Monday

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I’m currently sitting outside watching Daisy roll around in the dirt while Halle digs for dinosaur bones. Around me are empty pots, reminders of past plants and projects and things I never got around to doing. I see a bare spot where, Tracy the rose bush used to be. Travis cut her down this past weekend. She was sick and I couldn’t fertilize her anymore because she was within Daisy’s reach and I didn’t want her (Daisy) to eat it. I probably shouldn’t name my plants. It tends to confuse things.

The holly tree, bush thing (we never named it) is gone too. If we were going to stay we wouldn’t have cut it down but once it bloomed there would be hundreds of bees inside- so many that last year it sounded like the tree itself was buzzing- and you can’t really show a house that has a scary, bee infested tree. And even though I hated it when we moved in I really did come to love it. Especially in the winter when everything else was dormant. I loved the red berries blanketed in snow. Sigh.

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I suppose it’s normal to feel sentimental when so much change is happening. I have a little regret over things I didn’t get to, not much though. And right now most of the things that have to be done we’ve hired people to do. Since Travis and I can’t put in a driveway or repair the foundation or repair the wood trim that squirrels decided to chew their way into this past winter. It’s a lot of things and a lot of money. I’m thankful that the Lord has provided but it’s still stressful.

I’m looking forward to this all being over but I truly am thankful for all of the things God is teaching us along the way.

And now I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures of the kiddos.

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Amy

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To Scrape or Not to Scrape

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Selling our home is the most exciting and daunting thing we’ve undertaken in a while. When we moved in here I had a hard and fast list of the things we’d do and while we’ve done a lot of those things there are a few things we haven’t. I read an article about the biggest home buyer turnoffs and I’m afraid I might have to do some things I didn’t originally intend to.

I’ve taken a look at the area and while home prices are climbing, I need to be realistic about who our target buyer will be. It’s doubtful that a family of 5 is going to buy our house…that’s why we’re selling. Five people + a dog in 1,025 square feet is a tight fit. So realistically we could be looking at a single guy or a young couple that are looking for a starter home- or possibly an investor looking for rental property. At any rate the beautifully happy pink bedroom with the lime green curtain could be a turnoff for our target buyers so it looks like I’ll have to beige it up.

For those of you that are counting it will be the THIRD  time I’ve painted that room!

I will also paint the yellow playroom/Amanda’s room and I’m considering going with beige/greige for the master bedroom too. I figure that pops of color can come in with accessories and- if I have time- by painting furniture. Realistically though that’s a lot of work.

Clearing out and de-cluttering will be a challenge since we don’t have a garage and I’m not sure what I’ll do about that.

The bathroom is getting tiled, driveway repaved and some other exterior work, we have to paint the trim in the entire house and probably outside too.

A big question though is to scrape or not to scrape? The popcorn ceilings that is. Every time I watch and episode of House Hunters the (unrealistic) first time home buyers *always* point that out as a negative. I don’t mind painting the ceiling and I don’t want to impede the selling of the house but realistically that is a *lot* of work- which could lead to more work when you consider the possibility of popped nails and gouges and patching and sanding to make the ceiling smooth.

All while my arms are over my head.

I think I’ve talked myself out of it.

Like, for real…blech.

Which, when I think about it is why the ceilings are still like that since it was one of my top ten things to change when we moved in.

Okay, now to call and get estimates on things…

Happy, Happy, Happy

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Hmmm, is there such a thing as being too happy to write? If so I think it applies to me. Today I’m taking the kids to Chick-Fil-A after a week of Spring Break resting. It doesn’t really matter what we do after that because hanging out with my girls is so.much.fun.

