It's been a while !

Wow ! I haven't posted anything for a while so I figured I'd better get back at it.  We've had some changes around here lately.  My husband has recently become semi-retired.  He still works part time at a job he loves and he has an assistant to pick up the slack.  He spends his 'retired' time taking care of his Mom and Aunt, running errands, and doing crossword puzzles.  I keep busy babysitting for our 2 year old grand baby.  What fun she is!! 

We've been doing some of the little jobs around the house that we've put off for a while.  And, after 25 years, I have finally repainted our kitchen.  It is now a lovely shade of light blue and I love it!  It used to be a cream colored wallpaper with little pink and blue flowers...I know.....80's country ! Now the walls are solid light blue and the trim is bright white.  I also put some white metal 'ceiling' tiles behind the stove as a back splash.  LOVE IT ! 

I've had a stack of framed hand painted (by my Mom) Christmas cards sitting around for a while so I finally got those hung up.

There is still alot to do, mainly painting and wallpapering but that's all going to have to wait until after Christmas.

The biggest job we tackled was putting beadboard on our bedroom ceiling.  We're still not quite finished with it.  Over Thanksgiving, our son-in-law, a friend, our daughter's boyfriend and my husband all worked at taking the old ceiling down (what a mess!)  and then putting the beadboard up.  The last few days my husband and his friend have been putting up the trim to cover the seams.  Tonight I helped my husband put up most of what was left to do...there's one board left to hang.  It really needed doing. I'm ashamed to tell you what is was like before we fixed it.  There were two spots where the plaster had fallen down.  The smaller one was covered with a piece of plywood. The bigger one had...     a black trash bag, cut open and duct taped to the ceiling. Yep.  I wish I had thought to take a before picture but to be honest I probably would have been too embarrassed to post it.  If fact, I can't believe I'm even telling you now.

I thank God everyday for a roof over our heads because I know so many people don't have one.  And sometimes I wonder if it's so important that it looks nice, but I think God wants us to at least take care of what He has given us. I am perfectly satisfied to have an old house with uneven walls and creaky floors.  I don't like it when older homes are made modern.  Our house is about 100 years old but I think it was remodeled sometime in the 1940's.  When we bought it it was in the process of being upgraded so we just papered and painted before moving in.  That was 25 years ago.  It's time to update things again.   I don't have to have the nicest, prettiest, or even the neatest house around.  I'm just really grateful that it keeps us warm and dry.  Oh, and by the way, what is the big hub-bub about granite counter tops?  Give me a good butcher block any day! 

So, that's what has been taking up our time lately.  I have several book reviews to post so the next several posts with be catching up with them..I want to live up to my commitment and do as I promised so I'll be posting those over the next several days. 

Christmas is coming and with it all the business and stress that seems to come with it.  Every year I hope that it will be less stressful than the one before.  Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.  I'm praying that we all can keep it in perspective and remember what the true reason for Christmas is.   The birth of Jesus, God's son and our way of salvation.  He is the Prince of Peace so I going to try to make this Christmas a little more peaceful. Over the course of the holiday, we'll have a houseful with all our children home.  I can't wait!  I'm trying not to stress over the preparations.  I'll let you know how that works out.

Book giveaway no. 1

I've never done a book giveaway here so I figured it was about time. Of course, the fact that I have a stack of duplicate books helped me decide. How did I get a stack of duplicates?  Well.....There is this store near us called Ollie's.  Maybe you have one near you. If you do and are a reader, you HAVE to go there!  So, whenever I go there I always look through their tons of books and usually find a few that I know I haven't read before.  That doesn't mean they weren't already sitting on my shelves at home though. The same with Dollar General.  Ours doesn't have a large selection but they usually have one of two . That's how I ended up with 3 copies of one title.  I see popcorn a great price and go nuts!  Now you, dear readers, can profit from my nuttiness.  I plan to do a series of giveaways in the next few months.  Each giveaway will include at least two books of the same genre (fancy word).

For this giveaway I'm asking you to go to my Etsy shop then come back here and tell me what item in my shop you like the best.  Also, in the body of this blog post there are two words that obviously don't belong in the text. (My shameless attempt to get you to read this) You need to tell me what  the words are.  I also need some way to contact you so leave me your email (you (at) email (dot) com ) or similar. I'll use that random generator thingy to pick a winner.

So to recap, to win the books, do 2 things:
1- Tell me what item in my Etsy shop you like most
2- Tell me what 2 words don't belong

That's all there is to it!!  I'll bet you're wondering quack what books you'll win, aren't you? Here they are:
drum roll please.................................

The winner will get ALL of these historical Christian romances:

Sophie's Dilemma by Lauraine Snelling (Hardcover)

 

The Lightkeeper's Daughter by Colleen Coble

 

Bees in the Butterfly Garden by Maureen Lang

 

These books are all new. Bees in the Butterfly Garden was provided to me by Tyndale House Publishing.

 

This giveaway starts Sept. 17, 2012 and ends Sept. 30, 2012.  I'll pick the winner Oct. 1, 2012. Open to US mailing addresses only.

 

Feel free to tell your friends and their friends and their friends, etc. to enter. Hope you win!!! 

(P,S, I'm hiding all the comments just to keep it honest!)