getting stuff done

Three things combined this week to help me get some things done around the house.

First, the weather changed. All of a sudden our days are sunny and bright and warm. Hooray for winter in Arizona! A change in the weather always seems to light a spark under me and get me moving. And not feeling frozen all the time sure feels good (don't remind me that I said that come July).

Second, I made a list. I am a big believer in lists. I was feeling really overwhelmed by the things I wanted to get done this month, but writing them all on one master "Winter To-Do" list made them seem more manageable.

And third, I just decided to get started. That's always the hardest part, isn't it?

On Monday, I wanted to see how many things I could cross off of my list. I was surprised to see that most of the things I've been worrying about getting done could be accomplished pretty quickly. I can spend lots of time thinking about doing something, but if I just knuckle down and do it, I'll be finished before I know it. Something that really helps me is setting a time limit for myself. For example, this morning I had 15 minutes before I had to meet my sister-in-law. Could I clean the kids' bathroom in that time? It turns out that I could!

Hopefully writing this down will help me remember how to break out of my funk next time it hits and all I want to do is lay on the couch and read a book for days and days on end.

Here's to doing stuff!

for my house

Every Monday, after I send my kids off to school, I take a look around my house and it's like a bomb has gone off. The weekend bomb, I call it. So I start setting everything to rights. I pick up and put away, starting in one corner and making my way through each room. Mondays aren't for scrubbing, just for straightening. On some Mondays, this task feels discouraging. But on others, like today, I can choose to be grateful for this home and for the opportunity that I have to take care of it. It is not grand, but it is ours, and it is where our little life happens. It is our refuge, our peace, and our haven, and I am thankful for it.

happy halloween weekend

Because painting my living room wasn't enough this week, I also completely rearranged the boys' room. The new set up is not at all the best use of space, but sometimes you just need a change, you know? It feels like a clean slate with the drawings and posters and stickers that covered the walls taken down and now I can breath when I walk in the room again.

I have some sad news to report. Mike accidentally left his bike at the park the other night and now it is missing. This is the bike that is our second car. He rides it everywhere! I'm not sure what we're going to do without it. We are praying hard that it shows up.

Have you baked pumpkin bread yet this season? Mabel made a batch to share with her friends at school and when she reached for the chocolate chips I practically swatted them out of her hand. It was an important lesson that she needed to learn. You do not defile my pumpkin bread with chocolate chips! Cream cheese frosting, totally. Chocolate chips, no way. Am I right? Or am I right? Right. Right.

I am looking forward to the start of my month of thanksgiving on Sunday. This is when I post something that I am thankful for every day for the month of November. It is such a great exercise in gratitude! I hope you'll consider playing along. It always leaves me feeling happier, more content, and more generous, too.

But first we have to survive Halloween. Good luck!

halloween decor

You're going to want to pin this, I'm sure. Ha! Whenever Halloween rolls around, my kids ask me why we don't have any Halloween decorations. Well, the truth is, I don't really like Halloween, and I'd rather save the little bit of holiday decorating energy that I have for Christmas.

But this year, I gave in. Stella and Elliot spent some very happy minutes after school one day crafting some decorations for our porch. Stella's heavily eye-lashed ghost peeking out of the front door is my favorite. And in the desert, when it's still 100 degrees everyday in October, styrofoam pumpkins from the fabric store are the rot-free alternative to the real thing.

The look on Elliot's face when he went outside to check his handiwork was the best. He was grinning from ear to ear and gave me a very enthusiastic thumbs up. I made him recreate it for posterity. :)

Happy Halloween! (Or not. Bah humbug, sheesh.)

self-help book report 1

I'm not usually drawn to the self-help variety of book, but I've read three books this summer that sort of fall into that category and I thought a book report was in order.

First up, majorly popular The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. There were lots of things I really liked about this book, and some things that I didn't. Instead of leaving me feeling motivated, I finished the book and felt completely overwhelmed. And it took me a long time to shake that feeling. In the book's defense, I read it right before I had a lot of things going on in my life (like the pioneer trek and girl's camp and a long vacation) and no time to implement its practices. The method the author promotes is very specific, and that kind of turned me off. So I guess I would suggest reading it only if you can set aside plenty of time to purge your house.

But there were lots of things that resonated with me. Like, only keeping and buying things that "spark joy". I love that idea! I don't need to limit my belongings to a particular number or amount, I just need to limit them to what brings me joy. It feels really good to look in my closet or into a kitchen cupboard and only see things that I love. Granted, some things might not spark joy but are necessary to my household. I like to think that their necessity sparks a sort of joy.

