New House Before & After: Kids Rooms

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

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

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:: 

New House Before & After: Family Room

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 September 27th

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 6th

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 July 12th

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

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 March 29th

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