Pardon Our Mess...

Monday night is when we take the kids to my mom and dad's and then we go out for grocery shopping/date time.  Monday night we went to a little local burger joint on the river.  We sat outside, had our meal and a beer, then went on our way.  It seemed so peaceful.  We then went to Target.  We had heard during the drive there about some rain coming.  No biggie it seemed.  When we were in Target we could hear the thunder and the rain and it did seem to be raining pretty hard but by the time we got out (I got some killer clearance curtains by the way!) it was barely drizzling.  We went to get the kiddos at my parents house.  As it turned out my parents had had a power surge and the fire department was checking it out as a precaution.  

If only that had been the only excitement that night...

A couple blocks from our house I noticed it seemed awfully dark.  Then we came to an intersection where the light wasn't working so we knew there was no power.  When we came to turn on our street police tape stopped us.  

Uh-oh.  

It was terrifying knowing something had gone on but it was so dark we couldn't see what it was.  All we could really do was pray.   In the morning this is what we saw.  You'll forgive me if some of these pictures are hard to make out...

Here's a tree lying over our street.  Squashed two cars.  Our neighbors house is on the right hand side of the picture.  The tree was 4 feet from his windows.  

 There's a squashed Mercedes in there somewhere...

 Here's my 6 foot 4 inch husband next to the root system of the upheaved tree.  He's not yelling by the way :)

 This branch is lying on our roof which you can partially see in the right corner.  The power lines look all helter skelter because the branch basically scooped them up in two different places and twisted them all around.

Here's our tree in the back of the house snapped in half.  Yikes.  

 We don't know the progression but we think our tree snapped this electric pole in half.  When our tree came down it grabbed up everyone's wires and then ripped everyone's meter boxes off of their houses.  Just lovely.

We live in a Nationally Registered Historic district which means everything is really old and really close together.  Our block is a triangle block where all of our backyards touch.  To have these huge trees come down and have no one hurt is just amazing to me.  God's hand was definitely on our house.  Nick was just shaking his head saying the tree behind our house defied gravity and defied physics by not falling into our house.  But that's how God rolls.

All of this happened Monday and it is now Sunday.  We were without power until Thursday when it came back on (thank the Lord!).  We still have some huge chunks of wood to get rid of but other than that we are business as usual here.

Now I just have piles of laundry to catch up on.  I'll take that any day though :)

Hope you all survived the storms safely!  God is good, all of the time!

This past week...

This past week we didn't have anything really planned but somehow all of our days were suddenly taken up with being busy.  Busy, busy, busy to be exact!  

We are in the thick of things with T-ball and I will not be shy telling you that I CANNOT wait until it is over.  Thankfully we have one more week and then we are done!  Praise the Lord we have made it! Both of the children are on the same team with my hottie of a husband as their coach.  So when I say we are doing t-ball, we are DOING t-ball.  Something fierce :) 

 Here's Emma in her infamous dress jersey!  I promise the girlie is wearing shorts :)

  I don't know what it is and it's fine if  you think I'm nuts, but there is something really sexy about watching your husband as a coach.  It's that fathering thing but with other people's kids.  Very handsome :)

 Poor Nick.  One of the only kids he has trouble with is his own.  It's hard for him I know but I'm also glad he's there to give him direction.  This is how the two of them look most of the time on the field...

 Emma is really starting to enjoy the game and has been busy practicing her skills.

And in other news we started painting the house.  By we I mean Nick.  Do you think he planned to wear underpants that match the new paint?  Ooh,lalala!

I love the paint color and we've had neighbors tell us they like it too, which we are so glad about!  Last year the neighbors behind us painted their house a color that can only be compared to the color of dried vomit.  And while I've somewhat gotten used to it, still It's just gross.  We didn't want our color to be to the likeness of that for people :)

You'll have to forgive me for not writing often.  It's summer and a lot of time we are away from the computer trying to get ourselves into trouble!  We are still doing school (supposedly) which is really hard when all you want to do is be on summer break.  Still, we are persevering and trying to finish up.

Hope you all had a great week this past week!  Can't wait to see what fun things this week has in store for us!

