Author: leatev

House for Sale!

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If you know of anyone who is looking for a house in Johnston, IA area, we are trusting God to bring a buyer for our home in the next few weeks. The pricing is based on area homes sale price per square foot, not a perfect measure but a good Realtor recommended place to start.

Please let us know if you or someone you know is interested!

6912MarkTwainCt@gmail.com  |  (515) 661-4088

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HOME DETAILS:
Open floor plan
Meticulously maintained
Move‐in ready
3 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms
Custom Built Geothermal energy efficient home
Hand scraped Hardwood flooring in Great Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Sunroom, Hall and Master
Nine foot ceilings through‐out
Spacious Kitchen features concrete glass countertops, center island, skylight, and soft close cabinets
Warm and inviting Sunroom located off of Kitchen that walks out to a large patio
Three sided wood burning fireplace
Private Master retreat with a large en suite and custom built‐ins in the expansive walk‐in closet
Spacious unfinished basement boasts nine foot ceilings and a rough in for a 3rd Bath, 1740 SF
Oversized windows allow for an ample amount of natural lighting
Tons of storage space
Oversized 2 1/2 car garage
Professionally designed landscaping
Located on a quiet cul‐de‐sac in a family friendly neighborhood
Maximum insulation values in attic and walls (R39/R20)
Corobond spray closed‐cell insulation in all exterior walls
Cement Fiber Board siding
Heat recovery ventilation system
Pre‐wired for surround sound in Great Room
Total finished ‐ approx. 1,860sq. ft.

Owner will pay Buyer’s Agent commission to any Realtor that brings a buyer

Household life and balance…?

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Balance? I’m not sure that gets achieved daily in my world, but maybe over the long run.

Each day is a new adventure as school is out and both Tim and I are in the house together all day. Finding new rhythm to each getting our own work done – job hunting and design respectfully, helping each other in our respective work, and then working on house projects together. As we work to accomplish the to-do list and be productive in the waiting process (seeing what job will open for Tim in the fall), we are enjoying time together and time with our little guy.

The daily routine of the house seems to fluctuate and I almost find myself checking to see what day it is. The fall and spring activities have all reached their summer break and summer weddings are in full swing with programs, place cards, gift boxes, guestbooks, and favors to be designed. Small businesses are in need of logos and business cards. And the basement that was nearly finished… well, we organized all of the finished the living areas which means – I am still working on the basement!

Life is always full of change.

It is in the moments of change or waiting for direction that I remember the value of the day and God’s direction in the past. From living in Rockford, IL to Chicago to moving to Des Moines, IA there is no possible means that I could have planned my life. But taking steps to follow God one day at a time has led to a life so rich and full that I am glad my plans and thoughts rarely seem to “workout” in the way that I thought they would.

Balance is found when I let go and walk slowly… maybe today I’ll just take a few minutes at a time. God can handle the day, the week, and the next month quite well.

More silly moments.

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Upon this day my ability to make one more decision was limited… especially when I had not yet had a thought about lunch and Uriah was already standing at the refrigerator begging for food. So, I did what any great Mom would do – I let him decide what was going to be on the menu from his choice of anything in the fridge. (OK so a great Mom would have it planned, noted it was time for lunch, and readied food before their children were starving… but how about the average mom?!)

Uriah’s selection – pepperoni, cheese, banana bread and a trip to the cabinet to point out the popcorn. Maybe its the next great “Happy Meal”!?!

Uriah sure loved his lunch!

SillyLunch

Where did 4 weeks go?

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Do you ever have moments in life when the time just seems to fly until you realize all of the little things are really adding up and begging to be completed? This realization summed up my weekend and then as I start this post and I see how long it has been since I updated… well I was not exaggerating the fact that weeks have somehow slipped by!

I awoke Saturday to this thought when I walked in the kitchen and realized my typical vacuuming was not even going to come close to cleaning the disaster of the floor. It needed washed. The highchair needed scrubbed, not wiped down. And as for laundry… well 4 baskets of clean clothes are great, but it is much better to find clothes that have been folded in a drawer not dug through in a pile and left for another day.

