Non-Conformist Agreement

After the previous post about our PK ceremony, I have been watching those same girls and their peers in the halls and at sporting events.  One girl, not in our group, rudely told a parent who has faithfully served as a room mom, loving on those kids and supporting the teachers, since her son started at the school, that she was no longer welcomed or needed in the classroom.  The "popular" girls at school keep their noses lifted high, their hair perfectly groomed, and their confidence oozing as less popular girls trail behind them like minions, desperate for the snooty, smart, athletic girls with pretty hair to throw them a banana.  Middle school is hard for girls, no matter the school....even a school filled with loving, stable Christian families.

So imagine my surprise when our daughter started wanting the same hairstyle and shoes as the popular girls at school (praise God for uniforms or clothes would have be the same too).  She wanted to be included in their circle, to be popular, and to be accepted, but a lesson in PK about choosing your friends wisely convicted her. We talked about the trap of being popular, the two-edged sword (pride and vulnerability) that comes with it, the emptiness and fleeting of worldly popularity, and worst of all - the failure to love God and others before ourselves.  My girl knows deep inside that true and lasting beauty comes from within and radiates outward in a way that blesses everyone, whereas physical beauty fades and is quickly corrupted by a selfish heart.  She has historically been the one girl who would reach out to the new kid and make her feel welcomed, no matter how different that kid may be.  I did not want to see her lose herself in all the middle school drama.

So, she decided she would be true to herself. To hold each other accountable, we drafted a "Non-Conformist" agreement and are committed to helping each other become non-conformists for Christ. We know we can't do all these things in our own strength, and we do not want to make vows we will probably break, but without a clear vision of who we want to be and should be, we are not likely to change at all.  Here is a copy of our current agreement which may be amended or modified as necessary.

We, [daughter's name]and [mother's name], are both resolved that we shall not be conformed to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2) or to the passions of ignorance (1 Peter 1:14), but we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds to test and approve the will of God. We will not seek popularity or associations with the popular, elite, and/or famous with selfish motives. Instead, we will notice the ignored, extend friendship to the friendless, lift up those who feel lowly, and give to those who cannot give back. We will risk reputation to love those who most need to be loved.

1)      Instead of striving for status quo and trying to imitate all the fashions, fads, and whatever the culture thinks is cool, we will express our unique personalities and interests with confidence in God's perfect design for each of us, becoming trendsetters without being lured into "keeping up with the Joneses".

2)     Instead of throwing all of our energy and time into the high pressure pursuit of performance based praise, our first and primary investment will be in the pursuit of Christ. Instead of striving to draw attention to ourselves, we will seek to point others to Christ and make Him known, for all our worth is found in Him. 3)      Instead of storing up and flaunting earthly riches, we will be rich in God's love - putting God and others before earthly treasures and fleshly desires.  

               

4)    Instead of pursuing the vocation, lifestyle, and schedule the world calls us to, we will consider our God given talents, spiritual gifts, life experiences, skills, and passions, and then seek God’s direction on how to best utilize what He has equipped us with to serve God and man with love and joy.               
      

5)     Instead of saying only what people want to hear to make them like me, I will speak the truth they need to hear, even if it hurts at first, because I love them more than I desire to be liked. But, I must be careful to speak only when compelled by the Spirit and not by angry emotions.

#RaisingRebels

PK Blessing Ceremony

My daughter and I just completed a two-year Bible study with a group of like-minded moms and daughters (mostly from our kids' school) using The Princess and the Kiss  study guide.  This program helped us teach our girls Godly virtues and show them their infinite worth in Christ.  When they understand how valuable they are to God who paid the ultimate price for them, receive a glimpse of just how precious they are to Him, and know that they belong to God alone, then they can accept our challenge to guard their hearts and to keep themselves pure in mind, heart, and body.  Purity flows out of a vibrant, living, growing relationship with Christ and out of a clear understanding of one's own intrinsic value in Him.

