How do you clean?

Earlier this week I asked for parenting advice...and here I am now asking for cleaning advice. This may be a dumb post, but I'm curious as to how people clean their homes. Do they do it everyday? What do you use to clean? Etc.

As a mom of 2 and also working from 9 - 2, my house gets overlooked at times. I wouldn't say that I am a messy person, but my house is not ever immaculate looking. However, it aggravates me when it isn't.

A few things I do every morning to make it look "clean" are...

*make my bed every morning.

*pick up the living room.

*put dishes in sink.

*clean the kitchen table.

*sweep my kitchen.

I'm really bad about not folding laundry right away. And I'm even worse about not picking up "stacks" of things I have piled in our room.

I usually spend my Saturday's cleaning my house. So at least for 4 days everything is clean until life happens again. :) I clean the bathrooms, the kitchen, kids rooms, vacuum, clean floors, dust...and all that jazz. I love 409, Green Works (from clorox) spray, Comet, Costco Cleaning Wipes (because you get a huge amount), Orange Pledge and anything that has a lemon smell. I also love lighting candles and listening to music while I clean. It makes the experience better for me. For some odd reason I really enjoy cleaning because it feels productive. But sometimes I can get obsessive about it, but that's probably a character flaw having something to do with control. :)

So, this may be a really random post, but I would like to know what you do. Does it make a difference when you are a stay at home mom? Do you fall behind when you are always busy? Or do you keep on top of it because you are obsessed? :) Be honest.

Wimberley

When I was a teenager I spent every summer in Wimberley, Texas with some friends. It was my favorite place to go. Small town. Quiet. Good hamburgers. The River. And cute boys. Because that's all I cared about when I was there.

Thankfully, I found a cute boy of my own who loved taking me there. Still does. :)

So, yesterday we packed up the kids and took the long way to Wimberley. The shops have changed, but that's about it. It's still small. Still quiet. And they still have that same burger joint.

I was glad that we kept the tradition and brought the kids along. Plus, when else do you get to your 4 year old asking "Where are we going?" for an entire 45 minute drive? :)

A Quick Post

The kids spend their Friday mornings at my friend, Jenn's house. It is such a blessing because it allows me to go to staff prayer on Friday mornings and have one last weekend meeting before Sunday services. Plus, I know she LOVES them!!

This is just a little view into what they get to do over there. So fun. :)

Another quick note....

Jason had an amazing opportunity to go and meet Karl Rove last night with Sean (our pastor) and his friend Galen. There were only about 150 people there and they got to meet him. I know it was one of the neatest things he has ever gotten to be a part of. You can read all about it on his blog.

A Passion

Jason and I lead a small group on Wednesday nights. We've lead it for a little over a year now. I love our small group. I really do. Not just because they cook great food and kiss my babies either. For some reason, we recently hit a very fruitful spot in our group. Not that it was ever bad....it just wasn't "flowing". Jason and I really prayed about it and felt like God was leading us in a time of "getting back to the basics"...and in our minds that just meant sharing life together and loving Jesus. So, we kind of started all over and told everyone to start bringing a side dish. We had a lot of mac & cheese the first few weeks, but we all hung out, loved on all (what felt like) 42 children and got to know one another. In the meantime, our group started growing numerically and spiritually.

Tonight is one of those nights. Just got back from small group where we had awesome tacos. But even more so, I just got back from a night where I saw our group BE the church. A family in our congregation recently lost their father. It was totally and completely devastating and unexpected. There are 2 teenage boys involved and a now widowed wife. My heart has ached for them in every possible way over this past month as they have dealt with this grief. On top of it all, they have had some major home repairs come up and when you have just lost your husband, it all looks overwhelming I'm sure. But.... I have been brought to tears as I hear things like this from our group.....

"I got an unexpected check recently and have been wondering what we should do with it...I want to give it all to them...."

"I think I'll go tomorrow after work and do some painting at their house..."

"Yeah, let's pull together and go fix up the yard."

"We just felt like we were supposed to give them this check..."

And on the 8th we, and some other groups at RCCC, are going over there to do whatever needs to be done.

