It’s been a work in progress for a few months now. After moving into this house, we decided to make the little area off the side of our bedroom into a nursery. I have never had a designated spot for a nursery before. The last 4 babies slept in a pack and play next to our bed because there just was not room in our house. But now I have lots of space and creating a nursery was top of my list. Mostly because babies seem to grow so fast!

My goals were simple

1. Keep my budget low

2. Make it as girly as possible

3. Be creative in using what I already had

The walls were originally white. The carpet was a light blue with stains everywhere. Since we want to redo all the flooring in the house, but are not ready to start on that project yet, I decided to just rip out the blue carpet and paint the floor white with porch floor paint.  There was a huge ridge in the middle of the room, so we sanded it down and leveled it with fix-all. I found some material that I liked that was a black and white damask with light pink accents, so I picked the paint colors to match. The walls are pink, the trim white, and the furniture black. 

The crib was a gift from Eric’s Grandparents. The chair was from Eric’s sister when they redid their living room and it no longer matched. The changing table was free and originally white. And the armoire Eric made for me when Maryann was born. 

I spray painted the changing table black. It seemed the easiest and fastest way to do it. I bought the rug on sale at Target and hand painted the armoire black. The floor took 3 coats of kilz primer and 2 coats of porch paint. There were big water stains on the floor that just kept creeping thru each coat of paint. (Another reason for the rug)

My favorite thing in the whole room is the wreath of flowers. I saw a picture of one in Pottery Barn and and loved it. So I dug through all my silk flowers and pulled out the ones I liked. I found a grapevine wreath at the dollar store and wrapped it in some ribbon that I had. then I hot glued the flowers on. Last I attached the ribbons to hang it with. 

I still need to hang some curtain rods that I will get the next time I am at IKEA. I have some black fabric for curtains that will just hang down to the floor on each side of the window. I also am going to paint the saying “The first man a girl falls in love with is her Daddy” above the changing table. And hang some more pictures and put a shelf on that wall too. I am also on the look out for some more baskets to put on the changing table shelves.

My total costs for the whole room were right at $300.00

the before…pulling op the carpet

we pulled the ironing board out of the wall and this is the armoire before paint

The children all came into paint their rocks while I painted the walls.

 

And the finished room…

 

 

 

On our way home from Costco, Josh announced to Maryann that he was hungry. She answered him that she was more hungry than he was. His answeer to her was..

“Maryann, I am SO HUNGRY that I could EAT DIRT!!”

At this point I laughed to myself. 

 

It has only been 2 1/2 hours since I made him pancakes for breakfast. Which he ate three.

It has only been one hour since we got in the car to drive to Costco and he announced he was starving and I gave him a Lara Bar.

It has only been about 10 minutes since we left Costco and he had sampled everything that looked good to him. Somethings twice.

 

And then as I am running through my mind all the things the boy has eaten in the last few hours, Michael calls me and says…

 

“Mom, my cousins are here and we are all just about starving to death!”

It’s no wonder all I ever think about is feeding people in this house. As soon as I finish clean up from one meal, my mind is already thinking/planning the next!

And I have been told that this is nothing compared to the teenage years….

~cheryl

 

 

Christmas this year was fun and busy. We had Grandma’s, Aunt’s and Uncle’s, and cousins over to our house for a couple of days. When we set the table for Christmas dinner, we had 30 place settings. We ate lots of food, played lots of games, and laughed and laughed together. Even exercised together. Well, some of us did. There were multiple Nerf wars, involving just about every child and male adult in the house. We got the children Nerf guns last Christmas and they had so much fun with them all year long that Eric thought it would be a good idea to add some more ammunition and guns. And fun it was! I think we have 9 guns now and 50 balls. Makes for a very big and loud fight!

Paintball games were also a highlight. Eric and the boys have been talking and dreaming about this for a long time. And now that we have our own property that is big enough to do this on, it made the perfect Christmas gift for the older children. Eric brought out all his old Army clothes and everyone got dressed up to play. They spent all afternoon playing until dark. I see many paintball games in the future here.  

The day after Christmas, everybody decided that it was time to get in some exercise. Even the little children got in on it. I looked out my kitchen window and it looked like there was a 5K race going past my house. Some running, some walking, it was quite a site. After they finished, the P90X was put in and my living room turned into an exercise room. The children were the most entertaining. Watching Michael with his incredible bursts of energy made me think I need to have the children do this everyday.  

