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I just couldn't wait!

I am so excited at what I am about to show you I can't wait any longer! Jerry and I started remodeling our den a little over a month ago. After researching many blogs I found a way to create built-in book shelves out of wall kitchen cabinets. Yes you heard me right, kitchen cabinets that were created to hang above your kitchen counters. I was so excited that when I figured this out I immediately went to Jerry to show him the pictures from the blog and beg him to go out and purchase 4 wall cabinets. He looked at me like I was a little looney and said yea okay we'll see. After a little discouragement I moved on and let it go but not really. One day I went out to the garage to get something and as I was looking around I realized what was hanging on the wall. Several years ago we changed out our kitchen cabinets and hung the old ones in the garage. I couldn't believe it, there hanging on the wall was exactly what I needed to begin my built-ins! I couldn't wait to tell Jerry. He kindof looked at them and once again said yea okay we'll see. Oh no, you're not getting away this time. We took down the cabinets and moved them to the deck where I vacummed and scrubbed them. It took Jerry about a month and they are still not quite finished but here they are:



I love them! I was able to get rid of the 2 cabinets and bookshelf that I had and put all of our homeschool books and reading books here! They still have to be trimmed out but I think they are gorgeous. I will post the whole room remodel when we finally get finished I just couldn't wait any longer for you to see this!

Sorting Clothes the fun way!

Gather all your small children, your older ones will not think this is fun and will not be amused that is unless it is their job to sort the clothes. Now gather all your dirty clothes into one giant pile(at least in my house it's giant). Now start sorting your clothes by color. So say to the little ones "Bring me all the blue clothes", next "Bring me all the red clothes", "Bring me all the white clothes", you get the idea. Your clothes get sorted, you children are being homeschooled in their colors and what a great time you have doing it.



http://www.wearethatfamily.com/2009/10/wfmw-ten-ways-to-please-your-husband.html!

Catching Up.

So many thing have happened over the last couple of weeks and I can't tell you how many times I have thought to myself I need to blog about that but just never made the effort so I am going to combine the things I can still remember into one post.

1st-Jessica got her hair cut!


Yes after 18 years of having long hair she went into the beauty shop(I just love calling it that, it reminds me of when I was little and my grandmother took me with her every Saturday to the beauty shop to have her hair done) and had 10 inches cut off. She had been waiting until it got just the right length so that she could donate the cut hair to "Locks of Love". She looks so much older now but I guess she is in college so she needs to actually look like a college student. In case you didn't know she is only 5 ft tall so I am sure she has been mistaken for a 14 year old.

2nd- Our church's fall festival was Sunday evening. After church on Sunday my children were contemplating what they could dress up as. You see we stopped doing Halloween several years ago. It was just so much of a hassle. We live in the country so there are no houses to trick or treat from and no one comes to our house so we usually build a fire in the back yard, roast some marshmellows and hotdogs and just enjoy being together. Anyway, as we drove home I came up with this brilliant idea of making t-shirts for each one of my family members. We got home at 12:30pm and we were to leave at 4:30. So 4 hours to make 14 t-shirts. Here is the result:

I know this is not everybody, I will post a picture of everyone in their shirts as soon as I get them all together, if you only knew how hard that is.

3rd- A homeschooling idea- A game my children love and I know you already know about this but I am telling you anyway is the matching game. My boys love the matching game. We mostly do it with the alphabet but you could do it with numbers, colors, shapes, the ideas are endless. When they get a match we sing the phonics song for that particular letter. Capital a, little a, A say a as in Apple, A says a, a, a.

4th- Have any of you heard of gDiapers? I just discovered them today. I tried cloth diapers several years ago but I just could never seem to get them clean enough. These diapers come with a cover and you insert a biodegradable diaper refill. You can flush the refill or the pee only ones can be put in a compost pile and will break down in 50-150 days or just toss them. I never considered myself eco-friendly but considering I have been changing diapers for almost 20 years straight I have probably done my damage on the enviroment. I am seriously looking into these and will let you know if I choose to use them and how they work.

Fall Bucket

Look at this, isn't it so cute. I did not come up with this own my own but was inspired by a fellow blogger. She had actually taken a bucket just like this one and painted her child's name on it, put tissue paper inside and tied ribbons on the edge. But I came up with a different version:

The bucket came from Dollar General for $1.50. I put the vinyl monogram on it. These bucket are very shallow and I was concerned that if any of my children dropped their buckets all the candy would go all over the place so I came up with the following:
An insert made from a dish towel, also from Dollar General for, you guessed it $1.50. I cut the towel in half sewed the edges together and put a draw string in the top. I completed the entire project in 30 minutes. 1 down, 5 to go.