Pastor Chad

This past weekend we held the final blessing ceremony.  Families and close friends came to celebrate and pray blessings over our daughters. One of our moms helps her husband pastor a church plant in the area. They graciously offered their church facility, and her husband delivered a mini sermon based on 1 Corinthians 13. 

His sweet wife welcomed everyone and prayed fervently, and then our founder/leader, Liz, introduced the study and summarized the key themes and principles taught. Another mom in our group beautifully read The Princess and the Kiss book for the crowd.

Two mom/daughter pairs shared what the group has meant to them and their key takeaways. Last time my daughter shared during a testimony time, she embarrassed me, so I asked her to let me proof her speech before she delivered it.  She shared some personal things I never knew, so that was humbling and sad for me to learn too late, but at least she is sharing with me now.  I've spoken before hundreds of people, Hyundai, Konica, and other large business owners and execs in Japan, executive boards in Canada, the US, and Mexico, and city councils; I've taught professional development courses for business professionals in multiple states; I've even been interviewed on TV news programs, once without any notice at all while on location for a consulting appointment, but I wasn't nearly as nervous at those venues as I felt before sharing a simple message with these moms, daughters, and close family members.  Perhaps the nerves were due to being so emotionally attached, just as surgeons are not allowed to operate on their own family members.  I think it went fine, though.
I love how fearless my daughter is on any sort of stage, unlike her mom.

Ann Voskamp summed up my entire "speech" this morning in only three lines:

"Girls rival each other. Women revive each other.
Girls impale each other. Women empower each other.
Girls compare each other. Women champion each other."

I'm thankful for the wise women in my life.

Each girl received the last charm representing a pure heart for her PK charm pillow.  Then the moms prayed blessings over them and entire families came up to lay hands on them and pray.    

My daughter, one of the girls from the study, and I prepared a slide show that played on the side screens throughout the ceremony. It was amazing to see in those pictures how much these girls have grown and matured in just two years.  From the beginning to the end of the slideshow, we parents our girls become young women. while the girls giggled at all the fun memories.  Then we feasted on fresh fruit, breakfast casseroles, and muffins.  

Nana and Pops and "Grandma Susan" attended the celebration as well.  What a blessing they are!  Then Mom planted flowers for me according to our yearly birthday tradition while our daughter raced off to a AAU basketball tournament two hours away. 

I'm glad we were able to commemorate this stage of her life in a way that calls her to take responsibility and to seek the Lord for herself.

I love each one of these young ladies as my own daughter, and it has been a wonderful honor to teach and love them (and to be taught and loved back by them) while watching them grow in knowledge, wisdom, and love for God. Be encouraged, the world may be a dark and scary place, but His light still shines, and these torchbearers will be holding it up high long after we are gone.

Our girls at the end of the ceremony

"Mugshot" faces

Silly poses

I came across a quote by a young but exceedingly wise wife & mom to at least 8 children which seemed so apropos following the completion of our two year mother/daughter Bible study focusing on purity of heart, mind, soul, and body. There are a lot of misconceptions outside the Christian faith and even through extreme movements (which I call "ditches") within that see our faith as a legalistic system of do's and don't's instead of as the most fulfilling and exhilarating personal relationship imaginable with the Creator, Sustainer, Savior, and Lord over all. True purity is found in...

"Real and deep communion with Jesus Christ that penetrates past all externals – a relationship with Him that is greater than any fluffy methods promising less broken hearts and more physical “purity.” If you are in real communion with Jesus Christ, it’s a relationship that cuts deep to the heart, where true purity either is, or isn’t.

God is after our hearts. He is after the hearts of our children. Our priority should be to point them to Christ and to live Christ-filled, unconditional, unjudging lives before them. If our heart is His, He will lead us, strengthen us, and keep us.

A heart of true purity pours out of communion with Christ – not from commitments to relationship methods, or parental control. Point (and live out authentic lives) your children, young adults to Christ and not to some form of relationship or set of standards. Keep Christ the center, the focus, the main thing. Your Everything.