Buried Treasure

This is my coffee station in our kitchen.  Before this I had a janky microwave stand that we had gotten from a garage sale.  All it was was a stand with a shelf below on wheels.  All of our business was out in the open and it got real wobbly, real fast.

One day I went downstairs and spotted this little beauty hidden under the basement stairs.  I asked Nick to drag it out.  It was hideous, dirty, and covered with just, ew, gag me, grossness.  We measured, figured out it would work in the spot where the "lovely" microwave stand was and ta-da, we have a coffee station.  It took a lot of scrubbing and painting and just tidiness to get it to where it is today.

I love it!  The big drawer hold all of my bags and canisters of coffee, the upper small drawer holds my coffee filters, scoops, and sweeteners.  The lower small drawer holds the dog's canned food.  The cupboard holds the dog food container and onions and potatoes.  It works perfectly!

Anywho,  fast forward to the past two years of life.  I've always wondered about the top of this table.  I figured it must have had something, but Nick assured me it was probably long gone.  Nick had this upside down cabinet shoved in the back of the basement that held paint and other crap.  I asked SEVERAL times if that was something worth while and he always said no.

And that brings us to last week.  I guess I should explain to you that I do not go into the basement because it is dark and scary and horrid.  Well not as horrid as it could be, but it is Nick's space with tools and everything.  Besides it is a Michigan basement, which for you non-basement or old house people, means that our basement is brick/cement part of the way and the rest is "why hello dirt".  Yep, just opened up to the dirt under our house.  So now ya know...if Nick goes missing, start digging :)

In our basement is also the original "dorothy of wizard of oz" storm cellar stairs, which would have led outside.  They now lead to the underside of our solarium's floor (an addition) and do a great job of holding paint cans.  Nick got the idea that we could find another place for my paint can obsession and make that into a root type cellar for overflow of paper towels, and potatoes, and the such.  How handy this will be!

While he was moving things around, he went to this nook area of our basement behind that furnace.  This is the part that meets dirt so we really just don't go back there.  We've lived in our house for close to 8 years and we've peeked into that area once. ONCE.  Not joking.

So Nick decided that would be a great place for shelves for said paint cans, but first all of the junk back there would have to be moved.  Junk that came with the house.  Junk that wasn't ours, but is now.  I guess it's been our junk for 8 years but I digress....

While he was back there he found a lot of really cool stuff!  I'll have to post what he found...I need ideas for what to do with some of the stuff and I would love to year y'all's opinions and ideas.

So Nick was cleaning and he called me down to show me what he had found.  He showed me the near cleared out space and we had to pass by this upside down cabinet that caught my eye...

I looked at it and then passed by it again and REALLY looked at it.  It looked like a hutch for my coffee station flipped upside down.  I looked closer.  The latch was the same...the wood was the same...the hinges were my last straw...

they were the same!!!



I made Nick drag it out of the dark nasty corner to check it out and ...

ta-da!

It's the top of my coffee station area.   Based on research I've found it's from Coppes Kitchens in Nappanee, Indiana.  I need to do some research (and some scrubbing and cleaning and painting on this nasty thing) but I am so excited!  I am such a nerd, I know, but I thought this was neat that it was hiding in our house this whole time.  Very vintage...lead paint and all, oh joy!

I'll post pictures of it was we progress.  I'm so excited!!!

Kitchen Sink Eye Candy

As a mother and wife, I don't think there's any place in the home that we look at more than what's at the Kitchen sink.  We are constantly beguiled by dishes, filling cups, rinsing crap out of things (well, hopefully not literally!).  Then there is always the deboning something, the chopping, scrubbing, disinfecting, thawing, draining, and soaking things.   And as much as I just love gazing at the neighbors house through the window above my sink, I decided to go ahead and jazz up the wall next to the sink a bit.  

 I love this poem.  Mom's often need a little reminder while in the trenches...this is but a fleeting moment in time and soon our babies will be grown.

How do we get this to stop???  Anyone?

While I could not for the life of me find where I got this printable online (sorry!), I did find a similar free printable here at The DIY Mommy.    You should totally check out her blog as it is just up my alley and awesome.

