Jacob's Very Own Room!

Finally got another room decorated (for the most part...are you noticing a theme??)

I'll give you three guesses whose room this is...and the first 2 don't count! ;) Once again, Mom and Dad made some awesome garage sale finds for me! (the decal, for one)

I didn't take any before pictures of Jacob's room...I should have. We painted it, with John Deere colors of course! I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a way to paint it those colors without doing the entire walls yellow/green. Thankfully I found this idea online (the stripes). I found the fabric for the curtains at Hobby Lobby. The toy box and stickers, a garage sale find (as well as the pictures...more on those later)!

 The top bunk has become the stuffed animals' bed :) I need to get some paper and re-do Jacob's name, but I wanted to get it hung up.

 Have to get the black & white collage up! Bookshelf-garage sale. Tool bench-given to Jacob by a neighbor. The roller cabinet thing is where his train stuff is kept. The little peg hanging thing is that picture of the two little farmer boys that says "Been farmin' long?" :)

 The birth announcement plate my aunt & uncle got for Jacob (it has his birth date, weight, time, etc "hidden" throughout the nursery room scene). Love it!

 Closet door to the right, with another decal Mom found.

 No truer words were ever spoken, as far as Jacob is concerned! ;)

 When I saw this at Kris's booth, I had to get it for Jacob's room. Talk about perfect!!

Another great garage sale find! I can't remember who the artist is, but Mom found these 2 prints. Perfect for my little farmer boy! :)

Next up, the kids' bathroom before pictures!

Anna's room

We've got Anna's room DONE! It helps that 1) we didn't have to paint it and 2) she was organizing and putting away as soon as she had boxes in there! She is absolutely relishing having her own room. Most of the time, her door is SHUT :) There have been a couple nights that she's had trouble sleeping because she's "lonely" but for the most part, she's done fine sleeping. Sorry for the poor picture quality...our new computer should be here next week so I'll be able to empty my camera's card and start taking REAL pictures!

Just inside her door-Aunt Cara made this for her when she was born!

Yes, she has a queen bed. When we have overnight company, she has to give up her room and sleep in the bunk beds with Jacob again (until Isaac is out of a crib, then we'll put the boys together and use Isaac's room as a guest room). Curtains are next up on the list...she got a couple of fuzzy lime green ones, but they aren't enough to cover all the windows, so for now I have the blackout curtains up with the not-working shades.

Her very own bookshelf...or should I say toy shelf?? She organized all of this completely on her own.

Her clothes cubby/dresser is in her closet. Of course if there's an empty, flat surface she's going to "decorate" it! :)

I didn't realize I hadn't gotten a full picture of the words on the wall...they were already there! "All you need is a little faith, love, and pixie dust"

Mom found these decals for her. Perfect :)

Her closet door. We put their nice, wooden toy box at the foot of her bed.

"So everyone knows a Cowgirl lives here" :) And a little Kris Goertzen art "You are precious in God's eyes"

The school room is almost done and so is Jacob's. I need to get decor for the master suite and Isaac's room, then it's mostly just hanging what we've already got in the family room, living room, and kitchen! Whew!!! Oh, and we're turning one of the large hall closets into a closet office! :) We are absolutely loving all the space and OUR OWN ROOMS!!!

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Ladies Retreat

This past weekend, I went on a ladies retreat with our church. It was so nice to get away and be encouraged in God's Word! Our speaker, Kris is always so encouraging and practical...just a great speaker. The weekend's theme was relationships (Rules to the Relationship Road--I hope she makes it into a Bible study!!). The main premise is that if our relationship with God is not right, none of our other relationships will be right. As women, we so often try to fill a void for joy with other people and things, that was always meant to be filled only by the God that created us. Even our husbands cannot fill that void. So we have to stop trying to make them! :) Some highlights of the weekend:

• Our expectations (of others) cause problems. We need to be quiet and let him/her (our husbands, friends, etc.) hear the Holy Spirit.
• If I'm going to love others as I should, I must worship God as three things: Creator, Sovereign, and Savior. Too often we're too casual about our own sin and too impassioned about others' sin.
• The key text was Ephesians 4.

We must learn to yield:

• Change is healthy: Paul encourages believers to walk worthy of our high calling--humble, tolerant, and gentle...I must diligently work to have peace in my relationships.
• The Trinity should be our example for relationships: unity, humble, working together
• Relationships takes us beyond our normal strengths!

We must learn to stop:

• We are commanded to no longer walk as an unbeliever. As Kris said: Paul doesn't tell us to pray about, to have a group study about it...he simply tells us to STOP IT!
• I am on assignment by God to bless those He has put in my path.
• Ask yourself every day "Am I enjoying God?"
• Be a good listener (duh!)
• Slow down and evaluate your relationships.
• STOP the sinful behaviors. Kris said we all have our "pet" sins. We must STOP those and replace those behaviors with something else. We give the devil a foothold with those "little" sins and that is a dangerous thing to do!
• Eph. 4:29 (go read it!)...she gave this illustrations--a dad gave his two children a tube of toothpaste and 2 paper plates and then left the room. He came back later and, of course, they had all the toothpaste squeezed out. So the dad told them "Okay, now put it all back in the tube." Of course, that is impossible. He said that toothpaste is just like our words. You can never "put them back"--ever.
• Not forgiving others shows that I don't understand what I've been forgiven. Jesus allowed himself to be tortured FOR ME...to save ME.

If I forgive, I promise to:

• Not bring up this sin and use it as leverage.
• Not repeat their sins to others and then sin, myself, by slandering.
• Not dwell on the sin.

• Forgiveness is an event and a process...you can't just "forgive and forget". But I need to hate my sin as much as God does.
• Forgiveness is NOT peace at all costs.
• There's a difference between an apology and asking for forgiveness. An apology implies that it was a mistake. (I've been working on this with Anna.)

What a growing weekend it was! She had quiet time questions to work through and those were challenging as well. I would highly encourage you to look at Kris' website and pick a Bible study to do (either on your own or with a group--she has CDs and DVDs with them) or even get her to speak at your next women's event at your church. God has used her in mighty ways and she is a humble, willing servant.