Hope #6 - Pearls

Skimming through a devotional website and found this daily devotional. My hope is that we allow the Lord to work a pearl in us.

"Pearls are made when a foreign object becomes caught inside of an oyster. The object wounds the oyster. The wound is enclosed and inescapable. In reaction to the wound, the oyster releases a substance called nacre that coats the intruding object, a pearl is formed. It takes seven to eight years- an oysters full life span- to form a pearl. Pearls are created by irritation."

"You and I will face painful situations in life that are inescapable. They intrude upon us without invitation. We cannot run from them. They box us in. They are part of living in this fallen world. But they are also orchestrated by a sovereign God. For what reason? To work pearl into us. "

"At such times, we can either let the Lord turn our painful experience into a pearl, or we can become embittered and blame others, including God. In the latter case, the wound never heals. As Hebrews says, bitterness will spring up within you and defile many (12:15)."

"Allowing yourself to become bitter is like drinking poison and waiting for the person who hurt you to get sick. More Christians have been destroyed by bitterness than probably any other thing in existance. On the contrary, those Christians have allowed the Lord to work a pearl into them, without becoming embittered, are precious in the kingdom of God. They emit the fragrance and beauty of Jesus Christ."

Frank Viola
From Eternity to Here, 215-216

Hope #5 - A GrOoVy Garage Space

Hope #5 - A groovy garage space, where everything is grouped according to use.

Today was a great day to trim those bushes and clean out the garage. We have this enormous group of bushes at the edge of our house. I'm assuming they were put there to create some privacy by the driveway, but they're ginormous. I got out my trusty loppers today and trimmed away at those suckers. I tend to bonzai-ithai (my word for overly clipping my bushes) the bushes. Wish I would have taken a before shot..but I must admit they look a million times better. I bet the bottom of those beasts haven't seen the light of day in years.

After the trimming, I felt the sudden urge to paint. I remember I brought some leftover paint from our previous house and my daughter and I grabbed some rollers (paint rollers, not hair rollers..but you knew that) and started painting our peg board in the garage. The current pegboard was tired...dark and dated..(can pegboard be dated?) We had some leftover gray-blue paint and brightened it up. I used some leftover green paint to paint a stripe on the bottom..just for fun. The result? A fresh new much needed happenin place to hang brooms and rakes and tire pumps and softball gloves and helmets......I'll have to bust out my camera to take an after shot. Unfortunately I didn't get a before shot, but you could just imagine how old dark peg board must look.

My mission is not yet complete, but check out some inspiration photos of some groovy garages.


I've got to have some kind of workbench in my garage. On the to do list.


I love the idea of storing bins up above.

Thank you Martha for some colorful garage inspiration. My peg board is now blue and green.

Thanks again Martha. Gotta love the reminder to screw lids onto the bottom of a shelf to hold odds and ends. GREAT way to utilize space.

I wish...


Another great way to utilize the space above your head that is so common in garages.

This is a great organizational system for all those rubbermaid tubs you like to store all those Christmas decorations in. If you can't store high, take advantage of some of that extra square footage toward the front of your garage.

You can put shelves above doors and all around. Don't be afraid to get bold with color and climb those walls for prime real estate and you'll have a place for everything in no time...and LEAVE ROOM FOR THE CARS!

Hope #4- Green with Envy

I may quite possibly add some splashes of green in my kitchen. Not just my kitchen, but all over my house. Not too overwhelming..but just the right amount.


This picture is called orchid II by Annemarie Peter-Jauman. You can find it on art.com.
Don't you just love those flowers?

What about this next one?


Coquelicot Vert II by Marthe, also on art.com.


Check out this cute tumbler.


Love this green pitcher!


What do you think of this room from a fellow blogger? I forgot where I found her!


Green is just so fresh isn't it? It reminds me of the first warm spring day. The sound of the mower being fired up after its long winters nap. The smell of lilacs wafting through the air. Ahhh yes....I'm green with envy.

Hope #3 - Dining with ease, please!

Hope #3 - A comfortably decorated dining room where my family can sit together and share their day.

This is my dining room in its previous state:

No that is not my dining room furniture. That is the previous owners furniture. She's one of those, "I don't want to move my furniture to paint behind it, so I'll just paint around it" kinda people. The hutch you see in the corner is hiding a second shade of green paint.




This is my dining room table. Sorry for the bad picture quality. It was taken by someone else. I haven't unpacked my camera yet. I've already stripped, conditioned and stained it. I just have one or two more coats of stain to put on it and some polyurethane and it will be complete!


I'm dedicating my dining room as project number one. I chose it because it doesn't need much done. Here is the list:

1. Buy beadboard to create something like this on back wall:


I love beadboard and love how high they made the beadboard go here. Its decorative and functional all at the same time! I didn't want to put it around the whole dining room because I don't want the room to be swallowed in beadboard, but I'm still trying to figure out how I would make it look finished without having to take it all the way around. I love the idea of being able to lean pictures on the ledge like a shelf.

2. Paint.

The beadboard will be a creamy white. I'm thinking I want the rest of the room this:

It looks almost like the top color in the original room, but its actually less pink than the one in the original. Paint in pictures can look totally different than they can in person.

The previous owner absolutely loved green. Almost every room is painted some shade of green. Even the shades on the light fixture in the kitchen and dining room are green.

