The Mom Cave: A Metamorphosis

This is what most of my house was covered in when it was built in 1971...dark, ugly panelling! I had what must be one of the ugliest laundry rooms ever! It is a real room, with a door, and that door had to stay shut at all times. I think it's pretty obvious why the door needed to stay shut!
But it is a laundry room not a closet, and I thought it might have some potential...at least the potential not to be quite this ugly!

So, goodbye to 1971...

...and hello to the new and improved Mom Cave!

My friend and I primed and painted the panelling and cabinets. The paint color is a custom blend we like to call "Magical Mist". It was a mixture of some baby blue and fern green paint that I had sitting around the garage.

The whole project was done on a very tight budget. I already had the curtains, and I printed the botanicals on the computer. I even spray painted old picture frames for them! My biggest splurge was the mirror that I used to cover the panel box...and it was about $20 at Walmart.

I bought the big basket at Walmart on clearance for $7.00 and the little basket came from Big lots for $2.00. The flowers on the wall hung on my front door last spring, so it is being recycled. I decided to cover my sink with a piece of plywood because we really don't use the sink very much, and if I do need to, I can just slide the plywood off. I used some more leftover curtains to make the skirt that hides the trashcan.

I love the way my laundry room turned out, and now, we keep the door open!

The Man Cave

As you probably know, we always either have a project going on, just finished one, or are dreaming up the next one. Frank has been great about working on the house, and 90% of the changes have been what I wanted. I do the dreaming, he (and his dad) do the work. It was finally time for Frank to get one of his wishes. We finally fixed up the Man Cave! As usual, I have no "before" pics which is a real shame. Some of you have seen the "after" that came before the big transformation, but hardly anyone has seen the REAL before from when we first moved in. Let's just say, it keeps getting better! The screen is "where the magic happens" in this room, and I got it for Frank for Christmas last year.

Frank and his dad hung pine ceilings which I think are BEE YOO TI FUL! Frank did the decorating which for now consists of flags that represent his two favorite sports teams that he got another Christmas.

The furniture is the set we got back in 1996 but is still in really good shape and quite comfy. There is a good chance you either had the same set or know someone who did.

More of the purty ceiling. Behind that door is storage and mechanical stuff like the a/c unit and the hot water heaters.

The carpeting consists of rugs from Walmart.com that were only $20 each! Great bargain and definitely the most economical way we could carpet the floor.

On the other side of that door is Jake's room. I couldn't take pics because it was not up to my cleanliness standards. Frank built Jake's room the same way as the Cave, and he also has a bathroom and a huge closet.


We have already watched several movies down in the Man Cave, and hope to use it a lot. The big chair is Frank's, and the little one is supposed to be mine...but I much prefer napping on the love seat while Frank watches a movie! Keep an eye out for my upcoming post on the "Mom Cave".

Standing In His Presence

WOW! I know I've said over and over how much I love Lakeside Baptist Church, but I can not adequately express how much I love my church home. Tonight was a very special night. Our church family voted unanimously to call Greg Moon and his family to Lakeside as our new Associate Pastor. I have seen for months the human side of a monumental search to find the right man for Lakeside, but tonight I saw God's hand in choosing the right man.

We met the Moon's several weeks back when they came for their first interview. We had the privilege of having them in our home for dinner. Frank and I liked them as soon as we met them. We spent several hours getting to know them, and we really wanted them to be the ones. Frank was even more sure after Greg's interview. He said that he didn't seem to try to give them the answers the committee wanted to hear, but they both just spoke from their hearts and it was obvious they were a team.

Greg came back for a second interview, which further solidified to Frank that he was the man, and then they came to spend some time with the youth that Saturday night. We just sat back and watched Greg interact with the kids. When we got in the car, Jacob told us how much he liked him. In fact, Jacob said Greg was almost as cool as he is. So there you go, it just had to be!

Sunday we got to see the rest of our church fall in love with this family. Frank said they could just see what we saw, but I knew that our church hasn't seen the half of it yet! Tonight, our church service was devoted to hearing God's will. And it wasn't a whisper...it was a shout! We sang the song "Standing on Holy Ground" and it was amazing. I know that there were angels all around, because we were definitely standing in His presence. There were tears and hands raised all over the church, along with shouting and pure joy.