 Here's a view of what's there now.  By the way, I can see that a couple of the frames are crooked...thank you Captain Obvious.  :)   Just wanted to show you how we do real-life around here.

This area is a work in progress.  Each time I find something I love or a picture which brings me such joy I spray paint a frame and find a little spot for it.

 I have to say that my hot husband kissing his little lady is one of my fave sites of all times.  My family just melts my heart.

 This is a watercolor of one of my favorite places on Earth, the Muddy Boots Cafe located in Nashville, Indiana.  If you are anywhere near the Midwest you need to go visit.  Visit now.  Visit often.  Just visit.  Sit and watch the way the sunlight flits through their wavy glass windows.  Just do it.  Go now.  I'll wait here...

 I had to hack away at a wedding photo to make this print but I just love it.  Another random thing I saw online somewhere.  So lucky this man is mine.

On a side note, my husband of nearly ten years opened up to me for the first time the other night and told me about when he decided he was going to propose to me.  It was so incredibly sweet.

Below all of my frames is my Scentsy, one of the favorite gifts I've ever received.  I use it all of the time.  I love how it so quickly transforms the tone of the house and it is so easy to change scents.  When I was using candles solely I always felt compelled to burn the whole stinkin' thing before changing candles.  But not anymore!  Love it!

So that was a view of what I look at every day by the kitchen sink...what do you have to enjoy as sink eye candy?

Summer Fest

Today was our neighborhood's summer party.  Every summer the neighborhood comes together in front of our house; we roast hot dogs, have water balloon fights, and just get reaquainted all over again. 

 

I love our neighborhood...have I mentioned to ya before? 

 

It has it's faults.  Granted.  But here are some things I love...

 

 

 

Brick lined streets!  Yes we live on a street that is still paved with bricks and I absolutely adore that!  This is Emma devouring a piece of cake that the neighbor across the street made.  Yum!

 

 

 

 

 Cal liked it too!  In case you hadn't figured that out ;)

 Here's the cake that is being devoured in the previous pictures which brings me to something else that I love...the lady that lives right across the street, her name is Diana, and she makes the most phenomenal cakes!  I love that !  Frequently she'll send over samples to try.  Her husband works with Nick and they keep an eye on our house and the kiddos.  Love the neighborly feeling around here.

 I love that Emma's about to deck Cal with a water balloon.  I love it's a neighborhood where our kids can just be themselves and have fun. 

 Cal being crazy.  All of the kids seem pretty used to it.  There's no pretext or need to explain the kid to everyone...we all have our own Calvin's in our family's and it's cool.  I have to say, I love Emma's little smirk in this picture!

 Big mature trees and old houses...what is not to love!  In this picture they told the kids to "pick out a partner" so that's what Emma did!

 Calvin decided to grace us with his presence as Spiderman.  Love it!

 You never know when a good old fashioned sword fight is going to break out!

 Our neighbor's being, well, neighborly!   I love it!

 I threw Nick in the mix by volunteering him to grille.  He grunted and grumbled but once we got there I think he really enjoyed himself!

 The water balloon committee hard at work!

And we had Spiderman so for our next act...Darth Vader!  I think he had to be in costume to play with the big boys.

All in all we love our neighborhood and these events remind us why we are where we are.  We really are enjoying ourselves!

Welcoming Monday with a Smile

Whew!  What an incredibly busy weekend we had!  I feel like I need a weekend to get over the weekend...do you ever feel like that too?

Our weekend was wonderful albeit not completely what we had hoped for. 

Friday we went to our produce co-op, visited the library, and went to a Children's Museum that we are members at. The kids love playing there so it is a nice way to just set them loose to have some fun.  We also were able to get some banking done.  By banking I mean, we are finally opening the kids college funds (which I swear I thought we did ages ago!), and visited with our travel agent regarding our Disney Trip!!!!  Nick was also able to pick up his car FINALLY!  Praise the Lord I am so happy that we get to be a two-car family.  If it turned out that we had to be a one-car family I was going to try to bear it with grace, but oh-my-goodness I am so happy we don't have to do that!  When we got home I was making split-pea soup with ham and COMPLETELY burnt the thing.  We are still unsure what in the world I did to it.  Poor little soup.  It wasn't just kind of burnt it was burnt.  I'm talking we had to get out of the house, people were gagging, kind of burnt.  Luckily Nick's parents had invited us to a fish fry which we had previously turned down, so we called them and accepted the offer.  When we got home we watched the very first Scooby Doo cartoons on a movie we got from the library.  "Like, yikes!"  the kids loved them!  Cal has begged to watch them again since. 

