DIY Outdoor Couches

Thanks to the advent of Pinterest, sprucing up your house has become simple, inexpensive and rewarding! The other day I was perusing Pinterest and came across this little beauty!

I loved the idea and thought it would be easy enough to do myself! I decided to make a sudo armrest by stacking the cinderblocks differently than what was shown in the original image above. This minor change also saves money because you need less supplies. 

Supplies: 

8 - cinder blocks 16x8x8 (there are different sizes, I learned the hard way) 

3 - 4x4's 

Wood Stain 

The natural look of the wood is nice, but I wanted a darker stain and I happened to have a walnut wood stain on hand! I stained only one side of each of the 4x4's for a couple reasons. One, so to not use up so much of the stain, and two because I didn't want to need to use a sealer to protect the cushions that I would be placing on top. 

To make sure it looked cohesive, I stained the ends of each of the 4x4's. It looks sloppy now, but I promise, it will be feel complete once it is all put together!

Because I did not want to purchase paint, I used the wood stain to stain the cinder block as well. Wood stain is much cheaper than cement stain and works just as well for our purposes!

I gave the stain a couple days to completely dry before adding the cushions and pillows. 

The cushions I found on sale at Target for $20 ea. 

To save money, I ordered these $5 pillow inserts (free shipping) and found inexpensive pillow-covers (also on Amazon). Or if you are crafty, you can sew them yourself. Most of the pillow-covers shown here were $2-5 ea. 

For a little of $100 you can build yourself a large outdoor couch, with very little effort!

Exit Interview Complete

We had our Exit Interview today, all our paperwork is complete, now we wait for a call from our adoption worker! According to our meeting today, we will be assigned an adoption worker within the next few days, but they have up to a month to contact us. Please keep praying for the right adoption worker for our family. My hope and prayer is that the lady that conducted our meeting today will be assigned our family. She is a woman of God and seems to understand our family dynamic. Thank you for your continued prayers and support, they mean the world to us!!

The Essential Oil Plunge

I made the plunge and purchased the Young Living Premium Starter Kit. 

I have been holding off getting into essential oils for a long time. Sure, I have dabbled in them here or there, but the starter kit is a commitment! I have to say, that a little over two weeks into trying to utilize the kit and I am still confused as to how to use the oils. I want to use them for anything and everything, but I just don't know what oils to use and how to use them! Why does the kit not come with a detailed guide!!

I have combined Frankincense and Purification with a carrier oil and applied it to my pimples (why an almost 29 year old still has acne I do not know!) at night before bed. After only a few days I have noticed a difference!! I have tried diffusing Thieves when both Landon and I were sick with a cold, and have also diffused the allergy trio (Lavender, Peppermint, and Lemon) but I have not yet noticed a substantial difference.

I can't shake the feeling that I am just not using the oils correctly. For all you oil lovers out there, I would love to hear how you use your oils and what made you fall in love with them!!!

Trauma Parenting Classes Completed!!!

We are well on our way to welcoming our sweet baby into our home! We have now officially completed the 24 hours of trauma based parenting classes required by the county. Next on the list is the Exit Interview, then we will be assigned our adoption worker! Right now, I am assuming the earliest we could have our placement is August, but it all depends on when the right baby comes into the system.

Ways you can be praying for us: 

Pray that we get assigned an adoption worker best suited for our family and our circumstance. 

Pray for continued hope and excitement and against fear. 

Pray for the bio mommy of our baby, that she cares for both herself and the baby, and pray for her emotionally, I am sure she is experiencing all kinds of emotions around Mother's Day. 

I read this amazing post about "The Other Mother," it is both beautiful and eye opening. It gives us a glimpse at what it might be like for the bio mommy of these precious little babes. Often times, it is so easy to judge and look down on these women for not protecting these innocents, it is good to be reminded that, although broken, these women are hurting and often times alone. There is evil in this world and they have become subject to it. It is a welcome reminder that we are all in need of the redemptive grace of Jesus Christ, and if we are to walk in His light, we are to show grace in return rather than being the first to cast the stone. 

