Double post Thurday

The addictive qualities of HGTV

Some of you have lived with me, whether in a shared room, dorm, lots of sleepovers, (CG, I think you meet the most) let's face, anyone who reads this knows me pretty well. You know the state of my cleanliness. It simply doesn't bother me for a certain period of time, that is perhaps a little too long. HOWEVER, there is this other side of me...the side that you have to look beyond the unmade bed and pile of books. When you look at the details, they are INCREDIBLY neat and organized. I'm actually a closet organization freak who's been opening the door more and more as she gets older. To the point that if I'm going to do it, I want to do it 100% perfectly organized. Not just put papers in a file folder and give it a name, but staple groups of papers together and make them all look like a ream of paper separated by a few staples before putting them in the file folder (which is OF COURSE alphabetized).

I love the ideas of home improvement and interior design. When I was a teenager I asked my mom if I could paint one of our spare bedrooms because I wanted to learn how to paint a room and actually do it. AND I DID, all by myself! My mom now sleeps in that room and loves the walls.

So, in my life I have lots of creative ideas. I'm defiantly more right brained (thus the unmade bed...it's not unmade, it becomes art in the bedroom). To add to my creative juices, I tend to put on HGTV when I have my beautiful 3 month old sleeping on my lap after fighting to fall asleep for who knows how long. It's amazing how one show becomes another then another interesting one comes on. It's as bad as watching 24 on DVD.

So, (yes again), here's my "Project wall". On the shows they have a "project room", but as you see below, I have some things that require me to take a smaller section to tackle.

Here we go.....

Hideous isn't it? This is what you see from our apartment door. Now, we don't usually stand there or sit there and look into the apartment, so this project has been put on the back burner, but the time has come. We need to do something about this huge white wall.

Original plan: Put up a shelf on the upper part of the wall and put sentimental things that we had on a mantel in our last apartment. Things like, the wine bottle from when we got engaged. A vase from China when Jon went there on a missions trip. Below the shelf was going to be 3 columns of framed photographs. One for each of our sides of the family and the three of us in the middle.

Here are the things that make it challenging...

This is where we had a coat rack up on the wall....it fell down...

I had one of those plastic no marking hooks up on the wall...it fell down..

Problem Conclusion #1: Things fall off and out of our walls. This "Project Wall" is right above the couch, where we sit all the time. I don't want things falling on us, or sentimental things breaking.

More challenges...

What you don't know: Joseph just filled his diaper

Opps...Daddy left the wipe container open...

Yup..this pretty much sums up my life.

All cleaned and changed. Aren't I cute?? This makes every diaper worthwhile.

Meanwhile..I'm still in my pj's.

This is what the apartment looks like Tues-Fri usually. Not a huge mess, but just enough that I'm constantly trying to get it picked up before taking on a project.

Final challenge:

lack of funds. I love Design on a Dime!

Conclusion!!

We've decided to ditch the idea of the shelf. It's just too risky. I'm also nervous about hanging anything on the walls after our bouts with things falling. Here's what I think I'd like to try instead: A full wall of photos. Many many photos of our family. Instead of true frames. I'm going to get a blue poster board that will go with the rest of the blue in the room and cut out "frames" Then if something should fall, it will be light and not hurt anyone or break.

Thoughts?? Bets on how long it will actually take me to accomplish this??? :)

Thank GOD for hand-me-downs!

Joseph 3 months 2 days. Sound asleep. Later, his head fell over.

2 hours 20 min and counting....

Stuck in my head

Who's to say
What's impossible
Well they forgot
This world keeps spinning
And with each new day
I can feel a change in everything
And as the surface breaks reflections fade
But in some ways they remain the same
And as my mind begins to spread its wings
There's no stopping curiosity
I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs
I don't want this feeling to go away
Who's to say
I can't do everything
Well I can try
And as I roll along I begin to find
Things aren't always just what they seem
I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs
This world keeps spinning and there's no time to waste
Well it all keeps spinning spinning round and round and
Upside down
Who's to say what's impossible and can't be found
I don't want this feeling to go away
Please don't go away
Please don't go away
Please don't go away
Is this how it's supposed to be
Is this how it's supposed to be

Confessions of a Pastor's Wife

What do you think friends? Good title for a book?



I was thinking about this the other day. Sometime around Fall 07, I went to an event at Gordon-Conwell for "Seminary Wives". Yes, it was not the most PC event, because there are several "Seminary Husbands", but to give them credit, us "wives" are in the extreme majority. I don't tend to take personal offence to non-pc things, for the most part. It actually bothers me when people add "sisters" to scripture verses that say "brothers". When people say "humankind" verses "mankind". I usually say "woman" is included in "mankind"...it's "MANkind" not "MALEkind".....anyways.....



I was given a book at said event and others recieved a different book. The other was something in regards to being a pastor's wife. Not being able to remember the name, I did a simple search for the topic and found nothing. I searched more and more and still found nothing. I am sure that genre does exist and I have simply not been able to find what I'm looking for (not that uncommon for a history major).



Being a pastor's wife is a very unique and special relationship in the church. There are a variety of leadership and congregational postitions and relations to the pastor. The "secretary" is yet another avenue. But, wife...let's face it, NO one else has that intimate a relationship to the pastor (nothing dirty implyed..well...ok, nevermind). I hear a lot of stuff, yes, but more than specific names and dates, the situations that come across a pastors desk and phone, the personal level of parishiners following the Word of God in order for us to pay our bills, and seeing just so many things from a unique perspective have promted my inner juices. "Maybe I should write a book." Now, maybe it will never come to anything. Maybe it will serve more as a diary or just a place to vent. But who knows. Maybe it will come to something someday. I plan on being a pastor's wife for a long long time. Though I think perhaps I would start it with this sentiment: More importantly than being "the pastor's wife" I am "Jonathan Chechile's wife", just as more importantly I am "Veronique". Now, I don't mean this in any selfish way, but moreso that I am me. My relationship to God is more important than that to my husband and son (as hard as that can be to say) and my relationship to other church members are less important. Do you get my drift?



In closing let me say this: Yes, I know I will need a very good editor if this idea should ever go anywhere public. History majors are longwinded and ADD girl with two glasses of Champagne is even worse.



Here Here to 2009. The birth of my beautiful son, Joseph. and to 3 years of marriage to my best friend and love of my life, Jon.

P.S. I wrote this, I think it was New Year's Day night, it was late and I didn't trust myself to post it without a post coffee brain readover. It is now almost a week later and I'm finally getting to it. Welcome to my life.