The Good Stuff

New House Before & After: Kids Rooms

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 18:33:00 +0000

This weekend Mark put the finishing touches on the kids' rooms! As I mentioned previously, painting their rooms was actually the first thing I did in the house, but other than that we didn't do much more than move their furniture in until recently. A couple of weeks ago I shifted focus to finishing up their rooms!

First up: Jack's room.

Before

Ugh. There was a good bit of work to be done in here. Obviously, no self-respecting Columbusite would live in a *ichigan themed room :P

Those yellow stripes were bordered by pieces of trim, so first I removed all the decals, then had to rip off all the pieces of trim, of course wall came with it so thhhhheeen the walls had to be patched and smoothed where the trim was. -_-

During

The kids look so much smaller! I guess this was nearly a year ago now...

After

Fresh paint (color: Valspar Schoolboy Blue), the canvas, rug, bedding, bookshelf, letters (I added spray paint so they would look better in his new room), and curtains all came from his old room. The growth chart was a gift, and we recently added the headboard and shelf for his Hot Wheels cars.

He's been asking for a shelf for his cars since he knew he would get input into his new room a year ago and this was the finishing touch we added this past weekend, he's pretty excited about it! Me too (decor + storage/function = win!)

Ahhh, so much better!

Next up: Molly's room

Before

Luckily, Molly's room was in better shape other than being (poorly) painted a very pink, pink. Of course her favorite color is purple, so that's what she chose to paint her room. I patched a few dings and holes here and there and we were ready to go!

During

I was definitely laying on the floor, hot and exhausted, and the kids joined me. The three of us spent a very long spring/summer together in this house last year. They had a lot of "picnic" lunches on floors of rooms in various stages of completion while watching movies on my laptop. We'd bring food, a small bag of toys each, and my laptop + movies and spend the day working on the house. I think we're going to have a much more fun time here this year!

After

New paint, new bed and bedding, and bookcase. The growth chart was gifted, the letters, rug, and the little rainbow cloud on the wall were all from her old room. One of the curtain panels was also from her old room, but we had to purchase a second since she had a smaller window at the old house.

Two weekends ago we finally got rid of the crib turned toddler bed, and packed up all the diapers that haven't even been used for the better part of a year, so that we could get rid of the changing table, and we moved in her new big girl bed! I kind of love her bedding and secretly wish it was mine :D (Target!) We'll definitely be adding something more to her room, probably a real dresser or something along those lines as she has plenty of room and will probably need the storage (she's a mini-fashionista!), or a toy box that we actually already have on hand... But, it's feeling pretty done for the most part!

It feels GREAT to have two more rooms checked off the list! Next up: we'll be working on our downstairs half bath, and the 3rd upstairs bedroom, which is currently storing a bunch of stuff I'm pretending doesn't need to be unpacked, but is destined to be an office.

New House Before & After: Master Bedroom

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:38:00 +0000

I've shared our family room and kitchen transformations, now it's time for the master bedroom!

Painting all the things was of priority when we moved. Empty rooms are easiest to paint for obvious reasons, but knowing that all the walls needed painted meant that we couldn't really settle in to any of the rooms in the house before the walls were painted as furniture would just need moved around again for painting purposes so painting was a task that I tackled as quickly as possible both before and after move-in day.

Painting the kids rooms were the first tasks I accomplished once we took ownership of the house. Because they're smaller it's harder to move the furniture around to get to the walls so I really wanted to get it done ASAP. I know this from experience as I had to paint their rooms in our old house with furniture in them. What ends up happening is having to shift the furniture around as you paint unless you have the ability to move it out completely. It's just not fun. So, their bedrooms were painted early and first.

After their bedrooms I tackled the kitchen project because it was very important to me to have a functional kitchen, call me crazy! We moved in late June, I was painting the family room, on my birthday (happy birthday to me...), about 2 weeks after that, and theeeen it was time to shift attention to our bedroom. I was hoping to get it done before we moved in, which obviously didn't happen, but I also knew that it was large enough that I could move furniture to the center of the room and work around it if necessary, which is what I ended up doing. 2015: the summer I was perpetually covered in paint.

Before:

Paint samples on the wall :)

As you can see we had a good space to work with, all that needed addressed was the ugly 90s sponge paint, which was clearly very intentionally and professionally done O.o

Prior to taking possession of the house we were under the impression that these walls were actually wallpapered and I was dreeeaaaaading dealing with wallpaper removal (Been there. Done that. Don't want to do it again.) It was a huge victory when we realized it was just paint!

After:

New paint (color: Sherwin Williams Sensuous Gray, it's gray with heavy plum undertones), curtains, headboard (I love LOVE our new headboard, pictures definitely don't do it justice. It's so pretty in person!), bedding, wall decor (the sconces were from our old house, the canvases are new), and the final item we just picked up this weekend is that pretty, oversized leaner mirror, which I love! Although we painted the room and hung curtains more than 6 months ago, it's only been in recent weeks that we really finished up the decor.

Thankfully it's feeling pretty done now! Mark still has a couple boxes that need unpacked (side eye) and then we'll have a pretty good sized open space/corner so maybe we'll add a fun chair or something down the road, but feeling pretty good about the space for now.

We also made a quick update to the kitchen and added some blinds to the bay window. We've known for a while that we wanted to add some. Now that it's staying light out later we needed to make a move. Due to the level of the sun when I'm making dinner it was practically blinding me on sunny days, and it was starting to bother us while we were actually eating now that it's light out even later! Not that I'm complaining about the sun shining in the evenings, but it added motivation for us to get this task accomplished!

Kind of hard to take pictures of blinds, but you get the idea. Also, as you can see on the center pendant light above, an unnamed child recently decided while not being watched for 3 seconds that it would be a good idea to try swinging those pendant lights, which then crashed into one another, which shattered one of the shades. Now all of them are going to need replaced so that we have a matching set. The light was one of the few things in the kitchen we didn't need to do anything with when we moved in. One step forward, two back -_- But the blinds are up!

It's crazy to think that this time last year we were in the process of finalizing the purchase of our house. Right about now we were scrambling to try to get the necessary things done so the house could be somewhat inspected and in required condition for closing. It was a very stressful time to say the least. All worth it, but things are much more enjoyable this year!

New House Before & After: Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 12:40:00 +0000

I already shared our family room transformation, now it's time for the kitchen!

Our two biggest complaints about our old house were lack of living space and lack of kitchen space. Our old kitchen wasn't awful, but it was pretty small. No pantry, and a very small amount of usable counter space posed challenges for me, which was frustrating because I cook all the time and spend a lot of time in the kitchen!

When we moved one of our major sticking points was a kitchen upgrade. We didn't have a lot of specifications as to what that would look like, we just needed more space, more storage, and better function, which wasn't that hard to do considering what we had before. I'm super happy with what we ended up with.

Before:

The picture is actually pretty kind. The cabinet finish was pretty worn in many places, especially on the most used cabinets. The exhaust hood was disgusting, and the pantry doors hung askew when opened. Dark cabinets aren't my preference, but if the finish was in better shape I probably would have left them for a while instead of refinishing them myself right before we moved in O.o

During:

I spent a week painting the cabinets white, by myself, while caring for 2 kids, with the pressure to get it done ASAP because I didn't want the kitchen to be torn up when we moved. We have 20 cabinet doors + a pie cut cabinet* + 5 drawers. I ended up doing 4 coats of white on the fronts (2 more than the product claimed), 3 on the back, then 3 coats of protective coating on the front, 2 on the back + all of this had to be done on the actual cabinet frames as well.

