Keep your Hands Busy

An elderly friend of mine once told me, "Keep your hands busy to keep your mind out of mischief." Well, I sure should've remembered that last week when I was reading a blog and saw that an online retailer had 80% off shoes. If you know me well, you know how much I love shoes. Not just any shoes, I like the expensive ones that come with an incredible price tag!! Most of my readers are SAHM's just like me and can relate to denying yourself such luxuries and indulgences like a new pair of shoes!! Since having Ethan I've hardly bought any shoes. This summer was trying because all my sandals were really showing their wear... at least this is what I tell my wonderful husband;) And I ordered one pair in black and one in brown!!

I'm not going to lie!

Isn't that always a reassuring statement?!! As if to say, I lie sometimes but promise not to this time! Anyway, that's not the point of this post... but the point is, I've fallen off the green bandwagon and given in to the luxury and bliss of getting my clothes dried quickly! It all started because I could wait til the end of the day when the clothes were actually dry to fold them. Either I caught the humidity on a bad week here in good ol' Iowa or it just always takes that long. I still hang a load or two here and there, but maybe I was trying "too much, too soon." I guess it's a good thing I wasn't Amish!!

Loads of Fun!

When we moved to our new house it came equipped with a clothes line!!

I wasn't sure if I would use it, but have come to enjoy hanging my clothes on the line.
While there are a few things about line drying that really bother me ie. crunchy towels, I am finding my way around them. So, here are my line drying helpful hints!

- Sheets and other bed linens are great on the line. They are fresh smelling, dry quickly and dry nicely on the line.

- Towels line dried can be put in the dryer for 5-10 min. after they have been line dried to release the cruchies:) Thanks Christine for this tip!!

- No shame here we hang it all out on the line...although I usually put the undies in the middle and the bigger clothes on the outsides to help hide our unmentionables.

Poor Ethan has had his undies out on the line after an unexpected sheet changing and washing and his jammies and undies were involved:) Other than a few accidents he is really catching on to this potty training business... and his mother and her purse are very grateful;)

I even question whether line drying makes that big of an impact on the monthly utility bill, so this month I am challenging myself to line dry almost all of our laundry and see how much it saves. Between this and the unseasonably cool weather I think I am going to like September's bill:)

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I last posted. Life has been... well, busy:) After the move Jud and decided we needed a little R&R, so with that we decided to make a last minute call to our Church camp and see if they had any room in the inn- AKA: The Barn!! They did and we had a wonderful week we loved it so much we reserved the same room next year! What a perfect family vacation! No cooking, minimal cleaning, endless entertainment options, and lots of time with each other, time in the Word and fun with friends. Oh, and I almost forgot about a true blessing... free babysitting twice a day!! Folks, if this aint an advertisement for camp, I don't know what would be!! Family Camp is a true blessing! We hope to go to family camp til we're old and gray and have grandchildren who will hopefully go to family camp too!! The above picture is of my amazing husband, who really adores me and his little boys!! We enjoyed times like these just hanging out and just enjoying each other! The picture on the is there because honestly I could figure out how to move it to a different location! So, there it will remain and I will say that my little boys are growing up much faster than I care to acknowledge and as far as I'm concerned they'll always be my babies. They both just had their hair cut by daddy when this pic was taken. E has really taken a liking to little E and has started to discover that this little guy just might be fun to have around;)

We've Come a Long Way!

We moved into our new house two and a half weeks ago. Most of the rooms are looking more normal everyday, although the basement still has many boxes left to be dealt with:) It seems like all that stuff could just disappear and we would have no need for them. Needless to say, we will still be keeping them:) Maybe today I can work on that!

We have really been working with Ethan on a few things. Training and disciplining are hard and we are learning that we cannot rely on our own strength, but need to be in God's Word for daily wisdom concerning our little guys we have been entrusted with! So, more than the boxes need to be unpacked, we have a two year old we need to daily instruct in the wisdom of the Lord!

On a side note, we decided yesterday to call up to IRBC and see if they had any space available for a week when a number of other families from church go to family camp. We were delighted to hear that there was room, we know and love the speaker who will be there that week and are excited about getting away for the week at such a minimal cost! I love IRBC and grew up going to family camp! We are hoping to make this a yearly vacation:)

A Little bit of this, and a little bit of that!

Packing 'em up! Here is a pic of our first batch of boxes... which unfortunately represents only 1/2 of them. The other half still resides in the basement and will continue to until Thursday. Packing up all of your earthly belongings sure makes you think of the waste and times you bought something thinking you "needed" it. But, is this realization enough to make you DO something about it.

Matthew 6:20-21 "But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Oh, don't get me wrong! I'm not there yet... and won't be until I get to Heaven! But, until then I will strive to live this verse to be careful not to invest my time, my money, my passion on things that will one day fade away. It's just a bunch of stuff. If you want any of it, come and have it... then I won't need to move it;)

Tag... You're IT!!

Tagged
Deborah at thejoysoftwoboys.blogspot.com tagged me

so I get the privilege of sharing a random picture with you.

Here are the rules...

1. Open the 4th picture folder on your computer.

2. Open the 4th picture and post it on your blog.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag 4 people to do the sameChoosing the 4th folder, 4th picture

This is my husband, Jud. He got his first big buck a few years ago. Needless to say this man of mine loves the outdoors and gets a thrill out of hunting. I think this particular day was opening day of shotgun season, we had just bought the red truck behind him the day before! We had a terrible ice storm and I didn't want him to go! He assured me (like always) that he'd be fine:) And he was!! BTW we gave the deer meat to his dear mother:)

I don't have four blogger friends yet... so if you're out there silently reading my posts, pipe up and become a follower of mine... well. I'd rather you become of follower of Christ first though:)