Live HIM, not just some lifestyle." - Alyssa Ann Welch

I am reminded of a male friend of mine has lived out a genuine life of faith in Christ in a foreign country where nationalized brothels are provided for men because it is assumed that men cannot control their urges (whereas women are expected and required to practice such self control). For decades, he has stood out to the locals who could not understand how he could exhibit such self control. He conducted himself in purity not just bodily, but also in speech and thought, for His heart is constantly consumed with Christ. We are each hopelessly wicked apart from Christ, but when He has our hearts, His purity flows out of us.

Snippets from our crazy daily lives - fun, funny, serious, wise, or otherwise

On March 31, our newest nephew was born, Waylon Earl.  He is my husband's youngest brother's second son.  Now that he has been born, there are 10 grandchildren total on my husband's side, and out of 15 grandchildren on four sons on my husband's side, 6 grandchildren and two sons celebrate birthdays in March.  It's like Christmas shopping all over again.  He was a healthy 9 pounds, 14 ounces, and 21.5 inches at birth.

As I sit here amazed that my brave SIL delivered an almost 10 pound baby boy, I am reminded of how big and uncomfortable I got with just a 7 pound, 4 oz, 20" boy growing inside my belly. Both of my kids were born before "push presents" were a thing, but I think Lindsey is amazing and deserves a major gift for bringing that precious boy into the world. Oh how we love our new nephew already!

Over 9.5 years ago when she was 2.5.

24 Years Ago
24 years ago in the middle of March, my parents first opened their hearts and home to these two midshipmen while they spent the weekend in my hometown giving concerts with the USNA Glee Club. Mom had to twist my arm to convince me to leave my beloved college friends to help her show them a little southern hospitality.....only to have one of those guests go and twist my poor little heart into knots. I never imagined (but secretly hoped) that chance meeting would bring him back to me eight years later and into a lifelong marriage covenant the following year. But when we both sought the Lord first, He gave us the desires of our hearts as those desires aligned with His perfect will. (Matthew 6:33)

STEM
The 16-oz tumbler featuring 48 frozen fractal formations (snowflakes), scientifically sorted according to the Magono-Lee snow classification system I just received is so cool I'm tempted to scrap all my current lesson plans and tie together our units on phase changes, crystals, humidity, air pressure and weather patterns with a unit on frozen fractal formations in nature. But if I scrap my unit on falling bodies, I would have no longer have an excuse to take the kids on a field trip to Defy Gravity. So much STEM fun to be had...so little time. ‪#‎STEM‬

We have had some serious wind over the past month.

So, after the worst day for wind we have had all year, it seemed fitting that I should put my STEM lab assistant to work building a windmill for the class in which we will consider real life and technological applications for air pressure, the vortex, and forces that create wind. This windmill can power an LED light or recharge batteries. 

The blue blade version works better in calmer winds, but it doesn't power the microwave as a witty friend suggested when she saw this picture with it sitting on the counter like a center piece. (I was working on STEM lesson plans and using it at the time).


 My poor laptop has fallen from my cardio machines too many times to count and has traveled through several continents getting battered and bruised each step of the way. It once caught on fire when I had it much too close to the gas stove while multitasking dinner preparations and work. None of the auxiliary parts work, but it was a powerhouse inside until my lesson planning marathon killed it at 3:30 am last night...or so I thought. My computer EMT hero just came to my rescue during his lunch break to perform life saving surgery just in time for STEM class. #superhero #geeksarehot #9lives

Cat
My husband's stupid (don't tell my kids I used the "s-word") cat has knocked over all our trash, climbed the counters, eaten my pizza, shredded my favorite furniture and rugs, and even chewed up my STEM project today. While I was trying to relax after dinner, the cat started wreaking havoc again, so I called Jeff to come do something about his annoying feline. So what did my IT superhero and beloved military veteran do? He handed me a Nerf gun. So here I sit, keeping watch, ready to teach Orwell a lesson. That wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I said, "Do something!"