Saturday was my Mom's Birthday!  She had plans so we didn't get to see her but we called and all did the yelling and screaming into the phone!  It was fun.  After that we went out and did some shopping.  I love shopping with the kiddos.  They are so fun. When we got home we had our yard day although it was a lot colder than we had planned.  Nick and I did get out potting shed completely cleared out.  I am ashamed to have to admit that that was the first time we've done that since we bought the house.  There was a lot of "what in the world is that???" asking about items we found.  We also found things like car jacks and things that we apparently inherited with the house that Nick will be able to use.  We were able to get it organized enough that we now have room to store more things more efficiently.  Score!  On top of the organization we got a lot of brush picked up and got the patio swept and ready to use!  It was so lovely to be able to go outside and say hello to the outside again! As you can see from the picture above we said "hello" to a new Easter Bunny when we got out our Spring/Easter bin to start decorating.  The kids love decorating!  Emma loves going through everything so carefully, exclaiming how everything is a treasure.  She is our treasure, that one.  And Cal makes a cute Easter Bunny. 

Sunday we were going to go to the Art Museum but decided against it.  With gas and eating we were going to be paying about $300.00 to be at an art museum for about three hours.  We decided it was an investment that we didn't need to make right now.  With the time change we woke up too late to go to church, so we decided to paint.  Ta-da!  Here is our dining room.  I am so impressed with Nick.  He tackled the painting and got two coats on and the room put back together in a day.  Wowwie!  The Dining Room was the last room downstairs that was this ugly yellowy-cream color that all of the rooms were when we moved in. 

We chose the blue because it matches my China Pattern...isn't it beautiful?

It also matches my every day dishes that we got as a wedding gift from Nick's parents.  Aren't they just as sweet as can be?  The pattern is "Melissa" by Pfaltzgraff. 

After painting all day Nick was tired.  Although I didn't paing, I was able to get a TON of deep cleaning done which was nice. 

And that was our weekend.  It feels like it was longer than it really was.  And you should know that we count Fridays as a weekend because for the most part we don't homeschool on Fridays.  Emma has Girl Scouts every other Friday so when she had it, it was really messing up our homeschooling.  So I made the lengths that we do everything longer so we can get the same amount of school done in four days instead of five.  When she doesn't have Girl Scouts it just means we have a day that we don't have to do anything, which is a lot of fun! 

I hope ya'll had a great weekend as well.  Have a wonderful Monday!

A Tour of Our Autumn Loveliness

Thank you readers for keeping me accountable and on track with the whole idea of decorating.  Yesterday afternoon I was lounging around the house during naptime, trying not to fall asleep and wondering what house work I could do that would not disturb the children when I suddenly remembered decorating...I had told ya'll I would finish decorating and post pictures. 

So away I went.  In fact I was still at it when Emma came down from quiet time, so she was thrilled to help as well.  Here are some of the decorations...

 It's all about simplicity here.  I filled a bowl full of apples.  I am still so busy with apples, so these few can do a good job of sitting and looking pretty for the time being. 

 This is the newest member of our family.  Do you like?  Our neighbors gave it to us!  Can you believe the rocking awesome neighbors we have?  Nothing like having  neighbors who you feel are like a fill in set of parents and friends all at the same time.  They are such wonderful, wonderful people and we are so blessed by them!  Anyway, I really want to decorate the dern thing but can't come up with anything...any ideas? 

Ah, my little Hallmark sign and some pumpkins.  The sign sits on the buffet which is the perfect size for a five year old to add some pumpkin candles!

