The Lord works in mysterious ways...

. . .I made more $ than I would have if I had a yard sale. . .and I realized I am an artist, all in 48 hours...because I posted my creations on Craiglist. . .AND THEY SOLD!!!  First let me say a goodbye to my creations, then I will tell you how the Lord let the Spirit touch my heart to remind why we have talents. . .and more importantly why we should use them.

 My "beloved", that is what I named my table and chairs, is going to live with a sweet newly wed couple.  He came by to see it last night and said it is exactly what they want.  He is in the military and they are buying their first home here.  Could it go to a better home?!?  They just put the deposit down on their home and wanted to know if they could come and get the table next week when they get paid again.  I remember those days,(wait we are back in those days-thank you economy. . .) so I agreed to hold it for them.

 It gives me another week to use it.  I am so excited to think this sweet couple will be making memories on the table I gave new life to.  It was so ugly before. . .Want to see how ugly?

They actually look better in the picture than they did in person.  They were nasty dirty and we had to use a knife to get the goopy, yucky stain off the top.  You can see where one of the cushions was ripped open. . .And now they are perfection. 

 I also sold this sweet little side table to a new family that just moved into the area from Georgia.  They have 3 little girls and the oldest is starting kindergarten.  I mentioned we homeschooled and she mentioned they may also, depending on how this year goes.  The mom was here for almost an hour chatting and noticed a framed quote I have on the wall, this one:

She asked me if I painted the frame and I told her I did.
"Have an Attitude of Gratitude" by Thomas S. Monson (the President and Prophet of the LDS, Mormon, church).  I printed the quote (for free!), from Mormon Mommy Blogs. She then said you must be LDS.  I was surprised she said this because not many people see the name Thomas S. Monson and know who he is!  I was hoping she would say she was too and she did...but not quite.  She was raised LDS, but she isn't now. . . :(  Her parents are and her mom is coming to stay with her for 20 days in a couple of weeks to help her paint and decorate her new home.  She is using the piece she bought from me as a jumping off point to decorate her living room.  My little side table is going to help set the feel for her living room. . . ! . . . It is a small world.

So, now I have an empty space next to the couch that I will have to fill. :)  I think I love Craigslist.  In 48 hours I sold 2 projects for the price I asked for them.  I am thinking the 3rd bedroom may become the school room and have an exercise/art studio in the bigger, tiled room that it now occupies.  I could paint more and help supplement our income-from home!!!  I had a moment of clarity.  I may have had this one before (that is what I do.  Learn something about myself. Forget it...and then remember it and realize that I have a gift from Heavenly Father than I should be using. . .) in fact I know I have, so bare with me.  I am an artist.  I realized this as I was picking up the living room, getting ready for the nice new husband to come and look at the beloved.  As I was walking down the hall thinking of other people loving my creations as much as me, I saw this in the hall way:

It is where, at the moment, a couple of my paintings have landed.  They were in the spare bedroom and while we were going through all the stuff in there they go stuck in the hallway.  I love my daisy picture that has yet to find a home (I have only hung a couple of pictures, I need to get into making this sweet house our home.).  It hit me then: I am an artist.  I have a talent that I can use.  I am artsy.  Tina wanted me to paint her a picture of white birches when I was in NH and I doubted I could do it.  Why did I doubt it?  I am an artist!  That is what I do, or at least what I should do.  I am not bragging, I promise.  I just realizing that I do indeed have a God given talent, that He is expecting me to use!!!  I just met a less active member of the church, who bought my side table, that wants to keep in touch with me to help her create her home.  I am helping a newly married couple start creating their home.  Is that a coincidence or does Heavenly Father want me to use my talent? My Patriarchal Blessing, actually says I will help others make their homes beautiful, so it can be appreciated by their children and communities.  In Matthew chapter 25, the Lord gives men talents (talents where coins, but we know that this is a lesson on using the things we have to bless others: our talents), and when the man that was given 5 talents comes back and shows the Lord that he has doubled his talents, the Lord says to him: "Well, done though good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter though into the joy of thy Lord."  The Lord is pleased when we use what he has given us.  The Lord was not happy with the man who hid his 1 talent.  That man was called slothful.  I am not going to be slothful with the talent the Lord has given me.  In Moroni 10:18, it says:  "And I would exhort you, my beloved brethren, that ye remember that every good gift cometh of Christ."  I know that the Lord has given us all gifts and it is our job to find them in ourselves and use them!  Some of us are just to self doubting, and stubborn to use them.  I know that the Lord has made me an artist and I am going to use that talent to bless and serve others.  It is a tender mercy to be cleaning the house and for the Lord to remind me through the Spirit that I have a talent, the He gave me. 

