My lunch bunch

My lunch crew since 2007.

Mealtime at our house is messy.

And loud.

And busy.

Sometimes a dog sneaks in there & steals something out of a little boy's hand- Parker is smarter than the dog, the boys are working on it.

I made a joke the other day to someone- who was going out to lunch with friends- not to be jealous of me, because I got to go home & make lunch "for all these people."

We laughed. They knew I was kidding.

But as I drove home, I remembered how much fun I used to have making my toddler peeps food throughout the day. Like I'm pretty sure I loved it. And all the little things that came along with being a new stay at home mama.

It was such a sweet flood of memories.

And I really missed those days.

And then I realized, one day, I'll miss this too.

The chaos of 4 kids at mealtime.

This used to feel like such a privilege, but now seems just so ordinary. And sometimes maddening- if I'm being completely honest.

So I snapped a photo. And I'm determined to look past the loud, the mess & the dog…& find complete joy in my "sort of" simple days again.

Here's to this fabulous lunch bunch & the awesome lunches I make for them!

(just ignore the cereal bowl, corny dogs, & bottle of ketchup)

P.S.- this photo is in black & white because I'm fancy or because my floors were dirty…whatever sounds better.

Lincoln Life {Weeks 1 & 2}

Mr. Lincoln has been home for a little over 3 weeks now.

Life at home with a newborn is so sweet & simple.

Throw in 3 rowdy big siblings...not so simple.

But, still very sweet.

 His days are full of eating.

 Playing.

 Getting sweet kisses.

 Lots of controlled touching.

 Trying to stay clear of sticky fingers & faces.

:)

 Looking more adorable than ever.

 Stretching.

 Time outs to check on big, crazy brothers.

 Diaper changes.

 Peter Pan posing.

 Fire gazing (he belongs to this family, for sure).

 Swinging.

 Lots of naps.

(wish I could join him…remember the crazy siblings? Ha.)

 Sweet chats with Dad.

 Being cozy.

 And lots & lots of snuggling with mama.

Lots.

Because she knows how fast these days go & isn't letting one snuggly moment slip by.

A story about purple swirl countertops

This is the story about how we made this:

From this:

When we moved into our house, it was brand new.

We live in a subdivision made up of new homes that you can pick & choose what kind of home you want from your particular builder.

We bought ours already built, which meant we chose nothing, but got a "deal" on our pre-existing home.

That meant, we won the prize of purple swirl countertops.

And light wood cabinets.

And gray swirl linoleum.

We had a lot of work on our hands.

The countertops were our last project to make our kitchen more homey & more our taste.

But they're expensive.

We had decided to go for butcher block & were ready to buy & install it.

Then I found this,

and showed Mitchel (we were also in the market for a backsplash), who surprised me by saying, we could totally make countertops from yardsticks.

You serious?

He was. And after a little research, we knew it would work.

Demo began & injured us both.

Laminate is sharp!

He actually trimmed our island.

It used to hang over on the side you can see.

It was HUGE.

Now, it's not ginormous, & feels much more appropriate.

Also...ignore that messy kitchen.

Yikes. That's the worst part of projects...the mess.

After the laminate was pulled off, we (more he- I was the kid wrangler) glued & clamped down yard sticks.

Gorilla glue is fascinating.

I would never want to accidentally glue something together with that.

I think it would be stuck, for like, ever.

All the yardsticks were glued down with that stuff.

We weighed them all down with clamps & heavy books to get a good tight fit.

They might not ever come off.

He had a good rhythm going.

Gluing turned out to be fun & easy.

Then came the sanding.

With Minnie Mouse sunglasses.

He's a nut.

And, yes, our house was covered in sawdust.

Once he moved off the island, we jerry-rigged an enclosed space with plastic sheeting to keep it all in "one" place. I'm still finding saw dust in random places.

Oh well.

All for a good cause.

After all that sanding was done, we painted polyurethane over it all, lightly sanded, then painted another coat. We did that again, & ended up with 3 coats of polyurethane.

Then we got to add a subway tile backsplash, thanks to the fact that yardstick countertops are waaaay cheaper than most other countertop surfaces:).

It feels so much brighter & cheery.

I like to think we're bright & cheery.

:) Most of the time.

We decided to sand most of the numbers & words off, but to leave just a hint of what that wood actually is.

I like how it turned out.

It's got character baby.

I guess purple swirl countertops have character too.

But we like this character a lot better.

Now if we could just find a way to buy yardstick appliances...

just kidding.

Come into my home :)

We're project people.

I'd never really thought about how often we have a project going until here recently.

I discovered...we ALWAYS have a project going, or in the works.

I used to think that once I got a room JUST the way I liked it, I'd never change it again.

I was wrong.

I change my mind....a lot.

But thanks to the many blogs I am hooked on, we've discovered the fun, joy, & budget friendly way of "re-purposing."

SO fun.

That brings me to our new entryway...

Some of you have been in our home once or twice, or many times before.

You may not have ever noticed anything about our entryway.

But I noticed it everyday.

There aren't any windows. It's dark.

I wanted it to be bright & friendly.

After all it's the first & last room people see.

Sorry, these first few pictures are really terrible.

Super blurry.

Oh well.

This is our old bench/shelf unit. We loved this thing when we bought it from Target.

Then I started to be not so crazy about it...so we tweaked it a bit.

Now I LOVE it again...only it's 2 pieces now.

In 2 different rooms:).

And a different color...

Our new entry.

See how dark it is?

But with the yellow & white it feels sunny to me.

To me...that's what matters, right?:)

The once black frames befriended a fresh coat of spray paint.

And so did a few more frames.

The shelf, table, lamp, & chairs are all repainted.

The chair cushions are also recovered.

Did you know IKEA has really cool fabric?

We made the print on the wall, too.

It was way easy...except, be sure you have the CORRECT words before painting them on.

Grr. GRANT should be GIVE.

I'm just...you know...changing up the Word of GOD.

Hmm.

Alright. Have Christmas decorations, a baby birthday, Thanksgiving food, & stuff with my kids to plan.

I love the holidays. :)