Wednesday Word: De-clutter

It's a new year.  A time for new beginnings.  A time for cleaning out . . .  to organize . . .  to de-clutter.

It's been on my mind too.  My sweet momma has come out to the farm to help me go through the boys' rooms, closets, and toy bins. She loves to do that kind of stuff.  Really.  She does.

But so much of my house . . . way more than just their rooms . . . gets cluttered up and messed up with our every day three little boys' life. . . book bags . . . shoes . . coats . . . in the closet floor.

Video games . . . dvds . . . board games . . . on the bookshelves.

I'm really not much better with my stuff either. 

I have so much stuff too.  Really.  And I don't know why or what the reason is for all this stuff either.  My  momma has decided that the master bedroom is her next project.  :/

I haven't been too eager for her to come out and get started on mine and Dave's bedroom.  I really don't want to hear her comments regarding all my clothes (that I can't wear) and craft stuff (I won't ever use) and sewing stuff (that's been a work in progress for years).  

And then my devotion this morning . . .

Matthew 6:19-34

New International Version (NIV)

Treasures in Heaven

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  {source}

Wow!  God really convicted me today with these words.  Am I storing up treasures in my walk-in closet and in my drawers and with the knick-knacks sitting around my house?

Moths and vermin and thieves . . . Yuck!  

Am I storing up treasures in heaven?  Or are my treasures being stored up here on earth?  For where your treasure is . . . there your heart will be also.

Is my heart really committed to my treasures in heaven or is my heart committed to the things of this earth sitting in my closet and packed away in my rubbermaid containers?  

And soooooo today's word is de-clutter.  I'm going to de-clutter my life of all these excess and useless items and clothes and objects that are not treasures to me and my family.  I'm going to clear up my surroundings of all this clutter and focus on storing up treasures in heaven.  :)  And without all this clutter in and about me, I'll be able to focus on my true treasure . . . where my heart truly is . . . with my God and with heavenly treasures.

So join me and my momma this new year as we de-clutter away at Ferrell Farm with . . . 

                                 the Ferrell boys and me!

The 2013 Year in Review

I made this video on Slidely to highlight some of the fun times we shared during this past year.  Hope you enjoy it!


The Ferrell Boys and Me in 2013 by Slidely Slideshow

Happy New Year from . . .

                               the Ferrell boys and me!

Christmas Craft: Nativity Stocking Holders

I saw these awesome Nativity Stocking Holders on U Create blog last year and ordered the vinyl cut-outs immediately.

[source]

But I never got around to making them last year (2012).

I bought some stocking holders during after-Christmas sales last year for 75% off . . .

 and put them back for this Christmas.  Here's what I did:

First I removed the snowman and santa from the glittered base by removing the screws.

I sanded the glitter off and spray painted them white.

I found a 2x6 board out in the barn and got my sweet Daddy to cut it for me to accommodate the vinyl cut-outs.

Painted them all white and after they were completely dry, I lightly sanded them.

I laid out the vinyl cut-outs and carefully applied them to the painted wood.

Carefully peeled the paper off to reveal the sticky part of the vinyl.

Carefully place the sticker on the wood.  Carefully.

And slowly and carefully I applied the vinyl cut-outs to each block of wood.  (I don't know why the seasoning salt is sitting out there.)

At this point, I gathered up all my materials and headed to my Daddy's workshop.  DIY crafting is much more fun with Daddy!  :)

Daddy helped me attach the wooden blocks to the metal base. 

Me and the drill aren't always friendly with each other.  :)

After attaching the metal bases, I sprayed the finished stocking holder with a clear coat acrylic spray.  

I love them! 

Of course, they totally blocked the TV!  That's something I'll have to fix before next year!  

The boys kept moving them to see the TV so I never hung their stockings.  I had actually planned to make some burlap stockings for the boys and replace the Santa stockings that I've used for the past few years, but I didn't get to it.  So that's a project for next Christmas.

You can order the vinyl cut-outs too.  Go to the Ucreate blog and contact Becky. She quit taking orders before December 1st, but will probably sell them again in 2014.  If you go down the comments, you can find her email address and contact her about purchasing them.  I think I paid around $10 for the set.

I know Christmas is past and the new year has begun, but I never finished posting everything we did this Christmas season, so I'll be sharing more of the Christmas adventures and activities of . . .

                            the Ferrell boys and me!

