$5 No-Sew Curtain Valance

We moved some more furniture around, and after doing that the lack of curtains in the front living room started to bother me. I decided it was finally time to get some type of curtains up. It’s only been on my list since we moved in which is over a year ago. I’ve been content with just the blinds. For the large picture window, I decided I would continue to be content with the blinds. The front window could use at least a valance.

I perused Pinterest, Google and Amazon looking for ideas. I went to the store and picked up a length of black burlap with only a slight idea of what I was going to do, and came home and looked online for more ideas. Finally, I did something very similar to this.

valance

I like the way it turned out. It took me about an hour of cutting and tying. I didn’t have to break out the sewing machine which I was grateful for. I used two yards of the black burlap and fabric scraps I had on hand for a grand total cost of $5.

living room

Here’s the living room now and this is a link to the living room before.

 

Reading

I don’t let my children get on the computer that much. We’ll do a show in the afternoon and maybe a few games, but that’s it. We have “media free mornings” and the kids aren’t allowed to get on the computer to do anything, including listening to music.

So instead they do this:

reading

Both of the love books. PB is an excellent reader. He’s not even in kindergarten yet and already he can read almost all the books we bring home from the library. Usually he reads most books before I have the opportunity to read them together. I was trying to read him a book today, but he wasn’t listening to me at all, just reading in by himself.

No Other Gods

I had a horrible day at one point, and did something I never wanted to do again. I prayed that the lord would help me with my weakness so i would never be in the same situation again. He patiently showed me several ways that i needed to change.

I realized that my routine was becoming a God. I like to get a lot done during the day. A ridged schedule is impossible with young children, but I do have a routine I follow religiously. The first of the ten commandments is “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” I believe that this commandment teaches that we need to turn to God first as our authority, our support and follow His commandments before anything else.

I turned to my routine before I was turning to God. Instead of seeking God and what He would have me do, I would look at my list and what I had planned. If things went wrong, I got angry instead of being humble. At the end of the day, instead of evaluating my life with the commandments and expectations God has given us, I would judge how I did based on how well everything went and how much I got done.

So I am trying to change. Instead of seeking the next thing in my routine, I desire to pray to God and ask if there is anything that He needs me to do. At the end of the day, I need to not worry if I got the planned chores done, but if I was gentle and kind with my children, if i followed the exhortations in the scriptures.

There are many things which can come before God, and I don’t want any of them to do so any more. Sometimes it is my routines, my to-do list. Other times it is the distraction of media or a bad attitude. There is nothing more important to me than my faith and God, but I don’t always act that way.

What sometimes comes before God in your life and how can you change that?

Color Snow

I was happy it snowed. Mostly so we could do this:

blue snowman colors

I love coloring snow. We used condiment and squirt bottles in a variety of colors, and now my front yard looks awesome.

Lighting

Our main area lacks overhead lighting. I have never wanted to put floor lamps in there because in my experience, floor lamps and young children don’t combine well. When we moved in, I bought a couple of wall lamps from IKEA. Because they were wall mounted, they didn’t take up any extra space, and the kids couldn’t knock them over. My mom also lent me a lamp that had been sitting in her storage for 25 years: an old hanging globe lamp.

Here’s aside story with that lamp. Last year I was setting up the Christmas tree and the stupid lamp was in the way. I took a step back to analyze the situation and figured out that the lamp would work perfectly as the topper to the tree.

tree

We’ve had the three lamps since we moved in a year ago and recently I decided they weren’t good enough. I wanted more light, and something I could turn on as soon as I walked into the room. (All of the lamps were on the opposite wall, necessasitating crossing the room in the dark to turn them on.) My husband and I started talking about what we could do. Putting in an overhead was a bit of a hassle since the attic bedroom is finished. I thought about putting up a fixture on the wall that was devoid of lights, and went online looking at options, but couldn’t really find anything. I was still opposed to floor lamps, but then realized that we could put a lamp on the shelf. So then we looked online for lamps that would work. We had been talking and looking at different options for a long time, when my husband asked why we didn’t just use the extra lamp downstairs. I had forgotten we had it. It worked great for what we needed it for.

lamp

It took five minutes to solve a problem I puzzled over for an hour. The first place I should have looked for a solution was in my own house, not just adding on more junk. The best solutions are inexpensive, easy and quick, and they are often found by just evaluating what we have, not wanting more.

 

Lots of Pictures

We are all loving this little guy a lot. C will fight his brother to have exclusive rights to play with him. He asks where he is if he can’t find him, and I’ve convinced him to do things by saying that the baby will like it.

baby dad

hello h

sleep mom mom2

This is a self-portrait by PB. He likes taking funny pictures. Sometimes he takes a normal picture too, like the one of C.

petecurt

We have been getting back into routine a bit, and I’ve been getting bored just staying home. So we’ve been out doing fun things, including a trip down to the Aerospace Museum that PB was begging for, and sledding while there was still snow on the ground.

planes sledding

2014 in Review

2014 was a fun year. We didn’t move. It’s the first year I haven’t moved for a long time. Looking back through my calendar, we spent lots of time with family and friends. We visited ice caves, fairy gardens, water parks, hiked a waterfall, wind caves and biked around a lake. We took road trips to Wyoming, Nevada and California to visit cousins. We went with my brother to Bear Lake, and with my sister to Yellowstone. The kids did preschool at home with mom we invited other friends to join us. The kids took swim lessons, and PB did t-ball and karate. We visited parks, went swimming, took the raft out on the lake and played disk golf. At home we played cars and enjoyed the sandbox. We raised nine chickens, lots of tomatoes, and started to renovate our landscape. The biggest event was the birth of baby H right before Christmas.

Here’s some of my favorite pictures from the year:

For my goals, I finished a Permaculture Design Course, volunteered with a community garden, read 40 books, started to go to the Temple twice a month, and started a new blog. I grew a baby inside me and had a natural birth. I also started to meditate and use hypnosis more, which really helped me emotionally.

PB learned to read incredibly well for his age. He likes pepperoni sandwiches, find-it books, Wild Kratt’s, hiking and his favorite color is red. His favorite activities are playing cars and in the sand-box.

C loves trains and chocolate peanut butter. His favorite activity by far is playing in the sandbox. He learned how to talk better and sing songs.

Christmas

Due to a certain adorable little baby, I was dead tired for most of Christmas. It did provide a wonderful opportunity to ignore chores and spend the whole day playing or reading. The boys had a great time and enjoyed all their presents. They ate mainly candy, woke up early, and then crashed for an afternoon nap.

brother

first christmas

stockings

toys