Another makeover

So yesterday I got up at 6:30 to work on a few projects that I had been putting off for a while now. I worked until 1:00 and decided to go take a short nap. As I was sitting on my bed an idea ran through my head. I jumped up and got to work and below is the result.

For years my front porch has been an eyesore. I have always wanted one of those Southern Living porches that was an extension of my home but just didn't know how to get it without spending lots of money. I found the red chair at the GW, that's what my good friend calls it. It was white so I gave it a red coat of paint and distressed it with sand paper. The chest of drawers has been in our garage for years waiting to be carted off to the dump. I coated it with some primer and a can of white spray paint and sanded it. The picture was done by our former pastor and has been sitting in a closet. The lamp and tray I found at the GW. The "Greetings" sign I already had and those two little people were glued to the side, so I riped them off and sat them in the chair. I had some red pillows on our back deck, I found some canvas fabric I have had for years,I cut out pillow covers and sewed them. I made a stencil and painted a P on each and stuffed the red pillows inside. The bench had also been in the garage waiting on a trip but I rescued it along with it's match and put them here, they were once in our kitchen. So there you go, what you can do with a few hours and things you have around the house. Now I know it's no Southern Living porch but it's a start. I want to make an nonfunctional part of my home functional and I am on my way now.

Laundry Room

Here are two of the items I purchased from Goodwill. They tray was an ugly wood color and the corkboard had a revolting '80's "Country Kitchen" theme. I removed the country kitchen lettering and took some black spray paint to both of them. I found the lamp online cheap and added some fringe I already had. The glass containers were found at Walmart. I spray painted clothes pins black to go in the small one and added washing powders to the other. Now you are all asking why would you decorate your laundry room. Well I spend so much time in the room, why wouldn't I want it to be more inviting. You might notice my new washer and dryer in the picture. My old ones were totally shot. The washer leaked more water than it washed with and the dryer was falling apart. We had the money for the Washer but did not for the dryer. The wheels in my head started spinning for a legal and moral(HAHA) way to purchase the dryer and then I remembered a change bucket we had been collecting change in for many years. Georgia Bank and Trust has a change machine they you can use and they only charge 4% if you have an account with them. So off we went to the bank with 50lbs of change. Jerry spent 45 minutes depositing the money and only got through half of it before the bank closed. Half of it came to $400.00. We used money we had for other things to make up the difference until we got back to the bank with the rest of the change. Yah who! I got me a new dryer purchased with quarters, nickles, dimes and pennies! I really wanted to buy the red ones but I didn't want to pay the extra $200 just for red so Jerry bartered with the salesman and got the red ones for the price of the white ones! I didn't buy the stands because that would of amounted to another $500 but I love them without. Thank you Lord for providing such a luxury!


This is the "Country Kitchen" corkboard up close! I am really enjoying my new found hobby and am looking forward to finding even more junk to turn into treasures. I just keep thinking about all the stuff I have sent to Goodwill over the years and what I could of done with it:(

Elijah after a hard day at work!

Celebratin the Day of Emily's Birth!

Here is the cake and cookies I made for her. The cake has a surprise when you cut into it.



Surprise the cake is 6 layers of the rainbow!

Emily with her new converse tennis shoes!

Everyone actually got into the picture, there is usually somebody not looking.

Emily with her cake!

We love birthday's at the Price house and why shouldn't we since we have so many!

My New Addiction

Okay so I have been missing in action for the last 2 weeks. I have found myself addicted to decorating blogs. I some how found myself on one not on purpose, I don’t even remember what I was searching but anyway, I found myself on one and after reading all of her great ideas, I moved on to another and another. They are great, here women are taking $3 Goodwill junk and turning it into wonderful home décor. I am not a decorator, I don’t have the creativity. I always thought home décor meant going to some fancy store and paying an arm and a leg for things that I would take home and my children would destroy, but I was wrong. I have gotten ideas on how to make built in bookcase for less than half what it would cost to have them built, how to make cheap window treatments and many many other ideas. I have been to Goodwill twice in the last week and believe or not, I have found some really good stuff. Now when you see the stuff you have to look past how it looks in the store and see it’s potential. Imagine it with a fresh coat of black spray paint. Here is a picture of my finds. Stay tuned to what I did with them!

Labor Day Outing!

