Organization Inspiration: Entertaining Guest in a Small Space!

My sister and her 2 girls came for a visit a couple weeks ago! They stayed for almost 2 weeks. Our home is smaller than the average american family with 4 kids measuring at 1268 sqare feet. How to fit 3 extra people in for 2 weeks.....without having our living room taking over by luggage! There is no spare bedroom and the laundry room is not quite big enough to fit an air bed...lol. So I came up with a great idea....I emptied out our coat closet and made it into a guest closet! I re located the coats to our bedroom closet and the mop and vaccum supplies to the garage temporarily! This is how it turned out!

I put blankets and pillows on top.

Then a laundry bag and gift bags on the hangers!

We made a welcome banner out of an old gift bag.

 

 Noah is such a gentlmen helping his cousin Jayla  carry her luggage.

Everyone was super excited!

Noah drew some portraits of my sis and nieces on their welcome banner.

Rachel started warming up to having the two divas in the home.

I put some toiletries and goodies and the gift bag =)

How do you guys usually set up your home for guests without a guest room?

Go Aunt Zetta Go! 74lbs lost!

My mom is inspiring people all over to loose lots of weight too! I talked to my aunt a few weeks ago to wish her a happy b-day and she told me she was not going to let her little sister weigh less than her so she has been loosing weight too!

Aunt Zetta at Christian and Joshua's Bday party in April 2011 weighing 260lbs.

 Now at 186 I think !

My mom has lost almost 90lbs now!!!

Up Next is my cousin Tyler (Aunt Zetta's son)! 

3 John 1:2 "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."

Go Sound the Horn, Strike Up the Choir A Sinner is Saved...

     
Our computer had the "blue screen of death" and so I have been absent from my blog, but Praise the Lord it is fixed now! Anyway the best news to blog about is that the mother of some of our church bus riders has been taking a bible study at our house with the pastor and his wife, and came to the conclusion she was a sinner and in need of a savior, she prayed and asked God to save her through the blood of Jesus Christ! I am so excited for this woman, she has 5 children who now have a mother who is on her way to heaven. This is especially important to me because her children sometimes tell me they believe she will die soon because she has lung cancer; but God is merciful and has sustained her life thus far to hear and receive the gospel! I am praying God gives her many more years here on earth to bloom into a beautiful child of God. I am so thankful that God allowed our paths to cross and our family could be a part of this wonderful act of God! It encourages me so much to continue to reach others with the gospel of Jesus Christ! 


I love this song it is about what could be happening in heaven when someone repents of their sin and calls on the savior!

verse one: 
Could it be that up in heaven, 
God is sitting on his throne 
Anticipating another sinner 
will soon become his own. 
Years of wasted living and 
years of toil and strife 
are just about to be over 
as he receives the gift of life. 

Chrous: 
Go sound the horn 
strike up the choir. 
A sinner is saved. 
Saved from the fire 
no more in darkness 
he's received my son 
all heaven rejoices 
that's the value of one 

verse two: 
the holy spirit has been working 
to soften up a heart 
all he needs is a willing servant 
to simply do his part 
can you imagine up in heaven 
the joy there is that day 
as a sinner bows his head to pray 
can't you hear the father say... 

verse three: 
start construction on the mansion 
there on hallelujah street 
he doesn't know yet what is waiting 
when the savior he'll meet... he'll meet 

Go Mommy Go! 70lbs Lost!

 This is my mom in 1980, 3 years before my sister Charlotte was born and 4 years before I was born. For as long as I can remember my mom always told me that I was the reason she was fat!

This is 1988ish. As you can see I am just so upset that I made mommy fat!

This is 2009 20 years later mom hadn't lost too much baby weight!

 This is my mom last weekend 70lbs lighter!

How did she do it? gastric bypass, liposuction, diet pills, weight watchers? Nope just old fashioned exercise and eating right!

Not even a Second!

     How Long does it take for a child to get into something dangerous? In my house not even a second! One day last week we woke up to an ant invasion in the pantry. The ants had gotten into everything that was opened. I was especially sad about my organic peanut butter granola that had only been used once! I read somewhere before that lemon scent will break the ant scent trail. We had this bottle of Lysol lemon scent in our home from the previous home owners. This is not something I would usually buy, but you know me if I didn't pay for it might as well get some use out of it =). 

     Well while I was pouring a little bit at a time on each shelf and then wiping I put the bottle on the counter right next to me. The kids were in their room playing with race car tracks. All except Joshua who had taken the bottle off the counter and drank the remainder of the Lysol! I turned around and saw him holding the now empty bottle about a centimeter from his lips and he let out a burp and had a dazed look on his face. Of course I panicked and tried to call the number on the back of the bottle it was just a recording. Then I remembered that you should give milk to drink so I poured a big cup for Joshua and he drank most of it. 

     I didn't have time to load up the computer and google "what to do if your child drinks Lysol." So I dialed 911 and the EMTs came out right away. To my surprise Joshua was fine and didn't need any medical attention. Thank God for His protection! I know as a mother of 3 boys we are so blessed to not have had any major incidents. It is nearly impossible to have my eyes on all 4 of my children at all times and so I am so grateful that God watches over us! I will not be buying any bottles of products like this ever and now I have poison control saved in my phone!

This is Joshua who is a very active and fearless 3 year old!

Thank God for Warranties!

We had 2 really expensive things malfunction in the same week! Our Air Conditioning Unit and our Samsung Dishwasher! I am so thankful that the dishwasher was still under the 1 year manufacturer warranty and the service guy came out and fixed it today free of charge!

Then the air conditioner went haywire and froze over and was leaking inside the utility room!  The previous owners gave us a 1 year home warranty when we purchased the home for them and it only cost us $160 with the deductible and disposal fee! Now everything is back to working order in our home =)....although the toilet in our room has been running and I cannot figure out why?....might be calling the warranty people back again...lol...or I could watch a youtube video on how to fix toilets...lol =)

I didn't even know that part of the AC was inside our home.

Out with the old and in with the new!

Isn't it pretty?

You do remember how ugly the old one was don't you? I know Chris is just as glad as I am that these things were under warranty....although he just might have fixed something with that screwdriver...lol =)

I like Free! Fun things for kids to do for Free in Springfield, Missouri

"Mommy, I want to go to Chuck E Cheese, Can we please go to Chuck E Cheese?"  This is something I have been hearing in my house lately. I love to take my kids fun places. I do not like to spend money just for them to have fun though. I know children just want to spend time with their parents and feel loved and appreciated yet anytime I step foot outside our house it feels like all the fun for kids activities comes with a price tag. My kids are just about tired of the playground down the street and it has been really too hot to spend too much time there anyway.  The last couple days we have been blessed to find some fun things that were free =)

 There was a free train ride running of the 4th of July.

Then the kids posed inside lady liberty.

 There is also a really nice park here in Springfield called the Jordan Valley Park.

 It has running water and water fountains, the kids had so much fun!

 Then we found a really nice Library about 10 minutes from our house. It has a train you can go inside and lots of hands on things for the kids to play with.

Of course Chris came with me to all these places! After all fun things with 4 small kids by yourself can go from fun to frantic in about 30 seconds flat!