Over the river and through the woods….

April 6, 2012 by 2 Comments

To my family’s house we go. :-)

I moved into my house a little over 5 months ago. It was quite a unique move! We live in company housing across a river from my husband’s work so we had to carry everything we own across a foot bridge that crosses the river and up steep concrete steps to the house.

It was an adventure to say the least. This place is wonderful and we feel incredibly blessed to live here. It’s been updated through the years and recently had a major addition done. If you had asked me a few years ago I would have told you, absolutely, I could not live in a house smaller than 1800 sq. ft. No negotiation. I am a homeschooling mom of three boys. I hate clutter. I love to cook. I will not share a bathroom with boys. I. Need. Space.  I, I, I!!! Yikes, God has been too nice to me…..what a selfish & spoiled attitude I’ve had!

But God has a sense of humor, and this house sits at just over 1400 sq. ft., even after the addition. And you know what? I CAN live in a smaller house, and I really don’t miss the bigger places we’ve lived! Layout really is everything, and the right attitude is key. This job and this home are a gift-wrapped blessing to us, and I don’t take it for granted for one minute. It’s kind of unreal to me that the relatively small home we live in is so perfectly suited to the way we live life. The living room is a good size (great for family living), the master bedroom is smaller (because we don’t need a ton of space), the upstairs bedroom is long (good for 3 boys to share), the main upstairs bathroom is large and nicely done, the kitchen is big enough (with just enough room for our dining room table), and the basement is perfect for school & play space. Exactly what we need; nothing more, nothing less….how could I not be thankful?!?

Living in a smaller space forces me to only keep things we’ll use and it’s given me the opportunity to organize and build things to make our small spaces comfortable, livable, clean & beautiful. It’s an exciting challenge for me!

So we have been busy, and I look forward to sharing projects around here with you as they’re completed.

Here’s a taste of a few tiny things I did to pretty up the living room:

If you’re even halfway comfortable with a sewing machine (I’m barely there), you simply have to give Ana White’s tab top curtain tutorial a try. One day of work while watching girly movies like Pride & Prejudice & Phantom of the Opera and I had beautiful curtains made out of fabric I love (picked out by my man if you can believe it). And they easily cost less dough than any other comparable quality fabric drapery panels.

Of course, there’s still a long list of things I’d like to do with the living room space, but you have to start somewhere!

You can find this post linked to:

 



Design Dazzle

Filed Under: Crafts, My So-Called Life, Projects

Ch-ch-ch-changes…..

March 10, 2012 by 3 Comments

Things, they are a-changin’, my friends.

Around two months ago I wrote how my family was really searching for, praying about, and trying to focus on our God-given purposefor this time we have here on earth. It’s about that time that I dropped off the face of the blog-planet.

*Photo Credit*
You see, this little place of mine has to fit in with what our family is being called to do or it’s just a distraction, a time-suck, something pulling me away from eight hundred thousand other things I should be doing in a day.
I love blogging, and I’m not going anywhere. I just needed to overhaul my plan, my purpose for sitting down to write anything at all. I’m SO excited about Organizational Hysteria’s future. The ideas mulling around in my brain and direction I’m moving make me almost giddy.
The very first major change will start at the end of this month. After much research, thought, and internal debate….I’ve decided to make the switch to WordPress. I also figure it’s the perfect time to hire a designer to help me turn a vision into reality. Hehehe, I can’t wait!
In the meantime I’d love to hear from any of you that have already made the Blogger to WordPress jump. Are you enjoying it now that you’re there? Did the process go smoothly for you? Any articles to recommend or tips to share?
I hope those of you that have come along with me this far will join me moving forward!
Wishing you all a most blessed Sunday!

Filed Under: Blogging, My So-Called Life

Finding Purpose

January 18, 2012 by 7 Comments

I’ve been struggling lately with the idea of purpose. The good Lord allows me to be here for some reason. If I wasn’t part of a plan of His, He would have taken me home already. Obviously in this season of my life I am a wife, a homemaker, and the homeschooling mom to three little people.

I’m thankful for it and content in that position, raising them up to know and love and live for the Lord is what I’m supposed to be doing right now. But they’re getting a little older, a little more responsible, a little easier to move around with, and I think there needs to be more. There’s been a nagging feeling, a conviction in my heart that our family needs to be more service minded, more others focused, more bold in our faith and the proclamation of the Good News of Christ!

Call it getting married and having kids young.

Call it being caught completely unprepared to live a God-honoring life.

