Memorial Monday

I'm so thankful for the freedoms we enjoy because of those who faught.

Check out an inspirational story from a war veteran.

Drops of Living Water.com

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Know When To Skip the Housework

I've heard a lot of advice recently about not cleaning my house.

* the dishes can wait, the babies can't *

* a clean house is the sign of a boring person *

* Don't cook. Don't clean.

No man will ever make love to a woman because she waxed the linoleum.*

~ Joan Rivers

* Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like 

shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. *

I was contemplating all this cleaning vs. enjoying life while drinking my coffee one morning this week.

I was definitely on the "enjoying life" side of things instead of "cleaning up after life."

Watching my young son toddle about rewarded and warmed my heart. 

The girls were occupied cleaning their room. Usually I'm doing morning chores too. 

But this morning, I heartily agreed that chores could wait. 

What could be more important than soaking up this moment?

But then I realized it was because of "chores" that this moment existed.

Without housework, the same scene would be impossible.

If the kitchen wasn't cleaned, my french press would be too dirty for my morning cup of coffee.

And my mug would be dirty too.

If the 7 loads of laundry weren't folded the night before, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair. It would be piled high with a mound of clothes instead.

If the girls didn't know how to clean their room and didn't expect the morning ritual, they wouldn't be occupied so I could read stories to just one quick-sitting boy.

If it the room hadn't been dusted and vacuumed in the last week, I would be annoyed at how dirty everything was instead of how the sunlight peered through Rem's light locks.

Chores are needed.

I think the idea is not to get obsessed with keeping a perfect house, 

but some regular cleaning and upkeep is absolutely necessary.

I like the quote, "My house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy."

Yes, there were chores waiting while I relaxed in the joy of these moments. It's never done if you have children and/or eating going on in the house.

I follow a daily cleaning list called the Motivated Moms Chore Chart (see the link in the sidebar). I didn't come up with it, but think it is brilliantly compiled. Chores are divided into small tasks that I can complete in little bits of time throughout my day. 

Everything eventually gets done and everyone is at peace. Even my dust bunnies.

Home should be welcoming and we should never be a slave to needing things perfect. Its the "Mary vs. Martha" scenario all the time. Serve/cook/clean or soak up a precious moment?

Remington started finding prizes to show me.

His grunted "words" crack us up in their complex simplicity.

Ba - bottle

Ma - Mom

Ma- more

Sha - shoe

K - kitty

Da - Dad

Th - this, what's this, hey look at that

Do you do Motivated Moms or a similar idea?

Maybe you can just get things done without a list. 

What's your method for keeping caught up so you can enjoy the moments?

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Happy Weekend

I had to share this photo by the lovely Ginny Branch (hope she doesn't mind :) Looks like the absolute picture-perfect way to spend this Memorial Day weekend! Complete with sun, water, a dock, LL Bean Tee and Sperry Topsiders.


Hope everyone has a good one!

photo via Ginny Branch. outfit: LL Bean French Sailor Tee ($29.50), Delia's Bandeau ($24.50) and Surf Short ($24.50), Rag & Bone Workwear Short ($145), Sperry Topsiders ($63.50). Read More.. Read More..

Nice For The Price

Ooo! I just discovered Fiel sandals while browsing the footwear selection at Mohawk General Store...


Incredibly cute Ariana Bohling/Rachel Comey-esque sandals. And at a fraction of the price, I might add.... I mean c'mon ladies, I am a huge fan of all Comey footwear but $345 for sandals?!? That's how much my Mars boot cost! Where do we draw the line?


Anyways, I digress... These Fiel sandals look damn nice and come in at a more reasonable $134. You can also find them here (gotta love the impulsive shoppers dream of free 2-day shipping!) Read More.. Read More..

I Heart Faces "Yellow" Challenge.

Sweet Emmaleigh.

Yellow" challenge.

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"Some scratches." A Craig's List Find.

Furniture for the basement.

I tossed around quite a few ideas for what furniture should complete the basement remodel. Reality (budget) verses my imagination (no budget) is a tough battle at times.

From a daybed with a regular mattress, inflatable couches, bean bag chairs, a $10 from the second-hand store couch that would cost $300 to recover.... I was just stumped. 

I did not want to spend much money, but I wanted the furniture to be comfortable and durable (well there goes the inflatable bean bags), suitable for the younger crowd, but also nice enough for grandma and grandpa to want to sit in too. 

Oh, and I wanted it to look classy. Too much to ask?

Last week I was reading through recent Craiglist postings and came across an ad that sounded too good to be true. 

"Nice leather couch and loveseat in good condition. Some scratches on the corner. Must sell immediately, moving."

By the time I showed the ad to Jeff, I had convinced myself that this is what I wanted. Leather. It's perfect. Durable, comfortable and the best part... CHEAP! The price was really, really good! My amazing husband was excited to check it out.

I don't want to make the all-powerful God sounds small to say that He provided my seating selection. But He did. He is a good, good God.

How else can you explain this awesome deal? Leather. Beautiful. A deal....

And a potential craft project for a craft-a-holic like myself......

Some "minor scratches" turned out to be actually really, really bed tattered corners on two sides of the couch and one on the loveseat. While the seller wasn't creapy, he was pretty delusional saying "Ya, it's not that noticeable." He was a graduating college student, so I cut him some slack.

