I kept thinking I’d wait to give y’all and update and a few pictures until things were looking a little nicer. But the truth is we just aren’t in a rush to get furniture arranged and boxes unpacked, so it looks like that might be quite a while. So, without further ado, here’s a little bit of the settling back into our home we’ve been doing!
Even the kids were (kinda) helping with the clean up!Trying to find the best place for a princess castle…Hubs taking a break. I am still loving the rug.The princess’s bed. Nothing on the walls in this photo… I’ll take a better one soon. She’s been sleeping in there for about a week, with no transition issues! Yay!Even though this is a bit of a dark shot, I like how it shows the sunlight the kids will still get in their rooms. It’s a basement, but it’s not so, you know, basementy.“Anna” showing off her digs.J’s current set up with lots of furniture. I know he’s gonna move into that bigger bed at some point, and I figured he’d get used to it more quickly if it was a fixation in his room. That’s my bedroom suit I grew up with in my room, complete with the quilt!First new room nap for this guy. He’s basically loving it – aka slept for a little over three hours. That’s about as much as I’ve ever gotten out of him for a nap!
Well there’s a little glimpse of our new space! I’ll keep taking photos as it gets set up, as the temporary guest room gets some furniture, and as I start turning the nursery into a space for baby D. I have a feeling time will fly and he’ll be here before I know it, and the goal is to be settled before then. Three months and counting!
Y’all, last week was a marathon of passing my kids around, unpacking boxes, snagging moments of peace and embracing the chaos. I leaned on my village to help get us through the crazy week. We’ve had an amazing transition into the basement (look for an update this week!) even though it’s still a work in progress.
But for now, I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy for another installment of Currently! Link up with us and tell us how your week/weekend has been!
Excited about || Smooth transitions for both kids into their new rooms! They’re both napping and sleeping at night very well in their new spaces. J’s isn’t totally finished up quite yet, but it’s coming along! We are slowly bringing some toys downstairs (including their Playhut tunnel) and reorganizing clothes since it’s a season change. A work in progress, but slow and steady till we’re done!
Planting || Tomatoes and peppers and basil, oh my! We’ve got other things on the way, but we spent an afternoon with our whole selves in the dirt, planting and nurturing our summer garden!
Thankful for || Beautiful weather! Anytime there is sunshine, I probably say I’m thankful for it, but it’s true! Weather plays a big role in my mood, so when it’s sunny, I’m happy, and rainy, I’m sleepy. I’m never that productive on a rainy day, so I love the sunshine for myself, my family and my house! I also love springtime views like these:
Working at || High Point Furniture Market this week! Saturday was my first day this season, and I worked today, and will work tomorrow. I worked one day at the fall market last year, so it was basically like a new job again this spring. I work in a showroom for a California company called Artistica. They have beautiful pieces, so get on the website and check them out!
Well, since I worked a ten-hour day today for the first time in a looooong while, I’m exhausted! Things have been crazy being away from home a lot. Off to bed for me.
What have you been up to currently? Join our link up!
Okay, so this edition of Currently didn’t quite go up on time, but I’ve been so busy celebrating my wonderful, smart, gorgeous THREE-year-old that I’ve barely had time for anything else!
We spent all of last week getting the basement at least partially ready for guests (I mean, not all the way, but there were places to sleep!) and getting ready for EK’s party on Saturday. As (I think) I mentioned before, her requested theme was “princesses, pizza, and painting” and I’ll say – we sure accomplished all three! Here are some highlights before I start my regular “currently”.
Sweet college friends who made my weekend!Amazing tie-dye princess cupcakes made by my sweet friend, Lauren! (If you’re local, she’s for hire!)EK was really impressed with the cupcakes.Just a few of EK’s sweet cousins and friends who came to celebrate! I got everyone looking but her, ha!Yesterday’s outfit. Underneath the hoodie, the dress says “Birthday Girl”.
