What is your passion?

Find your passion!

Pursue your passion!

I’ve been doing some thinking on my “passion” lately. It is a hot topic and gets a lot of air time these days, you know.

If we could just find that elusive passion and pursue the heck out of it… we would surely be living in rose petals, basking in success, and rolling around in feelings of fulfillment.

This somehow comes with the idea that in order for an activity to be worthy of the title “passion” it must be able to provide some rewards… whether financial gain, or notoriety, or simply for the good of mankind.

A challenging idea to contrast this thinking is the notion that we can find fulfillment and enjoyment from activities that speak to us… regardless of whether they fall into those above categories.

I enjoy writing. I can find enjoyment in the art of writing and sharing that writing no matter if it is appreciated by the masses or not. Regardless if I receive comments from the naysayers and poo poo-ers.

It goes back to my purpose for writing.  Am I writing for others or for myself? For the enjoyment and enrichment it brings to my life?

This idea is tricky to me as a Christ follower. I know that there are crucial issues in this world. Things that matter, and things that don’t. I also know that God wants us to enjoy this world He created for us to live in. He gave us our interests and talents, and it’s okay if we want to do something just for the pleasure it brings us. Even if it’s not feeding the poor or reaching the sinner.

Something else I enjoy is decorating our home… on the cheap no less. It brings me joy to make our home beautiful. Am I ever going to have a home the likes of some of my favorite home bloggers?

Negative.

Nope.

Not going to happen.

Does that mean I should stop trying? Or never share our home and my attempts to make it marvelous?

I say no.

I just finished reading a book that has brought on all these deep thoughts.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.

She is WAY OUT THERE on some things. I will readily admit that, but she is on point on this issue: Stop requiring so much out of your passions or interests. Stop expecting them to pay the bills.

What type of creativity brings you joy? Whatever it is… do it. Do it and do it some more. Just because you like it. Don’t expect it to always be awesome or that others will love it. They might hate it. It might get crickets.

But remember you are creating for yourself. Not for them. You are creating for what it gives you through the process.

And in the end, you are better for the experience.

I appreciate Gilbert’s idea that we should not accept our creative gifts to pay the bills. That expectation creates an enormous pressure which, of course, is counterproductive to creativity itself.

I am a type A perfectionist so this is contrary to my normal thinking. If you can’t be awesome at something then what is the point right? How much more enjoyable would our lives be though, if we chose to stop focusing on the outcomes and judging our efforts by their results?

The only criteria then for whether an creative endeavor is worthy of our pursuit is…

Does this bring me joy?

What do you think? Do you agree with pursing your interests even if you’re not terribly good at them?

See Part 1 and Part 2 here.

While the long vacation was nice, it unfortunately couldn’t last forever, wah!

You know the saying, “It’s not WHAT you know. It’s WHO you know?”

That once again proved true for me when someone I worked with briefly during the outage was able to get me an interview working with her group in the uptown General Office.

I was nervous driving into uptown for the interview and navigating my way around. I ended up super early and waited in the parking garage. When I got to the building, the security guard told me I was not in the right place. This was after he accidentally threw my license in the trash and insisted he had given it back to me.

I ventured to location #2 late to my interview, but better late than never.

It wasn’t long until I got the call that I got the job. Best of all… NO MORE NIGHT SHIFTS!

It has its own set of challenges, but I enjoy the flexibility of the work.  It is more of a hectic pace, with the stress of quota requirements, and I stay busy, busy, busy all day, every day.

The good news is I get to work my 40 hours in 4 days… Monday to Thursday… so I’m off Fridays, woohoo!

The bad news is my mornings are earrrrrrrrrly, and I “get” to pay to park every day, ugh.  :)

The same day I started my new job, Haylee went back at Northside, and we are so happy she was able to go back.

I love her group of friends and am so thankful that she has such a great group in her corner.

Davis couldn’t go back to Heather’s because they actually moved to DC for a year long assignment. :(  We had planned to put him in a daycare close to our house, but there was a snafu with the paperwork and there was suddenly no room! I put a plea out on facebook and am so happy that God worked all that out.

