Our new shed was delivered yesterday. It’s more than twice as big as the old one. I’m so excited – all the extra things stored in the house can now go out in the shed. We should have a lot more room in the house now. I’m so excited!

Now, the purging of closets and storage containers begins. While I’m at it, I’m going to see how much of the boys’ clothes we can get rid of. I’m so excited about the decluttering!

(can you tell I’m a little bit excited? LOL!)

(Image from Totally Toddler website)

Years ago, someone gave us a bottle of Totally Toddler for Samuel’s baby shower. That stuff is amazing. It got dried-on red koolaid stains out of a white shirt, so after that, I was hooked.

Yesterday Anna had a massive diaper blowout. It was totally my fault – I tried pinning her diaper differently. Guess we’ll keep doing it the way we usually do from now on, because they rarely leak if pinned right. Anyway, the mess was everywhere – her pajamas, undershirt, bouncy seat. . .I took the clothes and sprayed them down really well and let them soak for about a half hour before I threw them in with a load of diapers. They went into the dryer before I remembered to check them.

Every bit of the stain is gone. No trace of yellow whatsoever. I’m thrilled. As long as I’m able to find it in stores, I’ll keep Totally Toddler in my house. It’s worth it. We like it so well that last time I bought it I bought a half-gallon refill jug. We’re set for a while. It’s marketed as a nursery stain remover, but it’s worked well on just about everything we’ve tried it on.

If you’re in the market for a new stain remover, I suggest Totally Toddler. They aren’t reimbursing me for posting about it, it’s just a product I’ve tried and love.

The best ways I can think of to be a blessing to a mom of young children are:

1. Be a listening ear.
2. Be an extra pair of hands.
3. Offer her encouragement.

Tonight two different ladies at church were an immense blessing to me.

Our pastor’s wife is one of them. Caleb was overly tired, so I took him out so he wouldn’t disrupt the service. We went back into the sanctuary, he was quiet. . .and Anna started fussing. I got up and took them both to the nursery. I was wondering how to juggle the kids since both of them were just tired, and this mama’s lap is only so big. I was going to hold them both, but our pastor’s wife followed me in there and held Caleb for me. He was asleep in minutes.

It was so nice to be able to talk to her. Her children are just a bit older than mine, so it was nice to be able to share some of my parenting struggles with her and listen to her solutions. She was a huge encouragement to me. God knew I really needed it tonight.

Then, after church, I was able to talk with another one of the ladies. Since I’m usually at the piano before and after services, there’s not much opportunity to talk to many of the ladies before they leave.

We got to talking about serving in church. . .and I mentioned how being a mommy and serving (in my case) are sometimes two separate roles. Stephen and I are both involved in the service (he’s the music director and I’m the pianist), so our kids usually sit with someone else. It’s hard sometimes for me to be up front and watch my kids sit elsewhere, when all I want is my children around me. It’s just not possible all the time. It’s a struggle for me to switch between the role of Mommy to that of church pianist. What was a blessing to me was that she gets it.

I’m so thankful for these two women who were a blessing to me tonight!

My favorite photo mug. . .

Making a new bouncy seat cover has been on my sewing list for quite a while, but it took me long enough to get to actually making a new one. Then it took me even longer to post about it – it’s been done since right after Christmas.

Here’s the old cover. Notice the seam at the top is ripping. It’s easy enough to keep the baby out of it, but Caleb kept sitting in it. It’s like he thinks it’s his own personal papasan chair or something.

What I did was trace around it onto the fabric. It’s some sort of twill – I’m really not sure where it came from. It doesn’t look so shiny in real life, but in pictures it sure does.

I didn’t try to add any padding to it just to keep it simple. The webbing on the straps was salvaged from what was on the original cover. It was ok for a while, but then one strap started to ravel. Walmart had some though so fixing the strap was pretty easy.

It’s nice to have the bouncy seat in good condition again. Anna loves sitting up where she can watch us, and I like having my hands free more often. Since this cover is made out of much thicker fabric (and double layers at that), I don’t worry so much when Caleb sits in it either.

Crazy kid.

Samuel is leading singing and Caleb is at the piano.

Caleb’s “piano” is the cardboard from a bolt of fabric.

And one of Anna for good measure. . .

