Amazing Craft Room Transformation and a Huge Weight Lifted!

Life can really get in the way of our hobbies and relaxing down time! In the midst of a crazy whole house remodel, being a 24/7/365 caregiver to my sweet Mother before her passing and being a  homeschooling Mom can really create havoc. After my Mother passed away we had 48 hours to clear out her apartment before the end of the month came, so pretty much we just boxed up everything and brought it into my craft room/blogging office. 

 We just kept piling (boxed & unboxed stuff) in more and more of my Mother's belongings into the craft room/blogging office. And even more and more got shoved in there, the furniture went into a storage unit. We had taken moving boxes and just emptied drawers, kitchen cabinets, nightstands, closets etc. With no time to waste we got it all done (rent of $2,500 was due in 48 hours!). I am not sure that I would exactly call it "done" because now the hard part comes, sorting, purging, bill paying, donating, cleaning, crying, aching, sorrow...yes, all those things came about and allowed for healing. 

I was thankful that the homeschool young man spent some time with me over Christmas break digging through things and sorting piles (Keep, Not Sure, Donate, Giveaway, Send to Siblings, Trash, Give to Mom's Friends). I guess the more honest thing was the homeschool young man was my emotional support dog (hahaha, as I lovingly referred to him). He was my pack mule, hauling 30 gallon black trash bags out to the garbage, putting the 30 gallon white trash bags full of keep stuff to another room, hauling the XL moving boxes from U-Haul (BTW those are AWESOME an only cost around .30¢ each!) full of donation items out to a waiting truck and most importantly hugging Mom (me) when I found something that was special to my Mom and I would start crying. Below is a picture of my Mom with her favorite stuffed animal and buddy CHEEZE HEAD.

We got rid of the Donate, Giveaway, Send to Siblings, Give to Mom's Friends, and Trash in short time. It was the tedious sorting that became an exhausting process: what to keep, what else to purge, how long to keep important documents etc. Fast forward to life happening, my dear father-in-law became ill on again and off again and he passed away several months after my Mother did. So again began the process of Keep, Not Sure, Donate, Giveaway, Send to Siblings, Trash, Give to Dad's Friends. My mess in the craft room/blogging office sort of got put on hold for emotional reasons and life happening. 

With this death there was a farm and farm house that we had spent every Christmas of our dating/married life (all but one in which we went to my parents home in Texas that year with our newly adopted baby), we spent every Easter and every Thanksgiving in that house, my husband and all his siblings grew up there, all the grand kids and great-grand kids played there. Here is a photo of the homeschooled young man with his dear Grandpa teaching him about gardening. (sorry it's an old faded picture from a wall calendar that I made for all the grandparents many moons ago).

We enjoyed the beautiful views of the property from the swing, hubby and I spent hours of our dating years and early years of marriage in the machine shed working on Dune Buggy's. There was all that to clean out too, a huge farm machine shed, two car garage and a full basement, not to mention the 5 bedroom house. The siblings all worked together so well to get things under control, purged and sorted. The Lord blessed with the home and property selling very quickly, fast enough to shock everyone in a down housing market!

Moving on into the next phase of my craft room/blogging office clean up, it was daunting to dig through and sort everything. I would start sorting for a few hours and feel like I had made ZERO progress and just made more of a mess of things. I would stop for a few days/weeks and then start again, only to do a few hours, again more of a mess and feeling as though nothing was getting accomplished. Construction dust was all over from our recent remodeling project. It was just a mess and it was mixed in with all my blogging work piles and craft supplies. Something had to be done!

I truly felt that this was just a lost cause. While surfing the Internet the next day I came across a local professional organizing company. This was not just Jane Doe who likes to organize, this was the real deal!!! These people deal with true hoarding situations, situational clutter, bug infested properties,  death clean-outs, real estate staging, they help busy Mom's and kids with tons of toy clutter, and just general home and office organizing. I kept their number for a month or so, thinking, I can do this myself, why pay someone; that is so silly and frivolous to do!

Well, I finally made the call and hired the company for 5 hours, the Lord blessed my efforts of giving in to asking for help and I got 2 organizers for the price of 1. They were training a new gal and she came as a free apprentice. What a blessing! They were so down to earth and non-judgmental. We laughed and had a really good time! It was like having my girlfriends over for a decluttering party. 

