Snippets & Living Room Photos!

-So, while our living room is still far from being "complete", I finally took some photos to share with y'all!

I must have driven to 5 different thrift stores yesterday looking for a chair to paint for the computer desk. I couldn't find one anywhere that wasn't under $30. Sorry, not paying $30 for a basic wooden chair that I'm going to repaint to have what I want anyway. So anyway, picture the above setup with a white chair at the desk. 

This little Photoshop DIY is my favorite addition to the shelves...I love me some Matt Maher!

Sorry for the blurriness of this, but I wanted to show you the inside of the box on the bottom right--it's from Target, and I LOVE it for filing things temporarily until I move them to the bigger file box every three months or so.

At Mom's Group a few weeks ago, we made home organization binders...the binder almost deserves an entire post of its own, but it has really helped me when it comes to keeping things organized--especially these zippered pouches that I added to the front for our receipts to enter to our budget and receipts that have already been entered.

But I'm getting off track. Here's another view of the living room...you can see that I still haven't painted the fourth wall. Eventually, I swear. Anyway, even though the color isn't that different, I feel like the undertones make a BIG difference, especially when it's overcast or cloudy outside--now, it still feels happy to me instead of feeling dreary. Also, I made Justin re-hang the curtains about 6 inches higher (a bit wider too), and I'm really glad I did. And yeah, I know the fuzzy pillows are probably not "in style", but they are so comfy and I love them:

Lizzy still has her own little corner, which works great for us.

So there you have it--there's still a lot left to do *COUGH* TRIM AROUND DOOR JUSTIN *COUGH*, but I'm liking where we're heading :)

-Lizzy totally does not understand what the word "maybe" means. I think her understanding of it is 'the word I say when my mom says no, but I'm trying to convince her otherwise'--as in:

Lizzy: I have candy? 

Me: Not today sweetheart. 

Lizzy: Maybe!?

-This video? I DIED laughing.



 

-Since early January, I have been participating in the Hello Mornings challenge with Kat at Inspired to Action. Basically, the premise of the challenge is to get up in the mornings before your kiddos to (a) have quiet time with God (b) plan your day, and (c) exercise (or at least make a plan for when you're going to)... I don't particularly enjoy getting up early and will admit that I have majorly slacked in the past few weeks, but I can also admit that I find that when I do get up and get a few things accomplished before Lizzy wakes, my day feels a lot more productive overall. I'm thankful for the opportunity and for all my #hmc2 ladies on Twitter for accountability and support!

-I don't know if you guys are familiar with a story that's been in the news here in the PacNW of Josh Powell killing his kids in Graham, WA over the weekend. I really don't want to talk about him or what he did--the pure unbridled evil that he displayed was and is horrific, and he does not deserve to be written about. But what I wanted to say is about the social worker who was there to supervise the visitation between Powell and his sons, and I feel like I have to give some back-story to make it all make sense--Powell shut the door after the kids came in the home and wouldn't let the social worker in the home. She smelled gas and immediately called 911 explaining that the father had recently lost a custody case (not to mention he's a person of interest in the alleged murder of the boys' mother) and that she was afraid for the boys' lives--the dispatcher told her that the authorities had to attend to other life-threatening calls first. So, while she was attempting to convey that she smelled gas and was scared for the boys, she witnessed their father blow up the house while he and the boys were inside.Ugh. It's really terrible to type that all out. It literally makes me sick to my stomach.

The social worker, Elizabeth Griffin-Hall, has been on my mind constantly since hearing the story. What an awful thing to witness and experience. It feels a little strange to throw this in with all the other happy snippets, but it's been on my heart today to ask those of you who pray to lift her up in your prayers, and I just don't want to ignore that gut feeling. I just don't want her to be overlooked.

Linking up to: 

and hopefully (if I remember):