And they don't even know these people. They're on fire. They are living passionately. Being the church. Just as it should be.

I'd eat 2 lbs of mac & cheese every Wednesday night to see more of this.

I have no pictures, but I have great stories.

Okay, you see...I suck and have no pictures for the birthday week. Cause that's all that really mattered last week. (Try and believe that there IS heavy sarcasm with that) I have pictures of Jack & Rae's Fiesta Floats, but that needs to be a post by itself because of the insanity of just making those things for a 19 month & 4 year old....to only see them get thrown in the back of my car after they used it for 2.5 minutes ....but whatever. I will show you those pictures later.

Maybe.

Anywho, my week was FANTASTIC. No, seriously. It was. To be honest with you I never make a big deal out of my birthday. Jason and I go out usually, but this whole "birthday week" business has never come up before. I jokingly referred to it that way because of the little things that I was being "surprised" with all week. But now that I have experienced a birthday week...

GAME ON. It will be like that every year. You better believe it.

Kidding.

Kind of.

First, I was blessed beyond belief with this beautiful thing. I will not give names, but this someone special said that it was a gift from God and to say nothing more. So, that's all I'll say...plus..

HOLY COW..OMG...SERIOUSLY..WHAT? THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER.

Second, my friend (and our pastor's wife), Lauri, took me to this awesome little place downtown. It's one of my favorite places to go in the world. I love it and we had such a great time together.

Then, I got to go to here with my Mom on Wednesday. We sat outside, ate lots of food and Reagan got a pat on the head from the Mayor who was sitting next to us. You know, just normal day to day stuff that happens in the life of Natalie.

Wednesday night I was too tired (and sick) to go out, so we flipped a coin and had pizza. However, it was really good.

then i made fiesta floats. boo....(that sentence doesn't even deserve proper capitalization)

Friday, we had an awesome dinner at our friends house. The food was outstanding and the company was even better (and seriously the food was SOOO good)

Saturday, I had the Beth Moore conference. This had nothing to do with my birthday, but I'll just pretend it did. I woke up at 6:00 am to get ready and was out the door by 6:30 so I could get some vocalizing done. I know that sounds really weird, but I literally had no voice and didn't know what to expect since I was singing that morning. I got in the car and my cute, white, linen dress ripped. Dude. So, I went to Walmart because that is the only place open at 6:30 am. I found a really cute little jacket and THESE jeans. I'm a big boned, tall girl (I can "securely" say that.) and have a hard time finding jeans that I think look okay on me. I loved these. I seriously could not believe that I found a pair of jeans that I liked there. And they were only $20. ANDDDD...I had so many compliments on them. The conference was amazing. AMAZING. I definitely am saying "So Long, Insecurity".

So you should all have birthday weeks and buy jeans from Walmart.

The end.

Kitchen Idea

We've been in our home for 2 years. There are some major changes that I am wanting to make to it. We've already been working on the yard. We are going to be putting grass down in our front yard in 2 weeks. I'm excited about that. :)

But the BIGGEST thing I want to do is paint my kitchen cabinets white. I want it to look like this. :)

Now, obviously my kitchen isn't laid out like this, but I love the clean look...and the wood floors, but I'll keep waiting on that.

I love this. I think I'm going to make it happen soon.

What do you think?

Just a little bit of happiness....

There.....

are no...

words...

that I could....

say...

to describe how...

much I love...

(and I'm glad I can laugh at myself...)

my life.

sweet love.
sweet reminders.

Jackson & The Horse Adventure

A few weeks ago Jason's mom took Jackson to her sister's house to ride horses. She has an amazing job. She does horse therapy with children!

Any-who....Jackson, Carson and Abby all went with their Ammie for the day to ride horses. Of course, Sandy came back with some amazing pictures. :)

Aren't these pictures amazing?!

Now, you need to know a few things.

A. My son does not usually do great around dogs or any other animals for that matter. When the arrived, he saw a huge dog and told Ammie that he would stay in the car for the afternoon and just watch them. The fact that he even went near a horse was a big deal...no huge deal. So, naturally, when I saw these pictures I was so proud of him!!