Call it bad choices and material desires or just plain immaturity.

Whatever you call it, in the early years of being a wife and becoming a mother, finding out who I was in Christ – or even discovering that I HAD an identity in Christ – didn’t register a blip on my “things-to-do-with-you-time” radar.

Starting out it felt as if all we could handle, all we were meant to do was keep our heads above water, keep our kids alive, and somehow stay married in the process. Going to church, believing in God and not doing the “big” sins seemed like enough. I can tell you from the personal experience of those first years of our lives that I can completely understand why a great many marriages fracture early on. We cared far too much about what we could buy, the payments our monthly income could support, finding the jobs that allowed us to make more of the payments, and finding the daycares that wouldn’t wipe out those earnings so the payments for the stuff could be made. We clung to the “stuff” that we each did to “support the family”, using them as weapons to be hurled when stress overcame rather than offering them as living sacrifices. We each harbored these deeply held resentments towards one another at the kind of life we had, and the paralyzing hole we seemed to find ourselves within. It really was not an easy start to our lives together.

Eleven years, a lot of trials, the loss of everything the world finds valuable, and the never-ending grace of a very patient God have grown us up some. Our marriage relationship is strengthened considerably and our family never again wants to live for the empty, material things of this world. I want to steward His money the way He wants me to. I want to use my time, my skills, my schedule, and the unique gifts that come with being a homeschooling family for the glorification of God.

Nate and I don’t know what purpose is going to start to look like in our family but we both earnestly and prayerfully approach this season of our lives with the faith and hope that our steps will be directed by the Lord!

I’m not sure where we’re going, but I’m so excited for the journey!

Filed Under: Faith, My So-Called Life

When Your Kids Call You Out

January 6, 2012 by 3 Comments

Me: “Caleb, Devin…..you’re going to have to stay downstairs for a while, I have to sweep and mop the entryway and kitchen.”

Devin: ::barely answering while intently focused on his computer game:: “K”

Caleb: “Didn’t you just mop the floors?!?!”

Me: “Yes, Caleb, I did…..about a month ago.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, such a gloriously shining testimony to how often I mop my floors.

If I do it once a month, as far as my family is concerned, it’s almost like I did them yesterday. : )

He got me, cleaning is not my forte.

Is my house picked up and organized and mostly clutter free? Yep.

Is it clean and free of crumbs and spots and stains? Meh, depends on the week.

I’m writing next year’s Christmas list early. It has one item on it. Housekeeper. Not every week….maybe just once a month? Every other month? No?

I don’t think I can wait that long though. So, honey, if you’re reading this there’s always Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, my birthday, our anniversary….any of them. Thanks in advance!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While we’re talking about being called out, here’s my new absolute favorite song and the stuff of three of my latest homemade ringtones. Seriously, amazing band! Enjoy, and happy weekend. : )

Lyrics: Call Me Out by Gungor


I keep on falling
I keep on falling short
This world keeps bringing me down

You keep on calling
You keep on calling me
I’ll keep on running
I’ll keep on running home…

Oh, oh, oh
I’ll keep running home
Oh, oh, oh

This world is dying
The old world’s dying now
But a new one’s dawning
And you keep calling us out…

(Oh, oh, oh)
Call me out
Call me out
You’re calling me out
You call me out
Call me out 

You’re calling me out

Call me out

Call me out
You’re calling me out
You call me out
Call me out
You’re calling me out
Oh!


Filed Under: Boys, My So-Called Life

Extraordinarily Less Ordinary

December 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Moving even under the best of circumstances has always proven to be a traumatic experience. Nothing ever works out perfectly, and there’s inevitably a financial recovery that has to happen. The kids just don’t seem to cope so well or know how to handle what they’re feeling. I don’t function well in disorganization and this transition brought an extra helping of that. This move coming four months after our last one, I’m in awe we were able to somehow hold it together…..thanks be to God!It’s taken these past three + weeks to settle in to a new normal as a family again. Nate’s work schedule is completely different than the shift work we’ve spent years getting used to. It’s been odd adjusting back to a regular kind of rhythm. Welcome, but odd! I knew it was important to get school going again and we’ve been doing better than I had originally hoped! I naively upheld the belief that I would be able to maintain the blogging part of my life through it all. I was wrong about that. But I made the right choice in not trying to because I was able to make sure I was 100% there with my family.

