Updates

For those of you who missed photos of Thomas' birthday party, I finally have them up.  I back-dated the post to keep things in chronological order, so it's buried.  You can find the post HERE.

I'm headed to the airport bright and early tomorrow morning (actually, it will be so early, it won't be bright yet!).  Going to Wisconsin to be close to my Mom for her surgery and to help as much as she'll let me afterwards.  Please pray for her.

The house will be on the market by the time I get back (actually, it's going on the market THIS WEEKEND!) - I'm so excited!  My first order of business after returning home is to take some awesome "after" pictures to compare to the "before" pictures that are on the blog.  Wanna see the before shots?  Click HERE.

Okay...I'm off to heat up a can of Spaghettios for my little ones, then give them a nice warm bath.  I also need to sew the face on a jack-o-lantern costume (we're totally buying costumes next year) and pack.

Read more...

Getting Closer

...To losing my mind, that is.

 I just spent 45 minutes writing a blog post.  Then I accidently pushed the wrong series of keys, and my screen went blank.  Then this wonderful program did an auto save, and all my work was lost within about a 6 second period of time.

That lost post was titled "One of Those Days".

Indeed.

We're also getting closer to finishing the house Luke's been working on.  I think we're all ready for it to be finished.  That poor guy has been working himself into the ground lately.  A single man is not meant to hold 3 jobs...and be married to the likes of me.  I'm trying to ease his burdens as much as possible, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting a C- on that assignment.  Graded on a generous curve.  And oh, my poor kids.

I want to be a fun and easy going mommy.  My first clue that I was getting even less than a C- on THAT assignment was when Samantha asked me recently, "Mommy do you enjoy screaming, or do you just do it to scare us?"

Great.

Want to see the progress we've made on the house?  Click on over for the most recent updates:

Fouch Development Blog: 36th Street House



Okay - time for either a long run or a long cry.  Haven't decided yet.  Based on my craving for nachos right now...should probably do the run.

Read more...

Boys' Room - All Done!

Boy, did we ever have fun with these recent bedroom projects!  Before covering the walls all by our grown-up selves, we let the kids climb into their painting duds and add their artistic touches (but we were abundantly clear that we'd be painting over them soon).  They had so much fun painting on the giant canvas that was bedroom walls!

When we finally told them that it was Mommy and Daddy's turn to paint, and that they should go play for a while...they didn't mind a bit.  Mostly because we had taken the king mattress out of the guest room (that we converted to the boys' room), and put it in the play room.  It kept them entertained for hours :)

Oh, by the way....I forgot to share one of my favorite painting tips with you.  Every now and then, we have to take a break from painting and tend to kids, or eat lunch, or run to the store for more paint or something.  It's such a hassle to rinse out the brushes and rollers...we just don't do it anymore!  We've found that simply covering the painting stuff with plastic will prevent it from forming that icky and irritating "skin".  Hubby likes to put the whole tray with the roller in a grocery bag - I prefer to use plastic wrap.  They both work fine for short breaks, but if you're interested in letting it sit overnight, I recommend using a couple of layers of plastic wrap.

Now for the fun pictures!  I'm thrilled with the way this room turned out:

I know it's supposed to be a big boy room, but I couldn't resist leaving some of the sweet baby stuff up for a little while longer.  Look at my sweet little Thomas' toes...

I also insisted on having a rocker for the rare occasions that Thomas will still let me rock and cuddle him.  This is the great quilt that my Mom made for him (she made a gorgeous quilt for each of my babies)...Thomas and I love to sit together and find the different animals and do their sounds.  He loves "ARF" for the doggy :)

Notice the bulletin boards?  I really like having a place for their individual artwork and special notes.  

I'm already happy with our decision to put boys in one room and girls in the other.  Sammy and Clara already play together, but I've noticed a fresh connection between my boys.  I love to listen to them settle into bed at night.  Thomas stands in his crib and says, "BEH!  BEH!", and Ben replies, "Night-night little brother".  Good grief...coulda cried the first time I heard that!  

As painful as it is to know that I'll never be pregnant again or nurse a baby again, it feels so good to just be moving on, ya know?  It's like I can finally find it in me to just relax and enjoy our little family instead of always looking forward to and planning for the next big change.  

