Christmas

Avi Joy and Nehemiah recently started wearing each other clothes for dress up time. I never expected to see them come downstairs one morning both dressed in Avi Joy's princess panties. I laughed so hard it started the ball rolling. They went to Nehemiah's room to get his undies. What is funny to me here, well besides the obvious, is that N's are on backwards. (Oh and I love that they are holding hands- night and day different in temperament, but still like twins.)
Here is more dress-up. Seriously, this needs to be THE ONLY TIME he dresses like a girl, because he looks exactly like one. His sisters named him Hattie, geez!
We kicked off our December by doing our Advent Box. Here is our 25 day count down from this year. I tried to change it up a bit since last year. It is our most precious family tradition.
(The first word is what was inside the box, it was their clue for that night.)

December 1st. Tree: We got out the tree and decorated it.
2. Heart: Played hide and seek with cut out hearts, talked about Psalm 119, "I have hidden Your Word in my heart, so that I will not sin against you."
3. Band-aid: Read the story of the 10 lepers in Luke 17. We wrote with marker on our band-aids, "Jesus is my healer." And then wore them to bed.
4. Q-Tip: Read the story of Mary and Martha listening to Jesus and which was better. Then we cleaned out our ears so that we could listen to Him.
5. Popcorn kernel: Family movie night. We watched Elf and had popcorn. The movie was too adult. Although it is hilarious, we will not watch it again as a family.
6. Mend: I cut the letters m, e, n and d out of fabric. We read through Ecc 3 that there is a time for everything. A time to tear and a time to mend. We got out fabric and needles and sewed.
7. Prayer bracelets: Our church was doing Toys For Tots that week and each person in the church got a bracelet with a child's name. We put on the bracelets and prayed for each child.
8. Music note: We listed to Christmas music while we cleaned house.
9. Gingerbread house picture: We used candy to decorate a gingerbread house.
10. Jesus: We made birth announcements about Jesus' birth. I taught them out to make little feet using their hands and fingertips.
11. Snowflake: We traced circles, folded and made snowflakes. Then we hung them on the tree.
12. Empty: I said it was stolen by the Grinch. Then we watched the old Grinch who stole Christmas movie.
13. Gift tags: They made homemade gift tags with paper and glitter.
14. Little book: We made our own little books, about 5 pages in each book. They are about 3 inches by 4 inches or so. We decorated the front then wrote all the things we were thankful for from 2010. We then punched a hole and hung them on the tree.
15. Three: We pulled out the tree pictures of the children we support. One lives in Vietnam, one in Kenya and one in India. We talked about their Christmas and prayed for them to have forever families.
16. Lightbulb: We hopped in the car and went around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.
17. Net: I took an apple net/bag and we Read Luke 5 about becoming fishers of men.
18. Star: We got out the paints and black paper and painted our own nativity scenes.
19. Red nose: (It was a human nose in drawn in red marker, so they had to figure it out.) Then we watched the old Rudolph movie.
20. Sheep: Made from the end of a Q-Tip. We talked about we are the sheep and God is our shepherd. We then took a straw and blew the "sheep" into their pen.
21. World: Talked about being the light of the world. We turned off all the lights and had one small flashlight. We each took turns playing with it in the dark and that we are the light in the darkness.
22. Soap: We talked about having clean hands and a clean heart and what they meant to us. We then washed our hands with the soap.
23. Sugar Packet: Baked a birthday cake for Jesus
24. Present: Talked about the wise men and that they gave Jesus 3 gifts. Said they would be getting three gifts each from us tomorrow.
25. Cross: Read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

