Making Do...

What is making do?


If you google "making do," the Internet will tell you it means "to manage with the limited or inadequate means available"... 

What does making do mean to us? 

Making do: means finally talking about your financial struggle to our friends... 

Making do: means it feels better when you say it out loud...

Making do: means that the generous and amazing people in your life will come through for you... 

Making do: means making it because people prayed for you... 

Making do: means knowing, even when you are unsure,  He will provide...

Because of my faithful and loving friends, through this financial transition, we have been able to eat, pay bills and plant our garden! 


Making do: means we have it all!

Making do: means we are so very blessed...

Making do: means a picnic, in the back yard... 

Making do: means flowers in muddy water from an underwear clad toddler... 





I will continue to look forward to challenges in the future, because we can make do...

A dear friend shared the following scripture with me, at the perfect moment... I could not possibly be more thankful for her... 

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
We are so utterly thankful, so incredibly blessed and undeniably humbled by this experience... Our hope is that those who are in our corner, know how much we love and appreciate them! 

Super Cute Crate Buffett

I have been planning and dreaming about making something amazing out of my little, old, junky crates for years! I imagined a darling buffet in my kitchen! I have used them to store things and even prop things up all this time. 

One Sunday after church, the girls and I set off on an expedition to collect all of my random crates!

To create my buffet, I gathered some two inch screws (Similar to these), some stain (Minwax Red Mahogany) that matched my table and some white spray paint (Love this brand) that I had on hand that almost matched my table. The only thing I had to go look for was the wood I planned to use for the top. I purchased two 1x6x6  nice quality boards at Lowes to act as the counter top for my buffet.

All of the crates are slightly different sizes and are all made out of different kinds of wood. I had to rearrange them and set them up several times to make an almost level platform for my 1x 6's.

There were spaces that needed to be filled to make the top level, so I had to break one of the extra crates a part and stick the pieces in the spaces. Once I had all of the crates placed exactly how I wanted them, I started to screw it all together.

I was a little over zealous on the first one... I was excited, what can I say? The wood split and I am pretty sure I might have shed a tear.

After this moment of horror, I simply started screwing the screws in on the second slat in from the front, and last slat, so they cannot be seen as easily from the front, just incase they split again. You live and you learn right?

After I fastened all of the crates together, I painted the entire structure. As I swept the paint over the crates I realized that they were going to absorb the paint like a sponge. In my vision of this project I imagined a thickly painted heirloom white piece of furniture with a satin finish. I used the who full cans of spray paint that I had in no time. I was exceptionally disappointed in the fact that it looked a little beachy and almost shabby chic.

I made a decision to press on and complete this project, so I fastened the top boards to the structure and made sure the whole thing was still level. Then I stained the wood pieces to match my table as planned.

After the paint and stain was dry and placed in my dining room to took my breath away! It was actually perfect!

The subtle colors of the wood coming through the paint and the texture was truly beautiful. It matched my style exactly. My husband actually fell in love with it right away and said it is new favorite piece of furniture!

Getting Organized, Baby and Backyard!!

We are still no more organized than when we moved in, our sixth child, EllieMay, is 5 weeks old today and the backyard is coming along surprisingly well! Homeschooling is starting to pick back up again, after an embarrassingly long break, feel free to judge me... And I couldn't stand to go another day without a blog post!

Moving from a huge house to a home about half the size has really put a cramp in my pack rat style.

Aside from having an overabundance of things I genuinely do not need, I don't have the time nor desire to clean, purge and organize it these days! I kept telling myself, "after the baby comes you will have the energy..." We all know that was a lie.

Now baby is here, she is a bundle of sweetness wrapped in sleepless nights and baby poop. I couldn't be happier with her, except for the fact that she is too cute not to hold, and you cannot get anything done while holding a sleeping newborn! Also, the kids all adore her... Which is hard, because she is mine and I don't want to share... But that is a whole other issue!

Needless to say, we are inching along slowly on all of our goals... My honey and his father put up the fence for my garden area, we will very likely build our garden boxes in the next week, then work on the chicken coop. We have 5 baby chicks already! More on that later.

The kids are seriously in love with our huge yard, and are taking full advantage! I love seeing them get creative and building the clubhouse of their dreams!!

The garage is still an example of complete insanity. No, I will not post a pic! I have the desire to want to organize and clean out there... Neither desire nor want are strong enough to motivate me... I decided today that I will do my best to follow the 15 in 15 Home Organizing Plan (Link To Organizing Plan), and apply it to the garage. In theory, it should be helpful to follow some kind of plan... I make no promises...