If ever I need real physical proof that God loves little ol' me...I just need to look at my husband and babies.  What abundant blessings I have in my life (Sigh).

Read more...

Before And After

We're back to real life around here after a glorious week of spring break for the kids and hubby.  I was so shocked to learn that my wonderful man was planning on taking most of the week off to spend with his little family while the kids were home...after a few seconds of "aww, he's so sweet" my brain went straight to..."think of the projects we can get done!"

We love a good home improvement project.  In fact, at the beginning of our marriage, hubby and I moved from a 2 year old "all finished" home to a 50+ year old fixer-upper just for the projects!  We both enjoy the planning, the work, the hanging out together as we hammer, paint, arrange furniture...it's just who we are, I guess.

This past week, the kids' bedrooms were our projects.  Thomas (the baby) has been in his own room this whole time to keep him from waking his older siblings when he wakes in the night.  In the mean time, all three older kids were crammed into one room.  We've had room to spread them out, but they all love a buddy in their room.

Now though, Thomas is ready to share a room.  The most difficult part of the entire project was to figure out who should share with who.  Do we keep the older kids together since they're such good friends and have the same sleep and wake schedules?  Or do we do boys and girls together?  We went for boys and girls.  My goal is to help Ben and Thomas connect a little bit.  There's 6 years between them, and it won't be long before Ben doesn't want to hang out with the little guy.  Hopefully, this time of bunking together will help them grow to be buddies like it did with Ben and Clara.  

Besides...this way, we got to do a fun girls' room and a fun boys' room ;)

Enough of my chatter - wanna see some pictures?  

Here's the before shot of the room that we decided to use for the girls.  Notice three beds crammed in there and stuff all over the place:

We cleared out the room, negotiated with the girls on paint colors (I talked them down from BRIGHT pink and purple to a slightly less bright pink with a soft yellow), put on the hot-mama painting sweats that really do reach to my armpits if I yank them painfully high enough:

See?  Told ya...hot.

And then got to work.  I'm thrilled with our sweet, bright, airy, and pretty girl room.  The girls love it too.  When Sammy saw it for the first time, she wrapped her arms around herself and said in a soft whisper, "It's boootiful!"  

These beautiful sheer curtains were the inspiration for our paint colors:

I love this sweet photo.  We bought it when I was pregnant with our very first child, and it's hung in one of the kids' rooms ever since.  I don't think I'll ever get rid of it.  

We're not exactly 100% finished.  We have plans to make a big bulletin board to go over each of their beds - a great place to keep all those random works of art instead of having them taped all over the darn place.  Besides, it will break up that giant pink wall a little bit.

The boys' room is finished except for some crown moulding that hubby is working on as I type.  After shots will be available of that room soon...

Read more...

Happy Sunday!

Hi everyone! Do you ever have times in your life when you just feel like...I don't know...being quiet? I've been in that mood for the past few days. I've felt like I just want to be quiet and observe and listen...and just enjoy. Probably a welcome treat for my friends and family...but not so good when you're trying to come up with something to write about!


It's a typical weekend around here. Yep, still in my jammies well into the afternoon. Hubby is designing, building, and installing some beautiful custom cabinetry in our living room (with lots of "help" from the kids, of course).


His project has really tested our "cash only" system. It seems that he keeps having to run to the Depot (we call it "Home Depper In Debt" instead of "Home Depot") for another piece of wood...a hinge...some stain...whatever. And we keep having the "what money are we going to use" conversation. On one level it's really irritating because life seemed so much easier when we just put everything on the card and dealt with it later. But it is SO liberating paying cash, and knowing that when we walk out of the store, it's PAID FOR. So yesterday we spent an hour with our change jar...sorting, counting, and rolling coins. We had hundreds of dollars in there! That should be enough to finish the project :)


I suppose if we were really disciplined, we'd put that change toward our goal of being debt free. But we're not, and I don't feel one ouce of guilt over it! Hey, you gotta live too.


So I should probably tell all you faithful readers out there (all 6 of you) what I've been up to in my little blogging world.