We ended up buying the set because I sent my husband a "I can fix this, don't worry!" look across the room while we talked with the seller.

Someone probably should have had Fluffy declawed. That's all I'm saying.

The furniture is very comfortable and good quality from what we can tell. It was worth a salvage attempt!

I went to Jo Ann's and found some closely matching faux-leather-esque material for $7.

This strange fabric took well to hotglue [my hero] on the edges I turned under and Tacky glue for the larger fields.

I pried out the nail-heads and covered the whole thing in glue to the natural seam in the side of the couch. 

Hotglue held the edges down while the Tacky dried.  

This much fun shouldn't be legal.

The vengeance of Fluffy

After my leather-esque makeover

I'm really happy with the results.

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Beach Tote

It may still be a bit early to be thinking about hitting the beach (or the river in my case), but when that time arrives you are sure to see more than a few fashionable ladies toting their towels and sunscreen in woven jute bags.



Luckily these bags are pretty easy to come by at thrift and vintage stores. Although, Madewell's new version is not too shabby either...



(Bags: 1,2,3,4,5&6) Read More.. Read More..

LWD

I foresee the need for a Little White Dress this summer.

(images via Street Style Aesthetic, Elle, The Sartorialist) Read More.. Read More..

Keeping Kids' Clothes Organized

I have what I think is a good system for maintaining my children's abundance of clothes.

Can you tell?

Ehem.

Even good organizing requires maintenance. Apparently. 

If seasons did not change, children did not grow, and grandma's avoided fantastic clothing sales, well then, I could organize once and it would stay that way.

Every few months I have to get in the girls' closet and do purging, sorting, and exchanging clothes. As the above picture aptly describes....

...it was time.

I've discovered one major pitfall to keeping things organized and functional:

Too many clothes!

It isn't fair to ask a young child to keep a room and closet clean that is too full for even an adult to manage. I want my children to be able to dress themselves and put their own clothes away to keep things tidy. When children can't find anything or put anything away by themselves because drawers are too full, it's time to get rid of some things.

My main system from day to day is two bins in the closet. One for outgrown things and one for too big things. Yet every few months the drawers get too full and I find I'm having more fights with the girls about what they are wearing. 

"No, you can't wear that, it's too small."

"No, you can't wear that, it doesn't match."

It's time to go through their clothes again!

These three things help me with my very opinionated girls and their clothes:

• I edit their wardrobe without them present. When they are organizing with me, everything becomes their favorite. It's hard to find a time to get into their room without them around, but it is possible. This morning I stayed home from church with Rem because he had a fever. While he slept, it took me less than an hour to get things back to functional in the girls' closet. I keep the favorite items of clothing (unless they are completely outgrown or look too shabby) and my children are none the wiser to all the purging I did.

• Remove the "nos" from their closet (and house!). When I am saying "no, you can't wear that" too often, it's time to just get rid of that stuff. Like skirts and shorts that are too short, a crazy patterened skirt that matches nothing, and jeans that are constantly showing off the butt crack. Esentially, it gives the girls endless choices because I'm not going to say "no" to what they pick out. No battles, happy and somewhat fashionable children = happy mommy.

• Solid bottoms (pants and skirts) and patterned tops in the same general color scheme. This idea is related to the one above because it is just one more way to have the girls' wardrobe wearable. To the left is an outfit that Emma would love to wear. If you don't have a problem with crazy outfits like this, then good for you. I personally don't want the arguments... or the stares. "Solid bottoms and pattered tops" is my tip of day. (Solid bottoms does not include tights or leggings).

Camouflage (even in pink) is a solid color according to my children. I'm not arguing with that one.

I do these occasional purges when most of the kids' clothes are clean after I've done "all" the laundry. I have a good idea of what we have too much of and what is needed. 

Have you ever bought your child something (even on a good deal) and realized it was totally unnecessary. I've done this so much! Living with excess makes me feel wasteful and unwise. After I've gone through the closet I have a list of things that would be helpful in their wardrobes -- a much better feeling! And I can tell those thrifty, clothes-loving grandmas what their granddaughters need. Today I discovered that Emma has only 2 short-sleeved shirts that fit (Mandy has 14 :/). Mandy, on the other hand, needs shorts -- she has 1 pair that will fit this summer.

Labeling the drawers with names and pictures makes it easy for a 6 year old and a 3 year old to put their own things away.

I've found that three draws somewhat full for each child is plenty. Any more than that and their large closet looks like this:

Things that I am giving away go in the car immediately. Out of sight, no one goes through them again, and they are ready to donate. I purged 1 large tote full of outgrown items to give away. Anyone need 3T girls clothes (mostly winter)? I'll take them to MOPS or contact me via fb or phone.

It took me about an hour and I listened to classical music. Even though I skipped church, I felt God's blessing on me this morning. Honestly. Keeping my home peaceful (unlike the above picture) is a beautiful feeling.

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Printed Trousers

Slouchy, printed trousers - an intriguing yet difficult to pull off Spring trend. This look caught my eye last year as well, but I never found the right pair to try.



Although not my typical style, I am very interested in trying a pair (not to mention these pants often come with an elastic waistband, tailor made for wearing below the bump). I think the thing holding me back is the thought of looking like Hammer or The Dude...

Madewell ($125), Anthropologie ($88), Topshop ($76), Zara ($39.90).

Street style image via Refinery29 Read More.. Read More..