Sushi

Have I mentioned how much Emma loves sushi? She LOVES it!! I got some especially for her the other night and she ate it up!!




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shine.

Our family was watching "The Nativity" the other night when I realized.... My girls have a heart for justice. When they saw the images on the screen- actors portraying women being sold and exchanged for taxes.... children being murdered in the streets for the sake of power, their hearts screamed out. Tears spilled. They know, as children.

This year our CFL theme for the season has been "Shine". We kicked it off with our annual event, Soup for the Soul, where many of the humanitarian efforts we contribute to as a church where highlighted. A few of the them where: writing a letter on behalf of a wrongly imprisoned Pakistani women, our many city outreaches, the now annual Ecuador trip to assist in Christmas parties for some of the poorest of the poor, the trips to Rancho Santa Marta, an orphanage in Mexico and even supporting a company from Cambodia that is made up of exploited women rescued out of human trafficking.

It seems like the world is a very large, very crazy place.... so much wrong to right. Yet, here we are- doing something. And my kids also get to be a part of it. And in the coming years, they will get to participate even more. But I love that they SO WANT to be a part of it.

Which brings me to yet another one of Jewel's songs that I have been loving and humming and praying this year, from her Christmas album. Hands. I love the part that says "I won't be made useless, I won't be idle with despair, I will gather myself around my faith for light does the darkness most fear" (much of the world may be big and bad- but guess who has overcome the world?? That's right, Jesus!) And I love the part that says "We'll fight, not out of spite for someone must stand up for what's right- Where there's a man that has no voice, there ours shall go singing" (Like that lady in Pakistan, the world spoke up and it may make a difference of life or death) You know how I love songs and lyrics.... so here it is :)

Hands

If I could tell the world just one thing
It would be that we're all OK
And not to worry 'cause worry is wasteful
And useless in times like these

I won't be made useless
I won't be idle with despair
I will gather myself around my faith
For light does the darkness most fear

Poverty stole your golden shoes
It didn't steal your laughter
And heartache came to visit me
But I knew it wasn't ever after

We'll fight, not out of spite
For someone must stand up for what's right
'Cause where there's a man who has no voice
There ours shall go singing

My hands are small I know
But they're not yours, they are my own
I am never broken
In the end only kindness matters

I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray
I will get down on my knees, and I will pray

We are never broken
We are God's eyes

God's hands
God's mind
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's heart
We are God's eyes
God's hands
God's eyes
We are God's hands
We are God's hands

SHINE. (And they even let me paint the walls! :) )

music speaks

A few years back I got the Jewel Christmas album. It's pretty mellow, nice for a quiet evening of relaxation or background music while crafting.

This year, a few of the songs have really touched my heart. This one below- so beautiful. I love the part that says "

so take my hand and knowing

with it i also give my heart

wanting never to be separate again". And the part that says "

if you were flame i'd allow myself to be consumed completely, were you wind i would wish you pass through me". I love it because it reminds me of our relationship with Jesus... and how when we give our hearts to him, we give completely, and we are never separate again. Isn't that an amazing thing to remember at Christmas?? His gift of life to us.... that is what we are celebrating! :)

"Face Of Love"

until tonight
my heart was just half full
i'd never known the fruit which fed the soul
but now i see what may put to rest my longing

for i have seen, the face of love
the grace of god, the face of love

in silence i feared my heart
would remain words unheard
inside a separateness of skin
but now i know that the skin just veils the soul

for i have seen, the face of love
the grace of god, the face of love

so take my hand and knowing
with it i also give my heart
wanting never to be separate again
let eternity begin

if you were flame
i'd allow myself to be consumed completely
were you wind i would wish you pass through me
but now i know that the skin just veils the soul

for i have seen, the face of love
the grace of god, the face of love

tree trimming

This year the girls decorated 100% of the ornaments on the tree.... My only job was the lights and ribbon.... then, I sat back and let them go at it. As you can see, they did an amazing job of not putting all of the ornaments on the bottom front of the tree :) I will post a finished product later! :) :)

Rancho el Chorro

We got to go on a field trip today with the school. Here are some pics. :) it's late.... Goodnight. :)



It is a tarantula. And next, some sweet class friends...



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Picture day

The girls all dressed up super cute for picture day. I didn't get all of them together but we did get em and evie. They were soooo adorable.




It was Todd's idea for them to wear flowers, so em grabbed the giant red one- it was as big as her head! But it does look pretty sweet so we just went with it :) I can't wait to get them back so I can see how they turned out :)

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She's 3

Here are some pics from yesterday. We had a sweet little party for the eve-ster. She wanted a princess party. :)

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You knew I'd love it!

The rain!! Today it is raining! The girls were so excited when they woke up- it reminds me of when I was a kid and it would be snowing when I woke up! So funny.

They found a rainbow in the sky and came running for my camera while yelling "Whoa! It's a.... it's a.... full on rainbow all the way! It's starting to look like a.... Like a... double rainbow!!". (if you're wondering, click here) They are a crack up!!

