Busy Bees

 

We ran a ton or errands yesterday. Staying busy has helped ease us into Daddy's new hours. We're all going to bed later. We have lunch later, dinner later, bath time is later, and we're shooting to wake up later. So far, the littles haven't gotten the memo :)

 

Yesterday, while we were at the mall getting our big's hair cut, I decided that I would swing by Gap- with all three kids and, simply, try on some jeans. I love their jeans. They're more expensive, but they last for years. I bought some from Old Navy a little over a year ago and now they're all ripped up and not in the good way. Plus, one of the back pockets is ripped. In the fall and winter, jeans and dresses with leggings are my mom uniform. Jeans are just easy.

You can never just swing by a store and browse with a bunch of children. It's not like they were pretending to be mannequins in the store window or hiding in the racks or anything....Nope :) Mine have their opinions about every piece of clothing I picked out. In hindsight, it was helpful. I remember going shopping with my grandmother, back in the day- when all things about me was awkward. She really taught me not to look at the size, but just focus on how it feels. It really helped to have someone there that loved me. It was a real confidence builder. Surprisingly enough, my three babies were just as encouraging and honest :) 

So, after the most crazy shopping experience ever, this is what I came home with:

 

 Always skinny jeans
The wording is awesome!

Sexy Boyfriend jeans
There is nothing sexy about these. I'm still trying to figure out why they named them that...They're my trendy mom jeans.

Red legging jeans
Because red is a neutral and I needed a fun option.

And a couple of easy tops.

I don't have many clothes and I prefer that. I purge my closet, like my house, every few months or so. I have a few things that fit right, so I stick with them, and just mix and match.

Next time, though, I'm going by myself :) 

Run 'em ragged.

 

Yesterday, we went on a picnic and went hiking. It was a wonderful day to be outside. They were in there happy place. It made for such a perfect Monday.

 

We also made a stop at the teacher supply store. In other words, I went shopping while the littles tore it up and Holden ran crowd control. The looks are now taken with a grain of salt. I got it done and that's what matters, right?
As Dane Cook says, "I did my best!..I did my best!.."
 

We've pushed bedtimes back to later. Last night was even pretty late for our usual 7 o'clockers. Since the hubby's new job hours have kicked in this week, we decided that we needed to tweak bedtimes. It's bittersweet. Bitter because the littles are still waking up at their normal before the sun, you're definitely not ready to wake up yet times. However the big is taking well to the new switch. Thanks to a loud box fan and PBS Kids, the littles keep fairly quite, once you get 'em downstairs. The key is to get to them before they can rise and shine their big brother, which seems to be our middle son's goal every morning. He loves his big brother.

It makes sense to me: go to bed later = sleep later.
We're just not there yet.



Why do they get up so early????
I better make some more coffee.

Skippers

 

Yesterday we skipped church and spent a lovely day in DC. We rarely skip, but this weekend was different, so we gave ourselves permission. We spent the entire weekend celebrating the hubby's big promotion. We soaked up our little family. We ate out, drank champagne, and talked about how much life has changed in our 9 years of togetherness. It's been a whirlwind, happy life. No year has been predictable. Just when we start to freak out and throw up "WTs," God is faithful and shows us a glimpse of His better plan.

 

 

So, today, we're looking ahead with excitement and praising God for this sweet life He's woven for our family.  

 

 

Now...How to survive the longer hours?...

Crockpot = Genius :)

To paint or not to paint

 

I had my eye on this gorgeous antique chest of drawers for about three weeks and I finally bought it a couple of days ago. It was just as beautiful in person as it was on Craigslist. Regardless, I knew I was going to paint it. Some things I will never paint. One of those things is a church pew. Someday whenever I can afford one, I will put it in my someday long entry/mudroom and I'll never let a brush touch it. Some things shouldn't be painted because you want to keep that story intact and to paint it, would change the character of the story. With that said...I just knew this chest of drawers would look even better painted.

 

 

I had a bit of trouble deciding on a color. When you're painting an antique, it would totally suck to screw it up, so that was making me anxious. So, I went with my gut and painted it in "coco" chalk paint. It was already dinged up and weathered, which made for perfection in the distressing area. I wish you could see the weatheredness (not sure if that's a word) of this piece.

 

 

 

One of the requirements I have when selecting furniture pieces, like this, for our home is that they can serve more than one purpose. If you know me, you know that I am constantly moving things around. Nothing stays in one place for long, that's for sure. Even if you're not one to change things up often, it's nice to be able to invest in pieces that can work in different places. If I were having another baby, which I am totally not- really- I would totally rock this in my nursery as a changing table. Would be darling!



 

 

And here it is. I love it. How am I going to part with this one?...

 

 

 

 

Dining Room Chairs

We finially found some lovely dining chairs on Craigslist. I couldn't believe we got six of them for such a good deal.

