JUST A QUIET MONDAYI try to stay home on Mondays. The kids are always tired and out of sorts from a long day at church the day before, and the house needs some attention to bring it back to order. Today went the way that I wish all Mondays did. We had a nice balance of work and play. The sun was shining and we hung laundry out for the first time in months. We picked up toys in the yard...I tiptoed around big muddy patches while the boys, of course, made sure to go straight through the wettest puddles.

I started back in earnest with flylady this morning. Oh my goodness, you wouldn't believe the layers of grime that is on the windowsills, fan blades, and baseboards of my house. GROSS. How have I not noticed?! Too tired, I guess. I am not freaking out though. I started on the current zone, the living room, worked in 15 minute increments of time and can already see a vast improvement. The kids were armed with feather dusters and rags and spray bottles of cleaners and had a big time.

I finally feel like I am living my old life again. I never realize how hard pregnancy and having a newborn is until afterward. It isn't until I am doing all the things again that I wasn't doing while I was pregnant to even realize that I wasn't doing them at all. Does that make any sense? It struck me, as I was hanging clothes on the line this morning, that it has been probably a year since I had done that...but I didn't realize it had been that long, until I was doing it again. It felt really good.

Now it is time to bring the laundry off the line and remake the beds. Tonight, we will have sweet dreams under sheets that smell of sunshine.

A RAINY, STAY AT HOME DAY
Baking Bread
Reading on the couch
Homeschooling
Folding laundry
Sipping Cider
Long naps
Stacks of books
Nursing
Chasing the dog
Listening to bluegrass

Just a few of the things that we are doing on this rainy, cozy, ordinary-and-lovely day at home. Lots of thoughts swirling in my head but getting them from brain to computer has been quite the challenge. We are finding a new rhythm and things are settling in. Hope to find time to write here more soon.

A QUIET FRIDAY NIGHTI love that time of night when everyone is sleeping and the house is still. It is some of my best thinking time. And, domestic chores that can seem like drudgery in the daytime, become peaceful meditations when done by the light of a single lamp while the mind is allowed to wander freely without interruption.So I spent my Friday night standing in my laundry room, folding the mountains of clean sheets, shirts, shorts...
And when I was done, I was able to enjoy this rare sight...an empty laundry hamper.

CELEBRATING THE ORDINARYToday is a beautiful day. After a conference with the boys, we came to the unanimous decision that we should have a celebration.
What are we celebrating?
Well, it is Friday.
Our newest member of the family has now been alive for 23 weeks (only 16 weeks until we meet him!).
Our church is celebrating 25 years this week-end.
It is beautiful outside.
The house is pretty clean.
What more reason do we need?!

The menu was quickly decided:
Hot Tea (with lots of cream)
Cheese and Crackers
Orange slices
Funnel Cakes I started on the funnel cakes while the boys went outside and gathered flowers, grass, and hydrangea leaves to decorate the table. I gave them free rein, and they eagerly pulled out linen napkins, silverware, candles and candlesticks, platters, and vases. I filled the teapot. As we ate, we talked about who the boys enjoyed spending time with. We talked about the weather and the food. We talked about table manners. I so often feel like I am racing the clock to try and clean the house, cook, teach Caedmon, etc. And lately, I have been really frazzled. So, it was nice to spend the morning just connecting with the children and celebrating the everyday joys of our life. I am not good at just naturally doing that. It takes real effort on my part. But I am always so glad that I did. Sometimes it surprises me that I have to actively work to engage with and enjoy my children. It doesn't always come naturally, as I had expected it would. Often, caring for their physical needs leaves me feeling exhausted. But I want more than that for us. I want more days like today. I am thinking of ordering Blue Yonder's Book of Days. I think it would help me be more creative and interactive and celebratory on a daily basis. So here's to enjoying the everyday. There is beauty and wonderful things to celebrate all around us. We just have to take the time to notice.

WHAT IS YOUR DECORATING STYLE?I was perusing The Inspired Room's archives and found this fun quiz. You answer the questions by choosing the picture that best describes you. Even when I retook the quiz several times with some of my second and third choices, my answer always came back the same. Tell me in the comments what your style is, I am curious to know!

I am: Earth Mother

"There is a rustic simplicity and honesty about the way you furnish your home. If interior design corresponded with styles of cooking, your recipe would be a wholesome, hearty pot-roast, perhaps, or something inspired by the Italian Slow Food Movement. Your approach to interior design is almost elemental, certainly in terms of colour, texture, and (above all) materials."