Kiddos enjoying one of the presents… it’s a pretty cool little castle!
Now for my semi-normal currently – linking up as usual with Becky at Choose Happy and the other fabulous bloggers from all over! Join us!
Thankful for || an amazing weekend (and day today!) of celebrating my incredible daughter, who I CANNOT BELIEVE is 3! It seems like just yesterday that she was a teeny little squish, and now she’s talking 90 miles a minute, running, dancing, playing and showing me she’s an incredible person, inside and out. It totally rocks me if I sit and think about it. Okay – I’m gonna cry. Moving on…
I’m thankful for several more things, so I’m going to lay them all down, list-style: my mom, who spent the entire week helping us clean, entertaining the kids while Hubby and I organized and rearranged the basement, and letting us go on TWO dates while she was here! Total win, Mom. Thanks!. Also, thankful for a mother-in-law who helps move furniture, hang pictures, work in the yard, and spoil children. She’s a great lady, as well! Thankful for sweet college girlfriends who slumber party with my in my partially-furnished basement, spoil my daughter, and make me feel like I’m ten years younger again. Thanks, gals. I love you. Lastly, thankful for an incredible husband, who puts up with my hormonal mood swings and my never-ending honey-do list, loves our children in a way so mind-blowing that I can’t describe its awesomeness, and still manages to have time to do wonderful things for me and make me feel special, even when I feel like a crazy, sobbing, way-too-pregnant cow. Yep. I went there. Love ya, babe.
Eating || my mom’s homemade spaghetti recipe, with a little change. It’s canned tomatoes and sauce, basil, oregano, garlic, onion, and ground beef. Last night, I used fresh tomatoes, fresh oregano (from our garden, that had somehow survived (and flourished after!) winter – not so for the basil), and added some grated carrots and some frozen spinach. Surprisingly, the kiddos couldn’t tell about the veggies, and the oregano made the whole thing pop! Yum.
Dreaming of || my facial on Friday, and the fact that I might ALSO get my nails done. Y’all, I need a couple of hours of pampering after a busy and stressful few weeks, and I’m MORE THAN EXCITED about it on Friday. Can I get an amen?!
Planning || big blog things for the next few weeks and months. I’m going to start asking for opinions, stories, and requests for what you’d like to hear about. In fact, go ahead and leave those in the comments! I’ll start collecting today!
Thanks for joining me on my birthday edition of Currently! What have you been up to?
Happy Monday! I’m linking up again today with Becky at Choose Happy for her Currently series. Join us, and just let us know what’s up with you currently! It’s a great way to find fun new blogs to follow, and to find friends. I love it!
Enjoying || a relaxing day after a super busy Easter week. Everyone slept late this morning, and we don’t have anything on our schedule. Hopefully it’ll be a day of catching up on chores and maybe taking a nap!
Thankful for || a wonderful Easter weekend. It was full of good church, wonderful family, and sweet friends. The Lord is risen, and we couldn’t be more grateful!! There were so many celebrations we could barely keep up… We were so busy we literally didn’t get a single picture of everyone in their cute outfits! Here are a few instead of an actual “Easter photo”:
Cousins on a couch!Elsa’s Easter outfit. What Easter dress would be complete without the Ice Queen’s crown?Bunny love.He was getting better at caring about the eggs by the end…I snapped this one from behind the piano right before the Good Friday service… my favorite night of the year, I think.
Looking forward to || my mom’s arrival this afternoon! She’s staying through next weekend to help us get cleaned up, organized, and set up for guest hosting and party throwing! And of course to snuggle the sweet ones.
Excited about || my college girlfriends having a slumber party at my house next weekend! We haven’t gotten all together since our super fun weekend in December, and I’m glad we will be together again! It’ll probably be full of milkshakes and laughter and not staying up as late as we used to, but it will be much-needed time to catch up, love on each other, and store up time together for the next few months till we do it again.