B. Sandy (aka Ammie) is an amazing photographer. She recently quit her job to pursue her photography passion and we couldn't be more excited and proud of her! She's already working at a new art studio where her work will be displayed and available for purchase! You need to be sure to check her out here and read her blog here.

I am so proud of my Jackson and I am so thankful that he has an Ammie who takes awesome pictures! :)

Urge to clean...

I have had the urge lately to totally simplify and clean our home. I would say that I am a clean person. Jason would say that I like to "clutter" things up.

Whatever.

So, lately we've been de-cluttering and getting rid of things we don't use anymore, need anymore...etc. Part of it is just something we have been needing to do, but another part of it is because of some deep convictions we've both been having.

"Contentment opens our eyes to the blessings around us." A great point from Pastor Sean's sermon this week.

However, Thursday night I came home after a long worship practice and saw this....

Usually my counters look more like this....

And that's just one little part....He stripped my whole kitchen. I noticed it immediately too. Yes, it looked clean, but it lacked all character and....ME! I told him I would give it a week.

And then I will put it back.

And rearrange his dresser drawers.

And his Ipod playlist.

And his shoes...and his toothbrush...

And the living room....again...

Jk.

Kinda.

Gruene, Texas

I love my worship team at River City. Great group of people. Love them all. :)

Last Friday, 2 of the girls from the team called me up and asked if I wanted to spend the day with them. We (plus 2 others) usually get together weekly to hang out, pray together, sing like divas and we are getting ready to start the book "Captivating". (Which I might add is a great book).

Because I love them, I said yes. :) We wanted to go to Fredricksburg, but due to schedules and having the kids, we opted for Gruene. I love going to Gruene. It's only a 20-25 minute drive and has great restaurants and places to walk around. When we got there Reagan broke out into a rash all over her body. Her legs and arms started swelling up, so I had to run to get Beneydrl. About 5 minutes later she was doing much better. (Turns out she had Fifth Disease...but she's fine now.)

We ate at the Gristmill for lunch. Hung out. Walked around a little. Played with the kids and jammed to Taylor Swift on the way home.

I love these girls. I love their hearts. Their passion for God. Their worship. Their sweet spirits. And the fact that they just like to plain have FUN. God has something awesome for them.

This one...

This little one...

makes my heart smile.

This Week Thursday

This week was a good one.

God is moving in my family...big time.

This week I....

went to see John Mayer.

loved John Mayer.

ate at Fogo de Chao. YUM!

bought 150 yards of fabric.

laughed hysterically.

was scared.

prayed.

celebrated the little things.

cried for a friend.

was encouraged by others.

enjoyed sonic happy hour (again).

played with my kids.

had only one "night" thing.

made progress.

worried.

let go of it all.

loved.

went to Bill Millers.

was proud of my husband.

planned more Easter.

went to Austin.

slept in.

made spaghetti.

ate less. (getting easier)

redecorated.

watched American Idol.

read more "crazy love" by Francis Chan.

cried over suffering babies.

wanted to sell everything so that others could have more. (no really..this is something strong on my heart right now)

got free tickets and front row seats to Lincoln Brewster!

learned MORE new music.

hung out with a friend.

loved more.

had a better week than last. :)

Sisters, sisters. There were never such devoted sisters...

Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of.

You know whatever you do, they'll still be there. ~Amy Li

A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. Garretty

A sister smiles when one tells one's stories - for she knows where the

decoration has been added. ~Chris Montaigne

Savannah is missing from these photos....but she knows I love her!!! And maybe this is motivation for her to come see me more!

More to come on our "getaway trip" and John Mayer!

Weekend News

What a lovely weekend it was. Friday I had a creative stage design meeting with some fun ladies. We colored, sketched, surfed the internet for ideas and ate lots of food. Fun times.

Saturday, Jason did taxes. The end. Jk.

We pretty much hung out the rest of the day, went grocery shopping and watched Tombstone. Jason knows every single line to that movie. It was a little annoying, but I have to say it was quite impressive too. I didn't remember seeing the movie, but I really enjoyed Val Kilmer's role in it! Fantastic character!

