Let's be Honest

I don't love being a stay at home mom. Let's be honest--so far, I kind of hate it. Having my life dictated by the whims of a two-year-old and a nine-month-old is not exactly my ideal. It is drastically different than being in control of a classroom...or in control of anything, really.

But! I'm not ready to give up just yet. As Chris keeps pointing out, we haven't been at this long enough to really have given it a fair chance. And, let's be honest, it's not all bad...

Our house is finally starting to come together. What an ordeal. With deep-cleaning all the disgusting-ness left by the previous owners (smokers with big dogs who didn't go outside often--enough said?), reflooring and repainting everything, then cleaning up that again before and while actually moving in, then unpacking...let's be honest, it's a lot of work and not very fun. But progress has been made!

Many of you have asked for pictures. Here are a few of the rooms that are done. Well, mostly done. And these are actually all of the rooms that are done or mostly done. Let's be honest. There is still a lot of work to go.

Living Room

before

during

Thank you, Pypers, for coming to help Brenda paint! And thank you, Bruce, for letting us borrow all the painting supplies. I promise, we're almost done.

I don't know that I can ever look at leopard print pajamas the same way again.

Unpacking my books was the biggest feat in this room. For a long time, the boxes of books provided our only covering for the big front window.


Eventually, I finally braved the view of the outside world and took the books out.


I breathed a sigh of relief that day. It's very nice to have my books back. Of course, that was a couple weeks ago. It wasn't until this last Saturday that Chris was able to put up the blinds and curtains. It was kind of like living in a fishbowl...

after

Ha. I just noticed that cat in the window. I actually chose this picture to show off the new tile that Chris and Chase installed. Looks good!

This is a big room.

One more note about the books. I have a lot, and once I added all the books from school, they didn't fit on the shelves we have (we still have two and half more bookcases in the basement).

Chris used his exciting new to him table saw and made me some new supports so I could add a couple extra shelves...which he found in a dumpster. So resourceful.

Kitchen

before


during

This has been a very familiar sight around our house.

after

This dining room table has a story. It belonged to Chris's aunt Shelly. She sent a text message to several people offering up the table. We were actually in Disneyland at the time. Having stopped for lunch, Chris didn't immediately pull out his phone, but as soon as he did, he called. None of this texting back nonsense. He has always really wanted that table. Somehow, he was the first to respond, so we got it. Sorry to all those who didn't win the race, and thank you to Shelly for the wonderful table and chairs!


We also found a nice place to display our puzzles. We've always had them hung in our bedroom, but people don't come in our bedroom, so no one ever saw them. Now they are prominently displayed.

By the way, I know that those pictures way do not do justice to how the kitchen actually looks...no good shot of the paint job, no good shot of the very nice-looking laminate floor we put in. I could just go take some now, but then I'd have to clean first...

Master Bedroom

before

Everything was pink in this house. Yuk.

during

The biggest project in this room was putting the clothes away. It took me a few weeks of living here before it came to the top of the list. By that time, I had three weeks worth of laundry to wash and put away, as well as everything still in boxes. I enlisted the help of my 12-yr-old brother.


I stacked them up, he put in the hangers. Good system. Thanks again, Michael.

after

I'm not a huge fan of large mirror closet doors. Sigh.

Master Bath

during

...that's all I got.

after

In this room, we painted, put up curtains, and replaced the light fixture. We painted it gray because that's the color I picked for the other bathroom and we only bought one gallon of bathroom paint.


A note about the note...Chris wrote this note to me once when I was student teaching, shortly after we got married. He put it up on the bathroom mirror so I would for sure see it. It has since been displayed on the bathroom mirror in every place we have lived. I still have it.

The other bathroom, by the way.


It is back to being usable, but it's still not completely reassembled. It's actually because of this bathroom that we UN-potty trained Jane. She was doing decently well there for a while, but, let's be honest, running down to the basement to use the bathroom every time just wasn't working out. For anyone. So we put Jane back in diapers and everyone was happy. Our project this week: RE-potty training. Oh, joy.

That all came out a little wordy and picture-heavy...more so than I intended when I started. Hope y'all are ok with that.

If you only skimmed through all the house stuff,
start reading again here.

In my not loving being home all day, I have done fairly well, I think, with family home evening. Our last few lessons and activities turned out really fun.

One week, we had a scripture scavenger hunt. We talked about how the scriptures can guide us to a very special treasure if we will read them. Hidden around the house were cards with different verses on them.


If you would like to use this idea with your family, here are the verses I used:

Alma 34:26
(leads to closet--start with this one, it's not hidden anywhere)

Matt. 10:42
(put this on the closet, leads to cup cupboard)

Ps. 26:6
(leads to bathroom sink)

Matt. 9:6
(leads to a bed)

1 Ne. 8:10
(leads to a tree outside)

Jane loved it. Even I was surprised by how excited she got to find all the cards after Dad read the scripture.


And the treasure at the end?


Jesus, of course! Jane was very excited to find this. Sadly, she didn't really listen at all to the concluding scripture: D&C 18:34-36

Last week we talked about the Articles of Faith. Each of us illustrated one of the verses--using fingerprints.

Dad: #12

"We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law."

Mom: #7

"We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth."

Brenda: #5

"We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof."

Jane: #11
(this one is funny to me)

"We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."

Family home evening last night consisted of looking at pictures of President Monson, talking about prophets, and reading a few of Pres. Monson's quotes.


I picked these quickly, without completely reading them all through. By the end, I realized it was probably divine guidance that these are the quotes I picked...

“Come from your wandering way, weary traveler. Come to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Come to that heavenly haven called home. Here you will discover the truth. Here you will learn the reality of the Godhead, the comfort of the plan of salvation, the sanctity of the marriage covenant, the power of personal prayer. Come home.”

( “Dedication Day,” Ensign, Nov. 2000, 66.)

“Whatever our calling, regardless of our fears or anxieties, let us pray and then go and do.”

( “They Pray and They Go,” Ensign, May 2002, 51.)

“It is in the home that we form our attitudes, our deeply held beliefs. It is in the home that hope is fostered or destroyed. Our homes are to be more than sanctuaries; they should also be places where God’s Spirit can dwell, where the storm stops at the door, where love reigns and peace dwells.”

( “Becoming Our Best Selves,” Ensign, Nov. 1999, 19.)

Especially that middle one...I think that was for me right now.

Let's be honest: I do believe that the prophets are God's spokesmen on earth, and that they tell us what God wants us to do. I know that the prophets have said that the mother's place is in the home. I don't like it at the moment, but I also believe that we have to take that first step of faith to follow the prophet and do it even though we don't fully understand. The understanding comes later.

So, I'll keep trying.