Thursday’s Thoughts

How in the world was it Monday and all of a sudden it’s Thursday?

What a week! I guess it’s time for a Thursday’s Thoughts…

We started the week in the doctor’s office with Hunter. Poor thing, he suffers from allergies – like most of us do. The pollen has been just awful here {as everywhere else as well, I’m sure}. And, bless his heart he comes from a long line, on both sides, of allergy problems…so he’s pretty much doomed.

Anyway, since last Friday {to today} he’s had oh 7 or 8 nose bleeds. And most of them are in the middle of the night I might add.

He had 3 last Friday alone. He woke up Saturday and his face was so swollen. We made it through the weekend, well mostly. He had a nose bleed in the middle of the night Sunday night and I decided it was time to talk to the doctor.

Side note: if you don’t know me…there are two things I don’t do well with: loose teeth and nosebleeds.

We went to the doctor on Monday and little Mr. Man is now taking…ready for it…Singulair once a day until June 1, Zyrtec twice a day until the middle of April, and he needs an ointment put in his nose three times a day for a week because he’s developed infantigo in his nose and that’s causing the bleeding.

I mean don’t get me wrong, things could be a lot worse, but I just feel so bad that his poor little face is swollen every day. He sneezes and has a runny nose all the time, and he’s just a stuffy mess. It just breaks my heart. But, he’s a trooper and it doesn’t seem to phase him too much.

Speaking of pollen…can y’all believe the pollen out there. I mean every year is bad, but this year in particular reminds me of a couple of years ago. You drive down the street and you’re driving in a thinck green cloud. It’s everywhere! When I go outside I feel all itchy all over. It’s just gross. We got some rain last weekend, but it didn’t seem to help too much. Hopefully it will quit blooming soon, so we’ll all feel kind of normal. Bad thing is when the pollen quits blooming the humidity seems to start spiking…and I am not ready for humidity…at all.

Tuesday, we finally had our new flooring laid in the laundry room. We put in new vinyl. I know it’s not tile or anything super expensive, but to be honest, it’s a laundry room. It looks a heck of a lot better than the 1990’s white, shiny, nasty vinyl that was in there. It looks like tile but not so cold. I love how it turned out.

I’m hoping to get to do Part 2 of my laundry room reno tomorrow. Cross your fingers.

Wednesday, Hunter had his Easter party at his preschool. Another mom {and also friend} and I planned a game, Easter egg hunt, and snack for the kids. It was a lot of fun.

As a kid I remember looking at the funny pages in the paper with my grandfather. We would find the Family Circle page. They would have two pictures side-by-side. It was up to us to figure out what was missing or wrong with the pictures.

I always had fun doing that, so let’s play a little game of “What’s Missing”.

Take a look at the pictures and see if you can see what’s missing.

Can you find it???

Let’s see if this helps…

Yes, this would be the pile of rubble that’s left of my brand new “Happy Spring” plate I put out this year.

Well, I guess that’s what I get when I don’t pay attention to my son who’s pretending to be Chase Utley playing baseball in the house.

Yes, the bat and ball are soft and squishy, but the swing and power that this little fellow has is unreal…and my poor plate saw the wrath of him.

Well, looks like I’ll be hitting After Easter Sales to try and replace my cute little plate.

Last thought of the day…

Not only does my little guy love pirates and baseball…he LOVES to hear himself talk.

He talks all.day.long.

I kid you not. I think he just loves to hear himself. He sings songs, makes up songs, asks a million and one questions, and literally wears me out mentally every day. But, I’ll take it. I know it drives me a bit batty when I’m trying to read in carpool or when I get really hungry and grumpy, but I love that he does talk to me. He’s an absolute joy and I love hearing the things he comes up with every day. He is a hoot!

Boy, I guess this post was more about Hunter than anything. Don’t worry, Dallas will get her glory when she tracks out soon…Hunter’s just with me all the time right now.

Well, happy Thursday. Thanks so much for stopping by. Night y’all!

Just What This Mama Needed

Happy Monday, y’all! I hope you had a good weekend.

I know we sure did.

I have to tell you, I really needed a weekend with nothing to do, no schedules to keep, and no where to be at a certain time…and that’s exactly what we did.

The weather helped with this little “plan” of ours because it was pretty rainy and stormy most of the weekend, making it a great time to stay inside, play some games, watch movies, and stay in pjs all.day.long.

Saturday was wonderful. After snuggling in bed until almost 9:00 we all got up and came downstairs for breakfast. This is where I usually start my day…in the kitchen…fixing coffee and breakfast for everyone. Not today…nope. My wonderful hubs took over and did it all. I actually sat on the couch and let him do it…shocker I know.

He made pancakes, cereal, bagels, whatever everyone wanted. He made me coffee and served it all to me. It was heavenly – even if the pancakes were a little “done”. {wink, wink}

After breakfast and some HGTV watching, Dallas and I decided to do our nails.

She picked out ALL of the colors she wanted, and picked out mine too.

We got to work…

All the while we’re being typical girls and primping and painting nails, the boys were downstairs being boys and playing “Batman and Robin”.

