An Intentional Year

Have you ever had an idea and felt like the next moment you turned around someone was copying you, even stealing your idea? You think of an outfit that would be cute to wear and the next place you go, you see several people wearing it. You think of a unique baby name that is just SO original, no one else would EVER think of using it and then you meet a parent who has a new baby and there you go – there’s your original, unique name. This happens to everyone. We are all influenced by social media, name brands, television and the list goes on. It’s not surprising that our new, original, unique idea is exactly inline with well… basically everyone else’s. Which is exactly why most of us are currently filling trash bags with unwanted clutter and clothes, organizing our kitchen utensil drawers and standing all of our shirts, which are folded in thirds, up on their sides in our drawers. Thanks Marie Kondo… 

I have this hunch that our new laundry folding technique isn’t the only thing we all currently have in common. We are all feeling similar struggles, we are all trucking through similar trenches and we are climbing similar hills. For weeks (months if I am being honest) I have had the idea for this post brewing in my mind, this post about the New Year. I have struggled to find the time to get the thoughts and ideas down on paper… err my computer screen, but at last, here I go. 

Oh, time… what a double edge sword you are. Time is truly a force that can’t be reckoned with. No matter the effort, you will never outrun time. When talking about my children and time, I have often said something along the lines of “I wish there was a pause button,” “I wish they would stop getting older” or “I wish I could freeze time, right where we are.” Although I honestly have those thoughts, the truth is, I could never actually push that “pause button”… if such button happened to exist. I want to turn the page on their lives, our lives, and see what the next adventure is. In the same moment, it pains me to think about never being able to turn the pages back. Once the pages are turned, they are just that. It makes me think of a that blog post was floating around on social media a few years ago about how we only get 18 summers with our children before they are “grown.” This post does an amazing job at making you feel inspired to make the most of your children’s summers. I was on fire the summer after I read it. I was squeezing in all kinds of activities, making a summer bucket list happen, and skipping all sort of chores around the house so I could try to soak up as much “summer time” with my kids. It was a fantastic summer but the days didn’t move any slower. The pages just kept turning and I would even go as far to argue, they turned even faster. The author, Rebecca Cooper, wasn’t telling us how to make our summers last longer, she was wise enough to know that was a waste of energy, her big push to us was to make the summers count. 

So back to my New Year’s Resolution… or idea… or maybe it’s a goal? No matter what we call it, my focus for 2019 is to live, especially parent, more intentionally, purposefully and connected and I believe the key to that is the way we use our free time. Just like Cooper’s “Eighteen Summers,” I’m not here to tell you how you can get more free time but I am here to point out a few ways we can make the most out of the free time we already have – how to make it really count. I know I am not the only one hoping for this in the New Year. I have come across several social media posts where people are describing these similar feelings and hoping for a more intentional 2019 as they set new life rules for themselves. They must also be feeling the lack of quality with their free time and the burden of technology that I feel at times. 

Oh the smartphone… don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone but I’m going to be honest, most days I think it might hurt me more than it helps me. I love how efficient it has made me. I pay bills faster, I respond to emails sooner and stay more connected with friends, all because of my iPhone. Im getting more things done but Im starting to wonder at what cost – what have I given up without even realizing it? I often have to “hide” my own phone from myself. Yes, you read that correctly. I put my phone on top of the fridge a few times a week in order to get my to-do list done. I feel like a child even admitting that but it is just necessary sometimes. If I don’t hide it, I find myself spending 10 minutes here and another 10 minutes there looking at useless internet junk. I know I am not the only one… what starts as an email check, leads to a weather report check, which leads to a Pinterest check, which leads to me deciding on a new house project (that I don’t need), that then leads me to figuring up the cost of that said house project and then… wait… I don’t think I actually ever responded to that work email… and the cycle continues. A few weeks ago, my husband and I turned a show on to watch and then while it played in the background, we both stared at our phones. Once I realized what we were doing, I couldn’t help but question how we spend some of our free time. 

A few mornings a week I take my son to preschool and then take my girls to their school, which starts about 30 minutes later. I try to get some productive things done during that small window of time. I drop off recyclables, I return library books or squeeze a quick car wash in. Most often, we still make it to their school about 15 minutes before the bell rings. Sometime before Christmas, it dawned on me that most days I was pulling into the drop-off line, putting the car in park and pulling out my phone. I cringe as I type this… I get 15 uninterrupted minutes in the car with my 3 sweet girls before they part from me for hours and I was spending it on the phone. AND even worse it was usually to look at social media, where the majority of people are posting pictures of their kids. I was not talking to my kids so I could look at pictures of other people’s kids. As of the New Year, I have been putting the phone down, even turning the radio off, and enjoying more “car conversation” with my kids. Don’t get me wrong, my kids and I talked plenty before but I certainly am not upset about even more uninterrupted time with them. When they are grown and have moved out from underneath my roof, I know I won’t be saying “Man, I wish I had pinned more stuff on Pinterest.” I do have a feeling I will remember some of these car conversations though. 

