Kindergarten....already?!

Well, it's been a while since I sat down and wrote anything.
This summer absolutely flew by. We are settling into our house, loving the neighborhood and the proximity to everything. It is everything we prayed it would be.

Josh has been working non-stop.
Major has been Major. He's busy! His summer consisted of skateboarding, swimming, laking it, football, a whole bunch of bike riding and just hanging out. We've loved every minute and are so thankful to daddy for allowing it all to happen.

But summer ended today...which brings me to this post.

I'm not sure how I feel, what I want to say, whether I'm happy or sad...so whatever this becomes will probably be rambly...

Tomorrow begins a journey for us that 5 years ago seemed so, so, so far away.
When we found out our baby was a boy we prayed for him. We hoped so many things for him not yet even knowing what he would look like, who he would be, what his personality would be like. For 5 years we've watched him grow into this independent, funny, wild, mischievous, happy little boy who is so full of life. For 5 years I tried to envision this night and tomorrow morning. And in this moment, I feel so bittersweet about it.

I'm sure all Mamas are fighting back the same tears that I am right now. I am so happy that I am blessed with a son who is ready for this milestone. I am so happy that he is independent enough to go and be excited about kindergarten. I am so happy that we live in a place that he can go to a good school with loving teachers. I am so happy.

But, there's sadness too. Sadness that he's big. Sadness that my days won't be filled with everything Major. Sadness that the house will be so quiet. Sadness that he's not a baby and that he doesn't need me so much.

For 5 years I've been there for every first. Every moment. Every everything that he's ever needed I've been there and now I won't be. The thing is, he's so ready. So ready. This separation stuff is all me. He will be great. I am gonna miss him for sure but I know that he will have the best time. He will be amazing like he is at everything he tries for and I will be good too...eventually...hopefully.

My prayer for him is that he grows and learns.  I want him to be himself, to be a leader. I hope he tries hard then tries harder at everything he does.  I hope he loves and is nice to everyone, uses his manners and remembers that the words he uses, the choices he makes and the things he does are reflections of  Jesus. I hope he is the hands and feet. I hope he knows we love him and are so, so, so incredibly proud of him.


It's overwhelming to me that this moment is here. As I walk out of the school tomorrow I am sure there will be some tears (hopefully from just me). I hope I have some peace about leaving him tomorrow and that he has the best day!

If anyone stuck with me to the end of this pity party, please feel free to say a prayer for us both tomorrow!

Home

Busy, busy bees.

 It's SUMMER and that means our days are filled with play time, popsicles, bike rides, play dates, swimming and all things fun.

All of that fun equals a lot less time settling in to our new house, decorating, sewing, crafting...all the things that Mama loves, but we are getting there. 

I'm trying to focus on a room at a time but basically that's leaving me with a whole bunch of unfinished spaces, which is driving me nutso! 

I'm hoping to do a home post soon but in the meantime, here is a picture of the outside :) 

We love it here and are so grateful to be in a neighborhood where Major can have friends, ride his bike and be at a good school.
Slowly but surely this is becoming home. 

Major's Baptism

This weekend was such an overwhelmingly blessed weekend.

I got to experience the labor and delivery of my sweet nephew just hours before my own baby was baptized. (After his Mama and Daddy see the pictures I will post about his birth)! 

This post is for Major.

For about a year he has been asking us a lot of questions about God, Jesus, heaven, hell and various bible stories. We answered his questions but prayed for him through the year. We actually kinda held back from thinking he was ready to be baptized or even knew what it meant because he is so young. It's the biggest decision he'll ever make so we wanted him to understand as much as he could before he made his decision.

He always prays really sweet prayers. He thanks God for his family and always thanks God for his strength and muscles!!! He usually talks about what we did that day and will sometimes pray for a friend. But a few weeks ago his prayer was different. 

He asked Jesus into his heart and talked about heaven and serving God. It was such and honest and pure prayer. Josh and I looked at each other and tears filled our eyes. 

We are so grateful for his heart and for the work God is doing in him. Our hope is that we are the parents that God wants us to be for him. He will grow and mature in his walk and will hopefully come to know the Lord so much more deeply. I hope everything we do helps him become the man God intends for him to be, but today at five years old, he loves God and Jesus and understands as much as a little boy can.