Next week when the new owners of the beloved come to pick her up, and after that, I will be painting the old table and chairs and the dining room.  I am so excited to have one room completely done.  It will be a perfect 16th anniversary gift to our little family.

It's Wednesday and it is safe to say the house looks worse...

...but we have accomplished so much!!!  We tackled the 3rd bedroom.  Or that is what we will call it after it is no longer a storage room.  It is sooooo much better already. I would say we are 75% done and we have already tackled the hard part.  On Saturday we are going to get our queen size bed in there and call it a bedroom (hopefully)! 

We went through  5 boxes (empty and ready to toss), and several Rubbermaid containers.  We organized, threw away, and got ready to take to Goodwill, a bunch of stuff.  Did you catch that last part?  Goodwill.  Yep, the yard sale is off.  I  remembered I like going to them, not having them. AND I noticed that 80% of the stuff I was going to be selling at the yard sale, was stuff I could sell at a craft show.  I decided to put the larger pieces I want to sell on Craigslist-which I am crossing my fingers will work.  I actually already got an email (an hour after posting it) from a lady interested in a desk.  She loves it but has to check with her husband....we will see what he say, but that usually isn't good.  But the point is there is already interest! 

Even with out the yard sale I am still going through every room in the house.  Once it is organized & downsized, I am going to go room by room and start painting and making it pretty. :)  I wonder if I can get it all down by Christmas...

It's Tuesday and the house is a wreck...

I am in the middle of "worse before it gets better" stage as we speak.  There are a couple of areas that are more organized:

I moved this shelf from the laundry/pantry and put it in the corner of the kitchen.   Yes, I want my kitchen to be pretty, but I also need it to be functional.  This is the happy medium and you can't see it until you get in the kitchen.  I used pretty contact paper, that I already had, to make the boxes prettier.  It makes me much happier than when I had the dry sink in this spot (it is now in the school room), that was always overflowing.  If I ever finish painting this room I will post a picture of it.   Aaron and Jake picked out the color and although I like it...I don't love it-which is probably why I never have come back to finish painting it.  I am going to take pictures of each room in the house and then come back and take more pictures of them when they are done. 

 This is the dry sink that was in the kitchen and is much better in the school room.  It houses a lot of things we will use every day.  I spent some time in this room today.  I have another 1/2 a bag of trash and several piles of things going in the yard sale, but...

 ...this is the "worse before it is better".  This table was cleared off before...It will be again soon!  Sadie was checking out the changes in the room (under the table) and made it into the pictures.

In all of the chaos I have been creating in the house, in my quest for simplifying and organizing, I am also getting ready for a Relief Society (women's organization at our church) meeting on Thursday night.  I am actually the Primary (Sunday school & sharing/music time for 3-11 yr old kiddo's) president, so I am excited to be involved with the grown ups.  I am doing a class on lunch box ideas-for kids and adults.  I decided to be test the new fad "mason jar salads".  I am as big a fan as anyone in the way of mason jars, but I am skeptical that the salads stay as fresh as everyone in the blog/Pinterest world says they do.  So far, so good.

We took a break from the large mess I have made in our house and took a trip to the Army Navy Store on Saturday.  Aaron's great uncle used to own it.  It has been kept pretty much the same and he has a lot of childhood memories there.  We made a couple new memories on Saturday.

 And I even made time to make frozen hot chocolate, from a recipe I found on Pinterest and modified.  It was de-li-cious!!!  My guys enjoyed it as an appetizer after their run, while cooling down and waiting for our breakfast for dinner.