I got my sister and I each a sign in December for our houses that says “Be Still.” It is to remind us to do just that – be still in the moments and soak them up. These days of young children and all the busyness that comes from that is what we wanted for so long. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in homework, work schedules, meals, bath time and bed time that you almost start to run on auto pilot. 2019 is a new start for taking each day in as it’s own page – this day, with all that it has to offer, will never come around again – surely we will miss something if we are staring at our phones. If we put down the phones, iPad, or screen of your choice and fill that time with something more meaningful, I think more quality free time will leave us with a sense of better balance. AND that’s just the start…

Tidying up our closets and getting rid of some of your junk (Thanks Marie!) is also a great start to having less “stuff” to distract your eyes and your mind. Clutter prevents my brain from settling down, which I know prevents me from enjoying family time. I am famous for saying “just a minute” for 20 minutes while the family waits on me to watch a movie. I have one of those brains that can’t relax and enjoy an activity if I see dishes in the sink, laundry that needs to be done, a rug that needs to be vacuumed… I am woking on letting some of those things go. The truth is there will always be laundry, there will always be dishes, there will always be something out of place and then there will always be some more laundry – there just seems to be so much laundry. I can’t prevent us from having dirty dishes and laundry that needs to be washed but I can get rid of toys we don’t play with, piles of old magazines, old decor I took down and never hung back up, books we read and don’t plan on reading again and don’t even get me started on DVDs. I have always loved the freeing feeling I get from donating our family’s unwanted/unneeded stuff. Continuing this, possibly simplifying the contents of my house even more, is certainly a must do. Reduce and let go in 2019 for more peaceful free time. 

Clean up your inbox. I’m famous for letting my inbox grow to an unmanageable number of emails. I certainly cannot respond to work or school emails in a timely fashion when they are hidden amongst 400 other emails. I am trying extra hard to check my inbox more frequently as well as actually deleting the read or unwanted emails. To take that a step further, I have recently taken the time to unsubscribe to emails. I have to do this a couple times a year, especially after christmas. When you order things online you often have to start with giving them your email address to set up an account and then you are on that retailer’s email list. After all the online christmas shopping I did, my inbox was way out of hand. Take a minute and scroll to the bottom of all those emails and click “unsubscribe.” DON”T WORRY you will not miss the advertisements! First of all, there is ALWAYS a sale going on. Secondly, do you really need more suggestions on things to buy? The answer is no – we are currently cleaning our closets out, not trying to add unnecessary stuff to them. Clean out your emails in 2019 so you can relax more when free time is presented. 

Read a book. I know this one sounds simple but the truth is it’s becoming something I do less and less. I read plenty – this week alone,  I have read about pesticides on our food, Costco and it’s declaration to stop selling Round Up, whether or not it’s fair that Adam Levine can perform a Super Bowl Half Time Show shirtless but a female can’t, which then lead to me reading about the infamous Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake “wardrobe malfunction” of 2004 and then I read a bunch about Sally Rides, the first American woman in space, while helping my daughter on a school project. Reading is not my issue, its just the lack of reading from an actual book. Reading a book, with it’s pages in yours hands and the lack of a bright light to stare at, just feels different. It’s relaxing in a way that reading on screen will never be. In my efforts to reduce our stuff and our budget, I rarely buy books and I have cancelled all my magazine subscriptions but now I find myself missing written text on pages. I believe a more relaxing end to the day, the kind that comes from reading a book, can lead to a better night’s sleep. A well rested night always makes me more patient and understanding with my family (and really anyone else!). Go the library, check out books, admire them on your nightstand and enjoy their content and raise the standard of your free time in 2019.

Don’t put off until tomorrow, what can be done today – easier said than done but oh so wise. I can easily put together a mental list of things I have been saying I am going to do for awhile now and yet, there those things are, still just ideas on a list. Heck this blog post alone has taken me 2 months to complete. I have pledged to make this New Year the year I quit procrastinating. In the month of December I said the phrase “I have always wanted to….” at least 3 different times and I was talking about 3 different ideas. Why not just do those things? I recently completed a project in my house that I started 4 years ago. The project was not hard and it wasn’t expensive. The next time I hear myself saying “I have always wanted to…” I am going to immediately move that item to the top of my to-do list. Checking things off my list that have been lingering around in my mind for awhile makes me feel like I deserve to sit around and enjoy free time with my family. Don’t put things off to the next day in 2019 or you may feel like you never have free time. 

Let’s write more in the New Year – the reasons why seem endless. I recently ran across some old notebooks from college. It was fun to thumb through them and read not only the notes that I had taken in class but also the doodles in the margins on my notebooks. One thing I was surprised about was my handwriting. It was by far neater than any grocery list I have recently scribbled – it made me really think about how much I currently write compared to the past. I am not sure about you but I just don’t do much pen on paper writing anymore. When my children were born, I went with journals that had just lined paper inside them instead of traditional baby books. It was an idea I stole from my mother-in-law and I love it. I love when my mother-in-law pulls out her journals for her boys (each child having their own journal) and reads parts of them to the family – I want that for my children too. The idea would certainly work better if I took the time to write in them far more than I have.

I only keep cards that have handwritten messages in them and I mean more than a sentence. What if we ditched cards all together and just did handwritten notes… don’t get me started on the price of a card. A handwritten note always means much more to the person receiving it. That amazing Facebook post for your child’s birthday – write that down in a card to them, same goes for that shout out to your significant other. In a world of digital, it will mean so much more for that special person in your life to have a tangible note written on paper to look back at in 20 years from now. Handwritten notes will become such a novelty compared the digital lives we all live. So whether it’s for better handwriting or to put more original thoughts and meaning on paper — lets start writing more in 2019 and add more meaning to your free time.

