handsful

He’s still going to soccer camp again this year, but he’s developed a love for baseball lately.  And, he makes contact with the ball quite often.  Maybe next year we’ll try baseball?

Crazy cat.  This is Chili, rolling in the clover…

Found these growing on the side yard…never planted it.  Maybe the previous owners?  Not sure what it is, but it’s adorable.

Sunset…

one

two

three!

And, here are the beds with their new occupants…we’ve added 2 holly trees (at the far right end and middle of the right side), pink knock out roses, and gardenias.  We nixed the hydrangea idea when I realized I could do gardenias.

I love gardenias!

We also added hosta behind the japanese maple…it had always looked so barren back there, and now it’s gonna be green and beautiful!

I’m so anxious to see those blooms open up!  I know it looks sparse now, but our landscaper planted sparingly, to allow for growth through the years.  When we first moved here, the plants were CRAMMED in and completely overgrown.  Don’t wanna do a repeat of that.

And, one of the best parts?  He said we could chop at those roses however we wanted and they wouldn’t die.

Not that we ever would.

Ahem.

And, he also gave us a 1 year warranty on all the plants.

So, they’re safe for the time being…

These would be the bushes that used to grace the front of our house.  Last year, we decided to trim them back and got a little over-zealous.

And, we might have used a little weed killer near them, while trying to…

Well.  Kill weeds.

Too add insult to injury, we had an unusually cold winter.

None of this was very appreciated by our lovely bushes, and as spring began, we noticed that there were very few green leaves on our bushes.  Hmm?  In fact, we saw a lot of brown.

We scratched our heads.  Did our bushes usually die off and then spring back to life?  We’d not really noticed before.

So, we called our friend Larry, who also happens to be a landscaper and has done work for us before.

He took one look and declared them dead and/or dying.  Likely, from a combination of the above mentioned trim / poison / cold.

We had no choice.

The bad news?  Having almost every bush in front of your house yanked out costs more than you’d think.

The good news?  Planning the house front landscape ourselves, rather than adopting what the previous owners put.  Which was ALL green.

Looking forward to seeing some knockout roses and hydrangea in there…

In the end, keep this in mind.

Don’t ever let us tend your bushes.

Untouched photo Lainey took with my phone, of our backyard sky.  Cotton candy, anyone?

Back to the title of this post.  Know what I want??

Snow.  Just enough to cover the ground nicely, and let the kids play for a day or two.  I’m not greedy, people.

A few times recently, there’s been snow in the forecast.  And then…poof…it’s gone.  Nothing.

That’s just plain mean.

I also realize that those of you buried under mounds of snow aren’t feeling so sympathetic towards me.  I get it.  I’m not sure I’d want to be in your snow shoes either.  Ahem.

I’m still holding out hope that we’ll get a decent snowstorm this year.  My family isn’t feeling it so much.

But, I can be patient.

I’m in the middle of a 21 day break from Facebook.  It’s funny…I miss it, but at the same time don’t.  I’ve replaced it with more devotional, bible,  and intentional reading.  Right now, I’m reading The Reason for God.  It’s not  an easy read for me.  I get confused more times than I care to admit, but it’s been good to dig deep.

I do realize how often I must have posted on FB.  Something happens and I automatically think “hey, I should put that on FB…oh, wait”.

Like when we realized this week that Dylan has his first loose tooth.

When I felt like whining about the week-long winter cold I had last week.

Last night, when we had who-knows-how-many teens over for a double-feature movie night.

And, when the boys and their friend Trevor slept out in the field in a tent…and swore they heard coyotes circling their tent.

I think, even when I’m back on FB, I’ll make some changes.  Like only cruise the site during non-school hours.  I like that idea.  FB can easily be put ahead of more inportant things, and I want to guard against that.

My thoughts on a lazy Saturday morning.  Happy weekend, ya’ll.

That project I mentioned in my last post?

Guess what…we did it!  And, in two days no less.

This doesn’t happen around here.  Starting and finishing a project in only TWO days?  Unheard of.