My cousin Sherri offered to watch him for us! Davis is not much a school lover, and he is happier with a more relaxed home setting. It made it so much easier on me having to leave him, knowing he was with someone I trusted.

{swiped this one from Sherri… you can see the red power ranger on his masterpiece.}

Chris is as always Super Husband and Super Dad somehow holding things together. Since I am leaving the house before 5:30 am, he is left to manage getting all three up and dressed and fed and out the door. Not an easy feat.

And another thing… he doesn’t have to leave the house until much later, but he gets up around 5:10 am to fix my coffee and smoothie for me.

Yes, he does.

Believe it or not. Isn’t that crazy?

#hesakeeper

{Speaking of my stud… this Friday we are celebrating the big 16! I thought only old people could be pushing 20 years married? How did I blink, and 16 years pass by?}

It was two years ago around March that I made this scary choice. This gulp and scary step into the unknown.

Looking around after things settled, its is amazing that I now have space. Mental space. It is shocking and astounding to my former maxed out teacher self to come home after work and feel like reading a book. A book about spiritual growth or being a better mama. As a Teacher/Mama I often {and I mean OFTEN} had what felt like NOTHING left to give at the end of the day.

I actually set a goal for 2015 to read 1-2 books a month, and I somehow actually did it! I ended the year having finished 36 non-fiction books! {Click here to get the scoop on what I’ve read.} That would have never in a zillion years have been possible as a teacher mama. N-e-v-e-r.

Teaching is an amazing profession, but I couldn’t keep up with the lethal pace anymore. I didn’t want that to be my life for the next 14 years.

I don’t know what the next few years or even the next few months hold for me and my tribe. I am open to what God might have in store {working part time sounds pretty nice to me} and hope to be ready for the challenge.

One recent Friday Davis and I were doing our weekly grocery shopping adventure. We had just finished Aldi and were back in the van ready to head to Walmart for phase 2.

I handed my food lover a surprise snack of grapes and in his excitement he turned over his mostly full bottle of water in his lap.

And stared at the water spilling out soaking him.

I reached back to turn the bottle right side up, my frustration rising up.

Immediately, Davis piped up with his trademark optimistic spin on why his choice/action wasn’t ALL THAT BAD. “Well, it’s good that…”

I cut him off and tilted my head back in my seat… “No! NOTHING’s GOOD!”

I’m not proud of it, but I was aggravated that now we would have to go home to change pants. Otherwise I would not hear the end of his pants being wet and uncomfortable. And plus… I had just overspent at Aldi and was feeling frustrated with myself for that.

He thought my outburst was hilarious and softened my ill humor with his contagious giggles.

About ten minutes later, out of nowhere he spoke up with something he had apparently been mulling over.

Davis: “SOMETHING has to be good.”

Me: laughing at how this kid always manages to amaze me “Why?”

Davis: “Well, because if nothing’s good…” He paused. “Then… Life if just BAD!!!!”

Good point, Davis. Good point.

Nothing like learning life lessons from your entertaining five year old.

He definitely has a zest for life!

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was a creative bowling style he came up and had us all cracking up.

Our Wild Wade is eight people.

If you remember, we thought we were ready for #2 when Haylee was less than two herself. We had a long wait that finally successfully ended in our second round of IUI at a fertility clinic.

Nine months later we had our Wild Wade. Looking back at these eight years I think it very well could be that God knew we were not ready for Tor-Wade-o.

Instead of having two kids under two, Wade arrived when our sweet, mature Haylee was almost five. A big difference and one that may have been the factor between mama losing her marbles or not.

He was a giant baby. Not at birth, but in his first several months of life. He didn’t roll over until about 6 months, which meant he just lay there and accumulated rolls.

It’s hard to remember those abounding rolls now when you see how skin and bones he is now!

He is our little daredevil. I have become somewhat immune to his scary antics over the years.

We can’t neglect to mention the traumatic femur break and body cast at age four.

He is a lover of all things electronic. We have time limits set in place but somehow it seems he is always on a device. He would live on them if we let him.

He is a creator and thinker…His determination and constant need to question and argue and think outside the box will serve him well in life, I’m sure.

But for now they serve as an attempt to drive his mama batty.