I cannot strongly enough convey how badly this project sucked. I very realistically estimate that I spent 50+ hours over the course of 7 days to complete this project. That's a lot of very tedious work and stressssssful while also having to care for kids. I thought I was going to lose my mind many a time. By far the single worst DIY project I've ever completed.

BUT! I finished it and I'm happy with the results and so SOOOOO (*SOOOOOOO*) glad this project is done!

Oooooh, ahhhhhh!

Refinished the cabinets white (obviously, per my PTSD-esque flashback above), all new hardware, new refrigerator and over-range microwave, and fresh, happy paint (color: Drizzle by Sherwin Williams).

Much improved, I think!

Still to come: very soon we will be adding blinds to the windows and we're also on the lookout for a bigger and/or expanding kitchen table now that we have more space. Depending on how that ends up I might want to add some shelving or a hutch/cabinet/some such as well.

*So, apparently these are called pie cut cabinets? I've more frequently heard them referred to as lazy susans. I just call it a turner, which is probably completely made up. ::shrug::

Week of December 6th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 22:33:00 +0000

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Saturday we went to Mark's big holiday event, which is always lots of fun.

The kids got to visit with Santa.

Jack knows what's up and hopped right up on Santa's lap to make his request - a car transporter that carries LOTS of cars! Molly was much more wary, but I give this girl credit. Even though she was scared (warranted) she still timidly walked right up to Santa to make her request - Elsa and Anna on a bike. Pretty impressive for a scared 2 year old.

Because we that wasn't enough Christmas fun for us we then went to buy our Christmas tree!

There were A LOT of Christmas trees. This is not good for me, who goes about everything as if there is ONE RIGHT CHOICE, even when I sometimes understand logically that this method doesn't always apply. So... two hours (and one pretty annoyed husband) later, I found the perfect tree :D

Surprisingly I was drawn to the mid-sized trees, which I thought were so cute, but because in year's past we've had a mini-tree and we actually have room for a full-sized tree now I figured we'd better go big or go home!

Ooooh, ahhhhh!

And we continued decorating...

We even have a mistletoe! Cute, huh?

So, now we're all decorated inside. We still need to get the outdoor stuff done, which will be a larger undertaking this year for sure.

Yesterday evening was my annual cookie exchange with friends and was all sorts of fun! We all bring cookies and an app to share, wear comfy clothes, and have a nice relaxed evening. I look forward to it every year! This was my first year hosting. It was nice, but also a lot of work to try to bake, cook, AND clean, while caring for kids that go right behind you and make a mess again and need you to stop whatever you're doing every 3 minutes. It was a long day, but worth it!

These are the Molasses Cookies I made. I also whipped up some quick fudge.

All the cookies.

And all of the cookies that I get to keep :D

Aren't these cookie tins adorable? Target!

Jack is Star Student of the week this week, which means he gets to kick off the week sharing a poster about his family, which will be on display all week.

Super adorable, right?!

Each day he gets to bring in something else to share: hobby (he brought a truck and talked about how much he likes playing with trucks, reading about trucks, drawing trucks, etc. :D ), favorite book (he brought in The Big Book of Mighty Machines, which... is probably not what every 5 year old is currently reading non-stop), and tomorrow he will bring in a favorite toy, and Friday he gets to share someone special so Mark is coming in for Show-and-Tell.

He's so excited about being Star Student. He's been counting down to his turn all year!

I also *FINALLY* got the results of my lactation counselor certification exam in the mail and I PASSED! I'm officially a certified lactation counselor!

It was a longer than usual journey amidst a crazy summer so I'm feeling very accomplished and relieved to have certification in hand! Woot!

Here's what we're eating this week!

Sunday: Turkey Pot Pie Soup with Parmesan Drop Biscuits

Monday: Beef & Noodles (made with leftover beef from French Dips that I had stashed in the freezer) with Roasted Brussels Sprouts (I can't tell you how excited I am to have finally got my hands on some brussels sprouts!)

Tuesday: Leftovers for the kids, Mark had a work party, and I hosted a cookie exchange with friends. I made Molasses Cookies (so good! I made these last year too) and Spinach & Artichoke dip as well as some Pomegrante Sangria, yum!

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Baked Chicken Fajitas with Guacamole

Friday & Saturday: Out

New House Before & After: Family Room

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 13:26:00 +0000

It's kind of crazy to think about but our whole house journey started right around this time last year. It's been a long year and and even LONGER 6 months, but it was all worth it. We're very happy in our new house, especially now that the big immediate projects have been finished and we're feeling more settled.

This time last year we had our first showing of this house and made an offer. We didn't actually get the house the first time around, but a few weeks later the deal fell through with the original buyers (probably because they got an inspection and realized the house needed a little more than just cosmetic work) and we had the opportunity to make another offer and in late February (I think?) we got news that we had in fact gotten the house the second time around. We closed in late April and moved in in June.

I figured that it's about time that I shared a few before and after pics. I only wish that I had more pics, but a lot of the initial work that was done is unimpressive.

Between closing and moving a lot of unexciting things happened: repairs to the siding, new A/C, new hot water heater, repairs to the furnace, and fixing a lot of busted pipes.

Water pouring from your ceiling is just generally not a good thing.

Oh, and the mailbox. Let's not forget about the fact that sometime between our walk through of the house and purchase someone ran over (I assume?) our mailbox so that had to be replaced.

A lot of functional things.

One of the bigger projects we have accomplished is cosmetic improvements in the family room.

Some before pics:

(I wish I had taken before pics... instead of having to use screen shots. In my defense during the "before" time period things were just a wee bit hectic.)

Stained, worn, outdated carpet, outdated entry tile, dinged up walls and old paint. The pictures are actually pretty kind, it looked much more sad in person.

During...

And after:

Ooooh, ahhhhh...

Fresh paint (I was painting on my birthday. Oh, the memories that we made this summer O_O ) and a lot of new flooring (so pretty), our furniture, and some new accessories (including the cute little entryway rug that I adore, and pretty, bright curtains, and the area rug that was way harder than it should have been to decide on.) and I pretty much love it!

It's a big space, which is good, but it's also looking a little bare. I think it needs a few more accessories, definitely some sort of entry table, and maybe at least one more piece of furniture, we'll see, but we're finally to the point where it's feeling homey around here. I mean, there are decorative touches and everything.

You see this mantle?

It didn't decorate itself, ya know.

In addition to a few little accent pieces and decorative touches that I'm sure are yet to come we still need to replace both ceiling fans and the entryway light (they're a little outdated and not our style) and we'll also be replacing the front door (can that count as part of the family room?) because it's not in great shape. Exciting things, of course.

I'll share more updates soon!

Week of November 15th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 14:16:00 +0000

Last week was a pretty low-key week, which is always nice.

I'm doing my best to ignore all of the pictures I've seen all over social media of people moving right on into Christmas and bypassing Thanksgiving completely. Or, I guess they still celebrate it, but surrounded by Christmas stuff? I don't know. So weird. I choose to live in a world where each holiday is celebrated in its own special time. #waronthanksgiving

I'm super pumped that Thanksgiving is next week. Everyone knows it's the best holiday and I'm ready to eat all the things and give all the thanks!

I've been Instagramming and I totally love it. I realize I'm like 5 years late to the party and the cool kids are probably already post-Instagram, but I loves it! I love seeing pictures from friends and strangers that capture everything from the special to the mundane. I love that you can browse different topics depending on what your interest is at that moment and it's fun to see what different people share. After all, a picture speaks a thousand words, eh?

In other random news, I've perfected homemade coconut oil kettle corn so it made an appearance for snack twice this weekend. Nothing beats freshly made salty sweet popcorn!

Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday: Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Panini

Monday: Sweet Potato Nachos

Tuesday: Shepherd's Pie

Wednesday: Mom's night out for me, Homemade Pizza for the fam!

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of November 8th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 15:02:00 +0000

So, let's see, last week...

My car went for a little spa visit and came back looking beauteous. When we purchased it the car had *just* become available and when we test drove it literally hadn't even been vacuumed out. While we were dealing with paperwork they did a quick once over and washed, wiped down, and vacuumed, but it was in need of a full detail and a few miscellaneous things like a good wax and buffing out some surface scratches, basically everything a dealership typically does before selling a car.

I had to drive a Chevy Cruze for a day and... that was sad. Glad to have her back!

Tuesday was chicken day!

^That's 40lbs of quality chicken, purchased at an awesome price, trimmed and ready for the freezer! Well worth the hour or so it takes to get it freezer ready. This will last us for about a year!

Know what's nice when you have to deal with 40lbs of chicken? Having adequate workspace to do so. I used to have to do this on a little ~3ft x 3ft (that's probably a generous measurement) square of counter space that wasn't even dedicated and still had some things sitting on it. Doing anything feels so much easier when you have more room to do it in!

I'm still feeling the effects of the time change. That^ was taken at about 4:30pm. When the sun was going down. ::facepalm:: I dislike that it's completely dark out by the time dinner rolls around at 6pm. It's going to be a long winter.

At my nieces' birthday party over the weekend Molly played stand-in for her slightly older cousin who had enough of birthday partying by the time cake time rolled around.

Somebody had to do it. Molly's just practicing for her own 3rd birthday in just over 2 months (say what?!?)

And I got this full of awesome shirt, which pretty much made my life.

This is a phrase I use on the reg so I'm pretty sure Target designed this shirt just for me.

Also: I'm Instagramming now. Apparently this is where all the cool kids hang out so obviously I need to ~~be there~~ jump on this trend about 5 years after everyone else.

Edibles:

Sunday: Meatloaf with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Broccoli

Monday: Teriyaki Chicken Stir-Fry with Brown Rice

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Leftovers/Freezer Meal

Thursday: Homemade Pizza with Salad

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

The above link to Zaycon Foods is a referral link. I'm in no way affiliated with that company other than loving them for quality bulk meat purchases at a good price. I've been a regular customer for several years now.

Week of November 1st

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 14:41:00 +0000

Woooweee! I can't believe it's already November.

Last week we celebrated Halloween with some pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating.

Mine is the happy pumpkin. Always.

Firetruck and purple princess (A.K.A. Sophia the First)

Molly chose her own costume. At this age, Jack still didn't care what he dressed up as (he was a lion). It wasn't until his 4th Halloween that he wanted to choose his costume. Big surprise, Molly had an opinion :D

Jack, of course, wanted to be a firetruck. A fire fighter? No, a fire truck.

His costume turned out pretty cute. Lucky for me, I have experience with crafting truck costumes. I also bought him a little fire fighter coat and hat to wear with it, but that idea was nixed because according to Jack he's a firetruck and firetrucks don't wear clothes. Obviously...

The coat and jacket came in handy for his school party because kids were allowed to bring costumes to wear, but they had to fit in their backpacks. Firetruck =/= backpack friendly. Lucky for everyone, Jack was okay with wearing the firefighter costume to his party.

This was our first year trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood so I wasn't sure what to expect as far as how much candy to have on hand to pass out. There's a lot of kids around so the day of trick-or-treat I panicked and picked up a few extra bags of candy giving us probably 1 1/2 big bowls or so to hand out. We left a bowl out for trick-or-treaters while we went around trick-or-treating ourselves and came home to... at least 2/3 of the bowl still filled. And with a half hour of trick-or-treat left to go we didn't even get anymore trick-or-treaters. Womp, womp.

I have no idea where all the kids were because there were plenty of trick-or-treaters out and about. I guess many just didn't make it back to our little cul-de-sac despite the fact that nearly everyone back here had candy to pass out. ::shrug:: Guess I'll know for next year.

And now Halloween is over and everyone's all like...

And I'm just sitting over here like...

It's only November, people, slow your roll. #waronThanksgiving

Menu for the week:

Sunday: Smothered Sweet Pork Burritos with Guacamole

Monday: Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup with Panini

Tuesday: Paleo Sausage Veggie Bake

Wednesday: Freezer Meal or Homemade Pizza

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of October 25th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Last week we made our annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch.

We picked the best pumpkins in the patch, which are waiting patiently to be carved in preparation for trick-or-treat tomorrow night.

In true Stephanie fashion, I'm still working on Jack's costume, but hopefully that will be finished tonight.

We've just been living life over here. We had friends over last week for the first time at the new house and I also finished up my lactation counselor course and exam. I'll be anxiously awaiting the results as the assessment portion of the exam was challenging and no one I talked to, including myself, felt super confident about their performance on that portion, Eeep! Did not help that I had to wait ~8 weeks to take an exam that's designed to be taken at the end of a week long course :/ Too bad it's not just a written exam because I'm not worried about passing that portion! ::fingers and toes crossed::

We've been eating apple-y things and soups and squash and all manner of fall things around here.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday: Leftovers with some Buffalo Chicken Dip thrown in the mix

Monday: Roasted Chicken with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Honey-Glazed Carrots (better believe those chicken scraps were turned into delicious homemade stock!)

Tuesday: Acorn Squash with Apple Sausage & Cranberry Stuffing with Salad

Wednesday: Pumpkin Chili (Crock Pot) with Pumpkin Corn Muffins

Thursday: Trick-or-Treat! Pumpkin Chili Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

Week of September 27th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 18:30:00 +0000

Last week, I authorized an upgrade to my computer for Windows 10. I was sucked in by promises that it would be more like the old windows I know and love (I'm not a fan of Windows 9, I basically don't use it and keep my computer in desktop mode the whole time, only interacting with the rest of the system if I'm forced to.)

I'm usually the kind of person who will not allow upgrades until I absolutely have to because all too often it comes with changes that I don't like, I tend to not appreciate change. So, with this upgrade that was supposed to be a change back to what I'm used to, I decided I'd go for it. My computer ran the upgrade, all was well and good until I realized that it got rid of the scroll-ability (yeah, not really a word, but I don't know what else to call it) on my touchpad! Do you know how annoying it is to try to use the interwebz without scrolling capabilities?! Awfulness. I should have just stuck with my non-upgrading habits.

So I spent 2 days suffering, unable to scroll, until some googling, and random clicking (my husband LOVES when I do things with the computer beyond general browsing) I somehow fixed it! FIXED IT! Myself! Wheee! That was my win for last week and it was definitely noteworthy enough to share.

In other news, Molly and I hit up a consignment sale and she was the only 2-year-old there actively shopping. I'm talking, browsing through the racks the whole time and picking out her own clothes and approving/disapproving my picks. This girl is trouble when it comes to clothes!

She's already very particular about what she wears from her hair, to her outfit, to her shoes and other accessories. I am not used to dealing with this as Jack still barely cares what he wears. Most days he throws on whatever, only rarely does he have a request and I can easily talk him out of it if necessary. His only real request is that as many of his shirts have vehicles on them as possible.

We finally accomplished some more progress on the floor! We're *so close* to being done. We just have to finish up installing the quarter round, right now we probably have like 20% of it done? Maybe less. And we still have to deal with the bathroom. Laying the flooring will be easy peasy, how much work it is overall is going to depend a lot on how tearing out the old flooring goes. ::fingers crossed:: But for now, I have a whole floor down and that's enough to leave me feeling pretty happy after dealing with having only a partial floor for the last few weeks.

