yes... this:

A little food for thought on Thursday night:

"It is easy to think you have a heart for orphans on the other side of the world, but if you spend your time at home resenting the imposition your children are on you, you do not. You cannot have a heart for the gospel and a fussiness about your life at the same time. You will never make any difference there if you cannot be at peace here. You cannot have a heart for missions, but not for the people around you. A true love of the gospel overflows and overpowers. It will be in everything you do, however drab, however simple, however repetitive."

(taken from this article.)

and this, from this article: 

Live the gospel in the things that no one sees. Sacrifice for your children in places that only they will know about. Put their value ahead of yours. Grow them up in the clean air of gospel living. Your testimony to the gospel in the little details of your life is more valuable to them than you can imagine. If you tell them the gospel, but live to yourself, they will never believe it. Give your life for theirs every day, joyfully. Lay down pettiness. Lay down fussiness. Lay down resentment about the dishes, about the laundry, about how no one knows how hard you work.

Stop clinging to yourself and cling to the cross. There is more joy and more life and more laughter on the other side of death than you can possibly carry alone.

As the author said in the second article, my hands are full... full of good things! It is a privilege to be mama to these babies... one I far too often take all too lightly. The same author had a third post written about motherhood being application of the gospel. She concluded it saying this:

Of course, this side of heaven we will not do perfectly. Harsh words will be spoken, patience will wear thin. Frazzled mothers will act frazzled. And when this happens, our own sinfulness does not detract from the power of the gospel, it illustrates why we need it. Do not use your own mistakes as an excuse to wallow about what a bad mother you are. Repent, seek forgiveness, get it right, and move on. Believe. Be forgiven. Extend that forgiveness, that belief, that joy, to your children.

As you go about your daily transformations, set your heart on the truth. Mimic the gospel in what you do. Bring peace, bring order, bring joy, bring laughter. Bring it because it was brought to you. Give, because it was given to you. The gospel is not too big to fit into little situations. It is too big not to.

My heart is this, that, those, these quotes. More than anything, I want to demonstrate the love that has been demonstrated towards me. I want to recognize what I've been forgiven and extend the same. To exude joy because of the hope I have. To have peace and patience and gentleness be so evident in my life.
I want to love these babies well... and well will only be done through the application of the gospel.

snippets

It is our hopes that in the near-ish future our current home will become someone else's. I've been looking and hunting and reading and dreaming of what will be 'next' for months now... While there are many (many MANY) things about our current locale that I'd love to change, there ARE so many things about it that make it ours, that I love to see, that I will miss when it's no longer ours. 

These pictures by no means capture everything that make this house home, but are just a small sampling of things I do love about this house. 

 (I just bought this wood rose wreath on clearance today. I LOVE it!)

The view from the couch into the other living room. I've always, for some odd reason, loved seeing our coats hung there. It means we're here, I guess. :)

The new light fixtures in the fireplace room. There were giant medieval sconces with flicker flame bulbs when we bought the house.  (really awesome, right?!) We removed them immediately, and then had hanging wires for years. I really love what we decided on... I feel like they 'make' the room.

The play room-- visible from the kitchen and the main living room. 

We hung the twine with pictures right before Cate's first birthday and have been rotating pictures out since. This will definitely be mimicked if/when we move. 

The rug from the girls' room.

Corban's chosen closet decor. What a boy. :)

The stickers that keep the 'little' in my boy.

And the rarely revealed master bedroom...I still need to finish painting trim. And I really should've used a different lens to show how BIG this room is. The master bedroom was one of my favorite things about the house prior to us buying it. It's really sad that it's taken me until getting the house market-ready to get the room finished. Anyway, I love the wall color and my white bed and the pops of red and brown, the split level, sitting area, office area, etc. I love this room. And I love it even more when it's clean.

Will someone please come do my laundry? 

Just kidding.

:)

This is also master bedroom-- what you see when you walk into our room.

 ...and so is this. My 'office'! I also have a book shelf full of work stuff in the closets-converted-to-Nora's-room-converted-back-to-closets.

A teaser pic from our master bath remodel. I STILL have yet to finish painting. I love the dark wood floors and the barely blue-grey wall color and the crispness of the white trim. I'm hopeful to finish painting this weekend... but I've said that a time or two before. :)

From the bath vanity mirror. I really am thrilled with how our bathroom has turned out. For real!

Other house related news...because I know how exciting this is to read about (ha! Really, I know that one day I'll love looking back... as we've looked back over and over at pictures from when we first moved in, different stages in projects, etc. It's really for my documentation sake).:

-We've replaced the sliding glass door in the kitchen and have also bought one to replace the slider in the master bedroom. The seal was broken on both and had the appearance of being frosted. No good (and would not pass an inspection, according to the realtor). My kitchen FINALLY is finished (well, once the trim is up around the new door).  (Almost) Nothing undone or remaining from 1974. 

-Lots of paint touch up needs to happen. Trim, spots on walls, ceilings, etc. Lots of little work. I like painting rooms a new color because it's like an instant remodel. Touch up? for the birds. Again, though, this will finally give our house the finished look that has seemed to elude us for so long.

- My girls share a room now. It's been an amazingly easy transition and I could do backflips over my excitement for the returned closet space. :)

How's that for an exciting post?

:)

Happy weekend!