My heart feels like it will explode with joy for him!

-mypicsarentuploading-

Graduation

I've always known two things about myself; I love kids and I want to be a mom.

I wasn't sure in what capacity God would use me to fulfill the roles that I desired. The opportunities I've had to love children and the way I became a mom sure weren't the plans I had envisioned for myself, but they are God's plans and,you know, those always turn out better than your own.

I've been extremely fortunate to always be able to be with Major. When he's home, I'm home. When he's at school, I'm at school. Each year I have a class that I get attached to and love and this year is no exception. I've had the opportunity to teach and fall in love with 10 of the sweetest little kiddos in the world. This group of kids have a special place in my heart for sure. I love them each so much and don't take the opportunity to care for them, teach them and love them for granted. They are so sweet and so much fun!

This year is especially special to me because my baby boy will graduate preschool too. I'm sending him off to the great big world of kindergarten. Our days will no longer be spent together, we won't have Major and Mama days during the week when all the big kids are at school. Our house will be very quiet and I will have the opportunity to miss him during the week. On one hand I'm looking forward to that. On the other, not so much.
I'm so happy that he's ready. He's healthy, learning, excelling. I am looking forward to watching him grow and change, learn, and become stronger. Im looking forward to him finding even more independence but I pray he knows he can always come to us.
It feels like he changes everyday so I'm just trying to soak in everything and everyday of him being 5. I want to remember what his hand feels like in mine. I want to remember that when he's tired he likes me to rub his cheek. I want to remember how fearless he is. How stubborn.

I know kindergarten is the beginning really but for me, for us, it's an ending too. I'm trying to hold it together as my only baby reaches this milestone.

To say I'm thankful or grateful to have the opportunity to be his mom just isn't enough. I'm not sure, through that dark tunnel of a place I was in praying for him, how God chose us for each other but I am so so so so blessed that he did.

The next few days will be a blur I'm sure but as I send my 10 littles and my own babe off to kindergarten I want them all to know what a blessing they are to me and how fortunate I am to have a small part in their lives.

Paint

Choosing paint is hard.
How do they expect you to know what a whole room will look like based on a microscopic sampling of paper?
Ugh.
Sure you could buy samples, go home, paint, live with it for a few days then decide...but...I do not have time for that.
So...I decided.

kinda

Im second guessing now.

We have to paint Major's room, bathroom, the craft room and the playroom....

For Major's room Josh and I really, really disagreed.
I found this picture on pinterest and thought it would be the perfect little boy to big boy room...

polkadotpeacock.com via pinterest

I love, love, love it. So I ordered the bedding from West Elm and have been gathering other cute things but that wall color...It doesn't say what color it is so I went to Lowes. I didn't want something too green, definitely not too bright but not baby or girly green either. 

I finally settled on a color called Olive Martini but Josh vetoed it on the way to Lowes. He said it looked like snot. Boo. 

He wanted to do something called Grass Stain or Turf Green. They were just that, grass-y. Too green. So we compromised on a color called apple something. It was kinda in between but I am super praying it isn't too bright. I am still having a hard time imagining a whole green room but we'll see. 

I have visions of some simple wainscoating but I'm not certain he's going for that. 

 

By this point, we are both over paint colors so he surrenders and I take the easy way out. We are painting Major's bathroom, my craft room and the playroom all grey. There are different variations but they are all grey. Hopefully it won't be too drab and blah. 

Anyway, here's to hoping we get it done and it all turns out decent.

We are kinda over it.

Be still

We are 4 days from moving.
4 days.
We are in go mode.

Then God was like 'Hey, let's not forget what's important here. Let's not forget that stressing out over the right size moving boxes IS NOT IMPORTANT!!!'

Wanna know how he reminded me?

My husband was in a house fire...his beloved but dangerous job...when a roof collapsed and a beam landed on his shoulder. He separated his shoulder, messed his elbow up some and has a small burn on his hand.

God is telling me to BE STILL.

I'm just gonna be real honest, I am not good at being still. I am trying and I am failing.

I'm all stressed and worried and thinking how are we gonna pack, how are we gonna paint, how are we gonna move, who is gonna help with Major, how do I do this, or that, whatsuipth he[h[reyh[ [FJOGHJ [G [FI[AJIETUHFUAPjife[hj[shgihghdfjdjios......that's what's in my head.

