♥ Red ♥

Red.

It’s my favorite color. That goes for decorating and for just about anything, including wearing. As a matter of fact, I’m wearing a red shirt as I type this. AND I have red-tinted hair (from a bottle yes, but nevertheless red).

According to all the “experts”, this is what it says about a person whose favorite color is red:

Red  Those who love red live life to the fullest and are tenacious and determined in their endeavors.

I guess I am pretty passionate about just everything and when I get determined, it IS hard to change my mind.  Hmm.....

Colt (my oldest) says everything around here is either red or tan. He also says that’s my answer to any question. He’s right. I just think you can’t go wrong with red. To me, it’s a happy color and it’s warm, cozy, and inviting. I just love being surrounded by red. (I need a button for my blog like yours Ms. Betty)!

I have to make myself try other colors because I naturally gravitate towards red especially when it comes to decorating. Let’s just take a look around my home to see how much I do love red……. We’ll start with the living room.

Let's see....we have the red walls, the pump lamp and of course my favorite, the red checked Johnston Benchworks couch that I dreamed of and waited so long to be sitting here.

 

And there’s the Liberty red checked fireside chair and the red shutters flanking the fireplace.

Next we’ll go into the kitchen. In here, we have the back door and the curtains. (Please excuse a few of these slightly blurry pics....I was experimenting with low light and didn't do very well).

The pantry door.

And my favorite piece, period........the stepback cupboard that Jason made.

Next we’ll move into the dining room. In here, I’m kind of proud of myself. I only accented with red. That showed much self-control.

Next on to the hallway bathroom. No self control here. It’s everywhere!

Okay, we’ll walk upstairs and take a look at the upstairs bath. I just went with a deeper shade of red here for the trim to accent. I had to try hard to refrain here on the red. Instead I used mostly blacks with the deep red accents. Can't be too predictable, right? (You can't see the rest of the black here, but it's there....I promise!)

This bathroom is still not quite finished.  But it's closer....Maybe I can share it soon.

Even Luke’s room has accents of a brighter red. But it definitely fits him.

Come to think of it, the only rooms with no red are the master bedroom, master bath and Joy’s room. (Even Colt’s room had touches of red).

And talk about red, The Cedar Loft is full of it!

And outside:

red shutters and planters

Red stars are everywhere....

Yes, I think you could walk in my house and easily guess that this Country Girl at Home’s favorite color is red. :)

So what’s YOUR favorite color?


To read a little snippet about what your favorite color says about your personality, click here.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great day!  :)


♥ Tammy ♥

~Questions Answered ~

Last week, I did an “Open for Questions” post. I had a few questions (until my friend Mindy emailed me a slew of them). It was fun getting your questions and I'm happy today to share the answers to each question!

First of all, Lois (Walking on Sunshine) asked:

Didn’t your oldest become engaged? Any plans for that yet?

Yes, our oldest (very soon-to-be 23 year old son), Colt, did get engaged. But no definite marriage plans yet. When I have news, I will most definitely share it!

From Sharon (New Country Girl):

When will you start homeschooling Luke?

Actually homeschooling Luke started immediately, since he was learning English from day one. We have worked with him in an informal and natural way. Just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about, let me give you a little glimpse of what his schooling looks like.

He has mostly learned his letters and their sounds from watching Leap Frog Letter Factory (DVD) this past summer. After watching it about 3 times, he had his letter sounds down. We have expanded on that. Since it came with flash cards, he asks us to “do school” with him, so we review those with him. We also have letter magnets on our refrigerator and we play games with the letters. He likes for us to give him a mission like a detective to find a certain letter and bring it to us (something like I need a little or baby e or a big or capital E, for example). We have a muffin match game that matches the capital letter to the lowercase one also. We work with him on counting, memorization (Scripture and other), colors and shapes, and we sing learning songs with him (like days of the week) at various times throughout the day (or week). We read to him a lot. He sees us reading and knows it will be a very important day when he can read. We practice counting things when the opportunity arises, especially when we’re driving in the car. He loves to “spell” when Joy does (like his name and small words that he’s learned like cat). We like to use big words with him to build his vocabulary. For example, saying that’s most impressive, are you prepared to do that again?” It is amazing how he remembers the words and uses them correctly later. And he just learns a lot by listening in on us, (especially Joy and I as we do school) and by using his imagination through play. For Christmas, he received several educational toys that are great for developing thinking skills (another post coming on that). He loves to watch Bob the Builder and Blues Clues and learns a lot from those. We love to tell stories and have him make up stories or add to ours. But again, this is most of the time, not planned out and is very informal and just done in a natural, stress-free way as the opportunity lends itself.