It was a really beautiful morning!! Some people hate rainy days, but to me it is like a breathe of sweet relaxing fresh air! :) :D

This is the photo they got.... you can kinda see it! :) :)

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Home again

Back to life! We had such an amazing weekend! Todd was going to a worship conference, so we all tagged along. It was a great getaway. In the evenings we got the privilege of attending The Fathers House worship conference- Brian and Jenn Johnson led worship... It was so good! I felt like I was home again, quiet and loud in God's almost tangible presence. While Todd attended the day sessions, the girls and I stayed in our *really nice* hotel- we enjoyed our 3 room suite and indoor pool. It was so relaxing and fun. We were staying about halfway between Napa and Vacaville, so it was hot! :) We ate our lunch in the courtyard and had sweet naps in the afternoon. And then we toured the JellyBelly factory!

And on Saturday we headed over to San Francisco where we hit the awesome IKEA. The little girls played in the play place for a bit ( till we heard- to our fear over the speakers, "Will Todd Moore please come to the childcare area" ... Uhhhhhh!! But they just missed us!) and we all had fun buying home accessories (well, mostly me ;) )

We drove over the bay bridge... Drove along Fishermans Wharf, headed toward the Golden Gate bridge- which Bella was excited to see because her teacher had just been teaching about it. We then headed to Chinatown and saw the dragon gate and walked and shopped. The girls had a blast.



....of course the Golden Gate...


....And the Dragon Gate...


....Cute Chinatown :)


....And the Bay Bridge! A fun and great adventurous day :)

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love IS a superpower.

Abigail has this thing where she dreams she is a superhero. How cute is that?! It has happened since she was about 3 or as long as she was able to communicate to tell me about her dreams.

Last night she told me she had another one. This time, her superpower was love and her friend's was rainbows. They fought the bad guys and then rode home on a rainbow. Doesn't that sound fun?

I told her it was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard. I wish my dreams were that sweet!

New-ness

We've taken a break from STOP for a while... Tho now it is desperately needed! Man. But! We did some fun new stuff in our living room. Thanks to my friend Lalena and her great ideas, I am really starting to love the living room- even with it's blue carpet and yellow walls. Well, minus one now :)



Yep, red to match the dining room. It looks totally good. And then we printed out the super cool pic of the girls running from the waves from Costco. Fun new shelf thingy to put stuff on :) ... (And Todd on his iPhone! )


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More learning....

True, true, true. I really like that I can take a pic of a quote instead of typing the whole thing out. ....is that lazy?! Eh, I say efficient!





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It takes a village

You know that saying? It takes a village to raise a child? Who was it who said that? Like Hillary or something? Or was she just quoting someone else? Anyways, it doesn't matter, I guess! Just saying... That phrase came to me today as I was thinking about this unorganized house!! It takes a whole village to clean this house!! Lol. No, but really. One project does lead to another, right?!

Today's projects consisted of painting a wall, sanding a table, washing the couch covers, steam cleaning, vacuuming and fluffing the cushions... Washing the windows and hanging different curtains. Sheesh.

And in the meantime, the girls are dreaming of new and fresh ideas for their room. Bella has these crazy ideas for painting and rearranging. Since we can't quite get to all that now, I thought I'd give them their own little project- so after school they went to it. Painting an old bookshelf purple to put in their room. They worked together and for about an hour and a half on it, but still will need to do more tomorrow. I was pretty proud of myself for allowing this could-be-a-disaster... I even didn't try and go back over their paint strokes or constantly tell them to do it this way. But that was also partially because they were doing so great, so I'm proud of them, too. :). I have created monsters!!

On the list for tomorrow... Grocery shopping, picture hanging... More painting... And maybe organizing a little more in the living room. I might try to tackle the toy/book situation. It makes me tired to even think about it!!!! Yikes! I am sure you are all enjoying reading about my cleaning process every day! But hey, it's life ...from here. :)




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My add.

Today I did finish the entertainment area. But it was very distracting/ADD!! It was less like STOP and more like S.... Oh but I need to clean the patio and pull out that honeysuckle vine..... T..... Oh but I must finish that painting for my friend and also take it to her.... O... And I need to go to the bank and the post office.... P... And the laundry room needs a few labels posted on before I forget, along with a couple loads of laundry.

Somewhere between all of that, picking the girls up and so on... The entertainment center was complete.

The thing about organizing is that I want it DONE!! But it is a journey, and I am reminding myself that continually.

By the way, I have relayed the STOP sessions in the wrong way- it is Sort, Toss, Organize, Put Away. The Sort step is the one where you decide whether to store, donate, toss or keep. Small details which I just thought I'd correct :)

And, just for fun, I thought I'd show you what cleaning looks like at my house. Why does it always get worse before it gets better?!! Lol.


And just for fun again maybe you'd like to see my finished painting (except for that one little spot I missed) for my dear Hoyos friend.





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first STOP.