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I can tell you right now I will still look at Instagram in the preschool carpool line as I wait alone to pick up my son. The next time I see a funny meme on Facebook, I will most likely repost it and tag my sister. I know for a fact, I will pin a dozen home projects on Pinterest this year (possibly this month) but I have set a goal to do all of these things a little less this year and not when I am in good company. I’m going to make an intentional effort to balance my smartphone time with plenty of face-to-face conversation with my family, hopefully read some new things, write some meaningful notes and it would be pretty amazing if I could do it all while my inbox is somewhat up to date.

If we can implement these changes, we can create quality free time – whether you have hours of it or 20 minutes a day. I have a feeling if we focus on a healthy balance to it all, the connected feeling that we desire in the New Year will follow – So heres to an intentional year for us all…

DIY Light Fixtures

When it comes to a piece of furniture or a rug, I purchase it intending to keep it forever – those items are investments. When it comes to smaller things, light fixtures, wall paint or art on the wall – I’m fully aware that I change them far more frequently than my husband enjoys. The way I look at it is, everyone has a thing! My husbands really cares about cars – our cars, new cars, old cars. He likes talking about them, he likes reading about them, he likes working on them. Decorating is my cars – I like talking about it. I like reading about it. I like doing it. New light fixtures, wall paint, and art on the walls are easy ways to refresh or update a house without breaking the bank. I love my house and I like to keep it looking nice. Call it a waste, call it unnecessary etc. Everyone has a thing – I don’t buy a lot of clothes, we rarely eat out, and we don’t spend a ton on traveling – keeping my house a space I like to be in is my thing.

Our house has 21 light fixtures in it. Yes, I counted… we have 21 fixtures in the part of the house that we use. (There are another 2 rooms we don’t use but that is a whole other post – seriously, I am already working on it.) I am going to be honest, we can’t buy a new light fixture every time I want to replace one. If it sounds like I am making fun of myself for how often I want to change thing like lights, I am.

I think I do a decent job coming up with creative decorating ideas. Sure, there have been a few times I have failed – I tried to stain a seagrass ottoman from Ikea once… my husband came home and asked why the ottoman looked like it had caught on fire… When you take out the occasional fail, most of the time I impress myself with how much I can do with a small budget and some elbow grease.

I love the light I made for our bedroom. We had an old brass foyer light. I honestly can’t remember where we got it from. I think it came out of a house my husband did some work in. My husbands occasionally brings home things he gets from jobs to check and see if I want it for a project first. He knows the way to my heart. This brass light he brought home reminded me so much of the light my parents had in their foyer when I was growing up – their house house was built in 1987. I removed the glass from it and spray painted the fixture with a can of dark spray paint. I used Rust-Oleum Flat Metallic Spray Paint in Burnished Amber – it is dark like oil rubbed bronze metal but has a hint of brown in it which I think gives it good texture.  I am very pleased with the results of the light. Brass is coming back in style and I actually really dig it but oil rubbed bronze was the right shade for our calm muted bedroom.

 

 

The current light in our kitchen is also one I made. It was made from a bathroom vanity light. I like the results so much that I did it a second time to make a light for our foyer. I started with a 3 bulb bathroom vanity light just like this one – the light I used for the kitchen was just like the one in the link – same brand and color, and removed the glass sconces.

This is what the light in our foyer looked like to start with.

I then removed the center bulb. The entire metal piece where the center bulb is screws completely off. You can then pull the wires out for the center bulb. Each bulb has its only wires that run from the ceiling mount to the bulb socket.

Next, I turned the two remaining metal pieces (which have plastic bulb sockets in them) so that when you mount the light, the bulbs are facing down. One side turned easily for me. The other side was screwed on very tightly. I tried very hard to get it to turn, I eventually had to ask my husband to do it and he got it to turn using pliers. If you feel like the end pieces won’t move for you, keep tying. They may be on tight but the light is assembled by screwing those end pieced on so they will move. The light I used for the kitchen was already oil rubbed bronze but I used the same Burnished Amber spray paint on the silver one for my foyer. That’s it! It is now time to just mount your light to the ceiling using the regular mounting hardware and directions that the light came with. The only thing we have left to do is touch up our ceiling where the new light has a much smaller base. Ceiling paint is now on the list!

Foyer Light

Kitchen Light

You now have an industrial, simple, exposed bulb fixture (which you have been seeing everywhere lately). Bathroom vanity lights aren’t too expensive and if you are like me, you might already have some lying around!

Good luck if you decide to update some of your own light fixtures! Post pictures if you do!!!

 

 

 

 

Let’s bring back the Pot Roast!

Ummm pot roast, I just love it. Yes, it’s not fancy, it’s not sexy, but it’s so good! When you mention a pot roast for dinner you might get the same reaction I would get if I were to tell my kids we were having meatloaf for dinner. It’s not a very exciting reaction because… it is a loaf of meat and no one tried to hide that when they named it.

I think the pot roast generation is dying out and most likely for many reasons. It sounds like something that my grandparent’s generation would have made for Sunday dinner or would have prepared for a dinner party, something that would feed a crowd. It sounds time consuming – something you would need to check on multiple times or braise with drippings (I don’t know if people do that, but that is what I picture when I think pot roast). I also think people assume you need a detailed recipe and they don’t have one. I am not old, I cook for 6 people, not 16, and I don’t have a detailed recipe but occasionally I crave a pot roast for dinner because it’s classic, comforting and can be cooked in a crockpot – all of those are reasons we need to bring back the pot roast!

You can make a pot roast with basically any cut of meat. I am no expert on meat but I am telling you from experience that I have used several cuts and it always turns out well. You are just slow cooking meat with veggies – so use whatever meat cut you feel like eating. Slow cooking tends to give you a more tender meat so often people suggest using a tougher cut and saving the more expensive, tender cuts for things like steaks. Whether it’s beef or venison, a shoulder (chuck roast) or hindquarter (rump roast), you are good!

