Spring Cleaning

This morning my kitchen counters are covered in household cleaners. Why? Because today marks Day One of spring cleaning in the Birch household. Growing up, my mother never really had a set "spring cleaning" time, we just sort of kept things clean as we went. But me, I am obsessed with keeping things neat and clean....so I've decided that my family is going to have a set spring cleaning week once every spring. I suppose it may seem weird to some that I love to sort through cupboards and drawers and getting rid of stuff I am not using. It makes me happy to know where everything is and that I am not being wasteful and hoarding things I don't need. Oh and that everything is clean...it makes me smile when things are clean.

As I begin cleaning this morning, I find it ironic that our family's character quality for the next two weeks is Orderliness vs. Disorganization.

If you've visited my home lately you may have noticed this hanging off of my thermostat. Every two weeks we study a new character quality from Bill Gothard's "Operational Definitions of Character Qualities". I stumbled across this on the Duggar Family website after I went there to find their Tator Tot Casserole recipe. (Carson had seen them eat it on their show and kept begging me to make it....it is quite yummy!).

Anyways, its off to spring clean. I am hoping that in cleaning I can rid my home of all the sickness we've had all winter. Yet again, we were in Instacare yesterday, because Carson was running a fever and crying that his "brain hurt" and tummy was icky. Turns our he has strep again, so we are on round two of anitbiotics, this time a stronger one. I am hoping that with the warmer weather and a good cleaning of everything, we can beat the sickies!

Simple Faith

Once again I am amazed by the sweet, simple faith of my child. Wednesday we were out on our daily walk, when Carson stopped by a storm drain and picked up something exclaiming, "Look Mom!" Before looking I automatically said, "Oh Carson don't pick up garbage." In our part of the subdivision there is a lot of construction going on and a lot of debris all around. I turned and saw that he was holding a key chain shaped like a globe. I started to say, "Oh, well I guess..." then in mid sentence he threw the key chain down the storm drain. When he realized that I was going to let him keep it he started to cry. He was so heartbroken! I tried to console him, but also explained to him that the key chain was gone. He sniffled about it for the rest of our walk. All day long he kept talking about it and crying that he wanted it. I tried to make him feel better by telling him we could look for a new one at the store.

That evening Carson came up to me and said,"Mommy, I prayed to Heavenly Father that he could help me stop thinking about the key chain because it makes me so sad." Later that night, I went into his room to check on him and he said, "I think we can get the key chain back if we use daddy's vacuum (the shop vac)." While I put him to bed he kept telling me all sorts of ways that he had thought about getting it back. When he said his prayers that night, he specifically asked that the key chain would still be there, wouldn't have fallen too far down, and that we would be able to reach it. To me, it was gone and it was just one of those disappointments in life that he would have to learn to deal with. But Carson had perfect faith that Heavenly Father would answer his prayer. Thursday we walked back down to the storm drain and looked inside. To my complete amazement, there it was, sitting on top of some mud about 2 feet down. Jeff got a wire hanger and bent it out straight and soon enough Carson had his cherished key chain. Right there in the middle of the road, my little man took of his hat, folded his arms and thanked his Heavenly Father for saving his key chain. After a thorough cleaning he was finally able to play with it and put his most favorite key on it. Thank you, Carson, for teaching Mommy to have more faith that Heavenly Father does answer prayers!

Giggles

Is there any sound happier than that of a giggling baby? I don't think so.

Quilt

Tonight I was able to put the finishing touches on my Wallflower quilt. It feels good to get a project done...well almost done. I have yet to quilt it. In the past I've always taken my quilts to a quilter to get them done. The problem this time is 1) I don't know a quilter down here 2) My budget won't allow for me to pay to get it done and 3) After reading so many quilt blogs I'd love to learn how to stipple for myself. I've read a few tutorials on stippling, but my problem is that I am the type of person that likes to see it done first hand and have someone there to coach me as I'm doing it. Ideally, it would be great to find someone who would be willing to stipple it and teach me at the same time...

So I don't know what I'm going to do, but I am hoping a solution presents itself soon because I am dying to snuggle up on my couch in my new quilt!

Its finally spring, although after the rough weather we've had over the past week or so, you would think it was still winter. My bulbs in the backyard are even starting to bloom.

Since the weather has been crummy, last weekend Jeff and I painted the back wall of our kitchen. When we painted the living room/dining room area last Fall, I'd left this wall white because I wanted to do it as an accent wall. Nine different paint samples later, and I finally decided on a light brown called Faint Maple.

I've even begun a little spring cleaning. Jonas is always eager to help Mommy and loves to clean the floor.

Carson has been going crazy being stuck inside the past week or so. Carson and Jonas both came down with strep last week and so we've been staying inside and away from everyone.

{LOL, I love how you can see part of his dinner still on his lip!}

Mason is getting bigger all of the time. He is now 4 months and will be going in for his 4 month well child visit tomorrow. I'm hoping he takes this round of immunizations better than his two month ones! He sure is chunky and I'm excited to see how much he weighs now. He is loving to play on the floor and is now grabbing for toys.