 

Christmas breakfast quiche and apple pie I made.

Let the games begin!

Trying out his new wheels before Eric finished building it.

Jules loves the paper.

 

Maryann loves to be a princess

 

This was the most original and creative gift given. Josh collected a bag full of dirt and found an old piece of wood and gave it to Eric.

“I thought you really needed this Dad.”

Setting the tables for Christmas Dinner

Eric’s parents

Eric’s Aunt and cousin

 

The only way to eat olives in this house!

 

The cousins table for Christmas Dinner

 

I found a fun pack of festive paper plates and napkins at Costco. They also had this shiny silver plastic spoons and forks that looked real. 

So clean up was real easy. 

 

Flux…the favorite game of the weekend.

Eric’s sister and her husband

The after run workout

Me taking pictures on my new camera. thanks Eric!

 

Paintball games in the cold and rain. But definitely very fun.

Laura was a real trooper. She was the only girl out there and she held her own. And had fun doing it!

These are the pictures from our last minuet try at getting a Family Christmas picture.

And this is how I feel at the end…

With the rain in Oregon, it makes it challenging to get a fun outdoor Christmas picture. Our weekends have been booked since November. We took some pictures on Thanksgiving day. Here’s what we got. This next year I am going to take pictures in the fall, so we will be warm and the colors will be so much warmer too.  I didn’t like any of these very much, so we did a very last minuet picture the day before I mailed out the christmas letters. 

 

~cheryl

I rarely post about controversial topics on here, but I have one thing that drives me crazy. Dogs in stores. First, I want to state that we have a dog. We love her. We play with her and she is part of our family…in an animal sort of way. But she is NOT one of my children. She has to sleep outside, eat dog food, and we don’t buckle her in when she goes with us in the car. 

Now I understand that some people have very special bonds with their dogs. Much deeper than I have with ours. Their dog sleeps in their bed, spends most of the day with them and has special privileges that my dog does not have. I understand this. I don’t get it, but I do understand this.

But I feel like somewhere over the last couple of years, dogs (in public places) have been allowed to do things that is totally unacceptable of a child. For instance, many a time I have been in a parking lot and watched a dog owner let their dog out of the car to use the bathroom in the beautifully landscaped area. Now if I let one of my boys, who quite often need to use the bathroom and usually give me only a few minute warning, out to pee on a tree in a parking lot, I would get ugly looks and rude comments. Even if it was a 5 year old who’s bladder forgets it’s full until the very last minuet. And heaven forbid if they were to poop by a bush. 

Then there is the whole issue of dogs in a store. I have many times had my children in a store and a dog, not on a leash comes running over to my children. Now first let’s look at the safety of this. I don’t know this dog. This dog does not know my children. What if one of my children provokes this dog and the dog were to respond with biting my child. The owner is nowhere to be seen. Shopping in some isle. With no contorl over the dog. Which comes to my bigger issue…

I have seven children. We work hard raising our children to be polite, well behaved socially acceptable children. And even with all that said, I still have people who are rude to me. People who are in disbelief that one husband and wife could do such a wretched thing as have seven children. That I have personally overpopulated the earth. And yet my children are not peeing in the parking lots, running and jumping on other shoppers legs or other children or eating trash out of a trash can. 

And somehow, in todays society, it has become more acceptable to allow dogs just about every where people go then to just smile at a big family and maybe say an encouraging word. 

So I was thinking, if I got a pig and treated it like a dog, how would people respond. Could I let it poop in parking lots? Carry it in the store and let it run up and down isles? Would the bank give me a pig treat for my dog? Would everybody stop and tell me how cute my pig was? I think not.

 

Each Christmas, I decided what I am going to decorate my tree for the next year. I love changing all the decorations each year, but to do this at the start of the holiday season is very expensive. So last year, I decided I wanted a white and silver tree this year. I bought all the ornaments at the end of the year for 90% off. White balls, silver balls, and silver glittery snowflakes. I picked up an old church hymnal at the thrift store for 24 cents. I already had white lights. So this year, all I needed was a tree!