His experience with public school has been somewhat interesting. I’m learning that our public schools are so driven by their testing systems. Students must take periodic computerized tests to determine their reading and math levels. The computer test determines their math and reading placement. Not the educated, experienced human being that is with them all week. The computer test.

This has proved ridiculous more than once for Wade. At the beginning of 1st grade the computer test showed that Wade was below average in math and needed to be pulled out for help. The teacher questioned it to herself but still  implemented the pulling out.

The special teacher brought him back and said that Wade knew all this stuff. He didn’t need to be pulled out.

DUH! The teacher told us that the results didn’t coincide with what SHE was seeing from Wade but yet on she went placing him in a category he very well could have been stuck with for years.

The beginning of this year proved challenging with his reading placement. The computer test gives him a Letter rating that matches up to a system they have showing where they should be.

Wade was reading L & M books (small chapter books such as Magic Tree House, Junie B. Jones, etc) at Christmas during first grade, but the computer test in second grade showed that he was at an F level. What?? The teacher once again strictly went by what the computer told her. He was only allowed to read F level books for reading time during class which could be as long as 45 minutes or longer.

She actually told us that she didn’t think he was really at that level, but based on things the test pointed out she didn’t feel comfortable letting him move on.

At the same conference where she’s explaining this she hands over testing forms and tells us that Wade has scored in the 99th percentile on a non-computer ability test. This has placed him in TD (talent development) classes which later turned out to be Wade actually moving from his class to a 1st/2nd grade combo class full of only TD kids.

So let’s review… 1st grade we’re told he is remedial in math which quickly changed to oh wait, no, he’s not.

Beginning of 2nd grade we’re told he is behind in reading and is forced to read books at a lower level even though the teacher plainly said she didn’t think he was truly at that level.

Same meeting in 2nd grade we’re told he’s at 99th percentile for 2nd graders and she’s so proud of him.

Uh…. how does this reconcile?

He is now in a different class and his last reading test, he tested at L level. Thankfully, his new teacher reassured me that regardless of the test results he would never be forced to go back and read F level. She explained that she usually lets her students read at a letter or two higher than where they test because she recognizes that there is a discrepancy there.

His new teacher is amazing… she’s very low key and laid back. Loosey Goosey and Go with the Flow. Even though that is not my preferred style it really works for Wade. She doesn’t seem to mind his constant inability to remember to bring home his planner.

Wade forgot his valentines the day of his party and when Davis and I brought them to his classroom, we managed to get stuck in a Lockdown drill. She was cool as a cucumber even though teachers were literally in the hallway yelling, “I’VE GOT CASEY!” (Not kidding)

The bad thing about getting a great teacher is the dread and hope of what you’ll get next year!

I was shocked to see a fraction paper that he brought home recently. I had to send it to my mom and to another teacher friend because I was amazed they were already doing fractions. Adding them and being able to change from improper fraction to mixed number too seems crazy for 2nd grade!

As of yesterday our scholar got glasses!

No, not those kind, ha!

This kind! The kind that will hopefully help him be able to actually SEE this world he’s living in. Apparently when you’re in 2nd grade in our family, you get glasses.

I got mine in 2nd grade, and so did Haylee. His are converse with reversible rubber covers on the arms and obviously WAY cooler than mine ever were!

We are hoping they can last at least a few months with the Tor-Wade-o.

We are thankful for our Wild Wade’s eight years and wonder what the next eight will hold for us?!

Happy Birthday, Wade!

That’s definitely what made planning anything so difficult and complicated.

Thankfully, the job did pan out, and I started a temporary contract position in July, 2014 working for Duke Energy at a nuclear plant doing administrative work for their outage. Yes, I said nuclear… as in scary world ending nuclear.