In the world of “The Organization Project”: It’s April… my deadline to have the 2nd bedroom completed. Well, we are at least close. It is cleared out and the baby stuff from Uriah’s room has found a home in the closet shelves for the next little one to make use of. The crib is in the room and I have to blank pieces of wood awaiting their respective photos. So the fun stuff is yet to come, but the canvas has been readied! Uriah wanted to give you a tour of his baby brother’s room…

BabyRoom1 BabyRoom2

The basement. Organized piles abound (yes, these are generally organized and sorted!). Now I just need to put everything into a usable easy to access and return-to-their-place-when-finished location on the shelves. And finish moving a few garage sale items up and out. I think we will be there in the next couple of weeks… at least I am optimistic. Then on to adding color and laying down the mix-n-match carpet squares that are leftover samples from architecture firms.

Basement

Lastly, I have found a way to include the last untouched closet in the house in this organization project. The games in the back closet are not accessible… so down to the basement they go to find a home on an open shelf and add a little more interest to the unfinished space. Besides who wants one closet left a mess at this point in the game! (Do you like the cheesy pun!)

Games

Until the next entry and update in the process…

Organization Part 1

Organization Part 2

Organizing… the basement?

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Oh dear! How can one thought of organizing the basement lead to nearly every room in the house…

In July, I had my dad help me re-arrange our speakers so that the cabinets would be freed to use in our master bedroom. LivingRm-PreJuly The Living Room is now not quite as heavy looking, and I can now finish the look by adding wood to the ceiling and behind the TV… but that is another story and another post. And I’m not pulling that project into this process!

LivingRm-PostJuly The cabinets moved to our master bedroom, and were underutilized there for the past few months. In trying to figure how the office and play room in the basement is going to look, I realized I would most definitely need space to put office supplies, papers for printing, work files, etc. So, I re-organized our bedroom closet and added a shelf unit that was under-utilized in the garage (and easily replaced out there with construction lumber as needed). This allowed me to move the ladder shelf from the new baby’s room (no longer a safe location for that anyway – small children and ladder shelves – need I say more!) to our master bedroom. LadderShelf

With our master closet organized, I had a few dvd’s that needed a new home. There is a closet that divides our living room and kitchen – it was a disaster (yes, my whole house can fall under the disaster heading most of the time). I re-arranged and cleaned this closet out which created an empty shelf needed for the DVD’s. It is also more convenient to have these right next to the room you view them.

Pantry  And this new arrangement of our closet, the ladder shelf, and the kitchen closet led to two free cabinets to use in the basement. Extra bonus! They are cabinets that I really like the look of which aids in the final enjoyment of the basement space, plus they have adequate room for everything I need to store. My husband and brother-in-law graciously hauled them to basement to join the chaos that is yet awaiting organization.

Cabinet

The second bedroom organization and clean-out can now be underway. A pile of baby stuff that my toddler no longer needs has left his room and is piled in the corner of the soon-to-be nursery. The papers and office items in the closet have begun to be sorted. If I ever needed motivation to go to an electronic filing system for bills, bank statements, and other miscellaneous files  – this is it! The photo below is my stack of papers to shred. How does time go so quickly and old statements pile up so high!

Papers

So, there is the progress update! Nothing very creative as of yet! Getting through the mess of junk reminds me of how much I do not need and helps me to reject thoughts of wanting anything more to add to the pile. So, although the process is slow… in the end perhaps I will have learned an important lesson about the worthlessness of stuff and have a house that is, at least temporarily, not a disaster! : )

Part 1 – The Organizational Project

 

The Mixer.

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Uriah was crying and dragging me to the kitchen. But every snack option choice and even the question “Are you hungry?” was met with an emphatic shake of the head no while the crying continued. What on earth could Uriah want in the kitchen? He was so frustrated he could not find any words to communicate.

I opened every cupboard and drawer trying to aid our communication breakdown. We finally narrowed it down to the right cabinet. The door opened and the frustration ended. He got down and began to pet the KitchenAid mixer. He just needed to check on his favorite appliance.

The next day, I was able to make my little man’s day. We took out the mixer and made bread dough. He sits on the counter and helps put the ingredients in the bowl and then dutifully watches while the ingredients mix and knead together. To him it is one of the greatest joys of life. Oh the things that make my little guy smile!

And it really is a strange obsession… we visit the industrial mixer in the kitchen at our church, he likes to look at Nana’s mixer on her counter, and he never misses an opportunity to see the varied colors of mixers available at any retail store he happens to find them in. Maybe he’ll grow up to be the next chef or invent the next greater-than-kitchen-aid-mixer. : )

Holy… what does that look like?

