Can you help??

OK folks I need a little help...a little help in the Christmas spirit department...ain't got none, NADA, zilch...not sure if it's just the fatigue of working so much on the recent remodeling, lack of snow (not that I'm wishing for any yet), or what but I just have NOT been able to get into the Christmas mood yet. Been playing Christmas music on the radio, and that had helped a smidge, but I have NO desire to break out my Christmas decorations yet and with three kids that is just NOT COOL. So here is my plea to you....

Help me find the Christmas spirit this year...is there some sort of tradition that just puts you in that Christmas mood...a website that you've been on that just screams Christmas or anything at all...I'll take anything...just help a tired Mom out OK ;-)

May watch "It's a Wonderful Life" tonight...that always helps with the Christmas spirit...after I watch The Little Princess with the boys (I know Princess and boys just don't mix...but it IS a good movie...you know the old Shirley Temple movie.)

Well here's to hoping the Christmas spirit finds me.

The Reveal...

OK folks...the moment you've been waiting for. Take it these photos were taken before I've put anything on my counters, but you'll get the picture....still not totally finished but much better than before.





I feel so happy and grateful to have this done at least to this point anyway. I was able to make Thanksgiving dinner in my new kitchen! I love my new oven and stovetop and microwave too. They are so cool and amazing. They actually tell you when your food is done. Technology, it's so amazing! And my new sink...I could swim in this thing it's so huge and deep! Love that bunches as well! So all we have to do now is paint the backsplash...we are going to put an edge of brick along the bottom of the backsplash to kind of tie the whole room together and then also put some brick in front of the sink as a splash guard. Then the cupboard doors...which in all honesty I'm not sure I want to go there...the guy who refinished them for us did an awesome job....the doors were beautiful....unfortunately they were the wrong color. Why he didn't test one of the doors to see what we had and to see if we matched is beyond me, but my cupboards are more of a brown and his doors are more cherry red. We used the same stain, but I guess the stain on the exterior of the cupboards took a little differently than the veneer on the cupboards. He's going to try to make them more brown, and I pray that they turn out. I don't expect them to match perfectly, but I told him I didn't want red. I don't like cherry, even though the stain we used was an antique brown cherry...the stain he showed us on our cupboards appeared more brown when he showed it to us...for some reason his came out more of a red. I was so sick and upset by it...but I figure it will eventually turn out, God is in control anyway...just one more setback that's all. Just pray with me that they do turn out more of a brown than a formal cherry red...I'm not into formal.

Anyways...hoping your Thanksgiving was great. My Thanksgiving was wonderful...cooking in my new kitchen, had my parents and hubby's mom and step-dad over to eat with us. We had a great time, had MORE than enough food and great conversation and spoiling the grandkids was had by all. I love having family around me...it just makes everything feel like its meant to be. It makes me content.

So did you do the Black Friday shopping thing??? I'm not into getting up before dawn for ANYTHING, not even to save a few bucks. I think I'm going to do what I've done for the past several years...shop on the internet....for me it's just the way to go. No lines, no hassles, don't have to deal with people or get frustrated cause you can't find the right thing and drive all over God's green earth to find it. I can sit in my jammies, surf the net, and just order and have it delivered to my door. And many places offer free shipping too....how can you beat that?!?!? I know with three boys I sure can't.

Well I have to go finish helping hubby clean a car, finish some laundry, get dinner, then start selling some eBay so I have some Christmas $$ to do that internet shopping with ;-)

Have a great week!

One Tired Chicka....

This remodeling is truly kicking me HARD! Had all intentions of posting some more pics of the kitchen progress, but honestly I'm just too tired...maybe I'll post some later this week, but for now I'll just "chat" about it.

Kitchen is coming along...may even have a kitchen (minus new flooring) by Turkey day...possibly. After spending the last several days fumigating myself with polyurathane (nasty stuff...P-U), I finally got my cupboards stripped, sanded, polyed (four coats I may add...I added an extra coat just cuz...) sanding in between each coat of poly...though it's not perfect, it's perfect enough for me and I'm very happy with it...much better than hubby's initial thought of painting them that's for sure. My cupboards have this beautiful rustic look that I was really hoping for. (I know...you want to see pictures now right...sorry....still too tired, so you'll just have to wait...or stop by). My countertop should be going in (HOPEFULLY) tomorrow so I may actually be able to (again HOPEFULLY) cook in my kitchen tomorrow...we shall see. It will be nice to not have to cook in the basement anymore. Then the fun will begin of trying to clean this mess up and actually put hings back where they belong...somewhat. I still won't have my drawers and doors until the weekend, but hey...I've gotten kinda used to no doors. Oh well.