The Wednesday Word

Proverbs 22:6

King James Version (KJV)

6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.  [source]

Here we are waiting on the Christmas Parade for this year.  It was really cold that night.  I didn't want to get out in the cold weather for the parade because I had already been out in it earlier. The freezing cold had gotten into my bones, and I couldn't seem to get warm no matter how hard I tried.

The boys came home from school expecting to go to the parade that night.  I hated to disappoint them so I conditioned our trip back into town to watch the parade on their acceptance that we sit in the car until we could see the actual parade floats coming down the road.

I didn't want to stand out in the cold waiting.  I didn't want the boys standing out in the cold waiting either.

They agreed.  When we got there, despite their earlier agreement to my conditions, the boys still pleaded to stand out in the cold with everyone especially their friends.  But I stood firm.

Once we saw the first of the parade topping the hill, I allowed the boys to get out and wait with everyone else.   .  .  with their warm coats on!

It was soooo cold!  They were freezing.  Look at Shane's chattering teeth and red nose! 

It didn't take long before they were huddled next to me trying to warm up.  I didn't have to ask them to get in the car once Santa and Mrs. Claus at the end of the parade rolled past us.

 All this to say that training up children to wear their super warm clothes for the freezing cold during a Christmas parade is best done by letting them "freeze" a little during the parade.  Fortunately, no children got sick from this training exercise, and hopefully they learned a lesson about bundling up for the cold!

Training up boys that sometimes learn the hard way is how it's done with . . .

                              the Ferrell boys and me!

Jeff the Elf's Christmas Mischief

For the past 3 years we've been blessed/cursed with an Elf on the Shelf named Jeff.

I say blessed because my boys love him.

I say cursed because he makes a serious mess!

Here's are some highlights of the mischievous antics that Jeff got into during our Christmas season 2013:

1)  A little Hotty Toddy for the Ole Miss fans in the house:

2)  Some mischief in the dum dum sucker canister:

3)  Motorcycle mayhem:

4)  Our milk mysteriously turned green:

5)  An elfin warning:

6)  A little zip line fun:

7)  A messy snowball fight in my kitchen with the minions:

Jeff caught red-handed with the "snowballs".

The minions are prepared for a battle.

8)  A computer screen message from Jeff:

While Zach was reading this message, Jeff started typing an additional question for Zach.

That totally freaked Zach out!  He ran to the kitchen to see how Jeff could be typing him a message.  I guess some elfin magic?!?

9)  Some fun craft activities hidden in the oven:

10)  Some hot chocolate and cookies are just what an elf needs sometimes:

and finally . . .

11) Jeff said the beards are back!

And so ends the Christmas season and our time with Jeff, our elf on the shelf.  Even though he makes a mess most every where he goes, I wouldn't trade the fun he creates every Christmas season for . . . 

                           the Ferrell boys and me!

Christmas Eve Blunder!

This has not been my finest Christmas ever.

Somewhere along the way . . . I got tired . . . unmotivated . . . and too busy to do everything I normally do.

I had icicle lights hanging on the front porch from last year that only needed to be hooked up to an extension cord.  Didn't do it.

In fact, I didn't decorate the outside of my house except for the single Christmas wreath I hung on the front door.

I didn't mail Christmas cards this year even though I still had last year's Christmas cards in the envelopes, addressed, and ready to go out . . . from last year mind you . . . and I still didn't mail them out!

And then on Christmas eve . . . after all the boys were in the bed . . . and Dave and I were in the bed . . . it hit me!

We didn't leave any reindeer food sprinkled on the lawn!

We didn't leave Santa any cookies and milk!

And Horror upon Horrors!  I forgot to unpack the boys' stockings!

I sat straight up in bed.  What to do?!?  

Little Debbie snack cakes will have to do for Santa . . .

The stockings were packed up in a box in the loft of the barn.  

So I had to improvise.

Rubber boots set out by the fireplace . . . in the hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there!  Ha!

Santa got the hint and filled the boots just like he would have filled their stockings.

The boys loved it!  They thought it was so cool.  (Please excuse the stamped images on Alex's stomach.  Apparently he got bored waiting on me in the car and decided to stamp his stomach several times with my notary seal stamp. )  (This is my life with boys!)  :)  

And so another Christmas has past and . . . .

Even though I didn't do everything I had planned to do or decorate everything I had planned to decorate . . . . 

