Pictures of us preparing for the Holidays

I am always amazed at just how messy our home can get. There are a lot of people using this home and it is never empty. I joke about putting the kiddos in school just so that we can clean the house. I often think of all I could get done if they were just gone for awhile. With homeschooling and J working from home the house never gets a break.



This past week J took a few days of vacation and we started preparing our house for the Holidays. This year it became much more than just cleaning up. Not much money was spent but everything looks good.
All the painting inside was coupled with work outside. The weather was delightful the past few days. Making yard work and outside house work almost enjoyable. The work was tough but the time with each other was fun.
We placed our Mary statue in the back a few years ago. It became the central spot of putting plants. We have never had a plan with it. In fact we never purchase anything for her and yet it all ends up there. If Mary had not said Yes to our Lord then the upcoming seasons of Advent and Christmas would not be. We didn't plan to work on her area at all and yet in the end we spent time there assembling pieces from around the house to create a nice little Mary garden that we view from our breakfast room window. In the end the outside yard look as good as it could. Someday we sill spend more on appearance but now we just try to keep it neat.

The rest of the home got a paint over as well. Everything looks so clean and sharp. Thank you to all the helpers that selflessly worked to create this peaceful home that would be ready to welcome guests.