our final january weekend

And goodbye to you January! See you never!

Our weekend started for me right after I got home from volunteering at Letty's class. I have no idea how any teachers do it I just want to hug you and give you a massive glass of wine or cup of coffee or something. Goodness. We had a nice visit with a friend of mine from high school that I haven't seen in forever followed by our Fitz Friday.... The kids did a lot of basement dancing with that Kinect thing? It has been years since we busted it out but such fun. Even if it did take David like an hour of whining about before he would try it. I even took a very blurry photo of the other two nailing it.

Saturday we had nothing planned and it was driving me insane, all this free time. I worked out and just generally paced the house. I finally decided I would take the bigger kids to see an afternoon showing of Trolls at this theater that only shows movies on their way out for $2.50 a ticket. Quite the deal! I dragged a neighbor along as well as her little girl and off we went! And David ruined it for me with lots of sobbing and crying. So he won't be going back for a long time. But the movie was so good! Love all the songs!

Matt did bbq ranch chicken wraps for dinner on Saturday night since it was just the five of us. After the kids went to bed covered head to toe in various oils (see: colds for all!) we watched Suicide Squad. 

Sunday was even more lazy than the day before! Bananas. But it was okay. I did laundry and packed the kid's lunches and got the kids to do all their homework..... It makes my head spin a bit gathering up stuff for the upcoming week. I made the mistake of writing on Letty's napkin the first day of school and now it's like a thing. She especially likes when I draw faces inside the folded area.... and so it is done. And yeah David won't eat a thing I packed him.

I have been selling a few things on Facebook's Marketplace and on Sunday all my crosses sold so Matt met the buyer and then of course because he was so close he brought home this...

While the kids suffered with a home prepped lunch by moi....

The rest of the day was more of the same as before... making messes in the playroom and relaxing and napping and the like.

It was a very typical weekend for January. Lots of at home time and lazy days. Here's hoping February picks up a bit more am I right? How was everyone else's weekend? I know it's Tuesday but let's pretend otherwise...

Linking up today with Biana, per the usual.

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[05/52]

Otherwise known as good morning sunshine!!!!

Dominic, age 2 years: This weekend hit the kids with colds. Which I mean is far superior to a stomach bug we are hoping to avoid at all costs. Dom seems to have been hit the hardest. There was definitely a lot of screaming yesterday on his part. And hey! He slept past 4:30 like four times this past week so maybe that lovely phase is fading? Please please please? He's taken to building himself little forts on the couch with all my pillows. You can only see just his tiny head peaking out from underneath the heap.

David, age 4 years: He slept in past nine yesterday which is late even for his highness. But he obviously needed it. Can you imagine getting fourteen hours of sleep? At once? I for one can not. His morning involved a lot of negotiating regarding the number of yogurt spoonfuls he needed to ingest and showing off his sight word prowess. Seven out of the new twenty-five that came home with his sister on Friday. Who teaches him these things? Not us. For sure.

Letty, age 6 years: She didn't leave her chambers until almost lunch time yesterday. She watched some iPad stuff, wrote in her little notebook, tied scarves together and clipped them to her hair so she could be Rapunzel... Just your basic Sunday activities. We moved her bed this week too, away from her window because it does get cold and it can be noisy. As someone who clearly loves mixing up her decor I totally understand her excitement at that. Oh and we started reading The Little House in the Big Woods because Laura Ingalls Wilder was my favorite... but I must have blocked out all the butchering talk? Yikes.

A day doing nothing at home was smartest for their physical health, even though it does damage to my mental health.

Past weekly shots found here.

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five farmhouse features on a friday

I never thought I'd use the word "farm" in describing my style but for now that's where I'm at. Clearly.  In between all the other things we have been doing in the house there have been some other areas that have gotten a little change up as well...

1//Updated powder room wall decor. I used to have crosses in here. I had a thing for crosses. I was at Home Decor Warehouse a few weeks (months maybe?) ago and my sister was like hey use these wire baskets as shelves and I was all oh twist my arm and I walked out with a whole bunch of stuff I didn't need. All on a trip I was just going along for "fun" and wasn't going to spend a dime. No sir.

2//Drop cloth curtains in the playroom. The curtains in there used to be a real pale green (see the playroom when we first moved in here). Which, whatever, playrooms are hard because, toys. But the kids must have pulled on them or else maybe the rod wasn't installed right or who knows! But it was pulling away from the wall so it would have needed to be reinstalled anyways soooo why not see if we have a dark rod in the basement and if we do, do drop cloth curtains in there as well?! Why not!

3//Galvanized tray new additions. My Grammy has had to make a permanent move into a nursing home and so the majority of her belongings had to be taken care of. I've inherited a bunch of fun things, mainly some little pitchers and a cow creamer, and mason jars, and lots of little baskets and some ancient napkin rings. They've all found a home filling out my most favorite of galvanized trays in the kitchen. Right where I can see them daily. And Letty? She got herself an organ. No lie.