Since Luke will be turning 4 the end of this month, this fall we will begin a little more working towards actual reading if he seems interested and more on the fine motor handwriting skills, since he will be “preschool”. As far as “officially homeschooling” by registering with the state, that will be the fall of 2013 when he will be 5 years old.

Rachel asked:

When did you feel convicted to adopt?

When we adopted the first time, our son Colt, 23 years ago, it was more of a natural step toward building our family. Since there were some fertility issues and we knew it didn’t matter at all how God grew our family, we just stepped out on faith and began the adoption process and the Lord provided and blessed us with our baby boy – Colt. We couldn’t imagine our family any other way and we were blissfully happy!

Almost ten years later, God decided to grow our family in the old-fashioned way and blessed us with our baby girl – Joy. Her addition made me as the Bible says, “the joyful mother of child(ren)……plural.” We were so thankful for the two children God gave us.

Jason saw our family as complete. I kept seeing a third child. During the almost ten years that followed, I desired to adopt again, knowing the blessing of adoption. And with God having grown our family in both ways, we knew the beauty and blessing of both, I really desired another child. Joy had asked and asked her daddy if we could adopt (from China) for quite awhile and had been praying about it. She had it all figured out. I felt convicted to adopt as well. That was the fall of 2009. Jason wasn’t quite convinced, however. He was “sweating the small stuff”. To read more on that story, you can read our adoption journal here.  God really sped our journey to Luke along. Nearly 8 months to the date of beginning the adoption process, we were in China meeting our Luke, completing the adoption process and bringing Luke to his forever home!

Now my friend Mindy E., who I met through blogging although she doesn’t blog herself, must have felt sorry for me since I was only asked three questions, because I got this email from her:

Well, I have some questions, lol! Let's see...how did you think of Joy's name?
What type of work does Jason do? What do you want to be called when you are blessed to be a grandmother? What is your favorite food? Let's see... How did you think of Colt and Luke's names? Does your family like sports? Any favorite teams? What books did you like when you were a girl? And now? Do you paint your toenails? If so what color? Gotta run...thanks!
Xomindy



Mindy, you are a nut (but as an old friend of ours used to say….. you are screwed on the right bolt). I actually loved your questions and am going to answer each and every one!

Okay, here we go:

How did you think of Joy's name?Her name is Joy Maxine. I've always known Joy would be at least a part of my little girl's name. It is my mama's middle name. Joy after my mom. Maxine after Jason's mom. She has the middle names of both of her grandmothers. And she is very often called Joy Max, which really fits her personality! Bet not many of you knew that! :)


What type of work does Jason do? Jason is an insurance adjuster.

What do you want to be called when you are a grandmother?I really like Grammy. It sounds alot like Tammy. :) But I love what your grandkids call you, so I'm really liking Honey Gram too! :) I know it sometimes depends on what the kids pick, but I"m hoping for one of those!

What's your favorite food?
Mexican food is my favorite!!!

How did you think of Colt and Luke's names?Okay....Colt has 3 names. He is Jason Colt Lee. Jason (obviously) after Jason. Loved the name Colt and some of you may remember the show, The Fall Guy, with Lee Majors? Well that's where I got it. I had only heard it one other time. Since then, I found a blogger friend, Hollie, who has a son about the same age named Colt. She got hers from The Fall Guy too! I didn't want it to be Colton (which you hear more often), just Colt. Lee is part of his Korean name. I still love his name!

Luke's name is Luke ZhiJie. Luke is the only boy's name the entire family agreed upon. Obviously the ZhiJie is part of his Chinese name. It is pronounced similiar to this: jer jiah with the jer said more quickly and more emphasis on the jiah (also said quickly though). I wanted to name him Luke Silas ZhiJie, but Colt begged us to not give him 3 names since he never really liked having 3 names. He said it was confusing especially on paperwork. So we listened to him, since he was the one with 3 names. :)

Does your family like sports?I know everyone will think we're a little weird here, but no, not really. We don't watch sports on TV. I do like any sports that my kids happen to be participating in, which have been soccer and baseball.