I busted out the Old English Scratch Cover, which is magic in a bottle, to fix up our existing baseboards. I first discovered this bottle of awesome when we were getting our old house ready to sell. It's some sort of wood oil/polish stuff that you rub on with a cloth and then buff off and I'm telling you it is magical!

I think I spent like $7-$8 on the bottle at Lowe's and you only use a little bit at a time and it makes wood with shallow scratches look like new. Well, maybe not BRAND new, but very much improved. It hides some scratches completely and well camouflages others. We laid down this nice floor and it only highlighted the fact that the baseboards were all dinged up. Well, Scratch Cover to the rescue! They look so much better.

I thought for half a second about putting new baseboards down, but then I watched Jack slam a truck into the old, scratched up baseboards and was reminded that spending time/money/effort on new ones would only make me sad when they got beat up by little kids and their toys. I'm happy with how they look now. As you can see, we still have quarter round to install in this area, that's why there's a seam along the edge. Sooooon!

Menu for the week:

Sunday: Grilled Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Monday: Chicken Apple Cranberry Salad with Honey-Balsamic Vinaigrette

Tuesday: Sweet Potato Enchiladas with Guacamole

Wednesday: Roasted Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Carrots

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of September 20th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 13:09:00 +0000

Book reading season 2015 has begun! You weren't aware of the season opening? Well, it happens to directly coincide with football season. This time of year Mark watches all the football and I read all the books and it works out pretty nicely. With football on alllll day Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights, and allllll day Saturday I'm tempted to watch even less TV than usual and get plenty of reading done. Fine by me!

I ordered an area rug for the family room and ended up not liking it, so that's going back. I ordered another rug that's maybe arriving today? I have to like it because I'm over the rug buying thing already. I guess if I don't like it, it will just lay there taunting me forever because it's staying. Buying a rug is hard.

Decorating is just not my forte. I really, really dislike the decorating process. I assume some people like it? Not me. I don't enjoy decorating, just the end result. I want my space to be nice, but don't like the work of getting there. First world problems, eh?

This past weekend feels like the official end of our crazy summer. My weekend was filled with appointments, but looking at the next month to six weeks my calendar is blissfully open. Sure I already have a sprinkling of commitments, but just a sprinkling. I feel like I can breathe! This summer amidst buying a house, renovating a house (mostly DIY), getting a house ready to sell (all DIY), moving, selling a house by owner, AND taking care of 2 littles full time I also took 2 doula clients a month every month and had a sprinkling of advanced trainings in there. Crazy.

Looking back, I'm still not sure how I made it through in one piece. Or, in one piece, minus a few pieces of my mind that I lost along the way. ::releases held breath::

Moving into the holiday season I've decided I'm going to scale back my birthwork calendar and only accept 1 client a month through the end of year at least, probably for the first couple months of 2016 as well as the holiday season runs right into birthday season in our household. That means I'm fully booked for the next several months already, now I just need to stick to my boundaries and not take on any more clients.

I love what I do and I'm thankful to be busy, but I need to make sure I'm doing a good job of balancing everything and this summer left me feeling like I ran a months long marathon. Time to recover a bit and have some space to focus on other things that need attention, there's plenty on the list.

Menu for the week:

Sunday: Smoked Ribs with Corn Pudding and Baked Beans

Monday: Paleo One Pan Italian Chicken w/ Spaghetti Squash

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: Grilled Sausages w/ Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

Tried & True Recipe: Chicken Apple Cranberry Salad with Honey-Balsamic Vinaigrette

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 12:57:00 +0000

Fall arrives in less than 6 days, but with temps still in the 80s I'm not yet ready to transition to all those warm yummy comfort foods (like soup!) that will surely start popping up on my menu in a few weeks. I love to eat salads during warm weather months, just like I love to eat soup during cold weather months. It drives my husband a little nuts, but I'm definitely one of those people with strong weather-related food associations. Warm weather is for grilling, salads, lighter fare, and food that doesn't require heating up your house for hours to cook it. Cold weather is for sooouuuppps(!), stews, comfort foods, and things that can cook away for hours heating up your kitchen before they heat up your belly.

Salad is on our menu nearly weekly during warm weather months. It's easy to throw together, versatile, everyone can top their salad to their preference, and leftovers are good. The very best salads have a variety of ingredients with different, complimentary flavors and textures. I've already shared one of my very favorite summer salads, allow me to introduce you to it's late summer/early fall counterpart: a chopped salad with chicken, apples, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and pecans, topped with sweet and tangy honey-balsamic vinaigrette. This salad is well-balanced, fall-ish, and takes advantage of seasonal produce (apples!), but is still light and refreshing.

Chicken Apple Cranberry Salad with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette
Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette inspired by Brown Eyed Baker

For the vinaigrette:

2T Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 c Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
2T Honey
1/2 T Dijon Mustard
1/4 t Salt
1/8 t Ground Black Pepper
1/8 t Garlic Powder

Combine ingredients in small mason jar or other container with a tight seal. Shake until well combined and set aside. Can be made in advance and keeps well stored in the refrigerator. Yields ~3/4 cup.

For the salad:

Romaine Lettuce (or other lettuce of choice: spring mix/spinach blend, baby kale, or rubbed kale would be good here)
Diced Grilled Chicken (we season ours with salt, pepper, and garlic powder)
Diced Granny Smith Apple (I like Granny Smith's for salad because they're firm and crunchy and have a nice tangy flavor, but whatever you prefer)
Blue Cheese (or Feta)
Craisins
Pecans (or Walnuts)

Combine ingredients to your preference and top with honey-balsamic vinaigrette. Easy peasy. Obviously, the ingredients are super flexible, that's another thing I like about salad. Switching a few things up will make a similar, but slightly different salad! Bacon would also be a good addition, because bacon is always good.

Week of September 13th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 12:45:00 +0000

This week is feeling quite fall-ish with temperatures in the 60s and much chillier overnights. I'm steadfastly clinging to the last bits of summer like I do every year and temps should be back in the 80s leading into the official start of fall.

It's not that I don't like fall, I actually appreciate living in an area with four distinct seasons, but I often appreciate it more in theory than practice. The first few weeks of fall with the sunny, crisp weather is great. Who doesn't love that? Bake up an apple crisp and watch some football (if you're not me), great, but then too soon we get into real fall weather and it's rainy and cold and gray and we won't see the sun in any reliable way for months. That's not weather I actually appreciate on a day-to-day basis. Same with winter, it's all well and good at first. Snow is fun, in theory, but then January hits and it draaaggggssss on and everything is so bleak you feel like you'll never see the sun again. I'm really much more of a warm weather person so I'm kind of sad to start down this path of cold, sad weather. It does make me appreciate spring and summer all the more though.

Friday through Sunday I was at a postpartum doula workshop. It was fun learning the postpartum side of doula work. It seems that more people are aware of what a birth doula does than what a postpartum doula can offer. Postpartum doulas are experts in the transition that happens once you add a new baby into the mix. They help assist you through that shifting dynamic whether it's your first baby, or your fourth (or more!) They help you get breastfeeding established in those early weeks and make sure that your needs are attended to while you're caring for your baby. They help you figure out how to do this whole parent thing and balance it with the rest of the areas of your life. Think back to your first baby especially, how amazing would it have been to have a knowledgeable, comforting presence sitting with you on the couch reassuring you when you wondered if breastfeeding was going ok, or standing there encouraging you as you gave baby their first bath, or throwing in a load of laundry, bringing you a nutritious snack, and refilling your cup of water while in those early days of all encompassing parenthood? Pretty awesome, right?!

