What I learned being a sports mom for 18 months straight

 It all started like a normal spring. But what started as a normal quickly grew into a whirlwind of sports craziness.

In March of 2015, all three boys played baseball. Timothy played tee ball and the big boys played kid pitch. Curtis was the assistant coach for both teams. Overall, it was a great season! But with three players on two different teams, it was for sure crazy!

During baseball season, in mid April, all four kids started summer league swimming. We were blessed in that there was a homeschool practice, allowing us to have less conflicts with our busy baseball schedule.

In June, during the height of busyness with swimming, Elizabeth started playing volleyball for a homeschool team.

The three big kids had an amazing swim season and went on to swim in the State Games of Texas, which was held in early August.

By the time swim season wrapped up, volleyball season was full steam ahead. Through the organization that did volleyball, we found out about basketball. Micah and Benjamin started going to skills clinics, decided to join the team, and began twice a week practices in October.

In September, Timothy began playing flag football.

Volleyball season came to an end and Elizabeth decided to also play basketball. Two weeks after her last volleyball game, she played in her first basketball game.

Never before had we played a winter sport like basketball. But we were loving the organization, the teams, the families and the coaches. The homeschool state tournament was at the end of February, and baseball started again the next week.

Then, we basically had a repeat, where swimming started during baseball season, and swimming went so well that we swim even after the regular season.

By July I was in full on meltdown mode. While the three big kids were at camp, I cancelled a trip to see my family in Oklahoma and took a much needed mental break.

Since mid July, we haven't done any sports, aside from the occasional basketball skills clinic. As I'm gearing up for Micah and Benjamin starting basketball and Elizabeth joining a club swim team, here's what I've learned.

• Just because there are 24 hours in a day doesn't mean I need to fill every waking hour.
• Saying no to something good is hard.
• Sometimes when you say no to a good thing it opens up the opportunity for a GREAT thing.
• Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD.
• It's okay if Timothy doesn't play a sport this fall. He's okay with it, why am I struggling?!
• When you are doing sports non stop, something else in life suffers. It might be homeschooling. It might be the house. It might be your marriage. All the above were effected by the amount of sports we participated in.
• I need to take time for me. Time to exercise, to eat well, to rest. 
• It's easy to gain weight when your main focus is getting the kids from one event to another, homeschooling and church.
• Kids will watch and see where your priorities are. Make sure your priorities are the good things.
• I do my best when I'm busy. But I also need an occasional recharge. 
• Homeschooling CAN be done in the car! But it does take a lot of planning.
• Audibles, through Amazon, is a life saver, as are books on CD from the library.

I'm very, very thankful for the opportunities that my kids have had over the past 18 months. They have learned more than just sports. I am thankful for the coaches that poured into their lives, motivating and encouraging them. I truly believe my kids have stronger character because of sports. Our family will continue to participate in various sporting activities. I'm very excited to see them continue to grow as athletes and individuals. And I'm hopeful that I can take the lessons the I've learned and become an better sports mom.

Getting ready for school

Our summer flew by!!  I hope to catch up on all the summer fun we've had in another post.  But as the summer comes to an end, I've begun preparing for the start of a new school year.  This week, Micah and Benjamin are in Kansas at Grand Camp.  I took the opportunity with only having half the children I'm used to and put some of my planning into play.  Here are the results!

 Above is a picture of our dinning room.  Though we have a school room, which we all enjoy, there are times when you just need to sit at a table to get your work done.  I've also found that being able to have all the kids, sitting in one place as we start our day, is very helpful! 

One of the main things I've learned is that you have to have a central location for your daily school needs.  We solved that problem with the cabinet in the corner, by the dry erase board.  The kids have all their books there and that's where they can find the daily school supplies that they need.  In the opposite corner is Timothy's little set up.  He has his own table, a poster and I'll add a few things to it before the start of school.

A random, yet very motivating thing I discovered last year was the 100 days of school poster.  My kids, especially the boys, were SO motivated to do school each day so that they could cross off a day on the chart.  I'm hoping it will work as well this year and help us as we fight off the back to school blues.