Nuclear Lingo Lesson for the day… An outage {at least this is my interpretation of it anyway} is a planned event at a nuclear plant where they bring the unit(s) off line for a period of time to do maintenance or repair. Because of the amount of money they “lose” for each day a unit is off line, every effort is made to get the work done as quickly as possible. That means hiring extra staff AND working ’round the clock a gazillion hours a week. {It has absolutely nothing to do with the power outages that occur during bad weather.}

Going nuclear was quite interesting. They {thank goodness… it IS nuclear after all} preach safety left and right. I mean… I know it’s good AND necessary, but it was an adjustment as a grown, capable woman having to constantly be reminded to look around for potential hazards. Don’t leave your purse on the floor. {I was actually told specifically by someone during my training in another location that was far, far away from an actual nuclear power plant, to pick up my tote bag and put it up on a chair because it was a trip hazard.} Push your chair in after the meeting so no one trips on it. Check the phone before each meeting to be sure it works in case we have an emergency and need to evacuate. Never ever walk while texting or looking at your phone.

{This is me during my radiation training. Thankfully, I never had to even come close to putting one of these babies on post training.}

Another adjustment was the pace. It was nothing like teaching. Lots and lots of sitting and waiting between tasks. Lots. And did I mention Lots?

We were also very discouraged to hear that once the outage started I would be assigned to night shift. My hours were set starting at 5:30 pm to 6:00 am. SIX days a week. from mid September to the end of October.

Night Shift was horrid and awful and every other negative word I could possibly think of.

I actually managed okay with the staying awake all night part. It was the being cut off from the rest of the family and all of civilization that was so very hard.

Davis’s birthday fell just one week or so after I started night shift.

Like a true gem, Heather actually took Davis to Monkey Joe’s for his birthday. Did my mama heart good when I knew I wouldn’t get to do much to make his day special.

Here’s just a glimpse of the craziness of the schedule.

We were ships passing in the night.

6:30 am… I get home from work

7:00 am… Chris leaves to take Haylee to carpool and Davis to Heather’s. I wait with Wade for his bus which comes anywhere between 7:20 and 7:30 am.  Once Wade leaves, I go to bed in our empty house… with earplugs and eye mask on and tin foil on the windows to block the sunlight. Not kidding. Tin foil for real.

2 pm… I wake up, get ready, and drive to Heather’s to pick up Davis… then come back home in time for Wade to get off the school bus at 3:30 pm.

4:15 pm… Haylee is dropped off by carpool.

4:30 pm… Chris gets home.

4:45 pm… I leave for work.

It was crazy hard doing that night after night.

At the beginning I only saw Chris about 45 min each day. Thirty minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon.

One night the boys and I texted air hugs to each other at bed time.

Is that pitiful or what?

Eventually I started going in later and leaving earlier which did help… but because of the bus stop I couldn’t just go straight to bed and stay there, wah.

Contrary to how it felt at the time, it did finally end, and we survived.

Looking back, even though it was hard, I am grateful for the experience because it got me out of where I was, and it got me where I am now. :)

After the nightmare outage ended, I had time to be recover and just be home. November and December were glorious at home chilling with the Davis Man. While I enjoyed it tremendously, I needed to find a job, but was having little success.

Stay tuned… :)

I know.

I’ve been through a lot of life stages with this blog o’ mine in the past 8+ years.

I don’t know if I can pinpoint one specific thing that has pushed blogging to the back burner. It seems that it was a collection of things… primarily the STRESS that is TEACHING combined with being wife as well as mom of 3 wild ones.

Part of the reason I think was the issue of the haters. I was reluctant to put myself out there blogging again and open myself up to the negativity. I was over it.

Blogging is a funny thing. You as the blogger open yourself up constantly sharing your thoughts, opinions, feelings, and even your failures. Talk about vulnerability. The problem is… unlike a typical off line relationship, that vulnerability isn’t always reciprocated. Instead others can constantly draw from your vulnerable moments and use them as weapons against you.

I recently had a moment of truth where I realized I was letting the haters win. They were getting to dictate my life. My lack of blogging. Something I enjoyed.

‘Haters gonna hate’ as Taylor would say, and I decided I didn’t want them to determine what I do.

So here I am. Blogging again.

Side Note: I actually started this post March of 2015 but left it in the draft folder. I guess I still was hanging onto the idea that maybe it was smarter to just keep things to myself and not risk the sharing.

I recently read two books by Brene Brown that did a lot to open my eyes about this issue… Daring Greatly and Rising Strong. I am trying to remind myself that being willing to open up and be vulnerable leads to wholehearted living, and that’s the kind of life I want to be living.

