to Jeremy’s birthday, and then they can give that money to him as a birthday gift. They thought this was a great idea, since they’d heard me read about the things he excitedly told us our gift last year had allowed him to get: clothes for school. While my boys can’t quite comprehend poverty, I think they’re getting a better idea through the personal contact with have with Jeremy, and how a little bit can go a long way.

I can’t wait to get the letter from Jeremy in a couple of months (we had to send our gift last month so that it gets to him in time for his birthday, and then wait for his response via mail), telling us what his mom was able to get for him for his birthday. I think it will really help solidify for the boys what it means to help others.

#####

I had intended to save this post for closer to Jeremy and Luke’s birthday, but yesterday, something really amazing happened on the internet. If you read Stuff Christians Like, you already know what I’m talking about. If not, let me quickly recap.

Jon of SCL was prompted by something his 6 y.o. daughter said about children in poverty (after seeing a picture of a starving child in a book): “That’s pretend right?” It got him thinking about finding a way to use his blog to do something big. Really big. So yesterday morning, he announced that he was partnering with the Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse to build a kindergarten in Vietnam. His daughter is a kindergartener, and seeing her love for school made this a good fit for him. He needed to raise $30,000, and hoped to do it by December 31st. And do you know what? In 18 hours’ time yesterday, the $30,000 goal was reached. Now, there were a few large donations, but primarily, this was raised by many, many people just giving whatever they could.

In scrolling through the comments, I was surprised to read someone’s comment about this being the first time they’ve ever felt compelled to donate to a cause. There is need all around us, and whether you choose to help a local food pantry, adopt a family for Thanksgiving or Christmas, sponsor a child through Compassion or a similar organization, or help with a big project like building a kindergarten (or now, maybe TWO kindergartens!), every little bit can make a big difference to someone in need. Don’t ever think that what you have to offer is too small; God can do big things with it.

I was really, really glad to get that reminder yesterday.

GIVEAWAY OVER!

You know that I love Sara’s Less Ordinary Designs personalized cards…and I know that many of you love them too, as I’ve gotten some in the mail over the last year!

Sara’s graciously offered to partner up with me again so that I can give one of YOU a free Christmas card design (or birth announcement or whatever card choose)!

Here’s our Christmas card from last year. I love it! I still can’t believe that I put a picture of my backside on our Christmas card, but whatever.

She’s great to work with and will customize your card to meet your needs! She emails you a file when the design is complete and you can have them printed wherever you choose. Or, she will print them for you if you choose to go that route. And even if you don’t win, her designs are fun, unique and really reasonably-priced…I can’t recommend her and her work more highly.

It’s really easy to enter to win.

1. Click over to Sara’s etsy site, Less Ordinary Designs. Off to the right, there’s a list of all the different types of cards she makes. Take a look around, and choose a favorite!

2. Come back here and leave a comment, including the name of your favorite design.

3. To earn an extra entry, blog about this giveaway and leave the link in the comments!

Contest ends on November 13th at 9pm. I’ll use random.org to generate the winning number and announce it here!

**This is the perfect opportunity for you to leave your first comment if you’ve never commented before!**

…a long drive by yourself. With three kids, uninterrupted time alone in the car has become precious to me, so you’ll understand why I so enjoyed this weekend!

On Friday night, I set off for Effingham for my SIL Andrea’s baby shower (pictures later in this post!). I sadly kissed my kids and husband goodbye was giddy with excitement as I left my house at 6pm. Some things that made me really enjoy my time in the car:

1. Time to think about some important things without someone interrupting my thoughts to tell me something very, very urgent, like that they just lost their gum under the car seat.

2. Drive-thru St. Louis Bread Co (best. idea. ever.). Sierra Turkey sandwich and a huge Dr. Pepper. Does life get any better than this?

3. Music. I really, really love listening to my MP3 when the choices are all mine. I listened to a mix of Rascal Flatts, Francesca Battistelli, Matt Nathanson, Sugarland, Fundamental Elements, Journey (no trip is complete without “Don’t Stop Believin’”), Daughtry, James Morrison, Matt White, Matt Wertz, Heart, John Mayer, and The Fray. How’s that for eclectic? And of course, I sang loudly, much like Sandy, who totally cracked me up with this line last week: “I’m a car singer…it’s what I do…It’s how I roll.”

4. A couple of good chats on the phone.

Friday night when I got to Effingham, we had fun getting a couple of little things finished up for the shower (my MIL had already done 95% of the work!) and watching Heidi and Jeff’s wedding video and chatting. Saturday morning we all got up, got ready, and finished getting everything set up. Check it out!

sisters-in-law!

the spread! and i made another diaper cake...much easier the second time around!

the hostesses and guest of honor. family friend sharon, me, andrea, jo, and heidi.

andrea is a high school math teacher, and celebrates "pi day" with her students...now the baby can join in the fun, too!

Luke, to Bennett, who’d just dropped half a banana on the floor: “Well quick pick it up! Three second rule!”

—–

I told Bennett that he was going to the fire station for a field trip with his preschool class. His response? “That is TOTALLY WICKED!” (He got that from “The Incredibles.”)

—-

Luke, explaining why he doesn’t eat much lunch at school. “Here’s the problem. I just talk too much.” (Those of you who are my facebook friends have already seen that one, but it was too funny not to keep record of it here.)

—–

Bennett: “Why are people called humans?”