Decorating || the basement! Finally! Cleaning crew comes in this week to make it really move in ready, and today I got a fabulous rug for the living room down there! Just have to find a car big enough to go pick it up – ha!
Found this rug at Homegoods – for a steal, obviously.Snazzy custom handrail, all finished up! Now to patch the wall and floor, and build a baby gate! (Please ignore the pile of laundry at the bottom of the stairs. It rarely goes away.)
Well, that’s what’s going on in my life! Thanks for reading, and I can’t wait to hear what’s going on with you!
I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy and the other fantastic bloggers for another week of “Currently”, where we just talk about what’s going on in our lives. Join us, and let us know what you’re up to!
Thankful for || my mother-in-law and our friends Lauren and Drew for coming over on Saturday to help us get things out of our storage unit and into the basement! My m-i-l was kind enough to play with kiddos while the rest of us made 400 trips from the unit into the house with our arms full of boxes or furniture. It was a lovely, productive afternoon!
Excited about || fully moving in, getting the rest of our furniture for the new space (and/or rearranging what we’ve got, and buying something new for an old space!), and getting ready to host the masses for EK’s birthday! My college girlfriends are coming to town, as well as my family, to celebrate EK’s third birthday the second weekend in April. The clock is ticking to get things ready for houseguests and a party!
Listening to || this arrangement of Give Me Jesus by Sarah Watkins and Chris Thile. I sang this song yesterday during church, probably a little less bluegrassily (yeah, I made that word up for this sentence), but I still thought it was beautiful.
Loving || the fact that J is singing wherever he goes, all the time. He sings mostly Happy Birthday and the Alphabet Song, with only two or three real words, but it is so heartwarming to see both my kids loving music so early.
Feeling || BIG feelings. No matter what my feeling is (happy, sad, angry, etc) I’m literally feeling it times a million. Thanks, hormones. Here’s to extra tears, random frustrations, and ridiculous laughter. Pregnancy – the struggle is real.
Thanks for following along with me currently!! Link up with us and join the fun!
Our stairs are in, folks. That’s right. Are they usable? Not really. But they’re in. That means we are seriously close. It also means I better find that baby gate, stat.
Soon, these babies will be stained to match our hardwoods (upstairs AND down), the runner on the side will be painted all dark “espresso” brown (like our accent trim upstairs) and the banister will be on. Right now it’s still boarded up at the top to prevent my crazies from falling down, and Hubby and I are at a loss as to what wide, sturdy, not totally ugly baby gate to get. The man making the banister can make us a matching swing gate, but that is pretty darn permanent. I don’t know whether permanent is good or bad. There are pros and cons to it for sure… but we just haven’t decided yet.
This basement’s aliiiiiive… with the sound of muuuuuusic…Someone’s never had carpet in her bedroom before…
We also got our new fridge delivered today! Our mudroom is almost complete! If Hobby Lobby wasn’t such a traffic jam of rude people, I’d go get the rest of those cabinet pulls, and it would be finished! However, I’m not brave enough to go to our brand new HL with both kids, no additional adult, and no cart return anywhere near my car. Yeah, I said it. I hate busy parking lots with kids. (Mom problems, for real.) Anyway, back to the fridge, I went to Costco today just to a get a few things to put inside it – so it wouldn’t be sitting there empty. I ended up with yogurt and cheese. Dairy much?
Also, a few adorable and hilarious pictures of EK for your pleasure! She loves the new space!!
Happy Monday! I’m linking up again with Becky at Choose Happy and some more awesome bloggers for this week’s Currently. I love having this link-up every week to start my week off with a fun post. Join us! We want to hear what you’re up to!
Watching || Gilmore Girls. I know I’m late to the party, but I’m pretty excited to be catching up with Rory and Lorelei. I’m digging all the scenes with Emily; she’s hilariously infuriating.