My kids are adjusting well. My home is coming together beautifully. Our new church home is awesome. Nate is feeling more comfortable at his job. Plus, we’re eagerly taking those steps to start developing relationships with people here. We’ll be working on a lot of building projects in the months to come and I’m excited to take on the challenge of organizing and making the best use of relatively small spaces!

I live deep in a canyon on the banks of a gorgeous river in Montana. My husband walks across a bridge to go to work a stones throw from our home. There’s nothing ‘ordinary’ about our lives but I feel such peace and contentment. We don’t in any way deserve how richly we’ve been blessed and it’s literally our every day prayer that we take this extraordinary thing we’ve been handed and use it solely for the glory of a very gracious God!

Praying for each of you right where you are today!

Filed Under: My So-Called Life

Moving!

November 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I am moving today!

*Photo Credit – Used by Permission*
Rather, I’m finishing moving right here today!

My husband had the opportunity to interview for the kind of position he has wanted since the moment he became a power plant operator. He had applied for a similar spot this last Spring and was disappointed when he didn’t get the job. We were wary of that same kind of letdown this time but something told us to try again when this position came up last month. While our worry was there we prayerfully took a step of faith and this time his company chose him for the job!! We are all just ecstatic, and I couldn’t be prouder of the man my husband is. The Lord has taken this idea of his “dream job” and just worked out every tiny little detail so the entire thing is happening faster than I can catch my breath. We’re feeling so loved and give all the thanks and glory to the marvelous God who let it happen and has woven everything together perfectly!

We’ve moved a LOT in the 11 years we’ve been together. To say we have moved a lot would be a bit of an understatement. We’ve moved much more than a lot. In fact, this is our 13th move as a couple. I can’t tell you exactly why we’ve packed up and moved such a staggering number of times. I’m sure much of it in the early years was probably an itchy dissatisfaction with the places we lived, our surroundings and our circumstances. We stayed in the same general metropolitan area we just hopped from apartment to mobile home to house to apartment to city to city to city  We weren’t much more than babies ourselves as well as baby Christians that were raising real babies and it was easy to convince one another that the grass was MUCH greener at another address. Shockingly, it never was.

The two years spent in our current small community have been the longest we’ve been in one place – and I can honestly say I’m cured and have been matured out of the desire to move and change and “improve” my situation. So it is in earnest that I pray this is our last move for a VERY long while.

When I left California I left a close group of friends, and almost all of my immediate family. And those goodbyes were hard to say – but we were being delivered from something heart-wrenching and the prospect of a measure of peace gave us unshakable comfort as we pulled away. I did recently realize, however, that moving out of California did not leave any sort of impact on my community as a whole. We may have been missed by individuals but the High Desert area; the place we graduated high school, worked our first jobs, got married, started raising a family and regularly attended church; never even noticed our departure. Leaving here is almost harder because every facet of our lives are connected to people we came to know, support, love, appreciate and depend upon in a very short time. It’s living in this community that has firmly converted this former big-city girl into a fiercely loyal small, rural town advocate. There are negatives, of course, but I belong in small towns now – something I NEVER would have imagined to be the case 3 1/2 years ago.

So it is with a heavy heart that we pull away from this community today – with an enormous debt of gratitude to the people that live here for showing me a way of life I could not have understood or appreciated until I was a part of it myself. Being here has given me the confidence to move to this new small community and begin to forge fresh bonds and relationships; to connect, reach out and be a light in this new place we will be.

We’re excited and apprehensive but faithful that God wouldn’t have brought us to this if it wasn’t where He wanted us! I see amazing things on the horizon as a family and I’m so looking forward to what God has in store!

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4

Filed Under: My So-Called Life

Organizational Hysteria – 100th Post – What’s the purpose?

October 26, 2011 by 1 Comment

You came upon this blog for some reason. Maybe you stopped by from the Hip Homeschool Mom community or one of the places I’ve posted my projects. Perhaps you’re a friend, acquaintance or family member. You might even have stumbled here from the errant Google search (someday I’m going to post some of the funnier searches that lead people here, they’re hilarious). However you came to be here, whether you comment or just read, follow along or check in from time to time – you’re appreciated – and it’s time to show that appreciation by becoming a more consistent, reliable version of myself.

After 100 posts I decided it was time to write down a list of my goals. To record the things I wanted to share, the readers I hope to attract, and the purpose this place should have in my life. I want each person that stops by to know what they’re going to find on these pages so they can decide if they’re just in for a quick browse or if they’d like to follow along!

So what areyou going to find?