Something else I liked was how the author describes thanking your belongings for their service. It sounds totally crazy, but thanking a dress for it's service before getting rid of it makes getting rid of it a lot less painful. Same goes for gifts. If someone gives me a gift that I don't need or use or like, I can thank the item for the joy it brought me when I received it and then I can feel ok about getting rid of it. And Ms. Kondo gives us the go-ahead to throw all of our papers away! It's really liberating to think that I don't need to keep every paper that comes home from school, or all of those old bank statements or credit card bills.

I fold our clothes differently now, and the kids' drawers are no longer overflowing. And that feels good. But I still roll our socks together, because that's just what makes the most sense for us.

Have you read it? I'd love to hear what you thought about it. Did it make you feel energized or overwhelmed?

better bread

I love our bread maker. Like, really really love it. I use it a few times each week, and for the past four years I have made nearly all of the bread, buns, pizza dough, and rolls our family has eaten with it. I can't imagine running my house without it, actually. But, I made a mistake on Sunday. I threw some dough in the machine to make a loaf of bread, but I accidentally set the dough cycle, instead of the bread cycle. I had no choice but to transfer the dough to a bread pan and bake it in my oven! And that's when I realized that no matter how amazing my bread maker is, bread baked in my own oven tastes a thousand times better. The crust was soft and chewy, not hard and crispy. The entire loaf was light and fluffy. My kids ate the whole thing, crusts included, for lunch that day. I'm not sure I'll ever use the bread machine for baking again.

Irish Potato Brown Bread is my favorite everyday bread recipe. Except I skip the bread flour and only use whole wheat flour.

From now on, when I need a loaf of bread, I will use the dough cycle on my machine. Once the dough cycle is complete, I will knead the dough a few times and put it in a lightly greased pan to rise for 45 minutes or so. Then I will bake it in my 350 degree oven for 35 minutes. Once it's out of the oven, I will rub the top with butter to make it glisten. And then we will try really hard to make it last for a few days, at least.

2015: the year I got rid of the throw pillows

I had this silly realization earlier this month: Just because I have collected lots of throw pillows doesn't mean that I need to use them all. Dumb, right? But I can't tell you how good it felt to put half of them in a closet and close the door. Our whole house feels lighter and cleaner without them.

It made me wonder where else I could simplify. And just like that a resolution was born! This year I want to get down to my bare bones - in my thoughts, in my deeds, and in my things. I want to find out what I really like and stick to it. I mean, could I go for a significant amount of time just wearing my favorite gray tops and jeans? Or could I eat the same thing for breakfast everyday? How about cutting down my obligations to the things that benefit my family the most, and skipping the rest? I think what appeals to me about this idea is that it could possibly free up my mind and my time for things that are more important (so long as I don't become consumed by the process).

According to Mike, vague desires can't actually be called goals until they are measurable, so I have some work yet to do, but I like the way this is shaping up.

Also, it sounds like I might be ready for another go at minimalism.

on chores

I'll never be the kind of mom who can happily play with her kids while the house descends into disaster around her. Messes make me grouchy. They make me impatient. They make me feel overwhelmed. I am at my best when the beds are made and the floor is clean and the toys are picked up. I've come to terms with this part of myself.

Someone recently asked me how we deal with chores at our house and I had to laugh, because the answer is that we don't. We don't have a chore chart or a sophisticated chore system. I do the daily chores at our house, not my children. In my 12 years of motherhood, I have decided that maintaining a peaceful home is my number one job. Nagging my children to get a job done is the quickest way to shatter that peace for me. And it is the last thing I want to do when they come home from a long, stressful day at school. I want them to be able to step into a clean, organized, quiet, and peaceful place. And you know what? My kids don't care if their beds are made or not. I'm the one who cares, so I don't mind doing things like that for them (because it is really for me, after all).

This is not to say that my kids never work. They put their laundry away and pick up their rooms. They clean up any messes they make (often times with my help). We work in the yard together. If we have a big job to do, we all pitch in. Sometimes I assign special Saturday jobs. Mabel always cleans her birdcage. Oliver takes out the recycling trash. But I make the beds and do the laundry and clean the bathrooms. I dust and vacuum and do the dishes, and complete any other daily chores. And if I need help, I ask them to help me.