Then God is like 'Hey sister, shhhhh'

Then I remember to just be still. To be thankful that we have a house to move out of and a house to move into.  So thankful to have a husband who has a job he loves, even though it scares the crap out of me. I'm thankful that he is ok and in the possibilities of all that could happen to him at work, a separated shoulder is doable. We can for sure work with that.

I know my to do list will get done.
I know it will be in God's time and not mine.
I know I need to let it go.
I know he is in control.

So on  this Good Friday, I am laying here with my husband beside me and my baby in the room next to me knowing that I am so undeserving of all the blessings in my life. I am such a failure, such a disappointment yet He sacrificed it all for me.
I am so thankful for the blessings Jesus has allowed me to have in this life. I am so thankful for my husband, for his safety and for his health. I am so thankful he is a good husband to me and a good daddy to Maj and that we get to share this life together.

And although I fail miserably all the time, I am most thankful I am forgiven and loved by a perfect Savior and that everyday I get to live my life for Him. 

Happy Easter weekend friends, let us remember his sacrifice and not take it for granted
(even if you are moving)!!!! :)

And we are moving.

I'm not even sure how to start this blog...we have so many things going on...juggling so many balls in the air that I feel a little scattered.
Let me start by saying how thankful and blessed I feel to have things to juggle. I am grateful for this house and for the new one. Grateful for people who are working for us to make this move happen. I am thankful for people who care about us, friends who invite us along to do fun things, for a church that helps us grow. We are abundantly blessed.
Selling our house has been bumpy to say the least. Without really going into it lets just say that we've had several unexpected things thrown our way. We are dealing with them and seriously THANK YOU LORD for putting people in our life that makes it easier and less worrisome to deal with. I told Josh today that we have so many balls in the air that I feel like we should be in a circus or something juggling them all. His response? "Yea, but we have a really big bat. We are knocking them out." Optimism. Another reason  I love him so.
So we are 11 days from closing. The great news is the inspection and everything went well at the new house. There are just a few minor things and we should be good to go.
Almost everyday Josh and I drive by the house. As much as we wanted to build a house, we feel lucky to have found this one and feel that it will be a good move for our family. We are excited to make it "home".
 So if we can survive the next 11 days hopefully we will be less stressed out. Shew!
Happy, nervous, excited, stressed, busy. Yep, that's sums up right now. 

30 years

Thirty years ago today my husband was born. Let me just take a minute to say how grateful I am that he was created! He makes everything in my life better. I can't thank or be grateful enough to his Mama and Daddy for raising him how they did, for teaching him to be the man, husband and dad that he is. I'm so thankful to God for his life, for his heart, for allowing me to share my life with him.

Thirty is special too because it means that half our lives we've been together. We were just two 15 year old high school kids who thought we loved each other then. Looking back, though, we were crazy about each other, not really even knowing what it felt like to love somebody. We had no idea what was in store for us. God has been so faithful to us in our marriage and we are so incredibly blessed to share everyday together as a family.

Happy happy happy 30th babe! We love you so much and are incredibly grateful for you. You are the hardest working, most loving, selfless man I know and the fact that I get to hang with you in this life is humbling and pretty awesome!

We love you.

hey hey hey

Again, MIA! Seriously, time is just a mean ole stinky thief.

It's March...nearly the middle and I feel like I just put my Christmas tree up. I didn't...but it feels like it was a minute ago.

Lots going on in the King Casa...
Selling the house
Keeping said house clean
Keeping Major busy
Work
T-ball
Projects
Training for a race...ahem, failing to train for a race

Life

Everything is just crazy busy.
We've finished up our projects since last month's post and they are AWESOME! Like I'm crazy in love with them awesome.  I agreed on some baskets finally. I didn't love them originally, but they are great now and work perfectly.
Bad news on the bench/basket project is that the people who are buying our house thought it/they were pretty awesome too and asked that we leave them in the offer...I was like no way kids! Husband overruled. Big ole BOO! He promised to make a new-even-better-than-the-original-one.