So here I am… editing and updating and hopefully finally publishing this post.

As many of you may know, two years ago I had a early mid life crisis and became a quitter.

I said good bye to the overwhelming life of Teacher/Mama.

I could go on for pages on my teaching dilemma/mid life crisis, but I’m sure it would be things you have all heard before.

Suffice it to say, if you have little cherubs in school… please take it from me. Give your poor teacher a break already. Don’t complain about the small stuff he or she does that bothers you. Remember that they are working harder than imaginable for way less money than is believable. No one is perfect, and the occasional unfair situation to your precious angel will be good for their character anyway. So stop complaining. Go out of your way to show your appreciation.

Walking away was not easy. It meant gobs and gobs of unknowns. Unknowns about what in the world I was going to do. Where would I work. Where the kids would go to school. Who would watch Davis. How would we be able to manage the drop offs and pick ups for all three etc, etc, etc.

Despite all the fears and the mountain of unknowns that are like cryptonite to this mama, I gulped and took that skeery first step into a new path for me… and our family.

I was serious. I sold almost ALL of my teaching supplies at a yard sale. I kept one bin.

After two years away, I can’t say for sure that I will NEVER go back. The time away has made me forget some of the trauma, I think.

Our hope was to keep Haylee and Wade at Northside, but without my job settled we didn’t see how that was going to work.

After a friend of mine applied and quickly got her son into a nearby charter school in May, I decided to see if Haylee could get in… and she did! We were able to join up with a carpool and only had to do 2 shifts a week doing drop off or pick up of a van full of kiddos.

We enrolled Wade in our local community school just down the road, and thankfully our friend, Heather, who lived near us was willing to watch Davis.

This was a big deal since NONE of my three kids had ever been anywhere but Christian school where I was right there on campus teaching. Now we were at two different brand new public/charter schools where I knew NONE of the teachers and staff. Talk about culture shock.

We were initiated rather harshly to this brand new world on Wade’s very first day of school. This was his very FIRST time riding a bus to and from school and we were a bit concerned that our never-paying-attention-to-anything-Wade would be able to handle this. I mean as as a 6 year old it’s not like he looked out the window and paid attention to landmarks and street names.

Heather had agreed to meet the school bus at 3:30 to pick him up, but I got a text from her saying that she was still waiting for Wade. It was around 3:50 at that point.

I was on the brink of hysteria for the next 20 to 30 minutes as we all were trying to find that silly boy. I called the school repeatedly and could NOT get through.

Once we finally got through we realized that he had told his teacher he was a car rider so he was blissfully sitting in the office waiting on someone to come get him. At this point he had been missing FIFTY minutes!

When I had told him beforehand that Heather would be picking him up from the bus stop, there ensued a discussion about whether she would be in a car or a van. So in his mind, he would be riding in a car “at the end” so that’s what he told his teacher! She took his word for it even though I had filled out “bus rider” on the paperwork. Aghhh!

The next day wasn’t much better despite us grilling him about getting on the bus. He didn’t get off at his stop! He said he saw Heather’s van but he just thought she was out driving around! Ahh! That boy!

He has since managed to master bus riding, though we did have a spell there where he was bartering for random things AND cash while on the bus. He rolled in one day with a $5 bill! He sold a bag of microwave popcorn he had won from the teacher! Another day he sold a picture he drew for a dollar. And one day he traded something from his lunch for a pedometer. That afternoon he transformed into the Tasmanian Devil zipping through the house while periodically checking his pedometer to measure his progress.

Whew! If you finished reading to the end you deserve a prize!

Stay tuned to discover the details of my work saga… I landed in a strange new world vastly different that my teaching world.

I hope to share more soon!

XO,

I am back today to share some happy windows with you!

We have been in our new place about 7 months now with curtains only in the living room.

And that is only because that room had giant windows with NO blinds.

Seven months later we now have prettily dressed windows in 98% of the house!

3 days and 3 trips to Ikea later, our long weekend gave us the time to get it done. We had actually already bought some of the curtains and rods months ago, but Ikea was out of some of the size rod we needed… which meant… project = stalled. Boo hoo.