This is what works for us right now, and I feel good about it. That's the key right there: finding a method that feels right for me and my children. The thought of sticking to a chore chart feels unnatural to me, so I don't do it. Sometimes I get tricked into thinking that I have to do things a certain way, or how someone else is doing them, to be "a good mom". But the truth is that there are a million right ways to do things, and here's the best part: I get to choose what works best for us! So I say that if you want your kids' beds made, make them yourself. Or make your kids do it. It's your choice.

for a cleaning schedule

That sounds so lame, I know, but I really am grateful for my housecleaning schedule. I think it is one of the best things I've ever done for myself. I break my cleaning routine into a few days (bathrooms one day, dusting and vacuuming another, etc.), which makes it more bearable and much less stressful for me. I have a tendency to want to do either all of the cleaning or none of it. This helps me to manage it, and spreads it out through the week, keeping my house fairly clean all the time. I have learned that no matter how I feel that day, or how busy I am, if I stick to the schedule (even if that means just doing a quick job of it), life at home is better.

fall redecorating

Every fall, when the kids are back at school and the house is quiet, I wander room by room, notepad in hand, making a list of things that need a change - things that aren't working for our family anymore, things that need to be freshened or organized or purged. It might still be blazing hot outside, but the urge has struck and I can't ignore it. The first thing I tackled was our little office off of the kitchen.

Originally an old upright freezer sat in this spot. Then Mike built the desk and I did my sewing here. Then we switched my sewing machine for the computer. Now Mike works from home most of the time, so we moved the computer into my sewing room so that he can have some peace and quiet while he is working. This little desk was staring me in the face, begging for a job to do.

Meanwhile, our family room in the basement was feeling quite cramped. There was a small table in the corner for coloring and crafts, but my kids' legs were getting too long for that darling little table and it wasn't getting much use anymore. So I moved all of the art supplies upstairs into our bright office instead. Moving things that I already own to a new spot is my favorite kind of redecorating.

As soon as I finished, Elliot got right to work. Ideally Mabel and Oliver will do their homework here, but you know they'll end up at the kitchen table, papers and books spread over every inch of it instead, right? :)


painting by Beth Allen

on the wise use of time

One day I woke up early, just as the first bright rays of sunlight were making their way through my bedroom window. I woke Mike beside me and we left the house for an early morning run. As we ran together, we discussed our plans for the day. We talked about each of our children, and some of the problems that they might be facing. Mike shared some concerns he had about work. We talked about solutions. It felt good to be up and moving.

When we got home, I stretched my legs and read my scriptures. I had several minutes of quiet study by myself before Elliot stumbled into our room, hungry for breakfast. I gave him a big hug and we went to the kitchen together to make waffles. As we were cooking, my other children woke up, each coming upstairs to the kitchen with puffy eyes and messy hair. I welcomed them with a kind voice and we ate a nice breakfast together as a family before Mike headed off to work.

The rest of the day flowed well. I was able to complete my household chores and even a few sewing projects while my children played together peacefully. I set up visiting teaching appointments and answered Relief Society emails. While I was working, I felt the spirit prompt me and I knew I had received an answer to a prayer.

At the end of the day, I tucked each child into bed with a hug and a kiss and I told them that I loved them. I didn't feel hurried or impatient, even when Stella was slow to come for family prayer. Our house ended the day as quietly as it had begun.

It was a good day.


But. . . on a different day, I woke up to Elliot poking my side, looking for breakfast. I had stayed up too late watching a movie the night before, and now I was paying the price. I rolled out of bed and shuffled into the kitchen without a word to my little Elliot. I hurriedly poured him some cereal and then I left him sitting at the table alone to eat, while I crashed back into bed. As the other kids came upstairs, I ignored the disappointment on their faces when I announced that it was cold cereal for breakfast.

Mike left for work without a kiss goodbye.

It seemed that no matter how much cleaning I did that day, the house was still a disaster. Beds were unmade, legos were strewn across the family room floor. My frustration was rising by the minute. There was no way I was going to finish my seemingly endless to-do list. I was grumpy.

And so I escaped to my phone. I checked Instagram for the hundredth time. I let myself be distracted by Facebook status updates and new blog posts. When my children needed me, I answered their questions without even taking my eyes off of the screen.

It was a very, very bad day.