They ended up being much larger than I had expected, but sturdy, so they'll work. When they're all around the table, it kind of swallows it up, so I like the look of four chairs around the table better. I think I'll use the other two as accent chairs on either side of my new chest of drawers.

The chairs will be recovered. I just haven't been able to decide on a pattern. The current fabric is in good condition, just out dated. When I recover the chairs, I'll also recover the window seat and throw pillows. The room is a gray-blue color. If I could paint it again, I would. I would paint it a warm white. It's such a bright room. It's probably our favorite room in the house.

I'm leaning towards blue fabric, with maybe a yellow accent pillow on the window seat for a punch of color. I will be following the "geometric,organic, small scale" rule of thumb while combining fabrics in our dining room/homeschool room.

Here are all of my fabric choices. They are either from Warehouse Fabrics or Calico Corners.

Seat~



Slick Robin by Calico Corners.

Window seat~



Plateau Lemon by Calico Corners

 Honeysuckle by Calico Corners

Accent pillows~






And just because I adore this fabric...I probably won't use it, but I love it. It's so happy. Put a monogram on it and it would be perfect!



So there you have it- my sea of fabric choices!

Mariah Dresser Before and After

You can never take enough pictures and that's how I feel about the Mariah dresser. I know I took more pictures of her, but I just can't seem to locate them. Oh well. The ones I do have are post cleaning, so they don't do her justice.

Many of you have asked where I find the furniture pieces that I redo... My most favorite finds often come on trash day. The kids already know the drill on Tuesday and Friday mornings. They have good eyes for Mommy! I have sweet friends who spotted this dresser in their neighborhood (thank you).

At the time, I thought I would just have to re-trash it, but after lots and lots of cleaning, sanitizing, and cursing the gods, I started to see something. Most of the time, I don't know the story behind the furniture piece I am working on. I like to let my mind go as I'm painting and create a prior life for the piece. It's weird, I know, but fun. It had good bones and nice curves- which equals perfection, in my book. This dresser had a shady past with scars to show for it. One of the drawers had "Mariah" carved into it, which gave me a name for my made up story. Of course you can't see it now, but it's there. Underneath all of the pretty and fixins, there's a scar. It made me think about all my scars and stuff that made me who I am. Some pasts are shadier than others. Sometimes things happen to us that we had no control over. Other things we did intentionally at the time, never realizing they'd come back to bite us years later. With all that said, the way God's grace covers all of our imperfections is incredible to me. They're washed away, not just covered up. In that, there is no shame, just an abundance of forgiveness that will forever change us. 

Here is the dresser/buffet before:

 

 

This was my original color choice, English Yellow.

 

It looks like a dull yellow here, which would have been perfect, but in reality it was incredibly bright, even with antiquing wax. Mariah was nearly neon and I knew that wasn't what I wanted, so I decided to give her a coat of Miss Mustard Seed's Lucketts Green milk paint and I am happy with how she turned out.

 

Drum roll...

 

 

 

 

 

And here she is, full of soldiers, cowboys, and princess stuff! I'm loving all the storage space. I can't wait to paint something else in Lucketts Green! Isn't it the most happy color ever?

 

This I know.

I read the best post, this morning, by Jon Acuff. He writes the blog Stuff Christians Like and it usually has me rolling on the floor with laughter. Thanks, honey, for getting me hooked. Today's post was titled The little girl's tattoo and it really struck a cord with me. At the end of the post, he ask the question, "What's a mark you need to let go of?" And it really got me thinking...What is that one thing that I've gotten so caught up in, that I feel changed me...that I let define me? The one thing?

Acuff writes~

I wish that single event was enough to forever shake off the bad marks I’ve got on me, but it isn’t. I still doubt. I still believe the lies of the marks. I still, like lots of other Christians, forget who I am. I still give other people’s words too much power. I don’t have it all figured out. Instead, more than anything, life feels like it’s been a long series of believing that I am not who other people define me to be, I am a son of God. I am God’s work of art. And the more I have been open to believing that, the more He’s shown me it’s true.

 

 



 

I'd like to think I haven't done anything to permanently screw him up. He's three, so preciously three. So curious. Asks a million and one questions in that tiny high pitch voice that I pray I never forget. Oh so wants to please. So quick to forgive. Never holds a grudge. So tender...So very tender. I think he's still in the forgetting stage, right?...Right? I wish that I could keep my kids in a protective bubble for all time. Our house feels so safe. A window's good enough, right? I could be sure no one hurts them or tries to define them by any single thing. Mama's here. Lately I've been feeling an overwhelming responsibility to pray for their future. They're under our roof for just a blink (or until we kick them out at 18. Yes, that's how we roll)and the responsibility we have as parents to equip their minds and their hearts with the knowledge of the living God who loves them fiercely is one of the most important things I will ever do in life. I know this.

 

 

Beloved.