Labor Day

On labor day we usually do some sort of laboring. This day we stained half of our deck. As the afternoon went on we tried to think of something fun and cheap for our family to do. We decided to take a walk by the river.

Jerry walking with the boys.
Rebekah, Laura and Preston.

Asher and I, notice he is sucking his fingers backwards.

Have you ever seen a kid do that?

Some of the girls jumpin on the bridge!



Preston

My little stairsteps.

Jessica and Christina

I love days when our entire family is together. It does seem like there is not enough of them.

As we go through the One Month To Live study it makes me more mindful of

not taking the time I have with my family for granted. I am so thankful for the many blessings the Lord has provided me with. I want to live my "dash" in a way that is pleasing to him.

You know you're a large family...

When you take the statistics of the costs of raising a child, $221,000, multiply that by the number of children you have, you realize your children are worth a ocean front vacation home in Costa Rica, a Mercedes Roadster 5.5L V8,

2003 3 stateroom 58’ Bluewater Yacht,

a Lady-Datejust Pearlmaster Rolex watch,

a pair of Christian Louboutin Zebra Tall Boots,

a Yves Saint Laurent Downtown Patent Tote,

1 oz of Clive Christian's signature fragrance "Imperial Majesty",

season tickets to the University of Georgia football games

and still have money in the bank. But who can put a price on children. They are a blessing from the Lord! Although, the girls and I had fun trying to find expensive things to buy with our imaginary money and WOW, what some people would pay for a purse and a pair of shoes!

Sarah's 17th Birthday!

On August 25 my third born daughter turned 17 years. She is our crazy kid. She loves not being normal. If you look at any picture with her in it she is always making a weird face.


Sarah cutting her cake!

Dad and Preston

Joshua!



After we got done with the party, we went to the couch to watch wrestling. Nobody was watching Joshua as he felt the need to rub icing all over his arms. I am sure it made them silky smooth.

Homeschooling, Is it for everyone and why do you do it?

I first heard about the this thing called home schooling approximately 10 years ago. I had meet a family with seven children that home schooled. Needless to say I thought they were crazy. My children were going to public school and they were perfectly happy and so was I. They excelled at all levels, Jessica was in the gifted program and Sarah had won the County-wide Kindergarten Young Georgia Authors Award for her story “I Wood like a Baby Brother”. Why would I home school?

But as soon as those thoughts finished rolling off my brain, the Lord began a work on me. Suddenly I was thinking about home schooling all the time, and every time I thought of it, I would say I can’t home school my kids, that would be crazy. I began research on the Internet to see about this home schooling thing and began to realize that it would not be as hard as I thought. I talked it over with Jerry and just began to pray about it. I can remember as clear as day when the Lord told me I was to take my children out of public school and school them at home. We were already into a school year so I decided I would take them out at Christmas break. The last day of school came and I was very nervous. As I picked my children up for the last time, one of my daughters teachers came to the van and asked me if it was true that I would be home schooling them. I said yes and she told me that she would miss my daughter very much and she had been thinking about doing the same thing with her children. WOW, I thought, OK I’m not the only crazy one.

The last 10 years have been filled with highs and lows. I have had many days that I wanted to drive my children up to the school building and drop them off. I have sat around and wondered if I was truly screwing my children up for life by my decisions. But then I would always remember, The Lord had called me to do this. I have always been a stay-at-home mom, my job was to clean the house, wash the clothes, and take care of the children. And now I was thrust into a whole new world, filled with unknowns. .Our struggles came and went, and we always tried to learn from our mistakes, making tomorrow better than the day before. I have had fun over the last 10 years and I have been able to spend so much time with my children.

Now you might be asking, do you think everyone should home school? Absolutely Not! Again I say Absolutely Not! Homeschooling is most definitely not for everyone. I believe you take your instructions from the Lord. He has called some to home school, some to public school and some to private school. Christians are needed in all three places. What would happen if all Christians decided to pull their children out of public school? If the Lord has called you to send your children to public school then it would be wrong for you to bring them home to school. It is important for all of us to remember and to not judge others because they do not fit into our mold, whether public schooled, home schooled or private schooled. Like I said in my previous post, the most important thing is the foundations that you are teaching them at home. You can home school your child’s entire young life but if you have not built a strong biblical foundation, he will crumble when he steps into the world.

