Moving on...

That's what my neighbors are doing today. The girls and I spent the morning helping our neighbors do a few last minute things (mostly we entertained their 2 year old, so they could do some last minute things!). They pulled out around noon to move up north.

When we moved in last October, they dropped by and introduced themselves. Nice enough people. A couple of days later, the girls and I were outside and Mrs. Neighbor and her son walked over and played and chatted. So began a friendship. The last place we lived, we had neighbors, but I still drove to walmart if I needed a cup of sugar. Not here. I don't know if everyone has good neighbors, but this couple topped the charts in my book!

We enjoyed meals together, time letting the kids play, and just chatting. She could walk in, without knocking, and step over all my junk and I wouldn't get embarassed. That's a real friend!

Mary Helen is trying to process that they're moving to a new house, but I don't think she realizes it will be a long, long time before we see them again. I do hope we'll see them again, so I'm not going to say never!

decorating help, please!

Alright, I finally have some pictures of things going on around the house!

The first picture is just to show off the wonderful deal my aunt got at our favorite thrift store! Arent' they beautiful? Wanna guess how much she paid for them?



This one is my back entry (where everyone comes in). We no longer have the tv plugged in, so I stuck it in a closet. Now I have this wicker armoir practically empty! I moved it to the back door so we could throw-i mean hang- our coats in it. So, my question is should I paint the armoir, the bench, or both? And if I do, what color should they be?



Finally, this picture shows my new cross I got from Hobby Lobby for $4!! (I made my first trip there last week...I'm hooked!) The problem, obviously, is that it is very sad and lonely there where he is! So, any wonderful ideas of what I can hang there? I am thinking of two collage frames (like the one over the bench with 3 pictures) with some family pictures...whaddaya think?



My aunt and I have been painting some trays for my grandparents, and today we are hopefully going to start working on painting a border in Anna's room. I'll post some pictures as we finish. I love having my aunt here to do fun projects.

By the way, my aunt is here to stay with my grandparents while my mom is on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Please keep her and the team in your prayers!!

Update on the TV situation!

Well, we have been without a tv on since Friday. So far, so good. Mary Helen hasn't even asked for it! She's been on the computer a bit more, but not too much. She's been playing outside, painting, doing puzzles, and playing with Anna a lot. It is great. I was always afraid of what it would be like around our house without the tv, but it's not as hard on me as I thought it would be!

I am working hard on getting our homeschool stuff set up and ready. Hopefully soon Joel will make me a chalkboard to hang in the kitchen. I'll post some pictures when we get our space set up.

Anna has been taking swimming lessons for the past two weeks, and she has done great! I can't believe how well she's done! She will be turning two in a couple of weeks, and we are getting ready to have a birthday party soon!

My aunt is in town and we've got some fun projects planned. Forgive me if I'm not around too much the next couple of weeks. We've really got a lot going on, but I'll try to pop in some!

I hope you all have a great week!

~Hadley~

Get rid of the TV??

Alright, if you read about our behavior boot camp, then you know we had two tv-free days. Today makes three (Mary Helen also has no computer time today and we aren't able to go swimming at her friend's house today...may be soon she'll learn that these are her choices, but I digress!). What I've noticed with no television is that my girls are playing together, they're spending time outside, they're (gasp!) using their imaginations! Mary Helen is more helpful (putting away laundry, folding towels, picking up toys, etc).

So, has anyone else taken the plunge? How do you break it to the poor kiddo who adores tv? I wouldn't mind watching a show or two a day, or a movie on a cold or rainy day, but I tend to let Mary Helen zone out too much. It's my fault, but it's not healthy.

I started thinking about this whole idea on day two of no tv, then today I was reading in my devotion book that I promised I wouldn't mention again (oops). This is what it had to say about reducing stress, and turning off the media: "Mary Pipher in her book The Shelter of Each Other, speaks of the damage of the media and its potential to add stress. She recounts an interesting story about a girl from Tonga. Pipher asked what it would be like to grow up in a world without media. The girl responded, 'I never saw television...unitl I cam to the United States in high school. I had a happy childhood. I felt safe all the time. I didn't know I was poor. Or that parents hurt their children or that children hated parents. I thought I was pretty.'" Wow.

So, it got me to thinking. Sure there's not much harm in public tv. In fact, Mary Helen's learned quite a lot from some of the shows. But, soon she's going to outgrow SuperWhy and Curious George. Then what? Change to "family-friendly" Disney so we can fight dressing and acting like Hannah Montana? (I've never actually seen the show, but from choices Ryley Cyrus or whatever her name is is making, I don't want her to be my daughters' role model.) Family-friendly standards are getting lowered all the time.

What has the media and television taught me? It's taught me that I'm not pretty enough, skinny enough, rich enough. My house is too small. My furniture is out dated. My husband doesn't make enough money. Men are stupid. Women are superior. I need to be me. I need time for me. I need to have a career. Me. Me. Me. More. More. More.

