make disciples of all nations
I love pallet art/decor. I see it all over Pinterest. I had a friend bring me a stack {yes, I said a STACK} of pallets they were about to throw away at his job. Some of them were in bad shape to I couldn't accomplish all the ideas I'd seen but I came up with another one just in time for Christmas that will last all winter long; and hopefully I can bring out again next year.
Find the tutorial on the Homemaker's Challenge today!
Life as usual. Sorta. I spent then entire day trying to play catch up, cleaning, making fix-quick meals, and packing...again. My sweet in-laws showed up to have a sleepover with my babes while I raced off to collide with Matt in Little Rock's when he got out of prison. We met at Gauchos for a Super Summer leadership team Christmas party. Can you say "Meat Fest"!?!?! It was fun to hang with adults but I still miss my hubs though! When I only have 3 hours a day with him, I'm not good at sharing him for 2 hours of {well needed} conversation with friends over a yummy dinner and don't like spending 30 minutes of it in the separate cars, 30 minutes settling into a hotel room before the poor dude passes out just in time to get ~6 hours of sleep trying to catch up on all the 4 hour nights. I don't know how shift-worker wives do it. I'm ready for this season to be over.
Today. Today I thought I'd sleep in. Since I was in fact in a hotel room All By Myself after Matt left for work ~4:15. No kids coughing. No kids needing to be fed. Cable! {we don't have TV}. WiFi with all-inclusive silence. No need for a shower because I prepared and brought a Hat! ;o)
How long did I sleep in you ask? 5am.
Ridiculous! The earliest I normally get up with the kids is 6:30-7am. I couldn't go back to sleep. After an hour I got up. Turned on the TV just because it was there- disappointed by HGTV. That's usually my go-to when I have cable. Then I broke out my laptop and thought I'd get all kinds of writing done. False. After a couple hours of fart'n around I made myself slightly presentable and with high hopes, decided to go shopping for jeans! I tried this last weekend and went home with meager self-esteem & slightly depressed. 
Not that I'm counting or anything, but that's 30 pair of jeans {I didn't post the official-mom-high-wasted pair} that didn't fit. THIS is why women hate their bodies. Evil clothing manufactures don't make clothes for everyone. If they fit in the thighs they gaped huge above the butt. If they fit around the waist they made my butt look bigger than normal. If the butt decor was okay then they were a foot and 1/2 too long. If they were the right length they squashed my butt and thighs. Anybody relate?
I caved after over 2 hours and bought a pair that weren't awful. Did I mention I haven't bought jeans since I was pregnant with Izzie 3 years ago? Yeah...and my size shot up as well. Booooo I've been wearing the jeans around this afternoon...within every 5 minutes I have to pull them up at least 3 times. They are defiantly going back!
The kids and I have been playing Christmas movies; I introduced them to the Original Miracle on 34th Street today! We also did our Storybook Bible Advent reading but didn't feel very purposeful about our Advent the past few days. Oh well. We're enjoying one another and learning more everyday!
So, how was your weekend?
December 5th was spent on the run. Matt was off {WOO HOO!} and we had tons of things we need to accomplish. We were so excited to take the kids to their first play! Maggie's preschool HIPPY group allowed us to attend the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas play for FREE! It was so cute and our kids did fabulous. Actually way better than I anticipated. I'd picked our seating based on their nearness to the side exit door on the end of the row as to not tackle anyone on my way jetting toward the door to escape with one of my foreseen screamers. Never happened! The place was packed with preschoolers all the way through {I think} 2nd graders on field trips. I felt so bad for the 3 performers as they trudged through the consistent chatter in the auditorium {score for the new vocabulary word for Ms Mags}. I was way distracted by the low murmur of moving and giggling kids, but not my 3. They were mesmerized! Even J. He'll only be 2 in January. Iz the biz stat fairly still and was so excited to watch as those actors captivated her for an hour! I took the girls up to the stage to meet the performers after the show and you would have thought they were meeting Bob & Larry from Veggie Tales- PUMPED! Speechless!
After that fun we headed to Vilonia for Matt's dentist appointment. Nothing like packing your couple days off with pure fun...
I sat at my in laws while the kids napped & Matt got down in the mouth. As soon as he was done there we realized Jamin had fever and ran to grab some meds on the way to our apportionment with a builder.That poor baby was so crabby. The fever lasted several hours and then was gone. This seems to happen a lot in our house. Anybody know why??
Anyways, don't get too excited about the meeting with the contractor. He was a friend of a friend and we were just checking out all our options for if and when we ever get to Vtown... Oh, and by they way. We got an offer!!! It was slightly less than desirable but the couple has been super sweet each time they've come to view the house and even in presenting their offer. During our drive up to the dentist, we'd called and counter offered. It's Saturday...we still haven't heard back from them. We not desperate yet, God knows exactly who is going to live in our home next. With His grace and perfect timing we will sell this monster for the perfect price.
Okay, so after the meeting we ventured out to grab some of our fav {"chick-a-lay"} on our way to Bethlehem! Yep!!! This being the original reason we headed all the way up to Vilonia, we were so excited to see what the cool Antioch Baptist Church had in store for us. I was awesome! This definitely has the potential to become an annual Advent activity for our family! Downer- didn't have time to run back to the house for my camera- TEAR! I'll share some of the pics from our phones though. Here is how the tour of Bethlehem worked.
