A Little Get-a-way

Hey y'all. Happy Friday! First of all, I can't believe it's already Friday, and I really can't believe I haven't posted since Monday! Wow, this week has really flown by (in some sense).
Dallas started her first full week of track out this week, and I was thinking the kids would love being together (as they normally do) and play so I could get things done around the house. Crazy me! What in the world was I thinking??? They argued and fussed all week. So instead of doing things I really needed to be doing, I was playing referee all.day.long...everyday. It's been so exciting...notice the sarcasm in my voice?
I am pooped, I'll tell you that.
Anywho, I'm not going to go on and on about my crazy week, poor Eric's heard enough of it. ;)
I am excited though because today started the first of two trips we have planned. It's so nice to be out of the house and away from projects, if only for a few days.
We are in Delaware this weekend. It's going to be a super short trip, but we are so happy to be here. Tomorrow will be filled with some fun with the cousins, then off to the Phillies game to sit in the Hall of Fame section!!!! Über excited about it!!!
So how will you be spending your weekend? No matter what you do, have fun and make memories!!!

Half-Bath Mini Makeover

Hey y’all. Happy Monday!

I was a pretty busy little bee this weekend, but that’s nothing new I guess.

After washing the bath mats and them basically disintegrating in my washer and dryer, and the fact that our towel hanger fell off the wall months ago and was half on there, I decided it was time for a “mini-makeover”.

My little shopper {Dallas} and I went out yesterday and had some fun shopping for this little project.

We hit Home Goods, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Target, and Michael’s.

Here’s the end result…

I’ve been wanting a white cabinet in there for quite some time but never bit the bullet and bought one…until yesterday.

I love it. It’s got the bead board look on the sides with cute little feet and crown molding around the top.

I loved the white frame but now wondering if I need to paint it or not. I kind of like it white, but maybe some stripes might look nice on it too…What do you think?

I do love the starfish jar on top. I used some sharks teeth and goodies Eric’s found on scuba diving trips to fill it.

I made the “Toes in the Sand…” canvas which came from Michael’s. You can find the tutorial HERE.

And of course we had to get a new rug. That’s the whole reason for the new makeover, right?

Yes, the tags are still on it in case I changed my mind, but I think it’s found it’s home.

I also made a new towel hanger.

You can find that tutorial HERE.

So let’s break it down…

The rug came from Target and cost – $34.99

The cabinet came from Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It cost $47.99

The starfish jar came from Home Goods and cost – $9.99

The white frame came from Home Goods and was – $5.99

The canvas came from Michael’s and was a whopping – $.31

The wood plaque for the towel hanger cost – $.17

The coat hanger for the towel hanger came from Target and it was – $3.49

The hand towels came from Target and were – $3.50 each.

So, for about $115.00 this little room got a mini-makeover and is now happy again.

“Toes in the Sand” Canvas

I wanted to make something for the mini makeover I was doing in my half bath.

I purchased an 8X10 canvas at Michael’s. It was half off and with a credit I had I think I paid $.20 or something like that.

I had some yellow paint on hand and some vinyl I wanted to use.

I painted it Medium Yellow with my craft paint and then brushed over it a little with a Champaign color to dull the brightness a tad.

I then decided on the saying, “Toes in the Sand” for the wording.

Yes, it comes from one of our favorite songs and favorite music groups…but of course it had to be the radio version.

I printed it out on black vinyl and began applying it to the canvas. For some reason it didn’t want to stick to the paint, but with a little elbow grease and a tad bit of Modge Podge, it stuck like a charm.

I love how it turned out for our “beachy” bathroom.

Towel Hanger

Recently our towel hanger in our half bath downstairs fell off the wall. Well half of it did anyway.

So, for a couple of months or so, this is what we had for our towel to hang on…

Yeah, pretty bad huh?

This weekend I decided it was time for a new one, and decided to make one…why not!

I stopped in Michael’s and picked up a square wooden plaque. I had a credit with their new rewards program and maybe paid $.20 for it.

Cha-Ching!

I also picked up a coat hanger at Target. I believe it was around $3.50.

I already had paint on hand and used it.

After painting it with craft paint I realized it probably would have been faster to use spray paint, but the craft paint worked well too.

