Julie's Exhausting Adventure

The Past Year

2013-05-03T20:46:00.001-05:00

Dear GOD where do I begin? For the past year I put down this blog. I debated walking away permanently, deleting the whole thing. There were several reasons for putting it on the back burner. I needed a break. My original intention when I started the blog was to have a place to vent my emotions as a stay at home mom, and to chronicle the funny stories of our life. I wanted to reach out to other moms and let them know yes, I have a messy house, my kids are unruly, my life is not perfect and that I do have flaws just like every one of you.

Then I started reading all these other DIY blogs and I became a bit obsessed with blogging. I turned this blog into something that it was not originally intended for. I wanted to always maintain exactly who I am, to be honest, to show my flaws and just be real. Then came the problem. I started to worry about what people would think. I started to filter what I would say on here in fear of judgement from others. Then I started to worry that people would think that I was writing this blog just to bring attention to myself. I felt that I was giving off this false persona of who I was. A filtered, watered down version of me and my family. I was obsessed with traffic to my blog and how many "likes" I would get. I started looking at my life compared to other bloggers and other women and I felt like I didn't measure up. My house didn't measure up. My relationship with God didn't measure up. My mothering skills didn't measure up. I started to feel like a failure in every aspect of my life.

I had to walk away. I had to breathe. I had to find myself and figure out who I was. So, I took almost a year off. I focused on working on myself physically, mentally and emotionally. Have I got it all figured out yet? Not. At. All. If anything I'm still continuing daily to try and find my identity in Christ rather than try and do it on my own. It's a battle.

This past year has honestly been one of the roughest years of my life and of our family's life. I've found out areas in my life that I'm truly strong, and I've found areas that I'm very weak. The more and more that I tried to take control of my own life over the past year, the more everything seemed to unravel around me. A lot of times I think this is because God is whispering (or sometimes shouting) in my ear to let him have control. I have a hard time doing that I have a hard time trusting him, then he reminds me of a sermon by one of my favorite preachers Matt Chandler. In his sermon on Colossians titled "The Afflictions of Christ" he says the following.

"The passive wrath of God is the most terrifying thing in the bible. For God to just to leave you healthy and content with everything going perfect all the days of your life all the way to the judgment seat until you are damned would be cruel of God. For him to put a thorn in the flesh, break your hip, free up your hands on the myth of control and show you how dependent you are on Him is one of the most merciful things He can do for you."

"It is not the wrath of God for difficulty to befall on us...He is revealing to you out of His mercy your desperate need for him and your lack of control and ability to manipulate your environment."

Wow. I do not know when I will EVER learn to trust him completely, to give him FULL control of everything. I think once I actually DO learn that I will be able to just breathe, to relax and to rest in the fact that HE has it handled.

THAT is the point I'm working toward. That is what this past year has been about.

I don't know when I'll be "back" as far as blogging is concerned. I have no idea if this is the first of many posts or the last of them all. Those nagging feelings of inadequacy are still there, the insecurities, the worries, but I'm working on them. The fact that I'm able to hit "publish" on this is a huge victory for me.

I'll be in touch...or maybe not. We will see.

Crossfit

2012-07-06T14:38:00.001-05:00

So I did it. I drank the Koolaid, took the plunge and joined Crossfit.

My husband has been begging me to join with him for the past year, but I was just not willing to let go of my YMCA membership. I had excuse after excuse....the YMCA is close, has all the classes I want, has free daycare, is inexpensive etc...etc...etc..

But there was one BIG problem. I wasn't making progress.

For like the past six months I've felt that I've really come to a standstill on my working out. I knew what I needed to do, Crossfit was nagging me in the back of my mind, but still all those reasons above were playing OVER and OVER in my head.

I finally made the decision that once my husband got back from OCS for the Guard that I would give Crossfit a try with him. After all I was all ready feeding our family Paleo, so I was half way there... ;)

So the day came for me to hit up Crossfit with Jamin. To say that I was FREAKED out was an understatement. I about threw up from the nerves alone before I even got there. Most of the nerves was actually from social anxiety. Some was from the workout. I knew a little of what I was in for, I'd done a couple WOD's with him before for benefits and such, and he had shown me some heavy lifting moves that I could do myself at the Y. The part that scared me so much is I was the little YMCA girl, the JV girl trying to go hang out with the Varsity jocks.

Once they kicked up the music, and the WOD started I was just fine. The coaches were AMAZING. They scaled the workouts for me and really helped me work on getting my form right.

The workout SUCKED.

I loved EVERY minute of it.

I was hooked. There was NO going back to the Y.

I've done two more WOD's since then. My social anxiety is getting better. EVERYONE there is super awesome. When we were running the 800 meter part of the WOD the other night everyone just cheered everyone on as you passed by each other. It's like a big family, everyone is super encouraging and nobody made me feel bad for scaling the workout or having to show me what to do.

Speaking of what I did. Here is what I did that day:

Strength:
Shoulder Press: Didn't do weight on this, just the 45lb bar. Getting my form right.

WOD:
100 Double Unders (300 singles) (I scaled to 300 singles...can't do double unders yet)
15 Handstand push ups (scaled to knees on the box for me)
30 reverse burpees
30 Kettlebell sumo deadlift high pull
30 Walking lunges (scaled to 15lb plate overhead for me)
800m run

I thought I would puke several times. I about peed myself jumping rope. I didn't thankfully.

I finished in 17:48. The awesome thing about Crossfit is that it's you against YOU. You just try and beat your time every time, each time I'll get better, I'll get faster, I'll get stronger. ONE day I'll be able to say that I RX'd a WOD. (That's Crossfit talk for doing a workout as prescribed, you see I'm one of the cool kids now learning their lingo....)

It's not gonna be easy. These workouts are beyond INSANE. I have to give up my YMCA membership, my free daycare, and I have to try and fit it into our schedule somehow and make it work. It WILL be worth it. I can't wait.

Phoenix Trip

2012-05-25T15:44:00.000-05:00

Holy cow has it been a MONTH since my last post? For a while there I was actually on track doing a few posts a week, then life happens and well I stop posting.

Anyhow I've been busy doing Paleo, working out, camping and going to Phoenix...I got back this week and my kids are now all out of school and I'm just busy trying to get into some kind of summertime routine. You know, swim lessons, VBS, summer camps etc...

Anyhow I had a WONDERFUL time in Phoenix, so I thought I'd post a little about my trip there and my time with my family. Oh how I miss them so much, Phoenix, eh, I can leave it. I miss those mountains but I'll take my green grass and rolling hills any day over the dry desert. Oklahoma is really home now, and I realize that more than ever, but it's so healing to be able to go back and see my family. Either way, it's sacrifice, when I'm here, I miss them terribly, when I'm there I miss my home.

My dad and I drove it STRAIGHT THROUGH. 15 hours was the drive. It was great. Yes, I had to listen to quite a bit of country gospel and Alan Jackson, but dad also had to listen to some Florence and the Machine, Civil War's and Mumford and Son's, so it all worked out. Had a great time with my dad and I'm so thankful I got to take this trip with him.

Me and my dad. Love him. Best dad EVER.

My first day there started out with a run. Yes, I ran. On vacation. Jamin said that I wouldn't run, then he corrected himself and said "oh, you will run ONCE only so you can prove me wrong." Well I ran TWICE so poo on you Jamin....anyhow the run was ok. Since it was like 5:30 Phoenix time it was only like 80 degrees out, but the air felt thick. Hard to breathe. Turns out there was an ozone advisory that day. Duh. That's something I'm not used to.

After my run, I got ready and headed over to my brothers house where they were (and still are) in the middle of a massive remodel. Hung around with them for a good portion of the day, then of course headed to Chino Bandito's for lunch.

For those of you who have never heard of it, Chino's is a Chinese/Mexican fusion restaurant. There are two, one in Phoenix and one in Chandler. It's amazingly yum. Featured on Diners, Drive In's and Dives even. SO effing good.

I promise it tastes better than it looks. YUM.

After that I headed over to my best friends house. Got to hang with my friends Tammy and Amy all night. I probably talked too much about Paleo, myself and my kids and I am certain they will never look at the word "smoothie" the same ever again. We ate, we laughed, drank sangria and had a good time. God I miss those girls. Haven't giggled that much in a long long time.

The next morning I got to visit with my step mother in law (is that even a real word?) at their restaurant that they own down near the zoo. This meal (unlike Chino's) was actually Paleo. I had a chorizo omelet and it was fantastic. God I love food.

Good thing I ate Paleo that morning, because I pretty much blew it the rest of the day, including getting TWO Venti Caramel Vanilla Latte's from Starbucks.

That afternoon I spent the day running around with my sister in law getting all the decorations and such for my nephews family party and open house. That night, I got to take my nephew shopping for his clothes to wear under his gown. That was a fun experience that ended with him getting a bow tie. Glad I got to spend the time with him. He is too funny.

Came home and spent some time gathering photos and starting to make the "shrine" as my nephew would call it.

He is one talented young man. I'm one proud aunt.

The next day I finished up the photo collages, then we got ready and headed to the Cardinals stadium for the graduation. They were still building the stadium when we moved six years ago (wow, has it been THAT long????). Tears started flowing when I was putting together his photos and didn't stop until long after the graduation.

I don't think he can take a serious photo

Oh, and the bow tie looked much better the next day. He pulled it off. That night after the graduation we took a BUNCH of family photos.

