Tidbits

I have a confession to make- I fear I have run out of things to blog about!  I've also realized that I haven't blogged much about the children as of late.  To be perfectly honest, we haven't done anything extra ordinary lately.  The children have played outside, played inside, played on the ipad, completed homework, read lots of books, and generally filled up their day with just being children.  And I feel like a very boring blogger!

Since I haven't recently done an update on everyone I thought I would fill you in on a few tidbits about what's going on in our lives...

The company that Bryce has worked for for 13 years was bought by a much larger company.  It was truly an exceptional company to work for and it's been rather sad to see it get disbanded.  It was such a blessing to us in many ways and Bryce will very much miss being part of it and working with his colleagues, many of whom he considers dear friends. It will be interesting to see what is next on the horizon (he will probably be needed until June when they close up shop here).

Harris can literally not seem to stop moving.  He is constantly tumbling, cartwheeling or rolling around!  So much so that I've considered breaking my vow of the past 9 years- that we will never have a trampoline.  Or maybe I'll just sign him up for Gymnastics.

Grace is struggling with school.  She is doing great with the actual academics of school, she just doesn't like going to school.  We are trying to figure out how to help her in this area.  It's frustrating for her and for us.

Did I tell you that she got a Nook for Christmas?  Navigating the Nook has been interesting so far.   She recently accidentally bought the book, "Finding God in the Land of Narnia."  She was looking up The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and this book also popped up.  She thought she was reading the "sample" but bought it instead.  So of course, she decided to read it.   You have not lived until your 9 year old starts discussing with you why Aslan is actually a Jesus figure.  I kid you not.

I recently stripped the wallpaper from the children's bathroom and repapered it (at least there is one future blog post!).  My friend, Gretchen, helped me paper it and we laughed a lot, which made me happy.

Desk Nook in our Foyer

One of the things that I really wanted to do better in 2012 was to keep a calendar that was available for everyone in the family to look at.  However, I was flummoxed as to where to keep said calendar.  I've been thinking for a while now that I would like to have my "command central" area free to use rather than have it taken up by the laptop computer all the time.  Therefore, it made sense to me to move the computer to my little antique desk that resides in the foyer.  At various times I've had the desk open with pictures on it, but as of late it has been closed and unused.

Our house is a four square which basically means that it has four rooms (not including our mudroom area) downstairs and the rather large foyer is one of those rooms.  I love that by moving the computer to the foyer it gives the room a purpose and meaning rather than just a pretty entry to the house

I had a little chair that we hadn't found a purpose for that was sitting in the basement.  I gave it a new padded seat and it's perfect for the space.  I really like how it compliments my favorite frog fabric on the sofa.

All in all I'm very pleased with our new set-up.  This calendar has found it's home at the kitchen desk and it makes me smile.

Friends

Our dear friends, Jack and Kathleen, have been visiting the past couple of days!  Jack had to travel here on business and Kathleen came along too.  It's been so great to have them here.  The guys were gone during the day, during which Kathleen and I managed to fill our days quite nicely, and then in the evening we would all eat together, play a game of peanuts or sit around and solve the world's problems!  It was wonderful!

I've always been very blessed with wonderful friends, and I'm so thankful for them and the positive influences they are in my life.  Kathleen and I talked a lot about accepting children, spouses, family and friends for who they are instead of who you want them to be (something I'm working on) and I'm so lucky to have friends that do just that, flaws and all.

Hot Chocolate Station

We got snow over the weekend!  The children were delighted and made the most of it by playing, sledding and making snow candy.  Of course, after they were done playing, they wanted hot chocolate and marshmallows.  Soon after Christmas, I created a little hot chocolate station in the kitchen.  It's pretty too look at and makes everything easily accessible. Plus, it encourages us to drink hot cocoa and shouldn't we all do that?

Our Master Bathroom

Are you ready for picture overload?  Words cannot express how very much we are enjoying the bathroom.  It is such a peaceful, pretty place that we all find ourselves hanging out in it!  The heated floors help out with that too.  

The tub is one of my favorite things.  It is definitely the main focus in the room, and I've already enjoyed a number of sublime baths.  