But, we had a deadline.  Randy left today to go to NY for a few days for work.  If we’d not finished before he left, we would have been without a guest bathroom.  Not the end of the world, but it did give us the motivation to just.get.it.done.

Here’s a before…

This was actually taken before we bought the house, when Randy was taking pics of each of the rooms to show me.

It’s hard to tell, but the wall color (as are ALL of the walls in this house, other than the ones we’ve already painted) is a decent khaki color.  But, the paint is FLAT.  No sheen whatsoever, and it’s impossible to clean.  To say I’d like to re-paint the whole house is a total understatement.  But, most of our walls are angled, and the open doorways are curved…so if you start painting one wall, it melds into the next one.  There’s no “well, we’ll JUST paint the family room”.

Painting the whole house is gonna have to wait.

But, there are a few rooms that aren’t affected by the curves and angles…like the guest bath.

This was taken yesterday, after Randy took the back off of the toilet.  That was a job.  But, it made painting the wall behind it much easier.

We already had the paint (toasted honey), and decided to replace the light fixture and mirror while we were at it.  They were never my style, a little too traditional.  If I had the moolah, I’d make major changes to turn this house into a homey, farmhouse.  For now, I’m doing it in small batches.

After :)

We found the mirror at a local furniture consignment store.  Love the simplicity, and how it’s squared at the bottom and curved at the top.  The light fixture finally matches the existing brushed nickel fixtures.  I like the shape of the globes, kinda old fashioned.

I did some “shopping” around my house, and accessorized to match the new color scheme.  I love it.  Might replace the rug at some point.

I’m wondering which room is next.  Bedroom maybe?  Hopefully, my husband didn’t read that.

I’ve got the “hey, it’s after Christmas, time to re-organize everything in the house” bug.

Which is also beginning to turn into “hey, while we’re at it, let’s change up a few things around here” bug, as well.

It’s that second one that makes my husband hide downstairs in his office.

Although I’ve got all kinds of things swimming around in my head, I’m starting small.  Even though it technically took me all day to complete.

Why all day?  I had to fit it in between…doing school with the littles, eating lunch, going to the warehouse store, dropping off the dog at the vet, and picking up the dog from the vet.

I’ve been eyeing my pantry lately.  I truly love my pantry…it’s the largest one I’ve ever had, and I’m grateful.

But, even though I had it all organized not too long ago, it’s since gone a bit awry.

And, since I do absolutely love organizing things, I decided to tackle it today.

So, do you see any organization here?  These are the shelves straight into the pantry.

Shorter shelves to the left.

I took EVERYTHING out.  Shelf by shelf.  Then decided what categories I wanted.  And, where they’d fit best.  Breakfast items, cereals (which had to go on a taller shelf), snacks (chips, nuts, granola bars, candy, crackers, etc.), veggies (cans), sauces, pasta, rice, ingredients, bread, drink mixes, etc.

After I tossed a fair amount of trash (why don’t kids EVER throw away wrappers?), old food (how long had that candied pineapple been in there?), and re-located a few things…here’s the end result.

Bottom shelf:  breakfast items, bread, potatoes/onions, and drink mixes – next two shelves are snacks of all descriptions – then, ingredients in bins – then, cake mixes and cereal boxes (which, we’re very low on which is why that area  is bare).  On the floor are vinegar, distilled water, large jars and a stool.

Hey, what can I say, I’m short.

Bottom shelf: pastas – next, veggies and soups – then, sauces – and, last where I put the “extras” (if I’ve bought items in bulk, I put the extas there).

On the very top shelves are extra containers, my canning pot and seals/rings, bag sealer machine, and 4 large flashlights.

I’m pretty happy about how it all looks, and I love that I now KNOW what’s in my pantry.

Everything’s in it’s place.

Until the kids put away the groceries next time.

Next up?  I’m not gonna say, on the grounds that – if I do – I’ll be held accountable to get it done.

But, I’ll let ya know.