We've loved having a school room in our home!  Having a place for all the books, toys, and an extra couch has been nice.  Each year we homeschool, I add more books to our stash.  This week, I was able to spend some time organizing all the shelves, rearranging a little, and preparing my area.

 My little corner.  I took some time to wrap jars with papers, added a picture of my students, all in hope of making my area a little more fun.

 A lot of school happens on the couch and on the floor in front of the bulletin board!  This is the room we use for group work (bible, history and read alouds). We brought Timothy's toys shelf and book case out of his room, since he hates being alone.  Hopefully, this will allow him something fun to do when he's done with his school but I'm still working with his siblings. 

Another shelf with organized supplies and books!  I cleared off the top of this shelf, which had been a craft catch all. 

As we start our 6th year of homeschooling, I am excited about the opportunity to learn with and love on my kiddos.  Having a fun, organized environment really helps my motivation to start the year off strong!

Month of Thankfulness... Day 8

I'm thankful for our beautiful new home.

I'm thankful to be away from the horrible neighbor who hurt my child.

I'm thankful to feel safe in my neighborhood again.

I'm thankful for the new memories we've already made in this new house.

I'm thankful for how this house has quickly turned into a home.

Finally!!

About two years ago, I posted this blog post, asking my readers to let me know which set of curtains worked best for the master bedroom. My goal was to complete my bedroom, making a calm oasis, before Timothy joined our family. Well, we all know how that turned out! Timothy arrived a month early, and my calm oasis was never finished. The master bedroom turned into a kind of nursery, complete with an infant crib, changing table and swing.

And that was okay with us! We were so thankful to have Timothy, but my desire for a grown up, finished room was still there.

A year ago, we put our house on the market. Our bedroom looked good, but didn't really feel like OUR bedroom. There weren't the personal touches that I was hoping for.

This fall, after our house was taken off the market, I decided to start that project again. I collected frames, pictures, vases and ideas.

Today, I FINALLY FINISHED!!!! Though there are still a couple projects I'd like to have in the room, I'm going to wait till our next master bedroom. I think I've found a good balance of making the room show ready, but at the same time making it homey for Curtis and me.

The view from the bedroom door.
I've been wanting to do something with the kids' infant pictures. I found the frames at a garage sale, painted them brown, used scrapbook paper I already had, and printed black and white pictures of each of the kids as infants. The piece of art between the kids' pictures was done and given to us by my sister, Shannon.
The top of Curtis' dresser. The cases were given to us from my other sister, Megan.

Today is a crazy day for Curtis and I. Timothy is sick, we have one car, co-op, deacon's meeting, bible study and preparing the house for bible study. But I'm really looking forward to crawling into bed in my FINISHED bedroom.

Wishing for Fall

I really love fall!! I enjoy decorating, baking, doing fall crafts, staging falls pictures, and getting ready for Christmas. It's a time where I look forward to the weather eventually cooling down, though with a high of 100 yesterday, I think I'll just have to keep waiting.

With the first official day of fall this past weekend, I decided it was time to pull out all the fall decorations!
I had already hung our fall wreath. I made it last year, since it was the only fall decorating I was able to do since our house was on the market.

In the picture above, there's a drawing of a pumpkin. Elizabeth made it 2 years ago in art class, using pastels. I love it! This is now one of my new favorite fall decorations.

I tried to take the "less is more" approach this year, lest I make Curtis too crazy. Here's the entertainment center. I'm planning on putting a different picture in the frame, but haven't finished that little project yet.

The fireplace. Simple and sweet.

Our entry way, my other favorite project. I framed fall trees made by Micah and Benjamin. On either side, I hung Aggie pictures, because what's fall without football?!

This morning, I made pumpkin muffins (a family favorite, even when it's not fall!) and pretended it was a brisk fall morning as I sipped my coffee. Maybe all this wishful thinking will result in some fall weather!

