Joy . . .

is a fleeting thing. But when experienced, can bring glimpses of eternity to your soul.

A few days ago, 'Lil Flower slept from 9:00 pm to 7:00 am. I was stunned when I woke up to her crying and looked at the clock. She's only 3 months old, after all! I fed her, and she instantly went back to sleep. I debated on being productive or just going back to sleep. My bed was beckoning and I gave in. My Hubby rolled over and gave me a hug. Unable to actually drift of, my mind began to wander at just how marvelous it was to lay in bed, wrapped in my husbands arms, listening to the birds calling, sunlight drifting in through semi-clean windows.

A few moments later, Girly-Lou and Buddy come padding into our room. Amazingly enough, they were both happy, not fighting, or demanding breakfast. They climbed into our bed where we snuggled as a family, laughing and playing and tickling together.

This was joy. My soul felt full. I could not picture how this could be better, unless replicated in a few months when 'Lil will be old enough to join in.

My life is full of non - joy. Dishes. Laundry. Fighting children. Bills. Headaches. Dishes. Weeds. Bugs. Dishes. Lack of time. Did I mention Dishes?

But on this day, for this moment. I knew what joy was. My goal is to remember this feeling, and seek more earnestly to find it every day.

Comfort foods

My house smells like Thanksgiving.

Ok, not exactly, but there are some serious olfactory memories wafting around my head.

It all started with an amazing grocery store trip (saved more than I spent just shopping the butcher department). Armed with a sense of culinary adventure, I gathered my ingredients. After slaving for hours (cough), I had concocted a meal to please the most facile of palates.

I cooked a chicken.

This was a first for me. I'd never actually cooked a whole chicken. And it was really complicated too. I shoved the whole thing in my slow cooker and mashed some potatoes. But there was something about that aroma permeating every corner of my house today that made me reflect on comfort foods.

Just that phrase "comfort foods" brings a wealth of memories to me.
Thanksgiving feasts.
Toast with hot chocolate.
Raspberry jam.
Homemade bread.
And ginger cookies.

My mom made the best ginger cookies on the planet. Now, don't get confused. I'm talking about ginger COOKIES, not ginger SNAPS. The former are deletable, soft, delicate, with just the right ratio of spice to sweet. The later are rock hard, reek of cheap spices, and are as delicious as cardboard.

I can see her now as she patiently lets my sisters and I roll the dough in sugar, smearing it everywhere. She was always such a great sport. That homey smell bringing back so many memories. I could picture her doing the same thing as a young child with her own mother, generations of moms passing down this perfect recipe.

(That is, until I mentioned one time about Grandma's ginger cookies. Mom looked at me kind of funny and informed me that not only was this recipe from a friend, she hadn't even been making them that long. Fine. Ruin my picturesque daydreams. They are still one of the best cookies ever.)

Ginger Cookies

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses (dark)
1 egg
2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger

Cream shortening and sugar. Add molasses and egg. Stir in remaining ingredients. Roll into balls, and then in sugar. Bake @ 350 for 10 minutes


One of my favorite parts about these is they make the perfect circles without any effort. It doesn't matter how malformed my son's blob is, it still turns out beautiful. Ok, when he makes snakes they don't turn round, but if it's remotely spherical, it works.

Dresser transformation

I currently have plans to decorate/remodel/update every room on the main floor of my house. I showed you the start of my front room transformation a few days ago. The other room that I'm actively working on is the "girl's room". Currently Buddy and Girly-Lou share a room. But since 'Lil was born, we knew we wanted a girls room and a boy room. There's a lot that needs to happen before we can make the big change. First up on the list was a dresser.
I totally scored a free dresser (left on a curb after a garage sale). Solid wood, dovetailed drawers, totally awesome. Very dated:


But it was screaming paint me. I'd seen so many dated pieces of furniture that were painted and suddenly were awesome, modern, adorable. I knew I could do this. The details on that front would be awesome.


So I started sanding. But something didn't seem right . . .


And I realized that the fronts:


Were actually plastic. Bummer. No matter what I do to plastic fronts, with little kids, would just end up chipping. So instead I pulled all the fronts off. Now I had particle board fronts.