 Alright I left out the best part of this picture...the tv right above the cut off.  Here is my mantle this year/so far/I give up.  It's lame.  Emma added leaves.  Which are dead.  D.E.A.D. But she REALLY wanted to add them.  I want height, flare, pizazz, but again, ginormous television about it kind of prevents from having huge cornucopias or anything...I'm still working on this.  I think I may have to go shopping for some inspiration! Do they sell inspiration?

Here's the center of my mantle, again...LAME!!!  I'm working on it.  This is by no means the finished product.  I'm just going to keep telling myself that. 

 Here is my centerpiece on the dining room table.  Simple.  Is this lame that I used a wreath as a candle ring?  Let's call it inventive!

Giant candle...I have fun with thing adding things in around the candle...candies, sand, shells, it goes on and on.  This sits in a window between the blue room and the fireplace alcove in our living room, which I realize makes absolutely no sense if you've never been to our house and perfect sense if you have.  One of my best friends, Elizabeth, who has in fact never been to my home (hi!!!!) said she really wants to see it because she has this idea of what it is...so come on up!!!  We'll go shopping!!! 

Anyway I have a HORRIBLE confession to make to you...I had to scrape, scrape!, conversation hearts out of the bottom of this thing to get the pinecones and pumpkins in.  Yep, you heard it here first folks, I had left that thing sit since Valentine's Day with the same thing in it.  And do you know what the mortifying thing is?  It's in the center of our home. Not tucked away in storage or anything, nope, right there for God and everyone to see that I am some kind of moron who got used to looking at the gross nasty candy.  But that will just be our little secret so, shhhhh!

Here is the mirror in our entry way.  Hi mirror!  That's the top of my twinkly light tree in case you are wondering there on the right. 

 Here's my front door wreath.  Kind of proud of this thing because there's a story behind it.  My Grandma (whom I love dearly) makes wreathes, bless her heart.  Well since I had a purple bedroom when I was, oh about six years old, every wreath I get has purple roses.  Big, plump, lacivious looking roses.

Well anywho when we moved back home from Indianapolis she wanted to make me a wreath for my door.  I summoned all the courage in the world to tell her I had a different idea for a wreath...one with Fall colors since we moved in in September, and I gave her a picture of one like this. 

And she made it for me.  As far as I know I'm one of the only people to ever get a wreath with no flowers on it.  She thought it was ugly but said if that's what I want she'll make it.  I think it's just grand. 

And finally here's my pilgrim lady on the foyer table.  Hi pilgrim lady!  Her hat makes her look like a WWII nurse, but that's totally beside the point...and if you look REALLY  close you'll see that she has boots accompanying her at the bottom. 

So there's my tour...whew! I'm pooped...see yourselves out will ya?  :)

Child Labor

Well it is finished! Our brick walkway has been put in and it looks fantastic! I am just so thrilled and to be honest I am a little stunned still that it is done! We have been talking about doing it since we moved in and now 4 years later it is finally completed! I am sorry I haven't written in so long but geesh there's been a lot going on around here! House wise we are planning on getting a lot done this summer including:

completely redoing the landscaping and putting down sod so the kids have a bigger yard

building a garage for Emma's new gift...a jeep!

New hardwood flooring in the solarium where our new baby grand piano will go!

New flooring in the foyer

New flooring in the upstairs bath

Trimming trees

Whew! If we get all of that done this summer I will be one happy camper! What projects are you working on around your house? Anything exciting?

Its Cold in here...

Please be praying...our furnace was not working when we woke up this morning...yikes. Fortunately we had our furnace serviced this Fall and the guy had showed Nick a part that was getting ready to go. We decided not to replace it at the time so the furnace man showed Nick how to replace it. Nick thinks that is the part not working so we are praying he can fix it and not have to call in for an emergency fix. I'll keep you updated.

