Closing quickly approaching

Possibly a week until we close on the house. Crazy! We have been waiting for a while to close (at least it seems like it) and now all of a sudden they are saying "ok we are closing next week". It is going to take a while to make the house the way I want it, but Im excited about all the different ideas Im finding. I dont think Andrew is going to be excited about all these ideas though. Ive already made a long list of all the things I want to do, including painting every room. The walls are tan and I love color, so the tan has got to go. Im excited to paint the laundry room. Its small, but the laundry room was the only room in our last house that I never painted.
Since this isnt my dream house, especially in sq footage, I told Andrew that I get to pick all the paint colors and he has no choice. :) Its going to be really annoying if I make some color mistakes, which is very possible with all the colors im thinking of.
Im really exited about A.'s bedroom. I am going to do a train theme but Im not sure yet what that will entail. I havnt decided if I want to do a train bed, train mural, or what! I have a feeling it will be one of the last rooms ill be able to finish it. The tough part will be to stay focused and finish a project before starting another.
So one or a few things at a time, I think we will "bomb" the house so we kill any bugs, clean the carpets, and tackle this ugly chandelier! Im pretty sure I can save some money and create a modern chandelier by spray painting it, and getting some new glass shades.

I am getting lots of inspiration from pinterest, here is one of them.

Sister Minister

This morning I was thinking about youth ministry. Why? Laziness. I enjoy my job but being lazy I just want to sit at home and watch tv, surf the web, and relax all day. So I was trying to think of what job would be good that would allow me to enjoy my laziness. Answer: Youth Ministry. Yes YM's do a lot of work: planning, late nights, and lots of weekends working because of youth group and other events. But overall most of our day is spent sitting at a desk surfing the web, watching clips of movies, getting your favorite snacks for youth events because you cant afford them all the time, playing wii or other games with the youth, going out to eat and  chatting with youth. So yes youth ministry is an active laziness that I loved, but definitely not wanting to go back to it any time soon.
A YM never stops thinking about YM. I watch movies, hear a sermon, see a clip and think "This would make a great small group discussion/talk". There is so much great material out there, its never ending. Thinking about all this I was thinking about my younger sisters tonight. They are teens who dont go to youth group and usually never go to Mass. At times they have a desire to do these things but their dad does not support these desires. I obviously want them to grow up having a strong faith and love for the Catholic Church but living a thousand miles away it is hard for me to do anything. As I was looking at links to stories and videos on FB tonight I realized there is something I can do. I can be a YM to my sisters through the internet. There are so many wonderful short clips that I can send them on FB or through their email. With these clips I can send them discussion questions that we can discuss on the phone or online. Oh Ive been slacking in sharing the faith with my sister.
Oh religion class will be so much fun in our house if I home school. Of course since parents are the first teachers of the faith to their children every day should be a mini religion class.

singing and learning

Happy New Year! I cant believe 14 years ago we entered 2000 AD. This morning I went to Mass in tontitown and the priest said to remember that this is 2014 AD... in the year of our Lord. We need to live this year remembering it is the Lord's year and He is going to do wonderful things.
Tonight at dinner A. was repeating some of the words I was saying. I decided to start singing different things to see if he would repeat them... lalala, bababa. A. repeated most of the things I sang. It was such a fun activity to get him to learn to pronounce different letters. Only 12 more days until his 2nd birthday!