Homeschooling is what we were called into and it is what works for our family. I did not begin this adventure on a whim, or because my children were struggling in school or because it was the popular thing. It was begun out of obedience. My children are not geniuses, or nor will they be graduating when they are 14. We are just “That Price Family” and “that’s the way we roll”. So if you are thinking of home schooling I would suggest that you first begin to pray about it. The Lord will most definitely give you an answer. It might not be what you want to hear but be obedient to His Call!

You know you're a large family when:

You take your daughter to McDonald's and she eyes a day care walking in and asks "Are they all brothers and sisters?"

First Day of School!

Here are my precious first and second born children on their first day of school. It took us 15 minutes to find the camera and then find the battery for the camera so that we could get this picture. They only let me get one because they were in a hurry. Now that I am posting it on my blog they are wishing they had stuck around for one more photo. This was Jessica's first day of school after being homeschooled for 9 years. Amanda is in her 2nd year and is pursuing a Nursing Degree. So now you see that it is possible to homeschool through high school and have your children be able to attend college.

College has brought a challenge that I never really considered. There are many liberal professors there and it seems as if they have an agenda to tear down Christians. I am thankful that my children have a strong foundation but I feel sorry for the ones who have not been given that opportunity. If some of these professors have their way these young adults faith, if they have any, will be shaken and ultimately destroyed. They will begin to doubt what they have been taught in Sunday School, Youth Group, and Worship. A while back a video was played during our worship service that showed college students answering questions about their faith. These young adults could not answer simple questions. You could here doubt in their voices about even what they thought they knew. How sad!

Please hear what I am telling you, dear friend. Start on your child's biblical foundation when they are small. Sunday School teachers and youth group leaders cannot build a foundation for your child, they can only reinforce what you have put into place and truthfully it is not their job. The bible gives that responsibility to the parents. We need to readjust our priorities because if we do not they could eventually be readjusted for us and by then it might be too late.

My Big Red Van

I was riding alone the other day in my van. Nothing like riding in a 15 passenger van alone to make you feel really alone. As I was riding along I began to remember all the things my van has been a part of. We purchased this van new in 2001. We actually ordered it from the dealership so that we could get things on it that were not standard on a 15 passenger van. It was lovely. That new car smell, that new carpet, everything opened and closed just as it should. For the first 2 years I wouldn't let any of the children eat in the van. We would eat at picnic tables in the park, wait until we got home, or go inside but we did not eat in the van. Slowly we allowed food in but absolutely no drink. Eat your food kids but you will have to wait to drink until we get home. After several choking episodes we changed our minds, JK but we did eventually allow drink into the back of the van.

My trusty van has been with us over the course of 8 years. It has picked me up after delivering 5 of my children, and taken me and the children to countless doctor's appointments. It has taken us to and from church approxamiately 1,248 times. It has seen the beach, the mountains,and been driven through Atlanta traffic. It has been side swiped by a Mercedes on Bel Air road and one of it's back glasses was busted out by one of my children throwing rocks. At one time a mouse lived in our van. I know you are thinking a mouse that's weird but with all those kids dropping crumbs everywhere, he was in mouse heaven. After several weeks of trying to catch him in a humane trap with nothing to show for it, I bought a real trap. Jerry set it one night when we got home from Wednesday night church. The next morning, the mouse literally was in mouse heaven.

It has been thrown up in more times than I can remember. This trusty van has taken us down 176,000 miles of road and the only things that have broken were the fuel pump and the ignition switch. I love my van. I used to ride around in relative anonymity that is until a good friend of mine gave me a sticker. You know the kind that show how many people are in your family. Now when people see us, they are pointing and gasping and counting. I have had people drive up on my rear end to try and count the number of people in the sticker.

I have thought many times that maybe I would like to get a new van but then I remember all the reasons why I love my old one and the biggest being that it is paid for. It would be nice to have a fancy new car or van with all those new bells and whistles but I have learned to be content with what the Lord has provided that I can afford, and when I say afford I don't mean at $500 a month. So unless someone leaves me a generous amount of money sometime in the near future, I will stick with what I got. Now, I think it deserves a name, any ideas?

Jigglers!

Jigglers, Jigglers! What are Jigglers? That is the name I came up with for those flabby things that women begin to develop under their arms the closer they reach the age of 40. I have just began to notice jigglers under my arms in the last year or so. I think I was waving goodbye to someone and out of the corner of my eye I caught my arms flapping in the wind like a flag in a thunderstorm. I was astonished. Oh no, what do I do? Am I supposed to have these? And how do I get rid of them? I chose just to ignore them. I mean as long as I don't raise my arms to far, out of sight, out of mind, right. Wrong!

