Kirkham Prayer Board

I sure love our children! 
Over a year ago we started a prayer board to help the kids focus on what they needed to remember in prayers. We were getting into that repetitious rut!! 
I found a chalk board at Hobby Lobby (because sometimes you need it NOW and don't have time to craft something!). We started out with a side for Thank Thee, and a side for Ask Thee. We would write down any things we were happy/grateful for (sunshine, selling our house, good friends) on one side, and on the other, anything we wanted to pray for (a cousin battle cancer, help in school, a friend who was sad). We can refer to the board before family prayer for reminders. (Even I can't remember everything!)
Now we just jot down whatever comes to mind, a great time with family or friends, an illness, the rain watering the flowers, wind blowing away things, whatever and wherever on the board.
Yesterday @instajewels_ decorated the top for me. Since my migraine started 4 years ago, my familial tremor has become severe. My handwriting is atrocious. I love beautifying our home. This adds to it so much!  Thanks so much Julia!!!

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Moving Forward with Faith {Let's Get Busy Building}

We have been building a house since last fall.  I really need to be better at documenting it, so I decided to just start now and get words down before it leaves my mind.

So, let's see... I'll have a modge-podge of what we have been doing.  

For starters, we've been on this path of building for about 7 years.  When we added Delta and Emma to the family, we were instantly squished in our house.  Boys in one room, older girls in another room, and the three (3) little girls in another.  And babies have lots of needs.  Diapers, blankets, clothes, toys were everywhere.  Organization didn't look like it was organized.  

We had every room filled to overflowing.  We  had a full storage room with our food storage and seasonal items and hand-me-down and seasonal clothes. Plus kids have STUFF.  LOTS OF STUFF. 

The older girls moved out and did the adult thing, but we were still a bit squished. 

We had been trying to sell our home.  But because we had so much stuff, everyone wasn't able to see around it.  We tried selling several times.  When it didn't work out, we thought we weren't supposed to move.  Yet every time we took it to the Lord, we knew we were supposed to get into a larger house. 

Finally we decided to look for a rental.  We would move into that and empty our house since an empty house sells better.  Finding a rental took over 9 months.

A friend in our neighborhood had a rental that became empty, so we were able to move in there.  It seems HUGE!!  Ari and Jayden have their own rooms, as well as Katia.  

We don't have all of our things at the house.  We had put most of our seasonal things in storage.  Decorations, clothing, snow boots and other gear, and everything that is a less used item.  We did, however move our food storage with us.  

{{I've been playing a sort of GAME where I try and figure out how much of an item I need to buy before we move.  We have used lots of things in the past 14 months, and luckily haven't had to purchase a ton of food and other grocery items. That was so helpful when we were making two (2) house payments!}}

This whole process has been a blessing.  We have been able to go through some items and declutter!  Hooray for getting rid of things!!!  We also are able to see how big we need/want rooms to be.  It's helped us to know what rooms need to be larger, smaller, or are just fine how they are.  Ideas have come to mind while we are working on the house.  For example, we have decided to ask others about our placement of light switches.  Some rooms are easy to figure out, such as bathrooms and bedrooms.  Those go right inside the door.  Other rooms are harder to figure out.  Like the kitchen!!!  

Now that spring is upon us, hopefully we will be so busy getting the house done!!!

I hope that anyone with great ideas will share them with us.  Then we can find which ideas work for our family.

I am so excited to share our adventures!

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Forgetfulness

Wednesday is my temple day.  It's also my errand day.  I usually go run a few errands then head to the temple.  Inn the winter I can get the groceries first, then get to the temple when it isn't as busy.  This week I decided to go first, then do running around.  It was pretty good.  The session wasn't very big, and I was able to sit by a super nice sister.  I even stayed awake through it all. (Yeah, shouldn't be shocking, but in the last 6 months it's become pretty hard for me to get through the day.) 
Well, I then went to see what I could get done before lunch.  But hey, I forgot the coupons for a few thins.  I decide to go get groceries on the way home.  As I was getting ready to go in, I realized I forgot my family name at the temple.  It wouldn't have been a big deal, but that name needed sealing to her parents, and I didn't want to forget. I drove back to the temple to grab the name.  I remembered  an errand I could run on the way home. 
I finally got home and had lunch.  I made sure I had all I needed to go out again.  Went to grab Julia a birthday present.  Went to find what I thought she would like.  I know what she was talking about around Christmas, and decided that would be the thing.  It took a few stops to  find just the thing.  There were a few other things to get, so grabbed them as I could.
Got home and discovered that I had forgotten a few things!!!  Ugh!  Now I just have to try and check the list next time I go out. Pin It