Living Room Reno & Other Things...

My children are playing really nicely on this Monday morning and so I'll update you with some pictures of our living room. And then I think you're all caught up with house reno's! Until the next one :) We just put the finishing touches on it on Saturday, ie we hung pictures and other things on the wall. This was a fairly easy project. We only had one wall of wallpaper to take down and I already knew what color I wanted - grey with yellow accents. I chose a darker grey for the actual living room and then a lighter grey for the front entrance wall and hallway. The hallway took us a long time because there was a lot of wallpaper and for some reason it did not come off as easy as all the previous stuff. We still need baseboards yet on the whole upstairs but we are waiting until we do the bathroom for that. I would also like to get new blinds on the big front window and then yellow sheer curtains as decorative side panels.

Here is Lyra helping with some wallpaper removal...

The finished living room! Seating area...

I found this buffet on Kijiji and totally fell in love with it! I think it turned out to be a perfect fit for this space...

We moved the piano to this wall because it is now completely on an inside wall and having it on this wall makes it much easier for me to sit beside my piano students. We had it on the wall that the buffet is on now, but then I was also sitting right in front of the big window when I was teaching, so I like this a lot better.

I created this subway art for our family recently because I love the idea of having our "family rules" posted somewhere in our house. It was a fun project because it made me (and hunky husband) have to think about what our family rules were going to be. I'm not completely happy with this yet because I just printed it on to paper that I already had at home and it looks quite amateur. Ideally I would like to have it printed a little bigger and on a canvas, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Any suggestions? I made it on Microsoft Word.

Here is an updated picture of our bedroom. We need a frame around the picture above our bed yet, but we are talking about building ourselves a new bed and getting a new headboard, so we will see what happens with that picture yet...

The girls enjoying a popcorn snack the other day...

Sad puppy because she doesn't get any popcorn...

So in my last post of what we did last summer I neglected to include pictures of one very important trip we made in September. Since the girls had been so good on the trip to B.C. and since we hadn't visited enough provinces for one summer, we decided to head east to Thunder Bay for the September long weekend. Our dear friends had moved there for a year and we wanted to see them and their new place! They also have a little girl and boy the same age as our girls! We had so much fun!

Here are some pics...

Picnic supper overlooking the lake. Very beautiful...

Teaching the little girls how to roll down the hill...

The men...

Morning...

We painted the girls nails while they ate their lunch...

We all went to this cute little amusement park that was so perfect for the 2 year old's! There was hardly anyone there so the girls got to ride a lot. Waiting in line for the carousel...

Playing at the park...

Out for dinner...

Out for a Sunday afternoon walk....

And then we took them home with us! Well, we left their dad behind, but he joined them later...

We had a sermon on this Bible verse on Sunday morning and I really loved how the minister instructed us on it. It was Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun - all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."

At first when you read this you think of the phrase "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." But no, God is telling us that he is in control, that he has planned our days, that he has given each day to us as a gift, and that in the end we all face the same fate - death. And this does not have to be a sad thing for us, but something good, so that we can realize that no matter how wise we are, or schooled and knowledgeable, what matters to God is how we take each day and use it to his glory. Because all men are heading to the same place even if you have tons of money, or are very smart. So we must live happy lives, enjoy the food gifts that he gives us, we must not be downtrodden or sad. We should be happy and have joyful hearts. And whatever job the Lord has given to us, whether is be architect, businessman, plumber, or housewife, we must work at it hard. This is going to be my goal over the next little while. To be happy, joyful, and whatever my hand finds to do, I'm going to work at it with all my might.