Once the paint dried I used my {I mean the hub’s} drill and attached the hanger in the center of the square.

Very Simple…and different. I liked it!

It didn’t come with any hardware and I wasn’t sure how to attach it up on the wall.

I thought and then decided to use these new strips made by Command.

They are the coolest things ever! They are like plastic, Velcro strips. One side attaches to the back of a picture frame or wooden frame as I would have. The other strip is on the wall. Once you let it sit for 30 minutes, you just SNAP the strips together and that’s it! No nails, no holes. They are awesome!!!

So, I used two strips and snapped it to the wall. Perfect!

Aahhh, so much better!

Are you a Mary or a Martha?

At the New Year, I blogged that I had several “hopefuls” for 2012.

One of these things was to take part in a Bible study.

I’m so happy to report that I have just joined one and am super excited about it.

It’s funny, one day after church, Jenn, my good friend hands me this book and says, “This is our next Bible Study.” And I’m pretty sure I heard a “hint, hint, hint” in her words.

Do you see this? “Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.”

Ding! Ding! Ding!

It was like she was supposed to hand me this book.

After reading chapter one, we had to decide if we were more of a Mary or a Martha.

I have to say I am a Martha.

You see, Martha is the one who opened her door and her home to Jesus and the Disciples.

While Jesus was teaching to the Disciples in her living room, Martha was running around making sure the perfect meal was cooked, the decorations were made perfectly, and everything was “perfect”.

In her craziness of all her actions, she found her sister, Mary, sitting on the floor at Jesus’ feet listening and absorbing all his teachings.

Martha got upset and went to Jesus and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.”

Jesus simply replied, “Martha, Martha, You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

There are several things this makes me think about:

1 – First, I think Martha might get a little “bad rap” for her actions here. I don’t think Martha was necessarily a bad person. I think she was just so caught up in the things she felt needed to be done so Jesus would have a nice meal, she almost missed the fact that Jesus was in her home. She almost missed the big picture.

2 – I don’t think Jesus was necessarily getting on to Martha for her actions or saying that Mary was the “better one” because she was just listening and not worrying about all the other stuff. He was just saying that that was her and he wasn’t going to take that away from her.

I will admit I do want to be a Mary. I want to be that person that takes it all in, stops and enjoys life, and the gifts that God has given me. However, I find myself all the time caught up in the “have to’s
and the “things that needs to be done” around the house and in life.

My to-do list is a mile long everyday and I get flustered and stressed when I can’t get them all done.

I want to make sure my family has healthy, good meals on the dinner table. I want to have a clean, picked up {non-clutter} home, I want to start and finish all the craft and decorating projects, I want to be active in my kids’ classes and school. I want. I want. I want.

The “I wants” turn into the “I needs”.

Really?

This is where the Martha in me comes in. I get so caught up in the things I think I need to do when just like Martha, I’m the one missing the big picture.

I’m the one who needs to stop and smell the roses and not worry about making a pretty bouquet.

I’m the one who needs to roll around on my dirty floor with my kids and not worry that dirt is all under me.

I’m the one who needs to step over the laundry on the floor.

I truly believe there can be a happy balance between being a Martha and a Mary, but it will take discipline, reorganization, and a desire to make it happen.

I have the desire, so I’m one step closer to release my inner Mary. I know she’s in there and look forward to letting her out and help calm my Martha-ness.

So, I ask you…are you a Martha or a Mary?

FI-NA-LLY!!!

That is all I have to say!!!

My sweet little girl has finally lost that oh so very stubborn front tooth.

I’m not sure I shared with you a few weeks ago about how Hunter knocked out the other front tooth {that wasn’t that loose}, but somehow missed the really, snaggled-looking tooth.

So, for two weeks she looked like she could fit right in with the popular show “Swamp People”.

While yes she was still cute because hello she’s mine and no matter how many teeth are in or out of her mouth she will be cute, but to be honest…THIS is NOT my favorite look.

Well, I can happily tell you that the crazy stubborn tooth came out yesterday!!!

We’ve had help from lots of friends and her teacher to get that thing out, but they had no luck.

