7 Quick Takes 6-7-13

Linking up with Jen and the rest of 'em...

 

1. Yikes!  It's been a long time since I posted.  Between my birthday, an ordination, and travelling May was actually a busy month!


2. It's been "snowing" at our house for like 2 weeks now.  I'm pretty sure that if I had a cottonwood tree I would have hacked it down by now.  I don't know if I'm allergic or not but just seeing all those seeds floating around makes me sneeze.  It's been blowing and piling up around the driveway... seriously.

3. Been working on my eating and I'm finding some recipes and ideas that have been helping.  I have a friend that just gave me a recipe that tastes like my mom's no-bake cookies.  It's even gluten free and dairy free!  Wonderful!


4. Anyone else watch Early Edition when it was on?  I stumbled on an episode this week and it was like going back in time.  There's something about a regular guy who acts like a guardian angel to all kinds of people and often runs away before anyone can thank him.  Plus he's got that squinty look with his eyebrows and popped collar thing that just... pshew!

Exhibit A:

 

5.  Hallway painting is done, more on that in a later post.  We're in the process of painting the office paneling now.  It will make for a biiiig change but also lots of work.

Sneak peek of the work in progress.

6. It's beautiful this week, loving the 70 degree coolish summery weather.  Spent some good time in my garden finally. B loves digging in the dirt and finding worms :)

7.  Speaking of the little boy, here's the photo reward to those who follow this blog mainly because of him. I understand, I would too. :)

Have you seen a happier face lately?!  

Ben just came over and looked at the screen and said, "I miss Auntie Em."

Peace to all!

Feeling blue? (living room redo)

We've been meaning to update our living room, after all, we spend LOTS of time in there.  We thought some paint and a few other changes would help.  Well, once we get rolling, we roll!

Pictures will help me explain how it all came together...

BEFORE:

realtor shot of living room fireplace

realtor shot of back of living room

front window the day we moved in (window awning
was taken off in the first year we lived here.

So the things to notice in those pictures are
1. the bookshelf to the right of the fireplace (sat empty for over a year cuz B would pull stuff off of it.)
2. window boxes and high end custom curtains (these things must have cost a fortune in their day... their day is sadly over.)
3. the walls and trim are all "looks white but really it's a light light blue" blech (and I like blue!)
4. Joe did the project when we moved in but re re-purposed the fireplace grate by spray painting it brown rather than buying a whole new one.  Quick fix at the time but it's help up and I still like it!

The work began in late November with the goal of celebrating Christmas in our updated living room.

The bookshelf begins it's remodel

it only took 15 million samples for me to decide what color would be just right

The window boxes come down with the curtains

Measuring, Ironing and Sewing... forever.

Insert montage here of Joe and I painting and painting, building and sewing...  Oh and a Pooh Bear movie or two for Ben.

AFTER a couple weeks!

I added garland and switched up some decor after this, but you get the idea.

Very proud of my cost-effective back tab curtains
 that cover all the windowed walls.

Joe build this great entertainment center that lets us put our TV
 where we thought it should be and give the bookshelf some purpose... win win!

We even did the curtains in the dining room/play room.
One of the next projects- down with the wallpaper and painting the play room!

Phew... there's other project to share later.  Everybody loves a good before and after!  Oh, and I'll share the secret of my curtains :)

House-work

Everybody loves a good before and after!  This was the laundry room project, the first after Joe's graduation last year.  We started around August and completely finished a couple months later.

Laundry room before:

hated the wall color and wood color

"not hideous but so not us" curtains

In progress:

notice the baby monitor on the right side of the pic... naptime = worktime!

sanding cabinet doors and drawers in 98 degree heat

Inspiration for colors:

walls and curtain material

pinned on pinterest of course

Laundry room after:

so fresh and so clean!

plain black countertop

What did we do?

We painted almost every single surface of this room... actually we did paint every single paintable surface.  The walls went gray.  The ceiling got a coat of flat white (as opposed to the glossy off-white blech that was on the walls also before.)  I swear the ceiling seemed higher just with it's new paint.

 We took off all the cabinet doors, sanded, painted and rehung them.  The counter got a coat of black countertop paint from Rust0leum. (While I wouldn't use it in the kitchen, this room was a perfect application)  The doors, trim and even the sink all got new coats of fresh white paint.

I made the curtains and hung them up high.  Add the clock in yellow and some fresh new simple knobs and we were good to go!

I think the biggest challenge of this room was all the different surfaces.  We had indoor doors, outdoor doors, cabinets, a sink and trim all in different sheens of white.  Oh, technically the ceiling too.

One more room down... many more to go!  Living room was up next...

jumping on the bandwagon

With Google Reader going away, I'm tryin something new with Bloglovin'  Just in case you are switching to bloglovin, here's your link :)

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The Triduum with a toddler

He's my little buddy and he's growing up!  We took a chance taking a toddler to Holy Thursday Mass and Good Friday service.  He seemed to just soak everything up.  We had conversations about what would happen at Church and then later a recap or acting it out on his own.


Some gems from B:

Holy Thursday Mass was constant whispering.
"See wots of Fadders?" (Lots of Fathers)

"B go up wass feet?  Take shoe off?"