Here is the top of our gingerbread house.
The Birth announcements. They were so cute.
The sheep into the brown paper bag "pen" was a total hit. My favorite from this year was the thankful books/ornaments. They were so personal and will be done each year. Miss Beautiful's was just precious. It said things like, "So thankful to be in a family" and "Thankful for a mom who treats me like a daughter and not a DHS kid".
We had the Torres family over for a tea party. I just love those two peanuts and really enjoy being with their mama. Love that we have the same parenting style, both were teachers and now stay at home. She is very creative too, her Wisp Clips business is booming!
The week before Christmas we headed to the Homan's house for our annual p.j. party. The kids made a cute snowman treat out of marshmallows and we made salt dough ornaments. They were so fun and EASY!
4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 1/2 cups water. Kneed dough. Roll out. Cut with cookie cutters. Poke a hole. Microwave for four minutes. Cool. Paint. Hang on tree!
We ended up using 30 of them as tags for our Christmas gifts. We loved giving them away as part of the present. (Big hit with the grandparents you know.)
On Christmas Eve Eve we were able to have some old friends over for breakfast. The Woods family moved to TX last year and we were able to catch up. Their 2 kiddos are the same ages as our younger two and they are also waiting for a referral any moment from Thailand. They have a heart for the country as they lived in Thailand for a couple years. It has been my honor to walk with them through this adoption journey. I just love this picture of her, so joyous and filled with love. We were pretending to be in Vietnam. She is also one creative woman! Her handcrafted jewelry, J Woods Jewelry, is incredible.
Then we had our favorite and loudest family over to spend the night! Whoo hoo for family sleep-overs! All the kids get to play till they drop and then the adults get to stay up late and talk! The Pierce family will be leaving soon to live in India for four years doing college ministry with Student Mobilization. I am so privileged to be friends with those with a heart for God's people overseas.
Now on to some of our favorite gifts. Adam got a set of pots and pans. I had forgotten he asked for this for Christmas from his parents. I think my look of shock and happiness is hysterical. "They are pots, Natasha." "Yes and I am reallly excited!" My favorite gifts were the earrings that Shannon got for me in India and the necklace Vanessa sent from Kenya. I can't help it- I like culture.
Avi Joy and her cousin Annabelle both got princess dresses and glitter shoes.
Several years ago, I was at my friend Dana's house and saw a cross on her daughters wall. It was hanging in the middle of the wall and had her daughter's name and a date on it. I asked what it was and she told me that was the day her daughter accepted Christ. I literally burst into tears and put that away in my mom file. This year I painted one for Miss Beautiful. If you look closely, you might be able to see her new name along with the special dates. hehe.
Nehemiah got a lion from our friends who live in Kenya. They sent us jewelry, headbands, a nativity scene and a lion for Christmas. Nehemiah quickly stuffed his into his dinosaur's mouth.
Avi Joy has been super into flamingo's lately. I ran across this one, but it needed a little sparkle. So I hot-glued silver and pink jewels to miss flamingo and now she sits beautifully in her room.
Nehemiah's gifts: Dinosaur, Car set and a baseball glove.
Avi Joy's gifts: Flamingo, princess dresses and a mini haircut chair w/ hairdresser stuff.
Beautiful: Cross, purse and an apron.
They also all got filled stockings (They liked the new band-aids and pez candy the best), Christmas Eve p.j.'s and were blessed with lots of gifts from family and friends!
I think the apron was my favorite gift to give this Christmas. I am just so in love with this apron. And she looks like a dollbaby cookin in the kitchen wearing it.
Onto Deep Thoughts by Jill Handy: Each time it says the word "faith" in the Amplified version of the bible, it follows by explaining it in the Hebrew and Greek. I have come to LOVE the expanded definition of faith: "The leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness." Amen.
The Perryman Family

Name

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet." Juliet Capulet

"God has highly exalted Jesus and has freely bestowed on Him the Name that is above every Name." Philippians 2:9

Name, Names, Naming- has been on my mind.

For several months we have been praying together about changing Miss Beautiful's name after she is adopted. We realize this is a very controversial topic so we have really kept this part of our adoption process to ourselves.
Well, at first I didn't plan on keeping it to myself, but after I told two friends with opinions ranging from, "Why would you do that? Her identity is in her name!" to, "Oh, that is the greatest idea". We could see that it needed to be kept quiet.
Many people have set opinions about "to change or not to change" a child's name after adoption. The following is purely the opinion of our family and what we have come to realize after prayer and consideration for what is best for our family.

After praying about it, we then sought counsel from other families who adopted older child/ren and how they handled name changes. Surprisingly, we found that DHS recommends that it stays the same, but that almost all families we asked did chose (as a family with the child's consent) to change the child's name after adoption. They agreed that the adjustment to a new name was challenging, but that the benefits outweighed the negatives.

I reflected on this a lot, the naming of a child that is and the benefits of it. As moms we are given the great responsibility to provide for our children. I provide food, love, school, prayer, clothes, a home, and even though it is often mixed with impatience on my part, I am still trying to 100% provide all that they need. What seemed difficult for me to understand was providing almost everything, except her name.