We eat venison. I put that out there like a blanket statement because I know there are people that are completely turned off by this. If that is you, it’s completely fine! I realize that it may seem gross if you aren’t use to it. I grew up eating it, my dad still gives me venison and I have a couple of brother in laws that kindly give us venison also. If I had to guess, I would say we eat it once a month. It is a very lean red meat that makes a great roast. Using it for a pot roast helps hide that gamey taste most people complain about with venison. If it’s not your thing, just use beef!

I soak all venison over night in vinegar water (thanks for the tip dad!) to help draw any blood out and soften the meat. It a very hands off step that only takes a minute. Fill a pot with water, add a couple splashes of white vinegar, add your meat and soak over night in the fridge. The next day you are ready to prepare your roast.

I can set my crockpot with a roast in the morning and be done with it until it’s time to eat – I love this!! Here are the steps I followed for my last pot roast. I just did what felt right and it turned out great!

After soaking my cut of meat over night, I placed it in my crockpot. I don’t have any exact amounts for you because you don’t need them – a crockpot roast is very forgiving BUT if you are a “numbers” person, I’m guessing my roast (a deer hindquarter) was about 2 lbs. It had already been cut from the bone – shout out to my brother in law for being awesome!

 

Next, I added my veggies, I used a couple handfuls of purple potatoes because… well, they are purple!  I grabbed them from the store because I knew my kids would find them exciting and they offer more vitamins than white potatoes – they are 4 times higher in antioxidants! The purple potatoes were fun but you can use white, red, sweet – whatever you choose. I cut my potatoes in half.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I added a few handfuls of carrots and a splash or 2 of chicken stock (roughly 1/2 cup). You can add any liquid of your choice – water with bullion, broth etc. I use chicken stock because I tend to keep it on hand. You can make your own stock from leftover chicken. The 100 Days of Real Food Cookbook by Lisa Leake gives awesome, easy instructions on how to make your own stock from the leftovers of a whole cooked chicken. I have done it a few times and loved the results but I keep store bought on hand. Costco’s store brand chicken stock is awesome and has a nice, whole food ingredients list (no sugar or MSG added) and so does the the brand pictured below – Kitchen Basics. I buy both and both are priced comparable to other brands available.

Next I added some seasonings – a couple dashes of garlic powder, a dash of onion powder & a pinch or 2 of salt. I just happen to use Pink Himalayan Salt (it’s higher in minerals) because I had it.

You can use any salt and add enough to taste, you can always add more after it’s done cooking. After you add your spices, you are done!

How beautiful! Love the colors!

 

I set my crockpot on HIGH for 6 hours because that is what I had time for. The meat turned out very tender. If you want to set this before work or are going to be gone all day, you could cook it on LOW for longer (8 hours). Either way, my crockpot, I’m sure others also, go from the “cook” setting to “warm” to keep it ready to eat until meal time. The roast was delicious, my kids enjoyed it and we had enough for dinner and my lunch the next day. Simple ingredients, 10 minutes of hands on time and you have a hot, homemade, delicious meal! Enjoy!

Spring Refresh

We have been busy, busy, busy here at THE Farmhouse. Spring has brought Farmhouse projects, more work at our rental house, seed starting, broken bones, doctor appointments (yes! Matthew shattered his wrist!) birthday parties, LOTS of baby cows here at the farm, Easter and Spring Break! Most days it feels like we are adding to our “to-do” list faster than we can check things off – I know I can get a few Amens!

 

 

 

In the midst of our busy life, the occasional warm day we have had recently had me inspired to spruce up our porch. We had our annual Easter Egg Hunt with my husband’s family on the books and as embarrassed as I am to admit it, I still had my winter wreath on my front door… no joke. It’s April and our front door was adorn with a dried up boxwood wreath I made in December… I did not take a picture of it and you should be glad, it was bad.

I’m sure several of you have seen those ADORABLE gold metal hoop wreaths on Pinterest – I have pinned several. I figured it could be a easy, simple project for a QUICK update before we had 10 adults & 8 children (plus our family of 6!) over for an Egg Hunt in the front year.

A trip to Joann’s and $15 gave me all the supplies I needed to tackle the project.

SUPPLIES:

–Gold 12″ Craft Ring – $3 at Joanns and that price beat Amazon! 

-Fowers of choice – I spent about $10 for 5 faux flowers and some faux lambs ear 

-Floral Wire – I had some but searched and searched and could not find it… I was pleased it was only $2 at Joanns! 

-Wire cutters (I had these) Most needle-nose pliers have a flat spot on them for cutting wire.

-Ribbon or Hook of choice – I used some pink cloth trim I already had. 

To start, I used small sections of floral wire to fix my green pieces (faux lambs ear) to the metal ring/hoop. I used wire cutters to trim off the bottom section some of each greenery/flower stem so the wreath wouldn’t be too bulky.

Ignore our wood floors that need to be refinished – it’s on the list… our very long list…

After I added all the greenery I wanted, I started on the flowers using the same method.

After I added the flower above, I went on to add 2 more large blossoms and 2 small “buds.” The whole thing took me about 15 mins! I grabbed a couple new boxwoods from Lowe’s ($15 a piece) and popped them into resin pots I already had. I LOVE BOXWOODS!! My porch had been pretty bare since I took down my Christmas decorations – for $45 my porch is spruced up but still looks simple – I LOVE simple when it comes to decorating. Less is more… unless it comes to lights & ornaments on a christmas tree – in that case, more is MORE fantastic!

