happy weekend

I think I've forgotten how to blog, and I'm ok with that.

We rearranged our family room yesterday. Our tv was broken (thanks to an errant magna tile), so we took it down and moved everything around. Lest you think we are virtuously going without a tv from now on, we picked up a new (bigger) one at Costco last night. Rearranging furniture is near the top of my list of favorite home improvements and I keep walking down to the basement just to see the new set up again.

This morning felt a little bit like Christmas, as our nighttime low finally dipped down to the 70s. Hot afternoons are much more bearable when I can open my windows at night. We are heading in to the best six months in Arizona and I can't wait.

I made these pumpkin muffins to celebrate.

Have a happy weekend!

the family computer

For years our computer has been in a spare bedroom that serves as an office/sewing room on our main floor. But lately I've been feeling like it needed to be more visible, so I moved it to the kitchen. There is no ideal place to put it in there. We have to stand in front of it now or pull a chair up to the cabinets and bump our knees, but I don't care. I think moving it to the kitchen will keep my family safer. We have some strict computer rules already (like, unless you are doing homework, you have to have a buddy, no computer when the parents aren't home, etc.), but I like having it out in the open, too.

Summer is a good time to take a break from the computer, anyway. My kids keep asking to use it and I keep saying no. And they complain for a minute and then they find something else (better) to do. Ha!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I was going to put up our Christmas decorations today. But then I didn't feel like it. And then I decided to do it anyway, and I'm so glad I did. Stella and Elliot had the best time setting up all of the nativity sets on our bookcase while I arranged the little winter village houses in the kitchen. It seems like every year I put up fewer decorations, so I am just down to our absolute favorites. And because there aren't many things to arrange, it took almost no time at all. Even so, tonight the house feels sparkly and cozy and I am so thankful.

a mud room

Ok, so technically, if you live in Arizona, you don't need a mud room. This room will likely never see a spec of mud. Dust, yes. Maybe even a scorpion or a rat, or two, but never mud. We call it our little office, and this teeny room off of our kitchen has had lots of different lives in the 10 years we've lived in this house (from laundry room to sewing room to office and back again). I've wanted to build in a bench beneath our pretty antique hooks for a long time, and I finally found the energy to do it.

I used a Kallax shelf from Ikea, in white, placed on its side as the base of my bench. I had to raise it up about five inches, so that the baseboard would fit properly, so first I built a platform for it. Once I secured it to the platform, I used the wall brackets that came with the shelf to secure it to the wall.

The shelf wasn't quite as long as I would have hoped, so I added some bead board to enclose the empty space beside it to make it one long, six foot bench. It kind of drives me crazy that the cubbies are off center, but I've let it go. I had my kids fill out questionnaires about themselves and stuck them with a family photo in the space to make a little time capsule. It will be so fun to find in 20 years when we change our minds about this room again!

I stained some plain boards to match the antique hooks and screwed them in place on top of the shelf. I am no carpenter, but I think they'll do.

I love the clean white bead board. It brightens the whole space. And Stella's little work area has everything she needs. She is an avid letter writer and drawer and homework do-er.

But let's be real. Because mud rooms never ever look the way they do on pinterest in real life, here's a shot of the current (and constant) state of that pretty bench. Backpacks everywhere! But at least I'm not tripping on them in the kitchen anymore.

teamwork

Mike and I are making slow and steady progress on our yard. On Monday we built a new gate. I wish I'd taken a before picture. Our old gate was in sorry shape, dragging on the ground, still scratched up from when we had a dog a million years ago, painted a faded red, and just generally completely worn out.

We worked together all day long and finished our new gate with just enough time to hurry to Elliot's baseball game. Mike and I do a lot of things together, but this day just felt really good, for some reason. I think it must have been our matching shirts. Nothing says "team" like matching shirts. :)

a white bedroom

When I went to paint my bedroom, I didn't even test paint swatches. Sometimes I can't be bothered and I just hope for the best. Most of the time that's not a good idea. I picked Swiss Coffee from Behr for my bedroom, because I knew it was a regular, warm white, and I liked that I could just pick up a gallon from the Home Depot without needing any mixing. I don't know if it's because I was painting over a really bright green, but it ended up feeling sort of silvery, which was a happy surprise. Our room feels so much brighter now. I left most of the walls bare, because a bare wall feels quiet and clean, and that makes my brain feel good. But I couldn't resist the "Let's Stay Home" banner. Mike and I are such homebodies. There's no where else we'd rather be together.