The cost of my tree was $15. We cut it ourselves- which is part of the fun of getting a tree out here in Oregon. I tore the pages out of the hymnal and gave them to the children to fold into fans and whatever else they wanted. We strung the lights, hung the ornaments, and added our musical pages and…had a beautiful tree for a total cost of $35.00!

I always seem to have a hard time finding a good place to hang all the stocking. This year, the wall behind the tree seemed the perfect place. I hung some old twine up to hang all the christmas cards and pictures.

 

Going out on a date to a Christmas Party!!

~Cheryl

We spent Saturday after Thanksgiving making Apple Cider with our cousins on Grandma and Grandpa’s farm. The children always have so much fun being out there. So many good memories…

Eric’s brother and his wonderful family~

shooting some family Christmas pictures~

best cousins friends~

 

 

 

~

~cheryl

I am recovering from the most awful poison oak that I have ever had in my entire life. And I still don’t know exactly how I got it. Either the dog, chickens or the children.  Everybody who has seen this rash has instructed me to stay out of the poison oak. I know this. I have never once been in the poison oak. Yet, since we have moved to this house I have had it non stop. Usually just little spots here and there. I think mostly from doing laundry. The children are all extremely careful not to let it touch their skin. They wear long jeans and boots. But then those jeans get tossed in the laundry and I grab them not having a clue they are loaded with the oils from the plant, and a few days later I’m itching. 

But this time has been horrid. I have a couple of patches that are the size of my hand and are so painful, itchy, and burning that I have thought I might loose my mind. I have smothered it with poison oak itch relief lotions. But there was not much relief. I had to wrap it in gauze because it was weeping so badly that it was soaking my shirt. Very gross. My whole body would involuntarily twitch from all the different sensations running through it. Then it seemed to be starting to get infected. That was when I talked to my doctor. Who quickly called in a prescription of Prednisone. With in 24 hours, the itching had almost stopped and it was already beginning to heal. Now it is looking much better. I’m hoping it doesn’t leave a big awful scar. 

 

We set out Sunday afternoon to find a Christmas tree. The first farm we went to  (which the children had seen last year and chosen for the place this year) was not opened yet for the season. So we headed down the road a way and found another one that was ready to sell Christmas trees to eager little children. And adults too I guess. We stomped around in our rain boots looking for the perfect tree.  We have always had the challenge of trying to get the right size tree for the little corner it will stand in. They always look so small until we get them home and then it’s like they grew in the truck on the way home and now overpower the space intended. But this year, the challenge was finding a big enough tree. Since we don;t have nearly enough furniture in this house to fill it up, the space for a tree is as big as I want it. But this farm didn’t have very big trees. So we tried to find the biggest one, about 8 feet, and then the boys cut it down. Part of the fun for them is carrying that saw around thinking about falling the chosen tree.

 

 

Discussing the best way to fall the tree…

 

With the tree in the truck, we headed home for about an hour, which was just enough time to get the tree in the stand and standing straight and tall. Then we were off to the church to play the parts of the Nativity for a Living Nativity and Christmas tree lighting. We were asked to do it because of Julia. They needed a baby Jesus. And, well the rest of us could pretty much fill up the whole stable as angels and shepherds and a drummer boy. The children were thrilled to hear me say “Yes” that we would do it. They have spent the last few weeks discussing which part they would dress up as.  The older boys immediately chose to be shepherds because there would be live animals. And Gabe wanted to play the drum, so that was easy. And the girls chose angels. And that left Eric and I as Mary and Joseph. The children were supplied with unlimited cookies and hot chocolate by the older ladies of the church. They didn’t want them getting cold outside. And Julia did amazing. We wrapped her up in swaddling clothes and laid her in a real manger on top of a bed of hay. She lay there and grasped at the hay. She would try to eat it every once in a while. I would hear people say “Oh my goodness, look at that, they have a real baby Jesus in there!” 

I often wonder what Mary thought that night. Giving birth in a barn. I don’t think that was part of her “Birth Plan”. Had she brought along special little baby things for baby Jesus? Did she cry because they were surrounded by animals? That her Mom and midwife didn’t make it? All alone with Joseph, who had probly never even witnessed a child being born before. Had never even seen Mary undressed. I am so amazed with Mary. Her willingness to serve God. To help him carry out a plan that would save this whole world. So unselfishly. 