 

I am very pleased with my spring porch update! The ORIGINAL door of THE Farmhouse is still hanging in there but it’s old, drafty and needs to be replaced. The house needs to a fresh coat of paint and eventually I want TWO lights on either side of my front door 🙂 UNTIL then my new spring wreath and fresh boxwoods are helping me enjoy our front porch yet another season. Also, the weather was a little dreary BUT our Egg Hunt went off without a hitch and another year was enjoyed by all.

You can see how I had the wreath hung sideways for the Egg Hunt – Afterwards I changed it so the flowers were at the bottom. I enjoy it this way more.

 

Happy Spring!

I decided to tear my pantry apart…

My kids were on their fourth … maybe fifth snow day in a row this winter and I decided to tear my pantry apart. I love a good snow day just as much as my kids do. I love that a snow days means there are no school lunches to pack, no rushed breakfasts, no school outfit arguements and most of all we get the day together. I LOVE having my kids home with me. Yes, the kids fight… and yell… and even cry but when we are all home together I feel like I have all the pieces to my puzzle and that feels good. My kids had several snow days this winter. We enjoyed every one of them but after a few days of us all at home, I was getting the itch for a project. It drives my husband crazy but I thrive on having a “productive” day. IT IS NOT HEALTHY AT ALL, but I usually measure how great of a day I personally have by how much work I get done that day – I’m working on changing this but as of right now, this is how it works for me. SO in January we had been cooped up in the house for a few days just the kids and I, my husband Matthew was back at work, and that is when I decided to tear out our pantry…

THE Farmhouse’s current kitchen cabinets were made in the 60’s by my husband’s grandfather and a local man that made cabinets in the county at the time (I know he told us the man’s name at one point but I honestly can’t remember it) I do remember Matthew’s grandfather said the man had a cabinet shop and he helped the man complete the cabinets. I found this old picture of THE Farmhouse Kitchen from when we first moved in – notice the large bushes growing in front of the windows. This is how most of the downstairs windows were.

THE Farmhouse’s cabinets are great – they are plain, simple and wooden which I feel like makes them timeless, classic cabinets. Inside the cabinets, all the sections connect, meaning there are no dividers on the inside. All the cabinets (and their contents) run together on the inside, this is the only thing about the cabinets I can’t stand. The lack of dividers creates a bit of a mess inside, things sort of shift around, especially in the pantry section.

The pantry was three large doors (far right of the above picture) that all opened in the same direction (unlike a set of french doors). Above the main pantry space was another 3 smaller doors that worked the same way. The pantry was also pretty deep. The arrangement of the pantry often resulted in lost or overlooked items. I had been wanting to redo it for some time and the the fourth snow day in a row just seemed like the right time to start, so I grabbed a hammer and a small saw and started!

My husband got home when I had half the pantry torn out. We currently had a couple other projects half done so to keep him calm about me starting ANOTHER project, I told him the pantry project was all on me… even though I really didn’t know what I was doing yet. It took me about a week to tear all the existing doors and shelves out of the pantry. During this time, we were living with all our food/pantry items in laundry baskets in the kitchen… The situation was driving me crazy, driving the kids crazy and I know it was driving my husband crazy even though he never said anything about it.

Once I got the entire pantry area removed, I gave it all a coat of bright white paint. When we moved into THE Farmhouse, all the cabinets, trim and ceilings were painted a creamy off white color. I spent the first year we lived here painting all of it white. I never painted  the back of the pantry (as you can see in pictures). To finally put a nice coat of white paint on the the pantry felt good.

At this point, I finally asked my husband for some help. I explained what I envisioned for shelving. My husband helped with the measuring, did the cutting and we started putting the shelves in – the fun part! I decided on three selves at the bottom that are the full width of the pantry space. Above the full width shelves, we did shelves that were only half the width of the space going all the way up to the ceiling. I figured out the distance I wanted my shelves spaced. We measured cereal boxes! No joke – one of the things I really wanted was to have cereal boxes that could fit upright – we had to lay them on their side in our old pantry.

 

For the shelves we used 2×12 yellow pine boards. The three bottom shelves (the ones full width are 2 boards). The boards are nailed into place resting on 1×2 inch wooden brackets nailed to the sides of the pantry. As it’s going together, the new pantry space is starting to look like a hutch, or piece of furniture built in to my cabinets and that is what I like the most about it!

When the shelves were done, I sanded them and stained them in a medium shade. I went with a stain we already had – Minwax Early American. We used this color on a built-in bench we have in our house and I really liked that it matched THE Farmhouse’s original stairs so I decided to use it again on the pantry. After the stain dried, I lightly sanded any rough patches one more time and then I decided I would wax the new shelves. I LOVE wood wax or waxing paste – I used this one.  Wood Wax protects wood from moisture, it’s quicker than applying a polyurethane coat (the dry time is a fraction of the time) and it gives your finish product a dry looking finish that I really like. Wood Wax or Finishing Paste is not recommended for areas with heavy traffic but it’s perfect for projects like my pantry shelves.

To complete the look of the pantry we mounted glass doors on the front. We had a set of glass french doors that came from a house Matthew had done some work on years ago. We were able to cut them down to fit the pantry opening. My favorite part was that we were able to do an inset mount (flush mount) on the doors so it gives the pantry a clean built-in look. The doors were slightly shorter than the pantry space so we had to mount a header board at the top. I actually like the look the board at the top gives the pantry. The pantry truly looks like a hutch that was built in to our kitchen and was always there.