3. Find dining room chairs. I need at least 6 chairs, if not 8. I don't want them to match. I would love to find 4 of the same and 2 matching chairs for the ends. If I could recover the fabric on the chairs to match it would tie all the chairs together. So I'm on the hunt for some solid wood chairs for not a lot of money.

4. Find or build a long skinny sideboard table kind of like this, but a little more simple.



5. Add some green accessories, like home grown photos!

6. Add a rug?

Light, airy and refreshing.....

Hope #2- Planning meals- less time on wheels!

Hope #2: Plan my families meals by the month.

With laundry and school and work and softball practice and homework and dishes and all the little stuff, its hard for me to find any extra time. It seems like every afternoon, when I'm already thinking about what's for dinner...I end up at the grocery store, wandering the aisles, asking my five year old what she wants for dinner. "No we can't have macaroni and cheese." "No we're not having pizza." "No I'm not getting you ice cream and fruit snacks." Well, I'm tired of wandering the aisles and picking up random items that are missing their friends once I get them home. What a silly thing to be stressed about, but not having my meals planned STRESSES ME OUT!!

So I've decided that taking an hour or two out of my month to plan them and make my grocery list is completely worth it, and now that you've come on my journey of organization, it should be that much easier to find everything I need to cook it. :)

Have you seen all those chalkboard ideas floating around? Here are some that I've found randomly. If any of these are yours, just let me know and I'll credit you.





I like this one below because its an actual calendar. It may be a little too large for what I want, but I love the different shades of paint they used.



This is quite possible my favorite. I like the idea of using old intricate frames and hanging them up like its a work of art. It also isn't a whole entire wall so it wouldn't take up much space. If I got one small enough, I could even quite possible hang it on the inside of a cabinet. I think I want to display mine. Perhaps a bright apple green? Pretty and functional. Doesn't get any better than that.




Okay, I wouldn't go so far as to turn my refrigerator into a chalkboard but I give kudos to the person who had the guts to do it.









This is an actual chalkboard that a lady found at hobby lobby. It would serve the purpose but isn't very pretty.






How about you? Have you seen any chalkboard ideas worth sharing? Perhaps you are a meal organizer as well. How do you plan your meals? By the week? By the month? Maybe you freeze meals for those late work nights. Speaking of meal organizers, my sister in law gave me the idea to plan my meals by the month. She has some great meal ideas you can check out at healthynourishinglife.blogspot.com.

Hope #1-Now we're Cookin!

We're finally buying a house and are moving in soon.

Hope #1: Organize my kitchen!

What peace it would bring to me if everything had its place. I know it would get rid of some of my stress. So today's post is about kitchen organization and I've "cooked up" some pictures and websites of some great gadgets and ideas that might help you find perfect little homes for all that stuff!

The first one is especially for my sister. I thought of her when I saw this. She lives in a small space and needs ways to utilize every inch of square footage. Even if you don't live in a small space, you still want to maximize your space. She doesn't have a lot of room for a garbage can in her kitchen and she doesn't want to leave it sitting out, so she wants to use a small grocery bag as her trash can and I thought this was the perfect gadget for that purpose (sorry for the bad picture quality):

These photos are from stacksandstacks.com. Some things are a little pricy and I'm sure you can find them cheaper in other stores, but they do have some reasonably priced options too.




This is one we've all seen, but boy do I want a place for those extra bags and utilizing door space is a great idea too. Sometimes we forget that we can always hang a small shelf on the door or something magnetic or even something with a hook like this bag holder.


I'm currently storing my lids in a dogpile fashion. You know, where you "throw" them in on top of each other and wherever they land is where they stay kinda deal? What about this lid organizer? Yes please!


These next photos are from Rubbermaid.com.

Pull down spice rack.




I'm always looking for a place to put my brushes and sponges. Perfect!

This is a perfect way to utilize all that extra space in your cabinets. Right now my plates are all stacked on top of each other so I have to pull the specific sized plate that I want out from under all the rest.

I never even thought of a home for my tin foil. Stupendous!


Great little containers for that junk drawer or knife drawer.
Can't forget about IKEA. This is a cool bin I thought would be great for spatulas and spoons and stuff.


What about you? Do you have gadgets that you use to help yourself stay organized? I'd love to hear about them.

Hi

This is me, Kelly. I am a granddaughter, daughter to the best parents in the world, sister to my best friend, wife to an amazingly spectacular husband and a mother of one, my heart. I enjoy the outdoors (when its warm) and love all things beautiful.


This guy...yeah that's him. He's the amazingly spectacular guy I was talking about. Master of spreadsheets, Mr. analyzer...pays his speeding tickets dutifully because he believes he's just paying his taxes to drive the speed he wants (fill in the part where I smack my head a couple times..).
He is an aspiring Formula One racecar driver and I like him a little and love him a lot.


This is my heart. My Skylar. My mini-me. She amazes me every single day. I love love love watching her learn new things. What a joy she brings to my life!


This guy...his name is Alex. He's a Jack Russell. He enjoys escaping from the home, eating freshly baked chocolate bars left cooling on the counter when nobody is looking, laying next to the fireplace and being my own personal broom. You never feel alone when this guy is around. Makes me think I'm skinnier when I look down because my shadow is so small :). He brings tons of laughter into our home.

So that's us, for now; my wonderfully spectacular amazing family. I am constantly busy cultivating hopes for them. Hopes of happiness, success and a lifetime of learning and growing.

"Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, My Savior and my God." -Psalm 43:5

"Now Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1