I spent most of the day today driving around trying to find a hose to replace a broken one in our septic tank. Eric thinks we have about a day or two before it starts backing up into our house. Which made me very motivated to be successful today. After eight stores, 100 miles and 5 hours, a part has been ordered. Tomorrow I will find out if it was the right part when I pick it up.  Oh, how I hope it is!

~cheryl

It’s been too long since my last post. Mostly because I just don’t find enough time in the day to get everything done AND then post it. I just downloaded a few weeks worth of pictures from my camera. It’s always fun to look at what has happened and been captured on the camera. Eric took the three older boys hunting and came home with a deer which they turned into different types of sausage. The girls, Gabe, and I went to Grandma’s house to just spend time with her. We had a girls night and got our nails done and went out for dinner. We quilted and drank tea and just visited. It was a special time that I am glad I was able to do.

I got to thinking about this house. Our dreams for it is a total remodel. HUGE. Move walls, change the kitchen to the opposite side of the house, add more garage bays, a hallway upstairs…but that requires saving alot of money before we can start. Which I am fine with. The last thing I want to do is start something that we can’t finish. So as I look at each of these rooms, there is nothing I like about them. Most have never even been painted and what has been done is just plain awful. My original mindset was just bear the ugliness until we can remodel. But then I have really been struggling with contentment. All I can think about is how much I will really love this house someday and how much I really don’t like it at all right now. Then I realized how foolish I was. With a little, ok-maybe a lot, of paint and some hard work shopping craigslist and garage sales, I can make this house a home right now. And if the day never comes that we get to remodel this house, well that’s just ok with me. I am going to love it right now because this is what I have. So…I have a number of projects in the works right now. The nursery, a stairwell, and the kitchen. As I was painting the walls in there, I kept looking at the awfully stained cabinets. And then, all of a sudden, I thought “Wow, those would look really good if I painted them black and distressed them!” But Eric is never really excited about me painting over solid wood anything. So I called him and asked what he thought about black cabinets. He said “Sure, honey. I think that’s a great idea!” So before he even got home that day, I had the boys sanding down the cabinets and getting ready for me to paint them. I still have a lot left to do, but every day it’s looking better.

We found a bunch of clearanced light fixtures at Lowes, so those will replace the hall lights. None of which match. And I have had alot of fun finding great deals at the construction resale store. Oh, and Joann’s Fabric had a great sale on their clearanced fabric, so I have plenty of fabric to make window coverings now. Just need to find time to sit down and design and sew them. 

I love bulbs. Why? Because of the beautiful bouquets that I can cut in the spring and fill my house up with and give away to friends. Now I have never planted bulbs for a couple of reasons. But mostly because we would always be moving again and so planting something that I had to leave behind seemed like a waste of money. But then this fall Costco had bulbs. So I bought some. Then a few weeks later they clearanced them. So I bought a lot more. And without even realizing it, I had 1400 bulbs that needed to be planted this winter. Oops!  So Eric and I spent a few hours this weekend planning where we would plant these bulbs so that they don’t rot. And, so that I will have thousands of flowers to cut next summer!! But I’m thinking that I went a little overboard because I waited for so many years to plant bulbs!

We awoke to snow this morning. The boys didn’t even eat breakfast. They threw on whatever snow clothes they could find, since we seem to be missing a tub, and headed out to the hill on the side of our house. A ramp was quickly assembled and they were soon flying down the hill, hitting the ramp, and sailing through the air. They played all morning till the snow was melted.  Then they came in, did their schoolwork and headed back out this evening when it started snowing again. I always think it looks so beautiful when it snows. So clean and pretty. But I do hate being cold. So I’m not outside that much when it gets so cold.   

 

 

Gabe wanted to sleep in his “Fort” today for nap time. Looks like he fell asleep watching it snow!

 

 

Julia does this funny little thing where she lifts her legs and arms. It looks she is free falling from a plane!

I laugh every time she does it, so now she looks at me, makes eye contact and does it!!

 

Early in the morning..

 

The sausage smoking that Eric and the boys made from their deer.

And it tastes so good!

 

 

Shopping with sister.

 

Tired of Jumping.