Have you ever had days like these? I taught Relief Society this past Sunday on the wise use of time and on avoiding distractions. I used these slightly exaggerated accounts of some of my best and worst days as a mother to illustrate the difference that poor time management and prioritization can have in our lives.

We discussed this article, entitled "A Time to Prepare". It is wonderful to read, if you have a few minutes. One of my favorite quotes: "With the demands made of us, we must learn to prioritize our choices to match our goals or risk being exposed to the winds of procrastination and being blown from one time-wasting activity to another." Oh man, does that ever happen to you? It does to me, for sure. Elder Ardern, the author of the article, talks about finding those things that are distracting us from using our time most wisely, and eliminating them from our lives. He said, "I urge each of us to take those things which rob us of precious time and determine to be their master, rather than allowing them through their addictive nature to be the master of us." I had been having a hard time managing the time I spent on my phone, as you know. Finally, rather than trying to check things like Facebook and Pinterest "less", I just deleted them from my phone completely. And oh, the freedom! I felt so light, so good. It is all so silly, and I don't miss them one bit. The best part is that I find myself spending so much less time on my phone, and more time doing the important work of mothering instead.

I still have a ways to go, but I know that when I prayerfully approach each new day, seeking guidance on how to best spend my time, I am much more likely to relive a day like that first one up above. It is my choice. And I choose good days from here on out.

our minimal toy closet

Our toy closet (located in the boys' room) has changed quite a bit over the past 8 years that we've lived in this house. As my children have grown, and their interests have changed, so have the contents of the closet.

Right now, we are down to these basics: legos, dolls and army guys, trains, cars, animal figurines, potato heads, little people, lincoln logs, wood blocks, and weapons. Each toy type is contained in a bin or basket. We also have a trunk full of stuffed animals (unfortunately). In our first minimalism sweep, I donated or trashed anything that was broken, or that they hadn't played with during the past year (like the box of baby toys I didn't think I could part with), and anything that prevented the lid of the bin from closing. Next time, I think I will try to reduce the amount in each bin by half. I'm pretty sure we don't really need a million plastic animal figurines, even if they all fit in the box.

To help keep our toy situation under control, we only purchase toys for Christmas and birthdays. We don't even step foot in the toy department at Target. Actually, since we've started on this minimalism kick, and for the past year or so, I've rarely stepped foot in Target at all. And you know what? I don't miss it. The whole idea behind this is to be content with the things you have, and then to be really deliberate about the things you buy. I don't think I've ever made a deliberate purchase at Target in my life.

I need to be better at this, but I've found that when I take the time to set up a toy (like the train set or the little people town), then my kids will happily play with that one toy for a day or two. Then we'll put it away and get something else out.

my minimal sewing room

I realize that the idea of having a whole room just for sewing is slightly ridiculous in the world of minimalism, but I am grateful to have mine. The truth is, our family would be perfectly happy in a smaller house, but I refuse to move, so we might as well use one of our spare rooms for sewing, right? I like to keep the space as simple and tidy as I can. My creativity is stalled when I'm surrounded by clutter.

I recently tackled the closet, and more specifically, my fabric stash. I used to think that I had to keep all of my scraps, no matter how small they were. Then I got smart and realized that most of what I had kept was completely useless. I am much better at throwing the leftover pieces away when I complete a project now (unless they are a reasonable size).

Something that helps me keep my fabric under control: I only buy fabric for a specific project. I don't buy fabric because I think I might need it someday, or just because it is pretty. It has to have a purpose, otherwise it doesn't come home with me.

I keep all of my thread and pins and scissors in that cute little sewing box. I like that it is portable and small. It fits the essentials, and that's really all I need.

Something I really love about minimalism is that it forces me to use things that I have been saving for a rainy day. If I am not currently using it, then I can't rationalize keeping it anymore. So if it is something I love, I better figure out a way to incorporate it into my life. For example: I had a little bit of wallpaper left over from the girls' room. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away, so I tacked it up in the closet instead. It made such a difference!


Oh, and p.s., my nice hangers are from Ikea. And you can find my wallpaper here.

my minimal kitchen

Ha! Ok, so this one is sort of a joke. When we were going room by room, cleaning things out, Mike asked me if we really needed 15 white cake plates and a million teeny pitchers. And my answer was yes! Yes, we do, actually. Because my goal with this minimalism isn't to live in a sterile, blank space. It is to be content with the things we have, and to lose the things we don't need. I love looking at my white dishes. I think they are beautiful. They make my kitchen feel cozy. So I will keep them, and continue to collect them. But you see, the space I have to display them is quite limited. That will help keep my collection in check.