I’ll spare you from all the details of the drama that ensued on the walk home from school yesterday…

Just know there was me, three children {one of which on a bike}, and a Dunkin Donut.

Yes, the culprit of the tooth was a soft, chewy doughnut.

We made it home and got that sucker out of her mouth!

Thank the good Lord!

I think I’ve told y’all before that I don’t do loose teeth…just don’t.

I don’t particularly like the look of missing teeth either.

But I have to say that I can’t get enough of that toothless grin!

I love it and love when she smiles.

She looks so different and I CAN’T. GET. ENOUGH. OF IT.!!!

So proud!

Pouty face!

One big, brave, beautiful girl and two VERY proud parents!

Love my brave girl to pieces.

Strawberry Croissants

Do y’all have a food that you have to have on a certain holiday? You know Turkey at Christmas, ham and black-eyed peas at New Year’s…

The last few years I’ve been making on of my favorite breakfast treats on Easter morning. I don’t make the often, mainly because they seem like a special treat to me.

This year would be no different. We were attending a breakfast at church before service, so I decided to make them to share….and now I’m sharing with you!

I will warn you…they are a little bit of heaven on Earth.

Here’s what you need:

European Croissants

Cream Cheese

Light Brown Sugar

Sliced Strawberries

Unfortunately I do not have any measurements…I kind of make it to taste as I go along.

{I doubled the recipe for the church breakfast, so I had 2 boxes of croissants and 2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese.}

First, you want to soften the cream cheese in the microwave until it’s almost melted…it will be VERY soft.

Add brown sugar and mix into the cream cheese. You can make it as sweet as you want.

Take the croissants and open.

Spread the cream cheese mixture on the bottom half of the croissant. You can put as much or as little as you’d like. I like it to have a little more…your preference.

Layer sliced strawberries on top of cream cheese mixture.

Close it up, and there you have it.

SUPER simple and oh so delicious!!!

I cut these in half and made a huge tray. By the end of church they were gone!

So, do you have a favorite dish that you have to have at Easter???

I’d LOVE to hear about it and maybe a recipe…I love recipes.

Happy Monday, Y’all!!!

Cookie Friday!

Happy Friday, y’all!

I’ve really been in the mood to bake something and figured since it’s my bestie’s birthday today I would celebrate here {even though she’s 8 hours away} by baking some cookies.

She LOVES cookies, and peanut butter, and oatmeal, and chocolate…

So, I decided to make some Peanut Butter Monkey Bars in honor of her!

Here’s what you need:

Peanut Butter Monkey Bars

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup whit sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Frosting:

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

3 1/2 Tbsp. milk

1. Cream butter and both sugars together. Blend in 1/3 cup peanut butter, egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Add flour and oats. Mix well!

2. Spread in greased 13X9 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

3. Return to oven and bake for 8 minutes. Spread to smooth out chocolate chips. Cool!

4. Make frosting by mixing confectioner’s sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter, and milk until it make a spreadable consistency.

5. Poor frosting over chocolate layer. Refrigerate to set.

A couple of things here:

1. For some reason my chocolate chips decided NOT to melt. Who knows, but they still taste good.

2. Obviously they taste good because I’ve already eaten a hunk out of the bottom left corner…don’t mind me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIZ!!!!

I hope it’s a wonderful birthday weekend for you. Wish I could be there to help you celebrate, but I will be there in spirit eating cookies in honor of YOU! Love you lots!

XOXOXO

Good News!

I am so excited to share some great news with y’all tonight…well, at least I think it’s great news.

{No, there will be no babies gracing the presence of the Lentz household…}

Do you remember this project I did a few weeks ago?

It was my Spring Fabric & Burlap Wreath. You can find the tutorial HERE.

Well, last week I took part in another blog’s “Wow Me Wednesday” party. I posted my little project along with many others out there in the blog world. I do this every now and then but a lot of the time feel inadequate because the stuff these bloggers do are A-MA-ZING!

Anyway, I got over my shyness if you will and took part anyway.

Well, I got an email today from Ginger, the amazing creator, writer, and keeper of Ginger Snap Crafts. She loved my wreath and decided to feature me along with 14 others in her “favorites” from last week.

Did you see that???

She featured ME!!!