He's gonna hate me bc I am going to have him on project overload. Ha!
I haven't slept in like 4 days bc I can't turn my brain off. It's insane. I haven't told him about this madness though bc he's been at school/work I don't want him to divorce me before we get in the new house! Ha! Kidding!

Anyway, I want to remember to post pics of our projects here before we leave them for the new house. We have lots of projects and painting to do at the new house too so I will post before and afters probably over the next few months.

And dude is playing ball this spring. He's on the pirates and is kinda excited to play. Ha. Bless. He wants to play football so bad. We'll get there.

Busy Busy Busy!!! I doubt anyone reads this but thanks if you do!

Well hello there

Well hello there friends!
 I went MIA apparently.
What's been going on...well...Christmas. I'll post that later...hopefully before summer.

Our house: We are selling our home.
Bittersweet I tell ya. We love this house. I kinda wish it were like we didn't love it. It'd be easier to leave. And our yard. Oh the yard. I will miss it so much. We will definitely sacrifice the yard when we move.

If you know anyone who wants to move to our little home, HERE is the link. I pray that it goes to a family who wants to be here for a long time. Who has kids and who can make memories here like we did. I want it to be loved like we love it. Is that dumb? Yea. Josh says who cares, but this house is sentimental for me. It's our first house as a married couple, it's the house we brought Major home in. All his firsts happened here. His little fingerprints are on certain places on the walls. Duke is here.

But it's time. Time to move on and to make new memories. Time to make a new house our home.

It's all for the greater good.

In the meantime we are working on some projects...mostly up in the playroom. That space is a constant battle of toys, pieces, organization, and marrying grown up and kid space.
Fear not: The things we are doing will be things that are able to move to the new house with us. 

My amazing handy-hubby built a 10 ft long bench/storage/organization thing for me. We bought foam, chose fabric and made us a fancy little cushion for the top. IN LOVE. I am in search of some baskets for it though....I am tempted to go with those fabric ones from target bc 1)they are cheap and I need 8 and 2) they are easily accessible. I don't love love them though. I don't feel like they will hold up super great over time.

I really want some awesome woven ones like this:

houzz.com

I love the little chalkboard detail. I love the handles. I love that it is square and would fit in my space. But they cost too much.

I also wouldn't mind these babies:

 houzz.com

I mean who wouldn't right? Love! But Im pretty sure I'd have to sell half my crap to afford 8 of these. Sigh.

I found THE PERFECT ONES at JoAnnes. I mean like an OCD girls dream bc they have compartments within compartments. But at 50% off they were still $20 each. Holy baskets batman. I'm not paying that times 8.

So I am on the hunt for some super awesome basket, storage, somethings that will finish off this storage bench.

We are also refinishing an old dresser that belonged to my nanny to house our tv, blankets, toys and other things that need to be tucked away.  I CAN NOT WAIT til that is done. It's in the garage, sanded down and in progress.

Perhaps the most exciting part of all this is that I am getting a trip to IKEA out of the deal!!! Whoop! Yes sir ree. I am on the hunt for this:

 projectnursery.com

Well, actually, just the bottom part and the green buckets. Major's art supplies and discovery boxes will find a new home in these bins. This will be such a fabulous solution for us bc now half of his stuff is in the laundry room and the other half is in the craft room.

Once I get back from IKEA and have all that put together, the new dresser painted and moved in (which hopefully will be PRE-IKEA) I am putting Daddy on this project:

shanty2chic.com

These plans are for a 6 ft table but since we have just one little we are gonna scale it down to 4 ft and have 2 little seats on either side. I also want holes in the middle of the table so I can drop in some small buckets for pencils, crayons and markers. The little seats will be the exact same as these in design, but different colors. The fabric on our new bench has several colors so we will choose 4 and paint those babies up.

Next up will be the really fun stuff which is details. I am trying to decide if I will just hold off on those til we get to our new house...probably. 

The key to all this is making it kid friendly, functional, usable, but still making it work in a space that grown ups use too. I think it will be a good combo of the two. I hope so anyway. For all I know I could be totally ruining the space :) 

Ill post some pics of the space later. We aren't going all crazy bc we are trying to sell. I wish I could rip everything out and start over but I can't...soon. But not at this house! 

So that plus a 5 year old wild, energetic, busy boy are keeping us on our toes! Till next time friends.