First Day of School 2014

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Jude {4th grade} and Gavin {1st grade} were so excited this morning!!

And looking so handsome.

I really really hope they have great first days!

doTERRA Essential Oils

Last week, I hooked up with a friend that I hadn't seen in a while {I worked for her for a bit during my Real Estate years}. She is on a new business adventure selling a product that she knew I'd be interested in.

I met her at the home of a stranger {how do I get myself into these situations??} for a class about essential oils. I have always loved meeting new people and one of the other guests was a childhood friend and so I actually enjoyed myself very much! :)

This is what I ended up purchasing.

This is the Family Physician Kit which comes with 10 5ml bottles including:

Lavender

Lemon

Peppermint

Melaleuca

Oregano

Frankincense

Deep Blue

Breath

DigestZen

On Guard

And a 15ml bottle of Slim and Sassy

I also purchased a 115ml bottle of Fractionated Coconut Oil {used for dilution}, the book Modern Essentials, a 10ml roller bottle of PastTense, and a cold air diffuser.

I have been making an effort over the last couple years to eliminate chemicals from our home. Combined with my growing frustration with the medical and insurance industries led me here.

I am so excited to learn more about using these oils to help my family and avoid expensive and synthetic medications!

Painted Zinc Table Top

Over the weekend I finally finished the top of my {repurposed} kitchen island. The base is the buffet from a dining room set that I purchased on Craigs List. It is one of the first pieces of furniture I painted with chalk paint. In fact it started out white but I changed my mind and repainted it. Anyway, after finishing it I debated with myself {and my husband} for weeks about what to put on top to finish it off.... we thought about granite or marble, butcher block, and for a moment I was obsessed with wrapping the top in Zinc.

Here are a couple examples of zinc countertops if you're unfamiliar with the material.

And this was the example that really had me excited. This photo is from the October edition of Country Living Magazine. The featured kitchen was *amazing* and I was hot for a zinc countertop with the rivet detail around the edges.

The problem was that I wasn't 100% sure I was going to love the island when it was finished and I knew nothing about wrapping metal and applying the rivet detail.... hmmm. 

Right before Thanksgiving I brought the painted and topless island in the house because I needed to see if I was even going to like my kitchen configured in a completely new way. {we took a big kitchen table out and replaced it with a smaller round table and island with overhang. we do not have a dining room} And since we were hosting Thanksgiving we slapped {screwed} a piece of plywood on top and I threw a table cloth over it... it made a perfect place to set out our feast. The day after Thanksgiving it went back to raw plywood... and we lived with it for months.

A little while ago I found out that a local shop was going to start carrying a new line of paint and the assortment included a zinc paint medium!! Thrilled! 

{The paint line is called Vintage Market & Design Paint Company}

I started with 1 coat of Van Gogh chalk paint in Mascara. Then I painted 2 coats of Maison Blanch's Franciscan Gray. Lightly sanded the entire thing with 100 grit sandpaper {I would have use a much finer paper but I didn't have any on hand, so I took my time} Then distressed it a bit so the darker gray would show through a bit.

I poured a bit of the zinc paint medium directly onto the board and then took a wet sponge and wiped it on in a figure 8 motion. Then I used Van Gogh's Table Top Diamond finish topcoat. Again I poured it on and used a wet sponge to pull it across the surface.

I love the way the countertop turned out and I'm really glad that I tried the zinc look. Like I mentioned, I'm still not 100% that I will keep this island forever or at least not this version of it. It feels more like a temporary fix. I like having an island in my kitchen for sure but sometimes my small table feels a little cramped. Maybe now that my countertop looks and feels so nice {remember - raw plywood}, I will be inspired to find some great barstools and my boys will use the other side of it more often. :)

8 Months old and oh so sweet!

Eli Martin is 8 months old today. He is rolling over back and forth... he loves to lay on the living room and play with his toys... he rolls all over the living room hunting for more toys.
He has 2 teeth on the bottom that were in by 5 months old and the top 2 teeth have just broken through in the last couple of weeks! He has refused baby food all together and has been eating table food for the past month! Eli is a hungry baby and he loves Mom's cooking and he also loves oranges and bananas!!
Everyone just loves our sweet little boy! He is full of smiles and laughter and he loves to watch his big brothers play.... he also lights up when ever Daddy enters the room.

It's Fun to Mess With Them

Today I hijacked Jude's iPod and purchased Hey Jude, for his name, Imagine by John Lennon, Fire and Rain by James Taylor, and Leroy Brown by Jim Croce (for Uncle Rob).