I know that before adoption the first family was given the honor to choose a name and I believe after adoption the forever family also gets to share in this honor. With our first two kiddos we chose to keep part of their birthnames as their middle name. We think it is a beautiful connection to their birth family. We do not want to strip anything away from our children by renaming them, if anything, we want it to be a connection to both their birth and forever families.

Almost all mom's dream about naming their child. Whether the child comes to your family from your heart or your womb, there is something magical about choosing the name of your child. I really believe that this is one of the deepest areas of bonding. It is similar a wedding day, taking a new last name.

We also realized that it is also Biblical, as God changed many names at various ages. Such as Jacob to Israel or Saul to Paul, when they came to know Him in their new life. Exactly why did He choose to show their newness in this way? He could have chosen anything to show they were a new person, but He chose to change their name.

Because of her age, 12 1/2, we did want to respect her feelings in this area of course. Therefore talked openly with her about it being her choice and a family decision.
And we have been throwing around many names for quite some time seeing what she/we thought. We would call her a name for a week or so and see if it fit. We had some close winners too and funny ones as well. My personal favorite, Svetlana. If I lived in Russia, this would be my daughters name, so she was spared. And yes, I am serious.

We have already started calling her by her new name. And it has been an adjustment. We have explained it to the little kids several times. Even tonight Avi Joy asked, "Now what is her real name?" We tell them that just like how they were born with a beautiful Vietnamese name, she was born with a birthname as well. Then when they were adopted, we kept part of that name and changed their name to the name God gave us for them.

The meaning of names is very important to our family. Avi Joy means, "My Father's Joy". Nehemiah mean, "God's compassion". And Miss Beautiful's new name means, "Cared for by God".

She has started telling everyone at school, church and family on her own, so that has been exciting for us to watch. She said that yesterday at school (she attends a school on Tues/Thurs and we do school at home on MWF) all her friends love her new name. I know it is an answer to prayer because I thought the hardest place to change was going to be kids at school who wouldn't understand the change.

This week we turned in all our paperwork to our lawyer. This started the ball rolling on her adoption process in court. Actually this is when the new name really was settled in our hearts. Our lawyer called and said, "Choose it tonight, call me in the morning". It was the "choose to change it or not" moment, and we knew the right decision for our family was to chose a new name.
The paperwork has to go through several hoops, including two judges before we are seen in court in our local town and our expected finalization is still scheduled for sometime between January-March.

"And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds.]" Colossians 3:15, AMP