You would not believe what we got done in that amount of time. It was scary though, they had a totally different game plan and approach than I was using in my past attempts at getting this mess under control. We started by emptying out the ENTIRE ROOM into my dining room!! So, you could not walk in my dining room, I kept thinking hubby is going to come home for dinner and freak out because the other room had exploded out into the dining room! 

Deep breath here, we then wiped down all the surfaces in the room, walls, windows, floors, baseboards etc. Then decided what furniture would go back in, wiped it all down, placed it back in the room. Then we went item by item and decided if it was TRASH, KEEP, DONATE, NOT SURE. They brought these huge black construction size trash bags and they even had cute shopping bags with handles for the donate items. We also utilized one of my all time favorite things; the curb side FREE pile (everything disappeared within 30 minutes of being drug out of the house!)

See how the room is really shaping up? I'm tellin' ya, call a professional, don't be embarrassed, do it NOW!!! CALL NOW OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY! CALL NOW! 

I have a clean, empty, uncluttered surface to craft on, to scrapbook on, to do whatever I want on!

Really, you must look past the Bob The Builder blue & yellow paint, the homeschooled young man used this room when he was a little boy and hubby has yet to get around to painting this...LOL. So I just go with it! 

We incorporated a bunch of my late Mother's craft bins and craft items in along with my scrapbooking items. Plus, I had a ton of stuff leftover from teaching crafting classes and that all fit into these bins and the organizers labeled all my bins. They gave me ideas on how to store things more effectively. They hauled out all the trash bags for me and they hauled away all the donation items too! I was just left with this....

All my goodies had a home, the remaining items that I decided to keep from my Mother's stuff were put into a tote for me to go through when I was ready at a later date. The organizers found a lamp I was not using and they set it up, with an outlet strip (that was found in a drawer) for easy access to plug in my crafting toys, they organized all the bins, drawers and cabinets. They put together a display tower that I had in storage and got everything set up and ready for use! I did not need to buy anything, we just repurposed things that we came across around my house and/or in my Mom's stash.

All my cardstock, scrapbooking papers, rubber stamps, inks and ink pads, embossing folders, ribbon, glue, scissors and all that stuff was all organized into these bins (from my Mom and my stash). THEN THEY LABELED IT ALL!!!!!

In less than 5 hours....that is right, we were not even finished with the 5 hours yet! I know, totally unbelievable. So, they asked me if there was anything else that I wanted organized since we still had time left. I was just numb, I could not believe that we had done all this work already, after I had tried and tried to do it myself and just would give up after a few hours.

Onward we moved to some cabinets in my dining room and they straightened up our homeschool supplies, books, my junk cabinet (the one with hammers, screwdrivers, light bulbs, etc), then moved to the living room (which had been filled with boxes of my Mom's stuff and my craft stuff that I had started sorting and failed at). Now that the living room was uncluttered and the former items that were in the boxes were now beautifully organized into the above photos, the organizers then staged my living room furniture and rehung my drapes so they looked nice and fancy with crisp folds (like in a magazine!)

And then, just like that, it was time for us to say our goodbyes, we hugged and they left. With all the trash gone, no need for me to worry about dragging the donations somewhere; they were gone too. All that I was left with were a few cute bags with handles that were going to friends (homeschool blessings I passed on to some friends) and a small box containing gifts that needed wrapped for Christmas.

Praise the Lord! It was sure hard to make that call for help, that first step is always a killer one! However, my family is so blessed and so am I.

I left to get myself the best gluten free pizza in town and waited for my husband to arrive home. I got a text right away saying "Great job!" The homeschooled young man came home and told me that the house looked really great! So I would say it was a win-win situation and well worth the money!

Below I have included a few links (I received nothing in return for posting these links) for you to get the help you need. My clutter was deemed as "Situational Clutter" due to the deaths and home remodel that contributed to my clutter.

National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals
The Institute for Challenging Disorganization
Find My Organizer

This has been so freeing and such a burden has been lifted. God is a God of order and not of clutter and disfunction. I'm less tired now when I am at home, I don't dread my craft room/blogging office anymore. Lift your burden and don't be afraid, call a professional (cleaning ladies and maid services are not trained in handling clutter) and get it done!