Adoption Timeline

Orientation Class - September 26, 2014

Submitted Application to County & CCL - November 1, 2014

County Preliminary Interview - January 21, 2015

Parenting/Training Classes - March 12th, 2015

CCL Pre-Licensing Inspection - March 18, 2015
Exit Interview - June 3, 2015 

DIY Uncrustables

One of Landon's favorite foods is Smuckers Uncrustables! If it were up to him, he would eat them for every meal. Unfortunately, they are also packed full of sugar and a bunch of other things I can not pronounce. We try healthy as a family, that does not mean we never eat out or have a candy bar, but we do try and limit sugar and processed foods as much as possible. Yet, the convenience of a frozen PB&J that will perfectly thaw in time for lunch, requires no prep and minimal cleanup, and can be eaten in the car with ease, is very tempting! Especially when we are running late, which is almost always. My solution, try and make them myself! 

Ingredients: 

Honey (I like raw organic honey from Trader Joe's)

Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Cashew Butter, Etc. 

(Trader Joe's has a creamy unsalted peanut butter with one ingredient, peanuts)

Butter 

Bread 

Directions: 

Apply peanut butter to one slice of bread,
apply butter to the other slice of bread,
apply honey on top of butter.
(Simple enough so far!) 

Take a wide brimmed jar (I used a glass leftover glass container)

place on top of sandwich and press down firmly. Cut off crust. 

To get the most of the sandwich, I did this step twice, once on each side. 

So it turned out looking like this. Not perfectly round like Uncrustables are,

but we utilize more of the bread. 

All that is left to do is place in a ziplock baggie and freeze! 

I sealed all the sandwiches in their own sandwich bag 

and then placed them all into a large freezer bag to preserve freshness. 

They keep for about a month stored this way. 

Tried, tested and Landon approved!

Next time you are on the go just remove from freezer, let defrost and munch away! 

Butterfly Day

Last weekend Landon and I joined friends at the Louis Robidoux Nature Center
Annual Butterfly Day! We did butterfly crafts, pet pigs, held caterpillars and visited the main attraction, the butterflies!

Landon is now obsessed with caterpillars and finding a nice green leaf for them to eat 

(thank you to "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"). 

Licensing and Trauma Classes

Since my last post we have completed three of the eight required trauma parenting classes as well as our CCL (Community Care Licensing) pre-licensing inspection. The inspection went surprisingly well. Although the analyst was here for two hours, he did not find anything that needed to be modified or fixed! Yay! Meaning, after we complete the required 24 hours of training, we will be a licensed facility and will be one step closer to welcoming our sweet baby into our home!

The trauma parenting classes consist of 8 weeks of training on how to best care for a child who has experienced trauma. These classes have been surprisingly enlightening and convicting, the horrors that some of these children endure are too terrible to describe or recount. These classes help equip potential adoptive/foster parents to respond in love to these, neglected, abandoned, abused, and weary children. Even though our plan is to adopt an infant, I am surprisingly grateful for these classes, if anything, we have been affirmed that we are on the correct path, a path that will (hopefully) allow our sweet baby to be spared from these tortures. 

And the people you meet in these classes! They are amazing. At our table is one couple that has no children of there own and is wanting to adopt a sibling group of up to three children! Another lady in our class has been fostering for over 10 years. Last night she was telling us about one of her boys that was deemed a bad kid (at 2 years old) and was known to repeatedly throw violent tantrums and had already gone through two prior foster homes. After 2 months in her home, she realized that this poor boy was not trantruming, rather he was banging his head on the ground because he was in pain. After seeking medical attention it was discovered he had a large tumor in his head and was also diagnosed with cerebral-palsy. The boy is now 4 years old and thriving under her care. 

Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.

Job 29:12