My New Treausre and Menu Plan thru May 4, 2013

I love a good find--especially if it's free.  Since Josh and I just purchased a home we've been doing our best to furnish and decorate.  The house has a formal living room but we aren't really formal living type of people so I'm turning into a craft/music room.  We will get much more use out of that!  Long story short but my craft room needs a table.  My Dad and I came up with a plan to build one.  He's good at building things like that and I'm good at coming up with ideas of thing for him to build.  It's great teamwork!

On the way home last night I spotted a table in our neighborhood out by the curb.  The table just called for me to come and get it.  So, Rory and I walked down the street to get the scoop.  The homeowner said it was indeed out for the trash and that we would be doing her a favor if we took it.  Well, I do love to help out and be a good neighbor! 

My plan is not to use the actual table but take the legs off and put it on a longer rectangle piece of wood so it will be more like a desk where two people could sit and craft together.  What do you think?  I have to wonder what Rory in his 3 year old mind thought as his Mama is rolling a table down the street.  Ha!

And this is what's up in my kitchen this week:

Monday-Chicken Carbonara Risotto
Tuesday-Rory and I will grab something quick before music class
Wednesday-Parmesan Crusted Tilapia, fresh or steamed broccoli
Thursday-Buttermilk Waffles and Breakfast/egg casseroles
Friday-Grilled hot dogs, grilled zucchini and applesauce
Saturday-leftovers
Sunday-Out to celebrate Josh and I completing our first half marathon!

Breakfasts:
Chocolate Chip Scones
Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cupcakes

I'm linking up to erinbrans and orgjunkie.

Happy Cooking!

Using What I Have: Saving the Soap Pump

So, now that Rory is nearly 3, he like any toddler, can be somewhat destructive.  Pages get ripped out of books, toys thrown across the room and stuffed animals tossed down the stairs.  I've been trying to instill in him that it's important to take care of the things we have so they will last.  I try to mend, tape, or sew what I can back together because toys are expensive and let's face it-he has plenty!

I know this seems like a long stretch but this lead me to an internal dilemma of my new soap pump.  After buying our house, I splurged and bought a fancy smancy soap pump at Home Goods.  It was $12.99 and had all the colors from my kitchen.  It was a bronze base and then a coat of plaster with pieces of colored pottery all around it.  Rory, being the helpful toddler that he is decided to wash it along with his hands a month after I purchased it.  Well-I now realize why this cute pump was at Home Goods.  When plaster gets wet it falls apart...literally.  After it's proper washing pieces kept falling off and it looked ridiculous.  So, I got out a knife and finally pried the rest of the plaster and pottery off so it looked like this....

It was still very useful but certainly lacked the original beauty that influenced my purchase.  I was "this close" to throwing it in the trash but then felt like a hypocritical mother--how can I tell Rory to take care of his things if I just toss this in the trash and don't make it work?  Especially, since I just bought it?  (A stretch I know)  I didn't want to spend anymore money on it but I did want to jazz it up--insert my love for a hot glue gun here.

I have glass beads in a jar that sits on the tub upstairs so I grabbed that and dumped out the blues/greens that I liked, plugged the hot glue gun in and some twine. 

The twine that I had was too thin so I did break down and buy a roll of jute for $2.50 from JoAnn Fabrics.  After some glue gun magic and burnt fingers this is what I came up with...

I think I like my version better than the original one I bought-which leads me to think maybe I could have done this project much cheaper than the original price I paid.  At this point Josh would tell me I'm thinking too hard about it!

This mini project has me dreaming now of other wonderful things to hot glue together!

Menu Plan thru April 28, 2013

Our family had a nice weekend.  Rory and I traveled back home for my sister-in-laws baby shower and came back late Saturday.  The weather was so nice--sunny but a little chilly.  It was nice enough that after our lunch at Cracker Barrel we had some time to slow down and rock.  Rory loved that they had little rocking chairs just his size.