Sunday was church. Of course. Great day it was though. I am really enjoying leading worship. God is so good and I love seeing where he is taking our congregation in worship. Powerful stuff. Pastor Sean's message was VERY timely for me. I love River City. We spent Sunday evening in Gruene. Just our little family. We had dinner, drove home listening to ABBA at full blast, laughed until we cried and talked about dreams we have. Twas wonderful. :)

Other big news...Aaron & Breanna (most awesome siblings-in-law's) made a huge announcement. They have felt the call to start a multi-site for River City! It will be on the north side (Bandera), so that means they will be moving away from us. I am actually really sad about that. Our kids have pretty much grown up with each other. I don't think there goes a week without seeing them at least 2 or 3 times. Breanna has been such a blessing to me. She watches them for me on Friday's and they LOVE her as much as we do. For 6 years we have lived within 5 miles of each other....or less. I will just miss them being so close, but I am THRILLED at where God is taking them. Pray for them on this new journey. God is going to do great things through this family!

We have Monday's off and enjoyed every bit of it yesterday. We did some much needed clothes shopping for Jackson and I finally got myself a pair of new running shoes. We also wanted to celebrate Aaron and Bre's new life journey and invited them over for dinner. Jason made (although I was over his shoulder ever 5 seconds) The Pioneer Woman's pasta with bacon and mushrooms. Oh my word. Delicious...

And we watched Tombstone again. That made for 2 Powers boys who knew every single line. Lucky me.

A few little pictures I took this weekend.....

I posted this wreath a few months ago. I bought it for $2 at Walmart. I finally did something with it. I like my little "spring" wreath.

Guess who's up to no good? I found her in the car by herself. She was just sitting in the drivers seat. Her little head was bobbing up and down thru the front window. What a stinker!

Happy Tuesday!

I'm not cool and now I'm "vintage"

My little sisters spent the night with us last night because my mom had to go to Houston for my Grandpa's back surgery. Please keep him in your prayers. He suffers from Parkinsons already and a back surgery like this is EXTREMELY difficult.

Any-who....

This morning I took them to school and Megan was wearing these sunglasses...

Remember them??

By the way, they are 16.

Then the following conversation happened.

Megan: "Aren't these sunglasses cool?? They are vintage. Like real vintage."

Me: "Vintage? Those are the same glasses I wore in 1995. What do you mean "vintage??" And they were probably mine!"

Caitlin: "Yeah, Megan. Are you like calling Natalie "vintage"? (snicker, snicker)

Megan: "Well, yeah. She's vintage, but she dresses modern. You know, she's cool. She's like modern vintage."

Seriously.

1st. When did your late 20's become vintage? What does that mean when I turn 30?

2nd. They used the word "like" about 7 times.

3rd. I hated those sunglasses anyway.

4th. In less than 2 days I have realized that I am not cool and now I am vintage.

5th. Okay, I did wear them all the time. I even had the ones that rolled and had them in every neon color.

They also didn't know Mariah Carey's greatest hits album. Such a sad day.

Happy Friday!

This Week...

Thursday's have turned into my..."what have I done this week" posts. I know that Friday is still to come, but I never have anything really exciting happen on Friday's.

And now I'm just babbling....moving on.

This week I....

took a road trip.

drank coffee.

went to HEB Plus...awesomeness & great salad bar!

watched Public Enemy.

fell over in shock from a clean house.

actually kept the clean house CLEAN!

worried.

told my husband I loved him.

weighed myself to see that I have lost 5 lbs!

worshipped.

talked to Terra!!

cried.

watched "That Thing You Do." :)

laundry.

made Tilapia.

prayed for miracles.

found a missing earring.

surrendered.

overslept.

washed my hair.

had a wonderful lunch with my hubby.

felt loved.

planned a trip to the Caribbean......

okay not really. :(

saw God move. the best one of all.

Friday

Such a wonderful day today. Went to work. Had lunch at Pizza Italia with some wonderful ladies. Fun fact: Their margarita pizza rocks.

I had to get my kiddos from Bre's house. I'm so lucky to have a such a great sister-in-law. She watched them every Friday for me until around lunch time (or sometimes after). It's such a blessing to me. Plus, they LOVE her.