Moe

UPDATE The Comfort Zone, Getting Organized in 2014: Big Blue Tote

YIPPEEE!! The Big Blue Tote is finally empty! But guess what? I am going to have to fill it up again with some other papers and such that I found hidden away in my scrapbooking room.

 

 EMPTY Big Blue Tote

 

Check back next time to see where we are and what area we plan to work on next. Remember our theme for getting organized in 2014. Romans 14:13 "Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Is my method of being a keeper at home causing my homeschooled young man to stumble? To learn messy ways? To try to take the easy way out? Am I teaching my homeschooled young man to be a Godly husband to my future daughter in law? Am I teaching my homeschooled young man what a Godly wife and mother is like?Galatians 6:9 "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

Ok, Homeschool Mamma's (and non homeschool mamma too, I know several that read my blog) out there how many of us can relate to the second half of this verse? LOL...yeah, most of us are ready to faint at any moment! But we need to look at the first part of the verse, obviously the Lord knew that we would be weary and ready to drop over in doing well (His idea of well and not the world's idea of well! REMEMBER THAT!)

Share your own favorite ways to get organized in the new year.

UPDATE The Comfort Zone, Getting Organized in 2014: Living Room

Well here we go! The moment we have all been waiting for. Several days of organizing, cleaning and getting this decluttered. This is what we came up with. Our living room is VERY narrow, so it is easy to get cluttered up.

Wow!! That was a lot of work, but it sure does feel good to have it done. It is almost like walking into a hotel room or a bed and breakfast, very relaxing and enjoyable. It is hard when you actually use your home 24/7, 365. We are always here and it's so easy to make messes.

Next area is a big blue tote (love the color of this tote) of papers and miscellaneous stuff from when I was ill last year. About 3 months of papers, junk mail, magazines and general clutter got dumped into this tote. I am starting to view Rough Totes and Sterelite containers as a big NO NO for my house! lol. They just don't ever seem to want to stay empty. One of my favorite stores to go to is the Container Store...lol...keep me out of there!

 

YEAH, that is right, there are a lot of paper trails in here!

Here is where I plan to get rid of most of the paper trail.

Basket #1 taking to next homeschool meeting

Basket #2 important papers that need kept (receipts, tax stuff etc)

Basket #3 trash

 

In the come coming days we shall see how this all pans out. I have started working through the basket a bit, but have a lot more to go. Due to the weather my wonderful husband was able to come home early from work. So while I worked through a small section of the blue tote, he was gracious enough to unload and load the dishwasher. A double blessing is what I got.

 Check back next time to see where we are and what area we plan to work on next. Remember our theme for getting organized in 2014. Romans 14:13 "Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Is my method of being a keeper at home causing my homeschooled young man to stumble? To learn messy ways? To try to take the easy way out? Am I teaching my homeschooled young man to be a Godly husband to my future daughter in law? Am I teaching my homeschooled young man what a Godly wife and mother is like?Galatians 6:9 "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

Ok, Homeschool Mamma's (and non homeschool mamma too, I know several that read my blog) out there how many of us can relate to the second half of this verse? LOL...yeah, most of us are ready to faint at any moment! But we need to look at the first part of the verse, obviously the Lord knew that we would be weary and ready to drop over in doing well (His idea of well and not the world's idea of well! REMEMBER THAT!)

Share your own favorite ways to get organized in the new year.

The Comfort Zone, Getting Organized in 2014: Living Room

Getting Organized in 2014: Living room.
Well here we go, a picture of our living room. The homeschooled young man was working on taking down the Christmas tree and putting away the ornaments. Then some how, for some reason, why I have no idea, the homeschooled young man STOPPED...lol and left it like this.

the after Christmas mess...


So as you can see clutter starts where we stop. I see school books, boxed up ornaments, a Christmas tree, photo packets, wrapping paper, wooden craft decorations and Sunday school materials. Just dropped and left. So let us see what we can come up with.