April Fool's Day
We've never done practical jokes in our family on April Fool's Day, which is surprising given how much we like to joke and laugh around here. Perhaps having an older brother whose favorite sport was pranking his punk sister made pranks seem just too cruel to me, but I certainly have enjoyed hearing all the stories of pranks pulled at school that day.

April 1 fell on the same day as our school's teacher appreciation day this year, so a 3rd grader in my son's class brought his teacher a box from her favorite donut shop, but it was filled with spinach instead of donuts.  Another sweet mom brought in real donuts later!

This same group of kids switched all the names around on the desks! And, when they came in from recess they all sat in different seats! Their teachers are very patient and love the kids so much, but the teacher paid them back by giving them a 5th grade math test.   (That's something I wish she would do everyday to be honest).

Then, much to our surprise, our daughter just pulled a big prank on her brother. She stacked his shoes up on the top of his door, so when he opened the door, they all fell on his head.  I wish I had known about that or I would have stopped her lest he get hurt, but his response was fun-loving without injury, and we all ended up getting a great laugh out of her prank.  Now I'm not sure if I should give her a talk about showing kindness and respect to her brother or a reward her for her cleverness.

Basketball
Our daughter continues to play AAU basketball, and after the humbling first tournament where the team first scoped out the competition, she has really stepped up her game as point guard.   The coach also split up the team by grade, so now she is on a team of only seven girls her age.  After 2+ hour road trips and back this weekend for an AAU tournament, our daughter's very inexperienced team with only five players  (no alternates, so 100% playing time) available this weekend actually made it to the final championship game today only to forfeit the game because one player arrived a few minutes late...BEFORE the game was scheduled to begin but AFTER the refs collected their forfeit money and left. So, our tiny but mighty point guard is not just gaining basketball skills, she's learning vital life skills, like how to handle disappointment. And instead of breaking toes like she kept doing as a competitive gymnast, she's now spraining elbows.

My Birthday
A great birthday present this year came from long time friend I rarely ever get to see.  She had a vivid dream about me the night before my birthday. I think all the media frenzy over the common sense HB2 "Bathroom Bill" which merely upholds civil laws since 1972 but has been inaccurately called a discrimination bill when it merely says that boys should use the boys restroom and girls should use the girl's, triggered her dream.  How far have we fallen. Opponents want to grant men access to women's restrooms and locker rooms - yes even shower facilities even though doing has obviously increased incidents of men sneaking in and either exposing themselves or taking video of naked women, but I digress. 
She related her dream as follows:

I was in a bathroom stall.  You came in the bathroom and wanted me to taste the fried chicken you had.  I said well, I’m in the bathroom.  So no.  You took the door off the hinges and handed me a chicken leg.  It was really amazing so I asked you where it came from.  (Never mind that I’m on the toilet eating fried chicken while you’re standing there invading my privacy).  You said it was from your wedding reception.  I said I was amazed that it was still so crispy after having been frozen all these years.

My son kept me humble this year by giving me a handmade card. I know I should be flattered that he went out of his way to actually write something instead of merely signing his name as usual, but he wrote at the top, "Thank you for" and left the rest of the page blank. I asked him if he could not come up with a single thing I do for which to be thankful, but he insisted he just changed his mind about what he wanted to say.

I still remember when his sister, at age 6, tried to say something nice to me, but what she actually said was, "You are pretty....in your own kind of way."

My husband picked out a nice card for me, but I still tease him because after knowing me for 24 years, he still doesn't underline key words in cards like we do in our family. It must be a southeastern cultural thing.

My husband also made me some brownies. Apparently the secret to the world's most addictive brownies is to throw off the traditional kitchen apron and wear a flashlight on your head instead. :-)  And it also helps to pull them out of the oven when the center is still a gooey chocolate buttery consistency. ‪#‎BigBoysBakeItBest‬

How thoughtful of the family to pick out two mismatched candles to celebrate 16 of my 43 years.