In other words I have made a little progress and have found several things to do, so I wouldn't have to keep going through stuff...Tomorrow we are buckling down BIG TIME and getting a lot of stuff done!  I will get a lot of work out of Jake since he can't watch TV for the next 2 days-the consequence of forgetting to scoop the dog poop today...which really is perfect timing..for me any way!

Hello, my name is Carrie and I am a memory pack rat....

Is there a 12 step program for that?  I am not a hoarder.  I don't have a yucky house so packed with stuff I can't clean it.  My house doesn't smell from old pizza boxes I can't throw a way.  I just have stuff.  Most of it tied to a memory. . .or possible memories we may make.  It isn't laying around every where. . .well right now it is because I am going through it to get rid of it!!!!

We started school on Monday and on Friday I decided to put school on hold.  Seriously.  We are blessed. . .Or in other words: we are living in the chaos of way too much stuff.  I some times wonder how much money we would have in the bank if we didn't have so much stuff.  It is my fault.  I enjoy stuff.  I have a shelf with 11 packs of wide ruled paper, 15 spiral bound notebooks (that to tell you the truth I don't even like. . .but they were only 10 cents. . .), and 12 composition notebooks. I have all these paper products because I couldn't remember if we had what we needed so I would buy more. ..and because I like really good deals.  I have one of those plastic shoe boxes with 5 pairs of scissors in it...there is also a pair in the kitchen drawer. . .and in a zipper pencil case. . .and I just found another pair in one of our boxes that is still in the basement of Erin's (my sis-in-law) house!  There is also a plastic shoe box of tape.  I can never find tape when I need it.  I think I found it all now.  If you need some tape just ask me.  I have enough for a small village.  I am a sucker for school supplies and paper products.  Aaron pointed out we probably have enough of both to get Jake all the way through high school. . .He is probably right.

We are going to have a yard sale next week.  A  BIG yard sale.  I don't even care if we make much money, as long as we can just get rid of all the crap we really don't need! I am not even going to price anything.  I am going to make a poster that says "make me an offer" and call it good.  We homeschool.  We are home a lot.  It makes me insane that our 3rd bedroom is full of things like large Rubbermaid containers-one of which contains every single craft Jake made in one year of preschool . Yep.  I am a memory pat rack.

We used to be organized or at least more organized.  We are going to be organized again.  This week we aren't doing school.  We are going through EVERY thing we own and we are getting. rid. of. stuff.  Our school room is were this journey began (. . .just yesterday. . .it seems like so much longer than that), and it is total chaos right now (you know how it gets worse before it gets better? That is where we are right now. . .).  It will be perfectly organized and downsized after this week.  And so will every other room in the house.  I am sure there will be some sweat and tears but it will be so worth it.  I may or may not be blogging this week.  No!  I will be blogging this.  I will take pictures of all of our crap as we are organizing it to remind how it feels to have too much stuff, so we will never have to much stuff again!

Wish me luck.  Pray for my child, because he will be my slave labor to help me accomplish this task.  Aaron will be amazed at our accomplishments everyday when he gets home from work. . .I can't wait to be done.  I can't wait to know where everything is.  My life will be simplified in one weeks time.  I hope. :)

VT & NH Photo Drop #2

More pictures and a few words...

Nothing like corn on the cob on in the summer!  They look thrilled don't they?

After a day of swimming everyone just chills....

After some down time, it is smore's time.

Sam's attempt to avoid the smoke.

The Cilbrith's were joining us for the evening. Mr. Cilbrith & Dad sporting their old t-shirts.  My dad used to do airshows with his Pitts Special and we would turn them into camp outs with the Cilbrith's during the summer, back when we lived in NH. 

The perfect marshmallow.

A walk on the old railroad tracks always leads to climbing the big rocks.

One day were we headed to visit my dad's aunt (there weren't enough seats in the Jeep so I got to sit in the trunk.) and on the way the Jeep had some issues....

The shop was right around the corner from Grampa's house, so he came to hang out with us.  I wish I knew what we were talking about-Grampas face is classic!