When I started my journey as a birth doula I wasn't all that interested in postpartum work, but to be honest I see such a need for it that it made me interested in offering the service. I'm really looking forward to providing continuity of care that extends past birth and into the early weeks of parenthood. New parents deserve support!

Jack didn't have school on Monday, which I actually forgot. I was tiiiired from being in this training all weekend and I dragged myself out of bed first thing Monday morning. Made breakfast. Packed lunch. Pulled out the folder from his backpack to sign his weekly progress report and saw the calendar for the week that no one else had laid eyes on that said a big old NO SCHOOL on Monday. Ugh. I actually had previous knowledge that there was no school on 9/14, but at that point I didn't realize what the date was and it just wasn't something I was thinking about. So anyway, that was kind of annoying, but it was nice having him home for the day. The weather was gorg, but Mark accidentally took the carseats to work with him so we couldn't go too far. We decided just to walk to our little neighborhood park, which is such a nice thing to have. Because school was closed there were other kids to play with there and a good time was had.

I feel like this past weekend with the workshop was kind of the unofficial end to a crazy busy month to six weeks that I've had. I say unofficial because I do have kind of a busy week this week into the weekend with miscellaneous things, but next week things should slow down considerably for about a month. Looking forward to it!

Dinners for the week:

Sunday: Post-workshop pizza with friends

Monday: Skillet Eggplant Parmesan with Salad

Tuesday: Grilled Burgers w/ Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Wednesday: Salad w/ Chicken, Apples, Cranberries, Blue Cheese

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

Week of September 6th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:20:00 +0000

The holiday weekend was dominated by flooring for us. I've found it's one thing to consider replacing over 500 sq ft of flooring yourself and another to actually DO it. It's been a lot of work, but so far well worth it. Mark may not have felt the project worth it he spent most of an entire day tearing out the tile in our entryway...

Late afternoon on Friday I came home from a client visit to find that Mark had torn out most of the carpet.

Day 1

We spent the remainder of that evening prying up a million and one staples and roughly a linear mile of tack strips.*

*I might be slightly exaggerating the quantities, but it felt accurate at the time.

Once the carpet was up we were able to see that the entryway tile was laid on plywood, not directly on the subfloor so we were hopeful the tile would come up relatively easily.

Saturday was spent tearing out the entryway tile.

Day 2

It did not come up easily. The hardest part was getting it started and figuring out the best technique, but Mark really had to work to get every bit of tile off. Then the wood it was laid on needed to come up and that was a whole other project as well. One would think it would just come up, but nooooo. It was nailed down with a million* little nails. So the wood came up slowly and stubbornly as well.

*perhaps exaggerated.

I was at a birth all afternoon and evening so Mark was on his own with the tile and the kids for most of the day. Lucky him!

Sunday we still had a little more work in the entryway to contend with. Mark ripped up a few last bits of the plywood and I ripped out toooons of nails. Then we did a good sweeping and vacuumed with a shop vac to get all the debris cleaned up.

Then it was finally time to start laying the wood flooring!

Day 3

Ahhh, progress!

I wish we had more progress to show for as many hours as we spent the first day laying flooring, but the first few rows took a disproportionate amount of time. We had to figure out what we were doing and because they are installed by clicking and locking each plank into place those first few rows kept shifting around because they didn't have enough weight to stay in place. Annoying. Once we finally seemed to hit our stride we got to the little hallway over there on the left in the bottom picture and had some challenging cuts to contend with, which really slowed progress. Alas, we ended up getting maybe 1/4 of the room done.

Monday brought more progress. We jumped in bright and early and were able to really chug along.

Day 4

We had to knock off a few hours early on Day 4 because we went to my parents' house for dinner that evening, but all in all we were able to get probably 85% or so of the main flooring completed, yay!

We still have this little strip, which includes the entryway and we also have to lay flooring in the closet, which is a small space, and tackle the bathroom, which will be a project in itself because everything is going to need to come out, and flooring will need to be torn out of there before we can lay it. Eeek! Buuuut, hopefully this coming weekend will find us putting the finishing touches on our main living space! Once the floor is all laid we have to install quarter round, but we're definitely in the home stretch.

Unfortunately for Mark I'm going to be a postpartum doula training workshop all weekend so we'll see if he's able to make any progress on his own. I had grand ideas of getting some work done on my own this week, but I'm scared to use the circular saw. I wouldn't get far without an assistant so I'm going to leave it to Mark.

And now... I need to choose a rug, which is a task that's way more intimidating to me than it should be :/

Food for the week:

Sunday: Out

Monday: Parents' house for dinner

Tuesday: Paleo Sausage Veggie Bake

Wednesday: Salmon with Mango Guacamole and Garlic Green Beans

Thursday: Homemade Pizza

Friday & Saturday: Out

Week of August 30th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 14:40:00 +0000

We've had a crazy couple of weeks around here.

Jack started school on a Friday. Two days later on Sunday Molly woke up sick, Jack seemed to be okay until Tuesday night, the evening before his second day of school/first day with everyone there and promptly had to miss school. Such poor timing considering the kids are rarely sick! Luckily he was sick for about 24 hours and was able to return to school on Thursday.

First school project. #likeaboss

Last week was Jack's first full week of school and I had lactation counselor training scheduled for the whole week. With a lot of help from family, and friends, and of course Mark, the kids and house were tended to so that I could attend my training.

What a week it turned out to be as I ended up with not only a week long training, but TWO semi-unanticipated births! Babies come when babies come, but poor timing for me! One of the births was the latest (gestationally) I've attended yet as a doula, the other was the earliest I've had. They also happened at the same time. And at the same time as the training I wasn't allowed to miss. What are the chances?!?!

So I ended up missing a day of my training, and one of the births (because I'm only one person, thank goodness for having a great backup doula in these sorts of crazy situations!), and plenty of sleep, but we got it done. Because I missed a day of training I wasn't able to sit for my exam even though I totally could have passed it even having missed some class ::shakes fist:: On the bright side I will have an opportunity to make up the class and exam in October without having to travel too far so I'm looking forward to that.

Ugh, what a week!

So this week I'm playing catch up and trying to get into the groove of our new routines with Jack being in school and saying goodbye to a good friend of mine (and doula backup) who will be moving out of state and oh, it's suddenly September! WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO?! Basically my head is spinning.

I feel like things will calm down a little and I'll get a handle on our new routine soon. Hopefully. Maybe. Perhaps that will come after we install this wood flooring that's slated to happen this weekend. It's always something!

To be consumed this week:

Sunday: Ribs w/ Corn Pudding and Bacon Ranch Potato Salad

Monday: Going away party for my friend, I brought Feta Dip to share; Pizza for the fam

Tuesday: Fish Tacos

Wednesday: BLATs with Fruit

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

Week of August 16th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 15:43:00 +0000

Last week was quite a momentous week for us.

Earlier in the week we were able to fit in some play time with friends. We have been trying to make that happen as much as possible as everyone will be in school very soon and on various schedules. It will be much more challenging to get the kids together to play.

At COSI's Farm Days

Friday brought the big day, Jack's first day of Kindergarten! Jack was beyond excited!

Tuesday afternoon we went in for an open house at Jack's new school and we were able to tour his new classroom, drop off school supplies, and meet his teacher. Later, Mark asked him how the open house went and Jack said it was, "trucktastic!", which is pretty much the highest honor bestowed by Jack.

The night before his first day of school Jack was so excited he could hardly sleep, I was in tears thinking about putting my baby on a bus and sending him off to school for the day! I'm happy for him and his new adventures and proud of his enthusiasm, but it is such a shift in dynamic for me! It's quite different sending your child off to school for 2 1/2 hours at a time 2 or 3 days a week, the way we have for the last 2 years of preschool, and sending your child on a bus with a packed lunch for a full day of school!