I can finally easily see and get to all of our pantry items. I have plenty of space for all our food as well as other pantry items (table cloths, crock pot, food scale, party dishes etc). I have baskets at the bottom for potatoes, granola bars, school lunch items, paper plates etc. Eventually I might get larger matching glass jars for all my baking items. We are now finding a new place for our trash can (we are going to do a pull out one in another location), I need to caulk the top board we added, give it another coat of paint and we are working on mounting a board at the bottom to take the kick plate out of all the kitchen cabinets. I am very pleased with the way we re-did the space and made it more functional. Another project is checked off our list for updating THE Farmhouse!

CHECK OUT THE SIDE BY SIDE BEFORE & AFTER!!!

 

 

 

Budgets, Meal Planning & TWO Quick Dinner Recipes

2018 is going to be our year for BIG things – if I say it out loud then it helps me make it happen. We have set some big goals. We came up with a new budget for the year. We are working hard to pay some things off. We are working hard to rent/sell a house. We are going to work hard on some Farmhouse projects… and the list goes on. Most of the goals we have set rest on the idea of us sticking to our budget. Without the budget, the rest of the goals just fall flat. The main way we are going to make our budget work (and stick to it) is by gaining control of our grocery bill, our largest monthly expense. This is something I have worked really hard on for a while now and we are slowly making progress. I could do a whole post on budgeting (I most likely will) but for right now the biggest tip I have  is MEAL PLANNING. If you have a “number” you are trying to keep your monthly grocery expense under, I am not sure that can be done without meal planning. In addition to that, meal planning just keeps my life more organized and who would pass that up?

March’s Menu planning… and some Cycle Routine writing thrown in there.

For as long as I can remember, I have planned seven dinners and gone grocery shopping once a week. New for 2018, I am planning our meals a month at a time and it has already made a huge difference. It takes me only 5 minutes, maybe 10 minutes if I’m on Pinterest awhile. Now that I have “monthly meal planned” for a few months (I just filled in March’s Menu yesterday) I have learned a few things. When I meal plan for the month, instead of the week, I can see the bigger picture. The menu flows, staggers and stays interesting. There are several meals we have in heavy rotation – tired and true recipes we all enjoy. I fill those meals in FIRST on my monthly menu, skipping about a week before filling that same meal in again. “Salmon & Veggies” is one of our most go-to meals. I make sure it’s on the calendar about every 5-7 days. I just keep filling in the days with our regular go-to meals: spaghetti, steak & veggies etc.

Wednesday is always our busy night. I teach a 6pm Cycle class on Wednesdays, my kids had basketball practice on Wednesdays, and as soon as basketball ended one of my kids started staying after school on Wednesdays for another activity. For whatever reasons, it  just seems to stay our crazy evening. We are often eating at 7pm on Wednesday nights. I like to rotate the same 2 easiest dinners on our busiest night. Those recipes are Easy Chicken Tacos and Grilled Cheese & Tomato Bisque. (Recipes at the bottom!!!)

Once I fill my Wednesdays in, I am usually left with a spot or two a week to fill in. I add some meatless meals because they tend to be cheaper meals, most people consume more animal protein than needed and it also helps mix things up. Blueberry pancakes, Quiche and homemade pizza are meatless meals our whole family enjoys.

I normally always end up with one random spot left so I fill it with a new recipe we have never tried (thank you Pinterest!). I normally seem to always have a recipe I have pinned that we have never actually tried so I use this as a chance to try those recipes. This helps keep things interesting and we might find a meal that becomes a new favorite. If you decide to try a new recipe, try to select once that has ingredients you either already have or already need to buy for another recipe. You can easily ruin a grocery budget trying new recipes with unusual ingredients that you may never need again.

March Menu completed. I would have used neater handwriting if I had known I was going to end of taking a picture of it.

The meal calendar stays on the fridge for everyone to see and we try really hard to not make any substitutions on meals. There has been several times I have called home at dinner time and Matthew says “I started cooking fish for dinner, it’s what was on the calendar…” If you are on the way home late, hungry, tired and you hear your spouse say that… talk about an amen moment!!! The kids also enjoy glancing at the Monthly Menu and saying things like “3 more nights and it is Homemade Pizza night!” – which is just adorable! When you start changing your meals around mid-week, you are setting your self up for needing to go to the store for something you do not have in the pantry. Once the meals are planned and you have shopped, do not make changes. 

Once a week I go shopping (we occasionally have that break out mid-week shopping trip for a couple of things). I do my shopping once a week at Costco. Yes, I go to Costco once a week! We are a family of six… do you know how much fruit, granola bars, veggies & laundry detergent we go through!? I try to go straight to a smaller grocery store right after Costco (Kroger, Foodlion, etc.) to grab my list of things that Costco doesn’t have – my flour that Costco doesn’t carry, certain produce, etc.) I make my grocery list based on the Meal Calendar and I stick to it! I only need to buy the ingredients for the meals that week but I often grab a lot of stuff for the entire month my first week shopping. A Costco 3 pack of spaghetti sauce will be used for all the spaghetti dinners in a month. A salmon fillet big enough to cut into 4 pieces for the freezer will do for the month, etc. I find my “weekly grocery shopping/monthly meal planning” plan simple and something I easily make a weekly habit.

