A Tour Of Our Home

I was visiting Candy's blog today and had so much fun seeing all the blog posts, photo slide shows and videos from ladies sharing tours of their homes. Candy asked that if anyone wanted to do a home tour that they send her a link of a tour to their home. So, that is what this post is all about. Thanks Candy for allowing us into your home and organizing all the posts for all to enjoy!

Since my family is visiting us from out of town this coming weekend, and two of the girls are sick today, I had planned to do a good cleaning today. A prefect day to shoot some pics of our lovely home! So here is the tour, I hope you enjoy visiting with me at home today. :0)

Here is our front entry way. This is exactly what you would see if you came to visit me today, as soon as I open the door this little cutie would be right there to greet you. She just loves having company.

As you entered my front room you would see a couple more cutie pies (both sick) resting on the sofas.
There is one additional sofa so you can sit down and visit with us and relax.

Here is our TV, hutch and a play kitchen set area . Not quite my idea of good decorating but it's functional this way so we like it :0)


The next stop is the kitchen.

I am still working on the dishes so a few are awaiting me, soaking in and right beside the sink. I will get those done later on when we are done with the rest of the house cleaning.

We've got a great little island in the kitchen which is a perfect place to prepare salads and work on cookie baking.

On the other side of the island is my sewing nook. Lots of projects in the works!

This is our dining and homeschool area.

It has a nice little sofa and chair for the kids to sit and read.


Here is my helper for the day, she's doing a great job helping Mama clean!

OK, now down the hall way.

Here's the laundry room.


And this is our office/guest room.


Here is the girls bathroom.

And the girls bedroom.

Now on down the hall again to the master bedroom.


This is also our 2 year old's room (until we get a bunk bed for the big girls and make room for her in their room).


And finally our master bathroom.


I hope you enjoyed visiting with us today, we loved having you!

Easter Blessings!

Yesterday was our 2 year old's birthday AND our 10th wedding anniversary. A beautiful day with lots of happy memories shared and made.

My mom sent a package with some beautiful dresses she made the girls for Easter. They are so adorable! They can't wait to wear them to church tomorrow.

I pray you all have a blessed and joyous Easter as we celebrate our Risen King and Saviour. Praise God for His Son and all the blessings He rains down upon us every day.

Quilts!

I love to make handmade quilts! I have been making them since I was 16 years old... I've probably made about 20 total and I always have several in various stages of completion.

Right now I am working on matching quilts for my girls beds. They are patchwork squares of various bright solids and patterns. I can't wait to get them finished. Here's a picture of one of the quilt tops which I just finished.


All the quilts match except for a few unique squares here and there. The photos really doesn't do this quilt top justice, the colors are all so vivid and the patterns so cute up close. When these tops are done I plan to back them with bright colored calicoes and yarn tie them with embroidery floss or a very shiny yard with little buttons or other pretty charms on several of the ties. I will bind them with blanket binding because I think that will make them sturdier and last longer. I'm hoping to have them done by fall.

I have several more quilt projects I am working on at the moment and a couple I have finished as well. I will post some pics soon, they are all so pretty.

I'm sure it will take me YEARS to finish all these projects since I do a lot of the work by hand, but quilting is so much fun I just can't help starting up many, many projects at once.

Just thought I would share one of my favorite hobbies with you today :0)

Great Website For Once A Month Cooking

Since we started our healthy eating plan, I really have been in the kitchen more often doing prep work, mostly for salads, home baked breads and healthier condiments. I have been trying a sort of "cook once, eat twice" kind of style of cooking as to always have meals on hand in the freezer. Life is always so much easier when dinner is in the freezer! :0)

I wish I could do a once a month cooking kind of day but we just don't have the freezer space. If you want to get your freezer stocked up, here is an AWESOME website that I found that has lots of ideas. They are not all the most healthy, but you can glean a lot just in the way of ideas on how to cook a lot of food at once to save yourself time in the long run. Then just adapt them to what you and your family eat. Here's the site - The Erratic Homemaker.

House Cleaning Thoughts

Today is a big chore day for us so I thought I would take some time to share my thoughts on the subject with you...

A clean house can be one of those elusive things in the life of a homeschool family. On one hand, when you are at home, it's easier to get things done than if you are out and about all day. But, on the other hand, when you are at home most of the time, more messes can happen more quickly than you have time to keep up with. So what do you do? Here are some things that help us keep things in control and get them back in order when they get out of control. A clean and neat home always helps us get more done in less time and gives us more time to have fun!

Keep things simple. We try to keep our meals, the kids toys, the clothing we own and all else very simple. Clutter can be your biggest enemy when you need an organized environment. Take some time each day to toss things you don't need, donate items that are still useful or if you have LOTS to get rid of, why not bless your family with a little extra cash and have a yard sale or sell some things on Ebay or Craigslist?

Be Realistic. I don't aim for a perfect home. Sure, I would love a picture prefect, magazine style home every day but that is just not practical when we are here working on school art projects, baking bread and chasing an almost two year old from things to thing all day. I try to focus on what matters most like making sure the kitchen stays clean, our clothes are clean, the bathroom is presentable in case we have visitors, etc.

Make It Fun! We make up all sorts of games when we clean and the girls love it, it makes them want to help instead of procrastinating all of their chores. We always get done quicker when we play a game. Music is also good. We like to play one of our favirite CD's and sing along as we clean. It makes the time pass much faster.

Delegate. We have designated chores for each child. My husband and I also have certain chores that we each do during any given week. During times when I am sick or things are more busy than usual my husband always chips in on the day to day chores as well and the girls do a little extra as well. Ask your husband and children for extra help if you need it, I know mine are always happy to help me!

Keep a positive attitude. Daily chores can feel like drudgery if you don't have the right attitude. We like to think of our home as a blessing from God and also everything in it. We strive to remember that God expects us to respect the blessings he bestows upon us and we should be joyful in taking care of them as well as taking care to have a joyful attitude in serving others as well.

Praying your day is a blessed one...