Being content

Since it seems that our plans just don't align with the better plans that God has for us, I've been working on contentment. The most practical way I've done this is in my home. After 9 months on the market, we decided to take a break, move back into our home, and work on making our little 3 bedroom 1400 square ft house work for us.

One of the first things we did was to rearrange bedrooms. Micah and Benjamin had been sharing a bedroom, and Elizabeth and Timothy had been sharing a room. Elizabeth is getting to the point where she really needs and appreciates her own room, her own space, and an opportunity to escape her brothers from time to time. So Micah and Benjamin got a new roommate!
The picture above was taken on the boys' first night together.

Eventually, we plan to get bunk beds for the two older boys. But for now, we're continuing in our lesson of contentment and using the trundle bed that we already have. The most exciting part of this move was when I took the hinges off both kids' rooms and maneuvered the crib out of one room and into the other room without taking it apart! I was pretty proud of myself, though it was quite an adventure.

We've done other rearranging, and redecorating to make the transition a fun one for the kids. I'll have to share those pictures soon.

Even though both Curtis and I would have rather been setting our kids up in new rooms in our new house, I am thankful for how well these little transitions have gone. I've had opportunities to talk with the kids about being thankful for the house we have, even though it does feel a little small. My creativity has been stretched as I try to make our space work for us. But it's been a fun process!

Sell this house?!

Yep. The house is still on the market. After taking it off the market for a few weeks earlier this year, we put it back on at the end of February.

We've been enjoying lots of traffic, compared to the fall. We show the house at least twice a week, the most times we've showed it in a week is five times. We've even received an offer. However, it was low and the buyers weren't interested in negotiating.

All this is great, however, we still haven't sold the house.

One piece of criticism that we continually get is the carpet. Curtis and I decided we weren't putting any more big money into the house, specifically carpet since we have 4 young children. Last night, Curtis and I cleaned the carpets with a proffesional carpet cleaner that we rented. I was thrilled with the results!


Obviously, it doesn't look new. And we didn't worry too much about the areas the rug and carpet would cover. But as our realtor said, we just want to give a more positive first impression. And hopefully, now potential buyers will see the house as more move in ready.

Sell This House!

In case you were wondering....

Yes. Our house is still on the market.

No. We haven't had any offers.

Yes. We received one "good" lead.

No. It didn't pan out.

Our plan? Our plan is probably that we'll take the house off the market the week of Thanksgiving, and try again when the market is a little better (the spring is a much better time to sell a house, especially in a college town).

I'll admit, I'm a little discouraged. Curtis and I put so much time, money, sweat, money, and effort into getting the house ready to be put on the market. I'm not too surprised that this is how it will all pan out, but I do wish it had gone differently.

I am looking forward to not having the house on the market during the holidays. I want to be able to decorate, make messy creations in the kitchen, pack to head to KS, wrap presents and enjoy the holidays without worrying about whether or not I'll have to madly clean the house to show.

Through this process, I've prayed that regardless of the outcome, I would be content with what the Lord has provided. We are very thankful for a home, for the flexibility to take the house off the market when we want, that we're not in a time crunch, and that even though it would be nice to have another room and a school room, we have everything we need in this house.

So there's the latest, in case you were wondering!

Fall!!!

Fall is my favorite season. Which is a bummer, since we don't really have that season here in Texas. So I make up for it by decorating!! Remember all the decorating I did last year?

This year, since we have the house on the market, I don't get to go all out on fall decorating. But, our realtor did say that we could put a wreath on the door!! So, I'm going ALL OUT on this wreath! I've done some looking on line, and found these cute wreaths. Leave a comment, and let me know which one you like. (The numbers are under the picture)

#1 (I would make this one less Halloweenish and more fallish)

#2 (I have the wreath for this one, and would just have to buy the stuff. Too bland?)

#3 (rather than a "31" I would do a "K")

#4 (I was thinking that I could use this design with Aggie paper, making a cute Aggie wreath for football days)

#5 (YUM! Candy corns! Too Halloweenish?)

#6 (I think how this one is very elegant, and I have the wreath already!)

Sell this house!

