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.

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.

Amy

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…

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

First up is this fabulous lamp-

I thought I’d show it from a couple of different angles. If you look closely enough you might be able to make out an image of me in my pj’s taking the photo. Ahem.

I should back up for a bit of back story. The weekend of Trav’s birthday we (all of the Buttons including Daisy and Amanda’s boyfriend, Daniel) headed to Birmingham to have a late Christmas with my parents and also to make sure they were okay since my dad had been in the hospital and my mom was sick. It was kind of a lot to deal with. And putting a birthday party, Christmas and hospital stay in the same sentence is weird but we’d already planned the party. Anyway, after we’d established that everything was okay and were heading back home, I asked my mom if she had any end tables that she didn’t want anymore. Which she did and was kind enough to give to me. I’m not posting pictures of that yet because I haven’t decided how to refinish it. For now it holds this lovely lamp- which was quite the bargain.

A couple of weeks ago I decided that a shopping trip with my girls was exactly what we needed. We planned to go to Target (x2 since there are 2 in town), the mall, Pier One (for me since the girls hate that store), and TJ Maxx. I’m not sure at what point we ran out of steam but it was before we’d hit the mall. Chloe and I were tired but my little powder keg of energy (Halle) still wanted her mall trip. I appeased her by offering to go to American Signature Furniture instead- it’s one of her favorite places. As we looked all over the store, and I do mean *all over*, I noticed that there were quite a bit of items with 75% off tags. I didn’t pay much attention to any of it because I didn’t plan on buying anything. A little later the most gorgeous sunset I’ve seen in a while caught my eye. I gasped and pointed it out to the girls and we walked over to the window for a closer look- and I stood right next to a beautiful, mercury glass lamp that had a 75% off tag on it. I looked at the price tag and even though I hate math I knew that 75% off of $100 is $25- SOLD! I’m not sure if American Signature is still having that clearance sale but if your in the market for lamps or accessories you might want to check it out.

The moral of the story here is that one should always take time to appreciate a sunset.

Next up is a fabulous quilt-

I found this a while ago, maybe in autumn? I was shopping at Target and happened upon a clearance end cap where this lovely quilt was marked down from $79.99 to $23.98! It’s king size and we have a queen size bed but we’ve used a king size comforter for a few years and it’s been just what we needed for sleeping harmony- since Travis tends to hog the covers.  It also solved the problem we have every winter where our room looks like we’re a couple of poor college students huddled under whatever old comforter we drag out of the closet. This keeps us nice and toasty since I put it under our current comforter and it keeps me cool when the weather is warmer since I can take the comforter off the bed and not be embarrassed about it.

As an added bonus the girls love it too.

January is bargain season, happy hunting!

Better Homes and Gardens

This turquoise would be fun in Chloe or Halle’s room.

Better Homes and Gardens

I love the pattern on this headboard.

Better Homes and Gardens

I don’t actually even remember pinning this one but apparently I was in a super fancy mood.

Soft Surroundings.com

I’m mostly a jeans and t-shirt sort of gal but I think that every girl occasionally likes to slip into a little black dress, pumps, and red lipstick. This is the bedroom version of that.

So, out of the four do you have any favorites? Today my favorite is #4 but that could change tomorrow.

I quickly decided that was the most ridiculous activity ever.

I mean, kudos to the mom that doesn’t mind running to a garden store to pick up a 50 pound bag of sand, is thrilled at the prospect of having a sand pile in the backyard for all of the neighborhood cats to discover and is completely fine burying her can opener outside.

I’m not that girl.

I did like the idea though and came up with something that was more practical for us. I used a Costco sized (and super cheap) box of salt that I had on hand, a rubbermaid container with a lid, and small toys.

When I put everything together I explained to Halle what an archaeologist does. Then we came up with a story about the ancient city of Fritata that once was located in the jungle but got swallowed up by the desert leaving behind their treasures for us to discover. Then as we uncovered each item we imagined what they were made from and what they might have been used for.

It might have gotten a bit silly.

Then we took pictures and it got a bit hammy

We discovered treasures.

Then we took them back to our camp and dusted and cataloged them.

Then we rejoiced over our finds and decided that Halle’s picture should hang in a museum next to them.

We did this activity again today because Halle loves it and also because she’d rather do anything if it gets her out of doing math. And I realized that as she begged me to tell her a story about the ancient civilization of Bajunga that this is the most fun for her because we spend time together making up stories.

That’s what homeschool is about for us.