The Perryman's

Gettin all caught up-

Let's begin with amazing news!
In October, our church holds a fall retreat for the teens. This year the theme was Hide and Seek. Teaching the kids about people groups throughout the world that have to "hide" their faith (such as hosting underground churches or being undercover missionaries) and "seek" the Lord during persecution, for protection and for boldness.
I really did want her to attend, but had to get over some mama issues about her going. I took the weekend to Him many times and was really hung up about the church leaving at 10pm at night and driving hours in the dark. Over and over this was the only thing I could think about. Once I laid that down and started to focus on how much she would learn about the Lord and how the seeds of Christ would be planted, Adam and I decided it would be wonderful for her to attend the retreat. This was spiritual warfare because...
We are thrilled to say that on October 22nd, our sweet Beautiful accepted Christ as her Savior. The next day at church, she went forward on her own to follow through with baptism. We talked her through this being a symbol of dying to herself and being raised with Christ. The joy was overwhelming to see our One True Love pursue her into a relationship with Him and for her to respond to Christ's redeeming love.
(I have readers that do not understand our love for God or our relationship with Jesus. And by all means I want you to keep reading our blog, but I want to share that this is our life and my life is nothing without the sustaining Relationship with the Lord. I am proud that our daughter will have His Light in her life and protect her from the darkness of the world. Trials will come, but His Hand will never leave her.)
October brought lots of events. We celebrated a handful birthdays (including mine- 32) and made costumes for Halloween.
Nehemiah, my little Rock n Roll star, "Like yo'. Hope you got backstage tickets to my show. Catch ya later. Peace."
Avi Joy, our hot pink flamingo. Miss Beautiful was Pocahontas- she looked amazing. Too bad you can't see the pictures, frown.
Handsome boy...
Who yells a lot.
We spent the weekend before Thanksgiving with Adam's family. It was also Adam's birthday (33). Here is his mama and our niece Annabelle.
Great grandma Fern, 89 years young. Getting some kisses from her grandkids.
Then we headed out for a 5 day trip to MO, to my mom's side of the family. I completed some artwork for my cousin. I love creating special artwork- it warms my heart to give of myself in that way.
A boy playing dress-up. A bucket. (His shirt says, silly banana head. True.)
A girl playing dress-up. Princess dress, twirling, singing and jewelry.
My grand parents. He was SO ho-hum, so I started tickling his feet to get a smile. IT Worked!
On Thanksgiving day we played "Paper Corn." That is the name Avi Joy gave it. The 3 kids cut out corn cobs, made the corn spots with their fingers and glued the husks on the outside. Each person received a paper corn with their name on it. They were passed around the room and as you got each family members corn, you wrote on it what you loved about them. Then we read them out loud to one another.
On my grandma's it actually said, "Good lover." I mean WHAT?! Grandpa, seriously! I look over at him and he gives me a thumbs up. We were all in stitches to say the least. Look at my grandma's face too. Like, oh Harold, 59 years of this man.
Then our whole family (well, half actually, as only half came into town this year,) went outside for our yearly family pictures. All the pictures turned out great, but most of them have Beautiful in them and I just cannot take time to blur her face (well, I did try on one group picture but could NOT figure it out,) so anyway- here is my favorite picture of my cousin and her boyfriend.
One of the highlights of the trip (well, besides the awesome food, desserts, boardgames, late night talks and quality family time) was playing dress-up, grandma style. All the girls (me, Emily-my step-sister, my cousins Jansen and Hannah and Beautiful) all snuck into grandma's closet when no one was looking and got out "grandma around the clock".
Natasha: Grandma in her Ojama's (Obama pajamas). These are her favorite night clothes.
Emily: Grandma going to the Lady's Democratic Luncheon. (Grandma is the woman's Chaplin for MO.)
Jansen: Greatest idea ever- dressed up as Grandpa. His favorite shirt, hat and rolled up jean shorts. No one could have pulled him off better. Seriously funny.
Hannah: Grandma at the beach. Matching flamingo beach outfit.
Beautiful: Grandma going to church.
We headed home and on Dec 1st we started our Advent box. The first day was to decorate the tree. Our first Christmas as a family with Beautiful and our first Christmas in our new home. Future days include making a gingerbread house, crafts, scriptures, movies and more.
We also enjoyed day two where we talked about the scripture, "I have hidden Your Word in my heart." Then we talked about doing that so we can make good choices (not sin against You is the rest of the verse) and then we cut out hearts and hid them around the house and played hide and seek with the hearts. It was big fun, the kids really enjoyed it.

^{Philippians 2:13, "}[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight."

The Perryman's

Hookie...

I have a mom friend (of 7) who pulls a creative "Rewind" technique with her kiddos. Such as, they come down down for breakfast with a sour attitude, "Uh, Rewind," she will say. They will have to go back upstairs and come back down for breakfast with a changed attitude.

I LOATHE just surviving. I like to enjoy my days and children!
But this week, I was having noneya of it. I needed a total Rewind Week!
Nothing went right... Picture this...
Children= horrible, cranky, disobedience, testy, forgetful, on and on.
Days= overwhelmed, messy, disorganized, thing in boxes, on and on.
Me= irritable, impatient, horrid, stressed, period (sorry guys), on and on.

By Thursday afternoon I could take no more. I totally broke. Called Adam at work, cried for 15 minutes, then he came home and took Miss Beautiful to her learning center because I could not complete one more thing. Thank you Jesus for my strong and servant-hearted man! I then put Nehemiah to bed and Avi Joy on a task and just breathed and prayed.