I thought this card with the bunny on it was cute.  It gave me an idea for expanding Muffin's modeling career beyond just Easter/Spring photo shoots.  But when Muffin tried to assume the prayerful, make-a-wish pose, she fell out backwards.  Maybe she's a charismatic bunny. :-)

Favorite Quotes I've Pondered Recently

"My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." (James 5:19-20)

Someone once did that for me, so I am compelled to do the same for others in the family of faith. Every word must be seasoned with love, humility, forgiveness, and grace, but if we must err on one side or the other, it seems better to offend and lose friends than to watch a loved one perish because of our own cowardice. ‪#‎ToughLove‬

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"Genuine love is based not on what you can gain from someone but what you can give." - Jay Lowder (based on 1 Corinthians 13)

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Priorities
The concept of prioritizing those we love has always bothered me. I know I should always keep God first and prioritize my marriage over my children and my family over my outside relationships, for if the top priority relationships aren't healthy, none of the relationships below it on the priority ladder will be healthy either. But the concept just seemed so incomplete. Then I came across these words (below) written by Beth Moore, which explain the hole in the priority list illustration. Perhaps a better picture would be that of a tree with God as the trunk and each of our other relationships as branches and limbs extending from that trunk.

"We woefully shortchange our earthly experience if we, with well-meaning hearts, relegate Christ to the top of our list of priorities and demand that He stay put. We've been taught to live by lists of priorities but, if marriage is second on my list, what will happen without Christ's intervention? If children are third on my list, what will become of them if Jesus sticks to our church category and doesn't invade our parenting? If friendships are fourth on our list, how can we ever hope to break our cycle of broken relationships without Him who is wholeness incarnate? Colossians 3:4 doesn't call Jesus number one in your life. It says He 'is your life'."

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things...." (Romans 11:36)

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Grace
(Quotes by Ann Voskamp)

Whatever is chasing you — no matter what it looks like — it’s grace.

And grace isn’t what makes us feel good: grace is all that makes us more like Jesus.
We don’t live in pursuit of a better life — it’s the blessed life that’s in pursuit of us.
No one chases grace — but grace chases everyone. 

“Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life…”  (Ps. 23:6, NLT)

“Your beauty and love chase after me …”    (Ps. 23:6, MSG)

Recent Favorite Links:

• So I know this post is from the Blaze which some refuse to read, but Matt does an excellent job addressing a common misconception, especially with regard to fundamentalism. This article is a must read for anyone who thinks Christianity is like other religions (and I know that idea is very common given the number of conversations I've had with people over that one issue). He doesn't directly address the misconceptions people have over the origins/motivations of the Crusades or the key differences regarding Christ as both God/man and as suffering servant & Savior who was not bound to the grave but rose again, but when it comes to social issues he nails it - clearly & concisely. 
  http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/its-time-to-stop-pretending-all-religions-are-equal/
  
•  Re:  The Bathroom Bill 

•  People outside and within our classical often ask why our school teaches Latin from 3rd-8th grade and Greek in high school instead of focusing on more "useful" languages like Spanish or Chinese.  The emphasis on "dead" languages has bothered me too, especially given that the first semester of the senior year is focused on preparing for and completing service project in Costa Rica where Spanish is required.  This article, while seemingly exaggerated at points, provides an explanation.  

•  I sure hope this procedure turns into something majorly effective in the U.S. to cure M.S.:  http://thesecrets.info/italian-doctor-may-have-found-surprisingly-simple-cure-for-multiple-sclerosis-2/

• "When You're Finding It Hard to Keep Up"

House Updates

Apparently my midlife crisis is manifesting itself in breaking free from my "function over form, plain Jane, I can't do anything artistic anyway" mindset. I have completely redone or replaced almost every piece of furniture and decorative item in the new house. We even replaced brand new, practical & fully functional low maintenance light fixtures with sparkling chandeliers that I don't even want to think about cleaning. We added a porch and replaced a deck that was barely 2 years old. After going crazy throwing paint and new stain on solid sentimental old furniture, we spent the past two weeks throwing new colors and lots of glitter (yes, glitter) on walls that were freshly painted only two years ago. For our next transformation, we will trade our paint and glitter for some big rocks & dirt and throw those around instead. I may be going crazy with transformations around here, but I'm reminded that only God can transform us from the inside. And when He completely renews our hearts and minds, major transformations will be evident on the outside, too. ‪#‎Transformations‬ ‪#‎MidLifeCrisis‬ ‪#‎BreakingFree‬ ‪#‎SpringBling‬ ‪#‎InterventionNeeded‬

