Mish. Mosh.

Last night’s projects were….just as wonderful as I imagined! I had big hopes for what we could accomplish in two hours and after we assessed the situation I may have been slightly overzealous. We decided to tackle the two smaller furniture pieces first and took our time doing a good job. I’m so happy how things turned out and how nice and crisp the black-now-white furniture looks. I turned our mud room into the craft space and will leave everything in their to dry for a couple days so I don’t ding up the 4 coats of paint before they are fully dry. I’m already thinking what I can do tonight in my 1.5 hour block of free time that doesn’t involve cleaning the house. I’m thinking sanding more furniture!

Moses has gone #2 in the potty two days in a row! TMI? I think not! He used to #2 all the time and never pee pee but now that we are seriously training he decided to get toilet shy with the poo poo which is delaying the official diaper-to-BigBoyUndies transition. The fact that he has (on his own) headed back to the bathroom to take care of business has been a joyous occasion in our house. We reward pee pee in the potty with 1 or 2 M&M’s but we stupidly made the mistake of telling him he could get a big treat for #2 in the potty. You can imagine my surprise when I walk into the living room yesterday morning and Moses is eating half a cupcake his Daddy gave him as a reward. We’ve got to figure out a new “big” treat that doesn’t involve 20g of sugar at 8am!

In case we’re not Facebook or Twitter friends I’ll share the picture that brightened my day late afternoon. To say my afternoon turned crappy is an understatement but unexpectedly leaving work early to get Moses from school turned my frown upside down. 

House love.

As you can see there is not much free time in my 24 hour day. The “Friends or Decompress” two hour block is an either/or situation and commonly includes folding laundry while watching TV. What’s not on the chart is the rest of the laundry, anything deeper than light cleaning, grocery shopping, exercising, and running errands. The biggest things that suffer are deep cleaning, organizing, and crafting. Even though I despise some of my house décor I’ve left it the same month after month because other priorities have taken precedence. Well…craft time has come!

It started with a much needed trip to the fabric store to find my inspiration for covering the couch pillows. After that is has played out into a full on redesign. After huge success with rearranging our living room a few weeks ago (even Davy’s bachelor friends complimented how much more “homey” it felt) I’m feeling invincible with other projects. Tonight one of my best friends (and DIY lover) is coming over to start sanding, priming, and painting the next phase of the makeover with me. I honestly have never been so excited to watch piece by piece of a project come together. When it comes down to it I already own a lot of the staple pieces needed to make a house feel like a home; now they just need to be painted, covered, or re purposed to become my vision. Seeing my daily time allowance please be patient with before and after photos because it may take weeks before there is a final photo to show!

Don't Blink

It seems like just yesterday...

Time flies so fast I might just have to cry about it!

My nephew Camden started kindergarten today and it's one of those moments I need to squeeze Moses as hard as I can in hopes he never grows up.

You and I.

Don't you worry there my honey

We might not have any money

But we've got our love to pay the bills

Maybe I think you're cute and funny

Maybe I wanna do want bunnies do with you if you know what I mean

Oh lets get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France
Lets get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance

Lets get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants

From way up there, you and I, you and I

Well you might be a bit confused

And you might be a little bit bruised

But baby how we spoon like no one else

So I will help you read those books

If you will soothe my worried looks

And we will put the lonesome on the shelf

Lets get rich and buy our parents homes in the south of France

Lets get rich and give everybody nice sweaters and teach them how to dance

Lets get rich and build a house on a mountain making everybody look like ants

From way up there, you and I, you and I

It's Friday, my heart wants to explode with joy. Not just because it's the weekend and Moses are I will be spending 6 straight hours playing together tomorrow but because I'm living and breathing and thankful for life. I don't need perfection or a clean play room (that statement is an oxymoron) or the bangin' body to love and be happy. Don't get upset that the To Do list didn't get finished this weekend....love and soak in life!

But I have a promise to keep…and miles to go before I sleep

Buh but bah duh buh but bah duh Elmo’s World

Buh but bah duh buh but bah duh Elmo’s World
I love the music
I love the words
That’s Elmo’s song


Moses version:
Buh but bah duh buh but bah duh Elmo’s World
Buh but bah duh buh but bah duh Elmo’s World
I love the music
I love the LORD
That’s Elmo’s song

(A line sung wrong so precious I don’t dare correct him)
Moses is finally at the age where he is (just a little bit) computing the faith we are sharing with him. Every day at school he sings the “lunch prayer” and every night we say a personal prayer before bed. It’s important to me that he understands developing a relationship with Jesus is different than singing a repetitive prayer. We find it adorable when our toddler reminds us to pray before dinner and heart melting when he offers to pray. A good example of how the computing is still jumbled is when he thanks the Lord for our day, our dinner, and prays for the time he fell down the stairs weeks ago. He knows he wants to be thankful and he knows we ask the Lord to heal our boo boos but it’s still a work in progress. I want him to know we serve a loving God who is also our protector (especially to a scared boy in bed) and there for us at all times. What I don’t want to do and what I’m scared I do sometime is turn God into a watch dog. Finding the balance and communicating that in toddler vocabulary is tough!

I know this is one small stepping stone in the scheme of things but I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to help build a solid foundation for his life. If anyone has any practical suggestions I’d love to hear them!

As I clean up tonight's dinner pictured below (chicken rollatini from SkinnyTaste.com) I hear laughter coming from Moses' bedroom. They are reading goodnight books and during one part Davy keeps tickeling him. They're music to my ears and dinner was music to my belly. No matter how crappy my day was nothing beats this moment...

Yesterday, all my toubles seemed so far away.

Yesterday our pastor was talking about a common situation when you’re standing in line with strangers. People are so quick to talk about the negative and everyone else quickly joins in. It’s a way to find common ground and keep the awkward silence at bay. Although I kind of feel like filling the pages with negative whoa is me things, I’ll refuse. Instead I’ll do what I do often and that is talk about other, happier things.


There are some big changes going on in our house. It seems to be the topic of conversation at least 3 times a day and we are all eager for this chapter to start. I’ll talk most about it later because it deserves its own post.

Today marks the start of a newer, better, cash budget. I loosely follow a Dave Ramsey style budget now but have refrained taking out cash for most things because it scares me! Well after weekends of spending $80 on “nothing” it’s time for a change. I hope the tighter, more watched over budget will help us pay off debt faster and save more. I also hope it gives us immediate insight on our past spending habits and gets us excited about doing what’s right (not just what feels good).

Our guilty pleasure after Moses is tucked away in bed is TruBlood. I don’t like (realistic) vampires, scary creatures, suspense, or history however we can’t stop watching this show. We originally watched the first season back when it just started on HBO but have since borrowed season 1, 2, and most recently 3. It’s something we both really enjoy watching and after a long day it’s our favorite thing to snuggle up to. Sadly we should be done with season 3 in a few weeks then have to wait patiently to find out what’s going on in season 4.

Trublood is one of those things I need sometimes; something so mindless and easy to just enjoy after the day’s duties are over. The same thing goes for reading and sadly I’m lost again on what to read. I wish there was an author I loved so I could pick up book after book but I seem to be stuck on series. Any suggestions would be wonderful!