I've been working behind the scenes to change the location of my blog. I've been so irritated with Blogger lately...I can't get it to look the way I want it to, spell check doesn't work (and I NEED it!), the spacing on my posts is all messed up no matter what I try. So I'm jumping ship. I'm going to Typepad. I'll let you know when I have everything switched over. I'll wait at least until the giveaway is done, because some of my comments don't seem to be importing to my new location.


Well, I'm going to...gasp!...go take a shower and get dressed. But it's not even 3 pm yet, you say? I know! What an achiever I am!

Read more...

Put in My Place

Well, there's nothing like a little time spent in the book of Job and a good night's sleep to put me in my place! Isn't it funny how God speaks to us sometimes?

Yesterday I came across a photo of dew on grass that I took a few summers ago, and I wanted to share it with you. I started searching for an appropriate verse to put with it because it's one of those shots that just screams "There is a God and He is Awesome!!" I eventually found one...in the book of Job. Have you read any of Job lately? Yikes. Now THAT guy went through some trials. He saw a bit more pain than I have over this recent house deal gone bad. And still, in the end Job was forced to acknowledge the supremacy of God. God's ways are not our ways, and sometimes He lets us suffer for a good (albeit unknown to us) reason.

So I have a happier and more humble outlook on the whole house thing today.

First of all, it's just money. Money is not the root of all evil, but the love of money is. Maybe I was putting my dream of big profits before God for a time. Sorry about that, Lord.

Second, I put it in His hands...only to snatch it back. You know how sometimes the most effective discipline is simply to be allowed to live out the consequences of our own choices? Well, I think that's what happened here. My own greed an pride got me here.

Third, it's not all bad. We did learn a lot from this experience. It was one of the most frustrating and painful and expensive lessons I've ever had...but a lesson none the less.

And hey...the old owner left a nice long ladder in the garage and said we could keep it. You ever seen a $20,000 ladder? Well, drop on by and I'll show it to you...

Read more...

No Fair!!

I'm pissy today. And frankly, I'm mostly mad at God. Does that shock anyone? Well sorry, it's the truth. Good thing God is big enough to take it!

I'm upset because we finally sold the house we remodeled last summer. Sold, you say?! Yeah, sold...for a $20,000 loss...yes...twenty thousand dollars.

We've flipped a number of houses, all of them with some level of success. It's no way to get rich (at least in this market), but we enjoy remodeling houses so it seems like a good way for us to make a little money. With one income and 4 little ones...well, who couldn't use a little extra, eh?

This last one though, was our baby. I felt sure that God had blessings in store for us because it seemed that He absolutely dumped it on our lap. It was a good deal and we made an offer on it the very first time we looked at it. It was accepted, and we were off to the races.

We poured our heart and soul into that place. My amazing husband - he didn't get much sleep for those few months! He'd get up early to go work on the house before heading off to his "real" job, then he'd come home to spend time with his family (which included thoroughly spoiling his then pregnant wife!), and then he'd be off to the house again after the kids were tucked in bed.

And we did a good...no...GREAT job on that place. It has hardwood floors, granite, landscaping, paint, custom bathroom, new room...I could go on. It's a beautiful house.

I feel terribly guilty, to be honest. We had an offer that first open house we had, but it wasn't what we were hoping for so let it fall through. If we had taken it, we would have make a little bit instead of losing a lot. But we...I...was SO sure that we could get more. Pride and greed...not exactly healthy emotions to listen to! I know it was not all my decision, but still...

Hell, we didn't even celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary because we were busy with that darn house!

So here we sit. We finally got a really low offer on the house, and we negotiated with them until they just wouldn't anymore. It was a tough decision...do we take the low offer or take our chances with the future? We were paying the mortgage, utilities, taxes and insurance on the place...we needed to make more on it with every passing day. And the news talks of recession in 2008, and how the housing market is going to take years to recover, and foreclosures right and left.

We decided we'd better choose to lose a lot of money now instead of losing even more down the road.

We had such high hopes and big dreams for that place.

My husband tells me I have to let it go. He tells me I should make a list of all the lessons we learned with this project. Why does he have to be so stinkin' wise?!

So there it is - my gripe for the day. I thought it might make me feel better to talk about it. I wish.

Read more...