The kitchen seems to be the place where all of the household papers pile up (mail, school papers, Mike's work stuff, etc.). It makes me crazy. To keep it clean, I try to toss or file the papers as soon as I get them. There is almost always still a pile somewhere, but I know it will eventually get taken care of, so I try not to let it bother me too much.

One of my favorite parts of our big clean out was going through my kitchen drawers. It felt so great to get rid of utensils and dishes and small appliances that we never used. I mean, why did we have two waffle makers for goodness sake? Ridiculous. We are down to the basics, things we use almost daily, and it feels really wonderful.

my minimal closet

I've realized that I work best when my choices are limited. This is especially true when it comes to my wardrobe. It has taken me years and years to figure out what I like to wear. And the key, I've decided, is only having a few things that I really love to chose from.

Here is the thing. I am a stay-at-home mom who doesn't even leave the house some days. So this is what I need: a few outfits each season that I feel really good in.

This is what I don't need: anything else.

I live in an easy climate, wardrobe-wise. We have two seasons here in Arizona, summer, and not summer. So I've divided my wardrobe in two. The not summer stuff is out right now, and the summer stuff is tucked away in a box on the top shelf. When our days get a bit warmer (probably sooner rather than later), I'll switch things around. Having half of my clothes in storage will make them seem extra exciting and brand new once I make the switch, I think.

I want to invest in good quality clothes. I want them to last from year to year. I want to be deliberate about what I buy. I want to feel really great in everything I own.

And to get me from where I was to where I want to be, I decided to give myself a number limit. I chose 10. So . . . 10 pairs of shoes, 10 workout pieces, 10 sweaters, 10 bottoms for each of our two seasons (some of these overlap), 10 tops for the two seasons (again, some overlap, so there aren't quite 20 total) and 10 church outfits for each season (there is some overlap here as well). That's it. I kept my 10 favorites and donated the rest. I also tossed all of the socks that slip down my heel when I wear them and drive me crazy, and the tank tops that have seen better days, etc. If there was something I was unsure about or having a hard time letting go, I put it in the box with my out of season clothes. I will revisit it in a few months to see if I missed it.

One of the things I like about this idea is that if I am shopping, and I see something that I want to buy, I better love it more than something I already have in my closet, because if I bring something new in, something old has to go out.

I find that the more rules I give myself (like, I only wear certain colors, I only buy tops that don't require layering for modesty, etc.) the easier it is to stick with my limit.

How do you manage your wardrobe? I'd love to hear your ideas.

all you need is less, or our foray into minimalism

via

Mike and I have never been big spenders or big consumers. We are frugal people. Mike works hard to provide for our family, and we work hard to stretch his income as far as it will go. But somehow we found ourselves surrounded by stuff anyway. Stuff that we thought we might need someday. Or stuff that we'd had forever and couldn't imagine living without. Or just stuff for the sake of stuff. You know how it goes.

One day we decided to get rid of some of that stuff. If we didn't need it, we donated it. If we didn't use it, we sold it. If it was broken or run down, we trashed it. We went room by room, touching everything, deciding it's fate. Now, cleaning out drawers and closets is a pretty regular part of my home keeping routine. But this time was different because the new minimalist Mike was with me (not the old, sentimental, always-prepared eagle scout Mike), so we were merciless. The goal was to get our belongings as close to the bare minimum as we could. We wanted empty drawers and bare closet shelves! We didn't quite get there, but we gave it a really good effort. The thing with minimalism, I've decided, is that it comes in waves. Sometimes we feel the urge to purge, and so we'll work hard for a while. But other times, we are content with our progress and so we'll stop thinking about it for a bit. I feel like we are in a good place right now. We are more deliberate about what we bring in to our home, and more discerning about what we need to keep.

One thing that really spurred me on was the idea that organization and hoarding are two sides of the same coin. I've always thought myself to be an organized person, but when I realized how much time and energy I spent on organizing all of this stuff that I had accumulated and probably didn't really need, I was disappointed. I decided that I'd rather go without those things than spend the time to maintain them. So I did.