Good enough for now...there will be one more photo drop of our vacation so stay tuned.  :)

You know you are a homeshcooling mom if....

. . .you tell your child the reason you started school before the public schools did, is so you can change your mind and send them there if they don't work hard enough at home. True story.  Day 3 of school and I've already done it.  Don't judge me people.  If you homeschool you get it. 

 . . .you do this:

. . .for an hour to make a "timeline composition notebook" (that still isn't done), after you find out the nice printed one you were going to buy that cost $25 (which you think is way too much money), is going to be $10 more just to ship it!!!

. . .your favorite thing about Sam's Club is the cheap books.

. . .and you consider going to Sam's Club to be a field trip.  What? Budgeting, math, books. . .How is that not a field trip?

. . .you have pinned ways to incorporate Lego's into what you are reading about in history.

. . .you like to point out how many people in history were homeschooled. . .even though you know most people used to be homeschooled because public schools were few and far between in the "olden days".

. . .you watch The History Channel and you hear names of civilizations and people that you just learned about while teaching your child and it makes you feel like a genius because you actually know what they are talking about and you can even add to it.

. . .if when you blog you worry about the fact that you aren't actually using proper grammar and are writing run on sentences (I blog it the way I would say it.  Comma's in the right spot?  Nope.  But that is where I would be pausing when I say it. . .), but don't worry about fixing it because you have done that enough already during the day. 

. . . you wonder what exactly you learned in school because you are learning tons of things for the first time while "teaching" your 7th grader.

. . .people ask your child questions things they would never ask a public schooler, because they are testing them to see if they are stupid.

. . .you wonder if it counts as teaching when you just learned it yourself.

. . . you wonder if you are ruining your child on a daily basis.

. . .you have actually considered buying the Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary for $63. . .just because.  (no I didn't buy it)
 
. . .you feel like the luckiest person in the world to be blessed to teach your child, even though it is hard everyday and people think you are crazy.  Sometimes crazy is good. :)

NH & VT Photo Drop #1

I didn't take my camera out as many times as I usually do on vacation...but somehow I still managed to take a whole bunch of pictures!   This is going to be one of those picture and description posts....Boring, I know, but I have too many pic's to do it any other way!

Jake took advantage of the clear skies and light wind and decided to fly a kite at Aunt Tina & Uncle Allen's house.

Saku decided to give it a try too.

Later that day Mom & I loaded up the big boys and headed to Camp. It was hot and we were ready to get settled in for our week and a half on the lake.

The morning of the 4th the boys were up and ready to swim before the fog even lifted.

Later in the day Nee and Ben worked on getting a special book together for Grampa Smith. 

Saku decided to try to ski and we were all excited to cheer him on!

Grampa in his favorite dock chair.

Aunt Shelia, Tina & Braeden, and Anika

He is such a good baby!

Saku was ready to go!

He almost made it! 

Jake and Saku decided to go in the bowl, after Saku decided he his arms were stretched out and he drank enough of the lake. :)

Papa and Ben going for a row...

Ben was my motor boat.

You can tell these boys are brothers!

Jake road the bowl on his own too.

I always try to get a good candid picture of Grampa every summer.

Jake and Uncle Dave's annual chat.

Mom and Grampa checking out the book we all contributed.  Mom is the editor. :)

Braeden....I can't remember if that is how you spell it....but isn't he adorable!!

Tina and Brae-brae....for some reason I couldn't stop calling him that.

The Jakester.

Anika-bananika.

Uncle Ron & his crew.

Anika had a tiny spider on its web on her hand.  Jake was not excited to be underneath it.

Ben and Braeden share the baby pool.

After a day of swimming this boy was tired.  All the kiddos were walking around like zombies...

Jake decided to take a little nap after everyone left.

We even had a rainbow right off the end of our dock.  We figure that means Camp is the pot of gold.

Can you faintly see the double rainbow?  I am sure someone else got a better picture I will have to post.  We were singing the double rainbow song!  "Double rainbow all the way across the sky! Whoa, whoa-oa-o-o-o. It's so intense."

We love Camp!!!