After spending the last 5 1/2 years together it's strange not having him around for the majority of the day. It's strange thinking about other people having such a big impact on Jack's day-to-day life. It's weird not having both kids with me all day, them being able to play together, going places all together, eating together. It was pretty quiet around here on Friday. It's nice that Molly and I will get this time together, one-on-one. She's never had that the way Jack had for his first (nearly) 3 years of life before Molly came along.

AND, as evidenced by the school bus picture above, Jack talked me into his riding the bus to school. I had planned to drive him back and forth to school, but he insisted upon riding the bus. Insisted! He was sad about not being able to ride and it was the thing he was most looking forward to about school so I relinquished a little control (not easy for me!) and encouraged his independence by allowing him to ride the bus as he preferred :(

Jack had a great first day of school and is looking forward to his return on Wednesday of this week when he will begin his regular, every day school schedule. Because they do a staggered start for kindergartners he only attends one day during the first five days of school.

Shortly after Jack arrived home from his first day of school we headed out to the closing of the sale of our home. That's right, we sold our house!

I haven't talked about the fact that we were under contract/sold our house because in my mind, it's not a done deal until the final paperwork is signed. Because of that, it has been a stressful 6 weeks! (On top of a stressful 5 months, which is really when this journey began.)

We listed our house for sale by owner (stresssssful!) on a Monday leading up to the July 4th holiday weekend. We didn't get a whole lot of inquiries on it, but we did have one showing on Thursday of that week. The lack of inquiries/traffic was scary and disheartening, but we did suspect it being a holiday week had something to do with it.

Fast-forward to the following week and we had tons of inquiries on the property! We did 2 more showings and received two offers! We negotiated and signed the paperwork to accept one of the offers and officially went under contract 2 weeks after we had listed! Then we had weeks of dealing with the inspection (and more negotiating), appraisal, waiting to hear the final word on a closing date, moving the last few items that were still hanging around including our playset which takes some organization, etc. SO STRESSFUL!

On Friday afternoon, we took one final walk through, snipped a few cuttings from our hydrangea bush that I love (I'm hoping to grow some at our new house from the cuttings! I don't exactly have a green thumb so we'll see how that works out :/ ) and then went to sign the paperwork, collect our pitiful check (but hey, we actually got SOME money out of the sale, we were prepared to have to bring money to the table), and hand over our keys.

It's bittersweet. On one hand I am SO SOOOOOOO happy to be done with that chapter of our lives. The weight of this whole house buying/selling/owning more than one property was a lot to bear. Not to mention we have been preparing for this move in one way or another for yeeeeaaaaaars now. Years. There was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that went into the sale of that house and it hasn't been our home for several months now, even before our actual move, really, considering the packing and preparing that went on.

At the same time, I'm a little sad to close the book on that chapter of our lives. That was our home for nearly 9 years. When we bought that house we weren't even engaged yet. That house saw us get engaged, married, and bring home two babies. It was home.

It's also exciting to move on to a new chapter. Being on the other side of this mess makes me feel even more grateful that we made the move and put in all that work. It was worth it in the end. It still doesn't quite feel like home here, but I know that it will eventually. We have lots of work ahead of us until it will feel as much like home as our old house, but we have time (and space! So much more space!)

Closing out our eventful week (or two days, really...), Saturday we went and bought me a new car!

Say hello to mom car 2.0

The purchase was planned-ish. I've been putting off buying a new car for a while now. My old car is very clearly reaching the end of it's life and I've just been pretending that it's not because that's what I do when I don't want to deal with things until I have to. Obviously we have been trying to avoid major purchases considering the house situation. Well, some expensive repairs came up and we weren't about to sink more money into the car so it was time. We've been shopping for a few weeks (and I've been borrowing my mom's car!) and Saturday we brought this pretty Dodge Charger home to stay. Yay!

So yeah, we've had just a few things going on. I'm hoping that's the end of excitement around here for a while. I (and our poor savings account) need some time to recover and settle in with the changes we have had.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday: Grilled Hot Dogs with Sweet Corn and Watermelon

Monday: BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad

Tuesday: Grilled Chicken Fajitas

Wednesday: Caprese Panzanella Salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of August 9th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 20:28:00 +0000

We had a super busy week last week! I tried to fit in lots of fun since it was our last full week of summer vacation before school starts. Mid-week we made it to the park to play with friends.

Jack and his little friend Will have been meeting at that park for playdates since they were about 4 months old!

Friday and Saturday I attended a virtual conference with friends.

Lots of doulas in one room! It was educational and fun, but I felt like I was gone all weekend!

While I was away Mark (along with some family and friends, who made it possible) finally got our swingset moved over to the new house! Woot!

The first part of summer was SO rainy that we didn't really miss the swingset or have a good opportunity to move it. It has been nice the last 2 weeks or so, so it has been greatly missed. So happy to have it over here!

Sunday we did a lot of running around, which made Monday come up super quickly!

This week we're gearing up for back to school (acckk!). Today we went school supply shopping, tomorrow there's a meet the teacher open house, now that we actually know Jack's room/teacher assignment. Thursday there's a parent meeting for "curriculum night", whatever that is, and then Jack's first day of school will actually be Friday!

Jack is *SO* excited about his police car lunch box! I tried to talk him out of it because it's a funny shape and therefore hard to pack, but he was set on it so we'll make it work!

Our district does a staggered start for Kindergartners for the first 5 days of school so he will attend on Friday and then not again until next Wednesday when he will begin his regular schedule. He is also insistent upon riding the bus, which I'm not feeling super happy about. I was planning to take him to and from school, but he is really sticking with wanting to ride the bus so we'll see what happens :(

I am so not ready for him to be in Kindergarten, but he sure is! Ultimately, that's what matters!

It's been a really busy few weeks for me, but luckily the next 2ish weeks should be a little slower. Of course I say this while I have 500+ square feet of wood flooring waiting to be installed. It's all relative at this point!

Here's what we'll be eating this week:

Sunday: Grabbed a late dinner

Monday: BLATs with Fruit

Tuesday: Grilled Lemon Garlic Chicken with Orzo Salad with Tomatoes, Basil, and Feta

Wednesday: Grilled Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Baked Ranch Potato Wedges

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of August 2nd

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 13:55:00 +0000

Zoombezi lunch break

Last week the weather was nice (no rain! sun!), but hot, so we had some water fun. Early in the week the kids and I visited Zoombezi Bay for the first time. We went with a few friends and the kids had a BLAST! On Friday afternoon I had the unique privilege of sneaking away without kids and returning with just my friends. It was so much fun and they even got me on some water slides (Eek!)

And some at home pool fun

We're trying to soak up as much summer as possible considering it's already August (HOW?!) With school starting in a little more than a week (so soon!) and the first part of summer monopolized by moving + rain, rain, and more rain, it seems like we haven't had the opportunity to really enjoy much of summer. Now I feel pressure to maximize what's left, but that kind of pressure kind of negates the relaxed feel that summer should be all about.

Little to no progress was made on the house this week. We're to the point where most everything is unpacked, but every room still feels like it's in disarray. I don't know if it's the sporadic boxes or because not one room feels fully put together, but it's annoying because I don't know exactly how to make things feel settled. We're trying to finalize plans for flooring on the first floor right now. Maybe once that is completed things will feel a little more finished and homey.

Menu for the week:

Sunday: Grilled Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Monday: Salmon with Strawberry Avocado Salsa with Garlic Green Beans

Tuesday: Grilled Summer Vegetable Chopped Salad

Wednesday: Tostadas

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.com

Week of July 26th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 14:34:00 +0000

Phew, busy week last week!