Check back next time to see where we are and what area we plan to work on next. Remember our theme for getting organized in 2014. Romans 14:13 "Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way." Is my method of being a keeper at home causing my homeschooled young man to stumble? To learn messy ways? To try to take the easy way out? Am I teaching my homeschooled young man to be a Godly husband to my future daughter in law? Am I teaching my homeschooled young man what a Godly wife and mother is like?
Galatians 6:9 "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

Ok, Homeschool Mamma's (and non homeschool mamma too, I know several that read my blog) out there how many of us can relate to the second half of this verse? LOL...yeah, most of us are ready to faint at any moment! But we need to look at the first part of the verse, obviously the Lord knew that we would be weary and ready to drop over in doing well (His idea of well and not the world's idea of well! REMEMBER THAT!)

Share your own favorite ways to get organized in the new year.

Book Review TOO MUCH STUFF

Too Much stuff
by Kathryn Porter

Well this book was a real eye opener for me. So much of what I have read before on this subject talked about being born a certain way; organized, messy, etc. Now I see that all those labels are just excuses for the way we act.

The book is set up for general reading or a group study format with questions at the end of the book for each chapter to learn more and for reflection.

Not once during the reading of Porter’s book did I feel shameful, beat up or paralyzed. It’s easy to be overwhelmed when reading a book on the topic of clutter, but Too Much Stuff made me look at my “stuff” in a whole new light. No Rough Tote or Sterelite container was ever going to solve my clutter problem! Our 12 year old son went through the book with me. Unfortunately he has picked up my clutter habit over the years. Reading the book together has been a turning point for both of us . My son would give a shout out at the start of each chapter as to who had what clutter issue, him or me. We use to love to go to yard sales, now every time we pass by one he yells out

“CLUTTER SALE!” Once while we were traveling we saw a really neat looking shed with collectibles and such for sale. We both wanted to go in and look around, but he said “Mom, I really want to go in there, but I think that place is full of clutter!”

A quote from the book that has stuck with me is, “But this is why: when you cling to your possessions, you hoard your heart from others. You bury it in the stuff around you. Loved ones believe the stuff is more important to you than they are. They wish you could love them as much as you love the clutter.” WOW! That statement says so much.

Thanks to Kathryn Porter and Too Much Stuff, my son and I are now official CLUTTER Warriors. We still struggle with “Drop it” and “Leave it,” but it’s coming along.

Too Much Stuff will help you to answer some of life’s nagging questions such as:

“Can I get rid of gifts that loved ones give me?” “How do I get paper clutter under control?” “What collections can I keep?” “Why can’t I keep a clean house?”

“How can I get beyond the saboteurs?”

Check out Kathryn Porter’s book Too Much Stuff: Winning the War Against Clutter

published by Beacon Hill Press.

As a side note here, my son and I were able to toss out, give away and sell more than 30 bags of our clutter!! We have a way to go, but it’s been a very freeing experience. The hardest part of all of this was letting go of cards and letters from loved ones. I finally tossed out all the condolence cards that were sent to my parents upon the death of my sister Coreen 43 years ago. I was a toddler when she died suddenly and for me those cards were the only tie I had left to her. But really what were they doing for me? Nothing but taking up space. For my son, it was gifts. He kept every little thing that was given to him, for fear of offending the giver if they asked him about the gift. He even kept little trinket items. He is learning that if someone gives you a gift, you can do whatever you please with it. If you can’t use it, then pass it on to someone who can be blessed by it. It’s a daily struggle for both of us, especially walking in the door from a long day and just doing the “Drop it” and “Leave it” cycle.

I hope that you will be blessed by reading this book and I would love to hear how you have grown through reading the pages of Too Much Stuff.
Moe

I received a copy of this book from the author in order to write the review.

LOVE THIS!!

I just came across this and it looks really cool!!

I've been doing some home organization and de-cluttering this week, so I'm looking for ideas to use the space that I have been blessed with.

I know as homeschoolers our kids do not have lockers, but boy this could work really well in a small space with a closet. Hang up your school supplies and books, all hidden away in a closet!! It's affordable too. Around $25.00.

 

 LockerWorks Hanging Locker Organizer

 

Comes in several different color choices and Amazon.com sell it. I'm an Amazon.com junkie! lol.......LOVE that company. It does have a lot of good reviews.

Thinking that if I come across some extra pocket $$$ I will have to get one of these.

 

Have a great week!

 

LEGOS, LEGOS, LEGOS!!!

Can any child have TOO many Legos? Well with having an only child, I'm thinking that we have too many here! lol.
This week was the 'cleaning of the Legos' here. They were all dusty and really needed cleaned up. Our son likes to keep his Lego creations out on display, well guess what? Dust loves Legos and we have dust mite allergies around here.