DECORATING THE NURSERYNext week we find out the sex of baby Sauls. I feel more anticipation over finding out this time than I think I have with any of the others. Are we going to have four boys? Or three boys and a girl? Four boys just seems so crazy. I mean, four boys...that's a lot of testosterone. On the other hand, having a girl would totally shake things up around here. Either way, the nursery needs a facelift. We moved here when Landing was ten months old. For the first few months, there was a lot of shifting around.
We started out with Caedmon and Landing sharing this small bedroom (now the nursery) and the master bedroom was in what is now the boy's bedroom. That didn't make a lot of sense for us, and eventually, we moved to the downstairs bedroom and made the largest bedroom in the house the boys room. Anyway, so the boys shared the nursery for a few months, then it became the nursery for Bauer when he came along. I have done zero decorating to this room. I would really like to get it pulled together for this baby.

This is already a really great room. Lots of interesting slopes of the roofline, the little alcove where the bed is, and this fun little hidden room in the corner.
All the furniture will remain in here. The green desk and the armoire were in my room as a child, and I finally begged long enough to get them. I will be repainting the armoire, but the desk will remain green. I am thinking of doing a mostly white nursery, with accents of the green from the desk. If it is a girl, I will probably bring in a teensy amount of pale pink. For a boy, some other accent color. Not sure yet. Any suggestions or ideas?
I really love the inspiration from Sanctuary and Toast. Really simple and clean with a few pops of color. Anywho, I am hoping to get started on this room soon and would love any suggestions.

A NEW DAY (Above my dining room window: "This is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24)
(Sara sent me this picture of my wall words, and I love it. Thank you, Sara!)

I am slowly resuming normal life, much to my husband's relief. Not quite as sick as I was, not quite as tired. I am still on (modified) bed rest, for a blood clot on the placenta. I will go back in a week to get that checked out. For now, I am lying low and just trying to get a few things done every now and then.

I woke up this morning, and my first thoughts were "how am I going to get through this day?" I immediately started thinking of things I could do to escape...a long shower, facebooking all day, send the kids to my mom, etc. That has pretty much been status quo for the last 5-6 weeks. And frankly, we are all sick of it. I am tired of just trying to survive, of not enjoying my kids, of just trying to get through the day so I can go to bed again. And I made a DECISION that today would not be that way, Lord willing and the creek don't rise, as my mother says.

So, I called the boys in for a pow wow. I apologized for being a negligent mommy for these last few weeks. I thanked them for being helpful and patient while I have been sick. And I told them that today was going to be different. I would not be angry. I would not yell. I would expect good attitudes and quick obedience from them. I told them that we were going to pitch in together and clean the house, bake some strawberry bread, read books, and enjoy our day.

And we have. The kids have been (mostly) great. They have cleaned without complaining. They ate their weight in strawberry bread. We read books upon books upon books. We had long in depth discussions about Star Wars (the current obsession around here). I actually ENJOYED my children again. I have really missed that over the last 6 weeks.

And I wonder, for the 385,670th time, why I can't grasp that the mama's attitude really does set the tone for the home?
Today, I made a decision that I was going to enjoy my boys and that I was not going to view the day as just something to survive. And, as a result, the day has been lovely. But I had to mentally decide that I was going to look for the good and minimize the less-than-great. Seems like this lesson would start to sink in. I am not going to spend time crying over the days we lost...they mattered too, of course. I AM going to be thankful that we had today, a bright, happy, snuggled up at home day...that started out just like the others before it, but then made a U-turn.

Now, you will have to excuse me. A certain sweet little 3 year old wants to snuggle.

CONFESSIONS OF A MARGINAL HOUSEKEEPERI don't have much to say, specifically. Just wanted to blog so here I am. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Ours was very nice. We have been spending our days with family and friends, cramming in as much visiting as we can before normal life resumes.
Of course, normal life seems like a far distant memory right now, while I am in the throes of "morning" sickness. In all fairness, so far, it has been very manageable and much better than past pregnancies. But, things still suffer. Namely, housekeeping.

I will be the first to confess that my housekeeping can be a little lacking. I banish clutter on a daily basis, but as for the other kinds of cleaning...you know, dusting, mopping, and such...those I can overlook a little more easily. Very easily, actually. I know it drives my mother and mother in law crazy. They have hinted at/said as much:::smile/roll eyes/grimace:::but, over these last few weeks, even I have been feeling a little overwhelmed by the state of my house.
I give you Exhibit A:Significant improvement was visible after only 15 minutes of racing-the-timer in each room. Here, Exhibit B:Beyond that, white Christmas lights and cinnamon sticks simmering on the stove can do WONDERS for a less-than-immaculate house.

IN WHICH MY HUSBAND SHOWS HE LOVES ME
I have mentioned before that acts of service are my primary love language.
When I saw my hubby pressure washing the house yesterday, I fell in love all over again.
He laughs and says that my love language is cold, hard cash.
I like that too.
But Matt working on the house?
Without me asking?
And doing a good job?
THAT'S HOT.