Monday I attended an overnight birth and I spent most of the week recovering from that. I prefer overnight births, which actually happen frequently, because I'm not missed at home while everyone is sleeping. However, it takes me a while to catch up on sleep enough to get back to my always slightly tired self. 7am comes quickly when you've been up all night minus a ~2 1/2 hour catnap.

I talked the kids into watching an afternoon movie in my bed on Tuesday, hoping that maybe they would fall asleep, or at least Molly, but that didn't quite work out. I did end up being able to doze for about an hour in between being kicked and prodded, etc. Bed sharers we are not! It was better than nothing at all though!

Wednesday we met friends for some splash pad fun! It was the perfect day for it, hot, but not too hot, sunny, and not humid! I'm glad we were able to get out. It has been so rainy and I know once Jack starts kindergarten it's going to be harder for us to meet up with friends during the week as we're all going to be on different schedules.

I finished up the week with another birth on Friday, but this time it was during the day, which was nice! And it was with my first repeat clients, which was a wonderful experience.

I finished up my busy week at a workshop on Saturday where I learned how to use a TENS unit as a tool for labor. I love learning and I love being able to offer a variety of tools to my clients, excited about this!

And then it was Monday.

Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday: Grilled Brats w/ Cheesy Potatoes and Broccoli Salad

Monday: Meeting friends for dinner, Homemade Pizza for the fam

Tuesday: Walking Taco Casserole

Wednesday: Salad + Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of July 19th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 13:53:00 +0000

Last week was pretty low-key. It was actually sunny (SUNNY!) one day so we got to play at the park with friends. It has pretty much rained for the last 4-5 weeks so it was so nice to get outside in the sun and fresh air for a while!

We're making progress on selling the old house (stressssssful!) and unpacking the new (overwhellllllllming!). I'm just ready for the new house to be completely unpacked, but it's not like I have tons of time to dedicate towards that goal. I'm trying my best to be patient. Every day at least one more task gets accomplished and that means we're just a little closer to actually being unpacked.

During a stop by the old house I made sure to cut a few hydrangea blossoms from our bush because it was just sad that they're in full bloom and no one is there to enjoy it! So now we have some pretties for our kitchen table!

We'll for sure have to plant some hydrangea bushes at our new house because I love them!

On Friday I finally completed Jack's Kindergarten registration. It had been pending for a while because we were required to fill out some additional forms and provide some additional documentation to get registered under the correct, new address so that Jack can attend the correct elementary school. That's going to be happening way too soon!

I also tried to get my license and tags renewed, but after going to 2 DMVs and spending nearly an hour and a half of time I still have yet to accomplish this. Thanks state of Ohio, you always impress me with your operating practices. Big thumbs up! So... that will be a task for this week.

Sunday I baked a Blueberry Crumb Pie because it seemed like the right thing to do.

And it was. It most definitely was.

And now it's Monday, here's what we're eating this week!

Sunday: Grilled Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Monday: Sweet Corn & Zucchini Pie with Tomato Cucumber Salad

Tuesday: Mom's Night Out for me! Homemade Pizza for the rest of the fam

Wednesday: Salad + Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

Thursday: Breakfast for dinner! Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes with Bacon and Fruit

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of July 12th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 19:06:00 +0000

In the 3ish months since my last post we tackled our to-do list, started tackling a new to-do list for our new house, moved, and listed our old house for sale.

I really feel like ^that^ descriptive sentence should be much, much longer considering the amount of work, stress, and time that has occurred, but I guess that about sums it up.

This was our moving day. It rained all. day. long. until we unpacked the last box and then the rain stopped.

We're *finally* getting to the point where I feel like I can pause a moment to catch my breath just a little. Every day the utter chaos we've been living in is just a little bit more organized and I'm beginning to see just a hint of light at the end of the tunnel, which is nice because up until now I feel like I've been just stumbling around blind.

Amidst the all consuming chaos that has been this relocation event I've also had 2 small kids to care for, a household to manage, at least enough so that everyone's basic needs are tended to, and doula work, which is always a welcome respite from the household drudgery, but it is work, I don't get to do it when I feel like it or when it's convenient. I have to forget about everything else so that I can attend to my clients' needs and then come home, sometimes running on zero sleep, and pick up where I left off. Needless to say the last several weeks/months have passed by in a blur.

But we're here. We're moved in, the essentials have all been unpacked, and yesterday I tackled my last large painting project for a while (YAY! I can't convey just how sick if painting I am at this point. Since late-April I have painted every room in our old house, plus 5 rooms in the new house. All. the. painting.) I still have the upstairs hall on my list and probably the playroom as well, and eventually (down the road just a bit) all the bathrooms will need attention as well, but after the rooms I've already tackled it will be relatively easy to get those checked off the list! I've been well reminded of why people just buy turn-key homes.

With every room that I paint and every box that I unpack I remind myself over (and over, and over...) that I won't have to unpack that box, or do that project, again, at least not in the foreseeable future. Also that I'm privileged to be in this whole moving situation and that we've been working towards this goal for years now. It will all be worth it.

We also celebrated 4th of July/Mark's and my birthday!

In the midst of the chaos, just a week after moving in, Molly decided she wanted to learn how to use the potty! That's been a good/bad thing as she's caught on really quickly (day two she had the reward system figured out and was pottying with the sole intention of getting chocolate. Needless to say, we discontinued that program quickly) but it's still a learning process and she needs help going potty eleventy-hundred times per day when I'm not exactly sitting around, twiddling my thumbs and hoping that another labor-intensive project would fall in my lap. Alas, I'm thankful this task has effectively been accomplished.

For about 3 weeks surrounding our move we were living off of more take-out than I care to admit to, sandwiches, and whatever salads I could scrape together from the items in my fridge. Last week I had things unpacked enough and the time necessary to actually cook again. COOK! Real food! I'm so happy to be eating fresh, colorful food again!

My versions of Paleo Sausage and Veggie Bake (left) and Thai Carrot and Cucumber Noodle Salad (right)

My body was craving veggies and I feel so much better physically now that I'm back to normal eating habits. It was definitely an excellent reminder of how much food impacts how I feel. Plus, as of last week I'm back to my usual schedule at the gym after several weeks of sporadic attendance, and oh my did I feel the impact of that.

And I'm back to meal planning! Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday: Smoked Ribs with Corn Pudding and Green Beans (Yes! First Rib Sunday of the summer!)

Monday: Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

Tuesday: Chicken Enchilada Zucchini Boats with Corn and Black Bean Salad

Wednesday: BLATs with Fruit

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of April 19th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 19:10:00 +0000

We had a very busy weekend around here that, of course, went by in the blink of an eye.

First we made a list of all the projects that need to be completed to get our house ready to sell.

So many thiiiiings, not enough time or energy

Admitting you have a problem is the first step to getting better, right?

That list encompasses all of the things that arise while living in a 45 year old house for 8 1/2 years, with small kids, and little time, and a propensity to procrastinate on things (+ a bathroom reno that probably should have either been done years ago or not at all :/ ). *sigh* I wish we had worked harder at getting things completed this winter, but we do procrastinate and I've always done my best work while under pressure (I like to torture myself that way) so I guess we couldn't have done things any other way!

We worked allllll Saturday and unfortunately, didn't get a whole lot checked off the list. Whomp, whomp. More progress in the bathroom (sooooo close to being ready to move beyond working on the walls. I think things will start chugging here soon!) and I powerwashed all the things, scraped old paint, and repainted all the trim as well as our shed (which still needs another coat). It was pretty tough work! Lots of up and down the ladder and the wood wasn't in greeeat shape so I really had to work the paint in. But! It's done! (Or, mostly anyway. Darn shed.)