Well again, I'm TIRED!! so this chicka is going to finally go to bed. Pictures next time..hopefully with pics of countertop on too!

And if I don't get on here before Turkey day....have a blessed Thanksgiving!

This face...

This face is a face that is SUPER excited....want to know why...I'm sure you can guess.....

Finally got his room done! In fact he is warm and snuggly in his new room even as I type. Bless his heart! He was so super excited and actually grateful...gave me the biggest hug ever...worth a month's worth of painting and aggravation after all. It really turned out super cute...other than curtains (that should hopefully be here next week) and a couple tin signs I'm hoping to win on eBay, his room is pretty much finito!! HALLELUJAH!

Here are a few more pics of the room:

Now if I could only get the kitchen done...stain is NOT working well and may be a total nightmare before it's all done. For some reason the wood on the top of my cupboards must not be the same wood as the bottom or something because it's taking the stain totally different. The top looks great, the bottom however is way too dark. Going to try and sand it tomorrow to see if I can lighten it up. Hopefully!

New challenge will be up on Faith Sister's tomorrow...check it out...it's about Home Sweet Home.

Well another busy day tomorrow and I need to try and get a good night's sleep! So until next time...

So much to share...

So much to share...oh my...where to begin...
Had the most awesome worship service in church today...the congregation from Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church came to share in our service this morning. So amazing!! The fact that we could come together under one God and worship despite our differing denominations (they are Baptist, we are Wesleyan) and the fact that we are different races (they are African American), didn't matter...we all worshipped together, worshipping one God, no boundaries, no theological agendas...just worshipped! So amazing...I wish you all could have been there...Gave me a glimpse of what heaven is going to be like...cause I doubt there are going to be denominations in heaven...just Christ followers praising the same God. I guess this was such an uncommon thing that our local paper is doing a story on it...find it here...and ABC News was there filming us...not sure why and why it would have been such a big deal (we've had Shiloh Church worship with us before)...I got to meet Dan Harris and he interviewed me and another lady form our church...I doubt that I'll be on TV folks (which is plenty OK with me)...I guess after the 3 hours of filming they did the segment is only going to be 2-3 minutes long. I didn't realize how much work went into making one little blurby segment...wild! Anyway I'll let you know (or maybe someone else can let me know since we still have no cable) when it's on. It was just an amazing and wonderful day.

Hubby is sick...has what I had. I'm praying that either God heals him fast or that God gives him enough wisdom to call off work...he's never called off work in the 15 years he's worked there despite a couple time I KNOW that he should have.

Kitchen remodel is coming along...slowly. I do have new electricty run in my kitchen so now I hopefully won't keep blowing out the fuse box...I have new drywall up on my back splash...the guy is coming tomorrow hopefully to finish that. I'm praying (HARD) that my counter top gets put in next week...having no counter is getting annoying. I have stripped the bottom of the cupboards, tops yet to be stripped, but doors will probably not be done until after Christmas...oh well. As far as Austin's room goes...that is a project that just won't die! It's taken a LOT longer than I thought and not sure how much I'm going to be able to get done this week. I'm a bit upset because the paint I got for the trim is not the right paint...though it was labeled a Satin paint, it actually is a flat paint....hubby didn't realize this until I was almost done painting the trim...so sometime during my busy schedule this week I have to hike back up to Lowe's and exchange the paint for the right kind....very, very unhappy about having to go over that trim one more time....not looking forward to it at all. Austin's carpet is ready to go in...whenever I get that trim done :-/

Went looking for new bedroom furniture for us because we are going to give Austin's set to the girls instead of trying to repaint it and give Austin our dresser. We were so excited to find this Mission style set by Broyhill, but were so disappointed when we actually saw it because it just wasn't in my opinion quality made...very chincy and I wasn't paying that kind of money for chincy...I don't buy furniture very often...in fact the set we have now is the set we got when we got married 18 years ago....I wanted something that would last, so since we were in Amish country we went looking around and found this Amish store that had this really nice Mission style set...I get it in the stain color I want, in the style I want...I even get the nice mission style fixtures on it I love so much....it was a bit of money...Merry Christmas to us I guess. This house remodeling is costing us a bunch of $$$...freaking me out. Anyways...

Well I have to get busy cleaning my house...I'm having a Party Lite party tomorrow night in my torn up house so I need to make some sense out of it so I'm not totally embarrased. Hope you had an amazing weekend! Have a great week!