I have to tell you since we quit watching tv about 6 months ago, I've not missed it. Now, we've caught up on Grey's Anatomy online (not exactly wholesome, I know). Joel still watches the Office on Netflix, and we pop dvds into the laptop a couple times a week. But, HGTV is not ruling my life, I'm not tempted to veg out instead of doing something more productive (at least not tempted by the tv! blogs and naps are still too tempting some days!)

So, ramble over. Does your family watch too much tv?

I'm going to work on a few projects...check back later tonight or tomorrow for pictures of my latest sewing adventures!

almost another week has gone by

and I feel like I've wasted almost every hour of it!

But, I've actually been running around like crazy! Monday I worked around the house a little, went grocery shopping, and did some cooking for the week. I also took Anna to her first swimming lesson for the year. She amazed me by how much she loved it!! She was jumping off the side and pushing to get under the water! Monday night, I had the teenager girls over for our Bible study.

After the girls left on Monday, Joel and I started what I am calling Behavior Boot Camp for our sweet Mary Helen. She is strong-willed, too smart for her own good, defiant, and at the same time the most tender-hearted, loving girl you ever care to meet. It took us 45 minutes to get her in the bed, and in the process she lost most things that are dear to her for the next day. She lost tv, marker board, cookies, and sand toys. We explained to her that our job as mommy and daddy are to teach her to be obedient and kind. We talked about what would happen if daddy didn't do his job (cows would be hungry, they wouldn't give milk, we wouldn't have our house, food, clothes, etc.). Then we talked about her job and what happens if she didn't do her jobs. She finally went to be pretty happy despite having a day ahead with nothing to do!

After that, I headed over to my mom's to help her get ready for a jewelry party she was hosting after she got off work on Tuesday. I was over there until midnight making chicken salad and pulling out serving pieces.

Then, on Tuesday I was nearly that busy again! Mostly suggesting things besides watching tv that Mary Helen could do with her time!

The rest of the week has been busy. She earned all of her priveledges back for Wednesday and lost them all again plus some last night.

So, I am just not doing much productive worth blogging about!

Here are some pictures from Father's day and from a trip to the dairy. We took our nieghbor and her little boy to see the cows.







You can be looking for this blog to take some homeschooling direction as I try to get my house ready for this fall...our first year homeschooling! I can't believe Mary Helen is starting school!

almost another week has gone by

and I feel like I've wasted almost every hour of it!

But, I've actually been running around like crazy! Monday I worked around the house a little, went grocery shopping, and did some cooking for the week. I also took Anna to her first swimming lesson for the year. She amazed me by how much she loved it!! She was jumping off the side and pushing to get under the water! Monday night, I had the teenager girls over for our Bible study.

After the girls left on Monday, Joel and I started what I am calling Behavior Boot Camp for our sweet Mary Helen. She is strong-willed, too smart for her own good, defiant, and at the same time the most tender-hearted, loving girl you ever care to meet. It took us 45 minutes to get her in the bed, and in the process she lost most things that are dear to her for the next day. She lost tv, marker board, cookies, and sand toys. We explained to her that our job as mommy and daddy are to teach her to be obedient and kind. We talked about what would happen if daddy didn't do his job (cows would be hungry, they wouldn't give milk, we wouldn't have our house, food, clothes, etc.). Then we talked about her job and what happens if she didn't do her jobs. She finally went to be pretty happy despite having a day ahead with nothing to do!

After that, I headed over to my mom's to help her get ready for a jewelry party she was hosting after she got off work on Tuesday. I was over there until midnight making chicken salad and pulling out serving pieces.

Then, on Tuesday I was nearly that busy again! Mostly suggesting things besides watching tv that Mary Helen could do with her time!

The rest of the week has been busy. She earned all of her priveledges back for Wednesday and lost them all again plus some last night.

So, I am just not doing much productive worth blogging about!

Here are some pictures from Father's day and from a trip to the dairy. We took our nieghbor and her little boy to see the cows.







You can be looking for this blog to take some homeschooling direction as I try to get my house ready for this fall...our first year homeschooling! I can't believe Mary Helen is starting school!

Ramblings

Well, today, I get to practice what I love to preach: Hospitality. We are having Joel's family over to celebrate Father's Day and his parent's 45th anniversary. After a week of VBS, I am struggling to get my hiney off the couch! But, there are some things that just have to be done. I did pretty much no cleaning this week, so the vacuum must run and the laundry must be rescued from the kitchen table.

Last weekend, we had a neighborhood cookout, and it was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of Anna playing that night ~ our neighbor was blowing bubbles for her.





And here is a picture of Mary Helen and Anna on the way to VBS one day.



Next week I hope to pull out the sewing machine and do some other little projects around the house (between swimming lessons, a jewelry party, and other stuff going on!).

I hope everyone has a great Father's Day!