So into the bathtub went the Legos.

 Now they are all drying, this is just one small batch......LOL.

Through all this we learned about buoyancy and how things float or sink. We learned just how much dust can accumulate and how dust ends up acting like mud in water.

There are some great learning opportunities for our only children that we homeschool, in regards to Lego products. There are Lego 4-H groups, Lego Robotics 4-H groups, Lego Library Clubs,  and so much more!  There are also some cute builds to make over at Lego.com. Join the mailing list and they will send you a monthly item to build: make sure you print out the instructions when you get them, since the build will become locked after that month and you can't print it out after that. And of course there is the field trip of a life time LegoLand!!!  We have been to one of the LegoLands and had a lot of fun.

How have you incorporated Legos in to your homeschooling? One thing that we have done is purchase one of the Lego Sticker books such as Lego Minifigure Ultimate Sticker Collection.

We then take a notebook and our son puts stickers on the notebook paper and then writes a Lego story about the Mini-figures. It's been a lot of fun for us. And it helps with spelling, handwriting, creative writing and grammar  :O)       All in an easy fun format, it does not even feel like school. Yes, hahaha, it's that sneaky homeschool learning that our kids get in and don't even know it. Sometimes I will just have him grab the notebook and put a few stickers in and take off in the car on a busy day. I don't grade for penmanship on the days he is writing in the car though, as it's hard to write neatly in a moving car. Sometimes the stories conclude that day and other times the stories continue on. Why not write out a Lego lesson plan today! Surprise your child with some Lego fun.

  

Now for the million dollar question, how do yo organize all your child's Legos? We have been just dumping them into Rough Tote containers. But we are looking for something new and different. Our son wants those Lego drawers, but I refuse to pay $40 for them!

I can't wait to hear from you and get some organizing ideas.

Have a great week!

Moe



Book review coming your way soon!

Book review coming your way soon!

I just received a copy of Too Much Stuff from author Kathryn Porter and will be snuggling up with a warm blanket to read up on how I start "Winning the War Against Clutter." Stay tuned for more on this! It was also exciting to find out that Kathryn Porter and I have a lot in common, just a few things are chickens and homeschooling. What a small world.

Have a great week!

Organized bookshelves? Clutter? HELP ME!!

Moody Radio's In The Market Place with Janet Parshall Hour 2 today was entitled "Too Much Stuff"

It made me do some thinking and I even had my son listen to it. I plan to get the book. You can listen by going to Moody Radio. Here is a snapshot of Kathryn Porter talking with Janet Parshall today.

"Clutter expert Kathryn Porter joins us to clean up
our houses, and our hearts. Her popular book,
Too Much Stuff, now has a second edition.
She’ll share how God loves us amongst our messes"

Kathryn also has a website Clutter Wise check her out and see how you can conquer what is cluttering your life and it may not just be stuff that is cluttering it up.

So this brings me to my blog post for today:

I'm in need of some ideas on how to get our bookshelves more organized. I really think that we would use more of our materials if we could find them! lol.  Our son has been bored (we don't use that term, but for lack of another word I will  :-)  this past week and so he started digging through the bookshelves and found some science experiment books. He asked if he could do some and I told him that was fine, but to make sure that he marked the pages so that I could count the hours for the up coming school year ~YEAH for the teacher who has a Thinking Cap on!~ 

I also reminded him what science is all about: (Did I say that I just love this homeschool thing!?)
 *thinking ahead (what is going to happen),
 *thinking about why it's going to happen (cause/effect)
 *thinking about how it happened (process)
 *thinking about the outcome (was I correct in my assessment).

Got to love homeschooling and how kids love to learn. The teacher even told him that he could write in the book. GASP! In the past I have said "Don't write in that! I'll resell it." Well, I'm changing my tune on that one as of today, why not use it if you bought it. So write away! lol

Ok, now that I have taken us down that little rabbit trail (friends  you know how I am with rabbit trails, I've never met one that I won't follow!).