We made a trip to Walmart where I purchased these for my table....

I have needed some new placemats, but some that were kid friendly. Although I didn't plan on leaving them out, I actually like them there.

And this.....

I plan on making something of this wreath (for spring), but haven't decided what. Because it was only $2, I went ahead and bought it.

Jason came home from work with 2 new books. I am actually really wanting to read this one. I've heard great things about it. If you know Jason at all, then you know that he is a book freak. He comes home with a new book all the time. One day we will have house with a space for him to have all his books....or I'll have to create one somehow in the house we have now.

Later, my friend Amanda came over to get our Felicity movies. We have every season and she and her husband wanted to start watching them. She posted it on twitter and I happened to read that they were interested in seeing it. I love Felicity. I may start watching it again after they are done. Jason and I enjoyed visiting with Amanda and her kiddos. I love it when people drop by our house. We love the Espinoza's!

Around dinner time I got a call from my baby sisters. Their 16 (twins) and not so "baby" anymore, but I I don't mind calling them that still. They have been wanting to come over for weeks, so I went to pick them up to stay the night with us. We had Bill Millers, stovetop popcorn, watched The Proposal & The Wedding Date and had loads of fun. I felt 16 again. I love these moments.

We kinda kicked poor Jason out of the house. Well, he actually kicked himself out! Ha. But he was a great sport about it. He took his new books, got a haircut and treated himself to Caparelli's italian food. In fact, I think he rather enjoyed the time to himself.

All in all, it was a great day!

Happy Weekend!

Reagan.

Reagan has been watching me a lot when I blow my nose....because of these killer allergies. It's kind of funny because now she gets a tissue and tries to blow her nose too. I thought this was cute.

This week...

This week I....

cried.

laughed.

hugged my babies.

cried.

went to work.

blogged.

attended meetings.

got up early.

went to bed late.

slept in.

took a shower.

cooked.

ate sour candy.

drank lots of water.

yelled.

sang.

worshipped.

got angry.

gave grace.

cried.

loved.

received grace.

kissed.

thanked god.

listened.

cleaned.

heb'd. (my new word for going to heb)

bought flowers.

apologized.

forgave.

cried. (again)

mopped.

did laundry.

prayed.

battled.

grew.

was challenged.

encouraged a friend.

was encouraged by a friend.

believed in myself.

read the word.

and cried some more. I cried a lot this week. Ha! Yeah, like that is really different for me!! The best thing about my week was that I came home to a husband, who walked with me every step of the way this week (and only he knows what that means) and still told me he "loved me more than anything." I needed to hear that. :) BTW, I keep coming back to this scripture. This week once again reminded me of what God wants to give His people....and I am so glad I am part of that.

Isaiah 61:3

...to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD

for the display of his splendor.

Happy Friday!

Not Me! Monday

I'm taking part in the "not me" Monday. I recently started following "MckMama's" blog and love her brutal honesty. She blogs about her ups and downs in marriage, her children, her passions...just absolutely love her transparency! Today's post was "not me" Monday, so here I go.

All random, btw.

I did not give my children waffles this morning with lots of extra syrup so that I could have my morning coffee in peace. I did not let a pile of clothes go unfolded for 2 weeks. No, not me! I certainly did not let my sink overflow with dishes because I was too tired to unload the dishwasher and put them in there....for 2 days. I did not worry about what I was wearing yesterday leading worship because worship leaders aren't supposed to be vain. I did not think about the notes that I cracked on because remember...worship leaders aren't supposed to be vain. I did not stay up until 11:30 last night surfing the internet. NOT me!!! I did not kiss my babies good night. I did not tell my husband I love him more than life itself. I did not have an amazing Sunday worshipping. I did not eat the fudge pralines that a dear old lady at church gave me....all 3 of them. I did not go and then walk them off for an hour because I felt guilty and my thighs growing by the minute. I did not beg, plead and pray to God last night that my children would sleep through the night....and they did not sleep until 9:30 this morning!

I did not just enjoy writing all of these things out. Nope, not me!