My Office

Since I recently returned to my original career (albeit on a very limited, part-time, consultative basis so I can still teach), I decided to redecorate my office to make it feel more professional (and inspire me to actually use it instead of doing all my work on the kitchen island). I started as you might expect for a frugal, frumpy, function-over-form gal with a plain, solid oak, executive desk and gray lateral file cabinet. But then I discovered glitter paint, a box of romantic photos, and a new obsession with refinishing old furniture, and now the office I had planned to make look more professional looks more like a scene from cheesy romantic chick flick wrapped in a box of glitter.

Man Cave 

My husband has been slowly but surely working on the room over the garage. Last year, we hired a carpenter to build a closet into the room for storage, but there was still so many boxes left. So my husband has been purging for months, and he found plenty of my own boxes of stuff in there I have been purging as well.

I was impressed by the built-in bookcases he built all by himself for one of the corners to create mini library. The trim work looks almost professionally done. I need to find a new sofa, so he can take the one his cat scratched up in our family room and move it to his room to create a mini theater out of the other half of his office.  I have a feeling the TV screen and the price tag will both be much bigger than I could even imagine.

In this house, instead of keeping everything plain and neutral, we decided to decorate our own offices however we wanted to best reflect our own tastes.  The vast differences between our two offices amuse me.  The only thing at all that is remotely similar would be our color schemes.

Wall Paint

• Mine: "Voyage" (a light grayish blue) with heavy glitter to make the  room sparkle and shimmer at night (Painting work was outsourced.)
• His: "Imperial Fleet" (very dark navy blue) and definitely no glitter  (He painted it all himself.)

His color is quite suitable for a former submariner and dark enough for the theater half coming soon. 

Hanging on the Walls

• Mine:  Images of him and me sharing romantic moments, favorite photos I have taken from our travels together, and lake sunsets taken during bike rides or runs which have all been stretched onto wall canvases and inspirational Bible verses in a swirly script 
• His: Three poster-sized, thickly framed Civil War maps, diplomas, sub pics and plaques from his navy days, Independence Day movie poster, and a comprehensive chart of all cosmic exploration

Window Treatments

• Mine:  Sparkling silver curtain rod with finials that look like disco balls and sheer scrollwork curtain panels to soften the sunlight as it diffuses into the room
• His: An ornery gray and white cat named Orwell

Office Desks

• Mine: Traditional solid oak executive desk refinished and stained dark walnut on top and painted on the sides to make it unique and to coordinate with the rug and bookcase
• His: Standard, metal, modern L-shape from one of the office supply stores

File Cabinets

• Mine:   Distressed rolling cabinets painted in a chevron pattern with soft colors and antiqued  loop handles – all coordinating with the desk
•  His:  Plain, standard black metal lateral file cabinets

Bookcases

• Mine: An assortment of solid white and/or inky blue shelves in various and sizes refinished and repainted, one with mirrored quatrefoil doors and sides to match the lamp and rug.
• His:  Custom built white bookcases he built himself and trimmed out nicely in executive library style and a gorgeous solid antique unit we are storing for missionaries indefinitely. 

I’ll stop there, but the biggest differences are in what we put on our desk and shelves.

