Nice politics for a change

I had a party last night ...

... and guess who my special guests were?
Yes, my little buggy friends who have been making me crazy this summer flying around my kitchen. I couldn't get rid of them, until I saw Kim's post on this. Apparently, she's been having buggy problems, too.

She said to get a bottle of apple cider vinegar, with about 1/4 or 1/3 of the vinegar left. Cover the top with cellophane (press n' seal works best), and poke a hole in it. Within 1/2 hour, there were 5 bugs sitting on the top, within 1 hour, they were all over it. Within 3 days, I had about 50 in the bottle. Where do they come from? I have no idea. But they ignored everything else in my kitchen, and went straight to this stuff. Yay!

Food for Thought for Christian Voters

I have seen a lot of hatefulness in politics lately, and it makes me sad. Disagreement is ok; hate is not. What good are our religious convictions if we break the greatest commandment? Why even bother voting based on moral beliefs, if we are being mean while we are doing it? How can we judge whether someone else is truly a Christian? We should be passionate, but not forget to be compassionate. After all, isn't the bottom line of Christianity, the true message of Jesus, the real meaning of the Law ... What is in my heart?

So instead of pleading my political views, I will give some food for thought straight from the Bible.

Have a blessed Sunday everyone!

Galations 5:14 "The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Romans 13:9 "The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Mark 12:33 "To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

Matthew 5:21 “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell."

Matthew 5:9 "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God."

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[t] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Psalms 82:3 "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed."

Proverbs 29:7 "The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern."

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Find little ways . . .

. . . to beautify everyday life.

I forgot something

I completely forgot to include these pictures in my post last week on painting the kids' closet. I found these baskets at Walgreens, and almost all of them were a natural color, but there was one that was a chocolate brown that I loved. I thought it would look better against the blue background, too. But I wasn't about to drive around to all the Walgreens in the area and see if they had the chocolate colored baskets. So I went shopping in the basement for some brown paint and this is how they turned out.

I paint baskets all the time. I have a big basket in the living room for all the little blankets the kids use. We just throw them in, because I'm not going to fold all the blankets every day. It was a tired, old natural basket that I refreshed with a couple coats of brown spray paint.

Do you paint closets?

I do. If I had the time, that is. Because I believe in decorating spaces that my family sees all the time, so we can be happy and enjoy our home. If I had time, I would paint all the closets. But I don't have time for that yet. I did find the time to paint this little closet, though. Instead of doing laundry. You might say I was just finding a distraction from doing boring housework. That would be true. But this is a tiny space that the kiddos and I see every day. And it is dirty and boring. I think looking at builder-white-dirty-scuffed-up walls is depressing.

Anyway, last year we converted this closet for the kids to use for their backpacks and school papers. I cheated on this "before" picture because the "before" was really filled with books, papers, junk, trash, dirty socks, soccer balls, etc. So I decided to do a quick update on this depressing little closet. I went shopping for paint in my basement (The one and only time I forked over $$ for Benjamin Moore paint, I picked the wrong color. So this is what I ended up using it for.)

And the finished product:
I just happened to find these cute, lined baskets at Walgreens for $5 each! Even Walmart wasn't that cheap. I did get the green shelf liner from Walmart. A tag for owner of each shelf.

Wall pockets for library books. I didn't have time to be perfect on this project. Exhibit "A": Sometimes I don't patch holes or nail pops.

The long strip on the door is a backpack holder, and then I put a towel rack halfway down for jackets. It's low so short people can reach it too.

No staging going on here, folks. I just left that laundry in the background, because I'm too lazy to move it for my pictures. Actually, this is considered clean for my house.

How do you organize school junk?