I photocopied all the sheets from a calendar before they had been written on and use them for my Monthly Menus but you can download a blank calendar here!

NOW for my two Easy Wednesday meals – both are Whole/Clean Meals. I know everyone has their own way of eating – Whole Food eating became our family’s way of eating 6 years ago (detailed post on that coming). The main idea behind our food lifestyle came from a blog I stumbled upon when trying to get healthier and lose some baby weight after our third child was born. 100 Days Of Real Food Blog has become very popular and I can not say enough good stuff about it! If you have never checked it out before, it is certainly worth a glance! The Tomato Bisque recipe I use comes from that blog. It is a family favorite paired with grilled cheeses for dunking. I can prepare the soup in 20 minutes (it simmers for up to 30 minutes) before I teach class and we can enjoy it when we get home with quick grilled cheese sandwiches (on whole wheat bread with white cheddar cheese). We just had this soup last night, I should have taken a picture. It sure was delicious!!!

100 Days of Real Food – Tomato Bisque Recipe

Our second go-to Wednesday Meal is Easy Chicken Tacos. I came up with this recipe last year and it has been a life saver! It is one of those great crockpot meals where you just dump everything in. 

Easy Crockpot Chicken Tacos 

Ingredients:

• 2 large chicken breast
• 1 can of drained black beans (I buy whatever brand has only beans, water & salt on the ingredients list)
• 2-3 tablespoon of your favorite taco seasoning – I make my own using this recipe. Store bought taco seasoning is loaded with junk – read the list of ingredients next time you’re in the store. If you can not pronounce something in it, why would you want to eat it?
• 8 ounces of your favorite salsa – I can my own

-Layer the ingredients in your crockpot (in the order they are listed) and cook on high for 4 hours (longer if set on low so if can cook while you are gone for the day). Once done, stir/chop everything together. When you stir it, the chicken will start to shred on its own but a few larger chunks may need to be chopped/shredded with a spoon or knife. 

We enjoy this on large lettuce leaves as a wrap (roman lettuce) or with corn chips. There is salsa in the recipe but you can top it with more salsa, sour cream, cheese, avocado and any other of your favorite taco toppings.

Enjoy!

 

How do you feel about ceiling fans…

I’m not big on change. I love familiar, comfortable places and I am not crazy about things that put me too far out of my comfort zone or get me even a little bit off my schedule. I know, I sound like a load of fun huh? I certainly LOVE to travel but I also prefer a night in at home, over a night out any day! I was unaware that I was rigid and set in my ways until I got older and slowly had this revelation about myself. My own mother was an organized mom who kept us kids on a schedule. My dad worked shift work when I was growing up, often the night shift and sometimes 7 days a week. This left my mom with 3 kids, a house, school schedules, meal times, bedtime routine and the other daily activities of life to deal with. I think schedules and routine is how my mom made her load doable. I find myself parenting similar to her –  dinner is at a certain time, baths are at a certain time, bedtime and so on. When our schedule gets off, I’m usually the one that starts to melt down while my husband and kids are all smiles. I have lived in the same town my whole life. I take my kids to the same dentist and pediatrician I went to growing up. My parents built and moved into their house when I was one years old and besides my college dorm rooms, I lived in that same house until I got married.

When we got married we bought a brand new little rancher. It really is an adorable house! We lived there exactly 4 years to the week. As mentioned in previous post, there was an opportunity to move into THE Farmhouse and we quickly found renters for our  house and were out in a flash – 3 weeks from the time we got the idea. To be honest, we were sort of figuring out how you even go about renting out a house after our renters had already moved in. We carried full home owners insurance coverage on it for a year or 2 before realized we only needed fire & dwelling… it was a learning experience for us and our tenants. We use an agent to rent our house now. We have had a few families move in and out and each situation has worked well.

The decision to move into THE Farmhouse and rent out our house might be one of the best decisions we have made for our family. The quick speed of it was most likely a blessing. With my husband and myself both slow to create big changes (it took me 8 years to start the blog…) we most likely would have talked ourselves out of moving if we had too long to think about it. We had a gut feeling, quickly acted on it and have received nothing but blessings from it. There have been times when I have been approached, often forced, to make changes and I have to take a moment to remind myself of our move to THE Farmhouse. I have to remind myself how if we had not taken a leap of faith we could have missed out on a lot. THE Farmhouse has given us more space, inside and outside the house, we live closer to family and we have the MOST amazing sunset view!

Georgia & Hazel with the sunset – March 2012

 

For the first time in 8 years we have no one in our rental house. Our last renters unexpectedly needed to move in the middle of their lease, this past December. The house now needs to be painted, cleaned, have the carpets replaced, a few repairs and the yard cleaned up. We have been doing all the work ourselves, you know with all of the extra time we have lying around… It has been a family effort for sure. We have been spending long Saturday afternoons and evenings over there. We pack up the family, food, paint supplies, a TV for the kids and some movies and head on over. By the end of the night the kids are over it and we are all ready to head home. For the most part they do fairly well with the situation and my husband and I are making some progress. I am even tempted to do a few small projects there to sort of update the house for the first time in 8 years. Some of our light fixtures are gold and I don’t mean in a cute trendy way…

The more time I spend over there the more I remember how great of a house it is. It has a cute floor plan and a great yard with a few fruit trees which have really grown and matured. We are starting to lean towards the idea of selling it. We bought our house in 2006, sort of the peak of the housing market. Shortly after we bought it, the market crashed. There was a time when we owed more on our rental house than it was worth. As we paid it down little by little, we owed less than it was worth but we certainly couldn’t sell it for what we bought it for. I think we might be coming out of that time though. Houses in our area seem to be selling and we are sort of debating if now is the time to unload it. Maybe our renters leaving us high and dry mid-lease is really a new door opening for us, you know another chance for change.