What Season of House do You Have?

photo courtesy of pbase.com

I was reading an article in a magazine the other day that mentioned that some houses tend to be at their best during certain seasons. And as I am sure that you now think I am batty, allow me to explain. Some houses look their best with the bright sun of the winter mornings streaming through the windows while the summer suns causes only a dull glow to settle upon the house; some houses thrive in the summer with the position of the windows they do get spectacular light and the views of green are unheard of; some get fantastic views of the foliage changing to its vibrant colorful self and when you decorate your doorstep with gourds, pumpkins and mums, it looks like Martha Stewart dwells at your home. Finally we have to pay homage to those spring time houses…the homes that look as though they are bright eyed and busy tailed in the early months of spring; their spring bulb flowers are a crisp color burst against the warmth of the home. So thinking through this, what type of house do you have? In thinking about this I have to say that we have a summer house. One of the huge reasons I am thinking that is the season of our house is because of all of the foliage around us. We are so close to our neighbors here in the city but when the foliage on all of our trees fills in we don’t even have to close our curtains for no one to be able to see in. Its kind of like living in a giant tree house which is just amazing. I also love how much light our home brings in…which was one of the huge selling points for me. Our yard is also somewhat of an oasis in the city. When you step inside our gate there seems to be a hush that falls over the land. The man that lived there before us (and had the forethought to do all of this planting) did a great job because I never would have thought to plant everything where he did and how he did. So anyway, leave me a comment and let me know what type of house you have…I am curious to see what season has the majority.

I'm Pretty Fly

So I was reading blogs yesterday as I tend to do every day and I stumbled upon this one website called FlyLady. The website starts you out on Baby steps to getting your house clean and decluttered. I think that clean isn't so much my problem as cluttered. My confession is that I think I had run across this one before but thought, "who doesn't have time to clean their house?" Well the answer is now me. I really need to follow a schedule. And as much as I love my new schedule it would be nice to be told when I should be cleaning certain things in the house...like sheets. How often are you supposed to change your sheets? Anyone? So my question is, does anyone else belong to Fly Lady? Do you like it? Do you hate it? I JUST signed up so I will be shining my sink as the instructions suggest. I am hoping a shiny sink will be the start to a shiny weekend!

Cuppa, Cuppa

My sis-in-law bought me these pink measuring cups and spoons! Aren't they fab? They will work perfectly in my all pink kitchen! Bean and I have a sister ball that we have been doing for years. I can't believe its been years already! Anyway, the sister ball is a small silver ball with a maroon ribbon. I think it is actually for potpurri or an ornament or something but it is two halves with a hinge and a clasp so you can open it up and put small things in. Well the darn thing is so small that it is almost impossible to find anything that goes inside of it, so we've always given gift bags of things with the ball tucked inside. So this was her gift to me only it was ball-less because my gift to her was ball-less last time. And why you ask? Because silly me let Emma play with the ball and now it is gone. I cannot find the ball! How a one year old manages to lose a silver ball is beyond me but lose she did. Anyway, these are my new utensils and I love them!

Spring Cleaning

Amy Clark, the writer of momadvice.com has a terrific blog up about Spring Cleaning that you should read...it is wonderful to know that I am not the only one getting the Spring Cleaning bug! While you are over there you should peruse the rest of her website...she has an amazing site for busy moms and women. Fridays are my favorite time as they are Amy's Frugal Friday's; on these posts she posts freebies available online that you can sign up for...who doesn't love free stuff? Amy and I live in the same area and she does television spots on WSBT, our local news station. So when she talks about deals at Martin's or the like, I know what she is talking about...just being able to keep up with people's conversations, let alone relate, gives me the warm fuzzies (like hey I'm not an idiot after all!).

Anyway this weekend I have big spring cleaning plans...not sure what those plans are yet, but plans nevertheless. So lets all get our fab rubber gloves on and get cleaning this weekend. You never know what you may find in, around, behind, under the couch. Maybe enough change for a manicure! But now is the time for Spring Cleaning as Spring isn't here enough to be outside but you just want it to be spring soooo bad. This will put you in the mood and then all of the crappy jobs will be out of the way for when the weather is nice enough to be outside. Happy Cleaning everyone!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This being the third year in our house, I am thinking that I should really get this whole gardening thing under control. Does anyone have any pointers for me? Last year my mother in law and I purchased flowers from the local conservatory and all of mine died, I mean, DEAD! Hers were gorgeous so obviously we were not sold bad flowers (the thought did cross my mind, although I am not sure that is possible). I am thinking of planting tomatoes, berries, and tons of flowers but don't know where to start. So if you have a favorite flower, type of tomato, or piece of gardening advice, please post!