Catch up

Now for some fun catch-up pictures of life in general!

2 weeks ago our new church blessed us with a grocery shower. We were quite surprised and thrilled to say the least. It was so fun to open everything!

We have a big church but they were very generous! 

Emily sitting in front of the heater. This is "her" spot!

Eldon and Emily making pancakes. I barely know how anymore. What a great problem to have!

My bookworm! Makayla is 6.5 and in second grade. She just finished the Little House series and is devouring the American Girls as fast as I bring them home from the library. Eldon and I both loved to read when we had time so I'm not surprised.

These 2 were preparing for a battle against the people who disobey God. There were Israelites in Gideon's army. Can you tell where we are in our Bible reading?

Ethan is almost 10 months old. Where has time gone?!! I have seen him standing here looking up the ladder several times. I hope he doesn't try it.

Last week this poor guy was sick. Fever for 3 nights, barely slept and grouchy as good be. Teething, I said.

After 3 days of not being able to keep his fever under 100*, even with Tylenol every 4 hours we knew we had to do something. After our fabulous Dr's in Harrison I was dreading the process of finding a new one. But, God led us to someone we loved right away. Poor guy had double ear infection. He is doing much better now, thanks to antibodies and numbing drops!

Saturday night pizza with my mom and dad. It is SO fun to have our children interact with grandparents on a regular basis. 

My instant pot is my newest favorite thing in the kitchen. I've made yogurt and eggnog in it.  Meat, potatoes, stew, and boiled eggs. If I need a big kettle I can just set the insert on the stove because it's stainless steel!

She "broke" her leg so Melissa put in in a splint.

I've been staying busy doing what moms do, and school of course. Every Tuesday morning I take the children to story time at the library then we do our grocery shopping. I enjoy it, some weeks more then others :) . 

Eldon has been helping dad around the farm a lot. They've built a dock, dug in the mud with their tractors, and there's always eggs to pack when you have 19,000 chickens! His biggest project has been working in our shed. He built himself a lovely tool bench and shelves and organized all his tools. I couldn't have done a better job and I love organizing!

The next few weeks will bring some major changes. After taking 3 months off from nursing, Eldon will be taking his first travel job in Brownwood, Tx. He starts there February 1. It is 2.5 hours from dads but he has 3 days off every other weekend so at this point we are planning to come back at least that often. Pretty handy to have a house on wheels! It looks like a very nice area with an amazing state park so we are excited to explore it.

I do want to encourage you to watch this video about Who God is when you have time. It's only 11 min long and has been a huge blessing to me this past week. 

Organizing..........

We have not fallen off the face of the earth. I have though, been relishing the slower lifestyle after a hectic several months of preparing to move! However, I've been busy, busy, busy with being a mom, homeschooling, and re-arranging something nearly every day! I think I'm almost done now. Maybe. I absolutely love to see how others organize their small spaces so here's ours!

This is under the dinette bench. Things I need very often. The safe, wrapping paper, cheese shredder, ect. It's a little pain to get to but lots of space here.

And this is underneath our bed. It looks like a big mess but it's really not :). Our extra school supplies, file cabinet, big coats, and a host of other things live here. I love how easy it is to lift the bed up and get to it. It also has outside access so Eldon stores some tools, hoses, and other man things in the front.

The cupboards above the couch hold our games, office supplies, 2 ways, lots of cords, and some medical items.

I am blessed to be married to a brilliant man that is also handy with fixing things. He hung the DVD/VHS player from the ceiling. So handy to have it out of the way! Also, Emily can't push the VHS back in every time it pops out to re-start it :) .

Underneath the CD player is where we keep the CD's, DVD's, a photo album with Christmas pictures from friends, children's memory books and often library books for Eldon and I. 

The medicine cabinet! This took some juggling but I finally figured out what we use most often and have that here!

The bathroom counter top. Since this photo, I bought an adorable little black basket that fits much better in the corner .

Under the couch is a huge drawer and I keep most of my big, awkward kitchen things in there. Note all the Tupperware. It makes me happy :) .

Another huge drawer under a dinette bench. cookbooks and extra containers. I cleaned this up and thinned it out since this photo as well.

My pantry. Seriously, Tupperware modular mates, people. See-through, airtight, lifetime warranty, and 40% off right now. Not that I'm trying to be all salesy or anything.........

This is 2 sets of drawers from Wal-mart that we stacked together. They saved my sanity because I could organize all the misc things! Junk drawer, utensils, dishrags, small containers, lids, saran wrap, cleaning supplies.........it's all in there!

My handy-dandy husband installed a shelf in this cupboard for me yesterday so that the sugar doesn't have to be squished by the flour. Normally I don't have this much extra but Christmas sales made me think I should stock up.

And my spice drawer. I know I'm weird but this always gives my heart a little thrill when I open it and see it all lined up in alphabetical order. Surely someone out there understands?!

Baking drawer. 

Silverware drawer. I do not like the dividers since it makes it hard to be efficient with the space but I haven't gotten the nerve to rip them out yet either.

Love my magnetic knife rack that I scored for almost free on Amazon reviews.

Above the stove.......this is the hardest one for me to keep organized because it's constantly changing. And it really deep and wide. So I just toss things up there and slam it shut. Then I open my spice drawer and gaze at it for a moment to sooth my mind.

Our bedroom does not offer much storage but we are surviving very well. There is a shelf above the bed we use. Only our Sunday clothes are on hangers. The shoe organizers on the inside of the closet doors are wonderful for all sorts of things. And note, my essential oil box. 

Eldon hung the heater up so he wouldn't be tripping over it all the time.

And this is his side.

This is our toys, all neatly picked up. No, it's not many. Yes, my 4 children survive just fine. In fact, they play together like never before! They do ride their bikes a lot too, as well as play on Grandma's trampoline, which happens to practically be our back yard for the time being.

Library books, school books, art supplies......less is better sometimes!

So that's how we've done it so far. I'd love to hear suggestions on how to be even more efficient from others:) .