Me, Gwen, my SIL, Chris, Jon (brother) and Dad

my nephew and me

That night we all sat around and my nephew busted out his guitar. Not only is he athletic, funny and handsome, but he has such a heart for God and an anointing on his life. I was so glad to hear him sing a bit of worship. I'll cherish this memory forever.

The next day I spent time shopping at the mall with some of the kids there, then afterwards went out to dinner with my besties. SO. MUCH. FUN. I always ~~drink~~ talk to much when I'm with them, but it's tons of fun and we laugh and joke and reminisce about old times. This time I got to meet their significant others which was nice, even though they are both pretty shy (the guys, not the gals us ladies have NEVER been shy) they seemed nice, especially after putting up with listening to us chatter away and giggle for hours.

The next day was spent with lunch at the in law's house, then a huge open house party for my nephew. Got to see a lot of old friends that I haven't seen in years. Got pretty freaked out by a large tortoise also while I was at the party. The thing was HUGE. By now though I was really starting to miss my husband and kids and I was getting pretty homesick. A week is a LONG time to be away from all of them.

Sunday I got to go to church and hear my brother preach, ate lunch at Macayo's. Got a baja burrito (worth every calorie). By now I was starting to really dread the long drive back (not because it was with my dad, he is awesome but just because it's SO long of a drive.)

The drive WAS long. We got to OKC around ten pm. My husband had the house clean and it smelled good. Laundry was done. The kids were all alive without a scratch on them. I have one dang good man (oh, and mother in law, I have to give her a TON OF CREDIT). I don't think things would have gone near as smoothly without here here. She is one amazing lady.

I had a great trip, but it was good to be home. Next year my niece graduates. She is number TWO out of his five kids, I have four and my husbands sister in Austin has three more that will graduate. I think we know what our spring plans will be for quite some time. That's ok though, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Paleo/Primal - Week One

2012-04-18T13:27:00.003-05:00

So last Friday I went out shopping on my first full Paleo/Primal shopping trip. It was a little more hectic than normal because I was busy reading labels and trying to figure a LOT of things out. I should NOT have taken the girls with me. This just made it even more crazy.

So here is what I learned from week one:

Making all this stuff is a LOT, and I mean a LOT of work. I think it was good to try everything so I know what works and how long it will take me. Next time I may just pick a day to do my fruit rolls for the month, rather than try and tackle EVERYTHING at once on grocery day. I went a bit nutty though because I wanted to make sure I had PLENTY of options in there to feed the family, otherwise this was NOT going to work.

You have to determine how much your time is worth. You have to figure out what is better to buy store bought and what is worth the savings to do at home. I tried to make my own almond meal and that was a miserable failure (as you can read about below).

It's all about trial and error.

Anyhow, you can stop reading now if you are totally bored at this point and I won't blame you one bit, if you want, read on to see what I made and what I learned from each process.

Apple Chips

I sliced up the apples thin as I could, put them in a bath of un-sweetened apple juice (to help with browning), sprinkled them with cinnamon and baked them in the oven at 250 degrees for about two hours on a cookie rack placed on a cookie tray. The rack helps get air underneath them and helps in the drying process. I've tried apples in the dehydrator, but I think they turn out better in the oven.

I did about 6 apples and it really does yield a SMALL amount of apple chips in comparison to what my family will eat. The kids LOVE these but they are rather time consuming for a really small reward. Problem is apple chips at the store are CRAZY expensive for a small amount, so for now this is one treat I'll be making at home.

homemade apple chips

Fruit Roll Ups

I have been wanting to tackle fruit rolls for a while, but didn't think I could do them since I didn't have the roll tray in my dehydrator, and I just didn't feel like keeping my oven on for 6-8 hours like this recipe suggested. I just lined my dehydrator with plastic wrap and it turned out fine. Of course with it not being square I didn't get the pretty little rolls on parchment paper like they did. I just sliced it up and placed them in snack size baggies I think I over did it though because mine were a bit more leathery than fruit roll up type. Still yummy though. I tried four different kinds, strawberry, mixed berries, peach and banana/pineapple. The peach turned out a gloopy mess and I had to pull them out because they were leaking on EVERYTHING. Berries seem to work the best.

my dried strawberry fruit leather

Home Made Almond Meal

Ok, so this was an EPIC failure. I bought a 12oz bag of dry roasted almonds at Aldi for $3.49 a package. I came home, stuck it in my food processor and it never turned fine enough to go through a sifter. It was way too chunky. The more I ground I just started to get more like almond butter. I just ended up putting it in a tupperware container and saving it to bread some salmon or something later. I ended up having my husband just cave and get it at Whole Foods for $6.99 a pound. Expensive, but this was one where my time was worth more than the money it saved me. Until I have a coffee grinder or a better food processor this is going to be store bought.

my sad failed almond meal...sigh

Homemade Beef Jerky

Jerky we have been doing for quite some time, we just pick a roast at the store, have the butcher slice it thin, and we come home and marinade it with various spices then throw it in the dehydrator and let it go. I know they say it takes like 8-10 hours but our dehydrator seems to dry jerky CRAZY fast. The batches took about 2-3 hours each.

peppered beef jerky. YUM.

Carrot Cake Pancakes

My favorite meal of the week was these pancakes below, topped with 100% pure maple syrup from PaleOMG. LOVE LOVE LOVE this site. REALLY good stuff. Also this chick's name is Juli and she has a great sense of humor like me, so she is pretty awesome ;)

Find the recipe HERE

Homemade Granola

A recipe from my new favorite blog PaleoOMG (listed above). This was pretty good stuff. I subbed out the coconut oil for olive oil because I ran out. It seemed pretty greasy, and sticky. More like granola bar consistency, I think I could back off on the liquids and do just fine, but it's a really great start.

Img and recipe from PaleOMG here

Paleo Mayo

So, I knew this one may be tricky. I followed these directions to a tee....it took FOREVER. I mean seriously people you need patience for this stuff, and frankly I have none left. My blender actually started to smoke. No kidding. It never seemed to get to the consistency that I thought it should so I pulled it out and put it in the food processor. This made a pretty nasty mess because my food processor is a ~~piece of crap~~ little bit old. I gave up and went BACK to the blender, loosing half my precious mayo in the process. I finally just gave up and put it in a tupperware and figured it may not work well as mayo but I could salvage it for some type of dipping sauce. What did you know that it started to thicken more as it stood. I guess it was thin because of the overheating of my stupid blender got it all warm....arrgh. If I had only figured it out twenty minutes earlier I would have saved half my batch of mayo.

Live and learn people. Live and learn.

Paleo mayo

Paleo Ranch

Ok, so I used the mayo , mixed it with a little coconut milk (equal part mayo to coconut milk ratio), a crapload of dill and garlic and a little apple cider vinegar to make Paleo Ranch dressing. It was, different. The coconut milk gave it a distinct sweetness that I wasn't used to with ranch. I also tend to go overboard on garlic, like always and this was no exception. It was not terrible, but it wasn't great. This recipe still needs some tweaking. Maybe next time I'll try almond milk instead of coconut milk...dunno, we will have to see.

Paleo Ranch Dressing

I tried several other recipes, coconut shrimp with creamed coconut spinach, some quiche, etc...but it wasn't worth mentioning in the blog....

This first week seemed to go pretty well so far. Lucy gave us the most fit out of anyone, which was expected. Mix a kid going through the terrible two's that currently has power struggle issues as is, add in a diet change and you pretty much have a recipe for disaster. Evie is thriving on this diet, but then again that girl will eat pretty much anything, she LOVES Paleo is what she tells me. She also told her teacher, "We are going Paleo, which means that I'm OFF of sugar." He he. The older kids seem to be doing ok, Myah has her hang ups, but seems ok and Brett is seeming to like it but more to make us happy and kinda brown nose mom than anything else. I know inside he is dying for a bowl of cereal. However I have noticed he does seem to be more full. He does not have his nose shoved in my pantry all the time.

Jamin got out of the 200's and only has 10 more pounds to go. He hasn't been this weight since right after he got out of the army in 1999.

Oh, and he told me to talk about his "big muscles". Silly man.

I don't expect us to NEVER have grains again or to do a complete Paleo Thanksgiving, I mean seriously life is for living, but as long as we can eat well like 95% of the time, we can allow ourselves an indulgence every now and again. You better believe come Christmas time I'm gonna still be baking some of my favorite treats, but maybe just not as MANY as I normally do. The problem comes when we have sweets and treats ALL the time...that HAD to stop. I feel like we are really on the right track. It's been difficult at times, but I'm hoping I'll soon get in a rhythm and of course I'm sure it will all be worth it. I mean, check out the photo below. That was my lunch and GOD I'm STILL full. I can TOTALLY eat like this.

I do feel like a bit of a Hippie making my own granola. mayo and stuff, but it's also kinda fun. If I stop shaving, decide to call myself Willow, and start wearing Birkenstocks you may want to worry though....

If you stuck with me through the entire blog post, WOW, thanks ;)

Going Primal

2012-04-12T14:18:00.001-05:00

It once again has been weeks since my last post. My afternoons, which I used to use for blogging time, have been recently taken up with graphic design work and doing a Wordpress site, which I've nerded out on completely and had a TON of fun with. So MUCH fun in fact I'm considering taking my blog over to Wordpress, but I'm a little freaked about the transition...