And if you had told me 5 years ago that I would happily let a cat sleep on my bed, I would have said you were crazy. Alas.

a bathroom refresh

Alternate title: How to Love Your Bathroom, Even if it Doesn't Have Subway Tile.

Secondary alternate tile: No-one Cares What Your Bathroom Looks Like, Stephanie.

Our master bathroom is a teeny little space right off our bedroom. It was furnished when our home was built, in the dark ages of home decor, 1979. I have hated it since the day we moved in. And for some reason that I can't quite understand, in an effort to "improve" it, I had painted it the worst, most unflattering shade of green.

Ten years later, I finally realized that the remodel of my dreams wasn't going to happen any time soon and that I needed to learn to love this little room--shell-shaped sink, beige shower tiles, and gold linoleum floor and all. (Well, the gold linoleum floor will soon be painted a nice, warm gray, I think. Paint can cure all sorts of ails, I've learned.)

I've always heard that if there is something in your room you don't love, but can't change, try to make it look deliberate. So I chose a pretty, pinkish-peach paint color to blend with the beige shower tiles that even after 36 years are in really great condition. I had always wanted to install paneling or white tile (to match the new tile in the shower that I had dreamed about) on the lower two-thirds of the walls, but decided to make it easy on myself and just paint it a bright white to match the vanity and trim instead. This room gets really great light first thing in the morning, and now it beams. The break in the paint colors makes the ceiling seem ten feet tall, and I really don't mind the lack of paneling or tile.

Another thing that made a big difference: decluttering. I threw everything away that we don't use everyday and stuck in the cabinet instead of on top of the vanity.

I think I can live with it now. And I might even love it a little bit.

Prettiest little cactus painting by Beth Allen. Should I wash my hair today? print by chipper things, can be purchased here.

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!

refresh

After testing many, many colors and having paint swatches painted on the walls for months, I finally got around to painting my living room this week. Basically, it looks exactly the same as before, just lighter and brighter. I love it. (It's Canvas Luggage by Behr. You can see the old, darker color here.)

My house is not a gray wall house or a white wall house. There is not a lot of natural light built in to these desert houses (it keeps them cooler), so having a color that moves the light around the room is important. I found this post by Emily Henderson very helpful.

While I was painting, I filled all of the nail holes, and I can't bring myself to rehang any of the old pictures. I also removed some furniture and paired down our book collection. This room is where we spend most of our time, and I want it to feel clean and spare. I dream of replacing those wobbly Ikea bookcases with built-ins someday.

I always get the urge to freshen our house in the fall. It's so much easier to be motivated when it's cool outside! We've had the top of our dutch door open all week. The fresh air is totally worth the mosquitos that come pouring in.

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?

whitewashed

Our parquet floor is at least 35 years old, but I think it has some life in it yet. I love the scrapes and gaps it has acquired over the years. It tells a history of this little house. Plus it feels good under my feet and doesn't shatter dropped dishes. I've been tempted many times to change it to something new, especially after we had a water leak and had to replace part of it, but sometimes having a tight budget is a blessing. I am glad I have kept it. I don't think our house would feel the same without it!

After stripping the paint and sanding off most of the original finish, I whitewashed and sealed it. Yesterday, I finished repainting the baseboards and touching up the kitchen cabinets and now this monster project is done. Phew.

I used a 2 part water, 1 part satin swiss coffee latex paint mixture. At first, I brushed on the watered down paint and immediately wiped most of it off with a damp rag. Some parts of the floor required heavier coats, and after some trial and error, I found that brushing on a couple of thin layers with a foam brush (on each individual square) without wiping any of it off was the most effective method. I put two thin coats of "clear" polyurethane over the top to seal it. I say "clear" because it is actually sort of amber colored and changes the final color of the floor. I knew this ahead of time, so I erred on the side of "too white" while I was whitewashing.