With the exception of the tub, everything is lined up on either side of the bathroom.  We each have a vanity on opposite walls.  Bryce's vanity is kitchen cabinet height and mine is regular bathroom vanity height.  The countertops are  marble and our vanities are the same except that mine has the bow added on.  Oh, how I love the bow!

As you walk into the bathroom there is a small "dressing room" type area.  We continued the carpet from our bedroom into this area to give it a little bit of distinction from the rest of the bathroom.  The makeup vanity that Bryce gave me fits perfectly here!  Across from the vanity is a small closet.  I added beveled mirrors to the doors, which I love and is hugely convenient.  

Each of our vanities has a small shelf built in next to it.  I keep playing around with the objects on the shelves.

I found the strawberry cage chandelier on ebay.  I'm completely smitten with the scones above our vanities because I love that their shades look like regular pleated shades even though they are ceramic.  Isn't that clever?  We also have a schoolhouse light above the toilet.

Thanks for being patient with this many pictures of our bathroom.  I just couldn't seem to pare them down. The bathroom has also become the favorite hangout spot for Lily and Coco!

Fun Fruit

I've been having fun sending cute fruit to school with the children! Did you know that if you write a message with a toothpick on a banana, that the message will "magically" appear after a little bit of time?  The children love it!

I've also been drawing faces on the Cuties that we buy at the store. This absolutely tickles Harris and Grace!  This is such an easy and quick way to put a smile on someone's face!

Water

Thank you for your birthday wishes yesterday! Your comments made my day week!

I've recently realized that I'm not drinking nearly enough water. Coffee? Plenty. Tea? Check.  But water has not been something I've made a conscious effort to drink lots of.  And I believe that my skin has been letting me know.  It's been dull, splotchy and dry.  

Several years ago, I found a tall glass pitcher (decanter? shaker?  I don't know what to call it!) at an antique shop and loved how simple and beautiful it was.  In an effort to monitor the amount of water I'm drinking, I've started filling up the pitcher every morning, it holds about 7 1/2 cups, and making my way through the whole thing by evening.  Hopefully, my skin will thank me!

I've always loved the quote by William Morris, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."  I think this water pitcher fits both criteria beautifully.

39

I turned 39 yesterday and I feel good going into my 39th year.  Last year I struggled with my age, but this year I've realized that I'd rather turn 39 than not.  Period.

I had a great day!  My Bible study group met yesterday and there was coffee cake with sparkly candles, I had lunch with a friend and then I spent the afternoon baking a birthday cake!  It's exactly what I wanted to do.

In the evening, Bryce took us all out for a celebratory dinner. Afterwards, we came home, ate some cake and opened presents.

I got some great gifts (my friends and family know me well!) but one of my favorites is this sunhat from Bryce!  It's a bike helmet!  I mean, how fabulous is that?

P.S.  The cake I made was a dark chocolate chiffon cake with rosewater icing.  I found it on this amazingly beautiful blog.  Mine didn't turn out as pretty as hers did. but it sure was delicious!

Favorite Thing #18

Last year, I bought a mitten tree for our mudroom in an effort to corral mittens, hats and scarves.  We have baskets in the mudroom for the purpose of keeping shoes and accessories, but I've found that simply keeping all the hats, mittens and scarves on the tree all the time makes getting bundled up so much easier.  Also, I haven't been finding accessories strewn all over the room because it's easy for the children to put away their winter gear!  The tree makes it easy for items to dry out after getting wet from snow (not that we have had any!) and is a very cheery red.  It's definitely a favorite thing in our mudroom.

P.S.  This one is on sale!

A Great Day

We had a lovely weekend.  How about you?  Friday evening we went to dinner with friends and had great food and even better company, Saturday evening I had dinner with girlfriends and today we took the children on a little adventure!

The weather was just right to go ice skating!  Everyone was a little shaky when we first got on the ice but soon started to get the hang of it.  Thank goodness Harris is already close to the ground!

After we were done skating, we took a quick walk over the bridge to The Franklin Fountain.  This place is like stepping back in time.  I LOVED it!  I was planning on getting a hot chocolate, but was lured by the roasted marshmallow hot milk shake.  They literally set the marshmallow on fire!

After we left to walk back to the car, we passed an amazing little candy shop and had to stop in.  Bryce left with a piece of chocolate covered bacon and the children got little candied fruit slices.

In Harris' words, "This has been a great day."