Listening to || worship tunes to gear up for Palm Sunday and Easter. I want to make sure they’re topically appropriate but also good ones that people will know and love. Do you have any suggestions for Easter-y worship songs?!
Loving || warmer weather! I’m pretty sure I’ve said this every week, but every week it’s just been a tease. There are a few warm days, and then we go back into the cooler temperatures. I should be glad, because soon I’ll be complaining about how hot I am all the time. Ha! For now, I’ll be loving that I can wear dresses instead of squeezing my belly into pants.
Enjoying || my Jamberry manicure I did earlier this week! It’s springy and fun – a gift from a Mystery Mama! I’m part of a Facebook group (that I found through a blogger I follow) where we all swapped names and are sending sweet notes/small gifts over the next few weeks. I’m really enjoying it, on the receiving end AND the giving end! I’d tell ya what I sent, but I don’t want to ruin my MM’s surprises!
Eating || some gorgeous tie-dye cupcakes! I found them on Pinterest, and told my baker friend Lauren about them, and we gave them a go yesterday! We actually used a Paleo chocolate cupcake recipe we had used before (because chocolate) but the dairy-free buttercream icing was the winner of the day. Especially since the EK-approved tie-dye colors worked out as perfectly as we had hoped! We will do them again in “princess colors” for her birthday in two weeks! I am SO happy with the way they turned out!
Looking forward to || having my whole house back! We are officially at a countdown, folks. Carpet goes in today, stairs go in this week, as well as touch-up paint, and then it’s just cleaning up and moving back in! I can’t wait to be posting pictures of a finished, furnished basement! If you’d like to help us move furniture or play with my kiddos while we move it, or eat pizza and drink beer while it happens, give me a shout!
That’s my life in a little, teeny nutshell, y’all. Thanks for joining me! Now let’s hear what you’ve been doing!
This may very well – I hope, anyway – be the last update until the basement is finished! A few of my favorite things happened over the past few days, so I have some more pictures to share!
Here’s our light fixture finally hung, and the walls painted their final colors. We went with the dark color on the big wall, to add a little depth. I pretty much love it.With the light on, you can see the wall color a little better, as well as our newly laid and finished floors! That’s roughly the color of the hardwoods upstairs, so it should be a smooth transition once the stairs are in.This is the countertop in the kids’ bathroom. It’s worth two pictures, because the slab we picked out has two different designs. The next picture is the other side of the counter. Same piece of granite!This is my favorite side. You know, if I have to pick favorites.Here is the laundry room cabinet and countertop, right when it was installed. (Hubby took the pic while packing for a gig, hence the mandolin in the corner.)
Here’s the tile backsplash I’ve been raving about! I’m totally pleased with it, and I’m already happy being in that room. Isn’t it the best?!
This is what it looks like a little more… and that’s trash on the counter, not the design in the stone.This is the beginning (the top half, obviously) of the mudroom cabinetry. It’ll be painted bright white, like the cabinetry in the laundry room. I’m going to find some really fun pulls for the doors and strong hooks that’ll hold heavy backpacks and sports bags in the future.
Well, there’s everything you haven’t seen yet. I’m literally going to invite everyone I know to a ginormous party when it’s all finished and clean and ready to go. I’M SO EXCITED I CAN BARELY STAND IT.
A friend of mine posted in a Facebook group recently that she had heard too much recently about wives/moms/girlfriends doing some man-bashing. She suggested that women collectively take a few minutes to brag on their fellas. Naturally, being married to the best fella in the world, I figured I’d jump on in there!
This one is from the St. Patrick’s party last weekend!
Y’all, my Hubby is a rockstar. I mean that literally and figuratively. He literally is the front man (a sexy one) in a band that plays and writes awesome music all the time. That makes him a rockstar. He’s also the most loving, patient, and hilarious husband and father I could ask to have a family with. He’s encouraging, challenging (in a good way), exciting, caring, and a hundred other things I would never have time to list, much less explain. In short, love of my life. Big time.