Anyhow onto my food journey. My husband was struggling with his diet and I didn't know exactly what to do. This week at bible study I lifted him up in prayer, when I did so I also asked that they pray that God show me how to help him and support him.

Funny things happen when you pray. God will push you out of your comfort zone.

Ok, let me get totally real here and yes, I'm gonna air my dirty laundry. I've always tried to be real here, and it's time for me to make a confession. I've been a horrible un-supportive wife to my husband. For over a year now we have both been working out, trying to eat healthier, but I've been kinda smug and nasty about it all. I've totally thought "this is HIS battle. He is the one who needs to loose the weight, not me. I can eat what I want within reason and I won't gain, so why should I quit the foods I love?"

I know people. I'm ashamed of myself. VERY ashamed.

So I would still buy the vanilla wafers, the graham crackers, cookies, treats and sweets. I'd bake brownies on the weekends and smother them in ice cream and caramel syrup. I'd make cookies when I felt like it and claimed that it was for the children. I'd buy fruit snacks, chips and cookies and explain it was for the kids lunch.

Even though I was cooking grilled chicken for dinner with broccoli and salads, and offering some healthy choices in there, there were still cookies in the pantry. It was like blowing smoke rings into someones face that was desperately trying to quit. I didn't even realize what I was doing.

So, as I prayed. God began to reveal to me how I'd been behaving. Not only has he revealed this but he gave me a desire to take our whole family into a Paleo/Primal lifestyle. (if you haven't heard of it, you can see what it is about here) We can't do it if we all don't do it together. I can't expect Jamin and I to eat one way and the kids to still have all kinds of grains and sugar in there just calling out to us.

I repented. I apologized. I'm trying to change.

As I started scouring the internet looking for recipes and snacks I became more motivated. My BIGGEST concern was the kids lunches. What on EARTH would I send with them if I couldn't give them a sandwich in their lunch box?

So I started Googling Paleo kids lunches and came up with quite a few great ideas:

www.paleoparents.com

www.everydaypaleo.com

Look at those cute little cucumber sandwiches! Rolled lunch meats, little smokies, apples, pickles, olives, etc...

I came up with a schedule of meals for them next week. I think the biggest challenge for the kids will be cereal and bread. Lucy eats a PB&J sandwich EVERY day. She is my most picky eater. Evie won't have a problem with the fruits and veggies, but she doesn't really like eggs, so that will make breakfast difficult. I plan to try this breakfast hash and seeing if that will satisfy her:

I've also found some recipes that use coconut flour and almond flour in lieu of white flour so I can try my hand at some Paleo pancakes and waffles. We will see how it goes! I'm gonna try making my own almond meal because I just don't feel like forking over $9.99 a pound for it at Whole Foods.

I'm considering buying my own coconut to make coconut flakes, but depending on the cost I may or may not go this far. Since I'm doing more primal than Paleo I am going to keep SOME dairy in our diet, but very very little. For the most part Jamin and I will go without but I do plan on having some in there. For dairy I'm going for hormone free, full fat dairy (rather than organic because of cost). Braums milk is very good and hormone free, and their eggs are also cage free I believe! Later this summer hopefully we can get a freezer and buy a side of grass fed beef from Jamin's uncle. For now I'll keep buying the Fit and Active from Aldi. It's not organic, but it's "natural" which is the next best thing and means it's free of hormones.

Anyhow I'm not sure if we can be 100% strict and I'm not sure I want to be crazy strict, I believe you do need to allow yourself some freedom now and again, but for now I'm getting ALL the junk out of my house and I think that will get us eating good like 95% of the time.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, I'm hoping that this will be a REALLY positive change for our family.

Yard Sale, Craigslist Etiquette and Random Whining

2012-03-25T17:58:00.004-05:00

So I've been gearing up for a yard sale for quite some time, and originally planned it for last weekend, but then I got sick and just wasn't prepared so I pushed it back a week.

Then after pushing it back a week Thursday rolls around and I'm still completely not prepared enough to start a yard sale the next morning, so I decide to do Saturday only.

I realized quickly that Friday's do the best in OKC for some strange reason. I guess that is when all the hardcore yard sale folks come out because even though we had a steady stream of traffic, in comparison to previous years we were really lacking foot traffic.

By the end of the day we didn't do too shabby, a couple hundred bucks in our pocket, but we still had MANY big ticket items left that I was sure would have sold.

I'm also learning that at yard sales, you actually can make more on the tiny dollar here, five dollars there items than the big ticket things. I decided that I would list some of our larger items online at Craigslist thinking that it would be less headache.

It wasn't.

I was wrong.

REALLY wrong.

Sometimes everything goes smoothly on Craigslist with the transaction. You post an item for said price, person contacts you in kind an courteous manner. They show up at said time, hand you cash, pick up the said item and are on their happy little way.

I said SOMETIMES.

There are several things that people do to annoy me on Craigslist, but I'm gonna stick to the top THREE of my Craigslist pet peeves.

Craigslist Idiot #1 "What is the lowest that you are willing to go."

Really? (In my best Amy Poehler voice) CI? (craigslist idiot) Really? If I wanted to sell my $40 item for $10 I would have posted it for ten dollars, not $40. I understand negotiation, and wanting to get the best deal possible, and even I expect a little price negotiation and haggling, but lets learn how to do it properly. Quote me an offer of an actual dollar amount and we can go from there. Coming right out and asking me though "How low are you willing to go?" Really? Makes me insane.

CI #2 - "Can you please txt me a pic of it?"

Really? I am one of those Craigslist shoppers that 99.9% of the time I will not even LOOK at your add if it does not contain photos. Therefore I always do my buyers the courtesy of adding a quick photo or two to my posting. Asking me to text a photo of the picture to you (while using short text) just makes me irate. I mean REALLY? My response to this last night was the following "there were photos added to the post. Here is a link once again to my post showing the photos." and I sent them a link.

CI #3 - "Can you deliver the item?"

Ok, I guess that maybe I may be the CI in this circumstance for not posting "pickup only" but sometimes I just think that is a given. In the retail world I do not call up Petco and ask them to deliver me a dog crate, I go and pick up the item that I want. If you don't want to pick it up sometimes stores WILL offer a delivery option but REALLY you have to expect a fee for this, and you definitely can't be trying to talk me down on my price while asking me to drive an HOUR to deliver you a DOG CRATE. Really? There is a section on Craigslist informing you where I'm located in the city so please don't act shocked when I tell you my nearest crossroads folks.

Ok, I promise I'll stop my rant now.

So, I got the purple sofas out of my den.

Here is what my den looked like if you recall:

Those overstuffed sofas just were not doing it for us anymore. They were taking up a TON of space. They never sold in the yard sale, but I have a couple interested folks on Craigslist, so we will see how it goes.

I've gone back in forth in my wonderful world of crazy indecisiveness over the past week whether to try to recover these two Wingback chairs that I currently have in my possession or just buy new chairs for this room.

Recovering furniture is NOT an easy task, and since the two chairs are not matching I'm afraid that it will look odd.

When we got them side by side they really don't look THAT much different. One is slightly bigger, but I plan on putting a table between the two of them so they won't be THIS close when complete. Also maybe I could add a "his" and "hers" pillow in each chair just to be kinda cute.

Right now I'm like 99.9% sure that I'll recover them.

I will probably change my mind tomorrow.

I tell you folks, I'm crazy. I don't know how my husband puts up with me. That's all I need is another project that I can't finish.

Oh, by the way, I finally got the baskets and fabric for my entryway bench.

forgive me for this craptastic photo of my bench

We are almost there folks, almost there...

Family FUN Day!

2012-03-21T12:48:00.001-05:00

Ok, I know I haven't written a post in forever.

We've been REALLY busy around here. Not with home stuff with just life, and being sick, oh and reading the Hunger Games and stuff like that.

I mean SERIOUSLY how GOOD are these books? I'm half way through Mockingjay and I'm DYING to know how they end.

I digress.

Friday my husband took the day off from work and we decided to unwind and have a family fun day. I'm SO glad he did because it was one AMAZING day.

We started out originally planning a zoo trip, but when we got in the parking lot The OKC Science Museum seemed to be calling our name. We changed our plans in a split second and decided to go for it, because that's how we roll. (Disclaimer, that's how my HUSBAND rolls. Normally the control freak in me will spaz out at a last minute change of plans such as this, but I was actually pretty cool with it).

We have a seriously AWESOME Science Museum here in OKC. They have this HUGE indoor play area (like a three story tree house). The little girls liked that. They got a bit scared at the science live show with the explosions and such, but eventually they started to warm up to the place. Good thing I bought a season pass. That will come in handy I'm sure!

Anyhow we had a fun morning there and I think the grown ups may have had more fun than the kiddos did.

After the science museum we decided to still hit up the zoo. Since we have a season pass it's nice to be able to drop in for a few hours and not have to stay the ENTIRE day. It's been worth EVERY penny to have that family pass. I HIGHLY recommend it. That's why we decided it would be worth it to spring for the family pass to the science museum as well. It will be great in the winter when it's too cold for the zoo!

At the zoo of course I had to stop and satisfy the crazy cat lady living inside me. We have THREE new baby tigers at the zoo.

Isn't it seriously the most beautiful animal EVER? I joke that God is gonna give me one in heaven, but I swear when I get to heaven God better have one of these babies waiting for me.

Of course we had to check on mamma and baby elephant too.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE our zoo. I would dare say it's one of the best ever.

