40 Bags in 40 Days

What are you giving up for Lent?  It's a common question this time of the year as Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday!  This year, I'm not giving anything up. Well, not any one thing.  Some years I've given up chocolate, some sugar, some caffeine and so forth.  But this year, with life and kids and stress, I decided that giving up one thing was just going to add to the stress level and I didn't need that.

So, instead, I'm doing 40 Bags in 40 Days.

Google it and you can read a dozen or more articles/blogs about it, so I'm not going to list just one for you.

The idea is that during Lent, you use the 40 days to refocus your life and declutter your home.  I like that. A LOT!

You would think that after moving twice this last year that we would be clutter free. We aren't. I look around the house and the amount of stuff that we don't use is staggering. So... 40 bags, oh yeah. Now, I'm not planning on emptying the house of our worthwhile keepsakes and things we use everyday, but I KNOW that we can come up with at least a grocery size bag of stuff from every corner of our house.

Here is my list:

And here is my challenge to me, that while I am cleaning out rooms/closets and drawers, that I declutter mindfully. That I ask myself to be honest about if we use something and that if we don't, we send it to a new home with grateful hearts.

Because Lent is a time of preparing our hearts for Easter. It's a time to focus on the gift/sacrifice that Jesus gave us. It's a time to declutter our bodies and to be mindful of the gifts God has given us. So this year, I'm not giving up sweet tea for Lent. I'm going to purposefully and prayerfully focus on our home.

I hate Asthma.

My poor Maddie has asthma.  Most of the time it's controlled by daily medications.

Well, 11 days ago, Maddie had an asthma flare.

Her peak flow (which is breathing into a little tube and seeing how hard/far you can make the line move) was less than half of what it is when she is well. That meant she was in the Red Zone. The bad, take this medicine and call the doctor zone. 

So we started doing (and have been doing) breathing treatments every four hours and taking all kinds of extra medications to help her breathing. We've driven two hours one way to see the doctor. TWICE.

And still today, she's no better.

I hate this.

There is nothing else that I can do, but it is so frustrating to watch your child suffer. Day after day, and not have anything you can offer, but to rub her back.

So, if you are a prayer person, say a prayer for Maddie. She could use a lift.

Eat, Pray, Love: Custom Dining Room Wall Art

Last weekend it was the fabric portion of the dining room.  Here is the reminder picture. If you missed it, you can CLICK HERE to go back and check out the starting point of this project.

Once I had this, the traditional paintings that I had up just didn't fit. As seen below. While I like mixing styles and such, the contrast between the contemporary graphic quality of the floral fabric and the romantic paintings just did not work.

So, I decided to do something fun and different. No, I haven't seen the movie. I didn't even think of the movie while I was making the pieces. My students however, were nice enough to point out the movie title to me! So, I really hope the movie is decent since it appears that I am advertising it!

How did I do these? Well... first, I bought 3 black stretched canvases. Then, I used my Pazzle and designed the images (or you could use a Cricut if you have the fonts and pictures). I cut the art and the words in white intermediate vinyl and adhered it to the canvas.  My awesome dad offered the tip that if you heat up the vinyl with a hair dryer, the vinyl will adhere to the canvas better. It did and now it looks like the vinyl was painted on!! Hooray for having a super awesome creative dad!

After getting all the vinyl on the canvases, I bought twill tape in a nice red and some 1" thick Heat N Bond Ultra and ironed it on to hide the staples.

And there you have it. Truly custom dining room wall art!

A Genetics Conundrum

Life in my house is a roller coaster. We truly live in survival mode most of the time.

This is one of those seasons. I won't bore you with the details. However, in the last two weeks we have seen 4 different specialists. One for each child, plus an extra for Maddie.

Last week, Lexi saw a Metabolic Geneticist and we had some interesting discussions. We don't have results from any of the tests yet. One of the interesting things done was a full family tree complete with circles and squares and lots and lots of questions asked and answered.

Today while talking with a different doctor, a disease/syndrome was discussed and the doctor mentioned that it's an inherited disease from some gene mutation. While the discussion progressed, he stated that well, we would know such and such because my sons, brothers or uncles would have it.

I don't have sons.
I don't have brothers.
I don't have uncles.

Hmmm.

How's that for a conundrum?

See, I have three girls.
I am one of four girls.
My mom is one of four girls.

So, we don't know if we have the gene mutation.

Only time will tell. Thankfully, if we do have it, the syndrome is much less severe in females than males.

And that leads me to wonder, is this why my family line is that of girls? And I can't help but think about the lost pregnancies. Was Maddie's twin a boy? I know, it doesn't matter, but I can't help it. A few years ago a doctor mentioned in passing something about genes and girls and inherited issues and boys and some other mumbo jumbo. Now this. And so, this mother's heart begins to wonder.

And there you have it.

An update on our genetics conundrum.

Kidney Walk 2012!

It's that time... Kidney Walk time!

The Fort Worth kidney walk is on March 24th. We invite all of our friends and family to come out to the Trinity Park on Saturday morning, March 24th and support Maddie in raising funds for kidney research.

Our team goals this year are: 75 team members and $5,000.

Colors: Purple T-shirts. (we will order tshirts on March 1st. They will be purple with lime green Maddie's Team)

Click on the link below to join our team today!!

http://donate.kidney.org/site/TR/Walk/NorthTexas?px=1768506&pg=personal&fr_id=4300


The kidney walk is such an important day for Maddie. It's the one day of the year that she is truly celebrated and supported for who she is.


If you can join us on the 24th, but are not up to walking, we will have a tent set up for the non-walkers!


Any questions? Send me an email!