Heaven is For Real

This is one of my favorite books!

 Written by Todd Burpo:

A little boy's astounding journey of his trip to Heaven and back.  
Here is a description of the book: "A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven.

Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle."

Organizing The Home

I've been doing challenges over the last year or so trying to make our house a home. Some things have worked out really well, and others have not. One thing I've learned is not every method works for everyone! I like to visit other blogs to get ideas and of course Pinterest, but right now I'm concentrating on digging deep and figuring out what really works for my family. With a son that will be heading to college this time next year, our space is changing quite a bit. I do believe that eventually we will downsize and leave our "forever home" as it will be too large for us. I've done many different styles of challenges. I started with A Bowl Full of Lemons, iheartorganizing, and Flylady. Not necessarily in that order. I actually wanted something different from Flylady to switch it up a bit, so I started searching the internet. I came across this awesome blog, iheartorganizing! I continue to check out Jen's blog every chance I get and always look for any new posts! Jen's blog led me to Toni Hammersley's blog, ABFOL! Toni also has several Facebook groups for support and that's been pretty cool! I'm hoping to continue to upload some before and after pictures of my spaces. Some areas still need some work, some areas need a lot of work and some areas have remained organized since I've done them.

Single Chocolate Chip Cookie

For those days when you just want to make one cookie! Here is the recipe:
1 TBSP white sugar
1 TBSP brown sugar
3 drops of vanilla
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup flour
2 TBSP chocolate chips
Microwave 40-60 seconds in a cup or a bowl. Single serving deep dish chocolate chip cookie!!
Yes, please!!!!
***This recipe is not my own, but there was no direct link to where it originated***

Organizing The Kitchen

Wow, looking back at the first trials of organizing my kitchen I can see many things I've changed. It was sort of a trial and error. It's hard to see in some of these small pictures, too! Since I started doing this organizational stuff and tracking my progress with pictures, I'm discovering different ways to do things. I love being able to talk to others who are organizing too to swap ideas and try new ways of arranging things. 

I suppose since my blog is being overhauled, it's time for new pictures to go along with it. Anyone have any suggestions? I'd love to hear them!

In Honor of National Chocolate Day

The Master Bedroom After Take 2

This is a newer version of the Master Bedroom. I like change and since I haven't been able to get in there and paint, yet, I switched out to our Spring/Summer comforter and did a little more purging. I did put a few frogs on my nightstand, but we aren't called the Hopping House for no reason :D

The Drawers

These are the best pictures I could load as most came out too dark to see. The first picture is of my nightstand drawer-it was full of stuff. I purged about 90% of what was in there. The other drawers were overflowing with clothes and I purged a lot there. I refolded Hubs shirts so he could see what he has (I have to hang mine)

Master Bedroom After - The First Time

The Master Bedroom After I organized the first time. I did change the comforter and did another purge just recently. I am hoping to show the drawers, however, the lighting wasn't very good. 

Master Bedroom

I spent more time in my Master Bedroom than I thought I would have to. I also dumped all the dresser drawers and nightstand drawers and did a big purge, then I organized it all. I forgot to take before pictures of the drawers, but do have after pictures. 

My Craft Room

This room quickly became a dumping ground while I was working on other parts of the house. Pretty hard to get creative in a hot mess like this...I knew I what I wanted, but I also knew my budget was $0.00, so I went about utilizing what I had to make this space usable. 

As you can see, it's not the most beautiful make-over, but I wanted to show that you can organize a space without spending a fortune on supplies. I am not finished with this space, but it's a great start!

The Pantry

This is my starting point for my pantry

First thing I did was empty everything out

More stuff coming out 

I had to start putting stuff in the Dining Room 

Even more stuff moved to the Dining Room 

Here is the Empty Pantry-Perfect time to scrub it down

Here is that gorgeous Turquoise color I'm in love with! I repainted the shelving white.

Here is the first go round. As you can see,
I'm not the best as creating a perfect flow. 

Here is a newer version as I tried to make
things flow a little better. I love my labels-cut
them out with my Cricut using Chalkboard Vinyl.
I use my Chalk Ink Pens to label :)

Kitchen

This was my first attempt at organizing 

This was a result of being sick and not doing my
normal routines :(

This is my 2nd attempt at organizing my Kitchen. I will show my
lazy suzan and my pantry in another post. Since I love switching things up
a bit, I repainted the frames on the side of my fridge from Green (since my walls are
Green) to Turquoise. I love the way it pops. Now I have some accents in my Kitchen to
match the color of my Pantry! 

Hot Messes to Organized Spaces

I started the Organizational 14 Week Challenge through A Bowl Full of Lemons. You can find Toni's site here http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/
I do really well on some weeks and not so great on others. I will attempt to show you the before and after pictures of each space we do. After this challenge is completed, I will do another 14 week challenge!