After the zoo we decided to head toward downtown and see what fun we could find down there. We didn't know exactly WHAT we were gonna do, but this ended up being my most favorite part of the day.

Down by the Crystal bridge in the arts district they have this really artsy crazy looking kids park. At first I thought it would be kinda lame, but it actually ended up being SUPER cool.

Brett with the new Devon building behind him

They have these large cool rock formations and beautiful gardens.

The slide is a big green hill with metal poles going down it.

They also have these weird little balls all over the place for climbing on.

And my favorite photo of the day, my kids on their GROW letters.

We then left the park and went exploring around the crystal bridge. It's really neat down there and they have a LOT of cool spots to take photos (or goof off) as our family does.

This is our SUPERSTAR pose on the stage

Jumping OFF the stage

My itty bitty ones

I always get annoyed with my husband making goofy faces in EVERY photo. I showed him this time that I can make goofy faces too.

After we left there we headed toward Sara Sara Cupcakes. Seriously, BEST. CUPCAKES. EVER. (and I am NOT a cake person).

They had one cupcake called "Sir Elton John." I snapped a photo and sent it off to my BFF Lanie in Phoenix. To say she LOVES Elton is a gross understatement. She has his initials tattooed on her. NOT. KIDDING. Love that gal.

After eating our cupcakes. We headed to the new Whole Foods that just recently opened here in OKC. My husband had been there since it is close to his work, but I had not yet checked it out. I LOVE the place. It's pretty pricey, but we did pick up a few items (banana chips, some fresh almond butter that we ground ourselves and some chocolate peanut butter and of course Lara Bars for the husband).

After seeing all that yummy food, we decided to grab dinner. We went to Shogun for dinner, and the kids enjoyed watching the chef cook in front of us.

After that, we went home and crashed of course because even though we had a TON of fun, we were EXHAUSTED.

Best family day EVER.

Cutting the Cord on Cable

2012-02-29T15:24:00.001-06:00

img from hediacomputers.com via shutterstock

For a while now we have been seriously toying with the idea of canceling our cable TV. I know, crazy right?

Off and on my husband would mention canceling cable when things got tight and I would go into freak out mode. You know ladies, when you and your husband have the dreaded "budget meeting." Gawd I hate budget meetings.

Eventually my tears and whining would win out and we would drop the subject.

About a year ago though when Netflix started getting better and better about their streaming library, I started to give it some more serious thought.

Still though I thought I couldn't live life without a DVR, and also CBS shows were not on Netflix or Hulu.

So, we started toying with the idea of how we could cut the cord, and started working in that direction.

Our first step was to get an old tower and hooked it up to our upstairs TV. We have been streaming up there for more than six months. We tried out Boxee, which comes with an app for the iPhone which gave us a remote (which was nice not having to get up and click the mouse for each new episode or to search Netflix). However we noticed some glitches. Boxee doesn't show EVERYTHING in our Netflix queue. We didn't like that. Also it doesn't list the episodes in order.

Seriously folks my OCD was kicking into overdrive without the episodes in chronological order. I thought I'd pull my hair out.

Boxee did allow us to subscribe to shows like BBT through CBS, however it was really slow streaming, and we were not thrilled with the quality of it. Much better to exit the Boxee system and just go to the actual site through the browser.

We kind of gave up on cutting the cord for a bit, the Holidays came around and life just got too busy to work on the TV stuff.

However each month when that Cox bill would come in the mail, I would ask myself WHY? Why do I keep paying them $80 a month for something that we could easily get for next to nothing?

So, two weeks ago we got serious about this.

I ordered a free trial of Hulu plus and would you know the VERY day I did this Hulu Plus got an app for the Wii? Our timing couldn't have been better.

I don't like their interface as much as the Netflix interface for the Wii, but they JUST came out with it. I'm sure it will take some time to get the glitches out of it.

Next, I called Cox and found out how low our bill would go and they talked about "data caps". A word I had not yet heard.

Data caps? Are you FREAKING serious? We have a 200GB a month data limit on our internet. My heart sank. We could increase that limit by upping to premier or ultimate package, but what was the point? We were trying to SAVE money, not spend more.

I thought at that point again our journey to cancel cable was over, however after some research it seems that 200GB will give you about 32 HD movies a month or 500 SD shows. That's like a LOT of TV people, about 5 or more hours a day if not more, and yes, that is how long the TV blares in our house at times on our bad days.

So, I started looking at our data usage and we stopped using cable over the weekend. We streamed LITERALLY all day yesterday on both TV's and ended up using under 5GB. That keeps us well under our allowance monthly.

This past weekend my husband made an HD antenna this weekend. It is very similar to THIS antenna. It's up in our attic and you can't even see it. Our picture quality is just as good if not better than cable. We are getting all our local channels on both TV's just fine.

There are still some more issues to work out but we will do that along the way.

1. I don't like having a huge tower in my bedroom hooked to my TV, so eventually what I think we will do is move it to a closet one day. My husband plans to get a video capture card (I think that's what it is...he is the techie on this). With that we can record our HD shows like HIMYM, BBT and CSI etc...all off the air in HD.

Our next step is to get a ROKU box. It will be much better looking than the tower in our room, and it will give us a remote that we can use.

Img from ROKU.com

Roku seems to perform better than Boxee does as far as an interface according to reviews. It will take a bit of money to sink into getting our system where we want it, but it the long run it should pay off.

2. We can't watch CBS through Hulu Plus or Netflix. ALL my favorite shows seem to be on that channel, so for now I have to watch them on the iMac or else up in our bedroom with the tower (because I can do that through the browser). They stream a bit slower through CBS than they do on Hulu or Netflix. Seriously CBS, get with the program! However I think when we get the capture card, hopefully we can just record these to the hard drive and Roku will let us pull them up. Again, we are still working on it.

Still, when i made that call to Cox today I was a little paniced and scared. Cable has been our crutch for YEARS now. In fact funny thing was my job BEFORE I was a stay at home mom was working in retention for Cox. Yeah, I was the gal who would try to convince you to KEEP your cable and I got paid WELL to do it.

However the deed is done. The cable is GONE.

I mean, what will I do if I can't watch mindless hours of House Hunters International on HGTV when I'm sick in bed? Or what about that evening on the sofa watching VH1's top 100 one hit wonders of the nineties? And yes, I'll miss my hours upon hours of Nick at Night reruns of Friends. Who knows, maybe I'll read a book or something or actually GET SOME SLEEP? Go figure.

Anyhow, if you are thinking about cutting the cord ask me any questions and I'll be happy to fill you in on what we do. Also I'll keep you posted on our updates to our system!

The Bench

2012-02-27T13:47:00.000-06:00

~~The bench is finished!~~

~~The bench is completely painted.~~

Oh poo, the bench is in the house....

Ok, so FINALLY this weekend I called the bench "done" enough to bring it in the house and start using it.

I started this project back in January.

I went out and purchased the lumber. It sat there. For WEEKS.

Then, one free weekend my husband gave me a crash course on the table saw and we got a LOT of it done.

It actually seemed to be coming together!

Then I primed it.

Then I went out and got the black paint and I got sick.

Time seemed to stand still on this project. I couldn't bring myself to clean the house, much less go into the garage and paint this bench.

But, I kept plugging on at it and finally I'm done.

Well kind of.

I still have to sand the plywood backing, paint it, poly it and nail it on.

I have to get the foam and sew the cushion cover on the top.

But really, it's nearly there.

Oh, and I still need baskets.

I've gone to about a hundred stores looking for baskets to fit the holes and my budget and it's been no luck. My husband warned me I should have got baskets first, then modified the plan to fit the baskets. I laughed at him. Silly man. Ross has about a million baskets I told him.

Yeah, Ross has been OUT of baskets the past month. Like there is some sort of basket shortage there or something. I found some at Target that will work, but I don't feel like forking over $15 per basket. UGH!

Have I said before he is a smart man and I should listen to him more?

I guess I'll never learn.

Pinterest Wednesday

2012-02-22T14:29:00.002-06:00

I skipped last weeks Pinterest Wednesday for several reasons.

1. I've been completely and totally exhausted lately. Like no motivation to do a single thing.

2. I'm fairly certain nobody actually reads these posts. (mainly because I fear they are too boring to actually post to my Twitter and FB feeds so I never post them....)

3. I don't know if it's just me, but Pinterest has been a bit slow for me the past few weeks. I've only pinned a couple really great things per week. Frankly I don't have a whole lot to share right now.

So, why do I do it? Boredom I suppose. Also it forces me to write when I have nothing to actually write about.

Oh, I could rant on and on about this weeks potty training woes, or staying up till almost 11:00 last night to put together my girls bunk beds, or how I've completely and totally procrastinated on my entryway bench, but actually those things were so exhausting on their own, the mere thought of writing about them makes my head hurt.

Sigh. So let's just look at pretty things together on Pinterest shall we?

When I look at the next photo all I can hear is Jack from Will and Grace saying "It's SINFULLY delicious." I don't want to even know how many calories are in them. Probably ALL of them.

Img from Williams Sonoma.com

This next post really got me thinking about the scale, how I eat and how I work out. I know some changes are coming in my future....Seriously read this gals story at Nerd Fitness. It's pretty awesome how she stopped being a slave to her scale, and how she looked better at 140 pounds than she ever did at 117.

img from Nerd Fitness

Oh please oh please can summer get here all ready? As much as I love my boots I'm so over big bulky sweaters and jackets this season.

pinned by Lagu on Polyvore.