—–

The boys loved Tropical Sno this summer, and it closed last weekend for the winter, but I’d promised a trip there before it closed. We drive by frequently, and one day, Bennett asked Jack Henry, “Do you want to go to Trockable Sno again buddy?” I texted Matt his mix-up, and Matt wrote back something about how that place really does “trock.”

—–

Luke, in the van on the way to church: “It smells like Sunday morning in here.” It’s a combination of my perfume, Matt’s cologne, and coffee. He’s SO my child, having a “scent” for Sunday morning! Saturday mornings also have a scent, he says: dad cooking his nasty famous breakfast for himself. It involves peppers, eggs, any kind of meat, and onions.

—–

Bennett: “Mom, could Jesus’ wife, like, call out things?”
Me: “Do you mean Mary, Jesus’ mom?”
B: “Yeah, his mom. Could she call out things?”
Me: “Like what do you mean? Like that she could say something and it would just happen?”
B: “Yeah, like could she say ‘There should be a house there’ and it would happen, or is that just Jesus?”
Me: “Just Jesus and God. And while they COULD do what you just said, I don’t know if that’s ever happened…”

—–

Bennett repeatedly hugged me after his first day back to school after our week-long illness. I asked him, “Are you just worn out from going back to school today?”

He said, “No, I just have to hug you so much because you took me back to school and I’m so glad. I’m going to stay like this for all my life.”

—–

Luke was talking about things he’s afraid of (namely, tornadoes, and really, who isn’t?).

Bennett said, “Luke, c’mon. You aren’t afraid of anything. You’re SIX!”

—–

Bennett fell out of a little rocking chair and hit the floor chin first. He had a loud reaction to this, of course, but as soon as he calmed down, he said, “It feels like my chin has a headache!”

I know that someday, I’ll miss picking up all of these books after him. I know that. But I can’t help but be the teensy-tiniest bit annoyed when I see that he’s gotten half the books off the shelf again. He does this multiple times a day some days.

intently reading a book about being a big brother, something he will never be! but it is a cute story.

But he really, really likes books. He likes to be read to, and he likes to look through books on his own, and I love that more than I can possibly articulate. He actually made this mess while I was reading the bigger boys a bedtime story that was over his head. He sat there for 20 minutes, talking to himself and sometimes to us about what he saw on the pages, and it was adorable.

i really think he looks like my dad did as a little boy in this picture! i know everyone thinks he's all diehl, but i can never tell.

First of all, addendum to yesterday’s post:
-I regularly forget Luke’s snack on Tuesdays since I don’t pack him a lunch on that day. Yep, it happened today.
-I did not get mooned today. Yay for me.

Friday was not my best performance as a mom. Yes, we were just coming off some major sickness in the house, so my routine was thrown off, but still. No excuse.

Of course, Friday was Halloween parade/party day at both Bennett’s preschool and Luke’s school. I told Luke I would take him to school that day since he was bringing his costume (and since Nana Jo was visiting, too! The boys like when she’s with me for drop off/pick up), so we needed to get out the door a few minutes earlier than normal. As Jo was helping kids into the van with all of their stuff, it occurred to me that I was supposed to be sending a decorated paper bag (I’d found out on Wednesday that I needed to do this; had we been in school the week prior, I would have had more warning and it would have gone on my calendar) along with Bennett for all of his party treats. AAACKK! My mind was racing…what could I possibly put together in 14 seconds?

And that’s when my friend Karen unknowingly saved the day.

On Wednesday we were talking on the phone about doing projects with kids, and I was feeling like a slacker, so I did a little pumpkin drawing project with Bennett on some construction paper. We didn’t really do anything else with it after that, so it lay on the counter until Friday when I frantically taped it to a paper bag and wrote Bennett’s name on top (with the second marker I grabbed, as the first one, of course, was dried up). Mission accomplished.

I dropped Luke off at school and brought Bennett to school, and we stuck around after drop-off for his little Halloween sing-a-long and costume parade. It was really cute, and Nana Jo, Jack Henry and I headed home around 10am.

I noticed right away that Luke had not taken his homework back to school that day, and it was due. Failure #2.

But the biggest fail of the day was yet to come.

Jo and I sat around talking and looking at my BeadforLife jewelry, and at some point, we started talking about food or something, and Jo said something like, “Not a good conversation to have at 11:30 in the morning, when we’re hungry for lunch!” I shrieked, looked at my watch, which read 11:27, and literally RAN out the door. I had totally forgotten to pick up Bennett from school (school day ends at 11:30). Yes, that’s right, I forgot my kid. Now, on Mondays and Wednesdays if I was a few minutes late, it would be no big deal, because there are several classes that all do the carpool line together on those days, and I would have just been at the end of the line. But on Fridays, there are fewer classes, so the line goes really quickly.

I called the school and let them know that I would be a few minutes late, and the secretary was really sweet and said that he would be sitting with her. Honestly, my internal clock was just off, and I know why: I’m used to leaving preschool a little after 9, and then naturally knowing when it’s about time to go get him. However, on Friday, I left the school almost an hour later than normal, and just didn’t adjust my thinking. Talk about humiliating. Luckily, Bennett was not at all concerned (and seemed to not really know what was going on) and I was only five minutes later than the last of the carpool line pickup. But still. FAIL.

Oh, and isn’t it nice that I did all of this in front of my mother-in-law? This would maybe freak some of you out, but fortunately for me, she’s not THAT kind of mother-in-law. If she thought I was failing, she certainly didn’t let on

I finished off the day (and Jo’s visit with us) by taking entirely too long to prepare a high-fat, mediocre-tasting dinner.

Saturday was a much, much better day.