I’ve mentioned before that we use the cash envelope system for budgeting some of our expenses. First, I made some zippered envelopes. They worked well, but since they aren’t labeled they’re too easy to mix up inside the store. What’s the use of making three separate transactions if you pay out of the wrong envelope?

Then I came across this cash envelope tutorial. It looked simple enough, so I decided to just try to figure it out on my own. I didn’t want the pockets divided though – I prefer to pull out only what cash is necessary when it’s time to pay for something.

It took me a while to plan out, and there are a couple things I’d do differently if I ever sew another one. I’m pleased with the result though.

The zippered pocket isn’t lined (one of the things I’d change next time) but seems the right size for spare change.

Folded up, it’s about the size of a checkbook. Here’s the outside:

It also matches my checkbook cover. . .

And my purse organizer. . .

And my purse.

I made a case for my old Palm too, but can’t use it with my new one unless I somehow attach Velcro to the back of it. The old one came with the Velcro already on it, but I’d rather not stick it on my new Palm. But just for kicks, here’s a picture of the case and my old Palm:

Ok, so it’s a bit much of all the matching things, but I really like the pink and burgundy combination.

What Love

She took her hair, and dried the tears that fell upon his feet
My, how she loved her Master so
Her reputation— less than pure, but only He could see
Her tears were for the day they’d lay Him low
Then in her hand, she held a vessel filled with sweet perfume
An exorbitant price, but she breaks the box, and its fragrance fills the room

What love, love that has no price
Asking nothing in return, the kind you give and don’t think twice
What love, never holding one thing back
Such love that she would give the best she had,
What love

From a precious little baby, to a man of thirty-three
Down through the years, they watched Him grow
From a little town called Bethlehem, on to Calvary
Up that lonely hill, they watched Him go
What He felt inside His broken heart, God only knows
The hammer struck, a vessel broke, making that precious crimson flow

What love, love that has no price
Asking nothing in return, the kind you give and don’t think twice
What love, never holding one thing back
Such love that He would give the best He had,
What love

This is one of my favorite songs. I’d love to see sheet music for it – all I have is a typed-out copy of the words and chords.

I may never be able to repay what my God has done for me, but I want to love Him back to the best of my ability!

Lately I’ve had a few conversations where the other person ends up saying something like, “You MADE that?!?” It amazes me.

For us, it’s simply making do with what we have. We went through an incredibly hard time financially a few years ago. Things had been tight for us for a while, but when Stephen was laid off, things got much tighter. We worked so hard at trying to just pay our bills, that anything outside an absolute necessity was pretty much put on the back burner. We did our best to live on as little as possible.

It was very difficult. I learned a lot about faith. God provided for us in some really amazing ways (you can read about some of those ways by clicking on the Miracles category in my sidebar).

I really struggled with feeling deprived. There were many things we chose to do without, but I missed them. One of the hardest things for me then was hearing about little things in other peoples’ lives that sounded like luxuries to me. One day a friend mentioned that she was having chicken cordon bleu for dinner, and it absolutely devastated me that we couldn’t afford it.

Strangely enough, that was a turning point for me. Rather than complain that I couldn’t have what she could, I decided to learn how to make some of the things I missed. We already cooked from scratch, but we learned how to make more. We started learning how to make things most people just buy. Bread, tortillas, dry mixes (taco seasoning, flavored coffees, ranch seasoning, dipping spices, to name a few), yogurt. . .I could go on and on. Some things were a total flop, and some turned out well.

Many of those things we continue to this day, even though our finances aren’t as tight as they once were. Some we’ve stopped making or doing because they’re not worth the amount of time to make them or we didn’t like the results.

It really was a learning experience. Would I change it? Honestly, no. I wish I could say I handled it with more grace, but I didn’t. But God showed me just how mighty He really is during that time, and that makes it worth it.

I told one of the ladies the other day that I’m not going to complain about not having money. I’m going to get creative and figure out how to make things myself. It’s nice. I don’t feel so deprived. And it’s gotten to be enough of a habit now that for some things, I don’t ever intend to go back.

Just because money is tight doesn’t mean people have to feel so deprived. It just means getting creative in new areas.

It’s melting so quickly there probably won’t be any snow tomorrow, but it sure is beautiful today.