I like things to be "just-so" you see and to feel like I am accomplishing a task makes me feel great. I love To Do list's and being on a schedule. With this move, everything has been crazy! I cannot get anything done. Homeschooling completely busted this week and we accomplished nothing. We added 7 hours a week for Miss Beautiful be/c she is a year behind in school and is now in tutoring and that has added unexpected stress on my part. And Nehemiah, well. (I just sighed really loud typing his name.) I do NOT know what to do with him. I need some discipline tips- SERIOUSLY. COMMENT. (Not like, oh sorry sweetie, it will get better, no, like- this worked for my 2 year old boy, try this...)
I have tried nice correction, i.e= talking sweetly, positive reinforcement
I have tried medium discipline= time outs, pinch on hand, going to room
I have tried harsh consequences= spakin' on thigh/bottom, separation in crib
NOTHING WORKS. He is impulsive and irritates others with his rash behaviors and constant whining. And sadly, I loose it right after he does.
He is my cherry in top in so many good ways, but when the house is going down hill, he is the cherry on top that turns it into complete chaos. Help.

I am still not over this week, but today made it better.
We played Hookie- yea us! No work, no school, just time together.
We have been wanting to go back to our college, Northeastern State University, to see the trees and to show the kids where we met. We had a wonderful relaxing drive, I read some from a book and we listened to music and talked.

We arrived at NSU and walked around for a bit. The first building we saw, the NET, brought back a lot of memories.
1.) The NET building was the computer center of our school. It was built my first year of college and we HAD to get an email address to get the syllabus for our classes. I was so completely put off by this and was actually mad about it. And email? What is email for heavens sake?
2.) I was in this building attending a teaching lecture for my student internship on September 11th. We all watched on the large TV screen in our classroom as the planes crashed into the twin towers.
Next we showed the kids where we used to live. Adam and I met in this building. Fall 1998. I will have to share how we met sometime- super funny stuff. I lived on First South and he lived on Second Southeast, we were friends for two years while living in these dorms.
We ate lunch at Sam and Ella's Chicken Palace. Divine salad and pizza!
Then we took some family pictures. This whole not-showing-her-face-thing is getting old already. My plan was to take lots of pictures in the colorful leaves and some individual pictures of the kids, but we got 8 pictures and the battery died. smile.
We stopped at the Tahlequah Drug and Soda Shoppe on the way out of town and ordered hand-spun shakes. They were delicious! Who doesn't love to end their day with a large pina colada shake, yes please!

OK- back to spewing. See, the To Do list is So long and nothing gets accomplished. How does that happen? So much to do that nothing gets done?? What?!
I have seen 2 organized mama's move and it seemed like they snapped and their house was done, unpacked, organized and children were all off playing, happily. I daily throw down comparing to others because I am just slow at this whole getting things done thing. I know some of you are laughing be/c you think I get everything done, and quickly, but there is SO MUCH, it is overwhelming. How does 19 kids and counting mom do it with such grace? Please don't knock the Duggers, I really love them.

They say you can hit a 3 month honeymoon wall and I think we hit it with LIFE. Miss Beautiful has been with us since July- that is an adjustment- hello. I took on a new job (homeschooling) in August and we just moved in Sept and I have two kids under four- I had to throw that in. Ok, do you hear the violin's playing? "Get over it," some would say, or "So and So, has it worse." Yes, those two things are true, but this is my life and as I stated above, I am not comparing, I am trying to enjoy my life, my Lord, my husband and my kids. But this week has been a struggle.

Something good in this string of blaaah... I love my new bible I got for my birthday last week. I asked for the Amplified bible. I am crazy over it. I feel like the one I have been reading for 12 years (NIV) is now my elementary school bible and this is my PhD bible. I beyond love the descriptions and added details and am really growing in my love for Him.

My second good thing was starting MOPS this week. My sweet girlfriend has been going to Mothers of Preschoolers for years and this week, I needed some connecting time- so I went and loved it. Now that we are doing school on MWF, I had to let go of some past activities that I enjoyed be/c they do not allow kiddos over 5. I used love bible school: studying the word, discussing questions, eating brunch and socializing (oh and getting dressed in something other than p.j.'s or painting clothes). I thought I would be ok without this, but again, after many months, nope. I need that time and it was renewing for my soul.

My favorite passage this week was 2 Corinthians 12:9, "But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!