Here’s my little Batman…isn’t he scary?

His costume is about 3 sizes too small and he’s wearing his vampire teeth to boot…one scary Batman.

They also played some hockey…yes inside none-the-less.

While our nails dried, Dallas and I settled in the bonus room with the remote in hand. We found that The Princess and the Frog was on TV so we decided to watch. Hunter joined us after a little while too.

We watched the movie, put puzzles together, and hung in our pjs all morning long.

Eric ran out to Lowe’s for me to pick up some paint and the underlayment for the new flooring for the laundry room.

Oh about 3:00 PM I decided I was ready to get out of my pajamas and went to put on my paint clothes. I started painting the back door. It was in dire need of a face lift. Being our “front door” I was tired of it being white and dirty and gross…so it’s getting a new facelift and color.

Here’s the before:

This is the look from the inside.

This is what we see when we enter the house…bleck!

The paint is not finished, so you’ll have to wait until another reveal of the laundry room.

Sunday was another great day! After church we had some lunch and got started on some chores. Eric worked in the yard {before another storm}. I changed sheets and putzed around the house. I ran a couple of errands, and the kids enjoyed playing outside.

After I got home from the store, Eric went to the gym and I put food away. I kind of snapped at Dallas {I know, bad mommy}, but she was doing something I asked her not to do.

She ran upstairs and instant mommy guilt set in.

After putting the food away I went up and found her in her room. She was playing with the tons of jewelry she has.

We started putting on jewelry and getting all fancy. We decided to go a step farther and fix hair. She and Hunter did mine, and I did Dallas’.

Then, it was makeup time. Luckily all she has is glitter lotion and lip gloss because Lord knows what I would’ve looked like otherwise…ha!

When Eric got home we had a fashion show for him and even did a dance…no, no poles involved…just a mommy and daughter shaking our hips and showing Daddy Dallas’ tap dance.

It was such a fun weekend…one I totally needed.

A big thank you to my great hubs and favorite kiddos for giving this Mama exactly what she needed.

Teacher Appreciation

Spring is definitely here…the pollen is thick, the flowers are blooming, and it’s time to show our appreciation to our teachers.

As a former teacher, I know how {these days especially} teachers definitely feel under-appreciated. I always like this week, because it’s a way families can pay a little attention to those wonderful people who are with our kids for so many hours each day/week.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at Hunter’s preschool. Monday was “Treat Day”. We could either have the children make cards or bring in a baked good for the teachers.

I love to bake, but with me watching my calories, I knew that one, most of the treats would end up at home and two, I would be the only one to eat them.

So, of course I started scouring Pinterest to find the perfect “low calorie” {if that even exits} sweet treat for Hunter’s teachers…and me.

I love Lemon Bars and came across this great looking recipe. It’s the Two Ingredient Lemon Bars.

Yes, you read that correctly…two ingredients!

All you need:

A box of Angel Food Cake Mix

1 can of Lemon Pie Filling

Once you have your two ingredients…mix the two until blended.

Pour into a greased 13X9 pan and bake at 350 degrees.

The recipe says to bake for 20 minutes.

Honestly, I found that 20 minutes was a little too long for me. The bars were great but a little too “cakey” for me.

Next time I’ll bake them for 15 minutes and go from there. I like my lemon bars a little gooey.

I do think they turned out great for a teacher’s gift though.

Best part of all…from my little calorie counter, these bars are about 50 calories per bar/square…not bad!

Today was “Flower day”. We were supposed to bring a flower to the teachers.

Well, of course I have to think outside of the box.

I found this adorable fabric flower headband on a blog I follow…found HERE.

I thought, perfect, and got to work…

I first found two fabrics I wanted to use. I then cut four 3” circles out of one fabric, and four 2” circles out of the other fabric.

I then followed the tutorial. I folded each circle in half and then in half again…it made a triangle. I put a tiny dab of hot glue at the bottom in the center of the triangle to hold it together.

Once the triangles were made, I cut out two 3” circles in some felt I had on hand. I then placed the the big “triangles around the felt and hot glued down. I placed the smaller triangles on top and glued them down.

Once all the pieces were placed and glued, I sewed a button in the center and “poofed'” it a little.

To attach it to the headband, I cut a second piece of 3” felt. I glued it on the inside of the headband and hot-glued the flower piece onto the second piece of felt.

 

I didn’t like the color of the headband, so I wrapped it with white ribbon.

Hunter has two teachers so I made two…of course.

His teachers seemed to be pretty happy with my interpretation of “Flower Day”.

No matter what you take your teachers, just know that saying “Thank You” is what really makes them feel appreciated…and extra hugs don’t hurt.

So, to all my former, present, past, and future teachers out there…THANK YOU for all that you do and endure each and every day!

Laundry Room Reno: Part 1

Hey friends! How are you today?

I’ve been promising for a while now that I was going to show you my laundry room renovation I started oh back after Christmas…

Somehow it’s already the middle of March and I haven’t shared anything with you…so sorry. And, I know you’ve just completely lost sleep over the fact that I haven’t shared it with you at all…well, no fear you will be able to sleep tonight because I’m going to share with you part 1 of 3 of the transformation of my laundry room.

