Thankful Tree

I've posted this idea before and talked about it here, but here's our version this year.  I've gotten tired of making new leaves each year so this year after we traced and cut all the leaves I laminated them and we write on them with dry erase markers.

Home: rest

These pictures were taken back in January.  I took them to show my mom a few things and to get her ideas about some things.  I never did send them or do anything with them (No surprise there.  I take hundreds of pics with intent to blog and never do anything with them).  Right now I'm trying to clean up my hard drive of the over 26,000 pics and so I'm looking back through a lot of old ones and I'll be posting some old stuff.  Our room is dressed for summer right now and doesn't look like this, but I thought I'd post them anyway.  In fact my furniture usually is rotating around the house and I'm noticing some things that are in different rooms now.  I want our room to be a place of rest.  It is our getaway.  We value time alone together each evening and our room is a sanctuary for us.  Of course I stash laundry baskets and stuff in here when I'm cleaning fast and furiously because people are coming over.  It is rarely clean.  It is never clutter free or electronics free (therefore never dust free!), but it's ours.  It's what we've got.  It is so easy for me to be discontent while looking at blogs.  My "I want" and "I deserve" and "poor me" rare their ugly heads OFTEN!  However, the Lord has graciously grown me in this area over the past few years.  I don't spend money on home decor (ok, occasionally I use my birthday money for this!).  I use what I have.  I Tim 6:7 says, "for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out".  The beauty I desire my home to have is something that isn't tangible.  It's a feeling of complete comfort and a joy that cannot be expressed in pictures, but only in time spent here.  So, I'm reluctant to post pictures, but here is my place of rest.  At the end of the day this is where I'm happy.

I included the following picture because I never did "reveal" my Christmas gift from last year.  In this post I mentioned that there's something I've wanted for 15 years and finally got it!  Yep,  it's amazing.  and Yep, it lives in our room.  We are wall-to-wall STUFF here.

I love this bit of clean white space.  I think it's the only little bit of space in this house that's white, and clean.

None of this is here anymore.  In fact I actually sold the glass hurricanes at our yard sale.  It was fun for a week or so, but I've got to put on my missionary mindset and let some STUFF go.

Well, mom, this is a little late, but there ya go!  Thanks for the "J" and "B".

Home: giving thanks

If I had a quarter for every time I SAID, "say thank you" I'd be wearing jewels and dining on bacon (tee hee).  How many times do I SHOW thanks giving?  Thanksgiving should be more than a holiday.  It should be a way of life.  This month we have practiced thankfulness around here with the "thankfulness tree".  Each evening after dinner we each write on a leaf what we're thanking God for and add it to the tree.  My kids have really enjoyed this and I've noticed an overall attitude of gratefulness in the past few weeks that was almost nonexistent before.  They say it takes 21 days to form a habit.  Hopefully this one will stick.  Happy Thanksgiving!

See here for another giving thanks practice that's fun for the kids (and adults)!

Home: the old chair

I have had this chair for close to 15 years.  My dad owns some rental properties and this beauty was left behind by one of the occupants.  He was going to haul it to the dump and I rescued it!  It sat in my bedroom in high school and through college and has now moved 5 times with us.  I almost got rid of it this summer.  It sat in our garage for months, but I just couldn't part with it.  We just do not have room for it.  So, now it has found it's way back into the house and is squeezed into our bedroom.  I'd love to know the story behind it.  I want to know when it was made where it came from and who first purchased it and who have it's owners been and where it has gone.  This old chair is very much a part of our home.

the little two

I'm thankful for time alone with these two little ones on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  These are intense training days/ years and I'm thankful to have the time with just them.  Kate loves to have extra cuddles and book reading on those days when I'm not constantly pulled in so many directions.  She is so good with her baby brother and a really big help to me.  Isaac is at a whole new level since he's nearly walking.  It's amazing that I forget how much a baby can get into!  With each new child there are new "no touches" and new obstacles to figure out because of the different stages of life.  Isaac is also my climber.  I've never had one.  I've never "allowed" one.  I thought I'd never deal with this, but apparently God is working on my pride in the parenting department - again.   Isaac is still a bundle of energy and he's not slowing down.  I know it's nap time when he pauses for that brief moment and gently lays his head on my shoulder.  His eyes get heavy and he relaxes.  It doesn't last long!  He kicks his little feet and jerks his head back up so quickly and flashes me his big award winning (in my book!) smile that is commented on by so many people and he fights sleep to the death!  Sleep wins.  And if it doesn't, mommy at least does.  