I don't want the kitchen desk, but I'm wanting to build a desk in my den with white on the bottom and a reclaimed wood look on the top. This gave me some inspiration.

Pinned by SuddenlySara via Houzz.com

And now for some funny:

Pinned by Marianne Thompson here

This next one had me giggling for a while:

Pinned by Marianne Thompson here

And for the Harry Potter fans out there. This one is great:

Pinned here by Cortoooo

Once again this week I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple "Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday".

Randomness

2012-02-17T17:43:00.001-06:00

I feel like I haven't posted in forever, because well I really haven't.

It's been a crazy few weeks here on the home front. We all came down with some kind of cold and mine is still lingering on. I just can't shake this sinus stuff. Problem is when I have all this pressure in my head I just can't make myself work out. It's been THREE weeks since I've been to the gym and the more the time passes the more I begin to stress and stress that I haven't been going.

I've GOT to get back into it next week.

Last week also why we were all sick, my oldest played Little Red Riding Hood in her school musical "Into The Woods." SUPER proud of that girl. She is such a sweetheart and has so much talent, and she is absolutely gorgeous. Her inside matches her outside though, she is wonderful through and through.

One of my dear friends asked me if I was wearing flannel pajamas. NOPE just my big long thick jacket. (though as sick as I was and as cold as it was in there that may have been a better solution. I think if you look close I have icicles hanging from my nose.)

Last week I also ordered my girls bunk bed. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of it. If you missed my post I rationalized not building a bunk bed because we are just SO busy right now.

It's probably a good thing. Remember my entryway bench? Yup, still working on that. I have ONE more coat of paint then poly to put on it and I'm done. This project has been slow going for me but really I'm hoping to finish it this weekend.

Back onto bunk beds. Yesterday I went out to buy the girls comforters and everything is CRAZY expensive for the cute stuff. I found one at Kohls 65% off. It's SUPER cute but has not ONE bit of purple in it, but the colors seem to blend. My girls walls are a purple/lavender color. I went ahead and bought them but I'm freaking out that they won't look well in the room.

It seems like it may blend ok. I don't think Lucy is gonna let me take them back. She seems to REALLY love her new comforter.

Also I've been in the middle of a pretty great parenting bible study by Andy Stanley.

It never ceases to amaze me that God puts me exactly where he wants me. This is SO completely relevant to areas of our parenting life right now it is great. It's so simple, yet so wonderful. I'm learning SO much about the importance of relationships in my kids lives. It talks a LOT about how this generation tends to be experience rich but relationally poor, and how to fine tune/dial in and out certain relationships in the kids lives. I'm loving it.

The ONLY hiccups is the memory verse memorization that comes along with the bible study. Arrgh that has me sweating bullets come Monday morning group time ;)

As if we were not busy enough last week my husband had drill (for those of you who don't know he is in the National Guard) AND we had our cub scouts blue and gold banquet. Blue and Gold is like our BIG event of the year, and I was the chairman in charge of getting the banquet put together.

Thankfully it went off pretty well. I'm so proud of my son he earned his Webelos badge!

My husband pinning on his badge

Sorry for the blurry photo, that's the best I got. (as you can see my husband was still in uniform...came straight from drill to the banquet).

Isn't he just the most handsome boy scout ever?

Ok, him and Bear Grylls. Behr Grylls may be the most handsome boy scout ever, but my son is right up there ;)

img from the scouting pages.com

I kid, I kid. (My husband can't get jealous because I'm pretty certain he has a man crush on Bear Grylls).

Also we have been strongly thinking about cutting the cord on our cable. I'm still in the research phase to see if I can actually do this, but it's looking promising! The only hiccup right now is the stupid data caps that Cox has placed on their internet service. I could write a whole blog post rant on that but I'll spare you the agony of me on my soapbox.

So, needless to say we have been pretty busy. I don't ever see it slowing down anytime soon, but hopefully I'll start feeling better and get my train back on the track.

Why I'm NOT making a bunk bed

2012-02-08T15:00:00.000-06:00

So, if you've been around our family or this blog for any amount of time, you know we like to be frugal around here. We also like to make things ourselves. We kinda pride ourselves in it, being able to create and take something for little and make it into something kinda awesome.

That is why it pains me a bit to be PURCHASING bunk beds.

I had all intentions to make this bed:

img from Ana White.com courtesy of Ever Heard of Eueless

This is Ana's bunk bed plan, made by Ever Heard of Eueless. Beautiful. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Problem is when I started pricing out the cost of the materials, plus mattresses, plus paint, plus my time, I was only saving about $50 bucks. $100 if I was lucky. Let's be honest people. I'd pay someone $50-$100 bucks to sand for me. As much as I love to build, can you imagine all the SANDING on this bed. (no sanding makes me happy).

There are times in your life when time is more precious than money. This is one of those moments.

Right now our family is smack dab in the middle of military stuff, boy scout banquets, a lead role in a school musical, workout and weight loss plans, tumbling practice and training for 10K's.

Oh also my youngest has learned to climb in and out of her crib, so a new bed is really needed ASAP.

Taking 2-3 weekend to build a bed, actually just FINDING two to three free weekends to build a bed is just not feasible right now.

So, I bite the bullet, throw in the towel. I'm buying the bed. I'm sure someday sometime down the road I may regret this decision. (trust me I've gone back and forth over this for the past several weeks), but for now its the best decision to be made.

Pinteresting Wednesday

2012-02-08T10:14:00.000-06:00

I kinda am starting to like this Pinteresting Wednesday thing. Just when I feel that I have no creative juices or anything to write about hump day comes along and this gives me a little post to share.

No theme today, just going back to my favorite pins from the last week. Here they are in all their glory.

My first "Social Media Explained." SO True. So TRUE.


Pinned here

Here we have Cream Cheese Stuffed Lemon French toast. Yum. Filed under my Recipes pin board. Instead I should file it under "recipes I will probably never make but will pin anyway."

Recipe from Our Best Bites found HERE

I found a really awesome sandbox plan from Ana this week. Just add it to the very LONG list of items I want to make.

Img found at AnaWhite.Com here

Oh, and this should be filed under "complete and total awesomeness." Send this lady a photo of your kids drawing and she will make a softie of it. This HAS to be one of the cutest most creative things I've EVER seen.

Img found at Child's Own Studio here

And under the "holy crap, why didn't I think of this before category"....DIY drawer dividers/organizers from Ana of course...

Img from Ana White.com found here

Oh, and this would be great IF I ever actually made teacher gifts. Sometimes I feel like I'm that ONE mom in the class that just doesn't do it all.

Img pinned here

That's about all for this week. This week I'm linking up to The Vintage Apple's "Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday."

My Pinterest Dream Kitchen

2012-02-01T08:20:00.005-06:00

Today marks my SECOND Pinterest Wednesday.

Today rather than share my favorite pin's of the week, I'm going to be daydreaming a bit with you about my vision for my kitchen.

*Disclaimer. I do a LOT of daydreaming. (a.k.a. pinning things that I may never actually accomplish)

**Disclaimer TWO* This vision is subject to change within six months with or without warning.

I say that because six months ago my vision for my kitchen was dark floors, white cabinets, faux dark beams across the ceiling. I called it "modern farmhouse".


img from DecorPad.com

While I still think that this is gorgeous my husband wasn't extremely fond of this idea. (Yes, ladies it is their house too.) He likes the idea of darker cabinets, which I don't mind either, but the thought of re-staining my cabinets was a daunting task. I learned during my bathroom renovation that staining cabinets is a LOT of work. MUCH harder than painting.

So I started thinking about painting my kitchen cabinets black. Yes. I said black. For better words lets call it espresso (sounds fancier doesn't it?).

So I started searching images and came up with some ideas.

You can call it French country or European country. Here is my vision.

image from Rustic Woodworks, Inc. pinned here

I'm really starting to LOVE LOVE LOVE rustic looking wide plank floors in a walnut color. Since I have pets if I went dark you would see every scratch and nick, every single bit of dog hair. If I go more rustic I think it would eliminate a TON of stress for me. Of course my taste is expensive. Siiiighh.

I'd LOVE to do something like this for my range hood:

img from Houzz.com pinned here

And NOTHING goes better with a French country theme than copper. Who would have thought that I would start to LOVE copper?

Image pinned here

Image Pinned Here

Doesn't that copper with the distressed black just scream French country? Ahhh. I love it.

Img from depotcreations.blogspot.com pinned here

Of course what TOTALLY freaks me out is that my tastes change like every few months, and when you are doing something like a kitchen, well, you are gonna have to LOVE it for a LONG LONG time. We are a LONG way away from a kitchen redo, so I have time to really think about this. In the meantime though I'm gonna keep pinning away ideas for my dream kitchen.

img pinned here

To follow my board "kitchen ideas" you can see it here on Pinterest!

Today I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple "Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday".

Table Saw 101

2012-01-31T13:29:00.000-06:00

So we finally had a free weekend that my husband and I could both be in the garage together. I needed him to be there when I started building the bench because I needed him to give me a crash course in Table saw 101.

I was pretty freaked starting out, because it's such a dangerous piece of equipment. I wish we would have got the one that the blade stops if it senses skin on it, but we don't have the luxury of owning that one. Maybe someday.

Like Norm says "measure twice, cut once".

Started out with all my measurements.

