Saturday, March 28, 2015

Spring is here...and busy!

Spring is here, and with spring comes a busy schedule.  March has been a very rewarding month in our home.  Call me crazy, but at the beginning of the month I had many changes I wanted to make.  I wanted my time to be productive.

Why I didn't do this during a winter month when the regular schedule is a little less crazy, I have no idea.  Instead I waited for spring.


A few days before the end of February, I wrote down a project checklist in my planner.  I planned out my big picture, and then when I had free time, I would look at it, and decide which project I wanted to tackle.  Several of these items had been on my list forEVER!  I am happy to tell you I completed all of the items on my list.

The first project I accomplished was making a wall hanging for our dining room, involving a curtain rod, some shoe box lids, and scrapbook paper.


The next Saturday I created this wall decor for behind our bed in the master bedroom, using colored vinyl and my Cricut cutting machine. 


This saying is dear to our hearts because the congregational worship song at our wedding was "Be Thou My Vision", and will always be extra special to us.

For both of these projects, I had all of the supplies (I have had them for months in fact).  It took being intentional though to get them done.  My desire
 is to make my home a haven.

For the third Saturday of the month, I worked on reorganizing our paper filing system.  Let me tell you, I have been dreading this one.  I love to organize, but even to me this was a daunting task.  We still have several papers from before marriage, and several I have no clue what they are.  My mister helped explain a lot to me, and with his brains, and my organization, we reworked our filing system.  My favorite part- it is color coded.  


I primarily used the system over at Clean Mama, but we also went digital with several of our tedious papers (pay stubs, non paper-less bills, etc.).

I have had the extra time to do this crafting because my mister has been working extra- a lot extra!  While I struggle sometimes with missing him, we rejoice at this being an answer to prayer.  


For those of you who do not know, we are planning on going overseas to do missions work just as soon as we can.  Most missions agencies frown upon debt.  We do have some school debt, and praise the Lord for how He kept us from having to take out any more than we did.  If you read our Christmas letter, it is our prayer to be completely debt free by the end of 2016.

By our own strength, and regular scheduled hours, this goal is impossible for us.  We know that God is able though, and recognize that God provides in many ways.  One of those ways recently has been in giving the mister so many extra hours of work.  We praise the Lord also for some financial gifts we have received from a dear friend.

This past week we were able to pay off one of our loans.  I am overwhelmed by His goodness, and this was only possible because of His provisions.  All praise and glory goes to Him.

Because we work opposite schedules, and my mister has been working extra shifts on top of that, our time together has been limited.  I would be lying if I said I have had the right attitude through all of this.  I miss my husband.  


When we do get time together, we treasure it all the more.

The other night we had the entire afternoon/evening together and it. was. wonderful!  The weather was gorgeous, and so we packed a picnic and went to a local park we had not yet been to.  We had a blast sitting in the woods, relaxing in a hammock, walking around, and simply being together!



Notice the goose's tongue out in the picture where he is flying.

  

All this to say, while March has been extra busy, it has reaped some wonderful rewards--projects done in our home, a loan paid off, memories made together!


I trust you all have had a great March, and are looking forward to a new month.  We are looking forward to April because we have a beach trip planned this upcoming week!