God Rocks & Color Splash

Nick's grandmother was watching an infomercial sometime in December about a month-to-month club that offered biblical childrens resources. She was really excited about it (she mentioned countless times that she thought it would be something Nick & I would really like for Luke), ordered the first installment and since it took 8-10 weeks to come in, I honestly completely forgot about it. Yesterday we were in for a fun surprise when this is what we received:


Truthfully, there's a lot of stuff out there when it comes to Christian kids stuff... some good, some corny/cheeseball stuff, some stuff that's just "out there". I don't know what I was more excited about- the fact that this kit is actually a really neat resource I'd never heard about (the company's called God Rocks and they have DVD's, books, and CD's with songs that are word-for-word NIV Bible verses... the whole concept is to help kids memorize scripture through music)... or the fact that Nick's grandma knew we would like "this kind of stuff" (she kept saying "I know you love the Bible. I think you'll like this"). I was really encouraged that she knew that memorizing Scripture is something we value in our household and is something we want to impart on Luke. Nick's grandparents go to church, but to be honest I have no idea what impact the Lord has on their lives. We're pretty much the only people in the family that our faith is the guiding force within our lives and so I'm really thrilled that she has picked up on that when we're together.

Luke's kit of new tunes wasn't the only thing we got yesterday. Check this out:

I have been going absolutely crazy with cabin fever this week. I haven't had any reason to leave the house during the day (and in effort to say some dough, I've been staying put) however, the consequence is I've been absolutely shack whacky until someone comes home from work. Thus, we "had" to take a trip to a local Lowe's and look around last night. ;) We did have a productive time though! We got more paint chips and narrowed down what we like for the new place. That is to say, our new place. Sigh. Ah! I'm just now starting to get giddy about it... I really had separated myself emotionally from this house after all our bad previous experiences. But it's now starting to become a reality and I am overjoyed. I cannot wait to have a place of our own! And the thing that I think I'm most excited about is putting color on the walls!!! Living in rentals, that's been a no-go. I've also really enjoyed going to home stores with Nick and just walking through and getting an idea of what he likes as well as what I like. To this point, everything we own is pretty much a hand me down (or as we call them, "hand me ups" since many items are far nicer than anything we could have afforded, even if they are a little dated). So, anyways... we've come to the conclusion that our style is a hodge-podge of traditional/contemporary and the color choices we've come up with when put all together say "totally Tuscan". :) I guess if you can't afford to go to Italy, you can always paint your walls to make you think of it, huh? So long story short... the butter yellow will go in Luke's room (I think it will look awesome next to his Pottery Barn bedding which is green and yellow with kind of a vintage-y barn animal motive), the deep red is for the kitchen/eat-in dining room/fireplace nook. That was the first color that we knew instinctively we wanted. The kitchen has white cabinets we're less than thrilled about, but since we can't afford to put in custom cabinets (I wish!), we figured we'd throw a deep shape on the walls to pop against the stark white. So, there you go! The tan/neutralesque color is going to be for the living room, the halls, the hall bath, and possibly for the third bedroom. I figure neutralizing much of the house will be great for resale (I don't want it too costume)... plus, it provides a clean, blank canvas to do whatever we want with furniture and other decorations. We can always throw around deep accent colors in pillows, curtains, throws, frames, etc. And the last but not least... the green is for our bedroom. That's probably the one color that may still be negotiable. As dorky as it sounds, we found our inspiration in watching Jon & Kate Plus 8.... you know how they conduct all their interviews in their basement? Well, we love that mossy green color they have up on their walls... but to match that exactly. Huh, that would take some work. We found three shades we really like and have been deducing which one to go with by the name of the paint chip (real scientific, aren't we?). I think we're going to go with Gentle Pasture... because how can you not relax in a room with a name like THAT? ;)