Family

Bed or pillow? Which is more important to you? Would you rather sleep with a pillow on the floor or on a bed with no pillow? I guess that seems like a pretty random question to you...until I explain my reasons for asking.

Last night I shared my room with two of my three nieces; one is 6 months, the other is three years. The 6-month-old wasn't a problem...unless you consider waking up at 4:30 wanting a bottle and playtime a problem. I didn't consider that too much of a problem because my mother and sister were both willing to take care of it for me. THE problem came when my three-almost-four-year-old niece wanted MY bed...AND my pillow!!! 

Now I love this niece to death. Just not enough to give up my sleep number bed AND my memory foam pillow. So I gave her a choice, "You can have my bed or my pillow but not both." Unfortunately this three-year-old answers the question I opened this post with the same way I would, "Uh, you can have the pillow; I'll take the bed."

*sigh* 

How come I have to be so nice? Any other person would probably have kicked this adorable girl right out of their bed and made her sleep on the bed made of old comforters. But then....Any Other Person is not this same adorable little girl's "best friend".

*smile*

OH! The real reason for this post is to say how incredibly awesome Moms are! It has been brought home to me, as I've been helping babysit my three nieces this week that, while being a Mom is amazing and fully rewarding, it is also a tough job and takes an incredible amount of energy and stamina. My nieces are soooo sweet (just this morning the oldest one came and woke me up specifically let me know there were donuts downstairs.), but keeping up with their questions and energy is quite a task! I can't imagine doing it 24/7 for years on end!

So, to all y'all Moms: thumbs up! Thank you and keep up the good work (because work it is, work worth doing!)

The other real reason I was posting was to show you our second painting project! Four of my siblings and I painted the kitchen cabinets for Mother's Day! My mom was gone for the weekend so we surprised her.

Sorry, I don't have a "before" picture...we are bad about that. But before our cabinets were stained a dark brown. Not entirely bad, but since our kitchen has no windows anymore it gets really dark. Also the cabinets are pretty old now so we thought we'd freshen them up!

My mom loves it! She's wanted the cabinets painted for a while now.

It is a shocker at first, but after a week I don't even notice it any more.

There, I think I have you caught up now. Now it's time to pose the bed or pillow question to my niece again. :)

Painting Project #1

So here is the project I've been working on for the past week or so. My dad recently painted all of our outside doors red, so I wanted to paint this chair that sits on our porch too.

It's pretty old and kind of beat up now so I wanted to freshen it up with some paint!

Looking better but not done yet!

Ta-da!

What do you think? One of my sisters thinks the red is too much, but my mom loves it. I'm not sure that I love it, but I think it definitely looks better!

The weather in my hometown has been delightful this past week, warm with a refreshing breeze. I worked in my garden almost all day Friday. This time of year, between spring and summer is my favorite. The smell of the blooming privet hedge, the chirp of crickets, cool breezes, and warm sunny days are a balm to my soul. Something about this time of year makes me feel at home like no other season can.

 I'm so thankful that God made the world to be a beautiful place, that I am able to enjoy it and that His grace keeps it that way!