  • I’m going to share my faith in Jesus and how it applies to the high points as well as the tough ones in my family life. I’ll talk about how we’re being grown and matured and perfected through faith & grace. I feel like the Lord has blessed me with just enough wisdom to teach my children, but that wisdom doesn’t necessarily extend to being any sort of teacher or biblical know-it-all for adults. So I’m really just praying the people that read about my faith will feel comfortable relating to my family and offering their own suggestions, observations, struggles, resources or encouragements.
  • I hope to learn more about you and start to develop a relationship with some of you. I plan to be transparent and honest without usurping the intimacy of the nuclear family or verbally ‘throwing up’ temporary frustrations that are more a consequence of my own sin than problems with others. I wont talk about politics because, let’s face it, there are very few more divisive and inflammatory topics and that’s just not something I’m willing to be about.
  • I will share my favorite recipes – focusing mostly on quick meals and crowd pleasing dishes to share. I’m not a photographer or a foodie so all of the yummy things I share will be someone else’s creation often tweaked to my own personal preference. I’ll take pictures to show the process, not to impress you with my photographic genius, it doesn’t exist!
  • You’ll find organizational things. My blog is titled Organizational Hysteria and organizing is much of who I am. (The Hysteria part is too, of course, you can read HERE how I settled on the name.) So I will share organizing tips and cool projects and articles or books. There will be things I do in my own home, those I’ve tried that didn’t end up working, along with fun and creative ideas I would love to put into practice someday. I don’t do much with a mop and a dust rag but I can ORGANIZE and declutter with the best of them.
  • I’m a homeschooling mom. I’ll post about the many facets of what really has become the very core of our family. It’s more than “school” it’s how we live and how our family functions so a great deal of what I talk about will be in some way related to homeschooling. We wont be posting what we do everyday, nor will I be posting any sort of recap of the week or month. I’ll record the more exciting and noteworthy trips and assignments as well as the things I think other people would enjoy trying with their own littles.
  • My husband and I LOVE to build things, and I become more and more enthralled with all things crafty and handmade as the years go on. I will share the projects we’re working on and reveal the before and after transformations that are born of a little work and a healthy DIY spirit. You’ll find a lot of handcrafted projects here. I would also love to feature the projects of others that inspire and excite me. There’s something particularly satisfying about seeing a pile of raw materials created into something beautiful, useful, customized, and inexpensive!
  • I will share books, movies, products, songs and articles I have learned from, enjoyed and would recommend to others. I happen upon a great deal of information thanks to social media, a minor Pinterest addiction, homeschool connections, magazine articles & conversations with friends. I’d like to pass those finds on to others.
  • I will share from the unique prospective of the only woman in a house full of boys. As a wife to one boy, the mom of three others, I’ll write about the joys and challenges that come along with caring for a home jam-packed with the male species. And I’ll hope you will be willing to pray for me along the way. :-)
Writing this all down made me realize that my focus hasn’t been all that changeable from the start. That’s encouraging to me as I move on from this 100th post. Hopefully laying this all out will be helpful to you in deciding to stick around and track along with us.

Year two is going to be an exciting one!

Filed Under: Blogging, Faith, Homeschool, My So-Called Life, Projects, Recipes

My First Blogiversary?!?

October 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Yeah, that came and went without me even realizing it! One year and one week ago I sat down to create this little corner of internet land called Organizational Hysteria. Somewhere along the way a few of you decided I had something to share that was worth reading. Can I take a second to say thank you?!

*Image Credit*

I want to tell you how much it’s meant to me. Each and every person that has stopped by, left a comment, participated in discussions or just spent a minute reading the crazy things I had to say that day is so appreciated! I can honestly say I expected a tiny handful of people to be interested in my stretch of the internet superhighway. Who ever could have imagined there’d be so many of you that would want to at least casually peruse my so called life? Certainly not me! So, really, THANK YOU!

All that being said, I’ve needed some time to get my “real life” back on track and to prayerfully consider what role this blog should have in my life moving forward. This space is important to me. It gives me a chance to frame out my thoughts in a way that records them for posterity and allows people to share in the parts of my life that make me, me! So I can assure you that I’m not going anywhere, I’ve just needed some time.

Taking a few seconds to look at some of my first posts has put a sweet smile on my face and excites me for the days, months and years to come! I appreciate those of you that have joined me so far and I look forward to what the future holds!

With a humble heart and uplifted face, I thank you!

