What was that, Lord?

This weekend has been enlightening, in all areas. FYI: this won't be a very entertaining post. :) We have just begun our 2nd week of school. I can't believe that I can actually say those words. I have waited my whole life to do nothing more than be a wife to a wonderful man, a mother to beautiful children, and to spend my days at home educating them. I am living my dream! Our first week of school was full of short little "motivating" talks. :) These included things such as "slouching on the couch and mumbling does not count as obedience when I ask you to say the Pledge of Allegiance" and "You may do legos, but only AFTER your school is done". For this year our schooling is only focused on Silas, who is 4. If Caden wants to chim in and answer a question, or sit and listen as well, then he is MORE than welcome, but we have chosen to not push "book work" with him. I also felt that Silas would grasp a lot more if the two of us were working one-on-one, rather than slowing things down so that the other children could be involved. I pull out special toys, or projects for the younger two to work on while we are doing school. So far so good, except for one thing. I HATE my school room! :) The fact that it's in the basement is so hard. Growing up, we did most of our school work at the kitchen table. Mom could start dinner, or clean up lunch, or make us deliciously homemade chocolate chip cookies while teaching us at the same time. Haha! How convenient is that!? Having to carry children down the steps, take the phone down, extra toys, etc is such a pain. The other reason I hate my school room right now is because it is still full of furniture that I am refinishing. I do realize, however, that it would be SO nice to have all of the books and worksheets down there instead of doing the daily "clearing off the table" ritual. Oh well. We'll get there. Painting the laundry closet over the weekend really put me in the mood to paint some more! Today I am working on Paisley's room. She has had the same furniture, paint color, and curtains for 20 months! I'm getting tired of it. :) I decided to challenge myself and have decided to NOT use pink. I want it to be very feminine, but a little less "baby girl nursery" than it currently is. So I've been perusing the internet for inspiration. I picked out my colors, got them approved from the Mr., made my trip to Lowe's this morning and have spent this afternoon painting. We're having a house full of people over on Saturday and my goal is to have it done by then. Can't even tell you how excited I am about it! :) Can I also just vent for a second??? Hmm....do you ever just wish that people who weren't in your position, or weren't called to the things that you were called to, would stop sharing their opinion about what you're doing? Seth had shared some things about the direction we feel God is leading us with some "older" people the other day and was completely shocked by their responses. Negative, frustrating, God-less opinions. It doesn't deter us from heading in the original direction, but does sadden us that there are people out there with that mind set. And oh.my.word. the amount of people who think that I am responsible for making my husband "liberal" (not following the things that Bob Jones stands for). AGH! If only they knew that it was me begging him to wear a tie on Sunday morning, or that it was me asking if we could attend a church that only sang hymns, or that it was me who kept asking "are you sure we're allowed to..." I am stuck in legalism to the enth degree, folks! :) I just wish others would realize that. Wishful thinking, I guess. Anyway, back to the title of this post. God has been opening our eyes to others needs. Whether they be relational, or physical, or financial. We just have so much... He was slamming doors in the basement on Saturday and when I asked what was wrong his response was "I'm just so sick of this house, and this mess. We need more room, and we need more land, and we need our house to sell, and we need..." I had the fleeting thought of "I'm so glad you're here today, and have to live the entire day in this house, with this many children so you know why I am DYING to move" before God changed BOTH of our hearts on Sunday. We....have.....so.....much. The real problem is that we have too much. We have too many toys to trip over, too many clothes to wash, too many dishes to pile on the counter, too many rubbermaid containers full of decorative accessories that I don't know what to do with! :) It's insane. We all have closets....the basement alone has 5 of them. They are literally packed full. As of Friday you couldn't even put both feet on the ground in the garage. And yet I'd be willing to bet that there is someone in my church, or down the street, or a friend of yours that would give anything to have the extra clothes that my boys can no longer wear that I am sick to death of sorting through and trying to find a place for. I feel like I'm rambling on and on, but the point is we've been thinking a lot. If living in this house, or driving an older car means we can be more of a blessing to others, than why in the world would we do anything different? We'd do it differently if we were focused on ourselves, that's for sure. I love nice things. You have no idea how much I adore my Coach, or my Louis, or my Volvo. But if I love them too much, then I can't love you as much. I don't know....just my thoughts, I guess. Sorry to bore you. :( I guess I just wanted all of this written down so that someday I can look back and remember. I promise the next post will be more entertaining. In the meantime....our air conditioner broke yesterday and we've been relying on fans. :) Seth is so excited to see what the electric bill will be like this month, while I'm watching the thermostat in the kitchen hit 90 degrees. I have a whole new respect for the people who go without A/C every day! :)