For a while, Mike was really into reading minimalist blogs (like this one), but I feel like they are mostly written by single men in their 20s. It's easy to live that lifestyle when it is just one person in a small apartment. But what about our family of 6? Kids come with so much stuff. It's a constant process to keep their rooms in check. We started with a major clean out, sometimes with their help, sometimes without. I've found that the fewer options they have in the toy closet, the better they play, so I was happy to donate a lot of their toys. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Mike had them each choose one thing from their room every night to give or throw away. It was hard for them in the beginning, but it got easier as the month went on. I think they came to see that they have so much more than they really need, so they were more willing to give some of it up.

I was really surprised one day when I went through Stella's closet with her. She was ruthless. If anything was the slightest bit uncomfortable, or if she didn't absolutely love to wear it, she was happy to let it go. I learned a lot from her that day! I had to stop myself from talking her into keeping a few things. 

Our home is not large, and our children's rooms are especially small. For instance, our girls share one tiny dresser, and their closet is the smallest in the house. But I don't think I'd have it any other way. The truth is, kids need very little, especially when it comes to clothes. And the closeness our children share because of their tight quarters is more important to their happiness than any amount of stuff anyway.

Have you ever tried something like this? What has worked for you? Like I said, we still have a ways to go, but this shift has made such a difference to the feeling in our home. Instead of working to accumulate more, we are working to increase our happiness, or to spend more time as a family, or to have more experiences. And to be happy and content with less feels really, really great.

on mundane tasks

Something I've noticed lately that I don't want to forget: It is when I am doing the most mundane tasks required of me (like vacuuming or folding laundry or putting clean sheets on beds) that I receive the most inspiration. This is when I finally feel the answer I've been seeking, or the confirmation that a decision I've made is correct, or when I think to email a friend. From little things to big, the inspiration comes when my mind is quiet and my hands are busy. It doesn't happen nearly as often if I have music playing, or a show on the iPad, or if I am in front of the computer. I am convinced that multi-tasking kills inspiration dead. It is quiet, steady work that does the trick for me. I want to remember this because those mundane tasks never seem very attractive in the moment. They are usually the last things on my list that I want to do, but they are so important! Not only because they make our home run more smoothly, but because my spirit needs their repetitive, simple nature to feel the stirrings that are so easily lost in the bustle of my everyday.

a new week

Well, the kids are back at school this morning. It's bittersweet. We had such a nice, relaxing break, but there is only so much loafing around we can do before we start to get on each other's nerves. Plus the house is a complete disaster. I'm going to take my time this week putting it back in order.

Our little office spot is ready for the new year, though. My talented friend, Beth, had a flash sale on her paintings this weekend on instagram (@elizabethannstudioart) and I was lucky enough to snatch one up. It is beautiful and serene and immediately puts my mind in the right place. I hung it over our workspace to remind myself to keep things uncluttered and clean.

for a tidy home

My best days don't start until all of the beds are made. Once I shoo the kids off to school, I clean up the breakfast dishes and then I make the beds. All of them. Even when I know that Elliot is going to crawl right back into mine to watch a show on my phone. It sets my day on the right course. If I start with a tidy house, then I can better handle whatever other business the day will bring. Is this true for you, too? I talked a little bit about my house cleaning schedule back here. A cleaning schedule is one of the smartest things I ever did for myself, as it completely takes the stress out of maintaining my home.

I am thankful for a house to tidy, and for the peace that tidiness brings.

Bonus gratitude: In the wee hours of this morning, I found myself stripping Elliot's bed and throwing his sheets in the wash. I was sort of put out by it all as I crawled back into my own bed. But then I realized how lucky I am to have a washer and dryer. In my house, even! Just think if I had lived 100 years ago. Oh, that would have been such a pain. Instead, I was able to toss the sheets in the washer, and when I woke up this morning, they were magically clean. What a blessing!

the bathrooms

As promised, some extremely poorly-lit bathroom photos for your perusal.

Now that all of the kids sleep downstairs, the old downstairs guest bathroom has become the kids' bathroom. So it needed something a little more durable than an 80 year old dresser turned sink. I like the one we chose from the Home Decorator's Collection via the Home Depot.

Moving on. . .

The upstairs hall bathroom has become the new guest bathroom, so we brought the old dresser upstairs. Hopefully this is the last time we have to replumb it, although if we ever move, it is coming with us. I love it so.

I'm afraid we ripped out everything that was practical in this bathroom (like the peeling, dingy lineoleum floor that somehow in its dinginess never showed a speck of dirt and the very water-proof faux-marble countertop). But it is so much prettier now!

All we need are some guests.