Home: resourcefulness

Able to act effectively or imaginatively, especially in difficult situations.

I like the above definition of resourcefulness.  What are my "difficult situations"?  They may be time, money, or space.  I probably will think of more later. :)  

As I go through Ella and Jonas' shoes and clothes to change with the seasons or to see what I can save for the next 2 kids I often find myself saying, "how would my mom fix and save these broken or stained things?" And so the picture above represents time put into being resourceful.  I often super-glue shoes that are falling apart (the clothes pins are holding the shoes in the drying process), mend holes in clothing, and cover stains with patches or cute flowers.  My mom would be proud!  She's one of the most resourceful people I know.

Resourcefulness is how I can save money.  It's my "job" and it takes time.  Time that I feel I need to make.  I have found that by saying "no" to some good things that vie for my time and attention and money and STAYING at home more I can make time to be resourceful thus saving money.  Please share in the comments below any ideas or stories that you may have for resourcefulness.

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Here's a funny little story about Jonas being resourceful.  He came to me one day (back when he was only 4 years old) and wanted to show me his latest creation.  It was a guitar.  I was impressed with the acorns taped to the neck of the guitar and the stretchy elastic string that he had taped from one end to the other.  He picked the little string and showed me how it made music.  I was impressed and asked him where he got that stretchy string and how he thought of putting it there?  Jonas replied, "I found it in my underwear!" This kid cracks me up!  He noticed a little string and kept pulling and found out it was stretchy like a rubber band and couldn't throw such a useful thing away!  He decided it would be a good guitar string.  How resourceful!

Home: bring'n home the bacon

literally...
Trying new things has always been a part of what "home" is to me.  Jason cured his own bacon!!!  He's been reading about how to do it and just had to try it.  It was so awesome.   He bought the pork belly from a butcher and created a rub with fresh herbs and special salts.  The process took about 10 days.  I must say that this bacon endeavor was a huge success and we will be repeating. frequently. :)  

YUM... blt's, omlets, salads w fresh bacon, sandwiches, soup toppings, and more.

My parents always told us when we wanted to make something that "you can do whatever you want to do as long as you clean up the mess!"  And then they supplied us with EVERYTHING- scraps of lumber and other building materials and tools (my dad is a general contractor), fabric, paint, and all things crafty (my mom was Martha Stewart BEFORE there was an Everyday Living empire) and free reign of the kitchen.  There were many many crazy concoctions in the kitchen, lots of ugly paintings hanging around our home, little wobbly stools and tables and boxes constructed with wood and nails and clothes sewn in funny misshapen ways but there were also priceless lessons taught about ingenuity, creativity, resourcefulness, and imagination.  We never left a store without hearing from my mom, "we could make that!"   I think I could go on and on and on with examples and stories about growing up with this mentality.  I won't do that here, but I want to pass it on to my children.  Please share ways that you try new things in your home.   I'd LOVE to hear!

Home: "mommy, can I help?"

Is anyone else out there good about letting your little ones "help" in the kitchen?  It's usually a little frustrating and makes the job take much longer, but I never regret it!  I say "no" far too often, but  making the mess and taking the time is worth the memories made and the lessons taught while cooking with my little helpers.

Home: laundry

never-ending mountains of laundry...

(this is the mountain in the basement that forms underneath of our laundry shoot)

Home: freshly bathed babies

is there anything more delicious?

Home: family

Home is anywhere WE are.  It could be a cardboard box although that would be difficult and require a little ingenuity!  I can't imagine home without any of these people (although in January of this year I thought I might have to).  God has given me a wonderful husband and 4 beautiful children who I adore.  I'm thankful for them everyday.  I'm thankful we can be ourselves- the good, the bad, and the ugly- and we still love us!

 Thank you, God for family!

Welcome

                          home...

There is no place more delightful than one's own fireside.  ~Cicero

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. ~Jane Austen

Home is a complex word that means many things.  My home is people, much like a church is it's people.  We, the Stamper people, associate home with this building we are living in right now, and over this coming month I'm going to explore what exactly that home is to us.  I hope to capture some of the ways we feel the word home (with pictures) and to express (with words) gratitude to our Lord for the institution of family and simultaneously the home that we enjoy.