Photo Cred. to my incredible wedding photographer, Eleise Theuer. She is the bomb, y’all.
One of my favorite things about him is that he is fun. He can take a boring situation and make it awesome. He can cheer up a hormonal pregnant woman, a tired toddler, or a cranky baby. He can make you laugh while you’re crying. He can make you forget all your troubles, at least for a minute. He’s the best.
Hubby’s brother snapped this one when we were in the reception band at his cousin’s wedding last summer!
I often find myself watching something (like the Bachelor) or talking to a single girlfriend about a terrible date, and thinking “I’m so glad I’m married.” I mean that on the surface level, in an I-will-never-have-to-go-on-a-first-date way, and also a deeper way – I know I’m married to the best man in the world, and I’d never choose another path. I keep hearing Taylor Swift’s lyrics in Blank Space, “Boys only want love if its torture…” and thinking of all the women I know that have found that to be true. Then I think about how I will never again experience torture, or even unhappiness in my love life.
Also, he is the most incredible, totally competent, loving, nurturing dad I’ve ever seen. He kept EK and then J as well for two years while I taught full time. I never worried for one minute that they’d be anything but perfectly cared for. He is an amazing cook, and is always able to please the picky eaters – and his wife! He is an awesome photographer, and getting better every day. Here’s a sample of his magic:
EK in my mother-in-law’s magical backyard.
I’d never be able to say everything I want to and could possibly brag on him about, so I suppose I’ll spare you a full-on rant. But he truly is the most wonderful Hubby ever. I love him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. I love him on his good days and his bad (though there aren’t many of those). I’m the most blessed woman on the planet. Really. I love you, babe.
Happy Monday! I’m linking up again this week with Becky at Choose Happy and several other fantastic bloggers, to share a little bit about my life currently.
Enjoying || the gorgeous weather! I spent all afternoon outside yesterday, and we’ve had the windows open and gone on several evening walks the past week or so. What a breath of fresh air it is after a dreary winter! Spring fever has hit me big time!
Reading || Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson. I’m really struggling through it… it’s not difficult to read, or particularly bad, but it’s slow-going. I feel like there are WAY too many details he’s trying to cram in. I dunno – just not my thing. It’s for my reading challenge’s category of “author with the same initials”, so I suppose I’m going to finish it, but I might start something else to keep my mind excited while I go through the second half.
Watching || SNL. We watched the 40th anniversary episode, but otherwise we were way behind. We have had a LOT of laundry to put away today (because we can do it here at our house again! Yay!) so we’ve been watching while doing laundry. I’d say I’m okay with it.
Excited about || All of the fun events we’ve got going on this spring! Egg hunts, EK’s birthday, and just plain being outside! We have a great deck and do almost everything out there. The kids love sidewalk chalk, too, so they like doing that anywhere we are.
Counting down || Not really counting down till my due date, but since I’m officially over halfway there, I figure that it’s close enough to pretend that I am! I’ll be honest – most of the time I’m too busy with the kiddos and the renovations and life in general to even remember how far along I am half the time. But as soon as the basement is finished up, we will move EK and J to their downstairs rooms, and I’ll transition the nursery away from J’s room to be a little home for a new guy until he’s sleeping well enough (aka through the night) to move him downstairs.
It’s always great to read what everyone’s up to… so link up with us at Becky’s blog and let us know what’s going on currently with you!
Soon, these babies will be stained to match our hardwoods (upstairs AND down), the runner on the side will be painted all dark “espresso” brown (like our accent trim upstairs) and the banister will be on. Right now it’s still boarded up at the top to prevent my crazies from falling down, and Hubby and I are at a loss as to what wide, sturdy, not totally ugly baby gate to get. The man making the banister can make us a matching swing gate, but that is pretty darn permanent. I don’t know whether permanent is good or bad. There are pros and cons to it for sure… but we just haven’t decided yet.
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