Filed Under: Blogging, My So-Called Life

Mountains And Valleys

July 6, 2011 by 4 Comments
It is so hard to blog without a reliable Internet connection! Those of you that can call up any number of broadband Internet service providers and have a high speed connection installed in your home shouldn’t take it for granted. There are still some places (like where I live) that can’t!
It’s only been two-ish weeks since I last sat down to write but honestly my whole world has changed around me in that time. My birthday was on Friday and we already talked about how much I was not looking forward to that; I begrudgingly moved to a new home Tuesday through Friday; all three of my kids have attitudes the size of Mack trucks; stuff I love has no place or function anymore; my poor husband can barely talk to me without getting his head bit off; and there’s a whole host of things I learned that I wish I could go back and forget I ever knew. Some good, most bad and hurtful and infuriating.
Nate and I are renters for the time being and any good past or present tenant knows moving out of a rental house comes with a whole extra set of hoops to jump through in contrast to moving out of a place you sold. I’m exhausted and just flat out disgusted at the whole process and the stress and strife that comes with it. There’s not much I wouldn’t give to be in a position to buy a house right now.
Three years or so ago we ventured through the roughest, rockiest, most trecherous valley on our walk along this journey we call life. It took about a year and a half to two years for us to comfortably enjoy the views from the top of the mountain that was on the other side. We’re not there anymore, and it feels like our stint at the top was a lot shorter than our time trudging through the muck and the mire. I can literally pinpoint the ways the last real time of trial changed and grew and matured me, so I trust there’s a reason we’re somewhat back in this place but I really could do with a break…soon!
I hadn’t decided when I started blogging whether I was going to weigh down people’s readers with the tough stuff or if I was just going to share the fun, exciting, upbeat, educational and encouraging things. So I’ve been pretty absent and silent here lately on this platform I love so much. But it occurred to me the other day that some of the most profound posts I’ve read by other bloggers have been the ones where they share their less-than-perfect selves with their audiences and remind us all that it’s ok to be real. And in my own experience the sweetest, most encouraging comments I’ve ever received here on my blog have unequivocally been in response to posts that part of me felt like I never should have published.
I hope those of you that follow along with me can forgive my recent string of “downer” posts. The logical part of me knows everything will be ok, that there’s nothing new under the sun and I have an endless list of things to be thankful for. I think it’s the head-knowledge that God has me, and the multitude of boys that live here with me, safely planted in the center of His solid and steady hand that’s getting me through each day right now.  It’s my heart that needs the help!

2 Corinthians 4:7-9

 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
 

Isaiah 41:10

10 So do n
ot fear, for I am with you; 
do not be dismayed, for I am your God. 
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
 
 

OHBlogSig

Filed Under: My So-Called Life

Achy, Breaky and Gray?!

June 18, 2011 by 3 Comments

I don’t particularly know how it happened. I remember one day a few years ago finding a gray hair on my head. I remember having a tiny nervous breakdown about it and running out to buy the closest-to-my-natural-color red hair dye I could find. And then I started buying two boxes of that dye because I’ve held on to my longer than average hair as some sort of desperate reminder that I used to be a fit, beautiful, desirable and spunky red-head and one box just wouldn’t cut it.

I started dying my hair about 2 years ago and some time in recent months I just gave up. Convinced myself “it can’t really still be gray under there, right?!?”. Last month I yanked the clearest, most glaringly defined offending hair off my head and just decided to pretend it never happened. Tonight, I got too close to the mirror while washing my face and just had to stare in horror. They’re EVERYWHERE!!! I can’t yank ‘em out because I am pretty sure bald spots are more unattractive than pigmentless hair but I just can’t process it. It’s coming up on my birthday. I’m only turning 28. I’ve come to dread my day of birth and the large round number that approaches.

Somewhere along the way I went and got prematurely old. I am too young to feel as old as I feel and those hairs are the ugliest of reminders that I am out of excuses. I drink so much coffee my heart skips beats regularly. I danced to a song with my kids tonight and was embarassingly out of breath. I have to allow myself extra time to get out of bed in the mornings because its so hard to achieve any measure of awakeness, let alone drag myself out to exercise. I’ve been telling myself I’d get back into shape by the time I was 30 and, like a true pig-headed procrastinator, was determined to wait until the very last moment.

It’s all too much for me, those gray hairs are the rough, almost white straws that broke the camel’s back. I’m not interested in being this version of myself anymore!!!

Someone, please tell me it’s possible to go from feeling like the late 20′s hit me with a freight train to embracing an active, joyful and vibrant 30′s….please?!?

~*Danielle*~

Filed Under: My So-Called Life
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