Parquet probably isn't the best candidate for a whitewash. Because it is made up of so many different pieces of wood, it ends up looking sort of splotchy. But anything is better than the original yellow finish, and the solid color paint I applied a couple of years ago, too. I am happy with it.

The whole space feels brighter and cleaner now. And because there is some variation in the color, it will hide crumbs and foot prints better than the solid gray paint did. It definitely isn't perfect, but it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. Or finished. :)

happy weekend

I decided to strip the paint off of my floors. For lots of reasons, but the main one being that we had a water leak and had to replace part of it. So rather than match the paint on the new section (probably a 2 hour job), I decided to strip it all off and do something different (feels like a 200 hour job). I hope it's worth it. I finished up the stripping and sanding this week. I'm not sure my hands and wrists (and knees) will ever be the same, but I am excited to try a white wash.

In other news, Oliver's car, the Blur, placed third in the Pinewood Derby. Always a fun time, that derby.

And Mabel is competing in state Geography Bee this morning. Eek! I'm so nervous for her.

This weekend is going to be a busy one, unfortunately, but I am hoping for a nap anyway.

Have fun!

art in the girls' room

I rearranged my girls' room before Christmas, and I was finally brave enough to put holes in their wallpaper to hang the art we've been collecting. They each got a new print for Christmas. This pretty dreamcatcher print from Yellow Bungalow Shop for free-spirit Mabel. And this wonderful Uchtdorf quote for Stella. It says, "He who created and knows the stars knows you and your name. You are the daughters of His kingdom." It was a little over her head, I think, but Mabel got it. And I know that Stella will someday, too. Isn't it powerful? Have you ever thought about that? Our Heavenly Father, who knows the numberless stars, knows us! Each of us. I know this is true, and I want my children to know this, too.

The Family, A Proclamation to the World

A few months ago, Mike made this extra large print of The Family, A Proclamation to the World for me. (I talked about it here.) It measures 16x20 inches, and is simple, clear, and easy to read. I love it.

If you'd like a copy for your family, Mike has made them available to download for a small fee. It can be printed in your home or at your favorite printing shop (or Costco), up to 20x24 inches. More details and info here.

It's hard to illustrate the large scale of the print, but I think this grainy action shot does a better job:

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

for my super hero loving boy

I have been holding on to these square frames for years. For so long that I didn't even remember what was inside them (old records, apparently). I don't think they've seen the light of day since we lived in our little condo in Provo before Mabel was born.

This is when minimalism gets tricky. Theoretically these frames, which were languishing in the dark recesses of the closet under our stairs, should have been tossed when we did our major clean out. But sometimes I am really glad that I've hung on to things. Like everything else, it's a balance, I suppose.

also in the living room

Not only is my friend, Beth Allen, a very talented artist, but she is possibly the kindest person I know.  I was almost overcome when she brought my new painting by yesterday. I wish you could see it in real life. It glows. Thank you Beth! A thousand times, thank you. We will treasure it always.

Here is another of Beth's pretty paintings hanging in my house.

my Mother's Day request

When it comes down to it, much of what I want my children to know is contained in The Family: A Proclamation to the World. But I wasn't utilizing it enough. The small copy we had crammed in our bookcase wasn't doing the trick. So for Mother's Day, I requested a giant print. Mike designed one and I found a frame at a thrift store. I love it. It shines like a beacon in our living room. I've already seen some of my children turned backwards in that white chair for a few quiet moments, studying it. I know that if we abide by the principles in this Proclamation, our family will be blessed, my children will know who they are, and we will have more happiness together. After all, isn't that the point of all of this?

on my not-green thumb

Do you like to garden? I've never been very good at it. I keep waiting for the urge to take hold in me, but it hasn't happened yet. And so really, I have no idea what I am doing, and I don't care to learn at the moment. It is purely luck then, that the pots on my front porch are still alive. This is the longest they have lasted, and I am so happy about it. It's the watering- I can never figure it out. And with summer on it's way (this weekend, probably!) things aren't going to last much longer. Goodbye curb appeal! See you next winter.