I think I’d like to backtrack a bit here and explain why I’ve been mostly absent from blogging and social sites…

This past July I was doing what I had been doing for years. Blogging, trying to get people to read my blog, posting random thoughts on Facebook, anxiously waiting to see if anyone thought that what I wrote was witty and checking Facebook 85,000 times a day to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.  I began to feel restless and dissatisfied. The Chick-Fil-A kerfluffle really annoyed me and I found that the screaming of friend’s opinions in my stream of consciousness annoyed me- greatly. I realized that my kids never had my full attention. I realized that my husband never had my full attention. I realized that God never had my full attention. And *I* never had my full attention. The lure of counterfeit community clouded my brain constantly. And so I deactivated my Facebook account and blogged less. I heard no mandate from the Almighty that said it was something I had to do, I simply got tired of living in a way that was constantly distracted and I had to do something about it.

At first I was so relieved and relished my un-distracted time with my family. Then there was a pull back to FB…just to see what everyone was doing. Then I just wanted to move my pictures over to Photobucket but it took way longer than I thought it would and I started checking in to see what was happening- and I became very miserable very quickly. So, I had Facebook send an archive to me and deleted my account “with no hope of recovery”. That’s how they phrase it and I find it dramatically funny.

Being out of the FB world suddenly made me realize how really isolated I had become in life. And so this season with new friends and a new Life Group is just amazing and very special and I’m just so happy.  Today, I think that the most fun, the most rewarding things in my life spending time with my kids and husband- even if it’s just sitting on the couch watching TV with them.

Now, if this makes you feel defensive of FB, I’m sorry and that’s not my intent. I’m just excited that I feel free and happy. I’ve never, ever told anybody that they should be like me. I also don’t I mean to imply it. I think that everyone should want to be like Christ and that’s it. I’m simply explaining my absence. I have a Twitter account but Twitter isn’t addictive to me like FB was. Twitter is also how I find out what’s going on in my oldest daughter’s life- you know, if she’s sick or something, since that’s the only way I find out those things. I also have a Google+ thing but for the life of me I can’t remember to check it.

In short, I plan to continue to blog. I still love blogging as long as it doesn’t distract me. The Button Casa (the actual house) has some big, big changes coming and for the lovely people that have followed my blog forever I’m sure you’ll want to know about those. It would probably be easier to hit the “Follow Me” button in the side bar so you know when I’ve posted something.

Blessings,

Amy

A Good, Old Fashioned Button Update

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I was thinking about some different things this morning and realized that not only have I not blogged in weeks, It’s also been many moons since I gave my friends an old fashioned blog-style update. I miss those. So I’m going to write one today.

First off, all of the Tennessee Button girls have had the flu. For one full week we all had fevers, and not low grade fevers, high fevers. And for two full weeks we’ve coughed, hacked, sneezed, snorted and in general have been miserable. Thankfully most of that is behind us and we just have the remnants of coughs and general feeling weak/winded. Travis stepped up in knight-in-shining-armor form and worked all day, stopped at the store nearly every night, fetched takeout and soup, cooked, cleaned the kitchen, took care of Daisy and waited on three pathetic Button girls hand and foot. I’m going to make a pie for him. Mostly because he loves pie and I really don’t enjoy making it so it’s a sacrifice that will make him super happy.

Secondly, after many years (close to five, I think) of being in the same life group at church, Travis and I are making a change. We started out in a Franklin life group that was 5 minutes from our house then our group multiplied out and we went with the new group because they had no worship leader and the original group had about 18 worship leaders. Our group bounced around from meeting in Franklin to Bon Aqua to Fernvale and Fairview. All of those places are a bit of a drive for us and while we never minded the drive- it’s really a pretty one- it has really hindered our building relationships in Franklin. We’ve lived here for 6 1/2 years and we still have very few friends that we hang out with. So when our life group leaders told us they were taking a Sabbatical, we knew it was time for us to make a change. Shortly after that I was invited by a friend to join a group that is meeting in town for a series our church is calling “Restored” and she just happens to be a co-leader of a life group that meets five minutes from our house, seriously, I could walk there if I wanted to. Actually I have walked to the subdivision from here before just for exercise. Travis met with the guys from the new life group last night and came home really excited about that group. We go to our first life group with the new group on Wednesday and our last meeting with our old group Sunday. It’s amazing to me how quickly it’s all happened and how seamless the transition seems so far.

