Let Freedom Ring
4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. Our family’s 4th of July tradition involves watching a parade. For my kids, it is all about the candy. And that’s okay. It’s a free country! I love parades too. There is something so unifying about watching a 4th of July parade. For that hour, we aren’t Republicans or Democrats. We aren’t rich or poor. We aren’t old or young. We aren’t straight or gay. We aren’t religious or non-religious. We aren’t educated or uneducated. We are simply Americans. And, isn’t that how it should be? For I am convinced that our similarities far out-weigh our differences. Making this cute little…
Sneak Peek: Ana White Bed Design
We’ve taken a stab at building a bed for our guest room from one of Ana White’s plans. And by we, I mainly mean Handy Husband. I take credit for all of the staining though. And, of course, we had these handy helpers! This is actually our second bed build. (I really need to get around to taking more photos!) It’s a good thing we have such enthusiastic helpers to make the work go more quickly. Don’t you agree? We have friends coming to visit from Oregon over the 4th of July (SO EXCITED!!), so I will be getting the bed all made up for them! I’ll share pictures…eventually! We are…
Turtle Power – Turtle Lays Eggs
Not the Mutant Ninja variety, but an actual turtle graced our home with her presence recently. One morning the kids ran outside to play and not 2 seconds later they come storming back in, “Mom, Mom, MOM!” Why do kids not wait for a reply? My kids don’t even give me a chance to reply before the “mom” is screamed in their loudest, shrillest voice possible. I digress. “There’s a turtle outside!” Okay, I thought. There’s probably a cute little turtle out on the street. We’ll go check it out. Boy, was I wrong. Isn’t she gorgeous? Her shell was bigger than a basketball, I’d say. She was in our flower…
Lamp Base Filled With Yarn Pom-Poms
My 7-year-old daughter’s bedroom is almost done. Or done enough. Is it ever really done-done? We are blessed that she loves to read. When we put her to bed at night, she will stay up and read for awhile, so a lamp on the bedside table was a must! The colors of her room started out as grey and lavender. However, now her favorite color is blue. Who can keep up? Instead of starting all over on her room design, we compromised by adding navy into the mix. That way we could keep her existing decor, but freshen it up with her new favorite color. The next time she changes her mind,…
Travel: Zoo Atlanta
The great thing about moving to a different area is that everything is NEW and EXCITING! Especially if you are 4 and 7 years old. On our bucket list was, of course, visiting the Atlanta Zoo! So, off we trotted one morning last week. Zoo Atlanta is located in Grant Park and we ended up parking on the far side of Grant Park and then walking through the park to the zoo entrance. The zoo is much more compact than others I have visited, such as the Portland Zoo. I’m attributing this to smaller, daytime viewing areas for the animals to roam in, but that was just my impression. The good…
Weekend Fun
Dear Summer, Please don’t ever let your sunshiny goodness leave us. Sincerely, The Girl Who Only Freckles But Maybe Someday They Will All Connect Into A Tan We’ve been spending a lot of time at the pool this summer. This also means that I’m buying sunscreen in bulk and constantly have a load of pool towels in the wash. Totally worth it though since I am now a big fan of the tennis/swim neighborhoods they seem to build everywhere in the South. It’s definitely not what we are used to, so we are soaking it all in. Plus, if you have shades as cool as these… It’s on afternoons like this that…
Zero Gravity Chair Repair On The Cheap
We tend to keep things for a really long time. In this case, our two zero gravity lounge chairs have moved with us from Minnesota to Oregon to Georgia. That’s a lot of miles, baby! I’d guess that makes them 8 or 9 years old. While we do store our outdoor furniture indoors during the winter, 8 summers is still a long time to be exposed to the elements. And let’s face it, aging gracefully is hard to do. When you start to sag, sometimes your only option is to do a little nip, a little tuck… Ahem. We’re still talking about chairs, right? When we pulled the chairs out this summer, we…
Laugh Out Loud Moments
Some pretty stinkin’ funny things happen during motherhood. I mean, they aren’t funny at the time, but later. I’m sure they are funny later. Right? Right? Like that time I let my son pee in a sippy cup…in the backseat of the car…in front of my husband’s office. I won’t even tell you what happened to my hand that was holding the cup. I do need to get more hand sanitizer though. Never hold the cup. Words to live by. And, of course, it is perfectly reasonable to wear the fire hat while watering grass seed. The good news is that his hard work paid off and we finally have…
Dave’s Killer Bread Copycat Recipe
You know that point when you grow up and realize you’ve got to make your carbs count and white bread just isn’t doing you any favors? I’m totally kidding. A life without carbs…where’s the joy in that? However, I have moved passed my white bread phase onto a more heartier bread. It started for me several years ago when I tried Dave’s Killer Bread. If you live in the Northwest, you’ve probably heard of it and I hope, for your sake, that you’ve tried it. It combines the smooshie goodness you associate with white bread with the benefits of “healthy” bread (fiber, protein, whole grains, etc.). Plus, the story of…
Teacher Appreciation Gifts
We moved to Georgia at the tail end of the school year. I was so thankful to my kids’ teachers for welcoming them into their classrooms with open arms and hearts. They truly made the transition so smooth. And hey, they only had to put up with my kids for 8 weeks! So before school ended, we whipped them up a little homemade appreciation gift of strawberry freezer jam and anise biscotti. The kids helped! I know the teachers probably would have appreciated a gift card even more, but I’m trying to teach my kids how special it is to give the gift of your time. In the age of…