Then it was time for me to put my big girl pants on and make my cuts. It's tricky holding onto the wood while pushing it through. The table saw is also pretty quiet. Our miter saw makes a BIG scary noise, this thing is pretty quiet. That helps calm the nerves a bit.

You may be tempted to grab the wood next to the blade to move it out of the way. DON'T do that. This is me jumping back after I make my cut. Yeah, I was pretty freaked out. I like my fingers and really want to keep them.

Here is all my wood, cut, sanded and ready for assembly! I would say I made a good portion of the cuts myself, the rest my wonderful husband did. SO proud of myself for using the big scary table saw!

Rethinking Running

2012-01-26T13:49:00.001-06:00

Lately I've started to rethink my plans on running. If you read this post it will tell you about my journey into the running world.

In fall I took a running hiatus, and even though I finished C25K I never actually RAN a 5K. I know. What was the point. When I started running again I realized I wasn't ready to run a 5K, so rather than jump into the 10K program I did the "Ease Into 10K plan."

The first few weeks went really well. Even now It's going ok, but there is a problem. The workout is LONG. Like almost an hour run long, and that's fine if that is my ONLY workout of the day, but then I ended up giving up my Zumba classes (which even though they make me crave Mexican food, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Zumba. It's SO fun).

So I came up with this CRAZY workout schedule. It failed. Miserably.

As awesome as P90X is. I CANT workout at home. Two little ones under my feet just isn't working. Also I get too distracted. I need the gym and I NEED their daycare. I wanted to do it ALL, but at this time in my life raising small ones I just can't.

I also CAN'T give up running. The difference that it's made in my body is unbelievable. I never want to stop running and I always want to incorporate it into my workout regimen.

The long runs are draining me. Don't get me wrong, I plan to finish the 10K program and run a 10K. I want to be able to say I did it. But I'm thinking that I don't want all my running to be for endurance.

My husband and I started discussing sprinting.

Then I saw images like these:

img from HealthierLiving.com

And these:

img from HybridFitnessSolutions.com

Also, the more I started to read and research, the more it started to make sense. PLEASE don't think I'm hating on marathon runners. There is definitely something to be said for endurance. As much as running has helped me shed the pounds that I wanted, I'm just not seeing the muscle definition there that I want, and SOMETHING has to change in my schedule.

I ran across this today and I LOVE it. (Three Simple Sprint Workouts).

So I'm thinking now of somehow incorporating sprinting into my schedule, keep up with my strength training in my boot camp class, and bring BACK Zumba, because nothing is more fun than dancing to Latin music, even if it does make me want to eat tacos.

My First Pinterest Wednesday

2012-01-25T14:23:00.001-06:00

Ok, I'm doing my very first "Oh how Pinteresting Wednesday".

What is Pinterest you may say?


img source cheezburger.com via ragebuilder.com

Not kidding. That's pretty much all it boils down to.

So I decided to share my favorite pins from the past week with you all.

Img from Anawhite.com via apartmenttherapy.com

My 4 year old has been begging for a desk, but with a huge dresser, toys, and sharing a room with little sis, doesn't give us much room. I think this would be a PERFECT solution. I love it.

img from BHG.com

A "command center". A place to put all the school paperwork and stuff that goes in and out of the house. I LOVE it and hope to someday have this in my den/office area.

from impatientlyprayingforpatience.blogspot.com

These little bad boys were staircase newel posts turned into candlesticks. SOOOOO doing this.

img source julievic.polyvore.com

I discovered Polyvore last week also. Let me tell you I could spend hours putting together outfits I'll never wear. Seems like I may have pretty decent taste because this little bad boy had 17 repins.

img source bamboofloorings.org

Wide plank walnut flooring. Oh, I could just die. LOVE it.

img from houzz.com

LOVELY barn doors that my husband hates. Sigh. Still trying to win him over, but it's not working.

And the crowing jewel of my week on Pinterest. I laughed so hard at this I was crying.

no photo credit available. Sorry!

I still look at that and laugh and laugh. So funny!

I'm linking this post up to The Vintage Apple "Oh How Pinteresting Wednesday."

Cleaning Checklist

2012-01-24T08:45:00.001-06:00

Has it really been over a WEEK since my last post? I was doing so good getting in a few posts a week. I've been off doing important stuff (you know, like pinning all kinds of projects I'll never make.)

I did finish my cleaning checklist last week and started it. The house has actually remained pretty clean the past week and laundry caught up! Who would have EVER thought a list could keep me so on track. In fact I was SO on top of things I realized I don't have enough drawer space to hold all my clean clothes. (Talk about first world problems.)

I am TRULY blessed and I need to realize that more often.

Also, in keeping me focused and on track a friend of mine posted this blog on Facebook, and I tell you with everything that I've been struggling with lately, this was the MOST FREEING thing to read. It allowed me to forgive myself and actually relax a bit. I swear if you are in or have ever been in mommy burnout mode you MUST read it.

Back to my cleaning checklist. Talk about something else that has been completely freeing. Seriously this little checklist has changed my life. I feel organized and so put together. I feel free to blog or get on my computer because I know that there is nothing lingering to do for the day. It took me some time to figure it out but after several hours of planning, and tweaking my schedule and spreadsheet I think I've finally got it. My version of our cleaning checklist.

I first came up with this idea after seeing it on I Heart Organizing. The problem is I needed it to be tweaked a bit to work for our family. However if you LOVE the idea of a cleaning checklist as much as I do, and don't want to invest the time to make your own, please pay her some love and respect and hop on over to her Etsy store to purchase some of her printables.

After printing it off I went to the dollar store and picked up a document frame for a buck.

I went to HL and bought sick on magnets ($1.99) to stick on the back. I decided to go with level "3" magnets (mainly because they all ready had adhesive tape on the back and I didn't want to glue) .

I quickly regretted that. It took ALL of them and it does not magnetize as much as I would like it too. Currently I'm afraid the slightest nudge is going to make it come crashing to the floor. Time to purchase some more powerful magnets I suppose.

Now I can use my dry erase markers on the frame and just wipe it clean at the end of the day/week etc. Saves a TON of paper from printing each week.

I'm hoping that this will keep me more focused on the house and get the stuff done that needs done on a regular schedule. It seems to be working GREAT so far! Now it's just time for me to delegate some of these chores out ;)

Weekend Detour

2012-01-16T13:57:00.002-06:00

My weekend took a bit of a detour from what I thought it would be.

Yesterday was supposed to be spent in my garage woodworking on my entryway storage bench, as you saw from my previous post, however upstairs was feeling pretty dirty and gross so my husband and I went into a full cleaning frenzy, and ended up rearranging our room in the process.

We decided to move the bed under the window. I know that this goes against some peoples home decorating rules and according to Feng Shui all our Chi or whatever would go out the window and it would disrupt our sleep. Yeah, I totally don't buy into that kind of stuff, and I slept GREAT last night.

Now of course re-arranging our room puts me into a "I need to completely redo this room" mindset and once I get there it's VERY hard for me to get out of that mindset.

I actually considered axing the entryway project and starting to work on night stands instead.

I told you I'm nuts, and completely indecisive.

It's SO hard for me to prioritize when I have a HUGE list of what I want to do.

Do I need matching nightstands? Yes. Do I want my king size bed with a new headboard? Yes. BUT I need to be content where we are at. We will get there and the journey is the fun part, and by lamenting about what I want and don't have, I don't enjoy the present.

I plan to get a perfect little corner chair and move that wing back downstairs and recover it and put it in my den. Also we will get a regular bathroom door (we removed the two double doors because frankly they were a pain in the rear). We will move the TV over a bit more centered to the bed, and hide the cables in the wall, and have a tall chest underneath it. Also I want one of those pretty benches in front of the bed with storage.

It is ok to dream a little.

Here is my vision (but with Ana's farmhouse headboard and side tables):

img from Houzz.com

Image from Decor Pad

It's fun to plan and dream.

But ahem, back to my weekend detour: Flippin. Cleaning. Frenzy.

My husband is such a sweetheart and offered to clean our bedroom and let me go woodwork and have a day off. Because I'm such a ~~control freak~~ sweetheart I decided to help him instead. (This had NOTHING to do with the fact that I'm a big sissy and scared to use the table saw by myself.)

We usually end up moving beds, vacuuming under them, vacuuming mattresses, vacuuming corners etc.. and doing BIG stuff like this when we just get sick of the mess.

This is NOT working for us.

With four kids, two dogs, two cats and a hamster I need to get better control of this home. I need a cleaning schedule that KEEPS it clean throughout the year, and so I don't spend days at a time killing myself because it got so out of control we couldn't handle it anymore.

My weekly cleanings keep the "appearance" of a clean home and keep it from getting totally disgusting, and goes over the major stuff, but there are honestly all kinds of corners I'm cutting because of time.

I found this AWESOME blog called I Heart Organizing a cleaning checklist and I've been meaning to do this for a long time, it was just sitting down and coming up with a schedule. Currently I'm putting together a spreadsheet/checklist and a schedule that works for our family. Here is what I've come up with so far:

DAILY

    Wash dishes
    Empty dishwasher
    vacuum downstairs
    vacuum upstairs
    beds made
    rooms picked up
    full house pick up
    wipe down sinks
    empty garbage
    empty recycle bin
    wipe kitchen counters
    put away toiletries (a.k.a. bathroom is picked up and sinks clear)
    laundry

WEEKLY

    MONDAY
    wipe down fridge
    wipe down microwave

    TUESDAY
    dust
    clean glass (tv, computer, etc...)