My STOP session lasted longer than 20 minutes, but I still had to end the session before the project was finished. Which is actually good because I can come back to it tomorrow with energy to get it completely done. Just like the book says!! So smart!

Before:


And so far:



It might not look that different, but believe me it will cut down on tons of clutter. I got rid of all of the CDs- we never use them! They were just taking up space since all of our music is on mp3 now. I moved all of the old board games to the closet, we don't use them that much, so some will go to goodwill and others will be stowed safely in the closet top until needed. All the Wii accessories now have a spot for functional use and the games and DVDs are also stored so that the ones we use the most are the easiest to reach (hot zone)... And stuff that we don't use all that much ( like home movies or old DVDs I don't want to get rid of) are more in the back (aka 'cold zone').

So I only got half done. And it took like 2 hours. BUT, I did stop! Which is a huge plus- bc ordinarily I just want to start and finish a projet on one afternoon. But now I can get to other things.... and my family might get dinner tonight. Plus I have a project waiting for me tomorrow. A project to finish!

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beginning.

So today is the day :) I am starting the STOP sessions from HouseWorks. I am sure you are all super excited to know that! These are short, 20 minute sessions of focused clutter control. I chose the first area- the Entertainment Center. Right now it is clutter with Wii accessories, DVDs, video cassettes, board games.... photo albums. Seriously! All that!! And I am trying to remember that it's not about decor, but about functionality. I mean, I want it to look nice, but more than that- I need it to work for our family!! That is a tough one for me :) Sooo. For STOP, I go through it all, choosing what to put in Storage, Toss, Organize or Put Away. I am excited to have this space cleaned from clutter and more useful!

Let me just tell you about a typical day. Wii accessories scattered, white wires..... DVDS out of case and sitting, face down on any flat surface.... games, taken out but not put back (because it is too hard for the kids to maneuver the games back into the small-geometrically-figured-cubby that makes them all fit!) Finger prints.... dust.... ah, mess and clutter.

SO. It will probably take more than 15 minutes. But, maybe not too much more. :) More to come :)

My husband must read my blog

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Just so you know, I'm not crazy

Just going through my HouseWorks book... Look at what I found...








See?! Label!! It's a critical step in having an organized home! Its probably even more important to have labels that STAY STUCK!! (Don't ever buy those "removable" labels... FYI!!! They are removable all right!) ;) So I'm not that crazy! Just so you all know. :D


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Labels, please!!

Another day of *wishful* organizing. I know that organizing is not about buying stuff..... But I still feel like I really need a label maker. Therefore I am stuck... Because my brain likes to do things in its very certain order and if I don't purposely make the decision to move on and come back to the step that is blocking progress.... I just don't move forward. Wow. Organizing REALLY IS like life! Lol. So... My sticky label aren't working, which was my temporary solution so that I could move on and return later. I am going to Costco ASAP for that darn label maker!! If only my budget agreed. :) I must wait a few more days.



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The journey begins

I guess getting organized is like life, a journey.



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Day 4

Day 4 of school and me n evie are chillin and relaxin... :)






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Viva la First Day of School

We went to Santa Barbara last weekend to celebrate Fiestas and learned about cascarones- eggs full of confetti that you smash on a special person's head. It was so fun that we've been saving our eggs to make our own. Today seemed like the perfect occasion!





















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And k

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2+4

First dayyyyyyyyyyyyy


















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summers gone!?

Wow! this is the last week of summer?! Where the heck did it go?! It flew by! With all the stuff that goes on and 4 kids to keep track of, sometimes it seems like life just speeds on through. But we're ready to head back- even more after a pre-first day visit to the school office to turn in emergency cards. The girls are excited... Evie will be in shock... Schedules will be.... scheduled. So it will be nice to get back into a groove.

School shopping! Emma got the cutest little clothes... Abs got some sweet dresses... Bells got some fun accessories and things that say "bff" and "lol" along with more skinny jeans and a fedora. She's crazy. There were some cute things out there.... the one newest thing that cracks me up are the "jeggings" Jeans/Leggings. Wow. They're so funny and remind me of like 6th grade. Baby doll dresses and leggings.... ikes! As long as the kind with the little loop at the bottom to go under your foot don't come back around ;)

Other than that, not too much. Summer is past! 4th, 2nd and Kinder await!! CrRRRRRAaaaazzzzZZYYY! Right!?

summer fun...

You might know that Abs made All Stars this summer.... which by the way, is pretty cool because she is a young player for her division- and was one of the youngest on her team. It was a good learning experience for her! And we made some fun new friends! Here are a few pics of the craziness we've been doing all summer!

This was our 3rd fundraiser- car wash!!

Evie made a new little best friend, Lylah! They were inseparable and even cried when they couldn't see each other!! They will probably be playing Tee Ball together in a few years!!

Miss Torey, our favorite new babysitter!! She convinced Abigail's team

that she was her big sister!! And taught the girls new cheers.

And this is the team banner we had hanging at all the games....