I'm so happy that it's feeling a bit like spring. Rory loves to be outside.  I think he would stay out from sun up to sun down.  After a bike ride with Papa he brought me back these and said, "Flowers for your garden!"  These are my first "Mom flowers" so I was ecstatic to receive them.



I've got some new recipes to try this week and I'm anxious to see what the family thinks of them.  Here lately, Rory is all about noodles and I've been wanting Mexican...trying to incorporate both in this week's menu.

This is what's up:

Monday-Skinny Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and steamed broccoli
Tuesday-Chick-Fil-A per Rory's request
Wednesday-Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce (I'll be cutting this recipe in half)
Thursday-Mexican Flatbread Pizzas with re-fried beans and chips and salsa
Friday-leftovers
Saturday & Sunday- we will be with family

Hope you all have a great week!

I'm linking up to Erin Branscom and OrgJunkie.

Happy Cooking!

My Running Buddy...

I know that I've mentioned before that my son is one of my motivations to stay healthy.  He knows when the hot pink shoes come out that I'm headed out for some exercise.  He says, "Mommy, you go run?"  I'm glad that he sees both me and Josh out exercising and staying healthy. 

Yesterday, he decided to go with me and I was happy to take him.  We like exploring and going on "adventures" so this would be like a mini-adventure in our neighborhood. 

I've been following this training program pretty close so I was headed out for a lighter 30 minute jog.  This is the first time I've taken Rory out since it's been warm so I thought it would be no big deal--well, let me just tell you.  Rory conked out in less than 5 minutes so there went my talking buddy!  Push a jogging stroller with 10 mph wind gusts is like running with a deployed parachute behind you.  In that split second of running when both feet are off the ground the wind pushed me and the stroller back.  My feet were moving but we weren't really getting anywhere!  I'm sure we looked like quite the pair-my little man fast asleep wearing half of his pajamas (I think this is a phase toddlers go through) in the stroller and his Mama digging in, legs flailing and we are getting nowhere! Ha!  It ended up being a great workout.

Our big run is May 5th and I think Josh and I are both about as ready as we can be.  We both have 9 mile runs scheduled for this week and we will each get one more 10 mile run in before race day!  The excited jitters have started and I can't believe we are this close!  I'll be relieved when it's over and I can say, "yeah-I've done that!"

Before and After: The Kitchen

We were so blessed to find our house.  It was literally the second house we looked at and had only been out once.  I'd seen this house online but my first reaction to it wasn't pretty.  I distinctly remember thinking, "that is one ugly house!"  However, after I kept searching online I kept going back to this house and looking at the pictures over and over and over.  Each time I looked the house was less ugly and held more potential.  In person, the layout of the house was exactly what we wanted.  The kitchen is large and most of the lower level is very open.  I wanted to be able to cook dinner and still keep an eye on Rory.  Something that became increasingly difficult in our condo in which each room was blocked off from the next.  

Part of what I loved about the kitchen is all the light that comes in the window.  It's like we crawled out of our cave, ahem, condo and we were craving the sunlight.  

This is "before" shot of the kitchen.  Let me just tell you about this wallpaper--I'm sure in it's day it was very pretty but it was a grey and purple, geometric design and even had a bit of silver sparkliness to it.  It was a bit overwhelming in the space.  I think it would have been overwhelming in any space.

We knew that an entire kitchen renovation was out of our budget so we were going to have to get the biggest bang for our buck.  The plan: strip the wallpaper, paint, and paint the cabinets white.  It took my Mom and awhile to get the hang of getting this particular wallpaper but after using this wallpaper remover and a little arm muscle it came right off.  (Actually, I kind of enjoyed taking the wallpaper off-it was therapeutic to see a big strip come off!)

This is the "final" product!!  I still need to put up curtains over the backdoor.  I've got the fabric but just need to sew them and get them up.

(Side note: the big blob on the floor is our cat, Zoey.  It was dinnertime for her and I'm not about to get in the way of her and her dinner, nor would she have appreciated eating elsewhere so I could take pictures.) 