So on to organizing the books. I'm just not sure how to do it. I've got several different grades of materials and also many subject areas. One of my main areas that drives me CRAZY is the second shelf from the top on the right side. It's all the CD's DVD's, VHS's that are school stuff. What on earth can I do with those to get them orderly? It's just a mess and I try to hide it with my cute little shelf sitters. I have 2 snowman (ya know I can't pass up a snowman.) and a cute little scarecrow girl that falls off the shelf all the time. GGRR!  There is clutter on those shelves too, I have some recipe books and such that has made there way and other misc. items that need homes.

So send me some ideas on how I can get our school year off to an organized venture!  Feel free to post your areas that need some help and we can put our heads together.


Hugs,
Moe

Got clutter? Check this idea out.

This is such a great idea!!! I plan to start this up right away. chores for my ransom box.
$aving Make$ Cent$ website has some really neat ideas.
Thought this might help with the summer messes that kids seem to make around the house. She has some great chore ideas on her blog.

Have a great week!
Moe

Pantry Challenege Day 6

We cleaned out the refrigerator and had leftovers, along with corn from the freezer, canned fruit and veggies from the pantry. Sent hubby to work with cookies from the freezer and our large stash of fresh giant oranges from the local school band.

How are you doing? I have a large can of black beans, got any suggestions to hide those in something? We are not big bean eaters (well we like greenbeans......lol) and I bought those when I was on a 'lets get healthy kick.'  Yeah, the family really likes when mom gets on that high horse. lol

Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 5

I thought I would share some pictures of my stockpiles.......lol. I have a few.

First here is my stash of food that sits above my washer & dryer.

This is my NON gluten free stash of things that I need to use up.

My top of the refrigerator stash......ignore the dust up there! I'm too short to see it, so I don't dust if often :O)

My Lazy-Susan cabinet or better known as "The finger pinching spinner thing" to my toddler son back in the day. lol. Yes I have a ton of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce because the Amish salvage store has it for like .95¢ per bottle and the expiration date is 2013. YUM!

For some reason the server is rejecting my final picture, which is of a tiny cabinet that my Dh and Ds have munchies & snacks stored in. It's not real large, but it has Ritz Crackers, hot cocoa packets and stuff like that in it.

Feel free to share your stash photos with us. I've not even ventured to take pictures of the freezers yet.......lol. Maybe next week.

Happy frugal cooking this month.

Moe

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

That is what life seems to be all about.
2 Thessalonians 3:5
"And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ."

Tomorrow I see the first of many specialist, so we shall see what he has to say about it all.

I've kept busy here, decluttering and tossing stuff. I gathered up a large box full of scrapbooking supplies and gave them to a girl at church. And ya know those piles of papers that we all have, I've been sorting through those and have a rather large 'to be read pile!'. (yes, you know those hidden away piles of misc. papers, magazines, flyers and such that you had good intentions of reading.....lol).

I've also stumbled across a few Christmas gifts that need to be wrapped. Along with the latest homeschool class schedule for the spring semester, would like to sign our son up for a few classes, but not sure what the future holds as I have to wait 6-8 weeks before the doctors say that they will do any testing, that right there cuts into the Spring semester.

School has been going well, our son is working on a huge research paper on The Battle of Britain, I'm working on teaching him how to hone in on the topic, as he is pulling in way too much information (thinks he is doing a college paper!). He needs to narrow it down a bit, there is a TON of really neat info, but he needs to fine tune it.

The chickens are freezing their tail feathers off........lol. Not really but their water has been frozen over every morning. So it's for sure winter time. They are enjoying some goodies, we sliced up pumpkins yesterday and they like those. We have 1 watermelon left, I'm saving that for a mid winter treat, hoping it lasts.

Husband is burying himself in his work, that is how he deals with all this. No Christmas tree up yet, but I have a few snowmen out. I think we will forgo the tree this year since I just don't have the strength or energy to deal with it. In thinking along those lines, there was never any mention of Christmas decorations in the Bible, so I don't think that we are missing out on much this year, decorating seems to be a world's view of Christmas. We have been enjoying Christmas music and seeing the lights displayed on many homes near us. One tradition that we will keep for sure this year is driving to look at light displays. It just dawned on me that we did not get a Christmas tree up last year either, we were in the middle of a remodeling project and there was just no room for it. I used my Cricut Machine to make a cute cut out of a tree with a train underneath it.

What are some low key Christmas traditions that you enjoy as a family?

Moe