Not nearly as cool. I looked. And looked. And LOOKED for something to put on it that would add a great detail. But I really couldn't find anything that really was what I wanted that wasn't going to add another $50 to this "free" dresser. So instead I sanded SUPER well, puttied up the old pull holes, and just painted it.


Ahh. So much better. I do wish there was a bit more detail, but it's still so much cooler. I'd heard some great things about this paint:


Behr's Premium Plus Ultra. (From Home Depo) It has the primer mixed in already. After looking at all the options, I actually picked on of the Disney colors: New Day Dew. I must say it did go on very smooth, and had great coverage. I did end up doing three coats, but only because I mostly did this at night in my very dim garage, where I couldn't see what coverage I actually had. In better light, I would have only needed two.

I also picked up new knobs.
I was a bit worried about the fit. After taking the fronts off, the wood was a bit too thin for standard screws. But since I drilled new holes, it's tight enough that the knobs don't turn or wiggle at all.

So breakdown of cost:
Dresser: free
1 qt paint: $15
12 new knobs: (1-10 pack for $15, 2 singles for $2 each, total) $19

Grand Total: $35. And it's going to look GORGEOUS in the new room!

Linking up with:

Now I am so happy . . .

So I was totally planning on waiting until I was done with this room to even start talking about it, but I am so flippin excited right now I just can't wait. In fact:




'cause I couldn't help myself! I was totally doing this when I was DONE SANDING!

"let me splain. No there is too much. Let me sum up"
I've talked about my living room walls before. I've gotten more comments on them than anything else. . .usually along the lines of "so when your kids misbehave, do you just rub their faces along the walls?" Yah. Not so fun. But whatever, I was living with it.

Then I gave birth to this beautiful amazing girl. Who will learn to walk in this room. Which involves lots of falling, against these awful pointy walls (a full 1/4 inch in some places!).

Not so good. I started brainstorming - do I just put up new drywall on top of it? Should I try to build it out with spackle or something until it's smoothish?

Then, while perusing A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day (one of my favorite things each week), I came across a bathroom remodel (which of course I can't find the link for!). *(updated 1/1/11 I found it! check it out here )She talked about using a sander to take off the nasty texture on her walls. Total light bulb moment. I had a sander. I could do this!

So I put the idea forth to Hubby.

*Quick quiz time!*

Did he say:
A) What a marvelous idea, I'll do the whole thing for you!
B) Umm, I guess if you think it will work you can try it.
or C) I do not think that will work at all, and you're going to end up ruining the walls and it will take hundreds of dollars just to repair the damage.

Unfortunately, his answer was C. In his defence, he was 1. not even in the state, 2. very tired after a long day of flying, and 3. rather concerned that I was going to hurt myself in this process. I finally talked him into response B, and off I went.

NINETEEN hours later, I was done. Yes, 19!! I went through EIGHTY -THREE 1/4 sheets of 60 grit paper. I wore clear through the foam pad on my sander and had to figure out how to replace it. One nap time at a time I sanded. And sanded. AND SANDED. For almost 2 months.

The worst part - the dust.

OH the DUST.

Everywhere. Seriously. Everywhere in my whole house has been this fine layer of dust. Really the work wasn't hard. My shoulders have been very stiff at times, but I just wanted this stupid thing done so I could clean my entire house from the dust.

So, here's a nice view of that texture before:

And the room (ok, so this is in the middle - I'm lousy at remembering the before pictures!)

And now after:




And just for giggles, here's my very fetching sanding get up:
So, now I've got to figure out what color to paint. I was originally going to do a different shade of tan, but my sister basically called me a wimp, and said I should pick a color. Any ideas? I need something to go with my maroon couch. . . But I really don't know what to pick. I'm already planning on blue for 3 other rooms, so probably something different!

Now I'm off to clean every single surface in my entire house. . . .

Why my blog will never make me a millionaire.

My sister said something yesterday that got me thinking. She said "I've been trying to decide what direction to go with my blog. . . " Direction? Wow. That's more thought than I'd put into my writing.

So I started thinking. I looked at what I do. I looked at what I'm good at. I looked at the blogs I follow.