One of my favorite things about the kitchen is the Fiestaware pitchers.  I registered for these when Josh and I were first married (nearly 7 years ago!).  I had to pack them away when we moved and they've been boxed up during our time renting.  It was a breath of fresh air to get them back out.  It sounds silly but I can remember who bought me certain ones.  The red came from my friend, Korie's Mom and the dark blue came from my Grandpa's wife, Judy.  

Josh worked very hard on the cabinets and they look amazing!  Paint is such a huge change for minimal cost.  Still to come-hardware for the cabinets and I'm on the hunt for a purple pitcher.  My favorite color and it will complete my collection.

We probably spend more time in the kitchen than any other so I'm so happy that it turned out the way it did.  I can see many wonderful memories cooked up here!

Menu Plan through April 21, 2013

This warmer weather has me ready to grill out!  The menu this week is a hodge-podge of things we didn't get to over the past couple weeks.  I'm using up what we have so I can fire up the grill next week.

This is what our family will be eating:
Monday: Super Easy Chicken and Noodles
Tuesday: Buttermilk pancakes with blackberry syrup
Wednesday: Bacon Wrapped Chicken, green beans
Thursday: Homemade Chicken Nuggets marinated in buttermilk, apple slices, carrots
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Rory and I are visiting family
Sunday-Max-n-Erma's for lunch and leftovers for dinner

I'm linking up to Erin Branscom and Org Junkie.
Happy Cooking!

Our weekend at home...

We've had a great weekend--for the first time in what seems like forever, the sun was shining and it was a "warm" day in the mid 60's.  My Dad came for a visit and to help us with a few projects.  Rory really enjoys his time with Papa and it's pretty funny to see them two of them together in action!

Josh and I enjoyed having a home before we moved and I don't think I realized it until now.  The condo and renting was nice but it wasn't "ours."  Although, along with that does come some responsibility.  My heart sank last week when I noticed the basement wall around the sump pump was wet, not dripping or pouring but just wet to the touch.  Yikes!  Part of this was caught in our home inspection and the previous owners were supposed to fix the pipe outside.  We thought they did--and it looked like they did but I think that is all--it just looked like it.  After some investigative work the pipe was broken.  It's now fixed so the basement should dry out in no time.

One thing I miss terribly about our old house, is not the house at all, but the time spent in our garden.  Most of my landscaping came from friends and family that split what they already had.  Some of the plants I had came from people who didn't see our house or weren't even alive when Josh and I got married.  It was comforting to know as I walked around the yard, that "those peony's are from my Grandma S, that hosta with the white stripe is from my Grandma N and those lilies are from my Mom."  I had to leave all of that.  Today was the first day I replanted some things my Mom had split from her yard.  It's like having little pieces of my family here with us.  Rory may have inherited the gardening gene...he LOVED digging in the dirt.  I know all boys do but he was interested in all aspects of the process.  This weather leaves me just itching to start our vegetable garden!

Once we planted everything, Rory went back and gave all the new plants a nice drink of water.  He was such a good helper!  What's not to love about a Mickey Mouse watering can?

I think it's safe to say, "We are home!"

Embracing the Changes...

About a week ago at work, I went to the bathroom.  While washing my hands I leaned close to the mirror and then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  There it was, in all it's glory--a gray hair.  This wasn't like "oh, could that be a particularly shiny piece of hair?"--nope, it was a real gray hair, and not a short one either so I'm not sure how it hid from me for so long.  Do you see it?  It's at least 4 inches long.

                                                 

Initially, I panicked and made a mental note to call the salon asap to inquire about how much highlights costs and then panicked a little more when I realized I had a dentist appointment that afternoon.  Surely, the hygienist was bound to notice the billboard attached to my head that screamed, "look at her first gray hair!"

At the dentist I felt obliged to acknowledge that yes, I did indeed know that I had a big gray hair but then regretted it because she didn't notice until after I told her.  At that point I was pretty sure NASA could see it from the International Space Station.  My hygienist is very nice and offered to pull it out for me but I knew Josh would want to see it so I declined.  What are spouses for if we can't make fun of each other aging?