We live so, so, very close to Ikea, but it is like that dreaded feeling when you know you have to run into Walmart… times 100. It seriously sucks hours of your life away before you know what has even happened.

I am so happy with the difference some nice curtains make! It’s amazing!

First, I have to remind you again of the CRAZY way our curtains were hung in this house when we moved in. Hint… it involves a 2×4 and velcro.

I have never heard of such a thing, but 98% of the rooms had 2×4’s nailed in above the windows with velcro stapled to it. Theeeeeen, the curtains had velcro all sewn into them and were slapped up on the 2×4’s.

Can we say that you might be a redneck if your curtains are velcroed on?

What made this so bad was that not only did we have to go through the pain of removing all the screwed up 2×4’s, but that also meant that not only did we have to invest in new curtains, but also in new rods and hardware for each and every stinking window!

All of that stuff is so expensive, lemme tell you.

I am so thankful that we have Ikea as a quick option even though it is soul sucking. They have the cheapest hardware and curtains that I have found anywhere! And we are talking 98″ curtains!

Are you ready for the before and afters?

The Living Room before had custom made curtains with a matching shade for the back door.

See the 2×4? And the velcro?

I was not a fan of these curtains and wanted to have a more symmetrical look with curtains on both sides of the fireplace.

These curtains were made out of drop cloths!  :) I, of course, read about this in blogland. It is the best because it is cheap and requires NO sewing!

Strange as it seems, yes, we do have curtains on our back door. We just slide it over to use the door.

Ummmm, should I mention before someone else does that you might be a redneck if you have dropcloth curtains that cover your back door?  Ha!

The kitchen before had velcroed valances {all before pics below are the real estate pics from previous owners} and I really wanted some long flowing curtains.

These panels are called Ferle at Ikea and are only $15 for TWO 98″ panels. Even with the curtain rod at the ceiling, the 98″ was too long for the room, but it was an easy fix with some curtain clips.

I just folded over the curtains at the top and clipped them over that fold, and voila! Custom length curtains with nothing painful like sewing. :)

For the window by the sink, I cut off the appropriate length at the top, folded over a few inches as the “hem” and clipped on the rings. That left the bottom part hemmed and beautimous.

The bay window was a pain, but Ikea sells a connector piece for about $5 or so where you can put the three rods together. This a pretty nice alternative to the extremely pricey bay window curtain rods out there.

The dining room was another bay window, ack! Here is the before…

And our after…

These curtains are called Vivan and are only $10 for TWO panels, 98″ long! That is $5 a panel. CAH-RAZY compared to even Target and Walmart.

That rug was a Christmas gift, and the hope chest was a redo we did this summer. Maybe one day I’ll get around to sharing it, because you would NOT believe the transformation. It looked ready for the trash heap before.  :)

Now we move upstairs!

This was the boys’ room before….

We actually redid the boys’ room over Christmas on a cheap Ikea budget and it turned out so cute. For their room, I bought Ikea fabric for around $24, cut it down the middle and hung it with curtain clips. I still have to go back and “hem” it with the hemming tape. {One day, I’ll learn to sew… I hope!}

This is Haylee’s before… These curtains {and hardware} did not stay with the house.

I picked out the Ingerlise curtains for Haylee’s room and she loved them thankfully! They were $25 for two 98″ panels which isn’t too bad. I was going to do the fabric route for her too, but when I was looking at these, I figured it would be about the same price and I wouldn’t have to do the cutting and hemming. Sounds good to me!

She loves them, and it really pulls the room together.

Here is the playroom before… This is Davis in the picture, but this is the previous owner’s stuff. This was the day that we all came to the house for the inspection.  :)

I picked out these curtains for the playroom and love how bold and crazy they are! They really are a “wow” factor, and I think work for a fun playroom!

Aren’t they crazy and cool?  :)

Here is the Master Bedroom before… Those curtains and hardware did not stay.

These turquoise curtains were also only $10 for two panels! {I can’t get over the cheapness. Can you tell?} I can’t find the link online to the turquoise color, but they are also called Vivan like the Dining Room curtains.

Sorry about the “cheat shot.” Only this part of room was photograph ready.  :)

This was a L-O-T of work! So much so that Monday night of our long weekend, Chris joked that he was ready to go back to work so he could get a break!