I’ve actually been featured on another’s blog.

I am beside myself with excitement. I cannot even explain how much that means to me and my little blog.

So, you don’t believe me??? I know, I didn’t quite believe it either until I saw it for myself.

Well, go on over to Ginger Snap Crafts and check it out!

Thank you so much, Ginger for featuring me! I really appreciate it!

While I continue with my excitement, I want to share two more things with y’all.

Dinner tonight was so scrumptious! Thanks to my Bestie who pointed me to a recent “pin” she had on Pinterest. She said she tried the meal last night and everyone loved it, so I thought I’d give it a try.

It’s Pan-Roasted Chicken with lemon and vegetables.

I had some chicken thighs I needed to cook and wanted to roast them with some vegetables.

I have to say…It was very easy to put together and was wonderful.

I made a couple of changes to mine.

I used 1 lemon and 2 small limes I needed to use up. I also used carrots instead of green beans.

The combination of lemon and garlic make everything in the dish just melt in your mouth.

Of course tonight we had to have dessert, right.

It’s strawberry season here in North Carolina.

If you know me at all you know that my all time favorite dessert is Strawberry Shortcake.

Sure, I love some peach cobbler, banana pudding, and Strawberry Cake, but I LO-OVE me some Strawberry Shortcake.

My favorite is made with my grandmother’s Sour Cream Pound Cake, but that didn’t happen today.

Here’s what I used:

Sara Lee All Butter Pound Cake – thinly sliced

Cut strawberries

Breyers Vanilla Ice Cream

Whipped topping

Cut the strawberries, sprinkle with sugar, and let stand for a while to allow them to make their own juice.

Thinly slice the cake and stack cake, strawberries, cake, strawberries.

Put a dollop of either ice cream or whipped topping on top and drizzle with the strawberry juice.

It’s so yummy!

Well, I hope y’all had a terrific Thursday. I have to say mine started by getting up on the wrong side of the bed, but quickly made a positive turn and ended up being pretty terrific!

Playing Catch-up {& a Little Strawberry Pickin’}

Well, as Spring Break comes to the end for my little man, I’m now finally catching up on some activities we did last week.

It’s so funny to me to hear the name Spring “Break” because if you’re like us there’s no break at all…it’s go, go, go all week long. I think I’m still trying to catch up on rest from our busy but oh so fun week last week.

Unfortunately, Dallas was in school but she tracks out next week so we’ll get plenty of fun time together.

I have a very good friend who started a new job last week and didn’t realize that her first week was also the week of Spring Break…Whoops! Hehehe, just kidding, Lex!

I was thrilled to help her out and have her two adorable kiddos come to play with us two mornings. It was so fun. And let me just tell you those kids are so well-mannered. Everything was “yes ma’am”, “please”, “thank you”, “excuse me, Ms. Shana”…I mean without even prompting! They were wonderful.

I didn’t get any pictures from Tuesday because the boys were playing baseball for two hours and I was running after their fly balls, all the while helping Sydney in and out of different princess dresses.

It was a blast to say the least.

Thursday we decided to go strawberry picking with some friends, and I did remember to bring my camera along for this trip.

We set out on what I will say not the ideal strawberry picking weather. It was pretty chilly, breezy, and a bit drizzly, but we were determined to get some strawberries before Easter.

I’ll be completely honest with you…I would much rather pick strawberries in the weather we had than in 90 degrees with 100% humidity {which I have done before}.

Here we are making the walk to the strawberry fields.

But first, we had to stop for a quick picture!

This strawberry picking is some serious business.

So proud of his strawberry!

I love these two pictures…It was like Carson and Dylan were plotting as to how and where they would find the perfect strawberries. There is definitely a strategy to this.

And then there’s Sydney. It took three times to get a cute picture for her Mama..but I got one and she’s just too cute!

After we filled all our buckets we headed into the “store” part of the farm for some play time, snacks, and of course homemade ice cream!

Is Mollie not the cutest thing EVER?! She dove into that ice cream and came up all smiles and chocolate everywhere.

The ice cream was good…no doubt!

There was also a very serious game of checkers that was played.

And last, some fun on the swing!

It was such an awesomely {is that even a word?} fun day!