I am so thrilled to have Chrissie Grace from In His Grace with us today. She is wife, a mother to 4 adorable children, and an artist. She made the pillow in Lauren’s room and I have admired her blog and her work ever since.
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When Melissa asked me if I'd like to write a guest-post for Mothers Day coming up, I was honored!
Being a mother is one of (if not the greatest) joys in my life. And then I read the line-up of the other mothers. Seriously, I have to go after Shawni from 71 Toes? She has it all...she is like Mom of the Year...no literally, she is!
I got a little nervous and insecure...little ol'me with my flaws and my never-ending mistakes. Who am I to talk about motherhood? Let's screech all that to all a halt right now.
And so I come to #1 on my top 5 list of things I've learned by Becoming a Mother:
1. Don't compare yourself to anyone else...
It starts when we're pregnant...we feel bad if we can't breastfeed. We look at our neighbor's 8 month old walking and get embarrased when our 18 month old isn't yet.We feel pressured to buy our daughter cute Gymboree clothes to fit in when we can't afford it and have been blessed with a set of hand-me-downs.
You know the drill... we compare ourselves (and our children) to what "everyone" else has or is doing. What an unfortunate deal to pass on to our kids. Let's stop that nonsense now. Let's teach our kids that God makes everyone different for our reason.
There is so much beauty in that.
our first guest poster for the week, is Shawni! She is a mom to 5 and blogs at 71 Toes. In her own words, her “blog has become a way to share photography and parenting ideas, to promote the joy of motherhood, and has been a huge comfort as we have dealt with various issues involving our daughter's syndrome diagnosis.”
I grew up with stars in my eyes about motherhood. I daydreamed about my future family on a continual basis. I pictured my children all lined up in a row, perfectly groomed with matching outfits. Their hair would be perfectly in place and of course there would never be any arguing.
Just a whole lot of nothing and everything going on around here. I always forget how darn busy the end of the school year is!
Happy Wednesday! Here are some deals that caught my eye, especially with Mother’s Day and some summer birthdays coming up:
* Best Buy’s deal of the day: Just Dance 3 for $13.99 w/ free ship
* Michael’s has an add’l 25% off your purchase coupon, including sale items!
* IPAD Leather Case With Stand
*Crate and Barrel has their Analon Frittata Pan for $19.95.
* Taste of Home is having their $5 cookbook/kids book sale
* get a free quart of Clark + Kensington paint at Ace Hardware this Saturday
*10 ft HDMI cable
*did you see that Sonic will have shakes for 1/2 prices after 8 p.m, every night, all summer long?? Is that a good thing or a very bad thing?
Feel free to add any other deals you know of in the comments~
It’s flower season! It can be overwhelming walking into nurseries and seeing rows and rows of beautiful flowers.
My number one question in emails is: what is that paint color? Sooooo, I updated my FAQ. Did you even know I had a FAQ section? I’m working on it!
You can click each the picture for more info. As you can see, we’re not paint snobs. I think we’ve tried every brand there is! We’ve been through a lot of paint together, haven’t we? :)
Hi all! I am in a major funk. It’s raining, I’m in the middle of making reservations and plans for our summer vacation, calling around for the best deal on new tires for our van, hating how expensive everything is, and the day is half over. I almost forgot I had a blog this week :)
Can we talk ceiling fans in the bedroom?
I know some of you have strong opinions about them, and I don’t think many are pretty, but when I began to tackle the master bedroom, I asked my husband if there was anything in there he had strong feelings about. He said as long as the ceiling fan stayed, he trusted me with the rest. I would love a pretty light fixture in there, but we love air flowage in there too, especially in the summer. So, the ceiling fan isn’t going anywhere.
I remember Nate and Oprah talking about this. Why leave your most cherished cards or notes in a box or scrapbook? Frame a couple (or a whole wall full!) so they can bring a smile when you walk past. I told you I would tell the story of the note on my gallery wall in the bedroom.
May 30, 1995: Were were seniors in high school and we were beginning to like each other. I should note that we went to rival high schools. One afternoon in the middle of Mr. Hansen’s government class, the office runner comes in with an armful of lilacs and said, “Melissa Anderson..these are for you.” I could feel my face turning red and my heart racing as my classmates ooooOOOoooooooohhed. I read the note attached. It simply said, “Have a peachy day! Hobbit” (that was his nickname in high school) It completely made my day, my month, my year. That he:
- remembered that I loved lilacs
- came on to enemy territory to pick the lilacs
- wrote a note on a piece of secretary’s scrap paper
- talked her into looking up my room number and having them delivered.