He wasn't thrilled, however, he seemed less offended when I told him that I paid for them... my treat. :)

Not so shabby shower gift

So last weekend Gavin and I went to a wedding shower for Chad’s cousin Tara. There was a mix up with the gift buying situation… Nancy, Jessica, and I were going in on something together and none of us bought the gift… oops. So at about 8:30 the night before the shower after my parents took the boys for the night (thank you!) Chad and I hit Target to review the registry… did I mention it was the night before the shower? Have you ever done this before? You know, wait so late that there is nothing left on the registry but a tent, 2 bath towels, an out-of -stock cutting board, and a few online only items. Well, we threw together a Welcome Mat, a leaf bag, a pair of pruning shears, and an extension cord!! Packaged it all in a nice big green Rubbermaid tub… and came out with a pretty darn cute gift! Tara, I hope you like it… it is all from your registry after all! J

I snagged this cute little bird right after Christmas from Earthbound Trading Company for like 98 cents. Now I wish I would have picked up 3 or 4.

Gavin wanted in on the action...

Isn't it cute for a mish-mash of left over registry items? I'm so glad we decided not to just get the queen size air matress, wrap it up, and be done with it.

-Stacy

WooHoo Jude!!

Not that anyone would be surprised by this at all (J), but Jude was the Student of the month for Mrs. Buettner’s class in December!!

The Millstadt grade schools run a program called Character Counts. There are six pillars of character... Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship. As Jude explained it, when the students in his class displayed any of these pillars, their teacher would award them a pompon. When a student collected 10 pompons, there were “in the running” for student of the month. Well sure enough, Jude did it!

The reward? This nifty sign is placed in your yard for the month so that all of your neighbors know exactly how fabulous your child is. We snapped a quick photo session:

And this is his "totally cool" pose:

And just to switch it up a bit:

And now he's getting crazy on us:

Don't ya just love him?!?! Me too.

-Stacy

Quote of the Day

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." - George Bernard Shaw

I love, love, love this one, and I remind myself of it often.

Nesting Momma

The urge to “nest” has hit hard. This blurb from an article I found pretty much sums it up...  

The Nesting Instinct During Pregnancy

The nesting instinct usually sets in around the fifth month of your pregnancy. Now some may not know what the "nesting instinct" is. This is basically the uncontrollable urge to clean your house, and generally go crazy doing all sorts of things that will prepare the 'nest' for the new member of the family.

This is a primal instinct and all the females of almost every species in the world will go through this same instinct in one way or another. …

…Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women and all of them experience it differently. Women have reported throwing away perfectly good sheets and towels because they felt the strong need to have "brand new, clean" sheets and towels in their home. They have also reported doing things like taking apart the knobs on kitchen cupboards, just so they could disinfect the screws attached to the knobs. Women have discussed taking on cleaning their entire house, armed with a toothbrush. There seems to be no end to the lengths a nesting mother will go to prepare for her upcoming arrival…

With the other two, I felt a little nesting that mostly centered on painting/decorating/cleaning the nursery. But this time I am subjecting my family (including my parents) to nothing short of a total house make-over!

I wonder if my neurosis has anything to do with my recent discovery of the Pinterest website???

The good news is: It is going very well! I keep thanking this baby boy for forcing his Mom to finally get organized!

The basement has already gone through phase I of the re-do. We have cleared out all of the most of the old furniture and junk, cleaned the carpet (Grandma – The Spotbot works wonders! Thanks!), painted all three rooms (Thank you Chad for hiring someone for this!), and moved the beds down to the Boys new bedroom!! A lot accomplished in just one week!

                               

I don't have any before pictures, but for those of you who have seen the before in person... you understand what has taken place here in such a short period of time!

The laundry room is also in mid-transformation. Actually it was the laundry room what started this whole thing… sometime right after I found out I was pregnant I realized that another child (a baby creates a LOT of laundry) means my already maxed-out laundry room might just burst at the seams. I was having nightmares.

As you can see, I needed a better system… Duh. I have forced myself into a habit of ALWAYS folding the clothes straight out of the dryer… putting them away is a whole other issue…

Sometime in early December I painted three walls and most of the floor and started to build my new folding table which is the foundation of my new laundry room haven’s design. However, in building the table (BY-MY-SELF) I made a minor mistake and it frustrated me enough that I moved on from it to concentrate on Christmas madness. I mean it stood on four legs and it served its purpose but it wasn’t perfect… which, of course, my laundry room needs to be. (nesting neurosis) So, post-Christmas I finally got Chad to correct my mistake and finish it up for me. And, last week I primed, painted, and stained the beautiful folding table….

… This table is not just a table though; it is the start of a system! That’s right a laundry system. The table holds eight baskets, four on the shelf and four on the floor. One for each member of the family with three left over for unmated socks, towels, and misc. stuff. Now the folded laundry will be sorted by person (location) and the boys (all four of them) will eventually learn to put their own clothes away given the sheer convenience of it. Yes, I hear you snickering, but a mother can dream…

Now my laundry room has a good start but it's not there yet. I still need to build/paint shelves for my food storage. Build/paint a platform for my washer and dryer. Paint fourth wall. Replace nasty utility sink. And, maybe add a few decorating details. And for the boys’ space, I am on the hunt for a dresser and some old barn wood. I will keep you posted on phase II of this basement edition of the whole house re-do!!

Stacy

I think I might start blogging...