Any favorite teams?Not really. Just whatever team my kids are on. :)

What books did you like when you were a little girl?
I liked spunky girl books. I loved Laura Ingalls, Caddie Woodlawn, Little Women, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, etc.... I loved pioneer books, biographies, and historical fiction. Any kind of book with a country theme to it. I started writing a book that was critiqued by our librarian in middle school, Ms. Stokes. She was a great encourager to me. The name of my book was Country Girl. Imagine that! :)

What kind of books do I like now?
I like inspirational books. I just read Kisses from Katie, by Katie Davis and Choosing to See, by Mary Beth Chapman. I love historical fiction and still love books from the pioneer era! I love reading chapter books aloud to my kids!

Do you paint your toenails?

Yes, in the spring and summer when I wear my flip flops and open toe shoes. I don't do it in the fall and winter.

What color? Shades of red, pink, or orange usually. Although a couple of times, I did paint them lime green to match my outfit. :)


Thanks for the questions! And thanks to everyone who stops by my little corner of blog land! It is very humbling to me and very much appreciated. It is my desire that when you leave, you are encouraged!

Have a great day! :)

Me......From A to Z.

I've really enjoyed reading "Me...From A to Z"  on several of my blogging buddies' blogs. I thought it would be fun, so I decided to participate. So did Joy.....and you can read hers here.

Okay, here goes:

A – Age. I just turned 48 in August and I’m very glad and blessed to have another birthday to celebrate!

B – Bed. We still sleep in a full size (double) bed. No queen or king size. Until a few months ago, it was Luke in the bed with us too until he decided that he would sleep with Joy (he doesn’t sleep in the beautiful bed Jason made him), and that he would keep Joy warm and daddy could keep mama warm. I feel like we have SO much room now.

C – Chores I hate. Hmm….I think that would have to be cleaning the shower in the master bathroom. It’s hard to reach it all without just getting in and getting totally yucky!

D – Dogs. No dogs now. We have one very spoiled cat named Bambi.

E – Essential to start my day. Well I don’t want to ever start my day without praying. Other than that, I do want my diet dew.

F – Favorite color – Red. Most definately red.

G – Gold or silver? – Neither one really. If I have to pick, I’d have to say I like silver better. I do like my earrings, and probably prefer silver between the two. However, my wedding ring is gold, so I do love gold for that reason.

H – Height. I’m 5’7”. One thing I’ve always liked….being relatively tall.

I – Instrument I play. Piano. I love the piano. I started taking lessons when I was 10 and began teaching lessons when I was about 14 to fill in for my teacher when she couldn’t teach. I started playing piano in church at age 14 also. I am now a piano teacher. I got my piano for my 12th birthday so it's special to me.

J – Job Title. Christian. That's the most important one. I really love being wife and mom, although I don’t really consider that a job. Let’s see, homemaker, piano teacher, Mary Kay beauty consultant, homeschool coordinator, blogger....

K – Kids. I have 3. I would have loved to have a house full of kids. What is not to love about kids? I love teaching them and have taught kids in church and still do, as well as homeschooling my own.

L – Live Where? In the Mid-South; with farm fields around.

M – Make of car. (Black) Mazda 3 Sport. Love the gas mileage, but it is small.

N – Nicknames – By my daddy: “Toots”. By Jason: “Tiger”, “babe or baby”, “hon or honey”, and he calls Joy and me “his girls”. By a previous employer as a teenager: “Tammy Tutu”.

O – Overnight hospital stay – I think I had several as a baby. I was sick as a baby to the point that my dad wasn’t sure if he wanted to have more kids. Luckily my mom talked him into it, or my brother, Richie, might not be around today. In my adulthood, my only overnight hospital stay was when I was in the hospital giving birth to Ms. Joy Max.