4// I started my whole official farmhouse transition back in September with our dining room, so the centerpiece has always been holiday themed since then. After all the Christmas stuff went away I had to start from scratch with what I had lying around to fill out this tray. A little towel and a few construction paper covered books tied with twine and wala! It's not perfect but it is good for  now. These towels I got for Christmas have been my most favorite! I put them everywhere. And how about that lovely sign I got from my beloved local Home Decor Warehouse? They always have the best finds!

5// And finally. The room I keep coming back to. It really is the last space I have yet to tackle. Do I paint it? Do I not paint it? Matt is tired of gray and I get that. But with this room sharing space with our kitchen gray is sort of the color family we should stay in. Then there's the practically brand new rug that wouldn't "match"... see also the dark furniture..... none of which I would be comfortable getting ride of...so. I just don't know what to do with it. I'd love to paint it and start from there. Maybe add a lighter throw rug on top of the red to neutralize it a little? I also was thinking pillow covers for the large pillows on the couch. Anything to lighten it up. The black wall will be staying because Matt has a thing for that wall and well, it's the least I can do.... In the past few months I've added a lot of lighter pillow covers, updated the window treatments to you guessed it, drop clothes, painted the mirror frame white, redid the entire gallery wall, added the tobacco basket and added a bunch of greens. So when I say I have "yet to tackle" what I mean is the walls. I have yet to tackle the walls. What do you guys think about this room? I'd love to hear your opinion! This was the before and after post right after we moved in...

And on that note, happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

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a foyer that got some "tweaking"

I'm totally Tom Hanks with the "tweaking" right now. "Tweaking." He's.... married, two kids.

Anyways. The foyer. This is something like it's third change? Fourth? Here is the foyer after the floor was replaced. Here after the foyer was painted. And this was a week after we moved in to this home.

I rounded the corner one Friday morning a few weeks ago and said huh. This red wall must go. It must be gray like the rest of the foyer. We had the paint, we had the primer, and that morning it was done. So that's what started it. A sudden whim and the available supplies. This then morphed into every item that was currently hanging in the foyer to be removed and replaced (my mother is so thrilled the crosses are gone). See also Matt had a lot of projects to do. 

These projects included tiny rudimentary drawings by yours truly and hastily measured dimensions on a piece of paper that I handed off to the husband extraordinaire. I kept calling him Jimmy John from Fixer Upper but that's not right, Clint is her wood working guy. He makes all the things she wants with like, no real idea what she means. But Jimmy John is way more fun to say. So Jimmy John had a honey do list.

The projects were: make a new bench seat, make a shelf with knobs to hang stuff, make a pallet backing for three square candle holders, and lastly make a chicken wire frame. All four of these made with things he had leftover from our bedroom redo. And he was off! In something like a day? He's a madman and God love him for it!

And so here it is! In all it's glory... I'll link to whatever I can but don't hold your breath... You know how we are around here with things from home or refinished old items, etc.

Items!

The wall color is Polished Silver by Valspar. Lamp from Walmart. Topiary Set from Amazon (I have gotten two of these sets and I love them! They are adorable and can fit in any number of places!). 5 pillow from Home Decor Warehouse. Framed "You'll Never Know" print I made with pen and paper. Bushel and a Peck pillow cover from Amazon. Green Plant from Ikea. Galvanized pot from Ikea. Galvanized Chalkboard Sign from Target Dollar Spot a few years ago. "O" cut out by Matt. Letter Board from Amazon. "Home is Where I'm with You" print I made with pen and paper.

I think that's it. So what do you guys think? Other than I have an illness and Matt is a saint?

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choo choo barn

Days off from school are days I want to fill right on up with the very best of activities. I don't want to waste a day right? So on MLK day (which Letty explained to me as a day for "King Junior who was a man with good words who got shot and died") my mom and I took the kids to what I heard was an awesome place, The Choo Choo Barn. I started to type that I can't believe I've never been here before but the truth is it cost money and so I normally avoid those types of things. 

I really thought the boys would love it, seeing as it was a huge room filled with hundreds of trains. Letty loved searching out little hidden things though too. It was one large room and the kids could just keep circling the displays, which we did three times. I've heard that when it gets busy it can take like an hour to do one loop so I was glad we had the place almost to ourselves.

They gave me a stool for Dom so he could peek over the side for a better look. There was a ton of smushed noses and the like coming from him. He liked it more than I would have expected, probably because I normally keep the lowest of expectations for him and his behavior.

My favorite part was seeing the little Dutch Wonderland. Oh the memories we have at that place! Dom found much joy in the circus set up. Letty loved watching the house catch on fire and the fire engine come out and the hose turn on and so on. David loved the tunnel and being able to use buttons to start up certain things around the display. Every few minutes the lights would darken and you could see all the Christmas trees lit up and other various lights. So much detail in this place! And I got a little bit of a work out in picking up the boys to see further in to the center of the display.

After leaving the kids just had to ride on Thomas and my mother just had to oblige them, as grandmother's do. Thank you Nonna for joining us on yet another one of our adventures!

I'm so looking forward to having my kids with me each and every single day! School is for the birds. Except kids, it really isn't.

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