I guess I should start by telling you that our laundry room is kind of my family’s “front door/foyer” if you will. We park in the garage which leads through the laundry room and into the kitchen.

At first I painted it the same red that was the color of my kitchen in hopes that it would feel like one room.

{This is the look from the kitchen.}

{This is what you see when you enter the house from the laundry room.}

It was O.K….just OK. I’ve loved the red in the kitchen but it got pretty old in the laundry room…fast.

I’ve always wanted a mud room to keep things organized, and I just love the way mud rooms look. Once Pinterest was born I was completely inspired to transform my ordinary, plain laundry room into a fancy mud room.

So, I began sketching…in my head. I am no artist, nor will pretend to be, so I sketch in my head.

The sketches {in my head} begin with the cabinets. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking… “What’s wrong with the cabinets? Nothing’s wrong with them.” And, your probably right, but I will confess that since we moved here 5 years ago I have H.A.T.E.D. these cabinets…the color mainly. The cabinets themselves are fine…not great but fine. They’re not laminate so that’s a step up, but they are a plywood…bleck. Mostly it’s the color. I hate them and have been wanting to paint them.

We/I began the transformation….I had to get my husband’s help some with cutting some wood for trim and installing the board and batten, but that will come later. Today we prepare and start cabinet transformation.

First things first…everything came off the walls and cabinet doors were removed and numbered.

Don’t you always love seeing how people keep their cabinets? I use to pride myself on being so organized…eh-hum, not anymore.

I wanted to install a trim that was even with the bottom of the cabinets so we could install some board and batten. Eric helped me with that…Thanks, Babe.

It was now time to start cabinet transformation…

I invested in the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation {for light colors} from Home Depot {you can find it at Lowe’s too}.

I love white cabinets, so that’s the color I was going for…white!

The directions seemed pretty easy and I loved the fact that there was no stripping or sanding. The box came with pretty much everything you need…the deglosser, paint, glaze {optional}, and top coat. It also came with the scrubbing pads and cloths for the glaze.

I got started right away and de-glossed the cabinet fronts and doors.

Then I started painting. I realized very quickly that I was going to have to improvise a little here. With the type of cabinets that I have, using a regular bristled brush only made the paint streaky looking. I switched to a el-cheapo black foam brush and that worked much better.

I will say I do like the product…a lot. But, here’s the thing. I think it would’ve worked a lot better if my cabinets were real wood such as oak. You see, my cabinets do not have actual wood grain for the paint to get down into and really take hold. It did take hold on my plywood cabinets but it took 6 coats of paint to look solid and not streaky. The instructions said it would take 2…so, if you use the product just know you might have to make it work with more coats.

Also, with the type of “wood” my cabinets are I could not use the glaze for the aged look because once again they do not have wood grain to adhere too…good thing I wasn’t wanting the aged look, huh.

After the 6 coats of paint dried, I applied the top coat.

All-in-all I do like the product, but just wish I had better cabinets on which to use it.

Once the cabinets were hung I was amazed…I.LOVED.THEM!

I’m always amazed at what a little paint can do! I am in love with my “new” white cabinets.

Next time I’ll show you the board and batten and transformation of the walls, but as you can see in the “after”, they are no longer red…wink, wink!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Hey y’all…Top ‘O the morning evening to ya!

I hope y’all had a great St. Patty’s day. Ours was great; filled with parties and friends and lots of green.

I started my morning with a great run with my good friend/running buddy. Nothing better to start the weekend with a good run. I came in and the kids {all three of them} were hungry.

I made coffee, and got started on breakfast. Growing up every year on St. Patrick’s Day, Mama would make us green eggs, green grits, green toast, and once green milk. Garrett and I looked forward to it every year…well except for the green milk.

Now that I have kids, I feel that I must pass on the tradition to my kiddos. So, this morning we had green cinnamon toast, green sugar grits, and regular eggs…didn’t think they would appreciate the green eggs. It was great none-the-less.

We got dressed and started our crazy but fun day.

First stop…our friend, Natalia’s birthday bowling party. The kids were super excited about this. It was a lot of fun and good to catch up with some friends we haven’t seen in a while.

After lots of bowling and cake, we headed to Downtown Raleigh to meet up with more friends for lunch at an Irish Pub. We figured it would be fun to do something different for lunch and get out of Wakefield for a little while.

The place was packed with lots and lots of people and green was everywhere. We grabbed a bite of lunch with our friends Chrissy, Alex, and their son Connor. It was good seeing them and catching up.

Hunter was convinced that there were leprechauns in the pub somewhere and he was determined to see one. Well, we all know leprechauns are pretty fast and very hard to spot, so we didn’t see any there…in steps a very disappointed little boy.

As we were leaving and walking back to our car, low and behold a leprechaun rounded the corner and was headed towards us. Hunter stopped in his tracks and was star-struck. It was so cute. The best part… the leprechaun was super sweet and posed for a quick picture.

How about that??? The day was complete.

I must say we had a very cool and fun St. Patrick’s Day. What did y’all do to celebrate?