Yes, pitch a tent over and dwell upon us! Oh how this description lingered in my heart for days.
The Perrymans

New Home

Well, I feel somewhat settled enough to actually catch up on our blog this afternoon, but I still have a twinge of guilt that I am not cleaning house or unpacking boxes. I know the latter is never ending, so I decided to stop and share a post today. Thank you to you all who have called, stopped by, babysat and prayed for us during this time of great transition. And I know two friends have asked to see pictures of our home, so here they are along with some highlights of the last month.
We finished packing our old house and we had just a few items left. Here Adam and the kids are "resting" from all their hard work.
While I was packing I found a tee-shirt I had bought while Nehemiah was a little baby. It is fun to find treasures like this and it fit him perfectly!
We sat outside on the last day and had a picnic lunch.
Then we woke up, packed our final belongings and headed out to have a special p.j. breakfast.
While we moved our kids stayed with the Lydens family and enjoyed having a sleepover at their house. A couple days later grandma Berna watched the kids while we unpacked and they played with precious Jaxson.
Sarah and Avi Joy, along with Nehemiah and Miss Beautiful all started gymnastics together. It is fun for the girls to be in the same class and we are all enjoying this season of life. (And we happen to only live one mile apart now.)
Here are their little toesies... Avi Joy's foot is on the left and Sarah is on the right. Wonder how long they will be the same size?
Here all 3 kiddos are practicing for doing handstands on their own. Nehemiah's is more like a headstand. AND I am so thrilled that Avi Joy is bearing weight on her arms, this will help in her physical delay when she falls, to be able to catch herself with her arms instead of her nose.
One of our very favorite treats of the year is heading out to the State Fair. We enjoyed the yummy food and rides. Miss Beautiful told me later, "Mom, I am so glad you told me before we came to the fair that there were going to be lots of odd people here... there are."
Every time the sisters or dad went on a ride, Nehemiah sat and cried. It was so funny. I mean, I really should not have laughed, but as soon as they were up there, he was scared for them and wanted his family with him!
Moving in and having our first dress-up day!
We all caught some type of sickness the first week we moved in. Sore throats, coughs, major mosquito bites, and more... but one of the funniest was Nehemiah's ear exploded. I am guessing it was some kind of bite, although I could not see any bite anywhere. He just had one huge Dumbo ear all day long, then the hard swollen ear went back to normal by the next day.
Little ham doing an art project in our new backyard.
I also love her morning hair. What is it about kids and precious morning hair? I wish adults could pull off this look and look cute!
Sooooo, here it is! Our new home. It was built in 1965. Four bedrooms, all upstairs, 2 & 1/2 baths and lots of storage and room to grow! It is a barn style, obviously, and I never saw myself living in a home like this, but I just love it. We adore all the huge mature trees in the neighborhood. Simply beautiful. We truly praise God for our new home.
The front yard has rose bushes that are 50 years old. Some have over 200 blooms on them when they are in season. They were transplanted from the previous home owners grandmothers home. He is a funny old guy who popped by this week to tell me to prune them. This could be annoying to some, but I was actually very grateful that he would teach me how to care for them. He actually said, "I realize that am a tough guy who likes to raise hell, but I love roses too." : ) We have a row of small plantation shutters in our living room and every morning a hot pink rose bloomed in the window. OH the little things!
Now to the other little things... Raccoons. We had to have the skunk whisperer come to remove our raccoons in our attic. He said there have been three generations of raccoons living up there! AND they have done extensive damage, like A LOT. And lucky for us it will be covered by our insurance, well 3 weeks of it will. Which is nothing compared to this damage. We learned that inspectors by law cannot put wildlife damage on inspections, so until they came no one knew that it would take about $14,000 to clean, restore, reinsulate and drywall the entire attic. We are not worried about it, but over time, this will be something to tend too.

I often wash dishes with the windows open and love the fresh air and beautiful trees.
We have taken out a row of cabinets that hung very low and was blocking the view to the dining room. We plan on putting some small hanging lights there someday.
And my original 1965 Frigidaire appliances work perfect!
The other big project that we did right when we moved in was take down a wall between two living areas. We really wanted one large living room, instead of a formal and a den.
The results are stunning and so open! We are now doing the hard part and deciding what color to paint the room. Carpet will be in the future and I cannot wait to hang some artwork in this home. I don't like clutter, but I dislike bare walls even more. I know this will make it feel more homey too.
With all this going on I have had my moments of being overwhelmed of course. Still having to cook, clean, do laundry and homeschool, seemed hard when everything needed to be unpacked and put in it's place. I am feeling more balance now and working on praying about it more. In Proverbs 31 there is a verse that talks about the woman laughing at the days to come. I do not want to be so stressed at the To Do List that I forget to have a great time in my home and add laughter to my days to come.
Blessings
The Perryman Family