Me: "Look at the servers, they're getting the altar ready"
B: "For me?"  :)

"I kiss Desus too?" whispered approx. 831 times as we waited to go up and venerate the cross on Good Friday.

When he did kiss the crucifix he gave it a good "mwah" causing the deacon to smile.

Me: "What are you doing?"
B: "I wassing der feet!  Wike fadder!"

Washing of the feet ala toddler style

B: "Wike Fadder? I way down" (prostrates himself in the play room which ends up looking more like he's "planking" :)

From a couple weeks ago: "Diss my chawice." (this my chalice) He didn't know why we thought it was picture worthy.

This morning: "Dad get you cwoss, we cawwy wike sewvoos." (we carry like servers) Also, the crosses were made of duplos.

This kid picks up alot just watching what's going on.  These are the good ones.  For example, I'm not including his, "Owr you kidding me" repeated after me while I was driving.  Oops.

Oh, and there's this that I printed out from Catholic Icing (awesome site!)  It's a Resurrection Set.  We came down Easter morning and the first thing we did was check to see if the stone was still there and Jesus body was in the tomb where we put it on Friday evening.  He was surprised to see it empty and Jesus standing on the mantel.  He kept repeating "Desus awive!"  (Jesus alive!) whenever he looked up there.  Then he went and found his Easter basket :)

I found that this little resurrection set and B helped ME take to heart just how amazing Easter is and how wonderful a thing to celebrate.  Sometimes kids help us see things with fresh eyes and in a simpler and deeper way.  It filled our desire as parents to focus on Jesus first and then celebrate like we mean it!  I mean, why have only one morning where you run down to see what amazing thing happened in the night (Christmas) when you can have two!  We SHOULD race down the stairs and be excited about what happens Easter morning! 

I hope that your celebration of Easter continues to be great!  God Bless!

Easter Morning

Happy Easter to all our family and friends!  May the Joy of Easter live in your hearts all year through.


There's only a few mornings a year where it's appropriate to have chocolate before breakfast...

See that face, it's the "I'm eating another chocolate before breakfast, mom are you ok with this?" face

Little Man

Easter duds

After Church

Easter pic

Good Friday

In case you needed something to help your meditation this Good Friday.  Hit play and close your eyes...

Thank you Danielle Rose for your music ministry!

7 Quick Takes 3-22-13

linking up with Jen from Conversion Diary...

1.  My goal of 6 posts in 6 days... done!  Sunday through today, Friday.  It was a little challenge to myself to get me back into blogging.  It worked.  I've started to think in blog posts which also means I'm grabbing my camera all day too.  I have some great posts in the works about some house projects.

2.  I love the idea of the Quick Takes but 7 seems long and Fridays just don't end up being days I sit in front of the computer and type a bunch.  Actually, I end up thinking I'll do it in the evening, which is just silly, cuz who wants to spend Friday night typing up a blog post?!  I'm living man!  I'm probably renting a movie or catching up on TV with the hubs... exciting stuff!  Tonight I have a Girl's Night though so I'm actually leaving the house :)

3. I've been doing so well with my diet and exercise since the beginning of the year and to make it to mid-March with any kind of consistency is super fantastic amazing for me.  Only, St. Pat's hit me hard and then sweet leftovers, etc.  Struggling but I'll find my way back to the wagon.  See why 7 takes is to many, I start talking about stuff like this that's only interesting to me!

4. I gotta make these faster, a picture!

This cracks me up.  We were trying on potential Easter clothes
and he ran away from me and started coloring.  Serious businessman at 2.5?!
And yes we had a little fall, thus the head wound :(

5. If you haven't read My Sisters the Saints, you should.  Just saying that I read it in 2 naptimes with lots of kleenex... just what I needed.  I can't recommend it enough.

6. Holy Week will be good for me this year, I need me some good Jesus time.

7. Speaking of Holy Week, I think I'll take a page from my friend Marie's playbook and not post next week.  I have one ready for tomorrow or Sunday but then I'll just enjoy the week and focus on the important stuff- faith and family :)

Later all!

Like Uncle, like Nephew

Ok, so when I put this original pic up on the Valentine's post I was thinking of this pic of my brother in his hawaiian duds.  Is it family resemblance or just similar expression/age? :)

And I'm throwing this one in there because my mom sent it as well and now that I have it I have to include it somehow.  Makes me think of all my pics of B and how I hope to look back at them and say "aww" when he's an amazing grown up, responsible all-around good guy like his uncle.

Toddler Eric coloring Easter eggs

Pierogi

I hope that's how it's spelled! :)  I felt so honored to join in the making of pierogi with Joe's mom, aunt and gma.  We spent a good portion of Monday morning working at it.  (I got to assemble them, a good detail task, just what I like!)  The recipe was passed down from Joe's gma's mother-in-law.  Pierogi is traditionally a Polish/Czech/Europeon dish.  (see here for more info)
I can't wait to fry them up!

filled dough

boiling

ready to freeze for a future delicious meal!

um, I thought it looked pretty...

Much thanks to my wonderful in-law family for sharing this tradition with me!!!!!!


...and I'm 4 for 4 on my blogging everyday til Friday goal!