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Leviticus is a tedious book in the Old Testament. I had been reading the Bible at night, but when it came to Leviticus it just wasn’t working. I’d start and my mind would wonder or I’d end up staring off into the distance. Until I finally did what I needed to do in the first place ask God to help me through it and teach me something in the midst of it.

I hear God teaching me, but the actual full learning of the lesson will take a very long time I’m certain. God called His people to be holy in how they acted towards everyone – inside and outside their group. He told them to go above and beyond when they have hurt someone, ruined something they borrowed or spoke ill of someone. They had to return the property, pay the value plus 20%, and then go and make a sacrifice for their wrong doing. God told His people to be aware that sin can be committed unintentionally and therefore as soon as it is recognized – make it right!

God did not stop with behavior to be holy but included eating, bathing, illness, every corner and aspect of life.

Since God does not change, I am certain that He cares about every aspect of my life. Especially since in 1 Corinthians 10:31 we are told to do everything, even eating and drinking, to the glory of God. But now I am left to wrestle with what holiness looks like in action.

In a society that internalizes most thoughts and intentions it does not seem obvious to see holiness around us. But I believe the results are just as obvious now as they were with the Israelites. I do not know if I will ever be in a place again that has such a distinction of people’s hearts in visible action, but I do know what I want God to see overflowing in my heart. God “does not see the same way people see, He looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

I want my life to be shaped by God’s life.

So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16, The Message

It is also a blessing to know that because of Christ’s resurrection and death, I am covered by his righteousness and holiness and stand blameless before God.  Ephesians 1 and 5:25-27.

What’s the best way to organize?

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Especially when the are looks more like a condemned dump site (or close enough to it!)…

Get excited about it! What do you want to do with the space, the time saved not hunting for things, the money saved not re-buying things you already own! What other reason make you excited to organize?

I want to create a room for our second child, an office where everything is organized and TOGETHER in one space, and a kids play area that has room to run.

That chore is going to require some organization and rearranging of furniture. I know that many experts say to try to find new pieces or organization systems to help you get excited and create a new system, but my goal is the opposite. I do not want to buy any new pieces. I want to reutilize what I have, organize, sort, throw!

I have decided a few things. The new office/play area is going to be in the unfinished basement, but…

  • I want to WANT to go down there.
  • I want my son to LOVE playing down there.
  • I do not want to feel like I am in a dungeon. : )

And the random pieces of wood in my basement and garage, they are going to be re-purposed for good!

The goal is to be finished with the basement by the end of April and the second bedroom by the end of May. So, hold on because weekly updates are going to be coming. I’m sure some weeks will be more productive than others. Watch as ideas unfold and the progress becomes a finished project. Oh boy here we go!

I’ll post pictures when there is progress… but right now I’m not willing to show my complete chaos (in the end I’ll post before pics)! : )

A Cut… do I cry – “goodness no”!

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Another silly moment… at just under 2 there have not been to many cuts that bleed yet in my little guys life (he’s kept it many to scraps and bruises!). But upon this day he got a little cut that began to bleed.

Now, I would think that the typical reaction would be to cry – it hurts, find mom – something is oozing out of me, or something. But not Uriah.

I noticed him playing with this small cut on his hand. No tears or confusion – complete fascination instead. He was trying to squeeze out as much blood as he could and cover his hand and paint on his arm. That is an odd reaction, right? : )

Of course this is the kid who loves doctor appointments (even when he gets shots) and was fascinated to watch the nurse unhook the IV from Grandpa in the hospital. Maybe he’ll be a nurse or doctor or be just a little odd. : )

Gross Factor Moments

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Another silly moment in the Haxton household…

It had been a few weeks since we had the last group of people over for a party. My son was playing on one of his “missions” which today took him to the intriguing, mysterious cave world of what is know to adults as only the “place under the table.”

His babble and treasures of the cave were mounting when it became strangely silent – the silence that everyone recognizes as something is not right. I entered the under world of the table to see my son chewing. The discussion of “open your mouth show me what you have” begun; I almost wish I had not asked. For as you may have guessed by now, out of his mouth and into my hand came a lovely piece of ABC gum.

I guess I’m glad it is no longer under the table, but really I just wish it had never been. Yuck.