Again, my kids surpassed all expectations I had of them. They began to get a bit crabby and of course were having a bit of trouble making good choices toward the end. When we got to the van and realized it was 9L30pm, I was SUPER impressed with how well they'd done an hour & 1/2 passed bed time!
While in Rome...since we were already in town we followed our friends across Conway to look at Christmas lights. Now these were more than Christmas light! The 1st street we looked at had multiple houses covered in lights. The next street is known as the Conway "Dancing Lights"!!! These crazy awesome neighbors have their houses decked out AND dancing. If you tune your radio to the station they have announced on the sign as you enter their street you can hear the music they are all dancing to. I was so cool. J was snoring in the backseat and the girls were about there but wanted to see the lights so we did something they've never done before...while we were parked in the cul de sac we let them get out of their car seats and sit in our laps up front. They hung their heads out the windows and chatted about all the lights, their favorites, and how they did that. Snuggles! As the parade of cars in front of us moved forward or left the street we inched forward. Kids still in laps... Izzie's face as she got to hold the steering wheel while Matt drove a few feet forward was priceless!!! Soon we switched laps and Mags got to 'drive' forward the next time. After re-buckling, we went a few blocks of to were pure crazy lives. Matt captured this: 
there are no words.
We slept in. As much as parents of littles can. Because we were staying at my in-laws new home, the kids had the privilege of having toys in their bedroom. They anticipate waking up so they can go at'm!
I headed out to do some more shopping for our Christmas families. I got to hang out with my sweet friend Brandi while I dug through her deals! While I did that Matt and the kids did lots of playing, ate lunch, and took naps. When I got home it was time to leave town and hit up SAMs club for our monthly attack. This weekend proved to be full of fun and too much eating out.
How's your advent season going with the fam?
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I printed all the days titles on green & red cardstock and stuck them in an advent calendar we already had. This may prove to be worthless. The kids aren't really into the count down like I thought they would but are LOVING the stories and crafts!
Rather than skipping to day 3 we just started on day 1 an plan to double up tomorrow {since we had a house showing again today!!!}. Maggie acted perturbed that I was asking her questions she already knew the answer to, "Who is the light of the world". Ugg I have to remind myself she'll have to persevere because the other 2 don't memorize things like she does and haven't' heard it as much as she has. She is a whole 18.5 months older than Izzie and 30.5 months older than J {hehe} I run into this with lots of things. homeschooling is gonna be rough if I don't get the hang of this...
Since we were finishing up some HIPPY preK work with Mags this was quite a feet tying to help the little bitties with their craft. We skipped the pain and went for a more classroom-full-friendly-version, markers, crayons, & stickers. We actually cute the silver sparkly trim off some other stickers into triangles {aka diamonds} for our crowns. They didn't know the difference.
They though it was funny we were making faces and that pour Zach wasn't allowed to talk. We can't get our glitter glue to function correctly so I had to take off the lid and just glob it on for them. We also {finally} through out the bubble wrap from a random package forever ago so we had to invent something else for Z's mouth- hot glue glob! Hey, I just claimed it was because not being able to talk was kinda like God "glued" his mouth shut. My 2 {almost 3} year old was able to recall most of the story to me. #winning We're having fun!
How is your Truth in the Tinsel coming along?
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Well, I had high hopes off all this organization for advent this year...and then my hubs was finally off work! Who can think about planning and finalizing organization when your long lost best friend is home again. These 14 hour days are hard! I get to see my hubby about 3 hours a day...an most of that I have to share him. Boo Hoo
So anyways, he was off Friday & we declared a "do nothing, go no where day"! Then Friday we decided to go to the Rothacher's favorite consignment event to see if we could score some great finds for a couple of families we're helping with Christmas. Deals found: brand spank'n new tennis shoes & an adorable caterpillar my kids really wanted to claim; but they were allowed to claim the Little People Noah's Arch for $1!
We went to the in-love's house for nap time and then caught a quick lunch in the nest Vtown eating establishment. When we were heading out-of-town to hunt for Christmas PJs and the practical stuff for the families, my keen observation skills identified families claiming spots for a parade. WHAT!?! We text a friend and confirmed that the Vtown Christmas parade was that night. Score! We ran our errand real fast and made it back just in time to lay our a blanket right next to the road where we enjoyed a night pretending we are already part of the community with giant waves, cheers, and LOTS of "Merry Christmas"es! {WARNING: I only used a few pic to spare you from Cuteness overload}
Our Sunday was pretty typical: wake up entirely too early to get everyone up and ready for church an hour way in another town. Prepping for an afternoon of lunch out and possible fellowship. Matt and I were so excited to get to participate in oneChurch's Advent candle lighting that morning. We were blessed to have lots of hang time with friends.
Needless to say, we didn't get to the organized Advent crafting I had planned but I wouldn't trade those days of celebrating His coming for all the funky ornaments my kids could make. I'm attempting to be purposeful this season yet not so caught up in "the book" that I miss moments and memories with my little bitty family and our friends.
Side Note: be looking forward to post about the crafts we actually have done as well as a #ItsAboutGiving post about helping Compassion International meet their goal of raising $20,000 for children in poverty this Christmas season.
The Valley Church was planted on Easter 2013. Our church was NOT destroyed by the tornado because the church is a people not a building. Our meeting space may be gone but we will continue to be a light for Jesus in this community!
Clicking the image above will take you to our fundraising site. 