What three things get potential buys into your house?
#1 a good price
#2 good advertising
#3 curb appeal

Our house goes on the market TOMORROW (gulp!). Curtis and I have been working all weekend on getting things ready. Hopefully, the in the next few days, I'll show you a few of our projects. But for today, let's start with CURB APPEAL!
(I wish I had a picture before our awesome friends the Haileys helped us with our landscaping) Just picture a whole lot of nothing and two over grown bushes.)

New bathroom!

While the kids were in Kansas at Grand Camp, Curtis and I did a lot of work in the hall bathroom, which is the kids' bathroom. Our goal is to do a few projects over the next few months and slowly prepare our house to be put on the market. After much prayer and even more patience, we feel that College Station is our home for now, and Curtis will be continuing in his same job. And while our current home has met our needs for the past several years, we are rapidly reaching maxim capacity.

So the first renovation we did was the bathroom!We installed a new light fixture.
Curtis pulled up not one, but two layers of linoleum flooring and laid tile. We also texturized the walls and painted and painted the base boards and the ceiling.
We were able to borrow the shower curtain from my mom/sister.

The cost for the entire bathroom make over was about $150. We were able to save a lot of money by using the extra tile that we had from tiling the kitchen.

We're looking forward to doing several more projects, and are very pleased with how well our first one went!

Room make over

My Mom and I had a plan. She painted half of Elizabeth's pink room a light green. She bought Elizabeth a new comforter and brought her a new bed. We had it all set up. The plan was that when mom came back for Timothy's birth (on February 25th) we would finish putting Elizabeth and Timothy's room together. I was supposed to get Elizabeth's old bed sold so we would have room to make these changes.

Well, as you all know, Timothy arrived a month early.

For the past three months, we've had half pink room, half green room with no crib and no evidence that a baby boy would soon be living in there.

All that changed this week while my mom was here for Timothy's surgery!

Please join me on a tour of Elizabeth and Timothy's room.

Elizabeth's part: (My mom found the comforter on ebay, and the wall decals on line.)

Now on to Timothy's part.

My mom made the bumper! How cute are those little green froggies?!

My mom also made the curtains that tied the theme and colors together.

I'm so please with how cute the room looks! Elizabeth is really excited about her brother moving in with her, which is a huge step from where she was. I really appreciate all the work my mom has done helping me with this project. She always does an amazing job of making Elizabeth feel special, while keeping my taste in mind. Thanks, Mom!!

A or B?

A

B

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Whew!

After a week and a half, I have decided that I am DONE with Christmas decorating. D-O-N-E! It's been fun, but it's been hard doing it just me and the kids. Mathematically, it should be easy. Three extra sets of hands = faster worker. But I can hear all you mommies out there laughing.

This year, I've tried to me a little more "themey" in my decorating. I'm calling this year my Peppermint Snow year. In every part of the decorating, there's either a peppermint color scheme or a snowman.

And now: The Krajca Christmas Home Tour our front door

the kids' windows, which are on the front of the house

The lights I already had. The snowflakes came from the Dollar Tree (6 for $1). There's also a felt decorations that says, "Let it snow". The kids helped me, and I was amazed and how far some tape will go!

the mantle

This is my favorite part of the house!! I love the stockings, the snowmen, the stocking hangers. Everything!

the china cabinet

My snowman collection. Not as impressive as my mom's, but I had to start somewhere.

the entertainment center

I tried something new this year, and love it! It's hard to see because of how dark the picture is, but there are three picture frames. The one on the left is of Curtis and I on our first Christmas. The big picture in the middle is this years Christmas picture. And the one on the right is last years Christmas picture. I had fun doing it, and might do it every year now.

the kitchen

How cute is this?! I bought the garland at the Dollar Tree, the red candles on the table at Wal Mart, and everything else I already had!

the window sill in the kitchen

I bought this picture frame at Kohl's last year, at the end of Christmas sale. Three little gingerbread men, two boys and one girl! How perfect! I already had the candle holder, and just added the new red candle and the ribbon.