We have now created two list. We are currently working on the “What has to be done if we rent it” list. When we are done with that, we are going to pow-wow on our thoughts and then possibly tackle the “What has to be done to sell it” list.

The girl’s room at our old house (now rental house). I wanted those painted stripes so bad in 2008! I had to take a picture before we painted over it.

I realize renting out your home (or even another home as investment property) is not an ideal situation for everyone. The entire process did worry me at first; I had heard horrible stories about renters tearing up houses, not paying rent and refusing to leave the property. Our little starter home was the biggest investment we had and we were entrusting it into other people’s hands. The truth is, if you can find good renters  having a rental property can pay off. Depending on your loan specifics, rent money can often cover the cost of the home, if not more. We luckily have never had major damage to our rental property. Most of the work we have to complete now is cosmetic or normal wear and tear on a house that’s 12 years old.

Our first home, now rental property, present day. Look at that cute helper… and those roof stains.

We have plenty of projects that I want to tackle at THE Farmhouse and most are outside Even though I am already in spring mode, mother nature isn’t always cooperating with my plans. Our outside projects seemed to be getting pushed farther back due to cold or rainy weather. Lucky for me, my home-project-loving soul has been getting fulfillment from all the work at our rental house. I’m trying to keep the “average buyer” in mind. I’m personally not crazy about ceiling fans. I would rather just have a really great light fixture, even in a bedroom. I have to step back and think about what a person buying the house might think. It can be different when you are fixing up a house that’s not for you but still just as fun.

I can’t wait to post pictures when it is all done. I love a good before & after!

Who has rental houses? Any one else thinking now is a good time to sell? AND in all seriousness, how do you feel about ceiling fans!?

THE Farmhouse

Almost 8 years ago my husband and I, along with our 2 oldest children, moved into my DREAM house. I had pined after the idea of living in this house for years. At the time it was a cream, 100 year-old, in need of some repairs farmhouse that had been in my husband’s family for 50 years. My mother-in-law had moved into the house when she was 4 and grew up there. My husband had lived in it a couple of times growing up (his dad was a builder and they moved a lot). It’s just a good house. It’s a house with roots. It’s THE Farmhouse, as my husband’s family affectionately calls it.

The first time I saw THE farmhouse was when my husband and I were dating. I remember us driving by it and my husband casually mentioned “that’s my grandparent’s farm…”. I remember saying something along the lines of “That!? Your grandparents live there!?” Let me stop you here. I’m not sure what you are envisioning but the house was not in it’s prime when I first saw it. Hundred year old wooden farmhouses can get away from you quickly. The house certainly needed some work but it still shined. I could envision what it looked like in it’s prime and I could certainly see what it’s potential was… even with green stuff growing on the cream paint, a pile of old furniture on the rotten front porch and azalea bushes so mature they were blocking most of the large farmhouse windows.  My husband’s grandparents are ONE OF A KIND!!! Seriously, they deserve their own post detailing who they are. I will summarize them for the time being as “hard-working, God-fearing, 80 some year old, good-hearted humans who currently still farm.” They lived in THE farmhouse at the time but owned and worked on another farm also. They were for sure busy with bailing hay, feeding cows, fixing fences, repairing tractors etc. Updating THE Farmhouse was not on their “to do” list and rightfully so.

Shortly after my husband and I got married, my husband’s grandparents decided to build a smaller, brand-new house on their other farm down the road. THERE it was! We saw an opportunity to get in THE Farmhouse. Not too long after they moved, we quickly rented out our house… like really quickly. We had the idea, found renters, packed and were out in less than a month. July 2010, the week of our 4th wedding anniversary, we moved to THE Farmhouse with our 2 year old & 3 month old girls. I remember laying in bed our first night here and telling my husband “I can’t believe we actually live here!” That’s how magical I found this place and 8 years later, the feelings are only stronger.

Within the first week of living here I was on the phone with a close friend filling her in on all the craziness of moving, life with 2 kids, living out of boxes and just exactly how much work THE Farmhouse needed. She told me I should start a blog about the process of bringing a 100 year old house back to life with 2 small kids and an even smaller budget. Blogs were more rare at the time and life was busy. We were unpacking, figuring out how to rent our old house (without an agent), I was nursing one child, potty training the other and had just agreed to start watching my niece a few days a week – blogging was not as the top of my list and the idea itself exhausted me.

Fast forward 8 years later, 2 more kids, a couple of walls taken down, a wedding at THE Farmhouse and gallons and gallons of paint – I am kicking myself for not starting that blog! A digital look book for my kids. A journal of this adventure we have created. A place to share the obstacles we have faced while fixing up this house. A place to share the times we had an idea, saw it through and treasured the results. A place to hear feedback from those who have tackled that project already…

 

Fall 2012 – 2 years after we moved in, we FINALLY started to paint THE Farmhouse

We have checked large projects off our list and added new ones just as quickly. Not all of our projects are fun (think termites…) but all have been rewarding in some way (think wood floors).

I am a wife who married a part of her that she never knew was missing, a mom of 4 children, a group exercise instructor, a certified personal trainer, a self-taught gardener, a whole food eater who LOVES a good home project and lives in a house that is 108 years old. Here is my adventure…