That has been over 2 weeks ago and I still haven't pulled it out.  The topic of my hair came up at the dinner table tonight (I brought it up not Josh) and I told Josh I wasn't going to pull it.  He thought I should.  I think it's funny but I just can't bring myself to do it.  Now that the initial shock of having a gray hair (and I'm certain there are more I just haven't found them) has worn off I'm embracing it--I didn't even call the salon to find out how much highlights cost!

In some ways it feels like yet another initiation into womanhood or motherhood.  I'm proud of it. Maybe it's a sign that I'm moving on in the next chapter of life.  Instead of being the "young" woman or "young" mother, I'm now just a woman or mother and I'm OK with that.  In a way, I kind of like it.  Is that weird?

For now, the hair is staying.  Now, should a whole crop appear I may re-evaluate the situation! Ha!

What do you do about your gray hairs?

Menu Plan thru April 14, 2013

We are back into the normal swing of things at our house and it feels good!  We are more settled--still things to hang up on the wall and a few things to put away but our day to day items are where they should be.  I've put everything away in the kitchen and then re-organized once I got in there and started cooking.  I'm sure there are still a few cabinets I'll change around as I go and "learn" my kitchen.

Monday-Chicken fried rice
Tuesday-Pancakes with yogurt and bacon
Wednesday-Super Easy Chicken and Noodles
Thursday-Grilled steak, seasoned fries
Friday-leftovers
Saturday-turkey sandwiches (lunch) and bacon wrapped chicken (dinner)
Sunday-out and leftovers

I'm linking up to erin branscom and orgjunkie.

Happy Cooking!

Butterflies!

Josh's "weekends" are actually in the middle of the week.  It's been his schedule for years and at first it was hard to adjust to but now it's second nature.  It means that the boys get two days to do just be boys together.  In some ways it's great because they get to do things during the week that would normally be swamped on the weekend.  In other ways I miss them terribly when I can't join but having pictures is a huge help!  It's the same for Josh when we do things on the weekends.  I'm so thankful for pictures and being able to text/email! It makes activities so much easier for both of us when we can send each other pictures or even video.

This week the boys ventured our to our local conservatory and butterfly exhibit.  They had a lot of fun! The conservatory is pretty large and has some very unique plants.  There are even different rooms that are different climates and landscapes.   At both conservatories we have been to there are quite a few pieces of artwork by Chihuly.  The blown glass is incredible and incredibly expensive.  As a human I appreciate his artwork and as a mother of a toddler I'm terrified of the "you break it you buy it" rule particularly around his art!

He looks like such a big boy here!  I really can't believe he is this big already.

What a handsome team!  

Menu Plan thru April 7, 2013

We are officially settled in our house and it's time to get back into our routine.  I think we've all been a bit off the past two weeks during the transition but now that the boxes are moved, mostly unpacked and we have a few pictures up on the walls it's past time for us to go back to our normal.

I have to tell you the house we purchased has a gas stove...at first I was very nervous about it.  Gas catches fire and blows up...all I could think about was a cooking mishap and our house going up in flames.  However, I had multiple people tell me how much they love cooking on a gas stove and after using it just a few times I COMPLETELY agree!  I love my gas stove and now I feel like I could never go back to electric.  It cooks/bakes things so even and heats up in no time at all.  The electric I had been using has it's own personality...each burner was different...medium on the front burner was not the same as medium on the back burner.  No more guessing games here!

Here is what is on my line up for the week:

Monday-Ham & Cheese Sliders (we've got lots of leftover ham), green beans, fresh strawberries and fruit dip
Tuesday-waffles or pancakes, ham slices, fresh berries
Wednesday-Shake-n-Bake Chicken, fresh broccoli with ranch, baked tater tots
Thursday- Mini Cheeseburger Pies, seasoned fries, apple slices
Friday-Three Cheese Baked Ziti
Saturday-leftovers
Sunday-out to eat

It feels good to get back into our normal routine and back to cooking.

I'm linked up to orgjunkie and erinbrans.

Happy Cooking!