That’s why I love it when lilacs come out every spring and the first note he ever sent me is my favorite. Do you have a favorite note or card or picture hiding away that you could pull out and frame? 
Wow, we haven’t shared deals in a long time. How about today??
* 4/20 wanted to add this one: get $2 of free mp3 credits at Amazon! follow this link, then enter code MOMROCKS to add it to your account.
*If you click here: Free Shutterfly Book you’ll get a free 20 page hardcover 8X8 shutterfly photo book. It can be for existing accounts, or new accounts and you have to use it by May 21. You do have to pay shipping though, so keep that in mind. Think Mothers Day!
*Old Navy is having their stuff & save online and in stores. Click here for a coupon for an additional 30% off with your card, or 20% if you don’t have one.
*There is a big home clearance at Target from the line they brought out at the beginning of the year.There wasn’t a ton left, but I scored these lampshades this morning for my boys’ room for $5.98 each!
I have to laugh when I get an email or a comment saying, “you are so lucky to be married to such a handy guy” or “We’re just not handy around the house~we could never do these kinds of things.”
When we were married, we knew nothing about diy or home repair. NOTHING.our first apartment: what in the heck is wrong with this shower head?
our first apartment: what in the heck is wrong with this shower head?
the last of the peeps. My kids’ favorite thing is to microwave them for 12 seconds and eat them with a spoon. I have never been a fan of them in any form.
My parents and sister came to visit! Oh, I miss them so much. When they come, it’s like Christmas for us all. 
I loved looking through each of your spring projects that were little money, little time. It’s fun to get to know you all a little better and see your crazy creative skills. Here is just a sampling from the party:
I wanted to display some favorite pictures in our master bedroom, but did not want to spend $20 a pop on gallery frames with mats. I checked on buying mats separately, or even cutting my own from mat board, but I wanted to keep it very simple and very inexpensive. here’s what I did:
1. buy 11X14 frames from the Dollar Tree. I just ordered a pack of 10 online and then picked them up in the store.
2. find the least dented part of a piece of white posterboard and trace around the glass, then cut it out. I took a mat with a 4X6 cutout from another picture I had and traced the 4X6 opening in the center.
3. cut the shorter 2 edges with my handy cutter, 
4. then use a metal ruler and an exacto knife for the longer edges. Use cardboard underneath so you don’t slash anything up!
5. Insert your favorite pictures behind the posterboard.
6. Love that you spent around $10 framing some of your favorite memories. :)
(still trying to figure what to do with that alarm clock)
breakdown:
poster board from Kroger~I used 4 because mine were pretty dented up. $2.76
4X6 pictures (5, then I framed a favorite note from him) $1.45
Total: $10.56
yesssssssssssssssss. :) You could completely stay under $10 if you found a couple of clean, undented posterboard for 2/$1 at the dollar store. Mostly, the savings was in the frames.Thank you Dollar Tree!
Hello! We are coming off of spring break/Easter weekend and it is hitting hard. It was such a nice break, and I’m slowly trying to get back into things. A few tidbits from the past few weeks:
Lots of hard boiled egg sandwiches around here!
Do you remember this print that was FREE by the side of the road last summer?
I decided it would be a perfect chalkboard for our master bedroom. It had a crack and big chip, but nothing
a little spackle wouldn’t fix.
As I said last week, this isn’t my best project. I had high hopes, but it just didn’t turn out exactly like that picture in my head. But it’s okay~it’s good for you to see that not all diy projects turn out “look at this, it’s amazing and soooo easy!” :) And do you know how you pore and labor over something and that is ALL that is on your mind and it seems that every detail matters, but then once you get it up in the room, you realize it’s not as bad as you thought? And I’m NOT re-doing it, at least not this year. I’m happy with it for now, and maybe forever? I’ll try to tell you what I wish I would have done as we go along here.
We had this piece of pegboard downstairs from the previous owners and I was going to use it in the garage or down in the office, but I thought.."hey…..that could be a free headboard.” I cut a little off the edge to make it work as a queen headboard. If you buy a sheet of pegboard at Lowes or Home Depot, bring your measurements, and they should be able to cut it to size right there for you.
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