All I could think was how unbelievably happy I am to be home. Lakeside is our home. And I am thrilled that the Moon family will be here with us soon. In our church there is a banner that reads "The church is at peace." Peace, joy, and home...thank you God for my church, my pastors, and my church family.

We Are Weak, But He Is Strong!

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

Yum Yum Tuesday

Frank and I decided to reschedule "Date Night" to Sunday afternoon because he has so much going on with school and I'm worn out from my school and the kids will be playing Laser Tag Sunday afternoon so we have the day to ourselves. Since it's not Date Night, I got a wild hair and decided to cook something new to make it a special Tuesday anyway.

Sunday afternoon I found a great website with WW friendly recipes. www.skinnytaste.com I saw a good sounding recipe for feta chicken and decided to try it for dinner tonight. I actually did some tweaking and expanding and I hope it turns out as delicious as it smells. Paige is already turning her nose up at the thought of artichoke hearts and Jacob is wary of the spinach, but I'm looking forward to a Greek inspired dinner. Opa!

A New Way of Doing Things

This past week I have been blessed to see things done in a different way. Our church is in the process of doing two things that can cause a lot of problems...start a building project and hire an associate pastor. Where I have come from, these two things were not done well, and things were done behind closed doors, and a lot of people were hurt because of this. Thank God we are at a new place that does things in a much different way.

We are about to undertake a building project. Our church needs a bigger sanctuary, a dedicated fellowship hall, and a place for the youth. After much prayer, the church has decided to start with the youth. WOW...that decision proves that our church has a heart for its kids. Another cool thing that I've found out about our church is that it doesn't believe in debt. But what has perhaps impressed me the most is that the members are making these decisions. The committee has done the leg work, but our church had a "town hall" meeting to discuss the project.

Tonight we had another town hall meeting. This one was to allow the church to ask the candidate for the associate pastor any questions they had. Frank is on the search committee so I know how much work has gone into finding the right man. But tonight, I got to see God's handiwork. Next week, we will vote. Our pastor isn't hiring a youth pastor. Our committee isn't hiring a youth pastor. We, the members will vote whether or not to hire him. But God chose the man for our church. How awesome is that?!

Once again, I am so glad we are at Lakeside. It's not the church we chose, it's the one God chose for us. I sure didn't like how He sent us there, but I know now that it was all for good.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to those that are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

Weekend Wrap Up and Date Night 3.0

This weekend Frank's parents came up. He and his dad worked all day for two days on the media room that the basement is becoming. They got most of it done, so Frank only has to trim it out and put down the floor. And then it's time to put the electronics back together and my favorite part...decorate! While they were working downstairs, his mom and I went to Senoia, GA to the Southern Living Idea House. It was beautiful, and makes me want to do so much more with my own house. Frank doesn't need to know that or he will never let me leave the house again!

I did decide I am definitely redoing my laundry room during Fall Break. I've roped Sharon into helping me, and we think we can knock it out quickly. Frank has agreed to help me with the flooring. I don't want him to help with the rest of it, because I am going totally against his wishes with it. But it's the laundry room, so if it's a total failure, I can always just shut the door.

It was a nice, busy weekend, and I was really looking forward to jury duty this week. I know, that sounds crazy, but I liked the idea of not having to be anywhere until 9:00 and sitting around with nothing to do but read a book! I worked my tail off to get everything ready for a sub and to get my report cards ready in case I had to be out for several days, and then found out at 6 last night that I didn't have to go!

Instead of jury duty, I did get to go out with my sweet husband for our third date night. We went to Gray to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant. I chose Gray because I wanted to go to Ace Hardware to buy a baby gift. Ace Hardware? yep If you haven't been to their gift shop, you are really missing out. I had a ton of fun looking for a baby girl gift, but I don't know the baby's name so I was really limited. They have the CUTEST Christmas stuff for babies. I ended up getting these cute wooden dividers for the baby's closet. They have the sizes on them so you can separate the baby's clothes by size. I'm sure Amber and Brad will get tons of sweet clothes for their sweet baby girl, so I thought it would be a neat thing to have. I also got her some cutey-patootie socks and a sweet toy. I am going to keep looking between now and Saturday for some more pink and green things to put in her bag of gifts. I love shopping for baby girls!

Now I am just waiting for The Good Wife to come on and wishing I hadn't eaten so much Mexican food. I will be much better tomorrow...only 12 more pounds to go!