    WEDNESDAY
    vacuum under sofas/chairs
    vacuum stairs

    THURSDAY
    clean toilets
    mop bathroom floors
    scrub bathtubs
    scrub sinks

    FRIDAY
    vacuum kitchen floors
    mop tile floors
    scrub kitchen sink
    wipe down kitchen cabinets

    SATURDAY
    wash sheets
    clean rooms
    clean hamster cage
    clean liter box

MONTHLY

    WEEK 1
    wipe down walls
    wipe down switch plates

    WEEK 2
    vacuum corners/ceilings
    vacuum inside sofa cushions
    vacuum air vents
    dust fans

    WEEK 3
    launder bathroom rugs
    cycle clean washing machine
    cycle clean dishwasher

    WEEK 4
    vacuum under beds

QUARTERLY

    JAN/APR/JUL/OCT
    wash comforters
    vacuum mattresses
    scrub grout (not sure if this is quarterly annual or bi-annual thing...)

    FEB/MAY/AUG/NOV
    vacuum/dust above cabinets
    change air filters
    clean out fridge/freezer
    clean oven
    descale coffee maker

    MAR/JUN/SEPT/DEC
    wash sofa cushions
    vacuum window coverings
    wash windows

Bi-ANNUALLY

    clean out cabinets/drawers
    wash shower curtains
    change smoke detector batteries

Anyhow, when it all pans out and is finished, I'll post my spreadsheet/checklist to share and let you know what we have come up with. Also share with me what your cleaning schedule is and any tips that you may have! I could have EASILY forgotten something!

First Project of 2012

2012-01-13T14:12:00.002-06:00

The wood is purchased!

I finally went out last weekend to Lowes and spent my gift card from Christmas. When you have a hundred projects in your head that you want to do, it's so hard to narrow it down to just one thing you want.

Also because I'm so indecisive, I go back and forth on even the smallest decision.

So much so, I considered RETURNING the wood I bought last week.

Yes, I'm THAT crazy.

I finally settled on making the entryway storage bench/coat shelf from Ana White's plans. I've wanted this for like, um forever. Also because I get SO frustrated trying to get my gloves/hats and scarves out of the bin from under my stairs EVERY time the weather goes arctic. I NEED a better storage solution, and I can't wait until my hallway and stairs are picture perfect. I need this now for my own sanity.

Here is what we are going for:

img from anawhite.com

The problem is the wall where our coats currently hang is only a little over three feet and this is a four foot bench, so there will be some modifications! However, I will progress my steps along the way! I plan on painting it an espresso color, putting hats, gloves and scarves in the top three bins and the bottom bins will be for shoes and miscellaneous items.

Assembly starts this weekend.

I can't wait!

A Bet is a Bet

2012-01-12T08:52:00.000-06:00

A bet is a bet, and although I would have LOVED to get over a thousand hits on that blog post, I think this is even better.

For those of you who missed it, you can read that post here.

Thankfully my husband is such a sport. And a bit of a ham.

When he is NOT goofing off, he really does help me like crazy around this house.

And even though he is a total GOOF sometimes, I'm so thankful that he makes me laugh.

A LOT.

Even though he is a bit of a ham....he is the best husband and daddy this family could ever ask for.

Thank you babe for bringing me so much laughter, and for being such a good sport.

Fitness Goals 2012

2012-01-09T15:19:00.000-06:00

In the summer of 2011 I really hit it hard at the gym. I was doing boot camp two days a week, Zumba twice a week and C25K three times a week. I saw some massive results once I started in with my running.

Once I finished C25K though I never actually RAN a stinkin 5K. Then fall came and the kids went back to school, our schedule got crazy busy, and I went full force into a BUNCH of DIY projects followed by the Holidays. I still continued to work out, but I ate everything I wanted. Funny thing is while I was downing all the sweets in the world I wanted and NOT watching my eating, I lost like 5 pounds. No kidding. I know I know, hate me if you like.

Even though I may have LOST weight during the holidays, I felt gross. I was tired. I felt weak. I wasn't hitting the gym with my usual passion and my nutrition was going downhill fast. I was still hitting my Ease into 10K plan, but I'd hit it three times one week then skip a whole week, or only do it once. THEN I realized I'm getting these massive migraines on running days. I'm sure its from dehydration and improper nutrition.

So, here I am, feeling like a total mess. I feel weak. Something MUST change.

We've all seen this on Pinterest right? Exactly how I feel.

So this past week I've been eating MUCH better and I've come up with a new workout routine to hopefully help me get to my goals. My weight is almost to the place I want it, what I REALLY need now is some muscle. My husband wants me to do Crossfit, but as much as I'd LOVE to it just doesn't fit in with my schedule at this time (childcare issues and such). I know Crossfit and running alone could take me right to the level that I would want, but I have to find something that works with my life right now so I've come up with a plan.

I will continue with my E210K plan and run a 10K the beginning of march. I will be running Mon, Wed and Friday morning at the gym while the rest of my family sleeps. Six AM and 30 degrees does NOT agree with me. I HATE the cold. I know running on the treadmill is NOT the same as the street, so I plan to mix in some street running when the weather gets a bit better.

Tues, Thurs and Saturday I'm mixing back in P90X. I never felt more bad ass and strong than when I did that program. (You can read about my journey here). It will help me gain the muscle that I really need. I'm not doing Plyo, Kenpo or Yoga, I'm just doing the strength days and Ab Ripper X.

THEN if my schedule allows and I feel like it I may hit up Zumba on Tuesday and Thursday. Depends on how my day is going. I also may hit up boot camp every now and again on Monday & Wednesday. I like the girls in those classes, and it gives me time to unwind and the kids can play in the daycare.

It's a crazy workout schedule. My husband said that If I stick to it all this week, at the end of the week he would detail my van for me. He he.

Him doing dishes in an apron and detailing my van for me in one week would just be crazy awesome. He really needs to learn to stop betting me. I always win.

A Work In Progress

2012-01-07T11:23:00.001-06:00

Ok. Take a step back. Breathe.

Something is terribly wrong in this home, and I'm pretty sure that it's me.

The more I try to let things go, to let go of perfection, to care less about what people think the more it eats at me.

The more that God tries to work on this area of my life, the more it hurts. The harder it gets.

People will be coming into my home in the next few hours and I'm freaking out over the crayon on the walls, the dog hair on my sofa and the clutter in my home.

So I get up and I start cleaning. As I start to clean I notice a pair of my husbands shorts next to the bed on the floor. I pick those up. After I pick those up I realize laundry needs done. I start collecting a mess of dirty clothes that was strewn about my house.

I come downstairs to load the laundry and notice about a dozen pair of shoes in my basket by the door. I throw those on the stairs and start making a "go upstairs pile". I notice pieces of paper that my daughter has thrown all over the floor. I pick up all the little pieces of paper and I can feel myself getting more frustrated.

Every room I go into has a mess to clean up. Once I get a room clean, and move onto the next, by the time I go BACK into the first room, there is a NEW mess, a new blanket fort, something else to pick up.

I'm truly chasing a tornado. My effort is all in vain.

So what do I do rather than give up on perfection? I cry. I yell. I get angry. I give into my sin and disgusting behavior rather than pray, work on it and do what I need to do. I take my frustration out on those closest to me, my kids, my husband, my WONDERFUL family. Those who it will effect the most. Those who are watching me and learning what it is to be like Christ.

Then I hate myself. So I cry more, I feel shame. My sin disgusts me. It makes me physically ill. I feel pain in my body, I feel an ache in the pit of my stomach when I allow it to take control. It hurts.

Then it hits me. A song I haven't heard in about 25 years. A song I sung in Sunday School as a kid. A sweet little tune.

He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.

In the mirror of His Word reflections that I see
Make me wonder why He never gave up on me.
He loves me as I am and helps me when I pray
Remember He's the Potter, I'm the clay.

I'm currently taking a parenting class at church. The other night they used an example of a blacksmith forming a horse shoe. Sometimes the blacksmith has to bang on it gently to get it the shape that it needs. Other times he has to apply heat, put it in the fire, to really shape it to where it needs to be.

Right now, I think that God is putting me under the fire. It burns. It hurts. But he is shaping me. He is making me the wife, the mother the woman I am supposed to be.

Rather than worrying about the way my home looks, I need to worry about my homes atmosphere. I want people to feel the love of Christ as they walk through my door. I want them to feel joy. The wonderful joy that comes from my amazing kids. I want them to roar with laughter like we do at times. I want them to experience the feeling of family.

I can't do it on my own. I need Christ every day to give me strength, and patience. I need him to make me less selfish. Because on my own I will only fail.

Most of all I need to realize that He's still working on me.

¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^[a] ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you^[b] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,^[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

-Romans 8:1-11

Home Goals

2012-01-04T14:23:00.003-06:00

So there is this amazing blog that I stumbled upon one day. I think I found it as a referral from another site, and honest to God I can't remember from where.

It's called the Nesting place, and as I read her story (the Nester) and as she opened up her heart to her readers I just fell in love with her. Her testimony was amazing and her advice was so poignant to my life at that moment I became an instant fan.

So next Wednesday January 11th she is having a home goals linky party. Where I will link up this post about my goals for my home this next year. I think it's an amazing idea because when you read her post she comes up with some really thought provoking questions.