Last night I was walking down the hallway and Jerry grabbed me by the arm for some reason. Not in a mean way, I think he was playing around or something but he made some remark about "what is that?" Then he realized what he had done and immediately tried to retreat to the bedroom. I stopped him and said "What is what?" He said "Oh Nothing" I said "No what is what?" I saw the wheels spinning in his head. "How do I get out of this one?" he was thinking. How can I turn this into a compliment so that I don't totally insult my wife to her face and make life really hard for me this evening. I decided not to press the issue any further and let him off just by telling him those where my "jigglers", things you get when you have been married for almost 21 years and given birth to 12 babies. My body has contracted and expanded so many times it is now losing it's elasticity. I know you are all thinking just exercise those arms and get rid of them. Easier said than done! I think they are here to stay. Oh well, maybe some plastic surgeon will read my blog and offer me a free jiggler tuck! and then maybe we will get our own tv show, and all the world will be asking people, have you see that family on tv, the, the, Price's, they have 12 kids and one on the way! JK not yet anyway. They homeschool all their kids and they really look normal! No thank you! I have seen what media can do to a family. but the $75,000 an episode would be really nice.

Caleb's 4th Birthday!

My 10th born child turned 4 years old yesterday. Although Caleb's birthday is in August, it is the one that begins our season of birthdays. We have 2 in August, 1 in September, 4 in November, 3 in December, 1 in January, and 1 in March. So we spend the next couple of months going from one birthday to another. We do not do big birthday parties, well kind of. We do have a party but with just our family so there are still 13 people at each party, they are just all family.

Caleb and his cake. Don't you just love that smile, squinty eyes and all.

I went to the Walmart to buy him a toy. The Thomson Walmart toy department has been in total shambles for a very long time. But after much searching I managed to find an Imaginext Bat Man Cave. The perfect boy gift, it has little people, super heros, and folds up to be easily transported. In fact he wanted to take it to church.

Asher chewing on the wrapping paper trash but isn't he so cute even if he is eating trash.

Worship

I was sitting in worship today and I glanced around to see if all my children were paying attention. As I looked into each of their faces I began to wonder exactly what was going through their minds. Were they thinking about God? Were they singing the songs to Him? Do they know what true worship is?
We have attended church regularly for almost 13 years. With our large family preparing for Sunday worship begins on Saturday. We pick out all of the small children's clothing, socks and shoes, and everyone starting with Emily down gets a bath. I also take my shower on Saturday nights. We wake up at 6am(or there abouts), and go through the checklist written in our heads…clothes on…check…shoes on …check…kids clothes on…check…kids shoes on…check…hair fixed… check…breakfast…check…where’s your bible…I found one…get in the van…get in the van…get in the van and off we go. We drive to church usually in relative silence because everyone is either half awake or half asleep. To Sunday School and on to Worship. We sit in the same pew every Sunday, you know us baptists and then the service begins. We sing a song, and another and another, we greet those around us, and another song. The pastor stands to preach and we get out our bibles, if they made it into the sanctuary, also our pens and notebooks so that we can take all the notes…Points 1,2,3...A,B,C. Invitation hymn, offering, prayer and we are done so, Where do we eat? And there you have it, we have done our part, we feel good because we came to see and be seen and hey God is happy with us because we showed up, right. But is He?
Do we truly know what it is to worship our Lord? Were the songs sung as though He were standing before us? Did we receive the message as though it were coming straight from God’s lips? Are we more interested in being entertained than worshiping in spirit and in truth. John 4:23-24, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Worship should be a time when we humble ourselves before the Lord and lift up praises to our Savior. We should never utter the words “I am not getting anything out of worship” because it should be about what you are bringing to worship.
My husband is an ordained minister and on occasion is able to preach in different churches in the area. Everytime Jerry is able to preach, he comes home exhausted. He explained to me how physically draining it is on him to bring a message. As I was pondering these things it dawned on me that when we finish worhiping our Lord and Savior, should we also be drained? If we are worshiping in spirit and truth, with all our heart, mind and soul, should we be tired from the experience? Is it maybe that we don’t have any idea what true worship is? Or is it that we would never openly worship our Lord for fear of what others might think? I have witnessed a few people in our church that I believe has true unhindered worship with our Lord. They are not in a sanctuary with 700 other people, it is just them and their Lord. I so long to be like that but here I can’t even get past raising my arms during a song that I feel like touching the sky. I want true worship for myself but also for my children. Will you join me in digging deeper and seeking to worship our Father in spirit and in truth? See you in worship…