I still had a wonderful Christmas spent with my boys and my wonderful church family and friends.

And Santa came to see the Ferrell boys . . . 

Even though I didn't leave the magic Reindeer food sprinkled out on the lawn for Santa's reindeer and  . . .

Even though I didn't leave homemade cookies for Santa to snack on and . . .

Even though I didn't have stockings hanging for Santa to fill . . .

The boys got lots of presents and goodies from Santa and a Merry Christmas was had by all including . . .

                         the Ferrell boys and me!

Christmas Eve with The Holcombe Family

We always spend Christmas Eve with my family opening presents and nibbling on finger foods.  My sister brought something she called a redneck hors d'oeuvre:  Trashy Taters.  :)

Recipe for that delicious tater trash coming soon!

During Thanksgiving my SIL Marlana and I hit some late night black Friday sales at Walmart on the Friday night after Thanksgiving.  Most of the crazies had gone home by then, but we still were able to capture a few good deals.

Like $16 Mp3 players.  The boys loved them - even Shane.

Michelle scored Big-Time with the presents she got the boys.

Shane a Stuffie and some cool dinosaur transforming toy.

Alex a Batman cave.

And this blurry picture is Zach opening his WWE Allstars video game.

Michelle ROCKS as an Aunt!

PawPaw surprised the boys with handmade gifts "wrapped" in plastic trash bags!  :)

A desk for Shane:

Shelves for all the boys to hold the personalized wooden bats I got for them.

The boys wanted every kind of electronic technology item that apple makes . . . iphone, ipod, ipad, etc.

We aren't ready to make that kind of investment for the boys at this point in their life.  They have broken the screen of two tablets already, lost several mp3 players, and countless video games.  We both have told the boys that they must show us that they can be responsible for these gadgets before we could consider spending the kind of money the apple products cost.  

However . . . 

Dave did some investigating and found some 10 inch tablets (I don't know the brand name) for the great price of $118 apiece so . . .

They came in a protective case that also has a keyboard that hooks up to the tablet.

Shane wasn't as quick to open his present, but you can see the happy anticipation on his face as he struggles to get his present opened.

They were so excited!  It was their Big Present from us and a compromise between their desires for an ipad/ipod/iphone and our struggle to keep some perspective in their lives.   

Alex is in the 4th grade and he has a tablet.  When I was in the 4th grade, my big gift was a Barbie dream house and Barbie airplane!

Let's not even discuss what I got in Kindergarten!  Shane, who is in Kindergarten, was so excited about his tablet.  It's really not fair to compare my childhood "wants" with the "wants" of my children today.  Shane is as proficient on the tablet as my 11 year old Zach when comes to downloading games and watching Netflix.  I just hope he takes care of it.


The highlight of the night for my sister and I was when my Daddy surprised us with his last homemade item.

A little wooden stick puppet that dances on a board.  

When Michelle and I were little, my daddy used to entertain us with a similar puppet . . . but alas, we can no longer find that puppet.

So Daddy made one for me and my boys, and he made one for Michelle.

Here's some videos of my Daddy demonstrating how to use the wooden stick puppet. 



Isn't my daddy the cutest thing?  Here's another video:



And then Alex had to demonstrate his technique:



So much fun and great memories for us all!

The final gift that night was for Shane.  I had actually hidden it in my closet and then forgot where I hid it!  Ha!

The only thing Shane wanted for Christmas was the Swap Skylanders video game for the Wii.  

My sweet SIL Marlana picked it up on Thursday night shopping during the Black Friday craze.  Which was a good thing cause it's expensive otherwise!  And that was seriously the only thing he wanted!  I asked him one time if he wanted mommy to get him a pony for Christmas and he looked at me with all seriousness and said, "I told you I only want Swap Skylanders for Christmas!"  Ha!

Dave and I didn't get in any of the pictures for our gift exchange.  And I missed getting pictures of everyone else opening their presents.  Bizarre!  

Dave did very good.  He got me a new camera.  A Nikon.  :)

I got sweet Dave several necessaries like T-shirts, blue jeans, and socks, but I also gave him a Hamilton Beach Scoop coffee maker. 

It makes single cup servings like a Keurig, but you can use your own coffee and not have to use the k-cups.  Dave loves it!

And that wraps up Christmas Eve with my family and . . .

                               the Ferrell boys and me!