P – Pet Peeve. – I really don’t like to be lied to about anything by anyone. But the little nit-picky thing is probably that I can’t stand people smacking their gum. I have been known to take it away from piano students. (Mean, mean, teacher, I know). It’s a joke around our house to not give Jason gum because I tell him he doesn’t know how to chew it – he kind of has a sort of way that I call “cocky” when he chews gum. Told you I was nit-picky about it.

Q - Quote from a movie. – Around our house for a few years, we’ve jokingly done quotes from Nacho Libre. I love several quotes from Facing the Giants and Courageous – one that I remember especially was “the point where fear and faith collide”. I like that. I also like from Facing the Giants, "With God, all things are possible".

R – Right or left handed? – Right handed, but I do some things as a left-handed person would do, such as I hold a baby in my right arm and feed them with my left. I hold my purse on my right shoulder. I have always placed my children in their crib or lay them down in the manner that a left-handed person does (as in putting their head at the opposite end of the bed). My mother tells me I’m confused. Also I when I sit down certain items, I might turn them as a left- handed person does (such as pitchers with handles).

S – Siblings. I have one brother, Richie, who is 4 years younger than me. My parents lost twin girls before me, so had they lived, I would have twin sisters that would be 51 years old.

That's my brother, Richie, and his family (before Sydney & Ellie).

T – TV Shows. – We don’t watch TV; no cable or satellite; only Netflix and DVDs. I would have to say that I have always loved Little House on the Prairie though.

U – Underwear. - What?

V – Veggie I hate. Spinach

W – What makes me late? – Getting all of our school done, getting Luke ready, then remembering to take everything I need for where I’m going since we live a ways from town and I try to take care of everything I can when we make trips to town.

X – X-rays. – None lately. Have never broken a bone except my little pinky finger. Do mammograms count?

Y – Yummy food. – Mexican is my favorite! I also love Italian and Asian food though!

Z – Zoo Animals - Well I think visiting the monkeys is fun and the most entertaining. My brother and I used to stand in front of the monkeys for the longest and watch them. My brother could make this sound just like them and get them all going….making the sounds. It’s the kind that their throats puff up when they’re making the sounds. I also thought that the orangutans were interesting but they sometimes are kind of scary because they stare so much.

What scares me? – Well I really don’t like snakes at all. Not any kind of snake. Don’t even tell me there are good snakes. That doesn’t work. I don’t like them. I don’t like lizards either. And I don’t like horror movies. The direction our country is headed also scares me. Oh, and I'm afraid of heights.



And 5 Things You Didn't Know About Me:

1) I love to smell coffee but I don't like to drink it.

2) I don't like to go out without my makeup if I can help it. I even got up early the morning after Joy was born and put it on to be ready for visitors.

3) I would love to adopt again.

4) My middle name is Lyn. (only one N).

5) When I was little, I always said I was naming my daughter Laura. I still like that name too. (Joy is named after my mom and Jason's mom and Joy just fits her anyway).

A Color and a Cut (The New Natural) :)

Colt’s fiancee, Amber, recently got her cosmetologist license and is getting her business started at one of “The” places to work (locally), when it comes to hair salons.

I went to Amber for the first time Friday, because I was way overdue for a color, cut, and eyebrow wax. And yes, I color my hair and we may never know my true hair color these days, because I have no plans of seeing the natural (if I can help it). I like to think of it as “the new natural”.

I’ve gradually been growing my hair out after an inverted bob a few years ago (which I did love) because I wanted a change and it’s nice to be able to wear my hair up when I want to do so.

I think Amber did a great job! I was very pleased with the layers she put in it. I don’t know if you can tell by the pictures, but I have very fine and thin hair, so anything that gives it volume, I’m all for! She added some layers and gave me “my red” with blondish highlights for depth and dimension. Guess I love red everything, right? :)

And sorry that the pictures aren't the best quality.  We grabbed Jason's camera instead of mine (which is a small point and shoot camera) and Joy just snapped some quick photos for me.

These photos were taken the day after (today), which means I styled my own hair. Believe me the style looked much better when Amber did it. Doesn’t it always look better when they do it though? I noticed that I have it a little puffy there in the back. Wish I had thought to take the photos yesterday. Oh well….

Anyway, I just had to “brag” on her a little bit here because I am really proud of her. I think she’s going to be great at her work! She is very creative. I think my hair is in good hands. :)