8 hours later and covered in paint. At least it was gorgeous outside so I got to soak up plenty of sun! And hey, look, you can see the bathroom wall progress behind me.

And we also got grass seed down (included in that was digging out more of the giant hole in our front yard, laying down topsoil, as well as hitting a couple of the regular patches in our backyard that need re-seeded every year thanks to poor drainage + dog running around. Grow, grass, grow (please)! We're crossing our fingers that what we've done out front will take care of the giant hole once and for all.

You know what physical labor isn't good for? Manicures.

I took the picture on the left on Saturday morning because I'm adoring Essie's Ballet Slipper right now. And then by Saturday evening my nails looked like the picture on the right. Except I actually just took that picture because it's now Monday and my nails STILL look like that. I can't get the paint to come off! :(

I digress.

Even though it feels like we will never get everything done and that progress is as slow moving as molasses, I will say that I feel a little bit better about actually checking things off the list and making some progress. Gotta keep it movin'!

Sunday I had a prenatal visit, then ran to the grocery store while Mark was at home with the kids, working on the bathroom walls, and hanging a new overhead light fixture (woohoo!), then we went to my parents' house for dinner, came home, put the kids to bed, and I folded laundry. So basically, busy the whole day and feeling like not much got accomplished. Story. of. my. life.

We're technically approved for closing on the new house, but have to fix a bit of siding that has come loose on the house before we can actually officially close (so random, but these are the things we deal with when buying a house. ::facepalm::). We really need to close by 5/1 so we're going make it happen cap'n.

In news other than The Housing Situation That's Dominating My Life, Molly is up for letting me do fun things with her hair and I'm loving it!

She's a trip. She calls braids her "Elsa braid" Love!

Off to hopefully get some more work done!

Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday: Dinner with family

Monday: Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of April 12th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 14:20:00 +0000

Let's see here...

Last weekend the boys went to a monster truck show while Molly and I attended a baby shower.

Mark and I decided to have a late dinner per usual on Saturday, but it was pushed back due to festivities. So, after Molly was in bed, and while waiting for the boys to get home, I had some quite time with my book and a Cadbury egg to tide me over til dinner.

Nothin' wrong with that.

Sunday was gorgeous! I had an interview at 10am and then hit the grocery store afterwards. I found some limes on the produce clearance rack and decided that called for Margarita Sunday.

Freshly mixed marg + beautiful day + {different} book = Sunday perfection

We have been trying to spend as much time outside as possible.

I can't even tell you how thankful I am that we can get outside to play. It feels amazing to not be stuck in the house all the time while at home and we love soaking up some vitamin D!

I'm glad that we're already moving on buying another house because this time of year, once we can get out to enjoy our backyard, I start feeling like, pscht! We don't need a bigger house, too much effort to buy/move/sell, we're fine here!

It's like I experience springtime amnesia. I'm too appreciative of our outside space and when winter rolls around I'm harshly reminded of the realities of 2 young kids trapped in a small space :/

Things are still moving on the new house. We had our second appraisal, yes second, because after the first one the appraiser ended up in the hospital before finishing the report (these are the things that happen when we try to buy a house) so we had to get a second appraiser in there to re-do things. Of course the second appraiser neglected to consider in his report that we're buying the house as-is so he has to modify a few things before everything can be finalized (these are the things that happen when we try to buy a house). ANYWAY, hopefully things will be squared away very soon and we'll have a final closing date set before too long. I'm just ready to have things squared away.

Things are moving along at a snail's pace as far as getting our house ready to sell. I'm convinced there's no way everything will get done in a reasonable amount of time (because: facts) and Mark has assured me that things will get done (because: they have to). One of us is being a little more optimistic about things than the other. We'll see who is correct (FYI, I'm rooting for Mark). I'm just trying to focus on how worth it everything will be a few months from now when we're all settled (theoretically).

To end on a happier note, Molly is a gal all about accessories:

She is too funny!

Menu for the week:

Sunday: Grilled Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Monday: Fish Tacos with Mango Slaw

Tuesday: Asparagus Carbonara (I opted for a half-carb version by adding zoodles to my portion)

Wednesday: General Tso's Chicken (Crock Pot) with Brown Rice and Broccoli

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com.

Week of April 5th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 20:43:00 +0000

We had a busy, busy weekend, but I'm glad we were able to spend our Easter visiting with both sides of our family.

Jack is on spring break this week and even though it's supposed to be fairly warm out it's going to be pretty rainy so we'll be sticking to indoor activities. We've already made a trip to Grater's to play with friends and eat ice cream and I'm trying my best to stick to my gym schedule without the assistance of Jack's school start time requiring me to get up and out of the house at an early hour.

Progress happened in the bathroom last weekend, but things are slow going as usual. We had an appraisal on our hopeful house-to-be and we're awaiting word on how that went and a final projection for our closing date. Eeek!

All this rain is turning the grass green and the daffodils are in bloom. So thankful for spring!

Menu for the week:

Sunday: Family gatherings for Easter

Monday: Sweet Chili Garlic Glazed Salmon with Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes

Tuesday: French Dip Sandwiches (Crock Pot) with Roasted Broccoli

Wednesday: Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchilada Skillet

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Week of March 29th

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 13:49:00 +0000

What a week!

First, I can't believe it's Friday already or that it's APRIL! Clearly I have completely lost concept of time.

Last weekend was pretty packed with doula work and because I was gone most of the weekend very little progress got done on the bathroom. Whomp, whomp. I'm hopeful for this weekend, but we'll see.

We have to get things finished because we're under contract on a house (!!!) {those aren't really 'excited' exclamation points, they're more 'what are we thinking' exclamation points.} I haven't even mentioned it up to this point because I was very cautiously optimistic about things working out. I'm still very cautiously optimistic, but it's becoming a little more real so... yeah. Probably time to accept that its happening! I'm not exactly excited yet. There's a mountain of crap that needs to be completed before I can get from where I am now to excited. It's going to be a crazy few months, but, theoretically, it will be worth it.

There's just SO much to do and worry about and so little time or energy to complete anything. People do this all the time right? I remember buying our first/current house as such a grand adventure. The stress of selling a house, moving, and taking care of kids really cramps the fun the second time around.

One project that DID get accomplished this week was removing the tape from around our sliding glass door. 2 1/2 redonkulous hours of scraping and scrubbing and picking off tiny bits of tape at a time all while inhaling Goo Gone fumes and generally hating my life THE TAPE IS GONE!

I'm well aware you can see nothing in this picture, it's not very impressive in real life, but with the amount of work and frustration that went into this project it seemed like it was only fair to commemorate its completion with a picture.

The most insulting part is it's not like it was a rewarding project with a satisfying outcome, there's just an absence of tape now that's no longer there to annoy me. Anyway, I'm glad that's done. On to the next fun project.

Other recent highlights:

Herself at an impromptu dinner out.

We don't take the kids to restaurants all that often, but when we do we are always so happy with how well they behave and how enjoyable it actually is. They behave so well because they love to eat so they're happy with food placed in front of them. We were there eating for close to an hour and a half as both kids finished every scrap of food on their plates.

Jack's school pictures.

Adorbs!

I've been zoodling.

Love it! Of course I'm the only one in the house who does... more zoodles for me!

And in other pretty food for the week:

Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Tacos

Love the colors.

Annnd this just made my day: DJ And Kimmy Are All Grown Up In The New ‘Full House’ Spinoff

Menu for the week:

Sunday: Out

Monday: Breakfast for dinner

Tuesday: Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Tacos with Fiesta Lime Rice

Wednesday: Grilled Brats with Cheesy Potatoes

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday & Saturday: Out