What a difference curtains make in a house! Especially the NON-velcro version.

Any other Ikea lover/haters out there like me? Love the cheapness, hate the Ikea madness? Can you believe we finally have curtains???

The toys in our house have.a.PLACE.

One of the things we love about our new house is the bonus room, aka… playroom!

Previously in our cozy 2 bedroom house, all the toys had to find a place inside the one bedroom that all three kids shared, which also happened to house hubby’s closet.

There was hardly a few square feet of open space in their bedroom so leaving toys out was never doable… unless you wanted to break your neck and land up with one foot under the bunk bed and other in their wardrobe.

As with every room in the new house, we are sloooowly transforming it bit by affordable bit.

One of the very FIRST things I redid when we moved was the toy box. I can’t remember exactly, but I think it was the night we moved in that I went out to the garage and painted that baby up. I think it was midnight maybe.

My thinking was that the sooner I got it painted the sooner that we could get in up in the playroom and all the toys in there and put away!

When we got this toy box ages ago, it was given to us and was white with sponge painted flowers. Chris painted it white and it served us well.

I decided that in the playroom, it would be cool to do a nice, bright color.

I really, really love how it turned out!

We also found a TV stand/storage unit at Goodwill for cheap that gives some extra places to store things.

I snagged that pop up basketball goal for around $2 at Goodwill, as well! Never in a million years would we have been able to have that at the old house. Would not have happened.

That door there beside the basketball goal is the office, and off the office is our small attic closet.

Wade is completely obsessed with coloring these days. Like, completely obsessed. I made this little art nook in the corner where he sits and sits and actually colors quietly.

I know. We are as shocked as you are.

He began amassing quite the stockpile of precious creations he just had to have plastered on his wall. I wasn’t really feeling that, so my solution was to tack up some string and clothespins and voila. A fabulous art gallery.

Wade thinks this is the bomb. I have tried to train him that when he wants to put up a new picture, then he has to pick one to take down. We’ll see.

The other section I love in here is the dress up corner. We had this portable clothing stand and we weren’t sure what to do with it. I had the idea one day to use it for their dress up costumes.

Wade and Davis absolutely LOVE dressing up and we have quite the assortment of dress up gear. This isn’t the greatest system because it usually looks like a hot mess of costumes strewn everywhere.

RARELY do they hung back up on the hangers. My latest idea is two rows of coat hooks where they can just hang ’em up really quickly on a hook as opposed to having to actually grab a hanger.

I’m hoping that it will make it easier to actually keep it straightened up.  :) I can dream, okay?

I also have a playroom subway print I’m working on that may go right above that.

This room is definitely well loved by the crazy ones and grown ups alike.

What do you think? Any ideas for me? I am definitely not accustomed to enjoying such a room!

 Poppyseed Chicken

Broiled Parmesan Tilapia

 image via Things we Heart

{image via Aldi Reviews}

Pizza with Nana & Pop!

What are you eating this week? We haven’t had the Broiled Tilapia in ages, so I am excited to feast on that this week! I plan to steal some chicken from Sunday’s lunch to use for the Poppyseed Chicken instead of using canned chicken.

Can you believe it’s November? Just a few weeks to Thanksgiving and then the next few weeks to Christmas will fly by!!

Chicken Noodle Casserole via Blogchef

image via Things we Heart

 Vegetable Soup via Poor Amy

{image via Aldi Reviews}

Take & Bake Pizza from Aldi’s

What are you eating this week? To save money this week, I took a leftover chicken breast from our Sunday lunch to use for Monday and Thursday’s dinner! I will just shred it and split it evenly between them. Saves me money and TIME!

We are unexpectedly out of school today due to a power outage! Isn’t that crazy? I am thinking we might just stay in our pj’s all.day.long. I have made a list of things to tackle and I am so excited for a chance to do those things that I keep meaning to do, but never have time!

One I’m most happy about is cleaning out our little attic closet. It’s teeny tiny compared to our mammoth attic at our old house, and I have things stuffed in there oddly and nothing is easily accessible or really organized! It’s basically UNorganized chaos.

Wish me luck!