Thirdly, in the realm of the silly, Daisy occasionally will watch TV. Really. It all started with the Westminster Dog Show a few weeks ago. She couldn’t resist watching all of those dogs run around in a circle. She even watched the commentators.

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I couldn’t resist snapping a picture with my phone. Then a few weeks later, she heard some kittens meowing and was mesmerized.

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She’s so cute.

I’d love to tell super-cute kids stories but we’ve all been glued to the couch or chair for such a long time that there’s not much to tell. Oh, except that my girls have eschewed every toy known to mankind- except for Legos. I’m very confused by this because I never liked Legos. Mostly because I couldn’t build anything except a tower and I don’t like things I’m not good at. Actually, I shouldn’t be surprised that Chloe loves them because she thinks like Travis does. Halle is a mini-me so that’s the really surprising thing. I think it helps to have Chloe lead the way in this arena. They’ll play in the back room for hours, making up stories and new whosits and whatsits. Their creativity makes me smile.

I hope you enjoyed my little update. Now I’m off to run some long overdue errands- not too many though since I’ll likely collapse.

Fun Friday

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On this Fun Friday I’m making a recipe that I pinned to Pinterest. Actually, I’ve already made the oatmeal and it’s been eaten, the bowl is washed and I’ve made 15 things since then…now I’m getting around to writing about it.

I repinned this recipe for crockpot oatmeal a few weeks ago and had some apples that needed to be eaten so it seemed fated that I should make it.

Pinterest Oatmeal

I’d like to say, for the record, that this is not my picture and I forgot to take one. I’d love to give credit where credit is due so if anyone knows to whom it belongs I’d love to know.

Here are the directions:

Throw 2 sliced apples, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon in the bottom of the crock pot. Pour 2 cups of oatmeal and 4 cups of water on top. Do NOT stir. Cook overnight for 8 – 9 hours on low.

I happened to have 4 apples and I doubled the recipe which was really too much for the four of us but it would be great if you had a house full of guests and wanted to have a nice hot breakfast ready as soon as people get out of bed. I was mostly looking forward to waking up to the smell of apples and cinnamon and so were my kids. Overall, I thought it was pretty tasty although I don’t love oatmeal. The recipe says to not stir but I ended up with a blob of spices that had congregated in the middle of the crock pot and sort of stuck there so maybe next time I’ll put them in before the oatmeal. We had a nice hot breakfast on Saturday morning and Travis ate it for the rest of the week.

Have a great weekend!

Amy

Fun Friday

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On this beautiful, and chilly, Fun Friday I am actually going to have a Fun Friday. I’m not going to post kitchen pictures or great ideas- I have a great idea and I’m going to go live it. See, Travis has to work all day. He used to have these kinds of days all the time at his last job. Thankfully, this is the first one we’ve had with his new company in almost a year! Which makes this the perfect Gilmore Girls Button Girls movie night. If you’ve ever watched Gilmore Girls then you know that movie night is a big deal…and here are the rules.

1. There must be copious amounts of food.

2. It must all be takeout- nothing homemade.

3. There must be candy and cookies and mountains of things I wouldn’t normally eat.

4. We must watch a movie. There’s no watching Gilmore Girls on a movie night.

Tonight our movie will be The Princess Bride. Which our resident Farm Boy fetched for us a couple of days ago.

Farm Boy Travis has predicted that he’ll come home to three girls ready to throw up.

I hope you have a Fun Friday too :)

Today…

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Today I took Daisy and the girls to the dog park.

There was standing, muddy water.

Dogs jumped and rolled in the standing muddy water.

Muddy dogs jumped on me.

Daisy avoided me.

Halle got stuck in a tree.

It was lovely being outside.

The End