  

Master Bathroom

I have wanted to replace the tile since they day they put it in, but since that's too costly, I went with adding glitz and bling for a unique, pampered, fancy look.  After decorating the room in aqua and brown, it just seemed to plain for me, so I bought a water fall chandelier last year for the tub.  My husband was still recovering from shoulder surgery, so he could not lift his arms enough to install it until this past February.  It was a beast and took him all day plus trips to the home improvement store for retrofit kits to make it work with a recessed can light.  In our last house, I wanted to replace all our boring light fixtures with recessed lighting, yet here I tend to be replacing recessed lighting with high maintenance chandeliers.

Once the chandelier was up, I knew we needed some more bling because the crystals looked totally out of place in such a terracotta style casual bath.  So  I bought towels and curtains with lots of sequins, new bathmats to match (less the sequins which would be practical), new jeweled soap dispenser and toothbrush holder, matching sequin curtains and crystal and chrome curtain rods to carry out the bling theme.

I bought a white storage cabinet with a gray slate top which works well with all the new gray accent decor, and then we added aqua glitter paint to the walls.  After the bathroom became more glitzy, the closet looks more cluttered.  So I added new sweater and shoe storage systems, some shelves we had moved out of the bonus room, and thoroughly purged and reorganized it.

Bonus Room 

The bonus room has taken the most time to decorate.  It's a massive room (30' x 19') not counting the study nook area behind the stairs or the two mini hallways leading to each bedroom & bathroom area.  We added a large charcoal sectional and ottoman initially to separate the TV/media area from the game area. 

This room also serves as a playroom so we initially stored all the kids' toys in several toy boxes and open shelves, but it always looked messy and chaotic to me that keeping it tidy was so frustrating for me that I just stopped going upstairs at all.

After a massive purging of the kids' toys when they were not around, I greatly reduced the quantity of toys and moved several shelves out of the room and into closets for storage there.  But what remained still looked messy, so now all our board games are tucked away in the drawers of the refinished credenza shown below. I like this solution for hiding clutter much better than built-in bookcases and cabinets, and it was much cheaper, too.

 

We took the glass doors off of an old entertainment center and painted it the same color as the credenza shown above.

We moved out the kids' toy box to the garage for storing pet supplies and brought in an old hope chest instead.  It's been in the family for many generations, but it desperately needed some restoration and a fresh look before passing it on to our daughter.

For several years, I've been wanting to do a clock collage that would reflect our family timeline from our wedding day to the present. It was a lot of work and a little depressing to put together as the pictures are a tangible reminder of how fleeting our life is on this earth, but I pray we will choose instead to see it as a positive reminder to cherish every moment spent with loved ones and give God thanks for the wonderful blessing of a loving family.

We painted the entire room a grayish brown color, "Rocky Bluffs", and hung up several other picture collages and framed photography prints. The print over the credenza is one of my favorites.  We took that photo on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea at Antalya, Turkey, a strategic location for Paul's missionary travels. 

Game Area in Bonus Room

Landscaping

We currently have a number of landscaping projects underway which we have outsourced given our past failures at all things botanical.  I'll give a sneak peak of what's going on around here and then provide an update when it is finished.  But first, let me tell you a true story.

Imagine coming home to an empty driveway and an empty house, scooping up your bunny, and taking her out to the porch where you lie on the couch to relax and snuggle against her silky soft fur while talking aloud in a ridiculous baby talk voice to that rascally rabbit as if she understands a word of your gibberish. Then while enjoying the stillness and the spring weather, you hear a loud thud and then scraping noises. You think you hear men talking to each other...planning their next move, preparing to attack...the voices sound like they are right there in the porch with you. Afraid to look, but unable to bear the unknown a moment longer, you jump to your feet to find three strange man digging a trench underneath the porch. Scenes from The Great Escape flash through your mind.

That's when you remember that your landscaper mentioned that his crew may start the French drain you had requested this week. The doorbell rings, and the landscaper you actually know is back after fetching supplies for his crew who he dropped off before you had returned home. All is well, but twilight zone music plays in your mind as you realize those strange men know the hidden truth about you. So you bring out cookies and beverage, hoping they'll remember the refreshments instead of the ‪#‎CrazyBunnyLady‬. ‪#‎mylife‬

Documenting the crime scene