MY KITCHEN (and Laundry Room)A few weeks ago, Aimee did a meme of "7 things she loves about her kitchen". Even though I wasn't tagged, I thought I would do it too because I love my kitchen (and seeing other people's kitchens and homes in general). As you can see, I have a galley kitchen. I love the efficiency of galley kitchens and this one is my favorite so far (of the 6 homes we have lived in since we married). We walked in the kitchen door to look at this house when it was for sale and immediately knew that this was THE HOUSE. Here is what I love about it.
1. AMAZING storage. It may have a small footprint, but this kitchen packs a punch in the storage department. I have plenty of cabinets with empty space, which I love. I like knowing that I am not at capacity. :) These are my floor to ceiling pantries that line an entire wall. Along the other wall are lots of drawers below, and cabinets above.
2. Built in dividers in the drawers. I really appreciate the attention to detail in this house, and these drawer dividers are no exception. They make me really happy.
3. The slate floor. It is hard to keep clean, and shows dirt but I love it anyway. It is also in the upstairs bathroom (and was in the downstairs bathroom prior to the renovation) and the fireplace surround is from the same slate.
4. My yellow door. It is a happy yellow color and I just think it is really sweet.
5. My yellow stool. The one downside of my kitchen is that there isn't a lot of room for people to sit and hang out while I cook. So, I added this yellow stool (with built in pull down steps) to the corner, which has helped a lot. It gives a shout out to the yellow door, as well as providing a spot for a friend or hungry little boy to plop down and visit (and snack) while I cook.
6. The window overlooking the sink. While I wash dishes, I can see the boys playing in the side yard, our college boy neighbors (who provide endless entertainment!), cars driving up, and Saulsy working in his man shed. I also have a nice shelf right under the window, where I have an ever changing number of things sitting there...usually a flower or rock from one of the boys, a picture, drying herbs, etc.
7. The wine rack. When we moved here, from the end of the pantry on was open space. The laundry room and kitchen made one L-shaped room. When we moved in, we had a wall built around the fridge, added the wine rack above it, and added the door next to the fridge that goes into the laundry room. Even though we don't drink a lot of wine, I like the look of it. As for the laundry room door, we found it at an antique store in Savannah. I plan to frost the glass, and have LAUNDRY spelled out across it.
Here are a few pictures of the laundry room. Adding the wall between the kitchen and laundry room made for a pretty small laundry space, but I like having them separate. The laundry room also has great storage space, as well as a counter for folding laundry on. There is also a small upright freezer in this room. My next project for this room is to stack the washer and dryer, and put a chest of drawers where the dryer was for the boys clothes. That will greatly simplify my laundry routine. And, we usually bring their clothes down and dress them in the living room anyway, so it makes more sense.

There are a few things I would like to change about my kitchen. I would like new lighting, faucet, and kitchen counter tops. But, those are minor things and I enjoy this small room very much. What do you love about your kitchen and/or laundry room?

A FEW PICTURES
I have taken quite a blogging break and it was all my camera's fault. There were things I wanted to post about, but wanted a picture to go with them.

Yesterday, my dear hubby supplied me with the cord I needed to import pictures directly from my camera to my Macbook (I was having to go about it in a quite complicated way before, involving multiple computers. No more!).

And, this morning, I FINALLY figured out how to turn the flash off on my camera. The manual is MIA, and I am not the most tech savvy. So, now that those obstacles are out of the way, I am looking forward to blogging again.

This is just a little trial run, to see if the pictures look any better without the flash, and to make sure that I can actually get them to upload!

Around my house this morning...

CHRISTMAS TREE: My tree won't be gracing the pages of Southern Living any time soon, but it makes me very happy. Both Matt's mom and mine gave us each an ornament every year when we were growing up, so all those are on our tree. We were married around Christmas time, so some ladies at our church threw us an ornament shower. Those are on there as well. This year, the tree was decorated almost completely by my husband and boys. I handed them ornaments and did other decorating around the room. I think they did a great job!

VIEW TO OUR BEDROOM: From the living room, through the foyer. I love this view.

MASTER BEDROOM: This is from the armchair in the corner of our bedroom where I sit to read. Our bedroom is the brightest room in the house, as well as the cleanest and the quietest (the children do not play in our room). The wall color is much lighter than this, closer to the color in the last picture.

CHILDREN'S TABLE: I love seeing little hints around the house that children live here, and I love this little spot of theirs. The artwork rotates. Three little chairs for three little boys.

OTHER SIGNS OF CHILDREN: Little shoes on the stair steps

THE BOYS ROOM: Seeing three little beds in a row (especially with little boys sleeping in them!) brings me immense amounts of mama happiness. I am hoping to get all the beds painted this month (pale blue) and coverlets made in January (natural cotton duck and ticking).

BOY'S TREE: Small tree in the boys room.

PEEK TO THE NURSERY: From the boy's bedroom door, down the small hallway. I love the "tucked under the eaves" feeling of the upstairs bedrooms. So cozy.