Here is what she says:

What’s my favorite room in my house? Why?
How and where does my family hang out together? What’s working for that room? What’s annoying in that room?
Is there something in my home I want to do but I’m afraid? What if I take that risk? What’s the worst that can happen?
What’s the purpose of my home? Is that obvious by how we use it and what is filling it?
Do the objects in my home reflect our family or do I just have things because someone told me it looked good, gave it to me or bought it for me?
Am I neglecting my home and not putting money into something that is needed? Am I squandering money on something I don’t need or enjoy?
Stop apologizing for your home.
Say more kind things than negative things about your home.
Your home is for the people who live there first and foremost, honor them and also think about your guests. This means you can ignore what your well-intentioned neighbor, 80-year-old male painter, and kind-hearted father in law have to say about your paint colors and furniture placement. Make it work for your family for this season of life.

I can't even begin to tell how how relevant this is to me in my life right now. So I started pondering this and came up with MY goals for the following year. (now, keep in mind MY goals sometimes seem a bit lofty, but I'm REALLY trying to be more realistic about the budget and our capabilities to handle renovation at this time in our life.)

So here goes my goals and thoughts for this year, and answers to The Nester's questions:

WHAT IS MY FAVORITE ROOM IN THE HOUSE AND WHY?

I would have to say that my favorite room in the house right now is my den. Painting those cabinets white has been such a HUGE transformation in my home. It has made it feel cleaner, crisper and brighter. It's the room that has helped me find my style and figure out what I want my home to eventually look like. Though the room is not quite finished yet, I still love coming in here.

Before


After! So MUCH brighter.

Although I still have more to complete in this room I love it and it works right now for us. My goal (hopefully this year) is to get rid of the overstuffed furniture. Also waiting in my garage are two wing backs. My plan is to recover the two wing-back chairs in a charcoal/gray fabric and place them under the window with a table in between. I plan on getting curtains for the window, and on the north side of the room put a desk like this Ana White plan underneath the some shelves. SOMEDAY (not this year) I would like to close off some room with some pocket doors, that we can open/close whenever we wish.

Image from Pinterest/Conspicuousstyle.com

Wouldn't those pocket french doors just be TO DIE FOR? Even better would be barn doors, but I can't convince my husband to jump on that bandwagon yet, and since this is his home too, I guess I have to consider his opinion ;)

Hmmph. Whatever I think they are gorgeous.

Img from Pinterest

HOW AND WHERE DOES MY FAMILY HANG OUT TOGETHER? WHAT'S WORKING IN THAT ROOM? WHAT'S ANNOYING IN THAT ROOM?

Our family hangs out now in the front main living room (we used to have the TV in the den, but had to move it to get the computer out of our master bedroom). The ONLY place that we had to place the TV was on my mothers cedar chest in an odd corner. I'm not at all thrilled with the placement of the TV. I think that room was meant more for a sitting room, because there is really NO great place for a television set. Problem is it works better for us to have the tv in the front room.

I love our fireplace. During winter we love to chill out in there, watch movies and have a roaring fire going while we pop popcorn and drink hot cocoa. As you can see though, the TV is just a HUGE eyesore in that room. It REALLY needs to go above the fireplace, so our goal is to get the cedar chest OUT of that room, and add a mantel and trim work to the fireplace and mount the TV up there. I know MANY people are either FOR or AGAINST a TV mounted above a fireplace, especially one as large as ours, but it really needs to happen for my own sanity in that room. We also need some type of storage solution for our DVD player and cable box. My husband and I are still formulating a plan for that one.

Below is our vision:

Img from Pinterest/DIY Chatroom

ALSO...

After putting the TV in there we realized you can see EVERYTHING going on in that room from the street so I recently ran across black out curtains for $7 each at Target. A total steal, we LOVE the privacy they give us. Problem is they are a smoky blue/gray and just are not working with the color of the room, so I have to find some new wall color to match these curtains. Since my husband has never really been fond of the wall colors in this room I chose, it's a good opportunity for us to make that change over. So I'm hoping for this room to get a small renovation this year.

IS THERE SOMETHING IN MY HOME I WANT TO DO BUT I'M AFRAID? WHAT IF I TAKE THE RISK? WHATS THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?

I'd have to say without a doubt it's my staircase. You can read about my vision here. I want to rip up the nasty gross dirty carpet and go for a clean fresh look. I want to paint the rails espresso and the treads espresso as well, with white balusters and white trim. There are some issues that I need to work out, but really the worst that could happen is that we live with some wood stairs for a while until we re-carpet the house. I think anything has GOT to be better than the carpet we currently have.

Also this year hoping to get my entryway storage bench/coat rack complete. If not this winter, maybe in the fall!

Here is my vision:

Img from Pinterest/Remodelaholic

Gorgeous, I mean, WOW, I just need to go for it.

WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF MY HOME? IS THAT OBVIOUS BY HOW WE ARE USING IT AND WHAT IS FILLING IT?

This is a strange question. I guess I could answer this by saying our purpose is to be comfortable and relaxed in our own home. I want my home to be pretty but we actually have to be able to LIVE in it and keep it reasonably clean with four kids, two dogs and two cats! Also we do LOVE to entertain and have people over, and I think that we have updated our seating and dining area enough to accommodate guests comfortably. I would like to get the kids bath/guest bath complete this year (we had a water leak issue, the floor is sagging and come spring we need to repair the floor and start working on that room). I want to get that up to code for our guests to use. Oh, and I really need to get better about having more guest towels and washcloths. MAKE MY GUESTS FEEL WELCOME AND COMFORTABLE.

DO THE OBJECTS IN MY HOME REFLECT OUR FAMILY OR DO I JUST HAVE THINGS BECAUSE SOMEONE TOLD ME IT LOOKED GOOD, GAVE IT TO ME OR BOUGHT IT FOR ME?

Yes and no. I'm starting to replace artwork with things that are my own, rather than store bought items. Also some furniture was given to us or was passed down after my mother and grandmother passed away, but it's working for now, some my husband has made, some I bought myself before we were married (can you say purple overstuffed sofas?) , but some like our dining table we bought together. It's a work in progress. I'm learning to let go of things that were my mothers but don't reflect my style. For the longest time I would hold onto things of hers because they were hers, even though they didn't reflect my particular taste. I'm learning that my home is MINE, not hers. She would want me to enjoy my home and be happy with it, rather than just holding onto a piece for sentimental reasons.

AM I NEGLECTING MY HOME AND NOT PUTTING MONEY INTO SOMETHING THAT IS NEEDED? AM I SQUANDERING MONEY ON SOMETHING I DON'T NEED OR ENJOY?

Ok people, here is where I get real and honest. We have a BAD eating out habit that needs to be broken, and we are TRULY getting better about it. I wonder just HOW much could we have done to our home last year with that money? Instead, we just ATE it.

STOP APOLOGIZING FOR YOUR HOME

Stop griping about my tile when guests are here and apologizing for it. Stop apologizing for our bathroom upstairs, hey, it's not pretty but at least it works and it's clean.

My husband has a great saying "Those that matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter."

REALLY good saying. Those who truly love us and care for us don't mind that our home is a work in progress.

SAY MORE KIND THINGS THAN NEGATIVE THINGS ABOUT YOUR HOME

Stop griping about my tile. (See above). Stop pointing out all my homes imperfections and show them what I'm proud of and all that I've accomplished in this home on a very small budget! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my home, and there are times that I forget how much I love it when I see the stains on my carpet, the scratches on the trim, and the fingerprints on the walls. Every once in a while I'll get a glimpse of my home through a strangers eyes, and what I see is absolutely beautiful. After all it's not the walls, furniture, paintings or carpet that make this house our home, it's the people living in it, and I honestly couldn't be happier. This is our home, and I love it.

Linking up to the Nesters Home Goals Linky Party!

The Ultimate Pinterest and Blogging web post ever crafted!

2012-01-02T15:50:00.000-06:00

Lately, all I've been talking about to my husband is my blog. Today was no exception. He is always trying to give me advice on how I should run my blog. I usually don't listen.

My husband has been moping around the house today pretty bored.

He said to me "I bet I can get you a thousand hits on your blog."

I laughed, rolled my eyes "whatever."

"I'm serious." he said, "I can get you a thousand hits." He then told me his plan. I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face. So I said go for it. So here it is my husbands guest post on my blog.

Jamin's Ultimate Pinterest and Blogging web post ever crafted!

Step 1 "Find some old piece of garbage!"

Step 2 " Paint it White! Oil rubbed bronze, or for super effect, BOTH!"

They paint everything white. Not sure why.

Step 3 "Gather Yarn, Pipe Cleaners, a toilet paper roll and cloth for flowers, colorful decoration, etc."

Step 4 - "Hot glue that sucker!!!"

Step 5 - " Add a 'Girlie Word' to it. Girls love that stuff."

Step 6 - "Show an unconventional use for a conventional item"


Wash your dishes with a hose! Using an old insecticide sprayer!

Step 7 - The Reveal "Before and After". Move that BUS! Move that BUS!

*** NOTE - My husband hereby retains all the rights and royalties to any such famousness that may erupt for such a mega-awesome super DIY project!****

*** P.S. If this blog post receives 1,000 or more views, Julie forthwith promises to give her husband a foot rub. Failure to received 1,000 page views within 7 days will result in said (awesome) husband doing the dishes whilst in an apron (awesomely, of course). Photographic results of either thine foot rub or the awesome dish-washing must be posted withing 24 hours on this here blog!