I want so many things in my life. I want to be cool. I want my blog to reflect my coolness. I want to be thought provoking like Ink Mom and Mommy Snark. I want to show off all kinds of decorating skills like the Nester and Remodleaholic. I want to create amazing cooking skills and dishes like Gourmet Mom on the Go. I want to be all crafty like Make it and Love it or Homemade by Jill. I want to showcase my new quilting skills like V and Co or Quilt Taffy. I want to have amazing scrap booking tips like Scrap Girls. I want to divulge thrifty tips and survival guides like Totally Ready and Food Storage Made Easy.

These are all my blog heroes. The amazing women that inspire me to create, to build, to learn, to improve. Reading their words makes me want to be a better person. I want to inspire others just like they do.

But really, I'm just a bit too diversified.

For example, here's a list of my current projects:
*Sanding the living room.
*Painting the bathroom.
*Cleaning my entire house because of #1.
*Sewing 2 pieced twin quilts for the girls' room.
*Figuring just what bed we're making for the kids
*Tackling all the weeds in the backyard
*Researching square foot gardens
*Reading Anna Karenina
*Finishing Buddy's third scrapbook
*Starting 'Lil's first scrapbook
*Cooking for the test kitchen
*Cross stitching Christmas presents
*Making kid's table and chairs
*Researching used cars
*Building our food storage

(And I honestly worked on 11 of those 15 things today.)
There is no way that one blog can showcase all that (unless you're Tip Junkie). I'm only one person. But I like my life. I love that I'm interested in so many things. I love finding new adventures, new ways to grow, new challenges. Someone once said (I think it was Lincoln) that God must prefer regular looking people. That's why He made so many of them. I'm not a blogging superstar. I'm just a regular gal, doing my craziness, one day at a time.

And I'm very ok with that.

So apparently, my blog is going the same place it's been. I'll talk about what inspires me, what's going on in my world. Occasionally I'll post about my house, about my kids. I'll put in recipes when I feel the need. If I craft something cool, you'll hear about it.

And in honor of all I'm doing, check out my new description. 'Cause when you do as much as I do, you might as well sound like your cool too.

An old friend

I lost an old friend today. While I knew this day was coming,it still took me by surprise. We've been friends for almost 25 years - pretty much as long as I can remember. I always knew I could count on this friend to give me that extra boost when I needed it most. We've bonded over lunches, helped cowgirl dolls ride the range, been race car drivers, watched movies, read books, you name it we did it together. Through 5 moves, several of which were across country, this friend stood by me. My children had also grown to love playing along. A few months ago tragedy stuck. After major surgery, we thought all might be fine at last and more wonderful years together might be enjoyed. However, today the worst came to past, an my friend was laid to rest.

Yes, My Little Step-Up Stool is dead.(No, I didn't make up that name - look it's printed right on top in case you forget it)
Really, 25 years for particle board is amazing. But when the central support board splits like that, there is no saving it.We are officially stool less. It's been less than 24 hours and I'm already pulling my hair out. My kids can't reach anything with out help. So I"m on a mission to find a great replacement. I wonder if I can find something that will last as long!

UPDATE:
This was origionaly written last Sunday, but due to lack of ablilty to actually put pictures in my post, didn't get posted until today. Tuesday Hubby walked up to me and we had the following conversation:
Him "Where was that one stool that you really liked?"
Me "You mean that one at Target?"Him "If that's it, I want you to go buy it. RIGHT. NOW."
Me "But it was like $30!"
Him "I don't care how much it costs. We need a stool NOW."

$7.00 later and some stain and we had this:
You know, as a kid I never realized what an essential child supply a step stool was.

Ahh, that's better

So our computer is dead. Really. It's been dying a slow agonizing death for months now. We finally purchased a new computer a few weeks ago, and yesterday it came in the mail. It's a glorious breath of sunshine to my soul.

So here's we've been working with for the past 5 or 6 weeks:
As you might think, all that snow makes for some serious deductive reasoning skills needed to just check your email. The only way we could get it to work at all was in safe mode, which meant no pictures for awesome posts I had planned out.

And our new setup:

I can actually read what I'm typing again! And look how clean that desktop is (since I haven't' cluttered it up with dozen of scrapbooking files yet!)

Not everything is installed yet, but we've got a screen, a tower, internet, and sound, so at least we can watch General Conference this weekend!

Totally rocked my day.